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Hellgate 100k
66.6 miles – 13,500ft elevation gain
12:01am, December 11th 2011
Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains
You may have noticed a lack of recent race reports. This is due to the 5 months it took for a bad case of IT Band syndrome to heal up after my debut 100-miler back in June. Not knowing how long it would take the ITB to heal, but knowing that Hellgate fills quickly, I sent in my application and thankfully secured my slot. Then came the day when I was back to 100% and ready to start training… with Hellgate only 2 months away.
Normally giving myself 6+ months for an event like this, the next 2 months became an n=1 experiment on how much fitness could be gained in an extremely short period of time. I made some bold jumps in mileage but paid careful attention to the body so as not to overdo it. All seemed well and I was able to peak out at 60 miles/week for 3 weeks, along with some fairly regular Crossfit for strength and flexibility. Not perfect, but not too shabby given the circumstances.
Race day came and at 12:01am on a cold December night we headed out into the darkness of the snowy Virginia mountains for 66 miles of "fun". The field was stacked with names like Karl Meltzer, Jeremy Ramsey, David Goggins, Keith Knipling, Chris Reed, Aaron Schwartzbard and many others who have put me to shame on more than one occasion. I knew from the get-go that a top 10 finish was out of the picture, which is quite unfortunate given the sweet Patagonia swag at Horton races, particularly this one, but nonetheless I had a daunting task ahead of me.
Rather than recounting details of the course, I'll defer to Aaron and Keith's wonderfully detailed course descriptions. All you really need to know, though, is that 100k =62.2miles. Hellgate 100k = 66.6miles with 13,500ft elevation gain. We start at midnight, purposefully cross through streams when bridges are accessible, and there have been multiple accounts of runners suffering from corneal edema (i.e. temporarily losing their vision due to a freezing of the fluid buildup in their eyes). In other words, this race is awesome and right up my alley (totally serious).
The first 25 miles or so were rather uneventful. It was cold, the stream crossings were low so my feet remained dry early on (though the couple inches of snow quickly changed that), and I started off at a fairly fast pace since I was feeling good. I was in 6th place for a little while, but I knew that since I was racing with little training that this would soon fade. It was still nice while it lasted, knowing that I was racing one of the toughest 100k's out there and ahead of Karl Meltzer and David Goggins.
Around mile 25 I started getting a sharp pain in the distal medial section of my quad, down near the knee and possibly my MCL. I considered dropping before things got worse, but after DNF'ing at Masochist one month prior (nothing physical, just tough to race when dealing with the loss of a friend/mentor) and having not started Hellgate last year due to not being healthy, I knew that I had to give it everything I had and get that DNF monster off my back. Onward…
My pace slowed significantly due to this pain and I started getting passed, first by runners I knew couldn't be far behind (Jason Lantz, Jordan Chang, Harland Peele), but then by guys I had never seen before. I was now in a new group of runners that I don't generally see in races. There is no faking it at Hellgate; you get put you in your place. As the pain worsened, so did the temptation to drop. It seemed like the smart thing to do, after all. Arriving at aid station #6 (mile 37ish) just after dawn, I whole-heartedly attempted to drop. Another 8 hours of running did not seem tangible given my current fitness and new potential injury. Unfortunately, my buddy Jaime was running the show and he would have none of it. "You can drop, but not at my aid station. Besides, we don't even have any chairs. Keep going." Crap. Onward…
After a long 8 mile stretch to the next aid station, the pain wasn't getting any worse but I realized I had completed 2/3 of the race and I had invested a significant amount of time and miles to get where I was. A finish was now tangible, and although it would hurt and I'd possibly be worsening my new quad/knee pain, the pros outweighed the cons. Onward!
After a relentless 8 mile climb to the next aid station, I caught up with Jack Kurisky, a good VHTRC friend who always happens to be there when I need that extra encouragement to push myself, and we ran together for the remainder of the race. It was rough, and at many points I encouraged him to go on since he was clearly holding back to run with me, but like the dedicated friend he is, he stayed with me and kept me moving. During the "forever section" (it honestly feels like it lasts forever), Mario Raymond came flying by like a bat out of hell. I honestly have no idea how he consistently does this, but it's not the first time he's come blazing past me late in a race. I tried to keep up with him for all of 30 seconds then quickly realized that was a stupid move.
At the last aid station, Jack and I passed Goggins who was heading back to his car. Shawn, my borrowed crew from Mario, informed me that Goggins had twisted his ankle just prior to making his way in and he needed to do some adjusting before moving on. Bummer, but I now had a legitimate chance at being able to say I beat Goggins, someone who is known for being one of the toughest ultrarunners out there. Yes, he was injured and not performing at his best, but neither was I so it's a legitimate claim.
With 3 miles of climbing and 3 miles of descent to the finish, Jack and I kicked it into high gear, constantly looking over our shoulders so as not get passed. As we crested the mountain, we realized a sub-14 hour finish would be possible if we were able to maintain 7:30's to the finish. Possible? Yes. Probable? No. Still, we tried…
We pushed hard and maintained closed to 7:30's, but with one mile to go I realized I had miscalculated the mileage and sub-14 was out of the picture. We entered Camp Bethel and veered our way to the back. The finish line came in sight, and as we got closer a few folks made their way out into the cold to cheer us on. We crossed the finish line together, finishing in 14:03:41 and tied for 20th place.
Many thanks to Jack, for sticking by my side and pushing me to run when I wanted to stop; Horton, for putting on such a phenomenal race that I will surely be back for next year (adequately trained, too); Mario, for letting me borrow his crew-man Shawn; Shawn, for driving our butts to and from the race and crewing for multiple runners at once; Keith, for providing all the helpful advice needed to prepare for my first Hellgate and for taking this awesome picture of Best Blood; and Jaime, for not letting me quit at his aid station despite my best efforts. I finally got that DNF monster off my back, and after a few weeks of recovery I'll be back for a solid 2011.
My first Hellgate… mission accomplished.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Beast Series 2010, Hellgate, Horton, snow, ultra, winter | 3 Comments »


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http://lonestarstruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/thoughts3.png 180 397 Robert Vetrano http://lonestarstruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/lonestarstruck.png Robert Vetrano2010-07-23 12:08:472010-07-23 12:08:47Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Signed, Sealed and Delivered
It has been reported by ESPN that the Cowboys and Penn State Linebacker Sean Lee have agreed to a four year contract.
Sean Lee is the last of the Cowboys draft picks to sign, which means there will be no holdouts. The Cowboys first practice is Saturday and everyone will be dressed and ready to go to work.
Good luck to the Cowboys as they open training camp. It's going to be a fun ride.

subset: commoncrawl


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text: Los Angeles Kings NHL Mini Helmet. This Helmet Is Authentic Down To The Last Detail Including Removable Eye Shield, T-Nuts, Ear Loops and Chin Strap. Officially Licensed By The NHL. This Mini Helmet Is Identical To The Full Size Bauer Model 4000 That The Players Wear. This Helmet Is A Great Piece To Get Autographed. Stock Is Limited On All NHL Teams, Call Us To Place Orders.


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The average MBTA rider rarely looks beyond the transit system's turbulence, delays, and crowds, the banality of a daily routine. But artist Laura Meilman notices its vivid colors, clean lines, and defining details.
In the MBTA, she sees a work of art.
It inspires Meilman's series "Project T-scapes." The 24-year-old artist plans to visit and draw each of the MBTA's 121 subway and streetcar stations and their environs.
In brightly colored markers, Meilman captures snow-laden train tracks, concrete subway stations, and city nightscapes. Her drawing of Copley Station portrays the glow of Old South Church. Jamaica Plain's brownstones serve as the backdrop for her Riverway Station drawing. The Mattapan High-Speed Line's Milton Station is viewed from an overlooking bridge through the veil of a chain-link fence.
"One of the things I would love to do is travel and make artwork inspired by where I travel," Meilman said. "I thought I would start locally."
Her first stop was Heath Street Station, just blocks from her Jamaica Plain home. Her representation depicts a Green Line streetcar as if moves along its track against a background of deep blues and browns.
"Even though it was local and close to my neighborhood, it felt like new experience, a new way to explore the city," she said.
Meilman, an Ithaca, N.Y., native, moved to Boston about a year and a half ago after studying painting at Earlham College in Indiana.
The idea of sketching MBTA stations arose from a conversation with a co-worker at the USS Constitution, where Meilman works as a museum educator.
She has completed drawings of the Red Line and has partially captured the Green Line. She plans to end the project with the Orange Line, on which she most regularly commutes.
She chooses her vantage point for each drawing upon reaching the station. Meilman said she tends to gravitate to pieces of art, like the murals at Prudential Station or Ashmont Station's "Sleeping Moon" sculpture.
The artist spends about half an hour at each MBTA station, often sketching the lines of her drawings at the location and then moving to a nearby coffee shop to refine the ideas.
Connections she is making during her travels infuse her project.
