text:
Railroad job Government requires all businesses that sell gift cards in Connecticut to honor them until the end of time. That statute went on the books while Richard Blumenthal was state attorney general. Now a U.S. senator, he wants to make that federal law to prevent businesses from setting "absolutely draconian deadlines" and unfairly confiscating consumers' money. Naturally, government holds itself to a much lower standard. Metro-North Railroad sells prepaid tickets, which function much like gift cards, with draconian deadlines, and the railroad is allows it to keep the cash from unused tickets even if they expired because the trains didn't run. This double standard is intolerable. Lawmakers should repeal the gift-card rule or pass the bill offered by Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-Wilton, to require Metro-North to issue credits to riders when service is suspended for upward of two days.
Read more of this story and more!
7-Day Subscribers have FREE access to everything on rep-am.com and our E-Edition.
CLICK HERE to register and activate your access,.
Not a subscriber?
You can purchase a single-day subscription for only $0.75 to read this and access all of our content and our E-Edition.
CLICK HERE purchase a single day subscription.
Become an electronic subscriber to the Republican-American for only $8 a month. CLICK HERE.
Follow Us
Post a reader commentWe encourage your feedback and dialog.
Please be civil and respectful.
If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican.
Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.
Log In
|Register / Forgotten Password?


text:
Hostess's Infinite Shelf Life
Nostalgia aside, this grown-up take on a snack-cake icon is a keeper
IT HAS BEEN INTERESTING to note how many recent commentaries on the demise of the Hostess snack cake contained the disclaimer, "Of course, I haven't eaten one in years." At the same time, there were reports of runs on Hostess bakery outlets from Waukegan, Ill., to Cheyenne, Wyo., as customers stockpiled the last of the Ho Ho's, Twinkies, Donettes and Ding Dongs. Clearly these cakes push some Proustian buttons.
So Tiffany MacIsaac discovered a couple of years ago, when she debuted her "Hostess CupCake" at the Washington, D.C., restaurant Birch & Barley. "People actually shrieked in recognition when they saw them," the pastry chef said, though the cupcakes—bittersweet chocolate-glazed, coffee-laced devil's food with a white chocolate mousse center—weren't Hostess products at all, but clever simulacra made with top-quality ingredients. "It was the worst best idea I ever had," Ms. MacIsaac said of the slyly grown-up treat, now an immovable fixture on her menu. She admits she is as much a slave to its charms as anyone. "As a chef, you eat like 500 small meals a day, one tasting spoon at a time. Normally, the last thing I want is dessert," said Ms. MacIsaac. "But I will totally eat that cupcake."
White Chocolate Mousse:
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
7 ounces white chocolate, melted
½ cup heavy cream
Devils Food Cake:
3 cups granulated sugar
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1½ cups cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1½ cups buttermilk
1½ cups strong brewed coffee, warm
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ tablespoons butter, melted
Chocolate Glaze:
½ cup heavy cream
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1½ teaspoons butter
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons white chocolate, melted
1. Make mousse: Place yolks, eggs and sugar in a bowl over a double boiler and whisk until warm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Remove from double boiler and whisk until thick, about 2 minutes. Drizzle melted chocolate into egg mixture, whisking vigorously until incorporated. In a separate bowl whisk cream to stiff peaks. Fold into egg-chocolate mixture and place in a piping bag fitted with a large tip. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa into a bowl. In another bowl whisk together eggs, yolks, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, whisking. Add butter and stir until just combined.
3. Spray a 12-cup nonstick cupcake pan with cooking spray. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Bake until cooked through, 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling and glazing.
4. Make glaze: In a small pot, bring cream to a simmer. Place bittersweet chocolate, butter and salt in a bowl. Pour simmering cream into the bowl and let sit 1 minute. Whisk until smooth.
5. Assemble cupcakes: Working with one at a time, remove cupcakes from pan. Insert the piping tip into the top center of each cupcake and pipe in white chocolate until full. Wipe any excess off top of cupcake.
6. Dip tops of cupcakes in glaze. Shake upside down to remove excess. Allow glaze to set 10 minutes. Place warm white chocolate in a piping bag with a narrow tip and pipe a line of loops across top of each cupcake.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Homes and property listings in Oshawa, Whitby, Clarington, Ajax, Pickering - Stephen Young and Julita Jaworski, sales representatives, REALTOR®, Keller Williams Energy, brokerage
Refine SearchProperty Search
128 results in for All Types
This is a list of your favorite properties. We will email you if a property is reduced or leaves the market.Click 'Save' to add a property to this list.
New & returning visitors please enter your information to login.
This message will go directly to the head of our team.


text:
Where can I find a theme kit to use for my websites, to skin them as html5 applications...
Sorry, I dunno how to explain myself.. I see this style in new web applications:
Search Google for things like:
Are you looking for styled GUI widgets? Try using the widgets in jQueryUI. You can use a theme from their Gallery, or create your own color scheme using their ThemeRoller. Either way, the library provides you with "modern" looking interface controls (tabs, sliders, date pickers, buttons, etc). There are also other widget frameworks out there, such as YUI from Yahoo.
Assuming that I am understanding the intent of your question, that's the best answer I can give other than hire a web designer. As Lese pointed out, this isn't really an HTML5 thing, and most sites are achieving it via hard working designers. These frameworks don't really provide templates that you can just apply to an existing page. They are somewhat skinnable building blocks that you can use as part of a larger site design.
It is the CSS that provides that skin for HTML, not HTML itself. HTML is about structure while CSS is about visual presentation. You can clearly have that look with just HTML 3.2 - really!


text:
Prices and availability are subject to change from the time and date that you print this page.
For Customer Service, please call 800.967.6696
Product Description
Crisp white porcelain dinnerware trends modern and flexible in modern, rounded coupe shapes perfectly at ease in casual and formal settings. Low curves allow for easy stacking and space-saving storage.
- Porcelain
- Dishwasher-, microwave- and oven-safe up to 300 degrees
- Made in Thailand
Our Designers Recommend
Everything you need.
Read what people are saying.Our reviews are verified for authenticity. Learn More.
Return/Exchange Policy
What you need to know.
We will accept returns and exchanges of non-furniture items if:
- Non-furniture items are returned within 90 days of customer receipt.
- A valid proof of purchase is provided (see below).
- Non-furniture items are returned in good condition—unused and unwashed.
If you discover an item has a manufacturer's defect or was damaged during transit, we will accept the item for return or exchange with proof of purchase. Without proof of purchase, the item can be exchanged only for the same item. A valid photo ID is required.
We are unable to accept any items for return or exchange without proof of purchase. Items purchased as final sale cannot be returned, exchanged or repaired.
Items must be returned to the store brand where the purchase originated or by mail (if the item was ordered online or by phone and received by mail). Purchases made outside the U.S. may only be returned to the purchase location.


text:
WACO (December 17, 2012)--Two men were arrested Sunday and a third man was sought in connection with a Sunday afternoon robbery outside a Waco apartment complex.
Orlando Ramirez, 25, posted bonds totaling $21,000 by Monday morning and was released after he initially was charged with robbery and possession of marijuana.
Joshua Jack Thompson, 23, was ordered held on bonds totaling $22,000, charged with robbery, possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance.
A third suspect was being sought on Monday, Waco, police St. W. Patrick Swanton said.
Swanton said at about 4:50 p.m. Sunday a man who lives in the Gemini Village Apartments, in the 900 block of Wooded Acres Drive, called police to reported he had been jumped by three men and robbed.
Swanton said the victim told officers he knew two of his assailants.
Police officers who responded were nearby and when they arrived two of the suspects still were in the area and were arrested.
The third attacker escaped and officers were trying to identify him on Monday morning.
The 22-year-old victim suffered minor injuries in the attack, during which the suspects tried to take his wallet, but he did not require medical attention,


text:
Tripod Work Light
Portable tripod work light provides up to 1000 Watts of light where needed. Twist-lock stand on tripod work light adjusts from 40" to 84" tall and the base adjusts from 29" to 39" in diameter. Tripod work light includes two quartz halogen 500 Watt lamps. Lights adjust 150° with 360° vertical aiming. Cord Type SJT. Gauge/Conductor: 18/3. Cord length 6-ft. UL listed and CSA certified. Weighs 14 lbs. Imported.


text:
Isadore F. "Izzy" LaFleur Jr., 90, a longtime resident and businessman of Devils Lake passed away on Saturday morning, November 16, 2013 at the Heartland Care Center, Devils Lake in the love and care of his family.
Funeral services for Izzy will be held on Friday, November 22, at 10 a.m. at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Devils Lake with Pastor Kevin Kaufmann officiating. Burial will be in the Devils Lake Cemetery with Military Honors accorded by the Neathery-Simensen Post #756, Devils Lake Veterans of Foreign Wars and the North Dakota Military Funeral Honors Team.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, November 21 at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. with a Masonic service at 6 p.m. followed by a time of remembrance. All are welcome to attend. Visitation on Friday will be at the church one hour prior to the funeral service.
Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake, is in charge of arrangements.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
If I am reading a really long book online, after leaving and coming back a few days later, I have no way of remembering where I stopped.
Is there any "tool" (for browser say, I use chrome), that can remember how far down the page I was when stopped reading it?
Been looking for this for a few years, but so far found nothing really good.


