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Ensuite Cabin
Up to 4 Guests
- 1 Bedroom/s
- 1 Bathroom/s
- Pets Not Allowed
Estimating your equipment size
We are looking for an estimate of the size of your Caravan, Motorhome, Camper Trailer, Tent etc. once it has been set up or fully extended (outside to outside)... excluding your vehicle.
Caravans, Motorhomes, Camper Vans, Camper Trailers
Please include your tow/draw bar in the estimate.
Widths are generally around 4 – 5 metres (13.12 – 16.4 feet).
Note: Include annexes of pullouts in width.
|Average Lengths:
|4 – 12 metres (13.12 – 39.37 feet)
|7 – 14 metres (22.97 – 45.93 feet)
|5 – 7 metres (16.40 – 22.97 feet)
|Fifth wheelers
|7 – 14 metres (22.97 – 45.93 feet)
|Camper Trailers
|5 – 8 metres (16.40 – 26.25 feet)
Note: Do not include the size of the tent pegs
|1 person
|1 × 2.5 metres (3.28 × 8.20 feet)
|2 person
|1.5 × 2.5 metres (4.92 × 8.20 feet)
|3 person
|3 × 2.5 metres (9.84 × 8.20 feet)
|4 person
|4.5 × 2.5 metres (14.76 × 8.20 feet)
|5 person
|6 × 3 metres (19.69 × 9.84 feet)
|6+ person
|7 × 4.5 metres (22.97 × 14.76 feet)
Please be advised that Site sizes vary from park to park and within each park. Sites will be allocated based on the measurements provided during the booking process and it is the responsibility of the guest to ensure estimates are as close to accurate as possible.
If you are unsure, we would prefer you to overestimate or give us a call on 1300 738 044
The Ensuite Cabins feature a separate bedroom with Double Bed. Two tiered bunk bed in the hallway. Sleeps 4. Linen supplied for main bed only. Guests should bring blankets, sheets and towels for bunk beds. Self contained kitchen with fridge, full stove and crockery/cutlery. TV, lounge and dining table in living area.
Cabin sleeps up to 4
Maximum of 4 adult(s)
Maximum of 3 children
1 Bedroom/s
1 Bathroom/s
No pets allowed in the Cabin
General Features
- Air Conditioner
- Lounge
- Smoke Free
- Bunk Beds
- Double Bed
- Shower -no bath
Kitchen & Dining
- Cooking Utensils
- Cutlery and Crockery
- Dining Table & Chairs
- Fridge/ Freezer
- Oven
- Toaster
- Welcome Tea, Coffee and Sugar
Entertainment & Electronics
- Clock Radio
Plus enjoy all the park facilities and fun activities on offer at BIG4 Narooma East's Holiday Park, as well as the many things to see and do around Narooma.
Check in
After 3pm
Check out
Before 10am on day of departure
Reception hours
Occupation of accommodation commences at 3pm, check-out time is 10am, or by prior arrangement.
Deposit & Payments
Deposits are required within 14 days from the time of booking. Amount: Accommodation: $100 or the cost of the first night, whichever is greater Sites: $50 Christmas Accommodation: $400; Sites: $100. Please Note: You are not guaranteed the dates requested until you are notified by our reservation desk with a booking confirmation. Minimum booking periods apply Christmas, Easter and October long weekend. A cash/credit card security deposit of $300 may be required on arrival.
Changes & Cancellations
Make your booking with confidence that you will be able to get your money back in full if your circumstances change. This policy applies through all booking periods, except December/January school holidays where 30 days notice prior to arrival must be given to obtain a full refund. All other bookings may be cancelled any time before 10am on the day prior to your arrival. If the required notice is not given a cancellation fee of 100% of the deposit will be charged. Deposits are taken to ensure that valid bookings are made.
No pets allowed, with the exception of medically certified guide dogs.
You need to know
Money Back Guarantee for BIG4 Members: If you are not fully satisfied with the facilities or service of a BIG4 Holiday Park within one hour of check-in, your registration fees will be cheerfully refunded subject to the following conditions: In order to receive a refund, park reception must be notified within one hour of check-in that the accommodation is unsatisfactory. Guests must check-out of the park at that time. This is an exclusive offer for BIG4 Club Members.
Terms and Conditions – General Bookings: Bookings are not transferable to other persons unaccompanied minor bookings (under 18 years old) are not accepted. All persons under 18 years old must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Specific accommodation/sites can be requested but never guaranteed. Accommodation and sites cannot be occupied by more than the designated berth number. We reserve the right to refuse a booking at any time from any person reasonably believed to: Not be the person named on the booking request. Not be able to pay for any charges. May cause damage to the property of the park or other guests. May exhibit socially unacceptable behaviour. Be concealing an unauthorised dog or any other animal. A cash/credit card security deposit of $300 may be required on arrival. All tariffs are subject to change without notice. Child age limit 4-15 years old. Cots are available for hire by entering our park you and your children consent to being photographed from time to time using the facilities for the purpose of being included in promotional material of Easts Holiday Parks.
All accommodation is non-smoking.
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In the middle of the green hills that surround Seoul arises the city's biggest attraction: the N Seoul Tower. This 237-metre-high tower offers a panoramic view of the metropolis. In the evening, the N Seoul Tower lights up with different colours – an iconic landmark of the city.
When construction of the N Seoul Tower commenced in 1969, it was initially intended to serve as a communications tower for TV stations, but in 1980 it was opened up to the public. Every 10 minutes you can board a cable car to the top. In addition to a viewing platform, the tower features several restaurants, a café, souvenir shops and a museum. However, most people visit the tower for love.
The N Seoul Tower has become a romantic sanctuary for couples who wish to declare their eternal love to each other. Just like at the Pont de l'Archevêché in Paris, the gates of the tower are full of padlocks in every colour and size, signed with the names of couples in love. Unlike many other cities, the city of Seoul encourages people to put up the locks: nothing is more beautiful than promoting love. Over the years, the tower has been decorated with thousands of padlocks.
In a country where kissing on the street is frowned upon – affection should not be displayed in public, but at home – South Koreans express their love in a special way. Couples advertise their relationship by wearing the same outfits. They may wear the same shoes, shirts, jackets, or more intimately, the same underwear. This cultural phenomenon can also be seen at the N Seoul Tower. In the last few years, the couples culture has developed into a big market. Just for fun, do an online search for the words 'couple fashion Korea' and you will find a large selection of matching outfits.
Nevertheless, the N Seoul Tower is also worth visiting for singles. In addition to breathtaking views of the city, the tower's restaurant n.Grill serves an outstanding dinner. Chef Duncan Robertson, who previously worked at Michelin-star restaurants Nobu and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, prepares the best dishes from the French cuisine. The N Seoul Tower is also fun for children; the viewing platform houses the Teddy Bear Museum, where teddy bears depict the history and culture of South Korea in a fun and playful way.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Recipe Calendar
Ref. H300
Calendar Size (open): 430mm (h) x 194mm (w)
Ad copy size: 40mm (h) x 170mm (w)
A unique product with a planning calendar grid and useful information, together with some of SA's favourite recipes in English and Afrikaans on alternate back pages. Designed to fit into a standard envelope for easy postage or handing out at point of sale areas.
CLICK HERE to download the product catalogue page.


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I wanted to know all about Eve.
"Our grandmother Eve?" asked Abdullah Hejazi, my boyish-looking guide in Old Jidda. Under a glowing Arab moon on a hot winter night, Abdullah was showing off the jewels of his city—charming green, blue, and brown houses built on the Red Sea more than a hundred years ago. The houses, empty now, are stretched tall to capture the sea breeze on streets squeezed narrow to capture the shade. The latticed screens on cantilevered verandas were intended to ensure "the privacy and seclusion of the harem," as the Lebanese writer Ameen Rihani noted in 1930. The preservation of these 500 houses surrounding a souk marks an attempt by the Saudis, whose oil profits turned them into bling addicts, to appreciate the beauty of what they dismissively call "old stuff."
Jidda means "grandmother" in Arabic, and the city may have gotten its name because tradition holds that the grandmother of all temptresses, the biblical Eve, is buried here---an apt symbol for a country that legally, sexually, and sartorially buries its women alive. (A hard-line Muslim cleric in Iran recently blamed provocatively dressed women for earthquakes, inspiring the New York Post headline SHEIK IT!) According to legend, when Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden they went their separate ways, Adam ending up in Mecca and Eve in Jidda, with a single reunion. (Original sin reduced to friends with benefits?) Eve's cemetery lies behind a weathered green door in Old Jidda.
When I suggested we visit, Abdullah smiled with sweet exasperation. It was a smile I would grow all too accustomed to from Saudi men in the coming days. It translated into "No f---ing way, lady."
"Women are not allowed to go into cemeteries," he told me.
I had visited Saudi Arabia twice before, and knew it was the hardest place on earth for a woman to negotiate. Women traveling on their own have generally needed government minders or permission slips. A Saudi woman can't even report harassment by a man without having a mahram, or male guardian, by her side. A group of traditional Saudi women, skeptical of any sort of liberalization, recently started an organization called My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me. I thought I understood the regime of gender apartheid pretty well. But this cemetery bit took me aback.
"Can they go in if they're dead?," I asked.
"Women can be buried there," he conceded, "but you are not allowed to go in and look into it."
So I can only see a dead woman if I'm a dead woman?
No wonder they call this the Forbidden Country. It's the most bewitching, bewildering, beheading vacation spot you'll never vacation in.
Hello—and Good-Bye!
