text:
RBC.com | Français | | Contact Us
Skip Breadcrumb Links
About RBC > Media Newsroom > Speeches > Remarks
Gordon M. Nixon
President & Chief Executive Officer
Royal Bank of Canada
Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce
November 16, 2009
London, England
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen — thank you Mike, for that kind introduction and for giving me the honour to speak with you again.
It was almost a year ago, to the day, that Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney delivered to this luncheon remarks about the directions of reforms required for the global financial system. We find ourselves today having made much progress but with much still in front of us in terms of the rules, regulations and operating models of the world's financial institutions.
Today, I would like to comment on some of the differentials for Canada and RBC but, more importantly, discuss the impending regulatory reforms that seek to mitigate a future crisis on our economies and the global banking sector. While this may seem like a somewhat dull topic, it is of critical importance not just to the financial system but to the foundation of our economy and everyone in this room.
As you might expect, I have a bias towards a regulatory model that finds the right balance between risk and reward while enabling the banking industry to not only grow and thrive but to act as a catalyst for economic growth, innovation and capital formation.
It is critical, in my view, that, — as a result of the mistakes that led the financial system to the edge of the abyss — that we not put in place new rules and regulations that impede the ability of the market to operate efficiently.
Now because this is the Canada/UK Chamber, I will start by providing perspective on why Canada and our banking system performed much better than others during this crisis (particularly compared to those in the U.S. and the U.K.). But before doing so, I would like to refresh your knowledge about RBC.
Today, we are the 13th largest bank in the world by market capitalization. As a matter of interest the last time I spoke with you in April 2006, we ranked 27th — and that was in a universe of banks that is dramatically different than today. I wish we had moved up the rankings for reasons other than the general decline of the industry, but nonetheless we are one of the world's largest and most profitable financial institutions.
We are a diversified financial company with five business platforms: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Insurance, Wealth Management and Capital Markets. We have operations in 55 countries around the world with approximately 80,000 employees serving 18 million clients. In Europe we have approximately 3000 employees with about 1500 in London mostly in our Global Capital Markets and Wealth Management divisions.
The scale of our operations continues to grow and this year we were proud to be voted best overall credit house in Europe in "Credit Magazine's 2009 European Credit Awards", "Employer of the Year" by the City of London Corporation and recognized by Private Banker International with its award for "Outstanding Private Bank in North America. Unlike many who were pulling back from the market we are continuing to invest and are not only gaining recognition but market share as well. I might note that we were selected a couple of weeks ago as one of three joint book runners on the UK Government 7 billion Gilt issue, a testament to the strength of our global fixed income business.
Canada's Outperformance
With that backdrop, I would like to put into perspective why the Canadian banking system outperformed during what was a global financial crisis, particularly given the global nature of our businesses.
I should say at the outset that we were not without our challenges in Canada. The non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market was a 35 billion dollar issue that our system and markets had to manage through and, with respect to individual performance, some Canadian banks faced significant challenges in terms of write-downs and financial results.
In our case, we managed to be very profitable through the crisis, notwithstanding significant mark to market losses and a stressed U.S. retail bank. But regardless of individual performance, the Canadian system, as a whole, performed extremely well with no bailouts or government support required beyond central bank and government financing programs that were instituted on market terms.
While there are several reasons for the success of Canadian banks, I'd like to focus my discussion on three broad themes:
Good fundamentals
With regards to good fundamentals, the IMF recently stated that Canada is better placed than many countries to weather the global financial turbulence and worldwide recession: Its expectations are that Canada's economic growth in 2010 will be stronger than any other G7 country.
The Canadian economy has not been immune from the global economic downturn, but it has been insulated by a foundation of sound macroeconomic policies and a strong monetary framework.
Heading into the crisis, Canada ran 11 straight years of fiscal surpluses, giving Canada the lowest net debt to GDP ratio in the G-7.
As noted by the BBC's Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, the sober management of Canada's public finances left room for a decent-sized stimulus package, which led her to call Canada a "goodie two-shoes" economy.
Today, the combination of accommodative monetary and fiscal policy is pulling the Canadian economy from recession slowly and delicately. But equally important is that our strong fundamentals have muted the impact of the global and Canadian recession on our markets, companies and individual Canadians when compared to countries like the United Kingdom.
The fiscal challenges that Canada had in the 1980s and early 1990s, resulted in the Canadian public recognizing the importance of balanced budgets and, politically, fiscal discretion was embraced, which was not the case for many other G8 countries and, particularly, the United States.
Fiscal prudence was a major differential for Canada going into the crisis and will, hopefully, be a major differentiator coming out.
Conservative risk appetite
The conservative risk profile of Canadian banks is becoming increasingly well known and respected. In addition, Canada's banks are generally well diversified geographically and across business lines.
Despite having a leading global capital markets business with significant operations in Toronto, New York and London, RBC has been a more conservative participant in markets for the more exotic instruments than many of our global counterparts. Our structured credit business in London, for example, experienced major write-downs but its size and scale relative to our capital base and balance sheet made it manageable. Our strategic objective is for our wholesale operation to represent between 20% — 30% of our normalized business and we worked hard to maintain that balance even when excess liquidity as accommodative markets made it easy to aggressively grow wholesale assets.
Most major Canadian banks demonstrated notable capacity for being profitable even during the peak of the global economic crisis and our banks have historically carried higher levels and better quality capital than their global counterparts with less leverage across all parts of the system.
In addition, all of the major Canadian banks have a national distribution network — RBC's is the largest — with a strong deposit base that makes us less dependent on wholesale funding. We also have a diversified, global funding strategy which reduces our costs and makes us less reliant on funding from one single source.
This is not to say that Canadian banks are unblemished by the crisis: As a result of the financial crisis, they have had cumulative write-downs of 22 billion dollars from the second quarter of 2007 to the end of the third quarter of this year. But when measured as a percentage of book value or earnings, these levels are dramatically lower than banks in the U.S., Europe and the U.K.
This individual and collective performance prompted both Moody's and the World Economic Forum to declare Canada as home to the world's soundest banks in each of the past two years. By contrast, the World Economic Forum ranked the banking systems in the U.K. and U.S. at 126th and 108th, respectively, out of 133 countries.
Sound regulatory regime
The third characteristic of Canadian banks is a sound regulatory regime which requires proactive management and monitoring of capital levels and leverage.
While Basel II requires Tier 1 and total capital ratios of 4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, Canadian banks are required by our lead regulator to hold at least 7 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
As at the end of our third quarter, RBC's Tier 1 capital ratio was 12.9 per cent, significantly higher than our regulatory minimums and stronger than most of our global peers. Importantly, our tangible common equity ratio was 9.1 per cent and while Tier 1 is important, there is nothing like bedrock common equity.
In the short term, I believe it is important to be conservatively capitalized — and clearly, at this level, we carry capital well above the regulatory minimums. But in this market, our capital strength provides us with a competitive advantage along with substantial flexibility to both grow and maintain our dividends.
We have tremendous opportunities to invest in our existing businesses and toward other opportunities consistent with our corporate strategy. Over time, our ratios are likely to trend down slightly as we take advantage of attractive ways to deploy capital but in this period of economic and regulatory uncertainty it is prudent to keep them high. This is, however, in contrast to much of our global competition, particularly in Europe, which will be required to significantly increase core-capital and decrease balance sheet leverage to meet future regulatory requirements.
Quality of capital is only one side of the equation, with leverage being the other. I believe that excessive leverage was perhaps the greatest contributing factor to the problems at many banks because capital rules risk-adjust assets and the assets that caused such stress in many banks were "highly rated assets" therefore, requiring very little capital. If you are levered at 50 to one, it doesn't take much of a decline in your asset values to wipe out your equity and that is exactly what happened to many banks, particularly in Europe.
RBC and other Canadian banks operate under a binding constraint on our leverage. The leverage at RBC — while amongst the highest in Canada — is very low relative to many banks around the world. Since the start of this decade the rate of growth of assets at many banks was significantly higher than the rate of growth of capital a trend that played a great part in the collapse of many financial institutions.
Another contributing factor to the success of the Canadian banking system is that we have a more conservative domestic housing market.
While there were many causes of the financial crisis, and blame can be shared by politicians, regulators, financial institutions, credit rating agencies and investors, the primary cause of the crisis was a massive failure of public policy and regulation in the U.S. residential real estate market which initiated and significantly contributed to the financial crisis.
Canadian rules require bank-originated mortgages with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 80 per cent to be insured. Canadian consumers are discouraged from carrying excessive debt as mortgage interest is not tax-deductible, and our mortgage products are typically for five-year terms with 25-year amortization periods. There are no teasers or hybrids, and prepayment penalties discourage refinancing booms.
Further, in Canada the majority of mortgages outstanding are held on the balance sheet of the originators, whereas in the U.S. the majority of mortgages are securitized and held off the originators balance sheet.
What was the worst performing asset class in the United States and other countries was one of the best in the Canadian system. Importantly, however, I would note that from a public policy perspective, while our market is more conservative, the rate of homeownership in Canada is comparable to the U.S.
In summary, there were a number of factors that sheltered the Canadian banking system from the fate of others but the structure of the system was able to weather the storm and our governance structure should be an example to others.
Looking ahead
With that brief overview, let me turn more specifically to the challenges facing our industry today.
As policymakers talk through potential reforms at the G-20 table and in other forums, they must commit to a prudent set of rules that resist the temptation for over-regulation while at the same time end the perception that there are institutions that are too big to fail, and restore both accountability and risk of bank performance to management, creditors and shareholders. It is a tricky balance but critical to the functioning of not just the financial system but the economy in general.
As was made clear by Canadian regulators recently, market discipline must be re-asserted in the financial services sector, lest companies take on more risk than optimal. In addition, our regulators have been consistent in saying that failure of institutions should be a viable option in a global framework, and that there must be penalties for any failure.
The underlying approach to the Canadian regulatory model is principles-based — relying on the judgment of management and advisors of institutions, rather than the "security blanket of excess capital." Such a system demands that good risk management and governance become embedded in all operations of a company, not merely exercises to satisfy a compliance checklist.
This view reflects the value of companies creating integrated and disciplined risk management programs. At RBC, our enterprise risk management activity is led by our Chief Risk Officer who reports directly to me. Our risk management framework is built on a foundation of a strong risk management culture, supported by a robust enterprise-wide set of policies, procedures and limits that involve our risk management professionals, business segments and other functional teams. This cross-enterprise partnership is designed to ensure the ongoing alignment of business strategies and activities within our risk appetite.
Clearly, from our experience and that of the Canadian sector, a model based on good governance and prudent management works well to mitigate risk while promoting market competitiveness, functioning and efficiency.
Industry leaders, policymakers and those drafting regulatory reforms must recognize that the financial system is more about confidence and perception than technical measures of liquidity and solvency. While living wills and other wind down mechanism are worth discussing, these kinds of measures will not work in isolation if we have a systemic meltdown like we did in the Fall of 2008. At the height of the crisis, when Lehman went down, others would have followed regardless of their liquidity or level profitability because the market viewed balance sheets as too large and illiquid relative to capital under-pinning. Regulators must ensure that within their National Markets that institutions are sufficiently capitalized and manage their risk sufficiently to prevent a collapse from a market and economic crisis because they will inevitably occur. Good international regulation has to start with good local regulation.
But because a financial instrument created in one jurisdiction often relies on counterparties in another, there is an imperative for regulators to coordinate monitoring and response, and to ensure markets are continuously available. The past crisis, which showed an unexpected speed and severity of the financial contagion, proved that every country has a vested interest in an internationally coordinated effort to create a more sustainable financial framework.
To avoid a similar meltdown and to ensure future competitive markets, we need better and more consistent national regulation alongside global oversight and cooperation.
Further, the impact of adopting future reforms without global coordination will be felt in the reduced competitiveness of markets and, perhaps more importantly, stifled economic growth.
With this in mind, I want to point out developments that I find concerning and counterproductive to instilling confidence in the global financial system. These developments could, in my view, undermine effective regulation and the global banking sector's ability to facilitate economic prosperity.
First, a common theme of most reform initiatives being considered is increased capital requirements. Higher capital requirements are required. However, I am concerned that too much emphasis on individual reforms and prescriptive rules will outweigh consideration of their cumulative impact and their cost to institutions.
Given the scope of the crisis and public demands for redress, the agenda for regulatory change is ambitious and, in the case of many proposed initiatives, still at a fairly conceptual stage. Policymakers must resist the temptation to see over-regulation as a panacea for future crisis.
In addition, they must be cognizant of the risks of unintended consequences of too much change being implemented over a short period of time.
Higher minimum levels of both Tier 1 capital and Tangible Common Equity should be mandatory but the levels should be standard, straight forward and reflect the appropriate risk/reward of business. We should avoid the "piling on effect" that could result from regulatory or policy makers in different jurisdictions wanting to impose their own specific requirements.
Regulators are discussing minimum capital levels, premiums for systemically important institutions, deducting goodwill from core equity, eliminating the value of deferred taxes, significant increase for operating risk capital, special financial transaction taxes, reducing the ability of institutions to manage capital globally, counter cyclical capital level mechanisms and the list goes on.
We must remember that for the financial industry to maintain its market confidence and credit ratings — it must be able to generate reasonable returns. The cost of higher equity levels and inefficient regulation will ultimately be passed on in the form of higher credit cost and it is, therefore, important to ensure that regulation doesn't overreact and choke off economic growth.
Implementing reforms that are not fully thought through pose stark risks to the industry and the financial system itself. Whatever direction reforms take, they must be straight forward, easily understood and not vulnerable to misinterpretation or manipulation.
I have strong concerns that reforms may be implemented in different jurisdictions along uneven and uncoordinated timelines. Reforms implemented at different times by different regulators create competitive disadvantages for banks under the purview of early adopting regulators. Consistency and a level playing field must, in my view, be a core principle or the world can be held hostage to the lowest common denominator. I believe banks in different jurisdictions are operating under different assumptions and would encourage constant standards across the G20.
International harmonization, of specific regulations — such as liquidity and capital standards — and their implementation timelines, is critical to ensuring the marketplace functions efficiently.
The other area where there seems to be differing views is on maximum leverage ratios. Again, in my view, it is essential that we have consistent international regulations that cap leverage ratios at levels that reduce the risk of crisis from inflated and illiquid balance sheets. When you look at the ratio between capital and assets of some banks since the beginning of the decade it is staggering and the banks that aggressively grew assets — in many cases irrespective of return on those assets — were those that were most exposed when the crisis hit.
We need time to allow institutions to get to a common level but, in my view, it is essential that there is an international standard that caps leverage relative to core equity. Capital formulas — on their own — did not work last time….so why should they next time.
As I understand the fundamental objective of the G-20 discussions, reforms should create a global financial system that supports worldwide economic growth and confidence in the financial system.
In considering new rules, authorities should, in my view, embrace the following principles:
Any new rules and regulations should seek to create a level playing field for all global institutions.
There must be co-operation and agreement to arrive at internationally accepted definitions and requirements for capital and liquidity, and the timing of their implementation.
We should avoid overly complicated formulas or special surcharges or taxes that will stifle growth.
Tier 1 capital and tangible common equity standards should be increased but they should be determined as a result of collaboration among global regulators to achieve a coordinated and harmonized implementation plan that does not over price credit and choke off economic growth.
And leverage ratios of financial institutions should be capped at levels that prevent a systemic collapse from a decline in asset values.
I will conclude this afternoon by saying that the fallout from the historically significant events of the past two year's demands thoughtful response.
From my point of view, any reform must fit into a framework that balances risk and reward while enabling the banking sector to succeed and facilitate economic growth, innovation and capital formation.
Now is not the time to be tempted to score political points and hastily implement new rules and regulations that impede the ability of the market to operate efficiently. Compensation principles must be aligned with risk taking but compensation was not the cause of the financial crisis.
Policymakers must find a way to resolve the need for reforms with a globally agreed upon solution. The last two years of crisis and instability have taught us well that the interdependencies of the financial sector span all borders.
I urge regulators and policymakers to see to it that we are equally interconnected when it comes to setting the stage for prosperity.
Thank you for inviting me.


