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Intel is sending out press invites for its upcoming Windows 8 tablet event scheduled for September 27th and although many of these tablets have already been unveiled at the IFA show in Berlin, Intel apparently wants to have an exclusive event for Windows 8 tablets.
As noted, Intel plans to host the event on September 27th and it will be held in San Francisco. According to the TheVerge.com, Intel has promised executive speakers from companies like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and ZTE. In addition to the full line of Windows 8 tablets Intel will also shed some additional light on its next-gen Clover Trail Intel Atom CPU, although we already saw a lot details during Intel IDF 2012 event.
In any case, we'll know for sure once the event kicks off on September 27th and it will surely be interesting to see a whole lineup of Windows 8 tablets on a single pile.
More here.


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Now I am sure you are scratching your head and saying "savory oatmeal??" But YES! This is something that may sound so weird but it is really good and we all need to try it. I love oatmeal but after a while it can get a little old or boring. Even after adding 1,000 different…… Continue reading Savory Oatmeal
Tag: mom
Lets start with a smoothie
Back in December of 2016 right after christmas I decided to do a smoothie cleanse. I clearly deep down hated myself because I had the bright idea to start the 30th. Yup. The day before new years eve when everyone celebrates with booze and delicious foods. Things I happen to enjoy. But hey if I…… Continue reading Lets start with a smoothie

subset: commoncrawl


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A facelift at Venters Park is just one of the things planned for Richlands.
A facelift at Venters Park is just one of the things planned for Richlands.
The town is applying for a Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant, which requires the town to pay 50 percent of the costs, to improve the park.
Improvements in the proposed $131,454 project include replacing the current gazebo with a picnic shelter that would include a grill and four tables; replacing the current play equipment with two playground areas that would include a jungle gym, play web, a set of swings, two spring riders, a rock wall and more; installing three fitness stations for adults that would allow them to do work such as sit ups, pull ups and chin ups; and installing four park benches, two trash cans and two pet waste disposal units.
�We�re going to replace everything you see in the park except the tire swing,� said Town Administrator Gregg Whitehead, who serves on the committee.
Of those costs, the grant would cover $65,727 while the town would cover $65,727, if approved.
If the grant is not approved, the primary play equipment, which includes the slides, would still be replaced and removed as possible, Whitehead said.
The Small Town Main Street Committee has several ideas for celebrating holidays in the park, including placing Christmas lights on the Wishing Tree that will be installed by spring and playing Christmas carols in the evenings. The group has also discussed hosting an event that allowed children to play on a slide made of fake snow.
�There�s so much stuff we can do,� said Ann-Marie Conner, a member of the committee and president of the Revitalize Richlands Commission.
The plans for the park have since gone to the Richlands Chamber of Commerce and the town�s Board of Aldermen, which approved the plans during its Tuesday night meeting.
The Small Town Main Street Committee was established in 2012 when the town was accepted into the Small Town Main Street Program, which is part of the N.C. Department of Commerce�s Community Development division.
The program assists communities with organizational development, market analysis, business assistance, promotions and design.
Melissa Worrell, a director of the Richlands Chamber of Commerce who serves on the committee, said the town being selected for the program was a �blessing� due to the guidance the committee receives.
�Our committee is enthusiastic about the preservation and restoration of the existing downtown buildings, the recruitment of new businesses, and attraction of families to enjoy recreation, shopping and dining in our quaint, historic town. We are trying to achieve this by improving the streetscapes, public park and building facades; promoting the area businesses; and attracting new businesses,� she said.
The committee has also received its first facade grant request, which helps area businesses refurbish the exterior of their business.
Richlands Barbershop will soon see a new front, complete with a red awning and red and gold lettering on the front window.
Owner Danny Smith said that all he had to do was fill out the paperwork, and the committee contacted him about what he�d like to see and then they got estimates.
�It was really not that hard of a deal,� Smith said.
Smith said that of the approximately $3,000 job, he�ll be paying 50 percent of the cost while the grant covers the other half.
The building, he said, was built in 1956. He�s been operating the barbershop in that location for 35 years.
While the committee has aimed to get new businesses in the downtown area, they have hit roadblocks, Conner said.
Conner told the committee that recently she has had two people approach her about going downtown but there are not any move-in ready locations to rent even though there are several downtown storefronts not being used.
As a result, the committee decided to postpone recruiting new businesses but rather hopes to recruit investors who are interested in buying locations in the downtown area.
The committee will meet again at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13. During the meeting, Whitehead will present a proposed nonresidential structure code that will aim to get buildings in the downtown area back in use.
If interested in more information regarding investment in the downtown area, contact committee chairman, Paul Conner at 910-340-5961 or town administrator Gregg Whitehead at 910-324-3301.
Amanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at email@example.com.


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Summer is right around the corner, and we need to start getting prepared. Yes I know you are all worried about getting your figure ready for summer, but you know what's more important than that? Protecting your skin from the harmful sun. All the hard work and expensive products you've put into/onto your face over the cooler months to get your pigmentation under control is all going to be a big fat waste of time if you don't put into place protective measures over Spring/Summer. And we all know what this means… yep, slip, slop, slap.
Now I hear you all groaning from here. "Blerghhh sunscreen is so sticky and smelly", "Erghh how am I supposed to look stylish whilst trying to be sun safe", "How am I supposed to wear sunscreen EVERYYYY day???". Well I have some style tips and products that will set you up for summer and have you looking your stylish sun-safe best in time for those hot weekends ahead!
Going to the beach doesn't have to be all garish rash shirts and fluro zinc… grap yourself a floppy wide-brimmed hat (from the Surf shops or somewhere like Sunburn) and a pair of stylish oversized sunnies, like the gorgeous House of Harlow Chelsea sunglasses (pictured below) to protect yourself from the sun. Also remember to take a clip/barrette like the Mimco one pictured below to whip your hair up into a stylish low bun so that you aren't caught out with scraggly surf hair after your swim.
My pick for the best protective skin care in Summer (or anytime) would be the great products from Invisible Zinc. Doubling as a high performance sunscreen and moisturiser, Invisible Zinc offers a diverse range of products to help relieve your skin from daily obstacles such as dry flaky skin, dark spots and sun damage. The secret is Invisible Zinc's chemical free formula, designed to protect you against harmful UVA and UVB rays whilst providing powerful antioxidants to make your skin look radiant and flawless.
The stand out product for me is the INVISIBLE ZINC UV Silk Shield Foundation (15g RRP AU$42) which is a hybrid of a SPF 30+ chemical free sunscreen and stick foundation. In fact, if you were none the wiser, you could be tricked into thinking this is just a stick foundation! No stickiness, no obvious sunscreen smell, no shine, and best of all… HEAPS of coverage. Like I said, this performs exactly like a full coverage cream to powder foundation stick. I love that this is a skin care, sun protection and makeup product all-in-one! It sure does come in handy when you have minimal time to get ready in the morning, as it cuts out so many extra steps. So how does it wear you ask? GREAT! This lasts all day on me (8hrs) and I have oily skin. It covers pigmentation and imperfections and I find it hardly needs a powder. Just swipe and rub in with you fingers. It glides smoothly onto the skin (like SILK!) and provides a luminous, fresh skin finish. The shade I have (medium) is a great match too. The shade variety is very limited though, so that might be a problem for some. I advise you test swatch them first, Myer and David Jones usually have testers out for this.
The other product I have been trialling is the INVISIBLE ZINC Staying Powder (12g RRP AU$38.00) which is a no-colour, setting powder specially designed to set and fix the IZ Tinted Daywear Anti-Ageing Moisturising Sunscreen (which needs a setting powder) and give a perfect natural finish. The product says it should melt into the skin and be invisible, sadly, for me this product kind of sits in my pores and is quite visible. It could just happen over the top of the UV Silk Shield Foundation, as it was designed to set the Tinted Daywear sunscreen, so I'm only using it when I'm wearing the tinted sunscreen (which it behaves much better with) for trips to the beach, gardening etc. The tinted daywear is much more like a sunscreen, and is a bit oilier than the Silk Shield Foundation and has less coverage.
Dab on some INVISIBLE ZINC Tinted Lip + Cheek Balm (12g RRP AU$18.00) and waterproof mascara, and you are ready to go.
Stockists include Myer, David Jones, Adore Beauty, Priceline and selected premium pharmacies. For stockist details please call 1300 738 850 or visit www.invisiblezinc.com
[Image Source: adorebeauty.com.au beautyheaven.com.au ]


