text:
MIDDLEBURY — Despite sub-freezing temperatures this time of year, some Vermonters are bundling up extra warmly and making their way to work without the comfort of a heated car.
For myriad reasons that include health and fitness, environmental responsibility, and financial savings, many members of the Addison County community choose to rely on bicycles as their primary form of transportation.
"It's the way we enjoy getting around," said Middlebury resident Rebekah Irwin, of her family's dedication to biking.


text:
Dartwan BushFree Agent
Defensive Line
Ht: | Wt:
News | Stats | Stat vs. Team | Targets | Injury | Depth Chart | Roster
|Def Sacks
|Int TD
|Fum Rec
|Fum TD
|Cowboys | 18 cut
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 14:43:44 -0700
The Dallas Cowboys released RB D.J. Adams, OT Josh Aladenoye, DE Kenneth Boatright, DT Dartwan Bush, WR LaRon Byrd, OG Stephen Goodin, CB Terrance Mitchell, WR Jamar Newsome, C Ronald Patrick, DE Caesar Rayford, LB Dontavis Sapp, LB Keith Smith, SS Ryan Smith, LB William Smith, RB Phillip Tanner, TE Asa Watson, LB Orie Lemon and DT Zach Minter.
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|| Source: NFL.com
|Cowboys | Owner impressed with four players
Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:24:40 -0700
Dallas Cowboys DT Ken Bishop, DT Davon Coleman, DT Dartwan Bush and WR Devin Street have been impressive so far during training camp, according to owner/general manager Jerry Jones. Jones said all three defensive tackles are in contention for a spot on the final roster and that Street has shown good route running skills.
|Comment (0)
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|| Source: The Dallas Morning News - Jon Machota
|Cowboys | Sign Dartwan Bush
Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:32:21 -0700
The Dallas Cowboys signed DT Dartwan Bush Tuesday, June 10. Per NFL rules, the length of the contract is three years. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
|Comment (0)
|| Share:
|| Source: The Dallas Morning News - Brandon George
|Cowboys | 14 rookies to try out at minicamp
Thu, 15 May 2014 16:26:57 -0700
Undrafted free-agent CB Tyler Patmon (Oklahoma State), C Gus Handler (Colorado), CB Brandon McCladdie (Citadel), LB Caleb Lavey (Oklahoma State), WR Lee Kurfis (Lehigh), LB Eddie Lackey (Baylor), QB Kolton Browning (Louisiana-Monroe), RB Josh D. Harris (Wake Forest), DT Maurice Couch (Tennessee), WR Robert Armstrong (Texas A&M Kingsville), DB Aaron Foster (Bowling Green), RB Jyruss Edwards (Louisiana-Monroe), DL Dartwan Bush (Texas Tech) and TE Kaeakua Friel (Brigham Young) will participate in the Dallas Cowboys' rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
|Comment (0)
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|| Source: ESPNDallas.com - Todd Archer

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Area News Digest
Taken from the news columns of area newspapers.
Medical staff will assist in Haiti
COZAD—In less than two weeks, Lexington medical professionals will graciously give up their Thanksgiving holidays to travel to Haiti to help people there with health needs. Dr. Joe Miller of Plum Creek Medical group, along with Jim Hain and Pam Teten of Tri-County Hospital, are scheduled to begin their journey Nov. 20. This will actually be Dr. Miller's third voyage to Haiti since the country's devastating earth quake. The trio are part of a 10-person group that will help do surgeries, physical therapy, possibly education and more.—reported in the Tri-City Trib.
D.W. Arthur visits Merna Public Schools
BROKEN BOW—Merna students recently received a visit from the "real" D.W., little sister to Arthur the Aardvark character in a popular children series written by Marc Brown. As the animated character D.W. didn't actually appear, the person serving as the inspiration for the character did, the author's sister Kim Brown. Students were treated to a presentation, a slide show, photos, stories, a drawing lesson and a peak into the private world of the characters.—reported in the Custer County Chief.
Mid-Plains to expand services at Ogallala
OGALLALA—While Mid-Plains Community College has served the Keith County area for 10 years, its presence at Ogallala will greatly increase when it has its own designated educational facility. The college is preparing to open a site at Ogallala with plans to move the project forward within the next 45 days. One potential site being proposed is the former CRT building, located south of Interstate 80. Ogallala City Council members plan to donate as much as $65,000 to the college expansion project for the city.—reported in the Keith County News.
Arnold featured on television segment
ARNOLD—Nebraska Television Network's (NTV) crew recently traveled to Arnold to film a segment for its popular series, "One Tank Trips." The crew's destination was Nebraska Farmhouse Antiques. Owner Kim Beshaler as well as her employee and residents who frequent the antique store and coffee shop were interviewed during the segment. The focus was not only on the store but on the community. The segment was to air Nov. 11 with a video segment available on NTV's Web site.—reported in the Arnold Sentinel.
MRNRD loses Frontier County representation
CURTIS—Although the incumbents from Frontier County swept the local polls, there will no longer be a Middle Republican Natural Resources District (MRNRD) Director from Frontier County after January 2011. In the recent general election, all three candidates from Frontier County, and one from Lincoln County, lost to candidates from the more populated Red Willow and Hitchcock Counties.—reported in the Frontier County Enterprise.
Legion commander makes rare visit
CALLAWAY—A rare visitation to Callaway by the National American Legion Commander, Jimmie Foster, took place Nov. 4. Commander Foster inspected Bryson-Booker Post No. 59 and addresses students at Callaway Public Schools. Foster, of Anchorage, Alaska, arrived via motorcade and was escorted by 13 Legion Riders. "It's a great honor for Callaway as it's never happened before and it may never happen again, and is an honor for our vets and Legion," said Callaway Legion member Doug Boldt.—reported in the Callaway Courier.
Latest Headlines
- Gothenburg native releases first novel
- We all need help from a friend
- Monsanto hosts 6th annual Safety Day program
- Brady places champ and runner-up at State FCCLA
- Swedes continue conference domination
- Dancing With The Stars changes venues
- Middle-of-the-Pack Finishes For Swede Boys and Girls
- Girls Show Support for Teacher's Cancer Fight


