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- Home
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- Historical Markers O through Z
- Port Allen Middle/High School
Port Allen Middle/High School
Marker Name
Port Allen High School (1936-1978) / Port Allen Middle School (1979-Present)
Marker Location
610 Rosedale Road
Port Allen, LA 70767
Marker Text
High school opportunities in the parish date to at least 1897, when Eureka Central School in Brusly offered classes to white students in the ninth, tenth, and later eleventh grades. In 1899, the West Baton Rouge School Board made plans for three high schools, Duvall, Port Allen and Brusly. Eventually two of the three high schools were established and were open to white students. The first Port Allen High School opened in 1920. The principal was Miss Amelia Stevens who was in charge of the two-story brick building, which included seven classrooms for grades first through eleventh. The original Port Allen High School was located on the south side of Rosedale Road at N. Jefferson Avenue. In 1949, Cohn High School was opened for African American students in West Baton Rouge Parish and initially offered grades seventh through twelfth.
During the nation's Great Depression (1929-1939), President Roosevelt established New Deal programs, including the Public Works Administration (PWA) to provide jobs to the unemployed masses. In West Baton Rouge Parish, three school buildings were completed in 1938, Port Allen High School (Federal Emergency Administration Public Works Project No. LA 1055-D) and Brusly High School and Gymnasium. The new Port Allen High School building was built directly across Rosedale Road facing the old brick school. The old brick school was eventually replaced by the current Port Allen Elementary School.
Port Allen High School was constructed on ten acres of land purchased from Homestead Plantation. The proceeds of a parish wide bond issue and a grant from the PWA funded the project. The designs were done by the Bodman and Murrell Architects and the construction was carried out by Caldwell Brothers and Hart Contractors. In 1941, a music room, and industrial arts shop, and a janitor's home were added to the campus. Soon after, in 1947, a football field was added, and in 1957 a classroom building was added, which for a time served as a Port Allen Junior High. Additional classrooms, science laboratories and a new lunchroom were later constructed.
Two West Baton Rouge Parish high schools were integrated over the course of ten years. In 1965, one African American student enrolled in Brusly High. In 1968, a select group of eight African American students from Cohn High School enrolled at Port Allen High School as the first steps towards desegregating the high schools. In 1969, Cohn High School was closed and the African American student body was integrated into Brusly and Port Allen High Schools. In 1978, a new Brusly High School and in 1979 a new Port Allen High School opened to accommodate fully integrated student populations.
This building is best known for its outstanding Art Deco design. The Art Deco elements, often seen on PWA and WPA buildings, are characterized by "streamline deco" elements. The bold lines, horizontal moldings, rounded corners, sculpted details, and geometric designs still distinguish the front of the Port Allen Middle School. Above the "auditorium" is a sculpted relief of an athlete and above the main entrance is a sculpted relief of an open book flanked by pelicans, the Louisiana state bird. The geometric forms and mechanical elements are borrowed from airplanes and ocean liners that reflect a world of the future imagined in the 1930s. Today the school sits on 19 acres and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


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Google just announced that it has acquired ad attribution company Adometry.
The news broke in the Wall Street Journal and it's discussed further in posts from the Google Analytics and Adometry teams.
Google wrote that Adometry "will build on the momentum of our existing measurement and analytics offerings, which include Google Analytics Premium as well as other products," adding:
Attribution solutions, like Adometry's, help businesses better understand the influence that different marketing tools — digital, offline, email, and more — have along their customers' paths to purchase (http://goo.gl/tXTliw). This heightened understanding, in turn, enables businesses to measure marketing impact, allocate their resources more wisely, and provide people with ads and messages that they're likely to care about.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Adometry raised around $44 million in funding from investors, including Austin Ventures, Sierra Ventures and Shasta Ventures.
Adometry will continue to serve existing customers, the companies said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Earlier this month, it was announced that the first annual Mayhem Festival Cruise — which was scheduled to set sail on Friday, December 7, 2012 from the Port of Miami, Florida and travels to the Bahamas, returning to the mainland on Monday, December 10 — was canceled.
Last week, Jason Simms got a chance to interview Scott Ian for an upcoming feature on ANTHRAX in The Oregonian. While Jason had Scott on the phone, he asked the guitarist for his thoughts on the cancelation, since ANTHRAX was to be one of the voyage's headliners. Here's what he said in its entirety.
"I saw the press release [announcing the cancelation], and we were as surprised as everybody else. We were literally out on the [Rockstar Energy Drink] Mayhem [Festival] tour when we heard that the cruise was canceled.
"It's a bummer. We were all really looking forward to it.
"It's funny because us MACHINE HEAD, LAMB OF GOD, we're all good friends, we've all known each other forever. None of us had ever been on a cruise before. We were all in Europe this summer playing festivals together and we were like, 'What do you think of this cruise thing? What's your take on it?' Everyone was kind of like, 'Alright, it's a little weird, we're going to be stuck on this boat for four days,' but everyone was excited that we were going to get to hang out and all get really shitty and have a lot of fun. I know all of us were bummed and I heard from the MACHINE HEAD guys that they were bummed.
"Yeah, I don't know why [it was canceled]. I can speculate and think that maybe in this economy, it's kind of tough to sell a ticket for that much money. You get all these bands and it's three days on a boat, if you break it down to what it's costing you per day, it doesn't seem like a lot of money. But I understand where we're at in this world in 2012. People just don't have that kind of money to shell out. I can only assume it comes down to that."
Mayhem Festival Cruise promised to offer fans a chance to experience a blistering 90-minute set from each one of six killer heavy metal bands — LAMB OF GOD, MACHINE HEAD, ANTHRAX, HATEBREED, SUICIDE SILENCE and KINGDOM OF SORROW — as well as additional showcase sets from Century Media, Metal Blade Records, Roadrunner Records and Sumerian Records artists, including GOJIRA, PERIPHERY, BORN OF OSIRIS, BATTLECROSS, OTHERWISE, GIRL ON FIRE, ANTI MORTEM, and GYSPYHAWK. Mayhem veterans JDevil (Jonathan Davis of KORN) and DJ Starscream (Sid of SLIPKNOT) were also slated to perform full DJ sets each night.
For more information, visit www.MayhemCruise.com.


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Watch This Trailer If You're Worried Romantic Comedies Aren't Good Anymore
If you like the humor of Girls and have a soft spot for Jean-Ralphio's sister on Parks and Recreation, then let me introduce you to the trailer for Obvious Child. It stars Jenny Slate, who you may recognize not just from Parks, but possibly Saturday Night Live (or as the very adorable voice in the viral video "Marcel the Shell With the Shoes On") — she plays Donna, a recently dumped comedian who rebounds with a sweet guy (Jake Lacy) and ends up with a little more than she bargained for.
Slate and Lacy's chemistry is so cute, but the rest of this romantic comedy isn't as conventional as it sounds; the humor is biting, and the situation gets very real and loses its sugar coating. I can't wait to see Slate in a starring role like this and hope this is her big breakout moment. Obvious Child comes out June 6, and you can watch the trailer now.
Source: A24


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Burney database trial: 17th & 18th century newspapers full text
Trial runs through April 29. Let us know if we should subscribe.
Burney Collection Newspapers: 17th & 18th century
Explore the early history of the English newspaper. Learn about the English Civil War, the Restoration and 18th century political and cultural developments.
"The newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. The present digital collection, that helps chart the development of the concept of 'news' and 'newspapers' and the "free press", totals almost 1 million pages and contains approximately 1,270 titles. Many of the Burney newspapers are well known, but many pamphlets and broadsides also included have remained largely hidden. Newly digitized, all Burney treasures are now fully text-searchable in Gale Digital Collection.
Newspaper images can be magnified for easier reading or reduced for on screen navigation. You can save and print article images, create persistent links and email them to others. When trying to print entire newspaper pages, you will need to tile them to make them legible given the differing paper size between newsprint and common office paper sizes." (From the database description)
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Security vs. privacy: Evaluating the government's case
Last month, I took up the issue of privacy from the perspective of the end user. This time I will try to shed some light on the government's position, to see if it's reasonable.
From the advent of telecommunications systems, the government has maintained the ability to tap calls and collect our communications. However, thanks to the Fourth Amendment, there has always been a pretty robust set of checks and balances in place. To tap a call, the (executive branch) investigators needed to get (judicial branch) approval in the form of a warrant. Further, if they collected data outside of the scope of a warrant, that information was inadmissible in court. If they happened to learn things from illegally obtained information, that information was deemed "fruit from a forbidden tree," and it too was inadmissible.
For a long time, this arrangement provided a pretty good balance between privacy and security. But things changed.
First, encryption entered the equation. Later, the Snowden revelations put everything into "ludicrous speed" (with apologies to the movie Space Balls).
As computers became more powerful, scientists built encryption systems using software as well as hardware. These systems were used to safeguard our privacy, among other things. From the beginning, though, the government has done all it could to throttle the rate of progress. Because encryption is math, and therefore knowledge, it couldn't be stopped. Its adaptation can be slowed down, however, and that is what the government has attempted, by limiting exports, key lengths and other things. By doing this, the government was presumably able to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
In the 1990s, we started to see commerce arrive on the Internet, and with it, a higher need for communications privacy. So we saw SSL and then, later, TLS. And now we have secure communications, right
Turns out that our trust in SSL was largely unsupported. A wise professor of cryptography once told me, "Rule number one for developing a security protocol is: don't!" I thought he was more than a little paranoid. That is, until the Snowden revelations of a couple of years ago. Now his paranoia seems quite reasonable.
The Snowden revelations taught the public that our secure communications were indeed child's play. SSL and other security protocols were developed by us crypto amateurs, and the pros found our efforts to be downright laughable. So most of the world was blissfully ignorant of the fact that its secure communications were still trivially easy to intercept.
But here's where things again changed. Whereas before there was a pretty solid system of checks and balances, the public learned from Snowden that mass surveillance was now in play. This meant that pretty much all communications were being collected and were potentially analyzable by the government.
In response, product vendors have been stepping up their game. One need only look at the security evolution of the iPhone from 2007 to today to see that Apple and others are getting serious about privacy.
What the government fears the most in this regard is that it will lose the ability to (lawfully or otherwise) collect information. It claims that it won't be able to catch terrorists, kidnappers and so forth. But are those fears reasonable
I find it curious that the government chose the case of the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone to push this issue. For one thing, the phone that the government is seeking to unlock is owned by his employer. Never mind the fact that the employer should have had the ability to manage that device and unlock it as it sees fit. For the executive branch investigators to turn to the judicial branch to force a vendor to unlock its own product seems quite bizarre when you consider it should have had it unlocked from day one.
Clearly, the government couldn't compel the terrorist to reveal the key, since he is dead. So instead, it had to reveal its own blundering by taking this to court.
I can only assume that, by choosing this case to push its agenda, the government is either desperate, feigning desperation or just staggeringly inept. I don't find comfort in any of those scenarios.
If the government is truly desperate, it has to know that it is losing the "crypto wars" and this is a last-ditch attempt to try to extract victory from the jaws of defeat. If it is merely feigning desperation, it is trying to lull us back into thinking our systems are more secure than they really are — meanwhile, it has developed or is developing some post-Snowden means of obtaining our data. And if it's just staggeringly inept — then God save us.
So do we really need to give up our privacy Being a fan of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I feel the onus should be on the government to unlock our secrets, not the other way around. I doubt any reasonable person would object to the government having the ability to do so, as long as solid oversight is in place and enforced. But we civilians certainly shouldn't be forced to build products that are deliberately weakened. The bar needs to be high, and in the name of liberty, we should be allowed to build our systems as strongly as we're able to.


