text:
Allegedly Botched Fraud Inquiry Blamed for Alabama Regulator's Resignation
Larry Morgan, administrator of the Alabama Credit Union Administration, resigned from his post Monday, according to the League of Southeast Credit Unions.
The resignation came as the ACUA continues to investigate loan fraud at the $608 million Alabama One Credit Union.
A release from Alabama One said Morgan was manipulated by trial lawyers when he suspended four employees involved in the investigation.
Morgan could not immediately be reached for comment, and a message left at Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley's press office was not immediately returned, either.
Before resigning from the ACUA, Morgan lifted suspensions and all restrictions against four Alabama One employees who had been banned on Feb. 28, according to Paul Toppins, an attorney representing the credit union.
Alabama One issued a press release on Tuesday, stating, "In an ongoing investigation, Alabama One Credit Union has learned that a group of trial lawyers and others had been attempting to manipulate the Alabama Credit Union Administration and its administrator, Larry Morgan, to take action against the credit union based on false and self-serving allegations and claims that the lawyers had made in a series of coordinated lawsuits filed against the credit union. As a result of the lawyers' actions, several employees were suspended based on false and misleading information. After reinstating the credit union employees on Friday, the administrator abruptly resigned Monday afternoon."
Alabama One is facing civil lawsuits filed by numerous members who allege the credit union and some of its employees concocted a straw loan scheme that defrauded members and benefited Tuscaloosa used car dealer Danny Ray Butler, according to court documents.
Butler was indicted last year on bank fraud charges, including a check-kiting scheme that caused Alabama One to lose about $1.275 million. He signed a plea agreement Feb. 27, stating he would cooperate with investigators, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On Friday, Morgan lifted all restrictions against Alabama One CEO John Dee Carruth, Business Lending Manager Tammy Ewing and Teller Celina Hood, allowing them to return to work, Toppins said. The agency previously allowed Chief Operating Officer Martie Patton to resume her duties, the ACUA said.
The suspensions against Carruth, Patton and Ewing were initially lifted March 13 after a Montgomery, Ala., judge required the ACUA to state a reason for the suspensions if they were to remain in place. However, Patton was the only employee who was allowed to return to work at that time.
While the three employees who had filed a civil suit against ACUA, Hood filed an appeal.
Alabama One stated Tuesday's press release that one of the lawyers who reportedly lobbied the ACUA to suspend the employees was Justice Jay Smyth of Tuscaloosa, who represents several Alabama One members. Smyth's client include businessman Jerry Griffin, who claims he was bilked into loaning money to Butler.
During a Feb. 27 deposition for one of the civil cases, Smyth allegedly said the credit union needed to settle the cases today by paying money to the plaintiffs, according to Alabama One.
Smyth reportedly told Alabama One officials that unless an immediate settlement was reached, state regulators would begin to take over the credit union Feb. 28 and "continue to cause very bad things to happen to the credit union," according to Alabama One's release.
In an interview Tuesday with CU Times, Smyth denied the credit union's statement.
"It is absolutely untrue that we ever told any representative of Alabama One that regulators were going to 'take over the credit union,' although that seems to be an excellent idea in and of itself," Smyth said.
The attorney also denied Alabama One's claims he manipulated state regulators.
"If the folks at Alabama One had spent as much time investigating the 'Danny Butler problems' at the credit union, as they have in trying to assign fictitious blame to people other than themselves, they might have a better situation today than they do," Smyth said. "Larry Morgan and the ACUA attorneys asked us to share with them certain information we discovered through representing various clients, not the other way around."
The credit union denied the fraud allegations.
"Griffin's lawsuit against the credit union claims that Griffin went into business with Butler only as a result of the urging of the credit union," the press release said. "This claim is false. Griffin and Butler were long-time acquaintances and had done business with each other for many years."
The two men jointly owed $4 million to West Alabama Bank for construction of a grocery store in Fosters, Ala., but some of that was paid off with a $1.7 million loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to Alabama One.
"Because Griffin was a borrower on the West Alabama Bank loan, but not the SBA loan, getting the SBA loan funded reduced his liability to West Alabama Bank by $1.7 million. After it was funded, the SBA loan almost immediately went into default. West Alabama Bank foreclosed on the store and sold it to Jerry Griffin, providing the financing for Griffin's purchase at the foreclosure sale," the press release said.
As a result, Griffin ended up the sole owner of the grocery store, which he later sold for about $600,000 more than he owed to West Alabama Bank, according to Alabama One.
Alabama One contends that Griffin's financial troubles were the result of his efforts to start a new dry cleaning business in Tuscaloosa, Griffin's Cleaners, which is now in foreclosure, according to Alabama One.
In a written statement to CU Times, Smyth said Griffin and his other clients hope the investigation will proceed at a faster pace now that Morgan has stepped down.
"We believe the changes which are coming to Alabama One, this time, will be systemic, profound and permanent," he wrote.
Smyth also said that his clients believe substantive action should have been taken in 2011 when the Butler-related issues first came to light.
"Unfortunately, many of the problems our clients are complaining about today would have been avoided if strong remedial action had been taken several years ago," Smyth told CU Times. Our clients certainly do not fault Governor Bentley for the unfortunate delay, but they do believe strong, positive, leadership will be required from the new ACUA director. They are confident that the governor will appoint a reputable and well-credentialed person to lead the ACUA and that this will lead to the kinds of changes which are needed at Alabama One."
Smyth said his clients are also concerned that Alabama One members were reportedly prevented from asking questions during Alabama One's annual meeting on March 22, which was overseen by Carruth.
"Following a motion made by a member of one of the law firms representing Alabama One, the traditional Q&A segment was removed from the agenda without advance notice to the members," Smyth wrote.
In a written statement provided to CU Times, Alabama One member Jerry Logan said, "As a former board member, I am absolutely shocked that our members would be treated in this way. Issues dealing with mismanagement, inadequate director oversight and certainly possible criminal fraud are things that the members have every right to inquire into. They should be told the truth, not told to go home. This is the United States, not Russia."
Morgan assumed the state regulator post in 2011 after retiring as CEO of the $2.2 billion APCO Employees Credit Union in Birmingham. He was also chairman of the board for the $3.7 billion Corporate America Credit Union.
Morgan is no stranger to controversy. In 2012, he denied accusations that a conflict of interest existed with him acting as regulator on issues between Corporate America and the NCUA.


