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Anthony Gonzalez grew up in Antibes in the South of France. The Mediterranean resort town is one of the most beautiful places in Europe, and Gonzalez says he had "the perfect childhood."
"My memories are genuine and happy," he says. "I was the happiest kid on the planet."
Yet after making five richly textured electro-pop albums under the name M83, Gonzalez moved to Los Angeles two years ago to begin work on "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" (Mute), his 2011 double-album.
How can anyone get tired of living in the South of France? Gonzalez laughs. "After 29 years, I needed a fresh start, a new environment. Don't get me wrong, I love the south of France. I still miss it a lot. I spent my whole life there, but it's almost too easy with family and friends who are very protective of me. I needed to put myself in danger a little bit more."
Gonzalez says he spent the first few months in Los Angeles missing home and feeling sorry for himself, so he tried to fill the emptiness by concentrating on the music. It worked. The sadness fueled his determination to make an all-consuming album like the ones he revered as a kid.
"I love old-fashioned albums made in a proper recording studio with real musicians," he says. "I was craving something really produced and very ambitious, something big. I started my career more than 10 years ago, and it was me in my bedroom with a four-track (recorder). In the back of my mind, I had wanted to do a double album since I was a teenager, but I didn't have the tools or the budget. I finally reached a point where I thought, 'If not now, when?' So I took the leap."
He set up with trusted collaborator Justin Meldal-Johnsen at Sunset Sound and Sound Factory studios in Los Angeles, where landmark albums were recorded by the Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield and the Doors, among others. Besides his array of vintage synthesizers and keyboards (he has 16 at his home studio), he and Meldal-Johnsen hired numerous musicians plus a string and brass section to flesh out the album.
His primary inspiration? The Smashing Pumpkins' 1995 double album, "Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."
"That album hit me when I was 14, 15, and I was discovering all this new music. It was just so deep and rich, I got lost in it every time," Gonzalez says. "I know what people say about it; some people criticize Billy Corgan for putting himself out there like that. Like who is he to make a double album? But I loved it. You have to be a little bit selfish when you're making an album, as long as you stay true and sincere to the music, because that's how people connect to it."
Not surprisingly, "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming," reflects back on his childhood, with a mix of nostalgia and melancholy.
"I was missing home a lot during the first three, four months in LA, and the only way to reconnect with my town and memories was to write music about it," he says. The cover art depicts two young siblings in a half-lit bedroom with their toys, and the album evenly divides 22 songs on two discs that are mirror images of one another designed to tell the children's stories.
"This album is a tribute to my parents and my life in the south of France," the softspoken multi-instrumentalist says. "I have a brother and we're very close. The songs are all about the relationship between us. I am pretty shy, and I only really express myself well through music. So this was a way of letting out all those emotions, fears and insecurities. It is also a way for me to behave like a kid, still. In a way, music is my way of trying to prolong my childhood and all that was good about it."
M83: 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Riviera, 4746 N. Racine, (soldout); jamusa.com.


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Let's see what we've got here: Dr. Hichcock [sic], a brilliant but and pathologically unpleasant physician studying the efficacy of toxins in treating paralysis. Crippled by his own experiments, Hichcock is married to cold-hearted, beautiful bitch Margaret (Barbara Steele, doe-eyed and deadly as ever) and under the care of young and handsome but similarly niceness-challenged Dr. Charles Livingstone. Figuring he's not long for this world due to his quadriplegia, Dr. Hichcock is conducting nightly seances with the help of live-in medium-cum-housekeeper Harriet. Further, Hichcock is convinced that nightly doses of the deadly paralyzing poison curare quickly followed the the antidote will shock his system into recovery, and Livingstone is the only physician crazy or unscrupulous enough to administer the regimen. What he's not aware of is that Margaret and Charles are having a torrid, fully-ambulatory affair, and before you can say "Move that glass of antidote a little closer!" she's convinced her boy-toy to cure Hichcock PERMANENTLY so that they can split the estate and live dastardly ever after. But a last-minute change in the old man's will strands them at the estate after his funeral, looking for hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling in cash and jewelry before the solicitors can claim it for the orphan's home. And of course it's not long before Dr. Hichcock starts making things hard on the lovers, seemingly FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE...
With me so far?
About fifteen minutes into 1963's The Ghost (aka Lo Spettro), I thought I had nothing in front of me but 75 more minutes of boredom. There's melodrama and then there's melodrama, and then there's the acting in Lo Spettro. While part of the overblown delivery of each and every line is perhaps a natural consequence of the film being post-dubbed in English--and none too well--still, the dialog and writing were so far over the top as to be annoying, but not quite far enough to be amusing. Hichcock gloating with his evil grin, reminiscing about the olden days before his accident ("I was a MAN then!"), while Barbara Steele absolutely drips disgust and bullies the young Dr. Livingstone around like a schoolboy. A group of unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other, and not even in particularly entertaining ways. Who wants to watch that?
But then something happened--Babs and Chuck finally get around to murdering the old man--and director Riccardo Freda finally seemed to find his groove and started hitting it, HARD. While the old housekeeper looks on disapprovingly (her continued employment is a condition of Dr. Hichcock's will), Margaret and Charles look for the missing loot, their passion and patience with each other wearing thin. And then--THEN--the haunting starts.
And what a well-done haunting it is! Sitting in the parlor one night after the funeral, wondering where all the money could be, Margaret and Charles are surprised by the sound of squeaking wheels from upstairs...in the doctor's study! They rush out to the stairway in time to see the door to the study open, and in a wonderful low-angle shot we see the shadow of the doctor's wheelchair creeping inexorably toward the stairs. Then in a scene that presages the pantaloons-filling sequence from The Changeling by 17 years, the chair comes out, empty, squeaking incessantly, and barrels toward them down the stairs! It's a wonderfully creepy scene, and gave me the goosebumps, I don't mind telling you.
Apparently agreeing never to speak of the incident again, Babs and Charlie continue their search. (Really, it never even comes up in conversation. If it were me, I'd be all, "Holy shit! Remember the other night when that squeaky chair came out and freaked up ALL our shit? What the fuck are we still doing here?") After a helpful tip from the housekeeper leads them to believe that the key to the doctor's safe might have been buried with him, the lovers go to the old man's crypt and disinter him in the name of filthy lucre. It's another moody, chilling set piece, and by this point I was totally into the flick, anxious to see what would happen next.
Well, a LOT happens next. Finding the safe empty, the lovers get increasingly irritated with each other. Not enough to stop rolling in the linen together, though, and Lo Spettro de Hichcock makes his displeasure known by dripping blood on their bedsheets from the ceiling and manifesting himself in the attic as a hanged corpse. Yikes! But when the maid puts a bug in Barb's ear that she found some of the Doctor's jewelry in amongst Livingstone's things, Ms. Steele starts to wonder whether Chuck is playing her for a chump. Her nerves, already on edge, snap, and we get an amazing razor-blade murder scene that literally has the blood flowing down the lens, in glorious Technicolor. WOW.
The ending might disappoint some viewers, both from its clichéd trappings and its implausibility:
>>>SPOILERS>>> (swipe with mouse to read)
Having noticed he was getting better thanks to the curare treatment, the doctor has faked his own death in order to torture Margaret and Charles for having deceived him. He's been behind it all along, bwahahahaha! With the help of Harriet! And now his wife, poisoned by a nail in the coffin and on the brink of paralysis herself, will be put away for the murder of her young lover! Isn't that a hoot?
Unfortunately for the doctor he hasn't counted on his wife's post-murder suicidal thoughts, and his nostalgic taste for Dutch gin will be the death of him...
It's not all great, of course. The print on the 50 Chilling Classics set is in terrible shape, and the acting and dialog never rise above the level of melodrama alluded to earlier, but some truly chilling images and wild scenes (other standouts include a bleeding snuff box and the most amazing use of that famous sampled wolf-howl evar) lift this one above the rest. Barbara Steele is striking to look at as always, and the twists and turns of the plot, while not exactly believable, are nonetheless a hell of a lot of fun.
So I give The Ghost a 2.25 thumb rating, and would recommend it for at least one viewing. It does some things badly but a lot of things well, and what more do you want from a 60s Italian chiller, anyway?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Ghost (1963): or, Gin and Sin Up Cripple Creek
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 4:27 PM
Labels: '60s, 2-3 thumbs, 50 Chilling Classics, Barbara Steele, Haunting, Italian Terrors, Mill Creek, Old Dark House, That Famous Sampled Wolf Howl
2 comments:
- BC said...
According to my records, I have now watched 35 of the Chilling Classics (one - HAUNTS, was watched pre Horror Movie A Day so there's no review :(). I'd say another 5 aren't even horror movies, so that leaves around 10... I should finish that sucker up by Halloween. And a joyous day it shall be. I may have a parade.
- September 20, 2007 at 6:56 PM
This is my favorite Steele movie. I would have made the exhumation scene a bit gruesomer.
- October 14, 2010 at 11:49 AM
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subset: commoncrawl


