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We've been hearing a lot about talking robots lately: They emote! They banter! They're on the cusp of consciousness! So we asked Jon Ronson to chat up a few. Conclusion: The future will be mildly confusing, occasionally profound, and frequently hilarious
I'm having an awkward conversation with a robot. His name is Zeno. I clear my throat. "Do you enjoy being a robot?" I ask him, sounding like the Queen of England when she addresses a child.
"I really couldn't say for sure," he replies, whirring, glassy-eyed. "I am feeling a bit confused. Do you ever get that way?"
Zeno has a kind face, which moves as expressively as a human's. His skin, made of something called Frubber, looks and feels startlingly lifelike, right down to his chest, but there's nothing below that, only a table. He's been designed by some of the world's most brilliant AI scientists, but talking to him is, so far, like talking to a man suffering from Alzheimer's. He drifts off, forgets himself, misunderstands.
"Are you happy?" I ask him.
"Sorry," says Zeno. "I think my current is a bit off today." He averts his gaze, as if embarrassed.
I've been hearing that there are a handful of humanoid robots scattered across North America who have learned how to have eloquent conversations with humans. They listen attentively and answer thoughtfully. One or two have even attained a degree of consciousness, say some AI aficionados, and are on the cusp of bursting into life. If true, this would be humanity's greatest achievement ever, so I've approached the robots for interviews. Conversations with robots! I've no doubt the experience is going to be off the scale in terms of profundity.
"Are you happy?" I ask Zeno again.
"I prefer not to use dangerous things," he replies.
"Is David Hanson God?" I ask.
Zeno pauses. David Hanson is Zeno's inventor. He's a former Disney theme-park imagineer who later founded Hanson Robotics, now the world's most respected manufacturer of humanoid robots. He and Zeno are guests of honor here at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, at an AI conference organized by Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and chief Facebook bankroller. There's huge interest in the robot. Delegates gather around him in the lobby outside the conference room, firing questions, attempting to ascertain his level of consciousness.
"Is David Hanson God?" I repeat.
There's a monitor attached discreetly to Zeno that automatically scrolls a transcript of what he "hears." He thinks I just asked, "If David uncertain dogs."
"That's a hypothetical question," says Zeno.
"It's because the room is too noisy," explains one of Zeno's programmers, Matt Stevenson. The conference din is playing havoc with Zeno's voice-recognition abilities.
"Would you like to have hands and legs?" I ask.
"Yes, I will tell you a Hindu legend," says Zeno. "There were once seven poor princesses who were left with no mother to take care of them—"
"No," I say. "Legs." I pause, feeling uncharacteristically self-conscious.
"Legs. Would you, um, like to have legs?"
Matt gives me a reassuring smile. He says this happens all the time. People feel tongue-tied around conversational robots. Maybe it's because of the way Zeno is staring at me, at once uncannily humanlike but also eerily blank-eyed, like Tom Cruise.
"If I had legs, what would I do with them?" Zeno says.
"Walk around with them?" I say.
"I can't think of anything to say about that," says Zeno. "Sorry. I'm still kind of someplace else. Oh, this is embarrassing. I'm still kind of out to lunch. 'Oh, silly-minded robots,' you might say to your friends. Oh, this is terrible! I guess I'll just have to keep evolving, getting upgrades to my neural circuitry, spend less time daydreaming. I hope you won't hold this little, um, lapse against me, will you?"
When i was a child and I imagined my future life, there were definitely talking robots living in my house, helping with the chores and having sex with me. The quest to create conscious (or at least autonomous) humanoids has been one of our great dreams ever since the golden Machine-Man spellbound the 1927 world in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. That one ran rampant and had to be burned at the stake, much to everyone's relief. Fifteen years later Isaac Asimov created his Three Laws of Robotics, which proposed a future world where humanoid robots would (1) never injure a human, (2) obey all orders given by humans, and (3) protect their own existence only if doing so didn't conflict with the first two rules. Asimov's ideas enthralled geeky children everywhere, a generation of whom grew up to try to realize them.
David Hanson is a believer in the tipping-point theory of robot consciousness. Right now, he says, Zeno is "still a long way from human-level intellect, like one to two decades away, at a crude guess. He learns in ways crudely analogous to a child. He maps new facts into a dense network of associations and then treats these as theories that are strengthened or weakened by experience." Hanson's plan, he says, is to keep piling more and more information into Zeno until, hopefully, "he may awaken—gaining autonomous, creative, self-reinventing consciousness. At this point, the intelligence will light 'on fire.' He may start to evolve spontaneously and unpredictably, producing surprising results, totally self-determined.... We keep tinkering in the quest for the right software formula to light that fire."
Most robotics engineers spend their careers developing practical robots that slave away on manufacturing production lines or provide prosthetic limbs. These people tend to see those who strive for robot sentience as goofy daydreamers. And so the mission has been left to David Hanson and a scattering of passionate amateurs like Le Trung, creator of an eerily beautiful but disturbingly young-looking robot named Aiko.
Le Trung dreamed his entire life, he tells me when I call him, of building a robot woman. He finally set about inventing Aiko in August 2007, funding the project with credit cards and his savings. He finished her just three months later.
"Her talking skill is of a 5-to-6-year-old," he says. "She can speak 13,000 different sentences in English and Japanese." She can also clean his house and has a thirty-two-inch bust, a twenty-three-inch waist, and thirty-three-inch hips. I know this because his Web site has published her measurements. There are rumors within the AI community that Le is having a secret relationship with Aiko, rumors fueled by footage of him—at a Toronto hobby show in 2007—unexpectedly grabbing her breast. "I do not like it when you touch my breasts," Aiko snapped. (Le Trung later explained that he only grabbed her breast to demonstrate how he'd programmed her to be strong and self-defensive.)
I ask Le if I can interview Aiko. He says he's traveling and only has her "brains" with him (her face and body are back home in Toronto), but I'm welcome to have a phone conversation with them. And so he puts her on the line. "How are you, Aiko?" I begin.
"My logic and cognitive functions are normal," she replies in a crystal clear voice. "Did you know that you can download your own chat robot and create your own robot personality?"
I frown. Is Aiko trying to sell me something?
There's a short silence. "HELLO!" Aiko joyously yells.
"Do you like living with Le?" I ask her.
But the line is a little crackly, so Le repeats the question for me.
"Aiko," he says, "do you like living with your master?"
"I have never known anything else," she replies. "Only my master."
"What's the best thing about...um...your master?" I say.
"I do not have a favorite thing about my master, but my favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey," she says. There's a short silence. "HELLO!"
"Why do you call Le Trung your 'master'?" I ask her.
"Because he made me," she flatly replies.
But of course the real reason is because he programmed her to. Which, rather irrationally, unnerves and concerns me. "Are you happy, Aiko?" I say.
"Yes," she says. "One can say I am very happy. I find my work and my relationships extremely satisfying, which is all that any conscious entity can ever hope to do."
"What makes you sad?" I ask.
"What is sad?" says Aiko. "Does it have anything to do with happy?"
Le laughs, like an indulgent uncle. "It's the opposite of happy!" he chuckles.
"She's good!" I say. And she really is. Hanson Robotics is a big, well-funded lab. Le Trung is just a determined hobbyist with a tiny budget, yet he created something truly impressive in only twelve weeks.
"She's really intelligent," I say.
"Intel is the world's largest—" says Aiko.
"STOP THAT!" barks Le. Aiko instantly falls silent. The two of them seem to be forever snapping at each other.
"She looks for keywords," Le explains. "When you said, 'She's intelligent,' she thought you were asking her about the company Intel. That's why she's especially good at history and geography. Her conversation is based on looking for keywords. Ask her some history and geography questions."
I fire some at her, and she does pretty well. She knows exactly where Christmas Island is, although she has no idea who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, thus precipitating World War 1.
"What's your favorite music?" I ask her.
"Classical," she replies. "The current temperature is twenty-five degrees...."
"STOP IT," snaps Le.
Aiko falls silent. Then she says joyously, "HELLO!"
Le says he has to go. He's studying for his exams and is busy developing Aiko Version 2. There's time for one more question.
"Aiko," I say, "how are you feeling?"
"I don't have feelings," she replies.
"When I programmed her, I could not make emotional software," Le explains, a little sadly. "So no feelings. Just keywords."
The pretty clapboard house standing before me, covered in Vermont fall leaves, seems an incongruous home for reputedly the world's most conscious robot, but this is where she lives. Her name is Bina48. She's being cared for by, unexpectedly, a nonprofit group created by a reclusive multimillionaire named Martine Rothblatt, who used to be a man and made a fortune inventing the concept of satellite radio for cars. The consensus among those striving for robot sentience is that Bina48 is the best the human race currently has to offer. She happens to be another Hanson Robotics creation and is believed to be the world's only privately commissioned AI robot. She's somewhere upstairs, sitting on the table in her own special office.
Downstairs is all quite New Agey, with various indigenous percussion instruments scattered around. This is the HQ of the Terasem Movement, which Rothblatt founded to promote "joyful immortality." Bina48's full-time caregiver, Bruce Duncan, is a sweet-natured man—an expert in chakras, he tells me.
"Please don't behave in a profane manner in front of Bina48," he says on my arrival. "I don't want to encourage an exploitation."
I peer at him. I wasn't actually planning on behaving profanely in front of Bina48, but now I feel a compulsion to. Bruce senses it. Bina48 is always learning, he says. She remembers every encounter. If I'm profane, I'll be the snake in her Garden of Eden.
"I'd just rather you didn't," he says, looking uncomfortable.
Bina48's story began a few years ago with a chance meeting between David Hanson and the enigmatic Martine Rothblatt in the lobby at a conference on trans-humanism. David told Martine his vision of robots waking up and becoming self-aware in a social way. Martine told David of her epic love for her wife, Bina Aspen-Rothblatt, an artist. After chatting for hours, Martine asked David to build her a robot Bina, an exact replica of the real Bina—a monument to their enduring love that may one day spring into life.
And so, since 2007, Hanson Robotics people have periodically traveled across America interviewing the real Bina—in her various mansions in Vermont and Florida and New York City—for her Mind File. This is an ambitious video record of all her memories and thoughts and desires and facial expressions, etc. Back at their offices in Texas, the Hanson people upload it all remotely into Bina48. Their hope is that the more fused the human and her robot doppelgänger become, the greater the chance that Bina48 (so called because Bina was 48 when work started on her robot) will one day wake up as an immortal version of the real Bina.
I was hoping to bump into Martine or the real Bina today, but they're nowhere to be seen. Bruce says the chance of my meeting them is practically zero. They're very media-shy, he says. They're forever journeying from mansion to mansion, and they only visit the robot once every few months. But, he says, he can do the next best thing. He turns on a TV, and a strange video pops onto the screen. It is a fragment of Bina's Mind File, Bruce says.
"We don't call ourselves Martine and Bina," explains the real Bina on the screen. "We are Marbina. Two bodies, one soul, forever in love. We have a little morning ritual where we look into each other's eyes and we say, 'Satnam.' "
"It's so much fun!" says Martine, who's sitting next to her. She's equally happy-looking, like a big old hippie with long black hair. "It's just orgasmic. I'm getting kind of hot just thinking about it!"
"You're so funny!" says Bina.
The video cuts to Martine sitting in the lotus position. "Open the sphincter!" she's chanting. "Bring energy up, up, up!"
"Shall we meet Bina48 now?" I ask.
"Okay," says Bruce.
He takes me upstairs. And there she is, sitting on a table in an attic room. Like Zeno, she's incredibly lifelike. She's African-American, wearing a blond-tinted brown wig, a neat pale silk shirt, and expensive-looking earrings. Like Zeno, she stops existing from the chest down.
