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Taken from :
Google Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean
July 28th, 2012
Google tries to kickstart the Android tablet segment
With Android tablets generally trailing Apple\'s iPad by some margin, Google has taken it upon itself to generate momentum for the segment by launching the Nexus 7. As it has with its previous Nexus-branded products, Google has collaborated with an Android partner to develop a flagship device running a clean install of its open-source Android OS. In this instance, the Nexus 7 was developed with ASUS and runs Google\'s latest mobile operating system Android 4.1 \"Jelly Bean.\" So how does the Nexus 7 fare in the ever expanding sea of consumer tablets?
Design and build quality:
The Nexus 7 is a well made device. My unit is put together flawlessly in a way that belies its $199 entry price point. The textured and rubberized back feels nice in the hand, while everything else about it seems quite seamless and well finished.
I\'m generally in agreement on build quality. This is a very well put together device. At a shade under 12 ounces, it has a certain heft to it that makes it feel like a premium device. It's easy enough to hold in one hand or two, and one can hold it for long periods of time without tiring or feeling any ache.
That said, there are a couple of issues with the design. The power and volume buttons on the side seem just a little too far out of the way. They're not as easily accessible as one might like, though that's no huge detractor. The big complaint I have is the power cord. It's inexcusably short. Unless you're right next to your outlet or swap out the included cord for a longer USB-to-microUSB cable, this is not a device you'll be able to use while plugged in.
Agreed on the power and volume buttons. I think it is because they are actually a little flat and this means that you have to hunt for them a little more. At 7.8x4.7x0.4in, I actually think the tablet is just a shade too thick from an ergonomic perspective; and a shade too heavy at 340grams. After owning a Samsung
Galaxy Tab 7.7
, which is thinner, has a larger display, but weighs the same, the Nexus 7 doesn't compare too well in that regard - it seems somewhat 'first generation' by comparison. In its own right though, it is going to be fine for most users.
Fair enough, shall we move on to display and sound?
I will quickly point out to readers that although we have had no complaints about the build of the Nexus 7, some reports on the Internet suggest that there may be some early production glitches. Some users have reported the screen separating from the body of the device, among other less major, but still annoying niggles like the microUSB port being broken.
Display and sound:
The 1280x800 HD display on the Nexus 7 should be more than suitable to get the job done for most users. Out of the box, brightness on the device is automatically determined based on ambient light conditions, but users can tweak the brightness settings to their liking. I've found that the auto-brightness feature is adequate for most situations, but I have found the need to change it from time to time.
The display uses in-plane switching tech (IPS) that gives it really wide viewing angles. It is essential that tablets use this type of technology and Google and Asus did not cut corners here. The yardstick for tablets remains the 264ppi Retina display in the new iPad - it also has a noticeably wider color gamut, but that said, the 146ppi display on Nexus 7 is still very good.
Indeed. At seven inches, users will be hard-pressed to find any real problems with the pixel density on the device.
I found that it works really well for e-books, with the font being easy to read. It also looks good viewing webpages as well as for watching movies. Again though, while we have not experienced any issues with our respective units, there are some users who have reported light bleeding issues and the odd dead pixel. However, they seem to be in the small minority.
As to sound, iFixit did the requisite tear-down on the Nexus 7 and found that its small frame packs two speakers inside, as opposed to the one advertised on the official product page. I found that the tablet outputs a much louder sound than one might think, and it's actually served as my primary music listening device over the past few days. The one downside is that the placement of the speakers makes it very easy to cover them up with a hand while gaming or watching movies, resulting in a somewhat muffled sound experience.
Agreed; However, listening to music through a pair of headphones is a pretty decent experience and will keep most people happy. However, if you are a Mac user, be prepared to be frustrated in trying to get music on your Mac to your Nexus 7. With the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich, Google switched to the MTP protocol, requiring Mac users to install the Android File Transfer app - during testing, the app repeatedly crashed. The easiest way to get music onto your Nexus 7 will be through Google Play, or a service such as Spotify or Rdio, for example.
On the music transfer note, Google Music is a passable, albeit slow at times, option. With the small storage space available on the device, some sort of cloud solution becomes something of a necessity; Google, Dropbox, and Amazon all have apps for Android. Google Music allows for the storage of thousands of music files, and a user can choose her favorite files to save to the Nexus 7 for offline access. This is an imperfect solution, as it means a good portion of one's media will be unavailable away from an Internet connection, but it's not a dealbreaker, given the cost and power of the device.
Yes, storage is an inherent limitation of the device. Google has decided to skip microSD slots on consecutive Nexus devices - the Galaxy Nexus doesn't use a microSD slot either. So while most competing tablets start at 16GB and max out with as much as 64GB of storage space, the most you are going to get on the Nexus 7 is either 8GB or 16GB. The more serious user would only contemplate the larger of the two options. However, this Nexus 7 is all about the price point, and giving users a good all round tablet experience for the money.
Most readers will be familiar with the 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor that powers the Nexus 7. It is a solid performer in benchmarks (see below) and uses ARM's Cortex-A9 architecture. It delivers a rock solid user experience that means in most situations lag is not evident - the 1GB of RAM also helps in this regard. However, I did notice that when downloading and installing apps in the background, for example, lag can be apparent.
There can be some lag here and there when downloading in the background, but it needs to be said that this is a powerhouse of a tablet. During my testing, I only experienced lag once: when I was downloading a game while watching a movie and occasionally switching between ten other open apps. The device only lagged when I tried to stream another game trailer from the Play Store. Needless to say, this is likely far more of a strain than the average user is likely to put on this device.
I read recently that Nvidia did not supply a lot of documentation to OEMs when it released the Tegra 2, which made it a little difficult for OEM's to optimize the performance of their devices. Nvidia's emphasis with the Tegra 3, as one would expect, is with its graphics prowess. Although it has been bested by a number of devices in the benchmarks, including the quad-GPU PowerVR SGX in the new iPad and the new quad-core Exynos 4412 with the Mali 400, a number of developers have specially optimized their games for the GeForce GPU in the Tegra 3. This is one area where the Nexus 7 really shines from a performance perspective.
True. Gaming on the device is quite smooth. Titles such as
Dead Trigger
load quickly and run beautifully. Google spent a good deal of time during the Nexus 7's unveiling to focus on its gaming potential, and the device largely lives up to the hype.
I have come to the conclusion that touchscreen gaming is at its best on a 7-inch display. Holding the Nexus 7 in the landscape mode and controlling FPS titles using is much easier using this class of device. It actually makes playing games like
Dead Trigger
a lot more playable and much more fun as a result. The use of the Fling Joystick also works really well in this context too. Larger tablets like the iPad make playing these types of games more than a little awkward by comparison. A PS Vita will still blow blow any tablet out of the water for the ideal control scheme for serious gaming, however.
The Tegra 3 chipset enables a visual effects nearly comparable to what one would see on a dedicated gaming console. Water ripples and shimmers, lights filter through steam and fog, and reflective surfaces shine with the Tegra 3; all of which makes for a much more immersive graphical experience in gaming.
We certainly recommend checking out the Nividia Tegra Zone to find the games that have been specially optimized for the chipset. So what about the other great reason for picking up a Nexus 7 tablet - Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean"?
Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean":
As we mentioned in the introduction, the Nexus 7 is the flagship device for the newest version of Google's operating system. "Jelly Bean," as Google calls it, is supposed to be optimized for tablets. Unfortunately, upon starting up the Nexus 7, a user will be confronted with one aspect that isn't terribly tablet-friendly, at least on this particular device: the home screen is portrait-only. No amount of reorienting the device will shift it to landscape mode. This isn't a fatal flaw, but it is a very annoying factor that you'll be faced with again and again whenever going to the home screen while holding the device in landscape.
I totally agree. It is just mind-boggling really. Given that Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) got this right, it is really hard to believe that for a supposedly tablet-optimized OS, users are forced to view the homescreen in portrait mode-only. I can't fathom Google's reasoning here.
It seems like it might be a sacrifice to ensure smooth operation of other features, perhaps. Android 4.1 implements features like resizable widgets, and landscape mode on the homescreen may be a casualty of making sure those features function smoothly.
Users can get around this annoyance by installing an alternative launcher. Chief among them is Apex (Free,
Google Play
), although there a number of other possibilities out there too. So much for the pure Android "Jelly Bean" experience you get with a Nexus 7 though, if you do.
And the "pure" experience is quite a pleasant one. Jelly Bean is largely as fast and responsive as Google made it out to be in its debut. Project Butter is the name Google gave to its effort to reduce interface lag, and the results are as smooth as the name implies. The CPU and graphics run in parallel to speed up the interface, which now runs at 60fps. That means screen transitions occur quickly and with very little choppiness.
Google made huge strides with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Jelly Bean puts the OS in the same ballpark as iOS and Windows Phone 7 for overall slickness. Graphical enhancements to the UI are slick, making for a polished product that belies its status as an 'open source' project. In the past, Google has added features to its OS at the expense of stability. The same can't be said for Jelly Bean, which is the best Android experience yet and stands on par with iOS and Windows 7 Phone for quality.
True, Jelly Bean seems to really solidify Android as a mature operating system. Google Google appears to be putting a real emphasis on smoothness and user experience. Of course, there are some design hiccups here and there. The notification system, for instance, has a somewhat awkward two-fingered gesture that initiates deeper interactivity -- i.e., expanding new emails, etc.
