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Groton superintendent wants hearing to respond to allegations
Groton — Superintendent of Schools Paul Kadri wants a hearing to address allegations that he intimidated and verbally abused employees.
According to an investigator's report released Monday night, employees reported that Kadri yelled at them, created a hostile work environment and asked them to engage in behavior they felt to be unethical, or behaved unethically himself.
A complaint by Kadri's executive assistant, Alisha Stripling, led to the investigation. Stripling said she was subjected to "intense verbal abuse and erratic, frightening physical interactions" with Kadri and she worked in fear of him, the report said. His actions made her ill, she told the investigator, and she could not continue working.
"The fear instilled in me over the time that I have worked at GPS (Groton Public Schools), coupled with three incidents in which Paul was furious in such a short timeframe, have left me so beaten down that I can no longer function at work. I have begun to suffer severe panic attacks," she wrote in her statement.
Kadri blasted the report Tuesday for being "shoddily done," biased and untruthful. He said the investigator never described the allegations or the scope of the review to him, and many of the employees who were interviewed had an "ax to grind" because they didn't like the fact he held them accountable for results.
"At this point, all I can do is exercise my right to request a full and fair hearing before an impartial decision-maker and hope that when she has to testify under oath that Ms. Stripling will be willing and able to be more honest about these events," Kadri said in a statement released by his lawyer.
Kirsten E. Hoyt, the school board chairwoman, said after the report was released Monday that there can be no board comment on this at this time. The report is on the board's agenda to be discussed Thursday.
Stripling, who was hired in 2009, approached the district's director of human resources, Laurie LePine, after Kadri yelled at Stripling several times and told her to do his personal errands, the report said.
LePine said that she, too, had been subjected to "intimidation and verbal abuse" by Kadri, and Kadri expected her to schedule grievance hearings only on dates when school board members who would support him were on the hearing panel, the report said.
LePine spoke with the board's lawyer. The board voted in May to place Kadri on paid administrative leave to investigate his treatment of district employees. Under his current contract, Kadri's base salary is $167,475. His term ends June 30, 2014, if the agreement isn't renewed.
Interim Superintendent of Schools Randy Collins is being paid the same salary on a per diem, or daily rate, which is $641 for each work day.
William T. Blake, of Harlow, Adams & Friedman in Milford, interviewed 14 people, including current and former employees. Kadri was interviewed twice and was represented by a lawyer during both sessions.
Report: Kadri screamed at, humiliated assistants
One incident described in depth in the report is an administrators' retreat in June 2010, where Stripling said the business office did not return the signed contract to the club hosting the event, which meant the facility had not been cleaned. Stripling, who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, said Kadri screamed at her, waved clenched fists and gritted his teeth before ordering her to return to the central office.
Kadri called her repeatedly as she drove to the club, the report said, then sped into the parking lot behind her, grabbed the open window of her car and continued yelling. She said he would not remove his hands until she began to drive away.
He told the investigator that Stripling was "chewing him out" and he was in "absolute control" of himself in the parking lot.
Stripling went on maternity leave in July 2010, and two other executive assistants worked for Kadri, both of whom complained about their treatment.
Paula Haldeman told the investigator she refused to continue working for Kadri after he humiliated her in front of other administrators and got angry with her.
Several administrators who saw this behavior thought it would be best if Stripling returned to work in a different department, the report said, and Bonnie Drudi was hired to work for Kadri. In six months, Drudi said, she lost weight, began to doubt her ability and started taking anti-anxiety medication, the report said. She left, and Kadri decided Stripling should return as his executive assistant.
After a series of incidents in April in which Kadri yelled at her for tasks she was unable to complete and a disagreement over the fact that she could not go to his house to take care of his dog, Stripling told Kadri she could not go into work because she was ill, the report said.
She said she feared Kadri because he told her about a female friend who visited him and sustained a serious head injury, the report said, and he had made comments about her appearance and his personal life that made her uncomfortable.
LePine put Stripling on medical leave and contacted the board's legal counsel, which initiated the process that led to Kadri being placed on leave.
Among additional allegations, Kadri is accused of directing an employee not to request overtime pay she was entitled to, attempting to use grant funds for improper purposes, telling an assistant superintendent to take a personal day to hold campaign signs with him and other administrators during a referendum, and contacting employees and the potential employer of a former employee to undermine her application after he was placed on leave, the report said.
The report contains statements from seven other past and present employees describing abusive treatment they say they either experienced or witnessed. Most of the witnesses are female, but one male employee did say Kadri called him at home to yell at him.
The investigator also reviewed the sexual and age discrimination complaint a former assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction brought before the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. The complaint was settled and was not the subject of the investigation, but it was included as background material, the report said.
Kadri: Managerial style 'misconstrued as hostility'
Kadri has denied acting improperly in his dealings with the employees. He told the investigator he sees himself as an agent of change, who, at times, clashed with the culture in the schools.
"I do understand that my style and manner of challenging people to be the best they can at times be misconstrued as hostility or anger," he said in his statement, also noting that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. "... To interpret passion, directness or hyperactivity as an intent to harm anyone is profoundly uninformed."
Kadri also addressed Stripling's recounting of his friend's injury, telling the investigator they were horsing around and she tripped.
The investigating firm was not asked to provide the school board with any recommendation for action.
Given the possibility of litigation, Gregg D. Adler said his client, Kadri, would not answer questions. The next step would be for school board members to decide, possibly at Thursday's meeting, whether to issue Kadri a letter indicating they are considering terminating his employment, said Adler, of Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly, PC, in Hartford.
If the letter is issued, Kadri could request a hearing before the school board, and the board would have to convene within 30 days to determine whether the contract should be terminated.
Kadri's contract stipulates that if his contract is terminated for conduct that does not result in a felony arrest or constitute moral misconduct, he will be paid for no less than 90 days from the date he received the written notice that the board was considering ending his employment.
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Science Friday® is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Science Friday® and SciFri® are registered service marks of Science Friday, Inc. Site design by Pentagram; engineering by Mediapolis.
Non-Euclidean geometry and clock arithmetic might not be the first things that come to mind when you think "patriotism," but Edward Frenkel, a mathematician at the University of California at Berkeley, says a well-educated public is essential to democracy—and that includes being knowledgeable about math.

subset: commoncrawl


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HOME > Consumer Info > Home Improvement
Home Improvement
If you fail to pay a contractor, the contractor may file a mechanic's lien against your home. A mechanic's lien is a claim against your
property that secures payment for labor, materials or equipment provided for constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining real property.
The court can order the sale of the property to satisfy liens and costs, subject to your right of redemption.
Contractors are licensed through the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing. The Division of
Occupational and Professional Licensing also administers the Lien Recovery Fund.
Tips on Contracting for Home Improvement or Repairs


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David Letterman is an American legend because of his remarkable contradictions.
He didn't get what he wanted — hosting "The Tonight Show" and succeeding Johnny Carson — but he gained a record 33-year run in late night.
He didn't earn the best ratings, but younger hosts often cite him as the most influential performer.
Letterman was the wiseacre who displayed unexpected depths at serious moments, and a public figure who overcame scandal by owning his problems.
How this edgy performer says goodbye at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday on CBS should generate suspense on his final night as "Late Show" host.
It may not be a national event to rival Johnny...


