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Stick With What Got You There
With football season in high gear, it's tough to find much racing news in my local paper. If you happen to follow my Twitter account (@Oilpressureblog), you may recall I had a bitter dispute last week with The Tennessean, Nashville's poor excuse for a newspaper. I actually cancelled my subscription, but they enticed me to come back on Wednesday by offering me six months at half-price. My principles can be bought.
I know I'm old and old-fashioned, but I still like holding a newspaper in my hand versus reading it online. It's been a weekend ritual of mine for years to read my paper in bed with coffee. It's hard to do that with a laptop and don't even get me started on a Kindle.
So after suffering through my stubbornness for a week with no paper, I sold out and started it back. Anyway…yesterday morning, in between reading about college football from Saturday, the Phillies losing and the NFL preview for Sunday; I noticed a very small blurb on one of the back pages of the sports section about Kevin Harvick swapping pit crews with Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer. It was explained that this gave Harvick the best chance to win in the final few races for the chase.
I know I don't keep up with NASCAR that much, so I called a friend of mine who does. He thought it made perfect sense. I hung up the phone knowing one of us was dead-wrong, but I wasn't sure which one. The more I thought about it throughout the day, I was convinced it was him. I didn't watch the race at Martinsville. I was watching the Titans and their fourth-quarter beat-down of the Eagles. But I did see that Harvick finished third yesterday, so I gave it a little more thought. I still think I'm right.
I am of the school of thought that you go with what got you there. I do know that Harvick either led the points throughout most of the summer or was right up there. A quick glance also showed that Harvick is currently third in the chase standings. I understand that you do what it takes to win, but if I were on Harvick's crew all year and was told that with five races to go, I was being relegated to a driver that was dead-last in the chase – I would be more than just a little unhappy.
When Will Power's lead in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings was dwindling in the final few races of the season, Team Penske made no wholesale swaps of crew personnel. Although Power clearly had the best season at team Penske, I don't think anyone would argue that personnel-wise – they were considered the third best team at Team Penske. I don't think anyone would put Clive Howell on the same level with Roger Penske or Tim Cindric as a race strategist. Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe have the established teams and therefore the best personnel available. To my knowledge, no one migrated to Clive Howell's side of the shop. They were all brought in from elsewhere.
When Ryan Briscoe was eliminated from championship contention, they didn't suddenly move his crew over to Power's car just to give him a better chance. Power's crew, led by Clive Howell, had beaten the odds and gotten him in a position to win it all. Scott Dixon had been mathematically eliminated before the Homestead race, but you didn't see Chip Ganassi pilfering crew members to throw onto Dario's team for the last race. You win or lose as a team. You don't cherry-pick your crew members from within your organization at the end of the season; and you sure don't snub the guys that got you there in the first place.
Is this common practice in NASCAR? I don't follow their races closely enough to say one way or the other. I never remember anything like this happening in the IZOD IndyCar Series or in CART or USAC for that matter, but I could be wrong.
My NASCAR friend didn't see what the big deal was. He didn't know if it had happened in NASCAR before, but his recollection of such things is not his strong suit. He essentially told me to "chill out", which is what my twenty-one year old son likes to say when I get too parental with him. Maybe my friend is right. Maybe I should just focus on football, Thanksgiving and Christmas and then worry about off-season developments the New Year brings to the IndyCar series.
This whole concept of swapping crews at this point in the season really rubs me the wrong way. Maybe the off-season is already getting to me. Perhaps I fret too much about what NASCAR is doing, now that our season has been buttoned up and put away for over three weeks (it seems longer). Am I over-reacting to this or does this rankle others as well? I would be very disappointed if one of my favorite drivers pulled a stunt like this. What do you think?
George Phillips
Shameless Plug: In case anyone is interested, I was interviewed for a podcast last week for an end of season wrap up. This is the same site that interviewed me twice in May – Crimson Cast, which is devoted primarily to Indiana basketball, but also the IZOD IndyCar Series. We discuss all things IndyCar about this past season, comparisons to the 1993 season and what to look for in the next couple of years. It's not short, but nothing I ever do is. Just click here, scroll down and click on the "play" arrow to the left and listen…and listen…and listen. – GP
6 Responses to "Stick With What Got You There"
Color me old fashioned George, but like you I enjoy sittin' around the ol' wood stove reading the morning newspaper. No pop-ups, no Bing. The paper also comes in handy for swatting mosquitos or admonishing the dog who will snatch my breakfast quicker than a Penske pit stop. What's not to like?
After that ritual I will read the Crimson Cast interview that you are so shamelessly plugging. (I suppose next you'll get an agent)
Regarding the tin-top news, I also believe in what they say down there in the hoots and hollers of Tennessee………….."Dance with the girl what brung ya". In the unlikely event that Harvick should win the chase, it should make for a very awkward celebration.
Switching pit crews and/or crew chiefs is definitely more of a NASCAR phenomenon than in any other form of racing. Every few years, Richard Childress and Jack Roush switch either their pit crews or crew chiefs or usually both sometime mid-season when their teams are struggling to try to revitalize them. In my opinion, it rarely works, as teams really go up and down based on the quality of their cars more than the subtle differences in the quality of their crews. This is really more about Kevin Harvick being an egomaniac and whining about his pit crew not being fast enough. Clint Bowyer is a more copasetic dude and he gets along with anybody for the most part, so really it's Bowyer who is being hurt by this if anyone… At least it's better than when a few years ago Denny Hamlin had his pit crew completely fired because they made a mistake (but it was okay for him to make some really stupid driving errors at about the same time). The most notorious pit crew trade was that at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as they started their downfall before Junior's departure. His team members went to Michael Waltrip's team and vice versa; both teams started their descent into suck that eventually resulted in Junior leaving for Hendrick and sucking even more. For the most part, Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs haven't taken to this strategy of swapping team members around haphazardly, which may be part of the reason why they consistently remain the top two teams in recent years…
It is a team sport and that was what Al Unser told me when I asked him about his fourth Indy 500 win. Team Sport. So, if Harvick were to win the Cup Championship, who gets the crew rings? Everyone? I think if I were the original crew I wouldn't wear it.
By the way, George, I haven't subscribed to the Tennessean in years and I don't miss it.
Sean, I don't follow Nascar closely so your post was interesting to me, but my favorite part was "copasetic dude".
George, I halfway agree with you this time. I don't think it's ever acceptable for a driver to blame his crew for any sort of failure in a race. That sort of thing seriously bothers me and I'm annoyed to hear that someone changed an entire crew. I don't see the point in doing that.
What I do believe is acceptable is swapping out a single crew member at a time. Especially during the chase when the other teams are locked out of a win anyway. For example, if I'm a team owner and one of my two cars is placed 2nd in standings and the other is 12th, I want to put my effort onto the car with a chance of winning the championship. Let's say car two had a front tire changer who is .5 seconds faster on average always. I would have no problem with an individual swap then because at the end of the day both crews are part of my team. If Dario wins the championship, it's a title for the Target Chip Gannassi team. Racing is a team sport, but I see the team as the whole team not the individual car. If it's down to the wire and only one car has a chance to win, it's better for the team to put your effort into the car that can give the team a championship.
The chase is contrived competition and drama….as desperate as swapping crews or coaches.
The real drama and changes will come with the next TV contract as the groves of money trees die en mass……PANIC and betrayal.


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What Can Parents Do About Web Safety?
This is especially true in the "Web 2.0" era of the interactive Internet when kids are not only "downloading" inappropriate information but "uploading" information about themselves in social networking sites like MySpace and even video sites like YouTube. Today, parents have to worry not just what their kids "see" on the net but what they "say" as well.
So what does it mean to be an involved parent? It doesn't necessarily mean standing over your kid's shoulder every time he or she goes online, but it does mean talking with your kids – especially your teens – on a regular basis about their internet activities.
And don't just focus on porn and predators. There are other "risks" for kids ranging from cyber bullying to net addiction to commercial exploitation. If your kids open up about bad experiences, don't overreact or blame the victim. Listen carefully and appreciate that fact that they're coming forward.
Your children may not want to talk about any negative experiences they've had online, but don't let that stop you from talking with them about dangers on the Internet. Don't exaggerate but do warn kids that getting giving out personal information and getting together with people they meet online can be dangerous. Let them know that the safest way to deal with unwanted solicitations is to not respond.
Don't think that kids aren't listening. Just as with messages about smoking and other dangerous substances, parents do have an impact. A national survey of teens conducted by the Boys and Girls Clubs found that "more than 1 in 3 youth (37%) stated that their relationship with their parents/guardians was most important to them... Surprisingly, nearly half (45%) of all respondents said that their parents most significantly influence their decisions, rather than their peers."
When it comes to bad things that can happen, let's look at some numbers, starting with the "2 P's" – porn and predators.. Earlier this year the University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center reported the results of a 2005 national survey of 1,500 Internet users between the ages of 10 and 17. The study found that one in seven (13%) had received "unwanted sexual solicitations or approaches in the past year." That's down from one in five from the 1999 survey.
