text:
Very disappointing.
Monday, November 05, 2012
Very disappointing.
23 comments:
- Graeme Finch said...
See where you are coming from. Perhaps the editing was shite and there will be a directors cut, that will plug some holes.
Perhaps there will be some prequels and sequels that will also fill the voids. And perhaps in some very odd corner of his mind Ridley is going to steal the march on the AvP thing and bring the Alien strand and the Predator strands together (even though the Predator strands isn't his) I reckon it's do-able.
There were more questions than answers, and that did make things awkward, but is that not just bait to pull you back in? Though I'm guessing you won't be suckered.
PS: I saw Shyfall on Friday night, I thought it was very good.
- 9:25 am
- vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...
i know i know, Coor's Promothesis was written by the tv show Lost feller (loose ended turd of a series), shit wiped by Scott & then he had the ingenious idea to have Giger do a mural for the movie while training a skinhead baby huey to hide in the spacejockey pajamas. lets let the Giger potential, A E Van Vogt original alien idea, fall flat & stupid- quick! dum dum dum. like this beer ad promothesis: http://youtu.be/NmKol_ipM10
i waited for something amazing to come from the first Alien, what we are fed is trite poo forever. thought Scott had a brain still, somewhere, maybe 30 yrs ago...
Looper was decent, especially the first half. the gun play was a little hokey/redundant what you would expect from all Hwood movies though. i guess -this many- chase scenes & -this many- gun battles have to get in the script or no funding the cliche.
still hope you get to see the greek masterpiece Dogtooth. wtf time.
- 9:49 am
- Chrish said...
7.3 on IMDB, special effects are enough for most people I suppose...
- 10:17 am
- Larry said...
Hmmm, I quite enjoyed it- Scott doing what he does best!
- 10:31 am
- Phil M said...
Yes, quite agree with you there Neal, looked great but what about the story. When you're playing the who dies next game it doesn't say much for the film
Much preferred "The Avengers"
- 12:12 pm
- =DJ= said...
Glad I'm not the only one who was very underwhelmed by the plot. I know it was supposed to be The Future and the human race might all be assholes by then, but none of the characters seemed to resemble human beings - it's as if they did completely random things purely because the plot demanded it.
For me, the most human character was the android!
- 12:21 pm
- Philip Birch said...
It was a typical Ridley Scott film. It can look brillant, have wonderful direction, but he's not alway so bothered about the script.
- 12:24 pm
- Duracell said...
Yep, a very badly cobbled together plot indeed.
I loved Red Letter Media's demolition of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0)!
- 1:14 pm
I waited through the entire first hour of pointless gabble for something interesting to happen. By then I was starting to fall asleep.
Maybe as a scientist I expect more from science fiction? Like maybe script writers could hire some scientists who can point out the ridiculous flaws and try to amend them? I'll list the worst:
1. Humanity has FTL capable starships only 80 years from now but they can't find a way to extend human life? (life extension technology is far more feasible).
2. Random northern English rough bloke is the top geologist and he randomly howls like a wolf for some reason? "these are my pups"..really? Why say something like that? Just say "latest scanning modules, still prototypes". Just anything but that asinine comment.
3. The ship is crewed by catwalk models. I had more respect for the original Alien trilogy because the characters more or less looked like everyday people. Other scientists I have worked with generally do not like they've just walked out from a Abercrombie and Fitch photoshoot.
4. As you pointed out, why the hell send humanity all these messages when they're just going to be directed to an arms dump? They could use that tech against the Engineers so easily.
5. Life on Earth began 3.5 billion years ago. Assuming that the Engineer in the first scene started evolution then, this species has been around all that time and haven't moved beyond the purely biological?
6. Baby octopus grows giant from eating...what? Medical instruments? So bizarre. Do these script writers not understand that to grow requires consumption and assimilation of biomass?
Euch I could go on and on. All I heard from everyone is how AMAZING Prometheus is. That if you don't think it's awesome, you're just too stupid to understand it.
I've given up on science fiction in cinema. I gave up on sci fi on TV when Battlestar Galactica ended. No one has the balls to risk the ire of TV execs who only want soap opera love triangles set on modern day Earth with aliens who look human and have no motivations save to be aliens in disguise.
I for one would love to watch a space opera that is made to the same high quality as A Game of Thrones. Storytelling supported by character development. Not the other way around.
Rant off.
- 1:34 pm
- Neal Asher said...
Graeme, I won't be suckered. Yeah, there are plot holes that can be filled, but no amount of filling can repair the behavioural anomalies. Going to watch Skyfall soon.
Vaude, it was a bit like slipstream fiction on film - that oh shit moment upon the realization that stuff is happening for no apparent reason then THE END.
Chris, they certainly are. Hollywood would tank otherwise.
Larry, perhaps the problem was that he didn't have other people i.e. script writers doing what they supposedly do best.
Phil M, rehash of the Alien films: 'everyone' but the lead female dies.
DJ, perhaps that was part of the problem: too much focus on that character.
Philip, so much on film can look brilliant now, that's why attention has to be paid to a script to raise a film above the horde.
Duracell, I might check that out, but much later - right now it would feel like picking at a sore.
xwiffle, I was considering adding something about your point 1 as well, also adding something about infertility.
- 2:13 pm
- Roger Schweingruber said...
Saw it yesterday in the plane from Male to Zurich - to be honest, for me it was one of the most anticipated movies of this decade and... it sucked big time.
Watching it in an airplane with crappy airplane in-ear-speakers takes out everything that Scott is a master of - amazing pictures combined with a hammering 7.1 soundtrack. Truth be told, I'm normally sucked into a movie if these two factors are ok and normally I can't fill (or ignore) the plot holes - but not this time on the little 10 inch screen.
I was/am disappointed beyond explanation. Good damn, even though Alien got "sequeled" beyond common sense this was and is still one of my favorite franchise. Prometheus just did not deliver.
Plot-Holes - everything said - maybe they will be filled in a sequel?
Super woman - agree
Stupid Scientists - agree
Engineers acting just like stupid brutes and look like made out of plastic? - why?
Why did the Engineer in the beginning kill himself?
What was the background of all this "Believe" crap?
Suicidal ship captains - what??
Well - I will rewatch it at home in 3D, 7.1 and on my big tele. Maybe it get's better
Final thoughts - did anyone else think that is was
a) a really cheap alien (looked like a goblin shark) and
b) wyh the f*ç* was a picture of the alien queen in one of the chambers? BTW - they did recycle quite a lot of Gigers designs anyway (Ship, big structure over the ship looked like Gigers designs for "Dune")
BTW Neal, just reading "Hilldiggers" and then I'm out of "Asher Books" - any hint on publication date of your next Book?
Here some links to the Giger stuff I mentionned
- 2:52 pm
- vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...
Scott did nostalgia regurgi-recycling of the 'kill me' burn victim also (first movie outtake) & a few other 'duh, no way!' that was ultimately LAME. pandering foolishness.
"No one has the balls to risk the ire of TV execs who only want soap opera love triangles set on modern day Earth with aliens who look human and have no motivations save to be aliens in disguise. "
i need to tattoo this on my face. greatest rant this month. funny noses do not make alien. imagine what is really going thru the minds of the creatures in Spongebob.
- 4:47 pm
- Neal Asher said...
"Why did the Engineer in the beginning kill himself?" Roger, I suspect he was spreading his DNA in the early ocean of Earth ... now where have I come across that idea before? As mentioned before here I've loved Giger's stuff ever since discovering it in Omni many many years ago.
Yeah, Vaude, thinking about it there were plenty of those please kill me now with your flame thrower moments in previous films. Obviously an idea from someone who hasn't actually been burned because having something tear its way out of your insides would almost certainly hurt less.
- 5:04 pm
- Martin Sommerfeld said...
"And finally, and most annoyingly of all and most sad, it could have been brilliant."
Spot on, that was exactly how I felt. And agree with really ALL your other points as well.
Anyway, Vaude is right: Looper was indeed decent. Go check it out some day.
- 8:11 pm
- vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...
lose all your Omni from cleaning mothers or significant others? been mining this pile here. EVERY issue:
- 4:27 am
- Neal Asher said...
Martin, I will get hold of Looper though, unfortunately, someone gave away the ending on a blog I was reading.
I don't know what happened to my copies of Omni, Vaude. They probably fell victim to one of my tidy up and chuck away moments.
- 7:16 am
- Lis Straaf said...
I agree, whole-hearted, with everything you say...except one thing.
That's not where the diaphragm is.
That incision wasn't a classic C-section, but the diaphragm is way higher, separating the abdominal cavity from the thoracic one.
Either way, yes, she displayed a wondrows healing power to be able to run and jump and everthing, after such drastic procedure.
- 10:40 am
- Neal Asher said...
Okay, you got me Lis - I'll substitute 'abdominal muscles'.
- 11:45 am
- Neal Asher said...
Or maybe just torso.
- 11:45 am
- vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...
the link i posted has d/l for every issue. only if youre nostalgic or feeling like you missed a few key issues..
archive.org is a goldmine.
- 3:58 pm
- vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...
one last b.s. factor popped up: forgot to bring up the whole Lexx nod (without The Cure haircut) at the end of the Promotepid movie. anyone notice that sack of shit rearing it's head? how unsophisticated can you get? was this for the sigh fi channel or what? hopeless.
- 10:51 pm
- Tony B said...
I looked forward to it with great excitement, only to find it was absolute drivel.
- 7:58 pm
Yeah it wasn't the best, I kinda felt like these guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avXZVgzLP68&feature=plcp
- 9:06 am