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Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), which are an integral component of many organizations' consumer-directed health-care plans (CDHPs), celebrated their 10th anniversary on July 15.
These employer-based plans allow consumers to use accounts funded by their employers for qualified medical services. HRAs offer a number of advantages. Employers' HRA contributions are not taxed, HRAs have no contribution limits, and employers may decide to let unused funds carry over each year or even stay with the employee after termination.
HRAs, along with health savings accounts (HSAs), are gaining in popularity in the United States. According to a recent study by Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, commissioned by the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations, CDHP enrollment was up 18 percent last year.
The Mercer study also found that the average employee enrollment is higher in plans with HRAs. When employees have a choice between account-based plans and another medical plan, enrollment averages 31 percent for HRA-based plans and 21 percent for HSA-based plans.
"While everyone is analyzing the impact of the Supreme Court's decision, HRAs are quietly celebrating their 10th anniversary," says Jamie Spriggs, president of ConnectYourCare, whose consumer-directed, health-care benefit delivery platform provides a pathway for migration to account-based health plans. "HRAs and their younger sibling, HSAs, are having a new impact on controlling health-care costs and producing healthier outcomes," adds Spriggs.
HSAs are predicted to become increasingly popular as cost-savings vehicles after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It is estimated that 21 million Americans with private health insurance in 2011 were enrolled in a CDHP or an HSA-eligible plan, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Such consumers were found to be more likely to check whether their plan would cover the care they need, ask for a generic drug option, discuss treatment costs with a physician, use an online cost-tracking tool, and develop a budget, when compared to consumers who did not enroll in a CDHP.
The Towers Watson consulting firm also reports that over half of employers have implemented account-based health plans, which are paired with high-deductible plans and have low premiums, making healthcare more cost-effective. The substantial growth in these plans may be attributed to the increase in health insurance costs over the past decade, which have more than doubled. Since 2001, family premiums have increased by 113 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
For more information, visit www.ConnectYourCare.com.
By Ayo Mseka
Advisor Today


