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Part of the enjoyment of decorating a baby's or toddler's room comes from choosing the bedding for it. Older kids perhaps want a hand in decorating their own room and choosing their own bedding, adding to the joyfulness of making the room a fun place for your child to rest. In addition to providing decoration, of course, you want your kids' bedding to be soft, comfortable and safe, providing all of your children with a restful nights' sleep so you can take a break and relax.
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Choose bedding for your child in color schemes and characters that he or she enjoys. Look through a wide selection of both bedding for girls and bedding for boys through the pages of Pottery Barn Kids. For girls, select beautiful bedding in pinks and purples, with designs such as princesses, hearts and elephants. For boys, opt for characters such as Batman, or choose sports-related motifs, such as footballs, sailboats and construction vehicles. There are also many gender-neutral options to choose from, and all of the bedding available works well for both boys and girls, depending on their individual tastes.
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Making that leap from crib to big boy or girl bed is a big step. Ensure that the process is seamless with toddler bedding perfectly suited for your little one. Choose familiar characters that he or she enjoys, matched with a fits-just-right toddler bed to make the transition just a little bit easier. Many sheets and quilts can be personalized and monogrammed, making them truly special for your toddler.
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The baby is laughing. And now he is not. He's seated in a high chair, dressed in a white suit and a large blue bib. His father is in the kitchen with him. In a high-pitched voice, Dad says, "Bing!" The baby laughs hysterically. Dad waits a few beats, until the baby is calm, and then, in a low voice, he says, "Dong." This catches the baby by surprise. He laughs even harder. Dad hits him one more time with the high voice: "Bing!" The baby sputters, he wheezes, he can't take it. He is helpless with laughter. And we love him for it.
The clip, titled "Hahaha," is one of the most watched YouTube videos ever, with close to 100 million views since it went up, in 2006. It's a classic of the form, so perfectly representative of the YouTube aesthetic that Google executives showed it to Queen Elizabeth during her visit to the company's central-London headquarters. "Lovely little thing, isn't it?," Her Majesty said.
Lovely, indeed. But it's also true that the "Hahaha" video is part of a broader cultural movement defined by a special fascination with all things cute—a movement that has sprung to life against a backdrop of war, economic breakdown, and more Wi-Fi.
Cootchie-coo behavior used to be reserved for private moments in the home. But now, with the Internet's help, people feel free to wallow in cuteness en masse, in the company of strangers. The serious political blog Daily Kos, for instance, is awash in cute pictures of kittens and panda bears. The Web site Cute Overload, which gets 100,000 visits a day, is all photographs and videos of puppies ("puppehs" in the site's own particular argot), kittens ("kittehs"), and baby rabbits ("bun-buns"), who are said to go nom-nom-nom as they munch their little meals.
"It's part of our DNA to react to cute things," says Meg Frost, who founded Cute Overload in 2005. "What makes me post certain pictures is if I have an audible reaction—a squeal—when I see the picture. I'm kind of annoyed at myself for having no control over thinking these things are so cute. It's like 'Oh, why don't you just kill us with your fur?'"
The popularity of Cute Overload (and the more than 150 other cute-animal sites catalogued by the recommendation engine StumbleUpon, including Stuff on My Cat, Cute Things Falling Asleep, Kittenwar, and I Can Has Cheezburger) reflects a growing self-infantilization that is also in evidence at the social-networking site Facebook, where countless subscribers have posted photos of themselves as babies on their profile.
Vice, a hipster publication and Web site based in Brooklyn, has also gotten in on the cute act, with a Web channel called The Cute Show. With an un-ironic focus on cute animals, The Cute Show would not seem to belong in the company of other Vice programming, such as Inside Afghanistan and The Vice Guide to Sex.
It's not just a digital thing. In this cuteness-crazed environment, Time Warner's People magazine decided it was good business to shell out an estimated $6 million for photos of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's newborn twins. At the same time, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Katie Holmes, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Gwen Stefani have kept the supermarket tabloids afloat through the power of their spawn. And it's no accident that the biggest tabloid saga of the year concerns Jon and Kate Gosselin, who rode to fame on the backs of their eight little cuties.
cuteness alert! cried the Hollywood Gossip Web site in a recent headline running above a snapshot of Matt Damon and his "adorable little ladies," ages nine months and two years, photographed near Central Park. The caption that ran with the photo might be our new cultural credo: "Everybody together now ... Wait for it ... Awwww!"
Even our cars are getting cuter. The Mini Cooper, one of the cutest things ever to hit pavement, entered the U.S. market in 2002. Seven years and one economic collapse later, it perfectly suits the changing image of a country in which General Motors, the maker of the Cadillac, filed for bankruptcy and sold its Hummer line to Tengzhong, a company based in China. The Mini's main competition, the Smart car (a brand so cute its name is rendered in lowercase letters in its logo), was introduced into the U.S. last year by Mercedes-Benz/Daimler. If you want one, you need to get on a waiting list. At 1,808 pounds, it is the smallest car domestically available. "If you look at it from the front, with the position of the grill and the headlights, it looks like it's smiling," says Smart spokesman Ken Kettenbeil.
And Darth Vader does not lie beyond the reach of cuteness. The ultimate movie villain of the last three decades is now available as a cuddly plush toy. "Squeeze him into your world today!" says the ad copy.
In this atmosphere, it's no surprise that the most monstrously profitable company of our time has a name that could have been made up by a five-month-old: Google. Twitter, another hot digital entity with a babyish name, has reduced even Shaquille O'Neal to peppering his postings with cute emoticons.
That's me crying over the depressing rise of cuteness.
To some degree, we can't help ourselves. In the 1940s, ethologist Konrad Lorenz proposed—correctly, as it turns out—that we instinctively want to nurture any creature that has a cute appearance. "Lorenz suggested that infantile characteristics—big head, big eyes, the very round face—stimulate caretaking behavior," says Marina Cords, a professor of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia University. "I study blue monkeys in Kenya every year and I have the same reaction. I find the infants are very cute. I was taught by my adviser never to tell anybody that was a motivation for anything we do, which is true. But it's hard not to have that gut reaction."
A deer and kitty have a moment–so cute!
A scientific study that came out this year is the first to offer firm evidence that human beings undergo a chemical reaction deep in their brains when they look at babies. It was conducted by biologist Melanie Glocker of the University of Muenster, while she was a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and it has resulted in two groundbreaking papers published in the journals Ethology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Specifically, Glocker's series of experiments demonstrated that the act of looking at baby pictures stirs up an ancient part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.
"It's in the midbrain," Glocker says, with a slight Teutonic accent, "which is an evolutionarily older part of the brain involved in reward processing. This region has also been shown to be activated by a variety of rewarding stimuli, including sexual stimuli, food stimuli, and drug stimuli."
Dr. Glocker is too much of a scientist to say so, but her experiments more or less prove that cuteness is physically addicting. So it makes sense that videos centered on babies and young animals have amassed more than a billion clicks on YouTube. This is not just a case of kids watching kid stuff, either: more than 80 percent of the people who go to YouTube are at least 18 years old, according to the site's own demographics study.
Big business is not blind to the power of cute. A good example is the subtle evolution of the signature advertising character of the last decade, the geico Gecko. In 1999, when the creature made its debut, it was a slithery reptile that walked on all fours. Since then its creators at the Martin Agency, an advertising firm based in Richmond, Virginia, have transformed it into something much cuter: the little guy is now fully anthropomorphized, with a more rounded head, big eyes, and other characteristics we unconsciously associate with infants who need our care.
The gecko's cuteness tricks you into forgetting that it represents something that's not cute in the slightest—a giant insurance company, which must deal in matters most uncuddly, such as injury, death, and arguments over claim payments.
In a 1979 article for Natural History, evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould noted a similar metamorphosis with Mickey Mouse. Little by little, Gould wrote, the character evolved from the thin, cackling rodent of the silent-film era to the high-voiced, plump-headed figure of the 1950s and beyond. So as the Walt Disney Company grew more powerful and profitable, its public face grew cuter.
There is probably no such thing as an uncomplicated cute image. As the essayist Daniel Harris argued persuasively in his 2000 book, Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic, our enjoyment of adorable stuff has a hidden dark side.
"The process of conveying cuteness to the viewer disempowers its objects, forcing them into ridiculous situations and making them appear more ignorant and vulnerable than they really are," Harris writes. "Adorable things are often most adorable in the middle of a pratfall or a blunder." He mentions Winnie-the-Pooh's getting his head stuck in a beehive as an example and goes on to argue that children themselves are not really so cute; cuteness, instead, is something we do to them. (Think of the Zach Galifianakis character in The Hangover outfitting the little baby with sunglasses.)
Like everybody else, Harris has a family member who sends him cute images via e-mail. "My sister sends me things that are practically sadistic," he says. "What was the thing she sent me? Accidents of cats! Jumping through things and not quite making it. It was very much in keeping with my point about the sadism of cuteness." In his view, the Internet has not changed what we find cute. "But there is a change in the availability of these images," he says. "The medium has made us hungrier for this stuff."
Harris's linking of cuteness and sadism applies to the famous "Hahaha" video: the baby may be cute on his own, but the clip heightens his vulnerability by presenting him more or less trapped in a high chair and reduced to a hysterical powerlessness by his father's sly utterances of "Bing" and "Dong." "There is something dark about using children for the pleasure of our maternal needs," Harris says. "We enjoy being caretakers so much that we will create situations in which they need our care."
The rather sick power relationship between lovers of cuteness and the objects of their gaze figures in one of the top-grossing films of '09: the widower of Up is adorable not only because his advanced age has left him in need of care, but because the filmmakers place this little old man in the extended pratfall of being stuck in his pastel-painted cottage as it floats to South America on a treacherous journey. As the story unfolds, it turns into a weird ballet of needy characters: the clumsy, chubby boy with an absent father; the slavish, awkward dog, who craves affection; the endangered snipe bird, which is pursued by the film's villain and imperiled further by a wounded leg; and her baby birds, who tug on our heartstrings because of their frankly cute appearance and because they are in constant danger of losing their mommy. Up mercilessly exploits our need to nurture helpless things.
I was further reminded of Harris's theory while checking out a blog called You Can't Make It Up. One of its posts presents 50 photos of small animals with broken limbs wearing casts. The keeper of the blog said she couldn't resist the pictures, because of their "bittersweet sadness and heart-splosioning adorablosity."
It seems like nothing is immune to cuteness, not even death. At mass-murder sites, by sharp bends in the road, and on the streets outside the homes of recently departed celebrities—that is, wherever somebody has met an untimely end—plump teddy bears and colored balloons magically appear in a sickly sweet tribute to the deceased.
There are also cute pop-music acts, like the British girl singer Bat for Lashes, who appears in a video riding a child's bicycle in the company of people in animal costumes. Another example is the precious and precise indie group the Bird and the Bee, which has given us "Love Letter to Japan," a song that pays homage to Japan's kawaii, or cute, culture. In addition, singer-songwriters Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles melted hearts in the cold months of 2008 with "Winter Song," a homey duet that spawned a cute accompanying video, in which the two singers appeared as cartoon characters rendered in Hello Kitty style. Unlike harmless bands from earlier eras—the Monkees, the Osmonds, New Edition, Backstreet Boys, 'NSync—the cute acts of today aren't controlled by a corporation or impresario looking to cash in; they're cute by choice.
A dog in a dress–adorb!
Long before the age of cute, when cool was king, NBC talk-show host Steve Allen poked a hole in Elvis Presley's then dangerous public image by having him sing "Hound Dog" directly to a basset hound. Now bands are happy to give themselves the cute treatment: an emo-ish pop group out of Buffalo, named Cute Is What We Aim For, recently put out a video for a song called "Doctor" that stars a pug puppy. The old pose of coolness is no longer so cool: the better move is to appear unthreatening. Veteran alternative-rock band Weezer, keeping up with changing times, has recently endorsed a cute product, the Snuggie, the blanket that you wear, of which more than four million have been sold.
Maybe the move toward cuteness has come about partly because the idea of "edge" has gotten old. We used to romanticize tortured souls like Dylan Thomas, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, but their equivalents from recent years—Kurt Cobain, Elliott Smith, Heath Ledger, David Foster Wallace—have elicited expressions of pity more than anything else.
Cuteness has also insinuated its way into our lives by way of our taste buds and stomachs. The nationwide hunger for what may be the cutest food item in culinary history, the cupcake, seems to have kicked in around 2005. A studied childishness is a big part of the cute movement, and the cupcake's surge in popularity is a reversion to the gustatory pleasures of that time in our lives when sweet plus soft plus damp equaled yummy.
Gourmet-cupcake boutiques have recently opened in Dallas, Detroit, Birmingham, Cambridge, Indianapolis, Georgetown, Brooklyn, and Tacoma. And Martha Stewart held a "cutest cupcake" photo contest.
The miniature cakes are also becoming a staple of that old rite of passage to adulthood, the wedding. Writing for examiner.com, a D.C. event planner reported that, in 2008, "it seemed that every other wedding we did, the couple chose to have a cupcake tower in lieu of the traditional wedding cake."
And then there's birthday-cake-flavored ice cream. Adults are swooning over a flavor meant to put you in mind of a birthday party you attended at age 11. In the last few years, Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Schoep's, Mayfield, and Edy's have all come out with their take on the flavor.
For generations, kids couldn't wait until they reached adulthood so they could smoke, drink, eat four-course meals, make money, drive cars, have sex, and, if they were the type to join the military, legally kill other human beings. Now we would rather log on and tune out, preferably in the womb-like comfort of a Snuggie, which is the perfect thing to wear as we gaze at photos of kittens while gnawing on delicious cupcakes.