text:
13483 IH 10 West
Directions San Antonio, TX 78249
Freedom Chevrolet is dedicated to providing you with an ownership experience worth raving to your friends about. That includes new Chevy models (i.e., the Silverado 1500, Malibu, Tahoe, Suburban and Camaro, financing and everything in between, including genuine Chevrolet parts & service.
Perhaps the biggest reason so many drivers choose Freedom Chevrolet in San Antonio, serving New Braunfels, Boerne,San Marcos, Austin and the Rio Grande Valley, is for the fact they know their search ends here. Couple our professional yet approachable staff with our vast Chevrolet lineup, featuring models such as the Cruze, Silverado 1500, Malibu, Equinox and Camaro, among others; and you're destined to find exactly what you're looking for. To explore our winning assortment first hand, visit Freedom Chevrolet San Antonio at 13483 IH 10 West, San Antonio, Texas. And, remember you can always do some pre-buy research on new Chevrolet models, online.
If a new car isn't in your cards right now, we invite you to browse our hand-picked selection of pre-owned vehicles. Trusted across New Braunfels, Boerne,San Marcos, Austin and the Rio Grande Valley, for our immaculate assortment and long-term satisfaction, Freedom Chevrolet is always the right turn to take on your quest for the ultimate used car. To start exploring our envious lineup now, simply visit our easy-to-navigate used car inventory page, online. Or, for a more intimate pre-owned vehicle buying experience, visit Freedom Chevrolet in person.
Everything Under One Roof:
Another thing that makes Freedom Chevrolet unique is that here, when someone has found the new or used Chevrolet that best suits their lifestyle and driving style, it doesn't mean the fun part of buying a car is over. Our savvy team of car financing specialists have taken it upon themselves to rewrite that part of the classic car-buying story with a tenacious, take-care-of-their-own spirit (their own being you, the customer) that ensures the most agreeable car loan and Chevrolet lease rates and conditions possible?Here the fun isn't over until you say it is.
To help protect your investment, commit to routine visits to our service center. Our state-of-the-art service shop is fully equipped to handle everything from routine oil changes to larger car repairs such as brake and rotor replacements. Not sure what that squeak or grinding sound is? Bring it in for a diagnosis. And be sure to check your warranty. Your service or repair might just be covered. You can even schedule your appointment online!
Feel free to contact Freedom Chevrolet at (888) 231-1795 today if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting you soon and serving you for many more years to come.


text:
A Candle Light Memorial Service will be held Wednesday, November 20th at 5:00pm at Comforting Hands Hospice office 2450 SE Washington Boulevard Suite A Bartlesiville OK Everyone is invited to attend, especially those who have lost loved ones in the past year.
" The holidays are often a painful time for people who are greiving. There is no need to grieve alone. A memorial service can help those who have lost loved ones connect to others and draw emotional support from each other. It's a formal time of remembrance that can help give meaning to one of life's most difficult experience, the death of someone important" said Mike McDougan, chaplain at Comforting Hands Hospice, sponsor of the event.
McDougan hosts a Greif Support Group that meets regularly at Comforting Hands Hospice office on Tuesdays at 4:00pm. For more information about the Candle Light Memorial Service or the Grief Support Group, call Comforting Hands Hospice at 918-331-0003 Monday-Friday 9am to 4pm.


text:
|Welcome to the world of Pokémon, CocoonKing!
|Welcome to Pokémon Wiki, and thank you for your contributions! There's a lot to do around here, so I hope you'll stay with us and make many more improvements.
I'm really happy to have you here, and look forward to contributing with you!
|Your administration:
Energy X (talk) • Rainbow Shifter (talk) • Shockstorm (talk) • Avingnon (talk) • Yoponot (talk) • Remaai (talk) • Lordranged7 (talk)
- Rainbow Shifter (talk) 21:59, July 15, 2013 (UTC)
Are you sure...? Can you give me a link to one of those episodes, please? Energy X 08:12, July 30, 2013 (UTC)
- Using google, the top results are almost always Bulbapedia: DP125 and Porter for example, you can also copy the entirety of Bulbapedia and the wiki's plots for DP124 to textdiff.com, which will tell you they are the same. CocoonKing (talk) 09:04, July 30, 2013 (UTC)
Well, not sure why he did it, but thanks for letting us know. Energy X 09:13, July 30, 2013 (UTC)
Thank you for telling him thats not a fan fic pic of Slyveon11:10, October 7, 2013 (UTC)Kaf2cute (talk)kaf2cute


text:
I did a fresh install of Xubuntu 12.04.1, ext4 with discard option & swappiness set to 0, mounting temp directory in RAM, (8GB.)
I found performance was not stellar, in fact, marginally better than traditional spinning storage media. This drive has had good reviews, yet I have seen Windows users complaining of slow performance online. It was anything other than zippy, with application loads being plain dog slow & not instant like I expected. I RMAd it eventually (GSmartControl would never complete long test.)
Slow performance on Windows = slow performance on Linux? Would I fare better with another brand?
I now have a 840 & it is not legendary, but faster than HDD.


text:
- Home
- Hours
- Books & More
- Search Catalog
- NEW This Week
- Online Resources
- Reading Suggestions
- Interlibrary Loan Form
- Suggest a Title for the Library to Purchase
- Ebooks & More
- Programs
- Services
- About Us
- Support Us
eBooks Aren't Just for Adults
Written by:GCLD Staff
We have added lots of titles for children and young adults to our OverDrive Advantage collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks over the past few months – just in time for summer reading! Try downloading a picture book for your toddler onto your e-reader or tablet.
Here are some classics you may remember from your own childhood as well as popular newer titles:
- Baby Animals by Garth Williams
- The Alphabet Book by P.D. Eastman
- Richard Scarry's Bedtime Stories
- Young Fredle by Cynthia Voight
- E-mergency by Tom Lichtenheld
- Go Baby Go by Marilyn Janovitz
If you're taking a road trip this summer you might want to consider downloading eaudiobooks to entertain older children for those long hours in the car. Try out these recent releases:
- The Chesire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy
- Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck
- Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
We also have many classics in both ebook and eaudiobook formats like Black Beauty, Johnny Tremain and The Jungle Book.
Teens can find lots of popular bestsellers in our OverDrive Advantage collection. The entire Harry Potter series of seven titles is available in ebook and eaudiobook formats. All three titles in the Hunger Game series can be found in audiobook format, and there are many more appealing titles for young adults.
Remember to go directly to OverDrive from the eBooks & More tab on the Grand County Library District website www.gcld.org. You must sign in with your library card number in order to display these Advantage titles. Get out those eReaders, smartphones and iPods now for a great summer of reading and listening from your Grand County Library District.
Local Links


text:
I deleted my similar thread earlier today after you mentioned you already posted "this" thread (didn't see it after it fell off the radar)and merely appended what I wanted to say with change in subject field to appeal more to the masses. I think it's best to leave as is for the time being. The other points you bring up are off topic but will try my best to answer.
We could have many categories like regal360.com but we feel conversations get lost when spread out across such a large playing field of discussions. We prefer fewer categories like panoguide.com. So the category "Everything Else" become just that - very general in nature. If there is a valuable thread we are happy to sticky it (keep near the top of the topic). If however the general consensus is different we are happy to consider change.
Also we generally steer away from offering software support and leave that to the vendors and those more proficient and versed, of which we are pleased to have a few here in our forum
Thank you for you valuable input and suggestions - we do listen.


text:
1965 Buick Skylark Convertible - Junkyard CrawlWritten by on January 1, 2011 The Skylark's The Limit
From Bentley to Buick, convertibles are always the most expensive models on the lot. It may seem counterintuitive at first. After all, a convertible doesn't have a steel roof or headliner, so it must be cheaper to build (and sell), right? Not so fast. Let's remember that when you lose the roof, a major player in the game of structural integrity is lost. Think about this: Open the doors of any convertible and then imagine giant hands twisting the front and rear bumpers in opposite directions. The only structures present to resist the force (the floorpan and rocker sills) are way down low. There's nothing else. This is why most convertibles have special doors that-through specific hinges, latches, and striker plates-become a greater part of the body structure when closed compared with similar hardtop models. It just goes to show there's plenty more involved in producing a ragtop than eliminating the roof. As a result, all factory convertibles have numerous chassis, frame, and body reinforcements to restore integrity. This all costs plenty of engineering and production resources, thus the higher base price. This neat, low-option '65 Skylark convertible was spotted at Phoenix's Desert Valley Auto Parts (DVAP.com) in 2008. And yes, at $2,773, it had the highest base price of any '65 Buick Special or Skylark offering. At about 50 bucks less, the second-highest base price was held by the Special Deluxe four-door station wagon at $2,727. Naturally, the actual selling price only went up from these base prices. But the lack of extra cost options on this particular ragtop make it one of the cheapest/most expensive Skylarks available . . . if that makes any sense. Let's dig in.
Groovy Factoids
Though the Skylark nameplate is mostly associated with mass-produced Buicks of the '60s and '70s, it first appeared on the limited-production Skylark convertible in 1953-Buick's 50th anniversary year. Inspired by GM Motorama dream cars, Skylarks were mostly handbuilt, and only 1,690 were assembled, plus another 836 in 1954. Today, well-preserved examples sell for more than $100,000.
British glam rock act Spacehog's 1998 release The Chinese Album includes a song called "Skylark." The song has nothing to do with cars, but we dig the fact that lead singer Royston Langdon married (but eventually divorced) Aerosmith offspring Liv Tyler. Dummy!
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
The faded Arizona license plates read VVF264 and expired in 1973-proof that this Flint flyer spent most of its life in bone-dry Arizona. The odometer displays 40,499.5 miles, and we believe it. The column-shifted, two-speed, Super Turbine 300 transmission is lame, but repop steel Chevelle manual transmission floor humps are available from places such as Classic Industries that match right up to the Buick's tunnel.Covered in red oxide primer, the J code on the cowl tag tells us the original color was Verde Green metallic. The cowl tag also displays body style code 4367, proof that this ragtop stripper was born with the 155hp, 225ci V-6 mill. If we'd seen code 4467, it'd be a V-8 car. Unfortunately, in 1965 the cool Gran Sport 400 muscle car package was an option group atop the Skylark V-8. The groovy GS wouldn't get its own body style code until 1966, when it became a distinct model unto itself. This makes verification of real-deal '65 GS 400 Skylarks a hassle today.GM shared the Skylark's A-body platform among Chevy, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile, so a fresh fabric top-plus virtually anything the power lift assembly might need-is readily available for reasonable money. To rollbar or not to rollbar; that is the question. Tubes help improve rigidity-not to mention protecting the noggin-but clutter the open air vibe. We'd flip a coin.