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Advice about 2011 Highlander and AWD
The 4runner sounds like a good option also, but I have read that it is very truck like, which is kindof what I want to get away from?
The Highlander sounds like what I need, if it only had a 4wd on-demand option, which it doesn't.
I also saw this video on youtube
around 3:10 they test a 2007 AWD Highlander, and the results are concerning. Not sure how much the awd system has been changed up to 2011.
I will be test driving both of these soon, but wanted some advice/opinions on getting AWD in my situation, and how well it works in 2011 Highlander for snow and sand.
I should also mention that I am concerned about extra maintenance and care that goes with AWD and tire rotation/inflation/differential servicing. I have never owned an awd car, and a lot of the info I have read talks about possibly damaging the system with even a difference in tire tread height??
wwest Member Posts: 10,706First, there is NO such thing as a full-time AWD/4WD system.
The HL was/is and remains a ONE-WHEEL drive system, there fully open diff'ls, front, center, and rear. It can be called AWD since when a wheel begins slipping Traction Control will activate, braking the slipping wheel(s) to apportion torque to wheels remaining with traction. The sad part, but a SERIOUS SAFETY aspect, is that it will also instantly dethrottle the engine.
The "backup" is the ability to switch TC off thereby returning the vehicle once again to ONE-WHEEL drive system but allowing unlimited wheelspin.
What we have out there in the marketplace today, "base" FWD marketplace, is both reactive F/awd systems, and pre-emptive F/awd systems. The reactive type, VC (Viscous Clutch/coupling) or TC (Traction Control), is fading away due to their poor performance in the real time wintertime environment.
There are now many versions of pre-emptive F/awd systems, the Honda/Acura SH-AWD system being the best of the best of those IMMHO. The idea is to ALWAYS bring on the rear drive capability, engage the rear drive in the instances most likely to result in loss of traction, and thereby loss of directional control, due to too much engine torque being used for roadbed conditions.
So, these systems engage the rear drive, in effect locking the "virtual" center differential even in highly tractive conditions. All of these systems seem to be incurring premature drive train component failures.
Were I in your shoes I would probably purchase an Acura MDX but disable the rear drive coupling(***) control circuit except in time of KNOWN need.
*** Remove fuses or add a manual switch.1 -
adefina Member Posts: 9I am looking at a 2011 Highlander for my daughter. I am not sure what you mean by this statement. "The sad part, but a SERIOUS SAFETY aspect, is that it will also instantly dethrottle the engine." What does this mean? Thanks.0
wwest Member Posts: 10,706Loss of traction on the front, driven wheels of a FWD or F/awd is considered such a serious matter that INSTANT reaction is required. Even the newer pre-emptive F/awd systems, Venza, Sienna, that could probably alleviate the loss of traction issue will do the same, apply braking to the slipping/skidding wheels and fully dethrottle the engine.
The currently accepted, seemingly accepted, design fix is to provide a method for disabling the TC, Traction Control, system temporarily.0 -
johnd15 Member Posts: 41The Highlander is a very safe vehicle - see safety ratings & airbag content. I own a 2011 with 4WD. I know the 4WD system is not as effective as Subaru's symmetric all wheel drive design. But I opted to go with HL anyway, driving on 99.9 % flat roads. If you live in a snow belt (which I do), get snow tires for your daughter's car. I'd take 4 Blizzak snow tires in place of 4WD anyday.0
johnd15 Member Posts: 41You wanted comments on how the 2011 HL 4WD handles in snow; I can now tell you. In N MI we've had a lot of snow & blizzard conditions already. I've experienced nothing but secure driving with no problems whatsoever driving on the snow & ice, on flat roads or uphill. There is a "snow" mode which I engaged just once out of curiosity. You can say I am definitely satisfied with its winter capabilities. I have had the ABS come on a couple of times braking on ice and stopped in a straight line quickly. The tires on our HL Limited are the Toyo A20s; my HL just broke 1000 miles.0
luckyseven Member Posts: 134AWD in current Highlanders is proven to be more then adequate in everyday city/suburbia driving. I've been through 3 Ohio winters with it, and drove through number of major snow storms without any problems. Two days ago we've got a major blizzard here in Ohio and I loved HLs handling going through it. What I also wanted to note that HLs is not an off road vehicle so it's AWD can't be compared with true 4WD. HLs AWD does what it is supposed to do, and not too bad on fuel comparing to other "better" 4WD implementations. I've been reading many negative posts about HLs AWD from wwest on this and other forums, looks like he's on the quest ... and funny thing he never even owned a current generation HL. :shades:
I also wanted to comment on the youtube video you linked... It's all true- traction control will take over in this situation on HL, and you'd get stuck in the deep snow or ice because of that. What Subaru's PR video conveniently "forgot" to mention that you can temporary disable traction control. Current HLs have a button for that by the knee and that would get you un-stuck and moving. So this is not a real life scenario. Subaru's 4WD is very good, but it comes at fuel economy price. There is always a trade-off in car designs.0 -
typesix Member Posts: 321At the time the Subaru video was made, the 1st generation AWD Highlanders could not defeat traction control via a switch(some have found a way to temp. disable traction control). The video didn't "forgot" the TC switch as the 2nd generation Highlander wasn't out yet. The video needs to be updated to reflect current Highlanders.0
luckyseven Member Posts: 134Current generation HLs have been out for 3 1/2 years now. Subaru folks had plenty of time to update the video, if they'd wanted so.0
wwest Member Posts: 10,706For the HL, including the 2011, disabling TC would have only made matters worse since absent TC activation the HL with three simple open diff'ls becomes a ONE-WHEEL drive vehicle.
TC, Traction Control, is the only means the HL has for re-apportioning engine torque to non-slipping wheels. To do that it applies braking to any slipping wheel(s) in order to sustain engine torque to a level higher than would be required for just freely spinning that slipping wheel(s).
Since this is a F/awd it will more likely than otherwise be the front wheel(s) that lose traction first. Since that is such a DIRE matter, often leading directly to loss of directional control, engine dethrottling is applied simultaneously with TC braking in order to URGENCY return your front wheels/tires to a tractive state.
There is also the potential for brake component overheating and rotor warpage if engine torque control is left to an unknowledgeable or inexperienced driver. It is for this reason that even RWD or R/awd TC systems will also dethrottle the engine but shortly after, typically a second or so, beginning braking the slipping wheel(s) should the driver not immediately "feather" the throttle.2 -
luckyseven Member Posts: 134wwest, have you ever driven a second gen HL in a snow? Too bad I can't post direct links here to toyota owners forum but it's easy enough to google. All I can tell that most of 2 gen HL owners, including me, really impressed with HL handling in deep snow and blizzard like conditions. HL AWD had very good opportunity to prove itself to many of it's owners in the big snowstorm that covered east coast few days ago, and it did it with flying colors0
financeman2 Member Posts: 5Your advice and warnings of risk may have elements of technical merit but certainly do not mirror my real life experiences driving in bad weather situations with an 08 AWD Highlander and now an 11 AWD Highlander. I am in my fourth winter season using the current Highlander AWD configuration...and have found it nothing but exceptional performance from the system.0
wwest Member Posts: 10,706Then why does most of these F/awd systems have a TC off function..??
And take a look about at how many owner without the TC off function are trying to find a substitute.
A halfway decent R/awd system would NOT require that.0 -
kyfdx Moderator Posts: 232,895I have a R/awd system in my SUV, and it has a traction control disabling function..
It's merely to keep the ABS from kicking in, to stop wheelspin... You need a little wheelspin to get out of deep snow.. Even my RWD sedan has the T/C disable function..
I don't see what that has to do with FWD based vehicles?
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wwest Member Posts: 10,706Soon after purchasing my new '92 LS400 I came to realize that its TC was more often a detriment, even putting me in harms way sereral times. So I removed the TC box and inverted the logic that always enabled TC upon startup.0
financeman2 Member Posts: 5Don't know...don't really care. I simply need a vehicle that works and drives effectively in slick road conditions...and this system works for me. I agree the AWD configuration is not a replacement for a full time 4WD system found in a Jeep or a 4Runner, but that does not diminish its value for my purposes. Again, I am very satisfied with the operation of the system.0
luckyseven Member Posts: 134Did you modify your 92 LS400 to enable or disable TC on start up? The only reason to disable TC if you get stuck in a snow/mud/sand. For 3.5 years of ownership 2 Gen HL I didn't find myself even once in a need to do so. In every day driving TC kicks in on the background, on rare occasions when needed and has only positive effect on handling. There is very little similarity between 92 LS400 and AWD 2nd gen HL in terms of handling with TC either enabled or disabled.0
biosmonkey Member Posts: 2Alright, so I guess it's about time to respond to my own thread.
First of all, the 4wd Highlander does use 3 open differentials, and traction control (ie braking) to redirect the torque to the non-spinning wheel. In this sense, it really is a 1WD vehicle I suppose. I will not comment on the safety factor of throttling the engine, but considering that a high rpm freely spinning wheel is typically going to happen in a low-speed "get me out of the mud/snow" situation I don't really see how that's an issue.
So I purchased a 2011 4wd Highlander, and have put around 700 miles on it so far. Very, very pleased with it.
I live in an area that saw a big winter storm dump 5-6 inches of snow on us last night. So after shoveling a path for the wheels, I had an opportunity to test the very reason I bought 4wd.
My driveway has a decline to it, so when backing out I am actually going uphill backwards. My neighbor has a similar situation, however, he has a 2wd Tundra. He spun his wheels most of the time, eventually making his way out after inching backward over the course of an hour. A few times, he started sliding forward and almost hit his house. I was a little hesitant to try, considering that if my car lost traction and I slid forward, I would fall off of a small cliff and plummet into the woods (no convenient house to stop me).
But, this was the reason I bought it right?
My neighbor, anxious to see how much trouble I would have, had asked if he could watch, so I knew I had an audience too (I think I saw popcorn?).
So I warmed up the car, engaged the Snow button, and put her in reverse.
I backed out of my driveway with absolutely no problem. If a tire slipped, or the tc engaged, I didn't know it. Even when I got to the street, and was driving in 5 inches of snow, I felt pretty much in control. Admittedly, I did not drive around the neighborhood for fun, so I can't say how well it would have done in a driving situation, but I didn't need to do that anyway.
My neighbor was pleased I did not plummet into the woods, although I think he was a bit disappointed in the lack of entertainment.
Nonetheless I am very pleased. Time will tell, but overall a great car, and highly recommended.0 -
accord6mt Member Posts: 53I recently purchased a 2011 Highlander 4WD and I have about 1,100 miles on it.
Last Saturday I drove to Snowshoe, WV (from the Washington, DC area) on a ski trip. Snowshoe is about 4,500 feet higher in altitude than DC so it gets a lot more snow up there. I drove there in the middle of a snowstorm and the last 20 miles up to Snowshoe are all steep mountain switchback roads. Through sometimes near zero visibility and about 6-8" of snow, I had absolutely no problem taking the Highlander up the hills. Never once did I get stuck and I confidently made my way up the mountain (on crappy OEM tires, no less). We got another snowstorm on Tuesday (12" this time) while in Snowshoe and I decided to use the "Snow" setting while driving around the mountain. It worked out well! The "Snow" setting altered shifting points beyond just starting in 2nd gear and it just worked. At the end of the day that's all I really care about - it just works. I'm never going to do anything extreme with the Highlander and I'll never try to make the Highlander do anything that it wasn't designed to do... it seems like a very capable vehicle.
So 1 month later and about 3 + hours of driving up and down steep mountain roads covered in 4-8" of snow, I can say that I'm very pleased with the real world performance of my Highlander.0 -
luckyseven Member Posts: 134I can see that some people trying to come up with Toyota 4WD/AWD conspiracy theories but never bother to drive the thing. Other group of people enjoying real-world performance of this very capable vehicle.0
accord6mt Member Posts: 53Just a quick update - Yesterday I drove the Highlander through about 6-8" of heavy, wet, slushy unplowed snow in the DC area... the kind of wet snow that turns to ice when pressed into the ground. What I saw while driving around was amazing: there were literally dozens and dozens of cars and 2WD suvs stuck on both sides of every road that had a decent hill. I've never seen anything like it. Cars were literally just spinning their wheels and the 2WD suvs were doing the same thing. I had my Highlander in "Snow" mode and even when stopped on the same inclines that other cars were stuck on, I made it up the hill without issue. Once again, a big thumbs-up to my Highlander It just works!!!0
farmit Member Posts: 1Alright everyone, Thanks for the posts. Looks like there's enough % of good to get the 4WD vs the 2WD. Only looking for the extra security of a possable snow while traveling from my flat land central valley California to going across the U.S. It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it...I can see my 2012 Limited already.................0
wwest Member Posts: 10,706I'd much rather drive around on foul weather in a 2WD(RWD) that goes no where, over a FWD or F/awd wherein my life is constantly threatened due to the extreme potential for loss of directional control.
By the way, "snow mode" is just another "nanny" helping you "feather" the throttle so you can more easily get up and going initially. Some earlier snow modes result in the transaxle never starting out in 1st gear, 2nd only. Others, mostly DBW, lower the "gain" of the throttle control servo.
That's why many new vehicles now have a TC off function so that you can get around by simply feathering the throttle. Many of us are old enough that we HAD to learn "feathering" the throttle as only RWD vehicles were around.
Bottom line...buy the FWD for FE but carry a good set of tire chains, for the FRONT, for the seemingly RARE occassions of need.0 -
luckyseven Member Posts: 134I wouldn't listen to wwest since he's only driven a HL in his imagination but loves bashing Toyota's AWD . HL's AWD performs pretty good on the snow as long as your tires are capable. I love "snow mode" button it really improves handling under heavy snow conditions. AWD will take about 2MPG more then FWD.0
wwest Member Posts: 10,706My '01 F/awd RX300, purchased new, now is closing in on 100K miles. My RX300 uses EXACTLY the same F/awd system, mostly non-functional F/awd system, as does the HL. The RX and HL shared that F/awd system until the RX350 was switched to the new Venza, more functional, pre-emptive, F/awd system as of the 2010 MY.
As I have said, modern day "snow mode" systems simply detune the engine's throttle response in reaction to acceleration position, simply making it more difficult to lose directional control on the slippery stuff. Most driver's of "my" era learned to use "snow mode" long before such an item existed. Start off in second gear, and/or pretend you have an egg between your foot and the accelerator pedal.
Also, learning to drive a Porsche 911 over our nearby mountain passes during the wintertime simply adds to the level of knowledge for wintertime survival.
"..loves bashing..."
No, I simply think driver/owners should be well educated as to the capability/functionality/limitations of their vehicles.
The HL's, and the pre-2010 RX', TC implemented F/awd system is strickly of the passive type, only reacts, "engages", POST wheelspin/slip development.
Prior to TC activation it is, and forever remains, a simple ONE-WHEEL drive system, THREE fully OPEN differentials, front/center/rear.0 -
luckyseven Member Posts: 134We've been over this number of times. All you have just nice sounding theories that had been proven wrong by real life experiences of actual HL owners. If HL would have any issues with snow performance we'd hear about it a lot after 5 years of production. You'll have hard time finding actual current gen HL owner complaining on a snow performance. You're the one who's never bothered to drive a HL, is having the most concerns about it. Do you really imagine yourself in a Highlander when driving a 911 Porsche in a snow? Why don't you just stop this nonsense?0
scooby19 Member Posts: 1
I have a 4runner awd that has differential lock and a 08 HL awd. Having driven both in bad Neast ohio weather I am pleased with the HL in deep snow and slush. My wife feels quite safe using snow mode, prevents lead foot on ice. Again in real life situations the HL does really well. I know I can turn off the traction control but have never found it necessary, even in 10-12 inches of unplowed road. I do obsess about wanting true 4wd in the highlander but have never needed it.
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2010highland Member Posts: 1I know that this is an old thread, but I just wanted to thank WWest. His description of Toyota's AWD system on my 2010 Highlander is spot on, and explains why I was experiencing what seemed like odd behavior when using tire chains on the front wheels and trying to climb a steep hill in deep snow. In that case, all the power got sent to the rear wheels since there was so much resistance on the front wheels. The differential system sent all the power to one rear wheel until the traction control system kicked in to stop it from spinning. Unfortunately, that also caused the rear end to slide sideways as the rear tires (no chains) spun wildly and so I repeatedly eased off the throttle at the same time that the Toyota system reduced engine power. As a result, I was stuck until I just hammered the throttle so that the brakes got applied and finally got power to the front. I imagine I wouldn't have encountered any problems had I had tire chains or snow tires on all four wheels, or just a Front Wheel Drive Highlander with tire chains.
Not sure why luckyseven is so defensive about Toyota's AWD system. WWest wasn't critical, he just described how it worked. I'm sure that Toyota's goal was to give consumers an "easy" experience that was mostly dependable. But, as with all things that involve engineering, the outcome in unusual situations can be unpredictable, and dangerous.0