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If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Monday February 28, 2005 6:02 pm
XM To Raise Monthly Fee
Posted by Oscar M. Cantu Categories: Music
XM has announced a price increase for their satellite radio service effective April 2, 2005. The increase will raise the now current rate for their basic service of $9.95, to $12.95 per month. They are also going to include two premium services free of charge. Those two premium services are XM's online radio access, and the show "High Voltage". These two services are currently offered at a price of $3.95 and $1.95 respectively. What seems to be a good deal deserves a second look. Sirius, XM's competitor, offers online satellite radio free of charge on its basic plan of $12.95 and states it will allow subscribers to listen to Howard Stern free of charge when his program launches next year. If you are a current subscriber, you may lock in the rate of $9.95 for the next 5 years. Now that these two services will be the same price, the decision on what service to purchase will be based on what truly matters – hardware price and quality. Expect to see hardware price cuts in the coming months.
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The tip of a swordfish bill that was found embedded in a deep-sea mooring. The memento has come to represent the challenges WHOI engineers and researchers face each time they deploy a mooring. "It reminds me that when we put things in the ocean, the unthinkable can sometimes happen," said Rick Trask, manager of WHOI's Mooring and Rigging Shop.[ MORE ]
Mooring lines made of wire rope covered with plastic also sustained damage that looked like fish attacks. On this segment of line, the plastic jacket suffered a puncture (round hole at right) and several cuts (diagonal marks left of the hole).[ MORE ]
Suspecting that bumps in the line near the cuts might be bits of teeth, WHOI engineers x-rayed the line (see next photo). [ LESS ]
Mooring lines made of wire rope covered with plastic also sustained damage that looked like fish attacks. On this segment of line, the plastic jacket suffered a puncture (round hole at right) and several cuts (diagonal marks left of the hole).[ MORE ]
Suspecting that bumps in the line near the cuts might be bits of teeth, WHOI engineers x-rayed the line (see next photo). [ LESS ]
An X-ray of the jacketed wire rope seen in the previous photo shows fragments of fish teeth embedded in the plastic jacket—hard proof that fish bite mooring lines.
The tip of a fish tooth that broke off inside a mooring line. The tooth, from the lower jaw of the deep-sea species Sudis hyalina, has fine serrations that enable it to cut cleanly through ropes made of synthetic fibers.[ MORE ]
Sudis grows to more than a meter in length. [ LESS ]
A skull of the deep-sea fish Alepisaurus ferox, whose long, sharp teeth can inflict major damage on mooring lines and instruments.
Occasionally, a synthetic mooring line was recovered with two very different kinds of damage: Some fibers had clean, blunt ends while others had frayed, ponytail-like ends. WHOI engineers concluded that the clean cuts were inflicted by biting fish and the frayed ends resulted when the remaining intact fibers were unable to bear the full weight of the mooring, and pulled apart under tension.[ MORE ]
WHOI engineers compared mooring lines they thought had been cut by fish (center) with ropes damaged in the rigging shop by knife blade (bottom) or by being pulled apart under tension (top).
Buoy Group engineers subjected wire rope, four kinds of synthetic rope, and several kinds of sheathing materials to 14 kinds of damage in hopes of identifying how rigging breaks, and what kinds of rigging hold up best against fish attack.[ MORE ]
Here, an engineer simulates how a shark could cut a synthetic rope pulled taut by the weight of attached instruments. [ LESS ]
WHOI engineers developed the "Bitemeter" to measure the force needed to drive a sharp object, such as a shark's tooth, into rigging components and to test the ability of those components to resist punctures by fish teeth.[ MORE ]
"It took a long time before we developed moorings that were resistant to sharks," recalled former WHOI scientist Ferris Webster. [ LESS ]
The introduction of jacketed wire rope in the mid-1960s solved some major problems for the Buoy Group—it was harder to cut and could withstand the elements better than synthetic rope. But wire rope was still vulnerable to attack: If a fish tooth punctured its plastic jacket, corrosive sea water would cause the wire rope within to rust, putting the mooring at risk.[ MORE ]
Fish attack instruments as well as rigging. This Vector Averaging Current Meter was attacked by a fish large enough to get its jaws around the 8-inch diameter casing.
Running a mooring line through human hands as it's being reeled back aboard ship helps locate cuts, holes, and gouges caused by fish.
Engineer Henri Berteaux of WHOI and MIT co-wrote the Fishbite Handbook (with Bryce Prindle) as well as leading texts on buoy and mooring design.
Among the odds and ends in Rick Trask's office is the tip of a swordfish bill, mounted on a piece of wood and displayed on the windowsill. For the manager of the Mooring and Rigging Shop at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, it's a trophy of sorts, though not of the sport-fishing kind. Rather, it's a reminder of a once-mysterious phenomenon that plagued Buoy Group engineers in the early days of deep-sea mooring deployments.
Trask isn't sure who mounted the bill, only that it's been passed among Buoy Group members through the years. The story goes that Buoy Group engineers found the bill while recovering a deep-sea mooring in the late 1960s.
Accustomed to the ocean's harsh conditions, engineers expected many of their recovered moorings to be damaged: buoys covered in algae, synthetic lines frayed from stress, metal components and instruments rusted by saltwater. But as they hauled this mooring on deck, they saw something unique—the jagged, sandy-colored fragment jammed into the rotor of a current meter, as if the swordfish had attacked the instrument—and lost. The team brought the bill home to Woods Hole and put it on display.
Trask, who first heard the story when he came to WHOI in 1980, inherited the trophy in 1985. "It reminds me that when we put things in the ocean, the unthinkable can sometimes happen," he said.
Whenever engineers in the WHOI Buoy Group recovered moorings, they "autopsied" the remnants to try to identify the reasons for failure. Some were obvious: A powerful storm snapped a line, barnacles crusted over an instrument, salt corroded the links in a chain so badly they broke.
But from the very beginning, some moorings came back with "chatter"—slashes and gouges—whose source was not obvious. Some lines were cut all the way through, and oddly, not all of the severed lines looked the same. Some had ragged, ponytail-like ends, which might be expected if they had torn under stress. Others had cleaner ends that looked as if they'd been cut by a knife. Stranger still, some lines showed both kinds of damage—some strands looked cut, while others looked shredded. Buoy Group engineers wondered: What—or who—was damaging the moorings?
Vandalism was possible, but not likely. Vandals were known to mess with moorings; but they usually shot them, cut them adrift, banged into them, or stole them. Who would bother to pull up several hundred meters of rigging just to damage it and then put it back?
Abrasion didn't seem likely, either. Moorings came back with damage at many places along the upper 1,000 meters of line. What could the line be rubbing against at so many different depths?
As more and more moorings came back with unexplained damage, some members of the Buoy Group began to focus on an unexpected threat: fish. They had no proof, but they suspected fish were attacking the rigging and other mooring components, not just occasionally, but on a regular basis.
The suggestion that fish posed a frequent threat to moorings didn't go over well with everyone in oceanography. Some found it hard to believe that fish teeth and jaws could inflict so much damage. And if "fish bite" was a major problem, what did that mean for the future of mooring operations?
As early as 1963, the Buoy Group began documenting instances of suspected fish bite on recovered moorings. As they hauled each piece of a mooring on deck—flotation, instruments, synthetic rope, and various metal components—they quickly noted areas of possible fish bite and at what depth the damage had occurred. They documented frayed rope ends, instruments with long gashes, and lines with different kinds of nicks and cuts. When they got back to WHOI, they went over the equipment more carefully and found hundreds more small lacerations that they thought could have been inflicted by fish.
The engineers also set up a lab where, over the next several years, they conducted their own version of forensic science on both new and recovered rigging. The team simulated the myriad ways rigging lines could break. They subjected wire ropes and four kinds of synthetic lines to different kinds of injury, rubbing them until they frayed, pulling them until they broke, and slicing them with knives and box cutters.
The investigators also ripped ropes when they were dry and when they were soaking wet. They used sophisticated machines such as tensiometers to pull their samples apart, and invented a "Bitemeter" to test how much force was required to puncture lines of different materials with a conical, fish tooth-like bit of steel. They even tried cutting the lines with shark teeth that were still attached to the jaws.
"As cutting tools, fish teeth, notably those of sharks, compare favorably well with the sharpest man made blades such as the blades of razors and utility knives," wrote WHOI engineers Henri Berteaux and Bryce Prindle in a summary account published in 1987.
The team learned that ropes torn under stress have ragged ends, while ropes cut with sharp objects have cleaner edges. The clean tears mimicked the suspected fish bites that had been found on recovered gear. The group reasoned that recovered lines that showed both clean and ragged damage had probably suffered a fish bite through some strands, creating the clean cuts. The remaining strands then had to bear the full weight of the mooring, and they eventually tore, creating the ragged ends.
In 1964, while continuing their lab tests, the Buoy Group set two moorings near Bermuda in hopes of obtaining hard proof that fish attacks were no fluke.
The first test mooring was deployed that spring in 2,000 meters of water and rigged with synthetic rope. The group commonly used synthetic rope for moorings because it didn't corrode in salt water as wire rope did, and its elasticity enabled it to absorb the up-and-down motion of waves. The engineers sheathed the upper 1,200 meters of the line with a coating of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in an attempt to protect it from fish attacks. They left the bottom portion of the rope—which would be deeper than most fish roam—exposed. The team planned to inspect the mooring for evidence of fish bite after one week, then re-set it for a longer-term test.
They weren't sure such a brief exposure would be long enough to see whether the fish were biting. They needn't have worried. After just a week in the water, the mooring looked like a prop in a slasher movie. It had suffered more than 40 clusters of cuts and gouges. In fact, the rigging was so ripped up the engineers feared it would not withstand further stress. They scrapped their plans for a longer deployment and took a closer look at the tantalizing clues from the injured mooring.
By comparing the depth, size, and spacing of cuts with the strength, size, and spacing of the teeth and jaws of potential biters, the group ruled out sea turtles (beaks not hard enough) and squid (beaks not the right size and shape). Sharks emerged as likely villains in warm-water deployments but probably were not responsible for damage to lines in the colder depths.
On the failed Bermuda mooring, 29 of the damaged areas had cuts in pairs, as if made by teeth on the left and right sides of a fish's jaw. But the cuts were only on one side of the line, as if the fish that made them had teeth in only the upper or lower jaw.
The group began casting around for culprits—fish that roamed deep enough, had teeth in only the upper or lower jaw, and were large enough to have made the marks found on the moorings. The most likely was an eel-like, deep-dwelling fish called Sudis hyalina, which has strong, finely serrated teeth in its lower jaw and tiny nubbins of teeth in its upper jaw.
Later that fall, the group set the second test mooring near the site of the first. Buoy Group engineers had been experimenting with other types of lines, trying to find a material that would be more durable than the synthetic ropes they had been using. The new mooring used galvanized steel wire covered with a polyethylene jacket to protect it from corrosion by saltwater. Engineers suspended the line from a float about 50 meters below the surface. They also attached pine and asbestos panels at various points along the rigging to collect creatures known to cause biofouling.
When the mooring was pulled up after about 40 days in the water, it, too, had sustained severe damage—more than 1,000 slashes, tears, and tooth impressions. The stretch that had been 400 to 800 meters deep had been hit especially hard. The wire rope was intact, but its polyethylene jacket was shredded. As with the first mooring, many of the cuts were made in pairs but on just one side of the line.
Better yet, one of the cuts and one of the pine panels had tooth fragments embedded in them—proof positive that fish were responsible. Examining the tooth fragments under a microscope, the group found tiny serrations, confirming that Sudis was the culprit. However, the tooth fragments in the panel were a different shape and had smooth edges. They were identified as belonging to the lancet fish, Alepisaurus ferox.
At last, the oceanographic community was convinced: Fish bite was real. As Berteaux and Prindle would later write, "the suspicion that the lines were being bitten became fact."
By then it was clear that synthetic ropes weren't strong enough to withstand repeated fish attacks, even when jacketed with plastic.
The group had been using synthetic line because wire rope had a disconcerting tendency to kink and coil back on itself when slack, creating tangled "wuzzles" and sometimes snapping, like a paper clip that is bent too far. However, wire's ability to withstand fish attacks outweighed that shortcoming. The group improved and standardized its methods of handling wire rope to minimize wuzzle formation and began using wire rope sheathed in polyethylene down to 1,500 meters on all moorings. Later, they would extend the sheathed wire rope down to 2,000 meters for even more protection. Jacketed wire was subject to corrosion where fish bites penetrated the sheath, but was still an improvement over the more vulnerable synthetic ropes.
By 1975, the group had enough data to publish a report for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Written by Prindle and Bob Walden, who headed the mooring and buoy engineering section of the Buoy Group, the report summarized much of what they all had learned about fish bite and how to defend against it. Despite the gains made in conquering fish bite, gaps remained.
In the late 1980s, their curiosity piqued by the lingering questions, Prindle and Henri Berteaux reopened the fishbite investigation. Reaching back into the volumes of data the Buoy Group had gathered over the years, they conducted a comprehensive study of 550 moorings set from 1967 to 1985. They aimed to produce an illustrated field and laboratory guide to fishbite damage, expanding Prindle and Walden's manual to "bring the subject up to date so that the state-of-the-art would be generally available."
They summarized the forensic work the WHOI group had done over the years, to help ocean engineers evaluate mooring damage and determine what had caused it. They provided detailed descriptions of their methods for testing potential rigging materials and photographs of lines damaged in various ways. Berteaux and Prindle concluded that the appearance of cut or torn lines could be suggestive of fish bite, but the surest evidence was tooth impressions in a wire rope's plastic jacket, or actual tooth fragments. "Fishbite identification remains a patient art," they wrote.
Berteaux and Prindle also scoured the records for more clues about who was biting and why. They plotted the location of each incidence of fish bite by latitude and longitude, depth, and length of time in the water.
The pair turned next to geography. Did fish bite happen everywhere, or was it concentrated in certain regions of the ocean? Their analysis was limited by the distribution of WHOI moorings, few of which had been set in the Pacific and Indian Oceans or in high latitudes of either hemisphere. However, for the Atlantic Ocean, the pattern was clear: More than 99 percent of fishbite cases occurred in the area from 40 degrees North of the Equator to 40 degrees South, with the frequency rising closer to the equator. Berteaux and Prindle termed this area the "Fishbite Zone," and concluded that about 28 percent of moorings set in that zone would suffer fishbite damage.
Next, the duo focused on the point in a mooring's life when fish seemed to bite the most. Records showed that the longer moorings were in the water, the more likely they were to be bitten. Attacks late in a deployment made sense, because as a mooring sits in the water, tasty tidbits became attached to the line—algae and barnacles on the upper reaches and a variety of gelatinous planktonic creatures on the lower. Biologists reported that about two-thirds of the animals that live in the ocean's depths bioluminesce, so it was possible that many of the creatures stuck to the line were emitting light, making themselves very visible to predatory fish swimming nearby.
But moorings also seemed to be attacked as soon as they were dropped in the water. The investigators weren't completely surprised by this; after all, the group had experienced fish bite with the one-week test deployment back in 1964. The pair wondered, if fish attack mooring lines in an effort to nab the animals stuck there, why do they also bite moorings fresh off the ship?
"At first thought, a small black inert plastic line may seem to be a sorry bait," wrote Berteaux and Prindle, "but consider its history as part of a moored array." They concluded that a confluence of events attracts fish to the ship's trail, then entices them to bite the newly deployed mooring.
Fish are attracted by new movement in the water, especially when that movement is a bright, flashy object, they wrote. The ship, with its foamy wake, rumbling engines, trail of trash, and bright anti-fouling paint, entices fish to follow along. Once the ship is on station, all of those signals—auditory, chemical, visual—concentrate under the hull. Suddenly, a flashy object is tossed in—it must be food! Fish zoom in for a munch.
Berteaux and Prindle suggested that painting buoys in dull, non-reflective colors could reduce the visual appeal of a new mooring, but there's no way to prevent plankton from accumulating on the lower parts of a mooring line and fish from biting at them. The only defense was the one the Buoy Group resorted to years before—using jacketed wire rope rather than synthetic rope in regions where fish bite was likely.
NOAA published Berteaux and Prindle's findings in 1987. The Deep Sea Moorings Fishbite Handbook is still the go-to reference on fish attacks for oceanographers and mooring engineers. Yet despite answering the major questions surrounding fish bite—who, what, when, where, and why—some questions remained.
For instance, problems with fish bite were wildly variable. One station near Bermuda experienced no fish bites one year, then 95 cases the next. Why the difference? Was it the weather? The water temperature? Currents? The pair could only scratch their heads. Some problems would have to wait to be solved.
But fish attacks on moorings are part of the oceanographic culture now. For decades, new generations of mooring engineers have been initiated into the fishbite fraternity early in their seagoing careers. Trask first witnessed fish damage while on a research cruise in the late 1980s. He recalled that as Buoy Group members hauled a deep-sea mooring back onto the ship, they noticed huge slashes on a vector averaging current meter (VACM). The damaged instrument had chatter on either side, as if something had tried to chomp right through its steel casing.
"These old VACMs are large—they stand as tall as a man and are about 8 inches in diameter," said Trask. "The hypothesis was that a fish came around and tried to wrap its mouth around the VACM then realized it probably wasn't a good choice."
"That was pretty amazing—those are big jaws," he added.
Stories about fish attacks have become part of the job, too, the kind of tale told to impress rookie mooring engineers: The rotor on a current meter jammed after a fish swam into it; a crucial instrument and its year's worth of data lost; a bit of a swordfish beak left behind on a mooring.
"So much gets passed down," said Trask. "You're at sea and people point it out; you see bits of tooth and the chatter. It's kind of lore now."
Buoy Group, buoys, fish bite, history, moorings, Physical Oceanography Dept.


