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I'd like to build a bookcase using pine (or meranti) planks of dimension 22mm/220mm/3m that my local hardware store stocks. They offer the service of cutting to length, but I have no power tools (well, maybe a drill and countersink bit), so will have to have it all cut beforehand.
What should I consider when designing it, in particular:
- joint type
- stiffening the shelves in the middle
- allowing for unusual dimensions such as wide and low
- I'd prefer something with interesting look
A design I can look at and alter would be the ideal solution


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subset: commoncrawl


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Message Board
T.A. Barron Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Barron has written!
Author Barron's Book Reviews
The Lost Years of Merlin
A boy called Emrys is one day spat out by the sea on the shores of Wales and loses his memory completely. He is raised by a woman who claims to be his mother. She refuses to tell him about his past, and so Emrys decides to find out for himself. Of course, it doesn't help that Emrys is constantly being taunted by the other boys. He one day stands up to the leader, Dinatius, and defends his mother, but that only causes more trouble. The boys set fire to a ...
The Seven Songs of Merlin - Last Years of Merlin 2
This is the second book in the series. In this book, Merlin is reunited with his mother, but she is attacked immediately afterwards. He goes on a quest to develop the powers he has inherited from his grandfather and save his mother. Along the way, he discovers his sister and saves her as well....


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A voxel based adventure and RPG. Vox is a highly customizable game where you can create, destroy, edit and build anything you desire. The whole world, every item and object within it, and even the characters and inhabitants of Vox are created using a custom 'Voxel Engine' that allows for an unparalleled level of creativity. Come and explore your imagination!
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.


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I'm Spicy - Thai Street Food
>> Thursday, May 24, 2012
Venue: Section 17
Overall comment: Frankly, I was quite disappointed. Perhaps we didn't order their usual dishes, which many have raved about & testified that it's good (we had their lunch sets). I thought Surisit's was more flavourful & appetizing :( I'm Spicy's dishes are also more expensive than Surisit's.
Halal: No
I was told by my cousin that this place offers good Thai food. Since I have not been here before, I thought it would be good to try it out for myself with a couple of my colleagues. I had high expectations since my cousin gave good comments of this place. My only mistake was that I forgot to ask her what's really good here & what's not so good.
The restaurant's name, I'm Spicy, sounds quite unique & interesting. It's a corner lot, located on quite a remote area. Parking isn't the easiest to find as well during lunch hour since it's only 1 row of shops with limited parking spaces. The restaurant's deco was quite simple, neat, & cosy for a meal. To the very least, the ambiance was pleasant.
*photos taken with my colleague's Samsung Galaxy S2 as my camera battery ran out
They have a substantial range of dishes at I'm Spicy, but we wanted something simple & quick to decide. Thus the set lunches. Ala carte dishes are priced from RM12.00 - RM30.00/serving. I wonder if it's a mistake made that I had to pay the price for not-so-satisfying food since I ordered from the set lunch menu :S
Under their menu, there's a "spicy-meter", which was quite interesting:
0 chillies - None for me, thanks
1 chilli - Just enough kick
2 chillies - Don't be silly, gimme the chilli
3 chillies - I brush my teeth with chilli
4 chillies - Mama put chilli in my milk!
Set Lunches
All set lunches comes with a House Drink...I thought we'll get a glass each, but.....
House Drink: Ice-Blended Mix of Pandan, Lemongrass, Lime, & Mint Leaves
It turned out that they served in a tall bottle & we're to share...each person gets a small tea cup of House Drink with the set lunch :S aiseh...KECIKNYA....although comel, but er....okaaay... *gulp* It was actually quite a refreshing & delicious drink. Just that the portion was shockingly small. As this came with the set lunches, there's no refill! :S
Set Lunch: Thai-Style Belacan Fried Rice (RM12.00++/serving)
It's actually rice stir-fried with belacan & served with an assortment of ingredients as sides. My colleague regretted ordering this. It didn't taste much like a belacan fried rice & she claims that it tastes/smells weird (not the fragrant belacan kinda smell & taste). She ate half & could not force herself to finish up the dish :(
Set Lunch: Stir-Fried Basil Pork with Rice (RM12.00++/serving)
The minced pork was too salty (perhaps the chef is having a bad day?) & lack "punch"/"umph". It was a little too wet as well. Although it was "spicy-meter-2", the level of spiciness was almost non-existent....oh, such a far difference from Surisit's! And this costs RM5 more than Surisit's too!! Portion is pretty much the same though...
Set Lunch: Tom Yam Moo (RM12.00++/serving)
Pork tom yam soup with egg noodles
Erm...my colleague ordered his dish with "spicy-meter-4", supposedly VERY spicy, but it wasn't that spicy at all! Either the waiter got it wrong or the chef got it wrong, or there's something wrong with the "spicy-meter"? Even the "dai chow's" sambal belacan is more spicy *eek* Here's what came to my mind when I first tasted the noodles & soup - pork noodles with red chillies & lime juice! Ok, not a very good 1st impression...isn't this supposed to be "pork tom yam with noodles"? Was our expectation off the galaxy, did we have the wrong expectation or this dish just came out wrong?
Set Lunch: Stewed Pork Leg with Rice (RM12.00++/serving)
Juicy & tender stewed pork leg served with preserved vegetables & kailan
Huh? I'm lost...I really expected something more. I thought the stewed pork leg would come in a small bowl with the rice & vegetables on the plate...but everything's on the plate like "mixed rice"/"chap fann". When I asked my colleague how's his rice dish, he looked at me with an uninterested face & say "Ok-lor...". Hmm...was this day just a bad day?
Set Lunch: Green Curry with Rice (RM12.00++/serving)
This is the "stir-fried" version or more like "green curry fried rice". If you want the green curry chicken + jasmine white rice, you'll have to add RM3.00. I found it really weird! I had this & wasn't too excited upon its arrival. I expected something different. Like how it was at Surisit - the green curry + rice on the same plate. Oh well, taste-wise, it was a little flat. It lacks "umph" somehow, so I asked for some sambal, which helped elevate the "fried rice" to the next level (even the spiciness level). But to my great horror, they charged me RM1.00 for that small plate of sambal!! What the crap.....ergh....like that also can. Never tell me that it's chargeable :( Thankfully it's RM1.00, but aiyo...ask for sambal also get charged for it. Such a rare thing. Everything that's "separate" is charged...even their green curry chicken + white rice incurred an additional cost of RM3.00 :S
Cash returned
I thought this was quite cute...heh...
Map & Address to I'm Spicy
It's basically same row as Kanna Curry House, opposite the old Nanking Restaurant in SS2 (around the previously known "Rothman's Roundabout" area).
I'm frankly disappointed with this 1st visit. I've read quite a number of good & above average review of this place. Some have said the prices are a bit high, but the food is something you won't regret.
Seriously, was this just a bad day to pop-by or we should never have ordered the set lunches? *sigh* Yes, I don't own nor get paid by Surisit, but I personally prefer the food/set lunches there as they were better; taste, portion, & price.
Perhaps I should give I'm Spicy another chance & try out their ala carte?
*once bitten twice shy le....sobs*
1, Ground Floor, Jalan 17/45
46400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (+603) 7954 2281
URL: https://www.facebook.com/imspicythai
Business hours: Mon - Sun 12:00p.m. - 3:00p.m., 6:00p.m. - 10:00p.m. (closed on Tuesdays)
Presentation: * * *
Price: * * 1/2
Environment: * * *
Taste: * * 1/2
Service: * * *
Kinda disappointed,


