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71 Tricks Found -- Page 1Next 10 Tricks >>
|These ungimmicked alphabet cards are great replacement for tricks with regular playing cards. Since letters are easy to remember, these cards are great for doing cards tricks for children.
|This is one of the most amazing close up "illusions" to have appeared in recent times. In effect a playing card in a clear plastic sleeve instantly changes into a completely different card without any cover. The transformation is gradual, visual, and incredibly mysterious. The sleeve may also be used to produce or vanish a card. This is very beautiful magic and originally sold for around fifty dollars. 60nufdr00390
|Same as above except that these cards are red backed.
|Regulation blue Bicycle brand poker sized playing cards, the industry standard cards for magicians worldwide.
|This is a full deck of jumbo cards, the size of which is equivalent to four poker-sized cards placed next to each other. Approximately 4 1/2" x 7" in size. 596RUMCARDSJUMB_BLU
|This is a full deck of jumbo cards, the size of which is equivalent to four poker-sized cards placed next to each other. Approximately 4 1/2" x 7" in size. 596RUMCARDSJUMB_RED
|This is deck of blank face, blue backed, poker sized Bicycle cards. 005NUFHA00491
|The magician reveals a small plastic envelope and states that his prediction is inside. The magician then has a spectator choose a playing card. When the prediction and the spectator's playing card are compared, the cards don't match. Oh no, failure? The magician tosses his prediction playing card into the air and it instantly and visibly transforms into a duplicate of the spectator's chosen card! Sound impossible? It is really cool just to stand in front of a mirror, throw the gimmicked card into the air, and see it magically change! The gimmicked card may be shown on both sides before and after the change. We can't say enough about this one! 007nuffi00710
|A user-friendly deck of marked cards! These easy-to-read marked cards are printed on the world's most popular cards - Bicycle Rider Backs, manufactured by the world famous US Playing Card Company. The Boris Wild Marked Deck is a dream to use. Wild's system is recognized as the finest ever developed. The marks are hidden in plain sight - easy for the magician to read, yet completely invisible to the uninitiated spectator. 0021NUFFI00150 or 0021RUMBORISWILDMARKED_BLUE Included with each deck are complete instructions that detail its working, along with several tips, tricks and ideas that you'll be performing right away! Easy enough for a beginner to use, but the perfect professional performance tool, as well.
|Hidden in Plain Sight is the most complete manual for marked cards ever published. Author Kirk Charles, a long-time professional magician, has written a book that explores this most powerful of all magical tools in great detail. From the history of marked cards to more modern developments in "reader" technology, Charles breaks down the advantages, disadvantages and nuances you'll need to know. You'll learn about commercially available decks as well as how to prepare your own custom-marked pack.
Additionally, Charles delves into the psychology involved in performing with a marked deck. From strategies for misdirection to key cards, stacked decks, and mnemonics, Charles explores every angle of the tips and tactics that can enhance tricks with any marked deck.
For the beginning card conjurer, an entire chapter of easy-to-do miracle material has been included. These tricks require little if any sleight of hand, yet pack a wallop when performed. Even amateurs, armed with a marked deck and these "Instant Miracles" will be amazing spectators in no time!
Best of all, Hidden in Plain Sight details the workings of the finest marked cards on the market, the Boris Wild Marked Deck. A lengthy chapter, written by Boris Wild himself, details the nuts and bolts of his stellar system, and includes two blockbuster tricks that will fool not only laymen but magicians as well!
For the serious student, a lengthy bibliography has been included, leading the reader to further information and uses for marked cards. 027nufbo01680
|Next 10 Tricks >>


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Best Buy and Apple have had a an interesting, if not sordid, retail relationship in the past. There have been several attempts for the two companies to work together, but each attempt unceremoniously failed. Thus far, however, the unlikely cohorts' latest attempts to get their sales on have gone well, and according to CNNMoney, the executives at Best Buy are pleased with the "In-Store Apple Store" experiment. This spurred them to expand the program to 270 stores by the end of the year.
It doesn't end there, either! The computer peddlers that wear blue are considering expanding the program even further:
During a conference call with investors, Best Buy executives said they were very pleased with the partnership and will consider expanding the store program even more in the future. Apple products, including the iMac and new music and video products, are helping to boost customer traffic in stores and adding to sales, executives said.
As of June 2007 Best Buy operated 852 stores in the United States, meaning the Apple endeavor will fill approximately 32 percent of Best Buy's retail stores. That number could significantly drop though, as Best Buy's current expansion estimations could bring it to as many as 1,800 stores in the US and Canada.
Apple, unfortunately, has a history of not being third-party retail friendly. As some of you may recall, there was that falling out between Circuit City and the Cupertino company years ago, and this is the third go-around for Apple and Best Buy. Apple is in a different space now—it has the iPod line to leverage other companies into carrying more of its products. But who would suffer more if this relationship ended once again: Apple or Best Buy?

subset: commoncrawl


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Nehcra necesitaba un nuevo diseño de impreso o envases y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 106 diseños de 30 diseñadores freelance.
Archie Chen
This concert celebrates the bicentenary of Chopin's birth. Since this is one of many Chopin concerts this year, we would like to stand out from the crowd and get the attention we deserve.
Classical concert goers. Includes both young and old people. The leaflet will be displayed in the foyer of the concert hall and also distributed to stores throughout Dublin. We would like something that is eye catching and unique, but also attracting the right audience.
Please take some time to look at the files attached to garner more creative ideas. We are open to your original ideas but would also like to add our own caveat for your inspiration.
Open the file chopin book style.jpg and take a look at the cover page of this first edition of Chopin's music. Can you base the theme of this leaflet on this and mix it with some modern touches? Adding pictures and text as attached of course. You may also use colors as it doesn't have to be black and white.
Please download our file pack for photos and text
* It needs to be double sided.
* Front side needs to have his picture, venue information, date/time of concert, ticket prices, etc
* The size needs to be A5
* Needs to be easily printable, ie high resolution, colors
* We will need a bleed, will verify what exactly is needed.
* Back side as follows:
* Quote
* Program
* Biography
* Sponsor Logos
* If you can mask the photos so that the backgrounds are gone that would be a good option. You are allowed to edit the photos to a degree.


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Denis Lavant doesn't have any movies playing in theaters.
If you feel like heading out, check out other movies in theaters.
Holy Motors
The Temptation of St. Tony
Mister Lonely
Wild Camp
A Very Long Engagement
Lovers on the Bridge
Beau Travail
Deep in the Woods
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
Copyright © 2020 FANDANGO MOVIES.


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The title of Allen's exhibition, Epilogue, reveals that Allen is ready to give us the final word. The artist is ready to retire his x-acto blade and bid farewell to the pulp fiction genre that he has so thoroughly cut-up and mined for the last seven years.
His unmistakable talent for creating the illusion of 3D with deft cuts and crimps allows us to see cowboy's guns floating in mid air, spacemen taking their last gasp and an aerialist taking a death defying plunge. Inspired by the View-Master and "pop-up" books from childhood, Allen became interested in combining these viewing experiences with his adult interests in pulp fiction paperbacks as still life subjects. In this new series of work, the narrative is reduced to the final scene, often the scene of the crime. How and why these characters have come together in their drama is up to us to decide. Thomas Allen was born in Highland Park, MI in 1963. After nearly completing a degree in Criminal Justice at Wayne State University (Detroit), he decided to take some art classes. This raised him out of academic misery and helped move his floundering GPA off the Wanted List and onto the Dean's List! Allen spent the second half of his 10 year college career going to school part-time while working full-time for Toys 'R' Us to support himself. He received his BFA in 1991 and went on to earn his MFA form the University of Minnesota in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Milwaukee Art Museum; Target Corporation; Fidelity Investments and The Progressive Corporation. Publication credits include Harper's, The New Yorker, New York Magazine and O Magazine among many others. In 2007, Aperture Foundation [NY] published UNCOVERED: Photographs by Thomas Allen with a forward by graphic design superstar Chip Kidd.


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Riedel 101: Wine Decanters
by Erin Ogilvie
We're going back to basics with Managing Director Mark Baulderstone, who has been championing Riedel's varietal specific philosophy since 1995.
Following on from our first blog in this new Riedel 101 series, we chat to Mark about Riedel's collection of decanters and why it's such an important part of wine enjoyment.
What's the main reason why people should use a wine decanter?
There are two reasons why people should decant, and they differ based on the age of the wine. You decant older wines to remove sediment, and because the wine has been trapped in a tight container for a long period of time. Exposure to air is beneficial because it allows the wine to breathe and to give a full expression of fruit.
The lesser known reason is to aerate young wines. To speed up the ageing process, they need movement and flow, and the only way to do this is to get them out of the bottle. Yes the wine evolves just sitting in a glass, but it takes an enormous amount of time. Get the wine into a decanter and get some air and some bubbles in it. We're trying to cut the surface of the wine, allow it to breathe and allow it to really start to express itself as you're drinking it young
Is there a hard and fast rule about how long you should decant for?
To talk in very broad terms, the younger the wine, the more time it needs, and the older the wine, the less time it needs. But if you can be prepared and allow anywhere between 1-2 hours in a decanter, your wine will improve dramatically. If it's a decanter that comes with the feature of being able to aerate faster, this can obviously speed up this process.
Say you have just opened a wine and you know it'd improve with decanting but you want to drink it straight away, what can you do?
Shake it up in the decanter. Don't be scared to get it moving, especially if it's a young wine. The intention is to see bubbles in the wine; if you put your ear to the wine, you want to hear a snap, crackle and pop. These are the sounds of the proteins and CO2 burning off which allows the wine to improve, become more aromatic, and show more fruit.
Riedel offers a lot of different decanters; what's the purpose of all the different designs?
It's about theatre! If you look at some of our decanters, there's an enormous amount of theatre involved. Of course you could decant your wine into a jug, but how uninspiring. It is so much more fun bringing something like Eve to the table, and delivers ceremony to a wine you've invested in, whether that's $20 or $200.
Do some of them going to work differently to the others?
Yes, some of the pieces create a vacuum in the decanter based on the design, like Mamba, Boa, Escargot, or Ayam. You end up with air pockets that cut the surface of the wine and aerate it faster, making it perfect for young punchy wines. Older wines will be completely punished in these decanters, so we have more traditional pieces that work perfectly.
What should someone consider when they want to buy a Riedel decanter?
Depending on your budget, choose a decanter that fits in your home, and that you feel is easy to use, wash, and take care of. Most importantly, use it regularly so it doesn't get dusty and dirty. Nothing worse than having to clean your decanter because it has dust in it.
Can you keep your decanter in the box to keep dust out?
You can, but it's going to smell when you pull it out of the box, same with your glasses. If you leave it in the packaging, they will smell of cardboard which means you'll always need to rinse them anyway.
How do you prepare your decanter before you use it?
The best way to rinse your decanter is by what we call seasoning. You rinse it out with some water then a little bit of wine – though perhaps don't do this if you're drinking a very expensive wine! This gets rid of any impurities in the decanter and gets it ready to use.
What's the best way to clean a decanter?
Carbonated water works the best, because the carbonic acid eats away at any stains in the decanter, so a cheap soda or mineral water is perfect. If you wash it soon after use then you won't need to worry about stains. The only exception is if you've enjoyed a particularly rowdy dinner party, perhaps simply rinse it and upend a bottle of soda water in to soak overnight. This goes for cleaning your glasses too: if in doubt, wash or stack in your machine the next day!
What if your decanter already has red wine stains in it?
We provide decanter beads that remove stains. We don't recommend that you use these on our snake decanters though, as the beads can get stuck in the tail.
Check out some of the decanters mentioned in this story below, or click here to browse our full range of handmade decanters or machine-made decanters.


