text:
Mark Hayward's City Matters: Reclaiming Manchester's parks
October 02. 2013 7:52PM
If you've been downtown in the last month, you may have noticed the different atmosphere at Victory Park.
The monument to winged Victory and World War I soldiers remains as is. And the lawn is a healthy green, accented by a scattering of fallen leaves and a person or two sprawled on the lawn in these August-like days.
Missing are the shadowy people who would roost in the park — sometimes around a bench, more often at the brick stairs at the feet of the monument. They have pretty much disappeared after Manchester police quietly started an initiative in August to eliminate drinking, drug use and other illegal behavior at downtown parks.
Some question the police tactics. For the most part, police are just doing what the miscreants do — hanging out in the park. A bicycle officer will glide through the park. Mounted police will stop their steeds and stand statue-like at the monument. And in the most visible presence, a cruiser will park itself at Victory, park center.
"We've been doing a full-court press in the parks downtown for the past 2 1/2 months," said Brian O'Keefe, a sergeant in the police department's community policing division. "By no means are we trying to push anybody out of the park."
We were on the phone, so I couldn't see if O'Keefe was winking his eye.
To most, the change is welcome.
"They would either give you weird stares that are not very comforting or make remarks," said Katie Jerge, a student at New Hampshire Institute of Art. The college has spent the past dozen years buying and rehabbing buildings within the park orbit.
Her friend, Katie Tupper, said several circled her one day on her way to class; she quickly joined up with a mother and her baby, and they left her alone. She now makes sure she's with Jerge at night.
"I've got pepper spray," Jerge warned, "and I will use it."
Students aren't the only ones complaining. In fact, homeless people say the park denizens were giving them a bad name.
"There was a lot of riff-raff here. It's better without them," said Paul, 46, early Wednesday evening.
Paul said he's happy to see police at the park. All they do is check him out and determine he is homeless, and harmless.
"Don't confuse homeless people with vagrancy," O'Keefe said. The vagrants, he said, park their cars beside the park. They don't work, and they are dependent on drugs. Sometimes their groups numbered more than a dozen.
In June, I quoted a sometimes-homeless youth claiming ownership to Victory Park for him and his friends, calling it "our living room." But the living room was a mess. People were finding needles on the ground, said police spokesman Maureen Tessier. Drinking took place, as well as the smoking of Spice, a synthetic marijuana with fuzzy legality.
The park now draws office workers and professionals during their lunch hour. Students take a rest on benches between classes. Pedestrians feel comfortable cutting across the park, rather than skirting the outside.
Linger at the park on a warm autumn evening, and it's easy to see why park advocate Abby Easterly calls it Manchester's Central Park.
Trees and the monument are silouhetted in the lowering sun, while the lawn clings to a rich spruce-like hue of green. The four Beaux-Arts styled, granite-faced buildings to the east and south makes one expect a Mozart quartet in the wind.
A block away, the steeples of St. Joseph Cathedral and Grace Episcopal Church poke through the early night sky, and decorative blue lights hug one corner of the Art Institute's six-story dormitory.
Art students walk through the park, some with portfolios beneath their arms. A few companions of the homeless Paul linger on benches and speak quietly.
The crackdown is not so clear cut in the mind of Easterly, a semi-retired North End resident who has adopted the park. She visits almost daily to pick up trash. She's planted flowerbeds at the base of the momument. She's painted the benchs and places homemade ashtrays — painted coffee cans — at the feet of park benches.
"The park's not just for the business people, not just for the students," she said. "It's not a museum. It's a park."
While she welcomes the change, she doesn't like to see a cruiser idling in the middle of the park, which she thinks telegraphs "crime scene."
She also has good words for the former park denizens. They have helped rake and plant flower beds, which have remained intact throughout the summer, despite pessimistic predictions.
Yes, she acknowledged, their language was rough, but they toned it down when she asked. She was only hit up once for money. And although she's seen them use Spice, she hasn't seen hard drugs used at Victory.
The group is victim to the last line of prejudice, Easterly said, quick to be judged by people who would never cast aspersions on another minority.
"You can't get away with saying 'they' anymore. You can with this one," she said. Yet, she acknowledges the fears of students and said the changes are good for the park. She said many of the denizens suffer from drug addiction or are mentally ill and can't get treatment.
"New Hampshire," Easterly said, "prides itself on being a low-service state and doesn't like the results."
Mark Hayward's City Matters appears Thursdays in the New Hampshire Union Leader and UnionLeader.com. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
home | metro silicon valley index | movies | current reviews | film review
Courtesy Magnolia Pictures
HAVE MEETING, WILL TRAVEL: Stanley Tucci (left) and Robert De Niro take a meeting about industry woes in 'What Just Happened?'
The Big Knife
'What Just Happened?' is a comedy—if only in the sense that everyone in the movie is in misery
By Richard von Busack
THE SUBJECT MATTER of What Just Happened? is maybe insignificant: a week in the life of a tanking movie producer. But something happened along the way. Robert De Niro, soulfully underplaying what could have been a broad showbiz farce, makes you care about the producer's unhappiness. We've had Hollywood satires, but has there been a movie about a player at this terminal stage before? Way past the point of taking visual pleasure in film, De Niro's Ben is just trying to stay afloat: he has no idea whether a movie is good or not anymore. Director Barry Levinson sketches out the two films that bookend Ben's week. Ben produced them, but that doesn't mean he has to think they're any good. We see the first one, Fiercely, at a sneak preview in Orange County. The bleak little signs with their film titles, sticking out above the doors to the multiplex, are seen from a gurney's-eye-view, as if glimpsed by a patient rolling to an operating room. The previewed film (a Sean Penn crime melodrama with an we-are-all-Jesus finale) seems atrocious enough. Penn catches a bullet atop a coal heap and barrel-rolls down to the bottom. His faithful pit bull watches as Penn croaks, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do." And then the director breaks a movie rule of such antiquity that the audience revolts. The dog gets it, too.The studio head (Catherine Keener) has the brittle patience of a kindergarten teacher at 2:55pm. If the director, Jeremy (Michael Wincott, a weeping tattooed wreck, in midtantrum), cuts out the dog getting its brains blown out, maybe they'll only lose $10 million. Convincing the director to take one for the team, Ben's other task is to ready a film rolling on Friday. The star, Bruce Willis (as Bruce Willis), has gained some pounds and put on a bushy beard and looks more or less like Jeff Bridges in Iron Man. He, too, is in midtantrum, roaring at anyone daring to make him shave or reduce. Levinson keeps De Niro in constant motion and Bluetooth conversation, and the surface of the movie intrigues: multiple montages in sharp-eyed views of L.A. freeways, a close-up of the mysterious machinery of a luxury car's headlight as it engages, and Ennio Morricone's "Man With a Harmonica" from Once Upon a Time in the West swirling around Ben on his errands. Ben never comes to rest to chat through things with his second ex (Robin Penn Wright) or with his 17-year-old daughter (Kristen Stewart), with whom he's becoming estranged. What Just Happened? is only a comedy because that's the only kind of movie you could call it. Watching an ambitious scriptwriter texting a message at a funeral can make you laugh, but it's not an intrinsically funny situation; if you saw it happen in Westwood, would you really be shocked? The male actors show a lot of their flesh, the 60ish De Niro looks fit, though with a small flap of belly; John Turturro paces in fancy European underwear as he moans like a moose in midpanic attack on the phone. They're made to look little and vulnerable. The action is fictionalized from Art Linson's true-life book (in real life, it was Alec Baldwin who turned up for a film looking like Grizzly Adams and who had to be asked to shave); the situations could, ultimately, be about any panicky men in any industry, and that's what makes it stick.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED? (R; 110 min.), directed by Barry Levinson, written by Art Linson, based on his book, photographed by Stéphane Fontaine and starring Robert De Niro and Bruce Willis, opens Oct. 17 at Los Gatos Cinema and Century 16 Mountain View.
Click Here to Talk About Movies at Metro's New Blog
Send a letter to the editor about this story.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
suggestions for astronomy iOS astronomy apps?
Answers Given
Answers Favorited
I have an app from years ago for iphone called Starmap, it's pretty good, but I'm wondering if there is one designed for iPad that is better?0
Google Skymap is pretty awesome and is available for iPhone/iPad.
Star Walk is fantastic. It shows you what's in the sky in realtime (based on the compass and spacial orientation) and can show you any date in history as well. It also has multiple zoom levels and a night mode. I'm really impressed every time I use it.
In addition to your app, my favorite astronomy supplemental tool is a green laster pointer. Here: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/001420.php It really does allow you to point to stars. One tip: if you have ocassion to go to China, pick one up there. You can get very powerful ones for $15.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.Tell us what you love.
- Announcements
- Aural
- Autonomous Motion
- Backpacking
- Big Systems
- Clothing
- Communications
- Community
- Computers
- Consumptivity
- Craft
- Culture
- Dead Tools
- Deals
- Design
- Destinations
- Dwelling
- Edibles
- Family
- Gardens
- General Purpose Tools
- Health
- Homestead
- Inner Space
- Kitchen
- Learning
- Life on Earth
- Livelihood
- Living on the Road
- Maker Tools
- Maker Update
- Materials
- Media Tools
- Paper World
- Photography
- Play
- Podcast
- Prove Us Wrong
- Readers' Gifts
- Recomendo
- Related Stuff
- Science Method
- Somatics
- Source Wanted
- Tips
- Tool Chest
- Uncategorized
- Vehicles
- Videos
- Visual Media
- What's in My Bag
- Workplace
- Workshop
If you are trying to describe a phenomenon rigorously, correlate aggregate parameters in such a way that all the units cancel out. For example, don't study the effect of changing pipe diameter, which has units of distance. Study changes of pipe diameter divided by pipe length, which has units of distance divided by distance. The result is dimensionless. These correlations are more resilient to changes in materials and scale. — David R. Throop, chemical engineer, Austin, Texas