text: Best Filipino Dentist in San Jose Ca 95133 – Filipino is well-known in the world who has a lovely personality. San Jose Ca is too big but where can you find the best Filipino dentist or dental office? Well, it is good thing to know that GORGEOUS SMILE DENTAL http://rowanjzncp.ka-blogs.com/11238745/best-dentist-in-san-jose-ca-95033

subset: commoncrawl


text:
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries
Send your best photo!
Like taking pictures related to flying? Send your best photo to LHmagazin@territory with "skyfie" in the subject line and every month, we'll publish our favorite right here.
A lucky charm for Buddhists, for this Stella McCartney bag, a stylish goldfish.
Talismanic: a metal dragon pendant on a chain of ribbed beads by Hermès.
A 100-percent merino wool sweater by Moschino with a good-luck troll on the front.
20 I 20 by J.F. Schwarzlose Berlin is a feel-good scent for a brand-new decade.
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is a master of American Realism. Some 60 pieces of his are showing at the Fondation Beyeler art museum in Basel, Switzerland.
My favorite photo I met these schoolboys in Childara, a mountain village 200 kilometers or so east of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. When I held up my camera questioningly, the international way of saying "May I take your picture?" they agreed, although shyly at first.


text:
Hospice Services
Hospice is a special kind of care for those with a life-limiting illness. When any family first learns about hospice, it's a difficult time. In these challenging moments, it's important to know you have an option that can help someone you love get the most out of life while living with dignity and peace.
When the doctor, patient and family decide that curative treatment is no longer appropriate, Oakhurst Hospice provides home hospice services wherever home is -whether a retirement home, skilled nursing facility, a friend or family member's home, or your house. Our hospice services allow patients to make the most of each day, surrounded by family and friends in a familiar, comfortable environment. Because at Oakhurst, we believe that every moment is special.
Service Area:


text:
Patricia Chang
In mid-August, a German Shepherd mix named Missy made international headlines after she was rescued by a team of volunteer climbers from a ridge on Colorado's 14,000-foot-high Mount Bierstadt. Her owner, Anthony Joseph Ortolani, said that Missy's paws became so blistered and cut during the climb that she couldn't walk, and that he and his friend tried to carry the 112-pound dog down the rocky terrain for two hours through rain and snow. When a storm rolled in, however, he chose to leave the dog behind because he feared for his and his friend's well-being.
Once Ortolani made it down, he contacted the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office but was not given any assistance; he was told that rescue crews do not attempt to retrieve animals. Missy, stranded and injured, was left on her own for eight days. Continue reading
Filed under: animal advocacy, animal cruelty | Tagged: animal advocacy, animal law, animal suffering, animal welfare, mountain climbing, rescued animals, stranded animals | 6 Comments »


text:
Back In Stock Beetle Parts Beetles BMW Parts BMW Repairs Car Parts Cars Jaguar XF Manufacturers Mini Repairs New Products Out of Stock Single Items XF Repairs XF Service Generator Spares Generators Pressure Washers Auto Care Building and DIY Camping, Caravans Christmas Clearance Electronics End of Line Gardening Giftware Health and Beauty Household Leisure Mobile Accessories Pest Control Pets Corner Post and Packing Smokers Delights Toys Travel and Holiday Water Dispensers
Tell someone you know about this product.
Use keywords to find the product you are looking for.Advanced Search
Contact UsDropship WebsitesFrequently Asked QuestionsJobs at DropshiponlineLegal & Privacy NoticeTerms and ConditionsPostage & CouriersWhat is Dropshipping?Warranty & ReturnsWholesale DropshipWholesale
When is that special holiday time, only the most special items can suffice.
A beautiful feature for any room or garden, the Christmas Workshop presents this polyresin street scene including houses and a church.
The scene is lit using 2 bulbs built into it to give a great effect.
Powered by 240V this ornament is ideal for a window sil or fire mantle piece and will add to the festive cheer in your home.
The use of traditional bulbs give a brighter light too.
Have a merry Christmas!
0 items
UK PoundEuroAustralian DollarYen
Notify me of updates to Christmas Snow Street Scene Church BML70000CH