text:
Best Small Car
Strong Build Quality, Good Mileage, Good Looks, Great Interiors, Cheap Parts, Fun to Drive and what not. Its best car in the given price bracket. Can't think of another car which can match it right now.
- 3 Likes
- 0 Dislikes
Write your Comment on Tata Tiago 2016-2019
Tata Tiago 2016-2019 User Reviews
Rate Now
- All (927)
- Mileage (326)
- Performance (155)
- Looks (215)
- Comfort (237)
- Engine (228)
- Interior (175)
- Power (154)
- More ...
An excellent fully loaded product an affordable price
I have driven 25000 km in 1 Year with my Tata Tiago XZ. An excellent car with fully loaded options and an affordable price. The best features getting in this car. Follow ...Read More
The best car in the segment.
I'm the owner of tata Tiago ... it been 2 years with Tiago and it's really the best choice to choose handling is best in its class and steering is also very light easy to...Read More
Tata Tiago
1. Dashboard loses from the first day (major issue) it always vibrates on access gear..... Feels like it comes out 2. Extreme cabin noise 3. Lack of power after 60k km 4....Read More
Best Safe and compact Hatcback
Best compact safe hatchback. Great mileage. Best look. Spacious. Awesome features with music system... Xz and XT best.Steering coolest..seats best in class. Dnt goes for ...Read More
Best safe compact Hatchback.
Awesome Car with user-friendly features. The music system is terrific. Dnt goes for negative reviews. Full value for money. Sophistication with power. Best Hatchback in l...Read More
Review Tiago
I love my Tiago. Excellent car in own category. The driving experience is overwhelming. I suggest if anyone wants to buy go with XZ model. In a competitive price, you wil...Read More
An Amazing Car
This is the best car in the segment. It is worth the price range. It gives a smooth driving experience. The handling is amazing. The turning radius is excellent. The mile...Read More
- View All Tiago 2016-2019 Reviews
Users Also Viewed
Trending Tata Cars
- Popular
- Upcoming
- Tata HarrierRs.12.99 - 16.95 Lakh*
- Tata NexonRs.6.58 - 11.1 Lakh*
- Tata TiagoRs.4.39 - 6.76 Lakh*
- Tata HexaRs.13.26 - 18.83 Lakh*
- Tata TigorRs.5.49 - 7.89 Lakh*
- Tata AltrozRs.5.49 - 8.49 Lakh*Expected Launch: Jan 22, 2020
- Tata GravitasRs.15.0 Lakh*Expected Launch: Feb 10, 2020
- Tata H2XRs.5.5 Lakh*Expected Launch: Oct 15, 2020
- Tata EVision ElectricRs.25.0 Lakh*Expected Launch: Dec 01, 2020
- Tata H7XRs.15.0 Lakh*Expected Launch: Jan 01, 2020

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Archive for the 'NEWS' Category
REGISTER NOW: 2016 Youth Soccer Camp (Starts 4/2)Wednesday, March 9th, 2016
Homenetmen US Eastern Regional 24th Navasartian Games in New YorkSaturday, June 21st, 2014
Homenetmeny of NY has it's 35th AnniversarySaturday, July 14th, 2012
On June 9, 2012 in front of a patriotic gathering of members, supporters and well wishers, Homenetmen of New York celebrated its 35th anniversary. It was on January 29, 1977 that then Archbishop Karekin Sarkissian (later ordained Catholicos Karekin I) officially marked the opening of the Homenetmen chapter in New York. Some of the same members present that day in 1977 were once again present to mark this historic moment. Many of today's members were children back then and were a part of the opening ceremonies as scouts. Today, these same members are part of the executive committee, scout leaders, and coaches. While we have all grown older, we have remained active members of Homenetmen of New York.
After a cocktail hour at Verdi's of Westbury, the evening's festivities were kicked off by the entrance of the New York scouts body, marching in and presenting the flags. After the national anthems and "haratch nahadagh" were sung the night's MC, Yeghpayr Simon Bardizbanian introduced New York's chairman (adenabed) Yeghpayr Vicken Shekookian. Yeghpayr Shekookian welcomed the members and supporters with a speech and thanked them for their support over the years. A moment of silence was also observed for all New York members who had passed away over the years. Yeghpayr Shekookian also reminded the crowd that Homenetmen's motto of "Partsratsir ou Partsratsour" remains true to its goal and needs to be continued with the next generation of members. Yeghpayr Simon Bardizbanian then introduced his Grace Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian; vicar general of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, who congratulated Homenetmen of New York on its 35 years of hard work and continued dedication towards the Armenian Youth of New York.
The joyous event was then handed off to Zareh Kasbarian and his band from Washington D.C. The crowd enjoyed the atmosphere, coming together on the dance floor and having a great time. Many were please to be in attendance as the music was entertaining and the crowd continued to encourage Zareh Kasbarian and his band by keeping the dance floor full. Many thanks and appreciation is given to the band by all as they kept us all moving.
Once the band took their first break, Yeghpayr Simon Bardizbanian returned to the microphone and introduced two of New York's founding members, Yeghpayner Hanig Meshevejian and Vartkes Vartanian. Yeghpayr Vartanian took a moment to comment on the years of hard work and dedication by all members of the chapter and brought attention to the revitalized scouting program headed by Yeghpayrner Levon Shamlian and Hovsep Minassian. New York's executive committee cannot thank these members enough for the continued hard work and support.
Next on the agenda was the presentation of various awards and recognitions. New York's chapter dedicated three annual awards in 1997, the "Hratch Chalian Memorial Trophy" for Basketball Player of the Year, the "Arshag Boyajian Memorial Trophy" for Football/Soccer Player of the Year and the "Garbis Der Mesrobian Memorial Trophy" for Member of the Year.
Athletic Director Yeghpayr Ari Minassian presented the "Hratch Chalian Memorial Trophy" to the 2011 recipient, Yeghpayr Garen Spendjian. Yeghpayr Spendjian has also been selected as a member of the Armenian National Men's Basketball Team currently coached by a former New York member and athlete, Yeghpayr Carl Bardakian.
The "Arshag Boyajian Memorial Trophy" was presented to long time member and 2011 winner Yeghpayr Razmig Nenejian. While Yeghpayr Nenejian had won the same award in 2003 he had originally started with New York's Junior Basketball team. His skill set was better suited to soccer and became an integral part of the current roster.
Yeghpayr Vicken Shekookian then presented the "Garbis Der Mesropian Memorial Trophy" to Yeghpayr Sarkis Jamgotchian. Yeghpayr Jamgotchian started as a scout, played basketball and soccer, and as a current member of the executive committee put in long hours as the organizer of the Anniversary celebration.
In addition to the annual awards, New York's executive committee had decided to hang a new plaque in their office. This plaque will honor of all previous honorees and will be a "Hall of Fame" for our chapter. Five members and their families were surprised that evening with this honor. The plaque presented to them reads: "Presented to —, in recognition of your exceptional service, dedication, devotion and commitment to Homenetmen of New York".
The first of five inducted to the "Hall of Fame" was Archpriest Der Moushegh Der Kaloustian – the priest who opened the doors of St. Illuminator's Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in 1977 and welcomed Homenetmen, and over the years has striven to make Homenetmen a success in New York.
Also inducted to this special club was Yeghpayr Stephan Andonian who started as a cub scout in 1977, played basketball, volleyball, and soccer, and has even been a member of our executive committee. Over the years Yeghpayr Andonian has led New York's football team as their top goalkeeper, later representing New York as an all-star of the US Eastern Region twice in world Homenetmen games in Canada and Lebanon.
Yeghpayr Simon Bardizbanian was also a cub scout in 1977 and is the current vice-chairman. His many years of dedicated service to Homenetmen first as a cub scout, then a member of the football, basketball, and volleyball teams teams for over 30 years and his many years of work as an executive committee member make him a well deserved recipient.
The fourth honoree was Yeghpayr Eddie Shamlian, again starting as a cub scout in 1977 and continuing to become a scout. Yeghpayr Shamlian started playing basketball for New York at 14 years of age and remains a member of the men's team as a player/coach. Yeghpayr Shamlian has represented New York as member of the US Eastern Region's Men's Basketball Team in 2009. He continues to provide leadership to our basketball teams, a skill he learned as a scout.
The last honoree of the evening was a surprise to all who were gathered including the honoree himself. Yeghpayr Garo Anastasian has been and remains Homenetmen of New York's soccer program leader and director from 1977 to present. Yeghpayr Anastasian has coached numerous teams from juniors all the way to veterans and many of his players have gone on to represent the US Eastern Region as all-stars in World Homenetmen Games. Yeghpayr Anastasian has been an executive committee member for 25 years and has always shied away from being recognized. However, the executive committee decided to honor him without his knowledge. Yeghpayr Anastasian was taken aback and humbly accepted this long deserved recognition.
The night's entertainment and dancing continued with music from Paul Baghdadlian Jr who was making his first ever performance in the Eastern US. Many were in excited anticipation as he took the stage and delivered a high quality performance. The crowd was kept energized and enthused throughout the evening. All in attendance were happy and thankful to witness Paul Baghdadlian Jr's performance and can't wait for his next appearance in this area.
The evening's event came to its climax when Zareh and Paul joined together in singing Armenian Patriotic songs. The crowd supported both singers and encouraged them to continue until our time was done.
The executive committee of Homenetmen wishes to thank all in attendance; members, supporters, and friends as well as the entertainers and organizers for providing a special night for all.
Scout Archive PicturesWednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Thanks to Yehpar Levon and other parties who contributed, we have these wonderful memories. If you have any pics you would like to contribute, please send them to firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
The Walkman player is not recognized by the computer.
The following solution is applied when you experience the following symptoms:
- The Walkman player is not displayed on Windows Explorer.
- The Walkman player is not displayed on Mac Finder.
- The Walkman is not displayed on the app in use.
If the computer does not recognize the Walkman, try the following solutions.
- Check operating environment
- Check USB connection
- Check USB Connection Mode settings
- Reset (reboot) the Walkman.
- Restart the Walkman and PC
- Reinstall the device driver
- The Walkman is not recognized by apps
- Check operating environment
Check that the Walkman is compatible with the OS.
See Help Guide for compatible OSes by model.
- Check USB connection
Check that the USB cable is not dirty. Fine dust or dirt particles may prevent recognition. If the Walkman's WM-PORT or USB cable terminal is dirty, clean it with a soft cloth.
Check that the PC's USB ports recognize the Walkman. Connect the Walkman to all of the PC's USB ports and check that they recognize the Walkman.
If you are using a USB hub, remove it and try connecting the Walkman to the PC's USB ports directly to check that they recognize the Walkman.
- Check USB Connection Mode settings
This solution is for models that have USB Connection Mode Settings
The Walkman may not be automatically recognized depending on the PC connected. In this situation, by using the USB Connection Mode Settings to put the Walkman in connected standby mode before connection, your connection is more certainly ensured.
USB Connection Mode setting method:
- Select Settings in the Home menu.
- Select Common Settings.
- Select USB Connection Mode
- Select Yes.
NOTE: The USB connected standby screen will be displayed on the Walkman. Test recognition by connecting the Walkman to the PC.
- Reset (reboot) the Walkman.
Refer to the following for the resetting procedure.
Reset (rebooting) the Walkman
- Restart the Walkman and PC
Restart the Walkman and PC and check that the PC recognizes the Walkman.
- Reinstall the device driver
If the Walkman's device driver is not properly installed to the PC, the Walkman will not be recognized.
Check that the device driver is displayed on the PC.
For Windows check the following link:
How to check the Device Manager for proper installation of the portable audio driver.
For Mac, check the iOS device driver:
1. Click About This Mac on the Apple menu.
2. Open System Report. The Walkman's drive will be displayed under USB.
NOTE: If it is not recognized properly, reload the device driver.
- The Walkman is not recognized by apps
- Reinstall the app
- Uninstall the app from the PC.
- Restart the PC.
- Reinstall the app.
NOTE: If the Walkman is displayed on the app when you connect it to the PC, it is being recognized properly.
For Music Center for PC check the following link.


