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BE IT RESOLVED by the city council (the "City Council") of the city of Duluth, St. Louis County, Minnesota (the "City"), as follows:
Section 1. Purpose and Authorization.
1.01 Under and pursuant to the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Section 475.521 (the "Act") and Chapter 475, the City is authorized to issue its general obligation bonds to fund capital improvements pursuant to an approved capital improvement plan.
1.02 A. Pursuant to the Act, the City Council has authorized preparation of a capital improvement plan for the years 2006 through 2010 (the "Plan").
B. The City Council held a public hearing on the proposed Plan and approved the Plan on December 19, 2005.
1.03 A. On March 13, 2006, the City Council held a public hearing on the issuance of bonds in an amount not to exceed $915,000 to provide funds for continuation of the restoration of the granite and brick facades of City Hall; roofing projects at Fire Station No. 2 and the Public Works Maintenance facility; remodeling of city offices in City Hall; Fire Department facilities repairs and maintenance including driveways, window and brick repairs and overhead door replacements; initial financing for replacing the Public Works Lakeside Toolhouse with a new maintenance facility; upgrading an existing Public Works garage to comply with OSHA and code standards for the storage of "cold" asphalt and completion of the West Duluth Police Station; all in accordance with the Plan (collectively, the "Project"). Each element of the Project is a capital improvement within the meaning of the Act.
B. Pursuant to resolution of the City Council adopted on March 13, 2006, the City Council has determined that it is necessary and expedient to issue general obligation capital improvement bonds in an amount not to exceed $915,000 of the City to provide funds to finance the Project and for payment of the costs of issuing such bonds.
C. A notice of intent to issue such bonds was published in accordance with the Act on March 16, 2006.
D. No petition calling for a vote on the proposed issuance of such bonds, as permitted by the Act, has been filed with the city clerk.
E. The City Council has determined that it is necessary and expedient to issue $895,000 General Obligation Capital Improvement Bonds, Series 2006A, of the City (the "Bonds") pursuant to the above-described authority, to provide funds to finance the Project and for payment of the costs of issuing the Bonds.
F. The maximum amount of principal and interest to become due in any year on the Bonds and all the outstanding bonds issued by the City pursuant to Section 475.521, subd. 4 of the Act will not exceed $8,045,407.36, which is an amount equal to 0.16 percent of taxable market value of property in the City for taxes payable in 2006.
G. Public Financial Management, Inc., financial consultant to the City, has given notification by mail, facsimile, electronic data transmission or other form of communication common to the municipal bond trade to at least five firms determined by Public Financial Management, Inc. to be prospective bidders on the Bonds at least two days (omitting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays) before the date set for receipt of bids on the Bonds. All actions of the mayor, the clerk and Public Financial Management, Inc. taken with regard to the sale of the Bonds are hereby ratified and approved.
1.04 Pursuant to such solicitation for bids for the sale of the Bonds, the City Council has received and considered all bids presented pursuant to the official terms of offering and has determined that the most favorable bid is that of ______________________ of __________________ (the "Purchaser"), to purchase the Bonds at a cash price of $________, and upon condition that the Bonds mature and bear interest at the times and annual rates set forth in Section 2. The City, after due consideration, finds such offer reasonable and proper and the offer of the Purchaser is hereby accepted. The mayor and the city clerk are authorized and directed to execute on the part of the City a contract for the sale of the Bonds in accordance with the Purchaser's bid. The city treasurer is directed to deposit the good faith check of the successful bidder.
Section 2. Terms of Bonds.
2.01 A. The Bonds to be issued hereunder shall be dated the date of delivery, as the date of original issue, shall be issued in the denomination of $5,000 each, or any integral multiple thereof, in fully registered form and lettered and numbered R-1 and upward. The Bonds shall mature on February 1 in the respective years and amounts and shall bear interest at the annual rates stated as follows:
B. The Bonds maturing on February 1 in the years ____ and ____ shall be subject to mandatory redemption prior to maturity pursuant to the requirements of this Section 2.01B at a redemption price equal to the stated principal amount, as hereinafter provided, plus interest accrued thereon to the redemption date, without premium. The Bond Registrar, as designated below, shall select for redemption, by lot or other manner deemed fair, on February 1 in each of the following years, the following stated principal amounts:
(1) For Bonds maturing on February 1, ____ (the "____ Term Bonds"):
The remaining $______ stated principal amount of the ____ Term Bonds shall be paid at maturity on February 1, ____.
(2) For Bonds maturing on February 1, ____ (the "____ Term Bonds"):
The remaining $______ stated principal amount of the ____ Term Bonds shall be paid at maturity on February 1, ____.
If less than such amount of the Term Bonds is outstanding on such payment date, the City shall pay the remaining balance of the Term Bonds then outstanding. The Bond Registrar shall select and call for redemption, in accordance with Sections 2.01C and D hereof, from the Term Bonds the amounts specified above and the Term Bond selected by the Bond Registrar shall become due and payable on such date.
C. In the event any of the Term Bonds are called for redemption, notice thereof identifying the Bonds to be redeemed will be given by the Bond Registrar by mailing a copy of the redemption notice by first class mail (postage prepaid) at least 30 days but not more than 60 days prior to the date fixed for redemption to the registered owner of each Bond to be redeemed at the address shown on the registration books kept by the Bond Registrar; provided however, that so long as the Bonds are registered in the name of Cede & Co. as nominee of The Depository Trust Company, New York, New York ("DTC"), notice of redemption shall be given in accordance with the terms of the Representation Letter hereinafter described. Failure to give notice by mail to any registered owner, or any defect therein, will not affect the validity of any proceeding for the redemption of Bonds not affected by such defect or failure. Bonds so called for redemption will cease to bear interest after the specified redemption date, provided that the funds for the redemption are on deposit with the place of payment at that time.
D. If less than all the Term Bonds of a maturity are called for redemption while the Bonds are registered in the name of Cede & Co., the Bond Registrar designated below will notify DTC of the particular amount of such maturity to be prepaid. DTC will determine by lot the amount of each participant's interest in such maturity to be redeemed and each participant will then select by lot the beneficial ownership interest in such maturity to be redeemed. If less than all of the Term Bonds of a maturity are called for redemption and the Bonds are not registered in the name of Cede & Co., the Bond Registrar will determine by lot or other manner deemed fair, the amount of each maturity to be redeemed. All prepayments shall be at a price equal to the principal amount thereof plus accrued interest.
2.02 The Bonds are not subject to optional redemption and prepayment before maturity.
2.03 Interest on the Bonds shall be payable semiannually on February 1 and August 1 in each year (each referred to herein as an "Interest Payment Date"), commencing February 1, 2007. Interest will be computed on the basis of a 360-day year of twelve 30-day months and will be rounded pursuant to the rules of the municipal securities rulemaking board. The Bond Registrar designated below shall make all interest payments with respect to the Bonds by check or draft mailed to the registered owners of the Bonds shown on the bond registration records maintained by the Bond Registrar at the close of business on the 15th day (whether or not a business day) of the month next preceding the Interest Payment Date at such owners' addresses shown on such bond registration records.
2.04 A. The Bonds shall be prepared for execution in accordance with the approved form and shall be signed by the manual or facsimile signature of the mayor and attested by the manual or facsimile signature of the city clerk. In case any officer whose signature or a facsimile of whose signature shall appear on the Bonds shall cease to be an officer before delivery of the Bonds, such signature or facsimile shall nevertheless be valid and sufficient for all purposes, as if he or she had remained in office until delivery.
B. The city clerk is authorized and directed to obtain a copy of the proposed approving legal opinion of Fryberger, Buchanan, Smith & Frederick, P.A. of Duluth, Minnesota, which is to be complete and cause the opinion to be attached to each Bond, together with a certificate to be signed by the manual signature of the city clerk in substantially the form set forth in Section 2.11, but only if the opinion is not manually executed. The city clerk is authorized and directed to execute the certificate in the name of the City upon receipt of the opinion, if required by the preceding sentence, and to file the opinion in the City offices.
