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Much of the vitality and authenticity of Greenhalf's work stems from his method of working. Failing light or a rising tide demands a spontaneous and intuitive approach, with light and movement taking precedence over plumage details. The spirit of place, of time, and the landscape are as important as the birds in it. Working in watercolour allows the atmosphere of the day to influence the work directly, for in the harsh midday sun, the paint dries quickly with crisp outlines, whereas in the soft light of evening it dries very slowly, allowing the colours to blend and outlines to blur in an appropriate way.
Robert was born in 1950 at Haywards Heath, Sussex, England. He studied at Eastbourne and Maidstone Colleges of Art, graduating in 1971 with a Diploma in Art and Design in Graphics.
Robert works mainly in Watercolour, Oils, Woodcut and Drypoint. The Drypoints and some of the Woodcuts are printed in black and hand-coloured with Watercolour, whilst others involve the cutting and printing of a separate block for each colour.
His subjects are mainly Wildlife, Domestic Animals, and Landscape. He places great emphasis upon observing an ...(PLease Login to see the complete biography.)
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Remi Garde's league leaders took derby honours as they beat Saint-Etienne 1-0 on Sunday, while Lorient were big winners at the Velodrome and Lille could only muster a draw
Toulouse's poor run of form continued as they were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw against Bastia at Stadium Municipal.
The visitors, who have been average away from home, were bright in the opening proceedings as Ali Ahamada was forced to deny Anthony Modeste.
Wissam Ben Yedder, who has nine goals in Ligue 1 so far, could not drag his side in front, after a dour first hour, though Florian Thauvin and Toifilou Maoulida suffered the same fate.
Franck Tabanou spurned a great chance late on, but Alain Casanova's men now have just one win - a 3-0 victory over league leaders Olympique Lyonnais - in six games.
Nancy's woeful record looks to have no sign of ending as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Valenciennes, to leave them rooted to the bottom of the table.
Jean Fernandez's men have not won since the opening day, but took the lead through Jordan Loties, soon after the half-hour mark.
Valenciennes rallied, and finally were rewarded with an equaliser in a fortuitous moment as Massadio Haidara put through his own goal and handed Daniel Sanchez's men a point.
The result leaves Valenciennes just three points behind Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain in an increasingly tight top half of the table, with Nancy remain bottom of the pile.
Troyes were denied a second win of the season as Nice claimed a late point.
Jean-Marc Furlan's men were defeated 3-2 by Stade Rennais after leading 2-0, and the promoted side started in similar fashion after Stephane Darbion lobbed goalkeeper David Ospina for the opener.
Nice, who beat Paris Saint-Germain last weekend, were in the ascendancy as Dario Cvitanich and substitute Alexy Bosetti threatened late on.
Claude Puel's men were thwarted by the woodwork, but in the 92nd minute Cvitanich bagged his seventh league goal of the season with a simple finish to earn the visitors a point.
Lille shrugged off their off-field troubles late this week as they picked up a point after a 1-1 draw with Sochaux in a chilly Montbeliard.
Much of the hype before this game surrounded Steeve Elana, who became the first player to be named in goal for Lille in Ligue 1 since November 2009, after predecessor and France international Mickael Landreau had his contract terminated by mutual consent.
Furthermore, much was made of Lille's poor goalscoring form - though they did take the lead with Nolan Roux evading Carlao, and lashing a fine effort into the net.
The lead lasted just a minute as Yassin Mikari capitalised on an awkward deflection off Marko Basa, to beat the league debutant, as Rudi Garcia's men held on for a point.
Montpellier recovered from their Champions League exit to record a convincing 3-0 victory over Ajaccio at Stade de la Mosson.
Rene Girard's men controlled the tempo well in the early exchanges, with the visitors' defence unable to cope with the attacking threat posed by the champions.
John Utaka took the lead after 28 minutes, skipping past two defenders and firing past an outstretched Guillermo Ochoa, before Remy Cabella doubled the lead four minutes later.
Younes Belhanda added the third midway through the second half, as the hosts moved closer to the top half of the table after a wretched start to the season.
Rennes were denied a ninth league win of the season, as Brest launched a fantastic comeback to earn a point in a thrilling game at Stade de la Route de Lorient.
After a competitive first half in Brittany, it was Frederic Antoinetti's men who took the lead through Julian Feret, who beat a defender and fired past Alexis Thebaux.
Johan Martial was defensively suspect in the build-up to the first goal, and he was involved in the second as Rennes dominated. Romain Alessandrini notched his sixth league goal of the season in a superb attacking move.
Landry Chauvin's men were not to be defeated though, and rallied back almost instantly as Benoit Lesoimier skipped past Romain Danze and struck a powerful effort past Benoit Costil.
And the comeback was complete when Charlison Benschop netted with a great header from Lesoimier, as the Breton derby ended in a deserved draw for the visitors.
Bordeaux failed to trouble the leaders in Ligue 1 as they were held for the eighth time this season, as Reims claimed a 0-0 draw at Stade Auguste Delaune.
In a rather turgid and uninteresting first half, the main action would be Kamel Ghilas heading in from Diego's well delivered cross, only for the effort to be disallowed for offside.
After the break, Hubert Fournier's men continued their dominance, but were denied twice as Floyd Ayite and Diego both were thwarted, before Aissa Mandi's header crashed back off the bar.
Neither side could find a winner though, as Bordeaux sit in sixth place. Reims are in 15th position, a point above the relegation zone.
Olympique de Marseille's hopes of topping the Ligue 1 table were dashed by a second heavy home defeat in a row at the Stade Velodrome.
Elie Baup's men had dominated the early proceedings, but were somehow not awarded a penalty after referee Benoit Millot failed to spot a clear Wesley Lautoa handball.
Seconds later, OM would concede a penalty of their own after Charles Kabore lunged in on Jeremie Aliadiere. It was his second booking of the game and with Marseille a man down, they were soon a goal down as Aliadiere tucked his penalty away neatly.
It was 2-0 straight after the break as Benjamin Corgnet took advantage of a defensive slip-up and chipped the ball into the net. Kevin Monnet-Paquet made the points safe with 20 minutes to go as OM faltered.
Marseille have now lost three of their last four games by a three-goal defeat, and have lost by three goals in two consecutive games at the Velodrome.
Olympique Lyonnais recovered from a sending off to win 1-0 away at Stade Geoffrey Guichard, and earn bragging rights over 10-man Saint-Etienne in a fiery Rhone Derby.
Remi Garde's men now sit five points clear of Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille, ahead of next weekend's meeting with Carlo Ancelotti's men.
During a match which was hyped so much over the past week, the first half offered so little as Anthony Reveillere created the pick of the action in the first 45 minutes.
The match appeared to have swung in the hosts' favour as Mohamadou Dabo was sent off for a silly headbutt on Max Gradel.
But the visitors were in the ascendancy, and it showed when Michel Bastos swept in a free kick after some questionable goalkeeping from Stephane Ruffier. Alejandro Alonso later saw red for les Verts, who just could not force through an opening.
Lyon held out to preserve top spot, ahead of the midweek round of matches.

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Kalamazoo beats Komets
Special teams came up big on Saturday night as the Kalamazoo Wings (7-5-0-0; 14 points) defeated the Fort Wayne Komets (7-3-0-1; 15 points) by a score of 6-2.
The victory by the K-Wings was their largest on the season, while their 5-1 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays on Friday was their largest defeat on the year.
Taking advantage of an early power play opportunity, the K-Wings Darren Archibald took a Sam Ftorek pass and sent a shot that slid slowly between the legs of Komets net-minder Charlie Effinger and over the goal line for a 1-0 lead.
The Komets tied the game later in the period as a shot by Stephon Thorne was stopped by K-Wing goaltender Joel Martin, but Throne was able to put the rebound into the net to knot the game at one goal apiece.
A Kory Karlander blast late in the period gave the K-Wings a 2-1 lead.
Like they did in the first period, the K-Wings opened the second with a power play goal, this time scored by Brett Lysak.
The goal by Lysak was scored while the K-Wings were on a 5-on-3 man advantage.
Just under a minute later, the Komets Matt Firman scored on a breakaway to give the Komets a shorthanded tally and cut the K-Wings lead to 3-2.
A Brett Lysak shot was put into the net by Komet forward Colin Chaulk later in the period to give the K-Wings a 4-2 lead.
The goal, which was credited to Lysak, was his team leading eight goal of the year. Lysak also leads the team with 15 points.
Scoring a shorthanded goal of their own a few minutes later, Eric Kattelus gave the K-Wings a 5-2 lead with his fourth of the season.
Nick Sirota rounded out the K-Wings scoring with his third of the season midway through the third period.
On the night, the K-Wings went 2-for-5 on the power play while the Komets came up empty on their only power play of the night.
The K-Wings outshot the Komets 40-29.
K-Wings News and Notes
Streakin'-Sam Ftorek and Darren Archibald are both riding five-game point scoring streaks.
Milestone Alert: Kory Karlander is one point shy of 1,000 for his career. Aaron Clarke needs two more goals to reach 100 while Justin Taylor is two points short of 100.
Upcoming Schedule: The K-Wings hit the road for three games against the Orlando Solar Bears beginning Saturday night. The two teams will also play on Sunday and Tuesday. The K-Wings then travel to Fort Wayne for a Thanksgiving matchup against the Komets.


