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Help members stick with their resolutions
How can clubs make the most of the New Year by a) attracting people who want to get in shape and b) keeping them committed once the initial enthusiasm wears off? According to experts, it takes a concerted team effort.
- Dream up your marketing campaign sooner, rather than later. At The Mount Auburn Athletic Club, in Cambridge, Mass., planning starts in the early fall. "We start brainstorming about what sort of approach we're going to take, and planning ads and special promotions," says Kim Clements, group exercise director. "People start thinking about fitness then, even though they may not get around to doing anything until late December or early January. The sooner we connect with people, the sooner they'll make their decision."
- Put your marketing campaign in full swing the week after Christmas. "Prior to that, people are preoccupied with the holidays," says Sandy Franco, owner of Franco's Athletic Club, in New Orleans and Mandeville, La.
While Franco is a big advocate of direct mail, she feels that's not the way to go when people's mailboxes are being flooded with holiday cards. Instead she recommends that you run an advertorial in the local paper or get a fitness story published in the paper about gearing up for Jan. 1 or about weight loss.
At the very least, start to tease people during the week between Christmas and New Year's. "People aren't going to do anything until Jan. 1 arrives, so you need to position yourself and put the thought into their mind that you're available," says Franco. "The optimum is to get something in their hands on Jan. 2."
- Recognize that people who show up at clubs at the start of the New Year are different - and be prepared."They're ready for action," says Franco. "They want change. These aren't people who want an appointment with a trainer in two weeks. They want immediate gratification so you need to serve them right away."
You also need to be aware that many of these people "doubt their commitment," adds Franco. "They've probably done this before but they want to try it one more time." As a result they need more one-on-one attention and follow-up.
To best serve these people, staff up, advises Franco. "Let's be equipped for January," she maintains. "We know they're coming. Why not increase your payroll a bit? In the long run, you come out ahead."
-Offer special New Year's memberships and programs. One year, Franco's club sent out two-week membership cards to nonmembers. People who responded were treated as full members with all the privileges. Each person received a fitness assessment and a consultation with a personal trainer who helped her set realistic goals.
"Hopefully, in two weeks, if certain goals are met, a person will feel pretty good about herself and think, `I can go ahead and be successful at this,'" says Franco. As further incentive, Franco's offered a discounted membership to anyone who joined the club within the two weeks.
Programs with a New Year's peg are also motivational. One year, Franco's ran "12 Days of Fitness." Members received certificates at Christmas time that they were encouraged to give to friends. (Most people redeemed them Jan. 2.)
At Mount Auburn, introductory classes are scheduled for January with the new member in mind. "We want to help people be successful at that first," says Clements. "With these types of programs, they don't get frustrated or embarrassed or injured. We want to help them along so they feel more confident when they go into an ongoing class. It'll be a much more positive experience for them and they're more likely to stick with it."
- Keep in touch. "Our New Year's resolutions need to be held accountable," says Franco. "A new member needs someone to report to. Or she needs someone who will call her. You can end up with such masses of people coming into your club that you lose sight of them. The biggest challenge we have is to develop a team that stays in touch with these people and calls them."
- Keep the member motivated when the first rush of self-improvement wears off. Use technology or other methods to show new members how they are improving. "We use technology to show members they are getting better," Clements says. "That's something black and white that keeps them going."
The Big Six
Why do people flock to health clubs at the start of the New Year? The reasons are as varied as the people themselves. But Sandy Franco, owner of Franco's Athletic Club, and Kim Clements, group exercise director for the Mount Auburn Athletic Club, say these six reasons are cited over and over again.
1. I want to lose weight. "This is the single most common reason people join a club," says Franco. "Go anywhere between Christmas and New Year's and that's all anyone talks about."
2. I want to get into shape. "You may think losing weight and shaping up are one and the same, but they're not," says Franco. "A lot of skinny people want to shape up."
3. I want to make an important lifestyle change. This encompasses quitting smoking, sleeping better and cutting out junk food among others. "A lot of people assess their life in the New Year and seek more of a balance," says Franco. And one resolution can feed into another. For example, a person who wants to quit smoking may also want to start exercising to get in shape.
4. I want to improve my overall health. "Many people, such as seniors, are more concerned with their health," says Franco. "Their physician may have told them to join a health club."
5. I want to reduce stress.
6. I want more time for me. "Sometimes that may mean just coming to a club and lying on the floor and stretching," says Clements.


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HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—The Barry Buccaneers bowed out of the NCAA Division II South Region 2 Softball Tournament after falling 12-2 in six innings to the host Alabama-Huntsville Chargers at UAH Charger Park on Sunday.
The Chargers (42-15) scored early and kept on the pressure the whole game to end the Buccaneers' season in the regional final. UAH pounded out 13 hits, including four doubles and scored 12 runs.
Megan Copeland went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles and a walk and scored one of the Bucccaneers's two runs in the sixth inning.
Whitney Gilbert (15-7) worked into the sixth inning to earn the win for the Chargers. She allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks and struck out three. Alexis Yohe (20-8) closed out her Buccaneer career and was charged with the loss.
For the Buccaneers, they finished the season tied for 17th in the country. It was their 17th trip to the NCAA Tournament and their best showing at the regional since winning it in 2008.
(05/12/13 at Huntsville, AL)
Alabama-Huntsville 12, Barry 2
Alabama-Huntsville.. 102 306 - 12 13 1 (42-15)
Barry............................ 000 002 - 2 5 2 (34-20)
Pitchers: Alabama-Huntsville - Whitney Gilbert; Kimberly Jack(6) and Cortney McNett. Barry - Alexis Yohe; Britney Pugh(4); Camille Czarnecki(6) and Kayla Monroy.
Win-Whitney Gilbert(15-7) Loss-Alexis Yohe(20-9) T-2:07 A-388
Weather: Amazing
Gilbert faced 2 batters in the 6th.

