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Hard-luck stories are easy to come across in bars, and if Irish whiskey's doing the talking, that story can be very rough, indeed. With a pedigree stretching back centuries and a 100-year-old feather in its cap from the last time it was a global contender, Irish whiskey has had a run of bad luck longer than most would like to remember. But luck can change, and sometimes all it takes is a little good news to put everything right.
For the agreeable spirit of Irish whiskey, recent news has been pretty much nothing but good. Irish whiskey is one of the world's most venerable spirits, and at this time last century, it was vying for the title of the world's most widely consumed liquor. By 1920, however, the fortunes of Irish whiskey were spiraling downward, with war, economics and politics contributing to its run of bad luck. Today, Irish whiskey is back on the upswing, racking up more than a 20% increase in U.S. sales last year, continuing a recent trend that's the envy of marketers of other spirits, and placing the spirit on track for a much brighter future.
The growing appeal of Irish whiskey is relatively easy to explain. "Irish whiskey is so easily drinkable and so approachable," says F. Paul Pacult, a longtime observer of the spirits industry and publisher of the Spirit Journal. Pacult says Irish whiskey offers something unique in the whiskey world: a spirit that's distinctive and complex enough to satisfy whiskey connoisseurs, yet gentle and amicable enough for a whiskey novice to get to know. "Irish whiskey is solid and well made, and it offers tremendous taste and approachability," he says. "All of those things combined make something that's very easy to like."
Irish whiskey's resurgence also means drinkers are increasingly venturing beyond familiar blends, like Jameson and Bushmills, and are exploring the spirit's full range. "Most people just know the mixed, blended whiskeys, and they associate those with taking a shot on St. Patrick's Day and chasing it with beer," says Brandon Josie, bar manager at 15 Romolo in San Francisco. Josie says the bar has seen its clientele come around to Irish whiskey over the past couple of years, gravitating from shots of tequila or bourbon to Jameson and beyond. "Now they're starting to realize that there are these craft Irish whiskeys, and peated whiskeys like Connemara," he says. "It's partly that people are just getting into whiskey, but there's also an old-fashioned charm with Ireland, and I think that's part of it."
Although whiskey is made around the world, the alluring spirit traces its origins to the auld sod. Distillation may have taken place in Ireland as early as the 12th century, and even the word "whiskey" derives from the Gaelic uisce beatha, or "water of life."
Easy to make and formidably potent, early Irish whiskey was everywhere; one estimate gauges that in 1779, there were 1,200 distillers in Ireland, almost all of them unlicensed. In 1785, a tax on barley malt induced both legal and illegal distillers to include large amounts of raw, unmalted barley in their mash, a characteristic unique to Irish whiskey that remains a factor today (oats and rye also crept into the mash in large amounts, a practice that today is mostly obsolete). Irish distilling took a major blow in 1838, when Father Theobald Mathew's nascent temperance movement gained momentum, enrolling more than half the country's adult population within a few years; as a result, legal distillers consolidated into fewer, larger operations in an effort to stay in business.
Starting in the 1860s, misfortune in other parts of Europe improved the situation for Irish whiskey. Vineyards across France were devastated by a phylloxera infestation, which all but destroyed production of wine and brandy. Irish whiskey filled the spirituous void for a thirsty European public, and by 1900, it was the largest-selling spirit in England and had a robust export market in the United States.
This supremacy was short-lived. The First World War disrupted production and shipping; additional injuries came from Prohibition in the U.S., and from the Irish War of Independence (and subsequent civil war), which beginning in 1919 derailed exports of the spirit to England, leaving an opening for Scottish distillers who were only beginning to flex their marketing muscle. By the early 1960s, exports of Irish whiskey were practically nonexistent, and by the late '70s, Ireland accounted for only about 1% of the global whiskey market.
Today, Irish whiskey's fortunes seem to be changing, and bartenders such as Sean Muldoon give some of the credit to the spirit's biggest-selling brand, Jameson. Formerly the head bartender at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, Muldoon now lives in New York City, where later this year he plans to open the Dead Rabbit Tavern, a Victorian-style bar (named for a notorious 19th-century Irish immigrant gang familiar to readers of Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York) with a heavy emphasis on Irish whiskey.
"What Jameson has done is fantastic," Muldoon says. "It's resurrected a dying category of spirit." Muldoon says that around 10 years ago in Ireland, Jameson began promoting very simple whiskey drinks that could be replicated in any bar, in what turned out to be a successful effort to counter the growing dominance of vodka. Muldoon says a similar phenomenon is taking place in the U.S., with Jameson an increasingly popular choice for shots, especially among bartenders, a shift that's benefitting the larger category of Irish whiskey. "From what I've seen in America, Jameson is absolutely massive, and they sell tons of it in New York," Muldoon says. "It's become somehow glamorous to be drinking Jameson, and they've done what they set out to do. Now people are branching out; they're experimenting with brands like Redbreast and Midleton. Now there's a demand, and people are going back to Irish whiskey because they've rediscovered something."
Distilled Diversity
There are dozens of brands and bottlings of Irish whiskey, but currently all come from only three distilleries (Scotland, by comparison, has more than 90 operational distilleries). Bushmills in Northern Ireland traces its lineage to 1608 (the distillery was officially registered in 1784) and produces single malts and blends, including the rich and flavorful Black Bush blend. At the opposite end of the country, near Cork, the New Midleton Distillery produces Jameson, along with brands including Powers, Midleton, Redbreast, Tullamore Dew and Green Spot. The youngest distillery in the mix is Cooley, on Ireland's east coast. A former potato-alcohol plant, Cooley opened in 1989 and is the only independent, Irish-owned distillery in operation, producing exceptional whiskeys including Tyrconnell, Connemara and Michael Collins. (A fourth plant, the historic Kilbeggan Distillery—built in 1757, it holds the title of world's oldest distillery—was shuttered in 1953, but resumed production in 2007; while the whiskey is not yet available, a blended whiskey sold as Kilbeggan is produced at the Cooley Distillery.) These distilleries also make whiskeys bottled under other labels; Knappogue Castle, for example, was formerly produced at the (now defunct) B. Daly Distillery, but recent releases have been made at Bushmills and Cooley.
Laws stipulating how Irish whiskey may be made are generously all-inclusive of different recipes and distillation and aging techniques, and even rules of thumb have exceptions; the result is a category with plenty of room for creativity and expression. Most Irish whiskey is distilled three times in copper-pot stills (the exceptions are the whiskeys from Cooley, which, like most Scotch whisky, are double-distilled), which contributes to the spirit's soft, gentle flavor. Almost all Irish whiskey is made from barley; while Irish producers make rich, silky single malts, such as those from Bushmills, Michael Collins and Tyrconnell, and malt whiskey is at the core of blends from Bushmills, an important part of Irish whiskey's identity comes from single pot-still whiskeys (until recently known as "pure pot-still whiskey"), made from a mix of malted and unmalted barley. This single pot-still whiskey has a fruity, grassy character and forms the core of blends like Jameson and Powers and is bottled on its own in Redbreast and Green Spot.
Some of the most popular brands of Irish whiskey are blends of these richer-character spirits (whether single-malt or single pot-still whiskeys) mixed with lighter-character grain whiskeys, which are distilled on more modern column stills and which may be made from corn, wheat and other grains. Cooley Distillery even sells an aged single grain whiskey, Greenore, with no barley spirit in the mix.
Even though the Scottish island of Islay—the land of intensely smoky peated whiskies such as Laphroaig and Ardbeg—is only about 25 miles from northeast Ireland, Irish whiskeys typically aren't peated; exceptions include Michael Collins' 10-year-old Single Malt, which has a faint touch of smoke, and Connemara Single Malt, which is as big and burly as its Scottish brethren. As with most scotch, Irish whiskey is aged primarily in used bourbon barrels, though sherry casks, port pipes, Madeira barrels and other types of wood are increasingly being deployed to lend another layer of flavor to the finished whiskey.