2.05 The City hereby appoints Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as registrar, authenticating agent, paying agent and transfer agent for the Bonds (such bank or its successor is herein referred to as the "Bond Registrar"). To provide for the Bond Registrar services, the mayor and the clerk are authorized and directed to execute a bond registrar/paying agent agreement substantially in the form of the agreement currently on file in the office of the city clerk as public document No. 04-0219-02. No Bond shall be valid or obligatory for any purpose until the Bond Registrar's authentication certificate on such Bond, substantially set forth in Section 2.11 hereof, shall have been duly executed by an authorized representative of the Bond Registrar. Authentication certificates on different Bonds need not be signed by the same representative. The manual signature of one officer of the City or the executed authentication certificate on each Bond shall be conclusive evidence that it has been authenticated and delivered under this resolution.
2.06 A. In order to make the Bonds eligible for the services provided by DTC, the City has previously agreed to the applicable provisions set forth in the blanket issuer letter of representations which has been executed by the City and DTC (the "Representation Letter").
B. All of the Bonds shall be registered in the name of Cede & Co., as nominee for DTC. Payment of interest on and principal of any Bond registered in the name of Cede & Co. shall be made by wire transfer or New York Clearing House or equivalent same day funds by 10:00 a.m. CT or as soon as possible thereafter following the Bond Registrar's receipt of funds from the City on each Interest Payment Date to the account of Cede & Co. on each Interest Payment Date at the address indicated in or pursuant to the Representation Letter.
C. Additional matters with respect to, among other things, notices, consents and approvals by bond holders and payments on the Bonds are set forth in the Representation Letter.
2.07 The City shall cause to be kept by the Bond Registrar a bond register in which, subject to such reasonable regulations as the Bond Registrar may prescribe, the City shall provide for the registration of the Bonds and the registration of transfers of the Bonds entitled to be registered or transferred as herein provided. In the event of the resignation or removal of the Bond Registrar or its incapability of acting as such, the bond registration records shall be maintained at the office of the successor Bond Registrar as may be appointed by the city council. Upon surrender for transfer of any Bond at the principal corporate office of the Bond Registrar, the City shall execute and the Bond Registrar shall authenticate, if required by law or this Resolution, and deliver, in the name(s) of the designated transferee or transferees, one or more new Bonds of the like aggregate principal amount, as requested by the transferor.
2.08 Each Bond delivered upon transfer of or in exchange for or in lieu of any other Bond shall carry all of the rights to interest, accrued and unpaid and to accrue, which are carried by such other Bond. Each Bond shall be dated by the Bond Registrar as of the date of its authentication. The City and the Bond Registrar shall not be required to make any transfer or exchange of any Bonds called for redemption or to make any such exchange or transfer of the Bonds during the 15 days next preceding the date of the mailing of the notice of redemption in the case of a proposed redemption of the Bonds.
2.09 The City and the Bond Registrar may treat the person in whose name any Bond is registered as the owner of such Bond for the purpose of receiving payment of principal of and interest on such Bond and for all other purposes whatsoever, whether or not such Bond be overdue, and neither the City nor the Bond Registrar shall be affected by notice to the contrary.
2.10 The principal of and interest on the Bonds shall be payable by the Bond Registrar, as paying agent, in such funds as are legal tender for the payment of debts due the United States of America. The City shall pay the reasonable and customary charges of the Bond Registrar for the disbursement of principal and interest.
2.11 The Bonds shall be printed or typewritten in substantially the following form:
The City of Duluth, in St. Louis County, Minnesota (the "City"), for value received, promises to pay to the registered owner specified above, or registered assigns, the principal amount specified above on the maturity date specified above, and to pay interest on said principal amount to the registered owner hereof from the Date of Original Issue, or from the most recent Interest Payment Date to which interest has been paid or duly provided for, until the principal amount is paid or discharged, said interest being at the rate per annum specified above. Interest is payable semiannually on February 1 and August 1 of each year (each referred to herein as an "Interest Payment Date") commencing on February 1, 2007. Both principal and interest are payable in lawful money of the United States of America by check or draft at the office of Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the registrar, paying agent, transfer agent and authenticating agent (the "Bond Registrar"), or at the office of such successor bond registrar as may be designated by the city council. The Bond Registrar shall make the interest payment with respect to this Bond directly to the registered owner hereof shown on the bond registration records maintained on behalf of the City by the Bond Registrar at the close of business on the 15th day of the month next preceding the Interest Payment Date (whether or not a business day), at such owner's address shown on said bond registration records, without, except for payment of principal on the Bond, the presentation or surrender of this Bond, and all such payments shall discharge the obligations of the City to the extent of the payments so made. Payment of principal shall be made upon presentation and surrender of this Bond to the Bond Registrar when due. For the prompt and full payment of such principal and interest as they become due, the full faith and credit of the City are irrevocably pledged.
This Bond is one of a series issued by the City in the aggregate amount of $895,000, all of like date and tenor, except as to number, amount, maturity date, redemption privilege and interest rate, pursuant to the authority contained in Minnesota Statutes, Section 475.521 and Chapter 475, the City's approved Capital Improvement Plan for the years 2006 through 2010 (the "Plan") and all other laws thereunto enabling, and pursuant to an authorizing resolution adopted by the governing body of the City on August 24, 2006 (the "Resolution"). This Bond is issued for the purpose of providing funds for capital improvement projects designated by the City Council and pursuant to the Plan and the costs of issuing the Bonds, as more fully set forth in the Plan and the Resolution and for the payment of part of the interest cost of the Bonds. The City has levied a direct, annual ad valorem tax upon all taxable property within the City which shall be extended upon the tax rolls for the years and in the amounts sufficient to produce sums not less than five percent in excess of the amounts of principal and interest on the Bonds, as such principal and interest respectively come due.
The Bonds maturing in the years ____ and ____ (the "Term Bonds") shall be subject to mandatory redemption and redeemed in installments as provided in the Resolution, at par plus accrued interest to the date of redemption.
Not less than 30 nor more than 60 days prior to the date fixed for redemption and prepayment of any Term Bonds, notice of redemption shall be mailed to each registered owner of a Bond to be redeemed; provided, however, that so long as the Bonds are registered in the name of Cede & Co., as nominee for The Depository Trust Company, New York, New York ("DTC"), notice of redemption shall be given in accordance with the terms of the Blanket City Letter of Representations executed by the City and DTC.
The Bonds are not subject to optional redemption and prepayment before maturity.
The Bonds of this series are issued as fully registered bonds without coupons, in the denomination of $5,000 or any integral multiple thereof. Subject to limitations set forth in the Resolution, this Bond is transferable by the registered owner hereof upon surrender of this Bond for transfer at the principal corporate office of the Bond Registrar, duly endorsed or accompanied by a written instrument of transfer in form satisfactory to the Bond Registrar and executed by the registered owner hereof or the owner's attorney duly authorized in writing. Thereupon the City shall execute and the Bond Registrar shall authenticate, if required by law and this Resolution, and deliver, in exchange for this Bond, one or more new fully registered bonds in the name of the transferee, of an authorized denomination, in an aggregate principal amount equal to the unpaid principal amount of this Bond, of the same maturity and bearing interest at the same rate.
IT IS CERTIFIED AND RECITED that all acts and conditions required by the Charter of the City and by the laws and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota to be done, and to exist precedent to and in the issuance of this Bond in order to make it a valid and binding general obligation of the City in accordance with its terms, have been done and do exist in form, time, and manner as so required; that all taxable property within the corporate limits of the City is subject to the levy of ad valorem taxes to the extent needed to pay the principal hereof and the interest hereon when due, without limitation as to rate or amount; and that the issuance of this Bond does not cause the indebtedness of the City to exceed any constitutional, statutory or charter limitation.
This Bond shall not be valid or become obligatory for any purpose or be entitled to any security or benefit under the Resolution until the Bond Registrar's Authentication Certificate hereon shall have been executed by the Bond Registrar by one of its authorized representatives.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the City of Duluth, by its city council, has caused this Bond to be executed in its name by the manual or facsimile signatures of the mayor and the city clerk.
Date of Authentication: _____________________
The Bond Registrar confirms that the books reflect the ownership of the Bond registered in the name of the owner named above in the principal amount and maturing on the date stated above and this Bond is one of the Bonds of the series issued pursuant to the Resolution hereinabove described.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
By _______________________________
Authorized Representative
This Bond must be registered as to both principal and interest in the name of the owner on the books to be kept by Wells Fargo Bank, National Association of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as Bond Registrar. No transfer of this Bond shall be valid unless made on said books by the registered owner or the owner's attorney thereunto duly authorized and similarly noted on the registration books. The ownership of the unpaid principal balance of this Bond and the interest accruing thereon is registered on the books of the City in the name of the registered owner last noted below.