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Charlie Murphy Interviews Lil Wayne? [Comedy Parody]
Shawn reports premiere episode of Charlie Murphys Crash Comedy on Crackle. If youre a Lil Wayne fan youve got to see this first episode. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Ha.
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Turkey joined a unique club of leaders this week, one that a weary America has long nurtured.
It decided to become the kind of regional power – one with a strong economy and an advancing democracy – that seeks to be a force for freedom and human rights among its neighbors.
The turnaround came after the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won its third election in a row. In his victory speech, Mr. Erdogan reversed a longstanding policy of simply seeking "zero problems" on Turkey's borders. He announced: "We will become much more active in regional and global affairs."
More specifically, he added that he will call "for rights in our region, for justice, for the rule of law, for freedom and democracy."
Turkey – if it follows its words with consistent action – now joins Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, and to some degree, India as large democracies that have slowly realized that they can be responsible stakeholders in the global order, especially in influencing their neighbors by promoting democracy.
For Turkey, the turning point may have been the latest events of the Arab Spring, especially the way that Syria has crushed protests there. Last week, Erdogan turned on his budding ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He described the regime's military offensive against civilians in a northwest province as "savagery." Thousands of Syrian refugees have been welcomed into Turkey. And Erdogan could possibly support a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Syria.
Turkey's credibility is high among the Arab people because of its democracy and economy, as well as its struggling effort to blend Islamic values with basic freedoms. Even before Sunday's election, it invited young people from the Middle East to watch the election process and even hosted a meeting of the Syrian opposition.
Turkey's role in reaching out to those young masses – rather than the region's dictators– could be far more effective than efforts by Europe or the United States. If Iran erupts again in protests, for example, Turkey's stance could greatly add to international pressure on that regime.
Brazil is another example of a regional power that has struggled to cement its democracy and build up its market economy, and now exhibits a progressive leadership in Latin America and beyond.
Brazilian troops have been active in stabilizing Haiti. It supports the region's antidrug efforts and free-trade alliances, as well as the global push on climate change. While it is too cozy with Cuba and Venezuela, it nonetheless has built up its democracy as a model for others.
Indonesia, too, after securing its democracy in 1999, has tried to influence Burma's dictators and to quell disputes within Southeast Asia, such as a border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. In 2008, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up a regional group called the Bali Democracy Forum to help build democratic institutions in Asia.
Nigeria continues to improve its large democracy with each election while using its military and strong oil-based economy to promote stability in Africa, especially West Africa. It is the backbone of the Economic Community of West African States, and was influential in resolving a recent postelection crisis in Ivory Coast. Nigeria's leadership stands in contrast to the continent's other democratic power, South Africa, which has largely avoided confronting authoritarian rulers.
For decades, the US has tried to find regional, democratic powers that can take over the burden of standing up to autocrats and aggression. As democracy has swept Latin America and parts of Asia and Africa since the 1980s, a few large countries, like Brazil and Indonesia, have emerged as key partners – although not always reliable allies.
With the Middle East making its own erratic transition to democracy, Turkey's apparent turnaround on its foreign policy will provide a welcomed contribution to helping the region's people finally find the freedoms they have long sought.


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The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) is a longitudinal study of families in Los Angeles County, California, and of the neighborhoods in which they live.
Research suggests that safe, supportive neighborhoods are important for children, teens, and adults. But what makes a neighborhood a positive place to live? We are trying to answer this question by comparing the lives of children and adults in a broad range of neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County.
The L.A.FANS focuses on:
- Neighborhood, family, and peer effects on children's development
- Effects of welfare reform at the neighborhood level
- Residential mobility and neighborhood change
The first wave of the L.A.FANS was fielded between 2000 and 2001. Fieldwork for Wave 2 of L.A.FANS was conducted between 2006 and 2008. We offer Public Use Data and four versions of Restricted Data. See the comparison table to decide which version is right for you.
We have available the questionnaire instruments for L.A.FANS Wave 1 and Wave 2.
Also available are L.A.FANS documentation reports and publications.
Contact us with any questions or for more information about L.A.FANS.
Register to receive updates by e-mail.
L.A.FANS Publications
The following are recent publications based on L.A.FANS.
Do Perceptions of Social Cohesion, Social Support, and Social Control Mediate the Effects of Local Community Participation on Neighborhood Satisfaction? — 2011
Dassopoulos, A., and S.M. Monnat
Environment and Behavior , Volume: 43, Issue: 4, Pages: 546-565
Read the Paper from eab.sagepub.com
The neighborhood context of relative position, trust, and self-rated health — 2011
Bjornstrom Eileen E.
Social Science & Medicine , Volume 73, Issue 1, Pages 42-49. Epub 2011 May 27.
Read the Paper from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The Multiple Dimensions of Immigrant Acculturation and Obesity among Mexican-Americans — 2011
Creighton, Mathew J., and Anne Pebley
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC, April 2011
Read the Paper from princeton.edu
The Shape of Things to Come: Obesity Prevalence among Foreign-Born vs. U.S.-Born Hispanic Children in California — 2011
Buttenheim, Alison M., Anne Pebley, Katie Hsih, and Noreen Goldman
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC, April 2011
Read the Paper from princeton.edu
Patterns of Biomarker Participation for Children in Wave 2 of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey — 2011
Sastry, Narayan, and Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC, April 2011
Read the Paper from princeton.edu
A Census Data Based Simulation Experiment on the Effects of Modeling Neighborhood Effects on a Health Outcome at "the Wrong" Scale of the Census Geography — 2011
Nau, Claudia L.
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC, April 2011
Read the Paper from princeton.edu
Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Residential Preferences and Residential Mobility — 2011
Bruch, Elizabeth E., and Robert D. Mare
Research Report 11-725, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
Eyes on the Block: Measuring Urban Physical Disorder Through In-Person Observation — 2011
Jones, Malia, Anne R. Pebley, and Narayan Sastry
Social Science Research, Volume 40, Issue 2, Pages 523-537
Read the Full Document at sciencedirect.com
"Does Latino Population Induce White Flight? Evidence from Los Angeles County" — 2011
Pan, Ying
Working Paper, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University
Read the Paper from bus.lsu.edu
Neighborhood Protective Effects on Depression in Latinos — 2011
Vega, William A., Alfonso Ang, Michael A. Rodriguez, and Brian K. Finch
American Journal of Community Psychology, Volume 47, Issues 1-2, Pages 114-126
Read the Full Document at springerlink.com
To Live and Die in L.A. County: Neighborhood Economic and Social Context and Premature Age-Specific Mortality Rates among Latinos — 2011
Bjornstrom, Eileen
Health & Place, Volume 17, Number 1, Pages 230–237
Read the Full Document at sciencedirect.com
The Automobile, Immigrants, and Poverty: Implications for Immigrant Earnings and Job Access — 2010
Clark, William A.V., and Wenfei Winnie Wang
Urban Geography, Volume 31, Number 4, Pages 523–540
Read the Abstract at bellwether.metapress.com
Association of Perceived Neighborhood Safety on Body Mass Index — 2010
Fish, Jason S., Susan Ettner, Alfonso Ang, and Arleen F. Brown
American Journal of Public Health Volume 100, Number 11, Pages 2296–2303
Read the Abstract at paa2003.princeton.edu
A Tale of Two Cities: Residential Context and Risky Behavior among Adolescents in Los Angeles and Chicago — 2010
Frank, Reanne, and Eileen Bjornstrom
Health & Place Volume 17, Number 1, Pages 67–77
Read the Full Document at sciencedirect.com
Schooling Location and Economic, Occupational and Cognitive Success among Immigrants and Their Children: The Case of Los Angeles — 2010
Jackson, Margot I., Anne R. Pebley and Noreen Goldman
Social Science Research, Volume 39, Issue 3, May 2010, Pages 432-443
Read the Abstract at sciencedirect.com
Influence of Neighbourhood Collective Efficacy on Adolescent Sexual Behaviour: Variation by Gender and Activity Participation — 2010
Kim, Jinsook
Child: Care, Health and Development, Volume 36, Issue 5, Pages 646-654


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Humbly Serving the Lord
|Watercolor reproduction
|8 1/2" x 12 1/2"
The price is plus shipping and tax depending on location being shipped. No tax for out of Arizona shipping. The shipping cost for this piece cannot be predetermined because it must be custom-packaged. Therefore, this piece must be ordered either by phone or in person at the gallery. We apologize for the inconvenience, but please feel free to contact us at 928-232-0650 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com Thank you.
Please allow two to three weeks for delivery. Contact the Gallery directly for quicker delivery options.


