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June 12, 2007
Contact: Alison Hammer
Ben Sherman
NOAA Volunteers and Partners Restore Chesapeake Bay Habitat in Maryland and Virginia
Hundreds of volunteers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal, state, and local organizations today joined forces in Maryland and Virginia during the fourth annual NOAA Restoration Day to restore and enhance vital habitat at two sites in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The event is one of the largest voluntary federal employee sponsored environmental stewardships in the Chesapeake Bay area.
"The tradition of NOAA Restoration Day continues to inspire a personal sense of stewardship for one of our nation's treasures, the Chesapeake Bay," said Timothy Keeney, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "Our commitment to restoring the health of Chesapeake Bay remains a source of pride for all NOAA employees."
The Maryland event was held at the state's Jug Bay area at the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Virginia project took place at the Virginia Commonwealth University's Rice Center in Charles City, Va.
At Jug Bay, more than 150 NOAA volunteers joined staff from the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, and Patuxent River Park to restore a portion of the Chesapeake Bay shoreline. Volunteers planted underwater grasses grown in 22 tanks in NOAA offices, transplanted wild rice, performed fish seining and sampling, mapped and removed invasive plants, completed digital elevation mapping, built wood duck boxes, and conducted flora and fauna surveys. Today's activities were part of a series of projects designed to restore and enhance natural resources within Jug Bay.
In Virginia, more than 40 NOAA employees were joined by Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant, Jr., and staff from VCU's Rice Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Virginia Sea Grant, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Nauticus to restore a portion of the James River. Volunteers planted native marsh grasses, cleared debris from the James River shoreline, conducted a tree census, and participated in the release of an Atlantic sturgeon. Their activities were part of a larger effort to create a 70-acre tidal wetland site on the Rice Center property.
NOAA Restoration Day provides an opportunity for NOAA employees to put the mission they support in their office work into action and to demonstrate their commitment to restoration and protection of the Bay. The event began in 2004 through an innovative partnership between the NOAA National Ocean Service's Special Projects Office, NOAA Fisheries Service's Restoration Center, and the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
- ### -
On the Web:
NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov
NOAA Restoration Day: http://restorationday.noaa.gov
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Best Online Casino Platforms Bring Up The Champions
The anthem of Canada sounded in Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas again and again as the six weeks poker season ended with a triumph of Canadian players, who managed to win 10 bracelets. In addition, Daniel Negreanu, a resident of Toronto, was so good in Australian and US competitions that earned the WSOP 2013 'Player of the year' title.
When in late June Kristen Bicknell from Ontario won the women's tournament, it a new achievement has been recorded: the bracelets have been awarded to ten players from Canada, which is a huge progress after three bracelets received in 2012. The previous record of the country was six bracelets won in 2010.
As usual, the majority of players represented at the WSOP were the U.S residents: 57,040 out of a total number of 79,471. Thus, 71.8 % of American players was more then enough to secure the leadership, as Canadian representation equaled as little as 5.2% (4,118 poker players). No surprise that the U.S. won a better part of WSOP bracelet in 2013 (41), almost two-thirds of the total number of awards and is slightly less than its percentage of participation. At the same time, ten Canadian bracelets represent 16.1% of awards, which is three times higher than the percentage of participation of the country.
Daniel Negreanu Bonus Casino Rockstar According To GPI Rank
In his address on Twitter, the Canadian resident, Daniel Negreanu, ranked the best poker player of the decade, wished his fans all the best and gave a little advice: 'I hope that you will fulfill your dreams. Dream – declare – execute. The formula really works!'
In the life of 39 -year-old Canadian pro this formula really works as clockwork, especially recollecting about his goals for 2013. Negreanu planned to enter the tournaments and win at least CA$1.5 million, grab his fifth WSOP bracelet in career and a find himself in the Top 10 race Player of the year Bluff.
It's unbelievable, but Negreanu not only achieved his goals, but also exceed them dramatically (and yes, he managed to be ranked the player of the year by Bluff Magazine).
The famous player won his bracelet in April, when he triumphed at the WSOP Asia-Pacific (APAC) Main Event and earned CA$ 1,087,160. In October, he was able also to duplicate the result, winning the competition of a high roller at the WSOP Europe, and get over CA$979,955. Along with other payments, during the year Negreanu one of the best players of Canadaso far collected winnings of CA$3,208,630 and the amount of his winnings throughout the career increased to CA$19,549,209.
Mobile Casino
Enhanced capabilities of information technology and personal gadgets fueled a breakthrough in the development of e-commerce sector. The brand-new opportunities contributed to drastic changes in all spheres of business, and gambling is no exception. Naturally the expansion of changes into the online segment adjusted the balance of power in the global gaming sector and deepened the conflict between 'conservatives' and 'reformers'.
According to Firebear Studio, a prominent IT company, global e-commerce market in 2014 was estimated at a trillion dollars, while its growth rate equaled 19.4% according to the research.
Another investigation carried out by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. indicates that due to the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets the concept of mobile commerce (m-commerce) acquires its relevance. According Firebear Studio, last year the number of transactions from mobile devices grew up to 18% of all purchases on the web. The percentage of operating on mobile devices has increased from 38% in 2012 to 53% in 2014.
This direction couldn't have left online gambling untouched, which is evidenced by comprehensive researches of the authoritative H2 Gambling Capital and iGaming Business. Online market is not consolidated and it is being developed still. Until now, there is even no single terminological apparatus: the same phenomenon called different companies in different ways. The concept of 'online gambling' causes misunderstandings. H2 Gambling Capital and iGaming Business, for example, referred to as the entire online gaming market segment, First Gaming distinguishes it from mobile segment. Others, such as The European Lotteries Association and Scientific Games, do not refer online lotteries to this notion. Nevertheless, the industry is rocketing.
H2 Gambling Capital and iGaming Business projected the total revenue from online gambling winnings (including betting) in 2014 amounted to C$30,6 Bln. According to the study, the total income of the global online gaming industry will grow from C$6,6 billion 2003 to C$ 32,5 billion in 2015-m and C$42,8 billion 2018. By that time, in terms of profitability Europe will continue to lead, although the gap with other continents will be reduced, especially with Asia. A doubling of revenues from online gambling in the United States is expected.
Betting will retain its leading position on the Internet, but will gradually show a slowdown. In this case, the yield is expected to increase the online casino, which by 2018 will also double their performance. Such growth will be observed in all sectors, except for online bingo.

subset: commoncrawl


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Henniker Bridge #63May 23. 2013 3:11PM
New England College
Henniker, NH
The Henniker bridge was built by Milton Graton and his son Arnold in 1972 using traditional methods. For example, the framed trusses were pulled across the river by a team of oxen. The bridge serves New England College and the community of Henniker as a footbridge across the Contoocook River.
Year of Construction: - 1972
Original Cost: - $80,000
South of N.H. Route 9 in Henniker Village spanning the Contoocook River.
Town lattice truss. The bridge is 136'7" long with a clear span of 114'6". It has an overall width of 18'4" with a roadway width of 14'5" and a maximum vertical clearance of 14'7". The bridge is limited to pedestrian and maintenance vehicle use.


