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By Lars Anderson
PINEVIEW, Ga. -- It was late in May when her boy finally came home to Pineview, a dusty speck of a town in rural Georgia best known for its roadside peanut market. He opened the door to his family's three-bedroom house on Commerce Street West, and the first thing Nick Marshall wanted to do was to wrap his arms around his mom, his best friend. Over the previous four months they had talked over the phone several times a week about Auburn's 2013 season, about Marshall coming oh so close to leading the Tigers to the national championship in January against Florida State before falling 34-31. In the spring she quizzed him on what he was doing to become a better passer -- "I know you can throw the ball, Nick," she'd tell him, "you just got to get your timing down better" -- but the two hadn't seen each other much since that winter night in Pasadena. So now Nick, who is so connected to his mother that he can usually hear her screaming voice even when she's in a crowd of 80,000, strode through the front door searching for an embrace.
But Shalina Cliett froze at the sight of her oldest son. She looked at him up and down, studying him, taking measure. Something was different, something profound: For the first time, through the eyes of the mother, her boy looked like a man. "You're growing out of your dang shoulders," she said, noticing the 10 pounds of muscle Marshall has added to his 6-foot-1, 215-pound frame since last January. "You used to eat like a little bird, now you look like you've been eating like you've been starving to death."
Marshall introduced his two friends who had made the 140-mile trip from the Plains with him: wide receivers Tony Stevens and D'haquille Williams. Shalina, known for her country toughness and bluntness, locked eyes with Stevens, a sophomore who caught five passes last season, and then Williams, a junior who was a juco All-America in 2013 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. "When the season starts both of you better catch everything Nick throws in your direction," Shalina told the young receivers. "You hear me. If you don't, I'll come down onto that field and come after you. I will now. I will!"
"Uh, she's not kidding," Nick said, only half-joking.
Later that afternoon, Stevens and Williams followed Marshall out the door and onto the front yard. For more than hour, the Auburn receivers ran patterns around the oaks and pecan trees that shade the well-manicured lawn. As Marshall threw almost every type of pass -- 10-yard darts over-the-middle, 20-yard timed outs, 40-yard arching rainbows -- cars driving by slowed to watch, the passengers hypnotized by the right arm of the preseason Heisman contender, the young man who potentially could be the most electrifying college football player in 2014. Marshall had spent countless hours on this lawn in his childhood hurling passes to his younger half-brother Quez Mahogany and his neighborhood friends, but this throwing session on this blue-sky day in May was different, if for only one reason:
The ball barely touched the grass.
* * *
Two hours after losing to the Seminoles, Shalina called Nick on his cell phone. He had a solid game -- he completed 14 of 27 passes for 217 yards, threw two touchdowns and one interception and ran for 45 yards and another score -- but he missed several open receivers, including Ricardo Louis on the first drive for a near-certain touchdown. In his hotel room, he promised his mother, who had watched from the stands, he wouldn't make those same mistakes again. "I'm going to get better," Marshall said over the phone. "Starting tomorrow, I'm going to work. I'm not going to miss those throws next year."
Call it the Marshall Plan. Nearly every day for the past three months, usually without coaches present, Marshall has played pitch-and-catch with his receivers, meticulously focusing on his mechanics: pointing his left toes at his target and squaring his shoulders before he unleashes the ball. During spring practice, Marshall -- who in his first season as a starter in 2013 led Auburn to fourth-quarter comeback wins over Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama -- completed 64 percent of his passes in seven-on-seven drills, according to coaches. The goal for 2014, as stated by Tiger offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, is for Marshall to connect on 65 percent of this throws, which would be an improvement over his 59.4 percentage last year. Marshall is especially focusing on developing more touch on his short and intermediate throws, which he often missed in 2013.
Marshall's running ability already haunts the sleep of SEC defensive coordinators. Operating out of the Tigers' shotgun formation last season, Marshall executed the zone-read option play as well as any quarterback that Gus Malzahn has ever coached, including Cam Newton. Flashing his 4.4 40 speed, Marshall rushed for 1,068 yards and 12 touchdowns, in spite of the fact that the Auburn offense relied on three basic plays all season: zone-read left, zone-read right and play-action pass off a zone-read fake.
The expectations in the Auburn coaching offices are that Marshall will make a great leap forward in Year Two as a starter. This is unfamiliar territory for Malzahn: In his eight years as an assistant and head coach in college football, he 's never had a returning staring quarterback. Malzahn and Lashlee are asking Marshall, once the ball is snapped, to do something rare for a quarterback: stop thinking. They want him to quickly read the defense at the line, make the proper play-call adjustments, and then let his natural ability and sandlot improvisation take over. Malzahn described Marshall as more "comfortable" and "reactive" during the spring, while several receivers gushed about how he was consistently completing NFL-caliber throws. It's always easy to be seduced by potential in March and April, but the heavy breathing over Marshall is rooted is a we've-seen-the-light sincerity: Everyone in the loveliest village, after all, genuinely believes he will be one of the most improved players in the nation come September.
But will he? "Nick's biggest problem is his inaccuracy, but you saw him make huge strides with that late last season," says one former SEC head coach who has closely studied Marshall and Auburn. "The hard thing to defend with Nick is that you have to cover every gap up front in the running game, which means you have to push your safeties up. Running the ball is the key to winning this conference. And when Auburn can run it, they got you. It opens up play-action, play-action reverses, screens -- the entire offensive arsenal. It's almost scary to think how good Nick could be if he's hitting his throws."
* * *
Shalina Cliett works 12-hour shifts answering 911 calls for Wilcox County, so she's accustomed to hearing desperate voices. But nothing prepared her for the fear that flavored Nick's words when he told her on Feb. 3, 2012, that he'd been kicked off the Georgia football team for violating team rules. He was despondent, voice cracking, as he explained the situation: Earlier that morning Marshall and two of his teammates were accused of stealing from another teammate. (No charges were ever filed against Marshall.) Nick had quickly packed up his belongings in his dorm room and returned home to Pineview (pop: 532), where he walked into his bedroom and, alone, began to cry.
His mother opened the door. "Nick, it's time for you to pick yourself up," she said. "It's time to get rid of all the bad influences in your life. Now you have to earn your way back to winning a scholarship."
Mark Ledford, the Wilcox County High football coach, stopped by the house on Commerce Street West early the next morning. Ledford and Marshall had grown extremely close when Marshall was in high school. As a freshman, Marshall could throw a football 70 yards; he was the team's starting quarterback for three years and its top cornerback; and in basketball he once scored 55 points for Wilcox in a playoff game. Now, riding shotgun in Ledford's four-door pickup truck, Marshall, one of the quietest kids in his class, listened hard to his coach as they drove for over an hour along country dirt roads. "Now is a chance for a new beginning," Ledford told Marshall, who holds the Georgia high school record for most career passing touchdowns with 103. "You should get away from the negative people in your life. Start fresh somewhere. Be smart. Your future is still in front of you." Ledford eventually asked Marshall, "What do you want to do?"
For several minutes, as the two rolled past barren fields of cotton and peanut that were dotted with bales of hay, Marshall contemplated his next move in silence. He had played defensive back at Georgia as a freshman -- he didn't want to sit on the bench behind starting quarterback Aaron Murray -- but the position switch left him unfulfilled and unhappy. "I want to go to junior college and I want to play quarterback," Marshall eventually told Ledford. "Then I want to play somewhere in the SEC."
That afternoon Ledford made calls to junior colleges on Marshall's behalf. The young quarterback wanted to move far away from the state of Georgia, and so he decided to enroll at Garden City (Kan.) Community College. On Feb. 5, less than 48 hours after losing his scholarship at Georgia, he and Ledford pulled out of Pineview at 6 a.m. in Ledford's truck. They planned to meet Garden City coach Jeff Tatum -- who was driving through the night from Kansas -- outside of Birmingham, Ala. "I needed to grow up and the only way I was going to be able to do that was to get away from home," said Marshall. "It was scary leaving everything I knew and everything I was comfortable with. But it was time to become a man."
In the pickup, as the morning sun rose over Georgia, Ledford reassured Marshall that a new beginning awaited him on the high plains of western Kansas. "You need to leave everything behind you," Ledford said. "You're not going to get many more opportunities. Take advantage of this." When Ledford glanced over at Marshall, who uttered only few sentences on the trip, he spotted a familiar, steely-eyed look on his face. It was the same expression that Ledford first saw when Marshall was in ninth grade and competing in the Class-A high jump state championships. With only two weeks of training, Marshall qualified for the state finals by leaping 5 feet, 8 inches in a regional meet. Before his turn in the finals, Marshall sat by himself and closely studied the state's top jumpers, analyzing their approaches, take offs and twists and turns of their bodies. He didn't win the championship, but he did clear 6 feet, 4 inches to finish sixth. "It was one of the most impressive things in athletics I've ever seen in my entire life," said Ledford, who has been the head football coach at Wilcox for 13 seasons. "After that meet Nick never jumped again, but it just showed what a natural athlete he is."
Ledford and Marshall greeted Tatum at a gas station in Jasper, Ala. Marshall had yet to unpack his suitcases from when he had hurriedly left his dorm room in Athens, and he loaded them into the Garden City Community College van that Tatum was driving. Marshall grabbed his mini-refrigerator from the back of Ledford's truck. On the door was a Georgia Bulldogs sticker. Without saying a word, Marshall tore it off and put the refrigerator in the van.
* * *
He missed home, his mom and the slow, sleepy rhythms of life in the South. Shalina sent him care packages of Ramen noodles and cereal, which he ate in his dorm room, which was near several cow pastures. Over the phone his mom constantly reminded him that he'd lost one scholarship and now he had to work like never before to earn another one. Yet on the football field at Garden City -- which when the wind is blowing in just the right direction is perfumed by those cow pastures -- Marshall always felt at ease, like he was at home on his front yard in Pineview or across the street in a field that he and his childhood buddies called "The Georgia Dome." With his sprinter's speed, he rapidly developed into a mesmerizing duel-threat quarterback, throwing for 3,142 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushing for 1,095 yards and 19 more touchdowns for Garden City. In October, Shalina, who has a panic-inducing fear of flying and had never been on airplane, surprised her son by jetting west. "Mamma you flew to see me!" Nick said when she surprised him outside of his dormitory. "I'm so happy."
"You gotta keep sucking it up baby," she told her son. "Good things are about to happen you if you keep sucking it up."
Another important visitor arrived that fall: Gus Malzahn, then the coach at Arkansas State. He traveled to Garden City and told Marshal he could be an ideal fit in his up-tempo offense. Once Malzahn was hired at Auburn in December 2012, the first recruit he called was Marshall. "When I was at Auburn on my recruiting visit Tre [Mason] kept telling me that I shouldn't focus on their losing record [in 2012] and that they had tons of talent," said Marshall. "Auburn was the only SEC school to offer me, so it was an easy decision. I wanted to finish some business in this conference."
Marshall moved to Auburn in July 2013. On the sixth day of preseason practice in August, he faked a handoff and rolled to his right. On his own 10-yard-line, he unleashed a pass with a seemingly effortless flick of his right wrist that spiraled 80 yards, hitting his receiver in stride. Practice momentarily stopped, as players whooped and hollered. It was as if, in an instant, they had glimpsed their future, suddenly rich with possibility.
"You won't get much more than a 'Yes sir' or 'No sir' out of Nick, but he listens to instructions as good as any player I've ever been around," said Lashlee. "You rarely see him make the same mistake twice. He's meant everything to this team."
"I truly feel home in Auburn," Marshall says. "My mom drives to games and my teammates accepted me right away. It took me a while to get here, but all that I went through made me a better person."
* * *
His old coach watched from the sideline, mouth agape, in awe. It was a Saturday this spring, Auburn's first practice in pads, and Marshall put on a show. He looked visibly bigger to Mark Ledford -- his back and neck were bulging with muscles in places where most people don't even have places -- and Marshall threw with surgical precision. His footwork, his command of the playbook, his decisions on where to throw the ball -- they all were vastly improved from 2013. It was only a practice, yes, but there was no doubting that this was a new Nick Marshall.
"Defenses are going to have cover more parts of the field this season when they're facing Nick," Ledford says. "Last year the play calling was conservative. It won't be this year. I look for Nick to get out to the edge of the field more often."
After the practice Marshall greeted the man who helped save his college career. Marshall didn't say much to Ledford, because that's not his way. With Nick Marshall, his actions are usually his most eloquent expressions. Autumn awaits.
* * *
Lars Anderson is a 20-year veteran of Sports Illustrated and the author of six books, including The Storm and the Tide, which will be published in August. He's currently an instructor of journalism at the University of Alabama.