FOR VALUE RECEIVED, the undersigned sells, assigns, and transfers unto ______________________________________________________________________________
(Name and Address of Assignee)
___________________ Social Security or other
Identifying Number of
___________________ Assignee
the within Bond and all rights thereunder and does hereby irrevocably constitute and appoint _____________________________ attorney to transfer the said Bond on the books kept for registration thereof with full power of substitution in the premises.
Dated: ________________________
NOTICE: The signature of this assignment must correspond with the name of the registered owner as it appears upon the face of the within Bond in every particular, without alteration or enlargement or any change whatsoever.
Signature Guaranteed:
(Bank, Trust Company, member of
National Securities Exchange)
Unless this Bond is presented by an authorized representative of The Depository Trust Company, a New York corporation ("DTC"), to the City or its agent for registration of transfer, exchange, or payment, and any bond issued is registered in the name of Cede & Co. or in such other name as is requested by an authorized representative of DTC (and any payment is made to Cede & Co. or to such other entity as is requested by an authorized representative of DTC), ANY TRANSFER, PLEDGE, OR OTHER USE HEREOF FOR VALUE OR OTHERWISE BY OR TO ANY PERSON IS WRONGFUL, inasmuch as the registered owner hereof, Cede & Co., has an interest herein.
(Certificate as to Legal Opinion)
I certify that attached hereto is a full, true, and correct copy of the legal opinion rendered by Bond Counsel on the issuance of the General Obligation Capital Improvement Bonds, Series 2006A, of the City of Duluth which includes the within Bond, dated as of the original date of delivery of and payment for the Bonds.
City Clerk
Section 3. Revenues, Accounts and Covenants.
3.01 The City has created a separate account designated the 2006 Capital Improvement Bonds Construction Account (the "Construction Account") within its Capital Improvement Project Fund 0450, Agency 015, Org. C223, to which there shall be credited the proceeds of the Bonds, less discount, together with any additional funds, which may be available and are appropriated for the Project. This account shall be used to pay, or reimburse, expenses duly approved and allowed, which, under generally accepted accounting principles, constitute capital expenditures for the Project and to pay the costs of issuance for the Bonds.
3.02 A separate debt service account is hereby created and designated as the "2006 Capital Improvement Bonds Debt Service Account" (the "Debt Service Fund") within the City's Debt Service Fund. The money in the Debt Service Fund shall be used for no purpose other than the payment of principal and interest on the Bonds; provided, however, that if any payment of principal or interest shall become due when there is not sufficient money in the Debt Service Fund, the treasurer shall pay the same from any other funds of the City and said funds shall be reimbursed for such advance out of the proceeds of the taxes hereinafter levied when collected. Into the Debt Service Fund shall be credited the amount of accrued interest paid by the Purchaser upon closing and delivery of the Bonds and the ad valorem taxes levied pursuant to Section 3.03 hereof.
3.03 A. The full faith and credit and taxing power of the City are hereby irrevocably pledged for the prompt and full payment of the principal of and interest on the Bonds, as such principal and interest respectively become due. To provide monies for the payment of the principal and interest on the Bonds, there is hereby levied a direct, annual ad valorem tax upon all taxable property within the City which shall be extended upon the tax rolls and collected with and part of the other general property taxes of the City for the years and in the amounts as follows:
*anticipatory levy
Said levies are such that if collected in full they will produce at least 5% in excess of the amount needed to meet when due the principal and interest on the Bonds.
Such tax levies shall be irrevocable as long as any of the Bonds issued hereunder are outstanding and unpaid; provided, however, that prior to approval of its budget each year (approximately December 1) while any Bonds issued hereunder remain outstanding, the city council shall reduce or cancel the above levies to the extent of an irrevocable appropriation to the Debt Service Fund of monies actually on hand for payment of the principal and interest payable in the ensuing year and shall direct the county auditor to reduce the levy for such calendar year by that amount.
B. If the balance in the Debt Service Fund is ever insufficient to pay all principal and interest then due on the Bonds, the treasurer shall nevertheless provide sufficient money from any other funds of the City which are available for that purpose, and such other funds shall be reimbursed from the Debt Service Fund when the balance therein is sufficient.
3.04 Proceeds of the Bonds on deposit in the Construction Account and in the Debt Service Fund may, in the discretion of the city treasurer, be invested in securities permitted by Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 118A; provided, that any such investment shall mature at such time and in such amounts as will permit the payment of costs for the improvement program and/or payment of the principal and interest on the Bonds when due.
Section 4. Tax Covenants; Miscellaneous.
4.01 The city council covenants and agrees with the holders of the Bonds that the City will (i) take all action on its part necessary to cause the interest on the Bonds to be excluded from gross income for federal income taxes including, without limitation, restricting, to the extent necessary, the yield on investments made with the proceeds of the Bonds and investment earnings thereon, making required payments to the federal government, if any, and maintaining books and records in a specified manner, where appropriate, and (ii) refrain from taking any action which would cause interest on the Bonds to be subject to federal income taxes, including, without limitation, refraining from spending the proceeds of the Bonds and investment earnings thereon on certain specified purposes.
4.02 A. No portion of the proceeds of the Bonds shall be used directly or indirectly to acquire higher yielding investments or to replace funds which were used directly or indirectly to acquire higher yielding investments, except for a reasonable temporary period until such proceeds are needed for the purpose for which the Bonds were issued. To this effect, any proceeds of the Bonds and any sums from time to time held in the Debt Service Fund (or any other City account which will be used to pay principal and interest to become due on the Bonds) in excess of amounts which under the applicable federal arbitrage regulations may be invested without regard as to yield shall not be invested at a yield in excess of the applicable yield restrictions imposed by the arbitrage regulations on such investments after taking into account any applicable temporary periods of minor portion made available under the federal arbitrage regulations.
B. In addition, the proceeds of the Bonds and money in the Debt Service Fund shall not be invested in obligations or deposits issued by, guaranteed by or insured by the United States or any agency or instrumentality thereof if and to the extent that such investment would cause the Bonds to be federally guaranteed within the meaning of Section 149(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code").
C. The City hereby covenants not to use the proceeds of the Bonds, or to cause or permit them to be used, in such a manner as to cause the Bonds to be "private activity bonds" within the meaning of Sections 103 and 141 through 150 of the Code.
4.03 A. Pursuant to Section 1.148-7(d) of the Treasury Regulations, relating to exception from rebate, the City hereby covenants that with respect to the gross proceeds of the Bonds, the following schedule will be met: (i) at least 15% of the gross proceeds of the Bonds will be allocated to expenditures for the governmental purpose of the Bonds within six months of the date of issue of the Bonds; (ii) at least 60% of such proceeds will be allocated for such purposes within the one year period of such date; and (iii) 100% of such proceeds will be allocated for such purposes within the 18-month period beginning on such date; subject to an exception for reasonable retainage of 5% of the available proceeds of the Bonds, and that 100% of the available proceeds of the Bonds will be allocated within 30 months from the date of issue of the Bonds.
B. The City shall use its best efforts to comply with any federal procedural requirements which may apply in order to effectuate the designation made by this section.
4.04 In addition to the Bonds, the City is selling, pursuant to a single offering document and on the same date, the following obligations: General Obligation Stormwater Utility Revenue Bonds, Series 2006B (the "Series 2006B Bonds"), General Obligation Street Improvement Bonds, Series 2006C (the "Series 2006C Bonds"), and General Obligation Improvement Bonds, Series 2006D (the "Series 2006D Bonds"). The City has pledged its full faith and credit and taxing powers for each series of the bonds. Pursuant to Treasury Regulation Section 1.150-1(c)(4)(iii), the City elects to treat the Bonds, the Series 2006B Bonds, the Series 2006C Bonds and the Series 2006D Bonds as part of the same issue.
Section 5. Continuing Disclosure. The City acknowledges that the Bonds are subject to the continuing disclosure requirements of Rule 15c2-12 promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (17 C.F.R. §240.15c2-12) (the "Rule"). The Rule governs the obligations of certain underwriters to require that issuers of municipal bonds enter into agreements for the benefit of the bondholders to provide continuing disclosure with respect to the Bonds. To provide for the public availability of certain information relating to the Bonds and the security therefor and to permit underwriters of the Bonds to comply with the Rule, which will enhance the marketability of the Bonds, the mayor and the clerk are hereby authorized and directed to execute a continuing disclosure certificate substantially in the form of the certificate currently on file in the office of the city clerk as public document No. 04-0219-02.