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Yohkoh Mission
Have you ever wondered how scientists know so much about the Sun? Have you ever seen a deep, red picture of the Sun and wanted to know where it came from? Well, your questions may be answered! For most of this decade, the Yohkoh satellite has supplied us with tons of information about our closest star.
The Yohkoh Observatory was launched on August 31, 1991, from the island of Kyushu in Japan. Ever since, the satellite has sent back numerous X-ray and gamma ray images of the Sun. It uses four special instruments, two of which use spectroscopy. The other two use X-rays. Together, they send back spectacular images in light we can't normally see.
The main goal of the project was to increase our understanding of solar flares, which are sudden bursts of energy released by the Sun. Specifically, scientists want to know why X-rays and gamma rays are released during this type of event. However, the observatory also aids in the study of coronal mass ejections and other types of solar activity.
The Yohkoh satellite is controlled from the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences in Japan. On December 14, 2001, Yohkoh experienced a power shutdown to the scientific instruments. This power shutdown was triggered by an annular eclipse of the Sun that occurred over parts of the Pacific Ocean that same day. Efforts are being made to recover the spacecraft. Overall, the Yohkoh spacecraft has been highly successful and has provided real-time monitoring of solar activity for the sake of space weather studies.


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If you were ever a fan of those '50s and '60s sci-fi flicks whose trademarks were hoky FX, an eerie theremin soundtrack, and a rubber-suited monster, then Alien Trespass should scratch your nostalgia bone.Them!, It Came from Outer Space, and The Blob (which actually has a role in the movie) all get nods in R.W. Goodwin's retro-homage, which is set in a sleepy canyon town that's thrown into disarray after a spaceship crashes and a one-eyed land squid (the rubber suit) called a Ghota starts turning denizens into puddles of gelatinous goo. To track the Ghota, an alien space marshal (looking innately like Gort from the original The Day the Earth Stood Still) assumes the body of a square-jawed nerd (Eric McCormack) on his wedding anniversary and teams up with diner waitress Tammy (Jenni Baird). The wry, deadpan humor is spot on, and Goodwin, like Quentin Tarantino with Grindhouse, painstakingly re-creates the genre's era-mired milieu with affection. Even the crafty framing device is an elegiac paean.
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In New Hampshire's Lake region, Terrace Pines offers relaxed family camping in wooded waterfront sites and cabin rentals. Located on two lakes – Big and Little Dan Hole – we offer swimming, boating, and fishing on beautiful clear mountain waters. Big Dan Hole boasts of trophy fish – both Lake Trout and Salmon, and is where campers enjoy motor boating, water skiing, and sailing. Little Dan Hole is restricted to non-motorized boats and is great for quiet canoeing. Whether you come for a short visit, or a seasonal stay, we think you will enjoy what we have to offer at Terrace Pines Family Campground.
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"Theaters are the new Church of the Masses - where people sit huddled in the dark listening to people in the light tell them what it is to be human." -1930's theater critic
Saturday, December 18, 2004
If the film everybody is raving about, Sideways wins Best Picture in the year of The Passion of the Christ, I am going to seriously consider moving to eastern CT, to avoid a probable coming cataclysm. Honestly, along with Closer, this is the second film in four days that has made me want to flee this business, peeling of its slime as I run. It isn't so much the film - there have been mediocre, rambly, sexually explicit tales of moral pygmie navel-gazing narcissists before. It's just kind of, you know, excessively repulsive how everyone is falling all over themselves to rave about this project, because there are such a paucity of other serious competitors for Gibson's film.
Sideways is the story of two dreadful men, one an alcoholic manic-depressive loser, and the other a sex-addicted, pathological liar. (Are we having fun yet? Can't wait to rush out to the theater? But wait, there's more.) They hook up with two women, one of whom is a tramp who smokes pot and entertains men in the living room while her 8 year old daughter is in the next room. The other woman seems like less of a pot-smoking tramp, but in the end, she really isn't that much different in practice. She doesn't have a daughter though because she got divorced too early to have had kids. (Now, you're having fun, right? But, no, the entertainment goes on!) They are all just terrible, dreadful people. The sensation of watching them writhe around through two hours is alternately embarrassing and very, very sad.
I actually thought, as I emerged from the theater, which felt rather like climbing out a pit, that if a Christian had created those kinds of pagan characters in our projects, we would be accused of making one-dimensional "bad people" characters. But for some reason, when the pagans draw themselves in such dreadful lines, they are called "honest" and "profound". I guess it's the same rules which makes it okay for black hip-hoppers to use the "N" word?
People have raved to me about the movie because it has a lot of stuff about wine in it. But I found the whole wine sub-plot absolutely ill-fitting in this narative. It felt like the writer has a personal wine obsession, and he pretentiously stuffed the movie full of wine facts just to give some kind of background to his characters. But it didn't fit to me. Or at least, I don;t think the writers really understood what the whole wine thing might have added thematically. I mean, why ruin Miles' amazing love of wine, by making him a drunk? It kind of turns the whole 'Man will be saved by beauty" thing on its head. There were a few feeble - LONGWINDED - efforts to press some theme out of the characters grapes of wrath, but, in the end, the whole script was just a big mess. Intentionally mirroring the lead characters rambling 748 page novel? Hmmmm...
There was one lovely visual moment in the film. A baby "haunting moment" for you Act Oners out there. It had to do with the little bunch of pinot grapes that pull Miles out of his funk. Too bad the rest of the film didn't know it should have been about this.
The only thing I had heard about the film before I saw it was that it was "a bit wordy." HOLY MIND-BLOWING UNDERSTATEMENT, BATMAN! The two main male pigs in the film have the same conversation over and over and over and over again in the film's two plus hours. And it isn't a clever conversation either.
PIG 1: "Hey, Dude! Get over your manic-depressive sh*t because you're f*ckin' up my sex life!"
PIG 2: "Okay, okay, okay."
If Alexander Payne hadn't bought his own hype of being a clever genius, he should have submitted this project to some kind of script-doctor who could have cut out two-thirds of every dialogue scene (WHICH IS THE WHOLE MOVIE! NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS IN THIS MOVIE EXCEPT TALK!), and all of many of the scenes. It's just really sloppy writing. No narrative. An unbelievable story in which the female character's choices are all unmotivated. She just needed to make the choices she does so we can eventually get to some kind of ending. This is the definition of bad cinema story-telling.
I don't get the title either. Except for the fact that I really wish they would have filmed the extended male full-frontal nudity scene sideways. Talk about your highly offensive, stereotypical portrayal of the over-weight trucker and waitress class. (Someone say something about Hollywood being indignant about poverty, but despising poor people....) Indeed, people who don't want to see graphic portrayals of animal-like sex should stay away from Sideways. Don't be fooled by all the raves. There really is very little here.
Pass - forward, backwards, sideways.
1 comment:
Yeah, you're right. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I've gotten lectured a couple of times recently by my younger friend, who says that, "Times have changed. People are bad now, and everybody accepts it. You're getting old. You like Marvin Gaye and love songs, but people don't want love anymore, they just want sex."
"Sideways" is the typical scumbag story, and fits the formula perfectly. You and I find it incomprehensible that there could be people like this, but I guess that there must really BE people like this, or there would not be such identification with the characters.
I'm like you; I don't get it at all. Decent people don't "get" people who behave badly, make bad choices, live bad lives.
It's very sad and it makes me wonder that I ever tried to work in Hollywood. I'd still love to be able to accomplish something in the industry, but my value system seems to run counter to Hollywood. Post modern Hollywood does not recognize the distinction between good and evil, and says that all behavior is okay because it's human. The cost of bad behavior is never figured into the equation. It's about a perverse form of "individualism" run amok, wherein there is no accountability, no consequences for actions, and not "living in the moment" is the great sin. - 12:32 PM


