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As far as the mint goes though, I'd make every effort to obtain some, as I can't imagine another herb pairing as well. Lastly, the Snoop Dogg reference in the title foreshadows a Snoop Dogg reference made during the garnishing portion of the video. For more information, ask your kids. I hope you give this lovely, spring soup a try soon. Enjoy!
View the complete recipe


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The eighth Asian Corporate Governance Roundtable took place at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, in Bangkok, Thailand, on 14-15 September 2006. The principal agenda items for the meeting included:
The discussion on implementation and enforcement of corporate governance rules was based on case studies in Thailand, Singapore and Chinese Taipei. Participants from OECD and Asian economies exchanged views on practical circumstances and challenges in the range of enforcement options: administrative, civil and criminal.
There was a lively exchange of views on boardroom practices, with some useful insights into the ten key board room challenges as a basis for the Boardroom Guide to the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance that is being developed. While trying to stay away from the issue of definition, participants discussed how to balance the composition of the board to prevent controlling shareholders from undermining minority shareholder interests and also how to motivate directors to be "independent-minded".
Finally, participants discussed a number of on-going and new initiatives on corporate governance that could be relevant to the Asian Roundtable. Also, a dozen of general and specific proposals for the next meeting were made. A significant issue that stood out and that cuts across the board is the equitable treatment of shareholders.
Given the concentrated ownership structure in Asia, there is a need to analyse the legal and regulatory systems in more depth. The importance of the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs and the continued need to address these issues was stressed.
The meeting was organized by the OECD in cooperation with the World Bank Group and co-hosted by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Thai Institute of Directors and the Listed Companies Association in partnership with the Government of Japan and the Global Corporate Governance Forum.
Welcoming remarks:
SESSION I: Case Studies on Implementation and Enforcement of Corporate Governance Rules
SESSION 2: Implementation and Enforcement of Corporate Governance Rules - Progress Made and Challenges Ahead
SESSION 3: Ten Boardroom Challenges; A Boardroom Guide to the
OECD Principles on Corporate Governance
Introduction of the Boardroom Guide project by Ms. Anne Simpson, Executive Director, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
SESSION 4: Independent Non-executive Directors
SESSION 5: Related Activities and Next Steps
Related Documents

subset: commoncrawl


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"I don't know what he [Conor Casey] was thinking. It was extremely late. It was incredibly dangerous. I almost got the sense he was trying to intentionally hurt me, how bad it was. He followed
through all the way up to my chest, through my chin. I've got pretty bad whiplash right now. I thought it was a terrible, terrible play."
-- Columbus Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer after getting hammered by Colorado striker Conor Casey, who was red-carded for the offense in the Crew's 4-1 win on Sunday. (MLSsoccer.com)


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When Around The League met with Seahawks general manager John Schneider at the NFL Annual Meeting in March, nothing brought a bigger smile to his face than talking about Christine Michael.
The hard-charging second-year running back barely saw action last season behind workhorse Marshawn Lynch, but Schneider cited Michael as a runner with excess "God-given ability" and the chance to compete for more time in Year 2.
With Lynch skipping this week's OTAs, Michael made the most of that opportunity on Wednesday, grinding out carries with the first team and rattling off "several impressive" dashes in 11-on-11s, per ESPN.com's Terry Blount.
"We have very high expectations for him," coach Pete Carroll said of Michael. "He's going to get a ton of work. He's just a million miles ahead of where he was in terms of understanding what we want scheme-wise, pass protection-wise, route-wise and we know he's a natural runner. He's got explosive talent and we just want to get him to fit in."
Like the young Carlos Hyde nestled behind Frank Gore in San Francisco, Michael might still be a year away from seeing significant work behind Lynch. We'd be surprised, though, if he doesn't hopscotch the lower-ceilinged Robert Turbin to see regular carries this season before potentially taking over the lead role in 2015.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" breaks down the news and discusses players who could be summertime trade targets.


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On the Spot: On this United flight, seats come at a premium
Question: I have a complaint about being forced to pay $60 extra for an Economy Plus seat for a United flight from New York to L.A. The only seats offered were Economy Plus. It's not that the economy seat options were exhausted — there were none to start with. I thought this was a technical glitch, so I confirmed my purchase and called United to get my seat assignment. The ticketing agent had no clue why those seats were Economy Plus only. It's like paying the fare to get on a public bus, and then once you get on the bus, being told that you have to pay an additional $60 just for a seat.
Kenneth Ong
El Segundo
Answer: In all the furor this summer about seating, I had forgotten about United's Premium Service flights, which have been around since 2004, although they were apparently flying under my radar and Ong's too.
But not Charlie Hobart's. The United spokesman said this in an email: "All flights between JFK and LAX or SFO [San Francisco] are p.s. Premium Service flights. We use three-cabin 757 aircraft with United First p.s., United Business p.s. and United Economy p.s, which offers Economy Plus seating throughout the entire cabin." He sent a link for more information (www.lat.ms/Lvj1Xb), which announces that in economy you get up to five extra inches of legroom and a free copy of Hemispheres magazine. These may be attractive perks, but if you're 5 feet 2 inches and read about travel all day, $60 seems a lot to pay for legroom you don't need and a travel magazine you don't especially want.
But such fees do have an upside, although not one that may be apparent to the consumer.
"These [fees] have been an important source of revenue the last few years," said Alicia Jao, vice president of travel media at Nerdwallet.com, a personal finance and travel website. "It has enabled [airlines] to achieve a profit."
The most recent statistics from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics do, indeed, show that airlines are profitable, making $228 million in the first quarter of 2012. Delta alone made $386 million. If you're quick with math, this suggests that some airlines lost money, and the biggest loser was United at $284 million. (Other first-quarter losers: American at $102 million and AirTran, Southwest's new bedfellow, at $7 million.)
The Transportation Statistics Bureau doesn't break out seat fees, but it does have categories for baggage fees (the now familiar $3.4 billion in 2011) and change/cancellation fees (a mind-boggling $2.4 billion, also in 2011).
You can hope airlines will see the downside to the fee frenzy, but, Jao notes, "I think these are here to stay."
We'll see what happens to United, which is struggling after its merger with Continental. It has many issues to confront, so this may be far down on the list.
It also raises an interesting possibility — one that I ran by Andrew R. Thomas, author of "Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service, and Safety." Is it possible that it's time for a one-class-of-service aircraft that caters to higher-end or business travelers?
In an email, Thomas replied, "The question … might be best answered within the context of the Yogi Berra dictum, 'In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice there is.'"
Thomas agreed that two classes of aircraft would make sense. "However, in practice, given the constant 'crisis' the airline industry always seems to be in, any major alteration to the present model is not a realistic possibility: Think the Concorde, for example."
Ah, yes, the supersonic and now, super-dead Concorde.
So what are we, the pitiful consumer, to do? Awareness, Jao counsels, which means using a fee disclosure tool (NerdWallet has one at https://www.nerdwallet.com/travel) until such time as the Department of Transportation mandates that all fares come with such disclosures. As Ong noted — and I learned after doing a test-booking — you don't know that United's JFK-LAX flights are Premium until you get to booking your seat. It's a question of transparency, when you get down to it. It's not wrong to make money — the more airlines we have, the lower airline ticket prices will be, thanks to competition, but it's not fair if we feel tricked into helping an airline achieve it.
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Here is the Deferred "Real" Pricing file.
Our Deferred "Real" Pricing Report tracks the deferred carry cost of holding your grain against the spot price to help deduce the most attractive delivery windows. Deferred delivery costs are why our J-MAS sales averages often appear lower than your actual contracts and cashed-up prices as these costs are "hidden" and you pay/incur them through other means such as Opportunity and Infrastructure Costs as well as the many risks associated with Storage.