Popular culture never comes out of a vacuum. It reflects or acts as a foil to the times. So why all the cuteness? And why now? Everybody would probably agree that the aughts have been an ugly decade. But why should it give rise to "kittehs" and "puppehs"?
The 1930s were as bad as it gets, but in those days Hollywood turned out one zesty screwball comedy after another. Those movies were surely escapist, but in a manner tougher and more vibrant than the cultural products emerging from the give-up culture of cuteness. Cute culture is soft and brain-deadening. It privileges the inner child, who, necessarily, has awful taste.
To be fair, the 1930s also gave us Shirley Temple, who pouted her way into the hearts of audiences in need of an escape more sugary than the one provided by the screwball ethos. Her Depression-era stardom, furthermore, hints that, in hard times, people get in the mood to take a ride on the Good Ship Lollipop.
The same weirdness is afoot once more. In a decade that has slapped us with a recession in the wake of 9/11 and an unending war waged in two theaters, Americans are producing a popular culture that seems to be saying, Please like us.
During the Bush years, the American image went from that of protector to invader, from defender of human rights to aggressor on the lookout for loopholes in the Geneva Conventions. It stands to reason that popular cuteness came about as some sort of correction, as a way for us to convince ourselves and our friends that we're not as bad as our recent national actions have made us seem. Cuteness got its start as a cowardly form of resistance, a velvet rebellion led by smiley-face emoticons.
Whether he deserves it or not, Barack Obama has consistently been portrayed as cute. As the presidential campaign heated up in 2007, the viral Internet song-and-video "I Got a Crush on Obama" cast him as the kind of guy worthy of the tweenish outpouring of emotion conveyed by the word "crush." Once he won the election, things got even more cloying. In April of this year, the liberal Web site Huffington Post polled its readers to determine "Obama's cutest moments." The accompanying slide show included photographs of Obama with the Easter Bunny, Obama leading Bo the puppy down a gleaming White House hallway, and Obama crinkling his nose while dancing with the First Lady at an inaugural ball. A typical HuffPo commenter responded to the photos like this: "Sigh! They're all adorable!"
It's almost enough to make you nostalgic for Dick Cheney.
The Beanie Babies people got in on the act by manufacturing dolls in the likeness of the Obama girls as part of the Ty Girlz line. They were called "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha." Following a complaint by Michelle Obama, the toy manufacturer renamed the dolls "Marvelous Mariah" and "Sweet Sydney." Unable to resist the market for Obama-inspired cuteness, the Beanie Babies company jumped back into action within days of Bo joining the Obama household, pumping out "Bo," a stuffed black-and-white puppy.
There are also Obama pajamas, called Ojamas. They're soft and covered in little Obama faces. In Japan, a sushi chef created an Obama sushi roll, assembling a likeness of the president's face with raw fish, rice, and seaweed. Closer to home, at Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle, the cute-ification of the commander in chief turned up in the shop's popular Obama cupcakes, which have the president's face rendered in frosting.
But don't cute kitsch items greet every presidency? No. Have you ever seen a Rutherford B. Hayes doll? And George W. Bush never got the cute treatment. Even his Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, failed to stimulate much caretaking behavior outside the White House. A typical Bush moment, vis-à-vis cuteness, occurred in 2008, when Barney bit a White House reporter. Chomp.
An image from the early days of the Obama White House demonstrated the change in atmosphere that went with the changing of the guard: a cameraman captured a mother duck and her ducklings as they waddled across the White House lawn.
For a few days afterward, it was all over the Web, a photographic antidote to the key images of the Bush years: the flaming towers; the president standing with the mission accomplished banner at his back; the shot of the hooded detainee that emerged from the moral and political wreckage of Abu Ghraib. In June, Big Media completed the makeover when NBC News presented Inside the Obama White House, a program that gave inordinate camera time to Bo.
If cuteness rose up partly in reaction to the muscular Bush policies, it has now moved into the seat of power, with the arrival of a president who lends himself to cute treatment. What was once countercultural has become part of the culture.
Cuteness is also creeping into our language. At Urban Dictionary, a wiki site packed A to Z with new slang posted by its users, you can find huge swaths of screen space devoted to words rooted in cuteness. The definitions and examples give you the feeling that America's bootstrap toughness is heading into the sunset. There are the annoying standby words used by adult bloggers in otherwise serious posts, such as "awwww" and "yay." There is also the word "cutegasm," which an Urban Dictionary user has defined as "the reaction one feels when being exposed to something overly cute. this may be an emotional, physical or even sexual response." Here's the example: "When Holly saw the baby trying to dance, she had a cutegasm."
What is the antonym for "cutegasm"? Because that's what I'm having right now.
The "Hahaha" video, which has been watched almost 100 million times on YouTube.
Going along with "awwww" and "yay" and "cutegasm" is the continuance of the social phenomenon known as the "cuddle party." I thought this was something invented by the editors of The Onion, circa 2005, but it's real and it's going strong. The Cuddle Party organization has had more than 15 get-togethers this year, in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Georgia, California, and Alabama. You pay roughly $30 per person to lie down with other people for a session of fully clothed hugging (nothing more, pervert). Similarly, social hugging among teenagers has become so widespread that, as The New York Times reported earlier this year, some principals have banned it from high-school hallways.
There has also been a sharp rise in cute movies. For the past decade, the annual list of the 50 highest-grossing films has included between 7 and 13 productions with adorable cartoon heroes (among them Up, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille) or lovable animals (Marley & Me, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Hotel for Dogs). There have always been movies for kids, but in the 1990s, by contrast, there were four or five cute movies per year among those cracking the top 50. And when critics review films like Up or Wall-E, their tone suggests they're dealing with something like The Seventh Seal rather than movies designed to exploit our caretaking instinct.
While all this cuteness was snowballing, the reversion to childishness manifested itself in domestic candy sales, which rose significantly in 2008, even as consumers denied themselves other small pleasures in a worsening economy. Cadbury reported a jump in profits of 30 percent. Nestle's increased by 10.9 percent.
At the same time, interestingly, the U.S. suicide rate was on the rise, following a long decline. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of U.S. suicides totaled 29,350 in 2000, which was the final year of the happy sex farce that was the Clinton presidency. In 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, 33,300 Americans offed themselves.
At decade's end, the stats suggest, America is a nation in need of a hug, a Snickers, and the nucleus-accumbens squirt provoked by baby-animal photos, laughing-baby clips, and bathetic movies.
This is not really a surprise. Social misery and cuteness seem to be linked. The precedent we have in this area is Japan. A cuteness craze got started there, influenced strongly by the Disney films Bambi and Fantasia, in the defeated nation's bleak postwar culture of the 1940s and 1950s. It has continued to the present, under the name kawaii.
Each Japanese prefecture these days has its own cute mascot, as do many big corporations. Public signs are filled with cute characters giving safety tips and other instructions. A few All Nippon Airways passenger jets are painted with the large yellow Pikachu character from the children's anime series Pokémon. Known collectively as yuru-kyara, Japan's funny mascots take part in cuteness competitions observed by expert judges.
American cuteness has certainly been influenced by the Japanese version. Gwen Stefani borrowed the kawaii look for her most recent solo concert tour. The creative head of Disney and Pixar, John Lasseter, is an acolyte of anime director Hayao Miyazaki's, and it's safe to say that every animated American movie of the last 10 years bears the stamp of Miyazaki. The blank-faced Hello Kitty character, from Japan's $1-billion-a-year Sanrio company, has successfully infiltrated American culture, with fashion trendmonger Kimora Lee Simmons trumpeting the brand and Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and other celebs wearing its accessories on the red carpet.
"Japan is the cute capital of the world—it'll drive you nuts," says a man who lives there part of each year, but who must remain anonymous because his wife is a Hello Kitty saleswoman. (The cute industry is hard on dissidents.) "When you get the cuteness here, it has usually been pets. But now that America is starting to get into the animation from Japan, it's starting to seep in. It's like a 10-year time lag. When I was in Japan 10 years ago, the cuteness wasn't quite as bad as it is now. And now I see a lot of the same things in America that you saw in Japan back then."
A cute character that emerged from the atomic waste was Astro Boy, who has gained a following in the U.S. through translated comic books and an old cartoon series. Created by manga genius Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy is a big-eyed, eager-to-please robot boy built by a scientist to replace his dead son. His name recalls the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima: in Japanese he is not "Astro Boy" but "Mighty Atom." Like his contemporary, Godzilla, he is atom-powered and capable of great destruction. At the time of his creation, Japan had to rely on the kindness of its conquerors to get back on its feet.
"There's no doubt that cuteness has been a part of the Japanese aesthetic since the postwar years," says Roland Kelts, the author of the 2006 book Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. "One theory, which has been proposed by a lot of Japanese artists and academics, is that, after the humiliation and emasculation of Japan in the postwar years, Japan developed this quasi-queer position of 'little brother' or 'little boy.' If you become 'little brother' or 'little boy,' the only way you can get big brother's or fat man's attention is by being so cute or puppy-like that he has to take care of you."
Just as Japan produced Mighty Atom and countless toys and gadgets out of what was, arguably, a desire to show its dependency, America is now coming up with cute products and images to express its own sense of need in the wake of the hard times and lousy decisions of the go-it-alone Bush administration.
"It is really important to understand the notion of dependency inherent in cuteness and how that emerged in Japan after the war," says Kelts, whose mother grew up in occupied Japan and whose father is American-born.
This desire to "show the face of dependency," as Kelts puts it, also turns up online, whenever people add cute-animal photos to their blogs or post baby pictures on their Facebook pages. "The old idea that you want your privacy is bleeding away into this new idea that you are desperate to be known," he says. "And if you are desperate to be known, you need a strategy for being known, and a very good strategy is the old evolutionary one of being so cute that you need to be cared for. That was, in a sense, Japan's position for the last 60 years: 'We will make your products really, really well, and we're going to be the best little boy you can imagine.'"
An adorable puppy.
Bringing things full circle is the Astro Boy movie, released in October, some 50 years after Tezuka pieced him together from the atomic rubble. It is strange, but possibly correct, to think that every time we gaze on a cute image these days we are seeing some weird aftereffect of World War II. The cuteness created by our bombs has come back to seduce us.
A quick aside: maybe the cuteness has come for us because of the huge change we've gone through in the last decade in terms of our relationships with our machines. Those born in the 1960s or earlier remember a time when (even as full-fledged adults) they did not have something beeping in their pocket, a time when they were not tethered to the Web, a time when they could be truly alone. It's not a new thing to note that machines have become an integral part of middle-class life in our increasingly digital age. But maybe this is another reason for the cuteness craze. Maybe the same anxiety that has given rise to the Matrix movies, to the latest Bruce Willis action vehicle, Surrogates, and even to highbrow works like Kazuo Ishiguro's lovely novel Never Let Me Go is in play whenever we take solace in the kittens and puppies of sites like Cute Overload or Cute Things Falling Asleep, or turn our iPod wheels to the unthreatening and unmechanized sounds of Sara Bareilles. The cuteness craze may represent a nostalgia for a lost world. Or maybe we're trying, in some pathetic way, to animate our machines, to imbue them with sounds and images that strike at the deepest part of what it means to be human: our desire to take care of helpless creatures. We're like those office workers of the 1960s and 1970s who tried to beat back the alienation they felt as a result of being the first people to inhabit sterile-seeming cubicles eight hours a day by putting up that poster of the cute little kitten hanging from the tree.
You can take only so much sweetness before you crave something salty. A correction is under way. A popular YouTube video, made by the Internet comedy show SecretSauce TV, satirizes cute culture with a fake trailer for an apocalyptic action movie called My Little Pony: Reign of Buttercup Sprinkles.
In roughly three minutes, the parody tells the story of numerous brightly colored ponies (based on the Hasbro toy line that has had a resurgence in recent years) taking over the world. The ponies fly, drive fast cars, and one of them even hoof-punches a human prisoner during an Abu Ghraib–style interrogation. The trailer then slows down to show a speech given by a black, Obama-like president, who somberly addresses a nation under attack: "We have ridden on their backs. We have bought them for our daughters, but now we must re-assert mankind's authority and strike down these little ponies! Their armies shall arrive in a rainbow of colors.... They will smell of glitter and cotton candy. But make no mistake! This is a war between mankind and ponykind."
Comedy Central's South Park has also weighed in on the cuteness phenomenon with its own response to the much-viewed "Hahaha" YouTube video in an episode that includes the line "Shut your fucking mouth, laughing baby." Despite the work of such skillful detractors, however, I would not doubt the power of cuteness. It will bat its lashes and crinkle its nose, and it will smother its critics with its softness.
Jim Windolf is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.
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Page One
Body Found on Berkeley Shore Identified
Police have identified a man whose body was found along the shoreline adjacent to Interstate Highway 80 in Berkeley Wednesday as a man reported missing a week before.
Jerald Jacob, 69, of Berkeley was reported missing on Oct. 23 and remained missing until his body was found washed up on the shore along West Frontage Road south of University Avenue at 3:16 p.m. Wednesday, Berkeley police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats said.
How Jacob died has not been determined. Berkeley police is conducting an investigation in conjunction with East Bay Regional Parks police, Coats said.
Anyone with any information about the incident has been asked to call the Berkeley police Homicide Detail at (510) 981-5741, or the non-emergency number at (510) 981-5900. Anonymous tips can be left at the Bay Area Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.