Section 6. Certificate of Proceedings.
6.01 The city clerk is directed to file with the county auditor a certified copy of this resolution and such other information as the county auditor may require, and to obtain from the county auditor a certificate stating that the Bonds herein authorized have been duly entered on his register.
6.02 The officers of the City are authorized and directed to prepare and furnish to the Purchaser and to bond counsel certified copies of all proceedings and records of the City relating to the authorization and issuance of the Bonds and other affidavits and certificates as may reasonably be requested to show the facts relating to the legality and marketability of the Bonds as such facts appear from the official books and records of the officers' custody or otherwise known to them. All of such certified copies, certificates and affidavits, including any heretofore furnished, constitute representations of the City as to the correctness of facts recited therein and the actions stated therein to have been taken.
6.03 The officers of the City are hereby authorized and directed to certify that they have examined the official statement prepared and circulated in connection with the sale of the Bonds and that to the best of their knowledge and belief the official statement is a complete and accurate representation of the facts and representations made therein as of the date of the official statement.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: This resolution establishes the terms and form and awards the sale of the City's $895,000 General Obligation Capital Improvement Bonds, Series 2006A, to ______________________ at a true interest cost of ____%.


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Covey declines deal after diabetes diagnosis
On Monday, only a few hours before the deadline for Major League teams and their picks to come to terms, came word with 95 percent certainty that it was Type 1 diabetes. Facing a lifetime of treatment and a major adjustment to his promising baseball career, Covey declined the Brewers' contract offer and said he would instead attend the University of San Diego.
"There was no time. We just had to make a decision," said Darrell Covey, Dylan's father. "Based on the information we had and the gut feeling we had, we felt that going to school was the best option. I want everyone to know that the Brewers were amazing, and they are as heartbroken as we are. But we had to go with the gut.
"We just got thrown a curveball, and it was a nasty curveball. Like Dylan's, with late break. Those are very difficult to hit. This is very hard. This is a kid who has been dreaming of playing Major League Baseball his whole life."
That dream will have to wait. Covey will spend the coming weeks and months adapting to a treatment regimen and dietary adjustments. The family's consensus is that the transition will be easier if he stays in Southern California.
As compensation for not signing their first-round pick, the Brewers will get an extra first-round selection in next year's Draft, in addition to their regularly scheduled pick.
"Obviously, we're disappointed," Brewers amateur scouting director Bruce Seid said. "He would have been the cherry on top of what looks like a very nice Draft class. There's no hard feelings."
Both sides declined to say how much the Brewers offered Covey. Darrell Covey, who handled negotiations for the family to preserve his son's amateur status, said it was "very generous, considering the circumstances."
The club missed on Covey, but did sign 35 of its 50 Draft picks from 2010, including all 13 players selected from Rounds 2-14, seven of whom are pitchers. Late Monday, the team came to terms with 13th-round selection Michael White, a right-hander from Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn. White, 20, stands 6-foot-6.
Covey, with his mid-90s fastball and excellent curve, drew pre-Draft comparisons to the Giants' Matt Cain and the Dodgers' Chad Billingsley, the latter of whom plays his home games just down the I-110 freeway from the Covey residence in Pasadena, Calif. In his senior season at Maranatha High School, Covey went 7-1 with a 0.40 ERA and three saves and was named Gatorade's California Baseball Player of the Year.
But his fastball velocity dipped near the end of the season, part of a slew of symptoms that the Coveys now recognize as early warning signs of diabetes. Dylan was more fatigued than usual, and was insatiably thirsty.
"Now that we know it's diabetes and can look back on it, it was clear as a bell," Darrell Covey said. "We just didn't pick up on the symptoms."
Covey underwent a physical exam during the middle of last week, and as of Friday morning, expected to sign with the Brewers. The team had yet to make a formal offer, but that was not altogether alarming; as of Sunday, only three players selected higher than Covey in the Draft had come to terms with their teams.
On Friday afternoon, Darrell Covey got the initial results of a blood test that showed signs of diabetes, and was told to take his son immediately to the emergency room. Darrell had to pick up Dylan from an amusement park, where he was enjoying the evening with friends.
On Sunday, Dylan spoke via telephone with Blue Jays pitcher Brandon Morrow, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during his senior year of high school, before the Mariners made him a first-round Draft pick. On Monday, Covey went to see a specialist at UCLA's Gonda Diabetes Center, where the family was told with 95 percent certainty that Dylan was also Type 1.
Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin to control levels of blood sugar.
"The news was such a shock to me," Dylan Covey told the website Baseball Beginnings on Monday night in his only interview. "It explained a lot of what went on late in the season. At this point, it's going to take about six months to get used to the treatment cycle. I've got about six months till the college season begins. This is all new stuff, and a lot of it is hard to remember. I just felt like it was going to be easier to get used to what this lifestyle is going to be in college than in pro ball."
Said Darrell Covey: "The Brewers even offered to let us have four months, five months, whatever it took at home, to acclimate. But it was Dylan's decision. He finally said, 'I need to go to school.' We felt bad because the Brewers have done so much work on this. We were totally blindsided -- all of us."
Right-hander David Pember, who pitched for the Brewers in 2001, was also a Type 1 diabetic and wore an insulin pump on the mound that helped manage his blood sugar.
Before Covey, Milwaukee had signed all of its first-round Draft picks since Kenny Henderson was the fifth overall selection in 1991. He went to the University of Miami instead and was drafted in the fourth round by Montreal three years later, but again declined to sign. When the Padres took Henderson in the fifth round in 1995, he finally signed and topped out at advanced Class A Rancho Cucamonga in 1997. After a stint in independent baseball, Henderson's career was over.
Seid stressed the pitchers who did sign with the Brewers this summer, a list headed by second-round pick Jimmy Nelson. The right-hander from the University of Alabama has not pitched for rookie-level Helena since Aug. 5, but he has 19 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings and has allowed only two earned runs in his last 10 2/3 innings after a tough start.
"He had a couple rough innings off the bat, but he's settled in," Seid said. "He's got many more strikeouts than innings, and he's been clocked up to 96 [mph]."
Third-rounder Tyler Thornburg from Florida Southern University struck out 20 batters in his first 9 1/3 professional innings at Helena and has touched 98 mph. Fifth-rounder Matthew Miller from the University of Michigan is throwing 91-94 mph and leads the Pioneer League with six wins while ranking second with a 1.11 WHIP and fourth with a 2.62 ERA.
That group is at the back end of a pitching pipeline that club officials have made a point to prop up in recent weeks. Seid highlighted the prospect-rich staff at Double-A Huntsville, where right-handers Wily Peralta, Mark Rogers, Jeremy Jeffress and Andre Lamontagne all possess size and power fastballs. The Brewers might be highest of all on right-hander Jake Odorizzi, a 20-year-old pitching at Class A Wisconsin.
"There's a tremendous amount to be excited about," Seid said. "There are some darn good arms in this system that have a chance to flourish. We're pretty excited about what the next few years are going to bring from a pitching standpoint."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Did you like it?
Did you like it?
Great show. Great sound. Set list was pretty decent for a festival. Only complaint is it ended earlier than it had to. Great to meet everyone.
Last edited by somewhat_; 07-30-2017 at 11:24 PM.
I had a good time! Really great to just lose yourself in the performance for awhile. Also, here's to the dude who was super surprised and then excited that Hurt was the encore - I'm glad it made your night
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Great show, beautiful evening, pretty ok crowd on the VIP side. I'm incredibly glad I went in (mostly) spoiler-free, as hearing The Lovers was just the sort of surprise I needed to really elevate the experience. I need to sleep on this and gather the rest of my thoughts, but I hope everyone else had a blast as well.
Amazing show. I was a little worried that it would be the typical festival crowd full of bros and girls with flowers in their hair wearing short shorts but was pleasantly surprised at the amount of NIN fans. I must of picked a good spot since everybody around me was singing along and having a great time. Reptile was huge and The Wretched was great as always. The only downside was the little fight that started up during I Can't Give Everything Away other than that no complaints. After seeing NIN tonight it was obvious that they are on another level compared to every other band or act that performed today. Oh and I loved The Lovers.
Really great show overall. All of the new stuff was amazing. Looking forward to next years non-festival shows.