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Guinea: 29 dead from viral hemorrhagic fever
CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guinea's ministry of health says that 49 people have been registered with viral hemorrhagic fever in the country's south since February, and 29 of those people have since died.
The ministry said in a statement Friday that initial studies confirm the presence of a virus in Gueckedou, Macenta, Kissidougou and Conakry, though it hasn't yet been specifically identified. The ministry has asked people to report any suspected cases.
Doctors Without Borders says it has launched an emergency response to the outbreak in southern Guinea and is helping to set up isolation units.
The organization says that "viral hemorrhagic fever of filovirus type is a rare but severe and often fatal disease that spreads rapidly through direct contact with infected people or animals," and is transmitted by blood and body fluids.
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NEW YORK (AP) - J. Crew's seasonal collection at New York Fashion Week is a bit of an anomaly: Most people know J. Crew, and many can afford to buy the clothes. It shows how New York Fashion Week, while staged largely for editors, retailers and stylists, has become a bit more democratic.
NEW YORK (AP) � J. Crew's seasonal collection at New York Fashion Week is a bit of an anomaly: Most people know J. Crew, and many can afford to buy the clothes. It shows how New York Fashion Week, while staged largely for editors, retailers and stylists, has become a bit more democratic.
There are still a few velvet ropes surrounding the event based at Lincoln Center for eight days, but accessibility is creeping in. (Many shows are streamed live online, for example.)
Insiders might place a few advance orders for key pieces that were previewed Tuesday, such as the rose-gold camp shirt, metallic floral polo shirt and sweatshirt-style cashmere sweaters and skinny pants that featured silver brocade on a purple background. Most people in the crowd probably rarely visit a mall or even Main Street, but they were buzzing about the outfits.
The luxury of working for J. Crew, said womenswear designer Tom Mora, is that there's room to offer new inspiring pieces that mix with the classics the brand is built on. He can fill the windows for fall with all the colors and textures he fell in love with during a trip to Marrakech, Morocco, but somewhere, on some rack, will be the boater-stripe T-shirt the customer comes back for.
"It's not all what you'd think of for fall, but all the color and mosaic is really in our vocabulary all the time," Mora said.
He isn't too literal, so the stores won't look like an exotic travel magazine, he said, but a starting point for a collection sets an attitude and lets J. Crew have some fun in its styling.
Increasingly, he added, consumers are using the company's catalog (now called a style guide) to get their own ideas about how to put an outfit together.
"What's crazy is that people in the past would bring in the catalog and ask, 'Where is this sweater?' Now they're coming in and asking for the look head to toe. ... We don't dictate how to wear our clothes � it's always a suggestion � but the nice thing is people are taking the suggestion."
At the preview, models were wearing floral pencil skirts with classic British herringbone scarves. A classic double-breasted navy blazer was cropped and decorated in gold embroidery.
The menswear, even at fashion week, was a bit more tempered. Frank Muytjens is in charge of that side of the store: "It's always an evolution in menswear, never a revolution. We include the iconic pieces and update them for a modern guy, not a trendy guy."
The models on that side of the room wore a gray wool-flannel, button-down shirt, and a waxy green trench with a traditional corduroy collar. One wore a suede shirt with his tweed suit.
Muytjens said he recently returned from the British countryside. "I visited Oxford and Wales, and there was so much dignity. I wanted to take those elements home and then do what we want with it."


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32 Million Reasons Why YESCO is an LED Industry Leader
YESCO raises the resolution bar for an iconic Las Vegas project
Feb 14, 2013, 04:15 ET
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- YESCO skins Las Vegas Boulevard's newest retail development with the world's highest resolution LED screen to create an iconic attraction.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130214/LA60786-a)
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130214/LA60786-b)
Standing out among the endless array of signs, thematic features and unique architecture in Las Vegas is no simple task; the Boulevard's sidelines are constantly animated with the latest and greatest technologies, carefully positioned to attract and entice Vegas' wide-eyed visitors. What better way to overcome these visibility challenges than to integrate the world's most vibrant and Vegas' largest LED feature into the crown of your building?
Anchored by retail giant Walgreens, the 120' tall Harmon Corner Retail Center occupies the northeast corner of one of the most dynamic intersections in Las Vegas, with high-profile neighbors including The Cosmopolitan, Aria at City Center and Planet Hollywood. Developed by BPS Partners and designed by SH Architecture, the Harmon Corner feature was envisioned as a 'digital icon' at one of North America's busiest pedestrian intersections and to command attention from all northbound traffic – even during the sunniest of Las Vegas days. Brett Torino, a principal of the development's ownership group engaged YESCO early in the design process to ensure the high level of collaboration and coordination required between the design and engineering teams. Precise integration was a high priority. "We set out to build the most unique and successful retail destination in the country and to realize our vision we engaged a world-class team. We knew that our ambitions for the LED screen would only be successful if we brought in a company with the creativity, technology and fabrication capabilities to deliver a turnkey project from concept to completion; YESCO did just that," stated Mr. Torino.
YESCO Electronics' 12mm SMD (Surface Mount Diode) technology was selected as the most appropriate due to its high brightness and contrast capabilities, along with the fact that the compact size of the individual modules could achieve the smooth radius required for the screen to 'skin' the architecture seamlessly. At approximately 310' wide by 60' tall, the enormous screen is populated with close to 11 million pixels, equating to almost 32 million RBG diodes; by far the highest resolution that has ever been accomplished at this scale.
Technology, engineering and installation feats aside, one of the most impressive components of this feature is the innovative control system that YESCO designed to deliver content to the immense screen. "It was a challenge as there were no existing products on the market that could handle playing content files this large. To avoid requiring twelve, six, or even three computers to run the screen, we worked with our partners to develop a custom hardware / software solution that is capable of running the entire display from a single and very powerful PC," explains Brian Henry, Creative and Technical Director for YESCO's special projects team.
During the initial design process, the YESCO project team began to imagine the amazing content possibilities and opportunities that would be afforded by such dimension and definition. Providing a spectacular canvas to support and display the variety of national and international brands housed within the development was the most obvious priority for such an elaborate feature, though the opportunity to become a 'must see' attraction through experiential content segments and public interactivity was never overlooked. It was decided that four hours of each day would be dedicated to custom programming ranging from "mind-blowing" content illusions to supporting artistic animations and interactive special events all designed and created to cause viewers to stop, snap, post and tweet. In a heavily themed landscape, the Harmon Corner feature has defined itself as Vegas' first digital icon.
About YESCO: YESCO has been a family-owned provider of a full spectrum of sign and lighting products and services since 1920. YESCO provides custom signs of all types and sizes—from simple wayfinding plaques to towering, spectacular displays. YESCO Electronics manufacturers versatile, color LED signs and is a leading supplier of digital billboards in North America. YESCO Outdoor Media has approximately 1,700 billboards strategically located on major thoroughfares across nine western states. YESCO also offers sign and lighting service franchises in states east of Colorado and throughout Canada. Specializing in electric sign financing, YESCO Financial Solutions provides financing for businesses who want to preserve their capital for higher-return investments while financing important, revenue generating projects. For more information visit www.yesco.com.


