text:
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Meet your fellow owners in our Owners Clubs
Toyota Matrix vs. Pontiac Vibe - Compare Notes
capitano Posts: 509The only thing I noticed about tire wear on my matrix was that pretty much all of the wear occurs in the front.0
Thanks for the input. I am a professional mechanic - 25 yrs - aviation - the tire pressure monitoring system on the "Matrix" not VIBE is a copy from the Airbus aircraft. Of course before I was an aircraft mechanic I was and still practice auto maintenance. I think either the factory specifications are wrong or the bushings in the suspension system are made not made to the engineers elasticity specification or they need a stiffer composition.
Back to the issue - the "professional" mechanics at the dealership have had this car in their shop 6 times; each time they were asked to address the tire wear, each time they stated there is nothing wrong.
You be the judge - the inner most tread band of all the tires is 1/4 lower and feathered with the rear tires wearing worse than the front. To boot - the tire noise while driving is so loud you can't hear the engine.
Call the tire manufactures or read a newspaper ad - the tires are made to run a lot longer than 15 to 20K. We have met several people at gas pumps who have tried all brands of tires - no improvement to wear on their vehicles.
Lastly you should know - aggressive tire wear increases suspension system wear and heat stress on the tire - just like low tire pressure - increasing the probability of other less common tire failure. Forget about the reduced life of the suspension system - you can just buy extra warranty and tires - that's what you expected when you bought the car right? It must take less gas to wear out tires prematurely anyway - correct?
I just don't find it acceptable for dealership mechanics and customer service people to look me square in the eye and say abnormal tire wear is acceptable for 'this' car.
You can double check the accuracy of your tire pressure with manual checks.
sounds normal from alot of cornering (city driving?) - rotate your tires every oil change or every other oil change.
Thanks for weighing in.
jay39 Posts: 2Where is the Vibe made, and which parts are Toyota or GM?0
herzogtum71 Posts: 470Vibe is made in Fremont, California. Same factory also makes the Voltz version of the vehicle that is exported to Japan. There's been some discussion and some disagreement in this forum about how much of the vehicle is Toyota and how much is GM.0
I bought a 2003 Matrix when that were first produced. The matrix in the same configuration as the Mazda 5 (at that time - 2003) was $1000 more expensive than the Matrix. I tried to get a Vibe since I wanted roof racks but the Pontiac dealer did not reply to my email.
After three accidents, none of which were my fault and all paid for by insurance and repaired at the Pontiac dealer the car was looking a bit worn and making some noises that I did not like. So I decided to get another - Matrix or Vibe. I tried a used car dealer but the trade value for my 2003 Matrix XR was set at $9000. (Black book value is about $15000)
The Pontiac dealer offered only $8000 in trade for a 2006 Vibe, with a $1000 off the price of the Vibe, so effectively they were giving me $9000 on the trade.
Toyota offered $11000 on trade if I got a 2007 model.
I really like the car so decided to get the new 2007 Matrix.
I was pleased to see that the instrumentation has been improved and that the center console on the Matrix has not been cheapened as it has on the Vibe - what else has Pontiac cheapened?
But I was disappointed that Matrix has not fixed the Map light switch on the mirror thing. These map light switches are push button type and are easily turned on when adjusting the mirror, and during the day one does not notice that the light is on so it stays on. Eventually the light burned out because it had been left on so often.
I would also like to see the odometer and temperature displays made a bit larger as I need to put on reading glasses to see these - not always what one wants to do when driving!
While at the Toyota dealer they offered me Diamondkote electronic rust proofing at $700. This involves the installation of a galvanic rustproofing box powered by the car battery. I was surprised that the guarantee of 10 years was the same as getting rustproofing applied to the car as a coating.
I happened to be in Canadian Tire and saw that they were selling electronic rustproofing gadgets for $200 so I bought one and installed it even though I am highly suspicious of the efficacy of these devices.
I decided to do a little experiment to see if they make a difference. I will keep this posted on a blog: http://automobile-rustproofing-black-box.blogspot.com/
I would be interested if anyone else has any experience with these devices.0
I just traded my 2003 Matrix for a 2007.
I noticed two items that I want back from my 2003:
1 The glove box lid on the 2007 falls open whereas the 2003 had a little aircylinder to lower it gently.
2 the standard radio on the 2003 is better than the 2007.
Back in 1997 my VW golf had an input port for the radio so that one could play other sources through the radio. This is an optional extra in the Toyota. Ability to play MP3 music on a car radio should NOT be an extra...
Gripes: The map light switches on the Matrix. What a dumb place to put them! Easy to turn on accidentally when adjusting the mirror and unnoticeable in daylight so they stay on.
The brake warning light is the same colour as all the other little lights and easily missed. Driving with the parking brake slightly on is NOT good.
Wiper blade attachment point needs to be improved for Canadian ice storm driving. If you start frozen wipers you will strip the teeth on the cog where the blades attach to the car. An expensive and potentially dangerous - when you cannot use the wipers in freezing rain - design for wiper blades. (This is not a Toyota problem but applies to most cars I believe.)0
rocky101 Posts: 7My 06 Matrix has approximately 15,000 miles on the clock; the tires have been rotated per the maintenance schedule. The mileage is all highway. I am a little anal about tire inflation. Back to the dealer for alignment check once. Uneven wear, especially in the front and an annoying harmonic from the front. The Continental tires are on the wear bars and need to be replaced now. Interesting to hear of other similar stories. If there is any other information regarding resolution, please post.
moos Posts: 17go to the matrix board and lok up the tire wear issue. :lemon:0
Here ya go link0
I have a GM that got 58K on the original tires. My daughter has the exact same car and has over 50K on the original tires and they still look pretty good.0
All you have to do is make sure your vehicle is made with a galvanized body and stainless steel exhaust. I have a 92 Pontiac Bonneville that looks better than some new cars. Driven every day in Pgh area and only has minor rust.. that is only under the car... it also has it's original exhaust!!! unheard of around the Pgh area. I also have a 99 Pontiac Montana that still looks like new and a 02 Buick that all have stainless steel exhausts and galvanized bodies. Cars that need rustproofing gadgets are made with 70's metal and paint technology.0
kevinarnold Posts: 41. The Matrix looks better inside and out. The Matrix has a sleek look for a wagon, the Vibe is more box shaped. Matrix has tighter interior.
2. The Vibe is a little less expensive, but doesn't hold its value as well as Toyota. Is the Pontiac name associated with quality or cheap plastic? What is your visual when you hear the Toyota name?
3. The "Matrix" has a cooler name, the "Vibe" would have a cool name if this were the 60's. "Matrix" might be the coolest car name after the "Mustang". "Vibe" is a cooler name than "Yugo".
4. Vitamin D is not overrated. Sun roof is cooler than a luggage rack.
5. Carpet in the cargo area is just stupid.
I give the edge to the Matrix in every aspect except price, where you might see a $400-$500 difference depending on options. If you are looking for a less expensive alternative, look at the Ford Focus Wagon.
Both the Matrix and the Vibe are the two best SUV alternatives on the market in my opinion. If the 2009 Blade doesn't get better gas mileage than these two its not an improvement.
These two models have the smartest engineering I've seen in terms of efficiency and functionality. I predict they will be popular used cars for years to come.0
kiawah Posts: 3,666kevin,
Why do you think these cars (Matrix/Vibe) don't appear to be selling very well? I'm interested in one of these as a vehicle for daughter. Haven't test driven yet, but have talked to a couple owners who absolutely love them. Looks to me to be a pretty nice package, but I don't see many on the roads, and see diminishing models/options (awd dropped). I would want all the latest safety (side curtain air, vsc), and find availability slim to none.
It just may be that it's coming to the end of the model run and everyone knows it, like I've decided to wait.0
What about this car? The Dodge Caliber seems directly designed to be competition for Matrix and Vibe.
- The Dodge Caliber looks almost military (an interesting design trend for a country at war)
- The Dodge C has bigger wheels than the Matrix or Vibe.
- The Dodge C has a built in cooler (for beer?)
- The Dodge has a (I think stupid) removable sound system and cabin light.
- The Dodge is about $2000 dollars cheaper.
So why is Chrysler not selling these like hot cakes?
I will answer that question as I drive a toyota - the quality is not there. Some not so obvious differences are that the door seems on the Japanese designs are filled with resin while the Dodge relies on a paint coat to protect the seems. The Dodge Caliber design leaves body panel overhangs around the wheels which appear unsupported and look cheap. The Dodge C also looks cheaper on the interior and some of the seat covers looked poorly designed with colour stripes - these may appeal to younger drivers but I look for classic long lasting appeal in a car not flashy, get tired of it tomorrow trendy bits.0
Correction to my message previous.0
suydam Posts: 4,088I was looking for a used Matrix/Vibe and they are not easy to find! They sell quickly too. Probably the high gas prices are a factor. Around my area, dealerships would get maybe one or two and they would be gone in a week. Same for the new ones. I finally found an '04 Vibe. So far we really like it. It would be a good car for a teenager. It has enough power to do what you want but isn't a pocket rocket. It handles very well and would be forgiving of new driver mistakes like oversteering or misjudging room to turn (very small turning radius).
Because they are considered an economy car the safety equipment has not tended to be standard until very recently. For new small cars like the Vibe, Honda Fit and NIssan Versa, only the Honda Fit has side airbags and ABS as standard equipment, and talk about hard to find! In our area there may be one or two in all the dealerships. Nissan Versa has side airbags standard but not ABS.'14 Buick Encore Convenience
'17 Chevy Volt Premiere0
They are selling them well, at launch they were back about 9-16 weeks on orders. You couldn't find them anyway. The intial numbers were way higher than anticipated.
With that said I do agree the interior is cheap looking, the color matched interior is an option not standard so those who like a classic look can opt out of that.
Oh the sound system isn't removable but the overhead light IS a flash light and does remove easily.0
mikey00 Posts: 462Consumer Reports listed the Dodge Caliber/Jeep Compass as the "Most Disappointing" cars for 2007. There are lots of facts in the mag to back up their claim.0
I have a 2006 Vibe GT (every option) that I bought in Feb of 06. I am very fond of this car (to be modest) and never get sick of driving it. The problem is that it keeps getting hit - last June 17th a young woman driver hit my front end and this June 18th (Monday night) a driver with a 1987 Jeep Cherokee plowed into it at 11:30 P.M. while it was parked in front of my house and rolled the Jeep over and has PROBABLY totaled the VIBE (insurance company not sure yet). Antway I have a Dodge Caliber rental for now and just let me say that THIS IS NOT THE SAME QUALITY AS A VIBE BY FAR!!! I want my Vibe back!...
nippononly SF Bay AreaPosts: 12,726Worlds apart. My car is a Matrix, not a Vibe, but I have driven the Caliber now (with the very annoying CVT no less), and there is just no comparison between the two. The Vibe may cost a little more in the real world, I'm not sure, but it is so much nicer in every way, it's worth the extra grand or whatever.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)0
foreverchaos Posts: 1Just over a year ago I decided it was time to get rid of my old beater car and find something new. I had never purchased or leased a new car before and decided it was about time to start. I had a few requirements I wanted filled when looking: Standard (wanted to learn), sporty looking, fairly fuel efficent, had some "spunk", large cargo room for everything that seems to be to big to move in a conventional car when you are a home owner, and it also needed to fit a large dog crate (folded), for my large dog, without needing to put down a seat to do it.
I considered many options including the caliber (which simply wasn't wide enough on the rear interior for the crate), and Honda Fit (which surprisingly met all the requirments I had set out other then the looks and spunk.
That left the Matrix and Vibe as the final considerations, and in all fairness I had seen the Matrix first and had practically fallen in love with it before I even looked at the Vibe. However my opinion of the Vibe was it had a bit to much plastic on it and I really prefered the way the Matrix side windows flowed to the back window. After a year's option of buyers remorse I still am VERY happy with my final choice and would have made the same one again knowing what I know now.
Final Decision: Radient Red '06 Matrix XRS
Additional features added at time of purchase: Electronic rust protector, Ipod interface, Roof Spoiler, Winter Car Mats.
Since then: First I didn't actually own a Ipod at the time of purchase of this car and was for some reason assuming that I could use other types of mps players, that was an error, so it gave me a good excuse to buy an Ipod which I had been considering anyways. I borrowed a few otherones first and to my dissappointment I couldn't get the interface to detect them (trying both a standard and Nano).
I went to the dealership with the issue and it was decided that the interface wouldn't work with the 6-cd changer deck that came standard with the XRS so as I cared more about playing MP3's over have 6 cd's in (which worked alright while I had it by the way) I asked them to instead give me a credit for the interface. I planned on pulling the deck and getting an aftermarket one so I talked to a service guy and got the old deck replaced with a lower model (as I was not planning on using it anyways) and he threw in a rubber cargo mat (which I love by the way and would suggest this).
After searching I decided on this deck http://jvcmobile.co.uk/product.php?pr=27 by JVC (KD-G721) as it matched the red interior lighting and did everything I wanted coupled with the factory suggested ipod interface for it, which works VERY well in my opinon.
I recently also tinted the windows which made it look even better.
Problems I had:
Over the past year I have had a few problems beyond the Ipod interface. First, the car is fairly light and with the 17" tires it does not handle snow conditions well with the current tires. I was expecting this however as my brother has a Mazda 3 coupe and had the same issue the year earlier (so I think it has more to do with that general style of car and the 17" tires)
I also had an issue with the rust inhibitor continually falling off for the first little while (the double sided tape they used apparently wasn't holding)
Additionally, I had a rattle in the muffler which required them to change out and tighten a few brackets for it.
All of the above were either somewhat expected or fairly minor issues. The only one I am still a bit concerned about is during last winter I had two instances of powerloss within a few days time to nearly the entire car unexpectedly within about 5 minutes of driving from initial start up, usually after it had sat for a long period of time. The issue went away and they never did find the problem as they couldn't get it to repeat the problem at the dealership after multiple attempts nor find any reasons that may have caused it after multiple tests. So I am interested to see if it comes back this winter.
My overall feelings about the car:
I love it, it looks great, is fun to drive, is fairly efficent on gas (despite the fact I use premium fuel in it as it suggests), has excellent cargo capacity when I need it (I moved a full sized teachers desk inside it with the hatch nearly closed and I have yet to not be able to get anything I wanted home in it since I bought it), and handles well. I would buy the same car again if I was to go back. I even picked up a matching die cast version of it in red to show my future children what "dad's first new car" was in 25 or so years!0
I finally got my Vibe Gt back last Friday. I drove the Dodge Caliber rental for 5 weeks.In all fairness I want to point out that the Caliber didnt have many options and my Vibe has almost every option. Good things about the Caliber are - looks :alot of people like it - good power:the engine is pretty strong and delivers great gas milage the automatic transmision shifts at strange rpm ranges though. The interior space is less than a Vibe. I like the steering wheel arangement of the Caliber also. I think the Vibe should be offered with a bigger engine like the Caliber (2.4L I think)
By the way my Vibe probably should have been totaled as the final price to fix it came to around $14,0000. The body shop waited for some of the parts from GM for over a month and they finally called the Toyota dealership and recieved the parts they needed in 1 day! To me this just reinforces the idea that the Vibe is mostly a Toyota and not much of a GM product at all.0
vernondaw Posts: 1A made to fit existing welded nut holes trailer hitch is available on eBay for about $100 plus about $15 shipping.0
wtd44 Posts: 1,211I do not recall what first caused me to be interested in the Vibe/Matrix, but when the near by Pontiac dealer had some 2009 AWD models arrive, I decided to check them out. Here in the Rocky Mountains, all wheel drive is a very valuable asset. I compared the Vibe and Matrix AWD "twins", and analyzed the deal available on each in my vicinity. The Vibe simply had the upper hand when all factors of interest to me were considered. I bought a white one after a lot of negotiating involving trading in my 2004 Jeep GC. It all worked out, and the Pontiac dealer wanted my business more than did the Toyota dealer. Done deal. :shades:0
I got my new vibe last July. I found lots rusting dots around the rim of the car.
Did anyone have this problem before? Would the warranty cover it?
Also, my vibe's brake is very heavy, I mean I need to push it very hard to make a rapid stop.
I am satisfactory with this car other than these problems.0
renatel Posts: 9I am pretty sure the rusting is covered under warranty.As for the brakes take it to a brake shop and find out.If its the master cylinder,its probably covered.If its the pads,shoes or wear and tear items then probably not.0
Actually they are stains like rusts. I already scratch most of the stains with my nails.
The brake is fine now. I had it checked today. The technician suggested that it might be due to the extra pad.0
autotech6 Posts: 1The Vibe is supossed to be a cheaper version to the Matrix. They have the same engine as does Corolla. Where I'm from, the Vibe is actually a Toyota Voltz and is priced a little less than the Matrix. I think the matrix looks better, but both are very reliable cars of course. As we all know Toyota is tops for reliability....0
Kirstie_H Posts: 11,077A reporter hopes to interview one of the few people who bought a new Pontiac recently. Please send your daytime contact info to [email protected] by Thursday, October 21, 2010.
Jeannine Fallon
Corporate Communications
Need help navigating? [email protected] - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
Share your vehicle reviews0
This discussion has been closed.