I got excited for a moment when I spotted MQ, but alas she was not there as a performer.
Killer show. The crowd was respectful for the most part and was into the whole thing. Hearing his cover of the final Blackstar song in person was chill-inducing; it sounds like nothing you'd expect a Nails song to sound like, but it works well. Maybe they can adopt this as theirs to honor Bowie with, in the way Cash adopted Hurt and made it his own.
Walked right past Leviathant on my way out post-show, and pretty sure I saw Sarah K, too. All in all, much better than the other two or three festival shows I've seen them do!
Had a good time hanging with @kleiner352 and @Sarah K almost all day yesterday and the night before at the TTA/Alessandro show. Thanks for making my solo venture a little less solo! Also good to briefly meet @magnolia and @RJK . Hope everyone enjoyed the show!
The usual setlist but great energy. I ended up about two people away from the rail without even noticing it: people kept pushing me forward. And by the way, fuck you to the huge douchebags elbowing their way through the crowd.
The highlights for me were the new songs, The Lovers being my favourite.
So yeah, bought VIP for the day, not sorry I did either, but we went and grabbed a spot along the side barrier in GA a little before Glass Animals started, and then worked our way up enough that I could see @sarah k across the way by the time ATCQ started. Before NIN came out, I left the barrier and got more into the crowd, but during the show I turned and noticed I think around Burning Bright that we had been pushed back almost all the way over to the barrier again. Ha.
It was a killer show. The crowd was into it the whole time, my feet lost touch with the ground for quite a bit of the show, and the energy was just amazing. I kind of wanted more from the set list after watching Bakersfield and FYF, and I still think they should have played SD and/or SGA - they had plenty of time - but of course I forget that watching the show from a computer versus actually being there makes all the difference. Every song hit hard, and I sang my heart out along with everyone else in the crowd - it didn't matter that I'd already seen Hand That Feeds, Hurt, etc every other time I've seen NIN live. They were still just as powerful.
After Tribe left and before NIN started I was happy to overhear some high school looking kids in front of me eagerly explaining to their friends that "this is the best live show you'll ever see" and that they "shouldn't miss it for the world." I sometimes think that NIN doesn't resonate with younger crowds anymore, but from what I saw yesterday, I don't think I will worry about that anymore.
Overall, extremely happy we flew all the way out from Texas for this. I do have the day-after-sads, though, (anybody else get those?!), after looking forward to this for the last 7 months, and now it's over and done with... but now to look forward to Riot Fest!
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also: NO SHOUTING DURING HURT. i was impressed and honestly moved <3.
Right after Trent sang "I am still right here", some guy shouted "YEAH YOU ARE!"
Considering the passing of Chris Cornell this year, it was a moment where I felt very, very thankful that Trent is still here.
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Another thing that annoyed me was a group of people who would scream shout every time somebody would try to record any video. They would openly say stuff like "we're only doing this to ruin your video" then laugh and cackle. I don't get that at all. People should just let everybody enjoy themselves as long as it's not harming anybody. Who cares if someone wants a 30 sec video to post on FB. Enjoy the show and move on.
This makes my riot fest decision much tougher. I was telling myself it would be ok to skip because it would most likely be the same set list and I've seen nin so many times. But now there has to be a possibility of a club show the day after and my family life kind of prevents me from making a spontaneous day of decision to drive 5 hours to see a show.
Last edited by somewhat_; 08-01-2017 at 04:52 AM.
So, after avoiding any setlist spoilers, and arranging to bus in from way upstate NY to make to Panorama on Sunday (since this happened to fall on the couple of weeks that I'm not in New Jersey), I am so beyond happy that I spent the money / went through the trouble of trekking out to see the show. The other acts I caught at the festival were great - I feel particularly fortunate to have seen Tribe's excellent set - but Nails as usual lived up to my high expectations.
The opening visual of the NIN logo forming piece by piece a la the opening titles of Alien? Amazing tone-setter, and Branches/Bones makes for a killer live opener. All the new material they played sounded terrific but The Lovers (holy shiiiit) and Burning Bright were probably the best of them; the use of the tape recorder and megaphone was just so tactile, it felt perfectly tailored to the style of the EPs. Other highlights were of course the emotional Bowie cover from Blackstar, my first time seeing The Great Destroyer, and a particularly moving rendition of Hurt that wasn't bogged down by too many yelling idiots. The rest of the set, though familiar, sounded phenomenal (The Wretched and Reptile in particular were on fire) and I had an amazing time and eagerly await this lineup's first foray into dedicated touring.
Hearing about the impromptu Webster Hall show as I waited for my bus back upstate, there was a pang of bitterness, but in the grand scheme of things, I have been an extremely lucky, fortunate NIN fan. I've seen them almost a dozen times - including their last show at Webster Hall, the legendary Downward Spiral set - and I hope some folks who haven't had the chance to experience them in a club get to taste that magic tonight.
I legit cried during the Bowie tribute.... knew it might be coming but still hearing it live was a experience that can't translate into words. The whole show was incredible. I will never, NEVER get tired of hearing The Frail/The Wretched! The only down moment for me was the chick behind me trying to get to rail. We got our spot at 4pm in VIP, she arrived at 9:10 and kept trying to jockey in front of me. that ended fairly quickly. Otherwise... a stellar night!
There was zero reason for anyone to pony up for VIP. I hope not too many of you did. This festival is the newest & most poorly attended of the 3 big ones they're trying to get off the ground in the NYC area (along with Gov Ball & The Meadows). This one does the worst bc of it being smack dab in the middle of summer, plus the lineups haven't been massive yet.
That being said, we reaped the benefits of this festival being a bit more low key! Getting around the site was a breeze. Get up close for Tribe & then NIN was easy peasy. I was maybe 75-100 feet back from the barrier with minimal effort. My friends came later on and met up with my group easily as well.
Crowd was very well-behaved as said above. During the Bowie cover it was almost silent around me. Same went for The Lovers, The Frail & most of SICNH (little bit of screaming/cheering in between vocals...standard stuff we've all heard before during that song & Hurt). I think it's a combo of the fans getting older, the show was late on a Sunday night, and the weather was perfect.
Only real moshing was during MotP.
Branches/Bones is an absolute ripper live.
Tribe & Cloud Nothings killed it. Hope you guys caught them:
Their drummer Jayzon Gerycz is a monster. So fucking fast.
Last edited by bobbie solo; 08-01-2017 at 12:54 PM.
tl;dr - I didn't want to fucking go to a festival, but I had an amazing time, met some really cool people from ETS, and thought the band sounded the best that I've ever heard.
I got a VIP ticket, as they were released back when I like, had a full time job and all of that. Haha. Not having to use porta-potties is worth a LOT to me. Plus the lounge areas were pretty cool. It was nice to have spots to sit down and relax before we had to start looking for our spot. Was it worth an extra $150 or whatever? Most likely not. But I don't really regret it or anything, either. I've paid $300 for a single NIN show before, so meh. This is the one thing in life that I have allowed myself to blow stupid cash on, because nothing else comes close to making me as happy as these experiences.
I really, really wanted to go into this show with as few spoilers as possible. I knew that there were basically no visuals and that they did the Bowie song, but other than that, I was going in blind. I'm very impressed with myself that I was able to avoid everything, as willpower is most definitely not one of my strengths. It was so fun not knowing what was going to come next. Out of the new material the only one that I was hoping for that wasn't played was This Isn't the Place. Other than that track, The Lovers, Less Than, and Burning Bright were the ones that I wanted the most, and I got them.
I think that after a certain point, shows start to blend together a little bit. But when Reptile fully kicked in, I just could not believe it. I wish it was possible to translate how fucking massive that sounded to the people who were not able to be there. That is a split second that I will remember forever. After the show I was talking about it to people and got goosebumps. I was talking about it with a friend today, and the same thing happened. I had never really understood everyone's super-love for Reptile before that very moment. Now I absolutely get it. That was the first time I had ever caught that track at a show.
Atticus looks super nervous or something, but I think he added a lot, because aside from a few flubs on Tront's part, they sounded incredibly in sync. Trant is 52 and outperforming people half his age by miles and miles. Nearly 30 years into NIN, and it is still exciting and special. I think Tension was the best *show* I've ever been to. But this was one of the best *concerts* I've ever been to. I thought that I would be a bit bored by the limited visuals, but I wasn't at all. It forced me to pay closer attention to the people on the stage. I still love the crazy ass light shows, but I also really enjoyed this set, too. I think that for a festival show, it was a pretty badass setlist. I was kinda dreading having to go to a festival, but that shit turned out to be pretty, pretty, pretty alright.