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Judge slain at Tucson political event was UVA grad
One of the people slain by a gunman at an Arizona political event was a federal judge who graduated from an advanced legal study program at the University of Virginia School of Law. John Roll, the judge slain in the Saturday, January 8 massacre targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, earned a legal master's degree from UVA in 1990.
"I was deeply saddened to hear of the tragic shootings of Representative Giffords, members of her staff, and other victims," freshman Virginia Congressman Robert Hurt said in a prepared statement.
While Giffords is expected to recover from her injuries, at least five others besides Roll–- including a 9-year-old girl–- have died, and 14 were wounded.
The 63-year-old Roll received his J.D. law degree from the University of Arizona in 1972. UVA pundit Larry Sabato notes on his own Twitter feed that Roll was "well regarded" by those who knew him at the University.
With the Arizona suspect 22 years old; Sabato (who is working on a book about John F. Kennedy) has noticed a pattern of assassins and would-be assassins to be in their 20s. He cites other prominent examples: John Wilkes Booth (27), Leon Czolgosz (28), Lee Harvey Oswald (24), Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (27), and John Hinckley Jr. (26).
In 2009, Roll was the recipient of death threats when he allowed a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against an Arizona rancher to move forward. He and his family then were given a month-long security detail, according to the New York Times. However, it appears, according to the Times, that he was merely a bystander when he was struck down, a person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
–-story contains updates and corrections
72 comments
Another Kennedy book? Come on Larry, you really think anyone cares about the elitist Kennedy clan.....which is in short supply today?
I think we know the history, the family rum running background, PT-109, Marilyn Monroe, Cuban Missle Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Dealey Plaza, the grassy knoll, the mystery bullet, yadda, yadda, yadda......it was, and is, all about the money
hope I didn't blow your topic.
Nah "realist", nice try.
I notice that many people are saying that this young man is 'disturbed', as if this mental state in itself severs the connection between his violence and any political motivations.
It is the 'disturbed' of our world who are the most susceptible to persuasion - direct or indirect - and can be led into committing acts such as these.
It would be naive, to say the least, to negate or to minimize the connection between an atmosphere of violence, hatred and alienation, and an act of violence, hatred and alienation.
I would also like to hear Gasbag's response to chouva's post: walk us through, on a move-by-move basis, the scenario in which MULTIPLE guns in a crowded, chaotic, panic-filled situation results in FEWER deaths of innocent bystanders. Because chouva's post describes what I see as far more likely than the movie-fantasy scenario in which the quick-thinking expert marksman bystander cleanly and quickly takes out the crazed gunman. Most human beings I know don't work like movie people. Movie reflexes seem quicker than regular human reflexes. Movie people always seem to have amazing eyesight and they always know immediately which direction the shooting is coming from. The innocent bystanders in movies always seem to dive out of the way in the correct direction, including the lady with the baby in her arms. And yeah, in movies there never seems to be ANOTHER armed citizen walking out of the Radio Shack at just the wrong moment who assumes that the first armed citizen is actually the bad guy and starts shooting at him. etc.
Yes, this guy may have been loser, a crank(like say John Hinckley who shot President Reagan "to get Jodie Foster's attention").
But nonetheless the atmosphere of vitriol and hate, of demonization of liberals and Democrats, by the Far Right, the Glenn Becks and Tea Partiers and birthers, has to take part of the blame that encouraged this individual to act out his violent fantasies(assuming his action not part of a larger conspiracy.
It was like in the 1960s civil rights era, when Southern governors and Congressmen defied the federal government, denounced the civil rights movement, and inflamed racial bigotry among the white populace. So no surprise when some "redneck" loser decided to uphold the Southern way of life by killing a civil rights leader or bombing a black church. Byron de la Beckwith who shot Medgar Evers a prime example.(The Mississippi murders in 1964 were different-they involved a wider conspiracy including law enforcement officers as well as the KKK).
And then there was the hatred directed at the Kennedys in Texas by the Right around 1963..
This is not something I read in textbooks-I lived in that era so I think I know whereof I speak.
Gasbag, you assume that if someone in the crowd was armed, that person would have been an expert marksman, known instantly and correctly who was the assailant and would have fired off one round hitting the assailant. And assume there was yet another armed person in the crowd who took the second shooter to be in fact the assailant. Consider a third armed person. The whole scene becomes just too scary to contemplate.
Too many assumptions to make for everyone's safety. Under your scenario, even more innocent people could have been shot, injured or killed. Does that make sense? Let the gas out of the bag, please!
"All they talk about is guns, ammo, take back the government by any means possible"? Are you totally clueless? Do you have any idea what the heck you're talking about? You obviously have never listened to any talk radio hosts like Hannity, Levin, Limbaugh for even one minute. They have NEVER talked about any of those things except in your own imagination. You'd better add more tinfoil to the hat you're wearing because the alien mind control beams are still getting through.
Poor Gasbag. As time goes on more and more people start to figure him out.
Oh my, so many coming out to play!
Mr/Mrs/Miss OK, no, they are trying to be the first to win a debate with Gasbag. Many have tried, none have succeeded. Welcome to the club.
Hoolarious, gun violence is just like drugs in this country. We can not win a war against either. Drugs will never go away. And gun violence won't either, even if the manufacturers stop making firearms tomorrow morning. Why? There's two many firearms already out on the streets, and ATF estimates that about 4.5 million firearms are sold in the United States each year. But even so, what's the solution? How do we prevent the sale of a firearm to a perfectly sane person who might go crazy and commit an act of gun violence in the future? It all still boils down to the fact it isn't guns that kill people, people kill people. Remove the gun from this debate and the kid in Arizona could have killed more people with a pipe bomb full of nails or lead balls.
Mr/Mrs/Miss Walking Tall, of course the scenarios involve the actors displaying firearms. This is why I have such a hard time understanding how the "I thought he had a gun, I feared for my life!" is a successful defense in wrongfull shooting deaths. But of course, justice does prevail occasionally and this defense doesn't work. The most recent example I recall is the cop in Ohio who stopped a motorcycle. The rider turned to look at the cop, and the cop shot him in the back and paralyzed him for life.... claimed he thought the guy had a gun. The cop is serving 10 years. I think he would have been better off telling the jury the truth, "the gun discharged by accident!"
Mr/Mrs/Miss cookiejar, I have never been involved in a real live shooting situation. But I do feel the training we were given in the police academy is about as close as you can come to the real thing. Reality to me in shooting situations is defined as the best training humanly possible. Fantasy is growing up playing video games and then thinking it's perfectly OK to go out on the streets and shoot at anything that moves or looks at you crosseyed.
One mans terrorist is another mans hero. There are inner circles who will consider this individual a hero.
My prayers to all the families involved.
I am not for arming all Americans, but in this day and age, at such an event, I would expect law enforcement to be present.
Non-law enforcement people carrying concealed weapons legally, at least in Virginia, have concealed weapons permits and are not "fricking yahoos". They've had weapons training and fingerprint checks. There are plenty of ways to kill people besides guns. People are run over, knifed, burned, poisoned, etc. Are you going to outlaw cars, knives, matches and poison?
GSOE; ya know i think i saw you in all those police accademy movies.
For a guy who knows everything you dont know JACK. Some of what you say makes sence most sounds like internet BS. Did or have you been involved in a shooting? Let us look it up if you have then we can tell if you are an expert or not
Duh, please explain how having weapons training (the rigor of which meets whose standard) and fingerprint checks absolves you of being a fricking yahoo? of being a hot-headed racist? of having problems with impulse control? of being someone who listens to the worst of the worst inflammatory political rhetoric day and night? of believing fervently that Obama is a Muslim sleeper-agent who is programmed to destroy civilization? of living in a fantasy world? of having horribly bad judgment? of carrying ridiculous grudges? of being a person you would in NO way want to sit next to on a bus if you knew the person had a concealed weapon? your weapons training and fingerprint checks don't determine someone's moral character or moral judgment or maturity or ability to concentrate and focus on what's important in a rapidly unfolding situation. They do none of those things. It's absolutely certain that some citizens who have concealed weapons permits are fricking yahoos, because it's absolutely certain that some citizens are fricking yahoos and nothing about the screening/permit process rules them out.
And please: would someone on this thread point out where I said I wanted to outlaw guns? I'll save you the trouble: I didn't. So, those of you who are assuming that's what I aspire to are, yes, fricking yahoos, people who are incapable of clear, careful, reasoned thought. I'm sure you all have concealed weapons permits, though.
to all this is a point well made by the sheriff in arizona
Arizona authorities suggested that's a theory they are pursuing.
"There's reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue. And I think people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said in a news conference Saturday. "People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."
The sheriff's comments echoed remarks Giffords herself made last year during the height of the 2010 midterm elections. In an interview with MSNBC last March, the Democratic lawmaker, who had been the target of threats over her vote on health care reform, noted her inclusion on list of lawmakers Sarah Palin was targeting for defeat that featured gun-related imagery. "The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district," Giffords said at the time. "When people do that, they have got to realize there are consequences to that action."
On Sunday, politicians from both sides of the aisle cautioned against inflamed rhetoric, but that didn't stop the finger-pointing.
On CNN's State of the Union, Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, referred to the Palin map that listed Giffords as a target as a sign of "toxic rhetoric" that had gone too far¢Ã¢â??¬"though he insisted he wasn't making a "direct connection" between Palin and Saturday's shootings.
"Don't we have an obligation, those of us in public life and those who cover us to say, 'This is beyond the bounds?'" Durbin told CNN. "We owe it to our own in both political parties to have at least the good sense and common decency when people say these outrageous things to say, 'Wait a minute, that just goes too far,' whether it comes from the right or from the left."
In GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander said he agreed with Durbin that people should "cool it" and "tone it down." Still, he warned that people should be "very careful about imputing the motives" of the shooterââ?¬â?though he went out of his way to note that Loughner didn't appear to be a member of the tea party, which some have implied.
"What we know about this individual is that he read Karl Marx; he read Hitler. We know he was burning the American flag," Alexander said. "That's not the profile of a typical tea party member."
In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Rep. James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, reminded viewers of former Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle's call for supporters last year to take "Second Amendment remedies"
"What does that mean? That is a very vitriolic statement, and I think that somebody is responsible for speaking up and denouncing that kind of stuff," Clyburn said. "When you don't denounce it, people keep ratcheting it up and people get to a point where you cross the line. And I think that in this instance, this issue has crossed the line."
Still, the debate is likely to rage over the use of gun imagery in campaigns. As Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence writes, Palin is hardly the first politician to use gun imagery in politics. It's something that everybody--Democrats, Republicans and media--has done.
For her part, Palin offered her "sincere condolences" to the victims in a statement on Saturday. At the same time staffers removed the map from the ex-Alaska governor's political site, though it remained available on her Facebook page. Rebecca Mansour, a Palin aide, told a GOP radio host that the graphics on the map was not a gun sight but a "surveyor's symbol." (Palin, herself, referred to the graphic as a "bullseye.")
Per the Alaska Dispatch, Mansour said attempts to link Palin to the shooting were "obscene" and "appalling." She insisted that there is "nothing irresponsible about our graphic."
Briefing reporters Sunday, FBI Director Robert Mueller reiterated that it was still "premature" to say why Loughner targeted Giffords. But he acknowledged the vast amount of inflammatory rhetoric on the internet had made it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to identify and track potential threats.
"The ubiquitous nature of the internet means that not only threats, but hate speech and other inciteful speech is much more readily available to individuals than quite clearly it was eight or ten or fifteen years ago," Mueller said. "That absolutely presents a challenge for us, particularly when it results in what would be lone wolves or lone offenders undertaking attacks."
(Photo of protestors outside Giffords' Tucson office Saturday: Chris Morrison/AP)
The point about the lunacy of introducing multiple firearms (in untrained hands)into an already explosive situation. Instead, you merely confirmed that those untrained hands would be the first to get shot by police answering the call (thanks to the police training you described). The rest of your response (and your most recent post as well) was a typical Gasbag anti-cop shoppe screed that bore little relevance to the topic at hand.
Mr/Mrs/Miss Walking Tall, I agreed that a good guy firing upon a bad guy could actually be mistaken for the bad guy. That's a chance any person brave enough to step up and protect others has to deal with. Like I said, even plain clothes cops have been killed by their own troops. But at least they were brave enough to step to the plate and try to serve and protect.
Nothing I have said in this thread should be read as if I am backing up on my belief that the American public needs to arm themselves for their own protection. The more, the better.... and hopefully the sooner!
Mr/Mrs/Miss First Hand, I feel confident that those armed individuals who found themselves right in the middle of this situation were scared to death. I would be too. But it's a shame one of them couldn't haver planted a .45 right between Loughner's eyes though!
Theory, smeary- let the trial begin and listen to the facts. Enough speculation or blame. The gunman will be on trial- the gun and bullets will not be.......
I can guarrantee that all political parties have "targets" and "war rooms". The meetings sound like assasination plots- just ask James Carville.
Listen as the media portrays this guy as anti government when he was in fact in the military and obsessed with mind control.
Guns don't kill people. Easy access to guns kills people.
@Somebody: "Listen as the media portrays this guy as anti government when he was in fact in the military..."
Timothy McVeigh was in the military and hated the government.
@Mike: "Oh boy, here we go. Blame Palin, Beck, etc. for this. This guy was a nut job "Š he was allegedly a pot smoker and was not a religious person. Hardly the poster-boy for the Right."
I'm confused. Every time the right-wing is accused of religious zealotry, teabaggers everywhere stand up and protest loudly that such is a mischaracterization of their movement. They claim instead to value individualism and small government. Yet here you are saying that this pot-smoking individual cannot be a member of the Right BECAUSE he is rumored not to be of a religious persuasion. I wish you clowns would make up your minds.
@Somebody with a brain,
Haven't you heard? "Nannie States" are bad UNLESS they dictate what drugs you can take, with whom you may sleep, and what god you may worship.
deleted by moderator
I guess some of you have a valid point. After all, a lot of plain clothes cops have been shot and killed by uniformed cops mistaking them for the bad guy.
But, I will never roll over and play dead. I wore an "Expert Marksman" insignia on my uniform for almost 3 decades. If somebody comes out shooting in a crowd, I will try to take him/her out before they take me out. And hopefully before they take out as many as 32 people like Seung-Hui Cho did in Blacksburg!
My original statement stands. As long as any person carrying a firearm is an extremely good shot.
You started well! I had hopes...
Hoolarious, you might be surprised. A true shooting situation is very much like what happens in movies.
In the police academy we had a sophisticated and complex training tool which throws situations and people on a large screen in a split second. You had to decide whether to shoot or not, and you had to hit the target if you have in a split second determined it is a bad guy. If you don't pass the course you aren't certified to carry a firearm. I will say though, I imagine these standards have been lowered lately. Just like all the other standards have been lowered for whatever reason(s).
Mr/Mrs/Miss Oh Well, stay tuned. I am sure it will get much more interesting, as it always does when a discussion of a person's right to defend themselves erupts.
Face it, law enforcement can no longer protect you for a variety of reasons.
Where are all the usual suspects like Harry, gasba ,and billmars who jump to defend rightwing sh)te? Hello? Hello?
Mr/Mrs/Miss lol, even I won't defend a person like Loughner. This case is cut and dry. He shot people down in cold blood.
But if you want my usual off-the-wall Gasbag opinion anyway, it's too bad there wasn't an armed person nearby that could have placed a .45 right between his eyes before he was able to kill so many people.
So the map seems in poor taste or embarrassing or classless NOW, now that a person trained his gunsights on the woman whom Palin's map had put a gunsight on. My question to Palin would be, do you not have the courage of your alleged convictions? If it was okay BEFORE to put gunsights over the congressional seats you wanted "targeted," why is it not okay now?
great idea gas. everyone totes. so someone in the crowd could have shot this guy after he killed just two (as the shots went off in 5 seconds), so your gun toting great american takes him out. then a guy who just walks out of the sprint store next door see your good american take out the bad guy, but he does not know he was the bad guy, so he takes out super american. and then a guy come out of the shoe store, sees the 2nd good guy shoot the 1st good guy, and shoots the 2nd good guy. and then a guy drives up to pick up his wife, and sees the .....
i think you get the rest.
"As long as any person carrying a firearm is an extremely good shot."
Gasbag will get NO argument for me that IF the above statement were true, and IF the person carrying the fireman were also cool and rational under stress, and IF the person carrying the firearm were free from prejudice that might influence his/her response, and IF the other bystanders could be trusted to do the right thing under the circumstances as well, then I would LOVE it for everyone to be armed.
But that's not reality. Guns can be bought by just about anyone; the standards to which gunowners are held is nil (and that's all about profit for the gunmakers -- more guns sold means more $$ means gunmakers have a powerful lobby working on congress at all times). Most people are fricking yahoos. I don't want to be near any of them under the best of circumstances, let alone if they're armed. And I don't want my kids in schools or public places where fricking yahoos are walking around armed, amped up on political rhetoric, hating on darker-skinned people, and figuring that armageddon is on its way anyway so what the hell.
What's sad is that you could interpret that map and the common use of the target symbol as some kind of call to action to murder people. Try as the left might to make this into some kind of tea party plot, the simple fact is that a nutcase used a gun to murder people, including a REPUBLICAN APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE. Among the suspect's favorite books are both the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. So why don't you quite trying to make political hay out of what is a tragedy perpetrated by a guy with serious mental issues.
Sarah Palin has removed the map of crosshairs from her website. In retrospect, there can be no doubt that the map was in extremely poor taste.
Sarah Palin should take full responsibility for putting up such a tasteless map, but not for the shooting of the congresswoman. The thing is, in light of the shooting of the congresswoman, putting up the map seems like a pretty awful thing to do.
Sarah Palin, as a public figure, should have to answer questions about her actions. I fail to see why she should not have to answer questions about doing such an awful, tasteless thing.
@Gasbag: "In the police academy we had a sophisticated and complex training tool which throws situations and people on a large screen in a split second. You had to decide whether to shoot or not, and you had to hit the target if you have in a split second determined it is a bad guy. If you don't pass the course you aren't certified to carry a firearm...."
Quick question. In this training tool of which you speak, what characteristic most often helped you determine if the person was a "bad guy?" Just a guess, but did it have anything to do with whether or not they were ARMED? Hmmm?
Mr/Mrs/Miss Walking Tall, what point above did I not respond to?
And ya know what? The concealed carry yahoo thing works both ways. There's cops out here that shouldn't be carrying guns and live ammunition. And it's certainly been proven there's military personnel out here that never should have been issued a firearm. In other words, these yahoos come in all sizes, shapes and occupations.
Wow! As I said above, we will never be able to stop firearm violence in this country.
January 9, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland, 1:1:15 a.m.
Two Baltimore police officers were shot, one of them fatally, when gunfire erupted early Sunday morning outside a club near downtown. Six people in all were shot and two killed.
@ Mike "he was allegedly a pot smoker and was not a religious person." And what does this have to do with killing people
"Sabato ... has noticed a pattern of assassins and would-be assassins to be in their 20s." And Timothy McVeigh would be another to add to that list, 27 at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Prayers and thoughts to the victim's families and hoping the "blame game" at least stays away from the Hook forum...Yahoo is going nuts.
Giffords was one of the lawmakers Sarah Palin "set her sights on" in the Palin PAC (takebackthe20.com). The congresswoman and others are targeted with simulated gun sights on a map of the United States.
so self-obsessed that you have google alert you when your name comes up?
sheriff says the guy may not be a lone shooter.
Have we returned to the Wild West ? "During his campaign effort to unseat Giffords in November, Republican challenger Jesse Kelly held fundraisers where he urged supporters to help remove Giffords from office by joining him to shoot a fully loaded M-16 rifle. Kelly is a former Marine who served in Iraq and was pictured on his website in military gear holding his automatic weapon and promoting the event."
reported at Newsplex
and Jesse Kelly wasn't the only gun touting candidate last year
More Candidates Hunting For Votes With Guns
by Linton Weeks
"Criminals" in general are in their 20s and younger. By the time someone reaches age 30, would be "criminals" are either dead or locked up.
Yes, Gasbag, it is unfortunate that not everyone was toting...a bunch of us patriots taking down this sick guy...all of us would have been on target and not hit innocent bystanders...hey, it's Arizona...could have been like the O.K. Corral! And I am sure we would have had the fortitude to react to this and not panic and put him down before people lost their lives. More gun carrying civilians would have definitely solved this problem.
Whats the religion of the killer? If he were a Muslim, it would have been important.
agreed, Cville. A bull's-eye on your name is patriotic if you're sick of big gov't, taxes, and wear an American flag shirt, etc.....unless you are a Muslim. Not that this nut was affiliated with anyone, but bull's-eyes next to names? Really?
Yep you can blame the Rushes the Shara's the Shawn's and the Bills for this .All they talk about is guns ammo take back the government by any means possible .This group should be tried for treason along with accessory to murder. How can a group named "right" be so frigging wrong?
"As this serious situation continues to develop, I remain in close communication with Democratic leaders, the Speaker's office and the Sergeant at Arms. We will remain in constant communication regarding any schedule changes....;" should the opportunity arise to take advantage of this incident, you can count on us.
Joe Benny ; Are sure your not Jack Benny?
Gasbag wrote: "As long as any person carrying a firearm is an extremely good shot."
One big IF. Also, good shot or no, shooters can often make wrong decisions in the heat of the moment. Once the bullet leaves the chamber, there's no calling it back. Hunters shoot people thinking they're animals; troops shoot their own thinking they're the enemy; police unleash a barrage of fire to kill a suspect who they thought had a gun and no gun is found, unless the police carry a spare and throw it next to the body.
Dick Cheney shot a friend, Pat Tillman died because of friendly fire, and Amadou Diallo died because NYPD officers made a series of bad decisions that led to a hail of gunfire.
So please don't talk about being "an extremely good shot." There are far more complexities and variables that come into play when guns are a part of the mix.
Gasbag, please tell us about one of the "true shooting situation[s]" you have been involved in.
If you have only encountered the simulated variety that you mentioned above, then you seem again to be having a difficult time distinguishing between fantasy and reality.
Gasbag, please don't confuse anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment people with facts. They get flustered.
@Gasbag: "...of course the scenarios involve the actors displaying firearms. blah blah blah"
Thank you for confirming earlier posters' points that more guns on the scene would have made for a MORE dangerous situation. The rest of the nonsense in your response was typical Gasbag deflection - change the subject rather than answer the point.
@duh: "Non-law enforcement people carrying concealed weapons legally, at least in Virginia, have concealed weapons permits and are not ââ?¬Å?fricking yahoos"."
Christopher Speight had a concealed handgun permit prior to killing eight members of his family last January in Appomattox.
Aaron Jackson had a concealed handgun permit prior to murdering his one- and two-year-old children and their mother before turning the gun on himself in Fredericksburg this past May.
A SURVEYOR'S symbol?!? W. T. F.????? How stupid do they think people are? "Oh, yeah, I have a great idea, let's create a map with twenty congressional districts on it that we're TARGETING, and we'll need some kind of symbol to place over the districts to show that those are the ones we're TARGETING, who has an idea for what kind of symbol we could use on this map, anyone? anyone? I KNOW! how about that ancient but extremely well-known SURVEYOR'S symbol? yeah, that's a great one, everyone is familiar with the SURVEYOR'S SYMBOL! great idea! WHAT? You mean you people all thought that SURVEYOR'S SYMBOL was actually the crosshairs of a gun sight? that's crazy! wherever would you get that idea? i mean, it's not like our candidate is all about guns or anything! we're utterly stunned that anyone would think our crosshairs-looking symbol was a gunsight and not the extremely well known SURVEYOR'S SYMBOL that we always had in mind from day one!"
This is perhaps the lamest thing I've ever heard. This spokesperson gets paid in real dollars to do that job? Sheesh.
Queens New York, 1982. The bar was packed, 45 or so people. The 3 gunman walked in the door and one of them fired a shot into the ceiling, everyone ran for cover except 2 men, the owners of the bar. They ran toward the gunfire. One of them was the target, the other was carrying a gun and pulled it as if to take a shot at the would be killer. Both bar owners were killed. I know first hand, I was 19 years old playing Packman and drinking a beer.
My feelings are this. If the shooter is planted in the crowd and know there target, they have the upper hand. The planning and surprise. The owner of the bar had a large crowd to deal with and did not want to start shooting randomly at 15 figures in front of him. It is a difficult situation trying to decide if the person your firing at is the bad guy or the good guy shooting at the bad guy.
Gun fire is no joke. It has a very distinct sound and most people run from it. What played out yesterday was terrible. I am sure there were individuals in the crowd who had guns, with not much training. Where they cautious or afraid themselves. We probably will never know.
and with all of these killings the Brady Foundations donations are down by 55% and they are laying off over half of their staff.
Meanwhile the NRA is doubling efforts to get any and all restrictions removed while their only check is down on the mat...
What a sad, scary, senseless killing and wounding of public servants. A tragic day for a country that prides itself on the principles of open government and free access to those who serve us.
Probably a psy op. Tune into Alex tomorrow to learn the story behind the story.
Where is TUSCON?
Ohh, good grief! We all know the author meant T-U-C-S-O-N.
If early press reports are correct this lone shooter is a deeply disturbed person who online nonsensical rantings (about waking dreamers and a new currency of thought) are evidence of serious problems and not seemingly political motivated- but it's VERY early and all that could change.
The Congresswoman was actually reported to have died in early press reports and that fortunately turn out to be wrong.
The Judge and the 9 year old girl deaths are a tragedy and my thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families.
Oh boy, here we go. Blame Palin, Beck, etc. for this. This guy was a nut job ... he was allegedly a pot smoker and was not a religious person. Hardly the poster-boy for the Right.
This guy would have shot his Congressperson regardless of who he or she was.
woops, meant to say putting a bull's-eye next to a name is patriotic if you're sick of big gov't, taxes, and wear an American flag shirt, etc"Š..unless you are a Muslim. Not that this nut was affiliated with anyone, but bull's-eyes next to names? Really?
"At this early stage, I think Loughner is probably best described as a mentally ill or unstable person who was influenced by the rhetoric and demonizing propaganda around him. Ideology may not explain why he allegedly killed, but it could help explain how he selected his target."
OMG, I just found this from the spokesfeeble as well:
"This graphic was done, not even done in house -- we had a political graphics professional who did this for us."
OMG. What a bunch of wimps. "whine, whine, we had that graphic up for months and sold gazillions of copies of the poster and we loved it and proudly displayed it UNTIL it seems to have bitten us on the ass, and now we rush to blame someone we hired to do it for us, the buck does NOT stop with Sarah Palin when it comes to taking responsibility for our own marketing efforts, we prefer to let the buck stop with someone far below her pay grade!"
Honestly, people admire her? Find her gutsy and courageous? That is pathetic.
Well of course she won't admit now that they put a sniper's target on the congresswoman's district. She will probably say now that by "don't retreat, reload!" she meant a flashlight's batteries.
This is a woman that quit her only term of statewide office less than half way through. This is a woman that condemned Rahm Emmanual's use of the term r@tard, while applauding Rush Limbaugh's use of it.
She is a hypocrite, a dullard and a coward. The people that take her seriously are those that are the most ill-informed among us.
Most likely this episode will do her prospective candidacy real harm. Hopefully, she has been elected to her last public office.
Same environment here as every other forum....
trying to further your own political views via a horrible tragedy where people died on our own soil by one of our own people. The guy was a deeply distrubed individual that has murdered innocent people. Does it really matter whether he was a dem or a repub? Left or right? Up or down? Whether there was someone there that COULD have had a gun that might have stopped him? (Gas, don't take that wrong, I am a supporter of bearing arms but don't own any...yet). Why, how, when does this ever become a red/blue, dem/repub/teaparty, race, creed, color thing? It's an American thing with every party, person, etc. involved. I have seen so much hate spewed in the past 24 hours that I am convinced this country is headed for a war, only on our own soil and against each other or our own government. So blame if you must...but it will only fuel and fan a fire that shouldn't have ever started in the first place. Bin Laden is probably laughing himself silly at our reactions to this tragedy saying "see, never have to fire a shot again, they will destroy themselves from the inside out."
@Whateva!: "...I am convinced this country is headed for a war, only on our own soil and against each other or our own government."
Are your freaking kidding me!!?? You spout crap like that (after talking about running out and arming yourself) yet you don't understand how the flames of partisan hostility are spread!!?? Think for a split second before tapping the keyboard, chief.
To answer your question, it became a red/blue, dem/repub/teaparty, race, creed, color thing when candidates for Senate started talking about "Second Amendment Remedies" to problems that aren't solved quickly enough at the ballot box; when Tea Party t-shirts advocating watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants (tyrants = Democrats who supported the healthcare bill) became fashionable; when protesting outside political rallies or Congressional town hall meetings while wielding loaded firearms became acceptable political speech.
I find it curious that those prone to such incendiary rhetoric/behavior suddenly want everyone to forget their previous irresponsible statements and actions. When a horrible tragedy brings those chickens home to roost, we should forget about all that past ugliness and come together as "Americans".
And if we don't all fall in line, Al Queda wins?
You disgust me.


