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Programs that could help prevent, reduce, and end homelessness will be discussed at "Lunch with the League" on Tuesday.
Mike Dunthorn, program manager for homeless service in the Knoxville Community Development Department, will be the guest speaker at Tuesday's lunch, which starts at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.
Dunthorn's presentation will focus on the issues confronting Knoxville and the efforts being made to address issues of homelessness by providing permanent solutions, a press release said. He will address the value of partnering with many other organizations in providing assistance to the homeless.
As a native Oak Ridger, he will also discuss some of the lessons learned in Knoxville and how they may benefit his hometown. Dunthorn was born and raised in Oak Ridge and is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and the University of Tennessee.
After a year's tour of duty as a staffer in the U.S. Senate, he returned to East Tennessee and in 1999 began working in the Community Development Department for the City of Knoxville. Early on, Dunthorn began to focus on the issue of homelessness and was a co-author of the Knoxville-Knox County Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. That plan was one of many similar efforts across the country and was a part of a national effort—encouraged by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness—to create local, outcome-driven community plans to address homelessness. As part of that effort, Dunthorn traveled to a number of cities across the country to share information and offer advice as other communities worked to develop and implement their plans to address homelessness. He is now in the process of working with the city administration and community partners to develop a new, revised plan for Knoxville.
"Lunch with the League" is open to the public, and it is co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge. There is no cost to attend, and reservations are not needed. Box lunches will be available starting at 11:30 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis for $7, or you may bring your own. Coffee and tea are provided.
For more information about LWVOR, visit lwvoakridge.org.
The Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church is at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike.


text:
Left Hand Medium Code 75 Electrofrog (SLE196)
$42.06 $29.45
Peco HO Scale Left hand Medium #6 switch, this is the fine scale code 75 rail. This switch is power routing as well as a powered frog. Simply add a PL-10 or PL-10W switch motor and PL-13 switch motor contacts for remote operation
Type: Electrofrog Code: 75 Radii: 40″
Availability: 9 in stock
Electrofrog ARE power routing, this means the frog rails will be powered from the point rails (the rails that move). This will cause a short circuit on your layout when installed in a passing siding for both DC and DCC when the switch at the opposite end of the siding is set for the mainline and the opposite end of the siding is set for the diverging route. To eliminate this problem use insulated rail joiners on bothe of the frog rails. The advantage to Electrofrog is with small steam locomotive, because the frog is always powered the small loco's do not have a tendency to stall on the frog.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I dusted off my Vimeo account to post a test video in HD from the Kodak Zi6, the pocket-sized HD video camera (now shipping from Kodak).
Looking west down 42nd Street. Taken with the pocket-sized Kodak Zi-6 from Park Avenue, the part that's elevated and goes around Grand Central. Music by Philip Glass from Koyaanisqatsi. It's amazing how good Glass' music is that some schlub can take a video of a busy Manhattan street using a pocket-sized camera and it comes out feeling like it's a clip from the film. Leitmotif, anyone?
Came out looking pretty good. The major issue I have so far with the Zi6 is the lack of image stabilization...it's pretty jittery, even with a steady hand. But it was $180 and it fits in my pocket so I can't complain too much.


