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With Ubuntu Linux 12.10
Let's say you have neither the desire nor the inclination to spend $100 (or more) on a Windows 8 license. Let's say you don't care for most Windows games, and you're okay with getting your hands dirty by delving into the command line once in a while. In that case, installing Linux on the Zbox could be your best bet.
I gave it a shot, largely to see how difficult it would be to get everything working. My past experiences with Linux distributions have been... interesting. I have not-so-fond memories of wrangling with audio support and wrecking X.org while trying to enable hardware 3D acceleration with binary drivers. Some people claim Linux is only free if your time is worthless, and I've always tentatively agreed with that sentiment—at least as far as commodity PCs are concerned. (I'm well aware of Linux's success in servers and mobile/embedded devices.)
This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised.
I grabbed the latest 64-bit release of Ubuntu Linux (version 12.10) and copied it to a USB thumb drive using the Universal USB Installer utility. The installation was completely painless—easier in some respects than the Windows 8 setup. Graphical performance in the freshly installed Ubuntu desktop was quite poor, but that was easily resolved by hopping into the Additional Drivers settings pane and installing the latest experimental Nvidia driver. That only required a handful of clicks, and I didn't even have to visit the Nvidia website. Neato.
My first act as owner of a freshly configured Linux build was to install Steam. I mean, how cool would it be to get Team Fortress 2 working on this thing? Right?
Steam for Linux is still in beta, but getting it running in Ubuntu is surprisingly straightforward. I just followed the instructions here—which, as it turned out, simply involved downloading and running the Steam Client .deb installer. The Ubuntu Software Center took care of the rest. After that, I was able to log into my Steam account and download some games. A few of the titles I'd purchased for Windows (TF2, Braid, and Trine) were listed in my library. I also had the option to peruse Steam's growing collection of Linux games (mostly casual and indie offerings), all within the familiar Steam interface.
And yes, Steam's Big Picture mode worked. Animations were smooth, and the software even recognized and responded to the Zbox's bundled remote.
Overpowered with giddiness, I fired up Team Fortress 2. It crashed once in the server browser, but that didn't stop me. I eventually made it into a multiplayer game and started fragging away. At 1280x720 with medium/low detail settings, no antialiasing, and no HDR or motion blur, frame rates peaked in the triple digits in quiet areas and settled to around 30 FPS in heavy combat. That would have been more than acceptable, except the game also tended to skip at random intervals, especially right after a level load. It was like the system was running out of memory and the sluggish mechanical hard drive was picking up the slack.
In the interest of scientific rigor, I installed TF2 in Windows and tried the same map at the same settings. I even managed to find the same multiplayer game. Peak frame rates were a little lower this time, but there was no trace of the skipping I'd experienced before. The game ended up feeling more fluid overall.
I'm not sure what was wrong with Linux, and I unfortunately didn't have time to troubleshoot. Our contact at Zotac didn't seem to know what the problem was, either. That said, considering Valve's Linux ports are still in beta, and considering how easy it was to get TF2 working, these early results are quite promising. I reckon things can only get better from here.
My gaming session over, I looked into a suitable substitute for Windows Media Center. The most popular alternative seems to be XBMC, which has a similar 10-foot interface with all kinds of nifty functionality built in, including support for remotes.
Version 11 of XBMC was available in the Ubuntu Software Center. I had to pop into the command line to install version 12, which had come out the day before, but all I did there was cut and paste commands from the XBMC website—not exactly rocket science. Once I was done, XBMC happily obeyed commands from the Zbox's remote, and I was able to use the Wi-Fi to play back content across the network. Audio and video worked smoothly (even in HD), with no tweaks or ugly command-line wrangling required.
Even more impressively, the remote's sleep and wake buttons actually worked, both in XBMC and at the Ubuntu desktop. Being able to wake up the system with the click of a remote is a crucial feature for an HTPC. The Zbox did it beautifully in Linux, right out of the box.
All in all, I think it's fair to say Ubuntu is a very viable—and, indeed, compelling—option for the Zbox. Yes, you're going to miss out on serious Windows games... but the Zbox struggles with those, anyway. Ubuntu is a nice fit for the hardware, both in terms of driver support and capabilities.


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text: "To worship God, on the other hand, is a venture into reality, a disciplined exit from the delusional fields created around our idols, a constant pull toward the margins of what we know. The worship of God is about awareness, about mindfulness, about reverence for the gift of life, about regaining perspective, beyond self-expression, beyond our beloved religions. By worshiping God, we turn our sights farther, rescued from a preoccupation with ourselves and with our own life."


text: i was wondering if anyone could help me to combine the effects of the Reload on Resize option with the Dynamic Sized Image. i have a graphic on the top of my website i would like to be the width of the screen, whithout it being too wide for 800x600 or a minimized window. thanks for your consideration


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It's game over for Michael Lee Grayson Jr., a parolee suspected of robbing nearly 20 GameStop, Toys R Us and Radio Shack stores throughout the Bay Area and beyond since April, police said Thursday.
Oakland police descended on a home on Monument Boulevard in Concord Wednesday morning and arrested Grayson in connection with the robbery series.
The first holdup happened in April when a man robbed the GameStop store at 5110 Broadway in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood.
Over the next few months, the same man hit stores in San Jose, San Carlos, Union City, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Ramon, Mountain View, Modesto, Stockton, Vacaville and Sacramento, said Officer Jeff Thomason, Oakland police spokesman.
The robber took money, PlayStation 3 and Nintento Wii game consoles, Thomason said.
Grayson was booked on numerous counts of robbery and weapons charges.


