text:
Networked Display Node
Networked Display Node
NDN-220 PRO TransForm N Display Node
NDN-220 PRO TransForm N Display Node US
NDN-220 PRO TransForm N Display Node EU
NDN-220 PRO TransForm N Display Node UK
NDN-220 PRO TransForm N Display Node XX
Barco's TransForm N Networked Display Node is a powerful PC-based networked graphics processor. It is used in the networked visualization environment of a TransForm N system and can display encoded streams coming from the Gbit Ethernet/IP network. H-264, V2D and ProServer represent just the top of a long list of supported codecs and streaming formats. Furthermore, the display controller also has a high-end graphics card to perform the rendering operations as are requested by the TransForm N management clients in the network.
The NDN-220 Pro Output nodes can display high density content and can drive up to sixteen HD displays with a single node. The unit supports multiple different types of displays including the whole range of Barco display solutions like RPC, LCD & LED.
Managed by CMS inside the TransForm N system multiple NDN-220 Pro output nodes can be combined in a wall-cluster to show a composed synchronized picture on display walls of virtually unlimited size. The NDN-220 Pro offers a dedicated sync-cable based full frame-lock synchronization between up to 30 nodes suiting the needs of video-walls with advanced synchronization requirements.
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text: ConstitutionNet Updates: March 2017 Dear Reader, The March newsletter includes four Voices from the Field and a number of updates on constitutional reform processes around the world. Kazakhstan adopted a series of constitutional amendments that, contrary to previous constitutional changes aimed at expanding presidential powers, redistribute these powers between different branches of the government. Lack of political pluralism in the country makes this reform remain only on paper, at least for now. Yet, in the long run, it may contribute to an important political transition and more checks and balances once the current president, Nazarbayev, leaves the office. Adoption of the new Law on Local and Regional Elections in Tunisia breaks with centralization and moves towards decentralization allowing the establishment of grassroots democracy and equitable development between the country's different regions what reflects postulates of the Tunisian upraising. Gambia has been undergoing constitutional reform since the new president, Adama Barrow, entered into power. Legislative changes comprised electoral issues, change of retirement age and removal of upper age limit for holding office as President, introduction of presidential age limits and amendment of media laws to ensure protection of the freedom of speech. Since adoption of Somalia's Provisional Constitution in 2012, the country authorities were not able to finalize constitution-making process scheduled to conclude in August 2016. A number of options were presented but no consensus was reached between the Federal Government, Parliament and the leaders of the Federal Member States. The remaining updates cover a wide array of issues in countries ranging from Benin to Croatia and from Japan to Colombia which, taken together, give an excellent overview of recent trends in constitutional reform around the world. ConstitutionNet Analyses - Voices from the Field 2017 Constitutional Reform in Kazakhstan: increasing democracy without political pluralism? by Carna Pistan The law on local and regional elections: a step towards local democracy in Tunisia by Nidhal Mekki New Gambia and the Remaking of the Constitution by Satang Nabaneh The Somali Constitutional Review Process. Taking Stock by Jan Amilcar Schmidt Want to contribute a ConstitutionNet Analysis from the field? Contact us! What we are reading this month Op-ed: Why South-Africa's Bill of Rights does not work as it should Op-ed: 4 years after adoption only 5% of the Zimbabwe's Constitution has been implemented Op-ed: Constitutional requirements for Scotland's independence referendum Op-ed: Kazakhstan's constitutional amendments are just a decorative change experts say Africa Benin's parliament to vote new constitution this week Zimbabwe's lawmakers reject biometric voting as inconsistent with the Constitution Mauritania to vote on a series of constitutional amendments Mali to introduce a senate chamber in its constitution No passing of power in Seychelles: New constitutional amendment requires election if president leaves office South Africa to change Constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation The Gambia removes constitutional age limits for individuals holding highest state positions Free and compulsory basic education is a right of every child says Nigerian Constitutional Court Asia and the Pacific Taiwan ConCourt to hear a landmark case on same-sex marriage Pakistan amends its Constitution to reinstate military courts for terrorists India's High Court says a river enjoys rights of a legal entity according to the Constitution Japan to debate amendments to its constitutional emergency provisions New Syrian Constitution to become a key issue at Astana talks South Korean ConCourt removes the president from office to protect the Constitution Kazakh Parliament passes amendments to the Constitution Taiwan claims that its bill on transitional justice does not violate Constitution Europe French ConCourt launches investigation into CETA's constitutionality Spanish PM: Catalonia's independence referendum will breach the Constitution Controversial judgment of the Polish ConCourt can limit freedom of assembly Georgia's president to travel the country and consult constitutional amendments with citizens Calls for referendum to remove 'women's role within the home' provision from Irish constitution Public consultation crucial for the constitutional reform in Greece Iceland's president says it is time to amend the constitution Croatia's top court confirms that the right to abortion is in line with the country's Constitution North Africa/Middle East Tunisians say: Muslim marriage decree is unconstitutional Legislative initiative in Egypt to allow women hold highest judicial functions in constitutional adjudication North America Hawaii judge blocks Trump's new travel ban as unconstitutional Mexico amends parts of its Constitution dealing with labor proceedings and collective bargaining Latin America and the Caribbean Paraguay to vote constitutional amendment on presidential re-election amid controversy Colombia's ConCourt lifts ban on working under influence of narcotics More > Latest Resources What is a Constitution? Principles and Concepts Interim Constitutions: Peacekeeping and Democracy-Building Tools The role of regional organizations in the protection of constitutionalism Judicial Tenure, Removal, Immunity and Accountability Find more resources > New members on ConstitutionNet Nurhafilah Musa (Malaysia) Dienne Miller (Canada) Adi Elisapeci Samanunu Waqanivala (New Zealand) Ismail Warsame (Somalia) Geraldina Gonzalez de la Vega (Mexico) Zakarie Dabou (Burkina Faso) Adomas Abromaitis (Lithuania) Melanie Allen (United States) Michael Henry Yusingco (Philippines) Michael Nyarko (Ghana) Basel Bawazir (Yemen) Mustafa Al Bayati (Iraq) Shashi Kant (India) You are receiving this email because of your interest in constitutional reform issues and/or membership of International IDEA's constitution building thematic website ConstitutionNet.Org. Interact with ConstitutionNet: For more information on our programme, ConstitutionNet and how to contribute, contact the ConstitutionNet Team. We value your feedback! ConstitutionNet is an International IDEA project developed and maintained with generous support from the Government of Norway.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
CommutAir Embraer ERJ 145 N14171 operating as United Express flight UA4933 on March 4 from Newark to Presque Isle, Maine slide off the right side of runway on landing. 28 passengers and three crew members were on board.
Photos: Crown of Maine.
CommutAir issued this short statement:
CommutAir flight 4933, operating as United Express, from Newark, New Jersey, to Presque Isle, Maine was involved in an incident upon landing at approximately 11:30 EDT on March 4. Please see below for our official statement.


text:
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Mercury Jets handles private jet charter flights in and out of Belfast, UK. Belfast is the largest city and capital of Northern Ireland, seat of devolved government and legislative of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The city was founded by Normans in the 12th century as a fort, and at the beginning of the 17th century it developed as a centre for the Irish linen industry, rope-making, tobacco production, and shipbuilding. Nowadays Belfast is political, industrial, cultural, education, tourism, and commercial centre. The Ireland's busiest port, Belfast, serves as the maritime gateway for Europe and beyond and plays its part in helping the city achieve its full economic potential. Belfast is a big, dynamic city, which boasts rich history, scenic historic landmarks, numerous tourist attractions, wonderful gardens and parks, various sports facilities, and lively events and festivals.
The most famous places of interest are Ulster Hall, the Belfast City Hall, St.Anne's Cathedral, Grand Opera House, Belfast Castle, Ulster Brewery, Stormont Castle, Odyssey Entertainment Complex, Titanic Quarter, Victoria Square, Belfast Botanic Garden, Mount Stewart and many others. Known for its cultural life, Belfast hosts numerous festivals, including Belfast and CathedralQuarter Arts Festival, Belfast Film Festival, and Belfast CastlereaghVerbal Arts Festival. Belfast's festive atmosphere, cultural diversity, and rich architectural heritage, make it a perfect place for both domestic and international travelers. The city of Belfast is served by Londonderry Eglinton Airport (LDY), Belfast (Aldergrove) International Airport (BFS) and Belfast City Airport (BHD).