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Thanks to My Readers -- The Solution for White Non-Fluorescent Paper
Thanks to my readers, I have cracked the problem of finding white non-fluorescent paper, which I will post here for the benefit of future Google searchers. At first I tried some natural bond paper, and it didn't fluoresce, but it added too much yellow to the final product. I was just in the middle of playing with Photoshop to see if I could compensate, when Agesilaus said that this was a concern in archival and art photography and what I wanted was OBA-free paper. OBA is the term for a class of optical brighteners that fluoresce and are used in most papers, and because they can cause fading, artists and photographers create a market for OBA-free paper. It can be expensive, like 70 cents a sheet, but since I can put most all the signs and details I need on a sheet or two, that is no big deal. Here is one source, not surprisingly from the comments, a photography outlet.
Thanks everyone!
PS - TJIC thought the scorpion thing was creepy. It sort of is, but it beats shoveling snow.


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Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles.
three -- straight months with at least nine homers for Chris Davis.
Davis is having such a crazy season, I could rename this segment "Five Chris Davis stats that stand out." Heck, I could probably find 15 impressive stats a week. For the sake of variety, though, I must pick and choose. This week's Davis stat is something that an Orioles player hasn't done since Rafael Palmeiro, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Davis has hit at least nine home runs in three straight months, last done by Palmeiro in 1998. His two-run home run in Tuesday's win over the Cleveland Indians was his ninth in June and his 28th this season, breaking the team record for homers by the end of June, one more than Brady Anderson had in 1996.
five -- starts in a row with a victory for Chris Tillman.
Tillman allowed three runs over seven innings Tuesday night to get the win, his fifth in his past five starts. It was the first time in his career that he won five straight starts, according to Stats Inc. He pitched 31 total innings in those five starts and compiled a 2.61 ERA. Tillman, a 25-year-old right-hander, is now 9-2 on the season and he leads all Orioles starters in wins (nine), ERA (3.72) and strikeouts (75). He ranks seventh in baseball in wins and is two shy of Detroit's Max Scherzer, who leads the league in wins. Tillman's last loss was eight starts ago on May 19.
496 -- straight at-bats without a home run for Alexi Casilla before the second baseman snapped that streak Tuesday.
Casilla's three-run homer off Indians starter Justin Masterson in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday night capped off an Orioles comeback and proved to be the game-winning hit in a 6-3 victory at Camden Yards. It was the 28-year-old's first home run in an Orioles uniform and just the 12th home run of his career. Casilla's last home run was August 8, 2012, also coming off Masterson, according to Elias Sports Bureau. It had been a stretch of 496 at-bats without a home run.
10.19 -- Freddy Garcia's ERA in his five starts in June.
Garcia gave the Orioles a few quality starts during his time in the rotation, but as the temperatures rose in June, Garcia faltered. In five June starts, the 37-year-old righty went 1-3 with a 10.19 ERA and allowed nine homers in just 17 2/3 innings. Garcia allowed seven earned runs before exiting in the third inning of Sunday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. He was designated for assignment a day later, putting his future in Baltimore in doubt. In 11 starts, he went 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA.
13 -- straight games with a home run for the Orioles.
With a league-leading 108 home runs in 78 games, the Orioles don't go many days without hitting one. With the home runs from Davis and Casilla in Tuesday's win over the Indians, the Orioles have now hit home runs in 13 straight games, their longest stretch this season. According to MASN, the Orioles hit 22 homers over that stretch, including 15 in their past seven games. Their last game without a home run was June 11.
Bloggers note: Have a nifty stat you want to share? E-mail me at email@example.com or tweet at me at @mattvensel. If I use it, I'll be sure to give you a nice plug on the blog.


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|Local police involved in 400 killings per year
|August 14, 2014
|Kevin Johnson, Meghan Hoyer and Brad Heath , USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Nearly two times a week in the United States, a white police officer killed a black person during a seven-year period ending in 2012, according to the most recent accounts of justifiable homicide reported to the FBI.
On average, there were 96 such incidents among at least 400 police killings each year that were reported to the FBI by local police. The numbers appear to show that the shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., last Saturday was not an isolated event in American policing.
The reports show that 18% of the blacks killed during those seven years were under age 21, compared to 8.7% of whites. The victim in Ferguson was 18-year-old Michael Brown. Police have yet to identify the officer who shot him; witnesses have said the officer was white.
While the racial analysis is striking, the database it's based on has been long considered flawed and largely incomplete. The killings are self-reported by law enforcement and not all police departments participate so the database undercounts the actual number of deaths. Plus, the numbers are not audited after they are submitted to the FBI and the statistics on "justifiable" homicides have conflicted with independent measures of fatalities at the hands of police.
About 750 agencies contribute to the database, a fraction of the 17,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States.
University of South Carolina criminologist Geoff Alpert, who has long studied police use of deadly force, said the FBI's limited database underscores a gaping hole in the nation's understanding of how often local police take a life on America's streets — and under what circumstances.
''There is no national database for this type of information, and that is so crazy," said Alpert. "We've been trying for years, but nobody wanted to fund it and the (police) departments didn't want it. They were concerned with their image and liability. They don't want to bother with it.''
Alpert said the database can confirm that a death has occurred but is good for little else.
"I've looked at records in hundreds of departments,'' Alpert said, "and it is very rare that you find someone saying, 'Oh, gosh, we used excessive force.' In 98.9% of the cases, they are stamped as justified and sent along.''
Despite those flaws, the FBI records remain the most complete nationwide accounting of people killed by the police.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police, the nation's largest group of police officials, has maintained that police use of force is rare. Citing data gathered by the Bureau of Justices Statistics in 2008, the IACP said less than 2% of the 40 million people who had contact with police reported the use of force or threatened use of force.
"In large part, the public perception of police use of force is framed and influenced by the media depictions which present unrealistic and often outlandish representations of law enforcement and the policing profession,'' the group said in a 2012 report.
And in a written statement Thursday, IACP President Yost Zakhary said the group "remains committed to studying police use of force issues.''
But University of Nebraska criminologist Samuel Walker, who has conducted extensive research on police force issues, called the lack of a national repository tracking such incidents a "major failure'' of the criminal justice system.
That doesn't mean that all incidents have escaped scrutiny. In addition to federal and state prosecutions of individual officers, seven U.S. police departments have been the subject of reviews by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in the wake of fatal police shootings since 2010, according to Justice records.
Albuquerque and New Orleans represented the most egregious cases during that time, while separate reviews have involved Puerto Rico, Portland, Miami, Seattle and Newark.
Timeline: The Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.
Mo. governor to visit Ferguson after 4 nights of clashes
Earlier this year, street protests erupted in Albuquerque following the police shooting death of James Boyd, a homeless man who had a history of violent outbursts and mental instability.
A month later, the Justice Department issued a scathing review of the local police department, concluding that of 20 fatal shootings resulting in death between 2009 and 2012, a "majority ... were unconstitutional.''
"I'll be the first one to say that they put their life on the line every day, but they're killing innocent people and kids," said Christal Kennerson, whose nephew was shot and killed by an Albuquerque police officer in 2012. XXX_AP120329096644
Kendrec McDade's cousin, Kaysa McDade, left, gets a kiss from her niece, Ryan McDade, 5, as the family mourns Kendrec McDade, a 19-year-old Citrus College student at a memorial in Pasadena, Calif. on Thursday, March 29, 2012. McDade was shot by police after being chased and making a move, reaching into his waistband, according to police. The police were chasing McDade, believing him to be one of two thiefs who had just robbed Oscar Carrillo, who had told police that McDade was armed.(Photo: Damian Dovarganes ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Her nephew, Daniel Tillison, 31, was unarmed at the time. Police said the officer was responding to an anonymous report of someone selling stolen stereo parts. An investigation by local prosecutors found that when the officer approached him, Tillison put his car in gear and tried to drive away, colliding with the officer's patrol car. The officer, Martin Smith, said he saw Tillison holding a black object; fearing that it was a gun, he shot Tillison once, killing him. Prosecutors concluded that the shooting was justified.
Kennerson said nothing her nephew had done justified killing him. "Just because my nephew wasn't an angel didn't mean he needed to die," she said.
An Austin police officer shot Billie Mercer's unarmed son in the back of the neck last year. The oldest of his three children, now 13, still asks when he'll be able to see his father again, she said.
"I already feel like I have a hole in my heart, and to see my grandkids missing him like that," she said, going quiet for a moment. "That detective, he just doesn't know what he did to our family." XXX_040814-met-shooting-folo-3-01413
Tinoris Williams (left) with his daughter, Dejeh Williams. Tinoris Williams was shot to death by a PBSO deputy during an incident on Orleans Court earlier this week. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post) ORG XMIT: 1113308 [Via MerlinFTP Drop](Photo: Allen Eyestone, The Palm Beach Post)
Mercer's son, Larry Jackson, Jr., was killed after he tried to open the door of an Austin bank that had been robbed earlier that day. A detective, Charles Kleinert, tried to question him, but Jackson fled. Kleinert — who at one point got a ride from a passerby — pursued him under a nearby bridge, where he shot Jackson in the back of the neck. A grand jury indicted Kleinert on a manslaughter charge in May. It charged that Kleinert was trying to strike Jackson while he was holding his gun, "recklessly" causing his death. Jackson died under the bridge.
Watching news reports of other police shootings "hurts, and something needs to be done about it. The police are protecting their own when they know they're wrong," Mercer said.
Beyond the work of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which is largely focused on individual agencies, Walker said a national repository of police deadly force cases is needed to define the scope of the problem for the public.
"The reason there isn't one is because the information is often embarrassing for police departments,'' Walker said.
"People should be able to log into a database and identify where their own department stands on this,'' he said, adding that the information supplied annually to the FBI on police officers who are killed or assaulted in the line of duty is far more detailed.
The IACP was part of project launched in 1996 to collect police use-of-force information across the nation. That effort was shutdown in 2001 when federal funding expired.
Contributing: Mark Hannan
|Send comments to: email@example.com