text:
Judge Nugent
11-05011 Meis v. Fowler State Bank et al (Doc. # 59) - Document Text
- Details
- Category: Judge Nugent
- Published: 28 December 2011
- Written by Judge Nugent
SIGNED this 9th day of December, 2011.
JAMES A. MEIS, ) Case No. 10-13207
) Chapter 11
Debtor. )
Plaintiff, )
v. ) Adversary No. 11-5011
WELLS FARGO BANK, NA fka WELLS )
Defendants. )
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 1 of 9
Plaintiff James Meis asserts two claims for relief against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.1 Meis first
alleges that Wells Fargo's mortgage on land he owns may be avoided "under 11 USC § 544" because
it contains an incorrect legal description of his property. He also asserts that Wells Fargo lacks standing
to enforce the note this mortgage secures even though the note was endorsed in blank by the original
obligee, Bank of America. Wells Fargo counters that neither of these claims factually or legally support
relief and that Meis's amended complaint against it should be dismissed under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7012
and Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). To determine whether dismissal is appropriate, the Court considers whether
these claims are "facially plausible" based upon the facts pled in the amended complaint.2 As detailed
below, the avoidance claim is facially plausible, but the standing claim is not.3
The Promissory Note is Endorsed to Wells Fargo in Blank.
The pleaded facts are sparse and easily outlined. Meis filed a bankruptcy case here on September
21, 2010. He remains the debtor in possession today and exercises the avoiding powers of a trustee
under § 1107. On September 9, 2003, Meis and his wife made a promissory to note to Bank of America
N.A., promising to pay $400,000 at 6.125 percent interest in 360 monthly payments. The copy of the
1 Wells Fargo was added as a party defendant in this adversary proceeding by plaintiff's
filing of an amended complaint on August 1, 2011. See Dkt. 34. The Court notes that plaintiff
neglected to amend the case caption to reflect the joinder of Wells Fargo as a party defendant in this
adversary; the Court has modified the case caption and the parties should likewise change the case
caption going forward.
2 See Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S. Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed. 2d 929
(2007) (complaint must plead enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face; the
alleged claims must nudge "across the line from conceivable to plausible.").
Meis attached to his amended complaint the subject note, but not the mortgage. He did, however,
recite in the amended complaint, the property's legal description culled from the mortgage and
references proof of claim no. 10 filed by Wells Fargo's servicer, BAC Home Loans Servicing LP fka
Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, L.P., to which the mortgage and note are attached.
3 James Meis appears by his attorney Elizabeth A. Carson of Bruce, Bruce & Lehman,
L.L.C., Wichita, Kansas. Wells Fargo appears by its counsel Cassandra L. Writz of Bryan Cave LLP,
Kansas City, Missouri.
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 2 of 9
note attached to the Amended complaint contains an endorsement in blank that reads: "Pay to the order
of _______ without recourse" that is signed by an officer of Bank of America. The note generally
references a mortgage that Meis gave to secure the note. In the amended complaint, Meis also asserts
that BAC Home Loan Servicing, L.P. purports to act as Wells Fargo's servicer.
The Tracts Described in the Complaint Are in Different Sections and Are Not
Meis claims as a homestead property that lies in a nearly rectangular metes and bounds tract in
the NE/4 of Section 13, Township 27, Range 28 West of the 6th Principal Meridian in Gray County,
Kansas. The amended complaint describes the tract as –
Beginning Thirty feet (30') South of the Northwest Corner of the NE/4, thence East
1,088 feet, South 1,452 feet, West 1,088 feet, North 1,460 feet to the Point of
Beginning, commonly described as 18502 U Road, Cimarron, Kansas 67835.4
Wells Fargo claims a mortgage in Meis's homestead, but that mortgage contains a legal description very
different from what Meis claims as a homestead in his bankruptcy petition. In the granting clause, the
mortgaged land is described as being in Gray County with a "legal description attached hereto and made
a part hereof." It then recites that the land has a "Parcel ID Number" of GA00545 and sets out the
same common address contained in the NE/4 description above. The attached description, set out in
paragraph 7 of the amended complaint, reads as follows:
A tract of land located in the Southeast Quarter (SE/4) of Section Twelve (12),
Township Twenty-seven (27) South, Range Twenty-eight (28) West of the Sixth
Principal Meridian, more particularly described as follows:
Commencing at the southwest corner of the southeast Quarter (SE/4) of
Section 12, Township 27 South, Range 28 West of the Sixth Principal Meridian, Gray
County, Kansas, the point of beginning; thence North 01-degrees-18'35" East along the
west line of said Southeast Quarter (SE/4) of Section 12 a distance of 1206.85 feet;
thence South 89-degrees-04'-19" East a distance of 1206.14 feet; thence South 03degrees
18'11" East a distance of 491.46 feet; thence South 00degrees
41'53" West a distance of 284.19 feet; thence South 19-degrees 31'32" West a
4 Dkt. 34, ¶ 5.
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 3 of 9
distance of 455.21 feet to a point on the south line of said Southeast Quarter (SE/4) of
Section 12; thence North 89-degrees 07'17" West along the south line of said Southeast
Quarter (SE/4) of Section 12 a distance of 1106.41 feet to the point of beginning.
EXCEPT a tract of land described as follows: Beginning at a point on the west
line of the Southeast Quarter (SE/4) of Section 12 (12), Township Twenty seven (27)
South, Range Twenty-eight (28) West of the Sixth Principal Meridian; thence North
along the west line of said Southeast Quarter (SE/4) for a distance of Thirty (30) feet;
thence East, parallel with the south line of said Southeast Quarter (SE/4), a distance of
1106.41 feet; thence South a distance of Thirty (30) feet to the south line of said
Southeast Quarter (SE/4); thence West along the south line of said Southeast Quarter
(SE/4) a distance of 1106.41 feet to the point of beginning.
These two tracts are in different sections and quarters and do not abut one another. The Court
takes judicial notice that the SE/4 of Section 12 shares a section line with the NE/4 of Section 13.
Channeling a former life as a country lawyer, the Court has attempted to plot these tracts and concludes
that the tract described in the NE/4 of Section 13 lies 30 feet south of the shared section line.5 The tract
described in the SE/4 of Section 12 runs along the section line and is somewhat larger than the tract
in the NE/4 of Section 13. It is impossible to determine where the 30 foot by 1106 foot strip of
excepted land lies in the SE/4 of Section 12 because the description contains no beginning point,
referring only to"beginning at a point on the west line of the Southeast Quarter," but not stating where
that point is. In sum, the tract in the NE/4 is separated from the tract in the SE/4 by a minimum 30
foot wide strip of land.
Meis claims that the Wells Fargo mortgage should be avoided because the description does not
comply with KAN. STAT. ANN. § 58-2303 (2005), a 1887 statute that outlines the form of a Kansas
statutory short form mortgage and includes a requirement that the "premises" be "described." He relies
on § 544, presumably subsection (a)(2) which vests a trustee with the power of a hypothetical bona fide
5 In addition to plotting these tracts, the Court also draws on its experience that section lines
in rural Kansas are frequently county roads. For purposes of its ruling today, the Court need not
determine whether the shared section line between the SE/4 and the NE/4 is in fact the "U" Road
referenced in both tract descriptions and Meis has not, in any event, alleged such a fact.
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 4 of 9
purchaser to take free of an unrecorded interest in the land he acquires.
Rule 12(b)(6) and 12(d) Do Not Require That this Motion Be Converted to a
Summary Judgment Motion.
The only factual record available to the Court in deciding this motion is that which is contained
in or referenced in the amended complaint. The Court must view the allegations of the amended
complaint as true and in Meis's best light in determining whether his claims are plausible on their face.
The only "matter" that is "outside the pleadings" is the full mortgage instrument itself, which is part
of Wells Fargo's proof of claim that is referenced in the amended complaint and from which Meis
extracted the legal description alleged in the amended complaint. That document contains a recording
stamp that indicates it was filed for record in Gray County. The Court may take judicial notice of its
The Avoidance Claim is Plausible on its Face.
Assuming that Meis's allegation that he lives on the tract in the NE/4 of Section 13 is true, it
is difficult to see how a bona fide purchaser supplied only with the NE/4 legal description might happen
onto Wells Fargo's mortgage that describes not only a different tract, but also a different section.7 In
6 See Fed. R. Evid. 201; Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9017; Cinel v. Connick, 15 F.3d 1338, 1343 n. 6 (5th
Cir. 1994) (In deciding a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a court may permissibly refer to matters of
public record.); Stahl v. U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture, 327 F.3d 697, 700 (8th Cir. 2003) (same); United States
v. Wood, 925 F.2d 1580, 1582 (7th Cir. 1991) (same); Kaye v. Lone Star Fund V (U.S.), L.P., 453 B.R.
645, 664 (N.D. Tex. 2011) (same); Goldman v. Belden, 754 F.2d 1059, 1065-66 (2d Cir. 1985) (District
court may take into consideration documents incorporated by reference to the pleadings.); Tal v.
Hogan, 453 F.3d 1244, 1264 n. 24 (10th Cir. 2006) (Facts subject to judicial notice may be considered
in a Rule 12(b)(6) motion without converting the motion to dismiss into a motion for summary
judgment; this allows the court to take judicial notice of facts which are a matter of public record.);
JP Morgan Trust Co. Nat. Ass'n v. Mid-America Pipeline Co., 413 F. Supp. 2d 1244, 1258 (D. Kan. 2006)
(Court may take judicial notice of filings with the Delaware Secretary of State and Kansas
Corporation Commission.).
7 Under Kansas law a bona fide purchaser for value who has neither constructive notice, nor
actual notice, of an encumbrance takes the property free of the encumbrance. In re Colon, 563 F.3d
1171, 1174 (10th Cir. 2009). Thus, a debtor in possession exercising the bankruptcy trustee's
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 5 of 9
In re Colon, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a Kansas purchaser was charged with
knowledge of the contents of every document existing in the chain of his title.8 To determine what those
documents contain, the Colon panel said the purchaser "must examine each conveyance from a grantor
(during the period of the grantor's ownership of the property of interest) to determine whether it is in
the chain of title. Apparently such an examination is generally required in conducting a title search."9
If the mortgage contained only the legal description, the necessary scope of this examination could not
be determined as a matter of law without further evidence. But the mortgage contains more information
that the amended complaint does not mention.
The mortgage references the common address of the tract and the tract's "parcel ID number."
An examiner armed with those two bits of information might find Wells Fargo's mortgage in the record.
The parcel ID number is assigned by the county appraiser for the purpose of assessing and collecting
ad valorem property tax. In some counties, each parcel of land is assigned a different tax key number
and portions split from the original parcel are given the same number with additional digits added as
the parcel is subdivided.10 An examiner could access the clerk's records to determine what tract is
indexed under that number and secure a grantor's name and a legal description for further searching.
And, an examiner armed with a common address might significantly narrow the field of inquiry by being
able to visually ascertain the location of the tract and limit review of the grantor or numerical index to
the tract or tracts that are located in the approximate area of the address. As each county is required by
avoidance powers as a hypothetical bona fide purchaser, may avoid Wells Fargo's mortgage if he did
not have actual or constructive notice of Wells Fargo's mortgage against the property.
8 563 F.3d 1171 (10th Cir. 2009). See also, KAN. STAT. ANN. § 58-2222 (2005).
9 Id. at 1182.
10 See, e.g., Application of Bd. of Park Comm'rs of City of Wichita, 14 Kan. App. 2d 777, 786, 799
P.2d 505 (1990), referring to practice in Sedgwick County.
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 6 of 9
law to maintain an index of conveyances by grantor and grantee, a bona fide purchaser of this tract
might be able to ascertain from the tax records who the grantor was by using the tax ID and narrow the
search for that grantor's conveyances accordingly.11
But on this record, the Court cannot determine whether a bona fide purchaser exercising due
diligence would find Wells Fargo's mortgage notwithstanding the baldly erroneous legal description it
contains. Without further evidence of the utility of either the parcel ID or the common address in
performing a title search, the Court must conclude that Meis's first claim for relief is facially plausible
and that relief might be granted.
Wells Fargo Has Standing to Enforce the Note.
Count II of Meis's amended complaint fails to state a claim for two reasons. First, his assertion
that Wells Fargo lacks standing to enforce the promissory note is in the nature of an objection to Wells
Fargo's proof of claim--a defense. Defenses do not afford affirmative claims for relief and the only relief
sought here is disallowance of the claim itself, a remedy that is available via the claims objection process
under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 3007.12
Second, and to the merits, Kansas law grants Wells Fargo as the holder of this note the right to
enforce it. KAN. STAT. ANN. § 84-3-301(a) (1996) provides that the holder of a negotiable instrument
may enforce it. Even a person who does not own the instrument or is in possession of it wrongfully may
enforce it. A "holder" is "[t]he person in possession of a negotiable instrument that is payable either to
bearer or to an identified person that is the person in possession . . . ."13 An instrument that is endorsed
11 See KAN. STAT. ANN. § 19-1205 (2007).
12 See Dkt. 34, p. 7.
13 KAN. STAT. ANN. § 84-1-201(b)(21)(A) (2010 Supp.).
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 7 of 9
in blank is payable to its bearer.14 As Judge Karlin concluded in Martinez, so long as the note is endorsed
in blank and is in possession of Wells Fargo or BAC, it may be enforced on behalf of Wells Fargo.
Whether BAC or Wells Fargo is the beneficial owner is immaterial.15
Meis's complaint does not challenge Wells Fargo's or its servicer BAC's possession of the note.
Rather, Meis complains that the way they got the note somehow offends the Pooling and Servicing
Agreement that governs the rights of the business trust that holds a beneficial interest in the note. As
Meis is not a party to the Pooling Agreement, he cannot rely on its having been breached as a defense
to his own liability on the note itself. Meis's reliance on New York trust law is also misplaced because
the New York Estate Powers and Trusts Law explicitly excludes business trusts from its ambit.16 "Trusts
whose shares are traded on the American Stock Exchange and that qualify as "real estate investment
trusts" under the Internal Revenue Code are considered business trusts."17
For these reasons, the Court concludes that Count II is not plausible on its face and therefore
fails to state a claim.
Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss Count I of Meis's amended complaint is DENIED. Wells
Fargo's motion to dismiss Count II of the amended complaint is GRANTED.
Meis is directed to revise the caption of the amended complaint to reflect that Wells Fargo is
a party defendant. Wells Fargo shall have 14 days from the date of this Order to answer the amended
14 Kan. Stat. Ann. § 84-3-205(b) (1996).
15 See In re Martinez, 455 B.R. 755, 763 (Bankr. D. Kan. 2011).
16 See N.Y.E.T.P.L. § 11–1.1(a). See also, In re Doble, 2011 WL 1465559 at *9-10 (Bankr. S.D.
Cal. 2011).
17 See Prudent Real Estate Trust v. Johncamp Realty, Inc., 599 F.2d 1140, 1141 (C.A.N.Y.1979).
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 8 of 9
# # #
Case 11-05011 Doc# 59 Filed 12/09/11 Page 9 of 9
- << Prev
- Next


