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Have you seen the recent "news" articles about outdoor and feral cats being responsible for the decline in the numbers of birds and small mammals in the US? Hello-oh? Here's an excellent rebuttal from the president of Alley Cat Allies:
Alley Cat Allies Advocates To End 'Junk' Science Studies About Cats
By Becky Robinson
Newspaper articles and television programs labeling cats as mass killers and the reason for bird species declines have been all over the news, from The New York Times to The Washington Post, most recently reporting on research published in the online journal Nature Communications. Without questioning the integrity of this latest report, these and dozens of other news outlets have helped manufacture a fake debate that outdoor cats are the number one killer of birds and mammals in this country.
Of course, habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change are far and away the greatest threats to birds and wildlife. And bogus reports like this recent one funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and sensationalized by the media, sidestep serious debate on the real threats to birds and wildlife and end up scapegoating cats.
This current "study" is not new. It is a literature review that looks at a variety of published papers and then speculates a conclusion that suits the researchers' anti-feral (or outdoor) cat and anti-Trap-Neuter-Return agenda. In the past, Alley Cat Allies has picked apart some of the flawed studies included in the review, and we will continue to do so on this research piece.
Because the basic premise of this research is that no cats should be outdoors, a very real outcome to all of this could be more cats taken to animal shelters, where 7 out of 10 are killed.
In fact, "catch and kill" has been an ineffective standard operating procedure for animal control in the U.S. for more than a century. Yet attempts to permanently clear an area of cats have proven futile because of a natural and scientifically documented phenomenon known as the vacuum effect. Simply removing the cats will open up a vacuum in the habitat that attracts other cats.
Tens of millions of cats have been rounded up and killed in shelters, at staggering taxpayer expense, but with no reductive effect on outdoor cat populations. Where is the media in reporting on these deaths?
When outrageous extrapolations based on small study samples use the word "billions" to describe bird and small mammal deaths by cats, it makes people sit up and take notice. And pitting species against species sells papers. But we don't need small local studies to point to the millions of animals' lives lost in shelters each year — we already know that, nationally, more than 70 percent of all cats who enter shelters are killed there.
Catch and kill has been practiced for over a century. The evidence is in: it just doesn't work. From animal protection experts to individual caregivers, from mayors of small towns to city councils of large cities, people have had enough of this culture of killing — they've had enough of the wasted dollars and the wasted lives. They're turning to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
The best response to feral cats, who aren't socialized to people and can't be adopted, TNR is a program through which feral cats are humanely trapped, neutered at a veterinary clinic, and then returned to their outdoor homes to live out their lives. Because TNR is proven to stabilize and reduce cat populations over time, it is fast becoming the predominant approach to feral cat management in the United States.
More than 300 communities across the country have passed laws or enacted policies supporting the practice of TNR. This does not include the thousands of community groups and the hundreds of thousands of individual caregivers conducting TNR privately.
Major cities — including San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and dozens more — have embraced TNR. Enlightened animal control and public health officials have endorsed it, calling it common-sense and effective. TNR reduces calls into municipal agencies, keeps cats out of shelters, encourages spay/neuter practices, and saves tax dollars. Since Alley Cat Allies first helped bring TNR to the U.S. from the U.K. and Western Europe, where it is accepted and common practice, every mainstream animal protection organization in the U.S. has embraced TNR.
Unfortunately, TNR is often hindered by fundamental misunderstandings and inaccurate portrayals in the media. It is further complicated by the fringe conservationists who imply the easiest way to save birds is to round up and kill outdoor cats. (Or, they suggest unrealistic ideas such as "confining" the millions of outdoor cats.) Yet, while their "studies" are based largely on questionable extrapolations, not field work, their accusations have been widely reported as fact.
It's time for the funders of this latest study to disavow the research, stop funding junk science, and turn their attention to remediating the real threats to wildlife populations. Scapegoating cats may seem like the easy answer, but in reality, killing more cats will not save populations of birds or small mammals.
And it's time for the national media to start reporting on the thinly-veiled agenda of these researchers: their proposed "solution" really endorses the continued mass killing of cats. In a nation of professed animal lovers where cats are by far the top companion animal of choice, why attack TNR when it makes sense both practically and ethically?
Alley Cat Allies celebrates and protects cats, but we're also lovers of all animals. And we agree that wildlife protection needs serious consideration, but let's not think killing millions of cats is going to somehow abate the true threats to birds and wildlife.
A policy of more killing is never the right answer.
(Becky Robinson is president and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies, the only national nonprofit dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. The organization is based in Bethesda, MD. For more info visit www.alleycat.org)
Views: 1053
Very interesting. There was a state that wanted to legalize just plain shooting outdoor cats because of killing wildlife--I don't know if the law was passed?
I'd like to see more about why it is junk science. I'm relieved to read this article but I'm afraid that just accepting it at face value might be believing something convenient. Obviously cats are not the number one cause of loss of bird population but I'm wondering how significant they are.
There is no need to pass special laws in any state, this is why they don't bother to vote on those issues. It's already legal to shoot them everywhere that you find them roaming free.
The law in the USA is that it is perfectly legal to destroy any animal, someone's pet or not, that is threatening the health, well-being, and safety of yourself, your family, your animals, or even your property. Also true even in most densely populated cities, firearms laws permitting, if not then 700-1200fps air-rifles are commonly used. The only animals exempt from you taking immediate action, legally, are those listed on endangered or threatened species lists, and any bird species under protection of MBTA (the Migratory Bird Treaty Act). Even then variances can be given should there be sufficient problem but this requires further study by authorities. Since cats are listed in the TOP 100 WORST invasive species of the world in the "Global Invasive Species Database" ( www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=24&fr=1&sts=sss ), this means they have no protection whatsoever from being shot on sight, they are not on any protected species list anywhere in the world. Quite the opposite. And as a matter of fact, if your local-law obeys and enforces all invasive species laws, AS THEY SHOULD, then it is against the law to NOT destroy any cat found away from supervised containment. (This is precisely how I managed to clear out every last one of hundreds of these invasive species vermin cats from my own lands. On the sound advice of the sheriff. Even he found that trying to reason with and warn the cat-lovers did no good. But shooting every last cat finally worked! My lands have been 100% cat-free for over 3 years now, for less than the price of a couple cups of coffee for the ammo.)
Shoot to maim is punishable under the laws that define animal-cruelty, and rightly so, (these are the ONLY cases that cat-lovers cite to try to manipulate and scare everyone from shooting their only favorite animal). But shoot to kill is a perfectly legal way to humanely destroy an animal. The same laws and principles that apply to methods of humanely hunting animals also applies to cats. (Hint: outfit your rifle with a good scope and laser-sight, inexpensive on ebay. This will ensure a totally humane, instant, and LEGAL kill each and every time. Though use a fatal chest-shot, a head-shot is not always a sure thing.) Unlike cat-lovers' psychotic beliefs, the reality is that a cat is just another animal. It's NOT their baby, their child, their offspring. Even if they do view their cats that way, letting them roam free is no less criminally irresponsible than them telling their child to go play in the freeway and then blaming the cars for their child's death. If they let their cat roam free, NO MATTER HOW IT DIES, that is THEIR fault and they can be charged with all laws that clearly define animal-neglect, animal-abandonment, and animal-endangerment. Not to mention being in direct violation of all international invasive species laws in existence.
In fact, here's a publication from a study done by the University of Nebraska on the best ways to HUMANELY deal with a feral-cat problem wherever you live. This documentation INCLUDES the best firearms, ammo, and air-rifles required to HUMANELY destroy cats. deenawinter.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/ec1781.pdf
Besides, what difference does it make if the cat gets shot or ran over by a car, attacked by another cat or animal, drowned, or poisoned by plants animals or chemicals (inexpensive 1-adult-strength generic acetaminophen pain-relievers gaining in popularity, for being so species specific, far far safer than antifreeze and rat-poisons that cat-lovers have forced everyone else into using lately). The result is the same. The cause is the same -- the fault of the criminally irresponsible pet-owner that let their invasive species pet roam free. They've already proved that their animal is 100% expendable. You can either destroy their cat for them humanely, or let their lack of care cause it to inevitably die inhumanely. They don't care one bit how their cat might cruelly suffer to death if they let it roam free. Humanely destroy their cat for them before that can happen. A well aimed bullet is the MOST humane death that ANY stray or feral cat can ever look forward to. Any other death that they WILL eventually face is all inhumanely downhill from there.
Here's how these ignorant, self-serving, and uneducated TNR-advocates are destroying all life on the planet.
The TNR CON-GAME
FACT: Trap & Kill failed because cats cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control.
FACT: Trap, Neuter, & Release (TNR) is an even bigger abject failure because these man-made ecological disasters cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control, and they also continue the cruelly annihilate all native wildlife (from the smallest of prey up to the top predators that are starved to death), and the cats continue to spread many deadly diseases that they carry today -- FOR WHICH THERE ARE NO VACCINES AGAINST THEM. Many of which are even listed as bioterrorism agents. (Such as Tularemia and The Plague -- Yes, people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. No fleas nor rats even required. The cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.)