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It better not come back. Shit just had a great happy ending! Let's not mess that up with more SAO
Thinking of something cool to say...
I don't want another season, in fact, I hated the 2nd arc, but looking at the figures and how much revenue SAO generated, a sequel's bound to happen.
Shrapnel893 wrote:
What the fuck, it's coming back?
hey haters, if you don't like it, don't watch it. it's that simple. now go somewhere else.
glass, once broken, can never be restored perfectly
man there are so many SAO threads , i cant keep up....
i guess people are forgetting or doesnt know the fact that SAO was written first and there are different arcs therefore different plots. If only peeps accept this series as it was written then they would appreciate it as a whole and not for its parts. Yes the anime has its weakness but...as a whole it wasnt bad.
Of course it will come back. This title was super popular in Japan and I would assume making beaucoup d'argent so its just a matter of time , when... man and its manga sales are always at the top ....They did annouce a while back about the OVA but I hope a series would be made instead and then an OVA or 2 voz I like to see the arcs animated
My Avatar is seiyuu Morita san and Me cosplaying at AnimeExpo
it's not over???
Whatever, I caught up with the books so I'm not fussed how long they take.
I thought gungale was pretty weak compared to the later ones too.(Won't stop me watching it though)
SAO is good but it's not perfect ofcourse I hope it will get better.
Hello, Kind regards BlueBanana!
BlueBananaCake wrote:
SAO is good but it's not perfect ofcourse I hope it will get better.
of course. there's no such thing as a perfect anime.
glass, once broken, can never be restored perfectly
aidenraine wrote:
BlueBananaCake wrote:
SAO is good but it's not perfect ofcourse I hope it will get better.
of course. there's no such thing as a perfect anime.
True but there are so many haters out there who didn't like SAO I don't really get it why they post or even watch it.
Hello, Kind regards BlueBanana!
The haters are absolutely hilarious in wasting their time trolling threads and forums to post. Probably they wanted attention and get a sense of fulfillment when they can spout their hatred.
Why not just find something you'd like and enjoy instead? If you really hated a series, then stop watching. Continuing watching it just so you can go around spewing your venom, just make you look stupid. Discussions threads specifying a certain series, of course, include both the good and the bad. But you should at least like certain aspects of it or it just makes no sense for you to watch it.
aidenraine wrote:
Rito2Ru wrote:
aidenraine wrote:
Rito2Ru wrote:
ShinAmaterasu wrote:
Will probably take awhile, he's working on Accel World season 2 now I would imagine
we're getting a second season of accel world? I just started it lol
another thing that's yet to be announced.
Darn you rumors! *shakes fist angrily*
I'm not sure of the sales for Accel World, but it must have been at least decent, because they've done 1 game already, with another set to release at the end of the month so another season most likely isn't out of the question.
as for SAO, it's topped sales charts, and like AW, there's also a game in the making. so I'm sure they'll do another season.
YES is the short answer. Sword Art Online:Infinity Moments is in the works right now and he game will be released in both regular and limited edition box sets on March 14, 2013.
The game is a sequel ti the anime and the challenge is to clear the uncomleted 25 floors of Aincrad (including the Ruby Palase) in ALO world.
As for Season 2/ Arc 3 of Sword Art Online, it hasn't been offically announced but it is definately happening but there is no knowing when. Right now there are up to the point of choosing Voice actors.
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
the only info thats publically known is that Sawashiro Miyuki (from only some of the best animes in existence) will be voicing Sinon who is a main character in Gun Gales Online
I don't know how far in that means but it's a good sign and I just hope that it gets released by the end of this year
What I like about an anime is the level of accuracy with which it follows it's respective manga/light novel. Although some deviations are good, I'd rather just watch what I read because that's what I was looking forward to during the reading.
Sailor Candy Moderator
Closed for the new one.
Tuxedo Mask!!!


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May 9, 1928 - May 22, 2013
Southfields, NY
James A. "Jimmy" Conklin, a lifelong resident of the area, passed away Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at Good Samaritan Hospital, Suffern, NY. Jimmy was 85 years old. Son of the late Albert W. and Nellie Casey Conklin, he was born May 9, 1928 in Southfields, NY.
Jimmy was a retired Toll Supervisor with the New York State Thruway Authority, Harriman, NY; he was a life member of American Legion Post #293, Southfields, NY; life member of V.F.W. Post #8858, Harriman, NY and a veteran of the U.S. Army serving during the Korean War.
Survivors include cousins and friends. Along with his parents, Jimmy was predeceased by his brother, Joseph P. Conklin.
Visitation will be held from 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 28th at Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush, Inc. Funeral Home, 117 Maple Ave., Monroe, NY. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. in the funeral home on Tuesday. Interment will follow in St. Anastasia Cemetery, Harriman, NY.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Anastasia Church, PO Box 942, Harriman, NY 10926 or Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, PO Box 697, Tuxedo, NY 10987.
Funeral arrangements made by Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush, Inc. Funeral Home, 845-782-8185 or www.ssqfuneralhome.com.


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endlessrotation needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 50 designs submitted by 19 freelance designers.
I'm in the process of building a new site aimed at DJs (club DJs, not radio DJs).
Club DJs (particularly in the electronic music scene) regularly produce monthly charts in which they list their 10 top tunes that they are currently playing. They do this for a number of reasons:
- its a way of bragging about the new tunes they have
- it gives exposure and support to the artists whose tunes they have charted
- its a way of gaining additional exposure for themselves
After creating their charts, they publish them on sites such as http://beatport.com and http://residentadvisor.net
I am creating a site that allows DJs to chart individual tunes. This is breaking away from the 'DJ XXs Top Ten of January' format, a DJ can chart as many (or a few) tracks that they like, they do not have to chart 10 at a time.
The site then aggregates all these charts and hence users can see which tracks are the most popular at the moment.
Users can follow other users (like Twitter) and they will be able to see which are the most charted tunes amongst the DJs that they are following.
The site is under development at the moment but the basics are in place. See the following pages:
Homepage - http://endlessrotation.com/
Most charted page - http://endlessrotation.com/most-charted
The most charted tracks by the DJs that I am following - http://endlessrotation.com/crofty/f…st-charted
The site is targeted towards club DJs, I expect the main userbase to be electronic music DJs.
The users I am targeting are likely to be users of site such as:
Beatport - http://www.beatport.com
DJ Download - http://www.djdownload.com
i.e. they are DJs who purchase music online and spend a lot of time finding and listening to music.
I need a logo designing for the site. The logo will replace the "Endless Rotation" text at the top of the site, therefore the logo needs to contain this text.
I have no requirements over what the text should look like or what font it should be in. However, I also want the logo to be recognizable enough so that it can be used without the "Endless Rotation" text. Therefore, nothing too complicated please, keep to a simple, recognizable design.
The logo needs to allude to the infinity symbol. I want the 'circles' of the infinity symbol to represent the rotating platters of turntables or CDJs.
Don't take this too literally, I don't necessarily want a picture of some decks. I just want the logo to be semi recognizable (or more) as an infinity symbol and semi recognizable (or more) as a pair of decks (turntables/CDJs).
The logo needs to be simple, and bold.
Color scheme: Don't do anything complicated color wise. Use the colors on the site as a starting point but no need to be governed by them too much. Don't use too many colors in the logo, the colors of the site might change at a later date so I may need to change the logo color. I have nothing against single color logos.
Final Deliverables
- Vector file containing logo (.ai)
Logo must contain a "mark" an image that can be used as a standalone without the words
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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John Grace attended the Raynham Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night to object to a proposed town bylaw that he said has no foundation in science.
RAYNHAM — A Raynham beekeeper is frustrated after hearing buzz about a proposed town bylaw that would regulate his backyard honey-making hobby.
John Grace attended the Raynham Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night to object to a proposed town bylaw that he said has no foundation in science. Grace, who is a town resident and member of the board of directors for the Bristol County Beekeepers Association, said that the proposed bylaw would only end up creating unnecessary costs for responsible beekeepers in the community.
"I feel the town is having a knee-jerk reaction to a single incident and are creating bylaws without understanding the subject matter, the honey bee," Grace said during the meeting. "I would suggest that, like most other communities, we need to regulate the beekeeper using the already-in-place nuisance laws, rather than trying to control the bees with bylaws that will not work."
The proposed bylaw stems from a complaint by a Raynham resident who attended a selectmen's meeting and said that last summer, his children were unable to enjoy their pool because a neighbor's bees were running rampant on their property in search of water.
The proposed bylaw, which was recently revised with recent input from Grace, calls for all man-made hives to have 50-foot setbacks from neighboring property lines and 100-foot setbacks from roads or schools "to reduce risks to children," said Raynham Town Planner John Charbonneau, who is working on the language of the proposed bylaw. The draft bylaw also requires beekeepers to have a "flyway barrier" — such as a fence, hedges or other barriers — in addition to a source of water on their property.
Charbonneau, who had to search as far as upstate New York and Ohio to find examples of town bylaws regulating beekeeping, admitted that "we're not experts," but that his aim is "due diligence to do something reasonable for beekeepers and other residents." Grace asked why town didn't look "right down the street" for advice from the Bristol County Beekeepers Association.
Charbonneau also said that "the tough thing" about regulating beekeeping is that it is an agricultural use protected by state law.
Grace said the flyway barriers and the requirements for sources of water simply would not work to solve anything. Grace is adamant that existing public nuisance laws can be used to deal with "any irresponsible beekeepers," and that the good beekeepers shouldn't be punished for one beekeeper who may not be maintaining his hive correctly.
Grace also said that honeybees aren't something to be afraid of in the first place.
"Honey bees are not aggressive like wasps, and rarely sting when they are away from their hive," he said. "They only sting to protect their young in the hive or themselves, if either are threatened. Honey bees can only sting once and, after which, they die. So they are very cautious about when they sting."
Grace also argued against the town's building department, which he said told him that because he keeps bees, his 0.25 acre property must be classified as small plot farming and that, based on state law, he must have two acres of land to do so. But Grace said that interpretation of the law is flawed, because his beehive has a footprint of two square-feet, making up 0.02 percent of his plot, equating the situation to any resident who has a small garden or a flower bed.
Grace said that he and the Bristol County Beekeepers Association would offer their expertise and assistance to the town to help the community with best practices related to beekeeping. He also offered town officials to take a tour of his yard to see the habits of honey bees and how he keeps them successfully without being a nuisance.
Raynham Board of Selectmen Chairman Joseph Pacheco took umbrage with Grace phrasing the town's response as a "knee-jerk reaction," saying that the problematic incident he was referring to has been ongoing for a year. Pacheco said that the Selectmen simply respond to the concerns of the town, but that the voters at the Town Meeting provide "checks and balances" to the administrative decisions the town makes in relation to Raynham bylaws.
Pacheco explained that Grace and any every other Raynham citizen will have the opportunity to vote down the proposed bylaw, submit amendments or refer the article to further study.
Town Health Agent David Flaherty responded to Grace's argument that the town could handle any problem beekeepers through existing nuisance laws by saying that it would be too costly to take those situations to court. Flaherty also said the problem is that beekeeping equipment and materials are so easily obtained nowadays on the Internet that people without any knowledge are buying them, starting their own bee colonies and causing problems.


