text:
Some foods you eat with your eyes. Some dishes you smell before you see them. This one we heard. We'd finished off the beets, a smoky dish to convert a carnivore: bloodred beetroots charred in the dying embers of the fireplace, a spoonful of cream laced with vinegar-fermented beer, a few dark drops of sweet birch syrup, scattered shavings of dried cod roe for salty depth. The plates were cleared and a sated calm settled over the room. The civilized clink-clink-murmur-murmur of happy diners toasting their own good taste and good fortune at finding themselves here in this warmly lit old barn in the untrammeled meadows of Järpen, in northwestern Sweden.
Then the commotion began and we all turned to look. At the center of the room, two cooks in white were bent over a giant bone. It looked to have been salvaged from a Swedish stegosaurus but was actually an old cow's shinbone. The cooks swayed back and forth, pulling on a two-man saw to cut the big shin in half. Loudly.
Now that he had our attention, chef Magnus Nilsson scooped warm marrow from the bone and set a bit of it in a bowl for each of the diners. He added diced beef heart, red and raw. Over this he shaved a carrot and sprinkled green sage salt. We spooned it onto toasts and the room went silent again.
The sawing and scraping was a nice piece of dinner theater, perfectly in keeping with the unadulterated aesthetic of Fäviken Magasinet, Nilsson's remarkable, deservedly talked-about restaurant set on 20,000 acres of farmland far from just about anything. With the food world's attention turned from the far-out foams and spheres of the late, great El Bulli to the more earthbound edible-dirt and hyperlocal naturalistic style of René Redzepi's Noma in Copenhagen, Scandinavia is the place that food trackers are looking to for signs of what comes next. So when Redzepi—who pretty much single-handedly created and continues to define the template for modern Nordic cooking—told me: "If I had a chance to go anywhere in the world right now, I would go to Fäviken," that settled that.
In early May, I spent a few days in Copenhagen getting current with the latest crop of restaurants opened by former staff and friends of Noma (highlights: baby pig with caramelized kohlrabi at Geist; a bar snack of chewy dried sunchokes with foamy mustard at Relæ). For old-school reference, I took Redzepi's advice and had lunch at Schønnemann, a 19th-century dining room specializing in Danish smørrebrød, the elaborately topped open-face sandwiches. Now I was ready to head north to Sweden to see what the future of Scandinavian food was all about. To get there, I flew to Trondheim, Norway, and drove east for a couple of hours over still-snowy mountain roads. There are many MOOSE X-ING signs. Nobody warns you about the darting furry lemmings until it's too late. Near the Swedish ski resort of Åre, I turned onto what seemed sure to be the wrong-way road to nowhere and, after a few passes, found the sheep-dotted fields of Fäviken. The next big thing turns out to be really, really small: Fäviken has 12 seats. It's dinner-only, unless you're staying the night in one of the six lodge rooms on the property (and you should—where else would you go?), in which case Nilsson will set out lunch on a picnic table: slices of his cured ham, a jar of carrots pickled in whey, a loaf of homemade brown bread, and a yellow hunk of salty butter.
To understand what makes this tiny, remote restaurant relevant to any discussion about the bigger world of current kitchen catchwords (local, seasonal, sustainable) and the evolution of restaurants in general, it's best to follow the soft-spoken Nilsson as he makes his rounds on the property. After lunch, we walked to a pond where he'd rigged up a kind of permanent fishing pole: two bobbing hooks attached to a rope drawn across the water by a pulley system. That morning he'd caught a trout, which he would grill over birch coals for our dinner. The quietly intense chef might believe in a bit of drama in the dining room, but Nilsson has little time for the parlor tricks of molecular cuisine. He eschews the laboratory precision of sous vide , preferring the open flames of the large grill he built in his kitchen. "I don't even allow any thermometers," he says. "You have to develop your own sense of cooking and touch and smell."
Nilsson, 27, grew up near here, a region with closer ties in some ways to neighboring Norway than to the rest of Sweden. He went to Paris and climbed the ranks under Alain Passard at L'Arpège and Pascal Barbot at L'Astrance, both Michelin three-starred restaurants. Then he moved back to Sweden and fell out of love with cooking. He found the produce lackluster, industrial, uninspiring. "Plus, everything I did looked like Pascal's dishes," he says. "It wasn't my cooking." He stopped for a couple of years and trained to be a sommelier, thinking he might become a wine journalist.
Then two things happened that brought him back to the stove. First, Redzepi's model of homegrown cuisine at Noma expanded the idea of what Scandinavian food could be. Instead of looking to the great dining rooms of France or Spain for direction, chefs in Stockholm and Copenhagen turned their attention to what was (literally) growing in their backyards. Next, Nilsson was brought on to help organize the wine collection of Fäviken's new owners, who bought the 19th-century property in 2003. Little by little he got involved in the food, finding new inspiration by unlearning old habits. He took over the kitchen in 2008. Eventually he began leaving the kitchen to walk through the forest. He talked a dairy farmer into selling him an old milking cow, a generally disregarded animal that produced the deeply, complexly flavorful meat he wanted to eat. He met an eccentric man down the road who raised chickens and ducks. He noodled around with old pickling techniques using alcoholic vinegar. "In France, when I used alcoholic vinegar for quick-pickling, people thought I was a bit crazy," Nilsson says with a little smile. "In the rest of the world, it is really only used for cleaning furniture."
Nilsson stopped and plucked a few nettle leaves from underfoot. What makes Fäviken special, what gets chefs like Redzepi excited about the place, isn't just the extreme localness of the ingredients (Nilsson basically doesn't use anything he can't get from the farm or pull from nearby waters, barring sugar from Denmark, salt from France, his beloved alcoholic vinegar— and the occasional pineapple he smuggles in for a staff-meal pizza). What's unusual about the project is the category-defying personal nature of the food and the extraordinary care and attention Nilsson brings to getting it onto the plate. Those nettles would appear in a pork broth alongside tiny raw mussels and gently poached homemade cheese curd. It's a wonderful soup—brightly briny-meaty, filtered through lichens, and tasting of, as the chef says, "the forest floor." And like so many of the tastes that evening—trout roe in dark cups of a pastry made with pig's blood; a beautiful specimen of a scallop served over still-smoking juniper embers, its natural juices drained, filtered, and added back to the muscle—its reference points are hard to locate. He's not making Pascal Barbot's food anymore.
"Noma opened the door for the rest of us," Nilsson says. "From our generation there have been a lot of chefs working abroad and coming back and having their own ideas about how to do things. The standard question is: Do you feel a part of the 'new Nordic cuisine'? In my opinion it doesn't exist. But all this attention is good because it allows a lot of talented individuals to develop their own specific, unique kitchens." What puts Nilsson at the head of the class of the Nordic Primitives (a name I just made up) is that he's so far removed from his peers.
Up in this uncelebrated corner of big-sky Sweden is a quietly confident chef who, if the snow is not too deep, spends two hours a day walking with his dog through forests and over hills, picking up dandelions and clover and wild onions. He slaughters his own animals and ages the meat, covered in caul fat, for months and months, until the chops of his old cows develop a flavor as prickly on the tongue as good blue cheese. He butchers a couple of pigs once a year and hangs the hams to dry in the dining room. Are the primal techniques and the studied obscurity of the ingredients just another kind of faddish cooking trend? Does it matter? The hams taste great.
Here's the paradox: What makes Fäviken exciting for food in general is its very specificity. Among his peers, Nilsson's is perhaps the food that tastes most like itself; the product of its en-vironment, guided along by a chef who's liberated from outside influences. The example for other chefs is not to copy the food but to emulate the approach: Look around, find your own way.
"I would like to see if people can mind their own restaurants a little more," Nilsson says, "to see what they are good at and to find the possibilities in their surroundings instead of looking so much at what's interesting at the moment."
After dinner service, we retire to the fireplace. "Would you like some duck-egg liqueur?" Nilsson asks.
Yes, I would, and so would you: The caramely nectar is sweetened with honey and made with the plump orange yolks of duck eggs he gets from that man he met down the road, who's known in these parts as Mr. Duck. Mr. Duck's sweet, fatty eggs figured prominently in the best dessert of the night, too: a scoop of milk sorbet surrounded by a light foam of duck eggs whisked with molasses and, at the bottom of the bowl, a bit of raspberry jam. This too we heard before we knew what it was. A rickety old ice cream maker was delivered to the center of the dining room and loudly cranked. Again, we all looked.
"I deliberately don't take care of my ice cream maker so it will make a lot of eeer-awww, eeeeh-errrkk sounds," Magnus Nilsson says with a sly, faint smile. A perfect dessert to end a meal from a chef worth listening to.