Before you become alarmed, it's important to note that not all of those solicitations came from adult "predators." In the 2005 survey "those younger than 18 were identified as solicitors in a substantial number of incidents — 43%." Thirty-nine percent of the solicitors were described as over 18 with the majority of that group (30%) between 18 and 25 and 14% of the solicitors were people the young victims knew in person prior to the solicitation.
While it's important to protect children of all ages, the survey, like previous studies, found that teens are at greater risk: "90% of the sexual solicitations happened to youths who were 13 or older."
From a prevention standpoint, one of the most important observations from the study, based on interviews with law enforcement officials, is the finding that "offenders rarely used deceit or violence. Rather they appealed to adolescents' interest in romance and sex."
Bottom line: Predators can't physically molest a child via the Internet. They must first convince the child to meet with them and that's nearly always done through persuasion, not force.
Of course, any report of an unwanted sexual solicitation is disturbing but there is some good news about how young people dealt with those incidents: "Most youth (66%) handled unwanted solicitations by removing themselves from the situation, by blocking the solicitor, or leaving the web site or computer. Other youth told the person to stop, confronted or warned the solicitor (16%), while others ignored them (11%)."
Unfortunately most kids who experienced these incidents didn't report them to parents or authorities. Only 5% were referred to law enforcement, 12% said they reported it to their parents while only 2% reported it to teachers or school personnel. "In more than half of cases (56%), youth did not tell anyone about solicitations."
From a percentage standpoint, exposure to unwanted porn is a bigger and growing problem. 34% of the teens "received unwanted exposures to sexual material" up from 25% in the 1999 survey. Again there is some good news about how young people dealt with unwanted porn.
"The great majority of youth (92%)," according to the survey, "simply removed themselves from the situation by blocking or leaving the site or computer when they encountered unwanted sexual material. Few youths (2%) who encountered sexual material while surfing said they went back to that site later."
The key word here is "unwanted." The study didn't deal with cases where teens were looking for porn.
Another serious problem is cyber-bullying, in which children are harassed, bullied, embarrassed, defamed or pressured via the Internet or cell phone. Examples of cyber-bullying include using email or other messages to threaten a child, but it can also include spreading malicious rumors or innuendoes, online sexual harassment.
Cyber-bullying can happen in chat rooms, on websites, on blogs or social networking profiles and via instant messaging and cell phone text messaging.
How widespread is cyber-bullying? The survey found that "9% of young Internet users said they were harassed online in the past year. 6% percent said someone was bothering or harassing them online and 3% said someone had posted or sent messages about them for other people to see. Also 3% of youth described an incident of distressing online harassment, which left them feeling "very or extremely upset or afraid." In a third of the cases, the harassment included "contact or attempts at contact by telephone, offline mail or in person."
The targets, according to the report, were 58% girls and 42% boys. "Girls were more likely than boys to experience distressing harassment (68% compared to 32%) The majority of harassment episodes (72%) happened to teenagers ages 14 to 17."
Of course there are many other issues of concern to teens and parents. Loss of reputation is a growing problem as teens put inappropriate information on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Teens posting pictures of teens in sexually provocative poses or in the presence of alcohol or illegal drugs may seem cool at the time but can come back to haunt them later, especially if discovered by school officials, potential employers, admission counselors or parents.
Kids need to understand the legal and academic consequences of illegal or unethical behavior – or the perception that either has occurred.
And, like the rest of us, they need to be aware that not everything they see on the Internet is necessarily true.
A syndicated technology columnist for over two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."
By Larry Magid

subset: commoncrawl


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Information Convergence?February 03, 2005
A few thoughts in response to the response on my response from yesterday. On convergence of content, and RSS in particular.
Yesterday we looked at the problem of information overload when too much is presented in a single feed. Some fantastic discussion has been happening here and elsewhere, so much so that a quick linkdump is in order. (Ironic? You decide.)
- Stinky Links
- Matt Haughey's piece that kicked off the discussion. To be fair, I originally misquoted him (since amended), and my writing yesterday wasn't meant as any particular sort of judgment on Matt or the others I called out by name. I had the outline written up early in January as a more general musing on the impact of combined feeds, his post threw it into sharper focus and prompted me to finish up and provide some examples.
- On hybridised RSS feeds as evidence of a need for weblog refactoring…
- Tom Coates took the ball and ran with it. A long and probing look at how all these small pieces loosely join, in practice. Some excellent musing into what all this is and how we got here.
- Requirements for a tag-aware RSS reader
Okay, I didn't see this one coming, but Brian Del Vecchio has taken the discussion and combined it with the darling discussion point of the day, folksonomies (AKA tags). Arguing for tag-awareness built into RSS readers, Brian takes it into a different realm and lays out a foundation for tagging content which has already hit the reader, to add more permanent storage and classification of useful content. Though it may be some great extra functionality, this doesn't really solve my problem.
Built-in tagging support that would fit into this particular discussion would be something that allows me to filter content before I even read it. Essentially the tags would have to act as keywords for a search, proactively applied to dish up only entries matching the terms I've chosen. But I'd have some major reservations on how you would go about building the UI for this kind of idea. Would I have to select my tags every time the reader polled remote sites? No, that's silly — what if my mood changed and I wanted to edit the saved tag list? That shouldn't be a manual process every time.
The obvious solution is to save different sets of tags as "views" of my feeds, which actively includes or excludes unread content items based on my terms. Quite serviceable and probably easy to implement (since NetNewsWire already lets you search across all your feeds), but then I'm only seeing a small portion of content that fits into those narrower terms. I'm not convinced I'd use that sort of custom view often, or even rarely. Likely there would have to be some form of category/tag support built into a feed itself, but then we'd move back into the territory of providing separate feeds for each facet; do feeds at the category level really make sense? For some, yes. It would be interesting to play with this sort of tagging idea anyway, since I'm shooting down a theoretical model that I probably don't fully understand yet.
Anyway, so here we are with this can of worms that a bunch of people have apparently all been thinking about for a while. There seemed to be consensus on here yesterday that people who read this particular site would prefer to see separated feeds; that's only a small data set though. I doubt anyone really needs to shake up what they're doing drastically at this point, as a couple of alternate feeds are pretty easy to build and should satisfy most everyone. (Incidentally, I'm finding it highly ironic that a bunch of web designers are saying we, the users, want to see your site this way. Shouldn't we know better? Then again, we're also the ones getting used to ideas like client-side CSS and RSS that allow the user to completely bypass our work anyway, so at least we're being consistent… I think.)
Tom points out that it may not be quite that easy. Due to small problems with each of the services in the chain — the lack of formatting in del.icio.us, for example — a unified feed is not the ideal it might be. In fact, a significant chunk of my aversion to these content-rich feeds is the sheer number of items; one dump of del.icio.us links, one Flickr photo, and one article a day might be my threshold. One single photo, or one aggregate view of all photos posted within a day would be roughly similar in my mind, the net result being a single new item in NetNewsWire to click on instead of the constant stream I'm getting now. That's actually not so far away, either — most del.icio.us implementations I've seen are already doing exactly that. The Flickr team is probably on this already (we're smart, us Vancouverites).
But remember that we're basing all this on only two or three services so far; what happens when someone's feed integrates those with upcoming.org events, MSN search results, and craigslist listings (all currently obtainable in RSS)? My three-item threshold just got crossed, and that's scratching the tip of the iceberg. RSS isn't just about weblogs, either. Throw in stock quotes, bank statement summaries, press releases, and all the other data you might expect companies and individuals to want showing up in their feedreaders, and we're heading into murky waters where relatively flat RSS files are replacing complex data views (dashboards, anyone?) in a way that might not make sense.
Convergence will continue until we have a better idea for sorting out all of this. I suspect Tom's final wondering of how we might re-define the weblog holds some part of the solution: Just as we're all different people with different interests, so will each site accordingly treat the technology. This site in particular has never been a personal weblog, so much as a series of articles and musings on design and the web. A bunch of camera phone pictures from the pub would never fit here. If I were to start posting Flickr photographs that support my main articles, on the other hand, I'd deem that essential content that belongs in my main feed. Integrating content pieces on a per-item choice feels like the right direction to move toward; once a site's focus is clearly defined, then it shouldn't matter what the content is or where it came from, as long as it's relevant. The task is much harder on a purely personal weblog with no defined focus, though I suspect there could be an argument for even these sites having an inherent focus whether it's observed or not.
Ultimately it's up to the author to make the proper decision for their own site of course, but it should be based on appropriate judgment of what the reader expects, too. In the end, if the readers don't like the author's choices, they can always just walk away and find another site more aligned with their preferences. Ah, the beauty of a free market.
This (and the previous post) have been extremely interesting to me.
Following on from a discussion that took place on my own weblog ( http://xrl.us/eyxb ), I am applying the finishing touches to a system that will allow personalised RSS feeds (based on taxonomies) for each subscriber.
The idea is simple: The subscriber chooses which "tags" he would like to keep abreast of, then my system generates a unique URI for a corresponding feed. The user can reconfigure his feed at time.
This makes for a much more useful RSS feed and helps to eliminate much of the noise that we are all subjected to with our various subscriptions.
