text:
I wasn't planning on baking this weekend. I was planning on "taking the weekend off". But all it took was my friend asking, "What about cupcakes for Sunday night?", and I was all over it. Any excuse to bake, I guess.
I was pressed for time, so I went with the cherry chocolate cupcakes again. Mostly because they were so good, my cousin hadn't tried them yet, and I had all the ingredients. I did change the frosting from fennel cream cheese to fennel meringue because I was itching to use the blow torch.
The cherry chocolate cupcake is, I am convinced, a great recipe and a crowd pleaser. The meringue frosting is a bit tricky, and I need to work on the recipe some, but I am providing it here for the adventurous.
Fennel Meringue Frosting
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4 egg whites
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of sugar and the water in a small pan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Crush the fennel seeds slightly with a mortar and pestle.
3. Add the crushed seeds to the sugar and let boil over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until the mixture is somewhat syrupy. See step 6 for what to consider when cooking the sugar syrup.
4. Whisk the egg whites and 1 cup of sugar over a water bath in the standing mixer bowl until it reaches a temperature of 110 degrees fahrenheit. This only takes only a couple of minutes.
5. Transfer to standing mixer and whisk using whisk attachment at high speed until soft peaks form.
6. Drizzle fennel syrup into the mixer. This part can be tricky. For one, you don't want the syrup too watery or it can deflate the meringue. But if the syrup is cooked too much it could harden. Aim for a soft ball stage. If you see the meringue start to deflate put less of the syrup in and all of the fennel seeds.
Note: Once again, I had a lot of frosting left over. So, I spread it out on a silpat covered baking sheet, threw it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, turned off the oven and left it there while we ate dinner. The result was like a big fennel, meringue cookie that was crispy, chewy, and tasty.
1. Pipe meringue frosting onto cupcakes using a large star tip.
2. Using a blow torch, brown the meringue.


text:
78 Magickal Tools: Bringing the Magick of Tarot to your Pagan Path
Tarot is more than a tool of divination; tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom and a set of magickal tools. Explore new ways to use tarot in ritual, magick, meditation, self-discovery and attunement.
Creating a Samhain Tarot Ritual
This blog, 78 Magickal Tools, is about using tarot in ritual and magick. I believe that the only limits on what tarot can help us do are the limits we impose ourselves.
In my posts I like to give ideas of ways to use the cards with the hope that you, the reader, will be inspired to discover and create even more ways to incorporate the cards into your spiritual practice.
The ritual ideas I am going to share with you will work best if you adapt them to your own traditions and beliefs to create a full ritual. Rather than using my ideas as a script, use them as an example and inspiration to help you create a meaningful and powerful Samhain ritual with tarot.
For this ritual you may use multiple decks. One deck can be used on the altar to invoke and honor the elements, deities and ancestors. Another full deck will be used for the meditative journey. You may have each participant use their own deck for the divination if you prefer.
Remember there are tarot decks available that are specifically themed in ways that might be helpful, such as Goddess Tarot or Ghosts and Spirits Tarot.
You may use the four Aces to represent the Four Elements and to invoke new energies into the New Year. You may use the four Kings to represent the Four Elements and to honor the year that has past.
You may place cards on the altar to invoke specific deities and to honor and invoke loved ones in spirit. For instance, the Empress would honor and invoke a mother or grandmother, or a Mother Goddess. The Ten of Pentacles traditionally honors all family ancestors. From the Court you can choose cards to represent your loved ones in spirit.
If you are using more than one deck you may leave those cards of invocation on the altar. If you are using only one deck you can place them back into the deck after you finish your invocations.
The Journey
This will be a meditative journey into the land beyond the veil, to a meeting place where you will be guided by your loved ones in spirit. A priest, priestess or leader will begin the meditation with breathing, grounding and raising energy. Once the group is ready the journey will begin.
Each part of the journey is guided by a particular tarot energy. As the leader begins each part of the journey, s/he will take the card, hold it high and then pass it around the circle. As the card makes its way around the circle its specific energy will be strengthened within the circle.
(Let the leader speak words such as these to guide the journey.)
The Fool
Here we are, ready to begin our journey. None know what lies ahead. Tonight we will journey to a place where few living people ever venture. Tonight we will reunite with our ancestors. Let us begin our journey without fear. Let us move boldly forward, and celebrate our ability so to do.
(When the Fool returns to the leader, the leader will hold the next card high, and then pass at around in the same fashion, speaking words such as these.)
The High Priestess
The High Priestess guides us to look within, to find the sacred within ourselves. This is a journey a foreign land that is only accessible when we start by journeying within. As you breathe, let the High Priestess guide you into the depths of your own subconscious to the place where your dreams, hidden memories and psychic knowledge reside. It is here you find your immortal self, that part of you that is able to make this journey.
The High Priestess gives you one pomegranate seed – the fruit of the land of the dead. This will allow you to safely journey to this hidden realm and back again.
(You may pass out actual pomegranate seeds or simply visual them, as you prefer.)
Now it is time to cross into the next world. Death comes and extends his hand to you. Are you able to make this transition? Is your need to connect with your loved ones great enough that you are willing to make this journey? If so, take his hand and walk with him now.
The Moon
Now we come to the place of shadows. Who is here to meet you? Take a moment in silence to explore what is in this place for you.
(When the Moon is returned to the leader, let the group have a few moments in meditation.)
The Divination
Each person may receive a message from their ancestors during the meditation. They may also receive a message in divination. Let each person use their own deck, or pass around a whole deck letting each person draw a card.
When each person receives the deck they may draw a card and spend some time with the image. The image may speak to them through the traditional meaning of the card, through the inspiration of the image or simply by opening the mind and heart to communication from spirit.
The leader may encourage contemplative conversation and sharing within the circle about the cards that have been drawn, the messages that have been received and the experiences with the meditation.
In ritual, tarot is a tool of invocation, meditation, divination and spiritual communication. What better time to let tarot assist us in ritual than Samhain?
May the blessing of the harvest, the opportunities of the New Year and the wisdom of the ancestors be yours!
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subset: commoncrawl


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13 Going on 30 (or, as it's unofficially known, "Big With Breasts") trots out modern cinema's hazing ritual for up-and-coming performers: playing a child in an adult body. Since Mary Rodgers' novel Freaky Friday hit in the early 70s, Hollywood has put out a glut of kids-stuck-in-adult-bodies movies (many of which also allow kids to play adults). Following the 1976 film Freaky Friday, we had Like Father, Like Son, Big, Vice Versa, and 18 Again! in quick succession, Robin Williams as Jack, and within a year of each other, a Freaky Friday remake and 13 Going on 30, to name but the ones which leap to mind.
So 13 Going on 30 wins no points for novelty, unless you count Andy "Gollum" Serkis moonwalking and, well, why wouldn't you? Essentially, the film is a vehicle for rising star Jennifer Garner (Daredevil, TV's Alias), and her charming energy earns the this standard-fare romantic comedy enough goodwill for a passing grade. Garner plays Jenna Rink, a totally-'80s, suburban thirteen-year-old who, after a run-in with a bag of wishing dust ("I want to be thirty—thirty, and flirty, and thriving"), finds herself a fully-developed, apparent thirty-year-old traveling in elite New York circles.
As a child, Jenna (Christa B. Allen) flunked the social test of throwing herself a birthday party; after the popular "Six Chicks" clique rejects her, she turns around and thoroughly destroys Matt, the sweet boy who has a crush on her. This traumatic event spawns Jenna's magical conversion, which proves to be the long-way-around to convincing her that she made a big mistake on that fateful birthday. Want to bet she'll get a second chance?
In "adulthood," Jenna's a highly-placed editor on her favorite fashion magazine, Poise. Freaked out and in need of moral support, Jenna seeks out Matt, who has grown out of his pudgy awkwardness and into his coolness. Still a disciple of cool bands (Talking Heads, the Clash) and cool movies (a Blue Velvet poster hangs in his apartment), the now-hunky Matt has turned his hobby, photography, into a burgeoning career. Before long, Jenna has taken notice, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, Jenna's full-grown childhood rival is underfoot every step of the way as Jenna tries to win her man and save the magazine from going into the toilet.
Winick's movie--scripted by Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith and Niels Mueller--is as naive as its young heroine, but also as good-natured. Though technically aimed at a double-demographic of tweens and Gen-Xers, 13 Going on 30 makes more sense as a high-school reunion nostalgia trip cum celebration of being young at heart than it does as a cautionary tale for young teens, but then, the young'uns get to dream of being Garner. Gen-Xers will thrill again to Rick Springfield and Pat Benatar, squeal at the spectacle of nightclubbers performing the original choreography of "Thriller," and swoon at the fantasies of turning back time for their own second chances.
Ruffalo is typically good, cutting the syrup with his indie-bred understatement, but this is Garner's show, and she proves ready for it. When the script (frequently) lacks conviction, Garner does something convincingly to draw the viewer back in to the movie's surreality. When she instinctively waggles her bosom to convince Ruffalo to take the dance floor, the moment is enough to make all ages and sexes fall in love. Garner's "going on" to the next level.
In its Blu-ray debut, 13 Going on 30 doesn't show a day of its five-year age. Bright and colorful as it should be, the image shows fine detail the DVD doesn't reveal, deep blacks and spot-on contrast. In the audio department, Sony delivers a typically strong Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix that's more than up to the task of replicating the film's theatrical soundscape.
In bonus features, there's a standard-issue director's commentary by Gary Winick and a superfluous (but why not?) producers' commentary by Donna Arkoff Roth, Susan Arnold and Gina Matthews.
Bonus footage includes an "Alternate Beginning & Alternate Ending" (11:35, SD), eighteen "Deleted Scenes" (27:10, SD), and "Bloopers" (3:16, SD).
"Making of a Teen Dream" (18:52) is a decent behind-the-scenes featurette, including set footage and interviews with Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Samuel Ball, Judy Greer, Winick, Alexandra Kyle, Christa B. Allen, Andy Serkis, and costume designer Susie DeSanto.
"Making of a Teen Dream: Another Take" (7:37, SD) adds a few more angles, with comments from producers Donna Roth, Gina Matthews, and Susan Arnold; Garner; Winick; Ball; Ruffalo; Greer; and Allen.
The most fun by far comes from the featurette "I Was a Teenage Geek" (8:01, SD), in which Garner, Greer, Ruffalo, and Ball confess their darkest high school secrets (OK, maybe not, but they do share embarrassing photos).
"Fashion Flashback: Into the '80's" (6:50, SD) is a fluff piece looking at fashion so old it's new again, with models Bethany Belcher, Brittany Johnson, Virginia Lopez, Grace Lee, Valuable Vintage author Elizabeth Mason, stylists Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, make-up artist Chelsea Behrens, and hairstylist Rosemarie Valverde.
Vintage '80s Music Videos are a scream. Gotta love both of these: "Pat Benatar: 'Love Is a Battlefield'" (5:21, SD) and "Rick Springfield: 'Jessie's Girl'" (3:17, SD).
Last up is a "Video Gallery" (2:04, SD) montage of production stills set to the film's score, and of course, the disc is BD-Live enabled for a bit more added value.
Review gear: |
Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 55" Plasma 1080p 3D HDTV
Oppo BDP-93 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray Disc Player
Denon AVR2112CI Integrated Network A/V Surround Receiver
Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Bookshelf Speaker (2)
Pioneer SP-C21 Center Speaker
Pioneer SW-8 Subwoofer