subset: commoncrawl


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TUSCALOOSA | Crimson Tide football fans tried to stay focused on Auburn before Saturday's Iron Bowl, but some sounded like the lyrics to the old Ray Charles song: They had Georgia on their mind.
TUSCALOOSA | Crimson Tide football fans tried to stay focused on Auburn before Saturday's Iron Bowl, but some sounded like the lyrics to the old Ray Charles song: They had Georgia on their mind.
Georgia, as in the Bulldogs. Georgia, as in the dome where the SEC Championship Game will be played Dec. 1. And some fans couldn't keep visions of leprechauns, as in the mascot of the top-ranked Notre Dame team, from dancing in their heads.
"I'm not too concerned about today's game, to be honest," said lifelong Alabama fan Sam Austin. "It shouldn't be much of a game, but as a Bama fan, I like that."
As an "old school" Alabama fan, Austin said he hopes the Tide plays Notre Dame for the national championship, a matchup that hasn't occurred since Alabama's 24-23 Sugar Bowl loss to the Fighting Irish in 1973.
But visions of games to come didn't stop thousands of Alabama and Auburn fans from descending on the Quad to celebrate their rivalry. Puddles of orange and blue could still be seen among the swells of crimson and white as portable generators hummed and burgers sizzled.
Everyone seemed to be getting along. But behind the beer and brats, the SEC's fiercest rivalry still loomed.
"I'm really hoping we can stick it to them today," said Linda McWilliams. "Last time the Iron Bowl was in Tuscaloosa they beat us, so I hope we can get back at them this year."
Self-proclaimed "most ridiculous Alabama fan ever" Jake Shepard said that although Auburn's chances of winning seemed slim, Alabama shouldn't let its guard down come kick-off.
"Auburn's whole reason for existing is to be a stumbling block for us," he said. "Winning national championships is our main focus, but their main focus is to stop us from getting there."
Shepard described the Iron Bowl as a "special day" at
Bryant-Denny Stadium. The competitive atmosphere is thick, and it's OK to become mortal enemies with your neighboring tailgaters.
"The history of the two schools and the passion we have for football is what makes this rivalry," he said. "It's not just an athletic competition, it's attached to a higher learning institution, and that's definitely something we can be proud of here in Alabama."
Although the Quad was booming with activity Saturday afternoon, nowhere else was this intense rivalry more palpable than at Angela Swindell and John Hassell's Iron Bowl-themed wedding at Cottondale Community Church.
The small church was definitely a house divided. Auburn and Alabama memorabilia served as table centerpieces, a tiger and elephant sat atop the white wedding cake and guests were asked to wear their favorite team's jersey. The bride wore her "Roll Tide" T-shirt while the groom donned his favorite Auburn Tigers shirt.
Hassell said they jumped at the opportunity to have a low-key wedding where everyone could watch the Iron Bowl at the reception.
"This will be our first Alabama/Auburn game together, but I'm already deaf in one ear from the other games we have been watching," he said. "She yells at the television."
"We wanted it to feel like a big tailgate," Swindell said. "All the kids are going to sit in a student section on stage so they can cheer, scream and wave their pompoms."
The couple, who met at their church's bake sale last year, had just three months to put together the wedding, but their meticulous attention to detail was evident.
"Yea, Alabama" replaced the traditional bridal march, the reverend wore a referee's uniform, and the bride and groom tossed a coin to decide who would recite the vows first. The groom seems to have been right when he said they'd probably disagree more "about first downs and that number 14 you keep talking about."


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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Her voice stayed strong as she recounted the attack, step by step: night's darkness, the knife's blade, his demands, and her tears how she tried so hard to hold them back, but how they came, and still do after one of the nightmares she cannot escape.
But another woman the man raped the next night could not bring herself to speak in the courtroom that day. She, too, was assaulted at knifepoint and then forced to take him to an ATM.
The machine's security camera eventually led police to the perpetrator. He would later tell investigators he wanted the money so he didn't have to wear stained clothes on the first day of ninth grade.
Mohammed Ali Mohammed turned 15 while being held on charges of raping the two women in August 2011. Still a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday, the teenager recently pleaded guilty to crimes that could keep him in a youth facility until he is 21, at which point it will be up to a judge to decide if he should serve more time as an adult.
"I think he is getting away with less than he deserves," his first victim said in a Salt Lake City courtroom in October. "I want him in prison. ... I want to have him feel what I felt."
'Lawless' refugee camps • According to charges filed in 3rd District Juvenile Court, Mohammed, then 14, raped the two women on consecutive nights in Salt Lake City.
On Aug. 14, the teen allegedly came up behind a woman who was outside her house with a dog and held a four-inch switchblade to her throat. He threatened to cut her if she screamed, the charges state, then raped her behind the home.
The following night, the boy broke into another woman's home. He looked through drawers in the house before raping the woman, according to charging documents.
The teen then forced the woman to go to an ATM and withdraw $400 for him, the charges state.
Earlier this year, Mohammed pleaded guilty in juvenile court to three felony level charges and was ordered to a secure detention facility. The teen also pleaded guilty to three felony charges as an adult.
Whenever he is released from the youth facility, it will be up to a judge to decide whether to send him to prison.
One victim said she wanted the teen to be sent back to the country from which he came.
Mohammed's family and defense attorney say that's where his troubles began.
Zahra Mohammed said she and her family fled Somalia to Yemen in 1992. Her son was born in a refugee camp there, away from the civil conflict in Somalia but not free from violence.
As a young boy, he watched as a thief killed his older brother before attacking him, Zahra Mohammed said. "He never forget that."
"These camps are just lawless places," said defense attorney Andrea Martinez-Griffin.
He witnessed his brother's murder and the rape of his mother's friend.
He was sexually abused himself, according to his attorney.
"He hadn't been in the U.S. very long [when he raped the women] and really had no exposure to the American culture," Martinez-Griffin said. "I'm not going to pretend what these two victims went through wasn't horrific. But his experiences contextualize things, at least some."
Martinez-Griffin called the case a rarity among both juvenile and refugee populations. But she questioned why the teen had never received therapy before being arrested.
"The amount of structure he's had in detention he's done remarkably well. People believe he's amenable to treatment, and I think that's because he's had structure for the first time in his life."
Zahra Mohammed does not believe her son committed a crime.
She calls him a "good boy." She holds a picture taken of him when the Somali refugee first came to America roughly two years ago. In the photo, his is the thin face of a child.
"My son is too young," the woman said through an interpreter during an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
She said she believes her son was set up or taken advantage of by older women. She said she believes he pleaded guilty because he was told it would be easier for him in the long run.
The mother said her youngest son was confused when he spoke with detectives, answering "yes" to all of their questions.
Investigators, in the charging documents, wrote that the teen "smiled and laughed" when he was asked about the rapes.
Scars on their souls • As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors split Mohammed's case between the adult and juvenile courts. The resolution means the teen will get better treatment and therapy and may not have to serve prison time as an adult.
"Our intention was instead of sending him to prison at 15, where he would not get any treatment and come out a much more dangerous person, we're hoping to get him treatment," prosecutor Patricia Cassell said.
"In 30 or 40 years, he'd be paroled and we'd essentially be creating a monster," Martinez-Griffin said of sending the teen to prison now.
Through the legal process, the defense attorney said she believes Mohammed has come to understand the impact of the attacks.
"He's only 15, but I think he understands the gravity of the situation," Martinez-Griffin said. "A lot of times [juveniles] do things and don't understand the consequences. Most kids that come to juvenile court aren't criminally minded, they're delinquent. ... I can't say what was going through his mind. I think he knew it was wrong when he was doing it. But I don't think he understood how egregious it was until after."
Before he ordered Mohammed to the secure facility where he will be kept for years, Juvenile Court Judge Frederic Oddone offered sympathy to the teen's victims.
"The law is not good at resolving these kinds of emotional traumas," Oddone told the women. "You didn't deserve what happened to you."
The judge added, "It's an absolutely terrible experience and my articulating it, just saying it, they're almost words without meaning because you can't really get any of the depth of what you've had to go through, the nightmare you've had to experience, and the scars that are on your souls and your hearts and how it's affected your family members. But we're also constantly amazed at the strength of people such as yourselves to come to court and make sure that justice is done, to rise from the ashes and move on."
The judge then spoke to Mohammed.
"You came from a hard background. You came from refugee camps, and I know you've seen some bad stuff," he said. "None of that's a justification or an excuse for what you did."
Twitter: @aaronfalk