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E3 2013: Bludgeon that horse again! Xbox One DRM
Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Systems, Shows and Expos | June 6, 2013 - 08:46 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: xbox one, E3 13, E3
So heading up to E3, Microsoft decided to drop their DRM bombshell so it would get buried over the next couple of days. In terms of permissiveness, the Xbox One is not nearly as bad as feared; of course, it is still terrible in certain ways.
Microsoft will allow games to be played offline on the Xbox One... for 24 hours. If your internet connection has been offline for longer than that period (unclear whether the timer starts when internet goes out or from last update) then your system will be locked to live TV and disc-based movies. Games and apps, even ones which should have no online functionality, will cease to function until you reconnect with Xbox servers.
This also means that if the Xbox servers have an outage lasting between 24 hours and "taken offline forever", all gaming and apparently apps will cease to function on the Xbox One.
And people wonder why I freak out about Windows Store.
It's like if Wall-E grew a Freddie Mercury
But at least they will allow some level of used-game transfer... if the publisher agrees. Check out this statement from Microsoft Studios:
In our role as a game publisher, Microsoft Studios will enable you to give your games to friends or trade in your Xbox One games at participating retailers. Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won't be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.
So this will be an interesting experiment: how will revenue and profitability be affected for game publishers who deny used game sales? I honestly expect that used game sales actually promote the purchasing of more games and that initiatives to limit used game transfers will reduce user engagement. Of course Microsoft is now taking all of the flak from Sony, who may or may not be considering the same practice, but I am sure at least Microsoft is hoping that everyone will forget this when shiny new trailers erase the collective gamer memory.
In return, however, Microsoft is being fairly permissive when it comes to how many users can be licensed on a single disk. Up to ten family members are allowed access to your collective library.
And, after all, it should not be a surprise that a console game disappears when Microsoft shuts down their servers: consoles were always designed to be disposable. I have been proclaiming that for quite some time. The difference is now, people cannot really deny it.
Viva La PC Revolución!
I'm sittin this out. Only reason I bought the X-Box 360 was for Gears of War and X-Box for Halo. Console exclusives of course always screwing the consumer, plus long awaited games. I have nothing I'm really looking forward to. Don't care about the media center crap, just want to play games without having to think excessively about this or that holding me back.
Sony's going to come back this time around, unless they have some super secret bad news they aren't telling anyone. They said it best. This isn't a console for games, this is a media center with games being an optional choice on the menu.
I expect that we'll see the typical consoles get punched in the crotch this generation. There will likely be some big monkeywrenches in their gears... I expect the browser vendors will flip a few tables.
Perhaps this will allow competition among publishers in terms of resale costs for consumers. Although, I'm sure Microsoft will have their say in setting up minimums and such for opt-in publishers. It's unfortunate that this element is being forced into the gaming market.
Well, it would cause competition in a space that was, and should according to a literally applied First Sale doctrine, be free.
Remember, content is not "property" despite the moniker "intellectual property". Content belongs to society and (in the US) the constitution only grants you limited exclusivity for a finite time. A political and judicial decision could slap them if its deemed harmful to society... although most laws end up going the other way. :-\
I'm interested to see how Sony will approach the issue. At this point, they haven't provided a lot of information. This as an opportunity for Sony to sway a lot of people away from Microsoft, ~if~ they play their cards right.
Well the funny thing is how Microsoft announced this:
"Microsoft Studios will not do this, we will not charge anything to retailers for selling used copies, etc etc etc." but "Third Party publishers can opt out if they desire".
It's another way of saying: "We were planning to do this... we already promised publishers we would... and now we want to change our mind but we must honour the commitments we made to EA/Activison/etc."
This may put more than a few publishers in an awkward position. Do they charge for resales and pigeonhole customers ? Or do they forfeit resale capability and lose sales from people who won't bother purchasing in the first place. I don't know... I miss the cartridge days sometimes.
I wonder who the xbox would/could consider to be in my "ten family members." i have 4 (blood) family members (plus me), but i also have a friend or 2 that i go to his house and bring my games. Could i add my 2 friends to my Family list for the few times we go and play games that i own and they do not.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure those ten family members will need to access the content from the console it was purchased for. I seem to remember something along those lines (without the number ten disclosed) was mentioned in a previous statement from Microsoft.
Nope I was wrong- this is off Microsoft's site:
Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games. Anyone can play your games on your console--regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.
Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend's house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.
"and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time"
Wow, I though the 10 family member thing sounded pretty good, but it looks like only 1 of my family member can play any of my game at the same time.
So if I have 2 brothers and they each have their console only one of them can use my games even if they want to play different games.
This is it, not getting an xbone.
On the end of life for the Xbox; Microsoft could keep a small update server running, that would update xbox ones that connect to it to allow any game disk with out the online verification. although this is still 10+ years out, so M$ can plan a little.
Or they just shut it down for the same reason they shut down Live for Original Xbox games: they don't care about societal benefits, they care about whatever they think will make them money.
They could do a lot, but they have demonstrated that they won't.
While there is a chance, there is a significantly greater chance that they will just end support and leave users with $600 paperweights
when a company decides to end support, they usually want to do it as cheaply as possible, and a good cost saving way to end support is to not pay programmers to write an update that will get rid of the DRM.
I wonder if DRM is really the only or even the primary driver of the daily connection requirement.
Could it also be about advertising (having fresh spots to show, increasing the chance they are interactive, getting logs back to advertisers more quickly?)
And following today's PRISM disclosures... possibly also some encouragement from NSA to dump all the acquired data into their servers at least daily? Think of the possibilities: its got motion sensors, camera, a microphone I think....
Yes a BIG M$ EYE staring you right in the face, as the voice from the box commands you to dance, Yes, dance that Ballmer Monkey Boy dance, and while you are at it give us yorr credit card number, don't worry about typing it in, ae can see and hear you! Yor TV Well! we we control the horizontal! we control the vertical! welcome to the M$ unlimited chain around your ankle, and you thought it was just another gamening interface! BWAH, HA, Ha HA, HAW!
Haha, nice reference to the UHF Theme Song.
Oh never mind, looks like the part in that song is actually a reference to The Twilight Zone, which is probably what you were referencing. Guess you learn something new every day.
[ae] : should be: we,
see what happins when the cheep lettering wears off of your cheep samsung keyboard, 3 months after you purchased it!
"It's like if Wall-E grew a Freddie Mercury"
I will never unsee that- thanks.
You're welcome.
Thanks for the heads up!
I was very disappointed after watching the first live press-release.
Just more reasons not to get that unit.
They're probably focusing on American Urban clienteles. Would be "great" if they'd think about the vast majority who has no Internet access. What if you lose power? I know I could push an extra 2 hours of gaming with entry backup power devices :)
PC is still the best, no matter what the profit sales market stats tells you!
I'm very glad they're doing this.
What they've done this generation is release a console using an AMD graphics card and a relatively anemic x86 processor. They're ratcheting down on DRM and used game sales.
On the PC side they've tried to force users into an awkward as hell interface on an operating system that's pissed off one of the head honchos of digital distribution to the point he's gotten his company pushing toward Linux.
Additionally, said company, Valve, is about to launch their own console.
So really we have this fantastic perfect storm forming. Not only will the Xbox one and the PS4 be easily emulated on PC within two years of their launches (this is my prediction), but Microsoft will alienate their users so badly that they start to move toward Linux. Developers may start looking at OpenGL and other non-Microsoft standards more often than they look at MS stuff.
Markets are slippery, squirmy things and Microsoft - as well as other game companies - are grabbing on a bit too tightly. Game developers are going under left, right, all over the place - but indie developers seem to be prospering. There's a split in philosophy between traditional developers/publishers and Indie devs.
Valve's found itself on the side of the Indie developers. It looks like Sony might actually be adopting the next generation's philosophy as well. It really isn't a complex philosophy, it's easy to adopt. It can be summarized in a single sentence and explained very easily:
Don't give the users any bullcrap that you don't have to give.
Microsoft has gone FAR into the 'damn the torpedoes - we're in control, give us your money' philosophy and they have competitors who have equally compelling software lineups who think differently.
I predict their utter obliteration for this round of the console wars. I'll also predict Nintendo getting their act together in a year and rallying, and Microsoft patching this 24 hour phone-home requirement out of the Xbox One about 3 months too late for it to save them from a visceral marketing campaign from Sony that'll make the Apple attack ads on Windows Vista look friendly.
Open drivers, hardware, OpenHSA, and open OSs, the server and cloud services sector is going Open, gaming should be the same with OpenHSA aware, open OSs, controlling x86, ARM, and any GPUs! All openHSA certified hardware will work plug and play style with CPUs, GPUs, and certified Open OSs and drivers will enable gaming platforms that resemble whole computing clusters on a single chip! There is no reason why for example 24 ARM CPU cores, and a reasonable GPU, could not be made to work for a low cost gaming system, and for that matter an APU with x86 and an ARM cluster with graphics on the same die, or systems that could scale, buy adding more computing power via additional PCI CPU/GPU clusters ! Maybe the Indipendent gaming industry can do with ARM and a custom GPU, and open OSs, drivers, and hardware, what the entrenched x86/OEM/OS companys Can Not/Will Not do!