text:
The basic structure of the program is this:
1. issue an interactive prompt for the user to enter a non-negative number,
2. verify that the input is indeed non-negative, or that the user wishes to end the program,
3. calculate the square root of the input value, using the method to be described shortly,
4. print some information about how well the method worked,
5. go back to step 1.
Here is the square root method. Suppose the input value is in the variable a, type double. For convenience and to explain what's going on, we'll write the value a = b^2, but we don't know the value of b yet (its value is sqrt(a) but we're trying to calculate b ourselves). Start to compute a sequence of values xN by setting x0 = a. Once we know xn we can calculate xn+1 by the rule
xn+1 = ½ (xn + a/xn)
and then we just keep going until the sequence xN converges to b.
I have decided to use nested loops for the program but they aren't really working...
#include <iostream>
#include <cmath> // Needed for rand operations.
int main ()
char quit='N';
double userInput, estimate, sqrt_answer, y,x,a;
while (toupper(quit) != 'Y')
cout <<"enter non zero number *****:"<<flush;
cin >> userInput;
If (userInput <=0)
cout <<"invalid. would you like to quit?(y/n):"<<flush;
cin>> quit;
x = a = userInput;
y= 0;
lasty= 0;
if (y == lasty)
I dont really understand what to do next to make this work....
Please help me out..


text:
Seven Tips To Make Healthy Meals That Help You Lose Fat
|Here at Granite Fitness, we are always thinking of ways to help you eat healthily and lose weight. today we have a guest post from a lady by the name of Diana Keulian, who is the creator of the Family Friendly Fat Burning Foods system. Today she will be sharing with you seven tips to make healthy meals that help you lose fat.
Wouldn't it be great if all your favorite comfort meals naturally promoted fat loss? Diane thinks that would be awesome. Her old favorite comfort meals were fried fish tacos, fully-loaded veggie burritos, angel hair pasta with mizithra cheese and cheese-smothered veggie burgers with fries. Yummmmmmmm! Unfortunately these old favorites brought on rapid fat storage.
Due to her love of food, Diane went from a size 4 to a size 12 in her twenties . In her frustration she tried portion control, and began to limit the amount of foods that she ate. This began a yo-yo cycle of eating less food one day, more the next, and never seeing the results she wanted. Over the past few years she has read countless books on nutrition and have finally landed on the formula for creating meals that promote fat loss, and taste good while doing it. Oh and this method of eating has effortlessly brought her back to that size 4 🙂
Here is what she discovered…
Tip #1) Focus On Protein
The base of a fat burning meal is a healthy serving of quality, lean protein. Choose from organic, hormone-free chicken, pork, beef, lamb, veal, fish or eggs. No wonder she was gaining weight! Most of her favorite meals had very little to do with protein. After giving up meat at age 12, she spent the next 18 years as a junk food vegetarian. Most of my meals were made up of processed grains and sugar.
Why is protein so important? Protein supports and fuels your lean tissues, namely your muscles, and does not have an effect on blood sugar levels, which would promote fat storage.
Tip #2) Ditch Grains and Refined Sugar
A fat burning meal does not contain a serving of grains or starches. Yes, she realises that this goes against everything that we have been taught or experienced with dinners. Most meals are plated with a jumbo serving of noodles, pasta, potatoes, rice, has been breaded or is served with bread, tortillas, chips or buns.
As she learnt the hard way, these carbs are more than we need, and end up being stored as fat. And, yes, it is possible to create fat-burning dinners that satisfy even the hungriest meat-and-potatoes members of your family. This was the hardest part for her to get used to. Grains and sugar are filled with fat-promoting carbs, and as you saw above, her favorite meals were all carb-ed out.
There's really no reason, other than habit, to eat grains or sugar on a regular basis. Once she removed these from her diet, and got out of the habit of eating them, she no longer craved or even found her old favorites very appealing.
Tip #3) Bring On The Veggies
After you remove the grains and sugars from your meal, add a bunch of fiber-filled veggies instead. One of her favorite things to do now when building a fat burning meal is to get a bowl, add a few handfuls of organic spinach and arugula, and then top it with protein and some cooked veggies. Add a light homemade dressing and you're looking at the perfect, quick fat burning meal.
Fiber-filled veggies are important for many reasons in addition to the fiber. They are filled with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, all of which your body needs. They are also very low in calories compared to the amount of space that they take up in your stomach. So you'll get full faster on fewer calories.
Tip #4) Quality Ingredients
Ingredients are the building blocks to a healthy meal so pay attention to the quality of the ingredients you use. Fast food just isn't going to cut it! Be willing to spend a little more on the foods that you eat. Quality is much more important that quantity.
When choosing meat look for organic, antibiotic and hormone-free. Avoid processed meats, like lunchmeats, as these contain potentially harmful additives and lots of salt. Also avoid highly processed soy fake meats.
Choose foods that are:
- Fresh, organic and seasonal
- Pronounceable ingredients
- Whole foods
Tip #5) Use A Healthy Cooking Method
The method in which you cook your meal determines how many calories, how much added fat, and the number of nutrients that survive.
Don't prepare meals like this:
- Fried and battered
- Processed and packaged
- Doused with cream sauce
Choose these cooking methods:
- Grilled
- Baked
- Broiled
- Steamed
Tip #6) Cook With Coconut Oil
She used to always cook with vegetable oil, never realizing how harmful it was to her fat loss efforts. Unfortunately most people use harmful, unstable and fat promoting oils when they cook.
The good news is that coconut oil is an amazing, healthy oil that not only tastes great but also helps promote fat loss. Among its many benefits, coconut oil is stable, even at high temperatures. It's filled with lauric acid, which boosts the immune system and helps ward off infections.
Best of all, coconut oil has been shown to increase metabolism and thyroid activity, which boosts fat burning.
Tip #7) Enjoy Dessert of Fresh Fruit
When is the last time that you bit into a fresh, organic, perfectly ripe piece of fruit? Delicious, wasn't it? She used to overlook fruit as the perfect dessert that it is, and instead would eat artificially flavored, cane sugar sweetened, processed desserts that encourage rapid weight gain and declined health.
She won't say that ice cream and chocolate don't taste awesome, because they do. But eating desserts like that on a regular basis is one of the big reasons that I kept gaining weight back in my twenties. By making the simple switch from refined sugar desserts to desserts of organic, fresh fruit she was able to lose weight without feeling deprived.
Let's bring fruit back to its rightful place as our favorite, most popular after-dinner sweet. Out with the refined sugar and corn syrup and in with Nature's sweetest gift…fresh fruit.
Hope that you have enjoyed these tips. Diane is walking proof that this way of eating truly delivers results without deprivation or boring, bland meals. She loves food WAY too much to give up flavorful, delicious dinners, snacks and desserts. In fact, she's so passionate about creating fat burning foods that she's put all of my best recipes and eating secrets together into a full Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals program.
This system has over 100 of her family's favorite fat burning recipes – which she used to effortlessly reverse the weight she had gained in my twenties. It's tasty stuff like Chicken Enchiladas, Baked Chicken Nuggets, Make-Your-Own Tacos, Healthy Brownies, Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies and much, much more. Check out her Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals Program below:
Disclaimer: This site still has affiliate links, i.e., we get a commission if you buy from us. However, we removed them as of 2023 :)