text:
This week I have only been to the library once! Normally I go at least twice but I guess with being in the city all weekend I didn't really have time to go any more than I did! When I did go, I picked up three books:
Winston's War by Michael Dobbs - I have borrowed this book at least twice before, and I really want to read it because I have read books 2 and 4 in the series, but it just hasn't happened so far!
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur - I had vaguely heard of the series that this book starts, but I was totally sold on the series as I listened to the author speak on the weekend!
The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Not too long ago I finished the first book in this series and I am definitely planning to read more!
****Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Alessandra from Out of the Blue and Eva from A Striped Armchair
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Library Loot
6 comments:
full moon rising does look really good. happy reading!ReplyDelete
Looks like fun!ReplyDelete
Great loot! Full Moon Rising sounds interesting...ReplyDelete
My loot is up too!
all 3 look like they're going to be good reads. I love listening to authors speak and meeting them!!ReplyDelete
I recently read and enjoyed Full Moon Rising. It is on the darker side of urban fantasy but was a really good read. Hope you enjoy it as well :)ReplyDelete
The Keri Arthur series is on my TBR list! I like the variety of your reading :)ReplyDelete
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text:
Chapter One
"Be still, sir" Her head turned away. "Anyone get his name?"
From across the room: "Lewis Griffin."
"Be still, Mr. Griffin. Please. Work with us here. We know the pain's bad."
I formed a slurry of words that failed to make it from mind to tongue, then tried again, something simpler: "Yes." When I was a kid we'd practice doo-wop songs in the tile bathroom at school. That's what my voice sounded like.
"I can give you something to help." She spoke across me, someone at the other side of the gurney. Gobbledy, gobbledy, fifty milligobbles.
"There. Should start easing off pretty quickly.... Better?"
"Mmm." Was it? My voice feathery now, floating. Not that the pain had gone away or diminished, but I didn't care anymore. I turned my head. Sideways room the size of a dancehall. Glare everywhere. Someone on the next stretcher was dying with great ceremony and clamor, half a dozen staff in attendance. I saw tears running down one nurse's face. She looked to be in her early twenties.
"You've been shot, Mr. Griffin. We can't be sure just how serious it is, not yet. Bear with us. Can you feel this?"
Something ran up the sole of my right foot, then the left.
"And this?"
Pinpricks on both hands. First one, a pause, then two, like Morse. A tattoo, drummers would call it. Tattoo needles. Queequeg. Fiji islanders. Gauguin in Tahiti, those brown bodies. Tattoo of rain on the roof.
"Mr. Griffin?"
"I asked could you feel that."
"Yes m'am." But I felt a tug towards something else, something other body and mind borne on separate tides, about to wash up on separate shores.
"Super. Okay, Jody, let's get blood work. ABG, SMAC, type and crossmatch from the way it's looking. X-ray's on the way, right?"
"So they tell us."
Meanwhile connections between myself and the world were faltering, as though tiny men with hatchets hacked away at cables linking us, cables that carried information, images, energy, power. The world, what I could see of it, had contracted to a round tunnel, through which I sighted. On the rim, just out of sight, images sparked and fell away into darkness. Beautiful in the way only lost things can be. Then darkness closed its hand.
She leaned close.
"Music. There, behind all the rest." Like the sound of your body coming up around you deep in the night, creaking floorboards, snap and buzz of current within walls, this singing in wires a house, a body, requires.
Nietzsche said that without music life would be a mistake. Danny Barker breathed it in and out like air. Or Buddy Bolden: carried through slaughter to cut hair at the state hospital, remembering all his life how once he'd banged the bell of his horn on the floor and got the whole town's attention. Walter Pater.
"He's hearing the Muzak overhead," someone said.
What all art aspires to, the condition of.
"That's an old Lonnie Johnson tune," I told them.
"I can't see," I said.
Suddenly she was close again and I smelled her breath, tatters of perfume and sweat, suggestion of menstrual blood, as she leaned above me.
"Tell me when you see the light, when it goes away." As the world has done. "Mr. Griffin?"
I shook my head. "Sorry."
"Jody, I want a CAT scan. Now. Radiology tries stalling, anyone up there even clears his throat, you let me know."
World rendered down to sound, sensation. Rebuild it from this, what will I get? Fine word, render, bursting at the seams. Render unto Caesar. A court chef reports: forty choice hams for rendering to stock. Deliver, give up, hand down judgment, restore. Reproduce or represent by artistic or verbal means.
A Cajun waltz with seesaw accordion replaced Lonnie Johnson overhead. Tug of the stretcher's plastic against my skin, slow burn at the back of my hand where there's a needle and drugs course in. Coppery smell of fresh blood. Layers of voices trailing off into the distance. New horizons everywhere.
Now with a lurch brakes are kicked off and we're barreling headfirst, headlong. Past patchworks of conversations, faces above, curious sounds. Through automatic doors that snap open like a soldier's salute, along hallways smelling of disinfectant, onto an elevator.
I think of Emily Dickinson's "Before I had my eye put out." Remember both Blind Willies, Blind Lemon, Riley Puckett. Maybe they'll teach me to play.
Wonder if Milton's waiting down there to give me a few tips. Friends call him Jack, wife and daughters attend his every need.
I was trying to read a book but the damned thing kept talking to me, interrupting. Don't turn this page, it would say. Or: You don't have any idea what this is all about, where I'm going with this, do you. Gotcha. You don't know the real me at all. Look, no hands!
One hand, at least.
It rested lightly on my shoulder.
"Just like home, huh, Lew. Sound asleep at three in the afternoon."
I started to grunt, but it hurt so much I didn't carry through. Those same little men who'd hacked through the cables connecting world and self had sneaked in while I slept and glued my tongue to the top of my mouth. It came loose, finally, with a tearing sound.
"You started smoking again. Pizza for lunch. Laundry's piling up."
Holmes had nothing on me. Other senses more acute and all that.
"Amazing. Absolutely amazing."
I knew he'd be shaking his head.
"Only the smell's soaked up from the department, which you'll remember is pretty much an ashtray fitted with desks and file cabinets. Pizza, right but for breakfast, not lunch. Been in the fridge a while. I think the green was peppers."
"Keep the faith."
"Not to mention the leftovers. Exactly. And I'm wearing new pants because my old ones don't fit anymore. I finally broke down, bought new ones."
Four or five pair all the same, if I knew Don. He shopped (an event taking place every decade or so) the way frontiersmen laid in provisions. Staples. In quantity.
"They've got that smell they always have. Cleaning fluids or whatever."
"Yeah, guess they do."
"You could always wash them first."
"Before I wear them?" His tone sprinkled salts of incredulity over the concept. File with Flat Earth, maybe. Or the wit and wisdom of Richard Nixon. "I don't know, Lew. Way too much time sitting behind a desk filling out paperwork, humping the phone. Ever since I came off patrol and started wearing these monkey suits. I see the street, it's out the window, like some painting, you know? Hanging on the wall. Hung up there myself."
I heard him sink into the chair alongside. One chair leg was short. He eased his weight off and moved the chair around, trying for better topography.
"So how you doing?"
"Hell if I know. Have to ask the experts."
"I did. Just came from a long talk with Dr. Shih. She's pretty sure the blindness is temporary. Happens sometimes with major trauma, she says. They don't know why."
She proved to be right. In following weeks sight returned by increments. Veil after veil fell away. Light swelled slowly till I was aware of its presence. Then light became motion, mass, outline, form at last shaped itself again into the world I knew, or something close enough.
"You remember my being here before?"
I shook my head.
"I've been by every day. It's Thursday. You were brought in over a week ago. We've had conversations, some of them truly strange. One time you went on for better than an hour about Roshomon and Ahab's gold sovereign. Then you had to tell me about some book called Skull Meat. Plot, characters, what the neighborhood looked like. Set over in Algiers. Couldn't tell whether you were supposed to have read it or written it, that kind of wobbled back and forth. Told me the book's hero finally got fed up with the whole thing and walked out right off the page. Now that's a real hero, you said."
"Must be the drugs they were giving me."
"Yeah. Must be."
"The part about the character stalking off's stolen from Queneau, of course."
"Of course."
Don shifted again in his chair. Any moment, things can fall on you, disappear from under you. What you hope, all you hope, is that the seat you're on just now's a safe one.
"Shih asked me about your drinking, Lew. Halfway through the operation you started waking up from the anesthetic. Shih says people only do that when their bodies are accustomed to high levels of depressives."
A bird alit (I guessed from the sound) on the sill outside, then with a sudden whir of wings was gone. Shadow of the waxwing slain by the false azure of the windowpane.
"I know it's been bad. Maybe some of it has to do with what happened up there in Baton Rouge. God knows what else. Maybe it's worse than either of us thought. Maybe someday we oughta sit down and talk about it."
We were quiet for a time then.
"LaVerne's been here too, you know, two, three times a day."
Sudden aromatic assault as he took the lid off a cup of café au lait.
"One for you," holding it out, waiting as my hand groped and made contact. I pushed up in bed, against the headboard. Heard him peel the lid off another cup. He blew across its mouth. The smell grew stronger.
"Shih says you shouldn't worry over the gaps for now. That some memories may come back in distorted form or not at all, but that most will come back, and for the most part whole."
There were memories, parts of my life, I wouldn't have minded losing, even back then. Don knew that's what I was thinking.
"Verne's okay?"
"Sure she is. Worried about you, like the rest of us."
We were quiet again. I imagined Don looking off the way he did, watching nothing in particular.
"You remember what happened, Lew?"
I shook my head. "Pieces. Fragments that don't fit together. Images. Some of what I do remember seems more like a dream than anything real."
"You met a woman in a bar downtown, said she was a journalist."
Random moments surfaced. Denim skirt, silk jacket. One eye peering at me through a glass of Scotch. Glass none too clean and Scotch raw as rubbing alcohol: that kind of bar.
"You stayed there just over three hours. Buster Robinson was playing. Lady's got a taste for the music, it seems. Taste for something, anyway. Last month or so, she'd made herself a regular down there along Poydras."
"But not before."
"So far as we can tell, nobody ever saw her before that. Nor will any newspaper for a hundred miles around lay claim to her."
We sipped café au lait.
"Between you you threw back close to thirty dollars' worth. She tried to put it on American Express and they just looked at her. Get serious, you know? Wound up giving them a fifty and said keep the change."
"Wanted to make sure she was remembered."
"As though a white woman down there wouldn't be already, yeah. The two of you left together then, most likely to get something to eat. Barmaid heard you talking about Ye Olde College Inn and Dunbar's. The name Eddie B. also came up a couple of times, she says. You told this Esmay woman you had to make one quick stop first."
"I was meeting Eddie Bone."
"That's how we figure it."
"Why would I do that? No one looks for Eddie Bone."
"Yeah, people've been known to leave town to avoid looking for him."
Holding the cup two-handed, I dropped an index finger to measure liquid level, brought the cup to my face, cautiously sipped.
"Give it time, Lew. You're just gonna have to pull back here all around, give things room to happen."
"And hope they do."
He must have nodded, then caught himself. "Yeah," he said.
"You'd barely stepped outside when the shots came. Couple of kids from the cleaners next door were in the alley out back on a break, passing joints and a bottle of George Dickel back and forth. They tell us you two came out the front door and stood there a minute talking, then you stepped around and embraced her. One of them remembers saying Now that's something you ain't gonna see uptown and handing the bottle over. Then the shots came. Guy reaching for the bottle dropped it."
I sipped coffee again. Sartre's got this long rap in Being and Nothingness about smoking in the dark, how different the experience becomes. In my own dark now, I was forced to admit this was one time he seemed to be onto something. Ordinary coffee, the drinking of it, had become a kind of sacrament. Visual clues missing, true. Sartre pointed out one's inability to see the smoke, to observe one's own breath course in and out. But whatever the loss, there was greater gain: the physical world, its smells, its heats and anticipations, fell upon you with unsuspected intensity.
"The shots were meant for her," I said.
Don's chair creaked.
"It's a possibility we've considered."
Finishing my coffee, I set the cup on the bedside table and heard Don's empty cup click down beside it. A group of visitors or new employees passed as though on tour at a museum in the hall outside. A young man with a voice like a rapidly dripping faucet guided them, pointing out the hospital's various departments and unique services.