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It Is All About BTC, LTC, ETH, ZEC mining as well as other alternative crypto currencies
CoinWarz is another service where you can keep track of the profitability of the various alternative crypto coins in order to hunt for the most profitable one at the moment to get the best out of your hashrate, especially if you do not have a lot of it available. This service provides a mining and profit calculator that works with the supported cryptos, so you get actual profitability data based on your hashrate and power consumption for each crypto coin. It also checks and reports the best exchange rate at which exchange as this is also an important part for calculating the crypto profitability correctly. The list of alternative cryptos includes both scrypt-based ones as well as sha-256, so this service is useful not only for GPU miners, but also for ASIC miners that are interested in making some more extra profit by mining alternative cryptos instead of LTC or BTC directly.
Have in mind though that the profitability of alternative crypto currencies is very dynamic and if you start mining a crypto with very high profitability due to low network hasrate and difficulty, the situation can quickly change is a lot of other miners also follow in your footsteps. So it is important to be fast in finding the right pool and starting to mine the highest profitability crypto in order to maximize your profit – you can check our alternative crypto "cheat sheet" information that we have available here to help you in that. For example at the moment the most profitable alternative scrypt crypto is 42 (42), followed by DigiByte (DGB) and Globalcoin (GLB). The situation with SHA-256 alternative cryptos shows that eMArk (DEM) is the most profitable, followed by Betacoin (BET) and OpenSourcecoin (OSC).
– For more information and to check out the CoinWarz alt crypto profitability list…


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Key facts | Key policy issues | Key recommendations
How to obtain this publication | Further information
ISBN Number: 9789264079403
Publication Date:
Pages: 212
Toronto is one of the chief economic powerhouses of Canada. The Toronto metro-region is Canada's biggest metropolitan economy. It generates almost a fifth of national GDP, and 45% of Ontario's GDP. It is home to 40% of the nation's business headquarters.
Toronto is an international centre for business and finance. Toronto is also a main manufacturing hub with major companies in the automotive, biomedical and computers/electronics sectors. the Toronto region is one of the most diverse metropolitan regions in the world. Half of its population is foreign born versus 28% in cities like New York and London. It hosted 40% of all immigrants to Canada during 2001-06.
The Toronto region is challenged by recent developments. The Toronto region has had a mixed economic performance. GDP per capita and GDP growth rates are below the Canadian average. It has had lower annual economic and labour productivity growth than the average of OECD metropolitan regions over 1995-2005 (see chart below). It also witnessed sharp decline in manufacturing (10% of jobs have been lost since 2002).
Download the corresponding Excel file
The Toronto region's current economic development model is under pressure. Population growth boosted demand in construction, sales and retail, professional and financial services. However, the recent decline in the area's manufacturing jobs has illustrated the structural difficulties of some of its traditional industries, such as the automotive and electronics sectors.
This review therefore proposes a new agenda for sustainable competitiveness, in order to enhance productivity. This agenda could focus on innovation, cultural diversity and infrastructure, and apply a green lens to policies. This could solve challenges such as mixed scores on innovation output indicators, under-utilisation of immigrants' skills and relatively underdeveloped public transport infrastructure. To implement such an agenda, the review proposes improving the current governance framework by intensifying strategic planning at the level of the Toronto region.
Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, launched this publication at the International Forum of the Americas Forum for Global Cities in Toronto, 9 November 2009. Read his speech.
Readers can access the full version of OECD Territorial Reviews: Toronto, Canada 2009 by choosing from the following options:
For further information please contact:
Permanent URL: www.oecd.org/gov/regional/toronto
Related Documents


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By Dr. Mike Walden
North Carolina Cooperative Extension
The man's tone was forceful, even with a tint of anger. "The government is lying to us about inflation," he boldly stated. "They tell us inflation is a lot lower than it really is. And they purposely don't include products like gas and food in their calculations to fool us into thinking the economy is better."
I was finishing a presentation to a civic group with time devoted to questions and answers when the man made his statement. Perhaps he was looking for an argument, but I turned his points into a learning lesson about the process and pitfalls of trying to calculate the nation's inflation rate.
The federal government has been collecting price data only since the early 20th century. This was the time of the Industrial Revolution, with people moving off farms and to cities. Rather than raising and making everything they needed, families began buying more products in stores – so the prices of everyday consumer items became more important.
Like the majority of government economic statistics, information about the prices we pay is based on a sample. Yet the government's price sample is large, covering more than 200 categories of products and services at more than 20,000 stores. Also, it is incorrect to say the government excludes food and fuel prices. These are included in the survey and in the most commonly reported inflation rate. There is a version of the inflation rate which omits food and fuel, but only because these prices are very volatile and therefore may cloud the long-run trends in inflation. Still, this version is not the government's main price gauge.
After the government collects the individual prices, each is assigned a "weight" based on its relative importance to the average household's budget. So, for example, gas has a bigger weight than men's ties. A weighted average price is then calculated, and the inflation rate for a year is the percentage difference between this year's average price and last year's average price.
It's important to understand this calculated inflation rate is based on the spending pattern of the "average" consumer. But, of course, no one is exactly "average." So, to the extent your purchases are unique and different from the "average," then official inflation rates may be higher or lower than what you experience.
The government's statisticians generating the inflation rate face three big challenges:
One is that the collection of products and services people purchase changes over time. New products are introduced and others are discarded. Computers replaced typewriters, and cellphones are rapidly taking the place of landlines. Also, how and where people buy things change. Today, many more purchases are made on-line and at "big-box" stores than in the past. Over time, the government makes changes to keep up with the trends, but the adjustments can take time.
A second challenge arises when people change how much of a product they buy in reaction to a price change. Let's say gas prices rise. In response, most motorists will purchase fewer gallons. This means the "weight" – the relative importance of gas prices to all other prices – may change. The government has a version of the inflation rate which attempts to account for this somewhat subtle – yet still important – impact.
Perhaps the biggest challenge – and the one with the most controversial solution – is how to deal with quality changes in products. For example, standard features on most new vehicles today include air-conditioning, power windows, CD player, and air bags — all items I didn't have on my first car, a 1956 Oldsmobile! So it would unfair to include the cost of these features in the inflation rate for car prices between 1956 and today, because they represent improvements in the quality of vehicles.
The government agrees, and therefore it employs a statistical technique to remove the costs of new features so that the remaining price of the product allows an "apples to apples" comparison to earlier versions. It's an imperfect technique, but without it the inflation rate wouldn't only mean paying more for the same thing, but in part would mean paying more for a better thing.
And by the way, for the cost of owning a home — which is actually very complex, because a home is both something we use, as well as an investment – the government estimates the price per square foot if the home was rented.
The government releases several inflation rates each month, differing slightly by the kinds of specific methods used to address the above issues. For 2013, the rates showed a range between 1 percent and 1.5 percent for the annual inflation rate.
But there's a private alternative to the government numbers. A couple of years ago, some economists at MIT decided to make use of the massive amounts of price data now available on-line to calculate their own inflation rate. They call this effort the "Billion Prices Project," and it's become a popular "check" to the prices and inflation rates published by the federal government. For 2013, the Billion Prices Project inflation rate came in at 2 percent.
So is there a logical and defensible way to estimate the inflation rate? Along with my skeptical friend at the civic meeting, you'll have to decide.
Dr. Mike Walden is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of North Carolina State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He teaches and writes on personal finance, economic outlook and public policy. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences communications unit provides his You Decide column every two weeks. Previous columns are available at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/tag/you-decide
Related audio files are at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/category/economic-perspective


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Jimmy Carter: 47% video was 'the turning point' for Romney
Former President Jimmy Carter tells MSNBC that Mitt Romney's "47 percent" video -- unearthed by Carter's own grandson James -- marked "the turning point" in Romney's campaign.
"It was probably the single most important factor in the whole election, what James did reveal," the former president said.
In the video, Romney told donors at a fund-raiser in Boca Raton, Fla., that 47 percent of Americans were "dependent upon the government, believe that they are victims" and would never vote for him.
Carter found the video online and connected its owner to David Corn at Mother Jones. The rest is history.
(Video via James Carter, who his grandfather now calls "the most famous Carter.")