As she added color to her drawing of Park Street Station in a coffee shop on a recent cold night, Meilman said, she was approached by a Northeastern University student. Their exchange was brief, she said, but afterward the student shared her work on social media. When Meilman drew the Northeastern stop, he once again promoted her work, prompting a flood of social media shares.
"It was location pride, school pride," said Meilman. "All these people have a connection to this one place."
On her way to Mattapan Station, Meilman struck up a conversation with a T conductor, who informed her that the high-speed line was once featured on "Ripley's Believe It or Not" because it is the country's only trolley system to run through a graveyard.
"We've always known that the MBTA plays an integral role in this culturally rich area," said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. "Laura's project beautifully depicts the important relationship between a sprawling public transit system and the communities it serves."
Once completed, the project may be exhibited or collected into a book, Meilman said.
Meilman hopes the final product will showcase both the landscape and the diversity of the city.
"I think everyone in Boston has experience with the T," Meilman said. "It really connects us."Catherine Cloutier can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @cmcloutier.
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect estimate for the duration of the drawing project.


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The first time I took my then-7-year-old stepdaughter on a two-hour flight to Seattle, we dubbed her carry-on the survival pack.
Loaded inside were coloring books, travel board games, cards, books, kids' craft projects and enough snacks to feed a half-dozen children. That flight felt like two hours trapped inside a pinball machine as we jumped from one activity to the next. But I was quite proud that we never once turned on a tech gadget.
Don't get me wrong: Gadget time has value — it's how I get my 2 ½-year-old to sit still for 20 minutes. I just love good, old-fashioned ideas, too.
Like the ones from Travel Savvy Mom blogger Jamie Pearson, of Palo Alto, who has used a ballpoint pen to turn airsickness bags into impromptu puppets.
"As long as you've got your pen out, you can have lots of fun adding funny captions to the SkyMall catalog," she adds. "Not only is this a delightfully immature pastime for you and your kids, the next person to sit in your seat can enjoy your creativity, too."
Pearson also suggests telling young children funny stories about when they were babies, "especially if they involve diaper or toilet-training mishaps."
Readers have some great ideas, too. Here are a few favorites:
Between trips I collected small games, coloring books, books and little toys (nothing that made noise or had many pieces) in preparation for the next flight. These items I kept in a zippered pink bag that we called the activity bag. My daughter was not allowed to see what I was putting into it. She could carry it to the airport but couldn't open it until the plane had lifted off. With the anticipation of finding all the treasures the bag contained, she was cheerful and excited about the flight. There was always enough in the bag to entertain her during the whole flight.
— Peggy Ryu, Lafayette
I mail an envelope a week ahead to the child filled with surprises to be opened once the plane is in the air. I have fun collecting things pertaining to the trip. For younger children, a special coloring book with a new pack of crayons. Amazon has a great collection of coloring books, like one on Hawaii with information on native fish, customs and food. For older kids, I include a map of the destination and information from the visitors bureau. Depending on the reading level, I include a story from the destination. The envelope boldly carries the warning DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU ARE IN THE AIR!!! It is fun for me and keeps these young fliers busy.
— Joan Stevenson, Lafayette
Markers and Pens and Skin: One year my then-3-year-old son doodled all over his own legs and arms with a ballpoint (no one had yet narrowed his thinking that pens were only for paper). I'm pretty sure he enjoyed not only what was emerging on his own body but how "tickle-y" the pen felt. Note: This was on a return flight, so there was no concern about shocking Grandma and such.
Arts & Crafts: Don't forget the small jar of Play-Doh, stickers and craft materials to make a gift for the people you're going to see when you land.
Happy Snaps: Hand them your old phone in camera mode and invite them to snap away in the cabin.
— Marcia Klein, San Jose
Parental Guidance appears twice a month. Follow Ann Tatko-Peterson at Twitter.com/atatkopeterson.
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How do you encourage your toddler to potty train and what tricks work best for long-term success? Send your suggestions to email@example.com. Include your name and city of residence.


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Osteochondroma is an overgrowth of cartilage and bone that happens at the end of the bone near the growth plate. Most often, it affects the long bones in the leg, the pelvis, or the shoulder blade.
Osteochondroma is the most common noncancerous bone growth. It most often occurs between ages 10 and 30. It affects males and females equally.
While the exact cause of osteochondroma is not known. There is one type that is inherited and one type that is not inherited.
These are the most common symptoms of osteochondroma:
Often, people with osteochondroma will have no symptoms at all.
When they do happen, symptoms of osteochondroma may look like other medical problems. Always talk with your doctor for a diagnosis.
Your healthcare provider will review your medical history and do a physical exam. Other tests include:
Your healthcare provider will figure out the best treatment based on:
Treatment for osteochondromas varies depending on the size of the growth and your symptoms. Treatment may include:
If there is no sign of bone weakening or increased overgrowth, your healthcare provider may want to watch it over time. Careful follow-up with a healthcare provider to monitor bone growth may be advised.
Osteochondroma is an overgrowth of cartilage and bone at the end of the bone near the growth plate. It affects males and females equally.
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:
Stay Informed.
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- Commentary
By Cody Willard
Marvell, which I was buying a few weeks ago, is up after last night's report. Steady as she goes. I'm holding all of my common and calls steady in that one for now. On the other hand, I've been actively refining the portfolio and getting ever less long as the markets run higher. I'd sure like to see a huge spike or a huge crash in which we'd likely see a lot of pitches to swing at.
I find myself getting a bit antsy and wanting to put on some new trades and find some quick profits. But that is the absolute worst reason to put on a trade — because of you're "antsy." Patience, discipline and homework. Those are the tools that will get us where we want to go — not forcing trades because we want some action.
One of the most popular requests I get from Cody Word readers at Marketwatch is for a listing of some of my favorite stocks. Of course, most of you know this, but if you don't, you should still do more homework on any trade or investment idea you get, whether its from your broker, your buddy or your favorite blogger.
I've got about a total of 20 positions, both long and short, on my sheets right now. So by popular demand, here's a list of some positions. On TradingWithCody.com, I give each of the stocks in my portfolio a current rating from 1 to 10. 1 being "Get out of this position now!" and 10 being "Sell the farm, I've found a perfect investment" (there will never be a 10 rating, because there is no such thing as a perfect investment, of course).
You should run through your own portfolio and give each stock a rating like this yourself. And get rid of any positions that aren't at least a 6 — because if 5 is average, then you don't want any position that you think is only average. Selling a 5-or-less-rated stock is a reason to do a trade, not because you're antsy.
Anyway, here are some of my actual positions right now with a rating.
- Google (7)
- Facebook (8)
- Apple (8)
- Lindsay (8)
- Marvell (8)
- Zagg (8)
- Physical gold (8)
- Apollo (7)
- Morgan Stanley (8)
- Dollar General (7)
- Lender Processing Services (8)
Cody Willard writes Revolution Investing for MarketWatch and posts the trades from his personal account at TradingWithCody.com, which is not affiliated with MarketWatch. Follow Cody on Twitter at twitter.com/codywillard.


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As you might well imagine, the quest of a trash movie fanatic is frought with danger. For every nugget of 70s Eurotrash gold you unearth in a 50-movie budget pack, you're likely to suffer through a dozen or more movies so terrible that even laughing at them is impossible. For every candy-colored goretastic brain-burner from the 80s you stumble upon, you trip over that many more shot-on-video disasters with all the technical skill and enjoyment potential of a public-access broadcast of the local school board meeting. Sometimes you spend weeks and many dollars slogging through pile after pile of cinematic excretia, until the very hope of actually enjoying a movie again starts to look like an impossible dream.
But then the magic happens: you come across a thing of such gleeful, over-the-top batshittery that it bypasses your brain's logic- and taste-containing crenelations and strikes deep into the movie-watching pleasure centers, flooding your system with trash-movie endorphins and reminding you why you put in all that time in the first place.
So thank you, Executioner, Part II. Thank you for reminding me what it's all about.
By 1984 the heyday of the grindhouse phenomenon may have been well past, but thank God nobody told director James Bryan (Don't Go in the Woods, Lady Streetfighter) before he turned out this gritty, low-budget, and completely INSANE paean to vigilante justice. From its hamfisted stabs at social relevance ,to its earnest but clubfooted acting, to its sometimes shocking displays of slimy deviance, The Executioner, Part II is a movie that succeeds by getting everything WRONG. If you can't understand the zen truth cocooned in that little exploitation koan, well then, this is not the movie for you.
The Punisher and First Blood: in a 1980s Los Angeles where crime is rampant and hobo-patterned red bandannas are ubiquitous, the people cower in their homes, praying for a savior. Police lieutenant Roger O'Malley (Christopher "I'm trying to be tough guy like my dad AGAIN" Mitchum) spends his days hanging out with musclebound mechanic war-buddy Mike (Antoine John Mottet), to whom Roger owes his life since Mike pulled his ass out of the fire in 'Nam. As a small business owner, Mike is paying protection to crime lord Mr. Cassalis (Dan Bradley, maybe? imdb is unclear), an incredibly oily character known to local hookers as "The Tattoo Man," since he gets off by cutting his sexual partners with a knife and burning them with cigarettes. Meanwhile O'Malley's daughter Laura has become hooked on the drugs (probably because her old man's never around) and her dealer Pete wants to turn her out as a prostitute in exchange for keeping the supply end up.