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Litchfield County legislator, Roxbury leader support bill to share resident troopers
HARTFORD >> Barbara Henry, the first selectman of Roxbury, and until last month president of the Council of Small Towns [COST], joined state Rep. Craig Miner (R-Litchfield) at the Capitol today to support a measure that would save small towns money while increasing public safety through the ability to share resident state troopers.
H.B. 5751, An Act Concerning Resident State Troopers, was introduced by Miner, the Assistant Republican House Leader. He is hoping that towns within his 66th District -- Bethlehem, Litchfield, Morris, Warren and Woodbury -- could use the cost-effective measure of sharing a trooper as a way to better ensure school safety.
Currently, resident state troopers are assigned to, and paid by, one town, which they patrol exclusively. By allowing the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to permit the sharing of these officers, the towns that are unable to fully fund a trooper would be able to share one with neighboring communities.
Henry said she would like to see Roxbury share an officer with neighboring Bridgewater, for example.
"Why can't we?" Henry rhetorically asked in a conversation today with The Litchfield County Times. "You have to give municipalities more flexibility, and [with Bridgewater] we already share so many things."
Roxbury and Bridgewater make up two-thirds of the Region 12 School District. But the two towns in question are more tightly interlocked than they are with the third Region 12 party, Washington, as their respective primary schools share one floating principal.
Roxbury and Bridgewater's combined population is about 4,200, and total area about 43 square miles. Ms. Henry cited the single town of Montville as comparable in size but with even more residents, yet it is served by just one resident state trooper.
In other words it can be done. If the two towns did combine for one officer they could also share their constables, five in all, and "cut our state trooper bill in half but allow more for more overtime," she said.
Currently, the price per state trooper checks in at more than $100,000.
"Regionalization is nothing new. It saves municipalities money, and the governor and other leaders have pushed regionalization," said Miner, a ranking member on the General Assembly's Appropriations Committee. "But this year, something has changed -- and that's the incident at Sandy Hook. Whether it is school safety or public safety around town, shared police services would benefit smaller towns who don't usually maintain their own police department."
On Thursday, it was the Public Safety and Security Committee that heard the testimony of Ms. Henry and Mr. Miner.