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A church is a building for public, especially Christian worship. Throughout the entire world , we have our own religions . It doesn't matter though , as long as you believe in Almighty God and the spirit of goodness. below are some churches found here in Los Angeles, California.
St. Sophia Cathedral
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Bel Air Presbyterian Church
Eagle Rock Baptist Church
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Angelus Temple
Our Lady Queen of Angels - La Placita
Christian Assembly
West Angeles Church Of God In Christ
First African Methodist Episcopal Church
St. John's Cathedral
Trinity Baptist Church
Oriental Mission Church
Calvary Chapel Crenshaw
Cochran Avenue Baptist Church
St. Basil Catholic Church
Blessed Sacrament Church
Miracle Missionary Baptist Church
St. Thomas the Apostle
Saint Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church
St. Vincent Church|
Second Baptist Church
Our Lady of Mt Lebanon Church
Cathedral Center of St. Paul
first unitarian church of los angeles
Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock
Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International
Senshin Buddhist Church
St. Cecilia Catholic Church
Hollywood United Methodist Church
Church of the Precious Blood
St John's Presbyterian Church
Immanuel Presbyterian Church
McCarty Memorial Christian Church
Figueroa Church of Christ
Church of Scientology International
Hermon Church
First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood
Iglesia Evangelica Latina
St Martin of Tours Catholic Church
Self-Realization Fellowship
First Congregational Church
La Tijera United Methodist Church
Reality LA
Resurrection Church
Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple
Solheim Lutheran Home
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church
Atomic Tattoo
YoungNak Presbyterian Church of L.A.
Hollywood Seventh Day Adventist Church
Vermont Square United Methodist Church
Saint James Episcopal Church
IMAN Foundation
First Chinese Baptist Church
La Senda Antigua
Church of Saint Paul the Apostle
Westwood Presbyterian Church
Bridge Publications, Inc.
For more Churches in Los Angeles, click here: http://us.wowcity.com/losangeles/?what=Church
No matter how busy you are in your daily routine, one must never ever forget to spend time on going to church to worship God. Remember, whatever blessing you have right now, its all because of Gods unmeasurable love to all of us.