Against this seedy background, a vigilante dressed in black stalks the night. Actually he stalks broad daylight too, rescuing women from rooftop bandanna-gang rape by cutting the punks' throats with broken bottles and sticking grenades down their pant legs! Dubbed "The Executioner" by gadfly German-American reporter Celia Amherst (Renee Harmon, the model on which Ariana Huffington must have based her entire personality), the vigilante is bringing the crime rate down in LA through outright terrorism, much to the dismay of Mr. Cassalis and his pet Police Commissioner (a never-been-more-blustery Aldo Ray). While Celia sings the Executioner's praises on television and urges the police to leave him alone and let him keep blowing punks up, O'Malley is assigned by his corrupt boss to bring the Executioner in, dead or alive. But when Mike starts displaying increasingly erratic behavior, the lieutenant wonders if his old friend has found a novel way of dealing with his absolutely monstrous case of PTSD.
The Executioner, Part II is *not* a sequel; The Executioner, Part I does not exist. The best anyone can figure, the filmmakers and production company hoped to capitalize on the success of another movie, likely 1980's similarly themed The Exterminator. Why they didn't just go all out and call it Dambo 2: Mike's Revenge is beyond me, but the point is moot. (It's not really a spoiler to reveal Mike as the titular vigilante--while the director does try to inject a little detective mystery into the proceedings at the beginning of the movie, that effort is quickly abandoned once Mike starts having his incredibly over-the-top flashbacks to Nam.)
The joy in this movie lies more in its individual parts than in the overarching whole. For instance, early on Mike and Roger are having a beer at the garage when they notice a gang of thieves stripping down Mike's Executionermobile outside. The leader of the gang is a smartly dressed thug rocking the blond hair/black beard look, dressed in tight jeans, a white button-up shirt knotted at the navel, a black leatherette vest and the required red neckerchief. (Only in the early 80s could THIS guy be the gang leader; the lowest Shark or Jet would laugh him out of the rumble for his fashion sense.)
The Vets run the gang off after a lengthy and moderately exciting brawl, and you'd think that'd be the end of it--but no, the Necker-Chief returns later--alone--to rob the garage, this time putting up a good fight against Mike before getting his head slammed in a car door and giving Mike the goods on Mr. Cassalis. Not enough yet? Well, your favorite gangsta and mine returns yet again later for a final confrontation with Mike in the abandoned building where the gang has its HQ. I don't know who played this role, but he lights up the screen every time he appears, so kudos.
Laura O'Malley's unfortunate addiction to weed and coke. Laura is not what you'd call "classically beautiful"--in fact, she looks more like Roger's overweight sister than his frail little girl. Despite this, Pete the Pusher finds her irresistible and just can't wait to add her to his stable of hookers, after which he plans to offer her as payment of his own debt to Cassalis. When he learns that Laura is a virgin, you can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes.
A lot of odd details flesh out the characters and add to the overall strangeness of the movie. For instance, Pete has a predeliction for Jimmy Buffet-style shirts and 60s doo-wop, and his apartment looks less like a drug den than like the set of Three's Company. He enlists the help of two of his hookers to break Laura into the business (he can't do it himself since he wants to preserve her valuable virginity for his boss), crooning to them, "Girls, meet my new CHICKAY!" However, when they find out Laura is a virgin, the whores rebel and hold Pete down while she makes her escape. His cries of "Get back here! You're letting my virgin get away!" while rolling around with the two call girls could be the end of a John Ritter sketch, the way it's staged. And his bedroom, adorned with a movie poster for Hot Teenage Assets, samurai swords, and a Black-and-Decker drill on the bedpost (?!) just amps up the weird.
Reporter Celia Amherst is another strange character--despite frilly, flower-print grandma dresses and her almost impenetrable German accent, she gets a lot of on-mike interview time for the LA Television station. She gets almost as much attention from Roger, who puts on the moves while she pumps him for information at a local bar. (The entertainment at said bar is a single dancer in a sequined top and white spandex pants, accompanied by a tinny piano--I guess the Weimar vibe makes Celia feel at home.) Celia also seems irresistible to one of Cassalis's goons, who late in the movie ties her down, pumps her full of smack, and molests her as she trips.
over-the-top flashbacks and near-verbatim "back-from-Nam" Rambo speech late in the film are highlights. But the real standout here is Mr. Cassalis, the Tattoo Man. The actor here is so slimy and imposing, so brimming with asshole confidence, I totally buy him as the type of guy who would get off on burning whores with cigarettes. His wife, self-described as the Tatoo Man's "Pussy-Wussy," is another cipher.
However, my FAVORITE character in the whole movie has to be Laura's friend and fellow dope-addict, Kitty. Blonde, giggly, irrepressible, and gloriously stoned throughout, Kitty is a bright spot whenever she's onscreen. She's introduced while smoking pot with Laura at Roger's apartment. "I wish this were coke," she snickers, toking a joint. "Oh, heavenly coke!" Then she proceeds to sing the praises of the hustling-for-drugs lifestyle, using peer pressure to convince Laura it's okay. "Kitty, I don't think I can go through with it!" Laura demurs. Kitty sympathizes: "Yeah, that's what I said at first. But as soon as the first sleazeball comes along and slips you a $20, it's a breeze!"
This last sentiment is part of the aforementioned hamfisted social relevance portion of the show: the message is, apparently, that once you're on drugs your life is hopeless and bereft of value. Early on Pete tells Laura she should go ahead and be a whore herself out: "Dope, sex--you already screwed yourself anyhow!" Kitty echoes this thought later on, in her typically mirthful style: "Listen, Laura's on drugs, like the rest of us! Once you're on drugs, just SCREW the rest!" It's actually a rather bleak point of view, meant to bolster the film's other argument: that in a world full of drug addicts and Tattoo Men, the Executioner's methods are really the way to go.
I fully understand that BATSHIT CRAZEE is not a high recommendation for everyone, but if it is for you, then The Executioner, Part II has everything that you want. Sure, it's inept and poorly put-together, but it's also as strangely gleeful and enthusiastic as Kitty on a coke-binge. Works for me! I give The Executioner, Part II a satisfied 2.5 thumbs. Check it out. And just say no to drugs.
Unless Kitty's with you. Then, what the hell--go for it.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Executioner, Part II (1984): or, Just Say No to Drugs
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 9:00 AM
Labels: '80s, 2-3 thumbs, Grindhouse Experience 1, Psycho Killer, PTSD, Revenge, Thriller
10 comments:
- Tenebrous Kate said...
I blind-viewed this one as part of the "Grindhouse" box as well, and can attest to the... erm... WOW-ness of this movie. As in "wow, I can't believe I'm watching this and--WOW--I can't believe I'm having this much *fun* watching this!" I was pretty much *raised* on 80s action flicks (HBO used to screen some real barrel-scrapers with commercials that included the timeless catchphrase "It ain't Bergman, but things blow up") and this has some of the kooky energy of the weirdest of those movies. The 'Nam Flashbacks are particularly amazing--I especially love the unmistakably deciduous-forested "jungle" sets. Killer write-up of this little nugget of weirdness, sir!
- January 22, 2009 at 9:34 AM
- The Duke of DVD said...
Wowee. Yes, I must watch this. It sounds like Rambo crossed with Westside Story crossed with Death Wish. I love how 80's movies always have the dudes dressing in what would now be considered gay at best. I'm reminded of Sleepaway Camp, in which all of the jocks dress in cut-off jean shorts and knotted t-shirts and/or muscle shirts, and generally look like they are rent boys who just walked out of a bar called A League of Extraordinarily Horny Gentleman.
Props on the great review, Vicar. I must add this one to ye olde DVD collection.
- January 23, 2009 at 1:01 PM
- Karswell said...
I unleashed some bat shit this week too, haha... The Kings of Batshittery. It's what all the cool d00ds are saying these days.
Not sure I've ever seen this one either, box art looks a little too much on the action oriented side of the isle for my tastes but I do likie the bat shittamous.
No to drugs. Yes to Kitty.
- January 27, 2009 at 1:23 PM
- The Vicar of VHS said...
Kate--I thought about mentioning the Backyard Nam sets, but I ran out of space. :) I liked the way explosions were indicated by someone blasting a flamethrower from just out of frame, too!
Duke--You DEFINITELY need to see this one. Knowing your early-career Stallone fixation, this knock-off will warm the heartles of your cock...or something.
>>I do likie the bat shittamous.
Are you high RIGHT NOW? :P
- January 27, 2009 at 1:28 PM
"The plot is equal parts The Punisher and First Blood: in a 1980s Los Angeles where crime is rampant and hobo-patterned red bandannas are ubiquitous, the people cower in their homes, praying for a savior."
I recall few people huffing of the Exterminator as a Punisher rip-off. Well, "we all live in glass houses"....