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The lawyer for a group of Zhejiang farmers who recently reclaimed their land from provincial and local governments describes the victory as equivalent to winning the lottery. Justice was earned, not from the court, but by a ruling from the State Council. Translated from Southern Breeze (南风窗) magazine:
In 1999, the government of Longquan City (龙泉市) in Zhejiang Province tried to "reclaim state land" totalling 20 hectares from farmers by ruling that the land was worthless for agriculture. The government bought the land at 65 yuan/square meter and sold it for around 3,000 yuan/sqaure meter. The situation became so serious that bulldozer-armed officials came to a potentially riotous stand-off with villagers, who risked their lives in defending their land. Four Xinhua reporters mixed in with the farmers wrote an internal report (内部参考) that caught the attention of Beijing leaders.
Zhang Lifeng (º†‰∏ΩÈîã), the lead petitioner, chose to forgo the usual route of fighting land seizures–a journey to Beijing–after fruitless attempts to reach leaders in Hangzhou, the provincial capital. Instead, he happened on a handful of articles on land seizures written by a Beijing lawyer, Zhang Xingshui (º†ÊòüÊ∞¥), and figured that the lawyer could help them. Lawyer Zhang soon presented the case to the State Counil, which sent in two teams to investigate last year.
Beijing handed down its verdict in February, two months after a final investigative trip to Zhejiang, correcting the local governments' designation of the parcels as wasteland. Zhang, the farmer, now has proud status as the first individual to defeat a provincial government in the State Council since the founding of the People's Republic. Also saved is the livelihood of farmers, who depend on the land for the cash they can earn, nearly 10,000 yuan a year per mu of land, by feeding Longquan residents with their vegetables. [Full Text in Chinese]


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I confess. I watch Oprah sometimes – not religiously, but sometimes. I TIVO the show, then take a look at the description. If it looks interesting, I'll watch it. If not, it gets deleted.
Yesterday's topic du jour mentioned something about Lisa Ling investigating the lifestyle of "Freegans." I had never heard of Freegans or Freeganism before, but I am a fan of Lisa Ling, (anyone remember her from "Channel One News" in high school?), so I decided to take a look to see what it was all about and I'm glad I did.
Freegans are "a grassroots subculture is made of people who have decided to live outside consumer society. Freegans say our culture's emphasis on buying the newest products—and throwing away perfectly fine older things—is a waste of the world's resources. Instead, they focus on buying less and use only what they need. One of the main ways freegans do this is by salvaging food and other goods from the trash."
The focus of the episode was really on how much we as Americans consume and how much we waste. What and how much do we really need to live? What void are we trying to fill as we consume and consume? Will we ever be happy?
On this episode of Oprah, Lisa Ling followed around Madeline, who previously earned a 6-figure income before becoming a self-professed freegan, and others as they went on a "trash tour" in New York, exploring dumpsters at grocery stores and bakeries for salvageable food that had been tossed. The quantity of edible food was both remarkable and disturbing in that stores are letting so much go to waste. Some of the food was slightly past its sell-by date, some was getting close to the sell-by date, and there really was no explanation as to why some of the food was in the trash. There was produce, eggs, but also a lot of packaged food, still perfectly wrapped.
The food Madeline and the others find is far from gross. "'It's not toxic waste,' she says. Much of the food is still in its original packaging and has been discarded largely for cosmetic reasons, not because of poor quality. She shows Lisa how cartons of eggs are regularly thrown away when there's one broken egg—even though there are 11 perfectly good ones remaining. Fruit is often thrown away when it has only minor dents, she says."
Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds – including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products – are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.
Lisa and Oprah also talked with a newlywed couple, Daniel and Amanda – a doctor and civil engineer – who believe in freeganism as well. I read a bit on their blog last night. Good food for thought – pun intended. 😉
The show definitely got me thinking and I hope it did others as well. While I don't know that I'm going to run out and go dumpster diving for my dinner tonight, I admit that the idea does have it's merits, namely that by salvaging food from the dumpster you are keeping it out of the landfills. I do have my concerns regarding safety and whether or not it is legal. I noticed the people on Oprah did their dumpster diving in the dark. Is that because that's when the food has freshly been tossed or is it because they shouldn't be digging around in the dumpsters by law or both?
Ava watched some of the show with with me (I turned it off when it got to the part about the mom who works as a stripper to provide for her kids, not that I disagree necessarily, but I didn't think it was appropriate for Ava to watch) and when I half-jokingly, half-seriously talked about going shopping for our groceries in the trash next time, she commented, "I don't want to eat food out of the trash. That's gross." It spurred a good discussion between us where I pointed out that all of that perfectly edible food being wasted wasn't good either.
Eating food found in dumpsters might be too extreme for most people, but the message from the show was clear, consumerism and excessive waste in this country is out of control and something needs to change.
So what do YOU think? Do you think Americans in general consume and waste too much? Would you ever consider eating food out of the trash?
If you are interested in doing further reading, I came across some other interesting articles on the subject.
- Lisa Ling's blog post about Freegans and Waste
- Oprah, Lisa Ling and Freegans, Oh My!
- Freegans?
- Half of US Food goes to Waste
- Wasted Food: a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food
- Dumpster Diving: The Easiest Way to Find Free Food
- – Opposition –
- Freegan Travel: A Bad Idea
- Freeganism: What's Up with That?
There's also a site dedicated to Freeganism – Freegan.info – including a dumpster directory and a link to "find freegans near you." It was down for a while after Oprah's show aired, but it's back online now.


text: This Saturday, the National Aquarium will join millions of people and organizations around the world in supporting Earth Hour. Sponsored by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour asks individuals, businesses, government leaders and others to turn out all non-essential lighting for one hour as a movement to show support for our planet and a sustainable future. In 2009, the National Aquarium joined nearly one billion people from 4,100 cities in 87 countries by turning out our lights. Our Baltimore building stood in the dark alongside hundreds of international cities and iconic landmarks ranging from the Las Vegas Strip to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City to the Great Pyramids of Giza. Last year's images are a powerful statement: On Saturday, March 27, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Earth Hour will once again cascade across the globe. The National Aquarium will once again "go dark" – and this year we encourage you to participate with us. Together, we can show the worldwide community that the National Aquarium and all of its supporters are committed to making behavioral changes for the environment. Tags: earth-hour, world-wildlife-fund Categories: Conservation, News Previous Post Next Post


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The University-School Programs Division responds directly to UNC's strategic priority, addressing K-16 education in North Carolina. The University-School Program proposes and supports initiatives that serve the needs of the state's public schools. These initiatives include the following:
- Expand efforts in teacher preparation, and increase the amount of well qualified and diverse teachers (especially in high-need areas) that are able to address the rapidly growing needs of North Carolina's schools. Use both traditional and innovative approaches, such as incentives to students, lateral entry programs, mid-career opportunities, e-learning, and collaborative 2+2 programs with NC Community Colleges, to ensure that the quality of teacher preparation is maintained at the highest possible level.
- Continue efforts to develop outstanding teacher and administrator preparation and development programs that include strong discipline content, pedagogy, and clinical training (i.e., integration of Arts and Sciences, accreditation of programs and assessments). Ensure high quality teachers, administrators and other school personnel can contribute to closing achievement gaps and improve student achievement.
- Expand our commitment to the development of comprehensive, high quality programs of continuing professional development of K-12 school personnel from their initial induction to retirement.
- Strengthen partnerships with K-12 schools and community colleges in the development of programs, curricula and instructional material, including materials that advance the use of information technology. Ensure continuous improvement in the academic achievement of North Carolina students, promote student success in higher education and help close gaps in student achievement.
- Support and strengthen both research and public service programs in the UNC Center for School Leadership Development and in UNC schools, colleges and departments of education.
- Partner in state initiatives to redesign and improve high schools in North Carolina.
Learn more about the University's commitment to extend the resources of higher education to public schools in North Carolina through the UNC Center for School Leadership Development.


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With chance to hit live, CU shines, especially the secondary
BOULDER — Maybe it was their first chance to hit someone live, but the Buffaloes showed more enthusiasm in Monday's first contact practice than they did in many of their games last year. Much of it had to do with a touted secondary that got the better of a growing talented receiving corps.
** The best run of the day came from Quentin Hildreth, the redshirt freshman from Denver East. The 5-foot-8, 185-pounder broke up the middle for about a 70-yard TD run. He won the Fred Casotti Award, which goes to the most improved offensive player in the spring.
Despite the presence of four true freshmen and the top two returning backs in Rodney Stewart and Brian Lockridge, Hildreth is considered in the tailback mix.
** Another East grad, redshirt freshman Zach Grossnickle, is concentrating on punting instead of place-kicking. And coach Dan Hawkins said he has seen a noticeable difference.
** Redshirt freshman tight end Clark Evans still hasn't cleared up his academic situation to practice. Summer school ended Friday.


text:
jweist necesitaba un nuevo diseño de impreso o envases y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
2 ganadores han sido elegidos entre 228 diseños de 39 diseñadores freelance.
LithuaniaVisits wishes to create a simple print ad to promote its family history, or genealogical, search services. The ad will appear in publications, mainly magazines, intended for Lithuanian-Americans in the US. Our goals are that the ad be simple, highly readable, and visually attractive. The mood we want to convey is that we are a competent, professional, reliable firm, but not overly stuffy. We provide suggested text for the ad.
Readers of Lithuanian-American publications in the US who have an interest in investigating their family history in Lithuania. This audience skews older, with 40 years old or so being the starting age.
For our typical client, some member of his or her family left Lithuania in one of Lithuanian great migrations (early 1900's or before or after WW II) and started a new branch of the family in the US. The 50-year Soviet occupation generally prevented US family members from communicating with those remaining in Lithuania. In the last decade, following independence, there has been a renewed interest in finding out what happened to the family members who remained in Lithuania. We help clients trace their Lithuanian roots.
The printed version of the ad will typically be one of these sizes: 1/12 of a page (2.25 X 2.375); 1/4 of a page horizontal (4.6 X 3.6) or 1/3 of a page horizontal (4.625 X 4.875). In the final delivery we would like to receive a version in each of these sizes.
We would like the final product in a pdf format.
Because the ad will appear on a page with other ads, some type of border is appropriate.
The ad will only appear in black and white (with shading if included in the design). We do not want a color ad.
Again, our goals are: simple, highly readable, and visually attractive.
We want the text to be central. We do not want a separate graphic object to be the center of the ad.
A file is attached with suggested text.
A second file includes an ad that we have used in the past. We offer it only for its look and feel. We do not want it duplicated. We believe the diagonal line will not work well for the present ad.
The following is important: we prefer that the ad include a small graphical silhouette of the country of Lithuania. There is an example of a silhouette in the attached copy of the earlier ad. The silhouette is not an absolute requirement as we do not want to inhibit your creativity, but at this pre-design point, we find the silhouette attractive.
Feel free to write if you have any questions.