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Willow | |
Salix alba 'Vitellina-Tristis' Morton Arboretum acc. 58-95*1 | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
(unranked): | Angiosperms |
(unranked): | Eudicots |
(unranked): | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Salicaceae |
Tribe: | Saliceae[1] |
Genus: | Salix L. |
Species | |
About 400.[2] |
Willows, also called sallows, and osiers, form the genus Salix, around 400 species[2] of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species are known as willow, but some narrow-leaved shrub species are called osier, and some broader-leaved species are referred to as sallow (from Old English sealh, related to the Latin word salix, willow). Some willows (particularly arctic and alpine species) are low-growing or creeping shrubs; for example, the dwarf willow (Salix herbacea) rarely exceeds 6 cm (2.4 in) in height, though it spreads widely across the ground.
Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to life, and roots readily sprout from aerial parts of the plant.
The leaves are typically elongated, but may also be round to oval, frequently with serrated edges. Most species are deciduous; semievergreen willows with coriaceous leaves are rare, e.g. Salix micans and S. australior in the eastern Mediterranean. All the buds are lateral; no absolutely terminal bud is ever formed. The buds are covered by a single scale. Usually, the bud scale is fused into a cap-like shape, but in some species it wraps around and the edges overlap.[3] The leaves are simple, feather-veined, and typically linear-lanceolate. Usually they are serrate, rounded at base, acute or acuminate. The leaf petioles are short, the stipules often very conspicuous, resembling tiny, round leaves, and sometimes remaining for half the summer. On some species, however, they are small, inconspicuous, and caducous (soon falling). In color, the leaves show a great variety of greens, ranging from yellowish to bluish.
Willows are dioecious, with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on separate plants; the catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves.
The staminate (male) flowers are without either calyx or corolla; they consist simply of stamens, varying in number from two to 10, accompanied by a nectariferous gland and inserted on the base of a scale which is itself borne on the rachis of a drooping raceme called a catkin, or ament. This scale is square, entire, and very hairy. The anthers are rose-colored in the bud, but orange or purple after the flower opens; they are two-celled and the cells open longitudinally. The filaments are threadlike, usually pale brown, and often bald.
The pistillate (female) flowers are also without calyx or corolla, and consist of a single ovary accompanied by a small, flat nectar gland and inserted on the base of a scale which is likewise borne on the rachis of a catkin. The ovary is one-celled, the style two-lobed, and the ovules numerous.
Almost all willows take root very readily from cuttings or where broken branches lie on the ground. The few exceptions include the goat willow (Salix caprea) and peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides). One famous example of such growth from cuttings involves the poet Alexander Pope, who begged a twig from a parcel tied with twigs sent from Spain to Lady Suffolk. This twig was planted and thrived, and legend has it that all of England's weeping willows are descended from this first one.[4][5]
Willows are often planted on the borders of streams so their interlacing roots may protect the bank against the action of the water. Frequently, the roots are much larger than the stem which grows from them.
Willows are very cross-compatible, and numerous hybrids occur, both naturally and in cultivation. A well-known ornamental example is the weeping willow (Salix × sepulcralis), which is a hybrid of Peking willow (Salix babylonica) from China and white willow (Salix alba) from Europe.
The hybrid cultivar 'Boydii' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[6]
Ecological issues
Willows are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, such as the mourning cloak butterfly.[7] Ants, such as wood ants, are common on willows inhabited by aphids, coming to collect aphid honeydew, as sometimes do wasps.
A small number of willow species were widely planted in Australia, notably as erosion-control measures along watercourses. They are now regarded as invasive weeds, and many catchment management authorities are removing and replacing them with native trees.[8][9]
Willow roots spread widely and are very aggressive in seeking out moisture; for this reason, they can become problematic when planted in residential areas, where the roots are notorious for clogging French drains, drainage systems, weeping tiles, septic systems, storm drains, and sewer systems, particularly older, tile, concrete, or ceramic pipes. Newer, PVC sewer pipes are much less leaky at the joints, and are therefore less susceptible to problems from willow roots; the same is true of water supply piping.[10][11]
Pests and diseases
Willow species are hosts to more than a hundred aphid species, belonging to Chaitophorus and other genera,[12] forming large colonies to feed on plant juices, on the underside of leaves in particular.[13] Corythucha elegans, the willow lace bug, is a bug species in the family Tingidae found on willows in North America.
Rust, caused by fungi of genus Melampsora, is known to damage leaves of willows, covering them with orange spots.[14]
The leaves and bark of the willow tree have been mentioned in ancient texts from Assyria, Sumer and Egypt[15] as a remedy for aches and fever,[16] and in Ancient Greece the physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the fifth century BC. Native Americans across the Americas relied on it as a staple of their medical treatments. It provides temporary pain relief. Salicin is metabolized into salicylic acid in the human body, and is a precursor of aspirin.[17] In 1763, its medicinal properties were observed by the Reverend Edward Stone in England. He notified the Royal Society, which published his findings. The active extract of the bark, called salicin, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the compound in its pure state. In 1897, Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin (in his case derived from the Spiraea plant), which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally acetylsalicylic acid, was named Aspirin by Hoffmann's employer Bayer AG. This gave rise to the hugely important class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Willow has been listed as one of the 38 substances used to prepare Bach flower remedies,[18] a kind of alternative medicine.[19]
Some of humans' earliest manufactured items may have been made from willow. A fishing net made from willow dates back to 8300 BC.[20] Basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub house walls, were often woven from osiers or withies (rod-like willow shoots, often grown in coppices). One of the forms of Welsh coracle boat traditionally uses willow in the framework. Thin or split willow rods can be woven into wicker, which also has a long history. The relatively pliable willow is less likely to split while being woven than many other woods, and can be bent around sharp corners in basketry. Willow wood is also used in the manufacture of boxes, brooms, cricket bats, cradle boards, chairs and other furniture, dolls, flutes, poles, sweat lodges, toys, turnery, tool handles, veneer, wands and whistles. In addition, tannin, fibre, paper, rope and string can be produced from the wood. Willow is also used in the manufacture of double basses for backs, sides and linings, and in making splines and blocks for bass repair.
- Agriculture: Willows produce a modest amount of nectar from which bees can make honey, and are especially valued as a source of early pollen for bees. Poor people at one time often ate willow catkins that had been cooked to form a mash.[21]
- Art: Willow is used to make charcoal (for drawing) and in living sculptures. Living sculptures are created from live willow rods planted in the ground and woven into shapes such as domes and tunnels. Willow stems are used to weave baskets and three-dimensional sculptures, such as animals and figures. Willow stems are also used to create garden features, such as decorative panels and obelisks.
- Energy: Willow is grown for biomass or biofuel, in energy forestry systems, as a consequence of its high energy in-energy out ratio, large carbon mitigation potential and fast growth.[22] Large-scale projects to support willow as an energy crop are already at commercial scale in Sweden.[23] Programs in other countries are being developed through initiatives such as the Willow Biomass Project in the US, and the Energy Coppice Project in the UK.[24] Willow may also be grown to produce charcoal.
- Environment: As a plant, willow is used for biofiltration, constructed wetlands, ecological wastewater treatment systems, hedges, land reclamation, landscaping, phytoremediation, streambank stabilisation (bioengineering), slope stabilisation, soil erosion control, shelterbelt and windbreak, soil building, soil reclamation, tree bog compost toilet, and wildlife habitat.
- Religion: Willow is one of the "Four Species" used ritually during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. In Buddhism, a willow branch is one of the chief attributes of Kwan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion. Christian churches in northwestern Europe and Ukraine often used willow branches in place of palms in the ceremonies on Palm Sunday.[25]
In China, some people carry willow branches with them on the day of their Tomb Sweeping or Qingming Festival. Willow branches are also put up on gates and/or front doors, which they believe help ward off the evil spirits that wander on Qingming. Legend states that on Qingming Festival, the ruler of the underworld allows the spirits of the dead to return to earth. Since their presence may not always be welcome, willow branches keep them away.[26] In traditional pictures of the Goddess of Mercy Guanyin, she is often shown seated on a rock with a willow branch in a vase of water at her side. The Goddess employs this mysterious water and the branch for putting demons to flight. Taoist witches also use a small carving made from willow wood for communicating with the spirits of the dead. The image is sent to the nether world, where the disembodied spirit is deemed to enter it, and give the desired information to surviving relatives on its return.[27] The willow is a famous subject in many East Asian nations' cultures, particularly in pen and ink paintings from China and Japan.
A gisaeng (Korean geisha) named Hongrang, who lived in the middle of the Joseon Dynasty, wrote the poem "By the willow in the rain in the evening", which she gave to her parting lover (Choi Gyeong-chang).[28] Hongrang wrote:
"...I will be the willow on your bedside."
In Japanese tradition, the willow is associated with ghosts. It is popularly supposed that a ghost will appear where a willow grows. Willow trees are also quite prevalent in folklore and myths.[29][30]
In English folklore, a willow tree is believed to be quite sinister, capable of uprooting itself and stalking travellers. The Viminal Hill, one of the Seven Hills Of Rome, derives its name from the Latin word for osier, viminia (pl.).
- Hans Christian Andersen wrote a story called "Under the Willow Tree" (1853) in which children ask questions of a tree they call "willow-father", paired with another entity called "elder-mother".[31]
- Old Man Willow in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, appearing in The Lord of the Rings.
- "Green Willow" is a Japanese ghost story in which a young samurai falls in love with a woman called Green Willow who has a close spiritual connection with a willow tree.[32] "The Willow Wife" is another, not dissimilar tale.[33] "Wisdom of the Willow Tree" is an Osage Nation story in which a young man seeks answers from a willow tree, addressing the tree in conversation as 'Grandfather'.[34]
- In "The Secret of Salix Babylonicus," set in the Babylonian exile, the willow is portrayed benignly as a symbol of sympathy in grief and perseverance in suffering, an upright character who shows solidarity with the exiles and comes to express the spirit of the psalms.
- The "Whomping Willow" is a feature of the grounds of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter stories.
In Central Europe a "hollow willow" is a common figure of speech, alluding to a person one can confide secrets in. The metaphor was used e.g. in the poem Král Lávra (King Lear) by Czech poet Karel Havlíček Borovský (1854).
Selected species
The genus Salix is made up of around 400 species[2] of deciduous trees and shrubs:
- Salix acutifolia Willd. – long-leaved violet willow
- Salix alaxensis (Andersson) Coville
- Salix alba L. – white willow
- Salix amygdaloides Andersson – peachleaf willow
- Salix arbuscula L.
- Salix arbusculoides – littletree willow
- Salix arctica Pall. – Arctic willow
- Salix arizonica Dorn
- Salix atrocinerea Brot. – grey willow
- Salix aurita L. – eared willow
- Salix babylonica L. – Babylon willow, Peking willow or weeping willow
- Salix bakko
- Salix barclayi Andersson
- Salix barrattiana – Barratt's willow
- Salix bebbiana Sarg. – beaked willow, long-beaked willow, and Bebb's willow
- Salix bicolor
- Salix bonplandiana Kunth – Bonpland willow
- Salix boothii Dorn – Booth's willow
- Salix brachycarpa Nutt.
- Salix breweri Bebb – Brewer's willow
- Salix canariensis Chr. Sm.
- Salix candida Flüggé ex Willd. – sageleaf willow
- Salix caprea L. – goat willow, or pussy willow
- Salix caroliniana Michx. – coastal plain willow
- Salix chaenomeloides Kimura
- Salix cinerea L. – grey willow
- Salix cordata Michx. – sand dune willow, furry willow, or heartleaf willow
- Salix delnortensis C.K.Schneid. – Del Norte willow
- Salix discolor Muhl. – American willow
- Salix drummondiana Barratt ex Hook. – Drummond's willow
- Salix eastwoodiae Cockerell ex A.Heller – Eastwood's willow, mountain willow, or Sierra willow
- Salix eleagnos Scop. - olive willow
- Salix eriocarpa
- Salix exigua Nutt. – sandbar willow, narrowleaf willow, or coyote willow
- Salix floridana
- Salix fragilis L. – crack willow
- Salix fuscescens - Alaska bog willow
- Salix futura
- Salix geyeriana Andersson – Geyer's willow
- Salix gilgiana Seemen
- Salix glauca L.
- Salix glaucosericea
- Salix gooddingii C. R. Ball – Goodding's willow, or Goodding's black willow
- Salix gracilistyla Miq.
- Salix hastata L.
- Salix herbacea L. – dwarf willow, least willow or snowbed willow
- Salix hookeriana Barratt ex Hook. – dune willow, coastal willow, or Hooker's willow
- Salix hultenii
- Salix humboldtiana Willd.
- Salix integra Thunb.
- Salix interior
- Salix japonica Thunb.
- Salix jepsonii C.K.Schneid. – Jepson's willow
- Salix jessoensis Seemen
- Salix koriyanagi Kimura ex Goerz
- Salix kusanoi
- Salix laevigata Bebb – red willow or polished willow
- Salix lanata L. – woolly willow
- Salix lapponum L. - downy willow
- Salix lasiolepis Benth. – arroyo willow
- Salix lemmonii Bebb – Lemmon's willow
- Salix libani – Lebanese willow
- Salix ligulifolia C.R.Ball – strapleaf willow
- Salix lucida Muhl. – shining willow, Pacific willow, or whiplash willow
- Salix lutea Nutt. – yellow willow
- Salix magnifica Hemsl.
- Salix matsudana Koidz. – Chinese willow or twisted willow, variant Corkscrew
- Salix melanopsis Nutt. – dusky willow
- Salix miyabeana Seemen
- Salix monticola
- Salix mucronata - Cape silver willow
- Salix microphylla Schltdl. & Cham.
- Salix myrsinifolia Salisb.
- Salix myrtillifolia
- Salix myrtilloides L. – swamp willow
- Salix nakamurana
- Salix nigra Marshall – black willow
- Salix orestera C.K.Schneid. – Sierra willow or gray-leafed Sierra willow
- Salix paradoxa Kunth
- Salix pentandra L. – bay willow
- Salix phylicifolia L.
- Salix planifolia Pursh. – diamondleaf willow or tea-leafed willow
- Salix polaris Wahlenb. – polar willow
- Salix prolixa Andersson – MacKenzie's willow
- Salix pulchra
- Salix purpurea L. – purple willow or purple osier
- Salix reinii
- Salix reticulata L. – net-veined willow
- Salix retusa
- Salix richardsonii
- Salix rorida Lacksch.
- Salix rupifraga
- Salix schwerinii E. L. Wolf
- Salix scouleriana Barratt ex Hook. – Scouler's willow
- Salix sepulcralis group – hybrid willows
- Salix sericea Marshall – silky willow
- Salix serissaefolia
- Salix serissima (L. H. Bailey) Fernald — autumn willow or fall willow
- Salix serpyllifolia
- Salix sessilifolia Nutt. – northwest sandbar willow
- Salix shiraii
- Salix sieboldiana
- Salix sitchensis C. A. Sanson ex Bong. – Sitka willow
- Salix subfragilis
- Salix subopposita Miq.
- Salix taraikensis
- Salix tarraconensis
- Salix taxifolia Kunth – yew-leaf willow
- Salix tetrasperma Roxb. – Indian willow
- Salix triandra L. – almond willow or almond-leaved willow
- Salix udensis Trautv. & C. A. Mey.
- Salix viminalis L. – common osier
- Salix vulpina Andersson
- Salix yezoalpina Koidz.
- Salix yoshinoi
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salix. |
Wikispecies has information related to: Salix |
- Aravah, the Hebrew name of the willow, for its ritual use during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles;
- List of Lepidoptera that feed on willows
- Rhabdophaga rosaria, a willow gall;
- Willow Biomass Project;
- Willow water, using the biological rooting hormones indolebutyric acid and salicylic acid from willow branches to stimulate root growth in new cuttings;
- Sail ogham letter meaning willow.
- ↑ "Genus Salix (willows)". Taxonomy. UniProt. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
- 1 2 3 Mabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge.
- ↑ George W. Argus. The Genus Salix (Salicaceae) in the Southeastern United States. Systematic Botany Monographs. 9. JSTOR 25027618.
- ↑ Leland, John (2005) Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports into America, p. 70. Univ of South Carolina Press. At Google Books. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ↑ Laird, Mark (1999) The Flowering of the Landscape Garden: English Pleasure Grounds, 1720-1800, p. 403. University of Pennsylvania Press At Google Books. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ↑ "RHS Plant Selector - Salix 'Boydii'". Retrieved 2 June 2013.
- ↑ "Mourning Cloak". Study of Northern Virginia Ecology. Fairfax County Public Schools.
- ↑ Albury/Wodonga Willow Management Working Group (December 1998). "Willows along watercourses: managing, removing and replacing". Department of Primary Industries, State Government of Victoria.
- ↑ Cremer, Kurt W. (2003). "Introduced willows can become invasive pests in Australia" (PDF).
- ↑ Salix spp. UFL/edu, Weeping Willow Fact Sheet ST-576, Edward F. Gilman and Dennis G. Watson, United States Forest Service
- ↑ "Rooting Around: Tree Roots", Dave Hanson, Yard & Garden Line News Volume 5 Number 15, University of Minnesota Extension, October 1, 2003
- ↑ Blackman, R. L.; Eastop, V. F. (1994). Aphids on the World's Trees. CABI. ISBN 9780851988771.
- ↑ David V. Alford (2012). Pests of Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Flowers. p. 78.
- ↑ Kenaley, Shawn C.; et al. (2010). "Leaf Rust" (PDF).
- ↑ James Breasted (English translation). "The Edwin Smith Papyrus". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
- ↑ "An aspirin a day keeps the doctor at bay: The world's first blockbuster drug is a hundred years old this week". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
- ↑ W. Hale White. "Materia Medica Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Therapeutics". Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ↑ D. S. Vohra (1 June 2004). Bach Flower Remedies: A Comprehensive Study. B. Jain Publishers. p. 3. ISBN 978-81-7021-271-3. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
- ↑ "Flower remedies". Cancer Research UK. Retrieved September 2013. Check date values in:
(help) - ↑ The palaeoenvironment of the Antrea Net Find The Department of Geography, University of Helsinki
- ↑ Hageneder, Fred (2001). The Heritage of Trees. Edinburgh : Floris. ISBN 0-86315-359-3. p.172
- ↑ Aylott, Matthew J.; Casella, E; Tubby, I; Street, NR; Smith, P; Taylor, G (2008). "Yield and spatial supply of bioenergy poplar and willow short-rotation coppice in the UK" (PDF). New Phytologist. 178 (2): 358–370. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02396.x. PMID 18331429. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ↑ Mola-Yudego, Blas; Aronsson, Pär. (2008). "Yield models for commercial willow biomass plantations in Sweden" (PDF). Biomass and Bioenergy. 32 (9): 829–837. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2008.01.002. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ↑ "Forestresearch.gov.uk". Forestresearch.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ↑ "ChurchYear.net". ChurchYear.net. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ↑ Doolittle, Justus (2002) [1876]. Social Life of the Chinese. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7103-0753-8.
- ↑ Doré S.J., Henry; Kennelly, S.J. (Translator), M. (1914). Researches into Chinese Superstitions. Tusewei Press, Shanghai. Vol I p. 2
- ↑ "The Forest of Willows in Our Minds". Arirang TV. August 20, 2007. Retrieved September 10, 2007. Check date values in:
(help) - ↑ "In Worship of Trees by George Knowles: Willow".
- ↑ "Mythology and Folklore of the Willow".
- ↑ "Under The Willow Tree". Hca.gilead.org.il. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ↑ "Green Willow". Spiritoftrees.org. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ↑ The Willow Wife Archived May 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Wisdom of the Willow Tree". Tweedsblues.net. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- Keeler, Harriet L. (1990). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons. Pages 393–395. ISBN 0-87338-838-0.
- Newsholme, C. (1992). Willows: The Genus Salix. ISBN 0-88192-565-9
- Warren-Wren, S.C. (1992). The Complete Book of Willows. ISBN 0-498-01262-X
- Sviatlana Trybush, Šárka Jahodová, William Macalpine and Angela Karp. (2008). A genetic study of a Salix germplasm resource reveals new insights into relationships among subgenera, sections and species BioEnergy Research. 1(1):67 – 79.
External links
Look up withy or osier in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Look up willow, sallow, withy, or osier in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |


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31 Meals from Minimalist Baker by Dana Shultz
The angle: A month of great dinner ideas, direct to your kitchen!
Recipes for right now: Goat Cheese Chicken Salad, Simple Veggie Ciabatta Pizza, Veggie Bibimbap with Brown Rice, Cashew Coconut Curry, Baked Vegetable Egg Rolls, Kale Falafel Hummus Wraps, Boozy Red Wine Spaghetti
Who would enjoy this book? Cooks in a dinner rut, anyone who'd like a month off from planning every single dinner, anyone who took our March Cooking Cure and is ready for fresh ideas!
Quick Facts
• Who wrote it: Dana Shultz of Minimalist Baker
• Who published it: Self-published digital cookbook
• Number of recipes: 31 dinner recipes + 5 desserts!
• Other highlights: Since we literally just ran our first month-long Cooking Cure in March and I'm still riding high on that experience, I have to say that this cookbook speaks right to my heart! Right here in this e-book is a month of incredibly tasty-sounding recipes — working your way through this book practically guarantees a kickstart to whatever meal rut you might find yourself in. If you need more variety in your meals, here is all the variety you need. If you want to eat healthier but don't want to sacrifice flavor, five minutes with this book will take care of any worries. If you need help with meal-planning, there's a handy plan with shopping lists at the back of the book. For all these everyday needs, Dana of Minimalist Baker is the seasoned pro you want at your side.
The recipes themselves are drawn from a wide range of cuisines, ensuring an interesting, engaging, and most definitely non-boring meal every night. If you've been wanting to expand your cooking repertoire into other cuisines, working your way through this series of recipes would be a good way to get started. I also love how leftovers from previous recipes often get repurposed in future recipes — last night's cornbread side dish with chili becomes croutons for today's salad, for instance. This kind of awareness speaks to the care and detail that Dana put into this e-book.
The majority of the recipes are vegetarian with some meat dishes showing up here or there, but each recipe also includes notes on making the recipe vegan and(or) gluten-free. Everybody wins. For the photo-craving cooks among us, you'll be happy to know that every recipe is accompanied by a full-page, full-color picture of the dish; if you're new to Dana's food photography, you're in for a treat!
A bit on the technical details of using this e-book: the cookbook is delivered as a pdf file and I accessed it through the Kindle app on my iPad. You navigate by a simple swipe from page to page, moving linearly through the book. If you tap on the screen once, a tool bar pops up along the bottom that allows you to quickly scroll through the book to access a specific page. You can also use the Kindle navigation tools to access a gallery of thumbnails or scroll through the table of contents. You can pinch to zoom in or out on specific text to make it larger, though you can't change the size of the text itself. This is a bit simpler and more basic than other e-books or cookbook apps I've tried, but it works. It's minimalist — which feels appropriate, given the website behind the e-book!
Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: 31 Meals by Dana Shultz
• Visit the author's website: Minimalist Baker
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.


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Online Extras
Willie Balderson Slideshow
Willie Balderson Animation
The Many Faces of Willie Balderson
A Photo Essay
It was as a vagabond chicken thief that William Balderson came first to the notice of some Colonial Williamsburg readers. Eight years have passed, but perhaps you recall it. Before a wooden coop, checking over his shoulder, a bold and sly expression in his eyes, crouched an urchin dressed in tatters and grasping a squawking hen. That was Willie, as he usually is called.
The journal later caught Balderson in the act of throttling in her sleep his pregnant wife, Trish, and strung him up by his thumbs until he confessed her murder. Once the journal had him hanged, though for an unrelated felony, and hauled his ashen corpse off the gallows in a tumbrel.
Balderson had appeared in these pages before, and would again, as, among other things, a Confederate soldier, the 1700s York County surveyor Robert Lucas, one Mr. Tuttle of the Royal Optick Show and master of the dancing Quaker puppet, a dropped-dead-in-the-woods Jamestown colonist, a helmeted and armored seventeenth-century soldier, 1620s Indian-language interpreter Henry Spelman, and Meriwether Lewis of Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery.
Balderson is a man of many characters, costumes, talents, and faces.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's manager of public history development, Balderson has been interpreting historical figures since 1976, when as a twenty-two-year-old college journalism student, he took a summer job with Richmond's National Battlefield Park portraying a Union soldier. That, he says, is when he "realized here was this incredible medium called living history." Though after graduation—he switched his major to history, by the way—he had regular work at the Richmond Newspapers, he improved his nights and weekends posing as people of the past for the National Park Service, museums, historical societies, and schools. In 1986, Balderson became a full-time contractor, and in 1997, he signed on with Colonial Williamsburg.
For one client or employer or another, he's also portrayed a Richmond gentleman of the 1840s, a War of 1812 army officer, a nineteenth-century ship's captain, a Welsh crewman of the USS Monitor, a 1600s indentured servant, an eighteenth-century Virginia burgess, and Raleigh Tavern barkeeper John Lockley.
To each role, he brings the resources of a walk-in closet full of period clothing, the just right tonsorial, and a repertoire of expressions practiced before a mirror. "It's all about the read," Balderson says. The idea is to help people see not Willie Balderson, but the character he has assumed.
"The sole intent of interpretation is to provoke," he says. "To cause them to think about something in a different light."
In this photo essay, Balderson is seen by the light reflected in the lenses of Colonial Williamsburg photographers Dave Doody and Tom Green.
– Alexander Chesterfield