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Julie Macon Stegall, Cheatham Nutrition and Cognition Lab at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute.
There are many issues we encounter as we and our family members face aging, potential dementia, illness and death.
There are many questions needing answers to ensure your family member is well cared for. There are also many issues which could potentially impair the ones you love or questions that you may not be aware to ask.
Brown will be presenting information to help properly guide us through our challenges and needs.
She will present much of the information in the form of storytelling, making it easier to grasp the importance of this subject matter.
Brown will be available to listen and address any questions the audience may have during our evening panel discussion.
Julie Macon Stegall will explain the work of the Cheatham Nutrition & Cognition Lab with particular emphasis on the BERRY Study, which is exploring the impact of blueberries on the brain and the body in adults ages 65 to 79 years old.
Stegall is the lab manager for the Cheatham Nutrition and Cognition Lab at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute.
She works directly with the research studies that explore how nutrition influences the development and function of the brain.
Dr. Sheau Ching Chai Chai will be joining Stegall for the question and answer session.
She is a registered dietitian and currently is a postdoctoral researcher working at the NC Research Campus, examining the effect of blueberry consumption on cognitive and emotional function in older humans with mild cognitive decline as well as exploring the link between inflammation, oxidative stress, cognitive decline and emotional status in the elder population.
Michael DeBetta, community service representative with Home Instead Senior Care will present: "Changing the Face of Aging"
As a community service representative, DeBetta will be enlightening the audience with an informative and interactive approach in regard to Home Instead Senior Care services.
He will also be part of the panel discussion to talk more about our community involvement and ways to raise awareness about the home care industry.