As an aside, but quite related to the subject at hand, is there any push to develop encrypted feeds? Some of the items you listed (stock quotes, bank statements, etc.) seem to hint that the RSS technology needs to group and morph to accomodate the necessity of privacy.
Of course, I have been known to mention something in this manner only to get hit with about a dozen responses of "it's already being done over here or over there". Heck, at least I'll know… if it's not being done, anyone willing to take up the challenge?
Charles — lots of people would be interested in secure RSS. It's possible to password-protect the file with Apache, but the reader has to support it, I believe. You're still getting unencrypted text in the stream though.
Dave, I agree completely with your desire to use tags arriving with the content for filtering. That fits very closely with how many of us filter incoming email. I believe that Mozilla Thunderbird may have some support for this kind of filtering on RSS feeds. I'll have to explore further.
Charles, the most common method for providing privacy protection for content delivered via HTTP is to use SSL for point-to-point encryption. It would work for RSS and Atom just as easily as it currently works for HTML.
There is a large body of standards (from OASIS and W3C) for securing XML for Web Services. I am not familiar with the discussion in the Atom community on the subject, but the main issues would be implementation: how would you take an Atom document and encrypt it, sign it, etc.
I'll do some reading on the subject and get back to you.
Read more about Web Services Security:
Another curious thing I've noticed with one of my subscribed feeds, Boxes and Arrows. They implement the use of MT for their website at this time, but in order to make sure the first article remains the same for a while, the pre-date the article for February 1. Since this was posted at the first of the year, everytime my feed updated, this article was always at the top.
I just recently figured out why this first one wasn't changing at all. A unique use of predated material, but something that works kind of odd in Firefox when I added that feed to my bookmarks toolbar. Every time I checked the list, it was the first one in the list, so I assumed there were no updates. Imagine several of these happening in a combined feed of all subscribed feeds… this one remains at the top for a month until they replace it with a new one… I wonder if I should possibly point this out to them.
Drupal (drupal.org) provides hundreds of RSS feeds out of the box. Every taxonomy term (category) has its own feed, and you can combine them quite easily. If you feel like changing the terms, you can edit the url. Pretty nice system.
Also, something similar to your filtering of tags idea is provided by PulpFiction, the MacOSX RSS reader. I haven't used it since 1.0 (it was way slow back then, but has supposedly improved a lot) because I prefer a web-based system (Bloglines for now). Anyway, it works just like Mail.app; create rules, and posts get filtered into folders. I think NNW has this feature now too. This may be the way to go, as I'm not sure that a content producers, we can provide all the implementations that every user would want. It should really be on the shoulders of the aggregator developers (though we can do a lot to help!).
I think Secure RSS could as well kill the RSS feeds on the open net.


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Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (November 7 1914 – March 18 2002) was an American absurdist science fiction and fantasy writer, famous for his humorous use of metaphor, narrative structure, and language in his very peculiar forms of etymological wit.
Born: November 7th, 1914
Died: March 18th, 2002
Categories: Absurdists, Science fiction authors, Americans, Roman Catholics, 2000s deaths
Quotes: 102 sourced quotes total (includes 23 about)
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"A newspaper man has got to know when to keep his mouth and his mind shut. You might end up dead." "Isn't that the usual fate of men, Harry?"
I tried to tell you, but words will not convey it. One has to be inside it to comprehend the magnitude. … It was the beginning. It's the only thing there is. But it was haphazard for so many aeons that it spooks me to think about it. There were always three or four maintaining it, but there was no one person strong enough to take it all over. "Somewhere there must be someone strong enough to take it all over," I said to myself in a direful moment, but the strongest person I could think of was myself. I've been doing it ever since. … By my attention I hold it all in being. Nothing exists unless it is perceived. If perception fails for a moment, then that thing fails forever. … I hate to be misjudged. They say that I bear it all on my shoulders, as though I were a stud or a balk. It's not on my great shoulders, it is amazing head on my great shoulders that maintains all.
"My brain reels," moaned Homer the man. "Reality melts away."
"Pirates are perhaps the greatest invention of Earth people," Elizabeth interrupted loftily, "and their pirate stories are wonderful entertainment for small children. We have to give Earth people credit for that, they invented pirates."
"Do not be deceived by the way men of bad faith misuse words and names," the Black Pope was saying, and now his head was quite powdered with snow. "It used to be only the English who excelled in the deception of words. Then the French went even beyond them, and now the whole world is adept at it."
"Tell me the truth, girl: how does the man next door ship out trailer-loads of material from a building ten times too small to hold the stuff?" "He cuts prices."
When very young, Hannali would sit on the black ground and chuckle till it was feared he would injure himself. Whatever came over him, prenatal witticism or ancestral joke, he seldom was able to hold his glee. In all his life he never learned to hold it in.
If you have come with high expectations of anything, you have come to the wrong place.
This petty place cannot be Hell, Roadstrum? Ah, but it is my friend. That, you see, is the hell of it.
As regards very small celestial bodies of a light-minded nature, the law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.
You show signs of levity, and that is the one thing not permitted here. This place is for serious persons only. If you are not serious now, by hell you'll get serious pretty quick!
'We are strangers, lost and bemused," Roadstrum said to the lady. "We have landed here by accident. We are looking for a lady who was singing, the lady who (according to silly myth) is identical with the planet and who sang the planet into being."
The history of the Choctaw Indians has been told before and is still being told, but it has never been told in the way Lafferty tells it … Hannali is a buffalo bull of a man who should become one of the enduring characters in the literature of the American Indian.
"I am mistress of all the sciences. I go so far beyond all else that my work is called magic. I manipulate noumena, regarding monads as points of entry tangential to hylomorphism. As to the paradox of Primary Essence being contained in Quiddity, the larger in the smaller, I have my own solution. The difficulty is always in not confusing Contingency with Accidence. Do you understand me?" "Sure. You're a witch."
"There are only two possible statements that can be made about the worlds," the Black Pope of the Carlist Hills had lectured one day. "Alpha: There is a God. Omega: there is not a God. To adhere to either of these two statements strongly is to be logical at least. Not to do so is to be in the snivelling wasteland between and to have no point of contact with logic or reason."
"Oh, I cannot abide these complacent clods," I exclaim. "I cannot relate to these opulent oafs who are laughing in the streets. They are not high enough or low enough. For my love I must find the poor, the deprived, the fornicators, the addicts, the drunkards, the unwashed, ..." "Oh, these are the poor," the clod told me. "This is the poorest street in town, Index Y-Z. It's hard to tell them apart now except that the poor spend more ostentatiously than the rich do."
I am the consummate scientist, Road-Storm. Science has suffered in having her name applied to mechanics, an ugly step-child of hers. Matter herself is a humiliation to the serious. We cannot make it vanish forever, but can make it seem to. For my purpose that is even better. All matter can be modified as long as it is kept subjective. Let us keep it so. … Those who fail to understand my science may call it magic or hypnotism or deception. But it is only my projection of total subjectivity.
Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category. Listen to me: the opposite of radical is superficial, the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal; but certain of the tainted red fish will swear that there can be no such fish as that. Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade.
Wrong prong, bong gong.
It's an American classic.
An excess of science will leave none of us alive.
There are no rules. We do whatever seems the most fun.
One of the few writers who have made me laugh aloud.
When you can't depend on the Devil, who can you depend on?
I will never tell anyone how much fun it is in this place.
When we travel we find how greatly our boyhood dreams are outstripped by reality.
The best time to write a story is yesterday. The next best time is today.
[R. A. Lafferty] has to be the maddest, the most colorful, the most unexpected writer alive.
True love is that we should hate whatever interferes with our vision of the high and the lowly.
Put the nightmare together. If you do not wake up screaming, you have not put it together well.
Paul, there is something very slack about a future that will take a biting satire for a vapid dream.
The shapes they take are both objective and subjective. One can shape them a little with one's own mind.
Be not nervous. In a very little while you will either be a member or you will not be.
I've had enough of this place where they stuff you full of bull and then hunt you down and kill you every day.
I'll break the spell or the science of her singing yet. As the only man left it devolves on me to do it.
Lafferty has the power which sets fire behind your eyeballs. There is warmth, illumination, and a certain joy attendant upon the experience. He's good.
Though my short stories are the more readable, my novels do have more to say; and they will, if anyone has the patience for it, repay a rereading.
There are skies we have not seen yet! There are whole realms still unvisited by us. We will not be penned in even a giant's pen. We fly!
These men were the salt of the skies, the one out of ten who had determinedly stayed alive through the whole war, very often hurt, absolutely refusing to be killed.
It isn't my profundity that makes me a mental marvel, it's the amazing detail of my perception. There's nobody else who can keep so many things on his mind at once.
The works of R. A. Lafferty (1914-2002) are not too far out be reviewed by an ordinary human being. However, one must reach into an awkwardly positioned dimension to lay hold of them.
It was the most exclusive club in the world, in all the worlds, and this is a mighty pale statement to make about it. Let us emphasize that it was hard to get into.
The eye in his hand winked at him dourly. Eye was a tough old gump, not given to easy enthusiasms. Roadstrum put it back in his pocket and once more contemplated his good fortune.