These diverse approaches to Irish whiskey can be a little confusing at first, but for the consumer, it amounts to many choices. "Irish whiskey is perhaps the widest in latitude of the whiskey categories right now," says Pacult. Irish whiskey ranges in intensity from the smooth, mellow blends from Bushmills and Jameson, to more flavorfully potent spirits, such as Connemara, Redbreast, Jameson 18-year-old and Midleton Very Rare, which have fans among whiskey connoisseurs. "Whiskey veterans admire these older whiskeys from Ireland for their sheer delight and certainly for their complexity, which in some cases is massive," says Pacult.
At 15 Romolo, many guests may start with the familiar soft flavor of Jameson, but they soon move deeper into the whiskey catalogue; Josie says Knappogue Castle and Black Bush are among his favorites, along with the assertive smokiness of Connemara. For Muldoon, there's a wide gulf of difference between scotch whiskies and Irish, and the latter is more approachable to casual whiskey drinkers, even including the older, heartier whiskeys in the Irish canon. "I get a lot of peat and richness when I taste Scotch, and a lot of sweetness from American whiskey," Muldoon says. "To me, Irish whiskey is drier; it's more caramel-ey than a lot of scotch, a more rounded drink—and when you get into aged whiskeys, they're malty without being smoky or peaty, and they're very refined. An older whiskey like a 16-year Bushmills is something to sit over and enjoy."
Rainbow of Flavors
Although Irish whiskey was once widespread, the spirit seems largely to have been consumed on its own, and appears in relatively few classic cocktail recipes. Memorable classics in which Irish whiskey does appear include the Cameron's Kick, in which it's paired with blended scotch along with lemon juice and orgeat; and the Blackthorne, with vermouth and absinthe.
In preparation for an Irish whiskey–heavy menu at Dead Rabbit Tavern, Muldoon dug through numerous vintage bar guides, finding very few results. "I only came across maybe 25 Irish whiskey–based cocktails; some of them work, and others don't, and those that do are mainly Irish variations on a Manhattan," Muldoon says, noting the Tipperary, made with green Chartreuse, as one of the more appealing variations. With no deep well of classics to draw from, Muldoon is getting creative. Another drink that may be featured at Dead Rabbit Tavern is the Lamb's Wool, an original drink made with a purée of spiced, baked apple, Irish whiskey and oyster stout.
Other bartenders are similarly trying their hand at creative Irish whiskey cocktails. At Franklin Southie in Boston, the Lost Barrel matches Irish whiskey with gi
nger liqueur, lemon juice and demerara syrup, and at Dram in Brooklyn, the Hell's Ditch features both a blended Irish whiskey from Powers and the peated Connemara Single Malt, along with Bénédictine, crème de violette and the lightly bitter Cocchi Americano.
At 15 Romolo, Josie says the bartenders have been tinkering with Irish whiskey and have found how well its gentle, grain-rich flavor works with bitter herbal liqueurs and apricot and cherry liqueurs, such as in the Wilde Heart, a drink made with Black Bush, Cherry Heering and an Italian amaro that was recently featured at the bar. The classic match for Irish whiskey, of course, is a glass of beer. Over the past couple of years, however, an odd trend called the Pickleback—in which a shot of Irish whiskey is chased with a shot of pickle brine—took hold in bars in New York and quickly spread, with a special, unexpected popularity among bartenders. Muldoon says he's mystified by the whole thing, but that the Pickleback has its plus side. "I didn't get it at all, but it became kind of a cult thing," he says. "But now, Irish whiskey is getting into these bartenders' consciousness; now they're stocking Jameson 15, and talking pot-still whiskey with their customers."
From the approachable gentleness of blends to the richer character of single pot-still whiskeys, Pacult says there's a common connection. "There's this silver thread that connects all Irish whiskeys: they're all amazingly drinkable," he says. This combination of approachability and complexity makes Irish whiskey so distinctive, he says, and ultimately is the key to the spirit's renewed success. "Even the heavyweights, which are extremely complex, are very, very drinkable," he says. "There's not as huge a learning curve with Irish whiskey as there is with scotch, and at a time when younger people are becoming interested in spirits, that makes Irish whiskey very attractive. All along the journey, Irish whiskeys are always easy to drink, and they're friendly—just like the Irish."


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140 players, 40 percent of whom were from overseas, attended the annual four day tournament over the new year period in London. Mr Imamura from Hitachi presented the prizes including the camcorder presented to Matthew Macfadyen for winning the lottery. The event largely went well, run by Harold Lee and his team of helpers, apart from the first day when late registration and a software error on the computer delayed the first round.
In the lightning competition the winner was Miyakawa (6 dan F) who beat Zhang (6 dan UK) in the final. Marcus Keinappel (7 kyu) was third by beating Matthew Cocke (4 dan UK).
A rengo competition was won by the 4 dan strength team A: Rupel, Kashevnik, Rickard, Shepperson and Willems. At 13x13 the prizes went to Tom Blockley (9 kyu UK) for 10/13 and to Emil Nijhuis (4 dan NL) for 5/5.
In the main event after 6 round the Grand Prix points were awarded to: Guo, Zhang, Miyakawa, Gerlach, Colmez, Macfadyen, Laatikainen, Danek, Shepperson and E. Nijhuis in that order. The top four players then played knockout to determine the winner. Guo and Zhang survived to an exciting final which Shutai Zhang (the Chinese doctor from London) won despite losing their earlier match to Guo Juan. Three players were awarded joint third Miyakawa, Laatikainen and Danek.
The only player to win all his games was Jamie Harrod (22 kyu Brakenhale). S. Hurschka (16 kyu D) lost only one. Prizes for 6 wins went to T. Roth (18 kyu D), Richard Mullens (7 kyu UK), S. Kohonen (4 kyu SF), K. Poggenklas (4 kyu D), G. Bertram (4 kyu D), S. Duhr (1 dan F), S. Dilger (2 dan D), C. Nijhuis (3 dan NL) and to Martin Solity (4 kyu UK) for 5.5 wins.
On the day after the West Surrey Teaching Day is held the traditional handicap tournament. 51 players attended. Winner was Jay Rastall (2 dan London) who beat Alison Jones (2 dan Wanstead) in the final. Elinor Brooks (9 kyu Swindon) and Gerard Farrimond (30 kyu Epsom Downs) also won all four games. After a disputed result Suryan Stettner (10 kyu London) and Francis Weaver (14 kyu Brakenhale) were awarded prizes for 3.5. Eight other players won 3 games: Tony Atkins, Clive Wright, France Ellul, Roger Daniel, John Johnstone, Thomas Blockley, Steve Ashing and Claire Boxall. In the 13x13 prizes were won by Messers Atkins, Ings, Hamilton and Dowling. In the guess the baby photograph competition Colin Williams spotted the most familiar go players and John Johnstone was second (though he was one of them).
60 players attended the Allied Dunbar club, plus the players involved in the Title Match upstairs. Winner was Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead). Prizes for 3/3 went to: Harold Lee (4 dan London), Jay Rastall (2 dan London), Jonathan Chin (1 kyu Reading), Charles Bockett-Pugh (4 kyu West Surrey), George Haig (12 kyu Swindon), Pauline Bailey (16 kyu West Surrey), Jamie Harrod (25 kyu Brakenhale), Carl Bate (31 kyu Brakenhale) and Karen Graham (33 kyu Brakenhale). Oxford's Herman Marxer (1 kyu) won the 13x13.
26 players attended the third Three Peaks tournament held at the Arton Arms near Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales. Winner was John Rickard (4 dan Cambridge) with 5/5. With 4/5 were Tim Moon and David Bennett. Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead) got 3.5/5.