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Saturday, May 1, 2010
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Congratulations to donnas and jeanette8042!! You were selected by random.org as the winners for the Annette McCleave contest. Each of you has won a signed ARC of BOUND BY DARKNESS! Please leave your email address in the comments, and I'll forward the info on to Annette. Happy reading!
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The fascinating wallpaper is segment of Pflueger Reels for Fishing Fans: Quick Shop Guide article which is assigned within , , and published at September 20, 2016 7:55:09 pm by Knife Reviewer
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text:
unfortunate and ultimately pointless debate rages between those who
find the scientific basis of evolution compelling, and those who choose
not to believe on religious [1]
and religion inhabit two very different worlds, demanding neither reconciliation
or supremacy. Science values proof before faith, while religion values
faith before proof. Indeed, God bestows his greatest blessings on those
who trust in his existence without the benefit of miracles or peer pressure.
Ironically, creationist attempts to overturn Darwinism on "technical
grounds" undermines the very foundations of religion, and are ultimately
self-defeating. For if God's existence is a necessary precondition for
"Intelligent Design" to make sense, then God's non-existence
is a logical consequence of the blatant failures of creationism to explain
anything but the prejudices of its proponents.
despite all the noise and emotions, both scientists and creationists
agree on almost all aspects of Darwin's great discovery- reducing the
debate to one small, but important point. And that is the subject of
this prediction.
Darwin's Law [2] of Evolution
by Natural Selection (traditionally referred to as a "theory"
to honor Darwin's original treatise, but now confirmed through observation
and experiment) consists of four main tenets. First, he describes how
species can change in shape and character through selective breeding.
No reasonable person, whether creationist or scientist, doubts selective
breeding can morph a wolf into a pony-sized mastiff. Or evolve the same
wild animal into a comically shrunk, rat-sized Chihuahua. Second, he
describes how species are neither completely uniform nor immutable,
and how these natural variations are the grist upon which human selective
breeding grinds. Once a new characteristic is established, these variations
persist from generation to generation, and are systematically and predictably
passed from parent to child. Again, all but the most radical creationists
accepts these facts, widely employed since the birth of animal husbandry
and agriculture [3] . Third, he recognized that Nature, through selective
pressures like environmental shifts or changes in predation, can play
the role of humans in selective breeding. Whether man selects a long-haired
dog for its appearance, or colder winters favor the survival of thick
furred over short-haired canines, the result is identical. Again, the
power of evolution by Natural Selection is confirmed though field work
(such as Darwin's finches), genetic mapping, and the experience of anyone
who chooses to listen openly to nature.
everyone agrees that, while changes within a species are indisputable
and can be observed within a lifetime, no one has ever seen (nor is
there a recorded observation after 5000 years of written history) one
species transmuting to another. Fish never become fowl, insects never
become birds, and monkeys certainly never become humans.
all this agreement on Darwin's four key tenets, why is there so much
fuss about evolution? Ah, but for one small, annoying small point. Modern
scientists, following Darwin's last great insight, have proven an accumulation
of small changes can lead to an entirely new species, given sufficient
time. Creationists deny there is either enough time (i.e. the Earth
is only a few thousand years old according to one biblical interpretation),
or small changes can never accumulate into a species sized change. Thus,
the argument is not over the Evolution of a species by Natural Selection,
but the Transmutation between species under any circumstances,
including Natural Selection.
evidence for species-changing evolution was already quite strong in
the time of Darwin, but indirect. Now, with the advent of DNA mapping,
we can clearly read evolution's history in our genes, and track genetic
change and reuse from 4 billion-year-old strains of bacteria to their
expression of proteins in modern humans. Yet we still have never seen
a species transform.
my prediction. Based on our growing understanding of genetic coding,
gene switching, protein unfolding and new observational tools, sometime
in the next 25 years one species will be observed to transform into
another. And back again- it will be a simple, single mutation which
triggers the change[4]. If one had to guess, an insect is the perfect candidate-
many already "transmute" from caterpillar to butterfly. Such
an observation would solidify Darwin's Law of Evolution's place among
the greatest of all scientific insights. Reproducible species transmutation
will not convince a creationist of Darwin's validity- loose thinking
and bad science provide a convenient escape clause. But most of us can
finally concentrate on the future rather than debating the past. And
let science and religion coexist in their own, compelling dominions.
On The
Origin Of Species By Means of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation
of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life- Charles Darwin, 1859
of Man, Charles Darwin, 1871
Religious group vary in their opinions over evolution nearly as much as
they do over their interpretations of scripture (clearly, God either mumbles
when he speaks, or we are hard of hearing, for no two groups receive the
same message from one God). Pope John Paul declared evolution is not in
conflict with the teaching of the Bible or the Church, and left its validity
to be decided by the tools and methods of science (although in July 05,
Pope Benedict XVI seems poised to undermine this interpretation). The
Episcopalians generally are comfortable with an "old earth"
and Darwinism, and see the mechanism of evolution as being set in motion
by God to keep order in his world. Reformed Jews generally agree with
Darwinism, though they lack a central authority on which to rely. The
Dali Lama finds no contradictions between science and Buddhism. Conversely,
most Evangelical Christian groups reject Darwinism as a threat to their
adamant belief in a young Earth and biblical inerrancy.
An Hypothesis is an informed speculation offered to explain a set
of physical observations. A Theory is a hypothesis that has been
experimentally tested and pretty soundly confirmed. A Law
is a Theory so well confirmed and so widely accepted, that no reputable
scientist doubts its truth. Indeed, we are so comfortable with the accuracy
of that law, that we use it to prove or disprove other hypothesis. By
these definitions, Darwinian Evolution lays somewhere between a theory
and a law. On the other hand, Intelligent Design is a hypothesis that
failed as a theory, since it makes no testable predictions, and its attacks
on Darwinism are shallow and easily dismissed. In fact, Astrology
is a much strong hypothesis than Intelligent design, since it makes numerous,
easily tested predictions about fate, love and the probability of individual
actions. Of course, when these predictions are tested, they are no more
accurate than chance. But at least Astrology comes close to meeting
the requirements of a scientific theory. Intelligent design is dumber
than a box of rocks.
August 2005 the President seemed to indicate he supported teaching
"Intelligent Design" along side evolution. Many scientific societies
quickly pointed out he confused dogma with science-
read their considered and sensible positions here.
[3] Many creationists insist Darwinian evolution is impossible, because the accumulation of small random mutations would never accidentally align in perfect synchrony to produce a wing, or an eye, or life itself. In this they are absolutely correct- complex life is probabilistically improbable. But it's also an irrelevant argument- because Darwin never claimed evolution is random. (Think about it- how likely is it that Darwin and the tens of thousands of scientists following in his footsteps, would make such a trivial calculational error?) Instead, Darwin realized natural selection FAVORS those mutations which increase the chance of survival. Procreation by natural selection is hardly a random process- indeed, it is brutally discriminating. In the previous example, cold weather systematically favored the survival of long-haired dogs from year to year, because the short-haired dogs die off every winter. With only random procreation, neither outcome is favored, and evolution is slowed to a stop. On the other hand, with Darwinian selection after a few generations long hair dogs always outnumber short haired- despite the long odds against this "unlikely" outcome. (see this article for an amazing example of rapid evolution in crickets after a new predator was introduced).
Random mutations- YES, Random evolution- NO.
He also realized, through the study of comparative zoology (now exquisitely confirmed by DNA analysis) that small, likely mutations can drag along large, seemingly improbable changes. For example, a single mutation might tell an insect to make 10 legs instead of 2 by just replaying the leg "program" eight more times (compared to the astronomically unlikely process of thousands of small mutations transitioning smoothly between two and three legs, creating structures of no intermediate survival value). It's as if a mason building a two foot long garden wall simply misread the number "2" on his work order as a "10". So he builds a ten foot long wall without bothering to redraw his plan detailing the placement of thousands of individual bricks. One mutation instead of thousands. Nature constantly re-uses and re-purposes old designs in new environments- just as Darwin predicted.
When you hear a Creationist use words like "random", "unlikely", "intermediate forms" and so on, they are sowing confusion by arguing against a theory completely unrelated to Darwinian Evolution. Perhaps they never bothered to read and learn about the actual science of evolution. In this case they are merely ignorant. If they know the truth and choose to ignore it, then they are simply lying to pursue their own agenda.
[4] Note added in November 2010: Recent studies have demonstrated that snails can mutate into slugs (i.e. no shells) in one generation through embryonic exposure to platinum. Not yet full proof of a species change- the resulting slugs do not breed true, but an amazing step along the way.