text:
Good job too!
...One less of those eyesores on the roads.
German cops are investigating whether a 20-year-old may have been doing a tad over the 50 mph speed limit when he pranged his dad's £275k, 225 mph Gumpert Apollo. The driver failed to negotiate a bend near the town of Brokdorf, 50 miles north of Hamburg. He and his 19-year-old female passenger walked away from the crash with …
...One less of those eyesores on the roads.
One of those is on my lottery win list of purchases.
its looks more stylish after the crash... what a fugly car, but then again i suppose a mid life crisis car should be like that...
Fail, because buying one of those was a fail.
This story makes a pretty good argument for restricting idiot offspring to a Playstation & Gran Turismo.
at only 50 mph. 150 might be more like it.
Still, it's a testament to the quality of the engineering that the passenger compartment wasn't as mangled as the engine compartment, but I'll bet that once dad found out, our young fellow *wishes* he'd pranged it hard enough to kill himself.
The drivers door did flew off meaning protection in that area was nil
The difference between 30mph and 60mph may not seem much, but going from 60mph to 120mph is a huge difference, and at 150mph everything is happening really, really fast. Fast enough that it's scary (on a motorbike, anyway).
If he crashed at 150 on a public road it's almost inconceivable that the car wouldn't have rolled and been a lot more messed up than it is.
The grumpy old man in me says "throw the book at him". The younger man says "bad luck".
Tell you a secret from my own high school days about the kids whose parents are rich enough to let them drive around in cars too expensive for anyone in town ever to have heard of before?
There's never -- and I mean not *ever* -- just one car like that in the garage. Two is trying far too hard; three is still a bit parvenu; six or seven, plus an antique motorcycle or two, is just about right.
I'll just about guarantee you that a) the car was part of a collection, and b) the car was insured up to the eyelashes, especially if he was letting his 20-year-old drive around in it. In fact I'll even wager a fiver on c) it was the car the guy liked least, which is why he lent it to the *offspring* he liked least, in hope of seeing both problems solve themselves.
You're not wrong... I've accidentally (and honestly, it was accidentally) wound my bike up to those regions on a UK motorway. It was very early morning, the road was empty, and I was happily cruising along eating up the miles, I had originally settled at somewhere between 80 and 90mph.
The miles, time and scenery go by, and suddenly up in the distance I see a dot... Oh look, some actual traffic... Next thing I know I've shot past it!
Having the scenery blur as you pass it at 80mph is very much the same as how it blurs at 150mph... The blur from passing a car which you think is traveling roughly the same speed as you, and not 80mph *slower* is somewhat different!
I had to take the next exit and have a breather!
Anon for obvious, license preserving reasons!
Spaceframe construction. The doors (and pretty much all the bodywork panelling) are decorative when it come to crash protection. Usually designed to come away in one piece too, rather than breaking up and chucking bent bits into the passenger cell.
It's infinitely better in a crash than a stressed monocoque with extra bits (like bars in the doors). Put it this way, if yer really "safe" production car gets five Euro-NCAP stars this thing would get about eight or so[1]. Of course, to measure that we'd need a scale that actually covered what *can* be done in terms of crash safety and the mass production car industry lobbyists would never allow that to happen.
[1] Or should. I suspect that in the wacky world of the safety nazis it would get marked down for not having enough airbags or something equally as irrelevant in a properly built vehicle.
@Captain Scarlet the drivers door offers no real protection. It's the structure of the cabin that offers the protection. Noticed that big sill and low roof line? Clearly not.
"The difference between 30mph and 60mph may not seem much, but going from 60mph to 120mph is a huge difference"
That's right. The difference between 30 and 60 is 30 and the difference between 60 and 120 is twice that.
Well done.
You are assuming, of course, that the father knew about his son using the car, it's not unheard of for delinquent offspring - especially those who want to show off to 19 year old bints - to just take things.
Anonymous Coward 9.01 - "That's right. The difference between 30 and 60 is 30 and the difference between 60 and 120 is twice that.
Well done."
Thanks for pointing that out, anonymous coward, your anal-retentive personality has enlightened us all!
My point is that a doubling of speed does not equal a doubling of how scary it feels. But you knew that already, right?
Hugs and love...
I was doing a track day at Silverstone. Was doing ~120 mph and accelerating down Hanger Straight when pheasant decided to walk out on the track in front me me, far enough away that if we both carried on our present courses I was going to hit him, deadly to him, expensive to me. Just swerving to avoid could have resulted in a serious roll (and breaking would have me moving under less control in the same direction).
- the passenger safety cell did a good job there, very impressive
- the lad's managed to improve the looks of the car; the Apollo has all the style of a train-wreck when factory-fresh
"German cops are investigating whether a 20-year-old may have been doing a tad over the 50 mph speed limit when he pranged his dad's £275k"
Investigating what exactly.. The car is a total wreck, I would be investigating whether he was doing over 150mph
I'm sure the rozzers are well aware that he was exceeding the speed limit, but in order to prosecute they need a little thing called evidence. A prosecution won't stick unless they can get evidence of how fast he was going.
I can see why the rozzers aren't sure if he was exceeding the limit. It looks like a low speed prang to me.
..you don't have to prang a car hard to fuck it up completely. They are designed to fall apart around you these days, so you don't become one with the metal framework. 50mph into a sufficiently solid barrier will really ruin your day, and you'll be thankful for crumple zones when you wake up in hospital.
Witness the Audi TT that slid into the back of my 20 year old Landrover's Towhitch. I was stationary at a junction, he hit sheet ice, but probably wasn't doing more than 5-10mph when he tapped me.
Once I could actually see the back bumper, after I'd brushed off all the busted German Plastic, He'd cost me 10 minutes of my day.
He'd lost the bumper, headlight, and kinked his bonnet, so I suspect the cost was much more for him.
Yes, I have fond memories of a teen in a rice rocket pranging into my old Series III in wet conditions. Towball went right through his nose and punched clean through the radiator, then the bounce knocked it clear again. I think in total I lost about half a sq inch of paint on the bumper, but on the bright side he cleaned the rust off my towball. His car was ... not so lucky.
Poor guy was all like 'don't you want my insurance details' and was stunned when I simply asked 'why? you didn't hurt anything'.
Passive safety on those things was great, although I definitely wouldn't want to hit something solid at speed.
Someone think of the children!
Mine's the one with the rolled-up Daily Mail in the pocket.
Kids are quoted so much for car insurance.
I mean the father, for not being able to guess what would happen if he let a teenager drive such a car.
Perhaps boy was trying to impress girl and "borrowed" the car without Dad's say so.
... that the father even knew he was driving it.
Mine's the one with a copy of Ferris Bueller's Day Out in the pocket.
...the father knew anything about this before the cops arrived on the front doorstep.
...Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty.
Which one of these does not belong?
I had to laugh reading this one :) What a great film although winding back the odometer is just one of the many jobs the kid will need to do on the car :)
4 - 1 on an honourable mention on the next Top Gear...
Appropriately enough, Schadenfreude is a German word.
They say that "Schadenfreude ist die beste freude" in certain German speaking parts of the world.
Still need some new underwear though!
The tyre rubber on the road or the brown streak up the seat backs?
Certainly will need some new underwear. Army-issue armoured stuff, for when his dad kicks his arse big style.
...the skid marks in his and his gf's underwear must have been enormous.
Mine's the one with a matching pair of his & her's underwear in the pocket
"Certainly will need some new underwear. Army-issue armoured stuff, for when his dad kicks his arse big style."
Too bad he is unlikely to play cricket, he could then put his box to good use
Right up until the point where she had to phone her parents for a ride home.
The lad won't be allowed out of his room 'til he's 40.
I'd say it's more likely that Dear Old Dad will boot him out of the house the day the law says he is an adult... while Mumsey will make sure he's not out in the cold ...
Fail, because the kid is being set up to fail in life, no matter how much money he's got. He's too stupid to plan for the future.
or made it better?
after the crash...
Yes, that's all very nice but was the girl impressed?
Good -- Dad, you won't have to worry about that expensive maintenance and the insurance renewal.
Bad -- Did I tell you about the good news?
I'd be really interested to know just how much is the insurance on a £275K car for a 20-y-o.
Over €1M, perhaps?
He WAS insured. Wasn't he? Or was his father fronting...?
Does it come in anything other than orange?
Need to know if the door actually flew 100' down the road in which case a high speed crash would perhaps be likely, or did it actually fall off, someone nicked it and then dropped it after realising it's gonna look pretty stupid on their banged up Ford Fiesta?
...I bet the lad and his bollocks were separated by a similar distance when his dad found out!
...of any boy racer:
"Here, watch this!"

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Contrasts collide in local roller derby leagues
Whistles echoed off the walls and collided with the cheers of the fans who packed the House of Quad for some highly competitive roller derby action.
On the track, four teams would face off in two bouts — skating, blocking, scoring points for their respective teams. There were dozens of collisions and spills, flaring tempers, attaboys and verbal venom from skaters and fans alike as the refs made and missed penalty calls.
It was controlled chaos mixed with sports strategy rivaling baseball or basketball, and by the crowd reaction, they wouldn't have it any other way.
The Jan. 26 event was the first of many to come for the 2013 season of North Texas Derby Revolution, Denton's homegrown roller derby league.
video 123
Present at the event, but not skating for either team that night, was league member Darcy Littlefield, who is known on the track as "Dar2D2." She even has a tattoo of R2D2, the beloved Star Wars robot, on her left shoulder amongst her other ink. She has been with the league for two years now but has been a derby player for much longer.
"I'd been wanting to do something athletic and I hate running," she recalled with a laugh.
"I wanted to get in shape. I wanted to do something athletic, to feel busy, and I know I won't do that on my own. I've got P90X [workout] videos and I don't do it."
She said she was interested in hockey but, at the time, there was nothing around Denton to fill her athletic needs. Littlefield had been teaching elementary art for a few years, working at a bar, restaurants and school jobs, and had helped raise some kids.
"I don't have any of my own; I took care of family," she said.
Eventually, Littlefield auditioned for a roller derby league in Irving in 2005 after talking with a friend about it.
"I played my first game a month later and dislocated my shoulder," she said. "It was pretty fun."
Years of driving to Irving for practice wore on her. She was glad to discover the Denton league, which started in 2011, and made the switch.
One of the hooks for Littlefield for the league, and for derby in general, is the camaraderie, she said.
"I have often said about derby [that] I hang out with and meet people I would never have occasion to meet. You get really surprised when you find out what people do," she said. "It's also good networking. People have found help finding roommates, finding business. My best friends are the friends I have made in derby."
Another appeal for Littlefield is the action, the aggression, she said.
"I have never been in a fight, never pushed things around. There's an aggressiveness that feels good to get out," she said. "You can carry that out, not in a bully way, but in a sort of self-confidence [way]. Like a kung fu master might tell you to feel — don't use it, but just have it in here and know that you can if you need to whip it out."
Littlefield skates alongside 119 others in the North Texas Derby Revolution women's league. The junior league, with 30 skaters, is known at the Rolling Rebellion, and the men's league is the Denton County Outlaws, with 15 skaters.
The leagues' training facility, House of Quad, opened last summer on Mayhill Road.
Outlaw Johnny West had some preconceived thoughts to overcome when he got into the league.
"Originally I thought it was just a girly sport, but when I put on quads [skates] and got into it … it's become my everyday," said West, known on the track as "Lucky Charmer."
While he said roller derby is a strange beast that is not like most conventional sports, it is very much a professional business.
"We have captains, coaches, general managers and people who run the building — there's a hierarchy," he said. "When you don't make enough practices, you don't get to play a game.
"If you break a rule, you get whatever discipline is part of it. I don't think we have had anyone violently kicked out of the league. It's just not the right fit for some," he said. "Either they like it or they don't, and there is no harm in that."
Derby is not a cakewalk: Coaches push the skaters during each practice.
At the House of Quad, there is a 40-lap circuit to begin every practice, Littlefield said.
"It's a tough burn and you have to keep going. I love challenging myself to keep on it and stay right in the front, faster than everybody," she said. "I like to compete with myself on the track."
The drive to compete and the sense of community latch on to Littlefield, a seven-year vet, and other derby skaters who push through fatigue, injury and other hardships to hit the track for the sport they love.
"Every time I go to practice, it's late and I have been working all day, but I get out there on my skates and I feel good," Littlefield said. "When you are part of a team and you have someone depending on you and you come out, it always makes you feel better."
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
What: North Texas Derby Revolution's Fighting Unicorns vs. the Enid (Okla.) Roller Girls, and a bout featuring guest skaters
When: 5 p.m. Saturday. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Where: House of Quad, 222 S. Mayhill Road
Details: Tickets cost $12, available through www.etix.com. Free for children 12 and younger. Event is BYOB.
On the Web: www.ntderbyrevolution.com, www.facebook.com/HouseOfQuad