The 26th Wessex took place on the day the clocks went back, as usual. Not usual was the attendance of 124 - a recent record. First was T.Mark Hall (4 dan Bristol). Winners of the other divisions were: Paul Christie, Jo Hampton, Nick Wedd, Jiri Keller, Andy Seaborne, Dave King, Pete Johnson and James Harrod. The Hot Shots from the new club at Hursley in Hampshire won the team prize.
This was played at the Nippon Club's new location of Samuel House in St Alban's Street near Piccadilly. The home team won with a score of 20 ahead of CLGC (19), Wanstead (15) and China and friends (12). Two players in each team won all three games: T. Mark Hall, Jonathan Chetwynd, Edmund Shaw, Alan Thornton, H. Naka, G. Obayashi, Harold Lee and Z. Gan.
Matthew Macfadyen regained "his" goban trophy from club mate Des Cann by winning Shrewsbury again. Those who won three wins at the pleasant river-side venue were Tony Putnam (1 kyu), Brian Timmins (3 kyu), Emma Marchant (12 kyu) and Jamie Harrod (30 kyu). Tom Summerscales won the 13x13 and four teams were equal so no award was given.
The British Pair Go Tournament was held at the Compleat Angler Hotel in Marlow. It was sponsored via the IAPG Committee and so some good prizes were available. Winners of the Open section and hence to be the British representatives in Japan were Matthew Macfadyen and Kirsty Healey. They beat Francis Roads and Jackie Chai in the last round. Winners in the handicap section were Francis Weaver and Debbie Jones, Hannah and John Ellul (also the best dressed Youth Couple). Best dressed couple were Paul and Andrea Smith. Prizes in the novice section went to Yvonne Mao (playing with Paul Margetts) and Noel Leaver (with Sylvia Kalisch). 84 players attended.
70 players attended the event at the Open University. Winner was Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington). Prize winners for three wins were: Alison Jones (2 dan), Paul Barnard (1 kyu), Matthew Holton (1 kyu), Tony Warburton (1 kyu), France Ellul (4 kyu), Graham Brooks (12 kyu), Tom Summerscales (14 kyu), Francis Weaver (17 kyu) and Andrea Smith (30 kyu).
T.Mark Hall (4 dan Bristol) beat John Rickard (4 dan Cambridge) in the last round to finish ahead of the latter on tie-break to win the Red Rose Shield. Young Tom Summerscales (16 kyu Culcheth) was the only player to win all six games. Those on 5 were: Robin Hobbes (7 kyu Manchester) and Tony Pitchford (8 kyu Chester); Paul Hankin (1 kyu Cambridge) got 4.5. 51 players attended.
Japan beat the London locals 33-9, only three British players could manage two wins and none three.
The third biannual Isle of Man Go Week was a success. 48 players attended the main tournament and others played in the Pair Go and 13x13. Andrew Jones (3 dan Wanstead) surprised the reigning champion and club mate Francis Roads (4 dan) by beating him. Andrew went on to win the title despite losing to Tony Atkins (2 dan Wokingham) in the final round. 1. Jones (4/5) 2. Roads (4/5) 3. Atkins (3/5). Francis Weaver (22 kyu Brakenhale) won all five games. Players on 4/5 were Paul Smith (1 dan Cambridge), Claude Burvenich (1 kyu Belgium), Bart Fondour (2 kyu France), Paul Clarke (8 kyu Swindon) and Edward Marshall (16 kyu IOM).
Francis Roads managed to hang on to his afternoon title. Others win 3/3 were Bill Streeten (3 kyu London), Dave King (8 kyu Swindon), Paul Marshall (25 kyu IOM). Paul Hankin (1 kyu Cambridge) won 2.5/3.
In the handicap a four-way tie on five wins was resolved as weakest player wins: Francis Weaver (22 kyu) from Mark Harrod (10 kyu Brakenhale), Paul Donnelly (1 dan Belfast). Alison Jones (2 dan Wanstead). Pair Go champs were Paul and Andrea Smith who beat Colin Adams and Paul Hankin in the final. The Team Champs were the Wall Of Paul 2: Donnelly, Margetts, Barnard and Hankin. 13x13 Mike Charles (2 dan Stevenage) beat Jo Hampton (1 dan West Wales) and the play-off for the Continuous Lightning Mark Harrod beat Jo Hampton despite Jo winning more continuous games and beating Mark twice already. Note that all handicap games were Manx style with handicap plus one and 7 komi/grade if over 9 stones.
The social event this year was a coach trip and walk to the official go club cafe on a remote headland. The Wanstead Mushrooms won the quiz despite sitting in a dark conservatory. The day out saw trips to Peel and St Johns (official) and to Snaefell, Castletown and the southern cliffs (unofficial). Professional player Saijo Masataki was present until the Tuesday and worked very hard on teaching games, analysis and in lectures to the players. Our thanks go to the Isle Of Man players for a successful week and extending a warm welcome to any go players that drop in at any time.
20 players attended the first tournament held in a very sunny Totnes. Alistair Wall (4 dan) travelled by train from Wanstead to win the event. Also on 3/3 was local 12 kyu Rick Brennan.
The sun shone on the 40 players at the Welsh Open. Confusingly there were four F.Roads playing as the "Being Francis Roads" competition was open for the first time; it went on tie-break of facial hair to the 4dan version. As at Leicester Matthew Macfadyen was the easy victor. Mark Harrod (11 kyu Brakenhale) was also unbeaten. Prizes for four wins went to Simon Shiu (3 dan Teesside), Charles Leedham-Green (1 dan Wanstead), Colin Adams (1 kyu Preston), France Ellul (4 kyu High Wycombe) and Keith Osborne (13 kyu Wokingham).
This year a new feature was a quiz based around board games set to the teams in between rounds. Winners of this were Swindon. In the go Matthew Macfadyen (6dan Leamington) was unbeatable as expected. Other prizes went to Jo Hampton (1 dan West Wales), Stuart Brown (1 kyu Hull), Gary Quinn (2 kyu Teesside), Paul Clarke (5kyu High Wycombe) and George Haig (16 kyu Swindon).
After a gap of over 10 years Cambridge club resurrected the British Small Board Championship. Games on 13x13 are really quite hard especially as there was a continuous full-board lightning in between. Last times winner, Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead), won again despite some scares. The kyu players section was won by Paul Hankin and Tom Sommerscales. Richard Hunter over from Japan won the continuous lightning prize.
In order to catch up on missing years this was the second schools event in six months. Attendance was rather poor. The under 18 prize was not contested, so youth champion was the under 16 winner David King (1kyu Brakenhale). Under 14 winner was Emma Marchant, under 12 was Tom Blockley and Under 10 was Sophia Ellul. No one would compete against home team Brakenhale for the Castledine Trophy nor for the Lightning Championship, so Brakenhale became the clear holders of the claim to best school.
This event is usually dominated by the Wanstead 4-dans who fail to get in the Challenger's. This year was no exception as Francis Roads easily won with six wins. Joint second were two-dans Tony Atkins and David Ward at the top of the group on four. Prizes were awarded in bands to Neil Ghani (1 kyu Edinburgh), Simon Marlow (4 kyu Glasgow), Jim Thompson (6 kyu Leicester) and Nick Bethel (14 kyu Dundee).
Eight player all-play-all: Macfadyen 6, Cocke 5, Cann 4.5, Hall & Shepperson 4, Rix 3.5, Webber 1, Chetwynd 0.
This was not at ICL and not on FA Cup Final Day, but at a new rugby club venue with appropriate large photos on the wall to put you off your game. However T.Mark Hall was not distracted as he won with 3/3. Antonio Moreno (2 dan Bristol), Jo Hampton (1 dan West Wales), Andrew Ketley (3 kyu Cheltenham), Daniel Cox (6 kyu Brakenhale), Robert Finking (11 kyu) and Francis Weaver (30 kyu Brakenhale) also won 3.