Saudi Arabia is one of the premier pilgrimage sites in the world, outstripping Jerusalem, the Vatican, Angkor Wat, and every other religious destination, except for India's Kumbh Mela (which attracts as many as 50 million pilgrims every three years). Millions of Muslims flock to Mecca and Medina annually. But, for non-Muslims, it's another story. Saudi Arabia has long kept not just its women but its very self behind a veil. Robert Lacey, the Jidda-based author of The Kingdom and Inside the Kingdom, explains that only when revenues from the hajj pilgrims fell drastically, during the Depression, did the Saudis allow infidel American engineers to enter the country and start exploring for oil.
Before 9/11, Saudi Arabia was in fact gearing up to welcome, or at least accept, a trickle of non-Muslim visitors, dropping a handkerchief to the world. Crown Prince Abdullah—now the king—was a radical modernizer by Saudi standards. He wanted to encourage more outside contact and to project an image other than one of religious austerity (with bursts of terrorism). The Saudis had already cracked open the door slightly for some degree of cultural tourism. Leslie McLoughlin, a fellow at the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, led tours to the Kingdom in 2000 and 2001, and both groups included affluent and curious Jewish men and women from New York. But on 9/11 the passageway narrowed again as Saudi Arabia and the United States confronted the reality that Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 terrorist hijackers were Saudi nationals.
The news cut to the very character of the Saudi state. Back in 1744, the oasis-dwelling al-Saud clan had made a pact with Mohammad bin Abdul Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi sect, which took an especially strict approach to religious observance. The warrior al-Sauds got religious legitimacy; the anhedonic Wahhabis got protection. To this day the Koran is the constitution of Saudi Arabia, and Wahhabism its dominant faith. The royals doubled down on the deal when Islamic fundamentalists took over the Grand Mosque, in Mecca, in 1979. Now, with bin Laden's attacks, the bargain the royals struck with the fundamentalists—allowing anti-Western clerics and madrassas to flourish and not cracking down on those who bankroll al-Qaeda and terrorism—had borne its poison fruit.
Three years after 9/11, in 2004, the Kingdom decided to give the tourism business another try, this time hiring a public-relations firm to get things rolling. The Web site of the resulting Supreme Commission for Tourism was "a disaster," one Saudi official abashedly recalls, shaking his head. The site noted that visas would not be issued to an Israeli-passport holder, to anyone with an Israeli stamp on a passport, or, just in case things weren't perfectly clear, to "Jewish people." There were also "important instructions" for any woman coming to the kingdom on her own, advising that she would need a husband or a male sponsor to pick her up at the airport, and that she would not be allowed to drive a car unless "accompanied by her husband, a male relative, or a driver." Needless to say, there would be no drinking allowed—Saudi officials even try to enforce no-drinking rules on private jets in Saudi airspace, sometimes sealing the liquor cabinets. Finally, belying the fact that Arabs consider hospitality a sacred duty, there was the no-loitering kicker: "All visitors to the Kingdom must have a return ticket." After New York congressman Anthony Weiner kicked up a fuss, the anti-Semitic language on the Web site was removed.
Now, six years later, the Saudis are trying yet again. But they aren't opening their arms unless (with a few exceptions) you are part of a special tourist group. "No backpacking stuff," says Prince Sultan bin Salman, the tall and chatty former astronaut who is the president and chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. "You know, high level," he goes on, and involving only "fully educated" groups.
You still have to accept all the restrictive rules. And it won't be easy getting in. Visas these days for Westerners are so scarce that even top American diplomats have a hard time obtaining them for family members. The Kingdom recoils at the thought of the culture clash that could be caused by an invasion of French girls in shorts and American boys with joints. A sign at the airport warns: DRUG TRAFFICKERS WILL BE PUT TO DEATH.
Saudis fret that the rest of the world sees them as aliens, even though many are exceptionally charming and welcoming once you actually breach the wall. They are sensitive about being judged for their Flintstones ways, and are quick to remind you of what happened to the Shah of Iran when he tried to modernize too fast. Not to mention their own King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975 (regicide by nephew) after he introduced television and public education for girls. This prince-and-pauper society has always had a Janus face. Royals fly to the South of France to drink, gamble, and sleep with Russian hookers, while reactionary clerics at home delegitimize women and demonize Westerners. Last winter, a Saudi prince found himself under arrest for allegedly strangling his servant in a London hotel. (He has pleaded not guilty.) The Kingdom didn't have widespread electricity until the 1950s. It didn't abolish slavery until the 1960s. Restrictions on mingling between unrelated members of the opposite sex remain severe. (Recently, a Saudi cleric advised men who come in regular contact with unrelated women to consider drinking their breast milk, thereby making them in a sense "relatives," and allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.) Today, Saudi Arabia is trying to take a few more steps ahead—starting a coed university, letting women sell lingerie to women, even toning down the public beheadings. If you're living on Saudi time, akin to a snail on Ambien, the popular 86-year-old King Abdullah is making bold advances. To the rest of the world, the changes are almost imperceptible.
"Lots of Attentions"
The idea of seeing Saudi Arabia with the welcome mat out was irresistible—even when the wary Saudis kept resisting. I made plans for a Saudi vacation, knowing that the only thing more invigorating than 10 days in Saudi Arabia would be 10 days there as a woman. Actually, it would be two women: joining me was my intrepid colleague and trip photographer, Ashley Parker. I was a little squeamish about boarding a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight with a cross on my forehead. (It was Ash Wednesday.) Some Saudi flights embark with an Arabic supplication, in the words of the Prophet Muhammad. The flight attendants—who are not Saudi, because it would be dishonorable for the airline to employ Saudi women—bring around baskets of Saudi newspapers. A glance at the headlines underscored the fact that we were in a time machine hurtling backward. One article in the English-language Arab News was titled "Carrying Dagger a Mark of Manliness." Another warned, "Women lawyers are not welcome in the Kingdom's courts." It was startling to see a thumbnail portrait of a female columnist—my counterpart—in which only her eyes were not concealed by a veil. Reading the airline magazine is like the moment in The Twilight Zone when you sense there's something slightly off about that picture-book town. The magazine is called Ahlan Wasahlan, meaning "Hello and Welcome," but the welcome seems to be to Versailles, Provence, and Belize. There's no hint that Saudi Arabia itself might be a destination.
The in-flight movies offer a taste of things to come. If you order The Proposal, you get a blurry blob over Sandra Bullock's modest décolletage, and even her clavicles, and the male-stripper scene and the erection joke have vanished altogether. A curtained partition goes up so that Saudi women can nap without their abayas. There's no alcohol on board, although some veteran business travelers en route to the Kingdom order vodkas at the airport bar and pour them into a water bottle for sustenance along the way. At the airport in Riyadh, the gender segregation ratchets up. There's a Ladies' Waiting Room and a Ladies' Prayer Room. If there hadn't been a Saudi majordomo to come and collect us, we would have been in limbo—a pair of single women wandering the airport with no man to get them out, trapped forever like Tom Hanks in The Terminal.
In America, you get chocolates in your hotel room. In Riyadh, you might get a gift bag from your hosts in the Kingdom with something to slip into for dinner—a long black abaya and a black headscarf that make you look like a mummy and feel like a pizza oven. And even then they'll stick you behind a screen or curtain in the "family" section of the restaurant. The big Gloria Steinem advance in recent years is that women now wear abayas with dazzling designs on the back (sometimes with thousands of dollars' worth of Swarovski crystals) or Burberry or zebra-patterned trim on the sleeves.
I respect Islam's mandate for modest clothing. But I don't see why I have to adopt a dress code, as Aaron Sorkin put it on The West Wing, that makes "a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie." Needless to say, Barbie herself was banned in Saudi Arabia, though I did see Barbie paraphernalia for sale in a Riyadh supermarket and a Barbie-like doll, accessorized with headscarf and abaya (and of course not in a box with Ken), in the National Museum gift shop. As for Hello! magazine, a recent import to the Kingdom, Saudi censors paste small white squares of paper on the models' glossy thighs.
Soon after our arrival I asked Prince Sultan bin Salman, the tourism minister, about the dress code for foreigners. "Well, the abaya is part of the uniform," he said. "It's part of enjoying the culture. I've seen people who go to India dress up in the Indian sari." Najla Al-Khalifah, a member of the prince's staff in the female section of the tourist bureau, offered another analogy: "You can't wear shorts for the opera. You must dress for the occasion. If you don't like it, don't go." Fair enough, but if you do wear shorts to the opera, you won't get arrested by the roving outriders of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice—that is, the mutawa, or religious police.
Being in purdah pricks more deeply when you're dealing with American-owned enterprises—it's as if your own people are in sexist cahoots with your captors. In 2008, covering President Bush's trip to the Middle East, I was standing next to ABC's Martha Raddatz at the desk at the Riyadh Marriott when she angrily pressed the clerk about getting into the gym. He gave her The Smile. How about never, lady? On this trip, at Budget Rent a Car, the man at the counter explained to me that women could rent cars only if they paid extra for a driver. (And, to boot, it would be dishonorable for a woman to sit in the passenger seat unless a male relative were driving.) When I said I could drive myself, the man's head fell back in helpless laughter. I enlisted Nicolla Hewitt, a gorgeous, statuesque blonde New Yorker on business in Saudi Arabia, to join me in a brief sit-in at the men's section of Starbucks in the upscale Kingdom Centre mall. Her head was swirling with lurid news accounts of a Western woman who had been dragged from a Starbucks for committing the crime of attempted equality. "If I see the bloody mutawa," she said, gripping her latte nervously, "I'm hoofing it."