text:
Prospect Goodwin has lofty goals for future
Highly-regarded center fielder projected to join Nats outfield by 2015
By Bill Ladson / MLB.com
VIERA, Fla. -- Center fielder Brian Goodwin is a highly-touted prospect in the Nationals' organization and projected to be the team's leadoff hitter and center fielder by 2015. But he will be the first to tell you that he has a lot learn.
Goodwin, who is expected to start the season with Double-A Harrisburg, wants to be more aggressive on the bases and show that he is more than just a power hitter.
"At the plate, I want to play small ball -- bunting, bunting down the third-base line and first-base line," Goodwin said. "I'm going to be in Harrisburg, and I know that's where I'm going to be, that's where I'm going to play. I can't get [to the big leagues] if I don't perform in Harrisburg. I'm going to take my time, play and get better."
Goodwin, 22, was taken in the sandwich round -- 34th overall -- in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft and didn't play professional baseball until last year. And what a year it was while he was playing in Class A Hagerstown, hitting .324 with nine home runs and 38 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and a .438 on-base percentage in just 58 games.
But the numbers don't tell the whole story.
"He is kind of a leader on the field," said Mark Scialabba, the Nationals' director of Minor League operations. "He plays with high intensity, but makes things look easy. He has tremendous bat speed. His bat is really quick through the inner half of the zone. He is a guy who can make contact and he can hit for power."
Goodwin said he was successful with Hagerstown because he had a great supporting cast on the field and great coaches who taught him the right way to play baseball.
"I had good guys who taught me the game, how to play every day on a professional level -- whether it was lifting or hitting before games, just the game itself," he said. "[Being as it was my first year], I thought I had a good staff. ... They kind of helped me through it."
Goodwin was so good with Hagerstown that the Nationals decided to have him skip Class A Advanced Potomac and jump straight to Harrisburg.
"With his advance approach to the game, we felt that was the proper place for his development," Scialabba said. "He accomplished a lot of what we were looking for in Hagerstown. We felt that was the right move at the time."
But Goodwin was quickly humbled. After a slow start, Goodwin would finish the season hitting .223 with five home runs and 14 RBIs. The organization felt he was trying to do much on the field.
"I went up there and I was kind of shocked," Goodwin admitted. "It took me a while to feel I deserved to be there. I feel things will be definitely better."
As a kid growing up in North Carolina, Goodwin played football, basketball and baseball, but it was baseball in which he excelled. Goodwin says it was kind of natural that he became a baseball player.
While he didn't have the right techniques to shoot a basketball, Goodwin didn't have a problem hitting a baseball.
"I could swing it. It was something I was comfortable with and I started at such a young age. I just continued on," he said.
Did he ever. While in high school, Goodwin was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in North Carolina. While at the University of North Carolina, Goodwin was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American Team.
Goodwin also idolized future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Goodwin's father would take him to watch Griffey play whenever the Reds played the Braves in Atlanta.
"It's just how he played the game, how he went about his business. It was just all out. He was always making a good play," Goodwin said. "You always saw him everywhere. He had video games, he was on TV, he was making diving catches and that left-handed swing ... that left-handed swing. ... That was a guy I looked up to."
Two years from now, Goodwin hopes to be putting up great numbers like Griffey when he reaches the big leagues for the Nationals.
"It's time to perform. It time to get out here and get better, play," Goodwin said.
Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, All Nats All the time. He also could be found on Twitter @WashingNats. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
SF Bay Area Peaks > Mount Saint Helena > Climber's Log
Mount Saint Helena Climber's Log
[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
|Trail and Dirt Road
Date Climbed: Nov 12, 2007
|Nice hike with Ol'Walsher. The day was a bit cloudy and cool but what do you expect for Nov? Stopped at Sivlerado Mine on the way back.
|Posted Nov 12, 2007 8:28 pm
|Mountain biking trip
Date Climbed: Oct 29, 2006
|Bike ride 5.6 miles up to the top.
|Posted Oct 25, 2007 7:57 pm
|Nice hike
Date Climbed: Jan 20, 2005
|Nice, though a little boring, hike to the summit. Many high points to explore once you're on the top. The radio towers are a little ugly, but I think there is at least one on every peak and ridge in the Bay Area.
|Posted Oct 3, 2007 12:30 am
|Route Climbed: Dirt Road
Date Climbed: May 16, 2007
|Quick up quick down, on a mild May midafternoon. Kinda hazy, not much views, but worth it nonetheless.
|Posted May 16, 2007 7:40 pm
|via mountain bike many times
|This is a sweet bike ride, especially going down. It is also near my favorite base camp, Harbin Hot Springs.
|Posted Apr 15, 2007 11:40 pm
Date Climbed: Apr 13, 2007
|It was a very clear day. I could see Shasta, Lassen and I believe the Sutter Buttes. The views made up for the radio tower on top. The first mile of the hike was really pretty as well.
|Posted Apr 15, 2007 12:44 pm
|Bubba Suess
|The Wine Country Mountain
|In many ways, this is THE mountain of the wine country. It looms over both Napa and Sonoma counties.
|Posted Mar 9, 2007 10:38 pm
|Chris Doig
|Superbowl Sunday
Date Climbed: Feb 4, 2007
|Hiked up with my cohp buddy Jeff. We were first on trail and made it home in time for the kickoff. Saw lots of people on the way down! The first mile of this hike is excellent single track. We enjoyed the fire road portion too as the views of napa valley are excellent. Hazy up top but saw, Cobb, Diablo, Tam, Lassen and Snow mtns. I'll do it again for conditioning.
|Posted Feb 7, 2007 4:36 am
|Michael Perry
|Great views, bad parking
Date Climbed: Jan 20, 2007
|Reasonably quiet hike, took a little over 2 hours to reach the North Peak summit. Summit was very windy and pretty cold. Views were great, though pretty hazy. Could easily see Cobb and Mt. Diablo. Barely visible were the snow-capped Sierras and the SF skyline. Luckily I got to the mountain early, cause the parking along 29 is packed by mid-day, and a pain to get out of sometimes.
|Posted Jan 22, 2007 3:07 am
|Hiker's Trail/Dirt Road
Date Climbed: Oct 29, 2006
|Great views!
|Posted Oct 30, 2006 4:00 am
|Good views
Date Climbed: May 1, 1996
|Great views of the Napa area. Uneventful walk
|Posted Sep 11, 2006 5:51 am
|some time ago
Date Climbed: May 1, 1992
|I don't quite remember the date but it was when I was living in the Santa Rosa area during the '90's.
|Posted Aug 30, 2006 2:53 am
|Cold ascent
Date Climbed: Apr 6, 2006
|Started at 7am just as the sun rose. The nice weather lasted until I reached the saddle, when the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped to 38 degrees F! Some patches of snow at the top but it's mostly gone.
|Posted Jul 27, 2006 3:33 pm
|dirt road
Date Climbed: Dec 24, 2004
|Walked up.
|Posted May 14, 2006 8:51 pm
|Route Climbed: Dirt Road Date Climbed: March 2004
|A long walk up the dirt road was made better by great views and a lack of anyone else on the trail.
|Posted Oct 19, 2005 1:57 pm
|Route Climbed: Dirt Road Date Climbed: March 1999
|Ok, so I actually rode my mountain bike for this one, though I did walk some of the uphill. : ) Nice view from the top with lots of sunshine. Still had some snow on the mountain.
|Posted Aug 5, 2005 12:06 am
|Brian Kalet
|Route Climbed: Trail from SR29 summit Date Climbed: July 5, 2005
|Had a sampler at Napa Valley Brewing Company before the climb!
|Posted Jul 6, 2005 5:30 pm
|Route Climbed: Mt Saint Helena trail Date Climbed: March 2004
|Hiked to the summit on a very warm spring day. The road is shadeless and dusty, and pretty unpleasant. But the views from the summit were outstanding.
|Posted Apr 12, 2005 8:57 pm
|Route Climbed: RLS State Park / Fire Road Date Climbed: March 5, 2005
|Brought a group of 15 from St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in SF - ages 12 to probably 64. It had rained a lot Friday, but it was sunny and warm Saturday, up in the 60s. The only mud we encountered was in the parking area. Everybody summitted, and we could see all of the landmarks as advertised - Lassen, Snow, Diablo, Tam, and the ocean. A beautiful hike all around.
Someone should relocate and renovate the marker comemorating the 1841 ascent by the Russian party from Ft. Ross. There is an ugly radio outbuilding right beside, marginalizing and offending the marker.
|Posted Mar 7, 2005 2:14 pm
|Route Climbed: Dirt Road Date Climbed: July 1998
|Hike this some time ago. Nice little hike to kill some time..
|Posted Jan 24, 2005 4:50 pm