text:
From the moment John Bell jogged briskly onto the field Thursday at Volunteer Stadium, now and forever a member of the Little League World Series umpire fraternity, he could hardly contain himself.
From the moment John Bell jogged briskly onto the field Thursday at Volunteer Stadium, now and forever a member of the Little League World Series umpire fraternity, he could hardly contain himself.
As the home-plate umpire, Bell — who is superintendent of the Delaware Valley School District in Pike County — was summoned to the field ahead of the rest of his crew.
He smiled wide and waved twice to well-wishers as he accepted polite applause from the thousands gathered for the opening game of the 2013 World Series.
It didn't matter that Bell couldn't pick out his friends' faces right away. The support did his heart good.
Moments earlier, in the tunnels underneath the field, Bell's emotions raced from nervousness to anxiousness. That's understandable when you are about to step in front of an audience of 10,000 excitable fans and potentially millions more on worldwide television.
The significance of being rewarded with the first home-plate duties of the tournament was not lost on Bell, who was humbled by the gesture.
"To do the plate for Game 1, right after the opening ceremonies, is beyond my wildest dreams," he said.
But ultimately a game is just a game and, despite all the trappings of an enhanced stadium, a Little League field in Williamsport is still the same as the one in his old stomping grounds of Port Jervis, N.Y.
"We finally did what we came to do, and that was umpire," said Bell. "And God, it was fantastic."
It was an eventful game, with Panama racing out to a 6-0 lead after two innings before Puerto Rico rallied for four runs in the fourth.
"If you have umpired as long as I have, you have seen enough 36-1 games," Bell said, "so you love having a good game, because it's easier to stay on top of things and stay involved."
Bell said his crew had to overcome some language barriers at the beginning, and the noise from the crowd above made it difficult to hear coaches call for timeouts.
Bell had to step aside from eight wild pitches, and he was forced to call a batter out for leaning into a strike three.
He also had to announce to the crowd what may have been the first video reversal in World Series history on a safe call at first base.
After further review, a Puerto Rican runner was ruled not to have beaten out a double-play ball, taking a run off the scoreboard and putting an end to a bases-loaded threat that could have hurt the Panamanians, who went on to win 9-4.
Frank Policano, umpire-in-chief for the East region and a World Series observer since 1987, said Bell did an excellent job, never wavering on his strike zone and selling all of his calls.
If he had one complaint, it was Bell's demonstrative act to call out the runner on the reversal.
"He was a little aggressive on that one," Policano said. "We said, 'Take it easy.' He did his job. We're thrilled he was the first one to set the tone for the other 15 umpires."
Bell is glad to get the first game under his belt, and now he can settle into the rest of a busy schedule that will have him call two and maybe even three games in a day for the next week and a half, which is fine by him.
"On the field, I feel at home," Bell said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Knicks have been and up an down team all season. Sometimes they look like a title contender and sometimes they look like they could be in the running for a top 5 pick, but then you remember that James Dolan threw all their picks into the Melo deal. One day they'll beat Dallas but then they'll turn around and give up fifteen 3's to the Nets. At 16-17, this season has been turbulent for Knick fans to say the least. However for New York, throughout this lockout-shortened season one thing has remained a constant:
The Knicks inability to beat bad teams.
Despite having played the easiest schedule in the NBA to date, the Knicks sit at 16-17. If the season were to end today, the Knicks would have the second lowest average point differential, 1.2, of any playoff team despite their patty cake schedule. When facing teams that currently have losing records, the Knicks are just 12-9. Obviously the fact that they are 4-8 against good teams is not good but it is more disturbing that they cannot beat bad teams. Sure, they have a winning record but 13-9 is nothing to write home about. Losing to Phoenix, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New Jersey, Charlotte and Toronto at Madison Square Garden is nothing to write home about.
It astonishes me how up and down this team is. They can get up to play the good teams and they struggle to garner enough energy to bury the bad teams. "Oh well it is different with Jeremy Lin". No it's not. The Knicks have played nine games with Lin as the starting point guard. They are 7-2. The two losses came against New Jersey and New Orleans and both losses occurred at Madison Square Garden. Those two teams have a combined record of 17-48. Totally unacceptable for the Knicks to be losing to teams like that at home.
The Knicks cannot transition to being an elite team until they learn to bring energy into every game, night in and night out. By comparison, here are how some of the elite NBA teams stack up to the Knicks:
Heat: 14 wins 3 losses
Bulls: 19 wins 3 losses
Oklahoma City: 14 wins 2 losses
LA Clippers: 8 wins 3 losses
Knicks: 13 wins 9 losses
The Knicks will never enter even the upper echelon of the NBA if they cannot better their play against bad teams. The Knicks currently sit at 16-17, good enough for the 7th seed in the East. Right now, they would be playing the Chicago Bulls in the first round. Ideally, the Knicks would like to move up to any of the 3-6 seeds to avoid a first round matchup with Miami or Chicago. The Knicks have 13 more games against teams with sub .500 records. In order to close the 5 game gap between them and the 3rd seed (Orland0), the Knicks need to win at least 10 of these last 13 games, if not win all 13. Obviously they will have their hands full playing the Pacers and Bulls three more times a piece and Miami twice. They cannot afford to be dropping games to lottery teams, they need every win they can get.
Overall, if the Knicks are going to propel themselves to the 3rd seed in the east they must begin to consistently beat bad opponents. Losing games at home to the Raptors, Bobcats, Bucks, Hornets, Nets and Suns is utterly unacceptable. Great teams continually abuse the bad teams and the Knicks seem to get abused by bad teams far too often. Obviously, at 16-17, the Knicks are not an elite team at the moment. Given their coach, talent and new found point man, the Knicks do have the potential to become one of the NBA elite by season's end. In order to ascend up the Eastern Conference standings, the Knicks must find a way to bring consistent energy on a night in night out basis. They need to play against Charlotte with the same energy they bring against Miami. Great teams capitalize on lesser opponents and the Knicks struggle. They are not great now and will never be a great team if they cannot quickly fix their consistently. I suggest the Knicks hurry up and get their act together. There are only 33 games remaining.Follow @tarmosino