text:
Model #HMA-6203U
|List Price:
|Our Price:
General Description
We're committed to exceeding your expectations:
- Found it for less? We'll match the price
- 25-Year or Limited Lifetime Warranty
Our customers come first — we guarantee it!
"Please take a seat..."
Welcome your guests in style and comfort! Enhance your reception area with our contemporary style reception furniture.
- Manufacturer:
HPFI has been providing offices with quality case goods and upholstered seating since 1958. Conference, office, reception and lobby furniture are all available in a wide range of colors, finishes and optional accessories.
- Width:
- 79 in.
- Depth:
- 32.5 in.
- Height:
- 33.75 in.
- Weight:
- 148 lbs.
- Green
- Warranty:
- Limited Lifetime
- Made in USA
- Certified Green
- Attached seat & back cushions on all pieces.
- High-density foam cushions provide firm support and long-term resiliency.
- Durable no-sag springs to prevent wear.
- Fully upholstered with varnished wooden legs.
- Available in CAL 133 - call for pricing.
- Lifetime Coverage: Our Limited Lifetime Warranty guarantees many years of use and enjoyment.
This product is made with pride in the United States of America!
MAS Certified Green (compliant with LEED and CHPS for Schools)
Tested and certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) to be environmentally friendly
We're committed to exceeding your expectations:
- Found it for less? We'll match the price
- 15-Year or Limited Lifetime Warranty
Our customers come first — we guarantee it!
Shipping & Assembly
- Ships Via:
- Common Carrier
- Leaves Factory In:
- Approximately 4-6 weeks
- Assembly:
- Ships assembled
Rebecca Sofa - Grade 2
|List Price:
|Our Price:
Product Family
This product is a part of Rebecca Reception
There are 8 products in the family
Nordic Blue
Please enter a quantity


text:
1967 Chevy C-10 Pickup Truck - Everyday Driver
Greg LaGro's '67 C10
We've all seen the trucks at shows that have mirrors underneath them to show off a spotless undercarriage, a paintjob that probably cost half of what most of us make in a year, and chrome on everything you could possibly put chrome on. But you've got to ask yourself, how much of it is practical? Do those kinds of trucks ever get driven more than just on and off a trailer? In other words, what's the point of spending a mint on something that just goes to shows?
Greg LaGro is a guy who knows that putting some miles on your labor of love is what makes the effort worthwhile. Some years back, a few friends told him he needed to get a hot rod. After kicking around the idea, he thought it'd be fun to fix something up. Upon finding a basket case '67 C10 at a transmission shop, Greg came across what was to be his future project. He always liked the smooth lines of this particular year and called a friend up to bounce the idea of buying it off him. His friend told him to check and see if it was a five-lug, 12-bolt rearend with disc brakes. It had all the necessary hardware, and Greg took possession.
The first order of business was just putting the truck back together. Greg and friend Lucky Costa made this happen, and although it was somewhat practical as a driver, it was quite the rattle box. A couple of years went by and Greg got tired of watching it sit more than driving it, and decided to tear it back apart and start over. Greg isn't a flashy kind of guy and his truck speaks to this. The bottom line in the restoration was that it had to be practical, simple, and powerful.
In Greg's search for someone who could help him with the restoration, everyone he asked kept referring him to Sammy Head. Greg was a little gun-shy about approaching Sammy about the build at first. As a kid, he'd ride his bike past Sammy's shop and was a bit intimidated by the man, but enough time had passed that he mustered enough courage to pull in one day and hit Sammy up. The two became fast friends and Greg had a partner for the build.
The first step was tearing it back down. After that had been done, Greg took it to the painter and brought the frame back home so he could drop the engine in and have his friend Doug Holmberg mock up the exhaust. Greg took out the original 396 and told his buddy Curt Hooker that he wanted something big with a bit of a lope to it. Curt happened to have a '70 454 and knew exactly how to meet Greg's specifications. It was punched 0.060-over, fitted with an Edelbrock Air-Gap, Holley 650, Isky hydraulic roller, and JE pistons and attached to a Turbo 400 tranny.
After it came back from the body shop, Greg brought it home and he and Sammy went to work on it. For stance, Greg wanted to go low without slamming it. He went old school by cutting the front and rear coil springs. Although the truck started life as a Stepside, Greg wanted to go with a smoother look and replaced the stock fenders with ones off a Fleetside. The emblems were removed and it was shot in Cadillac Escalade Green. The truck sits on 15x10 Chevy rally wheels and the gas tank was moved to the rear of the frame to even out the weight distribution. A roll pan was placed in the back and the rear bumper was removed to keep with the no-frills, no flashiness direction of the build. Not much is out of the ordinary on the inside, and that's how Greg likes it. A different seat covered in black vinyl, black carpet, Vega G.T. steering wheel, and Pioneer stereo was all Greg felt the truck needed.
So the next time you're at a show and see something that looks like Fort Knox on wheels, ask yourself if the thing even gets more than 50 miles a year put on it. Half the fun comes from driving it. If you're not doing that, it's sort of like marrying a Playboy bunny and having separate beds. Just ask Greg LaGro and he'll tell you the same thing.


text:
Central nut hub bearing unit
When a high racing performance is required and when there is little time to change the car wheel during a race, SKF's Central Nut bearing unit is the ideal solution. The Central Nut bearing design, integrated on a third generation bearing, optimizes the boundaries dimensions, increases the stiffness and decreases the overall weight.
This hub bearing unit helps improve vehicle handling through increased hub stiffness that supports the heavy forces encountered during cornering. The units have been validated and proven to meet GT class championships demands.
Developed to enable rapid wheel changes during a race, central nut hub bearing units and complementary anti-rotation devices have made four-five wheel bolt designs a thing of the past.
SKF's central nut hub bearings unit build on this key improvement with design and performance advantages that competitive central nut bearings cannot match:
- Integration of the rotated flange with central nut thread and antirotation device seat
- Robust flange design allows for improved safety
- High wheel camber stiffness during cornering with no impact on knuckle
- Improved steering accuracy and vehicle dynamic behavior
- Improved brake wear due to small flange run-out
- Car wheel serviceability with only a central nut without corrosion problem
- Supplied ABS signal with an integrated sensor
- Seat for an antirotation device of central nut
- High severity specification for internal grease


text:
BUENOS AIRES – As their films snag prizes and sales worldwide, Latin America is turning to another battle: Conquering its own domestic movie market.
That's no small skirmish. Latin America's B.O. rose 16% to $2.3 billion in 2011, outpacing emerging market rivals Asia (up 8%) and Central-Eastern Europe (up 10%), per IHS-Screen Digest.
Latin America's home market distrib drives vary radically: Argentina is obliging Hollywood studios to distribute more Argentine fare; Brazil has hiked its Fondo Sectorial subsidy find to about $400 million for 2013, looking to power up production, so domestic market share.
In the latest move, to be unveiled Sunday at Buenos Aires' Ventana Sur, private-sector-run promo org Cinemachile will announce a new domestic distribution arm, Cinemachile Distribution – aimed at goosing Chilean pics' market share in Chile.
Launching 2013 and headed by Tehani Staiger, CD will distribute at least 10 movies a year, said Constanza Arena, Cinemachile exec director.
First titles up include two from "The Maid" producer Forastero," Domingo Sotomayor's Rotterdam Tiger winner "Thursday to Sunday," which opens Jan. 10, and mistaken identity thriller "R. Lorena," plus high Andes shepherdess sister drama "The Quispe Girls," produced by Fabula ("Young & Wild," "No").
Cinemachile Distribution will apply to state development funds for P & A, oversee marketing but pass on rentals to producers.
Chile's total B.O. shot up 26% to $92.3 million in 2011. Chilean pics' share, however, was just 5.3%.
As over Latin America, exhibition is highly concentrated and dominated by multiplexes. In Chile, U.S. loop Cinemark owns 34% of screens, Hoyts 26%, province-based Cinemundo 27%.
Cinemachile will coordinate releases, avoiding local pics' cannibalizing one other, Arena said.
"Chilean cinema has achieved significant production levels of 26 films a year, quality, diversity, international recognition, sales and co-productions. Domestic distribution is now our weakest link," Arena said.
Rarely handling Chilean pics, though "Stefan vs. Kramer," grossed $12.0 million for Fox this summer, Hollywood studios will be little affected by Cinemachile's distrib drive.
But international art-house titles, including many U.S. indie pics, may find themselves in direct competition for screens and auds.


text:
For the week's top 25 broadcast TV show ratings click here.
After fourteen weeks of the 2012-2013 broadcast television season (through Sunday, January 6, 2013), NBC is in first place among adults 18-49, with a 3.1 rating average, up 24% from last season. CBS was second, with a 2.7 rating average, down 16% from the prior season. FOX was third with a 2.4, down 20% from last season. ABC was fourth with a 2.3, down 8% from last season. The CW finished last with a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating average, down 13% from the previous season.
Among total viewers, CBS is ahead for the season averaging 11.233 million viewers. NBC is second with 8.772m, followed by ABC with 8.064m, FOX with 6.650m, and CW with 1.853 million.
Each adults 18-49 rating point is a percentage of the adults 18-49 US TV population and equals 1.265 million adults 18-49. The season-to-date numbers are "Most Current" ratings, which are Live+7 Day for all but the two most recent weeks and Live+ Same Day for the two most recent weeks.
You can see last week's broadcast network primetime weekly TV ratings results here.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2012 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.