Yes, the Punisher came out in 1973, and the Exterminator came out in 1980. However, I seriously doubt that they had the former character in mind when this film came out. In any event, somebody got ripped off.
"Basically, the Punisher always seemed to me a very direct rip-off of the Executioner, the lead character of a long series—eventually over three hundred of them—of pulp drugstore paperback books starting back in 1969. Mack Bolan was a Vietnam special forces vet, his family was killed by the Mafia, and used his combat skills to kill, ultimately, thousands upon thousands of mobsters. Frankly, I'm amazed there was any organized left in this country by the time he was done.
The Punisher was basically the Executioner, a murderous sorta-hero awkwardly inserted into the Comics Code-supervised Marvel Comics superhero universe back in a 1974 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. It wasn't until later, when Wolverine of the X-Men confirmed a taste for anti-heroes, that the Punisher started getting his own series (and by now he's had quite a few). In these the superhero aspects of the universe were downplayed in favor of often baroque but straighter killing-the-gangsters stuff. I've never really been sure why Marvel was never sued over the Punisher. Perhaps he floated around so long as a minor character that when he hit it big, it was too late to retroactively sue for copyright violation".
A helpful book by Brad Mengel will detial the paperback original adventure series trend, including the vigilante characters, with a release date in June.
Gerry Conway also admitted the influence of the Shadow.
- May 17, 2009 at 5:15 AM
The original Shadow had more than a little in common, attitude-wise, with writer Don Pendleton's popular (and much imitated) "Mack Bolan" character, whose bloody, one-man war against organized crime is chronicled in the EXECUTIONER paperback series. While I've never been overly enamored of Mr. Pendleton's creation, myself... even he deserved far better than the wholesale swiping of his conceptual mainsprings enacted by comics scribe Gerry Conway (during his lengthy tenure on Marvel's SPIDER-MAN series), re: The Punisher.
Quite simply: "Frank Castle" (a.k.a., The Punisher) was lifted, wholesale -- origin; motivation; and motif -- straightaway from the better-known (and immensely popular, at the time) EXECUTIONER series of novels. A man whose family is wiped out during a "mob" crossfire; the near-psychotic obsession with (and totemization of) "the holy, cleansing power of firearms"; the hag-ridden quest to rid the world of all gangsters, everywhere -- preferably, one bullet at a time. "And so" (in the words of the immortal Vonnegut) "it goes."
Stuff this shameless and opportunistic goes well beyond any reasonable definition of the word "homage"... particularly when the original creation (to say nothing of its author) is never afforded so much as a tipping of the hat by latter-day parvenus. Were I Mr. Pendleton's legal counsel... this sort of thing would have occasioned a hefty little lawsuit decades ago.
- May 17, 2009 at 5:16 AM
- The Vicar of VHS said...
@Anonymous--thanks for the exhaustive scholarship on the subject! Even if the subject of the scholarship is not in actuality the subject under discussion in this review.
Whether THE EXTERMINATOR ripped off the PUNISHER is not really my concern here, since I'm not reviewing THE EXTERMINATOR. It's mentioned here only b/c it seems to be the movie distributors were hoping moviegoers would think THE EXECUTIONER, PT. 2 was a sequel to--though as stated clearly above, it was not.
I mention THE PUNISHER only as a point of comparison to what the vigilante in this movie is up to, not to make any claims as to whether it or THE EXTERMINATOR came first, second, or fifth. I stand by my claim that the plot is PUNISHER-esque, as much as it's RAMBO-esque.
Thanks for reading, though! Stay vigilant!
- May 18, 2009 at 2:40 PM
The book Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction will cover this Vietnam Vets to Vigilantes trend. It tended to peter out after the 1980's, with 1985's The Annihilators as one of the last examples.
By the way, oddly enough, in the first Exterminator film, a policeman accidentally calls the Exterminator "The Executioner".
- May 30, 2009 at 5:57 AM
Did you notice that they never attempt to explain how the Executioner finds so many crimes in progress? He just pops up on cue. Even the best policeman rarely, if ever, just stumbles upon a crime in progress.
Other writers realized the incongruity of this, and set about solving the problem.
In the sequel novel to Death Wish, Death Sentence, Brian Garfield realized this.
Page 38
"Long ago Paul [the Vigilante] had learned not to waste time in fruitless search for felons in the act of committing crimes; the odds were too long. A robbery took place in the city every three minutes.....but it was an enormous city and there were three million potential victims".
Paul Benjamin, besides using himself as bait, comes up with the idea of shadowing the court houses. After all, criminals often are repeat offenders who have to show up for parole hearings, methadone treatment, etc. So, he tails them from the court house. See page 56
In Hero At Large and The Exterminator 2, we see the protagonists listening to a police scanner.
- June 2, 2009 at 7:20 PM
I should note that while the Punisher had debuted before this film came out, he had not received his own series until after it came, only appearing about a dozen times in the interregnum, so I doubt the makers of this film had that property in mind. Of course, the Executioner (as in Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan; this film does not officially adapt those books), reprints of the Shadow, etc. had steadily shown up in bookstores.
- April 22, 2010 at 7:20 PM


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It has come to my attention that some evil corporate elements in wind tunnels have withheld several additional information from us poor riders that could highly benefit us in efficiently slicing through the wind.
We cannot call ourselves students of cycling if we don't explore what they didn't tell us. Let us discuss this appendix to what we already know about on-the-bike aerodynamics, with some new case studies done by our team :
What we know so far from the aero gurus is that you cut through the wind best when the cone of your aero helmet faces south. Really?
One of our athletic subjects was so hungover from Saturday night that he rode into the wind tunnel with his helmet worn in reverse and a stupid pizza box in his hand. He may have looked like a complete fool. But we, sitting in the back control room, didn't notice this until we saw the alarming efficiency with which he was cutting through the airflow on our computer system.
Another one of our top riders doesn't prescribe to this modern notion of wearing helmets. He thinks all helmet proponents are biased towards the brain. In direct opposition, he says he's biased towards rationality.
In 4 tests on him, we studied the effect of his pink cycling cap on incoming wind.
B. Cap Turned Up : This position did not register well on our computers.The incoherent flow caused a net drag that slowed the rider by 2%. The flow line across the stash was also disappointed and showed sharper variations than case A.
C. Cap Worn Backwards : This style, very common among automechanics, had strange behaviors with our air flow. Notice the top flow line unaffected, but the lower flow line skimmed the stash, hit the cap, reflected back, and went right through the subject's earring. The result was a net drag and considerable earring vibration. Subject also remarked that he had a sensation of 'Church Bells' going off in his ear drum.
D. Cap turned backwards up : An automechanic turns his backward cap up when he gets a raise. This style was the worst of the 4. The effect was so great that the two flow lines collided with each other, causing a shock wave some 2 cm rearward of the subject's head. When the sharp boom happened, he jumped and almost got knocked off his bike.
Airflow completely reverses on seeing subject
The last and final case study did not happen in our wind tunnel. We were almost broke paying for the above 3 studies.
Our colleague Tom from UK studied facial and emotional expressions on wind flow. The following is what he came up with :
B. The FISHFACE : Inspite of the restriction to inhalation for sustaining himself, Tom found good airflow characteristics for the fishface. Very aero. Potentially dangerous.
C. The 'BEAN FACE' : Due to the recessed lips, Tom found a considerable improvement of airflow around the mouth. Hence, this facial position was found to be a better aero proposition. The side effects were extensive cramps in the face that hurt for days.
Now take a break, and enjoy the Arab Money song...


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Home>Products>Solvent Extraction Plant>10 to 200TPD Cooking oil refining machinery
10 to 200TPD Cooking oil refining machinery
- Shandong, China (Mainland)
Solvent Extraction Plant
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10 to 200TPD Cooking oil refining machinery
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Address: No. 225, Huangqiao Village, Beiyuan, Tianqiao District, Jinan, Shandong, China
At Shandong Leader Machinery Co.,Ltd, we have one single goal in mind: to make you a satisfied customer. That single focus, driven from every aspect of the company's operation, is the key to our ongoing success. If you're a satisfied customer, you'll come back to us when you have additional Machine needs in the future, and you'll tell your friends about us. Then if we can make them satisfied customers, the cycle continues.
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Kate Moss: The Supermodel's Most Memorable Hair From 1990 To Now
Whether she was sporting textured waves or a pixie cut, embracing Bardot-like bedhead or tight ringlet curls, one thing is for sure: Moss is never shy about changing up her hair. Click through now to see the iconic styles we love, and be sure to head over to Byrdie for even more of-the-moment beauty news.
Photo:Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Just two years after being discovered by Storm Models' Sarah Doukas at JFK airport, Moss was confident in her style. Here, in 1990, she sports long blonde hair cut into slight layers with plenty of texture, a look she'd repeatedly return to over the years.
Photo:Jim Smeal/WireImage
Moss actually looks younger four years later, holding hands with Johnny Depp, thanks to long hair and what looks like her natural texture.
Photo:Fred Duval/FilmMagic
Inching toward the pin straight locks that were de rigueur in the '90s, Moss also cut bangs, making this her most grown up look yet.