text:
Support bro Tarek Mehanna (Abu Sabaya)
|Post Reply
Topic Search Topic Options
Free bro. Tarek
Joined: 26 October 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2
Post Options
Posted: 26 October 2009 at 11:59am
Yaa Muslimeen! Let us all rise to support our brother Tarek Mehanna, who is being unjustly convicted and what for? For refusing to sell out, for refusing to backstab his Muslim brothers and sisters. This is brother Abu Sabaya who would support our oppressed Muslim prisoners in every way he could and today he is the oppressed one. It is upon us to support our brother, to make du'aa for our brother, to write to our brother, to rise against the lies being spread about him through the media. Today it is him, tomorrow it could be any one us.
If you have facebook, please join this group set up by his brother Tamer Mehanna.
Show that we will not remain silent while they persecute our own unjustly. Do not let the lies being spread about our brother Tarek dominate the media, so that even those who do not know him are taken in by the lies.
Letters mean so much to a prisoner. Please, take some time to write to our brother, to encourage our brother to remain strong and to show him our support. Don't let them taunt him, telling him his own brothers and sisters do not care. Email your letters to his brother, who will pass them on to him:
[email protected]
If you are able to, please attend his hearing:
Date: Friday, 30 October 2009
Time: 10:00 - 14:00
Location: Moakley Federal Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, MA
Message from his brother Tamer:
This is the first hearing, so let's SHOW UP BIG everybody!! Hearing actually begins at 11:00AM. It likely won't last past noon or 1pm. Please guys let's get organized and see how big of a showing of support we can make for our common brother, Tariq Mehanna. This is the hearing where the judge reviews the evidence and determines if it warrants proceeding. Let's do this for Tariq!!
Please feel free to contact me via private message if you are coming from out of state and need help coordinating.
Please keep in mind, ANYBODY can come to this, so don't hesitate to bring any of your friends, even if they were not listed in the guest list.
Edited by icforumadmin - 27 October 2009 at 2:10pm
Free bro. Tarek
Joined: 26 October 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2
Post Options
Tariq Mehanna is a 27 year old Muslim Egyptian American born and raised in the United States. Highly educated, Tariq holds a doctorate in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. He is a devout and tolerant Muslim who is not only respected in the local Islamic and interfaith communities, but who also gives back to his Islamic community by fulfilling the roles of brother, educator, mentor, scholar, and friend. Tariq is described by those who know him well as humble, reserved, warm, peaceful, intelligent, knowledgeable, reflective, pragmatic, dedicated, and straightforward. He is a person with strong ethical values who refuses to compromise on them regardless of the circumstances. It is unfortunate then that this customarily admirable trait plays a role in his current situation.
Several years ago, the Boston FBI began to approach Tariq. They recognized that he was a religious Muslim who was active in the local Islamic community, had earned the respect of many, and was beloved to the youth. The FBI recognized in Tariq an individual who is intelligent, charismatic, influential and trusted by many in the local Islamic community. They decided that they wanted Tariq on their side, and began to approach him in an effort to recruit him as an informant. Their objective was to secure Tariq as a tool to corroborate any FBI claims or accusations against members of the community that might arise, at the discretion of the FBI. Of course, Tariq flat out refused to backstab his fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, a decision that did not sit well at all with the FBI.
The FBI then proceeded to repeatedly approach Tariq over the coming months, each time pressuring him more and more to collaborate with them. This pressure most often came in the form of blackmail; Tariq was told that unless he consented to cooperating with the FBI, they would continue finding new ways to disrupt his life and to deprive him of a sense of security. He was told outright by interrogators that they knew he was innocent, but that they would not be satisfied with his refusal to cooperate. Regardless of whether their methods were unethical, coercive, or failed to respect his civil rights, the FBI were quite fortunate in catching an opportunity to arrest Tariq in 2008 based on a weak accusation of issuing "false statements" to a federal officer. After two months of imprisonment, his court-appointed attorney, Jay Carney, jr., was able to negotiate a bail settlement of $1,250,000. Tariq was subsequently released after this absurdly inflated amount was paid by his parents, who were desperate to have him return home safely.
Tariq did return home for nearly a year, living a quiet life, restricted by a court-ordered curfew, and monitored by FBI investigators. In the meantime, the case against him, based on "false testimony" charges, began to stagnate, and court dates were far and in between with no advances made by the FBI. Over time, the Mehanna family began to finally feel a sense of restored normalcy and stability in their lives. This feeling was suddenly and violently shattered during the fajr hours of September 21st, 2009, when FBI agents showed up at the Mehanna home doorstep at 5:00AM in the morning. Despite the lack of ANY new evidence since the prior arrest, the agents came with an arrest warrant. According to Dr. Ahmed Mehanna, Tariq's father, the agents were visibly excited and enthusiastic about their invasion of the Mehanna private household and the seizure and arrest of Tariq. The situation facing Tariq now is one where his second arrest means that there is no chance for bail. Tariq is currently incarcerated at the Plymouth Correctional Facility, where he is expected to remain for the several year duration of a new trial based on outright FALSE AND LUDICROUSE accusations of aiding and abetting terrorism. He currently faces LIFE IN PRISON if convicted guilty in a trial by grand jury. We must offer our greatest support and most dedicated effort if there is to be hope of Tariq's release. Thank you for taking the time to read this history, and we are confident that you will share our knowledge of Tariq's innocence. In addition, it is our sincere hope that the United States justice system remain true to its "innocent until proven guilty" origins, and for Tariq to receive a fair and just trial.
|Post Reply
| Tweet
|Forum Jump
|Forum Permissions
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


text:
Support PDX POP NOW! Make a PayPal donation today.
100% of the money you give goes to support all of our activities.
Get it online from CD Baby or at record stores around Portland such as Music Millenium, Jackpot Records, Everyday Music, and many more!
Follow our updates on Twitter: twitter.com/pdxpopnow
Friend us on MySpace
Friend us on Facebook
If you'd like to hear about PDX Pop news and events, sign up for our mailing list by sending your email address to: announcements (at) pdxpopnow (dot) com
Want to be a part of PDX Pop Now! 2008? Get in touch with our volunteer coordinator here.
PDX Pop Now! is dedicated to stimulating and expanding participation in Portland music. As an all-volunteer organization committed to being accessible, current, and local, we provide and support live performances and recorded materials. We aspire to advance a sustainable community which values inclusivity and a high caliber of artistry to enable a creative dialogue between artist and audience.
Checkout videos of PDX Pop Now! events on YouTube.
Here are some photos taken at past PDX Pop Now! festivals and events. If you have some you'd like to add, please chuck them into our Flickr group.
Click here for t-shirts! Whee!
PDX Pop Now! P.O. Box 14828 Portland, OR 97214 pdxpopnow.com 2008 :: Some Rights Reserved


text:
Trivest Partners announced that it acquired a controlling interest in Lady of America Franchise Corp.
"We welcome and appreciate our new partnership with Trivest. We strongly believe that our 800-plus franchisees will immediately see the benefit of guidance, leadership and support that few franchisors in the fitness industry have ever been able to provide to franchisees," Roger Wittenberns, founder of Lady of America, said in a release. "Our first order of business will be adding a strong field support system focusing directly on increasing franchisee profits."
As part of the acquisition, Charles Cavuto, currently the international franchise director of Lady of America will become president, and Mark Kacer will become the CFO. Kacer was previously CFO at vFinance Inc. and Equinox Systems.
Based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Lady of America Franchise Corp. is the second largest franchisor of women-only fitness centers. The company operates the brands Lady of America, Ladies Workout Express, Health Clubs of America and Workout Express.
Trivest Partners is a Miami-based provider of equity for middle-market corporate acquisitions, recapitalizations and growth capital financings.