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Earlier on Wednesday, we shared Broncos linebacker Von Miller's hopes of playing on the same defense with Marcell Dareus and Aldon Smith in a group Miller compared to the Miami Heat's trio of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
Miller's not the only player thinking about who he'd like to share a locker room with in the future. Giants tight end Martellus Bennett wants to play with his brother Michael, currently a defensive end for the Buccaneers. Both players are free agents this offseason and Martellus Bennett said Wednesday that he'd like to play on the same team with his brother, preferably with the Giants.
"So it's just one of those things, you never know what is going to happen," Bennett said, via Jenny Vrentas of the Newark Star-Ledger. "I would love to stay here, maybe even get him to come out here. But if not, we're both looking to play together, at least for a couple years in the NFL like we did in college. I'll try to get him to come here first, or whatever happens with him."
Bennett showed more ability (more opportunity without Jason Witten in front of him too) as a receiver this year than he showed with the Cowboys, which may be why he called the Giants "the best place for me" on Wednesday. He indicated he'd give a "hometown discount" to the Giants, although there haven't been any contract talks between the two sides. And it's safe to say that there haven't been any talks with the younger Bennett either so we're pretty far from printing the family reunion t-shirts.


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Written by Anna Post
Who owns the middle seat arm rests on an airplane, really? How do you break away from the marathon talker in seat 12E? And what do you do, if anything, about the angelic-looking child kicking the back of your seat?
Incivility and rudeness are often the product of stress, and there are few situations more primed for stress these days than travel – especially air travel.
Once glamorous, air travel is now a test of patience, and sometimes even endurance. Today's travellers face the reality of rigorous security procedures on top of flight delays and cancellations, anxiety about flying, cramped seating and reduced or no meal service.
How to cope? Patience, courtesy and flexibility, and a sense of humour will serve you well. While you may have little or no control over long security lines, weather delays, the cabin environment or your choice of seatmate, you can control how you react to adversity.
All the more reason to come as prepared as possible to circumvent predictable problems. Here are a few tips, both defensive and offensive, to get you through your travels with less stress and more civility.
- Arrive early. This may be obvious, but it's often undervalued. As your stress level rises your capacity for tolerance and civility often decreases.
- Stay calm if your gate agent gives you bad news. Losing your temper won't get you there faster, and it may lose you the sympathy of the one person who could possibly pull some strings.
- Dress and pack with security in mind to avoid delaying other passengers. Do your homework on current screening procedures and airline policies for checked and carry-on luggage. There are still clueless passengers who pack large bottles of liquids in their carry-on luggage-a nuisance to everyone behind them. Wear shoes that are easy to take on and off, and keep items you may have to remove from your luggage for screening, such as laptops, readily accessible. This keeps the line moving, which keeps tempers calm. If you're a frequent traveller who knows the drill, be patient with those who are new at this-they may be nervous.
- If you can't choose your environment, create your own. Bring an eye shade for napping, and use headphones to listen to music or movies (whether in the terminal or on the plane), or earplugs to block out unwanted conversations. If your seatmate won't stop chatting with you, smile and say, "Well, it's been nice speaking with you. I'm going to read for a bit now."
- Do your fellow travellers a favour and step away from others in the terminal to take cell phone calls, and keep calls brief while in security lines or taxi-ing to the gate after landing.
- The middle seat arm rests are shared property. That said, it's generous for the aisle and window seat holders to give the middle passenger a chance to claim them first
- Travelling is trying for adults, and even more so for children. Crying babies are part of the air travel package, so it's a good idea to stash some earplugs in your carry on. However, if a child is kicking the back of your seat, it's okay to ask their parent to have them stop. Smile and say, "I know it's tough for kids, but would you mind asking him not to kick the seat? Thanks." Keep it short and offer some understanding, and it's likely the parent-and child-will comply
- Reading over someone's shoulder is nosy and intrusive. Avoid the temptation and come prepared with books, magazines, or a laptop of your own. Privacy filters for computers and smart phones will bar wandering eyes. If 6A is taking an unhealthy interest in your screen, meet his gaze briefly. This will jolt his awareness – the best medicine for rude behaviour.
- With airlines cutting back on complimentary in-flight meals and snacks, the smart traveller packs his own. Avoid foods with strong odours that may bother your neighbours though, such as tuna fish, egg salad, or a garlicky meatball sub-enjoy these in the terminal instead. Due to the prevalence of nut allergies, it's best to avoid these snacks altogether.
You can't always choose your neighbours on the plane or in the boarding area, but you can take responsibility for your own comfort and come as prepared as possible.
This article was originally distributed by Reuters.


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About Wellendorff
In 1898, Ernst Alexander Wellendorff founded the jewellery manufactory and created jewellery for the European royal families. Today, the company is being run by the fourth generation of the Wellendorff family. In the Wellendorff Manufactory in Pforzheim, all jewellery is made to achieve perfection through precision and loving attention to detail. Wellendorff has created a new, third dimension in jewellery – jewellery that you can recognise with your eyes closed – gold that feels like silk.View Collection >


text: Everytime I searched for onyx players the game crashed to desktop without any error message. I thought it was odd, because I could search them through their names without any issue. The problem is I left the game with an Onyx player on my starting lineup, which makes the game crash whenever I enter MyTeam mode. I've tried everything. Reinstalling vcredist, directx, the game, with and without firewall, changing everything in the video config txt. I've even installed the game on several computers, crashing to desktop everytime I tried to enter MyTeam. The problem is I can't change the lineup, neither I can delete nor change my account. Has anyone experienced this issue? I've contacted 2kSupport but they don't have a clue.