text:
So, you've decided to use npm to develop (and maybe publish/deploy) your project.
There are a few things that you need to do above the simple steps that your users will do to install your program.
These are man pages. If you install npm, you should be able to
then do man npm-thing
to get the documentation on a particular
topic, or npm help thing
to see the same information.
A package is:
that is published on the registry with (c)<name>@<tag>
that points to (d)<name>
that has a "latest" tag satisfying (e)git
url that, when cloned, results in (a).Even if you never publish your package, you can still get a lot of benefits of using npm if you just want to write a node program (a), and perhaps if you also want to be able to easily install it elsewhere after packing it up into a tarball (b).
Git urls can be of the form:
The commit-ish
can be any tag, sha, or branch which can be supplied as
an argument to git checkout
. The default is master
You need to have a package.json
file in the root of your project to do
much of anything with npm. That is basically the whole interface.
See package.json
for details about what goes in that file. At the very
least, you need:
It does not necessarily need to match your github repository name.
So, node-foo
and bar-js
are bad names. foo
or bar
are better.
object. You should definitely have at
least a basic smoke-test command as the "scripts.test" field.
See scripts.You can use npm init
in the root of your package in order to get you
started with a pretty basic package.json file. See npm init
more info.
Use a .npmignore
file to keep stuff out of your package. If there's
no .npmignore
file, but there is a .gitignore
file, then npm will
ignore the stuff matched by the .gitignore
file. If you want to
include something that is excluded by your .gitignore
file, you can
create an empty .npmignore
file to override it. Like git
, npm
for .npmignore
and .gitignore
files in all subdirectories of your
package, not only the root directory.
files follow the same pattern rules
as .gitignore
are ignored./
to specify a directory.!
.By default, the following paths and files are ignored, so there's no
need to add them to .npmignore
Additionally, everything in node_modules
is ignored, except for
bundled dependencies. npm automatically handles this for you, so don't
bother adding node_modules
to .npmignore
The following paths and files are never ignored, so adding them to
is pointless:
(and its variants)CHANGELOG
(and its variants)LICENSE
If, given the structure of your project, you find .npmignore
to be a
maintenance headache, you might instead try populating the files
property of package.json
, which is an array of file or directory names
that should be included in your package. Sometimes a whitelist is easier
to manage than a blacklist.
or files
config worksIf you want to double check that your package will include only the files
you intend it to when published, you can run the npm pack
command locally
which will generate a tarball in the working directory, the same way it
does for publishing.
npm link
is designed to install a development package and see the
changes in real time without having to keep re-installing it. (You do
need to either re-link or npm rebuild -g
to update compiled packages,
of course.)
More info at npm link
This is important.
If you can not install it locally, you'll have problems trying to publish it. Or, worse yet, you'll be able to publish it, but you'll be publishing a broken or pointless package. So don't do that.
In the root of your package, do this:
npm install . -g
That'll show you that it's working. If you'd rather just create a symlink package that points to your working directory, then do this:
npm link
Use npm ls -g
to see if it's there.
To test a local install, go into some other folder, and then do:
cd ../some-other-folder
npm install ../my-package
to install it locally into the node_modules folder in that other place.
Then go into the node-repl, and try using require("my-thing") to bring in your module's main module.
Create a user with the adduser command. It works like this:
npm adduser
and then follow the prompts.
This is documented better in npm adduser.
This part's easy. In the root of your folder, do this:
npm publish
You can give publish a url to a tarball, or a filename of a tarball, or a path to a folder.
Note that pretty much everything in that folder will be exposed
by default. So, if you have secret stuff in there, use a
file to list out the globs to ignore, or publish
from a fresh checkout.
Send emails, write blogs, blab in IRC.
Tell the world how easy it is to install your program!
👀 Found a typo? Let us know!
The current stable version of npm is here. To upgrade, run: npm install npm@latest -g
To report bugs or submit feature requests for the docs, please post here. Submit npm issues here.


text:
As panicked shoppers fled for cover, workers ushered some into hiding places within stores, or helped them to the exits. The first officers to arrive formed groups and rushed into the chaos, rather than waiting for the more heavily armed SWAT team.
"If we would have run out, we would have ran right into it," said Kaelynn Keelin, who saw a window get shot out and, along with other Made In Oregon co-workers, pulled customers into the store for shelter.
The quick mobilization of mall workers and police reflects the reality that, while mass shootings are rare, they have forced authorities to rehearse for such outbreaks of violence as if they are the norm.
"This could have been much, much worse," Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said.
Roughly 10,000 people were inside the Clackamas Town Center on Tuesday afternoon, when police say Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle he stole from someone he knew, and went on a rampage that left two people dead.
The sheriff said the rifle jammed during the attack, but the shooter managed to get it working again. He later shot himself. The sheriff and Roberts are not related.
As authorities tried to determine a motive for a shooting they said had no specific targets, details emerged about Roberts from acquaintances and neighbors. They described him as relaxed, friendly and outgoing.
"Jake was never the violent type," Roberts' ex-girlfriend, Hannah Patricia Sansburn, told ABC News. "His main goal was to make you laugh, smile, make you feel comfortable. You can't reconcile the differences. I hate him for what he did, but I can't hate the person I knew because it was nothing like the person who would go into a mall and go on a rampage."
Sansburn said Roberts had recently quit his job at a gyro shop in Portland and sold all of his belongings, telling her that he was moving to Hawaii. He was supposed to take a flight Saturday but told her he got drunk and missed it.
"And then this happens. ... It makes me think, was he even planning on going to Hawaii?" Sansburn said.
Sansburn did not return phone messages left by The Associated Press, and no one answered the door at her home Wednesday.
A former neighbor of Roberts said that he liked to play video games and never seemed troubled.
"He was like a rapper. He would rap all the time," said Samantha Bennett, who said she went to middle school with Roberts but wasn't close to him until he moved in with a girlfriend across the hall from her at an apartment complex in summer 2011.
His dining room was decorated like a jungle, Bennett said, with vines on the walls and a monkey. He once showed her a black handgun that she believed he purchased legally. He dropped out of sight earlier this year, and his phone was disconnected, she said.
Roberts rented a basement room in a modest, single-story Portland home and hadn't lived there long, said a neighbor, Bobbi Bates. She said she saw him leave at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday wearing a dark jacket and jeans, carrying a guitar case.
Roberts had several fully loaded magazines when he arrived at the mall, the sheriff said. He parked his 1996 green Volkswagen Jetta in front of the second-floor entrance to Macy's and walked through the store into the mall and began firing randomly in the food court.
He fatally shot Steven Mathew Forsyth, 45, and Cindy Ann Yuille, 54, the sheriff said. Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was wounded and in serious condition Wednesday, police said.
On average, there are about 20 mass murders every year, and the trend has been steady since the 1970s, said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston and author of five books on mass murder.
The typical mass murderer is a socially isolated white man in his 30s or 40s. He has no criminal record, but his life has been marked by failure and frustration, and he decides that his family, boss or co-workers must pay with their lives, Fox said.
"The rarest form of mass murder is the completely random shooting," Fox said. "Those perpetrators tend to be younger (in their 20s). They are more likely to have profound mental health issues, as opposed to the older guy who is quite sane, knows exactly what he is doing, and just decides that life is miserable."
The random shooter, Fox said, feels "the whole world is unfair, someone has to pay, and it doesn't matter who."
Amid Tuesday's gunfire, employees helped shoppers get into backrooms.
"Basically, in a situation like this it's either stay right where you're at and lock yourself down, or get to the nearest exit," said Dennis Curtis, the mall's senior general manager.
"We've done drills with the sheriff's office," including one earlier this year, he said.
The first 911 call came at 3:29 p.m. Tuesday, and officers arrived a minute later. Instead of waiting for SWAT teams, police immediately entered the crowded mall.
Police told people inside to put their hands in the air, to make sure an armed person was not among them. Police spent hours clearing the 1.4-million-square-foot mall, as some workers and shoppers continued to hide in fear.
Roberts fled along a mall corridor and into a back hallway, down stairs and into a corner where police found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said.
Families of the victims released brief statements through the sheriff's office.
Relatives of Yuille described her as "everybody's friend" and a caring person. Forsyth was a loving husband, business owner and a youth sports coach, his family said.
As for Shevchenko, it was her second brush with death this year. In August, a man veered his car into the opposite lane and crashed head-on into a van she was in.


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The massive culture, recreation, and retail center for Triangle de Gonesse, France is situated along the approach between the Charles de Gaule Airport in Roissy and Paris. Designed for an international competition, the project is part of a larger initiative to revitalize the north part of the French capital. Occupying a total area of 600,000 square meters, it seeks to transform the site into an international travel destination. With its spacious plazas, artificial ski slopes, and interiors that resemble prehistoric caves, Europa City is an amalgam of cultures and topographies.
The project's functions are distributed into specific areas for designated countries. A large, walkable green roof integrates the pavilion-like structure of the complex, and extends into the surrounding landscape. It combines strips of luscious vegetation with a renewable energy system. Over 20,000 square meters of photovoltaic cells are optimally positioned and, along with rainwater harvesting possibilities, help offset the ecological footprint of the city.
+ Manuelle Gautrand Architects
Via Archiscene