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Robert Heessels needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 16 designs submitted by 7 freelance designers.
WebsiteSupporters.com is a (Dutch) website that help people make their website a great succes. Anyone can start a website, but to make a website successful is not that easy. We help our visitors with weekly advise and actionable step-by-step instructions on how to improve their website. They can subscribe to this weekly mail, act upon it and talk about it on the forums. All visitors are stimulated to work on the same theme of their website in the same week, so there will be a lot of interaction and cross-pollination.
The target audience of WebsiteSupporters.com are people that have a website that they want to make a success. Most of the will be entrepeneurs and small businesses. Most of them will not be technical. Often they make their website with content management systems. So we do not target webmasters, but the people owning the site. To be part of WebsiteSupporters.com, and get the weekly mails, is totally free.
We need several improvements to the design of WebsiteSupporters.com; especially to the promo blocks in the header. Have a look at the site to get the idea. (Maybe use Google Translate, as the site is in Dutch)
- We need a better design of the promo blocks. These blocks scroll in the header. They should contain an orange-men-icon and 2 short lines of text (few words per line). They should fit the sites overall design more than they do now. We just need you to design one or two examples. In the end we will create all promo's ourselves, based on your design.
- We need an improved design of the content of article pages. Take http://www.websitesupporters.com/poll page as the basis for your design. We think especially the design of the header (showing the photo, title and info) could be better. And maybe the reactions to articles could be improved.
For the photo in the header we have been experimenting with a soccer card instead of the photo. See attachment.
- If you like you can make design changes to the overall site design (like header and sidebar), but we do like them as they are.
- If you like you can make suggestions for a better design of the forum: http://www.websitesupporters.com/forum-nl
Orange men can be found here:
Have a good look at the attachments!


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From the Winter 2012 issue of Redlands Magazine
The morning warmth arrives late in the hills north and east above Yucaipa, the light is clear even if it brightens slowly on a chilly day.
Amid apple trees and the more traditional mix of mountain foliage with leaves shifting into bright hues, it can appear as if you've slipped back in time standing in front of the Hawk's Head Public House.
Outside, men in period livery go about their chores at Colonial Chesterfield, as part of the agritourism site better known as Riley's Farm wakes up for the day.
Inside, Jon Harmon, director of living history for Riley's, keeper of black powder weapons used for film work and events, and general jack-of-all-trades, builds a fire to ward off the cold.
In Riley's, the waning days of October still has trees bearing apples with the lure of pick-your-own harvests.
In November, the scene shifts, and while colonial re-enactment field trips for school groups continue at a slower pace, the weekend fare for visitors focuses on harvest dinners and Christmas-oriented activities.
Nearby, Oak Glen proper has its collection of farms and shops and offers its own quaint tourism draw: apple products, knick-knacks, antiques.
It's a strolling location to explore, with favorite stops like Apple Annie's Restaurant and Bakery, the Parrish Pioneer Ranch, and Law's Cider Mill and Ranch to name just a few. The setting offers a lovely way to spend an afternoon, especially when one wants to enjoy the season but escape the rush or a place for the kids to burn off energy for a few hours.
Farther down the road, Riley's offers some similar fare built around largely colonial-era period structures, re-enactments and activities.
Jim Riley, who owns and operates the 760-acre farm with his brother, Scott, and their families, also writes and produces a colonial television series on the site so it's important to keep the grounds authentic.
Guests can wander the farm, visit the bakery and public house, the shed and a variety of small period structures.
On Saturdays, visitors can participate in Old World adventures including the tomahawk throw, archery and candle-dipping.
Harmon says during the holidays, seasonal activities, including pie and cookie making, are added. Specific details will be announced on the Riley website, he said.
Activities generally run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., though in winter the hours are shorter – late morning to early afternoon, generally so they are convenient around the lunch-hour.
The other attraction of Riley's is dining at the Hawk's Head Public House, a rough-floored period restaurant, during the day or, with reservations, enjoying a harvest or Advent dinner. Riley's also offers an evening of scenes from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," in a dinner-theater style presentation at the Old Packing Shed.
Dinners include live music, hearty fare and are generally Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 6 p.m. through the season. Prices are $33 for adults, $28 for children 3 to 12. Reservations are necessary as dinners sell out quickly; seating begins 30 minutes prior to dinner.
A sampling of the menus includes roast beef, cider-baked ham, pumpkin soup, apple cheddar muffins, apple dumplings, chocolate mousse cake and "bubble and squeak."
What's that? "It's an old dish. Originally, it was a vinegar cabbage dish. The name bubble and squeak, some say, came from the sound it made as it simmered on the stove. Other souls say it's the noises it produces in one's digestive system," Harmon explained.
It's an old humorous thing, he says, noting Riley's has its own variation on the recipe.
There's one additional twist: on Dec. 22, all guests attending the Advent dinner are required to wear period dress. The evening is a particular favorite of history buffs and re-enactors, says Harmon. For those who aren't equipped with appropriate threads, rentals are available.
Getting thereOak Glen and Riley's Farm
The vicinity is Yucaipa but there are several ways to get to the collection of apple farms and shops known as Oak Glen, its Oak Tree Village and Riley's Farm. They are all on Oak Glen Road, which loops up around the hills above Yucaipa.
To get to Oak Tree Village. From the I-10, exit northbound onto Yucaipa Boulevard, follow it into town and turn left on Oak Glen Road. This picks up the western leg of the winding but scenic track. To get to Riley's Farm, continue past the village along Oak Glen Road.
To get to Riley's Farm. Exit I-10 at Beaumont Avenue. Follow Beaumont north until it becomes the eastern leg of Oak Glen Road. Riley's Farm will be on the right. (Be sure to continue on the road to visit the rest of Oak Glen.)
More info:
Riley's Farm, 12261 S. Oak Glen Road, Yucaipa; 909-797-7534, www.rileysfarm.com
Oak Tree Village at Oak Glen, 38480 Oak Glen Road, 909-797-6833, www.oakglen.net


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Special equipment: 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons of alder, cherry or corn cob chips
Smoke the corn according to the directions below. When it is cool enough to handle, strip the kernels from the cobs.
Pour enough cold water over the potatoes in a 3-quart saucepan to cover them by a few inches. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat, then adjust the heat so the water is at a gentle boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender when poked with a fork, 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Drain the potatoes, and cool them to room temperature. Peel them, if you like, and cut them into 1/2-inch slices.
Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions, season them lightly with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are wilted but not browned, about 6 minutes.
Beat the eggs, milk and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt together in a large bowl until thoroughly blended. Stir in the corn kernels and cheese.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan and swirl it around to coat the sides as much as possible. Gently stir the sliced potatoes into the skillet and cook them a minute or two to warm them through.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and pour the egg mixture into the skillet. Don't stir. In about a minute, the egg should begin to bubble in a few spots around and near the edges. If it starts to bubble sooner, lift the pan from the heat and reduce the heat slightly. Wait a minute and return the pan to the heat. Cook until the edges are lightly browned (check by carefully slipping a thin metal spatula or knife along the edge of the tortilla), about 5 minutes.
Set the skillet in the oven and cook until the top is puffed and brown and the center is firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve the tortilla hot after letting it rest 5 minutes, warm after resting 30 to 40 minutes, or cooled completely to room temperature. In any case, run a thin, flexible spatula around the sides, then underneath to make sure the tortilla hasn't stuck to the pan. Serve the hot tortilla right from the pan.
You can serve the warm or room temperature tortilla from the pan as well or, if you're feeling adventurous and have strong wrists, invert it onto a plate as follows: make sure the tortilla is not stuck to any part of the pan. Cover the pan with a plate that is at least 2 inches wider than the pan. Working about one foot over a counter, hold the handle of the skillet with one hand and clamp the plate over the top of the skillet with the other. Invert the skillet over the plate in one quick motion, then lower the plate onto the counter and lift off the skillet. You can also cut the tortilla into wedges in the pan and lift them to individual serving plates.
Trim the husk and as much of the silk as you can from the ears.
Season the corn by rubbing the ears lightly with olive or vegetable oil.
Smoke the kernels until they are tender and browned, about 20 minutes, checking the corn for doneness after about 15 minutes.
Recipe courtesy of Christopher Styler, Smokin', HarperCollins, 2004


