text:
The world of Game of Thrones has no overall or official name. Characters within the story simply refer to it as "the world". At the time of the series, the known world consists of three discovered continents: Westeros, Essos and Sothoryos. There are also numerous islands and archipelagos, including the Stepstones, Summer Islands, and Ibben.
Climate and seasons
A major feature of the world the narrative is set in is that it experiences long seasons of varying length, usually lasting at least a couple of years each. Historically, the seasons have been known to last up to a decade in extreme cases. The length of the seasons is completely unpredictable and varies randomly, although there appears to be some correlation that a long summer means the following winter will also be quite long. The maesters of the Citadel keep a close eye on the length of the days in order to try to predict how long the current season will last, but this is an inexact science at best. The continent of Westeros extends much further north than the continents of Essos and Sothoryos, and so is much more adversely affected by long winters. Meanwhile, Essos and Sothoryos are closer to the equatorial regions, which are typically warmer.
At the time the series opens, the world has been experiencing a summer that has lasted for nine years, which is unusually long, and the maesters fear that a similarly long (or even longer) winter will follow. According to Tyrion Lannister, Westeros has experienced nine winters during his lifetime, the last ending about nine years before the beginning of the TV series. Tyrion states that the winter during which he was born was the longest of these, lasting three years. Thus, for the past thirty years or so, each full summer-winter cycle has lasted on average about 5–6 years.[1] Autumn arrives the following year (in Season 2), bringing the ten-year long summer to a close.[2]
The peoples of the world can survive years-long winters because they adapted to this climate pattern centuries ago. Lords set aside vast amounts of non-perishable food items for storage against the next winter. Some castles, like Winterfell of House Stark, have elaborate greenhouses which permit the growing of vegetables even in the harshest winters. In the North of Westeros, which is badly affected by cold winter weather, many notable strongholds are built in favorable areas, such as Winterfell which is built over hot springs, or the Dreadfort of House Bolton which is built on volcanic vents. Despite these precautions, famine and starvation is common during Northern winters, and is one of the reasons the North has a small population despite its vast size.
There is a suggestion that the long seasons are not natural in origin, but may have stemmed from a near-mythical event called the Long Night eight thousand years ago, when it is said that the White Walkers used the cover of a winter that lasted a generation and a night that lasted for years to invade Westeros. They were defeated in the War for the Dawn, thrown back into the furthest north and prevented from returning by the raising of the Wall, but the seasons never recovered. Maesters are highly skeptical of this story, dismissing it as folklore, despite the inarguable presence of the Wall.
Even so, there are hints that the seasons may not always have been this way: characters still define "a year" as a twelve month period, not a full cycle of summer to winter. Months are the same as in real-life, roughly a thirty day period; the term "moon-turn" is commonly used for "month".
- Westeros: Located in the far west of the known world, Westeros extends southwards from the northern polar icecap for approximately 3,000 miles. Most of the continent is unified as a political entity called the Seven Kingdoms, ruled from the King on the Iron Throne in the city of King's Landing. Most of the action in Game of Thrones occurs in Westeros.
- Essos: Separated from Westeros by the Narrow Sea, Essos extends eastwards for many thousands of miles. It is larger than Westeros but less densely populated. The western edge of the continent is controlled by the nine Free Cities, whilst the city-states of Slaver's Bay are located in the south-central region. Further east is Qarth and the fabled Jade Sea, which Essos partially encloses. The far eastern coast of Essos is unexplored, as it lies beyond legendary Asshai and the forbidding Shadow Lands. Much of the continental interior west of the Jade Sea is ruled by the tribal warriors known as the Dothraki.
- Sothoryos: Relatively little known, Sothoryos is located south of Essos, on the far side of the Summer Sea. It is a large continent consisting of deserts and jungles. It is said to be a haven for plagues and dangerous animals, and has not been explored much beyond the northern coastal regions.
Seas and oceans
- The Sunset Sea lies to the west of Westeros. No-one has successfully crossed the Sunset Sea with any reliable information about any landmasses that might lie beyond.
- The Summer Sea lies to the south of Westeros and Essos, dividing the latter from Sothoryos. It contains the Summer Islands. The extent of the ocean south of the Summer Islands is unknown. Inlets of the Summer Sea include Slaver's Bay and the Gulf of Grief.
- The Narrow Sea divides Westeros from Essos. Whilst smaller than most of the other seas, it is still several hundred miles wide, presenting a formidable obstacle to military activity between the two continents. During winter, the Narrow Sea becomes difficult to cross because of storms and strong winds blowing from the north. Inlets of the Narrow Sea include Blackwater Bay, the Sea of Dorne and the Sea of Myrth.
- The Shivering Sea lies to the north-east of Westeros and the north of Essos, separating the latter from the northern polar ice cap. Ibben and Skagos are the most notable islands of size in the Shivering Sea. During the winter, the Shivering Sea becomes much more hostile to cross.
- The Jade Sea lies in the far east of the known world, beyond the Dothraki sea and the Straits of Qarth. Qarth and Asshai are the richest and most powerful cities on the Jade Sea. Bold traders get rich from performing the "trader's circle" around the Jade Sea, trading between the powerful city-states and merchant kingdoms of the distant east and then carrying those riches back to Westeros and the Free Cities. Such a journey may take two years or more.
This is not a definitive list, but major islands or island groups of particular size and significance:
- The Arbor is a large island off the south coast of Westeros. It is part of the Seven Kingdoms, held by House Redwyne and owing fealty to House Tyrell. It is the source of some fine wines.
- Bear Island lies off the north-western coast of Westeros. It is controlled by House Mormont and owes fealty to House Stark.
- The Iron Islands lie off the west coast of Westeros. They are one of the major regions of the continent and are controlled by one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, House Greyjoy of Pyke.
- Skagos is an island off the north-eastern coast of Westeros. In theory it owes fealty to House Stark, but in practice its savage inhabitants (who are rumored to be cannibals) are allowed to go their own way. Skagos is the largest of several islands in the archipelago, which also includes Skane.
- Tarth, Dragonstone, and Estermont are large islands in the Narrow Sea indirectly controlled by the monarchy of the Seven Kingdoms.
- The Stepstones are a group of islands dividing the Narrow Sea from the Summer Sea. Legends say that in ancient times they formed a land bridge between Westeros and Essos. The present-day island chain is still one of the major paths of transit between Westeros and Essos, as ships pass from the harbors of one island to the next. The Free City of Tyrosh is located in the Stepstones. Several of the Free Cities, including Tyrosh, Lys and Myr, compete for control of the islands.
- The Free City of Lorath lies on an off-shore island in the Shivering Sea, while Lys is located on an off-shore island in the Summer Sea.
- Ibben, sometimes called Ib, is the largest island in the known world, home to a civilization of seafarers and whale-hunters. It is located thousands of miles east of Westeros, off the north coast of Essos. The Ibbenese trade across much of Essos and sometimes in Westeros as well. It is far too small to be considered a continent in its own right (about the size of real-life Iceland), and is loosely considered to be part of Essos.
- A great archipelago lying south-east of Volantis and west of Slaver's Bay is the shattered remnant of the great Valyrian empire, obliterated four centuries ago in a cataclysmic volcanic event known as the Doom. Sailors from across the world know to give Valyria a wide berth, as volcanic activity continues there and the Smoking Sea between the islands is said to be uncrossable, as the fumes rising from the water can choke a man to death.
- New Ghis, lying on an island on southeast to Slaver's Bay, is the capital city of the resurgent Ghiscari Empire, which once sprawled across the nearby mainland until it was destroyed by the Valyrian Freehold five thousand years ago. Since Valyria's fall, the Ghiscari have sought to rebuild their empire with slow results.
- The Basilisk Isles lie off the north coast of Sothoryos and are said to be home to many dangerous and fabled creatures. The Basilisk Isles and nearby Naath are frequently raided by slaving ships from the north.
- Naath is a major island off the north coast of Sothoryos, west of the Basilisk Isles chain. Its pacifistic inhabitants are a favored target for slavers.
- The Summer Islands lie south-east of Westeros. They are a large cluster of islands ruled by princes and princesses.
Little is known of the "solar system" and astronomy of the world Westeros is set in, though in general, it appears to be roughly identical to real-life Earth. Astronomy is rarely mentioned and not very important to the narrative, but there has never been any indication that it is particularly different from real-life. The world in the fictional narrative has one sun. One moon orbits the world, going through lunar phases that make up a "month" (known as a "moon-turn"), equal to a real-world month. It is interesting to note that, given seasons existed because of Earth's revolution and Westeros's years long winter/summer , this world seemed to have much longer revolution period than real-life Earth.
The solar system that the world is set in is known to have seven other planets besides the world the story takes place on. The peoples of the world don't appear to realize that these are other worlds like their own, i.e. that people can stand on (it's not even clear if they understand that the Moon is another "world" people can stand on). Planets are termed "wanderers" as they move across the night sky (planets move relative to the stars, which are in a fixed position relative to each other). On real-life Earth, ancient cultures (such as Classical Greece) only knew of five planets in the night sky, not seven. However, this does not necessarily mean that their solar system is different from our own, just that their rate of discovery is different. Uranus was only discovered in the seventeenth century, and Neptune in the nineteenth, using astronomical telescopes: even Galileo in the sixteenth century, using his simple telescope, was able to detect Neptune, though he mistook it for a star and thus is not credited with its discovery. However, the people of the world that Westeros is set in actually do possess simple telescopes, which are frequently used to aid astronomical observations of the night skies. The best telescopes, which they call "far-eyes", come from the master-lenscrafters of the Free City of Myr, and are thus referred to as "Myrish-eyes". Therefore, it is entirely possible that they discovered their equivalent of Uranus and Neptune already, because they possess a few technologies such as basic telescopes which real-life medieval Europe did not yet possess.
While there is no apparent physical difference between the astronomical bodies of the fantasy world and real-life, certain culture-specific aspects are different, specifically that cultures in Westeros developed different constellations than those in real-life. There is no indication that the stars are outright arranged differently. Rather, because the Ancient Greeks did not exist in their world, logically, figures from Greek mythology such as "Orion" were not used as shapes for constellations: they played "connect-the-dots" differently with the stars in the sky, using figures from their own mythology. For example, one constellation is known as the "Crone's Lantern", referencing the Crone from the Faith of the Seven.
Their solar system also has minor astronomical bodies, such as comets. The Red Comet appeared in the sky near the beginning of the War of the Five Kings.
Setting and Conception
Author George R.R. Martin has stated that his fictional universe is meant to be a completely alternate and separate world not linked to our own in any way, specifically in contrast with J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium or Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. Tolkien stated that his fantasy stories were meant to have actually occurred in our world, during a lost historical era roughly six thousand years ago; Tolkien's authorial conceit was that he simply found and "translated" a copy of the saga, similar to how the Anglo-Saxon saga Beowulf was lost for centuries until it was rediscovered. Meanwhile, McCaffrey's Pern fantasy series is really set in the far future, with the twist being that its actually a colony planet that regressed to medieval technology levels (and in which dragons do exist, but created by the original colonists through genetic engineering). Similarly, Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara series or Pendelton Ward's Adventure Time are also set in what appear to be medieval fantasy settings, but actually take place in post-apocalyptic futures after technological human civilization has fallen, allowing magic to come back into the world. Martin, however, has adamantly denied that Westeros is set in either the past or future of real life Earth.
The unnamed world on which Westeros is located experiences erratic and extremely long seasons, which usually last at least several years and have been known to last a decade. It is vaguely implied that this was not always so, as characters still refer to a "year" as a twelve month period, etc. Martin has stated that the ultimate cause of these long seasons is magical, and not technological (unlike the Pern series, which ultimately revealed scientific or technological explanations to seemingly magical phenomena in the story).
Most of the storyline is centered in the continent of Westeros, thus the worldview given to the audience is only the narrow perspective of the medieval population living there. Their society has not explored and mapped out the entire world. Much of the eastern continent of Essos is known fairly well to them through trade contact, but even so, the edges of their maps are simply blank space waiting to be filled in. George R.R. Martin has stated that his medieval fantasy world is based on specifically medieval Europe, thus most of the continents and inhabitants are loosely analogous to Europe in the Middle Ages.
The basic conceit of the setting is, "what if the British Isles were the size of South America?" to the point of being a continent unto themselves. Martin has stated that the continent of Westeros is specifically based on an over-sized British Isles, and that it is roughly the size of South America. The "Seven Kingdoms" of Westeros are loosely analogous to the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which they established in the British Isles after their invasion. The North is intended to be loosely analogous to Scotland. Just as the Anglo-Saxons invaded the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, the Andals invaded the First Men who lived in Westeros. Centuries later, the Andals were themselves conquered by the Targaryens, in a loose equivalent of the Norman Conquest. Essos is loosely based on Eurasia: it was once dominated by Valyria, their equivalent of the Roman Republic, which fell several hundred years ago. Valyria's surviving colonies went on to become the Free Cities, which share several features with medieval Italy or other medieval urban areas in Western Europe. The Dothraki from the central-eastern plains of Essos are loosely based on the Mongols. Sothoryos is analogous to Africa, but just as Western Europe did not possess much knowledge of Africa or East Asia in the Middle Ages, neither do people in Westeros. The audience shares the perspective of the characters, because of Martin's narration (shifting third-person limited) style, and thus we only know what they know. Its a thematic point that the lands north of the Wall are unexplored and poorly mapped, just as they would be to a Roman soldier standing on Hadrian's Wall looking north to the edge of the known world. Martin has stated that he therefore will never reveal an omniscient map of the entire world his stories take place in:
- "I'm sorry, but if there's an Antarctica in [the same world as] Westeros, you're going to have to wait to find out about it, and/or Australia, and the Americas, and all of that. This is just sort of Europe: a super-Europe/super-Asia [Essos], and a giant British Isles [Westeros], and, you know, like they would have actually known in the Middle Ages."[3]
Also, Martin has stressed that it should not be assumed that his fantasy world even has an equivalent to the Americas or Australia, just waiting to be discovered. They might simply not exist, or have no direct analogues.[4]
Martin has also stated that the storyline in his books is partially (and loosely) inspired by the War of the Roses, the civil war that occurred in England in the late 1400s following its defeat in the Hundred Years' War. Just as the War of the Roses was fought between the Yorks and Lancasters, the conflict in Game of Thrones is between the Starks and Lannisters. The technology level in their society more or less matches Late Medieval Europe, i.e. right before the use of gunpowder and cannons revolutionized medieval warfare and brought it into the Early Modern era.
In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the world is presented much as in the series, although information about it was revealed much more slowly. No map of Essos existed at all until the publication of A Storm of Swords in 2000, which featured a map of Slaver's Bay. A Dance with Dragons added a map of the Free Cities in 2011. HBO then released a larger world map on their website in 2012 when Season 2 began airing, based on information from George R.R. Martin. However, Martin changed his conception of much of the eastern part of the world (roughly from east of the Dothraki Sea and Red Waste, including Qarth and all the Jade Sea) subsequent to HBO creating their own map. The new, canon-for-the-books world map appear in The Lands of Ice and Fire, published in late 2012. This book confirms the existence of a fourth, previously-unknown continent called Ulthos, located south of Asshai and east of Sothoryos.
Even the world map appearing in The Lands of Ice and Fire, however, only depicts a map of "the known world" as it would be known to educated men in Westeros, such as the Maesters of the Citadel. Thus it is reasonably accurate for regions of the eastern continents which are well-known to Westeros through trade contact (the Free Cities, Valyria, Slaver's Bay, etc.) but in the extreme far east near distant Asshai, myths and legends cloud the facts, resulting in descriptions of cannibals, "bloodless men", and "winged men" on the map which should not be accepted by the reader as objectively true. As George R.R. Martin himself explains:
- "I like my readers to see my world as my characters see it. And the truth is, medieval maps were not very good, by modern standards. A map drawn by an Englishman in 1300 might be fairly accurate for England and maybe France, but distortions and errors would start creeping in when you got to Italy and Germany, the Russias and the Holy Land would be more distorted still, Africa was largely unknown below the Sahara (even the coasts), and further east you started getting "the realm of Prester John" and "land of the two-headed men" and "here there be dragons."...You will find a map of the "known world" in The Lands of Ice and Fire...Even so, it's not a complete world map, no. The idea was to do something representing the lands and seas of which, say, a maester of the Citadel might be aware... and while the maesters know more about Asshai and the lands beyond than a medieval monk knew about Cathay [China], distance remains a factor, and past a certain point legends and myths will creep in. Here there be winged men, and such."[5]