FACT: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY _NOTHING_ HUMANE ABOUT TNR. Nearly every last TNR'ed cat dies an inhumane death by road-kill, from cat and animal attacks, environmental poisons, starvation, dehydration, freezing to death, infections, parasites, etc. And if very very lucky humanely shot to death or re-trapped and drowned (the two most common methods employed on all farms and ranches to protect their gestating livestock's offspring and valuable native wildlife dying from cats' Toxoplasmosis parasites). This doesn't begin to count the thousands of defenseless native animals that cats skin alive and disembowel alive for their daily and hourly play-toys. The only difference in destroying cats immediately and humanely instead of trapping, sterilizing, then releasing them to an inhumane death; is that money isn't going into an HSUS or SPCA board-member's pocket, veterinarian's pocket, cat-food company CEO's pocket, or a drug-company CEO's pocket. And that's the ONLY difference!
FACT: Cats are a man-made (through selective breeding) invasive species. And as such, are no less of a man-made environmental disaster than any other caused by man. Cats are even worse than an oil-spill of continent-sized proportions. They not only kill off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastlines from run-off carrying cats' Toxoplasma gondii parasites, they destroy the complete food-chain in every ecosystem where cats are found. From smallest of prey gutted and skinned alive for cats' tortured play-toys, up to the top predators that are starved to death from cats destroying their ONLY food sources. (Precisely what cats caused on my own land not long ago.)
FACT: Hunted To Extinction (or in this case, extirpation of all outdoor cats) is the ONLY method that is faster than a species like cats can exponentially out-breed and out-adapt to. Especially a man-made invasive species like these cats that can breed 2-4X's faster than any naturally occurring cat-species.
FACT: In _TWELVE_YEARS_ Alley Cat ALL-LIES of NYC have only reduced feral cats in their own city by 0.08% to 0.024% (as the months go on that percentage becomes more insignificant), allowing more than 99.92% to 99.976% to exponentially breed out of control. Here's how Alley-Cat-ALL-LIES' deceptive math works: If you TNR 4 cats and 3 get flattened by cars this translates to 75% fewer feral-cats everywhere. Alley Cat ALL-LIES can't even reduce cats in their own city, yet they promote it as a worldwide solution. Then even bigger fools fall for it and promote it.
FACT: When researching over 100 of the most "successful" TNR programs worldwide, JUST ONE trapped more than 0.4%. Oregon's 50,000 TNR'ed cats (the highest rate I found) is 4.9% of all ferals in their state. Yet, by applying population growth calculus on the unsterilized 95.1% they will have trapped only 0.35% of all cats in their state sometime this year. Less than 0.4% is a far cry from the required 80%-90% to be the least bit effective.
FACT: Their mythical "vacuum effect" is a 100% LIE. A study done by the Texas A&M University proved that any perceived "vacuum" is just the simple case that CATS ATTRACT CATS. Get rid of them all and there's no cats there to attract more. I proved this myself by shooting and burying hundreds of them on my own land. ZERO cats replaced them FOR 3 YEARS NOW. If you want more cats, keep even one of them around, more will find you. That university study also found that sterilized cats very poorly defend any territory. Non-sterilized cats, being more aggressive, take over the sterilized cats' resources (shelter & food if any). If there is any kind of "vacuum effect" at all, it is that sterilizing cats cause non-sterilized cats to restore the reproductive void.
FACT: During all this investigation I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being -- IF A TNR CAT-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!
Licensing and laws do nothing to curb the problem. If cats are required to be licensed then cat-lovers just stop putting collars on their cats, as they did by me. And they won't even bother getting them micro-chipped, especially not that They want absolutely nothing that can hold them legally responsible, liable, and accountable for the actions of their cats. It's why many of them even keep cats in the first place. We're not talking about the topmost responsible citizens of the world, you know. They don't want that responsibility of what their cat has done coming back on them. If they had even one iota of a sense of responsibility and respect for all other lives on this planet we wouldn't even be having these discussions.
On the other hand, I found something that DOES work, and works well, and works fast (well, relative to the years it takes trying to reason with deceitful and lying cat-lovers that accomplishes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING). Where I live cat-lovers have learned that _ALL_ cats, stray and feral, collared or not, ear-tipped or not (because TNR con-artist liars now just clip cats' ears only, WITHOUT sterilizing or vaccinating them, to protect their hoarded cats from being trapped and euthanized), _ALL_ their cats are humanely shot on sight and buried whenever found away from supervised confinement.
The ONLY thing that works is destroying any of their cats found outdoors off their property. They either learn to stop getting more cats that die under the wheels of cars or from animal attacks, or they finally learn how to be a responsible pet owner, respectful neighbor, and learn to keep their invasive species animal under confined supervision, as it should be. Win win win all around. You can either destroy their cat for them humanely, or let their lack of concern for their cat cause it to die inhumanely. By destroying their cat for them humanely you are showing them that you care more about their cat than even they do. A bullet is by far the most humane death that any free-roaming cat will ever meet. Anything else is all inhumanely downhill from there. Their only other options are being hit by cars, environmental poisons, cat & animal attacks, disease and parasites, freezing, etc., etc.
You can't train a cat to stay home but I found that, in time, you CAN train a cat-owner into being a responsible pet-owner and a respectable neighbor. Most of them are so phenomenally stupid, disrespectful, and criminally irresponsible though that you have to make at least 12-15 of their cats permanently disappear before they even start to figure out what they've been doing wrong all during their sorry, useless, and pathetic lives. (Though the ones by me were uniquely cretinized and lobotomized. I had to shoot and bury many hundreds of their cats before they started to learn.)
If you live in an area where its not legal to use firearms to destroy any animal that is threatening the health and safety of you, your family, your animals, or property (as it *IS* legal in most every area of the nation -- shoot to maim is animal cruelty but shoot to kill is a perfectly legal way to humanely destroy any nuisance animal on your own property); then check into laws regarding air-rifles with ballistics speeds of 700-1200 fps and using pointed vermin-pellets in no-firearms zones. Many of the newer ones even come with their own sound-suppressor designs built-in, being specifically designed for shooting vermin cats in urban areas, the demand is that great. Failing that, then there's always the SSS and TDSS Cat Management Programs that are exploding in popularity worldwide. Shoot, Shovel, & Shut-Up; or Trap, Drown, Shovel, & Shut-Up. Both methods are legal on every square foot of this earth. No local laws were violated if it never happened.
(Where cats have already learned to evade all trapping methods, then inexpensive generic 1-adult-strength acetaminophen (overseas a.k.a. paracetamol) pain-relievers are a more species specific vermin poison, available everywhere for pennies. MUCH safer for the environment and all other animals than the antifreeze and rat-poisons that cat-lickers have forced everyone into using. But you really do need to retrieve and dispose of that carcass safely so that native wildlife won't die from the many diseases cats spread even after their death. I fed a shot-dead cat to some starving opossum once, starving from cats having destroyed all their foods. (2 adults and 3 offspring they had while under my care.) Those opossum then died from some disease in that cat. Leaving ANY cat, alive OR dead, out in nature is no better than intentionally poisoning your native wildlife to death. Cats truly are complete wastes of flesh, they can't even be used to feed wild animals safely.)
I don't see anyone dumping cats where I live anymore. They don't even adopt more than can be kept under lock & key 24/7. When driving through the area I don't see even one cat on anyone's doorsteps anymore. I always keep an eye out to see if there are more free-roaming cats that will have to be shot one day. And if I'll have to leave fish-oil trails on all the roadsides again, leading right to my IR surveillance system and laser-sighted rifle. (Got more than 70% of the hundreds of them in the area this way. VERY effective if you have criminally irresponsible and criminally negligent cat-licking problem neighbors where you live too.)
Leaving ANY of their invasive species cats outside in my area means certain death for that cat, their further existence can be counted in hours. You'd think everyone else could learn from this simple lesson. The quickest way to solve an unwanted animal and irresponsible pet-owner problem is to let everyone know that you will quickly and humanely destroy every last one of their unwanted, uncared-for, or unsupervised animals for them. They either grow up fast or, far more plausible, dump their animals elsewhere to become someone else's problem.
You just can't be an enabler of criminally irresponsible spineless and heartless idiots -- or they remain that way. (At least where you live, anyway.)
Be cautious about using any cats taken from outdoors for adoption or you could be held criminally responsible. There's no way to know a wild-harvested cats' vaccination history, if any, nor their exposure to all the deadly diseases cats carry. If a cat has contracted rabies then a vaccination later will do no good. It's already too late. There's no reliable known test for rabies while keeping the animal alive. They need to be destroyed after they are trapped. It's the only sane and sensible solution. This is why all wild-harvested animals of any type intended for the pet-industry must, BY LAW, undergo an extended quarantine of a MINIMUM of 6 months before transfer or sale of those animals to prevent just these things. Cats are no different than any other animal when wild-harvested. You're risking this following story happening in every shelter across the land.
Google for: rabid cat adopted wake county
Another example (of thousands), Google for: rabid kitten jamestown exposure
Adopting or approaching any unknown cat that's been outdoors is just playing Russian Roulette.
The net is flooded with similar examples every week. THOUSANDS of people must endure, pay for (out of their own pocket) the painful and expensive (more than $1000) rabies shots if they get scratched or bitten by any stray or feral cat, especially if that cat cannot be trapped again to destroy it and test it for rabies. Stray-cat feeders are guaranteeing this, by training and teaching these cats to approach humans for food. These wild animals then lashing out by biting or scratching at any hands that try to touch or pet the now seemingly-friendly "cute kitty". Two recent cases even report where rabid cats entered a home-owner's unlocked pet door, and another where the cat even came right through their ceiling in search of human-supplied foods. One attack so bad that the family required hospitalization.
Even vaccinating your cat against rabies won't prevent it from finding the nearest rabid bat dying on the ground to rip it to shreds for its daily cat's play-toy. Then bringing back a mouthful or claws full of fresh rabies virus to you, your family, neighbors, other pets, or other animals. ANY cat allowed outdoors can transmit rabies to others, vaccinated or not.
These are just the diseases these invasive species cats have been spreading to humans, not counting the ones they spread to all wildlife. THERE ARE NO VACCINES against many of these, and are in-fact listed as bio-terrorism agents. They include: Campylobacter Infection, Cat Scratch Disease, Coxiella burnetti Infection (Q fever), Cryptosporidium Infection, Dipylidium Infection (tapeworm), Hookworm Infection, Leptospira Infection, Giardia, Plague, Rabies, Ringworm, Salmonella Infection, Toxocara Infection, Toxoplasma. [Centers for Disease Control, July 2010] Sarcosporidiosis, Flea-borne Typhus, Tularemia, and Rat-Bite Fever can now also be added to that list.