The VE Bank Holiday say 36 players at Covent Garden battling for the right to play in the Challengers League with Messers Macfadyen, Cocke and Webber. The biggest battle was against the noise; apart from the usual buskers this year the fire bell, a parade of human insects and various WW2 aircraft fly-pasts had to be contended with. However the five on five who survived this were Cann, Hall, Rix, Shepperson and Chetwynd (who is still only 2 dan).
Another fast play event. This time six rounds, held in Darlington. Local player Simon Shiu won all six games ahead of Francis Roads. Richard Pearce (12 kyu) from Newcastle won 5/6.
At very short notice Wokingham Go Club hosted the second Thames Valley Team Tournament. It was too short notice for the home team to turn up and so out of the other 8 teams it was the Royal Standard (Beaconsfield) team that won (Jones, Hawdon and Jones) ahead of the Brakenhale Fellas and Furze Platt.
The Wanstead Go Club were the hosts of a very successful British at the delightfully rural location of Felsted School in Essex. The only minor panic was when insufficient sets were present to play the lightning, so Paul Barnard and Steve Bailey were awarded a prize for playing with a demonstration set of coloured glass stones. The rest of the lightning went as expected, but the final saw a shodan, Chris Dawson, playing Brakenhale Schools' 12 kyu Mark Harrod. In a very laid back game Mark won becoming the weakest ever British Lightning Champion.
If the lure of the sunshine and the pleasant surroundings did not tempt you outside there was the 13x13 event between games. Organiser Francis Roads won 9/10 but young Daniel Cox had a game- win product of over 500.
In the Main event visitor form Sweden Ulf Olsson won with 5 wins. Equal second were Harold Lee and John Rickard. The only player with all six games won was Culcheth's David Bennett (15 kyu). Three players won five: Simon Butler (1 kyu Reading), Wayne Walters (4 kyu Wanstead) and Paul Clarke (10 kyu High Wycombe). Prizes were also awarded to those with 4/6.
In the Stacey Grand Prix for 1994-1995 Alistair Wall was the clear winner of most games above the bar, and the Youth Grand Prix was won by David King for the second year running.
Another fast play, this time with five rounds. Matthew Macfadyen won the top Swiss Section ahead of Teesside's Simon Shiu (3 dan). The other groups were won by: 1. Toby Manning and Alan Thornton (2 dan); 2. Brian Ellis (1 dan); 3. Matthew Holton and Tony Warburton (1 kyu); 4. Paul Barnard (1 kyu); 5. Martin Harvey (2 kyu); 6. John Lowe (4 kyu); 7. Jim Edwards (8 kyu); 8. Nick Fortescue (8 kyu); 9. Paul Clarke (12 kyu); 10. Daniel Dowling (18 kyu). The best team were the Leamington Beards and Jo Hampton won the 9x9.
This fast play event over 8 rounds was held at Battersea Arts Centre and was won by Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead). Most other top players were in Dublin for the Irish Open.
Held in a rather stuffy Indian Restaurant, the CLGC team profited from the good food to win ahead of Wanstead, the Nippon Club and London University.
62 players attended the University Centre on a sunny spring day. Norwich's Matthew Cocke (4 dan) won beating Cambridge's Miss Xiashua Jiang in the last round. Winners on 3 were: J.Chetwynd, S.Goss, G.Mills, B.Allday, O.Riordan, D.King, R.Mullens and V.Milner.
Despite the original organiser and seven other go players missing the tournament for a skiing holiday, Wanstead went well. Winner was Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington) who beat London's Jonathan Chetwynd (2 dan) in the last round. C.Weeks of West Surrey won four games and prizes were also awarded to those with 2.5 or 3: Messers M.Hall, S.Barthropp, H.Lee, P.Collins, D.King, E.Hall, W. Walters, R.Mullens, R.Finking, J.Lewis and Miriam Brod and Emma Marchant.
Brakenhale School won the 1994 Team event again. Newcomers Commonweal School, Swindon, won the Lightning Championships.
Sponsored again by Hitachi Europe at their Maidenhead Headquarters. Won By T.Mark Hall (4 dan) who beat the sponsor and Macfadyen. Other with three wins: Andrew Grant (2 dan OU), Charles Leedham-Green (1 dan Wanstead), Simon Butler (1 kyu Reading), David King (2 kyu Brakenhale), Bill Rivers (2 kyu Oxford), Charles Bockett-Pugh (5 kyu West Surrey), Paul Clarke (13 kyu High Wycombe) and David Bennett (16 kyu Culcheath).

subset: commoncrawl


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On this date, the paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson discovered "Lucy", a 3.2 million-year old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, on the slope of a desert channel at Hadar located in Ethiopia.
The discovery of Lucy was a significant development in the search for clues to understanding hominid evolution. Lucy was unique in that, as she was a very old, primitive, and small hominid (human-like species) that did not fit into the known hominid types. She was also the oldest and most complete hominid skeleton that had been found. Although only 40 percent of the skeleton was recovered, bones from both sides of the body were present, allowing paleoanthropologists to reconstruct approximately 70 percent of her skeleton by using mirror imaging. With mirror imaging, existing bones are used to determine what the missing counterpart on the other side of the body looked like. Lucy's discovery confirmed the evolution of ape-like ancestors to human-like descendants.
When he was in high school, Donald Johanson was told by his guidance counselor to forget about going to college. The only son of a widowed Swedish immigrant mother who worked as a cleaning lady, Johanson had done so poorly on his SATs that the counselor did not believe he was capable of performing college-level work. Johanson ignored the counselor's advice, pursued higher education, and earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Johanson's books include Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind and, most recently, From Lucy to Language. Dr. Johanson hosted the Emmy-nominated NOVA television series In Search of Human Origins.


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As we developed technology and emerged from the jungle, it became one of the fundamental tenets of civilized social behaviour, one of the top ten commandments, if you will, that murder is to be prevented and the murderer punished. One can see a trend towards a general enlargement of those basic protections against murder until quite recently. A hundred years ago, the then most recent technological leap in mass murder, the use of chemical weapons, poison gases like chlorine and nerve agents like VX and sarin, was declared outlaw, and that prohibition was generally respected through another world war and beyond. We can only wish that nukes had been treated with similar disdain. After that second world war, and the holocaust that saw more than 6 million civilians murdered with industrial efficiency, the world declared never again would it allow state run mass murder.
In the Syrian conflict, we may be seeing a sorrowful reversal of this anti-murder trend. Certainly, we have witnessed the return of the state use of chemical weapons to commit mass murder. The Syrian government has been using prohibited chemical weapons to kill its own citizens, including children, since December 2012, and continues to do so today and tomorrow. The world looks the other way and no one steps forward to stop these murders. Assad can most likely enjoy another Springtime of killing with gas and no one stopping him, like a serial killer before there was law enforcement.
In a world where the US state of Oklahoma will go to barbaric lengths to make sure its murderers are not only tried and convicted but executed anyway they can manage it, state mass murder is an everyday occurrence in Syria, as demonstrated by another school bombing reported by AP today. This sort of thing is not civil war, or anti-terrorist war, or any kind of war waged without criminal intent. This sort of thing is simply murder:
The Aleppo Media Center said 25 were killed, most of them children.
Airstrike on Syrian school kills 19, activists say
30 April 2014
Diaa Hadid
BEIRUT (AP) - A Syrian fighter jet struck a school with a missile in the northern city of Aleppo Wednesday as teachers and students were preparing an exhibit of children's drawings depicting their country at war, killing at least 19 people, including 10 children, activists said.