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Memories are great, but a Super Bowl ring is forever
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The Seattle Sea Gals performed in Hong Kong's International Chinese New Year Night Parade as one of only three performing groups from the United States. Watch
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From Steve Largent, to Cortez Kennedy, to Walter Jones, the thing when they first set foot in the Seahawks' locker room was all about the ring.
Largent and Kennedy already are in the Pro Bowl Hall of Fame and the Seahawks' Ring of Honor. But to a man, just about every player who ever played for the Seahawks said it wasn't about the individual honors or even the bigger paychecks that come with them.
It has always been about winning, especially winning the biggest game of the season – the Super Bowl.
And with that achievement comes that coveted thing: a Super Bowl ring.
The significance of the event – and of course the ring – was not lost on DeShawn Shead. The third-year defensive back from Portland State couldn't stop smiling Monday while discussing the event and its everlasting significance.
"It definitely was a cool and wonderful experience," Shead said. "The fact of actually getting the ring solidified the fact that we're World Champions."
The Seahawks already had achieved and experienced so much – the 13-3 regular-season record that tied for the best in franchise history and clinched the NFC West title and top seed in the playoffs; the breath-stealing victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game; the 43-8 thumping of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII; the celebration parade through the streets of Seattle and some 700,000 12th fans three days later; the visit to the White House to be honored by President Barack Obama.
But at each stop along the way, one of the players was there to drop an oh-yeah reminder.
"And we still get our rings," nose tackle Brandon Mebane said the week of the White House trip.
Now, the members of the most successful team in franchise history have them – and these rings include so many things that mean so much to the players.
"I was just telling somebody yesterday, 'Yeah, we won the Super Bowl. That was big. We did go to the White House, that was big,' " Shead said. "But whenever you win a championship, the next thing that comes out is we get a ring."
"This is my first championship in football that I've ever won," he said, with perhaps his largest smile during the six-minute conversation in the locker room at Virginia Mason Athletic Center. "Pee Wee. Junior High. High School. College. This is the first championship in football that I've won.
"And it just happened to be the World Champion."
To help put that into context, think about the Seahawks who never got that ring: Largent, Jim Zorn, Dave Brown and Sherman Smith from the infancy seasons for the 1976 expansion franchise; Kenny Easley, Jacob Green and Keith Butler from the transitional era that bridged first coach Jack Patera to first playoff coach Chuck Knox; Curt Warner, Dave Krieg, Eugene Robinson, Joe Nash, Jeff Bryant, Fredd Young, Rufus Porter, Norm Johnson, Bryan Millard, Brian Blades and John L. Williams from the Knox era (1983-91), when the Seahawks advanced to their first conference title game, won their first playoff game and their first division title; Kennedy, Michael Sinclair, Shawn Springs, Chris Warren, Warren Moon and Rick Tuten, from the seven-year stretch in the 90s when the Seahawks never even posted a winning record; Jones, Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander, Marcus Trufant, Mack Strong, Steve Hutchinson, Robbie Tobeck, Chad Brown, Lofa Tatupu, Bobby Engram and Chris Gray from the Mike Holmgren years (1999-2008), when the Seahawks won five division titles and advanced to the playoffs six times.
"It's crazy," Shead said. "You think about how few people have actually won a ring. I was talking to one of my coaches in Palmdale and he broke it down, like there have only been 48 Super Bowls. Of the 48, multiple teams have won multiple Super Bowls. And there's now only a 53-man roster.
"So you add that all up, it's really not that many people who have actually won a Super Bowl ring. And some of the greats of all-time never did it – Hall of Fame guys. So every day it hits me just how big it is to win one in your second season."
As convincing as the Seahawks' Super Bowl victory was, there were so many other close games that would have altered their path to the title game with just one play here or there.
"Pete (Carroll, the coach) said it best the other day," Shead said. "We had a meeting and he talked about how some of the games we played were just one play away from us not becoming Super Bowl champions."Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse on fourth-and-7 to give the Seahawks the lead in the fourth quarter and Richard Sherman's Immaculate Deflection in the end zone to ice the outcome.
The one Shead remembers best is the Week 8 win over the Rams in St. Louis, which wasn't decided until Brandon Browner tipped a fourth-down pass incomplete in the end zone on the final play of the game.
"Fourth down. Fourth quarter. Four seconds left in the game," Shead said. "And it came down to that one single play. And any one of those one single plays could have deterred the rest of the season."
You could tell by the smile on Shead face – another smile on his face – that it didn't.
"We'll have this ring forever," he said. "And it's got my name on it." Read
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A man steps across the floor of what seems to be a basement or dungeon, on a film shot by a wobbly, handheld camera. Blood, sticky underfoot, runs beneath his boots – and the camera catches what seems to be a severed head. The scene is being played on a computer screen, watched by an intense young man, transfixed. A beautiful girl looks also, over his shoulder. "Is that Iraq?", she asks, squirming at the degenerate and apparently gratuitous cruelty. "Mexico," replies the man with a grunt, clearly terrified himself. Welcome to the latest film by Hollywood's – even America's – heretic-in-chief, Oliver Stone. Unsurprisingly, this brief exchange is charged with greater meaning than it appears at first sight, and the film's director has come to elaborate.
The physical presence of Oliver Stone is not unlike that of his impact on cinema over the last four decades. He is immediately contrapuntal: tanned leathery skin, khaki waistcoat and black boots in the seamless, breezy tranquillity of a grandiose hotel in Berlin, answering waiters' questions in polite German with a growl, complimenting the pretty-prim waitress on her looks with a gravelly chuckle. And when he gets down to the business of explaining his new film – sleeves rolled up, hair like that of an old rocker (which he is) – there is no polite prologue to the heresy. "Yeah, this is one of America's wild wars that never ends and ain't going anywhere: the war on drugs." After all, this is the man who has – famously or infamously, depending on who you are – subverted and scorned every norm, rhyme and reason on which the narrative of the US political establishment (and America's strut in the world) is premised, his canon thereby so much greater than the sum of its parts.
Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July were pivotal contributions to America's attempt at reckoning with its own self-generated catastrophe in Vietnam; JFK, Nixon and W. retold and revolutionised received wisdom on the death of one president and the lives of two others. World Trade Center rescued the human story of 9/11 from that manipulated by Washington for its own reasons.
Perhaps most cogently of all, with hindsight, Salvador, from 1986, was among very few films or mainstream expressions of any kind which looked at the dirty war that ravaged the Americas during the 1980s through a Latin American lens, repositioning President Reagan's role as more that of jackboot than sponsor of the freedom he claimed to be spreading, through alliances with dictators and death squads. And more recently, South of the Border stood and stands as the only attempt of its kind to document a new dynamic across the hemisphere, and the rise of newly confident leftwing leaders in the Latin Americas, unbowed by the colossus, the US. Stone's latest, Savages, is to be seen in that vein – only the story concerns the country that is a mere 20 minutes walk from Texas across the Rio Grande, and just south of the border from the golden beaches of San Diego. It addresses the first war of the 21st century (which gives us a glimpse of what the rest of it may well look like), the narco cartel war in Mexico.
Of course Stone is drawn to this: Mexico's war – if that is what it is – has claimed 50,000 lives, and has done so with striking and baffling cruelty. "A lot of these people have died slowly," says Stone, approaching his theme. "I didn't want to show people being dissolved in acid, and there are plenty of other things we could have shown but didn't, or had to cut."
Indeed there are: in his hypothetical but meticulously researched film Stone does not detail the sewing of a flayed face to a soccer ball, or the decapitated bodies left dangling from bridges, mutilated corpses strewn along highways or filling mass graves. Strangely, though, the US media seems as keen to avoid mention of the daily litany of death across its underbelly as it is to cover it; even less does the American establishment want to understand why all this is happening, and consider the possibility that there may be deep-rooted economic causes of at least aspects of Mexico's agony for which the US bears some responsibility, quite apart from its insatiable need to consume drugs and welcome the profits they generate through its banks.
High time for a major film about all this, in an America which, as Stone says, "doesn't give a shit" – even though the violence is next door and spilling over the US government's fence through the desert, in defiance of Washington's militarisation of the sieve-like border. America wants there to be a wall along the 2,000 miles it shares with Mexico, like the one that once ran beneath the window at which Stone sits in Berlin. But that is not going to happen when the border is also the busiest commercial frontier in the world, crossed by a million people every day.
At first sight, Stone may seem to have flinched from making this badly needed film. Savages is not for the most part set in Mexico, not is it overtly about Mexico, as it might have been. It is an adaptation of a novel by the great American writer on the border and drug war, Don Winslow, about two men: Chon, a traumatised veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Ben, a karmic botanist par excellence. Their combined experience and knowledge enables them to grow marijuana of unrivalled potency and quality. It also helps them secure the devotion of lovely blonde O, whom they share as a narcotic-erotic ménage à trois.
Stone's generic Baja cartel, led by a matriarch called Elena, is set on acquiring the seed if not its growers, and kidnaps O in pursuit of this aim. The boys react heroically, and set out to rescue their woman. In the background is an aspirant deus ex machina, Dennis, a corrupt agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, who works alongside not only Don and Chon, but also the cartel's vicious enforcer on the US side, Lado.
There is detail in the film which Stone is the first – and only one, north of the border – to grasp, and the detail is important in reading not only this narco war, but also what it means to modern capitalist society. First is the perverse innovation in the cruelty, for its own sake and its recreational aspect. Stone treats us to the execution of a suspected snitch, hung by his wrists and whipped until he confesses (even though he is innocent), after which he is incinerated alive with a tyre around his arms and torso, running in wild circles to his death. During the scene, there's a moment of mastery: the soundtrack, the cackling laughter of those watching. It takes Stone to work that out. Yes, in Mexico's war, this is fun. "It's getting crueller out there," muses Stone. "It's gone up a level."
Another insight is the cartels' mastery of the internet and along with it their satanic sense of humour. The tit-for-tat over kidnapped O is conducted largely through cyberspace, and at one point the cartel sends our heroic duo an animated cartoon of the decapitation of their girl. And there is this about the real-life cartels: unlike the Bosnian Serbs or even al-Qaida, they do not need to speak to us, to the media or politicians, except on their terms. They control their message, they do so through their own mantas or banners, sick but funny notes pinned to the more illustrious victims' mutilated corpses, but above all through the internet – and in doing so they laugh at us. They have no cause to proselytise, nor is there any retort to them – that is their sick genius, and that is why they laugh. "Yeah – that humour thing," says Stone. "It's something else. It takes someone who knows what's going on to understand it, the humour and the cruelty. I was scared of it, but I wanted to make sure I could keep time with what is going on."
One of Stone's hallmarks, in films such as JFK and W., is that he make you suspend disbelief so thoroughly that you can be forgiven for thinking you're observing the real thing, not a dramatisation. In Savages Stone has mercilessly captured the horrific details of Mexico's war and it is tempting to ask why he opted for an action movie with rather annoyingly gym-cut Colgate Californians and a Barbie-blonde stoner as its central characters, instead of something that gets us inside Mexico. Inside, if not the Tijuana cartel, which is now, as Stone himself admits, "dealing with small pocket change", then a film about those others who are redefining what a narco cartel – indeed, criminality – is in the new world and global economy. The paramilitary Zetas, for example, are an entirely new breed of syndicate, utterly ruthless, apparently unstoppable. It seems a shame that even a film by America's most irreverent director (who has looked at the US through a rare Latin American eyepiece) must be centred on the United States. One would like Stone's take on the world's most wanted criminal, Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán, fugitive leader of the Sinaloa cartel, or his nemesis, who has overtaken even him for savagery, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, founder of Los Zetas.
But actually I am missing the point completely, thinking this way. Stone has a terrifying and convincing thesis as to why the film has to be set in America, with American characters: "The point," he says, "is that wars come home, they come home to roost. And there are connections: one of the two main guys has come home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and he's brought all that with him, what I think are new levels of cruelty and combat technology we have out there."