ARM is incumbered as well as x86, the difference is that ARM is much more willing to license than Intel is.
As much as I like the concept of getting down into the native assembly language, the real openness comes from abstraction of hardware... unless someone like Sun (clearly not anymore) or Arduino steps up to the plate.
That's what HSA aware OSs are ment to do, abstract the hardware, any CPU, GPU, ETC, under a standard API, The HSA foundation and others, including the cloud computing makers are developing cross architecture open OS's, Hardware/drivers, APIs. The very definition of HSA is to abstract a heterogeneous mixture of hardware under an industry standard API/HAL to make computing platforms with and CPU, GPUs, etc, automatically interface and work togather, a plug and play for CPUs. GPUs, etc, what ever the native instruction set of the CPUs/GPUs their hardware will use a standard HAL (hardware Abstraction layer)! This is already being done with openCL,openGL,webGL, what HSA does and will do is take this to the OS level and using a standerd hardware/software API that all programming platforms can call upon this standard OS/API that can automatically create an asymmetrical computing environment that utilizes CPUs/GPUs/etc without the need for native programming!
Go to this website and read up on HSA!
Any type on online DRM or activation = bad (regardless of how unintrusive it may seem at the moment.
Think about what happens when the DRM servers die. What happens if the game maker goes out of business and takes their servers with them?
The fact about online based DRM is that you have no certainty in your ability to play your games at any point in the future. If one of your games, has it's DRM server die, you will end up in 2 situations, either you will never be able to reinstall because the initial install requires a server activation. Another situation for more heavy handed DRM, is that you may have a game that does periodic DRM checks where if the DRM server dies, then your game stops working within a few minutes, to a few hours.
If your PS4 requires any kind of online activation, then you have to wonder, if sony leaves the console market or just decided to stop supporting the PS4 because a new console came out, or if they go out of business. (how many people here have ever gone back to an older console to play a game, or played a game that is older than a year or 2, or played a game by a game maker that went out of business. (what if those games required online activation? )
Furthermore, without annoying online DRM, even if a multiplayer game loses support, dedicated servers can still remain, for example, the game freespace 2 still has an online community, long after the game lost support and related servers were shut down.
If gaming was pure entertainment, that wouldn't matter because it would be interchangable with some other surviving content.
The problem is, we want gaming to be art (which is timeless, intrinsically valuable, and not interchangable) and yet we continually support platforms which are completely designed to NOT be timeless.
Seriously, tell a gamer their content is not art and they'll chastize you. Tell them their art can't be timeless and they'll chastize you for "not supporting the console makers ability to make money" or
"PCs are just too hard".
Shows how much they want their games to actually be art... :-\
WHEN is Balmer going to be fired?
Between the Win 8 trainwreck and the check in mommy drm on the XBone, there should be plenty of blood in the water for sharks.
Glad I got rid of my MS stock.
this once every 24 check in thing is WAY overboard, guaranteed they'll be a workaround cause I know too many poorer people that don't have internet access except their phone.
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Democrats and Republicans in the Senate overwhelmingly agreed late Thursday on language reforming filibusters, passing the measures agreed to earlier in the day by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
The two leaders proposed to their caucuses earlier a list of reforms to curb the use of filibusters and streamline other procedures in order to speed up floor action. The measures required the support of each party's caucus.
Neither Democratic senators nor a GOP aide said members had voiced major issues with the proposals prior to the vote.
A filibuster is a tactic used in the Senate to delay or prevent a vote on legislation. Reid and McConnell's measure, according to one Senate aide, offered a compromise to reduce the number of filibusters while ensuring the minority party gets votes on some amendments.
The proposal allows for two paths that could be used to begin debate on legislation, avoiding filibusters designed to prevent debate from actually taking place.
In the first path, Reid would allow two amendments from both parties to be presented, with the caveat that if an amendment isn't relevant to the legislation at hand, it would be subject to a 60-vote threshold.
On measures where Reid and McConnell agree, a second path allows votes to overcome filibusters to be held the day after Reid files a procedural petition, instead of the two-day period currently in place. That change would disallow stalled votes on consensus legislation.
The new procedure also limits debate on some presidential nominations that require Senate approval.
Senate Democrats have complained that the minority Republicans deliberately overused the filibuster to block Democratic legislation.
A group of junior Senate Democrats pushed Reid to pass broad reforms — including reinstating the requirement that senators conducting a filibuster speak continuously on the floor — by using a controversial method to change the body's rules that Republicans called the "nuclear option." That method to change the Senate rules would require just 51 votes instead of the 67 customarily required.
Republicans, furious they might be jammed, argued the filibuster is the only leverage they have to get roll call votes on amendments that otherwise are routinely denied them by the majority Democrats.
The measure went to a vote and passed without Democrats invoking the "nuclear option."
"No party has ever broken the rules of the Senate to change those rules. I'm glad such an irreparably damaging precedent will not be set today," McConnell said in a statement as the vote became clear. "We've avoided the nuclear option, and we've reiterated that any changes to the Standing Rules of the Senate still require 67 votes to end debate."
Republicans had said if Democrats pushed the reforms through the "nuclear option," it would have destroyed relations between the two parties and lead to massive gridlock in the chamber.
President Barack Obama issued a statement after the vote saying he hoped "today's bipartisan agreement will pave the way for the Senate to take meaningful action in the days and weeks ahead."
"Too often over the past four years, a single senator or a handful of senators has been able to unilaterally block or delay bipartisan legislation for the sole purpose of making a political point," he said. The statement specifically identified Obama's desire the Senate consider legislation on gun violence, immigration and the economy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, said he voted against the measure because it does not go far enough. Under the agreement that he called "weak," members "continue to have the right to abuse arcane Senate rules to block a majority of senators from acting on behalf of the American people."
A bipartisan group of senior members, led by Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Carl Levin, D-Michigan, offered the alternative compromise that became part of Reid and McConnell's proposal.
"We are going to change the way we do business here," Reid said Wednesday. "We can do it either the easy way or the hard way but it's going to change."
By Ted Barrett
™ & ©2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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Rupert "I bought MySpace just in time for it to tank" Murdoch didn't seem to get the new media thing… until today. The Daily, the first iPad-only newspaper launched to great fanfare. At first blush Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch make Felix and Oscar look like identical twins, but they certainly have at least one thing in common. They know how to passionately engage millions of people at a time and make a lot of money doing so.
If the Web has been listed as the cause of death for numerous dailies and magazines, the App might be named godfather of the reborn e-pubs. While people remain largely unwilling to pay for content on viewed on the PC, the iPad and Kindle prove they are willing to pay for content on the tablet. I call it the corn flakes effect. I always paid a few bucks a week to read the morning paper at the breakfast table. I'd pay a few more bucks a month for magazines to read in bed. And I'd overpay at the airport for virtually anything to read on an airplane so I wouldn't be stuck watching some neutered cut down version of a movie that tanked at the box office.
CNN covered the announcement nicely, acknowledging that as the iPad's share of eyeball expanded into television's territory.
Another report last month from ReadItLater, a web service that follows web trends, found that the time spent reading on the iPad is even crossing into primetime TV hours.
It reported that maximum iPad text consumption occurs from 7pm to 11pm, a slot traditionally allocated to reclining on the couch and watching TV.
Likely CNN is assuming it's at the expense of Two and a Half Men, not Anderson Cooper. Even the Times gushed about the Daily's user experience… in its own catty way.
The Daily, according to people who have seen it, is aesthetically — if not intellectually — compelling, incorporating sound, sight and motion in new ways.
"It's got an amazing look and feel," said Mike Vorhaus, the president of the media consulting firm Magid Advisors, who had been shown The Daily in advance and who compared it to a glossy magazine.
Of course CNN was able to dig up the requisite Luddite for its coverage.
"While anything that Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs do in collaboration is bound to be unique, we have to be mindful of the fact that the tablet is just in its infancy stage — it's like the early days of the printed press," said Barry McIlheney, chief executive of the UK based Professional Publishers Association.
He believes that newspapers are easy to replace because their format is adaptable to the screen but reading longer passages of texts with images are not.
Apparently Mr. McIlheney hasn't yet caught the Economist on the iPad. The experience of reading it on the iPad is more pleasant than on paper, and all the additional online content is only a click or two away.
Before we start encouraging kids to enroll in journalism school again, we should temper our optimism for the future of the old fish wrapper. Just this week Apple announced it's clamping down on content sellers who evade the App Store and Apple's 30% vig. This whole thing could lose steam quickly If Apple and the content creators can't arrive at a win-win. The iPod always worked with non-iTunes content, in a competing format no less. If Apple blocks Amazon, Sony, Conde Nast, and others from getting their content onto the iPad, the whole platform will suffer.