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#PPAdigital: Emap parent company Top Right aims to recruit 100 graduates a year
The chief executive of business-to-business publisher and events business Top Right Group, which was created in March after Emap split into three separate, autonomous divisions, said today that the company is re-focussing on its core business and investing in staff.
The B2B publishing division retained the Emap name after the split, with the events division re-branded as i2i and the data business becoming 4C.
Duncan Painter, who joined from BSkyB almost a year ago, told today's PPA Digital Publishing Conference that the company aims to recruit 100 graduates a year to bring in new talent. The firm is also re-investing in training.
"Emap was at its greatest when it had lots of small, focused businesses," he said, explaining that the company is again focussing on its core business.
When asked about the possibility of Top Right buying other businesses, Painter said he is not ruling out acquisitions, but favours launches.
He said the company aims to launch "three times as many products next year as this year."Tags: #ppadigital, duncan painter, Emap, graduates, recruitment, top right
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subset: commoncrawl


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|Kyle Busch Wins ISM Connect 300
|Modified Season Sweep for Santos
|Bell Wins UNOH 175 Truck Series Race
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Wild Card Craziness Shaking Up Things
If there is one thing that Jeff Gordon knows, it's that he's running out of time to make certain he's part of the 2011 Chase.
So while he was pleased with his fourth-place finish in Sunday's STP 400 at Kansas Speedway, and he realizes the value of the one win he already owns this season, he's hardly satisfied. He is, on the other hand, no doubt thankful for the wild-card element that was added to the Chase qualifying format this season.
Under that format, the top 10 drivers in points qualify for the Chase and the final two Chase spots go to the two drivers with the most victories who are inside the top 20 in the points standings. In the past, the 12 Chase qualifiers were determined strictly on points -- which last year left multiple winner Jamie McMurray on the outside looking in when it came to Chase time.
Gordon does not want to be that guy this year.
"I am certainly not comfortable. It's not a good place to be," Gordon said even before Sunday's uplifting result was in the books. "I guess I look at it a little bit different. It's not just about being in the top 10 in points, it's about being a threat for the championship. And, yes, you have to be in the top 10 or 12 in order to do that and you can improve your program by the time the Chase comes around and be a threat for the championship.
"So that's why we can't give up. We have to work hard to improve all the time. But, I think, from a points standpoint right now what we have to focus on is winning races because, if we can win another one or two races, to me that locks us in. We understand that not only locks us in, but it also gives us momentum to be in a position to actually be a threat for the championship."
Not alone
If there was one fact underscored by Brad Keselowski's victory in Sunday's race at Kansas, it was that Gordon is not alone and that the wild-card format is having its intended impact. It is generating interest from the fans and putting pressure on the competitors. The drivers think about it all the time.
Keselowski, for instance, now has the same number of wins on the board as not only Gordon but also Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson -- who sit one-two in the points standings. And he has one more than Dale Earnhardt Jr., who sits in third.
Other drivers who have yet to score a victory this season but sit in rather lofty but potentially precarious point positions include Kurt Busch (sixth), Tony Stewart (eighth), Clint Bowyer (ninth), Ryan Newman (10th), Denny Hamlin (11th) and Greg Biffle (12th). Meanwhile, Keselowski joins Regan Smith and rookie Trevor Bayne on the growing list of surprise winners -- although he's less of a surprise than either of the other two and likely has more of the goods necessary to make a run at the Chase, if not necessarily in it as Gordon so desperately desires.
Keselowski is 21st in points, only seven behind Paul Menard in 20th. He needs to get inside the top 20 to have Sunday's race victory take on real meaning in terms of qualifying for the Chase. Now that, along with pursuing additional trips to Victory Lane, becomes the priority over the last 13 races leading up to the 10-race Chase.
"It's certainly doable," Keselowski said after Sunday's events.
Smith, on the other hand, is 29th in points and is looking more and more like he will not be able to get inside the top 20 to make his win in the Showtime Southern 500 count for something in the hunt for a Chase berth. Bayne is not eligible for the Chase because he chose to race for a championship in the Nationwide Series instead of the Cup Series.
Then there are guys like Biffle -- solidly inside the top 20 but just on the edge of the top 10 and still winless. They are starting to feel the pressure from all sides to make it into the Chase, one way or the other.
"Well, we have certainly been trying to win lately and all season. It is hard to sleep at night when you are right there on the verge of the points," said Biffle, who finished 10th at Kansas and was leading the Coca-Cola 600 in the closing laps a week earlier -- only to have to pit for a splash of gas. "You have to start having solid top-fives every week. If you're having solid top-fives every week, then forget about it. We aren't there yet.
"We have to get top-fives to get up in there and get a little cushion. The points are really tight. A couple of wins would take the pressure off."
Wild times ahead?
After Sunday's strong run, Gordon sits 13th in points -- 18 behind Newman in 10th. But he has that one win in his pocket, scored in the second race of the season at Phoenix. He's hoping it goes a long, long way, but knows to be certain that a second win is required.
"We definitely have work to do," Gordon said. "I feel like we can get that momentum that we need to get those wins, as well as getting ourselves solidly in the top 12."
One of the drivers Gordon needs to jump over in points is Biffle. Or either of them could make the other flinch first by posting a victory. That's what makes this wild-card element so much fun. It adds a level of interest and excitement to the Chase qualifying scenario that is ever-changing and exciting to follow.
Meanwhile, guys such as Kevin Harvick (three wins), Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth (two wins apiece) theoretically are gaining a leg up on all the competition by having the early luxury of knowing they're almost certainly already qualified for the postseason. Gil Martin, Harvick's crew chief, has said that enables the No. 29 Chevrolet team to experiment at tracks they know they'll be coming back to during the Chase, giving them opportunities to take chances others can't -- or at least won't -- and storing the knowledge for later use.
"We will just keep trying to do what we can," Biffle said. "When it comes down to it I think that both the wild-card guys are going to have wins. They will at least have one win. I feel, I really kind of do, that they will both have wins. Maybe one of those guys might have two. We will see."
Gordon again stressed that he wants to win again not only to virtually secure his spot in the Chase, but to prove to himself and his team, as well as others, that the No. 24 Chevy team is ready to truly challenge for what would be Gordon's fifth championship.
"We've gotten ourselves behind and that is obvious," said Gordon, who won his fourth title in 2001 but has finished third or higher in the final standings three times since then. "It shows [with] where we are in the points. We've been inconsistent and we haven't performed the way we need to. So, to me, it is not just about being in the top 12. It is about being in the top 12 and being a real threat for the championship."
Sunday's race may have moved him a step closer. But he knows he's not there yet, and that this wild-card scenario could get a whole lot wilder before it's finally settled.