A FEW examples (of thousands):
Cat-Transmitted PLAGUE:
Totally disproving that oft-spewed myth that cats in Europe could have prevented the plague. No rats nor fleas even required. Cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.
Flea-borne Typhus:
Hookworm -- ruined Miami Businesses:
Cats' most insidious disease of all, their Toxoplasma gondii parasite they spread through their excrement into all other animals. This is how humans get it in their dinner-meats, cats roaming around stockyards and farms. This is why cats are routinely destroyed around gestating livestock or important wildlife by shooting or drowning them. So those animals won't suffer from the same things that can happen to the unborn fetus of any pregnant woman. (Miscarriages, still-births, hydrocephaly, and microcephaly.) It can make you blind or even kill you at any time during your life once you've been infected. It becomes a permanent lifetime parasite in your mind, killing you when your immune system becomes compromised by disease or chemo and immunosuppressive therapies. It can last over a year in any soils or waters and not even washing your hands or garden vegetables in bleach will destroy the oocysts. Contrary to cat-lovers' self-deceptive myths, a cat can become reinfected many times during its life and spread millions of oocysts each time. It's now linked to the cause of autism, schizophrenia, and brain cancers. This parasite is also killing off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastlines from cats' T. gondii oocysts in run-off from the land, the oocysts surviving even in saltwater.
Its strange life cycle is meant to infect rodents. Any rodents infected with it lose their fear of cats and are attracted to cat urine.
Cats attract rodents to your home with their whole slew of diseases. If you want rodents in your home keep cats outside of it to attract diseased rodents to your area. I experienced this phenomenon (as have many others), and all rodent problems disappeared after I shot and buried every last cat on my land.
The time has come to destroy them all whenever spotted away from supervised confinement. There's no other solution. We have nobody but cat-lovers to thank for this health and ecological disaster. Stray-cats, the very source of all feral-cats, need to be euthanized too or you'll never be rid of the feral-cat problem.
Here's another fun aspect of TNR that TNR LIARS never bother to tell anyone, except for telling fellow TNR liars.
Not long ago I learned that TNR cat-hoarders practice a form of "TNR-On-A-Budget" (my name for it). TNR cat-hoarders who want to keep feeding their cats but can't afford all that tedious mucking-about and getting them sterilized or vaccinated just trap the cats and clip the cats' ears themselves. Then release them again right after clipping their ears. Doing their best to hide all evidence of where they keep these colonies and telling few about them. This way the cat if trapped again just gets released right there so the cat-hoarder can continue to dote-over and feed their unsterilized and unvaccinated cats. Plus everyone else who might happen on their secret cat-hoarding locations thinks those cats are sterilized and vaccinated so they have fewer concerns about them still overbreeding or spreading deadly diseases. The TNR cat-hoarder feeder just tells them, "Oh, don't worry. See that clipped ear? They are sterilized and vaccinated. Perfectly fine and legal!"
Thanks to these "TNR-On-A-Budget" psychotics, clipped-eared cats must be trapped and euthanized or destroyed on-site -- the only affordable and sane solution for everyone.
Here's proof, post taken from www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=295067530554567&id=11...
"Chris Cook
We had a culling of the neighborhood cats 2 years ago when there were only 10 or so (I lost 4 under my care in the same week). Now there's over 25 - that I know about (about half fixed)... it's just a matter of time before someone decides they have the 'solution' to the cat 'problem'. All I can do is get them tipped (in case Animal Services gets them, there's a small chance they'll release them back to the area they caught them) and hope for the best by making my own yard a hidden sanctuary of sorts. At least my HOA knows I'm TNRing them and not just feeding them so they (for now) look the other way while slamming the feeders-and-breeders who contributed to the problem getting out of hand and refusing any and all offers of assistance."
Not only is this criminally irresponsible TNR practitioner hoarding and feeding unsterilized cats, they even attracted MORE cats to keep reproducing -- which again disproves their oft-spewed "vacuum effect" LIE. While also lying to their HOA to boot. They even believe that what they are doing _is_ TNR, that's just how demented these people are. I'd say this person reflects the norm rather than the exception, since TNR advocates relentlessly lie about so much and so often.
Hint: for those permanently solving cat-hoarder's ILLEGAL TNR invasive-species colonies by stepping up their rate of "attrition" (i.e. death by any means necessary); look around for any game/field/trail-cameras that might be hidden from immediate view, then collect them as a souvenir and payment for your well-deserved efforts. As we all know, the only thing worse than having a feral cat colony around, is drawing TNR psychotics right to your home. Google: Loews Hotels Feral Cats, if you don't believe me, and see what these whack-jobs did to them.
Here's another recent replay of the same thing that these cat-lover-sociopaths did to Loews Hotels: www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-stray-cats-20121026,0,6245372.story
A $150 million renovation project for low-income housing, put on hold, jobs lost, money lost, homeless still homeless, court costs and lawyers, just to save a few of their feral vermin cRats. On top of that, nearly all of their TNR'ed cats had ALREADY died inhumane deaths from their re-abandonment philosophy.
This is precisely why everyone is learning to destroy all cats on their properties as quickly and quietly as possible. Telling nobody beforehand about the cats even being there. Long before these cat-lover psychotics get wind of the cats. Shoot cats first, tell no-one later. The only thing worse than feral cats, are feral cat-lovers. You can legally shoot the former, not the latter. You need to pay lawyers and courts to get rid of the latter. THEN you can get rid of their cats. And the sad part is, that's EXACTLY what happens, each and every time. People are wising-up. If ANY cats are around they destroy every last one of them first, before they make any other move.
Well, ex-cuuuuuuuse ME!
There is absolutely no excuse at all for a group of people that are destroying all our native wildlife on earth, on every continent, with their man-made invasive species pets. There's something seriously wrong with people like you. A human genetic trait gone horribly wrong.
Though it could be the way that cats' Toxoplasma gondii parasite hijacks the minds of its hosts, from rodent to human. That might possibly explain it.
But, but, but, I like my kitties.
Diminishing the population of a species stimulates that species' breeding. Maintaining a certain level of population results in less breeding. Simply shooting can result in destabilization of the population and thus, increased breeding. I'm sure you have observed that phenomenon in nature.
TNR can be used to stabilize a local population as the percentage of neutered released animals can be controlled.
Once the population is stabilized, how best to decrease the population without stimulating increased breeding can be determined.
Results, of course, are long term requiring attention, but more effective than the short term finger twitch solution.
And, ooooooh I like my kitties, and the Toxoplasma gondii parasite makes me not care about being hijacked as it has convinced me that it is a benign symbiotic relationship between us . . . like, like, between me and my kitties.
But, but, but .... I like Black Mambas and Funnel-Web Spiders for pets! I get to let them roam free in your backyard too! (And they, not being genetically engineered through selective breeding, will be even a more natural addition to your environment than your man-made invasive-species piece-of-sh** cats!)
A population of ZERO cannot stimulate reproduction in a population of ZERO. I eradicated every last one of hundreds of cats from my lands by shooting and burying every last cat, collared or not, ear-tipped or not -- because cat-licking TNR liars just clip cats ears only to protect them from being euthanized, without sterilizing nor vaccinating them.
(For those in similar circumstances, you can read a "Reader's Digest" version of some of the most successful methods that I found/invented, posted at another blog: www.americanhunter.org/blogs/arkansas-will-trap-feral-cats May you be as successful as I was.)
Guess how many cats have shown up on my lands in the LAST 3 YEARS?
And if you feel that having your mind reduced to that of parasitic protozoan awareness, where nothing but its base biochemical survival matters, without concern nor regard for anything else in your environment (sounds just like every last cat-licker, doesn't it?), is an evolutionary "step up"; then I have a lobotomy kit I'd like to sell to you to make the process much more complete.
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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas forward Coty Clarke doesn't think the teams for the Red-White Game are evenly divided.
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas forward Coty Clarke doesn't think the teams for the Red-White Game are evenly divided.
But it's not going to stop the senior — who is part of an eight-man squad of players from outside the state of Arkansas — from trying to lead his team to a win during the program's annual intrasquad scrimmage today.
"We're going to take it because that's what we do," Clarke said during Arkansas' media day last Thursday. "I'm used to adversity. We're just going to go out there and show what the out-of-state players can do."
Clarke and the rest of the Razorbacks will put their preseason progress on display when they hold the Red-White scrimmage in Bud Walton Arena at 3:30 p.m.
Coach Mike Anderson and the basketball program came up with a unique way to divide his team for the scrimmage this season, pitting Arkansas' out-of-state players (White) against the group of homegrown talent (Red).
It stirred plenty of debate when the teams were announced Thursday. But Fayetteville native Kikko Haydar — after joking that the Arkansas kids have a definite advantage — said there should be plenty of competition.
"The rosters are definitely evenly matched," Haydar said. "It's going to be a good game. We go at each other every day in practice. .... We're going to go out and play hard and give the fans something to cheer about."
Haydar will join Fred Gulley, Ky Madden, Manuale Watkins, Bobby Portis, Alandise Harris and Moses Kingsley on the Red team. Kingsley is from Nigeria and played high school basketball at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, but was teammates with Portis and Watkins on the Arkansas Wings AAU team.
"Moses is an Arkansan," Haydar said. "Moses played for the Wings."
Clarke will lead a team that also includes Mardracus Wade, Rickey Scott, Anthlon Bell, Jacorey Williams, Michael Qualls, Dee Wagner and West Virginia transfer Keaton Miles, who is sitting out the season because of NCAA transfer rules.
The scrimmage is free for the public, although fans are encouraged to bring two non-perishable food items to donate to local food pantries. The Arkansas women's basketball team will be introduced at halftime, while players and coaches will be available to sign autographs on the concourse shortly after the scrimmage.
Anderson hinted that the rosters may not stay the same throughout the game, indicating there could be changes at halftime. But he said the only thing that matters is how well players compete no matter what team they're on today.
"We've got some guys that will compete," Anderson said. "No matter how I put the teams in practice, it seems like there's competition taking place. …
"It'll be interesting to see how they come out and really play in front of people."