text:
"An unaimed arrow never misses"
Labels: My 2D Life
posted by bad-dog at 8:08 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home
Tokyo-born, LA-raised. Nearly worked to death in Tokyo as a media personality/multi-media producer. Now mostly unemployed writer/artist/
View my complete profile
Copyright Reserved:
All written text, photography and artwork on this site are Copyright of World Wide Word ©2006-2014, unless otherwise noted. Material may not be duplicated, published or re-written without permission. All rights reserved.


text: On March 21, 2013, Walter Brueggemann, one of the world's foremost Old Testament scholars, was at SPU. Listen to his lecture, "The Alternative World of the Psalms". Presented by the Center for Biblical and Theological Education and the School of Theology in conjunction with the Wesleyan Theological Society and the Society for Pentecostal Studies.


text:
Professional Wedding & Portrait Photographers in Perth & Melbourne
Viva Photography is Australia's leading professional portrait and wedding photography company. With 8 studios nationwide, our aim is to offer you a professional photography service that leaves you with beautiful, creative images.
At Viva Life Photography, we want to give our clients the opportunity to tell their story and be photographed for exactly who they are. Our photo shoots are memorable, uplifting and something our clients can remember for a lifetime. We make sure our clients celebrate who they are, what they have achieved and share that happiness with the people who matter.
With over 25 years' experience, we use professional photography to capture our clients at every significant moment in their lives and make memories to last a lifetime. Our professional services extend to whatever our clients might need. We offer a choice of Melbourne or Perth-based wedding photography, engagement shoots and beautiful portrait sessions including family, children, pets, pregnancy, newborn, singles, couples, nudes and natural glamour photography.We enable people to celebrate who they are and share that happiness with loved ones, while we capture those precious moments.
Portrait Photography
Our professional photography services include the option of telling your story by booking a session with one of our skilled portrait photographers. They will help you to create beautiful pictures in any artistic way you want to use. Our portrait photographer's signature style is to capture subjects through a timeless and classic way in sepia tones. Whether you want a family portrait, couples shoot or baby pictures, we will accommodate your needs. If you want your memories to last forever, book a session for portrait photography.
Wedding Photography
We know that your wedding day is one of the most special occasions in your life. That's why we make sure that we capture every moment to make the memories last a lifetime. Our wedding photographers will capture the love between the bridal couple as well as the spirit of the day amongst family, the bridal party and the rest of your guests.
Viva Photography is a photographic studio franchise that is more than just a franchise business. At Viva, we're about empowering people to tell their story. Our family of studios work to connect people with important events throughout their lives. Our franchises and a team of elite professional photographers constantly learn from each other and have a mutual passion to honour people's lives, values and self-esteem through creative, beautiful imagery.
Apart from offering you our professional photography services, we also offer a range of photography related products. Why not spoil a loved one with printed pictures in a frame, a printed photo album or photography book. You select the pictures and product and we give you something wonderful to look at every day. We also offer gift vouchers to treat someone special to a memorable photo shoot.
Viva Photography's professional portraits capture your important moments in life with natural images of the highest quality. Enter the draw to WIN a photography session and products to the value of $1375. Runners up will receive a portrait session and discount to the value of $350.


text:
Modern Japan in Anglophone Historical Fiction
Jonathan Dresner
Pittsburg State University
"But writers of fiction do not stumble onto locales or times: they choose them and they use them to serve their narrative and aesthetic ends." — Jonathan Dresner
"…flaws typical of the genre: a carefully set but very selective milieu; characters cobbled together from cultural and psychosocial fragments; wildly unlikely encounters and inappropriate behavior. … I don't ever use historical fiction in my teaching, and I rarely read it (especially in my own field!)." — Jonathan Dresner
Roughly Chronologically:
- Gai-jin (James Clavell, 1993): 1862-1863
- The Apprentice (Lewis Libby, 1996): 1903
- The Teahouse Fire (Ellis Avery, 2006): Bakumatsu and Meiji.
- Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden, 1997): subject born in 1920, lived until after WWII.
Comments Off


text:
About Colorado Concerns of Police Survivors
Colorado C.O.P.S. Does Not Solicit Donations Over The Telephone!
The Colorado Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. (COPS) contributes to the emotional and psychological well-being of the surviving family - the most hauntingly difficult aspect of the aftermath of sudden, tragic, often violent, line-of-duty death. Through our National Board, local Chapters, and national network of survivors, COPS is able to contact a newly-bereaved surviving family - sometimes within just days of the death. It helps the new survivors to see people who have survived the devastation, thus providing a feeling of hope.


text:
Owner's Center
Contact Us
1-800-269-6215Mon. - Fri. 9AM - 7PM
Part Finder
Know your part number?
- Know your model number?
- Don't know your model number?
You can use the Part Finder to help find your model and the right part for your machine.
Matching Models
Diagnose & Troubleshoot Snow Throwers
Select one of the symptoms below to find possible causes and common solutions
Common Symptoms:
Unit Fails to Propel
|Possible Causes
|Corrective Actions
1Drive control cable in need of adjustment
Adjust drive control cable
Drive belt loose or damaged
Replace drive belt
Friction wheel worn
Replace friction wheel