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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that President Barack Obama has appointed Stuart J. Ishimaru as Acting Chairman of the EEOC and Christine M. Griffin as Acting Vice Chair.
Ishimaru, whose term expires on July 1, 2012, has been a Commissioner since November 2003. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a second term at the EEOC in December 2007. During his tenure, Ishimaru has primarily focused on large, systemic cases and in reinvigorating the agency's work on race discrimination issues. He also played an instrumental role in the EEOC's adoption of groundbreaking guidance on gender discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities.
"It is a high honor and quite humbling to lead the EEOC during these challenging times," Ishimaru said. "The Obama Administration brings new promise and possibilities to the EEOC. To succeed in our mission, we need to rethink the fundamental question of how well the Commission works to ensure equal employment opportunities for all individuals."
Prior to joining the EEOC, Ishimaru served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice between 1999 and 2001. Before that, he served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division for five years. In 1993, Ishimaru was appointed by President Clinton to be the Acting Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and from 1984-1993 served on the professional staffs of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and two House Armed Services Subcommittees of the U.S. Congress. A native of San Jose, Calif., Ishimaru received his A.B. in Political Science and in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and his law degree from the George Washington University.
Christine M. Griffin was sworn in as an EEOC Commissioner on Jan. 3, 2006, to serve the remainder of a five-year term expiring July 1, 2009. Since joining the Commission, Ms. Griffin has been vocal in her support of increasing diversity in the federal workforce, as well as promoting greater efficiency and fairness in the federal EEO process. She has also been a strong advocate for women's rights and the rights of individuals with disabilities. "It is an honor to be asked by President Obama to be a part of the leadership here at the EEOC. I am excited to be working with Acting Chairman Ishimaru to advance the civil rights of all workers in this country."
Prior to joining the EEOC, Griffin served as the Executive Director of the Disability Law Center in Boston from 1996 to 2005. Before that she served from 1995 to 1996 as an Attorney Advisor to the former Vice Chair of the EEOC, advising him on legal matters and policy issues. Griffin is also a Vietnam-Era Veteran, serving on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1974-1977. A native of Boston, Griffin is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and the Boston College Law School.
Ishimaru succeeds Naomi C. Earp, whose term as a Commissioner expires on July 1, 2010. In addition to Acting Chairman Ishimaru and Acting Vice Chair Griffin, the other sitting Commissioners are Earp and Constance S. Barker. The fifth Commissioner seat is vacant.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC, including Commissioner bios, is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.
This page was last modified on January 23, 2009.
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Verify the internet address you typed : twfilmgroup.lolforum.net,
and try again if there is a mistake.
It is possible that the administrator has chosen to delete it.
Created for people who are interested in talking about anime, manga or video games, although discussion of other things is not discouraged.
Official forum of Precision Team : A League of Legends roster.
Official forum of Platinum Backdoor Team
تیم های تخصصی آموزشی، تفریحی، تبلیغاتی ، دانشنامه ی آزاد ایرانی
Trường Cao đẳng Sơn La
About Asucaga, Athrun and Cagalli, Pictures, Signatures, Fanfictions
AniMe-Manga thingy. AniMe-MThngy. AniMe-Manga thingy
CTD forums. Central Training Division. CTD. Central Training Division
Kim Chiu is a cutie chinita girl joined the reality show to help her family and develop her talent.
Free forum : The officially official forum for BEAR GAMERS, the hottest stream on the web!!!
A roleplaying website of horses and wolves, both mythical and realistic. Taking place after humans died out, the creatures may roam wherever they wish, although they must watch out for predators.
The forum of Sarti' guild!. Sarti guild: Evilz!. TFOSG
Free forum : server 1. Server1. G E N E S I S. Free forum,
The Best Class - Proud to be a part of it. 4E2 2006 ZHSS
A Manchester United football fans forum. Discuss everything about football and more. Rivals invited!


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At Wyndemere, Lulu interrupts Nik's speech, screaming for Britt to get her hands off her son. Dante and Nik try to stop Lulu and Liesl accuses her of losing her mind. Nik blocks Lulu so Liesl can leave with Ben. Alexis, Julian, Sam and Silas decide to hit the road but Lucas decides to stick around with Brad. Lulu finally tells Dante and Nik that she has proof that Britt used their embryos and Brad was in on it. In another room, Tracy tells Sonny that she saw Julian with Luke in the stables. Julian and Luke enter just then and Sonny asks Luke why he would be with Julian. Luke says he ran into him when he went to grab a cigar and issued a warning to treat Lucas well. Tracy appears but Sonny asks to speak to Luke alone. He tells Luke that Julian has a backer and he thinks it's Ric. Sonny doesn't think Julian's vendetta is only about power and territory. Luke suggests Sonny take out Ric. Sonny thinks that's extreme but Luke says it's kill or be killed. Sonny won't dole out death that easily and Luke hopes Sonny is making the right decision. In Ben's room, Liz tells Ric that Lulu knows the truth about her son. Ric tells her about Alexis and Sonny's suspicions that he's mixed up with Julian, but he insists he isn't. Ric wants to get closer to Sonny but he can't blame Sonny for not trusting him. He suggests gathering up Cam and hitting the road before Lulu turns the castle into a crime scene. Unless she wants to stay? He thinks she sees this as her chance with Nik. Liesl enters with Ben and tells them her grandson needs to sleep. Liz scoffs and tells her they know the truth and together they leave. Meanwhile, Lulu tells everyone about the letter but realizes she doesn't have it. Britt pounces, screaming for Lulu to produce it. Liz enters just then, letter in hand. Britt tearfully begs Nik not to read it, but he does. Tracy enters and joins Lucas. Nik asks Britt for an answer and Liz scoffs. Nik turns on Liz. He calls her a hypocrite, Saint Elizabeth looking down on these moral beasts when she has upended plenty of lives of her own. He accuses her of orchestrating a public scene and throws her out. Ric steps in to take her home and Nik screams even louder about her judgment being with Ric. Lucas ushers Brad out as Nik threatens him too. Outside, Lucas demands Brad tell him how much he had to do with it all. Inside, Britt admits the truth. Dante cries about the guilt he felt over having a baby without Lulu. Lulu and Dante rejoice in the fact they have a baby and leave to get Ben. Nik has to hold Britt back from following them. Meanwhile, Liesl promises Ben she will correct the situation. When Dante and Lulu go to Ben's room, they are both gone.
GH Recap: Party's Over.
The engagement party explodes, Alexis and Julian get steamy, and Silas' apartment is broken into.
Julian and Alexis return to her place and she confesses that she had an ulterior motive when she invited him to the party. He assumes she was using him to make Ric jealous but she tells him that's not the case. She asks him if Ric is calling the shots against Sonny. Julian tells her to go to hell. She knew how he felt and she took advantage of him. He hated lying to her when he came to town but once his identity was revealed he has only been honest. She admits she has feelings for him and he tells her to prove it. He accuses her of being afraid to take what she wants. They start going at it, but she pulls away. He wishes her luck finding someone who gives her a run for her money. She runs to him and they start ripping each other's clothes off.
Sam and Silas return to his place. He invites her in for a single malt, some Bossa nova on vinyl, and some gratuitous nudity. She hears a door open inside and they find his place has been ransacked. Silas calls the cops while she pulls a gun out of her garter. Nathan emerges. He says he was responding to a call from one of Silas' neighbors and backup just left. He asks if any suspects come to mind and Sam has one – him. She accuses him of being obsessed with the case, desperate for evidence, real or manufactured. Nathan insists he just wants justice. Silas knows who did it.
At home, Liz gets Cam to sleep and thanks Ric for seeing her through the evening. He knows Nik won't let this go anytime soon and suggests she let him go.
Tomorrow's Port Charles spoilers for General Hospital:
Silas tells Nathan to look into Madeline Reeves.
Madeline won't take no for an answer from Carly.
Ric wants Liz to be with him.
Lucas thinks Brad must be tired of lying.
Nik thinks the only person to blame for everything is Britt.
Dante and Lulu tell Liesl she isn't going anywhere.
Please respect the Soaps.com guidelines when posting and contact a moderator if one is required to handle comment issues.
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- Hollie Deese


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He was everything we thought he would be.
Bobby Valentine was goofy, opinionated, telegenic, smart, calculating, connected, and a little off the reservation. He was a terrific dancer.
Unfortunately, at the age of 62, 10 years removed from a major league dugout, Valentine was not a very good manager of our dysfunctional, entitled, and underachieving Local Nine. The 2012 Red Sox were the worst Boston baseball team in 47 years, and finished in last place, 26 games behind the New York Yankees.
Valentine was fired Thursday afternoon, exactly 14 hours and 14 minutes after the Despicable Me Sox completed their dismal season with a 14-2 loss at Yankee Stadium.
"I understand this decision,'' Valentine said in a statement released by the Sox at 12:47 p.m. "This year in Boston has been an incredible experience for me, but I am as disappointed in the results as are ownership and the great fans of Red Sox Nation.''
Give the Sox points for decisiveness on this one. They did not delay in making a move that was both obvious and inevitable. And unlike what we witnessed in last year's polygraph-imploding Terry Francona press conference, the Sox did not attempt to frame this firing as any kind of mutual decision.
Valentine got the news early Thursday when he met with general manager Ben Cherington and team owners John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino at Lucchino's home in Brookline.
"This year's won-loss record reflects a season of agony,'' said Lucchino, the man solely responsible for hiring Bobby V after ownership rejected Dale Sveum, the candidate put forth by first-year GM Cherington. "It begs for changes, some of which have already transpired. More will come.
"We are determined to fix that which is broken and return the Red Sox to the level of success we have experienced over the past decade.''
The 2012 Red Sox were a big bowl of wrong. Valentine's methods never worked. He got into a dust-up with veteran infielder Mike Aviles during a relay drill in the first week of spring training, and Sox veterans turned on him immediately.
When Valentine called out Kevin Youkilis in the second week of the season, questioning the two-time champion's physical and mental dedication, Dustin Pedroia buried Valentine, saying, "I don't really understand what Bobby's trying to do. That's really not the way we go about our stuff around here. I'm sure he'll figure it out.''
Cherington forced Valentine to apologize. The tone was set.
Valentine was on an island throughout the season. He didn't have the ear of his GM. He didn't have the support of his coaches (an occasional conversation would have been nice). He didn't have the backing of most veterans on the roster.
He infuriated Jon Lester when he left the slumping lefty on the mound to take an 11-run beating against Toronto in July. That led to the Palace Revolt, when Sox players asked for (and received) a meeting with the owners — a meeting that excluded Valentine.
'I had every opportunity to succeed and didn't.'
It was all over after that. Ownership artificially inflated Valentine with phony votes of confidence, then the Sox traded away $276 million in payroll (Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Nick Punto) Aug. 25.
That was the end of the Red Sox as we knew them. The Sox went 9-27 after the deal. They went 7-22 after Sept. 1. They lost 12 of their last 13, including the final eight.
It's grossly unfair to blame the 2012 train wreck on Valentine. The Sox suffered an inordinate number of injuries. Lester and Beckett underperformed, and none of Cherington's deals worked. Picking up where they left off last September, Lester and Beckett were terrible. New closer Andrew Bailey had surgery on his thumb on the eve of the season opener and was never a factor.
Valentine was working with a two-year contract. He knew it was over after a curious lunch with Henry in Seattle in early September.
He jumped off the rails a few times in the final days. He threatened to punch a talk-show host. On the final night in New York, Valentine said he had been undermined by some of his coaches. But for the most part, he tried to take the high road.
"I had every opportunity to succeed and didn't,'' said Valentine.
Cherington gets to pick the manager this time, and there is no question he wants John Farrell, who is under contract to the Blue Jays for one more season. If compensation can be worked out, Farrell will be named the 46th manager in club history later this month.
Meanwhile, Bobby V goes down in Boston sports lore as a rare one-and-out manager. The last man to manage the Sox for a single season was Bucky Harris in 1934.
"There was some element of unfairness to it,'' acknowledged Lucchino. "Especially given the epidemic of injuries. But our job is to look forward and see the most direct path to a successful baseball team. That objective trumps every other consideration.''
In lieu of a traditional press conference, the Sox parsed out the details of Valentine's demise in a series of "round-table" discussions, with Lucchino and Cherington taking questions from individual media outlets. Dr. Charles Steinberg's fingerprints were all over the place.
The one constant was the absence of Henry. The principal owner missed last year's Francona firing after he suffered a minor injury when he slipped and fell on his yacht. Henry was not present for Thursday's round-tables.
"The job of dealing with the press, for better or worse, falls with Ben and me,'' said Lucchino.
And let's not forget that the big Liverpool-Udinese match from Enfield was unfolding while Lucchino and Cherington explained the firing of Valentine. Victims of a dreaded "own goal," Liverpool lost, 3-2.
Hope nobody got sacked.Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@