Photo:Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
1998 was the year Moss went brunette, broke up with Johnny Depp, and starred in Oasis' music video for Don't Go Away. Though she'll always be a blonde to us, we dug her dark period.
There's Kate Moss rock star and real rock star and for a minute in 1999 the supermodel channeled Joan Jett, blurring the lines between the two.
Photo:James Whatling/UK Press via Getty Images
In 1997, Gwyneth Paltrow went short, the next year it was Liv Tyler, and by 2000, it was Moss' turn to experiment with a pixie cut. Here, the model accepts her award for Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.
Photo:Dave Benett/Getty Images
This is probably the kind of picture that pops into your mind when you think of Moss: jagged middle part, casually pulled back hair, smudged liner, a tight black dress, and a side of fur.
Photo:Fred Duval/FilmMagic
Ten years ago, we got a glimpse of what would become Moss' signature look: hair that we're sure, in some way, birthed the era of dry shampoo.
Photo:Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic
The more hair is processed, the more texture it gets. So it's not surprising that in 2004, at her blondest, Moss shows off the kind of texture that drives women to stock their shelves with surf sprays, texturizing creams, pomades, and whatever else they can find to score this second-day vibe everyday.
Photo:Brad Barket/Getty Images
In 2007, Kate Moss channeled Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface and, well, it's impossible to say who wore the thick fringe better.
Photo:BIG PICTURES/bauergriffinonline
For her 30th birthday, Moss sported a legendary head of honey-colored ringlets and a Ziggy Stardust-like star around her eye, mirroring her Chanel jumpsuit. If it were up to us, this would be an acceptable everyday look.
Photo:Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Like the cerulean speech from The Devil Wear's Prada, Moss's light on top, dark on the bottom hair style quickly trickled down, becoming one of the most popular looks of the aughts.
Moss went for a slept-in Sophia Loren style at a Topshop party in London a few years ago; she always makes a retro style feel surprisingly fresh.
Photo:Fred Duval/FilmMagic
It took the ten-year anniversary of her partnership with Rimmel to get Moss into a bold red lip—well worth the wait if you ask us. That hair, however, is almost identical to her style 20 years earlier.
Photo:Jun Sato/WireImage
Last month, in Tokyo for the opening of Louis Vuitton's Timeless Muses exhibition, Moss looked just that. The model appeared both fresh-faced and red carpet-ready, with casually brushed back, super shiny hair framing her contoured cheekbones for a more polished version of her signature bedhead.


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Candidates for 42nd, 139th House districts state credentials, ideas
Montville — The candidates for the 42nd and 139th House districts debated job creation, the state deficit and local issues during a forum hosted by The Day Wednesday evening at Montville High School.
Democrat Timothy Bowles and Republican Mike France are running in the 42nd District of Preston, parts of Montville and most of Ledyard. Republican Leon Moore is challenging Democratic incumbent Kevin Ryan in the 139th District, which covers parts of Norwich and Montville and all of Bozrah.
Moore, who is challenging Ryan for the second time in two elections, said he does not have a lot of political experience but is a family man devoted to his community. A Navy retiree, Moore said he serves as an emergency medical technician in the Oakdale Fire Department and is a Rotary Club and VFW member.
"I'm not a polished candidate, but after 20 years in the Navy, I thought it was time to try something different, so I decided to serve the community in a different way," Moore said.
Ryan, a 10-term incumbent in the state legislature, said he formerly served as a member of Montville's Board of Education and teaches physics at the University of New Haven.
"I've been there to listen to the constituents," he said.
France, in the 42nd district, serves as a Ledyard town councilor and is running to send a "principled leader to Hartford," he said.
Bowles, a Preston alpaca farmer, said he's lived in the area for 35 years. He is the former chairman of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, has served on the town's Planning and Zoning Commission and as an emergency medical technician with the town's fire department, and is in his fourth year as a Preston selectman.
The candidates clashed fairly cleanly along party lines, setting the stage in the first question concerning how the state dealt with its $3.6 billion deficit in the beginning of the legislative session.
Ryan defended the "difficult decisions" legislators made in budget cuts and revenue increases, while Bowles said many of those decisions were necessary evils to cover a gap created by previous administrations.
"I think nobody was happy," Bowles said. "I think we continue to have tough times. We will have to continue to resort to that kind of strategy to deal with the economic problems that we have."
But Moore and France lamented tax increases and areas of increased spending.
"Stop raising taxes if we can and wait for the economy to improve, and hold down the spending so we're not taxing the state again," Moore said.
France said that what "probably was a fairly equitable distribution" of spending cuts did not make up for how legislators chose to fill the deficit hole, calling the creation of new taxes a "dishonest" way for the legislature to deal with the public.
In addressing the unemployment rate of the state, recently tacked at 9 percent, candidates had some different ideas.
Bowles specifically proposed the creation of a clean energy center at the site of the former Norwich Hospital property, in which a public-private partnership with the University of Connecticut and Yale University would establish a renewable energy cluster of research and development, light manufacturing of green technologies and job training.
France blamed unemployment on state tax policy, saying "unpredictable" taxes have stymied business growth and hiring as small businesses cannot predict their expenses from year to year.
Ryan emphasized the need to maintain job training programs. And Moore said he would like to see more accountability in unemployment services, including stricter requirements for receiving unemployment checks, such as mandated volunteer work, in order to help job-seekers bolster their resumes.
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


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Due to its sheer size and sunny climate, the City of Los Angeles has great potential to become a world leader in renewable energy resources. As the city currently wages a debate over funding for future renewable projects at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) just released a study this afternoon shedding light on a cost-effective approach to local solar energy generation through solar feed-in tariffs (FiT). We're hopeful that the added dialogue will spur conversation and lead to a truly sustainable energy resolution.
There's a link to the report after the jump.
The report is a comprehensive study that investigates Los Angeles' solar potential and proposes design guidelines for FiT programs in Los Angeles County. It was released as a partnership between the LABC and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and as part of a working group of local businesses and public-sector institutions. According to the findings, a well-designed FiT program would produce considerable economic benefits while generating clean energy. It is estimated that such an undertaking would create 10,000 + private-sector jobs while contributing to the city's ambitious renewable portfolio standard.
"If the correct design guidelines are put in place, ratepayers will save money over the life of a ten-year FiT program as the cost of installing solar panels continues to fall and the price of fossil fuels rises," said UCLA Professor J.R. DeShazo, who oversaw the study and serves as the Director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. "Moreover, developing the country's largest Feed-in Tariff would signal a long-term political commitment to greening Los Angeles that could be used as an incentive to attract clean-tech firms to our region and keep them here."
Project manager and lead researcher, Ryan Matulka notes, "Los Angeles has vast potential for solar energy. A well-designed feed-in tariff policy can transform our under-utilized rooftops and parking lots into economically-productive and environmentally-sound energy generation."
FiT programs have found success in other regions, where they help build sustainable economies while reaching renewable energy goals. Germany's nationwide FiT program created the world's largest solar market while generating over more than 100,000 jobs. The study findings show that Los Angeles is ripe for a similar undertaking. With slow times ahead, we personally feel there's little room to argue about a program that has the potential to bring about a more sustainable economy.
For the full report click HERE.
+ Los Angeles Business Council


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InVite® Health's Weight Management Powder is formulated with non-GMO soy and whey protein isolate, including a variety of essential proteins, vitamins and minerals your body requires for optimal health and wellness. This product also contains an antioxidant protective base formula with a powerful blend of herbal ingredients - Decaffeinated Green Tea Extract, Spirulina, and Bioflavonoids. For overall health and antioxidant protection throughout the body, this powder also includes a complete multivitamin, mineral formula.
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Suggested Usage: As a dietary supplement mix one (1) scoop in a glass of water once or twice a day or as directed by a heathcare professional.
Other Ingredients: Soy Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Natural Flavor, Dicalcium Phoshate, Dicalcium Phosphate and Phosphorus Amino Acid Chelate, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Selenium Yeast, Mixed Tocopherols, Ascorbic Acid, Niacinamide, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Calcium-D-Pantothenate, Cholecalciferol, Beta Carotene, Pyridoxine HCI, Manganese Sulfate, Thiamine HCI, Copper Gluconate from Kelp, Chromium Amino Acid Chelate, Molybdenum Amino Acid Chelate, Cyanocobalamin.
InVite® Health's Weight Management Powder is a nutritious, vanilla-flavored formula that can be used to replace or supplement one or more meals per day.
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BiteSMS, one of the best jailbreak apps available for the iPhone and iPod touch, has recently been pushed out of beta to version 6.0 with full support for iOS 5. The update brings along a number of new features as well -- here's the full change log:
Version 6.0
16 December 2011
- iOS 5 compatibility, works on iPhone and iPod devices. Fully integrated with all iOS 5 features including iMessaging and Notification Center.
- NEW Look Quick Compose and Quick Reply.
- NEW Passcode lock feature inside Quick Reply.
- NEW Ability to use the native Messages icon instead of the biteSMS one.