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Diamond Brite, Color Verde.
Each bag = 80 Pound.
Minimum order of 30 Bags if out of South Florida Area.
Diamond Brite™ Finishes are blends of selected quartz aggregates and fortified white portland cement ideal for new or re-finished swimming pools.
Available in a variety of colors and textures. Diamond Brite finishes are factory blended to provide the pool owner with an extremely durable and attractive alternative to traditional pool coatings.
•Superior Bonding
•High strength and rapid curing
•Extremely etch resistant
•Ease of application
•Aggregate exposure easily controlled
Each 80 lb. bag will cover approximately 22 sq. ft. , to a thickness of 3/8". Surface roughness affects coverage rates.
4 ply heavy duty poly-lined bad, net wt. 80 lb.


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El Chamuco Roboto
El Chamuco Roboto is an automaton advertised in Grand Theft Auto IV. It is manufactured by Electro Toys, who also made the Domestobot of the GTA III Era. As its name suggests, the robot is modeled after a stereotypical Mexican and performs jobs that a typical Mexican American, legal or otherwise, would do, such as gardening. The player can find more info on the El Chamuco Roboto on their website. The robot sells for $9,999 according to the website.


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News & Events
For the Media
Clarkson University Ice Carnival Returns Next Week
Clarkson University students have heard stories about the "Ice Carnivals" of previous decades -- tales of giant ice sculptures towering over Potsdam and the entire Village of Potsdam participating in winter events.
This winter, the students want to do more than hear about memories of old Carnivals. They're ready to make new memories of their own.
The 2013 Clarkson Ice Carnival, "Go Snow Yourself," will be held from January 27 to February 2. Clarkson Residence Life, Student Life and Engagement, and eight fraternities and sororities are co-sponsoring and organizing the event.
The weeklong carnival will provide students an opportunity to take advantage of all that winter has to offer, according to Megan Burke, public relations committee chair for the Clarkson University Student Association. The event sponsors are trying to restore the carnival to its former prominence, she said.
"It used to be amazing. That's what I've been told," Burke said. "Everyone would come out and participate together. I guess we're just trying to get that unity back on campus."
If there is enough snow and ice next week, the ice sculpture competition, a former staple of winter life in Potsdam, will return. The students hope to eventually create ice sculptures that rivaled the ambition and creativity of the sculptures from the 1970s and 1980s, Burke said. Weather permitting, the sculptures will be judged from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 30, on the grounds surrounding the Student Center and in front of the off-campus Greek houses.
Clarkson's fraternities and sororities are also looking forward to the event, according to student Zachary A. Farbanish of the Interfraternity Council.
"This is one event that brings all of Greek life together," Farbanish said. "I know the potential to bring this back is there."
The "Ice Carnival Kickoff" is from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday, January 27, outside the Student Center and includes a cookout, s'mores, hot chocolate and a pie eating contest. The public can view the window paintings on display in the Student Center, which will be judged from 4 to 5 p.m. on Monday, January 28, and watch the human dog sled/ soapbox races at 6 p.m. January 29 on Bagdad Field.
Get your photos taken with Clarkson's Golden Knight and decorate sugar cookies at an alumni reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, February 1, in the Brilbeck Pub in the Student Center.
Students are traveling to Ottawa February 2 for Winterlude and will return for the annual "Ice Ball" dance that night.
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in five alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/ice-carnival-1970s.jpg.]
Photo caption: Ice sculptures towered over Potsdam's streets during the Clarkson University Ice Carnivals held in previous decades. Clarkson is bringing back the carnival this year, which will include an ice sculpture contest (weather permitting) from January 27 to February 2.


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Patriots coach Bill Belichick has taken some heat for having tight end Rob Gronkowski on the field for a fourth-quarter extra point that resulted in Gronkowski suffering a broken arm. Jets coach Rex Ryan thinks that's dumb.
Ryan, who is preparing to play a Gronkowski-less Patriots team on Thursday, told reporters today that every team uses important players on extra points, and no coach should be criticized for that.
"Absolutely ridiculous," Ryan said, via Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. "[Gronkowski] is on an extra point. He's probably done it 100 times this year for the simple fact that's how many points they score. You never see that. Every single team in the league, we have D'Brickashaw Ferguson there."
Ryan said coaches can't go through games worrying about injuries.
"You don't play the game that way and it's just an unfortunate thing," Ryan said. "That's just a freak deal that that would happen. But unfortunately that's part of the game. Injuries do happen. We lose [wide receiver Santonio] Holmes and [cornerback Darrelle] Revis to non-contact injuries and it's just one of those things and it's unfortunate, obviously."
Belichick's decision to keep Tom Brady in Sunday's game, throwing passes, with a 28-point lead deep in the fourth quarter is a more questionable move. But on the Gronkowski injury, it's hard to disagree with Ryan: A broken arm on an extra point is a freak occurrence, not something Belichick should have seen coming.