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Business license fees are a major source of revenue for the town of Bluffton. Over the past 10 years we have seen a major increase in licenses, going from 62 to more than 2,000. We appreciate the business community and want to help them in any way possible. We have set up a one stop shop in Town Hall to aid in getting new businesses the start-up info they need, as well as making it easier to pay your renewals. Bluffton believes in business.
The town mailed out about 2,100 business license renewals for 2012 in January. Please be aware that your license expired on Dec. 31, 2011. However, because of the nature of our renewal period, there is a grace period and your business license will be considered valid until April 16, 2012.
All business licenses are renewable annually, based on the previous year's gross sales for business conducted in the town of Bluffton. To date, the town has received 498 renewals; 229 from in town businesses and 269 from out of town businesses.
For the first time this year we are accepting credit cards payments (Visa, MasterCard and Discover) in addition to the previously accepted cash and business check. Please stop in to our newly-renovated customer service center in Town Hall at 20 Bridge St. if you have questions or need assistance in renewing your license.
The town of Bluffton requires businesses operating within the town limits, including home occupations, to obtain a town of Bluffton business license. Applications are available on the town's website. New business license applications are made by submitting a completed application either by mail or in person at the business license office at Town Hall.
If you have any questions or comments regarding business licenses, or to notify us of a change of address or closure of your business, please contact the business license department at 706-4501 or email email@example.com.


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Skip to comments.House to vote on Senate-passed fiscal crisis billdespite conservative qualms-$620B hikes,$15B cuts
Posted on 01/01/2013 8:06:11 PM PST by Jeff Winston
Washington House leaders are planning to call a vote on the Senate-passed fiscal crisis bill as early as Tuesday night, moving ahead despite the concerns of rank-and-file Republicans about the lack of spending cuts in the package.
The House began its debate on the bill Tuesday evening. Lawmakers were moving quickly, after Republicans spent the day weighing their options... If they are to act on the bill, they have less than two days before a new congressional class is sworn in.
House Speaker John Boehner had earlier presented members with two options... The first would be to craft an amendment to the Senate bill that would add a package of spending cuts. However, it was determined that such a measure did not have enough votes to pass, so lawmakers were moving on to option two an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill.
The vote comes amid increasing pressure from House Democrats and the Senate side. Democratic House leaders said Tuesday the time for talk was over and pushed their Republican counterparts for a vote. But even as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called for a compromise, word came that the No. 2 House Republican, Eric Cantor, opposed the bill.
I do not support it, Cantor told reporters after a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans. Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, said earlier sentiment among House Republicans was to amend the bill to incorporate more spending cuts. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., echoed the statement.
"I'd be shocked if this does not go back to the Senate" with changes by the House, Bachus said.
But other Republicans, while voicing opposition to the bill, acknowledged that it could potentially pass the House. Boehner, though, may have to rely on a large bloc of Democrats to get it approved...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
$15 billion in spending cuts.
Anyone who votes for this should be fired. Effective immediately.
It already passed.
It's all ridiculous, republicans are always afraid of being "blamed" for something, yet they have no ability to blame the democrats for anything.
I never see any discussion of what's best for the country.
"Anyone who votes for this should be fired. Effective immediately"
start with the 85 Republicans who voted aye
And we are going to wait until it is far to late to have a serious conversation about our debt in this country.
Why bother with the $15 billion in cuts. Good grief, what a cruel joke this is.
I am going to be an independent conservative as of tomorrow. If anyone from the Republican party should have the balls to call me for money or another form of support, I am going to let them have it so bad they are not going to forget my name anytime soon.
Any liberal who has the balls to tell me things aren't working out like he or she thought they would under Hussein is going to meet the same fate. I TOLD YOU SO is my new mantra. Eff 'em all.
>> start with the 85 Republicans who voted aye
And those that voted NO after the bill passed.
Not enough spending is a "crisis", but never the paralyzing debt.
The media, the Marxists, and the GOPe can got to Hell.
Thanks Jeff Winston.
Useless gelded pubbies...notice the lefties NEVER old, ever. WTH is wrong with us.
That's assuming that our best wealth creators won't change their behavior when faced with higher rates of taxation. But if they do change their behavior which should be expected, then those changes will probably offset any revenue increases. Not that the Democrats care. Obama is already on record saying that the purpose of an increase in the capital gains tax rates has nothing at all to do with raising revenue, and everything to do with something called 'fairness'.
The bottom line here is that the CBO has already marked this bill as a debt raiser. The $620 billion tax increase is more than offset by new pork spending that was crammed into the bill. Republicans are idiots.
Anyone still think principle doesn't matter?
The CBO says this bill will add $4 trillion to the deficit.
Basically, we're paying $4 trillion for the pleasure if seeing the rich have to cough up even more than they already do.
So much for even the 'balanced' approach the 'Rats were talking about - this virtually all taxation and no cuts. The Republicans had better make 0bama and the Democrats own this.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned the fact that considering the high taxes the so called rich are already paying, raising the taxes will cause revenue to GO DOWN???!!!???
what a freaking joke.
They're Obama voters.
Why should I have to pay more so folks who voted for Obama get to pay less?
They won't vote GOP. Reward your friends and punish your enemies.
Of course this will cause tax revenue to go down. The point of this bill was not to raise more revenue, but to demagogue the rich for even greater confiscation in the coming years. The GOP has proven that they will not fight to protect the producers in American society and will allow the 47% to keep growing until it is well in excess of 60%. What we have are the makings of a permanent dependent majority that will ensure Democrat electoral success for an indefinite period of time. And we've all seen what permanent Democrat majorities have done for Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angelos, St. Louis, New Orleans, Boston, etc. Crime ridden, high tax, poor service hell holes that are racing to bankruptcy. As is America.
The Republicans voted for it unless I'm missing something...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Jun 22, 2018Corvette C7.R to race in WEC in Shanghai
Jun 17, 2018CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS:
Apr 15, 2018Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway Postponed Due to Inclement Weather After 204 Laps
Apr 15, 2018CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
Mar 12, 2018CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: By the Numbers
Sep 20, 2017Race-Ready Camaro GT4.R Now Available for Sale
Sep 17, 2017Aschenbach Takes GTS Race 2 at Sonoma
Jun 25, 2017Cadillac Racing Third Again at Road America
Jun 24, 2017Cadillac Racing Third at Road America
May 20, 2017Cadillac Racing Wins Pirelli World Challenge SprintX Race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
May 5, 2017The New Camaro GT4.R Is Bad Ass In Race Car Form
Mar 11, 2017Cadillac Racing Finishes Fourth and Seventh in Pirelli World Challenge Opener at St. Pete
Feb 1, 2017Orbital ATK: Progress Through Partnerships
Nov 29, 2016I/ITSEC 2016: Focus shifts to 'drone' ground targets
Sep 18, 2016Cadillac and O'Connell Sweep Sonoma
Sep 7, 2016Pratt & Miller Engineering Welcomes Chris Andrews as Director of Automotive Business Development
Sep 7, 2016Pratt & Miller Engineering Welcomes Kevin Mulrenin as Director of Defense Business Development
Aug 14, 2016Cadillac Racing Two in Top Ten at Utah
Jul 31, 2016Cadillac Racing Wins at Mid-Ohio
Jun 26, 2016Cadillac Racing's Cooper on Podium at Road America
Jun 25, 2016Cadillac Racing's Cooper Seventh at Road America
Jan 25, 2016CORVETTE RACING AT DAYTONA: Going For a Rolex Repeat
Nov 2, 2015Pratt & Miller Engineering joined Northrop Grumman at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Oct 12, 2015Pratt & Miller Defense Team at AUSA
Aug 29, 2015Cadillac Racing Fifth and Sixth at Sonoma
May 18, 2015O'Connell and Cadillac Sweep Pirelli World Challenge GT at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
Apr 14, 2015Robotics Week Embraces Autonomous Vehicles
Nov 14, 2014Cadillac Introduces All-New ATS-V.R Race Car
Aug 25, 2014Cadillac Racing Fifth and Eighth at Sonoma Race
Aug 2, 2014Cadillac Racing's O'Connell Second at Mid-Ohio
Jul 20, 2014Cadillac Racing's Pilgrim Fifth in Toronto
Jul 19, 2014Cadillac Racing's O'Connell Third in Toronto
Jun 23, 2014Cadillac Racing Second and Third at Road America
Jun 17, 2014Corvette embraces new technology for help at Le Mans
May 12, 2014Racing Meets the Battlefield
Apr 22, 2014Team Cadillac Ready for First Time Barber Run
Apr 14, 2014Team Cadillac Wins at Long Beach
Apr 3, 2014"The Inside Track" - Q1 Newsletter
Mar 11, 2014A Winning Weekend for Pratt & Miller Restorations and Specialty Vehicles at the 62nd Annual Detroit Autorama
Mar 11, 2014CORVETTE DPs AT SEBRING: First Time at the 12 Hours
Feb 14, 2014CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Entries Confirmed
Feb 10, 2014Comets Burning Across the Sky
Oct 28, 2013Pratt & Miller thanks Automation Alley, customers, and 200+ employees for technology honor
Oct 22, 2013Championship Trophies Galore for Corvette Racing
Oct 3, 2013ANTONIO GARCIA: Inside Track at VIR
Oct 3, 2013Pratt & Miller Engineering Takes Automotive Simulation and Modeling to the Cloud Using CliQr Technologies
Oct 1, 2013Team Cadillac Heads to Pirelli World Challenge Houston Finale Focused on GT Championship
Oct 1, 2013Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor Win GRAND-AM Rolex Finale at Lime Rock Park to Capture the Series Drivers' Championship
Oct 1, 2013Chevrolet Wins 2013 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Daytona Prototype Engine Manufacturers' Championship for the Second Consecutive Year
Sep 17, 2013Team Cadillac Goes Black for Houston Finale
Sep 9, 2013MONTEREY DOMINATION: Taylor, Angelelli Win Going Away at Laguna Seca in No. 10 Corvette DP
Aug 27, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT BALTIMORE: A Grand Prix, Indeed
Aug 26, 2013Cadillac Wins GT at Sonoma Raceway
Aug 26, 2013All Cadillac Front Row in GT at Sonoma Raceway
Aug 5, 2013Pilgrim Fourth for Team Cadillac at Mid-Ohio
Aug 5, 2013O'Connell Second for Team Cadillac at Mid-Ohio
Jul 30, 2013Team Cadillac Heads to Mid-Ohio Three Strong
Jul 29, 2013Stevenson Motorsports Wins GT North American Endurance Championship with Runner-Up Finish in Brickyard Grand Prix
Jul 16, 2013CORVETTE RACING IN CANADA: Happy Hunting Grounds
Jul 15, 2013Team Cadillac Goes One - Two in Toronto
Jul 9, 2013Team Cadillac Takes Momentum to Toronto
Jul 9, 2013Engineer's Toolbox: Frameless motor tech enables advanced mobility and manipulation for CHIMP humanoid robot
Jul 7, 2013Team Cadillac Wins Race Two at Lime Rock
Jul 6, 2013Corvette Racing Stands Up to the Heat
Jul 6, 2013All Cadillac CTS-V Front Row at Lime Rock
Jul 1, 2013Action Express Racing and Stevenson Motorsports Repeat as Winners in Six Hours of the Glen to Give Team Chevy Double Victory
Jun 23, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: 18-Hour Report
Jun 21, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Staying the Course
Jun 20, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Meet the Team
Jun 20, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Focusing on Race Setup
Jun 19, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Stay up to SPEED
Jun 17, 2013Cadillac Racing: Where Luxury Meets Motorsports
Jun 17, 2013Corvette Racing Returns for Le Mans Glory
Jun 16, 2013CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Oliver Gavin Q&A
Jun 14, 2013In His Own Words: Jan Magnussen
Jun 9, 2013Corvette Racing Off to Solid Start in Le Mans
May 31, 2013O'Connell puts Team Cadillac on Pole in Detroit
May 27, 2013Harvick is Victorious at Charlotte
May 21, 2013Pratt & Miller Exhibits at 2013 MDEX
May 20, 2013Team Cadillac driver Pilgrim Second in GT at COTA
May 18, 2013Team Cadillac driver O'Connell Wins GT at COTA
May 17, 2013Team Cadillac driver O'Connell on Pole at COTA
May 11, 2013CORVETTE RACING QUALIFIES 4TH AND 6TH AT LAGUNA SECA
Apr 20, 2013Corvette Racing Finishes 4th and 5th at Long Beach
Apr 19, 2013Corvette Racing Looks Forward To Long Beach Return
Apr 19, 2013Corvette Racing Qualifies 4th and 6th at Long Beach
Apr 15, 2013LE MANS: Ricky Taylor Signs With Larbre For LM24
Mar 18, 2013CORVETTE RACING OPENS 2013 WITH WIN AT SEBRING
Mar 17, 2013Michelin Delivers Victory for Audi at Sebring
Mar 14, 20132013 Sebring
Mar 14, 2013CORVETTE RACING NEWS Sebring Gates open Tomorrow
Feb 5, 2013RACING: LE MANS- LM24 Entry List Released
Dec 10, 2012Heavy Metal Affliction 2011 Cadillac CTS-V
Nov 21, 2012Pratt & Miller featured as Top 100 Places to Work
Nov 15, 2012Pratt & Miller Recognizes Sara Blackmer
Nov 8, 2012Northrop Grumman Team Unveils GMV 1.1 Candidate
Oct 24, 2012Motorsports to Mission Critical
Oct 22, 2012Corvette Racing Runner-Up in Petit Le Mans
Oct 18, 2012Next-generation Corvette to Debut 1.13.13 in Detroit
Sep 20, 2012PETIT LE MANS INFO
Sep 10, 2012Corvette Racing at VIR: Very Important Race
Sep 5, 20122012 American Le Mans Series at VIR
Sep 3, 2012BALTIMORE, Aug. 31, 2012 – As Oliver Gavin prepared to make his qualifying run for Saturday's Baltimore Sports Car Challenge in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, he asked engineer Chuck Houghton how many laps he had. Houghton replied, "However many it t
Aug 27, 2012Corvette Racing at Baltimore: Racin' in the Streets
Aug 23, 2012Grand Prix of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Jul 23, 2012Corvette Racing Second in ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport
Jul 19, 2012Canada AM Segment
Jul 10, 20122012 Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosport
Jul 6, 20122012 American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix
Jun 17, 2012Corvette Racing Leads GTE Pro at Le Mans at Six Hours Opening Segment Features Fierce Fight Between Corvette, Aston Martin, and Ferrari LE MANS, France, June 16, 2012 – Corvette Racing led the GTE Pro class at the six-hour mark in the 24 Hours of Le Ma
Jun 17, 2012Corvette Racing 12-Hour Report: Reversal of Fortune Class-Leading No. 74 Corvette C6.R Suffers Mechanical Mishaps LE MANS, France, June 17, 2012 – The Corvettes were in control of the GTE Pro class, running first and third after 10 hours of racing when
Jun 17, 2012Corvette Racing 18-Hour Report: Morning in Le Mans American Team Perseveres Through Problems, Corvettes Run Fifth and Sixth in GTE Pro LE MANS, France, June 17, 2012 – It was a long night and a difficult morning for Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of L
Jun 17, 2012Corvette Racing Finishes Fifth and Sixth in 24 Hours of Le Mans Corvettes Overcome Adversity to Take Checkered Flag in GTE Pro LE MANS, France, June 17, 2012 – Corvette Racing finished the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans for the 12th time in 13 attempts a
Jun 11, 2012Corvette Racing Primed for the Challenge of Le Mans
Jun 5, 2012FAST & FEROCIOUS COMPETITION
Jun 4, 2012Corvette Quickest at Le Mans Test Day
Jun 4, 2012GRAND-AM ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES
May 31, 2012Chevrolet IndyCar V-6 Teams Ready for Hometown Action on The Raceway at Belle Isle Park Street Circuit
May 29, 2012CHEVY INDYCAR AT INDIANAPOLIS: Selected Chevrolet IndyCar V-6 Driver Quotes from Media Availability
May 23, 2012Mark Kent and Matt Wiles Honored with Prestigious Engineering Award for Development of Chevrolet IndyCar V-6
May 22, 2012Jake vs The Snake - Viper Returns
May 22, 2012The Secret to Corvette's Success
May 22, 2012SunTrust Racing Takes Corvette Daytona Prototype to Victory Lane at New Jersey Motorsports Park; Win Marks Second Consecutive Win of the Season for Angelelli and Taylor and Third Win for Corvette DP
May 14, 2012Carroll Shelby dies at 89
May 4, 2012Pratt & Miller Quality Assurance
Apr 30, 2012TEAM CADILLAC SECOND, FOURTH IN GRAND PRIX OF UTAH
Apr 30, 2012TEAM CADILLAC 2nd, 4th IN UTAH GP QUALIFYING
Apr 27, 2012TEAM CADILLAC INVADES UTAH WITH FULL HEAD OF STEAM
Apr 16, 2012Corvette Racing Wins Long Beach ALMS
Apr 14, 2012Momentum With Team Cadillac in Long Beach
Apr 13, 2012In His Own Words: Jan Magnussen
Apr 12, 2012RACING: LONG BEACH MEDIA SCHEDULE
Mar 29, 2012An encouraging start for Corvette Racing
Mar 26, 2012RESEND, CHEVY INDYCAR AT ST. PETERSBURG: FIXES LAST WIN DATE-Chevrolet V-6 IndyCar Debuts With Win at St. Petersburg
Mar 21, 2012Race Fans Can Register for "Race to Win Corvette"
Mar 16, 2012RACING: Young Americans Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner prepare for 60th annual 12 Hours of Sebring - Tampa Bay Times
Jan 25, 2012RACING: 2012 Rolex 24 Preview
Jan 23, 2012Corvette Racing Announces 2012 Driver Pairings