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iMageMaker is powerful image processor for php. The library can be implement in all frameworks, systems or scripts. Have alot of options and is design to be easy to use.
The code is extremly easy to read and write:
//First we include the library
include '../imageMaker.class.php';
* Then initialize the class
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$image = new ImageMaker(533, 400, 'solid', '#fff', '../images/flower.jpg');
//Build new image to create watermark. Param: image_path
$image->new = $image->buildImage('../images/logo.png');
* Then position the new image somewhere in the main photo
* Params: main_image, new_image, width, height, postion_array, from where to count the posiotion(bottom/top, left/right)
* Then initialize the class
$image->positionImage($image->image,$image->new,150,40, array(-5,-5),array('bottom','right'));
//And finally show the image


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Friday, February 18, 2011
Forebear Friday – Abel Parlin Adams
Two daughters, Nettie and Jennie, were born about 1857, and in 1859. During these years, Abel worked as a pattern maker, first in Lowell, and later in Fitchburg (Worcester county). He served during the Civil War, spending 4 months and 8 days in Company A, 7th Regiment of the Massachusetts Light Artillery.
He and his family settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, between 1870 and 1880, and after his wife died in 1901, he moved in with his youngest daughter Jennie and her husband, Charles Martensen. There he lived for the next twenty years.
There is a death certificate for Abel in his hometown of Newport, Vermont; I have no doubt that this is his death. However, it states his "usual residence" is in Newport, which is somewhat confusing. He died August 4, 1920, in Newport. But in January of 1920, when the census was taken, he was still living with his daughter Jennie in Springfield, at the age of 87 years. Did he moved back to Newport? If so, why? And with whom did he live? His oldest daughter was in Chicago, so it wasn't her. Was he visiting there when he died? Was the "usual residence" an error on the part of the city clerk?
Abel was buried with his wife in Oak Grove cemetery in Springfield.
4 comments:
Maybe he (and his family) considered Newport as his real home, and living with his daughter as visiting. My in-laws have lived here (in their own apartment) for almost two years but when they talk of home, it's the town where they lived for 50 years.ReplyDelete
That could be, Marti - hadn't thought of that!ReplyDelete
Hello KarenReplyDelete
After seeing your question above attached to an Ancestry FT, I traced the source back to you here on your blog. The answer to the question you pose above re the death of Abel P. Adams and his residence at the time is contained in a newspaper story on his death.
"Abel P. Adams of 376 Union Street (Springfield, MA) died suddenly Wednesday at the home of his nephew, Dr. George F. Adams of Newport, Vt."
Although still living in Springfield, Abel Adams was visiting nephew George when he apparently suffered a fatal heart attack.
I have attached the full article to Martin Adams on my Ancestry FT where you can get a copy. >>here http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/19412913/person/798811383?msg=nsu
---Springfield Republican, August 12, 1920; page 12.
This is a repeat of an article which first appeared in the same paper on August 6.
Otherwise identical in wording, that version had the following as its final sentence, "The funeral will be held at the Dickinson-Streeter parlors at 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Burial will be at Oak Grove cemetery."
The death record of Abel Adams from Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008 which you refer to in your note above records the attending physician at the death of Abel Adams as his nephew, Dr. George Adams.
I see you have a photo of Dr. George F. Adams.
Thanks, David! Did you find my website with the photo of Dr. George Adams?ReplyDelete


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Fine Art Landscape Photography
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Antitrust Case Filings
Antitrust Case Filings
To filter the list of cases, select desired options from the left navigation pane.
View the list of NAICS and SIC industry codes used by the Division. To view all industry codes, visit Census.gov.
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|U.S. v. Times Printing Company
|February 24, 1970
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|Tennessee, Eastern District


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Camping/Cabins | More beautiful surroundings are hard to find! First Camp Frösön-Östersund is located in the centre of Frösön, a stone's throw from the heart of Östersund. Modern facilities with cottages of different sizes and many camping pitches with electricity and large areas for free camping.
The camping site features 94 caravan pitches with electric hook-up, and around 100 unmarked, non-serviced pitches. The area is ideal for children, dogs and the disabled.
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Frösö golf course is located a few kilometres from the campsite.


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Smart technologies from Austria for the cities of the future
Smart City is a term now used to describe a range of holistic approaches to urban development. Aimed at making cities greener, more efficient, more caring and more technologically advanced, these design concepts embrace technology-based innovations as well as economic and societal change in urban environments.
One thing common to all these technologies is that they improve quality of life and make our cities more intelligent and environmentally friendly through smart resource management; cities are increasing in size throughout the world, and their structures are growing more complex even as resources become scarcer. Forecasts anticipate that some 85 per cent of the population of Europe will be living in cities by 2050.
Austria is one of the top nations in the field of (digital) technologies for Smart Cities, thanks to its innovation skills, but the central plank of the Smart City road map is cooperation, both between research institutes and the city's authorities and inhabitants and the various elements of an intelligent city. Austrian companies' achievements and reliability have earned them an unparalleled reputation for bringing innovative products and services to market.
You can find out more about the range of services provided by the Austrian Smart City/Smart Technologies sector in the latest edition of FRESH VIEW, the industry specialist magazine, which showcases more than 160 Austrian firms from the 'Smart Mobility', 'Smart Energy and Environmental Technology', 'Smart ICT Infrastructure' and 'Security' sectors:
FRESH VIEW on Smart Cities, Nr. 157/2015 [pdf, 13,123.5kb]
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Our Company
MTD Products Limited is the Canadian subsidiary of MTD Products Inc., a worldwide leader of outdoor power equipment with facilities in Europe, North America, Australia and South America producing equipment for both residential and commercial markets.
MTD was founded based on some basic values: Stewardship; Integrity; Hard Work; Reliance on and Respect for People; Innovation; Willingness to take Risks; Gratitude for Customers and Promotion from Within. Today, we are proud to say these values still continue to drive our decisions. They have been integral to our success and growth.
In 1933, Sehl Engineering Ltd., which later became MTD Products Limited, was founded in Kitchener, Ontario. In 1962, MTD Products Inc. purchased Sehl Engineering Ltd. and MTD Products Limited was born.
The head office of MTD Products Limited is still located in Kitchener, Ontario and MTD has a distribution centre in Montreal. Our company has enjoyed a heritage of dedicated people who have shared a common mission and worked toward accomplishing that mission, and we continue to do so.
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Nevada Department of TransportationHome Menu
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The Nevada Department of Transportation is pleased to offer traffic cameras in the following areas:
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Traffic cameras are an opportunity for drivers to make travel decisions based on road conditions. Knowing if there is congestion, an incident blocking the freeway, extreme weather or other condition can help you decide to forego travel or detour the area, making for an easier commute and safer roadways.
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Or dial 511 or 1-877-NV-ROADS for road conditions (before driving).
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Travel and road conditions change rapidly, and drivers are in the best position to perceive such conditions and adjust their driving accordingly. Those relying on the foregoing information do so at their own risk, and neither the State of Nevada, the NDOT nor any of their employees or agents shall be liable for either the accuracy of this information nor any actions taken in reliance thereon.