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Science Scoops: Space-Age Polymer Sprays on Strength
by Stephen James O'Meara
FRP—it's not liquid steel, but it's just as strong and a lot easier to use—just spray it on! Traditionally, bridge repair means long hours spent wrapping broken or weak parts with steel jackets. Meanwhile, traffic is held up for hours…even days. But, FRP (short for Fiber-Reinforced Polymer) could change all that. FRP is a mixture of cloth fibers and a special polymer developed by a Canadian scientist. It doesn't sound like much, but FRP could change the future of engineering.
FRP sprays on wet, and then hardens to make sprayed structures up to two times as strong as steel, and three times more earthquake-resistant.
Where does this super-strength come from? A lot of it, says inventor Nemy Banthia of the University of British Columbia, is in the application technique. Because the fibers and polymers making up the spray are under pressure when sprayed out of the can, they stick better to the surface they hit. And where they hit a surface is just as important: The individual fibers land on a surface in random orientations, providing equal strength in all directions. Of course, it helps that the fibers themselves are made of materials that are seven times stronger than steel!
Right now, FRP is being tested on a 23-foot (7-meter) bridge in Duncan, a town in British Columbia, Canada. Special sensors embedded in the bridge tell Dr. Banthia how the sprayed surface reacts to stress, loads, and earthquake tremors. The results are so promising that plans are already under way to test the spray on longer bridges in Japan, Singapore, and the United States.
But that's not all. Dr. Banthia envisions spraying new bridges, buildings, and other structures with FRP. Offshore oil-drilling platforms could be sprayed to prevent corrosive seawater from eating away at them. Waste-containing steel drums could be protected from leaking their toxic contents into the soil or groundwater, and brand new bridges and buildings could be strengthened against earthquakes. So, while FRP won't ever take the place of iron and steel, it's sure to play a strong "supportive" role in the future of our cities.
- What is FRP, and why is it so strong?
[anno: FRP is short for Fiber-Reinforced Polymer. It is strong because of the way it is applied to surfaces. FRP is made up of very strong cloth fibers and a special polymer. When it is sprayed on something, the fibers adhere randomly to that object and provide strength in all directions.]
- The article states that some things that make up FRP are stronger than steel. Why do you think engineers do not use FRP instead of steel to build bridges?
[anno: Answers will vary but could include that FRP might be difficult to form into beams or other bridge structures.]

subset: commoncrawl


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Synthetic XNA molecules can evolve and store genetic information, just like DNA
Out of all the possible molecules in the world, just two form the basis of life's grand variety: DNA and RNA. They alone can store and pass on genetic information. Within their repetitive twists, these polymers encode the stuff of every whale, ant, flower, tree and bacterium.
But even though DNA and RNA play these roles exclusively, they're not the only molecules that can. Vitor Pinheiro from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology has developed six alternative polymers called XNAs that can also store genetic information and evolve through natural selection. None of them are found in nature. They are part of a dawning era of "synthetic genetics", which expands the chemistry of life in new uncharted directions.
DNA looks like a twisting ladder. Its sides are chains of a sugar called deoxyribose (the D in DNA). Each sugar is attached to one of four 'bases' – these form the rungs of the ladder, and are signified by the letters A, C, G and T. RNA is similar, with three important exceptions. It's typically only half a ladder – a single helix, rather than DNA's famous double. Its 'T' rung is a 'U'. And its sugar is ribose rather than deoxyribose (hence, the R in RNA).
Both of these molecules are called nucleic acids. So are Pinheiro's XNAs, but they make their ladders using different sugars. If arabinose stands in for deoxyribose, you get ANA instead of DNA. If cyclohexane plays the part, you get CeNA. If the role goes to threose, you get TNA, and so on. These differences aside, all the XNAs use the same bases. Any of them could pair up with a complementary strand of DNA or RNA.
"They are very interesting with respect to the origin of life," says Jack Szostak, a Harvard biologist who studies life's beginnings and was not involved in the study. "In principle, many different polymers could serve the roles of RNA and DNA in living organisms. Why then does modern biology use only RNA and DNA?"
Most biologists now think that RNA preceded DNA as life's chief information molecule. Phil Holliger, who led the new study, says that the "inescapable conclusion" is that its dominance was the result of a "frozen accident at the origin of life". RNA may have gained supremacy because of random factors rather than some inherent quality, just as VHS and Blu-Rays eventually won out over Betmax and HD-DVDs.
The alternative is that some nucleic acids may be better at copying themselves, or speeding up other chemical reactions. "Phil's work will certainly make it possible to compare the functional abilities of a wide range of synthetic nucleic acids," says Szostak.
Pinheiro created his XNAs by tweaking a natural enzyme called DNA polymerase, which copies DNA. It 'reads' a piece of DNA, grabs nearby bases, and assembles a matching strand. If you set the polymerase loose upon its own gene, you can get the enzyme to make more copies of itself.
Here's the clever bit. DNA polymerase is normally very fussy about the bases it grabs. It only selects ones with a deoxyribose sugar so that it assembles DNA, rather than any other nucleic acid. But Pinheiro evolved the enzyme so that it prefers to use the building blocks of his XNAs instead.
He started with a varied pool of polymerases, all slightly different, and all mixed with their own corresponding gene. He then supplied them with the XNA building blocks. Within these pools of varied enzymes, some were better at building nucleic acids with the weird sugar backbones. By selecting for these unusually efficient polymerases, Pinheiro quickly evolved enzymes that could assemble XNA strands from DNA ones.
He also created an enzyme that could do the reverse – convert XNA into DNA. Of course, no natural enzyme can even begin to do this, so the evolution trick didn't work in this direction. Instead, Pinheiro used a more brute-force approach: he took a different polymerase, randomly mutated it, and looked for versions that could do the XNA-to-DNA conversion. Eventually, he moulded one.
Pinheiro ended up with enzymes that could copy information between XNA and DNA, with an accuracy of 95 per cent or more. With more work, it should be possible to cut DNA out of the loop altogether, so that XNAs can be directly built from XNAs. If this is possible, Szostak adds, "In the longer run, it may be possible to design and build new forms of life that are based on one or more of these non-natural genetic polymers."
There are already hints of this. The team has so far managed to copy FANA and FANA, CeNA from CeNA, and even HNA from CeNA. However, all these steps were far less efficient than working through DNA. But Holliger says that there would be few benefits to abandoning the middle-man, because "it's convenient to go through DNA." That's because all of our genetic technology is geared to our standard nucleic acids. If we moved towards XNA-only experiments, we would also have to tweak our sequencing tools and cloning techniques to match.
The XNAs have important differences to their more familiar cousins. "We haven't gone very far from standard DNA chemistry, but the XNAs already have strikingly different properties," says Holliger.
For a start, they are extremely tough. In the natural world, DNA and RNA are beset by many dangers. Acids with break some of their rungs, and many enzymes will easily cut their backbones. But XNAs have no such problem. Their unnatural nature makes them invulnerable to enzymes, extreme pH values, and other harsh conditions. "They're really tough as nails. We've thrown the whole New England Biolabs catalogue at them," says Holliger, referring to a massive directory of chemical reagents.
These properties mean that the XNAs are well-suited for certain applications. For decades, scientists have created short strands of DNA or RNA called aptamers, which are designed to stick to specific targets. They could act as sensors that reveal the presence of a specific molecule, or deliver drugs to diseased cells by latching onto telltale proteins. Their uses are legion, but they are fragile tools.
If aptamers were built from XNAs (and more on this later), they would be tougher. However, they would still retain their key feature: they could evolve to recognise different targets. Just like RNA, many of the XNAs fold up into complicated three-dimensional structures. Alex Taylor used this property to create HNA aptamers (H is for anhydrohexitol) that recognise a protein and an RNA shape, by repeatedly selecting for the ones that form the closest fit.
This new study is just one of many attempts to expand the palette of molecules that carry genetic information. Every part of the ladder is up for alterations, from the bases to the sugars. For example, Steve Benner from the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, has created a polymer that adds two new bases – Z and P – to the existing quartet of A, G, C and T. "It allows higher information density," he says.
"This is just the beginning," says Holliger. "We're going to try and get to ever more divergent chemistry."
Of course, any talk of unnatural chemicals, especially hard-to-destroy ones, is bound to spark a discussion about risks. Indeed, in a related editorial, Gerald Joyce from the Scripps Institute says that while biologists are starting to "frolic on the worlds of alternative genetics", they "must not tread into areas that have the potential to harm our biology."
George Church from Harvard University says that before assessing the technology's benefits and risks, we'll have to see examples of what it can achieve that "cannot be achieved using DNA or RNA". He says, "The risk could go up by increasing the survivability of XNA relative to [DNA or RNA]. That might lead to a full replacement of natural nucleic acids with these artificial ones.
But Benner that the XNAs would actually "mitigate the risks associated with biotechnology". Many of the worries about genetic modification revolve around altered genes going feral, and running amok through wild populations. But XNAs shouldn't be able to do that. In a world ruled by DNA and RNA, XNAs would be invisible. They would sit behind a genetic firewall, unable to exchange genetic information with living things. Such molecules, far from being an unnatural danger, might actually be the ultimate biosafety tool.
Reference: Pinheiro, Taylor, Cozens, Abramov, Renders, Zhang, Chaput, Wengel, Peak-Chew, McLaughlin, Herdewijn & Holliger. 2012. Synthetic Genetic Polymers Capable of Heredity and Evolution. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1217622
More on synthetic biology:
- Scientists engineer suicide bomber bacteria to kill other bacteria
- Switching on genes with a burst of blue light
- Scientists create first ever synthetic bacterium that looks like Craig Venter
- Hacking the genome with a MAGE and a CAGE
Comments (15)
Great article. My mind is racing. excited to see the aptamer discussion. I'd like to read the primary article but the link to Pinheiro et al appears to be dead.
lovely reading your articles.
Steven Benner is not at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He is Director of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Gainesville FL.
[Oops! Sorry. Corrected – Ed]
Would that be, "Xtreme Nucleic Acid?"
This is very exciting and tremendous work.
But I gotta say stuff like this "Synthesis and reverse transcription establish heredity (defined as the ability to encode and pass on genetic information) in all six XNAs." is really annoying. When it comes to genetic material we have a pretty clear definition what it means to be heritable and the authors redefined it to make it fit their work. If synthesis and reverse transcription means heritable storage of genetic information, then a simple paper print out of a genetic sequence has the same heredity properties of XNA.
By sheer coincidence I'd just finished re-reading (after 39 years [sic]) Watson's "DOUBLE HELIX" today. Leaving aside the blatant sexism towards Franklin, I found myself just as riveted as when I first read this book all those years ago – even though I knew the ending this time 😉
I'd hardly put the book down when Adam Rutherford's tweet came through drawing my attention to this article. Beautifully written and fascinating stuff; and very much the icing on the cake of my reading earlier in the day.
Even from the point of view of pure science, the exercise of constructing and manipulating synthetic nucleic acids is awe inspiring. Consideration of the possible applications of this technology makes it all the more exciting.
Can't remember the last time I enjoyed reading a science article as much as enjoyed this one.
Wow, it makes the concept of Synthetic lifeforms so real and more probable. Like the replicants in Blade Runner. Sent to mine uninhabitable planets and extremes of space due to their chemistry biology. But then programmed to cell die early for safety and prevention of over running DNA/RNA archaic originals.
Can't wait to tell some intelligent design fans that Vitor Pinheiro did a better job then their proposed designer
Was it just a fluke that life on earth used RNA/DNA? Would these XNA alternates be just as likely bases for life on other planets? Am I asking you to speculate with far too little data?
If the XNA variants are really bulletproof against most forms of chemical damage, wouldn't that prevent them from going through fast evolution like DNA-based life? It seems like there wouldn't be so many mutations to select from.
Hope they come up with a triple helix next.
Victor Pinheiro will be worshiped as the God by new artificial life forms based on XNAs !!!
chances for giving the artificial life forms immortality by tweaking the XNAs are bright!!
Long live the artificial God- Victor Pinheiro!!
Thanks to Discover Magazine!
it"s a miracle in science with a ray of hope for creating artificial life.
Um…the "CeNA" is claimed by the article to be Cyclohexane, but alkanes (hence the ANE at the end) don't have pi-bonds. It would instead be a cyclohexene with a pi-bond. Although then the chair-conformation structure present wouldn't be that good because it's unstable in that presentation.