text:
STAR CAST: Seshi Kumar, Aamani, Hema, Duvvasi Mohan
WE DO NOT UPLOAD ANY VIDEO CONTENT. This site provides only authorized VCD/DVD/Blu-Ray links available on the web. Please Note If No Links are available, Currently NO VCD/DVD/Blue-ray links are available on web from authorized content providers... If you find any unauthorized content being displayed, please write to email@example.com, so that we can take appropriate action.
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer


text:
7 Great Products for Telling the World You're a Rich Dick
#3. Lord of the Rings Tree House - $90,000+
As you're probably figuring out, there are two ways to solve any dilemma: 1) The Sensible Way and 2) The Rich Asshole Way. Allow us to demonstrate. Let's say you own a tree (it could happen) and a lightning strike blows a hole in your otherwise nice-looking tree.
What do you do about that pesky hole? If you're sensible person you might say, "Who gives a shit. It's a tree." However; if you are a rich asshole your solution might be to cram about $100,000 into the tree's gaping ass while creating a safe place to live out your Lord of the Rings fantasies. Perhaps you could pretend the people out in the street begging for food are orcs!
Fly! You fools!
Thus we have the Lord of the Rings Tree House. This Scottish tree gap filler cost more than twice the average Scotsman's annual salary, features stained-glass windows and multi-leveled verandas, which makes it perfect for the kids! Also, there's a 600-foot zip line so your little hobbits can pretend they're flying! Or, you know, actually fly.
#2. Vanity Cell Phone Number - $2,750,000
So let's say you want the world's douchiest phone number. You might find whoever has 468-2439 (DOUCHEY) and offer to buy it. But that's far too straightforward; the average rich prick is far craftier than your average Internet comedy writer.
"Is 'EL DOOSH' taken?"
So instead, a guy went out and bought a phone number that costs $2,750,000. And what number could possibly cost so much? Why, it's 666-6666.
You might ask, "Where did my Slayer-loving cousin Rodney get 3,000,000 bucks?" Don't worry, Rodney's still living in your aunt's basement and doing Satan's work at the Carl's Jr. drive thru window. Turns out, while a bunch of sixes might be the mark of the beast in Western culture, the word six in Arabic is equated with "ellah," meaning God. So in Qatar, where the number was sold, owning 666-6666 is like owning God's phone number.
Though it seems like that would really piss God off. The douchebag owner might expect to get a rather irate voice mail one of these days:
"Yeah, hey, this is God. I seem to be getting a lot of your calls lately, mostly from guys who keep asking if I want to 'go catch a John Mayer show' or help them 'pick up a case of Axe Body Spray' or 'grab an Orange Julius and go beat up some queers.' Listen, give me back my phone number or I'll melt Dane Cook. You have until sundown to decide."
#1. Luxury Dog House - $406,000
Sitting at your desk in second grade, as your mind began to shut down from the onslaught of soul crushing fractions, you probably slipped a piece of paper out and drew up your dream house. Don't be ashamed, we've all done it. Like us, you likely sketched out an anti-gravity room, a room just filled with lasers and robots that made you food. No it didn't make sense, but it was terrific.
We all wanted a room full of pandas, right?
Then you grew up and never got the dream house. But guess what? Someone stole the blueprint for your fantastical, Bond Villian-esque dream house and built it...for a couple of dogs.
This nearly half-million-dollar super kennel and home to two Great Danes features a $220,000 sound system, 52-inch plasma screen TV, a heated spa, self cleaning and automatically filling food and water dishes and sheep-skinned, temperature-controlled beds.
But wait, there's more. Not only does this high tech house feature a closed circuit television system but the front door includes a retina scanner security system.... for dogs. You know, when you're a well-to-do dog you don't want undesirables, like homeless human beings, invading your space.
If you feed one, more will just show up.
The female surgeon who ordered the construction of this doggy uber-home wished to remain anonymous. See? On some level, they know this is wrong.
You can read more from Cole at Fun With Cole
Do you have something funny to say about a random topic? You could be on the front page of Cracked.com tomorrow. Go here and find out how to create a Topic Page.
To become as rich as these assholes, check out 5 Ways to Get Rich (Without a Single Discernible Skill). Or find out about some rich people that earned themselves a ticket to Satan's brothel, in The 6 Most Horrifying Ways Anyone Ever Got Rich.
And stop by our Top Picks to Editor-in-Chief Jack O'Brien crying over DOB's expense report (it's mostly dildos and Cognac).
And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get dick jokes sent straight to your news feed.