text:
The saying "hard work pays off" applies well to one Independence resident.
Author and illustrator Cheryl Harness is the recipient of the 2014 Missouri Humanities Award in Distinguished Literary Achievement. She received her award May 17 in St. Louis.
"Stunning. I was enormously pleased," Harness said. "Particularly because the nomination included wonderful authors/friends saying very nice things about me."
Another local author, Dorinda Nicholson of "Pearl Harbor Child," said she nominated Harness for her "huge body of work and how so much of it tells the history of Missouri."
"Not only can she write, but she also illustrates. A rare find in the (publishing) industry."
Harness's bibliography spans more than 40 books – most written for elementary-age readers – that extensively cover American history, particularly the Colonial Era and 19th century. Some works of Missouri history include "They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express" and "Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi." Her passion for telling the many stories of America's past began with her coming across Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" book series as a child, an eight-book collection that she says she read 10 times each.
"They're classics," she said about the books. "Laura and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, artfully made history come alive and not in some zombie way, either."
Harness said what particularly made her connect with the series was the parallel between how her and Wilder's family both frequently moved from place to place growing up. Initially born in California, her family moved to Independence, then briefly to the Ozarks and eventually back to Independence.
"When things are difficult and uncertain, it's terribly comforting to return to a book you've loved. The characters remained the same."
This period of transience also later served as the basis for Harness's intermediate reader chapter book, "Just for You to Know."
Harness's writing and illustrating career didn't begin early. She graduated from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg with the intention to teach art to children. But once in the classroom teaching, she found out it just wasn't for her.
"I was just horrible and young, which is the same thing," she said. "I scared myself out of the profession really. I was a nervous wreck."
Later she worked at a variety of art-related jobs, such as a greeting card artist and even sketching caricature portraits at Worlds of Fun. But the year when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and Hollywood actress Bette Davis died, she decided to quit her reliable "day job" at a greeting card company in Colorado Springs to pursue authoring and illustrating children's books, what she has been doing ever since.
Her first published book was "The Windchild" in 1991.
"Nothing had certainly prepared me for going into children's books," she recalled. "I most certainly was not confident, but I was thrilled to tiny bits when it was finally published."
Although her publishing debut was a retelling of a classic folktale, she would later write and illustrate a diverse range of historical profiles, from Teddy Roosevelt to Abe Lincoln, for young children.
"A book for a young reader can go a long way towards furnishing that child's imagination," she said on why she mainly writes for a young audience.
Harness said the work she is most proud of is "Three Young Pilgrims," a picture book chronicling the lives of three children after getting off the Mayflower and settling in the New World. Her favorite period in history is the Colonial/Revolutionary War era because of the "boldness and courage of the Founding Fathers, plus empathy for the suffering and uncertainty" shared by the colonists and pioneers.
"A nation's history is more about boundaries and banners. It is a combination of all the stories and people who lived on the land," she said about why she writes historical children's books, "and it's not just about famous figures."
And besides creating works of art and penning books, she also considers herself an entertainer, visiting schools across the country to explain the importance of history for younger generations.
She usually gets the attention of her student audience by wearing authentic garb from a certain time period, followed by blowing into her harmonica, an instrument which she learned from her father on the bluffs of the Missouri River during her youth.
Harness keeps her presentations lively to captivate a child's interest, along with reinforcing what they have been learning in the classroom.
"Kids perhaps have the impression that learning about history is tedious, but it explains everything."
She asks the students what children in the distant future will think of them. "What was it like being you? History also validates what they are doing now."
Harness said she stresses a child's individual history - those of their ancestors - who have been born in this century and part of this world. It is those ancestors, she says, who have plenty to do with a child's personality, mood; likewise with any country as well.
"The character of a nation is bound up with the stories of its people throughout the years."
She says her job is to "help the medicine go down with a spoonful of sugar;" the medicine being historical facts and the entertaining aspect of her assemblies being the sugar.
As for aspiring authors, Harness said a beginning writer must have two qualities: Perseverance and knowledge of the publishing world.
Harness also noted that she illustrated many books by different authors before writing "The Windchild."
Learning the business of publishing is crucial in order to make it, she said, especially in these dynamic times.
"Publishing has encountered the perfect storm: The digital shift plus the Great Recession of 2008."
She said the transition from paper to the digital format has changed the business quite a bit, specifically how an author can approach a publisher to get their work published.
"Instead of going to an editor or publishing house directly, you usually have to find a literary agent first."
Besides more and more stories being converted to digital bits instead of being printed on a press, another consequence the digital age created is the consolidation of publishers, which makes the market more narrow in what they are seeking. "They're looking for the next Harry Potter. Dystopian fantasy like 'The Hunger Games' or 'Divergent' series are big in the young adult genre."
Nonetheless, Harness said one must adapt to the changes. Plus there are actually some benefits with the new digital direction in publishing. She said it allows your stories to be more accessible and exposed to a larger number of readers.
"It would be dumb to ignore the ever-changing world. I enthusiastically encourage everyone to look for my books' Kindle editions!"
Her advice for writing children's books, though, is, it has to be "effectively simple."
"One has to be clear and concise. The picture book is a beautiful, self-contained art form, and to a young reader, it is theater. With the voice and inflection, stories, pictures and ideas, the book has to work each page by moving forward. It's like opera."
And for the subgenre of historical non-fiction, Harness said there is already an established audience wanting more, plus the Common Core school standards require students to read more non-fiction selections. With teachers having time constraints in their lessons, historical non-fiction authors could possibly supplement a teacher's history lesson by expanding on a certain subject or topic.
Above all, learning about history is important, especially for younger generations.
"History is absolutely stiff with role models, for good or ill. It gives us meaning to our surroundings. The learning of history is essential for brain-training, cause/effect relationships and learning how to empathize with people of the past."
But Harness is taking a bit of a break from the history genre, besides having a book on the history of nation flags set to be released in September. She is currently in the midst of writing her first murder-mystery for adults.
When asked if she does anything else besides author and illustrate, she replied that books are simply her life and wouldn't have it any other way.
"I'm a bibliophile from way back and my life is pretty dandy, all in all."


text:
Cities stepping up, requiring energy benchmarking, analysis
Kudos to cities across the country for recognizing the value of energy benchmarking and retro-commissioning.
Kudos to cities across the country for recognizing the value of energy benchmarking and retro-commissioning.
The Boston City Council just approved the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance which requires large commercial and residential buildings to report and disclose their energy and water usage and greenhouse gas emissions in order to encourage investment in energy efficiency. The ordinance comes on the heels of similar decisions by Philadelphia, New York City and five other major U.S. cities.
These cities are recognizing the powerful value of energy benchmarking and retro-commissioning to improve performance. Benchmarking a building's performance enables us to understand how it is currently performing. Retro-commissioning takes steps to improve the performance of the building.
The steps these cities are taking will hopefully inspire others to follow suit. The systems and policies being created will enable us to harness energy use on a city-level and drive down costs while conserving key resources.
Our team at Cannon Design has been helping organizations conserve energy and reduce costs through benchmarking and commissioning for years now. We can speak to the value of investing in these strategies. It's exciting to see Boston and other cities stepping up and we're eager to help them continue to push these efforts forward.
Log in or create an account to submit your comment for this article.


text:
The district is now using .
Staff may download Microsoft Security Essentials at home for free on Windows computers.
Microsoft Security Essentials may be downloaded here:
Mac users have a free option in Avast Antivirus.
It can be downloaded from here
Home Antivirus Software
The district is now using .


text:
GARDEN CITY — The Garden City Commission has given first-round approval to a proposed $25 million development that would include an indoor water park, a hotel and a restaurant.
The city commission on Tuesday approved a memorandum of understanding with Stone Development Inc. regarding tax increment financing incentives and naming the development a Community Improvement District. The council also adopted a resolution to create a redevelopment district for the project.
The commission will consider a development agreement at a future meeting.
Attorney Evan Fitt, who is working with the developer, says the water park is planned as an attraction for Garden City residents and to lure outside visitors.
The Garden City Telegram (http://bit.ly/12M0X00) reports developers estimate the water park could attract 35,000 tourists per year, bringing $6.8 million to the city annually.


text:
Online booking
Dramatically located on the Pest banks of the Danube, the Parliament is the vast 1902 creation of Imre Steindl. The 96-metre high dome and neo-Gothic maze of golden halls house Hungary's national assembly. Protesters and tourists gather outside. Partly modelled on London's House of Parliament, the palace is graced with a spire-topped red dome, overlooking the Danube to one side, Kossuth Square to the other.
Address: 1055 Budapest, Kossuth square 1-3.
Phone: + (36) 1 441-4000
E-mail: email@example.com
Web: www.parlament.hu
Opening hours: Mo to Fr from 8 am to 6 pm, Sat from 8 am to 4 pm, Sun from 8 am to 2 pm
Public Transport Access: M3 (Blue metro line) to Ferenc körút


text:
Your browser does not support iframes.
I started my week in Frankfort in the presence of family, friends and my new colleagues in the Kentucky House of Representatives by holding my hand high and swearing an oath to represent the people of Scott, Owen, and Fayette counties to the very best of my ability.
Occasionally politicians slip up and reveal their true intentions. In DC, this is called "committing candor." While indirectly discussing his administration's effort in the courts to force Apple to develop a software key to unlock iPhones, President Obama recently admitted this battle is not just about a single terrorist's iPhone in San Bernardino.
FRANKFORT – With the final weeks of the session looming, we are all too aware of the short timeline and the many important pieces of legislation, including the state's budget, that we still need to move through the process before session ends.
This week marked the 10th week in an already historic session in terms of the number of bills before the General Assembly. During this 60-day session, there were 937 bills filed with 309 originating in the Senate. This total is the most since the 1,030 filed in the 2008 session.
FRANKFORT – The Kentucky General Assembly crossed another mile marker this week by reaching the deadline for the introduction of new bills in the state Senate.
With this deadline passed, we now have a more complete view of the issues lawmakers will take up this year. The bills address a mix of familiar issues and new problems. Some attempt to assist our citizens with disabilities while others address crimes perpetrated with technology our founding fathers could only imagine. Some measures drew bipartisan support while both parties vigorously debated others.
FRANKFORT – Now that we are in the second half of the session, we will see some of the legislature's biggest issues – like the state's biennial budget – brought to the forefront. For us, this means late nights and hard decisions as we work to reach a consensus on the most fiscally-responsible way to keep our state moving forward.
On Saturday, March 5, Owen County Republicans will vote at the only location of the Owen County Republican Caucus, the Lighthouse Church, 5405 Hwy. 127 N., Owenton, between the hours of 10 a.m.-4 p.m. for the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States.
At this point, there are five candidates: Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Donald Trump.
The seventh week of the 2016 General Assembly marked the halfway point of the 60-day session and saw the passage of a contested education measure that would change the evaluation method of the Kentucky Academic Standards.
Critics have characterized the current standards as bureaucratic burdens that have kept teachers from teaching. Furthermore, the standards were misaligned with student assessments.
A celebrity sighting in the state Capitol as an award-winning Hollywood actress shared her passion for early childhood education was a highlight of the sixth week of the 2016 General Assembly.
Copyright © 2018
The Owenton News-Herald is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Owen County and Owenton, KY, and the surrounding area.