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In order to continue to serve to the best of their abilities, service fraternities and civic groups need fundraising. Find out what hundreds groups and organizations just like yours are selling to effectively raise funds: Rada Cutlery kitchen products.
Rada Cutlery Fundraising Program Overview
To adequately achieve the goals of your civic or service organization, you can count on Rada Mfg. Co. We have been helping groups fundraise since 1948 and last year worked with 19,000 different groups. You will appreciate our easy system, fast service and the 40% fundraising profit your club will earn.
Rada Cutlery is proud to be 100% Made in the USA. Rada guarantees a quality product every time. Our kitchen knives and utensils have a Lifetime Guarantee. We have sold over 135 million knives over the last 64 years. The stainless steel blades are hand-sharpened for razor edge perfection and two handle options – the silver permanently cast solid brushed aluminum or the black stainless steel resin.
We hear all the time that our knives sell themselves. And at such fair, inexpensive prices, it's sure to sell quickly to all your supporters. Often the supporters appreciate the Rada Cutlery quality and value so much that they request a follow-up fundraiser to give them the opportunity to add to their collection!
You will sell a wide variety of cutlery ranging from steak knives to sportsman knives and spatulas to ice cream scoops – over 50 kitchen knives and utensils, available individually or in gift sets. Not only that, but your supporters can also purchase our American Made Rada Cutlery cookbooks, stoneware, and quick mixes.
Civic Group Fundraiser Spotlight
Civic groups have been raising funds selling Rada Cutlery for more than 60 years! Below you will find information about some of those groups as well as quotes from them about fundraising with Rada Mfg. Co.
The Masons are one of the world's oldest fraternities. They got their start in the late 1500s and number 6 million members worldwide.
This fraternity is widely known for their charity and community service. Freemasonry gives to shetlered housing and nursing care, education and schools, medical assistance, and Masonic Child Identification Programs.
The Order of the Eastern Star (www.easternstar.org) is an organization part of the Masonic tradition open to both men and women. Chapters are chaitable and donate to research for Alzheimer's, juvenile diabetes, and juvenile asthma. They also give scholarships to students going into theology and religious music.
An OES chapter from Alabama said this about their area's love for Rada:
"We did a fundraiser a few years ago for our Eastern Star Chapter (Golden Rule #6). We have gotten several requests to have another one. Thanks for all your help!"
The Shriners, closely related to Freemasonry and otherwise known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, are famous for their charity, especially toward Shriners Hospitals for Children. There are approximately 340,000 members around the world. They are famous for their red fezzes and their presence at many parades in which they drive small cars.
To raise money to be put toward helping their hospitals, Shriners often fundraise.
A group from Missouri said this about fundraising with Rada Cutlery:
"I am helping the Shriners do their fundraisers this year. Previously, my granddaughter had sold your cutlery for a pre-school fundraiser. I absolutely love the stuff."
The Shriners have two women's auxiliaries: The Ladies' Oriental Shrine and Daughters of the Nile. Both groups also fundraise for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
A Daughter of the Nile from Ohio knew how fast her Rada Knives would sell:
"Everyone that ordered last year are now wanting Rada Christmas presents!"
The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest fraternal Catholic organization, prides itself in philanthropic efforts for the Church and local communities. The Knights are known for their volunteer efforts as well as large contributions to charity. In 2010, the Order donated over $150 million to charity. The Knights are especially famous for donating to those with physical and developmental disabilities. They are a supporter of the Special Olympics.
Daughters of Isabella is the female auxiliary of the Knights of Columbus. There are a numbered 60,000 members in the United States and Canada. Like the Knights of Columbus, Daughters of Isabella focus on the goal of charity.
Knights of Columbus councils and Daughters of Isabella chapters have turned to Rada Cutlery for help as a fundraiser for decades. They appreciate the 40% profit they are able to put toward their charity efforts.
A Knights of Columbus member from Minnesota looked forward to fundraising with Rada Cutlery since he knew the value of Rada's products:
"Looks like a neat way to make some extra money. Also have one of your potato peelers and it is great!"
Lions Club International, founded in 1917, is a service organization numbering over 1 million members worldwide. They seek to attend to the needs of communities on a local and global scale. In many small American towns, Lions Clubs are famous for putting up parks and playground equipment as well as other points of community access and enjoyment.
To fund their needs, many Lions Clubs turn to Rada. A Missouri club member said this about fundraising with Rada Cutlery:
"I used to belong to an organization that sold your products years ago. They were always an easy sell as they were such good knives. Our Lions group is looking for a fund raising project for next year and I suggested we take a look at your products."
Kiwanis is an organization made up of 240,000 volunteers worldwide "dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time." Among their many standards, they actively practice the Golden Rule and promote citizenship, but above all, their mission is service. To help carry out their service endeavors, many Kiwanis chapters turn to Rada Cutlery.
An Illinois chapter said:
"We had a fundraiser last year and really liked your products."
In addition to Kiwanis chapters, many join Kiwanianne clubs consisting of the wives and widows of Kiwanis members. Kiwanianne clubs do the same sort of good work as Kiwanis chapters, and also find that Rada Cutlery is their key to meeting and exceeding financial goals!
Request Your Free Fundraising Information
Would your civic group, club, church, school, youth group or team like to fundraise selling Made in the USA Rada Cutlery kitchen products? Visit our website and request a free catalog! Or, call our friendly customer service representatives at 800-311-9691.
Rada Mfg. Co. is located at the edge of town in Waverly, Iowa. Our manufacturing, customer service and shipping facilities are all located in the same building to best serve our customers. We pride ourselves in shipping 99% of our orders out in two working days.
Check out the Rada fundraising catalog to learn more about Rada products and fundraisers!
Buy Rada Cutlery!
Want to give Rada Cutlery a try before you fundraise, or are you looking for the perfect gift? Then visit our online Rada Kitchen Store, where all of our products are available for home delivery! Here are just a few of the great Rada products you might want to try:


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- Home
- Departments
- Museum
- Educate & Learn
- Outreach
- Grandmother Marguerite's Trunk
Grandmother Marguerite's Trunk
Grandmother Marguerite's Trunk is an outreach program that brings Louisiana history to you with a 1-hour interactive program. A Museum representative, dressed in accurate period costume, brings a trunk filled with artifacts from the 19th century to your classroom, community center, or retirement home to present one of the following themes:
• 1880s Farm Family: Discuss plantation life, churn butter, wash on a wash board and try other 19th century chores. Make a traditional craft to keep.
• Colonial Louisiana: Step inside Madame Marguerite's Café to hear her first-hand account of Louisiana's road to statehood-from colonial French and Spanish rule, treaties with Native Americans, and the Louisiana Purchase to American statehood in 1812. Participants handle artifacts, historic maps and documents, and roleplay early voting practices.
• A New Dress: From shearing sheep and picking cotton to sewing fine fabrics, discover through demonstrations and discussions how 19th century clothing was constructed from start to finish. Participants learn about carding, spinning, weaving, dying, and sewing and will learn how to sew on buttons.
• 19th Century Pastimes: Discuss the history of toys and games, discover how play teaches life skills, examine old fashioned toys, and make a traditional craft to keep.
• Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865): Learn about the mid 1800's as well as daily chores and frontier adventures that helped to shape one of our most important leaders. This program serves as an excellent introduction to the American Civil War for younger audiences.
• Civil War Women Perspectives: Learn about the U.S. Civil War through the eyes of five women who experience the war first-hand including a slave, a soldier, a plantation owner, a southern belle, and a young Acadian girl. The performance focuses on the daily hardships of war-torn Louisiana and is designed for middle and high school students and adults.
• World War II – The Homefront: Step into the 1940's to experience the challenges of the "Greatest Generation" through the eyes of a local "Rosie the Riveter" who uses oral histories, museum objects, period music and newscasts to share tales of pride, patriotism, and propaganda of the WWII era.
• New Themes: When booking a presentation, be sure to ask about new trunk programs that are being developed for different time periods and changing exhibits at the West Baton Rouge Museum.
This program was inspired by the late Marguerite Genre, one of the founders of the West Baton Rouge Historical Association and West Baton Rouge Museum. She envisioned a traveling educational program utilizing artifacts to recall and commemorate rural family life in south Louisiana. Grandmother Marguerite's Trunk was developed by the educators at the West Baton Rouge Museum as a curriculum relevant program intended to enhance learning through hands-on activities. The program has reached over 30,000 learners to-date!
Schedule a visit from Grandmother Marguerite's Trunk by contacting the West Baton Rouge Museum. A program fee of $40, payable by cash or check made out to the West Baton Rouge Museum is required for bookings outside West Baton Rouge Parish. The program is free to groups and schools within West Baton Rouge Parish. Presentations are designed for 30 or fewer students. (Additional fee assessed for student groups of more than 30). Adult groups may be larger than 30.
Physical Address
845 N. Jefferson Avenue
Port Allen, LA 70767
Phone: 225-336-2422Fax: 225-336-2448
Tuesday through Saturday
10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Note: Closed Mondays and Holidays