"We haven't had any luck tracking her down. Maybe she's gone to ground, scared of what almost happened." Don shifted again in his chair. "For all we know, maybe it was just coincidence."
"Or a setup."
"Yeah. Have to tell you the thought crossed my mind. Mine and some others' as well. Then, the morning after this shooter takes you down, Eddie Bone himself turns up dead. He's got this room all set up at home, must be eight, ten thousand dollars worth of gym equipment in there. Squad responding to an anonymous call finds him slumped over the handlebars of his exercise bike, naked. They figure at first it's a heart attack, something like that, but then they see something hanging out of his mouth. When they raise his head they find a dead rat crammed in his mouth."
"You bet. One thing these guys have, it's a sense of humor. We didn't wonder what the connection was before, how Bone and this woman fit, where it all came from, now we have to."
With a sketchy knock the door eased open to concatenations of horns, whistles and buzzers from the lounge TV, someone winning a load on a game show. No music up here. Just this gabble of America's threadbare culture.
"Mr. Griffin. You've a visitor. From New York, he says."
My visitor from New York came in limping. Maybe he'd walked all the way. The side of one shoe dragged as he approached.
A year and spare change later, four A.M. on a Sunday, my phone would ring for Lee's wife to tell me that, waking and turning Leewards that morning, she'd found him dead. Lee's diabetes had been out of control for some time, she said remember how his feet always hurt? I hung up the phone, lay back down alongside LaVerne and held her close.
"Mr. Griffin? Thanks for seeing me."
A pause.
"Lee Gardner."
A longer pause. I realized that he'd put his hand out, reached till I found it, and shook.
"Poor choice of words, perhaps, in the circumstance. I had no idea of your situation, of course. No, wait. I need to back up here, don't I? Marvelous thing, time's elasticity. Though I suppose it always slaps into you on the snapback. Like Thurber's claw of the seapuss, gets us all in the end. I've just come from the police. A detective there gave me your name. But that's still not the place to start, is it. Sorry. And it's all mutable. Once an editor....I've already told you my name. I come from Maine. Taking care of all that David Copperfield business, right?
"I'm an editor at Icarus Books. Editor-publisher, actually. One of our authors, R. Amano you may know of his work, his novel about Gilles de Rais started at the top of the best-seller list and sank slowly through it a few years back lives here in the city. In, if you can believe it, a house trailer that once belonged to his parents. Says there's nothing he treasures more than that view of the woods on one side and, on the other, the gravel parking lot of a country-music juke joint.
"Now Hollywood wants to buy one of his books, not the Gilles de Rais, the one we thought would be a sure shot, Bury All Towers, but another one, this tiny little novel about a man on death row awaiting execution and another who comes out of a ten-year coma, been out of print twelve years at least. Ray doesn't have an agent and asked me to negotiate the contract for him, which I did. But then all of a sudden Ray stopped answering his mail. We call, this man who seldom steps outside the trailer, rolls from bed to the kitchen counter where he works and back to bed, with time out maybe for a sandwich and three pots of coffee, he's never home. I send telegrams no response. Meanwhile the producer's calling us up two, three times a week. We tell him we're on top of it, naturally.
"Sorry. I've rather torn into it here, haven't I? Forever leaping into things. Always saying sorry too, come to think of it. Mother was an actress. Grand entrances all her life. And spent most of her life apologizing, trying to explain away her regrets.
"What she really was was one of the first rock-and-rollers, sang background for an awful lot of those late-fifties, Dell Shannon, Dion, Brian Hyland things. But all her life she insisted on actress, which was the way she'd started out."
Don and I waited. New York seemed to have run down.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Gardner," I said.
Don grunted. I could have told you within inches, just from the sound, where he was. "Guess I better get on downtown. Shift changes in a couple hours and we're half a dozen men short as usual." He'd been put on the desk while recuperating from a near-fatal gunshot, kept there because with him at the helm, for the first time in years the ship failed to run aground. He hated it. "Later, Lew."
The door fanned open and shut to the sound of recycling laughter.
"You're not up to this, I need to leave, just tell me," Gardner said.
"Company's appreciated. No extra points for distance, though."
"Distance is easy. A thing I'm good at."
"We all have our strengths."
Was there, then, another rustle of wings at the window? A sound like LaVerne's satin dresses or gown.
"People out there in the lobby watching, whatsit, Days of Our Lives," Gardner said. "Doctors playing back tapes they'd made secretly months ago when everyone believed Sylvia was dying and husband Dean sat there day after day telling her 'all the things I've never told anyone.' Now Sylvia's made this miraculous recovery and it's organ chord Truth Time. My mother used to watch that show."
"Lots did. And still do."
"Not exactly Dostoevski or Dickens."
"Not even Irwin Shaw."
"But it's all we have. What we live with."
I listened to my visitor's foot drag towards the window. He pulled the window open. I was surprised this proved possible in such a building. But yes, there were sudden new tides of air, smell, sound.
"Maybe what people are starting to say, is true. Maybe what those like myself do, everything we believe in literature, fine music, fine writing, the arts generally maybe none of that matters anymore. We're digging up ruins. Quaint as archaeologists."
"I assume your Mr. Amano doesn't write soap operas."
Gardner laughed. "Actually, now that you mention it, he did for a while a few years back. Paid the rent, bought groceries, kept (as he said) slim body and slimmer soul together. Not something he wants remembered. And they were exceedingly strange soap operas.
"But I've gotten astray of any point, haven't I? Sorry.
"There's that word again.
"Mountain and Mohammed time, I finally decided. Flew in from New York, picked up a rental car and drove out to Kingfisher Mobile Home Park. The door to fourteen-D was open, naturally. Ray told me he had no idea where the key was. TV on inside, sound turned down, some old movie, flickers of light. Four plates, rinsed but far from clean, stacked by the side of the sink. Carry-out cartons in the trash, also a package of chicken awrithe with maggots beneath the wrapping. Dozen or so empty beer bottles lined against the back wall by the sink. Books everywhere."
"And no writer."
"No writer." For some reason I imagined Gardner's fingers moving about independently as he spoke, seeking phones to dial, yet-unbreached manuscripts, a desktop with objects wanting rearrangement, and thought of Nerval's disembodied hand, Cendrars's main coupée, Beast with Five Fingers. "I went immediately to the police, of course. They didn't want to hear about it. When I insisted, they filled out report forms. Told me there wasn't much they'd be able to do beyond getting this information out. I sat there drinking bad coffee and not doing the one thing they most wanted me to do, which was to go away. So finally they offered a private detective's number, said maybe I'd want to get in touch with him."
"A.C. Boudleaux." Achilles. Ah-sheel.
"The same. I finally track him down to this café the size of a railroad car on the edge of town, built out over water like steaming green soup. Looks like the place's been around long enough for Longfellow to have sat in there writing Evangeline. Boudleaux listens, then tells me 'No pun intended, but I'm swamped.' Gives me your number. 'Missing persons, you won't find anyone better.' When I call the number Boudleaux gave me, a young lady answers, tells me you're here."
"Given the circumstances, I don't see how I can help you, Mr. Gardner."
"Of course. But the circumstances were exactly what I didn't know. Now I don't know why I've gone on so about all this."
When he stood I sensed a change in light. Something moved towards me. His hand again. I found it, shook.
"Good luck to you, Mr. Griffin."
"And to you."
He went out the door. Not much by way of sound out there now. Hall lights bright like a sea around the dark, dark island of his form.
That night LaVerne stopped by on her way to work with a cassette player and a recording of black poets reading their work.
"Something I thought you might like, Lew."
I did. And must have listened to it thirty or forty times over the next several days. Something about being cut off from the visual world made that tape so much more real to me, so much more substantial. I began living in those words and voices living through them.
LaVerne had heard the album, from a New York label that put out a steady stream of Southern field recordings, folk music by aging Trotskyites and suburban youngsters, klezmer, polka, at a client's home.
My arms went out and she was there, in them.
"You smell good."
"I won't for long. Seven at night and it still has to be a hundred degrees out there."
"You could take the night off."
"And do what? You just get yourself well and come home. Then I'll take the night off. Maybe several nights."
"You mean like a date?"
"Yeah." Whenever she focused on something close, LaVerne's eyes seemed to cross. It gave her face a vulnerable, softly sexy look. Broke my heart every time. I couldn't see her then, but I knew she was doing it. "Yeah, like a date, Lewis."
She stretched out on the bed beside me, smoothed her dress back under her. Neither of us spoke for a while.
I don't remember this, of course. Verne told me about it later, some of it. The rest, I imagined into place.
"It's been a while since we did this, Verne."
Turning, she tucked her head against my arm. I felt the warmth of her breath on my chest as she spoke.
"I miss you, Lew. Miss you sometimes even when you're there. But I miss you a whole lot more when you're gone."
I don't know how long we lay like that. Once a nurse started peremptorily into the room, fetched up stock-still just inside the door and backed out without a word.
When LaVerne sat up, the fabric of her satin dress crackled. She wore her hair long then, cut straight across front and back.
"Maybe this is different from most of life, Lewis. Maybe this is something we can fix."
I put my hand on her waist.
After a moment she stood. Began tucking things in. Breast, hair, slip. Her sadness.
"Have to go, Lew. Late enough start as it is."
"If it's as hot as you say it is, things'll be slow on the street."
"You never know. Sometimes heat just brings the beast out."
"Take care..." She was almost to the door. "Verne?"
A pause. "Yeah, Lew."
"Is it dark outside?"
That's what bothered me most. Where things were, the shapes of rooms, finding my way to toilet and lavatory all minor problems. But being suspended in time, out of the gather and release of the day, was something else entirely, an immeasurable loss.
"Almost," she said.
"A clear night?"
"Pinpricks of stars in the upper window. Moon will be full in another day or two."
"And city lights stretched out below us."
"Diminutive fires of the planet, Neruda called them."
"Sure he did. See you tomorrow, hon."
I remembered lines from a Langston Hughes poem: Night comes slowly, black like me. Once LaVerne was gone, I nudged tape into player. Sure enough, Hughes's poem was there, right after one about a lynching. Further along was another, by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, that would haunt me for years.
I think that may have been the first time I thought about all these different languages we use. Danny Barker used to talk about that, how with this group of musicians he'd talk one way, that way with another one, uptown and downtown talk, and still he'd have this private language he'd use at home, among friends. We all do that. To survive, our forebears learned dissimulation and mimickry, learned never to say what they truly thought. They knew they were gon be here a taste. That same masking remains in many of us, in their children's blood, a slow poison. So many of us no longer know who, or what, we are.
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text:
CNN released a news article a little while back titled "With anti-addiction pill, 'no urge, no craving'" that seems to suggest that a cure for addiction has been found. As usual, news reporting on these sort of topics revolves around a kernel of truth, with nice window dressing an a serving of embellishment.
While naltrexone, and topiramate, have been shown to improve outcomes in addiction treatment, they have by no means revealed anything that would warrant giving them the title "anti-addiction pills."
Indeed, there are now a few different preparations of Naltrexone, including a long acting version called Vivitrol that while relatively expensive, has been shown to be relatively effective at cutting relapse rates for both alcoholics AND heroin (or opiate addicts). Note the difference though here between my language and that used by CNN; Naltrexone has been shown to reduce relapse rates, not eliminate them, and current research seems to show that it is most effective only for specific groups of alcoholics who have a specific type of Mu opioid receptor.
As the article points out, a combination of therapies, including behavioral therapies, medications, and social-support, are still the best option when it comes to addiction treatment.
We're a long way off from finding anything that can be considered a cure for addiction, no matter what some treatment centers like to claim, but these pills should help us stem the tide while we keep looking…