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Here is the text of a letter by Richmond Planning and Building Services Director Richard Mitchell, who also sits on the Hercules Planning Commission, to Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, advocating a northward extension of BART from downtown Richmond instead of El Cerrito Del Norte
Interdepartmental Correspondence — Draft
Date: April 5, 2013
To: John Gioia, Supervisor, Contra Costa County
From: Richard Mitchell, Director Planning and Building Services
Subject: Proposed study to consider extending BART from Del Norte Station
Statement of the Issue:
BART Director Zakhary Mallett is proposing to commission a study to explore the feasibility of extending BART north along I-80, effectively isolating and downgrading the downtown Richmond station. This is an old concept that was evaluated and discarded during the mid-1980s and should not be revisited.
The content of the following West County Times article summarizes the views of BART's District #7 Director, Zakhary Mallett, who advocates extending BART north from the Del Norte station instead of the Richmond Station. This would be a very poor option for Richmond that is based upon outdated assumptions about development trends and population growth and ignores the unique significance of the Richmond station, which is the only one on the system that supports across-platform transfer to Capitol Corridor trains.
"BART's new District 7 Director (Zakhary Mallett) says it's high time to revive an idea that has been kicking around for decades: Bringing BART north along the Interstate 80 corridor — to San Pablo, Richmond Hilltop and Pinole, and perhaps Hercules and beyond. … How to extend BART farther north had been a matter of debate. One proposed alignment would have run north from the present Richmond BART station along the Union Pacific Railroad corridor on the San Pablo Bay shore. … Mallett says that for West Contra Costa, an alignment along I-80 is the only one that makes sense.
"In today's 21st century, the development in suburban communities follows freeways, not railroads," he said. "The freeway is where everyone goes to get in and out of town. If we want to competitively capture that market of travelers, we must be in the near vicinity of the freeway. Commuters will not inconvenience themselves by traveling an extra length (to the railroad) to access transit." …
He said El Cerrito Del Norte is the most congested regional transfer station in the BART system. Another statistic he likes to cite: Nearly 60 percent of the ridership at El Cerrito Del Norte consists of commuters who reside north of El Cerrito and Richmond.
Under Mr. Mallet's plan, Richmond's modern multimodal station (BART, Amtrak, Bus and Taxi), along with its newly constructed parking structure would be downgraded to a minor 'branch line' status that would lose half of its current service. The BART system would be redirected to serve the so called "60 (percent) of Ridership that originates north of El Cerrito and Richmond." This statistic implies that commuters are coming from Contra Costa County cities and fails to account for riders who begin their commutes in Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville in Solano County (many of whom arrive by bus to board BART at the Del Norte station).
Surprisingly, Mr. Mallet's comments fail to acknowledge dramatic changes that have occurred in development patterns and transit use since the freeway system began reaching peak capacity (20) years ago. Mr. Mallet correctly states that " … Development in suburban communities followed freeways, not railroads" however; he ignores the current trend toward urbanization in which new higher density development is occurring around rail transit systems, in historic downtowns and along traditional main streets.
Growth during the next (30) years will take place in urban centers located on current and future transit routes, not in low-density suburbs located along freeways. Richmond's general plan projects that 65 (percent) of the City's growth will occur as high density 'in fill' development along existing transit corridors. Richmond's multimodal downtown station is perfectly positioned to support this growth and will require a steady increase in service as this development pattern gains momentum.
Mr. Mallett is seeking support to study his proposal to reduce service at the downtown Richmond station (perhaps eliminating direct service to San Francisco or Fremont) in exchange for a promise to study construction of a new BART station at Hilltop. While it is unlikely that funds could materialize for a northern extension of BART until after tracks reach San Jose in 2020, and then allowing time for planning, environmental review, right of way acquisition, construction and testing, a northern extension is not likely to appear until after 2040, Mr. Mallett's proposal could result in the creation of a policy document that would have an adverse impact on long term resource allocation to the existing Richmond station. This is not an acceptable option for Richmond.
Projected population growth in West Contra Costa County cities beyond Richmond may not be sufficient to justify extension of the system without a significant 'buy in' from cities located in Solano County. In the interim, it would not be in Richmond's best long term interest to provide BART planners with a resolution that would support marginalizing the city's unique, high quality station.
The cumulative projected population for all of the cities and unincorporated areas located along I-80 north of Richmond will still total less than 100,000 by 2040. The cumulative population of Cities located in Solano County on I-80 will grow to 400,000 (Vallejo, Fairfield, Vacaville, American Canyon) during the same period. Projected population growth in Richmond will be equal to or greater than total growth in all of the remaining cities in West Contra Costa County.
Richmond is and will continue to be the largest city in West Contra Costa County. It is also the city that will experience the highest rate of growth between now and 2040. Any proposal to reduce service to Richmond in order to serve West County Cities located to the north is impractical because the cost to extend the line cannot be justified by projected population growth without financial support from the cities in Solano County.
Population — 2010
Estimated Population — 2030
Tara Hills
El Sobrante
Solano County
American Canyon
A study is a good idea as long as it focuses on critical issues such as:
a) Identifying right of way costs, routes and engineering solutions that will connect the existing Richmond station to Contra Costa College, Hilltop Mall and beyond
b) Exploring the feasibility of diverting many of the buses that are currently dropping passengers at the Del Norte station to the Richmond station (which also offers the option of boarding Capitol Corridor trains)
c) Exploring the feasibility and cost of extending the line to Solano County, where much of the congestion on I-80 originates.
Recommended Action
Please contact representatives at BART and express opposition to any discussion that would look at reducing the downtown Richmond station to a secondary status. We support extension of BART from the Richmond station only.


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Kate Atkinson, (born December 20, 1951, York, England), British short-story writer, playwright, and novelist whose works were known for their complicated plots, experimental form, and often eccentric characters.
Atkinson received her early education at a private preparatory school and later the Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls in York. An avid reader from childhood, she studied English literature at the University of Dundee, where she earned a master's degree in 1974. She remained at Dundee to study postmodern American fiction for a doctorate. Though she was denied the degree, her studies of the postmodern stylistic elements of American writers such as Kurt Vonnegut influenced her later work.
Throughout the late 1970s and for much of the '80s, Atkinson held various jobs, few of which enabled her to make use of her literary interests. In 1981–82, however, she took up short-story writing, finding the brief narrative form an effective outlet for her creative energy. Later that decade, her short story "In China" won a competition sponsored by Woman's Own magazine. The prize inspired her to write fiction for other publications, including Good Housekeeping and the Daily Mail. In 1993 her short story "Karmic Mothers—Fact or Fiction?," about two women hospitalized for their suicide attempts and recovering next to a maternity unit, won the Ian St. James Award; the story was adapted for television in 1997.
Atkinson's first novel was the tragicomedy Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995), which evolved from a series of previously written short stories. The novel centres on Ruby Lennox, whose narrative of self-discovery ultimately becomes the story of her family's survival through two world wars. Atkinson interspersed the text with "footnotes"—chapter-long asides by family members, whose flashbacks reveal dark secrets hidden beneath the family facade. The work won the 1995 Book of the Year and First Novel Whitbread Book Awards (later renamed the Costa Book Awards).
In her second novel, Human Croquet (1997), Atkinson employed nonchronological flashbacks and magic realism to bring a mythical quality to the main character, Isobel Fairfax, and her family's past. Atkinson's inclination to experiment with literary device featured prominently in her next novel, Emotionally Weird (2000), in which she assigned different fonts to certain characters and settings. The same year as that book's publication, Atkinson's first full-length play, Abandonment, premiered at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. She subsequently began writing a series of crime thrillers that featured private investigator Jackson Brodie. Case Histories (2004), the first book in the series, made the short list for a Whitbread Book Award and later lent its name to the series adaptation for television, where the role of Brodie was played by British actor Jason Isaacs. Other books in the series included One Good Turn (2006), When Will There Be Good News? (2008), and Started Early, Took My Dog (2010).
Among Atkinson's later critically acclaimed works was Life After Life (2013), a novel in which the protagonist, Ursula Todd, repeatedly dies and is reborn in the year 1910. In each new life, Ursula is confronted by different choices and situations that have the potential to alter the course of history. The novel was an unusual blend of science fiction and drama and was noted for its insightful portrayal of human nature. It was short-listed for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction and was awarded the 2013 Costa Book Award for best novel. A God in Ruins (2015) traces the life of RAF pilot Teddy Todd, Ursula's brother, though it dispenses with the latter's rebirths, instead taking a more starkly realistic approach to the narrative. In Transcription (2018) a woman must confront her past as a worker at MI5 during World War II.