text:
Please go to our personal & team equipment section of the "Everest Training Climb Questions" for additional information and detailed discussion of the equipment lists below.
Where should I purchase my equipment?
Please "click here" to view our list of recommendations on where to purchase kit from our Everest Camp 3 Training Climb Frequently Asked Questions.
- Climbing harness;
- 5 metres / 15 feet of 6mm climber's accessory cord.
- Figure 8/Abseil belay device;
- 1 large mitten sized ascender (most members use the large petzl) and arm length leash;
- 2 locking carabiners, 1 large and 1 small;
- 4 regular carabiners;
- Ice axe w/leash;
- Crampons - must fit boots perfectly. Steel crampons with anti-balling (anti-bot) plates are the best;
- Abseiling/Rappelling Gloves
- Optional; Adjustable trekking poles; back to top
- 2 cotton t-shirts;
- 1 polypropylene t-shirt;
- 2 long sleeve polypropylene shirts, lightweight;
- 1 polar fleece pullovers, medium weight;
- 1 polar fleece jacket.
- Gore-Tex jacket with hood, waterproof and breathable;
- Umbrella (optional);
- For April trip: 1 very warm goose-down (duvet) jacket with hood (for May, a medium weight down jacket should suffice); back to top
1 pr. lightweight poly-liner gloves. These will be worn when tying knots, but not inside your mitts;
1 pair mittens, consists of 1 Gore-tex over mitt matched with the very warm polar fleece mitt liner (For more about high altitude mitts, please click here).
- Helmet;
- Warm hat wool or synthetic that covers your ears;
- Balaclava;
- Face mask;
- Ballcap or brimmed suncap;
- Glacier sunglasses with side shields (you can purchase these inexpensively in Kathmandu, including prescription sunglasses, which can be made for $20, it might take a week or two);
- 1 pair ski goggles (Optional) with light and dark lens;
- Headlamp with extra batteries and bulbs;
- Bandana or head scarf, also useful for dusty conditions. back to top
- Cotton underwear briefs;
- 1 pair walking shorts;
- 1 pair walking trousers for trekking and around camp;
- 2 pair lightweight thermal bottoms;
- 1 pair medium or expedition weight thermal bottoms;
- 1 pair polar fleece trousers;
- 1 pair Gore-Tex trousers, salopettes, or bibs. Waterproof/breathable with full side zips;
- Optional: for April expedition-1 pr. Goose-down (duvet) trousers , salopettes or bibs.
Your clothing should be kept dry using waterproof stuff sacks, bin-liners, or large plastic bags. back to top
- Optional: 1 pair One-Sport Millet Everest boots or equivalent, otherwise;
- 1 pair double plastic boots (koflach);
- 1 pair sturdy leather walking boots with good ankle support (we mean leather trekking, not climbing boots) for the walk to advanced basecamp;
- 1 pair trainers, running shoes and/or sandals for Kathmandu and in camp;
- 1 pair down booties (optional);
- 2 pair med-heavy poly or wool socks;
- 2- pair of liner socks. Polypropylene or wool;
- vapour barrier liner socks or plastic bread-bags;
- 2 pair lightweight trekking socks, poly or wool;
- Cotton socks for in town.
- 1 sleeping bag (good to -10 degrees C or 10 degrees F). In the high camp, you can sleep in your down (duvet) clothing inside your sleeping bag;
- At least 3 closed cell foam kari-mats for use in basecamp and high altitude, We do not recommend inflatable mats, as we have never seen one not puncture. You can buy these non inflatable mats very inexpensively in Kathmandu. Why carry foam mats around the world, when you can purchase them inexpensively in Kathmandu?
Your sleeping bags should be kept dry using waterproof stuff sacks, bin-liners, or large plastic bags. back to top
- 1 medium rucksack (50-70 litres / 3000-4500 cubic inches, can be used for airplane carry);
- Waterproof rucksack cover (optional);
- 2 large (120 L / 7500 cubic inch) duffle kit bags for clothing and equipment. Must be durable for use on pack animals;
- Small padlocks for duffel kit bags. back to top
- female or male hygiene supplies;
- 2 tubes lip sun cream, 1 large tube skin sun cream (min.factor 15);
- anti-mosquito cream;
- 1 toothpaste/brush;
- 1 bar soap or hand sanitizer gel/1 small towel;
- hand wipes. back to top
Medications are inexpensive and readily available in Kathmandu with no Doctor`s prescription:
- Small personal first-aid kit. (Simple and Light), blister repair kit, waterproof first-aid tape, athletic tape, plasters, Band-Aids, personal medications, etc. The leaders will have extensive first-aid kits, so leave anything extra behind. Please let your leader know about any medical issues before the climb;
- 10 anti-diarrhea pills (Imodium, Loperamide);
- 10 anti-headache pills (Paracetamol, Tylenol);
- 10 anti-inflamatory pills (Ibuprofen);
- 20 cough lozenges, cough sweets, Strepsils, Halls;
- 1 small bottle anti-altitude sickness pills: Diamox, Acetylzolamide; Please review the information in our Everest Training Climb Questions .
- 10 stomach antibiotic pills: (Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin);
- 6 broad spectrum antiobiotic pills: (Azithromycin);
- Do not bring sleeping pills. They are a respiratory depressant;
- 1 Steripen, or bottle of water purification tablets or water filter;
- 1 set earplugs;
- 1 small bottle of hand-sanitizer
- suncream for skin and lips. minimum factor 20 back to top
extra prescription glasses, contact lens supplies. Contact lens wearers, WARNING: your contact lenses might not work well on the mountain, please carry glasses at all times in case of emergency. A new pair could be quickly made in Kathmandu for just $40. Please order prior to arrival if you are interested. A new pair could be quickly made in Kathmandu
Our skillful cooks prepare 3 delicious hot meals and plenty of drinks each day in basecamp and camp 2.
On the mountain we supply plenty of food for you to cook 3 hot meals each day. This food will consist of soup, local cheese & sausage, biscuits, dried noodles, potatoes, rice, porridge, butter, dried and tinned vegetables, fruit, meats, and fish, tea with milk and sugar, powdered juice drink, and drinking chocolate. Our sherpas will be carrying this food to the higher camps.
We ask each member to bring their own imported daily snack and energy foods. We also ask members to bring 2 dehydrated meals (freeze-dried dinners) for the high camps. We do not provide cold "snack" food such as chocolate or "energy-bars". We ask that you bring or buy your own "snack" or daily cold energy food, 2-4 kilos/4-8 pounds, is a good amount. A growing variety of imported foods such as European and American cheeses, chocolates, biscuits, cookies, nuts, and locally made power-bars are now available in Kathmandu, at realistic prices. However, imported power bars, GU, re-hydration drinks, dehydrated food, "freeze-dried meals", imported cheese and sausage are not available. If you want these items, you must bring them from your home country.Many of our members, especially Britons, Europeans, and Australians with tiny baggage allowances, now purchase their daily snacks in Kathmandu. Our schedule in Kathmandu allows plenty of time for shopping.
Practical- back to top
- 1 small roll of repair tape, 1 sewing repair kit;
- 1 cigarette lighter, 1 small box matches;
- 1 compass or GPS;
- 1 battery powered alarm clock/watch;
- 1 camera and film, or digital camera with extra cards and extra batteries;
- nylon stuff sacks For food and gear storage, large Ziplocs are useful also;
- 3 water bottles (1 litre) wide-mouth Nalgene (1 is a pee bottle);
- 1 plastic cup and spoon;
- 1 small folding knife;
- binoculars (optional);
- 4 large, waterproof, disposable rubbish sacks;
- passport, 2 extra passport photos, flight ticket, flight itinerary;
- separate photocopies of passport and relevant visa pages, proof of insurance;
- dollars, pounds or euros cash for purchasing Nepalese visa at Kathmandu airport, Tibet visa, for paying for restaurants and hotels, for gratuities, snacks, and to purchase your own drinks and gifts;
- credit cards, Bank/ATM/Cash machine cards for use for withdrawing funds from cash machines (bring a photocopy of your cards), traveler's checks, etc.;
1 bathing suit/swimming costume (you never know);
basecamp entertainment. It is good to bring additional items which you have found to be useful on previous expeditions. For example: paperback books, playing cards, ipod mp3 player, short-wave radio, game boys, musical instruments, ear plugs, lots of batteries, etc.;
travel clothes for basecamp and in town;
- Please be sure and bring your patience and try to keep an open, relaxed, positive and friendly attitude as travelling in this part of the world may be very different than what you are used to, but things always seem to fall into place at the last moment. Thank you.
This is not an exhaustive list. Please submit other equipment concerns and suggestions. Thank you. back to top
We provide a plethora of top-quality, and time-tested equipment, group gear, and supplies, including: rope, ice, rock, and snow anchor protection; basecamp and altitude tents; cookers, fuel, high-altitude food, walkie-talkie radios, bamboo marker wands, etcetera. We now provide an individual tent for each member in basecamp, so you do not have to share. We also have a shower and toilet tent for Basecamp. Please see the group EQUIPMENT link, in the menu bars above to study what we bring for your use and safety.


text:
Welcome to the Windsor Locks Public Library!
For your convenience we have created a navigational map of our facility. For a larger printable PDF version of the
map, simply click on the image below.
As you enter the library from our shaded portico you will see a community bulletin board on your right. This bulletin board is reserved
for educational and cultural announcements of interest to the community. Be sure to stop and take a look for information on classes,
local theater, events at other libraries, and volunteer opportunities.
In our lobby we often have an ongoing book sale in addition to our 3 large book sales every year. To you right you will see our Community Room, which is
used for library programs and is also available for meetings. We do charge a fee for use of the room except for local
educational and volunteer groups. Please see our Community Room page for more information
on reserving our Community Room.
Enter the library through the doors at your left. Our New Book area and online catalog are on your right and on your left you will find our
Large Print collection. The Circulation desk and our smiling staff are to your left just ahead, Across from the Circulation desk is the entrance to
our Children's Library, which also includes teen section, craft and story time areas, and a play area.
Check out our map for the location of our public use PCs, magazine area, DVDs, and all of our collections, and plan to visit soon!
Updated 11-15-2013


text:
Information, Technology, and Society
Introduction to the basic concepts and applications of computer and Internet-related information technology and its impacts on individual users, businesses, groups, organizations, and society. Topics include access, evaluation, and use of digital information; ethical and security implications of information use and storage; human-computer interactions; social aspects of information systems; economic and legal issues; and professional presentation and communication of information. Information literacy skills that promote lifelong learning are developed through exposure to various existing and emerging technologies, including information resources, communication methods, and technology.
3 Credits: 3 Lecture
Placement by Examination; or


text:
Photo: Jennifer Kumar/Flickr
When you get into the routine of cooking at home, you'll eventually find yourself falling back on certain staples. Some of them are things that go into almost everything you cook, like a dash of salt or some black pepper.Others are simply key ingredients in a lot of the recipes that you actually make. These things vary a lot from person to person, but for us they tend to include pasta, dried beans, dried rice, tomato sauce, dried oregano, flour, and flash frozen vegetables of a lot of different varieties.
There are also other things that have multiple uses in the home beyond just cooking, like baking soda and vinegar, and there are household supplies such as toilet paper.
All of the things mentioned here are things that we buy in bulk. Anything that doesn't have a quick expiration date, can be easily stored, and is something that we use on a regular basis is a target for bulk buying.
Not only are items bought in bulk less expensive per pound, but they also shorten your grocery list and can help you squeeze out a few more meals at home before you have to return to the store. That saves on the travel cost and time of shopping, as well.
I'll use a real example from our own pantry. We use extra long grain rice in a lot of the dishes we prepare, as my wife and I love curry and stir fry. Dried rice can easily be stored in the home, so when we get a chance we stock up on rice in abundance.
At our local grocery store, we can buy very similar rice in a two pound container for $3.99 or a 10 pound container for $10.99. Obviously, the 10 pound container is cheaper, as you're getting near a dollar a pound. Sometimes, we'll see sales that drop the price even lower, but those are irregular and hard to plan around.
For comparison's sake, at our local warehouse club, we can buy a 50 pound bag of long grain rice for $17.67. That's about 38 cents a pound.
Now, assuming we can get through even half of that rice over a reasonable period of time, we'll save money buying in bulk. If we can get through that entire bag, we're saving a lot of money.
The same phenomenon holds true for almost every item I mentioned at the start of this post. A large bag of frozen vegetables is less expensive per pound than a small one. A large sack of flour is far cheaper per pound than a small one. A case of tomato sauce is less expensive per jar than a single jar.
We even buy baking soda in bulk. You can buy a 13.5 pound bag of baking soda for $6.68 in our local warehouse club. Put some in a plastic cup in the back of your refrigerator and use it as needed and you'll do fine. Compare that to a typical price for an eight ounce box in the store, which is usually in the ballpark of $0.89. Buying that much baking soda per box would add up to about $25.
The key to saving money this way is sticking to stuff that you're sure you'll use before it expires. If you don't know that you'll use up that much rice or if you don't think you'll use the baking soda before the expiration date, don't buy it. Focus on things you use all the time so that you're sure you'll use it.
You'll also want to be sure you have adequate storage space for the stuff. We store a lot of the non-food items in our garage when we're not using them, plus we have a pretty large pantry. At our previous residence, we didn't have much storage space at all, so we couldn't really take advantage of bulk buying. If you can't store it, it's going to be wasted.
If you can handle those caveats with ease, buying key items in bulk can really cut back on your food and household budget. It's one of those things that, once you're in the routine of it, you can't believe you ever got by without it.
This post is part of a yearlong series called "365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited)," in which I'm revisiting the entries from my book "365 Ways to Live Cheap," which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my "photography intern" for this project.
Related posts:
- Treasures in the Cupboard: Eight Tactics We Use to maximise the Value of Our Pantry
- The Bulk Buying Debate
- Eight Simple Ways To Reduce Food Costs
- Is Your Local Warehouse Store Worth Your While? Here's How to Find Out
- Is the Dollar Store Really a Bargain?
DON'T MISS: This woman ditched her job and apartment for the ultimate road trip >
Business Insider Emails & Alerts
Site highlights each day to your inbox.
Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.