At various establishments I began amusing myself by seeing how long it took for male Cerberuses to dart forward and block the way to the front sections reserved for men. At McDonald's, dourly observing my arrival, a janitor barred the door with a broom in two seconds flat. At the posh Al Faisaliah Hotel, in Riyadh, I was asking the maître d' why I couldn't sit with the businessmen when he suddenly caught sight of an elegant woman sashaying through the men's section. He made a Reggie Bush run to knock her out of bounds before turning back to thwart my own entrance with a Baryshnikov leap. I did manage a moment of Pyrrhic triumph in the deserted men's section in the lobby café of the Jidda Hilton, ordering a cappuccino, but then the waiter informed me that he couldn't serve it until I moved five feet back to the women's section.
Hotel desk clerks would warn me to put on my abaya merely to walk across the lobby, even when I was wearing my most modest floor-length navy dress, the one reserved for family funerals. ``You will get lots of attentions---not good attentions,'' one clerk said. Not wearing an abaya can be hazardous---but so can wearing one. Signs on the mall escalators caution women to be careful not to get their cloaks caught in the moving stairs. (A Muslim woman was recently choked to death by her hijab while on holiday in Australia; it had gotten caught in a go-cart at high speed.) You soon become paranoid, worrying that, if you open the door for room service wearing a terry-cloth robe, you'll end up in the stocks. But the top hotels are staffed by foreign men---something I realized must be the case when my butler at the Al Faisaliah folded my underwear unprompted. If I were buttled by a Saudi, we'd probably be shuttled to Deera Square---or Chop Chop Square, as it's better known---where the public beheadings occur. It's the one with the big drain, which the Saudis claim is for rain.
Sunny Side of Repression
The first time I traveled to Saudi Arabia was in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, had invited me to come over and see for myself that not all Saudis are terrorists. On that trip, I was more heedless and cavalier. I wore a hot-pink skirt, with fringe, to go to an interview with the Saudi education minister. When I came down from my hotel room, the men in the lobby glared with such hostility that I thought they'd pelt me to death with their dates. My minder turned me back to the elevator. "Go get your abaya!" he yelled. "They'll kill you!" (My Guardian Knew What Was Best for Me.) This was right around the time when 15 Saudi schoolgirls had died in a fire because the mutawa wouldn't let them escape without their headscarves and abayas, a horrifying episode that shook the Kingdom. Confronted by carloads of screaming men whenever I wore my own clothes, I added more layers but still got into trouble. I was swathed in black with a headscarf at a mall next to the Al Faisaliah Hotel when four members of the mutawa bore down. They barked in Arabic that they could see my neck and the outline of my body, and they confiscated my passport. All this was happening against the backdrop of a storefront underwear display featuring a lacy red teddy. My companion, the suave Adel al-Jubeir, an adviser to King Abdullah and now the Saudi ambassador to Washington, managed to retrieve the passport and obtain permission for me to leave the mall (and the country), but it took a disconcertingly long time.
With each incident, you feel more cowed and less eager to defy the dress-to-repress rules. For this trip, I had an abaya made so I wouldn't have to swelter inside the standard polyester ones in the baking heat. I didn't go for anything as gauzy as Dorothy Lamour's in The Road to Morocco. I wanted simple black linen. But the tailor tried too hard to give it a flattering shape, adding slits so high they could get my throat slit. When I wore it, my minders pestered me to put an abaya over my abaya. It reminded me of Martin Short's mischievous question about Hillary Clinton's nightwear: "Does she have a pantsuit on under her pantsuit?"
Still, this time around, I decided to look on the sunny side of repression. Feel guilty about not jogging? Don't even try! Tired of running off to every new exhibition? Lucky you—there aren't any art museums! Can't decide which sybaritic treatment to select at the hotel spa? Relax—the spa's just for men. And you never have to stress about a bad-hair day.
The two words you'll quickly learn are halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden)—the kosher and non-kosher of the Arab world. Since your old pastimes are now mostly haram, you'll have to pick up some new vices. Gorge on gamy camel bacon at Friday brunch. (Friday is the Muslim Sunday.) Develop a new obsession with tweezing and threading your eyebrows and blackening your Bedouin bedroom eyes—now literally the windows to the soul. Enjoy a country which is the last refuge of indoor smoking. I went to the cigar bar at the fancy Globe restaurant in Riyadh and enjoyed a "Churchill's Cabinet" stogie for 180 riyals ($50) with its "lovely notes of leather and cream, hints of coffee, citrus, and spice." To go along with beluga caviar and Maine-lobster snacks there was an elaborate wine presentation, with the waiter showing off the label of a non-alcoholic Zinfandel before nestling it in a silver ice bucket. "It's from California," he said proudly. I fell into tippling in the morning, starting the day with Saudi champagne, a saccharine apple-juice concoction.
You might also want to emulate the spoiled Saudi set and just loll about until the sun sets, watching The Bold and the Beautiful or Glenn Beck on satellite TV. (There are no public movie theaters.) The Saudis have a homegrown version of the Today show in English, with their own Meredith Vieira in headscarf, promoting buttocks exercises and colon cleansing, and a hefty Martha Stewart doppelgänger in a babushka, baking dried-apricot sandwiches in flower shapes. It's all very cozy, even if the crawl underneath is crawling with less-than-flattering stories about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. One night, deciding to take a risk, I smuggled a young Saudi man up to my hotel room to translate some of the scary-looking rants on TV by guys in thobes and kaffiyehs. Were they trashing the Great Satan? He told me that the serious-looking bearded guy talking a mile a minute was merely chatting about soccer, and another scowling fellow with intense brown eyes was just praying. Likely story.
Once out of your room, you can stroll through the malls with your girlfriends for some Bluetooth flirting, where Rashid and Khalid detect your cell-phone network as you walk by and send text messages that range from chatty to creepy. One of my young married minders said he regularly gets hassled by the mutawa when he's out flirting with female friends: "They say, 'Can I ask who you are with?,' and I tell them, 'Oh, she's my sister.' And they say, 'Your sister? Do you laugh like that with your sister?'" There's no date night in Saudi Arabia. The romance strictures here—a few virginal meetings, a peek under the veil, a marriage contract, an all-female wedding reception, and a check of the bloody sheets—make The Rules look like the Kama Sutra. In Jidda, there's a Chinese restaurant called Toki, where unmarried girls can show themselves off in front of likely prospects on a 58-meter catwalk. The prospects are not young men, however, but their mothers, who traditionally made the match with help from the khatabah, or yenta, who was sometimes sent over to surreptitiously look under the hood and kick the tires of the bride-to-be. She would give the girl a hug to check the firmness of her breasts and then drop something on the floor to watch the girl pick it up. When the young lady would bend over and her abaya lifted ever so slightly, the khatabah could see her ankles and infer the shape of the legs and derrière.
"The Time of Ignorance"
Back in the 1940s, when the oil began gushing, Saudi Arabia was the sort of place where the country's first king, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, traveled in a Ford convertible with his falcons and shot gazelles from the car. The king knew the name of every visitor to Riyadh. Travelers could not move around the Kingdom without the king's express consent, and he personally tracked each one's odyssey. Some Saudis, who had rarely seen airplanes, assumed they were cars that simply drove off into the sky.
Prince Sultan bin Salman is a natural choice for tourism czar, given that he was the first Muslim in space. In 1985 he went up as part of an international crew on the Discovery shuttle. Trying to find Mecca from space—imagine gravity-free kneeling—was nothing compared with persuading other royals (thanks to polygamy, there are now thousands of them) to consider the desirability of making Saudi Arabia tourist-ready. For one thing, Saudis don't have that fondness for their own history that the British and Italians do. Many pious Muslims look askance at civilizations that pre-date Islam ("the time of ignorance," as they call it), and they have reservations about archaeological digs that may turn up Christian sites. Archaeology was not fully recognized until the last few years as a field of study in Saudi universities. In other countries, many of the famed tourist sites are what you might call "big broken things"—Machu Picchu, the Colosseum. Saudis don't go for broken, or even slightly worn. You will never see a Melrose Avenue—style vintage store; it would be considered shameful to buy or sell old clothes. It's all about the new and shiny.
Prince Sultan was traveling through Tuscany a few years back, snapping pictures of big broken things and talking to preservation experts, when it hit him: maybe there was a way to get Saudis to appreciate their own ancient heritage. He gathered 40 or so mayors and governors who liked nothing better than to tear down their cultural heritage, and showed them that they could develop historic sites where local crafts and fresh produce are sold in a "joyous" setting. The cultural education did not begin well. The prince had wanted the officials to see Siena. "And I get a phone call at four A.M. that woke me, and the pilot was calling. He said, 'I'm in Vienna.'" Eventually, the Saudi mayors and governors began to acquire a taste for old stuff. They've done five more trips, and one to Seville was coming up, though maybe they'd end up in Savile Row. (Saudis certainly know the way.)
Prince Sultan is now training native Saudis—who have always left the heavy lifting as waiters, maids, and drivers to a servant class of Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Pakistanis, and Indians—to work as tour guides, tour operators, and hotel operators. He hopes that Saudis will get better at sightseeing as they travel elsewhere. "Saudis are not trained as good tourists," he told me over tea one night. "They didn't know how to respect the sites, not throw Kleenex at places."
With Prince Sultan's assistance we flew to an attraction we'd never heard of before: the spectacular Madain Saleh, sister city to Jordan's renowned Petra, 300 miles to the northwest. After flying across the desert for hours, you suddenly come upon strange and wonderful classical structures. Today they're in the middle of nowhere. Eons ago, at the time of ancient Rome, they stood athwart the Incense Route, controlled by the Nabataean kingdom. An airport is only just being built, so we bumped down in our puddle jumper on what was essentially a cleared track. Our guide barely spoke English, but he was giddy with pleasure at finally having someone to show around. There are more than a hundred sumptuous sandstone tombs here, many of them cavernous, sculpted into solid rock between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. Only in recent years have the Saudis come to appreciate Madain Saleh's value, registering it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.