text:
As Ebola spreads in Africa, how worried should West be?
DAKAR, Senegal — A virus that causes people to bleed from their ears and pops open blood vessels has spread from remote tropical forests in Guinea to the West African country's teeming capital.
It has hopped the border to Liberia and is suspected in more than 90 deaths in an outbreak Doctors Without Borders has called "unprecedented." It is almost always deadly, and there is no vaccine or treatment.
EXPLAINER:All you need to know about the virus
Is it time to panic?
The answer from health workers responding to an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that began last month is a qualified "No."
Transmission requires such close contact that the chance of a widespread epidemic is unlikely.
So although health officials try to avoid creating hysteria, they are also trying to make sure that people living in affected areas watch for symptoms in themselves or others, avoid contact with people who are ill and suspend burial practices that involve touching the dead.
"You probably couldn't get Ebola if you went to Conakry now if you tried," said Daniel Bausch, director of virology at the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit in Lima, Peru, referring to the capital of Guinea.
Ebola is passed through bodily fluids — blood, saliva, sweat — of people showing symptoms. That's important: The disease can incubate in people for up to 21 days before they show symptoms, but the infected person cannot pass on the disease during that period.
Medical experts point out that because the symptoms are so severe (internal and external bleeding, high fever, muscle pain, vomiting) very few people are likely to keep in contact with someone who exhibits them.
As is typical with Ebola, many of the people who get infected are health workers caring for the sick.
Elvis N'Daw, a law student in Conakry, said that while people were taking precautions, there was little panic in the city.
N'Daw says he is washing his hands more frequently; others are rinsing their children off with a bleach solution before and after school. But people are still out and about, he said.
"Everybody is going about their business," said Alpha Ba, a taxi driver in the capital, noting he was weaving through normal traffic as he spoke on the phone.
Yet the number of cases has been steadily rising, and with it the reminders in the news media of the horrific symptoms of Ebola and that it kills up to 90% of the people it infects.
As of Saturday, medical tests had confirmed 54 cases of Ebola in Guinea and two in Liberia, according to World Health Organization. There are another 107 suspected cases, the vast majority of those in Guinea. Eighty-six people have died in Guinea and seven in Liberia; another two people who may have contracted the virus in Guinea have been buried in Sierra Leone.
Residents of the Mali capital of Bamako took to the streets in anger over reports that several people suspected of having the disease were being held in isolation in their neighborhood. Anger also flared in southern Guinea, where people attacked a health center that was treating patients with Ebola.
Senegal has closed its border with Guinea. Morocco has stepped up border controls, and France is asking doctors and hospitals to be on alert for signs of the disease.
On Friday morning, emergency medical personnel met an Air France plane arriving in Paris from Conakry after flight attendants found vomit in one of the plane's bathrooms. Airline spokesman Cedric Landais said passengers and crew were released after none showed signs of fever.
While some of this panicked reaction may be unavoidable, health officials say much of it is unnecessary. The World Health Organization, for instance, is not recommending any travel restrictions because they tend to be ineffective.
Gregory Hartl, a spokesman with the U.N. organization in Geneva, insisted the outbreak was not particularly unusual when compared to others. Doctors Without Borders maintains that the disease is rarely found in a wide area.
The international community has gotten fairly good at containing such outbreaks, bringing in protective gear for health workers, isolating the sick and tracking down every person those infected have come into contact with, says John O'Connor of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which has a team in Guinea.
"This outbreak isn't different from previous outbreaks," Hartl said.


text:
Welcome to Newbern Family Dental Practice, a leading dental care practice in Valdosta, GA. We understand the importance of good dental hygiene and oral care and are committed to providing you the best care in a fun, pleasant environment. We hope you will let our family take care of all your family's dental needs.
From preventative to restorative to cosmetic to orthodontics to sedation to special needs, we provide a wide array of dental services to meet your needs all in one convenient location. Using the latest technology, our experienced staff works together as a team to give you exceptional quality treatment from the time you walk in for your initial visit until you feel like family.
We are providers of many insurance plans and we will file all dental insurance for patients. We offer outside financing options with CareCredit and for your convenience we accept all credit cards.
We thank you for your interest in our services and the trust you have placed in us. Please contact us if you have any questions.


text:
[quote="CYLON (13)"]Finally got in TF mode again!
I got these badboys on teh ebay for roughly $20 (spererate purchases).
EDIT: I'm liking the idea they once belonged to a child...that wasn't me. I was a kid when the G1 show aired, unfortunate I can't have my own childhood toys. The idea they made someone happy at one point, gives me good vibes!
Im still looking for the new Gen Cosmos in stores, his G1 form and Seaspray are cool to have. Not sure if thats Brawn in the middle or not, can't tell.
Anyway picked up AOE Galvatron and Hound voyagers.
Hoping to find Lockdown soon.
Been on the fence about the quality of AOE Crosshairs, Bee and some of the other deluxes and haven't seen many reviews yet so am waiting to see how people like them.
On top of that I'm trying to save for Generations stuff only, still a shortage of Gen AOE Deluxes, too much power punch, and 1-step stuff in my area.


text:
Brain Quest on the Nintendo DS for grades 3 & 4 is designed for elementary school kids age 8 - 10 to make learning more game than chore. In Brain Quest, EA Games has applied what video game makers have learned to do better than most educators: lure kids into developing skills with ever increasing challenges that actually frustrate for a while and then deliver the satisfaction of success. The game allows each player to choose third or fourth grade questions or a combination of the two with a total of 6, 000 questions.
Brain Quest has four playing modes: Brain Mode, Quest Mode, Multiplayer and a Sudoku game category with different grid sizes and difficulty levels. In Brain Mode you choose questions from one of six categories: English, Science, Math, History, Geography, and Grab Bag. There is also a "Random" button so that you don't know what category is coming next. Sometimes the questions are grouped around a theme, such as homonyms, and after the answers, your guide gives you additional information about the events.
There are several different types of questions. Whenever the game introduces a new type of question, cute little dog pops up to explain it and to lead players through the steps of answering them. For the homonyms, there is animated matching, drawing lines between 'know' and 'no,' 'sun' and 'son.' At the end, the criss-crossed lines realign to show what words belong with which. Then players have to type in a five letter word that sounds like "through" that means "propelled through the air." The final question in the homonym module asks if the player can recognize the word on a list: antonyms, homonyms, synonyms. Knowing that counts for a genius point. At the end, the guide explains the meaning of the roots.
In Quest Mode, you face three computer challengers in a game environment called Brain Quest Park that has different scenes that correspond to different categories of challenges. Change the scene and change the category. Each scene has three guides who ask increasingly difficult questions. Sometimes a guide will send you looking for a different questioner in a different category. So the game throws you around to cover the whole park.
Often "grade level" or "age-appropriate" labels in games aim for the lowest common denominator, the minimum of skill required to reach the oldest possible mark. With kids, the older the marker, the more attractive the game, skill or event. So it sometimes feels that publishers have dumbed their games down. But boy oh boy, not here. There are easy questions for third graders like how old you have to be to vote or arranging these four words - practice, needs, our, band - into a sentence. There are medium difficulty ones. (How many US Senators are there? Be careful you don't select '50' like I did! ) And really hard ones. Could you, in third grade, have arranged celestial bodies in order of size from asteroid, planet, star and galaxy or known to order soil layers from bedrock to subsoil, topsoil and ground level? Could you do it even now?And this is in the third grade, not fourth grade version of the game. Then there are the "genius point" questions. A sample "genius" question asks players to match the countries of Canada, India, Norway and Spain, with their currencies: dollar, rupee, krone and euro.
Playing the game gives you points and unlocks "stickers." Once you have enough points, you can select Collectibles in the main menu and go to a screen where you can buy those 'stickers' to put into the game scenery. Some are simple stickers, but the higher points unlock animated stickers like the little lemur who blinks and wags his tail.
It is no small feat if Brain Quest can simply make answering questions like this fun. The reality is that children are being evaluated by tests that use many of these techniques, and playing a "game" like Brain Quest not only gives the distraction of a game, it also teaches test taking skills while testing general knowledge in a sort of calisthenics for the mind. It does not teach understanding, and so is not a substitute for real education. But it does increase the 'cultural currency' - Match the food or drink with the part of the body it helps keep healthy: meat, milk, water, and carrots have to be matched with the appropriate benefit to bones, muscles, kidneys and eyes. - that has been shown to help a child succeed in higher levels of school and college.
Brain Quest website
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Nintendo DS
Rating: Everyone
Grade Level: 3-4