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Playgrounds 2012
designer: Jordi Pages with MRK and Gabor Ekes • comment
You can't really tell, but the Opening Titles of this year's Playgrounds Digital Arts Fest in The Netherlands are, in fact, an exquisite corpse. And by that I mean the 20th century Surrealist technique, also known as 'cadavre exquis', where creators consecutively work on a piece of art in collaboration.
Three London-based creators working on the forefront of 3D visuals, in the field where art, technology and design converge, each created a segment of the atmospheric titles. They are Gabor Ekes who made the first part of the sequence, followed by 'middle man' Jordi Pagès, and with MRK concluding. We talked to the designers about their fantastical video and about collaborating.
Playgrounds director Leon van Rooij suggested to involve a fourth studio, Echolab, for the soundtrack. Echolab is a renowned creative audio studio that has provided sound design for visuals by Onesize, BUCK, Superfad, Shilo, Logan, PostPanic, The Mill, and the likes. "Gavin Little from Echolab is one of the most talented sound designers out there," comments London-based motion designer Jordi Pagès.
"Most people in our industry who are passionate about what they do, would agree that these kind of collaborative projects are some of the greatest projects you could possibly get involved in," continues Pagès." The fact that there was no pay, as is almost always the case with titles for events, was not an issue, "When you take a project like that on board, it is not for the money, is because you love what you do."
Designer Gabor Ekes explains that the benefits of taking on open brief projects on a regular basis is purely creative, "they allow me to evolve my thinking and skills, try out new ideas and tools."
"MRK and Gabor are really passionate about what they do," adds Pagès. "I learn a lot each time I work with them."
Even though each designer has his own distinctive style and approach, Gabor Ekes believes that "working both collaboratively and individually allowed us to develop our own ideas and feed off the sparks that were created while sharing those. It is always important for me to let the project evolve during the process of making, so the first challenge is to lay down enough ground and research that will allow the idea to grow but leave enough room for surprises."
Gabor met MRK and Jordi on a previous project. "We have very similar interests when it comes down to motion graphics and also we are using the same tools, softwares. Probably that is why the end result feels like one piece.
"We created the whole project remotely by setting up a Dropbox folder. During the process of making this video we all borrowed ideas from each other, sharing each single visual and styleframe so we could see the bigger picture, making the creative process more consistent throughout the whole piece."
Jordi Pagès prefers to leave the interpretation of the piece open to the viewer, "some people told me they where remote subaquatic aliens and other people considers them microscopical landscapes from our brain, they are both right. "In terms of motion or movement, underwater references would be the right place to look at, for that flow of the movement and the absence of gravity, which creates that atmosphere of calm and wander.
"I started by creating a number of natural forms and organic objects and later followed on by enthusing each one of them with their own sense of character, movement and an element of playfulness."
The third London-based director in the project, Markos Kay a.k.a. MRK, who worked on the last segment says he was referring to "a distant, silent sub-cellular world," when he created the piece. A place "where organelles and molecules are larger than life and molecular interactions happen very rapidly. In this world, large structures are assembled and disassembled spontaneously and information is communicated between these rapid processes. It is an informational world."
These ideas and concepts make for a great metaphor for the inspirational dynamics that exist between the creators speaking at the event, their work, and the audience.
In addition to a sold out two-day event in Tilburg, Playgrounds collaborated with Submarine Channel (that's us!) on an additional one-day edition of Playgrounds in Amsterdam. The program featured a series of inspiring artist talks by the likes of Jorik Dozy, Environment Lead Artist at Industrial Light & Magic, Sil van der Woerd with Rutger Hauer who premiered their brand-new short 'Requiem 2019', Justin van der Lek and Jaqueline Makkee of Digital Domain, designer and director Henry Hobson, motion design studio ManvsMachine, popular illustrator Alex Trochut, character designers PepperMelon, BAFTA-award-winning animator Mikey Please, and many more...
The speaker's credits are not superimposed afterwards, but are integrated into the mysterious subaquatic dreamscape, adding to the coherency of the piece.
Production schedule for the titles was only three weeks, which didn't allow for much pre-production and concept creation before heading into 3D, says Jordi Pagès, "I always like to start with pen and paper, doing some sketches to avoid technological constrains. Although in that particular case, and considering the time given, I had to jump straight into production with the 3D software."
It helped with the production pipeline that all three designers worked with the same tools, Cinema4D for Modelling, Texturing and Animating. Compositing and Grading in After Effects, Photoshop was used for some of the texturing.
It was all worth it concludes MRK, "Playground Festival was a great opportunity to experiment with forms, objects and colours and explore the ideas that have been brewing over the past few months."
Article: Remco Vlaanderen, © Submarine Channel 27 November 2012. Last update: November 28 2012.
Year of production
Title designer
About Jordi Pages with MRK and Gabor Ekes
Jordi Pages with MRK and Gabor Ekes
Gabor Ekes
Gabor Ekes is a freelance digital artist based in London who combines his love of storytelling with technical expertise to create cinematic experiences. Working on experimental projects for both brands and individuals, Gabor actively collaborates with a number of creative agencies to create work that take the viewers beyond the static image.
Recent Projects include Beneath the Surface, Parasite Choi, t1/2, Crysis and Skyfall.
MRK (Markos Kay) is a visual artist and design director based in London. Coming from a traditional Graphic Design and Fine Art background, he first became fascinated with 3D generative art during his Masters degree at Central St. Martins. His works have been exhibited internationally, while his video installation "aDiatomea" is a permanent exhibit at Haeckel's Phyletic Museum in Germany. MRK's work fuses science with art, dealing with themes of emergence, evolution and complexity as well as virtuality and artificial life. mrkism.com
Jordi Pagès
Raised in Girona, Spain, Jordi Pagès now calls London home. While his postal address may read 'United Kingdom', Pages' work has legs that ensure his dreams never stop sprinting from country to country. Unwilling to be constrained by restrictive labels of the design industry, Jordi can only be described as an expert in the experimental – the artist specialises in creating animation, graphics and light projections from a different world. In 2010, Pages joined forces with design studio Seeper and, in less than two years, climbed collaborative constellations and projective pipe dreams to the award of 3D Motion Graphics leader, a large feat for such a small amount of time. Perhaps what makes Pagès a cut above the terrestrial rest is his involvement in linguistics and languages – his role as lecturer at the University of Arts London breathes down the neck of each and every short film narrative the designer creates. Pagès' bio by Sophie Lane
Full credits
Creative Direction & Animation
Jordi Pagès, Gabor Ekes and MRK
Score & Sound Design
Tobias Norberg, Gavin Little
Sound Designer
Gavin Little
Assistant Sound Designer
Joe McHugh
Commissioned by
Leon van Rooij @Playgrounds Festival
Gabor Ekes
Jordi Pagès