subset: commoncrawl


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Soon after Tiger Woods sat in on a news conference to promote his third year as host of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, he shuttled off to the White House to take a tour hosted by President Barack Obama.
Light witticisms were bandied about at Congressional with Tiger answering questions about his knowledge of the Swedish language which all boiled down to sayings every man should know like, "clean the house" and "wash dishes": every man that is, except for the billion-dollar variety like Woods!
But what could the President want to know from Tiger Woods? Aside from the obvious golf tips, we wonder what information could have been exchanged during their meeting in the Oval Office. Here are some of our thoughts.
1. Advice on the best golf simulator for the White House basement.
2. Perhaps they were negotiating deals for design and construction of new, upper eschelon golf communitites in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran as gifts to his new "well-wishers".
3. A new golf course in North Korea to Kim Jung-Il as a signing bonus if he stops playing with rockets.
4. Advice on how to turn the economy around since Tiger is obviously the head of his successful business concern.
5. Perhaps an open invitation to fill one of Obama's vacant top treasury positions (an huge cut in pay for Tiger).
Tiger looked as comfortable in the Oval Office as he does out on the golf course.
Golf for Beginners also wonders why Michelle Wie's contract with Sony was not renewed. Was it due to an obvious flagging performance or did it have something to do with the $97 million shelled out to cover a messy malpractice lawsuit over the "vibration feedback" technology in its Dual Shock controllers?
We also discuss ten ways to get the most out of free lesson month, courtesy of PGA of America and Play Golf America and challenge the TourGrip Gyro Trainer to improve our golf swing. If it helps to condition astronauts in space, it should fly with us!
Tweet this blog… Your followers will thank you!
Send your golf questions and comments to email@example.com.
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"Shiny Tech" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"
This podcast is supported by OrlandoGolf.com, 866-443-8566.
Photo Credit: © The White House Blog: Meeting Tiger Woods


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Interesting that the last few posts on Packergeeks have generated some debate over whether or not TT is even good at his trade. Read here about how Sporting News awarded him Executive of the Year, beating out the GM for the Giants.
I feel compelled at this moment to render my own judgment on TT. I've had a waffling opinion of TT from the start. When he came in and fired Sherman, I thought he was a quality GM and someone who had the stones needed for team improvement. Then, he looked past Jim Bates to hire Mike McCarthy (Mc-Who?) and I suddenly began to wonder. In the beginning of the MM era, I thought TT had hired McCarthy more as a puppet so that TT could rule the whole organization from his cold, lofty perch. McCarthy of course got off to a 4-8 start and I started thinking TT didn't know what he was doing with coaches and/or player personnel. But one thing didn't make sense: why would he take a flier on an unproven coach when there was so much at stake for TT himself for the coach to succeed?
When McCarthy and the Pack turned it around at the end of 2006, I once again began to question my own criticism of TT. After the surprising 2007 campaign, I suddenly started telling people, "yeah, I've always thought building through the draft was smart – TT and I think alike" even though I've always had more of a balanced building philosophy of draft and free agency . I began lying as I rode the TT wave. Then, Favre retired and questions swirled around about whether or not TT and MM did enough to persuade him to come back. And something still tells me that while that may not have factored much into his ultimate decision, somehow I believe it's true, TT in particular didn't make much of an effort.
Now, I look at what he's done (or hasn't done) in free agency and I'm starting to wonder again. Sure, results are on his side for his draft-first philosophy dating back to his Seattle days – but I am still left feeling like he could be doing just a bit more in free agency. I agree with brother Steve that this year's free agent crop is weak, but I still think we should have picked up Warrick Dunn or Billy Volek. I'm pleased with the Chillar pick-up (a told-you-so goes out to those who criticized my frequent criticism of Poppinga), but there were a couple other options it seems he didn't look into much. And, bringing in Frerotte? That guy is horrible!
In the end, the bottom line is, it is difficult to argue with results. I'd contend so far that TT had one iffy year in 2005 (most of that was Sherman/Rossley's fault), one OK year in 2006 and one great year in 2007. Overall, it has been a positive progression. I think this year will be a real test though. How good is the defense that TT himself has mostly put together? How many weapons does this offense really have? Will Aaron Rodgers prove he belongs at least among the very solid QBs of the NFL? Will Mike McCarthy continue his creative ways and bring the Packers back to the playoffs? Will TT make 2 or 3 crafty additions to the team through the draft or free agency before this season starts who will make significant contributions?
If I had to make a more conclusive statement re TT though, I would have to say that so far, I think he's done a good job.


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Losing is hard to swallow for NFL fans. And they ease the pain of a loss by swallowing more junk food.
Researchers Pierre Chandon and Yann Cornil examined data from Americans who took part in a nutrition study and found that those living in cities with an NFL team ate more the Monday after a loss. People ate 10 percent more calories and 16 percent more saturated fat, compared to their typical habits. In contrast, they ate slightly fewer calories and less saturated fat on the Monday after an NFL victory.
There was no pigging out on Mondays among people who lived in cities without an NFL team, the researchers reported in a recent online issue of the journal Psychological Science.
"Past research shows that when people are feeling down, they tend to consume comfort foods in order to feel better," says Cornil, a Ph.D. candidate at the graduate business school INSEAD in Singapore.
Cornil says fans can take the team defeat as a "personal defeat" and threat to their self-esteem.
And fans across the globe take a loss just as hard.
The researchers recruited 78 French sports fans and asked them to write about a favorite team's victory or defeat. Most of them, as you might expect, wrote about soccer. After their writing task was over, the men and women then worked on a word puzzle – during which they could snack on their choice of chocolate, potato chips, grapes or cherry tomatoes.
The fans wrote about a team defeat preferred junk food – scarfing down more saturated fat and sugar than those who'd written about a victory.
But there's hope
A third phase of the study may have discovered a way to prevent post-blowout binges.
The researchers had about 160 French adults watch highlights from three different soccer matches. One featured the French national team in a big win over arch rival Italy, another showed footage of France's loss to Italy in the 2006 World Cup final and the third focused on two Belgian soccer teams they wouldn't really care about.
Afterward, half of the study participants performed a "self-affirmation," in which they wrote about a core value in their life such as their relationships with their family or friends. Next, everyone in the study looked at photos of healthy and not-so-healthy foods, then rated how inclined they were to eat each.
People tended to prefer junk food after they watched France's crushing defeat – except those who'd done the self-affirmation. They preferred grapes and tomatoes to chips and chocolate, no matter what match they'd just seen.
"Affirming your values prevents the sport defeat from affecting your self-esteem," says Cornil.
The technique is easy to do, Cornil says. If you're feeling down after your team loses, he said, you could simply write down some things in your life that are important to you — other than football, of course.
Related on MNN:
- 10 hilarious finish line photos
- The surprising health benefits of 8 recreational sports
- 9 cases of premature sports celebration