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A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property – an unpaid tax bill. —Hans F. Sennholz
Through his bureaucracy, President Obama has manipulated, extended and waived many parts of the ObamaCare law. Charles Blahous, of e21, reports these manipulations are adding to a colossal, fiscal disaster that will hurt taxpayers for decades:
"…, what is unfolding before our eyes is a colossal fiscal disaster, poised to haunt legislators and taxpayers for decades to come."
Young Americans, wake-up! ObamaCare is piling up debt. Debt is an unpaid tax bill. Young Americans will be paying for ObamaCare, plus the ongoing manipulations of ObamaCare for decades. These eliminations and extensions are, in reality, additional taxes – by stealth:
The elimination of the CLASS from ObamaCare: CLASS - long-term care provisions – was always a budgetary gimmick that was projected to bring in $86 billion over ten years -gone forever.
Employer/individual mandate penalties were to produce tax revenue of $101 billion over 10 years. They have repeatedly delayed and thus the tax revenue is almost non-existent.
The ObamaCare law cut Medicare Advantage by $128 billion in ten years. The White House has unilaterally decided to rescind the cuts to Medicare.
Worse for young Americans; Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are also their burden. No money is saved for these programs and in order for the federal government to honor their promises to recipients of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid young Americans will be forced to pay more and more taxes. Blahous, a senior research fellow for the Mercatus Center and research fellow for the Hoover Institution as well as a public trustee for Social Security and Medicare, explains:
"A Worse Fiscal Environment: The ACA (ObamaCare) was enacted when legislators knew, or should have known, that they inhabited a fiscal environment in which such extravagance was unaffordable. Deficits (and debt) are far higher today than when the other major entitlement programs were created; millions of baby boomer retirements are swelling expenditures arising from previously-enacted Social Security and Medicare law."
Again, young Americans, our debt is an unpaid tax bill. As Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman said:
"Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much government is spending, because that's the true tax ... If you're not paying for it in the form of explicit taxes, you're paying for it directly in the form of inflation or in the form of borrowing."
Please, young Americans, wake up! Our federal government is spending well beyond what they are collecting in taxes. Our politicians are stealing your future. You must stop this theft. Only you – young Americans – have the self-interest and power to stop this terrible immoral taxation that is being thrust upon you by our stealth leaders.
At some point the Tea Party and its financial backers will need to realize they lost this one. Its over. Millions upon Millions of Americans are now signing up. What's even more is that many more recent enrolled are younger Americans. hence why I assume this article was written since the Tea Party knows that the plan works best when more younger people sign up and hence it would not be pleasing to the billionaires who have spent a considerable sum trying to get the law overturned. Perhaps instead of using that money to try and stop things that are good for Americans, they should instead apply that money to the greater good. I'll say this again- its over guys and you lost. So might as well move on. America cannot be bought.
Nice bit of revisionist history there. Republicans DID try to participate in the debate on the PPACA, but were completely shut out of the process that Obama promised would be an "open and transparent" debate in front of the C-SPAN cameras. Republicans offered over 80 amendments to the bill, every single one of which was rejected by Democrats. The one televised conference on the bill was obviously staged to provide the illusion of an open debate, but only demonstrated how closed-minded Democrats were to useful suggestions provided by their "esteemed colleagues."
Let's put it another way - if the Democrats really did make a concerted effort to involve Republicans in the process of crafting this law, then they failed miserably. The only thing about this bill that was "bipartisan" was its opposition. This is a Democrat law, crafted by Democrat special interest groups and from which Democrat supporters (such as unions) have received exemptions. If the law is so great, why have there been so many delays, waivers and implementation issues?
Nope. Sorry but I believe you've been a tad bit misinformed. The ACA was created basically with hardly any help from the GOP, who were offered and given every opportunity to participate and yet sat on their hands. Meanwhile millions upon millions of dollars came pouring in via the Tea Party and its backers to try and stop the law from happening. What the Tea Part has tried and failed to do is seat politicians to do the bidding of the big money behind this so-called movement. The shame is that it failed. The ACA is a reality.That doesn't mean the Tea Party will go down without whining like a bunch of crybabies. They lost. Too bad for them, good for the rest of America.
It is pretty ironic to use the "America cannot be bought" argument to defend a law that was written by special interest groups and lobbyists behind closed doors and passed by extraordinary parliamentary chicanery. America cannot be bought, but you and your Democrat party obviously can be.