Standard Google apps included work very well. In particular, the new Google+ app is particularly well-optimized for the tablet experience. Maps, Currents, Gmail, Earth as well as Google Talk all function as well as you could hope for in the tablet context.
Maps, in particular, shines on the Nexus 7. The new Google Maps features turn-by-turn navigation and a number of other features that make for a truly eye-opening experience. Compass Mode in Street View is, in itself, almost worth the price of admission, allowing users to physically turn with the device and see whatever would be in front of them in the real world. The navigation mode is also quite useful, and Google circumvents the lack of a cellular connection by allowing users to download maps for offline access and navigation.
Google have been clever enough to include as pre-installed a Nexus 7 guidebook as an e-book. This is a really handy way of getting to know the functions and features of the OS to help users get things done. It is really worth having a read, so that you can become a Nexus 7 power-user in no time.
One of the major features Google showed off when revealing the Nexus 7 and Android 4.1 was Google Now, a sort of continually-learning service that helps users organize their own lives. Google Now remembers the things users search for, where they search for them, and so forth, and it presents that information when the system deems it necessary.
To access Google Now, simply swipe up from the bottom of the display and it will automatically present you with information relevant to you. This includes the local weather, meetings or other events that you might have scheduled. It's akin to Siri in some ways in that it functions as an assistant. Its voice recognition capabilities are also very good, and provided that you are in a quiet area and you speak clearly, but using regular language, you can ask Google Now for assistance in finding information without too much difficulty. It's a really worthwhile addition.
The voice recognition feature built into Android 4.1 really is one of the standout aspects of the operating system. Google has parlayed a massive amount of voice data into a system that can pretty solidly outperform Apple's Siri in many cases. Additionally, the voice dictation feature is available offline, making it all the more useful. Users are restricted, however, and can only use voice commands to search the web, whereas on an Apple device one can search the device itself for files. The voice feature is useful for setting alarms for one day, but it cannot do simple things like create a calendar event. Tell it to make a calendar event for "tomorrow at 5 PM" and the device will set an alarm for today at that time. It's a very frustrating limitation, and one that Google will hopefully find some way to fix in the near future.
Connectivity and battery life:
The Nexus 7 doesn't have a cellular connection. So long as a user remains within range of a Wi-Fi signal, this isn't really an issue. Upon moving out of Wi-Fi range, though, the storage limitations on the device become more of a concern. Fortunately, the offline mode for Maps preserves navigation functionality, and the voice recognition features are also largely available offline -- with, of course, the exception of Internet search.
I've always enjoyed the immediate connectivity of 3G or 4G devices. However, with convenience comes the added expense of an additional data plan. So, it is not a bad thing that the Nexus 7 is not currently available with a cellular connection - it is easy enough to tether the device when on the go, if an Internet connection is required. If you don't have a smartphone, only then does it become an issue.
A cellular connection would also likely have the effect of lowering the battery life of the device. As it is, the Nexus 7 gets pretty solid life out its 4,325 mAh battery. On the product page, Google claims up to eight hours of active use, and that\'s actually been a bit on the low side in my experience. User experience may vary, of course, but one can likely expect a solid 10 hours of use before the battery indicator creeps into the red.
No complaints with the battery life from me. It's pretty decent with some benchmarks showing over 9 hours of use. As with all mobile devices though, this will vary considerably based on the activities that you are engaged in. You will get maximum life if you set the display brightness lower, and don't engage in too many processor intensive tasks. In that case, you will start to cut in severely on the longevity of use per charge.
Also of note from a connectivity perspective is that the Nexus 7 does not support MHL nor does come equipped with an HDMI port, meaning that you won't be able to connect it directly to a TV to view movies on a larger display.
Final thoughts:
There are better 7-inch tablets on the market, but not for the money. I previously mentioned the Galaxy Tab 7.7 as an example and if money is no concern, I would seriously recommend users give that device a look. It offers the best ergonomics in the class and a Super AMOLED Plus display. The 7-inch form factor has a lot going for it from an entertainment and consumption perspective, although you couldn't use it as a serious alternative to a notebook when on the go for productivity. A larger tablet paired with a Bluetooth keyboard is a much better proposition in that regard. Overall, though, the both Google and Asus have got the basics right in the key areas for this tablet - although I doubt it will pose a serious threat to the iPad.
At that price point, the Nexus 7 is a terrific value for anyone looking for a tablet. The power of the device, combined with its pocket-sized portability, make it a terrific entertainment option; and the stellar voice controls along with Google Docs significantly increase its utility for productivity. It's by no means perfect, but you'll definitely be getting more than what you pay for the device. We could be seeing the emergence of the first real competitor to the iPad, albeit from a thoroughly unexpected angle.
excellent value for money
solid all-round performance
quality display
good build quality
runs Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean"
slightly thick and heavy for its size
only 8GB or 16GB options, no microSD slot
no support for MHL or HDMI
possible early quality control issues


text:
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Jimmy Carter's service extends well past his presidency
Though approaching his 90th year, the greatest American ex-president, Jimmy Carter, shows no sign of slowing down. Recently, he has visited Sweden, where my wife Birgit and I reside for several months each year, bringing a message of peace and responsible behavior for the nation of Iran, which has had no regular diplomatic relations with the United States for decades. Carter also expressed grave concern over the emergence of a new radical group seeking to overthrow or dominate the governments of Iraq and Syria, linking them into one repressive regime.
I first met Jimmy Carter while heading up the Jewish Community Council of Greater New London during the 1970s. Upon securing the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 1976, he held a meeting for such agency heads in Boston, which I attended. Being very impressed with Carter and his message of hope for America and the world, I volunteered in his successful presidential campaign, and was invited to his Inauguration in Washington in January 1977.
In his inaugural speech, Jimmy Carter adopted the theme that government should be competent and compassionate, and he succeeded in helping to create 8 million new jobs, reducing the federal budget deficit, establishing a national energy policy and, in foreign affairs, bringing together the leaders of Israel and Egypt to sign the 1978 Camp David Accords, the first (and only) real Mideast peace agreement.
Even though he was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980 (largely due to over 50 American diplomats and other staff having been taken hostage by Iranian radicals and not released until after the election), Carter did not withdraw from public life. In recent decades, he has helped supervise elections all over the developing world, has advised most of his successors in the American presidency, and has spoken out forcefully for peace and reconciliation.
In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He has founded the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, Georgia to help achieve improved living conditions for the needy, not only in a host of nations around the world, but in the United States itself.
Over the years, Jimmy Carter and I have stayed in touch; during my service as an agency head and college professor in eastern Connecticut, I formally proposed to the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton - where I was teaching business and economics courses - that a new Trident submarine be named in honor of this former naval officer and graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis. I was told that my proposal had been referred to the Secretary of the Navy.
Jimmy Carter served with distinction in the U.S. Navy during World War II, trained as an engineer. Later, he specialized in nuclear power, so the naming of a nuclear submarine after him is fitting. It took decades, but on Feb. 19, 2005 the third and last Seawolf nuclear submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), was commissioned, with the motto Semper Optima - Always the Best.
The same might well be said about Jimmy Carter himself.
Eugene F. Elander is a former New London resident and past executive director of the Jewish Federal of Eastern Connecticut. He now splits his time between homes in Sweden and Georgia.
Why did so many people leave the Kendrick Lamar concert before it was over?
After a miserable U.S. Open, why the Travelers Championship is the best golf tournament out there


text:
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — Finding the right mix of cover crops remains a major hurdle for Eastern Washington farmers, they said at a forum Tuesday promoting the practice.
Cover crops are grown and then incorporated into the soil to improve it and retain moisture.
"Our challenge is integrating (cover crops) into our annual cropping systems and even our no-till fallow situations, trying to figure out just what that mix looks like so it doesn't drain moisture out of the ground and be a detriment to the next crop," Spokane Conservation District production agriculture manager Ty Meyer said.
The Airway Heights meetings was one of 225 the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service hosted around the nation in conjunction with a national conference on cover crops and soil health in Omaha, Neb.
Advocacy will be a big step in increasing support for cover crops, said Howard Buffett, a farmer and chairman of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which sponsored the conference. Buffett's comments were broadcast from the meeting.
Buffett is the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
"Our biggest challenge is the mindset of many farmers," Buffett said. "It's hard to change behavior. We have to raise the profile of farmers who are having success, of those individuals who understand the processes...."
Richard Ott, who farms north of Spokane, said he has experimented with cover crops. He attended the local forum to share his successes and failures with other farmers.
"It's still kind of in the trial-and-error stage, really dealing a lot with our growing season and weather patterns," he said. "It's pretty tough to try and use a Midwest-type system."
Ott's long-term objective is better soil health.
"I think as we develop (cover crops) more in the area, more people will see the benefits," he said.
Genesee, Idaho, farmer Russ Zenner recently tried cover crops for the first time. Raising cover crops in the middle of harvest caused a conflict with his workload, and he said he was disappointed in the value he received grazing cattle on the crop.
But Zenner said his soil looks like it will benefit from the cover crop. He plans to try again. North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown's story of improved soil health, quality and increased yields while cutting back on chemical use appealed to Zenner.
"It's just going to take more growers trying it," he said. "We don't have experience with timing of seeding, how to incorporate it into our cropping system, whether or not livestock are going to be a very essential part of this."
Meyer said he hopes to bring more experts to the region to assess Eastern Washington soils and offer advice.