text:
I asked a very silly question here on Meta and was downoted by people who disagreed with my request. Now, since I'm new to Meta I don't quite understand how it works. On SO I would assume that you would post an answer and then that would get voted up or down.
On Meta it appears we vote down if we disagree with it. This has the effect of removing it from the main page. Is this effect intentional?
In SO the -1 to the question was always to mark an inappropriate question, spam or completely nonsensical question. I would believe that my question, in the context of Meta was acceptable.
Note: While marking this down would be hilariously appropriate, dont. Or the bunny gets it.
Update: A downvote occured!!! THE BUNNY GETS IT!
Death by natural causes (i'm not that mean)


text:
LawHelp/NY, a website designed to help low-income New Yorkers solve their legal problems, is looking for law student volunteers for their Live Help project. There will be an on campus training on January 29th, from 12-2 pm in JG 546. If you are interested in attending the training, please email Quisquella Addison, firstname.lastname@example.com. Hosted by SJI.
© Copyright 2016, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.
For questions or comments, please contact the web administrators.
435 West 116 Street, New York, NY 10027 — 212-854-2640


text:
WEIRTON - Students at St. Joseph the Worker Grade School are preparing for the holiday season and honoring the nation's military as part of a statewide contest organized by West Virginia's first lady.
Each year, to coincide with the Joyful Night celebration in Charleston, a contest is held where schools are invited to create ornaments for display during the festivities. In its seventh year, the contest currently is being spearheaded by West Virginia first lady Joanne Tomblin.
Nancy Wright, art teacher at St. Joseph the Worker Grade School, said each class at the school has designed an ornament reflecting the "Military" theme of this year's contest.
Article Photos
MILITARY THEMED DECORATIONS — Students from St. Joseph the Worker Grade School recently created military themed ornaments for the State Capitol Christmas Tree as part of an annual statewide contest. Students helping to display some of the ornaments include kindergarten student Marissa Mascio, first-grader Sophia Zanieski, second-grader Gavin Stonebraker, third-grader Nick Elias, fourth grader James Littleton, fifth-grader Addie Backel, sixth-grader Gia Fuscardo, seventh grader Abrianna Fuscardo and eighth-grader Lea Colantonio. - Craig Howell
Wright explained this year's theme has a special meaning for the school.
"We have so many from St. Joseph Parish serving in the military," Wright said.
Many of the ornaments designed by the students depict a red, white and blue color scheme, with stickers and other decorations reflective of the various branches of the U.S. military. One of the ornaments includes pictures of local military personnel.
All of the ornaments will be put on display on the Christmas Tree to be located in the Capitol Rotunda for public viewing as part of the contest.
"She makes sure every ornament hangs," Wright said of Tomblin, explaining those selected as winners are displayed in the governor's mansion.
Wright noted the school has had an ornament selected as a winner before, explaining the current sixth-grade class won the contest when they were in kindergarten.
"We helped light up the Christmas tree at the Capitol," Wright explained.
Ornaments entered in the contest will be divided into categories based on grade level, with judging including kindergarten to second grades, third to fifth grades, sixth to eighth grades and ninth to 12th grades.
The four winning classes will receive a $125 gift certificate to assist with the purchase of art supplies for their school. After the holidays, the winning ornaments will be donated to the West Virginia State Museum to be included in its permanent collection.


text:
Dave Beriau begins his second season on the UMass Dartmouth mjen's lacrosse staff, serving as an assistant coach under Head Coach Kevin Mahoney. He helped guide the Corsairs to a 10-6 record last year, with an appearance in the Little East Conference Tournament.
Beriau joined the Corsairs after a season as assistant men's lacrosse coach at Colby College. While he was at Colby, the Mules finished 9-7 and appeared in the New England Small College Athletic Conference playoffs, losing in double overtime to Middlebury in the quarterfinals.
Beriau was an assistant coach for Falmouth (MA) Academy in 2010 and helped the team win the Southeastern New England Independent Schools Athletic Association (SENEISAA) league title for the first time in eight years. Falmouth Academy, a small co-ed private school on Cape Cod, finished the season at 10-4.
A 2009 graduate of Elmira where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, Beriau was an attackman when he entered college, but played a number of positions for the Soaring Eagles, giving him a great appreciation and understanding for the overall game of lacrosse. Beriau played four years for the Soaring Eagles and finished his career with six goals, 19 assists, and 83 groundballs.
A team co-captain during his senior year, Beriau earned the Elmira Men's Lacrosse Teammate Award in 2006 and was the Soaring Eagles' selection on the Empire 8 Conference Team Sportsmen of the Year.
Beriau is also the Assistant Director of Cape Cod Lacrosse.
Beriau is currently a graduate student pursuing his MBA at UMass Dartmouth.


text:
The Office of International Programs seeks student volunteers who will provide a student perspective to future study abroad participants. Returned study abroad participants can share their experiences and stories with other Valpo students thinking about studying abroad, act as a representative of the OIP and assist with pre-departure meetings. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com for more information.
Click here to view our current Peer Advisors.
Attend a workshop, co-sponsored by the Career Center and the Office of International Programs, to identify the skills you learned abroad and how to articulate your experience effectively to potential employers. Whatever you decide to do after graduation, you will want to include your study abroad experience on your resume or graduate school application. You will want to make the connection to the actual skills you gained through your experience abroad--connections that will not always be obvious to an employer.
"One of the biggest challenges for students who participate in study abroad can be the difficulty in re-adapting to the realities in the United States (otherwise known as "re-entry"). Many students who studied abroad went through many changes, re-examining their priorities, their values, and what they think of themselves and the United States. The "reverse culture shock" may be more difficult than the "culture shock" you felt while abroad, " (www.studentsabroad.com/reentrycultureshock).
Study Abroad Handbook: Reverse Culture Shock
Interact/Work with international students at VU - Join VISA! Become involved with the Valparaiso International Student Association, live in the Global Leaders Community at Brandt Hall, attend international activities on campus, or simply become a friend to an international student. Join one of the many multicultural student organizations on campus: VISA, LIFE, AAA, BSO.
Continue studying languages: Take additional language courses or join language clubs. German, French and Spanish speakers at Valpo can also live in one of the various language houses.
Help promote study abroad on campus: Volunteer to help spread the word about study abroad on campus. Submit your photos to firstname.lastname@example.com and be on student panels to talk about your experience.
Learn more about your host country: Register for courses on campus to learn more about the geography, history, politcal and social systems of the region you spent time living in. Read newspapers and books, view films, and basing research projects on your host culture. Visit the CCLIR to access international newspapers and magazines.
Keep in touch with your experience. Write/email your friends in your host country and send photos of your time together. Write a letter to your host institution explaining what the experience meant to you.