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Well, I was hoping someone would have spaded out the Chameleon Clasps' "blending in" abilities, but if someone has, they haven't posted it in the wiki yet.
So does anyone have any idea what it does? I'm hoping it's more than just another way to win initiative on your enemies.
And what about the med-vac? How do you think it stacks up to previous IotM transportation?
September IotM
Talk about the game. What game? The game with the power? What power? The power of ... aw, skip it.
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Re: September IotM
If it's been two weeks and nobody knows, I'm just going to say. This one isn't that subtle anyway -- there's combat messages that spell it out every time this ability is triggered. It gives a chance that the enemy won't be able to see you and simply won't be able to attack that round -- basically similar to a 1-round stun, or a sidekick that distracts your opponent for a round.
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Re: September IotM
I think the medevac chopper is the best transportation in the game. It will never be beat!
Re: September IotM
I like the VHF better, mainly because it give PP and I care more about PP than HP.
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Re: September IotM
You, sir, deserve to be flogged. That's still legal, right?
Re: September IotM
In international waters, I think it might. You'll have to trick Zillow into going sailing with you.
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Improving Performance on The GIMP
Since I am suggesting to use The GIMP for your digital scrapbooking for those of you that want to try Digital Scrapbooking but currently do not use any other software, I have been using it myself to create tutorials and to get a feel of the software.
In the past I have been using PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro to create my elements and my digital scrapbook layouts.
I have to say that I really really like The GIMP. It is really easy to use and it has many functionalities found on Photoshop.
The only thing that I was concern about was the performance, so I did some research on the internet and found the solution !
To improve The GIMP Performance, Start The GIMP Program, Go to:
Change Tile cache size to 256 MegabytesI originally notice the performance issues when using my full blown 12x12 @300 dpi Photoshop Templates on The GIMP, but after making those changes, I can easily work on those big templates without noticing low performance.
I do think is worth mentioning that even in Photoshop I see performance issues when I work with my full blown 12x12 @ 300dpi Photoshop Templates. [Maybe I need to change Photoshop's Tile cache size as well]
The change above was ALL I needed to do to improve the performance on my computer, but if after making that change, you are still having problems, then try the following:
Another thing to can also affect The GIMP Performance is your computer's own resources and since Digital Scrapbooking is all about image manipulation, the more the better. :-)
If you have a slow or old computer or if your computer continues having performance problems, try to close all other program while creating your layout using The GIMP. Image manipulation takes a lot of your computer resources and if you are doing other tasks at the same time, the computer will have a lot more to do and it will look like if it is doing nothing, while trying to process all of the requested tasks.
You could also try working on a smaller resolution layouts and then resize them once the layouts are finalized. I will submit a tutorial on how to do this later.
To see the full and official GIMP documentation on this topic visit the link below:
Let me know if this helped.
Last edited by admin : 09-04-2006 at 09:09 AM.
Watch the Video !
If you prefer to watch the video and see how easy is to change the tile size in The GIMP, click here:
Enjoy !
Norma Aguilera
Re: Watch the Video !
Are you changing it up to 256 or down to 256? (mine is set at 1024)
Re: Watch the Video !
It's down.
To basically summarize what the documentation says in more human terms, is since the GIMP can take up a lot of system resources (and with scrapbooking it does), you can reallocate how you're using your memory.
Memory is how your computer temporarily stores data it's using, and there are two types of memory.... RAM and swap (sometimes called virtual memory). RAM is the dedicated memory of the computer, and swap is a special partition on your hard drive that can be used like RAM when your RAM is maxed out.
By changing the tile cache to something like 256MB, you're basically telling The GIMP that when all the changes you've made are taking up more than 256MB in the memory, please move part of this to my swap partition so I don't run out of memory.
While utilizing the swap memory does boost performance in the sense that you're not going to be running out of memory and possibly losing your layout (I've had problems with crashing personally), however.... it does make your hard drive have to work harder, so if you're going to be doing a ton of scrapping, the most optimal thing to be doing is adding more RAM to your machine.
Re: Watch the Video !
Thanks, mine crashes occasionally. I upgraded to a pc with more RAM this spring and performance was WAY up. I wish they would add a back-up feature cause it sucks when you loose your work lol
Maybe I'll have to move it down a bit, and see if it crashes less that way.
Re: Watch the Video !
Well, this is what I can tell about the crashing specifically...
I'm not sure whether The GIMP auto detects how much RAM you have or just has it set automatically to 1024MB (1GB) by default because that's how much most average users have.
The problem is because it's set to the exact amount of RAM a computer probably has, it ends up running out of RAM before it ever gets to the point where the title is big enough to move to the swap partition. RAM is also being used by the operating system, any other programs running, etc so The GIMP can never use 100% of the RAM your computer has. Theoretically, what should happen is an error message saying that you're running out of RAM, please save and shut down the program would appear.... However, after playing with The GIMP for quite a bit recently, I'm convinced that there's a bug with the way they're doing error detection when it comes to memory.
Re: Watch the Video !
Thanks for this explanation!! It really makes sense!!
Re: Watch the Video !
No problem.
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UT board chair asks embattled regent to resign
Updated 5:59 pm, Thursday, May 15, 2014
University of Texas Board Chair Paul Foster asked Wallace Hall to resign Thursday, but stopped short of asking the board to vote on the embattled regent's ouster.
"I do not believe a vote on your service is appropriate," Foster told Hall during the board's Thursday meeting. "However, something must change."
The newly-minted chair then asked Hall to take the "selfless step" and resign.
Hall's actions – including massive public records requests, the release of confidential student information and what some characterized as the bullying of university officials – is under investigation by a House committee. By a 7-1 vote, the House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations on Monday agreed that Hall's conduct constituted grounds for a first-ever impeachment of a governor's appointee. The committee's co-chairs said afterward that they hoped Hall would step down or be removed by the board of regents or the governor.
Several other regents Thursday agreed with Foster, including Vice Chairman R. Steven Hicks and Robert Stillwell. Regent Gene Powell spoke against the recommendation, noting Foster made clear he does not believe Hall broke the law or regent rules.
Asked if he'd like to comment after the meeting adjourned, Hall replied, "Yeah, but I'm not going to."
Lawmakers have accused Hall of pursuing a vendetta aimed at ousting UT-Austin President Bill Powers.
Powers said it "was not for him to decide" whether Hall should resign, but added he "very much appreciated the chairman's comments."


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Ask TheHorse
Your Equine Legal Questions Answered
Learn about sales agreements, leasing horses, liability, and more during our live event.
Photo by Alexandra Beckstett, The Horse Managing Editor
Making it Legal: Equine Lease, Sales, and Boarding Contracts
Getting any horse agreement in writing could help you avoid a trip to court. Here's what you should know.
Photo by Alexandra Beckstett, The Horse Managing Editor
I'm Selling My Horse. What Should I Disclose?
Misrepresenting a horse could land you in some serious legal trouble. Here are tips on how to protect yourself.
Photo by Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse
Making it Legal: Equine Lease, Sales, and Boarding Contracts
October 05, 2017
Getting any horse agreement in writing could help you avoid a trip to court. Here's what you should know. ... Read More
Prepurchase Exams: Not Just Looking for Lameness
May 25, 2017
Find out what conditions, beyond lameness, a veterinarian might uncover during a prepurchase exam. ... Read More
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January 05, 2017
A good contract describes what is required of involved parties and what happens if they don't fulfill their obligations.... Read More
10 Horse Sales Fraud Warning Signs
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Learn how to protect yourself when buying your next horse with these tips from an experienced equine-industry attorney.... Read More
August KENA Meeting to Focus on Horse Buying
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Woodrow Friend, DVM; Melissa Moore; and Laura D'Angelo will discuss what buyers should consider when purchasing a horse.... Read More
I'm Selling My Horse. What Should I Disclose?
July 16, 2016
Misrepresenting a horse could land you in some serious legal trouble. Here are tips on how to protect yourself.... Read More
12 Tips for Selling a Horse
June 02, 2016
Experts share their suggestions for marketing horses and ensuring a smooth and legal transaction.... Read More
Tax on Horse Sales Proposed in Oklahoma
May 13, 2016
Oklahoma currently levies a sales tax of 8.357% on livestock, but horse sales are exempt.... Read More
Breeze Times, Sale Prices, and Racetrack Performance
March 26, 2016
Researchers recently investigated factors that impact prices paid for 2-year-old Thoroughbreds sold at undertack sales.... Read More
Rehoming Your Horse? Remember These Tips
January 13, 2016
Finding a safe home for a horse is not an easy process. Do your homework to ensure your horse lands in a good place.... Read More
Keeping Records
August 20, 2015
Always err on the side of keeping more records than you think you actually need, but keep them organized.... Read More
What You Need to Know about Horse Sale Commissions
June 12, 2015
Learn how to protect yourself from undisclosed profit-taking when buying or selling horses with a trainer's help.... Read More
Rights of First Refusal: What You Need to Know
January 21, 2015
Find out why rights of first refusal can be difficult to enforce and how to ensure such rights are honored.... Read More
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August 10, 2013
Learn what makes a properly planned business stand out with an online course on equine business management.... Read More
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September 30, 2012
After declining for three straight years, Kentucky farm-level equine receipts increased in 2011.... Read More
Selecting a New Horse
January 01, 2012
Important factors to consider when buying a horse include use, conformation, temperament, health, and history.... Read More
2012 Equine Business Conference Scheduled
December 14, 2011
Topics covered include equine insurance; law; tax and finance; and promotion, marketing, and advertising.... Read More
Kentucky Equine Receipts Might Stabilize in 2011
October 23, 2011
Strong cash receipts will likely propel Kentucky's agricultural sector, including equine, forward in 2011.... Read More
Horse-Sitting 101: Legalities to Consider
October 05, 2011
Eliminate some of the anxiety of leaving your horse with a sitter by preparing for the trip in advance. ... Read More
The Prepurchase Exam
March 01, 2011
A prepurchase examination or "vet check" of a potential horse purchase can identify any physical problems. ... Read More
Financing a Horse Business
November 01, 2010
Outside capital is needed to buy big-ticket items or deal with bills in the face of an erratic cash flow.... Read More
Benefits for Horse Industry in Small Business Stimulus Bill
September 28, 2010
The American Horse Council reports that President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 into law on September 27, 2010. The bill is intended to help small businesses and create new jobs. The bill continues the bigger write... Read More
Congressional Bill Impacts Horse Buyers
September 27, 2010
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the amended Small Business Jobs Act (H.R. 5297) by a vote of 237 to 187, affirming changes made to the bill by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 16 when the Senate passed the measure. President Obama is expected ... Read More
Auction Info Added to Tattoo ID Services
June 16, 2010
The Jockey Club has added access to the auction sales history of identified Thoroughbreds as part of its Tattoo Identification Services. According to a news release, the Tattoo Identification Services link on The Jockey Club website has been vi... Read More
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June 01, 2010
An equine rescue is a business and should be run like one, or it risks putting its horses in more jeopardy.... Read More
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text:
Quick Details
- Type: UV Gel
- Place of Origin: Guangdong, China (Mainland)
- Brand Name: L&M
- Model Number: BK3C1849-1
- Volume: 250g, 335g, 500g, 1KG, 1 Gallon, 5KG, 20KG
- OEM/ ODM: Yes, Acceptable
- Certificates: SGS, MSDS, GMPC, ISO, FDA, Alibaba Assessed Supplier
- Shipment Method: DHL, TNT, EMS, Sea ship, Cargo
- Delivery Time: DHL/TNT: 3-7 Days; EMS/Cargo: 15-60 Days
- Package Size: 47CM x 41CM x 30CM
- Package Capacity: 40PCS/Carton
- Product Name: L&M Gel Nail Polish
Packaging & Delivery
|Packaging Details
L&M Wholesale Professional UV Gel Nail Colors Soak Off Gel Polish
|Delivery Time
|Shipped in 7 days after payment
|Product Specification
Product Name
|L&M Wholesale Professional UV Gel Nail Colors Soak Off Gel Polish
|250g, 335g, 500g, 1KG, 1 Gallon, 5KG, 20KG
|24 months
|Provide OEM/ODM service
|SGS, MSDS, GMPC, ISO, FDA, Alibaba Assessed Supplier
|Suitable Lamp
|UV Lamp, LED Lamp, UV/LED CCFL Lamp
|238 Colors
|Company Profile
Guangzhou L&M Cosmetics Co., Ltd. was established in 2010, located in Guangzhou, the center of China nail industry. We are the most professional and high technical enterprise in nail gel industry in China. Our company is a manufacturer and trader, which covers an area of over 10,000 square meters, and specialized in research and development, production and sale of nail care products. We provide brand and wholesale products, raw materials in bulk, OEM/ODM service, packing design, toning and filling services, and etc.
|Shipping Methods
1. DHL & TNT - 3-7 days to all over the world.
2. EMS - Only for less than 2kg weight, to any post station of the world.
3. Sea ship or Transport companies - We can help pass the goods to your designated transport company, agents or port.
4. For CIS / Central Asian region - We can recommend you reliable cargo for transporting your goods by air, by land or by sea.
|Payment Methods
1. Paypal - Best and fastest way with buyer protection safeguard;
2. Alipay - Same fast and convenient way for transfer small amount;
3. Western Union - Easy and low charge way for transfer appropriate amount;
4. T/T Bank transfer - Safe and commercial way for your business.
|Package Details
250g, 335g, 500g, 1KG, 1 Gallon, 5KG, 20KG
CTN Capacity
CTN Size (L*W*H)
47CM x 41CM x 30CM
Yes, acceptable
Shipment Method
DHL, TNT, EMS, Sea ship, Cargo
Delivery Time
DHL/TNT: 3-6 Days; EMS/Sea Ship/Cargo: 15-60 Days
Payment Method
Paypal, Alipay, Western Union, T/T, Alibaba Secure Payment
1. Keep products away from open flame, direct heat. Prevention of ultraviolet radiation and kids.
2. Do not apply to nails that damaged or infected.
3. Keep it at 18-25 centigrade.
4. Go to doctor if in eyes or mouth.