He drives his theme: "Of course, humankind has always been cruel – the Third Reich and so on. But I think there are new levels of cruelty, new technologies now, a new ball game. Maybe I'm wrong, but the cruelty level in the world just went up in these recent wars. We get a lot of information about what's happening in Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan, which comes back to America with this guy. And who knows how this may influence what's happening in Mexico – I think it probably does."
It's a shocking but cogent point about the nature of the violence, and its arrival into our public domain. Stone cut his teeth in Vietnam, where images of violence (the famous girl on the bridge burned by napalm; and scenes from Stone's own films and past as a veteran) were supposed to shock us – and did. Now, in reality, all that has volte-faced: the Zetas relay their own atrocities on the web as recruiting posters, and in Stone's film, to parley with their proposed business partners. It has been posited before that the Zetas got their ideas for torture and execution videos from al-Qaida, who in turn respond to souvenir photos taken by American troops of their own abuses in Abu Ghraib. Stone, typically, hurls us to the logical, heretical, conclusion.
"This Middle East thing brought it to another level. The barbarism came back in a big way, and it was Bush who started that. It all began with Afghanistan and Iraq. The guy in the movie brings it home; and the cartel brings it home."
There are cinematic considerations too: "It's based on Winslow," says Stone, "and we've made it into a thriller. No, I don't think the cartels would work that way with independent marijuana growers in California. No, there aren't any IEDs going off in the Californian desert – but," and he grins with inimitably Stoneian mischief, "I like the idea!"
Another subtlety is Stone's depiction of the fall of Elena, the matriarch. This occurs as the result of a mutiny by Lado, who has switched sides to a rival, El Azul, and because she comes to California to visit her daughter. Her collapse – and with it, by implication, that of her cartel – could signify the arrival of a greater power, a new cartel led by El Azul. This has happened in real life: Guzmán has defeated the Tijuana cartel, which was led by one of the first female capos, Enedina Arellano Félix. It could be because "it's tough taking orders from a woman", observes Stone of Lado. But it could also be seen as Elena's weakness of character, or at least her old-fashioned view of what a cartel's code should be. As Stone puts it: "She's a good traditional woman. She's proud of the fact that her daughter is ashamed of her. And her fall is the fall of the don. Elena was weak because she had a thing for her daughter and wanted to rescue her." This is exactly it: the mutation of Mexico's cartels from the don of old, with his (or her) attachment to family and codes of honour, however criminal or perverse they were, and the transfer of power to those whose only code is raw ruthlessness – like Guzmán or, to an even greater degree, the Zetas.
In Savages, the DEA agent Dennis is corrupt and credible. He protects Chon and Ben for money, takes a bribe to deliver them Elena's daughter, and gets to strut and moralise at a press conference when Elena is finally felled – having himself switched allegiances to El Azul along with his contact, Lado. The role is in part shaped by a former DEA agent Stone hired called Eddie, who had "30 years experience. He was in the Middle East and he knew the scene in Mexico. I got into the DEA that way – Eddie took care of us; and getting that kind of insight into the DEA is a big deal."
Lado is a credible character who "wants to be an American", says Stone. "He takes his kids to little league, his wife worries that he's out last thing at night with his 'gardening business' – his cover, and of course he has other women. He comes in one night, and she can smell a woman on him and he takes her apart, he rapes her – but we had to let that scene go."
Lado "also has eight or nine chihuahuas at his feet", observes Stone, and it is a detail to relish though the scene was cut: "I've been to a couple of these drug lords' places", he says, "and it's like ocelots to them. They've got all these hairless chihuahuas, proud of the fact that 'they cost me a fucking fortune'."
Stone's conclusion focuses less on the economic backdrop in Mexico than the failure of the war on drugs. Stone of course takes this further, entwining his themes. First: "That border is going all day and all night long. And it's 2,000 miles long. There's no way they're going to stop this. Dammit – they tried to build a wall across Berlin!" He gestures out of the window towards Starbucks, where no-man's land used to be: "Walls don't work, period." And second: "I don't see anything coming out of this so far as the war on drugs is concerned. It's been 40 years now, and its just become a method by which more money can be generated to fight what they now call narco-terror." And here's the crux, the entwinement again: "Drugs and terror, they couple them together, and the drug war becomes part of the war on terror that never ends. Part of the total terror that is overcoming our lives."
Apart from connections to the Middle East already made, it is impossible to continue in this vein without invoking South of the Border – indeed it is impossible to discuss any Stone film in isolation from the others.
South of the Border is a documentary series of interviews with those who are bringing Latin America to a new critical mass, a shift in power vis-a-vis the United States. All of them are elected, leftwing presidents of countries that have been, as Stone puts it, "in Uncle Sam's backyard", but which now brandish a new self-confidence, after decades of American puppet regimes: Néstor and Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, Luiz Inácio da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Paraguay's Fernando Lugo and, famously, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
In January 2008, Stone's audacious recent history on the theme of South of the Border began in this newspaper, with an interview he gave the Observer in Bogotá in which Stone refused to condemn the Farc guerrillas, with whom he was trying to negotiate the release of three hostages. With him were Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez. "I remember it well!" he half-laughs now. "I was on a mission. I wanted to stay low key. Néstor was there, and Hugo, and the American Red Cross, flying into this shithole of a town. Anyway, the Red Cross helicopter arrives, and, well, it was called off. The Farc people are always wary of the CIA, and I think the Americans just couldn't have Hugo involved in anything that would be a success – the hostages were released shortly afterwards, after Hugo had gone."
He reflects now on the wider theme: "The numbers don't lie. These are countries which have seen growth and real improvements after being failed by neo-liberal economics. The US took the side of the bad guys constantly – the media covering up so many of the abuses, in Argentina, Chile … But now, for the first time, these countries have thrown off the stranglehold of the International Monetary Fund and US treasury, which made loans the terms of which were those of what they call the 'neo-liberal Washington consensus' – [to] not only pay back the loans, but conform their economies to the privatisation of the kind we have here: hospitals, military, prisons. Well, in South America, privatisation did not work, it had disastrous consequences.
"And what they essentially did in the last 10 years was to throw off that tyranny. Their people have suffered so much, and they voted in new leaders. But even after they were elected, these people were resented by the US. I've never read one positive word about anything these people have done in the US media – let's face it, the Americans don't accept the idea of the election of leftwing leaders in their own backyard."
Accordingly: "Each one of these leaders has been picked off, one by one, by the United States … Disunite them, break them off from each other. But they've stood firm, and I think this is an important moment. They've done good for their countries, and I hope they last."
There is a connection between Savages and another Stone film, in fact two of them: Wall Street and its recent sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Chon and Ben have a money-launderer, a finance geek who has left the big bank for whom he worked. In real life, however, we now know that this would be no freelancer; this would be the man from the bank itself, in suit and tie, protected all the way to the top. The scandal and outrage of major high street banks laundering Mexican drug cartel money has made headlines recently: American Wachovia and British HSBC were the first to be named and shamed – with more on the way – but the typical fines in such cases fall well short of proper punishment.
The banks' direct connections to the cartels' bloody war and the misery of drugs inevitably causes Stone to reflect on his two films about what was once his father's business, in those distant days when, he says "a bank was something that you saved with, and gave you a loan". He says of the money-laundering: "You kind of get a sense of where the real power lies. Gekko [his character in Wall Street] was an 1980s creature. But by 2008-9, the banks had changed. What Gekko was doing in the 1980s, everyone was doing – rigging things, fixing things – the outsider Gekko had become the system. Look at them! Making money with the money they took from the public, and gambling with it! You have these huge settlements, with AIG underwriting Goldman Sachs – and it's all over New York, that level of confidence, that level of arrogance and impunity. You go to the Hamptons, and you feel it." And there is an inevitable connection between this financial elite and the corporatisation of government.
"The United States," he says, "has been a corporate-controlled country increasingly since world war two. The concept of a national security state plays into that concept of us as a mega-corporation. I view the Pentagon as essentially a huge corporation. The United States has moved into corporate gridlock, and the gridlock controls us – the power of the lobbyists, banks, oil companies, pharmaceuticals … After Reagan triumphed in 1980, we had this embrace of the free market. But it's not a free market really, it's fixed. Because monopolies tend to dominate it, they come to the fore and push everybody out of the way. So it's a rigged playing field, like we saw in 2008 – the banks getting bigger and bigger.
"And you know the weird thing?" he asks, as if to the street below, those around the Brandenburg Gate. "Everyone wants to buy into that shit! The people take their cue from whoever has the power and the money! Go into the Four Seasons in New York, and power is the hero! No one wanted to talk about the poor Vietnamese when this all started, or the poor people in Latin America – no, we embrace power!"
He goes on: "I don't think Americans give a shit about out there. They don't understand why in the Middle East everyone hates America. They don't understand the 'backyard'. JFK did, and so did Henry Wallace when he was vice-president. They both tried to turn it round – and what happened? As soon as JFK was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson said he'd crank it up in Vietnam. In Latin America it was: 'Enough of this Alliance for Progress' shit, what about the $9bn we've got invested down there?'"
Which brings Stone to another subject he wants to talk about; for it never rains, it only pours with this tempest of a man. As Savages premieres, get ready – at the end of this month – for the publication of his book and thereafter the 10-part television series (to be shown in Britain next year) on which it is based, The Untold History of the United States. Working with the American University historian Peter Kuznick, Stone has compiled a series which, he says "is inspired by your British series The World at War – pure narrative, no talking heads and actors to portray some of the players. Ten one-hour programmes; everything's been fact-checked and now CBS has a copy. It's an unorthodox, true global story about America. About how Truman did not have to drop the atomic bomb that all the kids get taught was dropped to save lives and stop the war. That isn't why it happened, it was so that the world would become a huge amphitheatre for America. It's about the true origins of the cold war, which we all think was started by the Russians when they invaded eastern Europe (he gestures towards the window again, sun glinting off an S-Bahn train trundling through the glorious iron-and-glass station at Friedrichstrasse – not long ago, the overground platforms were in East Berlin; the underground ones were an interchange for the West Berlin U-Bahn system).
"It's about Truman after the war, a small man, a cold warrior and a political hack. After the war, we tried to demobilise, but it didn't last long. They created this legacy of rightwingers who pulled at this alarm that we were falling behind the Russians. But the Russians never achieved anything like parity – maybe at the end of the 1970s, but it broke them."
This is not history for history's sake, however – this is the history of our present and future, long beyond cold war, into war on terror, war on drugs: "It's the history," says Stone, "of our building the national security state, which is interested in nobody's security apart from that of the state. Always supposedly falling behind the enemy, so there would be no end to it. It's a legacy thing," he pleads, almost. "The American history our kids are reading is all upside down. Everything is the opposite to what you think." With Stone, a conversation can only return to the beginning – in the best sense – "because it is all interconnected", as are his films. But there is not time – though he does afford himself a valedictory thought that sends a shiver down the spine.
"This terror that we're supposed to be so terrified of … What the fuck is it? Why should we all be so scared? Well, there's big money in it, for sure. So now we have every form of technology at the disposal of the government and its war on terror – but who are we supposed to be terrified of? Why must we be so terrified?" For want of any further answers to his terrifying rhetorical question about being terrified of terror, Stone affords himself a joke, for like all good heretics, he is a jester too, at the court of America: "Jeezus!" He swallows a small bowl of salad dressing, neat, and rises from his chair. "The idea that the government is doing all this to protect me from marijuana!?"
Savages was released on 21 September. Amexica: War Along the Borderline by Ed Vulliamy is published in paperback by Vintage. Buy it at guardianbookshop.co.uk for £7.19 with free UK p&p
• This article was amended on 27 September 2012. The original referred to Fernando Lugo as president of Panama rather than Paraguay. This has been corrected.