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New species of 'missing link' between dinosaurs and birds identified
Known as the 'Icon of Evolution' and 'the missing link' between dinosaurs and birds, Archaeopteryx has become one of the most famous fossil discoveries in Palaeontology.
Now, as part of an international team of scientists, researchers at The University of Manchester have identified a new species of Archaeopteryx that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms.
Dr John Nudds, from the University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the team have been re-examining one of the only 12 known specimens by carrying out the first ever synchrotron examination, a form of 3D X-ray analysis, of an Archaeopteryx.
Thanks to this new insight, the team says that this individual Archaeopteryx fossil, known as 'specimen number eight', is physically much closer to a modern bird than it is to a reptile. Therefore, it is evolutionary distinctive and different enough to be described as a new species - Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi.
The research, which is being published in journal Historical Biology, says that some of the differing skeletal characteristics of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi include the fusion of cranial bones, different pectoral girdle (chest) and wing elements, and a reinforced configuration of carpals and metacarpals (hand) bones.
These characteristics are seen more in modern flying birds and are not found in the older Archaeopteryx lithographica species, which more resembles reptiles and dinosaurs.
Specimen number eight is the youngest of all the 12 known specimens by approximately half a million years. This age difference in comparison to the other specimens is a key factor in describing it as a new species.
It confirms Archaeopteryx as the first bird, and not just one of a number of feathered theropod dinosaurs, which some authors have suggested recently. You could say that it puts Archaeopteryx back on its perch as the first bird!"
Dr Nudds explains: "By digitally dissecting the fossil we found that this specimen differed from all of the others. It possessed skeletal adaptations which would have resulted in much more efficient flight. In a nutshell we have discovered what Archaeopteryx lithographica evolved into - i.e. a more advanced bird, better adapted to flying - and we have described this as a new species of Archaeopteryx."
Archaeopteryx was first described as the 'missing link' between reptiles and birds in 1861 – and is now regarded as the link between dinosaurs and birds. Only 12 specimens have ever been found and all are from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, now Germany, dating back approximately 150 million years.
Lead author, Dr Martin Kundrát, from the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Slovakia, said: "This is the first time that numerous bones and teeth of Archaeopteryx were viewed from all aspects including exposure of their inner structure. The use of synchrotron microtomography was the only way to study the specimen as it is heavily compressed with many fragmented bones partly or completely hidden in limestone".
Dr Nudds added: "Whenever a missing link is discovered, this merely creates two further missing links - what came before, and what came after! What came before was discovered in 1996 with the feathered dinosaurs in China. Our new species is what came after. It confirms Archaeopteryx as the first bird, and not just one of a number of feathered theropod dinosaurs, which some authors have suggested recently. You could say that it puts Archaeopteryx back on its perch as the first bird!"
REFERENCE: "The first specimen of Archaeopteryx from the upper Jurassic Mörnsheim formation of Germany" http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2018.1518443


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Brandon Weeden wasn't the Browns first choice for the No. 22 pick. Browns president Mike Holmgren acknowledged as much on 92.3 The Fan Tuesday, saying that Baylor wideout Kendall Wright was the team's top choice.
Unfortunately for Cleveland, the Titans took Wright at No. 20. (Where he should make a quick impact.) Fortunately for Weeden, the Oklahoma State quarterback was next on the Browns' wish list.
Holmgren denied that derisive comments made by Colt McCoy's father had anything to do with the team seeking another quarterback. No matter what the reason, it's clear the Browns were trying to replace Colt McCoy this offseason.
They swung and missed with Robert Griffin. Even if the Browns had drafted Wright, we suspect they would have traded back into the end of the first round to pick up Weeden. In that scenario, the Browns would have ended up with a top-shelf wideout for Weeden to throw to. But the Browns' plans didn't work out, which typifies this offseason for them.
"Did we go into the draft thinking we could pick up another one? Yes we did but it didn't happen."


text: Kentucky Senate President David Williams says he had no idea what trouble his former gubernatorial running mate Richie Farmer was causing as agriculture commissioner.During an interview on Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday, host Matt Jones asked Williams about the abuses of power and resources that were uncovered in a recent audit of Farmer's time in office."Absolutely not. Are you kidding me? No, absolutely not," said Williams. "As a matter of fact, at the time I asked him to join me on the ticket he was the most popular political figure in the commonwealth of Kentucky and that's why you pick running mates, because they're very popular."The audit was ordered by current Agriculture Commissioner James Comer. Various accusations of misdeeds dogged Farmer for much of last year's campaign, but the audit put more evidence behind the allegations.Farmer has stayed out of the public eye since leaving office in January. This is the first time Williams has commented on the audit. He also said he encouraged current Agriculture Commissioner James Comer to request an investigation of Farmer's time in office.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Intel codifies VMware lust with $219m investment
Buys board seat to watch IPO
Reinforcing its status as the software darling of the moment, VMware has secured a whopping $219m investment from Intel.
Intel will pay $23 per share for close to 10 million shares in the virtualization software maker, giving it a 2.5 per cent stake in all the outstanding common stock. In addition, Intel's deep pockets have purchased a board seat at VMware. This deal comes as VMware, an EMC subsidiary, approaches an IPO (initial public offering).
To put things in context, EMC bought VMware for $635m back in Dec. of 2003. Since that time, VMware has doubled its revenue just about every year.
According to a regulatory filing, VMware pulled in $259m during its most recent quarter ending March 31. That compares to $129m in revenue during the same period last year.
The same filing revealed that VMware plans to sell 38 million shares in its IPO at a price between $23 and $25 per share and hopes to trade under the symbol VMW. At $25 per share, VMware could raise $950m. It should be noted that EMC is only selling off a 10 per cent stake in VMware via the IPO.
Intel has invested in other virtualization software makers such as SWsoft in the past. The chip maker has an obvious interest in such companies, since their software often runs on Intel-based servers. Intel has worked to include hooks for virtualization software in its processors.
Intel hasn't done friend/rival Microsoft any favors with the VMware investment. Microsoft hopes to release improved virtualization software over the next year that should help it compete against VMware - the clear market leader.
Microsoft and a number of smaller virtualization players like to argue that the technology for slicing servers into multiple compartments is still in its infancy. They hope to create stronger products and then fight VMware on more equal footing as virtualization technology really takes off.
We, however, see such optimism as wishful thinking at this point. VMware's rivals tend to work on their base products and some management bits and bobs, while VMware is in the midst of raising huge amounts of capital and building out a software arsenal that travels from the desktop to the server and well beyond the core virtualization space. You can't help but think VMware is turning into one of the core management players in the software market able to help out with things stretching from desktop software security to backing up server data.
Intel now looks set to cash in on VMware's meteoric rise. ®


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The fashion company I work for used to have a shop not far from métro Abbesses in Montmartre. I think the original commercial rationale was: it's a picturesque neighborhood, with a lot roving tourists - surely they'll purchase accessories ?
The shop didn't work for several reasons. To put it simply, the neighborhood wasn't 'there,' yet; nor, with the constant influx of panting tourists looking for the Amelie café, was it clear it would ever get 'there.' All the knick-knackery shuts out higher-end retail. Tourists hiking towards Sacre Coeur, if they did stop to shop, did so in places that looked scruffier or more classically Montmartrois than our brand. (Paris tourists generally seek either the mythical cosmopolitan Paris or the mythical village Paris. The city's actual charm is that it contains both myths, often simultaneously, on the same street - but tourists in Montmartre are hunting for the latter one.)
I am getting around to discussing a neighborhood restaurant - Miroir, also located quite near Abbesses. I visited during Fashion Week in October on the recommendation of my favorite lunch purveyor and wine aficionado Balthazar de la Borde. On the one hand, I agree with Balt that Miroir is a godsend, given its location: an unfussy place to get a tasty and well-sourced, mostly-traditional meal, replete with a good, mostly-natural wine list. (The proprietors of Miroir also run the Cave de Miroir across the street.) On the other hand, I suspect that Miroir, like the neighborhood, is not 'there' yet, and on the night we dined there, one major service bungle made me despair of it ever getting 'there.'