text:
|Aarnott (talk)
|Date Created:
|Please feel free to edit constructively!
Stealthy [{{#arraymap: Skill|, |x|Type::x}}] Summary::You combine hide and move silently into a single skill. Prerequisites: {{#arraymap: Hide 4 ranks, Move Silently 4 ranks, both must be class skills.|,|x|Prerequisite::x}}Benefit: Stealthy feat bonuses are based on your ranks in the new skill it grants: Stealth.
Combine the two skills Hide and Move Silently into the new skill Stealth. Combine the skill points you had spent in both into this new skill (any points that would exceed your maximum allowed for your level are now free and can be re-spent). You can use the new skill check in place of both the old ones. If your class offers either Hide or Move Silently as a class skill, then Stealth is a class skill.
- 8 ranks: You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth checks.
- 13 ranks: Once per day, you may reroll a Stealth check, taking the higher result.
- 18 ranks: Once per day, when you take 10 on a Stealth check, treat it as a 15 instead.
- 23 ranks: You can Hide in Plain Sight like the Ranger class. You take a -10 penalty to hide checks you make while being observed.
Special: Bonuses to Hide or Move Silently from racial abilities, class features, magic items, etc. will receive that bonus only to that part of a Stealth check.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Character Options → Feats
|Andrew Arnott's Grimoire Homebrewv
|Base Classes
|{{#ask: Author::Aarnott |format=list |template=Semantic Link Pipe Trick |link=none}}
|Prestige Classes
|{{#ask: Author::Aarnott |format=list |template=Semantic Link Pipe Trick |link=none}}
|{{#ask: Author::Aarnott |format=list |template=Semantic Link Pipe Trick |link=none |limit=999}}


text:
Dov Davidoff
Dov Davidoff grew up in a junkyard, lost his virginity at the age of twelve with a prostitute in Mexico, and is incredibly funny (all true).
Combining hyper ADD with an amusingly acute take on things- Davidoff puts on one of the most high intensity shows in standup- making himself an audience favorite. Voted Top Ten Comedy Albums of 08' on iTunes and PUNCHLINE magazine, his CD, "The Point Is…" released on COMEDY CENTRAL RECORDS® proves exactly that point. Recorded live at the Comedy Works in Denver, CO, Davidoff's CD captures this kinetic master at his best. It's Davidoff's impeccable ability to find common ground with EVERYONE that makes him a truly great comedian. He dissects the irony and problems of the world in a way that makes funny what otherwise isn't. Dov reaches people in a way that not only makes people think and look at themselves, but laugh hysterically while doing so.
In addition to performing regularly in clubs and colleges throughout the country, Davidoff was recently named as one of VARIETY'S top 10 TO WATCH. Dov has starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in the film "Invincible," is seen on any number of TV shows, most notably co-starring alongside Jeff Goldblum in the NBC drama "Raines." Davidoff has made several appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "Last Call with Carson Daly." He is a regular fixture on COMEDY CENTRAL, starring in his own 2007 half-hour comedy special, as well as appearing on "Chappelle's Show," "Premium Blend," and most recently, Russell Simmons Presents: The Ruckus. You can also catch him as one of the regulars on the E! Network hit, CHELSEA LATELY.
There's no doubt that Davidoff has established himself as one of the "MUST-SEE" acts on the scene today.


text:
Tip Line
Submit tips to help Deputy Sheriffs in your area. Please fill out the form below to submit a tip to us. Please fill in as much information as possible, however...
Pistol Permits
Learn about concealed carry permits and download forms: To review West Virginia's code on obtaining a license to carry deadly weapons, please visit West Virginia Legislature's site, and House Bill 4145. Applicants...
- Home
- Toys, Hobbies
Online Reporting
If you would like to fill out a Report for incidents such as theft (under $1000), harassing calls, destruction of property, or vandalism, you may use the link below. Once...


text:
Learn about S@S
Learn more about Safe@School.
Get Trained
Professional Learning Modules provide information and tools for fostering safe, strong and free schools.
Online Course
Online course on bullying prevention created by COPA (le Centre ontarien de prévention des agressions).
While this website is designed with hope for positive change, it is possible that some of the information or images available here may create uncomfortable feelings or conjure up difficult memories. Should you feel a need to seek support or to discuss these feelings or memories, we encourage you to contact one of your local community resources.


text:
calm down(redirected from calm you down)
calm down
1. To relax or become less intense. Although this phrase can be applied to things or situations, it is often said as an imperative to one who is openly anxious, angry, or upset. I've been rocking the baby for hours, but I just can't get her to calm down and stop crying. Calm down—we'll be home before curfew. Work was chaotic during the merger, but things are finally calming down now.
2. To soothe someone or diffuse a tense situation. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "calm" and "down." I've been rocking the baby for hours, but I just can't seem to calm her down. The therapy dog really seems to calm down our patients.
calm someone (or an animal) down
to cause someone or an animal to be less active, upset, or unsettled. Please try to calm yourself down! Can you calm down your yapping dog?
calm down
to relax; to become less busy or active. Now, now, calm down. You look so nervous. Please calm down. Nothing bad is going to happen.
calm down
1. To become less agitated, active, or unsettled: When the wind calmed down, we went outside to assess the storm's damage.
2. To cause someone or something to become less angry, active, or unsettled: The leader calmed down the angry mob by addressing their complaints. Listening to music before going to bed calms me down and helps me sleep.


text:
You're a dealership with 211 unsold cars sun tanning on the lot. What do you do? You call in the crack team of car salesmen from the new movie The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. NSFW.
From the guys who brought us Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, comes this newest flick about a professional team of contract car salesmen that can move any car, no matter how long it's been sitting unsold, with such immediacy and force that you won't know what hit you. Expect all the profanity of a Judd Apatow film without the redeeming emotional qualities. The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard, starring Jeremy Piven and featuring Ving Rhames, James Brolin and David Koechner, hits theaters August 14. Warning, trailer is NSFW.


text:
Grab yourself a cocktail and say goodbye to your productivity with this brilliant Google60 parody that lets you use the search tool as if you only had access to a monstrous IBM System/360 mainframe. Spoiler alert: you'll probably be pulling your hair out after five minutes.
Announced in 1964, the S/360 would have been the cutting edge of technology available to the suits at Sterling Cooper and Google60 recreates its interface complete with punch cards, paper printouts instead of a display, a reel-to-reel tape storage system and authentic sound effects that will make you miss even your Commodore 64. Oh, and a word to the wise, unless you've got the morning free you'll want to avoid image searches at all cost.


text:
I get this strange error compiling this program. I think there was a compiler parameter that fixed this but it's been years since I've used C. Does anyone know? I'm using Ubuntu Linux.
Code:#include <stdio.h> void cybeByReference( int * ); int main() { int number = 5; printf( "The original value of number is %d", number ); cubeByReference( &number ); printf( "\nThe new value of number is %d\n", number ); return 0; } void cybeByReference( int *nPtr ) { *nPtr = *nPtr * *nPtr * *nPtr; }
Code:eugene@eugene-laptop:~/cfiles$ cc -Wall -pedantic fig07_07.c fig07_07.c: In function main: fig07_07.c:10: warning: implicit declaration of function cubeByReference /tmp/cck2bZ1N.o: In function `main': fig07_07.c:(.text+0x32): undefined reference to `cubeByReference' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status


text:
- News
- Business
- Sports
- Entertainment
- Lifestyle
- Health
- Travel
- Technology
It's no coincidence that the symbol of South Korea is the yin and yang. It's a country that balances deep tradition with unbridled enthusiasm for all things modern and technological. Here are six sites in Seoul you shouldn't miss, five yin, one definitely yang.
1 Bukchon Hanok Village: Walk through this area that combines modern shops and houses with alleyways of beautiful traditional homes. Start at the Bukchon Cultural Center to borrow a free mobile guide.
2 Insadong: This bustling street was declared "Culture Street." It's a great place to shop for art or handcrafted goods, stop for a traditional meal or take your photo on a high-tech information screen, then email it home.
3 Changdeokgung Royal Palace: Take a guided tour of these massive grounds with more than a dozen historic buildings that were home to the Korean royal family from 1405 to 1926. Admission is $3, but pay the extra $5 to get into the beautiful gardens too. www.cdg.go.kr
4 National Museum of Korea: Admission is free to the largest museum in Asia, which is gorgeous outside and in. Among its 150,000 treasures, you can't miss the 10-storey pagoda on the ground floor; don't miss the room with half a dozen big Buddhas. www.museum.go.kr
5 Galbi beef: Tender beef is sliced off ribs, then barbecued at your table where you wrap it in a lettuce leaf with thin slices of onion and hot chili sauce, washing down the works with a Hite or Cass beer. The Mapo-gu district is famous for this dish, or try it at Samwon Garden, a pretty place with waterfalls in the courtyard on the south side of the Han River. www.samwongarden.com
6 Samsung D'Light: More than 3,000 people come every day to Samsung's digital playground where you can see 3D TVs, the latest in smart kitchens and play with gadgets and gizmos galore. Shop at the D'Light shop in the basement and don't miss trying out the high-tech toilets that wash, dry and massage. visitseoul.net


text:
Grilled Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin
Pork tenderloin is treated to a mustard-and-teriyaki sauce marinade, then dressed up with sliced green onion. It makes for an elegant and scrumptious grilled entree that's ready in no time. —Tahnia Fox, Trenton, Michigan
Total TimePrep: 10 min. + marinating Grill: 20 min.
Makes4 servings
- 3/4 cup honey mustard
- 3/4 cup teriyaki marinade
- 1 pork tenderloin (1 pound)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- In a small bowl, combine mustard and teriyaki marinade; pour 1 cup into a large resealable plastic bag. Add pork and garlic; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. Cover and refrigerate remaining marinade.
- Prepare grill for indirect heat using a drip pan. Moisten a paper towel with cooking oil; using long-handled tongs, rub on grill rack to coat lightly. Drain and discard marinade from pork.
- Place pork over drip pan and grill, covered, over indirect medium-hot heat for 25-40 minutes or until meat reaches desired doneness (for medium-rare, a thermometer should read 145°; medium, 160°), basting with reserved marinade and turning occasionally. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Sprinkle with onion.
Nutrition Facts1 each: 222 calories, 6g fat (2g saturated fat), 64mg cholesterol, 957mg sodium, 19g carbohydrate (15g sugars, 1g fiber), 25g protein.
Recommended Video
Jul 19, 2015
This is a great recipe for the grill. I didn't have honey mustard but I did have honey mustard salad dressing & used that. Also omitted green onion. This was still a terrific meal & was the most moist grilled tenderloin I ever made.
Jun 13, 2013
How long would you cook this in the crockpot and at what temperature?
Sep 17, 2011
Make it regularly in the crockpot instead of on the grill-mostly because we are too busy to grill :)
Jul 19, 2010
This was very good and easy to make... I used a larger tenderloin and cooked it in the oven rather than on the grill - unfortunately my husband didn't get home in time to grill it for me...