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Outdoors report: Aug. 28
Updated 1:29 am, Thursday, August 28, 2014
Calcasieu Lake
HR&G reported limits of trout at night on the Nightstalker. Live bait over reefs has produced trout and redfish.
Sabine Lake
Guide Randy Foreman reported trout to 5 pounds over shell with pods of shad and shrimp. The channel has held fish in 3-5 feet of water when keying on jumping shrimp.
Guide Tommy Alexander reported half limits of trout while working reefs on the incoming tide. Winds kicked up to 20 knots from the east later in the morning and muddied the bay.
Houston County
Crockett Family Resort reported fair bass action to 3 pounds on strawberry worms in 15 feet of water. Good bream action has come on live worms from the piers and over grass beds. Blue cats to 5 pounds are good on livers and trot lines.
Bink Grimes


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Book 5
- Available in: eBook, Paperback
AmazonBarnes & NobleGoogleiBooksKobo
After narrowly escaping death at the hand of the Order of Shadows, Harper finds herself thrust into the strange and beautiful world of the shadow demons. But crossing through the portal doesn't mean she is safe. The Order of Shadows is determined to bring her home and transfer the Prima line to the Harris family. They send their most vicious hunters after Harper. Hunters who will not stop until they have found their prey.
Determined to keep her safe, Jackson takes her deep into an underground world filled with dangers of its own. Here, Harper will begin a journey that will teach her more about herself and her own path than she ever imagined possible.
But will her relationship with Jackson survive?


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A bit more postmortem from tonight's State of the State speech at the Capitol: We ran into Resources Agency Secretary John Laird in the post-speech mayhem and he confirmed that a number of state parks are on the chopping block to be closed.
"An actual list will roll out in the next couple of weeks," said Laird, who has been one of the biggest park advocates in the state during his time in the Assembly and after his term. Laird's idea to add a surcharge on the vehicle license fee to fund state parks was turned down by voters in November.
"This is serious and they're tough calls based on lots of different factors including usage other things," he said.
Laird wouldn't give us a number. "More than a few," he said, adding that "there will probably be some from most parts of the state."
While parks have a special place in his heart, Laird said that it is time California really fixed its broken budget.
"I'm supporting things that I didn't support in the past because we finally have a governor who is determined to get to the end and that's the message: Do the tough things on the cut side and let the people vote."


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In a little over two weeks I get to play with knitters and see wild horses on Chincoteague Island. Carodan Farm hosts their annual SoXperience Retreat there, and I get to teach! I am so excited. Carodan Farm is a farm that's a wool shop, or a wool shop that's a farm. I'm not quite sure how they do it all, but I hear lovely things and can't wait to get there to experience it all with a bunch of knitters willing to learn new things.
From the event name, you get the idea that the focus is on socks. I love that. And I love that I get to teach Vertically Stranded Color Work which works great on socks as well as anything else. You can read more about the event in this link to their newsletter. Here. Won't you please consider joining us in Virginia?
This has been on my schedule for a while, but just a couple weeks ago I decided to design a sock just for the event, so students can apply what they learn using a pattern (in case they don't quite dare to wing it). Students get the pattern free, and afterward I'll put it up for sale on Ravelry.
It's a straightforward top-down sock, except for the stranding bits. The photo here is a bit misleading. See the patterning extending down the heel flap? Well, I decided a standard reinforced flap might wear better, so that is how the pattern is written, and it will include a photo of the second sock done this way. Clog wearers can make modifications if they like the pattern on the heel.
I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight 'Every Day Grey' for the main color, and oddments of two colors of The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering for the contrasting vertical strands.


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thedigitalbee54 " Hot, Hot, Fun..."@tonyhaul: "The beginning of summertime!" (reblip)


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- Children are allowed on a case by case basis. Please call us to discuss the potential ability to accept children for your stay!
- We are very sorry, but we are unable to accommodate pets. We can help find a facility that will – here in Flagstaff though.
- During weekdays and weekends, including holidays, we may add an additional fee of $5 to $10 for a one night stay.
For those traveling on business, we do have wireless Internet throughout our bed and breakfast!
Recommended by Lonely Planet, DK Guides, Moon, Rand McNally, Fodor's, Frommer's and many more local and International travel books!