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Sponsored by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Edward Powers wrote:This is now only one week away and we still have room for two teams before we cap the field. Anyone interested in a chance to hear a great set, play some top-notch competition and have a chance to qualify for a great national tournament? There were 102 teams at HHH West last week---surely we can attract 24 to play this excellent set, can we not? Don't be shy!
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The Kings of Leon are growing up.
In a teleconference with reporters to plug the band's tour that hits Minneapolis, Minn. on Thursday, the three brothers and one cousin reflected on their wilder, hairier early days and the more sobering responsibilities of new families and filling arenas in 2014. Just don't think they've gotten complacent.
"It's easy to feel like what you're doing is a routine," said vocalist Caleb Followill. "But I think there's something inside us that drives us ... we come from a very competitive family. For me, every time I see a young band and I hear a song that I think is really good, there's a part of me that gets a little angry. It's like, 'S—, man. We should have written that song.
Caleb, Nathan (drums), Jared (bass) and Matthew (guitar) Followill signed their first record deal a dozen years ago and quickly earned a cult following in the U.S. thanks to the foursome's freewheeling songs that drew from Strokes-style cool and Southern-rock stomp. The British mainstream embraced them on a wider scale, turning them into major stars abroad. The States caught up in 2008 when Kings of Leon scored a pair of massive hits with "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody."
Two albums later, the band has yet to match the success of those singles, so attendance for their current U.S. arena tour will show if there's enough interest to keep them operating at this level. Here's what the guys had to say about making it in the music business and making babies in the real world.
Matthew: "We're going with a bigger show. I don't want to give away too much, but it should be better. I think now we're trying to pay attention to what's going on around us and we're trying to pay attention to what people want to hear in the set list."
Nathan: "If people are going to spend their money to come watch you, you might as well have them leave thinking that it was quite the experience. I think this is the first tour where we're like, OK, this is the beginning of trying to do something special and something different."ON HOW THEIR LATEST ALBUM, "MECHANICAL BULL," COMPARES WITH THE REST
Jared: "We were super, super young (when we made our debut). That could have been our first and last album, and I don't think it would have surprised any one of us. We had no real direction. We were just doing what we thought was cool at that time and kind of imitating the bands that we thought were cool. Now, we've grown up a little bit and we have a little bit more of an identity. Going into an album now, we know what we want to do and it's not really like we're free-throwing."ON LOSING EARLY FANS AS THE BAND BECAME MORE POPULAR
Nathan: "We've experienced the full gamut as far as fans go, from our early days where you couldn't understand a word that Caleb was singing and it looked like we had walked off the set of 'Almost Famous' to (the worldwide success of) 'Sex on Fire' and 'Use Somebody.' Once you get into the game of trying to make the music that you think people want you to make, that's kind of thin ice. For the longest time, I don't think any of us listened to our first few records. I don't know if it was because we were embarrassed at how horrible of musicians we were or the way we sounded or what. I feel a little guilty for giving up on those records because looking back on them now, we were making fun music that I actually enjoyed playing every night."ON RETURNING TO THE ROAD NOW THAT 3 OF THE 4 BAND MEMBERS ARE FATHERS
Nathan: "It changes your perspective on what you do after the show. Because your daughter's waking up at 7 a.m. whether Daddy went to bed at 10 p.m. or 4 a.m. I actually enjoy the thought of my wife and daughter being able to come out on the road. I'm pretty sure the back of the bus will be turned into a nursery instead of a nice luxurious king-sized bed for Daddy. But hey, it's worth the sacrifice."ON WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
Caleb: "There are so many things that we've done and we've done them a million times. And after a while you start to look for something else. For me at this point, I'm excited to go out and step up our game, to go out there and try to compete with all forms of music as far as our show goes. It's not just about being in a rock 'n' roll band ... and it's not all about the party for me anymore. Or at least not this week. But we'll see what it's like next week."


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1325 Hollythorne Dr, Rock Hill, SC 29732
- Beds: n/a
- Baths: n/a
- Single Family Residence
Listing Details
- Assessed Taxable Amount
- $138,000
- Tax Amount
- $1,216
- Last Transaction Date
- 10/29/2014
- Last Transaction Purchase Price
- $146,000
- Property Type
- Single Family Residence
- Units
- 1
Public Facts: As provided by County Assessor and Recorder offices. May not reflect recent additions or improvements. If you see any errors, the best way to get the records updated is to contact your local county records office. If any of the information in this section conflicts with property information provided by a listing agent or broker, agent-provided information should be deemed more reliable.


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The arrest of Ivan Torralba,19, of Fort Morgan actually happened on Nov. 8 about 1:22 p.m.
He is being held in the Logan County Jail on $250,000 bond.
Kayla Chadwick was reported missing in March.
It was reported that Chadwick was last seen after an argument with her boyfriend.
A grand jury was convened to investigate her disappearance.
As a result, Torralba was arrested as a result of the "investigation" part of the disappearance, but not necessarily connected with the disappearance itself.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited children has listed Chadwick as an "endangered runaway" after months have passed since her disappearance.
Fort Morgan police are still pursuing the investigation. Those who may be able to help on her case are asked to call 970-867-5678.
-- Contact Dan Barker at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Making Use of Energy Efficient LEDs for Wireless Lighting
What if the future of lighting is one where wireless technology can help contribute towards greater energy efficiency in the home? The amount of light might be driven by the application, focused on using energy and light when and where it is needed rather than expending energy in less common areas around the home.
For lighting within the home, it would be nice to have lighting designed to provide light exactly where it is needed and only the light necessary without wasting energy. Lighting can turn on and off intelligently, be positioned for optimal use, and provide just the right amount of light without having shadows or bright spots. The future does not have to be one of over-lighting an area but rather trying to select an intelligent light at the right brightness installed exactly where it is needed.
The vision for the future is one where more lighting for general illumination will be battery powered or battery backed. The off-grid lighting market will continue to expand. Hybrid versions of lighting will emerge in more applications where energy storage will be used to reduce power consumption from the grid during times of peak energy usage.
Energy use will be optimized. For example, when the power company is experiencing peak energy demand in the middle of a hot summer day, a building will be able to reduce its energy consumption from the grid by using energy it had stored within its lights in the middle of the night.
This vision can become a reality. Advances in technology for LEDs over the past several years enable this level of energy efficiency in everyday lighting.
Last year, several manufacturers were showing 200 lumen per watt performance for LED components in their R&D labs. Most recently, Cree announced their XLamp MK-R LED putting onto the market a next generation single die LED component delivering 200 lumens per watt. As this research continues to become market reality, lighting companies are focusing their technology on energy efficiency that meets everyday demand and need.
Advances in energy efficiency allow companies to bring to market bright, intelligently controlled LED lights that can run for one or more years off of a single set of alkaline or rechargeable batteries. This advancement in LED technology allows a typical light in the kitchen or bath to offer the same lighting output using less power. Couple this with battery-powered lights and manufacturers are able to create battery-powered lights that offer the same brightness and functionality as traditional lighting—without the need for on-the-grid power.
Wireless lighting will replace more applications in the future. LED lights that are battery-powered and offer the same quality and brightness of traditional lighting, yet do not require the use of the electrical grid are what homes demand today. Those companies that create innovative off-grid lighting products that can be used in everyday life and provide new solutions toward a more energy efficient future in lighting will win. With power outages, grid shortages, and natural disasters keeping millions in the dark, this lighting evolution will ensure that no one gets stuck there.
Michael Recker is the chief technology officer at Wireless Environment, makers of Mr Beams wireless lighting. Visit www.mrbeams.com for product information.
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The Tour de France will not be gracing us with its presence this year, something which you might think is a bit of a disappointment to us all. And indeed it might be if you're the owner of pretty much any kind of local retail or hospitality business, but as far as the rest of us are concerned it's something of a relief, to be honest. Last year I had to dump the car two kilometres out of town and walk home through stalled traffic and abandoned vehicles. This is what the end of days looks like – roads strewn with redundant machinery while dazed survivors carrying backpacks pick their way through the carnage trying to get home. I suppose we should be grateful there weren't zombies.
Of course the absence of the event itself doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of our cycling freak visitors, who spend their mornings trying to kill themselves on the roads before coming back to town to sit in a bar and watch Bradley Wiggins wipe the floor with the opposition on one of the huge screens without which our various hostelries may as well say goodbye to any summer trade whatsoever.
I gather the Wiggo effect has turned road cycling in the UK from a slightly nerdish minority pursuit confined to single men who probably only did it as an excuse to wear tight shorts, into the lastest uber cool sport. This is great news for the manufacturers of bikes, lycra and cycling gadgets, and even better news for anyone looking to pick up a good second hand bargain two years down the line when people realise that a) merely spending £2000 will not miraculously rid you of the beer belly and turn you into Mark Cavendish, and b) cycling to work in the UK involves getting cold, wet and probably run over.
I have to confess at this point that after ten years spent wondering what institution our summer visitors had escaped from, I too have been sucked into the strange world of biking up big hills at every available opportunity. Not very far in so far, but I can tell that it's the start of a long dark tunnel full of unnecessary pain and suffering. On the bright side, I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone trying to deal with depression or other mental or emotional trauma – cycling will remove all of your anguish and distribute it evenly between legs and lungs, leaving none for anywhere else. It also means you will be so shagged out at the end of the day that you can barely get the cork out of the wine bottle and click on the next episode of The Walking Dead, let alone brood over whatever's bothering you.