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Ellen Siminoff is the founder and CEO of Shmoop, an expanding collection of lively online learning guides created by experts and educators. Siminoff is the other half of a Silicon Valley power duo. Her husband David, a co-founder of Shmoop, was involved in one of the largest mutual funds in the world, Capital Research—large early investors in Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, PayPal and America Online. Ellen Siminoff was Senior Vice President of Yahoo in the heady dot com years between 1996 and 2002. She is Chairman of Efficient Frontier, where as former CEO she built the company into the largest buyer of search ad keywords on Google and one of Silicon Valley's most valuable privately-held companies (approximately $275 million). She has a BA in Economics from Princeton and MBA from Stanford (where she met her husband). She sits on the board of directors for Mozilla, Efficient Frontier, Journal Communications, 4info, and US Auto Parts. She loves chocolate and the Green Bay Packers, struggles with golf and has actually been—that's right—shot. Talking with her is an energizing experience; Shmoop is an extension of her passion for all things stimulating, and believe it or not—learning for Siminoff is really all about the romance.
Victor: I've been having some fun this morning looking at Shmoop. Having been an English major in college, it's near and dear to my heart. I find it to be an absolutely fascinating resource—very cool—and quite hip!
Ellen: Thanks! We created this site out of love for literature and history and poetry, et cetera. We wanted that to be conveyed on every page.
As we started looking at and exploring it all—the different opportunities on the web for learning—we became very annoyed with a lot of the content that was out there. It was not written in a way that inspired people, that got people excited. It was more about how to get out of work or how to just get through it.
But we bring with it such a passion.
This all started because my husband and daughter were reading Call of the Wild and my husband started looking at what was on the web for Call of the Wild. We think it's a great story, but found that there was just too much that was not written in a way that got everyone excited. So much of literature—you studied this so you know—is subject to interpretation. We didn't want to have one theme.
So much of the time, it's: 'What's the theme of Macbeth?' Well, yes, ambition is a theme—but there can be lots of different themes about a piece of work. There can be lots of different angles at which you can look at it.
So, I join you in just being excited about all this.
Victor: Alright. That answers it. We'll certainly digress, but you got my list of questions?
Ellen: I absolutely did. We created Shmoop—I hope I answered that to some extent—out of a love for learning and a desire to build something for the Digital Age. Too much of the stuff on the Internet is of a really old-textbook set. I hate it. I hate this! They remind me of the same things I read when I was in school that haven't been changed, haven't been written in a very engaging way—and aren't built for digital. We wanted to change that.
Victor: The name?
The name "shmoop" is actually a Yiddish term and it means, "move something forward." The first impression is always in the name. In a lot of ways, a name speaks to what you're trying to do—which is to move education forward—but it also speaks to a fun, interesting, relevant outlook on life.
Victor: Your husband's, your daughter's and your own passions prompted you to create this?
Ellen: Exactly. We've been involved with the Internet since its early days. I was part of the founding executive team at Yahoo. My husband was one of the early investors in a lot of the Internet companies, including AOL. We love the web and we love education and learning. We thought it would be great to combine the two.
Victor: Sounds like you may have had many roads to take—why this one?
Ellen: We felt that nobody was doing it really well.
At the time we started this, a few years ago—in theory, due to the economy—the web was dead. Nobody wanted to create original content. They all wanted to do tools to help people share.
We came at it from an angle that people don't necessarily want to completely share points of view, but they do want to get other people's points of view. They want a trusted resource that's going to give them a framework to think about things.
The biggest thing was to make it a relatable site, one that would help people love literature and would help them learn it better. We understand that not everybody is an honors A student. If you really want to go deep, we are as deep as you can get into the different themes and quotes. Then, for people who just want a leg up, we've tried to make them more passionate about this subject matter.
Every single part of our site we talk about why you should care. Why is Lord of the Flies relevant to you today? Why do you study Reconstruction? Why does it matter? The biggest benefit is that it's relatable. We built it for the digital world.
Victor: TV, video games, even the Internet—may be hazardous to one's academic health. I half expected to see something much more superficial, representing a "dumbing down" of learning.
Upon my review of your site, Shmoop is much deeper, yet still contains humor and irony. It doesn't aspire to sound professional or formal—but that's the point: it works to attract people in a very real way. It's well thought out, presenting the old stuff newly, for a new generation—yet still manages to lure in anyone else who might be even vaguely interested in literature with an addicting, refreshing writing style. There's passion in them words! It's all very current—and the whole Shmoop experience is actually quite rejuvenating.
Ellen: Exactly! Thank you for getting it. And that was exactly our view. You don't have to be boring to study. You can be relatable. It can be interesting. But don't mistake the conversational, ironic tone for an in-depth look. Print out one of our lit guides or some of the others—they're hundreds of pages.
I guarantee you, if you wanted to take on Ulysses, what we have is about as deep as you can go—but that doesn't mean that it can't be written in a way that's engaging. Our hope is that this inspires people to get excited about something they might not have been excited about.
Victor: You've been immersed in this, it's your baby (or at least one of them), and from your varied experience—you likely have an eagle's-eye view of all this.
Along those lines, not too long ago, Don Tapscott lectured a Dutch group, Vision in Technology. They all discussed a three-media model of revolution.
1. Radio and TV, 50s and 60s.
2. Internet Revolution, 90s and early 2000s (static websites and eventual broadband for all).
3. Here's where it gets interesting: we are currently in the middle of a third revolution, where the idea of "mass media" flips to become a "media mass".
In our current and third media revolution, the anonymous client gives way to hyperlinked customers, websites cede to social networking, customer database fall to online and real communities, reacting makes room for interacting, return on investment changes to return on involvement, and false professionalism is scorned while humor and irony are welcome.
Shmoop's refreshingly real writing style certainly falls into that third media revolution category—and, I know—that's quite a long set up!
Ellen: Yeah, no, no, no—you're totally right. You're talking about being authentic. That's something we really strive for. I admit that we haven't been perfect along the way.
For example, we had someone at Shmoop write about Huck Finn. It's not what's on the site today, but—someone wrote about Huck Finn. We all loved Huck Finn, it's a great American novel, but the person who wrote it was not interested in Huck Finn, and that completely came out. We had to rewrite the entire thing.
You can be a brilliant analyst and a great writer, but if you're not passionate about the subject matter, it comes out. It's not authentic.
We've tried very hard. Ulysses is arguably a very tough read, but read what we wrote. The person who wrote it was completely authentic in their passion for it.
I see sites all the time that are trying to encourage kids to cheat. So many sites sell essays. That's anathema to us. We want people to love this material. And if they're not going to be English majors—that's totally fine, but—we want them to like it a little more than they did the day before.
Victor: You mentioned a daughter—at home or in college?
Ellen: No, she's still young, and I have a son, too. We do a lot of reading and learning at home.
Victor: Do they provide quality control? "Mom, this isn't right…" For example, does your daughter influence Shmoop content?
Ellen: She does. She's a pretty good reader. She and my husband read Grapes of Wrath together last summer. Then, they went on Shmoop and criticized it. She's really the one who inspired us to share. With Harry Potter, too, because she pointed out (and you know, we have Twilight and Harry Potter) that there's a lot of really good stuff in Harry Potter. In what we would consider more popular literature, you can take the same passion that you have for those books and take them to maybe a more sophisticated read.
There's a lot you can get out of those books.
A lot of that was talking to people who are actually reading today.
We have much debate about the best sellers. Does Twilight qualify as great literature? Our view is, we agree that it's probably not up there with Macbeth, but that it deserves to be—you know, people are loving reading Twilight or Harry Potter.
Let's give them a way to analyze it and then they can take those same tools and apply them to other pieces.
Also, if you look at those kinds of books, they reference a lot of other literature out there.
In Twilight, Bella's reading Wuthering Heights the whole time. Harry Potter certainly speaks to a lot of the mythology that you see in all of literature.
We really wanted to take those same things. We got that from talking to real readers. We don't want just the family to influence it, but obviously our kids have—though other kids have as well.
Victor: You also have poetry, bestsellers, history, civics, biography and even music. Why music?
Ellen: We were sitting around and asking, who are the best poets? Edgar Allen Poe, Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, you know, all the people you and I grew up with. Someone pointed out, "Hey, Bob Dylan's a poet. His lyrics should be interpreted in the same way that a poem is interpreted." So, if you actually look at poetry, "Bob Dylan" is listed as a formal poetry area [for example], "All Along the Watchtower." From that, we got inspired to do music as lyrics.
Please note, these are not like fan sites. We don't care who is dating who, or how hot someone looks in their music video. We look at these people as poets. We interpret their work as poetry.
I would argue that "One" by U2 is a fantastic poem.
We've actually gotten terrific feedback from teachers on this. They start a poetry unit with one of these. It makes some of the other stuff a little more interesting. Teachers are really struggling to come up with things that are relatable. It's hard today to teach. Students are used to a lot of audio, video and multi-tasking. It's hard to engage. Just being able to offer something more relatable helps.
That's how music came to poetry. I love what we did with poetry. I really struggled to understand poetry, I'm much better on literature and history, but we've gotten really nice feedback on that and we've gone really in depth in a lot of poems.
Victor: Alright, then. If lyrics can qualify as literature, then how about movies—Avatar, for example? It's got plotting and themes. Would you ever apply a literary framework to popular films?
Ellen: Yeah, people have talked to us about that. I've thought of that. I would do math and science first, in fact we're working on Algebra and biology right now. Those probably deserve to be in there first. If you can make those much more relatable, then that's great.
Avatar may or may not be the perfect example because the plot, you know is a little more simplistic—but there are some terrific movies out there. This is forward thinking, but should we take movies about books and compare? I don't mean, if you only saw the movie, then what would you see? More frequently there is a whole different interpretation to them. Hamlet has been done a number of times; there's Pride and Prejudice. How are they different from the books?
Victor: Good point. From books and now to letters: Bill Gates recently issued his annual letter. His section on education focuses entirely on online learning, describing how it's still in its very early stages but is more timely now than ever. Shmoop is all about online learning, but has been in beta for a while now…
Ellen: We've been in beta a while, yes. At some point, we'll not be in beta but part of our spiel is you're constantly learning—so perhaps we're always in beta. But that's an internal debate.
Victor: Former director of education at the Gates Foundation Tom Vander Ark talks about a new wave of tools and platforms for education. You've got content. In your case, content matters more. Facebook may be a great platform, but how many Facebook variations could there be on the market? There's only a need for one. Platforms are nice, but companies that can create strong content still matter. Thoughts on how Shmoop can remain robust and unique? Similar companies in their early stages are generating lots of excitement, but Shmoop seems to be the real deal, and you have a good grip on where it's headed.
Ellen: Well, thank you. We come at it from a context standpoint, and being in Silicon Valley, most people come at this from a tools standpoint. What I mean by that is, we wanted to write great content, and we wanted it to be—as I said—relatable. And for the digital age—understandable. But we also provide Shmoop on every device.
It's on eBooks, Barnes & Noble's Nook, the Amazon Kindle. We're going onto Sony's device. We have a bunch of apps; we're on iPhone. We don't care how you consume it; the tool to us is irrelevant…
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UPDATE: Here it is—PART 2 of 2 … click here.