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Shibboleth Error
You're seeing this message because there was an issue authenticating for the service you wish to access. Most likely, you are using a bookmark or link that goes directly to the shibboleth authentication page (shibboleth2.uchicago.edu). This will not work. You should make sure you are going directly to the web page for the service you wish to access, such as my.uchicago.edu or classes.uchicago.edu; if you are going to the correct page, it will then bounce you to the shibboleth authentication page and you should be able to access that normally. Please close your browser, reopen it, and then go to the website you wish to reach.
The University of Chicago relies on a service called Shibboleth to provide login authentication to University and external web services.
Shibboleth allows users with a valid CNetID to access multiple web applications with a single sign-on. Once a user logs in to one resource, they are granted access to multiple web applications, for which they have appropriate permissions, without being prompted to log in at each. When Shibboleth is utilized to control access to external web services, the system will evaluate the user's credentials and determine if access may be granted to the secure site. Whether or not the user may be granted access to secure external services with their CNetID depends on their affiliation with the University, various permissions associated with their account, and the requirements of the external service.
You may be seeing this page because you used the Back button while browsing a secure web site or application. Alternatively, you may have mistakenly bookmarked the web login form instead of the actual web site you wanted to bookmark or used a link created by somebody else who made the same mistake.
If you have just registered for Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), please close your browser, reopen it, and then go to the website you wish to reach.
Left unchecked, this can cause errors on some browsers or result in you returning to the web site you tried to leave, so this page is presented instead.
Questions? Please contact the help desk or call 1 773 702-5800 for support.
Alumni account holders may contact firstname.lastname@example.com or call 1-877-292-3945 between 9 AM and 3 PM CST with any questions.


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On Sunday, October 7 at 3:00, Mexican novelist, poet, and playwright Carmen Boullosa will give a talk entitled "The Struggle is on the Walls: Antecedents and Inheritors of the TGP," in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition El Taller de Gráfica Popular / The Workshop of Popular Graphic Arts. The talk will be held in Aaron Burr Hall, Rm. 219, and is open to the public free of charge. A reception will follow the lecture at 4:00.
The Graphic Arts collection is fortunate to have acquired a small group of posters and fliers by the TGP (http://diglib.princeton.edu). A selection are on view until February 10, 2008 in the Milberg Gallery for Graphic Arts. The exhibition and associated events are made possible with the joint support of the Friends of the Princeton University Library and the Program of Latin American Studies. For more information, see http://www.princeton.edu/rbsc/exhibitions/milberg.html.


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David Podley necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 46 diseños de 20 diseñadores freelance.
Finances are our thing, graphic design is yours. We're betting one of you can come up with something that knocks our socks off.
Penny Puddle
We're developing an online financial planning tool that will help people figure out what their financial future holds for them. Our goal is to provide peace of mind to those who are overwhelmed when they try to guess what their 401k, IRA, and college planning look like for them, whether in one decade or in five.
What we're looking for is a design that is memorable and draws attention to the name. Some sort of graphic that doesn't take away from the words would be swell. We're limiting the design to two colors because of printing reasons. This logo will be used both online and in print.
- Two colors
- Should be able to be printed in one color (it would be great if you provide both one- and two-color images)
- Sophisticated with a touch of web 2.0.
- Blues and gray would be great. Red is probably too bold for us.
- Room for a tagline (we haven't determined the tagline yet, so you can make one up or just say "your tagline goes here")
- Art provided in EPS format and the icon image provided in the appropriate format.
- No transparency in the design (unless it's white space - example: for the .ico file
- Nothing too glossy (too web 2.0 looking) (I know the wants list includes a touch of 2.0, but don't go overboard)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Fire Fighter Spring Assisted Rescue Pocket Knife Black
Heavy duty spring assisted rescue knife with enamel Fire Department medallion mounted into the aluminum handle. Surgical steel half serrated blade with thumb stud is imprinted with "Fire Fighter". Includes a handy pocket/belt clip. Spring Assisted - touch the thumb stud, and it flies open and locks in place. The seat belt cutter and window breaker makes this an important tool to carry.
- 3 1/2" Blade Length
- 8" Overall Length
- Includes Thumb Stud & Pocket Clip


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Hi guys me again, is it possible to hide a widget after someone registers and logs in on my site?
We want to run a promotion in a text widget to try and encourage people to join up but then dont want it showing after they have done it if that makes sence.
Thanks in advance.