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Lake Seminole Park
10015 Park Blvd. (74th Ave. N.)
Seminole FL 33777
park diagram/amenities/restroom info gmap
Lake Seminole Park covers more than 250 acres and is centrally located to several communities, including St. Petersburg, Seminole, Largo, and Pinellas Park. It is located immediately adjacent to Lake Seminole.
Lake Seminole Park is a designated wildlife habitat and sanctuary. Raccoons, alligators, various waterfowl, hawks, bald eagles, black vultures, tortoises/turtles, snakes, etc. reside in this park, and provide many pleasant hours for nature enthusiasts and families.
The park has a 2-mile multi-use trail (jogging, hiking, bicycling/inline skating) that winds through a pine flatwoods. A 1-mile cut-off is available for those less vigorous. Lake Seminole affords hours of pleasure for boaters, jet skiers, water-skiing, fishing, etc. A softball field and volleyball courts are available on a first come, first served basis. Benches and swings are strategically situated for relaxing views of the several ponds and the lake.
- 13 Picnic shelters - reserve shelters online
- ball field
- boat ramp
Restroom UpdateAs an additional cost-saving measure, some restrooms in county parks are closed weekdays. However, facilities near most popular user areas remain open during all hours of park operation. All restrooms in county parks will be open on weekends. See park diagram for details
- fishing
- multi-purpose trails
- restrooms
- playgrounds
- water fountains
- wheelchair accessible