text:
Grace Suomi: Ewing's Sarcoma No Match for Five-Year-Old Survivor
|Clare and Grace Suomi
Grace Suomi was five and had just finished the year at Curtis School in Los Angeles when she started exhibiting strange symptoms. They started with terrible nightmares that caused the child to thrash and scream in her sleep.
Her mother, Clare Suomi, attributed the bad dreams to anxiety, as Grace was scheduled to start camp soon. Then her right jaw started hurting, her appetite disappeared and her personality seemed somehow off. Since the family was headed out on a three-week vacation the following week, Suomi decided Grace needed to see her doctor.
The pediatrician diagnosed a sinus infection and during a physical exam found swelling on the right side of Grace's face above her cheek bone. The swelling wasn't painful to the touch, but the doctor recommended that Suomi take Grace to an ear, nose and throat specialist, who found nothing that merited postponing the family vacation.
Once the family settled into their northern Wisconsin vacation, Grace's pain spiked and her nightmares got worse. She couldn't chew on the right side of her mouth. So the family sought out a doctor in a nearby town, who ordered a CT scan.
"We were in the waiting room and the doctor walked in and said we needed to go home immediately, that she had found a tumor in Grace's head," Suomi said. "She sure sucked all the air out of the room with that announcement."
Stunned, Suomi called her husband, Marvin, who was waiting for a report.
"I was hysterical," she said. "You don't expect this, that your child may have cancer."
The Suomis started making phone calls to doctors in Los Angeles, packed up their things and climbed into their rental car to collect their son from a nearby camp.
They flew home to Beverly Hills that day and the next morning Grace was admitted to a Los Angeles area hospital, where doctors ordered an MRI that confirmed the tumor. The Suomis still didn't know if their child had cancer or not. The doctors needed to biopsy the tumor, but to do that they had to do surgery to remove the growth.
"It was a really bad time. We were in such shock with all of this and the hospital's pediatric surgeon was on vacation for two weeks," Suomi said. "They said wait until he comes back and we said no way."
The Suomis went to another Los Angeles area hospital, where the surgery was performed on July 7, 2010. The surgeon said he'd be down from the operating room in two hours to give them the biopsy results. The two hours stretched to six.
"We were so anxious. At that point we assumed he had taken out the tumor and everything was good," Suomi said.
It wasn't.
The doctor escorted the Suomis to a private room, where he told them the tumor was malignant and that Grace needed to start chemotherapy immediately. The news, Suomi said, sent them further into shock. Grace was facing a year of treatment, and she couldn't go to school because her lowered blood counts would put her at risk for infection.
The Suomis decided to move Grace's care to UCLA after they were referred to Dr. Noah Federman, a pediatric oncologist and a researcher with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. On July 13, 2010, they sat down with Federman to discuss Grace's care.
"He spent three hours talking to us and he was nothing short of amazing," Suomi said. "It made us feel confident that he was confident in what he planned to do with Grace."
Grace was admitted to UCLA the next day, and her year-long journey to fight her Ewing's sarcoma began. It was a journey with more than a few bumps in the road and dozens of hospitalizations.
Doctors wanted Grace to undergo six weeks of radiation. Because the location of the radiation sometimes affects a patient's ability to eat, a feeding tube was inserted into Grace's stomach, another source of multiple hospitalizations down the road when the tube became infected.
They tested Grace's bone marrow to determine if the cancer had spread, which would make her cancer much more challenging to treat. Finally, some good news—the cancer remained localized in her skull.
Chemotherapy began on July 17, 2010, in the hospital. After the chemo was finished within three to five days, Grace and her mother, who never left her side, got to go home for a week. Then it was back to the hospital for another round. Grace was having trouble tolerating the therapy and suffered severe vomiting and diarrhea. That resulted in further hospitalizations while doctors tried to determine the cause of her severe reaction to treatment.
Federman finally determined that Grace had picked up a parasite somewhere, which needed to be addressed with additional medications. Infectious disease specialists conferred with Federman to determine a course of treatment that would continue fighting the cancer and attack the parasite without putting Grace at too much increased risk.
"She was so sick and in pain and I felt helpless," Suomi said. "I had to watch all these doctors try to take care of my child, which is my job, and there was nothing I could do."
Grace was in and out of the hospital, which meant her mother was, too, for nearly all of July, August and September. The child was scheduled to start radiation while still on her chemotherapy, but Federman decided it might be too much because Grace was still being treated for the parasite.
Chemotherapy was stopped and radiation began, a traumatic procedure that called for Grace to be locked to the table with her face in a tight fitting mask to keep her from moving. But the child handled it very well, her mother said, and didn't need to be sedated.
Postponing chemotherapy did the trick, Suomi said. By the time radiation was ending, tests for the parasite came up negative. Chemo could resume.
November 2010 came and with it, Grace's sixth birthday. The family, which includes Jacob, 9, and Joshua, 12, did it up big. They had another reason to celebrate. Federman thought Grace was ready for outpatient chemotherapy, meaning she could go home afterward. Her mother would have much to do to prepare her for the treatment and deal with its aftermath. Suomi embraced the opportunity.
"It was such a blessing to finally be involved with Grace's treatment," Suomi said. "Before, I had no control over what was happening to her. Now, I got to care for her."
Suomi gave Grace medication on a strictly timed schedule and hooked her up to IV bags for hydration. With the parasite gone, Grace rarely got sick after chemo. She was a regular kid, her mother said, "running around with an IV attached to her chest."
The rounds of chemo stretched out ahead of them, and Grace sometimes took longer to recover and get her blood counts high enough to get another treatment. There were infections, but there were fewer hospitalizations.
"The family got to eat dinner together and Grace was home with her family at night, sleeping in her own bed," Suomi said. "It was so much better."
Grace completed treatment in May 2011 and she's currently in remission, meaning there are no signs of cancer in her body.
"It's our hope that that continues and the cancer doesn't come back," Suomi said. "But cancer doesn't follow a normal path."
Grace gets scans every three months, and sees Federman once a month for check-ups and blood tests. She was home schooled for most of the year she underwent treatment, but was well enough to make it back for the last three days of school.
Now in the first grade, Grace's hair, lost early on during chemotherapy, has started to grow back and things have settled into a long-awaited sense of normalcy.
"For all that time, Grace and I and my husband and the boys, we did it together, and I don't ever want to forget one minute of it, because it was so profound," Suomi said. "We don't think about tomorrow. We're just so happy for our good fortune today. We count our blessings every day."
By Kim Irwin, 2011