text:
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Health officials on Purdue University's main campus in West Lafayette possibly have a second case of typhoid fever.
Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg told WLFI-TV that the Purdue Student Health Center treated someone Wednesday complaining of mild symptoms. Lab results generally take three to five days to come back.
The Indiana State Department of Health has said a food handler at Purdue is believed to have contracted the disease while traveling abroad.
State officials say people who ate at Purdue's Boiler Bistro, John Purdue Room or the coffee shop Lavazza on Jan. 23-25 might have been exposed.
Symptoms typically appear eight to 14 days after exposure. They include high fever, weakness, stomach pains, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite and sometimes a rose-colored rash.


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text:
Some Davidson County Republicans are renouncing controversial decisions that helped trust analyst Roger Younts claim the seat to House District 80.
Some of Davidson County's most prominent Republicans are renouncing controversial decisions that helped trust analyst Roger Younts claim the seat to House District 80. They want the governor, who must still sign off on the decision, to take a thorough look at what some called a "flawed" process.
Younts, 30, of the Holly Grove area, was appointed Thursday to replace Dockham by a 3-2 vote by select members of the Davidson County Republican Party Executive Committee. Dockham has served in Raleigh since the early 1990s and was recently confirmed for a position with the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Younts, the Republican Party's treasurer, legally cast one of the three affirmative votes that helped him win the seat, an action some of his own party members and elected officials called unethical.
Party members became "outraged" when they learned Younts and two others also voted not to let eligible voter and North Carolina Republican Party Hall of Fame member Dwight Story participate in the process. Story, who is most known for hosting candidate forums at Piedmont Crossing in Thomasville, was not able to attend Thursday night's vote because he was on a trip in Wytheville, Va., but he was scheduled to vote via telephone.
Only the six members of the county's 15-member executive committee who live in House District 80 were permitted to vote, pursuant to state election law.
David Rickard, Davidson County's register of deeds and a former Republican Party chairman, said the procedure was not handled property by the NCGOP, which sent two members to Lexington to oversee the voting process.
"They came here under the pretense of making sure everyone got heard, and I'm certain that did not happen," Rickard said.
Younts, along with party members Michael Byrd and Gary Craver, voted not to allow Story to vote over the phone. Byrd and Craver also cast the other affirmative votes that helped appoint Younts.
Party members Kenny Meredith and Alan Truluck were on the other end of the votes, casting ballots to let Story vote via telephone and appoint veteran Davidson County Commissioner Sam Watford to the House position.
Davidson County Republican Party Chairman Lance Barrett said NCGOP Political Director Kim Canady told him prior to the meeting that she had polled the eligible voters, who were agreeable with the idea of letting Story vote via telephone. In addition, Barrett and Meredith said they both spoke with Younts the day before the meeting, and he said he was OK with Story voting over the phone.
On Friday, Younts said that wasn't the case, telling The Dispatch that he did speak to Barrett a day before the vote, but did not "indicate either way" whether he would be in favor of Story voting via telephone.
"I just don't understand how he can deny that he told both of us, as recently as Wednesday, that he was perfectly fine with Dwight voting by telephone," Barrett said.
Neither Byrd nor Craver could be reached for comment Friday.
The process disgruntled a majority of the dozens of Republicans in attendance at the voting process Thursday. Party members argued with NCGOP staff, some recommended a formal challenge, and nearly everyone voted for a resolution that stated the party did not condone the vote.
"It was very much a sad evening," said former Davidson County commissioner and party member Larry Allen. "I feel like we disenfranchised a voting member of the executive committee."
Story could not be reached for comment Friday.
If approved by the governor, Younts would serve the remainder of Dockham's term, which expires in 2014.
In addition to Younts and Watford, other candidates for the seat were Realtor and former House candidate Dick Johnson, educator and former House candidate Christy Jones, former Thomasville City Council candidate Carl Shatley and high school teacher Tony Taylor.
Self-vote not first in party's history
Younts had indicated all along that he intended to vote for himself, saying there were no general statutes or guidelines in the NCGOP's Plan of Organization that prevented him from doing so.
"As I was duly elected as treasurer, I have the right to participate in party business, and part of the party business (Thursday) night was to replace Jerry Dockham," Younts said Friday.
Younts noted two past occurrences he knew of when party members voted for themselves in similar situations, including Dockham himself.
In May 1990, a then-40-year-old Dockham was one of four Republican Party executive committee members who unanimously voted for him to fill the unexpired House term of former Rep. Charles Cromer. Like Younts, Dockham, who was at that time the chairman of the Republican Party, told The Dispatch prior to the vote that he intended to vote for himself because it was his right.
"Nobody across the state views this as a problem," Younts said.
Fred McClure, a Republican and chairman of the Davidson County Board of Commissioners, said there are certain things that are legal but not ethical.
"It's not for me to decide what Mr. Younts should do or shouldn't do, but to me it's not ethical in that situation to vote for yourself," McClure said. "When you're in a situation where your vote can obviously sway the whole situation, the ethical thing would be to recuse himself and let the thing play out."
Vote was almost postponed
Republican Party leaders tried to postpone the vote until later this month to ensure all voting members could be present, but the NCGOP overruled, according to emails.
Barrett sent an email to executive party members July 9, informing them that the meeting would be rescheduled to July 23.
"Due to only six people being eligible to vote, holding a vote as important as this with only five wouldn't be a fair thing to do," Barrett said in the email. "We need all six there for the vote."
However, a day later, Canady sent an email to the executive committee, saying the meeting would go on as scheduled.
She said under the NCGOP Plan of Organization, the state party is responsible for calling the meeting and had not authorized any cancellation.
"Although we had received a request to postpone the meeting due to the potential absence of one voting member, after consulting with all of the voting members of the committee, the state party has determined that the majority of the members of the committee do not desire a postponement of the meeting," Canady said in the email.
Canady also said that a motion would be allowed to let Story vote via telephone; however, it would require a majority vote to pass.
"Because a vote of the committee is required, we cannot guarantee in advance that any member of the committee who does not appear in person will be allowed to vote," Canady said in the email.
The NCGOP routinely handles administrative support in meetings where new state representatives are being selected, said Mike Rusher, the NCGOP's chief of staff. Rusher said staff are charged to follow N.C. General Statute 163-11 and the party's plan of organization.
"We are aware of the way in which the North Carolina House District 80 Republican executive committee handled its consideration of meeting rules and voting procedures, and offer assurance that the meeting was executed within the boundaries and allowances granted by state law and party rules," Rusher said in an email Friday.
Nash Dunn can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 227, or at email@example.com. Follow Nash on Twitter: @LexDispatchNash