text:
IFC Hits Record Investment, Advisory Volume to Promote Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
IFC committed a record $5.3 billion to new investments and carried out advisory services projects worth $65 million in Sub-Saharan Africa in its most recent fiscal year. IFC supported infrastructure, health, agribusiness and a range of activities in conflict affected states and helped Africa's entrepreneurs gain access to finance.
IFC invested $3.5 billion from its own account, and mobilized $1.8 billion from other investors. In FY 2013, IFC's supported projects that provided loans for 54,000 small and medium businesses, encouraged 13.7 million microfinance clients; and improved health and education for 360,000 people. IFC's investments in wind power and other renewable energy reduced 667,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Advisory Services
IFC Advisory Services spending reached $65 million during the most recent fiscal year. Projects were active in 42 countries, with 126 projects, valued at $217 million over the life of the projects. During fiscal year 2013, advisory services projects improved access to lighting and education services for 1.6 million people; generated 27,000 jobs; trained entrepreneurs and connected farmers to global markets. Three public-private partnership mandates were successfully closed, helping deliver health services to 360,000 people in Lesotho and Nigeria and power to 75,000 in Liberia.
IFC and the World Bank's Investment Climate Advisory Services worked with governments in Sub-Saharan Africa to implement over 50 reforms that benefited the private sector in 17 different countries. In Uganda, for example, licensing reforms led to private sector cost savings of $15.5 million. The 2013 Doing Business report found that of the 50 economies globally making the most improvement in business regulation for domestic firms since 2005, one-third were in Sub-Saharan Africa.
IFC's agribusiness investments in Sub-Saharan Africa reached $600 million in the 2013 fiscal year. By investing in companies such as the Kenya Tea Development Agency and the Export Trading Group, IFC created economic opportunity for 263,000 farmers in sub Saharan Africa.
IFC funding for infrastructure projects in Africa reached $1.5 billion. IFC's Infraventures division joined hands with private sector partners to develop wind power projects in Tanzania and Kenya. In West Africa, IFC invested aviation companies and mobilized funding for the Lomé port to expand the transportation network and improve trade infrastructure in the region.
|Fragile and Conflict Affected States
Assisting in fragile and conflict situations is a strategic priority for IFC in Africa, and during the most recent fiscal year, IFC provided support in nearly all African economies emerging from conflict. IFC's Conflict Affected States in Africa Program provided advisory support and funding to eight countries (Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan). IFC's programs in these countries helped strengthen the private sector foundation, and create opportunity and jobs. Last fiscal year, CASA received approval to expand to all 19 fragile and conflict affected states in Sub-Saharan Africa and will focus the first phase of the expansion on Mali, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.
Through innovative use of treasury operations, IFC expanded its capability to develop domestic capital markets and serve clients with local currency financing. In FY13, IFC provided more than $350 million in local currency loans to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFC pioneered a Nigerian naira bond, raising $75 million in local currency for private sector investments. IFC is working with authorities in a number of countries including Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia on programs that will enable IFC to regularly issue local currency bonds.
IFC's focus on encouraging investments between emerging markets was strengthened this year through new investments of nearly $400 million in so-called South-South investments. This included African cross-border investments, such Mali-based Azalai Hotels Group's new hotel project in Cote d'Ivoire. In Nigeria, IFC financing supported major investments by two Indonesian companies: Indorama's investment in Eleme Fertilizer and Wings Group's Nigerian operations.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Accepts gift cards
Accepts gift cards
{{item.start_date | date:'dd-MMM-yyyy'}} - {{item.end_date | date:'dd-MMM-yyyy'}}
Try a less specific search term, browse our website or call our centre on 0297845400 .
Browse all of our stores in alphabetical order or by category.
Roselands is open seven days a week with late night trading on Thursdays.
Roselands is situated 15kms South West from the Sydney CBD and just off King Georges Road, easily accessible by Canterbury Road and the M5 Motorway which are both only minutes away.
By clicking "Sign up" below, I acknowledge that I've read and agreed to the Privacy Policy.