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It's time to pick up your fork and enjoy eating again. Indulge your taste buds with over 200 entrees, hand-prepared by our chefs. Experience unique flavors inspired by cultures from your neighborhood and from around the world. Fulfill your appetite and rediscover real food worthy of your finest china.
These delicious and hearty crepes are filled with grilled chicken breast, dried red onions and spinach, and bound with a feta-cheese bechamel, with a serving of cinnamon roasted apples.
With these French-inspired crepes for breakfast, get your fill of protein, but enjoy it too. These delicious envelopes are filled with lean, grilled chicken and mixed perfectly with the flavors of dried red onions and fresh spinach.
Bound with a tasty feta-cheese béchamel, these delicious crepes are served with a satisfyingly sweet portion of cinnamon roasted apples.
Freshly ground turkey is combined with chopped Manzanillo olives and plump raisins to create this flavorful entree, served with a delicious side of emerald green peas and roasted plantain segments.
Inspired by the traditional flavors of Latin America, this dish is made from freshly ground turkey, seasoned with chopped Manzanillo olives and plump raisins.
To add extra flavor and extra color to this traditional Latin-American favorite, this hearty and healthy entrée is served with a delicious and colorful side of emerald green peas and roasted plantain segments.
These thin and tender medallions of beef are topped with a slow-simmered sauce, made with fresh ginger, sesame oitl and rice wine vinegar, served with a side of brown rice with vegetables and broccoli.
This dish, consisting of perfectly cooked thin slices of beef medallions are drizzled with a slow-simmered sauce.
Made with fresh ingredients, including ginger, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, this sauce makes the perfect complement to a side of stir-fried brown rice and an appetizing side of fresh, mixed vegetables and crisp broccoli.
These tender pieces of marinated chicken breasts rest perfectly in a pool of lentil sauce, and are served with a side of saffron infused cauliflower and basmati rice biryani.
Affectionately named after its place of inspiration, this Bombay inspired chicken recipe combines all of the culturally traditional ingredients with unique flavors, taking marinated chicken breasts and resting them perfectly in a pool of lentil sauce.To give this dish its extra Bombay-inspired bite, this delicious serving of grilled chicken is complemented with a side of saffron-infused cauliflower and a serving of flavorful basmati rice biryani.
This grilled and oven-roasted chicken breast is served with brown rice, and a colorful portion of baby peas and shoestring carrots, and served with a side of hearty and robust Ratatouille.
A hearty entree inspired by culinary influences from the French province, this hearty and delicious entree combines the grilled, charcoal taste of chicken, with the hearty, colorful and robust flavors of Ratatouille.With a blend of flavorful vegetables including onions, zucchini and bell peppers, this Ratatouille makes this dish perfection. We then top off this tasty chicken is with shoestring carrots and fresh peas, to add bright colors and extra flavor.
Prepare to love breakfast with these healthy and delicious buckwheat berry pancakes served with a rich and colorful blueberry and strawberry compote, with a hearty side of Canadian bacon.
Make breakfast healthy and fun with these hearty, healthy and flavorful buckwheat berry pancakes.
Giving you the whole grain taste you love and the flavor you deserve, awaken your breakfast palate with these delicious pancakes, served with a rich and colorful blueberry and strawberry compote, and a piece of smoky and sensational Canadian bacon.
This lean chicken breast is stuffed with a blend of spinach and feta cheeses and served with a hearty Pomodoro sauce, with a delicious side of mashed eggplant and wheat penne.
Sink your teeth into this Italian-inspired delight, courtesy of our chefs. A mouthwatering lean, grilled chicken breast is seasoned and prepped to perfection, then combined with an array of spices and stuffed with a decadent blend of spinach and feta cheeses.
To complement these robust Italian flavors, this stuffed chicken is served with a side of mashed eggplant and drizzled with a home-made Pomodoro sauce to create an Italian work of culinary art.
This twist on a Southern BBQ staple combines sliced pulled pork in a succulent barbeque sauce, which is accompanied by a zesty corn succotash and a serving of cinnamon spiced apples.
Get rooted in the unique flavors of the Deep South, with this healthy twist on a Southern staple, by enjoying this sliced pork tenderloin grilled to perfection, and coated in a succulent, but tangy, barbeque sauce.
The flavors of this dish will really shine once you've indulged in the flavors of the rich corn succotash, served with a sweet, delightful portion of cinnamon spiced apples.
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Plea deal ends years-long steroids case
No individual criminal charges against operators of former Florida pharmacy
ALBANY — A former Orlando. Fla., pharmacy that was implicated in a national steroids distribution case pleaded guilty to a felony charge Friday, ending a years-long legal battle between the pharmacy's operators and Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
The plea agreement clears the former operators of Signature Compounding Pharmacy of individual criminal charges by allowing their corporation, which was raided in February 2007, to plead guilty to a single felony count and pay a $100,000 penalty.
The company's admission ends a fierce legal battle between Soares' office and attorneys for the five defendants, who for years had maintained their pharmacy broke no laws. The plea agreement may also scuttle a federal lawsuit pending in Orlando that the pharmacy's operators filed against Soares, alleging he defamed them when he compared their business to a criminal enterprise.
The civil lawsuit was used against Soares by his political opponents in the last two elections. It also left the three-term district attorney in the extraordinary predicament of prosecuting five people at the same time they were suing him for libel in another state. The lawsuit led Albany County Judge Stephen W. Herrick to throw out the indictment two years ago when he claimed Soares had a conflict of interest. The state's Court of Appeals unanimously overturned Herrick.
Law enforcement authorities had cast the former downtown Orlando pharmacy as part of a wide-reaching drug pipeline that illegally funneled steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs to thousands of customers, including professional athletes and celebrities. Seventeen people, including several doctors who acknowledged filling prescriptions for cash, pleaded guilty in the case.
The plea negotiations with the pharmacy's operators intensified last November after the Court of Appeals reversed Herrick's second dismissal of the indictment. By then, prosecutors said that their case had been weakened by years of appeals of Herrick's controversial rulings.
The pharmacy shut down after it was raided six years ago by a multi-agency drug task force headed by the Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, which worked with Soares' office in the investigation. The five defendants whose case was settled with Friday's corporate plea are pharmacists Robert "Stan" and Naomi Loomis, the pharmacy's husband-and-wife co-owners; Kenneth "Michael" Loomis, who is Stan's brother; and former business managers Kirk Calvert and Anthony Palladino.
Soares' office's participation in the investigation brought national attention and was cited in a report to Congress on steroid abuse in Major League Baseball. The case received continued coverage in both the Times Union and Sports Illustrated magazine, which mined reams of information brought to light by law enforcement investigators to show how the hidden use of steroids reached far and wide in American sports, the music industry and even police culture.
Police and prosecutors alleged the pharmacy, which processed its own steroids and human growth hormone, made millions of dollars as part of a pipeline that delivered steroids and other drugs to thousands of people who had obtained prescriptions for the performance-enhancing drugs but lacked legitimate medical need for them.
While others charged in the case pleaded guilty, the pharmacy's operators fought their case relentlessly and field a federal lawsuit in Florida in which they alleged their civil rights were violated by Soares, Orlando police and other law enforcement officials.
The civil rights claims were dismissed by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, but the costly case dogged Soares through two re-election campaigns as his opponents used depositions in the case to criticize his legal background and raise questions about his decision to target an out-of-state pharmacy.
Soares countered that the pharmacy, through mail-order deliveries, sent significant amounts of drugs to New York, including customers in Albany County. Soares had declined to settle the case.
Still, it's unclear whether the trial, scheduled to begin Feb. 25, will go forward in Orlando. The defamation claims are centered on the business of Signature Compounding Pharmacy being destroyed, in part, because of public statements Soares made comparing their business to a drug cartel's.
The corporation's guilty plea is an admission that the business illegally sold steroids — testosterone and nandrolone — to an undercover police officer in Albany County. The $100,000 penalty in the case consists of a maximum $10,000 state fine and a $90,000 civil asset forfeiture to the district attorney's office, according to the plea.
"The resolution of this case marks the conclusion of a long-term investigation and prosecution that held individuals, and now a corporation, accountable for the illegal sale of steroids in Albany County," Soares said in a statement Friday. "I remain committed to closing the pipeline of illegal drugs that flows in to our community and will continue to hold perpetrators accountable when they choose to supply and deliver illegal narcotics into Albany County."
Amy Tingley, an Orlando attorney who has represented Stan and Naomi Loomis in the civil case, and William Dreyer, an Albany attorney who represented the couple in the criminal case, both declined to comment.
email@example.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter


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Blackout Blinds & Shades for Room Darkening
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- Watch our video on blackout shades
Blackout shades and blinds block nearly all incoming light with cellular shade, roman shade, roller shade, woven wood, pleated shade, panel track and skylight choices. Although sometimes called Blackout Blinds, a light blocking blackout effect is best achieved with shades, as they block the most light with a tight-fitting inside-mounted opaque shade. Blackout Shades eliminate maximum light seepage with specially woven material or with the addition of a liner to create a darker space than the subtler Room Darkening Shades. Custom blackout blinds provide the darkest blackout experience available.
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Blindsgalore® Gallery Cellular Shades: Blackout
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We bought these blinds for our basement. They were very easy to install and look beautiful. They have a very high quality feel. I would definitely recommend these blinds to anyone.View this product


