text:
[Nadav Kander, "Changxing Island VI, Shanghai"]
1. I am pretty sure that I have mentioned it before, but I have really been enjoying deconcrete. Somewhere between blog and tumblr, deconcrete posts fascinating scraps and ephemera themed roughly, as the subtitle notes, around "everyday urbanisms without architects' architecture". Recent posts, for instance, pair a fictional vision of Manhattan as a swimming pool with the world's longest swimming pool; note the foggy photography of Nadav Kander along the Yangtze (above); spotlight the adaptive appropriation of the courtyard of a police-station-turned-apartment-block in Shanghai; or take us to a "car catwalk" in Berlin, an informal and open-air market where sellers appropriate public parking spaces to hawk their automotive wares. deconcrete travels between Europe and China (which we at mammoth, being North America-bound, appreciate vicariously), and mixes re-blogged fragments with a healthy dose of direct (or embodied, to use one of Free Assocation Design's pet terms) urban observation.
2. Since Alexis Madrigal re-surfaced at The Atlantic Monthly as a senior editor for TheAtlantic.com's new(ish?) technology focus, the content in their technology feed has been consistently fascinating, supplementing the expected (but thoughtful) notes on tech products with fascinating pieces on topics like Russia building floating nuclear power plants for the Arctic or America's languishing rare elements production capacity.
[Nadav Kander, "Changxing Island II, Shanghai"]
3. The Pop-Up City — "an online magazine by Amsterdam-based design agency Golfstromen which explores new ideas, trends, strategies and methods for a dynamic and flexible interpretation of contemporary urban life" — typically features items that fall somewhere between Actions: What You Can Do With the City and unsolicited architecture. "Augmented Foraging With Boskoi", for instance, describes an open-source urban foraging iPhone app (which I've been meaning to mention since I ran across it at the excellent Urbaniablism a little while ago), while "Welcome to Tora Bora Inn" highlights a proposal for a sarcastic "terrorist motel" to be built at 51 Park Place.


text:
The body pulled from a frozen pond in Markham, Ont., on Saturday was that of 25-year-old Taneesha Brown, who has been missing for nearly two weeks, York police have confirmed.
The coroner's office made the positive identification shortly after a search team of at least 25 police officers managed to free Brown's body from the frigid waters of a pond near Edward Jeffreys Avenue and Highway 48, an area about 40 minutes northeast of downtown Toronto.
- Taneesha Brown went off medication before disappearance
- Brown told man in video she was starting 'journey'
Brown's family has been notified, York Regional Police Staff Sgt. Rob Bentham told CBC News.
The body had no obvious signs of trauma, and police do not believe there was any suspicious activity associated with her disappearance.
"It certainly appears from the circumstances that Taneesha has been in that body of water since the night she went missing," Bentham said.
"This search has been going on for so long now. We are just glad this has been resolved for the family," Bentham said.
In a Facebook post, Brown's mother Kim Mazerolle wrote that "she seems to have been walking along the edge of the pond and fell in."
"We thank everyone for the support and heartfelt condolences," she added.
Clothing clue
Saturday's recovery effort began after police spotted a bit of white fabric in the ice, which is consistent with what Brown was wearing the night she went missing.
Her frozen remains were eventually found about 1.5 metres from the shore, shortly before noon.
Members of the family spent the day with police as they used chainsaws and dive teams to pull her body from the pond.
The recovery came after weeks of failed searches that included four major co-ordinated efforts in the area where Brown disappeared. Previous searches included remote underwater vehicles and an aerial helicopter search.
Her family assisted police throughout the process, and her brothers plastered posters with a picture of their sister on hydro poles throughout Markham.
Late-night encounter
The pond is just a few blocks away from Bur Oak Secondary School, where Brown was last seen alive.
Police had been looking for Brown since Jan. 12. At around 10:30 p.m. that night, she stepped outside of her aunt's house, telling her family she was just getting some fresh air. She did not return.
Brown was then seen about 20 minutes later when she had a brief conversation with a man near the school.
The encounter was caught on surveillance video and the man, whose identity has not been released, later told police Brown had said she was going on a "new journey." He also noted that she was not dressed for winter weather.
Her brother told CBC News that Brown had been taking medication for bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, but had recently gone off her medication because she believed she could heal herself through faith.
She left her aunt's house wearing a traditional Muslim outfit: a white, knee-length dashiki, with white pants and a white hijab. She was carrying a black purse.
To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities). Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.
By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.
Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Little Chief Pinball Sold!
That was pretty easy! I found a buyer named Dan in Carmel who came over yesterday and bought the Williams Little Chief off the owner in Castleton.
We helped our own cause in the sale when the owner put the game back together first, including the back display back. I found out later it had not been attached in two years, so I was relieved the pinball still worked. He powered up the game, it was a little glitchy at first but did play a couple of full games. The buyer says that the Little Chief needed an adjustment made to the main logic in relation to the scoring unit, and the "gate" needed some work as well. But a great deal on a classic pinball in the Indianapolis area.
The Night Rider pinball machine is still for sale. Hope to get some video of that pinball in action soon. $400 and it's yours.
Edit ~ I find this a little strange. I had never heard of Little Chief before, but all of a sudden a second machine comes up for sale in Rossville, IN on Craigslist? I don't think this was our buyer, that would be really rotten to relist for $1900, but it is another nice looking instance of this Williams pinball, even if the seller (765-379-2429) has the year and the name are wrong.


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Vegan Nutrition After Heart Valve Surgery
A reader wrote that he was going to have heart valve surgery in a few weeks and asked about advice on vegan nutrition afterwards, as well as communicating with hospital staff.
Reed Mangels replies: Good luck with your upcoming surgery. After the surgery you should be able to resume your usual diet. Your doctor will tell you if any modifications are needed. Make sure your doctor knows that you are vegan so that a vegan diet can be ordered for you when you are admitted to the hospital. You may want to speak to the hospital dietitian prior to admission (several days before, if possible), explain your situation, and ask how they will meet your needs. You can find out if you are allowed to bring food from home. Depending on what's available in the hospital, having your own supply of soymilk and other staple foods may help. Ask what the best way is to contact the dietary department once you're in the hospital and what you should do if you get non-vegan foods.
Nancy Berkoff's article may also be of assistance to some of our readers who have different procedures and need access to textured altered foods: http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2009issue2/texture.htm
Other foodservice articles are here.


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'Inigo Montoya' shirt upsets travelers, leads to awkward flight
Did anyone else see this? Thoughts?
'Inigo Montoya' shirt upsets travelers, leads to awkward flightBy Mike Krumboltz | The Sideshow - 7 hrs ago
Careful what you wear on a plane.
Wynand Mullins of New Zealand told Stuff Magazine that he was asked to remove his T-shirt because other airline passengers found it intimidating.
And, yes, we suppose if one weren't familiar with "The Princess Bride," seeing a shirt that reads, "Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," might be a little alarming, especially on board a plane. But in Mullins's defense: Who the heck hasn't seen "The Princess Bride"?
For the two or three of you who haven't, the movie features a character named Inigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patinkin of "Homeland." After seeing his father killed by an evil, six-fingered man, Montoya vows that when he crosses paths with the fiend, he will say, well, exactly what was printed on Mullins's T-shirt. (Spoiler alert: At the end of the movie, Montoya does find the fiend, and he says his line over and over. It's awesome.)
Mullins explained to Stuff that a flight attendant had approached him before takeoff and asked that he put on a different shirt due to some concerned passengers. Mullins told Stuff:
I thought it was all a bit silly. The person next to me was laughing, because they knew the movie.
The flight attended apparently told Mullins she would attempt to find him another shirt, but never did, so the T-shirt stayed on. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had someone watching me the whole time," Mullins said. "The whole experience was a bit over the top, but also a bit comical."
Here's the scene that started it all:
I am sorry but really? really?
If you go to the article...the comments are really amusing!
Quoting LucyMom08:
Best reply ever...haha...
Quoting JakeandEmmasMom:
That shirt. I do not think it means what they think it means.