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'Western New York sports fans will notice a serious conflict Dec. 17, when the Penguins pay a Saturday night visit. That game will start at 7:30 p.m., but one hour later the Buffalo Bills will play the Denver Broncos in Orchard Park. The Sabres tried to correct the glaring problem but were unable because they also play the Penguins the night before in Pittsburgh. The NHL won't allow an afternoon game to be scheduled the day after a night game.'
You are here: Home / SabresBeat / Rivalries kicked up a notch for Sabres


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text:
Barbara M. (Taylor) Pritchard
M. (Taylor)
Pritchard, 86, of Jamestown, passed away peacefully at home on Aug. 20, 2012, surrounded by her loving family. She was the wife of the late Major John Pritchard.
Born in Central Falls, she was the daughter of the late John Taylor and Alice (Thompson) Champlin. Barbara was a 1945 graduate of Rogers High School.
She was an active member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church and served on the altar guild for 40 years. Barbara was a watercolor artist and an avid reader.
She leaves her beloved children, Dianne Pritchard, Daniel Pritchard and his wife Anne, David Pritchard and his partner Jillian, Deborah Pritchard Britton and her husband Bruce, and Dale Pritchard Rocha and her husband Jim; nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She was the sister of the late Walter Taylor, and stepsister of the late Kenneth Champlin.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 22, at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew's in Jamestown. Memorial contributions may be made in her name to St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 317, Jamestown, RI 02852.


text:
Legislation allows schools to take action without parental consent
Earlier this month Denise Marshall, Executive Director of COPAA/Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. sent me an email stating the following:
The U.S. Department of Education is about to issue final regulations substantially reducing parental consent requirements when the school district seeks to use public benefits or insurance (e.g., Medicaid) to pay for special education services. The regulations will be effective as of March 18. 2013.
The prior regulations required school districts to obtain parental consent to charge their insurance each time they wanted to charge the insurance, which was typically every time an eval, re-eval or IEP were written or presented. Under the new regulations, the school district only has to ask the first time but after that is free to charge families' insurance as they deem necessary.
COPAA has vehemently expressed their opposition to this new regulation because the new regulation weakens and reduces the rights of parents and their children. For example, children in foster care would be denied outside psychological evaluations intended to be used for purposes of reunifying the child with their natural family, all because the school district has "tapped" the family's insurance already. Another example is that by allowing the school district access to the child's insurance anytime they deemed appropriate, which the new regulations do, families will lose the ability to supplement the services their child may receive in school. So, in other words, families would not be able to get in home counselor, therapists, or outpatient therapy for themselves or their children because insurance policy limits would have already been reached by the school district dipping into the funds anytime they pleased.
Read the full story at:


text:
Kevin Feige: "No Iron Man 3 pressure"
'Iron Man 3' has ''no pressure'' to be bigger than 'The Avengers'.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has insisted that the forthcoming action flick - which sees Robert Downey Jr. reprise his role as the metal-clad crime fighter - isn't expected to be bigger or more action-packed than last year's superhero team-up movie and will instead focus on developing the Tony Stark character.
He told Total Film magazine: ''Coming off 'The Avengers', there was no pressure to make it bigger. What's going to be bigger than 'Avengers' - are you going to crack the planet in half? The destruction of Tony's house [at the hands of new rival The Mandarin] and all the sequences that follow relate to the character's journey.''
The new movie will follow the aftermath of last year's blockbuster - which saw Iron Man, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) unite to save the planet - in which Downey's character had a close brush with death, leaving him a shell of his former self.
Feige said: ''The events of 'The Avengers' have very much had an impact on Tony and his psyche. This is the personal Tony Stark story. There's no S.H.I.E.L.D., no Nick Fury. This is about exploring who Tony Stark is.''
Downey added: ''The tone of the movie is a little different than the other Marvel movies so far. It's no mystery that Tony has a little PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from what happened in New York [in 'The Avengers'] and he's struggling. He's messed up.''
'Iron Man 3' is out on April 26.