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Lennox is one dog that's had quite a bit of attention and his time's running out:
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/ ... _1_2545814
THE heartbroken owner of a much loved family pet sentenced to death yesterday, has vowed to fight the decision and bring home the dog she loves.
Lennox the dog was declared to be a pitbull-type and seized from his owner, west Belfast woman Caroline Barnes, in May last year under the Dangerous Dogs Act, by dog wardens from Belfast City Council.
Yesterday at Belfast Magistrate's court, Magistrate Mr Nixon heard from dog expert Peter Tallack, who said Lennox had demonstrated "total unpredictably" when examined, and had lunged at him from a metal cage.
Mr Tallack, speaking for the council, said: "There is no way in this world that dog would be safe in a domestic situation. It's just not worth the risk."
The defence's dog expert, David Ryan, said Lennox would not be a risk of members to the public if muzzled and kept on a lead.
He conceded that in the short term, Lennox should be kept away from strangers and undergo treatment for his low confidence and fear of strangers.
On the stand, his owner said Lennox had been a loving pet for the past five years. While Miss Barnes, who has years of experience looking after dogs, conceded that it was possible Lennox could bite a stranger, she said her pet would "never be given the opportunity" because he was kept muzzled and on a lead when out.
Addressing the court, Mr Nixon said Lennox was a pitbull-type dog and so dangerous per se, and "totally unpredictable with strangers". He said he no choice but to order the destruction of the animal.
Speaking to the News Letter outside court, a tearful Miss Barnes said she felt like she had failed as a mother.
She vowed to appeal yesterday's decision, and said she hoped her decision to fight on would be of some comfort to her disabled 12-year-old daughter Brooke, who is very close to Lennox.
"I really don't know how I'm going to tell her," she said. "The parent is the one who's supposed to protect the child and fix things. But I've told her I would bring Lennox home and I've failed in that. We just love and miss him so much - we just want him home."
Miss Barnes saw Lennox for the first time in ten months yesterday when she was shown a video clip of him.
"He is grossly overweight, he just doesn't look like the same dog," she said.
The Save Lennox campaign has attracted support from tens of thousands of people worldwide, thanks to a website and facebook site.
Speaking after the destruction order was issued yesterday, a spokesperson for Belfast City Council said that while they appreciated the ruling would be upsetting for Lennox's owners, the right decision had been made.
The spokesperson said several council employees had endured a "relentless campaign of intimidation and abuse" throughout the legal proceedings.
Threatening letters, including one drenched in petrol, were put through the letter boxes of two female officers and another member of staff had her car tyres slashed outside her home.
The spokesperson said: "This kind of intimidation against our staff is to be utterly condemned, and it is totally unacceptable that officers, who are enforcing the law as they are required to do, should be subjected to such a sustained and threatening campaign."
I always liked the UK because they seemed to value reasonableness above much else. But this is so totally unreasonable and has gone on for so, so long...


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Packers general manager Ted Thompson believes Julius Peppers is set up well to wreak havoc in Green Bay this season.
Released in March by the Bears, Peppers is coming off a campaign that saw him notch 7.5 sacks, his lowest total since 2007. He's also on the wrong side of 30, but Thompson doesn't see a swoon in the pass rusher's potential.
"Well, 34 is not so old," Thompson said Thursday, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Not for some of us. There's no evidence of any decline in his play, in our opinion. He still has the same athletic traits that he had coming out. He's had a remarkable history in the NFL in terms of durability. We're looking forward to it. I think he is, too."
We'd be stunned if Peppers plays out his three-year contract, which looks more like a lucrative one-year pact on paper.
Peppers is penciled in to play the "elephant" role, lining up at defensive end, outside linebacker and even inside on some passing downs. He's still a productive quarterback chaser, and the attention he draws from defenses should help turn Clay Matthews into a legitimate bounce-back candidate.
Green Bay's defense was a M.A.S.H. unit last season, but the return of Casey Hayward, Nick Perry and Jerel Worthy ensures that Peppers won't be asked to do it alone.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" runs through the latest NFL draft headlines and takes a look at which coaches and GMs are lying about their intentions.


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DNakvosas needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 278 designs submitted by 78 freelance designers.
We need logo very similar to # 1 but with cleaner , more professional look. Please do not submit any other ideas , because this is what we need with a little touch up
Fitness Express
All previous designs were eliminated but one - hand holding wrench. This is what we like and what we want. Please use this design to create your new logos (need cleaner, more contemporary look).
Must be delivered in Vector format!
- Clean
- Cool
- Must be usable in web and print mediums, including websites, banners, business cards and business stationary)
- Must work well on black or white background.
- Delivered in Vector format
- Too intense, too busy, gamer-dark, earthy tones, amateur-web colors
- No clipart style stuff.
- No vehicles
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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I used to live in the US for 7 years and always loved the fact that homeschooling is legal there and actually widely utilized. When I moved back to Germany 2 years ago I was shocked to find out that homeschooling here is completely ilegal. Now I dont have kids yet but I definitely would like my future children to be home educated. Of course there may be exceptions for military personnel from the US - but as for German citizens (like me) it looks tough.
Here's some info from wikipedia:
Homeschooling in Germany is illegal with rare exceptions. The requirement to attend school has been upheld, on challenge from parents, by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Parents violating the law have most prominently included fundamentalist Christians who want to give their children a more Christian education than that which is offered by the schools. Penalties against these parents have included fines (around €5,000), successful legal actions to take away the parents' custody of their children, and jail time for the parents.[1]
In a landmark legal case commenced in 2003 at the European Court of Human Rights a homeschooling parent couple argued on behalf of their children that Germany's compulsory school attendance endangered their children's religious upbringing, promoted teaching inconsistent with their Christian faith – especially the German State's mandates relating to sex education in the schools – and contravened the declaration in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that "the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions". In September 2006 the European Court of Human Rights upheld the German ban on homeschooling, stating "parents may not refuse... [compulsory schooling] on the basis of their convictions", and adding that the right to education "calls for regulation by the State". The European Court took the position that the plaintiffs were the children, not their parents, and declared "children are unable to foresee the consequences of their parents' decision for home education because of their young age.... Schools represent society, and it is in the children's interest to become part of that society. The parents' right to educate does not go as far as to deprive their children of that experience." The European Court endorsed a "carefully reasoned" decision of the German court concerning "the general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions and the importance of integrating minorities into society."