Now then, I have given you a short fair hearing as the law requires. I do not solicit the support of your party, though, in all honesty, if it had more than one member I might.
'''''I'm the guy who keeps it all going. If I weren't here, you wouldn't be here either.''' I know it all, I'm a smart-aleck. Loan-sharking and fencing. Any time I can't see you, you've had it.
It was their way of defying that tricky place Earth. That place will hurt you if you let it get the hop on you. They spooked the Earth spooks away with their stories. They whistled in the dark.
The good stories, of course, write themselves. And somebody wants to know who are the really good writers, and how many of them there are. There aren't any. Most of the writers are likeable frauds. Some are unlikable frauds.
'''''Lend ear while things incredible we bring about And Spacemen dead and deathless yet we sing about''':— And some were weak and wan, and some were strong enough, And some got home, but damn it took them long enough!''
R. A. Lafferty, who died at 87 on March 18, was undoubtedly the finest writer of whatever it was that he did that ever there was. He was a genius, an oddball, a madman. His stories… are without precedent...
To you who are scattered and broken, gather again and mend. Rebuild always, and again I say rebuild. Renew the face of the earth. It is a loved face, but now it is covered with the webs of tired spiders.
"Strangers may not lodge complaints till they have been in residence here for ninety days," the Cacique said, "and no stranger has ever remained with us that long." "My complaint won't hold for ninety days. I accuse you people of eating men."
"Here there are warlocks and mandragoras and witches," the navigation data log issued. "When your machines start to go droll on you you're in trouble," Roadstrum growled. "I can get wise answers from my men. I don't need a machine for that."
This myth filter was necessary. The ship logs could not tell it rightly nor could any flatfooted prose. And the deeds were too bright to be viewed direct. They could only be sung by a bard gone blind from viewing suns that were suns.
When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.
They were down on Kentron-Kosmon, an insignificant world. And yet, in the middle of Space-Port there (a cow pasture rather; it wasn't much of a spaceport) there was a nice plaque of electrum and on it was lettered: This is the Exact Center of the Universe.
I do not understand your custom in this, but we do not intend to fight until all of us are dead. We desire very much that none of us be dead. And we will fight till all of you are dead only if it is absolutely necessary.
I write as clearly as I am able to. I sometimes tackle ideas and notions that are relatively complex, and it is very difficult to be sure that I am conveying them in the best way. Anyone who goes beyond cliche phrases and cliche ideas will have this trouble.
Man-a-bleeding, but they broke out of that place! You say it can't be done, but they did it. Their expectations had been too high, and no second-rate Hell could hold them. In a way it was their greatest feat. No one else had ever broken out of there before.
R. A. Lafferty is unique, in the old, unspoiled sense of the word. A genius as wild and joyful, delightful and unpredictable as his comes along but once in a lifetime — this lifetime. Cherish him. If there were no Lafferty, we would lack the imagination to invent him.
I am Aeaea. To my notion there is no other lady anywhere. And I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather. Well, come along, come along! You are my things now, and you will come when I call you.
A crisis should have thunder in it. If Finnegan and Dotty had been able to generate a crisis with thunder and lightning, things might have been different. But what if the last anchor-cable parts when no one knows it, and the drift has already begun? This is the crisis come and gone.
"For one crime there is no asylum even in the Club," whispered Horace the Snake, who had sharp ears for whispering. "For all other crimes we give asylum, for the most heinous crime in the universe we give no asylum." "What is the most heinous crime in the universe?" Roadstrum asked. "Killing a songbird."
Sometimes traveling people will be talking together. They will say how good it is in some places and how bad it is in others. And, sooner or later, one of them is bound to mention it. "Talk about really being out in the boondocks!" he will say, "there's a little planet named Earth —"
I will be double-damned to a better Hell than Hellpepper Planet if I will have my ending here in peace! Peace be not the end of my epic! An epic is already failed if it have an ending. I don't care how it ended the first time — it will not end the same now!
Gaetan had always had a terrible finality about him. Was this his great sin — that he was already completed? I will intercede for him tonight in my own not entirely mechanical way. To be completed is to be finished in so many ways! May that twinkling man Gaetan be undone a little and saved.
Lafferty's first full-length work is an event. As with everything the man writes, the wind of imagination blows strongly, with the happy difference that in a novel he can reach full gale-force, Lafferty defies categorization; his work is unlike anyone else's. This is a great galloping madman of a novel, drenched in sound and color.
We ourselves become the bridges out over the interval that is the world and time. It is a daring thing to fling ourselves out over that void that is black and scarlet below and green and gold above. A bridge does not abandon its first shore when it grows out in spans towards the further one.
R .A. Lafferty has always been uniquely his own man, but in this book he surpasses himself. It is wild, subtle, demonic, angelic, hilarious, tragic, poetic, a thundering melodrama and a quest into the depths of the human spirit. You'll think about it for a long time and probably go back to it more than once.
Death is for a long time. Those of shallow thought say that it is forever. There is, at least, a long night of it. There is the forgetfulness and the loss of identity. The spirit, even as the body, is unstrung and burst and scattered. One goes down to death, and it leaves a mark on one forever.
''His soaring vaunt escaped the blooming ears of us, He's gone, he's dead, he's dirt, he disappears from us! Be this the death of highest thrust of human all? The flaming end of bright and shining crewmen all? Destroyed? His road is run? It's but a bend of it; '''Make no mistake, this only seems''''' the end of it.
Brannagan had been to more places than Finnegan had, including the same places. He had not only skirted the d'Entre-Casteau Islands, he had walked all over them. He had not only sailed through China Straits, he had dived in them for old wrecks. He had not only climbed the Cloudy Mountains, but had panned gold in their streams and dips.
Roadstrum had a way of putting it on a little thick himself. "Be there a man among you who doubts my demesne or destiny, then I have fared in vain," he said. "I bare my throat to the treacherous steel —" "All right, all right," the three tough crewmen capitulated. We're with you all the way and in everything. Only spare us the 'act.'"
Lafferty deliberately creates the mythic effect through a technique I call effective arcanum, and that rather than examining his work with the conventional tools of science fiction criticism, we need to examine his system — firstly for our pleasure, and secondly so that we may re-create it (because the sign of an authentic religo-magical system is the power of the followers to reproduce the results).
In its flexibility and in its wide-open opportunities, this is the total Utopia. Anything that you can conceive of, you can do in this non-world. Nothing can stop you except a total bankruptcy of creativity. The seedbed is waiting. All the circumstances stand ready. The fructifying minerals are literally jumping out of the ground. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. Well, why doesn't it?
One of the things I loved about collaborating with Nick was that he was like R. A. Lafferty. Remember those old books for science fiction beginners, the ones that said "If you like Asimov , read Clement" or "If you like Sheckley, read Tenn"? And then you'd come to "If you like Lafferty, buy everything of his you can find before no one writes or thinks remotely like him."
"'Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday,' so the poor slaves had to sing in their labor for the puca. And finally a great savior broke the charm. 'And Wednesday too' he said, and then it was all over with." "Roadstrum is the great savior who breaks the charm," Roadstrum announced. "I will set a Wednesday-term to the monster. But there are other elements in this…"
In this growing there are no really new things or new situation. There are only things growing out right, or things growing out deformed or shriveled. There is nothing new about railways or foundries or lathes or steel furnaces. They also are green-growing things. There is nothing new about organizations of men or of money. All these growing things are good, if they grow towards the final answers that were given in the beginning.
Listen now to a series of sayings that always come hard to brave people. Our own great movement will grow with its own impetus wherever it is not blighted. We will break up persons of blight and centers of blight. But often, and this will be the hard part for all of you to understand, we will warn and advise before we kill. And quite often we will not kill at all. Try to understand this.
'''''The place itself, and ne'er a good word spoke of it, You shiver when you even make a joke of it.''' Though some go cocky, gaily in hand-basket there, The most fare sadly in a clammy casket there… Undying pain and gaping loss, no doubt of it. A wide way leading in and no way out of it! But none have told the blackest horror shrouded there — Tall teeming terror' but it sure is crowded there.''
No true reader who has read as much as a single story by Raphael Aloysius Lafferty needs to be told that he is our most original writer. … Just about everything Lafferty writes is fun, is witty, is entertaining and playful. But it is not easy, for it is a mingling of allegory with myth, and of both with something more ... In fact, he may not be just ours, but the most original writer in the history of literature.
Beware of those who manufacture final answers as they go along, of those who will catch you on their catch-phrases and let you perish in the traps. All the final answers were given in the beginning. They stand shining, above and beyond us, but they are always there to be seen. They may be too bright for us, they may be too clear for us. Well then, we must clarify our own eyes. Our task is to grow out until we reach them.
The witch has been playing a semantic trick on us. We were already pretty salty animals when we came here! It is toy animals she has turned us into. We have been working against ourselves, trying to be men again, but to be her idea of men, since we live in her context. But she does not know real animals, or men. … Be you not toys any longer! Stir up the wild business in you. You have to be real animals before you can be men.