text:
5 Famous People You Didn't Know Have Real Mutant Powers
#2. Marty Feldman: A Deformed Face Made for Comedy
Let's take a step back. Waaaay back. OK, imagine the complete opposite of Elizabeth Taylor.
20th Century Fox
OK, now stop. No, seriously, please stop. We don't want to play this game anymore.
That's Marty Feldman. You definitely remember him as Igor from Young Frankenstein, because let's face it, there's no way you'd forget that ugly mug. Feldman had one of those faces that inspire hilarity as soon as you see them, which is pretty helpful when you're a comedian, but not so much if you're a Supreme Court judge, for example.
And of course, the most distinguishing features in that face are the eyes, which look like they're trying to escape his skull in different directions. Believe it or not, those things aren't natural -- Feldman suffered from Graves' disease, a manifestation of hyperthyroidism characterized by distinctive bulging eyes. A less amusing side effect is that it leads to heart problems, which ended up killing both Feldman and fellow eye-popping comedian Rodney Dangerfield.
MCA Records
And here you assumed he looked like that due to cocaine. Tsk.
His peculiar look helped Feldman get a head start in comedy and got him his most famous role -- Gene Wilder saw him in a British TV show and wrote the part of Igor specifically for him. This is clear in the classic scene from Young Frankenstein where Wilder says, "Damn your eyes!" and Feldman turns to the screen and replies, "Too late." Yeah, that probably wouldn't have worked so well with Robert Redford or something.
And yet, Feldman almost ruined everything: When his hyperthyroidism manifested, he had an operation that would have turned his eyes "back to normal." Fortunately, the doctor botched it, and he ended up looking even worse.
"You bitch now, but if it was opposite day, the surgery would have been a smashing success!"
But Feldman didn't hold any grudges: When he was famous, he said that he could have his face fixed for good this time, but he didn't want to because, well, he'd kind of be screwed if he did.
#1. Two Different Diseases Caused JFK and Abraham Lincoln to Each Look Presidential
John "He Tapped That" Kennedy is one of the United States' most beloved presidents, and one of the most obvious qualities that made him so well-liked was his youthful vigor and movie star good looks: The guy always looked like he just walked in from tanning by the pool with a bunch of starlets. When compared to somebody like, say, Richard Nixon, the differences were striking.
"Can you repeat the question? I was too distracted making love to the audience with my eyes."
Meanwhile, read any one-sentence description of Abraham Lincoln and you will always get three things: beard, top hat, and "freakishly tall." He's still the nation's tallest president at 6 feet 4 inches, and the average person was way shorter back then (for instance, James Madison was only 5 feet 4 inches -- a full foot shorter). Lincoln's impressive and/or terrifying height made him stand out in any crowd, and he would even make visitors to the White House measure themselves against his massive frame. Lincoln wore that 8-inch-tall stovepipe hat to make himself tower over people even more -- he wanted to be larger than life.
Both men, Kennedy and Lincoln, owed their most striking features to diseases.
JFK suffered from Addison's disease, a malfunction of the adrenal glands that causes people to gain a misleadingly healthy-looking golden complexion. Here's a comparison between a person with Addison's and a healthy person of the same ethnic pigmentation -- both hands should have the same color.
The McGraw-Hill Companies/eMedicineHealth
This may be among the many diseases shared by the entire cast of Jersey Shore.
This curious side effect ended up working in Kennedy's favor. Rudimentary color televisions were gaining popularity for the first time in the early 1960s, and along comes a young-looking candidate with a permanent movie star tan (it also helped that Nixon had another condition that made his face look like a butt).
Kennedy always denied having Addison's disease, because the condition required constant treatment and could result in a coma, which isn't exactly a desirable feature for a president. Recently declassified medical files, however, confirmed that he did have the disease, and that it was more serious than everyone thought -- between 1955 and 1957, he was hospitalized nine times. Had Kennedy not been assassinated, the condition probably would have caused further complications down the line.
If the gonasyphaherpilitis didn't get him first.
Lincoln, on the other hand, may have owed his unnatural height, narrow face, long arms and legs, and small lower jaw to Marfan syndrome, a condition that weakens the connective tissue in your body. Some researchers disagree and claim that Lincoln's build was caused by a genetic mutation that is shared by 11 generations of Lincoln relatives -- either way, most researchers seem to agree that there was something wrong with his DNA.
But maybe we shouldn't say "wrong with" when we're talking about a politician in a world where we are more likely to see tall people as leaders, as a leftover psychological quirk from the days when leadership was defined by one's ability to wrestle a Bengal tiger. Oh, and remember when we said a narrow face is one of the symptoms of Marfan syndrome? Well, you might already know that Lincoln grew his iconic beard because a little girl wrote him a letter suggesting it. You might not know that she said he should do it because of his weird, thin face.
"Seriously, Abe, you're freaking people the fuck out."
You can check out Sam's mutation on Twitter or email him, where he can write you stuff if you're nice to him.
For more mutants amongst us, check out 7 People From Around the World With Real Mutant Superpowers. Or check out while we'll soon all have our own comic book adventures in 5 Superpowers Science Will Give Us in Our Lifetime.
If you're pressed for time and just looking for a quick fix, then check out 4 Signs the Backlash Against Justin Bieber Has Begun.
And stop by LinkSTORM to learn how you can become awesome like Ant-Man.
Do you have an idea in mind that would make a great article? Then sign up RIGHT NOW and pitch your first article today! Do you possess expert skills in image creation and manipulation? Mediocre? Even rudimentary? Are you frightened by MS Paint and simply have a funny idea? You can create an infographic and you could be on the front page of Cracked.com tomorrow!
And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to get sexy, sexy jokes sent straight to your news feed. Are you on Google+? So are we!


text:
Einstein's general relativity assumes the equivalence of acceleration and gravitation. Is there a general class of gravity theories that have this property but disagree with general relativity? Will such theories automatically satisfy any of the tests of general relativity such as the precession of mercury or the bending of light?
Dear Carl, my overall moral answer is the opposite one to the first two answers, so let me write a separate answer. My overall message is that with the right minimal extra assumptions, a correct theory respecting the equivalence principle has to agree with GR at cosmological distances.
There are various modifications or competitors of GR, see e.g. this list:
First of all, most of the theories tend to be given by an action. This is needed to preserve the Noether conservation laws for symmetries, and so on. No interesting (viable enough and new enough) non-action theory is known, as far as I know.
The equivalence principle requires that local physics must know how it's mapped to the flat Minkowski space - so there must exist the metric tensor at each point. However, there may also exist other fields or degrees of freedom.
One class you find in the list above is Brans-Dicke theory. It's an example of a broader class of theories that contain new scalar or tensor fields, besides the metric tensor. Torsion is a popular, frequently discussed addition by the people working on "competition to GR".
If such fields are massless, they may modify the long-distance physics. But they effectively destroy the equivalence principle, too. If the extra fields are massless (like moduli, massless scalar fields), their values should be viewed as a part of the gravitational field but these values influence local physics. That's really forbidden.
So when understood sufficiently strictly, only the metric tensor should form the spectrum of massless (or light) fields.
Then, you may have many theories which are GR plus additional fields. The additional fields are then treated "matter fields". They can be anything. An interesting subclass are Kaluza-Klein theories. In them, many new massive fields may be understood as coming from a higher-dimensional general relativity.
With the equivalence principle fully respected, we really deal with theories defined by an action where the metric tensor is the only massive "gravitational" field. The action for the other fields - matter - is a separate question and there are of course many choices. The action for the metric tensor must be diffeomorphism invariant.
One may prove that such an action, to have the invariance, must be a function of the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives, with properly contracted indices. For example, terms like $$\nabla_\alpha R_{\beta\gamma\delta\epsilon} \nabla^\alpha R^{\beta\gamma\delta\epsilon}$$ are tolerable. However, all such terms contain either extra covariant derivatives or extra powers of the Riemann tensor, relatively to the Ricci scalar $R$. For dimensional reasons, all such extra terms have to be multiplied by a positive power of a distance $L$ and it seems likely that all such distances $L$ that could occur are microscopic or ultramicroscopic. So all such terms become negligible at cosmological (or astrophysical) distances. In this long-distance limit, the gravitational theory has to be given by the Einstein-Hilbert action e.g. Einstein's equations and the predictions for Mercury and bending of light are inevitable.
It wasn't an accident that Einstein ended up with the right theory. He had to - and many of his "heuristic" arguments (especially "minimality") may be justified by the more valid RG-like $L$-argument above.
The principle of equivalence is built on the observation that motion of matter due to gravity is independent of any of its specific characteristics, it is universal. Contrast that with the electric force, where different particles with different charges will move along different trajectories. Gravity is different because of the equality of the gravitational and inertial masses.
Since gravity affects everything in a universal way, you can declare it to be a property of spacetime instead of being a force. In Einstein's gravity the effect of gravity is summarized in the geometry or more specifically the metric of spacetime. A priori you could imagine that gravity can be manifested in some other universal property of spacetime, but metric is the only choice I know of.
But, once you choose the metric to encode the force on test particles due to gravity, I think the principle of equivalence doesn't give any more information. For example, it does not tell you how the metric responds to matter sources - how much spacetime curvature is created by some source of energy-momentum. There could be many answers to this question, all of which would satisfy the principle of equivalence, most of which will differ (potentially dramatically) from GR. For example, if you replace the Einstein-Hilbert action by some more general function of curvature invariants, you'd get a modification of GR which is generally covariant and satisfies the equivalence principle.
The real question here is the meaning of the Equivalence Principle: i like to think of in terms of the Fröbenius Theorem.
In this sense, you could modify the Action by powers of the scalar curvature (Ricci scalar) and get equations of motion different than those of GR — but the Equivalence Principle would still be satisfied (to some approximation). See, for example, $f(R)$ Gravity.
I would like to pick up one class of theories touched apon by Lubos, namely the Torsion extensions of General Relativity. The classic one being the Einstein-Cartan Theory.
This theory introduces some form of spin coupling in addition to (metric) gravity. The Torsion tensor is zero in GR and this theory maps Torsion onto a spin connection (both antisymmetric). All this will also cause the Stress-Energy Tensor to not be symmetric (unlike in GR). Note that these spin components are somewhat classical concepts.
So strictly this theory does not obey the Equivalence Principle (I think) as "spin" components could result in a different measure in a gravitational field. However the Wikipedia article states that any deviation is at $10^{-15}$ and so undetectable (at least on Earth). Some quoted arguments point out that the theory is valid around rotating Black Holes, so effects might be noticable there. Otherwise the Einstein-Cartan theory is not ruled out by observations.
Wikipedia also tells us that these ideas formed part of the basis of Loop Quantum Gravity (Ashtekar Variables); and introducing Torsion does provide some element of a mathematical completion to GR. (I believe that Einstein was not aware of the Torsion concept in 1918 and so it is zero in GR simply because he didnt know of it, rather than that it was explicitly considered and rejected. Once Einstein learned of Torsion he became excited by it and even wrote popular News articles explaining it.)
While it is a trivial example, any set of equations in the form of the GR equations with different constants would satisfy the equivalence principle while not being confirmed experimentally. For example, if one took G to be 42 (in conventional units) and the speed of light to be 200 meters per hour, you would have a logically consistent set of equations that met the equivalence principle but did not reproduce GR.
A less trivial example is that the value of the cosmological constant is not constrained tightly by anything else in GR. Other than Hubble constant scale astronomy observations, changing it really doesn't change anything else in GR.
Bekenstein's TeVeS theory is an example of a non-GR set of equations that satisfy the equivalence principle while producing effects similar to those observed an attributed to dark matter in the weak field that does reproduce the classic GR experimental tests. (To be clear, I am not stating that TeVeS is the correct theory, particularly after the Bullet Cluster, merely that it has the mathematical character we are discussing.) More generally, Bekenstein's effort suggests that it is possible as a general matter to craft equations that reduce to GR in most cases and meet the equivalence principle, but differ from it in a systemic way in either the strong field case, or the weak field case, or both.
Similarly, there is no obvious reason in my mind that one couldn't have a set of equivalence principle compliant, non-GR equations in which gravity was also, for example, a function of overall electro-weak charge, which is neutral in all known cases where GR is observed in astronomy.
Polarizable vacuum representation of general relativity by Puthoff, 1999
Abstract: Standard pedagogy treats topics in general relativity (GR) in terms of tensor formulations in curved space-time. Although mathematically straightforward, the curved space-time approach can seem abstruse to beginning students due to the degree of mathematical sophistication required. As a heuristic tool to provide insight into what is meant by a curved metric, we present a polarizable-vacuum (PV) representation of GR derived from a model by Dicke and related to the "THεµ" formalism used in comparative studies of gravitational theories
pag 11 : Comparison of the Metric Tensors in the GR and PV Approaches
(the gravitational redshift, the bending of light and the advance of the perihelion of Mercury)
Since long ago there exists Relativistic Theory of Gravity (RTG) by A.A. Logunov with co-authors where gravity is a physical field in the Minkowski space-time acting on matter as an effective metric of an effective Riemann space-time. It carries energy-momentum and is different from pure geometry. In this theory there are additive conservation laws. It describes all known experimental data but it does not predict black holes (there is no singularities in it). Instead there are heavy objects of finite size. Some Logunov's papers are now available on arXiv.
I don't know that there's any general class of theories that compete with GR. If a competitor doesn't agree with experimental tests to date it wouldn't be viable.
The vast majority of tests of GR have been tests of the Schwarzschild metric. It's possible to tweak that metric so that it's compatible with quantum mechanics (unlike GR) yet is still confirmed by every experimental test of the Schwarzschild metric to date, including the anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury. Also the black hole information loss paradox vanishes. Tweaking the metric, as long as it's still a smooth curvature, doesn't necessarily deny compatibility with the equivalence principle.