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- Departments
- Trial Court
- Traffic Tickets
- Civil Infraction Hearings
Civil Infraction Hearings
If you deny responsibility and request an informal hearing, at that hearing:
- Neither side may be represented by a lawyer.
- The magistrate conducts the hearing in an informal manner. This means that the magistrate listens carefully to both sides of the story without requiring either side to strictly follow the same rules of evidence and procedure that a lawyer would have to follow in court.
- Both sides have a right to appeal the magistrate's decision to a judge. The judge would then hold a formal de novo hearing.
- (De novo is a legal term meaning that the judge would hear the case fresh, free to make his or her own decision based on the evidence presented at the formal de novo hearing regardless of what was presented at the informal hearing or what the magistrate decided at that hearing.)
If you deny responsibility and request a formal hearing, the case will be set for a pre-trial conference. At that conference:
- The police will be represented by a lawyer. You may hire a lawyer to represent you at your own expense, but if you cannot afford a lawyer the court will not appoint one for you at public expense.
- The lawyer for the police will listen to your side of the story and decide whether the charged violations should be reduced, dismissed or otherwise modified. You then will decide whether to accept responsibility for any modified violation.
- If the case is not settled at the pre-trial conference, a formal hearing will be scheduled.:
- The hearing will be held before a judge. The judge must conduct the hearing in a formal manner, meaning that you (or your lawyer) must follow the same rules of procedure and evidence that lawyers are bound to follow in other kinds of court cases.
- Both sides have the right to appeal the judge's decision to a higher court. This appeal would not be a de novo hearing.


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Led Zeppelin, Beatles + Jimi Hendrix Songs Covered by D'Angelo-Fronted Supergroup at Bonnaroo
Reclusive R&B musician D'Angelo joined a supergroup led by Roots drummer Questlove to perform a set filled with rock and funk classics at the 2012 Bonnaroo Festival early Sunday morning (June 10).
According to Funk It Blog, the surprise introduction of D'angelo, who's recently emerged from over a decade of public near-silence following the tour for his 2000 album 'Voodoo,' drew a boisterous reaction from the crowd. He joined an all-star assembly featuring touring Who bassist Pino Palladino, Prince saxophonist Eric Leeds and guitarist Jesse Johnson from the Time to perform a ninety-minute show.
The evening kicked off with 'Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)' from Jimi Hendrix's final studio album, and went on to feature songs from Johnny Watson, Ohio Players and the mighty Funkadelic. (By the way, explain to us again how their early records aren't on classic rock radio?)
As you can hear on this full-length mp3 from the session, the evening kept cooking with more Hendrix ('Power of Soul,' from 'Band of Gypsys'), as well as surprisingly rare Beatles and Led Zeppelin tracks – 'She Came in Through the Bedroom Window' and 'What is and What Should Never Be.'
All told, it's enough to make one extremely jealous not to have been in Manchester, Tennessee this weekend.
Watch Questlove's Superjam Perform 'She Came In Through the Bedroom Window'


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This article is more than 1 year old
Government outlines five year IT strategy
Try sticking to the next five months, lads
A draft strategy paper from the Cabinet Office has pointed to web 2.0, cloud computing and service oriented architecture as areas for exploitation over the next five years.
A leaked version of Government ICT Strategy: New World, New Challenges, New Opportunities outlines how the government is thinking about harnessing IT up to 2015. It says that many new technologies will become mainstream in that time, but that the three it names are of particular interest.
Web 2.0 will provide the basis to improve public sector interaction with citizens and businesses; cloud technology will enable the development of different business models for the procurement, use and reuse of applications; and service oriented architecture – which provides a set of principles and concepts defining how services interact with each other – can enable the delivery of the G Cloud and an online store of government applications.
The paper identifies technologies that could be significant to government in 2015-20. It emphasises the potential of semantic technologies, which separate data and content files from application code and meanings, and could enable computers to handle transactional tasks that currently require human intervention.
It also points to location aware services, human computer interaction – which removes the need for a keyboard – and technologies for more energy efficient operations. It says the strategy is sufficiently flexible to incorporate these and others as they arise.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told GC News that, while it does not comment on the contents of leaked documents, the paper is aimed at positioning the government's approach to IT for the next five years, and that it hopes to publish the finished version before Christmas.
The paper also provides details on a number of existing initiatives, outlining 14 strands of activity. The first of these is the Public Sector Network, which will lay the ground for a number of standardised services such as authentication, secure file transfer and federated email. It could also be used for a Government Conveyance Network, to connect supplier data, and a Service Information Monitor, a repository of service information.
A prototype of the G Cloud infrastructure is scheduled for delivery early in 2010, and a pilot version of the Government Applications Store, an online portal for the sharing and re-use of business applications, should be launched in the first half of the year.
The paper also outlines plans to develop 10-12 highly resilient strategic data centres for the public sector over the next three years, and to develop a common desktop strategy. This will involve delivering 80% of central government desktops through a shared utility service by 2015, and promoting wider use by the rest of the public sector. It is also planned to converge with the cloud by 2015.
Other strands cover shared services, architecture and standards, open source, green ICT, information security and assurance, the government IT profession, better project delivery, supply management, and internal alignment and compliance.
The paper emphasises that, while the Cabinet Office, the Chief Information Officers Council and the Office of Government Commerce will provide leadership, the strategy will be implemented primarily by individual organisations. "It is therefore critical that the delivery structures of the strategy (governance) reflect the needs and experiences of front line delivery organisations," it says.
Stephen Roberts, principal analyst at Kable, said: "The feasibility of the ambitions set out here varies. Some are good pointers to the future shape of government ICT, others less so.
"The report avoids opportunities to provide clarity on live procurement issues, such as how the putative desktop strategy links to the Department for Work and Pension's delayed tender. In the main, it is a summary of previous papers, offering little new."
This article was originally published at Kable.
Kable's GC weekly is a free email newsletter covering the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. To register click here.


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Around The League will profile the top 40 players we see Making the Leap in 2013. No. 31 on the list: Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate.
Why Tate is on the list
Slow to develop as an NFL route runner, the 2010 second-round draft pick out of Notre Dame was an afterthought in the Seattle Seahawks' offense early in his career. That changed last season when Tate led all Seahawks receivers with 42 catches, 635 yards and five touchdowns over the final 11 games (including the playoffs).
Although undersized by NFL wide receiver standards, Tate was shifted from the slot to the outside last season. After making that transition, he showed a knack for making big plays in the red zone and down the field, as evidenced by this leaping 38-yard touchdown over New York Jets cornerback Kyle Wilson.
That vertical strike wasn't a rare sight. According to Pro Football Focus, Tate's 343 yards on deep targets ranked in the top 20, ahead of Andre Johnson. Only five NFL wide receivers had a better target-to-touchdown ratio than Tate's .104 last season.
Even with the addition of the more talented Percy Harvin, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is looking for more ways to get the ball in Tate's hands.
"Golden is really ready to be a terrific football player. We love what he does, and we just have to get him the ball more," Carroll said last month. "It took him a couple years to get going and now he's legit for us and we love what he brings."
Tate's potential breakout faces two primary obstacles: a run-heavy offense and the arrival of Harvin.
The Seahawks rushed a league-high 536 times last season, and their 405 passing attempts were the fewest in the NFL by a wide margin. Even if the coaching staff puts more responsibility in Russell Wilson's hands this year, Carroll insists his offensive attack will remain balanced.
With reliable hands and the ability to make defenders miss after the catch, Tate's skill set is eerily similar to that of Harvin. This shifty, tackle-breaking hurdle into the end zone versus the Minnesota Vikings looks like it was lifted from a Harvin highlight reel.
Is Tate's presence redundant now that Harvin is in the fold? The primary difference between the two is that Tate makes more plays not only down the field but also outside the hashmarks, while Harvin will remain primarily in the slot. This full-body extension near the sideline in the playoff victory over the Washington Redskins is not a play we typically see in Harvin's bag of tricks.
2013 expectations
My first instinct in watching Tate's 2012 film was that a receiver-needy team such as the Baltimore Ravens should be looking into the viability of a trade considering the Seahawks' depth at the position with Doug Baldwin as their fourth receiver. On second thought, though, it makes little sense for the contending Seahawks to part with an integral player. Tate could be re-signed next offseason while Rice's bloated salary is jettisoned.
The always-optimistic Carroll still expects Tate to have "a huge year." Our guess is that Tate will fall short of 1,000 yards while still proving to be a valuable asset for the Seahawks.
Update: That depth is coming in handy. Now that Harvin is reportedly out until at least Thanksgiving and Sidney Rice is undergoing knee treatment in Switzerland, Tate is perfectly positioned for his first 1,000-yard season in a contract year. Expect a true breakout performance in 2013.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesseling.