text:
So obviously there has to be a mechanism in my application to allow the user
to select which template a new page should be based on.
I wanted to present the user with a list of thumbnail images, each representing
a template page. In order to do that I had to devise a way of taking an HTML page and
converting it to an image. The alternative of presenting the user with a simple
listbox with the names of the templates is a tad too early 90's.
This article is the result.
My initial approach was to render the page using MSHTML, create a memory bitmap, get a handle to the
MSHTML display window and do a BitBlt from the display window to my memory bitmap,
then scale and save the results.
It worked well but for one minor detail.
In order to render an HTML page into an image file using the BitBlt method
the page has to be visible on the screen. BitBlt can only grab bits from a
device context that's had something drawn on it, and if the device context represents something
that's not actually visible on the screen the Windows WM_PAINT optimisations kick
in and exclude those areas from the update region. The result is that MSHTML doesn't paint onto
those portions of a device context that aren't visible.
If you want to create images of something that's already on the screen well and good.
Otherwise, to create an image, you have to present that something on the screen. This makes
for an awful lot of flashing as one renders HTML pages to the screen for just long enough to grab their
bits via BitBlt.
Even so, I was almost happy with the result. The flashing didn't look too awful. I even ran it past
a few people, showing them what it looked like as it updated images and they didn't seem to mind it
too much. But it irked me. There had to be a better way.
As you've probably guessed, it wasn't quite as simple as that.
I'm going to present the class a little differently this time. We'll start with a simple version of the
class (not present in the download) and add complexity to it as we encounter issues.
class CCreateHTMLImage
enum eOutputImageFormat
eBMP = 0,
virtual ~CCreateHTMLImage();
BOOL SetSaveImageFormat(eOutputImageFormat format);
BOOL CreateImage(
IHTMLDocument2 *pDoc,
LPCTSTR szDestFilename,
CSize srcSize,
CSize outputSize);
int GetEncoderClsid(const WCHAR* format, CLSID* pClsid);
static LPCTSTR m_ImageFormats[eImgSize];
CLSID m_encoderClsid;
BOOL CCreateHTMLImage::CreateImage(
IHTMLDocument2 *pDoc,
LPCTSTR szDestFilename,
CSize srcSize,
CSize outputSize)
// Get our interfaces before we create anything else
IHTMLElement *pElement = (IHTMLElement *) NULL;
IHTMLElementRender *pRender = (IHTMLElementRender *) NULL;
// Let's be paranoid...
if (pDoc == (IHTMLElement *) NULL
return FALSE;
if (pElement == (IHTMLElement *) NULL)
return FALSE;
pElement->QueryInterface(IID_IHTMLElementRender, (void **) &pRender);
if (pRender == (IHTMLElementRender *) NULL)
return FALSE;
CFileSpec fsDest(szDestFilename);
CBitmapDC destDC(srcSize.cx, srcSize.cy);
CBitmap *pBM = destDC.Close();
Bitmap *gdiBMP = Bitmap::FromHBITMAP(HBITMAP(pBM->GetSafeHandle()), NULL);
Image *gdiThumb = gdiBMP->GetimageImage(outputSize.cx, outputSize.cy);
gdiThumb->Save(T2W(fsDest.GetFullSpec()), &m_encoderClsid);
delete gdiBMP;
delete gdiThumb;
delete pBM;
return TRUE;
We do my usual bunch of ASSERTs on the parameters. Then we get a pointer to an IHTMLElement
interface that represents the body of the HTML document. Once we've got that we can do a QueryInterface() for
an IHTMLElementRender interface which represents all the visual aspects of the document. We can't get the
interface directly from the document because the document isn't an element, it contains elements.
If we got this far without encountering an error it's time to create the device context we want to paint the document into.
For this I used Anneke Sicherer-Roetman's excellent CBitmapDC class which you can find
The srcSize object is used to set
the size of the destination device context. The IHTMLElementRender::DrawToDC() function doesn't do scaling. If the
source HTML needs 1000 pixels of width to draw the entire horizontal extent but you pass it a device context only 500 pixels
wide you'll get only the left half of the HTML.
Once MSHTML has rendered our IHTMLElement into the device context we create a GDI+ Bitmap object
using the contents of the CBitmapDC and then create an image from the Bitmap object using the
outputSize object to specify the image dimensions. GDI+ takes care of scaling the full size image to the size
we want. A save, a bit of cleanup and we're done.
The other members of this class take care of the details of the saved image format and, since they're protected
they're of little interest unless we plan to derive a new class from this one.
The GetEncoderClsid() function is taken from MSDN documentation and is used to get the correct image codec for
the image format we want.
If we want to create an image from a document stored somewhere else (hard disk or intranet or internet) we have to do a
little more work. We have to load the document using MSHTML, get an IHTMLDocument2 interface on the document and
then call our class to create the image.
class CCreateHTMLImage : public CWnd
enum eEnums
enum eOutputImageFormat
eBMP = 0,
virtual ~CCreateHTMLImage();
BOOL Create(CWnd *pParent);
BOOL SetSaveImageFormat(eOutputImageFormat format);
BOOL CreateImage(
IHTMLDocument2 *pDoc,
LPCTSTR szDestFilename,
CSize srcSize,
CSize outputSize);
BOOL CreateImage(
LPCTSTR szSrcFilename,
LPCTSTR szDestFilename,
CSize srcSize,
CSize outputSize);
CComPtr<IWebBrowser2> m_pBrowser;
CWnd m_pBrowserWnd;
virtual BOOL CreateControlSite(
COleControlContainer* pContainer,
COleControlSite** ppSite,
UINT nID,
REFCLSID clsid);
virtual void DocumentComplete(LPDISPATCH pDisp, VARIANT* URL);
int GetEncoderClsid(const WCHAR* format, CLSID* pClsid);
static LPCTSTR m_ImageFormats[eImgSize];
CLSID m_encoderClsid;
All functions that were present in the simple version of the class are unchanged in the full version. You'll see that I
added another CreateImage() overload. This one takes a source document name instead of an
IHTMLDocument2 interface pointer.
This new function is the reason I added all the new stuff to the full version of the class, so let's start with it and
work outwards.
IHTMLDocument2 *pDoc = (IHTMLDocument2 *) NULL;
if (CoCreateInstance(
(void**) &pDoc) == S_OK)
if (pDoc != (IHTMLDocument2 *) NULL)
// Do stuff
Ok, scratch that approach. What about using an IWebBrowser2 interface? The code to instantiate one is almost
identical to the preceding code snippet so I won't repeat it, just substitute IWebBrowser2 wherever you see
IHTMLDocument2. To load a document we simply navigate to it using either IWebBrowser2::Navigate()
or IWebBrowser2::Navigate2().
So I coded it up and tested. The Navigate2() call returned success but the document didn't load. Or at least,
if it did, the interface's ReadyState never changed to let me know it had finished. Obviously we can't go rendering
the document into a device context until we know it's loaded and indeed, querying the IWebBrowser2 interface for
the IHTMLDocument2 interface we need always returned a NULL interface pointer, indicating that the document doesn't
yet exist.
Repeating the test on a dummy application based on CHtmlView reveals what we already knew. The
IWebBrowser2::ReadyState does change as the document loads and, once the document has finished
loading, we can query the IWebBrowser2 interface for an IHTMLDocument2 interface and get back a
valid interface pointer.
Hmm, so what are we doing differently? Well the first and most obvious difference is that we're instantiating an instance
of IWebBrowser2 without a matching display window. As we'll see a little later, this window is quite
important to the IWebBrowser2 interface even though nowhere in the documentation is this stated.
It was time to investigate how CHtmlView does things.
The first thing we find (in afxhtml.h) is the class definition. There's a lot of stuff in there, most of which
doesn't concern us. What's of interest is a CWnd member variable called m_wndBrowser. Aha. We
know that CHtmlView is ultimately derived from CWnd and is therefore already a window. So why does it
need a member variable of type CWnd? Let's have a look at the relevant code in CHtmlView::Create() to
see what's going on (viewhtml.cpp).
BOOL CHtmlView::Create(LPCTSTR lpszClassName, LPCTSTR lpszWindowName,
DWORD dwStyle, const RECT& rect, CWnd* pParentWnd,
UINT nID, CCreateContext* pContext)
// create the view window itself
m_pCreateContext = pContext;
if (!CView::Create(lpszClassName, lpszWindowName,
dwStyle, rect, pParentWnd, nID, pContext))
return FALSE;
// assure that control containment is on
RECT rectClient;
// create the control window
// AFX_IDW_PANE_FIRST is a safe but arbitrary ID
if (!m_wndBrowser.CreateControl(CLSID_WebBrowser, lpszWindowName,
WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD, rectClient, this, AFX_IDW_PANE_FIRST))
return FALSE;
// cache the dispinterface
LPUNKNOWN lpUnk = m_wndBrowser.GetControlUnknown();
HRESULT hr = lpUnk->QueryInterface(IID_IWebBrowser2, (void**) &m_pBrowserApp);
if (!SUCCEEDED(hr))
m_pBrowserApp = NULL;
return FALSE;
return TRUE;
Ok, things are starting to fall into place. Instead of blindly creating an IWebBrowser2 interface out of
thin air we should create an instance of the Web Browser control and get our IWebBrowser2 interface from it.
Let's duplicate what CHtmlView does and create our Web Browser control as a child control of our class.
We'll discuss why the extra level of indirection a little later in the article.
Our creation sequence is (if we want to create images for pages we haven't already got loaded in some instance of MSHTML
BOOL CCreateHTMLImage::CreateImage(
LPCTSTR szSrcFilename,
LPCTSTR szDestFilename,
CSize srcSize,
CSize outputSize)
CRect rect(CPoint(0, 0), srcSize);
// The WebBrowswer window size must be set to our srcSize
// else it won't render everything
COleVariant vUrl(szSrcFilename, VT_BSTR),
vFlags(long(navNoHistory |
navNoReadFromCache |
navNoWriteToCache), VT_I4),
vNull(LPCTSTR(NULL), VT_BSTR);
COleSafeArray vPostData;
if (m_pBrowser->Navigate2(&vUrl, &vFlags, &vNull, &vPostData, &vNull) == S_OK)
// We have to pump messages to ensure the event handler (DocumentComplete)
// is called.
return FALSE;
// We only get here when DocumentComplete has been called, which calls
// EndModalLoop and causes RunModalLoop to exit.
IDispatch *pDoc = (IDispatch *) NULL;
HRESULT hr = m_pBrowser->get_Document(&pDoc);
if (FAILED(hr))
return FALSE;
return CreateImage((IHTMLDocument2 *) pDoc, szDestFilename, srcSize, outputSize);
This is very important. My first stabs at this solution used a combination of Sleep() and some polling to
try and determine when the document had finished loading. The result was deadlock. It turns out that once you've initiated a
Navigate2() operation (and many other operations on the Web Browser control) you have to let the message pump
run. The message pump can be the applications main pump but if you use that one you have no way to synchronously interact with
the CCreateHTMLImage class. This won't matter if all you want to create is one image. But if you have a
list of images you want to create, one after the other, you have to wait for the first one to complete before you can even
start on the second one.
So we start the navigation and then drop into a RunModalLoop(). Some time later the document will finish
loading and fire the DocumentComplete() event. That event handler in our class does nothing much except call
ExitModalLoop(), which lets us fall out of the RunModalLoop() function and allow processing in the
CCreateHTMLImage::CreateImage() function to continue. That processing consists of obtaining an
IHTMLDocument2 interface and calling code we've already discussed.
If you've made it this far you might be wondering why our class mimics CHtmlView to the
extent of having an embedded CWnd variable that is the real Web Browser control.
It wasn't obvious to me as I wrote the code that this would be necessary. I wrote the class so that it, itself, became
an instance of the Web Browser and was able to create images of HTML documents without those documents ever flashing up
on the screen. It all looked good.
But on closer examination of the images I suddenly realised there were a couple of artifacts that shouldn't
have been there. Scrollbars!
If you've used CHtmlView you know there's a function, OnGetHostInfo() that gives you the
opportunity to modify visual aspects of the Web Browser, including whether the browser shows scrollbars or not. So now it was
time to dive back into the implementation of CHtmlView, once again, to see how I could duplicate that
It turns out that the reason CHtmlView embeds an instance of the Web Browser, instead of being an instance itself,
is so that it can act as the Web Browsers parent. This is important because it means that CHtmlView (or our class)
can create an COleControlSite to host the Web Browser control and respond to interface queries. If our class was
directly an instance of the Web Browser that would mean that queries from the Web Browser would be directed to our parent,
to code we don't necessarily control, and code that almost certainly doesn't know that we want to respond to the
GetHostInfo query with the answer that scrollbars oughtn't to be displayed.
I'll concede that you probably do have control over the parent object and could implement a COleControlSite in
the parent. But that's the definitely the wrong place to do it. Why should the parent have to know that some arbitrary class
it uses needs a COleControlSite, let alone the specifics of a response to a particular query?
Without going into an extended discussion of how CWnd derived classes host ActiveX controls let's look at what
we have to implement in our class to make it all work. Our Create() call creates the child ActiveX control by
calling CreateControl() specifying the CLSID for the specific ActiveX control we want.
CreateControl() does various things including calling the virtual function CreateControlSite(). The
default implementation in CWnd does nothing except return a NULL site pointer. When we look at
CHtmlViews implementation we see that it sets the site pointer to an instance of CHtmlControlSite.
Ok, let's go look at that class. It turns out to be derived from COleControlSite (which shouldn't be a surprise)
but it also implements all the member functions of the IDocHostUIHandler interface. This matters because the way
the Web Browser control interrogates it's container to determine UI states such as whether or not to show scroll bars is via a
QueryInterface() on it's parents automation interface, requesting an IDocHostUIHandler interface
Unfortunately we can't use CHtmlControlSite in our class for two reasons. The first is that the class definition
appears in viewhtml.cpp rather than in a header file we can include. We could work around that easily enough by
cutting and pasting the definition into our own header file. But it still won't work because the class has builtin knowledge
of CHtmlView virtual methods. We could mess around in our class trying to duplcate the vtable
structure to reuse CHtmlControlSite but it's just not worth the trouble (to say nothing of being a maintenance
nightmare). Instead I cut and pasted the entire class definition and implementation, changed the name and modified the member
functions to do what I needed. In fact, the only member function I want doing anything is the GetHostInfo()
function. All the others do nothing (but must be implemented anyway).
Phew! That's a lot of work just to get rid of some scrollbars on a tiny thumbnail image. But remember that the class
can be used to capture full sized images simply by specifying the output image size. On a full sized image the scrollbars are
probably undesirable.
CCreateHTMLImage cht;
cht.CreateImage(m_pDoc, csOutputFile, CSize(800, 600), CSize(80, 60));
The second way to use the class is when all you have is a filename or URL to the page you want to capture.
CCreateHTMLImage cht;
cht.CreateImage(csSourceFile, csOutputFile, CSize(800, 600), CSize(80, 60));
Oh, don't forget to initialise GDI+ - you can find out how in this excellent article[^]
4 April 2004 - Updated the download to include the required header files.
9 April 2004 - Added a demo project written by Jubjub[^]
19 May 2004 - Updated the demo project.
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)
'Set browser to the appropriate size