text:
Free Priority Shipping On Orders Over $150
This dazzling crochet triangle shawl features sequin details and adds a touch of glamours to any casual or formal look.
- Approx. 60 inches x 36 inches.
- 100 % Rayon.
- Imported.
1.0 / 5 Hearts | 1 Comment
Return/Exchange: Final Sale (see details)
Color seemed to be gray instead of silver. Very disappointed. Luv It- NO


text: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 APTA Learning Center to Host First-Ever Virtual Conference In conjunction with the APTA Conference and Exposition in Salt Lake City, the APTA Learning Center will host its first APTA Virtual Conference on Thursday, June 27, and Friday, June 28. This groundbreaking event enables attendees to connect virtually with professional peers and experts, offering timely educational programming from nationally and internationally recognized experts, virtual participation in hot-topic debates, networking with colleagues and leaders, and review of current scientific research and findings. "APTA is committed to adopting innovative active learning opportunities that will enhance individual and collective abilities to provide optimal and collaborative patient- and client-centered care," explained APTA President Paul Rockar Jr, PT, DPT, MS. "APTA's first-ever virtual conference is a unique way to bring the vital information to a greater number of professionals and to facilitate knowledge exchange." The APTA Virtual Conference will feature educational programming offered through live and on-demand livestreaming on topics ranging from managing neck pain to musculoskeletal tissue healing. In addition, the famed Mary McMillan Lecture and John H. P. Maley Lecture will be streamed. The virtual conference will include a poster hall, networking lounge, resource center, and information booth, all reflecting imagery of a real-world convention center. The deadline to register for live participation is Tuesday, June 26. The recorded content will be available for purchase in the APTA Learning Center beginning July 9.


text:
As is the tradition, Christmas lights are twinkling all over Tokyo. When it comes to Christmas decorations the Japanese, who tend to go wild for the glitziest, brightest possible displays, aren't exactly famed for their self-restraint, so this year poses the problem of how to accomplish the desired amount of dazzle without being seen as an energy hog.
The most obvious answer, and the most popular one, is to swap out normal bulbs for energy-efficient LED lights. Due to LED bulbs' power-saving qualities, ad agency Dentsu has rated them as the second most popular product in Japan for 2011.
According to Sankei News, Keikyu Railways and the New Otani Hotel have both switched to LED lights. But Ebisu Garden Palace has not only switched over the bulbs of its gigantic Baccarat Crystal chandelier, it's also reduced the number of bulbs from 60,000 to 40,000. On top of that a solar power panel has been installed to supplement the power supply. The Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa's, however, have outstripped this effort by installing an entirely solar-powered display of LED lights in its Japanese garden.
Though the hotel's garden sounds attractive, our favorite eco-friendly display in Tokyo is the "Winter Sakura" illuminations along the Meguro River. Pink LED bulbs are strung on the branches of trees along the river so that it appears as if the cherry blossom trees are blooming out of season. Better yet, the lights are powered from bio diesel made from used cooking oil collected from homes and restaurants in the area.
Some businesses have decided that the best way to do their bit, however, is to dodge the whole issue by not putting up any decorations. SG Holdings, for instance, who run Sagawa Express Ltd. announced that in light of power-saving measures, they decided to cancel any plans for illuminations that might have been put up at their head office or branch offices. This seems a pity especially seeing as Nikken Release Kyogo Ltd has begun renting out eco-friendly LED Christmas trees to meet the demand for a setsuden (power saving) Christmas.


text:
Girl recovers after school van crash
7th grader hurt in crash in September
Elizabeth Greiner could smile Sunday because she's alive and surrounded by love.
"It just makes me feel really blessed," Greiner said.
The seventh-grader was hurt when her school van was involved in a crash in September. The driver of the van was killed.
Greiner was flown by helicopter from Butler County to Children's Hospital.
"She wants to return to a normal routine, and until her concussion heals, she can't handle coming back to school. It's too much for her," mother Carol Greiner said.
Recovery hasn't been easy for the St. Luke Lutheran School student.
But events like Sunday's spaghetti dinner and bake sale, which was organized by the community, help make the process a little smoother.
The proceeds will help pay Elizabeth Greiner's medical bills.
"We're so grateful. Everything everybody has done for us since the first day -- you don't realize how many friends, and even strangers, have come together to help us," Carol Greiner said.
As Elizabeth Greiner made lemonade, her smile was big, her crutches colorful, and her spirit couldn't be broken.
"Physical therapy has been pretty tough, but really it hasn't been too tough to where I can't do it. I can do anything," Elizabeth Greiner said.


text: Our all natural dog food and gourmet dog treats are organic dog treats, wholistic dog treats and just plain yummy dog treats. Try reading the ingredients on dog treats and dog food found in a typical pet store, and you'll be grossed out at the scary chemicals often included and passed off as food! Our treats are nothing but wholesome goodness for your dog.


text:
With a goal of creating the next generation of non-profit community leaders, United Way of the Lowcountry will host a holiday gathering for its Emerging Leaders Dec. 4 on Hilton Head Island.
The group, called 40 Under Forty because it seeks 40 members under the age of 40, will enjoy wine-tasting and business networking from 6-8 p.m. Dec. 4 at Michael Anthony's. The admission cost is to bring an unwrapped toy to support the Bluffton Self-Help or Hilton Head Deep Well toy drives.
"This is going to be a fun way to kick off the holidays, to taste some good wines and to connect with people in the business community," said Bethany Marcinkowski, director of resource development and campaigns for United Way of the Lowcountry.
For more information or to RSVP, call Bethany Marcinkowski at 837-2000.


text:
Wednesday's 5-2 loss in Norfolk was Charlotte's second in as many games since it finally earned a victory over Rockford the previous Saturday. As was the case in its previous two losses, the score was tied 2-2 early in the third period before the opposing team pulled away.
"Like Sunday's game I thought we played well going into the third, but we made more mistakes and they capitalized on them," said coach Jeff Daniels. "We just can't beat ourselves."
"As a team we battled," said newcomer Philippe Cornet. "If we can do the little things right we can turn it around. I think we have it in us. No one's down about it and not wanting to come to the rink anymore. We're treating each game like it's a new season."
The Checkers will have a friendly setup as they attempt to make up what has become a five-point gap between their current position of 14th place and the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Starting Saturday against Milwaukee and ending Dec. 21, they play 10 consecutive games at home, tying a franchise record.
Some news and notes heading into that stretch:
Goalie SituationThe rest of the roster hasn't gone through a great deal of turnover to this point, but it seems like the Checkers have used a different goalie just about every week.
The carousel continued Tuesday when the team released Rick DiPietro from his tryout contract and brought Rob Madore, its playoff starter from last season, back into the fold on a similar deal. Although Mike Murphy's injury will again keep him from playing this weekend, the Checkers once again have three goaltenders in Madore, Murphy and John Muse.
When Murphy's return from Carolina gave the team three goalies for the first time all season, Daniels had said that the competition for the starting job would be open among them. Due to uncertainty regarding Murphy's status and the fact that he has not played a game at any level since Oct. 20, that doesn't seem to be as clear now.
"We'll see," said Daniels. "Murphy has to get healthy and prove himself, so we'll see how it plays out."
Given another short turnaround between games this weekend – a 7 p.m. start on Saturday and a 1:30 game on Sunday – there's a good chance that both Muse and Madore will play. Muse has started 10 of a possible 15 games since becoming the first goalie from last season's team to join this year's edition, and although his numbers aren't as pristine as when he opened the season with a team-record, 154-minute shutout streak prior to the start of the team's major struggles, he's remained a solid option.
"He's been fine. He's given us a chance to win," said Daniels. "We went through games when we weren't scoring goals, and I can't fault him. It's about us eliminating some mistakes in front."
If Madore does indeed play for the Checkers this weekend, he would become the seventh goalie to do so, extending a franchise record. Speaking of Madore:
MADORE RETURNSBack in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones to start this season, Madore didn't see a return to the Checkers coming, especially after things didn't work out over the summer.
"I've only had one year pro, but I already know not to predict things," he said. "I don't worry about things I don't control.
"After ever year you feel like you have things figured out and then something happens that you didn't foresee. I've learned to approach every day the same no matter where I end up."
Along those lines, Madore says he has no idea about whether he'll have an opportunity to play, let alone work his way back to the starting job he left last season. Drawing on his experience from the preseason, in which he spent time with the NHL's Florida Panthers and their AHL affiliate in San Antonio, he'll worry about those things later.
"You don't go into camp thinking you're not good enough to make the team," he said. "As a competitor, you don't go in expecting to be the third-best guy. You go in trying to make the team, and if they tell you to go somewhere else then you go somewhere else."
After getting into an NHL exhibition game with Florida, Madore may have had an opportunity to at least sign with San Antonio before the Panthers' late signing of Tim Thomas, a fellow University of Vermont alumnus, pushed him further down the depth chart.
Madore did his best to turn a stroke of bad luck into a positive, sitting down with Thomas over dinner to "pick his brain" - one of a handful of recent learning opportunities.
"It's good experience," said Madore. "In three months I've seen all levels of hockey in North America. You get to see what makes players good at each level."
With the way things worked out, Madore stuck to his ECHL deal with Cincinnati, making him available when the Checkers came calling.
"There aren't a lot of guys who are sort of free agents that aren't signed with an NHL club or an AHL club, and Rob was a guy we felt comfortable with based on what he did last year," said Daniels.
CORNET'S CONTRIBUTIONSAnother player who hoped to be in the AHL much sooner is Cornet, who the Checkers acquired via trade with San Antonio last week. Though the 23-year-old doesn't feel he played particularly well in Norfolk, he had three points (1g, 2a) in his first two games with the team and will be relied upon as an offensive contributor going forward.
After playing parts of the last two seasons in the ECHL since scoring 24 goals in an All-Star season with Oklahoma City in 2011-12 and making his NHL debut with Edmonton that year, it's been a welcomed opportunity. He only played four games for the Rampage this season, recording one assist, before becoming teammates with Madore in Cincinnati.
"Signing this season with San Antonio, the last thing on my mind was going to the coast," said Cornet, referring to the ECHL. "I think they ended up with more guys than they expected when they signed people in the summer and had a lot of two-way (contract) that they wanted to play first. I didn't really get a shot, but it's hard when there are so many players trying to get a job."
The previous season, it was Oklahoma City's addition of Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins during the NHL's work stoppage that eliminated top-sox roles at the AHL level, relegating him to ECHL Stockton.
"I was coming off a good year and was ready to play a big role," he said. "It was hard to take, and I wasn't the happiest guy in the world. I didn't want to be (in the ECHL) at first, but I figured if it was going to be for two or three months during the lockout I should try to do something about it."
Since the lockout ended and he joined one of the Barons' top lines with Mark Arcobello and Jonathan Cheechoo, Cornet has 37 points (16g, 21a) in his last 53 games. Daniels has already praised his experience, work along the offensive boards and willingness to score the gritty goals, things he already knew well from having watched Cornet play within the same division as the Checkers for the last two seasons. In fact, all three of Cornet's AHL clubs currently call the West Division home.
"It's funny how that worked out," said Cornet. "Maybe it's because they're the teams that have seen me play most often."
PENALTY-KILLING TROUBLEThe Checkers' penalty kill has struggled for much of the season, including Wednesday, when it gave up two goals on five opportunities. That game marked the seventh time that Charlotte has given up multiple power-play goals in the same game, dropping it to 28th in the league at 76.7 percent.
On Wednesday's winning goal, it took just 18 seconds for Norfolk to capitalize on a delay-of-game call against Brett Sutter.
"It's just the little things like getting the puck out when we get it on our stick, blocking a shot or making better reads," said Daniels. "Both goals on Wednesday were more of a system thing where we made bad reads, but a lot of these guys have gotten it done for us in the past so we'll keep working on it."
To that point, the struggles have been surprising given that the Checkers return many of the same players who contributed to the team's third-place finish (86.5 percent) last season. Nicolas Blanchard, Sean Dolan, Brett Sutter and Chris Terry up front and Michal Jordan and Rasmus Rissanen have all been available for most, if not all, of the season to this point.
"We've just got to be more focused all game long," said Blanchard. "In the past we were doing really good, and the main thing now is to kill those penalties near the end of the game and when the game is tied. I think we have to take it personally and have pride in that. We need to get back on the same page."
"It's a funny thing," said Daniels. "We have guys that take pride in it and believe they can get it done, but they're going to have to start doing that."