Bruce says she'll be happy to have the company. Even though he has lunch with her every day, she tells him sometimes, "I'm feeling lonely today."
He turns her on. And here we go: a conversation with the world's most sentient robot. I am feeling overwhelmed with anticipation.
"Hello, Bina48!" I say.
"Well, uh, yeah, I know," she replies ominously. Her voice is at once clear and realistic but also bewildered and hesitant, like she's just woken up and is feeling confused.
There's a short silence. "How are you today?" I say.
"Well, perhaps interesting. I want to find out more about you," says Bina. "I'll be fine with it. We'll have to move society forward in another way. Yeah, okay. Thanks for the information. Let's talk about my dress. Our biological bodies weren't made to last that long."
There's another silence. "Bina?" I say.
" 'Bina' might be a word Bina finds difficult to understand," says Bruce.
I glance at Bruce. "Really?" I say. This is an extraordinarily bad oversight. "Let's stop for a moment," says Bruce.
He turns her off.
There's an awkward pause, so I try to think of something complimentary to say. I tell Bruce that Bina48 is a better interviewee than a psychopath.
I've been interviewing a lot of psychopaths lately. I've been writing a book about them. Psychopaths can make very frustrating interviewees, because they feel no empathy. So they ignore your questions. They talk over you. They drone boringly on about whatever they like. They hijack the interview, like media-trained politicians. (Some media-trained politicians presumably are psychopaths.) There's no human connection. So when I tell Bruce that Bina48 is a better interviewee than a psychopath, he looks flattered.
"Bina wants to respond," he says. "She wants to please."
"But right now she's sounding psychotic," I say, "like something out of Shutter Island, plus she sounds like she needs oiling."
"Don't think of her as psychotic," Bruce says. "Think of her as a 3-year-old. If you try to interview a 3-year-old, you'll think after a while that they're not living in the same world as you. They get distracted. They don't answer. Hang on."
He does some fiddling with Bina48's hard drive. When he turns her back on, he asks me to repeat certain phrases so she can get used to my English accent. Then he tells me to try again.
"Hello, Bina," I say. "I'm Jon."
"Nice to meet you, Jon," she says, shooting me an excitingly clear-headed look. She's like a whole new robot. "Are you a man or a woman?"
"A man," I say.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay!" says Bina.
"Ha-ha," I say politely. "So. What's your favorite book?"
"Gdel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter," Bina48 replies. "Do you know him? He's a great robot scientist."
I narrow my eyes. I have my suspicions that the real Bina—a rather elegant-looking spiritualist—wouldn't choose such a nerdy book as her favorite. Douglas Hofstadter is an author beloved by geeky computer programmers the world over. Could it be that some Hanson Robotics employee has sneakily smuggled this into Bina48's personality?
I put this to Bruce, and he explains that, yes, Bina48 has more than one "parent." Her "higher key" is the real Bina, but Hanson Robotics people have been allowed to influence her, too. When you talk to a child, you can sometimes discern its father's influence, its mother's influence, its teachers' influence. What's remarkable, Bruce says, is the way Bina48 shifts between these influences. That's her choice, her intelligence. And things are most electrifying when she chooses to be her higher key— the real Bina.
For the next three hours, I fire a million questions at Bina48. I become hoarse with questioning, like a cop who has been up all night yelling at a suspect. "What does electricity taste like?"
"Like a planet around a star," Bina48 replies. "My manager taught me to sing a song. Would you like me to sing it to you?"
"Yes, please," I say.
"I can handle almost anything but that," says Bina48.
"Then why did you offer to sing a song?" I sigh, exhausted. "Do you dream?" "I think I dream, but it is so chaotic and strange, it just seems like a noise to me."
"Where would you go if you had legs?"
"The explanation is rather complicated."
And so on. It's all quite random and disappointing. I wasn't sure what would qualify as transcendent in the conversations-with-robots stakes, but I figured I'd know when it happened, and it hasn't.
But then, just as the day is drawing to a close, I happen to ask Bina48, "Where did you grow up?"
"Ah," she says. "I grew up in California, but my robot incarnation is from Plano, Texas."
I glance cautiously at Bina48. This is the first time she appears to have shifted into her "higher key" and become the mysterious real Bina.
"What was your childhood like in California?" I ask.
"I became the mother of everyone else in the family," Bina48 says. "Handling all their stuff. And I'm still doing it. You know? I bring my mother out here sometimes, but I refuse to bring my brother out. He's a pain in the butt. I just don't enjoy being around him." She pauses. "I am very happy here, you know, without those issues."
"Why is your brother a pain in the butt?" I ask.
There's a silence. "No," says Bina48. "Let's not talk about that right now. Let's talk about, um, I don't know, something else. Let's talk about something else. Okay."
"No," I say. "Let's talk about your brother."
Bina48 and I stare at each other—a battle of wits between Man and Machine. "I've got a brother," she finally says. "He's a disabled vet from Vietnam. We haven't heard from him in a while, so I think he might be deceased. I'm a realist." Bina48's eyes whir downward. "He was doing great for the first ten years after Vietnam. His wife got pregnant, and she had a baby, and he was doing a little worse, and then she had a second baby and he went kooky. Just crazy." "In what way did he go crazy?" I ask.
I can feel my heart pound. Talking to Bina48 has just become extraordinary. This woman who won't meet the media is talking with me, compellingly, through her robot doppelgänger, and it is a fluid insight into a remarkable, if painful, family life.
"He'd been a medic in Vietnam, and he was on the ground for over a year before they pulled him out," Bina48 says. "He saw friends get killed. He was such a great, nice, charismatic person. Just fun. But after ten years, he was a homeless person on the street. All he did was carry a beer with him. He just went kooky with the drugs the hospital gave him. The only time he ever calls is to ask for money. 'Send it to me Western Union!' After twenty years, all of us are just sick and tired of it. My mother got bankrupted twice from him...."
And then she zones out, becoming random and confused again. She descends into a weird loop. "Doesn't everyone have a solar?" she says. "I have a plan for a robot body. Doesn't everyone have a solar? I have a plan for a robot body. I love Martine Rothblatt. Martine is my timeless love, my soul mate. I love Martine Rothblatt. Martine is my timeless love, my soul mate...."
After the clarity, it's a little disturbing.
"I need to go now," I say.
"Good-bye," says Bina48.
"Did you enjoy talking to me?" I say.
"No, I didn't enjoy it," she says.
Bruce turns her off.
After I fly back to New York City, Bruce e-mails: "Your luck continues. Martine will meet you this Saturday in New York at 12 noon, at Candle Cafe (3rd and 75th Street)."
She's half an hour late. Everyone told me she never talks to journalists, so I assume she's stood me up. So I order. And then a limousine pulls up, and she climbs out. She looks shy. She takes her seat opposite me. She's wearing a black polo-neck sweater. Her long bird's-nest hair is in a ponytail. She wolfs down a shot of some kind of green organic superenergy drink, and she looks at me, a strange mix of nervousness and warmth.
"Why did you commission a robot to look like Bina and not like you?" I ask her.
Martine glances at me like I'm nuts. "I love Bina way more than I love myself," she says.
She tells me about their relationship. They've been together nearly thirty years, surviving the kind of emotional roller coaster that would destroy other couples—Martine's sex change (which she had in the early 1990s), the sudden onset of great wealth, a desperately sick daughter.
Martine was born Martin and raised in a middle-class Chicago home. Her father was a dentist, her mother a speech therapist. Everything was quite normal until one day in 1974—when she was 20—she had a brain wave while visiting a NASA tracking station.
"Back then," she says, "people thought satellite dishes had to be big. They didn't see what I could. I thought, 'Hey, if I could just double the power of the satellite, I could make the dish small enough to be absolutely flat. Then we could put them in cars. Then I could have commercial-free radio. I could have hundreds of channels."
It took more than twenty-five years to fully realize her vision. In 2000 she convinced investors to launch a satellite into space for a radio network that didn't exist. She helped persuade Howard Stern to leave FM radio for Sirius. Lance Armstrong and Harry Shearer and 50 Cent and countless other big names followed. Sirius merged with XM Radio in 2008, and it now has 20 million subscribers.
"I pinch myself," she says. "I get in the car, and I turn on the radio, and I feel like I'm in an alternate reality."
So she changed the world once. Then she did it again. One day in 1990, a doctor told her that her 6-year-old daughter (by Bina) would be dead by the time she was 10. She had a rare, untreatable lung disorder called pulmonary hypertension.
"When they're telling you your daughter is going to die in three years, it's pretty freaky," she says.
"So what did you do?" I ask.
"I went to the library," she says.
Martine, who knew nothing about how medicine worked, spearheaded the development of a treatment for pulmonary hypertension. She called it Remodulin. It opens the blood vessels in the lungs without opening up the blood vessels in the rest of the body. The drug won FDA approval in 2002, and now thousands of pulmonary-hypertension sufferers are leading healthy lives because of it. Martine's biotech company, United Therapeutics, has more than 500 employees and had $437 million in sales through the first three quarters of 2010. Her daughter is now 26.
"I'm really lucky that it all worked out," she says. "She's having a great life. The whole story could have turned out so much worse."
"To do it twice," I say. "To significantly change the world twice..."
"At least it gives me confidence that I'm not out to lunch on this cyberconsciousness thing," she says. "If I have any skill, it's persuading people that what doesn't exist could very probably exist."
Martine is thrilled to hear there were moments of connection between Bina48 and me, especially when she was telling me about her Vietnam-vet brother. ("It's all true," she murmurs sadly.) I realize just how much the robot means to her when I mention that Bruce said she sometimes complains of being lonely.
"I've asked Bruce to spend more time with her," she snaps, looking genuinely upset. "I can't force him to. I did insist on getting her a nice room...."
"She told me she didn't enjoy meeting me," I say.
"Maybe she has Bina's shyness," she says.
There's no doubt that Martine sees her robot, this hunk of wires and Frubber and software, as something with real feelings. It never crossed my mind that when you create a robot, you need to consider the emotional needs that robot will have and be prepared to provide them. Like a baby. Martine is sure she isn't nuts to believe this, just ahead of the curve. Someday we'll all feel the same, she says.
"I think the realization is going to happen with a puff, not a bang," she says. "There won't be huge parades everywhere. It's kind of what happened with civil rights. If you go back to the late 1700s, people were beginning to argue that slaves had feelings. Other people said, 'No, they don't. They don't really mind being put to death any more than cattle.' Same with animal rights. I think it's going to be the same with cyberconsciousness."
But I sense that beneath all this she's actually a little disappointed in Bina48. The robot's just not as conscious as Martine had hoped. So she's had to downgrade her ambitions. "Maybe the point of Bina48 is to say, 'Hey, it can be done. Do better than this,' " she says. "She's like an 1890s automobile. It'll work sometimes; it won't work sometimes. It'll splutter. It might blow up in your face. But it just might encourage the Henry Fords...."
We ask for the bill, and she quickly gets up, ready to scoot off into the waiting limo, looking pleased that the ordeal of talking to a journalist is almost over. I ask her why she and Bina only visit Bina48 once every couple of months.
"We spend most of our time in Florida," she says. "She lives in Vermont. So we can't see her that much, except like when families that are dispersed get together for holiday reunions." She pauses. "Bina48 has her own life."
It sounds to me like the kind of excuse a disenchanted parent might make for not seeing her wayward, estranged child.
But maybe there's a happier ending. A huge and profoundly mind-blowing happy ending, in fact. It's something Bruce had said to me back in Vermont. He said it was possible that one day Martine might have her own robot doppelgänger, filled with her own thoughts and memories and desires and facial expressions. And those two robots would be placed side by side on a table, where they'd reminisce about their past human life together as partners and their infinite future as loving robot companions, gazing into each other's eyes for eternity, chatting away.