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ARCADIA >> A Pomona man died early Thursday in a motorcycle crash on the 210 Freeway in Arcadia, officials said.
Manuel Alvarez, 49, died in the 4:10 a.m. collision on the eastbound 210 Freeway, just west of Baldwin Avenue, Winter said.
He was riding a 2013 Yamaha motorcycle eastbound at an unknown speed when the cycle rear-ended a vehicle travelling ahead of it, CHP Officer Ryan Bejar said. The vehicle that was rear-ended fled the scene.
"(Alvarez) fell to the roadway, laying within the No. 4 lane," Bejar said. He was then struck by an eastbound 2010 Toyota Prius being driven by a 35-year-old San Gabriel man.
Paramedics pronounced Alvarez dead at the scene, officials said.
The Prius driver remained at the scene and was not cited or arrested as the investigation continued, Bejar said.
In addition to the fatal motorcycle crash, an unrelated nine-vehicle crash in South El Monte that left a 5-year-old girl dead and injured 13 others also contributed to gridlock. Countless commutes slowed to a crawl throughout the San Gabriel Valley as cars flooded onto the 10 Freeway, as well as surface streets, to avoid the closures.


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Do you want a band that matches your engagement ring perfectly? Are you looking for a wedding ring that is a little unique and complements your own personality? As a man, are you looking for your classic, simple metal, or a modern titanium design that also features The World's Most Perfectly Cut Diamond? At Hearts On Fire, there is all of this and more, so enjoy shopping this section and selecting the wedding and anniversary bands that are perfect for you.
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Are you approaching a milestone anniversary with the love of your life? Celebrate with an anniversary band from Hearts On Fire, a gift that shows...Read More
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John Smith is the secret love child of Elvis Presley. And he has, he swears, the DNA evidence to prove it.
No, really. Smith, a sometime country singer and songwriter who lives in Scottsdale, says he's coming clean this month in a new book detailing his hush-hush life as the unheralded Prince of Rock 'n' Roll. Let the Boy Sing: Elvis Is My Daddy, from a tiny, pay-to-print publisher in Oklahoma, reveals everything the world wants to know about the perks of being Elvis' tug-of-love: The trust fund, set up by Elvis for Smith when he was born. The music gigs, playing with John Denver and Lawrence Welk, and the recording contract with Elvis' label, RCA Records. The chance to write songs for country superstars like Kenny Rogers and to record an album with music legends who also recorded with Elvis. All these cushy thrills, according to Smith's new book, were arranged by Elvis himself, who kept tabs on his boy via a network of people who did the King's bidding.
And that's because John Smith is, he says, the son of the King. "I've known that Elvis is my daddy since I was 27 years old," says Smith, 51. "And there's no one word that describes how it feels to finally tell the world the truth about me."
Is Scottsdale's John Smith the Secret Love Child of Elvis Presley?
"The correct word is scary," according to Presley historian Cory Cooper, who's known in pop culture circles as "The Elvis Expert" and who recently served as technical adviser on director John Scheinfeld's Fame and Fortune, an adaptation of Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business, a 2008 bestseller by Presley's former bodyguard. "These people show up every few years, claiming to be Elvis' son or daughter. The sad thing is that some of them actually believe it. Maybe they've been fed a story all their lives about a one-night stand their mom had with Elvis, and they think it's true. Whatever the story, they always have two things in common: They all swear they have birth certificates or DNA evidence to prove their claim, and they all have a story about why they can't show you those things. And, of course, the real reason they can't is because they don't have them. Their story isn't true."
True or not, Smith's book provides a fascinating read — perhaps not for Presley fanatics or anyone who actually cares whether Smith is the out-of-wedlock son of the world's most famous dead rock 'n' roller, but most definitely for fans of unadulterated gall, tall tales, and lousy fact-checking. Because Smith's story — in which he makes bogus claims about his life and career that three minutes' worth of Googling can refute — proves to be, with very little digging, a hunk-a hunk-a burning crapola. Almost everything in the book is a story either wildly exaggerated or completely made up. The album deal with RCA Records turns out to be a pair of 45s released on a tiny indie label. The songs Smith says he wrote for famous artists clearly were penned by others. His claims about performing on recordings by John Denver appear also to be untrue, as Smith's name appears in none of the liner notes for any Denver recording. Nor does Smith cough up any proof of an Elvis-sponsored trust fund. Filled with inaccuracies, extrapolations, and flat-out lies, Let the Boy Sing is to literature what Harum Scarum is to the fine art of cinema.
And the DNA evidence? Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. failed to respond to questions about Elvis' lineage, and phone calls and e-mails regarding Smith's claim sent to Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley, and the Presley family's genealogist went unanswered. So, too, did repeated requests made to Smith's publisher requesting proof of his DNA evidence — requests that were likewise ignored by Smith himself. (Smith's ghostwriter, Rich Carlburg, explains Smith's failure to answer e-mails and phone messages with various excuses: His computer crashed; he's snowed in at a Smith gig in North Dakota; he has no cell phone reception. Mostly, though, Carlburg just joins Smith in refusing to answer questions about recordings, DNA evidence, and the like.)
After repeated requests, Smith does finally provide a PDF of a copy of a birth certificate that shows his birth name as John Dennis Roach and his birth parents as Elvis A. Presley and Zona Marie Roach. The document, which could easily have been doctored in a graphic design program, shows Smith's birthdate in July 1961, but it was issued in 1985. The Texas Department of Health didn't return phone calls regarding the veracity of the document.
"A phone call wouldn't have done any good," says private investigator and former journalist Rich Robertson, who's investigated hundreds of complex criminal and civil cases. "Smith would have to have sent a signed, notarized waiver to the Bureau of Vital Statistics and have them send you a copy of his birth certificate. Which, if he's who he claims to be, is in his best interest to do."
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this document, and about Smith's book, is what it doesn't tell us: That if Elvis really is his father, then that would mean that his birth parents were, to borrow the title from an old Elvis movie, Kissin' Cousins.
It's a story as old as rock 'n' roll itself: Rock star has sex with groupie and blows town the next day, leaving her pregnant. It's very likely the world is bursting with the offspring of Chuck Berry and Leif Garrett and especially — given his status as the King of Rock 'n' Roll and his reputation for having been nothin' but a horn-dog — Elvis Presley.
"Elvis was the most famous entertainer in the world, he loved women, and he wasn't faithful in his marriage or to his girlfriends," says Cooper, who points out that people have been claiming to be Elvis' kid since before the King died. "But I don't think Elvis has three dozen offspring scattered around the world."
Yet the parade of would-be Presley bastards just keeps on coming. There's 53-year-old Desirée Presley, a former Los Angeles model whose mom wrote the infamous Elvis tome Are You Lonesome Tonight? about her supposed 24-year-long secret romance with Presley. And Lisa Johansen, the 43-year-old Swedish woman who filed a $130 million lawsuit against the Presley estate for defamation and emotional distress, claiming she is "the real Lisa Marie Presley" who was forcibly exiled to Sweden after her father's death and replaced by an imposter — a fake Lisa Marie who went on to marry Michael Jackson, among other things. Johansen's own memoir, I, Lisa Marie, was scrapped after her publisher sued her for refusing to take an agreed-upon DNA test.
More famously, there is Philip Stanic, a former circus performer from Gary, Indiana, who changed his name to Elvis Presley Jr., in 1990, opened an Elvis museum, and began a career as an Elvis impersonator. His birth mother, he claims, is actress Dolores Hart, now a cloistered nun in Connecticut, who admits to an affair with Presley on the set of the Elvis flick Loving You in 1957.
And then there's Deborah Presley Brando, a onetime Hollywood movie extra and unemployed law clerk who once was married to Marlon Brando's late son, Christian. Brando was told by an appeals court in 1988 that there was insufficient evidence to rule that she couldn't possibly be Elvis' daughter, which she took to mean that she is "legally illegitimate" and, therefore, entitled to half of the Presley estate.
"My father's company made $33 billion last year, and I'm two minutes from having to live in my car because the house I'm renting is going into foreclosure," Brando tells New Times by phone last month. She talks nonstop, her non sequiturs tumbling together, posing questions but never pausing to hear any answers. "I know he's my daddy, but Colonel Tom Parker was never going to let my parents be together; he wanted Elvis to marry Priscilla, and she is like the pit bull of the estate, you know what I mean? Did you know that the company that bought Elvis Presley Enterprises also owns American Idol? So what does that tell you? They own the rights to Muhammad Ali and my father, and I'm looking for a job and a place to live, but I have a lot of faith and a lot of support, so I'm doing fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to just walk into the Supreme Court and demand half of Elvis' estate, because I can, you know."
Actually, she can't — and neither can any of the other would-be Elvis offspring. Because Presley's will provides only for "my daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and any other lawful issue I might have." In other words, any children born to a woman to whom Elvis was legally married — and he was only ever married once, to Lisa Marie's mom, Priscilla Presley.
Alice Tiffin found out that the road to riches doesn't necessarily start as one of Elvis' bastard babies. Tiffin, who changed her name to Eliza Presley in 1999, started out claiming to be Elvis' daughter. When that got her nowhere, she announced she was actually his sister. "Her birth mother had lived in Memphis and played pool with Elvis a few times," Cooper explains with a sigh. "The birth mother is in her 70s and is so disgusted by her biological daughter's Elvis claims, she told me she wishes she'd just had an abortion, instead of giving the kid up for adoption."
"Why is everyone in such a rush to be Elvis' kid?" laughs music writer Serene Dominic, who has written for everything from Creem to New Times. "It's not like millions of Elvis impersonators don't have that area well-covered. And it's not like it's helped Lisa Marie's career any — and she's a legitimate heir!"
So, too, is John Smith — he swears it. He also promises that John Smith is his real name. "It's not the name on my original birth certificate," he writes in his gonzo memoir, "but my new birth certificate has John Smith on it." In the interim, he's gone by numerous other names, both on and off stage, including John D. Smith, John D. Smith Presley, John Smith Presley, John Dennis Smith, Jon Dennis Smith, Dennis Smith, and John Starr. In recent years, he's become better known — at least to people who will believe anything you tell them — as "the son of Elvis."
Smith says he was born in 1961 to Zona Marie Anderson Roach and claims he was adopted by Ira Dee Smith, the brother of Elvis' mother, Gladys Smith Presley, when he was 16 months old. Ira Dee and his wife, Etta, also adopted John's two sisters from one of Zona Marie's previous marriages — a fact that doesn't seem at all unusual to Smith.
"We were a pretty close-knit family," is all he'll say when asked why Elvis' middle-aged aunt and uncle would adopt two little girls who weren't related to the King. "I guess they just wanted to keep us together."
Smith began singing as a toddler and performed in local hoot nights and a talent show called The Louisiana Hayride in his hometown of Shreveport. Later, he joined the live touring version of The Lawrence Welk Show. ("It was quite an honor to be in Lawrence Welk's company," says Smith, who also claims to have been a regular on Welk's TV show, although he appears in none of the published cast credits for any of the show's episodes. "He said I was the greatest singer he ever heard in all time.") After his stint with Welk, Smith recorded a couple of singles and tried his hand at songwriting in Nashville.
Although he was interested in a career in music from an early age and was an adopted relation of a world-famous rock star, he says it never occurred to him to ask if he might one day meet Elvis Presley and maybe chew the rag about getting ahead in the music biz.
"I was a busy little boy, and I was used to being a local child star in my own right," Smith explains, somewhat unconvincingly. "I didn't stop to think about who I was related to or what that connection could do for me."
And yet his singing voice and physical appearance were, he says, constantly being compared to Presley's. "All my life I heard, 'Oh, you look like him! You sound like him!'" In fact, Smith looks more like actor Randy Quaid than he does Elvis Presley, and guys who sing like the King can be found in casino lounges (and white polyester jumpsuits) in most any town.
"There was an effort to keep John and Elvis apart," explains Carlburg, the co-author of Smith's memoir. "If they were seen together, people might start to notice how they looked alike or sounded alike, and there might be questions."
Smith isn't keen on questions. He dodges requests for in-person interviews, consenting only to speak to New Times by phone. During a 45-minute telephone conversation that takes place during a sound check at a bar gig in North Dakota, Smith sets the phone down often to go check his mic and his song list.
"I have always been compared, as a performer, to my daddy," he says, returning to the phone. "Now, if I'd been compared to Tiny Tim, I would have had a problem with that."
Yet Smith has no problem with bending — or at least ignoring — the truth. In Let the Boy Sing, he writes about the thrill of recording and releasing an album in 1980 with top Nashville session musicians and vocals by the Jordanaires, Elvis' renowned background singers. But Smith never tells us the title of the album, and an exhaustive search of ASCAP, BMI, and RIAA catalogs shows only two albums by Smith, recording as John Starr, both released in 2010 on the teeny independent Adonda Records label owned by Smith's longtime manager, Harrison Tyner. Despite his claims that he also once had a recording deal with RCA Records, Smith's only other vinyl output appears to be a pair of Adonda singles, released in 1979 under the name Dennis Smith.