They're also restoring the old train station in Madain Saleh to its former glory, with a shiny black engine from the Hejaz railway, like the one Peter O'Toole blew up in Lawrence of Arabia. Don't bother asking about T. E. Lawrence here—he's remembered for selling the Saudis out. (Saudis love the movie, though, and spout lines from it like "Thy mother mated with a scorpion.") The guides in Saudi Arabia have a hard time staying on message, veering wistfully toward memories of time spent in the United States, studying in Palo Alto, San Diego, or Boulder. They still obsess about their college sports teams—staying up until all hours to watch games via satellite. At the Masmak Fortress, in Riyadh—the scene of a critical battle for Abdul Aziz ibn Saud—the guide soon lost interest in leading us among displays labeled "Some Old Guns" and "Cover for the Udder of the She-Camel" and began to wax nostalgic about a married woman named Liz in Grand Rapids.
In Abha, a cool, green, mountainous area to the south, near Yemen, we had our sole encounter with an actual Saudi tourist. He was checking out the Hanging Village, where some people of yore had settled on the side of a sheer cliff to get away from the Ottomans. Supplies were lowered down by rope. The Saudi was a paunchy man from Riyadh named Fahad, who liked to be called Jack. Jack, wearing a stained tracksuit, volunteered that he had once lived in Fort Worth. "I enjoy it," he said, taking a drag on his cigarette and giving Ashley and me an appreciative look, "when I see these girls with the smell of the United States."
Peeping Abdul
The charm of Riyadh is that it has no charm. The only visual icon, the one captured in snow globes at souvenir shops, is the city's tallest building, Kingdom Centre, the home of the Four Seasons Hotel and the Kingdom Centre mall. It is owned by Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, the billionaire nephew of King Abdullah who has been called "the Arabian Warren Buffett" by Time magazine. (Rudy Giuliani turned down a $10 million donation to New York from al-Waleed after 9/11 when al-Waleed suggested that U.S. policies contributed to the attacks.) The skyscraper features a V-shaped hole at the top, and Saudis tastelessly joke that it's "the Hijacker Training Academy."
A Jordanian staffer at the Riyadh Four Seasons complained to me that the only things Saudis do are "shop and eat, shop and eat." Or subject you to "ordeal by tea," as I've heard it called. At the ubiquitous malls, women covered in black robes and gloves, with only their eyes showing, shop for La Perla lingerie, Versace gowns, Dior handbags, and Bulgari jewelry. Beauty is a drug for Saudi women, even though they're stuck at home most of the time—or maybe because of that. Saudi Arabia is more than three times the size of Texas and glitters with three times as many Swarovski crystals. "Bling H2O" water is imported from Tennessee. The shopaholism pauses only at prayer time, when metal grates come down over the stores. Men, who carry more of the burden of the five-times-a-day obligation, head off to the prayer rooms. The women wander zombie-like among the shuttered shopfronts. The atmosphere is watchful. Once, when Ashley tried to snap some pictures of Saudi women shopping at a lingerie store, a female security guard came running up to confiscate the camera. "Just walk away," a Western woman advised us. "She's a woman—she has no power over you." At last: a fringe benefit of misogyny.
The Kingdom Centre mall has a ladies' floor on top shielded by high, wavy frosted glass, so that men—with all the maturity of Catholic schoolboys in stairwells—can't peer up from below. Signs on the ladies' floor tell women, once inside, to take off their head coverings: that way, a Peeping Abdul can't disguise himself in female garb and wander lustfully among them. On the ladies' floor, you're actually allowed to try on clothes. On floors where the sexes mingle, you often have to buy whatever you want in different sizes and take it all home to try on. The mere thought of a disrobed woman behind a dressing-room door is apparently too much for men to handle. There's something profoundly poignant about seeing little girls running around the malls in normal clothes, playing with little boys in normal ways—you know what's in store for them in just a few years. When I reached puberty, my mother gave me a book called On Becoming a Woman. When these girls reach puberty, they'll have a black tarp thrown over their heads.
In recent years, Riyadh has gotten a dash of sophistication. "Oh my!" says Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, the lovely Riyadh businesswoman who is a daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former longtime Saudi ambassador to the U.S. "There's a new restaurant almost every week, and I assure you, the way they look, the way the food is, is on a par with—I wouldn't say the top 10 restaurants in New York or London, but definitely 11 to 50." There's a two-week wait to get a table at B & F Burger Boutique, even though it's just high-end fast food served in a hip décor. The concrete walls and dim lights evoke SoHo, and gender segregation is more subtle. The women wear abayas with fashionable trim, and the guys trade their white thobes for blue jeans. The religious police showed up on opening night; they wanted the music eliminated and the women screened off by bigger partitions. The restaurant obliged only on the music.
Going from Riyadh to the Red Sea is like going from black-and-white Kansas to Technicolor Oz. The main port of entry for hajj pilgrims, Jidda is Saudi Arabia's business capital. "The bride of the Red Sea" is home to many female entrepreneurs, and residents say they are trying to tell the rest of the country to relax. Women leave their abayas open in front, or wear nighties or tight jeans underneath. But the enticing blue mosaic pool at the Jidda Hilton is still only for men. I watched a Saudi man swim while a woman in "full ninja," as American businessmen here call it, tiptoed around the edge, chatting with him.
When I asked the concierge about the hotel mosque, he said I couldn't go in unless I was a Muslim. Later, Prince Saud told me that I could simply have asked the emir of the region for permission. (Like the emir's listed?) Men in the Kingdom often reflexively say "No, no, no"—"La, la, la!"—to women because it's the safer answer. But an essential point about Saudi Arabia is that everything operates on a sliding scale, depending on who you are, whom you know, whom you ask, whom you're with, and where you are. Drinking is not allowed, but many affluent Saudis keep fully stocked bars. "Take off your abaya when you drink your whiskey," instructed one Saudi mogul as his bartender handed us cocktails in his home. Some Saudi men glean the future from coffee grounds, and many Saudi women love horoscopes, but police here snatched a Lebanese TV host and clairvoyant from a pilgrimage and sentenced him to death by beheading for sorcery. (After international media pressure, the execution has for now been postponed.) Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. But Leslie McLoughlin led a tour near Medina prior to 9/11, where he could view the city and the Prophet's Mosque from his hotel.
Saudi Arabia may now be in semi—Open Sesame mode (and it's funny to see how many people have named their camels "Barack"), but the holy sites won't be officially open to non-Muslims anytime soon. On the highway to Mecca, a "Christian bypass" tells the rest of us when to turn off the road: heathens exit here. Perhaps from a distance you'll one day be able to glimpse what is expected to be the second-tallest building in the world, now being constructed by the bin Laden—family real-estate company. It is a hotel complex that will be topped by a clock six times larger than London's Big Ben. (The Saudis harbor a hope that Mecca Time will dislodge Greenwich Mean Time from its current prominence.) For now, even planes must avoid violating the holy cities, keeping safely away from sacred airspace lest infidels spy from above. There has been talk of building an Islamic, Disneyland-style park on the road between Mecca and Jidda. The Saudis find monkeys and parrots far funnier than mice and ducks, so watch out, Mickey and Daffy. And Qatar recently pushed the Gulf states to create a common Gulf Cooperation Council tourist visa, in order to make the region more attractive to cruise ships.
Jidda has many charms. The median strip on the corniche has a magical open-air museum, with huge, whimsical sculptures by Miró, Henry Moore, and other artists who created works consistent with Islamic values—that is, no representations of the human form. The neon-lit boardwalk is lined with snack shacks, toy shops, and mini amusement parks. But it's missing the sexy, seedy elements that make shore vacations fun. Instead of teenagers necking or kids splashing in the water, there are men spreading out prayer rugs on the seawall.
Libertarian Zone
I had bought a Burqini online from an Australian company, figuring I'd need one to go swimming. A Burqini—a burka bikini—is a full-body suit that resembles Apolo Ohno's Olympic outfit or the getup Woody Allen wore to play a sperm in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex . . . But as it turned out I didn't have to swaddle myself in one, because I discovered a place called Durat al-Arus.
Sarah Bennett, a stunning 32-year-old, blue-eyed California Mormon who converted to Islam and blackened her blond hair, now works in Jidda for a conglomerate. She wears Chanel abayas. Bennett took us to Durat al-Arus, a marina and tourist village where wealthy Saudis and royals have homes and boats. The architecture is 1970s, the colors are Miami Vice, and the mood is downright hedonistic compared with that of the rest of the country. It's a rare libertarian zone. Women can drive and wear what they want, and men and women can mingle without fear. I quickly commandeered a BMW from a cute sheikh so I could tool around for a few minutes in a meaningless spurt of emancipation. Then the sheikh, who wore a Jack Sparrow bandanna and called himself "the Pirate," took Sarah, Ashley, and me out on his yacht, with a motorboat trailing behind, for some snorkeling in the turquoise Red Sea. He was a Muslim and served us only soft drinks as we made our way to a desolate desert island. But other than that you could wear a real bikini and live the high life: listening to club music booming from an iPod, eating melting butter-pecan ice cream and fresh berries, sipping flutes of sparkling pomegranate juice. With a small shock, I was struck by the sensuality of the scene—it was hard to believe this was Saudi Arabia. My thoughts drifted to the silent movie The Sheik, and the moment when Rudolph Valentino drags Agnes Ayres onto his horse in the desert and says, "Lie still, you little fool."