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You Get Old
For any man who has led a vibrant, robust life, the realities of aging can be humbling. But as the author has discovered, coming to terms with that is one of life's great empowerments.
By Pat Jordan
You get old, life gets small. Not meager, pinched, just small. You don't buy groceries for a week anymore — two hours in the Publix, drenched with purpose, a grocery list that unrolls like the Dead Sea scrolls.
You get old, you shop every day, your list written on the inside cover of a matchbook. Two pork chops, a can of La Sueur peas, four corns (two for tomorrow), two rolls of toilet paper.
You never buy mangoes, avocados, grapefruits, or key limes. You just go into your backyard and pick them off your tree. When you were young, your Uncle Ben retired to Sarasota and immediately sent you oranges from his tree. You thought, How sad. Now that you're old, you send mangoes, avocados, grapefruits, and key limes to your friends. You enclose a note, very serious, explaining that key limes are not ripe when they're green. "You must wait until they turn yellow!" you write. You get old, you become an expert on fruit.
You get old, people don't notice you. You sit at a bar, sipping your Jim Beam Black, neat now, no water, no ice, when a pretty woman in her 40s sits next to you. You smile at her, say hi. She looks at you and through you around the bar.
You get old, young guys don't get pissed off anymore that you're lifting heavier weight than they are on the preacher-curl bench. Now they say, "You sure that weight isn't too heavy for you, sir?" They used to call you Mack. When you were younger you would have said, "Mind your own goddamned business!" Now you say, "Thanks, guy, I think I can handle it."
You get old, you lose your anger. It takes too much energy to be angry when you're old. You have more important things to do with your waning energy, so you hoard it like a dwindling resource.
You get old, it's not always about you. You no longer wait for an opening in a conversation to talk about yourself, your dreams, your accomplishments. It becomes second nature to draw other people into talking about their lives. You're no longer the life of the party, making people laugh. You no longer have that neurotic compulsion to be known. Why should you? You get old, you know yourself.
You get old, you need less. Less food, less booze, less sex, less sleep. One Jim Beam Black after dinner, savored, so that it lasts until you fall asleep.
You get old, you wake at 4 am as if to catch every moment of your fading days. You struggle out of bed, let the dogs out, make coffee, light a cigar, then go out the front door for your newspapers. You sit on the front steps, sipping your coffee, smoking your cigar in the darkness until Jean Pierre, the Haitian paper deliverer, as black as a purple plum, pulls up in his Toyota. He sees you and gets out of the car. "Sorry, cher, da be late today," he says, handing you the papers. "No problem, Jean Pierre."
You get old, you eat dinner at 4 pm, with your wife. You talk about the day, then save half of each of your pork chops, wrapped in Saran wrap, for tomorrow's dinner. Your refrigerator is stocked with leftovers. Susie wants to throw them out in a day or two, but you stop her, turn the wilting asparagus, the sautéed mushrooms, a few grape tomatoes into a lovely frittata for dinner. You get old, you hate to waste things.
You get old, you see your wife in her tight T-shirt with the words 'It's Not Pretty Being Easy' scripted across her breasts, and you get an idea. But it's only three o'clock in the afternoon, so you file it away for future reference. When you were young, you'd put that idea into action anytime, anyplace. Now you talk about it with her, make plans for sex. She puts on her silk negligee before she gets in bed. Then you both begin watching Ballykissangel, getting so caught up in it (will Father Peter leave the priesthood and marry Assumpta?) that the next thing you know you're waking up at 4 am.
You get old, your dogs get old too. It never dawned on you, when you got them, all six, one year after another, that they'd all get old, one year after another, and then die. Now they're between 10 and 16 years old. Their lives are bounded by food and sleep and all the pills they take, which are lined up on the kitchen counter with yours. Glucosamine and chondroitin for their arthritic joints. Carprofen for their dislocated knees. You see them limping and press their knees back into place. They glance back at you with gratitude. You give them phenobarbital to forestall their epileptic seizures. Ciproflaxacin for their rheumy coughs and sneezes. They wake in the morning with you and begin to wheeze, sneeze, cough, like old men, like you. They have their good days and bad days, like you. You just try to keep them alive for a few more months, then a few months after that. And when they begin to die before your eyes, you feed them water and baby food through a big plastic syringe at first, and then fluids subcutaneously with a needle before that final visit to the vet.
You get old, you set goals for yourself that seem meaningless to others. Not to you. They are proof that you're not that old. Your wife asks you to "call the man" to break up the old sidewalk in the backyard so she can plant liriope. You tell her you'll do it yourself. She says, "Don't be foolish." You get the sledgehammer and begin whacking at the sidewalk in the summer heat like Cool Hand Luke. Then you wheelbarrow the broken pieces of concrete out to the front swale for the garbageman. Two days later, you can't get out of bed.
You get old, your strength and stamina go. You mow the lawn, then lie down. Your wife comes home with ten 40-pound bags of mulch. You carry them into the backyard, then lie down. You get old, you can't do everything in one day — wash the car, mow the lawn, shop for groceries, go to the gym, get a haircut. So you plan out your day like Eisenhower planning D-day. Two things, maybe three, one day, then two more the next.
You get old, you become abstemious. You never buy clothes for yourself anymore. You wear your faded Hawaiian shirts until they're so threadbare they're like filmy curtains. You trim little threads with a scissors. One day your wife throws one out. You moan, "But that was my favorite shirt!" She says, "Hoarding is a sign of old age." You sulk like a child the rest of the day.
You get old, you get your hair cut at Supercuts, $12 for seniors, and then let it grow for two months until it's curling over your ears and you look like a French diplomat. You were young, you went to a fancy salon, where the pretty blonde massaged your shoulders while cutting your hair, for $65 and a $20 tip. You get old, your wife says, "You're not going out like that!" You say, "What?" You are wearing a ripped and paint-splattered University of Miami Hurricanes T-shirt, baggy shorts, and flip-flops. You haven't trimmed your beard in days. You look like Jeremiah Johnson, if he lived in South Florida.
You used to wear $200 Tommy Bahama island shirts and $2,000 ostrich-skin cowboy boots when you went out. Your wife wore spandex minidresses and six-inch pumps. You looked like a successful drug smuggler with a high-priced hooker. You get old, you sell your cowboy boots to a thrift shop for $50 and buy the dogs new collars. You get old, your looks go. You don't care.
You were handsome once, like a Greek god, with curly black locks and luxuriant chest hair. You still are, in your mind's eye, even if your hair is so white you look like a ghost in photographs. You look at that photograph of an old man, and say out loud, "Jeez, I look like an old man!" Your friends call back, "You are an old man." A young friend of your wife's, maybe 35, picks up a photograph of you when you were 38 off the fireplace mantel. "Wow," she says. "You were hot once." You resist the urge to tell her, "I still am."
You get old, small things give you pleasure that were once an annoyance. Throwing out the garbage, you meet a neighbor walking his dog. You pet his dog, pass the time. The mailman stops at your mailbox. He talks to you about his Brazilian girlfriend, then hands you the mail. Bills, a check, and — eureka! — four movies from Netflix.
You get old, you realize order is freedom. You do your job more professionally, no longer on the fly. You get a magazine assignment — go down 1,500 feet into a coal mine in Virginia, climb a mountain in Haiti — and you prepare for it. You do heavier squats the days before you leave. You fly out the night before your interview so that you will have time to settle yourself, prepare. You get old, you check into a no-tell motel close to the thruway ramp so you have easy access to anyplace you have to go. When you were young you stayed at the best hotels, with pissing Cupid fountains in the lobby and businesswomen on the make in the bar. The first thing you did after you checked in was change your clothes and hit the bar with your barroom smile. Now you go to Denny's for a snack. Then you go back to the hotel and put your clothes in the dresser drawers and lay out all your notes on the desk so you can review them the next morning before your interview.
You get old, you realize your job these past 40 years was God's gift. When you were young, you thought you were God's gift.
You get old, you forget things, not because your mind is going, but because your memory box is filled. A name comes up and you find yourself mentally flipping through all those thousands of slides, trying to place the name with a face or an event. You forget trivial things — where you put the car keys, your glasses — because your mind is filled with more important things. Is the gate in the backyard secured so the dogs won't get out into the street and get hit by a car? You never forget that.
You get old, you scream at your wife. Not in anger, but because your hearing's going. "What?" you scream. She looks exasperated. She says loudly, "I said…." You now see the world in a faint haze, like it's covered with a gauzy film. "Pollen," you say. Your wife says, "You need stronger glasses." You refuse to admit that. So you call the Comcast TV repairman once a week. He arrives, a young black kid. "The picture's blurry," you say. "And the sound, I have to jack it way up to hear." He fiddles with the remote, then says, "The picture's fine. The sound, too. Maybe you need glasses." You stop calling the Comcast repairman.
You get old, you sell your 1989 Taurus SHO with the five-speed, short-throw shifter, the Recaro racing seats, lowered suspension, rear spoiler, 19-inch mag wheels. You buy a Lincoln LS8, with leather, a wood-trimmed dash, automatic.
You get old, you read the obits. You call out to your wife, "Jeez, Isaac Hayes died! He was an old man, I guess." Your wife calls back, "About the same age as you."
You get old, your friends are old too. Old ladies, mostly. Why not? You're an old man. Betsy, 59, Ina, 65, Julia, 76, Helen, 78. You drive Helen to work when her ride is late. You drive Betsy to the airport at 7 am for a flight to visit her sister. Later, your friend John, 58, knocks on your door. He's going to visit friends in Wisconsin. Will you feed his cats while he's gone? Sure, why not?
You get old, your dreams constrict. You no longer expect fame and fortune, your face on the cover of Time. You no longer expect to write the Great American Novel, 859 pages. Your writing gets small. Fewer words. But cleaner, you hope. More nuance, less obvious. Subtle, you like to think. Like your life. Small essays about getting old. They please you just as much as if you wrote War and Peace.
You get old, you cry more. Not over your lost dreams, your sins, your old age, your impending death. You cry for others. You cry when Assumpta dies too young, at 30, in Ballykissangel. You cry at the sight of our soldiers in camouflage walking through airports on their way to Iraq. You cry at the sight of abused dogs and cats staring at you from the pages of newspapers. You cry when Betsy tells you she has inoperable cancer and she'll never see 60.
You cry for everyone but yourself because you have lived a wonderful life, and you wish that every person, every pet, could live such a life too. When you were young, you cried only for yourself.
This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Men's Journal.


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Phone report
Gwen and I decided to update to the new iPhone 5, and along with that, I decided to switch carriers to Verizon. We'd previously been with AT&T, and Verizon was the one service that neither one of us had ever tried.
AT&T has notoriously bad service in San Francisco and New York from what I understand, but I had never had any trouble with them in Austin—except when there's a big event in town that brings an influx of tens of thousands of visitors (and they've actually gotten pretty good about dealing with that). They do have lousy service out in the sticks—when I was riding the Southern Tier, I went a couple of days at a time without a signal. Verizon has better coverage in remote areas, including the site where Flipside is held, and now that I'm on the LLC, it will be more important for people to be able to reach me easily out there.
But so far, Verizon in Austin is not so great. I had no signal at all when I was inside Breed & Co on 29th St the other day. And Gwen had no data signal at Central Market on 38th St. And sound quality on voice calls seems to be worse than AT&T's (this could be the phone itself, but I suspect it's a voice codec issue). Usually, when I am getting a signal, it's with LTE data, which is very fast. So there's that.
And while I always felt that AT&T regarded me as an adversary, Verizon seems to regard me as a mark, which is even more galling than the poorer coverage. Immediately after signing up, I started getting promotional text-message spam from them. Apparently this can be disabled if you do the electronic equivalent of going into a sub-basement and shoving aside a filing cabinet marked "beware of the panther." We also have those ARPU-enhancing "to leave a callback number…" messages tacked onto our outgoing voicemail greetings; some research showed that there are ways to disable this that vary depending on what state you live in (!), but none of them have worked for me so far. I've put in a help request. And every time I log into their website (mostly to put in help requests to deal with other annoying aspects of their service), they pop up some damn promotion that's irrelevant to me. Like "get another line!". Out of all the mobile carriers, the only one that I liked dealing with was T-mobile—but they've got the poorest coverage in Austin (I had to walk 2 blocks away from Gwen's old place to get a signal), or anywhere else for that matter. As a friend who worked in the mobile-phone industry for years put it "They all suck."
No complaints about the phones. I haven't really tried out some of the new hardware features, like Bluetooth 4.0. The processor is much faster. The screen is noticeably better than on the iPhone 4, in addition to being bigger. People bitch about Apple's Maps app. In Austin, I haven't had any trouble with it, and in any case, Maps+ is available to give you that Google Maps feeling (in Iceland, I found that neither Apple Maps nor Google Maps had a level of granularity down to the street address—the best they could do was find the street).