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Ernie Wise
Explore your roots & tell us your family's history!
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Ernie Wise
My late Grandmother passed away a few years ago at the age of 94. Her maiden name was Wilde. She used to tell me for years that as a child her family lived in a street called "Wardour" something or other. She said they jokingly referred to it as "Wardour Villa" Not sure about the spelling. She claimed that she lived next door to Ernie Wise and his family. He was a small child at the time and occasionally she used to baby sit him. She said he used to dance on their kitchen table! She also told me something about his father getting one of her brothers a job at either the Queens hotel or on the railway, or something like that. It all seemed a bit "far-fetched" to me and I just took it with a pinch of salt. Just wondered if there could be any truth in this at all?? Any information would be good! Although I'm not expecting any. Thanks.
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Calendar, any system for dividing time over extended periods, such as days, months, or years, and arranging such divisions in a definite order. A calendar is convenient for regulating civil life and religious observances and for historical and scientific purposes. The word is derived from the Latin calendarium, meaning "interest register" or "account book," itself a derivation from calendae (or kalendae), the first day of the month in the Roman republican calendar, the day on which future market days, feasts, and other occasions were proclaimed.
The development of a calendar is vital for the study of chronology, since this is concerned with reckoning time by regular divisions, or periods, and using these to date events. It is essential, too, for any civilization that needs to measure periods for agricultural, business, domestic, or other reasons. The first practical calendar to evolve from these requirements was the Egyptian, and it was this that the Romans developed into the Julian calendar that served western Europe for more than 1,500 years. The Gregorian calendar was a further improvement and has been almost universally adopted because it satisfactorily draws into one system the dating of religious festivals based on the phases of the Moon and seasonal activities determined by the movement of the Sun. Such a calendar system is complex, since the periods of the Moon's phases and the Sun's motion are incompatible; but by adopting regular cycles of days and comparatively simple rules for their application, the calendar provides a year with an error of less than half a minute.
Measurement of time and types of calendars
Standard units and cycles
The basic unit of computation in a calendar is the day. Although days are now measured from midnight to midnight, this has not always been so. Astronomers, for instance, from about the 2nd century ce until 1925, counted days from noon to noon. In earlier civilizations and among primitive peoples, where there was less communication between different settlements or groups, different methods of reckoning the day presented no difficulties. Most primitive tribes used a dawn-to-dawn reckoning, calling a succession of days so many dawns, or suns. Later the Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks counted a day from sunset to sunset, whereas the day was said to begin at dawn for the Hindus and Egyptians and at midnight for the Romans. The Teutons counted nights, and from them the grouping of 14 days called a fortnight is derived.
There was also great variety in the ways in which the day was subdivided. In Babylonia, for example, the astronomical day was divided differently than the civil day, which, as in other ancient cultures, was composed of "watches." The length of the watches was not constant but varied with the season, the day watches being the longer in summer and the night watches in the winter. Such seasonal variations in divisions of the day, now called seasonal or temporal hours, became customary in antiquity because they corresponded to the length of the Sun's time above the horizon, at maximum in summer and at minimum in winter. Only with the advent of mechanical clocks in western Europe at the end of the 13th century did seasonal (unequal) hours become inconvenient.
Most early Western civilizations used 24 seasonal hours in the day—12 hours of daylight and 12 of darkness. This was the practice of the Greeks, the Sumerians and Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Romans—and of Western Christendom so far as civil reckoning was concerned. The church adopted its own canonical hours for reckoning daily worship: there were seven of these—matins, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline—but in secular affairs the system of 24 hours held sway. This number, 2 × 12, or 24, was derived in Babylonia from the Sumerian sexagesimal method of reckoning, based on gradations of 60 (5 × 12 = 60) rather than on multiples of 10. In Babylonia, for most purposes, both daylight and night were divided into three equal watches, and each watch was subdivided into half- and quarter-watches. Babylonian astronomers, perhaps in preference to the variable civil system, divided every day into 12 equal units, called bēru, each of which was subdivided into 30 gesh. The oldest known astronomical texts are from the Old Babylonian period, but this dual system may be attributable to earlier Sumerian society.
Once the day is divided into parts, the next task is to gather numbers of days into groups. Among primitive peoples, it was common to count moons (months) rather than days, but later a period shorter than the month was thought more convenient, and an interval between market days was adopted. In West Africa some tribes used a four-day interval; in central Asia five days was customary; the Assyrians adopted five days and the Egyptians 10 days, whereas the Babylonians attached significance to the days of the lunation that were multiples of seven. In ancient Rome, markets were held at eight-day intervals; because of the Roman method of inclusive numeration, the market day was denoted nundinae ("ninth-day") and the eight-day week an inter nundium.
The seven-day week may owe its origin partly to the four (approximately) seven-day phases of the Moon and partly to the Babylonian belief in the sacredness of the number seven, which was probably related to the seven planets. Moreover, by the 1st century bce the Jewish seven-day week seems to have been adopted throughout the Roman world, and this influenced Christendom. The names in English of the days of the week are derived from Latin or Anglo-Saxon names of gods.
The month is based on the lunation, that period in which the Moon completes a cycle of its phases. The period lasts approximately 29 1/2 days, and it is easy to recognize and short enough for the days to be counted without using large numbers. In addition, it is very close to the average menstrual period of women and also to the duration of cyclic behaviour in some marine creatures. Thus, the month possessed great significance and was often the governing period for religious observances, of which the dating of Easter is a notable example. Most early calendars were, essentially, collections of months, the Babylonians using 29- and 30-day periods alternately, the Egyptians fixing the duration of all months at 30 days, with the Greeks copying them, and the Romans in the Julian calendar having a rather more complex system using one 28-day period with the others of either 30 or 31 days.
The month is not suitable for determining the seasons, for these are a solar, not lunar, phenomenon. Seasons vary in different parts of the world. In tropical countries there are just the rainy and dry periods, but elsewhere there are successions of wider changes. In Egypt the annual flooding of the Nile was followed by seeding and then harvest, and three seasons were recognized; but in Greece and other more northern countries there was a succession of four seasons of slightly different lengths. However many there seemed to be, it was everywhere recognized that seasons were related to the Sun and that they could be determined from solar observations. These might consist of noting the varying length of the midday shadow cast by a stick thrust vertically into the ground or follow the far more sophisticated procedure of deducing from nocturnal observations the Sun's position against the background of the stars. In either case the result was a year of 365 days, a period incompatible with the 29 1/2-day lunation. To find some simple relationship between the two periods was the problem that faced all calendar makers from Babylonian times onward.
A number of non-astronomical natural signs have also been used in determining the seasons. In the Mediterranean area such indications change rapidly, and Greek poet Hesiod (c. 800 bce) mentions a wide variety: the cry of migrating cranes, which indicated a time for plowing and sowing; the time when snails climb up plants, after which digging in vineyards should cease; and so on. An unwitting approximation to the tropical year may also be obtained by intercalation, using a simple lunar calendar and observations of animal behaviour. Such an unusual situation grew up among the Yami fishermen of Botel Tobago Island (Lan Yü, Taiwan). They use a calendar based on phases of the Moon, and sometime about March—the precise date depends on the degree of error of their lunar calendar compared with the tropical year—they go out in boats with lighted flares. If flying fish appear, the fishing season is allowed to commence, but if the lunar calendar is too far out of step with the seasons, the flying fish will not rise. Fishing is then postponed for another lunation, which they insert in the lunar calendar, thus having a year of 13 instead of the usual 12 lunations.
Time determination by stars, Sun, and Moon
Celestial bodies provide the basic standards for determining the periods of a calendar. Their movement as they rise and set is now known to be a reflection of the Earth's rotation, which, although not precisely uniform, can conveniently be averaged out to provide a suitable calendar day. The day can be measured either by the stars or by the Sun. If the stars are used, then the interval is called the sidereal day and is defined by the period between two passages of a star (more precisely of the vernal equinox, a reference point on the celestial sphere) across the meridian: it is 23 hours 56 minutes 4.10 seconds of mean solar time. The interval between two passages of the Sun across the meridian is a solar day. In practice, since the rate of the Sun's motion varies with the seasons, use is made of a fictitious Sun that always moves across the sky at an even rate. This period of constant length, far more convenient for civil purposes, is the mean solar day, which has a duration in sidereal time of 24 hours 3 minutes 56.55 seconds. It is longer than the sidereal day because the motion of the Earth in its orbit during the period between two transits of the Sun means that the Earth must complete more than a whole revolution to bring the Sun back to the meridian. The mean solar day is the period used in calendar computation.
The month is determined by the Moon's passage around the Earth, and, as in the case of the day, there are several ways in which it can be defined. In essence, these are of two kinds: first, the period taken by the Moon to complete an orbit of the Earth and, second, the time taken by the Moon to complete a cycle of phases. Among primitive societies, the month was determined from the phases; this interval, the synodic month, is now known to be 29.53059 days. The synodic month grew to be the basis of the calendar month.
The year is the period taken by the Earth to complete an orbit around the Sun and, again, there are a number of ways in which this can be measured. But for calculating a calendar that is to remain in step with the seasons, it is most convenient to use the tropical year, since this refers directly to the Sun's apparent annual motion. The tropical year is defined as the interval between successive passages of the Sun through the vernal equinox (i.e., when it crosses the celestial equator late in March) and amounts to 365.242199 mean solar days.
The tropical year and the synodic month are incommensurable, 12 synodic months amounting to 354.36706 days, almost 11 days shorter than the tropical year. Moreover, neither is composed of a complete number of days, so that to compile any calendar that keeps in step with the Moon's phases or with the seasons it is necessary to insert days at appropriate intervals; such additions are known as intercalations.