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The New Stuff
We're an award winning design studio working as deftly in corporate branding as we are at producing rock posters. Get your scroll on and take a look at some of our latest work below.
We're an award winning design studio working as deftly in corporate branding as we are at producing rock posters. Get your scroll on and take a look at some of our latest work below.
An evening with The Blair Witch an event at the 2019 Florida Film Festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project. These posters were handed out to guests who signed up for the meet and greet.
An identity for DoveCote Brasserie, located downtown Orlando.
A logo we did for Manitou Media that commemorates the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, represented a major change in American telecommunication law, since it was the first time that the Internet was included in broadcasting and spectrum allotment.
Here's a new name and a new graphic identity for Orlando-based commercial roofing company we worked on with Day Communications. These days, so many company/product names are hybrid/made-up words, but the Bowhead Whale was a perfect symbol for longevity - it can live more than 200 years, making it the longest-lived mammal. Name by Jane Harrison.
Logo for Unearthed, the 2015 version of Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. We did this project for our pals at Great Big Circle and Robin Cowie.
18" x 24" three-color screen print poster and the Reggae on the Block website. http://reggaeontheblock.com/
A small brochure handed out at the UCF Celebrates the Arts event at the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The piece promotes their theater and ballet programs.
Black tees and dark gray women's tanks are available here: http://www.luredesigninc.com/store/other-posters/lure-with-teeth-tees-and-tanks
Posters for the Indianapolis and Orlando shows on Wilco's 2015 What's Your 20 Tour.
We had the pleasure of creating this logo for Snap! Orlando. You Are Here is a month-long, multi-venue event focusing on photography exhibitions but also includes workshops, lectures, parties, and portfolio reviews.
Poster to promote Hit the Road Jack, a television series billed as Florida's Rock 'n' Roll history tour.'
The objective of the 2015 Advertising Campaign was to promote the Film Festival by highlighting this important brand attribute: Film impacts our everyday lives. The positioning line, "Things just got interesting" is an expression that explains how ordinary happenings can suddenly become engaging or exciting. The familiarity of the phrase also helps the audience remember the message. While the images are non-specific to any one film, the compelling collages represent familiar characters and events.
New tee shirt designs that coordinate with the new office interior design we created for Net Conversion.
Web graphic to promote Enzian Theater's Cyber Monday promotion.
An illustration and spread design for UCF's magazine, Pegasus. This illustration won a Grand Award in the 2014 Case Awards.
This calendar celebrates Enzian's 30th anniversary by highlighting twelve of the most important films they have screened. It's 8.5" x 11" and spiral bound.
Book cover for Algonquin Books.
Logo for the Florida Film Festival.
Proposed logo for Fiesta on the Block for Foundation Presents.
Logo design for Beadle Fund, a new charity that raises funds for children in need through repurposed jewelry-making classes. Save the Children. Save the Planet.
Logo for Manitou Media, a media strategy group for Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, non-profits and political candidates.
18" x 24" four-color screen print. Edition of 100.
This poster was designed as a one off piece to be used on the Disney Food Truck to promote Epcot's Food & Wine Festival
Logo for Olde 64, a bar in downtown Orlando.
18" x 24" four-color screen print. Edition of 100
Simplicity in strategy and execution can often mask the complex process required to produce such targeted work. For years, the Orlando Fringe built a following on irreverent, uncensored acts. The challenge for the 2014 marketing campaign was to convey the message that the festival offers performances for people of all walks of life. The answer was a colorful and simple campaign that turned "fringers' into the hero. Jane Harrison, of Right Creative, supplied the copywriting and worked with us on strategy. Photography was done by Kristin Wheeler.
A poster for the film Grace. It's the story of a young woman who wakes up hung over. Again. But this time she's 1100 miles from home and can't remember how she got there.
This poster was used to promote Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival on Disney's new food truck.
This was a party favor for our friend's 40th birthday party. Do the rooster, Cliff!
A simple web page used to promote Kennebec, a pop-up restaurant from chef Tony Adams (of Big Wheel food truck fame). Tony brought us a very nice logo to work with, so we can't take credit for that. This page was also used to making reservations.
The Orange County Library System is opening an ambitious center for creativity and technology in their main branch. This logo is a visual representation of the spark of an idea. It's layers also represent the multitude of offerings in the center.
A spread for Rollins College's Alumni magazine about a woman's quest for biblical truth and our interpretations of the Bible.
A piece inserted into a convention swag bag to promote Ask A Librarian. Librarians have responded with genuine enthusiasm with being portrayed as superheros.


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Mahalo, whoever you are, you wonderful soul who checked my site as visitor number 50,000 today. Lavagal.net got lots of hits today. It might get to 100 before I sign off. I'm grateful, even if it might be mostly paranoid people who want to know about getting calls and texts all hours of the day because they suspect their phone number used to belong to a drug dealer. That does seem to be the most popular entry, but statistics indicate that today's hits are by people curious about Achilles tendon and knee injuries, the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, bicycling in Hawaii, and Lavagal this and Lavagal that.
So I better put up a new and fresh entry to keep the intrigued interested. There's a New York Times essay this week called On Being Nothing by Thomas Hobbes, who looks like a handsome young gun, too young to have such a firm grasp on insignificance. Yes, his Opinionator piece spoke to me. I write to leave a mark, to spray a wall of words across your minds to assure I'm not that insignificant. People write to be read, and tonight one of my Try Fitness teammates told me she writes a secret unpublished blog. I write my secrets and notes to myself on my Wunderlist app and at wunderlist.com. But the blog is my frantic wave in the crowd, a hand trying to catch your attention, tossing keywords and photos to lure you to click my link.
Tonight I did a 500-meter swim in 11 minutes, and I did some running sprints with my Try Fitness Hawaii teammates in preparation for the Sunday Na Wahine Festival. I don't run fast. I now use the Galloway Method, so I do a run-walk pace. It keeps my tendons and knee cap intact. It also has a profound effect on me. It humbles me. It could depress me, but I can't let it. I am the only person who has time to turn on my iPhone camera app to take a photograph of the Japanese newly weds watching the sunset from Magic Island. While some of my teammates were doing sub-2-minute 400s, I was doing it in three. As they finished their third round, I told my coach, KC Carlberg, that I didn't need to get out of bed on Sunday. Why bother? I'm never gonna get on a podium again.
"You gotta write your blog entry, that's why!" she told me. It's funny. More of my teammates are reading, so I hope they are encouraged. I am at that place where I want to do better, I want to be faster, but I know that it's only natural that those who are younger and less damaged will do better. But if I don't do so great in these events, these attempts to prove I am still athletic, that I'm not going limp into old age, I can still try to win a place in your heart with words arranged just so right here. Love, me.