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Man injured in Paso Robles drive-by shooting
June 18, 2011
Police said a man is recovering from a gunshot wound from a drive-by shooting in Paso Robles on Friday.
The victim told officers he was standing on the 100 block of Santa Ynez Avenue at about 8:15 p.m. when the driver of a dark-colored sedan fired a shot hitting him in the thigh. The victim went to Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton with a non-life threatening injury
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Paso Robles Police Department Investigations Bureau.


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There have always been underground movements in New York, from punks to beatniks. Now comes a new one: "GHE20G0TH1K" is a subculture that, like many of the city's most enduring fringe waves, encompasses a nightlife circuit and an inimitable sense of style—with a freedom of expression at its core.
At its most basic, GHE20G0TH1K—pronounced "ghetto gothic"—is an underground party, held in a raw New York club space every few weeks. Quickly, it has become one of the city's coolest fêtes, playing home to a scene of new-wave tastemakers looking for an evening of uninhibited fun.
At a recent GHE20G0TH1K party, the room was filled with a crew of club kids who have merged hallmarks of athletic, urban, and Internet-inspired fashions into a single style, as downtown cult figures like the albino African-American model Shaun Ross circulated the dance floor. Among the wardrobe references in the crowd lay motocross, traditional Indian embellishments, and BDSM, which they mishmashed with the talent of seasoned Harajuku girls. Their ensembles incorporate dog collars, track pants, streetwear brand-logo sweatshirts, crop tops, bindis, racing jackets, and sometimes even those pale Die Antwoord–type contact lenses.
But GHE20G0TH1K is a whole lot more than just a party. It's become a larger movement, with many of its adaptors using the name as an umbrella term for a style of dress, an attitude, and an overarching ideology. "It's about having the access and power to be exactly what you want to be instead of having to fit a prescription or stereotype," its founder, a DJ named Venus X, says of the movement's appeal. "It's a new world order, like punk for the street. "[GHE20G0TH1K] has caught on a lot because people have a need to be themselves, and a lot of people are frustrated by societal expectations."
But it had small beginnings. Venus X founded GHE20G0TH1K in 2009, when the then–21-year-old New York DJ (born Jazmin Venus Soto), held the event in small Brooklyn bars. Word spread in the last four years, and it's grown into a cultish party held in large, downtown club spaces and warehouses in Brooklyn. (The party has also won Soto a good deal of fame, and now she performs sets around the globe.)
The party's initial draw was its music—a mashup of hip-hop, trance, and electronic beats that fuse together to form an energizing, original sound. "At first people would tell me, 'All I hear is ghetto, I don't hear any goth,' but I'm trying to redefine what goth is," Soto says. "If a rap song is about murder, that is pretty dark." Her taste in music cross-references a variety of genres from pop to rap, to international tracks from Lebanon and Mexico.
GHE20G0TH1K culture is markedly different from other New York "scenes" of the last decade—namely because Soto's parties are devoid of the pretention you may find at other fashion-y boîtes. Instead, there's a generous whiff of inhibition and fun. Bindis glimmer on nodding foreheads, asses shake in calculated repetitions, and a quartet of partiers dressed as Daft Punk–type robots garner an admiring audience. "I think that in the late '90s through the 2000s, it was like, 'Where did all of the cool kids go?'" says Julie Anne Quay, founder of fashion social-media platform VFiles. "It seemed for a while that every party was sponsored by Veuve Clicquot. It was a crazy club-kid scene, but a sponsored scene. The power of youth culture in New York is really coming back, and I feel like [GHE20G0TH1K] is really at the forefront of it." Jenné Lombardo, cofounder of MADE Fashion Week, explained: "I think that particularly now there is a generational shift that has happened. It's all about the kids—a pulse is coming off the concrete of our streets and it's really been lacking."
That "pulse" has extended from the dance floor into the creative realm as well. The GHE20G0TH1K party, with its heavy glow of black lights, is not so much a platform for debauchery as it is some symbol of freedom. And now, it has extended onto the runways as well: it has offered an opportune environment for Shayne Oliver, designer of the fashion label Hood by Air –a brand that's integral to the GHE20G0TH1K movement. "I guess you could say it's kind of embedded into the culture," Oliver said of his label's place within the GHE20G0TH1K community (he DJs at the parties as well).
His rise to stardom was firmly cemented at February's New York Fashion Week, when Oliver enlisted A$AP Rocky to walk in his show. Cult figures such as artist Terrence Koh, Kanye West's art director Virgil Abloh, and designer Nicola Formichetti sat front row. Oliver says his label's aesthetic is "kind of a literal interpretation of hip-hop and goth fashions styled together to create this new look. I think we try to keep it as sexy as possible just for the reason that everything in New York is covered up." Lombardo, who was responsible for putting "HBA" on the Fashion Week schedule, says she was struck by Oliver's "ability to listen to his generation, to his culture, and you really fell that in his clothes—there is a lot of sincerity. Fashion at the end of the day is just clothes, it's style that makes it interesting—personal taste and an interpretation of what's going on."
Hood by Air, available in renowned retail outlets like Colette in Paris, Opening Ceremony in New York (and VFiles's own boutique), is just an example of fashion's heightened interest in urban-inspired clothing. Labels like Abloh's Pyrex and streetwear brand Supreme along with designer labels like Nike, Kenzo, and Givenchy are capitalizing on the current feeling that Lombardo labels as "urban and it's definitely taking inspiration for athletic wear and hip-hop and articulating it in a different way."
While GHE20G0TH1K's aesthetic is rooted in black-and-white designs, it's a micro component in a larger urban trend that plays into a variety of colors, prints, and limited-edition runs. Quay says that this adaptation of urban design reflects "a lifestyle change. That thing when you go to work like Melanie Griffith [in] Working Girl in your sneakers and then change into heels doesn't happen anymore. You need cool sneakers, you need a hoodie, you need a pair of baggy-cool sweatpants. Stella McCartney and Alexander Wang have made seriously chic sweatpants that could be worn anywhere. It's just based on the needs of an urban lifestyle, but you still want to look really good."
The look's popularity has made GHE20G0TH1K feel even more relevant. It has quickly begun influencing more mainstream music and fashion acts—sending those most closely tied with GHE20G0TH1K through a loop. "I guess it's a part of the job, the one thing that fashion does that is wrong though is that they don't fully engulf the idea of something, they only take it for face value," Oliver says. Soto was more blunt: "It's very interesting to watch your brands become more mainstream, but to be excluded from that…there is so much vampire energy. I want to be careful. I'm still a struggling artist staying broke while other people use my ideas."
For this reason, she is famously guarded about GHE20G0TH1K, rarely posting her DJ samples online, releasing word of parties only days ahead of time, and banning all photography from her events.
But GHE20G0TH1K's fans find its demise by cause of widespread adaptation unlikely. Says supporter and artist Jeanette Hayes: "Venus and Shayne are so surprising in everything they do. I cannot see people looking at their ideas and saying, 'Oh, that looks normal.' They will always challenge what you think and what you know."


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This article is more than 1 year old
Mass web infection leaves researcher scratching her head
Issues call to arms
Security maven Mary Landesman is in the midst of piecing together a who-done-it involving the infection of hundreds of websites that are generating an enormous amount of traffic. Or maybe it's a how-done-it. Either way, she's mostly drawing blanks.
Landesman is a researcher for ScanSafe, a company that monitors the web surfing of employees at large companies and provides them with real-time intelligence about what sites are spreading malware. When a client visits a site that has already attacked someone else, the service automatically blocks the site from loading in the end user's browser. Viewing some seven billion web requests per month, company researchers see a fair amount of internet gremlins.
Over the past four days, 15 per cent of the blocked malicious traffic has come from just a few hundred sites, which appear to be legitimate ecommerce destinations that have been compromised by attackers. This prompted Landesman to do some digging, and what she uncovered is unlike anything she's seen before.
For one thing, the sites themselves are hosting the malware, which is then foisted on visitors. Most of the time attackers are unable to gain such a high degree of control over the sites they hack, so they redirect end users to servers under the control of bad guys and use them to drop malicious payloads.
"I'm stumped," Landesman says. "This is a very different method of infecting the user. I want to find out how they're doing it and what is the common link between these sites."
So far, Landesman and other researchers have found no visible thread that ties the disparate group of mom-and-pop sites together. With addresses such as dubai.travel-culture.com, operationultimategoal.com and directline-citybreaks.co.uk, the sites are mostly based in the UK, but some also hail from India, Brazil and elsewhere. They don't use the same web host, and while most use web serving software from Apache, the versions vary widely, making it unlikely that attackers are exploiting a vulnerability in that program.
The outbreak coincides with another mass infection in progress that's infected tens of thousands of pages, including those of Boston University, security provider Computer Associates, and agencies from the state of Virginia and the city of Cleveland. It infects websites running Microsoft's Internet Information Server web program and the company's SQL database with links the redirect users to servers in China. The malicious sites then try to install keylogging software and other nasties.
As massive as that infection is, it's responsible for less than one per cent of the malicious traffic that ScanSafe has blocked over the past four days, a small fraction compared with the mystery sites Landesman is tracking.
The sites exhibit other intriguing characteristics. They attempt to infect visitors with a javascript file with a randomly generated name that changes each time a person visits the site. Accessing paddingtoncourt.com, for example, (we don't recommend readers try this) might result in the insertion of a script referencing a file titled xxxxx.js, which is dynamically created at paddingtoncourt.com/xxxxx.js. A different visitor might encounter a file titled yyyyy.js served from paddingtoncourt.com/yyyyy.js.
The constant flux makes it impossible for researchers to access the script responsible for delivering the payload or running Google searches that might provide a more comprehensive list of other sites that might be affected.
The script looks for various vulnerabilities specific to the visiting OS, and when it finds one pulls a .Mov file from the domain dedicated.abac.net. That in turn invokes a file from bds.invitations.fr, which installs a backdoor on end users' machines. Victims are unlikely to know they've been infected because the installation is clear and seamless, and the malware uses few PC resources. At last check, only three of 33 antivirus programs detected the malware, which appears to be a derivitive of the Rbot Trojan.
"This is pretty nasty," Landesman says. "It's a new type of compromise, and a pretty significant one." And so far very little is understood about it.
Below is a more comprehensive (though not exhaustive) list of the sites identified as infected. If you can help shed some much-needed light on these attacks, please leave a comment below or contact your reporter using this link.
hxxp://dubai.travel-culture.com/ hxxp://operationultimategoal.com/ hxxp://www.abdet.com/maps/maps-france.html hxxp://www.ace-cranes.com/ hxxp://www.aprazivel.com.br/ hxxp://www.bellingerfurniture.co.uk/ hxxp://www.bmw-carparts.co.uk/ hxxp://www.careinternational.com/ hxxp://www.directline-citybreaks.co.uk/ hxxp://www.directline-holidays.co.uk/ hxxp://www.directline-skiing.co.uk/ hxxp://www.emtbravo.com/ hxxp://www.flintoak.com/ hxxp://www.gujarat.com/recipes/ hxxp://www.henrykaye.co.uk/Cheap-bridesmaid-dresses-and-flowergirl-dresses hxxp://www.hungatecottages.co.uk/the_cottages.html hxxp://www.inthe80s.com/moviequotes/f.shtml hxxp://www.islandescapeholidays.co.uk/Dubai hxxp://www.london-discount-hotel.com/hotelinfo_id__106 hxxp://www.london-discount-theatre.com/productions hxxp://www.moorgateacoustics.co.uk/ hxxp://www.njaiche.org/main.html hxxp://www.noorcapitaluae.com/ hxxp://www.paddingtoncourt.com/ hxxp://www.panacheshoes.co.uk/ hxxp://www.peshawarjobs.com/ hxxp://www.propertyauctions.co.uk/ hxxp://www.propertyworld.com/_Bermuda hxxp://www.quaife.co.uk/Gallery hxxp://www.reallybored.net/ hxxp://www.sharpindialimited.com/dealer-locator.php hxxp://www.thirlmeremeats.com.au/family.htm hxxp://www.thirlmeremeats.com.au/special.htm hxxp://www.travel-culture.com/airblue/ hxxp://www.vauxallparts.co.uk/ hxxp://www.yournewhome.co.uk/Swan-Hill-Homes-Ltd ®