Bulldozers removed rubble from the smashed building, with children's drawings and paintings scattered in the debris, according to activist videos of the government airstrike on a school in the opposition-held eastern part of the city. One of the drawings showed a hanging skeleton surrounded by skulls with a child nearby being shot by a gunman in a ditch. The child has a speech bubble written above her head in broken English that partly reads: "Syria will still free."
In another video by opposition activists, the bodies of 10 children wrapped in brown and blue sheets are seen on the floor of a hospital ward while a woman screams in the background.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to Associated Press reporting of the events. More...
|Ein Jalout school was flatten by the attack
|Inside Ein Jalout school. Blood on the desks
|Chips & Candy Bars in Blood - after the bombing of Ein Jalout school
This is how we should allocate all these deaths that have occurred in Syria since people first took to the streets in peaceful protests in the beginning of 2011 and we now have dramatic new insider testimony as to how Bashar al-Assad decided to use murder as his chief tool in meeting the protests.
On Monday NORIA published the testimony of General Ahmed Tlass, who was a senior police chief with 20 years experience in the Syrian regime before he defected. This is how he describes the beginning of what would become the Syrian Revolution:
What is known as "the explosion of March 15, 2011," actually began several years ago in Syria. In the months preceding the revolution, writings – leaflets and graffiti – had emerged, either distributed or drawn on walls, around Damascus and on the walls at the Ministry of the Interior. There was no mention of regime change. All people wanted was the implementation of genuine reforms and they demanded the rights and freedoms that they felt deprived of. For a long time in our country, young people and students, between 18 and 30 years old, had suffered from unemployment. They were unable to establish a family life. We had also for a long time, a large population of prisoners. They were not criminals but opponents. Their families did not understand why they had been arrested and they demanded to be released.He notes that from the beginning, the regime was presented with two fundamentally different approaches to the mass protests:
Some members of the intelligence services thought that it would be better to let these demands find expression to ease the tension. They were not in fact unfamiliar with this multiplication of leaflets and posters. Others felt on the contrary, that it was preferable to put an end to a movement that could expand and radicalize as soon as possible.Tlass tells us Syria is really run by a state within the state, in which Bashar al-Assad personally controls the most important functions:
I must say a few words here about the decision making process in Syria. Everyone has heard of the Crisis Management Division, established at the beginning of the uprising and placed under the formal authority of the Assistant Regional Secretary of the Baath Party. Everyone also knows that the Syrian Ministry of Defence develops plans regularly to protect the country from aggression. What nobody knows, however, is that there is another instance of decision. It does not officially exist. It does not include the Minister of the Interior, or the Minister of Defence. It never acts in broad daylight but in the shade and this is where the decisions are made.So how did this committee without a name, headed by Bashar al-Assad, elect to handle the protests?
It is here that strategy is defined, not with the Crisis Management Division. It consists of officers from different services, selected one by one, by name, who are specifically assigned to their tasks and who work at the Presidential Palace. This committee, if one can call it such, since it has no name, is headed by Bashar al-Assad in person. And it is his will that prevails.
In the spring of 2011, it would have been possible to contain the protest movement that later developed in the country. But for this to happen it would have been necessary to listen to the protesters' demands, in Daraa, Homs, Hama, it would have been necessary to bring reasonable answers that would have allowed them to believe in a resolution of their grievances. Instead, violence was used against them. A violence that their behaviour did not justify.He goes on to describe how violence "erupted" in Hama in 2011:
In Homs, the General Mounir Adanov, Deputy Chief of Staff, and a general named Ali, a deputy director of the Military Security whose name I cannot recall, had been asked to restore order. But some radical Alawite officers, I am sorry to speak in a way that I disapprove, "wanted blood". The former gave instructions not to open fire unless express orders from them were given. The latter therefore petitioned the local Police Chief, General Hamid Mer'ei. He refused to give them a power that was not in his prerogatives to give. I must add immediately that as a result of his refusal to give the order to fire on the demonstrators, General Adanov and the other General, were later dismissed for "health issues". Their extremist colleagues had got them, and they were publicly bragging about it.
General Ali Habib, the Minister of Defence, who had refused to give the army the order to enter Hama, after opposing their entry into Daraa, experienced the same fate for the same reasons. It was said he was "sick". I saw him afterwards. He was in fine health. All the other advocates within the government of a moderate strategy were gradually marginalized.
To illustrate my point, here is what happened in Hama. The people of this city were peaceful and friendly. I know this because I lived and worked there for many years. They refused to resort to arms, the same as the people of Homs and other cities too. Traffickers and traders, whose names I know but I do not want to mention here, offered them weapons at any price that suited them. But they refused. They wanted to make a stand with words and not violence. They had rights and they maintained their claims that they wanted to be heard. They did not want to express themselves in armed confrontation. And they were willing to accept the consequences of their decisions. On July 1st 2011, the day of a huge gathering attended by perhaps half a million people, they unfurled a huge Syrian flag. They also erected a gallows for the "criminal" Bashar al-Assad, which they later removed.This order to commit mass murder came from this shadowy state-within-a-state, criminal even by Syrian law, that is headed by Bashar al-Assad.
I was there that day, on the terrace of the local Baath party headquarters, along with the political, administrative, military and security heads of the city. Governor Ahmed Abdel-Aziz was there, a very respectable man, the Commander of the Police, General Mahmoud Sa'oudi, the head of Military Security, Mohammed Muflih and the branch secretary of the Baath. Men responsible for ensuring security were gathered downstairs, in the same building. They watched the protest. The Governor had expressly forbidden anyone to open fire. All the previous protests had been held in peace. In fact, after the demonstrations, young people returned to the protest spots with brooms to clean up the streets.
The protest happened in front of us without any incident. None of the protesters were armed. But when the crowd reached Orontes Square, about 300 meters from where I was standing, gunfire erupted. According to an investigation by the police to which I had access, it came from twenty people, 22 to be precise from the Military Security, who had been joined by one member of State Security. All were Officers and all were Alawite Kurds. They had been transported to Al-Yaroubieh, then dispatched and hidden in different places. Mohammed Muflih was as startled and angry as I was regarding this unjustifiable intervention. It violated all instructions and it resulted in dozens of deaths. Since none of us had authorized this intervention – who had given the order?
So, the 23 men I mentioned above were transferred elsewhere without any proper investigation, and most importantly, without being condemned for what they had done. The same thing happened in Homs, a large number of peaceful citizens were killed in identical conditions.Tlass's state within a state is nothing less than a criminal gang, headed by the Assad family, that is running a country and this criminal gang is even today, after three years of carnage, being allowed to commit mass murder into the six figures on its subject population. The prospects for humanity are not good if that is what passes for rule of law on this planet.
Young people gathered on April 18 for a sit-in in the centre of the city, at the base of the old clock. All officials involved in security were at the Police Head Quarters, close by. Envoys went to negotiate with those who occupied the square to convince them to evacuate. They were a few thousand demonstrators, between 5,000 and 10,000 perhaps. They refused to leave. In the middle of the night, we held a meeting with General Mounir Adanov, who was already there, to decide what was to be done. We asked the young people once more to leave the square, taking any route they wanted. But while talks continued, officers of mukhabarat jawwiyeh – the Security Service of the Air Force – which had been dispatched from Damascus to "disperse the thugs" began to spray the crowd with bullets. They killed dozens of people. They were obeying orders to shoot on sight that were given by senior security officials.
Once again we are speaking about invisible forces, but powerful enough to give direct instructions to the members of their organization. These members are agents from diverse intelligence services. They can also come from other departments, such as Education. It is, no more no less, as I have said, a state within the state.