text:
At Midwest Sports, you'll find an extensive selection of kids' tennis shoes. We have the latest designs featuring the perfect mix of performance and durability for any junior tennis player. With selections from Nike, adidas, Prince, Babolat, and more, you'll be able to find the perfect color, style, and price. We offer a 7-day low price guarantee so you can shop with confidence. To learn more about finding the perfect tennis shoe for your younger player, consult our Tennis Shoe Guide.
25% Off
$80.00 $59.94
25% Off
$80.00 $59.94
If your son or daughter is need of a high-quality pair of junior tennis shoes, you've come to the right place. Midwest Sports offers the newest kids tennis shoe styles from the best names in the sport. Whether they're just stepping on to the court or they're a budding pro, be sure to outfit your young star with the proper footwear. You'll want to find kids' tennis shoes that will effectively support their starts, stops, sprints, lateral movement, and other footwork — and we've got just what you're looking for!
From the adidas Barricade 8+ to the Wilson Rush Pro Junior, here you'll find the same quality and performance from full-size tennis shoes, but sized to fit your smaller player! Shop our collection of junior tennis shoes today and find the perfect look and feel for the young tennis stars in your life.


text:
Dr. Hilary Anne Frost
Director of Global Studies
Associate Professor of Political Science & Global Studies
Global Studies Minor
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: (217) 206-7875
Office: PAC 322
Dr. Frost holds a Ph.D. in cultural geography from Pennsylvania State University; an M.A. in international studies from the University of Iowa; an M.P.A. with specialization in arts administration from Ohio State University; and a B.A. in history from Michigan State University.
From 1978 to 1992 she worked in the field of arts management doing fund raising, marketing and strategic management with a variety of multi-disciplinary arts organizations. For the last 16 years she has been working in academia, teaching cultural geography, international studies, non-profit management and arts administration.
Her research interests are as eclectic as her degrees: geography, geology, international studies, the role of the arts in community development, and Africa.


text:
Battle of Bunker Hill History
The Battle of Bunker Hill actually occurred physically at Breed's Hill and happened on June 17, 1775. The cause of this event was the rebels response to the British preparing to fortify the hills near Boston. Not wanting that to happen William Prescott had Bunker Hill occupied and Breed's Hill fortified. However, the problem with working with Breed's Hill was that it was so close to British troops they barely had to move at all to have the rebel troops within firing range. Turns out Prescott actually wanted to focus on Bunker Hill, but no reason is known why Breed's Hill was the main focus.
In the end the battle was terrible for both sides. The Rebels were confused and unsure where to go and the British were caught off guard by the rebels and wound up retreating, twice. While the Rebels lost the battle, mostly due to having no ammo left, they left a very significant blow to the British troops. The British lost 228 soldiers with over 800 injured but the Rebels lost only 140 with just over 300 injuries.
Was this guide helpful?


text:
SeaWorld Orlando is preparing this year's version of its Halloween Spooktacular, which kicks off Oct. 6.
The kid-friendly event carries a "sea" theme, and it's included in regular park admission. Plus it's another chance for little ones to show off their Halloween costumes.
Spooktacular again includes Penelope's Party Zone, featuring a DJ, interactive games and characters for children. There will be 15 trick-or-treat stations sprinkled throughout the park's Bayside area, along with a treat-decorating area.
It's the busiest time of year for SeaWorld's walk-around characters such as pumpkin fish, mermaids, spider-crabs and penguins plus Dolly Dolphin, Shivers the Polar Bear and Shamu, all available for photo opportunities.
Spooktacular operates from noon to 8 p.m. Event dates are Oct. 6,7, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28.
SeaWorld also offers overnight sleepovers for families near the giant aquariums built into the Manta roller coaster. It's designed for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. It costs $78 per person. A $103 option includes next-day park admission. The ticket includes a pizza dinner and breakfast. Event dates are Oct. 19, 20, 26 and 27. Call 1-800-406-2244 for reservations.
More info: www.seaworldorlando.com


text:
Toboggan Trip Diary Reveals Fun, HallucinationsErik Deckers
Laughing Stalk syndicate
Copyright 2009
Several weeks ago, my family and I had the chance go with some friends and their kids to the Pokagon State Park Toboggan Run. This quarter-mile artificial hill looks like a bobsled run, but it's a straight-downhill run. This is a mini-diary of my day, and the five trips up and down the slope.
Trip #1 - We rented three sleds and dragged them 50 yards from the toboggan rental up to the run. Well, the others did. I hoisted mine by the rope and carried it. They're only 60 pounds or so. Not that heavy. The rental place were out of the 30 pound toboggans, but that's okay. They're not that heavy.
I can't understand why the kids are so lazy. Maybe this will be good for our kids. Show them what real work is like, and that a trip down the hill can be rewarding after a good, brisk walk up the quarter-mile hill.
Some people are actually getting their cars and driving down to the parking lot to drive the toboggans back up to the starting point. How lazy can you get? No wonder we're in such bad shape in this country. We're a bunch of wusses who can't be bothered to lug a toboggan up a short hill.
Great ride coming down. My first toboggan ride ever. It's a little bouncy on the back, and my face is a little cold from the wind chill, but it was big fun.
Trip #2 - Halfway up, I decided to give my arms a rest and drag the toboggan instead. No point in wearing out my shoulders. Need to pace myself so I can go for a few hours. The kids are sharing sled pulling duties, which is smart. Stopped by the toboggan shack. Thankfully they got some 30 pounders back, so that made the trip up much easier. Turns out they put plastic runners on the toboggans so people can drag them. Apparently, they just replace the worn-out runners.
Looks like the people who drive up are getting back at the same time as us walkers. We're just not using all the gas they are. Why waste money for convenience, especially when it doesn't save any time?
Another fun ride. I've been enjoying the kids' screams and laughter as we race down the hill. My face is a little cold, and I think there were some pits in the track, because it bounced me around. A lot.
Trip #3 - I'm glad we got these 30 pounders. My forearms are about to give out, and I got tired of whacking myself in the ankles pulling those big monsters up. My son hopped on the toboggan and wanted me to drag him back up the hill. I'm afraid I was a little sharp with him, so I made it up to him by letting him help pull. For a 6-year-old, he's got some good arm strength. Too bad he couldn't pull me back up.
Driving the toboggans back doesn't seem like such a dumb idea. I mean, if I work up a sweat out on this cold weather, I could get sick, couldn't I? I would hate to get everyone else in the family sick, just because I got sweaty and chilled.
I think the pits on the hill are getting bigger, because I was bounced pretty hard. Had to raise up on the seat to take a little of the pressure off, which hurt my shoulders. The kids love it though. My face is frozen.
Trip #4 - Some of the troops are grumbling about General Grant forcing us to march through these long winter nights to Fort Donelson. Each man is supposed to lug a supply sled behind him, but the loads are so heavy. Two men have collapsed from exhaustion and are left with the wounded. Grant accused them of laziness and threatened to shoot and then court-martial them, but the docs intervened. We don't bother maintaining formation because we're stumbling around from exhaustion.
My wife says I've been suffering from hallucinations. Complete nonsense of course. I'm fit as a fiddle, and we took Donelson in three days. But I definitely need to be concerned about getting sick. For the family's sake, of course. Drove Bill's mini-van down to the parking lot to take everyone back up. Sure it uses gas, but we've got our health to think of.
I swear, some of those bumps have turned into chasms so big, Robbie Knievel could do a TV special. I think my spine has compressed a few inches after the last ride down.
Like this post? Leave a comment, Digg it, or Stumble it.


text: It's Friday afternoon, and you know what that means! Time to celebrate the fact that we made it through another week with a WALL OF SQUEE. Up there are two tiger cubs who live at the Minnesota Zoo and need names. More info here, thanks to Zooborns. Below, post pet pictures, gifs, videos, whatever you've got that's mind-blowingly cute. TGIF!


text:
One of the best films by often-underrated director Robert Aldrich, this stark, brutal Western is also an effective allegory of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Set in Arizona during the late 1880s, the film begins with experienced scout McIntosh (Burt Lancaster) and idealistic U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant DeBuin (Bruce Davison) setting out to catch a group of Apache renegades lead by their chieftain, Ulzana (Joaquin Martinez). The story focuses on the opposing views of the two men regarding Ulzana.
McIntosh is cold and cynical while DeBuin is morally outraged by supposed Apache atrocities. The film, sharply written by Alan Sharp, poses a set of complex questions about the nature of heroism, racism, and American imperialism, while avoiding moralizing or oversimplification of the issues.
Aldrich and Burt Lancaster, who made four films together over the course of their long careers (including this one), later collaborated on the excellent political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming.