text:
A taste of pure Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich
Experience mobile life without carrier or Samsung overlays. Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich lets you customize your screen for faster access to the widgets you use most. Multitasking is no longer a chore with quicker access to notifications and recently used apps. Blazing web browsing and voice-controlled search lets you find what you are looking for, faster. Have the wonderful world of Google™ at your finger's command, with services such as Gmail™, Google Maps™ and Google Search and access social media sites with pre-loaded Google+™ and YouTube™.
Watch, play and listen wherever you go
The Galaxy Discover comes pre-loaded with Google Mobile Services, which means wherever you go, your entertainment now goes with you. And there's plenty of it. You'll have over 675,000 apps at your fingertips and the whole Google Play™ Store to lose yourself in. Here, you can browse through thousands of Google Play Books and Google Play Magazines, and listen to all your favorite tunes through Google Music.
A phone that takes your breath away
With the vibrant clarity of a large, brilliant touchscreen, you'll never look at a phone the same way again. Pictures of the snow-peaked Rockies, or sunsets over Maui, will suddenly make you feel as though you are there. Watching movies will make you feel like you're in the middle of all the action. And games will become even more nail-biting.
Share your life in detail
Always be ready for when that magic moment happens and be confident about capturing it in sharp detail. With the Galaxy Discover you will always have a premium camera and camcorder at hand. Whether it's a picture of friends or a video of someone's surprise birthday party, you'll have it covered. And if you get snap-happy, you have more memory covered too, with optional expandable storage up to 32GB.
Look, no wires
You can now use Bluetooth® Technology 3.0 in your phone to connect with your headsets, car kits, TVs and even entertainment systems at home. So you are now free to share all your pictures, videos and music with any Bluetooth device.


text:
I've seen a couple of Stack Apps that have the actual picture for the user profile. Is that coming from the API, and if so how? If not I'm assuming they are using some screen-scrapping to get that URL.
AFAIK StackExchange network uses gravatars. Hence you can get their profile picture from their email address (check the gravatar site for details).
Actually, the API does this already, and I'd prefer this method over using my email address. In fact, the reason for the Stack Exchange API is so that our apps don't have to rely on third parties that may break, change their APIs, misuse our data, or go away. Additionally, if your app doesn't need access to sending me emails, then I'd just prefer you not have my email address, as no one else on Stack Exchange has it.
The above is an example request, that uses my username instead, to retrieve my gravitar profile image. My email address isn't needed. You don't need to ask me for it at account creation in your app, which means I'm more likely to use your app.
In addition, it may be easier to pull these details by userId, such as this example:
To create your own /users filter, see the users API or the Users by ID API.


text:
I guess that energy will be used up and, at the end, will contribute to heat the earth, so I see no big differences... please explain your point of view.
If humans were able to catch all sun energy reaching the earth for their use, will the climate change?
Taking the question at face value, the answer is yes. In order to collect all the solar energy arriving at the Earth you would have to completely cover its surface in solar panels. These solar panels would have to encase the entire atmosphere, because otherwise some energy would be reflected by clouds. This would leave no energy left to drive photosynthesis, which would very rapidly change the atmosphere's composition - we'd run out of oxygen unless we used some of the energy to make more. There would also be no energy to drive the water cycle, the ocean circulation or the wind. In short there wouldn't be a climate any more.
However, let's instead assume a more sensible scenario and say that humans only decide to extract all the solar energy that reaches the surface of the Earth in places that are currently deserts, so that most of the plants on Earth are still able to survive and we could still feed ourselves using agriculture. This would produce far more energy than we currently use. Whether this would have a substantial effect on the climate is not obvious. It would heat those regions up a bit (since deserts currently reflect quite a bit of sunlight back into space) and maybe this would cause changes in weather patterns. However, the main consideration would be what effect this would have on greenhouse gases. That depends on what we use all that extra energy for, and whether we keep on using fossil fuels at the same time, so it's pretty hard to answer.
If humans were able to catch all sun energy reaching the earth for their use, will the climate change? It would depend on how much of that energy ends up as heat. Currently, a proportion is reflected back into space: the Earth has a non-zero albedo - it is not perfectly black, and does reflect back into space. Pretty much all the rest does end up as heat.
If we were to capture all of the incoming solar energy, effectively making the earth's albedo zero, then it would depend on how much of the energy ended up as heat, and how much of the energy became embedded as chemical or other potential energy (to take a ludicrous example: we could use the captured solar energy to lift boulders up Everest). If the same amount of energy ended up as heat as it does now, and if the geographic and temporal distribution of heat were the same as it is now, and if the content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stayed as they are now, then the climate would not change at the scale of a human lifetime (but would continue to evolve at the scale of thousands to millions of years).
If, however, the distribution of heat changed, or the total amount of heat changed, (or both changed), then the climate would change within a human lifetime. Just as it is changing now, within a human lifetime, because of the dramatic increase in concentrations of greenhouse gases.
If all the incoming solar energy were ultimately converted to heat on the Earth's surface and we totally prevented the Earth from radiating thermal radiation, the temperature would be going up by something close to 1 °C a day or so – the same warming we experience every day (and the cooling at night).
More realistically, the Earth has to radiate thermal radiation. Still, if all the incoming radiation from the Sun were converted to heat and radiated as thermal radiation, the Earth would effective have no albedo (no reflectivity) and the temperature would go up by a hundred of degrees because right now, the albedo is 0.37 or so which means that some energy is reflected.
If you're more modest and you keep the albedo, then nothing changes about the heat transfer. Instead of going to solar panels, the energy may go into crops of the same color.
But let me return to the other part of this thought experiment, i.e. to the question how the energy is used. All the "ifs" above are unjustified. It is not true that – as you write – all the energy we would get from the omnipresent solar panels would ultimately be converted to heat. We are doing lots of other things with the energy. For example, we use fluorescent light bulbs, so some of the energy is radiated – partially to outer space – in the form of "cold light" at visible frequencies. The light that our light bulbs from the cities emits to outer space – which you see from an airplane – doesn't contribute to the change of the temperature on the Earth.
Even more importantly, a part of the energy is used to move matter. When we build skyscrapers, we may use electromagnetic motors. So a part of the solar energy would be going to the potential energy of stones and bricks in the buildings – into the increase of height non-uniformities on the Earth's surface.
So you should be better very careful about the diverse possible fates of the energy. On one hand, you're right that if (dark) solar panels replace (lighter) plants or ice/snow on the surface, we will be getting more energy from the Sun. But on the other hand, it's not true that all this energy gets ultimately changed to trapped heat – you shouldn't forget light escaping to space and potential energy of rocks and water, among other things.
I kept a statement to the very end. What matters for the temperature of the Earth is not just the albedo; it's the "greenhouse effect", too. You may still compare the situations in which the energy is obtained from solar panels; and from fossil fuels. If there will be enhanced greenhouse gases, it's more likely than not that the effect of the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will be somewhat greater than the change of the albedo from the solar panels. One has to do the full calculation to settle this question. But even as a climate skeptic, I have to warn everyone: the change of greenhouse gases modifies the equilibrium temperature of the Earth "permanently" (well, for a hundred of years or so) each time we burn a gigaton of carbon; on the other hand, the absorption of energy by a solar panel only changes the energy budget on a one-time basis.
At any rate, all those discussions above are academic in character. In the real world, the changes of the temperature by a changed albedo or changed concentration of greenhouse gases are so small that we can't really isolate it from other, mostly stochastic changes of the temperature on Earth and from each other. Over the centuries, we may have modified the equilibrium temperature of the Earth by changes to the greenhouse gases; and by tenths of a degree by changes of the albedo, too. None of those things can ultimately compete with the glaciation cycles that are driven by astronomical processes and that dominate the temperature changes at the 10,000-year or 100,000-year timescale.