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In the face of the rising hysteria regarding Iran's development of its nuclear power facilities, there is talk of preemptive military strikes against Iran. Meanwhile, sanctions on Iran – by both the UN Security Council and the United States – have become increasingly harsh. And to the extent they are successful, these sanctions will harm the wrong people and have little impact on the political leadership.
Yet another round of sanctions doesn't seem to have caused Iran to buckle. After the Security Council imposed new sanctions in June, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compared the new resolutions to "a used handkerchief that should be thrown in the waste bin," and Iran's envoy to the IAEA said that Iran's nuclear enrichment program "will not be suspended, even for a second."
Such responses are not surprising. In general sanctions do not work, in any regard. Almost invariably, they impact the poorest and most vulnerable, while the political and military leaders are insulated from their impact. Although the United States often views itself as providing a kind of moral leadership by sanctioning other nations, that view is almost never shared by the targeted population. Instead, sanctions trigger resentment and resistance among the population and produce greater support for the government in the face of attacks from outside.
How Smart Is "Smart"?
The "smart sanctions" movement in the 1990s sought to focus on weapons, or the assets of political and military leaders, without harming the population as a whole. The U.S. claim to support only "smart sanctions" has certainly not been true with Iran. For example, the recent U.S. law refers to sanctions on Iraq's oil and gas industries as "targeted," as though this is a narrow measure that will somehow not impact the entire population of Iran. But these industries account for one quarter of Iran's economy.
If the United States succeeded in shutting down the oil and gas industries, every aspect of life in Iran would be affected, far more than the impact of the 1973 Arab oil embargo on the United States. Eighty percent of the Iranian government's income comes from the energy sector. The government's extensive subsidies for food, gasoline, and housing – which, according to some estimates, account for over one-quarter of Iran's GDP – depend on this income. The United States is essentially attempting to bankrupt the state.
There is nothing "smart" about such a strategy. A similarly shortsighted approach in Iraq reduced funds for the military, but also compromised all critical public services dependent on state funding. It led to layoffs of civil servants and the personnel staffing electricity generation, water treatment, and telephone systems. Teachers, doctors, educational supplies, and imported medicines for schools and health clinics were all at risk.
UN No Better
The sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council, for which the United States has lobbied aggressively, are not much of an improvement over the U.S. government measures. The appendices attached to Security Council resolutions, which list the names of individual persons and companies, imply that the impact will be narrowly targeted. But, in fact, it is not.
UN sanctions, for instance, targeted Iran's Bank Mellat on the grounds that it facilitated financial transactions for military entities. But Bank Mellat is also one of the largest commercial banks in Iran, with over 1,800 branches and almost 25,000 employees. Bank Sepah, the fifth-largest bank in Iran, was also targeted, on the grounds that it "provides support" for Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization. It's as though Chase Manhattan Bank were prohibited from doing business, and had billions of dollars in international assets frozen, on the grounds that one of its clients is Sikorsky Aircraft, which makes military helicopters. This stands in marked contrast to actual targeted sanctions – for example, the boycott of Caterpillar, which makes the bulldozers that are directly used by Israel in the demolition of Palestinian homes.
The United States was also behind UN sanctions that target the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), on the grounds that it arranges shipments of cargo related to the military. But IRISL is also Iran's national shipping line. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, IRISL is "a global operator" that "provides a variety of maritime transport services" of every sort, "connect[ing] Iranian exporters and importers with South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa." And one-third of Iran's GDP consists of exports. To compromise Iran's major shipping lines would do damage far beyond blocking the transport of military items.
Iran's wealth and ingenuity at circumventing the sanctions have largely insulated it against the economic disruption that the sanctions are intended to bring about. But this isn't because the sanctions themselves are actually designed to avoid harming the innocent. To the contrary, they are aimed at undermining massive sectors of Iran's economy, and to the extent that they are successful, their harm will be indiscriminate.
The Problem With Sanctions
Economic sanctions have long been a favorite tool of the United States. From the end of World War II to 1990, the United States imposed two-thirds of all global sanctions, often acting unilaterally. U.S. policymakers were attracted to sanctions because they seem more substantial than "mere diplomacy," but without the risks and costs of military intervention. More importantly, this tool can do enormous harm to a country with a small or vulnerable economy and rarely contain the risk of reciprocal action against the U.S. economy (the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s was such an exception).
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the United States pressed for the imposition of measures that would strangle Iraq's entire economy. When these sanctions were accompanied by the massive bombing campaign in 1991, which destroyed or crippled Iraq's infrastructure, from water treatment plants to roads and bridges, the result was a humanitarian crisis that never really abated. After the bombing, the sanctions prevented Iraq from restoring these capacities. Epidemics of cholera and typhoid continued for years. Malnutrition was widespread, and doctors had to treat diseases typically found in the poorest regions of the developing world. But, as with any economic crisis, the leadership didn't have to suffer the worst of the hardships. The hardest hit were the most vulnerable – the poor, the elderly, the sick, and infants and small children.
Sanctions that affect the fundamental economy of a nation raise questions of basic justice. How was it that an institution of global governance could punish those least responsible for Iraq's military actions and political decisions, while the nation's political and military leadership, along with the economic elite, were insulated against these deprivations? In the face of the humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq, scholars and practitioners began formulating guidelines for "smart sanctions" – sanctions that would affect the political and military leaders without causing indiscriminate harm to the civilian population.
The U.S. measures against Iran, as well as those for which the United States aggressively advocates in international bodies, are no more ethical or persuasive than the devastating sanctions on Iraq. However much U.S. policymakers use lists of particular companies, or use terms like "smart" or "targeted," these measures are designed to cause hardship and deprivation for the innocent.
Truly smart sanctions on Iran wouldn't try to cripple the nation's energy industry, the nation's imports and exports, and the nation's access to the global financial system. Smart sanctions would target things like equipment specifically designed to convert domestic nuclear energy facilities to weapons production. But while the punitive measures continue to expand, the most promising of the diplomatic efforts, such as the compromise shaped by Turkey and Brazil, have been broken off. There may be something better than sanctions, or there may not. But at the very least, the Security Council and the United States should not create a situation that is worse than doing nothing at all.
Reprinted courtesy of Foreign Policy in Focus.


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NEW YORK (AP) — Kellogg's cereal sales are struggling, in part because Special K is falling out of fashion with dieters.
The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, said Thursday that its profit fell 16 percent in the second quarter as its flagship cereal unit continued to suffer.
Cereal sales in the U.S. have been sluggish for some time now, given the ever-expanding number of breakfast options including Greek yogurt, egg sandwiches and even waffle tacos from fast-food chains. But Kellogg is also dealing with problems and missteps specific to some of its most popular brands. The movement away from calorie counting in the dieting world, for instance, has hurt Special K, which over the years had expanded to include everything from snack bars to crackers to frozen waffles. The main selling point for those products has traditionally been that they're relatively low in calories.
In a phone interview, Kellogg CEO John Bryant noted that people are now more interested in foods that provide nutritional benefits, rather than those that simply keep their calorie counts down. It's also why Kellogg has been getting rid of some of its 100-calorie products.
"There's a shift in consumer expectations," Bryant said.
To cater to those changing tastes, Special K has already been rolling out new products, including an instant hot cereal that includes grains such as quinoa. But the efforts haven't yielded a significant impact, with the company reporting a 4.9 percent decline in core sales for its U.S. Morning Foods unit in the latest quarter.
Bryant said Kellogg planned to introduce new Special K products toward the end of the year to address changing nutrition trends, but declined to provide any details.
"I don't want to give my friends in Minneapolis any more help than they need," he said. The comment was a reference to General Mills, which is based in Minneapolis and makes cereals including Cheerios and Lucky Charms.
For the quarter, Kellogg said its profit fell 16 percent. The maker of Special K, Pop Tarts and Pringles lowered its outlook as a result, saying it now expects core sales for the year to decline slightly. It had previously said it expected the figure to rise by 1 percent.
For the quarter ended June 28, the company said net income fell to $295 million, or 82 cents per share. Adjusted for one-time costs, it earned $1.02 per share, in line with Wall Street expectations.
Total revenue declined to $3.69 billion and missed analyst expectations for $3.71 billion, according to Zacks.
Kellogg shares have increased $2.66, or 4.4 percent, to $63.73 since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen 6.6 percent. However, the stock has declined $2.51, or 3.8 percent, in the last 12 months.


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The anti-capitalist rhetoric of certain Republican candidates sounds like it was ripped from the pages of The Nation. Rick Perry's lurid description of "vulture capitalism" could have been cribbed from Alexander Cockburn or any number of other lefty writers. Newt Gingrich, likewise, denounces "crony capitalism" and asks, "Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and then walk off with the money?" Right on, the left shouts. Newt sounds like one of those liberal professors poisoning young minds at elite universities.
The opportunistic cross-dressing by conservatives amounts to a battlefield conversion. Just as it's said there are no atheists in a foxhole, there are no candidates in this year's politics witless enough to stand up and defend the most bloodthirsty tactics of rapacious capitalism. Except one. Mitt Romney, the man the GOP will likely nominate for president. He is the "vulture capitalist" Rick Perry has in mind. Rivals cannot resist attacking Romney's very profitable years running Bain Capital, a private-equity giant that specializes in creative destruction, eliminating jobs and sometimes whole companies to reward investors.
Romney awkwardly tries to explain why firing people can be good for the country. A hard sell, when so many people have been on the receiving end. Barack Obama will no doubt remind voters this fall that whatever anger they feel toward him, Republicans are running a "vulture" for president. How bizarre our politics have become. An Obama-Romney contest might determine which one gets tagged as the Herbert Hoover of this Great Recession.
The opportunism could have serious meaning because it reflects a deeper confusion of purpose and an insecurity in the Republican Party (Democrats have their own confusion, but that's another story). Republicans have worked themselves into an ideological dead end that is untenable as a governing strategy. Reviving hard-nosed laissez-faire doctrine appeals to hard-core right-wingers but says nothing relevant about healing the economy or halting the steady disintegration of the broad middle class.
Some conservative thinkers seem to recognize this. They are floundering in search of alternative thinking, beginning to acknowledge economic and social realities the right has long ignored, even denied (economic injuries the left has addressed for decades). Just as candidate Newt condemns "crony capitalism" and Perry denounces "vultures," historian Francis Fukuyama has abruptly rescinded the happy talk that made him famous twenty years ago. At the end of the cold war, Fukuyama's book The End of History and the Last Man declared that left-right ideological conflicts were over. Liberal democracy had won. It would henceforth prevail around the world.
Hold that prophecy. The professor has issued a sort of retraction (he might say "correction"). His essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, explained that "some very troubling economic and social trends, if they continue, will both threaten the stability of contemporary liberal democracies and dethrone democratic ideology as it is now understood."
Yikes. What trends are those? Global capitalism, he said. Free-trade doctrine and new technology, along with the steady offloading of American jobs, are destroying the middle class—the necessary foundation for democracy in advanced economies. "What if the further development of technology and globalization undermines the middle class and makes it impossible for more than a minority of citizens in an advanced society to achieve middle-class status?" Fukuyama asked.
His alarming observations were picked up by other conservative commentators and treated respectfully, a sign that these anxieties are widely shared. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, longstanding advocate of globalization, embraced Fukuyama's argument. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote with sympathy for the struggling white working class. It votes Republican and gets hammered by corporate capitalists in return.
Fukuyama treats this threat to the middle class as a newly discovered insight, but of course, it is precisely what organized labor and liberal-left critics have been saying for about thirty years. Fukuyama's warning reminded me of a disturbing article by Robert Kuttner I read in 1983 in The Atlantic, "The Declining Middle." Fukuyama's explanation of the economic forces echoes the book I published in 1997, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. Alas, the Stanford historian lacked the grace to acknowledge that he was catching up with the liberal left, essentially confirming our critique. If Fukuyama said so, he would lose membership in the Conservative Thinkers Club.
Nevertheless, I salute Fukuyama for putting some hard truths on the table. His essay will help other conservatives get over the tired bromides about free trade and see through the false claims promoted by the multinationals. The trade issue is at the core of US economic deterioration, yet it is the great silence in the 2012 campaign. It will keep chewing up the American middle class until one party or the other finds the courage to do something about it.