text:
Hand Hygiene--Important Do's and Don'ts
Dirt, grit, irritants and harsh chemicals combine with heat, cold and other environmental factors to create the perfect storm for occupational skin diseases. A skin inflammation resulting from exposure to irritants or allergens, contact dermatitis can range from a slight reddening and itching to rashes and sores.
Contact dermatitis annually costs employers billions of dollars. Ongoing medical care associated with the disease adds up to more than $1.4 billion, according to a study from The Society for Investigative Dermatology and The Academy of Dermatology Association. The study also showed contact dermatitis costs another $500 million in productivity losses.
The National Occupational Research Agenda reports that once workers acquire contact dermatitis, an estimated 75 percent of the cases become chronic, requiring ongoing medical care and affecting workers' well-being. It is important, therefore, to reduce exposure to common irritants, use products designed to clean and condition tough-soiled hands and following a healthy skin washing and skin care regimen.
Here are tips for proper skin care in manufacturing operations, offered by Gojo Industries, Akron, OH, a manufacturer of skin-care and other hygiene products.
Do's of Skin Care
• Condition skin often. Before and after work, and after each washing.
• Wash hands regularly.
• Wash with the right kind of cleaner. Use the mildest yet effective cleaner to remove soils.
• Keep tools clean to help keep hands clean.
• Wear PPE, including gloves, whenever possible to protect skin from chemicals and other substances harmful to your skin. If PPE is not available, avoid contact with irritants.
• Change work clothes at least daily, including overalls. Be sure to wash work clothes separately from other laundry so contaminants aren't spread to other clothing.
• Use chemicals as instructed.
• Observe and report changes in skin condition.
Don'ts of Skin Care
• Never expose unprotected skin to harsh chemicals.
• Never use harsh detergents, solvents or chemicals such as gasoline, turpentine or benzene to clean your hands. Als use an approved skin-cleansing product.
• Never eat, drink or smoke with dirty hands. Harmful chemicals can enter the body through the mouth and could damage vital organs.
• Don't use regular bar or lotion soap if your hands are full of grease and grime. A weak soap can cause you to scrub too hard to get your hands clean. Use the appropriate hand cleaner.
• Don't use abrasives or brushes not designed for your skin. They can cause damage.
• Never wipe your hands on a dirty shop towel. Shop towels can contain metal shavings or other debris that can cut and damage hands.
• Never put dirty, contaminated hands in gloves. The gloves will trap the contaminants against the skin, causing irritation and even permeation.Gojo Industries: 330/255-6000; www.gojo.com/united-states
See also: Gojo Industries, Inc.
Related Enterprise Zones: Safety
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text:
If Kings moves from Sacramento, i think their destination will be Anaheim...
If Kings moves from Sacramento, i think their destination will be Anaheim...
(Sorry for poor English )
Vancouver Canucks owner not very interested in bringing an NBA team back to the city:
(Sorry for poor English )
the reason why charlotte has a team and Vancouver doesnt - TV moneyI think if there was enough support, enough of a fan base, definitely the arena is ready to go, Aquilini said. There was a basketball team here before, the building is really plug-and-play. We could start tomorrow if we wanted to. But the question is always about market size. That really is the issue. The (Grizzlies) did leave Vancouver for a reason, because there just wasnt enough market support. If there was, they wouldnt have left in the first place. Were continually doing work on that, to assess whether there is enough of a market for an NBA team in Vancouver.
I want to see another team in Vancouver it would be awesome to have 2 teams. If the Raps ain't playin i watch Vancouver and vice versa
Thanks! I think I'll be a Flames fan in no time. I'm looking to buy something in the west. Lots and lots of nice looking communities.
I would love a team back in Vancity, I am sick of no one talking about basketball here! It would be so time consuming and fun to be a huge fan of the raps and be living in vancouver to cheer on whatever team here.
There's no doubt the Canucks will be at the top of the mountain right now. Heck, so will the White Caps... But if there was a return of a team, and success right out of the gate, I could see it climbing the ranks in obtaining a very good fan-base.
Twitter: @ReubenJRD NBA, Raptors writer for Daily Hive Vancouver, Toronto.
I thought the reason Vancouver lost its franchise was because, the owner never had any intention of keeping the team in Vancouver and wanted to move it to his hometown of Memphis from the get-go. Hence, he only owned the team for one year in Vancouver.
-"You cant run from me. I mean, my heart dont bleed Kool-Aid."
-"I aint no diva! I dont have no blond hair, red hair. Im Reggie Evans.
i think MTL should have a team before vancouver
Just to show up the americans, and their shitty atitudes towards canada, it must be done.
Oh ya, and forget Vancouver. We need a team in Dr. James Naismith's hometown of Almonte instead.
That would be a dream come true - but - Vancouver is a hockey town and a football town. The local sports outlets barely acknowledge the NBA and that's probably because there is no demand from the people living here.
I have reached the point where I still enjoy football but the gratuitous violence in hocket and the unbelieveable attitude of many players towards their opponents is a real turnoff. In the NBA, the players show their respect for the opposition - and there is lots of physical play in the league, its just done without the "padding" that the NHL now uses as weapons to illegally mug each other.
Also the no fighting rules would not appeal to the boys in Vancouver - they seem to need their weekly hit of violence.
LOL yeah because Melo doesn't cheap shot guys and run away like a coward and Garnett certainly doesn't get down on his hands and knees and bark like a dog. There are bad seeds in every sport Roarque.
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text:
Making art from industry: Pittsfield celebrates its past
PITTSFIELD -- A week before the A.H. Rice Silk Mill officially closed in 2006, Evan J. Soldinger walked into the gallery at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. At a reception for an art show, he spoke to Jeff Winslow, longtime owner of Wild Sage antiques on North Street, who told him the mill's owner, Jim Miller, might let any artist in the room to come to the mill in its last week of operation.
Soldinger had lived in Pittsfield since 1975 and had never seen the inside of the mill, which made fine thread and sold braid for uniforms worldwide -- so he went with his camera.
A quiet group of six or 10 people were still at work dismantling machinery to send to Miller's mill in South Carolina, Soldinger said.
Winslow had asked the visiting artists to treat them gently.
"He said 'They'll be losing their jobs in a week, so please be respectful,'" Soldinger recalled.
The mill would close, he said, in part because of the high cost of heating the draughty brick buildings. It had run for 128 years.
Rows of knitting machines stood still, as though their operators had just taken a break. Patches of oil darkened the floor. Walking through the mill, Soldinger could see that the original building had been added onto, one building connected to another with a haphazard look. One large section stood completely open, he said. In another, about 20 silk thread machines still carried spools and, in the next aisle, bins held parts, gears or empty spools. The aisles had space enough for fork-lift trucks to pass through.
Large pieces of machinery and parts lay around, and artists could quietly ask permission to take any the mill staff no longer needed.
Winslow, who fostered the local art community in many ways until he died suddenly last spring, had hoped to see artist studio space in these buildings when the machinery left them, Soldinger said.
Now several of Soldinger's photographs from the Silk Mill will appear at the Lichtenstein, coming full circle this Friday with the opening of "BAA Redux: Industrial Manifest" during the First Fridays Artswalk, another arts effort Winslow encouraged.
The Litchtenstein's newest art show continues a summer-long theme of Arts + Industry across the city, celebrating Pittsfield's history. The theme launched with "Our Industrial Heritage 2.0," a photography exhibit at the Lichtenstein, and an exhibit at the Whitney Center for the Arts in June -- and August's Third Thursday street fair will center around it.
Arrowhead, Herman Melville's historic house, has also planned exhibits and events all summer. Michael Melle straw sculptures of mill workers report for their shifts beside Melville's barn. Inside his outbuildings, two shows will give a sense of the workers' lives -- "Made in Berkshire: Papermaking at Eaton, Crane and Pike," photographs from the paper company in the old Clock Tower building, and an exhibit of decorated metal lunch boxes.
Through July, Arrowhead has revived the "Maid of the Mills," a play by director of communications Peter Bergman, based on the lives of immigrant women who came to work in the Berkshire woolen mills in the 1870s. Bergman found stories of their mistreatment by mill owners and even women overseers, he said, and the play follows the formation of a ladies' garment workers union.
At the Lichtenstein, "BAA Redux: Industrial Manifest" will gather 30 works by regional artists in a juried show sponsored by the Berkshire Art Association and curated by Berkshire artist Carol Diehl; artist-printmaker Melanie Mowinski, associate professor of art at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; and John R. Stomberg, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
The works they have chosen range from metal sculpture by Joe Wheaton of Becket to paintings, prints, photographs and installations. BAA President Mary Rentz described a large and colorful ceramics sculpture of gears and a rack and pinion.
"Industrial Manifest" will mark the first time in nearly 30 years it has held a regional show, Rentz said. BAA has acted as an art exhibition group since the 1950s and, by the 1980s, the BAA had a regional juried show regularly on display at the Berkshire Museum.
In the late '80s, the museum decided not to host shows put on by other organizations or artwork outside its collection, Rentz said, and the BAA discontinued its exhibitions for a while in favor of other interests -- including a fellowship show at the Lichtenstein and the former Pittsfield Art Show.
In the years since its last regional show, the BAA has collaborated with Artscape and Downtown, Inc. to bring art, the public and artists into contact with each other, Rentz said. The BAA has sponsored First Friday Artwalks and encouraged the effort. And the group looks forward now to bringing the regional show tradition back again.
When artists asked Rentz what the BAA wanted for "Arts + Industry," she said they wanted the artists to think about it.
Some have concentrated on industrial design, some on production, systems and processes, some on waste products, some on what manufacturing and industry do, constructively or destructively. In contrast to the show at the Lichtenstein in June, or the shows at Arrowhead, this one does not focus on people. These artists have tended to focus on materials.
Soldinger used silver gelatin plates and developed his film in a darkroom, he said, because photographers would have used that technology when the A.H. Rice Silk Mill first opened.
His dismantled metal parts cast circular shadows.
If you go ...
What: 'BAA Redus: Industrial Manifest' juried exhibit
by Berkshire Arts Association
When: Opens 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, during Artswalk
Awards presented 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2
Where: Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Ave., Pittsfield
Admission: Free
Information: discoverpittsfield.com
What: Arts + Industry exhibits and events -- 'Made in Berkshire' photography exhibit, Michael Melle straw sculptures
Where: Arrowhead,
780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield
When: Open daily 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Columbus Day
Admission: Tours $13 for adults, $8 for children
Information: berkshirehistory.org
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.