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Commercial business Insurance is the insurance aimed at safeguarding various aspects involved in businesses like property, capital, and compensation for workers. Other aspects like disruption of work due to unforeseen reasons, lawsuits, inability to meet the financial commitments etc.
Business insurance for large and medium, small enterprises differ because of differences in the risks involved. The large businesses have more risks and thus higher premiums. There are some common covers for all kind of businesses. There are other covers, which can be business specific. For instance a service company may not need a cover for mechanical breakdown. Whereas, a manufacturing organisation having work hazards, may need an insurance cover for the same. A business house should not pay for something, which does not suit their commercial needs.
The following points may be helpful when planning to buy commercial business insurance.
Choosing a right policy can be a tremendous task especially when there are so many players in the insurance industry. Online quotes can be analysed. The commercial business insurance covers, underwriting criteria; premiums etc are all available on the Internet. The person can avail of these services for free. The best rates and the right cover can be selected. It saves lot of time and money.
People networking can prove to be really helpful when buying a commercial insurance. People running similar businesses can help identify the areas needing insurance cover. They can also suggest the good companies and right agents to approach. Over insured businesses would only eat in to the profits with out serving any purpose.
The company, which we eventually select to buy commercial insurance from, should have a good track record. It should be doing well in the market and be trustworthy enough.
It must be ensured that whatever the organisation promises to cover at the premium rates mentioned is actually delivering the same. Sometimes companies and agents tend to commit more than they are able to provide.


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Blumenthal and McMahon tackle Social Security and Medicare issues
Don't look to Connecticut's next U.S. senator to support individual investment accounts as a way of curing some of the ills of Social Security.
Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon are both opposed to letting workers play the stock market, as was floated by the administration of President George W. Bush.
"Social Security, I believe it to be a public program, and I believe it should remain a public program," McMahon said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Newspapers this past week.
"I won't support efforts to privatize that program."
Privatization elicited a thumbs-down as well from Blumenthal, the state's longtime attorney general.
"Of all times to talk about risking benefits for our seniors on the stock market, our recent experience certainly shows why privatizing Social Security would be reckless and irresponsible," he said in an interview.
But on other questions on entitlement programs, McMahon and Blumenthal diverged, including on the issue of just how solvent Social Security and its entitlement sibling Medicare really are.
"Social Security is nowhere near dire," Blumenthal said. "On Medicare, the point is we need to rein in and reduce all health care spending."
McMahon, the former CEO of Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment, painted a much different picture on the health of the two entitlement programs.
"Certainly, Social Security and Medicare are facing imminent insolvency, and it's doing that because politicians have been using it as a piggy bank for out-of-control spending," McMahon said. "We're going to have to strengthen these programs, absolutely.
"We're going to have to make sure in strengthening these programs that we're keeping the promises we made to our seniors because seniors have to be protected."
Blumenthal cited a recent New York Times article concerning manual laborers who are reaching their early 60s with profound physical "burdens" as a prime example of why the retirement age of 65 to 67 shouldn't be raised to 70, as some have proposed.
"I will not and do not support any effort to cut Medicare-guaranteed benefits or Social Security or to privatize Social Security because these are promises that we've guaranteed to our seniors," Blumenthal said. "The issue is really one of priorities."
McMahon declined to stake out her position on the retirement or eligibility age for either program, saying she didn't want to be pigeon-holed on the topic during a hyperpartisan campaign.
"Politicians for decades have been using Social Security and Medicare as a huge political football," McMahon said. "We have to take the politics out of it."
Blumenthal opposes efforts to limit eligibility for both entitlement programs through means testing.
McMahon once again balked at taking a specific side, saying that the only way to fix the problems of Social Security and Medicare is in a bipartisan manner in a legislative setting.
"I'm just going to maintain that the campaign trail is not the appropriate place to talk about this," McMahon said.
The two clashed on the health care bill signed into law by President Barack Obama.
McMahon said would have voted against the health care bill, which she described as a "bad product."
One of the more controversial aspects of the bill requires individuals to carry some health insurance or pay a penalty to the government, which is based on a sliding income scale and starts at $695.
"I don't think that we should mandate on individuals that they should have coverage," McMahon said.
Blumenthal said he supported the health care reform law, "but only as a first step.
"It's a good beginning, but not the end."
Blumenthal said the federal government should be able to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for Medicare, the way the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does, but cannot because of a provision in the law fought for by drug companies.
Blumenthal said the bill stops many of the abuses that he has witnessed firsthand as attorney general, such as insurance companies denying coverage to customers with pre-existing medical conditions.
The Democrat said the legislation seeks to address what is known as the "doughnut hole" in Medicare Part D drug coverage by 2020.
Under the current system, seniors who receive benefits through Medicare Part D are responsible for their entire out-of-pocket cost of prescription drugs when they reach the $2,830 ceiling for 2010. Coverage doesn't kick in again until they spend more than $4,550.
"I believe it should be done more quickly because many seniors cannot afford those out-of-pocket costs today -- so that no seniors are forced to go without the medicines that they need," Blumenthal said.
Asked how she would fix the "doughnut hole" McMahon declined to provide a remedy.
"These issues are so complex to deal with," McMahon said.
"To just have a sound-bite answer is just not the way to approach it."


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Little Boxes is an annual Portland tradition that links small business together for a locally unified season of giving.
Register at www.littleboxespdx.com and on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday you will receive a 10% discount at all participating business'. And that's not all. You will also be automatically enrolled in a huge raffle for a chance to win tons of amazing prizes! What could be better than the opportunity to find awesome DISCOUNTED gifts for your loved ones, WHILE supporting local business AND getting a chance to win some sweet prizes? Nothing, absolutely nothing better than that.


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Bell Mobile TV first to carry live and on-demand mobile coverage of the Academy Awards® Français
Feb 21, 2013, 13:00 ET
MONTRÉAL, Feb. 21, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell today announced that CTV Mobile's live and on-demand coverage of the 85th Academy Awards® will be available this Sunday on Bell Mobile TV, the first mobile TV access to the Oscars® in Canada.
Bell Mobile TV customers can watch all the glitz and glamour of the CTV broadcast this Sunday, February 24, as well as the Canadian red carpet special "CTV at the Oscars®", hosted by CTV's Ben Mulroney and E!'s Leah Miller.
"Bell Mobile TV is the first to offer live and on-demand mobile access on to the hugely popular Academy Awards®, reflecting our commitment to deliver the best content to Canadians on the best networks," said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility and Residential Services, and Bell's Chief Brand Officer.
Live programming on Bell Mobile TV starts at 6 pm ET with "CTV at the Oscars" followed by the 85th Academy Awards ceremony at 8:30 pm ET. Bell Mobile TV subscribers will have complete on-demand access beginning February 25.
Available for smartphones, superphones and tablets, Bell Mobile TV offers a wide variety of live and on-demand news, sports, entertainment and children's channels, including BNN, Bloomberg, CTV, CBC, RDS, TSN, Treehouse, and many more.
Please visit Bell.ca/MobileTV for details.
About Bell
Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business with solutions to all their communications needs: Bell Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV, Bell Home Phone local and long distance, and Bell Business Markets IP-broadband and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio and digital media, including CTV, Canada's #1 television network, and the country's most-watched specialty channels.
The Bell Mental Health Initiative is a multi-year charitable program that promotes mental health across Canada via the Bell Let's Talk anti-stigma campaign and support for community care, research and workplace best practices. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.
Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For Bell product and service information, please visit Bell.ca. For Bell Media, please visit BellMedia.ca. For BCE corporate information, please visit BCE.ca.
SOURCE: Bell Canada
For further information:
Jason Laszlo
Bell Media Relations
[email protected]


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Resource management systems rely on a centralized approach to manage applications running on each resource. The centralized resource management system is not efficient and scalable for large-scale servers as the number of applications running on shared resources is increasing dramatically and the centralized manager may not have enough information about applications' need.
This work proposes a decentralized auction-based resource management approach to reach an optimal strategy in a resource competition game. The applications learn through repeated interactions to select their optimal action for shared resources. Specifically, we investigate two case studies of cache competition game and main processor and coprocessor congestion game. We enforce costs for each resource and derive bidding strategy. Accurate evaluation of the proposed approach show that our distributed allocation is scalable and outperforms the static and traditional approaches.
Full article > tpds-carma