text:
Warlock Asylum International News believes in the acknowledgment of unsolicited achievements. It is for this reason that in 2016 a consistent program of recognition was put together to make sure that the voice of the people is heard above corrupt industries.
In 2020, we have expanded the reach of our website and community. We have made some additional categories and have removed a few others for a much more organized experience. The awards are given out based on the merit of the recipient up till the announced year. I would like to personally thank our readers and subscribers for their continued support.
- 2020 Song of the Year: When I Hear (Beautiful Music) by Janet LaBelle
- 2020 Dance Artist of the Year: Azriel Wallace
- 2020 Humanitarian of the Year Award: Robert Kajiwara
- 2020 Songwriter of the Year Award: Estelle California
- 2020 Rap Song of the Year: Soul Sister Retribution by Rockie Brown
- 2020 Country Music Artist of the Year: Rob Georg
- 2020 Ambient & Experimental Music Artist of the Year Award: Morpheus Project
- 2020 Adult Film Star of the Year: Abella Danger
- 2020 Author of the Year: Baal Kadmon
- 2020 Shaman of the Year: Terrane Hicks
- 2020 Podcast of the Year: High & Horny by Kira Noir


text:
Debt and deficit fluctuations in a time-consistent setup
Grechyna, Daryna (2016) Debt and deficit fluctuations in a time-consistent setup. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 20 (7) . pp. 1771-1794. ISSN 1365-1005 [Article] (doi:10.1017/S1365100515000073)
- Final accepted version (with author's formatting)
Download (355kB) | Preview
This paper compares the stochastic behavior of fiscal variables under optimal fiscal policy for the cases of full commitment by the government (Ramsey problem) and no commitment by the government (focusing on differentiable Markov perfect equilibrium). It shows that the cyclical properties of fiscal variables are similar for both commitment assumptions.
These conclusions are robust to two different specifications of the structure of public bonds (risk-free and state-contingent), and to different sets of the parameters. The cyclical properties of fiscal variables, regardless of commitment assumptions, can be determined by the parameters of the utility function.
|Item Type:
|Research Areas:
|A. > Business School > Economics
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|Notes on copyright:
|This article has been published in a revised form in Macroeconomic Dynamics, http://doi.org/10.1017/S1365100515000073. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University Press 2015
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|Depositing User:
|Daryna Grechyna
|Date Deposited:
|07 Apr 2015 13:21
|Last Modified:
|29 Nov 2022 21:33
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text:
Home prices in the metro area and statewide have shown some early signs that they may be breaking the pandemic-era trend of steep increases.
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Kelly Moye bought her first house in the north Denver metro area for $120,000. That was in 1991.
Prices likely won't ever come back down to that level, said Moye, who has worked as a Realtor for three decades. But home prices in the metro area and statewide have shown some early signs that they may be breaking the pandemic-era trend of steep increases.
August was the fourth consecutive month of decreases in the median price for single-family homes in the metro area and statewide, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors' most recent report. The median price was $620,000 in August in the metro area, down from $660,000 in April.
And while the single-family home prices are still up compared to this time last year, the rate of year-over-year growth in prices has slowed for the last several months in the metro area and statewide.
But Colorado's housing situation is still dire: This spring, the measure of housing affordability tracked by the association reached its lowest level since at least 2014 for both metro Denver and the state as a whole. While the market remains in an affordability crisis, the tracker has at least started to turn in the other direction.
The federal government's move in recent months to raise interest rates — the cost of borrowing money — to combat inflation "almost changed our market overnight," Moye said.
Still, Colorado isn't seeing what some in the industry have termed a "housing recession," Moye said — and it remains to be seen how the market will look on the other side of typical seasonal changes.
Colorado's housing market is in a "totally different place" than it was during the Great Recession, when the market had too much housing inventory, or supply, and people had loans they couldn't afford, Moye said.
"A lot of times, people make the mistake of thinking we are headed right back to where we were in 2008, and that's not true," Moye said.
A typical amount of supply for the Front Range — roughly from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs — is 24,000 houses on the market, according to Moye. But that region has about 6,000 houses on the market, she said in mid-September.
Instead of a "screeching halt" in the housing market, Colorado is experiencing a slowdown to a more sustainable pace, Moye said.
"A housing recession would mean more inventory than demand from buyers, so your supply and demand would be out of whack — it would be out of balance. And prices would be going down, not like the 11% appreciation we've seen so far this year, going up" in the long term, Moye added.
What did shake up the market lately was the interest rate hike taking many buyers out of the running.
"Suddenly, they could afford (less) than they thought they could buy, and they ended up renting" or were pushed out of the market, Moye said.
As demand changed, prices have been pulled back, too. From 2015 through 2019, homes in the Denver metro area were garnering about 100% of their listing price — or close to that, according to the Realtors' report. In 2021, that number shot up to about 105%. Earlier this year, it reached above 106%.
Now, the percentage of the listing price received on home purchases has dipped below 100% for the first time since 2020, according to the report. For single-family homes, the rate was about 99% in August.
"In just a four-month period, we went from buyers … offering well over the seller's asking price to having sellers offer them money to help pay down their interest rate payment," Moye said.
It's unclear how long the short-term downturn in prices will continue, particularly because the time of year — not just interest rates — are likely playing a role in pulling prices down.
"With the school year in full swing, we are experiencing a normal seasonal slowdown," Barb Ecker, a Jefferson County-area Realtor, said in a news release from the Realtors' association.
She added: "Sellers should be watching to see if more homes will be coming to the market. If not, we may see another strong seller's market in January."
(A "seller's market," as opposed to a buyer's market, means there is more demand than supply, so homes sell quickly and the seller has more power to set high prices.)
"For buyers, there is a lot more inventory to choose from currently — however, that may not be the case for long," Ecker said in the Sept. 13 news release.
Though prices have dropped in the short term, a "true" price decline in the housing market would occur over an annual or multi-year time period, Cooper Thayer, a Douglas County-area Realtor, said in the release.
The coronavirus pandemic shook up the housing market partly because, amid the spread of working from home, some people had flexibility in where they chose to live and drove up suburban home prices.
And as families stayed home, they began looking at housing in new ways. "It was their office, their home, their gym, their schools for the kids, and suddenly people needed way more space," Matthew Leprino, a Realtor based in metro Denver, has told Colorado Community Media.
When looking at housing statistics, "it's vital that we look at historic perspectives and shift our thinking to pre-pandemic, pre-multiple offers and yes, pre-extreme price increase madness," Leprino said in the news release. He added: "The truth is that we have simply returned to more of a 2019 type of pace that's simply less head spinning."
In the long term, housing affordability in Colorado continues to be an issue of staggering proportions. Since the start of 2010 — when the median single-family home price in metro Denver was about $200,000 — the median price has roughly tripled. Statewide, it has tripled as well.
"That's significant — that's not expected. It is certainly expected over 20 or 30 years for that to happen, but for us, we had so much significant (price) appreciation starting in 2013 through 2022," Moye said, using a term for price increases.
The Realtor association's report uses a "housing affordability index," or a measure of how affordable a region's housing is to its consumers. The index is based on interest rates, median home price and median income by county. The higher the score, the greater affordability is.
"The cutoff for it to be affordable is that 100 number," Leprino told CCM in mid-September. If the score is 100, that means essentially that "the average person could afford the average house," Leprino said.
The last time Colorado's market scored above 100 was late 2017, according to Leprino. The last time the Denver metro area hit 100 was October 2017, he said.
In December 2017, the median home price was $378,000 for metro Denver and $363,000 for the state, taking into account single-family and the condominium-townhome markets combined, Leprino said.
The housing affordability index score in metro Denver this August was 55. Statewide, it was 58.
Homebuying demand is likely to continue until the net migration switches, meaning more people leave Colorado than move to Colorado, Moye said.
"I see lots of my clients moving to Cheyenne and Idaho and Montana," said Moye, who noted that with many employees able to work remotely, people are freer to move to places they can afford out of metro Denver.
Businesses don't want to locate in a place where their employees can't afford to live, Moye said, another factor that could influence migration patterns.
Homebuying has grown out of reach for many people because the rise in housing prices in recent decades far outstrips the increase in what American families earn.
Moye pointed to affordable housing programs at the city level as ways to alleviate that issue.
"Personally, I don't think they'll really be enough to make a dent," Moye said. But to some extent, prices fall eventually, even though they will likely never come down to where they were decades ago, she added.
"It will eventually correct itself — at least to a certain degree," Moye said.
The Colorado Association of Realtors defines the seven-county Denver metro area as Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties.
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I noticed the $3.95 a month cable modem lease fee that Time Warner added onto my bill, back in November, I think, but I paid little attention to it. I should have—money is money, right? And I'm not poor, but I'm certainly not wealthy.
So now they've raised the fee to $5.99 a month, and maybe that hit some magical threshold in the financial center of my brain, but I decided that enough is enough. The good thing is, there's an easy solution: I bought my own cable modem. Yes, although Time Warner (and likely all other cable companies) doesn't advertise the fact, you have no reason to lease their modems—you can just as easily buy your own.
Since I had also just upgraded my service to a faster speed, I figured I'd get rid of the ancient Motorola cable modem I'd been using for years (and paying for since November) with a newer model, the Motorola SB6121 SURFboard. This unit should last me well into the future, as it supports DOCSIS 3.0, and even should I leave Time Warner for a different ISP, I can always sell it. It's $70 right now at Amazon.
Setup was easy as pie. Just plug it into power and the cable network, then call Time Warner to activate it. I was done in about 15 minutes, and my ping times have improved significantly. So there are no technical reasons to avoid the switch.
It'll take me a year to pay back the purchase by saving the leasing fees, but that's okay. At least I'm spending my money on something I own. So, rather than complaining about the increase, why not avoid it completely and buy your cable modem?
As always, leave your thoughts in the comments.