"I'm doing pretty good. I'm a seminal genius, they say, and I have the most sophisticated tools ever devised to work with. And I do build some good things for them. I'm quite successful. I'll tell you something, though. In the daytime, with all those sophisticated tools, and particularly if someone's watching me, I just stall around. But at night — " "Ah, at night! What do you do then, Hondstarfer?" "Put away those damned sophisticated tools and get my stone hammers. That's when I build the good stuff. Don't give me away, though, Roadstrum.
Do you not know that the underground lands are shared by many worlds? It is all one underground, a vast place, and it is but a trick on which globe one will surface on coming out. This is the reason that the inside of every world is so much vaster than the outside. You are fooled by the shape of these little balls on which things live and crawl; you see the universe inside out; you see the orbs as containing and not contained. I will teach you to see it right if you please me.
"This is the Improbable Club," said the President-Emeritus in a heavy muffled voice, "and you things have made an improbable entry. Many unqualified persons have attempted to crash this Club, but you have done it literally. Whether you will be able to qualify for our high membership is another thing. It will not matter. We accept, for a brief moment at least, all who come here as members. We will quickly measure you one way or another. We have no living ex-members. Sit you down, all, and unwind your ears. Remember, each topper must be topped."
Something was working in Roadstrum's little ape head. When he had been a man he had always known when it was time for action; particularly he had always known the last moment when action was still possible. He knew now that that moment was come very near. … Then a blinding light burst upon Roadstrum, and he saw the truth of the situation. Many things Roadstrum was not, and it was sometimes wondered why he was the natural leader of all the men. He was their leader because he was a man on whom the blinding light sometimes descended.
The war was finished. It had lasted ten equivalent years and taken ten million lives. Thus it was neither of long duration nor of serious attrition. It hadn't any great significance; it was not intended to have. It did not prove a point, since all points had long ago been proven. What it did, perhaps, was to emphasize an aspect, sharpen a concept, underline a trend. On the whole it was a successful operation. Economically and ecologically it was of healthy effect, and who should grumble? And after wars, men go home. No, no, men start for home. It's not the same.
Mr. Lafferty says, "I'm the fellow who, for more than a quarter century, has faithfully maintained the thesis that all writers should be funny-looking and all stories should be funny. Almost all of the evil in the world is brought about by handsome writers doing pompous pieces. But sometimes readers tell me that such a story of mine is not funny at all. 'Wait, wait,' I tell them. 'You're holding it upside-down. Now try it.' And sure enough it is funny if they get ahold of it right. This caution is especially applicable to the story 'Junkyard Thoughts.' Be sure you're not holding it upside-down or it will be merely bewildering."'''
Characters in Lafferty stories don't act or speak as normal folks do. Impossible things happen routinely. Indeed, the whole philosophical works are staged like a two-bit vaudeville act, with characters reminiscent of sideshow hucksters and midway card-sharps, promising marvelous prizes with one hand and taking your money with the other, leaving you wondering what the hell this thing is being put into your hands while you're being shuffled out the back door. But the prize here is the key to the kingdom, and the show is pretty funny. There is in fact no limit to Lafferty's humor — even the old banana-peel gag will be trotted out if it'll get a laugh.
And I love it as a reader. He [Robert Aickman] will bring on atmosphere. He will construct these perfect, dark, doomed little stories, what he called "strange stories." I find the same with Lafferty. We were talking about Lafferty earlier as somebody who I'd love to read. I am hoping someone will do the complete short stories of R.A. Lafferty. What is interesting is that when you read the early Lafferty, the closer he comes to what one might consider a normal story, the less successful he is … And Lafferty is something played in an Irish bar on an instrument that you're not quite sure what it is and you're humming the tune but you don't remember the words as you walk out.
The devils stroll the earth again and infect with the red sickness. They must, at all cost to themselves, destroy the growing tendrils before such can touch the other side. For, whenever one least growing creeper touches across the interval, that means the extinction of a devil. It is a thing to be tested. Notice it that whenever there is the special shrilling, when there is the wild flinging out of catchwords to catch you in, when there are the weird exceptions and inclusions, when there are specious arguments and the murderous defamations, when all the volubility of the voltairians and the cuteness of the queers has been assembled to confound you, then one green growth has almost reached across to the other side, one devil is in danger of extinction. Oh, they will defend against that!
Carr states that the characters of the Brunhilde are not true archetypes. Why, then they are false archetypes, and these also have their being. Kidd believes that X himself is in the process of becoming the Third Evil to fill the void left by the insufficiency of Papadiabolous and Seaworthy in the roles of devils. But Kidd is Joycean. To complicate matters, Lafferty swears that Finnegan is in no way Joycean, that he is nine hundred years earlier, out of the Yellow Book of Lecan (the Tain Bo Cuailinge), a character out of the Tain. This presupposes that Finnegan is identical with Fion McCool as well as with the more derivative Fingal, and also with Cu Chulainn. Well, Finnegan is capable of being all. To those interested in this line I recommend Thurneysen's Die Irische Helden- und Konigsage.
"The perfect ghost story is the story of Possession," he said, "and that is hypnotism from beyond the grave. This is possible since hypnotism is by the will, and the will is immortal. A number of notable men have been possessed, and all of their lives seem to fit a pattern: the inconsequential early years, the hiatus when they stood where Faust stood, and the decision. And then the rise to power and influence and almost universal honor after they have made the deal. But it is not themselves, it is the devils within them that gain these things. They are the possessed men who do much of the running of the world, and theirs is the most frightening story that can be imagined. But those who watch the great men do not know that they are shells inhabited by ghosts."
[In these stories, Lafferty mostly] seems to be writing about places that are not on the map but are real just the same. Lafferty was a traveler in his youth, and he may have glimpsed some of these places on the watery horizon; whether he was sober at the time is not the issue right now. … [Lafferty] has a reading knowledge of all the languages of the Latin, German, and Slavic families, as well as Gaelic and Greek. The army sent him to Morotai, New Guinea and the Philippines, and at one time he could speak pretty good Passar Malay and Tagalog. He turned to writing about six years ago, as a substitute for serious drinking. The tavernkeepers weep while we rejoice: Lafferty's stories are full of a warm, Bacchic glow, recollected in sobriety — euphoria, comradeship, nostalgia, and the ever-renewed belief that something wonderful may happen.
[Lafferty] interested me in SF again, after I had outgrown my early love for Simak and Asimov and Heinlein. What a word slinger: what a richness of idea and image, in Irish-cadenced prose! Lafferty wrote the opposite of the post-Chekhovian modern short story. Show don't tell? The pleasure is in the telling. Rhetoric, in the grand old manner, was at the center of his game. He could go from high-faluting to just plain faluting, and back again, all in a paragraph. Like Charles Mingus, another American original, Lafferty loved the sounds he made; never satisfied with mere profundity, he was pretty, too. He was our Mingus, I think, elevating us all. … I believe his day is yet to come; that like Melville, Lafferty will be "discovered," and his Okla Hannali will take its rightful place as one of the three or four truly great 20th century American novels.
"There was a later time when sincere men tried to build an organization as wide as the world to secure the peace of the world. It had been tried before and it had failed before. Perhaps if it failed this time it would not be tried again for a very long while. The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad. The final realization of it was so close that it could be touched with the fingertips. A gambler wouldn't have given odds on it either way. It teetered, and it almost seemed as though it would succeed. Then members of that group interfered." "And it failed, O'Claire?" "No. It succeeded, Foley, as in the other case. It succeeded in so twisted a fashion that the Devil himself was puzzled as to whether he had gained or lost ground by it. And he isn't easily puzzled."
Or let us say that we have a green thing growing forever. Everything that is done is done by it. And on it we also have the red parasite crunching forever: and everything that is undone is undone by that. The parasite will present itself as a modern thing. It will call itself the Great Change. Less often, and warily, it will call itself the Great Renewal. But it can never be another thing than the Red Failure returned. It is a disease, it is a scarlet fever, a typhoid, a diphtheria; it is the Africa disease, it is the red leprosy, it is the crab-cancer. It is the death of the individual and of the corporate soul. And incidentally, but very often, it is also the death of the individual and of the corporate body. We are asked to swear fealty to the parasite disease which the enemy sowed from the beginning. I will not do it, and I hope that you will not.
Those individuals looking from within the SF world may lack, or simply disdain, the linguistic and critical skills needed to begin to reveal that in Lafferty's work there is much more going on than meets the eye. The brave individuals who have attempted to do so have either merely produced fulsome praise or attempted to classify Lafferty's writings on the basis of superficialities (i.e., calling him a surrealist). Lafferty's use of displacement is not unique, but so few writers have consciously attempted the process, and their works are so varied, that there are no unifying articles, no language for the critic with a day job to draw on. Some bright lad or lass (with the appropriate dignifying letters following their names) may read this and look for the method of displacement in H. P. Lovecraft, James Joyce, Robert Pinget, Gilbert Sorrentino, Flann O'Brien, R. A. Lafferty, Howard Waldrop, and R. A. Wilson. Now there's a book worth reading. The astute observer will note that all the names on the list are Irish, saving those which are not.