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The role identification is already in place, and even with that it was not enough for people to understand the difference between people and files. Also, the link to respond an audit complicate things, because we will have two ways to get into the modal to send a response (the link and also the note). Also there is too much repeated text to explain what each icon on the right represent. I think that the text should be visible only when user mouse hover the icons. But for that happen we need a column name and split the icons between two columns again (approved and considered).
--Beghelli (talk) 13:06, 14 April 2013 (PDT)
I don't think that the idea to use the pencil icon also as a sign of something new related to the file is good. The problem is that it's not obvious, because inside the row actions we have many more actions than just info (notes). It will be even harder for users to understand what the icon in a darker color means. Also it's duplicating and also complicating a process (to post and view notes) that's already easily implemented in a different way in other places (like the "people" icon notes). I think that our current implementation related to notes is much easier to understand and work.


text: SHADE HOTEL at Manhattan Beach is an excellent small hotel for a quiet, relaxing stay in the Manhattan Beach. Located around 20-30mins from Los Angeles Airport, this is a great place for a short stay or meeting. Its only a 10 minute walk to the Manhattan Beach pier, and beautiful long stretch of beach. The SHADE HOTEL lobby / bar... More


text:
By Chris Francescani
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gang of motorcyclists on Sunday chased a New York man driving his wife and baby along a Manhattan highway before dragging the man from his vehicle and beating him, a police source said on Monday.
The chase and subsequent attack were captured by a video camera attached to the helmet of one of the motorcyclists and posted online on Monday.
The video appears to show an accident involving the man's sport utility vehicle and one of dozens of motorcycles being driven north on the Henry Hudson Parkway in upper Manhattan.
The video showed the group of bikers suddenly slowing and stopping en masse, bringing northbound traffic to a halt.
After about 20 seconds, the SUV, a dark-colored Range Rover, suddenly accelerated, rolling over several motorcycles, and knocking at least one rider off his bike. The video showed dozens of motorcyclists giving chase.
The video showed motorcyclists catching the driver in traffic in upper Manhattan's Washington Heights. The police source said the video appeared to accurately depict Sunday's chase.
New York City Police Department spokesman John McCarthy said police were investigating the incident.
The driver was dragged from the SUV and beaten, according to the police source, who asked not to be named. The victim, identified only as a resident of New York City, was treated for facial lacerations and chest wounds at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to the police source.
A large group of motorcyclists had planned an unauthorized gathering in New York on Sunday, similar to an event held last year without permission in which the riders organized online and gathered in large groups in Times Square, the police source said.
This year, the police source said, authorities set up a series of checkpoints at bridges and tunnels to prevent the motorcycle group from gathering in large numbers in the city.
The police source said the motorcyclists who chased the SUV were believed by authorities to have been in Manhattan for the gathering.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Scott Malone)


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You know you can always rely on crusty underwear that has been sittin in the hamper for six days when it's Friday and you have to go to work and you don't have anymore underwear so you have to reach as far down in the hamper as you can to pull out those underwear because you don't have any more clean ones in your drawer and you're scrounging around trying to find some clean ones but you can't and the only pair you can wear are those crusty ones at the bottom of the hamper that when you put them on they feel a little moist and cool because they soaked up the wet towel body juice and the bottom of the hamper is so dark they stayed a cool temperature and are a little loose from wearing them all day long.
"Hey Seth, you gonna make it to the softball game on friday?" Seth replies, "I'm there like crusty underwear!'
by stud service June 30, 2011
buy the domain for your pet blog


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Clemson to play Trojans in 2016
Clemson to play Trojans in 2016
The Tigers and Trojans will face off at Memorial Stadium in 2016.
The Clemson Tigers will take on the Troy Trojans again on September 10, 2016 at Clemson Memorial Stadium.
Both schools announce the scheduled game Wednesday after the contracts were recently signed.
This will be the second game between the two schools. Troy led Clemson 16-3 at the half the first time the two teams faced, but Clemson came back to win 43-19.
Earlier Clemson announced it would play Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia State and Coastal Carolina as non-conference opponents in 2014.
Two of the non-conference games in 2015 are Notre Dame and South Carolina.