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We're Larissa & Michael, a middle-aged couple who sold everything in 2011 and have been full-time travelers ever since. We're inspiring independent travelers to seek out historic, tasty, and quirky destinations . . . all while using wheeled suitcases (no backpacks–we're past that stage of our life!). Follow us to learn valuable tips and discover hidden travel gems. Read more . . .
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Jeff Geller needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 103 designs submitted by 25 freelance designers.
We need a company logo designed into a jpg file that we can upload to our website. Something colorful and child like however, interesting for adults to look at as well! Something that grabs the attention of all ages.
We are an IT Consulting/Staffing Company and our people are just too busy to do this for us right now. We started in eCommerce division last year and we're currently building our first site called Silly Buster which specializes in Childrens Furniture. We're going live in about 4-6 weeks and we need a catchy and color logo done.
Update 2/02/09: Thank you everyone for your entries so far. We feel very fortunate to have received such a response from so many talented people.
#26 from Knox is our esteemed favorite so far!
#23, #18, #14 & #12 have all made it into our top 5 choices so far. We also like #34.
We would really like to stress simplicity - color- and character with this logo and let the domain name and slogan underneath kind of speak for itself (if that makes any sense)
- Again, the main name is: Silly Buster with the subtitle being:
- Adventures in Kids Furniture! We want something that has a lot of color and dimension! Something childlike and swirling that really grabs your attention no matter what age range you're in.
- Maybe a cartoon character with a touch of class?
- We don't want something that is corporate looking. We do want it to look professional though.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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New Wheel Buyers Guide - Rolling OnPosted in Product Reviews on June 1, 2013
If you are looking for a set of wheels for your Jeep and have heard things about this new wheel or that new feature but find it hard to keep track of who did what where, we hear ya. In a typical five-day work week, we get two or three "new" wheel product releases. Some of them are rehashes of other wheels. Some of them are as simple as a color change. But every so often we get a product release that we think is enough of a departure from the norm that we stash it for later.
All this time that we've been doing so, we've been thinking, "Oh, I'll use that on something someday." But here, about a year into it, we've got more wheels in the file than we are likely to use, so we figured we'd introduce you guys to them. Some are new companies who have brought out a lot of new designs, some are new companies with a breakthrough design, and some are companies you already know that went thinking outside the box and came up with some great idea while they were out there. Enough from us—here are some cool wheels you might want to check out for next time you are in the market.
Mickey Metal
What: It might sound a little bit too much like Mickey Mouse, which some people use to derogatorily describe a poorly done job. In this case it is Mickey Mouse, because someone should have done this sooner. Most of us running steel wheels today are rolling on wheels designed for cars and pickups in the '60s and '70s. That means 40- and 50-year-old ideas about what is heavy-duty. A 1⁄2-ton truck today can out-haul a 1-ton truck from then, so why not get heavier-duty wheels? Mickey Thompson basically started from a clean sheet and figured out how to make every part of its steel wheel better at the same steel wheel price.
Material: Steel
Sizes: 15-, 16-, and 17-inch diameters, many bolt patterns and backspacing
What's new: Heavier center, more complex stamping (stronger), better welding technique of center-to-outer hoop, valve stem further inboard
Contact: Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels
800/222-9092, mickeythompsontires.com
What: ProComp's new La Paz wheel is styled after the company's race wheels. Let's face it, we don't all need beadlocks even most of the time, and running beadlocks on the road is almost always illegal. And, we aren't a fan of many faux-lock wheels because then you get all the pain of mounting, dismounting, and most of the maintenance without the actual lock. These wheels combine the look, without the pain, and add a couple of neat things that all Jeepers should have.
Material: Aluminum
Sizes: 16- and 17-inch-diameter, five- and eight-lug patterns
What's new: Extra-thick outside bead and extra-thick spokes and hub for maximum durability.
Contact: ProComp
800/776-0767, procompusa.com
What: We know Trail-Gear as a company that makes great parts. Many of them cause us to smack our heads in a "Why didn't I think of that?" kind of moment. The Creeper Lock addresses some of the things we've seen and not liked in other aluminum beadlocks. They have steel thread Time-Sert inserts, for example. But the features go on beyond there. These are cast one-piece and then machined to what you see here. But they aren't machined too much. Each wheel weighs 45 pounds and has a 2,800 pound weight rating. The wheels are available in eight-lug only with a center bore of 51⁄8 inches, and wheels include 24 Grade 85⁄16-inch-diameter bolts.
Material: Aluminum
Sizes: 17x9, 41⁄4 or 5 inches of backspacing
What's new: Thicker where it matters, better inner bead design, steel inserts
Contact: Trail-Gear
559/252-4950, trail-gear.com
What: A new take on a beadlock, the Eklipse 17 moves the actual lock ring to the inside of the tire, putting it out of harm's way. Three lock rings go inside the wheel and cover 1⁄3 of the bead each. They are attached to 5⁄8-inch-diameter studs and the nuts are retained with pins. No worries about loosening bolts or snapping bolt heads. Backspacing is 31⁄2 inches, while bolt patterns are 5-on-41⁄2, 5-on-5, 5-on-51⁄2, 6-on-51⁄2, 8-on-61⁄2, and 8-on-170. The five- and six-lug wheels feature a 3,000-pound rating while the eight-lug wheel boasts a 3,500-pound rating. A Rapid Air Deflator allows quick air downs and is way inboard for protection.
Material: Aluminum
Sizes: 17x10
What's new: Internal locks, standard RAD, available sacrificial rock ring
Contact: Bead Assist Device Wheels
864/491-0438, badwheelsinc.com
Birddoggin' It
What: New wheel from Interco designed with the wheeler in mind. The wheels feature deeper bead seats with redesigned profiles to better hold the tire at low pressures. The wheel lacks detail on the face by design to better self-clean. Thicker "abrasion ring" on the outer edge of the bead designed to take a beating and available, with two valve stems located towards the center of the tire. It is available in many bolt spacing patterns and widths.
Material: Aluminum
Sizes: 15-, 16-, and 17-inch diameters
What's new: 3,000 pound rating, bead seats, thicker edges, lug nut accessibility
Contact: Interco Tire Corporation, 337/334-3814, intercotire.com
What: Shown is the LRGRims LRG 106 but all of the company's wheels feature similar break-the-mold designing. However, unlike many such designs, your tire guy won't have problems getting your tires on them, and they are heavier-duty than many other breakthrough designs. Intended for heavy trucks with big tires, these would be good for Jeeps. However, there are no 15- or 16-inch sizes available so you hardcore 15-inch guys are out of luck. There are many common bolt patterns and widths available.
Material: Aluminum
Sizes: 17- through 22-inch diameters
What's new: New casting technology, designed for big tires, and heavier trucks
Contact: Large Rim Group
855/577-5633, lrgrims.com
Take the Pulse
What: Got a vintage Jeep and tired of beating your head into the wall looking for the uber-rare and too-expensive vintage slot wheels? Check out the Pulsar from Summit Racing. Available with a polished finish, these wheels evoke that classic styling we like without breaking the bank. There are many bolt patterns and wheel widths to choose from, and prices range from $96.95 to $134.95 each.
Material: Cast aluminum
Sizes: 15-inch-diameter, many widths
What's new: Slot-like styling in a brand new wheel
Contact: Summit Racing Equipment
800/230-3030, summitracing.com


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NA Juniors Game Night: 11-2-12
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Quebec Remparts 8 @ Acadie-Bathurst Titan 3
W Nikita Kucherov, QUE: 1-2-3, +1, 0 PIM, 6 SOG, 1 Hit, *Third Star*
Season totals: 3 GP, 2-4-6, +2, 2 PIM
Kucherov (pictured) had a goal and two assists to give him six points in three games to start his North American hockey career. His line combined for 10 points on the night as Mikhail Grigorenko (Sabres) had four assists and Adam Erne (2013) had a hat trick. Kucherov was third star for the second-straight game. It's his turn to sit out the next game as fellow import player Nick Sorensen sat out on Friday night. The Remparts can only dress two per game. Grigorenko is the other import on the roster.
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 6 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 5
C Cedric Paquette, BLB: 0-1-1, E, 5 PIM (fighting), 3 SOG, 1 Hit
Season totals: 17 GP, 8-11-19, +11, 45 PIM
Paquette played his second game since returning from a suspension, and was issued a misconduct for "continuing or attempting to continue a fight" after squaring off with Jack Nevins. He had an assist after the misconduct. Teammate Chris Clapperton (undrafted) had a hat trick for the Armada.
Val-d'Or Foreurs 6 @ Victoriaville Tigres 4
D Artem Sergeev, VDO: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 5 SOG, 1 Hit
Season totals: 17 GP, 3-9-12, +4, 10 PIM
Six different players scored for Val-d'Or, who defeated the Tigres in Victoriaville, 6-4. The game was 2-2 entering the third period.
Ontario Hockey League
Brampton Battalion 3 @ Kingston Frontenacs 6
D Dylan Blujus, BRAM: 0-1-1, -2, 0 PIM
Season totals: 17 GP, 1-6-7, -12, 18 PIM
Blujus earned his fourth point in his last five games, but Brampton fell in Kingston, 6-3. Blujus also fell to a season-worst minus-12 rating. His career low is minus-14, set two years ago when Blujus was a rookie. He was plus-4 last season.
Owen Sound Attack 6 @ Erie Otters 3
D Jake Dotchin, OS: 0-0-0, +1, 0 PIM
Season totals: 15 GP, 1-2-3, +1, 14 PIM
Daniel Catenacci (Sabres) and Gemel Smith (Stars) each had two goals and two assists for Owen Sound in their win over Erie. Jake Dotchin has one point in his last 14 games and none in his last five.
Oshawa Generals 1 @ Guelph Storm 4
C/W Tanner Richard, GUE: 0-2-2, +1, 0 PIM
Season totals: 14 GP, 2-19-21, +7, 36 PIM
Richard extended his point streak to 12 games with two assists against Oshawa on Friday night. In a game broadcast on NHL Network, Richard earned his first assist when he slid a pass back to Matt Finn at the point and Finn's shot banked off the dasher of the end boards and hit goaltender Daniel Altshuller in the shoulder before falling over the goal line. Richard's second assist came on the power play when he executed a give-and-go with Jets pick Scott Kosmachuck. Richard fed Kosmachuck in the slot for a grade-A scoring chance.
Peterborough Petes 1 @ Mississauga Steelheads 4
D Slater Koekkoek, PBO: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM
Season totals: 15 GP, 2-9-11, -7, 12 PIM
Leafs pick Stuart Percy had a goal and an assist to pace the Steelheads to a 4-1 win over Peterborough on Friday night. The Petes broke up Spencer Martin's shutout bid with 13 seconds left in regulation. Lightning prospect goaltender Andrei Vasilevski was drafted by Mississauga, but the Steelheads were not able to bring him to the CHL this season.
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Written in the French organ/ toccata style (in the style of Mulet's Thou Art the Rock), this is a joyful setting of a popular Christmas classic. While not easy, this piece is not outside the reach of the average organist who may have experience with this style or with standard French literature. This challenging and rewarding selection is a showstopper for a Christmas organ concert, or a wonderful postlude for Christmas Eve services. New product for the week of October 1st, 2012.
Instruments: Organ, Piano and Keyboard
An exclusive interview with electronic pop hitmaker Owl City, Part one of a four-part series on keyboard instruments, starting with aerophones (pipe organ, harmonium, accordion, and melodica), A feature on the early years of heavy metal, from Steppenwolf to Judas Priest, World Beat: The music of Senegal, Song of the Month: Shooting Star by Owl City, Rock's Back Page: A new department that spotlights historic events in popular music, as described by those who were there-this month: the making of James Brown's 1962 Live at the Apollo album and more! New product for the week of Sept 17th, 2012.
Instruments: Organ, Accordion, Harmonium, Piano and Keyboard, Folk
Learn the fine art of lead guitar soloing from the ground up with Lead Guitar Secrets. This well-paced, methodical workbook focuses on the essential components of great guitar solos without the typical deluge of dry music theory instruction. You'll get hands-on training with: an 80-track audio CD featuring many play-along backing tracks for soloing practice; an organized, logical apporach that takes you from basic melodic soloing over one chord to more advanced concepts with common chord progressions; a breakdown of the core fretboard scale patterns and how to effectively connect them up and down the neck; rhythmic phrasing and articulation techniques such as bending, vibrato & legato; tools and concepts that provide a solid foundation in improvisation; invaluable skills that are useful in all music genres; and more! Perfect for getting started with lead guitar or expanding one's existing soloing capabilities. The seasoned player could also gain a fresh perspective via the practical and systematic methodology, possibly unlocking some previously overlooked Lead Guitar Secrets. New product for the week of September 3rd, 2012. Includes "tab" tablature notation.
Instruments: Guitar, Organ, Piano and Keyboard
New product for the week of Sept 10th, 2012.
Instruments: Choir, A Cappella, Organ, Vocal, Piano and Keyboard
For SATB choir, organ and obligato violin. Anonymous text traslated by John J. O'Meara in The Voyage of St. Brendan. Choral score, English. New product for the week of Sept 10th, 2012.
Instruments: Choir, Organ, Violin, Vocal, Piano and Keyboard, Strings
New product for the week of Sept 10th, 2012.
Instruments: Vocal, Piano, Guitar, Organ, Piano and Keyboard
Written for the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts this is a wonderfully accessible and exciting addition to worship. Scored for SATB choir and organ, composer David Brunner uses an original melody with a beautiful Medieval text and then combines this with the familiar Wesley hymn O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. Perfect for any church festival. Duration: ca. 4:45. New product for the week of Sept 17th, 2012.
Instruments: Choir, Organ, Vocal, Piano and Keyboard
Composed in the World Music style with a text in Swahili, Imbakwa was written for a film score that features an organization benefiting orphans in Tanzania. This organization called TunaHAKI uses the arts to empower the children and give them the future they deserve. Hand drum part in vocal score. Duration 4:20. New product for the week of September 3rd, 2012.
Instruments: Vocal, Organ, Piano and Keyboard
New product for the week of October 1st, 2012.
Instruments: Choir, Organ, Vocal, Piano and Keyboard
New product for the week of October 1st, 2012.
Instruments: Choir, Organ, Vocal, Piano and Keyboard