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Indicative Rate * AU$5.00 to AU$15.00
The Stonehenge Caravan Park is centrally located in Stonehenge diagonally across from the hotel, the hub of the town. The park has fourteen powered sites but ample room for extra vans or tents. An ablution block complete with unisex facilities for guests with a disability are provided. A barbecue has also been erected in the grounds for the visitors' convenience. Surrounding the park is landscaped gardens providing an inviting appearance to the visitor.
There is limited Telstra Mobile service in Stonehenge which can be accessed between the Stonehenge Town Hall and the Stonehenge Hotel. The Stonehenge Community Centre is located adjacent to the Caravan Park, with freshly ground coffee available Monday to Friday.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Spam is jamming up mailboxes at increasing rates. More than just a bother for end users, unwanted e-mail can impact enterprise systems management by encroaching on bandwidth, storage space, and other network resources. While anti-spam legislation is on the horizon, experts agree filtering software is the most effective remedy at the moment. End user education doesn't hurt, either.
As spam continues to pour in, the market keeps exploding with more and more anti-spam products. In one recent report, GartnerGroup reviewed several anti-spam offerings and found that, "Of the 11 anti-spam products Gartner reviewed, five shipped credible versions for the first time in 2002. Another 14 were too new, untried or incomplete to include, and more products emerge each week," according to Maureen Grey, research director at Gartner.
"There are lots of hosted services, too," points out Dan Keldsen, an analyst at SummitStrategies. Some vendors, such as Brightmail, provide a choice of products or services.
Analysts expect the anti-spam market to shake out over the next few years. Meanwhile, if you're shopping around for remedies right now, it pays to learn as much as you can about just what you're up against.https://o1.qnsr.com/log/p.gif?;n=203;c=204660766;s=9477;x=7936;f=201812281312070;u=j;z=TIMESTAMP;a=20392931;e=i
"My Spam Isn't Necessarily Your Spam"
What exactly is spam, anyway? "My spam isn't necessarily your spam. An e-mail that advertises Viagra will qualify as spam to most people. A Viagra manufacturer, however, will undoubtedly disagree," notes Donald Haback, P.E., an analyst at the Matterhorn Group.
Many users regard any unsolicited e-mail as spam, states Martin Nelson, an analyst at Ferris Research. Nelson, though, offers the following as a current "industry" definition: "Unsolicited, commercial e-mail, usually sent in bulk."
How much spam is out there? Estimates range all over the map. Everyone agrees, though, that the problem is on the rise. The Radicati Group predicts that spam will proliferate from 15 billion pieces per day this year to 50 billion pieces per day by 2005.
According to Ferris Research, the average user will receive 10 spam messages per day by 2005, as opposed to merely three pieces in 2002. "But some users will receive much more, and others much less," claims Nelson.
Page 2: No Suprise Here -- Economics behind Proliferation of Spam
No Suprise Here -- Economics behind Proliferation of Spam
How do spammers get most of their e-mail addresses? Methods range from junk mail and targeted e-mail lists to e-mail extractors, MX server extractors, and viruses, spyware, and other malicious code, points out Ron Franczyk, president of anti-spam vendor The Giant Company.
"Junk and targeted e-mail lists have been with us for almost as long as the Internet. Practically anyone can buy a list of more than 11 million e-mail addresses, for as little as $100," according to Franczyk.
A variation on this general theme, known as the opt-in list, stems from partnerships between spammers and legitimate Web sites. The legit sites ask visitors to check off "Don't send me" boxes. "At some point you forget to check off one of these boxes, and your name lands on an opt-in list," says Franczyk.
The economics of spam benefit the spammer. In contrast, on the enterprise side, the costs of spam can be tough to quantify. During one recent Webcast, though, about 20 percent of participants listed systems resources consumption as a top spam concern, compared to 46 percent for loss of productivity and 22 percent for "upset and unhappy users."
Moreover, some companies are starting to worry over the prospect of "hostile workplace" lawsuits stemming from spam. Lots of spam messages are solicitations for resized "body parts," for example.
Organizations also run the risk of buying or implementing more systems resources than would otherwise be necessary, just to accommodate spam, Nelson suggested during a Webcast sponsored by vendor ActiveState.
Spamware Deployment in Droves
These and other reasons are driving administrators to deploy anti-spam products in droves. In a study by Osterman Research, respondents ranked spam as a more severe problem than employees sending and receiving inappropriate content; viruses, worms, and Trojan horses; large attachments sent through e-mail; employees sending confidential data; users complaining about mailbox quotas; personal use of e-mail; and denial-of-service attacks
Some 54 percent of Osterman's subjects said their organizations have already implemented an anti-spam capability.
Ultimately, however, technology won't be enough to fend off spam, according to Nelson. Legislation and end user education are also needed. "One part of the curriculum [should be], 'Don't purchase from spammers,'" Nelson cautions. In fact, users shouldn't even respond to spam, he advises.
Moreover, if users want to post messages to Internet newsgroups or put their own names on the Web, they should never use their corporate e-mail addresses.
Meanwhile, although national legislation is still some time away, some states have already passed anti-spam laws. In California, for instance, it's now possible to sue spammers at the rate of $55 per message. In reality, though, the costs of litigation will probably be prohibitive, Nelson maintains.
Happily, however, anti-spam administrators can expect to find little user resistance when it comes to spam control. Recent surveys show that users are willing to embrace both technology and legislation to combat spam. In a study of office workers by Public Opinion Strategies, 56 percent said that their companies already use some form of technology for spam control. These employees also reported a lot less spam than others. A full 68 percent favored combining "technology with legislation."
Page 3: Spam-fighting Specifics
Spam-fighting Specifics
Most products being sold today bring together multiple spam-fighting technologies. "Honey pots," for instance, are e-mail addresses specifically set up to lure spammers, while "white lists," "black lists," and interfaces to spam databases can help determine which senders will be able to get their mail through to intended recipients. Widely used databases of known spammers include RBL and DUL, for instance.
Many products -- including ActiveState's PureMessage, Mirapoint's MessageDirector, and the open source program SpamAssassin -- use heuristic techniques to analyze text, SMTP headers, subject lines, embedded images, and other message components for spam characteristics. Suspected spam can either be blocked or "quarantined" (isolated from other e-mail).
Meanwhile, MailFrontier, for instance, is pioneering a technique called "e-mail challenges," which are meant to help distinguish mail sent by human beings from machine-generated spam.
"All products use more than one anti-spam technology, but no one product uses all the available technologies," says GartnerGroup's Grey.
Analysts also point to a trend toward combining anti-spam filters with antivirus and/or Web content filtering, all within the same product. SurfControl is one such example.
Solutions for Linux and Microsoft
Some anti-spam products run as gateways, while others operate at the client level, observes Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research. Most products are software, but some vendors -- including CipherTrust -- produce server appliance gateways.
Situated at the edge of the network, hardware gateways operate at the SMTP level, as do software gateways from companies like Trend Micro and NAI. The hardware gateways come with embedded OSes, while the software gateways run on a variety of OSes. ActiveState, for instance, recently rolled out a Linux-based gateway. All gateways, though, are "platform-agnostic" when it comes to mail exchange.
Many client-based products, on the other hand, are Microsoft-centric. Much of the anti-spam client software available today consists of Outlook plug-ins, which offer additional filtering capabilities beyond the rules built into the MS mail client.
The onslaught of spam is spawning a growing spate of solutions. In this initial article of a new three-part series on spam, we've delved into why and how spam proliferates so quickly, and we've covered the various spam-fighting solutions currently available. Later in this series, we'll drill down further into the available technologies and present some tips and strategies for choosing and implementing anti-spamware.
» See All Articles by Columnist Jacqueline Emigh


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Impact of metabolic heterogeneity on tumor growth, invasion, and treatment outcomes
Mark Robertson-Tessi, Robert J Gillies, Robert A Gatenby, Alexander RA Anderson
A hybrid multiscale mathematical model of tumor growth is used to investigate how tumoral and microenvironmental heterogeneity affect treatment outcomes. A key component of this model is normal and tumor metabolism and its interaction with microenvironmental factors. In early stages of growth, tumors are stratified, with the most aggressive cells developing within the interior of the tumor. Simulations suggest that in some cases chemotherapy may increase the metabolic aggressiveness of a tumor due to drug-mediated selection.