text:
NEVER, EVER, EVER give out your PIN number if someone asks you for it. Did you initiate the transaction? If not, then it's a more than likely a scam. Connection Credit Union will NEVER ask you for your PIN as we have plenty of other ways to verify your identity. Your PIN is not one of them.
Here are some other scams going on that deserve your attention. The more educated you are, the less likely you are to fall victim to them.
Fraud Alert – Barnes & Noble PIN Pad Breach
Barnes & Noble Inc released a statement in which the bookstore chain said that in September 2012 it detected a problem with PIN pad devices at some of their stores.
Their investigations found that PIN pad devices in 63 stores in nine states had been compromised. While neither Oregon nor Washington are on the list of states, credit unions' members may have visited the affected stores in their travels.
The stores with infected PIN pad devices were located in the states of California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
The FBI continues to investigate the crime.
Barnes & Noble suggest that customers who may have used one of the suspected PIN pad devices should change the pin number on their debit card and notify their credit unions of any unauthorized charges. Credit card customers should monitor their statements and report any unauthorized charges.
Security Education Videos
Scam Alert – Bogus Websites
Recent reports from credit unions in the Southeastern US have indicated that fraudsters are attempting to direct members to a bogus website via e-mails, pop-up windows or text messages; and these websites are designed to obtain a member's personal information. Whether it is in the Southeast or elsewhere, this potential scam continues to plague unsuspecting individuals.
One way to determine if you are accessing a bogus website is to consider how you got to the site. Use caution if you may have followed a link in a suspicious e-mail, text message, online chat, or other pop-up window requesting your personal or account information. It is highly likely these websites did not originate from a legitimate source and most definitely they did not come from your local credit union.
Fraudsters are trying to lure you into providing your confidential information, such as your account number, password and Social Security number so beware.
Credit unions and other financial institutions will never contact you by phone, e-mail or text and ask you to provide confidential information. Be suspicious of all such requests as they are tactics used by scammers to either obtain your confidential information or infect your computer with malware and spyware.
If you receive a request of this nature, stop and call your credit union to report the incident.
Scam Alert – Bogus Gift Cards
The Better Business Bureau, Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy are company names being used to promote bogus gift cards. Be cautious if you receive an email advising that one of these vendors is promoting a give-away of Visa gift cards (usually for $1000). This email is probably a scam and fraudsters are trying to get your personal information.
How the Scam Works:
People nationwide are receiving emails informing them that one of the above vendors is giving away $1,000 Visa gift cards. Emails come from a variety of email addresses and contain different links, but all use a variation of the message below:
Dear Jim,
On behalf of the (Better Business Bureau, Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy or possibly another vendor), you have been issued a $1,000 Visa Gift Card free of charge.
Card type: Visa Gift
Card Issued to: Jim Jones
Issuing branch: San Antonio, Texas
Valid until: 08/2015
Please use the following website to claim your card and have it shipped to the address of your choosing: Go to: www reward2012 com to claim your prize. Please note that claims must be made within 48 hours from this email being sent, or the above link will become invalid.
Sincerely, Melissa
Customer Service Employee Benefits Center, LLC
If you go to this web site (in the email), you will be asked to input information about your age, address, email and cell phone number. Given that the survey does not request your Social Security Number, banking information or ask you to download a malware file, it is not likely an attempt at ID theft. Rather, it's probably an unscrupulous way to collect consumer data, such as email addresses and phone numbers.
The best advice to give if this scenario should occur is to avoid taking this offer serious and just delete the email.
Credit Union Members Recruited as Money Mules
A number of credit unions have reported that their members are being recruited as money mules by fraudsters. Money mules unknowingly assist fraudsters in laundering stolen funds. The source of the stolen funds received by the money mules is often from account takeovers at other financial institutions through online banking systems.
Money mules are most often recruited through bogus job offers for payment processors, financial managers, or overseas representatives. Fraudsters typically find their potential money mules by searching websites where job seekers post their resumes. A key consideration in accepting the position is the ability to work from home.
Health Care Scams Targeting Elderly
The Washington State Attorney General's Office is joining the Federal Trade Commission in warning consumers about a new scam targeting seniors.
Do not give personal details to callers posing as government officials attempting to collect your health information as part of the new Affordable Care Act,†said Shannon Smith, Division Chief for the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division.
Federal and state authorities believe scammers will increasingly exploit news about the recent health care ruling to target seniors, confuse and rip them off. One consumer tipped off the Attorney General's Office that her mother was contacted by someone who said they were from the government calling to update her health information for the new Affordable Care Act. The caller first asked for a checking account number. Then, in an attempt to seem legitimate, the caller referenced the woman's daughter, who probably showed up in public records searches.
Earlier in July, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) warned consumers to be watchful for scams related to the U. S. Supreme Court's ruling. Scams related to the federal health insurance law were reported immediately after the act was passed. Michelle L. Corey, president and CEO of the BBB in St. Louis commented that "These types of scams often crop up when there is news of a big change in government policy, whether it's health insurance or tax credits.
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America with consumers losing billions of dollars each year. People over age 50 are especially vulnerable and make up a significant percentage of those who fall victim to identity thieves. Older people are targeted because thieves know they are wealthier than younger people and generally have better credit. Retirement communities are easy targets. According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft targeting people over the age of 60 jumped from 1,800 cases in 2000 to almost 6,000 the following year.
"You can help educate your friends, parents, and others by becoming familiar with some of the more common scams and how they operate and share that information with others, said Smith.
Be aware of common red flags and know how to avoid them:
Recent reports have indicated that check fraud scams are resurfacing across the country and these scams provide an easy and non-confrontational way for fraudsters to steal money. These check scams usually occur in one of two ways and members should be on watch for the tell-tale signs of fraud.
Check Fraud Scams:
These scams target people selling items over the internet, craigslist or through the newspaper – cars, furniture, rooms for rent or other valuable items. These unsuspecting sellers can sustain big losses when fraudsters pay for the goods with a bogus or counterfeit cashier's check, postal money order or personal check. The scam begins when the fraudster responds to a classified ad and offers to purchase the item for sale with a check. The fraudster then comes up with a reason for writing the check for more than the purchase price of the item and asks the seller to wire the difference after the check is deposited. Because it can take up to seven days or longer before the Credit Union knows the check is fraudulent and the check bounces, the scammer is long gone, leaving the member liable for the entire amount. The scam works because the check or money order, even though counterfeit, looks legitimate and tellers often have a hard time determining that the check is bogus.
Foreign Lottery or Contest Prize Scams:
In another version of this same type scam, a member receives a letter or telephone call that they have won a large cash prize from a foreign lottery. These members are sent a check, also bogus, for their winnings and are asked to immediately pay lottery taxes or fees due to a foreign country being involved. As in the above case the check bounces and the member is left liable for the entire amount. The FTC suggests you seriously question winning a lottery when you don't remember purchasing a ticket or entering a contest. Be wary of any offer that asks you to pay for a prize or pay fees in connection with receiving a "free" gift; and do not enter foreign lotteries as most solicitations for them are fraudulent.
Tips to Avoid Check Overpayment Scams:
When selling an item on-line or through the newspaper, attempt to independently confirm the buyer's name, street address, and telephone number.
Members who have been victims of check overpayment scams should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. For more information on buying or selling goods on Internet auction sites or to file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the Federal Trade Commission website – (http://www.ftc.gov/) or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).


text: Been caching for a while now (in Maine and previously under a "team name" in Oregon). I have been fortunate enough to meet a few folks on the trail but figured with the cold weather I might spend a little time meeting a few more. I usually cache with my seven year old but do enjoy some solo caching (for the peace and quiet :)). Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and hope all is well for the winter season....hope to see some folks out there (haven't seen a log post since November)!


text:
AIO Search
Search results for
Torrent finder is a bit torrent multi search engine 🚀 which searches 129 torrent sites and trackers from one page, write your torrent keywords then check on your favorite torrent sites and trackers to start your search.
Search all subtitles search engines 🎥 like Subscene V2m Addic7ed, openSubtitles and Yify Subtitles. Subtitles for tv-series, movies, and music videos, phrase by phrase curated and perfected by users.
File Sharing
Search File Sharing sites 👬 for file search engine on the web (rapidgator, depositfiles, uploaded, nitroflare, keep2share, uptobox, mega, uploaded, uplea, mediafire...)
Streaming Websites
Watch full hd 🎪 quality 1080/720p movies online for free without registration on (Rarbg, SolarMovie, 123Movies, Spacemov, Movie4k, TV Box, MovieWatcher....)
Search Images 📷 From Different Search Engines Yahoo Deviantart Stock Photography Art.com and icons or vector graphics.
Search video 📹 search engines like Bing, Qwant, YouTube, MetaCafe, Dailymotion, Vimeo and more. A lot of movie trailers and entertainment videos for fun watch
General Web Search engines 🌍 listing sites Bing, Wikipedia, Dogpile, DuckDuckGo and Yandex. Increase search results accuracy by searching several search engines instead of one.
Bing Video - Bing Videos
Search through hundreds of millions of breaking news, hot viral, TV show & music videos from all over the Web. Browse categories to find just what you want.
LiveLeak.com - Redefining the Media
Redefining the Media
Do you love to watch movies online - free? Veoh is the premier watch movies online provider that you and your whole family are sure to love. Upload your favorites and share them with friends. Register your online movies account today!
online movies watch free movie
Metacafe - Best Videos & Funny Movies
One of the world's largest video sites, serving the best videos, funniest movies and clips.
funny videos best movies clips films free download
Google Videos
Google is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
search google videos
Qwant Videos
Qwant is a search engine that respects your privacy and eases discovering and sharing via a social approach.
qwant videos clips search engine privacy
YouTube Video Search
Auf YouTube nach Videos suchen
youtube video
Yahoo! Search - Video Search
The search engine that helps you find exactly what you
yahoo search video
IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows.
movies films movie database actors actresses directors hollywood stars quotes
Ask.com Videos
Ask.com is the #1 question answering service that delivers the best answers from the web and real people - all in one place.
In 'Entdecken' kannst du neue Musik, Nachrichten, Sport und Trailer der besten Urheber, Marken und Kanäle auf Dailymotion entdecken
Vimeo, Video Sharing For You
Vimeo is a respectful community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make. We provide the best tools and highest quality video in the universe.
vimeo video hosting business
MySpace Videos
Featured Content on Myspace
Myspace social entertainment artist tools media discovery creative community empowering expression stream music videos share playlists mixes profiles discover
Search Cloud
Firefox toolbar
Chrome extension
AIO Search
All rights reserved. Please read our
Terms Of Use
Privacy Policy