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review of the yards :"expect oscar nods all around"!!
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The Yards
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Post subject: review of the yards :"expect oscar nods all around"!!
The Yards" - A Review by 'The Flaming Heterosexual' (Positive - Major Spoilers)
About a month ago, Miramax held a test screening of THE YARDS, in NYC (the place to be) starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen Burstyn, Charlize Theron, and James Caan. I finally got around to writing a review. Miramax has very high hopes for this film, which recently debuted in Cannes. Expect Oscar nods all around. Like director James Gray's first film (LITTLE ODESSA), THE YARDS takes place in Brooklyn, NY. THE YARDS is a brilliantly acted, but not so brilliantly paced film that deals with corruption within the railroad unions in New York.
Mark Wahlberg plays Leo Handler, a pretty likeable kid just home from prison, trying to turn his life around. In need of fast money, he gets involved, with old buddy Willie Guitierrez, (Joaquin Phoenix in what's easily his best performance) who happens to be a local union tough guy who works for Leo's uncle Frank (James Caan).
Willie and Leo hit the railyards to vandalize some trains, to gain a little leverage on a rival union for the next contract bids. The railyard supervisor, who is normally on the take, refuses to cooperate, and is stabbed to death by Willie during a struggle. Leo who had been acting as a lookout, is seen by a cop. A fight ensues, and Leo beats the cop half dead. The murder ends up being pinned on Leo, and he's forced to go on the run alone.
Don't want to give away too many more details, but in the second half of the film is when the drama kicks into high gear. Here are some key words; love triangle, fugitive, and whistleblower. Oh and one cool-as-**** accidental death scene that comes out of nowhere.
Like I said earlier, this is a very well acted film, that can use about 15 minutes of trimming. Speaking of trim, in case you were wondering.....yes Charlize Theron gets naked in this one ( I think she and Julianne Moore have clauses in their contract, that stipulate that they have to show their ass in every movie).
now since this thing has major spoilers i didnt read it. only skimmed over it a little bit. but the part about the oscar nods caught my attention!! could this mean mark's big break?? a best actor nomination!??! i really hope so!! he totally deserves it!
ahhhh! now i really cant wait to see this movie!
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Joined: 03 Dec 1999
Posts: 788
Location: ontario canada
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2000 7:47 pm
Post subject:
oh since you skimmed over it then i wont tell youit mentions mark getting totally naked in this one....
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Joined: 12 Oct 1999
Posts: 1025
Location: Jersey Shore*
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2000 10:12 pm
Post subject:
Christina! u almost gave me a heart attack w/ that one! haha i wish he did!
but i did read somewhere else that he shot a couple scenes w/ his shirt off. mmmmm yummy!
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Joined: 12 Oct 1999
Posts: 1025
Location: Jersey Shore*
Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2000 11:03 am
Post subject:
another one
"The Yards" - A Review by 'Christophe' (Positive - Minor Spoilers)
Since I consider Little Odessa as one of the most beautiful and poignant (do you say that in english, it means very emotional...) film noir of the 90's, i had great expectations. So i was a little bit disappointed : the story is exactly the same (redemption, mother/son relationships, the burden of the past...). So for those who saw Little Odessa and were pleased, they shall not be surprised and/or disapointed. If, like me, you expected something new, well, it's cleary a minor movie made by a great and underrated director.
Hopefully, Mark Wahlberg deserves raves for his performance, Joaquin Phoenix shows more talent and nuance in his play than in Gladiator. On the contrary, James Caan thinks he's reprising his role of Godfather, and most of the times is ridiculous. Faye Dunaway, how talented she may be, will never match Vanessa Redgrave's performance in Litle Odessa.
James Gray, also thanks to Harry Savides beautifully crafted photography (remember The Game?), shoots memorable scenes: the fighting between Wahlberg and Phoenix (as good as Fight Club), the silent killer hunting in Faye Dunaway's appartment (like the one in Little Odessa with Tim Roth kidnapping a sleeping mobster in his appartement at night).
But overall it is pretty much dejà vu. Nevertheless, i can't wait to see his next movie (in less than 5 years please!).
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Site Admin
Joined: 28 Jul 1999
Posts: 1723
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2000 10:46 am
Post subject:
Another Review (mixed)
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text: Well, it is for me, so I'll pass it along. If you have a Lowes home improvement store in your area, they carry a tool box that is black, with a red lid made by Contico. All I had to do is screw in two 1x3's to hold the monorail. You can scr ew in dividers, line it with foam, sit on it because the lid is so reinforced. I t fits my Calumet 45NX perfectly. $22.00! The Tenba Air View ($250.00) is now co llecting cob webs. Its monsterous compared to the Contico. By the way, this same company makes an attache style aluminum case. I didn't check it out. Don't know the quality, but I think it was $25.00. On ebay, someone was selling one for ph oto equipment.


text:
Throwing error helps Yankees beat Blue Jays
Recommended Video:
TORONTO (AP) -- Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup made a two-run throwing error in the 11th inning and the New York Yankees beat Toronto 5-3 on Saturday for their ninth win in 11 games.
Shawn Kelley (1-0) got two outs in the 10th for the win and Mariano Rivera finished for his fifth save.
Vernon Wells and Francisco Cervelli singled off Loup (1-1) to begin the 11th, and Ichiro Suzuki followed with a bunt to the third base side of the mound that Loup and third basemen Brett Lawrie both charged. Loup fielded it and wheeled to throw to third. But with Lawrie out of position as he retreated back to the bag, the ball sailed into foul territory and down the left field line, allowing both runners to score.
The Blue Jays used a single and a sacrifice to put the winning run in scoring position with one out in the 10th but Kelley came on and got Rajai Davis to pop out, then got Melky Cabrera to ground out.
Toronto lost for the fifth time in seven games and fell a season-high four games below .500.
New York infielder Kevin Youkilis left after five innings with a sore lower back and was replaced by Lyle Overbay.
Vernon Wells opened the scoring with a homer off the left field foul screen in the second, his fifth of the season and second in two days. Wells has five homers in 15 career games against his former team.
New York made it 3-0 in the fifth. Jayson Nix led off with a single and went to third on Brett Gardner's double. One out later, Robinson Cano was walked to load the bases for Youkilis, who ripped a liner to third that bounced off Lawrie's glove and rolled into shallow left for a two-run single.
Wells singled to load the bases but Cervelli grounded into a double play.
Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda, who beat Baltimore with a five-hit shutout in his previous start, allowed just two hits through the first seven innings, but was replaced by David Robertson after Colby Rasmus' one-out single under Overbay's glove in the eighth.
Maicer Izturis struck out and pinch hitter Adam Lind walked before Rajai Davis grounded an RBI single up the middle. The run snapped Kuroda's streak of shutout innings at 20 2-3 dating to his April 8 start at Cleveland.
Cabrera followed with a two-run single to center that bounced away from Gardner, tying it at 3-all. Jose Bautista walked but Robertson fanned Edwin Encarnacion to end the inning.
The two hits with runners in scoring position in the eighth were one more than the Blue Jays had in their previous six games combined, when they went 1 for 29.
Kuroda allowed one run and three hits in 7 1-3 innings. He walked one and struck out a season-high seven.
Making the 400th start of his career, Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle allowed three runs and eight hits in a season-high seven innings. His only walk was intentional and his seven strikeouts were a season-high.
NOTES: Yankees manager Joe Girardi said LH Andy Pettitte had only "normal soreness" one day after beating Toronto. Pettitte had missed his previous start because of back spasms. ... Attendance was 46,095. ... Blue Jays RH Josh Johnson (0-1) faces New York RP Ivan Nova (1-1) in Sunday's series finale.