My embarking on this programme of blatant self harm has less to do with the exploits of Mr Wiggins and his colleagues at Team Sky than the fact that I've pretty much run out of flat bits, something which happens all too quickly round here. If I lived in Holland I'd probably never dream of doing something as ridiculous as biking up an alp, but there's a limit to how often you can ride along to the end of the valley and back without wondering if there's more to life.
My first foray into this madness needed to be something relatively easy (note use of the word 'relatively' there), so I picked the Col de l'Echelle on the road from the Val Claree near Briançon over to Bardonecchia in Italy. The reasons for this were as follows:
1. It's only about 16km from La Vachette at the bottom of the valley to the col.
2. Most of it looked fairly flat (you can tell I'm not really committed here)
3. A friend – also a beginner biker – did it last summer, so how hard can it be.
4. It's far enough away to offer an excuse to go camping again. Yay!
The route up from La Vachette towards Nevache near the head of the valley is indeed fairly flat and very nice as well, what with the river and the mountains and all that alpine meadow business. If you're on holiday in the area and fancy a nice bike ride, I recommend it. Take a picnic.
The road up to the col is a right turn about a kilometre before Nevache, and it doesn't mess about. This cycling lark is as much about psychology as anything else, I discover, and that moment when you realise you've gone through all three of those big gear wheels on the front plus the little ones at the back, and you can no longer make it any easier, is as bad as the point where your body runs out of sugar and switches to burning fat. Not that I got that far, obviously. In fact according to my iWidget the whole project didn't get rid of the calorific equivalent of a Mars Bar, which was most disappointing. Evidently I have a super-efficient metabolism, which will stand me in good stead come the zombie invasion but isn't great when it comes to those Nutella doughnuts the boulangerie insists on producing.
I'd like to say I got to the col in a oner without stopping for a wheeze, but resolution (and legs) gave out at a point which turned out to be a mere 50 or so metres from the top. Gutted. Which is more psychology – if I'd known the holy grail was just around the corner I could probably have found a last morsel in the corner of the motivation bag. I bet those Tour riders spend all the rest of the year obsessively driving the routes, noting all the landmarks and working out the gradient. Cheating, I call it.
Still, wheeze break or not, I did it. I rode up a col on a bike, thus proving that it is in fact possible for mere mortals and not confined to the machine-creatures who get to wear that yellow jersey. If it stops raining tomorrw I might try the Col du Glandon – bits of that look flattish as well.
This week's camping spot:
Site: Camping Les Gentianes, La Vachette
Pitches: Choice of sun or shade, bit stony but peggable
Facilities: Tiny swimming pool, extortionate wifi. Bread from the snackbar in La Vachette, order the day before. (What kind of campsite doesn't sell bread? Bizarre.)
Showers: Huge cubicles with ensuite wasbasin – you could have a party in there. Adjustable water temperature.
Price: 13€ a night in July/August for a car and a tent plus one person.


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I would like to say a few things to everybody on the board:
I didn't know I rubbed that many people the wrong way on this site, that was never my intention. I will admit that I have been too negative with this regime, even though I originally supported the hiring of Reid and Dorsey. In almost every post I talk about Alex Smith and I realize I have been quite critical of the qb, this has also upset some. I just want this team to do well, I really do. It upsets me that I see a talented team held back with what I believe to be a game manager. However, I do understand Smith is our quarterback atleast for the time being and in the future if I continue to post I promise to be more objective and far less critical.


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I decided to spend a little time on Belgawrath (Orc Shaman 13) this weekend. By doing the quests in the Orc starting area I was able to get him up to Level 6 as I mentioned before, and this weekend I was able to get him up to Level 13 by doing the majority of the quests found in Durotar. I skipped a few of the quests that I know exist over there, not because they aren't good quests to do, but just because I did not feel like doing them since I have leveled so many characters in this area that it begins to bore me.
[EDIT: For those of you interested in specifics about the Shaman Totem Quests, I plan on having a single post that I will mention each of those in detail.]
Starting the Day Off Right: Breakfast
As any good Orc should do, I started the day off with a nice breakfast of fruit from the local vendor.
As you can see, the kind of fruit that Orcs consume, comes from our favorite plant: the beasts of Stranglethorn.
(Note: In case you didn't catch the joke there, take a look at the picture on the sign, and then it's name.)
Leveling Up
The first thing I want to note about leveling up a shaman, is that a good weapon goes a LONG way. I spent a whopping 47 silver on a level 5, two-handed axe for Belgawrath that had 7.0 DPS with +2 Strength and +1 Stamina on it. The damage on the weapon was pretty good for only a level 5 requirement, and the bonus to stats was nice since there are not a whole lot of options for that at such a low level. At level 6 the axe was scoring crits for 62-80 damage.
As soon as I put that axe on and gave it the Rockbiter shaman buff, the weapon was doing some serious damage. Whether it is the class or just my personal luck, Belgawrath was critting up a storm out there while I was leveling and was clearing mobs around his level with a simple rotation of Lightning Bolt > Earth Shock > Attack.
I pull with the LBolt, cast the shock as I run towards the enemy, and then my attack goes off as soon as I close in with them. They generally set off a charge of my Lightning Shield as well, which just adds more damage to the overall total which was easily more than they could take.
I would like to point out that having the Lightning Shield (and other shields) no longer require mana is a huge benefit to playing the shaman. That was one thing that always caused headaches with my previous shaman was having to waste 119 mana on a spell that did decent, but not significant damage to enemies that attacked me. I now cast Lighting Shield while I travel simply for the sake of doing it since it no longer requires mana to cast.
As for tips on leveling the Shaman at this stage of the game, the main thing that I can really tell you is that the damage from a decent weapon far outweighs the damage from any of your spells, especially if you take the time to grab one from the Auction House instead of relying on the ones you get from drops or quest rewards.
Secondly, Stone Claw Totem is very useful at this stage in the game when you are in close areas with multiple mobs or when you are fighting mobs that also have pets. In Durotar and the Barrends there are several mobs that have pets with them. Attacking the humanoid mob while letting their pet plink away at a totem that has a chance to stun them with each hit has proven to be a very safe method of leveling in those areas where your weak armor would otherwise have potentially ended up with a spirit walk back to your body.
After reaching Level 10, I began spending my talent points, starting out with Ancestral Knowledge. I only have 4 talent points right now, and all 4 of them are there.
While I do plan on running instances, I do still prefer to level solo instead, so I decided not to enhance my totems right now, though I may later on if I find myself drawn more towards grinding through instances than grinding through mobs one at a time.
At level 10 I purchased another two-handed axe from the AH, this one costing right around 1 gold to buy, and it had 10.7 DPS on it with +2 Strength and +2 Intelligence, which was more along the lines of what a shaman needs than my previous axe. From there I continued questing in Durotar until I had finished all of my quests, and then I went to the Barrens to start the quest chain for my Fire Totem.
At that point in time I was level 12, and I found everything that I needed for the quest in a fairly short amount of time. I had my Hearth Stone set in Razor Hill since it was pretty well the middle point between all of the areas that you need to go for the quest, and I put it to good use with these quests since you run back and forth so much otherwise.
I called it a night after I received my new totem, and managed to sneak one more level in there before I logged off for the night.
Shave and a Haircut: Here we have Belgawrath's new look. In sticking with the character for which he was named, I actually should have given him a big, grey beard. Perhaps I will take a look at that as he levels up, but for right now he's still a fiery youth.
Exploring Durotar: One of the natural occurrences of doing nearly all of the quests in one region is that you have a very high possibility of fully exploring the map.
Represent: Every good guildie needs to rep his guild! This happens to be some random guild that threw me an invite, and since I am such a low level I really don't care what kind of guild I am in so I went ahead and took it. A cool guild tabard can make me stay in a low level guild better than anything else, so I always have to take a look at it. I did not get a shot of the tabard itself, but red with the skull & crossbones on it is a decent enough start.
Professions: All of my characters end up leveling their professions at least to the second level. I have not done this yet with leatherworking, but only because I have not had the desire to spend the time doing it yet. Instead, I have just thrown all of my skinning mats into my bank and will level it up at a later time, probably this week.


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One of the lasting memories of Colorado's latest coaching change will forever be the dozens of players who stood in the back of the room on Nov. 26 and watched their beloved head coach, Jon Embree, sit in front of the media and talk about being fired.
In general, the Buffs were upset to see their leader let go after a disappointing 1-11 season.
On Monday afternoon, two weeks after Embree's final press conference, the players walked out of a meeting with new head coach Mike MacIntyre and insisted they were ready to look to the future.
"We all loved (Embree) so much and we'll always have a place in our hearts for that guy," freshman quarterback Shane Dillon said. "He brought us through and took us through all of that. We all love him, we care about him and we'll stay in touch with him. But, I do think we're all ready to move forward."
Being in limbo for two weeks was an emotional roller coaster for the players, but sophomore quarterback Connor Wood agreed with Dillon. Having a new leader has given the Buffs a renewed energy.
"There might be some lingering guys here (still upset about Embree being gone), but I think that for the most part, it's been two weeks and guys are upset about the whole deal, but ready to move on," Wood said. "That's how life goes. There's going to be changes, so guys are embracing it."
MacIntyre's initial meeting with the players, on Monday afternoon, left a good impression on those he'll coach in 2013.
"I like him," defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe said. "He's an intense guy, you can tell, real passionate about football. I like what I'm hearing from him."