text:
Login to my Lennar
Forgot Your Password?
Enter the email address that was
used to create your account. If found
in our system, password reset url will be
emailed to this account.
Thank You!
An email has been sent to your account with password reset url. Please follow the instruction to update your password.
Call Now!
To comply with real estate laws in some states, we require your state of residency before we can respond to your request.
Thank you for your interest in Lennar homes in Timber Trace. Your request has been submitted and a Lennar Associate will contact you shortly.
Now Selling Phase Two!
Beautiful Oak Trees Line the Streets
Timber Trace Model Homes are Now Open
Nestled among the beautiful live oak trees that give this pristine community its name, Timber Trace is conveniently located in Summerville, one of South Carolina's most beloved small towns, and near award winning Dorchester II schools, grocery stores, shopping, entertainment, and parks. Come enjoy the best of Lowcountry, family-friendly living and small town charm at Timber Trace off Highway 61.
Proposed Amenities include:
Call (843)514-8295 or CLICK HERE to schedule a tour!
"Karl was the best!"
"Denny is awesome! He is always so nice and makes us feel like a top priority."
"Denny is the man! He made our first home purchase a very pleasant experience. He made us feel very comfortable with the process the whole way through. We really can't say enough about how great he has been to us. Karl has also been super helpful and he always makes us happy when we come to him with issues."
-Timber Trace Homeowner March 2019
Welcome Home Center1007 Mossy Rock DriveSummerville, SC 294851007 Mossy Rock DriveSummerville, SC 29485843-514-8295
New Home Consultants:Karl Zoller
Internet New Home Consultants:Victoria Jewell
Hours:Mon. BY - APPTTue. BY - APPTWed. 10:00 - 6:00Thu. 10:00 - 6:00Fri. 10:00 - 6:00Sat. 10:00 - 6:00Sun. 12:00 - 6:00
Links:Included FeaturesSite PlanInterest ListView Video
Load more
Cable TVSpectrum1-833-694-9256
Electric CompanySCE&G800-251-7234
Gas CompanySCE&G800-251-7234
Set up services
19 Communities are favorited.
View Communities
Share this page
View byGridList
Sort byPriceAlphabeticalLocation
First PagePreviousNextLast Page
Victoria Jewell843-471-9814
We're here to help.
Want to meet your Internet New Home Consultant? Select the desired location of your new home:
Meet your personal Internet New Home Consultant.
Victoria Jewell
Meet your INHC
Let's talk
Enter your phone number and we'll immediately call you to talk about all things Lennar.
Charleston has a long history in the United States. It was established in 1670 by English colonists. Charleston is most known for the start of the Civil War in 1861. Today it's known for a vibrant economy with many titans of industry moving their companies here. With the expansion of industry, seaports, and tourism, Charleston offers many great opportunities. Charleston now is known for being one of the top tourist destinations in the United States! With all that Charleston has to offer wouldn't it be great to not just visit but to actually live here?
Location for this community
1007 Mossy Rock DriveSummerville, SC843-514-8295
Use your current location
Select your stateAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Get directions
Send to mobile
Select your provider
Enter a valid phone number below to send
Phone Number:
Send New
Are you beginning your home buying journey? Consider the opportunities that come with buying a brand new home. From modern design to quality features, you'll discover an array of benefits when you buy new!
You're ready to buy a home. What now? myLennar is where you'll find all the info you need to manage the personal process of shopping, buying, owning and enjoying your Lennar home. So whether you're taking the first steps to purchase a home or learning how to care for the one you already own – you can find it all at myLennar.
Learn more
Save your favorite Lennar homes and communities. Create a scrapbook of your home coming to life. Manage your home contacts and documents all in one place.
Thanks for your interest
Lennar doesn't currently build homes in this area.View everywhere we build.
Use your current location or View everywhere we build
in Timber Trace


text:
All about family on Christmas Eve
Passing on traditions can means passing on faith.
By Guest Blogger Philip J. DiNovo
I come from a large extended Italian American family. My father's parents had their 9 children, spouses, children at their home for Christmas. It was a full house, loud and joyful with very strong ties.
We would have food and drinks until the time to fast and then later we'd go to Midnight Mass. I was a choir boy when I was very young and the choir sang at the Midnight Mass. There would be so many Christmas plants, and the high mass was very special. The old pastor gave each boy in the choir 50 cents. We stood in line for the gift, which at that time was deeply appreciated.
After mass we returned to my grandparents for coffee and Italian Christmas pastries. My grandmother would make her traditional pastries in the shape of a C for Christ, and she would make so many! Each family took home this very special pastry from Sicily.
My parents and grandparents have all been called to their eternal reward, but my two brothers and two sisters still gather at Christmas Eve. So many traditions are no longer a part of our celebration. I feel that it's an obligation to pass on our religious and ethnic traditions. Only God knows what they will retain, but I have kept the faith with those who came before me.
Jesus is the reason for the season and Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. Italians for many centuries have built strong families and passed on them many traditions. I will try again this Christmas, and I hope I will realize that when we do the best we can then leave it up to God. This Christmas is a blessing and when we celebrate it with faith and tradition, it reminds us of its true meaning!
Guest blogger Philip J. DiNovo is a U.S. Catholic reader.
Read more blogs about Advent and Christmas traditions at uscatholic.org/advent. Submit a guest blog to email@example.com. We may put this together into a holiday theme Meditation Room for the magazine next year. Any reflections selected for publication will win $50!
Guest blog posts express the views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of U.S. Catholic, its editors, or the Claretians.


text:
Senior tailback Logan Flannery rushed 38 times for 190 yards as Bethel controlled the second half en route to a 12-7 victory over host St. Thomas in Saturday's NCAA football quarterfinal game at UST's O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
The 14th-ranked Royals (12-1) have won three road games in three states over 15 days by a combined 18 points, and become the lone team in the Final Four which didn't win its conference championship.
The Royals advance to a semifinal round game next Saturday at Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio., and a rematch of the 2007 semifinal playoff game won by the Raiders.
"We love to travel," said Flannery. "We don't go into these trips thinking it's a disavantage. We stay poised and we have fun on the bus and enjoy being with each other."
Bethel also ended UST's 15-game home win streak and snapped a three-game losing streak to the Tommies.
No. 4-ranked St. Thomas (12-1) was held to two first downs and 61 yards in the second half. UST's seven points was its lowest output in 36 games under three-year coach Glenn Caruso. It also was the first time in the last two seasons (26 games) that the Tomes were held scoreless in the second half of a game.
"Bethel executed very well, and when they needed to make a couple of big plays they made them," Caruso said.
The Tommies scored on the opening drive of the game in just two minutes. Colin Tobin's 46-yard run preceded his 2-yard scoring run.
Bethel's defense was tough enough, but St. Thomas hurt itself with several penalties and the lack of a big play in its passing game. UST also was hurt by the absence of injured All-Americans Fritz Waldvogel and Ben Wartman.
"We needed the game to come back to us," BU coach Steve Johnson said of the early deficit. "I'm proud of our guys that we didn't get affected by the early hole. By the second quarter things had turned. That felt like us again. We were down 7-6 at the half, but it felt like we were winning."
Bethel gained 177 of its 303 total yards and had a 20:14 to 9:46 edge in possession time in the second half. The Royals had an 11-play, 96-yard scoring drive in the third quarter to erase the Toms' 7-6 halftime lead.
Flannery had 124 of his yards in the second half and broke the conference career rushing record by eight yards. The old record was 5,335 yards set in 2007 by another Bethel rusher, Phil Porta.
Tobin rushed 28 times for 122 yards, but UST's eight first downs and 220 total yards were both season lows.
Tommie QB Dakota Tracy rushed nine times for 44 yards and completed 7-of-18 passes for 54 yards.
"Our defense is kind of irritating for the other team," Johnson said. "It's just a disciplined, obedient group."
For the UST defense, Tommy Becker had 10 solo and 10 assisted tackles. Bryan Villar had an interception and six tackles and a two-point conversion interception. Willy Baregi batted down the first two-point try and had a sack among five tackles.
"This hurts a lot, it's been an unbelievable ride," Villar said of his 46-game Tommie career which included a 2-8 record in his first season. "The journey to get here has been unbelievable. It has been a blast."
Bethel's David Vavra had nine tackles and intercepted a fourth-down halfback pass near midfield.
For BU, Kevin Lindh added 62 yards on nine rushes, including a 25-yard burst on the go-ahead scoring march.
Wartman, a 4,000-yard rusher on his career, was injured in last week's playoff game and didn't play on Saturday. He closed his career with 50 touchdowns, 21 100-yard rushing games and 4,086 rushing yards.
Waldvogel tied a school career record with his 217th reception but injured his hip and missed the game's final 52:00 on the clock. He has more than 5,000 career all-purpose yards and has been injury-free prior to Saturday in all 36 career games.
UST also lost its starting punter Garrett Maloney to an injury as he was hit on the knee after a second-quarter punt.
Both teams played without injured starting offensive lineman -- UST's Chad Vandergriff played in the previous game after coming off surgery but sat out Saturday. BU's sophomore guard Jared Penz went out late in the second quarter and didn't return.
Click here for box score:


text:
This piece contains information about the wonderful county of Norfolk, where there are lots of exciting things to see and do. So join us on Camperbug's virtual road trip, during we will be taking in a campsite, visiting a beach or two and of course checking out a Norfolk camper van that we can hire to do all these things in!
Norfolk's low-lying landscape and beautiful scenery make it a popular holiday destination. This eastern county's rugged coastline is kept alert by the blusterings of the North Sea. The unceasing assaults on it's coast have resulted in an instinctive wariness and respect for the sea whose rough affections have helped create the dramatic coastline that is so fun to visit. For rugged coastline also read, great beaches; and for great beaches Norfolk does not disappoint. Tour Norfolk have done a wonderful piece on the beautiful beaches that can be found in Norfolk but let's get started on this trip with glorious sandy beach of Mundesley.
Located on the North Norfolk coast, Mundesley combines rolling farming land with a seaside town. The clean beach boasts miles of long sands which stretch for miles and are great for long walks. Leaving Mundesley and following the A149 along the coast path, leads you to Holkham Bay. As the map shows, you will pass through the towns of Sheringham and Cromer. Some parts of this road may be inaccessible so consult your maps before you set off.
Holkham Beach won the Coastal Award of 2011 for Beast Beach. The countless miles of beautiful golden sands, bounded by salty marshes and dunes are part of one of the UK's largest nature reserves. The beach is liberating in its spaciousness with its huge size making it possible for the walker to find quite isolation, providing a splendid opportunity to observe the wide variety of striking fauna and flora.
A few miles from the beach you will find a campsite called Deepdale Farm It's located in the village of Burnham Deepdale and is a location popular with campervans. Deepdale is a good location from which to explore the North Norfolk coast line.
If you're wondering how to camp when you're on your roadtrip, then why not check out Maggie May. This retro campervan is fully kitted out, with all mod cons and a striking pop top roof providing an extra bed room upstairs. She's a cool cucumber, fun to camp in and bred to cruise along costal country lanes.
So that's our very quick whistle stop road trip around Norfolk, we wish it could have been longer but Camperbug plan to make a return visit soon. For more information about all that Norfolk has to offer, go to Visit Norfolk, the Official Norfolk Tourist website.


text:
I'm starting this thread to talk about Plasma Ignition.
I have Ignition Secrets by Aaron Murakami | Plasma Ignition available and it doesn't include technical support for people's experiments. I do however, help quite a few people out anyway, but from now on I'm only going to address any of that in this thread. So if anyone has questions, they have to read this entire thread first and then if the questions aren't answered, I can try to help out.
The concept is simple - high voltage from coil jumps the gap and ionizes the gap and makes it conductive enough so that a lower voltage capacitor in parallel with the gap can discharge over the gap creating the plasma impulse.
I'll post more later, but this is just to get things started.


text:
134 members15 Likes
Started this discussion. Last reply by Mark / The Mayor Jul 27, 2011. 1 Reply 0 Likes
HelloMy name is Manuel, I am PhD student in UCSB and I would like looking peolpe to play tennis in UCSB, Goleta or SB. I am spanish and I will stay in UCSB until november. In Spain, I played two or…Continue
Chronomaz has not received any gifts yet
Hi Manuel. I hit with Gunther last weekend and that was fun. I guess he's out of town for a week. Let me know if you want to hit. He told me you were really good, so I hope I can keep up :)
My email is firstname.lastname@example.com. Thanks for playing today!
© 2019 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


text:
BRONC / LADY BRONC X-COUNTRY - The Bronc and Lady Bronc cross country teams are taking a week off to prepare for the conference and state championship meets.
Over the last three races both teams have made a big jump in their competitiveness and Head coach Art Bauers says it's been a lot of hard work by the runners to get themselves in good position this late the season.
And he says it's been good to see both teams starting to gel together into solid team units.
The Buffalo Invitational will be run Thursday the JV runners will attend while the varsity runners take the competition off and Bauers says that will give them better quality practice time and rest this
The Conference championships will run next week in Laramie and in two weeks the state cross country championships will be held in Douglas.
LADY BRONC VOLLEYBALL - The Lady Bronc volleyball team is at home playing Laramie Friday evening at 5:30 and host Cheyenne South Saturday at 12:30.
SWIMMING - The Lady Bronc swimmers and divers are at home Friday hosting a meet with Riverton, Cody and both Casper schools events get underway at 4:00.
BRONC FOOTBALL - The Sheridan Broncs host Laramie Friday night in homecoming football action we will have the game live for you on 14-10 KWYO and 87.7 ESPN radio.
The First Federal savings bank pregame show will start at 6:30 with kickoff at 7:00.
ACT and Sheridan college will also join us to bring you the live webcast on line at sheridanmedia.com and cable channel 21.
TR FOOTBALL - It's homecoming at Tongue River high school as well this week the Eagles football team will host Newcastle and we will have it live on KWYO and 87.7 ESPN radio kickoff at 1:00.
RAMS FOOTBALL - The Big Horn Rams look to remain unbeaten this week, the 5-0 Rams play at Moorcroft Friday
COWBOY FOOTBALL - The Wyoming Cowboys are back in action after an off week they play at Nevada Saturday.
BRONCO FOOTBA;LL - The Denver Broncos play at New England Sunday afternoon we will have the game live on KWYO and 87.7 FM broadcast time is at noon with kickoff at 2:25.
BH / TR VOLLEYBALL - In local volleyball action this week the Big Horn Lady Rams have matches with Buffalo Thursday and Moorcroft Friday and the Tongue River Lady Eagles are at home against Wright and Moorcroft.
SC VOLLEYBALL - The Sheridan college Lady Generals will play at Casper college Thursday night and host Northwest college Friday at 7:00.
Next week Thursday and Friday they will host matches with Central and Western Wyoming


text:
| June 24, 2014, 2:41 pm
On the heels of the red-hot Wii U Legend of Zelda trailer from E3, Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma hinted that the next installment may include multiplayer.
During an interview with GameInformer, Aonuma spoke to the possibility of including multiplayer in the next Legend of Zelda game, taking a nod from Tecmo Koei's Dynasty Warriors and Legend of Zelda mashup, Hyrule Warriors which allows for two players.
"The two-player functionality of Hyrule Warriors is actually something that has traditionally been done in the Dynasty Warriors series, but they've changed because of the hardware and the second screen on your GamePad," Aonuma said in the interview.


text:
State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota offers a broad variety of credit and noncredit educational opportunities.
Credit courses and degree programs are offered by several departments.
- Art, Design, Humanities
- Business and Technology
- Dental Hygiene
- Language and Literature
- Mathematics
- Music
- Natural Science
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy Assistant
- Physical Therapist Assistant
- Radiography
- Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Theatre
The Career and Technical Education office provides services to career-track students pursuing A.S./A.A.S. degrees. Services include program support, internship and advising assistance, linkage to health professions, assistance with CEL (Credit for Experiential Learning) and tech-prep articulation.
SCF's noncredit division, the Center for Corporate & Community Development, is comprised of:
Maps and directions: Both credit and noncredit students take classes at three locations in Bradenton, Venice and Lakewood Ranch. Locations and directions are announced each term for additional classes taught at various locations throughout the two-county service district.


text: Ronnie's 1962 VW Beetle complete restoration using R&D's Air Command Shroud and Fan Kit. The Shroud Kit uses airflow equalization technology for the Porsche style fan shroud that directs equal amount of cooling air to all four cylinders and cylinder heads. Contact us for pricing or more info on this kit.


text:
Deliver better, faster, and smarter service
Service desk managers need to streamline service processes with an eye toward increased accuracy and cost efficiency. At the same time, a premium must be placed on delivering compelling end user experiences.
- Scale support and reduce costs through cognitive capabilities
- See higher user satisfaction through fast and accurate service resolutions
- Increase employee productivity and engagement through great user experiences


text:
Norwegian Sea's ups and downs
An anticlockwise rotation of sea-surface height patterns has been observed near Norway's west coast. Archived data from radar altimeters on the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat satellites show the wave-like motion around the centre of the Lofoten Basin.
The Lofoten Basin is a topographic depression about 3500 m deep in the Norwegian Sea and plays an important role in sustaining global ocean circulation. It is a transit area for the warm and saline Atlantic Water on its way to the Arctic Ocean. Here, the inflowing Atlantic Water loses its heat to the atmosphere and mixes with surrounding water. This causes the water to become dense and sink, forming 'deep water' in adjacent regions – another important step in ocean circulation.
Using satellite data, scientists have observed topographic waves in the Lofoten Basin that are largely responsible for the amplification of sea-surface height variability in the area. The waves are approximately 10 cm high and propagate in an anticlockwise direction.
Most of the waves observed had a wavelength of about 500 km, and moved from two to eight km per day.
The waves could be affected by different disturbances like wind or the meandering of the Norwegian Atlantic Current.
It is likely that they can increase the mixing of water masses and even affect the low-frequency variability of local biological processes.
All three ESA satellites used in the study carried radar altimeters – an instrument that can provide precise measurements of sea-surface height, as well as freshwater bodies, land and ice.
The ERS-1/2 and Envisat measurements enabled the provision of sea-surface height with an accuracy of a few centimetres from their orbits around 800 km above Earth.
"The next step in our study will be to investigate the factors that may affect the amplitude of the observed topographic waves," said Denis Volkov, an oceanographer from the University of California Los Angeles.
"We will investigate the sensitivity of the waves to the variability of the nearby Norwegian Atlantic Current and to wind forcing."
The findings were recently presented at the '20 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry' symposium in Venice, Italy.