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The Medical Center Community Diabetes Program offers flexible educational opportunities to meet your busy schedule including both class settings and individual counseling.
A dynamic comprehensive class setting is offered to meet your specific needs. Individual counseling with a certified diabetes nurse educator or a registered dietitian from the Medical Nutrition Therapy program is available by appointment for anyone with special needs.
Our program provides assistance and instruction on:
- Individualized Assessment
- The Disease Process
- Meal Planning
- Medication
- Monitoring
- Prevention of Complications
- Coping/Stress Management
- Foot and Skin Care
- Exercise
- Personalized Goal Setting
- Insulin


text: Does ISPConfig not work with Open-VCP (VM) [no iptable support] Hi, I tried to get ISP COnfig 3 running on a virtual machine. But it never sync master to slave. So I checked the cron manually. While running the cron on the slave by typing "/usr/local/ispconfig/server/server.sh" I get: The Hoster says that iptables is on open-vcp not available. can I exclude ip6tables access while running the cron? thx! melchior


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Listen to the auctioneer ...
Listen to the auctioneer ...
"Alllll right; What'll ya give? I'm asking 20,000 to start, who'll make it 25? Now, 30? Now 45, got 45! Who'll make it 55? Yessir, 55, 55, 55, 55, looking for 65, 65, 65 … this car is worth at least double what's been bid … who'll step up to 75? 75, 75, 75 is the bid and looking for 85. OK! 75 is going once, 75 going twice … looka here, we're gonna sell it … SOLD for $75,000!"
On the sales floor, below the auctioneer's platform, in front of a huge crowd of enthusiastic automobile collectors, Southside's Ben Gunter prods bidders on the prized and rare cars that are up for the day's sale.
As he strides back and forth, his job is to entice the bidders into making higher and higher bids. He's been in the business for 20 years and says, "I love to do what I do. And I do what I love to do."
Gunter's foray into the world of auto auctions began after a back injury got him fired from his job as a mechanic. "A friend had an auction in Cleveland (Blount County) and asked me to come and raise the hood on each car as it was brought to the ring to be sold," he said. "He paid me $25 a night for doing that."
That simple act, plus a bit of showmanship, created more calls from other auction houses, and Gunter soon became a recognized "ring man" known for encouraging more and bigger bids on the cars being sold.
He soon was working auctions from Kelley's in Attalla to much larger ones in Birmingham, Atlanta and other cities. He won the coveted title as "World Champion Ring Man" in 2000.
Auto auctions are held every day of the week and Gunter is in demand as a ring man, travelling 1,100 miles to work an average of five days per week.
"There are long hours and it's hard work," he said. "Whether we're selling a car for $200 or $50,000, my job is to help the seller get as much money as possible for his car; it's a fun way to make a living."
A year ago, he was hired by Mecum Auctions, the world leader in live auctions of collector cars, classic cars, Corvettes, hot rods and muscle cars. About the same time, the Discovery Channel opened the Velocity Channel, the first TV network devoted to the upscale men's market.
Velocity began airing Mecum's auctions, both live and on a delayed basis. Because of Gunter's ability to attract higher and higher bids, and his showmanship, cameras soon spotlighted his work. In a way, he has become a star amongst the myriad of valuable automobiles that are the real stars of the show.
Gunter was working with the youth and playing bass guitar at North Gadsden's Congregational Methodist Church when he met Nila, a single mom with three children — the woman who would become his wife and helpmate in the world of high-dollar auto auctions.
She would be hired as the auctioneer's clerk at sales where Gunter was the ring man. "It was interesting work and much different from my old job in the sterilization department at Riverview Hospital," she said.
Nila was clerk at Kelley's and at ABC Auctions in Birmingham for nine years. At times, the couple worked the same auction. Many times, they would work different auctions on the same day or night.
When I called to make an appointment for this article, Nila had just returned home from a major Mecum auction in Kansas City.
"In mid-January, we both are working Mecum's auction in Kissimmee, Fla., where 3,000 cars will be offered for sale," she said. "That is going to have the largest selection of collector cars in the world. We really are excited about working that auction."
Featured in that 10-day auction will be select vehicles from the Rick Davis, Collins and John Justo collections. "This sale is bigger than Mecum's sale in Anaheim, Calif.," Ben said. "It is an honor for us to be part of the sales team for such an event as this one."
Gunter is a member of Masonic Lodge 383 in Attalla. He also is a member of the Gadsden Shrine Club and Zamora Temple, Birmingham.
The Gunters are parents of three children. Tyler, 23, is a talent recruiter for Sun Records, Nashville and also works part time with Mecum auctions; Kasey is 21; and 15-year-old Jagger is an aspiring football player at Southside High School.
For a fun time, tune into Velocity TV on the cable and watch Ben Gunter work the crowd at a Mecum auto auction.


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Anishinabe History
Ojibway People Must Make Their Decision Now To Accept Survival Or Extermination
This is about Seven Fires Prophecy which gives Ojibway People a warning they will be Exterminated (destroyed) if they don't take action. As it was 500 years ago, there is no difference at this time. We are at that time when it is Mandatory for Ojibway People to take action. All Indian Reservations and Reserves are Ojibway. Thus, it is predicted there will be a Rebirth of an Ojibway Nation. However, i can tell you with 100% confidence, that white leaders don't want nothing to do with you. Or Ojibway People will not follow prophecy is a better way of putting it. We have already responded. What i don't know is, what it's like far in a future era. I know I'm not there. Non whites in that future era, are doing things for me. Whites violated Seven Fires Prophecy. There are 8 predictions. There are not 7 predictions. It's real title is Eight Stopping Places Prophecy. They were told to search for a Flathead Shaped Mountain. They were not told to search for a Turtle Shaped Island. There are too many Turtle Shaped Islands. We know where that Flathead Shaped Mountain is located. That be a few miles west of Great Falls, Montana. Those seven other stopping places are Sulphur Springs, Grand Falls, Crooked Falls (aka Horseshoe Falls), Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls (it's submerged behind Rainbow Falls Dam Reservoir), Giant Springs and Black Eagle Falls. You are to move to this location or be Exterminated (destroyed). It's obvious Ojibway People did not follow prophecy at this time which means they have been Exterminated.
Chief Rocky Boy prepared our way. His Reservation is located a couple of miles south of Great Falls and quite large. It's name is Flathead Mountain Reservation. If you want to reach an afterlife, you have to move here. We have to deal with a bogus Little Shell Tribe trying to pass for chief Rocky Boy's Tribe of Chippewa Indians. They are trying to fool you. We have been warned by prophecy, that whites will try and fool Ojibway People. White media and white religions, are their main tools to fool Ojibway People and all other non whites.
To live again or reach an afterlife, you must become a citizen of chief Rocky Boy's Flathead Mountain Reservation. You also must be an Atheist (neutral) or follower of Chairman Mao who is Christ Our Savior. He stopped whites from taking over all of earth. If you are a Christian or Muslim, you will not be accepted because you are anti-Christ or anti-Savior. You don't want to be saved. Whites are fooling you. Blacks and Mexicans, agreed long ago to assimilate into white society where they will disappear over time. Other non whites are being used by white leaders, that will reject them, as they will reject Blacks and Mexicans. They have accepted their fate.
To become a citizen of chief Rocky Boy's Flathead Mountain Reservation, send an email with your name and address. Contact. An Ojibway surname will be provided to you for a citizenship identification. You also must move to chief Rocky Boy's Flathead Mountain Reservation. If you don't, we will not accept you. I already know it didn't happen. Since all Indian Reservations and Reserves in Canada and United States, are in fact Ojibway, you are welcome. If you have plenty of money, it will be very important to donate that money so we can establish an office, hire lawyers, initiate greenhouse farms and villages, ect. We will follow procedure and attempt to gain Federal Recognition. We already know white leaders will not recognize our nation. Sad thing is, we have proof. Leaders of Reservations and Reserves in Canada and United States, will not do anything. It they do anything, it will be to help white leaders. World leaders must now prepare in greater depth, survival means, if those catastrophes mentioned in Eight Stopping Places Prophecy (aka Seven Fires Prophecy) and Revelation, increase with greater deadliness. We are at that time. Be very cautious of white leaders. We have been warned about them. Non whites in these America's and Pacific Ocean Islands, have been Exterminated. China can have their land.
Halfway River First Nation
This Ojibway Treaty 8 Reservation community is located in northeastern British Columbia, northwest of Fort St. John, and home to both a Beaver Tribe and Ojibway's. Total population of Halfway River is 172, according to 2016's census. That does not include Halfway River citizens who live in white communities. This Beaver Tribe are really Amikwa Ojibway's. Besides being known as Amikwa and Nez Perce, Amikwa Ojibway's are also known as Beavers or Beaver. Amikwa means Beaver in Ojibway. At least an eastern Ojibway Dialect. They were a part of Hudson Hope Indian Band. They were to cowardly to follow prophecy and broke away from them in 1971. However, they are yet closely related to Moberly Lake Saulteau Ojibway's. They controlled land along them Rocky Mountains well north of Halfway River, south to Intersection Mountain in British Columbia, which is almost adjacent to British Columnia's border with Alberta. Rocky Mountain Trench (real Continental Divide) was possibly their western boundary. To their south and southwest, are Shuswap Ojibway's. We know Athabascan People or Dene People, are Algonquin's.