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Josh Mumm and I were shocked to finish first at the Lakina Bridge Thursday morning. I had calculated that Tyler Johnson, Todd Kasteler, and Danny Powers, the guys on the Tebay route, would be a full 24 hours ahead of us, and after not having seen Roman Dial since day one, I assumed he had found a cleaner route and would be waiting for us at the end. We found Dave Chenault, who had flown out from the Little Bremner with concern about travelling the thick brush alone and an inflamed ankle. Dave told us that the Tebay guys had bailed to Cordova and Team Heavy (Rob Keher, Greg Mills, Matt Reardon) and John Lapkass were flying out that afternoon. I thought out loud, "Oh shit. I just killed the Classic."
Five hours later we saw Todd Tumolo and Gerard Ganey at the sign in. They had completed the ice route (Wernicke Glacier to Tana River) and were beaming. Travel had been good, despite the 12 inches of fresh snow. Ganey said it was the best trip of his life. I needed to hear that! I thought everyone would be frustrated with my choice for the race this year. Within the next eight hours Roman completed the Bremner route and John Sykes and Mike Loso completed the ice route. Seven finishers out of fifteen isn't bad, and the general consensus is to keep the course for the next two years rather than bailing to something easier.
Roman said it was the hardest couse yet. There was a lot of nervous energy at the start; no one knew the best route or if they had brought the right gear. Travel was good until the Bremner brush. Josh Mumm and I travelled 50 miles the first 'day' and only 10 the second. At one point we were paddling upstream in the Little Bremner to avoid the brush, walking a gravel bar, crossing to the other side, paddling up eddies when possible. We had expected animal trails but they were faint at best. Much of the forest was choked with fallen spruce. It was often fastest to climb onto the logs and log-walk up slope to other fallen trees. But the consequences of a slip were painful and our shins were bleeding. Rob Keher has some nice scars on his face from a fall.
We considered turning around for a scratch-float to Cordova. The big unknown was whether the travel would get better or not. It had to get better for us to finish with our limited food and fuel. After clearing the worst of the brush around 3 am, we passed a large boulder with an overhang. I said to Josh, "Too bad we aren't looking for a shelter rock." He asked, "Are we not looking for a shelter rock?" It had started to rain, so we crawled under the rock and shiver/slept for a few hours watching the rain turn to snow, cooking a meal and hot drinks to keep warm. From there the terrain continued to ease up. We walked the rim of the East Fork Bremner which was non-stop class V, VI rapids and waterfalls, none of which I was able to capture with my fogged camera. We got into the fresh snow and were able to increase the pace, especially over the pass and dropping into Harry's Gulch. We followed very fresh bear tracks in the snow, then turned out of Harry's toward the Klu drainage. The Klu River was also beautiful- clear water and boulder gardens. We paddled the upper canyon in the dark and pulled over when our paddles started to ice up. We spent a few cold hours shiver/sleeping by a fire. We started again on the river when we ran out of wood, but pulled over soon for another fire. The skies had cleared and the sun came out for a huge boost in heat and morale.
We stopped paddling the Klu when it started to steepen, and cut through the forest toward Steamboat Mtn. We climbed Steamboat and took a snow gully from ~5000 ft to ~3000 ft. The travel was fast, but the choice committed us to a drainage that was starting to cliff out. We were able to sneak onto a ridge to clear the cliffs, but the exposure was uncomfortable, a fall would have big consequences, and we were pushing our limits by running on maybe 6 hours of sleep in 3.5 days. We stumbled our way to the Chitina River and walked up gravel bars as far as was easy. The sun was rising, it was our 3rd sunrise, the light was gorgeous. I marveled at Mt. Logan and Castle Peak… Josh and I were on Logan in May and were between Castle Peak and Blackburn in March. The forest along the Chitina was pretty good travelling and we made great time to the bridge and finish.
I didn't get many stories from the other guys. I heard that someone on the Ice route (the two teams travelled together until the Tana River) had managed to fold a live shrew into their packraft after floating the Copper. When they unfolded their boats to sleep on the snow, the shrew escaped and scurried around on the snow. The Tana rapids were comfortably raftable.
The Tebay team ran into horrible brush dropping down the Cleave Glacier/drainage. Tyler called it 'sex-whacking' instead of 'bush-whacking' because they found themselves in so many awkward (and strangely exciting) positions crawling through the alder. After making 3 miles in 12 hours they realized they didn't have enough food for the course and took the elegant bail-out to raft the Copper to Cordova. They wanted to scout Abercrombie rapids but when they pulled to the bank there were six Grizzlies. They tried to scout a few other places but there were too many bears.
Roman was really impressed with Josh Mumm's micro-scale navigating… whenever Roman looked down he saw Josh's tracks, but not mine. By Roman's rationale, if Josh went the same way that Roman did, he must be an excellent navigator. And this is true. Whenever it got thick I'd fall in behind Josh, put my head down and try to match his pace.
It was the hardest route I ever want to do, largely because the exposure spooked me in several places. I'm still sensitive to risk from the Logan trip accidents, and I'm not sure how much that influenced my discomfort with some of the rapids and cliffs. Having completed this route feels like a huge accomplishment. I felt like the route was a test for a complete skillset that I've been developing since high school… rock climbing balance, technical paddling, making the right decision when to get out of the water, taking care of my body, having the right gear, route finding, etc.
Luc Mehl and Josh Mumm, 3d 22.5h, Bremner Route
Todd Tumolo and Gerard Ganey, 4d 4h, Ice Route
Roman Dial, 4d 9h 52m, Bremner Route
John Sykes and Mike Loso, 4d 12h, Ice Route
DNF: Dave Chenault, John Lapkass, "Team Heavy" (Greg Mills, Rob Keher, Matt Reardon), Todd Kasteler, Tyler Johnson, Danny Powers.
Ganey's video of the ice route
Dave Chenault's report and more.
Greg Mill's report:
I am recalling this tale without the use of maps so some information may not be totally accurate. This race may be summed up using Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Team Heavy started the race with a bang. We immediately took off to the right of the drainage at the start. We led the race for about 200 yards. A cliff halted our forward progress and as a team we decided to head back to the starting line and see what the left side of the drainage had to offer. The weather was lovely and the walking was pleasant. We played leap-frog with Lapkass all the way through the pass. We did a side-hill up and down sort of thing, but in retrospect, we should have gone high and stayed high. Eventually, we reached the big snow field. The snow was compact and the travel was swift. The next step was to find a way down to the raftable portion of the Tasnuna. We were told that the river might be decent at 900 ft (or lower).
We went low towards the river but our progress was halted by a small black bear. Reardon wanted to take pictures and Rob wanted to run. I couldn't tell if the bear was old enough to be on his own or if mom was hiding just around the corner. We did our best to scare the bear and immediately gained higher ground. We held the ridge for some time and laughed when we saw Lapkass walk right through the bear area. Closer to the river, we did some very scary, very sketchy alder side-hilling on our way to the water. We finally reached a portion of the water that would allow us to ferry to the other side where we could walk the river bank. We took the river bank as far as we could but our progress was halted by the darkness. Our next step would have involved running unknown potential rapids in the dark. Team Heavy decided to take a break and sleep until the sun arose.
In the morning, (Reardon and Rob put on the their man-pants and) we ran the Tasnuna almost all the way to the Copper. We cut across a portion of land to put in higher up the Copper. We paddled across the Copper to Bremner Dunes. Here, we took another small break to eat, dry gear, feed the mosquitoes, and nap. The Dunes proved to be the absolute most exciting part of the trip. I cannot fully describe the sand dunes and don't believe that pictures really do it justice. It's amazing. We crossed the desert and eventually reached the shore of the Bremner River. The shore finally led to trees and we were able to hold various game trails and/or the shoreline for some time. By nightfall, the rain paid us a visit. We walked as far as we could but realized that we were expending way too much energy and going in circles. We decided that it was better to wait for the morning to continue. This was the first time, and certainly not the last time, that we used the giant saw that Rob always carries. We found a huge spruce that would provided shelter from the rain. We cut the lower limbs of the tree to make room for us and used the boughs as bedding. We tied our tarps around the tree and attempted to sleep. Reardon eventually turned himself into a burrito with his tarp and went to sleep. Rob spent his time sleeping and eating jelly beans. I spent my time shivering, feeding more mosquitoes, and getting annoyed by the sound of Rob smacking away on those damned jelly beans.
The sun rose but the rain did not stop. We found our way back to the edge of the river and continued bush-whacking. We finally found what can only be described as a beaver trail. It was a trail under the brush that was lined with shin-high punji sticks. We would continue to bush-whack for the rest of the day. We went along the river, up the mountain, down the mountain, but everything we tried led to more bush-whacking. Finally, we found a small Bremner tributary that looked a 2-mile-long lake. We pulled out the boats and paddled upstream as far as we could. This led to river banks and smooth walking that got us all the way to the Little Bremner. We decided that we would cross the Little Bremner and make camp. The theory was that we would eat and sleep and make some amazing mileage the following day. We awoke refreshed and ready to tackle the Classic. Our spirits would soon get crushed. The walking started decently and we were making good time until our initial ascent. We were slowed by thick alders and devil's club. We figured that we would push on through and gain elevation because it has to get better. It never got better. The alders and devil's club were joined by fallen spruce trees everywhere. We continued because we figured that it had to get better. It never got better. We continued pushing forward and for higher ground. The alders, club, and fallen trees were now joined by giant glacial boulders hidden under moss. We continued because it had to get better. It never got better. We had traveled almost 3 miles in about 10 hours. We were fatigued and dehydrated. We had also noticed that Rob had lost a paddle blade somewhere in the brush.
We held a team meeting and discussed our options. We decided that scratching was the only option. We were half-way through the allotted time but not half-way through the race. We swallowed our pride and headed back to the Little Bremner. I will not describe the details of our descent, but it was truly awful. Scary, dangerous, and awful. We descended the 1500 ft in 4-6 hours and finally reached the Little Bremner. We inflated the boats and started our journey home. It only took 10 minutes of rafting to get back to where we started over 12 hours ago. That is demoralizing. We camped that night and made an amazing fire. We ate well and slept hard. Rob built a paddle blade from sticks, tape, and the back plate of my Go-Lite back pack. We called Wrangell Mountain Air and the said that they could pick us up around 330 pm at the Bremner dunes.
In the morning, we packed up and and began the final float. Early into our float, we see John Lapkass come stumbling out of the woods. Perhaps this was fate for all involved. We paddled over to him and explained our decision to scratch. He travels by himself and was hoarse from screaming at the brush. Like us, he thought that it just had to get better. He had tried some of the same things that we had done. He even paddled to the other side of the Bremner to see if the walking was better. It was not. Within minutes, Lapkass inflated his boat and became an honorary member of Team Heavy. For the record and for the future, the Bremner is wide, slow, often shallow, and full of extremely dangerous quick-sand. You are often required to get out of your boat but it is very dangerous because of the sand trapping your feet. We made it to the dunes with time to spare. We called in weather reports to the pilot and set up a wind sock for him. He landed, loaded us up, and got the hell out of Dodge. He was nice enough to act as a tour guide and flew over our proposed route. I am amazed the Luc, Josh, and Roman made it through. That night we partied in McCarthy. A "local" pointed to the "I (heart) the Wragells" bumper sticker and stated that it should read "I Love the Wrangells From A Distance!" He couldn't be more right.