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App::Smoke::In::A::Box - CPAN Tester smoke environment boxed
$ /path/to/perl Makefile.PL # answer the questions etc $ cd ~/cpansmokebox $ /path/to/perl bin/yactest-boxed # Smoking happens
App::Smoke::In::A::Box is a standalone boxed CPAN Tester smoke environment. Built on CPANPLUS and CPANPLUS::YACSmoke it enables an individual to simply download this distribution, extract it somewhere, add their email address and optionally an email gateway to use and start CPAN Testing against an arbitary perl executable without worrying about the toolchain dependencies.
It provides CPANPLUS and bundled modules required to bootstrap the CPAN Testing process.
Included are:
CPANPLUS + its prereqs CPANPLUS::YACSmoke Test::Reporter Sort::Versions Regexp::Assemble Config::IniFiles
Chris BinGOs Williams
Gabor Szabo, whose email to the cpan-testers-discuss mailing list inspired this utility.
Jos Boumans, who did all the real hard work with CPANPLUS and cpanp-boxed.
Dave Golden, the Test::Reporter guy.
Adam Kennedy, YAML::Tiny
Ed Avis et al, Sort::Versions
David Landgren, Regexp::Assemble
Copyright © Chris Williams
This module may be used, modified, and distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. Please see the license that came with your Perl distribution for details.
To install App::Smoke::In::A::Box, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm App::Smoke::In::A::Box
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::Smoke::In::A::Box
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.


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Everyone has a story and we'd like to hear yours. It could be the story about how you came to a faith in God or how you overcame some obstacle in your life. Or maybe a song on The Fix spoke to you at just the right time. If so, we'd like to hear about it!
Leave it below!


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Read Healpful Automotime Articles from Indusrtie's Top Experts
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Following products do not have a confirmed fitment for your 2003 Volkswagen Jetta. Please verify the fitment before installing them.
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Show All ArticlesChoosing Shocks for the 2009-2019 Dodge Ram 1500
Regardless of whether you are trying to engage in off-roading or hard labor, the following article is written to help you make the right choice as to your next dampeners. Go ahead and consider professional advice, in order to outfit your 2009-2019 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck with just the right shocks, struts, and coilovers, while improving its suspension performance to the max.
Eibach Pro-Truck vs. Bilstein 5100
There are plenty of coilover kits in the aftermarket, with the Eibach Pro-Truck vs. Bilstein 5100 coilover kit comparison offering the necessary details for anyone to make a right choice. Now any suspension performance enthusiast can easily purchase and install the right coilovers, so that their pickup truck or sport utility vehicle could take on any terrain, including dunes, roads, dells, and so on.
Bilstein B8 5100 vs. Rancho RS7000MT
One can select either all-American Rancho RS7000MT or German Bilstein B8 5100 shock absorbers. This article will help figure out whichever one of the dampeners will suit your pickup truck or sport utility vehicle the most. Spend some time reading, in order to find out the right shocks to take onto city streets, desert plateaus, and forest roads, all while being easy on the wallet.
Choosing Shocks for the Top-10 SUVs and Pickup Trucks in the U.S.
Upgrading your pickup truck or sport utility vehicle's O.E. suspension can be of vital importance. Present-day aftermarket is rife with a wide array of options, which will allow for you to take on just about any terrain. Bilstein, ICON, King, Rancho, KYB, and various others are among the obvious choices, so you should go ahead and upgrade your rig with quality components.


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Last Friday, the "world's largest" lithium-ion battery was officially opened in South Australia. Tesla's much anticipated "mega-battery" made the "100 days or it's free" deadline, after a week of testing and commissioning.
Unsurprisingly, the project has attracted a lot of attention, both in Australia and abroad. This is largely courtesy of the high profile Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, not to mention the series of Twitter exchanges that sparked off the project in the first place.
Many are now watching on in anticipation to see what impact the battery has on the SA electricity market, and whether it could be a game-changer nationally.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve
The "mega battery" complex is officially called the Hornsdale Power Reserve. It sits alongside the Hornsdale Wind Farm and has been constructed in partnership with the SA government and Neoen, the French renewable energy company that owns the wind farm.
The battery has a total generation capacity of 100 megawatts, and 129 megawatt-hours of energy storage. This has been decribed as "capable of powering 50,000 homes", providing 1 hour and 18 minutes of storage or, more controversially, 2.5 minutes of storage.
At first blush, some of these numbers might sound reasonable. But they don't actually reflect a major role the battery will play, nor the physical capability of the battery itself.
What can the battery do?
The battery complex can be thought of as two systems. First there is a component with 70MW of output capacity that has been contracted to the SA government. This is reported to provide grid stability and system security, and designed only to have about 10 minutes of storage.
The second part could be thought of as having 30MW of output capacity, but 3-4 hours of storage. Even though this component has a smaller capacity (MW), it has much more storage (MWh) and can provide energy for much longer. This component will participate in the competitive part of the market, and should firm up the wind power produced by the wind farm.
Read more: Australia's electricity market is not agile and innovative enough to keep up
In addition, the incredible flexibility of the battery means that it is well suited to participate in the Frequency Control Ancillary Service market. More on that below.
The figure below illustrates just how flexible the battery actually is. In the space of four seconds, the battery is capable of going from zero to 30MW (and vice versa). In fact it is likely much faster than that (at the millisecond scale), but the data available is only at 4-second resolution.
Frequency Control and Ancillary Service Market
The Frequency Control and Ancillary Service (FCAS) market is less known and understood than the energy market. In fact it is wrong to talk of a single FCAS market – there are actually eight distinct markets.
The role of these markets is essentially twofold. First, they provide contingency reserves in case of a major disturbance, such as a large coal generation unit tripping off. The services provide a rapid response to a sudden fall (or rise) in grid frequency.
At the moment, these contingency services operate on three different timescales: 6 seconds, 60 seconds, and 5 minutes. Generators that offer these services must be able to raise (or reduce) their output to respond to an incident within these time frames.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve is more than capable of participating in these six markets (raising and lowering services for the three time intervals shown in the illustration above).
The final two markets are known as regulation services (again, as both a raise and lower). For this service, the Australian energy market operator (AEMO) issues dispatch instructions on a fine timescale (4 seconds) to "regulate" the frequency and keep supply and demand in balance.
The future: fast frequency response?
Large synchronous generators (such as coal plants) have traditionally provided frequency control, (through the FCAS markets), and another service, inertia - essentially for free. As these power plants leave the system, there maybe a need for another service to maintain power system security.
One such service is so-called "fast frequency response" (FFR). While not a a direct replacement, it can reduce the need for physical inertia. This is conceptually similar to the contingency services described above, but might occur at the timescale of tens to hundreds of milliseconds, rather than 6 seconds.
Read more: Baffled by baseload? Dumbfounded by dispatchables? Here's a glossary of the energy debate
The Australian Energy Market Commission is currently going through the process of potentially introducing a fast frequency response market. In the meantime, obligations on transmission companies are expected to ensure a minimum amount of inertia or similar services (such as fast frequency response).
I suspect that the 70MW portion of the new Tesla battery is designed to provide exactly this fast frequency response.
Size matters but role matters more
The South Australian battery is truly a historic moment for both South Australia, and for Australia's future energy security.
While the size, of the battery might be decried as being small in the context of the National Energy Market, it is important to remember its capabilities and role. It may well be a game changer, by delivering services not previously provided by wind and solar PV.