text:
Fixing Reliability Issues in IE8
In a previous post, Andy wrote about some of the new features we introduced to improve reliability in Internet Explorer, such as Loosely Coupled IE and Automatic Crash Recovery. These features help minimize the impact of reliability issues (such as crashes and hangs) once our users encounter them, allowing them to return to their original browsing state as soon as possible.
From an engineering perspective, our goal is to minimize the occurrences of these issues in the first place. In today's post I'd like to walk you through the various approaches we use to identify, prioritize and address reliability issues in IE8. Each of these approaches covers different angles of the product and is equally useful in ensuring a reliable experience for different types of users.
End-user Feedback
Users are our greatest resource for feedback pertaining to reliability issues. We receive lots of information from our feedback channels about specific problems that users are experiencing. We also leverage Windows Error Reporting, which sends details of user-reported crashes and hangs back to Microsoft. The accumulation of these reports helps us understand overall browser reliability in customer environments and enables us to identify our top issues.
In last month's post, I described how we used a failure curve to identify and fix reliability issues for IE8 on the Windows 7 Beta. We follow a similar approach when we ship a new IE release. Below you can see the failure curve for the top crashes and hangs caused by IE in the IE8 Beta cycle. The data is based on snapshots taken 50 days after each IE8 pre-release. The green bars indicate failures that have been fixed in IE8.
A failure curve typically shows that a small number of failures impact a large number of users. These are represented by the leftmost bars on the curve and are most likely crashes in mainstream scenarios. The issues in the "long tail" are generally encountered in specific hardware and software configurations. While these bugs are important to fix, we focus our efforts on the most impactful issues first and systematically work our way down the failure curve. The top remaining issues that are not addressed in time will be fixed and shipped to customers in future security updates. To date, we have fixed 80% of all the reported crashes and hangs in IE8.
Feature Testing
Reliability testing starts from the feature level and helps maximize product quality from the ground up. The owners for each feature run automation on their new code to identify and fix key stability issues. These people are also the most prominent users of their respective features, and would be able to encounter any issues that are not discovered via automation. Therefore, the majority of stability issues for a certain feature are identified and addressed during this phase.
In addition, teams leverage several mechanisms that scan through and identify potential faults in their source code, such as buffer overruns, memory leaks, or uninitialized memory. Many of these faults could have become top crashes and hangs in the public, but our teams work to fix the issues before they are even encountered internally.
Internal Product Usage
Amongst the IE team and other divisions throughout Microsoft, thousands of people are using the latest versions of IE8 every day. One critical benefit of this internal network is that we can work directly with the employee who encountered a crash to investigate and fix it quickly, often debugging directly into their machines.
Internal users send us crash and hang data through Windows Error Reporting as well. We use their data to fix the most impactful issues seen in recent builds. The shape of the failure curve generated via internal data can be a good approximation of what we see from the public as well.
For example, many of our internal users upgraded to the Windows 7 Beta build several weeks before it was publicly available. The data generated from the extensive Beta-testing allowed us to create a preliminary failure curve. We began to investigate a handful of crashes that were clearly the most impactful issues. By fixing these crashes ahead of time we stayed ahead of our failure curve, and were able to swiftly address the remaining issues after the Beta was released.
Lab Reliability Testing
To discover crashes in more far-reaching usage scenarios, we perform a series of tests on lab machines to continuously monitor for new issues in recent builds. We employ two common techniques often referred to as Stress and Long Haul testing.
Stress Testing Stress testing the browser is critical to identifying architectural bugs and other hidden issues. Our goal is to be able to stress-test IE8 for a defined period of time without interruptions. To measure this, we rapidly navigate to websites and perform user actions such as opening and closing tabs and windows. We hope to identify important issues that may not be seen from regular browsing behavior. Over the course of a day, it's possible for our stress tests to navigate the same browser instance to over 100,000 web pages!
Long Haul Testing
Part of our vision for IE8 reliability is to allow users to run IE for as long as they desire without interruptions. We devise different types of tests to simulate long term usage of the browser and measure how long the tests can run before experiencing a crash or running out of memory. We then engage with teams to get the top issues fixed as soon as possible. We also run tests to track memory consumption after long periods of usage.
Each of the above approaches has played an important role in driving reliability improvements in IE8. In fact, we are able to quantify these improvements using various tests and analyses, and compare our results to IE7. For example, we are now able to run stress tests continuously for over 12 hours on IE8, compared to less than 8 hours on IE7. Also, we found that IE8 uses up 90% less memory than IE7 after running continuously for 24 hours under Long Haul testing.
We're convinced that our approaches to identifying reliability issues have generated significant stability improvements to IE8. We encourage you to try out Internet Explorer 8 today and send us your feedback. We rely on your collective feedback to determine the most important reliability issues to address in future releases. If you experience a crash or hang please be sure to let us know by submitting an error report.
Thank you for your help in ensuring that IE8 is such a great product!
Herman Ng
Program Manager