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NEW YORK (AP) - A former teacher, principal and longtime advocate of early childhood education will be the next leader of the nation's largest public school system, New York City's incoming mayor announced Monday.
Carmen Farina, also a former deputy chancellor of city schools, will bring a wealth of insider's experience and fresh ideas to the job, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio said.
"She knows it because she's lived it," he said.
"This is literally one of the most important decisions I'll ever make as mayor and one of the most personal," said de Blasio, whose two children have attended public schools. "Taking on the lives of 1.2 million kids might be one of the most sacred missions in government anywhere in this country."
Farina has been a longtime adviser to de Blasio and helped inform his education platform, including his signature proposal to offer universal pre-kindergarten and expanded after-school programs for middle school students.
At a Brooklyn news conference announcing her appointment, she also talked about her early years as a public school student. She said she was initially treated as if she were invisible, because she was the child of Spanish immigrants and had a last name that was difficult for the teacher to pronounce. (It's fah-REE'-nyah.)
"It's such a privilege to be able to come back to a system that has so much work yet to be done, but to be doing it from a stance of a progressive agenda," Farina said Monday. "We're going to have a system here where parents are real partners."
De Blasio will take office Jan. 1, becoming the first mayor in recent memory to preside over the five boroughs while having a child in public schools.
Farina, 70, will take over the school system at a crucial juncture.
Outgoing Republican-turned-independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg was elected on a campaign promise of being "an education mayor" and dramatically increased government spending on education. But de Blasio, a Democrat, campaigned against many of the policies that Bloomberg championed during his 12 years in office, such as closing schools that are deemed to be failing and boosting the growth of charter schools by giving them free space in public school buildings. De Blasio also has criticized the outgoing administration for being over-reliant on standardized testing.
The transition to a new administration is the first since Bloomberg won mayoral control of the schools in 2002, and de Blasio and Farina would not say what changes they may implement in the middle of a school year.
Farina, the daughter of immigrants from Spain who fled the Franco regime, has held several posts within the city school system. She was once a teacher at Public School 29 in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and later a principal at P.S. 6, a high-achieving school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
It was there that she first met de Blasio. They began working together in 2001 after Farina moved to Brooklyn's District 15 school board, of which de Blasio was a member. De Blasio, who lives in the Park Slope neighborhood, sent both of his children to a school within Farina's district.
She de-emphasized using standardized testing as a major factor in measuring performance, a stance that clashed with the Department of Education's central office. De Blasio has long railed against "teaching to the test."
Farina also created several new, small middle schools within District 15, a tactic de Blasio has praised. The district soon became regarded as one of the most innovative and in the city and one of its schools hosted Monday's press conference.
Farina became deputy chancellor under Joel Klein, Bloomberg's first chancellor. She retired in 2006 but supplied informal guidance to de Blasio's mayoral campaign.
Rumors have swirled that she may only serve a year or two in the post; while she did not specifically pledge Monday to serve four years, she said her commitment to the job was "total" and that she was not doing it part-time.
Many parent groups and education advocates praised the pick, which also received high marks from the teachers union, which often had a contentious relationship with Bloomberg.
"Carmen is a real educator," said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. "She has a deep knowledge of schools and our system, and is on record criticizing Mayor Bloomberg's focus on high stakes testing."
Teachers _ as well every other city worker _ are currently working under expired contracts. Though brokering those agreements will be among de Blasio's first tasks in office, neither he nor Farina would discuss negotiations Monday.
Several charter school advocates offered more measured approval for the selection.
"I know Carmen well and she is an educator who cares," Eva Moskowitz, chief executive of the Success Academy Charter Schools system, said in a statement. "The question is will she protect and expand public charter school options for families who need and are demanding them?"
De Blasio wants to fund his universal pre-kindergarten program by raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, a plan that would need approval by the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They have been noncommittal.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Sana, Yemen – Opposition leaders from Yemen said they planned to travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss an agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council on a timetable for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave office.
Yassin Saeed Noman, the head of a coalition of opposition parties known as the J.M.P., said he and three other opposition leaders would travel to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, to meet with council officials about an initiative discussed earlier this month that calls for Mr. Saleh to transfer presidential powers to his deputy and leave office.
The draft agreement also gives the president and his family immunity from prosecution, presumably to head off a situation similar to that in Egypt, where the military has detained former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons.
Saudi Arabia, Yemen's largest donor, dominates the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional bloc that also includes Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Yemen does not belong to the council.
Senior Yemeni officials have said in recent days that the United States and theEuropean Union are pressing for a plan — in conjunction with the Gulf Cooperation Council — which would have Mr. Saleh hand over his powers immediately and formally leave office within the next three months.
It was not immediately clear whether any Western officials would join the gathering in Riyadh.
J.M.P. leaders have previously insisted they would not meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh unless an agreement on a transfer of power was in place.
One of the opposition leaders, Abdulmalik Almutawakel, said Sunday that the opposition group was not going to Saudi Arabia for "a dialogue," nor would the group compromise on its demands for Mr. Saleh to step down.
The article "Yemeni Opposition Leaders to Confer With Regional Bloc" originally appeared in The New York Times.


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"My students' enthusiasm challenges me to make their virtual classroom as interactive as possible - which is really what any good learning experience is all about." - Dr. Chris Michaelides, Associate Professor of Modern Languages, School of Humanities, College of Arts, Education & Sciences.
With technological advances the gap between nations is becoming smaller and persons who are multilingual will be a targeted audience for employers everywhere. According to Career Builder, whether companies are conducting business overseas or trying to grab a larger market share at home, employers are increasingly seeking out people with the ability to speak and communicate in more than one language. In fact, a recent CareerBuilder.com keyword search turned up more than 6,000 job postings seeking bilingual applicants.
Some career fields that Modern Language majors enter are:
The Modern Languages' department strives to help students who major in French develop their proficiency so that they may demonstrate the following abilities:
Students who have studied a language for two or more years are strongly encouraged to take a credit or placement exam before beginning their language studies at ULM. The placement exam helps students to determine which courses are most suitable to their backgrounds.
To find the curriculum for this degree please view this degree plan.
To find out more information about this degree program please contact Dr. Ruth Smith, email@example.com.
NOTE: Transfer students must have completed a college-level English and a college-level Mathematics course, designed to fulfill general education requirements, with a grade of "C" or higher in both.