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MOVIE REVIEW- Hicksville: Not fit for any king
If you want to see corrupt politics on a grand scale, watch the news. If you're nostalgic for cruder, low-tech dirty politicians of a bygone era, see All the King's Men. The latter is also recommended as a cure for insomnia.
To show how gullible some people can be, I bought into the hype that said All the King's Men, a remake of the 1949 Oscar winner (Best Picture, Actor and Supporting Actress), would officially kick off this year's award season. I was a bigger sap than Willie Stark (Sean Penn) is in the movie's early scenes.
He's a small politician in a small Louisiana town when reporter Jack Burden (Jude Law) first encounters him. Willie tries to expose graft involved in awarding a school construction contract, but no one listens to him. When a fire escape on the school collapses, killing three children, Willie becomes a celebrity, the man who tried to warn us.
Soon he's persuaded to run for governor, not knowing he's a patsy designed to split the "hick vote" so a certain party's candidate can win. He wises up, with Jack's help, and takes charge of his own campaign, rousing "my fellow hicks" with promises to build the roads, schools and bridges they need, making oil companies and utilities pay for them. Call him Governor Stark.
Although the story has been advanced a couple of decades from the Depression to the postwar boom (where it makes less sense), it's refreshing to remember that poor people once voted for one of their own who promised to improve their lot, rather than politicians demonstrably dedicated to making the rich richer.
Willie's team includes Jack, who lost his newspaper job for writing about Stark too favorably; and two of the people who played him in the early days, Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini in a nothing role) and Sadie Burke (Patricia Clarkson). The latter is also sleeping with the married governor but gets jealous of anyone who threatens her position as Second Lady.
Another change from the original film, which was based on Robert Penn Warren's novel, is that the screenplay by director Steven Zaillian starts toward the end and flashes back, instead of letting us watch Stark's character develop in chronological order. He's already corrupt and ruthless when we meet him, and that's a lot less interesting than watching him become that way.
Rather than paying for favors, Stark's tactics are blackmail and bullying. As he puts it, "I'd rather bust a man than buy him."
(It should be noted, for those who don't know, that this is a thinly fictionalized version of the story of Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who is still a hero to many in the state for the things he accomplished, if not for how he accomplished them.)
The other main characters are from Jack's moneyed world. There's Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), the daughter of a former governor and the only woman Jack's ever loved; her brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo), a principled physician who sees through Stark but can still be co-opted; and Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), Jack's godfather, who leads the fight to impeach the governor.
Cut from the earlier film, which is odd because it might have attracted the teen demographic, is a subplot involving Willie's football-playing son.
More has been cut than added, less happens and it happens faster; yet the 2006 version is longer than the original. That means a lot of time passes with nothing much going on, which would be all right if there was something to hold our attention.
The extraordinary cast is extraordinarily weak. Penn has his moments when Stark gets fired up, but when he tries to be subtle, he's merely dull. Too much of the film focuses on Jack, and Law can't carry a film of this size. Hopkins, surprisingly, doesn't even attempt a Southern accent (perhaps afraid it will come out like Hannibal Lecter mimicking Clarice); and Clarkson, who's from New Orleans, doesn't bring back her native tongue very well.
T Bone Burnett has assembled his usual excellent collection of period music, mostly blues by Lightning Hopkins and such; but James Horner's orchestral score is needlessly bombastic, largely out of place and sometimes drowns out the dialogue– especially Penn's when he's in his soft-spoken mode.
Some of the best people in the business have contributed sub par work to All the King's Men, which looks like it was put together by all the king's horses instead.


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Lisa Hubbard
A dish to convert all the Brussels sprout haters. By cooking the sprouts only briefly, you preserve their great nutty flavor. This side pairs nicely with roasted rack of lamb or whole chicken. For a Middle Eastern-flavored meal, rub either meat with olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper before cooking.
- Yield
- Makes 4 to 6 servings
- 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 12 large brussels sprouts (about 1 1/2 pounds), trimmed, leaves separated from cores (about 8 cups), cores discarded
- 3/4 cup shelled unsalted natural pistachios
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and stir 20 seconds. Add Brussels sprout leaves and pistachios, and sauté until leaves begin to soften but are still bright green, about 3 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.
Related Video
Nutritional Info
- Calories206
- Carbohydrates17 g(6%)
- Fat14 g(22%)
- Protein8 g(15%)
- Saturated Fat2 g(8%)
- Sodium33 mg(1%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat7 g
- Fiber7 g(27%)
- Monounsaturated Fat5 g
- Cholesterol0 mg(0%)


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CRL Polish Stainless 2" Floor Mount Bracket - FRFB20PS
This CRL Floor Mount Bracket for Foot Railings is available in three architectural finishes for 1-1/2 inch (38.1 millimeter) or two inch (50.8 millimeter) Tubing. Brackets are individually packed and come with two 12 x 2" Phillips Flat Head Wood Screws. Tubing is secured with integral set screw. NOTE: Recommended maximum spacing of Foot Railing Bracket is 48 inch (1219 millimeter). For heavy use, steel inserts should be used for added strength. Contact CRL Technical Sales for details. NOTE: When installing, the shorter of the two legs on the bracket should face away from the bar. This is so the long leg won't stick out where someone could trip over it.


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Matching Look: No matter how clean and organized some kids' bedrooms are, they can still seem just a little bit off. That's because the furniture is often a random collection of mismatched pieces carelessly thrown together in the room. With a bunk bedroom set from Rooms To Go, you can unify the look of your child's room with pieces that share similar designs and matching finishes. The perfectly coordinated pieces in each set play off of each other beautifully to add an inherent sense of harmony and organization to the bedroom.
Decorating Made Easy: Our bunk bedroom sets include all the must-have items for your child's room. A bunk bed serves as the centerpiece of every set, along with a matching mirrors, dressers, nightstands, chests, desks and trundles. Our bedroom sets may also include additional pieces, such as nightstands and chests, to achieve specific designs ranging from the simple to the complex. We start at three-piece sets and go all the way up to ten pieces. Whether you want to kick-start your child's bedroom setup or completely furnish the room in one shot, our bunk bed sets take care of everything.
Customization: Our bunk bedroom sets also offer exciting possibilities for customization. With such a unique and varied collection, we give you the freedom to select a set with the appearance you like and the amenities you need. Our collection features an array of visually appealing specialty bunk bedroom sets that come in a number of styles in order to meet your needs for both boys and girls rooms. Style choices range from traditional bunk bed setups to bunk beds that come with a desk or the ability to be lofted. Some of our bunk bed sets also come with trundle options for even more customization. Because you shouldn't have to settle for anything less than exactly what you want.


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After not much progress for a while I have a few projects on the go... new exterior staircase down the side of the house - coming down over the new retaining walls and a much improved home theatre cabinet setup in the front of the room around the screen..... and yeah no epoxy garage floor coating yet. Pics to come.
Not sure why the pics posted sideway?


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EBookie Wordpress Theme - Rating, Reviews, Preview, Demo & Download
Theme Description
Please remember to rate this theme:
eBookie is a book landing page. It's great for selling your ebooks as well as your real, printed books. But not only that! Aside from the One-page design you have an integrated blog. You can use it to write more about the book you are selling, use it to promote other books you sell or just use as a review place for other books like yours.
- WordPress 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0 Compatible (demo running on 4.0)
- Crossbrowser compatible: IE8-10, FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera
- Responsive design
- Unlimited Colors
- Demo Content Included
- Translation ready – .mo and .po files included
- One Page Design with separated (external) blog!
- Touch ready galleries
- Retina ready
- Well commented code
- Book cover creator included!
- PSD files Included
- Valid HTML5 and CSS3
- Customer support
Files Included:
- WordPress theme files
- Translation .mo .po files
- Demo Content .xml file
- PSD of full page
- PSD cover creator
- PSD's books in both normal and Hi Resolution for retina
- Offline documentation
Credits for images and scripts used are in the documentation. IMAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED!
If you have any questions or issues please start a ticket on this page – CLICK HERE.
Update history:
Version 1.2 – October 31st, 2013
- font fix for mobile phones - translation directory fix - .mo .po translation files fixed
Version 1.1.1 – May 10th, 2013
- CSS fixes (for example top/bottom zig-zag, logo bg for retina display etc.) - Documentation update
Version 1.1.0 – April 24th, 2013
- PSD book creater updated for easier use - Custom option added: background color - Custom option added: background image/texture - Custom option added: text, links, hover, footer and header colors - Small CSS and images (transparency for new color settings) fixes
Version 1.0.0 – April 23rd, 2013
- Initial release
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The human visual system sees at any moment a static scene in three dimensions. This 3D view of the world is acquired by two images, one from the left eye and the other by the right eye. Fusing the left and right stereo pair of images yields a single cyclopean view portraying depth. Stereo vision can be applied to the field of computer vision via calibrated stereo cameras to capture the left and right images. Given a stereo pair of images, one can compute the field of depth via a stereo correspondence algorithm. We present a new approach to computing the disparity (depth) by means the STUMP algorithm.
The STUMP algorithm presents a solution to the stereo correspondence problem. We propose to solve the problem of discontinuities in disparity within epipolar lines by modeling geometric constraints of smooth, tilted, and occluded surfaces as well as unicity and opaqueness. Our algorithm runs upon a framework built upon the BP-TwoGraphs belief propagation estimation [17]. As a result, we provide a disparity map in the cyclopean coordinate system determined by a probability distribution computed in polynomial time.