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Expedia-Verified Reviews
Don't miss out on a lower price on this property
Get an overview of this hotelEco-friendly luxury resort w/ newly renovated suites & adults-only Royal Service
Popular property highlights
Adults-only Royal Service
Newly renovated Royal Service Suites with Butler-driven personal service and pampered luxury reserved for adults only. Access to private pool and beach area, VIP lounge, exclusive "La Palapa" restaurant & more
Award-winning chef
Visit our 'Passion by Martín Berasategui' Restaurant ($), run by one of the world's finest chefs, and enjoy the sophisticated a la carte menu or sampling menu
All-Inclusive resort
The resort offers 12 international restaurants, 8 bars with premium drinks, a main lagoon-style pool, tennis, non-motorized water sports, casino, life enriching activities, and YHI spa.
Languages Spoken
- English
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort All Inclusive
Resort Amenities
All-Inclusive Details
This resort is all-inclusive. Onsite food and beverages are included in the room price (some restrictions may apply).
Gratuities and taxes
Gratuities and taxes are included. Additional gratuities at guests' discretion are accepted.
Food and beverages
- All buffet and à la carte meals, snacks, and beverages included
- 24-hour room service
- In-room minibar (all beverages included)
Activities and facilities/equipment
All non-motorized water sports, land activities, and use of recreational facilities and equipment are included.
Water activities
- Kayaking
- Rowing/canoeing
- Sailing
- Scuba-diving excursions
- Scuba-diving lessons
- Surfing/boogie boarding
- Windsurfing
Land activities
- Bicycling
- Climbing wall
- Fitness facilities
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Tennis lessons
- Volleyball
- Access to 27-hole golf course
- Golf open for guests ages 18 years old and older
- Rental of golf equipment
- Golf green fees
- Transportation to golf course
- Aerobics
- Bartending
- Cooking
- Dancing
- Language
- Pilates
- Water fitness
- Yoga
Kids' club
- Supervised activities for children ages 12 years old and younger
- Onsite entertainment and activities
- Access to onsite clubs
- Onsite live performances
- Theme parties
Not included
- Use of golf cart
- Use of golf equipment
- Motorized water sports
- Scuba-diving certification
- Tennis lessons
- Airport transfers
- Childcare
- Laundry/dry cleaning services
- Spa/beauty facilities and services
- Activities and services offered by independent operators
- Offsite tours
- Transportation to offsite activities
Resort Amenities
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort All Inclusive and its vibrant tropical gardens and mangroves is located in Bavaro Beach, with its fine white sand, crystal clear water, lush vegetation and endless palm trees. This luxury resort now boasts extensive renovations, new dining concepts, a signature YHI Spa, state-of-the-art gym and exclusive Royal Service suites and pool. The newly expanded Convention Center offers well-appointed meeting rooms and a high-tech Business Center. For young guests, this Dominican Republic resort offers the Kids Zone Mini Club with 10,764 square feet of secured walled gardens, an action-adventure jungle gym, Kids Mini-water Park with slides and water features, and an extensive kids program. The game room is equipped with the latest technology, and a kids' buffet menu and relaxation deck area for parents are also included. A nursery with certified personnel is on site. The Reserve at Paradisus Punta Cana Resort is a new resort-within-a-resort that offers exclusive access to separate pools for kids and adults, a private lounge, and an all-new collection of 170 oversized Paradisus Resort suites. The Reserve also features 48 of signature Paradisus Family Concierge Suites, featuring an array of family-friendly amenities. The Reserve amenities also include an exclusive, private free-form pool with Bali beds, water ritual center located in the reserve's main pool, two poolside Eco-spa cabins for massage, Vento-Mediterranean Fusion restaurant, the GABi Club's exclusive restaurant, a poolside grill, pool and beach club/lounge area, and The Reserve express for private transportation to the beach and back.
- Express check-in
- Library
- Free shopping center shuttle
- Number of outdoor pools - 5
- Babysitting or childcare
- Fitness facilities
- 24-hour front desk
- Poolside bar
- Business center
- Turkish bath/Hammam
- Porter/bellhop
- Express check-out
- Free self parking
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Free valet parking
- On private beach
- Conference space size (meters) - 1870
- Terrace
- Luggage storage
- Hair salon
- ATM/banking
- Concierge services
- Gift shops or newsstand
- Conference center
- Shopping on site
- Designated smoking areas
- Pool umbrellas
- Outdoor tennis courts - 4
- Total number of rooms - 683
- Number of buildings/towers - 43
- Winery attached
- Tennis on site
- Casino
- Beach bar
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Number of bars/lounges - 2
- Full-service spa
- Swim-up bar
- Beach umbrellas
- Conference space
- Free breakfast
- Spa treatment room(s)
- Grocery/convenience store
- Meeting rooms 11
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Year Built 1995
- Steam room
- Free WiFi
- Sauna
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Children's club (free)
- Nightclub
- Children's pool
- Spa services on site
- Free long-term parking
- Number of restaurants - 12
- Conference space size (feet) - 20129
- Laundry facilities
- Television in common areas
- Arcade/game room
- Wedding services
- Garden
- Multilingual staff
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- On private beach
- Outdoor pools
- Children's pool
- Free Wi-Fi
- Outdoor tennis courts
- Children's club (free)
- Grocery/convenience store
- Laundry facilities
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- In-room childcare (surcharge)
- Arcade/game room
- Playground on site
- Sofa bed
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi , Free wired Internet
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Languages Spoken
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
Free long-term parking, Free self parking, Free valet parking
Room Amenities
- Premium bedding
- Balcony or patio
- Ceiling fan
- Air conditioning
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Free bottled water
- Coffee/tea maker
- Minibar (stocked, free items)
- Bathrobes
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Shower only
- In-room childcare (surcharge)
- Iron/ironing board
- In-room safe
- Desk
- Sofa bed
- Number of bathrooms -
- Free WiFi
- Free wired Internet
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- Room service (24 hours)
- Plasma TV
- Satellite TV service
Where to Eat
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort offers 12 restaurants with an endless selection of cuisine and 8 bars:
Passion by Martin Berasategui ($): Visit our 'Passion by Martín Berasategui' Restaurant, run by one of the world's finest chefs, and enjoy the sophisticated a la carte menu or sampling menu.
Fuego: Is a fusion that accents the fresh ingredients from Latin America.\
Mole: Contemporary Mexican cuisine.
Bana: Japanese cuisine with Teppanyaki tables, sushi bar and traditional wok.
Aqua: The renaissance of Italian cuisine with a wide range of salads and select pastas.
The Grill: Steakhouse with an Argentinian touch.
Naos: An international buffet presenting flavors of the world
Gabi Beach (Ocean front): International breakfast, lunch and dinner.
La Palapa: Exclusive for Royal Service guests, offers international buffet for breakfast and a la carte for lunch and dinner. Dress code applicable and reservations required for some restaurants.
North Avenue Bar: With astounding cocktails and live music for all ambiences
M Bar: M is an urban escape that offers extravagant elixirs with a fashionista style
Gabi Beach Bar: Energetic, dynamic and creative full of colors and flavors
Red Lounge: Fun, vibrant and sensual disco bar
Swim Up Bar
Sky Bar (at La Palapa Exclusive Royal Service)
Sunset Bar: Swim up bar with dry bar snacks with an offer of natural juice (Exclusive for Royal Service)
Casino Bar: At the Casino.
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort's professional guest activities and entertainment team provides a comprehensive activities program. Guests can challenge themselves with a wide selection of classes, including sushi preparation, wine tasting, flower arrangements, candle making, Spanish lessons, cocktail making, and tango, bachata, and merengue dance classes.Other activities include evening shows featuring professional performers, Horseback riding excursions (surcharge), water sports, beach volleyball, beach soccer, tennis, archery, a batting cage, and wall climbing.
Golfing is available on-site at Cocotal Golf & Country Club. This par 36/72 World Class Championship Golf Course, designed by José Pepe Gancedo, offers professional golf lessons (surcharges) at the Sol Meliá Golf Academy. Calloway golf equipment is available for rent at the pro shop. Golf carts are mandatory (surcharge for rental). Golf balls are for sale at the pro shop.
Tee times can be arranged at the resort. The resort offers romantic activities as well. These include couples massages (surcharge), dinners under the stars (surcharge), sunset walks, honeymooner's cocktails (surcharge), destination wedding, and honeymoon packages.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or near the hotel; fees may apply.
Nearby Things to Do
A freeform pool measuring approximately 250 x 250 meters (273 x 273 feet) includes a swim-up bar and sunning islands. The resort's frontage on the 32-km (20-mi) Punta Cana beach of light-colored sand extends 400 meters (437 yards). All-Inclusive non-motorized water sports include kayaks and tours, boogie boards, pedal boats, and personal watercrafts. Also included are guided Eco-walks for adults and children of the resort's extensively gardened and forested grounds, which include a mangrove swamp. Recreational facilities include a 10-meter (33-foot) rock climbing tower, a batting cage, an archery range, and four tennis and three paddle-tennis courts. The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or near the resort; fees may apply.
Daily activities including sushi and wine preparation, wine tasting, flower arrangements, candle making, Spanish lessons, and dance classes can be arranged. Additional outdoor activities are water polo, beach volleyball, beach soccer, archery, batting cages, and wall climbing. An evening show at the resort with professional dancers is presented nightly.
Golfing is available onsite at Cocotal Golf & Country Club. This par 36/72 World Class Championship Golf Course, designed by José Pepe Gancedo, offers professional golf lessons (surcharge) at the Sol Meliá Golf Academy. Calloway golf equipment is available for rent at the pro shop. Golf carts are required (surcharge for rental). Golf balls are for sale at the pro shop.
- Ecotours on site
- Free bicycles on site
- Golfing nearby
- Hiking/biking trails on site
- Tennis lessons on site
- Volleyball on site
- Beach volleyball on site
- Kayaking on site
- Windsurfing on site
- Parasailing on site
- Yoga classes/instruction on site
- Pilates classes on site
- Playground on site
- Fitness classes on site
- Sailing on site
- Golf lessons available nearby
Spa Services
- Number of treatment rooms 8
- Outdoor treatment areas
- Couples treatment rooms
- Massages on beach
- Manicures and pedicures
- Body wraps
- Body treatments
- Body scrubs
- Facial treatments
- Aromatherapy treatments
- Hydrotherapy treatments
- Ayurvedic treatments
- Sauna in spa
- Spa tub in spa
- Minimum age to access spa is 18
- Hot springs/mineral springs in spa
- Massages
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
Resort Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-in time ends at 5:30 AM
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-out time is noon
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Kids stay free! Up to 2 children 12 years old and younger stay free when using existing bedding.
- Cribs (infant beds) are not available.
- No pets or service animals allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
- Resort fee
Resort Name
- Paradisus Punta Cana Resort All Inclusive
- Paradisus All Inclusive Punta Cana
- Paradisus Punta Cana
- Paradisus Punta Cana All Inclusive
- Paradisus Resort
- Paradisus Resort Punta Cana
- Punta Cana All Inclusive Paradisus
- Punta Cana Paradisus
- Punta Cana Resort Paradisus
- Resort Punta Cana Paradisus
- Paradisus Resort All Inclusive
We should mention
Reservations are required for golf tee times, massage services, and spa treatments. Reservations can be made by contacting the resort prior to arrival, using the contact information on the booking confirmation. A resort fee is included in the total price displayed. Up to 2 children 12 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding. Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms. No pets and no service animals are allowed at this property.
Awards & Affiliations
Royal Service Offer
Book a minimum 5-night stay in a "Royal Service" room type for travel now - December 22, 2018, and receive 1 complimentary dinner at Passion by Martin Berasategui for 2 adults.
Full details provided at check-in. Taxes and gratuity may not be included. Dinner consists of a 3-course meal including house wine (wine pairing excluded). Additional prices for beverages. Pre-dinner in-room aperitif is included (chef's choice hors d'oeuvres and house brand aperitif/liquor). The restaurant is adults-only (minimum age is 18). No refunds for any unused portion of offer. Offer subject to availability. Offer is not valid with groups/conventions and may not be combined with other promotional offers. Other restrictions and blackout dates may apply.
1 Child Eats and Stays Free
Book a stay in any room category (except the "Royal Service Garden View Suite" room type) now-December 22, 2018, for travel now-December 22, 2019, and 1 child 12 years and younger can stay and eat free when sharing the same room as parents.
Full details at check-in. Valid for new reservations only. Cancellations/changes are not accepted. Children 12 and younger eat free when ordering from the children's menu and dining with paying adults ordering from the regular menu. Limited to 1 child per room. Taxes and gratuity may not be included. No refunds for any unused portion of offer. Offer subject to availability. Offer is not valid with groups/conventions and may not be combined with other promotional offers. Other restrictions may apply.
Unlimited Golf Offer
Book a stay in any room category and receive free unlimited access to the Cocotal Golf & Country Club 27-hole world-class championship golf course.
Golf cart is mandatory and not included. Full details at check-in. Guests must contact the property in advance to arrange tee time; contact information is provided on the booking confirmation email. No refunds for any unused portion of offer. Offer subject to availability. Offer is not valid with groups/conventions and may not be combined with other promotional offers. Other restrictions and blackout dates may apply.
Resort Vouchers
Book a stay in any room type or rate plan for travel now-December 22, 2018 and receive USD 1000 in resort vouchers per room, per stay to be used at the Spa, towards a room upgrade, wine, restaurants, casino, romantic dinner and shopping.
Resort voucher and voucher redemption details provided at check-in. Resort vouchers have different values and must be presented at the time of service or reservation. No deductions will be taken at time of check-out. Taxes and gratuity may not be included. No refunds for any unused portion of offer. Offer subject to availability. Offer is not valid with groups/conventions and may not be combined with other promotional offers. Other restrictions and blackout dates may apply.