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Beer, wine, and hard liquor (distilled
spirits) all contain alcohol. The following common alcoholic drinks contain
equal amounts of alcohol and are often referred to as a drink or a standard
Proof is the amount of alcohol in hard liquor or distilled spirits.
The percentage of pure alcohol in the hard liquor is usually one-half the
proof. For example, a 100-proof liquor is about 50% pure alcohol. Thus, the
higher the proof, the more pure alcohol the hard liquor contains.
Last Revised:
January 18, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Peter Monti, PhD - Alcohol and Addiction
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
The Gulf County Board of Commissioners, three current and former commissioners and a Port St. Joe resident are named as defendants in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last week.
The Gulf County Board of Commissioners, three current and former commissioners and a Port St. Joe resident are named as defendants in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last week.
The suit, filed by political action committee Citizens Improving Gulf County and its president Jim Garth, alleges that the BOCC, current Commissioners Warren Yeager and Carmen McLemore and former commissioner Bill Williams abused their power and illegally retaliated against the PAC and Garth for exercising protected First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit also names Lois McElroy, a.k.a Christine or Christy McElroy, alleging she coordinated with the BOCC in the attacks against Citizens Improving Gulf County and Garth.
The suit further levels a count of defamation toward McElroy.
The suit asks for a jury trial and for unspecified �punitive and compensatory� damages.
The lawsuit was filed by Tallahassee attorney Marie Mattox.
The allegations center on three 2012 BOCC meetings during which Citizens Improving Gulf County, Garth and other members were, according to the complaint, �attacked� and �humiliated� for exercising their rights to free speech and questioning government.
The first meeting was on April 24, 2012 when McElroy spoke during the �Public Discussion� portion of the BOCC meeting. McElroy, the complaint alleges, was �invited and choreographed� to speak to the BOCC about Garth and the PAC.
At that meeting, McElroy alleged that during a meeting with Garth and two other PAC members she was asked to assist in digging up information that could be embarrassing to members of the BOCC and would be in turn �fed to the press.�
McElroy mentioned a letter written by her to the BOCC detailing her allegations and �as if on cue�, the complaint details, Yeager requested the letter be read aloud in its entirety. The letter essentially detailed the allegations McElroy made, the complaint asserts.
The second BOCC meeting came on July 24, 2012, after Garth had sent a letter to Yeager requesting he resign due to a conflict due to his employment with Preble Rish Engineers, the county�s engineers of record.
The Yeager allegations had been publicly aired by PAC members, the complaint details.
The allegations concerning Yeager are also the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Florida Commission on Ethics, which is scheduled to hold a closed hearing on the matter this week.
At the July 24 BOCC meeting, the complaint details, McElroy again discussed Garth and the PAC during the �Public Discussion� portion of the meeting.
McElroy began by asserting that the PAC had raised questions about the passing of a county nuisance and homeless shelter ordinance and again, the complaint notes, McElroy was provided additional speaking time by commissioners.
Yeager and Williams picked up the comments from there, with Yeager saying there were personal attacks against him and �threats to his family and others,� according to the complaint.
Williams said the PAC had bad intent and motives and �was out to destroy people.�
McLemore said if the PAC had problem it should come after him and leave family alone, alleging threats that had not been made, the complaint reads.
The lawsuit alleges the BOCC �choreographed� McElroy�s appearance and comments and �were motivated to retaliate for Garth�s exercise, on his own behalf and on behalf of the PAC, of First Amendment rights.�
The lawsuit details that in a matter unrelated to the BOCC meetings, the State Attorney began an investigation based on a complaint by Yeager. The lawsuit alleges the investigation was �initiated and conducted� in retaliation for Garth�s and the PAC�s legal and protected statements.
The final meeting detailed in the complaint concerns a BOCC meeting of Oct. 25, 2012.
The lawsuit alleges that McElroy was invited into the room where commissioners were concluding preparation for the meeting where she offered documents pertaining to her upcoming comments that morning.
McElroy was again invited up during �Public Discussion� during which she �falsely and maliciously� attacked the PAC and Garth, detailing information from the SAO investigation which had already been closed, the lawsuit details.
McElroy and Williams used the term �extortion� to describe the actions of Garth and the PAC and criticized the actions of several local individuals during the investigation.
The lawsuit alleges that after that meeting, multiple phone calls, from one or more of the named defendants, were made to the SAO in order to have the �extortion� investigation reopened.
The sole result of the reopening of the case, the lawsuit details, was to shift the focus to a criminal conviction of Garth�s more than 40 years old and whether his voting rights had been restored.
The evidence of the conviction and the voting rights question has never been made public.
When the Gulf County Supervisor of Elections moved ahead to remove Garth from the voters rolls, the SAO failed to provide evidence of a crime and suggested the removal of Garth from the voting rolls should not progress.
The result, the lawsuit alleges, was �retaliatory humiliation� for Garth and the PAC.
They allegations are that operating under the �color of state law� as elected officials, the BOCC, Williams, Yeager and McLemore took actions designed to retaliate and humiliate and infringe on the protected interests of Garth and the PAC.
The board and commissioners continued that infringement through the �false complaint� that led to the SAO investigation and later by contacting the SAO to have the investigation re-opened, the lawsuit alleges.
Yeager, Williams and McLemore, individually, further infringed on the First Amendment rights of Garth and the PAC, the lawsuit alleges, through actions and words at BOCC meetings and the false complaint to the SAO.
The lawsuit makes the same claim toward McElroy through a legal theory that McElroy possessed �animus� toward Garth and the PAC and was spurred by �recommendation� through the actions of the BOCC.
McElroy, the lawsuit alleges, acted in �bad faith and malicious purpose� and �deliberate indifference and/or reckless disregard� for the civil rights of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit further alleges abuse of power by the BOCC and Williams, Yeager and McLemore for knowingly directing or causing the SAO investigation and for that investigation to be reopened, motivated by the private and illegal agenda of the board, individual commissioners or McElroy.
The board further erred by not having in place a policy to protect the plaintiffs constitutional rights to free speech and expression and failed to adopt a policy even after learning of the damage and harm to plaintiffs, including �grave mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of reputation, lost employment opportunity and lost wages.�
McElroy is additionally sued for abuse of power � due to her allegedly providing the recommended path for the BOCC and individual commissioners to engage Garth and the PAC � and for defamation of character.