It was so good to meet @kleiner352 and introduce them to NYC. It was also nice getting to hang out with @somewhat_. The three of us also attended the TTA/Cortini show the night before and got to meet both of them. This was my first experience with meeting any members (thought I didn't really meet Josh, just listened as others spoke to him), and I didn't even act like an asshole or anything. This was also my first time at a NIN show with people since the very first one that I went to - all of the other ones I've hit have been solo ventures. So it was great to have people to pass the time with. Thank you both so much! I also briefly met @RJK at the Saturday night show and he is the nicest person on the planet for being super kind and giving me a pick that he got at the NIN show!
This whole weekend just reaffirmed a lot of good shit for me. 2016 was a fantastic year for me, and 2017 has been nothing short of heartbreaking and fucking horrible. This was BY FAR the highlight of my year. My cheeks hurt that night from smiling so much, and my throat hurt from the yelling/singing combo that I was doing. This is something that I desperately needed, as there really hasn't been all that much to smile about recently.
I hope they play Burning Bright forever. For months I have been looking forward to Robin wailing away on that shit, and it absolutely did not disappoint. I was unsure of how it would translate to a live setting, and it blew away all of my expectations and then some. Me having emotional responses to songs is not unusual, but that is usually due to outside influences and associations that I have with them. But the first time I ever heard this song, it totally made me cry a little bit. Same with hearing it live. I have no explanation as to why this song brings out so many feelings for me, but it sure as shit does.
I feel lucky as shit to have attended this show and for the opportunity to meet not only the folks I hung out with this weekend, but all of the rest of you that I've met along the way. I don't know if all bands have like a super close group of fans like this or if we are a weird outlier, but I am so thankful. People I've met via this board have become friends, have looked out for me, and have provided me with some pretty awesome opportunities and experiences. You can't really ask for much more than that. Thanks for being here and understanding.
Last edited by Sarah K; 08-01-2017 at 11:42 PM.
This was my favorite time at a NIN show I've ever had, and the list of reasons are long, but rather than write a full show review or mention things I've already brought up elsewhere, I'll just list a few of them:
Being on the rail for NIN is unlike anything I've ever experienced. It outdid seeing Dillinger on the rail, even. The lack of big screens only added to the experience, and I think the decision to remove the lights was a wonderful way of removing the distractions of the big glowing screens we all carry around in our hands all day in 2017 that constantly give us more reasons to feel anxiety. It took the band and the audience and put us in a very connected, present and physical world during a time period of digital paranoia and virtual isolation and I think it speaks to the themes of both EPs very well.
I'm sure they'll bring back the big fuck-your-eyeballs visuals next year, but I am beyond glad I saw a show without them, and I didn't miss them at all. As someone who used footage of Lights in the Sky as a way to get into the band's live shows, that surprised me heavily. Keeping the set so aggressive and intense helped maintain that sense of constant mental presence and allowed for almost no points where you'd feel distracted, want to look around of think of anything else. The crowd got it, the band was on fire and no songs felt boring, tired or dated. I've never seen this band playing at such an intensity before and it really feels like the dangerous energy of the 90's band and the calculated professionalism of the modern one have completely intertwined to create something vibrant, vital and original again.
A big part of what made this so special to me was that it was my first time leaving Florida, and it couldn't have happened too soon. Getting on a plane and going by myself to see a city I've dreamed of since I was a little kid and take it all in, to meet two members of my favorite band in an historic venue and to then see that band perform right in front of me the night after was magical, and it was a series of firsts that I think will never be outdone in my life. Thank you so, so much @Sarah K for making this experience so possible and wonderful for me, and I'm still so sad I couldn't snag you a Webster ticket before I had to go as a thank you. It was a whirlwind of experiences that I will never forget, and when life is full of so many days we will never remember, to have several in a row where every second is going to be permanent in my mind is just wonderful. It's a beautiful city full of beautiful people and you helped me see some of the best of it and feel immediately comfortable; so many people would never even think of taking somebody in and showing them around, let alone indulging in every whim, random desire to explore and impulse-based decision to eat like their body is made of pure trash as you did, but it seemed like it was nothing to you and that says so much about who you are.
On that note it brings up another big part of what made the show so special -- all of the amazing people I got to meet. Every concert always has us form those temporary concert buddies, but NIN shows always seem to lead to me meeting the best, most passionate and beautiful people, full of warmth, friendliness, love and support and this show was full of those connections and interactions. I'd never met anybody from this board before, and getting to meet Sarah, @somewhat_, @magnolia, @RJK, @halo33 (whose Year Zero remixes played a big part in my development as a fan for this band) and so many others was incredible. Every single person was unique, funny, interesting and lovely and I can never get over how amazing it is that a band so full of darkness, loneliness and detachment can lead to so much human connection, friendliness and energy.
I cannot wait to travel for this band again and to meet so many more of the fantastic people that gather together to watch Trent Reznor yell about being honey onstage for a while.
Last edited by kleiner; 08-03-2017 at 05:06 PM.
After 77 shows over 22 years, I can easily say, that going to the shows isn't just about seeing NIN. It's about seeing and hanging out with all the friends we've made along the way. It's a cheesy Grateful Dead sorta thing we got going on, and I cherish it.
You are my family. #nin-laws
@halo33 can't wait to see you at another show sometime. The Robin water baptism you gave me is always going to be one of my peak NIN live memories from now on, haha.
My memory is a lil hazy, and maybe @RJK can confirm, but I think I caught another Robin bottle at Webster too.
I'm increasingly convinced Robin is secretly on a mission to hydrate every man, woman and child within the tristate area of any given show
Oh I also rubbed and hit a blue ball with ETS members. A+ - would participate in group CBT again.
I guess we all have Robin waterbottles.
(Santa Barbara, 2009)
Haven't posted in a while, but usually I throw something in the tour journal after any show I go to. It was really a great festival set, biggest complaint would be that they didn't slip in an extra encore song or 2 before Hurt, I think the show ended around 10:45 so there was definitely time for it and although Hurt is a crowd favorite I always feel a little bummed out when I see Robin come out with the acoustic because I know the show is over.
Possibly the best part of the show was the crowd. I was on Atticus' side of the stage probably about 20 people back, where it was definitely tame, but I couldn't believe how quiet the festival crowd was for SICNH and the Bowie cover. Also, reading reviews of the LA shows it didn't sound like the Lovers went over great live, but it was one of the highlights for me. Shoutout to the guy working the merch table who gave me a heads up on the Webster Hall show, but I just wasn't able to go Monday night.
Seeing one of these festival shows seems like a true bonus since there are only 4 on the calendar for this year, I can't wait til next year for the more extensive tour.
Sidenote- This was my 9th show and my first time getting The Frail/The Wretched. These two songs have been pretty common on just about every tour since The Fragile, so I definitely thought it was strange that I went 8 straight shows without it.


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I won't claim here that I know anything about encoding video, and what options yield the best possible results. All I can do is rely on the expertise of others, but in doing so, it becomes quite hard to figure out, as a layman, how all these various codecs compare to one another. Let's look at three (relatively) recent encoding benchmarks.
Jan Ozer from the Streaming Learning Center. Ozer compared the results from Theora (1.1) to H264 at various bitrates, and they show that H264 simply performs better. "These tests are very aggressive, but purposefully so - at very high data rates, all codecs look good," Ozer argues, "In particular, YouTube encodes their H.264 video at 2mbps, about 2.5X higher than my tests. So my conclusion isn't that Ogg is a bad codec; it's that producers seeking the optimal balance between data rate and quality will find H.264 superior."
Ozer readily admits that this is his first foray into Theora encoding, so he asked for input from the community as to how to yield the best results. Xiph's Greg Maxwell took up on this, and noted that several of the setting employed by Ozer weren't optimal. "The bigest reason why the 1.1 clips have surprisingly poor quality is because these are stricly buffer constrained encodes," Maxwell notes, "The buffer constraint means that user with a very bandwidth limited connection can playback without stalls and excessive buffering. So it's a good thing to have if you're streaming. But - its absolutely brutal on the quality and it's not a restriction that your h264 encode has been subjected to."