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Declare corruption a national disaster, accountants tell Uhuru
Wednesday March 16 2016
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) now wants the government to declare corruption a national disaster.
ICPAK Vice-Chairman Julius Mwatu, in a press briefing on Wednesday during the official opening of Annual Governance and Ethics Conference held at Voyager Beach Hotel, Mombasa, noted that the country was doing poorly in the war on graft.
"Considering the flood of reports of high-level corruption in various institutions, Kenya's position among the community of nations could suffer even further. The 2015 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International ranked Kenya poorly," Mr Mwatu said.
The country scored 25 on a scale of zero to 100 (with zero perceived to be highly corrupt, and 100 very clean) and sits at position 139 out of 168 countries and territories ranked.
The accountants called for a swift and decisive action against individuals involved in mismanaging public resources in various ministries, departments, agencies and county governments across the country.
"We recognise that we have laws against corruption and institutions that have been set up to lead in the fight against corruption. We are, however, appalled that these institutions lack the energy and support required for them to discharge their mandates," he said.
Mr Mwatu added that the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, the Public Officer Ethics Act, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and all other relevant laws must be enforced expeditiously.
"We note with concern the trend by public officials to pass the buck to junior officers when faced with allegations of corruption. We are enraged by the circus surrounding corruption scandals under the Ministry of Devolution, Youth Enterprise Fund, and various, state corporations and county governments," Mr Mwatu reiterated.
ICPAK also called for an immediate and systematic lifestyle audit of all public officials, starting from the Cabinet secretaries, governors, constitutional office holders, politicians, state corporations, law enforcement agencies, government agencies and all civil servants.
The institute urged a communal responsibility in tackling corruption and asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to take charge in the fight.
Mr Mwatu said the only thing ailing Kenya in the graft war in that existing laws are not being applied.


text: Take me out to lunch and interview me? I assure you I am not a lanky tweaker with curly hair. Noisebridge was good to me once, and I am relatively qualified to fill such a need. Then again, I could be sketchy tweak man in disguise! Muahahahahaha! > On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 5:43 PM, <name1355 at tormail.org> wrote: > >> ---------------------------- Original Message >> ---------------------------- >> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] Extremely sketchy event w/ bikes just >> now >> From: name1355 at tormail.org >> Date: Fri, April 12, 2013 12:36 am >> To: "Ken M. Haggerty" <kenmhaggerty at gmail.com> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Sorry, I'm dropping in on the middle of this so I don't have all the >> details. Having said that, I have a solution regarding Ken's most >> recent >> comment. >> >> You could "hire" me as a bouncer. You could come up with a set of >> security >> standards at the next meeting to be enforced. I have nothing better to >> do, and I've always loved Noisebridge. > > > But how do we know that you, "Nameless", are not sketchy tweak man? >


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Painful Departure
I hate to depart...
Why do I have to go?
I just go to where I want to be ... yet the fun is taken out of me...
I'm tired of doing things I never wanted to do.
It's already dumb enough that I have to follow their orders!
I don't understand...when will I understand?
When will they understand I'm not having fun...
I don't understand how their "fun and games" work at all...
I'm done being fake...being someone who I don't want to be or actually am supposed to be at all.
I just want to rest, stay in my bed and think of all my memories...being proud of what I have done so far in my life.
But no...they won't let me...
All they ever did was drag me where they want me to be...some elderly loving people they are...
They never truly understand how it feels...it be locked up and never for once been able to relax.
You can say that I feel stressed even though...it is supposed to be my "summer" but explain...will my summer ever be free? Will I ever get the fun and relaxation that I deserve?
I already get homesick just to leave to a place I don't really want to go.
They think they understand...but they really don't, their blind.
Expecting me to be thinking I'm together with them on this...never...never will I be one of them!
I've been in the dark for too long...
-Snow that flutters down like feathers
Whispers from a White Feather
User Comments: [1] [add]
Phantom of the Icee
Community Member
User Comments: [1] [add]


text:
Friends Duane (Allen Maldonado) and Russell (Taylor Piedmonte) get invited to a strange horror party by Judith (Lauren Mae Shafer).
Neither of them know what to expect of the party, yet being fans of horror movies, they agree to come.
As it usually happens at parties, our heroes get drunk, and wake up at a place, they don't recognize. Russell wakes up at a cemetery, while Duane wakes up in a truck, parked nearby.
All of a sudden, zombies appear out of nowhere, and start attacking everyone. Russell gets bitten in the neck.
The girl that wakes up near Russell, manages to escape, and later joins Duane, and the two try to barricade themselves in the house, where other survivors hide.
Soon the survivors realize that they are living a horror film, "Night of the Living Dead" in particular.
Why watch a horror movie, when you can live one – that is the whole idea behind "Mimesis" – which means imitation.
The film could have as well used the title "Party of the Living Dead", to be more attractive marketing wise.
Nonetheless, "Mimesis" is interesting. Seems like it is the first film that openly tries to "imitate" George Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead".
Obviously made for very little money, just like the film it "imitates", Douglas Schulze's "Mimesis" also sends an important message, regarding the affection horror movies have on people.
"Mimesis" is not completely amateur, as there are a couple of cool cameos, one from horror icon Sid Haig (Night of the Living Dead 3D), and S. William Hinzman (original Night of the Living Dead).
At first it is unclear, why the characters bitten by zombies do not turn into ones, and why zombies sometimes walk slow and sometimes run like humans.
The film reveals "the homage idea" a little too late, which in turn makes viewers believe they're watching a really lame zombie film, without any explanation where the creatures came from.
While the film does not have any "real zombies", there's enough of kills, and gory moments that were done rather good. SFX team gets a thumb up.
So if you're expecting something new from a zombie horror sub-genre, give "Mimesis" a look. For the budget the filmmakers had ($500,000 – IMDb), they did a great job.
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text:
All the communities I am in are kind of dead. So Im gonna promote ALL of them, Maybe some members from 1 community will join another, Im posting this in ALL communities so no commuinity is un-promoted.
- _we_r_beautiful
- areyougorgeous
- audacious_style
- clearlycute
- hott_mamii
- hottiez_0nly (MY COMMUNITY!)
- its_me_princess
- pretty_gurlz
- rate_me_hot
- select_few
- sexc_biotch
- so_desirable
- twilight_cuties
Hopefully this will get all the communities more active. If you like rating communities apply to some of these above.