text:
If youre looking for a place to belong, a place that will help you reach your goals, the National Capital Region YMCA-YWCA is the place for you. For years, weve assisted youth in our community to develop the skills they need to succeed.
Whether youre looking for leadership training, want to find a job, or would like to become a fitness leader or lifeguard, we have the programs you need. Hang out with your friends and get fit at your local Health, Fitness and Recreation Centre. Or get the shelter or support you need to get back on track.
No matter what your goals are, the Y is here to help you reach your fullest potential!
|Quick Links
|Program Guide
|Second Stage Housing Program


text:
Chassis transitions are paneling for the wheel house. Normally, the wheel house is destined to be the catch all for dirt. Your wheel house has great potential, why not use it as a canvas for lettering, paint jobs or decals. Creative customizing is in, so let's get to it! BCD likes smooth surfaces.
Absolute trendy, so customize it!


text:
Currency Displayed in
Mother Butter's Popcorn and Confectionary is proud to announce that it now …
It's a great time of year, a part of the year that's made for sharing and …
Copyright 2020 Mother Butter's Popcorn & Confectionary. All Rights Reserved. Sitemap |
Bigcommerce Premium Themes by PSDCenter
All prices are in USD.
Compare Now


text:
Michael J. Fox, who had his breakout television role in the 1980s NBC sitcom Family Ties, is among those mourning the loss of the show's creator, Gary David Goldberg, who died Sunday.
"With a full heart I say goodbye to my mentor, benefactor, partner, second father and beloved friend, Gary David Goldberg," Fox said in a statement. "He touched so many with his enormous talent and generous spirit. He changed my life profoundly. Love to [Goldberg's wife] Diana and all of Gary's family."
See other celebrities we've lost this year
After Family Ties went off the air in 1989, Fox went on to star in another of Goldberg's sitcoms, Spin City.
Goldberg died Sunday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 68 and is survived by his wife and their two grown daughters.


text:
VICTORIA, BC – On a sunny evening at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23 (3W-2L-0D) battled to a 5-3 win against Victoria Highlanders FC (3W-1L-1D) in their fifth United Soccer Leagues (USL) Premier Development League (PDL) match of the season.
With Victoria able to capture the Juan de Fuca Plate with a win tonight, the 'Caps showed they wanted their own chance to capture the hardware awarded to the top PDL team in British Columbia, which is decided based on the results between Whitecaps FC and Victoria Highlanders FC.
It took just a few minutes for Victoria to score, when on nine minutes striker Jordie Hughes fired a shot past Sean Melvin to give the Highlanders the early lead.
On 15 minutes, the home side increased their lead as Brett Levis deked the 'Caps defender and slid the ball into the net to give the Highlanders a 2-0 lead.
Ten minutes later, in the 25th minute, the Blue and White fought back and earned a tally as Derrick Bassi's shot found the back of the net to reduce the Highlander's lead to one.
The 'Caps had a wonderful chance to equalize when Harry Lakhan was awarded a penalty kick, but his attempt was stopped by Highlanders' goalkeeper Elliot Mitrou.
On 37 minutes, the 'Caps had another opportunity to level the match and this time, Niall Cousens came through for the away side to put the match at 2-2 to end the first half.
An exciting first half set the stage for an eventful second half, as the 'Caps managed to overtake the Highlanders in the opening minute of the second half with the goal coming from Aminu Abdallah.
Victoria managed to equalize with Hughes scoring his second goal of the match on 56 minutes. Just two minutes later, on 58 minutes, the 'Caps went back in front with a goal from Gagandeep Dosanjh.
In the 87th minute, Cousens had his second goal of the match and the 'Caps took a commanding 5-3 lead, which the away side held until the final whistle.
Whitecaps FC head of high performance Stuart Neely was pleased by the determination shown by his side.
"It was an important win, a must win," commented Neely. "We had a good outcome. Nobody likes to concede so many goals, but at the end of the day as long as you get one more goal than the opponent, that's what matters. I think tonight we showed tremendous passion and an tremendous amount of character."
Next up, the Blue and White travel to Washington State to battle Cascadia rivals Seattle Sounders FC U-23 on Sunday, June 2 at Sunset Stadium in Tacoma.
Scoring Summary:
9' – VIC – Jordie Hughes (Brett Levis)
15' – VIC – Brett Levis
25' – VAN – Harry Lakhan (Gagandeep Dosanjh)
37' – VAN – Niall Cousens (Harry Lakhan)
46' – VAN – Aminu Abdallah (Harry Lakhan)
56' – VIC – Jordie Hughes
58' – VAN – Gagandeep Dosanjh (Niall Cousens)
87' – VAN – Niall Cousens (Marco Visintin)
Match Stats:
Shots: Victoria 10 – Vancouver 16
Saves: Victoria 5 - Vancouver 4
Fouls: Victoria 6 – Vancouver 7
Offsides: Victoria 3 – Vancouver 0
Corners: Victoria 2 – Vancouver 2
Disciplinary Summary:
73' – VAN – Ethen Sampson
82' – VAN – Michael Winter
Whitecaps FC U-23:
13.Sean Melvin, 16.Michael Winter, 6.Adam Clement, 5.Derrick Bassi, 2.Colton O'Neill (4.James Farenhorst 76'); 20.Aminu Abdallah, 7.Harry Lakhan (21.Marco Visintin), 3.Ethen Sampson; 23.Cam Hundal, 17.Niall Cousens, 9.Gagandeep Dosanjh (10.Bobby Jhutty 62')
Subs not used:
22.Marco Carducci, 12.Sasa Plavsic, 24.Peter Bow
Victoria Highlanders FC:
29.Elliot Mitrou; 23.Adam Ravenhill, 13.Tyler Hughes, 5.Ryan Ashlee, 2.Kalem Scott (20.Thomas Mallette 79'); 10.Riley O'Neill, 14.Matt Polster, 22.Tarnvir Bhandal (12.Blair Sturrock 46'), 11.Craig Gorman (14.Sahil Sandhu 67'); 16.Brett Levis 17.Jordie Hughes
Subs not used:
1.Joel Wilson, 19.Jermele Campbell, 24.Gareth Langdon, 6.Andy Phillips


text:
In this new post to his blog Hartmut Holzgraefe looks at a new effort that wants to be "the next PHP" while still being PHP. Confused? Take a look at PHPReboot.
PHP.reboot is a reboot of PHP, each Hollywood movie has its own reboot, why not doing the same for one of the most popular programming language. The aim is to keep the philosophy of PHP but adapt it to be more in sync with the Web of 2010.
Hartmut's post is a "braindump" of some of his thoughts about the project including responses to some of its main claims:
- less $, less ';' like in javascript
- secure by default: no eval, no magic quotes/string interpolation
- full unicode support
- a SQL compatible syntax
- URI/file literal
In his opinion, the language doesn't look much like PHP anymore and would not only be incompatible with current PHP but also wouldn't benefit from the C libraries PHP has access to.
...so why should it have the letters PHP in its name at all?


text:
Posted 10 years ago
(31 items)
Here we have a WWII Hitler Youth knife thats been in my family for 60+ years. My grandfather said it was given to him by my great uncle Ted. He was a tank Receiver in Europe.
So when a Sherman would get knocked out, by the big bad Panzers he would be the guy to go get it, and pull it back. My grandfather claims my uncle brought this home and gave it to him.
My great uncle is still alive, but doesnt recall bringing this back, but then again he is 88 or 89 years old and lives out in Oregon My grandfather is 82 and has a much sharper mind.
My uncle ted has some things left from the war, a German Luger with 2 clips, he used to have a engine off a German reconnaissance motorcycle, unfortunately that is long gone. I should give him a call sometime and ask him what he has left.
This knife just has the RZM number and thats it. The handle has been replaced with some Air Craft plexy glass other then that its 100% original.


text:
Gazette Staff:
Jasper County- The Lowell District of the Indiana State Police will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint during the evening hours in Jasper County on Friday November 22, 2013. Drivers that encounter a check point will be required to produce a valid license and registration. Motorists that are not impaired can expect only short delays of 2-3 minutes while passing through the checkpoint. If all information is correct and there is no other reason to be detained, they will be released. After the check point, troopers will conduct roving saturation patrols, aggressively seeking impaired drivers throughout the district.
Troopers encourage all motorists to call 911 or the closest Indiana State Police Post when they observe another motorist that may be impaired. Be prepared to give a description of the vehicle, location and direction of travel.
The Indiana State Police are committed to traffic safety and will continue to conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints to apprehend impaired drivers and to deter others from dinking and driving.


text:
Kasich touts school funding plan to local officials
Governor says politics led to problems with previous models
Gov. John Kasich stressed to local educational leaders a day after releasing his new school-funding plan that it's not about politics.
Kasich told school superintendents and other education and business representatives Friday at Taft Information Technology High School that past political decisions have resulted in disparities in school funding.
The governor says his plan will distribute resources so all students will receive what they need to compete and succeed.
The overall reaction at Friday's event seemed positive, while most also say they are awaiting the specifics for individual districts to be released next week.
"We have the demographics of Cleveland, but because we have property wealth, they fund us like Worthington, a rich suburb of Columbus," said Mary Ronan, superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools.
The $15.1 billion, two-year plan boosts K-12 spending by $1.2 billion over the current budget cycle.
The plan would fund all-day kindergarten, which costs CPS about $5 million per year, and charter schools would receive more money from the state.
The plan would also endow one-time grants from a $300 million innovation fund.
"I think there are good ideas, but they don't have the fundamental thing you want to do in school funding, and that is to ensure there are enough resources, so if I had to give it a grade, I'd say incomplete," said Andrew Benson, of KnowledgeWorks.
The specific dollar amount that CPS would get remains unknown, so officials there don't know whether the district will actually receive more money.
"I can't answer that question, but you'll have an answer next week," Kasich said.