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The Mysteries of Egypt
For the first time, ancient Egypt's monumental achievements are captured on the giant IMAX screen. You'll be there — seeing the great pyramids at Giza, the enormous Sphinx, and the pharaohs' magnificent temples, palaces and tombs in larger-than-life format.
Starring Omar Sharif, Kate Maberly
Directed by Bruce Neibaur
Running Time - :38
Genre - Documentary
Opened in Theaters - Thursday, January 1st, 1998 (7812 days ago)
This movie is not currently playing in theaters.
Home VideoThis movie is likely available now on home video.
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Part #: 950-76242
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This part number is for a Lower Valance/Bumper Speed Grille on a Chevy Colorado Xteme Model Only . This Speed Grille is finished in Black Chrome. This part number will not fit the Standard Model Colorado. (see elsewhere on this web sight for the Standard Model Lower Valance/Bumper Grilles) This application is also available in the following Speed Grille finishes- satin aluminum, black powder coat or chrome as well as 4MM billet. For the complete package, check out the line of Street Scene Main Grilles as well as billet bow ties. Inspired by European Racing Designs, Street Scene is proud to manufacture and distribute the hottest grille in the market place, the Speed Grille.(Speed Grilles can also be painted to match your vehicle) Speed Grilles have a unique and patented shape and design. Each part number is precision made to fit the specific intended application and is molded to a precise fit. Most Speed Grilles require no cutting or drilling for installation, using our unique clip on system. Whether you are looking to add just a touch of distinction to your vehicles styling or you're starting from scratch building the ultimate custom vehicle, the Speed Grille is an addition that is sure to turn heads.
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How to Make a Difference Through Triathlon
Shattering personal goals is rewarding, but doing so in support of charity can transform the triathlon experience.
by Jennifer Ward Barber
For every person tempted to call triathlon a solitary sport, there's an IRONMAN Foundation charity that begs to differ. As the philanthropic arm of IRONMAN, the IRONMAN Foundation is poised to make a positive difference everywhere our races make an impact.
"So many athletes have a story about why they are racing," says Dave Deschenes, executive director of the IRONMAN Foundation. "Whatever it is, racing for a cause allows our athletes to take triathlon from a self-centered sport and change it to a selfless endeavor."
The IRONMAN Foundation was established in 2003 as a way to leave more than just empty energy gel packets behind in race host communities. Through philanthropy, voluntarism, and grant-making, the organization helps fund global nonprofits through four distinct programs.
→The IRONMAN Community Fund Program works with leaders in communities where IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events are held to identify projects and provide grant funding. Proceeds from IRONMAN Foundation entries provide athletes with a tax deduction and those funds are then directed back into our race communities to make an impact. Since its inception, this program has given $12 million to local communities and will provide $1.4 million this year alone to non-profit groups in IRONMAN race cities.
→ Your Journey, Your Cause is a way for individual athletes to raise funds for a cause that has impacted them personally at a U.S. race of their choosing. Since its launch 15 months ago, athletes have raised more than $2.3 million for various causes.
→ Race For Free is another way for athletes to guarantee entry into the race of their choosing, in exchange for committing themselves to fundraising for The IRONMAN Foundation. Athletes can use his/her fundraising network to reach this requirement, thereby "racing for free." (Athletes must raise the money by the date two weeks before race day, and are responsible for the balance if their fundraising falls short.)
→ The IRONMAN World Championship Kona eBay Charitable Auction offers a unique way to gain entry into the coveted World Championship in Kona, Hawaii each October. Beginning in mid-April each year, athletes have the opportunity to bid on one of
→Beginning in 2012,
If you haven't yet taken the plunge into racing for a cause, here are four reasons to consider pairing up with IRONMAN Foundation for your next race.
Tie your hobby to your values
We all do
Reset your training
Many athletes who have been racing IRONMAN for more than just a few years know that once in awhile the training doldrums can set in. Throw a worthy cause into the mix to infuse your training with a new purpose. Training and racing for a cause that has impacted you can help put new life in the endeavor of daily IRONMAN training.
Set new race goals
Hit a plateau in your times? Don't have the time to train like you used to? Racing for a cause can infuse your mental commitment with new life, by connecting what can sometimes feel like a narrowly focused pursuit to something larger than yourself.
Do good, make friends
We've all bonded with our training partners during tough sessions, or over races that didn't go as expected. But as anyone who's done a humanitarian trip or major fundraiser knows, the social ties formed when helping others are very strong.
Racing for a cause isn't the only way to contribute: The foundation provides over 3500 volunteers to support IRONMAN events during race week. Why not recruit a group of friends and give back by volunteering? You'll get a very different perspective on a race and it's a great way to give back to a sport that has given you so much.
Whatever form your giving back takes, whether it's raising money for a cause or volunteering at your favorite race, chances are you'll come out the other side with new friends, an invaluable sense of community and a renewed sense of purpose as you swim, bike and run.
Learn more at ironmanfoundation.org