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New Year's Resolutions vs Goal Planning | How to Write Resolutions That Work
Are you stuck in the cycle of writing New Year's Resolutions that get put on a shelf by the time February arrives? Are you hoping 2019 will be the year when everything starts coming together? Instead of falling into the same old trap of writing ineffective New Year's Resolutions, start the year off right by implementing The Guaranteed Success Formula – an incredibly powerful goal planning technique. Using Goal Planning to Write Effective Resolutions First things first. To write effective … Read More


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Filter + Sort
It's all about bike shorts! The cutest new trend is here to make you feel good from top to bottoms. Aerie bike shorts are your newest love in pretty prints, patterns & neons that will make you smile.
Bike shorts are your go-to for a comfy casual look. Bike shorts look amaze with sweaters & sweatshirts in made for leggings lengths (the best for a busy Saturday!) Bike shorts are great for running errands & lounging. Pair with a sports bra for a sporty chic look that's ready for the gym (!!!) Bike shorts are a serious staple for chilling & getting moving.
Bike shorts look great with hoodies, tanks & your fave boyfriend tees. Pretty heathered fabrics, bright neons & cute camos are here to keep you feeling comfy (oh, and POCKETS, too!)
Feeling chill but also… chilly? Check out our joggers and sweatpants. Want to be even more co-ZZZ-y? Check out our pajama pants!


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Hvad er inkluderet?
Silfra fissure in Iceland has become widely known in the last few years. Divers agree that this is one of the best freshwater dive sites in the world. Glacier water from Langjökull glacier that has been filtered through the lava field on its 50 years long journey to the fissure is so clear that the visibility is about 100 meters. Silfra is divided into four main sections that we will explore during the tour. The water in Silfra is at a constant 2-4 degree celsius throughout the year but all seasons have their charm under the surface. Silfra is situated in the heart of Þingvellir National Park, the founding place of the world's oldest parliament and a UNESCO world heritage site. Silfra is an otherworldly scene located in the lava field directly on top of the continental rift valley between America and Europe.
Usually one does not want to be between a rock and a hard place but in the case of Silfra you want nothing more. Experience the weightless floating through the clear glacier water going in between the tectonic plates. The slow current gives one a perfect pace to explore this beautiful area. The fresh water visibility is an unmatched specimen, so wide and long that sometimes it is only limited by the density of the water itself. Depth varies from 10 to 40 meters. Our dive depth is limited to 18 meters by park regulations. This is without question one of the best dive tours the world has to offer. If you are a keen diver, make sure not to miss it! Be aware that this is a challenging dive where you need to be capable of carrying heavy equipment up to 400m.


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Recreating the past with nostalgic
Remembering Henderson County by Louise Bailey. History Press, 2005. 144 pages.
In Louise Bailey's Remembering Henderson County, the author recreates the past with affection, nostalgia and humor. To me, reading any of her books (I've located six of them) is akin to sitting on my porch in the evening while the light fades and the hectic noise of traffic recedes, until it could easily be a century ago; rain crows call and the night wind is freighted with honeysuckle. Now, all I need is a cool sip of spring water from a gourd dipper. For me, reading a few pages of a Louise Bailey book is the equivalent of a refreshing drink from a mountain spring. I'm a little anxious about the results though. Water is not supposed to be intoxicating, but after reading Louise, I tend to get a bit light-headed and "fanciful." This is an example.
In the chapter titled, "Who Are We Western North Carolinians?" Louise describes a conversation with a farmer near Flat Rock who bought one of the first Model T trucks (circa 1915) so he could haul produce to Laurens, S.C. "It had solid tires on the back and pneumatic tires on the front." This model had no windshield and no curtains; consequently, on a hot summer night, a steady stream of bugs and insects peppered the passengers' faces.
The farmer's first run to Laurens was memorable. The roads were washboards and gullies that could easily warp an axel, and heavy rains often made them impassible or dangerous. Average speed was 10 mph. However, the most interesting aspect of the journey was the return trip. "The way the lights worked, if you had the motor running real fast, you had good light." Inevitably, the T-model would slow and the lights would dim and go out.
It is easy to imagine what this trip would be like in moonlight. Progress would be slow, but what a wonderful experience, puttering through the moonlight ... a kind of
magical, dream-light landscape. Ah, but for this weary farmer, there is no moon. He stops and sleeps fitfully until daylight.
Related Items
For me, this wonderful description of an interrupted journey reminded me of all of those analogies in literature for the creative impulse or revelation. I remember some old German poet that told a story that is similar to Louise Bailey's description of a night journey home from Laurens.
The German poet was lost in "a dark wood," and very frightened because a storm was brewing. Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning, and in that instant, the traveler saw the distant village, the church steeple and the roof of his own home. When he was once more in darkness, he retained a memory of where he was going and how he could get there. There are other famous brief "flashes of lightening" or momentary insights in which weary, disheartened travelers a nd poets suddenly "see" a world "behind" the darkness.
Maybe I'm getting a little carried away here, and I am definitely "embellishing" Louise's story. However, I like the image of a Model T truck puttering through the dark At 10 mph. The lights have gone out, but for a moment, the moon swims from the clouds into the open sky and the Model T truck travels for a short time by moonlight.
Yes, I am "pushing the envelope" here, but that seems to be an apt analogy for a writer who sometimes travels by the magical but brief illumination.
To me, "traveling by moonlight" in a Model T is profoundly different from traveling by the "common light of day," or its artificial equivalent (electricity). Maybe if I sit still on my porch tonight, maybe if I play a little Nina Simone, drink a little spring water and concentrate, I can, for a brief moment, be a passenger in Louise Bailey's Model T. I'll let you know what happens.


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My bank uses a smartcard reader (separate module not connected to the computer) as depicted below:
When I need to log into my account it provides me with a challenge and I need to provide some details:
I need to provide the 8 digits, enter my pin and then it returns an 8 number sequence which is then to be entered after which you are logged in.
A similar mechanism is employed for signing transactions but using the M2 button (blue one) rather than the M1 and instead of a random number you need to first give the amount and then the timestamp. I'm interested in the cryptography used behind it (if it's symmetric, assymetric or a combination of both) and how the signing is actually done.
a user guide can be found here.


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Topic-by-topic Review
This page describes the topic-by-topic review project for the elinux wiki.
This project consists of going through each major topic area on the wiki, and reviewing the content for accuracy and up-to-date-ness. Obsolete material will be moved to an "archive" section of the page (and dated, if possible). The latest areas of work in that topic will be added, and any appropriate page re-organizations will be made.
The idea is to overhaul the content over time, to make it better and more uniform, and especially to deprecate material that is obsolete or no longer relevant. Part of this concept is to do this one topic at a time, over a period of months and years, so that there can be focus in each area and visible progress as work is done.
Topic List
Here are the major portals or topic areas on the wiki (independent of the hardware areas):
- Embedded Linux Glossary - definitions of general terms
- Boot Time
- Memory Management
- Security
- Events (skip this one)
- Multimedia
- Power Management
- System Size
- Hardware Hacking
- File Systems
- Real Time
- Resource Management
- Development Platforms (skip this one)
- Networking
- Firmware
- Legal Issues
- Toolbox
- build systems
- embedded distributions
- Android Portal
- Debugging Portal
- Category:Categories
It seems to me that this misses one major area of work, which is embedded distributions and build systems. These are both in the "toolbox" area, which may need to be broken out for individual sub-sweeps of it's own.
In order to do a methodical sweep of the site, there needs to be a mechanism to keep track of the status of a page (whether it has been reviewed, by whom, when it was last reviewed, what needs work on the page, etc.) Usually, the Discussion page for each page has meta-information like this about a page. Can we work out a way to automatically scan the discussion pages, and generate reports. This would be useful for finding pages that still need work.
It would be nice to have a quality metric, with objective criteria for when a page has reached some threshold of utility or quality, so that we can know when we're "done".
Finding experts
Another idea is to find experts to come in and help review material, on a one-time basis, for each topic area. Volunteer editors may not have the subject matter expertise to know how to edit an area. And it can take a very steep learning curve to come up to speed enough to contribute (even to know what material is now obsolete). We should determine a way of involving subject matter experts, such that they don't have to become wiki experts, and we minimize the impact on their time, at the same time leveraging their expertise.
- here's one: have volunteer editor send page (or page fragment) by e-mail to a subject matter expert, with specific questions about the content (what is obsolete?, what is the status of this thing?, what is the next project in this area?)
- Problems: relies on volunteer editor knowing who the expert is, getting their e-mail address, and communicating with them.
- Possible Solutions: Ask on the Embedded Linux mailing lists. Solicit input from community on IRC.
- Maybe we should keep the list of experts on the Discussion page for each portal? (Maybe this policy could apply to all
This is the sequence of operations for cleaning up a topic area:
Building a proper checklist is a work-in-progress...
- First, create the glossary
- Make sure that definitions related to a topic area are available on a glossary page for that area
- Check the portal page
- check index for related pages (search for terms on the glossary page, to find pages related to this topic)
- make sure all linked pages are categorized
- check the topic category to find pages that are not linked in
- Check individual pages
- is the material obsolete (if so, move to a history section)
- are any major new features or technology areas missing (if so, at least put stubs for them)
- Check for external/new material:
- Check for LWN.net articles on the given topic
- Check for stackoverflow articles
- Scan presentations for unlinked articles
- check for stubs, and replace with content
- This may require research or discussion with experts