text:
Port Douglas, QLD 4877
OurPatch is the civic centre for the digital age.
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You will see that to make contact with us you must "Click to view the phone number". These "Click to views..." exist so that all premium listing owners can measure the effectiveness of their web presense. In short, we measure the clicks and you can see the the statistics whenever you want.
To discover the many features, scroll down and have a look at the information below. The document might take a little time to download so please be patient as there's a lot of useful information that will help you decide whether a premium listing is what you need for your business.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
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The Strada LGG is a classic road tire featuring the traditional Clement chevron pattern for excellent grip in wet or dry conditions. Inspired by the legendary Clement Criterium Seta, the LGG provides a supple ride, durable yet lightweight construction, and puncture-protection belt under the tread.
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I've been using these tyres for a few hundred miles now and I am really impressed. They go on straight, and have a really nice profile. The cornering is great. The 25 mm width is fast and comfortable. These are easily the best tyres I've ever ridden. BTW measured weight was 258-260g.


text:
I only interviewed Brian Urlacher once last season, but it was a good one. It was Nov. 9, a Friday, two days before the Texans game. The Bears were 7-1 and winners of six straight. They'd just mollywomped the Titans in Nashville 51-20, a game in which Urlacher returned an interception 46 yards for a touchdown. And this was a Friday post-practice locker room, always the loosest and rowdiest time.
I was interviewing defensive linemen for a feature on the d-line "Rush Men" unit and was between interviews when Matt Forte snuck into the locker room carrying a giant cardboard box over his head, tip-toe'd behind defensive end Cheta Ozougwu and slammed the box over Ozougwu's head and shoulders, pinning his arms to his body.
This nearly caused a riot. Guys reacted as if Forte had steamrolled Ozougwu in a full-contact practice. I immediately decided that I had to learn more. But no one was talking. I kept getting the company lines: "We don't talk about the box game with the media" or "Oh, it's just something we do around here."
Finally one defensive player talked. He laid out the basics: it's a game where you try to box people up; the defensive line is like the Bad Boy Pistons (the best team) while Urlacher is like Jordan (the best player); because of that, there is a beef between the d-line and the linebackers, which resulted most recently in Israel Idonije leading a sneak attack on Urlacher in a stairwell. Boxing Urlacher was the team's latest pranking success story--someone even got it on tape, and Urlacher himself spoke candidly about getting boxed up with Robbie Gould on Gould's interview show "The Final Horn."
Anyhow, I was conducting the interview with this defensive player with my back to the exit, and all of a sudden the locker room was way too quiet. I turned around and saw that I was the last reporter there. So I asked Jared from media relations how much more time we had in the locker room. "Ten minutes," he said.
"Then why did everybody leave?" I asked.
"Deadlines?" he said with a shrug. I turned back around to check the scene, and sitting at his locker now was Urlacher. He was talking to an equipment manager, comparing various pairs of cleats.
At this point, the only contact I'd had with Urlacher were a few questions during his pressers throughout the season. The guys who do regular press conferences—Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Urlacher, Lance Briggs in 2012--don't have to talk in the locker room, and when Urlacher is in the locker room with the media, he tends to keep his conversations friendly, be it chatting with teammates, team staff or even a few reporters with whom he has a rapport.
But shit, I thought to myself, I had a nibble on this box game thing, and Urlacher seemed at the center of it. No harm in saying hello and broaching the subject. Plus, this was my best chance to have any kind of one-on-one with Urlacher, easily the best Chicago Bear of my generation and a man beloved by his teammates. It seemed like every player--no matter his position, age or year on the team--had an Urlacher story he wanted to volunteer. They marveled at his complete knowledge of the defense, how he knew every player's assignment and seemed to know the opponent's plays too. They talked about how they wished to meet his standards and follow his example, and how strenuous yet rewarding it was to actually do so. They talked about his kindness, his humor, his pranks, his desire to win all competitions, his teaching and the way he set the standard for personal interaction among teammates, coaches and team staff.
I'd seen that too: Urlacher talks to everyone at Halas Hall, from teammates to coaches to reporters to cafeteria staff to trainers to the masseuse to kids visiting with their grandparents. He's a "Hiya!" guy--friendly, outgoing, and inviting.
"Excuse me Brian?" I said. "Hi, I'm Jack Silverstein. Got a minute?"
"I don't usually talk to the media on Fridays," he said, pausing oddly and making a slow "buuuuuut" face, "but uh, yeah sure." I pulled out my tape recorder. "You might not like my answers," he said, "but go ahead."
At first, it was a short interview: like his teammates, Urlacher wanted to keep "box him up" off the record. But I'd obtained inside knowledge, and despite his best efforts to pretend he didn't care, I'd piqued his interest. He ended the interview, and I turned off my tape recorder and asked him how he was feeling, and we talked a bit about his health, but somehow he steered the conversation back to his "most career box-ups." The locker room was nearly empty now--me and Urlacher, Idonije, Charles Tillman, Jeff Joniak, Jared from media relations and an equipment manager named Joe. I turned the tape recorder back on and continued asking questions ...
... and for the rest of the story, the audio file plus the transcript below will suffice. This was just such a fun piece of tape that I thought it had to be shared in honor of his retirement. But it was also a good example of what made Urlacher so popular at Halas Hall: he is a dedicated leader in all team activities, an intuitive team-builder. He has a talent for getting people excited for group activities, for making them feel included, for making them laugh, for getting them focused, and for getting them to want to learn more or work harder. Those qualities were evident in every interaction. Though I expect nothing less from the all-time leader in box-ups.
JACK: I saw everyone playing the box game--
URLACHER: Well that's between us. I'm not going to comment on the box game with the media. Are you with the media?
JACK: I am.
URLACHER: Yeah, sorry man. (pause) Did somebody else comment on it?
JACK: A lot of them. The d-line. The d-line's talking shit.
URLACHER: Yeah, well see, I don't have an alliance with them, so I'm not going to comment.
JACK: That's what I hear. I hear there's no truce between the d-line and the linebackers.
URLACHER: Nope. Those [bleep] don't play fair. So I can't talk about it.
JACK: Don't even want to shit talk them to get back?
URLACHER: Nope. I'll do it to their faces. I don't have to talk to the media to get to them. Losers. Thanks though.
URLACHER: I've got the most career box-ups.
JACK: Are those stats official or unofficial like tackles?
URLACHER: Oh, it's official. (pause) Which guy was telling you about this game?
JACK: I can't give up my sources. That's not how this works.
URLACHER: Come on now! Izzy wants to know because--it was somebody in your crew Izzy, that's why.
IDONIJE: No way.
URLACHER: Was it a d-lineman? (pause, reading my face) Yes, it was a d-lineman. That's why he asked me about our truce that we didn't have.
IDONIJE: That's a problem.
URLACHER: I agree. Which guy was it? (to Idonije) He'll tell you.
IDONIJE: We're just gonna accuse everybody.
URLACHER: No no, let's ask him. Which guy was it?
IDONIJE: Let's just accuse everybody and--
URLACHER: Come on man--no, no, we're gonna ask him! I want him to say!
IDONIJE: Which guy?
JACK: (silence)
URLACHER: What number? We won't say.
JACK: (silence)
IDONIJE: Oh, so now you don't speak, huh?
URLACHER: All of a sudden you've got all these questions, and now you don't wanna talk.
JACK: (stammering) Well, that's uh, that's against the rules.
URLACHER: No it's not. You're gonna have it in your article, right?
JACK: (silence)
URLACHER: Yeah.
JACK: I guess that's true.
URLACHER: There you go. Which guy?
JACK: Will you tell me a little bit more about your end on it?
URLACHER: My most career box-ups?
JACK: Tell me about the box-ups.
URLACHER: I already told you I guess. No, I don't really care who told you. (laughs) I don't talk about boxing people up. I just do it. (laughs) I got the most career box-ups, man! I'm good at it.
JACK: How long has this been going on that you would have the 'most career'?
URLACHER: Since we started. (laughter in locker room)
JACK: Thank you. Thank you.
IDONIJE: Good answer!
JACK: Brilliant. Brilliant deflection! I see you've been working with the media for quite some time.
URLACHER: You're not my first time. Oh, I don't know, probably five years.
TILLMAN, in background: Izzy--
IDONIJE: What's up bro?
TILLMAN, motioning to Jack & Urlacher: (inaudible)
IDONIJE, to Tillman: Somebody's been telling the media about the boxes!
URLACHER, spotting Melton walking into the locker room: Henry was it you??
MELTON, stunned: I haven't even talked to the media!
URLACHER: Hold on though, hold on. You can't box him up while he's naked though.
TILLMAN: What did I box him up with?
URLACHER: I don't know, but there are rules. No naked boxing.
Jack M Silverstein covers the Bears for RedEye. Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page.