text:
from TheOnion.com October 16, 1996
VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II, elected by his peers to serve as the earthly vicar of Christ, told an interviewer Monday that in the 18 years since his canonization God has not spoken a word to him.
"You know what? God ain't said shit to me. Ever," the Pope told Il Figaro reporter Giuseppe Mazzoli. "Not one lousy word. Seventy-six years I'm bustin' my hump for this mysterious Divine One, and still it's like, 'John Paul who?' Christ."
"Just last week," the Pope continued, "I underwent a difficult appendectomy. You'd certainly think the Lord would call to wish me well, right? He didn't so much as send a card. What a dick."
In the interview, a discussion of the changing face of Catholicism on the eve of the 21st century, the Pope said, "It appears that as God guides us through this modern era, more difficult questions arise... questions requiring more complex answers. But then again, why the hell should I even bother looking for the answers when the guy hasn't said one word to me?"
According to Mazzoli, when he asked the Pope if he believed the Lord is in us all, he "opened his mouth as if about to answer, then furrowed his brow in deep thought and suddenly blurted out, 'You know what, Mazzoli? Don't even talk to me about God. I don't want to hear it.'"
The Pope then threw a chair across the room and stormed off.
Despite his current frustrations with God, the Pope has no intention of stepping down from his position as leader of the world's approximately one billion Catholics.
"No way," said the Pope, who lives in a cathedral and is doted on by an army of servants who attend to his every need. "This is sweet living."
The Pope is served three gourmet meals a day, each served on priceless, solid-silver dinnerware hand-made by Michelangelo in 1537. He enjoys a nine-foot-wide, Turkish-style marble bath with solid gold fixtures that flow with pure spring water imported from the Italian mountains.
"God, I can live without, but I ain't giving up this gig for nothing," the Pope said in an official Church decree. "I got it made here."
The Pope does almost no work throughout the day, but on a whim he can demand private audiences with heads of state and religious leaders all over the world, all of whom kiss his hand in a symbolic show of respect and listen carefully to his every word.
"I suppose I'm supposed to be reflecting and shit," the Pope said. "And I guess I am reflecting. I'm reflecting on how fucking awesome my life is."
The Pope has cancelled his upcoming three-week visit to Central and South America in order to roll around naked in a giant pile of Spanish doubloons.
» The Real Legacy of Pope John Paul II «
» A View of John Paul II, from Britain «
» go to Atheists of Silicon Valley Humor page: Da Pope «
» go to Atheists of Silicon Valley homepage «


text:
We have another swell edition of Product Review Friday comin' at ya. So yay for that!
Ya know what we've been missing? Wood! That's what we've been missing.
One of our most favorite sex toy materials in the whole wide world is wood and we haven't had any wooden products to review since late 2008. This simply won't do. (See our earlier reviews HERE!)
To remedy this I reached out to our new friends, the artisans at The Wood Wang Workshop. First, kudos to them for their very clever name. Second, wait till you get a load of their amazing products. We have two of their toys on tap for today and another one will appear in a couple of weeks
Their website touts their philosophy: "For the ultimate organic orgasm." And so it is. You simply can't get any GREENER than wood, sex fans.
But let's not take my word for it. Let's check in with the Dr Dick Review Crew members — Gina & Kevin, to see what's on their mind
Amy — £30.00
Chunky Rectangular Paddle — £25.00
Gina & Kevin
Gina: "We starting off 2012 with a bang. Actually, it was more like a whack than a bang, but I'll get to that in a minute. Right now I just want to say I am a total wood convert."
Kevin: "Ditto! Thanks to the amazing craftsmen at The Wood Wang Workshop I probably have the happiest ass in town — filled up and roughed up at the same time."
Gina: "The Amy (an adorable butt plug) and the Chunky Rectangular Paddle are our first foray into the world of wooden toys. And all I can say is; what took us so long to discover the ultimate in GREEN sex toys? They're both hand crafted and like all handmade things they are one of a kind. No one else has exactly the same toys as us. In this age of mass produced toys, the realization that we have something unique is refreshing."
Kevin: "I really got off on knowing that these beauties were made by British perverts. I don't know why that thrills me so, but it does. The Amy and the Chunky Rectangular Paddle are just two of the beautiful kinky toys one will find on The Wood Wang Workshop. And, for the most part, you can choose to have your toy sculpted from any one of a variety of unusual and exotic woods, each with a different color and grain. All of the woods they use are forested from sustainable sources making their products environmentally friendly. You'd have a very difficult time indeed trying to find a more socially responsible sex toy company anywhere."
Gina: "That's true enough! But let's not forget the pleasure these GREEN toys deliver. Our Amy is made from a wood I had never heard of before, Goncalo Alves. It's so pretty and petite. It's only about 3" long and about an inch and a half wide at its widest. I'd call Amy a beginner's size plug. Kevin has several butt plugs, some of them are much larger than this one, but he says the Amy is oh so comfortable he can wear it for hours on end."
Kevin: "Absolutely! I love me some butt plugs. You know the difference between a plug and any other type of insertable, right? If not, let me quickly clue you in. A butt plug is shorter and has a unique shape. The insertable part is often a tapered cone shape, designed for easy insertion and that delicious filled-up feeling while it's in place. The plug tapers more dramatically near the base into a notch. This allows your sphincter muscle to close down on the plug keeping it firmly in place. Finally the wide base keeps it from slipping inside your bum. Pretty gal-darn clever, huh?"
Gina: "While Kevin quickly snapped up the Amy, I latched on to the very handsome Chunky Rectangular Paddle. Ours is made of cherry wood. Once I felt its heft, about 6oz, and fingered the braded rawhide wrist thong I knew I'd be able to punish Kevin's ass in style. The two holes in the paddle leave very distinctive marks on his beautiful bottom."
Kevin: "Oh yeah! It hurts real good. Like I said; there's nothing better than having my ass filled up and roughed up at the same time."
Gina: "I love liberating my inner dominatrix. I've come so very far from my innocent Catholic schoolgirl upbringing it sometimes surprises me. Kevin corrupted me and I'm ever so grateful."
Kevin: "It is a real trip seeing Gina come into her own sexually and in power play. However, as much as I would like to take credit for corrupting her, the truth is she was ripe for picking, even when we first met. She's taken to kink like she was raised that way."
Gina: "Ok, I confess; I really get off on this. There was never any coercion involved. Kevin simply had to suggest a little perversion and I was totally up for it. Maybe it's true what they say; kinksters are born not made."
Kevin: "The Amy and the Chunky Rectangular Paddle are easy to care for. In fact, The Wood Wang Workshop artisans thoughtfully include a card with care instructions. Oh, and the Amy comes in a black satin drawstring pouch to keep it clean and safe between uses."
Full Review HERE!


text: Note: the stock price performance shown on the quote above is not necessarily indicative of future price performance. Copyright © 1998-2006 MarketWatch.com Inc. User agreement applies. Historical and current data provided by Interactive Data Corp. Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are EDT. Intraday data provided by S&P Comstock and subject to terms of use.


text:
RichieFitness needed a new banner ad design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 55 designs submitted by 11 freelance designers.
She FITNESS
My name is Richie and I'm the owner of She FITNESS which is an outdoor personal training business for women in Sydney, Australia.
We specialise in both group training and personal training for women, and we are looking to build a good relationship with a winning designer for more future work to assist with our design requirements as our business expands this year.
Our tagline is Making Strong Women Stronger.
Women aged 23 - 55.
Are time poor, like outdoor training, want to get fit and back into shape after the holiday period.
This project is for 2 pieces:
1. An A4 Direct Sales Card
2. An A5 flyer
I will be looking to complete this project to be given to my printer on 3rd January. I will provide lots of constructive feedback to ensure designers have the best knowledge to complete the project.
1. A4 Direct Sales Card:
* Printed on both sides
* I will provide you with logos
* Use Hot Pink as the background to make it stand out
* Base if off the Good Year flyer
* The A4 page will have a perforated edge for the right side, and also another perforated tear-off promo card in the bottom right. PLEASE see attached.
* Looking for clean, catchy and crisp design
* Add a '100% guaranteed' logo on the back
2. A5 Flyer
* Base it on the ONE DAY attached flyer
* Front - will have photo in background, plus BIG catchy text
* Big and bright, but keep it clean and punchy
I have attached some very, very rough (my apologies) hand drawings of the A4 Direct sales card to give you a good idea of what I'm looking for in terms of layout.
You can also see the attached logos, copy and photos.
Here are the mediafire links to photos that you can use:
Best of luck and please contact me if you have any questions.