text:
Search Results
Journal of Applied Econometrics journal
- Editor-in-Chief: Barbara Rossi
- Published Date: Nov 06, 2017
The Journal of Applied Econometrics is an international journal published bi-monthly, plus 1 additional issue (total 7 issues). It aims to publish articles of high quality dealing with the application of existing as well as new econometric techniques to a wide variety of problems in economics and related subjects, covering topics in measurement, estimation, testing, forecasting, and policy analysis. The emphasis is on the careful and rigorous application of econometric techniques and the appropriate...
Econometrica journal
- Editor-in-Chief: Joel Sobel
- Published Date: Nov 06, 2017
Econometrica publishes original articles in all branches of economics - theoretical and empirical, abstract and applied, providing wide-ranging coverage across the subject area. It promotes studies that aim at the unification of the theoretical-quantitative and the empirical-quantitative approach to economic problems and that are penetrated by constructive and rigorous thinking. It explores a unique range of topics each year - from the frontier of theoretical developments in many new and important areas,...
Theoretical Economics journal
- Editor-in-Chief: Ran Spiegler
- Published Date: Nov 06, 2017
Theoretical Economics, an Econometric Society journal, is an open access journal, freely available online.
Quantitative Economics journal
- Editor-in-Chief: Christopher Taber
- Published Date: Nov 06, 2017
Quantitative Economics, an Econometric Society journal, is an open access journal, freely available online. To learn more about the journal please visit http://www.qeconomics.org.
Networks journal
- Published Date: Oct 04, 2013
International Transactions in Operational Research journal
- Published Date: Oct 04, 2013
International Journal of Economic Theory journal
- Published Date: May 01, 2013
Scandinavian Journal of Statistics journal
- Editor-in-Chief: Håkon K. Gjessing and Hans J. Skaug
- Published Date: Jul 19, 2012
Recognised as a leading journal in its field, the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics is an international publication devoted to reporting significant and innovative original contributions to statistical methodology, both theory and applications. The journal specialises in statistical modelling showing particular appreciation of the underlying substantive research problems.


text:
The radiator exponent n indicates the change in heat output of a radiator when the actual conditions, in terms of water temperature and room temperature, differ from standard conditions, i.e., the values that were used to define a radiator's nominal heating capacity.
This exponent is used to calculate the actual heat output for given conditions. The value of the exponent depends on the geometry of the radiator, but in typically general within the range of 1.3 +/- 0.1. The radiator manufacturer supplies the radiator's exponent n.
The formula to the right can be used with the exponent n to calculate the actual heat output of a radiator for given supply and return temperatures of the water and room temperature.


text:
High Seas
Design by sebastian
Crew Sweatshirt
A super soft, relaxed fit pullover that will keep you warm while looking oh-so cool. Featuring comfy sponge fleece, this raglan sweatshirt is as durable as it is comfortable. Unisex sizing to fit both men and women. Solid and heather colors are 52% airlume combed & ring-spun cotton/48% polyester fleece combo. Heather Grey is 90% Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton, 10% polyester fleece. Tri-blend colors are 50% poly, 37.5% airlume combed & ring-spun cotton, and 12.5% rayon blend.
Oxford Regular Fit size info
This item comes with the Threadless Happiness Guarantee


text:
I don't like the Decemberists. I'm geeky. I love books. Yes, I understand their varied allusions to obscure literary figures. And yet, I can't stand their music. Instead of allowing knowledge to be a gateway to understanding, they use it to form a gated community, with a big invisible sign reading, "If you're enough of a geeky trendy hipster, you get to enjoy our tunes."
I like indie bands that remain indie, not because they are so elusive, but because they refuse to conform. I love storytellers that recognize the democracy of humanity; who manage to avoid talking down to their listeners while avoiding pretentious jargon. I don't pretend it's easy, but when it happens, it's beautiful.
So, I'm at a professional development session. The speaker launches into a long PowerPoint explaining why he's the most qualified, credentialed badass to show me how to differentiate my instruction. He offers his allusions to Marzano and Freire and even manages a decent out-of-context quote from Dewey.
He's a Decemberist.
I don't mind theory. I don't mind scholarly journals. I'm geeky. I enjoy academic endeavors. However, if you want to reach me, don't use your knowledge as a pretentious gated community that I can't join. If you want me to grow as a teacher, you need to use your wisdom as a gateway. If you want me to listen to your story, tell it honestly, humbly and humanely.
Don't talk down to me. Instead, reach out to me.
Don't explain why you know everything. Instead, admit what you don't know.
Don't use advanced language to describe simple concepts. Instead, use common language to explain complex concepts.
Ditch the Decemberist approach and take a cue from Sufjan Stevens. Tell a story with grace and simplicity. Let your voice guide people humbly and teachers will be open to sustainable change.


text:
RYA VHF SRC (Short Range Certificate) - VHF/DSC Operators Course including GMDSS Training
3 hours pre-reading + 1 day (upgrade course available if converting from 'old' VHF Restricted Certificate of Competence VHF Licence)
The VHF course is essential for everyone aged 16 or older who wishes to control the operation of a VHF Radio on any British vessel voluntarily fitted with a VHF Radio or VHF DSC Radio! A VHF is an essential item of safety kit and thus taking a VHF radio course to ensure that you know how to use it is key.
It is somewhat ironic that to helm a high powered powerboat or yacht in the UK you don't need any form of licence or qualification, yet to use its VHF radio you need a licence for the set and to sit an exam to gain your Radio Operators Certificate/Licence.
This is a one day vhf course and simply tends to be known as the VHF Course. The course/exam leads to the new Short Range Certificate (SRC) and covers the new Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS course ). This subject is too large to go into the level of detail we would like to on this site so please contact us for further information.
Unlike most other RYA sea schools we do not use unrealistic computer simulators, but have invested in a full set of DSC radios (with the transmitters removed). This means you are learning on real and state of the art equipment. Our classroom is fitted with ICOM DSC simulator sets.
Sale - Book by 28/09/2020 - Some VHF/SRC Courses reduced from £120 to £99 per person or book 3 or more places on the same course (any published date) only £89.00 per person. To book 3 or more course places please phone us on 02380 339996 or use our web chat form below.
Please check for Late Availability and Special Offer dates available from £99 per person (Special prices and special offers apply to new bookings only)
An additional payment of £60 for exam and the issue of your VHF/SRC Operators Licence (mandatory payment online via the RYA in advance of your course via the RYA website www.rya.org.uk/exam-payments
You will also need to bring a colour passport size photo on the day of your course to send off with your VHF Licence Application. Please allow 21 days for your licence to be issued by the RYA. For a small additional charge the RYA will process your application within 2 days of receipt. Please phone the RYA in advance of your course to arrange and pay for the FastTrack service as it cannot be added once your application has been submitted.
We accept UK debit cards and VISA/Mastercard credit cards.
( NO Charge for paying on debit or credit cards )
Click here to view VHF Course Prices and our other scheduled RYA VHF SRC Radio Course
An additional VHF radio courses can be scheduled for groups of 3 or more.
Scheduled VHF courses are held at Ocean Quay Marina (nr Ocean Village Marina & Shamrock Quay Marina) Southampton, Hampshire UK and in the Solent area. The VHF Radio Course venue is approximately one hours drive from London and our VHF Radio course prices starting from £69 are more cost effective than attending your VHF Radio Course in London.
If you have a group (Minimum of 4 people) from your boat club, marina, boat crew or just friends then we can travel to your area and provide a VHF SRC course to suit your schedule. Please contact us for further information.
VHF Radio Courses | VHF Licence | Southampton Hampshire Solent UK | RYA VHF Course| RYA SRC Course | VHF Training | VHF Course


text:
Solipsist Full Length Film
Andrew Huang's full length version of Solipsist is now available to watch above. I posted a few weeks ago on the trailer, which I was astonished by alone, but now the full version is up. This piece is nothing short of astonishing from photography and post to sound design. I won't say too much more, but I will say that you might want to close out of Photoshop for about 10 minutes and fullscreen this.
Also, for those that are interested, here's the making of that's equally as interesting.