text:
Hello random person who was looking to take a stroll down memory lane. Sonicandpals.com suffered a server crash many months ago, and the database was sadly lost. I have the comic strip files still, but all the titles, comments, etc are gone.
It's because of that fact that I have been reluctant to rebuild the site. I do plan on eventually restoring it, but until then, please enjoy the entire comic archive here for your browsing.
Trevor Fayas of Sonicandpals.com - The (once) comic!


text:
I recently had a tough challenge: I needed to produce a panoramic image that was 7 meters wide by 2.5 meters tall. In the American measurement system, the image would be 260 inches, or 21 feet and 8 inches long. The height of the image would be 106 inches, or 8 feet and 10 inches tall. I failed to make that goal with my initial attempt, which resulted in a 24×7 foot image. However, I did produce an 11×5.5 foot image with 225 ppi (pixels per inch), and in the process learned a fair amount about producing large format prints, or monster prints.
I don't know exactly what the lower limit of a large format, or monster print, would be. I once produced a terrific 20×30 image from a 6 megapixel camera. That would certainly be considered a monster print for that camera.
So let's just say that anything over a 30×40 in size taken with a 12 megapixel sensor qualifies as a monster print. That's arbitrary, but you have to start somewhere.
The important things to remember is that you only have so many pixels, or film grains if you prefer, in your image file, and they must somehow be stretched to fill the monster space. One way to accomplish that is to produce a straightforward enlargement, in which the pixels get spaced further and further apart. Imagine putting some stick-on stars on a balloon and blowing it up. At it gets bigger, the stars get bigger, but so do the spaces between them.
As an extreme example, you can print a tail wrap for a jet aircraft at 25 ppi. At a hundred yards or more in distance, no one will notice that the image is a little soft. In fact, at that distance, it looks tack sharp. Just for an example, an 8×10 at 300 ppi equals 120×96 at 25 ppi.
The pictures below won't look right because of the limitations of the web. However, you can see that the overall view at 300 ppi is sharper than the close-up view at 25 ppi. It wouldn't be the case if the 25 ppi were 15 feet away! You can test this by getting out of your chair and moving back a few feet. Both images look very crisp at a bit over 7 feet.
|Flowers at 300 ppi, by Eric Hatch
|Flowers at 25 ppi, by Eric Hatch
Step one in making a monster print is figuring out how far away the image will be seen. For magazines and most prints, 300 ppi is a good, tight resolution. If you're going to be looking at the image from one to three feet away, you definitely need a 300 ppi resolution or higher. However, if you're looking at the image from 20 feet away, 220 ppi is acceptable. In some instances, even 180 ppi would be sufficient.
If you simply enlarge an image, treating all parts equally, the edges of the pixels themselves get fuzzy and the space between them gets larger. So, dealing with the distance between pixels is a major part of making monster prints. Almost all image handling programs have routines that allow the computer to generate new pixels that it thinks would look good between two current ones. This is called "uprezzing" or "rezzing up" – increasing the effective resolution to fill in the vacant spaces between the stars.
Taking your best image and "rezzing" it up is another approach to producing monster prints. If you start with a monster file, you can make a monster print. However, eventually this technique fails. It fails because the more the computer has to guess and interpolate data to fill in the spaces, the fuzzier and less accurate the whole image becomes.
Simple enlarging won't yield monster prints at reasonably high resolution from normal file sizes. Rezzing up reaches a limit, and may end up creating an undesirable image. So what else can you do?
One thing you can do is take a number of overlapping shots, and stitch them together with appropriate software. Then, you can enlarge the result to the specified size. In my opinion, stitching is the better way to go.
However, to get the best results you have to take some precautions. First, though this is obvious, use a moderate telephoto lens to limit your field of view, thus increasing the number of exposures you can take. I say moderate because you don't want to induce distortion, especially where the edges will be stitched. Also, any vibration or motion blur will be fatal to your image. The more you magnify the image, the more any form of motion is exaggerated. This is why super zooms are not recommended. I use a 100mm prime for this job. A 60mm lens would work just as well.
Lens quality is another essential for making monster prints. Any flaws or aberrations will be obvious at monster sizes where they might not even be noticeable on an 8×10 image. My advice is to use good glass.
|Panoramic Image of Bridge, by Eric Hatch
As an example, the above image is what I started with. It was originally a 24×7 inch panoramic imaged stitched from 6 shots.
|Bridge Close Up, by Eric Hatch
At 160 inches wide and 225 ppi, here's what an excerpt looks like at printing size. Doesn't look great, but if you back away from your computer about 5 or 6 feet it looks okay.
Here's a curve ball: Photoshop and many other image manipulation programs have a 30,000 pixel size limit for JPEG images. They just won't operate reliably past that size. You'll need to work in Large Image Format or TIFF files to produce monster prints. The downside is it will drain your computer power.
You can get around the size limit by enlarging your stitched image using something like Perfect Resize from OnOne software. In dealing with my tough challenge of producing a large panoramic image, I "cheated" the program by enlarging my image to the limit, then removing 1/2 of the resulting image and pasting it into a new blank image. Next, I enlarged that image to the maximum. I did the same with the other half, and then pasted both up-sized images into a new blank image. In this case it was sized to twice the limit.
The end result was a 4 gig file, so be prepared to kill some time while it's processing. The process was complicated, but it worked. However, even the best program run into problems at monstrous sizes. You can't keep repeating the steps because the image gets too blurry.
With a Nikon D800 DSLR or a Mamiya Leaf medium format camera, you shouldn't encounter any problems because the native file sizes are so large. I would shoot the image in 12 bit color, which saves you some file size, again at some cost in depth and beauty.
The D800 produces an image approximately 16×24 in size at 300ppi. You'll need 12 images across and 8 down (allowing for overlap) to produce a 6×3 meter print without uprezzing. Even at 300ppi, the final image will be sharp, sharp, sharp. You can get by with proportionately fewer images if, as suggested above, you drop the ppi density to 225 or so. Again, talk to your client and to their art production house as to how they want to use the final image.
The sample image below started life as four, 12 megapixel raw files. They were stitched vertically to produce a 19×24 inch image. This in turn was rezzed up in PerfectResize to yield a 50×75 inch picture. This was well into monster print territory and nowhere near its limit. This image isn't perfect; there are a few soft focus areas, but overall it conveys the sense of vertical depth I was after.
|Thunderbird Falls, by Eric Hatch
It's mildly frustrating because there's no way to display monster prints on an internet site!
Contributor Bio:
Eric K. Hatch focuses on travel and fine art photography, and is an expert in digital photo restoration. Panoramas are currently one of his favorite photographic forms. He has won numerous regional awards and a number of competitions. His work has appeared in several AAA magazines, Oxygen Magazine, Bicycling, Alaska Milepost (annual) and Wooden Boat, to name a few. He has served on the board of the Southwest Ohio Professional Photographers Association, an affiliate of the Professional Photographers of America.
Eric has also written over 70 articles, essays, speeches, features, and professional articles in the last 30 years. His work has won two national awards: a Gold Quill from the International Association of Business Communicators, and Communicator of the Year from the Aviation/Space Writers Association.
In his youth, Eric studied under Guido Organschi, and later under Skip Schiel. He is the author of Explorations in Photography, Adventures and Advice for Advanced Amateur Photographers, which was recently released.
Explorations in Photography is an entertaining and informative how-to for advanced amateur photographers. The book covers artistic issues, explains some fundamental technical issues, and provides many hints from buying equipment to editing your photos. It also covers taking people pictures outdoors, handling nasty lighting situations, and includes a bonus chapter discussing photo restoration. Find it on Amazon.
General Portfolio: http://ekhphoto.smugmug.com
Blog: http://hatchphotoartistry.blogspot.com
Photo Restoration: http://www.hatchphotofix.com
* Readers can also get a fresh photo tip of the day several times a week at my website Explorations in Photography.


text:
Van Herpen mixes kimono with organic life in Paris
PARIS (AP) — Wild nature was in the spotlight for Dutch wunderkind Iris Van Herpen, who produced a typically organic-infused couture display for fall-winter 2013.
The show venue — among the pillared architecture of the neoclassical science museum — lent itself well to the exploration of organisms and exoskeletons that infused the 11 creations.
The twist this season was a neat fusion with Japanese styles. It featured nicely, for example, on a bronze kimono dress with round, large arms in the shape of a moth. Here, scratched detailing evoked the feeling of a perforated cocoon.
The piece de resistance had to be an incredible oval dark gray mini dress that, in its intricate hard ruffles, teaming sinews and un-human shape, looked like a work of abstract sculpture.
But the most memorable, for good or bad reasons, was a creation that could only be described as an explosion of skeletal plumage. It featured flapping chicken heads that looked like they would peck off the model's lips.
The show, however, was somewhat inconsistent.
There was also a feeling that Van Herpen is having trouble moving forward creatively from her organic themes. Although finely executed, two exoskeletal sheath dresses felt a little like a rehash of styles that appeared in previous seasons.
Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP


text:
This position will be responsible for taunting and sneering at my training runs in a manner that will provide me with the utmost motivation to train harder. Accordingly the ideal candidate will have excellent verbal and written communication skills and will be able to fling a sarcastic barb without remorse. In order to be effective as my Evil Arch Nemesis you will need to be at least as fast as I am and you should be posting race results that are often faster than mine. (I hate you already.)
Candidates will be required to read Half-Fast regularly and leave deriding remarks in the comments. Additionally, applicants should feel free to be creative in ridiculing my race results in venues outside of the comments section.
Applicants should be detail oriented and must be able to work well under minimal supervision. Blueprints for total world domination will not be provided so candidates must have experience with creating their own evil schemes. Applicants should be thick skinned since insults are likely to be returned, also applicant should not be easily offended by phrases like "I know you are but what am I," or "Your Momma!"
You will be required to provide your own assistant, extra consideration will be given to applicants who have midget's or evil henchmen for assistants.
Travel Requirements: 0%
Salary: $0
Benefits: none
Status: full time
Required Skills
- Candidate must have 2+ years experience as a successful Evil Arch Nemesis. Candidates with a proven track record of evil will be given priority.
- Quick and creative wit
- Must be handy with a laser beam
- Evil laugh (Mwwaaa haaaa haaaaa!)
- Sarcasm
Preferred Traits
- Handlebar mustache
- Monocle
- Freaky abnormality (3rd nipple, scar over eye, affinity for gold etc.)
- Anyone who owns sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads is a shoe in.
Half-Fast is an Equal Opportunity Employer


text:
LOS ANGELES — The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded USC a $1.9 million grant to support a program of graduate and postgraduate training in digital humanities, the school announced today.
The award is one in a series of grants the foundation has made in recent years to enable universities and liberal arts colleges "to equip growing cohorts of faculty and students to conduct research , teach and learn with the tools and protocols of the digital humanities," a statement said.
It said USC is committed to investing at least $1 billion in support of digital knowledge and informatics over the next 10 years.


text:
SOURCE: Ulthera
October 10, 2012 09:04 ET
Non-Surgical Ultherapy Ultrasound Procedure Now Used to Tighten Turkey Necks and Smooth Out Double-Chins
Non-Surgical Ultherapy Ultrasound Procedure Now Used to Tighten Turkey Necks and Smooth Out Double-Chins
MESA, AZ--(Marketwire - Oct 10, 2012) - Ulthera, Inc. -- a global, high-growth medical device company pioneering aesthetic and medical applications using its therapeutic ultrasound platform technology -- today announced that its ultrasound platform device, the Ulthera System, has received FDA clearance to non-invasively lift lax tissue on the neck and the submentum (under the chin).
This is the second lift indication that the System has received; the first cosmetic lift indication was granted in 2009, when the Ulthera System was cleared as a facial treatment with a specific indication for non-invasive eyebrow lift. To date, the Ulthera System remains the only energy-based device with an indication for lift.
The Ulthera System -- which combines time-honored ultrasound imaging with focused ultrasound therapy -- is used in Ultherapy, a face and neck treatment with well over 100,000 patient procedures performed worldwide.
"This latest validation of the Ulthera System and Ultherapy procedure is testament to the results our clinicians report globally," said Matthew Likens, president and CEO of Ulthera. "We know from our customers and their patients that sagging skin under the chin and on the neck is a significant issue. Patient demand for a non-invasive lift on the face and neck with just one treatment and no downtime is well established."
"As an FDA-cleared facial treatment for more than three years, many clinicians have noted results outside the indicated brow area," said principal investigator Jeffrey Kenkel, M.D., Professor and Vice-Chairman of Plastic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "The ability to specifically claim lifting in another area, however, required solid quantitative data that would support noticeable and measurable results in these areas."
"This clearance for the neck and under the chin is just one in a series of many new clinical indications we are pursuing in the years ahead," Likens continued. "Utilizing our tried-and-true ultrasound technology, our customers can expect to see continued investment by Ulthera to expand our platform technology's treatment capabilities."
Photos "Before and After" the procedure are available for viewing: http://www.ultherapy.com/Ultherapy-Before-And-After-Photos
About Ulthera
Ulthera®, Inc. is a global, high-growth medical device company pioneering aesthetic and medical applications using its therapeutic ultrasound platform technology. The Ulthera® System is the first and only energy-based device to receive FDA clearance for a non-invasive aesthetic lift indication. It is used in a face and neck procedure known as Ultherapy®, which is cleared to lift skin on the brow, neck and under the chin. Founded in 2004 and based in Mesa, Ariz., Ulthera is a privately held company backed by top-tier venture capital firms, New Enterprise Associates and Apposite Capital. For more information, visit www.ultherapy.com.
Media Contact:Susan Sorensen
Ulthera, Inc.Email Contact
Media Contact:Susan Sorensen
Ulthera, Inc.Email Contact
See all RSS Newsfeeds


text:
WESTCHESTER, N.Y. – Wednesday could bring thunderstorms, severe winds and heavy rain to Westchester County, according to the National Weather Service.
A flash flood watch has been issued for the county until late Wednesday night.
Showers are likely and thunderstorms are possible Wednesday after 4 p.m. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain, and patchy fog is possible before 1 p.m., with a high near 54 degrees. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.
Showers will continue into the evening, and thunderstorms are possible, with damaging winds and heavy rain and an overnight low around 43 degrees. It will be windy, with winds of 13 to 18 mph increasing to 28 mph after midnight with gusts as high as 55 mph.
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.


text:
Indonesian Chicken Salad
Bold and bright flavors make this shredded chicken salad tantalizing. Served with two dressings and flatbread this salad will delight the tastebuds.
6 onions, very thinly sliced
Flour, as needed, for coating
Vegetable oil, as needed
3⁄4 cup soy sauce
2⁄3 cup rice vinegar
1 1⁄2 tbsp. sugar
2 1⁄2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3⁄4 cup peanut butter
4 tbsp. hot pepper sauce
4 tsp. red pepper flakes
12 cups mesclun greens
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
6 chicken breasts, poached and shredded
Flatbread, as needed
Shrimp chips, if desired
Lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, for garnish
1. Lightly coat onions in seasoned flour. In a deep pan, heat vegetable oil until very hot. In batches, deep-fry onions until golden brown; drain.
2. For salad dressing, in a small bowl combine soy sauce, 1⁄3 cup vinegar, sugar and sesame seeds; reserve. For peanut dressing, in a separate bowl, mix together peanut butter, pepper sauce, red pepper flakes and remaining vinegar. Stir in warm water until desired consistency is reached.
3. In a large bowl, toss together greens, sweet onion and half of the reserved dressing. Toss shredded chicken in remaining dressing.
4. Place greens on plate and top with shredded chicken. Spoon peanut dressing over chicken and top with fried onions. Garnish with scallions, lime wedges and cilantro sprigs. Serve with flatbread and shrimp chips, if desired.


text:
Note: Images may show upgrades
Be the first to review this product
Availability: In stock
Kendall Wings Choice Plus Adult Brief is a padded brief for greater comfort and absorbency. The Wings Choice Plus is a contoured brief with full absorbent mat designed for persons restricted by total incontinence. Leg gathers provide superior fit and containment. These Adult Briefs are extra soft and come with stay-dry facing. The moisture-proof backing enhances patient comfort. Extra strong, one-piece tape tabs provide secure fit. A wetness indicator is included in the Wings Choice Plus. Designed for heavy incontinence, the Wings™ Choice Plus Adult Briefs provide outstanding fluid capacity to keep skin dry and reduce odor.
Please call us for specific details.
Please call us for specific details
Only registered users can write reviews. Please, log in or register
87 Danbury Road, Unit 1 New Milford, CT 06776
Tel: (866) 563-6812 Mon-Fri, 8.30am to 5pm EST Fax: (860) 838-4671
App for iOS
App for Android
© 2017 Medicaleshop.com. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Financial Matters
Tuition & Fees
Exact costs will vary based on your status and course of study. View a detailed (per semester) tuition and fees breakdown.
Financial Support
When the committee for an A&S graduate program recommends admission of a student, it also recommends the level (if any) and kind of financial support offered to the admitted student. Grants are also available to support graduate student research and attendance at professional conferences. During the academic year, the A&S newsletter Did You Know That offers a current compilation of funding available.
In-State Status
To claim in-state status for tuition purposes, students should apply for In-State tuition when submitting their admissions application. This information is submitted in the Residency portion of the application. Otherwise, you may complete the Application to Determine Physical Residency and In-State Tuition Eligibility and mail to the University Registrar.
G.I. Bill®
As is the case with all federal programs, the Financial Aid Office follows guidelines from the federal government to assist you in obtaining your benefits. The Office of the University Registrar provides resources that you can consult for information and updates as they become available. These offices are your best sources of information for these benefits.


text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - About scholarhsips. Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in About scholarhsips. Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> English Schools View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message Soojae LeeJoined: 26 Mar 2005Posts: 3 Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:03 pm Post subject: About scholarhsips. I want to know if there is any scholarhsip available for E.S.L students in the U.S. I got accepted to a college and need as much helpe as possible. Please help me find something!!! _________________Have a grand day! Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> English Schools All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Banner Advertising | Bookstore / Alta Books | FAQs | Articles | Interview with Dave Copyright © 2018 Dave's ESL Cafe | All Rights Reserved | Contact Dave's ESL Cafe | Site Map Teachers College, Columbia University: Train to Teach English Here or Abroad Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group


text:
DOE A to Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
For Release: October 31, 2005
DOE Announces 2005 Title I Distinguished Schools Honorees
Three elementary schools in Union City, Camden and Vineland have been selected as New Jersey's 2005 Title I Distinguished Schools, Acting Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy announced today.
The schools are Henry Hudson School in Union City, Ulysses S. Wiggins School in Camden and Dr. William Mennies School in Vineland.
While all three urban schools have large at-risk populations, they have shown continual improvement in their test scores, making adequate yearly progress (AYP) and closing the achievement gap, Commissioner Davy said.
The three were selected by DOE officials from among the almost 1,400 New Jersey schools that receive federal funding under Title I of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
"We are very, very proud of these schools," said Acting Governor Richard J. Codey. "They are proof that every child can learn when administrators, teachers and families all work together to create a supportive environment focused on achievement."
Commissioner Davy said the three schools share many of the same characteristics. "When you combine high-quality leadership, a focus on staff development opportunities to help teachers become the best they can be and inspire their students, and the active involvement and commitment from the whole community, it translates into success," she said.
The principals of the three schools will each receive a $1,000 award to be used in continuing the school's academic achievement efforts.
Two of the schools were also nominated for national recognition under the US Education Department's Title I Distinguished Schools program.
Ulysses S. Wiggins school will represent New Jersey Title I schools that have "exhibited exceptional student performance for two or more consecutive years." Henry Hudson school will be the state's representative of Title I schools that have "made the most progress in significantly closing the achievement gap between student groups."
They will be formally honored at a special breakfast during the national Title I Conference in Dallas in January.
The Title I Distinguished Schools Program is sponsored by the National Association of State Title I Directors. In order to be nominated, schools must have a minimum school poverty rate of 40%, demonstrate a high level of success in assessment achievement and meet or exceed NCLB AYP goals for two consecutive years.
In New Jersey, DOE officials first identified potential nominees based on an analysis of each school's state test data. Administrators at identified schools were asked to submit a narrative describing their demographics, academic and extracurricular programs and history of student achievement. Following site visits by DOE personnel, the final nominees were selected.
Key elements considered in the selection process included the schools' overall effectiveness in curriculum and instruction, professional development, partnerships with families and the community, and other factors contributing to their extraordinary student success.
For more information, please contact the Department of Education's Public Information Office at (609) 292-1126.