And that, I guess, is why they have the mutawa.


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March 04, 2012
By -, -
"This is crazy," Grand View head wrestling coach Nick Mitchell said. "It hasn't set in yet. There's so much build up heading into this and there's so much focus on getting ready. I never celebrate the wins and with this, I am going to try to celebrate, really let it soak in."
Two other Vikings took runner-up honors in addition to five All-Americans en route to the team title in only its fourth year of competition. Mitchell was bestowed with NAIA Coach of the Year honors.
"It's gratifying," Mitchell said. "To get this far takes a lot of commitment and time away from family. It feels like it has paid off and all was worth it, but it's important that this is also beyond me; it's the whole coaching staff and the administration. Once they hired [assistant coach] Paul Reedy full time, he changed the whole program. This would not have happened without him."
Southern Oregon finished in second place with 141 points, with three Raiders emerging as national titlists, including Mitchell Lofstedt with his second at 125 pounds. He needed just 1:06 to stick Kory Kistner of Morningside (Iowa) for his 10th fall of an 11-match win streak to cap off his junior campaign. Lofstedt was a two-time finalist, winning it all in 2010, before taking last season off and won it all again in his return.
"It feels good to win two championships," Loftstedt said. "I wanted to go out and dominate. Since I took last year off, I've come back really passionate and had the initiative to work two times harder. Back then I was wrestling for something else. Now I am wrestling all for myself and that's what I am passionate about and what inspires me."
Lofstedt's accomplishment, along with his four wins by fall in 7:37 while in Des Moines, earned him NAIA Most Outstanding Wrestler honors with the Gorriaran Award and the Most Falls in the Least Time award.
Joining Lofstedt as a two-time champion was Great Falls' (Mont.) 141-pounder Anthony Varnell. The Argonaut senior went out in dramatic fashion with a sudden victory takedown to defeat Chris Teague of Campbellsville (Ky.), 10-8. Varnell held a 5-1 lead after the first period thanks to a takedown and a three-point nearfall, only to have Teague battle back in the second stanza. A takedown and a pair of escapes sent the bout into sudden victory. A quick strike takedown in sudden victory by Varnell secured the win.
"It feels great to win again," Varnell said. "It is definitely harder to repeat. You have to work harder and make sure you compete each week because there's so much pressure. This one has a different meaning to me. I was confident that I could repeat, but it was a struggle to wrestle my own teammate [Myles Mazurkiewicz in the quarterfinals]. I feel great and I am proud that I could make my family happy."
Charlie Pingleton defeated Nik Turner of Oklahoma City, 3-2, with a takedown in the third period to become Lindsey Wilson's (Ky.) first national champion.
"It feels so great to be Lindsey Wilson's first national champion," Pingleton said. "It took a lot of time and a lot of hard work. There were so many emotions; I was so happy and ecstatic. Coach [Corey Ruff] told me that he was so proud of me for living the right way. I wanted to win a national championship and I knew that Lindsey Wilson was the place for me to do that."
Pingleton was one of three finalists for the Blue Raiders en route to a fourth-place finish in the team standings with 96.5 points. The trio of championship contenders were the first for head coach Corey Ruff in the program's three-year history.
"I am so proud because we have come such a long way," Ruff said. "I am so happy with what we have done because we are following through with the vision and are seeing ourselves that way. Having a national champion is the greatest thing ever. I have had a lot of success as an assistant coach, but as a head coach, I am so proud and know that we can do so much more. We've shown that you can come to Kentucky and be a great wrestler. We've set the bar high and created a lot of motivation for the future."
Midland (Neb.) also crowned its first its champ in Jahsua Marsh at 197 pounds. William Penn (Iowa) also sent Eric Burgey to the top of the 149 pound podium.
Rounding out the top-five teams were Campbellsville (Ky.) in third place with 121.5 points and Oklahoma City with 94 points. The Stars also crowned a national champion at 165 pounds in Kevin Hardy.


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Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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AT&T has announced AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service, a storage-on-demand offer that gives customers control over the storage, distribution, and retrieval of their data from any location, anytime, using any Web-enabled device, including laptops, smartphones, and the like.
AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service provides a storage service that lets customers use the AT&T network cloud to store, distribute and retrieve data as needed to meet their business or legal requirements. Customers will be able to specify their storage criteria -- called "user policies" -- through a Web-based customer portal. The service automatically scales storage capacity up or down as needed, and users pay only for the amount they use.
AT&T has selected EMC as the technology provider for the underlying AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service platform. Using EMC Atmos technology, a policy-based information management platform, the AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service lets users access data through the Internet or directly from the AT&T network cloud via a virtual private network or other transport service, enabling customers to create a virtual private storage cloud protected by AT&T's network-based security services.
AT&T is introducing the service to customers on a controlled basis this month, with plans to make the service generally available in the third quarter. The service is deployed in AT&T Internet data centers (IDCs) in the U.S. and will be accessible by customers connecting to the Web anywhere. In time, AT&T plans to add the service to select global IDCs to meet customer demand internationally.


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The Dog Handler.
A fable for a long and cold night…………or perhaps not.
Every shift a dog handler arrives for work.
The dog handler arrives early and begins work immediately. After booking on with comms by either phone or radio, or both, or even by the new and radical computerised booking on and off system that is not simple to use, if there is a computer available, he (for the purposes he is a he) gets his van and goes out onto the streets to offer his own form of specialist support to district response teams. When he gets some spare time he also trains his dog and directs his patrol time towards local crime target areas and current crime trends he finds out from the district response briefings which he attends regularly.
The dog handler works well and supplies a good level of support. He is really happy at work. They have a good relationship this dog handler and his district response colleagues.
He reports to his sergeant, who monitors his work and ensures that he trains his dog to a high standard. The dog handler is trusted to work without close supervision because he is a reliable, dedicated and responsible officer
On day, the chief superintendent was surprised to see that the dog handler was working without close supervision. Although there is a dog sergeant, this role is not a specialist management and leadership role.
He thought that if the dog handler could produce so much by working alone, how much more could be produced if the dog handler was properly supervised. Properly supervised by someone who had been schooled in the specifics of management and leadership. Supervised by someone who has a better understanding of the modern and innovative management and leadership styles.
So he recruited a superintendent who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports.
The superintendent's first decision was to set up a computerised booking on and booking off attendance system.
He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports and …
… he recruited a chief inspector, who managed the administration and monitored all the information he collected by tasking others to supply him. They also recruited a support staff member who made notes and typed their long reports. They also answered the phone, took messages and appeared to generally efficient about the office.
The chief superintendent was delighted with the superintendent's reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe demand profile rates and to analyse trends, so that he could use them for presentations at the weekly senior management team's meetings.
So the chief inspector had to find some money from the budget to buy a new computer and a laser printer and …
… recruited an inspector to manage the IT department.
The dog handler, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork to supply for the benefit of all the others and meetings which used up most of his time explaining what he did…! This seemed to make his life far more difficult than it should be. Far too much of his time was spent sending out seemingly worthless statistical data of what he did, how he did it and why he did not do the things that the management thought he should be doing. All this for the benefit of the organisation of course.
The chief superintendent looked at all the evidence put forward by the management. He looked at the graphs, projections and recommendations presented to him after a 6 month review and came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the dog handler worked.
The position was given to another inspector, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office.
The new person in charge, the inspector, also needed a computer and a personal assistant, a sergeant, who he brought from his previous department, to help him prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan …
The Department where the dog handler works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset…motivation and moral are not trendy words any more.
It was at that time that the sergeant convinced the boss of the absolute necessity to start a full health and safety review, a shift pattern review, a health and safety awareness course, a diversity course, an activity monitoring scheme and put forward a business case proposal to reduce the vehicle fleet by 17%.
Having reviewed the costs for running the dog handler's department, the chief superintendent found out that the production was much less than before.
So he recruited another chief superintendent, a prestigious and renowned outside consultant to carry out a full review and viability study to see if the dogs section was financially viable and gave value for money. They created a working party to carry out this difficult an arduous task for 3 months.
After 3 months in the department they came up with an enormous report, in several volumes, that looked glossy and covered every fact in microscopic detail. There were several nice pictures included, some of which showed a police dog and its handler.
This report concluded:
"The department is overstaffed …and was unaffordable within the current budgetary constraints." Considerable real time savings could be made and allocated towards better things that allowed the management to supervise and closely monitor how well their staff were working and their performance could be measured in relation to the set targets. A time and motion study into performance and how the working time directives affected the statutory provisions was deferred until the next budgetary quarter as it was likely to interfere with the monthly review of the strategic diversity involvement review committee's 2nd quarter review and assessment programme.
Guess who the chief superintendent got rid of first?
The dog handler, of course, because he "showed lack of motivation and had a negative attitude, appearing reluctant to support the management's philosophy".
Unfortunately there were not sufficient finances to allow for the GPS tracking for both the dog vans and the personal issue radios so these will have to wait until the Police Authority can get some money back from Icelandic banks or the Chief Superintendent can make further efficiency savings or reduce someone else's budget to pay for them.
The characters in this fable are fictitious; any resemblance to real people or facts within any other organisation is pure coincidence…
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Vendyl Jones, a Baptist minister turned amateur archaeologist who spent a career in Israel searching for the Ark of the Covenant, passed away in December. He was 80 years old.
Often rumored to be the inspiration for Indiana Jones, "Vendy" Jones spent more than four decades scouring the Judean desert for the Ark as well as the priceless treasures listed on the famous Copper Scroll, thought by many to record the locations of the hidden treasures of the Jerusalem Temple.