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Hands-on with Coaster Crazy - Frontier's latest roller coaster ride
Crazy in love with Frontier's ace new iOS coaster-building title
When it comes to theme park games, no one does 'em quite like Frontier Developments.
With a decade of experience tinkering with the acclaimed Thrillville and Rollercoaster Tycoon franchises under its belt, it's fair to say that what the Frontier team doesn't know about roller coasters isn't worth knowing.
Unbelievably, it's been almost five years since Thrillville: Off The Rails was released, which makes the upcoming arrival of Frontier's next title, Coaster Crazy, even more pressing.
Due for release on iOS platforms "this autumn" (or, fall if you're that way inclined), this freemium title brings the theme park genre to the touchscreen generation, with a wonderfully intuitive interface that lets you draw the puke-inducing tracks of your wicked dreams.
As Frontier CEO David Braben explains, the aim in Coaster Crazy is to make the ultimate coasters, ride them in full 3D, and then make them even better.
Dive inOnce you're fully clued up on the rotate-and-zoom basics of touch-based control, you're ready to dive into one of the game's 30 challenges.
In each of these, one of the game's big-headed, boggle-eyed 'Crazies' will demand that you satisfy his particular needs. So, you have to design that particular course with a set of objectives in mind.
"There's a puzzle element to it," Braben explains, "But, what that's doing is highlighting all the different aspects of the game to satisfy different kinds of people."
"The speed freak just wants fast coasters, whereas the old lady is probably a little bit more timid, so might not like to do loop the loops or something like that," chief creative officer Johnny Watts says.
"What ends up happening is that you have to balance their needs, and that's where the challenge comes in - making sure that you have a coaster that satisfies whoever's sitting in the car," Watts adds.
Breakfast time, again
In addition, you have to be mindful of keeping overall excitement levels as high as possible, while also ensuring that your passengers don't regurgitate this morning's breakfast en route.
But, the watchword of Coaster Crazy is undeniably 'accessibility', as Braben says. "It's the whole pick-up-and-play thing. You can have the game in front of you, and literally a few minutes later you're comfortably making quite impressive coasters given how little you knew only a minute earlier."
It's a point that Frontier chief operating officer David Walsh picks up on: "I think every roller coaster game that we've made has always been a progression to accessibility, and we've put a ton of work into this game. I think we've got a new type of coaster game."
As a result of this "sweet" accessibility, Coaster Crazy will be a tinkerer's paradise, OCD types will be pleased to learn. "It's surprising how rewarding tinkering is, just to get that slightly higher score," Braben says.
"You can just draw the shape you want, and you can adjust it after the event. This way, you can get very very close to do what you want. You can say, 'I want that bank a tiny bit steeper, or just that little bit faster down there'. So that you get the timing just so," he adds.
Online envy
But, these fine adjustments won't just help you obtain a better score - they'll make you the envy of your friends, thanks to the game's online leaderboards.
Furthermore, you will be able to download and ride one another's coasters to find out exactly how your buddy managed to pull off such feats of physics, and then go back and keep tinkering with your own creation until you're happy with it.
Like any socially minded game these days, you'll also gain financial benefits from visiting and riding one another's creations.
The whole process of creating coasters is remarkably straightforward. Laying down tracks is as simple as just drawing whatever circuit you want with your index finger - a process that takes seconds.
And once you've got the basic shape down, all that's required is for you to make simple adjustments by touching the relevant on-screen icons, such as height or banking angle.
The genius of this approach means anyone can do it, and it makes it nigh-on foolproof. The way the game's automatic camera zooms out to give you the best possible view when you're building takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you're doing, too. As a result, the incessant tinkering required to make a profitable, successful coaster becomes a fun part of the process, rather than a tedious, fiddly chore.
Wild woodAccording to Watts, Coaster Crazy will also boast a fair bit of depth and longevity beyond solving the game's challenges.
"Once you've completed [certain] levels, it unlocks new types of coaster. Then, you can go through those levels again building your wooden coasters - [these] are a little bit trickier to build because the cars can't stay on the track round some of the tight corners, and so you have to tweak all your designs and things like that, so the complexity gradually increases," Watt says.
The game will also deliver a series of daily challenges. "These can be anything from building a coaster of X length, or using a certain special piece," Watts adds.
Money talksSince Coaster Crazy is a freemium game, Frontier is acutely aware that it needs to strike a fine balance between actually monetising the game and providing enough content for players to happily part with their cash when required.
"When you play a game and fall in love with it, you want to be able to play it," Braben says.
"If you compare some of the games out there, things like DragonVale, for example, what I like about those is although it is monetised, it's not in your face. So, there's a delicate balance.
"But, ultimately, from the perspective of a developer, we need to be able to make money from it, so we're doing it in a way that is most comfortable for the user, and happens at a time when the user is happy to pay.
"I mean, I certainly am happy once I've got a lot out of the game. Some games I play an awful lot and think, 'Oh, I haven't paid anything yet'. There's a balance there and I'm hoping we will get it right and it's not in your face, so that a lot of people will play," Braben adds.
With Coaster Crazy entering its final few weeks of iOS development, thoughts are already turning towards porting it to other platforms. Although Braben stopped short of confirming it for Android, he did state, "If it's successful [on iOS], obviously we'll look elsewhere."
Coaster Crazy is coming to iOS platforms "before Christmas". Check back soon for more news on Frontier's new title.
In the meantime, watch our video interview with the entire Frontier team below. And watch our one-on-one interview with David Braben just below that:


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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: The Moon's shadow raced across planet Earth on January 15. Observers within the central shadow track were able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon's apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun. A visually dramatic ring of fire, the annular phase lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds depending on location, the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. This picture of the Moon's silhouette just before mid-eclipse was taken within the eclipse path from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India. The telescopic image was made through a filter that blocks most visible light, but still transmits light from hydrogen atoms. As a result, detailed mottling, or granulation, caused by heat convection in the Sun's atmosphere can be seen around the dark lunar disk.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
Specific rights apply.
NASA Web
Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of:
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& Michigan Tech. U.


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Towing with a Honda Element
I have a 2004 Honda Element EX AWD and love it. I'd like to purchase a small trailer for it to separately transport a small 11-foot sailboat, a John Deere lawn tractor, or lumber, drywall, etc. My questions about towing with it are three-fold: 1) Is the 1,500 pound maximum noted in the owner's manual absolute?; 2) What has your experience been in towing with the Element?; and 3) What challenges, if any, have you experienced in purchasing a non-Honda towing kit and having it installed outside the Honda-dealer network? Thank you.
elementman Member Posts: 11I have a 2006 EX-P AWD Automatic with a dealer installed hitch. I tow a utility trailer that weighs about 850# empty. I can load it with a Polaris quad and some camping gear and the car tows heavy but stable. I've made short hauls (30 miles) with 1 to 1.2 ton loads of river rock - totaling almost 3,000 pounds. Again, the car felt heavy, and I stopped carefully, but it got the job done. Regular trips to Home Depot with lumber and concrete are not a problem. I'm not making recommendations, only sharing personal experiences. My hitch, by the way, is the new (looks like) one inch square tube, not the traditional size. Looks puny, but seems to work OK.0
bft4x4 Member Posts: 12I have a 05 EX AWD. I have two Honda Rincon ATVs that weigh 600lb each. I have towed them so it probably exceeds the limit with the trailer. I had the factory hitch installed when I purchased the E. I laughed at the 'puny' size when I picked it up. I use an extension on the hitch to attach the 2" ball. Of course stopping and climbing steep grades is an issue. I do not feel comfortable doing this all the time so I may have to break down and buy a more suitable truck or SUV. I wish Honda made a bigger E with a V6 and that would solve all towing issues. A small trailer with a boat will be fine.0
fred102 Member Posts: 1I have an element and I need to tow my 19 ft boat. Do you think it is going to be an error? Let me know/0
soloboss Member Posts: 22007 EX Manual, 4wd. I've towed my 5 x 10 aluminum trailer with a TroyBuilt 6.5 hp chipper shredder on it at 60 mph. I tow that 100 miles each way with no problems at all. I have towed my 670 pound motorcycle for short hauls easily and I loaded my Triumph Spitfire (1500lb sports car) on that trailer and hauled it 40 miles at interstate speeds. That was not a good idea. It handled the car well enough but there was clearly no reserve for stopping or handling in an emergency. As others have said, overloads seem to be OK with due care and low speeds. Notice that this same vehicle in Australia tows 3000lb. But in AU the law requires trailer brakes and that's a good idea at 3000 lb.
I'm looking for advice from someone concerning a long tow. I want to take my 670 lb motorcycle to Florida from NE Indiana. That's nearly 1100 pounds. I'll watch my tongue weight carefully even if I have to move my trailer axle a bit. The E turns about 3400 rpm at 70 mph and I can pull the grades in TN and KY in 4th if I have to. I need to weigh the entire gross package to ensure I am within the limits of the E.
comments are welcome. Soloboss0 -
elaine101 Member Posts: 1I would like to tow my 13' Scamp camper that weighs 1200 pounds with a 2004 Honda Element that only has two wheel drive. Can this work? Does it matter if a car has 2wd or 4wd as long as it has enough power to tow a vehicle? Thank you.0
elementman Member Posts: 11Hello. I don't speak from a whole lot of knowledge, but I will offer an opinion. I've towed an 800 pound trailer with everything in it from Quads to canoes to camping gear to rocks and building supplies. I've towed from 40 miles to 400 miles, up hills and down. My gross towed weight has run anywhere from 900 pounds (nearly empty) to 3000 pounds (one ton of river rock). At 3000 pounds I feel real heavy. I drive slow, watch the road carefully and allow lots of room for stopping. I wouldn't want to be that heavy on long trips. But at, say, 1500 pounds I don't seem to have any issues. Other than climbing, which will obviously require lower gears depending on grade. I'd hook up the trailer and take it for a few spins. Try driving on the same type of roads you will be traveling on longer distances and see how it feels. If the car handles safely and pulls OK I'd guess you would be OK on a weekend outing. Just feel the car and don't exceed common sense. Don't stop fast, don't drive too fast, etc. Try a few hard stops in a short trip to get the feel. Like I said, just an opinion. As for 4WD and 2WD, the only difference I see would be traction for pulling. 4WD is safer on ice and rain, certainly on mud and sand. Avoid roads where you could get stuck, or take them with caution. Steve0
el_tigre Member Posts: 4And, after the accident in which someone is killed or seriously injured, you will tell the court that you justified towing overweight because...0
foggymountain Member Posts: 1For anyone reading these posts on towing with a Honda Element I wanted to share that our experience has been very disappointing. We have a 2007 2wd and tow a 1300lbs Fleetwood Cobalt popup. I weighed the contents of the additional cargo in the camper to make sure that it did not exceed the 1500lb E tow limit. We have trailer brakes (and braking/control was not a problem because of the trailer brakes) The E struggled pathetically towing the popup over mountain passes in Colorado (like VW van struggled if you've been lucky enough to experience that). The engine got hot and I had to pull over and let it cool down on more than one occasion. The absolute worst problem though, was the lack of traction. If you plan on pulling anything with the E on gravel roads (think all those forest service campground roads), on muddy roads, on ANYTHING but asphalt or concrete pavement---forget it.
I wish that I would have known this before purchasing the E as we needed our 'new' car to be able to do double duty as the tow vehicle--I still would buy an Element because other than NOT being a good tow capable vehicle, it's a great car. I'll have to go back to the drawing board to find another vehicle with good gas mileage for towing the popup on those camping trips out West. Maybe a Suburu Outback??0 -
morin2 Member Posts: 399FWD vehicles do not make good tow vehicles. Its simple physics. The trailer tongue weight raises the front drive wheels - exactly the opposite effect that you want for your drive wheels. Traditional rear wheel drive (RWD), all-wheel drive (AWD) or traditional part-time 4WD are all better options. Personally, I would not tow without a true limited slip rear differential. I own a subaru outback which is rated to tow 2700 lbs - but I don't tow with it. I tow with a full-size v-8 Ford pickup with true limited slip.
Its not specifically the fault of the E, especially the 2wd version, that it is a poor choice for towing. Its no better or worse than any 4 cyl minivan for that purpose. My son owns an AWD E and I would highly recommend against towing with this vehicle. Its low HP, small brakes (fine for normal driving but not for towing), and unibody construction are all negatives for towing.
I hypermile with my 09 Outback and get great mpg. Its rated at 20/26, but I've averaged 29.7 for the first 37K miles, ranging from a low of 25 to a high of 34. But few people drive like this (I coast & rarely touch the brakes). If towing, and I would not recommend it for towing long distance, I would expect the mpg to drop like a rock (maybe 16-18 mpg). Remember that you must not tow in overdrive or without a trans cooler or you will cook your transmission. And it will be considered abuse - not covered under warranty.
I do not recommend towing with your E. But if you insist on doing it, then you can look into reducing the trailer tongue weight (weigh it first with a bathroom scale). The easiest way to do that is to move the trailer axle forward. But you have to be very careful because shifting the load may increase the tendency for the trailer to fish-tail. And you'll need to have an auxiliary transmission cooler installed at the very least and not use 5th gear.0 -
el_tigre Member Posts: 4I tow a Trillium Travel Trailer with my 2000 Subaru Outback with manual xmission and average 19.8 mpg. The Subaru is rated at 2000# and I probably fill that out. The trailer follows like it is on rails. Of course I keep the speed down. In CA you are limited when towing to 55mph and I usually follow the truck speed limit or less. Of course I am retired and usually don't have a strict schedule to follow when traveling like I did when I worked.0
This discussion has been closed.