Roadstrum had always believed that he had troubles enough of his own. He seldom borrowed trouble, and never on usurious terms. He knew that it was a solid thing that sheep do not gather in taverns and drink beer, not even potato beer; that they do not sing, not even badly; that they do not tell stories. But a stranger can easily make trouble for himself on a strange world by challenging local customs. "But I am the greet Roadstrum," he said, suddenly and loudly. "I am a great one for winning justice for the lowly, and I do not scare easily. I threw the great Atlas at the wrestle, and who else can say as much? I suffer from the heroic sickness every third day about nightfall, and I am not sure whether this is the third day or not. I say you are men and not sheep. I say: Arise and be men indeed!" "It has been tried before," said Roadstrum's friend, the sheep, "and it didn't work." "You have tried a revolt, and it failed?" "No, no, another man tried to incite us to revolt, and failed."
Science Fiction has long been babbling about cosmic destructions and the ending of either physical or civilized worlds, but it has all been displaced babble. SF has been carrying on about near-future or far-future destructions and its mind-set will not allow it to realize that the destruction of our world has already happened in the quite recent past, that today is "The Day After The World Ended". … I am speaking literally about a real happening, the end of the world in which we lived till fairly recent years. The destruction or unstructuring of that world, which is still sometimes referred to as "Western Civilization" or "Modern Civilization", happened suddenly, some time in the half century between 1912 and 1962. That world, which was "The World" for a few centuries, is gone. Though it ended quite recently, the amnesia concerning its ending is general. Several historiographers have given the opinion that these amnesias are features common to all "ends of worlds". Nobody now remembers our late world very clearly, and nobody will ever remember it clearly in the natural order of things. It can't be recollected because recollection is one of the things it took with it when it went...
What special magic does Lafferty offer? The simple answer has always been his use of language. Well what of it — the field has many who can make a phrase sing or sing a phrase that's the thing. The true answer lies in that his stories sound like they're folk tales. Now I said something very precise there. Lafferty doesn't use the language of folktales, and only rarely uses their rhythm. But he lives so well within the langauge of his creation that his language — particularly in the combination of slightly archaic folk speech and outrageous etymologies for his words — sounds like language that some one has said somewhere. Yevgeny Zamyatin developed the concept of a "prose foot" as way of internal pacing of fiction. He saw it as a kind of rhythmic device that by causing the reader to remember an earlier part of the narrative became a force for a choral (as in pertaining to choruses) cohesion that bound the story together in a different way than plot mechanics. This method, which I can't detect in Zamyatin's works (since Russian is Greek to me) is the core of Lafferty's work. He has has invented the post-modern equivalent of the Homeric epithet.
It all goes back to Neil Gaiman. In the foreword to "Fragile Things," he wrote that his short story "Sunbird" was his way of trying to write his own R.A. Lafferty story. So I found "Nine Hundred Grandmothers," and it's like nothing I've ever read before. It's very blue-collar science fiction – all the familiar tropes of people going to outer space and to other planets. It's hilarious, incredibly funny and at the same time it's insanely dark. You get the feeling like it's a guy just writing to amuse himself: "I don't care if any of this makes sense, but I want to see weird stuff happen." One of his stories starts off, "He began by breaking things that morning." There's a short story called "Ginny Wrapped in the Sun," and it's just about this little girl who's super strong, running around, picking things up. You get such a sense of joy and boundless imagination in every sentence – even if the story doesn't totally cohere, you feel like it's about something. It's so incredibly Tulsa. You get that feeling when you see a Flaming Lips show. It's not like we're dark and hurt and twisted. It's like, "I've got blood on my face – come on, y'all, this is awesome."


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Author: mormegil
Author's Notes: ***Update***
These Icons were done as part of my Icon-A-Day tutorial sires. In the 1.1 Icon Pack all Icons have been updated to include 256×256 Windows vista Icons. This is the last update to the 1.0 Icons, as I will be starting a new Icon-A-Day Vista Compliant pack in March. It will be based on the original pack but with all the newly supported vista Icons Included.
This Icon Package is the the end result of the Icon-A-Day tutorial series, a step by step guide to making a Complete IconPackage. To learn how this package was assembled and finalized or To view all the Individual Icon-A-Day Tutorials visit the Icon-A-Day Index. Visit http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/Icon-A-Day - icons,


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Top snowboarder in Queenstown
The world's top-ranked women's snowboarder is in Queenstown ahead of two big snow sports events.
American Jamie Anderson, 20, arrived in the resort on Wednesday night to compete in the Billabong slopestyle (old Bro Down event) competition at Snow Park that started yesterday, before competing in the Burton NZ Open next week.
FEELING BLESSED: World champion snowboarder Jamie Anderson at Mt Cheeseman, near Christchurch. She is in New Zealand to compete in the Billabong slopestyle event at Snow Park on August 5 and 6 and the 2011 NZ Burton Open at Cardrona.
Anderson said her love for snowboarding was inevitable growing up with the mountain in South Lake Tahoe, California, where she was surrounded by brothers and sisters who were involved in snow sports.
At nine years old she joined a snowboarding team in Squaw Valley resort and got her first sponsor, which helped get her into events. "When I was younger I just loved snowboarding, I did everything."
Between the ages of 10 and 13 she entered amateur events, and at 13 qualified for the boardercross event at the ESPN Winter X Games, making her the youngest athlete to ever attend.
At age 14, Billabong became Anderson's first real sponsor and supported her into the bigger sporting events.
At 15, she won her first gold medal at the Winter X Games.
"I was so happy," she said.
After that she just kept going with snowboarding, moving in to slopestyle and backcountry riding, she said.
For the past three years she has been busy designing her new Jamie Anderson signature outerwear collection to be released next month, which will expand to include a streetwear collection.
At the age of 20 she felt privileged to be at this stage of her life, after a year of riding at her peak performance.
In the 2010-11 season Anderson won a gold medal at the European X Games, was nominated for the highly recognised ESPY award (presented by ESPN for excellence in sports performance), won her second TTR world title, was overall winner at the Winter Dew Tour Champion and won the Oakley Arctic Challenge.
She credited the great season to being healthy, eating natural foods and not drinking.
With an event every weekend for 12 weeks, she had to be healthy, she said.
"I feel so, so blessed. Snowboarding has always been my love ... [but] I never thought I could make money out of it."
After competing in New Zealand, Anderson will set her sights on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
She would be spending some relaxation time in New Zealand with her boyfriend.
"We're just going to explore and take it one day at a time. I love this whole country. It is absolutely beautiful. The mountains, the lakes and just how pure it is in the air."
The Billabong Slopestyle runs from August 4 to 6 at Snow Park NZ and involves top athletes from around the world competing for a piece of the US$30,000 (NZ$35,000) in prizemoney.
The 2011 Burton NZ Open runs from August 8 to 13 at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
Words courtesy of The Southland Times


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It is not possible for a person to be happy in the true sense so long as he does not live by the religion. This is because for a person to be happy, first of all his conscience needs to be at ease. In other words, there should not be anything to cause him distress, confuse him or to make him feel remorse. Ease of conscience can be attained only in one way, which is to live by the religion. Conscience is under the control of Allah, and always commands a person to believe in Allah, to fulfil the requirements of religion and to act in compliance with the morals of the Qur'an. For that reason, it is not possible for an irreligious person, who has been struggling against this command of his conscience all through his life, to be happy. Allah has revealed that man can attain ease of heart and true peace only by having faith in Allah:
Those who believe and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah. Only in the remembrance of Allah can the heart find peace. (Surat ar-Ra'd: 28)
What is the true nature of the life of this world?
One of the most serious, but largely unacknowledged, misconceptions is the supposition that the life of this world is the only real life. In fact, the world is a temporary place created by Allah to test man. What is real is the life after death. Therefore, everything that charms people and preoccupies them in the fleeting and short-lived existence of this world is an "enjoyment of delusion". As stated in a verse, Allah warns people against this deception, reminding them that the real, beautiful abode is in the presence of Allah:
To mankind the objects of worldly appetites are painted in glowing colours: women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. Far better is the return to Allah. (Surah al 'Imran, 14)
As this verse reveals, valuable ornaments, assets, goods, profitable businesses, beautiful and wealthy spouses, healthy children and fine houses are all values that tie people to this world.
One must not forget that all these things are given by Allah as blessings, and that they are only temporary. As is revealed in a number of verses, the truly beautiful place to arrive at is the home of the Hereafter.
A person must use the blessings given to him in order to prepare for the Hereafter. People who act in the awareness of that important fact are never beguiled by the baubles of this world.


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DRAPER, Utah — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 24, 2012 — Digital Art Zone (DAZ) today announced GenesisTM Supersuit, a revolutionary product which reinvents 3D clothing for its free software DAZ StudioTM. This single product allows users to create an almost unlimited number of costume designs. DAZ announced its free 3D software offering on Feb. 1, 2012, resulting in over 250,000 new users.
Using state-of-the-art shader technology, users can add an astonishing number of materials, from precious metals to fur. The product line offers a variety of pre-configured clothing sets for fantasy, superheroes and sci-fi or the user can create a costume from their own imagination. Built to support cross-platform modern 64-bit architecture, Genesis Supersuit is available from the DAZ store starting at $39.95.