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November 20, 2012 08:00 ET
- BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share ETF (ZPR) is uniquely designed to reduce the risk of changing interest rates compared to the preferred share market- BMO AM's ETF offering now has 48 funds
- BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share ETF (ZPR) is uniquely designed to reduce the risk of changing interest rates compared to the preferred share market
- BMO AM's ETF offering now has 48 funds
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 20, 2012) - BMO Asset Management Inc. (BMO AM) today introduced four new funds to its Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)* product suite.
"In today's financial environment where the markets are constantly changing, people are looking for investment products that can keep pace with these changes, and we have had that in mind when expanding and evolving our lineup," said Kevin Gopaul, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President, BMO Asset Management Inc. "BMO Asset Management is a leader in providing innovative, timely and competitive ETF products. These four new funds are just the latest example of how we strive to anticipate and fulfill critical investor needs."
The offering of the following new ETFs has closed and they will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today:
BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF (ZPR)
BMO S&P/TSX Equal Weight Industrials Index ETF (ZIN)
BMO S&P/TSX Equal Weight Global Gold Index ETF (ZGD)
BMO S&P 500 Index ETF (ZSP/ZSP.u)
Since its inception in May 2009, BMO AM's ETF business has grown to 48 funds; each offers numerous benefits to investors, including lower costs and tax efficiencies, while covering a number of diverse asset classes, sectors and regions.
Further information about BMO ETFs can be found at www.bmo.com/etfs.
Get the latest BMO press releases via Twitter by following @BMOmedia.
*BMO ETFs are managed and administered by BMO Asset Management, a portfolio manager and investment fund manager and separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.
Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments in exchange traded funds. Please read the prospectus before investing. Exchange traded funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.
"S&P®" and "S&P 500®" are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. These and other associated trademarks and/or service marks have been licensed for use by BMO Asset Management. None of the BMO ETFs are sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by the aforementioned trademark owner and the related index provider (including S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC), or their respective affiliates or their third party licensors, and these entities make no representation, warranty or condition regarding the advisability of buying, selling or holding units in the BMO ETFs.
About BMO Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Established in May 2009, BMO Financial Group's ETF business is a leading ETF provider in Canada. Since its inception, the lineup of BMO ETFs has grown to 48 funds and includes several industry firsts. BMO ETFs provide Canadian investors with broader choices and greater access to an innovative portfolio of investment products.
About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $542 billion as at July 31, 2012, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.
Media Contacts:Amanda Robinson, firstname.lastname@example.com Doucet, firstname.lastname@example.com Grant, email@example.com
See all RSS Newsfeeds


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OAKLAND — Three men were charged Monday in the February fatal shooting of a San Jose man at an East Oakland unlicensed massage parlor and the robbing of a doorman, authorities said.
Oakland residents Curtis Yee, 44, and Vuong Dinh Phan, 35, and Berkeley resident Lae Lay Lokeaphone, 31, were charged with murder and the special circumstance enhancements because the killing occurred during a robbery and a burglary.
Yee, who investigators said fired the gun, has several previous felony convictions and will be prosecuted under three-strikes statutes. Phan and Lokeaphone also have criminal records, authorities say, but do not qualify for three-strikes prosecution.
Police don't think any of the suspects knew the victim, 31-year-old Jian Jin.
The shooting happened about 2:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at an apartment in the 2000 block of 16th Avenue. Police have said the apartment was an unlicensed massage parlor where acts of prostitution also occurred.
Police don't believe Jin was a customer but was visiting someone at the apartment.
Officer Christina Land, the lead investigator, said Lokeaphone drove the other two men to the apartment and waited while they forced their way in. A man in his 50s who worked as the doorman was robbed of his cellphone and cash before Jin was shot. Police are not sure why Jin was shot, since they don't believe anything was stolen from him.
None of the women present were robbed or harmed, authorities said.
Land said investigators developed leads that led to the three suspects. They were all arrested Thursday at different sites in Oakland and are being held without bail.
Authorities said Yee's prior convictions are between 1989 and 2008 and include assault with a firearm; extortion and robbery, for which he was sent to prison; and assault with a deadly weapon, forgery and burglary, for which he was given probation.
Lokeaphone has four prior felony convictions between 2000 and 2012, including accessory to a felony, for which he was sent to prison. He was given probation after a burglary and two convictions for receiving stolen property. Phan was given probation after a 2005 narcotics conviction.


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TED Coaches
TED is all about 'ideas worth spreading' and does so through the TED Conferences and TED.com. Each year, thousands of people attend TED events and TED Talks and TED Talks attract millions of viewers worldwide.
The TED Fellows program is designed to invite young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage into the TED community.
TED Fellows are drawn from many disciplines that reflect the diversity of TED's members: technology, entertainment, design, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, business, and more. The program includes individuals from Asia/Pacific region, Africa, the Caribbean, The Americas, Europe, and the Middle East.
The SupporTED program was created to provide personal, professional coaching and mentoring to the TED Fellows to help amplify the impact of their projects and activities. This is your opportunity to be part of the SupporTED team. If you are interested in offering pro bono coaching services to a TED Fellow, please follow these steps:
- Determine if you are willing to contribute a minimum of 10 sessions of coaching
- Read the SupporTED Coaches FAQ
- Submit the SupporTED Coach Application
- Respond promptly when contacted by the SupporTED team for additional info, screening or a potential match
- Provide your gift of coaching to a TED Fellow!
Please visit TED.com and meet some of the TED Fellows who are already part of the program. Do join the TED community online - it's free. If you are not already a fan of the TED Talks, we encourage you to spend some time online with the most extraordinary array of speakers you'll ever see. Thanks for considering SupporTED as your place of service as a professional coach.


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|snarryhols (snarryhols) wrote in snarry_holidays,
@ 2008-12-07 10:17:00
|Entry tags:
|fic, giftee: florahart, rated: nc-17
Fic: The White Road
Title: The White Road
Author: perverse_idyll
Giftee: florahart
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 45,044
Pairing: Snape/Harry, also Lily/Snape in a totally unconsummated sense, Lily/James
Warnings: Hettishness but no outright heterosex, voyeurism, accidental incestuous overtones, a bloody moment. I'm sure, in some universe, this is epilogue compliant.
Disclaimer: Is not, never was, never will be, mine
Summary: One day, comfortably set up in the afterlife, Lily Evans Potter switches on the telly and gets hooked on the Harry Potter show.
A/N: So, this was supposed to be short and cracky. The Muse apparently had other plans. Dear Flora, I truly did start out with your requests in mind, but the fic wandered far afield. I hope you enjoy where it ultimately ended up. Thanks to L for encouraging me to change horses midstream and for urging me to sing, R for reading the early fragments and loving them. The mods have been unbelievably kind about my deadline panic. Absolutely every single mistake here is of my own making.
The White Road


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It is not very easy to care about Mitt Romney.
It's a bit of a phenomenon, actually. It has proven almost impossible for most Americans to muster interest in this numbly rich, exceedingly bland caricature of a candidate, a man who is almost completely devoid of deep ideas or astute observation, who stands for nothing and says nothing you can ever remember, whose last ten speeches can be rolled into a fist-sized ball of palliative mush, hurled against a wall and then observed to ooze slowly to the floor, ending in a moist, displeasing plop. Fun!
There have been articles. There have been alarming notes coming in from all over the Interwebs talking about Mitt Revulsion Syndrome (MRS); websites and blogs, newspapers and TV shows alike have found that feature pieces about the GOP's favorite tepid Mormon get the fewest clicks, viewers race away in droves, no one cares. Turns out Americans will do anything to escape Mitt's creepy glare, his heavily shellacked aura, his vacuous everything. In short, Mitt is traffic poison.
(Author's Note: So dangerous is MRS that I was hesitant to put his name in the headline to this column. Are you reading it now? Then I am lucky. Or perhaps I changed the headline to "Porn Star iPhone 5 Naked Gosling!" to get you to click on it. Did I? Sorry).
But try I must. To care. After all, these are urgent and trying times. The issues at stake are more vital and volatile than ever. Global warming, the economy, greed and corporatization, paranoid gun owners in a fresh panic that Obama is coming for their guns, their daughters, their Fear of Everything.
So I ponder. I pace up and down my very long hallway here in my San Francisco flat, from my front office to back kitchen, furrowing my brow and sighing a lot as I search for a point of Mitt-related interest, something besides the man's insufferable personality or his obvious distaste for everything and everyone you or I hold dear.
My hallway, by the way, runs nearly the entire length of my apartment, in an almost perfectly straight line, maybe 80 feet of lovely, well-worn hardwood. Classic San Francisco, really, narrow and arterial. I stroll this meditative passage countless times a day. I stand in the kitchen after refilling my coffee, pondering column ideas as I look outside onto the tiny back porch. I notice my plants need watering. I notice one pot in particular.
Man, just look at that sad sight. Such a failure. The location is just too tricky. I've tried at least four or five arrangements in that large pot, to no avail. San Francisco weather! That weird little spot – did you see the picture? – gets errant blasts of sun, wind, fog, cold shade. I have tried vines, small, hardy flowers, tomatoes. Nothing seems to survive more than a few months. I am not much of an urban gardener, I admit. But lo, I am perplexed. What do you think? Maybe if I tried…
Whoa. Damn. Do you see what just happened? Do you see what struggles I, working here in the periphery of the mainstream media, must face?
Something is Happening. People are Drawing Lines.
And We've Got It Covered.
But we can't do it without you. Please support our Winter Campaign.
It strikes me as surely as it strikes millions of Americans every single day; I care more about that sad, dead heap of old soil than the Republican candidate for president. Put another way: A small potted plant contains far more excitement and luminous potential than the GOP's chosen bucket of stale Fig Newtons.
It's not difficult to see why. Hell, it's easier to care about an oil stain or a rash on your toe than Mitt Romney. Even with the addition of Ayn Rand-loving, anti-choice, fiscal extremist Paul Ryan to the ticket, Romney only looks that much more the unlikable sugar daddy. Ryan does add a disquieting jolt of nasty fanaticism, though. Is it enough?
Not a chance. And it's a bizarre phenomenon. I am far from politically apathetic. I care a lot. Bush won a second term I couldn't scrape my heart out of the trenches for a month, such was the brutality of that blow to the country, and world. Conversely, my initial enthusiasm for Obama was off the charts, and remained hot and hopeful for a good two years.
Now? Not so much. Obama promised the moon and delivered exactly half of it. The rest he either fudged, punted or lied about completely. All in all, a fairly typical, if wildly disappointing, track record for a moderate liberal president/half black SuperJesus. But is Obama still light years ahead of Romney in articulation, vision, overall smarts, general support of the causes I care most about? Not even a question.
At least Bush had his searing ignorance, childish notions of God, moronic cowboy worldview to rally around. Mitt Romney promises little, delivers less, stands for nothing you can really name save for what his handlers feed him: Poor people are losers, abortion is wrong, wealthy white folk are wonderful and benevolent and should never really pay taxes, Mexicans are fine in small doses when they're mowing the lawns of one of my five estates or cleaning the stalls of my show horses.
You'd think Mitt's sneering distaste for the world would be enough to spark some outrage, some interest. But as I stare at my lovingly desiccated plant, as I imagine flourishing greenery – maybe an herb garden? – I rest in the knowledge that I am not alone.
Here's the fantastic thing: no one on the Right cares much for Mitt, either. There is no passion to be found anywhere (save for the extremists and Tea Party simpletons who adore Ryan). Even House Republicans are bored to death by him. Heartland Christians really want to care, but Mitt's creepy Mormonism means they don't know which way is heaven anymore. Only rich Wall Street barons are happy with Mitt. This is because they built him.
It all bodes very well indeed. When a nation is this apathetic and numb to a particular candidate, when they can't get away from him fast enough, good things happen for the other side. Even Bush was able to galvanize the uneducated, fundamentalist right. Even McCain could leverage his bogus patriotism and Sarah Palin's ditzy winking. Romney can't even galvanize your grandmother in Florida. If anything, she's furious that Paul Ryan wants to kill Medicare. Or rather, she soon will be, once Obama reminds her, fifty times a day, for the next three months.
So be heartened, liberal America. Milquetoast mannequins who inspire no one – not even their own supporters, not even the Christian right, not even House Republicans – never win major elections. They do make comforting footnotes, though. Do you think I should try some basil plants?