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Wednesday, January 1, 2014
2014 restart of New55
1. Assemble a new work group locally, in Europe, and Far East
2. Revisit all old vendor quotes, sales projections, and new suppliers
3. Revise the set of technical drawings
4. Prepare fundraising effort and execute
If 4 is successful, hire the production engineer, tool up, and start production. The supply of 4x5 film has to be revised and there are some new candidate emulsions yet to test. Also there is the finalization of the receiver sheet substrate and coatings, which will take some time to finalize.
If the fundraiser falls short, wrap up the technical knowledge into some sort of open source format, and schedule a couple of handmade New55 workshops.
15 comments:
- Denis Balibouse said...
I hope you can achieve 4 ! Good luck and good work
- January 1, 2014 at 11:04 AM
- Chris Burt said...
Create the KickStarter and the funds will come!
- January 2, 2014 at 9:05 AM
- Brandon said...
Have you spoken with any European companies such as FOMA or ADOX? They both have some extremely good emulsions in 4x5 and handle a lot of production of films and papers. Cutting, packaging etc. I have contacts at both and can refer you if you like.
- January 6, 2014 at 6:31 PM
- ml_pisel said...
Good luck, and if you need European partener ... here I am!!
All the best
- January 7, 2014 at 2:24 AM
- Christopher Walrath said...
This is fantastic news. I always hoped Dr. Maps would add this to IBV. So glad someone else is undertaking the effort to bring this awesome film back. Let me know if there is ANY way I can help. More on the consumer testing side of things than anything else I suppose. This is just fantastic.
- January 9, 2014 at 4:24 PM
- blablabla said...
Hi, I'm in the UK, am a photographer and would be happy to help out as I'm rediscovering Polaroid. I've got the time too as I'm retired.
- January 16, 2014 at 5:29 AM
- FloridaSteve said...
Looking forward to contributing to the kickstarter fund!
- January 17, 2014 at 8:52 AM
- Levas said...
There sure be market for your films in Lithuania :)
It's great what you are doing.
Best regards.
- January 20, 2014 at 3:33 PM
- Elizabeth and Frank said...
I will support and promote a kickstarter campaign for the NEW55 and will help in any other way that my limited knowledge of chemistry, but highly artistic, brain can muster!
- January 22, 2014 at 7:55 PM
- egidijusk said...
We'll be glad to share N55p ideas in Lithuania. www.afd.lt
Looking foward for news.
- January 23, 2014 at 11:37 AM
- Peter Cook said...
I'm in tokyo where such a film would be very warmly received
- January 23, 2014 at 3:36 PM
- Evan Brown said...
So you're trying to make the film that impossible project can't? Like type 80?
- January 26, 2014 at 12:54 PM
- Evan Brown said...
So you're trying to make the film that impossible project can't? Like type 80?
- January 26, 2014 at 12:55 PM
- Ugo Marinelli said...
Take me updated! My personal stock of old 55 is dramatically reducing!
- January 30, 2014 at 2:10 AM
- youfoundmetoo said...
Start a Kickstarter campaign, I think you would be pleasantly surprised by the effect it would have. GO GO GO!!!
- January 31, 2014 at 4:31 AM


text:
HIGH POINT, N.C. – An offensive onslaught from the high-flying Panthers of High Point doomed Lipscomb (0-3-0) to a 3-1 defeat, Thursday night.
"We made some mistakes tonight, which we have to work on eliminating," said head coach Charles Morrow. "Every game we're making improvements, the process is just taking a little longer than it has in years past. Every game we're getting better, which is an encouraging sign."
Though both sides ended up with similar shots on goal numbers (six for High Point, five for Lipscomb), the Panthers attacked all evening, nearly doubling up the Bison in total shots taken at 19-10.
After being held without a score for most of the first half, High Point broke through in the 43rd minute of action. Shawn Sloan brought down a cross Ryan Bennett and put it away for his season's first goal, giving the Panthers a leg up on Lipscomb going in to halftime.
"It was unfortunate to go down on that goal so close to the end of the half," said Morrow. "After that, we had a period where the game got away from us for a minute."
The offensive march for High Point resulted in a significant advantage in corner kicks on the night, 10-4.
The Bison kept the Panthers at bay through the opening minutes of the second half, but High Point would strike again in the games 62nd minute.
Sloan sent a free kick into the box from around 40 yards out, and 6-2 midfielder Adam Sewell headed it home for the games second tally.
Disaster would strike a scant two minutes later, with Lipscomb junior Jeremy Reid drawing a yellow card in the box and giving High Point Hermann Trophy candidate Karo Okiomah a penalty kick chance. He converted for his season's first goal to give High Point a 3-0 advantage.
Lipscomb would get on the board in the 78th minute, with High Point's Todd Ray accidentally deflecting the ball past his keeper for an own goal.
Bison senior Brent McGee made three saves on the evening. His counterpart between the pipes, High Point's Michael Chesler, made five saves on the night for the victory.
Chamberlain and senior Garret Pettis were the main playmakers for the Bison on the evening, with each taking two shots and putting one on goal. Burkhardt, senior Evan McGee and sophomore Isaac Pile each put a shot on goal for Lipscomb.
"Our style of play is coming together each game," said Morrow. "We don't have a dynamic game-changer, but we've got a ton of very good players. It's going to be a total team effort every game."
For the Bison, one encouraging sign on the evening was the return of sophomores Kevin Barbar and Nick Bibb, who each saw their first action of 2011 against High Point. Barbar started and played 49 minutes in the match, while Bibb turned in a solid 20 minutes off the bench.
The Bison return home for a couple of days rest and training before hosting 2010 Atlantic 10 champions Xavier, Sunday, at 2 p.m.


text:
The Missing Ingredient (A Chandler County Novel)
Author: Debbie White
Genre: Contemporary Romance & Romantic Suspense
About the Book:
He may have broken her heart, but Kari is a survivor.
Kari leaves in a hurry. She has no idea where she is going—she just knows it has to be far away from Eddie. When an advertisement for the Kentucky Derby pops up on her Google search, something about the area intrigues her.
Tired from her long journey leading her to Lexington, an exhausted Kari stops in Bourbonville for just an overnight stay. But after a burger and a slice of pie at Sadie's, a diner with décor reminiscent of the 50s, Kari makes a split-second decision to stick around.
She settles into her new town becoming one of Bourbonville's newest entrepreneurs featuring her exemplary culinary skills.
Jeff has never been quite so bold before. But a little voice in his head tells him to speak to her. He doesn't know for sure, but his military training leads him to believe she's running from something. He's running from something, too.
It's not long before Kari realizes the Derby isn't the only race in town with high stakes and her bet is on Jefferson Davies, the owner/operator of Jeff's Marketplace. Can these two come together and mend their broken hearts while restoring their faith in love, or will it become a recipe for disaster?
Available on Pre-Order $2.99
Author Bio:
Debbie currently lives in California with her husband and two rescue dachshunds, Dash and Briar. When she's not writing, she's working in her garden, riding on the back of a motorcycle touring the beautiful wine country they call home or enjoying a glass of wine looking at the awesome views of the valley dotted with vineyards. She's an avid supporter of animal rescue and donates a percentage of all book sales to animal rescue groups. When you purchase one of Debbie's books, you're also helping to provide food, toys, and shelter to a furry pet while they await their forever home.
Website and other Links:


text:
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