text:
Courtesy of XSPC
The Razor GTX680 water block was among the first in the XSPC full cover line of blocks. The previous generation of XSPC water blocks offered cooling for the GPU as well as the memory and on-board VRMs, but did not offer the protection that a full card-sized block offers to the sensitive components integrated into the card's PCB. At an MSRP of $99.99, the Razor GTX680 water block is a sound investment.
Courtesy of XSPC
The Razor GTX680 block comes with a total of seven G1/4" ports - four on the inlet side (left) and three on the outlet side (right). XSPC included the following component with the block: XSPC thermal compound, dual blue LEDs, five steel port caps, paper washers and mounting screws, and TIM (thermal interface material) for use with the on board memory and VRM chips.
Continue reading our review of the XSPC Razor GTX680 water block!


text:
- Family Resources Home
- Athletics & Driver Education
- Attendance Policy
- Back to School Information
- Bus Routes & Zone Finder
- Calendars
- Closings & Cancellations
- Dress Codes
- Grading Scale
- Graduation Requirements
- Guidance Handbooks
- Health Services
- Home School Info
- Immunization
- Military Families
- Phone Numbers
- PTA Information
- Registration
- Student Handbook
- Withdrawal Procedures
To help ensure that schools and students are well prepared for the first day of school, parents are encouraged to register their child or children as soon as possible. Doing so helps our schools and teachers be equipped and ready to make each student's first day pleasant and productive.
Entering kindergarten: Children who are five by September 30 are eligible to enter kindergarten that school year. Parents of younger children can find resources through the NNPS early childhood program, please call (757)283-7788, x.12183.
A child who will be six years old on or before September 30 must attend school.
To determine which school your child will attend, use the NNPS School Zone Finder. Enter your address, and the finder will provide the names of the elementary, middle, and high schools assigned to each home in the city. You may also call (757) 591-4502 to find out which school serves your neighborhood.
You will need to register your child at the school he or she will attend. See Registration Requirements.
Families living outside the City of Newport News may apply to enroll their child(ren) on a tuition basis. Please contact NNPS Business Department at 757-591-4511 for enrollment of nonresident students.
(For more information about Virginia School Entrance Laws, please visit the Virginia Department of Education web site.)
Registration Requirements
Immunization Records
No pupil shall be admitted by a school in the Commonwealth unless at the time of admission the student or his parent or guardian submits documentary proof of immunization to the admitting official of the school. (Section 22.1-271.2 of the Code of Virginia)
Parents should bring the following information to the school the child will be attending. Two measles shots (frequently two MMRs) are required for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The Hepatitis B three-shot series is required by Virginia State Law for all students born on or after 1/1/94. Also, students entering 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade must have documentation of this series to receive their schedule. Please take this information to your child's middle school. If you have questions, please call the school nurse or Health Services at 757-591-4646. (Please note that Newport News Public Schools no longer requires a tuberculin skin test.)
- View specific health and immunization requirements for school entry.
- Virginia School Entrance Health Form (MCH 213-F)
Certified Birth Certificate
No pupil shall be admitted for the first time to any public school in any school division in this Commonwealth unless the person enrolling the pupil shall present, upon admission, a certified copy of the pupil's birth record (Section 22.1-3.1 of the Code of Virginia).
If birth certificate is not available, you must complete an AFFIDAVIT - ABSENCE OF CERTIFIED BIRTH CERTIFICATE FORM.
Proof of Legal Residence
Students will be admitted to school based on their legal residence (Section 22.1-3.2 of the Code of Virginia). If you do not have the required proof of residence, contact the child's school for further instruction.
Items accepted as proof of residence:
- Lease/Contract/Mortgage on legal residence
- Current utility bills - Must show name, current date and address (i.e., electric, gas, water, sanitation)
Documentation NOT ACCEPTED:
- Drivers License
- Personal Checks
The minor child of a legal resident of the city of Newport News is a resident student, eligible to attend a school in the designated zone of his/her natural parent(s), or legal guardian, tuition free. Any child living with an adult other than his/her natural parent(s) or legal guardian must file a Legal Affidavit with the Intake Office within the Juvenile & Domestic Courts (Section 22.1-3 of the Code of Virginia).
Students admitted for the first time to any NNPS (Pre K through grade 5), are required to provide a comprehensive physical examination, signed by a licensed physician or nurse practitioner, and performed within twelve months of the initial enrollment date.
For students transferring into Newport News Public Schools K-5, a copy of a physical examination in their cumulative record which meets the above requirements will be accepted. Virginia School Entrance Health Form (MCH 213-F)
Individual Educational Plan (IEP)
A copy must be provided if a student is receiving special educational services.
Child's Social Security Number
The child's social security number is preferred, but not required.
Proof of Academic Achievement
Parents must present the latest report card (if available) and the complete address of the previous school to allow Newport News Public Schools to obtain previous school records.


text:
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Spring has sprung!
9 comments:
- Mari-Liis said...
Lõpuks, onju!
- 5:12 pm, April 09, 2011
- siri said...
EXACTLY what I was thinking today :)
- 7:04 pm, April 09, 2011
- Nisrine M. said...
Spring is my favorite season even though I like summer too because I get to take a break from work. My favorite thing about spring is orange blossoms and geraniums.
- 2:41 pm, April 10, 2011
Just curious, do people in Estonia sometimes make syrup out of the sap?
- 7:19 pm, April 10, 2011
- ChichaJo said...
Happy spring Pille! It's summer over here :) Oooh! What are you siphoning from the tree? Sorry, clueless here!
- 5:15 am, April 11, 2011
- Voisula said...
Oo, Eestis saab juba kasemahla. See toob tôelise kevade.
- 12:29 pm, April 11, 2011
- Katrina@TheGastronomicalMe said...
is this picture for real??:) I've always wondered about getting your own beech juice (it is beech in English, isn't it? I had doubts all the sudden!)
- 11:03 am, April 20, 2011
- Pille said...
Mari-Liis, lõpuks jah :)
Siri - it was a loooooong winter, wasn't it!?
Nisrine - we don't get any orange blossoms here :(
Foodperestroika - nope. The sugar content of birch sap isn't high enough, and the same goes for maple sap we get here. The maples used for collecting sap are different in the US/Canada.
Joey - we're siphoning birch sap - an utterly delicious and beneficial liquid that tastes like a slightly flavoured delicious water. You'd love it :)
Voisula - sai jah. Me panime pühapäeval juba punni uuesti ette, et puukest mitte liialt koormata. Järgmisel aastal jälle!
Katrina - it's birch alright :) See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch (our "kased": Arukask (Betula pendula), Sookask (Betula pubescens), Vaevakask (Betula nana). Beech is "pöök" in Estonian.
- 7:51 pm, April 20, 2011
- Alina said...
Awwww... I love birch sap but I haven't had the real thing for years... they sell something bottled and bland-flavoured here that I don't recognize as birch sap }:-(
- 12:09 pm, April 21, 2011


text:
Are they messing me up? Sure! Reading all the blogs I've followed (not as many as Randy, but still quite a few)does take time. And, it is time taken away from other genealogical pursuits. The same goes for writing a blog. Formulating these pithy, yet profound, observations on life, liberty and the pursuit of ancestry takes time away from other things. And, I haven't gotten the time-management thing down yet.
Are they time wasters? Well, the jury is out on my blog, but the blogs I read are definitely not time wasters. Reading the observations of others never fails to give me a new way of thinking about my own genealogical problem. And, I would have to say that since beginning this blog, and reading others,I have spent more time on my own research so far this year that I had in the previous 2 years combined. I had reached (several) brick walls, and lost the enthusiasm needed to push past them. Of course, the laundry doesn't get done as often...
Far and away the most important reward for blogging are the folks I get to exchange ideas with. Kathleen, over at Carrow and Faunt Family Tales has single-handedly given my Maryland and Delaware research a real shot in the arm. Murmurd's Franco-American and Quebec Genealogy led me to a previously unknown to me family organisation for my husband's family, introducing me to a wealth of research already done that I had no idea about. These are just two examples of several that have profitted my research in only 6 months!
Couldn't we ask the same question of all the resources we use? Are the family trees at Ancestry and Rootsweb really helpful, since so many are unsourced and reproductions of wishful research? Couldn't the same questions be asked of FamilySearch? How helpful is DNA really....how may folks out of the thousands who have been tested actually come up with a helpful match? (Not me, not yet!) And how many of us have spent too much on a book only to find that reference to our surname was only a mention as a witness to a will? And not even someone from our tree!
Is blogging a distraction? Yes, and a welcome one. It has helped me refine my focus, stay on task, expand my knowledge, and make new friends.
I think I'll keep it up!