text:
- Font:
- +
- -
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's defense minister raised the possibility of redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in the country Monday, after North Korea showed off its latest advances in uranium enrichment.
Kim Tae-young told lawmakers that such an option could be discussed next month at a newly created joint military committee to enhance deterrence against the North's nuclear programs.Video: U.S. eyes motives for N. Korea's plant disclosure (on this page)
"We will review (the redeployment) when (Korea and the U.S.) meet to consult on the matter at a committee for nuclear deterrence," Kim told a parliamentary committee hearing, according to a report in the Korea Herald.
"The Seoul government is closely cooperating with the U.S. in terms of intelligence sharing. So, (the revelation of the new uranium enrichment facility) did not come as a sudden surprise to us," he added.
It was announced in 1991 that U.S. tactical nuclear weapons would be removed from the country, the Korea Herald said.
Related content
The U.K.-based Financial Times reported that Kim was a "well-known hawk," saying he had been criticized by the South's president for his "previous tough talk."
'Effective tool'
However Cheon Seong-whun, of Korea Institute of National Unification, told the Financial Times that Kim's stance could help influence the North.
"Even though relocating nuclear weapons to South Korea could provoke China or Russia, it could be an effective tool to press the North," he said, according to the newspaper.
Castaway's parents thought they would never see him again
The father of Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga said he was told his long-lost son vanished on a fishing trip but he didn't have the heart to break the news to his ailing wife.
- Scotland legalizes same-sex marriage
- Weapons deal strengthened Assad: US intel chief
- Outcry over the fate of Sochi's stray dogs
- Olympic construction leaves Sochi residents in the cold
- Castaway's parents thought they would never see him again
The United States and the North's neighbors have been scrambling to deal with Pyongyang's revelation to a visiting American nuclear scientist of a highly sophisticated, modern enrichment operation that had what the North says are 2,000 recently completed centrifuges.
The scientist, Siegfried Hecker, posted a report over the weekend that he said he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small, industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility.
The facility appeared to be primarily for civilian nuclear power, not for North Korea's atomic arsenal, Hecker said.
But, he said, it "could be readily converted to produce highly enriched uranium bomb fuel."
The death of Kim Jong Il
- Report: Red skies, stormy seas marked Kim's death
- Circumstances of Kim Jong Il's death fabricated?
- Politics trump hunger in N.Korea
- Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll
- Source: Military coup in N. Korea 'unlikely'
- NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
- Cartoons: The life and death of Kim Jong Il
- Analysis: Opportunities, dangers loom over N. Korea
- Even in death, details of Kim Jong Il's life elusive
- Kim Jong Il remembered as 'Team America' star
Uranium enrichment would give the North a second way to make nuclear bombs, in addition to its known plutonium-based program. North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests to date and is believed to have enough fissile material to make several nuclear warheads.Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll (on this page)
However, Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, said Monday the revelation of North Korea's nuclear advance not a surprise.
"This is obviously a disappointing announcement. It is the latest in a series of provocative moves ... it is a very difficult problem we have been struggling to deal with for 20 years," Bosworth told reporters in Seoul.
But he added this was "not a crisis, we are not surprised."
"We have been watching and analyzing the (North's) aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time," he added.
"My crystal ball is foggy but I would never declare any process dead," Bosworth said when asked about the fate of regional six-party talks. "We have hope that we will be able to resuscitate (them)."
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.


text:
Enhance mainframe applications quickly to help drive revenue. According to Forrester Research and IBM, one organization improved mainframe application profitability by 20%.
Gain back your investment and start reaping returns. IBM and Forrester report that one organization achieved payback in less than 7 months and realized ROI of 145%.
Understand application complexity and quality across platforms, environments and languages to anticipate issues and cut application and development costs—in one case by 25%.


text:
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Together with a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Volume 3
G. Allen & Unwin, 1924
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Law On Schoolmasters and their Duty i 432 434
Hamiltons poemns ii 204
Humphry Ozias Esq antiquity of his family and letters of Johnson to iii 62 3
128 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acknowl affection allow altered answered appeared asked attention believe Boswell called character consider conversation deal dear death desire dinner doubt Edition England English evid expressed father gave give given hand hear heard Highland History honour hope instance island Italy John Johnson kind knew known lady land late learning less letter lived London looked Lord manner means mentioned mind morning nature never night object obliged observed occasion once opinion particular passed perhaps person pleased prayer present published Rasay reason received remarkable respect Scotland Second seemed seen sent servant shewed short soon spirit strange suppose sure talked tell thing thought told took walked wish write written wrote young


text:
Continental Fusion Salsa Bowl 18cm
Product code: CC29CCFUS173
To add this product to your wishlist please login
Modern Minimalism. Clean flowing lines present the Fusion range as one with a design difference. The Coupe shape offers the Chef a stylish palette to display creativity.
Additional Information
- Brand: Continental China
- Sub-Brand: Fusion
- Size: 18cm


text:
Been there done that
Here a quicklook at few options available in draft
Large assembly – draft
Been there done that
PathFinder options
Options in the Pathfinder help teamwork being organize.
Pathfinder options
Been there done that
Select Tools and queries
Two new parts, regarding large assembly management, but those one could be use in a day to day work.
Select Tools
Been there done that
Opening large assembly
Two new parts, regarding large assembly management.
Opening large assembly – Part 1
Opening large assembly – Part 2
Been there done that
Large assembly
Solidworks 2009 rollout go on, new features continue to flow. With new BOM functionnality in assembly I focus my last article on tools and functions we had to manage properties inside Solid Edge.
My attention this week was the speed pack. With titles like «Decimate de weak» in preparation to the new version and «SolidWorks 2009 Unleashed. New Features, Killer Performance.».
Face with Roman Empire my blog that look like small Gaulish village may face extinction…..
Ho!! wait is that magic potion.. don't think so just pure solid DNA :):):)
Working on large assembly is a state of mind. Before anything, you need to commit to your assembly. If you are not willing to commit yourself no matter what, functions, tools or options; you will hit the wall and try to find workaround. Discipline and management are two important ingredients.
For those who are ready to play in the big league Solid Edge is ready….
"Process before technique, manage before action" will take all its meaning when dealing with large dataset.
So what Solid Edge has to offer in this field?
Last article was little bit long….so for this one I have split in smaller one (around eight that i will post this week)
Leave comment if you prefer long or short article.
Express yourself in detail with the yahoo group…..
So let's start…..


text:
Sunday, December 30, 2012
8 comments:
- MeMe said...
I see Bob and Lulu waiting to be picked up by Santa. I think they got pretty tired watching you guys.
- December 30, 2012 at 10:08 PM
- Anonymous said...
Hi, I check your blog on a regular basis.
Your story-telling style is witty, keep doing
what you're doing!
Feel free to visit my webpage ... Abercrombie and Fitch
- April 23, 2013 at 7:29 AM
- Anonymous said...
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished
to say that I've really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing for your feed and I hope you write once more soon!
my blog; acoustic guitar chord
- May 11, 2013 at 4:30 AM
- Anonymous said...
Hi my loved one! I want to say that this article
is awesome, great written and come with almost all important infos.
I would like to see more posts like this .
Visit my web-site :: Louis Vuitton Bags
- May 15, 2013 at 3:33 AM
- Anonymous said...
Hello my family member! I want to say that this post is awesome,
nice written and include approximately all important infos.
I would like to look more posts like this .
My web page :: handjob-teens.com
- June 4, 2013 at 3:33 AM
- Anonymous said...
Howdy are using Wordpress for your blog platform?
I'm new to the blog world but I'm trying to get started and create my
own. Do you require any coding expertise to make
your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
my web blog :: click for source
- June 15, 2013 at 7:50 AM
- mut said...
gebze house-to-house transport and storage gebze branch opened our best and get lucky
Gebze evden eve nakliyat
Gebze evden eve nakliye
Gebze nakliyat
İzmit evden eve
İzmit evden eve nakliyat
Gebze evden eve nakliyat
Çayirova evden eve nakliyat
Gebze nakliyat
Gebze taşıma
Gebze evden eve
thank you in advance
- March 17, 2014 at 3:35 AM
- sara said...
Jordan University
- November 1, 2016 at 6:44 AM


text:
Skyforce Defense Defuses Iowa Energy
Five of eight hard-fought games between the Sioux Falls Skyforce and Iowa Energy are in the books, all of them at the Sanford Pentagon. Three of the five went to the home team capped by a 97-84 Skyforce wire to wire triumph with 2,568 in attendance on Thursday night.
Sioux Falls (16-9) led by double digits for a majority of the game eventually building a 64-37 lead early in the third quarter. Iowa (16-10) found its bearings and was able to reel off a 22-2 run to cut the lead down to seven points. That eight minute good stretch for Iowa was the extent of what the Skyforce would allow. According to Skyforce forward Henry Walker the team hasn't been the case lately. "We all had to man up. There comes a time when you can't keep giving a hundred points up every game. It's a pride thing. Everybody just buckled down and really got glued into the defensive side of the game."
Iowa had their lowest point total of the season, committed 25 turnovers had 10 shots blocked and shot under 40 percent from the floor. DeAndre Liggins would be considered the main Skyforce defensive catalyst by picking up 7 steals which gives him 70 on the season which leads the NBA Development League. Liggins had the usual well rounded line of 18 points, with 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks cementing his status as a top prospect. Center Justin Hamilton connected for 26 points with 11 boards of his own with guard Tre Kelley adding 23 points notching his fifth straight 20-point game. The Energy got most of their output from Moses Ehambe who scored 17 points with 8 rebounds.
More tussles between these two teams all in Des Moines lie ahead as Saturday night is game six in the eight game season series. The following Thursday, February 6, will be game seven with a final contest on March 17.


text:
Super Lucky Teen Who Rang Up $54,000 Bar Bill Won't Have to Pay It
Not since Norm did his part to keep Cheers afloat has someone gotten away with racking up such a ludicrous bar tab.
Back in 2010, a 16-year-old boy in Kyoto, Japan, along with some friends, took his father's credit card and used it to buy $54,000 worth of alcohol at various hotspots in the course of one what-must-have-been crazy night. He slapped the American Express card down for such high-end fare as whiskey and wine that fetched as much as $3,700 per bottle.
What's even more amazing is that a court ruled neither the boy nor his father will have to pay the tab back. That faint sound you hear from halfway around the world is both father and son letting out a sigh of relief bigger than the bill itself.
A judge said the bars and American Express were the ones ultimately responsible for the incident and will have to eat the charges. The father will still have to pay about $800, which is such a victory they ought to treat themselves to a bottle of the finest champagne to celebrate.
You can bet the son can help arrange that.