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I. Economics of a Manufacturer (Not a warehouser) (25 mins)
A. New economic expenses that face manufacturers and drive real estate decisions
a. Labor cost issues and how it is narrowing profit margins. Labor cost as a percent of total operating costs in order to understand its importance and the reason to outsource to other countries
b. High land costs that can drive up the rental rates to an industrial user and force users to move to less expensive markets.
c. Increasing transportation costs; air, rail, trucking that impact site selection locations to less expensive transportation modes and influence the choice of transportation such as the west coast and the use of rail
d. How the above three items effects an industrial company's return on capital and influences its decision to lease vs. own
e. The new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) vs. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the very general accounting changes that a broker should be aware of that could impact an industrial user's decision to lease vs. own. In other words, how a capital lease vs. an operating lease would affect a public industrial user's real estate decisions.
f. Impact of the accounting system to the broker on sublet rental rates, straight-lining rents, broker's opinion letter of market rents. How new accounting affects straight-line rents and rental rate losses on subletting
g. Working with industrial users on lease renewals to create flexible lease terms with termination language or options to extend
h. How foreign exchange rates are favoring foreign national industries and Research & Development (R&D) users to move to Massachusetts and how the exchange rate plays a part in lease/purchase negotiations in Massachusetts
II. Logistics and Supply Chain Process (30 mins)
a. The broker's need to understand logistics chain process in industrial site selection that can influence an end-user to lease a more expensive building or buy a more expensive land location
b. Brokerage understanding of how industrial users are re-evaluating their supply chain strategy and its impact for distribution space with higher ceiling heights and using cubic feet as a metric.
c. Defining "multi-modal" vs. "intermodal" and what is means to a broker. Identifying how intermodal plays a wrinkle to the distribution of goods, buildings that are rail-served for delivery of bulk goods and how volume pricing is cheaper
d. A review of recent shifts from container shipping and industrial ports like to Boston to inland transportation hubs that can change trends for site location to the suburbs
e. Cost effective shipping options such Boston harbor and the use of Massport that might make Boston a more popular location than the Port of Newark. How shipping from SE Asia is closer to Boston than California and that shift from Korea to SE Asia of goods could make Boston a more desirable port to unload ships
f. Rail service and benefits (with such companies as CSX Corporation and its partners). The definition of double-stacking, size of cars, switching issues, day and night service, faster and more efficient as compared to trucks.
g. Air Freight with high value inventory (Logan Airport) as an alternative. Companies such as Legal Seafoods have processing plant on the harbor to be close to Logan.
h. Kennedy Airport is still the preferred airport and how that negatively effects Boston and New England.
i. Distance Based Pricing, how it works and why tenants price in the cost of real estate as it pertains to DBP
j. "Turn" rates per day are important (to and from port to distribution center) and how that influences site selection to more expensive locations.
III. Industrial Site Selection Brokerage Issues (25 mins)
- Industrial broker's need to know how small Massachusetts users seek niches to be creative, supply local customers and be more agile on service and to understand how the real estate decision is affected by operational variable.
- Broker's knowledge of industrial user's customer contracts and workplace operations that affect real estate leasing terms for flexibility, rent, total occupancy cost, etc. It is not about comparing one industrial building's rent to another building's rental rate.
- New industrial metrics that determine building affordability such Cost per seat, cost per cubic feet, cost per truck delivery, frequency of "turn rates"; cost per truck deliveries per route, net margins as a percent of real estate costs, cost per palate, cost per mile, etc.
- Industrial broker's knowledge of the new industrial trend toward infrastructure-related industries such as Caterpillar and Deere
- Offer resources available to identify municipalities close to Boston port or near main trunks of rail and highway
- Identify rail companies such as CSX to identify rail service lines
- The industrial broker's knowledge to transportation hubs and how older transport hubs may need to adjust to build additional infrastructure to attract industrial users
- End-users needs specific to external logistic hubs and how an industrial building will chain into the hubs
- This specialty is known as "logistics property brokerage business"
- How the industrial broker is faced with industrial user issues on "Intellectual Property" in Asia and the broker's role to protect the operations of an industrial users
- The industrial trend to move overseas operations to the U.S. due to productivity, work ethic, transportation/distribution costs and overall operational efficiency
IV. Industrial Real Estate Cost Comparison (15 mins)
1. The knowledge needed by industrial brokers to identify and use the metrics systems employed by industrial users in real estate decisions as mentioned above
2. Discussion on how rental rate comparisons have become less important as a metric for brokers when surveying the industrial marketplace.
3. How an industrial broker's knowledge of financing with MassDevelopment and Mass Alliance has been a new partner
4. New economic expense metrics that impact affordable rental rates and the exodus from Massachusetts to other states
V. The 21st Century Industrial Building Physical Characteristics (25 mins)
1. "Just in Time" process, bar coding and the impact on building design and decrease need for space and how it saves the end-user money but not shutting down a building for inventory count.
2. How automation, robotics has changed the industrial physical needs by saving on labor costs and expediting the delivery of goods to a truck
3. Global Positioning System (GPS) use for air transportation and telecom needs at industrial facilities that the broker needs to be aware of
4. Broker's understanding of cross-dock warehousing. Defining "cross-docking" and what the advantages are to an end-user and its need in a warehouse building
5. Identifying other highest and best use of "functionally obsolete" industrial or mill buildings
6. The need by start-up manufacturers and R&D users for mill building space as incubator space that is very inexpensive from a rent and occupancy standpoint
7. An industrial broker's awareness of how a mill building could offer a user the ability to compete successfully with adaptive re-use buildings by having lower occupancy costs.
"The World is Flat" by Tom Friedmann
"China Inc." by Ted Fishman
CoreNet Industrial
Society of Industrial and Office Realtors
National Association of Industrial and Office Properties
CSX Rail Map