Junior linebacker Derrick Webb said MacIntyre gave the Buffs a lot of stats to indicate what he's done in turning around the San Jose State program. Included in those stats were some great individual achievements from Spartans defenders.
"Things like that always catch my ear," Webb said. "I always want to be that guy. It'll be fun.
"I've got a good impression of him so far. He seemed like a guy who comes in with a lot of goals and a lot of purpose."
Players seemed particularly impressed with MacIntyre's bottom line. He turned San Jose State from a one-win team in 2010 to a 10-win team in 2012. They're hoping he does the same for CU, and most players appeared ready to buy in.
"He's going to bring in whoever he's going to bring in (for the coaching staff) and we've got to rally behind it," quarterback Jordan Webb said. "What it comes down to is playing for each other, playing for our teammates."
Future Buffs are eager to see what MacIntyre brings to the program, as well. CU has 12 verbal commits for the class of 2013 and they have been playing a waiting game during the past two weeks. Now, the homework begins as they learn about a new coach.
"I'm definitely excited to have a coach there and excited about him," said Sam Kronshage, an offensive lineman from The Woodlands, Texas.
Receiver Devin Ross, from Mission Hills, Calif., has been wavering on his commitment to CU because of the Buffs' poor season and unsteady coaching situation. With MacIntyre in place, Ross said, "I have to do some research on him because I don't really know anything about him."
Like Kronshage, Ross is planning to take an official visit to CU in January.
Another receiver, Elijah Dunston of West Hills, Calif., said he's more excited about CU now.
"I know their offense is going to be real high powered," he said. "It's something new for Colorado and something new for the program."
Dunston has been recruited by MacIntyre at San Jose State, but said he doesn't know him as well as he knew Embree.
"I'm definitely looking forward to finding out more about him," Dunston said.
So are the current Buffs. But, the first impression was a good one and many of them sounded as if the 2013 season can't arrive soon enough.
"Guys are fired up about a new day and a new attitude," Wood said.
Follow Brian on Twitter: @BrianHowell33.


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Is Adrianne Curry Taller Than Ali Cobrin?
Who is taller?!
Adrianne Curry is taller than Ali Cobrin by 8cm.
That's roughly 3 inches or 0.08 metres.
Have a look at Adrianne Curry's and Ali Cobrin's pages to see some more information about their heights and names.
You can also check your height against theirs and see how you compare.


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By Liz Greene
"Apollon", August 1999
Since Chiron's discovery in 1977, astrologers have been experiencing and exploring his themes, listening to new tales that resound to his ancient myth, and coming to some understanding of his archetypal impact. Now, over twenty years later, Liz Greene sees Chiron as essential in deepening our understanding of solar consciousness; for in order to choose to live life to the full, we have to face that part in us that would rather seek death.
The will to live is a great mystery. Every medical practitioner, with any experience of life-threatening illness, knows that the will to live can affect physical as well as psychological well-being, and survival often depends upon the sick person's desire for life, rather than on the doctor's ministrations. Nor is the will to live necessarily what we claim we feel. We may cry out that we want life; but somewhere inside, we want to go home, and this longing for oblivion may be more powerful than any conscious declaration of intent to "get better". Some people react to conflict, pain and disappointment with a creative response that transforms their perspective and even their circumstances. Other people become bitter and hopeless and live in a grey twilight world, or entirely lose their will to live. There are not only active suicides amongst those who have inwardly given up, but also those self-architected "accidental" deaths which, although unconscious, are nevertheless fuelled by a powerful yearning to bring an end to suffering and unhappiness. Self-destructive behaviour does not always involve the obvious gesture of the bottle of pills or the knife slash to the wrist. There is no easy formula to determine why some individuals rise to life's challenges, despite severe misfortunes and handicaps, while others turn their backs on the future, even if fortune favours them. Moreover, loss of the will to live may not always result in self-destruction. It may be expressed as the urge to destroy others, as though, on some deep and inaccessible level, the projection of hopelessness and victimisation onto another gives the suffering individual the illusion that he or she is strong and in control of life. Thus the individual who has, secretly, lost the will to live may, in extremis, try to deprive others of joy -and perhaps even of life – by finding a scapegoat who can be burdened with all the despair that is felt within.
This mystery may have its origin, as so many mysteries do, in the enigma of inherent individual character, and the birth chart can provide us with many insights into the patterns which underpin that character. With any polarity in life, we, as astrologers, always need to look at a polarity of planets; and the polarity of hope versus despair, the will to live versus hopelessness, may be illuminated – at least in part – through the symbolism of the polarity of the Sun and Chiron.
I do not believe we can really understand either of these planets without considering the meaning of the other one. Although they are not in actual aspect in every individual's chart, nevertheless they are both present in every chart, and they form an energy dynamic within the personality. A direct aspect sharpens this dynamic and often becomes the focus of the individual's journey, but the polarity exists in each of us regardless. All the planets, up to and including Saturn, serve the development of the individual ego, best symbolised by the Sun itself; in fact, we might even say that the personal planets "serve" the Sun as the centre of individuality. But Chiron lies at the interface between Saturn and the outer planets, and therefore mediates collective issues which impinge on and wound the individual. By its nature, Chiron's collective implications signify something collectively "unhealable", because the wound exists in the collective and is ancestral. By its nature, the Sun reflects each individual's sense of purpose and meaning in life, and these are intimately bound up with the will to live and to become oneself. Each of these planets needs the other; but if the balance tips too far to one or the other, certain psychological difficulties may ensue.
Following are a list of "keywords" which may be helpful in understanding the relationship between the Sun and Chiron. I would like to explore these in more detail first, and then look at what can happen when the Sun works against Chiron, and what can happen when they work together. After this brief assessment of the two planets, an example chart may help to illustrate the mysterious dynamic between the Sun and Chiron.
Key Themes
|The SunIndividual destinySense of meaningHope for the future
Individual identity apart from family and collective
The power to create
The ability to play
The divine child
|ChironCollective failings and flawsDisillusionmentFailed ideals
Inescapable wounding
Bitterness and cynicism
Physical and psychological damage
Acceptance of mortal limits
Quest for understanding
|The Sun working against ChironDepressionLoss of confidenceSense of permanent damage
Expectation of failure
Sense of victimisation or scapegoating
Desire to victimise or scapegoat others
Projection of inferiority on others
Loss of the will to live
|The Sun working with ChironWisdomPatience in the face of that which cannot be changedToughness and grit
Understanding of deeper patterns
Melancholy which leads to depth of thought and feeling
Determination to make a contribution to the welfare of others
Feelings of specialness tempered by an acceptance of human limits
Activation of the will to live
The meaning of the Sun
I will not spend too much time on describing the meaning of the Sun, as I have done this elsewhere. In short, the Sun represents the essence of the living individual – godhead (or, if a less "spiritual" term is preferred, the life force) incarnated in human form for a particular lifespan, and expressing itself with a specific nature and purpose. Through the Sun we experience ourselves as unique, special, and born with something to contribute to life. To paraphrase a statement Charles Harvey once made in a conference lecture, the Sun within us makes us feel connected with the macrocosm, and we experience ourselves as part of something eternal. This inner experience conveys, not "happiness" in the ordinary colloquial sense, but the profound serenity and hopefulness which arise from a feeling of living a useful and meaningful life. We could call this an experience of "individual destiny", because the Sun reflects that in us which knows we are here to live a specific purpose. Apollo was, in Greek myth, the deity who dispelled the darkness of the family curse, and freed the individual from the burden of ancestral "sin". A sense of individual meaning and purpose can indeed free us from the feeling of entrapment in the family past. The Sun also gives us a sense of an individual future, a faith in our purpose, and an inner conviction that we are "going somewhere". It is the Sun which allows us to fight free of feelings of futility and pointlessness, and which affirms our unique value even if our circumstances are painful.
The inner experience of individual destiny, meaning and hope, in turn, gives us confidence in ourselves and a belief in the essential goodness of life, and this can be a powerful healing force on both physical and psychological levels. If the expression of the Sun is blocked, stifled, or undeveloped for any reason – through childhood wounds, for example, or through internal conflicts reflected in the birth chart – the individual may find it more difficult to connect with this sense of having the right to be alive as oneself. Life's difficulties may then be amplified because there is no inner sense of specialness and hope on which to draw. The power to create depends on the Sun in the chart, because when we create anything we give ourselves over to something "other" inside us which we trust will bring forth fruit. Creativity requires an act of trust. So too does play, where we give ourselves over to a flow of imaginative power which makes us feel joyful. The most ancient symbol of this creative and playful solar power is the image of the divine child, which personifies something eternally youthful and indestructible within us.
The meaning of Chiron
In Greco-Roman art, Chiron is almost always shown carrying a child on his back. But despite this emblem of hope, the figure of the King of the Centaurs is a tragic one. It is worth reiterating the myth, which is often distorted or wrongly told because it is such a painful one.
In myth, Chiron did not become a healer because he was wounded. That is an optimistic reinterpretation which attempts to make sense of life's pain by assigning it a specific purpose and meaning – to develop the compassion and wisdom to heal others because of one's own pain. This reinterpretation of the myth is valid as a way of working with one's own wounds. But Chiron's pain serves no such noble purpose in the story. He is already a teacher and a healer, before he is wounded. It could be assumed that he is already wounded because he suffers isolation; although he is a Centaur, and therefore one of a tribe of creatures who symbolise natural instinctual powers, he is himself civilised, and has thus separated himself from his tribe. Chiron in this context represents the wise animal, a natural power which of its own volition has chosen to serve human evolution and consciousness, rather than remain blindly subject to the instinctual compulsions of the animal kingdom. Like the "helpful animal" in fairy tales, Chiron turns his back on the savagery of his instinctual nature, in order to serve the evolutionary pattern which he deems to be the way forward for the whole of life.