text:
December 20. 2013 10:45PM
High School Roundup: Trinity boys top Concord
Trinity pulled away in the fourth quarter to earn a 62-52 win over Concord in season-opening boys' basketball on Friday night.
Brad Rowe (11 points) hit three 3-pointers in the second half for Trinity and Carmen Giampetruzzi (21 points) and Patrick Keefe (15 points) added to the Trinity offense. The Pioneers made 22 free throws on 30 tries. Host Concord (1-1) was led by Garrett Jewell with 16 points.
Manchester Central 78, Alvirne 59
At Manchester, Jon Martin scored 22 points to lead the way for Central. Tyler Brown had 22 for Alvirne. Brett Hanson and Joey Martin added 13 points for the Little Green (1-0). Central led by 20 in the first quarter before Alvirne mounted a comeback. Central pulled away in the second half.
Derryfield 55, Portsmouth Christian 26
: At Manchester, host Derryfield School won its season-opener, led by Sam Anderson's 12 points off the bench. Tyler Zorn (nine points) and Roger Larrivee (eight points) chipped in for Derryfield. Wes Tobin had 10 points to lead PCA (1-2).
Nashua South 68, Pinkerton 55:
At Nashua, Jordy Tavarez scored a career-high 28 points. Vinny Ortolano (nine points) added to the Nashua South (2-0) attack. Pinkerton (0-1) was led by Luke Rosinski (20 points), David Faulks (12 points) and Jeremy Dietzel (12 points).
Merrimack 47, Bedford 44
At Bedford, Eric Gendron scored 23 points to lead the way for Merrimack (1-0). Shane Bourque added 14 points. Bedford (0-1) was paced Taylor Grande with 16 points. Cam Meservey added 10 points.
Pembroke 63, Pelham 49
: At Pelham, Patrick Welch led all scorers with 21 points, Kafani Williams had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Max Curran had four points and 13 rebounds for Pembroke (2-0).
Girls' basketball
Pinkerton 58, Nashua South 28
: At Derry, Valerie Martin scored 17 points to lead the way for Pinkerton (1-0). Brandi Bonneau (eight points) and Kayla Stacy (seven points) chipped in for the Astros. South (0-4) was led Mallory McCabe with 17 points.
Trinity 64, Concord 29
: At Manchester, senior captain Lizzy Meehan scored a career-high 20 points (hitting four 3-pointers) to lead Trinity (1-1). Sophomore Amanda Torres scored 13 and freshman Shannon Roberge added 11. Concord (0-2) got 14 points from Cassidy Emerson.
Londonderry 83, Memorial 36
: At Londonderry, the Lancers (1-0) were led by Aliza Simpson and Casey Evans with 17 points each. Memorial (0-1) got 16 points from McKenna Grissom.
Goffstown 47, Windham 40:
At Goffstown, Cassidy Lalumiere scored 10 points amid a balanced Grizzlies (1-1) attack. Windham (2-1) got 10 points from both Bri Angelini and Amanda Carey.
Pembroke 64, Pelham 42
: At Pembroke, Karli Loiselle scored a game-high 20 points for the Spartans. Aleanna Clermont added 12 points. Pelham got 15 points from Hannah Paitchel.
Derryfield 50, Portsmouth Christian 33
: At Dover, Hannah Comeau scored 12 points, Hannah Menakaya added 11 and Liz Krogman scored 10 to lead the way for Derryfield (3-1). PCA (0-5) was led by Nikki Dudley with 18 points.
Indoor track
Pinkerton 52, Salem 44
: On Thursday, Michaela Blackwell (just back from an injury) placed second in both the high jump and long jump to lead the Astros.
Jacque Greazzo placed third in the high jump. Jacqui Wyka placed third in the high jump and first in the 600 meter. Following her in the 600 were Erin Coutts and Kristen Sobolewski with a second and third place finish, respectively.
Also for Pinkerton, Nora-Ann Robichaud placed third in the hurdles. Bela Fast placed second in the 55 meter. Veronica Sullivan, Danika Ashness, and Kaila Cote swept the 1000 meter.


text:
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 27th Jun 2007 22:42 UTC, submitted by Oliver
"The OpenMotif Project Team announced today the release of OpenMotif 2.3, marking the most significant version of OpenMotif since it was released to the open source community in May 2000. OpenMotif 2.3 includes major feature enhancements and over 25 bug fixes requested by developers of enterprise applications. OpenMotif is the publicly licensed version of Motif, the industry standard user interface toolkit for UNIX systems provided on more than 200 hardware and software platforms including HP, IBM, Sun, SGI, and Linux (Red Hat and Novell SUSE)."
Permalink for comment 251300
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE: Update the to
by bass on Thu 28th Jun 2007 15:19 UTC in reply to "Update the to "


text:
Send an Instant Message to Nihane-chan Using...
3D Special Forces
This was originally wrote in response to a girl who had posted a journal on dA complaining about a speech given by Democratic Senator Harry Reid yesterday. The following is quoted from HIS speech:
"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those
You get a text at 4AM saying "come outside." What do you do?
Don't answer lmfao! Unless its someone important, then I'd tell them I'll buzz them in.
Do you get overly emotional about small things?
Hah, yes xD
When was the last time you were scared?
Last night, driving home at 2am through a blizzard! Thank the GODS for AWD!!
Is anyone mad at you right now?
Hub's a little annoyed I wouldn't watch Star Wars: Clone Wars with
What song are you listening to right now?
99 Red Balloons, LOL, the English version from DDR
Admit it you want a Snuggie. What design/color?
Uhhh no... not unless its a part of a new cult I'm joining x.x
Do you prefer movies at home or movies at the theater?
Home, we have a really REALLY nice home theater system and its FREE to watch them LOL
How many songs does your iTunes have?
Right now my iTunes is sitting empty because of a hard
Youre thinking about someone?
I'm thinking of a bunch of someones xD
Last awkward moment?
Managing on Saturday, sent my driver to the wrong gas station on the opposite end of town from where she should have gone, then realized last night that never should have happened? Lame I suppose, but awkwardness is something I don't fear lol. I'm awkward... period!
How many people do you trust?
Let's say, 5
Are you happy with your life?
I suppose,
This is a Rant I posted Aug 2, 2006, on one of my RP profiles. I thought I should move it over here to see if anybody else shared my opinion (which I think is already blatantly obvious.)
So as I sit here watching the last few moments of last night's DVR'd Inuyasha, I realize how crazy I actually am. For starters, when Inuyasha was trying to slay Housenki, he was rittled with diamond shards, cutting him several times. Now I have heard several people state that in the English versions


text:
Killer Hurricanes
Season 44 Episode 17 | 53m 1s
Experts reconstruct the Great Hurricane of 1780 to help predict the risk of future storms.
Aired: 10/11/17
Expires: 10/31/20Video has closed captioning.
Buy Now:
Problems Playing Video?
Hurricanes and Climate Change
Why climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous.
Hurricane Power
Your average hurricane releases enough energy to power the world 200 times over.


text:
Resident Evil 4's director Shinji Mikami has claimed that his "biggest motivation" for returning to survival horror with The Evil Within is because he believes "there aren't any real survival horror games in the world now".
Got that right... only thing I can really think of, sadly is.. that "Slender Man" game...
There never was any survival horror. At least not in my eyes.
RE1 was putting me to sleep back in the day when I played it.
I've ever so called "scary game" and they just knock me out faster than NyQuil.
Im happy and satisfied with RE6. This was the game I was looking for since part 2. This whole scary thing, must be the same folks that like Paranormal Activities movies.
I like true scary, true horror. When the day comes that I read "this game is the equivalent of (say something like) the new Evil Dead movie then im ALL in.
in my opinion that will NEVER happen. Just cant translate that to an active activity like gaming and particularly gaming with guns.


text:
First let me introduce myself. My name is Philippe, I leave in the Paris (France) suburb.
I have both a 1971 FLH1200 and a 1943 WLA .
My question concerns my 1200 Shovel FLH.
Had both Cylinder rebored and changed both pistons.
Did a first oil change after 500 miles
A second oil change 700 after.
My question is the following: After cylinder being re-bored and new piston installed, what is the frequency/Mileage for oil change ?


text:
18 Twitter Reactions To Kanye West's 'New Slaves'
Kanye West redefined rap's marketing strategy by plastering his face on 66 buildings across the world for the premiere of his new single "New Slaves." But instead of letting 'Ye hog the mic (he will be performing on SNL later today after all), we let the Twitter world sound off on the new cut.
After you print out the lyrics and have a read-along, see if your characters made it in the gallery above.
Note: Yeezy season may include a new album dropping June 18.