browser.Height = browser.Document.Body.Children(0).OffsetRectangle.Height

browser.Width = browser.Document.Body.Children(0).OffsetRectangle.Width

Dim rect As New Rectangle(0, 0, browser.Width, browser.Height)

'Create bitmap

Dim bmp As New Bitmap(browser.Width, browser.Height, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)

Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)

Dim hdc As IntPtr = g.GetHdc

'Do the Drawing

Dim pUnk As IntPtr = Marshal.GetIUnknownForObject(browser.ActiveXInstance)

OLE32.OleDraw(pUnk, 1, hdc, rect)

Marshal.Release(pUnk)

'Release DC and dispose

g.ReleaseHdc(hdc)

g.Dispose()

---- OLE32.OleDraw Definition ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Class OLE32

Public Declare Function OleDraw Lib "ole32.dll" (ByVal pUnk As IntPtr, ByVal dwAspect As Integer, ByVal hdcDraw As IntPtr, ByRef lprcBounds As Rectangle) As Integer

End Class
public void GrabWindow()

{

IntPtr hWnd = this.Handle;

IntPtr hBmp;

Bitmap MyBitmap=null;

IntPtr hDCMem = CreateCompatibleDC((IntPtr)null);

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0,0,783,583); //783 and 583 to avoid scrollbars

IntPtr hDC = GetWindowDC(hWnd);

hBmp = CreateCompatibleBitmap(hDC, rect.Width, rect.Height);

ReleaseDC(hWnd, hDC);

IntPtr hOld = Win32.SelectObject(hDCMem, hBmp);

SendMessage(hWnd, WM_PRINT, hDCMem, new IntPtr(PRF_CLIENT | PRF_CHILDREN));

SelectObject(hDCMem, hOld);

DeleteObject(hDCMem);

MyBitmap = Bitmap.FromHbitmap(hBmp);

MyBitmap.Save("test.bmp");

[DllImport("User32.dll")]

public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
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Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.


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This glitter 6 sided dice has white numbers on a clear dice containing white glitter. Great when used for magic or any time you need a sparkle in your game. Quality made with a good feel and bounce.
Playing a game of Risk and losing the war in the pacific? Use this great dice to help turn the battle in your favor. This great machine is the easiest way to get a random 16.67% chance or 1 in 6 random number. light shines through the sides and really causes the glitter to glisten and gleam. Rolls like a standard dice. Hold, shake and roll. This dice gives you a random number between one and six.
One 6 Sided, D6 Clear White Glitter Dice with White Numbers
Numbers are written clearly and numerically rather than with pips for easier identification.
Dice Size
|Dice Style
What games can be played with a 6 sided dice?
So, if you need D&D dice or just role playing dice, look no further.


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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA has begun distributing Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) annual rental payments to participants across the country. USDA also will distribute 2013 direct payments and 2012 Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program payments beginning Oct. 24. Payments originally were scheduled to be issued earlier in the month, but were delayed by several weeks due to the lapse in Federal funding.
"Farmers, ranchers and rural landowners across the country count on USDA programs and the payment delays due to the shutdown were an unnecessary burden," Vilsack said. "USDA has prioritized making these scheduled payments without any further delay and Farm Service Agency staff have worked hard to get this assistance out the door as quickly as possible."
Producers will receive payments on almost 700,000 CRP contracts on 390,000 farms covering 26.8 million acres. In exchange for a yearly rental payment provided by USDA on contracts ranging from 10 to 15 years, farmers and ranchers enrolled in CRP agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant grasses or trees that will improve water quality and improve waterfowl and wildlife habitat. CRP reduced runoff and leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus into waterways by an estimated 605 million pounds and 121 million pounds, respectively, in 2012, and soil erosion reductions totaling 308 million tons in 2012.
Direct payments for 2013 for the DCP and ACRE programs are being made to the more than 1.7 million farms enrolled in the Farm Service Agency's programs. Producers with base acres of certain commodities are eligible for DCP payments. ACRE payments for 2012-crop barley, corn, grain sorghum, lentils, oats, peanuts, dry peas, soybeans, and wheat are scheduled to be released beginning Oct. 24 and contingent upon national average market prices and yields in each state. ACRE payments for large chickpeas, small chickpeas, canola, crambe, flaxseed, mustard seed, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflowers are scheduled to be made in early December and for long grain rice and medium and short grain rice in early February 2014 when the final 2012/13 market year average price data becomes available.
In addition, no legislation has been enacted to extend the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program past Sept. 30, 2013, as provided by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. USDA's Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC), administered by FSA, compensates dairy producers when domestic milk prices fall below a specified level. The application deadline to sign-up for MILC program benefits was Sept. 30, 2013.
Final production evidence and any supporting documentation for eligible months (this includes the 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 fiscal years) that MILC was in effect must be submitted by Nov. 1, 2013.
Dairy operations can obtain more information on MILC by contacting your local FSA office.
The 2008 Farm Bill, extended by the American Tax Payer Relief Act of 2012, provides authority to enroll land in DCP, ACRE and CRP through Sept. 30, 2013, however, no legislation has been enacted to reauthorize or extend this authority. Effective Oct. 1, 2013, FSA does not have legislative authority to approve or process applications for these programs.


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Course descriptions from the 2017-2018 Catalog.
CULN 111 Introduction to the Culinary Industry (2)
Provides an overview of the culinary industry within the aspects of the entire hospitality industry. It provides students with an introduction to the historical, social, and cultural forces that have affected and shaped the industry of today. Students will identify job qualifications and opportunities, professional standards, communication skills, and attitudes essential for successful workers in the industry.
CULN 112 Sanitation and Safety (2)
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of food safety in the foodservice industry. Course content includes the study of food borne illnesses, the micro world, contamination, the flow of food through a foodservice operation including purchasing and receiving, storage, preparation and service, sanitary facilities, cleaning and sanitizing principles and pest management. Emphasis on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety system. Successful completion of this course will result in ServSafe certification from the National Restaurant Educational Foundation.
CULN 115 Menu Planning and Merchandising (1)
This course is a study of the factors involved in planning effective menus for a variety of food service operations. Course content includes basic menu planning principles, layout and design, factors that impact menu items selection, menu pricing, menu sales performance and mix analysis, and menu planning resources.
CULN 120 Fundamentals of Cookery (5)
This course focuses on the fundamental concepts, skills and techniques of cooking. Course coverage includes the use of standardized recipes, weights and measures, culinary tools and equipment, basic ingredients and their uses in cooking and basic cooking methods. Emphasizes the preparation of stocks, soups, sauces and lunch menu items.
Prerequisites: Completion of or concurrent enrollment in CULN 112 with a C or better.
CULN 125 Fundamentals of Cookery II (5)
This course focuses on the fundamental concepts, skills and techniques of basic garde manger, breakfast and short-order cookery skills. Content includes basic salads and salad dressings, the handling, storage and preparation of fruits and vegetables including decorative garnishes, cold food presentation using plates, platters and trays, basic egg and breakfast items including quick breads, and short order line cookery.
Prerequisites: Completion of CULN 120 with a grade of C or better and completion (with a grade of C or better) of or concurrent enrollment in CULN 112.
CULN 150 Fundamentals of Baking (5)
Application of scientific principles and baking theory to the production and evaluation of breads, pies, cookies and cakes. Course coverage includes terminology, ingredients, weights/measures, formula conversions and costing factors. Emphasis is placed on equipment use and maintenance, hygiene and work habits.
Prerequisites: Completion of or concurrent enrollment in CULN 112.
CULN 160 Dining Room Operations (5)
This course introduces students to food and beverage service. Course content includes basic service techniques, setup and organization of the dining room, service language and professionalism including dress, grooming and sanitation. Also covered is an introduction to alcoholic beverages and principles of responsible alcoholic service.
Prerequisites: Completion of or concurrent enrollment in CULN 112.
CULN 223 Contemporary Cuisines (5)
In a fast paced restaurant environment, students plan, organize, and prepare menu items typically served in an upscale dining establishment specializing in European, Asian, and American regional cuisine with an emphasis on contemporary menu trends, cross-cultural influences, flavor combinations and plate presentation. Students will develop an awareness of and utilize locally grown and produced ingredients.
Prerequisite: CULN 120 and CULN 125 or CULN 224 with a grade of C or better or instructor approval.
CULN 224 Asian/Continental Cuisine (5)
In this course students expand upon fundamental cooking skills and techniques and study regional cuisines. Students learn about traditional food ingredients and their uses, flavorings, regional cooking methods, and general characteristics of various cuisines. Emphasis is placed upon technique, speed, timing, plate presentation, organization and teamwork.
Prerequisite: CULN 120 with a grade of C or better or instructor approval.
CULN 240 Garde Manger II (3)
Building upon the fundamental knowledge of cold food preparation, this course covers the preparation of pates, terrines, galantines, canapés, hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, mousses and gelatins. Also covered are the techniques of cold food decoration, cold platter design and presentation and the design and planning of appetizer buffets.
Prerequisites: CULN 120 and CULN 125 with a grade of C or better or instructor consent.
CULN 269 Culinary Special Events (3)
Students participate as professionals in community and college sponsored culinary events. As part of interactive management teams, students will also plan, market, organize and produce special culinary themed events in the College's "The Pearl" restaurant.
Prerequisite: C grade or better in CULN 160 and CULN 223.
CULN 271 Purchasing and Cost Control (4)
This course is a study of the overall concept of purchasing and receiving practices and cost control systems associated with commercial restaurants, hotels and institutional settings. Content includes the flow of foods in a food service operation, purchasing methods, (purchasing, receiving, storing, issuing) legal and ethical considerations of purchasing, and controlling inventory and costs.
Prerequisites: CULN 111, MATH 100C with a C or better or instructor approval.
Rec Prep: CULN 112.
CULN 275 Human Resources Management and Supervision in the Hospitality Industry (2)
This course is designed to prepare students for the transition from employee to supervisor in a food service operation. Students will learn to identify and evaluate various leadership styles and develop skills in human relations and personnel management. Course content also includes employee training, motivation and evaluation techniques, laws and regulations that affect restaurant and foodservice operations, and employee benefits.
Prerequisites: CULN 160 with C or better or instructor consent.
Rec Prep: ENG 22 or ENG 24.
CULN 293E Culinary Externship (2)
This externship experience will provide students an opportunity to apply their professional and culinary skills in restaurant and hotel settings. Students will complete 150 hours to gain on-the-job experiences.
Prerequisite: CULN 150, CULN 160, CULN 223, CULN 224, and CULN 271 with a grade of C or better or instructor approval