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August 09, 2011 08:55AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
Just getting to the rally is often half the adventure. Unusual for us, departure from Martin's place was precisely on schedule.
Angela Cosner, who happened to be visiting in Ottawa, joined us for the ride down to New Hampshire. We would also be stopping briefly in Montreal to pick up Jennifer Daly on the way.
On the 401 near Cornwall we came across this bizarre hybrid vehicle. From a distance it looked like a van with a tall-ship's sailing rig on its roof, including masts, yard arms and crow's nest. If he ever ran out of petrol, he'd could just unfurl the sails and... avast mateys, thar she blows.
Upon closer inspection though, it was revealed that the roof assembly is actually the mother of all ham radio antennae. This guy is one serious hamster!
Nearing Montreal we sent Jennifer a text message to confirm our ETA and, since none of us had ever met her before, we asked how we would recognize her. Jennifer answered that she was wearing "knee socks and a huge backpack", to which the ever-witty Martin replied that we'll be certain to recognize her if that's ALL she's wearing!
Sure enough, we spotted her right away at the prearranged Tim Hortons meeting point, but were sadly disappointed to discover that she was otherwise fully clothed.
Next up, the border crossing...
August 09, 2011 08:58AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
Two years ago on the way to NEFR, Martin and I crossed into the USA at a tiny Vermont border crossing staffed by just a single officer who kindly allowed us into the country, despite the fact that Martin had forgotten to bring his passport and then tried to convince the border guard that his plain-jane Ontario driver's licence was actually one of them new-fangled special "enhanced" licences that double for passports. The border guard had never seen one of those before, and lacking the new scanner equipment required to process such an "enhanced" driver's licence, he let us go on our way unmolested.
Last year, with the truck and trailer towing the rally car, we stuck to the main I-91 highway and had to go through the busy border crossing into Vermont. The border guards were curious about all the tires and rims heaped in the back of the pickup and wanted to know what's in the trailer. They made us run the trailer through their X-ray machine and then everyone came out to have a look at the car. Lots of friendly questions, as they'd apparently never seen a rally car before. "You race through the forest? Why would you want to do that?" Then they let us go on our way.
This year, however, was not nearly as pleasant.
Again, since we were towing the rally car in the big trailer, we had to cross into the USA at the big border point on I-91. We all had passports though. So far so good.
The border agent asked where we're all from.
Ottawa, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia.
And, how do you all know each other?
One rally driver, three co-drivers. We've known Angela for a couple of years as "SheetMetalGirl" on the SpecialStage.com forum, and ah um we only just met Jennifer for the first time a couple of hours ago in Montreal...
Evidently that was the wrong answer. Pull over here please and y'all go talk to the officer inside.
After grilling us with questions we were given one last chance to change or add to our stories, then told to sit and wait in the office while they took the keys and went outside to search the truck and trailer. It was all rather unnerving, but finally we were allowed to leave.
On the way out, Jennifer tossed a paper bag with the remains of her lunch into the trash can and just about got arrested (or worse) on the spot. "That's NOT a garbage can!!!", shouted one of the border agents from his tollbooth. Huh? "Take that OUT of there, RIGHT NOW!!!"
Jeez. What a friendly bunch. Not!
Welcome to the "land of the free".
August 09, 2011 09:00AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
Here's a photo of Angela in the back seat of the pickup truck. Note the small window behind her head.
We don't have a photo of Jennifer, but there's a good reason for that...
The pickup truck has a standard-sized OEM fuel tank. When towing the big heavy trailer it drains that stock fuel tank in a hurry. Therefore Martin has a large auxiliary tank in the bed of the pickup truck. Flip a lever, diesel fuel drains from the aux tank down to refill the OEM tank, and we can keep driving nearly forever without the need to stop for fuel. However, when the stock fuel tank is eventually refilled, you have to remember to flip the lever closed again, otherwise diesel fuel spills onto the highway.
Since the whole point is to never stop for fuel, we also don't want to stop whenever it's time to flip that lever. Problem is, the lever is located on the side of the auxiliary tank, outside in the bed of the pickup truck.
That means somebody occasionally has to climb halfway out that little window behind Angela's head, as we're cruising down the highway, to flip the lever.
Jennifer, being the good sport that she is, gamely volunteered to do that.
Of course, us being guys (and only slightly perverted), with Jennifer squeezed halfway out that little window, our imaginations quite naturally drifted back to that image of Jennifer now wearing nothing but knee socks -- she'd long ago already removed the huge backpack, eh.
Jennifer, knowing exactly what we were thinking, threatened us with slow, painful, but certain death if anyone so much as considered reaching for a camera. Hence the absence of any photos of Jennifer...
But I did notice Martin adjusting the aim of the interior mirror. There's an obvious reason why it's called a "rear" view mirror, eh.
Okay then, so now on to the actual rally stories...
August 09, 2011 09:01AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
Thursday morning 7:30am, start of recce. We get Jemba-prepared stage notes, and only one familiarization pass on each stage. Still it's a long day.
After recce, rush to get through registration, tech inspection, and line up for the shakedown stage.
Martin is worried about the engine. It overheated badly during a test run back at home. He thinks the head gasket might be done. We may yet need to change that tonight.
This 2 mile Shakedown stage is lots of fun. It's an opportunity to show off, power-boating around corners and spraying the photographers with rocks and gravel.
We managed to get in three runs without the engine blowing up. So, we guess that means it's good to go racing as-is for tomorrow.
August 09, 2011 09:02AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS1 - Sunday River
The two-day New England Forest Rally is an American National Rally event. It is also run (much more cheaply) as two entirely separate single-day Regional Rallies - the Mexico Rally on Friday, and the Errol Rally on Saturday.
Running the two Regional rallies we cover the exact same stage distances with the only difference being that the National entries pay about $1k more for entry fees and their cars are locked in parc fermé overnight.
For us though, the main draw is the 2wd MaxAttack! category as a chance to measure up against the best American 2wd teams. It is scored, same as the National event, on total stage time over the two days.
The event starts with a short half-mile spectator Super Special stage at the Sunday River ski resort.
We're not big fans of these short super specials. We much prefer the long forest stages. Our stage time was only mid-pack, 12th out of the 29 Regional entries, and 10th of the 24 2wd MaxAttack! entries. Still, we're not last.
SS1 - Sunday River:
August 09, 2011 09:03AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS2 - Mexico-1
Straight from Sunday River, next up is a 45-minute transit to Mexico where there's another even shorter Super Special spectator stage of only 0.4 miles.
This one features a jump, which last year had a really nice takeoff ramp and long gradual downslope for a soft landing. It encouraged jumping for distance and showing off for the many spectators gathered there. This was us last year:
This year however it was a nasty table-top jump, with a sharp takeoff ramp, flat tabletop, and a short steep downslope. There was nothing that could be done with that. If you jumped long, you'd land past the downslope and slam down hard onto the flat beyond that. If you jumped not quite long enough, you'd tag the end of the tabletop with only the rear wheels possibly leading to a faceplant and endover on landing.
The only smart option, which nearly everyone opted for including us, was to just drive over it slowly. Safe, but boring for the spectators.
We did mess up the final turn though. It's a tightening radius from gravel onto pavement, with a deep hole right at the apex where a culvert passes under the road. The proper line into that corner is not at all obvious, and the speed falls awkwardly between 2nd and 1st gear for us.
Still, it wasn't bad. Our time of 47.0 secs was 8th quickest of the 26 Regional entries and 8th of the 22 2wd MaxAttack cars still running.
We get another chance to improve on it as we loop back for a second pass.
SS2 - Mexico-1:
August 09, 2011 09:04AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS3 - Mexico-2
Our second pass on the Mexico stage was much cleaner, again no drama over the jump, but better line through the hairpin, no half-spin, no bogging down in 2nd gear.
Yes! That felt MUCH better than our first run!
So how come we were actually slower?
Our first run was 47.0 seconds flat. This second run was 47.8 sec. Go figure.
We're still doing okay. But seconds won or lost in these short Mickey Mouse Super Specials still count toward the overall total. We're currently sitting 8th in the Regional and MaxAttack standings, but the real stages are coming up next.
SS3 - Mexico-2:
August 09, 2011 09:04AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS4 - Icicle Brook North, 15.84 miles
Finally, a real stage.
The first five minutes of this stage used to be on a smooth, wide, very fast road. It's the road where Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino had their big crash last year.
But they've done something awful to the road since then. It looks like they've run a roto-tiller over sections of it and then spread a deep layer of loose rocks and gravel over those sections. Those bits are downright scary loose now.
Five minutes into the stage, we turn right onto a very rough loop. It's a minefield studded with huge rocks. The stage-prep crew spray-painted the very worst rocks with fluorescent red paint to give us an opportunity to avoid those. But after ten cans of spray-paint they ran out of paint!
Downstream of the last of the paint the rocks are all the same colour and you're on your own to avoid them best as you can, or not. We just hammered over the rocks, bending two rims in the process.
Visibility is okay for the most part, but occasionally there is dust hanging in the air from the car running a minute ahead of us. That's uncomfortable because you can't see anything through the dust.
At 11:30 into the video we come to a tricky hairpin turn, and at 14:00 we're back onto the smooth wide road.
At 15:00 there is a right/left chicane to slow us down. It's deep and soft off the edges of the road here and it's been badly ripped up. Hidden in all that deep loose sand and gravel is a huge rock which we smack hard enough to knock the video plug out of the recorder. Sound is still recorded, but the picture is intermittent from there until it cuts out altogether for the last 20 seconds until the finish.
Luckily I noticed and fixed that before starting into the next stage, otherwise we might have had no more video for the rest of the day.
SS4 - Icicle Brook North:
August 09, 2011 09:05AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS5 - Icicle Brook South, 16.09 miles
Same stage, opposite direction. This time we're starting off driving into the sun. With the dust this makes it even more difficult to see.
We love this stage! It's rough, for sure. But it's fast and exciting. The poor old car takes a pounding, but Martin shows it no mercy.
It's a little hairy in spots where the dust is hanging thick in the air making it impossible to see where we are going. We're often relying entirely on the notes to tell us which way to turn as we're blind much of the time.
At 10:45 into the video we pass the stranded car of Tingwu (Rick) Song and Yu Feng Hau, out with an oil leak. That was very unfortunate for them. These guys are great. They've come all the way from China to compete in this American event.
Rick is quite fluent in English, the co-driver not so much. They couldn't make heads or tails of the supplied Jemba notes, so they had to write their own notes in Chinese during recce. But with only one-pass of recce, that was a tough task.
The chicanes were not in place during recce and, since they couldn't read or use the supplied notes, the chicanes were an enormous surprise to them when discovered at speed on race day. They actually came to a complete stop to ask some spectators for help in how to get around the chicanes!
Starting at 13:30 there is a nice external video of us shot by Chris Meegan (MeeganRallyVideos). Our in-car video always looks a lot slower than it actually is. Chris' external video shows that we're cooking along at a pretty good pace.
At 13:55 I messed up a call on a "R6 long", and then was way too slow on the "L5 short over jump" that follows. Then it starts getting really busy with a lot of turns over crests, many hidden by thick dust.
At 15:10, it's "150 Brake R4 tightens over big crest, into L3 no cut long". That might have gone a little better if we could actually have SEEN the corner.
There was thick dust obscuring our view...
Next thing I know it's suddenly a lot darker out and branches are slapping off the windshield as we oh-so-nearly fell off the road into the trees on the "L3 no cut long".
"It's dark in there."
After the three short Super Special stages we were sitting 8th in Regional and 8th in MaxAttack. Now, after these two long tough stages, we're suddenly all the way up to 3rd overall in Regional, and 4th in MaxAttack!
SS5 - Icicle Brook South:
August 09, 2011 09:08AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS6 - Concord Pond, 5.38 miles
Concord Pond is the signature stage of the New England Forest Rally, with lots and lots of spectators. In our third year trying, this was our best run on this stage so far. Unfortunately we didn't get to record a time at the finish.
At 5:00 into the video there's a tricky right-hand corner that tightens just as the road drops out from under you. Just to make thing interesting, there's a big tree outside at the edge of the road in the landing zone. We cracked the windshield on landing.
One of the cars running early in the stage went off on landing this jump, spearing deep into the bushes on the right. They were fine, but stuck. The problem was that several following cars, including us, didn't see the car that had gone off.
The marshals at the finish line knew that a car had gone missing from the sequence, but it was unclear as to why and where, so the decision was made to stop sending cars into the stage until the status of the missing team could be safely assessed. That was the right decision. After the situation is cleared, the remaining cars could then still be run at speed.
Unfortunately a marshal well downstream of the incident misinterpreted this radio instruction to mean that he should stop the cars that were already running in the stage by showing a red cross.
That was truly unfortunate because the rules are clear that once the red cross is displayed the stage is shut down. All remaining cars must transit through the stage at slow speed with all affected cars then receiving the slowest reasonable time of those set by the few cars that had completed the stage.
The spectators weren't too happy about that, wondering why everyone was going so slow. But, if an error like this has to happen, I'm sure everyone realized that it's much better for it to have been an error made on the side of too much safety, as opposed to someone getting hurt.
It's always a shock to arrive at speed into a potentially serious red cross situation. It was a big relief to everyone to find out that it was merely due to a miscommunication.
SS6 - Concord Pond:
August 09, 2011 09:11AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
Mexico Regional Rally - Awards
The day ends with a banquet dinner and awards ceremony for Friday's Mexico Regional Rally. This is me, Martin, "another Luke", and Freak chowing down.
Actually that "other Luke" is Seth Strait, co-driver for Luke Sorenson in the old SAAB. All week we've been calling someone else "Luke", except it turned out his name was actually "Geoff". Geoff also used to be the co-driver for Luke Sorenson, but now was riding with Justin Carven in the VW Greasecar. It's all so confusing. We just started calling everyone Luke. That was much simpler.
This is only the first day, of two, in the 2wd MaxAttack competition. But we were feeling quite pleased to discover ourselves sitting in 4th place behind the amazing Chris Duplessis, Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP), and Dillon Van Way.
Even better, we found out that we had finished 3rd overall in Friday's Regional Rally!
Here's Martin checking out his trophy. "What the heck is this thing?"
And here's Jennifer Daly, in knee-socks, taking 1st overall as co-driver with John Cassidy in Friday's Regional Rally.
[I'll never be able to look at knee-socks in quite the same way again...]
Still to come, Saturday's Errol Regional Rally and the conclusion of the NEFR MaxAttack competition...
August 09, 2011 09:13AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
NEFR Day-2 - Errol Regional Rally
SS7 - Errol Super Special
This super special stage in a gravel pit was so new, it wasn't ready in time for us to do recce on it.
Instead we were shown a map and given a verbal description, except this feature isn't there yet, and that curve doesn't exist because it hasn't been dug out of the hillside yet, and see this curve to the right here today, ignore that because you'll be going around the far side of this grassy knoll instead, and see this, the only good feature of the entire stage, this nice long smooth sweeping uphill left-hander to the finish, well we'll bugger that up completely by stringing some surprise tape across it and forcing you to swing wide to the right through this deep tank-trap hole instead.
Sadly you won't get to see any of this stuff beforehand. But it'll all make sense when you encounter it for the first time at speed. Really it will. Trust me...
Um. Ya. Ok.
Despite our negative opinions regarding this silly stage, we weren't actually the slowest car. Of the original 24 MaxAttack 2wd entries only 14 are still running, of which we were 5th quickest on this stage. And of the 24 Regional entries, we were 6th. So I guess that means we must have set a respectable enough time despite this mess.
SS7 - Errol Super Special:
Now on to the long, dusty, rough, rock-strewn, truly awesome stages, and the beginning of the end...
August 09, 2011 09:15AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS8 - Sturtevant Pond Long, 19.38 miles (31.2 km)
This is a huge stage, the longest of the event, starting out fast, then with some brutal rough portions, again some wide open fast portions, then a very twisty technical fun section past the hundreds of spectators to the finish.
This is the stage where we suffered two (2) flat tires.
About 3:00 into the video we turn right, off of the good road onto a rough rocky section.
At 5:50 we turn R2 onto a new section of road. New, as in not used before. Not new, as in brand new condition. At 6:20 there are a couple of good external views of us shot by "MeeganRallyVideos" and "kdsaura".
At 7:05, we turn L2 onto a very narrow, very busy, twisty, little soft sandy road that we end up using three times today. It will get churned up really badly, cut up with DEEEEP ruts and huge rocks pulled out of the soil.
At 10:20 we turn L3 back onto a much faster road.
At 13:00, we turn L4- and then we start with the ROCKS! There are lots of instructions like "R5+/rocks", and "sm Jmp keep Left rocks", and "L5+/Crest/rocks", rocks, rocks, and more rocks, and ROCKS!!!