Maxwell performed his own benchmarks last year, and he drew two conclusions. First, that Theora is better than H263. No surprise there. Second, that Theora is competitive compared to H264. "In the case of the 499kbit/sec H.264 I believe that under careful comparison many people would prefer the H.264 video," Maxwell concluded, "However, the difference is not especially great. I expect that most casual users would be unlikely to express a preference or complain about quality if one was substituted for another and I've had several people perform a casual comparison of the files and express indifference."
So, we have two benchmarks going either way. Luckily, we also have a third benchmark, by Martin Fiedler, which places H264 firmly in first place. "The H.264 format proves that it's the most powerful video compression scheme in existence," Fiedler writes, "The main competition in the web video field, Ogg Theora, is a big disappointment: I never expected it to play in the same league as x264, but even I didn't think that it would be worse than even Baseline Profile and that it's in the same league as the venerable old XviD which doesn't even have in-loop deblocking."
To further prove just how incredibly difficult this whole video encoding business is: Maxwell commented on Fiedler's benchmark, and together they found out that Fiedler was using the wrong Theora branch, which negatively affected Theora's performance. It turns out that the branching scheme for Theora isn't particularly intuitive.
All this illustrates two things: first, it takes experts to do this stuff. Video encoding is hard, with all those options and tweaks you can apply - made worse by the different encoders you can choose from. Second, that the people behind Theora need to make it clearer which version or branch produces the optimal results. Of course, this is also an inherent problem with Theora: always the moving target.
In any case, this all overlooks the big, massive advantage that Theora has over H64: it's unencumbered by patent nonsense. That alone is a massive win for Theora, and something H264 doesn't have an answer for.


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Nash, Tortorella reach milestones as Rangers top Flyers
Philadelphia, PA – Rick Nash scored two goals and added an assist, while Derek Stepan delivered a four-point night that propelled the New York Rangers to a 5-2 decision over the fading Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center.
Nash's 300th and 301st career goals helped Rangers head coach John Tortorella to register his 400th win behind the bench and enable the Blueshirts to halt a two-game slide. Stepan aided the cause by tallying once and assisting on three others, with Brad Richards contributing a goal and an assist to the victory.
The Rangers also received a marker from Chris Kreider and a 32-save effort out of Henrik Lundqvist in besting the Flyers for the 11th time in the last 12 matchups between the Atlantic Division rivals.
"It's good for the team that we got five goals as a group, because we have had a lot of games [like] where we fired 45 shots at Florida -- not saying they are all Grade A chances, but a few of those games they mount on you," Richards remarked. "You need something to break where you get five as a team and now everyone feels a little bit looser. Next practice, we will notice a difference right away."
Jakub Voracek had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, losers of three in a row and 2-6-1 in its last nine contests. With Tampa Bay winning on Tuesday, the Flyers fell to 14th place out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference.
"It's a disappointing night," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette. "We needed to compete better than we did and we didn't."
Wayne Simmonds also lit the lamp in the setback, with Claude Giroux assisting on both Flyers goals and Ilya Bryzgalov stopping 26-of-31 shots.
A wide-open first period produced a combined 27 shots between the teams but only one goal, with Nash firing a centering feed from Stepan past the stick side of Bryzgalov with just over six minutes remaining in the frame.
Bryzgalov did come up with a sharp save on a breakaway try from Carl Hagelin 26 seconds in, and Lundqvist stoned Scott Hartnell from in close less than four minutes later.
The Rangers struck quickly in the second, though, scoring twice within a span of slightly over 2 1/2 minutes to build a commanding 3-0 lead.
New York's second power-play opportunity of the night ended with Richards ripping a one-timer from Stepan over the glove of Bryzgalov at the 3:14 mark. Shortly afterward, Nash controlled a loose puck and sent it in front for Stepan, who slipped in a backhander all alone from the left side to extend the margin.
The Flyers finally got on the board by virtue of a roughing call on the Rangers' Brian Boyle with three minutes left in the middle session. After a barrage of Philadelphia shots, Simmonds knocked the puck through from in front 53 seconds later to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Philadelphia maintained the momentum during the beginning portions of the final period, and closed within one when Giroux's blast from the left point caromed off Voracek's helmet and trickled by Lundqvist with 6:28 elapsed in the stanza.
New York responded swiftly, though, courtesy of Nash. The dangerous sniper spun around the back of the Philadelphia net and sent a wraparound attempt into an open left side to restore a two-goal advantage a mere 74 seconds after Voracek's score.
Kreider put the finishing touches on the win after converting a give-and-go with Michael Del Zotto with 7:47 left to play.
Game Notes
Tortorella is the 30th head coach in NHL history to reach the 400-win milestone ... Richards' goal was the 250th of his career, while his assist on Kreider's score gave him 800 points all-time ... The Flyers played without forward Danny Briere (concussion) and defenseman Nicklas Grossmann (upper body) for a second straight game ... Rangers rookie J.T. Miller returned to the lineup after missing Sunday's 3-2 shootout loss to Washington with an injured forearm ... Simmonds and Voracek now have three goals and three assists each in four games against the Rangers this season ... The Flyers fell to 3-13-1 when allowing the game's first goal and 0-12-0 when trailing after one period.


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text:
December 20, 2012
Students in three student organizations at Stevens HS teamed up to give something back to their community.
Students in Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Ready Set Teach, and Child Guidance held The Giving Tree Breakfast for the faculty and staff to help in their efforts to collect gifts for children in Child Protective Services.
The breakfast included a Christmas tree filled with more than 130 ornaments that included a child's name and three items they wanted for Christmas. Because of the generosity, from Stevens HS teachers, staff, and other club organizations, the groups were able to surpass their goal and successfully collect more than 175 gift items for the children.


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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP is warning investors that the price tag will be higher than initially estimated for its multibillion-dollar settlement with businesses and residents who claim the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money.
The London-based oil giant estimated last year it would spend roughly $7.8 billion to resolve tens of thousands of claims covered by the settlement agreement. But in a regulatory filing this week, BP PLC said businesses' claims have been paid at much higher average amounts than anticipated.
The company also said it can't reliably estimate how much it will pay for unresolved business claims following a ruling Tuesday by the federal judge supervising the uncapped settlement. U.S District Judge Carl Barbier rejected BP's interpretation of certain settlement provisions.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Heavy (turf)Wettest possible condition of a turf course; not usually found in North America.
HelmetA lightweight fiberglass cap worn by riders to prevent head injuries. It is required equipment that is not considered part of a jockey's riding weight.
High WeightHighest weight assigned or carried in a race.
HomebredA horse bred by its owner.
HorseWhen reference is made to sex, a "horse" is an ungelded male five-years-old or older.
Hot WalkerPerson who walks horses to cool them out after workout or races.
HungA horse that does not advance its position in a race when called upon by its jockey is said to have hung.


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Mammals of Dublin Zoo
Last updated over 6 years ago
List of mammals held in Dublin Zoo, Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland. The list should be complete to this date (January,2012). If you´ll find any mistakes or if you think some species are missing, please, let me know in the Collection Newsfeed.


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- WIBC announces leaderboard to foster global Islamic banking
- Saudi schools IPO is said to underscore weakening foreign demand
- Turkey discussing Halkbank with the US, says Erdogan
- Dubai Aerospace raises $1 billion in dual-tranche notes
- Duqm Refinery signs $4.6 billion Shari'ah-compliant project financing
- Arabtec hires Moelis for debt restructuring
- APICORP expects 15 per cent asset growth in 2019, says CEO
- Tesla investors urge directors to go beyond SEC's board overhaul
- Fund management's $1 trillion club eats its peers
- South Africa's Gigaba violated ethics act, public protector says
Continued growth for Tanzania
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Views: 226
We have lots of neat & enjoyable kids' books on mythology - have you ever seen a kids' book on the monotheistic religions that treat them in this matter-of-fact way? My girl knows a heck of a lot more about Thor and Trickster Raven than she does about Yahweh, in large part because I personally am less familiar with and don't enjoy the Abrahamic stories, but I don't necessarily want to impart this distaste to my child. I'd like her to be able to enjoy the middle-eastern myths as she does other myths.
Great story, Drew!