text:
A fiscal calendar is a collection of years to be created on demand as time goes by.
Each organization requiring a calendar needs to have one calendar assigned to it and only one therefore it is clearly know which calendar is going to be used while posting transactions and while opening and closing the accounting cycle. The way to get that working is:
- once the calendar is properly created in this window, it needs to be linked to the "legal with accounting organization" type by selecting it after enabling the checkbox "Allow Period Control".
All of the above is done in the Organization window.
Openbravo automatically proposes the organization as * while creating a fiscal calendar:
- accepting this default means that this calendar will be maintained at the client level and will therefore be available to all other organizations created within this client.
- changing this default to other organization means that this calendar will only be available to that organization.


text:
Katherine Schwarzenegger is absolutely glowing and it's probably because of the massive sparkler on her wedding finger.
The 29-year-old proved she is the ultimate supportive fiancé by promoting Chris Pratt's Lego Movie 2 in her latest Instagram post, in which her diamond ring definitely stole the show. In the cute photo, Katherine holds two Lego action figures in her left hand, thus giving her engagement ring the perfect opportunity to shine.
"So incredibly proud of my amazing, talented and hardworking fiancé everyday, but especially today because his movie, THE LEGO MOVIE 2, IS FINALLY OUT!" The author shared, "These special little characters (that were played with every morning and night) Emmet and Rex are voiced by my love, and he did such a great job!"
Katherine's sister Christina Schwarzenegger commented on the photo, "You get that [ring emoji] shot hunnay."
The engagement ring is estimated to be worth a whopping $150,000-175,000 by WP Diamonds President Andrew Brown. "The beautiful engagement ring Chris Pratt just used to propose to Katherine Schwarzenegger looks like a 5-carat cushion set in a Harry Winston-style micro pavé halo," the expert told E! News in early January.
It's been less than a month since the stars announced their engagement and wedding plans are well underway. A source previously told E! News that Pratt and his bride are planning a summertime wedding in Martha's Vineyard back east, where the Kennedy family compound is located.
Unsurprisingly, the big day will be "very traditional" and Chris wants to give his bride "whatever she wants."
It may not be happening yet, but who else already has a major case of FOMO?


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The Seaport Museum maintains a 12,000 plus ship plan collection relating to vessels built in the greater Philadelphia area. These include personal crafts, commercial vessels and military ships and submarines.
Name of Collections:
- Small Craft Plan collection
- Large Craft Plan collection
- Becuna (Submarine) plans
- John H. Mathis Company records
- John Lenthall papers of The Franklin Institute
- Pennsylvania Railroad records
- RTC Shipbuilding Co. records
- Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company records
- Thomas D. Bowes, M.E., Associates records
- William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Building Company collection of The Franklin Institute
Small Craft Plan collection: The collection is comprised of traditional wooden craft built along the Delaware River and the New Jersey seaboard. It includes plans for: canoes, catboats, Delaware duckers, garveys, mellon seeds, oyster schooners, skiffs, sloops, sneakboxes, tuck-ups and other small vessels.
Large Craft Plan collection: The collection contains plans for both wood, iron and steel vessels. Companies represented include: Philadelphia and Reading Transportation Line, Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, Delaware River Ferry Company, Pusey and Jones, Morris and Mathis, RTC Shipbuilding, J. Murray Watts and more. There are also plans by Edward Brownlee in the collection.
Vessel Types
- Military
- Commercial / Cargo
- Commercial / Passenger
- Commercial / Fishing
- Recreation / Pleasure
- Sailing
- Steam
- Military / Cargo
- Diesel
- Small Craft
- Other Government
- Research
Type of Access:
- Online
- By Appointment
- Written Request
- Telephone Request
- Email request
Website http://www.phillyseaport.org/online-resources
Megan Good, Director of Archives and Library
Phone: 215-413-8640
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Independence Seaport Museum
211 South Columbus Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19106


text:
Sliding door in need of repair? Can't shut the sliding door easily? Roller Replacement for Sliding Doors
Most sliding door systems begin breaking down at one of two places: the rollers or the tracks. Sliding doors that are often left open begin to build up dirt, dust, and other grime in the tracks and rollers that jam and clogs the opening and closing mechanism. This type of build-up eventually leads to structural and sometimes permanent damage to the doors.
Door Closing Systems' repair service diagnoses rollers and tracks and determines whether they require deep cleaning or full replacement. Our goal is to help our customers keep their existing sliding doors functioning smoothly without having to think about replacements.
As a preventative maintenance option, Door Closing Systems offers a patented automatic sliding door closer called the Ultra Glide (This automated system meets pool barrier requirements in Arizona). The Ultra Glide eases the wear and tear on sliding doors from aggressive opening and closing and prevents open doors from accumulating damage causing dirt and grime.
For more information or to request a free estimate, contact us online or give us a call at 480-719-8393.


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The International Golf Federation, which includes member organizations representing more than 150 countries, agreed to a policy that will make sustainability a core priority within the sport through a number of initiatives aimed at conserving water, reducing impact on land and increasing awareness.
The IGF outlined eight sustainability measures, including a commitment to expand awareness among golfers and golf facilities; help golf facilities to incorporate sustainable principles and practices into daily business decisions; conduct high profile golf events in an environmentally responsible manner; and embrace measurement, target setting, transparency and verification.
The IGF also said it would continue to work to raise the profile of the sport's contribution to environmental issues and encourage golfers to embrace environmentally sound practice in course preparation.
Implementing sustainable best practices will enhance the sport's profile and improve its financial performance; provide the golfer with quality playing surfaces; and offer the community employment, recreational green space and educational opportunities, the IGF said.
The United States Golf Association announced its official support of the IGF's policy statement and renewed its commitment to a number of its own initiatives, including funding turf grass research and addressing water conservation issues.
The USGA will fund $2 million in grants in 2012 and 2013 to universities across the country to support turf grass research. The research seeks to develop and improve grasses and playing surfaces that are more resistant to disease and require less water.
The USGA also has committed staff and resources to provide as many as 3,000 Turf Advisory Service visits to golf courses nationwide in 2012 and 2013. One of 17 USGA agronomists provide recommendations during each site visit to help course officials and superintendents improve maintenance practices and manage costs more effectively.
The association is holding a water summit in November to identify and discuss the most challenging issues surrounding golf's use of water, as well as promoting best management practices and policies that will advance the long-term sustainability of the game.
Some golf communities are using technology to reduce water use. Desert Mountain, a golf and residential community in Arizona, is using IBM analytics software to help reallocate and reduce water usage, save energy and cut operating costs. The 4,500-resident community is installing IBM Intelligent Operations Center software for Smarter Cities, with UgMO Technologies' Wireless Soil Moisture Sensor Solution, to manage irrigation of all six of its championship-grade golf courses.


text: A full day of practical training, taught by leading experts on digital media law, presented in conjunction with the UNC Center for Media Law & Policy, the Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. This is a course, not a series of panels. Classes will cover the full range of legal issues that impact the professional lives of digital journalists: copyright, newsroom law, international media law, access and FOIA, and the legal issues involved in launching and running a digital news operation. The day will conclude with a plenary session dedicated to discussing how freedom of speech and freedom of the press are changing in a digital world. Lunch and a networking cocktail reception are also included.