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Rev. Linda Chapman *
Each morning and evening where we live we hear the call of the black swans as they fly overhead. They rest at night a little way up the creek nearby. But for awhile they disappeared. Their going and coming back correlated with a period of time when work was being done on our little bridge. It seems that the noise and activity of that work had pushed them out of their usual place; their home.
I love to hear the call of those swans. They coincide with morning and evening meditation. They are a prayer in themselves. And their call reminds me that we human beings are not the only creatures who have the right to belong in a particular place; we are not the only creatures who need a home.
The swans call is somehow sparse. Like the mantra of meditation it is unadorned. There are no extravagant sentences in that call, nor lyrical phrases or theological statements; just the simple and unmistakable cry of the black swan. And, like the times for the saying of the mantra there is the rhythm of their coming and going each morning and evening. Left untroubled by the noise of bridge fixing they have been regular in their flights. I am finding that they are friends and encouragers on the path of meditation.
But what happens when the call of other creatures goes silent through loss of habitat, extreme heat and so on? Does it matter to us that some are going extinct? In a world where we continue to log and bulldoze forests and drive up carbon emissions what place do these creatures have left to them?
I want to say that unless we hear their cry we too will find ourselves homeless. Listening is the first injunction of Benedict in his Rule; 'Listen with the ear of the heart...' In the practice of meditation we are taught to listen to God, by listening to the mantra that will take us into silence. Yet at the same time we must not become deaf to those around us. Indeed the practice of meditation may be the very thing that attunes us to the call of the wild others.
As we look at nature how do we see it? We are so culturally accustomed to viewing the other-than-human world as a backdrop to the life of humankind; as 'something' that exists for us. We see this clearly in obvious examples of exploitation. Yet it is also there at a more subtle level. We may say we 'love' nature and mean it but are we actually seeing it for itself rather than in what it gives us or how we might make use of it? Rowan Williams, in his address to the Synod of Bishops in Rome, speaking of the contemplative way and our seeking of it said, "And we seek it not because we are in search of some private 'religious experience' that will make us feel secure or holy. We seek it because in this self-forgetting gazing toward the light of God in Christ we learn how to look at one another and at the whole of God's creation." And he suggests that in the spiritual life we are meant to advance from self-contemplation to natural contemplation by which we are enabled to see created reality for what it truly is in the sight of God rather than what it is in terms of how we might dominate it.
In this we recognize the vital relationship between our practice of meditation and the work of conversion necessary to begin to heal the split between human and other-than-human. Our addiction to a way of life that is so voraciously exploitative of the natural world coupled with the sheer growth of human population sees us rushing to a crisis point. The vast void at the heart of a life that is identified only as 'the consumer' can never be filled by more 'stuff'. Our commodification of creation is degrading the natural environment to a critical point. Contemplative practice however transforms our perception such that we can no longer relate to other-than–human creation simply as an 'it'. And paradoxically as we learn to let go of our focus on ourselves and our grasping for what we can get from 'it'; as we come to see the other than me through the eyes of God so we are filled with the love that sustains.
Meditation brings us into a harmony that enables us to live truthfully and lovingly through crisis even as we become part of the transformative process of healing.
Listen to the words of John Main, "The truly spiritual man or woman is one who is in harmony within themselves and lives this harmony with creation and with God." Contemplation and creation enter into redemptive relationship through our practice of meditation. Our prayer and action are essential.
As I sit here in the beauty of my home I expect to hear the call of the black swans soon. Quite often I see them; long necks out-stretched flying together in formation. I know that soon I will go down to our meditation hut and listen to the mantra. The poverty of the mantra, like the sparse and un-beautiful cry of the swan, leads us to that perception of reality by which we can commune with all things without the need to dominate. I pray that we will learn before it is too late how to see the world through the eyes of the One whose love is always being poured out for us. Then we might live in a more harmonious habitat together for the good of all.
* Linda lives on the south coast of NSW where the nearest town is Moruya which means 'black swan' in the traditional language.
Photo: JJ Harrison (firstname.lastname@example.com)/CC


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Haryana Staff Selection Commission (earlier Subordinate Services Selection Board) is constituted as per the proviso of Article 309 of constitution of India, vide Haryana Government Notification No.523-3GS-70/2068, dated 28.01.1970. Through it was granted statutory status of Haryana Staff Selection Commission vide Haryana Govt. Gazette Notification dated 28.02.2005.
The Commission conducts examinations/interviews for appointments to Group 'C' services and may be called up on to conduct examination/interview for appointment to Group 'B' and 'D' services if required by the state Government. The Commission devices the mode of selection and fixed criteria for selection to posts as if may deem appropriate departments send requisitions to the Commission which are duly advertised in four newspapers, two Hindi and two English and port on the website.
It consists of seven Members including Chairman appointed by the Haryana Govt. on the recommendation of the collegiums consisting of a Minister of Cabinet Rank, Chief Secretary to Govt. Haryana, Legal Remembrance and Secretary to Govt. Haryana, Law and Legislative Department. The Chairman/Member shall cease to be a Chairman or Member of the Commission on attaining the age of 68 & 65 years respectively.


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The "Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Sun, Sand, and the Tang of Salt Air" map is half of a two-map set. Published in November 1973, this travel map contains historical information about these three regions as well an introduction to the various tourist activities that abound in these tropical paradises.
Coverage Area: Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands


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Westview girls find rhythm with a faster tune
The tempo just wasn't fast enough.
That was the halftime assessment as Westview High held a slim four-point lead over Our Lady of Peace in the second-day girls basketball matchup of the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic.
So, the Wolverines kicked it up a notch.
That proved to be the answer as No. 10-ranked Westview raced to a 68-48 victory over the Pilots in a game Thursday on the Wolverines' floor that all but clinched a berth in Saturday's finals in the Tournament of Champions 1 Division.
Westview's fast-paced option worked to the tune of 38-22 in the second half.
"It took us a while to pick it up," said Westview's senior guard Ty Wheetley-Amaya, who scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the second half. "By the time the second half started we were playing more like ourselves.
"We knew at halftime we could play better. We just had to make some better decisions."
Westview (11-2) outscored the Pilots (9-4) by a 16-4 margin in the third quarter to pressure Our Lady of Peace into quickening its pace.
Elizabeth Smith-Carpenter and Wheetley-Amaya each scored four points in that third quarter.
The Pilots attempted 10 shots from the floor in that quarter and missed all of them, converting just four free throws.
Their first field goal after halftime came with 6:56 left to play on a 3-pointer by Kellie Ferrell, who paced OLP with 16 points.
By then, the Wolverines led 48-33.
"We wanted to shut down Kirsten Johnson and get a hand in the face of Ferrell and (Sara) Dale," Westview coach Frank Quinones said. "We want to play tough defense and rebound. Last year rebounding really hurt us.
"The last thing we wanted was for them to control the tempo and slow it way down, which they prefer. We wanted to make it a track meet."
The Wolverines turned a 30-26 halftime lead into a 46-30 advantage by the end of that third-quarter outburst.
Outside of the third quarter, the Wolverines outscored the Pilots by a slim 52-44 margin.
"Everyone knew what we had to do," Wheetley-Amaya said. "It wasn't chaotic enough in the first half."
In addition to Wheetley-Amaya, the Wolverines got 15 points and five rebounds from point guard Courtney Krysl and 10 points with 11 rebounds from Smith-Carpenter.
Sophia Millay scored 12 points and Johnson added 10 points and 11 rebounds for OLP before fouling out.
"We still haven't lost to a San Diego team," added Quinones. "We beat Bishop Gorman out of Vegas and they've won a few state titles the last few years and OLP is a very good team."
So, it turns out, are the Wolverines.
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A nearly one-year high of 17 real-estate sales was recorded on Longboat and its surrounding keys between June 1 and June 5. It was the highest total since the week of July 7 through July 11, 2008, when 19 key transactions were filed at the Sarasota and Manatee County courthouses.
Last year's peak week for sales was the first week in June 2008, because a flurry of 26 real-estate purchases was recorded with no fewer than 12 topping the $1 million plateau.
Is this an indication that the current realty slump has bottomed out? Probably not, although it is an encouraging sign. It certainly is a reflection of the increasing number of pending real-estate sales as reported recently by area Realtors and the Sarasota and Manatee Multiple Listing Services.
There were two $1.5 million sales for the first week in June, one on Longboat Key and the other on St. Armands Key.
The largest sale on Longboat Key was the $1.5 million that Patrick and Susan Jack paid for Unit 907 at the 10-story, 112-unit Promenade, 1211 Gulf of Mexico Drive. The sellers were Barbara Vanderkolk and Thomas Gardner, of Princeton, N.J.
The three-bedroom, four-bath condo was constructed in 1985 and has 2,934 square feet of living space. The Jacks paid $1.45 million for the apartment in May 2005.
St. Armands Key
Tying for the largest sale of the week was the $1.5 million that Dean and Darlene Glasel received for their 4,907-square-foot home at 157 N. Washington Drive on St. Armands Key from Julia and William Cox, from Bethesda, Md.
The 10-year-old manse has three bedrooms, three baths and two half-baths, plus a swimming pool. The Glasels paid $228,000 for the property in August 1997 and built their new home on Lots 31 and 32 in Block 5 of the St. Armands Division of John Ringling Estates in 1999.
Water Club I
Annelies and Harris Freedman, of Manhasset, N.Y., sold their condominium Unit 408 at the 11-story, 86-unit Water Club I to Lawrence and Terry Mass for $1.1 million. The three-bedroom, four-bath condo at 1241 Gulf of Mexico Drive was built in 1996 and has 2,965 square feet of living space.
The Freedmans purchased the condominium new for $740,000 in May 1996. At the same time, the Freedmans sold their Water Club I Parking Space E-I-39 to their fellow Water Club resident Jerome Lavin for $55,000 in the week's lone non-residential transaction.
Unit 111, a 940-square-foot, one-bedroom, two-bath condominium at Water Club I was purchased by Estralita Ward, 1281 Gulf of Mexico Drive, from the Trine family, of Angola, Ind., for $400,000.
The Trines bought the condo in October 1999.
Inn on the Beach
There were two sales at the 221-unit Inn on the Beach. In the larger of the two, Renee and Jon Greco, of Kenosha, Wis., sold their 1,309-square-foot Unit 103 in Building 1 to Zandraz Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales, based in London, for $972,000. Built in 1982, the condo is located at 200 Sands Point Road on Longboat Key's south beach.
Unit 201 in Building 6 was purchased by Union Trust Inc., of Sarasota, from Katherine and Donald Zandstra, of Flushing, Mich., for $280,000. The one-bedroom, two-bath apartment at 225 Sands Point Drive has 642 square feet of living area and was constructed in 1983.
Sands Point
There were two sales at the 78-unit Sands Point condominium. Anna Nekoranec, 260 N. Washington Drive, sold her Unit 215 to Laura and Blake Augsburger, from Mishawaka, Ind., for $875,000. The two-bedroom, two-bath condo has 1,941 square feet of living space and was constructed in 1974.
Dennis Smith, from Success Group Inc., of Bradenton, purchased Unit 318 at Sands Point for $730,000.
The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was constructed in 1966 and has 1,941 square feet of living area.
Beachplace III
J.P. Sachs Associates, of New Canaan, Conn., sold Unit 101 in Building 9 at Beachplace III to L.B.K. Holdings LLC, of Colts Neck, N.J., for $650,000.
The two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 1045 Gulf of Mexico Drive has 1,172 square feet of living room was built in 1981.
Sachs Associates bought the condominium for $176,000 in 1981.
Village of Longbeach
The 31-year-old home at 6865 Hughes St. in the historic Longbeach subdivision was purchased by Luke Magliaro and Howard Raczkiewicz, from Ocean Grove, N.J., for $632,500. The three-bedroom, two-bath residence has 2,042 square feet of living area. The seller was William Sullivan, of Winter Park. Sullivan paid $772,500 for the home in May 2005.
Privateer North
Gillian and Malcolm Legg, of Teulada-Morairal, Spain, sold their Unit 702 at the Privateer North to Kehinde Layeni, of Sorrento, for $540,000.
The two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 1050 Longboat Club Road has 1,290 square feet of living area and was constructed in 1974. The Leggs bought the condo for $380,000 in November 1999.
Seaplace VI
David Langhaug, from Gainesville, Va., purchased Unit G8-205-A at Seaplace VI from Susan Ruth Walker and Robin Murray Walker, both individually and as trustees of the spouse's trust under the will of Robert Muirhead Walker, of Quebec, for $440,000.
The two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 1925 Gulf of Mexico Drive has 1,257 square feet of living space and was constructed by Arvida Corp. in 1978.
Country Club Shores IV
Mark Lynch, of Phoenix, sold his Country Club Shores Unit IV home at 1000 Bogey Lane to Blair Hunter, of Sarasota, for $320,000.
The two-bedroom, two-bath home has 1,235 square feet of living area and is one of the older homes in Country Club Shores, having been constructed in 1964.
Longboat Harbour
Amy and Alan Shaffer, from Pittsford, N.Y., bought Unit 206 in Building L at the 300-unit Longboat Harbour at 4420 Exeter Drive from Mildred and Joseph Hamer, of Rockville, Md., for $300,000. The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was built in 1970 by the late I.Z. Mann.
Fairway Bay I
Stanley Braham, of New York City, sold his Unit 154 in Building M1 at Fairway Bay I to Chunze Zhu and his wife, Judy Chen, from West Hartford, Conn., for $299,000. The two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 1930 Harbourside Drive was constructed in 1982 and has 1,192 square feet of living area.