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Ballfields of PA : South Fayette
I'm a bit behind on my Ballfields of PA series, but last month I visited South Fayette HS, in hopes of checking out their baseball field.
It looked nice from above:
But my plans were foiled because
it's not open to the public. Rather than hopping the fence and risk getting into trouble, I settled on taking a few pictures from the parking lot.
Here's the dugout:
And a view of a semi-short left field:
Center field:
The home plate area:
Looking in from behind the plate, through the fence:
This is a really nice field, unfortunately it likely doesn't get much usage.
Links to other fields that I've hit at and reviewed for the Ballparks of PA Series:
Riverfront Park, Boston
Wylie Park, Elizabeth
Peterswood Park, Peters Township
Washington Park, Washington PA
Thomas Jefferson High School Field, Jefferson Hills PA
Clairton Resident Park, Clairton PA
West Field (Homestead Grays), Munhall PA
Other fields to look forward to: South Allegheny, Dravosburg Field, McKeesport Renzie Park


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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Better Late then Never!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Me in My World
Click here to download a PDF of the first 3 pages (Our Planet, Our Continent and Our Country)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Birthday Party Craze
We want to make sure that they have the best education, so teaching them to read at 2 will ensure they turn into geniuses. We take them to every type of extra-curricular activity a child can possibly cram into their day and of course, we make sure to throw the BEST birthday parties out there.
Okay, not all of us are that crazy.
But I will admit to one thing. The birthday party crazes. Guilty. As. Charged.
Every year, each one of my kids gets to request a birthday cake. Anything they want. And their devoted loving mother stays up till 2 in the morning creating the master piece for the big day. We've had hot air balloons, race tracks (with a tunnel and a bridge!), princesses, ballerinas, clowns, and trains.
There was always a theme, with color coordinated decorations and activities and an array of goodies sure to sugar up every single child at that party.
Well, this year was different.
Firstly, this year we celebrated the first birthday of our twins. Gosh, I had this party planned from the day I found out they were twins! The colors, the themes, the cakes, decorations- this party was gonna be SMASHING!
I started baking when 2 of my kids asked if they could help me. Okay. Sure. And the next thing I knew, another little rascal arrived at the kitchen table and everyone was busy, pouring flour, sugar, and all that good stuff that makes our kids go a little nutty once consumed, into the mixing bowl.
Each got a turn to mix, one was assigned to put all the cupcake holders in the cup cake pans, and another poured the batter into each holder. We then moved on to the brownies, chatting, singing, messing but really having a pretty awesome time.
Came time for the frosting and my little scientists decided they wanted to create their own colors, mixing all the different food colorings in their own bowl of white frosting.
Thank you Maria Montessori for instilling in me the understanding of how children are naturally curious and love figuring things out for themselves, not just in a school environment, but everywhere in their world.
And so we had these pretty awesome marble multi colored frosted cupcakes.
Then came the biggie.
"oooh mommy, can we decorate outside with streamers and balloons, pllllllleeeeeeeease!!!!!!"
There I go, handing over all the balloons and streamers, with some ribbon and tape. All yours kiddos. And there went my color coordinated strategically themed birthday party.
But. Outside in the yard, balloons were everywhere. Streamers hung from the trees, the slide, the swings, the fence, even the hose. And those kids could not have been happier.
All the kids had a blast at the party. The twins enjoyed their multicolored cupcakes, without a clue that the party was for them.
And it all became pretty clear. It's not about us. It's not about our fancy decorations or our perfect cupcakes. It's not about teachers sending home the perfect arts and crafts (that they finished up for the kids so the parents would be impressed) or the fancy projects (that the kids have no clue what it's all about but it looks like the teacher put lots of effort into it).
It's about letting the kids be kids. Let them mix the colors. Let them decorate the back yard. Let them take as long as they need to finish a picture, because it's not about the end result. It's about them having pride in the fact that THEY did this. THEY created this. Let us adults put our egos aside, and just let these little amazing people, just be little amazing people.


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Moderators: CakeBoy, GreenBean, Gouezeri, bruceb
Jonny782 wrote:What is the received wisdom about changing the water in boilers that has been heated and cooled? my Gaggia at work sits around all weekend, and I am thinking should i be running through a tank of fresh water on a Monday morning rather than reheating water that has been heated several times and hence deoxiginated? Ditto my plumbed in Vetrano at home - but in that case, running a fresh tank of water is going to waste a lot of hot water as you cannot run it cold, thereby contributing to global warming which I am keen not to do. Any advice gratefully received.
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Here you find some complete and free form php opt in mail scripts with basic css design. You can download the free package and integrate an automated single opt-in mailing list subscription manager with your website "subscribe to mailing list" form field box. We developed different css web form mail looks to match with your website feeling.
Download this php and css source single optin web email form
newsletterphp.zip (3,3 kbytes)
Download this php and css source single optin web email form
newsletterphp3.zip (5,6 kbytes)
Download this php and css source single optin web email form
allfields_singleoptinphp.zip (15,5 kbytes)
Installation easy 4 steps instructions
- Open the file NLprocess.php with a Text Editor (i.e. Notepad.exe)
- Substitute the test email with your real newsletter email (may be the same in your bulk email software, or mailing list manager, in our desktop software SendBlaster this is the Manage Subscription section).
- Open the file newsletter.htm and copy the FORM lines to your personal webpage.
- Upload to your website the files:
- NLprocess.php
- NL-style.css
- your modified html page.
That's it!
A brief note about US and European Spam law
The actual approved US CAN-SPAM Act requires an opt-out solution in your emails, this can be enough for American law. Please consider that the European Directive 2002/58/EC is more restrictive and requires mandatory "opt-in" modules to gather the customer emails for email marketing and newsletter subscription. The double optin subscription management is the best way to respect your customer's privacy.


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It's an exciting time for football (soccer) fans, as the Euro 2012 is well underway, leading up to the final match on July 1. There are a bunch of iOS apps available that can help you stay on top of the action on iPhone and iPad, but here are some of our favorites.
Official UEFA EURO 2012 app
If you're looking for the latest scores, might as well go right to the source, right? The Union of Eurpean Football Associations has cranked out a nicely-polished app with full information on upcoming matches, latest news, and team lineups. You can even buy access to video streams for $9.99 a match, or get a season pass for access to highlights for $9.99 as well. The UEFA Euro 2012 app also lets you set favorite teams so you can quickly access the latest info on your personal picks.
Sky Sports for iPad
If, on the other hand, you are willing to shell out for live streams to watch on your iPad, Sky Sport has you covered. With it, you'll be able to access all six Sky Sports channels live, a radio stream, scores, and news on a per-team basis. Existing Sky customers will be able to enjoy matches without having to pay out, and even if you're not, Sky is currently offering access for half off the usual rate. Just keep in mind that this is for folks in the UK; if you're in the U.S., you might want to check out ESPN's similar offer. (Update: A helpful commenter pointed out below that Sky doesn't have live broadcast rights. You'll have to go to BBC's mobile sports site if you want to catch Euro 2012 games live in the UK from your iPhone or iPad. Why they don't have an app is a little mind-boggling.)
Euro 2012 Radio
If you'd rather save a dime and some battery life by not streaming video of the matches, there's a great option for audio streams with Euro 2012 Radio. For a buck, you can catch the matches as they happen in Spanish and English broadcasts. A simple team list lets you find who's playing when, either through the alphebized list or a search bar at the top.
Bantr offers a great social network where you can really get involved with the online community of Euro 2012 fans. In addition to cheering with the crowd (or talking smack) about games that are in progress, you can pick the teams you support, predict outcomes, vote on card penalties, rate players, pick your match favorites, and participate in a wide variety of polls. Despite some long-ish load times, the user interface is really nice,
Want to put some money on the match? Betfair has created a dedicated betting app for the Euro 2012 finals, providing score updates, odds, and secure transactions. You can place Multiples bets via iPhone across a variety of markets, each with their own specific rules sets. Just remember, all good things in moderation, right?
If you're looking for more apps to keep track of scores, we've got some of our favorite soccer apps for iOS over here. How do you intend to be using your iPhone and iPad to follow the Euro 2012 action?
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
You can own a former Apple CEO's California home for just $37.5 million
Former Apple CEO Mike Markkula might not be as infamous as Steve Jobs but he still managed to rack up enough cash to pick up a pretty swanky home in California. And it could be yours for a snip at just $37.5 million.
Eufy clears up HomeKit delay for its indoor cameras
Eufy has sought to clear up some confusion about HomeKit support for its Indoor Cam 2K and Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt hardware. It's still coming, and it'll have HomeKit Secure Video to boot.
Apple Music observing 'Black Out Tuesday' to support #BlackLivesMatter
Apple Music is running a 'Black Out Tuesday' campaign as part of #TheShowMustBePaused, raising awareness for Black Lives Matter.
Get back on task with these Wunderlist alternatives for iPhone and Mac
Upset Wunderlist is no more? Here are some solutions to get you back on task.