text:
Production Number: (26th)
First Aired: 4-20-69 (26th)
Writer: Arthur Weiss, William Welch
Director: Sobey Martin
Music: Leith Stevens
During the day, Mark tells Steve and Dan that SID men caught Fitzhugh, Valerie, and Betty. He managed to get Barry away and back to the ship. Mark heard the SID men talk about taking to the three to the Supreme Council first, then bringing them to SID headquarters-Kobick's office. In a truck, young Nalor tells his father Golan that he will get the little people and destroy the incriminating files in Kobick's office wall safe. Inside, Kobick explains to the girls and Fitz that he has full approval of the Council to make an offer but as Val points out they didn't say what type of offer. Kobick finishes with, "And I assure you, you have no reason to fear me." Sarcastically, Betty says, "Oh, I'm sure we haven't." Kobick starts with, "Young lady, let me prove it to you..." Just then Nalor confronts him with a gun which Kobick knocks from his hand. Nalor, not to be outdone, tosses a small device onto the table where the others are behind some kind of force field device. Kobick throws it off the table, yelling, "Down! A bomb!" It blows up.
Act One
After the smoke clears, revealing one entire damaged area of Kobick's office, Kobick seems to sincerely care when it looked as though Betty is hurt. The criminals escape in their stolen Laundry Van, during which a shootout with the SID occurs---causing a fleeing Mark to hit his head on a giant fire hydrant. A bag the three men are near is shot apart. Steve and Dan get a nearly unconscious Mark back to camp. Kobick instructs Val to bring a note back to camp, addressed to Steve. It asks Steve to come to his office immediately, which they the men scoff at. Val seems to believe the giant will release Betty and Fitz and guarantee their future safety. The three men go to an empty house and use a phone to contact Kobick, who tells them the safety of his government relies on their cooperation. Mark tells Steve to "lay it on him" and let him meet their demands first. Nalor and brother Trilling take their wounded father, Golan, to a hideout. A doctor told Trilling that Golan will live. They are counterfeiters trying to ruin the government financially. They monitor calls from and to SID. Steve keeps hanging up on Kobick to avoid phone traces. Nevertheless, Kobick, outside, gets a phone trace. To prove it he calls Steve back at 947-037.
Act Two
At camp, Dan tells Val that Kobick was satisfied once he got Steve and Mark; Dan hid until the SID left. Callously, Kobick drops Mark and Steve to the tabletop but warns them about the three poled electrode type force field--a lethal one. He needs the two men to follow luminous ink in the city drains to the counterfeiters' hideout. Kobick allows Fitzhugh to go free even though Fitz asks Steve if Betty can go free instead. Steve wants Fitz to help Dan free Betty (why couldn't Betty help Dan free Fitz?). Mark will not tell Kobick their radio frequency but he and Kobick will keep in touch on 100 kilocycles. When Kobick asks, "Oh, do you want me to take the fat one back to your spaceship?" Steve repeats him and laughs, "Kobick, you're too much." In front of a gazebo, an SID man lowers Mark and Steve into the drain via ropes. Kobick tells to locate the hideout or something regrettable will happen to Betty. Nalor, against his father and brother's wishes and sermons, will use a bug spray to kill the two Earth men. He may not have to---a giant white, red eyed rat blocks their entrance to the first new drain!
Act Three
Steve freezes, "You can stare a dog or cat down but how about one of these?" Mark murmurs it will be on them in two jumps. The sound a cat drives it away. To get Kobick out of his office, Steve tells him they found two ink trails going two ways. Dan thanks Steve; he, Val, and Fitz had slipped under the door and were trying to start to free Betty. Dan hooks up a cable to wires and a safety handle to blow the electrodes. He warns Fitz to hold the handle and not to plug it in until he says to or until Val signals from the tabletop--if Fitz does, Dan will go up in smoke. On the table, Dan has to remind Val about the forcefield--she was so happy to see Betty, she almost ran to her. At Steve's orders, Mark tries to stall Kobick further so the Inspector will not leave after his chemist arrives to analyze the ink. Steve doesn't want to push it so he tells Kobick they found the real trail, the other one just stops, and the chemist isn't needed. Nalor and Trilling plant bug spray devices at various streets. Steve tells Mark he doesn't want to think about whether or not Kobick will keep his word when Mark asks him about it. Kobick returns to his office again when he hears about the exterminating gas. Steve and Mark are almost enveloped and overcome in it.
Act Four
Dan's electrode wire explosive device doesn't work. Val wonders if Steve made the gas up as an excuse to get Kobick "out of here." Betty frowns, "Well, how about getting me out of here?" Kobick's men knock out the gas machines with Kobick himself helping. He finds one at third and Agar; his sergeant tells him from the radio set up that another was found 8th and Odin. Mark goes off to check the crooks' drain grill while Steve calls Val. Dan and Fitz hit the electrode with a giant pencil but the blast knocks them down. Kobick walks in and puts them all into the forcefield prison. Val dropped her radio, accidentally allowing Steve to overhear Kobick's plan: "Well, you didn't trust me to turn your friend loose. Well, you were right--I have plans for all of you and they don't include letting you go free." Steve is doubtful that the crooks will help but Mark thinks they are not really criminals. The two, admitting they are desperate, contact the giants. Nalor wants to hammer (nailer-hammer, get it?) their heads in but the convince the three giants to join them in a raid on Kobick's office. After callously dropping the other three to Betty, Kobick questions Dan. Steve's call about the hideout gets Kobick and mobile units out of HQ. Steve and Mark sneak in, plant explosives on the wall lock of the safe. Nalor, in sync with Steve's timing on his watch, throws a smoke bomb down a drain to distract the SID guards. Steve and Mark climb up to the others. One of Nalor's bombs is set to blow up the evidence in the safe---but before it does, the sergeant comes in, his gun aimed at the giants.
The giants knock the gun from the sergeant and punch him down. Steve, not sure if the giants will help get them all out, calls to them--the forcefield lock is on the wall. The giants shoot it and carry the little people out in their shirts, shooting it out with the returned Kobick and men. Using an SID car, they drive off, stop quickly, and drop the six little people out onto the pavement. Dan asks Steve, "Whatever happened to that rule of yours about trusting no giant?" Steve thought they could have trusted him for one minute, "Yea, we'll find us a friend someday." They walk off.
Review: This fast paced episode is somewhat reminiscent of UNDERGROUND where the group team up with a resistance fighter. The little people here though are more or less pawns for both groups of giants--who all treat them badly--the giants carelessly drop them onto tables and don't seem too concerned if they get hurt. Kobick did seem almost trustworthy and for the first time he uses two of the little people's first and last names (Mark and Steve). Kevin Hagen is flawless as Kobick and especially so here. As Kobick he was not overused in the series but somewhat under used--only 12 episodes. Yet in every scene, Hagen acts to perfection. Barry doesn't appear at all in this episode; while an explanation is given to his whereabouts at the beginning of the episode there is none to his absence during the entire hour. Leith Steven's new scores were added to his older ones as well as a few tunes from previous Williams and Harry Geller music. They all fit perfectly together. The new music is atmospheric, slow at times, energetic at other spots. It is used again in CHAMBER OF FEAR, EVERY DOG NEEDS A BOY, and other second season segments. This episode used many outdoor locations and took place entirely in the daytime with no night shots. Several scenes appear to be the suburbs with a few parks and lots of tree lined streets with little traffic. The SID HQ is, for once, a large adequate looking building. Kobick's offices in all of his appearances seem to be all slightly different from one another. The story, nothing earth shattering, hold interest. Weiss again incorporates some of the same themes from the series THE FUGITIVE--the pawns of the government, the criminals as aides or companions to the main heroes, the betrayal by the one time enemy trying to fool the heroes, the uncertainty of trusting anyone on either side, and finally the chase title itself (although in this episode there is really not a traditional chase). We never find out what the evidence in the safe was. One annoyance with the dialogue in THE CHASE, SEVEN LITTLE INDIANS, and a few others, is that Fitzhugh is referred to as "the fat one" or "the old one" by the giants. While this is in character, it can be quite irritating that being old or-and fat is something negative and terrible to be pointed out--usually but not exclusively, by Kobick. Going against Murray Leinster's rationale that LAND OF THE GIANTS couldn't have airplanes, the TV LAND OF THE GIANTS has them. One flies past Kobick's head briefly sometime during the last 20 minutes of the show. Later, in LAND OF THE LOST, we would see planes and a giant airport. As far as Spindrift, it still has brown leaves hanging on it and vines caress it. A new canopy is up and the two step stool is outside again (after SHELL GAME).