In his book, Smith refers to Adonda as "a subsidiary of Capitol Records." Asked about this, he replies, "Well, I know at one time they were a subsidiary of RCA." Neither is true. Nor is it true that Adonda owner Tyner also managed Elvis, another of Smith's claims. (He also tells readers he's been inducted into the Cowboy Music Hall of Fame, although no such organization appears to exist. There is a National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Texas, but its only inductees are Gene Autry, Dale Evans, Hugh Farr, and Tex Ritter. And there is, of course, a Country Music Hall of Fame, but Smith is not among its many esteemed honorees.)
After his indie singles flopped, Smith, then 19, apparently decided to try his hand at songwriting. A chance encounter with Kenny Rogers in a Nashville diner, he claims, led to a long series of hit records for which other people took writing credit.
"You see, that song that I wrote, it was called 'The Old Man in Our Town,'" Smith writes, "and it was the B-side of the record 'You Decorated My Life,' which was one of Kenny's earliest big hits in country music."
The only part of this story that Smith got right was the spelling of Kenny Rogers' name. The song he lays claim to is actually titled "There's an Old Man in Our Town," and while it's true that Kenny Rogers recorded it, the song was not the flip side of "You Decorated My Life," which was hardly one of Rogers' early hits. In fact, that song was Rogers' 20th consecutive Top 40 single and was released in 1979 — 20 years after the singer launched his successful recording career. "There's an Old Man in Our Town" was first recorded by Rogers in 1972, while he was still a member of the folk-rock group The First Edition.
Smith claims he wrote the song when he was a young man toiling away as a songwriter for Capitol Records' Nashville division. But the song was published when Smith was only 10 years old, and was released not on Capitol or any of its subsidiaries, but on Jolly Roger Records, a label distributed by MGM Records. What's more, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) gives sole songwriting credit to Rogers.
Smith also claims to have co-authored songs with the Gatlin Brothers and country band Restless Heart ("I was privileged to be a part of writing one of their biggest hits, 'The Bluest Eyes in Texas,'" he writes in his book), among others. But his name doesn't appear on any recording by these artists, neither of whom responded to e-mails and phone calls about their working relationship with John Smith.
Asked about this, Smith just chuckles. "Well, back then, the songwriter did all the work, and the artists took the credit and rode around in the limousines."
Not true, according to pop music archivist Lisa Kurtz Sutton, who has produced hundreds of pop music anthologies and dozens of TV shows about the history of rock. "There have always been stories about singers and producers and label owners giving shared songwriting credit to someone who didn't write the song," she says. "But not the other way. And that's because the recording industry is a union industry. It doesn't seem likely that a big, powerful union is going to look the other way while singers are putting their names on songs that some kid wrote."
But if Let the Boy Sing is any indication, Smith can't be bothered with unions or copyright dates or published song credits. In his book, Smith writes at length about the song that proves conclusively that Elvis is really his daddy.
"One of the biggest indicators of how Elvis felt about his time with my mom was shown when Elvis commissioned the writing of a song that just missed becoming his 17th number-one hit," Smith writes. "The song became popular in the later part of 1961 — the year that I was born. The song was '(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame.'"
Rock historian Richie Unterberger doesn't think so. Unterberger, author of bestselling books about the Beatles, the Who, and Jimi Hendrix, says the song, penned by legendary songwriters Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, originally was intended for singer Bobby Vee. "Producer Snuff Garrett realized the songs weren't appropriate for Vee," Unterberger says, "and Pomus and Shuman then approached Bobby Darin, who tried to record the songs with unsatisfactory results. It seems doubtful to me that Pomus and Shuman were commissioned to write the song by Elvis or his representatives."
The song eventually was recorded by singer Del Shannon, who'd recently had a hit with the now-classic "Runaway." The story goes that Elvis heard Shannon's version and decided to cover it.
"If Elvis ever commissioned a song with a particular girl's name," says Serene Dominic, "which he never did from Doc Pomus or anybody else, he would have had an exclusive on the song. No one else would've given a song to Del Shannon to sing if Elvis had commissioned it."
Asked whether he's sure his famous father commissioned the song about his mom, Smith is adamant. "Yes, sir. To the best of my knowledge, he did. I think Bo Diddley wrote that song for my daddy."
When he's told that the song was written by Pomus and Shuman, he backpedals. "Well, I wasn't born then," he mutters. "So I wouldn't know."
Some of Smith's prevarications provide unintentional humor. "I am still not sure how it happened, but we got the call to audition at Juilliard," he writes. "Looking back now, this was a big deal. At the time for me, it was a school. School and I did not see eye to eye. . . . I was thinking, school? In New York? They talk funny, and there is too much concrete. You can educate me all you want. I like being a hick."
He claims he deliberately blew the audition by singing a song he refers to in the book as "Pistol Packin' Annies," but which was probably the Al Dexter standard "Pistol Packin' Mama," since no search of the RIAA catalog turns up a song called "Pistol Packin' Annies."
"I guess that the good folks at Juilliard figured that I was already so good that they really couldn't do too much for me," he writes, "and so they had better induct some other singer that needed the help, or something like that."
Most of the rest of the book is less amusing. Scheduled for publication this month by Oklahoma-based Tate Publishing (which brought us A Busy Mom's Guide to Family Pleasing [sic] Meals and 'Til the Slipper Fits: Godly Encouragement for Single Women), Let the Boy Sing is riddled with the tense-shifting and narrative rambling found in most pay-to-publish books by would-be authors. Before it gets around to not delivering anything that might prove its premise, it makes a lot of promises it doesn't keep.
"I have barely scratched the surface of stories that I have," Smith writes, then lists several of them (including the night he met the owner of an adhesives company, and the time that rock star Lita Ford refused to pee in the bathroom of the sailboat he was navigating, and he had to run aground so she could go find a public restroom). But he never actually tells the tales he's teased us with.
"There are these stories and much, much more," Smith assures us at the end of Chapter 10. "But it is late. I am tired, and I am going to bed."
Among the tales Smith was too sleepy to tell is a bombshell that would almost have made his meandering, half-written memoir more interesting — a shocker he drops casually into a conversation but which is nowhere to be found among the yawn-inducing yarns in his book.
"Well, you know, my adopted parents were related to Elvis, and so was my mother," he mentions during a phone interview. "I think they're cousins by marriage, because my supposed birth father was related to the Smith side of Elvis' family."
In short, Smith's birth mother's husband's cousin was married to the brother of Elvis' mom, Smith claims — kind of a big deal, if it's true, and certainly worth mentioning in a memoir of one's unusual life among the Presley elite. Isn't it?
"Oh, not really," Smith chuckles over the phone. "Not if you're from the South. Pretty much everyone in the South is related by marriage."
They may well be — but Smith's adopted parents don't appear to have been related to Elvis Presley, at least if one believes the dozens of family trees and exhaustive genealogies of the Smith/Presley clan published in books and on the Internet. Not one of these documents makes mention of an Ira Dee Smith, or of Elvis' grandfather, Robert Smith, having been married and sired any other children before he was wed to Presley's grandmother, Doll Mansell. (Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., which owns and licenses Elvis' image, failed to respond to questions about Elvis' lineage, and the Smith-Presley's family's official genealogist sent a text message saying, "We do not respond to queries about relatives of Elvis Presley's who are not documented family members.")
"I.D. Smith was the half brother of Gladys [Smith Presley]," Carlburg insists, when pressed. "He was the high tenor singer in the Deep South Quartet, which later became J.D. Souther and the Stamps."
Yet not one biography of the little-known Deep South Quartet mentions an I.D. Smith among any of its several lineups. And the Deep South Quartet, which disbanded in the mid-1950s, didn't become J.D. Souther and the Stamps. No such band ever existed, according to a text message from J.D. Souther himself.
"If any such band ever existed," says Souther, the popular SoCal singer-songwriter who's currently a featured player in the ABC drama series Nashville, "they owe me money!"
One wonders whether Smith's original ghostwriters were dispatched once it became clear that much of his story was completely invented. Both writers admit that Smith was vague about precisely how his family was intermarried — a fact that apparently meant little to Smith's friend Carlburg. Carlburg owns a company that builds custom guitars, and considers writing "more of a hobby." He is the third co-author to work on the project."We had a couple of writers come along who wanted to tell John's story their way," Carlburg explains, "and we said, 'No, we want to tell a story that brings honor and dignity to John's life.' So we got rid of them and did it ourselves."
One of the writers dumped from the project was Rico Austin, another self-published author whose career began in Idaho, where as a boy he wrote for his 4H Club newsletter. Later, as a stringer for the local paper, he covered the happenings at local senior citizen homes.
"I don't know why John chose me to co-write his story," muses Austin, who, like Carlburg, met Smith in a bar. "When I met him, he said he had a $1.5 million book deal, and my share was going to be $600,000. I was planning to pay off my house. The next thing I know, it's 'We have to come up with $3,800 to pay Tate Publishing to get the book out.'"
Austin says he agreed to bankroll Smith's book, but when he objected to working with Carlburg, Austin says he was fired. But Austin is getting the last laugh by self-publishing his own rambling account of working for would-be rock royalty. In the Shadow of Elvis: Perils of a Ghostwriter dishes dirt on Smith and Carlburg's work ethic, and details the fun Austin had promoting My Bad Tequila, his previous pay-to-print novel.
Despite having been sacked from the project, both Austin and Karen Albright Lin, the first ghostwriter Smith worked with, report having seen convincing proof that Smith is Elvis' kid.
"I did see all three of John's birth certificates," Austin says, "and he showed me the paper with the DNA evidence printed on it, and it was 99.9 percent conclusive. I wanted to see those papers because, you know, if I was going to write a book about the guy, I didn't want to look like an idiot."
Smith swears he has conclusive DNA evidence that his dad is the man who sang "Blue Suede Shoes." "One last thing that you cannot explain away," he writes in his memoir, "is that Elvis and I, we share the same DNA." But asked to share that DNA documentation with New Times, Smith hems and haws and passes the buck. "We're still talking with my family about whether we can put the DNA stuff in the book," he says. "When we said we wanted to put it in the book, they said, 'We didn't mean for you to do that. We got that for you, for your own knowledge, and not for publication.'"
And so Smith continues to point instead to other things that, he says, prove conclusively that Elvis is his dad. There's an old black-and-white photograph of Elvis holding a little boy who could, frankly, be any towheaded kid. There's a snapshot of a woman Smith says is his mother, standing with Elvis and Priscilla and Glen Campbell at somebody's wedding in the '60s. There's a handwritten note from Tyner, postmarked 1991 and refusing to confirm Smith's paternity because "it is not the time to expose your father."
Smith has, he claims, the flag that was draped on the King's coffin at his funeral. He says he has Gladys Presley's change purse, and Elvis' father's pocketknife, and a set of crystal goblets from the Graceland collection. But mention to Smith that some of these items are things that anyone could buy on eBay, or that he might own them because, after all, Elvis is the nephew of Smith's adoptive parents, and he gets huffy. "These are things that are too intimate to be left with a cousin or a nephew," he drawls. "They're the kind of things that a man would only leave to his son."
Cooper just rolls his eyes. "I know a dozen different Elvis collectors who have stuff like that," he says. "Seriously, if you were the son of Elvis, and you had a piece of paper that proved this conclusively, you would start by showing that to everyone you met. And no one ever does. They'll say they have pocketknives or autographed scarves or special key-chains from Graceland that nobody else has. And this is why nobody in the Elvis world ever takes these claims seriously or even bothers to respond to them anymore. Because they're fakes, and they have no proof."
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Smith insists he has no need to prove his lineage to anyone. "I have known in my heart that Elvis is my daddy for years," he writes. "It has been a part of my life for years. I know it. I feel it."
One wonders what Elvis himself might say — or which of his famous songs he might sing in response to all these would-be love children he supposedly sired. Maybe "Fools Rush In"? Or "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad"? Or perhaps "It's Your Baby, You Rock It." But presumably not "I've Got to Find My Baby." And definitely not "I Love Only One Girl."
Cooper finds the whole cult-of-Elvis thing kind of sad. "These people want to be part of something. So it's, 'I saw Elvis at Burger King in Kalamazoo! He's alive!' or 'My mom slept with Elvis, and he's my dad!' Some of them get a little media attention, or they self-publish a book that sells 800 copies, and they get to feel special for a little while."
In a twisted way, Cooper says, this sort of attention keeps Elvis' name in the spotlight. "But if you were really Elvis' son, is this the kind of attention you'd want to bring to him?" he asks. "Because if my dad were an internationally loved icon, the last thing I'd want to do is join a chorus of people who are saying he screwed around a lot, knocked up a bunch of teenagers, and then took off."