Tlass also tells us about Assad's history of using false-flag attacks, as could be expected of a criminal gang. This practise of staging attacks and blaming the opposition must always be remembered when considering the claims of the Assad regime about deaths caused by the revolutionaries:
I must now say a few words about the indiscriminate attacks that occurred in Damascus at the end of 2011 and in early 2012. I can confirm that all these spectacular operations were carried out by the regime. And if not all of them, very nearly all of them. You can take this as reliable and corroborated information. Either way I will only speak here of attacks for which I have first-hand information, transmitted by officers who conducted the investigation. I'm not talking about ordinary officers, but members of the secret cell I mentioned previously.Although Assad was forced to give up most of his most portent chemical weapons stores in return for a waving of consequence for nine months of sarin use, it is becoming increasingly clear that he has more recently returned to committing mass murder with chemicals. This was reported in The Telegraph Tuesday:
The first attack took place December 23, 2011, outside the headquarters of the Kafr Sousseh State Security. Others followed, on March 17, 2012, outside the headquarters of the Air Force's Intelligence Service, the mukhabarat jawwiyeh, and in front of the Criminal Safety Department.
Regarding the attack against the Air Force's Intelligence Service, it should be noted that the building was empty. It was guarded, but in advance of the attack, it had been emptied of its furniture and the occupants evacuated. As surveillance cameras attest, the minibus that exploded in front of its wall was parked there for two days before it exploded… We were presented with the bodies of 25 victims on the television. Two or three, at most, were killed in the attack. Unfortunately they were just passing by. Some residents of the nearby Christian area – Qasaa – had been traumatized by the sound of the explosion. Others were injured by flying glass. But none of them had been killed. As soon as the Minister of the Interior reached the scene with the heads of various intelligence services he inquired to the losses suffered by the Christians. When he heard that no Christians had died in the explosion, he exclaimed: "What, there are no Christians among the victims. That's impossible – none of them are dead?" as if, in fact, the operation had failed because its objective was to terrorize the community by killing some of its members!
One of the attacks on the 23 December 2011 had targeted the headquarters of the so-called Far' al-Mintaqa of the State Security (General Intelligence). Minutes after the explosion, General Rustom Ghazaleh, head of this branch, was on site. State media claimed the operation had killed 45 people, a record. But I can assure you that the majority of people believed to have died at that time were in fact killed elsewhere and otherwise.
Also on Tuesday, the Guardian reported:
Syria chemical weapons: the proof that Assad regime launching chlorine attacks on childrenExclusive: Scientific analysis of samples from multiple gas attacks in Syria shows Assad regime still launching chemical weapons attacks on children, The Telegraph can reveal
By Ruth Sherlock
29 Apr 2014
President Bashar al-Assad is still using chemical weapons against civilians, a scientific analysis of samples from multiple gas attacks has shown.
In the first independent testing of its kind, conducted exclusively for The Telegraph, soil samples from the scene of three recent attacks in the country were collected by trained individuals known to this news organisation and analysed by a chemical warfare expert.
Our results show sizeable and unambiguous traces of chlorine and ammonia present at the site of all three attacks.
The use in war of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases" - both of which can be produced by chlorine and ammonia - is banned by the Geneva Protocol, of which Syria is a signatory.
The attacks, which in some cases used canisters marked with their chemical contents, were conducted by helicopter. In the Syrian civil war, only the regime has access to aerial power, making it now certain that the recent chemical attacks could only have been carried out by the regime, not the opposition. More...
These new poison gas attacks have been going on for some time now, since February, and yet they have received little notice in the US mainstream media, there has almost been a media blackout on these attacks. Why is that and what will Bashar al-Assad conclude from the silence?
Chemical weapons body to investigate claims of chlorine gas use in SyriaUS and France believe gas has been used at least nine times since February, killing scores and wounding hundreds
By Martin Chulov
29 April 2014
The global body supervising the surrender of Syria's chemical weapons is to investigate fresh claims that a less dangerous – but still lethal – chlorine gas has been used in recent attacks on opposition areas.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has announced it will investigate allegations that chlorine has been used at least nine times since February, killing scores of people and wounding hundreds more.
The move follows intensive lobbying from the US and France who have both indicated in the past fortnight that they believe the Syrian government has been responsible for the attacks.
Activists have chronicled the aftermath of all the incidents and, in some cases, shot video of helicopters dropping large explosive barrels that emitted noxious clouds across areas in which residents showed symptoms of being exposed to gas. More...
There is a Holocaust in #Aleppo #Save_Aleppo #SaveAleppo #Syria #سوريا pic.twitter.com/S20Jfm2Mt7
— كلنا حمزة الخطيب (@HamzaAlshaheed) April 4, 2014
Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria


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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
And We're Back..... Introducing Family ChArtist
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to introduce you to our new Genealogy Chart tool--Family ChArtist. The most powerful, easy to use, fantastic, amazing, wonderful way to make a genealogy chart--easy, fast, inexpensive and even free. (Nope, I'm not excited about it ;-)) Watch here every day over the next couple of weeks you'll be all ready to give it a try yourself. We'll be announcing the release date next Monday the 22nd.
So to start out with, let me show you some of the charts coming out of this new tool.
And if you don't see what you want yet, stay tuned, we're just getting started. You'll be in charge and we'll be showing you how you can create anything you want. See you tomorrow.
9 comments:
- Becky Jamison said...
This is really exciting..I'll be watching for further news! Thanks, Janet.
- February 17, 2010 at 6:00 PM
- James Tanner said...
Really lovely charts! Good job.
- February 17, 2010 at 8:29 PM
- Sheri Fenley said...
Wow! Will you be at NGS Conference in Salt Lake City in April?
- February 18, 2010 at 3:10 AM
- Nappycp said...
I hope you will create a foundation root tree that can be built up from our ancestors. We want the first recorded married (1865)great-grandparent ancestors at the BASE of the tree, their 11 children the branches, and the grandchildren the limbs, and leafs. We don't want to show any spouses. The chart will be displayed at our annual Family Reunions. It feels more like a living tree as we grow upward.
- February 18, 2010 at 1:15 PM
- Unknown said...
Keep 'em coming!
- February 18, 2010 at 1:26 PM
- Janet Hovorka said...
Absolutely. We will be at NGS with a bank of computers and one of our plotters to be able to print charts from Family ChArtist on the spot.
At this point a chart like you describe would be one of our custom charts. While we are rolling out Family ChArtist with limited capability, future layouts like you describe are in the works for later. But with our custom chart service we can do virtually any design you can dream up.
- February 18, 2010 at 3:58 PM
- Anonymous said...
The variety of possibilities for these charts is endless. I do have a question about the background images. Will those background colors be softly muted so as not to overwhelm and compete with the family data added?
- February 18, 2010 at 5:25 PM
- Anonymous said...
The charts are great!! Keep up the good works.
- February 19, 2010 at 12:38 PM
- Noi said...
Hi Janet - I emailed you but will leave a comment just in case it goes to spam. Is there any way I can get in touch with the person whose family is represented on the chart with the photo with the building and men in the background? I think I may be a relative through the Hattons/Hattens of Gravesend, Kent.
They can email me at email@example.com
- February 19, 2010 at 3:50 PM


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The Style 2610 Chest is the most recognizable and sought after design by Gerstner since its introduction in the 1930's.
The Style 2610 Chest incorporates the timeless look and drawer layout of the Style 52 with added overall height and depth (front to back) for more usable storage. The drawers have also been upgraded with pre-machined slots added to the front, sides and back to accommodate dividers. The center drawer, which was traditionally used to hold a Machinist's Handbook, can be upgraded to a locking drawer for additional security and peace of mind. The drawers also feature backplates behind the knobs for a truly classic look.
The taller and deeper drawer sizes makes it a great chest to hold and display just about anything. The top compartment and all ten drawers are felt lined to provide extra protection for your possessions. The front panel is fitted with a sliding hinge so that it may be stowed beneath the bottom drawer. In the closed position, the front panel covers the drawers and can be locked to provide total security.