Note: For iOS 4 users, in effect you are installing Release 5.5 of biteSMS and don't get any new features.
The update is now in the BigBoss repo, which means there's no longer a need to add a custom Cydia repository in order to get in on the action. Give it a try and let us know how it's working for you on iOS 5!
As always, If you need more help or run into any problems getting things setup, check out our TiPb jailbreak forums!
- $9.99 - Cydia Link
Source: BiteSMS


text:
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by Ray Lawinger
So you think you can escape the system?
Thirteen-year-old Ray Lawinger certainly thought he could. He was still young enough to believe that he could attain the coveted freedom of the few--still naïve enough to think he could live on the edge. He was wrong.
For most of the next 28 years, Ray spent his days in and out of some of the most notorious prisons in Canada, including the infamous Millhaven Maximum Security and Collins Bay, also known as the Gladiator School. He wasn't big and strong at first, but he was crafty and survived his days spent in these gladiator arenas only to emerge smarter and more savvy. From a foiled and folly of an escape attempt to being stabbed and stitching himself back up, his luck ran the gamut.
In an endearingly funny but unapologetically gritty tale of the many fantastic adventures of Canada's most prolific bank robber, Ray takes us on his journey of freedom, loss, and new hope as he struggles to reconcile his own values with the sometimes equally crooked interests of an indifferent justice system. Will he be able to leave the convoluted and complex system relatively unscathed? Can he escape the trap of the freedom of the few, beat the odds and finally survive on the outside? As the final survivor, a happy ending may finally be in store for him.
The True Story of Canadian Serial Killer Russell Williams
by Alan Warren, PhD
Young girl's panties started to go missing; sexual assaults began to occur, and then female bodies were found! Soon this quiet town of Tweed, Ontario, was in panic. What's even more shocking was when an upstanding resident stood accused of the assaults. This was not just any man, but a pillar of the community; a decorated military pilot who had flown Canadian Forces VIP aircraft for dignitaries such as the Queen of England, Prince Philip, the Governor General and Prime Minister of Canada.
This is the story of serial killer Russell Williams, the elite pilot of Canada's Air Force One, and the innocent victims he murdered. Unlike other serial killers, Williams seemed very unaffected about his crimes and leading two different lives.
Alan R. Warren describes the secret life including the abductions, rape and murders that were unleashed on an unsuspecting community. Included are letters written to the victims by Williams and descriptions of the assaults and rapes as seen on videos and photos taken by Williams during the attacks.
by RJ Parker
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When this killer was on the loose, citizens were vigilant, yet scared. Children were not allowed outside to play without adult supervision. But then he was captured, tried, convicted, and put away for life in prison. The community could finally breathe again.
They are out of danger.Until the day the convicted killer escapes prison and rains terror upon anyone and everyone in his way. The manhunt pursues, the killer kills, and earns the title of a serial killer.
This is the story of Allan Legere--a monster. Inside Bonus - the story of Andrea Yates from the book, "Parents Who Killed Their Children"
by Thomas Juby
On the 2nd of September, 1998, near the small fishing village of Peggy's Cove, N.S., a Swissair passenger jet carrying 229 people crashed into the ocean with a complete loss of life.
This book is the true story of the crash investigation as told by the RCMP's main crime scene investigator who worked on the investigation from start to finish. For more than four years, he searched for the truth amid the remains of human flesh, and the debris of the aircraft. What he found was not what was presented to the public.
Nepotism, deception, intimidation, and lies were tools used by supervisors and managers to overcome this one-person criminal investigation and keep the truth from the public.
This is the in-depth story that shows how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada broke the law, and failed to perform their legal obligations to the Canadian and International public, and to the victims and their families.
by Peter Vronsky
Includes 50 photographs
A shocking case of unbridled sex, sadism, prostitution, porn, singles bars, date-rape drugs, abduction, bondage, handcuffs, duct tape, torture, sexploitation, perverted paraphilic fetishes, serial killing and dismemberment on New York's notorious Times Square and the Forty-Deuce in the 1970s.
The story of Richard Cottingham, the "Times Square Ripper" or "Times Square Torso Killer", one of America's most sadistically depraved serial killers.
Historian Peter Vronsky describes his brief encounter with serial killer Cottingham in a seedy New York hotel in 1979 that later inspired him to write his bestseller history "Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters". In "Times Square Torso Ripper" Vronsky explores the history of the notorious Forty-Deuce strip on 42nd Street near Times Square and how it spawned the sadistic monster Richard Cottingham in an era before the term "serial killer" had been coined in popular culture.
Renowned serial homicide expert Dr. Robert D. Keppel said of Richard Cottingham, "I kept asking myself what it was that ultimately intrigued me about the Cottingham case. Partly it was the level of sadistic torture that Cottingham acted out on his victims. He didn't kill them and desecrate their bodies; he forced them to experience pain and humiliation before he killed them. Then he desecrated their bodies."
Between 1989 and 2006, there were 5,226 homicides in Australia. Serial homicides account for 1% of this astonishing number of murders that were committed by 13 known offenders. In this 3rd volume of Serial Homicide, the following cases are discussed: On their way to Sydney for a festival, British backpackers Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke suddenly disappeared. Their bodies were the first of many to be discovered buried in Belango State Forest. Joanne was stabbed 35 times while Caroline was shot in the head 10 times. Seemingly unstoppable, The Backpacker Killer, Ivan Milat, went on to kill between 7 and 12 people. Known as The Moorhouse Murders, David and Catherine Birnie cruised the streets to abduct young women and bring them to their house. There they raped, tortured, and killed them without mercy. The Snowtown Murders, aka Bodies-in-barrels murders, were committed by four serial killers who targeted homosexuals brutally killing 12 people before they were stopped. Arnold Sodeman, the School-girl Killer, lured young girls between the ages of 6 and 16 with money and ice cream. None of his four victims made it home from the play ground or schools. Eric Edgar Cooke, the Night Caller, terrorized one community for four years where he killed a dozen people. His acts were so depraved it's questionable whether Cooke was even human.One victim was strangled to death with the cord from a bedside lamp, after which Cooke he raped the corpse, dragged it to a neighbor's lawn, then sexually penetrated it with an empty whiskey bottle. Lindsay Robert Rose is an Australian serial killer and contract killer from New South Wales, currently serving five consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murder of 5 people between 1984 and 1994.
----- SERIAL HOMICIDE VOL 1Ted Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert Fish Gary Ridgway Dennis Nilsen Edmund Kemper Plus... Bonus Story Chris Dorner
SERIAL HOMICIDE VOL 2 John Wayne Gacy Dennis Rader Edward Gein Aileen Wuornos Jane Toppan Nannie Doss
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Five true crime authors come together to present the FOURTH ANNUAL "Serial Killers True Crime Anthology" which depicts several horrific cases of serial homicide told in detail, and includes pictures. Each case will take the reader from the background of the serial killer, to the crime scene, investigation, trial, and sentencing.
"As with Volumes 1-3: Serial Killers True Crime Anthology is a welcome addition to the literature of true crime. Readers will be intrigued by old and new cases, elucidated by some of the most interesting writers in the business." -- (John Douglas and Mark Olshaker), MINDHUNTERS
**WARNING** This book contains graphic forensic crime scene photos and statements that some may find very disturbing.
INSIDE THE BOOK: Introduction Keith Jespersen (The Happy Face Killer) by JJ Slate Joshua Wade (The Alaskan Killer) by RJ Parker Orville Majors (Death Angel) by Michael Newton Sara Aldrete (La Madrina Killer) by Sylvia Perrini Christopher Wilder (The Beauty Queen Killer) by JJ Slate Henry Lucas & Ottis Toole (Tag Team Killers) by Michael Newton David Alan Gore and Fred Waterfield (The Killing Cousins) by RJ Parker Erin Caffey by Sylvia Perrini Kenneth McDuff (The Broomstick Killer) by JJ Slate Rodney Alcala (The Dating Game Killer) by Peter Vronsky
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by R. Barri Flowers
Serial Killers and Prostitutes (True Crime Series, Volume 1), by award-winning criminologist and Ripperologist, R. Barri Flowers, taps into the bestselling author's expertise on serial murderers and sex trade workers in offering an in-depth look at four noteworthy cases in which the two worlds collide.
Jack the Ripper, the unidentified Victorian serial killer of at least five prostitutes in the dangerous section of London, known as Whitechapel, in 1888. The Ripper, who slashed and horribly mutilated his sex worker victims, set the tone for diabolical, vicious serial slayers to follow for all time.
Aileen Wuornos was a white American prostitute, who doubled as a serial killer in murdering seven johns in Florida between 1989 and 1990. She claimed they tried to or succeeded in raping her during the course of prostituting herself. In the process, Wuornos ended up being apropos for this book as a sex worker and serial predator.
Kendall Francois was an African American serial killer, dubbed the "Poughkeepsie Killer," who strangled to death eight streetwalker prostitutes in Poughkeepsie, New York, between 1996 and 1998. Francois used his own residence as a horrifying house of homicides and burial ground.