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General Electric today announced plans to spend $1.4 billion to acquire two of the world's top suppliers of metal-based 3D printing manufacturing equipment, Arcam AB and SLM Solutions Group AG.
Both companies will become part of GE's Aviation division, where the technology will be used to increase GE's production of aircraft components and other parts through additive manufacturing.
GE said it expects to grow the new additive manufacturing business to $1 billion by 2020 "at attractive returns" and also expects $3 billion to $5 billion of product cost-out across the company over the next 10 years.
"This is very big news!" Terry Wohlers, president of industry research firm Wohlers Associates, said in an email reply to Computerworld. "It could definitely help advance the development and adoption of metal additive manufacturing technology."
As a whole, the additive manufacturing (3D printing) industry grew 25.9% last year to $5.1 billion in sales and services, according to the 21st edition of the Wohlers Report.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the previous three years was 33.8%; over the past 27 years, the CAGR for the industry has been 26.2%.
Worldwide revenues from additive manufacturing and 3D printing are expected to reach $12.8 billion by 2018, according to Wohlers Associates. By 2020, Wohlers forecasts revenues from all products and services in the 3D printer industry to exceed $21 billion.
In 2015, 62 manufacturers sold industrial-grade additive manufacturing systems that were valued at more than $5,000, compared to 49 in 2014. That's twice as many as the 31 companies that sold industrial systems in 2011.
"European companies dominate the metal [additive manufacturing] space," Wohlers said. "Arcam and SLM Solutions are among the top companies in the business of offering machines that produce metal parts by additive manufacturing. Arcam is different from most other metal [additive manufacturing] machines because it uses an electron beam as the energy source, whereas SLM Solutions and most others use a laser."
Arcam AB, based in Mölndal, Sweden, invented the electron beam melting machine for metal-based additive manufacturing, and also produces advanced metal powders. Its customers are in the aerospace and healthcare industries. Arcam generated $68 million in revenues in 2015 with about 285 employees, according to GE.
In addition to its Sweden site, Arcam operates AP&C, a metal powders operation in Canada, and DiSanto Technology, a medical additive manufacturing firm in Connecticut., as well as sales and application sites worldwide.
SLM Solutions Group, based in Lübeck, Germany, produces laser machines for metal-based additive manufacturing with customers in the aerospace, energy, healthcare, and automotive industries. SLM, with 260 employees, generated $74 million in revenues in 2015. In addition to its operations in Germany, SLM has sales and application sites worldwide.
Last year, GE completed a multi-year project to 3D print a working jet engine.
The engine, small enough to fit in a backpack, was built by a team of technicians, machinists and engineers at GE Aviation's Additive Development Center outside Cincinnati. The lab is working with additive manufacturing as a way to produce next-generation jet parts using a technique known as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLM).
In July, GE Aviation introduced into airline service its first additive jet engine component -- complex fuel nozzle interiors -- with the LEAP jet engine. The LEAP engine is the new, best-selling engine from CFM International, a 50/50 joint company of GE and Safran Aircraft Engines of France.
More than 11,000 LEAP engines are on order, with up to 20 fuel nozzles in every engine, setting the stage for sustainably high and long-term additive production at GE Aviation's Auburn, Ala. manufacturing plant. Production will ramp up to more than 40,000 fuel nozzles using additive manufacturing by 2020.
GE Aviation is also using additive to produce components in its most advanced military engines. In the general aviation world, GE is developing the Advanced Turboprop Engine (ATP) for a new Cessna aircraft with a significant portion of the entire engine produced using additive manufacturing.
"GE's aspirations in additive fits our long-term business model. We have world-class industrial businesses that leverage systems integration, material sciences, services and Predix,"Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, said in a statement. "We want all of our businesses to leverage the GE Store, promote digital differentiation, and drive productivity for GE and our customers. We are excited about the opportunity.
"Additive manufacturing is a key part of GE's evolution into a digital industrial company," Immelt said. "...We are poised to not only benefit from this movement as a customer, but spearhead it as a leading supplier."


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Caspian terns and a Herring gull, Hills Beach, Biddeford, Maine, August 31, 2017
These are the largest terns in the world.
Caspian tern in flight
Hills Beach, Biddeford, Maine, August 31, 2017
Royal Terns
Bunche Beach, Fort Myers, Florida, February 23, 2009
Forster's Tern, non-breeding plumage
Royal Terns (adult, left and juvenile, right) and Black Skimmer
Sanibel Island, Florida, February 28, 2011
Least Tern with sandlance
Popham Beach, Maine, July 23, 2014
Begging Least Tern chick
Popham Beach, Maine, June 2014
Least Tern and chicks
Least Tern chick begging
Popham Beach, Maine, August 8, 2014
Least Tern
Common Tern diving
Bailey Island, Maine, August 9, 2010
Common Tern with fish
Bailey Island, Maine, August 9, 2014
Common Tern
Common Terns gang fishing
Bailey Island, August 9, 2014
Least Tern bringing sand lance to nest
Popham Beach, Maine, June 26, 2013
Black Tern
Messalonskee Lake, Belgrade, Maine, July 19, 2013
Sanibel, Florida, January 19, 2013
Black Skimmer
Bunche Beach, Fort Myers, Florida, January 2015
Black Skimmer flock flailing the air
Bunche Beach, Fort Myers, Florida, January 19, 2013
Black Skimmer flock
Laughing Gull, breeding plumage
South Padre Island, Birding Center, Texas
Laughing gull, Reeds Beach, Cape May, NJ, May 21, 2016
Laughing Gull
Popham Beach, Phippsburg, Maine, August 15, 2010
Laughing Gull, juvenile
Ding Darling NWR, Florida, January 2015
Ring-billed Gull
Sanibel, Florida, February 5, 2010
Bonaparte's Gull
Weskeag Marsh, South Thomaston, Maine, August 29, 2012
Herring gull, non-breeding, Popham Beach, Maine, September 10, 2009
note the red eye-ring
Herring gull, adult breeding, Damariscotta Mills, Maine, June 16, 2008
flight shot
Herring gull, 1st winter, Popham Beach, Maine, September 10, 2009
Note coarsely patterned primaries.
1st-year Great black-backed gull, heavily molted
Rockport, Maine, July 8, 2008
Iceland gull, first year, Salisbury, Massachusetts, January 23, 2010
Black-legged kittiwake, breeding plumage, Bonaventure Island, Quebec, July 16, 2010
Black-legged kittiwake, Seward, Alaska, May 20, 2015
Mew gulls, Resurrection Bay, Gulf of Alaska, May 21, 2015
Mew gulls roosting, Resurrection Bay, Alaska, May 21, 2015


text:
Change your flight without a fee on select flights
Often, one of the most difficult things about booking a hotel is finding the best time to go. The cost of staying in hotels in could vary significantly, depending on the time of the year chosen. If you would like to figure out the most suitable time to take a trip then using CheapTickets could be the best option for you. We will be able to provide information on hotels in to ensure that you get the best deal possible. So if you are looking for a booking website that will streamline the process and offer good prices, then log in and get booking.
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text:
South Dakota Base and Elevation Maps
The two maps shown here are digital base and elevation maps of South Dakota. Higher resolution maps like these and many other digital maps, wall maps, custom radius maps, travel maps, travel guides, map software, and globes and games, for business and the classroom, are available to purchase from Maps.com - The World's Largest Maps Store!. Enter code "NETSTATE" at checkout for 10% off orders of $50 or more!
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text:
Ransomware and scammy tech support sites team up for a vicious one-two punch
Some websites offering questionable tech support services are also dishing up ransomware, which locks up a users files until they pay a fee to decrypt them.
The support scams involve trying to convince users they have a computer problem and then selling them overpriced software or support services to fix it. It's often done via a pop-up message that urges people to call a number or download software.
Symantec has seen tech support websites also trying to install ransomware in the background. Ransomware is malware that encrypts a computer's files and asks for a payment, often in bitcoin, for the decryption key to be released.
"Unfortunate victims could end up paying both the fake tech support scam for 'help' and the ransom to decrypt their files, " wrote Deepak Singh, an associate threat analyst with Symantec, in a blog post.
On one tech support site seen by Symantec, an iframe hidden on the page redirected to the Nuclear exploit kit, a popular one used to spread malware.
It's unclear if the people running tech supports scams are working with those who create and rent out the use of exploit kits and associated infrastructure. But some tech support scams have experimented with ransomware, Singh wrote.
It's also possible that the tech support websites, like many other websites, have been compromised in order to redirect visitors to exploit kits.
"Regardless, this is the first time we've seen tech support scams running in tandem with the Nuclear exploit kit to deliver ransomware," Singh wrote. "If this proves to be an effective combination, we are likely to see more of this in the future."