text:
Sony Cyber-shot DSC HX300 Bridge Camera, HD 1080p, 20.4MP, 50x Optical Zoom, 3" LCD Screen with 8GB Memory Card
Product information
With Sony's HX300, you'll enjoy the simplicity of a fixed lens and the control of DSLR handling. A powerful optical zoom extends up to 50x for detailed telephoto and macro shooting, while onboard image stabilisation helps keep everything crisp. Autofocus also makes light work of action shot, keeping your subject at the centre of attention, and ensuring sharper stills. When a single picture isn't enough, there's Full HD 1080p video capture with all the benefits of active stabilisation to compensate for camera roll and hand movement.
Key benefits:
- Forget changing lenses while you're in the wild or on the beach: every photo opportunity's covered with the powerful 50x optical zoom lens. Grab expansive, wide-angle landscapes – or zoom in for telephoto close-ups of animals and birds, while your camera keeps it all steady.
- More detail means better pictures and Full HD video. Capture moments that really stand out from the crowd with a 20.4-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor that cuts out picture noise for clear, sharp results, even when the lights are low.
- Wondering which settings are best? Let your camera do all the work. From close-ups to twilight portraits, your camera adjusts everything automatically so you easily get the results you want, no fuss. It even detects if your subject's moving, cutting motion blur in any scene.
- Adjust light and exposure levels manually to develop your own shooting style. Use the P/S/A/M manual modes to control the aperture or shutter speed and play with the creative effects in your photos.
- Just touch a button and shoot brilliantly crisp, detailed Full HD video clips: you'll enjoy stable, blur-free images even while walking or zooming. Record in 50p mode and film 50 frames of Full HD (1920x1080) every second for silky-smooth, cinematic action.
- Grab those spur-of-the moment photo opportunities that only happen once. Speedy autofocus snaps accurately onto your subject for crisp, blur-free shots – even at high zoom settings or in dim light where other cameras struggle.
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Dooley trial beings Tuesday, accused of killing father | Crime
Valrico, Florida -- A former school bus driver accused of shooting and killing a father in front of his 8-year-old daughter will be back in court this morning for the first day of his manslaughter trial.
Trevor Dooley, now 71 years old, claims he was in fear for his life when he fired his gun near the Twin Lakes neighborhood basketball court in September 2010.
Click: Suspect arrested in Valrico shooting
The single gunshot killed 41-year-old David "DJ" James.
Investigators say James was playing basketball with his daughter Danielle when Dooley came out from his house across the street to tell two teens to stop skateboarding on the courts.
James defended the teens saying there was no sign telling the they couldn't.
At some point, witnesses say Dooley went back into his house and retrieved a gun, which he put in his pants. When he returned outside, witnesses say he flashed the gun when the argument continued.
This is when witnesses say James went after Dooley in attempt to get the gun away from him and the two men fell to the ground.
Dooley fired his gun as James was on top of him. Dooley had a concealed weapons permit.
Dooley's defense attorney tried to argue this was a Stand Your Ground case, but a judge denied that motion earlier this year.
It is expected Danielle James will testify as a defense witness via closed circuit TV so she does not have to be in the same room as Dooley.


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Mitt Romney's Dirty Little Secret: He's Old
Many completely correct adjectives come to mind when you think of presidential frontrunner Willard "Mittens" Romney: Slick, gross, rich, cheesy, evil, hilarious, weird, and, especially, white. But no one ever talks about how old he is. Did you know he's kind of old?
Mitt Romney is a 64-year-old man. If he won the 2012 election, he would be inaugurated just short of his 66th birthday. This would make him the fourth oldest president ever to be inaugurated, behind only Ronald Reagan, William Henry Harrison, and, by one day if our math is correct, James Buchanan. Keep in mind, too, that William Henry Harrison popped off only a month into office! And Ronald Reagan, of course, may have gotten sort of Alzheimery during his second term. What? Don't get mad at us; his kid was the one who said it.
Now this is not to say that Mitt Romney's age should necessarily be a major concern for voters. Being 66 years old isn't quite the sign of imminent death that it used to be, thanks to modern medicine. Back in the 19th century, you'd hit 39, catch "the shivers" or whatever, and the doctor could only make a housecall to administer a desperate concoction of cat's liver, hard tack and eagle urine that would delay painful, painful death another week so Cousin Jeffers, a dirt prospector, could carriage-hitchhike his way in from the Dakotas in time for the funeral.
Still, you don't think of Mittens as potentially one of the oldest presidents in history. He seems more like he was already 54 when he popped out of the womb, immediately began downsizing paper corporations, and has stayed the same age ever since.
And yet he's kind of old.
[Image via AP]


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Mads Mikkelsen plays the title character in NBC's new grisly gourmet drama, "Hannibal," which focuses on Dr. Hannibal Lecter — scholar, connoisseur, cannibal — during an earlier, more nuanced time than was covered in the film "The Silence of the Lambs" and its sequel.
It's fair to say that Mads Mikkelsen dines out on his new starring role.
He plays the title character in NBC's new grisly gourmet drama, "Hannibal," which focuses on Dr. Hannibal Lecter — scholar, connoisseur, cannibal — during an earlier, more nuanced time than was covered in the film "The Silence of the Lambs" and its sequel.
When Mikkelsen was offered the role, he hesitated to bite.
"It's been done to perfection," he said, citing the indelible performance of Anthony Hopkins. "What could we add?"
Turns out, quite a lot.
Unlike Hopkins' Hannibal, Mikkelsen's version isn't "a madman in a (jail) cell. He's out in the world, where he can make friends and help people feel comfortable."
In short, he's fully able to pass in polite society, as he must — especially if the series (which premiered Thursday at 10 p.m.) hopes to last.
"He's not a classic psychopath or a classic serial killer," Mikkelsen added. "I believe that he's as close to Satan as can be — the fallen angel. He sees the beauty in death."
Dr. Lecter is just one member of the series' motley trio. This brilliant psychiatrist is recruited to counsel a tormented criminal profiler, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). Special Agent Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) is head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, and he's counting on Lecter to keep Will on course.
Together they unite (or appear to) on a mission to track down ghastly serial killers — with neither Jack nor Will dreaming that the most depraved offender is part of their team.
This knotty alliance is what captured Mikkelsen's interest. When he first met with series creator Bryan Fuller ("Pushing Daisies"), he heard much talk "about this whole bromance thing between Hannibal and Will, and it sounded really cool," he said. "The relationship between all these characters is what's actually fundamental to the story, not the individual cases."
There are scenes of startling grisliness. There also are scenes of gruesome humor, as when Lecter serves elegant dinners to appreciative guests whose key ingredients are human body parts.
But some of the most gripping scenes are simple conversations between Hannibal and Will.
In one scene, he tries to console Will, who is traumatized after shooting a suspect.
"I liked killing Hobbs," Will confesses with self-loathing.
"Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time," says Lecter gently. "And are we not created in his image?"
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, 47 years ago, Mikkelsen is a matinee idol in his native land.
Though not a household name in the U.S., his face is increasingly familiar from his role as Le Chiffre in the 2006 James Bond film "Casino Royale," and performances alongside Clive Owen in "King Arthur" and Liam Neeson in "Clash of the Titans."