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All Marques Colston needed to do was step out of bounds and give Drew Brees a shot at the end zone and, in turn, his Saints a shot at tying today's game in Seattle. Instead he decided to try his hand at quarterbacking himself—and cost his team that one chance at winning.
The Saints managed to recover the onside kick after a late touchdown that drew them to within eight points, and Brees found Colston along the sideline at the Seahawks' 40 with ten seconds remaining. Colston, apparently thinking time had expired and not knowing the basic rules of football, launched a forward pass across the field that didn't come anywhere near its target. Officials ruled the play dead, and the subsequent ten-second runoff for an offensive in-play penalty left them without any time to throw a hail mary pass. Thanks, Marques! You made our day. [Fox Deportes]


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Happy New Year!
Happy New Years everyone!
I spent New Year's Eve downtown, where I paused with the Bill Mazeroski statue after parking near PNC Park.
I then made my way down the Riverwalk where I used to snag a ball every now and then before the gates opened to PNC Park,
and snapped a picture of a Christmas Tree just inside PNC Park.
It was then off to dance and Arthur Murray, a dance studio that was giving free lessons. Despite having no prior ballroom dance experience, this was the highlight of the night for me, as I learned how to foxtrot. I had an unfair advantage as I was pre-taught everything by my dance partner who has had extensive ballroom dance training.
After that it was off to Le Courdon Bleu Culinary Institute,
where we enjoyed soup, hot chocolate and a cookie.
It was then time to wonder around until midnight where we saw fire dancers, fire twirlers, fire eaters,
glass blowers,
had ice cream prepared for us,
listening to carolers and had our picture taken in a photo booth,
and watched some festivities downtown ,
and welcomed in 2011.
On the way back I snapped a final photo of PNC Park.
Also, the ultimate Easter Egg baseball is still in place, about 40 feet up in the framework of the Clemente Bridge.
It's been there since July, when I threw a ball poorly and it weirdly rolled up the bridge framework and settled there. The ball was originally one from Nick Pelescak's collection. It may well be there until the next time the bridge gets painted.
As for my New Year's Resolutions, I've made some personal ones, but choose to keep them private, only one person knows them – you know who you are.
Snagging wise, I'll reveal that this will be a down year for me, for a reason I can't reveal, but I'd like to still snag 300 if its possible. I'd also like to visit a few new stadiums too. I've targeted some midwest stadiums such as Wrigley Field this year.
Happy New Year!


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History revisited
125 years after German engineer Otto Lilienthal built his "normal gliding apparatus," an exact replica has been developed to explore the dawn of flight
Turn up the wind full blast and the glider will disintegrate. So the testers take it slowly, blowing only a puff of air at the fragile contraption. The displays in the wind tunnel's control center read three meters per second – just over 10 kilometers an hour. "We eventually want to turn it up to 36 km/h," says mechanical engineer and aviation technology specialist Henning Rosemann, 60, of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Europe's largest wind tunnel, here in Marknesse in the Netherlands, is a 320-meter-long, steel-lined tube crammed with high-tech equipment. But today, the tunnel is being used as a kind of time machine. Inside, attached to a robotic arm, is an ancient-looking flying machine that resembles a huge bat. Its wings are a tracery of wooden ribs covered with a light-colored cloth and stabilized by a graceful tailplane. This is the "normal gliding apparatus" developed by Otto Lilienthal in 1893 – or rather, a painstaking reconstruction of the pioneering aviator's glider.
"What we usually test here are trucks that require aerodynamic optimization and jet planes that don't even exist yet," says project engineer Sascha Heinrich, 48. Often enough, he turns the wind up to double hurricane force when he's studying modern profiles and surfaces. "But it's a very different story with this old glider, it puts everything else in the shade." The gleam in his eyes betrays his excitement at fulfilling a childhood dream. "At 12, while other kids were reading Wild West stories by Karl May, I was devouring everything that Lilienthal wrote." Lilienthal was not a storyteller; he was the man who made the age-old dream of flight come true. Born in Anklam, a North German town, in 1848, he is said to have begun experimenting at the age of 19 with strange "apparatuses" that could lift off the ground. In 1891, Lilienthal completed the world's first flight by gliding 15 meters through the air.
"That was exactly 125 years ago," says Rosemann, glancing at the displays. The wind is now blowing slightly harder at four meters per second, and the tailplane begins to flutter. "Lilienthal's glider has never been studied properly, despite being a milestone in aviation history." Just how stable is it? How well did it fly? What was it like to steer? And most importantly: Why, after countless flights, did Lilienthal crash?
Lilienthal's glider has never been studied properly
In a bid to find the answers, Rosemann and the DLR team commissioned a replica of Lilienthal's most famous glider: the world's first series-produced flying machine, nine of which Lilienthal was able to sell. Some of these are still around today, but they hang in museums unwilling to loan them for risky experiments. "So we had to have an exact reproduction," Rosemann explains. The DLR found just the people for the job at the Otto Lilienthal Museum in Anklam, where several reconstructions of the aviation pioneer's flying apparatuses had been made, "but never with the aim of reproducing the orginal flight characteristics," says the museum's director, Bernd Lukasch, 62. The construction team hired a specialist for historical textiles to recreate the English shirt material that Lilienthal used for the wings, but when it came to the wooden frame, they compromised, choosing tropical abachi wood instead of the original willow. "Abaci is easier to work with, but has the same properties," explains Lukasch.
The glider's ribcage took shape over the winter of 2015/16 and then the fabric was stretched across it. After two months, the featherlight (20-kilogram) glider was completed. What then? Weren't the researchers tempted to climb on board and take a running jump off the nearest hill? "Certainly not!" says Rosemann. "This is the glider with which Lilienthal crashed!"
So the researchers placed the fragile vehicle in the wind tunnel for their purely scientific investigation, and a life-size dummy in the pilot's harness. Lilienthal's "double" is even dressed like him: vest, knickerbockers, and knee-length argyle socks. Everyone steps outside the tunnel and the wind is switched on. Rapt, they gaze at the displays. These are magical minutes – a pioneering feat in a time machine.
Lilienthal reputedly flew in headwinds of up to 36 km/h. "Our glider should be able to manage that," says Rosemann. But no one knows for certain. The German Hang Gliding Association once put a Lilienthal reconstruction on a dynamometer to generate headwind, and a wing spar promptly snapped. So the men in the control center are very careful to increase the wind to five, then six meters per second very gradually.
Curve charts appear as a monitor transmits the image from inside the tunnel. Rosemann is silent. He only reacts once the wind has been switched off at the end of the first test series, and then he's euphoric. "Fantastic! That's fantastic!" The team rushes down to inspect the glider. Has anything worked loose? No, everything is fine. So: more wind, more load. The robotic arm turns the 6.7-meter wings more steeply into the wind, lowers and turns the glider, simulating different flight movements. They turn up the wind again. Eight, nine meters per second.
The tailplane flutters, then flaps wildly to and fro. But Rosemann just says calmly, "It's looking good." Soon, the wind reaches 10 meters per second (36 km/h), the maximum load Lilienthal had to cope with. The glider passes the test and the experts are pleased. "The apparatus was absolutely perfectly designed, it is intrinsically stable." Intrinsically stable aircraft automatically regain their balance after gusts of wind or steering errors, which is an important requirement for safe flying. This means that a design error was not the cause of Lilienthal's fatal accident. Back at his institute, Rosemann analyzes other data and soon identifies the glider's limitations: "When the nose angle is too steep, the glider becomes uncontrollable." It looks likely that this, triggered by an upwind, caused the crash. "Given the weather conditions on that day, Lilienthal should never have taken off," Rosemann says. He is sure that the glider is otherwise safe to fly, and that sets him and his colleagues dreaming. "We had never planned an actual flight, but these results make it feasible."
No one has yet been selected to actually fly the ancient glider, but there is no dearth of candidates, as Rosemann says: "Test pilots have been contacting us from all over the world."


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Saskatchewan will return home knowing they scored the biggest end recorded at a Nationals, a 7 in the 4th in their game against Ontario, who had been lying 1 but raised a Saskatchewan stone into the rings, taking out shot stone. I'll say no more in deference to the Ontario coach who threatened to let down my tires if this was mentioned.
It will be up to Northern Ontario to upset the bulk of the podium predictions tomorrow. Skip Wayne Ficek promised an early night, and that's something that I can relate to. See you online tomorrow for a rerun of the Battle of Ontario, and coverage of the Page playoffs.