text:
February 01. 2014 1:09AM
Credible threats: A domestic violence dilemma
It was the outcome every woman who files for a domestic violence restraining order fears. The court denied the request, and the woman allegedly wound up a victim. What, if anything, can be done to make such a horrible outcome less likely?
If you are not familiar with the story, police say Stanislav Osherov, 22, of Newton, Mass., kidnapped and sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend last Monday. Only three days earlier, the woman had filled out a petition for a domestic violence restraining order. The judge denied the petition.
Extreme cases make bad law, as the old legal saying goes, so before legislators leap to rewrite our laws based on this one terrible case, it is worth considering the facts.
Domestic violence restraining orders are granted based on alleged abuse. Abuse is defined as one of seven different acts, from assault and criminal threatening to harassment. In this case, the woman alleged that Osherov had called her hundreds of times over a few days, sent her numerous email and Facebook messages, and came unwanted to her home.
It would appear that this behavior would count as harassment. Under state law, one of the legal definitions of harassment is that a person "makes a telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with no legitimate communicative purpose or without disclosing his or her identity and with a purpose to annoy, abuse, threaten, or alarm another."
The law allows for a protective order if the petitioner shows "an immediate and present danger of abuse."
In this case, the judge decided that the petitioner had not shown that immediate and present danger. Court personnel offered the woman a stalking petition to fill out, but she declined.
The New Hampshire Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence has long advocated that New Hampshire add emotional abuse to the list of abuses that would trigger a domestic violence restraining order. Legislators should look into that. But we should not kid ourselves that there is an easy legal solution for those difficult cases in which someone is in real danger but cannot prove an immediate threat.
We would like to see more police involvement in cases like these. If someone is afraid enough to come to the court for protection, the police should check in with that person the next day even if no order was granted. A phone call or a stop by the house could yield more evidence or deter a would-be abuser. In the meantime, legislators need to take a serious look at how the petition process can be made easier to understand. We can improve this process without weakening the standards to the point that restraining orders can be issued when there is no credible threat.