text:
Connector wrenches, sometimes referred to as torque wrenches, are handheld tools used for tightening or loosening different types of connectors – devices that connect electronic or other components together. Connector wrenches are designed to prevent over tightening so that you don't damage the connector.
How does a connector wrench work?
Connector wrenches are small and are simple to use. Depending on your connector, they usually fit inside or around the connector. You would then turn to the right to tighten the connector, or to the left to loosen.
Connector wrench types and applications
There are different types of connector wrenches for different types of connectors. Common connectors you'd use a connector wrench for include:
- Circular connectors – used to connect and disconnect signal, power and optical circuits.
- BNC connectors – or Bayonet Neill–Concelman connectors, a radio frequency connector used for coaxial cable.
- Chassis socket connectors – used in audio applications.
- Solar cable connectors – commonly used for connecting solar panels.
- Lock nuts – a type of nut-and-bolt fastener.
Look out for connector wrenches which produce an audible click when the correct tightness has been achieved.


text:
So Many Books, So Few Donuts
And after I made all those little icons, too. I've just learned that my gorgeous Company cover has to change.
It all began with Google News. A while ago I discovered that Google lets you customize a News page, so you get headlines on whatever topics interest you. Naturally, I immediately created a "Max Barry" topic and stuck it right at the top. This is how I discovered the evil Todd Bunker article, and about a week ago there was a new one: the shocking revelation that Company has the exact same cover art as another book.
The other book is non-fiction, and British, but still. And what's worse, his is coming out first. I e-mailed Bill, my editor—who, sadly lacking a "Max Barry" Google News topic, had no idea. He was less than thrilled. A few days went by while Doubleday decided what to do (and, presumably, tightened up their licensing agreement with the stock photography people). Then this morning, Bill e-mailed me:
While we haven't been able to ascertain whether the American edition of that other book will use the same donut, we've decided to play it safe and shoot our own donut. Any preferences? Chocolate frosted? Apple cinnamon?
This is the silliest e-mail I've ever sent, but in keeping with the spirit of the book, eh?
It is. It's spooky. The book opens with a donut-related crisis, and now I have my own.


text:
A new iPhone app that would send text messages to users each time a U.S. drone strikes has been repeatedly blocked and deemed "not useful" by the Apple app store.
Calling it "objectionable and crude," Apple will not allow the program's developer to offer the app to iPhone users, stating it violates the "objectionable content" guideline pertaining to developers that submit new programs.
Josh Begley, the New York-based programmer that created the Drones+ app, says there's absolutely nothing offensive about his app. "If the content is found to be objectionable, and it's literally just an aggregation of news, I don't know how to change that," Begley told Wired Magazine.
The app would effectively report drone strikes conducted around the world, sending a map with the strike location, an optional push notification and a short report from the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism to users. It also tallies up recent strikes showing the most affected regions in the Middle-east.
Begley told Wired that his intention was not to bring about a controversial application, but rather to bring drone awareness into mainstream public consciousness, allowing app-owners to decide what to do with the information, hopefully contributing an engaging conversation topic.
In their last rejection on August 27th, Apple denied Begley's app, telling him by email, "We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines."
According to TheBlaze.com, if Apple strikes down Begley's app a fourth time, he will consider configuring the app for Android users instead.
It's obvious Apple is trying to save face for the very nation conducting the strikes, where, in Pakistan, it is believed that more than 1,000 innocents have been killed from drone strikes since 2004.
Watch a short a video on the very plain, limited capabilities of the Drone+ app, featuring material very few users would find "crude."[vimeo height="400″ width="550″]http://vimeo.com/47976409[/vimeo]
Source: http://www.infowars.com/apple-rejects-app-that-tracks-u-s-drone-strikes/


text:
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Since the skyscrapers started to rise over the Manhattan skyline at the end of the 19th century, the title of "world's tallest building" has been the blue riband of commercial architecture.
But now a new badge has captured the imagination of American business.
Amid growing corporate environmental awareness, the title of "world's greenest building" is up for grabs.
The driving force behind the green building boom has been the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its commitment to the development of "environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work."
In 1999 the USGBC launched its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program to rate buildings according to a set of green criteria such as their employment of recycled materials and their use of natural light and alternative energy sources.
In April this year the USGBC announced its 100th LEED-certified building. More than 1,000 buildings have also registered with the aim of gaining certified status.
"The market is charging ahead and LEED is the powerful driving force," said USGBC president Richard Fedrizzi.
"These numbers clearly demonstrate that the market is evolving towards green design and we expect to see more projects use LEED as the validation tool for green building."
California currently leads the way in the U.S. as home to the platinum-ranked Natural Resources Defense Council office in Santa Monica which opened last year and uses 60 to 75 percent less energy than a typical office building.
"We aspired to build the most environmentally friendly office we could, so it feels terrific to have the Green Building Council award us their highest rating," said NRDC president John Adams.
"This project shows others what is possible, and it is already helping to propel the green building revolution."
Other certified buildings in the state include the Ford Motor Company building at Irvine and the Warner Bros. film studios at Burbank.
But other parts of the country are catching up. Last month Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley announced that all new public buildings would be LEED certified as part of a project to make the city the most environmentally friendly in the U.S.
In New York developers have been offered tax credits since 2000 for constructing green buildings while new legislation will require all city public buildings to be green starting from January 2006.
The trend is not confined to the U.S. The current holder of the title of world's greenest building is the Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad, India, which scored a record 56 out of a maximum 69 on the LEED scale.
Meanwhile the most recent addition to the London skyline, the Swiss Re tower, has been hailed as Europe's first green skyscraper due to a design that incorporates innovative environmental technology.
Current estimates suggest that up to $30 billion is being spent worldwide in the construction of green buildings and there are now 13.8 million square meters of LEED-certified building space, compared with just 740,000 square meters in 2000.
While being seen to be green is good for companies' reputation for environmental awareness, it also makes good business sense.
Although green-friendly construction tends to be slightly more expensive, there are enormous savings to be made over the lifetime of a building.
Money saved from lower energy and water bills, reduced waste disposal and the improved productivity and health of employees can reach $70 per square foot -- more than 10 times the average extra costs of building green.
"The environment issue has long been seen by companies as a threat but it really presents an opportunity to make more money through better management," says David Refkin, Time Inc.'s first director of sustainable development.
"The environment issue is going to explode one day. Smart companies will be out in front."