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It's been a long day, and I still have to head out to see some folks for dinner, so I won't have time for a long write-up until tomorrow at the earliest. But here are some early reactions to what Apple announced today.
Dominant. Apple controls 73.4 percent of the market for MP3 players in the United States, roughly equivalent to IE's Web browser share. Apple has sold over 160 million iPods since 2001. And customers have downloaded over 100 million iPhone apps from the App Store in just two months. (OK, most were free.)
Incremental. It's official, folks. The iPod market is now mature. There wasn't a single major announcement at today's event. Nothing. If you think that's bad, though, look at the Zune: They had Apple right where they wanted them (i.e. with nothing cool to announce) and couldn't even pull a new device out of its hat. Sigh.
"New" iPod nano. Or as I call it, the second-generation iPod mini. Or the second coming of the first generation nano. Or Apple's version of the flash-based Zune. Whatever you call it, one thing is clear: Last year's "fattie" iPod nano was clearly not the success they were looking for. Back to the drawing boards. Oh, I do like the colors though. And the accelerometer is interesting. Why isn't it in the classic?
"New" iPod touch. OK, they lowered the price. And they added back iPhone features like a speaker and external volume toggles that quite frankly should have been there in the first place. Do we salute Apple for that? No. No, we don't.
iPod classic. Now even more classic than last year. It wasn't changed at all beyond a new 120 GB hard drive option. Yawn.
iTunes 8. Now more like Windows Media Player than ever. This is the one I need to spend the most time with, but it looks very incremental. I like that HD content is now available on the iTunes Store. Are there new HD iPod profiles out there for QuickTime now?
NBC shows are back. I love this one, and it's another example of Apple being the bad guy. A year ago, NBC left iTunes because Apple wouldn't give them the variable pricing they wanted. Apple claimed (and its closest iCabal fanatics parroted) that NBC just wanted to sell TV shows for more than $1.99. But that wasn't true: They wanted to sell older shows for just 99 cents per episode. And longer, mini-series-type shows for $2.99. Now, in the words of the New York Times, "both sides now say they got what they wanted." Put another way, Apple caved to NBC's reasonable and customer-centric demands and NBC got what it wanted. Bravo.
iPhone software update 2.1. It wasn't cool when the original iPhone 2.0 software was so buggy it made us yearn for the days of Macintosh System 6. It was equally uncool when version 2.0.1 didn't fix any of the serious problems. And it was even more uncool when 2.0.2 didn't just not fix the biggest problems, but it introduced its own new problems. Now, Apple is claiming that iPhone 2.1 will solve the problems. I don't believe them. And I'd really like to know why my iPhone isn't updating to this new version right now.
Apple TV. What? Nothin'?
Steve Jobs' health. It's unfunny when you repeat a tired joke, Mr. Jobs, but we're glad you're OK. No, we really are.
Oh, and one more thing. There was no one more thing. And that stinks. Because these announcements don't amount to much more than a cheerleading session for continued dominance.
Off to dinner. More tomorrow...


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Luxury made personal.
L'Occitane wins customer loyalty by making email and direct mail more personalised with Adobe Campaign.
Response rate
to Black Friday campaigns, increasing website traffic and driving sales
Increase customer loyalty by engaging customers with personalised interactions
Differentiate from competitors by telling a powerful brand story
Enable marketers to deploy smarter, targeted email campaigns quickly
Build customer-focused campaigns to support key sales events
14% response rate to Black Friday campaigns, increasing website traffic and driving sales
99% delivery success rate on over 4 million emails sent to its most loyal, high-value customers on Black Friday
Drives customer loyalty through personalisation instead of discounts
Accelerates email development and delivery, enabling marketers to spend more time on strategy
A beauty brand gets personal
L'Occitane is well known for its high-quality, luxury items naturally sourced from southern France, including lavender, immortelle and almond, to name a few. As a premium brand, the company has learnt that offering consumers discounts may result in short-term sales, but it does little to win loyalty.
"Running promotions with unqualified customers results in one-time purchases from people looking for discounts," says Anahita Besson, Director, Customer Loyalty at L'Occitane. "It's not a successful long-term strategy for a luxury brand, so we shifted our strategy away from aggressive promotions to a more personalised, targeted approach."
L'Occitane wanted to establish a personal connection with customers and build loyalty by reminding them about everything from its quality, naturally sourced ingredients and sustainable practices to its work with women in Burkina Faso, West Africa. By weaving personalisation and storytelling into emails, the company aims to strengthen customer loyalty, drive repeat business and set itself apart from competitors.
Adobe Campaign, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, plays an important role in the new strategy, helping L'Occitane bring dynamic content into its email and direct mail campaigns. For example, an email might highlight the top three products a customer viewed on the website the previous day. Or the content could be geography-specific or seasonal, recommending winter beauty routines for a customer in New York.
"Adobe Campaign gives us a competitive edge in the luxury beauty industry," says Besson. "Other brands may blanket customers with aggressive offers, but we can be more targeted—taking the time to understand who customers are and giving them exactly what they want."
"Through Adobe Campaign, we can show our customers that we know who they are and that we're listening, with the goal of strengthening loyalty."
Anahita Besson
Director, Customer Loyalty, L'Occitane
Taking a fresh approach to campaigns
Consumers are drawn to brands with a story to tell and are delighted by companies that understand their needs. L'Occitane uses Adobe Campaign to do just that—gain a deeper understanding of customers and bring them into the narrative.
"We use Adobe Campaign to view customer purchase history, website behaviour and targeting criteria," explains Besson. "If we launch a new product, for example, we can see which customers expressed an interest or even made a purchase, as well as the recency and frequency that they engage with content. This sets us up for more focused targeting."
Since adding personalised content to the mix, L'Occitane has seen a steady uptick in click-through rates to the website. The email marketing team worked closely with the web team to create a seamless experience that moves customers smoothly from email to landing page to purchase.
L'Occitane received a strong response when it launched a new "year in review" email. Customers received a personalised snapshot of their activity over the past 12 months with up to 7 different data points, including purchases and favourite product categories.
"We saw such big returns from this personalised email, with an influx of clicks, visits and overall engagement," Besson says. "Through Adobe Campaign, we can show our customers that we know who they are and that we're listening, with the goal of strengthening loyalty."
L'Occitane also ran successful holiday campaigns throughout December, incorporating elements such as dynamic first-name personalisation, weather-related content, boutique locators, live polls and countdowns. On Black Friday, the company worked with Adobe to deploy over 4 million emails to customers and prospects, with 99% of them successfully delivered. The team achieved an open rate of 12.85% and a response rate of 13.87%, increasing traffic to the website and driving sales.
Rejuvenating the email marketing team
With limited resources on its email marketing team, L'Occitane needed an efficient way to manage a large number of complex and highly personalised email campaigns. In the past, the team juggled the full scope of tasks—everything from strategy to production, testing and deployment. Team members were often sidetracked by technical challenges, which kept them from focusing on the crucial work of designing the customer journey.
Now, L'Occitane works with Adobe Customer Solutions and personalisation agency Movable Ink to pull it all together, launching complex campaigns in weeks rather than months. Adobe provides the technical expertise to help set up campaigns quickly, establishing the right data connections and target audiences, while Movable Ink designs a cohesive customer experience.
"Having Adobe Customer Solutions on board allowed us to focus on strategy and stop worrying about the technical pieces, which improves operational efficiency and reduces the risk of error," says Besson.
"With more than 200 locations in the U.S., shops are our top channel for recruiting customers. Using Adobe Campaign, we're working on a highly competitive loyalty programme to attract customers and keep them engaged both in shops and online."
Anahita Besson
Director, Customer Loyalty, L'Occitane
A healthy glow
Early success with Adobe Campaign has encouraged L'Occitane to think big. For example, the company plans to launch a cross-channel loyalty program that creates a compelling, unbroken customer experience from brick-and-mortar shops to email and direct mail.
Besson says, "With more than 200 locations in the U.S., shops are our top channel for recruiting customers. Using Adobe Campaign, we're working on a highly competitive loyalty programme to attract customers and keep them engaged both in shops and online."
Across L'Occitane, other email marketing teams have taken notice, planting the seeds for a companywide shift toward greater personalisation. "The U.S. team is leading the company in personalisation," says Besson. "Other teams want us to share what we've learnt, including the efficiencies and successes we've had with Adobe Campaign."