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Patty Andrews, in full Patricia Marie Andrews, (born February 16, 1918, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.—died January 30, 2013, Los Angeles, California), American singer and entertainer best known as part of the Andrews Sisters musical trio.
Patty Andrews was born the youngest of three surviving children to immigrant parents—their father, Peter, was from Greece, and their mother, Olga, was from Norway. As a child, she took up singing with her elder sisters, LaVerne and Maxene. Patty, a soprano singer, was given the lead parts, and her sisters sang harmony. The trio performed around Minneapolis before joining Larry Rich's troupe on the vaudeville circuit in the early 1930s. After their vaudeville run ended in 1932, the sisters continued to perform. While in New York City in 1937, they made their first recordings as part of Leon Belasco's band. While there, the sisters came to the attention of record executive Jack Kapp. He quickly signed them to Decca Records, and they released their first single, "Why Talk About Love," in 1937. Though "Why Talk About Love" proved to be a poor seller, the sisters' second single, an English version of the Yiddish song "Bei mir bist du schoen" (1937; "To Me You're Beautiful"), was a major hit.
The Andrews Sisters continued to gain popularity in the following years, releasing such hit songs as "Hold Tight, Hold Tight" (1938), "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" (1940), and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (1941). They made regular appearances on the radio and collaborated with stars, including Bing Crosby, and with such popular acts as the Glenn Miller Orchestra. In 1940 the sisters signed with Universal Pictures, appearing in movies with Abbott and Costello, among others. After the United States entered World War II, they began performing for the troops, including traveling overseas with the USO (United Service Organizations) in 1945. Although they had gained much of their popularity before the war, the sisters were best remembered for their upbeat patriotic spirit during this time. Hit songs from the war era included "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else but Me)"(1942) and "Rum and Coca-Cola" (1944). The sisters were known for the diversity of their songs, which incorporated a wide range of styles—from boogie-woogie and swing to calypso—and cultural backgrounds.
In 1949 Patty began edging toward a solo career, recording "I Can Dream, Can't I?" and, the following year, "I Wanna Be Loved," with her sisters performing backup rather than harmony. She went on to release several solo works with Decca. By 1954 Patty had left Decca Records and focused on solo work exclusively. However, she rejoined her sisters in 1956, and the trio made frequent appearances in nightclubs and on television, continuing until LaVerne was forced to retire because of poor health. After LaVerne's death in 1967, Patty and Maxene joined up with singer Joyce de Young to continue the trio, but they disbanded for good in 1968. By this time, the sisters had released some 600 songs, of which more than 100 had made the charts.
After singer and actress Bette Midler repopularized "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" in 1973, Patty and Maxene starred in the well-received Broadway show Over Here! in 1974–75. Patty continued to perform as a solo artist into the 1990s.


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The publication of Middletown by Robert and Helen Lynd in 1929 put Muncie, Indiana on the map as the "typical" American community. Through their investigation, the Lynds sought to examine a cross section of American life in a representative community. Their selection of Muncie was the impetus for over 70 years of extensive study of this city and its people. In 1937, Margaret Bourke-White came to town to photograph "Middletown, USA" for Life Magazine. Local professional and amateur photographers have provided a rich heritage of photographic evidence of life in Muncie, the place that has been called "the most studied city in America."
Margaret Bourke-White photographing the Muncie City Council for Life Magazine, 1937.
This exhibit features images of life in "Middletown" -Muncie- throughout the 20th century, as depicted by Otto Sellers, W. A. Swift, Dick Greene, and other professional and amateur photographers. The Otto Sellers Collection provides visual documentation of Muncie prior to the Lynd's study from roughly 1900-1920. The Muncie that Robert and Helen Lynd first visited is documented in part by the W. A. Swift Collection. The Spurgeon-Greene collection rounds out this exhibit by documenting Muncie primarily from the 1930s through the 1970s.
Otto Sellers
Union Station, April 3, 1918.
Otto Sellers was a commercial and portrait photographer in Muncie in the early part of the 20th century. He was born about 1868 in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. as a young man. He moved to Muncie from New Albany and spent ten years working in the local steel mills before becoming a professional photographer. Sellers kept written logs for many of his photographs taken between 1908 and 1926, with the information arranged by name of buyer, subject, or a related heading.
W. A. Swift
Young Women in Swimsuits, Standing in River, July 28, 1926.
W. A. Swift was born in Metamora, Indiana, on August 17, 1877. Swift moved to Muncie in 1918 and was working for the Delaware Engraving Company as a photographer by 1923. The Swift collection documents both the ordinary and extraordinary events of daily life in Muncie, primarily in the 1920s. In these images, we have a visual history of Muncie during the time period when the Lynds first came to study "Middletown."
Delaware County Courthouse, circa 1950.
Richard A. (Dick) Greene was born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1903, but his family moved to Muncie while he was a child. In 1945, Greene started his "Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood" column for the Muncie Star. When he passed away in 1984, Greene left a legacy of over 10,000 columns and almost 3,000 photographs. The photographs, which were donated by Wiley Spurgeon, and the columns provide invaluable historical documentation of Dick Greene's neighborhood - Muncie, Indiana, from the 1930s through the 1970s.


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2013 Annual Meeting
Montréal, Québec, Canada | November 1-5, 2013
Rachel M. Magee, Drexel University
Denise E. Agosto, Drexel University
June Ahn, University of Maryland
Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers University
Andrea Forte, Drexel University
Michael Dickard, Drexel University
Tuesday, 1:30pm
This panel will discuss the current state of research and present new work examining teens and social media. Panelists will share work that approaches this area in new ways, including an examination of question asking practices on social media, message sharing practices on Facebook, and teen social media and information uses during game design work. The panel will conclude with an interactive discussion designed to identify future research collaborations, directions, and priorities at the intersection of teens and social media.


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Samantha & Scott needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 44 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
Golden State Shortsale
The name refers to the "Golden State" of California. "Shortsale" is way of selling your house which is better than foreclosure, but still hurts your credit. It is a more responsible way to sell your house than just walking away without paying.
1. Generate leads for people that need help selling their home via "shortsale". This means that the people can't afford their payment and need to sell it, but they owe more on their property than it is worth. Therefore, they need help in order to make it happen by doing a "shortsale".
2. Be an online brochure to answer questions and interest visitors.
3. Want the site to look like a government assistance site with blue and white scheme of some sort. An example is iShortSale.com.
Love web 2.0, subtle gradients, clean, big and bold helvetica-ish fonts NO reflection.
So putting a picture of a really nice house is exactly the opposite of what we want to do as it just reminds them of their misfortune.
This is why we want you to check out ishortsale.com. We really want it to look like a government site because I think people that are going through foreclosure will like a more drab blue-ish site - but still have quality design.
I have attached a wireframe and their logo to use in the header / footer.
Also, please look at these examples for websites we like:
We really like how the images "pop" out of these sites. We love the use of a big image that uses gradients and colored brushes on top or around the picture to make room for the "call to action" (like "Call Us Now For an Appointment". Then use faded gradients around the image to integrate the heading and form for them to fill out. The images fill out the space. They are big.
If you read the following articles on "polish", "quality" and "negative space", we will love your design:
And Quality:
And Using negative space (see their demo):
The wireframe is just to show where elements go. It DOES NOT mean I want boxes everywhere.
Functionally, this is everything the home page needs (refer to the wireframe)
1. Logo, Phone #, and space for 3 - 5 pages in the top navigation.
2. Beautiful picture w/ call to action and an arrow or something subtle to point to the form on the right. The image should be large and fill the space. I DO NOT just want a picture in a rectangular box. I want the picture to either "pop out" of the box, or to fade into the top or body and work with the text around it.
3. a form containing a header, smaller description, name, phone, email, submit button and privacy statement on the right hand side.
4. Under that, a place for the main blog and a sidebar.
I can't say it enough - imagery and polish, imagery and polish. I want it to look like it was created in 2010.
Common Complaints From Completed Projects.
1. Don't make the top of the page vibrant with color, and ignore below by making it different greys.
2. The image should use gradients, brushes, fades to integrate it behind the form. It should also "pop out" of the box if possible.
3. Don't go too crazy with boxes. I dont want box with an image, with a box for a form, a box for a phone, a box for each heading, etc. Use gradients and spacing to achieve same effect.


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Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: Q1 2009
I first remember hearing about Dragon Age back around the time when Jade Empire came out. It was what Bioware was pointedly not discussing at E3 2006; it was first an MMORPG, then it was not, and then it was again. Every project they were involved with was, for a time, either thought to be Dragon Age or initially viewed with irritation because it obviously wasn't.
It's odd to live in a world where the game actually exists. It feels like a dream or a trap or perhaps a dream in which there is a trap.
BioWare was hidden at E3, giving demos in the basement of a hotel a few blocks away from the Staples Center. They've described Dragon Age: Origins, variously, as "a return to our roots and origins," and as a "spiritual sequel" to the Baldur's Gate games. It's a single-player PC fantasy RPG that's currently in alpha, after being in development for four years; the universe it's set within is designed to support far more stories than simply this one, as the subtitle might indicate.
It's about changing the way the game world perceives you, and how you perceive it, through controlling your character's reactions. If you've played any of the last several BioWare games, you probably have a pretty good idea how that works; at every turn, you'll be given choices as to how to act in a given situation. Be kind to a prisoner, and you may be rewarded with a key that opens a treasure chest; kill him and take it, and the prisoner's guards will probably revisit that fact at the worst possible time.
In Dragon Age, you're a Grey Warden, one of an elite order that protects humanity from something called the Blight, and the Darkspawn it commands. The player's Grey Warden is a variable thing; BioWare showed off an elven wizard and a human warrior, with the promise that more types of characters would be available. You can select an origin story for your protagonist and play through it, helping to determine how the world sees you at the start of the game.
The segment of the game that BioWare was showing off was set in the ruins of Ostagar, where a hilariously naïve king, Orlando Bloom look-alike Kalin, and his generals were preparing for an imminent attack by the Blight's army of Darkspawn minions.
That night, after you go through the final ritual to become a Grey Warden, you'll be on the front lines of the battle against the Blight. Kalin has a clever plan, which isn't going to go the way he wants it to.
BioWare, since they've started making original stories for their games, has put a lot of effort into their world-building. Dragon Age exhibits the beginnings of an original fantasy universe. From what little I've seen, it has a strong Lord of the Rings vibe, made somewhat fresher by getting the player to react snarkily to it. BioWare's track record speaks for itself on this one, though, and there's a lot of the game we haven't seen yet.
In the demo at E3, the player's role in the siege of Ostagar is to retake a signal tower from the Blight's minions so Kalin can signal for reinforcements. That, in turn, leads to combat, which isn't entirely unlike that of Knights of the Old Republic. Pause and play makes a return here, allowing you to stop the action at any time in order to adjust your characters' tactics and trigger the use of various talents. The quasi-real-time combat engine of Jade Empire or Mass Effect isn't in effect here. Instead, you'll be taking direct control of up to four characters, and possibly more.
Debuffs and buffs look like they'll play a major role in the final product, with abilities like paralysis and fiery weapons being used to dramatic effect. You can also use various magic spells to interact with the environment or with one another; for example, a grease spell creates a flammable oil slick on the ground, impeding progress through it, and allowing you to ignite that area with a fireball.
More than anything else, though, Dragon Age: Origins seems like the culmination of BioWare's recent work. You can see elements of several of their past games there; KotOR and Baldur's Gate influence the combat, Mass Effect's sense of scope, and the fluidity of Jade Empire all jumped out at me. BioWare's also promised a fair bit of the absurdity and humor that's characterized parts of its past output, as well as "some of the best writing we've ever done," to quote them directly. If you've ever enjoyed a BioWare game, and at this point, almost everyone has, Dragon Age is targeted straight at you.
More articles about Dragon Age: Origins


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Takamine Day instore Saturday 24th June
On Saturday 24th June, The Guitar Shop will be hosting a Takamine Day. From 10am onwards, Lou Stonehill from Takamine will be on hand to answer any questions you may have and demonstrate this fabulous range of guitars.
There will be some very special deals on the day, Takamine givaways and the chance to win your very own Takamine.
So come along and check out these great guitars - you wont be disappointed.