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Al Capone
"Nyah, see, nyaahhh..."
Alright, listen up youse mugs. Alphonse Gabriel "Scarface Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was a gangsta, see? He ran a criminal syndicate in Chicago, yeah, during the 1920s and 1930s. His hoods was runnin' hot hooch in his ritzy juice-joints, and he was makin' some serious mazuma. But he was to learn that everything was not jake, and soon Uncle Sam had him cooling his heels in the pokey.
Early life
As a young wop, Capone belonged to a mob of equally greasy yooths known as the Brooklyn Rippa's, involved in stealing apples, pranking neigbours, pimping, and other sorts of wholesome childish mischief.
Capone worked a series of odd jobs after being expelled from school for making a shiv[1]. Over the years, he worked as a shaving model at barber training school, as a waiter for the well known chef Joseph "Psycho Joe" McCleaver, and target for vaudeville knife-thrower Jimmy "Shakes" McGraw. It is thought that one of these jobs earned him the nickname "Holey Fuck, I Ain't Never Seen A Face So Lacerated" Al.[2]
With the introduction of Prohibition,[3] Capone decided that New York was all wet, and Chicago was the bee's knees, and so hopped in a hayburner to beat feet to Ole Chicagy.
The Chicago mob gave him the job of running the notorious nightclub, The Illegal Speakeasy. After the eighth time the club was raided by bulls, Capone hit upon the brilliant idea of renaming it to avoid suspicion. After his first attempt at rebranding the club as The Legal Speakeasy failed, Capone renamed it The Illegal Non-Speakeasy and then Not a Speakeasy At All, Wink, Wink. Finally, he renamed it Al's Coffee Shop, which had the effect of stopping the raids, but drove away his customers, who wanted not coffee, but illegal alcohol.[4] Finally, Capone hit upon a permanent solution — change the name back to The Illegal Speakeasy and bribe the coppers.
With this, Capone's operation become the most profitable speakeasy in Chicago, and when you consider just how desperately Chicagoans need to suck in that giggle water to forget their worthless, worthless lives, you can imagine how much money he was raking in.
Rise to Power
When Capone's superior, Benito "Baldy Benny" Mussolini left Chicago to become Duce of Italy, Capone took his place as ruler of the South Side. The remainder of the Chicago underworld was run by the North Side Gang (lead by Edward G. "Little Caesar" Robinson), the East Side Mob (lead by Jimmy "Public Enemy" Cagney) and the Gotham Mob (run by Mr. Freeze).
At first, these four gangs coexisted peacefully. Friendly mobsters smiled at each other from the cabs of their booze trucks, and extortionists tipped their hats to each other in the streets. There was even an annual All-Chicago Intermob Picnic, at which there were machinegun firing contests, arson races, and the sack race, in which hit men ran an obstacle course whilst carrying a dismembered corpse in a burlap sack.
But then things turned nasty. Little Caesar put out a hit on Capone, hiring Los Angeles based hitman Buggs "The Rabbit" Bunny, who attempted to lure Capone to his death by creating an exploding robot disguised to look like some kinda Italian dame. Capone survived the blast, but became increasingly paranoid and unpredictable. Deciding that the best way to ensure his own safety was to take complete control of Chicago, he hit on all sixes, and went to war.
Mob War
With Capone on the warpath, Chicago exploded into an orgy of violence, which is the least fun sort of orgy there is. Many of the hoods of Chicago had been seduced into the lifestyle by an insidious form of music known as Gangsta Croon, exemplified by L-Dawg "Satch-M" Armstrong's infamous paean to "yegg life", Jeepers Creepers:
" | " |
Fired up by music like this, they took to the streets and began shooting bullets at each other with tommy-guns and slings.
The Robinson Left Arm Massacre
The first major casualty of the mob war was Little Caesar, who was brutally machine-gunned in the left arm while shopping for canoles and/or calzones. Upon recovering, Robinson split, famously telling his men
"Boys, they shot me in the left arm this time. Next time it might be my right arm, my collar bone or even my shins. I'm getting out while the getting's good."
At around the same time, Mr. Freeze died of cancer of the frost-gland, leaving Chicago divided between Capone, Cagney and an up and coming gang called the IRS.[11] Capone made the great mistake of his career when he decided to take on Cagney first.
Capone saw Cagney as the greater danger, because of his fearsome ability to wield a half-grapefruit as a deadly weapon. Cagney had already got citric acid into a shaving cut on Charlie "Lucky" Luciano's face and half blinded Meyer Lansky.
With a face full of scars highly vulnerable to owies, Capone saw Cagney as a great threat and sent out the deadly killer Rico "The Mad Ape" Murderino to have him whacked. Murderino misinterpreted this order, and whacked him off. The two were recently married in Sweden.
This left Capone with just one enemy, and a ruthless plan for dealing with it.
Frankenstein's Day Massacre
Facing his last surviving enemy, the Federal taxation system, Capone decided on quick and deadly action. Luring a number of major tax codes, exemptions and schedules to an abandoned warehouse on February 14th (Saint Frankenstein's Day), Capone's men lay in wait with machine guns. The taxes were caught unprepared, and were unable to act to defend themselves. The only survivor was a deduction for upgrading farming equipment, which was severely wounded and later died in hospital.
The Federal bosses back east, lead by Herbert "Drill Press Herbie" Hoover were angered by this attack and sent their best "fixer" to deal with Capone. His name was Eliot Ness.
Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness was a Federal agent who was determined to bring down Capone. Unable to trust corrupt agents who might have been in Capone's employ, he outsourced his policing requirements to a group of Indians of the lowest caste, thus forming the famous crime fighting group known as the Untouchables.
For four seasons on ABC and again in a 1987 feature film, the Untouchables did battle with Capone, even after Capone famously beat Kevin Costner to death with a baseball bat.[12] The Untouchables destroyed dozens of speakeasies, booze barrels, illegal stills, gambling dens, brothels, opium dens, counterfeiting presses and three card monte tables, before FBI director J. Edgar Hoover took away their axes, telling them that they couldn't have them back until they were prepared to use them responsibly.
Ness was acting under enormous time pressure, as many of his Untouchables were succumbing to cholera and were not expected to survive the monsoon. So he painstakingly assembled a case against Capone on charges of Simony.
The arrest of Al Capone rocked Chicago. His criminal activities were well known, but not even his closest allies know that Capone had committed the terrible crime of Simony, the act of purchasing church offices. But in the trial that followed, Ness was able to prove conclusively that Capone had paid over $40 000 dollars in order to be ordained Bishop of Chicago. The case nearly collapsed when a key piece of state evidence — a bishop's mitre inscribed with the initials "A.C." turned out not to fit Capone's enormous greasy goomba head. However, Capone's defense council famously failed to take advantage of this situation, telling the jury "If he can't wear the hat... uh... well, think about that." The jury voted to convict, and Capone went to Alcatraz.
Capone reportedly "did not at all enjoy" being in prison, and on several occasions asked "to be let out for just five minutes or so."
He was paroled for a week in the mid thirties, but broke his parole by kidnapping the Lindbergh Baby, attempting to assassinate FDR, attacking Shirley Temple with a length of rattan cane and marching infantry forces into the previously demilitarized Rhineland. He was returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was finally released in 1947, and was soon in trouble in with the law again; this time for giving John Wayne cancer. He died before the matter could come before the grand jury.
Al Capone in popular culture
There are no known references to Al Capone in popular culture.[13]
- ^ While most of his classmates made their shivs in metal shop, Capone chose to construct his in English class, interrupting an interesting discussion on Keats' epic poem "Ode to Payback".
- ^ Later shortened, first to "Has a Face with Several Scars" Al, and finally to "Scarface" Al.
- ^ And wanted for the murders of a chef, a knife thrower and over three dozen trainee barbers.
- ^ The sudden appearance of a new customer base of pretentious arty types in berets did little to offset the Mob's financial losses.
- ^ "Peepers" — gangsta slang for illegal Canadian whiskey.
- ^ "Eyes" — a slang term for the red-eyed appearance that many users of booze or crack booze get.
- ^ 1920s slang; in modern terms this line refers to bitches, and the making of passionate love thereto.
- ^ Another sexual allusion, this time to the size of the "gangsta's" manhood, or wang.
- ^ A "heater" is a gun; the singer suggests intent to murder his "bitch"; an illegal act in several states.
- ^ The true meaning of this line is so terrible as to defy translation.
- ^ Hi! I know you are only calling the IRS a criminal gang as a joke, but you really shouldn't. If you think about it, income taxation really is no better than robbery, and as such, the IRS really could be considered a criminal gang, much like the criminal gangs I've learned about in private school and seen on my Mom's plasma screen TV in my gated community. If you don't believe me, just check out my website, where I ramble on incoherently about Ayn Rand. Yours, an irritating Libertarian.
- ^ Or such is my recollection.
- ^ For good reason. In fact, merely referencing that there are no references to Capone usually causes a mob hit within minutes. Run!
Featured Article (read another featured article) | Featured version: 20 April 2008 |
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A Digital Collection of Smithville's History 1897 - 1915
View Collection
Local merchants most likely published Smithville's first newspaper, Name It & Take It, in 1897.
Later it was named The Smithville News.
Destroyed in a fire in 1901, the newspaper was revived in 1908 by Ralph B. Carter, a local telephone exchange pioneer. Under Carter, The Smithville News covered local business, limestone, railroad news, and happenings--society news, church events, obituaries, the occasional criminal mischief, and gossip about who was courting whom--in Smithville, Harrodsburg, Sanders, Fairfax and Clear Creek. Marketed as politically independent, the newspaper took editorial "digs" at some hot-button Progressive Era issues such as prohibition, teacher pay, fair business practices, transportation, and rural mail service.
A Timeline of Smithville Events is also available.
We look forward to hearing from you about the project. Send your comments to the Indiana Room.


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We are a club that meets every Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (club hour) in Nassau Hall Room 222 to chat about different things relating to women and human rights issues.
We usually talk about things that concern us, like family, school, jobs, relationships, social and political issues. We host programs that discuss human rights, with a focus on women's rights, both locally and globally.
The value of being a member is to know that there is a place where we can be ourselves, talk about our ideas, real problems and concerns, and exchange opinions on different topics. We also provide leadership opportunities for all students.
We learn a lot about ourselves and the world we live in. We are sure that if you join the Women's Student Association/Student Association for Human Rights with an open heart you will never regret having done so. It is a great place to get to know other interesting people, to learn and to get help. All points of view are welcome. We all hope to see you there soon.
For more information please contact Club Advisor Sara Hosey 516.572.7180