This old car is amazing. It takes a beating, but with its fancy rally suspension soaking up the worst of the hits, we hardly feel the rocks that we're smashing over unless it's the occasional really big one or it whacks the skidplate. The big danger is in cutting a tire open on the sharper rocks, or bending a wheel rim.
That's what happens somewhere around 14:10 into the video. "70 L4 no cut, R4+/smCr/rocks, and Turn L4"
Immediately after that Turn L4 Martin notices the change in handling, and you can hear on the video how the ride quality has suddenly become harsher producing lots more gravel noise as the flat tire picks more stones out of the road surface.
We still have another 7 miles to go to the end of the stage. There's no way the tire is going to survive running flat for all that distance. But we know we suck at tire changes and we'll lose a ton of time if we have to stop to change the tire within the stage. Besides, the road is very narrow and there's no safe place to stop in here. We're going to press on.
Watch the steering wheel. The car still turns okay to the right, but look at how much steering angle is required to make it turn left. At 17:00 we come to a Tee-intersection where we're supposed to "Turn L4 no cut", except we don't turn at all, nearly ploughing straight off into the bushes. This would be a good spot to stop, but we again decide to keep pushing on.
We're already losing a lot of time limping along slowly like this, but we know we'll lose far more if we do stop. At 17:40 we pull over to let a faster car flash past. Now we have dust to contend with as well. That's a treat. The car barely turns left at all. We can't see a thing. What could possibly go wrong?
At 18:30 we Turn R5- back onto the wider smoother fast road. Here's where we'd normally be hitting 4th gear, but that ain't gonna happen now. Martin is driving half-blind because of the dust and because half his attention is focused on watching the mirrors for any other cars catching us.
At 19:05 the flat rear tire gives up the ghost. It's had enough of this abuse and it starts coming apart. We have another 4 miles yet to go. Not going to make it. That's it, we need to stop.
At 20:20 we pull off at a junction to get completely clear of the stage road. There was a marshal crew guarding this intersection and they had ringside seats to the gong show we put on for them as we commenced our dog and pony routine of trying to swap tires. They must have been killing themselves laughing.
First off, it was at least 35C (95F) degrees out. We're rushing around in 3-layer Nomex suits, with helmets on, dying in the heat. It only took us a couple of minutes to realize that we'd both likely pass out from heat stroke if we kept this up. So, take a break, remove helmets, take a deep breath...
The scissors jack goes up driven by the impact gun, after which the wheel nuts come off again by using the impact gun. Except of course the seldom-used battery is flat. #@%!
Okay, switch to Plan-B. Dig out the little six-inch ratchet wrench and use that instead of the impact gun. Except that socket doesn't fit the jack or the wheel nuts.
Simple, swap the deep socket from the impact gun to the ratchet wrench. Ya, but, the impact gun is 3/4 inch drive, and the ratchet wrench is only 1/2 inch drive.
Plan-C. Use the 3/4 inch drive impact socket, and turn it using the vice-grips! Brilliant!
Wind the jack up far enough to get the rear wheel off the ground. Car falls off jack... Shoot me now, please.
FINALLY right rear wheel is replaced. Repeat entire process for right front wheel...
The two destroyed wheels are left behind with the marshals as 15 minutes later we finally hop back into the car. Don't worry, you won't have to watch the entire 15 minutes on video. I compressed it all down to just 30 seconds. It takes us another minute to buckle up before we can ride off into the sunset.
Check it out. I'm back on the notes immediately. I rock!
It's another 4-1/2 minutes to the finish, but this is the best part of the entire stage. We have no idea how much time we've lost, but we're worried we may even be max-late. So we're pushing as hard as we dare.
Turns out we're still good, 15 minutes to spare before we would have been time-barred and excluded. Of course we were the slowest car to finish this stage and we've now dropped right to the bottom of the standings for the cars still running.
But we ARE still running.
SS8 - Sturtevant Pond Long:
Now we merely need to transit back to the start of this same stage to run a slightly shorter 16-mile version over all the same rocks again, but this time do it while carrying no spare tires.
What could possibly go wrong?
August 09, 2011 09:18AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS9 - Sturtevant Pond Short, 16.15 miles
After our tire-changing misadventures on the previous stage, we were still dripping in sweat. So we took the opportunity on the transit to this stage start to have a dip at our favourite swim spot.
Ahhhhh, that's better.
There's always a delay at the end of this transit while waiting to check in at the start of this repeat running of the Sturtevant stage. This gives the organizers and sweep crews plenty of time to clear out all the wrecked and abandoned rally cars before we're cleared to run the stage again albeit in a slightly shorter configuration. There is plenty of opportunity to get out and exchange war stories with the remaining teams.
Some E30 content!
I was very sorry to hear that after that last stage my friends in the 88 BMW 325is were forced to withdraw with a cracked oil pan. In their first ever rally, first time driving, first time co-driving, first event for this new car, Kris Gove and Bill Hatem had a very successful day on Friday, driving smart to get useful experience and stage mileage under their belts, finishing 18th of the 29 Regional entries without even a scratch on the car (other than today's unfortunately busted oil pan).
Meanwhile Martin was commiserating with Justin Carven of Greasecar fame. Justin was worried because they had broken their jack and wouldn't be able to lift the car if they got a flat on this stage. Martin was worried about getting another flat because we have no more spare tires, and the tires we have on the car now really could use some more pressure in them. Turns out Justin has an air compressor, and we have a jack that's of no use to us because we have no spare tire anyway. So we swapped, agreeing to return the stuff at the next service break.
While Martin and Justin were busy exchanging compressors and jacks, I was negotiating a better starting position for us in the lineup. Previously we had been 15th in the running sequence, up with cars that were running times closely matched to ours. That is a luxury because it means you can concentrate on running your own pace while unlikely to catch the car ahead of you, or being caught by the car behind you. After dropping back in the order, due to changing our two flats, we now find ourselves right near the back of the pack. That's no good because we are almost certain to catch one, or maybe even two, slower cars ahead of us on this stage and get held up in their dust.
Several teams generously allowed us to move ahead of them in the lineup, so that we found ourselves now running behind Justin's VW Greasecar. That worked out very nicely.
At last we get to start. Martin is using a more judicious approach on this stage, gingerly picking a safer path through the minefield of rocks. At 5:35 into the video there are another two external videos of us shot by "kdsaura" and "MeeganRallyVideos" illustrating the rocky terrain, and at 7:50 an external clip shot by "octratek772".
At 8:25 it's Turn L4- into the nasty rock-infested section.
At 9:40 we come to the section where we got the flat(s) last time. "70 L4 no cut, R4+/smCr/rocks, and Turn L4"
Of course we smack that same damn rock again, hard. Bang! Luckily no flat tires this time, but this is probably where we bent the strut that would cause us grief on the final two stages.
At 13:25 we turn onto the wide fast road, and 14:23 we pass the road on the right where we changed our flat tires last stage, then the fun twisty stuff to the finish.
We were a little more conservative than usual on this stage, only 8th quickest. But another flat tire would have been terminal for us. We survived and now head back to Service for some much-needed attention to the car, pick up a couple more spare tires, and then head out for the final stages.
SS9 - Sturtevant Pond Short:
August 09, 2011 09:19AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS10 - Fish Pond In, 13.13 miles
If I were superstitious, which I'm not, should I be worried that this stage is 13.13 miles long? Double thirteen has to be an unlucky number, no?
Justin and Geoff's VW Greasecar needed some emergency repairs and they were 8 minutes late leaving service. So they're no longer running ahead of us in the order. Instead we now find ourselves behind the Honda Civic of Brian Gottlieb and Patrick Darrow.
That Honda is hurtin'. The gearbox is cracked and leaking oil like the Exxon Valdez.
We joked about it on the start line, but we were rather worried that their gearbox would eventually lock up solid and we'd suddenly find them stopped in the middle of the road somewhere. That would be a BAD thing, because we can't see a damn thing for most of this stage because of the thick dust.
At 5:40 into the video it's, "stay Left/Cr, 150 L4+/smCr".
We just about drive straight off into the trees at that L4+!! It's the closest we've come to crashing all weekend. Look at the steering wheel. Martin has to crank in nearly two whole turns to the right to save us.
Watching the video now, I'm thinking, holy crap did I call that as a L4, when in fact the road actually turns Right??
Nope, the notes are correct. You can see this same spot at 3:25 into Andrew Wickline and Stephen Kurey's in-car video of this stage. They've streamlined their notes, calling it just a "L4" instead of a "L4+/smCr". But it's the same spot.
How come they have perfect visibility with no dust, while we're choking on the stuff???
There is a small clearing off to the left, just before this L4+/smCr. You can see it at 3:25 in Wickline's video. Martin senses the green area retreating from his peripheral vision on the left and, assuming this must already be the L4, he starts turning left a bit too early. Next thing we know we're pointing at the trees!
The huge steering correction to the right was required because the car slewed waaaaay sideways to the left when he jumped on the brakes.
The next instruction is a "R4 deceptive". Funny-guy Martin responds that the previous corner was deceptive too, because he couldn't see it.
Driving completely blind like this, the strategy has been to keep the car pointed centre toward the middle of the soft dusty areas, rather than aimed at the hard green stuff we can see lining both edges of the road. Sounds like a good plan.
What could possibly go wrong? [Other than finding a Honda Civic stopped in the road?]
After this twisty section it gets a lot faster, but we still can't see anything. At 7:50 there's a very fast "R6+ into L6, kinks 250... keep going". But Martin is not liking these conditions at all. He replies, "ya, keep reading".
After our two flat tires on SS8, we're way down the standings anyway. There's no chance whatsoever of making up all that lost time, unless everybody else either crashes or drops out with car problems. So there's no need for any heroics at this point. It would be dumb to wreck the car now.
At 9:40 Martin explains that our lack of pace is due to the fact that he doesn't like these tires at all. With all the flats and bent rims we've suffered so far, we're down to the dregs and running on an old worn out set of tires. We don't even have a complete set, forced to run on a mismatched set with a right-side tire backwards on the left side.
At this point we're pushing as hard as we dare, but mostly are just hoping to finish in one piece. At 12:20 even that goal suddenly looked doubtful.
At 12:20 there's a big bump in the road. Not really a big deal. But it was enough to compress the right front strut to full stroke, where it stuck solid.
We probably bent the strut already somewhere much earlier, maybe on one of the many big rock impacts on the Sturtevant stages, or maybe even on landing the Concord Pond jump where we cracked the windshield yesterday.
With 3 miles still to go, the strut is fully compressed down to the bump stop and seized solid. We have no ground clearance, the car is surfing along on its skidplate, whacking every rock in the road, and I'm going to lose all my teeth.
At 14:50 coming into a R3, I see blue smoke (not dust) hanging in the air. Has the Honda finally blown up? "Keep reading."
At 18:20 we finally reach the finish, where the dust is so bad that Martin is forced to jam on the brakes and we almost come to a complete halt before crossing the flying finish line.
At the turnaround Brian Gottlieb apologizes to us, thinking he must have been holding us up. They were hobbled by the ailing transmission of their Honda Civic. But, with the thick dust and our own suspension troubles, it turns out we were only 10 secs quicker than the Honda on this stage, not even close to catching them.
We still have to run most of this stage one more time in the opposite direction before we get to go home. Oh boy. This poor car, and its occupants, are in for an awful beating...
SS10 - Fish Pond In:
August 09, 2011 09:20AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
SS11 - Sturtevant Out, 12.33 miles
There were a lot of hurtin' cars waiting at the turnaround. We've joined the ranks of the walking wounded.
Lots of cars with their hood up, crews scrambling to find wire to tie up dragging exhaust systems, changing flat tires, or pouring more oil through their leaking gearboxes.
We decide to let all but one of the other cars start ahead of us. We're going to be taking it nice and slow and don't want to hold anyone up. There will be just one car trailing behind us. They've got a long list of potentially terminal issues, not least of which is a fuel leak dripping onto their hot exhaust. We figured if that turns into a fireball, we really don't want to be first on the scene. It's preferable to have the sweep and emergency teams following closest behind that car.
There was not much to be done about our seized right front strut. It's jammed solid. But Martin cleverly removed the swaybar endlink so at least the left front suspension is freed and no longer tied to the seized right front. That's nice for him. He's got some suspension travel on his side, but my side is still riding rock solid on the bumpstop.
It's time to saddle up and commence the dusty ride home. Oh boy, we're in for a treat.
It's rough. It's rocky. I'm bounced around so much that in some spots I can barely hang onto the notes, let alone read them.
At 6:00, at a "L4-/Cr", we almost slide off in some deep soft stuff. "Oh jeez." Martin just laughs.
About 30 seconds later we find Patrick Darrow holding up an OK sign and waving money! Maybe the Honda Civic has finally blown up.
No. They slid off the road on a R3/Cr and are stuck. They're hoping for a tow to get them going again. Several other cars must already have passed them by. We're no longer competitive anyway. We have time to deposit some good karma into the bank for next year. We stop to yank the Honda back onto the road.
It'll take them a while to get belted up again, giving us a good head start. But still Martin checks his mirrors often to ensure they haven't caught us up and want to pass.
At 11:40 we turn L4-/smCr into the section where the serious rocks start. Oh goody.
At 13:25 we come to the R4+/smCr/rocks that caused us so much grief on the previous stages. There is a huge flat stone sticking up smack across the centre of the road. It steps up at least three inches above the surface of the road, with a sharp vertical leading edge that's been painted fluorescent orange so you can see it coming. It's like driving over a parking lot curbstone.
That rock spans almost as wide as the car, but if you line it up carefully you can straddle it without either wheel touching it, as you suck in your breath hoping the rock won't tear off your oil pan.
The problem is, while you're concentrating on lining up to straddle that rock, you tend not to notice the even more lethal rock that follows immediately after right in line with your right-side tires. I'm sure that's the rock that caused our two flat tires on SS8.
If we nail that one again now, with the right front strut seized solid as it is, there will surely be bad consequences. But Martin deftly swerves around it this time and we escape with no damage.
But there's another 2-1/2 minutes of even worse rocks to follow, until finally at 15:50 our notes promise that the road "gets smoother". I suppose it might feel smoother if we actually had working suspension, but we don't and it doesn't.
At 17:35 we pass Niall Johnson and Daniela Manago, with their Subaru WRX stuffed into the bushes on a R4-long. Nothing we can do about that. They're in deep.
We do make it all the way to the end of this stage, and we're not last. We finish the day 15th/24 in the Errol Regional event, and 11th/24 in the MaxAttack standings.
But the adventure is not over yet. We still have an hour long transit from here back to the finish at Sunday River...
SS11 - Sturtevant Out:
August 09, 2011 09:23AM
5th gear
Registered: 9 years ago
Posts: 788
: Ottawa
First order of business, an emergency, we desperately need to stop for another swim! On the dusty transit out we stop at the Sturtevant Pond and jump in for a refreshing dip.
I guess we should have put the OK sign out because several other teams, noticing our car abandoned on the side of the road, stopped to check if we were alright. Nobody joined us in the swim though.
Eventually Brian Gottlieb and Patrick Darrow came limping along in their Honda Civic. They also stopped to see if we were okay, but didn't have time for a swim. They have more serious worries.
Amazingly their (now dry) transmission hasn't seized up tight yet. But, when they slid off the road on that last stage, they fetched up nose-first against a tree which holed their radiator and now the engine is overheating.
Simple enough. We're feeling alive again, refreshed from our swim. Our car is still running strong, albeit limping on one corner. We have a tow rope. We'll tow the Honda home! It's only another hour. What could possibly go wrong?
The first little bit, on the dusty gravel portion out to the highway, must have been an adventure for the Honda boys. Our car is rear-wheel-drive. It shoots rocks, eh. This is what the Honda looked like afterwards. Note all the pockmarks in their radiator (it was finished already before that). But we put a nice bullet hole through one of their headlights, and cracked their windshield (it was already cracked beforehand).
Once we got onto the paved highway it wasn't so bad. But man, our poor old engine got a workout. Guess we proved the head gasket is still okay though. The turbo must have been glowing red hot the whole way. The floor was so hot Martin could hardly keep his feet on the pedals. Still, mission accomplished, we got the DirtyDrifters Honda back to Sunday River in plenty of time for them to check-in at the final time control with no road penalties.
Objects in mirror...
Video of towing the Honda:
Many thanks to the organizers and all the great volunteers who make this such an outstanding event.
Big thanks to Eric (Lurch) Burmeister for all his hard work in organizing the 2wd MaxAttack stuff!!
Hats off to Greg Healey and Cynthia Krolikowski! For the third year in a row now Greg, in his gorgeous museum piece Datsun 280Z, has kicked our butts.
Here's a shot of Andrew Comrie-Picard, just because he's ACP.
HUGE congratulations to Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard (Canadians, eh) for their overall win and for always making it look so easy when we know for a fact it's not!
Now it's time to pack away the wounded car, and party.
Jennifer Daly got a better offer and hitched a ride with someone else. So next day we packed up our "SleepMetalGirl", and headed home.
With no Jennifer along for the ride to perform the duties of flipping the fuel lever on the auxiliary tank, we eventually forgot to close the lever at the conclusion of our trip. The truck sat all night emptying expensive diesel fuel into Martin's yard...
August 09, 2011 10:35AM
5th gear
Registered: 8 years ago
Posts: 799
: O Porto