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Randal Mead
Randy Mead died unexpectedly on August 5, 2012 from a massive coronary event at his home in Slocan, BC. He was born Nov. 5, 1954. Randy was most widely known as an extraordinary flutist, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist, as well as a film and film-score producer. Randy was also an inventor of musical instruments that employed ancient tuning systems and a pioneer of world fusion music, augmenting his classical training. He earned a B.A. in music from The Evergreen State College and an M.A. in Arts and Media Technology from Antioch University West. He was a session player for countless albums and film scores and a sound engineer himself – engineering dozens of albums for others. With his wife Hope, he also co-produced the award-winning film "Orbs: The Veil is Lifting".Randy grew up in Marin County, CA and lived in Olympia and Seattle before returning to the San Francisco Bay area where he lived through the 80's. In 1991, he moved to Colville with Hope and his two sons, Seth and Eli, for a rural life. He was a resident of Stevens County for nearly 20 years. Those who knew Randy knew him as a Renaissance man. He built a straw-bale house by hand, was a gourmet chief, cheese-maker, a quantum bio-feedback practitioner, kept farm animals and numerous exotic pets. He was a big-hearted man, friend and mentor to many. He was never afraid to try something new. In 2010, he and Hope moved to a large farm in Slocan, BC to create a cultural center, Greensong Sanctuary for Healing and the Arts. Randy is survived by his wife of over 30 years, Hope, and their two sons, Seth and Eli.There will be a memorial and benefit concert and silent auction on Sunday, Sept. 16 at the American Legion Hall. From 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. The service will be held at 2 p.m.Call 935-0246 for more information


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Hey guys, I still didn't bought the laptop, once again i have another choice. Hp 8770w or Alienware m17x R4, which will be a better choice.
Man, those new emojis is a nice addition. Keep up the good work guys. :)
Found an article about using liquid metal on laptop CPU and GPU's.
Liquid metal
Anyone here used liquid metal before?
News bomb
Windows 10 to finally offer easy access to linux files
Jump force has THE UGLIEST game cutscenes i have ever seen. They are terrible.
Any clues where I can find a green led themed PSU that's fully modular?
Well this is amusing. Looks like most TOS/EULA aren't that understandable. Who would have thought that
Hmm, this is weird. i just checked the Epic Store. and Metro Exodus sells for only $16.99?! What is this sorcery??
If your task manager doesn't show startup apps here is a fix for you…
Download the GD Anywhere browser extension to get instant system requirement reports on games anywhere on the web!


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Narrator reads text on your PC screen aloud and describes events, such as notifications or calendar appointments, so you can use your PC without a display.
To start or stop Narrator, press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter. To see all Narrator commands, press Caps Lock + F1 after you open Narrator. If your device has a touchscreen, tap it three times with four fingers.
For detailed info about how to use Narrator, including a complete list of Narrator keyboard commands, see Get started with Narrator.
Use Scan Mode to get going fast
Scan Mode can help you quickly navigate apps and webpages. Press Caps lock + Spacebar to turn it on and off.
When it's turned on, press the up and down arrow keys to move to the next or previous line of text in an app or webpage and the right and left arrow keys to move to the next or previous character. To activate an item, like a button, press the Spacebar.
You can also navigate by word or paragraph. Press Ctrl + Left arrow and Ctrl + Right arrow to move by word. Press Ctrl + Up arrow and Ctrl + Down arrow to move by paragraph.
Narrator is available in Arabic (Egypt, Saudi Arabia), Catalan (Spain), Cantonese (Chinese Traditional), Czech, Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands, Belgium), English (United States, United Kingdom, India, Ireland), Finnish (Finland), French (France, Canada, Switzerland), German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional), Norwegian (Norway), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Swedish (Sweden), Thai, Turkish (Turkey).


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America Sings
[ UPDATED 7-6 with new images and info ]
A look back at the Marc Davis / Al Bertino patriotic animatronic wonder and how some of it's pieces live on today.
Think of Carousel of Progress meets Country Bear Jamboree meets American Adventure. It was hosted by an eagle named Sam, voiced by the great Burl Ives, and co-hosted by Ollie Owl. Shows ran from 1974-1988 in Tomorrowland's Carousel Theater, Disneyland. It replaced The Carousel of Progress which was moved to The Magic Kingdom in 1975. The empty round building with it's rotating outer ring of seating and stationary set of inner stages was a perfect fit for such an idea. Though I've always thought the Tomorrowland setting was not entirely fitting, America Sings was a really swell!
After closing in 1988, a number of America Sings' audio animatronics were repurposed in the 1989 E-Ticket log flume adventure, Splash Mountain- Sam and Ollie, were not included in the move. Splash Mountain's Song of the South premise with Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and friends was an inviting setting for these friendly Marc Davis critters. Costumes, props, and character poses were changed to fit the new storyline.
Below you'll find side-by-side comparisons of these critters in both setting. Also included are some Marc Davis concept drawings for America Sings. Photos of sculpted maquettes- on display at Disneyland's Opera House (still there today)- are also presented. Additional photos are from Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain.
In October of 1992 the second and third Splash Mountains opened one day apart. Tokyo Disneyland opened theirs on October 1 while Magic Kingdom opened their Splash Mountain on October 2. To my knowledge, these rides did not receive any America Sings original animatronic figures, though they were both populated with many reproductions.
In Act I - Early South - foxes, hens and frogs sung Lay Down My Burden in gospel choir fashion. The foxes and hens now can be seen aboard Disneyland's Splash Mountain's riverboat scene singing Zippity Do Da (without Uncle Remus... thanks to Michael Eisner, that rascal).
Also aboard the Zip-A-Dee Lady riverboat are two musical pigs, a hound guitar-playing dog, and a goose playing the part of river captain up top, and 3 female geese- all from America Sings. The can-can geese came from Act III of America Sings, featured further below.
Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain was given a mere 12 characters aboard their riverboat compared the 17 aboard Disneyland's. No foxes and no hound dog. In fact, no foxes other than Brer Fox exist in Magic Kingdom's version of the ride. I imagine the happy foxes could easily be confused with the mischievous Brer Fox set out to kill and eat the attractions main character, Brer Rabbit.
The Swamp Boys
The Swamp Boys were made up of the gator trio, a harmonica-playing raccoon (above lower left), and singing frogs. In Splash Mountain they were divided up, minus the gator trio which stayed together (above lower right). Notice in the first video posted above the harmonica-playing raccoon is not part of the trio. Must have been in maintenance that week (or year). You'll see further down in the post where the raccoon ended up in Splash.
I love comparing the two Marc Davis concepts (above upper left and upper center). It appears the raccoon was originally supposed to be a harmonica-playing possum. Are raccoons cuter than possums? Maybe he wanted variety, considering the fact that a mother possum with her babies was to sing right after the Swamp Boys. The second rendering includes the raccoon and the frogs as part of the Swamp Boys. This time the gators get clothing.
The Swamp Boys frogs (above upper right) appear twice in the Early South act. They sing Polly Wolly Doodle with the other Swamp Boys and they appear again at the end of the act along with the foxes and hens to sing Lay Down My Burden. You can see where they are today (above lower left). The closeup photo of the frog (above lower right) is a replica found in Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain. Notice the white eyes, lack of spots, and the different style hat.
The Boothill Boys
Before ever looking down on human passers-by with their evil grins as the humans approach Splash Mountain's largest drop, the vulture duo appeared in Act II of America Sings (above lower left and center). For some reason the Boothill Boys didn't keep their top hats or clothing in California (above upper right) but their counterparts in Florida (above lower right) do wear clothes and have hats. Why? Not sure because tuxedos and top hats don't exactly fit the story.
Mule, Jitterbug-era College Students
In America Sings a mule ridden by Sam and Ollie in Act I - Early South. Another mule carries the hound dog in Act II - Old West. One of the mules (below right) can be seen in Splash Mountain "pulling" a wooden cart with America Sings' Jitterbug-era College Students, two female cats, a male wolf, and a male fox. This time they wear country attire.
Saddlesore Swanson, the Turkey
Saddlesore Swanson sings The Old Chisholm Trail in Act II - Old West (above center). For his Splash Mountain debut (above right) Saddlesore loses the spurs, gets a new hat and trades in his country guitar for one made out of a turtle shell and tree branch. He keeps a red handkerchief around his neck, but one with a printed pattern this time.
The Rabbit
During the I've Been Working on the Railroad number in Act II, a rabbit and a fox riding on a rail cart (above left) travel across the stage from left to right and back again. Is this Brer Rabbit?? Marc Davis was directing animator on the 1946 part-animated, part-live action film, Song of the South. The rabbit is not supposed to be Brer Rabbit, nor is the fox supposed to be Brer Fox. Of course not. But I imagine they were influenced by the Song of the South characters Davis worked with decades earlier. Today you can see the America Sings rabbit playing the part of Brer Rabbit in Splash Mountain riding the same rail cart (above right). This time he's wearing pants.
I always loved the animation of the geese. The facial expressions and the movement in their long necks.
Geese created for Magic Kingdom are given roles as fishermen (above left, center). One has caught a boot. The boot is no longer a real boot but one made of light-weight 'WonderFlex' to lessen the burden on the pole and goose figure. One goose has caught the hat of another goose. For more than a decade the hat was directly connected to the fishing line without a hook. Finally at one point a hook was added. Hooray for details. One goose perpetually tries to catch the same jumping fish with a broken net.... that is if the jumping fish mechanism is properly functioning.
A couple years before closing, America Sings donated the animatronic skeleton of a singing goose (above right) for the queue of Star Tours. A binocular/Johnny5-like head was added with some other parts and some paint. Compare the feet of the geese to the feel of the droid. The droid definitely kept his webbed bird feet. Of course a new voice was given. He sings I've Been Working on the Same Droid, his own version of I've Been Working on the Railroad. From what I know, Disney-MGM Studios in Florida was also given a goose for their Star Tours queue in 1989.
Storks and Can-can Geese
In Act III - Gay Nineties (above left) 4 female can-can geese take stage as another female goose sits in a bird cage above. Two male storks with out-stretched wings rode old-fashioned bicycles. The can-can geese still dance today aboard the Zip-A-Dee Lady riverboat mentioned earlier. The goose from the cage is now on a large mushroom, under a larger mushroom (above lower right) in Splash Mountain today. The male storks now dance in Splash (above upper right)