text:
If You Like Yapping You'll Appreciate Good Dental Hygiene.
Taking proper care of the teeth, gums, and all of your mouth, such as the repair or substitute of defective teeth is exactly what defines dental hygiene. It's present with visit a person struggling with dental illnesses because of negligence and insufficient understanding of excellent dental hygiene.
It's stated that healthy teeth and gums are very important to maintain your system system healthy and seem. Insufficient good care along with a regular check-up together with your dental professional can lead to several illnesses like cavities, gum disease, dental plaque, periodontal disease, mouth odor, etc..
Signs and symptoms and protection against cavities, gum disease and periodontal disease:
1. Cavities: The primary reason for cavities is definitely an acidity base chemistry or perhaps an excess quantity of acidity. This really is connected with sugar bugs, individuals who regularly eat sweet without brushing immediately after. Signs and symptoms: First, a white-colored place seems around the tooth, which can result in an earlier cavity otherwise worked with. Tooth decay will start having a light brown color around the tooth, and progressively become more dark. Prevention:
• Make sure to brush two times daily, morning and before bed time in addition to after each meal.
• Floss daily (at least one time), I understand it is a chore but it is your smile we are speaking about here. (:–)
• See a dental professional for any regular cleaning and examination. Attempt to follow their recommendations.
• Make certain retainers, dentures along with other appliances are neat and don't skip their suggested cleaning procedures.
2. Gum disease & Periodontal Disease: Gum disease is inflammation from the gums, whereas periodontal disease may be the advanced stage of gums and teeth, which attacks the gums, bone and round the teeth. Signs and symptoms: inflamed gums, mouth sores, vibrant red appearance of gums and bleeding gums. Prevention:
• Brush the teeth two times daily.
• Lightly floss one's teeth daily.
• Talk to your dental professional for more instructions.
Dental products to prevent:
There are lots of dental hygiene products to prevent included in this are strong antiseptic mouthwashes, bleaching agents, peroxide, fluoride toothpastes, alcohol breath fresheners along with other dental hygiene products. Around the plus side they kill bacteria but additionally promote dental plaque which can make things worse within the finish.
Products for dental hygiene are: antioxidant tooth powder and probiotic mouthwash. Talk to your dental professional to find the best products for the situation.
Youngsters are weaker to dental issues. They're vulnerable to eating chocolates, candies and sweets and therefore get easily affected and are afflicted by cavities along with other problems. So it's essential for parents to understand the fundamentals of excellent dental hygiene and guide your kids accordingly.
These couple of easy steps will keep your family from severe discomfort, health risks and will let us to help keep smiling through the day.


text:
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine president on Friday ordered the cancellation of a multimillion-dollar deal to buy 16 helicopters from Canada and said purchases of U.S. arms should also be stopped because of too many imposed conditions, although he said he still supports President Trump.
President Rodrigo Duterte's order, issued in a news conference, came after the Canadian government decided to review the $235 million helicopter deal due to concerns the Philippine military might use the utility helicopters in counterinsurgency assaults.
Philippine defense officials gave assurances Thursday that the Bell 412EPI helicopters would be used to ferry supplies and troops, including those wounded in combat, and to respond to disasters, and would not be employed to attack insurgents.
Known for his impromptu decisions and public outbursts, Duterte declared in a nationally televised news conference in southern Davao city, his hometown, that he wants the helicopter deal, along with purchases of unspecified U.S. weapons, halted.
"I want to tell the armed forces to cut the deal, don't proceed with it and somehow we will look for another supplier," Duterte said of the helicopter purchase.
Although he said he respects Canada's stand, Duterte said using the helicopters just to ferry troops and dead soldiers is "a crazy proposition."
"I'm buying helicopters because I want to finish them off," said Duterte, referring to Muslim and communist rebels along with Islamic militants in the country's volatile south.
"I hope that we will never be called upon to use arms in their defense or for them. You will never get it for as long as I am president. We are neutral," Duterte said, without making clear if he was referring to Canada or the U.S., his country's treaty ally, or both.
Duterte, who has been critical of U.S. security policies and has lashed out at Washington for criticizing his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, did not elaborate on why he wants purchases of unspecified U.S. arms to be stopped.
"U.S., because of its too much imposition, but I assure you, I am supporting Trump," Duterte said. "He is a good president. He is doing it also for his country, people just don't understand him."
Duterte's friendly attitude toward Trump contrasts with his disdain for former U.S. President Barack Obama, who raised concerns about Duterte's anti-drug campaign.
Trump visited the Philippine capital, Manila, in November to meet Duterte and attend an annual summit with Asian and Western leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau said then that he raised concerns about human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings in Duterte's anti-drug campaign during a meeting with the Philippine president. The Canadian leader was praised by human rights groups for raising the concerns, but Duterte said he was insulted and angered by the remarks.
Nearly 4,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed in clashes with police, according to police officials, who say the suspects resisted violently. Human rights groups have reported much higher death tolls and accused law enforcers of carrying out extrajudicial killings and of setting up crime scenes to make the victims appear to have fought back.
Duterte, a former city mayor who built a political name with his extra-tough approach to crime, has denied condoning unlawful killings but has openly threatened drug suspects with death and cursed people who criticize his anti-crime methods.
A prosecutor in the International Criminal Court, or ICC, announced Thursday that she was opening a preliminary probe into alleged crimes by Duterte in connection with the war on drugs.
"While some of such killings have reportedly occurred in the context of clashes between or within gangs, it is alleged that many of the reported incidents involved extrajudicial killings in the course of police anti-drug operations," said Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Bensouda has said in the past that she was deeply concerned about reports of the killings, and that statements by "high officials" in the Philippines "seem to condone such killings."
Duterte said past investigations failed to turn up evidence that he ordered extrajudicial killings of specific people, although he acknowledged he has threatened to kill those who destroy his country's youth.
"There are many massacres now, in all parts of Asia … and I'm the one you want to hit," Duterte said. "You better clear that up because I will withdraw from the ICC."
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text:
• stethoscope •
steth-ê-skop • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: An instrument for amplifying the sounds made by internal organs.
Notes: Today's Good Word comes from the field of medicine; we think it time it came out of that closet. It comes with several related words. The adjectives are stethoscopic and stethoscopical, but we must use the latter for the adverb, stethoscopically. We can also say stethoscoped "provided with a stethoscope". A person who wields a stethoscope is a stethoscopist, and the process of using a stethoscope is known as stethoscopy.
In Play: Let's first examine the normal use of today's word: "The doctor was perplexed when his stethoscope couldn't detect the heartbeat of a patient who was conscious and sitting up in bed." However, we have a wide range of possibilities for metaphorical uses: "The best stethoscope for the health of the economy is the stock market." Here is another: "Freud thought dreaming was a stethoscope for repressed, hidden emotions."
Word History: Today's Good Word, like so many others, was borrowed from French, specifically, stéthoscope, a word coined in 1819 by its inventor, French physician René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781-1826). Laënnec combined two Greek words, stethos "chest, breast" + scopein "to look at, examine", to create his new word. Greek stethos could be related to sternon "front of the chest", which Latin borrowed and converted to sternum. Sternum is related to a plethora of words throughout Indo-European languages, including English straw, strew and street, Russian stroit' "build", that we see in perestroika "rebuilding", and German streusel, from German streuen "to sprinkle, scatter". (Today's gratitude is owed our German friend, Monika Freund, who was attracted by the name of the creator of this Good Word.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources!