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30 Great Movies You Probably Haven't Seen
Plus: 20 commercially unavailable movies you should watch online (and only if you know where to look).
Who needs new movies? In this week's issue of the magazine, our critics show us what's in their personal collections of old culture, much of it you might've missed. All of it is available online, somewhere. Herewith, David Edelstein and Bilge Ebiri's list of 30 great movies you probably haven't seen, plus Edelstein's list of 20 commercially unavailable movies you can only watch online (and only if you know where to look).
1. The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)
In Robert Siodmak's underrated noir melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck seduces and lures unsuspecting, desperate assistant D.A. and family man Wendell Corey into doing her bidding.
2. Battle Cry (1955)
Tough-guy director Raoul Walsh's emotionally exhausting, earnest World War II epic, focusing on the Marines in the Pacific, is beautiful, almost Dickensian in its expansiveness.
3. The Sound of the Mountain (1954)
One of the great Japanese master Mikio Naruse's most observant films, this look at the complex dynamics within a family where the parents are living under the same roof as their troubled son and his wife is slowly, subtly brutal.
4. The Baron of Arizona (1950)
Samuel Fuller made some of the oddest movies in history, and this pseudo-Western is one of his oddest, starring Vincent Price as a man who tries to forge and fake his way into owning Arizona. Based on a true story!
5. Stars in My Crown (1950)
Minister Joel McCrea preaches the Gospel in a small town and finds himself at odds with some in the populace. That description does no justice to Jacques Tourneur's gently hallucinatory and deeply spiritual masterpiece.
6. Pretty Poison (1968)
Right on the border between thriller and sick comedy, Noel Black's debut pits Anthony Perkins against a far more resourceful (and beautiful) psychopath, Tuesday Weld.
7. Burn! (1969)
Marlon Brando gives a sardonic, self-disgusted (and brilliant) performance as the capitalist predator William Walker, sent to the island of Queimada ("Burnt" in Portuguese) to foment a slave revolution.
8. Spider Baby (1968)
Jack Hill's bargain-basement black comedy with Lon Chaney Jr., Sid Haig, and other weirdos centers on a genetically demented family and influenced so many hip genre directors that you need to get in on the fun.
9. David Holzman's Diary (1967)
Pre-iPhone, pre-every-day videotaping, Jim McBride's vérité documentary laid the foundation for so many of the rambling first-person docs to come—and, in a time-travel sort of way, sent them up!
10. The Passion of Anna (1969)
It's Ingmar Bergman, who's not exactly off the map, and stars Liv, Max, Bibi, and Erland. But it's lesser-known top-flight Bergman, a stark ensemble psychodrama with savage undercurrents. Amazing use of the zoom lens—usually so tacky!
11. The Long Goodbye (1973)
Philip Marlowe reimagined as a disaffected hipster (Elliot Gould) in Robert Altman's shambling yet harsh noir.
12. Night Moves (1975)
Wanna know what mid-seventies malaise was about? Arthur Penn and Gene Hackman captured the sense of hopelessness in this bleak gumshoe noir.
13. Citizens Band (1977)
Jonathan Demme finds his humanist spirit in this whimsical ensemble comedy about CBers and their secret lives.
14. The Ascent (1977)
Soviet filmmaker Larisa Shepitko was killed in a car crash not long after making this grueling but finally uplifting World War II picture (a Christian allegory about two soldiers on a hunt for food).
15. Deep Red (1975)
The Italian giallo comes of age in Dario Argento's most weirdly mesmerizing hack-'em-up.
16. Salvador (1986)
Jittery, driven James Woods was the perfect carrier of Oliver Stone's viral style, a conversion melodrama with all kinds of charge.
17. Casualties of War (1989)
Brian De Palma uses all that technique to show how a great artist can make violence (the kidnapping and murder of a Vietnamese girl by U.S. soldiers) cinematically thrilling and morally so horrible that it sears itself into your brain.
18. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
One of Woody's favorites, and you can see why. Mia Farrow disappears into the movie screen, and rarely have parody and melancholy fused so perfectly.
19. Ariel (1988)
Perfect intro to the whimsically offbeat yet pensive (and often sad) world of Finnish mini-master Aki Kaurismäki.
20. Yol (1982)
Turkish director Yilmaz Guney's grim portrait of five prisoners on furlough touches surprisingly universal chords.
21. La Cérémonie (1995)
French New Wave crime master Claude Chabrol directed this masterful slow-build suspense film, adapted from a Ruth Rendell novel, about two maids who killed the family they worked for. Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert are perfect in the lead roles.
22. The Man in the Moon (1991)
Director Robert Mulligan's tender southern coming-of-age tale is one of the lost classics of the nineties—and features a very young Reese Witherspoon in the lead.
23. Endurance (1999)
Produced by Terrence Malick (and bearing many of the hallmarks of his style), this nonfiction movie about the life of Olympic runner Haile Gebrselassie (occasionally starring as himself) is an otherworldly hybrid—part dreamlike fable, part intense sports documentary.
24. Swordsman II (1992)
One of Jet Li's greatest and strangest films, this frenetic, mystical martial-arts fantasy epic is full of gender-changing bad guys, explosive special effects, and some of the darkest gallows humor you'll ever come across.
25. Before the Rain (1994)
Milcho Manchevski's stylishly tragic Macedonian film, nominated for an Oscar, is one of the seminal works of Balkan cinema—a three-part journey through the open wounds of war and thwarted love.
26. Infernal Affairs (2002)
Wai-keung Lau and Alan Mak's ferociously pretzeled Hong Kong police thriller is so much more inventive and smartly paced than its American remake, The Departed. Just see it—and its nearly equally great sequels, which fill in the spectacular canvas.
27. Bus I74 (2002)
The most wrenching doc of the decade centers on a stoned Brazilian street kid (whose pregnant mother was murdered before his eyes when he was a boy) who takes hostages on a city bus—for no other reason, it seems, than to say, "I exist!" What he does to the people on that bus is horrifying, but what has been (and will be) done to him is much crueler.
28. L'Iceberg (2005)
So weird, so wonderful. If you're not familiar with commedia dell'arte, you might peg this rambunctious Belgian clown odyssey as avant-garde. On the contrary, it is derrière-garde, like a kick in the derrière, a procession of gorgeous slapstick set pieces at sea. Buster Keaton would be in heaven.
29. Waltz With Bashir (2008)
"Speak, memory," commanded Vladimir Nabokov, and in Ari Folman's animated Israeli masterpiece, memory stutters, yowls, and babbles in tongues. The movie finds a new form, with more fluid boundaries between documentary and fantasy, reality and dreams, life and art, until a civilian massacre during the 1982 Lebanon War is indelibly burned into our minds.
30. Monkeybone (2001)
Sometimes you've got to go back and watch the notorious flops with new eyes, perhaps with a little chemical help. In this case, you might find that Henry Selick's giant mess of an underworld fantasy about a comatose cartoonist and his filthy monkey is chock-a-block with brilliant lines and sight gags, and its theme is touching. Selick's touch is a little, uh, Germanic for comedy, maybe.
Twenty Commercially Unavailable Movies You Can Only Watch Online (and Only If You Know Where to Look)
1. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Thom Andersen's epic documentary explores both the ways in which L.A. has been portrayed in film and the profound influence of those portraits on the still-evolving city. It's a vital work of cultural history. It's also a rights nightmare, and due to copyright concerns, it won't be on DVD anytime soon.
2. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
This 43-minute stop-motion Barbie-doll film by Todd Haynes is every bit as mind-blowing as you've heard—and as inspired. Somehow the absurdist stylized distancing device ends up intensifying your connection to poor Karen and her body-image issues. Richard Carpenter will never let the film see the light of day, and I honestly can't say I blame him. Haynes is, after all, using his music and portraying him as a bit of a closet case.
3. Flight of the Eagle (1982)
The Jan Troell film is the true story of S.A. Andrée's 1897 balloon expedition to the Arctic, which ended badly. No spoiler: The movie opens with photos of the actual long-dead bodies. It would probably be easier to get to the North Pole than find a physical copy of the film.
4. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
Richard Brooks's adaptation of Judith Rossner's best-selling novel (loosely based on a real murder) is an important chapter in late-seventies Hollywood pop culture: a moralistic treatment of what happens when the repressed (a Catholic schoolteacher played by Diane Keaton) meets the dangerously forbidden.
5. Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)
And truly, maddeningly, unavailable. This goofy, melancholy ghost movie (it has no genre; it's sui generis) is the best and most personal work of
a well-known Oscar-winning director (Anthony Minghella) and has gorgeous performances by two major British actors, Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.
6. Show Boat (1936)
The 1936 version of the Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein musical features Paul Robeson doin'—I mean doing—"Ol' Man River," and was directed by none other than James Whale, shortly before his star began to plummet. It's better than the others, even with Irene Dunne in blackface, and has never been on DVD. It keeps on rollin' on YouTube, though.
7. White of the Eye (1987)
You won't find it on DVD, but Donald Cammell's psycho-marriage picture, starring David Keith and Cathy Moriarty, is unnervingly good.
8. Andy Warhol's Screen Tests (1964–1966)
We can argue forever about the aesthetic value of these tests, but they're an essential part of our cultural history—and the DVD, featuring thirteen of them, with music by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (of Luna), is pricey. You can watch it, though, on YouTube.
9. Wind Across the Everglades (1958)
A mostly terrible bird-poaching thriller starring Christopher Plummer and Burl Ives that's a must for auteurist darling Nicholas Ray completists. Ray was fired from the film for eccentric behavior, and the cast referred to it as Breaking Wind Across the Everglades.
10. Pennies From Heaven (1981)
Pauline Kael called this Dennis Potter–penned movie (with Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, and an electrifying Christopher Walken) about a loser whose dreams transcend his reality one of the most emotional musicals she'd ever seen.
11. Burlesk Queen (1977)
Filipino film-enthusiast friends put me on to this amazing and political showbiz melodrama from Celso Advento Castillo, in which a young assistant (Vilma Santos) must fill in for her drunken burlesque-star employer and becomes the new queen—empowered and then martyred. It's exactly the sort of movie you can't find anywhere but online. See it on a big TV.
12. The Train (1965)
The Third Reich's defeat in sight, Paul Scofield's Nazi colonel tries to smuggle some of the world's greatest paintings back to Germany—but not if French train engineer Burt Lancaster can stop him, in this terrific thriller by John Frankenheimer.
13. High Tide (1987)
One of the terrific Aussie director Gillian Armstrong's best films stars Judy Davis—never better, and you know what that's saying—as a drug- and drink-addled backup singer to an Elvis impersonator who stumbles on the daughter she abandoned years before in a trailer park.
14. All the Vermeers in New York (1992)
A relatively (very relatively) commercial work from experimental filmmaker Jon Jost, this moody, quasi-romantic museum piece can't be purchased on DVD for less than $249. But you can find it online.
15. Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
Kon Ichikawa's masterpiece—one of the greatest sports documentaries ever made—is no longer available on DVD at a sane price. It must
be seen, if for no other reason than to counter the grinding banality of most TV sports coverage.
16. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Werner Herzog's remake is closely based on F. W. Murnau's silent classic, but Klaus Kinski manages to be scarier than Max Schreck because he's … Kinski and a psychopath, and the sound of him slurping is hard to forget. The English-language version was laughed off the screen. Watch it in German.
17. Let It Be (1970)
No, it's not a great movie—it's sour and weird and most of the major unpleasantness was going on out of camera range. But it's the Beatles. In the same room. Therefore, watch.
18. Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years (1988)
Penelope Spheeris's drug- and sex-soaked sequel is more engaging than the original and has had serious problems getting a U.S. DVD release. It's highly sought-after online, for obvious reasons.
19. The Hart of London (1970)
No less than Stan Brakhage called Canadian Jack Chambers's nonnarrative meditation on nature vs. the city (London, Ontario) one of the greatest films ever made.
20. The Day the Clown Cried (1972)
No, you can't see it, unfortunately. Or, maybe, fortunately. But arguably the most famous too-awful-to-release movie finally has footage available online. And as a bonus you can listen to audio of Harry Shearer (one of the few humans to have seen it) attempt to convey the horror, the horror on "The Howard Stern Show."
*This article originally appeared in the November 18, 2013 issue of New York Magazine.