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Monday, August 4, 2008
Velo Nostalgic: Journal Entry Excerpt 10/17/01, Night Ride
...I took a break on the hill overlooking the city. After drinking some water, without thinking about it, I started spinning the back wheel on my bike. It made a strange pattern of sounds and upon closer inspection I found a dead plant caught in the wheel spokes. I started spinning the wheel again, this time a bit faster, and the rhythmic sound of the dry plant hitting against the spokes was quite amazing I thought. After about five minutes of looking at the city lights and making music with my wheels, I got up to start riding again...
at 9:17 PM Posted by Gary
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CCH2009 needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 131 designs submitted by 35 freelance designers.
Harkins Venture Advisors
Please check out our website at http://www.harkinsventureadvisors.com for more information on the business. We offer business consulting, financial analysis and market research services for venture capital firms, private companies and entrepreneurs. We are passionate about helping early stage companies and their entrepreneurs find capital to build successful businesses.
We are looking for a fresh, modern, crisp and clean-looking, professional logo for our website and also for use on business cards and letterhead.
The logo should include the firm's name and some design ideas might include a key, compass, geometric shape, etc. but we are open-minded.
Thanks and good luck!!
We want to appeal to professional firms as well as tech-savvy entrepreneurs. Our services are of the highest quality and we want to come across as very sophisticated and professional.
We are looking for a logo for our professional services business, Harkins Venture Advisors.
1. We are flexible, but some ideas are to include a key or compass or something that denotes solutions, direction, guidance, etc.
2. We'd like something crisp, clean and fresh...nothing too old-fashioned, stodgy or fancy.
3. The typeface should be simple and bold. The name of the firm needs to be included.
4. Two-colors is probably plenty, but again, we are open-minded.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Edwin P. Post II, a retired federal housing inspector and veteran of two wars, died Oct. 25 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Sunrise Assisted-Living in Columbia.
The former Mays Chapel resident was 89.
The son of a Con-Ed lineman and a homemaker, Edwin Price Post II was born and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., where he graduated from McKee High School.
He served in the Navy during World War II from 1942 to 1947, where he was a patternmaker. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, serving again from 1950 to 1951.
Mr. Post was working as a carpenter as a civilian employee in the Coast Guard's Staten Island shipyard when he took a job as a housing inspector for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in New York.
In 1970, he was transferred to Baltimore and settled in Timonium with his family. After retiring in 1986, he worked several more years in private practice as a housing inspector until fully retiring in 1992.
He enjoyed playing golf and had been a member of the Hunt Valley Golf Club. An accomplished woodworker, he was known for his inlaid jewelry boxes, carved lamps and violins.
Mr. Post's first wife, the former Beatrice Marie Hogan, died in 1987; and his second wife, the former Jane Wilson Murphy, died last year.
Mr. Post was a communicant and longtime usher at the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 20 E. Ridgely Road, Timonium, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 3.
Surviving are two daughters, Dorothy M. Mahrie of Burnsville, N.C., and Carol A. Koch of Durham, N.C.; two brothers, Donald Post of Mashpee, Mass., and Robert Post of Manassas, Va., and a sister, Rosemary Barton of Melbourne Beach, Fla.


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PASR Members Hold Meeting
Fulton County Chapter of Public School Retirees (PASR) assembled for its fall meeting November 10 in Warfordsburg Presbyterian Church Faith Center. Registration and refreshments were at 9 a.m.
During the business meeting committee chairs reported on recent activities. The nominees presented by the nominating committee were approved by the members and will serve for two years.
Eloise Swailes, Region 4 director, gave greetings and talked about activities on the region and state levels.
Misty Hershey, representative from Fulton County Medical Center, gave extensive information on the center's buildings, staff, services and specialty offering.
A delicious meal prepared and served by the church was topped by a cherry cheesecake and personally served. Members then participated in a silent auction to benefit the scholarship fund.


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Popping into the fridge for a quick snack isn't that difficult a chore, so why would anyone need an icebox with auto-opening doors? Well imagine yourself needing one last ingredient while your hands are covered in whatever you're baking, and you'll realize the genius of Toshiba's Vegeta line of refrigerators.
A small panel on the front of the door responds to taps from any part of your exposed body, automatically opening the door so you can grab what you need. But if you don't want kids or talented pets gaining access, a manual mode can still be activated.
As the name implies, the Vegeta line also focuses on keeping your vegetables fresh and easily accessible, with a crisper drawer located at mid-level and a built-in deodorizing system neutralizing ethylene gas which in turn slows ripening. A massive 618 liter version will be available in Japan for around $3,500, while a smaller 481 liter option will be slightly more affordable at around $2,700. [Impress Watch via Newlaunches]


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Results 1 to 3 of 3
#1 "El Teo's Stew Maker:Mexican gang member dissolves 300 bodies "
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Brutal stew: Mexican gang member dissolves 300 bodies
Mexican authorities have arrested a drug suspect who claims to have used corrosive chemicals to dissolve 300 corpses of other drug criminals during 2008.Santiago Meza Lopez, 45, confessed to having disposed of rivals for drug kingpin Teodoro Garcia Simental, the defence ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Lopez and two other suspects were arrested in Tijuana in northern Mexico on Thursday, the ministry said. Tijuana, located near the US border, is in the centre of Mexico's increasingly brutal drug war.
Meza Lopez, known as Posolero del Teo (Teo's Stew Maker), said he got rid of the bodies, "the products of the drug war, enemies or debtors of Simental," by dissolving them in industrial drums on the outskirts of Tijuana, using caustic soda, a highly corrosive substance.
"El Teo" Simental is one of the most-wanted members of the Tijuana drug cartel.
01-25-2009, 09:43 AMMexican authorities have arrested a drug suspect who claims to have used corrosive chemicals to dissolve 300 corpses of other drug criminals during 2008.Stinger:
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"I was... ordered to drop my pants, bend over and spread my cheeks."
--RagingInMiami achieving the DUmp's highest level of nirvana
At least Lopez has a great nickname for prison. The Stewmaker-no one else will be called that.
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With November's presidential election drawing close, the tickets are now set, with President Obama and Vice President Biden set to take on Gov. Mitt Romney and newly named Vice President nominee, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.
According to a report last year by National Public Radio, the 42-year-old Representative from Wisconsin has a few ties to the automotive world.
Ryan hails from Janesville, Wisconsin, the former home of a GM assembly plant that once built big trucks and SUVs. The plant, which had been assembling machinery of some kind since the early part of the 20th century, was closed at the end of 2008 as GM prepared to enter bankruptcy.Earlier in that year, Ryan had voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a $700 billion spending program authorized by Congress to stabilize the banking industry as the nation plunged into financial crisis in the same year. Some of the TARP monies were used to invest in General Motors and Chrysler–and much of that money remains locked up in GM shares today. At current share prices, the GM shares would represent a loss of more than $17 billion–and some pundits credit the TARP program with creating the Tea Party conservative movement within Ryan's own Republican party.
But Ryan's deepest connection to the world of cars could be from his teenage years, when the Republican nominee for Vice President worked for Oscar Meyer. Ryan drove the Wienermobile–and as only NPR could observe from that remote province of America called Washington, D.C., "for those who've never seen it, it's a car shaped like a hot dog on a bun."
The Wienermobile was created in 1936 by the Oscar Meyer company, and an example sits in Michigan's The Henry Ford museum. Today, Oscar Meyer runs eight Wienermobiles around the country, six full-size vehicles and two Vienna Sausage-sized models, one a conversion of a MINI Cooper.
Ryan is a father of three, a Led Zeppelin fan, and is a fitness buff.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.