text:
I'll start:
The Medical Committee Netherlands-Vietnam (MCNV), founded in 1968, has provided medical help to the people of Vietnam from the American war and till now. It has shifted from giving practical and material aid to building community capacity to local health organizations through training and teaching health care workers. MCNV has played an important role in improving the health care system in Vietnam. In 2003, one symposium, held to celebrate its 35th anniversary, reviewed cooperation activities between MCNV and local organizations in Vietnam in general and in health care in particular. During that symposium, Vietnamese and Dutch experts suggested strategies to promote public health in Vietnam concentrating on emerging health problems such as HIV/AIDS.
On a cultural note, we generally call it the Vietnam war in English; I know this might be a contentious issue, but that is our name for it, even in Britain which took no part. Maybe 'war with America' might be a neutral alternative


text:
Select Search
World Factbook
Roget's Int'l Thesaurus
Bartlett's Quotations
Respectfully Quoted
Fowler's King's English
Strunk's Style
Mencken's Language
Cambridge History
The King James Bible
Oxford Shakespeare
Gray's Anatomy
Farmer's Cookbook
Post's Etiquette
Brewer's Phrase & Fable
Bulfinch's Mythology
Frazer's Golden Bough
All Verse
Dickinson, E.
Eliot, T.S.
Frost, R.
Hopkins, G.M.
Keats, J.
Lawrence, D.H.
Masters, E.L.
Sandburg, C.
Sassoon, S.
Whitman, W.
Wordsworth, W.
Yeats, W.B.
All Nonfiction
Harvard Classics
American Essays
Einstein's Relativity
Grant, U.S.
Roosevelt, T.
Wells's History
Presidential Inaugurals
All Fiction
Shelf of Fiction
Ghost Stories
Short Stories
Shaw, G.B.
Stein, G.
Stevenson, R.L.
Wells, H.G.
Edmund Spenser
Complete Poetical Works
Edmund Spenser
The Complete Poetical Works.
The Faerie Queene
Book V. The Legend of Artegall
Canto II
Artegall heares of Florimell;
Does with the Pagan fight:
Him slaies, drownes Lady Munera,
Does race her castle quight.
is more honorable to a knight,
Ne better doth beseeme brave chevalry,
Then to defend the feeble in their right,
And wrong redresse in such as wend awry.
Whilome those great heroes got thereby
Their greatest glory, for their rightfull deedes,
And place deserved with the gods on hy.
Herein the noblesse of this knight exceedes,
Who now to perils great for justice sake proceedes.
To which as he now was uppon the way,
He chaunst to meet a dwarfe in hasty course;
Whom he requird his forward hast to stay,
Till he of tidings mote with him discourse.
Loth was the dwarfe, yet did he stay perforse,
And gan of sundry newes his store to tell,
As to his memory they had recourse:
But chiefely of the fairest Florimell,
How she was found againe, and spousde to Marinell.
For this was Dony, Florimels owne dwarfe,
Whom having lost (as ye have heard whyleare)
And finding in the way the scattred scarfe,
The fortune of her life long time did feare.
But of her health when Artegall did heare,
And safe returne, he was full inly glad,
And askt him where and when her bridale cheare
Should be solemnizd: for if time he had,
He would be there, and honor to her spousall ad.
Within three daies, quoth he, as I do here,
It will be at the Castle of the Strond;
What time, if naught me let, I will be there
To doe her service, so as I am bond.
But in my way a little here beyond
A cursed cruell Sarazin doth wonne,
That keepes a bridges passage by strong hond,
And many errant knights hath there fordonne;
That makes all men for feare that passage for to shonne.
What mister wight, quoth he, and how far hence
Is he, that doth to travellers such harmes?
He is, said he, a man of great defence;
Expert in battell and in deedes of armes;
And more emboldned by the wicked charmes,
With which his daughter doth him still support;
Having great lordships got and goodly farmes,
Through strong oppression of his powre extort;
By which he stil them holds, and keepes with strong effort.
And dayly he his wrongs encreaseth more;
For never wight he lets to passe that way,
Over his bridge, albee he rich or poore,
But he him makes his passage-penny pay:
Else he doth hold him backe or beat away.
Thereto he hath a groome of evill guize,
Whose scalp is bare, that bondage doth bewray,
Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize;
But he him selfe uppon the rich doth tyrannize.
His name is hight Pollente, rightly so,
For that he is so puissant and strong,
That with his powre he all doth overgo,
And makes them subject to his mighty wrong;
And some by sleight he eke doth underfong:
For on a bridge he custometh to fight,
Which is but narrow, but exceeding long;
And in the same are many trap fals pight,
Through which the rider downe doth fall through oversight.
And underneath the same a river flowes,
That is both swift and dangerous deepe withall;
Into the which whom so he overthrowes,
All destitute of helpe doth headlong fall;
But he him selfe, through practise usuall,
Leapes forth into the floud, and there assaies
His foe confused through his sodaine fall,
That horse and man he equally dismaies,
And either both them drownes, or trayterously slaies.
Then doth he take the spoile of them at will,
And to his daughter brings, that dwels thereby:
Who all that comes doth take, and therewith fill
The coffers of her wicked threasury;
Which she with wrongs hath heaped up so hy,
That many princes she in wealth exceedes,
And purchast all the countrey lying ny
With the revenue of her plenteous meedes:
Her name is Munera, agreeing with her deedes.
Thereto she is full faire, and rich attired,
With golden hands and silver feete beside,
That many lords have her to wife desired:
But she them all despiseth for great pride.
Now by my life, sayd he, and God to guide,
None other way will I this day betake,
But by that bridge, whereas he doth abide:
Therefore me thither lead. No more he spake,
But thitherward forthright his ready way did make.
Unto the place he came within a while,
Where on the bridge he ready armed saw
The Sarazin, awayting for some spoile.
Who as they to the passage gan to draw,
A villaine to them came with scull all raw,
That passage money did of them require,
According to the custome of their law.
To whom he aunswerd wroth, Loe! there thy hire;
And with that word him strooke, that streight he did expire.
Which when the Pagan saw, he wexed wroth,
And streight him selfe unto the fight addrest,
Ne was Sir Artegall behinde: so both
Together ran with ready speares in rest.
Right in the midst, whereas they brest to brest
Should meete, a trap was letten downe to fall
Into the floud: streight leapt the carle unblest,
Well weening that his foe was falne withall:
But he was well aware, and leapt before his fall.
There being both together in the floud,
They each at other tyrannously flew;
Ne ought the water cooled their whot bloud,
But rather in them kindled choler new.
But there the Paynim, who that use well knew
To fight in water, great advantage had,
That oftentimes him nigh he overthrew:
And eke the courser whereuppon he rad
Could swim like to a fish, whiles he his backe bestrad.
Which oddes when as Sir Artegall espide,
He saw no way but close with him in hast;
And to him driving strongly downe the tide,
Uppon his iron coller griped fast,
That with the straint his wesand nigh he brast.
There they together strove and struggled long,
Either the other from his steede to cast;
Ne ever Artegall his griple strong
For any thing wold slacke, but still uppon him hong.
As when a dolphin and a sele are met
In the wide champian of the ocean plaine:
With cruell chaufe their courages they whet,
The maysterdome of each by force to gaine,
And dreadfull battaile twixt them do darraine:
They snuf, they snort, they bounce, they rage, they rore,
That all the sea, disturbed with their traine,
Doth frie with fome above the surges hore:
Such was betwixt these two the troublesome uprore.
So Artegall at length him forst forsake
His horses backe, for dread of being drownd,
And to his handy swimming him betake.
Eftsoones him selfe he from his hold unbownd,
And then no ods at all in him he fownd:
For Artegall in swimming skilfull was,
And durst the depth of any water sownd.
So ought each knight, that use of perill has,
In swimming be expert, through waters force to pas.
Then very doubtfull was the warres event,
Uncertaine whether had the better side:
For both were skild in that experiment,
And both in armes well traind and throughly tride.
But Artegall was better breathd beside,
And towards th end grew greater in his might,
That his faint foe no longer could abide
His puissance, ne beare him selfe upright,
But from the water to the land betooke his flight.
But Artegall pursewd him still so neare,
With bright Chrysaor in his cruell hand,
That, as his head he gan a litle reare
Above the brincke, to tread upon the land,
He smote it off, that tumbling on the strand
It bit the earth for very fell despight,
And gnashed with his teeth, as if he band
High God, whose goodnesse he despaired quight,
Or curst the hand which did that vengeance on him dight.
His corps was carried downe along the lee,
Whose waters with his filthy bloud it stayned:
But his blasphemous head, that all might see,
He pitcht upon a pole on high ordayned;
Where many years it afterwards remayned,
To be a mirrour to all mighty men,
In whose right hands great power is contayned,
That none of them the feeble overren,
But alwaies doe their powre within just compasse pen.
That done, unto the castle he did wend,
In which the Paynims daughter did abide,
Guarded of many which did her defend:
Of whom he entrance sought, but was denide,
And with reprochfull blasphemy defide,
Beaten with stones downe from the battilment,
That he was forced to withdraw aside;
And bad his servant Talus to invent
Which way he enter might without endangerment.
Eftsoones his page drew to the castle gate,
And with his iron flale at it let flie,
That all the warders it did sore amate,
The which erewhile spake so reprochfully,
And made them stoupe, that looked earst so hie.
Yet still he bet and bounst uppon the dore,
And thundred strokes thereon so hideouslie,
That all the peece he shaked from the flore,
And filled all the house with feare and great uprore.
With noise whereof the lady forth appeared
Uppon the castle wall; and when she saw
The daungerous state in which she stood, she feared
The sad effect of her neare overthrow;
And gan entreat that iron man below
To cease his outrage, and him faire besought,
Sith neither force of stones which they did throw,
Nor powr of charms, which she against him wrought,
Might otherwise prevaile, or make him cease for ought.
But when as yet she saw him to proceede,
Unmovd with praiers or with piteous thought,
She ment him to corrupt with goodly meede;
And causde great sackes with endlesse riches fraught,
Unto the battilment to be upbrought,
And powred forth over the castle wall,
That she might win some time, though dearly bought,
Whilest he to gathering of the gold did fall.
But he was nothing movd nor tempted therewithall;
But still continud his assault the more,
And layd on load with his huge yron flaile,
That at the length he has yrent the dore,
And made way for his maister to assaile.
Who being entred, nought did then availe
For wight, against his powre them selves to reare:
Each one did flie; their hearts began to faile;
And hid them selves in corners here and there;
And eke their dame halfe dead did hide her self for feare.
Long they her sought, yet no where could they finde her,
That sure they weend she was escapt away:
But Talus, that could like a limehound winde her,
And all things secrete wisely could bewray,
At length found out whereas she hidden lay
Under an heape of gold. Thence he her drew