text:
Kabir HelminskiPosted Aug 2, 2014 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly Version
by Sheikh Kabir Helminski
[This article was written during the first days of the current Gaza Massacre, then sent to Huffington Post religion editor, Paul Raushenbush, and then politely declined without comment. I was invited to be a blogger for Huffington Post and have posted articles about every six months for several years. I naively thought that the Huffington Post was a forum for ideas. Given what has happened since, this article seems very mild.]
What would a moral Israel look like? Could there be an Israel that would gain the love and respect of the world? Could Israel, for instance, redeem itself as South Africa has? Yes, it could. The answer will seem naïve to some. What has been described as a complex and intractable situation, really, is not.
A moral Israel could ask the forgiveness of the Palestinians for nearly 70 years of injustice and oppression. It could turn over the settlements in the West Bank and return to pre-1967 borders as hundreds of UN resolutions require. It could grant political autonomy to Palestine. It could offer reparations for the bombing of civilian infrastructure of recent years. It could recognize Jerusalem as an international, sacred city, a sanctuary for the three major traditions that love it. It could begin a process of restorative justice, much as South Africa has done, that would reconcile Palestinians and Israeli Jews. In other words, Israel could demonstrate generosity, compassion, forgiveness, and moral vision
Until now, we have unfortunately seen only evidence of the opposite, and the whole situation is stuck in a never-ending cycle of violence. Israel is a country founded upon religion, and religion, whatever people may say, is fundamentally about morality. Israel's morality is, unfortunately, self-evident. No religion advocates killing, especially the killing of innocent people.
It is fair to say that the people of Gaza are living in an open-air concentration camp, being denied the most basic economic freedoms and human rights, suffering every day from brutal and humiliating oppression. Their agricultural lands have been appropriated, their water resources have been curtailed. All of this information and history is easily available. See, for instance, a website like http://www.ifamericansknew.org which attempts to inform Americans about the conditions in the occupied territories. This site also offers the best history of this problem that I know of: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html which was written by Jews for Justice in Palestine.
What allows injustices of this type to be perpetuated is the distortion of information and the telling of outright lies. The worst crimes against humanity are typically justified by focusing on a few links in the chain of events. The current and recent attacks on Gaza are excellent examples of a justifying narrative that goes something like this: Israel must defend itself against rockets launched by militants in Gaza. These rockets are being launched by people who wish to destroy Israel itself. As President Obama says, any country has the right to defend itself from attack.
But what is left out of that selective version of the story is the long history that began with the creation of the Zionist state of Israel, the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian towns, the millions of refugees, and the cruel Palestinian occupation.
As Juan Cole wrote recently in "Is Rula Jebreal Right About U.S. Media Bias Against Palestinians?" Posted on Jul 22, 2014: From most American media you would assume that the Israelis were minding their own business and the Palestinians of Gaza just irrationally started firing rockets at them. With rare exceptions, we aren't told that most truces have been broken by Israel, not Hamas. We aren't told that over 70% of Gaza's population used to live in Israel and was ethnically cleansed and left penniless. We aren't told that Israel has a blockade on Gaza that does not allow it to export most of what it produces, that this blockade has thrown 40% of the working population into unemployment and left 56% of families food insecurity (just on the verge of going to bed hungry). We aren't told that Israeli occupation has left 90% of people in Gaza without potable water. We aren't told that Gaza's Palestinians demand an end to being kept in a big concentration camp. If Israelis were being treated as the Palestinians are, what do you think they would do about it?
And every few years, Israel flexes its military muscle with a new bombing campaign killing thousands of defenseless civilians under the pretext of eliminating militants, while our leaders lament these unfortunate deaths and yet remain complicit by supplying Israel with weapons and money.
What is also left out is the recent events following the murder of three Israeli teenagers, when, according to Electronic Intifada, "Israel's armed forces rampaged throughout the occupied West Bank and bombarded the Gaza Strip in a campaign of collective punishment." Also not mentioned is "the abduction of more than 560 Palestinians, including at least 200 still held without charges; after the raiding of Palestinian universities and ransacking of countless homes; after six Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces; after American-trained Palestinian authority police assisted Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinian youths in the center of Ramallah; after the alleged theft by Israeli troops of $3 million in US dollars…"
It was after this that some militants began to launch rockets into Israel.
And while Israel continues its hugely disproportionate attack on Gaza, other events which could be major stories are not even noticed by most of the media, such as this from Saturday, July 19, 2014 02:20 by Celine Hagbard – IMEMC News: 110 Palestinians, including a number of elderly men and women, were treated for injuries after Israeli troops attacked worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The wounded include two Directors of the Board for Islamic Endowments, several journalists, and paramedics who arrived on the scene to treat the wounded.
America, especially, is routinely fed misinformation about Israel and Palestine. This week, former Rep. Jane Harmon (D. CA) said on Real Time with Bill Maher that the Hamas Charter calls for the death of every Israeli, including women and children. I decided to check this out for myself and read the Hamas charter for the first time. I could not, however, find any such proposal. Hamas, admittedly the most extreme Palestinian party, does take the position that the state of Israel must be replaced with an Islamic state. Hamas is basically advocating an Islamic equivalent of Zionism.
Here is what the Hamas Charter says about its relations with non-Muslims:
Hamas is a humane movement, which cares for human rights and is committed to the tolerance inherent in Islam as regards attitudes towards other religions. It is only hostile to those who are hostile towards it, or stand in its way in order to disturb its moves or to frustrate its efforts. Under the shadow of Islam it is possible for the members of the three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism to coexist in safety and security.
If any of the above seems extreme, these are the words of people who are suffering extreme deprivation, who have lost most of their original homeland, and who feel they are in danger of losing everything.
Yes, there may be a militant minority on both sides that call for the destruction of the other, but if the population of Palestine as a whole were not being provoked, the vast majority of Palestinians would embrace an opportunity to live in peace, and these militant minorities would dwindle into insignificance. The Jewish people could then begin to live by the morals of the Torah and use their exceptional intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
I would suggest that our brothers and sisters in Israel awaken a little bit of courage and a lot of generosity. I would argue that Israel's survival is not enhanced by the strategies it now uses—quite the contrary. The world abhors these measures. Our planet is in crisis. Make peace with the Palestinians and with humanity so that we can begin to face our common problems together.
• Permalink
Please visit Kabir Helminski's blog "Soul in Progress" http://soulinprogress.net/