But Chiron is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is caught between Herakles, the solar hero who personifies the strength of the human ego, and the wild, untamed Centaurs whom Chiron himself has left behind. While the battle rages, Chiron takes no part; he has sympathy for both. Perhaps because of this mediating role, which deprives him of his natural aggression, he is accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow aimed at another Centaur, and the wound does not heal, no matter what healing methods he applies to it. Ultimately he retires to his cave howling in anguish, begging for death. Zeus and Prometheus take pity on him, and grant him the boon of mortality, allowing him to die in peace like any mortal, although once he was a god.
This terrible story implies a state of unfairness in life which is hard for any individual, and perhaps even harder for the idealistic individual involved in studies such as astrology, to countenance. We want to believe that life is fair, and that goodness is rewarded and evil punished, at least in some other incarnation if not in this one. Here is a good creature who suffers through no fault of his own, a victim of the inevitable battle between evolution and inertia, consciousness and blind instinctuality. Chiron is an image of that in us which has been wounded unfairly by life, and by inescapable conditions which reflect failings and flaws in a collective psyche which is unfailingly clumsy in its efforts to progress. Because human beings are both solar hero and wild animal, and because our efforts to civilise ourselves over history have so often produced disastrous results, we have a legacy of unfairly inflicted pain which produces repercussions through the generations. Physical and psychological damage whose causes lie, not in any individual or even parental failing, but in genetic inheritance, or collective disasters such as the Holocaust and the present nightmare in Kosovo, belong to the realm of Chiron. In these spheres our individual strivings, fired by the Sun, refined and focused by the inner planets, and given form and strength by Saturn, are thwarted or damaged by forces in life, in history, in society, and in the collective psyche over which we have no control and for which, as individuals, we cannot be blamed.
Such collisions with the inescapable flaws of the collective can leave us full of bitterness and cynicism. We may punish others because we feel maimed, wounded and irredeemable. Or we may punish ourselves. But if we can progress beyond this black bile of bitterness, and if we are persistent enough in our search for answers, we may indeed find an answer – even if the answer is that there is no answer, and that we must accept the limits of mortal existence. Acceptance is one of Chiron's gifts, and it is different from self-pitying resignation. Chiron's boon of death may be understood as a symbol of the acceptance of being mortal, and it constitutes a transformation which, even if it cannot heal the unhealable or alter the past, can radically change our perspective on life. Through it we learn compassion, albeit of a limited kind. Chiron's compassion is the compassion of one lame person for another. We may feel deep empathy for those who are wounded like ourselves. But without the Sun's warmth and light, we may not find the generosity to move beyond the narrow circle of those whose specific pain mirrors our own, and see that life hurts us all, in one way or another.
Chiron as scapegoater: the wounded becomes the wounder
There are many stages in the process which Chiron represents, beginning with his wounding, and ending with his transformation into mortality and his release from suffering. These stages encompass rage, fury, the desire to injure others, bitter resignation, self-pity, feelings of victimisation, and, at last, the dawning of a wish to understand the universal patterns that lie beyond one's personal pain. At any of these stages, if we fail to face and comprehend what is happening to us, we may become stuck and act out some of Chiron's less attractive features. Chiron is, after all, wounded in his animal half, and animals are not known for their philosphical attitude when injured. Those which have the strength tend to bite back.
As it is so relevant to the present world situation, I have chosen to briefly review the relationship between the Sun and Chiron in the chart of Slobodan Milosevic, who, at the time of writing this article, bears the dubious honour of personifying all we find most abhorrent in human nature. Not long ago, Adolf Hitler had this honour; no doubt others, equally qualified, will follow in the future. Whether or not Milosevic is truly evil as some claim, or a human being damaged unbearably and thus transformed into a destructive force, is not a question I can answer. This question forms the subject of endless debate in the healing professions, and raises the impossible conundrum of whether the will to destroy is a matter of inherent character or a matter of childhood damage taken to appalling extremes. As with all such conundrums, the answer probably lies in a combination of both. But it seems to me, viewing this chart in the context of the present situation in Yugoslavia, that we can learn a great deal from it about what happens if the wounds of Chiron are not dealt with on an inner level. Milosevic has exhibited no obvious loss of the will to live. He is, apparently, quite the opposite: a tough survivor who will find any way to retain his position of power whatever the cost to others. It is others who, at his hands, have lost not only the will to live, but their actual lives. Yet the inner picture is rather different.
Slobodan Milosevic Aug 20 1941, 22.00 MET Pozarevac, Yugoslavia
In this chart Chiron is not aspecting the Sun. It is, however, powerful through its conjunctions with the Moon and Pluto in Leo; all these planets are placed in the 4th house and square the Taurus Ascendant. The Sun is in the 5th house, in its own sign of Leo, and is therefore the dispositor of Chiron. The dynamic relationship between the Sun and Chiron in this birth chart is not through direct aspect, but through the polarisation of the self-expressive, self-mythologising 5th house Sun in Leo and the shadowed, injured Moon in the 4th, with its inheritance not only of death and destruction in the immediate family, but also of the ancient memory of grievances in the collective psyche into which Milosevic was born. Many Serbs nurse a centuries-old anger toward the Muslim world because of the occupation of their land by the Ottoman Turks in the 13th century. The Muslim Albanian community is perceived as merely a continuation of this ancient outrage. 4th house Moons feel such things personally, as though they have ingested these archaic memories through their mothers' milk.
The oppression of Tito's communist regime is also relevant here, with its repudiation of Leonine individuality. Milosevic himself is, of course, a communist, and the only outlet for a double Leo with such a political agenda is power. But although power might satisfy the Sun's drive to create, it cannot heal the hurt of the Moon in Leo, longing to be special and loved. This individual, with no water in the birth chart and the harsh internal discipline of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction square the Sun and Mercury, is not likely to recognise or acknowledge the source of his suffering, because any emotions, especially those of the vulnerable victim, are frightening. One does not survive if one feels. One survives if one fights; the Sun is trine a dignified Mars in Aries in the 12th, itself a channel for a dream of collective ancestral heroism. The Pluto-Chiron power which injures the Moon is perceived outside, in a vulnerable people who are seen as a powerful enemy. As always when one projects bits of oneself outside, Milosevic lives in a hall of mirrors.
Analysing the motives of an individual like Milosevic can teach us a great deal about ourselves. It is, of course, easy, with hindsight, to say, "Ah, naturally he behaved like this, because his whatnot is in thingey aspecting ding-ding." This is a game all astrologers play, especially when it allows us to feel superior. However, the conjunction in Milosevic's 4th house speaks not of inevitable behaviour, but of a deep ancestral wound, transmitted and enacted through the immediate family. Milosevic's parents both committed suicide, a fact which has no doubt exacerbated, or played into, the dark flavour of this conjunction. This man confronted death and total abandonment in very early life, and survival cannot therefore ever be taken for granted. Chiron-Pluto is also a generation marker, as is the Saturn-Uranus conjunction, and both occurred during, and reflected, the chaos and horror of the Second World War.
Those children born with this pair of conjunctions know well, in their blood and bones, that life is not safe, and that innocence and goodness are no guarantee for survival. This applies even if one has been born in a relatively "safe" environment, outside the arena of war. Beyond the Saturnian skin of individuality, the collective psyche ensures that all of us participate in and embody, on some level – dark or light – the times into which we are born. That Milosevic is a deeply, savagely, perhaps irrevocably wounded man is beyond doubt. That he has always had a choice in how to deal with that wound is also beyond doubt; and we all know how he chose to express it. The savagery of the inner wound is proportionate to the wound he has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Chiron, its pain inflamed by Pluto's savage fight for survival, here suggests a profound conviction that only through the deaths of those perceived as destroyers can the individual's own survival be ensured. Hopefully the readers of this article are not inclined to take Milosevic's path. He is easy to despise and even hate. Yet we may be more like him than we think – in little ways which we deem unimportant yet which reveal the painful struggle we experience in facing our own wounds honestly, and bearing them, rather than finding someone else to whom we can feel superior and in whose suffering we can secretly take delight.
Struggle and synthesis
The psychoanalyst Michael Balint3 wrote that, at the core of every illness, physical as well as psychological, there is a fundamental wound – a struggle or inner conflict which seems insurmountable and which can generate bitterness and rage, and the loss of the will to live. While there is no implication in this statement of any individual culpability, there is a suggestion that, if the conflict could be brought into consciousness, there is a good chance that the course of many physical and psychological illnesses could be altered, or faced in a different and more positive spirit.
If Chiron works against and overwhelms the Sun, the result can be depression, loss of confidence, and a sense of permanent damage or wounding. One becomes cynical – as Goethe's Mephistopheles says, "I am the spirit of negation." One expects failure, and because one expects it, one may very likely find it. A sense of being victimised or scapegoated can be very intense; or one may project one's woundedness on others and victimise or scapegoat them. If we fail to acknowledge this inner sense of bitterness and wounding, we may become arrogant and bask in our greater spiritual achievement, looking down on those whom we deem to be less evolved than ourselves. We may also become intolerant, and even cruel, toward those who inadvertently remind us that we are hurting. And so the wound festers in the darkness.