text: Coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 on October 19, and then for Wii on December 2008. PressRelease: October 16, 2008 – Harmonix, the world's premier music video game development company, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom's MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that Rock Band 2 for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system will be available on October 19, 2008. In addition, Rock Band 2 for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and the Wii home videogame console from Nintendo will ship in December 2008. In addition, the Rock Band 2 Special Edition Bundle for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft will also be available on retail shelves October 19, 2008. Rock Band 2 Shipping and Pricing Information: October 19, 2008 Rock Band 2 Special Edition Bundle (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system) $189.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Software (PlayStation 3 system) $59.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Drums (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 systems) $89.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Guitar (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 systems) $69.99 MSRP December 2008 Rock Band 2 Standalone Software (PlayStation 2 system) $49.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Software (Wii) $49.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Drums (Wii) $89.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Standalone Guitar (Wii) $69.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 Special Edition Bundle (Wii) $189.99 MSRP Rock Band 2 for Wii, developed by Pi Studios under the direction of Harmonix, will be fully featured with online modes including World Tour and Battle of the Bands, an innovative character creator, weekly downloadable content and more! With more than 100 songs [1] on the Rock Band 2 Wii soundtrack and an additional 30 downloadable tracks [2] available for purchase at launch, Rock Band 2 Wii owners will have access to the most impressive music catalogue for a music-based videogame on the console. In addition, fans can expect a roll-out of the current downloadable content offering every week until the entire back catalogue is available. In addition, Rock Band 2 owners (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii) will have the ability to export their in-game band avatars to RockBand.com to use as profile images as well as order custom Rock Band merchandise including apparel and figurines. Rock Band 2 for Xbox 360 was released on September 14, 2008, and has received numerous editor's choice awards and a combined metacritic score of 93. Rock Band 2 has revolutionized music gaming with the ability to export most of the songs from the original Rock Band disc [3], Online World Tour, daily Battle-Of-The-Bands Tournaments, Auto-Calibration to eliminate TV lag, wireless drums, quieter, velocity sensitive drum heads, support for up to three cymbals (sold separately), No Fail Mode, and a real Drum Trainer. Rock Band 2 features the largest music catalogue of any music-based videogame to date including over 100 songs [4] on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack with an unrivaled blend of classic and new artists including AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, Motörhead and more! With the addition of complete and immediate backwards compatibility for songs purchased from Rock Band's ever-expanding online music store and the ability to export most songs from the original Rock Band disc, the Rock Band music library will feature more than 500 songs [5] by year's end. The Rock Band online music store recently surpassed 21 million paid downloads since the game's launch in late November 2007. With more than 400 tracks available to date via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks at http://www.rockband.com/dlc), the massive Rock Band Music Store allows players to preview and purchase downloadable individual music tracks, packs and albums from the vast selection of offerings available as they build their own custom Rock Band library. Rock Band 2 is rated "T" for Teen with descriptors of lyrics and suggestive themes by the ESRB. |


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DIY tips
Repainting the walls is the obvious answer, but repainting the interior woodwork can make just as much of a difference, especially if it's seen better days. If white solvent-based paint has been used on your home's woodwork, which is usually the case, it will have discoloured over time - sometimes only in a matter of months.
Wood paints were traditionally gloss, but these days lower-sheen satinwood and eggshell are more fashionable finishes - shiny woodwork isn't the done thing any more.
As well as specific wood (and metal) paints, you can get multi-surface paints, which are really useful because they can be used on walls and ceilings as well as wood and metal, ideal if you're painting where a skirting board or doorframe joins the wall, for example. These multi-surface paints are becoming increasingly popular - B&Q does a good own-brand one and even Crown Kitchen & Bathroom emulsion comes into this category.
In addition to causing discolouration, solvent-based wood paints have other disadvantages. They often dry slowly so it can take days to do the job, give off fumes, are prone to runs and drips (although non-drip versions are available) and are hard to get off your skin, clothes, carpets and anything else you get them on accidentally - even the paintbrush is hard to clean.
Because of these problems, I would recommend using water-based wood paints. These dry quickly, even at this time of year, and although you need to do quite a few coats, the paint goes on more easily than solvent-based alternatives and becomes easier and quicker to apply the more coats you do.
You rarely get a run with water-based wood paints, and they're relatively easy to clean off. They also give off fewer fumes and are better for the environment because they contain fewer harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Best of all, white water-based wood paint will stay white for years, long after a solvent-based one would have changed colour, so you won't have to repaint nearly as often.
Filler, sandpaper and paint can work wonders with woodwork that seems beyond repair, but if you do have to replace the wood, make sure you seal the knots (with knotting solution) in the new (bare) wood first to ensure that the resin in them doesn't bleed through and ruin your paintwork.
It's also essential to use wood primer - again, a water-based one is your best bet - on bare wood, or wood primer/undercoat, which obviously saves you time compared to using separate products.
It's a good idea to apply this to previously painted wood, too, because it helps the topcoat to adhere better, so it should last longer.


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The AskMen Shop: Unique Grooming Products
These Innovative Grooming Products Are Sure To Shake Up Your Morning Routine
The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.
If you haven't checked it out yet, listen up: we've recently launched our first online store, the AskMen Shop — where our goal is to round up all the coolest gear for guys in one place at comfortable price points. From EDC essentials and the latest drones to tech and boozy accessories, we've got you covered on all fronts.
This week, we're honing in on all things grooming: but not your average dopp kit and beard trimmer. We've scoured the net for the latest in grooming essentials. We're talking anything from beer-based soaps (yes, seriously) to a case that both stores and sanitizes your razors. The best part? They're almost exclusively made in the USA — so you can feel good about buying local products without breaking the bank.
Beer'd Conditioner & Brew Soap
Who says beer has to reserved for evenings and weekends? Meet Redbeard. The all-natural soaps and grooming products are handcrafted using hops oils and leaves and then topped off with rosemary and cedarwood. Though you'll smell more like a dewy mountain than a frothy brew — you'll still reap all the benefits of hops.
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Flyt Solo Stand
It's high time to finally get rid of that unsightly cup you've been using to store your everyday toiletries. The Flyt Solo Stand is a small, aluminum holder that'll keep your razor or toothbrush upright — just like a cup would. Instead, the Solo Stand offers a sleek aerospace grade aluminum make that'll add a touch of sophistication to any bathroom sink. Plus, it's designed and crafted in the USA.
$19.99 at Shop.AskMen.com
Crux Deluxe Shaving Kit
Made entirely in the USA, this deluxe shaving kit has everything the modern man needs for a great shave. All of the products — from the shave soap to the boar bristle brush — are made with all natural, organic ingredients and store comfortably in the French-inspired nylon pouch.
$79.99 at Shop.AskMen.com
Clean Shave Razor Sanitizer
While you may be tempted to rinse and drop your razor on the side of the sink until your next shave, doing so creates the perfect germ breeding zone. Instead, skip the bugs with the UV-blasting storage case that'll kill up to 99% of harmful germs — like E. coli and salmonella — while also protecting your blades for later use.
$19.99 at Shop.AskMen.com
Roam Personal Grooming Collection
Whether you like having your grooming supplies all in one place, or you need a grooming kit to finish off your go-bag, this 12-tool set is right up your alley. It packs everything from razors and clippers to a lint brush and a sewing kit. What's more, it's all organized neatly in a sleek, vegan leather case for easy travel.
$32.99 at Shop.AskMen.com
Razor Comb
Great for the guy on the go, this handsome razor comb is the epitome of style meets function. Made from top quality walnut finish and real Italian leather, it'll ensure the hair's still good from morning to night.
$29.99 at Shop.AskMen.com
For more unique grooming products, gear and tech be sure to check back to the AskMen Shop in full.
guy gear


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Craven County has 564 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 11:00 a.m. on July 23, 2020. Out of the 564 confirmed positive cases, 467 of those individuals have recovered, are doing well, and are out of isolation. The recovered cases completed the necessary isolation requirement and have been free of COVID-19 symptoms for at least 72 hours. Of the 564 cases, 12 have been related to out of state travel, 123 are from community transmission, 406 are a direct contact with a previously confirmed positive case, and 23 are still being investigated. There have been eight deaths related to COVID-19. Eight of the active COVID-19 cases are currently hospitalized.
Craven County citizens are encouraged to use reputable sources of information to learn more about COVID-19 cases in Craven County and North Carolina. Reputable sources of information include the Craven County Health Department and NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) websites. When using the NCDHHS COVID-19 site to stay up to date, please keep in mind that county case numbers may change once residency is verified. Therefore, the total number on the county map may differ from the number of Craven County Cases.
Total Confirmed Cases Craven County
Active Cases
Craven County
Currently Hospitalized
*of active cases
The Craven County Health Department works with state, commercial, and private labs to track the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Craven County. Health care providers determine which lab they send their COVID-19 tests to. There are multiple hospital and commercial labs that conduct COVID-19 tests. These labs manage their own supplies and operate independently from the Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health.
Craven County will continue to track and post the number of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases; however, it is important to recognize there are many people with COVID-19 who will not be included in daily counts of laboratory-confirmed cases, including:
The number of laboratory-confirmed cases will increasingly provide a limited picture of the spread of infections in Craven County as COVID-19 becomes more widespread and the number of infected people who are not included in the daily counts of laboratory-confirmed cases increases.