text:
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!
James Stewart
James Stewart, in full James Maitland Stewart, byname Jimmy Stewart, (born May 20, 1908, Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died July 2, 1997, Beverly Hills, California), major American motion-picture star known for his portrayals of diffident but morally resolute characters.
Stewart graduated from Princeton University with a degree in architecture and became part of the University Players at Falmouth, Massachusetts, joining such future film actors as Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. During the years 1932–33, Stewart appeared in a few unsuccessful Broadway plays in which he was usually singled out for praise by New York critics. These positive reviews led to a motion-picture contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934; after a couple of uncredited bit parts, he made his film debut in The Murder Man (1935) with Spencer Tracy. At first, Stewart's slow, halting line delivery (perhaps his most readily identifiable trademark) and angular features made him difficult to typecast. His naive, engaging manner, however, led to quick acceptance by the moviegoing public. Stewart was loaned to Columbia for two Frank Capra films that proved pivotal in his career: You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which brought him his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a shy, idealistic young senator fighting corruption in Congress. He won an Oscar the following year for another film classic, The Philadelphia Story (1940).
Sensing America's eventual involvement in the war in Europe, Stewart enlisted in the armed forces in March 1941. An avid pilot in civilian life, he was assigned to the Air Corps and logged more than 1,800 hours of flight time in bomber missions. Before he returned to civilian life in 1945, he had risen to the rank of colonel and had been decorated several times. His first film upon returning to Hollywood was Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), for which Stewart received his third Oscar nomination. Though the film generated mediocre box office at the time of its release, it has since become one of the most beloved films of all time, largely because of its numerous television showings since the 1970s. In 1999 it ranked 11th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movies of all time.
As he approached age 40, it was clear that Stewart could no longer maintain the "naive young innocent" persona he had established in his prewar films. His collaborations with directors Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann helped toughen his image and broaden his appeal. Of Stewart's Hitchcock films, the experimental Rope (1948) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) are well-regarded, and Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958) rank as masterpieces. For Hitchcock, Stewart embodied an American Everyman, albeit one whose private quirks and obsessions threatened a tragic outcome. The films Stewart made for Mann proved the actor capable of rugged western roles, especially in the classics Winchester '73 (1950) and The Man from Laramie (1955). Stewart and Mann collaborated on eight films, including six westerns and the sentimental biopic The Glenn Miller Story (1954), which was one of Stewart's most popular movies.
During the late 1940s, Stewart was among several actors who enjoyed success on Broadway as the ingratiating inebriate Elwood P. Dowd—whose best friend is an invisible 6-foot rabbit—in Mary Chase's Harvey. It became one of the actor's signature roles when the play was adapted for the screen in 1950, garnering another Oscar nomination for Stewart. Stewart's other well-regarded films include The Stratton Story (1949), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Academy Award nomination), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). He found good roles difficult to come by as he aged, but he remained one of America's favourite actors thanks to his many appearances on talk shows, commercials, and in two short-lived television series, The Jimmy Stewart Show (1971–72) and Hawkins (1973–74); he was also memorable in a supporting role in the John Wayne western The Shootist (1976). His final acting assignment was to provide the voice of the character Wylie Burp in the animated feature An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). In 1985 Stewart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
baseball: Baseball and the arts
The Stratton Story(1949; featuring James Stewart as Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton, who rebuilt a minor league pitching career after having a leg amputated), and The Jackie Robinson Story(1950; with Robinson playing himself). Somewhat of an anomaly for the time is the biography of outfielder Jimmy Piersall,…
Alfred Hitchcock: The Hollywood years: Rebecca to Dial M for MurderJimmy Stewart starred as the vainglorious protagonist, a former professor whose dangerously amoral philosophizing has inspired two students (John Dall and Farley Granger) to strangle a friend just to experience the thrill of the kill; they then throw a cocktail party to gloat over his…
Frank Capra: The golden period…aptly named Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is the epitome of the Capra everyman who refuses to compromise his ethics in the face of enormous pressure from greedy, amoral power brokers—here embodied by Claude Rains's venal Senator Paine, who has sold out to the political machine. Stewart gives one of…


text:
Stars say relativity still works
Einstein defibrillated, CERN silicon questioned
The Special Theory of Relativity may be under re-evaluation following CERN's astonishing neutrino observations, but over in the world of astronomy, general relativity has had another reconfirmation from the Neils Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
Radek Wojtak, Steen Hansen and Jens Hjorth have published in Nature the results of observations of distant galactic clusters. The 8,000 distant clusters sampled in the experiment have such immense gravity that general relativity predicts it will affect light emerging from them.
In particular, the gravity red-shifts the light emerging from the cluster. Since the speed of light is fixed (at least for light; neutrinos might be another matter), gravity can't slow it down, so the impact of very high gravity on light is to soak up some of its energy, moving it towards the red end of the visible light spectrum.
In their observations, the three researchers compared the amount of red shift experienced by light emerging from the centre of the galactic clusters to that observed for light emitted from near the edge of the cluster.
"We could measure small differences in the redshift of the galaxies and see that the light from galaxies in the middle of a cluster had to 'crawl' out through the gravitational field, while it was easier for the light from the outlying galaxies to emerge", said Radek Wojtak.
While this is "only" a reconfirmation of what we already knew about light, the new research is believed to be the first time the theory has been applied on such a large scale. With a measurement of the cluster's total mass (El Reg would like to know how that's accomplished, commenters), the researchers were able to predict the difference in red shift between the centre and the periphery, and say that their observations were "in complete agreement" with the prediction.
In addition, they say such research can help increase our knowledge of the "dark universe", since Wojtak said the result is "a strong indication for the presence of dark energy".
Meanwhile, here's an interesting discussion of the CERN results: could they have been affected by the behavior of the field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) used in CERN's equipment?
High-performance computing enthusiast Marc Bevand speculates that the neutrino observations may have affected by FPGAs in the data acquisition system.
The Register isn't prepared to make a call one way or the other. It is, however, an interesting discussion and underlines the importance of CERN's decision to release its data for all and sundry to analyse. ®
Mea Culpa Thanks to the readers that pointed out my error. I gave a distance when I should have referred to the number of galaxies sampled. This is now corrected.


text:
Yesterday I landed down in Berlin, Germany. I spent the day hanging out with one of Stephanie´s friends from Juneau, Woody. We went to a soccer match at Olympia stadium, West Berlin won of course! After bratworsts and more trains than I can remember...he took me to the wall.
I stood there in the -5 degree weather, freezing, but staring in amazement. Only a small section of the wall, maybe 2 miles in length remains, but it is enough to get an idea of what it was like. The wall is now covered in local artwork, with murals of Stalin and Hitler, children, and different people. The most interesting thing to me was standing at a hole in the wall looking through to the "West", being able to see it, but imagining the people not being able to get in...for almost 30 years it separated the East from the West, and the East could not get through.
Later that night we went to the movie Sophie Scholl, about an anti-nazi girl that stood up for what she believed and was killed for it during Hitler´s rule. It was by far the most interesting movie I´ve ever watched. What an interesting day.
the wall...between east and west
Yesterday I landed down in Berlin, Germany. I spent the day hanging out with one of Stephanie´s friends from Juneau, Woody. We went to a soccer match at Olympia stadium, West Berlin won of course! After bratworsts and more trains than I can remember...he took me to the wall.
composed by Jennifer Bulthuis 1 notes
The Unexpected Riga
kissin on the bridge
Originally uploaded by The Enforcer.
One missed flight later, Andrea, Peggy, and I were sitting on the floor of the Riga airport playing Blackjack, using the little bit of food we had left as our bets. Around 1:00am we finally walked into a "hotel" (more like a nice apartment flat)- I have never slept so well in my entire life!
We spent the weekend taking in Riga, Latvia. I knew this city from my missions trip two summers ago, so it was fun to see it again and to show it to the girls. We spent 4 nights @ Matejs Baptist Church (where I stayed 2 years ago). Sunday we went to the Matejs service. It was one of my favorite services--one of the coolest things to me is to see people worshipping God in other languages...cuz we can be singing the same song, but we're both worshipping the same God and he understands all of it! Woah, very cool. That night, I went to Anna (one the pastor's daughter's) apartment and hung out with her family for awhile and later we watched "White Chicks" (surprinsingly funny) with Andrea and Peggy.
Monday: Began with Ice skating in Old town. What a time! Andrea and Peggy, both California girls, hadn't been skating in awhile, so it was funny to watch them almost fall the whole time. I bet Peggy 2 Lats ($4 US) to hold some random kid's hand @ the rink--minus the parents we were the only people there over 14--I should have known better. She skated around for awhile, trying to find the "perfect" kid, and she almost gave up. We were laughing at her weak attempts, when suddenly she skated by with a 5 year old girl, proudly hitting me with a "you owe me 2 lats Jenny." I wound up holding the little girl's other hand and we skated around for awhile. Her mother was smiling/looking concerned on the side of the rink...we were all laughing the whole time. We of course couldn't say anything in Latvian, so we just smiled and waved at the mom! We had lunch and met up with Renalda--she was home for the weekend--and her two best friends @ Cili Pica. Peggy, ms. hypoglycemic ordered a milkshake and cheesecake...meaning she got very hyper and then hit a wall--What a thrill for Andrea and I ;) That night, my other friend Anna, took the three of us girls (Andrea, Peggy and I) out to Lido, The main traditional Latvian resturant. It's buffet style, so that was a quite the treat.
Tuesday: we all got pedicures, my first one ever--it was definitly nice--but I told the lady she was brave to work with feet. She just laughed. Then we went shopping, and to Pelmini, a Russian buffet style restaurant. In the evening, we went to a free choral concert in St. Peter's Cathedral...that was by far the most incredible time of the weekend. The voices echoing through the halls of the cathedral was unlike any other experience. That night, we had dessert @ an excellent Latvian chocolate shop where my friend Madara works and then we went down to the river to see Old Town from afar. It was the best ending to the weekend.
composed by Jennifer Bulthuis 4 notes
Kurpiai: Jazz kluba
Dovile & Gerda @ Kurpiai
Originally uploaded by The Enforcer.
And they made us dance-it really felt like we were in New Orleans. The place is so hoppin every night, you have to make reservations to get seats downstairs. By far my best club/bar experience in Lithuania.
composed by Jennifer Bulthuis 1 notes