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There is no denying that automobiles and cutting-edge technology have formed a successful partnership that even most Hollywood couples would envy. While some may take umbrage with the host of concept cars shown off by automakers and designers that never make it to production, apart from teasing us with stunning feats of engineering we will most likely never get to drive, these showpieces often serve the larger purpose of allowing car companies to experiment with new technologies and innovative designs, and more often than not implement these designs and technologies in actual production cars down the road. Here we have compiled a list of our favorite concept cars of 2011. We know car enthusiasts are a passionate bunch, so tell us what you think and let us know if we missed any of your favorites.
Toyota Fun-Vii
The Toyota Fun-Vii concept is a prime example of how quirky concept cars can be. By far the most innovative aspect of the Fun-Vii allows drivers to change the exterior of the car, displaying pictures, personalized text, as well as various other colors and backgrounds – the possibilities are near limitless. Other cars on this list might look flashier or sport an edgier design, but the Fun-Vii warrants its place because of how truly unique it is.
Honda AC-X Concept
One look at the Honda AC-X, which stands for Advanced Cruiser eXperience, and you would be safe in assuming that such a car could quite plausibly exist in the real world. While we're not taking away from its design aspects, which we feel are edgy and exhibit a zest that has been lacking in many Honda cars, both concept and production, it's not until you examine the technology hidden within the car that you truly get a sense of why the AC-X is a true concept. The AC-X features technology that most likely won't make it to production any time soon. Namely, the "Automatic Drive Mode Support" which would make autonomously driven cars seen in science fiction films such as iRobot and Minority Report a reality.
Ferrari Millenio Concept
You can't help but look at the Ferrari Millenio and think of the future. The aptly named Millenio not only looks the part, with its sharp angular design and smooth long running curves adorning its body, but also incorporates solar panels atop its frame — harnessing the power of the sun and fueling the dual electric engines underneath. The Ferrari Millenio doesn't really share too much in common with the production Ferrari's you see zipping around the Hollywood Hills, but then again that's the point.
Citroen CCrab
It's no secret that most people detest traffic, whether it's on the highway, main roads, or in the city. It's never fun getting stuck in what seems to be an endless cycle of gas, break, and repeat. The Citroen CCrab concept looks to take inspiration from the animal kingdom's small Cuba Crab and crawl around that ugly reality, quite literally. The idea behind the CCrab was to create a vehicle that could move and operate omni-directionally in and around the city, weaving effortlessly through traffic and in and out of tight spaces. Whether such a feat could actually be pulled off is yet to be determined, but it would appear having a CCrab wouldn't be so bad if you were in a traffic jam pinch.
Nissan Pivo 3 Concept EV
There was a time not so long ago when designing an all-electric vehicle (EV) would firmly cement a car's place as a concept and cause people to question whether it could be done on a one off – let alone mass produced for consumers. Well, that era is rapidly passing and while cars like the Nissan Pivo 3 are starting to become more commonplace, it isn't the electrical motor powering the diminutive EV that helps the Pivo 3 stand out, but rather its sleek design, and perhaps more notably, the Pivo 3's driverless features such as its "Automated Valet Parking" system and the ability for the Pivo 3 to come to you via smarphone controls
Ferrari Celeritas
The only brand to make it on our list twice, the galloping stallion from Italy has always been at the forefront of automotive design and innovation. And while many amazing concepts and ideas originate out of Maranello, this particular Ferrari does not. The two-seater Ferrari Celeritas comes to by way of designer Aldo Schurmann and features independent twin spoilers, a visible engine block in the rear, and punchy design that is decidedly very un-Ferrari like, while at the same time retaining some familiar aspects of the famous Italian automaker.
BMW 328 Hommage
You don't always need to look to the future or incorporate some non-existent or unrefined technology when designing a stunning concept car. Sometimes simply looking to the past and devising an elegant design that both honors the history and acknowledges the future is enough. Case in point: the BMW 328 Hommage. The Hommage is a re-envisioning of the famous BMW 328 roadster from the 1930's. In fact, the Hommage is as minimalist as concept cars go, weighing in at just 1,719 lbs, with its sparse instrument panel, interior, and deep recesses where doors would normally feature.
Mercedes –Benz F125
Trying to develop a car that is totally emission-free is no easy task, but that is what Mercedes-Benz is aiming for in the luxury segment of the future with its F125 concept. The Mercedes F125 intends to incorporate a hybrid electric/hydrogen engine, which would achieve distances of up to 1000 kilometers without having to recharge, and offer semi-autonomous driving. The luxury concept would also feature an equally impressive array of technologies within its interior such as gesture controls, a 3D projection-beam for displaying navigation information –replacing more traditional instrument displays, and stunning gullwing doors that allow access to both front and rear passenger seats.
Audi Urban Concept
Zipping around the city easily, effectively, and with a little style will probably be just as important to drivers of the future as it is now — and it appears that Audi thinks so too. The German automakers concept creation isn't all flair without function, though. While it won't be winning speed contests any time soon, it certainly looks the part. As its name suggest, the Audi Urban Concept is most comfortable in the city where its inductively charged 7.1kWh battery, nimble two-seater design, and limited body weight of just a little over 1,000 lbs will make traveling through the city a breeze – and fun too.
Ford Evos Concept
While there are a lot of buzzwords flying about within the auto industry right now — it would appear that 'connectivity' is one of the big ones that auto makers are looking to incorporate more readily than others. The Ford Evos is a cloud-connected, music streaming control center on wheels. In addition to the previously mentioned features, the plug-in hybrid concept would be able to communicate with mobile devices, offer unprecedented internet connectivity – and even turn off the lights in your home. Of all the concepts on this list, the Ford Evos Concept is the most likely to make it into actual production. Those sleek gullwing doors it's sporting don't hurt either.
Project Flake Concept
Of the many concepts cars comprising our list, the Project Flake concept is perhaps the most unique, forward thinking — and conceivably least likely to ever make the leap from concept to realty. What truly makes the Flake exceptional is its use of over 250 active body panels, electro-hydraulic flaps and adaptive winglets. These panels can dramatically change the shape and performance of the vehicle. For example, when the car is being driven on a smooth flat surface the small carbon nano-tubes pull the panels downward to create a streamlined shape and less drag. Alternatively, if the Flake were to venture off road – the numerous panels would hinge upward to increase drag and offer better performance in less forgiving terrain.
Editors' Recommendations
- The 10 most droolworthy concept cars of the year, and 1 big cringe
- Ride with Batman, thanks to Intel and Warner Bros.' car entertainment system
- Karma Automotive continues clawing back from the brink with three new cars
- Smart shows us its wild side with an energetic Forease+ concept
- Muscle cars, trucks, and EVs roared into the subdued 2019 Detroit Auto Show


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Contact: email@example.com
Phone: 269-471-3322
The Andrews University Board of Trustees met for their annual fall Board meeting this past weekend, October 26-29, on the campus of Andrews University. University president, Niels-Erik Andreasen, met with faculty and staff on Monday, Oct. 29, to give the president's briefing.
The Board's agenda included reports from the President's Office, University Advancement, Enrollment Management, Student Life, the Provost's Office, Financial Administration and the President's Council.
The Board voted to accept the recommendation from the Office of the Provost and the Division of Architecture to change the Division of Architecture to the School of Architecture.
Carey Carscallen (right), formerly director of the Division, is now dean of the new School. "This change comes about because of the growing status and reputation that the Architecture program has achieved in recent years," according to Carscallen. "The change helps preserve the autonomy required by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and was supported by the 2006 accreditation visiting team. This change gives proper clarity and importance of its identity to prospective students, is more closely aligned with the majority of architecture programs in other institutions of higher education, and reflects its place among the other academic units of Andrews University, enabling it to prosper in its mission, both academically and financially within and outside of the University."
The architecture program began as an associate degree in the College of Technology in 1974. Full accreditation for the bachelor of architecture degree was received in 1987. In the spring of 2000 the Division received a full five-year accreditation and in July of 2002 the NAAB approved a nomenclature change from bachelor of architecture to master of architecture. There are 170 students currently studying for the degree. The Andrews University School of Architecture is one of five accredited architecture programs in the United States located at a Christian university.
Further business of the Board included a routine report from the external auditing firm, BKD, which provided an unqualified opinion, with no irregularities, on the financial practices of the University. The overall financial report for fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, given to the Board by Vice President Larry Schalk, showed significantly improved financial performance in operations as well as philanthropic support. Budget assumptions for the 2008-09 school year were also reviewed and approved, including a five percent increase in graduate and undergraduate tuition.
The report to the Board from the President's Council outlined aggressive fund-raising plans to support the Center for Service to Adventist Graduate Education, strengthen undergraduate education, and development the new engineering program. The President's Council made a request to the Board to begin plans for a new center for undergraduate education which is comprised of a new facility named Buller Hall and renovations to 60-year old Nethery Hall. Larry Schalk was authorized by the Board to begin developing financial plans to achieve this capital improvement project.
Provost Heather Knight presented the Board with a draft of the University's new Strategic Plan which outlines the University's strategic initiatives for 2007-2012. With Board approval, Knight will lead an administrative team in developing action steps and timelines to achieve the initiatives. An administrative retreat to begin this process is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov 14.
A number of faculty and staff appointments, chair appointments and promotions-in rank were voted by the Board.
Faculty Appointments
College of Arts & Sciences: Sonia Badenas, Instructor for International Language Studies; Mioara Diaconu, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences/Social Work; Maximino Mejia, Assistant Professor of Research for Nutrition; Silas Oliveira, ProfessorReference/ Database/Off-Campus Program Services Librarian
School of Architecture: Troy Homenchuk, Assistant Professor of Architecture
School of Education: Nancy Agentta, Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction Department; Faith-Ann McGarrell, Assistant Professor, Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Department
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary: Paul Zeljko Gregor, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Archaeology; Darius Jankiewicz, Associate Professor of Theology; Thomas Shepherd, Professor of New Testament; Allan Walshe, Associate Professor of Christian Ministry and Director, MA in Youth Ministry
University Schools: Kristine Balisciano, Instructor of Mathematics for Ruth Murdoch Elementary School; Carrie Chao, Instructor of Mathematics and Science for Andrews Academy
Promotion-in-Rank and Continuous Appointments
College of Arts & Sciences: Robert Moore, Professor to Professor with continuous appointment
Seminary: Skip Bell, Professor to Professor with Continuous Appointment
Cheryl Doss, Assistant Professor to Associate Professor
Trevor O'Reggio, Assistant Professor to Associate Professor
Cleon White, Vice Principal to Interim Principal. Andrews Academy
Chair Appointments
P. Richard Choi, Chair, New Testament, Seminary
Jerry L. Furst, Chair, Governing Board of Andrews Academy
North American Division Evangelism Institute (NADEI) Appointments
Liza Clouzet, Assistant Professor of Ministry and Chaplaincy, Christian Ministry, Seminary; Ron Clouzet, Professor of Christian Ministry and Pastoral Theology, Christian Ministry, Seminary
Director Appointment
L. Monique Pittman, College of Arts & Sciences, Director, John Nevin Andrews Honors Program
Staff Appointments
Ryan Clough, processor for Student Financial Services; Dan Hansen, director of development; Josip Horonic, systems manager for James White Library; Jennifer Janssen, Banner support & specialist for Information Technology; Zachary Juniper, assistant dean of men; Andre Morgan, web designer & developer; William Navalon, enrollment coordinator; Helen Susens, assistant to the registrar (academic records); Sarah Theoret, health professions marketing coordinator; Michael Villwock, manager of arboretum-grounds; Geoffrey Weithers, marketing director for WAUS.