text:
House votes to allow residents living illegally in state to apply for driver's licenses
Hartford — A bill that would allow Connecticut residents regardless of their immigration status to obtain a driver's license passed the House 74-55 Thursday morning after an all-night debate.
The debate raged on from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 5:48 a.m. Thursday. All Republicans who were present voted against the bill, along with nine Democrats, including Rep. Edward Jutila, D-East Lyme, and Rep. Edward Moukawsher, D-Groton. Twenty-one House members were absent.
"There is a stark contrast here," said Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, Thursday morning in a press release. "There are 54,000 untrained, unlicensed, and uninsured drivers on our roads. We believe we should deal with this reality now, while those opposed simply want another study."
The bill would allow about 54,000 people living in Connecticut illegally to obtain licenses.
During the House session, many Republicans said they disapproved of the way the bill was put forth. More than 2,000 people attended a public hearing in March in New Haven for the original driver's license bill. But the bill died in the Transportation Committee, in part because of Republican opposition and the committee's desire to pass bills in a bipartisan manner.
Democrats then proposed a "strip all" amendment and attached the amendment to a somewhat related bill on motor vehicle statutes.
Minority Leader Larry Cafero, R-Norwalk, who voted against the bill, said he had wanted to be a part of the bill process.
"I say this with respect. I am angry at that, I wanted to be a part of this process, I wanted to learn more about this. I wanted to do justice by the people," Cafero said.
Rep. David Scribner, R-Brookfield, a ranking member on the Transportation Committee, also said he disapproved of the process, which left out that committee.
Proponents of the bill say that allowing previously unlicensed people to have driver's licenses will encourage them to register their vehicles and obtain car insurance, which could make the roads safer.
New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said last month that he supports the bill.
"It will make us safer, and it will grow our economy because it accepts and it affirms the basic, well-proven, common sense principle that our state will grow when we ensure that no honest, hardworking law-abiding resident of our state is ever forced to live in the shadows of our society," Finizio said.
The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated that the bill would cost the Department of Motor Vehicles $1.3 million in fiscal year 2015 and up to $1.4 million by fiscal year 2018.
There are initial revenues associated with the bill because a new influx of people would be paying fees to obtain a license and register their vehicles. Revenue estimates start at $1.5 million in fiscal year 2015 and trickle down to $583,200 by fiscal year 2018, as fewer people would be applying for the first time.
Scribner said there is uncertainty regarding how many people are living as illegal immigrants in Connecticut, and therefore, it is difficult to assess the level of impact.
The DVM has already had to eliminate some services at branch offices because it didn't have enough resources, Scribner said.
If the bill were to pass in the Senate and be signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a person without citizenship or legal residency could obtain a driver's license by providing a primary proof of identity such as "a valid foreign passport issued by the applicant's country of citizenship that is unexpired or expired for less than three years," or "a valid, unexpired consular identification document issued by the applicant's country of citizenship," or "a consular report of an applicant's birth of a foreign country."
The applicant would also need a secondary proof of identity, such as "a valid, unexpired motor vehicle operator's license, with security features, issued by another state or country."
The person would also have to prove residency by providing documents such as a bill from a bank or utility company, a pre-printed pay stub or a property tax bill.
Sharkey said the purpose of driver's licenses is to create minimum qualifications and skill standards to make everyone safer.
"We are talking about people who contribute to our communities and our economy every day," Sharkey said. "They are our neighbors, our fellow taxpayers and our friends."
Supporters of undocumented immigrant driver's license bill rally in New London
Watch Live: New London vs. Bacon Acadmey in ECC girls' basketball final
Fitch's Amara Robinson: from broken back to all-state cheerleader
College trustee quits over Nazi uniform yearbook photo from 1980


text:
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For each algorithm requiring validation, EWA-Canada generates test files and provides these to the vendor who must then run them through their cryptographic algorithm implementation to generate a correct set of outputs from the supplied input vectors. Once the output files are returned, they are verified and, if correct, a submission is made to the CAVP for validation of the algorithm implementations and issuance of algorithm validation certificates.
EWA-Canada can perform verification of the following:
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The EWA-Canada IT Security Evaluation & Test Facility can also perform the testing of the algorithm implementations or refer you to a FIPS 140-2 support specialist to perform the testing.
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text:
Brewers should be commended for Garza deal
This is an uphill journey, but the Milwaukee Brewers continue to attempt the climb.
The Brewers on Thursday were drawing close to a deal for free-agent starting pitcher Matt Garza. The contract is reportedly for $52 million over four years, though the club has not confirmed the deal and later announced that negotiations were "ongoing."
This is an uphill journey, but the Milwaukee Brewers continue to attempt the climb.
The Brewers on Thursday were drawing close to a deal for free-agent starting pitcher Matt Garza. The contract is reportedly for $52 million over four years, though the club has not confirmed the deal and later announced that negotiations were "ongoing."
In the supermarket of free-agent pitching, the Brewers, operating in the smallest media market in the Major Leagues, could not afford to shop in the Masahiro Tanaka aisle. The seven-year, $155 million deal that Tanaka received from the Yankees is beyond the means of many clubs, including the one that makes its home at Miller Park.
But the Brewers were still willing and able to make a major shopping excursion at the top of the second-tier free-agent pitching market, where Garza was located along with Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez and Bronson Arroyo.
The Brewers had gone in a similar direction last year, signing Kyle Lohse for $33 million over three years. The Garza deal is larger, longer and, in fact, is the most expensive free-agent deal in the history of the Milwaukee franchise.
Lohse pitched more than capably for the Brewers in 2013, but his presence did not markedly lift the club's level. The Brewers finished fourth in the National League Central, 23 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals.
And when you mention the Cardinals, you are mentioning the primary competitive problem facing Milwaukee. The Brewers are undoubtedly improved as a result of adding Garza. But their starting rotation, improved though it should be, still does not measure up to the St. Louis rotation.
This is to say nothing of the problems posed by the Pirates and the Reds. The NL Central last season became the first division in baseball to qualify three teams for the postseason. That distinction was made possible by the expansion of the Wild Card berths, but it also happened because St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were all very good teams, each featuring strong pitching.
The Cardinals had the best record in the NL, and eventually they had the NL pennant, too. They epitomize the quality of growing their own pitching. A seemingly endless stream of young pitchers, possessing both power and poise, came up to the Cardinals last season and made the success of the St. Louis organization both possible and notable.
The Brewers, meanwhile, have in their current rotation only one proven Major League starter who came up through their own organization. That would be Yovani Gallardo, who had a sub-standard season in 2013. Other young pitchers made appearances and contributions for the Brewers in 2013, and they might eventually become impact performers. But none of them performed at the level of the Cardinals' young, homegrown starters.
Lohse had gone 16-3 for the Cardinals in 2012. How could they afford not to re-sign him? You saw how. They had not only adequate replacements on hand, they had outstanding replacements on hand.
So the Brewers are forced to pay, and perhaps, overpay in the free-agent marketplace. Credit Brewers owner Mark Attanasio with the willingness to spend major money in an attempt to keep his club highly competitive on a year-to-year basis.
If the Brewers' system was more productive in turning out its own top-flight starting pitchers, this could be a less expensive, more efficient proposition. But at least Brewers fans know that their favorite franchise is not complacently settling for secondary status.
Garza comes with a combination of plusses and question marks. He is 30, still young enough to contribute. His stuff is good enough, his record has been consistent. But he has been on the disabled list in parts of each of the last three seasons. He pitched well for the Cubs early in 2013, but when he was traded to the Rangers, who were in contention, his performance was somewhat disappointing.
Still, if healthy, Garza obviously makes the Brewers' rotation better. In a difficult division, including the defending NL champs, he gives the Brewers a better chance to compete.
The Brewers were not expected to be major players in the free-agent market, but they have obtained one of the best pitchers available, at least among the pitchers not named Tanaka. For making the effort, by courting Garza at considerable expense, the Brewers are to be commended.
Mike Bauman is a columnist for MLB.com.