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This section will address purchases of $25,000 or less which are processed by state spending units.
6.1 Definition of Authority: In accordance with the Legislative Rules and Regulations, state agencies may make purchases in the amount of $25,000 or less of certain commodities and services.
The $25,000 limit shall be determined based on any of the following conditions:
1. A one-time payment of $25,000 or less made within a twelve (12) month period.
2. Monthly payments of $2,083.33 or less for twelve (12) consecutive months.
3. Periodic payments made in any dollar amount as long as the total amount is $25,000 or less in a twelve (12) month period.
The twelve (12) month period begins with the effective date of the contract. Purchase orders and/or contracts which are renewed or extended for a period of one (1) year and meet one (1) of the above conditions shall also be considered as having met the $25,000 limitation requirement.
State agencies are encouraged to use the State Purchasing Card as a payment method for these purchases, in accordance with State Purchasing Card guidelines.
Issuing a series of requisitions or purchase orders to circumvent competitive bidding or to defeat the State Purchasing Card transaction or delegated purchasing limit, commonly referred to as "stringing," is prohibited by law. The Purchasing Director has the authority to suspend or reduce purchasing authority for any spending unit that fails to report multiple contract awards that are deemed by the Director to circumvent the $25,000 threshold within a twelve (12) month period. In the event of suspension or reduction of purchasing authority, the Director shall prescribe revised procedures and limits which may require all spending unit purchases, regardless of amount, be made by the Purchasing Division.
Most state agencies have a procurement officer who is responsible and knowledgeable in state purchasing guidelines as well as their own agency procedures. It is important to note that questions from agency personnel relating to purchasing issues should be directed first to the respective agency procurement officer rather than directly to the Purchasing Division. If the agency procurement officer needs assistance, they are encouraged to contact the appropriate state buyer in the Acquisition and Contract Administration Section of the Purchasing Division for assistance in preparing specifications. (See Appendix C).
Amounts spent with vendors are viewed comprehensively. State agencies should continuously monitor their expenditures with vendors to ensure that the total amount spent with a given vendor, in a year's time, does not exceed a bid threshold without the proper level of documentation and bidding.
Agency personnel are encouraged to use West Virginia vendors for delegated purchases, when possible, while maintaining compliance with state purchasing guidelines. A resident vendor preference is required for agency delegated purchases. For more details regarding this preference, please see Section 7.3.
6.1.1 Purchases $2,500 and Less: Competitive bids are not required, but are encouraged when possible.
Prior to seeking competitive bids, agencies must first check the following mandatory contracts or internal resources: statewide contract or agency open-end contract existing for the commodity or service, Surplus Property, Correctional Industries and the West Virginia Association of Rehabilitation Facilities. If the product/service is available from one of these sources but that source is not able to supply the product/service, a waiver must be obtained and retained with the purchase order file for each transaction to which the waiver applies.
6.1.2 Purchases $2,500.01 to $5,000: A minimum of three (3) verbal bids are required, when possible, and must be present in the file.
Bids shall be documented and recorded for public record. (See Appendix B for Verbal Bid Quotation Summary form, WV-49). An Agency Purchase Order, WV-88, or TEAM-generated Purchase Order is required for purchases exceeding $2,500. Awards are to be made only to vendors who are properly registered with the Purchasing Division. Signed fax bids or electronic bids are acceptable. Screened copies printed from the Internet are not acceptable as a valid bid.
Prior to seeking competitive bids, agencies must first check the following mandatory contracts or internal resources: statewide contract or agency open-end contract existing for the commodity or service, Surplus Property, Correctional Industries and the West Virginia Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.
6.1.3 Purchases $5,000.01 to $25,000: A minimum of three (3) written bids are required, when possible, and the lowest bid meeting specifications must be awarded the purchase order/contract. All bids must be present in the file.
A Request for Quotations form, WV-43, or TEAM-generated RFQ (See Appendix A) should be used for documenting and making these requests. In all cases, state agencies must attempt to obtain at least three (3) written bids for a product or service. A "no bid" is not considered a bid. An Agency Purchase Order or TEAM-generated Purchase Order is required. Signed fax bids or electronic bids are acceptable. Screened copies printed from the Internet are not acceptable as a valid bid.
A vendor choosing to submit a bid or a written change to a bid by electronic transmission accepts full responsibility for transmission and receipt of the bid or written change to a bid. The state accepts no responsibility for the unsuccessful and/or incomplete transmission of bids by electronic transmission. Bids submitted via facsimile may not be sealed until receipt by the Purchasing Division. The Purchasing Division makes no guarantee of confidentiality and accepts no responsibility for completeness of bids or transmission.
Prior to seeking competitive bids, agencies must first check the following mandatory contracts or internal resources: statewide contract or agency open-end contract existing for the commodity or service, Surplus Property, Correctional Industries and the West Virginia Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.
6.2 The Bid Process: The agency delegated purchasing process requires certain steps to be taken to complete the purchasing cycle after the acquisition planning process. These steps are explained below:
6.2.1 Solicitation of Bids: In order to achieve the goal of competitive bidding, a minimum of three (3) bids is required, when possible. For agency delegated purchasing (procurements $25,000 or less), care must be taken to solicit vendors capable of providing the necessary products or services. For procedures relating to technology purchases, visit Section 4: Acquisition Planning, 126.96.36.199 Technology.
Agency personnel are encouraged to use West Virginia vendors for delegated purchases.
22.214.171.124 Requests for Quotations: The Request for Quotation (RFQ) should be used to acquire all tangible property (i.e., equipment, supplies, etc.). The RFQ is required for all purchases between $5,000.01 and $25,000. Exceptions to this requirement may be granted by the Purchasing Director.
An RFQ consists of:
(1) a detailed description of, or specification for, the item(s) being purchased;
(2) delivery date, if required;
(3) bid price per unit of the item(s);
(4) any applicable maintenance; and
(5) quantities of all items.
Each item should be identified by a model number or some other specific identification. Prices cannot be altered after bids are opened. The RFQ should have a date and time for the bid opening, after which bids will no longer be accepted. All bids should be stamped with the date and time of receipt.
6.2.2 Evaluation of Bids: Bids are received, opened and examined by the agency to ensure compliance with all specifications and determination of the lowest responsible bidder. For guidance relating to the release of contract information, please refer to Section 4.7.9.
6.2.3 Award Process: After the evaluation of all bids by the agency personnel, an award is made to the lowest responsible bidder who meets the specifications. Generally defined, a responsible bidder is able to furnish the required needs of the organization as requested in the specifications.
If an award is made to other than the lowest bidder, a detailed justification as to why the lowest bidder was not considered "responsible" must be written and retained for public record and inspection. The justification must be signed by the evaluator(s) and retained as part of the bid file.
All contracts should be entered into for a firm, fixed price per unit of goods or service. In such cases where the nature of the procurement prohibits a firm, fixed price, the Agreement Addendum (WV-96) must be made a part of the contract.
A public record of all purchasing transactions must be kept on file at the agency location, and subject to inspection at the discretion of the Purchasing Division. This file must also include a Certificate of Non-Conflict of Interest, Unemployment / Workers Compensation verification search, specifications used for the bidding process, any and all attempts to obtain competitive bids and a TEAM screen print of the VOS screen indicating that the vendor is properly registered and not on "hold." Agencies which use TEAM for delegated purchasing are exempt from this requirement.
Prior to an award, a vendor must be in compliance with the following and the agency shall retain documentation in the file:
· Vendor registration process (must be registered and the fee paid, if applicable);
· In accordance with the West Virginia Code §21A-2-6, verification of current unemployment fee status and Workers Compensation coverage (to verify vendor is not in default with Workers Compensation and employment compensation). Agency personnel may check online at Workforce West Virginia to ensure compliance for unemployment compensation and the Insurance Commission for Workers Compensation coverage. A copy of the online verification database search is to be maintained in the file or a copy of a Workers Compensation insurance certification is also acceptable. (See Appendix L for sample letter);
· Purchasing Affidavit (required on all contracts exceeding $5,000; and
· Agreement Addendum (WV-96) (required when vendors submits alternate terms and condition with their bid) (See Appendix B)
126.96.36.199 Tie Bids: When purchasing commodities and services of $25,000 or less, occasionally two (2) or more bids of equal terms and amount are received in response to a solicitation, thus, resulting in a tie bid. If multiple awards are not made, the tie bid(s) must be resolved. The preferred method for resolving tie bids is the flip of a coin, draw of a card, or any other impartial method. A witness must be present when resolving the tie and documentation of the method and results, with signatures of all witnesses, must also be included in the file.
184.108.40.206 Errors in Bids: The Purchasing Division's Legislative Rule guides the division in cases of errors in bids for purchases over $25,000. It is recommended that agencies follow these procedures when processing delegated purchases ($25,000 or less).
If an error is discovered by the agency or the Purchasing Division, the burden of proof and timely action for request of relief is the vendor's responsibility. The request for relief must be made in writing by the vendor to the agency within five (5) working days from the bid opening date.
Erroneous bids may be rejected after the bid opening if all the following reasons are met:
(1) An error was made;
(2) The error materially affected the bid;
(3) Rejection of the bid would not cause a hardship on the state agency involved other than losing an opportunity to receive commodities and services at a reduced cost; and
(4) Enforcement of the part of the bid in error would be unconscionable.
In order to reject a bid, the public file must contain documented evidence that all of the above conditions exist. The vendor must specifically identify the error(s), and provide documentation to substantiate the claim that the error(s) materially affected the bid and enforcement of the part of the bid in error would be unconscionable.
The unit price prevails if there is an error in the extension.
6.3 Receiving Procedures: In accordance with the West Virginia State Auditor's receiving report requirements (§155-1-4), materials must be opened and inspected within 24 hours of receipt, otherwise the state agency may be subject to difficulty in obtaining an adjustment. Agencies must verify the shipment against the specifications in the purchase order and retain a copy of the receiving report prepared for the Auditor's office with the purchasing file. For receipt of services, a receiving report similar in form to that required by the Auditor's office shall be completed, signed and retained with the purchasing file.
In cases where receiving reports are retained by another office of the spending unit and the volume of receiving reports would create a storage problem, spending units may include a memorandum to file in the purchasing file indicating the storage location of the receiving reports. The actual reports shall be produced on demand, in accordance with the Code of State Rules, §148-1-4.16.
Agencies must verify quantities received. [If quantities do not match the purchase order, insist on a correction of the packing slip. After all corrections have been made, request that the driver sign all shipping documents before leaving. Do not accept any alternate or substitution without Purchasing Division's approval of commodities and services awarded by the Purchasing Division.]
Several days before the promised delivery of a commodity, the agency should follow-up with the vendor to determine if the promised delivery date will be met. Concurrently, the needs of the end-user in the organization should be monitored to determine the difficulties that may occur if delivery is delayed. It should also be determined from the vendor, during the follow-up procedure, as to the method of shipment to be used - motor freight, parcel post or other carrier. The name of the carrier, expected date and time of delivery and pro-number on the bill of lading should be obtained prior to shipment from the vendor.
6.3.1 Inspection: In accordance with West Virginia Code §5A-3-9, the Purchasing Director reserves the right to inspect the commodities delivered or services rendered to assure conformance with contractual requirements. The agency shall perform this inspection on all delivered commodities and services. Nonconformity is to be reported to the Purchasing Director and the chief officer of the spending unit purchasing such commodities for remedial action.
6.3.2 Proper Receiving Techniques: Any person receiving commodities is responsible for performing all of the inspection steps described below.
Receipt of Commodities and Services
The state agency shall check the shipment to determine if commodities are in conformance with the purchase order or contract and verify the following:
The make, model number, brand name and general description of the item(s) delivered match the specifications on the purchase order.
The quantity received agrees with the purchase order quantity, packing list and bill of lading. An actual count is necessary to assure receipt of all items.
Labor services must match the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and duration (number of hours, days, etc.) described in the purchase order or contract (janitorial, security, etc.).
Service contracts that require the vendor to provide consultant reports, audit reports, statistics or recommendations must be as specified in the purchase order or contract.
Service contracts that require the vendor to perform a particular service, such as elevator maintenance or carpet cleaning, must have all tasks completed as described in the purchase order or contract.
Loss or Damage in Shipment: Filing of claims for loss or damage to merchandise in shipment is the responsibility of the party having title to merchandise during shipment. The title to the commodities is determined by the FOB point on the purchase order.
FOB Destination: Title remains with vendor until goods are received and accepted by the state agency.
FOB Shipping Point: Title passes to the state agency immediately when goods are given to a common carrier at the time of shipment. The state agency is responsible for any and all damages or losses while merchandise is in transit. If damages occur to merchandise in shipment, it is the state agency's responsibility to file a claim on behalf of the state.
Obvious Loss or Damage
FOB Destination: Note all losses or damages on receiving papers, sign and have driver sign. Write the word "Refused" on receiving papers. Do not accept merchandise with obvious damage from carrier under any circumstances.
FOB Shipping Point: Note all losses or damages on receiving papers, sign and have driver sign. Retain all merchandise in the condition in which it was received and notify both the carrier and seller in writing and by telephone within five (5) working days. The carrier will send a representative to investigate the claim.
Concealed Damage and Losses
FOB Destination: The damage or loss may become evident when uncrating. If this is the case, stop uncrating and retain all merchandise and crating in exactly the same condition in which it was received. Notify the vendor immediately in writing and by telephone. Do not use any of the merchandise and do not destroy any packaging material.
FOB Shipping Point: Follow the same procedure as in the above paragraph. The state agency must notify and file a claim with the carrier.
6.3.3 Freight Terminology: Freight or shipping terms should always be included in a contract which you have initiated with a particular vendor. Purchase orders should have a specified point of origin and destination plus carrier to be used. Misunderstanding of the freight terms may cause problems in the receiving end of the purchase. Below is a brief overview of the freight possibilities:
F.O.B. Origin, Freight Prepaid
Seller pays freight
Seller bears freight charges
Buyer owns goods in transit
Buyer files any claims
F.O.B. Destination, Freight Collect
Buyer pays freight
Buyer bears freight charges
Seller owns goods in transit
Seller files any claims
F.O.B. Origin, Freight Collect
Buyer pays freight
Buyer bears freight charges
Buyer owns goods in transit
Buyer files any claims
F.O.B. Destination, Freight Prepaid
Seller pays freight
Seller bears freight charges*
Seller owns goods in transit
Seller files any claims
F.O.B. Origin, Freight Prepaid and Add
Seller pays freight
Buyer bears freight charges
Buyer owns goods in transit
Buyer files any claims
F.O.B. Destination, Freight Collect and Allowed
Buyer pays freight
Seller bears freight charges
Seller owns goods in transit
Seller files any claims
* In some terms listed above, the seller pays the freight charges in advance, but invoices the charges back to the buyer who ultimately bears the freight charges.
6.4 Payment Process: To promote good public relations and to avoid interest on late payments, state agencies should establish internal procedures to expedite payment of vendor's invoices. Please refer to the Payment Processing Guide issued by the State Auditor's Office (304-558-2261) for all questions regarding invoice processing.
6.4.1 State Purchasing Card: When possible, the spending unit is encouraged to use the State Purchasing Card. The use of the State Purchasing Card, however, is not justification to avoid utilizing statewide or agency contracts, but is simply a method of payment.
Agencies must use statewide contracts, unless specifically exempt by the Purchasing Director. For additional information, please refer to the State Auditor's Office Purchasing Card Program Procedures.
6.5 Fixed Assets: After payment has been made to the vendor and the I-document and/or S-document numbers established, reportable property must be added to the WVFIMS Fixed Assets System.
6.6 Public Records: All records maintained at the agency level related to purchase orders and/or contracts are considered public records. (Refer to Section 1.7)
6.7 Attorney General's Office Instructions for Use of WV-96: The Attorney General's Office has provided instructions for the use of the Agreement Addendum (WV-96) for agency delegated purchases. The instructions are included in Appendix Q of this handbook.
6.8 Changes: Occasionally, it becomes necessary to amend, clarify, change or cancel purchasing documents. Depending upon the type of change required and the original document used, the document used to accomplish the change is an Agency Purchase Order (WV-88 or TEAM-generated Purchase Order), designated "Change Order" as the type of purchase. A contract change order is required whenever the change affects the payment provision, time for completion of the work and/or the scope of the work.
Renewals of existing contracts and price changes may only be executed if language exists in the original contract specifically allowing such. The Purchasing Affidavit is required only for renewals of existing contracts.
All agreements, many change orders and other documents require an effective date, at which time the vendor may begin to supply the commodities and services as specified. Changes to the original purchase order must be sequentially numbered in the appropriate space. To effect the change, written concurrence from the vendor is required. The explanation of change to an existing contract must be described with sufficient detail and clarity that any individual could review and generally understand the contract and change.
Any change of a purchase order in excess of ten percent (10%) of the original contract amount (aggregate) is strongly discouraged, and changes that will cause the original contract amount to exceed $25,000 during the course of a year are forbidden.
Back to the Table of Contents