"Genesis Supersuit is the biggest advance in 3D clothing technology since the original DAZ bodysuit," said Matt Wilburn, DAZ's chief marketing officer. "There's never been a product like this in the marketplace. We have shown it to many of the world's best 3D artists, and they are raving about the versatility and power of this product."
At the heart of the Genesis Supersuit are almost 100 intelligent material zones which provide the most highly configurable 3D clothing available. Each zone can be changed for size, shape and material, resulting in almost unlimited combinations. These zones in the head and face can be morphed into helmets, masks or goggles. Zones in the body can be configured into anything from futuristic armor to furry costumes.
Pricing and Availability
Genesis Supersuit is available now and priced between $39.95 for the Starter Bundle and $199.95 for the Pro Suite. Collections of pre-configured costumes, materials and environments for sci-fi, fantasy and superhero art and animation are also available. Full pricing and product details can be found at http://www.daz3d.com/supersuit.
Digital Art Zone (DAZ) is the leading provider of 3D software and content. DAZ publishes DAZ Studio, an easy-to-use and robust software tool with a simple user interface. The software allows digital artists to easily add and manipulate models and morphs, adjust the textures applied to 3D models, add and adjust lighting and fine-tune the render process. Regardless of artistic background, DAZ empowers anyone to create better graphics faster through its powerful tools and content. For more information, visit www.daz3d.com.
Note to Editors:
Free 3D Software:
Genesis Supersuit 3D Clothing Press Images:
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50284022&lang=en
Tim Rush, 801-208-1100
Email Contact


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The February 2013 edition of Bloomberg Markets Magazine features its ranking of the top 100 large hedge fund managers in the world.
Unlike last year when the most successful hedge funds were a variety of strategies — long/short, macro etc. — this year's success stories mostly come from the world of mortgage bonds.
This strategy provided an average return of 20.2 percent in 2012, far outpacing the industry average of 1.3 percent.
The tiny average return was also far worse than the performance of the S&P 500, which provided a double-digit return in 2012. Bloomberg reports 635 hedge funds closed due to these poor returns through September.
The hedge fund managers listed here, though, are far from closing up shop — some of them even manage multiple successful funds. In 2012, they dominated the market with returns ranging from 9 to 37.8 percent.
Big thanks to Bloomberg Markets Magazine for permission to use their information.


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These deeds were reported as recorded by the office of Marion County register of deeds. Property addresses come from appraisal records. All are warranty deeds unless otherwise noted.
Vincent K. and Deborah Kay Collier to James R. and Leanna K. Hefley Revocable Trust; E/2 E/2 SW/4 of Section 3 of Liberty Township.
Maynard V. and Ruby Ann Hefley to Ruby Ann Hefley and Maynard V. Hefley, trustees, correction deed; 1829 Jade Rd., Hillsboro, and E/2 E/2 SW/4 of Section 3 of Liberty Township.
M.V. Hefley Revocable Trust by trustee to Deborah Kay and Vincent K. Collier, trustee's deed; 119 N. Birch St., Hillsboro.
Ruby Ann Hefley Revocable Trust by trustee to Deborah Kay Collier, trustee's deed; E/2 E/2 SW/4 of Section 3 of Liberty Township.
Ruby Ann Hefley Revocable Trust by trustee to James R. and Leanna K. Hefley Revocable Trust, trustee's deed; 1829 Jade Rd., Hillsboro.
JPMorgan Chase Bank to Rodney K. Lafever and Debra L. Turner, re-record to correct spelling; 503 N. Ohio St., Burns.
Rodney K. Lafever and Debra L. Turner to Mark J. Lafever and Matthew A. Lafever, transferrable on death warranty deed; 503 N. Ohio St., Burns.
Revocable Trust of Mary Loewen to Warren R. and Deanne M. Nelson, trustee's deed; 207 S. Main St., Hillsboro.
Lloyd D. and Linda Meier to Diane W. Stubblefield; 202 S. Grant St., Marion.
Randolph H. and Meribeth J. Schmidt to Randolph H. Schmidt and Meribeth J. Schmidt, trustees; NE/4 of Section 6 of East Branch Township, part of N/2 NW/4 of Section 12, NW/4 of Section 2, and E 89 acres of NE/4 of Section 3, all of West Branch Township.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of Washington, D.C., to George F. Tong Jr.; part of W/2 NW/4 of Section 15 of Catlin Township.
Donna D. Slatten to Kathy Stark, John Slatten, Samantha Hudson, and Rachael Hopkins, beneficiary deed; 705 N. Olive St., Peabody.
Smoky Hill Baptist Association to Steven J. and Melanie D. Brandt; 901 E. C St., Hillsboro.
Craig T. and Teresa M. Srajer to Craig T. Srajer and Teresa M. Srajer, trustees; 3535 Nighthawk Rd., Ramona.
Andrew M. and Chelsea P. Weber to Dale E. and Mashawn A. Weber; 117 E. 7th St., Florence.
Gregory A. and Dina J. Vogel to Gregory A. Vogel and Dina J. Vogel, co-trustees; E/2 SE/4 of Section 12 of Gale Township.


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Auschwitz Holocaust Survivor to Give Speech at South Dakota State University
BROOKINGS - A 78-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp is set to speak about strength and forgiveness during a speech at South Dakota State University next week.
Eva Mozes Kor was 10 when she and her family entered the concentration camp in 1944. Soldiers seized Kor and her twin sister to be used as human guinea pigs for experiments on twins.
When the camp was liberated in January 1945, Kor and her sister were among 200 children who survived. None of their family survived.
Kor has founded a survivors' group and has returned to Auschwitz 13 times.
Her speech at SDSU, "Ethics in Medicine: Lessons from Dr. Mengele's Lab," will be at 7 p.m. on March 20 in the Performing Arts Center. A book signing will be held after the lecture.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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St. Francis of Assisi's Annual Holiday Bazaar is this Saturday, Nov. 17
St. Francis of Assisi's Annual Holiday Bazaar will be held from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 17.
"Discover unique art, original handmade items, dazzling gems, culinary delights and festive holiday decorations," reads an announcement.
"Enjoy our Delicious Bake Sale & Soup Kitchen!"
St. Francis of Assisi is located at 15215 21st Ave SW.


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By ANDY KIRKALDY
ADDISON COUNTY — Despite nationwide gloom and doom in the real estate sector and a drop in home sales in Vermont and Addison County, there is evidence that the values of the homes that most state and local residents own have held their own.
According to information on the Vermont Department of Taxes Web site, the median value of homes on 6 acres or fewer (described as R-I homes on property transfer returns) sold in Addison County through the first nine months of 2008 is $213,500. That represents an increase of about $6,000, or 2.9 percent, from the median value over the entire 12 months of 2007.
Statewide, the median sales price of an R-I home in the first nine months of 2007 — the price point at which an equal number of homes sold for either less and more money — was $206,000, an increase of $6,000, or 3 percent, from all of 2006.
Independent real estate appraiser Bill Benton of Vergennes said he is not ready to call that good news, especially considering that fewer R-I homes are selling this year in Addison County than in 2007. Through Sept. 30, 2008, 128 R-I homes in Addison County sold, while 252 R-I homes sold in all of 2007.
Benton said that sales figure for all of 2008 will be lucky to hit 150 this year, but he is happy to see prices hold their own.
"I'm not saying that's definitely a positive trend, but I'm saying it's at least stable," he said.
National Bank of Middlebury President Ken Perine also sees stable values in the home sales his business is tracking, although he wouldn't rule out a price drop of 5 percent or less. Perine said typically Vermont, including Addison County, does not see the wild swings in real estate value that markets elsewhere do.
VERGENNES — The Vergennes Opera House on Friday will debut a work by filmmaker Caro Thompson — a documentary set for a December premiere on Vermont Public Television — on the century-and-half in Lake Champlain's history beginning in 1609, when the region's native population first interacted with the European newcomers to North America.
Thompson, who will discuss the film at a reception following the 7 p.m. screening, said "Champlain: The Lake Between," is an effort to show history from all points of view, not just those of the English settlers who eventually dominated the Northeastern United States.
Thompson, who has produced five films in collaboration with VPT, first heard in 2003 of the 2009 quadricentennial celebration of Samuel de Champlain becoming the first European to see the lake that now bares his name, and said the idea for the film came quickly.
"I immediately saw it as an opportunity to tell a multicultural story that is often not the approach to colonial history," Thompson said, adding, "I believe very strongly that history needs to be inclusive. And it's usually told from the perspective of the folks who won ... The story of the Lake Champlain region is a story of the Abenaki perspective, the Mohawk perspective, the French perspective, the English perspective, the American perspective. It's a multicultural story, and that's rarely told."
Thompson also quickly picked up allies in the effort to tell that story. Elsa Gilbertson, who directs the Chimney Point Historic Site in Addison for the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, and state archaeologist Giovanna Peebles were working on a grant for a major archaeological investigation of former French settlements along Addison County's lakefront, in tandem with the Bixby Library in Vergennes.
By JOHN FLOWERS
VERGENNES — A nonprofit agency and a city physicians' office will soon team up to restore free health care services to those with little or no coverage.