text:
Sea Witch
Virginia Kantra
Children of the Sea 1
Buy it at
Chapter 1
If she didn't have sex with something soon, she would burst out of her skin.
She plunged through the blue-shot water, driven by a whisper on the wind, a pulse in her blood that carried her along like a warm current. The lavender sky was brindled pink and daubed with indigo clouds. On the beach, fire leaped from the rocks, glowing with the heat of the dying sun.
Her mate was dead. Dead so long ago that the tearing pain, the fresh, bright welling of fury and grief, had ebbed and healed, leaving only a scar on her heart. She barely missed him anymore. She did not allow herself to miss him.
But she missed sex.
Her craving flayed her, hollowed her from the inside out. Lately she'd felt as if she were being slowly scraped to a pelt, a shell, lifeless and empty. She wanted to be touched. She yearned to be filled again, to feel someone move inside her, deep inside her, hard and urgent inside her.
The memory quickened her blood.
She rode the waves to shore, drawn by the warmth of the flames and the heat of the young bodies clustered there. Healthy human bodies, male and female.
Mostly male.
* * *
Some damn fool had built a fire on the point. Police Chief Caleb Hunter spotted the glow from the road.
Mainers welcomed most visitors to their shore. But Bruce Whittaker had made it clear when he called that the islanders' tolerance didn't extend to bonfires on the beach.
Caleb had no particular objection to beach fires, as long as whoever set the fire used the designated picnic areas or obtained a permit. At the point, the wind was likely to carry sparks to the trees. The volunteers at the fire department, fishermen mostly, didn't like to be pulled out of bed to deal with somebody else's carelessness.
Caleb pulled his marked Jeep behind the litter of vehicles parked on the shoulder of the road: a tricked-out Wrangler, a ticket-me-red Firebird, and a late model Lexus with New York plates. Two weeks shy of Memorial Day, and already the island population was swelling with folks from Away. Caleb didn't mind. The annual influx of summer people paid his salary. Besides, compared to Mosul or Sadr City or even Portland down the coast, World's End was a walk on the beach. Even at the height of the season.
Caleb could have gone back to the Portland PD. Hell, after his medical discharge from the National Guard, he could have gone anywhere. Since 9/11, with the call-up of the reserves and the demands of homeland security, most big city police departments were understaffed and overwhelmed. A decorated combat veteran --even one with his left leg cobbled together with enough screws, plates, and assorted hardware to set off the metal detector every time he walked through the police station doors--was a sure hire.
The minute Caleb heard old Roy Miller was retiring, he had put in for the chief's job on World's End, struggling upright in his hospital bed to update his resume. He didn't want to make busts or headlines anymore. He just wanted to keep the peace, to find some peace, to walk patrol without getting shot at. To feel the wind on his face again and smell the salt in the air.
To drive along a road without the world blowing up around him.
He eased from the vehicle, maneuvering his stiff knee around the steering wheel. He left his lights on. Going without backup into an isolated area after dark, he felt a familiar prickle between his shoulder blades. Sweat slid down his spine.
Get over it. You're in World's End. Nothing ever happens here.
Which was about all he could handle now.
He crossed the strip of trees, thankful this particular stretch of beach wasn't all slippery rock, and stepped silently onto sand.
* * *
She came ashore downwind behind an outcrop of rock that reared from the surrounding beach like the standing stones of Orkney.
Water lapped on sand and shale. An evening breeze caressed her damp skin, teasing every nerve to quivering life. Her senses strained for the whiff of smoke, the rumble of male laughter, drifting on the wind. Her nipples hardened.
She shivered.
Not with cold. With anticipation.
She combed her wet hair with her fingers and arranged it over her bare shoulders. First things first. She needed clothes.
Even in this body, her blood kept her warm. But she knew from past encounters that her nakedness would be...unexpected. She did not want to raise questions or waste time and energy in explanations.
She had not come ashore to talk.
Desire swelled inside her like a child, weighting her breasts and her loins.
She picked her way around the base of the rock on tender, unprotected feet. There, clumped like seaweed above the tide line, was that a...blanket? She shook it from the sand--a towel--and tucked it around her waist, delighting in the bright orange color. A few feet further on, in the shadows outside the bonfire, she discovered a gray fleece garment with long sleeves and some kind of hood. Drab. Very drab. But it would serve to disguise her. She pulled the garment over her head, fumbling her arms through the sleeves, and smiled ruefully when the cuffs flopped over her hands.
The unfamiliar friction of the clothing chafed and excited her. She slid through twilight, her pulse quick and hot. Still in the shadows, she paused, her widened gaze sweeping the group of six--seven, eight--figures sprawled or standing in the circle of the firelight. Two females. Six males. She eyed them avidly.
They were very young.
Sexually mature, perhaps, but their faces were soft and unformed and their eyes shallow. The girls were shrill. The boys were loud. Raw and unconfident, they jostled and nudged, laying claim to the air around them with large, uncoordinated gestures.
Disappointment seeped through her.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Something spilled on the sand. Her sensitive nostrils caught the reek of alcohol.
Not only young, but drunk. Perhaps that explained the clumsiness.
She sighed. She did not prey on drunks. Or children.
Light stabbed at her pupils, twin white beams and flashing blue lights from the ridge above the beach. She blinked, momentarily disoriented.
A girl yelped.
A boy groaned.
"Run," someone shouted.
Sand spurted as the humans darted and shifted like fish in the path of a shark. They were caught between the rock and the strand, with the light in their eyes and the sea at their backs. She followed their panicked glances, squinting toward the tree line.
Silhouetted against the high white beams and dark, narrow tree trunks stood a tall, broad figure.
Her blood rushed like the ocean in her ears. Her heart pounded. Even allowing for the distortion of the light, he looked big. Strong. Male. His silly, constraining clothes only emphasized the breadth and power of his chest and shoulders, the thick muscles of his legs and arms.
He moved stiffly down the beach, his face in shadow. As he neared the fire, red light slid greedily over his wide, clear forehead and narrow nose. His mouth was firm and unsmiling.
Her gaze expanded to take him in. Her pulse kicked up again. She felt the vibration to the soles of her feet and the tips of her fingers.
This was a man.
* * *
Caleb shook his head and pulled out his ticket book.
Back when he was in high school, you got busted drinking on the beach, you poured your cans on the sand and maybe endured a lecture from your parents. Not that his old man had cared what Caleb did. After Caleb's mom decamped with his older brother, Art Hunter hadn't cared about much of anything except his boat, his bottle, and the tides.
But times--and statutes--had changed.
Caleb confiscated the cooler full of beer.
"You can't take that," one punk objected. "I'm twenty-one. It's mine."
Caleb arched an eyebrow. "You found it?"
"I bought it."
Which meant he could be charged with furnishing liquor to minors.
Caleb nodded. "And you are...?"
The kid's jaw stuck out. "Robert Stowe."
"Can I see your license, Mr. Stowe?"
He made them put out the fire while he wrote them up: seven citations for possession and--in the case of twenty-one-year-old Robert Stowe--a summons to district court.
He handed back their drivers' licenses along with the citations. "You boys walk the girls home now. Your cars will still be here in the morning."
"It's too far to walk," a pretty, sulky brunette complained. "And it's dark."
Caleb glanced from the last tinge of pink in the sky to the girl. Jessica Dalton, her driver's license read. Eighteen years old. Her daddy was a colorectal surgeon from Boston with a house right on the water, about a mile down the road.
"I'd be happy to call your parents to pick you up," he offered, straight-faced.
"Screw that," announced the nineteen-year-old owner of the Jeep. "I'm driving."
"If I start giving breathalyzer tests for OUIs, it's going to be a long night," Caleb said evenly. "Especially when I impound your vehicle."
"You can't do that," Stowe said.
Caleb leveled a look at him.
"Come on, Robbie." The other girl tugged his arm. "We can go to my place."
Caleb watched them gather their gear and stumble across the sand.
"I can't find my sweatshirt."
"Who cares? It's ugly."
"You're ugly."
"Come on."
Their voices drifted through the dusk. Caleb waited for them to make a move toward their cars, but something--his threat to tell their parents, maybe, or his shiny new shield or his checkpoint glare--had convinced them to abandon their vehicles for the night.
He dragged his hand over his forehead, dismayed to notice both were sweating.
That was okay.
He was okay.
He was fine, damn it.
He stood with the sound of the surf in his ears, breathing in the fresh salt air, until his skin cooled and his heartbeat slowed. When he couldn't feel the twitch between his shoulder blades anymore, he hefted the cooler and lumbered to the Jeep. His knee shifted and adjusted to take his weight on the soft sand. He'd passed the 1.5 mile run required by the State of Maine to prove his fitness for duty. But that had been on a level track, not struggling to stabilize on uneven ground in the dark.
He stowed the evidence in back, slammed the hatch, and glanced toward the beach.
A woman shone at the water's edge, wrapped in twilight and a towel. The sea foamed around her bare, pale feet. Her long, dark hair lifted in the breeze. Her face was pale and perfect as the moon.
For one second, the sight caught him like a wave smack in the chest, robbing him of speech. Of breath. Yearning rushed through his soul like the wind over the water, stirring him to the depths. His hands curled into fists at his sides.
Not okay. He throttled back his roaring imagination. She was just a kid. A girl. An underage girl in an oversize sweatshirt with--his gaze dipped again, briefly--a really nice rack.
And he was a cop. Time to think like a cop. Mystery Girl hadn't been with the group around the fire. So where had she been hiding?
Caleb stomped back through the trees. The girl stood with her bare feet planted in the sand, watching him approach. At least he didn't have to chase her.
He stopped a few yards away. "Your friends are gone. You missed them."
She tilted her head, regarding him with large, dark, wide-set eyes. "They are not my friends."
"Guess not," he agreed. "Since they left without you."
She smiled. Her lips were soft and full, her teeth white and slightly pointed. "I meant I do not know them. They are very...young, are they not?"
He narrowed his gaze on her face, mentally reassessing her age. Her skin was baby fine, smooth and well-cared for. No makeup. No visible piercings or tattoos. Not even a tan.
"How old are you?"
Her smile broadened. "Older than I look."
He resisted the urge to smile back. She could be over the legal drinking age--not jailbait, after all. Those eyes held a purely adult awareness, and her smile was knowing. But he'd pounded Portland's pavements long enough to know the kind of trouble a cop invited giving a pretty woman a break. "Can I see your license, please?"
She blinked slowly. "My..."
"I.D.," he snapped. "Do you have it?"
"Ah. No. I did not realize I would need any."
He took in her damp hair, the towel tucked around her waist. If she'd come down to the beach to swim... Okay, nobody swam in May but fools or tourists. But even if she was simply taking a walk, her story made sense. "You staying near here?"
Her dark gaze traveled over him. She nodded. "Yes, I believe I will. Am," she corrected.
He was sweating again, and not from nerves. His emotions had been on ice a long time, but he still recognized the slow burn of desire.
"Address?" he asked harshly.
"I don't remember." She smiled again, charmingly, looking him full in the eyes. "I only recently arrived."
He refused to be charmed. But he couldn't deny the tug of attraction, deep in his belly. "Name?"
Mar-gred. Sounded foreign. He kind of liked it.
He raised his brows. "Just Margred?"
"Margaret, I think you would say."
"Last name?"
She took a step closer, making everything under the sweatshirt sway. Hell-o, breasts. "Do you need one?"
He couldn't think. He couldn't remember being this distracted and turned on since he'd sat behind Susanna Colburn in seventh grade English and spent most of second period with a hard on. Something about her voice... Her eyes... It was weird.
"In case I need to get in touch with you," he explained.
"That would be nice."
He was staring at her mouth. Her wide, wet, full-lipped mouth. "What?"
"If you got in touch with me. I want you to touch me."
He jerked himself back. "What?"
She looked surprised. "Isn't that what you want?"
Caleb was frustrated, savagely disappointed with himself and with her. He knew plenty of women--badge bunnies--went for cops. Some figured sex would get out them out of trouble or a ticket. Some were simply into uniforms or guns or handcuffs.
He hadn't taken her for one of them.
"Oh." She regarded him thoughtfully.
His stomach muscles tightened.
And then she smiled. "You are lying," she said.
Yeah, he was.
He shrugged. "Just because I'm--" horny, hot, hard "--attracted doesn't mean I have to act on it."
She tilted her head. "Why not?"
He exhaled, a gust between a laugh and a groan. "For starters, I'm a cop."
"Cops don't have sex?"
He couldn't believe they were having this discussion. "Not on duty."
Which was mostly true. True for him, anyway. He hadn't seen any horizontal action since... God, since the last time he was home on leave, over eighteen months ago. His brief marriage hadn't survived his first deployment, and nobody since had cared enough to be waiting when he got out.
"When are you not on duty?" she asked.
He shook his head. "What, you want a date?"
Even sarcasm didn't throw this chick. "I would meet you again, yes. I am...attracted, too."
She wanted him.
Not that it mattered.
He cleared his throat. "I'm never off duty. Until Memorial Day, I'm the only cop on the island."
"I don't live on your island. I am only..." Again with the pause, like English was her second language or something. "...visiting," she concluded with a smile.
Like fucking a tourist would be perfectly okay.
Well, wouldn't it?
The thought popped unbidden into his head. It wasn't like he was arresting her. He didn't even suspect her of anything except wanting to have sex with him, and he wasn't a big enough hypocrite to hold that against her.
But he didn't understand this alleged attraction she felt. He felt.
And Caleb did not trust what he did not understand.
"Where are you staying?" he asked. "I'll walk you home."
"Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"I'm trying to keep you safe."
"That's very kind of you. And quite unnecessary."
He stuck his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. "You getting rid of me now?"
She smiled, her teeth white in the moonlight. "No."
She turned away, her footprints creating small, reflective pools in the sand. "So I will see you."
He was oddly reluctant to let her go. "Where?"
"Around. On the beach. I walk on the beach in the evening." She looked at him over her shoulder. "Come find me sometime...when you're not on duty."