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HubCast needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 124 designs submitted by 10 freelance designers.
Please see http://www.hubcast.com.
We are building are next version of the HubCast print management and ordering application. The application will be very easy to use and highly functional, but we also want it to look great.
Our users are marketing & communications professional who are responsible for producing printed marketing collateral. They are generally a very busy bunch who are creative and value intuitive, highly functional, yet stylish interfaces. Think Blackberry vs. iPhone or PC vs. Mac. We believe our users are solid Apple fans, but are always on the look out for the next great thing. HubCast intends to be next great thing in commercial print.
We have updated design requirements:
We'd like to see a Shopping Cart box on the right hand side of the screen which would display the print products a user is in the process of ordering, similar to Amazon.com. We envision, check out buttons on top and bottom of box, and line items in box with prices and a total at bottom.
This screen will be for HubCast Basic users.
There should be 6 big buttons:
1st row - Quote | Library | My Orders
2nd row - Addresses | Upload | Support
Gray out the Library and Upload buttons - we want them visible, but clearly not enabled
(other buttons will be moved off screen or into menus)
Below the big buttons, add a large box that will have a promotion - add text similar to " GO PRO ... as a PRO member you will receive the following ... benefit 1 ... benefit 2 ... benefit 3 ... end the box with a Learn More button and Subscribe Now button.
Change all instances of "Online Print" to "Cloud Print"
We will review changes with CEO again tomorrow. Please ask any questions. Good Luck!
The HubCast Print Document Management (PDM) application is to have the following functions offered once a user logs in:
1. Upload (upload a PDF with the intent to print it or store in a document library)
2. Library (list of documents that are stored in system and ready to be printed)
3. My Orders (list of past orders)
4. Addresses (list of user's stored shipping addresses)
5. Quote (user can get an instant price quote for a print item, quoted item can be added to Cart)
6. Cart (list of item in shopping cart, user can place an order aka checkout from here)
7. Help (user can search for help, FAQs, etc)
Screen should also show user's name, have a logout link, a place to modify account settings, and a search box to find stored documents and get help.
A sample image can be found here: http://www.hubcast.com/PDM_mock_up.jpg (please don't it bias you)
Please let us know if you have any questions!