text:
Lunasol releases some limited edition products every spring/summer and since I bought the Ocean Shining Eyes, I decided I needed a matching blusher!
The Cream Cheeks comes in a tube and in three colours – I chose EX03 Light Coral:
They Say:
A cream type cheek color that creates a natural, healthy-looking complexion, as if the skin were naturally blushed with a succulent texture that melts on the skin.
Provides moist texture yet leaves the skin's surface dry, while the beautiful coloration lasts for hours.
I was concerned it would be too sheer especially as it's called Light Coral…EX03 Coral is a lovely peachy orange with a bit of gold in it. It has the right amount of pigmented – it's not too much, not too little and has the right amount of shimmer.
Once it dries it leaves a natural soft finish although I would say that this fades fairly quickly:
It's like a paler version of Nars Orgasm! It looks quite light on my hand but once it's on the cheeks it really warms the complexion up.
Spread out on my skin. I am about a NC35 so you can see it shows up a bit. If you are lighter skinned it will look stronger:
To be honest this is like a lot of cream blushers but it has a really nice texture and a natural glow to it. My biggest problem is that it disappears by lunch time so I suggest layering it by using a powder blusher on top.
Really pretty and something I would use all the time in spring and summer because it's so light. Just be aware they won't show up on anything darker than NC35 and it is not long lasting. A stain will stay put for longer than this.
For a cheaper and more pigmented cream blush check out these.


text:
Author: Bruce Byfield
On various women's mailing lists, a subscriber has raised the idea of a distribution developed "for and by women." So far, the idea has met with a cool reception. It might even be a troll. However, if such a distro ever gets underway, it would be very much in the spirit of the community, and might give more women the background and confidence to reduce the gender gap in free software.
Also see: Linux distro for women? Thanks, but no thanks
The demand for a women's distro might be slight. Truthfully, it sounds more like a project from the feminist days of the early 1990s than something that would be started in pragmatic 2007. Probably, too, the main purpose wouldn't be the selection of packages, as is the case with Edubuntu — although possibly mencal or some other menstruation calendar might be on the desktop's default panel. Yet, despite the satirical opportunities in stereotyping, I doubt that a woman's distro would resemble the pink OMG Ponies theme that Slashdot sported for April Fool's Day in 2006.
Still, free software projects are started for all sorts of reasons, not just technical ones. If gNewSense can produce a distro to promote software freedom, or the Ubuntu Christian Edition to introduce free software to the religious, why shouldn't a women's distro exist simply because a group of people want it to?
And if such a distro never catches on, what does that matter? Plenty of distros are one- or two-person hobbies. The strength of free software is that anyone who fulfills the licensing requirements can do what they want with it. The agreement of anyone else isn't required.
More importantly, special spaces for women in free software are still a necessity. If they weren't, there wouldn't be so many groups like Debian Women, KDE Women, or LinuxChix. Whether they encourage more women to become involved in free software may be debatable, but these spaces do support the women already involved in the community.
Let's face it: As Tim Berners-Lee pointed out recently, the male geek culture can be an intimidating place. Hell, it still intimidates me sometimes, since, although I'm male, my degree was in English and communications rather than computer science. You only have to browse the archives of a mailing list for LinuxChix or any other woman's group to encounter horror stories. Experienced, qualified women finding their opinions ignored, women unable to attend a professional gathering without being hit upon, misogynistic slurs — the list goes on and on (and you'll probably see some examples of such things in the comments about this story). Before you read very far, the wonder isn't that there are a disproportionate number of female geeks, but that those who exist haven't run amok with a chainsaw among their male counterparts. People may boast about free software being open to everyone on the basis of proved merit, but the reality is vastly different if you happen to be female.
As I see it, the benefit of a woman's distro would be largely for the participants. It would be a place where women could learn how to package software or test a distribution for quality without having fear of being derided or distracted from the task at hand by the irrelevancies of gender or mistimed expressions of attraction.
True, women could learn the same skills working in another distro, and might find a teacher — maybe even a male one — who would treat them according to their competence. But the difference between working on a small project and a large one is like the difference between being a consultant and a full-time employee. Like a consultant, members of a small project have to learn many things quickly. They take on responsibilities sooner than they would in a large project where, like a full-time employee, they would probably be relegated to minor tasks and support roles at first. By working on a small project, they would gain competence and confidence more quickly. From this perspective, a women's distro might be a quick way to reduce free software's gender disparity. Even if more women weren't attracted to the community, those who were would have a place to develop their skills.
And who knows what else might come from the distro? I'm not a great believer in the idea that women are less aggressive than or interact differently from men. Yet even I have to admit that most of the regulars on free software mailing lists for women are politer and more supportive than the average poster on general lists. Perhaps a women's distro might develop forms of governance that are as democratic as Debian's, but less outspoken or rude. Possibly, too, their supportiveness would lead to more emphasis on documentation and the user experience. Just possibly, a women's distro could teach the rest of the community a thing or two about organization.
Alternatively, a women's distro might do none of these things. But it would be worth the experiment, if enough people cared enough to try it. And I, for one, would wish it every success.
- Commentary
- Linux


text: Hi everyone, my name is Tanya we are a small family business, an indie developer. We just published our first game and we want to share it with you. Hospital Frenzy HD is a crazy, new time-management game, available NOW on the app store. Build, manage and run your very own hospital, from purchasing equipment and hiring staff to researching cures and performing surgery. Hilarious diseases, funnier symptoms and side-splitting jokes keep you entertained as you race against the clock to complete objectives over 30 action packed levels. Hospital Frenzy is compatible with iPad 1, 2 & 3. It is available FREE. You can find Hospital Frenzy HD on the app store here: App Store - Hospital Frenzy HD Free code or not, we'd be grateful if you'd let us know what you think of Hospital Frenzy. And if you do download the game, be sure to rate and review the game! Please post to let others know if you've used a code! CODES: JAJFKXWWFKHH 7PL77XRHEL6P XH6N3YJFFX4F 9Y9M6M3LALME KK7LWYRMLHFN 3EX93RR4KX3R 6YRP3MNYNHFJ


text: The old world flavor of Tuscany is reborn in a pastoral setting on the shores of Lake LBJ in the Texas Hill Country. This is Escondido, ranked as the finest golf community in Central Texas by Avid Golfer Magazine and among the best courses in Texas by the Dallas Morning News. Spend the best days of your life here, in an extraordinary lakeside and golf preserve offering relaxed living, concierge club services and championship golf from Tom Fazio. Click here to see more!


text:
I am looking to buy a Freedom 30. I have found a couple for sale. One is a shoal draft and the other the full. What are the performance differences? I will mostly be sailing on San Francisco bay, but some offshore. I wil be doing some singlehanded racing. The local phrf has a 5 second difference between the two. Any thoughts?
Thank you, Mark


text:
I was quite interested to hear that the CDC has said that the flu season has come early this year and seems to be "ramping up." For me, this seemed like a rather odd statement to make. After all, right after Hurricane Sandy hit the New York and New Jersey area, I was convinced that the flu would swoop in and cause havoc and pandemonium. It didn't. Actually, back when Sandy hit at the end of October, the CDC flu map showed relatively little activity.
But since then, as the headlines have said, the flu made a jump in cases and today, it's sweeping the nation. Rather than tell this to you, I thought I would show it to you.
Thanks to the CDC Seasonal Flu website, there is a map that highlights where flu cases are being reported all over the country. I've compiled the last month and a half summaries and put them into the figure below.
As you can see, the colours represent the level of infection in the different States. From October 6 to November 24, the rate of flu went from practically nothing to covering over half the country. Now that is a fast rate! But what does all this mean? Well…
- The flu is coming so be prepared.
- If you are going to get the vaccine, make sure you do it soon.
- If you know that you will be travelling, make sure that you are aware of the situation and keep yourself at the ready for any signs of infected people (Granted, it's not The Walking Dead but it's still a pain to get sick whilst away from home)
- This isn't a pandemic. This is simply a more rapidly spreading flu that happens every now and then. We're not expecting to be plunged back into the days of 2009 when the 'swine flu' was around.
Over the coming weeks as we head to Christmas, we'll learn more about the spread of this virus and whether or not we are going to see a long flu season or one that will burn itself out quickly. Either way, no one should be overly concerned. The flu season is as common as the change of the seasons. Sometimes they happen just as anticipated and other times, they are unpredictable.
The key to staying healthy is to be sure to keep your eye on the great surveillance that is happening (for Canadians, use FluWatch) and be sure to adhere to the advice and recommendations at these websites.
And as always, if you have any questions, just ask them below.