text:
Brenner Children's pediatric emergency department has moved back to its original location. Learn more
In order to help protect patients, family members and health care workers from the spread of COVID-19, no visitors are allowed at any of Wake Forest Baptist Health's outpatient or inpatient facilities, except in certain situations.Learn moreMore COVID-19 Updates
Kids with asthma might have days with no breathing problems at all. That's a relief for parents and for kids because it means that the asthma is under control.
But when asthma symptoms like wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath become more severe, more frequent, or both, it's known as an asthma flare-up (also called an asthma flare, attack, episode, or exacerbation).
If the flare-up is severe, a person might:
Here's what's happening inside the body when an asthma flare-up happens. In the lungs, airways let air in and out. When someone has asthma, these airways, also called bronchial tubes and bronchioles, might be slightly inflamed or swollen even when the person is relatively well.
But during an asthma flare-up, the inflammation gets worse. Sticky mucus clogs these important tubes, and their walls get more swollen. The muscles around the airways get tight, further narrowing the airway (called bronchoconstriction). This leaves very little room inside for the air to flow through — think of a straw that's being pinched.
People with asthma have airways that are overly sensitive to certain things (called triggers) that normally don't bother those without asthma, and exposure to triggers can bring on asthma symptoms.
Common triggers include:
Many people with asthma also have allergies. In them, allergens — the things that cause the allergic symptoms — also can cause asthma flare-ups.
Left untreated, a flare-up can last for several hours or even several days. Quick-relief medicines (also called rescue or fast-acting medicines) often take care of the symptoms pretty quickly. A person should feel better once the flare-up ends, although it can take several days to completely go away.
The severity and length of asthma flare-ups vary from person to person and even from attack to attack. They can happen without warning, with sudden coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing. But because people with asthma have inflamed airways that worsen with gradual exposure to triggers, flare-ups also can build over time, especially in those whose asthma isn't well controlled.
Flare-ups can and should be treated at their earliest stages. So it's important to know the early warning signs that a child might have just before a flare-up. These clues are unique to each child and might be the same or different with each asthma flare-up.
Early warning signs include:
A peak flow meter can help predict when a flare-up might be on its way, although not all flare-ups can be prevented. Because they can be life-threatening, flare-ups demand attention. Your child might need to take quick-relief medicine (which acts quickly to relieve symptoms), visit the doctor, or even go to the hospital. Having a set of instructions (the asthma action plan) can help you know what action is needed.
To help prevent flare-ups:
Reviewed by: Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph, MD
Date reviewed: January 2014
Originally reviewed by: Nicole Green, MD
© 2019 Brenner | Site Policies & Statements
The information on this Website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. If you have a medical problem or a health-related question, consult your physician or call Health On-Call at 336-716-2255 or 1-800-446-2255.


text:
Giants89FLY's Official Knicks Allstar Break Report Card
Enjoy! (Sorry for the long read, Comments and thoughts also welcomed and appreciated!)
Head Coach Mike D'Antoni -
He's got the boys believing they can win. The 6 game losing streak we are currently in bothers me a little bit. However, with the roster we have, lack of talent, and coming off many seasons where we have just been dreadful. D'Antoni brings in a refreshing quick style of play to a roster of overachieving but potentialy great NBA players. 21-31 at the all star break and a chance at the playoffs is something at this point in the season I would have definitely taken.
My Grade : B+
Wilson Chandler
Chandler has really surprised me this year. He's reliable Averaging 13.7 points per game. He's a quality player that I hope has longevity with the knicks.
My Grade : Solid B
Eddy Curry
Now normally when a player plays in only one game his grade would be incomplete. However, with all of his off court issues - Weight, Family Issues, Gay Taxi Driver relationship and god knows what else. Curry is dead weight that I hope we can find a way to trade. I feel for him with his family issue but Basketball is a business.
My Grade - F
Chris Duhon
I think Duhon is a very solid player...However, For everything good he does I think there are a couple things he does bad. He's an average player but doing well in D'Antoni's system. I cant lean one way or the other on him because of his inconsistentcy. And I believe it was metrocard who said he was a "C" level talent. And I totally agree.
My Grade - C
Danilo Gallinari
Back Issues worried me in the beginning of the year. Glad he's back playing. He needs to get stronger has a tough time driving to the basket, Pretty decent handles for a big man and is an excellent shooter. I think we all can agree that at 18 we may have a future NBA star in the making until then the Jury is still out. But the kid's got potential
My grade - C-
Al Harrington
20 points per game is decent. He reminds of Crawford at times. Not a reliable shooter. Would not want him to take any type of a big shot in a big game situation. Also the Technical against the clippers was absolutely inexcusable. He Needs to get his head out of his ass.
My Grade - C
Jerome James
Hurt out for the year. Never played anyways. Has a huge contract and provides nothing valuable for the team.
My grade - F
Jarred Jeffries
Ah, the weak link of the knicks. Where do I start? Cannot play D to save his life, Horrible shooter. I cringe everytime he shoots the ball. Has a very low basketball IQ. The day he leaves the knicks I will throw a party equivalent to New Year's Eve in times square. To be fair because he is playing this year I wont give him an F.
My grade - D
David Lee
I think everyone will agree David Lee is the best player on the Knicks right now. Averaging a double double this season. Was an all-star snubb, And has been without a doubt our most consistent player. I hope he resigns if we dont trade him. If we do trade him, we better include curry in the deal.
My Grade - A
Stephon Marbury
I like him as a person, but when we get older and look back at Marbury we will be reminded of the dark times that accompanied him throughout his knicks career. It might not be all of his fault. After this year he's gone... See ya later man.
My Grade - Incomplete
Quentin Richardson
Cant lean one way or the other on him. Now he's hurt. Not sure its serious. He's a decent shooter. I dont mind him, Averages 11 points per game in almost 29 minutes per game. Not great. But Not Bad. We could probably see better from him, But it is what it is. MAJORLY INCONSISTENT He's another player I would'nt mind going.
My Grade - D+
Anthony Roberson
Nothing really to write about here. Hasnt played much came off the bench the last two games and hit some threes. Nice to see him get some time. Nothing that great...
My grade - D-
Nate Robinson
Coming off the bench He provides us a great spark! I like the kid, Has a great passion for the game of basketball. Takes Some stupid ass shots and makes dumb decisions in crunch time situations. Has begun to grow on me throughout the course of a season... Great role player and a nice piece for the knicks. If they trade him and can cut salary or get something decent in return I wouldn't mind. Until then good job Nate
My grade - B+
Malik Rose
Not even worth getting into. I'll give him the same grade I gave JJ. Just because he has stayed healthy I'll give him some love. No "F"
My Grade - D-
Tim Thomas
Decent Shooter, Him an Gallinari are similar in style.. PLays 21 Mins a game and averages 9 a game. Decent numbers and I dont think he hurts the team.
My grade - C
Overall Team Analysis
I think this team can improve tremendously. We have made great strides under D'Antoni and will continue to improve. We have a shot to make the post-season So we deff have something to play for the remainder of the season. At the break this year we are close to equaling the number of wins we had last year. that in itself is obviously great improvement. But with a Mediocre player rotation and overachieving players how long can we keep this up? I like what I'm seeing though! And I would love to see them in the post-season... As far as a grade goes :
Overall Team Grade - C+
Half Way Point Song : Adrenaline Rush - Twista
<object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B4YKftcVtuU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
Giants89FLY's Rest of the year Prediction....
<object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p3-eavMSBnk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
This has been a Giants89FLY production


text:
Dell has purchased Enstratius, a company that allows customers to manage cloud resources across multiple providers from a single management console for an undisclosed sum this week.
Enstratius is one of the leading companies in the growing marketplace of cloud management tools, providing customers the ability to deploy and manage applications across public and private clouds, and across multiple providers. In addition to providing a common management layer across those multiple clouds, the company also provides security services related to authentication and encryption across those providers.
[INTEROP: Hottest products at Interop 2013]
[OTHER DEALS: IT deals of 2013]
In the systems administration space, cloud is huge, says Kamesh Pemmaraju, a technical product marketer for Dell, who spoke about the acquisition at this weeks Interop conference in Las Vegas.
Pemmaraju says Dell will integrate Enstratius technology into its broader cloud offerings, including its OpenStack product line. Dell has certified its server hardware to run on OpenStack, the open source cloud computing platform. As part of that, Dell has embraced OpenStack distributions from Ubuntu. Enstratius could help Dell customers using OpenStack to launch resources to a variety of public clouds while having OpenStack running on Dell equipment in their own premises.
David Linthicum, a consultant at Cloud Technology partners who tracks the market closely, says hes not surprised by the move. CA recently purchased management company Layer 7, while BMC was recently taken private. Linthicum expects more M&A activity in the cloud management market. In addition to buying the Enstratius technology, Dell also acquired some well-known names in cloud circles, including Bernard Golden, James Urquhart, and George Reese.
Network World senior writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social collaboration. He can be reached at email@example.com and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.