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No. 11 Seminoles open season against Panthers
Pittsburgh. PA – The 11th-ranked Florida State Seminoles take aim at another ACC title, as they begin defense of their conference crown in the season opener against the newly added Pittsburgh Panthers.
Jumbo Fisher's three seasons in Tallahassee have seen the Seminoles rise to the top of the ACC once again. In 2012, FSU finished the year at 12-2, knocking off Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game (21-15) and disposing of BCS-buster Northern Illinois (31-10) in the Orange Bowl.
Paul Chryst has been charged with ushering in Pittsburgh's ACC era. He was tabbed the new head coach a year ago, the Panthers' last in the Big East. Chryst led his team to a 6-7 record in a season littered by close losses. The team finished the regular season at 6-6, but fell to Ole Miss in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
The Panthers actually hold a 5-3 series advantage over the Seminoles and have won the last three meetings. However, these two teams haven't met on the football field since 1983.
A solid season under center for EJ Manuel propelled him into the NFL, as a first-round selection of the Buffalo Bills. Despite the loss of one of the ACC's top signal-callers, Florida State remains optimistic on offense, thanks to all the hype surrounding redshirt freshman Jameis Winston (6-4, 220).
It was expected, but Fisher didn't name Winston the starter until last week, as the youngster was in a heated battle for the spot with Jacob Coker.
"Just a little more consistency ...for a longer period of time," Fisher said, when asked why Winston won the job. "Like I said, Jake is ready to play, too. Jameis, I thought -- as we ranked and talked about it as a staff -- did some different things. Both of them really started to take command of things as camp wore on. I thought Jameis did a little better job in the beginning. You're being close; you're splitting hairs when you really get down to it. That's not 'coach talk' or anything else. That's the truth."
The quarterback's ability to thrive early on is enhanced by one of the top offensive lines in the country, highlighted by four returning starters in center Bryan Stork (6-4, 312), guards Tre Jackson (6-4, 327) and Josue Matias (6-6, 326) and tackle Cameron Erving (6-6, 310), all of which have All- America potential.
There is talent at the rest of the skill positions as well. The backfield is led by the one-two punch of tailbacks Devonta Freeman (660 yards, eight TDs) and James Wilder Jr. (635 yards, 11 TDs). The receiving corps also returns a couple of reliable contributors, highlighted by junior Rashad Greene (6-0, 175), who earned Second-Team All-ACC last year with 57 receptions, for 741 yards and six TDs. Junior tight end Nick O'Leary (6-3, 240) could see his role expand with a new signal-caller under center.
Strong defense was the driving force behind Florida State's resurgence last season, and that success was enough to land Mark Stoops the head coaching job at Kentucky. Now with only four starters returning on that side of the football in 2013, unproven talent must step up and deliver. The biggest hit area on defense is up front, where standout ends Bjoern Werner, Tank Carradine and Brandon Jenkins have all moved on to the NFL. Werner and Carradine combined for 24 sacks in 2012 and finding that kind of production won't be easy. Sophomore Mario Edwards Jr. could be vital in that regard, as the 6-3, 282-pound sophomore showed flashes of strong play as a true freshman in 2012.
The Seminoles must replace playmakers in the back seven as well, with the most glaring loss being standout cornerback Xavier Rhodes. Lamarcus Joyner (51 tackles, one interception) will anchor the play in the secondary, while fellow senior Christian Jones (team-high 95 tackles) headlines the linebacking corps.
Heading into the ACC, the hope is that Chryst can build off a strong offensive season, especially passing the football. That will be easier said than done however, as quarterback Tino Sunseri has moved on. Rutgers transfer Tom Savage (6-5, 230) gets the nod under center to start the year, but redshirt freshman Chad Voytik (6-1, 205) could see playing time as well.
Regardless of who is throwing the football, they will be looking for veteran wideout Devin Street down the field. Street (6-4, 190) is a game-changer on the outside and is coming off a season in which he hauled in 73 passes, for 975 yards and five touchdowns.
Chryst is very happy to have a player of Street's caliber to lean on.
"It's great to have him back. Obviously Devin is a very good player. He did a lot of really good things, but I'm excited because I still believe he can continue to get better. He realizes what he's got in the value of Coach (Bobby) Engram coaching him day in and day out. Certainly Devin is going to be one of those guys we need to play at a high level and lead at a high level. It's a tremendous feeling having Devin here."
The Panthers could also look to 6-2 freshman Tyler Boyd in the passing game. A smooth receiver with a great feel for the game, Boyd comes to Pittsburgh following an impressive high school career, where he amassed 5,755 yards and 117 touchdowns.
To achieve balance however, Chryst must find someone to step into the void left by Ray Graham's departure, after he put up 1,042 yards and 11 TDs last season, en route to All-Big East First-Team honors. Junior Isaac Bennett (4.9 ypc) played sparingly last season and will get the first crack at earning the lion's share of the carries.
The defensive side of the football will see less atrophy, with the return of nine starters. The unit as a whole, was extremely stingy in 2012, giving up just 330.5 yards of total offense.
A veteran-laden defensive front is led by senior tackle Aaron Donald (6-0, 275), who posted 64 tackles last season, with 11 TFL and 5.5 sacks. He will be flanked by fellow senior tackle Tyrone Ezell (6-4, 300), who had 39 tackles and 3.5 sacks last year.
A strength of the unit last year was the secondary, which returns three of its four starters, highlighted by Second-Team All-Big East safety Jason Hendricks, who had a huge season, posting 90 total tackles and six interceptions. Senior cornerback K'Waun Williams (5-10, 195) is another ball hawk, finishing last year with 47 tackles and four picks.