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Find something beautiful and with a distinct grace to renew your faith. These Personalized gardens of grace crosses come with a gold-toned design of intricate flourishing flowers and swirls. The cross includes a base for display and will make an excellent addition to any room. Take advantage of the opportunity to personalize it with one of our various prayers and a name to make it extra special for the grand occasion. These are great for all religious events from baptisms, Christenings, confirmations, and even traditional weddings. Give a gift that will be utterly unforgettable and beautiful for ages to come.
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Processing TimesThis item is shipping out of our Minnesota warehouse. Processing time generally takes 2-3 business days. For countries other than the United States and Canada, up to 6 additional business days are required to process your orders. Please visit our International Orders page for more information.
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Please include the your event date or the latest day you are able to receive your order by in the additional information box located on the billing information page.


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You Can Prevent PCP in Children: A Guide for People With HIV Infection
June 21, 2007
What Is PCP?
Pneumocystis carinii (NEW-mo-SIS-tis CA-RIN- nee-eye) pneumonia, or "PCP," is a severe illness that adults and children with HIV or AIDS may get. It is caused by a germ called Pneumocystis carinii. Most children infected with this germ don't get pneumonia because their immune systems are normal. Children whose immune systems are badly damaged by HIV can get PCP. Children with HIV are less likely to get PCP today than in earlier years. However, PCP is still the most common serious infection among children with AIDS in the United States.
How Do I Know if My Child Has PCP?
If your child has PCP, he or she probably will have fever, cough, or trouble breathing. Children with PCP may die if the infection is not treated quickly. See your doctor immediately if your child has these symptoms. PCP can be diagnosed only by laboratory tests of fluid or tissue from the lungs.
How Could My Child Catch PCP?
How Can I Prevent PCP in My Child?
The best way to prevent PCP in children is to prevent HIV in children. Pregnant women with HIV should speak with their doctors about taking antiretroviral treatments to prevent passing their HIV infection to their unborn child. Children whose mothers have HIV also can take anti-viral treatments and medicine to prevent PCP. The best drug for preventing PCP is trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (try-METH-o- prim - sul-fa-meth-OX-uh-sole), or TMP-SMX. What is TMP-SMX? TMP-SMX is a combination of two medicines. It has many different brand names, such as Bactrim, Septra, and Cotrim*. Older children can take TMP-SMX in tablet form. You can also get TMP-SMX as a liquid for babies and young children.
What Children Should Get Treatment to Prevent PCP?All babies born to mothers with HIV should get TMP-SMX starting at 4 to 6 weeks old, even if it isn't known yet if they have HIV. This will help prevent PCP infection before it starts. If HIV tests later show that your baby does not have HIV, the TMP-SMX treatment can be stopped. If your baby has HIV, he or she should continue to get TMP-SMX treatment until reaching the age of 1 year. Your doctor will then decide if your child needs to continue the treatment, based on your baby's CD4 cell (sometimes called T cell) count.
Babies don't get TMP-SMX treatment until they are at least 4 weeks old because most children will be taking zidovudine (also called AZT), and small children shouldn't take the two drugs together. Also, TMP-SMX can cause liver damage in babies younger than 4 weeks old. Babies don't usually get PCP until they are at least 8 weeks old.
What Are the Side Effects of TMP-SMX?
TMP-SMX can make some people have a rash or feel sick. If the drug reaction is not severe, TMP-SMX should be continued because it works so much better than any other medicine to prevent PCP.
Are There Other Medicines to Prevent PCP?
Yes. Check with your doctor about the possibility of other treatments. Your child should take all of his or her medicines as prescribed by your doctor. Don't lower the dosage without speaking with your doctor.
Can My Child Get PCP More than Once?
Yes. If your child has already had PCP, he or she can get it again. TMP-SMX can prevent second infections with PCP. Therefore, treatment should be used even after your child has had PCP to prevent getting it again.
For More Information
Free referrals and information:
Free materials:
Free HIV/AIDS treatment information:
Drugs undergoing clinical trials:
Social Security benefits:
Additional brochures in the Opportunisitic Infections Series:
* Use of trade names does not imply endorsement by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Related Stories
Risk Factors for Early Mortality in Children on Adult Fixed-Dose Combination Antiretroviral Treatment in a Central Hospital in Malawi
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Visit the CDC's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.


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The Inspired Cookie is a vegan, gluten-free baked goods company founded three ago by Sarah Gill in San Francisco, CA. Sarah inspired us at Yummy Plants with her cookies, her brownies, and her story. If you can't find her super yummy treats at a store near you, they're available online. And if you're in love with these treats like we are, maybe ask your local cafes and retailers to begin carrying them!
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Me: I'll get you a new roll.
The Girl: No, I don't think we are all out, because I took the last roll the other day.
This conversation meant that there was no getting out of a small foray to a store. With two kids, in Denmark, on December 29th. Why, Universe? I've always had a touch of agoraphobia, but it has been evolving from a personality trait to an actual problem. Feeding on the burdens of life, work, kids, wife; my life has been saturated with stress the last 5 years and my agoraphobia has thrived.
Another problem with me, among the many I have, is extreme impatience with everything. It's always been impatient; I've gotten grief for it from when I was a little kid. We have called it my condition, and I've even been somewhat proud of it, like it was a sign of efficiency. But agoraphobia and impatience don't go well together.
One of the ways I get around my agoraphobia is that I only venture out, when I know there will be no crowds. I shop for our groceries 15 minutes before the stores close. We go swimming on Friday nights in a rural community pool, which we have all to ourselves. Any visit to a theme park or such similar attraction has to happen in the way off-season
But when the Girl announced that we were out of tp, I knew there was no alternative to diving into Danish Christmas craziness. Most Danes have the week off between Christmas and New Year's and it seems like they love to shop all day, every day.
The Lorax was crying most of the time; he screamed "skoldkopper!" (chickenpox) to get my attention and was hard to handle in the busy store. He is through his run of pox, but he still likes to be pitied, apparently. The toilet paper and other necessities were quickly located and I tried wrangling the kids toward the registers. Or, I should say kid, because Natali is actually more help than bother at this point.
In a packed store, with a screaming Lorax, without room to maneuver, it's gotten to the point where I have to control my breathing to prevent getting shivers. It's never bad when I'm alone; it's when I'm with the kids that it really ignites.
The stress is getting to me. There is no other way of looking at it.
At least I have been running well on the treadmill at the gym. I had a winter a few years ago, where I ran almost exclusively on the treadmill. That winter led to my 1:13 half marathon PR, so maybe this Wisconsinesque snow is good for something.
5 comments:
- SteveQ said...
You really need to learn some stress management techniques.
Ever try exercise?
- December 30, 2010 at 9:54 AM
- olga said...
May be that's why you run at the front of the pack?
- December 31, 2010 at 3:14 AM
- PiccolaPineCone said...
that sounds horrible.
it seems to me that there must be well established techniques for dealing with this, other than just avoidance b/c avoiding crowds will probably become more difficult in the near future with the advent of child # 4.
i know you are uber busy, and probably way too busy to try therapy (god help me, i have become a proselytizer for therapy) but could you use your ridiculously long commute time to listen to some podcasts on the topic or listen to some CDs on the topic (if you drive). i feel like this is a common problem, there must be well established techniques for dealing with what is ultimately stress.
- January 2, 2011 at 10:09 AM
- SteveQ said...
I think you'd find the following blog very interesting: http://andydubois.blogspot.com/
He tries to be the scientific ultrarunner.
- January 8, 2011 at 8:32 AM
- johny said...
blog is very useufl and very well managed,for online urgent loans plz visit my link
Payday Loans online
- February 29, 2012 at 9:27 PM


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Brandon M. necesitaba un nuevo diseño de impreso o envases y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 32 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
Paradise Valley Resort and Club http://www.paradisevalleyclub.com
We are a clothing optional resort located less then 1 hour from Atlanta. Most of our business occurs in the spring and summer. We are not part of a chain so we have freedom in how/what we advertise. Our members and staff are easy going - a relaxed atmosphere. On property we have 3 pools, several bars, restaurant, hiking trail... We are looking to have an ad that does not push the clothing optional aspect as much as North Georgia's largest pool party.
We will run ads in newspapers in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, N/S Carolina.
Our target are ages 30 to 50 years of age.
We are trying to attract new customers, some of their concerns may be the clothing optional lifestyle and they do not know what to expect. we want them to know it is a relaxing atmosphere. they can dress to their comfort level (can even keep clothes on if want).
We want the ad to be fun and inviting. Needs to be eye catching to stand out from other ads.
Target audience is all income levels.
Ad should be more desirable to women then men, as it is usually the man trying to talk his girlfriend/wife into coming to our facility
Ad needs to look just as good in color as it does in black and white.
Please see attached doc. Please note the specs are very detailed (this is pulled from one of the papers we advertise in) - for reference only
Please use your experience, we basically want a vertical and horizontal version ad for print media. We need it so the art and text is not too close to the edges so we can fit the different size requirements of different papers.


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Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
from notes by James O'Donnell © 2008
extrait des notes rédigées par James O'Donnell © 2008
Français: Hyperion Records Ltd
aus dem Begleittext von James O'Donnell © 2008
Deutsch: Renate Wendel
|Britten: A Boy was Born & other choral works
'Excellent in every aspect. The presence is breathtaking, the singing of both soloists and choir are quite superb, and the accompaniment by the organi ...
'This beautifully made record deserves the widest circulation. The sound these choirs make is of great beauty, and is captured in a flawless recording ...» More
|Hear my prayer
This recording features St Paul's Cathedral Choir at the peak of their power, performing a yearning sequence of liturgical works that includes some of the best-loved choral works of all time: Mendelssohn's 'Hear my prayer' ('O for the wings of a d ...» More
|Out of darkness
A glorious and varied (Byrd, Purcell, Bairstow, Laloux and Casals—and that's just the first five tracks) choral recital taking us through the liturgical year from Lent to Trinity.» More
|The Feast of the Ascension at Westminster Abbey
The Choir of Westminster Abbey, under its inspirational director, James O'Donnell, continues its exploration of the repertoire of the liturgy in the Abbey with music for the Feast of the Ascension. The works recorded here represent a wide range of th ...» More