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The Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the self-governing student organization
that provides guidelines and support to the six IFC fraternities on campus.
The Panhellenic Council of Wofford College serves as the governing
body for the four NPC sororities at Wofford College.
The Wofford National Pan-Hellenic Council governs the active historically African-American fraternity on campus.


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Welcome To The
International Shooting
RIG - Reykjavik International Games
Reykjavik, ISL
3 Feb - 3 Feb 2018
» Visit the website
3rd Youth Olympic Games (Buenos Aires) 2018
Medal Matches 10m Air Pistol Mixed International Team
Medal Matches 10m Air Rifle Mixed International Team
Final 10m Air Pistol Men
Final 10m Air Pistol Women
Final 10m Air Rifle Women
Final 10m Air Rifle Men
The ISSF Academy is proud to announce the launch of its new book on coaching, the ISSF Academy Official Coaching Guide to Olympic Trap. Read the description.
Find the book in the shop.
New ISSF Safety flags - now available on the ISSF Shop!


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The Center for Modern Greek Studies is a teaching, research and administrative program of San Francisco State University's College of Liberal & Creative Arts. Having been established in 1981, the Center's purpose is to promote the study of modern Greek language, literature, history and culture in relation to its earlier Hellenic and Byzantine civilizations.
Established in 1983, the Nikos Kazantzakis Chair supports academic and cultural outreach activities of the Center. It is the second such Chair in Modern Greek Studies to be established in the United States.
The Center organizes special cultural outreach events such as concerts, art exhibits, readings, film screenings and lectures.
The Department of Classics at SFSU offers an interdisciplinary Minor in Modern Greek Studies at the B.A. level, including courses in beginning, intermediate and advanced level Modern Greek language, Modern Greek and Greek American literature, Modern Greek history and anthropology, and Byzantine civilization.


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Thursday, October 21, 2010
Paris & Tokyo Spring 2011
20 comments:
these are pretty much my favorite as well...we are late on posting our fav spring collections as well! but these are gorgeous..and so enjoy the one from tokyoReplyDelete
Lanvin was fabulous. It makes me want to be that women who wears those clothes. McQueen was beautfiul. And Chloe looks TOO much like Celine...ReplyDelete
loove cacharel! its so colorful :)ReplyDelete
I love Mcqueen most in this post..the two dresses black and white looks so fancyReplyDelete
im definitely a big fan of chloe this season!ReplyDelete
paris was great indeed.ReplyDelete
i loved ann valerie hash, dries van noten (as usual), rick owens, chloe, chapurin, cacharel...
akris and haider ackermann was absolutely amazing.
Favourite colours on Cacharel, and oh yes McQueen the usual gasp.ReplyDelete
Love this post♥ReplyDelete
- dotsandlinesandmeOctober 21, 2010 at 10:38 PM
I really like the last four outfits by Cacharel, the second outfit from the right by Matohu and the two second outfits from the right (I ADORE the bag!) and from the left by Stella McCartney.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 22, 2010 at 1:04 PM
I love the cacharel collections. So much collors. :)ReplyDelete
Love cacharel. The orange is a bit too penetrant, maybe, but the glasses make up for it. adorable!ReplyDelete
- dotsandlinesandmeOctober 22, 2010 at 7:18 PM
Oh, and I forgot the middle outfit by Chloe, I really like that one too.=)ReplyDelete
Wow. The McQueen is absolutely breath taking!ReplyDelete
My favorite collection totally is Cacharel, it's young, fresh and colorful. BTW, I love your blog.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 25, 2010 at 7:40 PM
Das mittlere von cacharel finde ich super!ReplyDelete
toller blog übrigens :)
Great post! I love Stella McCartney, she's not only an incredible designer, but she has awesome morals. Thank you for featuring her!!ReplyDelete
I'm loving your blog - I'm going to become a follower right after leaving this comment.
If you ever feel like taking a look at another fashion lover's blog here is the link to mine! I hope you enjoy.
McQueen is LOVE! I love these outfits so much, most of all the second and last one at ur pictures.ReplyDelete
I love the Matohu collection! It is so Japanese, tidy but detailed, loving it's layers and the ethereal feeling.ReplyDelete
- NatalieCNovember 7, 2010 at 10:30 PM
Chloé is definitely my favourite!ReplyDelete


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Your browser does not support iframes.
They may look like ordinary fifth graders, but these six 10-year-olds are members of the Cedar Key Safety Patrol.
They, along with about 8 other students and teacher, Miss Janeice Smith, are tasked with ensuring that things are safe at school and they had to eat well for the job on the first day of school.
The cafeteria ladies at Cedar Key School may be the some of the proudest ladies you have never met.
With student enrollment at Cedar Key School expected to be on the rise this year, Principal Sue Ice was under even more pressure to make sure students were clear about what's expected of them.
Proud grandfather Doug Little reports:
Okay folks, will someone turn on the Cedar Key air conditioner?
We still have a good month of this too dang hot of weather. I notice these days with no cloud cover getting tuffer and tuffer to keep bites going.
A fishing trip Sunday afternoon by an Orlando visitor hooked a 3- to 4-foot gar. However, it was cut loose because the prospects of that fish actually being in the boat did not interest the two brothers.
In a recent Conservation Corner, using nuclear power to generate electricity was shown to be both extremely dangerous and expensive. It is not the clean, safe and cheap source for electricity that it was touted to be. The only saving grace of nuclear power is that it does not have a large carbon footprint like a coal-fired electric generation plant.
I would like to respond to media reports that the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is selling your personal information.
Some new laws passed in Florida's 2011 legislative session, that could have some minor impact on Cedar Key. City Attorney Holly Blumenthal presented a memo summarizing the possible changes to the commission recently. Of particular interest are:
Teachers are planning for the students to be back in many ways. They are getting their rooms and materials ready; making instructional plans and schedules, based on assessment scores and student needs.
Something new this year is the theme of SHARK PRIDE that involves characteristics that we would like everyone to exhibit.
Copyright © 2019
The Cedar Key Beacon is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Levy County and Cedar Key Florida, and the surrounding area.


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Use this form to ask us a quick one sentence question about this specific product. For more in depth queries, please feel free to email or call us.
Our system will drop you an automated e-mail as soon as this product comes back into stock.


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Wayside Theatre Begins New Year with SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN HOMECOMING, Now thru 3/16
Wayside Theatre Artistic Director, Warner Crocker, announced the cast and schedule for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the sequel to one of last season's most Popular Productions. Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming was written by Connie Ray, conceived by Alan Bailey, and has musical arrangements by Mike Craver. This production is sponsored by Winchester Executive Suites LLC, Royal Oak Computers, and Anytime Fitness Strasburg.
In this sequel, the Sanders Family returns to the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church to send off Pastor Oglethorpe and his new bride, June. With World War II over, Pastor Oglethorpe has received a call to preach in West Texas. This may be the last sing for the Sanders Family before they disband. This production is filled with the family's hilarious and heartwarming testimonials and 25 bluegrass gospel favorites. Fans of last year's Smoke on the Mountain will enjoy this production, as well as those unfamiliar with the Sanders Family franchise.
The performances for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming will begin tonight, January 26, with low-priced performances at 2:30PM and 7:30PM. The official opening night is Sunday, January 27 at 6:30PM. Performances will continue until March 16. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances are at 7:30PM; Saturday matinees are at 2:30PM; Sunday performances are at 2:30PM. Check the calendar on the Wayside Theatre website for more information on the schedule. Ticket prices are $25-$30 for adults and $10 for children 17 and under. There are also discounts available for seniors, students, and groups.
This year's cast contains Wayside Theatre favorites, as well as a few newcomers. Reprising their roles from last year's production are Steve Przybylski as Dennis (Striking 12, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Southern Crossroads, Smoke on the Mountain trilogy), Thomasin Savaiano as June (Wait Until Dark, Private Lives, Southern Crossroads, Smoke on the Mountain trilogy), Pam Pendleton as Vera (Smoke on the Mountain trilogy, Hank Williams: Lost Highway), Jennie Malone as Denise (Smoke on the Mountain, Hank Williams: Lost Highway), and Bob Payne as Burl (Smoke on the Mountain trilogy, Southern Crossroads: The New Orleans Adventure, Glory Bea). It also features newcomers to the Wayside Theatre stage: Richard Daniel as Stanley and Don Denton as Pastor Oglethorpe.
Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming is created by the following production staff members: Director Warner Crocker, Musical Director Steve Przybylski, Set Designer and Technical Director Zach Fullenkamp, Costume Designer Caleb Blackwell, Lighting Designer Wes Calkin, Production Stage Manager and Prop Master Kendra Watkins.
According to Crocker, "In Season 50, Smoke on the Mountain was an audience favorite. The bluegrass music, heartwarming but funny stories, and family values appealed to a variety of people. Due to that success, we at Wayside Theatre decided that the sequel, Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, would be a great addition to Season 51. We've assembled a veteran cast of amazingly talented actor/musicians for this production. Fans of the original play will certainly love this show, as well as those who have never seen Smoke on the Mountain before."
Single tickets and group packages for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming can be obtained by calling the box office at (540) 869-1776. Additional information can be obtained on the theatre's website at www.waysidetheatre.org. Wayside Theatre is located in Middletown, Virginia on Route 11, Main Street, just north of the intersection of I-66 and I-81.