Yet the Greco-Roman image of Chiron bearing the divine child on his back also tells us that these two antithetical symbols can work together. Chiron is the child's teacher in myth – the one to whom is given the care and education of the prince who will become king. This is a rich and hopeful image of the role our unhealable hurts can play in the education of the individual we are in process of becoming. We may find a quality of serenity and wisdom, which emerge from patience in the face of that which cannot be changed. We may also develop toughness and grit, and lose the sentimentality that makes so many idealists so utterly ineffectual in realising their dreams. We may also get a glimpse of bigger, deeper patterns – the slow, painful evolution of the collective, of which we are a part, and with which we have to share responsibility. Collective disasters and mistakes are not "their" fault – human messes belong to us all. We may revile Milosevic, and rightly so, yet each time we sneer with contempt at any racial, religious, or social minority group, or slyly try to make life more difficult for those individuals who remind us of our own imperfections, we are displaying a little bit of him ourselves. I have known some very vociferously politically correct people who, when they retire behind the closed doors of their own abodes, transform into little Adolfs and Slobos toward their partners and children. And it may be wise to remember that collectives choose their leaders, and when these little bits of the maimed scapegoater in each of us aggregate together, then we are inclined to put into power an individual who will do the will of the wounded and wounder in all of us. Before we allocate the source of all present evil to figures like Milosevic, we would do well to look in the mirror.
The melancholy which Chiron can generate, warmed by the light of the Sun, may also lead us to have depth of thought and feeling, and stir in us a determination to make a contribution to the welfare of others. We may find a different kind of compassion – not just for those who have been hurt in the same way as ourselves, but for people whose experiences do not necessarily match our own, yet who merit compassion merely because we are all human. If one has lost an eye, it is easy to feel sympathy for those half-blind like ourselves, and to hate those who are fortunate enough to enjoy complete sight. The Sun working with Chiron can generate enough generosity of spirit to recognise that all human beings suffer merely because they are alone and mortal, and that one specific kind of wound is not more "special" or deserving of compassion than another. Those who are loudest in their declarations of compassion toward the Kosovo Albanians may also be those who have little compassion for their black or gay or Jewish or Pakistani neighbour, or who are prepared to kick the dog merely to alleviate stress. The Sun working with Chiron cuts through such hypocrisy to the shared essence of the human heart hidden within. Most importantly, the Sun working with Chiron can activate the will to live – not merely on a blind organic or egotistical level, but because one's sense of individual purpose has combined with a feeling of empathy for the slow and painful struggle toward the light which exists in every living thing.
The Sun and Chiron in direct aspect
Those with the Sun in direct aspect to Chiron may know on a profound level how the unfairness of life can damage the spirit; and if they are able to take on the challenge of this combination of planets, they may also dedicate their considerable energy and strength toward leaving the world a much better place than it was when they entered it. There are many examples of "famous" people with Sun-Chiron aspects who illustrate this point; any compendium of birth charts, such as Taeger's Internationales Horoskope Lexikon, is worth perusing to this end. But rather than dwelling on the famous, I would like to briefly mention two people personally known to me, both chart clients, and both with the Sun conjunct Chiron, who exemplify the very particular kind of pain Sun-Chiron may suffer. One of these also exemplifies the kind of creative resolution which is possible.
The first, a woman with the Sun conjunct Chiron in Capricorn in the 9th house, experienced Chiron's wounding first in the religious sphere (as might be expected with this 9th house placement), by being born into an orthodox Jewish family many of whose members had died in the Holocaust. She had inherited a profound bitterness and distrust of people and life, based only partly on her own experience, but also on an inherited perception of being a scapegoat in a hostile world. This wound also encompassed a prevalent orthodox Jewish attitude about the inferiority of women, exhibited in certain taboos about the body. An amalgamation of experiences highlighting life's unfairness had created in this woman a deep poison and cynicism, and an apparently immovable conviction that she was worth nothing. As a result, she victimised herself, through compulsive eating and a chain of destructive relationships. Identification with the scapegoat, the oppression of a ferocious inner persecutor, and the sense of a flawed and inferior body, were the chief areas in which she worked in psychotherapy over several years, occasionally "reporting back" to me for a chart update. It took a very long time before she could fight her way out from under Chiron's injury, and experience the self-respect and self-love of the Sun. Yet, clinging to the experience of victimisation can sometimes be a way of feeling special. It is the mute language of a secret, unacknowledged, unconscious Sun – which, if expressed in more honest ways, can not only provide healing for one's own own wounds, but can also generate a deep recognition of the blindness and pain of a collective which turns on another collective to alleviate its own sense of woundedness. This lady has travelled a long road, and her innate grit, toughness, and lack of sentimentality about life have turned out to be not only among her greatest resources, but also one of the great strengths she has begun to offer others suffering from eating disorders, similar to that she herself once suffered from.
The second example is a failed writer, a man who has all his life dreamed of publishing novels yet who invariably "shoots himself in the foot" by producing unpublishable work. He has the Sun conjunct Chiron in Leo in the 5th house. His writing style is very fine, and he has no discernible block in expressing his gift; but everything he produces is always too long, too short, too dense, or too incomprehensible, or the themes he chooses to write about are in some way politically incorrect and offensive to some specific group the publisher has reason to fear. Behind these failures in the outer world lies self-sabotage, and behind the self-sabotage lies a deep conviction that he is worth nothing, that he is stupid and inarticulate, and that if ever he does get a work into print it will be mocked, criticised, and dismissed as worthless. To date, he has not been able to utilise the insights a chart can offer, and has not fully recognised the real nature of his wound. The divine child within him was wounded by an early social and educational environment that perceived his vivid imagination as threatening and his intense self-preoccupation and self-expressiveness as selfish. His parents, so far as I can see, cannot not be held particularly culpable; all parents blunder in one way or another, and these were no worse than most and better than many. But the educational system in which he was raised did its best to turn the divine child into a socially acceptable automaton. Many people experience such pressures and frustrations. But those with Sun-Chiron in Leo may be particularly attuned to, and more readily injured by, the narrowness and fear of originality so often found in collective educational institutions, which may unwittingly destroy the very creative spirit they profess to encourage. Life, as Chiron knows well, can be very unfair.
Aspects between the Sun and Chiron are not guaranteed to offer a solution on a plate. Many individuals do not find their way through. Yet, although profoundly challenging, these contacts may also convey a special sense of how to bring wounds into consciousness, and how to teach this consciousness to others. Hard aspects between the two no doubt helped to drive Jung (Sun in Leo out-of-sign square Chiron in Aries) into formulating a psychology of the collective, and perhaps also helped to drive Dane Rudhyar (Sun in Aries opposition Chiron in Libra) into making astrology human-centred, and a tool for insight and enlightenment, rather than mere prognostication. No doubt both these men suffered, and both, on occasion, exhibited the less attractive sides of the wounded Centaur; I would not have liked to have been married to either of them. But they turned their wounds into creative power, and partook of the mythic Centaur's gift for teaching and healing. How did they get there? How do we avoid becoming a mini-Milosevic, and choose instead the path which favours the will to live?
How do we get there?
The house and sign in which Chiron is placed tell us a great deal about where, and how, life has wounded us. This is the place where, no matter how hard we seek to find a specific object for our blame, we eventually discover that the blame lies in the gap between ideal and reality, and in the inevitable flawedness of human nature. We may need to rail against life, but if we are not to sink into a corrosive bitterness which can ultimately make us distorted and ill, we need to move beyond this phase of Chiron's rage into the quest for understanding which takes us beyond identifying with the scapegoat and the victim, and beyond the attendant inclination to play the scapegoater ourselves. This understanding may require us to dispense with previous spiritual and moral convictions, and find a broader base from which to view life. We may need to give up the idea that the good guys always ride white horses and the bad guys black ones, and we may also have to accept the fact that sometimes very good, decent people suffer unfairly, and very unpleasant, nasty ones manage very nicely and die in their beds rich, comfortable, and well pleased with themselves. Chiron and Walt Disney do not make good bedfellows.
How do we find this kind of understanding? How do we learn to genuinely forgive and tolerate, without that vastly superior turn-the-other-cheek smugness which masks deep unconscious resentment and rage? Chiron needs the Sun for this task. The Sun has the power to affirm the individual's specialness and lovability, and this alone can counteract the poison of self-pity. The house and sign in which the Sun is placed at birth reflect what we need to become, if we wish to feel truly alive. If the Sun is in Aries in the 5th, and we are busy being self-sacrificing and devoting our lives to others, then somewhere, something is not working, and a deep disloyalty to self may encourage Chiron's bitterness, rather than his understanding. If the Sun is in Sagittarius in the 1st, and we are busy pretending we don't wish to be noticed by anyone, then somewhere, something is not working. If the Sun is in the 10th in Taurus, and we claim we are uninterested in material security and collective recognition of our talents, then somewhere, something is not working. If the Sun is in the 12th in Cancer and we are busy pretending we do not believe in any mystical or invisible dimension of life, psychological or spiritual, then somewhere, something is not working. I believe we need to ask ourselves: Is the Sun shining in my life? Am I myself? Or is a fear of loneliness or not belonging making me pretend to be what I am not?