text:
Puppy Linux Discussion Forum
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Joined: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 231
Location: sitn on an iceburg waiting for my next meal to swim by.
Posted: Sat 01 Mar 2008, 06:03
Post subject:
High power wifi cards
Subject description: Anyone have a preference on currently available models?
I am trying to find out which desktop wifi cards (Puppy compatible )currently available in US local retail stores have the best range. I have been looking through the forum and found some older info on transmit power and range.
A friend of mine would like to set up an old desktop as a second computer to work with their network. The last time I did any research into wifi cards was back when 802.11 G was just coming out. At the time I was interested in a B card with high power and good range.
We are leaning toward 2.14r 1.01 or 3.01 on the machine. To make it easier for them, it would be nice if they could just go down and pick up one from a local retail store like Walmart, Best Buy, or Staples. WEP would be nice but range is more important.
Any one care to share what they are using and comment on any comparisons they have done on different cards?
I'm sure I could spend 3 or 4 more hours reinventing the wheel by reading up on the current chipsets and then going one by one and seeing if anyone has gotten them to work in Puppy and then finally seeing if they are available from local stores.
I don't like going to stores and reading advertising hype. I prefer actual user feedback. Also on the new chipsets, has anyone played with changing the tx power output? Or is that software adjustment still available on newer chipsets?
tnx, martin
Penguin, the OTHER white meat.
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Joined: 04 Apr 2007
Posts: 6815
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK
Posted: Sat 01 Mar 2008, 08:28
Post subject:
Hi, mbutts
I'm not using wifi at the moment, but last year I was living in
a place where my only connectivity was via wifi AP
& there were several others in the locale which caused problems,
so I made a simple reflector with tinfoil around my aerial
I found that signal strength/direction was more important than o/p
as I tried several different cards
I have found some links you may find useful, using different approaches:-
The last one is a Uk based wifi aerial specialist, who have yagi setups for building to building/ or other/ long range use,
however their 15db twigs are very good
I'm sure there are US eqivalents, or their postage is w/w
An ordinary wifi card will do 1Km or more, with a good aerial!
How far do you need?
PS don't forget you only need to reach an AP & it's probably your Router aerial you need to increase gain on
After doing mine I got over 35 APs in range and massive gain on my required AP with a [directional] reflector
2nd Eric's support for both Asus & Belkin [F5D7000] PCI cards
note eric's was pcmcia
I think, but stand to be corrected, that both used RT2500 chipset
avoid usb wifi, unless specifically supported for puppy
Last edited by Aitch on Sat 01 Mar 2008, 13:34; edited 3 times in total
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Joined: 04 Sep 2007
Posts: 1569
Location: Canada
Posted: Sat 01 Mar 2008, 09:44
Post subject:
Hi mbutts,
I've used the D-Link DWL-G520 pci card for awhile now and find it very good. Signal went through 2 floors no problem.
I also used an Asus Wifi-G-AAY pci for a time. The Asus has an antennae that is on a 1 foot cable. This makes it nice if you have interference as you can move the antennae around a bit...sometimes a small move gives big results.
For pcmcia cards the Belkin F5D7010 and the DLINK-WNA-1330NA works good for me.
In my experience anything that says Broadcom run away into the night screaming and leave it on the shelf.
Be not afraid to grow slowly, only be afraid of standing still.
Chinese Proverb
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 427
Location: Australia
Posted: Sat 01 Mar 2008, 16:51
Post subject:
A couple of thoughts -
USB devices have a BIG advantage over PCI cards, the USB thingy can be placed where the best connection is obtained. The antenna on a PCI card is either attached directly to the card which is almost never an ideal location or has a short coax cable. At the frequencies these things operate on (2.4Ghz) ANY coax introduces losses.
High quality long (3 - 4 metre) USB cables have no affect.
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Joined: 04 Apr 2007
Posts: 6815
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK
Posted: Sat 01 Mar 2008, 17:55
Post subject:
Yes agreed, but I tried about 4/5 different import USB thingies
& not one would work with puppy including a linksys,
which I had expected to work
I think I did manage eventually to get one working,
but encryption was limited to wpa or not at all
However like you said long usb cables don't lose gain
I've recently seen an aerial booster using a satellite aerial reflector
& a usb thingy, with an extension lead made with 2 usb to network
converters to about 20mtrs length!!
Note: it's not this story, but one similar, but I can't find it again
This one uses 'proper hi-grade coax'
This article goes further & shows why good aerials improve security
there's more to wifi than most people are aware of,
especially to do with power/aerials/security
People are amazed when I say that wifi can travel many
hundreds of miles on a 'standard card'
Far enough?
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How To Paint Plastic Laminate Kitchen Cabinets Kathleen's February Jumpstart Project 2009
Project: How to Paint Plastic Laminate Kitchen Cabinets for Under $100
Name: Kathleen
Time: 4 days- two nights after work and an entire weekend
Cost: $89.33
Kathleen is another renter stuck with a great apartment but so-so kitchen. She took a tiny budget and her restrictions in stride, however, and she painted her old laminate cabinets to give them a fresher look. For her very detailed how-to, read on!
Painter's Tape
Spackle & Putty Knife
Hammer, Nails, Drill, Screwdriver Sponge, Dishsoap Super Glue
120 Sandpaper, 1 sheet
Sherwin Williams PrepRite Bonding Primer
Sherwin Williams ProClassic Acrylic Latex Paint, Semigloss, Color 7006 Extra White
Glidden Evermore Semigloss Paint, Color Niagara Mist
Synthetic Bristle Paint Brushes (2 new, 2 owned)
Ceramic Tile Samples
Metal Tackboards
Mirrored Glass Sample = newly purchased
It took about 9 months of being on a waiting list to finally get an apartment in this building, and though I fell in love with my studio apartment right away, the 1970s fake wood grain laminate cabinets were pretty rough, except for the amazing boomerang-shaped hardware. To make matters worse, the cabinets were delaminating in some spots. The cabinets should've been replaced long ago, but I know the building isn't willing to do that at this point. I tried to fix up the room with a turquoise accent wall, red drapes, and black and white damask carpet tiles from Interface, but it wasn't enough. The brown, fake wood mess had to stop.
The first step in my project was to research what type of primer and paint to use on laminate. I read online about a few products, but ended up contacting a sales rep at Sherwin Williams for his recommendation. He told me to use SW PrepRite Bonding Primer Adhesion Promoting Primer for the 1st coat, and SW ProClassic Waterborne Acrylic B31 Series for the 2nd and 3rd coats.
I also had a very small budget - less than $100 - so I looked at what I already owned and thought about ways to still get the updated look I wanted without overspending.
Actual work on the cabinets began with removing the hardware, then nailing the laminate back to the substrate in areas where the two were separating. I found it was easier to drill small holes into the laminate and then hammer in nails rather than trying to nail through the laminate ( I bent a few nails before figuring that one out). I also spackled cracks.
Next, I scrubbed the surfaces, then sanded them with 120 grade sand paper, and wiped them clean again after sanding. I didn't take the doors off the cabinet bases because the cabinets don't have typical hinges, so I was able to paint over them, and I also don't have any other space to use for painting due to other projects in flux.
Sanding indoors wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I didn't need a mask or eye protection but recommend them.
After taping, I began priming the cabinets and vinyl base using a brush. The primer and paint can both be applied with a synthetic roller, which in retrospect I would've done, but I was trying to cut back on purchases and the brushes were less expensive and reuseable. I let the primer dry overnight to make sure there wouldn't be any issue with the next coat. Over the course of the next day I applied two coats of the paint, and touch ups the day after.
For the backsplash I at first wanted to use magnetic primer with chalkboard paint over it, but "value engineered" that idea down to using the leftover turquoise paint from the kitchen accent wall, and metal tackboards that I purchased a few years ago and am not currently using. The backsplashes are also laminate, so I used the same primer and then applied the turquoise semi-gloss. (If I had decided to go with the magnetic or chalkboard paint, I still would've had to use the SW primer, the Rustoleum paints can't be applied to laminate. I called Rustoleum to verify that while I was still deciding whether to use it.)
I hung two of the tackboards over the stovetop and used some leftover tile samples (1x1 ceramic tiles in white, black, red, lime green, and aqua) to make magnets- the tackboards came with plain magnets, which I glued to the back of the tiles. The backsplashes were finished with linens and a serving tray from Anthropologie and a leftover mirrored glass sample, all of which I already owned.
Putting the hardware back on the cabinets was the finishing touch - I absolutely love the new look!
There are definitely ways to upgrade this type of project for people who don't have such a restrictive budget (rollers and nicer brushes, orbital sander, better tape), and I want to emphasize that if this was an apartment that I owned versus a rental I would've replaced the cabinets altogether since they are literally falling apart, but for someone else in my situation - a tight budget and a space that needs improvement without investment - this is a good example of the difference paint makes.
If the room had more light I might've gone with a gray or black for the cabinets, but with a single overhead light and some indirect sunlight from the window, it would've looked like a cave. It will also be easy for the building to repaint when I move out since the white semigloss is the same shade as the paint they use for the kitchen walls.
As a LEED AP, I was happy to see that the SW ProClassic Paint is LEED compliant. This was also my first time actually visiting a Sherwin Williams retail location, and the store was much nicer than I expected. It was really well lit and inviting, and the employees were great.