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Lotus is doing its best to convince us that they are the greenest car manufacturer, and their latest release, the Eco Elise, makes a great argument that this is the case. Not only is this an incredibly fuel efficient machine, it has been created to be manufactured with the greenest materials that Lotus could find. Embodied energy, material lifecycle, emissions and environmental impact of manufacturing and operating, and overall fuel efficiency are all factors that have been accounted for in the design and production of this soon to premiere vehicle.
Lifecycle was the key word for Lotus. It wasn't content with just looking at the CO2 emissions of the vehicle's operation. It looked at the emissions that the vehicle generated and at the emissions that the manufacturing of the vehicle generated. It made sure to select green materials, and even went as far as ensuring that the transportation of the hemp fibers involved as few carbon miles as possible.
The traditional carbon fiber is gone, to be replaced with a hemp composite material that is used throughout the body panels and spoilers. The paint in the vehicle is all water based, and looking sharp as well. The roof has been fitted with solar panels for on the road generation. The seats are covered with dye-free EU Flower certified biodegradable woolen fabrics, and the carpets are made from sisal. All of these improvements resulted in the creation of a lightweight vehicle that improved the performance and fuel efficiency.
Overall, an impressive package. The vehicle will be presented in the British International Motor Show this week.


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You are here: Home ‹ Board index ‹ Movie Discussion ‹ All Other/Older Movies ‹ (2010) I Love You Phillip Morris
Phillip Morris leaves Sundance without a distributor!
Discuss this movie. Filmed April 29-June 30, 2008
Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
I doubt if they will throw it in the garbage...
Your talking 10 M$, that's not peanuts.
But sometimes a movie may not be timely for now
but timely later
may need to be tweeked to make it more acceptable to some
some people may be offended by the pre-clips
it may need to be toned down for now
released in it's originality at a later time
people may not be ready for it yet.
How much did Brokeback make, did they break even?
Some people are still quite traditional.
You have to do the research and look at the Demographics for now
What the target group for this movie?
Do they have expendable money right now?
Are they willing to spend on something that is more a curiosity than
informative or the way people want to be entertained.
Not sure how the research for the production was instituted
Shouldnt they have already thought of all that before they made the movie? It's not like someone says ok lets make a movie, heres the A grade actors. Lets film. then when its finsihed its not like "ok we showed it at sundance" thats it.
Be patient. There should be a good chance that they get a distributor in 2009.
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The graphics above are from the fine folks at BrooksBaseball.net. The top graphic is a chart of the strike zone during the Phillies' 5-4 loss to the Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday night, which has become something of a hot-button issue for a couple of reasons: One, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa griped about the zone in his in-game interview on TBS and in some chats with home plate umpire Jerry Meals, and two, Phillies pitchers were pretty frustrated with their own zone.
Anyway, the chart uses data from the Pitch FX system, which is supposed to track the exact flight and location of each pitch. The square box denotes the strike zone, with the red symbols representing pitches that were called strikes and the green symbols representing pitches that were called balls. Pitches by the Phillies are squares, pitches by the Cardinals are triangles.
The location of each pitches is plotted based on the location of an individual hitter's supposed strike zone. If you want the technical details, head over to BrooksBaseball.net. Otherwise, just know that this is an approximation, and should not be taken as a conclusive judgment on the accuracy of calls.
According to the chart's approximation of the actual location of calls, the Phillies were charged with six balls that were actually inside the strike zone, and one that was touching the outer edge. The Cardinals were charged with one ball inside the strike zone. The Cardinals benefited from three strikes that, according to the chart, were outside the zone. The Phillies benefited from one.
The second graphic is an approximation of Chris Guccione's calls in Game 1. The Cardinals were charged with four balls that were either in the zone or touching the edge. The Phillies were charged with three. The Cardinals received five strikes that were outsize the zone. The Phillies received three.
So if the chart were accurate, you could say that Meals cost the Phillies a net total of six strikes, while adding a net total of two strikes.
Guccione added one strike to the Cardinals and none to the Phillies.
Depending on how much credit you give the chart, you could argue that the umpiring had some effect on the Phillies in Game 2. We are only talking about six pitches out of more than 100 thrown by Phillies pitchers. But even one pitch has the ability to affect the outcome of an at-bat, and one at-bat the ability to affect the outcome of the game. Take, for example, Lance Berkman's walk to lead off the fourth inning. The Phillies were leading 4-0 at the time. Lee was ahead of Berkman 0-2. The at-bat ended with three close pitches on the outside of Berkman's zone. If one of those pitches is actually a strike, and is called a strike, then Berkman strikes out instead of drawing a leadoff walk and maybe the complexion of what ended up being a three-run inning changes.
Hey, we'll never know. It is hard to blame the umpire for the Phillies failing to add to a 4-0 lead, despite the fact that they had six innings of at-bats against the St. Louis bullpen. Lee said after the game that he was not locating the ball the way he wanted. The story of Game 2 is not the umpire, but the starting pitcher.
The Phillies structured their payroll with the strategy that a four-run lead would be enough to win Game 2 of a playoff series. In the previous three postseasons, they lost three games in which they scored at least four runs. Two of those were in the 2009 World Series. One of those was in the 2010 NLCS. During that same timeframe, they won five games when an opponent scored at least five runs: one of those was in the 2009 World Series, the other four in series they ended up winning.
There is a reason no team has won back-to-back World Series since the Yankees dynasty of the late '90's and early 00's. No matter how much money you spend on pitchers, or how dominant those pitchers are, the line between victory and elimination often comes down to one start. And that one start is subject to a variety of factors a pitcher cannot control, from the direction a groundball is hit to the judgment of an umpire.
The Cardinals won 55.6 percent of their games during the regular season. In a five-game series, that equates to 2.78 wins. The Phillies won 63 percent of their games during the regular season. In a five-game series, that equates to 3.15 wins. That's a difference of .37, or about a third of a game. That's three innings of baseball.
Look at it that way, and you see the challenge a five-game series presents for a team like the Phillies, who measure success on postseason performance. Six months of dominance are boiled down to three innings. Three bad innings, and they are even with their opponent. As it turns out, it was three bad innings that cost them Game 2, three bad innings that evened the series, three bad innings that sent them to St. Louis needing to win at least one game to keep their season alive.
An umpire calling a strike for a ball might not be fair, but neither is judging a baseball team based on five games in October. Still, that is the way baseball works. Yesterday, despite their best-laid plans, it did not work in their favor.
Welcome to October.
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Education on cutting block during special session
Action blamed on declining state revenue.
John Wightman doesn't mince words when he talks about difficult decisions ahead for Nebraska legislators.
"It's going to be painful," said the state senator from Lexington.
Those hardest hit when legislators gather for a special session Nov. 4 will be K-12 education, the University of Nebraska and the Health and Human Services System.
"K-12 education will be the most sensitive in our area," Wightman said.
Medicaid, which along with the other entities make up 70% of the budget, could be exempted because the state must match federal spending levels, he said.
"That may mean even deeper cuts for everyone else," Wightman noted.
The Medicaid program, funded by federal and state governments, pays for medical care for those who can't afford it.
Wightman doesn't question the need for a special session because "revenues have been going south."
Next Wednesday, legislators must determine how to slash the state budget to make up an estimated $200 million of lost revenue.
That's what economic forecasters say is needed to balance the two-year budget crafted during the 2009 regular session.
During the special session, Wightman said senators will also look at ways to cut smaller expenditures from the budget.
Raising taxes is not on the table, Wightman said, and "a majority of senators feel the same way."
Nonetheless, he said there is discussion about getting rid of a state property tax credit.
The $200 million credit, which counties began receiving in 2007, was designed to offer property tax relief.
"But I don't think that will happen because it's perceived as a tax increase," Wightman said.
Wightman said unpaid furloughs for state employees—an action taken by other states-—has also been suggested.
"But I think that needs to come from the governor's office," he said.
Decisions made during the November session will become effective immediately.
Lower incomes and sales tax receipts are blamed for the revenue drop during the longest continuing recession since World War II, Wightman said.
The governor called a special session when September tax receipts were $40 million below projections.
Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board members met Tuesday and issued predictions of future tax receipts.
Wightman said the board will meet again in February and April which will be after the 2010 legislation session has ended.
"We won't know what April receipts are until their next meeting in October and I don't know if we can legislatively change that," he said.
Some economists don't see recovery in Nebraska until the latter part of 2010 or 2011.
"The real problem is that employment is not coming back," Wightman said.
Wightman said the central part of the state may have been immune to the recession the first year because of high agricultural prices last year.
"This year it doesn't look as good because of higher input costs," he said.
However bountiful soybean and corn yields—if farmers can get crops out of soggy fields—may offset costly production prices.
As a member of the legislative appropriations committee, Wightman will travel to Lincoln a couple of days before the start of the special session.
The committee will talk to state fiscal officers about where cuts could be made.
"We'll review where agencies are with spending and see if specific items maybe are not as important now as when they were funded," he explained.
Because the economy has deteriorated faster than the forecasting board expected, Wightman said additional cuts may be necessary during the 2010 session.
Although senators used a substantial portion of the state's cash reserve to bolster the budget—now estimated at $300 million—he said more may be needed.
A 21-day special session is estimated to cost about $195,000, he said. Senators are paid $9 a day plus mileage costs to and from the state capital.
The senator added that the session could be shorter than 21 days.
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HAVANA (AP) — A leading Cuban opposition figure said Thursday that he and another dissident were threatened, and in one case attacked, by people they took to be intelligence agents in separate incidents on the same day.
Elizardo Sanchez said two plainclothes officials stopped him near his Havana home on Tuesday, shouting physical threats and using crude language. That night, dissident Guillermo Farinas was allegedly attacked by a man with a wooden stick elsewhere in Havana, resulting in light injuries.
There was no immediate comment from the Cuban government, which considers all of the dissidents to be mercenaries paid by Washington to stir up trouble.
The 68-year-old Sanchez runs the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation and acts as a de facto spokesman for the island's small opposition group. He made the accusations in a letter sent to foreign journalists Thursday that included an official complaint he lodged with Cuban Interior Minister Abeladro Colome the previous day.
"Arbitrary arrests, physical aggression, threats and humiliations against peaceful citizens are counterproductive to the necessary alternative that is a national dialogue," Sanchez wrote in the letter to Colome.
Cuban President Raul Castro freed dozens of opposition activists and social commentators in 2010 following a deal ironed out with the Roman Catholic church. But dissidents continue to complain about increasingly frequent incidents of harassment and short-term arrests.
The opposition has accused the government of a wave of intimidation in recent weeks, including the 19-day detention of Antonio Rodiles, an activist in Havana who heads a project called State of Sats, which organizes debates about Internet access and other social issues.
Supporters say Rodiles was roughed up during his arrest. He was freed on Wednesday.
Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven.