text:
Pilot error caused an October 2011 East River helicopter crash that killed three overseas visitors, the National Transportation Safety Board said today.
Probers found that the Bell Ranger chopper was as much as 261 pounds too heavy when it lifted off from the East 34th Street Heliport, and say pilot Paul Dudley underestimated his passengers' weights.
Dudley's miscalculations led to a phenomenon called "loss of tail rotor effectiveness," which caused the chopper to spin out of control and crash.
Dudley, the manager of Linden Airport in New Jersey, disputes the NTSB findings.
"We strongly disagree with the conclusions in the report, which are based on conjecture and estimates and that lead to questionable conclusions," he said.
"You don't go 30 years of flying without an accident by being careless."
In 2006, Dudley made an emergency landing of a Cessna 172 in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn.
The chopper crash victims were Helen Tamaki, 43 and her partner Sonia Marra, 40, both of Sydney, Australia, and Marra's mother, Harriet Nicholson, 60, a British national who lived in Portugal.
Nicholson's husband Paul and Dudley both survived without serious injury.


text:
The Masters: Rejuvenated Tiger tops the betting board
They've been playing tournaments for three months now but the 2013 professional golf season really gets started this weekend, with the playing of the 77th edition of the Masters, at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
Before the field of 93 tees it up on Thursday golf bettors might want to check out the myriad ways they can bet on the Masters, outside of just getting in the pool down at the local watering hole.
As one might expect several of the usual suspects lead the betting on most Masters boards. But there is plenty to choose from, at tempting prices.
Some guy named "Tiger" Woods is the favorite at most golf betting shops to win the Masters this weekend, at odds of right around 7/2. Woods has won the Masters four times previously and has three victories in just five starts so far this year. But he also hasn't added to his collection of Major titles since he won the US Open back in 2008.
Rory McIlroy, the kid from Northern Ireland who won the PGA Championship last year and the US Open the year before, is the second choice on most Masters boards at right around 10/1. McIlroy is also remembered for shooting 80 on Sunday at the Masters two years ago to blow a four-shot lead.
Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion already, is the next choice on most Masters betting lists at 12/1.
Englishman Justin Rose, questing for his first Major championship, is getting upwards of 20/1 to claim the green jacket Sunday, as is Keegan Bradley, the PGA champion of two years ago.
Dustin Johnson, also looking for his first Major, is available at upwards of 25/1 to win this weekend. South African Charl Schwartzel, who birdied the last four holes on Sunday to win the Masters two years ago, can also be found at 25/1.
Aussie Adam Scott, who finished tied for second at the Masters a couple years ago but blew the British Open last year, is also priced at 25/1, along with Englishman Lee Westwood, who finished second at Augusta three years ago and tied for third last year.
Elsewhere on Masters betting boards South African Louis Oosthuizen, who lost the Masters in a playoff last year, is getting 30/1; Bubba Watson, who won that playoff, is getting 40/1 to successfully defend, as is former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Matt Kuchar; Luke Donald is listed at upwards of 45/1; and Steve Stricker (from Wisconsin) is getting 50/1.
Finally, 14-year-old Tianlang Guan from China can be found at upwards of 5000/1 to win the Masters his weekend.
Lefties have won five of the last 10 Masters. Along with Phil and Bubba, 2003 Masters champ Mike Weir is getting 1000/1 to win this weekend.
Many golf betting shops are also offering wagering on who will lead the Masters after the first round, and after the second round, and who will finish best among the entire field without Tiger.
Live television coverage of the first and second rounds of the Masters will be handled by ESPN beginning at 3 pm ET Thursday and Friday. CBS then takes over on the weekend, beginning at 3 pm ET Saturday and 2 pm ET Sunday.