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MIAMI, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Republicans gathering for their convention in Tampa, Fla., kept an eye on Isaac Sunday night as the dangerous tropical storm passed by into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Miami Herald reported Isaac was blamed for the deaths of at least nine people, including seven in Haiti and two in the Dominican Republic.
At 11 p.m. EDT, the center of Isaac was centered about 75 miles west-southwest of Key West and about 510 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River as it moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The storm was sporting sustained winds of 65 mph with higher gusts and was moving west-northwest at 14 mph. Tropical storm-force gales were extending 205 miles out from its center.
U.S. forecasters said a hurricane warning was in effect for east of Morgan City, La., to Destin, Fla., including New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas.
A hurricane watch was in place for east of Dustin to Indian Pass, Fla.
A tropical storm warning was ordered for the Florida Peninsula from Jupiter Inlet southward on the state's east coast and from Tarpon Springs southward on the west coast. The hurricane center discontinued its tropical storm warning for the east coast north of Jupiter Inlet.
A tropical storm warning also was out for the Florida Keys, Lake Okeechobee and from east of Destin to the Suwannee River.
The hurricane center said watches or warnings may be extended westward along the Louisiana coast early Monday.
Isolated tornadoes will be possible over central and southern Florida through Monday, the forecasters said.
Dangerous surf and rip current conditions will continue in the northwestern Bahamas, the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys during the next day or so, as well.
Isaac was forecast to make a gradual turn to the northwest and to slow its forward speed over the next couple of days. That track would take the storm away from the Florida Keys Sunday night, over the eastern gulf Monday and approaching the northern gulf Tuesday.
Forecasters said they expect Isaac to strengthen and become a hurricane in a day or two.
Organizers of the Republican National Convention in Tampa announced Saturday the convention activities Monday were canceled and events would begin Tuesday because of Isaac's threat.
Isaac, which already doused Cuba, was expected to begin drenching the Tampa area Sunday and gusty winds would begin early Monday, the National Weather Service said.
The Office of Civil Protection in Haiti said the seven people killed in the Caribbean island nation included a young man buried in a landslide in DonDon, a 7-year-old boy electrocuted in the Artibonite Valley, a woman killed by a falling tree in Jacmel and a 10-year-old girl in Thomazeau, the Herald said, while police in the Dominican Republican said two men drowned in rain-swollen rivers.
Many thousands of people were left without power on the island, as well.
"We've lived through this before. We're not afraid," Lucien Pierre, a 28-year-old mother of two, told the Miami newspaper as she washed clothes outside her tent. "We'll pray and watch."


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See Shane, Clint, Goff, Cheyenne, and Rock City!
As exciting as it might be, you won't be seeing them all in the same place any time soon.
You still have time to catch Shane Hensley and Clint Black at MACE 2012, November 2-4, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both Shane and Clint will be running games, and Beautiful Brains Books & Games will give away the last two slots in Shane's special charity Deadlands Noir games during their Thursday Night Chat this week. There's also more Savage Worlds games than you can shake a stick at, a big ol' Savage Saturday Night, and even some Savage Worlds panels. They even have other games at the convention, if you can believe that!
Need a little more time to get your schedule in order? Live on the west coast instead of the east? Maybe you should try your luck at ZOECon, November 9-11, in Tukwila, Washington. John Goff (most recently of Deadlands Noir fame) and the Hugo-award-winning Cheyenne Wright will be there and be happy to meet you, and the con's being run by Dead Gentleman/Zombie Orpheus, the same folks who brought you The Gamers and Journeyquest! How can you pass that up?
Wish you had a handy reference for dates for our convention appearances? Pine no more! You can always check out our Conventions page for our upcoming and most recent convention appearances.
Of course, if you still want to see Rock City, it remains on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.


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The final installment in our series of #cf97ThirdKit interviews sees me speak to Option 5 designer Jordan Parks.
Check out the previous interviews with Mike Sever (Option 1), Danny Carlino (Option 2), Freddie Christiano (Option 3) and Eric Puente (Option 4) regarding the inspiration behind their designs. One more Q&A coming later Thursday!
What was the inspiration behind your design?
The inspiration for my third kit design came from Chicago's rich industrial history, the beautiful city skyline, and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. These three elements helped fuel my concept and display the true honor, passion, and tradition of this club and this great city.
The blue to white gradient in my design begins with the rich navy blue of the club, incorporates the light blue of the famous Chicago flag, and fades to a bright white to show the eliteness of this powerful city.
VOTE: #cf97ThirdKit Top 5
The subtle abstract view of the skyline represents the flames that ravaged the city in 1871 and the building blocks which made this city bounce back from devastation to become one of the most economically powerful in America.
What do you feel is unique about your design?
After looking at past kits worn by the Fire and researching other clubs past and present designs, I decided to simplify mine and keep the base color white; paying tribute to past away kits worn by the Fire.
While the Chicago flag is a well known and recognizable symbol of Chicago, I tried to stay away from blatantly using the flag as the base for my design as it has been done before and many Fire supporters want this as a permanent kit option rather than a third kit.
READ: #cf97ThirdKit Rules
I believe my design is unique because of its elegance and simplicity while showing physical and historical attributes of the great city we call home.
What would it mean for your design to be chosen as the club's third kit?
As a young designer, seeing my design being worn by my club would be absolutely exhilarating. I have been a Fire supporter for many years and having this opportunity with the club has already been rewarding in itself.
The reality of having my concept turned into a final solution is what I stand for as a designer. I work to succeed and push to exceed. Seeing the mighty Fire wearing my kit design in victory would be the best reward I could ask for. I believe with a fresh third kit option, the Chicago Fire can bring home another MLS Cup in style. Go Fire!


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Damp weather forces Tigers back indoors
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
LAKELAND, Fla. -- A second consecutive day of damp, dreary weather forced the Tigers indoors for much of their first full-squad workout on Friday morning. The only real activity outside took place on the bullpen mounds at the back of Tigertown, where pitchers threw their scheduled side sessions.
That was a sign of progress over Thursday, when pitchers had to throw in the batting cages. With hitters now taking part in workouts, the cages are busy, though pitchers did use them to work on pitchouts. Miguel Cabrera also used the cages to work on ground balls with infield coach Rafael Belliard.
New third-base coach Tom Brookens used the day to get an early jump on teaching signs. That usually doesn't take place until later in camp, when the roster has been whittled down.
"You make the best out of a rainy day," Leyland said. "The whole key to it is the cooperation of players, and they were great. Everybody knew where they were supposed to be and did what they were supposed to do. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be on the fields."
The forecast calls for dry weather into the middle of next week, though the next few days will be cooler than they have been.
Leyland relishes target on Tigers' back
LAKELAND, Fla. -- On the day of his speech to the full squad, Tigers manager Jim Leyland touched on the usual topics. He wants players to be on time. He wants them to embrace expectations. He wants them to work hard, but also work smart.
Then he made the big point he told reporters earlier: The Tigers are a target.
He wants that to be seen as a good thing.
"I love being a target," Leyland said on Friday. "That means we have a good team."
That means expectations are high for what the Tigers can do, not just among Tigers fans, but around baseball. That means opponents viewing the Tigers as the team to knock off.
"What I meant by it," Leyland said, "is other teams are going to get sick of reading about how good of a team the Tigers have. I mean, I would. So I just want to warn guys: Don't get wrapped up in all this, because there's going to be stuff that comes out that's going to tick a lot of other teams off. And it's not our fault. It's just the way it is.
"We have a good team, so people are saying we have a good team. But if I'm sitting, say, in Kansas City, I'm saying we have a pretty good team, too. Chicago, we're pretty good, too. And all these other teams. You're either the hunted or you're the hunter. We're going to be the hunted, because we were the winner. We were the American League champions. That's a good thing, but my point to all the guys is how you handle that is important."
Early indications suggest a lot of people will be writing about the Tigers this spring. A different national writer has been in camp every day this week, a rare stretch for this early in camp. Leyland, who said at the start of camp that he wasn't going to give daily updates on Bruce Rondon, has nonetheless had to answer a different question about Rondon every day this week.
One, he said, came from a reporter who called him "coach" and asked him what he thought of Rondon as the closer so far.
All those questions from all those reporters turn into a lot of copy to read, and a lot of potential headline material to post.
Leyland's point: Don't make too much of it.
"Clippings mean nothing," Leyland said. "They don't win squat."
Alex Avila, for one, likes being the hunted. Moreover, he doesn't think it's any different from the last couple of years.
"Every year since I've been here, I've always felt that way, that we were always the team to beat," he said. "Because I've always felt that we've had the talent to not only get to the playoffs, but to win a World Series. Obviously, every year, it seems like we've gotten a little bit better. It seems like every year we've not only gotten a little bit closer, but we've improved the team a little bit.
"I think just the success that we've had since 2006, the success that the Tigers have had, I think we've always been the team to beat the last few years for sure."
Worth could add versatility to outfield situation
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Tigers president/general manager Dave Dombrowski was going over his team's options for a right-handed hitter to help in the outfield earlier this week. Danny Worth's name came up.
"Worth has played some outfield," Dombrowski said last weekend.
Technically, Worth played only one game in left field last summer for Triple-A Toledo. He did so, however, after working in the outfield with Tigers outfield instructor Gene Roof. It was more than a spur-of-the-moment move on a shortened Mud Hens roster.
That's worth keeping in mind as the Tigers try to figure out a right-handed hitting complement to Andy Dirks in left field, at least in a backup role.
In past years, Detroit had the luxury of super utility players who hit from the left and right sides of the plate with Don Kelly and Ryan Raburn, respectively. With Raburn now in Indians camp, only Kelly remains, and he's on a non-roster invite.
Manager Jim Leyland said on Friday he isn't worried about versatility on the roster.
"I think we've got that in camp," Leyland said. "I'm not really worried about that. I don't know how it's going to play out in left field exactly, but I think we've got pretty good versatility. I think we definitely will have by the time we break camp."
Back-to-back MVPs in same camp a rare feat
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Tigers achieved a little piece of history on Friday when Miguel Cabrera reported to camp with the full squad, including Justin Verlander. With that, Detroit had the last two American League Most Valuable Players in the same camp.
Not since the 1983 Brewers, who had Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers, had an AL team boasted that with two different players. The 1995 White Sox went to camp with Frank Thomas coming off back-to-back AL MVP honors.
The 2008 Phillies were the last National League team to do it with two different players, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. The 2010 Cardinals had two-time reigning NL MVP Albert Pujols.
The feat begged the question what the Tigers could do to top that.
"With our team, my money might be on Prince [Fielder]," Alex Avila said.
Avila wasn't predicting anything, he cautioned. The way Fielder hits, though, Avila wanted to make the point that he's capable of earning MVP honors. He finished third in NL MVP voting in 2007 and 2011, and placed ninth in votes last year.
Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Using patented technology developed to help astronauts adapt to extreme temperature fluctuations, this down pillow helps prevent overheating and eliminates chills around the head and neck. Millions of invisible microcapsules inside the pillow shell absorb excess heat when you are hot and release heat when you are cold to maintain a comfortable temperature and humidity. Unlike lesser down pillows that are stuffed with small down clusters from young waterfowl, this pillow is filled with large down plumules from fully-grown birds, creating a more supple cushion. The down compresses to contour to the shape of your head and neck for optimal support and quickly reverts to its original shape when you raise your head. The pillow's gusset allows the down to expand and achieve its fullest loft and the 100% hypoallergenic cotton shell is smooth to the touch. Standard Soft. For those who sleep on their stomachs. 11 oz. of down.
Lifetime Guarantee
The Temperature Regulating Down Pillow (Standard Soft Density) comes with The Hammacher Schlemmer Lifetime Guarantee. If this product ever disappoints you, for any reason, you may return your Hammacher Schlemmer purchase for exchange, credit, or refund.
Should you have any questions, we are available seven days a week (8:00 am – midnight EST). Please call 1-800-321-1484 to speak with a specialist or email us at email@example.com to receive a response within three business hours or less.
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COPYRIGHT © 2018 HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER & COMPANY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. W103147 E. 57th ST • NEW YORK, NY • 10022 • 1-800-_321-1484