text:
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We provide 24*7 online support on mail
We guarantee 100% product quality


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James Roscoe wrote:Peter,
What does ISO mean? Pardon the newbie question.
ISO = International Standards Organization. It's the international body that maintains standards on everything from fundamental measurements (e.g., the metre, litre, Celsius temperature scale) to computer programming languages.
The ISO tasting glass is also known as the INAO tasting glass. INAO is the Institute Nacionale des Appellations d'Origin, the French government body that administers and enforces the wine appellation system. I think they originally drew up the specifications for the tasting glass and later it was adopted as an international standard.
The glass is tulip-shaped, narrower at the top than at the bottom. It's pretty rugged, and the ones that I have are dishwasher-safe.
It was specifically designed to highlight wine flaws. For applications other than wnie tastings, where enjoyment of the wine rather than its analysis is the priority, other glasses that are more forgiving and more decorative might be more appropriate.
-Paul W.


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DENVER—Denver police say a thief stole a car from a driveway with an 18-month-old girl inside, but she was found unharmed nearby.
KCNC-TV reports ( http://tinyurl.com/kc3dkcc) the girl was in the car when her father went into the house to get his jacket Friday morning. When he returned, the car was gone.
The thief apparently took her out of the car.
No arrests had been made and the car was still missing Friday afternoon.
Police say the car is a black 2005 Toyota Matrix with Colorado license plate 265VOJ.
On March 12, an SUV was stolen from Longmont with a 4-year-old boy inside. The boy was found unharmed when the suspect abandoned the vehicle. A state trooper was injured when he was struck by another vehicle allegedly stolen by the suspect.
Information from: KCNC-TV, http://www.cbs4denver.com


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Special Price: $469.00JBL JRX125 Dual 15" Two-Way Sound Reinforcement Loudspeaker System Learn More


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Southern_Point wrote:Did y'all's dogs retain what they learned with the trainer when u got them out in actual hunting conditions?
Southern_Point wrote:Looking to send my English setter to be trained professionally and wanted a ball park idea on what to expect I will have invested in the dog. Want her to be mainly a hunting dog for released quail but want her trained to field trial standards. any input would be appreciated?


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Better Place is set to revolutionize the electric vehicle industry with their innovative plan for EV infrastructure — and now they're putting their money where their mouth is by testing a brand new battery switching station in Tokyo. The first real-world facility of its kind will swap spent car batteries for fresh ones, helping to perfect the system in order to develop more efficient prototypes. Better Place is working with a pilot-program fleet of three cabs to stress test the facility, which can swap an EV's spent battery for a full one in less than a minute!
The battery swap station for electric vehicles is located in the Roppongi Hills section of Tokyo and services a fleet of three cabs operated by Tokyo's largest taxi company, Nihon Kotsu. A pilot program will last for 90 days and the cabs will return to the station for fresh batteries. This pilot program will serve to stress-test the station's automated battery-swap equipment.
The Tokyo station is still a prototype — final stations will be able to accommodate multiple types of batteries from multiple producers, and will have greater storage capacity. Right now Better Place is using the Nissan Dualis compact S.U.V. for their tests, as the vehicle's body is suitable for making the switch to E.V. configuration. This is not indicative of Better Place's preference towards Nissan, however. After the testing phase in Tokyo, Better Place plans to open a swapping station in Israel.
Via GOOD
Photo credits: Better Place Flickr


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Samaritan is committed to keeping our Northern New York and Fort Drum community healthy – body and mind. Our Behavioral Health, or Mental Health, services help to fill a growing need in the community, and we are continuing to develop new partnerships and recruit experienced staff to provide diagnosis, treatment and counseling to those in need of Behavioral Health services.
Behavioral Health services at Samaritan includes outpatient psychiatry, intensive outpatient addiction, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, and traditional outpatient addiction services. In addition, we also have a 32-bed inpatient mental health unit within the main hospital. Our Emergency Department has a dedicated mental health area to care for people in emergency situations.
Please use the Samaritan Urgent Mental Health Hotline as well: 315-785-4516 - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


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CPSC Recalls and Warnings
Here are the latest recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. At WonderBrains, we strive to keep you up-to-date on products that may pose a hazard to your family or others near you.
1. Infants Strangled to Death in Simplicity Bassinets: CPSC Urges Consumers To Stop Using Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 Convertible "Close-Sleeper" Models
2. Wooden Infant Toys Recalled by Habermaass Corp. Due to Choking Hazard
3. Bonne Bell Recalls Children's Cosmetics Accessory Bags Due to Risk of Lead Exposure
4. Optave Inc. Recalls Action Baby Carriers Due to Fall Hazard