text:
Pages: 1
Well openbox 3 just came out and is already available in pacman. I installed it and then ran it and the menu works and everything but where is the panel? It was in openbox 2, is there a way to get it again?
I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about when you say the "panel" but do you mean the bar at the bottom of the screen that would show which desktop you are in, the time, which window is active, etc? If so, that's no longer a part of Openbox...the developers took it out. You can still run another panel like gnome-panel along with Openbox if you want, but I am running without it and don't really notice/care about it.
My hovercraft is full of eels.
EDIT - just for more info, you can also use fbpanel and gnome-panel with openbox3
Take a look at pypanel, I put it in incoming some time ago. It supports transparencies and looks quite nice.
Just edit your .xinitrc file in your home dir and make it look something like the following, after installing pypanel (assuming you use startx to start your windowmanager)
# ~/.xinitrc
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
openbox & openpid=$!
pypanel &
wait $openpid
Don't forget to post your PKGBUILD in your thread when you announce a new package in incoming.
see HERE for details
Pages: 1


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A SoundCloud playlist here compiling music you've heard over the years here on Channel 19, among other tracks. For future playlists, send your recommendations ...Read More
Tony Justice moving down the roadFirst up, Allen Smith over at AsktheTrucker.com reports Tony Justice (featured in the blog here and here and last month in Truckers News) will be performing at a pre-Grammy Awards showcase in Hollywood Feb. 12. Congrats, Tony! If you haven't seen it as yet, look for his excellent "On the Road" trucking-country record at Pilot stores nationwide. For more about the show, check out the AsktheTrucker.com story here. Cumberland Collective revisitedSecondly, I ...Read More
I had the rare opportunity to pay witness to a recording session Wednesday night in Nashville at Blackbird Studios -- a group called the Cumberland Collective (a couple of members of which I'm familiar with via the folks-in-their-30s-with-kids-needing-an-occasional-babysitter circuit) had opened up the doors on the 45-track studio to turn the 10-hour session into something of a drop-in-and-hangout affair, inviting family, friends and others. With several songwriters of widely varying styles among them -- principally Mike ...Read More