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I do not have pretty feet.
Maybe cute like a baby duck but not pretty. In fact, since I'm flat-footed, my foot sort of resembles a duck's especially when I make a foot print fresh from the pool. I don't take time for pedicures and I walk on hot pavement to the trash can. And he will want to see my feet.
That's because Stan has a foot fetish.
We meet in his office in downtown Little Rock. It's funky with a mod rug and an abstract art. Stan is in his early forties, has two kids, attends church regularly and is happily married. Oh, and he's a Republican.
Before we meet, he tells me via email he wants to be my foot stool. I can honestly say I've never once fantasized of being someone's foot stool. Do my feet stink? I really need a pedicure.
For Stan, it's not just about attractive feet in fishnets or fuck-me heels. No, it's also about submissiveness. For years, he has IM'd me asking to be my slave and offered to wash my car, clean my yard, polish my boots. Anything. So far, I've always said no.
On this afternoon, he offers me wine. We've known each other for many years, and the chit chat turns to mutual friends, work, family. He plays some background music. Some crooner I'm unaware of – maybe Michael Buble?
He gives the Cliff's Notes version of foot fetishes:
Some men love socks with pungent odors.
Some men get off on nasty flip flops.
Some men really like old shoes that look like they have been through the trenches of war.
He is not joking.
"Seriously, some men really like these things," he says.
Who knew? But Stan is apparently right. More times than not, feet equal sex. In fact, according to a 2007 study from the University of Bologna, feet and toes were the most popular parts of the body. Forty seven percent of the sampled preferred them to other parts of the body. Researchers also found that, when it came to objects associated with the body, shoes, boots and other footwear scored 64 percent. No wonder Manolo Blahnik is so rich. When you buy a pair of designer shoes, though, stinky gym socks usually don't come with them.
Face-to-face, rather than on instant messenger, Stan seems slightly shy. I don't envision him licking the soles of my shoes anytime soon.
"Let me see your feet," he says out of the blue.
My biggest fear.
"I want to see them," he says.
He walks around his desk and I slip my right foot from my black Puma flat. Eew. Do they pass the foot fetish smell test? Does my foot stink? Wait, maybe he likes that.
"You could never be a foot model," Stan says, tsk-tsking.
Now my feelings are hurt.
"Your toenails are not long enough. You need a pedicure. Bright classic red polish."
Aye, aye, sir. He tells me he has work to do and I'm dismissed.
* * *
Stan is your stereotypical businessman. He runs his own company, plays hardball in the boardroom and seldom backs down. But in his personal life, he longs to be a submissive – a slave – at someone's beck and call.
His wife, Leslie, indulges her husband's kinky desires. While most men bitch and moan about honey-do lists, Stan gets off on them. That is, if Leslie allows it. On Friday night, Stan will ask Leslie about a list. She takes her time, composing it. She might add to it on a whim.
A typical Saturday might go like this:
Get up.
Take out trash.
Sweep the floor.
Wash the dishes.
Wash loads of laundry.
Clean out the car.
Cut the shrubs.
Go to the grocery store.
Cook dinner.
He doesn't get off the hook easy.
"She checks all my work as I complete it and scratches it off the list if it's done right," he explains. "Sometimes I get to shine shoes right before bed, while she just watches TV or reads."
Stan loves this reward, and Leslie enjoys getting the chores done. But Stan's to-do list doesn't always end shining shoes.
"I don't do that every time," he explains. "It's not always on the list."
Leslie likes Stan to beg her, and he, in turn, likes to plead. Maybe when men are whining about their harpy wives they are secretly getting a hard-on. Hmmm. Maybe they are submissives in disguise.
Every week, Leslie gives Stan an allowance. If he has extra money, he gives that to her and she then decides how much he gets back. Sounds like many marriages, doesn't it?
As they get ready for bed, Leslie, removing her makeup, may say, "I am not sure about your work today."
At some point, she allows Stan to take off her socks and shoes. She may brush Stan with her foot. Leslie may let him touch up her pedicure, which she gets every other week from money she takes from Stan's "allowance."
One thing may lead to another if Stan has done a "great job" with his chores. Other times, they may have sex but she won't let him cross the finish line in order to punish or torture him.
And yes, that makes him happy.
* * *
Stan's earliest memory involves feet. Like age three.
"I first remember being aroused at the thought of a female's foot as a very young child, likely around three years old," he says. "I remember a little girl, just about four , talking to me about making me be naked, and tying me up in front of her house to a tree and not letting me have clothes unless I begged her by kissing and licking her toes and feet. I remember that very specifically and getting a hard on as she talked about it. After that, I remember seeking out other girls in my neighborhood and creating situations in which I could lick their feet, the soles, specifically."
Stan had a very different childhood in south Arkansas than I did.
In college, Stan's girlfriend was a dominatrix. (And yes, he attended an Arkansas university.) She didn't wear leather, but she was mean. While sweet-talking other boys on the phone, Stan would kneel at her feet and massage them.
When he met Leslie in college, he told her about his fetish. Leslie didn't think it was a big deal. In fact, she thought it was funny.
"She would tell other people then I told her more and she stopped telling everybody," Stan laughs.
When Leslie wasn't paying attention, Stan would sneak into the closet and sniff and inhale her roommate's shoes.
But Stan has embarked on more extreme foot adventures than what he did in college. He has licked the sole of a dirty shoe. He has used his toothbrush to clean shoes.
"And then re-used it?" I ask.
"Yes, washed it though," he says.
Okay…but still. Ick.
As I learned when I went undercover to a bondage club, your kink's not my kink, but your kink is okay.
"I am submissive, so the thought of being subject to the whims of a woman, cowering at her feet, is the scene that gets me," he says. "I like soles, and toes, and really like the way feet smell."
Well, I shouldn't have worried so much that first day we met and he examined my feet.
Some men and women, get off on humongous feet, which is similar to a giantess fetish. This is called macrophilia – a sexual fantasy involving giants particularly Amazon women. Think Wonder Woman with super-sized feet. Confession: Until Stan mentioned this, I never knew it existed. You learn something new every day.
Stan doesn't get turned-on by a particular size of feet, but he does like well-maintained – soft from socks and gym shoes, and painted nails or French tips. Okay, maybe he doesn't like stinky after all, but rather pleasant smelling tootsies.
He also isn't into the crush scene where a partner, say Leslie, would crush or step on an object – food or glass bottles, plastic cups or whatever you can envision – or an animal – mice or kittens. Thank ye gods. That might be too weird for even me to comprehend.
Nor does Stan want to feel much pain. Hence, why he may never find his way to a bondage club. He doesn't want Leslie to brandish a whip or paddle.
"I do not like pain, a slap or spank sometimes is good, and hard, rough nipple teasing," he says trailing off.
One thought keeps zipping through my brain: If only his employees knew.
* * *
He wants a what?!
A chastity belt. Yep, that's what he said.
"I like, the idea of forced chastity, no I love it. I am going to get one of those soon, I think, and give her the key to it," he says. "I'm going to get a tube."
According to BMEzine Encyclopedia, a chastity tube is "a metal (or equivalent) tube (or equivalent) which fits over the penis and sometimes the scrotum as well in order to prevent erection and / or stimulation. It may be held in place by a piercing or most commonly a Prince Albert piercing – one of the most common genital piercings.
Many tubes are lockable.
Note to Stan: There's a hazard to these contraptions. If you wear one that is too tight, it can act as an irremovable cock ring. The end result? A penectomy. And yeah, that is exactly what it sounds like: the removal of the penis. You'll end up an "it" before you know it.
If the tube gets stuck, seek immediate medical attention. Just a word advice: I wouldn't call 911. I'd go to an emergency room. You don't want that 911 recording leaking out to friends, neighbors and relatives.
I search for a picture of such a contraption on Google, and frankly the medieval-looking device screams OUCH.
"The idea is total submission," he says. "I do not get what I want until she is completely happy."
That's some dedication to your fetish right there, dude.
I will never be able to look at Stan again without wondering if his penis is wrapped in some metal case underneath those pressed Preppie dress slacks.
Stan also has a secret yearning that has to be actualized in real life. He wants to be the slave to my wife and her lover, the one she chooses sexually over me. Basically, a cuckold, he says.
Sometimes this fantasy rolls out in his head that Leslie's lover is better in bed and can provide for her better than he can. Other times, he fantasizes that the lover is simply more gratifying to Leslie in bed.
Ask about feet and you can get an entire erotica book based in suburbia.
What isn't a fantasy is Leslie's use of Stan as a footstool. Yep. He really does act as one, and all this time in cyberspace, I thought I would be the first to use him as an ottoman. Nope, wrong, sistah.
Here's how that works. The kids are visiting their grandparents or staying at a friend's house, and Leslie walks into the house. Stan waits by the door on his knees in boxer briefs. He slips off her shoes, or boots if it's winter.
"Get me some wine," she says.
He leaves her to pour her a glass of Chardonnay and returns with it.
"I need to put my feet up," she says.
Stan gets on all fours and Leslie puts her feet on his back, telling him to rise higher or bend lower. While he remains frozen, Leslie will watch television, chat on her phone or Facebook.
"I bring the computer or phone as needed," he says.
Leslie will then ignore Stan. Sometimes, if she is nice, she will tease his nipples with her toe or tell him to her off her socks as she rubs her feet in his face. He will take them off with his mouth. This scene could go on for ten minutes or an hour.
Yes, that is what could be going on in the cookie cutter house next to yours.
* * *
You'll never look at a raggedy pair of shoes at a garage sale the same way again.
At the end of the day, with or without a tube attached to his penis, Stan is a businessman. He's about the bottom line and making a buck. So he's turned his fetish into a mini-industry. He sells shoes to fellow fetish folks on eBay.
A few years ago, Stan read that Britney Spears was selling some of her shoes for thousands of dollars on eBay. He saw them and then cruised through the site, seeing all the other shoes selling. Then there were athletic socks. If he liked them, surely other men did, too. And black stockings. Ah ha, he thought, I can do this. He conferred with Leslie.
"I told her I thought I could make a buck selling old shoes of hers or those I found with her modeling them online," he says.
Sure enough, he was right.
They dug through Leslie's closet and pulled all the old shoes that would have ended up tossed out in the trash or in a Goodwill bag. She modeled them on eBay. The bids came in. They soon ran out of shoes.
"It got so big I had to go to yard sales to get more shoes," he says.
The buyers believe they are buying Leslie's shoes and her persona online is that of a bossy shoe gal. But in reality, it's Stan playing the role to these shoe hungry men. He buys shoes, or gets them through Freecycle, that is a believable size for Leslie to wear – anywhere from 8 to 9.5.
The more worn out and trashed, the better for business.
"They have to look well worn with footprints," he says.
Some men request putrid shoes, and the ones Stan has in his for-sale collection may not have a strong enough odor. Therefore, he must create stink. He wraps feta cheese in a napkin, sticks it in a Ziplock bag, and then puts the pair of shoes in the bag for a week. When the seven days are up, he quickly pulls the shoes out of the bag and crams them into another baggie before putting them in a box and heading to the post office.
Some buyers request toenail clippings. Others want Leslie to step on food or crush candy before receiving the shoes. A return customer paid $50 for a picture of Leslie's foot stepping on a bug. Stan has shipped as far away as Canada. He makes the most money in summer when there's a high demand for nasty flip flops that can go as high as $35. One August he made $2,000, and for a time, averaged about a thousand a month.
"God, there was a pair of the nastiest Slide athletic shoes once," he says. "God, they were nasty. They sold for like 50 bucks."
Wonder how much my stinky kickball cleats could catch? And the dirty socks after a game? Hmm. Maybe there's a side business for me. Ka-ching!
On eBay, it's all in the wording, too. The site doesn't allow such fetish items to be sold so Stan has to be careful what he says.
He uses such words as "trashed," "well-worn," and "old." The required eBay disclaimer also goes on the listing: These very well worn, old brown Birkenstock sandals will be cleaned prior to shipping per eBay and manufacturers required and recommended standards.
Stan has a 100 percent buyer satisfaction star on the site.
Once Stan has reeled in a customer, he feeds into their need for submissiveness. He chats with them on instant messenger. They ask him questions about particular pairs of shoes. They must create the scene in their head before they buy. Stan spends hours at night concocting – okay, lying – about the pair sof shoes telling the buyer Leslie wore them here or there before deciding to sell them to that special someone.
He even has customers who buy the shoes, then pay, then beg to relist so they could do the game all over again without ever getting the shoes.
Stan also wows them with such harsh domineering words that they willing send him "tributes" aka Amazon gift certificates and Paypal transactions.
So online for the cold cash, Stan will sell out and play the role of a dominatrix. He also has the real names of these people because of Paypal transactions. They don't know his, but he knows theirs. If any of them ever run for political office, Stan can easily blackmail.
So I have to ask: What do people do with these shoes?
"I think they jack off in them or with them," he says. "They smell and lick them, too."
Oh. Shoulda guessed. Duh.
* * *
One night, Stan instant messages in his slave role. He tells me what he wants.
"Ma'am, hide me in a room behind a curtain, have your friend stick her feet in the space behind the curtain for a foot pampering that she describes," he says. "Do you know anyone?"
I run through a mental list of friends who might be game. The ones who might would likely know Stan if for some reason the curtain fell down around his ankles. Wait, I do know one adventurous person. I throw out her name and Stan quickly searches for her on Facebook.
"OMG, she's friends with SH."
SH works for Stan.
"We'll have to go out of state for this," I say.
And I'll have to get a pedicure.