text:
NEWS - Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Paid Karaoke Streaming coming to Xbox 360
Ooh, those microtransactions are tricky things. All too often, business models built around them feel nagging and unpleasant, restricting rather than offering opportunities. One use of them which does sound reasonable, though, is the Karaoke app for Xbox 360, coming later this year. It'll operate on the same model as actual karaoke booths, charging for the time spent singing rather than per song.
Run with online karaoke service The Karaoke Channel, the app named simply Karaoke will let you sing along to over streaming 8,000 songs while your avatar boogies along. You know, karaoke. You can sing anything in the library but must pay for your time. 2, 4, 6 and 24-hour time blocks will be sold for Microsoft Points, at prices yet unrevealed. If the rates are reasonable, it could work out better than permanently buying individual songs in the likes of SingStar.
The announcement explains that Karaoke will have game-y trappings like money, props, and other doodads. Because video games.
The Karaoke app should launch "in time for the holidays." If you're curious what exactly is in the music library, check it out with The Karaoke Channel's browser version.
Source: http://www.shacknews.com


text:
Observe, Mon Cher Ami...
This month Marcel introduces Gqcam, xawtv and MASH, some simple and fun tools to use with webcams.
by Marcel Gagné
Mon Dieu! This is terrible. Why did you not tell me, François? Surely it must have been obvious to you when I was putting the menu together. I must come up with something and quick, before our guests arrive. Too late, François. They are here.
Bonjour, mes amis. Welcome to Chez Marcel, home of fine Linux cooking. François, please, show our friends to their table. Forgive me if I seem a bit distressed, but I have been caught off guard today. You see, when François told me that the theme of the issue would be SOHO, I thought, mais, c'est fantastique! An issue featuring the wonders of our solar system. Imagine my surprise when I learned that SOHO, in this case, was Small Office/Home Office rather than Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Then, I started playing with the words, you see. Observatory made me think of the technology for observing the stars, like that wonderful telescope named after Monsieur Hubble. And then I thought, but the true stars are this restaurant's fine guests—you, mes amis.
This brings us to tonight's menu. But first, we must have du vin, non? François, please bring up the 1998 Picadilly Valley Chardonnay from the cellar for our guests.
In order to achieve the highest level of success with the following recipes, a recent kernel is recommended highly. This is particularly true because a number of inexpensive webcams that you will find at your local electronics warehouse are USB devices. The more recent the kernel, the more likely that device will be supported. While taste-testing these recipes, I used a 2.4.9 kernel and two different webcams, one based on the CPiA chipset, and the other using a ov511 module.
The prevalent use for the webcam is on a web site, providing glimpses into the life of the individual running the site. Some sites provide a camera to reassure us that they are indeed working. Others are there to let parents observe their children playing at day care. The software that captures these images is sometimes called a frame grabber.
Ah, François, you are back. Please pour for our guests. François? François, I am talking to you. What do you mean you did not hear me? Ah, I see. A beautiful and mysterious lady is sitting at table 22. Pour the wine and then you may introduce yourself. Vite!
Where was I? Mais oui, frame grabbers. Gqcam is just such a package. With it you can set up a camera, keep an eye on whatever needs watching and capture images at will. You even can set it up to grab an ongoing sequence of images automatically, at whatever interval you choose. To get started with Gqcam, visit Cory Lueninghoener's web site (cse.unl.edu/~cluening/gqcam) to pick up the latest source, then extract and build it:
tar -xzvf gqcam-0.9.tar.gz cd gqcam-0.9 make
You were waiting for something else, non? There is no make install for this one, mes amis. You can copy the final binary to /usr/local/bin manually, or wherever you want to save the executable. You also can execute the program directly from the build directory, if you wish, by typing ./gqcam &. You may find, as I did, that the program looks to /dev/video by default. With the USB device, my webcam was actually at /dev/video0 while /dev/video was a directory. To get around this, I used the -v flag:
gqcam -v /dev/video0What you choose to observe with Gqcam is entirely up to you, but as to what you can do with the program itself, allow me a few suggestions. If you look at Figure 1, you'll see a shot of Gqcam in action. While it is running, you can do some interesting things. For instance, you can, at any time, click on the Snap Picture button to capture a frame. You'll be given the option of saving it in either PNG, PPM or JPEG format. If you were to click a number of images quickly, you could assemble them into a movie of sorts.
Of course, it is tedious, is it not, to be snapping pictures of yourself continually. That's why Gqcam lets you set a timer. Click on Camera, then select Set timer. You can choose a directory where the image will be saved and an appropriate filename to save that image to, something like /somedir/mypic.jpg. Set the timer for one second and let it go. You'll end up with a number of images in /somedir that have the filename mypic followed by a period, a date and timestamp, and the .jpg extension. The fun part here is that you can run this little movie with a simple command that is part of the ImageMagick package (likely already installed on your machine):
animate mypic.*.jpg
Gqcam also can run directly from the command line, making it fairly simple to set up a cron job that will capture frames at some selected interval:
gqcam -v /dev/video0 -d /wwwdir/filename.pngThe -d option specifies a location to dump a captured image. The default format for the image is PNG, but you can also use the -t flag to specify JPEG as an override. Now, if I happen to be running a web server somewhere, I could, when the mood takes me, snap a current picture and, voilà, we are all stars of the Internet, non? All you need now is a simple web page to display the image, something like this:
  <title>Cam Chez Marcel</title>
Bienvenue! You are watching Cam Chez Marcel
    Another program that performs some of the same functions as Gqcam is Gerd Knorr's xawtv. As its name implies, this is meant to provide you with a means of viewing television programs (with the appropriate hardware), but it also handles input from webcams. When you feel that you've done something that warrants observation on a regular basis (a video sales presentation, for instance), you may decide that providing a video clip adds a certain something extra. xawtv can give you that capability. Start by visiting the web site at bytesex.org/xawtv and picking up the latest copy. From a work directory, extract the source and build it:
tar -xzvf xawtv_3.64.tar.gz cd xawtv-3.64 ./configure make make installYou run the program by typing xawtv & at the command line. The program automatically sensed the location of my camera in this case, so no additional settings were necessary. When you right-click on the image, an options menu will appear that lets you change the video settings, such as brightness and color. Like Gqcam, you also can grab an image and save it in PPM or JPEG format. What's more interesting to this discussion is the next menu item.
If you press R, a recording window appears. The default is to save multiple images that you would then assemble using an external program. You can, however, click on movie driver and choose raw video data or an AVI format file. Choose AVI, select a filename to save it to, then click on the start recording tab. When you have the footage you want, click the tab again. (It actually says start/stop.) If you have the xanim package loaded, you may choose to play back what you recorded by clicking the tab immediately below. Have a look at Figure 2 for a sample of a recording session dialogue.
Come closer, mes amis. Notice how François looks a little uncomfortable. He is somewhat taken with la dame mystérieuse at table 22. The poor boy is too shy to go talk to her in person. It is for my faithful waiter and others like him that I present you with our final recipe of the day.
When you want to be face to face, but distance (or other circumstances) makes it difficult, then video conferencing is the answer. This is where MASH comes into play. MASH is actually a collection of tools produced by the Open MASH Consortium (created by Larry Rowe and Steve McCanne). Their purpose was to create a public domain toolkit for developing collaboration and streaming applications. MASH stands for multimedia architecture that scales across heterogenous environments. No, really. It is all true.
If you feel so inclined, you can download the source and build the package from scratch:
tar -xzvf mash-src-5.1.5.tar.gz cd mash-code ./build
The easiest method is to download the precompiled binary package from the Open MASH web site at www.openmash.org. Once that is done, you merely extract the package and run the installation script. Observe, mes amis:
tar -xzvf mash-bin-5.1.5-linux-gnu.tar.gz cd mash-5.1.5 ./setup.shSo simple, non? As I mentioned, this is a collection of tools rather than a single program. The most interesting one however, particularly for François, is vic, the video-conferencing tool that allows for multiple users to participate in video communication:
vic hostname/port_noFor instance, if I wanted to connect to a machine called speedy on my network on port 2002, I would issue the command like this:
vic speedy/2002You should see a small window pop up at this point with a simple message, "Waiting for video...", in the center of it. The video you are waiting for, of course, is the young lady at table 22. For the young ladies out there, it may well be François. Who knows? While we wait for the other side of the connection, click the Menu button. A control window will appear that gives you control over many aspects of the current session. Look at the top of that window and click on the Transmit button. Even without the other side of the connection, you will see a small image of yourself sitting behind your camera.
Now, click on the small image. A somewhat larger session image appears. When the person on the other end comes on-line, their image will appear, and you can follow the same procedure to detach a more appetizing view. Figure 3 shows François talking to the mysterious lady using vic. As you can see from the image, he even is afraid to let his own image be seen and has provided an avatar of sorts. Poor François.
Like the other applications we have seen today, vic's video control menu lets you modify a number of settings such as brightness, contrast and color. You even can change the size of the viewers by clicking on the Size button.
Once again, closing time approaches. Normally, I would ask my waiter to provide you with a final top-up, but I fear, mes amis, that it will be up to me to refill your glasses this evening. François seems somewhat preoccupied.
Ah, l'amour.


text:
Picture Perfect Invitations
They are "practically perfect in every way"! Tis true, this Macon, Georgia-based invitation company, Picture Perfect, is undeniably known for its bright, whimsical trademark look. They offer a large imprintable line which includes invitations, birth announcements, note cards, photo cards, calling cards and even scrapbooking items. Picture Perfect has been an invitation industry leader for years with wildly creative patterns in bright, happy colors commanding the admiration of all. Picture Perfect specializes in creative kids birthday invitations, sweet and simply adorable baby shower invitations, spectacularly lovely bridal shower invitations, and modern party invites.
We have watched this brand grow in popularity over the years, with thousands of brides and moms to be celebrating their biggest events with the Picture Perfect invitation line.
From chalkboard designs featuring whimsical, hand drawn artwork to vintage wedding dresses presented in watercolor style painting, you simply must have a peek at Picture Perfect invitations and announcements. Invite your guests to a honey-do shower for the hubby-to-be, couples can join in the fun with a couples shower, you can use the invitation featuring the groom surrounded by tools and yard care devices while she is wrapped in gifts and kitchen devices.
Welcome supporters of the sweet couple to honor the engagement, or persuade the bridal party to the rehearsal dinner with a patio party invitation complete with lanterns and patterned tablecloths. Choose from sweet invitations boasting a bride and groom floating down the aisle in romantic bliss or a clever pair of champagne glasses clinking in celebration of the upcoming nuptials. Have a blast exploring our site for just the right invitation or engagement announcement for the special couple.
If you are hosting a kids party check out the adorable invite with stacks of yummy cupcakes, or the care featuring little ones traveling down the waterslide into the pool with a splash, or one of our favorites, the gymnasts and high-kicking karate masters to entice all of your guests to join you for your child's birthday bash.
With a wealth of other holiday invitations, housewarming invitations and baby shower ideas curated into this complete invitation collection, there is no excuse not to throw a party, and the Picture Perfect invitation assortment will give you endless ideas to get your party started.