The B2705 base expands your storage capacity while only taking up a few more inches of bench or desk space.
|Overall Size
|26"Wide x 17-1/2"Tall x 10-5/8"Deep
|Empty Weight
|xx Lbs
|Top Well Dimensions
|24-7/8" x 3" x 9-1/2"
|Drawer Dimensions #01
|(4) - 9-1/8" x 1-1/8" x 7-5/8"
|Drawer Dimensions #02
|(2) - 9-1/8" x 2-1/8" x 7-5/8"
|Drawer Dimensions #03
|(1) - 3-1/2" x 5-1/8" x 7-5/8"
|Drawer Dimensions #04
|(2) - 24-1/8" x 1-1/8" x 7-5/8"
|Drawer Dimensions #05
|(1) - 24-1/8" x 2-1/8" x 7-5/8"
2610/B2705 Chest and Base Set
- Brand: Gerstner
- Product Code: 2610/B2705
- Availability: In Stock
Available Options
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Tags: 52, golden oak, journeyman chest, machinist, handbook drawer, tool chest, top chest, traditional


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The Tulsa League of Women Voters is the hub for non-partisan, reasoned information for voters.
We provide candidate information, election updates, nonpartisan issue overviews, position papers and more.
Get Informed!
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Sign up for the monthly Tulsa Voter e-newsletter. Send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Missing Summer Campstevejb68 on July 8, 2012 in Activity, camping, summer camp
Personal items have been packed. The troop gear has been loaded. The freshly uniformed Scouts have chosen their rides. The vehicles have left town. Boy Scout Troop 68 is on its way to a week of camping at Many Point Scout Camp in northern Minnesota. I am sitting at home writing this blog. Yes, that is correct. For the first time in many years I am not joining the troop for a week of camping at Many Point Lake.
I attended my first week of camp as an adult leader in 1981. I was an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 68. We attended Crow Wing Scout Camp near Nevis, Minnesota. If I remember correctly, about a dozen boys attended that year. It was a good week. Both the Scouts and the adult leaders had a great time.
The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 have attended a long term camp every summer since that year. The first years were at Crow Wing. In the later 1980's we tried Tomahawk Scout Camp in Wisconsin and Many Point Scout Camp. In the early 1990's Many Point Scout Camp became our summer camp, by decision of the Boy Scouts.
I have not attended every year of summer camp since 1981, but I have been on a long term camp with the Scouts each year. There have been five treks at Philmont Scout Ranch, a trip to the High Knoll Trail in Virginia, a week of adventure at Charles Sommers Canoe Base, and a stay at the 2001 National Jamboree. The assistant scoutmasters and fathers picked up the summer camp duties while I attended the high adventure bases with the older Boy Scouts.
I retired as the troop's scoutmaster at the end of 2011. I told the committee and the parents that I would not be attending summer camp this year. My assistant scoutmaster of 24 years, Eymard, would be going to camp again, but someone else would need to fill the position of the second adult leader. Luckily we have a new 18 year old assistant scoutmaster, Darren, who decided to attend since none of the parents stepped forward to fill the slot.
I do have mixed feelings about staying home this year. I would like to be a part of the boy's summer camp experience, but I also need to break away from the troop and start doing my own thing. For gosh sakes, I am 52 years old! It is time to start doing something with my life other than Scouting.
Isn't it?
Well, maybe I will go up Friday and see how things are going, and watch the closing campfire.


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Savoy Brown
Part of the late-'60s blues-rock movement, Britain's Savoy Brown never achieved as much success in their homeland as they did in America, where they promoted their albums with nonstop touring. The band was formed and led by guitarist Kim Simmonds, whose dominating personality has led to myriad personnel changes; the original lineup included singer Bryce Portius, keyboardist Bob Hall, guitarist Martin Stone, bassist Ray Chappell, and drummer Leo Manning. This lineup appeared on the band's 1967 debut, Shake Down, a collection of blues covers. Seeking a different approach, Simmonds dissolved the group and brought in guitarist Dave Peverett, bassist Rivers Jobe, drummer Roger Earl, and singer Chris Youlden, who gave them a distinctive frontman with his vocal abilities, bowler hat, and monocle. With perhaps its strongest lineup, Savoy Brown quickly made a name for itself, now recording originals like "Train to Nowhere" as well. However, Youlden left the band in 1970 following Raw Sienna, and shortly thereafter, Peverett, Earl, and new bassist Tony Stevens departed to form Foghat, continuing the pattern of consistent membership turnover. Simmonds collected yet another lineup and began a hectic tour of America, showcasing the group's now-refined bluesy boogie rock style, which dominated the rest of their albums. The group briefly broke up in 1973, but re-formed the following year. Throughout the '80s and '90s Simmonds remained undeterred by a revolving-door membership and continued to tour and record. Their first album for the Blind Pig label, Strange Dreams, was released in 2003. Steel followed in 2007 from Panache Records. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide


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Google's Nexus 4 sold out in only minutes at the Google Play store, while at least one report said that the Netherlands' launch was canceled to free up inventory elsewhere -- but it's still unknown if it was for the United States.
But don't we think it probably was? Well, yeah. Both the 8GB and 16GB versions of the phone were sold out by the end of Tuesday. Similar stories were told in the UK and Australia, but as of yet we don't have any hard numbers on what that all means.
U.S. & World
The Nexus 4 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and, like all Nexus machines, are free of bloatware and the first to receive system updates, according to InformationWeek. It's also being sold for $299 for the 8GB model and $349 for the 16GB model, both unlocked and without a carrier contract. However, it lacks desirable LTE support.
Still, it does offer a 4.7-inch, 1280 by 768 pixel display, a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2 GB of RAM. There's also an 8 mega-pixel camera with 1080p HD video playback.
While this is no iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 does fulfill a needed niche in the smartphone market -- an independent one free of carrier contracts. But wouldn't be a lot nicer with LTE?


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Results tagged ' division series '
53 possible matchups
Matthew Leach sits right here next to me at the MLB.com HQ in NYC and he also was the first of our MLB.com reporters to start an MLB.com Blog, Obviously You're Not a Golfer, back in 2005. He has done a lot of things first for us, so it wasn't a surprise to me that he just became the first person to actually start listing all the possible Division Series matchups. There are at least 53 by his count, which is a pretty graphic way of showing just how out-of-control intense these final days are going to be, right through another final Wednesday, any possible play-in tiebreakers, and the first-ever Wild Card playoff games in both leagues. Take a look at his list and see if you're team's on it, check out Matthew's columns, and while you're at it, read my story about Best Night Ever, share it on Facebook and Twitter, and say a Happy Birthday to a sequence of 2011 games that made most of us scream.
Who's ready for an unbelievable finish to this regular season, and who's posting about it?
Stay tuned for the MLB.com Latest Leaders for September after the weekend…and thanks to everyone for the great response to our callout to be part of our brand-new series, "Meet the Bloggers." Many of you already have left comments here requesting to be featured with a Q&A, and right now the main priority is seeing who we can interview on camera out at the ballpark — while the ballparks are still open! Let me know in the comments if you are planning to be at any of the MLB ballparks between now and the end of the regular season. We probably can do some during the Postseason but it will be more hectic then. See previous post for more.


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City of Plymouth, MNHome Menu
Water Restrictions
Know and Follow Outdoor Water Restrictions
Water Restriction Hotline: 763-509-5512
Plymouth has restrictions on outdoor water use from May through September. Restrictions include an odd-even schedule and a midday ban. Plymouth prohibits outdoor lawn watering from noon to 5 p.m. on all days. At other times, water customers must follow an odd-even schedule when sprinkling lawns.
Homeowners and businesses with addresses ending in an odd number may water on odd numbered calendar days. Those with addresses ending in an even number, may water on even numbered days. The restrictions apply to all city water customers. Automatic irrigation systems should be adjusted accordingly.