I know what you mean about fearing that the religious child will inadvertently damage your child more than vice versa. As much as religious fundamentalists like to claim persecution at the hands of a godless, secular society, I think it's pretty clear that non-religious families have quite a challenge in this respect, too. In some ways, I wonder if atheists and fundamentalists are bookends, by which I mean that both groups are outside the mainstream. My sense is that the real majority consists of vaguely religious people who take their religiousity and are equally appalled by hard-right fundamentalists and atheists. This leads the fundamentalists to view the majority as being "unfaithful", the atheists to view the majority as "religious", and both groups to view themselves as oppressed. There's variations to this scheme when broken down by region. In New England there are fewer fundamentalists, while in the Southeast there are far more fundamentalists. That said, there have been a lot more fundamentalist presidents than atheists ones.
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How To...sound like the Beatles!
To mark the start of the Beatle Week, here's a quick look at some gear the Beatles used...and what you can find at Dolphin Music.
The Beatles used a wide variety of gear, which more or less changed according to each "Beatles Era". Of course, due to their popularity, The Beatles were responsible for popularizing many brands such as Gretsch, Vox, Epiphone and Rickenbacker.
The Cavern Club/ Early Years
In the early days, the Beatles used almost exclusively Vox Amps, both the AC-15 and AC-30, which are the obvious choices if you want to have the classic beatles sound. You can't go wrong: get an AC30 and either a Gretsch Country Gentleman like George, or a Rickenbacker guitar (such as the Rickenbacker 330 or Rickenbacker 360 models.)
It's interesting to remember that originally, in the pre-Ringo days, John had a Fender Tweed amp, like the one below:
For a similar vintage vibe, a good choice is the Fender The Edge Deluxe or a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue.
The Paul McCartneys out there can't have anything other than a Hofner Violin bass, just like Macca's! Hard not to feel inspired when you play one - no wonder Macca chose to play this model: he was originally a guitarist, and the narrow, slim neck of a Violin bass is much more "playable" than most other basses.
Epiphone has also some truly wonderful John Lennon and Paul McCartney -style acoustic guitars: The John Lennon J-160E wass a great copy of the J-160E that John used in so many classic beatles recordings (and gigs). It's been discontinued, but the new, Limited-Edition EJ-160e is just as good!
The Paul McCartney used to play an Epiphone Texan, which he used for "Yesterday".
Let's not forget Ringo, though! Owning a Ludwig Drum Kit is a must if you want to have a similar setup.
'65-Final Days
Those more interested in the Fab Four later days can also find plenty of interesting gear.
Firsty, we'll have to move away from Vox amps and go for a Fender.Try a Fender Twin Silverface for that Abbey Road sound or, if you're on a budget, a Fender 68 Princeton Reverb will do, for classic Fender tones and reverb.
Guitars? Well...there's plenty to choose from: George used a Gibson SG on "Revolver", a Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul and finally a Fender Telecaster for the Let It Be Sessions. Several models of all those guitars are available.
Both Lennon and George were never too far away from a semi-acoustic guitar though, and the most notable was certainly the Epiphone Casino the classic Hollowbody guitar with hot P-90 pickups. Thanks to The Beatles, these guitars continue to be very popular choices!
George also played a Gibson ES-345 for a while, so you'll probably do fine with any good semi-acoustic such as the Epiphone Dot sunburst.
Beatles Guitar Effects
Two important effects to reproduce Beatles sounds from this era should be mentioned: get a good fuzz for solos. Since the Vox Tonebender has been discontinued long ago, get a Way Huge Havalina Germanium Fuzz, which provides a similar tone.
Anpther effect used quite a bit from the psychedelic days all the way to Let It Be, was a Leslie rotating speaker: think John Lennon's vocals on Tomorrow Never Knows, or George Harrison guitar solos on Abbey Road. Pure Leslie! The best bet is without a doubt the new Electro-Harmonix Lester fx pedals.
Bass players will have to, of course, go for the Rickenbacker 4003 bass, widely used by Paul McCartney during the Beatles psychedelic days.
Well...if you wanted to sound like the Beatles, there's no excuse now - just go for it!
More info:


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A former funeral home owner was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to 20 felony counts for obtaining property by false pretenses and writing worthless checks to keep his business alive.
Richard Jarrett Mosley, 54, of Hendersonville pleaded guilty to 18 felonies of obtaining property by false pretenses and two felonies for worthless checks.
He was sentenced to serve eight to 19 months for each count — a total of two years and eight months to six years and four months — but the sentence was suspended for three years of probation, allowing Mosley time to pay restitution.
Assistant District Attorney Doug Pearson said Mosley faces in excess of $18,000 in restitution charges, which if remain unpaid will be a violation of his probation. If progress is shown, Mosley may be given up to five years to make restitution.
Mosley, who owned South Park Funeral and Cremation Services in Hendersonville, originally faced 22 felony counts ranging from obtaining property by false pretenses to forgery.
Investigators claim Mosley defrauded businesses, employees and customers by writing checks on closed accounts, soliciting services that went unpaid, misplacing bodies and substituting the ashes of loved ones. He was also cited for arranging funeral services without having an active license.
State investigators with the N.C. Board of Funeral Service said Mosley's business either failed to return or failed to document the return of the cremated remains of at least 26 people. Pre-payments for burials were also found to be misappropriated. The board has ordered Mosley to remain unlicensed as a funeral director in the state.
The District Attorney's Office is encouraging any citizen who feels they may have been victim of fraud in dealing with the former South Park Funeral Home to contact Hendersonville Police Detective Heather Cash at 828-697-3048.
"Many members of the business community have been very cooperative" in the investigation and prosecution of this case, said District Attorney Greg Newman. "I'm happy to bring that case to a conclusion."
Reach Weaver at email@example.com or 8285-694-7867.
Former funeral home owner pleads guilty
A former funeral home owner was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to 20 felony counts for obtaining property by false pretenses and writing worthless checks to keep his business alive.


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Ozone 5 Announced + Ozone 4 Promotion
Today, IZotope, the forward thinking audio research company behind critically praised sound sculpting computer music plug-ins including Nectar, Stutter and RX 2 announced the latest instalment in their successful Ozone range. For those not in the know, the Ozone plug-in is an all-in-one mastering package with a full complement of easy to use presets and powerful tools to help you get the most out of your productions and recordings.
Ozone 5, the latest incarnation of the software offers to improve further on iZotope's winning formula making it an ever more vital addition to home, project and smaller digital commercial studios. Word has also reached the Dolphin office that this time, an all new 'Advanced' version of the package will be available which is likely to be tuned to the requirements of professional mixing and mastering engineers. Details are still thin on the ground, but a full announcement is expected at this week's SAE show.
In the meantime, any customers purchasing Ozone 4 download or boxed versions now, will receive a FREE upgrade to the full Ozone 5 upon release, so why wait?


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It's October - a time for hauntings, Halloween - and all things spooky. This month, A Grave Interest will take a look at several haunted cemeteries. Get ready as we explore some 'lively' places, and the people who make them so…….
|Scalping in the Hospital
It was called the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, better known to Indianapolis residents as the Insane Asylum. The hospital opened in November 1848 to house five patients. It consisted of one hospital building, situated on 100 wooded acres of land. For the first 50 years, the hospital simply warehoused people. There was little, if any, attempt to treat them for their problems.
|Central State Hospital
|Seven Steeples Women's Dorm
|Aerial Map of Grounds
The Central State Hospital grounds included dormitories, treatment buildings, a carpentry shop, power plants, and a fire station. The complex also included a motel, carwash and conference center. The largest building on the campus was the Seven Steeples Women's Dormitory.
|Old Laundry Building
|Pathology (Morgue) Building
Many basements under the buildings were considered dungeons in the 1800's, places to hold patients who screamed incessantly or were criminally insane. These "wards" lacked proper ventilation, light or heat and many died here.
|Patient in Straight Jacket
|Roof Caving In
|Inside Hallway
|City's Proposed Plans
|Door in Hospital
|Cemetery Grounds
|Cemetery Fence
|Tree Stone Marks a Grave
|Typical Grave Marker
|Cemetery Directory
|Cemetery Grounds
|Trees and Grass Need Tending
|Feelings of Being Watched
|Shadowed Grounds
Mysterious people have been seen in the cemetery, dressed in hospital gowns from different time periods. Shadows move from grave to grave. Screams have been heard coming from the hospital buildings and the grounds. Moans and crying have also been heard. When I was there, I had the feeling of being watched, and of definitely not being wanted in the cemetery.
|Pathology Lecture
|Indiana Medical History Museum
Next week, we'll visit a haunted Ohio cemetery.
~ Joy