text:
Maritza Soto pieced one letter a day until she has finished this charming alphabet quilt.
Here's what Maritza had to say about her quilt:
"I wanted to make something unique and fun for a friend's baby, so I picked out my palette and went with an improv alphabet. My only self-imposed parameter was that each letter measure 5 inches tall finished. I made a very loose sketch of how I would lay the letters out, but had no specific plan for how to construct each letter. I cut my fabrics into strips of varying widths, in some cases sewing two strips together to use as one unit, and just went to town. I didn't work in alphabetical order (though I did begin with "A"). I jumped around the alphabet, laying it out as I went along, making sure that each letter visually worked with the ones around it. It was all a pretty intuitive process. I particularly enjoyed sewing together different angles to form slants. That's not something I do normally when quilting so it was fun to play around with that, and I was really pleased with some of those results, like that A and the Z."
Improvisational piecing of letters can be both exciting and challenging. For inspiration and piecing tips, check out the UnRuly Quilter, Tonya Ricucci's blog. (Don't miss the piecing tutorials in the right sidebar!)


text:
More than 250 people representing Canadian RV dealerships, manufacturers and campgrounds attended the fifth Canadian RV and Campground Convention Nov. 5-8 in Victoria, British Columbia.
The event featured three days of meetings, presentations, excursions and entertainment. The multi-day pre-tour of campgrounds on the mainland and the island received high praise.
The Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association of Canada (RVDA of Canada) and the British Columbia Lodging and Campgrounds Association (BCLCA) sponsored the biennial event.
Held for the first time in a Western province since 2003, the event drew a number of industry representatives who had never before attended the convention, noted Louise Morel, executive director of the convention organizing committee.
"The mood of the dealer body was very positive," said Eleonore Hamm, president of RVDA of Canada. "This was a tough year to get through but the majority did, and the majority are going to Louisville."
RVDA of Canada will hold its annual "Canada Night" the night of Nov. 30 at the Galt House in Louisville, Ky., on the eve of the National RV Show.
Hamm noted that dealer participation at the national show was "not much down from the one we held two years ago, which is great."
The associations presented two awards during the convention: David Dobson of RV World in Fredericton, New Brunswick, received the prestigious 2009 Canadian RV Dealer of the Year Award; and Darren Gelowitz of Village RV in Regina, Saskatchewan, accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of his late partner, Bill Ortman, who died earlier this year.
In conjunction with the nationwide meeting, the Alberta, Atlantic and British Columbia RVDAs held their annual general meetings. The new Alberta RVDA officers are:
- President Ross Hodgins, RV City, Morinville.
- Vice President Keith Hanks, Affordable RV, Calgary.
- Treasurer Bill Burnett, Trailblazer RV Centre Ltd., Nisku.
- Past President Darva Macbeth, Woody's RV World, Edmonton.
- One-year directors are Kyle Redmond, Bucars RV Center, Balzac, and Dean Smyl, Smyl R.V. Center, St. Paul
- Two-year directors are Marty Vellner, Vellner Leisure Products, Red Deer, and Darcy Turgeon, Carefree RV & Coach Ltd., Edmonton.
The RVDA of British Columbia elected the following officers:
- President Gord Bragg, Hub City RV, Nanoose Bay.
- Vice president Colin Yaretz, South Thompson RV Ltd., Kamloops.
- Treasurer Chris Clarke, Traveland Leisure Vehicles, Langley.
- Past President Ian Moore, Big Boy's Toys, Nanoose Bay.
- Two-year directors are Chris Swann, Go West, RV, Coquitlam; Jason Bell, Chemo RV, Quesnel; Ward Fraser, Voyager RV, Winfield; and Rob Williamson, LMG, Kamloops.
- One-year directors are Brian McHale, SAL Group, Langley; Darren Johnson, First Canadian, Victoria; and Ruth Neubauer, BMO Bank of Montreal – Retail Dealer Finance, Burnaby.
The Atlantic RVDA postponed its officer election to a later date.
Campgrounds Camping Canada also held its annual meeting during the convention.
The 2011 Canadian RV and Campground Convention will likely be held in the East at a location yet to be determined, Morel and Hamm said.