In primitive lunar calendars, intercalation was often achieved by taking alternately months of 29 and 30 days. When, in order to keep dates in step with the seasons, a solar calendar was adopted, some greater difference between the months and the Moon's phases was bound to occur. And the solar calendar presented an even more fundamental problem—that of finding the precise length of the tropical year. Observations of cyclic changes in plant or animal life were far too inaccurate, and astronomical observations became necessary. Since the stars are not visible when the Sun is in the sky, some indirect way had to be found to determine its precise location among them. In tropical and subtropical countries it was possible to use the method of heliacal risings. Here the first task was to determine the constellations around the whole sky through which the Sun appears to move in the course of a year. Then, by observing the stars rising in the east just after sunset it was possible to know which were precisely opposite in the sky, where the Sun lay at that time. Such heliacal risings could, therefore, be used to determine the seasons and the tropical year. In temperate countries, the angle at which stars rise up from the horizon is not steep enough for this method to be adopted, so that there wood or stone structures were built to mark out points along the horizon to allow analogous observations to be made.
The most famous of these is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Eng., where the original structure appears to have been built about 2000 bce and additions made at intervals several centuries later. It is composed of a series of holes, stones, and archways arranged mostly in circles, the outermost ring of holes having 56 marked positions, the inner ones 30 and 29, respectively. In addition, there is a large stone—the heel stone—set to the northeast, as well as some smaller stone markers. Observations were made by lining up holes or stones with the heel stone or one of the other markers and watching for the appearance of the Sun or Moon against that point on the horizon that lay in the same straight line. The extreme north and south positions on the horizon of the Sun—the summer and winter solstices—were particularly noted, while the inner circles, with their 29 and 30 marked positions, allowed "hollow" and "full" (29- or 30-day) lunar months to be counted off. More than 600 contemporaneous structures of an analogous but simpler kind have been discovered in Britain, in Brittany, and elsewhere in Europe and the Americas. It appears, then, that astronomical observation for calendrical purposes was a widespread practice in some temperate countries three to four millennia ago.
Today a solar calendar is kept in step with the seasons by a fixed rule of intercalation. But although the Egyptians, who used the heliacal rising of Sirius to determine the annual inundation of the Nile, knew that the tropical year was about 365.25 days in length, they still used a 365-day year without intercalation. This meant that the calendar date of Sirius' rising became increasingly out of step with the original dates as the years progressed. In consequence, while the agricultural seasons were regulated by the heliacal rising of Sirius, the civil calendar ran its own separate course. It was not until well into Roman times that an intercalary day once every four years was instituted to retain coincidence.
Complex cycles
The fact that neither months nor years occupied a whole number of days was recognized quite early in all the great civilizations. Some observers also realized that the difference between calendar dates and the celestial phenomena due to occur on them would first increase and then diminish until the two were once more in coincidence. The succession of differences and coincidences would be cyclic, recurring time and again as the years passed. An early recognition of this phenomenon was the Egyptian Sothic cycle, based on the star Sirius (called Sothis by the ancient Egyptians). The error with respect to the 365-day year and the heliacal risings of Sirius amounted to one day every four tropical years, or one whole Egyptian calendar year every 1,460 tropical years (4 × 365), which was equivalent to 1,461 Egyptian calendar years. After this period the heliacal rising and setting of Sothis would again coincide with the calendar dates (see below The Egyptian calendar).
The main use of cycles was to try to find some commensurable basis for lunar and solar calendars, and the best known of all the early attempts was the octaëteris, usually attributed to Cleostratus of Tenedos (c. 500 bce) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (390–c. 340 bce). The cycle covered eight years, as its name implies, and so the octaëteris amounted to 8 × 365, or 2,920 days. This was very close to the total of 99 lunations (99 × 29.5 = 2,920.5 days), so this cycle gave a worthwhile link between lunar and solar calendars. When in the 4th century bce the accepted length of the year became 365.25 days, the total number of solar calendar days involved became 2,922, and it was then realized that the octaëteris was not as satisfactory a cycle as supposed.
Another early and important cycle was the saros, essentially an eclipse cycle. There has been some confusion over its precise nature because the name is derived from the Babylonian word shār or shāru, which could mean either "universe" or the number 3,600 (i.e., 60 × 60). In the latter sense it was used by Berosus (c. 290 bce) and a few later authors to refer to a period of 3,600 years. What is now known as the saros and appears as such in astronomical textbooks (still usually credited to the Babylonians) is a period of 18 years 11 1/3 days (or with one day more or less, depending on how many leap years are involved), after which a series of eclipses is repeated.
In Central America an independent system of cycles was established (see below The Americas). The most significant of all the early attempts to provide some commensurability between a religious lunar calendar and the tropical year was the Metonic cycle. This was first devised about 432 bce by the astronomer Meton of Athens. Meton worked with another Athenian astronomer, Euctemon, and made a series of observations of the solstices, when the Sun's noonday shadow cast by a vertical pillar, or gnomon, reaches its annual maximum or minimum, to determine the length of the tropical year. Taking a synodic month to be 29.5 days, they then computed the difference between 12 of these lunations and their tropical year, which amounted to 11 days. It could be removed by intercalating a month of 33 days every third year. But Meton and Euctemon wanted a long-term rule that would be as accurate as they could make it, and they therefore settled on a 19-year cycle. This cycle consisted of 12 years of 12 lunar months each and seven years each of 13 lunar months, a total of 235 lunar months. If this total of 235 lunations is taken to contain 110 hollow months of 29 days and 125 full months of 30 days, the total comes to (110 × 29) + (125 × 30), or 6,940 days. The difference between this lunar calendar and a solar calendar of 365 days amounted to only five days in 19 years and, in addition, gave an average length for the tropical year of 365.25 days, a much-improved value that was, however, allowed to make no difference to daily reckoning in the civil calendar. But the greatest advantage of this cycle was that it laid down a lunar calendar that possessed a definite rule for inserting intercalary months and kept in step with a cycle of the tropical years. It also gave a more accurate average value for the tropical year and was so successful that it formed the basis of the calendar adopted in the Seleucid empire (Mesopotamia) and was used in the Jewish calendar and the calendar of the Christian church; it also influenced Indian astronomical teaching.
The Metonic cycle was improved by both Callippus and Hipparchus. Callippus of Cyzicus (c. 370–300 bce) was perhaps the foremost astronomer of his day. He formed what has been called the Callippic period, essentially a cycle of four Metonic periods. It was more accurate than the original Metonic cycle and made use of the fact that 365.25 days is a more precise value for the tropical year than 365 days. The Callippic period consisted of 4 × 235, or 940 lunar months, but its distribution of hollow and full months was different from Meton's. Instead of having totals of 440 hollow and 500 full months, Callippus adopted 441 hollow and 499 full, thus reducing the length of four Metonic cycles by one day. The total days involved therefore became (441 × 29) + (499 × 30), or 27,759, and 27,759 ÷ (19 × 4) gives 365.25 days exactly. Thus the Callippic cycle fitted 940 lunar months precisely to 76 tropical years of 365.25 days.
Hipparchus, who flourished in Rhodes about 150 bce and was probably the greatest observational astronomer of antiquity, discovered from his own observations and those of others made over the previous 150 years that the equinoxes, where the ecliptic (the Sun's apparent path) crosses the celestial equator (the celestial equivalent of the terrestrial Equator), were not fixed in space but moved slowly in a westerly direction. The movement is small, amounting to no more than 2° in 150 years, and it is known now as the precession of the equinoxes. Calendrically, it was an important discovery because the tropical year is measured with reference to the equinoxes, and precession reduced the value accepted by Callippus. Hipparchus calculated the tropical year to have a length of 365.242 days, which was very close to the present calculation of 365.242199 days; he also computed the precise length of a lunation, using a "great year" of four Callippic cycles. He arrived at the value of 29.53058 days for a lunation, which, again, is comparable with the present-day figure, 29.53059 days.
The calendar dating of historical events and the determination of how many days have elapsed since some astronomical or other occurrence are difficult for a number of reasons. Leap years have to be inserted, but, not always regularly, months have changed their lengths and new ones have been added from time to time and years have commenced on varying dates and their lengths have been computed in various ways. Since historical dating must take all these factors into account, it occurred to the 16th-century French classicist and literary scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609) that a consecutive numbering system could be of inestimable help. This he thought should be arranged as a cyclic period of great length, and he worked out the system that is known as the Julian period. He published his proposals in Paris in 1583 under the title Opus de emendatione temporum.
The Julian period is a cycle of 7,980 years. It is based on the Metonic cycle of 19 years, a "solar cycle" of 28 years, and the Indiction cycle of 15 years. The so-called solar cycle was a period after which the days of the seven-day week repeated on the same dates. Since one year contains 52 weeks of seven days, plus one day, the days of the week would repeat every seven years were no leap year to intervene. A Julian calendar leap year cycle is four years, therefore the days of the week repeat on the same dates every 4 × 7 = 28 years. The cycle of the Indiction was a fiscal, not astronomical, period. It first appears in tax receipts for Egypt in 303 ce and probably took its origin in a periodic 15-year taxation census that followed Diocletian's reconquest of Egypt in 297 ce. By multiplying the Metonic, solar, and Indiction cycles together, Scaliger obtained his cycle of 7,980 years (19 × 28 × 15 = 7,980), a period of sufficient length to cover most previous and future historical dates required at any one time.
Scaliger, tracing each of the three cycles back in time, found that all coincided in the year 4713 bce, on the Julian calendar reckoning. On the information available to him, he believed this to be a date considerably before any historical events. He therefore set the beginning of the first Julian period at January 1, 4713 bce. The years of the Julian period are not now used, but the day number is still used in astronomy and in preparing calendar tables, for it is the only record where days are free from combination into weeks and months.Colin Alistair Ronan