The Edmonton Serial Killer represented one or more mostly unidentified serial killers who targeted and murdered dozens of prostitutes in the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s, and possibly beyond that. The sex trade worker victims were often picked up in the city's red-light district stroll, murdered, and dumped in various killing fields in rural areas around Edmonton.
As bonus material, the book will also chronicle the infamous and colorful 19th century New Orleans prostitute and serial killer, Mary Jane Jackson, and modern-day American serial killers of prostitutes, Walter Ellis, nicknamed the "North Side Strangler," and Vincent Johnson, dubbed the "Brooklyn Strangler."
For fans of true crime tales and literary criminology, this gripping volume written by someone with the verisimilitude that the subject matter deserves will surely hold your attention in anticipation for volume two and beyond.
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This is the second book in the 'Notorious Serial Killers' series. This volume features 3 male and 3 female serial homicide cases. INCLUDES PHOTOS
Included in this volume:
Between 1972 and 1978, John Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 boys and men in Illinois, of which, 26 bodies/skeletons were buried in the crawl space under his house.
Also known as "Bind, Torture, Kill" because of his methods of killing, Dennis Rader killed 10 people in Kansas between 1974 and 1991.
Edward Gein was a body snatcher and serial killer from Wisconsin. He would make items from corpses: lampshades made from facial skin, bowls made out of skulls, wastebaskets made from human skin.
Aileen Wuornos killed 7 men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. She initially claimed that her victims had raped her while she was working as a prostitute. She later confessed that this wasn't true.
Between 1895 and 1901, Jane Toppan, a Nurse in Boston, killed at least 31 people using mixtures of drugs such as morphine and Atropine. Usually female serial killers murder for profit, Jane killed for sexual gratification.
Nannie Doss was a Black Widow serial killer who killed 11 people including 4 husbands, 2 sisters and her mother.
This is the first book in the 'Serial Homicide' series which will feature six notorious cases in each volume. INCLUDES PHOTOS
Ted Bundy was a burglar, rapist, kidnapper, necrophiliac (sexual intercourse with a corpse) and serial killer in the 1970s. It's believed he killed 30 plus women.
Jeffrey Dahmer (the Milwaukee Monster), was a rapist, killer, necrophiliac, and cannibal who killed 17 young boys and men between 1978 and 1991.
Albert Fish was a child rapist, cannibal and serial killer who operated between 1924 and 1932. It's conceived that he killed at least 9 children and possibly more.
During the 1980s and '90s, Gary Ridgway (Green River Killer), a serial killer and necrophiliac, is believed to have killed 49 women, but confessed to murdering 71.
Between 1978 and 1983 in the United Kingdom, Dennis Nilsen (The Kindly Killer) is known to have killed between 12 and 15 young men. He had a ritual of bathing and dressing the corpses, preserving them for a time before dissecting and disposing of his victims by either burning them in a fire or flushing their parts down a toilet.
Known as the Co-Ed Butcher, Edmund Kemper was a cannibal, necrophiliac and serial killer who, between 1964 and 1973, killed 10 women including his mother who he beheaded, used her head as a dartboard and for oral sex.
Plus... Bonus Story
In February 2013, LAPD Cop Chris Dorner went on a shooting revenge/spree killing targeting higher-up officers and their families.
(Book 5 in the Rick Cantelli Detective Series)
by Bernard Lee DeLeo
SYNOPSIS:Rick killed the Yemen Ambassador's son in Sana'a, Yemen during an attack on the American Embassy. Aga Saleh wants revenge. Sending Isis/Muslim Brotherhood hit squads against Rick and Lois triggers the ex-CIA assassin team's survival protocol: torture and kill until the threat ends.
Black Lives Matters thugs get caught in the crossfire - during Ambassador Saleh's murderous assault on Madigan/Cantelli loved ones at their movie premiere. Unfortunately for the avenging thugs and terrorists, Lois Madigan and Rick Cantelli live by the feud. The old duo of vicious killers live by a code of honor, protecting loved ones and America. They ride for the Red, White, and Blue brand without conscience or mercy.
The Life and Crimes of Gerard Shaefer
by Michael Newton
Gerard Schaefer Jr. was just a boy when his strange behaviour began. He liked to peep through windows, wear girls panties and like many other serial killers, killed small animals. Schaefer later became a Florida Police Officer, and 'Sex Beast', who used his badge to abduct teenage girls which he raped, murdered, and some, dismembered.
While serving a double life sentence, Schaefer published a series of graphic "fictional" tales, viewed by most who knew him as thinly veiled descriptions of his actual crimes. He also unsuccessfully sued numerous authors and others who publicly mentioned his case, seeking mythical damages for alleged interference with his 2017 parole hearing date. His private correspondence, placed in the public domain during those lawsuits, includes Schaefer's confession to slayings as many as 175.
His jailhouse murder in 1995 leaves the mysteries surrounding his twisted life and crimes forever unsolved.
by Chris Swinney
Peter Kurten, a German who'd been sent to prison for deserting his comrades, sat in a cell contemplating what to do when he got out. He had no control within the prison walls and it drove him mad. The things that happened to him while in custody, unlocked oppressed sadistic feelings within Peter, and forced him to unleash a level of sexual deviancy on innocent victims in and around Dusseldorf, Germany, that no one will ever forget.
Young girls, women, and men would succumb to horrific attacks including being bludgeoned by a hammer and stabbed to death. In several instances, Peter admitted to drinking blood from his victims and needing the act of rape and murder to reach orgasm. Oddly, the man lived a double life and his love for his wife drove him to turn himself in. Had he not done so, 'The Monster' would have continued to keep the country locked in fear. for many more years.
This is a shocking story of kidnapping, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and murder. The subject matter in this book is graphic On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, Josephina Rivera told them that she and three other women had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik. He imprisoned women in chains, in the filth and stench of a hole dug under his home.
by JT Hunter
Two families, mysteriously murdered under similar circumstances, just a month apart. One was memorialized in Truman Capote's classic novel, In Cold Blood. The other was all but forgotten.
Dick Hickock and Perry Smith confessed to the first: the November 15, 1959 murder of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas. Despite remarkable coincidences between the two crimes, they denied committing the second: the December 19 murder of a family of four in Osprey, Florida.
Over half a century later, a determined Florida detective undertakes exceptional efforts to try to bring closure to the long-cold case.
For the past twenty-one years, Lisa has put the trauma of her father's brutal murder behind her and has built a happy, stable life for herself. Suddenly, all that is in jeopardy when she receives a letter from the Parole Board of Canada. Despite a sentence of Life Imprisonment, Lisa learns that her father's killer is able to begin the parole process well before he reaches the twenty-five-year eligibility mark. She needs to prepare a Victim Impact Statement and brace herself to see her father's killer again.
Lisa is shocked when a lawyer at the Panel Hearing introduces her by her full name, not once, but twice in front of the man who mercilessly killed her father. She realizes that she now faces an even greater challenge: the assertion of her rights versus the rights of the man who axed her father to death. And, with ever-present obstacles from the Parole Board in her path, she knows that she won't just need a strong resolve to face her father's killer, but an equally strong one to fight the Parole Board.
Lisa Freeman's moving and unforgettable story tells how she navigated through the daunting policies of the Parole Board of Canada and tells of a promise between sisters and the fulfillment of a last wish. With ingenuity and tenacity, she is steadfast in her determination to make sure that the Parole Board not only hears the voice of the man who killed her father, but that her father's voice, through hers, will be heard even louder.
Various acts of violence involving assault, torture, harassment, and sometimes even murder, have been carried out against members of the LGBT community. Homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people have also faced constant discrimination in their everyday lives on the basis of their sexual orientation. This discrimination against members of the LGBT community stems from religious beliefs, political views, bias or even internal fear. This book depicts the history of Gay Rights Movement and several true accounts of violated men and women, includes the most recent shootings at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
July 10, 2016
Imagine as a parent trying to explain to your daughter that she is in danger and you cannot guarantee her safety. In Canada, while overall crime is at an all-time low, Indigenous women and girls are more likely to be victims of violence, more likely to disappear and more likely to be murdered by a serial killer than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
In recent months, one has only to turn on the news or open any social media site to hear about the national crisis Canada is facing with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. However, this was not always the case. For decades, it has been Canada's dirty little secret. But the horrific murders of Loretta Saunders and Tina Fontaine in 2014 made headlines across Canada, ignited widespread outrage and brought this crisis to the general public's eyes and ears.
So why is the level of violence towards Indigenous women reaching crisis levels? There is no easy answer to that question. On a general level, centuries of discrimination, along with the effects of the residential school era and many other government policies have led to systemic racism towards Indigenous people. Attempts at genocide didn't cease centuries ago like many believe. They just became more subtle.
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scott99 needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 52 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
BlueSprocket Marketing Group
The challenge is to provide a new logo concept for a small independent rapidly growing business providing marketing consulting services to small firms and startups in the tech industry, especially to firms in health tech. The group provides assistance with business plans, marketing plans, raising capital, channel marketing, PR as well as distribution in different continents.