While Jones found neither the Ark nor any of the tons of gold and silver mentioned in the Copper Scroll, he did manage to find more than 600 pounds of a unique reddish powder in a Judean desert cave, a substance that he said might have been the qetoret (or incense) used during Temple rituals and observances. During another expedition, his volunteers helped archaeologists Joseph Patrich and Benny Arubas uncover a small first-century C.E. juglet containing an oily liquid that some, including Jones, speculated was the oil used to anoint the priests and kings of ancient Jerusalem.a
Despite his Baptist background, Jones eventually became a Noahide, a follower of the Jewish tradition that all non-Jews (i.e., all mankind), as descendants of Noah, are obligated to obey the seven laws given by God to Noah after the flood. The seven laws, most of which are similar to the Ten Commandments, are found in the Talmud.
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Amazon announced today that its Kindle Fire tablet, which was expected to launch tomorrow, will actually launch today. Surprise! According to Amazon exec Dave Limp, the Fire is already a hit: "Based on customer response," Limp wrote in a press release, "we're building millions more than we'd planned." So how does the Kindle Fire stack up? Well, let's go to the reviews.
The opening shot
"The Kindle Fire is stuck between e-ink minimalism and gleaming iPad decadence," writes Sam Biddle of Gizmodo. "That could either make it the goofy middle child in the tablet family, or a singular wunderkind. But the Fire will not be overlooked. Apple: Be afraid."
The hardware
"The Fire is a simple, black thing with nothing in the way of styling pretenses," writes Tim Stevens of Engadget. "In fact, one could say it has nothing in the way of styling whatsoever. Flip it over and you'll see the word 'Kindle' subtly embossed across the back, only really visible if you hold the tablet at an angle in some light. Otherwise the matte, rubberized back absorbs too much and you can't spot that one bit of styling indulgence the designers allowed themselves here. There's an extremely subtle 'Amazon' print below too and, beyond some scribbles from the FCC, that's it."
The hardware, part 2
"It's a 7-inch tablet, which means that it's half as big as an iPad, and way closer in size to a paperback book," writes Wilson Rothman of MSNBC. "It could be a little easier to grip, but Amazon went minimalist here, rather than opting for some weird-looking ergonomics. Because of the size, reading is easier than on an iPad, though kids' entertainment and other engrossing interactive content isn't as fun. And because the Fire is widescreen, unlike the more 4x3 iPad, videos look almost as big as they do on Apple's much larger device. As far as screen quality goes, it's on par with the iPad. In other words, as an opening move, hardware-wise, Amazon's getting it right."
The interface
"Amazon has done something very interesting with the Fire," writes Joshua Topolsky of the Washington Post. "The device uses a version of Google's Android operating system that is forked from the main version that Google releases to partners. That means that the Fire ships without Gmail, Google Maps, or more importantly, the Android Market app store. It's not always perfect, but generally the company has managed to create a wholly original version of Android." Meanwhile, Topolsky adds, "Amazon has obscured some of the navigational elements of Android, like the 'back' and 'home' buttons, which can sometimes make it hard to quickly move around the device."
The interface, part 2
"The colorful home screen depicts an attractive wood grain bookshelf," writes David Pogue of the New York Times. "Its scrolling contents consist of miniature posters of your e-books, music albums, TV shows, movies, PDF documents, apps and Web bookmarks. There is also a lower shelf where you can park the items you use most often. Your heart leaps. 'This is incredible!' you say, contemplating the prospects. 'It's like an iPad — for $200!' But that's a dangerous comparison. For one thing, the Fire is not nearly as versatile as a real tablet. It is designed almost exclusively for consuming stuff, particularly material you buy from Amazon, like books, newspapers and video. It has no camera, microphone, GPS function, Bluetooth or memory-card slot. There is a serviceable e-mail program, but no built-in calendar or note pad."
The interface, part 3
"To be honest, [the bookshelf is] a cute concept on the Fire, but with a somewhat clumsy execution," writes Lance Ulanoff of Mashable. "Whatever you looked at recently – books, a movie, apps, web pages, etc. – all sits on the top shelf. As a result, it's a hodgepodge of icons. Some are movie boxes or posters, which look good. Book covers look great as well; giant icons for email, Facebook, Angry Birds, the Wired Magazine app – look ridiculous. The shelves use a carousel to let you swipe through your content. This is effective once you get used to the Fire's tendency to let the moving icons run away with themselves – I constantly missed the item I wanted to access."
The display
"In my experience, the telltale sign of any sub-$300 tablet is poor screen quality," notes Donald Bell of CNET. "On paper, Amazon's tablet seems to buck this trend. The Kindle Fire offers a 1,024x600-pixel resolution display using the same wide-angle IPS screen technology as in the iPad. Unfortunately, the screen's brightness doesn't live up to the iPad's, but it's in the same ballpark and is bright enough to look great indoors. If you want something that will look great in direct sunlight, I'm sure Amazon would be happy to add an e-ink Kindle to your order."
The apps
"Then there's the presence of the Amazon Android App Store, which delivers 10,000 Android apps to the Fire," writes Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times. "Amazon made a great move in choosing to base the whole thing on Android. They made a second great decision in choosing to work exceptionally hard to bury every possible trace of Android from the user. Thus, the Kindle gets the best of Android (a free OS and a large, established developer community and app library) without inheriting the worst of it (namely, a user experience that's often akin to simultaneously discovering the source of that awful smell and the answer to the mystery of what happened to that old raccoon that you used to see hanging around near the back porch."
The memory
The Fire, writes the team at FoxNews.com, "has 8 gigabytes of storage. That's enough for more books than you'll ever read, but ten movies will eat up the whole thing. The cheapest iPad, which costs $499, has twice as much memory. The Nook Color, which costs $199, also has 8 gigabytes, but it comes with a slot for memory expansion with cheap cards. I don't understand why the Fire doesn't have a slot like that. The very first Kindle did. There's no step-up model of the Fire with more memory. Amazon says the Fire doesn't need more memory because the company provides an online storage locker, where you can stuff all your music and other content. That works when you have Wi-Fi coverage, but not otherwise – the Fire doesn't have the ability to use cellular networks, as some of the monochrome models do."
"For every sin it commits as a reading device, the Fire atones with a good deed in video playback," writes Jon Phillips of Wired. "The Fire's wide-aspect-ratio video content plays in a 7-inch window. While this window isn't 720p (and therefore not true HD), it still holds up well to the 720p windows of the 9.7-inch iPad (9 inches at 720p) and all those 10.1-inch Android 3.0 tablets (9.75 inches at 720p)... Amazon has dug its hooks into sundry video content sources, and this is where the Fire shines brightest: For $200 you get a perfectly serviceable video player that can stream video from three key, big-name sources. Likewise, in terms of video noise and compression artifacts, the quality of all the content I streamed and downloaded from Amazon's store was serviceable to good."
The browser
"Oh, and that much bandied browser, Silk? It works just as well as Amazon said – pages rendered fine and rapidly, thanks to the cloud-crunching, and can be bookmarked, emailed (via Amazon's capable little native client), Facebook shared – and yes, tabbed," writes Biddle of Gizmodo. "Silk is as real a browser as mobile Safari, and ultra legible thanks to that book-worthy display. Pinch it! Zoom it! It's great."
The final word
"[T]he Kindle Fire is great value and perhaps the best, tightest integration of digital content acquisition into a mobile device that we've yet seen," concludes Stevens of Engadget. "Instead of having a standalone shopping app the entire tablet is a store – a 7-inch window sold at a cut-rate price through which users can look onto a sea of premium content. It isn't a perfect experience, but if nothing else it's a promising look into the future of retail commerce."


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Only one part in 2597 of Earth's atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Yet, plants make themselves from it. A very substantial oak tree is made from what seems like a few insubstantial air molecules. Plants use photosynthesis to make themselves from water, carbon dioxide and energy from the Sun. Atmospheric oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis. Animals reverse photosynthesis. They eat plants or they eat animals that eat plants. Animal metabolism consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and water. The net effect of all this is a constant movement of carbon between plants, animals and the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most important greenhouse gases. Without greenhouse gases, Earth would be an ice planet and there would be no life.
We humans, because of our numbers and our technology, greatly influence Earth's atmosphere. We need to understand what we are doing to Earth's atmosphere.
Charles Keeling began precise monthly measurements of the concentration of carbon dioxide in 1958. He was the first to do so systematically and so his data have come to be known as the "The Keeling Curve." Learn more about Charles Keeling at http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/home/index.php ĀThe measurements were made at the Mauna Loa Astronomical Observatory which is at the summit of an inactive volcano in Hawaii. Mauna Loa was chosen because it is far from major sources or sinks of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide concentrations measured at Mauna Loa are a good proxy for the average of the whole Earth.
The black wiggles are a continuous record of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere from 1958 to May 2007. NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, which is a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce) is the original source of the data which may be found at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ This is data collected by competent scientists and it is not controversial.
The black wiggles record the breathing of all the plants and animals on Earth. Plants must inhale carbon dioxide to grow and as they do so, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Almost all animals and bacteria exhale carbon dioxide as they go about living. Animals and bacteria are always active and so carbon dioxide concentration increases whenever plants are inactive. There are more plants growing in the Northern Hemisphere because there is more land mass in the Northern Hemisphere, as a glance at a globe will confirm. When all the plants in the Northern Hemisphere are growing during the summer, they remove significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The maximums occurs every year in May, at the beginning of the growing season. The minimums occurs every year in November, at the end of the growing season. All of this is quite visible on the graph.