text:
Joan Jett has not lived an ordinary life. From the time she was 15, she was in a band, starting with The Runaways, an all-girl rock 'n' roll group which also featured Lita Ford and Cherie Currie. When The Runaways broke up in 1979, Jett went straight to The Blackhearts, which has been together ever since. Her voice is the essence of rock 'n' roll: It can be tough, sultry, mean, and sensual all at the same time. When she sang "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" in 1981, that wasn't just a novelty or a tip of the hat to a musical genre; it was a heartfelt declaration that was as sincere as any love song. Jett is a touring workhorse, punk-rocker, godmother to all "riot grrls," glam queen, and good musician. She recently took a break from working on a new album to talk to The Onion about her recent recordings, her critics, her work with The Germs and The Gits, and more.
The Onion: How's work on the new album progressing?
Joan Jett: Well, it's slow. I guess that's the way it goes. It's progressing. It sounds great, what we've gotten done, and we're trying to stay busy. I'm still writing songs. I'm not done until it comes out. I guess that's good, the creative process.
O: Are you producing it yourself?
JJ: No. I'm definitely involved, for sure. I've always got something to say. I don't feel the need to have a credit for that. I've got enough credit on my own records. Kenny Laguna will be producing, and Ted Templeton's been doing a lot of stuff. The stuff sounds really good. It'll be out as soon as we can get it out—within the next couple of months, for sure.
O: You've done some other production stuff yourself, specifically the Circus Lupus seven-inch.
JJ: Oh, wow! I haven't really heard anyone bring that one up!
O: How do you get involved with that? Do people approach you often?
JJ: Not often, but that's the way it's happened every time I've done something. The first thing I did was The Germs in 1979, right after The Runaways broke up. I had known Darby Crash and Pat Smear for a couple years; they were big Runaways fans. I remember them telling me, "We formed a band," and I remember seeing them play all over L.A. I guess they figured I knew what I was doing, 'cause The Runaways made a few albums and I'd been in the studio. They asked me to produce it, and I had a great time. I think I did a good job. I just tried to make them sound like they did live, which is really what I try to do with anybody I produce. The next thing I did, I believe, was Circus Lupus, which was over 10 years later. That came about when I went to see them someplace in New York. They were on Dischord Records, which is Fugazi's label. [The members of Fugazi] are friends of mine, and they let me know that this great band was in town. We met and hung out, and got along really well. They were going into the studio to do a single, and they asked me if I would do it. And I said, "Yeah, I'd love to." So that's how that happened.
O: So people know you from all your incarnations and approach you for that?
JJ: Yeah, I suppose. And the Germs record was a big record for a while. I think most bands know of The Germs and know that record. If they know that, then they maybe know I produced it. Maybe that's where it came from.
O: How old were you when The Runaways broke up?
JJ: How old was I? God, I was 18.
O: How did that affect your outlook on life to have been brought up in rock 'n' roll?
JJ: It's not your average existence, for sure, being on the road since you're 15 and being verbally abused because you were being true to what you did. For playing rock 'n' roll, for chrissakes? I mean, we didn't hurt anybody. We were having a good time. To this day, it blows my mind when I think about it, how weird people were. They couldn't handle teenage girls playing rock 'n' roll. They just couldn't handle it.
O: Did the abuse come from the audience or the promoters?
JJ: Mostly it was from the press. The music fans you could get to, because they were fans. Obviously, some people are thick, and they're not gonna see what they don't want to see. If they just want to see pussy on stage, that's what they're going to see. That's all they're going to see. If they are willing to be won over… And a lot of guys were; I've gotta give them credit. People did come to the shows and say, "You know, I came to see you just because you were girls, but you rock!" Those kind of things made it worth it, because you were really reaching the people. But the press had this view of who we were, and that was it.
O: Maybe it was threatening to them to have a bunch of teenage girls joining in the rock fracas.
JJ: Well, exactly. That was exactly why they didn't want to give us any kind of life, because we were threatening. We were threatening to the status quo, and they just didn't want to have room for girls playing rock 'n' roll. It bothered them. First, people just tried to get around it by saying, "Oh, wow, isn't that cute? Girls playing rock 'n' roll!," and when we said, "Yeah, right, this isn't a phase; it's what we want to do with our lives," it became, "Oh! You must be a bunch of sluts. You dykes, you whores." That's what it became. Then it became a name-calling contest. Once that happened, we got pissed. We'd all fight back, and we were 16. We would swear. So it became a shouting contest, and the headlines were, "Runaways Guttermouths." They completely got around talking about the music by making everything sensationalistic, talking about how much we smoked or how short our skirts were. You know? I mean, that's what the articles were about—not about the music, not about how we rocked. You know what I mean?
O: It must have been hard to wage a war against the press, because they're the ones who have the last word.
JJ: Exactly. So there was nothing we could do. There were occasionally writers who were on our side. One U.S. writer in particular, Chuck Young, always gave us a fair shot. He used to write with this magazine called Crawdaddy. Some of the people in England gave us a fair shot, for the most part. We got our asses kicked all the time. It was definitely tough. The record company didn't really care enough. They weren't excited. I never really understood why they signed us in the first place. They didn't do anything except put the records out. To me, you've gotta do a little bit more than that. If you're not going to do anything, at least help us help ourselves. Give us the money to do the right promotions. Whatever. Everything was a struggle.
O: Do you still get some of that reaction today?
JJ: Well, I think at this point, a lot of people have made their mind up about me one way or another. I'm sure there's a certain segment of writers who won't ever give me the time of day, hate me, don't get me, don't think I'm good, or whatever. I guess that's fine. It's only an opinion. There are other people who do get it, and can be objective. I could be wrong, but a lot of people, except for really young people, have made up their minds one way or the other.
O: Have young people been picking up on you, discovering you?
JJ: How young are we talking?
O: Say teenagers. By then, they've been listening to rock for a while and have heard a wider variety of it.
JJ: Well, I'll tell you, I don't know how aware teenagers are of me. I think it really depends on the teenager and how well-versed in music they are and what kind of music they like. Especially since I haven't had a lot of recent huge MTV hits or huge radio hits. I have had some radio success recently, but I don't know that it's necessarily things that teenagers would have heard. I don't know how much it filters down.
O: How do you decide which cover songs The Blackhearts wind up doing?
JJ: Oh, man, usually they're just songs that I'm a fan of. To some degree, the message has to be something I can live with, something I believe in. I try to be little bit obscure, and try not to pick songs that are really obvious. I think it's fun. People might bitch about cover songs, but, hey, I write songs, too. A lot of the songs I've recorded are songs I write. But why not? I've got no ego involved here. I don't have to prove myself as a writer to myself or anyone else. I've written hit songs, and I don't have to prove anything. I think it's fun as a music fan. Even though I'm in a band, I'm a fan, too, and it's fun to be able to play some of these songs just for the hell of it. If it's a message that you believe in and a riff that you like, why not?
O: Is it true that you recorded 48 different versions of Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner"?
JJ: Yeah.
O: Will there be a "Roadrunner" double-album?
JJ: No. They're all pretty much the same. We did this thing where I actually recorded only a certain section of the song, but it was different towns or different cities. I might have even broken it down, because there's this section in the song where it says, "I'm headin' east on St. Mark's Place over to Tompkins Square Park down by the power lines." Maybe in Chicago it was, I can't remember right now, but it was probably like, "I'm headin'… wherever, on some, like, famous road there. Over to da da da da da." I did that for a lot of major cities and a lot of smaller cities. It was sort of a way to really personalize it. It was easy enough to do. It was exciting, I thought. How many times do bands do that? Hopefully, people got a kick out of it in each town when they heard it broken down like that.
O: It must have been a pain in the ass to go over it 48 times.
JJ: It was kind of fun, because I only had to do each one once. I got on the phone with a radio person from each place, and we talked about the streets and the places. It wasn't boring or a pain in the ass. I pretty much wrote the stuff down and did it in one take. It was fun.
O: Do you think you'll ever perform with Evil Stig [the band consisting of The Gits and Jett minus Gits frontwoman Mia Zapata, who was murdered in Seattle in 1993] again?
JJ: Man. I don't know. It's so hard to say. First of all, it's not like it's just my thing where I make the decisions and say, "I wanna play, guys. Let's do it." This was something that came together out of a tragedy. I think that if there was a reason to, if we could make some money, if we could find Mia's killer… You know, there's a lot of ifs. I just don't know. I certainly wouldn't say, "No, it's not possible," but there's certainly nothing in the works. There hasn't been any discussion of it. I'm in touch with these guys. I speak to them from time to time, but we haven't spoken about doing any shows.
O: Has there been any progress in the Mia Zapata investigation?
JJ: Not that I know of. I think it's still at a dead end. I don't know that they still have a private investigator on it. I know that if something had happened, in any way, I would have heard about it.
O: Who do you like in rock 'n' roll right now?
JJ: I'm a big fan of Fugazi, and also a band on their label called Lungfish. It's very intense. Very rock 'n' roll. When I use "rock 'n' roll," I don't necessarily mean Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll. And I love Bikini Kill. God, I leave so many people out when I do this. I just got turned on to this all-girl band out of Palo Alto, California, called The Donnas.
O: Oh, yeah. They're probably about 18 or so…
JJ: Yeah, and I think they're great. All kinds of stuff.
O: "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" really catapulted you into the limelight. How did that change you and the band?
JJ: I don't know how it changed the band so much. It just changed the level at which we did things. Instead of traveling in a beat-up van, we were traveling in a tour bus or jets. It changed the level that we did everything at. It was definitely a mindfuck. I wouldn't change it for anything. The experience was incredible. A lot of it was really intense, and scary, and weird, and nasty, and people treat you funny. You become a product, which is very strange. I went from being so low in the gutters to being so up there, going to number one and being able to turn around and say, "Ha ha." I mean, I didn't want to do that too much, and I didn't. But I felt it. You don't want to laugh too much, because you know it could all be over in a second.
O: And you don't want that to come back and haunt you.
JJ: Yeah, right. You don't want to have bad karma. It's not that I want anyone else to suffer just because people were assholes to me, but I want people to recognize it. Also, you have to realize that shit is ultimately fleeting, and that people who don't have respect for you or don't like you aren't all of a sudden going to like you because you have a number-one record. It's not going to make any difference to them, and they might like you less. It really doesn't matter, and ultimately, you have to take it for what it's worth, which is that it was a really special record at a really special time. Not many people get to have a record that's number one for two months. That was great. I got to be on a lot of big tours, and I got to go around the world a few times. We were real busy, which I liked. I like to work hard, and I like to play live, so it's lucky that I like that stuff, because that's what we did. I think on another level, unless you're really cautious, it's easy to lose touch with everything because of the workload, because you're always on the move, because you're never home, because people blow smoke up your ass to your face and then turn around and say things behind your back. This is reality. It's what happens. When you're living that kind of life, you don't know how to live what would be more of a traditional sort of life, like cooking for yourself, or window-shopping. Those are the kind of things I've been learning how to do over the past several years. I never did that stuff. My life, since I was 15, has not been what most people's lives are. It's hard for other people to understand, because that's not their reality. To even talk to somebody about it, they can listen to you, but they may not be able to relate because they haven't lived it. How can they possibly understand?
O: You'll always have the people who say, "Yeah, it must be hard having a number-one hit and flying to shows."
JJ: Believe me, I had a blast. I'm not complaining at all. Not at all. For the most part, I had a blast. Like anything, it's not like it's all fun-and-games, and all easy, and all accolades. Nothing is like that. That is the bullshit we get sold when we're young: that you grow up and you find a mate and you're happy ever after and you get a job and you retire and life is good, and that's not really what happens at all. Life is painful and it's joyful. That's the part that we finally realize getting older. That's why people escape with drinking and drugs, because life is painful. Or they escape into sex, or they escape into all sorts of places.
O: Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you hadn't done rock 'n' roll?
JJ: Well, I don't really wonder. I just figure that if I didn't do this, I probably would have gone into sports.
O: What sport do you favor?
JJ: It's hard to say. I grew up playing baseball and things like that, but I don't see any professional women's baseball. It's exciting to see that they have women's basketball now; the women playing hockey in the Olympics and winning gold is really exciting. Little girls will realize that they can grow up and do that. I don't know what I would have done. It doesn't matter now. I probably would have wanted to do something like that.
O: Do you think you're ever going to act again?
JJ: Yeah, I'd love to. It's just a matter of getting offered the roles. I just did a film last year called Boogie Boy. It should be out some time soon. It was just at the film festivals. It will be out either late spring or early summer. I play a musician. It's a small part; I just have a few scenes. It was fun. I'd love to do more acting. We'll just wait and see what comes my way.
O: Do you ever talk to any of your former bandmates from The Runaways?
JJ: We've spoken a bit over the years, and I'm sure I'm going to be speaking to them a bit more. I want to get together and rehash some of that stuff, because we had a good time. In fact, I was gonna speak to Lita [Ford] today, but I haven't gotten a hold of her yet. It's nice that we still can talk.


text:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As a fifth-generation locksmith in this tough town, John Henssler figured he had heard it all.
Then a stranger walked into his family's century-old shop and offered to repaint its faded, two-story business sign — for free.
"I thought he was pulling my leg," Henssler said.
But Robert Blackson was serious. The Temple University arts administrator, who passed the sign daily on his way to work, had been captivated by the ethereal lettering on the exterior wall: "Est. 1898, H. Henssler, Expert Locksmith. Any Lock, Any Key."
Their conversation last summer led not only to a fresh coat of paint for the locksmith's sign — the first in decades — but also to a fledgling effort to revive other fading advertisements around Philadelphia.
Also called "ghost signs," these vanishing ads have become a subject of fascination in urban landscapes large and small, from New York City to York, Pa. Aficionados curate photo blogs, post pictures on Instagram and tag online maps with their locations, almost like a public scavenger hunt.
Ghost signs are generally defined as painted signage, at least 50 years old, on an outside wall that publicizes a defunct business or product, according to Lawrence O'Toole, author of "Fading Ads of Philadelphia." But some mark establishments that are still open.
Henssler's ad in north Philadelphia is the first ghost sign resurrected by a new partnership between Temple's Tyler School of Art and the city's Mural Arts Program. Blackson, who is leading the effort, sees the program as a way to renew small businesses and, possibly, entire neighborhoods.
"It could be a great way to boost civic pride," Blackson said. "I think there's loads of potential to make it a project that's not about just paint and brushes."
The intrigue of ghost signs is multifaceted, stemming from the intersection of art, history and commerce. Some fans are captivated by the fonts and graphics, representing the nearly lost tradition of sign painting; others appreciate the ads as history writ large, telling stories about how things used to be, the industries that once powered a neighborhood or the provenance of a building.
Philadelphia has no shortage of ghost signs, left over from its two centuries as an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse. Some have been reincarnated in surprising ways.
A brick row house in the heart of downtown has two ghost signs on its side wall: "T.J. Cobourn, Groce(r)," with the last letter missing, and another that says "Camac Food Market." Now, the building houses an Italian restaurant called Mercato — the Italian word for "market."
And the former Wilbur Chocolate Co. complex in the Old City neighborhood became The Chocolate Works apartment building. The faded word "Wilbur's" is still visible in white on the building's side, harkening back to a time when the area was known as Confectioners Row.
Frank Jump, who has chronicled New York's vanishing ads on a photo blog and in a book, prefers for the art to be left alone.
"Once you alter the sign by either trying to restore it or painting over it, you're obliterating the original work," Jump said.
But Blackson noted that in Henssler's case, the sign isn't just about the art — it's about making a living. Henssler is struggling to carry on the family tradition alluded to on his business cards: "We changed your great-grandmothers' locks."
"I think if John was no longer in business, then maybe it should just go the way of the weather," Blackson said of the sign. "I want to make it clear he's still open for business."
Over the past few months, two Tyler students and Mural Arts staff artist Nathaniel Lee have worked from scaffolds erected outside the shop, located on the bottom floor of the row house in which Henssler's father was born.
As Lee recently put on some finishing touches, he said it had been rewarding and challenging to recapture the colors, images and intention of the original artist.
"Some of the areas (of the sign) were completely lost and we had to look for clues," he said, noting they got a little help from old photos.
Lee added that their work generated nearly all positive comments from passers-by, except for one man who said he preferred it the old way. Lee's response? Wait 10 or 15 years — it will start to look weathered.
The Mural Arts Program plans to fund the repainting of four to six more fading ads starting this summer, working with Blackson to identify small-business owners who'd like to spruce up their signage. The program's executive director, Jane Golden, called it a way of "honoring the past while thinking about the future."
Henssler had wanted to repaint his flaking wall ad for years, but said he didn't have the time or money.
"People don't think you're here when they see that," Henssler said of the ghost sign. "Now a lot more people come in."
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


text:
Previous Lecture
Complete and continue
Harmony Horsemanship™ 101: Understand Yourself, Your Horse, & the Language that Connects You
Harmony Training Continuum
Respect & Safety (76:20)
Classroom Review of the 6 Calm Connection Exercises
Calm Connection (38:14)
Creating a Yes Horse - Classroom session
Ask, Tell, but then Wait, Clarify, Motivate or Adjust - know the difference
Ground Exercises: The Harmony Training Continuum
Quick Overview of the Respect & Safety Ground Exercises (4:52)
Quick Overview of Calm Connection Exercises (3:57)
Harmony Training Continnuum in the Saddle 101
Refinement - the 3 S's
Harmony Horsemanship
Introduction (4:57)
About the Course, Getting Started, Safety & Support (7:54)
Understand Yourself
How your mind & energy influence your horse (29:57)
Human Actions & What they Mean for Your Horse (21:34)
Riding Position (24:34)
Understand Your Horse
Understanding Horses (14:40)
Horse Types & How to Work with Them (25:14)
Understand the Language that Connects You
Why is Ground Work Important? (7:58)
The A, B, C's & Tips to Mastering them (22:30)
A, B, C's with Touch (49:58)
A, B. C's with Rhythm (23:51)
A, B, C's while Riding (38:22)
Where do you go from here? Make Words, Have Conversations, & Solve Puzzles (25:25)
A Look at Horses that Have NEVER done their A, B, C's (35:20)
Bonus Content
Starting Sola (71:17)
Working with the Disconnected & Stressed Horse (20:22)
Bowdrie's First Session - his 1st day off the race track (22:10)
Demo at the RRP Thoroughbred Makeover 2016 Part 1 of 5 (10:00)
Demo at the RRP Thoroughbred Makeover 2016 Part 2 of 5 (10:00)
Demo at RRP Thoroughbred Makeover 2016 Part 3 of 5 (10:00)
Demo at RRP Thoroughbred Makeover Part 4 of 5 (10:00)
Demo at RRP Thoroughbred Makeover Part 5 of 5 (5:11)
About the Course, Getting Started, Safety & Support
Lecture content locked
If you're already enrolled,
you'll need to login
Enroll in Course to Unlock


text:
The Raiders worked out Rashad Jennings on Wednesday, the free agent running back said on his verified Twitter account and on Facebook.
The 28-year-old Jennings showed promise as Maurice Jones-Drew's backup early in his career, gaining better than five yards per carry in 2009 and 2010. However, Jennings missed 2011 with a knee injury, and he was held to just 283 yards on 101 carries in 2012. Moreover, he dealt with knee and shoulder ailments, and he missed time with a concussion.
The Raiders are relatively strong in the backfield, with Darren McFadden their top playmaker on offense and fullback Marcel Reece a capable rusher, too. That said, the Raiders could use a little more depth at tailback.
The vast majority of the Raiders' offseason additions have been on defense as general manager Reggie McKenzie reworks the roster.