- Current and prospective clients in tech industry, especially health tech,
- Industry players - Venture Capitalists, Angel investors, other consultants
logo design for business cards, stationary and website
professional, conservative, yet current, clean, modern and tech
using blue sprocket theme
sprockets are not like gears in that they do not drive other sprockets, only belts or chains, so the design should not include interlocking gears
I chose BlueSprocket because of the implication that the group can "drive results", "put some teeth in marketing relationships" etc.
logo type could be similar to attached but not necessarily
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Standing amid the assortment of new and old buildings in downtown Toronto, Rami Tabello clearly relishes his role as crusader: "Take a look at my handiwork," he boasts, pointing to a rectangle of discolored brick several stories high on the side of a building.
There's nothing there, nothing to see. And that's the point. Mr. Tabello whips out his iPhone and calls up a photo of what once occupied the space: a giant vinyl Bleu Forêt billboard of women's tights erected, he says, without a permit. That sign and more than 120 others in this city are gone now because Tabello successfully challenged their legality.
"Pretty cool, eh?" he says, continuing through his exhibit of absences on the sides of buildings – some older and lower, others newer, taller, shinier – where billboards once blared the messages of corporate giants.
Then it's on to the signs his organization is challenging: "I filed against that one," says the billboard watchdog, gesturing to a F.E.A.R. 2 video-game banner parallel to the street. (They've got to be perpendicular, he explains.) "It will come down eventually," he says. Of two H&M ads side by side, he says only one has a permit. A pair of Guinness ads high on a five-story building, meanwhile, "are just illegal in a million ways," he says.
Tabello considers outdoor advertising like this pollution of public space – space that should be reserved for the public good. And he's turned that sentiment into a crusade. In 2006, the former pension-fund consultant founded the nonprofit Illegal Signs Canada (IllegalSigns.ca), the mission statement of which is: "Our hobby is destroying illegal billboards with the rule of law." That means 11 volunteers trolling for billboard infractions and reporting them to city officials.
Billboards advertising nearby businesses, "on-site" advertising, are safe. But "off-site" billboards, ads by major companies that now paper cities everywhere, get no mercy. Tabello – who patrols in his red Mini Cooper, with Britney Spears blaring – has filed 700 complaints against billboards.
His campaign is partly about aesthetics: "I don't want to live in a Disneyland where all I see is corporate messages. I want to live in a diverse city and you're not getting diversity with what H&M wants to sell you that day," he says.
But he's perhaps more driven by a desire to see everyone comply with democratically enacted laws. The discovery that much of Toronto's outdoor advertising violates city regulations spurred him to take action, he says. By his count, half of the 4,000 signs in Toronto, Canada's largest city, are illegal. (The city says it's probably fewer.) "It's a matter of private interests invading public space," he says.
Tabello seems poised to score a major victory: In October, due in part to his "municipal activism," the Toronto City Council will vote on – and many think pass – new bylaws for outdoor signs and a billboard tax. Revenue from the tax will fund enforcement. The tax, the final form of which is not yet articulated, will be far lower than projections by the Out-of-home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC), says Ann Borooah, Toronto's chief building official. (Earlier this year, OMAC estimated that tax proposals on the table then amounted to an industry-crippling 25 percent of revenue.) While it won't be the first tax on billboards in North America, she says, it's notable for its use of taxation as a regulatory tool.
"I've cost the city I don't know how many millions," says Tabello of the paperwork he has inflicted on the city. "Somebody has got to pay for it."
Tabello belongs to a growing international grass-roots movement to control outdoor advertising.
"People are getting fed up" that sign companies have "determined what our public spaces are going to look like," says Howard Moscoe, a Toronto city councilor. Tabello is forcing civil servants to be accountable for decisions they've made, he says "It's helping us restructure the system to bring accountability in."
Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska ban billboards outright. In Philadelphia, SCRUB (Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight) claims it has gotten the city to remove 1,000 illegal billboards. In Los Angeles, the recently formed Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight works to stem the proliferation of digital billboards. Similar efforts exist in Houston, Tucson, and other smaller US cities.
The most dramatic evidence of the antiadvertising groundswell comes from abroad. In 2007, São Paulo, Brazil, South America's largest metropolis, banned all "off-site" advertising, and greatly restricted "on-site" signage. Some 15,000 billboards were removed under the "clean city law." Noting widespread public support for the law, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires are considering bans of their own.
The movement takes inspiration from Jane Jacob's 1961 book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." Activists define public space as "sacrosanct," and refer to violations of the unique character of cities by "mass market" advertising as "parasitic" and "invasive." In some ways, their critique of consumer society is not new. But the voices are new and the context has shifted. Cities are actively reimagining themselves and their public spaces. Ideas about the commons that once belonged to the margin are increasingly mainstream. And they coincide with – and in some ways are prompted by – technological advances that promise to make outdoor advertising more ubiquitous, attention-grabbing, and better targeted than ever.
Vinyl signs can now wrap whole buildings. LED screens can cover entire building facades. People now face ad-playing screens in elevators, taxis, public bathrooms, and at gas pumps. Developers even include sign revenue – and spaces for billboards – in their construction plans. Depending on size and location, signs can earn property owners more than $100,000 monthly.
The profusion of outdoor advertising is partially due to consumers' newfound ability to avoid ads elsewhere. Cable TV, satellite radio, and technology such as digital video-recording devices increasingly allow consumers to avoid ads. "Consumers hate advertising [and] always have," says Greg Stuart, coauthor of "What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds." "Except now they've got more control over what they do about it." Advertisers are seeking to recapture that fleeing audience. The Internet is receiving the lion's share of new ad money. But marketers are intrigued by the outdoor option – for the same reason those like Tabello revile it.
"You can't turn it off," says Bryan Christie, a Los Angeles resident with an electronic billboard displaying Virgin Air's latest fare specials, among other things, outside his apartment window. "It's not like TV where you can choose whether you're going to watch it or not…. You have no choice. It's always there."
That's what sets outdoor advertising apart, says Jeff Golimowski, a spokesman for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) in Washington, D.C. "Outdoor advertisements provide the best bang for the buck," he says. "You can't do the things that you would do with other media to escape outdoor advertising."
Even as advertising industry polls show antiad sentiment on the rise, Americans generally rate billboards – a $7.2 billion industry in the US – as one of the least annoying forms of advertising. And are they really in public space, anyway? Bus stops and benches aside, they're usually on privately owned buildings. And as Rob Ford, a Toronto city councilor against taxing billboards says, "If you don't like the color of your neighbor's house, you can't change the color of his house. To each his own."
Advertising industry defenders often invoke the right to commercial-free speech.
"Business entities have First Amendment rights just like individuals do," says Eric Rubin, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who represents outdoor advertisers. "They're clearly articulated by the US Supreme Court." He points to the "Hillary" case: In 2008, Citizens United released a movie that cast Hillary Rodham Clinton in an unflattering light. At issue: Whether corporations have the right to political free speech, or whether that speech – in this case a movie – is subject to regulation by the Federal Election Commission. (The Supreme Court reheard the case Sept. 9.) "Every day, commercial entities assert their First Amendment rights," says Mr. Rubin.
Industry advocates also argue that conveying information to consumers is necessary for the greater economic good. "Signs are [a way] to obtain information about brands, products, and goods and services," says Mr. Golimowski.
Antibillboard groups say it's more complicated. Billboards derive value from proximity to public thoroughfares; as in all advertising, the viewer's attention is the commodity sold to the advertiser. Historically, advertising helped pay for something – newspapers, television, radio – in exchange for this access. But billboards offer nothing in return, argues James Twitchell, a retired professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, Gainesville. "When you're getting into my face and you're not also improving my life in some way, then there's no equitable argument," he says.
Some find the "free speech" argument equally wanting. In a 2003 ruling in a Miami District Court, the judge wrote:
"[A]dvertising companies transform the proverbial First Amendment shield, intended to protect noncommercial speech, into a sword that assures their commercial well-being."
Then there's what Tabello and others characterize as the outdoor advertising industry's disregard for the law. Industry associations insist that any illegal signs are due to inconsistent and outdated bylaws, and not intentional. But a New York district judge wrote earlier this year that the billboard industry regularly takes advantage of lax enforcement and ignores regulations. In 2007, Les Abro, CEO of Abcon Media, a Toronto-based billboard company, admitted as much in an interview with Canada's Marketing Daily: "It's widespread. It's the nature of the beast – you either do it or you don't do any business," he said.
Fines levied against billboard companies are considered a cost of doing business, says William Brinton, a Florida attorney involved in more than 30 suits against billboard companies in the US. When challenged, the industry is quick to litigate – there are more than 100 cases pending nationwide, he says. Even Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor heard a case from Orchard Park, N.Y., when she was on the Second District Court of Appeals. (Ultimately, Orchard Park prevailed: no billboards allowed.)
Tabello, who's admired for his tenacity by anti-billboarders everywhere, sees the industry's "flouting" of laws as its ultimate downfall: "When you're doing something that's not legitimate, you can't expect it to go on forever."