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It's one of the most hotly contested parenting decisions any new parent will ever have to make: whether or not to let a new baby cry at night or comfort her at every whimper. On one side of the fence, you have the parents who say that allowing a baby to cry it out is akin to torture and teaches children that their parents will not be there for them when they need them. On the other side, you have parents who insist that the only way children will ever learn to sleep on their own is to be taught from day one to do so.
Now, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics lends credence to the theory that it is OK to let babies cry while trying to fall asleep. For the study, Australian researchers evaluated 225 babies between the ages of 7 months and 6 years old. They divided the participants into two groups, parents who were trained in what they called "sleep intervention techniques" and parents who were not.
These sleep intervention techniques included methods such as "controlled crying" whereby parents responded to their infant's cry at increasing time intervals. For instance, parents might let children cry for 30 seconds the first night before responding to their cries, then one minute, the second night, and so on and so on. Another technique is called "camping out," or "adult fading," where parents sat with their baby until the little one fell asleep, removing themselves earlier and earlier each night over a three-week period.
Parents in the control group were not taught the sleep training techniques and instead used their own methods for helping their children sleep through the night.
Over the course of the study, the researchers found that both the children and the mothers in the sleep training group slept better, and the mothers were less likely to experience depression and other emotional problems. I'm not sure why only the mothers were evaluated, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one that it was easiest to simply evaluate one parent per kid.
The researchers also looked at various mental and behavioral health factors to determine whether harm was done to children in the sleep training group. They evaluated children for sleep quality, stress and relationship with their parents and found no differences between children in the two groups, leading researchers to conclude that these sleep training techniques are safe to use.
Will this study settle one of the longest running debates in the history of parenting? Probably not. In the end, parents that are more comfortable responding to their babies cries will continue to do so. But maybe it will ease any guilt felt by desperate parents who need a good night's sleep and see sleep intervention techniques as their best chance for success.


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26 October, 2011
We were in the post-concert motorcade!!Strange, but true. My wife and I bolted during the last song of the show and were one of the first cars out of the parking garage. While waiting to turn west from 16th St onto Market St., some idiot decides to go around us before the traffic light gives us the green arrow. The light turns green, we start to turn west on Market and another car tries passing us, this time they pull out into the oncoming eastbound traffic. Ah Hell No! I floor it, not again. As were speeding down Market, we look over into this car to see who the hell is driving like such an ass. To our surprise, we are looking eye to eye with Bono and the Edge in the back seat of their S500. WTF!! Their car eases off the accelarator and files in behind us now. My wife and I look at each other, then quickly realize that the car that initially passed us in now directly in front of us and it is another S500 with Adam and Larry in the back. In front of them are police cars leading the motorcade. Looking behind us we also see a lot of police following Bono and the Edge's car. I decide it's probably not a good idea to stay in this motorcade too long, so I pull off and watch as Bono and the Edge fly by us with odd looks on their faces, closely trailed by many of STL's finest. We should have just stayed in the motorcade, gone to the hotel, and partied with them that night.
17 April, 2011
POST 9/11yes!!! the show came to my hometown, St. Lou!!! the world was DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT after 9/11 and so was the show!! I VIVIDLY remember Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses . And, the biggest memory is STREETS with the names of the victims scrolling - tears STREAMING down my face, as was true for everyone else!!! So, so emotional. Another magical night seeing my favorite band!!!


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From Our Blog ...
Accommodating the Whole Family in a Mexico Beachfront RentalAugust 31st, 2011
One of the biggest challenges to traveling with a large family is finding ways to accommodate everyone in a way that is affordable, fun, and bonding for everyone involved. It doesn't matter whether you're looking for a Mexico beachfront rental that is equipped for your young children, or if you're bringing together extended family from different locations around the globe, you want a place you can relax and enjoy one another's company — without getting on one another's nerves.
Here at Casa de la Sirena, we know how to reach that delicate balance of positive family time and a more private and serene setting in keeping with the tranquil Troncones backdrop. From the range of services we provide to various housing accommodations, we can customize a solution with your unique family in mind.
Accommodation Types in Your Mexico Beachfront Rental
Casa de la Sirena isn't the largest villa you'll find in the Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa region, but we are one of the most flexible ones. We offer private villas, mini-villas, bungalows, and complete compounds for use by you and your family.
These many different options mean that you can enjoy separate bedrooms, private pools, and private kitchens, as well as all the amenities you need to be comfortable. Spacious interiors and elegant décor mean that you can enjoy your time inside, and easy access to the outdoor facilities mean that there is plenty of time to spend at the beach, as well.
Most of our accommodations come with barbeque and wet bar options, as well as air conditioning, wifi options, and daily maid services. It's much like staying in a traditional hotel setting, but with more privacy, more options, and more of a focus on the tropical setting.
Activities Everyone Can Enjoy
When you travel with family, chances are that everyone will have a different set of priorities. Younger generations tend to want more action and activity, while others come solely to get the rest and relaxation they deserve. Still others might be here to explore the local town and to make the most out of the cuisine and music that make this part of Mexico so charming.
Our Mexican vacation villas make it easy for everyone to enjoy the thing they love the most. Because Troncones is such a small and quaint village, most local amenities can be accessed in just minutes. We are also located very near to Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, and regular transportation services to and from these cities mean that you can easily enjoy a day of upscale shopping or club hopping.
Troncones is ideal for small children, too, since the beach is so varied and accessible. From splashing in the waves and building sand castles on the shore to hunting for shells or watching the sea turtles hatch, there is more than enough to see and do here no matter what your age.
Additional Support and Services
If you have any additional needs for accommodating your family, whether it's coordinating travel schedules or addressing any special dietary or medical needs you may have, we encourage you to contact us with all your questions and concerns. We are more than happy to help you in any way we can, and to make your Mexico beach vacation as fun for the whole family as possible!


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bjmdds wrote:Jumanji is adding more theaters this weekend, is poised to be #1 again, whereas TLJ is removing 1142, and may drop to 5th What's with Jumanji?-----Broccoli's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is expanding to 9 theaters too
holy crap failing like this in China was unthinkable. Being pulled from theaters!Atticus wrote:The Last Jedi has bombed in China.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi suffered one of the worst second-weekend declines the Chinese box office has ever seen. The film's debut of $28.7 million was already viewed as disappointing, but its 92 percent plummet to just $2.4 million in weekend two was arguably alarming.
"The Last Jedi has already been completely pulled from cinemas here," Jimmy Wu, chairman of nationwide Chinese cinema chain Lumiere Pavilions, told The Hollywood Reporter by phone from Yancheng, a mid-sized city representative of the sorts of towns where the bulk of China's box-office growth is now generated. "It's performed much worse than we could have expected."
The Disney and Lucasfilm tentpole — North America's biggest movie of 2017, with a domestic total of $591 million and counting and a massive worldwide total of $1.27 billion — may now finish in China with less than $50 million, which would place it way down the list at around 50th place in last year's rankings, behind disappointments like Valerian ($62 million) and Geostorm ($65.6 million).
Kristatos wrote:Funny, I thought the lack of familiarity with the original trilogy, which was cited as the main reason for its failure, would be less of a problem with this film than with The Force Awakens.
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Fáilte. Our old world charm and elegance will captivate you from the moment you arrive. Dingle Benners Hotel is one of the most luxurious Dingle hotels, offering you the best of both worlds - traditional Irish warmth and comfort coupled with the best of modern facilities. Situated in the centre of Dingle Town, in the heart of West Kerry, Dingle Benners is regarded as one of the best located Kerry hotels, an ideal base for you to tour the magnificent Dingle Peninsula and surrounding areas.
Relax in the traditional atmosphere of Mrs. Benner's bar and sample the best in Irish cuisine. Afterwards you can retire to the comfort of one of our 52 luxuriously appointed guestrooms boasting luxury Dingle accommodation. With a wide range of top Kerry Restaurants available on your doorstep and plenty of activities and amenities nearby, Dingle Benners hotel in Kerry Ireland is the perfect holiday destination.