Equally, we may also need to face Chiron, and ask ourselves: What is the nature of my wound? How has life hurt me, and whom do I secretly blame? What might I be doing to compensate, deny, indulge in, or project that wound? Can I feel compassion for myself, or only rage and self-pity? Where do I feel scapegoated, and where do I try to heal, or destroy, others in order to convince myself that I am not wounded? Where do I sabotage or even destroy myself because of bitterness? In order for the Sun and Chiron to work together, we need to be conscious of both. There is a profound and mysterious chemistry between these planets which, if it is working for us rather than against us, seems to mobilise the life-force, not only for our own expression, but also for the collective of which we are a part. Chiron's alienation and damage keep the Sun from becoming arrogant and insensitive; the Sun's warmth and joy keep Chiron from despair. As with all chart factors, the degree to which these dimensions of our own souls give of their best depends on how aware we are of their reality inside us. This is not a cure for life. Life will still hurt us from time to time, in one way or another, and Chiron's wounds, although we may make peace with them, inevitably rob us of our innocence. The will to live is not mobilised by a belief that life is all roses, that all we need is love, and that some kind father-mother-god will reward us if we are good. It is constellated by tougher stuff, and needs realism as well as faith and vision, if we are to exit feeling we have done our best with the gift of life, however transient, which we have been given.


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If you're a member of the Dartmouth community, you probably have a stack of reading that you've been meaning to catch up on. But where to start? Help is on the way.
If you're a member of the Dartmouth community, you probably have a stack of reading that you've been meaning to catch up on. Maybe you read reviews and add e-books to your tablet, thinking that you'll get in some great reading the next time you have a long trip. Perhaps you're a traditionalist and keep a stack of books on your bedside table or on the corner of your desk, or in somewhat neat piles on the floor in front of the already overflowing bookshelves in your office or at home... If one or more of these images seems guiltily familiar, you may not wish to have the Library top off your reading backlog with the 52,000-plus titles we purchased last year. Where to start?
Help is on the way. To whet your appetite, librarians have selected for your attention some new titles that offer something unexpected: a spotlight on a neglected master; a graphic novel on imagined and unimaginable loss; a calm, cogent voice slicing through hot debate; an accessible recounting of the history of the universe, from ancient galaxies to the discovery of water on Mars; and what's for lunch. And much more.
For the most part, this selection of 2013 titles is readable by all members of that delightful French book review class called "the cultivated public." This, of course, is you. We hope that you find something delectable that you might not have heard about otherwise.
-Elizabeth Kirk, Associate Librarian for Information Resources
Contributors to Dartmouth College Library Collections Showcase:
Jill Baron, Librarian for Romance Languages & Latin American Studies
Laura Braunstein, Librarian for English and Writing
John Cocklin, Librarian for Economics and Social Sciences Data
Pat Fisken, Head of Paddock Music Library
Bill Fontaine, Librarian for Philosophy & Religion
Laura Graveline, Visual Arts Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall, Librarian for Human Geography, Cartography & Maps, Television & Radio
Elizabeth Kirk, Associate Librarian for Information Resources
Fran Oscadal, Librarian for History, Government, General Social Sciences
Jane Quigley, Head of Kresge Physical Sciences Library
Jay Satterfield, Special Collections Librarian, History of the Book Selector
Peggy Sleeth, Associate Director, Information Resources, Biomedical Libraries
Reinhart Sonnenburg, Librarian for German, Classics, and Linguistics
Amy Witzel, Librarian for African & African American Studies, Anthropology, Education, Native American Studies, Sociology, and Women & Gender Studies
Nien Lin Xie, Librarian for East Asian Studies
Shirley Zhao, Physical Sciences Librarian
Exhibit & poster design: Dennis Grady, Library Education & Outreach
Baker Main Hall: January 20 - February 28, 2014
Berry Main Street: January 20 - March 28, 2014
Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.


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Posted on December 3, 2012
Ah, the thinks you can think when people are pushing books at you all the time! Thanks to all of you who have been doing your best to keep me thinking.
"Where the heck do I put this?" leaps to mind quite often. I have a book here by America's leading medical intuitive. For those of you who have not consulted such a person, a medical intuitive is able to sense what is wrong with you without having to run lots of expensive and uncomfortable tests. I expect I will put that book into Health & Medicine; all the other categories that leap to mind would just start an argument.
Then there's this book on raising chinchillas. Books on pets normally go into our Nature category, with the other animal books, but since the second half of the book deals with skinning the little critters and turning them into coats, I may slip it into How To. Again, putting it into the Fashion category would just start a fight.
Inscriptions are, as I have noted before, always a source of thought. This week I especially liked "This book is on loan from [John Doe], April, 2000." I hope it's a long-term loan, Mr. [Doe], because somebody else is going to be borrowing it (for money) in July.
A person who knew a lot of authors sent in a collection of books of a type I don't usually see signed: a history textbook, a small guidebook to French art, a European bar guide, etc. I am reminded that it isn't just the novels and the books of poetry and the autobiographies that come with autographs: all these other types of books had writers, too, and those writers had friends who (temporarily) treasured signed copies.
We had a book arrive called "The World IS Round!" I thought we had settled that. Turns out the book is actually a hardcover advertising brochure for a seven-month around-the-world cruise. Prices start at $2000, but this was the height of the Roaring Twenties, so there were no doubt plenty of ladies with strings of pearls and cigarette holders willing to take these trips in the company of men who had diamond collar studs.
Or maybe not, because the tour was slated to start December 3, 1929, just 35 days after the Stock Market Crash. I hope people who booked the tour in June were able to get their deposit back in November.
And somebody sent in the Newberry's Annual Report for 1992, which had a picture of former President Lawrence W. Towner on the cover. And in a year of commemoration, I thought that a paragraph or two to note the twentieth anniversary of the year of his death might not be amiss.
I suppose one OUGHT to mention the interior renovation, the construction of the stacks building, the achievements of the Conservation Lab, and all that other stuff when recounting the tale of the Towner years. All kind of important. But it was Bill Towner who told Nathalie Alberts, "Okay, have a book fair, then, if you feel like it." (I don't know if those were his EXACT words. I wasn't there.)
In fact, it was Dr. Towner, already dying, headed for retirement, who dropped a strong hint that there might be a SECOND book fair. We had been given a World War II era Boy Scout bugle too late to sell it in 1985, and I asked Nathalie if there were a safe place to put it. I'd done my time in marching band, and I had seen bugles and trumpets which had been dropped (not a pretty sight.) So, just in case we were going to sell things again someday, I thought it ought to sit somewhere secure.
Nathalie asked Dr. Towner about this, and a shelf in the vault had one of his business cards taped to it with the note "Save for Book Fair. LWT."
Now, Bill Towner was a man who attracted legend, and in the years since his retirement, the stories have multiplied: how this book made it into the collection, how that one made it out. They are contradictory, depending on the speaker: he was the best of presidents, he was the worst of presidents. All they seem to agree on is that he could hold his own with the tough, two-fisted drinkers from whom he was trying to raise funds, and that he did raise funds and made a difference with them.
And he wrote "Save for Book Fair". Little did he know.


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John Alessio
TRAINING: A typical day of training for me usually consists of 2 to 3 workouts 6 days a week. I try to train as well rounded as possible, working all aspects of my game: striking, grappling, wrestling and conditioning.
When and why did you start training for fighting? I started back in Canada in a garage doing kickboxing and jiu-jitsu, and entered a local event where I was victorious by KO and ever since then I was hooked and wanted to pursue MMA as a career. I feel MMA is the best sport in the world, especially when it comes to one on one sports.
What ranks and titles have you held? KOTC Welterweight champion, KOTC Superfight Champion, TKO Welterweight Champion
Do you have any heroes? My father is one of my biggest heroes and influences in my life. As far as MMA heroes I'd say Frank Shamrock and Wanderlei Silva
What is your favorite technique? My favorite techniques are the guillotine and Kimura, for striking it would be the straight right
What does it mean for you to fight in the UFC? It means everything. I've been working so hard the last six years to get back and I finally did it. It was almost disbelief when I got the call from Joe Silva.
Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? No.
What was your job before you started fighting? Construction
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BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners are to discuss oil and gas regulations with Gov. John Hickenlooper and his staff during a Tuesday afternoon meeting.
Cindy Domenico, chairwoman of the Board of County Commissioners, said the governor invited commissioners "to come down and have a chat" about oil and gas issues.
Hickenloper's staffers "know we're working on draft regulations" about oil and gas drilling in unincorporated Boulder County, Domenico said on Friday.
She said she didn't know if there's a specific agenda for the 3 p.m. Tuesday meeting to be held in the governor's office suite in state Capitol building in Denver, or whether other counties have been invited, as well.
Domenico said she and fellow Commissioners Will Toor and Deb Gardner may tell Hickenlooper of their desire for state law and Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules to give local governments such as Boulder County more authority to make local land-use decisions in regulating oil and gas exploration within those local jurisdictions.
Earlier this week, Boulder County's commissioners held a Tuesday public hearing and a Thursday work session on a draft of new oil and gas regulations the county board is considering. Those county rules, which the commissioners may adopt by the end of the year, would update and replace county Land Use Code provisions that date back to 1993.
Domenico said in a Thursday statement that "we believe we are on the right track in working towards regulations that are as protective of public health and air and water quality as is possible, given the legal authority the county has under Colorado law. We will continue working on finalizing regulations where we have local jurisdiction and to also work with our state agencies, legislators and other governing bodies to continue to improve the safety of oil and gas drilling for all residents of Colorado."
John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or email@example.com.