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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Friday, November 08, 2013
Ben Denison, In His Own Words: Part 5
Mary Denison...
I don't know if he told you, but Dad was also a pretty good Dixieland cornetist. I've included a photo of him, probably taken by Ray Boldt.
Sometime during this era, in the late 50's early 60's, Ben was working at an illustration job in Chicago for Stevens, Biondi, DeCicco Art Studio. While he was at that job he was commissioned to paint "the Stations of the Cross" for St. Isaac Jogues - a Catholic Church in Niles, Illinois.
I truly believe these were his greatest work of art. They were written up in the Chicago Tribune Magazine and greatly admired.
From Ben's notes...
I was able to use the studio facilities and work on paintings whenever I didn't have a "paying job" to do. Just about everybody at SBD in Chicago posed for the 'the Stations'. Andy Aldridge was Jesus...
Lucia Lerner posed for Mary and two of the women of Jerusalem...
Elie Kalan for another and for Mary in the Pieta.
Fank Kalan was Simon of Cyrene.
Vince Salerno, Pontius Pilate.
Bill Baker, George Lopac, Eddy Augustiny and Alfredo Carrugatti were soldiers.
I was working at SBD's studio in New York City when I finally finished The Stations of the Cross. It was a job that I'd had three years to accomplish though, as usual, I ended up working all night the night before they were shipped off to Chicago to be framed, hung and dedicated.
During the time I worked on The Stations, Father Spring, the pastor of the parish, was very concerned that my paintings might be too modern. He on several occasions brought around church officials to check out the work.
I was still doing work for Playboy at that time - the sports car cartoon series...
... and they had run a double page spread of them with my picture and the caption "The Sporty Sporting Ben Denison."
Father Spring showed up at the house one evening, with a Bishop in tow who he introduced to me as the priest in charge of the art department at Notre Dame University. The Bishop looked me over when Father introduced me and said, "Ah, so this is the Sporty Sporting Ben Denison?!"
I was never sure who was supposed to be embarrassed about that.
He was very knowledgeable man who knew as much about illustration as he did gallery art. He was very complimentary about my paintings and I have to admit that I was very pleased and Father Spring's concerns were mollified.
I sound very casual about this but in actuality it was a very moving experience to have done these paintings.
Mary Denison...
In 1970, Ben took a job with John Deere advertising as the head of photography in hopes of making a better and more regular income. By 1973, he was on his own again. He was tiring of photography and returned to illustration.
One company I remember he and mom working for was Houghton Mifflin (text books). I remember seeing his illustrations in my childhood textbooks. I would always look in the back at the list of illustrators' names and find his drawings.
Dad's "Stations of the Cross" paintings were wonderful to look at as a child while I sat through a Latin mass I didn't really understand- all the time wondering about what my father was thinking while he painted those beautiful pictures.
I do remember later in life, he would joke that those paintings were his ticket into heaven.
(Ben Denison in later years with a series of his Dixieland-themed paintings)
* Many thanks to Mary Denison and the other members of the Denison family for their tremendous generosity and assistance in helping me bring Ben Denison's story together. ~ Leif
* Thanks to Heritage Auctions for allowing me to use the scan of Ben Denison's Playboy cartoon in this post.
5 comments:
Thanks for running this story on Ben Denison, Leif. I've enjoyed it very much. He did fine work, and it deserves to be memorialized this way. I grew up in Chicago and, even though I had heard of a number of the studios and the names you mention, I learned a lot about a wonderful, evocative period in Chicago illustration and commercial art. Many thanks, too, to Mary and to Ben's family.ReplyDelete
Dear Leif. I too am very taken with the Stations of the Cross and have been able to track down 12 of the 14 stations but can't track down colour images of stations 3 – 'His first fall' and 5 – 'Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross'. The only images I have of these are from the Chicago Tribune magazine which you helpfully referenced. Is there a catalogue of his work or some other way I can access these images? I'd like to use them in connection with a Holy Week devotion. Many thanks.ReplyDelete


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The Rainbow Mines of Carapithia IX
From BrikWars
Revision as of 13:29, 8 August 2012 by Snakemittens (Talk | contribs)
One day, a peasant was walking around and saw something purple sticking out of the ground. This (naturally) confused him, and he dug the thingamajig out. It turned out, it was a purple metal. He took it to his king, who ordered a total excavation of the site.
The king decided that only his elite magic knights could use the stuff, because there wasn't that much of it. This angered the king's advisor.


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It's AR Week on Pocket-lint which means that we'll be running you through all the latest apps, features and news from the world of augmented reality. Each day we've been giving the AR lowdown in our 6pm App of the Day section, but obviously that only leaves room for a total of five apps for your smartphone.
We wouldn't want you to walk away light, so here we bring you ten of the best of those that didn't quite make the grade, but are all excellent downloads nonetheless. Whether it's games, social networking or work-related stuff that you're after, there's a little bit of AR goodness for everyone. Read on for our pick of the bunch.
1) Google Mobile App
With Google being the biggest search engine in the world, it's no surprise that this app is available for pretty much every mobile platform, including iOS and Android where it's actually several different apps broken down. As with the regular desktop versions of Google, you can use it to search by text and you can also use it to search by location or photos. Using the Google Goggles function, you can take a picture with the phone's camera and run a Google search on it. For example, you could take a picture of a company logo, a landmark, a book cover or even some text to be translated and the app will come up with all the relevant pages. Free
2) Layar
This one is probably the most well-known AR app around and it's available for the iPhone and Android. As the name suggests, Layar is an AR browser and uses AR technology to display layers of digital info in your phone's field of vision with the idea that it shows you things you can't see. There's a massive catalogue of over 1,500 layers for you to choose from, including partnerships with specific brands whose layers will enable you to do things like book hotels or find outlets of a specific chain of restaurants. The choice of layers is huge and also includes gaming and Twitter integration while the basic layer will point out places of interest when you hold the camera up. If you're into mobile AR, you need Layar on your phone. Free
3) T-800 Vision
This one is rather daft and entirely useless, but if we're honest it's still a hell of a lot of fun. In short, this app enables you to recreate the Terminator's red-tinged cyborg vision from the films. After booting up, it doesn't actually do much apart from displaying random scanning graphics on the display, but it's still pretty cool and a screen shot of yourself would make a great profile pic for Facebook. If you thought that the phrase "Hasta La Vista, baby" has been done to death already, you just wait until you get your hands on this little app. Free
4) Lookator
Sometimes it feels like we spend half our lives looking for free Wi-Fi, hooking up to free Wi-Fi or complaining about how we can't find any free Wi-Fi. This useful Android app should save you a bit of time (and trouble) by finding the nearest hotspots for you. All you need to do is hold your phone up and the app will do the work for you. It'll also give the relative strength and direction of each Wi-Fi network detected so hopefully you won't end up wasting your time with any ultra-weak open-zone signals. Free
5) AR Commando
If you're a fan of FPS games then this gun-based app should be right up your street. You can choose from a variety of shooters including an automatic assault rifle, and sniper rifle or a handgun, while the sound effects and rumble action mean that, perhaps somewhat alarmingly, you can pretend to shoot anything (or anyone) that you can see using your iPhone's camera. If any of your mates play this game for more than a hour a day - probably best to keep an eye on them. It's always the quiet ones. 59p
6) Pocket Universe
This is one for all the stargazers out there as it will tell you the name of all the constellations, stars and planets in the sky using the built-in compass to display the same view of the sky that you can actually see, along with the info. This is a great way for kids to learn about the constellations or simply for those who enjoy staring at the stars. If you want to try before you buy then check out the no-frills free version, Pocket Universe Express, for free. £1.79
7) AR Invaders
This is a bit like space invaders, but for the Facebook generation. It's basically an alien invasion game but with the added advantage of augmented reality. The idea is that you're part of the Earth's Resistance Forces and you have to fend off an attack by alien ships, using the target on your screen. The AR element means that you can play in your real surroundings (the effect is best when you're outside) and you can stand up and fight in 360 mode or take a seat and settle in for a 180-degree game. This one is iPhone 4 only, but the developer also offers a 3GS alternative called Look-Up. 59p
8) Wikitude
You can get this one for free on the iPhone, Android and from Nokia's Ovi Store. Dubbed the Wikitude World Browser, the app enables you to explore your surroundings using your phone's camera. It gives you access to plenty of info including Wikipedia articles, restaurants and location-based tweets; or you can search for specific places and it will give you directions on the map view. You'll also get the bonus of mobile coupons and discounts for nearby shops. Free
9) Droid Shooting
Here's one for the Android fans - this nifty little FPS gaming app lets you open fire on swarms of the pesky little green robots who are floating around. Naturally, there's an AR element to the proceedings, which means that the androids will be floating around in the air in your house, office or wherever else you choose to play. There's a handy radar in the corner of the screen so that you'll be able to keep track of where all the androids are before blasting them to smithereens. This one could become very addictive. Free
10) London Tube
If you're a regular user of the London Underground then chances are you know the tube map like the back of your hand. However, if you're not familiar with the capital's subterranean transport system or you simply need a reminder then this app is very useful indeed. As well as all the usual stuff like maps, transport news and a journey planner, the London Tube app also offers an AR mode that will enable you to find the nearest tube station using your phone's camera. It'll only spy stations that are within a 1km radius, but that should be plenty in order to get you on the last tube home. 59p
For more information on what Qualcomm is doing with Augmented Reality please click: http://www.qualcomm.co.uk/products/augmented-reality