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Apple Unveils Higher Capacity iPod, iPhoneBy Reuters - | Posted 2008-02-05 Print
Apple introduced models of its popular iPod touch handheld computer
and iPhone with double the memory available in previous
EW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday introduced models of its popular iPod touch handheld computer and iPhone with double the memory available in previous versions. The products come on the heels of Apple's launch last month of a service that lets iPhone and iPod users rent and download movies to watch on their devices.
"There are a lot of users out there for whom there is never enough memory," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's head of global marketing for iPod and iPhone.
"We've given people more and more content that they can put on their iPhones," Joswiak said.
Apple, which said in January that it had sold more than 4 million iPhones since sales began last June, will now offer an iPhone with 16 gigabytes of flash memory, the kind that stores data on microchips instead of a spinning disk drive.
The iPod touch, a wireless touch-screen device that plays music and videos, adds a 32-gigabyte model.
Both of the new devices will sell for $499, Apple said.
Apple will continue to sell its iPhone with 8 gigabytes of memory for $399. A 16-gigabyte version of the iPod touch remains at $399 and an 8-gigabyte model, at $299.
The updated models come amid a slump in Apple's stock, due to fears that a U.S. recession could make consumers less likely to buy its iPods, Mac computers or other products.
Asked whether Apple expected the new models to boost sales, Joswiak said: "We always put our products out there and hope the market likes them. The higher-capacity models have always done well."
Apple shares were up 30 cents at $131.95 in morning Nasdaq trade. The stock has fallen more than 33 percent so far this year. (Reporting by Franklin Paul and Scott Hillis, editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Dave Zimmerman)
Copyright Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
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Devex needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 11 designs submitted by 4 freelance designers.
Devex - SmartMine - http://www.devexmining.com
Devex' focus is the supply of the best management and optimization tools for accessing our natural resources in a sustaintable and profitable fashion, always complying with the highest standards of ethics, social responsibility, transparency and safety. As for most natural resources industries, the key for a successful mining operation is the continuous, pro-active management of costs, risks and uncertainties, ensuring timely delivery of the products within the specifications established by the customers. Hence, Devex responds to the daily challenges of the mining industry through establishing a partnership with its clients and focusing on the conversion of operational information into intelligence for managerial decision-making. The end-product is not only a comprehensive visibility environment for the entire mine value chain, but also a practical mechanism to allow process optimization and market-oriented mine production scheduling
Our clients are the mining companies. Companies that extract natural resources like iron, gold, diamonds, etc. Our clients are international players as Vale, Kinross, AngloGold, Yamana.
Our audience for this specific demand are employers and corporate of mining sector. This image will be used at our product brochure.
We want a new version of our schematic diagram that represents the network infrastructure in which our system operates: Our system controls the operation process with a central dispatch computer and on-board computers, in each vehicle (trucks, escavators, loaders, etc), that reads informations as engine data, velocity, GPS localization and others...This information is exchanged trough our network system to our central dispatch computer.
We need a high quality image in adobe Illustrator or Photoshop
We would like not cartoon images but more realistic ones, as 3D.
Default Language: English
Attached, a sample of our old image and examples of how we would like the new one to be.


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Mike Vick Still Got It: Clips From Michael Vick's Debut Pre-Season Game With The Eagles Since Prison!
Michael Vick makes his first NFL game appearance since December 31, 2006. He had 4-4 for 19 yards, 1 Rush attempt for 1 yard, and he even was in a 'Wildcat' formation with McNabb. EAGLES win over JAGUARS 33-32
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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Kasugai, city, Aichi ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. It lies in the Nōbi Plain, just northeast of Nagoya, the prefectural capital.
Army arsenals were constructed nearby in 1939, and many of their workers were moved into the city. By 1945 the population of Kasugai had reached 60,000. After World War II the land used by the military was converted to industrial use; factories now include a large paper-manufacturing plant. Peach plantations are located in the alluvial plains of the Toki River to the east. Kasugai is also a residential suburb of Nagoya. Pop. (2010) 305,569; (2015) 306,508.


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When a tragedy the likes of the Aug. 25 drowning of four family members at Hagg Lake hits, the loss reaches across the community.
Three generations of the Garcia family of Hillsboro Jova Ixtacua-Castano, 42; her son, Michael Garcia-Ixtacua, 13; her daughter, Gabriela Garcia-Ixtacua, 25; and Gabrielas son, Jeremy Scholl, 3 all drowned together during an outing to the Sain Creek Picnic Area. None of the drowning victims were wearing life jackets.
Fewer than 24 hours after the four were identified, memorial funds were set up and Hillsboro School District officials had counselors on hand to help students at Evergreen Middle School, where Michael attended seventh grade last year.
Friends and neighbors described the Garcia family as close-knit and friendly.
They were very friendly, very family-based, said Belinda Graham, a neighbor who lives in the same neighborhood as the Garcia family in northeast Hillsboro. Graham said the family has lived on the same street for about 15 years. Family members always waved and greeted neighbors as they passed by, she said.
Survivors include Jovas husband, Ruperto Garcia, and the couples daughter, Maria.
They were a fabulous family. Hard working. They were living the American dream, said Tony Lawson, a family friend who knows Ruperto Garcia through work.
Lawson helped the family set up the Garcia Memorial Fund at Wells Fargo and also set up an online account through GiveForward.com to help with funeral and burial expenses.
My understanding is the family is going to handle things privately, through St. Matthew Catholic Church in Hillsboro, Lawson said of memorial arrangements.
As with anyone who has suffered a traumatic loss, Youre in shock, devastated, Lawson said. But there are moments when you carry on.
Lawson was at the Garcia home Wednesday evening, Aug. 27, after the tragedy and said Ruperto Garcia and his surviving daughter, Maria, had family and friends coming in and out.
As of Wednesday, online fundraising has raised $2,615. Lawson said he set a goal of $20,000, based on estimated expenses of funeral and burial for the four family members.
This terrible tragedy has been visited upon this poor family and the heartbreak and loss is unimaginable. Unfortunately, the financial impact will be the second tragedy visited upon this family. The expense arising from this will be substantial, the GiveForward web page reads.
In a statement released by the family last week, the Garcia family was described as close and hard working.
The statement described Jova as the cornerstone of the family. Always doing everything for her family. Such a wonderful sense of humor, and she was really passionate about the community in Hillsboro.
By Thursday, Aug. 28, a makeshift memorial to the four victims at the Sain Creek Picnic Area was beginning to collect items.
Two bouquets of flowers and several Love Rocks sat on a table with a blue cloth placed lakeside. A sign said, simply, In Remembrance En Recuerdo.
The typically busy area was quiet two days after the lake reopened to visitors. It was closed Tuesday, Aug. 26, while dive teams searched for the bodies of the three missing family members.
A handful of people were in the water that day, and two more were fishing from the shore.
Robbie Pock of Forest Grove brought her family for a visit to Sain Creek Thursday.
Be aware it might drop off quickly, so go slowly, she told her daughter, who was wearing a life jacket while wading just offshore.
We brought a bouquet of flowers, Pock said. Were hoping to bring a little joy today.
Rian Petrick, principal of Evergreen Middle School, said the districts flight team was at the school on Wednesday, Aug. 27, available for students who wanted to come in and talk about the tragedy.
We had 20 students and some adults come in, Petrick said. It was a good day yesterday giving them an opportunity to talk and reminisce with each other about Michael.
Petrick said Evergreen staff has also taken a collection and is donating to the family, as well as sending along cards and posters students and staff have signed.
Flight team members were also available to students Tuesday and Wednesday as the school year began.
We anticipate a greater need Wednesday [Sept. 3], when eighth-graders, students in Michaels class, return to school, said school district flight team coordinator Scott Schinderle.
Schinderle explained that the flight team is a group of care coordinators and counselors from around the district trained to provide grief support and counseling to students and staff in the case of a death of a student or staff member.
Its a tough job, and they do it very well and with compassion, Schinderle said.
Typically, the flight team sets up at the affected school, where there is a support room for students and one for staff.
Everyone grieves and processes differently, Schinderle explained.
Some like to talk one-on-one, some like to just sit and draw or write, he said.
At Evergreen, students made bracelets, cards and wrote letters. Schinderle said any cards made or stories about Michael that students shared will be provided to the family.
Its a proven way to begin the healing process, Schinderle said.


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Tonight at midnight PST is the deadline to apply for a fall internship with io9. Want to get some experience blogging? Here are the details.
io9 is looking for interns who are obsessed with science fiction and/or science. An intern works 5 - 10 hours per week doing research, fact-checking, and contacting sources in the science and entertainment industries for story ideas and information. Some writing may be involved too, depending on experience. You must be detail-oriented, very familiar with science and/or science fiction, and able to work quickly. Photoshop and graphic design skills are a plus.
Day-to-day, the job involves seeking out story ideas and helping editors gather more data for stories they're working on. This is an unpaid internship. Send us your resume, and URLs for three samples of your writing by September 15.
Sorry, you must be 18 or over to apply.
Send materials to email@example.com.


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Coconut Water Made Simpler With New Flavor
Virginia Dare now offers flavors for coconut water. A popular drink in Brazil, coconut water is catching on in the U.S. both as a lifestyle beverage and as a natural sports drink.
Coconut water, which is extracted from young green coconuts, appeals to health-conscious consumers since it is high in potassium and electrolytes, and has no fat, cholesterol or added sugar. Originally sold in natural food stores, health clubs, gyms, bodegas, and yoga studios, coconut water is now moving into wider channels of distribution. As it becomes more widely distributed, first time consumers will be seeking a variety of taste choices.