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What is Mohs micrographic surgery?
Mohs surgery is a precise surgical technique used to treat skin cancer. During Mohs surgery, thin layers of cancer-containing skin are removed and examined until only cancer-free tissue remains.
The goal of Mohs surgery is to remove as much of the skin cancer as possible while doing minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Mohs surgery is an improvement to standard excisional surgery, which involves removing the visible cancer and a small margin of surrounding healthy tissue all at once. Mohs surgery allows for verification that all cancer cells have been removed at the time of the procedure. This maximizes the chance of a cure and reduces the need for additional surgery.
Start Your Journey Towards Beautiful Skin
What to Expect On the Day of Surgery: Preparing for Mohs surgery & frequently asked questions
One to two weeks prior to surgery
Unless prescribed by a physician, we recommend stopping aspirin or aspirin containing medications 1 week prior to surgery. If you take aspirin for a medical condition or prescribed by a physician, you should continue this medication. We also recommend stopping herbal supplements including gingko biloba, ginseng, garlic, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and fish oil which may increase your risk of bleeding. If you are taking a blood thinner, we DO NOT routinely recommend stopping this medication.
If you are a current smoker, we recommend smoking cessation 2 weeks prior and 2 weeks after surgery to optimize wound healing.
Day of surgery
Please continue taking all medications as prescribed. We also recommend eating a light breakfast on the day of surgery.
We recommend wearing comfortable clothing and bringing a jacket in case you are cold. We also recommend bringing a snack or reading material as there will be down time when the tissue is processing in the lab.
While Mohs surgery is a safe procedure, it has risks like any other surgical procedure including pain, bruising, bleeding, wound infection, and nerve damage. Your Mohs surgeon will discuss specific risks on the day of your procedure.
It is hard to predict the exact amount of time your procedure will take. On average, Mohs surgery can last anywhere between 2-4 hours, but in rare cases, a full day. We recommend clearing your schedule for the day. The initial "stage" typically takes 15-20 minutes. Afterwards, we will bandage you and direct you the waiting room to wait while the tissue is being processed in our laboratory. This part of the procedure typically takes 45 minutes to 1 hour. Additional "stages" (typically 1-3) may be required if skin cancer is still seen on the margins. Your Mohs surgeon precisely maps out tissue and will only remove tissue where skin cancer is still present. Once you are clear of your skin cancer, you will discuss repair options with your Mohs surgeon.
You and your Mohs surgeon will discuss how to best repair the wound. This includes letting the wound heal on its own (second intention), using stitches to close the wound, utilizing skin from an adjacent area (flap), or using a skin graft from another part of the body to cover the wound.
Most patients will experience minor pain and swelling which typically peak 48-72 hours after surgery. While Mohs surgery is a well-tolerated procedure, we will generally recommend Extra Strength Tylenol taken to help minimize any minor discomfort after the procedure. Cold packs or ice can also be helpful (not directly applied to wound) to alleviate pain or swelling after the procedure. Bruising, swelling, and minor drainage are common after Mohs surgery and typically subside over the following week. You should call your surgeon or go to the nearest emergency room if you are experiencing significant bleeding which does not stop after applying direct pressure for 20-30 minutes. Similarly, while infection is rare after Mohs surgery, you should call your surgeon if you are experiencing worsening pain after 48 hours, foul smelling drainage, or increasing redness around wound site.
You and your Mohs surgeon will discuss wound care extensively on the day of surgery. In most cases, we will apply a "bulky" bandage immediately after your surgery which we recommend leaving in place and keeping dry for 48 hours. After 48 hours, we recommend removing the bandage and washing the Mohs surgical site with warm water and gentle soap such as Dove. Afterwards, we recommend applying a liberal layer of Vaseline or Aquaphor and covering the site with a bandage. Typically, this process is repeated daily until you return in 1 week for suture removal.
Most people are able to return to work or school the day following Mohs surgery. We recommend avoiding strenuous activity after Mohs surgery including lifting anything more than 10 lbs. While we recommend against strenuous exercise, light walking can be continued while the stitches are in place. Swimming and other water sports are not recommended as they may increase the risk of infection.
Yes. Any surgical procedure will inevitably result in some form of scar; however, Mohs surgery removes skin cancer while preserving normal, healthy tissue thus minimizing the appearance of scarring. Most importantly, scars continue to improve up to 1 year after a surgical procedure and will become less noticeable over time.
We will discuss additional wound care if necessary. While Mohs surgery offers the highest cure rate of any other skin cancer treatment option, recurrence is still possible. We recommend skin checks every 6 months to monitor for any recurrence.
If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to call our office. Call Us Here


text: Blah yet another update that comes a lil late. Hey before I go on, if you have the opportunity, A Walk to Remember. Awesome movie. Go see it. Especially if you're a girl (Psst...the main male character is HOT). Anyway. Mike updated his audio message at Greenday.com. It's kinda short and sweet and weird. Also you asked in your question, Green Day answers at EXPN. What smartasses. And Warner Brothers has streaming Green Day video from a New York concert here. I got that info from Green Day Fan Site. From you guys, I need concert reviews and pictures of anything rare or self made Green Day stuff for new pages coming up. I also need a new poll question. If you have anything or any ideas, contact me. There are also 2 new affiliates, Green Day Cellar and UK Punkers, plus new links added and new people to the Fan List.


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Stillborn from the Beginning
A truly free market works precisely because it relies on the self-serving desires of most people acting as a manifold of countervailing forces against all the other self-serving desires in the system. Everyone acting in his own self-interest with a baseline of standards (no theft, no fraud, etc.) ensures that the average wealth per capita is raised. That is, while self-centeredness is ignoble, it is the reality of the human condition, and any economic system which pretends that this can be changed outwardly in, i.e., by external forces (read: government) pressing an ideal onto human lives, only works to create and increase misery, because it is based on fantasy. Communism and its attenuated form, socialism, are noble ideals but are fatally flawed for three major reasons.
First Reason: Perversion of Incentive
Communism and socialism do not just hope for, but rely on the good of mankind in aggregate to work. In fact, apropos to a previous discussion, all political purveyors of socialism/communism are selling hope and the value received is far less than the value paid out by the buyer. Believing in the current goodness of mankind, or rather in the goodness of every individual such as to expect that he will act in the best interest of others is rank madness. Socialism wrecks the ability for people to appropriately measure value for themselves by robbing them of incentive. When the fruits of labor are taken from a person in order to redistribute them in aggregate to everyone else, including him, he resents the theft of his labor but also comes to reliance upon the redistribution.
Jamestown and Plymouth
In Thomas J. DiLorenzo's book, How Capitalism Saved America, he recounts the story of two early colonies in America, Jamestown and Plymouth. In both, the settlers. . .
Click here to read the entire article. Attention: Teachers. Education Questions posted soon.


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Hello everyone,
New Summer releases available at Baiastice;
- Daiquiri Mesh dress
Super feminine palm print chiffon top with spaghetti straps, long plain skirt with fancy bow belt on side. Available in 4 summer colours.
- Sunah Mesh Maxi skirt & Greek Mesh sweater
Wide and slim stripes pair up to give a slinky, super-soft maxi skirt high waisted with belt. It's perfect for adding a chic graphic element to your essential basics and a summer occasionwear look. Available in 2 patterns and 8 colours.
A contemporary feel mesh sweater in plain linen or with a graphic orchid print. Very original v-neck short sleeve tee, Loose fitting linen fabric, the must-have basic in your summer closet. Available in 12 colours.
All available in different colours, 100% mesh as usual, rigged, in five standard sizes with available demos.
- Kandie mesh clutch
A classic envelope mesh clutch bag crafted in a crocodile leather look fabric or with multicolored flowers glitter-print underlay. This clutch is resizable, perfect in large size for daytime or very small for a night on the town. Available in 12 colours


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For the past 2 or 3 days I haven't been able to load certain websites, such as facebook and aol.com. I don't think that it is the internet itself because most sites do load, there are just a handful that won't. I have a wireless network that consists of a desktop and 2 laptops and the same sites won't load on any of the computers. They all run on windows xp. One laptop uses safari and internet explorer, the other laptop uses firefox and and desktop uses internet explorer, which tells me its not the browser. I have a linksys router. Any help would be appreciated.
thank you!!