By the faire lockes, and fowly did array,
Withouten pitty of her goodly hew,
That Artegall him selfe her seemelesse plight did rew.
Yet for no pitty would he change the course
Of justice, which in Talus hand did lye;
Who rudely hayld her forth without remorse,
Still holding up her suppliant hands on hye,
And kneeling at his feete submissively.
But he her suppliant hands, those hands of gold,
And eke her feete, those feete of silver trye,
Which sought unrighteousnesse, and justice sold,
Chopt off, and nayld on high, that all might them behold.
Her selfe then tooke he by the sclender wast,
In vaine loud crying, and into the flood
Over the castle wall adowne her cast,
And there her drowned in the durty mud:
But the streame washt away her guilty blood.
Thereafter all that mucky pelfe he tooke,
The spoile of peoples evill gotten good,
The which her sire had scrapt by hooke and crooke,
And burning all to ashes, powrd it downe the brooke.
And lastly all that castle quite he raced,
Even from the sole of his foundation,
And all the hewen stones thereof defaced,
That there mote be no hope of reparation,
Nor memory thereof to any nation.
All which when Talus throughly had perfourmed,
Sir Artegall undid the evill fashion,
And wicked customes of that bridge refourmed:
Which done, unto his former journey he retourned.
In which they measurd mickle weary way,
Till that at length nigh to the sea they drew;
By which as they did travell on a day,
They saw before them, far as they could vew,
Full many people gathered in a crew;
Whose great assembly they did much admire;
For never there the like resort they knew.
So towardes them they coasted, to enquire
What thing so many nations met did there desire.
There they beheld a mighty gyant stand
Upon a rocke, and holding forth on hie
An huge great paire of ballance in his hand,
With which he boasted in his surquedrie,
That all the world he would weigh equallie,
If ought he had the same to counterpoys.
For want whereof he weighed vanity,
And fild his ballaunce full of idle toys:
Yet was admired much of fooles, women, and boys.
He sayd that he would all the earth uptake,
And all the sea, devided each from either:
So would he of the fire one ballaunce make,
And one of th ayre, without or wind or wether:
Then would he ballaunce heaven and hell together,
And all that did within them all containe;
Of all whose weight he would not misse a fether:
And looke what surplus did of each remaine,
He would to his owne part restore the same againe.
Forwhy, he sayd, they all unequall were,
And had encroched uppon others share,
Like as the sea (which plaine he shewed there)
Had worne the earth, so did the fire the aire,
So all the rest did others parts empaire,
And so were realmes and nations run awry.
All which he undertooke for to repaire,
In sort as they were formed aunciently;
And all things would reduce unto equality.
Therefore the vulgar did about him flocke,
And cluster thicke unto his leasings vaine,
Like foolish flies about an hony crocke,
In hope by him great benefite to gaine,
And uncontrolled freedome to obtaine.
All which when Artegall did see and heare,
How he mis-led the simple peoples traine,
In sdeignfull wize he drew unto him neare,
And thus unto him spake, without regard or feare:
Thou that presumst to weigh the world anew,
And all things to an equall to restore,
In stead of right me seemes great wrong dost shew,
And far above thy forces pitch to sore.
For ere thou limit what is lesse or more
In every thing, thou oughtest first to know,
What was the poyse of every part of yore:
And looke then, how much it doth overflow,
Or faile thereof, so much is more then just to trow.
For at the first they all created were
In goodly measure by their Makers might,
And weighed out in ballaunces so nere,
That not a dram was missing of their right:
The earth was in the middle centre pight,
In which it doth immoveable abide,
Hemd in with waters like a wall in sight;
And they with aire, that not a drop can slide:
Al which the heavens containe, and in their courses guide.
Such heavenly justice doth among them raine,
That every one doe know their certaine bound,
In which they doe these many yeares remaine,
And mongst them al no change hath yet beene found.
But if thou now shouldst weigh them new in pound,
We are not sure they would so long remaine:
All change is perillous, and all chaunce unsound.
Therefore leave off to weigh them all againe,
Till we may be assurd they shall their course retaine.
Thou foolishe Elfe, said then the gyant wroth,
Seest not, how badly all things present bee,
And each estate quite out of order goth?
The sea it selfe doest thou not plainely see
Encroch uppon the land there under thee;
And th earth it selfe how daily its increast
By all that dying to it turned be?
Were it not good that wrong were then surceast,
And from the most, that some were given to the least?
Therefore I will throw downe these mountaines hie,
And make them levell with the lowly plaine:
These towring rocks, which reach unto the skie,
I will thrust downe into the deepest maine,
And as they were, them equalize againe.
Tyrants, that make men subject to their law,
I will suppresse, that they no more may raine;
And lordings curbe, that commons over-aw;
And all the wealth of rich men to the poore will draw.
Of things unseene how canst thou deeme aright,
Then answered the righteous Artegall,
Sith thou misdeemst so much of things in sight?
What though the sea with waves continuall
Doe eate the earth? it is no more at all,
Ne is the earth the lesse, or loseth ought:
For whatsoever from one place doth fall
Is with the tide unto an other brought:
For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.
Likewise the earth is not augmented more
By all that dying into it doe fade:
For of the earth they formed were of yore;
How ever gay their blossome or their blade
Doe flourish now, they into dust shall vade.
What wrong then is it, if that when they die,
They turne to that whereof they first were made?
All in the powre of their great Maker lie:
All creatures must obey the voice of the Most Hie.
They live, they die, like as He doth ordaine,
Ne ever any asketh reason why.
The hils doe not the lowly dales disdaine;
The dales doe not the lofty hils envy.
He maketh kings to sit in soverainty;
He maketh subjects to their power obay;
He pulleth downe, He setteth up on by;
He gives to this, from that He takes away:
For all we have is His: what He list doe, He may.
What ever thing is done, by Him is donne,
Ne any may His mighty will withstand;
Ne any may His soveraine power shonne,
Ne loose that He hath bound with stedfast band.
In vaine therefore doest thou now take in hand,
To call to count, or weigh His workes anew,
Whose counsels depth thou canst not understand;
Sith of things subject to thy daily vew
Thou doest not know the causes, nor their courses dew.
For take thy ballaunce, if thou be so wise,
And weigh the winde that under heaven doth blow;
Or weigh the light that in the East doth rise;
Or weigh the thought that from mans mind doth flow.
But if the weight of these thou canst not show,
Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall:
For how canst thou those greater secrets know,
That doest not know the least thing of them all?
Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.
Therewith the gyant much abashed sayd,
That he of little things made reckoning light,
Yet the least word that ever could be layd
Within his ballaunce he could way aright.
Which is, sayd he, more heavy then in weight,
The right or wrong, the false or else the trew?
He answered that he would try it streight:
So he the words into his ballaunce threw;
But streight the winged words out of his ballaunce flew.
Wroth wext he then, and sayd that words were light,
Ne would within his ballaunce well abide:
But he could justly weigh the wrong or right.
Well then, sayd Artegall, let it be tride.
First in one ballance set the true aside.
He did so first; and then the false he layd
In th other scale; but still it downe did slide,
And by no meane could in the weight be stayd:
For by no meanes the false will with the truth be wayd.
Now take the right likewise, sayd Artegale,
And counterpeise the same with so much wrong.
So first the right he put into one scale;
And then the gyant strove with puissance strong
To fill the other scale with so much wrong.
But all the wrongs that he therein could lay
Might not it peise; yet did he labour long,
And swat, and chaufd, and proved every way:
Yet all the wrongs could not a litle right downe way.
Which when he saw, he greatly grew in rage,
And almost would his balances have broken:
But Artegall him fairely gan asswage,
And said: Be not upon thy balance wroken;
For they doe nought but right or wrong betoken;
But in the mind the doome of right must bee:
And so likewise of words, the which be spoken,
The eare must be the ballance, to decree
And judge, whether with truth or falshood they agree.
But set the truth and set the right aside,
For they with wrong or falshood will not fare;
And put two wrongs together to be tride,
Or else two falses, of each equall share,
And then together doe them both compare:
For truth is one, and right is ever one.
So did he, and then plaine it did appeare,
Whether of them the greater were attone.
But right sate in the middest of the beame alone.
But he the right from thence did thrust away,
For it was not the right which he did seeke;
But rather strove extremities to way,
Th one to diminish, th other for to eeke:
For of the meane he greatly did misleeke.
Whom when so lewdly minded Talus found,
Approching nigh unto him, cheeke by cheeke,
He shouldered him from off the higher ground,
And down the rock him throwing, in the sea him dround.
Like as a ship, whom cruell tempest drives
Upon a rocke with horrible dismay,
Her shattered ribs in thousand peeces rives,
And spoyling all her geares and goodly ray,
Does make her selfe misfortunes piteous pray:
So downe the cliffe the wretched gyant tumbled;
His battred ballances in peeces lay,
His timbered bones all broken rudely rumbled:
So was the high aspyring with huge ruine humbled.
That when the people, which had there about
Long wayted, saw his sudden desolation,
They gan to gather in tumultuous rout,
And mutining, to stirre up civill faction,
For certaine losse of so great expectation.
For well they hoped to have got great good,
And wondrous riches by his innovation.
Therefore resolving to revenge his blood,
They rose in armes, and all in battell order stood.
Which lawlesse multitude him comming too,
In warlike wise, when Artegall did vew,
He much was troubled, ne wist what to doo.
For loth he was his noble hands t embrew
In the base blood of such a rascall crew;
And otherwise, if that he should retire,
He feard least they with shame would him pursew.
Therefore he Talus to them sent, t inquire
The cause of their array, and truce for to desire.
But soone as they him nigh approching spide,
They gan with all their weapons him assay,
And rudely stroke at him on every side:
Yet nought they could him hurt, ne ought dismay.
But when at them he with his flaile gan lay,
He like a swarme of flyes them overthrew;
Ne any of them durst come in his way,
But here and there before his presence flew,
And hid themselves in holes and bushes from his vew.
As when a faulcon hath with nimble flight
Flowne at a flush of ducks, foreby the brooke,
The trembling foule, dismayd with dreadfull sight
Of death, the which them almost overtooke,
Doe hide themselves from her astonying looke
Amongst the flags and covert round about.
When Talus saw they all the field for-sooke,
And none appeard of all that raskall rout,
To Artegall he turnd, and went with him throughout.
· [
Top 150
] ·
World Lit