text:
This photo was accidentally captured by me. Can it be considered to have bokeh? I am confused, because it does not have any foreground in focus.
The Japanese word
Bokeh ranges in quality from poor, where blur circles are rough and polygonal with poor uniformity to very high, where blur circles are smooth and perfectly round, with clean uniformity or a slight spheric grade from center to edge. Circular apertures with rounded diaphragm blades generally create more pleasing bokeh, and a slight amount of spherical aberration in a lens tends to create the most pleasing bokeh.
In your specific shot, you do indeed have bokeh. The quality of your bokeh appears to be lower than one would really look for in a photograph. Its a bit rough and the blur circles are not entirely uniform. Your shot is also only slightly out of focus...you might notice better results if you put it out of focus even more, however without a useful foreground subject...bokeh is largely useless.
It looks to me like bokeh, and nothing but bokeh. I'm actually interested by the little colored lights in the middle. With some cropping, this might become an appealing -- if abstract -- composition.
Every picture has some level of bokeh - as its the quality of the out of focus blur and there's always some out of focus blur since lenses focus a single plane and we live in a 3D world.
This looks like just a totally out of focus picture to me.
Technically, yes, this is bokeh. Bokeh really only refers to the blurring that occurs in the out of focus area of a picture. But I personally wouldn't think of this as bokeh but just an out of focus picture. Most times bokeh is referred to it is always that which is not in focus.
This site has a good discussion on bokeh and why some people think that bokeh is more than just an out of focus area of a picture.
Yes, this is, in fact Bokeh. Bokeh refers to the part of a picture that is out-of-focus. It doesn't matter whether it is in the background or foreground. The picture is very interesting, and with certain adjustments though, could look nice.


text:
Please enter a maximum of 5 recipients. Use ; to separate more than one email address.
Foster Wheeler was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract by Enterprise Products for a propane dehydrogenation unit (PDH) and associated power, utilities and infrastructure at Mont Belvieu, Texas. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Foster Wheeler was awarded an engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) contract by
Enterprise Products for a propane dehydrogenation unit (PDH)
and associated power, utilities and infrastructure at Mont
Belvieu, Texas.
The contract value was not disclosed. An initial release of
engineering and procurement services, made under Foster
Wheelers master services agreement with Enterprise, will
be included in the companys second-quarter 2013
The balance of the EPC work will be booked with the execution
of this EPC contract and will be included in the companys
third-quarter 2013 bookings, according to Foster Wheeler
The construction phase of the project will be executed through
Foster Wheelers combined use of direct-hire labor and
The award for this world-scale project is clear evidence of our
ability to be a major player in the US chemicals market,
reflecting our extensive chemicals expertise and confirming our
EPC project execution capability,
said Umberto della Sala, chief operating officer of
Foster Wheeler.
It is a significant step forward in the expansion of our relationship with
Enterprise, and we are focused on delivering world-class
performance to meet our clients business objectives," he
All comments are subject to editorial review.
All fields are compulsory.
Tommy Gordon
I am a CWI API 570 presently working for Zachry as QC Capital Projects 40 yrs experience in pipe welding I have tried sending Resume I need a email address. Baytown and Mount Belvieu are close to my house
Kiewit Recruiters
Michael--you should contact the Kiewit recruiting team in Houston and consider working with us. We have a tremendous amount of opportunity. Around here, we make each day count. That's because people are counting on us. We're behind some of the largest and most innovative projects in the world. We help people live better. We help them get where they need to be. And we do it on a larger-than-life-scale. There's nothing ordinary about working here. So roll up your sleeves because you're in for big things. Kiewit offers something that no other employer can touch – we hire the best people to work on some of the most important projects in the industry. Simply put, you will not find a more challenging and personally rewarding career anywhere else. From day one, you're part of a team that impacts and improves lives every day through the work that we do. Our employees have a strong sense of pride because their work matters. We expect your best and we will provide you the tools to achieve and build upon that, including expansive training programs and advancement opportunities that are directly based on your contribution. Hit me up on linkedin if you have any questions, day or night. I would love to help you in any way I can. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sean-beaver/3/560/745
I am currently employed by S@B I am over the Field Material Management out of the corporate office which includes warehousing material receiving and issuing I have been with them 21 years and looking for a new possible employment I have a long list of others that work for me now that maybe looking also
Sign-up for the Free Daily HP Enewsletter!
A searchable database of project activity in the global hydrocarbon processing industry
Engineers and designers are highly skilled individuals. Forcing them to enter design changes using tables, forms and spreadsheets is unproductive and uneconomical, and it increases the likelihood of human error—this is the way that most instrumentation software systems currently work. For too long, software vendors have denied engineers and designers the simple practicality of a graphical visual engineering interface with "drag and drop" capability and inbuilt intelligence, ensuring changes are automatically replicated into all the associated data and databases.
Is 2016 the peak for US gasoline demand?
Too soon to tell
July 2016


text:
1958 Chevy Fleetside Truck - Artistic ExpressionWritten by on October 1, 2005 Anne & Don Heckman's '58 Chevy Fleetside
Some play sports at a young age and become professional athletes. Others have musical abilities and become musicians, singers, or songwriters.
Anne and Don Heckman of Granada Hills, California, express themselves artistically through their life's work. Anne danced ballet from the age of 6, professionally with the San Francisco Ballet Company as an adult, and later taught budding ballerinas. Don has been a professional bodyman and painter since 1969. He has helped build numerous customs, hot rods, and custom classic trucks (see "Painter's Protg," page 48). Don performed much of the bodywork and painted the blue '33 Ford roadster that appeared on the popular '90s TV show Home Improvement, which starred Tim "The Toolman Taylor" Allen.
After painting so many award-winning rides for other hobbyists, Don wanted to build a vintage Chevy truck. One day with a Magoo's Street Rods customer, he bartered away his VW Squareback for a '58 Chevy Fleetside with an aluminum camper shell. When Don removed the camper shell, he realized he had traded for a big-window pickup. Shaving the door handles and emblems and fabricating a custom rear roll pan in the process, he completed the bodywork with confidence.
The truck's foundation required a bit more attention. Magoo's Street Rods in Canoga Park, California, replaced the front suspension with a stock '75 Nova subframe, KYB shocks, and 60/40 Moroso springs. A '86 Firebird contrib-uted a rack-and-pinion steering system and a 10-bolt 3.08:1 differential. KYB gas shocks were also implemented to enhance the the rear suspension's ride. Don ran stainless steel lines for the braking system and supplied the shop that he worked for, Magoo's, with the '86 Firebird's 305ci small-block.
Utilizing TRW forged pistons, chrome-moly rings, a Crane Cams bumpstick, a B&M intake, and a 750-cfm Holley double pumper, Magoo's and Don rebuilt the mill to make 375 horses. To back the engine, the Firebird's TH350 was optimized with a B&M 1,800-stall converter and B&M trans cooler.
With most of the mechanical work accomplished, Don could focus on the most creative component of his craft-applying an artistic paint job. Spraying several coats of custom-mixed candy blues, violets, and ice-blue pearls on the panel paint scheme made for an emphatically unusual '58 Chevy Fleetside. Walt Prey framed Don's work with deliciously detailed pinstriping.
Since such exuberance was embodied in the Chevy's exterior, Don felt a basic interior would be appropriate. After he painted much of the cab in a neutral light gray, Roman trimmed the stock bench seat in light-gray vinyl and dark-gray tweed, using the same materials for the headliner.
Working after-hours and weekends, the Heckman's hauler took but a year to build. Don thanks his wife Anne, who passed away too young last November, for letting him be an automotive craftsman/artist all these years, and for her love and support. "Anne has gone now, but is not forgotten, never in this lifetime, by many people." We offer our condolences, Don, and appreciate making the acquaintance of such a nice guy and automotive artisan.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
Though the Heckman's '58 Fleetside has been finished for a while, the exterior appears fresh from Don's paint booth.For a bit of splash, Don repeated the paint hues on the top of the dash, as well as the door-panel inserts.A Lecarra light-gray leather-wrapped steering wheel looks at home in front of the factory instrument cluster. Gray wool carpet with light-gray piping complements the two-tone gray seat and headliner, all trimmed by Roman.Notice the Mooneyes covering the stock-style headlights. Don filled, painted, lowered, and reinstalled the front bumper.Frenched antennae are one of the subtle custom elements that represent the owner's fabrication skill.Thanks to the addition of a 144 B&M blower, the rebuilt 305ci engine makes upward of 375 hp. Magoo's Street Rods stock-style Ram Horns exhaust manifolds send the spent gases through the owner-fabricated custom exhaust system.


text: Do the cultures of proprietary companies impede innovation? Do open source companies need a different sort of leadership? I've got my theories, but I don't have much to compare it to from my own experiences. I've been at Red Hat, a very open culture, for seven years and did a two-year tour at... Read more