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LTR-40125S P-CAV Recorder - Page 1
As many other manufacturers, LiteOn used Zone-CLV to reach 40x recording speed.
Yamaha has been the only manufacturer that used P-CAV as the main recording
strategy in all models above 12x. LiteOn with a newer firmware upgrade, "changed"
from Z-CLV to P-CAV among with the adoption of Mt. Rainier format. In our first
review of LiteOn LTR-40125S, we had noticed two negative points concerning the
recording speed and the lack of Mt. Rainier. We examine how the new firmware
performs in those two categories and of course the whether the results are competitive.
Using the Nero Info Tool software, we can see the drive's properties. What
has now changed in the new firmware revision (ZS0D) are:
- The buffer size (1984KB instead of 2MB as reported with previous firmware
- Mt. Rainier support
Nero 18.104.22.168 also reports the drive's new features. Mount Rainier is now supported:
LiteOn's 40x writing speed
LiteOn LTR-40125S with the new firmware, supports the P-CAV 40x writing speed.
Below is the Nero CD Speed writing graph, which illustrates the use of P-CAV
writing technology:
The drive starts writing at 18.97X and gradually reaches 40x (CLV) speed,
at the 68 minutes, and continues until the end in that speed. The average writing
speed is now 31.53X, instead of 30.49X with the ZS08 firmware.
The above graph shows the writing speeds of LiteOn LTR-40125S with ZS08 (Z-CLV),
with ZS0D (P-CAV) and are compared with the faster 40x recorder from TEAC CD-W540E.
Despite the fact that TEAC CD-W540E reaches 40x speed at around 50 minutes,
the LiteOn LTR-40125S with P-CAV writing technology is faster.
The above table gives the average writing speed of various 40x recorders.
The LiteOn LTR-4125S with the use of P-CAV is faster without any doubt.
The LiteOn drive continues to keep its rotation speeds high enough, above
9000rpm. The drive is noisy but the operation is smoother due to the lack of
increased rotation speed shifts (as happens with Z-CLV recorders).


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SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Getting ready to enter its conference tournament as the No. 3 seed, Santa Clara men's water polo (16-16; 7-5 WWPA) had four players honored by the Western Water Polo Association. The Broncos will play in the WWPA Championships from Nov. 17 through Nov. 20. Santa Clara's first game will be at 3 p.m. on Fri., Nov. 18 against the winner of Thursday's game between seventh-seeded Claremont and 10th-seeded Whittier.
Senior driver James Case was named First-Team All-WWPA for a season in which he was second on the Bronco team with 38 goals and 36 assists. He also had 25 steals and drew 27 kick outs.
Named to the Second-Team All-WWPA, senior goalkeeper Michael Wishart set the Santa Clara all-time record for career blocks and recorded 289 for the season. He added 21 assists and 17 steals while starting all 31 games.
Senior driver Daley Meistrell received honorable mention from the WWPA for scoring 17 goals and adding 43 assists. His three assists against UC Davis on Oct. 9 put him alone atop the Santa Clara all-time assists list. Meistrell also had 32 steals and 21 kick outs drawn.
Mark Davis was honored by being a part of the WWPA All-Freshman Team. In his rookie season he scored 15 goals with 12 assists and 16 steals. He also drew eight kick outs.


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A Helena-West Helena City Council member has a date in District Court Friday morning to answer charges ranging from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest and attempting to influence a public servant.
A Helena-West Helena City Council member has a date in District Court Friday morning to answer charges ranging from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest and attempting to influence a public servant. Seven weeks following the arrest of Christopher Franklin, The Helena World received the official police report dated Dec. 17, 2012. According to the narrative written by Cpl. William Bender, Franklin appeared at the West Helena Police Station during the booking process of Franklin's brother. Franklin was reportedly there to see about bonding his brother out. Bender reported that he asked Franklin to leave the booking room until the officer had completed the processing procedure. Franklin reportedly refused to leave the area. Bender's narrative states that he asked Franklin if he was refusing to comply with a direct order of a police officer. Frankly allegedly responded saying, "I am not doing anything you say until you let my brother go. I don't have to leave because I am a city councilman." At this point, Bender states that he attempted to handcuff Franklin and place him under arrest. According to Bender, Franklin pulled away from the officer and began screaming that Bender had "no business" touching him. Bender reported that he told Franklin a second time that he would be arrested if he did not leave the booking area. Bender's narrative states that Franklin continued to scream saying he "didn't have to do anything anybody told him." Bender stated that he tried to handcuff Franklin a second time but resisted his attempts. At this time, Assistant Police Chief Ronald Scott, Lt. Dennis Cox and Lt. Travis Wallace entered the booking room and reportedly escorted Franklin out. The report goes on to state that on Dec. 17 Bender issued Franklin a citation for the incident at his place of work. According to Bender, Franklin refused to sign the document. "When I told Mr. Franklin that he had a court date of January 11 at 9 a.m., he told me that he would not see me there because he would have me fired before then proceeded to tear up the ticket and tossed it in a trash can," stated Bender in his report. Bender went onto say that he informed Franklin that he could be have been charged with failure to comply, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest but had only charged him with disorderly conduct for his behavior at the police station. Bender added that Franklin continued to "rant and rave" about what he was going to have done to the officer and that he was "going to have my job for what I had done." Bender noted that Lt. Wallace, Bender's immediate supervisor, observed the incident. Wallace told Bender to leave the premises and return to his duties, which he reportedly did. After reviewing the tapes and reading statements of individuals who witnessed the altercation at the police station, Police Chief Uless Wallace instructed Bender to place additional charges on Franklin for attempting to influence a public servant, unreasonable and excessive behavior, resisting arrest and threatening violence. These citations were issued to Franklin at his place of employment on Jan. 10. A court date of Jan. 25 was set but was re-scheduled for Feb. 1 due to incomplete paperwork. All the charges are misdemeanors. According to District Court records, Franklin is facing additional allegations from two other city officials. An affidavit for warrant of arrest has Helena-West Helena City Council member Vivian Holder accusing Franklin of second degree terroristic threatening. The incident stems from a heated disagreement between Holder and Franklin during the January 22 city council session. Holder reportedly overheard Franklin tell another council member that he was going to "get her (Holder)." Police officers escorted Holder from the meeting. A second affidavit for arrest claims that Franklin allegedly told Sanitation Department Manager Bobby Jones following an October council meeting that he intended to fire him because he supported Mayor Arnell Willis. Jones claims that Franklin repeated the threat to his Jones' ex-wife on January 12. Franklin declined to comment on any of the allegations.