The red line shows the same data but with the yearly variations removed. There are several ways this might have been done. Here, it was accomplished by fitting a curve called a 4th order polynomial to the data. The blue parts of the polynomial curve extend the record forward and backward in time. The red line is based on real data, the blue lines are plausible projections.
Clearly the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. Equally clearly, the rate of increase is increasing. In 1960 the rate of increase per year was 0.71 PPM (parts per million). The 2005 rate of increase was 2.14 PPM per year. However, the increase is not perfectly steady. The Pinatubo volcanic eruption of 1991 is credited with the slowing of the increase for a few years. The massive release of sulfur dioxide resulted in an increase in cloud cover which resulted in cooling which increased the solubility of carbon dioxide in sea water. The resulting slight pause beginning in 1992 is visible. The pause, whatever its origin, was canceled by an acceleration in the next decade. The Southern Oscillation also known as the El Niño--La Niña cycle also seems to have an effect. The general trend, however, is unmistakable.
If the general trend continues, the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 400 PPM within ten years. It is hard to avoid this conclusion. Nothing short of a large volcanic eruption or a nuclear war or a large meteorite strike would change this conclusion.
There is no doubt that the carbon dioxide increase is anthropogenic. The circumstantial evidence is strong. Human population increases track carbon dioxide increases. However, there is proof. Carbon dioxide circulating between plants, animals and the atmosphere is made slightly radioactive in the upper atmosphere by the sun. Carbon dioxide formed by burning fossil fuels is not radioactive because the carbon has not been in the upper atmosphere for millions of years. That makes it possible to distinguish anthropogenic fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide from the carbon dioxide circulating between plants and animals by measuring its radioactivity.
This graph puts it all together. It is a record of the concentration of carbon dioxide during the past four ice ages. The green part is from: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/vostok/vostok_co2.html The data comes from air bubbles trapped in ice taken from a two kilometer hole drilled into the Antarctic ice sheet. It is like the preceding Keeling curve except that it extends 415,000 years back in time instead of 50 years. The Keeling curve has been added to the right side as indicated by the black and red. The horizontal scale prevents showing any detail.
At 400 PPM, the amount of carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere is unprecedented, at least in the past 415,000 years. The last time it reached even 300 PPM was 325,000 years ago.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated to temperature and glaciation. The record is jagged, but it is easy to see patterns. When the concentration is below 240 PPM, kilometers thick glaciers cover most of Europe, Canada and the northern part of the United States. There are 4 ice ages recorded here. Note that temperatures decrease irregularly over a span of approximately 100,000 years while temperature increases are sudden and dramatic. We live in an era just after a rapid temperature increase.
If present trends continue, Earth's climate will be very different 100 years from now. Nearly all of the world's scientists agree on this. The only disagreement is about the amount and the rate of change.
Climatology is a very complex subject and the preceding is only a foretaste. An indepth report, written by 2,500 scientists from around the world, is available if you want to know more. http://www.ipcc.ch/ The report was written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.


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French Move Closer to Same-Sex Marriage
France, hotbed of infidelity, has taken one step closer to allowing same-sex couples the privilege of having extra-marital affairs. This morning, the National Assembly, which is the lower house of France's parliament (it is much like our Congress, but different in that it appears they vote on things), voted 249 to 97 in favor of gay marriage.
This comes after months of divisive debate, as well as compromises by the French left, dropping parts of the legislation that would offer medically-assisted reproduction for lesbian couples. Last Sunday, 125,000 supporters of gay marriage marched in Paris to support President François Hollande's promise of legalizing gay marriage within a year of taking office. Three weeks ago, a much larger demonstration opposing gay marriage made apparent the strong divisions between the ruling Left and the hard-line, very Catholic conservative base. France's Muslims have supported the measure.
63% of the French support the bill, which would allow same-sex couples to adopt, although only 49% particularly like that part of the legislation. Votes in the higher houses will take place over the next two weeks.
This is great and all, besides the fact that the French don't really give two shits about marriage in the first place.


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New Starch Reduces Fat Content, Brings Creaminess And Texture
Tate & Lyle announced the European launch of a new starch for use in dairy and convenience foods. The starch, named Creamiz, will help manufacturers reduce fat content by up to 30%, while maintaining mouthfeel and texture.
Creamiz uses unique starch modification technology to make it a contender for fat substitution in a wide range for food products. It will not affect the creaminess of products it is used in, but instead will complement and enhance their existing texture creating a rich and full bodied flavor.
Tate & Lyle has already developed several prototypes using Creamiz, including low-fat cream desserts and yogurts, and is now working with its customers to optimise and create additional recipes.


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Long Time, No Posts.
Well, here I sit, wondering if I really want to post anything today. It's been a long time since I did this. Life has been going by at a quick pace. Thinking maybe it's time to post again.
Hope your day is going well!
October 24, 2013 - Posted by hoosierarmymom | Commentaries | Personal Thoughts
2 Comments »
Just got back to posting on my own blog after a long hiatus.
Comment by Tim High | November 14, 2013
Hey, I have a quick question I wanted to ask you about your blog, do you think you could send me an email when you get this? Thanks! Tiffany
Comment by Tiffany | December 4, 2013
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The author of this blog is a conservative Christian who seeks to express her own opinions regarding a wide range of issues confronting American society. She is a woman whom an American Soldier calls "Mom," the daughter of a World War II Marine who, throughout his life, attributed his most important developmental experiences to his military service. I invite anyone to express his or her own point of view, but I will not tolerate any abridgment of common decency, including vulgar expressions, ad hominem attack, or any violation of civil law respecting libel or slander.
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What one gets after hours and hours of meetings discussing a decision and the decision is never made.
This is the 4th meeting we've had this week to discuss whether or not we should we should order more paper for the copier. Someone needs to make a decision - I've got Corporate Blue Balls!
by BB63 December 04, 2012


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David Crisp, Vikki Meadows, Stuart Lumsden, Jonathan Pogson, and Steven Lee
The InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) is being used on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) at Siding Spring Observatory (near Coonabarabran, Australia) to monitor the impacts of the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. On 18 July, observations of Jupiter were initiated at 6:30 UT, about one hour before sunset. The skies were clear, and the seeing was better than 1 arc-second. Near-infrared images and spectra at wavelengths between 2 and 2.4 microns taken between 6:30 and 7:30 UT on 18 July 1994 revealed two bright features near the evening terminator at about 45 South latitude. These features were identified as the impact sites of fragments A and C, which had been monitored on the previous day. Bright flashes associated with the impacts of fragments G2 and G1 were first detected on the morning limb of Jupiter at 7:33 and 7:40 UT, respectively. The impact flashes were tens to hundreds of times brighter than those seen previously. These sites were monitored until 13:30 UT.
Images, Images, Images


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As Hurricane Sandy hit a death toll of 74 and initially left 8 million without power, many Americans are criticizing brands that chose to use the storm as a marketing ploy and capitalize in the wake of destruction.
Click here to see the biggest offenders>
Retailers ranging from the usual suspects ( American Apparel and Urban Outfitters) to more sensitive brands ( Gap and Jonathan Adler) blasted out emails and tweets full of hurricane puns and special, limited time Sandy Sales.
Be it good marketing or insensitive exploitation, the press and social media-sphere critiqued the trend. Some brands apologized, others didn't.
It's reminiscent of when Kenneth Cole compared the Arab Spring to its spring sale, tweeting "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online."
Furthermore, flash sale sites like Groupon and Living Social are shilling deals for resorts, restaurants, and more that were damaged in the storm and currently out of commission. Although Living Social's director of communication Marie Griffin told Ad Age, "What we have done in light of the storm is we have been in touch with our different hotel partners, and for those that have been affected we've pulled them off the site for now."
Home design store Jonathan Adler sent out emails urging consumers to "storm our site." It later apologized and changed its checkout code from "Sandy" to "Stuckinside" and "Freeship1012."
"storm our site" and obtain free shipping by entering "code Sandy at checkout." (After an apology, the code was changed to "Stuckinside" or "Freeship1012.")


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Two women related to Zetas' boss plead guilty in money laundering
AUSTIN — Two women related to the feared leader of the Zetas drug cartel pleaded guilty to money laundering charges Friday in a federal courtroom here.
The pleas were part of a case that has made public allegations of the cartel's brutality, its strong presence in U.S. horse racing circles and its ability to corrupt politicians in Mexico.
Zulema Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy, admitting that from 2008 to 2012, she helped her husband, José Treviño Morales, launder millions of dollars of the gang's money through a quarter horse breeding and racing operation.
Her daughter Alexandra Garcia Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of misprision of a felony, admitting she knew about the money laundering scheme and didn't alert authorities.
Prosecutors recommended both women receive probation. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Gardner stressed that neither had agreed to cooperate with the government. Afterward, neither woman would comment.
"It's a very difficult situation to be born into the family," said Frank Ivy, Alexandra Treviño's lawyer. "She's doing the best she can."
José Treviño is the brother of Zetas leader Miguel Treviño Morales, known in Mexico and along the South Texas border by his radio call sign, "El 40."
The four Treviños are among 19 people charged in what prosecutors said was a multimillion-dollar scheme by El 40 and his brothers to launder the proceeds of their drug trafficking and extortion.
José Treviño is accused of being the front man, laundering El 40's and another brother's drug proceeds in quarter horses they trained and raced across the American Southwest.
Since José and Zulema Treviño and more than a dozen others were arrested in a multistate sweep in July, prosecutors have introduced through court filings and witness testimony evidence related to the gang's other alleged activities.