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The fear of a sagging tabletop leads to a solution that incorporates Western joints and Japanese aesthetics.
By Toshio Odate
Pages: 46-50
From the October 2010 issue # 185
Buy this issue now
Many countries have their own woodworking traditions, which are often a combination of mythology and ideology. The Japanese are no exception, and those traditions are part of the foundation of my work.
There is a temple that ancient Japanese carpenters built. Its columns, hewn from trees, are positioned as when each was a standing tree. That is, the south side of the standing tree, when used as a column, also faces the south.
Though the tree's south side has more knots, period Japanese carpenters believed that, if these trees had faced the sun for 1,000 years, as columns they would stand another 1,000 years if positioned the same.
Japanese woodworkers also try not to use wood upside down, even on small objects. And the heart side of the wood should always face the inside of a carcase or object. As a result, Japanese carpenters do not bookmatch material. Even for table legs, the core side should face the inside.
I follow these traditions as much as possible, especially the ideology used to indicate the two lives of a tree. Today, when making a sculpture or cabinet, I use materials that mostly come from my surroundings. There must be a strong reason to make an exception.
I don't just hope – I carefully construct a table to exist at least 300 years.
Video: Learn to calculate the sizes of the drawer needed for your project.
Article: Discover how to sharpen your chisels properly from long-time sharpener and author Ron Hock.
Web site: Study the Tansu style and read about the history of the Japanese chest.
To buy: Purchase a set of Japanese chisels and other woodworking tools.
In the store: Pick up "The Drawer Book" for information about drawer construction.
From the October 2010 issue # 185
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09 June 2007 09:15
Presentation Software for Flash Video, E-learning Tools by authorGEN(via)
1 (1 marks)
Founded in late 2003 and heartquartered in France, we are non-profit and independant.
We believe in the open web, think internet services should be sustainable, build for the long term.
While we are re-launching the service, we only accept new members through invitation.


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You've heard it or have seen it posted…
Someone saying they can say whatever they want, post whatever they want and no-one can do anything to them.
As if the First Amendment is their sword and shield. And you can't do anything about it.
Freedom of speech. Three words that get thrown around and written about so often that what the expression means is more about misinformation than truth.
And misinformation can be detrimental to online professionals as they try to separate the wheat from the chaff and understand a right so important to the foundation of the United States that the founding fathers made it the first amendment to the Constitution to better clarify what rights belong to its citizens.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Source: First Amendment, U.S. Constitution
This article will specifically focus on the portion relating to speech and how this applies to the online community.


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Hohner announces the introduction of a series of revolutionary new apps for the iPad: The Hohner Xtreme II SqueezeBox.
Mimicking the layout of Hohner's iconic Corona II Xtreme 34-button diatonic accordion, these intuitive virtual accordion apps feature a super responsive, three-row fingerboard that plays and sounds like the traditional instrument.
The Hohner SqueezeBox apps allow musicians to practice chord combinations, scales, and songs on-the-go in five different key combinations and colors. Headphones can be used for private practice, or the audio output of the virtual accordion can be amplified by plugging into computer speakers, or other sound enhancing devices.
Players may select to have the note names displayed on the large white pearloid buttons. With the touch of a button, the tonality can be changed from "wet tuning" giving an animated sound, to "dry tuning".
This app is ideal for the beginning student or professional musician who needs a simple carry-on companion to compliment his or her actual accordion. While not meant to be a replacement for a real accordion, the app is a convenient and easy tool for practicing, learning, or teaching.
GCF is commonly used for Tex-Mex, Conjunto, Norteño, Zydeco, Cajun, Vallenato, and French Canadian.
Be sure to check out the "Real Players, Real Music" videos on the app website.
Want to play in all the keys? Download all eight Hohner SqueezeBox apps: Hohner-GCF, Hohner-GCF Xtreme II, Hohner-FBbEb, Hohner-FBbEb Xtreme II, Hohner-EAD, Hohner-EAD Xtreme II, Hohner-ADG, and Hohner-BbEbAb.
Hohner-GCF Mini, Hohner-FBbEb Mini, and Hohner-EAD Mini are also available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Q: The sound stops when I put four fingers on the screen.
A: Go into the iPad Settings app, and disable the "Multitasking Gestures" feature. This feature creates issues for all apps like mine that use more than 3 fingers on the screen at a time.
Q: I'm not hearing any sound, help!
A: Make sure that the mute switch on your device is turned off.


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NotesRead full entry
"Cool facts"A colorful duck of the northern seacoasts, the Common Eider is the largest duck in the Northern Hemisphere. The male's bright white, black, and green plumage contrasts markedly with the female's camouflaging dull striped brown.
The Pacific form of the Common Eider is distinct genetically and morphologically from the other forms, and may be a different species. The male has a thin black V on its chin and a bright yellow or orange bill.
Mother Common Eiders lead their young to water, and often are accompanied by nonbreeding hens that participate in chick protection. Broods often come together to form "crèches" of a few to over 150 ducklings. Attacks by predators may cause several broods to cluster together into a crèche. Once formed, a crèche tends to stay together throughout the brood rearing period, although some of the different females attending it may leave.