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New pavilion should be built at Ft. Getty
The Lt. Col. John C. Rembijas memorial pavilion at Ft. Getty suffered mightily from this winter's wrath. While I would agree that the pavilion was not one of Jamestown's architectural prizes, it has a great history and served a wonderful purpose that must continue.
In the mid-1970s, John Rembijas, the town's building official and also the head of the Jamestown's Democratic Town Committee, and Tony Viera, the head of the Republican Town Committee and future Town Council president, decided that Jamestown needed a place for its townsfolk to gather, hold clambakes, parties and other kinds of community celebrations.
So with a few of those inimitable steak fries and other fundraisers, they raised the money to begin building the pavilion. Like the library playground in the early 1990s, it was a community fundraising and construction effort. Rembijas died before the pavilion was finished and it was named for him.
Its demise gives us another opportunity to re-create a place for those events that bring friends and families together: a new pavilion, built to current building standards, accessible, sustainable and more beautiful than the original.
I hope our Town Council will have the foresight to call for a design competition for a new pavilion. The competition could be structured so that participants provide more than one solution.
Responses could include structures that provide better amenities, such as bathrooms, a kitchen, or some form of enclosure.
A competition among Jamestown architects, engineers, designers and builders alone would reap great results.
The community spirit that built the first pavilion is alive and well in Jamestown. The spirit of cooperation shown by Rembijas and Viera still thrives. And to honor it, we should name the new pavilion after both of them.
Mary Meagher


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The Performance Project began in the Hampshire County jail, inspiring inmates to create original theater and motivating them to change their lives. Now the group, led by activist artist Julie Lichtenberg, is creating multilingual performances with young people from a diversity of ethnic backgrounds and family histories. Some are children of immigrants—from Haiti, Nepal and Burundi—and all identify in some way as "first generation," breaking down old barriers and stigmas. On Saturday, the First Generation ensemble previews its latest work as part of a gala concert featuring a who's who of the area's world music luminaries, including Charles Neville, Evelyn Harris, Jo Sallins, Avery Sharpe, Tony Vacca and Senegalese kora master Youssoupha Sidibe.
April 20, 7 p.m., Academy of Music, 274 Main St., Northampton, $15, $50 for preferred seating and meet-the-artists reception. (413) 584-9032, http://www.academyofmusictheatre.com.


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"It's hard convincing yourself that where you are at the moment is your home, and it's not always where your heart is. Sometimes I win and sometimes not." -- Jonathan Carroll
14 February 2012
I knew a girl who was blue. So she painted her world pink. xoxo
Sunshine (yay!), pizza, 5 euro coffees (!!!), cherry tarts, yoga, dreaming, laughing ... a perfect day. Wishing you a bea...
And kid, you've got to love yourself. You've got wake up at four in the morning, brew black coffee, and stare at the birds drowning in the d...