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Part 1 – The Stance
Part 2 – The Loading Phase
Part 3 – The Launch Phase
Part 4 – The Follow Through
When all of the muscles in the body have been properly loaded and stretched, the body is now in the position to unwind or uncoil and release this stored elastic energy to powerfully swing the bat.
This is what is known as the launching phase of the baseball swing, and it continues to the point of contact with the ball. There are five noticeable movements that take place during this phase:
1) Continuation of the timing step
2) Opening of the hips
3) Forward rotation of the spine,
4) Pushing and pulling action of the arms and shoulders
5) Guiding action of the hands on the bat
The timing step began in the loading phase when the front leg was raised off the ground and weight was momentarily rocked onto the back leg. Now, the continuation of the timing step is the first part of the launching phase.
Depending on the player's technique, the timing step of the front foot can actually be a short stride towards the pitcher by a few inches and perhaps more or it can simply be placed back down on the ground as shown in the Loading Phase.
Whichever technique is used, the lowering and turning of the leading foot outward, to the ground, triggers the initiation of the swing.
This outward turning of the leading foot is caused by muscles acting higher up in the hip, the external hip rotators, and it forces the toes to point outward, in the direction of first base, as seen in Figure 1-10b.
Compare this foot position with that in Figure 1-10a, and you can see this repositioning more clearly.
Figure 1-10a. Figure 1-10b
Because most of one's batting power comes from hip rotation, the repositioning of the front foot is necessary since this starts the opening of both hips toward the pitcher, the direction the batter will end up facing at contact.
The contraction of the lead hip's external hip rotators to point the toes outward (heel inward) will load or stretch the antagonistic (opposing) muscles in this same lead hip, namely the internal hip rotators. These muscles will then help further pull the batter around in the swing when he is closer to contact.
Opening of the hips refers to the direction and movement when both hips turn, and eventually end up facing, when making contact with the ball, toward the pitcher. See Figure 1-11d.
This motion begins in conjunction with continuation of the timing step just described. As the lead foot is being placed back to the ground with an outward rotation caused by the opening of the same lead hip toward the pitcher, the back hip is also starting to turn toward the pitcher. To see this, compare the back (right) hip and thigh position in Figure 1-10b with that of Figure 1-10a in the Loading Phase.
This turning or opening of the back hip toward the pitcher is caused by powerful contractions in the external hip rotators of this same back hip that were previously stretched during the loading phase.
The uncoiling of these external hip rotators is the start of an incredible power release in the body as it forcibly rotates the player's right side toward the pitcher. See Figures 1-11a through 1-11c.
This rotational hip power builds right from the onset and is further increased by the momentum and drive created by pushing of this same back leg toward the pitcher during the timing step or stride when the player's weight is being shifted forward.
As the rotation of the back hip continues to turn and the same rear leg is driving the right side of the body toward the pitcher, the front hip is also opening toward the pitcher right along with it. See Figures 1-11a through 1-11c.
This clears an opening for the back leg to continue its drive of the back hip further toward the pitcher until the rear leg's forward progress is met by the increasing stiffness of the front leg.
With both hips now nearly facing the pitcher, the stiff front leg forces the lead hip backward, away from the pitcher. See Figure 1-11d. This not only opens the hips further toward the pitcher but also creates a short, compact and explosive pivoting action across the player's pelvis that carries up the spine.
The combination of the hips exploding open toward the pitcher along with the massive torque created across the pelvis by the pushing of both legs in opposite directions through ball contact, is the primary contributor of power to the player's swing.
Figure 1-11a. Figure 1-11b. Figure 1-11c. Figure 1-11d
As the hips begin their explosive rotation toward the pitcher and torque is building across the pelvis, this ever-increasing rotational power source is also being combined with muscles that are uncoiling along the spine.
During the loading phase, when the spine (chest, abdomen and upper body) was turned back toward the catcher, the lateral rotators of the spine on the forward or left side of the body needed to contract to accomplish this. In turn, the lateral spine rotators on the rear or right side were stretched or loaded.
Now these same stretched lateral spine rotators on the right side of the body contract tightly during the launching phase, turning the spine, including the chest, abdomen and upper body, toward the pitcher. As a result, the shoulders and arms are turned in the same direction.
We can see this turning of the spine, and consequently the shoulders and arms, back toward the pitcher in Figures 1-11a through 1-11d above as well as in Figures 1-12a through 1-12d below. Notice how the player's numbers were not visible in Figure 1-12a but are now clearly seen in Figure 1-12d, signifying this spine and upper body rotation.
Figure 1-11a. Figure 1-11b. Figure 1-11c. Figure 1-11d
As the hips and spine are aggressively rotating toward the pitcher, the arms are riding right along with them. In the process, they add their own force to the bat; however, each of them does so in a different manner.
First, with the rear arm, the elbow drops immediately, tucking in tight against the body and makes the shape of the letter 'L'. See 1-13b below.
The dropping of the arm to the side is driven by the latissimus dorsi and teres major muscles that were stretched during the loading phase. The elbow also supinates in the process that forces the palm of the hand to start turning upward. This is caused by the elbow supinator muscles (page 17). As a result of these two actions, the knob end of the bat points forward. See Figure 1-13b below.
As the body continues its rotation toward the pitcher, the rear arm applies a hard, but short, push forward which brings the bat-head around near the contact point as shown in Figure 1-13c. This is caused by the pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, coracobrachialis and serratus anterior muscles.
The elbow also starts to extend in the process, though not completely. See Figure 1¬11d on the previous page. This is caused by the elbow extensor muscles (Figure 1-17, page 16).
The position of the front arm remains relatively straight with a slight bend in the elbow and a downward lean, in line with the plane of the bat. The amount of flexion in the elbow can change based on pitch location.
As the upper body rotates toward the pitcher, the muscles on the back side of the lead shoulder contract, pulling the lead arm forward toward the path of the ball. See Figures 1-13a and 1-13b. These muscles are the posterior deltoid, rhomboids, and middle fibers of the trapezius.
All of these were stretched in the loading phase and are now contracting here in the launching phase. As the lead arm nears full extension, rather than letting the force of the rotation pull the lead hand off and away from the ball, it stays on this circular path, becoming a pivot point at the bat-handle.
The latissimus dorsi and teres major muscles assist this action. This causes the bat-head to rapidly accelerate in an arc to explosive contact with the ball. See Figure 1-13d below as well as Figure 1-11d on the previous page.
Figure 1-11a. Figure 1-11b. Figure 1-11c. Figure 1-11d
The bat-head is the recipient of all the centrifugal force created in the body by the rotation of the hips and spine along with the pushing and pulling action of the shoulders and arms.
This is all made possible by seven muscles in each hand and three muscles in each forearm holding the bat-handle with a firm grip.
The hands' and forearms' main job is to supply direction to the bat from the initiation of the swing to contact with the ball. The hands first direct the knob end of the bat inside the flight of the pitch towards the center of the ball as seen in Figure 1-13b, page 13.
With all of the explosive movement taking place in the body, the bat-head is soon found lagging behind the hands as seen in Figure 1-11c on page 12.
The rotation of the body and the action of the shoulders and arms will help pull the bat-head around toward the contact point, however, any cocking of the wrists done during the loading process will have to be restored to their neutral position at contact.
This is because the best position for the wrists and hands to be in to transfer all of this explosive rotational power into the bat is square, or neutral, with respect to the forearms.
This means the wrists are in a position without any flexion, extension, radial deviation (abduction) or ulnar deviation (adduction) and/or any combination thereof.
Hand and wrist muscles are at their strongest in this position, which is necessary to power the bat-head through the ball without being deflected.
The ideal contact point is where the bat-head meets the ball at 90º from the direction of the pitch, give or take 15º degrees in either direction. See Figure 1-11d.
Dr. Larry Van Such
Part 1 – The Stance
Part 2 – The Loading Phase
Part 3 – The Launch Phase
Part 4 – The Follow Through
About the Author of this post: Dr. VanSuch is a chiropractor and former electrical engineer. He developed the speed training method that uses resistance bands with an isometric training strategy to help athletes run faster starting way back in 1996. He has been teaching this technique to athletes, coaches and parents for the last 25+ years and has quite an extensive list of testimonials found throughout this website. Dr. VanSuch's speed training programs are for running, kicking, jumping as well as swinging a golf club, baseball bat or tennis racket. He also has written an MMA speed program. Athletes of all fitness levels have used his training method with great success. He looks forward to hearing from all those who come across his work and are wanting to learn more. Feel free to contact him at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Catholic Elementary School Leads the Region for Online Learning in the Face of Coronavirus
St. Thomas More Cathedral School (STM) moved swiftly and seamlessly to fully instruct students online in PreK to 8th grade amidst the Coronavirus crisis. With a 1:1 mobile device ratio already in place, students departed school on Friday, March 13 (a previously scheduled early dismissal) with their books, in addition to their iPad, Chromebook or HP touchscreen laptop prepared to learn virtually for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, teachers spent the remainder of that fateful half day in professional development to fortify their Google Classrooms and Seesaw accounts with activities. The foresight of having faculty and students experienced in online educational techniques since its inception has proven fruitful in the first weeks learning at home, particularly since Governor Northam closed Virginia schools for the remainder of the 2019-20 year.
STM students are now learning online with all of their teachers in a modified 4 hour daily classroom schedule that meets and exceeds the Diocese of Arlington requirements for instruction. Students participate live via Google Meet amongst other interactive applications, while the parents support each other in a private Facebook parent group dedicated to the school community. IT support tickets and even a Virtual Spirit Week have been successfully managed online in this 'new normal.' The teachers at STM have long embraced technology for integration into all subject areas.
"Our school has a traditional environment in that we use textbooks daily, still teach cursive and grammar," shared Principal Cathy Davis of St. Thomas More Cathedral School. "However, we have a progressive philosophy amongst our peers with regards to best practices for instruction, including differentiation and adapting to new ways of doing things." Davis added, "my staff is sought out by other schools to train their teachers in how to do this, but it will take them a while to ramp up and catch up to where we sit." She continued, "our students gain exposure to technology little by little from PreK onward, as developmentally appropriate and when purposeful in lessons. We know that embedding technology into classrooms engages more learners and often reaches them when a text cannot. It also prepares students for high school and beyond."
Modalities in use for online learning include, but are not limited to: Google Classroom; SeeSaw; Edgenuity; Class Dojo; Kahoot!, EveryDay Mathematics; Reading A-Z; Epic; World Book e-checkout; Spelling CIty; Kahoot; Zaner Bloser Handwriting; Khan Academy; Scratch & Scratch Jr.; Loyola-Press; and, CodeSpark.
Earlier this school year, STM opened a dedicated Design Lab space filled with STEM learning equipment and further opportunities to apply skills in robotics, 3-D printing, green screen technology and more, courtesy of PTO fundraising and events.
About St. Thomas More Cathedral School:
St. Thomas More Cathedral School serves students in PreKindergarten through 8th grade in the Diocese of Arlington, just outside our nation's capital of Washington, D.C. Our Mission is to nurture and develop the spiritual, academic, social and emotional promise of each child in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church, rooted in Gospel values and led by the examples of the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ. St. Thomas More is recognized as a high-performing U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School since 2006.