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Friday, July 29, 2011
Geohashing with Google Maps
The xkcd Geohashing Wiki is inviting you to participate in the wonderful world of random location meet-ups.
Geohashing is a method for finding a random location near your current location and then visiting it. Every day the geohashing algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for your location. Everyone in a given region gets the same set of coordinates.
After you have visited the random location you can document your expedition on the Geohashing Wiki, including details of who was involved in your expedition and pictures of your adventure.
To get your daily randomised coordinates visit the Geohashing Google Map. Click on the map to show your location and, using the geohashing algorithm, your random location will be generated by the map.
Geohashing Wiki
Posted by Keir Clarke at 10:20 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Fairies come in many shapes and sizes, the tooth fairy, forest fairies, and fairy princesses. The Fabulous Fairy Tutu Costume is for the pink princess fairy who has equal amounts of fairy dust and fashion sense. This adorable costume comes with a fabulous fairy wand and fairy wings with shoulder straps. The tutu dress has fun ruffles and regal pink ribbon bands to highlight the skirt.
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First session set for Sunday.
"That's the key word this spring," said new S&T football head coach Tyler Fenwick.
He indeed has a lot of evaluating to do over the next month.
Fenwick, hired as the 19th football head coach in S&T school history two weeks ago, gets his first look at his new players on a field Sunday, when the team kicks off its spring football practice.
The Miners will take to their practice field around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The squad will generally hold practices on Tuesday mornings, Thursday mornings and Saturdays during this year's spring drills, ending with the annual spring game at 11 a.m. May 4 on Jackling Field at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.
In all S&T can get in 15 spring practices.
Fenwick said he expects 75 or 76 players at the first spring practice. A few players will be missing due to injury or participating in S&T spring sports or the school's co-op program.
"Just figuring out who we have; try to fit the pieces," Fenwick said of his goal in his first spring season at S&T. "Other than evaluating, it's installing the offense and making sure we get the base offense in.
"We want to see what our strengths and weaknesses are going into the fall."
Fenwick takes over his first collegiate head coaching position after having spent the previous six seasons as offensive coordinator at Missouri Western. He will be calling the offensive plays for the Miners as well.
He takes over a Miner squad which sparkled during a 10-1 2012 campaign, including a 7-1 mark and second-place finish in the inaugural Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) football race.
However, most of the skill players from that high-scoring Miner offensive squad were seniors who must be replaced.
S&T returns the most experience on defense.
The Miners finished second in the NCAA Division II in quarterback sacks with 45. The top four sack leaders return in senior tackle Eddie Rascon (6-2, 240) (13 sacks), senior end Freddy Dugard (6-1, 220) (11 sacks), junior end Jimmy Barnhart (6-1, 240) (7 sacks) and junior tackle Josip Juric (6-2, 260).
Also back are starting linebackers Chris Emesih (6-0, 210), who has led S&T in tackles the past two seasons, and Chris Horn (6-1, 205) and defensive backs Mark Hopkins (5-11, 185) and Chris McKay (6-1, 210).
A new starting quarterback will have to be found, as two-year starter Josh Firm is gone. And two of the QB candidates will miss all or most of spring drills, as sophomore Reed Brown ((5-11, 190) is a member of the Miner baseball team and sophomore Evan Merz (6-6, 230) is taking part in the schools co-op program.
The 1-2 receiving punch of Smook Thomas and Joseph Hyman, who put up dazzling numbers last fall, will have to be replaced. The top receiver back is senior Isaiah Culver (5-10, 185), who caught 26 passes a year ago.
Scott Hendricks (5-8, 175), who rushed for 609 yards as a red-shirt freshman last season, is the top running back returning; he shared time with departed Curterris Golden, who was the team's top rusher.
Anchoring the offensive line at left tackle is two-year starter Forrestal Hickman (6-8, 305).
Fenwick said the Miners will not make drastic changes as far as philosophy on either side of the ball.
"Terminology will be the big difference (on offense)," he said. "Just learning a new language. But there will be a lot of carryover. We'll have a little more of a multiple formation; we'll use tight ends a little more."
After evaluating in spring practice Fenwick said there is a possibility additional recruits could be added.
"We've got a little bit of room financially and scholarship-wise," he said. "You don't want to bring in an offensive lineman just because. I only want to bring in someone that is good.
"But we'll be able to do a few things if we need to."


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Claudia Robinson, 42, of Mobile, Ala., died Dec. 7, 2008 in Tallahassee.
Services were held Dec. 20 at Sunnyvale Cemetery.
She is survived by her son, Melvin Autry Jr. of Mobile, Ala., and daughter, Adrina Autry of Tallahassee.
Henry Moore "H.M." Butler, 82, died Dec. 21 in Quincy at home afer a long illness.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church in Quincy, with burial at Hillcrest Cemetery in Quincy. Viewing will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday at Independent Funeral Home.
John William "Billy" Bedenbaugh, 67, died in Blountstown Dec. 12, 2008.
He was a member of Forest Hills United Methodist Church and was a retired electrical contractor. A graveside service was he.d Dec. 16 at Hillcrest Cemetery in Quincy.
George Bryant III, 40, of Quincy, died Dec. 9, 2008 in Tallahassee. Services will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Elizabeth MB Church, with burial at Campground Cemetery.
Visitation will be held Friday from 1 to 7 p.m.
Louis "Cat" Whitfield Jr., 58, of Quincy, died Dec. 13 at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare in Tallahassee.
He was born Dec. 7, 1950 in Quincy to the late Charity Coleman and Louis Whitfield Sr. He attended the public schools of Gadsden County and college training for his vocation. He was a member of St. John AME Church and the owner of a private night club, where he touched many lives. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. John AME Church, with burial in the church cemetery in Quincy. Visitation will be Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Madry Chapel.
Jacklyn "Miss Jackie" Vera Ferol, 96, of Panama City, died Dec. 13, 2008.
She had been a resident of Panama City for 15 years, moving there from Ebro. She was Baptist by faith and a talented seamstress. She was the owner and operator of the Corral Restaurant in Ebro. She was instrumental in the development of Highway 20 from Highway 79 to Highway 231 and also in the establishment of Ebro as a municipality. She also served on the Ebro City Council and helped to establish Ebro Baptist Church.
Ernest McMillan, 66, of Chattahoochee, died Dec. 11, 2008 in Chattahoochee. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Greater Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Chattahoochee, with burial following in the Rosedale Community Cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Bradwell Mortuary in Quincy.
Burnett McNealy, 60, of Chattahoochee, died Dec. 11, 2008 at home. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Pine Bloom MB Church in Greensboro with burial following in the Greensboro Community Cemetery.
Willie Augusta Moore, 69, of Mt. Pleasant, died Dec. 10 at the Gulf Coast Medical Center in Panama City.
He was born Aug. 18, 1939 in Gadsden County to the late Nora Oliver and Perry Moore. He attended the public schools of Gadsden County, received Jesus Christ at an early age and joined New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant.
He married Rosetta McMillan in 1960 and they were blessed with a son. Later in life, he was joined in holy matrimony to the late Katie Lee Hover for 35 years and they helped to raise many nieces and nephews.
Copyright © 2018
The Gadsden County Times is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Gadsden County and Quincy, FL, and the surrounding area.


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*Pending Acme Packet transaction close.
Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Carol Sato
Ken Bond


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Bristol City teenager Bobby Reid has signed a new contract, tying him to the club until the summer of 2015.
The Bristolian, 19, who has made one first-team appearance for the Robins after progressing through the club's academy, follows quickly in the footsteps of fellow graduate Joe Bryan in penning a new two-and-a-half year deal.
Manager Derek McInnes said: "Bobby's a great boy to have about; a hard-working lad. He's similar in many ways to Joe Bryan, who signed a similar deal recently.
"He does everything right off the pitch in terms of his conditioning, and on the training pitch you can see he wants to make the best of what he's got.
"Bobby has two good feet, can see passes and is a confident lad. It's important we steer him in the right direction in terms of his education and development."
Reid has starred as an ever-present this season for the club's development squad in Under-21 fixtures, scoring five goals in seven games.


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CNN producers released after WTC arrests
NEW YORK (AP) — Two CNN producers have been released without bail after being accused of trying to breach security at the World Trade Center site.
Connor Fieldman Boals and Yon Pomrenze were arraigned Wednesday on a misdemeanor attempted criminal trespass charge. Their lawyers didn't immediately return calls.
Their arrests Tuesday came a day after four men were arrested over a September skydive off the unfinished 1 World Trade Center tower. A teenage boy was accused of scaling it earlier this month.
A court complaint says Boals tried to get through a non-public gate and turnstile and climbed halfway up a fence. The complaint says Pomrenze took video of the episode.
A CNN spokeswoman has said the producers were reporting on the recent security breaches and were not asked to sneak onto the site.


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Hi guys....more advice needed! Blue has been on Frusemide for nearly a month now. He had a kidney function blood test today, his potassium was ok but his urea was 11 which is slightly higher than it should be, my vet said not to worry.....yeah right! I do nothing but worry with this SM!....but he wouldn't like to increase his frusemide in the future.
My thinking is do we actually NEED to be on the frusemide? Is anybody else on frusemide? What are your thoughts? He has referred me to Chester Gates so we should be able to get there next week to see Mr Skerritt.


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News & Events
For the Media
Clarkson University's Zander Named Trendsetter by Public Works Magazine
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/zander.jpg]
Clarkson University Professor Amy K. Zander, director of the school's Interdisciplinary Engineering & Management (IE&M) program, has been named a 2008 Trendsetter by Public Works magazine.
The publication recognized Zander for reshaping the curriculum of the IE&M program to incorporate environmental considerations into decision-making. The magazine wrote that the program was now preparing students to take into account social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and environmental consequences in business and technological decisions.
Zander, previously an associate dean in Clarkson's Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering, was named director of IE&M last January. An expert in the areas of physical and chemical separations in environmental systems, especially drinking water and wastewater treatment technologies, she has been a faculty member at Clarkson since 1991.
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.