Members of the Zetas used drug money to pay off the gatekeepers at the 2010 All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico, a premier quarter horse racing event with a $1 million purse, an Internal Revenue Service agent testified in July.
José Treviño's horse, Mr. Piloto, overcame 22-1 odds for a long-shot victory.
A spokesman for the race track rejected the allegations.
"Our position is we've extensively reviewed the start of that race and stand by the legitimacy of the start of that race," said Ty Wyant, a spokesman for Ruidoso Downs.
Another Treviño brother, Omar, known by his call sign "El 42" and like El 40, a fugitive in Mexico, would kill opponents who beat him in horse races and cock fights, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Investigators allege that one co-defendant, Francisco Colorado Cessa, a businessman in the Mexican oil industry from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, acted as an intermediary between that state's former governor and one of the founding members of the Zetas, a group that has gone from a hit squad of former Mexican special forces soldiers to one of the country's largest organized crime syndicates with a strong presence beyond its borders.
The campaign of Fidel Herrera, who was governor of Veracruz from 2004 to 2010, was funded by founding Zetas member Efraín "Z 14" Torres, FBI Agent Scott Lawson testified in a July 25 hearing.
"We have a confidential informant who can place Mr. Cessa as intermediary between Mr. Fidel Herrera and Zeta 14," Lawson testified.
Herrera, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that last year retook the Mexican presidency, called the allegations "absolutely false."
"At no time was any contribution made to my campaign or to my party," he wrote in an email. "It's equally false that a supposed 'meeting' with members of this band of criminals was recorded in the governor's public activity log."
Colorado Cessa and José Treviño have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Colorado Cessa's attorney denied his client had broken any laws.
"He's a very successful and extremely well-respected businessman in Mexico," said Houston lawyer Mike DeGeurin.
Torres, who was one of the original special forces soldiers who helped form the Zetas as an assassin squad for the Gulf Cartel in the late 1990s, was killed at a horse race in Veracruz in 2007. After his death, the Treviño brothers hired Torres's horse trainer.
In a 2009 online chat with her then-boyfriend that were entered into the court record, Alexandra Garcia Treviño spoke excitedly of her family's prospects.
"I know my family isn't perfect," she wrote. "But we are hard workers."
Prosecutors alleged that after winning one race, she and her brother posed for a picture holding up hand signs showing their uncles' radio call signs.
As part of the plea deal, Zulema Treviño gave up her rights to the hundreds of horses she and her husband's companies owned, many of which were auctioned off last year, and ranch properties they own in Oklahoma.
She will be able to keep the modest home they own in the Balch Springs suburb of Dallas, prosecutors said during Friday's court proceedings.
The allegations against José Treviño shook the quarter horse racing world. He has not shied away from the spotlight, giving interviews after his horses won.
Julianna Holt, who along with husband Peter are majority owners of the San Antonio Spurs, had sold Treviño one of her horses. She bought it back at the government auction last year for $1 million.


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Tire Size: 225/45R17/XL
Serv. Desc: 94W
Sidewall: SB
Max Load: 1477 lbs
Warranty (mi.) 45,000
Availability: Call for availability
3 out of 5Submitted by Michelle in Nevada on 4/24/2017(2002 Subaru Impreza TS)
These were the least expensive tire available for my vehicle, and I purchased inexpensive since I don't plan on owning the car any longer than these tires will last. The performance is OK... not as confident in the turns as the previous Yokohamas, but solid enough to take a tight freeway exit ramp at almost 40mph. Good traction on wet and dry... can't rate snow since there isn't much of that here in Las Vegas.
My only complaint is they are LOUD. So loud a passenger in the backseat commented that she thought I was driving with a flat tire. Nope... just tire noise. Not forgiving either... you will feel the road (which I prefer). But what can I really expect for a very inexpensive tire? It's a good value if you need a safe set of tires on a budget.
It suits my needs at this time. I will be putting a better tire on our newer car.
Submit Review
Ron Ruegg Automotive
Almasy Body Shop


text: Stand out from the crowd with a colorful rubberized back cover for your Toshiba Thrive 10" Tablet. Now you can personalize with your tablet with a colored case. It is user-interchangeable and designed exclusively for your Toshiba 10" Tablet with a slip-resistant easy grip surface. Look good and feel confident now!


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Phil Hughes Locked In — MLB Fantasy Waiver Wire Pickups 2013
Since our last installment there have been a string of huge injuries. Marlins slugger and only legitimate bat Giancarlo Stanton suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain and is expected to miss at least a month of action. Sure he started out the season slow but he was showing signs of breaking through. In his last six games he hit .296 with three homers and eight RBIs.
Much to the delight of his owners, Hanley Ramirez returned from a thumb injury that cost him the first 24 games of the season. He proceeded to hit .455 with a homer, two runs scored and a stolen base over 12 plate appearances before also going down with a bum hamstring. His will likely only keep him out a couple of weeks though.
Losses like this sting. Like lemon juice in a cut sting. You get that initial sharp pain that is then followed by that annoying dull pain until you rinse that sucker out. Consider me your sink, as I plan on offering you plenty of alternatives to pick up to fill in for your injured studs or other non-performing players.
** Percentage available taken from ESPN on Sunday May 5th
Salvador Perez, C, KC (32.9%)
Perez turns 23 this week. Many sleep on the fact that this kid is a career .307 hitter over his first 531 at-bats. Sure his power hasn't kicked in yet, but don't let this keep you from owning him. He has spent more than half of his plate appearances batting fourth or fifth. His RBI totals are going to increase. Guys like John Buck, Russell Martin and A.J. Pierzynski are going to fall back to earth. Consider this a buy low point right now on what is ultimately a better player.
Yonder Alonso, 1B, SD (78.6%)
One thing Alonso has done consistently as a pro is hit for average. In the minors he hit .293 over 1,340 plate appearances while in the majors he has hit .279 over his first 858 plate appearances. His issue all along as a first baseman has been power. He has never hit more than 15 long balls in a season as a pro. So far this year he has four, leaving him on pace for 18. His ability to keep his average in the .280 range while flirting with 20 homers makes him a valid mixed league bat.
Dustin Ackley, 2B, SEA (91.1%)
This is the second week in a row recommending Ackley. His ownership percentage jumped just .7 percent despite hitting .333 with a homer and five RBIs over his last seven games. With the Mariners six games out of first place and struggling to score runs, Ackley needs to perform to keep his job, especially when you have Nick Franklin tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A. My money says he continues hitting and is owned in most mixed leagues before you know it.
Nolan Arenado, 3B, COL (37.4%)
Just like Ackley, Arenado makes his second straight appearance. Last week he was owned in less than one percent of leagues, this week he is owned in almost 64 percent. In his first week with the club he posted a .308-4-2-7 line over 26 at-bats. He has been just as good as advertised and has all the makings of a Top-12 third basemen from here on out. This will be the last week you can pick this guy up off waivers.
Dee Gordon, SS, LAD (92.6%)
Injuries to the aforementioned Hanley Ramirez have opened the door for Gordon to see some playing time. He did however show well in Triple-A to earn the chance, hitting .314 with 19 runs scored and 14 stolen bases over 25 games. Since his call-up he has three hits in his first seven at bats with three RBIs and three stolen bases. This will be an audition for a full time job. If Gordon continues to play well, he can continue manning short with Hanley shifting over to third. Even if he does get sent down he has the ability to swipe you another five bases before he does. If you need speed, pull the trigger.
Michael Saunders, OF, SEA (58.0%)
Saunders sprained his shoulder on April 11th and required a stint on the 15 day DL. He returned on April 29th and has done nothing but destroy the ball, posting a .318-8-3-6-1 line over 22 at-bats. Last season he hit 19 homers and stole 21 bases while hitting .247 over 139 games. That was enough to get our attention heading into drafts. He should now firmly have it with his start to this season. Only 11 players posted a 20-20 season last year. Getting your hands on a guy fully capable of doing so in May is a huge coup.
Juan Pierre, OF, MIA (78.6%)
With five stolen bases in his last seven games, Pierre is now tied for second in the league in steals with 10. Yes he turns 36 this year, but we are looking at a guy who is a career .296 hitter with 601 stolen bases. Even with regression, his speed combined with his ability to put the ball in play make him nothing less than a .270 hitter. This is an extremely cheap source of speed on a team that has no reason not to let him run.
Justin Grimm, SP, TEX (71.7%)
Grimm is pitching above his head but there is nothing wrong with riding a guy on a hot streak. His minor league numbers suggest nothing more than a back of the rotation starter. Right now we have a guy fully taking advantage of his first turn around the league, with all of his starts coming against below average offenses. Pick him up as a lottery ticket, but view him more as a trade chip than anything. If you can upgrade someplace else by throwing this kid in the deal do so.
Phil Hughes, SP, NYY (71.9%)
Hughes won his first start of the season on Saturday, thoroughly dominating Oakland over eight innings, striking out nine while allowing just four hits and a walk. This however was actually his fourth quality start in a row. During that span he has struck out 30 and allowed just six runs. His problem has, and always will be giving up the long ball. He gave up 35 last season and is on pace to give up 28 this year. What makes him worthy of ownership this year is his 8.74 K/9. Pick when you use him wisely and he can pay off for you.
Joel Hanrahan, RP, BOS (22.8%)
Andrew Bailey is set to undergo an MRI on his injured right bicep on Monday. The fact that he hasn't appeared in a game since April 28th doesn't bode well for him avoiding the disabled list. Hanrahan lost his job to Bailey after a stint on the DL, so it's only fitting he likely gets it back in the same fashion. I am the first to admit I am not a fan of Hanrahan, but whoever closes out games for Boston needs to be owned.