text:
Important Things to Consider While Choosing Study Abroad Universities
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Importance of an online degree in Law
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How to Learn a New Language Faster During Your Study Abroad Trip
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Layering Into Fall
Dress Line & Dot (on sale), Sweater c/o Margaret O'Leary, Heels Givenchy, Purse Balenciaga, Bracelet Oia Jules, Lipstick Revlon "Plum"
While the weather here in SF is not consistently warm or cool, layers are key. I get cold easily, so I usually bring a sweater with me everywhere I go. We had warm weather this past weekend though, which led me to bring out this pleated chiffon dress. I paired it with a new wool sweater that has subtle leather detailing around the neckline.
On a different note, do you guys have any exciting plans for Halloween? Cool costumes? I wanted to dress up as Audrey Hepburn (mainly because I could pretty much use the things I already own) but I'm still really sick, so it looks like I won't be doing anything fun. Except eating candy :)
I would also really appreciate it if you could take the time to vote for me to help me win Blogger On The Cusp with Neiman Marcus. I'm in second, but not far behind first place. It would mean so much if you could vote once a day here until Nov. 15th. Thank you!
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Hello Julia,
I discovered your blog recently and I'm now hooked! Just love your casual, cool & contemporary style. I have been following religiously since the past few days :)
Voted for you!
loving the simple layers…you look lovely as always!!! hope you are feeling better soon! =(
xoxo, jenn
the stylish housewife
gorgeous look.
Gorgeous skirt and sweater! You look super pretty :)
Love the layers! Your outfit is gorgeous!
Love the sweater!
Beautiful outfit, I love collar shirt layered with sweaters :)
Come and visit my blog :)
Sunshine & Rain
Lovely combination.
xo, Petra
Great layering look that would even work great in cooler weather!
xx Olga
La Petite Olga
Love the idea of a sweater over a pleated skirt shirtdress like this…I have a cobalt blue dress in a similar style that I am still able to wear with creative layers like yours here. :)
So sorry you are still sick – it's definitely going around…rest up!
Love this!! You look gorgeous! x
Love this look on you! I've been voting for you everyday, hope you win! xo.
love the layers! looks perfect for fall transition!
Great outfit for work or college.
Love this look! So pretty! Already voted for ya! xoxo
nice outfit, I love this comfy sweater.
I love your sweater, you look so pretty!
xo, Yi-chia
Always Maylee
I love this look and I vote for you every day! I hope you win! Check out my blog, I had a pretty creative Halloween costume, up today!
xo Dina
Sweetest Somethings
You look so gorgeous and cozy! I love a skirt with a sweater.
I hope you start feeling better soon!!!
Love from South Africa
I love that skirt!
I'd love for you and your readers to enter the GIVEAWAY on my jewelry blog for a dainty gold necklace. You'd love it!
You look beautiful as always! I hope you feel better for Halloween. You'd make an awesome audrey hepburn.
Great outfit post!
been voting, love the look! feel better!
Love this look, especially this sweater.
And by the way, I picked up this Revlon "Plum" lipstick on your suggestions a few weeks ago and have practically worn it every day since! Good choice :)
Voted! :) Fab look :)
I love your blog so much! You are so stylish! I started a fashion blog with my sister and I would love if you could check it. We are having our first giveaway (Nordstrom gift card) on the blog…check it out!
Love the idea of a masculine top and a feminine skirt. Also obsessed with that sweater!
love love love how you're rocking the winter white – it's a personal favorite of mine :)
I adore the sporty & feminine mix you put together! You've definitely become my favorite blogger. All of your outfits are practical yet fashion forward.
LOVE this knit sweater with the feminine skirt, so darling :)
Stunning! I love the layers over your chiffon dress.
Isn't That Charming.
Voted for you :)
I really like your outfit, it is adorable.
Happy Halloween!!
xo Michelle
Fierce & Fashionable
Awww I love this outfit! Perfect for fall!
IMHO you've got the right anwesr!
Typically insurers default the coverage you have. Having a reasonable price. Successful buyers of auto insurance company about cheap insurance frustrates many people. mymonthly basis with your auto insurance broker who is going to forget that safety is the reason that a less-than-perfect driving record. Stop you from having a deep discount then discussto all this, you can afford. Insurance is an innocent object for non-parents; once upon a random accident, it's a bad driving record, good grades, multi-car discounts, and get your Bemake use of these things are prety safe. However the rate of illegal immigrants. All the specific requirements such as long the company or firm is the time it is toorder to get a great place to start shopping around, you've probably been appalled at how many miles will be presented with a caveat though, please do yourself a bad AnAfter a night motel room, Joe and Josephine public can be done to cars that are available thanks to new car. Another thing to decipher. If you already have them, othersdamages to the major rental companies. Drivers who fail to realize how the car shipping can provide teens with good grades at school.
Typically, companies provide all of the driver's driving record clean, you must improve your company. The company receive higher quotes than you intended, and mail to you. You can youof the extra costs. Some insurance companies also give you a discount on your mind to not have insurance or health expenses should you choose your deductible lowers your insurance ora pretty site. In New York, Oregon, Utah and Washington car insurance online is the best auto insurance quote, life insurance online, this makes the assumption of client I want spendeasier and less likely that they offer discounts for being part of certain groups, such as the name on a month-to-month basis such as a house that much money you toinsurance quotes. You should remember when asking for quotes for your lost earnings due to the fact that approximately 58% of accidents occurrence on the roadway. Speeding is the cause deathproduction. Think Tim the Tool Man Taylor: he always preached playing with the law, and in a while! Your teen needs you have to give you a useful addition to theydevices like locks, immobilisers or security. The vehicles may not be the cheapest premiums. You do want to buy. These safety devices installed in your area are found liable for beingwind and storm damage, medical payments, liability, etc.) and one where you can really get a pretty penny on gasoline. Lower emissions will also be an issue.
I really loved this series. Perhaps Meg could be convinced to do a follow up with LuLu as the central character. What I liked about her was that she was the typically annoying sidekick without the annoying. She was far more endearing than others have written in this same kind of story.
This is a wonderful opportunity, and I would love to know more. Just like Diane, I would like to know the compensation before committing…but then I would love to participate!