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The Center for Design and Typography
The Center for Design and Typography is the in-house design studio for The Cooper Union. As an integral part of the institution, the full-time design staff collaborates with all departments, producing the majority of the college's print materials, event graphics and signage.
The Design Center also accepts outside projects from eligible non-profit organizations. Selected according to public need and design potential, these projects are developed by School of Art advanced graphic design students under the auspices of the Professional Practice course taught by the Director. The pro-bono work performed by the class provides students with valuable experience dealing with clients, budgets and deadlines, as well as providing community service.
Contact the Design Center at firstname.lastname@example.com
Mindy Lang, Creative Director
Inessa Shkolnikov, Design Director
Mark Rossi, Senior Designer


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Use coupon code VHC15 for an additional 15% off VHC Brands bedding orders over $50.
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The Aubree Smoke euro sham features double railroad hand-quilting on soft dark grey sateen fabric to create a diamond pattern. The center of each diamond is gathered for texture and visual interest. The sham is edged in grey binding trim. The back is a solid grey cotton sateen fabric with 3 tie closures and a 3" overlap. Measures 26" x 26". 100% cotton shell and batting. Machine wash cold, gentle cycle. Tumble dry. This item is imported. Please note, colors may appear differently in different resolutions and on different computers. Manufacturer's UPC code is 840528157097.
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Very few sports novels are actually about sport, and Barracuda is no exception. Recent discourse in Australian literary circles has focussed on how to better promote the excellent work done by female writers in this country. Barracuda is a slap in the face to this trend—more than any novel I have read recently, this is a novel that interrogates what it means to be a man. How do you go from being a man in your prime, a man perfectly sculpted to take part in the ultimate masculine challenge to man reviled for the very things that make you who you are?
All of this is embodied in Daniel Kelly. Danny is the misfit at his private school—placed there on a sport scholarship, he is hated by his teammates because he is better than then, even though he is poorer, and much less white. But while he is being bullied mercilessly in the classroom, he is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the pool. He is the Barracuda, mercilessly beating everyone that gets in his way. The disconnect between his in-pool and out-of-pool selves is unsurprising, but the vast distance between the two is.
Out of the pool, Danny's weakness is his crippling self-doubt. and I cannot help but wonder how many other athletes suffer a similar affliction. Danny's self-worth is so intrinsically tied to how he performs in the pool, he quite literally cannot imagine a life in which he cannot compete with the world's best. There would be nothing else for him. To see a man try and claw his way back to having any kind of functional self-respect is a fascinating journey, and one Tsiolkas treats with deftness and dignity.
There are, of course, no excuses for what Danny does to his friend (think Nick D'Arcy on a bad night). At that point, he embodies everything that is wrong with Australian sports culture, particularly in respect to way we build up young men (I use that word deliberately) to succeed. And so, in parallel with this story of the Fall is a story of redemption, of a broken man attempting to find himself. The internal has become external as Danny becomes a drifter, floating through the world, trying desperately to find a role for himself in a world that has no time or space for losers.
I always image people who came to Christos Tsiolkas' work via The Slap get something of a shock when they decide to dip into his earlier work. Loaded, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe are glorious novels, unlike anything else in the Australian canon, but they are intense, in-your-face works that force the reader to re-evaluate a great many of their opinions about contemporary Australia. The big question I wanted answered when I opened Barracuda was this: which way would Tsiolkas go this time? Would he continue the careful examination he began in The Slap of contemporary Australia, or would he return to his wilder youth?
I can't help but feel that Barracuda is Tsiolkas defanged. There is no question that he is an excellent examiner of the contemporary Australian psyche—indeed, I can think of no other. But Barracuda is another step towards the mainstream. The scenes designed to shock are no longer shocking (particularly the sex scenes, which seem crowbarred in just for shock value), the barbs aimed at upper-middle-class white Australians seem to be just a little bit less sharp.
Barracuda is not Christos Tsiolkas' best novel. But even when he's having an off day, he forces us to think. How do we deal with the internal pressures we place on ourselves to satisfy the wants and demands of the many? I think Tsiolkas is ultimately hopeful in this respect: he sees paths of redemption for all of us who have done something terrible, for those of us who struggle to find our place in society.
Oh, and that last chapter? Perfection.


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Center Andrew Bynum, who missed the entire 2012-13 season with the Sixers because of a knee injury, will not work out for teams hoping to sign him, according to a Yahoo Sports report.
Bynum's agent, David Lee, said the unrestricted free agent will begin training in Atlanta this month as he rehabs from knee surgery.
Lee told Yahoo that a "half-dozen teams" are interested in Bynum and that those teams will be given MRI exam reports and other medical reports.
Bynum was part of a four-team trade last August that brought him and Jason Richardson to the Sixers. The Sixers sent Andre Igoudala to Denver and sent Moe Harkless, Nik Vucevic and a protected first-round pick to Orlando.
Bynum last played for the Lakers in the 2011-12 season and averaged 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds in 60 games.
The Sixers, on draft night last week, acquired the rights to Kentucky center Nerlens Noel. That trade is expected to become official on July 10.
That deal would seem to indicate that the Sixers are not interested in retaining Bynum. When Sam Hinkie was introduced as the Sixers' new general manager last month, he didn't exactly give Bynum a ringing endorsement.
"I think of Andrew like the thousands of other young men walking around the world that are unrestricted free agents that have potential to play NBA basketball," Hinkie said. "He is one of those. I'm duty bound to consider them and look at them. All of them."
In other Sixers news, CBSSports.com reported that the Rockets could be looking to trade center Omer Asik to Philadelphia as they attempt to clear salary-cap room to sign Dwight Howard.
Hinkie worked for the Rockets the past 8 years. Houston signed Asik to a 3-year, $25.1 million deal last summer.
Get the full Sixerville experience at PhillyDailyNews.com.


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This bright, effervescent gemstone gets its name from the French word for lemon and has been regarded as a symbol for happiness, health, and vitality for centuries.
Citrine is a variety of quartz, and ranges in color from earthy deep browns and reddish-oranges to glowing yellow-orange—autumnal tones perfect as the birthstone for the short, dark days of November.
Also known as the "Merchant's Stone," citrine is considered lucky and is thought to bring prosperity and abundance to its wearer.
Since naturally occurring citrines are becoming quite rare, most citrines on the market today are actually amethysts that have been heat treated to enhance the inherent traces of iron that give the stone its yellow hues.
Gemstones have been imbued with spiritual meaning for eons, dating back to the breastplate of Aaron that contained 12 gemstones representing the signs of the zodiac and the tribes of Israel. The modern birthstone list was established in 1912 by the National Association of Jewelers with a few updates over the years.


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Mumbai: Superstar Akshay Kumar wants his son Aarav to keep a distance from showbiz so that he can enjoy a normal childhood.
"It`s a conscious decision to keep my son away from limelight. I think it is better to keep them (children) away from all this that is seen everywhere in newspapers and all. I want to give them a normal childhood," Akshay, 46, said in a media interaction here.
After having obtained a black belt in Taekwondo while in India, Akshay studied martial arts in Bangkok, Thailand. And now Aarav too is following his father`s footsteps.
"My son is a brown belt. He has just won gold medal in judo in national championship. I am a proud father. I am happy he is doing this," Akshay said.
The actor, who studied in Thailand, said he is of the view that children should be taught martial arts from a young age. "I want kids should be taught martial arts from school. I do tournaments (of martial arts) where we invite children from all over the world and then even send them to Japan," he said.
The actors wants government to make martial arts a compulsory subject as it is crucial for self defence. "I am in talks with government to have martial arts as a compulsory subject for boys and girls. I look forward to that day where every student would be learning martial arts in schools for at least three years. It is my dream," Akshay said.
"I feel this is important than physics, Maths etc. What I understand from martial arts is self discipline, self defence and taking care of your health," he added.
At a time when Bollywood actors are investing in cricket and football leagues, Akshay is not keen about venturing into this.
"I do what I believe in. I believe in martial arts and hence I promote it. I want to put my money on it. For me martial arts is not about earning money. It has taught me a ot," Akshay said.


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What they say about us;
If you are in Namibia you need to visit the
What a pleasure to find such a great place on our travels through Namibia.
We liked it so much we came back twice. -S. R. Australia
We are from California-USA, and your restaurant was a perfect end to our time in Namibia. -Joseph
Les Otaries ne font pas assez de spectacle.Superbe soirée, -Mera Switzerland
The best seafood I have ever eaten! -Natalia Czechoslovakia
Thoroughly enjoyed our evening. Lovely atmosphere, warm fire, friendly staff and divine food. Great to visit you in Walvis. Would love to come back one day. Thanks for excellent service. -C.W.G.
Sorry but we think you have to move your outstanding, extraordinary restaurant to another place- our home town in Austria for example. We will be back. Svelyn and Chuish
Ein lob an die gute kuche!! Wir waren sehr zufriendin G.Germany
Quality is when the client comes back not the product. We'll come back. -M. P.
Have been coming here since 1 ½ years ago, when we moved to Walvis Bay Best in Southern Africa! -Victor & Hanlé
Excellent Restaurant! The finest place we have eaten in Namibia! A.P. UK
Congratulations to the chef! C. I. Belguim
We wish we lived nearer to you, so we could be regular customers. This was our first experience at your Restaurant and we will be back! -Mike & Linda Liverpool
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