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ANALYSIS / Plan for democracy in Iraq may be folly / Experts also question U.S. ability to reform entire Middle East
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 13, 2003
Now that the Bush administration has won the shooting war in Iraq, it has begun the far more challenging mission of transforming a brutal tyranny into a democracy, and then lighting the fire of political reform throughout the entire Middle East.
Numerous experts describe the campaign as among the most ambitious political experiments ever attempted. Many insist it is dangerous folly.
"Democracy has emerged at times where it had never existed before," said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution who has written extensively on the spread of democratic movements. "But Iraq lacks virtually every possible precondition for democracy. And the possibilities in the other Arab countries may be even lower."
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He said, for instance, there's not a large, entrepreneurial middle class, almost no experience with free elections and neither a free press nor an open economy practically anywhere in the region.
Murhaf Jouejati, adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington,
said it was obvious that most Iraqis were thrilled at throwing off the yoke of oppression, but that the looting and chaos that has followed provide an ominous sign of the kinds of violent forces the war has unleashed, and how hard it will be to contain them.
"There has not been a single day of democracy in Iraq in its history," he said. "It is still a tribal and clan-oriented society. Democracy needs a social infrastructure that does not exist at all in Iraq, or elsewhere in the region."
Nevertheless, President Bush and administration officials have stated repeatedly that their aim was not only to disarm and depose Saddam Hussein, but also to leave behind a robust democratic government and an open society along American lines.
That will be just the seed, they have argued, for a flowering of democracies throughout the Arab world.
But the region consists of dictatorships and monarchies where -- aside from a brief flirtation with political pluralism in Lebanon years ago -- no successful democracy has ever taken root. And now it is seething with resentment against America for what many Arabs perceive as a colonialistic intervention in Iraq -- a view shared even by some friendly Arab governments.
Judith Kipper, the director of the Middle East Forum at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said that there was, in fact, growing pressure for change in the region, largely from the exploding numbers of frustrated young Arabs with few prospects of good jobs or the kind of education that could provide one. Experience has shown, though, that this has never translated into a yearning for a Jeffersonian upheaval, she said.
"There is a real craving for something better -- to have jobs, entertainment, education," she said. "But they don't want Western-style democracies. Absolutely not. We should get it out of our heads that their societies are going to start looking like us."
David Ransom, a diplomat who spent his career in the Middle East and was U. S. ambassador to Bahrain during the Clinton administration, said that open elections, if they could actually be staged, might produce even grimmer results, because many alienated Arabs would choose fundamentalist regimes if given a chance.
"I firmly believe that even if we could get democracies there, we aren't going to like the results," said Ransom, now a scholar at the Middle East Institute. "I spent 30 years looking for grassroots democratic movements in the Middle East and I didn't find any."
Added Diamond, "This is going to be a long hard struggle. Nothing will go quickly."
Even some Bush administration supporters have raised serious questions about the prospects for democracy, and the extent of American tolerance.
"I'm a skeptic about the ability to transform Iraq into a democracy in any realistic period of time," Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser under President Bush's father, said in a recent speech to the Norwegian Nobel Institute. He stressed the lack of functioning civic institutions and the bitter divisions among Iraqi religious and ethnic groups as obstacles to any sort of political pluralism.
"What's going to happen the first time we hold an election in Iraq and it turns out the radicals win?" Scowcroft asked. "What do you do? We're surely not going to let them take over."
Even some of America's staunchest Arab allies have bridled, because their own monopoly on power might be threatened by a push toward U.S.-style free elections and thriving political opposition.
"The idea of imposing democracy from outside is not supported by Egypt or any Arab country," said Osama el Baz, a top adviser to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid.
Bush has responded to the skeptics by pointing to America's success half a century ago in nurturing democracy among its World War II foes, Japan, Germany and Italy. And one of the administration's principal ideologues, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, has compared the Middle East to East Asia,
where a sort of reverse domino theory took hold after the Vietnam War, spreading democracy rather than communism.
"It's very important for people to understand this idea that Arabs are not capable of democracy is nonsense," Wolfowitz said on "Meet the Press" last Sunday. "I remember hearing that Koreans weren't capable of democracy, and that was a myth you heard for a long time. The Koreans have demonstrated they can do it. Many people have done it in the latter part of the 20th century. It's time for the Arabs to do it now."
But many experts say the analogy with Asia, which has grown over the past half-century from one of the most despotic to one of the most democratized regions in the world, undermines rather than supports the administration's arguments.
Catharin Dalpino, an Asia expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington,
said that before democracy took root in East Asia, a solid foundation had been established: there was an educated middle class in each country, generally open economies reliant on trade, growing prosperity, a lively press and some experience with free elections and pluralism, at least at a local level. Each country had a generally able civil service, too.
Importantly, she added, the movements took years to develop.
"We have this belief now in a pop-up democracy," said Dalpino. "We think the fall of the Berlin Wall is the model all the other countries will follow, that democracy is just waiting to happen once you remove all the things that get in the way. It requires special conditions, and even then there are different kinds of democracies that we may not like."
Diamond said that Iraq lacked nearly all the qualities that made most Asian countries fertile ground for democratic development: Illiteracy among adults is now estimated at more than 40 percent; the Iraqi population is young, with some 40 percent under age 15, but joblessness, even before the war, was pervasive; the middle class has lost its buying power and seen its lifestyle eroded; the economy, which is all but closed to foreign trade, is wholly reliant on oil income, with no entrepreneurial class.
In fact, Ransom said, throughout the oil states of the Middle East, and especially in Iraq, the economies are even more firmly state-controlled than were the old Soviet-bloc nations during the Cold War, stifling investment and entrepreneurs.
"The truth is almost anything you did in Iraq would be better than what they had," said Shibley Telhami, who holds the Anwar Sadat Chair in the department of government and politics at the University of Maryland. "But going from that to talking about democracy presents a lot of challenges. Nothing is impossible, but it doesn't seem likely to me. There is so little to open the way."
David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, in Washington, said that even in the most recent Asian success story, China, the economy has been transformed by capitalist innovations, while the government has maintained a rigid, one-party communist political system.
The Chinese Communist Party devised a model in the 1980s that opened portions of the economy to foreign investment and trade, which eventually created an explosive boom and enormous wealth. The Beijing government has used prosperity as a means of staving off demands for greater political openness, but Bush has rejected that approach because of his insistence on democratic change.
To some supporters of the Bush plan, if not the president himself, Iran demonstrates the desire for reform and change in the region. A nascent reform movement, led in large part by students frustrated by government oppression and a lack of economic opportunity, has gained momentum over the past few years, with occasional outbreaks of civil unrest in opposition to the ruling mullahs.
But experts also say this is a poor model, too, in part because of the slow evolutionary pace of change -- in contrast to Bush's whirlwind campaign in Iraq. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran and a strong supporter of democratic reform, said there are clear signs of a grassroots movement in Iran, and that American intervention would probably hurt, not help.
"It would backfire if it were too overt," he said. "This has to happen through the Iranian people themselves or it could reverse."
Mostly Shiite Iran is also far more homogeneous than Iraq, which is bitterly divided along ethnic and religious lines. Ransom compared Iraq with Northern Ireland, except there are three feuding groups -- the Kurds, the Sunni Muslims and the Shiite Muslims -- rather than two.
"In the long term, I think if despite everything you developed a model that inspired public confidence, then there is a possibility," said Telhami. "But the long term is nothing but a series of short terms. When you light a fire, you don't know where it will spread and whose house it will burn down."
ALGERIA: Multiparty state with elected parliament and president. The National Liberation Front, the dominant party since independence from France 40 years ago, won the 2002 parliamentary elections, which were marred by violence. In 1991, fearing the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front would be elected, the army aborted the final round of elections, which sparked a bloody insurgency.
BAHRAIN: Became a constitutional monarchy in 2002 as part of reforms that paved the way for the first legislative elections in 30 years. Women voted and ran in the October election, which secularists narrowly won. Most power still resides with Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak's security apparatus and National Democratic Party have almost absolute control over the elected parliament. Mubarak periodically stands as the sole presidential candidate in referendums in which voters can choose yes or no. These always produce an overwhelming yes vote.
JORDAN: King Abdullah II has virtually absolute power. An elected parliament has not met since 2001, although Abdullah promises parliamentary elections later this year. KUWAIT: Politics are controlled by Emir Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah and his family. Kuwait pioneered among Arabs in electing a parliament, in 1963, but the emir regularly dismisses national assemblies. Women are barred from voting or running for office.
LEBANON: Elections are regular and lively, but are circumscribed by a power- sharing agreement meant to prevent a resurgence of the 1975-90 sectarian civil war. Legislative seats are apportioned equally to Christians and Muslims. The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, and the president a Christian. Syria wields great influence over Lebanese politics.
LIBYA: Moammar Khadafy has held absolute power since a 1969 military coup.
MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI appoints the prime minister and members of the government following legislative elections. He can fire any minister, dissolve parliament, call for new elections or rule by decree. Parliamentary elections held in September were praised as clean and fair. The Socialist Party won a majority of seats, but conservative Islamic parties did well.
OMAN: Sultan Qaboos became chief of state by overthrowing his father in 1970. His family has ruled for about 250 years. There are no political parties or elected legislature.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: President Yasser Arafat is under growing pressure to share power after four decades of sole control. The post of Palestinian prime minister was recently created.
QATAR: Expected to have parliamentary elections in two or three years. It held the first municipal elections in 1999, with women fully participating. Al- Jazeera satellite TV station, the freest network in the Arab world, is based in Qatar.
SAUDI ARABIA: Crown Prince Abdullah rules on behalf of ailing King Fahd. There is no elected legislature. The royal family is under pressure to reform. The government recently allowed international rights monitors to visit for the first time, and Abdullah proposed that Arab states encourage broader political participation.
SYRIA: President Bashar Assad wields near-absolute power, disappointing those who had hoped the young, Western-educated physician would open up politics after taking over in 2000.
SUDAN: President Omar el-Bashir has been in power since a 1989 coup. Recently he moved to lessen the influence of fundamentalist Islamic leaders, but democratic reform is not on the agenda.
TUNISIA: A republic dominated by a single party, the Constitutional Democratic Assembly, since independence from France in 1956. Opposition parties have been allowed since 1981.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Federation of states, each controlled by its own emir and family. YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh presides over largely feudal society. Although it has a constitution, an elected parliament and a lively press, power rests with the military and tribes.
Source: Associated Press