text:
By Judy Benson, New London Day (9/2/13)
Banging her golf cart along a rugged dirt farm road she has traveled more than half her 85 years, Louise "Teddy" Randall stopped to check on a field of tilled brown soil, her hazel eyes peering out from under a straw hat to scan for sprouts.
"We just planted the beans there last week," said Randall one morning in late August, sitting behind the wheel of the cart, its rear compartment laden with empty harvesting buckets and shovels. "We planted three or four times this year, and had no crop. My beans were so beautiful last year, I never dreamed I wouldn't be able to raise beans. It's just been such a crazy year."
This summer, her 240-acre farm, in a town considered a stronghold of Connecticut agriculture, has produced bushels of yellow summer squash, bundles of Swiss chard fans, baskets of romaine lettuce heads and other vegetables, even as typically reliable crops like beets, carrots, beans and tomatoes have been undersized - or nonexistent - compared to past years.
Wet weather and weed infestations nearly ruined much of her 20 acres of hay. The hay, along with 90 acres of silage corn sold to a neighboring dairy farm, are main sources of income for the farm. But the vegetables are also an important part of the mix and a source of employment for Randall's half-dozen part-time helpers.
Even after 53 years of farming this spread, this seasoned farmer finds herself confounded by the vagaries of weather, new pest infestations, the endless challenges of training young staff in the finer points of customer interaction at the town farmers' market and finding new markets for her vegetables. But while many of her peers long ago retired from full-time responsibilities, Randall, though disheartened at how her peak months for vegetable farming have gone this year, isn't ready to give up or give over her life's work.
"She's got a passion to keep it going, and she wants to be the one in charge of it," said her son, James Randall, a local contractor who says he and his four siblings inherited fortitude and a penchant for hard work from their parents. "Sometimes she gets frustrated, but being busy and working at something keeps her going. A lot of people much younger don't produce what she does in a day."
In 1960, when 75 cents would buy a gallon of milk with change to spare, Randall and her husband, George, bought what was then a run-down dairy farm that barely yielded five bales of hay the first year. They and their five children, then ages 1 to 9, moved into the old farmhouse, and began a lifestyle familiar to her from childhood in Manchester.
"My father worked in a factory, but there were nine of us kids, so we grew most of our own food, and had four cows," said Randall, recalling how the cellar was always filled with home-canned, home-grown vegetables. After she and her husband took over Our Acres - a name she chose to connote a place shared with the community - they brought one field after another back into productive use, continuing the agricultural legacy of land that, according to the Lebanon Historical Society, has been farmed since the 1700s.
During 10 of the early years on the farm, Randall supplemented the dairy income by teaching elementary school, but by 1974 had left the classroom to help take care of her elderly mother-in-law and run the farm.
"When we started, we had 35 cows, and by the 1970s we built it up to 86, and then we got up to 140," she recalled, standing in the now obsolete milking parlor that adjoins the large, handsome red barn that probably dates from the late 1800s, according to the historical society.
In 1986, looking to curtail overproduction of milk and stabilize markets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offered a dairy herd buyout program. Like many of their fellow dairy farmers with high debt, the Randalls took the offer. Suddenly the warm, docile creatures that set the pace of life at their farm - rising for 5 a.m. milking, days of leading the herd to and from pasture, hauling hay and silage, book-ended with the second milking at 5 p.m. - were gone.
"I still miss the whole thing," said Randall, showing a visitor the long-stilled milking stalls, calf breeding chart and milk collection system that was once the heart of her farm. "Most of our friends were dairy people. We had like problems and successes."
In the barn basement that once housed the dairy herd, Randall keeps one Hereford cow and her calf, just "to help use up some of this hay." The only other animals are two horses kept by her daughter, Mary Lou Soileau, who lives next door. A cow's moo still makes Randall nostalgic.
"I grew up milking cows, feeding calves," said Soileau, now a geographic information specialist in the USDA's Rhode Island office. "Growing up, I got to enjoy hard work, the smell of hay, being outdoors. I miss the cows, too."
Development rights sold
After the buyout, Our Acres' hay and silage corn crop went to feed other farms' cows, and some of the former pasture was planted with vegetables, raised organically. The farm began playing host to dozens of vocational agriculture student field trips and projects.
About a decade ago, Randall added Harvest Your Meal events, when parents are invited to bring their children to dig their own potatoes and pick their own tomatoes.
"You would see the children when a carrot would come out of the ground, their eyes would get so big," said Randall, her expression still showing a teacher's delight in watching a child learn something new. "Some adults who would come here didn't even know that potatoes came out of the ground."
Two years after they sold the cows, the Randalls closed on a another deal to pay off more debt, when the state agreed to buy development rights to their farm for $331,500. Today, Randall has mixed feelings about the decision. Under the program, farms remain privately owned and pay local taxes, but the state obtains a permanent deed restriction on the land that prohibits non-agricultural uses. Randall said selling the development rights helped financially at the time, but now the farm can't be subdivided. While she believes in preserving agricultural land, she also acknowledges that the restrictions leave her and her children with limited choices when planning for the future of the property.
"It did pay our mortgage debt off, but we would have been better off selling off two building lots, and then we could do what we wanted," she said.
Her children, she said, want her to keep the farm, but are all established in their own lives and careers, not inclined to give that up for longer hours and less pay running a farm.
"In theory it's good," Randall said of the development rights program. "But nowadays, someone has to have a good job just so they can have a farm. That's not right."
Henry Talmage, executive director of the Connecticut Farmland Trust, said about 90 percent of the 250 farms that have sold their development rights to the state are being actively farmed. If the Randall family were to decide to sell or lease Our Acres, he said, he expects there would be a willing buyer, because of its location in a town he called "the epicenter of agriculture in eastern Connecticut," with highly productive soils and an existing culture of support businesses and farm-friendly local government.
The tougher problem, he said, is deciding when the time is right to make a change.
"That's the hard part, and the one that's so gut-wrenching for the family," he said. "It's not always a comfortable process, and sometimes it doesn't get dealt with until there's an event. But once the decision's made, the tools are there, and it can be relatively easy."
One unique challenge for the Randall farm, however, may be its size - small by national standards, but large for Connecticut, where the average farm is about 83 acres, according to the state agriculture department. The recent trend among new farmers is toward specialty farms that produce high-end products such as goat cheese or wine, Talmage said, and these tend to be smaller.
Still, Joseph Dippel, of the state agriculture department, believes that when - and if - a "for sale" or "for lease" sign goes up next to the rustic wooden "Our Acres Farm" sign, it would attract a lot of interest. There have been 10 recent resales of farmland in Lebanon, he noted.
"There is a market for them," said Dippel, bureau director of the Agriculture Development and Resource Preservation Bureau.
But he understands that that time hasn't come yet, given Randall's determination to continue running the operation herself.
"She's quite a pistol," he said.
Among farmers, he and Talmage both said, working full time well into their 70s, 80s and even 90s isn't all that unusual.
"It's not the typical profession where you turn 64 and start planning to move to Florida," said Talmage. "It's really more of a lifestyle. The average age of farmers continues to climb."
Finding a Christmas tree
Randall, for her part, remains firmly involved in the present, looking to learn more about organic agriculture methods, fussing over the small self-service, honor-system stand out front to make sure the eye-catching sunflowers are arranged just right to attract customers, making new connections with the Norwich school system to sell her sweet corn and squash.
Ever the teacher, she never seems to tire of instructing her young staff about important details - like making sure tomato stems are trimmed so the fruits don't puncture each other in the harvest buckets - and keeps her sense of humor about the all the unpredictable challenges of running a farm.
"I don't have to go to the casinos to gamble," she joked.
But she has tried to plan for the future of her farm, twice bringing in potential successors through the state's Farm Links program that matches farmers looking to sell or lease land with those looking to enter the business. Neither pairing worked out.
"I'd like to see the farm continue to be used for research and eduction," Randall said.
Her daughter said the family, which now includes 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, has mulled over the future of Our Acres, but not made any decisions. They still gather there for holidays, she said, and a few years ago revived an old Thanksgiving Day tradition. After the meal, the whole family searches the back acres for the farmhouse Christmas tree. When she was a child, Soileau recalled, her parents would have chosen a tree ahead of time and given clues about where their children would find it. Under the tree would be one small gift for each child as a kind of warm-up for Christmas Day.
"Our hearts are tied to this land," Soileau said. "We know where the rocks are, where the wet spots are. Our family's hard work went into moving those rocks, planting the corn. We don't want to just let it go. But I have no idea what we're going to do. I guess we're going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
Note: Louise Randall is a Golden Sheaf 50+ year member of Lebanon Grange.
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J. Moreau Brown Bicentennial Records Collection
J. Moreau Brown Bicentennial Records Collection
J. Moreau Brown was a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and a vice chairman of the Bicentennial Council of the Thirteen Original States; two of the dozens of organizations formed to plan and implement appropriate events for the celebration of the nations 200th birthday in 1976. He had served earlier in his career as Director of Admissions for St. Lawrence University, as well as in positions at New York University and General Electric.
The papers consist of meeting agendas, notes and correspondence concerning Mr. Brown's duties on both Bicentennial committees. Also included are publications, booklets, pamphlets, historic literature and other materials documenting the planning and execution of Bicentennial events and activities, as well as some ephemeral material such as buttons, lanyards, medallions, catalogs and other objects.
The collection was donated to St. Lawrence University in 1977.