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The caustics postFX always annoyed me, it is a nice addition, the problem is just that it is in full strength everywhere.
It simulates the light shining through the waving water surface producing reflections on the ground, but it should decrease the deeper you go into the water, since the light intensity decreases with depth.
How hard would that be to program? I don't know much about shaders, but what I imagined is to have the whole effect decrease over distance in the z-axis, like 100% intensity at 1 meter then it decreases until it reaches 0% at 20 meter water deep or so.
Currently I made a workaround by just decreaseing the overall strength of the effect, it helps a bit.
Another small problem I have with caustics is that the intensity changes depending on your look angle, the effect is fully visible if you look straight ahead, but the more to the ground you look the more the effect disappears and if you look 90 degree straight down, it is completely invisible. So why is that? How hard would it be to fix?


text: Spring Insurance Price Mutes Activity April 3, 2013 04:02 AM Tweet TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By Jeanne Bernick Top Producer Editor Email There was not much activity in recent weeks from the advisers in the Archer Financial Services, Inc. Ag Hedge Program. Hedging appeared to be muted by the setting of the spring insurance price, notes Scott Harms, Archer Financial Services. "With the average 2013 corn crop sales already at 38% and 2013 soybean sales at 23%, the advisers seemed comfortable waiting to see the results of the insurance price before determining their next step," Harms says. The little activity that did occur was advancing 2012 crop soybeans sales, as old crop prices failed to surpass the $15 level. Additionally, the anticipation of Brazilian soybeans hitting the global market had advisers pulling the trigger, he says. With the weather becoming more of an issue and the March 28 stocks acreage report looming, trade activity is expected to remain limited. Marketing 30 Years. The biggest shifts during the previous 30 years are increased volatility and global factors influence on domestic commodity prices. "The increased volatility might largely be seen as negative, but that increased volatility also provides opportunity," Harms says. "It forces the producer to be ever more vigilant in developing a marketing plan." In addition to the fundamental changes, including a demand base that more than doubled and a new price plateau in commodities, the advisers have had to adapt to the increased number of players in today's market and what triggers them to enter or exit commodities. If you have any questions or comments regarding the track record information, contact Mark Soderberg, Tim Smith or Scott Harms of Archer Financial Services, Inc., at (800) 933-3996. Back to news


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Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 04:34 pm
She may be innocent
Battered wife seeks freedom after conviction for abusive husband's murder
In the early morning hours of Dec. 3, 1986, Richard Harshbarger grabbed his .38 caliber revolver and a homemade bat, climbed into his Dodge Rampage truck, and departed from his home in Pana. His younger sister, Peggy Jo Jackson, lived in the southern Illinois town of Mt. Vernon with her abusive husband, William Jackson, and Harshbarger was on a mission to "teach William a lesson."
Accompanying Harshbarger on his trip was his sister-in-law, Debra Gatons, whom Harshbarger offered $5,000 to come along. What happened when they arrived in Mt. Vernon is disputed, but it ended with William Jackson's corpse burnt in the family station wagon at the bottom of a ravine.
Peggy Jo had grown up in southern Illinois and married William when she was just 18. At first their marriage seemed normal, but Peggy Jo would later tell of longstanding mental, verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her husband. William installed in their home a phone line that could only receive calls instead of making them, Peggy Jo said. He forced her to work on the farm immediately after returning home from a hysterectomy. He regularly beat their children, and he raped, beat and threatened to kill Peggy Jo. The abuse intensified in the months leading up to William's death.
The whole family was still asleep when Harshbarger and Gatons arrived at the Jackson house. Harshbarger's story differed from Gatons' – each claimed in court that the other person shot William while he fought with Harshbarger – but Harshbarger admitted to loading William's body in the passenger seat of the family station wagon and driving the car into a small ravine. He said the car burst into flames when it hit the bottom of the ravine, but an investigator with the Illinois State Fire Marshall testified that the fire was likely set intentionally with gasoline.
Peggy Jo and Harshbarger were arrested and tried together for murdering William, with the prosecution alleging that Peggy Jo asked Harshbarger to kill her husband. The evidence against Peggy Jo was mostly circumstantial. A sheriff's deputy who interviewed Peggy Jo after William's murder testified that Peggy Jo didn't have the demeanor of someone whose husband had just been murdered, and he felt that she didn't look like she fled the house hurriedly in the middle of the night. The prosecution construed the unlocked front door as a step in a conspiracy between Peggy Jo and Harshbarger, her brother, to murder William, and they noted that Peggy Jo stood to benefit from a $150,000 life insurance policy when William died. The sheriff's deputy testified that Peggy Jo originally reported a fake domestic disturbance that delayed his arrival at the scene of the burning station wagon.
Peggy Jo and Richard Harshbarger were both convicted of first degree murder and concealing a homicide, for which they each received a life sentence. While Harshbarger died in 2006, Peggy Jo Jackson remains in prison in Lincoln. But the investigators at the Illinois Innocence Project, based at the University of Illinois-Springfield, believe Peggy Jo is innocent, and they're trying to free her.
"The state's whole case rests on the testimony of Debra Gatons, Jackson's sister in law, who is an unreliable, contradictory witness and had concealed the murder weapon in Pana," says Erica Nichols Cook, a staff attorney for the Illinois Innocence Project. "I believe she's innocent of the murder of Will Jackson because our review and investigation contradicts the state's evidence at trial, especially in light of what we now know about victims of domestic violence."
Peggy Jo, now 57, has served 25 years of her sentence so far. With help from the Illinois Innocence Project, Peggy Jo is trying to gain her freedom through a clemency petition submitted to Gov. Pat Quinn. Her petition and numerous accompanying letters of support from her family, her therapist, prison workers and others offer explanations for the circumstantial evidence presented against her at trial, and they detail the horrid abuse Peggy Jo endured for years.
Prior to William's death, Peggy Jo had worked tirelessly to raise four children alone, feed them on a meager budget and keep the dilapidated house in order, according to a nephew who wrote a letter in support of her petition. The nephew saw William slam Peggy Jo against walls and threaten to kill her. Peggy Jo's mother said in a separate letter of support that her daughter often had to go without a coat in winter and was treated more like a farmhand than a wife. The nephew stated in his letter: "[Uncle William] always took better care of his motorcycle than his family."
Another letter of support from Peggy Jo's therapist says she likely suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from discovering William's blood spattered in their bedroom after the murder. After William's death, the hospital gave Peggy Jo strong antidepressant medication, which made her appear emotionless to the sheriff's deputy and the trial jury. She says she never asked anyone to kill her husband, and no one ever testified as such at her trial. Peggy Jo's mother revealed in her letter of support that the unlocked front door was not an act of conspiracy to kill William: the house actually had no lock. In fact, it had many broken windows and a garden hose to bring water into the kitchen.
Even her original public defender, who is now a circuit judge in Marion County in southern Illinois, wrote a letter of support saying he botched the trial, which he said continues to "haunt me to this day."
"By 1986, when I was assigned as an assistant public defender to represent defendant Peggy Jo Jackson, I had tried only one other murder case," wrote Marion County circuit judge Michael McHaney. "Based on my inexperience at the time, I had no business trying this case myself."
Peggy Jo Jackson says if she is released, she'll move to South Carolina to be with her family and work as a service dog trainer, a skill she picked up through a training program in prison.
"Something awful happened that day and no one can ever change that," Peggy Jo wrote in a letter to Quinn. "I wish that I could. Please let this tragedy come to an end – not just for me, but my family that's had to live with this…."
Contact Patrick Yeagle at email@example.com.