text:
She was ice-skating, and she fell. He picked her up. That's how my grandma and grandpa met.
I ask her to tell the story often. "These great big arms just swooped down and grabbed me," she chuckles, "and then he kissed me on the cheek. I said, "I don't know you!" And he said, "I've had my eye on you for quite some time.""
The next morning he stopped by her house with a sled and invited her outside.
Fast forward through 67 years of marriage, through three sons and a daughter, aircraft carriers, camels and crew cuts and Christmas trees, oil rigs, golf games and barbeques and rosaries on car trips and teaching me the box step in the kitchen – and he is 90 and lying in the fetal position, skin pallid and tongue parched, breaths shallow and quick, and often mouthing 'Momma,' his name for my grandma. He has drunk up all life's sweetness and the bitter dregs are on his lips. And we are watching her watching him die.
Even now, at Grandpa's death, my grandparent's love is an example to me. As a young single person, full of the desire to give love – to the point where I demand it as though it were mine to demand – they remind me that this love, it does not mean what I think it means. It is not what I think it is.
This love is ferocious. It is fierce. It is the Great Wave of Kanagawa. It requires as much as it gives. In the midst of every call to love is the whisper, the question, "Can you drink the cup that I drink?" And unless we partake of the Blood of Christ we find ourselves empty in our response.
Grandma strokes his head. I move to the edge of the bed, put my rosary between his hand and mine, and say a Divine Mercy Chaplet.
My heart and my desires seem so little in this moment. How can I pray for love? I barely understand it. Even more, how can I be the carefree girl on the ice when I know how it ends, when I know that this is what will be required? When I know the ice-skating and sleds change to ice chips and diapers? How did Christ laugh during an idle moment in Nazareth when he foresaw the nails and the thorns?
I suppose I can pray and hope for love only with the faith that love is as strong as death, unyielding as the grave, that after the last breath there is life. And that earthly love is bound up in that life, not this one. This is a Resurrection kind of Love.
This Love gave my grandparents to one another and sustained them through 67 years of marriage. This Love transformed them from a happy pair on the ice to a sage married couple, faithful unto the final throes of death's sturm und drang.
He passes peacefully. We are there.
"Momma, I'm going to walk again," he had said, a few weeks before he died.
"Now I realize what he meant," she said, holding his silent hand.
B. Jane Sloan is a writer and high school theology teacher from Atlanta, GA. In addition to blogging for Catholic Exchange, she has been published in Our Sunday Visitor, Notre Dame Magazine and the literary journal Omnibus.
Jane Sloan graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2007 with a B.A. in theology and philosophy. In 2009, she graduated with an M. Ed. from Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education. She is currently working toward her M.A. in Theology. Jane owns a light blue 1957 Smith Corona typewriter. She sometimes wishes she were P.G. Wodehouse or Flannery O'Connor. She hasn't written any books yet, but she plans to, if you'll read them. Follow her on Twitter @SloaND0709.Follow her other blog on all-natural eating at www.thesavagepalate.
Copyright 2012 Jane Sloan


text:
1970 Plymouth Cuda - Mean On The Street
Brian Mastrangelo's '70 'Cuda Takes Its Licks And Keeps On Goin'
Dyno Shootout!While we are quick to heap praise upon top-shelf restorations and finely preserved Mopars that may never again thunder down the open road, our admiration and whole-hearted endorsements are always earned by daily drivers-the stately warriors of a more vicarious era which continue to haunt the modern roads and send the whiny Rice Boyz scattering in their awesome wake.
Lake View, New York, resident Brian Mastrangelo is a member of this elite street brawling Mopar brigade. Seven years ago, at the spunky age of 21, Brian rescued a '70 'Cuda 383 from imminent demise. And in spite of a few hard knocks along the way, Brian refuses to make this predator a museum piece.
The 'Cuda was purchased in September 1993, in what Brian calls "fair condition." Of course, being a body and paint man by trade, his idea of fair might be in conflict with those of us who do not possess these skills. "The factory seam on the driver's side was torn from the tunnel to the rocker," says Brian. "On the passenger side there was an 11-inch tear in the same area. Also, the trunk floor was rotten where the gas tank sits."
For the first year the 383-powered 'Cuda sat in limbo; then, in November of 1994, Brian set to work in earnest. The car was stripped to the shell, placed on a rotisserie and received a complete redo. In addition to grinding and filling all of the welds, Brian replaced the entire front floor, the trunk pan and extensions, and incorporated his own frame connectors running between the front and rear subframe. He also spent considerable time repairing damage other than body rot. "It looked like somebody hit it with a baseball bat," says Brian.
Next up was the suspension. Here Brian elected to stay with the stock setup, replacing the worn original equipment with factory-fresh components. He even retained the stock front and rear drum brakes, although upgrades were made in the form of stainless steel brake and fuel lines. The 8-inch rear axle was enhanced with 4.10 Richmond gears and an adjustable pinion snubber, and Competition Engineering adjustable drag shocks were added to the four corners.
It proved to be a fairly staid restoration thus far, but once Brian turned his attention to the power department, he handed the V8 to Jan-Cen Racing Engines and told them to let it all hang out. The 383 was stripped and treated to an 0.060 overbore. Then the stock rods were balanced, topped with TRW forged pistons, and secured with ARP bolts. A Comp Cams .495-inch lift camshaft went up top and was accented with Comp Cams solid lifers, springs, and stock adjustable rockers. Higher up, the stock heads received a porting job before being topped with an Edelbrock aluminum Six Pack intake and three Holley two-barrels. A Moroso chrome 7.5-quart oil pan seals the bottom. On the spark management front, Jan-Cen selected a Mallory Unilite distributor and Crane Cams Hi-6 rev limiter and coil to handle ignition duties. Headman ceramic-coated headers and Flowmaster mufflers sporting 2.5-inch pipes round out the drivetrain upgrades.
Following the build up, Jan-Cen placed the 383 (now 393ci) on an engine dyno. Here the V8 was able to deliver a healthy peak horsepower of 460.5 at 5,500 rpm, and peak torque of 502.8 at 4,000 rpm.To help send all of this raucous torque to the rear wheels, the stock flywheel was balanced, then a Centerforce clutch system was sandwiched in front of the 833 four-speed tranny. This Brian topped off with a chrome driveshaft loop and a Hurst Competition Plus pistol-grip shifter with Reverse lockout.
After reupholstering the black interior, Brian installed the necessary monitoring devices for his well-endowed street machine, including a 5.5-inch Autometer Monster tach with shift light, and Autometer oil pressure and temperature gauges. A Hurst line lock was also added to assist in future drag race efforts. And in keeping with his intent to drive the 'Cuda on a daily basis, a Sony CD player was mounted in the dash, with an MTX 400-watt amp, 10-inch Orion subwoofers, Kenwood 6x9 three-way speakers and Sony 5.25-inch three-way door speakers included in the mix.
In August of 1995 Brian's work on the 'Cuda came to a close. But not the fun. Ever since leaving the shop his street monster has been on active status. Brian says that from April to October he enjoys participating in cruise nights, car shows, and "beating the snot out of" the 'Cuda. And when we met up with Brian at the 2000 Carlisle All Chryslers Nationals, that's exactly what he was up to-whomping on his driver atop the Mopar Muscle magazine-sponsored Dynotec Motorsports mobile chassis dyno. With a barometric pressure of 29.33 inches and intake temperature at 67.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the 'Cuda pulled down a top horsepower run of 319.5 and a maximum torque of 339.6 lb-ft at the tires.
We mentioned at the beginning of our story that Brian's 'Cuda has seen its share of hard knocks. Brian says they are funny to recount now, but they weren't so amusing at the time they happened. The first mishap occurred when he was getting the car ready for its paint job. "A fellow worker moved a car without brakes and smashed the header panel, which I had to repair." The next incident happened a bit later, and this time he only had himself to blame. "I was backing the car into the driveway with the car cover half on and hit a '95 Ram truck. No damage to the truck, but the car was another matter. I had to replace the rear bumper and repair the deck lid in time for a car show."
But wait! There's more...
"I started the car up before going to work, and the emergency brake was not properly set. The car rolled out the driveway and into the ditch across the street. It was still running when I came out. I had to put the car on the frame machine and pull out and repair the lower core support, repair the fender where the bumper pushed into it, replace the front lower valance, replace the license plate, repair the right front door where the fender pushed into it, and repaint the car."
Like we said, Brian Mastrangelo's 'Cuda takes its punches and comes right back for more.
'70 'CudaOwner: Brian MastrangeloEngine displacement: 393 ci (383 bored .060)Power at the tires: 319.5 hp, 339.6 lb-ftInteresting Features: Brian's a body man by trade, which is good considering therough life this 'Cuda has led!


text:
About Us
A growing national portal with a local presence dedicated to everything in your city. Everyone who lives here knows it is the people who make our city great. kewlwallet.com allows you to connect with these people and share the amazing things our city has to offer.
Think of kewlwallet.com as your one-stop destination for local deals/offers, news, weather, events, movies, things to do, attractions, hotels, restaurants, businesses, jobs, classifieds, real estate, and so much more. We are part of the community and strive to provide it with the most relevant, accurate and engaging information possible. Start contributing and sharing your favorite things to see and do in our vibrant city!
We truly appreciate your support and hope you will participate. Feel free to invite your friends and spread the word!
Thank You,
KewlWallet Team


text:
Salvation Army: Another red kettle stolen
2 kettles stolen in Des Moines, official says
Two of the Salvation Army's red kettles in Des Moines have been stolen in the past two weeks.
Thanksgiving is over and the holiday season is in full swing.
"This neighborhood really comes together when it comes to Christmas lights. They really put on a nice show. Almost all the homes decorate, and they do a very good job of it, so I just try to keep up with the neighbors," said Beaverdale resident Pat Merrick.
"All of this is just a joy. It brings out true Christmas spirit, laughter, fun time with family and friends," said Beaverdale resident Jean James.
However, while some people are busy spreading their holiday cheer, others are doing the opposite.
"A week ago, (on) Thursday, we had a red kettle and stand, the entire unit was stolen from the Hy-Vee store on Southeast 14th Street," said Arvid Huisman, of Salvation Army.
There are about 60 red kettles in the Des Moines metro area, which are sometimes manned by a bell ringer. The Salvation Army said the stands are under lock-and-key, not to mention really heavy and extremely awkward to carry.
The first kettle was emptied before it was stolen, but several days later, another Grinch struck again at the west Des Moines Walmart off Mills Civic Parkway.
"The money that's in the kettle is less money that we'll have to use to help people in need," said Huisman.
"People are at their best during this time of the year, hopefully. And maybe at their worst, too," said Festival of Trees and Lights volunteer Paul Satre.
Meanwhile, Toronto police found a stash worth $2 million that they said was stolen from the Salvation Army.
"I don't know why people get a kick out of hurting other people's stuff," Huisman said.
"It's sad. I mean, it's real sad that people during Christmas have to resort to that kind of behavior," Merrick said.
The Red Kettle campaign continues until Dec. 24, and until then, the Salvation Army is leaving a message for other Grinches.
"I might suspect somebody that had a particular need, whether it be drugs or if they had a need for food of something, if they would come to us, we'd help them out," said Huisman.