text:
State of the States
- Order Reprints
- Print Article
States have long been considered the best group of issuers in the municipal bond market, thanks to modest debt levels and ample taxing power. That's still the case, though many states, including Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey and Hawaii, are bedeviled by large unfunded pension liabilities stemming from weak investment returns and inadequate state contributions to the plans. Adding to the strain are huge and growing unfunded liabilities for post-retirement health care for state employees.
That strain was brought into sharper focus recently with Berkshire Hathaway's disclosure that it had terminated $8 billion of municipal derivatives contracts. Those contracts were effectively bullish bets on state finances. Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett is bullish no more. The company's $30 billion bond portfolio is light in munis, and Buffett is warning about rising municipal bankruptcies and of the risks of insuring tax-exempt debt. "The stigma probably has been reduced when you get very sizable cities like Stockton and San Bernardino to do it," Buffett told Bloomberg television last month, referring to the bankruptcy of the two California cities. The fiscal pain -- and credit risk -- is more pronounced at the local than state level.
For municipal bond investors, it all boils down to this: The risk of investing in the debt of some of the country's least financially sound states, compared with the most sound, is not always reflected in the price of their bonds.
By the measure we use, which looks at the combined debt and unfunded pension liabilities relative to GDP in each of the 50 states, South Dakota comes out on top. The state has a strong agricultural economy and a low jobless rate of 4.4%, about half the national average. Debt and unfunded pensions add up to just 1% of GDP. Connecticut, which ranks at the bottom of the list, has a combined score of 17%. Yet the bonds in both states are priced alike, at 28 basis points above the 10-year AAA-rated benchmark, which yields around 1.8%. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Granted, the risk of Connecticut -- or any state, for that matter -- defaulting on its debt is small, but investors are not being rewarded for taking any risk at all.
The ratings agencies, which take a state's economic strength, wealth and taxing power into account, show somewhat different results. Moody's Investors Service sets the average credit rating for all 47 states at a strong Aa2; 15 states have triple-A ratings. It doesn't rate South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming because they have virtually no debt.
The two states with the lowest credit ratings, Illinois and California, are still at single-A, comfortably within the investment-grade category, though Illinois muni debt is priced dramatically higher than the other 49 states, at 157 basis points above the AAA benchmark.
Puerto Rico is off the charts in every metric.
High-quality 30-year muni bonds carry yields in the 3% to 3.5% range. And here, too, with little differentiation being made among the states, investors can benefit by purchasing debt of the better-run states at similar yields to some of the worst. Many individuals from high-tax states admittedly only buy debt from their own states because out-of-state debt is subject to their state's income taxes. Yet many pros advise some state diversity in holdings, especially if munis make up a large portion of an individual's portfolio.
WHICH STATES LOOK BEST? In addition to South Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee and North Carolina are at the top of the list. (Our ranking is based on analysis from Eaton Vance, a leading manager of municipal funds, that measures state debt and unfunded pension liabilities.) The bottom-ranked states are Connecticut, Illinois, Hawaii and Kentucky. Eaton Vance supplied data on 43 states based on publicly available information; that was supplemented by Barron's analysis of the other seven states based on a similar methodology.
"The majority of states are in good shape, but there are some that are more challenged with pension pressures, weak economies, poor finances and limited ability to raise taxes," says Jim Evans, a municipal portfolio manager at Eaton Vance. "Pensions are an important credit factor because pension benefits are almost always constitutionally protected at the state level."
The fiscal backdrop is better than it was three years ago. State tax revenues rose for the ninth straight quarter in the first three months of 2012, increasing 4.7% from the first quarter of 2011, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York in Albany. Projected state fiscal gaps nationwide in the current fiscal year, ending in June 2013, are the lowest since before the financial crisis in 2008. Unlike the federal government, states have to balance their budgets each year, although some have resorted to fiscal gimmicks like asset sales and securitization of future revenues from cigarette companies to eliminate red ink.
"We have been more optimistic than the doomsday folks," says Tom Kozlik, municipal bond analyst at Janney Capital Markets. "The willingness of states to service their debts remains strong." In 2010, the muni market was rattled when analyst Meredith Whitney predicted widespread defaults; that never happened.
States had $510 billion of tax-supported debt outstanding at the end of 2011, according to Moody's. That is comprised primarily of general-obligation bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing state.State debt is a relatively small part of the $3.7 trillion muni market.
THE BIGGER PROBLEM IS PENSIONS. Eaton Vance puts the total unfunded liability of the states at $401 billion, for the fiscal year ended in June 2010, the last year for which complete state data are available. The pension gap is based on states' assumed investment returns, which average about 8%. But Eaton Vance, Buffett and many others argue that the assumptions are aggressive in light of ultra-low rates, a mediocre economy and a lackluster stock market over the past decade.
In a Moody's analysis of state and local pension obligations, the ratings agency found a $766 billion liability based on 2010 data. That's a best-case scenario. Assuming a 5.5% return, which the ratings agency has proposed using to discount pension liabilities, the number balloons to $2.2 trillion, split about equally between state and local governments.
A report from the Pew Center for the States, meanwhile, puts the pension gap at $757 billion nationwide. Its analysis shows another $627 billion of unfunded health-care liabilities. Pensions were almost 80% funded on average in 2010 based on admittedly high investment-return assumptions, but only 5% of post-retirement health-care obligations had been funded by states. California, New Jersey, New York and many other states had little or no money set aside for future health-care needs and were meeting those expenses out of their annual budgets.
INDIVIDUAL STATE PENSION BURDENS rise considerably in a low investment-return scenario. Connecticut's combined debt and pension burden rises to 24% of its GDP from the 17% shown on the table, while Illinois' total liability also grows to 24% from 16%, according to Eaton Vance.
Connecticut's fiscal woes aren't reflected in the bond market, where its 10-year debt yields only about one-quarter point above the triple-A average, and its debt ratings still are a solid double-A from both Moody's and Standard & Poor's. That said, Moody's downgraded Connecticut's general-obligation debt in January, to Aa3 from Aa2, citing "high combined fixed costs for debt service and post employment benefits relative to the state budget" and pension funding ratios that are "among the lowest in the country" at around 50%.
One muni manager says outdated investor perceptions aid Connecticut, including its former status as a top-rated state -- an idea that the whole state is one big version of Fairfield County, the wealthy region that includes tony towns like Greenwich, Darien, and Westport. Connecticut's major cities, including Bridgeport and New Haven, are depressed and a drain on the state's coffers. Once known as a low-tax alternative to neighboring New York, Connecticut now has the third highest state and local tax burden in the country at 12% of per capita income, behind New York and New Jersey, according to the Tax Foundation.
Illinois, too, is a mess, with a pension plan that is less than 50% funded and a deficit of over $75 billion in 2010. Union opposition recently helped kill a recent legislative effort to alleviate state budget pressure by reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments on pensions or requiring higher health-insurance payments by state employees.
The rating agencies don't view pension liabilities as being as onerous as debt because states can implement change to benefit plans to reduce their obligations. Recognizing the growing danger of underfunded plans, some 43 states have enacted pension reforms since 2010. Yet these trumpeted measures sometimes haven't done much to reduce underfunding because the actions also were accompanied by meager annual state contributions to pension plans.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie last year got concessions from state and local workers, including teachers, on pensions, but that came after the state made little or no contributions to its pension plans from fiscal 2009 through 2011. New Jersey doesn't expect to make its full actuarial recommended contribution until 2018. Fitch Ratings noted that the state's pension plan, which was 65% funded in 2010, is projected to fall to 53% by 2015 even with reforms. Moody's warned in downgrading the state's debt rating last year to Aa3 from Aa2 that fixed cost for debt service, pension and health care could eat up 30% of the state budget by 2019, crowding out other expenditures.
By comparison, most of the top states on our list have well-funded pensions. Tennessee has kept debt low and has made full contributions to its pension plan since 1972. As a result, its plan is 90% funded. Fiscally conservative Texas has better-than average debt and pension funding levels plus one of the largest rainy-day reserve funds of any state. It also has a healthy economy.
New York has a reputation for excessive government spending and onerous taxation. That's borne out by the state's enormous Medicaid tab, but New York's pension funding level of 94% is one of the best in the country, putting it in much better shape than neighboring New Jersey or Connecticut. Wisconsin is the only state that was 100% funded on its pensions in 2010. It used to have a lot of company because the average state was fully funded in 2000. That was right before the tech bubble burst, ushering in a low-return decade for the U.S. stock market and a rocky financial environment that prompted many states to skimp on pension contributions.
The situation didn't get much better in fiscal 2011 even though investment returns were strong; a study by the Center for Retirement Research of Boston College found that 126 state and local plans were only 75% funded as of June 2011.
There is no quick fix. More realistic approaches to retirement-related benefits can help stem the growth of the states' liabilities, as can tighter budget controls. But the one variable that cannot be controlled is investment returns, and the fiscal year that ended this past June was no doubt another tough one. For example, the giant California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest state plan, with $233 billion in assets, had an investment return of 1%, far below its assumed return of 7.5%.
There is no immediate danger, either. While the pension problems should not be minimized, the vast majority of states are in a strong financial position, and their debt offers investors considerable safety -- even if yields are paltry in today's low-rate world.
Puerto Rico Munis Are No Vacation
Among major tax-exempt bond issuers, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico carries the most risk by far, but the U.S. territory's financial and economic woes don't appear to be reflected in its bond yields.
Puerto Rico carries a large net debt load of $51.9 billion, higher than every state except New York and California. It also has a big unfunded pension liability of $33 billion. The territory's economy is only starting to recover after a long downturn that started in 2006. Unemployment is high, at 13.7%, and incomes are low.
The territory's ratios of debt to personal income and GDP are off the charts relative to the states with a debt/GDP ratio of 53%, against a 3% average for the states. Combine debt with unfunded pension liabilities and the ratio to GDP approaches 90%. Puerto Rico's governor since 2009, Luis Fortuna, gets good marks for his efforts to revitalize the island's economy, including cuts in bloated government employment and some tax cuts, but he faces a tall order in restoring long-term economic health.
IN A JUNE REPORT, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wrote "the competitiveness of the economy has been deteriorating" and that "scant progress has been made in addressing the island's long-standing high unemployment." Some tax breaks to U.S. manufacturers expired in 2006, about the time the island's economy began a long slide. One impediment to business is high electric costs, which are nearly triple the U.S. average.
Janney fixed-income strategist Alan Schankel warned in a recent report that yields on Puerto Rico general-obligation debt, around 4% for 10-year maturities and 5% for 30-year bonds "do not reflect bondholder risk."
Puerto Rico bonds still have investment-grade bond ratings from Moody's, S&P and Fitch in the triple-B range, which is one notch above junk status. Moody's has warned it may downgrade Puerto Rico's debt, which would raise the territory's borrowing costs and further stretch its balance sheet.
There are multiple debt issuers in Puerto Rico, most of whose finances are intertwined with the government. They include the Public Buildings Authority and Government Development Bank. The Sales Tax Financing Corp., or Cofina, is viewed as the best credit because its $15 billion debt is backed by a dedicated revenue source from sales and use taxes. It has double-A ratings.
Janney has called the government's financial disclosure "opaque" and that was underscored earlier this year when Moody's did an extensive study of the island's finances and found $7 billion more debt than it previously had counted. That's not an encouraging development.
PUERTO RICAN BONDS are widely held in municipal bond funds, including many single-state funds, because interest is exempt from income taxes in all 50 states. Many fund managers looking to boost yields in a low-rate environment have gravitated to Puerto Rico debt. The $106 million Oppenheimer Rochester Maryland fund (ticker: ORMDX) has 40.9% of its assets in various Puerto Rico issuers, and the Oppenheimer Rochester Virginia fund (ORVAX) has a 36.5% weighting. Puerto Rico debt is a far cry from Maryland and Virginia general-obligation bonds, which are triple-A rated.
While Oppenheimer fund prospectuses permit such Puerto Rico investments and returns on those funds have been strong, it's debatable whether any single-state fund should have such a large out-of-state exposure, especially to lower-rated bonds.
"Puerto Rico is moving in the right direction," says Troy Willis, senior portfolio manager at Oppenheimer Funds, citing declining budget deficits and reduced government employment. "We think Puerto Rico is an attractive sector."
Investors who follow his lead may need a strong stomach.
E-mail: email@example.com


text:
Dave White Profile
Dave White
Your Movies.com Man at the Multiplex
Dave White's first movie review was of the animated feature Snoopy Come Home. He was seven years old...Read full profile
Your Movies.com Man at the Multiplex
Dave White's first movie review was of the animated feature Snoopy Come Home. He was seven years old...Read full profile
Accordion Jam 2012 starts here. Read full review
Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
out of 100
Metascore®Universal acclaimbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.
An exhilarating puzzle, one of the grand cinematic eruptions of the year.
Read Full Review
Exhilarating, opaque, heartbreaking and completely bonkers – French auteur Leos Carax's so-called comeback film, Holy Motors, is a deliciously preposterous piece of filmmaking that appraises life and death and everything in between, reflected in a funhouse mirror.
Here is a film that is exasperating, frustrating, anarchic and in a constant state of renewal. It's not tame. Some audience members are going to grow very restless. My notion is, few will be bored.
Lavant is splendid in the film, and he's essentially the entire film - and yet, Holy Motors is somewhat more than a contraption built for a fearless performer.
See all Holy Motors reviews at Metacritic.com
not for kids
French drama is mature and strange, but also sad and lovely.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Holy Motors is a very strange yet poetic, sad, lovely -- and mature -- movie from highly respected French director Leos Carax. Violence ranges from unsettling dream/nightmare imagery and discussions of death to killings, spurting blood, and dead bodies. There's also graphic male full-frontal nudity (including an erect penis) and other strong sexuality. Language is mild but includes two uses of the French "merde," which the English subtitles translate as "s--t." The main character also smokes several cigarettes and gets drunk on whisky. Holy Motors is bizarre enough that only the most movie-crazy teens will even be interested in seeing it.
Messages: It's tough to know what Holy Motors is actually saying, but one possible theme is the sad, lonely lives of performers, giving up their own identities and taking on others' on cue. Characters don't seem to learn much, except that we see them growing weary of such a life.
Role models: The main character is a highly skilled actor and performer who takes on several different characters and occupies them completely. This level of skill is admirable and inspirational, but the character himself is rather sad and lonely and growing weary of his existence.
Violence: The main character plays a creepy monster in one sequence, with a milky-white eye and a crazy walk. He bites off a woman's fingers, with blood. Later, he kidnaps a model, licks her armpit, and smears blood from his lips there. Characters are stabbed in the neck, with streams of spurting blood. A man is shot at a sidewalk cafe, with more blood. Two figures are shown splattered on the sidewalk, having jumped from the top of a building. Characters die, and there are conversations about death. There's also some strange, unsettling, and potentially scary dream/nightmare imagery.
Sex: The main character appears fully naked for long moments, with an erect penis. An attractive woman appears in a latex motion-capture outfit, and the main character wears a similar outfit. They engage in sensual touching (breasts) and licking (crotch area). Later, their performance is turned into a brief, computer-animated scene of lovemaking dragon-like creatures (complete with animated penis). Another woman appears in her bra and panties.
Language: The French "merde" is used twice, and the subtitles translate it to "s--t." "Moron" and "idiot" are also used.
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: The main character smokes cigarettes regularly. He slowly starts drinking whisky over the course of the film; in one scene, he appears to be drunk. The mood is one of despair and regret, rather than humor.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology.
© Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
Copyright © 2019 FANDANGO MOVIES.