State law also requires that all new irrigation systems be installed with rain sensors so the system shuts off when it's raining.
City water customers may wash vehicles and do hand-held hose watering of shrubs, flowers and trees on any day and at any time if the hose has a nozzle with automatic shutoff.
If you have new sod, seed or landscaping, you do not need to follow the odd-even restrictions during the first 30 days after planting. You must, however, still abide by the midday ban from noon to 5 p.m.
The restrictions do not apply to people who use sources of water other than the city water system.
Organizations that need to irrigate turf to prevent damage due to frequent use may submit a written request for an exemption. The restrictions also make an exception for residential users who intermittently use their outdoor water system exclusively for recreational use, such as children running through a sprinkler.
The penalty for violating restrictions is $100 for each day of violation. In the event of a violation, you will receive one written warning before you are penalized. Please keep in mind that if you have an irrigation system that is not functioning properly or is misaligned and water is spraying in the street, you could receive a notice of violation.


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Jules Verne, Comp Sci Education, and the Humanities
I'm just finishing up the "lost" Jules Verne sci fi opus, Paris in the 20th Century. Verne's publisher Hetzl, having just printed Five Weeks in a Balloon, refused the manuscript. He was put off by Verne's 1960 Paris (100 years in the future), where people spoke in neologisms cointed from technical pursuits (!!) and seemed to have abandoned the arts for the sciences,a truly phillistine Paris made over in the image of ... America (yes, the French made sport of us even in 1863).
Verne got a lot of things wrong. The Paris commuter trains run underground today, not elevated as Verne envisioned. Working people in the 20th century's industrial society didn't shun painting and sculpture, they gobbled them up voraciously and uncritically to the degree they could afford them.
But Verne was correct in the major theme of the book, to wit, that the industrial and technological advances of the 20th century would lead to a neglect of the humanities in the educational system.
Many young professionals whom society today views as educated seem unable to distinguish bald assertion from presenting a proposition and proving it. They seem never to have read enough literature of previous centuries to recognize that it is a tenet of western civilization that one listen respectfully to and subsequently credit as worthy of consideration a debate opponent's position.
O, young technorati, (or even old technorati, many of whom come to mind as I think of persons desperately in need of some quality time reading non-technical literature): pursue ye the humanities!
Think you're going to be big stuff in the tech world? Read Sinclair Lewis (Babbit). Read Balzac (Eugenie Grandet). Read Zola (Money), or Thackeray (Vanity Fair), or Trollope (The Way We Live Today).
Think you're smart? Read the Bible. Read Plutarch's Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans, or his essay "On Becoming Aware of Moral Growth". Read George Fox, George MacDonald, or the adult science fiction novels of C. S. Lewis (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength).
Wonder where the world is going? Read history: Tacitus, Suetonius, Gibbon. Harry S Truman, (with a bare high school diploma yet possibly the best-educated and best-prepared U.S. president of the 20th century), said the study of history aided a man of affairs because "circumstances change constantly, but human nature doesn't change very much".
Tech you can swot up off the web after you graduate. Take advantage of those golden undergraduate years of extended adolescence to study the humanities!


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Napoli, Kendrick searching for hits
The focus has been on Vladimir Guerrero the past few days in his return from a torn pectoral muscle, but deeper struggles are ongoing with Mike Napoli and Howard Kendrick, two of the Angels' most lethal offensive weapons.
Napoli, mired in a 1-for-24 slump, was not in the lineup on Saturday night. Jeff Mathis got the call behind the plate against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, a man Mathis has homered twice against.
Napoli was on fire in the designated hitter role, but a return to full-time catching has coincided with an offensive slumber. He lined out to center in his first at-bat on Friday night against lefty Jason Vargas before striking out twice and popping up.
Napoli's average has fallen to .275 with six homers and 18 RBIs in 131 at-bats. Mathis is batting .229 and has 12 RBIs without a homer in 70 at-bats.
"Nap is a dangerous guy in that batter's box," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He can hit the ball out to all parts of the field, and he has a good eye. Right now, he's just having a little trouble squaring up some pitches that he had been hitting."
After showing signs of breaking out on the road trip to Texas, L.A. and Seattle, Kendrick is hitless in 11 at-bats on the homestand, his average plunging to 229. He came into the season with a .306 Major Leager batting average after hitting .360 in the Minor Leagues.
Maicer Izturis got the start at second after Kendrick grounded out twice and struck out on Friday night.
"It's a little spotty," Scioscia said of Kendrick's progress. "At times it looks like he's making some strides. And there are times he looks a little frustrated, trying to do too much with pitches rather than square it up. He's working hard. It's something Mickey [Hatcher] is paying attention to. Hopefully, some hits will start to fall."
Meanwhile, in Triple-A Salt Lake, versatile Sean Rodriguez is getting a lot of hits to fall — more than a few landing beyond walls. He has 17 homers and 50 RBIs with a .280 average through 46 games, slugging at a .652 clip.
"Sean started slowly, but he's been putting some great swings on the ball," Angels reliever Rich Thompson said, having played alongside Rodriguez in Salt Lake before getting called to Anaheim. "I've seen Howie when he gets hot, too, and pitchers can't do anything with him. He hits shots everywhere. That will come, I'm sure. He's too good a hitter."
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Sean finished off the month of May with a homerun yesterday afternoon, setting a Salt Lake franchise record for HRs (12) in one complete month. BTW, no one in the PCL brought in more RBIs, 35, during the month of May, and this magic number is just one short of the franchise record for RBIs/month set by Todd Walker (1996, Minnesota Twins affliliation).
Something tells me Rodriguez is going to be rewarded as Organizational Player for May. And perhaps a call-up? . . .BeesGal . . . http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/03/29/opening-day-salt-lake-bees/#srodriguez
Guys like Sean need to get the oportunity to lay in the major leagues. It's not fair to hold them back when you have young infielers like kendrick and aybar that oviously have been given the starting jobs. Bring up Sean and use him instead of Willits or Quinlin. He is a good utility man plays many positions and has more power than Willits or Quinlin. Paying these guys to sit on the bench 95% of the season does't make much sense.


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Event by Suigeneris Barcelona
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Suigeneris Barcelona, the thinktank behind the award winning project Event by Suigeneris Barcelona points out, Approximately 4 hours of event. After receiving an invitation unknown ('An explosion of light and will lead to a new dimension of store.') more than 500 specials guests entrants to a completely dark room where a short film projected with the history of lighting but backwards, from now until the first of our days. Why? For a acoustically-equipped room for the occasion just by simulating the Big Bang that absolutely lit all the lamps he had displayed in the store, more than 1,000..
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We're looking for a used Ford F150, 4wd, automatic with extended cab. Probably model years 2001 to 2004, as we're not looking to break the bank. If any of you know of someone who is selling one, please let me know. Thanks!
Looking For Ford F150
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I tried this code in my application and it almost worked but not exactly.
When I selected more than one item, the parameter was saved in the database as: p1|p2 rather than p1,p2 as would be the normal case of html.
If I then go to the database and change it manually to p1,p2; then it displayed correctly in the administrator..
Any ideas for a fix?????????????????
Line with $value is unnecessary - when you select more than one items then it returns array in array. I've removed this line from the source code - now it should works fine.
I needed this
function fetchElement($name, $value, &$node, $control_name) { (...) // value string to array $value = explode(',', $value); return JHTML::_('select.genericlist', $options, $ctrl, $attribs, 'value', 'text', $value, $control_name . $name); }
in joomla 1.6 and above, the category param allows to choice only one selection.
if you need more than one choice, how can to do it?
<field name="Categorias" type="category" extension="com_content" show_root="1" label="Lista de categorías" default=""
the multiple param must be: multiple="multiple" and close the field element