text:
Put on your best Blue Jeans and rock the night away with Crossroads Band as we ring in the New Year.
Date : Tuesday, December 31
Location: The Grand Ballroom
Times :
7:00pm-9:00pm Country Style Buffet
9:00pm-1:00am Music of Crossroads Band
Pricing (Includes Tax, Tip and Soft Drinks) :
- $25 per person for Early Reservation
- $30 per person at the Door
- $15 per person after 9 PM (Food not included)
Country Style Buffet Menu Includes :
- Garden Salad
- Pot Roast with Baby Carrots
- Chicken & Dumplings
- Mashed Cheddar Potatoes
- Green Beans with Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Cash Bar open until 1:00am
Photo Booth
Champagne Toast at Midnight
Want to stay the night with us? We have you covered. Hotel Rooms are available for $109+tax and include two Deluxe Continental Breakfasts on New Year's Morning.
Reservations can be made by calling :
800-935-5616 (x765)


text:
Video of the Commissioning Ceremony can be accessed via YouTube at the following link:
Commissioning Video - UWM
Disclosure of any information by you is strictly voluntary. However, delays in providing you requested materials may result by not providing complete information. All information collected will be used strictly for recruiting purposes. The authority for the collection of this information is Title 10, United States Code, Section 503.


text:
An obscure city ordinance thwarted political speech Thursday when a city employee commanded a local Mitt Romney supporter to take down three of the four Romney signs she had planted in her yard.
I have a right to free speech. This isnt communist Russia. I feel violated, said Melissa Aspeitia, who had the signs.
Aspeitia, who works as a nurse, said a city code-enforcement officer, Shane Roukema, knocked on her door shortly after noon to demand that she remove the offending signs, citing a city ordinance that states property owners are allowed only one sign per candidate per parcel of land.
Aspeitia said when she refused to take down the signs, complaining that Roukema had provided no legal documentation, Roukema said, Do I need back up? He literally took it upon himself to take these signs down which I paid for with donations on my private property, without a formal statement that this was the law.
Roukema called Durango Police to the scene.
Officer Jeff Tipton said when he arrived at Aspeitias yard, the signs were down, Aspeitia appeared to be very upset, and Rouheka tried to explain his side.
Roukema declined to comment, saying he was in the middle of watching his daughters volleyball game.
Acting Sgt. John Ball said it was typical for city code-enforcement officers to address such violations.
Theyre the guys that deal with bears in trash cans, couches in the alley, if you dont shovel your snow off the sidewalk, or dont take care of your weeds. Usually, they try to fix it with a warning.
Ball said he was unaware of the ordinance limiting political yard signs.
Some houses on Third Avenue have probably got 15 in the front yard, Ball said.
City Manager Ron Le-Blanc did not return requests for comment.
Four years ago, I had tons of Obama signs all over my yard, said Aspeitia, I figured theyd be vandalized, and they were, but no one complained about them. This time, I was assuming that somebody would take my Romney signs in the night someone in high school or college not the city.
This election, its unclear whether city ordinances or city residents are more effective in muffling local political speech.
For the last three weeks, The Durango Herald has been inundated by letters from both Democrats and Republicans despairing that anonymous neer-do-wells had slashed or stolen their political signs.
Police spokesman Lt. Ray Shupe said Durango residents frequently report that their political yard signs are taken or vandalized during election time.
Its not just presidential elections, its every election. People will steal signs or deface them, he said.
Aspeitia said because she owns two parcels of land, the two Romney signs currently on her property are legal.


text:
In 1991, an official WWF Philippine Programme was established in Manila to supervise WWF's numerous field activities and to work more closely with local partners. This turned into an associate programme known locally as Kabang Kalikasan ng Pilipinas (Fund for Nature of the Philippines).
In 1997 it became a full member of the WWF Network.
Founded: 30 October, 1997


text:
Many of you may wish you could go back in time and give yourselves a pep talk and guidance for the journey ahead. In this #DearMe, JKissa, Jaime Greenberg, a…
I know that People Are making fun of you just because your'e not like all
the other girls. You like basketball and that's okay. You skateboarded to
school everyday and had to leave it in the office and i'm okay with that.
(or should I say your'e okay with that) Just make sure that when they call
you a guy or call start making fun of your name (like making it into a
guy's name) or even just calling you a you know what, just know that you
can stand up for yourself. I know your nervous and you never really want
to show your face in front of the girls, but next time you see her, just
tell her to stop. Don't call her names back that will just make it worse.
Know that your uniqe in every way. Never look in the mirror and say why
am I here or why am I like this. Say I am beautiful and uniqe. I am Proud
of myself.
Love You <3
These are beautiful. Even though they are talking to their younger self , i
feel so inspired and touched. Thank you for sharing these postitive minds.
#DearMe is trending on Facebook
I would tell my younger self that being thought of as a "cool" kid is a
wasted goal and that life is whole lot longer than your teens and twenties.
What matters after that is the people who love you no matter how cool you
are, and that you love and accept yourself, faults and all.
So trying to be everyone else because their all taken!
Please never underestimate who you are.
Life isn't a fairy tale as you thought, but the princess in you won't stop
Wow… Just wow..
First comment
This is so inspirational
Well done girls, inspiring
Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.


text:
Several smart people have correctly explained how this will probably be a long-term liability for Detroit. But for 2012, they have done what seemed impossible a few days ago: upgraded over Martinez. While everything I said last week about regression and their unathletic defense and baserunning is still true (perhaps even more so), Fielder is easily going to be worth 4+ wins over whoever else they might have run out there. They are now a better team than they were last October, 90 wins is suddenly easily within their grasp, and the remainder of the AL Central is far back in the rearview mirror.
In this light, the Twins' conservative offseason strategy is vindicated. They would still do well to add one more high-upside veteran RHP on a 1-year deal, though. It should be done with the idea that he could be dealt in July or August for someone who can add longer-term value to the organization. Even a riskier guy health-wise, like Brad Lidge or Michael Wuertz, makes a lot of sense under the circumstances.
Though they aren't likely be much better than .500 as presently constituted, the Twins are well-positioned to improve themselves over the next two seasons. They are fielding a starting lineup of competent veterans. They finally have some impact players at AAA who could push their way onto the big league roster by September. Should they find themselves in contention, they will be in position to deal for help, thanks to some payroll headroom and a good crop of highly regarded prospects at the lower levels. Whatever they lose in-season could largely be replaced by the 5 top-75 selections they'll make in next June's draft. And, outside of the M&M boys, they have relatively modest payroll commitments for 2013, giving them flexibility to do even more smart shopping next winter.
The Tigers are in the driver's seat for 2012. The Twins have avoided committing too many resources to what will likely be a 2nd-place campaign. 2013 is when things will really get interesting in the division.


text:
Joell Minford Guides Families through Admissions process
The Point
Fall 2013
Joell Minford understands the ins and outs of the college search process well. After nearly two decades at Point Park, the University's director of admissions spends her days leading a team of counselors and helping high school students and parents navigate the application and admission process.
She is doing what she loves to do. After earning her bachelor's degree in communications at Slippery Rock University, Minford got her first taste of the admissions field in her position as a "roadrunner" for a Pittsburgh-based educational institution. Her job involved visiting high schools to make presentations to prospective students. She later spent a short time working for a large bank, but jumped at the chance to join Point Park as an admissions counselor 18 years ago. She found her calling.
"I really enjoy connecting students and families with all that Point Park has to offer," says Minford, who has been director for the past 10 years and has gained broad expertise in admissions counseling and enrollment management. She shared some insights with The Point:
If families are new to the college search process, where should they begin?
JM: Among the most basic questions that students need to consider are 'what are you interested in, and what do you want to study?' Generally speaking, by the junior year of high school a student should be thinking about that and begin the college research process. Of course many start much earlier. In addition to parents and family members, students should consult with school counselors and trusted teachers. The search will lead in the direction of schools that offer your desired major(s). Another important conversation you need to have is how to finance a college education. What can your family afford, and what are the financial expectations of the parents as well as the son or daughter? These days, a college education is a family investment. After exploring these basic issues, visit the websites of the schools you are considering and make a note of key deadlines. When do you have to submit an application, high school transcript or other required material? Requirements vary from school to school. It often helps to create a master calendar to keep track of key dates.
How can students present themselves in best possible way on their application?
JM: I encourage providing as much extra information as possible. For example, at Point Park the submission of an essay is optional, but it's helpful to have it so we can get to know a student beyond their test scores and transcripts. We want to hear about what motivates you and makes you who you are. For example, perhaps a student has struggled academically but they work very hard. The admissions essay is a great opportunity to share your own story, challenges and goals.
How can students determine whether a particular college is the right fit for them?
JM: While websites and admissions publications are helpful, I believe you really need to visit to get the 'vibe' of a particular campus. You need to walk through the buildings, meet people, and experience a campus in person to better determine whether it's right for you. In my view, the ideal time to do that is when classes are in session rather than the quieter summer months. After all of the research, ultimately it's a feeling that each person gets that says 'this is [or is not] the right school for me.' Everyone is different. Someone may think they want to attend a big school, for example, until they visit and realize it's too big for comfort.
Why should a student consider Point Park?
JM: I think Point Park offers the best of what many students are looking for. Our urban setting in Downtown Pittsburgh provides internship and apprenticeship opportunities just blocks away, as well as all of the cultural and entertainment attractions of city life, yet our campus has a small town feeling. Our students get to know their professors, University staff and fellow students on a first-name basis. It's the best of both worlds.
What do you like best about your job?
I really enjoy connecting with students and families and sharing with them all that Point Park has to offer. My position is constantly changing, as Point Park continues to grow. Every day is different and brings new challenges.
Interview by Cheryl Valyo
Photo by Martha Rial
The Point is a magazine for alumni and friends of Point Park University