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So, this was touched upon in my questions in Dumbledore's thread, but I thought it belonged here instead. Basically, I'm writing about the propecy Trelawney made to Dumbledore, and I'm having a bit of bother with the timeline (dates etc aren't my strong point). Basically, when do people think it was made? What month and year? Were Alice and Lily already pregnant? What about when Snape relayed the information about Voldemort selecting Harry? When did that happen? Had Harry been born, or was Lily still pregnant? Did it occur days after the event, or weeks? Or even months or a year?
Any opinions would be great to help my head get round it!
Sarah x


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Two-out attack gets D-backs going in slugfest
PITTSBURGH -- For the Arizona Diamondbacks, the hits just kept on coming in the third inning. And they didn't stop there.
The D-backs banged out seven straight hits with two outs en route to a six-run third and a 15-5 win over the Pirates on Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd at PNC Park.Full Game Coverage
PITTSBURGH -- For the Arizona Diamondbacks, the hits just kept on coming in the third inning. And they didn't stop there.
The D-backs banged out seven straight hits with two outs en route to a six-run third and a 15-5 win over the Pirates on Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd at PNC Park.Full Game Coverage
The seven consecutive hits tied a club record set in 2004 and proved to be the undoing for Pirates starter Jeff Locke.
Locke started off the third inning in good shape as he retired Aaron Hill and Matt Davidson on a total of four pitches.
Those would be the last outs he would record, though, as the next seven hitters collected five singles, a double and a home run. The homer was a three-run shot off the bat of Martin Prado and it capped the six-run frame.
"He was falling behind, so he had to make a pitch and we took advantage of that," Prado said. "I was just trying to be calm with my body and let my hands do the work."
Locke was removed when Paul Goldschmidt followed the homer with a single to center. Reliever Jared Hughes retired Hill to end the inning with the D-backs leading, 8-0.
"A tough day all around, and obviously I started it off," said Locke, who fell to 9-4. "Today was a little bit of reality check, eye-opener for me, absolutely. As somebody who usually pitches better as the game progresses, up to this point, when I needed to make a pitch, I've been able to make that pitch. You're not going to be perfect every time; at the same time, you've got to minimize damage the best you can. The Prado homer really took the wind out of our sails."
The beneficiary of the run support was Trevor Cahill, who was making his first start since going on the disabled list July 1 with a bruised right hip.
Cahill tweaked his mechanics during his time on the DL, and it looked to pay dividends for him early in the game when he was getting on top of his sinker and got the downward movement he needed.
"It felt like my debut all over again," Cahill said. "It was a weird feeling, like I hadn't done it before."
Cahill hit a speed bump in the third, when the Pirates answered Arizona's six-run output with four runs of their own. Starling Marte hit a solo homer with two outs, and Pedro Alvarez followed later in the frame with a three-run shot, his National League-leading 30th of the year.
"Trev kind of fell out of it a little bit there," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "He was just trying to find the plate and threw balls down the middle and they hit a couple of home runs on him."
The win was the first for Cahill since May 17. In his two starts before going on the disabled list, Cahill allowed 12 runs in 9 1/3 innings. A big issue for him was not being able to locate the ball when he threw to his glove side -- inside to lefties and outside to righties.
After the first couple of innings he seemed to once again struggle with pitches to that side of the plate and he had trouble keeping his arm slot consistent.
"I didn't pitch great, but we won, so I'm just going to use that as positive and look at some video and work on some stuff tomorrow," Cahill said. "But for today I'm just going to enjoy the win."
The Pirates did not go quietly in this one as they put together a sixth-inning rally against reliever Will Harris and had the bases loaded before left-handed specialist Joe Thatcher struck out Neil Walker to end the threat with Arizona up, 8-5.
"Even though the game was 15-5, it was a close game," Gibson said. "They had a lot of pressure on us and we had to stop it. People are going to look at the score and think it was a blowout, but it was far from that. That's a good team over there, and they kept coming at us."
The D-backs put things away in the eighth, sending nine men to the plate and tacking on four runs. In the ninth, Goldschmidt went deep with a three-run shot, his 30th of the season, to give the D-backs a 10-run cushion and match Alvarez for the NL lead.
The 15 runs set a season high for Arizona.
"I feel like this is the beginning of what we should do from now on," Prado said.
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Inside the D-backs, and follow him on Twitter @SteveGilbertMLB.


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Little Bottles
Viewer Comments
Love your Webisodes all of
them. The weekly Webisodes
I really did like. I have
learned so much from you two
ladies. Keep up the good work.
You both are so much fun to watch and I learn so much! BTW Please share wedding photos Ann!
Keep up the good work--You both are AWESOME!!!! Blessings,
Paulette and Ann I LOVE your videos!! The glitter and beads are awesome! Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the webisodes showing ideals for your kits!! I always learned the coolest ideas from you ladies!! Look forward each week to see the both of you!!
I always appreciate your enthusiasm and sense of fun in your videos.
Love the necklace and those micro beads!
So pretty. Who manufactures them. Thanks, Holly
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
They are made by C-Thru, hope that helps!
I'm always on the lookout for homemade Christmas Ornament ideas for our exchange. I think the necklace would make a super cute ornament.
I am 75 years young and these bring back memories of when in grade school we used beads for Mother's Day presents. On my wish list!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I actually bought some of the glitter sets. I put them in a drawer...now I have some ideas of what to do with them. Thanks Paulette and Anne
Loved this webisode, however I must confess I was expecting to also see some ideas on what to do with the bottles after they were emptied.The bottles are so adorable I can imagine there would be a million things you could do with them once they are empty. Great job girls as always.
I'm not huge on gliter and beads because they can make such a mess, but I love the presentation of these and can't wait to try them! Just one question, how tall are the bottles??
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
They are 1 3/4" each :)
In a word...WOW! I love that each set has different sizes or styles of beads and glitter. Thanks!
Oh, how adorable! The styles and techniques you've shown in this webisode look so fun! The only thing you didn't mention is that when you're done enjoying the product, you still have those cute, cute bottles to do something with! How could you go wrong with these sets? They're definitely going on my wish list! Thanks for another wonderful webisode! Nancy
Oh my!!! Love the glitter and the beads!! I have been beading for years. If you don't have a beading needle.. just use dental floss for the bigger beads, or rub some glue stick on a double strand of thread... let dry.. and it's stiff enough to put beads on! Hummm?? What should I buy??? Thank you Ladies!
Paper Wishes Weekly Webisodes feature free scrapbooking video classes and card making video classes! Every week Paulette and Gail bring you new online scrapbooking or card making classes demonstrating the very latest paper craft and scrapbooking techniques. Each of our free card making and scrapbooking classes also gives you unique project ideas and tips from Paper Wishes' Design Team. Come back often so you don't miss any of the fun in our card making and scrapbooking classes! You are sure to be inspired! Also watch for our "Week of Webisodes" events where we feature new scrapbooking video classes daily!


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Twitter Reacts To Phil Jackson Joining The Knicks
All signs point to Phil Jackson joining the Knicks' front office. According to a source, "There are just some little things here and there that need to be worked out, but the Knicks are very confident that this is essentially done."
There's no final confirmation, but Carmelo Anthony reportedly said he heard it was true. Cool, so… Is Phil really coming to MSG and can he revive the team? Hopefully, jaded Knicks fans don't get an "or nah" in response. Check out how Twitter is reacting to the reports.