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Magento Development Services
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Keeping your Magento site running well at both the human level and under the code bonnet is often a challenge. With our pay-as-you-go and contract support and maintenance services we provide a proven range of options to cover this important area.
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All our developers are Magento certified and we've been building and supporting Magento sites since 2010.
We are based in the Bristol-Bath area and have clients across the country.
A few of our Clients
Taking over from the original developers we've nurtured the site through two major updates and added an ongoing stream of business-driven improvements.
These have all helped Bluebadge Company to ride the wave of their new business opportunities.
Initially brought in by a design agency to support this site, we now support the client directly. Services have included ongoing upgrades and incorporation of client in-house page designs.
Server and site performance optimisation have also been key areas we've delivered on for this popular retail website.
Built from scratch by us this includes several bespoke features needed by the tile retail sector.
For the past four years we have partnered with Collinson Tiles providing an integrated package of operational support, code maintenance and development along with hosting services on one of our own Virtual Servers.
Another design agency assist job which included technical completion followed by ongoing support for the last couple of years.
This highly bespoke Magento site uses a large 'market place' extension to show off the work and profiles of a huge range of contributing artists and craftspeople.
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So called 'Black Friday' at the end of November is for many retailers a significant point in the trading year. Black in this case is positive - it's where they anticipate the business will move in to the black as the pre-Christmas buying habits of th ...
Magento site speed... don't be a frog in a warming pot!
For a whole raft of reasons Magento sites run slower than they could or should. Very often this slowing of response times for both front and back ends is gradual and we tend to just live with it. But a bit like the proverbial frog in the pot of water ...


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CM Punk and Buffalo Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman engaged in a war of words yesterday on Twitter in regards to the NFL star encountering some WWE Divas during the Raw brand's stay in Costa Rica. Punk wrote: "Watching Shawne Merriman of the buffalo bills hit on our divas and strike out, reminds me of the Bills in the super bowl. #choke."
Merriman replied: "I was just giving you guys some hope look like you were struggling by the pool. Sympathy from Lights." Punk said: "If you could get to a QB as fast as you ran after our divas maybe you'd make headlines being a pro bowler and not a creep." Merriman added: "How about I come and deliver a nice special lightsOut ass woopin tonight Costa Rican Style."
Punk closes: "Clearly, I have defeated you. However, You will have plenty of time to think of a better come back while you ride the bench for another entire season. Good luck getting to the Super Bowl! With love, CM Punk." Merriman replies: "Do me a favor turn your little wrestling underwear around and give yourself a wedge – see you later Punk without the CM."


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Healer of Our Hearts
- Artist: The Pearsons
- Format: CD
- Release Date: 7/11/2006
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Larry and Marie Pearson are a brother-sister duo with a style all their own. The're known for their diverse songwriting, memorable melodies, and lyrics that offer a candid view into the soul. You'll be mesmerized with their trademark harmonies and Marie's rich, resonant voice. 'The Healer of Our Hearts' is a beautifully recorded album of inspirational and contemporary songs filled with a sense of hope love and faith. You'll find your heart connecting with the upbeat groove of 'Indefinitely' which explores the idea of never ending love. The title track 'The Healer of Our Hearts' tells us: 'Mercy runs deep, He has been where we are, He will be the Healer of Our Hearts.' In The Pearsons' live shows you'll find them on the keyboards, guitar, and mandolin. The Pearsons have written and recorded on many CDs and their work can be found on projects by Target, Irving Music (former publishing arm of A&M), Deseret Book, and Frog and Scorpion Records. Larry is both a writer and arranger of numerous commercial jingles as well as songs on PBS. Michael McLean fans will remember Marie's original recording of 'Gentle' as well as 'Lullaby For Me' on his most recently released album. You may hear Marie's familiar voice on many national voice overs. Others share the enthusiasm for The Pearsons including former A&M Records president Gil Friesen who said 'Marie Pearson has a wonderful, natural voice. Her sound reminds me of Karen Carpenter.' In addition to their four CDS, The Pearsons have several songs on compilations discs from Deseret Book('His Love volume 2' and the youth CD 'Whatever It Takes'.) Sounds of Zion newly released youth CD 'Believe' features their music. Their song about the birth of Marie's third child on 9/11/01 entitled 'Rebecca'sSong' was placed on Frog and Scorpion Records compilation CD 'One Nation Under God'.


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Do you have Zara stores over there? It's a spanish brand which sells pretty cheap but very fashion things. It's for young people and it sells some very good not-so-expensive "semi-designer" fragrances. They have lines for both women and men, men's line have also deodorant, aftershave etc.. Now they also have lip balm, face moistering cream and stuff like that.
I haven't bought anything yet but I smelt them, some of them are VERY interesting!


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Marriage on the Road #2: I'm Happy When You're Happy
Will and I got into a big fight in Mendoza, Argentina just as we arrived. It's not unusual for Will and I to fight after a long, frustrating travel experience (in this case, 5 hours waiting in line at the Chile/Argentina border), but this was different – it needed more than sleep. It needed a solution.
Will was mad at me. Six weeks abroad, I had fallen into the habit of voicing everything that was bothersome and not voicing anything that was going well. "Why are we in THIS immigration line?" "It would have been better if we got those bus seats." "Why are these other people so annoying?" "Next time let's do it this way…" No doubt, I was in a little bit of a funk. I felt like we were traveling too fast. I didn't have any down time. I was relying on Will's Spanish too much. The shampoo we brought was leaving some sort of gunk in my hair that made my scalp hurt. We were seeing and doing amazing things, and I was having an incredible time…but I was a little grumpy too.
One thing I took for granted as a single person was that my emotions didn't usually affect anyone else. If I was in a bad mood, as long as I wasn't harassing other people, my bad mood only affected me. Now, married and on the road, when I say anything that suggests I'm not happy, my husband stresses about it. And there is no reprieve, such as going to work or the gym or on some errands. We are together all the time, so he has no way to ignore me.
After some talking, arguing, and defensiveness on both sides, I learned that Will needed to know what I was enjoying about the trip. Even when I'm enjoying things, I don't always say it. But I need to – and on a regular basis. In return, I needed him to listen to some of my legitimate concerns. It was possible to slow down our pace. I could have more down time. We are the only ones controlling our schedule. We committed to both of these things and then sealed the deal with beer and empanadas.
I hadn't really felt this phenomenon in reverse until we got to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We knew we were going to the falls in low season, which means much of it is dry. We knew this was good because Will wanted to go rafting, and the rafting is better in low water. But when we got to the actual falls, and saw how much more area they usually cover, Will was disappointed.
"Ugh! This is why I don't have expectations for anything," Will lamented. I did a double take at the enormous waterfall we were standing in front of. Was this lame? There was no way this was lame, and yet I was starting to feel sad because Will was sad.
I realized that this is what Will was feeling in South America whenever I expressed dissatisfaction. I tried to cheer him up – pointing out everything that was awesome about our experience at Victoria Falls. He eventually perked up, remembering all the reasons why it was good we came during dry season (like Devil's Pool!) and seeing the awesomeness of the waterfall even at its driest.
With roles reversed, I gained new appreciation for the impact each of us has on each other. When you are together all the time, with very little interaction with other people, your moods become intertwined. Sometimes this requires actively seeking out the positive for the sake of your spouse. Sometimes this requires listening and responding to legitimate concerns that can make or break an experience for the other person. It's easy to get annoyed with the fact that your mood and choices can devastate another person's experience – we all want the freedom of our feelings. But if you can let that go, and commit to caring how you affect the other person, the higher stakes will force you out of your funk and help you enjoy your experiences to the fullest.
You can find the first installment of Marriage on the Road here.


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Barb speaking:
After 15 years of running the Hide-E-Hole Ferret Rescue, I am retiring. I only have a few ferrets left to adopt out and I'm not taking in any more owner surrenders.
Please go to the Animal Rescue League in Pittsburgh on Hamilton Avenue. They vet their ferrets with the shelter vet, Dr. Robert Wagner (a local exotics vet) and do not automatically euthanize if the ferret is sick. I will be working with them (I hope) to educate people about ferrets. They have recently built a new facility and I am hopeful they will be able to care for local ferrets until someone else starts another ferret-only rescue.
I'm very conflicted about this since I love ferrets, but my husband has retired and I no longer have the time and energy necessary to do this properly.
I am willing to help anyone wanting to start a rescue, I will still take back any previously adopted ferrets if it doesn't work out, and I am happy to answer questions and offer advice.
I am sincerely grateful for all my wonderful volunteers and adopters. I couldn't have done this without you. I've met some wonderful people over the years and I'm not disappearing.
Thank you for 15 years and helping me help over 1000 ferrets.
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