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Elton John Hosts 'Saturday Night Live' [VIDEOS]
Elton John put on a show as host of Saturday Night Live this weekend, marking only his second appearance on the long running sketch comedy show.
In his opening monologue, John proclaimed the bitch is back before launching into a series of jokes about his new baby boy, whom John said was born with ten fingers, ten toes, and $400 million dollars. John also joked about Lady Gaga being his sons (named Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John) godmother.
As for the actual sketches, many seemed to rely on jokes about Johns British roots, his flamboyant stage persona and his sexuality, including one sketch titled the Old West, in which John played, well, a flamboyant cowboy. (Really, can you blame the writers? Were still trying to figure out why John hosted in the first place.)
Other show highlights included a few appearances by Tom Hanks, who at one point did an okay-but-not-really-that-great impersonation of Michael Caine, a guest spot by Source Code star Jake Gyllenhaal and musical performances by John and Leon Russell.
Check out some video highlights below.
Elton John Opening Monologue
Sketch: Knights at the Realm
Sketch: The Old West
Sketch: Elton Visits The Queen
Sketch: The Silver Screen
Performance: Elton John and Leon Russell, Monkey Suit
Digital Short: Laser Cats, The Musical


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President Obama was caught on a live microphone near the end of a 90-minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, saying he will have "more flexibility" to deal with missile defense after the upcoming election, according to ABC News.
Obama asked Medvedev to deliver a message to incoming President Vladimir Putin: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space," Obama said.
Medvedev responded: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space."
Obama then said he will have "more flexibility" to deal with the issue after the election.
A senior administration official told ABC: "[T]his is not the kind of year in which we're going to resolve (an) incredibly complicated issue like this."
Obama says he'll have 'more flexibility' on missile defense after election
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The "rotary lock screw" secures the vise from rotation in any position.
It also serves to set "drag" on the rotary feature.
This vise is available in either clamp or pedestal base.