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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Twenty-two years after breaking up, The Replacements are reuniting for at least three shows.
The celebrated 1980s alt-rockers say they'll play at Riot Fest in Toronto, Chicago and Denver. Exact dates haven't been announced, but Riot Fest runs Aug. 24-25 in Toronto, Sept. 13-15 in Chicago and Sept. 21-22 in Denver.
The Replacements haven't played a show since July 4, 1991, in Chicago. Frontman Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson got together this year to record the EP "Songs for Slim" to benefit Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap, who suffered a debilitating stroke last year.
Known for their boozy, ragged live shows, The Replacements began recording for Twin Cities-based Twin/Tone Records in the early 1980s and eventually signed with major label Sire Records. While the band never had a big hit, "I'll Be You" and "Merry Go Round" got radio play and albums such as 1984's "Let It Be," named by Rolling Stone magazine No. 15 of the 100 best albums of the '80s, were critical favorites.
Westerberg's songs alternated between post-punk bash and yearning ballads. He eventually went solo, did one-man, home-recorded music projects and provided music for the 2006 animated feature "Open Season." Stinson became bassist for Guns N' Roses and Soul Asylum. His brother, guitarist Bob Stinson, was kicked out of The Replacements in 1986 and died in 1995 after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Drummer Chris Mars turned to painting.
In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Westerberg said he tried to get the band back together to play a benefit for then-Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who had throat cancer and eventually died. But the reunion did not happen.
The Replacements launched a bare-bones new website offering mailing list subscriptions and promising a full site coming soon, plus a Twitter account.
The Replacements website: http://www.thereplacementsofficial.com


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SPD Weenie Roast
Dear Editor,
On October 31st, between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., the Spencer Police Department will be hosting our annual weenie roast. I would like to extend a personal invitation to all local businesses to come join us. Your support will help aid our local youth in having a pleasant and safe Halloween. I am encouraging all local businesses to bring treats to the southern parking lot of the Spencer Municipal Building and set up a chair, table, tent, or whatever and enjoy this fall festivity. This gives the little ones a safe place to show off their costumes while receiving treats in a controlled environment. This event has also proven to be popular with many parents by giving them a place to bring their children and get a little something in their tummies prior to venturing out for an evening of trick-or-treating.
We would love to see you there. Please reserve your free space in advance by calling 812-829-3932 and selecting option #2. The contact person for reservations is Debbie Foutch or myself, Richard Foutch.
Richard Fouch
Spencer Chief Of Police
© 2009-2018 Spencer Evening World, Inc. | Privacy Policy
No commercial reproduction without written consent.
Electronic reproduction of any kind forbidden without written consent.


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Its hard to imagine the worldâs major cities without their public parks. The greatest examples, such as London's Hyde Park, the Tuileries Garden in Paris, and Central Park in New York City, are defining aspects of the urban experience.
It wasn't always so, as Francis R. Kowsky shows in his new history, The Best Planned City in the World. Until the 1850s, the concept of a "pastoral environment in the heart of the city available to all classes of society" simply didn't exist. The movement for healthy verdant spaces open to all citizens required visionary men. In 1868 two of them, Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, set their sights on Buffalo, New York. Their goal: to create nothing less than the most extensive park system in the world.
The Queen City of the Lakes has seen better days. But its park system, built during the cityâs economic and cultural ascendancy, is still recognized for its magnificent innovations in the art of urban planning and landscape design. "Professor Kowsky does a wonderful job of illuminating the thinking of the major players in the saga," says Robin Karson executive director of The Library of American Landscape History (LALH), the foremost publisher in the field of American landscape history. The Best Planned City in the World is the first book in the LALH Designing the American Park series, written by leading historians in the field. "Scholarship is important in preserving our natural landscapes," adds Karson. "When people understand the careful planning that went into the parks they're getting to enjoy today, they tend to value them more and take better care of them."
Read more here


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Winter in Montana comes early and lasts long, so finding ways to pass the hibernation time is critical to a Z8 driver's sanity. One of the best is to daydream about favorite drives and I thought I'd share one with those who might be interested.
In anticipation of the long day's journey ahead, I rise before dawn and prepare my Z8 for the adventure to come. Tire pressures set, oil checked, tank full, I press the magic button to awaken the heart of my steed and listen to the mechanical sounds of M-Power coming to life. Driving shoes snugged up, driving gloves pulled on, sunglasses in place, I point her down the winding road leading from my mountainside home outside of Bozeman, Montana. We drive slowly along the rural blacktop, giving the oil temp time to rise, and I listen carefully to the mechanical tune my Z8 is playing to be sure she is up to the challenges ahead.
By the time I reach Bridger Canyon Road (Hwy 86), the engine is warm and my steed is eager to be let loose. I point my Z8 North on this winding two-lane running along the valley floor of Bridger Canyon. Rising up on one side are the rugged Bridger Mountains which remain snow-capped most of the year and on the other side are the rolling hills of the Bangtails. Traffic is light and we soon pass our local ski area, Bridger Bowl, one of the best kept secrets in the ski world. Now the canyon narrows down as the Bridgers turn into wilderness and the road becomes serpentine.
I know every inch of this pavement like the back of my hand so with no traffic in sight, we begin to dance. The road rises and falls to follow the rugged terrain and my Z8 is glued to the undulating surface. Wild flowers fill the fields, eagles soar above, and it's hard to keep my eyes off the spectacular Bridger Mountains. Thrilling bursts of speed are followed by practiced heel and toe downshifts leading into precisely carved turns, again and again. As we leave the canyon, the valley opens up into a pastoral setting of old-time ranches and farms with rippling fields of wheat and grazing cattle. In the distance I spy the Crazy Mountains and after a few more miles of high speed cruising we reach Hwy 89 where we head South. Gliding along this beautifully paved road which cuts an arrow-like swath through the verdant Shields Valley, we soon reach the next leg of our journey, Interstate 90.
While this is my least favorite part of the drive, I take solace in the smoothness of the recently paved road and the ever-changing Western vistas. There are mountains everywhere I look and the highway closely follows the meandering Yellowstone River, the longest undammed stretch of river in the lower 48. Lewis and Clark traveled this same route on their epic journey and I am reminded of the adventure to come. Upon reaching the town of Columbus, we turn South on Hwy 78 and take the opportunity to top up the gas tank, always a good idea in this wide-open part of the country.
The Z8 looks strangely out of place next to the tractors and worn-out pickups, as if aliens from another planet had stopped by in their sleek exploration craft. Accelerating out of town, the road winds among the rolling hills with picture-perfect equine settings around every bend. Here we pass through some real Montana towns with a single main street, lots of bars, and locals sitting out on their porches. At Roscoe the road turns East and with no towns for the next 20 miles, I give my Z8 free rein!
As we fly across the lush green landscape linking one high speed sweeper after another, I feel almost giddy knowing that as good as this feels, it will only get better up ahead! Soon we reach the charming tourist town of Red Lodge whose main street is a quaint mix of mining era store fronts including a penny candy store, hand-made toy store, and a Harley Davidson dealership. Time to top up with fuel again as we are about to head into a very remote area where gas stations are a rare sight. Leaving Red Lodge, we cross the fast-flowing Rock Creek and head East on Hwy 308 heading for the town of Belfry.
This stretch of road runs through high desert and the parched environment is essentially barren save for the remnants of a few old mining towns slowly returning to dust. The road is a bit rough from neglect and the contrast with where we've come from is startling. At Belfry we turn South on Hwy 72 which becomes Hwy 120 at the Wyoming border. This road follows the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River through gently rolling hills with the spectacularly rugged Beartooth Mountains as a backdrop. Although the speed limit drops as we enter Wyoming, up ahead lies one of the most amazing stretches of road I have ever driven, a ruler straight and flat 10 miles of beautifully paved 2 lane that is a full 4 lanes wide surrounded by wide open expanses of unpopulated sage country. Lightly traveled, I have often found myself alone on this road and the temptation to stretch the Z8's long legs is irresistable. It's like your own private Bonneville Salt Flat! At the end of this dreamlike straightaway, the road enters a winding canyon through the foothills of the Beartooths and soon I spot the turn for my favorite driving road,
Chief Joseph Scenic Highway (296). This 63 mile road twists and turns its way through some of the most idyllic mountain scenery in the world. I find myself shivering in anticipation and my Z8 responds with eagerness. Back and forth, up hill and down, we cling to the road as it leads us on a merry chase. All around us are picture post cards but the road demands most of our attention. Climbing to 8000 feet, we pause to catch our breath at the scenic Dead Indian Pass lookout.
After waiting for traffic to clear, we plunge down the other side of the pass heading for Sunlight Basin. The descent consists of a never-ending series of hairpin turns linked by short straights and we have left a great deal of very expensive rubber behind as evidence of our passing. At the bottom we cross the highest bridge in Wyoming and pick up the Clarks Fork River as it carves its way through the Absaroka Mountains creating 1200 foot high canyon walls. The views here are breathtaking and I prefer to relax and enjoy the scenery rather than push for speed. Along the way I spot a sparkling waterfall and park alongside to enjoy a well-deserved bite of lunch. Under way again, the road soon T's into Hwy 212, better known as The Beartooth Highway.
Turning East, we will follow this remarkable road back to Red Lodge on a drive described by Charles Kuralt as the most beautiful in America. As the blacktop snakes its way towards its highest point of 11,000 feet, it clings to sheer cliffs, is swallowed by thick forests, and crosses high alpine meadows bejeweled with impossibly blue alpine lakes, cascading rivers, and rock-strewn fields vividly painted with extravagant wildflowers. The ever-changing views of the Beartooth Mountains are indescribable in their beauty. At the top, the panoramic view and eagles soaring below really do convince you that you have reached the top of the world.
After trying to soak in as much of the grandeur as my over-loaded senses can endure, I urge my Z8 down the mountain in a series of impossibly tight hairpins which require full concentration rather than sightseeing. The final descent to Red Lodge is a real test of man and machine featuring sweeping switchbacks clinging precariously to the sheer cliffs of Rock Creek Canyon. At last I reach the valley floor where cascading Rock Creek provides a welcome spritz of refreshment in the breeze as we take a cool down lap back into Red Lodge. After refilling an almost empty tank with premium, we prepare to retrace our steps to home.
The return trip provides a chance to reflect on the day's adventures and catch up on some neglected tunes. Upon reaching the welcoming sight of the Bridger's, I sense that my trusty steed knows the way and I settle back to soak up the late afternoon rays as the Z8 wisks me home. Stepping from the car, tired but happy, I listen to the soft tinkling of cooling metal parts coming from beneath the Z8 and offer my heartfelt thanks for all the work she has done. Next comes a well-deserved wash of those voluptuous curves then I tuck her into the garage where she can dream of our next adventure. We both can't wait for Spring!