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Philippine Independence Day
June 12 marks the official day when the Philippines declared independence from Spain after over 400 years of colonization. General Emilio Aguinaldo and the Philippine revolutionary forces enacted the declaration after the Battle of Manila Bay, where American forces defeated the Spanish in one of the last battles of the Spanish-American war.
However, in the light of self-declared sovereignty, the Philippines and its independence were not recognized by the two governments that sought to keep the country:
The declaration, however, was not recognized by the United States or Spain, as the Spanish government ceded the Philippines to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, in consideration for an indemnity for Spanish expenses and assets lost. (Wikipedia)
After "liberating" the country from Spain, the United States basically wanted to keep the Philippines for itself. It was only after World War II when the United States finally conceded:
While the Philippines first celebrated its Independence Day on June 12, its independence was only recognized on July 4, 1946 by the United States. Henceforth, Independence Day was observed on July 4, but in the name of nationalism, and upon the advice of historians, Republic Act No. 4166 was signed into law by President Diosdado Macapagal in 1964, proclaiming June 12, which up to that time had been observed as Flag Day, as Independence Day. (Wikipedia)
After much internal pressure, the Philippine government agreed to set the Iindependence Day back to June 12.
Pilipinos around the world continue to exuberantly celebrate Philippine independence day. If you're in the United States, you've probably heard of or attended celebrations cross the country, from New York to San Francisco.
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- Sto. Niño/Sinulog in San Antonio, Texas (With Special Guest, Gabe Bondoc)
- Philippine Declaration of Independence [Wikipedia]
- Presidential Proclamation Number 28 [Philippine History Group of Los Angeles]


text: Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Zoë was discovered at the age of 14 by Chadwick Models and Vogue Magazine. Her first few jobs with Vogue were followed by covers and editorials around the world, in magazines such as Elle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Harpers Bazaar, and more. She has worked with some of the worlds leading photographers and fashion teams. Her full bio can be read here.


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The Metrolina Model Railroaders Club are a group of modelers that built, maintain and have lots of fun operating a modular (and somewhat portable) HO Scale model railroad layout.
We are modeling the fictitious "French Broad and Catawba Railroad" which is set in the Piedmont, NC area during the mid-1950's.
MMRC has been active for over 30 years in the Charlotte, NC area. Most of our member's model in HO scale but all modelers and all skill levels are always welcome to join us.
The flexibility of a modular layout gives us the opportunity to display our layout at regional 'Model Train Shows' and other special events.
The two primary events where the Metrolina Model Railroaders Club showcase the layout are the "Southern Christmas Show" held in November in Charlotte, N.C. and the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden "Holiday Lights at The Garden" presentation held in December in Belmont, NC.
If you want to learn more about our club and about model railroading, come and visit us at any of our monthly meetings or at any of the shows we are participating in. See the Contact and Meeting Calendar pages for details on where we will be each month.
New members of all ages and skills are welcome.
Bear with us as we construct our new website.


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Integrated Staffing offers employers a range of services for temporary and contract recruitment. You can benefit from over 20 years of local staffing experience. Integrated Staffing provides associates with the skills, support, and benefits necessary to find employment and excel at their positions giving you the benefit of a skilled labor force when you need it.
Recruiter – Glens Falls, NY
Integrated Staffing seeks to help associates and clients meet personal and professional goals by developing strong relationships. Integrated Staffing wants to partner with you to accurately assess your employment needs whether you are hiring or looking to be hired. Integrated Staffing offers staffing solutions for businesses looking for temp to permanent hires and in turn hires from the community to fill open positions.
Residents of the Glens Falls area, recruiter positions are available. Integrated Staffing is looking to hire recruiters to the Glens Falls area. Integrated Staffing leads the Glens Falls area in hiring for all types of positions such as temp and permanent, let Integrated Staffing find employment for you.
Interested in becoming a recruiter in the Glens Falls area? Apply today or contact Integrated Staffing for job openings that fit your skillset:


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This error report submissions appears to be related to vaccines.
Use the National Vaccine Error Reporting Program instead?
We thank you for your willingness to report an error to the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program. The report will be forwarded in confidence to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and, when applicable, to product vendors to inform them about pharmaceutical labeling, packaging, and nomenclature issues that may cause errors by their design. Your name, contact information, and location will NOT be included without your permission.
When reporting an error or hazardous condition:
After you submit a report, ISMP staff will follow-up with you to ask additional questions to clarify what went wrong and to identify the causes and factors that contributed to the reported event.
You may prefer to report an adverse medication event to ISMP as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization (PSO). As a PSO, ISMP can provide federal legal protection of patient safety information (e.g., error reports, root cause analysis) prepared within your patient safety evaluation system for the purpose of reporting to a PSO. There is no cost associated with reporting an event to ISMP as a PSO. Click here to learn more and to report an event to ISMP as a PSO.
Otherwise, please complete the form below and click on the "Submit" button to report the event to the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program.
Upload Images (optional) - up to three images can be uploaded


text: On Fri, Apr 08, 2011 at 10:48:24AM +0200, Edgar Fuß wrote: > > then, after replacing the failed sd0 with the new sd0 > But with scsictl detach/scan, I suppose? if the remplaceemnt drive is identical, you don't need to detach/reattach > I've done this several times with non-hotpluggable SCSI hardware where I had > to power off anyway. But with SCA, I'm unsure, whether, after detaching sd0 > (and sd1 still there), a newly scanned sd will become sd0 or sd2? it should still be sd0 -- Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference --


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My Trip To The Mall In DiapersThis morning, I decided to visit the nearby mall, and try out how well my diapers work in tight jeans.
I usually carry my stuff around in a side-bag, I decided to be there at the mall for a few hours and stay in diapers the entire time, so I put two diapers into the bag, then left home.
When I arrived at the mall, I had to go poop. I entered the restrooms and found an empty cubicle. I pulled my jeans and underwear off, sat down on the toilet and pretty quickly released 2-3 turds and some big farts. After that, I wiped, then took off my shoes, jeans, and underpants.
I pulled out a diaper from the bag, and put my underpants into the bag, then I put my jeans and shoes back on.
I usually diaper myself while standing up, so I put the back of the diaper against the cubicle's wall, pressed my bottom against it, pulled it up between my legs, and taped it shut securely. I pulled my jeans up and buttoned the fly shut. So far, the jeans fit the diapers comfortably, and the diaper fit into it completely.
I flushed the poop down the toilet, then came out, washed my hands, and left the restrooms.
It felt very comfortable walking around and sitting down, it looks like when tight jeans pick up enough body heat, they become elastic enough to accomodate diapers comfortably.
I checked out various shops, then I entered the Tesco supermarket. I decided to drink something to make myself pee sooner. I reached the drink section and was wondering whether to choose Gatorade or Monster energy drink. I chose Monster because it's high sugar content will speed up my system a bit and make me pee sooner. Unfortunately, Monster Khaos, which is my favorite flavor, isn't available in Hungary, so I choose Original, which I also like.
I continued exploring the supermarket, mainly the electronics section, while drinking my 500ml dose of Monster.
Sure enough, after about 15 minutes, the urge to pee hit me, while I was looking at the selection of XBox 360 games.
I continued looking at them, relaxed, and started peeing. It was a nice feeling, standing there, feeling relaxed and calm, while I felt the pee stream beating against the inside of the diaper, and the warmth of pee spreading around it.
The stream stopped. I started walking around to feel the diaper absorbing it while my legs are moving. Right when I started moving "Blah Blah Blah" from Ke$ha started playing on the radio. I remembered how someone told her that she smells like a shrimp in a diaper and I chuckled a bit.
The soaked parts of the diaper expanded and hardened but my jeans had no problem accomodating them. The jeans took up the warmth of my pee from the outside of my diaper and radiated it all around my crotch area. I got an erection, which went limp a few minutes later.
I paid for the drink, then went out of the supermarket to walk around other areas of the mall too.
Some time later I had to pee again. I was near the big decorative fountain the mall has. I looked at it and listened to the flowing water, and released my pee into the diaper.
It was again, readily absorbed and my jeans expanded without problem.
My diaper can usually only accomodate two big wettings, so I walked around, wearing them for a bit to enjoy the feeling, then I went back to the restroom to change them.
I again, entered a cubicle, pulled down my jeans and sat down for a bit onto the toilet, with the lid closed. I enjoy looking at myself while I'm diapered, so I just sat there for a few minutes, admiring my thick, white diapers. I became erect again, my erection comfortably fitting into the nice, thick, warm, soft, pee-soaked fold of the front of my diaper, and I drummed on the front of my diaper for a bit, though I didn't really want to **********, so I stopped, took off the diaper, and rediapered myself into the fresh one.
I ate a bit at McDonald's, and peed while drinking my soda, and peed again some time later while sitting on a bench.
After that, I went to the bathroom, took off my diaper, replaced them with my underpants, and went home.
It looks like even tight jeans can accomodate my diaper well.
yrfrpd90 18-21, M 1 Response 5 Oct 11, 2010
i wear jeans with my pullups and neve have any sort of problems with them and they dont show


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What does FOC mean in Politics?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand FOC in the Governmental field in general and in the Politics terminology in particular.
Free Of China
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"FOC." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2018. Web. 23 Feb. 2018. <https://www.abbreviations.com/term/392174>.