The Vergennes Open Door Clinic will offer medical services to needy residents every other Thursday, from 6 to 9 p.m., beginning Oct. 23, at the Little City Family Practice at 10 North St. Community Health Services of Addison County (CHSAC) is spearheading the clinic, with the help and cooperation of Dr. Tim Bicknell of the Little City Family Practice.
Ken Dabbs, executive director of CHSAC, said the new clinic is being offered in response to inquiries from an increasing number of area residents who are finding themselves with inadequate health care coverage. Those people used to be able to get basic health care services at an open door clinic CHSAC briefly established at the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes. That clinic closed last year after a brief run, however, when funding dried up.
"While the clinic was (at the shelter) it had a pretty high utilization rate by patients of the Vergennes area," Dabbs said, noting 166 patients were served by volunteer health care professionals at the shelter-based facility in 2006.
"When the Vergennes clinic ceased to exist, patients had to travel to Middlebury," Dabbs said, alluding to the Middlebury Open Door Clinic located in Suite 2 of the Vermont Sun Fitness Center building at 812 Exchange St. The Middlebury clinic has received around 600 client visits thus far in 2008, a figure that is "way up" compared to the same period last year, according to Dabbs.
"I think the current economic issues are magnifying this problem," Dabbs said.
By KATHRYN FLAGG
BRISTOL — Drawing acclaim for innovative programming for senior citizens, Bristol's Living Well — a residential care facility dedicated to holistic care for elders — will be honored next week at an awards ceremony in Montpelier.
The care facility has snagged one of seven awards being given out this year by the Governor's Commission on Healthy Aging to facilities and individual providers in Vermont, earning the title of "Program Champion."
For anyone who has seen Living Well's vivacious drumming circle in action, it's an award well deserved.
The four-year-old facility, housed in a 105-year-old home on Maple Street, began its drumming program around a year and a half ago. Living Well administrator Dee Deluca attended a conference where she saw a film about a man who did drumming with vets in Veterans Administration hospitals — and when she returned, she mentioned the idea to the Living Well staff.
Activities Director Dechen Rheault, who heads up the band, said she wished she'd videotaped the project from the beginning, if only to document what she said has been a dramatic change in the residents.
"The most amazing thing for me is to see the transformation of the residents," she said. She's watched residents change from "very shy or more inward people" to enthusiastic, outgoing musicians, despite the fact that all except for perhaps one band member had never played an instrument before.
"Those transformations are so apparent, so apparent," she said.
On any given day, between seven and 10 residents (the facility is home to 11 in all) show up for drumming practice, and Bristol neighbors, residents' family members and members of the Living Well staff frequently join the drumming circle.
ADDISON COUNTY — Despite national trends of rising public school enrollments, Vermont schools are struggling to balance high costs and shrinking student populations — a problem that could prove especially trying for Addison County schools, where the total number of students has dropped slightly faster than the state average.
Between 2000 and 2008, the county's student population fell 11.6 percent. Statewide, public school enrollment dropped 10.5 percent over that same period. Nationally, enrollment for public primary and secondary schools over that eight-year stretch rose over 4 percent.
With state education funding dependent upon the number of students attending a school, falling enrollments can be problematic for officials charged with balancing school budgets. The revenue generated by enrollment supports overhead costs like transportation and building maintenance — costs that continue to go up, despite shrinking student populations.
"We definitely are paying attention to (these trends), with enrollment numbers going down and the cost still increasing," said Jill Remick, the communications director for the Vermont Department of Education.
And in a year when school budgets are bound to be tight — and new legislation could make the budget approval process more difficult — the state's spending-per-pupil yardstick could be more important than ever.
Addison Northeast Supervisory Union Business Manager Greg Burdick said that he is keeping his eye on that all-important spending-per-pupil number — the number against which the state measures every school's spending plan.
VERGENNES — A major and long-awaited Vergennes project on a 12-acre parcel off Monkton Road that would include 25 senior housing units, a childcare center and 24 affordable single-family condominiums is beginning to wind its way through the city permit process.
The developers of the project — the first phase of which would be a 25,000-square-foot, $5.8-million elderly housing complex that would provide a community center and services as well 25 living units — are Addison County Community Trust, Housing Vermont Inc. of Burlington, Habitat for Humanity and Mary Johnson Children's Center of Middlebury.
The site is accessed from the north side of Monkton Road by Armory Lane, and lies directly west of American Legion Post 14. Housing Vermont bought the land several years ago, and the project has been on the drawing boards since.
It has now almost completed a site plan review before the Vergennes Development Review Board, and Zoning Administrator and Interim City Manager Mel Hawley said a public hearing could be called as early as December.
Hawley said a hearing could have been called in November, but developers wanted to clarify the elderly housing "density bonus" the area's Medium Density Residential zoning allows.
That zoning allows more units per acre than otherwise permitted if a project exclusively offers elderly housing. In Hawley's opinion, that means the elderly housing component may need to be separated from the other parts of the larger Planned Unit Development (PUD).
"It's my opinion to qualify for the bonus, the senior housing complex needs to sit on its own 4 acres ... so that it is not part of a PUD," he said.
Hawley said the board could have a different interpretation, and a DRB discussion scheduled in November will focus at least in part on that issue.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury merchants on Saturday, Oct. 25, will give area adults and children a sweet preview of Halloween — and all that the downtown has to offer — in the first annual "Middlebury Spooktacular."
The event, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m., is the brainchild of the Better Middlebury Partnership (formerly known as the Middlebury Business Association). The Spooktacular is somewhat of a throwback to Halloweens gone by, when a children's parade used to meander its way around the downtown and Court Square and when the Middlebury Inn used to host a haunted house.
"It's been several years since there's been a Halloween celebration of any kind in Middlebury, and we felt it was something we should have again," said BMP Coordinator Gail Freidin.
With that in mind, members of the BMP's promotions committee set to work on a new event that could involve adults and kids alike. They came up with the Spooktacular, which will feature, among other things:
• Hay bales, luminaries and lit pumpkins and other Halloween décor adorning the town green on Oct 25. A rain date of Oct 26 has been set.
• Carved pumpkin and costume contests, family fun games, a "monster-mash" dance party and prizes.
• A children's trick-or-treat sidewalk parade along Main Street that will leave the green at 4:15 p.m. Accompanied by parents and the Middlebury Police Explorers, the procession will cross to the post office, continue along Main Street to Cannon Park, cross to the Ilsley Memorial Library, and return to the green, stopping at each shop along the route.
Main Street merchants will have plenty of treats on hand and may even greet the parade participants at their doors in costume. Businesses not located on the parade route will be handing out goodies in Cannon Park.
MIDDLEBURY — U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said the $700 billion economic rescue plan passed by Congress on Oct. 3 is just the first step federal lawmakers and the next president will have to take in shoring up what has become a global economic crisis.
Welch, running for a second term as Vermont's lone U.S. representative, discussed the rescue plan and his legislative priorities during an interview at the Addison Independent on Thursday.
Welch on Sept. 29 voted against the first, ill-fated rescue plan fielded by the U.S. House, saying it lacked proper oversight and that he was pressing for the best possible taxpayer safeguards while always embracing the need for government action.
Welch and a majority of his colleagues shifted gears and supported a second version of the plan that passed on Oct. 3, after a few changes had been incorporated into the bill. Welch said that version earned his vote because:
• It increased federal insurance of people's bank deposits from the current $100,000 to $250,000.
"That is something I have been advocating for a while," Welch said.
• It requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to have banks use "mark-to-value" accounting, not just the current "mark-to-market" accounting, when it comes to assessing real estate mortgage values. Welch explained that a mark-to-value accounting system reflects a property's cash flow to the bank at the time of assessment, whereas the mark-to-market accounting system does not.
"Mark-to-market is a one-size-fits-all approach that results in oftentimes a number that does not reflect the actual value of the asset," Welch explained. "That means the bank's balance sheet is lower and it means they have to build up more reserves (before they can) lend more money."
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So when you "draw" for a truck, is it for the season??? I thought the whole concept was to arrive, draw for truck and then pop it over to your pit and make any setup changes you want and be ready to race later that day. I thought SST was going to transport and have ownership of the fleet so that teams just show up and tweak the truck they draw for and race.
Will there be a race in Concord NC. ???? Charlotte motor speedway
not into the bodies to generic looking.
I like the look of the bodies of the trucks, the only issue I dont like is the area above the wheel well in the back of the trucks would look better if it was higher, than again you have to have room for a sponsor logo. Going to have to make alot of truck bodies for those...looks good, the video was great of the tests and interviews.
Haha...I needed a good laugh today bud Thank You
@JR,,I believe it just one generic body and the driver's are responsable for the wraps.
Great now I have to change my name.....lol
Those are just practice tires. The Robby Gordon wheels w/BFG tires are cool....@Mike body specific to driver, get wrapped at the beginning of the season? what do you think?
remember the test in the West? There where drivers that tested that where contracted to BFG and General (I may have seen pictures of others,other things on my mind tonight) Why dismount those tires only to remount them for a later test? How about spending time building Trucks instead of mounting and dismounting tires?IMO
YEaaa Why BFG??? or not is Robby this Truck??