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Despite the economic downturn, France and Spain spent millions of euros last year to upgrade their public spaces and technology for visitors.
In Paris, the top floor of the Orsay, containing its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist rooms, is slated to reopen this spring after a yearlong renovation. Until then, many of the displaced masterpieces are temporarily displayed on the museum's ground floor. At the Louvre, the pre-Classical Greek section will be closed in 2011. Construction continues on the new Islamic art wing, due to open in 2012.
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Lords of the gourd compete for Punkin Chunkin honors
With teams using more than 100 unique apparatuses to launch globular projectiles a half-mile or more, the 27th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin event is our pick as November's Weird Festival of the Month.
- Airports, airlines work hard to return your lost items
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The Eiffel Tower's online reservation system, which lets you skip the ticket line, is up and running. At the tower, attendants scan your ticket (which you've printed at home) and put you on the first available elevator. Even with a reservation, however, you still have to wait in line with the masses to get from the second level to the summit.
The renovation of the east wing of the Army Museum in Paris is finally complete. The wing's exhibit, "From Louis XIV to Napoleon I," covers French military history from 1643 to 1814, with a focus on Napoleon. Highlights include a projection screen illustrating the Battle of Waterloo, the famous portrait of Napoleon by Ingres, and Le Vizir — the beloved (now stuffed) Arabian horse of the "Little Corporal."
Some high-tech changes are leaving Americans behind. As more of France adopts chip-and-PIN technology for credit cards, your U.S. credit and debit cards are unlikely to work at self-service ticket machines, gas pumps, automated tollbooths, and parking garages with automatic pay points. The best advice is to carry sufficient cash in euro bills and coins, since there's generally an option to pay cash. Drivers on the autoroute should look for tollbooths sporting green arrows, indicating they accept cash.
If you travel with a smartphone or laptop, another high-tech change is helpful: Every McDonald's in France now offers free Wi-Fi.
At Mont St. Michel in Normandy, the first phase of an ambitious project to return the island to its original form was completed in 2010. The new dam on the Couesnon River gives a fine view of the abbey from its sleek wood benches. Next up is the construction of huge parking lots, followed by a pedestrian footbridge to replace the old causeway. The entire project should be completed by 2014, when the island will have tidal water flowing all around it again.
In the Alsace town of Colmar, big plans are afoot to expand the Unterlinden Museum — one of the most visited in all of France because of its beautiful Isenheim Altarpiece, so expect construction-related changes when you visit in 2011.
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Next door in Spain, that country's half-hearted restrictions on smoking in public places just got a kick in the pantalones. As of Jan. 1, smoking is banned in all closed public spaces, most notably restaurants and bars (but not hotel rooms).
In Barcelona, several sights are undergoing changes, including Antoni Gaudi's famous and unfinished cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, where workers completed the floor just prior to Pope Benedict XVI's visit last November. The pope consecrated the church, so the nave is now open for daily Mass.
In Spain's northern region of Cantabria, plans to reopen Altamira's prehistoric caves have been put on hold. The caves' art has been completely off-limits to tourists since 2002, but they can visit a replica cave nearby. Last year, authorities considered reopening the real caves, but in December they gave a group of conservation experts two years to study the proposal.
While Madrid lost its bids to host the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the city continues building new Metro stations, pedestrianizing streets, and making other infrastructure improvements as if it had won. Its central square, Puerta del Sol, is now largely car- and bus-free. Work continues because the projects have proved popular and hopes are still alive for a Madrid Olympics in 2020 or 2024.
Near Madrid, the Valley of the Fallen memorial, which commemorates the victims of Spain's civil war (1936 to 1939), has been closed for renovation and will fully reopen sometime in 2011. The memorial's basilica was opened to the public just in time for Christmas, but can only be visited during religious services.
At Granada's Alhambra, the Hall of Kings in the Palacios Nazaries is completely closed while it's being refurbished. However, the 12 lion statues in the Alhambra's Courtyard of the Lions will probably return in 2011 after a long restoration, giving visitors back their favorite Alhambra photo-op.
There may be temporary construction clutter, but don't put off 2011 travel plans. The magic of France and Spain is eternally rewarding.
(Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at email@example.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020.)
© 2011 Rick Steves ... Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.


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I hope you all had a good extended weekend and spent the time happily with family and friends. I was able to squeeze in the Pirates/Braves game on Sunday between going camping for the first time in 25 years and regular Memorial Day and birthday celebrations yesterday. Since the game happened two days ago and details are readily available elsewhere, I'll stick to my impressions of what I saw in the team.
- Aki Iwamura is slow. From my vantage point his first step was nearly non-existent, meaning he had trouble getting to anything not hit within 6 feet on either side of where he sets up. Bucs Dugout has some video and discussion of pre-injury Aki vs. post-injury Aki here and here. Late in the game John Russell made a double switch, taking Iwamura out, sliding Neil Walker to 2B and bringing in Andy LaRoche. Yesterday the Pirates made the move official saying Walker would be the starting 2B for the foreseeable future. I applaud this decision heartily.
- I was a little disappointed to see Delwyn Young starting, but just confused to see him in right field with Garrett Jones moving to left. I have yet to read any explanation for this anywhere online. DY made some nice diving catches, but I feel a more fleet-footed outfielder could have gotten under the batted balls earlier – turning them into routine plays.
- Nice to see Jeff Clement hit a game-tying homer. He's been hitting the ball better lately in limited opportunities. I was again confused (note the theme) why Russell would bring in Bobby Crosby to pinch-hit in the ninth. Clement had been the only offense so far in the game, hits better vs. lefties (Billy Wagner was pitching), and I'd bet has better bat speed than Crosby. It probably didn't matter because Wagner was lights out but I say you should let Clement hit there. Give him a chance to face one of the best closers of the past fifteen years.
- Paul Maholm had a good/bad outing. He was never overpowering and got into a lot of trouble (6 IP, 10 H, 3 BB, 5 K) but he fought through some very tough spots – including a bases loaded, no outs situation – and only gave up 2 runs. At the risk of slipping into further cliche's, it was a gutty if unimpressive performance.
- Joel Hanrahan pitched a dominant seventh. I was surprised to see him come back out to pitch the 8th and even more surprised the Russell let him pitch to Chipper Jones. Jones' 2-RBI single was the result of the ball falling in the only open spot between Garrett Jones and Ronny Cedeno. The pitch itself was inside and had lots of movement breaking towards Chipper's knees. Chipper did a good job fighting it off.
- Jason Jaramillo caught instead of Ryan Doumit. If only there was someway to combine these two we'd have a heck of a catcher. Dewey's bat was missed but it was nice seeing strong, on target throws to second and no passed balls.
The Pirate's loss on Sunday meant being swept by the Braves so I'm probably happier having not gone to all three games.
The week ahead: Pittsburgh's AAA affiliate the Indianapolis Indians are playing in nearby Gwinnett this week. Early plans have me going to games on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm looking forward to adding first hand glimpses of Pedro Alvarez, Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata to the accounts above. As always you can follow me on Twitter for in game comments and the occasional picture.
Also, Georgia Tech was awarded the #8 national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament. They'll be hosting regional games this weekend, starting Friday night at 7pm vs. Mercer. The winner will face the winner of Alabama and Elon. I plan on hitting a game on either Saturday or Sunday and, again, will post pictures and comments to twitter.
Filed under: baseball, Pirates | Tagged: Akinori Iwamura, baseball, Billy Wagner, Bobby Crosby, Brad Lincoln, Braves, Chipper Jones, Delwyn Young, Garrett Jones, Georgia Tech, Indianapolis Indians, Jason Jaramillo, Jeff Clement, Joel Hanrahan, John Russell, Jose Tabata, NCAA, Neil Walker, Paul Maholm, Pedro Alvarez, Pirates, Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Doumit |