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text:
ize: 678308975 Bytes (646.89 MiB), Duration: 00:59:01, Avg.Bitrate: 1532 Kb/S
Audio: Aac, 44100 Hz, Stereo (Und)
download scat porn /7I0yTprFS">ChristianWilde_OsirisBlade_540p.mp4
Sep 11
ize: 678308975 Bytes (646.89 MiB), Duration: 00:59:01, Avg.Bitrate: 1532 Kb/S
Audio: Aac, 44100 Hz, Stereo (Und)
download scat porn /7I0yTprFS">ChristianWilde_OsirisBlade_540p.mp4
Apr 06
Performers: Jessie Colter
Jessie Colter awaits as Van, with Branden Forrest at his side, arrive for his session. Bound to the bed with a tight rope around his neck, Jessie's rock hard cock is just aching to cum as Branden teases him up and down using his tongue. A hood is placed on Jessie's head to deprive him of his senses, amplifying every sensitive touch on his cock. After edging the bound stud with the fleshjack, Jessie's inverted with a dildo shoved up his ass. Pounding away on Jessie's prostate causes an explosion of cum as he blasts himself all over his own face.
download scat porn /I5mgSE6fl">Jessie_Colter_edged_and_cum_on_his_face.mp4
Apr 05
Performers: Josh Peters
Officer Josh Peters can't stand perverts. When he receives a case on a sketchy massage parlor run by Sebastian Keys and Christian Wilde, Peters goes undercover to investigate. Sebastian and Christian creep on Officer Peters as he strips down to his underwear for his massage. They spot his badge and hatch a scheme to capture and edge the officer. As they rub and knead Peters' ass, they reveal the ruse and strap him to the table. Now at the perverts' mercy, Peters can only moan as Sebastian and Christian run their hands all over his cock and feet. They plow his straight ass with a vibrator, leaving the cop begging to cum. Now flipped over, gagged and with his nipples adorned with clamps, Sebastian offers a special cock massage and works the stud with a fleshjack. Just as Officer Peters is about to blow his load, Christian rips the clamps from Peters and joins Sebastian in tickling their captive all over. They bring Peters back to the intake and bind him in ropes and bamboo. No longer thinking of anything but shooting a wad of thick cum, Josh fucks two hitachis held by Sebastian and receives more painful edges. With the massage drawing to a close Sebastian finally decides to give the muscled hunk his happy ending and milks out a gallon of hot jizz. The relief is short lived for the officer, however, as Sebastian quickly rubs down his sensitive cockhead while Christian holds him down. The pervs taunt Officer Peters as they walk out, daring him to bring more of his cop buddies for another session next week.
download scat porn /D0h10ClJl">Undercover_cop_begs_to_cum_in_an_sketchy_massage_parlor.mp4
Apr 05
Date: Mar 1, 2016
Performers: Zane Anders
Straight stud Zane Anders finds himself belted down to a ladder, balanced against the wall of a dark workshop. His captors emerge from the shadows and cut the clothes from his body, running their hands over every inch of it. Fear gets overtaken by sheer horniness for Zane, as his captors edge his cock repeatedly. They move Zane to a suspended platform and mummify him in duct tape while continuing to deny an orgasm for Zane's throbbing dick. Leaving his feet exposed, his captors make the stud squirm in his casing as they suck and lick his toes. They flip Zane's platform and milks his dick from below as he swings over the ground. Zane returns upright and finally has permission to cum, blowing a massive load that soon gets smeared all over his face. His captors give his dick a hard apple polish and completely encase him in duct tape.
download scat porn /mnJim2EJl">Straight_Duct_Tape_Hostage_Edged.mp4
Apr 05
Date: Feb 16, 2016
Performers: Dale Cooper
Dale Cooper is a real life bike messenger in the big city. He comes to us to get edged. Dale is blessed with masculine good looks. He takes his clothes off to reveal a beautiful ripped body. It's the natural athletic body from bike riding and doing sports. Sebastian removes Dale's underwear and discovers his big fat cock. Getting edged, Dale moans nicely with his deep masculine voice. He moans even louder when his tight hole is violated with a wet finger and then a slippery dildo. This hot stud is ready to explode and begging to cum. Did we let him cum? You have to watch to find out
download scat porn /UX7cD6RJl">Real_life_bike_messenger_with_a_big_fat_cock.mp4
Apr 05
Date: Jan 5, 2016
Performers: Logan Taylor
Logan Taylor feels a little nervous about his first time with KinkMen, but his anxieties turn to horny anticipation as he watches Jessie and Sebastian fit his body in rope. Tied to a chair on a spinning platform, Logan decides to enjoy the ride. Jessie slices off Logan's briefs to reveal a huge, throbbing cock and gets to work stroking it. The two spin Logan between another, taking turns tweaking his sensitive nipples and edging his thick member. Logan is ready to blow when they bring out the fleshjack, but Jessie pulls it away to leave Logan spinning and frustrated. Next thing Logan knows, he splayed out and gagged on a couch as Jessie sucks him to the edge. Logan has his feet worshipped and his ass filled with a dildo. Logan likes the fucking a little too much, so Jessie trades the dildo for a prostate massager and denies two more orgasms from the boy. Logan can't take much more of this torment as he begs to cum though his gag. Jessie finally relents and i'll descibe the cum here.
download scat porn /rXcNfemml">First_time_getting_edged_for_a_big_fat_cock_.mp4
Apr 05
Date: Jan 19, 2016
Performers: Rex Cameron
Lean, cut Rex Cameron arrives at the Armory to see if he can make it though an edging session with Sebastian and Jessie. Rex gets hard as soon as the ropes secure his body to the chair where he'll sit and try to deal with an onslaught of pleasure. Sebastian fits Rex with a blindfold to center the stud's mind on the sensation of Jessie's blowjob. He moans eagerly as Sebastian gags him with his precum-stained underwear. The two take a pair of hitachis and run it up and down Rex's shaft, edging him repeatedly. Sebastian switches the vibration for a fleshjack, driving Rex wild as he bucks his hips against his restraints. Rex takes a rough tickling before Jessie and Sebastian move him to the center of the room. With his arms and legs stretched from wall to wall, Sebastian adorns Rex's throbbing dick in rope while Jessie worships his balls. They move their attention to the stud's ass and plunge a dildo deep inside his hole. Edged over and over, Rex can't take any more of the treatment and begs to cum. The two finally let him blow a load as Sebastian handgags his face. Jessie gives Rex a handful of his thick load before he and Sebastian tickle his body all over.
download scat porn /gafWoLhml">Chiseled_guy_begs_to_cum_under_intense_edging.mp4
Apr 05
Date: Jan 12, 2016
Performers: Vinnie Stefano
Vinnie Stefano is a beefy hunk of a man, and can't wait to have his muscles bound tight while Sebastian and Branden take full control of his dick. Vinnie bulges out from his harness as Sebastian fixes him to a pillar and Branden teases his package. With Vinnie firmly in place, they pull out hitachis and run them over his nipples and hard cock. Vinnie begs to cum as he fucks the two hitachis pressed against his cock, but Sebastian won't let him off easy. He places strong clamps on Vinnie's nipples and thrusts Vinnie's member into a fleshjack. Vinnie oozes precum while Branden's blowjob brings him to the edge. The two take Vinnie to a St. Andrew's cross for a better look at his meaty ass. Branden gives Vinnie a sloppy, wet rimjob; Sebastian switches pleasure for pain and drips hot wax all all Vinnie's cheeks. They flip Vinnie to face them and move down to worship his toes before getting a taste of his manly pits. Vinnie has the attention return to his cock as Branden blows him almost to orgasm several times. They finally decide to give the stud some relief, so Branden milks out a thick load onto his tongue. He gives Vinnie a messy taste of his own cum before he and Sebastian leave him on the cross to cool off.


text:
Specifically, to kink.com, a rather famous/major producer of the stuff.
I'm not sure how deep I want to delve into this, here. Personally, I am not at all anti-porn. I think that even when the industry is full of abuses, it is an entirely unproductive move to attempt to dismantle it. And if, as many anti-porn feminists claim, you're not for directly dismantling it, then you're just talking -- sitting around with your friends, enjoying the titillation of outdoing one another with your professions of disgust.
And personally, I have a couple of videos from MenInPain on this computer. So I might be biased. (Defensive, I guess they'd say. Then again, they DID claim F/m doesn't matter. Immunity: It's FUN.)
But, that said, I do understand many women's wariness of pornography. BDSM pornography, with its depictions of pain and domination, can only compound that wariness. And I don't mean to imply that anti-porn, pro-BDSM people aren't welcome here; they are.
All that said, though? This, here:
This shit ain't revolutionary, it's so fucking obvious and stupid that I'd laugh if it didn't look so much like RAPE. If you have that kind of dark side, it might be best to leave it unexplored. Or kill yourself (if you're the customer, that is).Is NOT ON. It's just not.
Not when people with stigmatized sexualities DO kill themselves. I considered it more than once myself, for the record.
Not that this would make me, mind you. Even at my most insecure and unstable, some fool on the Internet thinking she's the snark queen for saying something like this would never have pushed me over the edge.
But it's inappropriate.
Notice that my saying this does not mean I think she should be forbidden from saying it, or that in Utopia she wouldn't say it. I'm not one for that either. I don't think it is productive to say to someone that there's a problem with her venting her dark desires -- in this case, that people she's frightened of (the maledom boogeyman in the dark) die, in droves.
Because people can and do have those feelings. Those feelings are part of what we're discussing, here.
Instead, what I object to is the way this is used: one, as a demonstration of her skill with rhetoric, and two, as a way to rile other people up politically.
That's what disturbs me. Reading the sentiment that I should die used as a rallying cry.