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Shawn Gust/Coeur d'Alene Press
Shawn Gust/Coeur d'Alene Press
Tess Freeman/Coeur d'Alene Press
Jake Parrish/Coeur d'Alene Press
Tess Freeman/Coeur d'Alene Press
Race routes
Full route maps: Click here
Road closures: Boulder officials say they expect to announce Ironman road closures and detours for Aug. 3 by mid-July.
Ironman Boulder fast facts
More than 3,000 participants
70 percent from out of state
2.4-mile swim in Boulder Reservoir
112-mile bike ride on Boulder, Larimer and Weld county roads
26.2-mile run on Boulder Creek Path
6:20 a.m. professional start
Midnight cutoff at the finish line
Unexpected Ironman effects
The race has had some unexpected effects on Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a city of 46,000 just east of Spokane, Washington.
Since Coeur d'Alene began hosting an Ironman triathlon 12 years ago, the town has gotten more health-conscious, which city spokesman Keith Erickson attributes, in part, to the race's presence.
"We've got more bike trails, more biking events, more triathlons," he said. "It's a much more active community."
In Panama City Beach, Florida, breakfast and brunch places see their business skyrocket the week before the Ironman.
As participants prepare for the grueling race, they scarf down high-carbohydrate and high-protein meals.
"Our breakfast places go through the floor because (participants) eat tons of pancakes and grits and eggs," said city manager Mario Gisbert, laughing.
In less than a month, thousands of athletes will be splashing through Boulder Reservoir, riding on county roads and running along the Boulder Creek Path for the city's inaugural — and the world's largest — Ironman triathlon.
Though the up-to-18-hour race Aug. 3 will cause a few road closures and thick traffic for a few days, it's also expected to bring tourism dollars to the city as participants, their families and coaches eat, shop and pack into Boulder-area hotels.
More important, a full-length Ironman triathlon — with its 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run — reinforces Boulder's identity as a health-conscious, extremely athletic city, said Mayor Matt Appelbaum.
When it was approved by the City Council last summer, many local athletes said a Boulder Ironman was long overdue. Boulder has been the site of a half-Ironman race for 13 years, but the upcoming full-length race sold out in less than a week almost a year ago.
"Most Boulderites appreciate events like these," Appelbaum said. "There is always some impact, there's some upset, of course, whether it's the Bolder Boulder or a bicycle race or now the Ironman, but I think most people realize just how important this is for the city.
"So many people are engaged in these activities and know people who are engaged in these activities. They don't just accept the fact that Boulder is the center of these things but enjoy that, revel in that. That's why a lot of people are here."
Economic impact
Though Mary Ann Mahoney, director of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, declined to speculate how much money Ironman will bring to the city, she said the event is unique from an economic standpoint.
Roughly 70 percent of the more than 3,000 athletes registered to compete in the Ironman are from out of state, which means they'll likely do some spending in Boulder and along the Front Range, she said.
Roughly 200 Ironman staff members will also travel to Boulder, and some of the 3,000 volunteers will come from out of state, Mahoney added.
Race organizers also predict that each participant will bring two to four people as supporters, Mahoney said.
"The support team will be there throughout the day of the race, but they'll also be enjoying Boulder for the three to four days as they lead into the Ironman," she said.
Many athletes will arrive in Boulder about a week early to train at altitude, said race director Dave Christen.
In its one-year agreement with Ironman, the city of Boulder has budgeted to spend up to $60,000 for the race, including the use of Boulder Reservoir, police services, barricades and cones.
To see what Boulder gets out of the event, the Convention and Visitors Bureau will measure Ironman's economic impact this year. Only after the statistics come back will officials know if hosting a large event during an already-busy month is worth it for retailers, Mahoney said.
"August is already traditionally a very busy month for tourism and travel in Boulder," Mahoney said. "We just need to establish our baseline to see what (the race )does. I think everybody is supportive, but it's like, 'Boy, it's August; we're already busy.'"
'On the map'
At more than 3,000 registrants, the Boulder Ironman becomes the largest in the world, Christen said.
Based on the economic impact of the race in other cities, Boulder can expect a boon for business in late July and early August.
Panama City Beach, Florida, has been hosting Ironman since 1999. City officials have calculated that participants and guests check in to 3,150 hotel rooms and stay an average of six nights each. Direct out-of-state spending from race visitors to Panama City Beach is estimated to be almost $9 million.
Because the race is held in November, during the off-season for tourism, city manager Mario Gisbert said it's welcomed with open arms.
The city of 13,000 permanent residents in Florida's panhandle attracts spring-breakers in March and April and summer travelers in May, June, July and August, Gisbert said.
Even though some residents may be a bit annoyed by street closures, most understand that Ironman brings in tourism dollars during a slow time.
"If we have traffic during our off-season, that to most people is a success," Gisbert said. "The race itself close to doubles the population of our city."
The Coeur d'Alene Convention and Visitors Bureau in Idaho, which tracks data for the city's annual June Ironman, estimates that each of the 2,500 race participants is accompanied by two to three others. They all stay an average of four nights in the area.
Between hotels, dining and entertainment, the race has a $7 million impact on the economy, said Coeur d'Alene Convention and Visitors Bureau manager Katherine Coppock.
Though there will always be a vocal minority who oppose having so many people flood the city, for the most part, residents are happy to have the tourism dollars, said city spokesman Keith Erickson.
"There are going to be some of the people that don't like the influx of people downtown, but for the most part our community has embraced Ironman," he said. "The current contract is through 2017, and I wouldn't be surprised if we work together to get it extended. It really puts us on the map and gives us national, if not international, attention."
For future tourism dollars, Coppock said it's important for volunteers to consider the impression they make on Ironman participants and guests.
"(Volunteers) are the people that these visitors to town first meet, so being hospitable and helpful is something everyone strives for," she said.
That may not be as true for Boulder, which already is a popular spot for travelers, outdoor enthusiasts, athletes and vacationers, Appelbaum said.
"Will more people know about Boulder because of an event like this? Perhaps," he said. "As far as I know, people already know about Boulder anyway. I don't think, like some cities, we have events like this to put ourselves on the map. We're already on the map."
'International attention'
Though it's still unclear what kind of effects Ironman will have on Boulder, many area hotels have been booked since last summer, and some participants are taking to Facebook and Craigslist to find other temporary housing situations, such as sharing a house or renting an RV.
The Boulder Twin Lakes Inn, a few miles from the Boulder Reservoir, sold its last room for Ironman in January or February, said owner Binesh Prasad.
Most people are staying for between five and seven days, he said. While August is already a popular time at the inn for running groups who train in Boulder, Binesh said the Ironman business will bring people back to the city the rest of the year.
"People over time are going to want to keep coming and training and doing a lot of things," he said. "It's not just during the Ironman, but it's getting our name out there for the city. It's very important to do events like this because it brings international attention."
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Author Notes: This is the ice cream that made us forget our evening plans.
It is a better-than-classic butter pecan ice cream, made with browned butter, brown sugar, and roasted pecans. It is based on Jeni's Splendid Blank Canvas, although I have altered it a bit. I didn't have cream cheese on hand; hence the sour cream. I also reduced the cream for a less-fatty mouth feel, after reading that David Lebovitz had accidentally used only 1/4 cup in the Milkiest Chocolate flavor, and liked it better. I have also added instructions to whisk the base over low heat for a moment after adding the starch -- I find I can still taste starch in the finished ice cream if it's added after turning off the heat.
I cooked the base at about 2:00 and it was ready to chill by about 4:00 in the afternoon. After letting it harden in the freezer, we scooped it into cones and took a walk in the late L.A. sunlight. It was creamy and rich, with a perfect, deep butter flavor. The next morning, my husband said, "Didn't we have plans with friends last night?"
I should make them a batch of this ice cream to make up for it. —MrsMehitabel
Food52 Review: WHO: MrsMehitabel is new to the Finalist circle, and with this ice cream, we're wondering where she's been all our lives.
WHAT: The butter pecan ice cream of our dreams.
HOW: Brown some butter, then make a quick, non-custard base. Get yourself some cones somewhere during this process.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Browning the butter makes butter pecan ice cream grow up, and fast. The flavor is rich, deeply nutty, and a big step up from the ice-cream-stand butter pecan of summer vacations past. Our base looked just slightly grainy before it went into the machine; if yours does too, don't worry about a thing -- this will churn into the creamiest, smoothest ice cream you've had in a while. —The Editors
Makes: about 1 quart
cup (2 sticks) salted butter
cups whole milk
cup heavy cream
cup packed brown sugar
tablespoons tapioca syrup or light corn syrup
tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon tapioca starch or cornstarch
tablespoons sour cream
cup to 1 cup roasted pecans or pecan pieces
- If you have a cylinder-type ice cream maker, have the cylinder completely frozen.
- Brown the butter in a medium or large saucepan, and reserve the clarified butter for another use. Keep the solids in the saucepan. (I found the easiest way to do this was to pour the browned butter into a clear glass 2-cup measure, let it settle a bit, pour off the clarified butter, and return the solids to the pan.)
- Combine the starch with 2 tablespoons of the milk in a little prep bowl and place nearby.
- Add the rest of the milk, heavy cream, brown sugar, and syrup to the solids in the saucepan.
- Bring to a boil and boil, stirring, for exactly 4 minutes.
- Whisk in the starch-milk slurry, and continue cooking over low heat for just a moment, until the mixture no longer tastes of raw starch.
- Remove from heat, and whisk in the sour cream.
- Let the mixture cool, then chill. (An ice bath will speed this up!)
- Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
- Pack into a container, adding the pecans, and put it in the freezer for a few hours, or until it has hardened enough to scoop.
- Your Best Frozen Dessert Contest Winner!
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
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