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Chocolate Walnut Squares
- Prep: 30 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total: 50 min
- Serving: 20
Rich and satisfying, these bars create a symphony of flavors with every bite. The nutty crust, exquisite chocolate layer and the creamy frosting make this dessert one of my personal favorites. It's fun to take these treats to a potluck. --Anne Heinonen, Howell, Michigan
- 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract*
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chopped walnuts
- 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well. Fold in walnuts. Spread half of batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Add chocolate to the remaining batter; mix well. Carefully spread over batter in pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done. Cook completely. For frosting, mix flour and milk in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until a thick paste forms, about 10 minutes. Cool completely. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the milk mixture; beat for 5 minutes. Frost cake. Store in the refrigerator.
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Google dominates the search market. Not only do 60+ percent of web searches happen on Google, but it's so dominant in people's minds that "to google" has entered the lexicon as shorthand for "search the internet." As the recent Facebook Login brouhaha demonstrates, for a large number of people, Google is the internet; it's where you go to see the web sites. I think I can safely say that more than a few people literally think that the internet is stored inside Google somewhere. But it's not. It's that kind of thinking that makes people think that Google has a monopoly.
Microsoft has a near-monopoly. In most of the world, the chances of running across a PC running anything but Microsoft Windows in a shop is nil. Many software programs only run on Windows. Even some web sites require Windows (though thankfully, this is mostly a thing of the past). Microsoft used its market dominance to prevent PC makers from offering alternative operating systems, and used its desktop OS dominance to discourage users from, for example, using a non-Microsoft web browser, then used its browser dominance to thwart web standards, thus locking in its browser dominance. Thus, Microsoft is a monopoly, which in itself is neither illegal nor immoral, and has also stood accused of leveraging that monopoly for anti-competitive purposes, which to many people is both illegal and immoral. Due in large part to government intervention (or the mere threat of it), Microsoft's monopoly is on the wane, as is its abuse of said monopoly.
Google, due to its power in the market, has taken to throwing its weight around in order to enter new market segments. It has offered services for free that other companies charged money for, putting them out of business. It periodically changes its algorithms and page design, which benefits some web sites and harms others, to the degree that they depend on Google searches for traffic. It recently, launched its Buzz product which took advantage of the private data it possesses and potentially violated its users' privacy. Any way you look at it, it's violated its own "don't be evil" policy on numerous occasions. But it hasn't been a monopoly. Why? Because with an open internet, it's extremely difficult (maybe impossible) for any web site to be a monopoly.
Telecom and cable TV companies, electric utilities, transportation networks: all of these things are frequently monopolies, and they're usually regulated by (or run by) the government because of this. For many people, if they don't like their cable company or their local transit authority, they are stuck. If they're lucky, they can find an acceptable alternative, such as satellite TV or riding a bicycle, but sometimes they can't. If you want to search the internet but don't want to use Google, then use one of the dozen other search engines. Nothing is preventing you. Let's imagine a world where Google's dominance of search gives it such an R&D advantage that it works 50 times better than the next best search engine. Does it have a monopoly then? Still no. You could say it has a de-facto monopoly, but it still wouldn't have a monopoly in a legal sense, because there would be no artificial barriers to someone making a better search engine and you using it. Now let's imagine that Google was owned by Comcast, and there was no net neutrality, and Comcast blocked access to any other search engine besides Google. That would be a monopoly, al least for those users who had Comcast internet service, particularly those users who had no alternative choice for broadband. But even in a hypothetical situation wherein users received internet service from a Google-managed municipal network (certainly not a far-fetched scenario), as long as those users were free to access any web site without interference, there would still be no monopoly.
No matter how much better Google's search is, or how much more popular it is, those facts alone will never make it a monopoly. If I were to invent a new flavor of ice cream that was so good it made all other ice cream taste like dog crap, and people stopped buying all the other kinds of ice cream, I still wouldn't have a monopoly on ice cream. I would just be a very rich guy with an awesome secret ice cream recipe. I would only have a monopoly on ice cream if I abused my market position to artificially make other kinds of ice cream unavailable. Let's say I told retailers that in order to sell my ice cream, they'd have to not sell my competitors' ice cream, or I somehow made it impossible for other ice cream makers to buy cream or sugar because I strong-armed suppliers, or lobbied the government to make other kinds of ice cream illegal. China could easily create a situation wherein one search engine had a monopoly in that country. Alas, it won't be Google.
Other than total governmental control over the network, the only way that Google, or any web site, could ever have a monopoly, would be under one of those network neutrality horror scenarios, wherein a major last-mile provider of internet service were in cahoots with Google to prevent people from using alternative web sites, or if Google were to work with OS vendors (or use its own OS) to make it difficult to use another search engine. Both of these scenarios would only be possibly by piggy-backing on an already-existing network or OS monopoly, though.
Google doesn't have 60+% marketshare because people are forced to use Google any more than McDonald's is the worlds most popular restaurant chain because people are forced to eat at McDonald's. And in fact, McDonald's is much closer to being a monopolist, at least in a regional sense, since I've been to various places where the only place to eat at that particular time was a McDonald's. Under no circumstances have I ever been online and not been able to access an alternative web browser.
Social networking is a slightly different story, because there's a network effect, which can give a de-facto vendor lock-in to a popular site. If most people are on Facebook, you can't just switch to another social network and get the same value from it. A startup social network is virtually useless until is has a rather large critical mass of users. Google wishes it had this kind of market advantage, but so far its attempts to gain this kind of lock-in have been quite unsuccessful, from its early social network Orkut to the incomprehensible Wave, to its latest project, Buzz. Most of the Google services, from Gmail, to GTalk, to Google Voice are all interoperable with estabished standards and are intended to communicate with non-Google users. I'd say that Facebook is way closer to holding a monopoly on social networking than Google is on search. Of course, you can certainly make the case that searching the internet is a much more important activity than social networking, and therefore it's more urgent to guard against a search monopoly. I think that would be a reasonable assertion.
So should the European anti-trust authorities be investigating Google? I don't think there's much harm in it. Though I lean strongly libertarian on many issues, I think that one of the essential roles of government is as a watchdog on the most powerful companies, which have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to run roughshod over citizens (if given the chance) to make a few extra bucks. Once a company gets to be a certain size,t he only bulwark against the worst abuses is going to be a government, which maintains its dominance by holding a monopoly on all sorts of powers, such as the use of force. So even if it's technically impossible for Google to have a search Monopoly, it's probably not a bad thing for it to get a little warning about throwing its power around too indiscriminately. But, if these authorities end up branding Google a monopolist, then I'll be the first one to stand up and cry foul.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.


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Yes, the country is in a foul mood, with 15 million unemployed. The Democrats may get clobbered in 2010. And even if we survive, how do we hang on for the long term? If our great founder, FDR, could come back to us, he might remind us of the three simple rules that once, long ago, Democrats used to follow:
1. Do something for your base.
2. Do something for your base.
3. Do something for your base.
Seriously: why can't we do something for our base? It's been almost a half-century since we Democrats did something for our base, when Lyndon Johnson pushed through Medicare, i.e., "socialized medicine" for seniors. And while some may compare the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to Medicare, there's a big difference. To the public, the new law seems to benefit only the uninsured: the young or the marginal, few of whom will even vote in 2010 (maybe just a third of the electorate will). So while the new law is a big help to them, it does nothing for the rest of our base, especially our smaller core base that will vote in the midterms. Indeed, it seems to penalize our base, or at least raise their taxes, at a time when they have lost a big chunk of their 401(k) pensions, or their jobs, or even their homes—and if they're lucky and still have a job, they may be working just three instead of five days a week. These are the very people who voted us in. "Yes, we can!" And they watched, dumbfounded, as Congress virtually forgot their plight in our struggle to raise their taxes to give benefits to a lot of red-state uninsured who may never say thank you, and whose twenty or so red states are now trying to overturn the law.
Of course I'm in favor, wildly in favor, of this civilized and humane step toward healthcare for all. But after forty-five years of doing nothing for the people who register as Democrats, we might have kicked off 2010 by doing something for our base.
Yes, of course a fraction of our base, the uninsured, will benefit. But we could have started by doing something really big to reward or empower everyone in our base. Indeed, it's a puzzle that someone with Obama's acumen would not have done more to keep intact all these old-time Democrats and others who lifted him up to the White House in the last weeks of the election after Wall Street collapsed.
By the way, FDR would be the first to tell us it's not enough to do something for our base. Here are three other little rules we should follow when we do something for our base:
1. Keep it simple. The healthcare bill not only did nothing for our base; it was hard to understand. Every initiative should be capable of being put down in a single sentence or two. "Financial reform" is fine, but the Dodd-Frank Act is too hard to sum up coherently to our base on even an index card, much less a bumper sticker.