text:
Why play in the Virtual World schoolyard?
One of the first questions I'm typically asked when I show people various aspects of Virtual Worlds, besides "what's that?", is "why would I use that?". It's a fair question and one that I can't always provide a direct, succinct answer. Sure, I have a list of 4-5 bullet-points I could rattle off (collaboration, serendipity, distributed teamwork, etc.), but recently I keep coming back to a quote I read several years ago from Juniper's CEO Scott Kriens. I don't recall the exact wording, but it was around the time that Juniper was beginning to win a few deals (before the Cisco CRS-1) and other "Gigabit Router" companies were announcing their intentions. When asked if he was concerned about those companies, he said "..no, because the only way you really learn in this market is to be out on the playground."As we've learned from technologies in the past, instead of staying in the classroom and theorizing about new behaviors, we've got our play clothes on and we're seeing what it takes to make the merry-go-round go faster and the teeter-totter go up and down. Not only have we build an impressive and active presence in Second Life, but we're using Network Virtual Environments internally as well. So what are some of the early lessons we're learned? I don't want to give away the farm, but here's a few that we hadn't expected: – We hold all team meetings in Virtual Worlds. It took a little bit of convincing to get people to adopt the new technologies, but we learned alot about how to clarify its value to a broad group of people (hint: cool technology isn't it) and how to narrow our focus for input and improvement. – While it's not a face-to-face meeting, or a Cisco Telepresence, the visualization of seeing other participants in a space should not be overlooked. People like to know that there are others listening, participating or engaged at the other end of the wire. It tends to keep you engaged in the conversation instead of having numerous distractions at your desk. – Since we get some visual indication of who is speaking, or about to speak, the flow of the discussion is alot smoother and people tend to not talk over one other. Just eliminating the "can you repeat that?" and "I'm sorry, you go ahead" from meetings saves alot of aggravation. – Viewing lists of information isn't helping me with the information overload. Being able to view it in 3D, walk around it, see it from different angles, and see the indirect linkage between it…..now that brings a whole new element to "Knowledge Management". We obviously don't have all the answers to the question of "why would I use that?", but being on the playground is giving us alot of experience, scars and stories to tell.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


text:
LeTourneau University's School of Arts and Sciences and Department of Language and Literature will host its annual C.S. Lewis and the Inklings Conference Thursday through Saturday, March 21-23, on the university's main campus in Longview, 2100 S. Mobberly Ave.
The first plenary session will be free and open to the public, featuring Dr. Ralph C. Wood, professor of theology and literature at Baylor University and an editor-at-large for the Christian Century magazine. This session is from 9 to 10:15 a.m., Friday, March 22, in the Memorial Student Center, third floor.
Wood teaches in both the Great Texts program and the Department of Religion. He a member of the editorial boards of the Flannery O'Connor Review as well as Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review (devoted to the work of George MacDonald, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers and Owen Barfield).
Wood has published several books including The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four American Novelists; Contending for the Faith: The Church's Engagement with Culture; The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth; and Flannnor and the Christ-Haunted South.
"Fairytales in the Age of iPads: Inklings, Imagination, and Technology" is the theme for this year's C.S. Lewis conference, which is held in conjunction with the C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society that upholds and promotes the advancement of scholarship, teaching, writing and other professional activities related to the life and works of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings.
The Inklings were a group of Christian men who met once a week to read and critique unpublished compositions. Author C.S. Lewis, known to most readers for his series of books about The Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, were members of the group. Tolkien read unpublished excerpts from The Hobbit during some of the Inklings' meetings.
The C. S. Lewis conference began in 1998 and has become an annual event attended by scholars, students and the general public who share an interest in Lewis and his literary associates. The C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society was created in Spring of 2004 and now sponsors the annual C.S. Lewis and Inklings Conference which hosts plenary speakers and features papers presented by various Inklings enthusiasts. Conferences have been held annually throughout south central Oklahoma and north Texas.
Categories: (none)


text:
This past weekend, a YouTube video of adorable 6-year-old self-taught drummer Jaxon Smith playing drums to the Foo Fighters hit 'The Pretender' went viral. As one viewer commentated, "[It] took John Bonham long enough to reincarnate himself…," referring to the late Led Zeppelin stickman.
The video was uploaded in February but did not go viral until recently. Jaxon's proud dad commented, "Got up this morning to watch the Wimbledon final and man these overnight comments are just insane! Thx for the love. This vid had 2,000 views for 4 months and yesterday BOOM 50,000."
He went on to say, "Jax is a regular kid, just finished grade one. In 2005 he was born at 1 pound, born almost 4 months early. Quite a rough start to life the first couple years but now you'd never know. At the age of 3 he started to notice when I put on music DVDs of bands I like and he started tapping on the couch with chopsticks."
His father continued by stating that Jaxon started out with tapping toothbrushes and by the age of five he got an electronic drum kit. No one in his family plays the drums and he has never had a drum teacher. He explains, "He taught himself by watching live DVD concerts of bands like Foo Fighters, Rush, Muse and just copied what he saw. He's done a few live shows and seems to drum better when he has someone to perform for."
This miniature drumming prodigy loves hammering away at the skins but he does it on his own time. "As far as practicing, he really doesn't do it in any structured way. I'd say these days he drums on a kit maybe one hour a week. But in his spare time he has his iPod on and must be soaking it all in."
Jaxon's father concludes, "If I do a video with Jax it's usually one take, once he's drummed the song good luck getting him to drum it again for a week or so. Jax loves tunes… he drums when he wants to, no pressure at all. I'll be sure to show him all the positive comments and ROCK ON!"
Jaxon Smith has over 50 drumming videos on YouTube covering classic acts such as Rush, the Who and Heart to more contemporary acts such as Tool, Rage Against the Machine and the Smashing Pumpkins.
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins better watch out this little guy is a natural behind the kit!


text:
Roof Vents in Sandy Springs, South Carolina
American Renovations LLC has been installing high-quality roof vents in Sandy Springs, SC since 1987. Many residents are finding that for a relatively low initial investment, roof vents save thousands of dollars in reduced energy costs over the years that follow. American Renovations LLC specializes in adding roof vents to Sandy Springs commercial and residential properties.
Call for a Free Quote
Quality Sandy Springs Roof Vent Installers
When it comes to installing premium roof vents in Sandy Springs, our skilled roofers do the job right, maintaining our commitment to quality and high standards. We at American Renovations LLC have the expertise and dependability that you are looking for in Sandy Springs. We offer the most professional and affordable residential and commercial roof ventilation installation in Sandy Springs, SC.
Roofs Best Suited for Vents in Sandy Springs
American Renovations LLC can successfully install a roof vent in Sandy Springs using any roof venting product in the market today. We are your top choice to install your eave vents, under-eave vents, gable-end vents, static vents and ridge vents for your roof in Sandy Springs. American Renovations LLC offers a wide selection of roof vent products and roof accessories for our customers in Sandy Springs to select from. We also expertly install roof louvers, roof fans, soffit vents, turbine roof vents and solar roof vents in Sandy Springs. American Renovations LLC only offers the finest quality roof ventilation products so that you're ensured an attractive as well as high performing roof. Let our experienced roofers in Sandy Springs handle your roof vent installation and do the job right!
Sandy Springs Roof Vent Repair
Do you need roof vent repair in Sandy Springs? Don't hesitate to call us! American Renovations LLC knows how to perform roof vent repair and fix attic vents on any building, office or home. American Renovations LLC are also qualified installers of attic ventilation vents. Since 1987, American Renovations LLC has been repairing roof vents in Sandy Springs, building a reputation for being dependable and affordable. You can trust that American Renovations LLC's roofers are as courteous as they are knowledgeable.
Contact American Renovations LLC about your roofing vents in Sandy Springs, South Carolina. Our crew will be happy to provide you with a competitive roofing ventilation quote and stand by the outstanding roofing service that we deliver.
Call for FREE Roof Vents Quote
(864) 280-7002
Dial Area Code first please.
★★★★★ - "Great customer service"
Jon Kelley, Shingle Roofs in Richland, SC2019-07-23
★★★★★ - "I have used American Renovations for two roofing jobs and found them to be top notch. They are courteous, answered all my questions, and were very professional in their approach to completing the job. I found one roofing nail after the job was completed and it was behind a bush that I was trimming! Goodness, considering the amount of nails that were removed and used, I was pleasantly surprised there were not more. I will continue to use and recommend this company. It is a pleasure to work with them."
Gil Huggins, Roofing in Fair Play, SC2019-07-23
★★★★★ - "These guys just came and replaced my roof in less than 1.5 days. Mr. Storey was very patient, gave me options, and genuinely displayed good business ethics. Thanks American Renovations."
Tara Kier, Roof Replacement in Fair Play, SC2019-07-23
★★★★★ - "I was looking for a good roofing contractor in Fair Play, SC due to the fact I needed to have some shingles replaced on my roof. I spoke with Robert and he gave me a great price. I scheduled the work and it was completed on time. There was no mess left behind. My roof looks great thanks to American Renovations. I recommend Robert and American Renovations to anyone who needs roofing work done."
Ace C, Roof Repair in Anderson, SC2019-06-21
★★★★★ - "American Renovations just completed reroofing our home. I couldn't be more pleased with the whole job from start to finish. Clean up was excellent, you can't even tell anyone was there. Definality would recommend them to anyone."
Jessa McLane, Roof Replacement in Clemson, SC2019-06-21
★★★★★ - "They came in and installed a metal roof in two days. They were professional and did a great job, I would definitely recommend them."
Jimmy Bashnan in Tamassee, SC2018-04-26
★★★★★ - "These guys just came and replaced my roof in less than 1.5 days. Mr. Storey was very patient, gave me options, and genuinely displayed good business ethics. Thanks American Renovations."
Tara Kier in Seneca, SC
★★★★★ - "It is not often that I write a letter of praise to a contractor. When we hire, we interview, tell the contractor what our needs are, they tell us what they can do for us, with the expectation being that the job will be done as contracted. In this case, I have to write to thank you for making our roofing project so easy for us. You listened, answered our questions completely, never rushed us, explained everything that would be done, helped us in picking out the perfect shingles and design, and, overall, made this a very pleasant experience. Your crew was unbelievable in their professionalism, respect, and neatness. Everything in our yard was carefully protected. Once again, a big thank you for an exemplary, professional job."
Anonymous in Salem, SC2013-01-14
Call for FREE Roof Vents Quote
(864) 280-7002
Dial Area Code first please.