text:
Swim, Duck, Swim!Book - 2014
It's time for Duckling to jump in the water and do what ducks do--swim! But he doesn't want to get wet. He'd rather take a nap. And he's really, really mad that everyone keeps telling him what to do!
Luckily, Mama and Papa Duck are very, very patient, and soon, Duckling will join his siblings in the pond. Here is a charming story, illustrated with exquisite, up-close photos, that will help young readers learn to swim--or try anything new.
From the critics
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Beautiful pictures, dull text. I would give 5 for pics, but about 1.5 for text, but my 2 years old loved it.
The pictures are pretty, but my boys (2 & 4 yrs) were not very interested. Seemed a bit dull.
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jeanreed_99 thinks this title is suitable for All Ages
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text:
Think you know your favorite beauty brands? Think again. In this continuing series, we highlight some of our go-to lines. Read on for some interesting tidbits, plus the rundown on the products that made our list of favorites.
We were beyond bummed when we learned that Shu Uemura, the Japanese beauty brand renowned for their luxury makeup and cleansing oils, was leaving the U.S. market due to low profitability. What would we do without our favorite makeup artist-beloved essentials — the iconic eyelash curler that made our lashes look long and lush; the cleansing oil that removed every last trace of makeup (even the most long-wearing) from our faces without drying us out?
Luckily, Shu Uemura have introduced an e-commerce site for all of us who need our Shu shopping fix — and it's got it all. The skin-perfecting night cream, the eyebrow manicure tool that gets us ace arches every time, the most adorable blusher ever, and the pièce de résistance: a fall makeup collection full of rich brown and copper tones, inspired by our most beloved cacao-based treat (yup, we're talkin' chocolate).
Read on for more Shu Uemura beauty picks that we're craving more than Godiva!


text:
MythMy monthly payments will increase after the draw period.
TruthOur payments include principal and interest, so you keep the same payment structure as in the draw period.
Even after your draw period ends, your payment structure will stay the same. The only change is that you'll no longer be able to access funds.
The example below illustrates the benefits of principal-reducing payments on a $20,000 cash advance from a home equity line of credit. Our Wells Fargo customer not only paid down $3,856 in principal, but also paid $836 less in interest during the draw period, compared to someone who paid interest only.
Assumes 4.75% APR with no change in prime rate and no additional advances throughout draw period. The other lender's monthly payment is $79.17 compared to the Wells Fargo monthly payment of $104.33. Your Wells Fargo minimum monthly payment will be the lesser of $100.00 or the amount needed to repay your balance with interest.
You can pay additional principal each month to reduce your balance even faster.


text:
KOffice 2.1 Beta 2 Released
The KOffice team today announced the second beta of the upcoming 2.1 release. The KOffice community has now switched from adding new features to only fix the remaining bugs, and that is obvious from this release. The first beta of 2.1 was released without any fanfares, but it marked the transition into the bugfixing stage. We now think it's time to let the users start to participate in the process. You can see the progress in the full changelog.
Something that is not obvious from the changelog is that there has been much activity in the MS office import filters, especially for MS Word and Powerpoint. Many new formatting features have been implemented in both these filters. We expect KOffice 2.1 to be better at reading MS file formats than any previous KOffice version.
As was mentioned in the release notes for beta 1, the 2.1 release will contain new features in most applications, especially KWord, KPresenter and Krita. It also features the come back of the mathematical formula shape.
Since this release includes so many bugfixes, we encourage users that want to help with the process to try it out and report remaining bugs. As usual we are especially interested in bugs that cause data loss or incompatibilities with other office suites such as OpenOffice.org.
For more detailed information see the announcement.
just to note that:
By Ivaylo Kabakov at Wed, 2009/09/16 - 5:29am
fixed ;-)
fixed ;-)
By Jos Poortvliet at Wed, 2009/09/16 - 5:49am
Looking forward to 2.1. I already use 2.01 and love the interface, but it is a bit sparse in some areas and I sometimes have to revert to OOo. e.g., For Karbon14, I notice it doesn't seem to import or otherwise deal with multipage ODG files from OOo.
Nevertheless the potential of KOffice 2 is awesome. Keep up the great work.
By Jerzy Bischoff at Wed, 2009/09/16 - 7:47am
The changelog indeed reveals an impressive amount of improvement!
As a Kubuntu Jaunty user, I encountered unmet dependencies when I tried to install it from the beta PPA. Does one have to have KDE 4.3 installed? If so, I'll wait until Karmic.
By tangent at Wed, 2009/09/16 - 8:06am
Good to the there is progress
... I am really happy to see that Koffice is making its way and hopefully soon to be able to replace ressource-consuming OpenOffice.Org for many KDE-users.
By Mark at Wed, 2009/09/16 - 9:42am
Configuring dockers
KWord does follow some DTP ideas (like using frames) so having an interface that reminds you of that is not surprising. Obviously you can question whether it's the best user interface for your personal usage.
You can get rid of most of the stuff on the right hand side by going to Settings > Dockers and unchecking the boxes. That leaves just one with the selection tools, which you can then move elsewhere (just grab the top of it and drag) and resize - although it seems you can't get rid of it completely.
A feature comparison would be nice.
By Stuart Jarvis at Thu, 2009/09/17 - 12:52pm
Re: Good to the there is progress
The interface of KOffice is the natural result of displays becoming wider and wider, while the paper format is still the same. With tools ordered at the left and right, you can inspect a maximum of information on your sheet. (Compare screenshots of KOffice with OOo or MSO if you don't see what I mean. If you want to view many content at once in OOo or MSO, there is much unused space on the left and right.)
By majewsky at Fri, 2009/09/18 - 7:56am
Text flow around shapes
Maybe it is now possible to have text flow around a shape on _both_ sides.
By Axel at Thu, 2009/09/17 - 12:54pm
MS Doc support
Thomas Zander has blogged about the source of some of the improved MS doc support here: http://www.koffice.org/news/office-viewer-for-maemo5-based-on-koffice/
So, Nokia has stepped up with some contributions in this area which is great and it's also exactly what the KOffice devs were saying when people were complaining about MS doc support: if someone wants to add it, they can. And now here we are...
Kudos KOffice devs for making such a great framework and set of applications that they attract commercial support by the allure of their quality alone!
By borker at Thu, 2009/09/17 - 2:39pm