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Boston necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 59 diseños de 12 diseñadores freelance.
Car Spots
Car Spots is a new company that wants to establish a consumer brand for parking. We are looking to create a logo for the company that will be used on all corporate material but as important, the logo will be put on a parking sign to notify people that they are participants in the Car Spots network of parking spaces. It should be easy to recognize and iconic. Most people will find their spot by find a mapping pin on a "google" map. I think in some way using a mapping pin in the design would be desirable but not essential. It is not part of the official logo but we will be using the words "Put your spot on the map" when marketing to people. I will also want to discuss with the winner doing the final sign design for an additional fee to be negotiated. This will include the logo and words. It should not be complicated but I would like it to look professional.
Our target audience is all people who drive and are looking for parking spaces. Many will access the service using a iPhone or a web application.
* "Car Spots" should be two words with the first letters in caps as in the beginning of this sentence.
* The use of a mapping pin is desirable but not absolutely necessary. The pin might be prominent or not. I will let your creativity be the judge.
* Envision how this might look as part of a sign. Some signs might be co-logoed with a partner
* I suspect most people drive and therefore park and have been frustrated. There are many images . Car Spots is a spot for cars ie; a parking space
• We would like to have a recognizable and unique icon that can stand independent of the words "Car Spots" if necessary to be able to use the icon in as many ways as possible.
Be creative, I think most of us can relate to what the company is trying to accomplish
I attached a very bad design I tried on powerpoint. This is a parking company but I am open to a pin with a letter that is more inline with Car Spots. The PIN can be anywhere, on angle or what ever looks best.
I also included a sample of what I am looking to do. I will be adding my pins on a map similar. This is from Zipcar
Many thanks
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Now that Congress has passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through September, the next fiscal hurdles lawmakers will face include the debt ceiling, which hits on May 18, and three separate budgets, says Andy Friedman, principal at The Washington Update.
The stopgap spending measure, which funds agencies at fiscal 2012 levels and maintains sequestration cuts, dents the Securities and Exchange Commission's budget by $66 million. SEC spokesman John Nester told AdvisorOne in an email message that because of this reduced budget, the agency would "reduce hiring, travel, training and investments in technology."
In his commentary released Monday, Friedman (right) notes that the CR also eliminates some of the "draconian effects" of the sequestration spending cuts that began on March 1. The "real unhappiness" with the cuts lies in the way the sequestration process operates, Friedman notes.
"Sequestration imposes an across-the-board ratable reduction in spending that does not stop at the agency level," he says. "Rather, it goes down to departments within each agency and to spending accounts within those departments. Thus, the process robs agency heads of the ability to reallocate funds within their agencies to retain full funding for crucial programs. For instance, the Secretary of Defense cannot allocate funds from nonessential defense functions to keep the armed forces operating at current levels."
Next Up: Debt Limit Debate
Around May 18, the U.S. will hit its borrowing limit, but by July or August the limit will have to be raised or the U.S., unable to borrow, will be unable to meet its existing obligations, including paying interest on its debt, Friedman notes.
While President Barack Obama has presented a budget and both houses of Congress have each passed one—the first for the Senate in four years—Friedman says that it will not be "politically feasible" to meld the disparate proposals into a single budget.
However, those budgets will become "blueprints for negotiations" that will crest around August when the debt ceiling must be raised again.
Joe Lieber of Washington Analysis notes in his Washington This Week letter that comments by Republican leaders signal the increasing unlikeliness that a "late July/early August debt ceiling increase can occur without yet another budget fight." However, Lieber adds that this debt ceiling debate "may not be quite as contentious as August 2011."
That said, Lieber expects Congress to ultimately increase the debt ceiling and avoid a default, as it did in 2011, but "that increase is not likely to resemble January's drama-free deal." Congressional Republicans, Lieber says, "acknowledging that the discretionary spending well has run dry, are now focusing on entitlement cuts to accompany an increase in the debt ceiling, while remaining steadfastly against tax increases," positions that are "unacceptable" to Democrats.
Lieber says he expects this "tired conflict, largely skirted" in the CR "to rear its ugly head once more as Congress turns to the debt ceiling in the spring/summer." Indeed, Friedman adds that the differences between the Senate's budget, passed at 5:30am Saturday, and the House budget, drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan and passed by the House, "are stark" and the proposals are "opposite in almost every regard."
As Friedman points out, the Republican plan does the following:
—Balances the budget over ten years through spending cuts alone;
—Contains no new tax revenues;
—Increases projected defense spending;
—Changes Medicare to a "voucher" system, which allows recipients to choose among private and public plans and provides premium subsidies based on income;
—Turns Medicaid into a block grant to the states and caps the growth in federal expenditure; and
—Repeals the Affordable Care Act (but keep the methods for financing it)
While the Democratic plan, drafted by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and passed by the Senate:
—Does not purport to balance the budget in the near or intermediate term;
—Calls for a dollar of new tax revenue for every dollar of spending cuts;
—Creates new spending initiatives for infrastructure repairs and job training;
—Cuts defense spending; and
—Makes no changes to entitlements (Social Security and Medicare)
Friedman predicts that negotiations over the spring and summer will likely follow "the tortious path we've seen repeatedly in past years," as each party's positions "don't portend a quick compromise."
On the one hand, he says, "the Ryan budget calls for repeal of health care reform, sure to anger Democrats who believe that issue is settled. On the other, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently asserted that 'it is almost a false argument to say that we have a spending problem' at all. Failing to recognize the need to cut any spending will not sit well with Republicans."
However, Friedman asserts that these challenges do not mean a "deal won't get done, only that it will not be easy or early."
Says Friedman: "My guess is that the debt limit will be the 'forcing event' that compels compromise at close to the last minute. It will be a repeat of August 2011—the last time the country engaged in the debt limit debate."
Read Houston, We Have a Spending Problem—News Analysis on AdvisorOne.


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METRO WEST DAILY NEWS – The Needham Memorial Day Tournament enters its 37th year this weekend. It's the largest youth soccer tournament in the country. And it's still growing.
According to tournament director Mark Miskin, the tournament has reached its highest number of participants yet, with over 900 teams from across the country, Canada and even the United Kingdom traveling to Massachusetts for the four-day competition and college showcase. Host sites include Gillette Stadium, Framingham, Natick, Holliston and Hopkinton, among others across the state.
Between the number of teams, the amount of players is expected to total around 16,000. The number of spectators figures to hover somewhere in the vicinity of 40,000.
After last year's tournament, as he does every year, Miskin took the numbers to the Boston Convention and Visitor Bureau for a projection of the tournament's economic impact. It concluded that the tournament brought in over $8 million worth of business.
This year, Marlborough is making a play for a piece of the pie.
Though the city has worked in conjunction with the tournament in the past with providing hotel accommodations for some of the teams, this year it will take its participation to a new level.
As arranged by the Marlborough Economic Development Corp. (MEDC), the city will host 56 girls teams, with the Best Western Royal Plaza, Embassy Suites, the Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn & Suites and the Residence Inn all fully booked for the weekend.
In addition, Marlborough will serve as one of the host sites, providing six fields for competition, with 91 games taking place over the weekend at Ghiloni Park and Marlborough High School. Meanwhile, the ForeKicks II Sports Complex will host 22 college showcase games.
"We've been able to utilize the hotels for a few years now," said Miskin. "And I think because of that the MEDC came to us and realized we were kind of filling up these hotels, and they figured why not (play) here? And maybe make a bit more of an impact with their restaurants."
According to Tim Cummings, Director of Operations at the MEDC, Marlborough's hospitality industry made it a natural fit as a host site.
"It's no secret that Marlborough has a lot of hotel rooms, so as the tournament grows along the Route 495 corridor, Marlborough is situated to leverage this position," said Cummings. "From our perspective working with Mark has been extremely rewarding and we hope to further develop this relationship so the ancillary businesses like restaurants, hotels and mom and pop businesses benefit from the foot-traffic this tournament will generate."
The economic benefit to the city figures to be significant. Local hotels and restaurants will likely see the largest bump in business. But Miskin is quick to point out that other local business will feel a kick, from car rental services to gas stations to convenient stores and local entertainment industries.
"We feel that we bring a lot to the community, a lot to Metrowest," said Miskin. "As we've grow the last few years, we've had bigger growth with the teams coming in from the outside staying in the area. The teams from England just arrived and started their training. It's an expensive trip for them, but it's also a tour trip."
In his position as Vice Chairman of the MEDC, Richard Tomanek played a key role in fostering the partnership between the city and the tournament. In addition, he works as the General Manager for Embassy Suites Hotel. In that position, he's already seen the benefits up close.
"Memorial Day is a time when historically the business might be a little slower with people traveling for the holiday weekend," said Tomanek. "So the Sunday and Monday business is a big opportunity … You think about two or three nights of occupancy that way and it certainly can add up to 300 to 400 additional room nights. That equates to a couple thousand room nights pretty quickly."
This story originally appeared here.