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Now, to the Thought for the Week, it is
"Leave your ego at the door" (Variation "Leave your ego in your shoes, at
the door.") There's a tendency for people, as they become more skilled in their area
of expertise, to begin to believe that they are accomplished, that they have reached the
summit. (They believe their own "press clippings".) This tendency is all the
more odious for deshi of martial arts because of the inherent dangers and risks of budo.
That danger demands that we be far more vigilant
against arrogance than someone in a non-martial art. That is one of the reasons that our
art follows such strict courtesies. To do otherwise, invites needless injuries on the
In the words of a former NY Yankee, welcoming a
new ballplayer to this city, while explaining to him the role of the sportswriters,
"You're never as good as they say you are, and you're never as bad as they say you
are." There's also the legend of the karate master and the young man who
ostensibly desires to train under the master (if you happen to remember the story).
However, the man is so filled with arrogance as he goes on and on about his experience in
karate, that the master, in pouring tea during their introductory meeting, causes the
young man's cup to overflow so that the hot tea cascades down the young man's legs. The
analogy is that the young man's mind (read "cup") is already filled and has no
room for the master's teachings, hence the overflowing cup.
Enjoy the week, arigato,
| Shorin-Ryu Home Page | Registration
Form | General Store | Dojo listings |
| Shorin-Ryu Museum and Learning Annex | Email:
email@example.com |


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Chamber Director Lellock changing hats, search for new director to begin
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Jeff Curtis, president of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, has announced that the Chamber's executive director has resigned to take a position at another local establishment.
Marlene Lellock has accepted the newly-created position as executive director of the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center.
In his comments, Curtis said, "Marlene has helped promote Punxsutawney businesses and the Punxsutawney community for 14 years as the Punxsy Chamber executive director. I look back and can see the efforts of her hard work and how her dedication has left our Chamber stronger and a vital part of our community."
According to Curtis, the Chamber has formed a hiring committee to begin the process of finding a new executive director and plans to have someone in place as soon as possible.


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Reality check: I've had a Dark Fire for close to a year now. Admittedly, the first one was a prototype that wasn't as refined as the production model, but it had the individual string outputs—one of my favorite Dark Fire features. So you might think that by now I would have pretty much figured things out, but that's not the case; it seems almost every time I pick up Dark Fire I stumble upon something I hadn't thought of before. So, this blog entry is going to be about a technique, "hex summing," which uses the hex outputs to create a better sound from a single guitar amp.
Most of the time, when I use Dark Fire's hex outputs it's to create splits or layers, or get sounds I couldn't get any other way. But, there's another use for the hex outs, which is to make amp sim programs sound absolutely wonderful: Smooth, creamy, and organic rather than digital and spikey. Here's how.
You're probably all familiar with what happens when you're feeding distortion with a guitar and you pull back on the tone control for a bassier sound. Filtering out the highs keeps them from getting distorted, which if unfiltered would generate harsh, ultra-high frequency harmonics. By restricting the sound to the fundamental tone, the harmonics generated by any distortion are sweeter.
The only problem is that a guitar's tone control is pretty imprecise. It might take too much away from the high strings, or conversely, leave the lower strings too bright. What's more, the tone control will interact with whatever impedance it's seeing. As a result, your sound might change depending on whether you're feeding an amp directly, or going through a chain of effects.
With Dark Fire, it's possible to use filters to "tune" each string so they produce only their basic, fundamental frequencies. You can then mix the individual outputs into an amp simulator like Native Instruments' Guitar Rig, and end up with a sound that's totally different than feeding a standard guitar output into an amp sim.
This screen shot shows the basic patch used for each string, with Guitar Rig 3 as the processor and Ableton Live 7 Gibson Studio Edition as the host. It's quite simple: After the input stage, there's a Noise Reduction module to keep any hiss out of the sound, a Pro Filter lowpass filter to take off the highs, a Compressor to even out the dynamics a bit, and then the output stage. The only real difference among patches for individual strings is in the Pro Filter settings, which range from about 800Hz for the low E to about 2.7kHz for the high E. Tweak the Pro Filter cutoff for the "roundest" sound when you solo each string.
Note that with Ableton Live Lite, you're limited to six instances of Guitar Rig. As I needed to reserve one instance for the Aux Return, the high E uses Ableton's EQ Eight plug-in for the filtering, along with the Ableton compressor.
The screen shot shows the EQ and compressor settings. Note that only one filter stage is enabled—a lowpass filter, which approximates the response of the Pro Filter.
After programming each string, you need to sum them together. In this example, I've assigned the send of each channel to pre-fader, and sent the sends to Aux Return 1.
Here's the signal processing chain for Aux Return 1. It goes through an Ableton Compressor to restrict the dynamic range, Guitar Rig for the amp sound, Ableton EQ Eight to "master" the final sound, then dumps the EQ out into the main bus. I could also have mixed each channel into the main bus, but then I'd be stuck with putting Guitar Rig in the main bus, which would have processed any other channels I might want to add (like drums or bass).
Now let's take a look at the amp sound, as shown in the above screen shot. This splits the guitar signal into two paths; both have a Cat distortion, cabinet/mic combination, and reverb. The main differences between the splits are the two different reverb types, and also, each uses a different cabinet and mic. The two cabinets are spread to right and left in the stereo field. A noise reduction module follows the mixed signal, and finally, there's a delay line to add a bit of ambience.
If this patch looks interesting, then check out the set off 44 signature hex patches you can download at http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Dark-Fire/Software.aspx (and don't forget to download the PDF manual, which has important information on how to get the most out of these patches). They illustrate all kinds of ways to generate intriguing, original sounds with Dark Fire.


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Tapbots has launched a major updated to their Tweetbot 4 app for Twitter and it's 50% off for a limited time.
Tweetbot is a wonderful Twitter client that's powerful and a joy to use. Sync your timeline across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac (Tweetbot for Mac also available in the Mac App Store). Mute tweets by users, hashtags, tweet sources, or keywords (including regex). 3rd Party support for image, video, read later, and timeline sync services. Tweetbot also has all the features you'd expect in a full-featured Twitter client like lists and direct messages, and others you wouldn't like the statistics view, a night theme for low-light reading, and much more.
What's New in Version 4:
- iPad Support (Universal)
- Landscape Support on iPhone and iPad
- New Statistics and Activity View.
- New Column View in Landscape on iPad and the iPhone 6+
- Split View Multi-tasking on iPad
- More Granular Mute Filter Settings
- Quick Reply from Notifications
- Safari View Controller with Support for Content Blockers
- Improved User Profiles
- Improved Status Detail
- Refreshed User Interface
- Many Optimizations Under the Hood
Statistics and Activity View.
Enjoy keeping track of how popular your tweets are or how many new followers you get each day? Fall in love with the new Statistics view. Watch your tweets get faved and retweeted in real time (on a WiFi network), and see your daily global activity graph grow over the last 7 days. See all of the recent activity happening on your account in real time on the Activity view. Watch people follow, mention, retweet, fave, and quote you live.
Column View on iPad and iPhone 6+.
Tweetbot just got a lot more powerful with the new column view. Just rotate your iPad or iPhone 6+ to landscape and have a column dedicated to a list, search result, mentions, statistics, or activity stream.
Other Notable Features:
- Support for 3rd party services
- Add multiple accounts
- Powerful mute filters
- Push notifications
- Customizable navigation (iPhone)
- Save and edit tweet drafts
- Edit and view lists
- Wi-Fi timeline streaming
- Timeline sync across multiple devices
- Send images in direct messages
- Night theme for low-light reading
- Smart gestures to quickly access tweet details, reply, retweet and favorite.
- Status display customization
You can purchase Tweetbot 4 for Twitter from the App Store for a limited time price of $4.99.
Read More
Tweetbot 4 Released With iPad Support, Landscape Mode, Split View, Quick Reply, More
Tapbots has launched a major updated to their Tweetbot 4 app for Twitter and it's 50% off for a limited time.


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Dorothy Mae Corrigan passed away on Nov. 23, 2013, peacefully at home surrounded by many friends and family.
Dorothy Mae Corrigan passed away on Nov. 23, 2013, peacefully at home surrounded by many friends and family.
She was born on Dec. 18, 1929, up Moffett Creek to Ruth Viola and Ira Bills Cramer. After her father's passing when she was 2, her family moved to Sawyers Bar. She was raised in the Salmon River area until she moved to Yreka to attend high school, where she lived with Ruth and Chet Barnett.
When she was 23, she married Ed Corrigan and they proceeded to run Corrigan's Bar, otherwise known as The Little Rock Chapel, until they retired in 1978. In that period of time, she and Ed raised three daughters, Marchelle Johnson, Jan Corrigan and Diane Olson.
After retiring from the bar, she enjoyed many things such as mushrooming, decorating wedding cakes, gardening and growing orchids, playing a mean game of cribbage or pinochle or gambling. At Christmas time she loved driving around and looking at lights. She loved spending time with her friends and family and she had a lot of kids that she adopted over the years and considered her own. She lived a long and full life and was cherished by many.
She is survived by her daughters; her sons-in-law, Clay Olson and Norman Johnson; her grandchildren, Mandie Lesley and Jim, Brad Munson and Teresa, and Claire Olson; and her great-grandchild Sofia Lesley.
A graveside service will be at the Etna Cemetery at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30, with a celebration at the Corrigan ranch following. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Scott Valley Scholarships and Madrone Hospice.


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The Oxford Saloon & Cafe' located in the heart of downtown Missoula was established in 1883 and is open 24 hours a day, all through the year. The Ox has been open 24 hours a day for so many years that there are no keys for the entrances. The Ox, as it is affectionately referred to by locals, has been highlighted in several national publications throughout the years as a"must see". It will surely prove to be one of the most interesting stops for any visitor passing through Western Montana. The patrons are an eclectic mix: from local businessmen grabbing lunch to cowboys and bikers. Locally it is known for the live poker 7 days a week and its extensive menu including their infamous gigantic 1/2 lb Ox burgers, 1lb rib-eye steak dinners and chicken fried steak with JJ's special gravy.
We have served over 200,000 orders of chicken fried steak with JJ's special gravy since we introduced it on our menu in 1986.


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The entire Goodman Theatre cast of David Henry Hwang's "Chinglish" will reprise their roles on Broadway this fall. With one exception.
The central role of Daniel, played at the Goodman by James Waterston, will now be played by Gary Wilmes. The replacement of Waterston was expected. More surprising is the decision to go with a well-respected actor (who appeared in the Elevator Repair Service production of "Gatz" and has several Chicago credits) rather than a ticket-selling star.
Lead producer Jeffrey Richards has apparently decided that this production of Hwang's new play, a big hit in Chicago, can thrive on its own. "Chinglish" will open at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway on Oct. 27.


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Sketch Fest #104 will run November 2-4! (Today's date: 2018-11-21 02:34:47)
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