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Stealing a page from Illinois, Indiana will soon become the second state to use a private company to run its lottery.
After last year becoming the first state lottery in the nation to use a private manager, Illinois saw record revenues that nonetheless fell short of profits promised by Northstar Lottery Group.
Officials from the Hoosier Lottery kept a close eye on Illinois' arrangement before signing a 15-year contract last month with lottery industry giant GTECH, one of Northstar's parent companies.
"We certainly took note of the fact that the Illinois Lottery experienced double-digit sales growth," in the 2012 fiscal year, said Hoosier Lottery spokesman Al Larsen.
"At the end of the day and regardless of the debate over whether targets were hit or not hit, that ... is the type of growth we look forward to experiencing here in Indiana."
Industry experts say it is likely more states will adopt private management as a way to kick-start stagnant lottos or to increase growth at healthy ones.
In August, New Jersey officials asked for proposals to manage its lottery, and last week Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said the state had finalized terms of a potential 20-year contract to manage its lottery. It also was evaluating business plans offered by prospective bidders, he said.
If an acceptable plan is found, the contract could be executed within the next several months, according to a spokeswoman for Corbett.
"What I think will spread is a more open-minded attitude toward creative ways of unlocking the value of lotteries," said Paul Jason, CEO of Public Gaming Research Institute, a Washington-state-based group that promotes lotteries in the U.S. and abroad.
"I think private management agreements and variations on that theme will very likely be a part of the picture, but also think that there may be new models created in the future that we haven't seen yet."
Still, the move toward private management is not without detractors.
The Tribune reported this month that an arbitrator agreed to reduce last year's net revenue target for Northstar by more than $28 million. That figure, which represents the profit the company promised to raise for the state lottery, is central to a complex set of calculations used to determine whether the company will collect incentive payments or owe penalties for underperformance.
Unofficial year-end results from the Illinois Lottery indicate the company fell about $100 million short of the promised revenues, though Northstar contends that when an audit of the 2012 fiscal year is complete, it will miss its target by $40 million to $50 million.
If company officials are correct, it could be entitled to millions in incentive payments.
"I think if I'm Northstar, I'm pretty happy. If I'm a citizen of Illinois, I'm feeling ripped off, because we didn't get the benefit of the contract," said state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, long critical of the private management agreement.
"They didn't make their numbers and yet it's conceivable that we could end up owing them money. That's mind-boggling."
Franks said the Illinois Lottery should have hired better managers rather than outsource the day-to-day operation of the lottery.
Jason said the issue isn't only about whether lotteries need better talent internally. It's also about whether a state agency and elected officials can stomach greater risk-taking to achieve higher profits, he said.
State leaders fail to encourage their lotteries to take greater risks in order to boost revenue, and they also tamp down innovation, he said.
"Sometimes they tell them, 'If you attempt to innovate and make a mistake, heads will roll,'" Jason said. "So there's little expectation on the part of (elected officials) to achieve ambitious results, but there's huge expectation to avoid making any kind of mistake."
Still, Franks' position is not without merit, Jason said. Government officials need to consider whether they could achieve greater growth by freeing up their lotteries to act more like a private company rather than bring in outside help, he said.
"It's not done now," Jason said, adding that "lotteries all over the nation would achieve better results if the legislatures and the governors were to give them the same kind of support and latitude as they are considering giving a private manager."


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MINI-COURSE: Facebook Ads Training - Lessons from a Former Facebooker
Mini-Series: Free Lessons!
Welcome to the Course! (1:50)
Brands Built Entirely on Facebook & Instagram - What do They Know? (1:07)
About Me (2:11)
Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions (2:20)
Lookalikes Part 1: Why are Lookalike Audiences So Powerful? (2:19)
COLD Starts: How to Start with No Data, my Cascading Method (9:37)
The "Learning Stage" of Optimization (1:46)
Preventing "Significant Edits" & Learning Resets (3:08)
Lead Ads Part 1: What are They and Who Should Use Them? (4:34)
Lead Ads Part 2: Why Use Lead Ads, and Use Cases. (3:28)
Scaling Ad Spend with Positive ROAS - Part 1 (12:13)
If You're Interested in More... (0:54)
Facebook's Ad Ecosystem
Facebook's Ad Ecosystem and the 10 Year Roadmap (2:20)
Beyond the Facebook Blue App (2:05)
Ads Manager Part 1: Navigation and Reporting (19:25)
Campaign Structures: Evolving From Basic to Advanced (12:50)
The Emergence of Digital Native Companies, Built on Facebook and Instagram (2:43)
Programming the Right Instructions: Campaign Objectives (2:38)
Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions (2:20)
Ad Ecosystem Quiz!
eCommerce, Service, and Information Based Campaign Structures
Conversion Optimization Windows (10:30)
How to WIN the Facebook ad auction
How the Facebook Ad Auction Works (1:58)
The Underlying Auction Formula That Runs EVERYTHING (5:02)
How to Win at the Auction (4:30)
Minimizing Constraints on Delivery (1:13)
Why are Lookalike Audiences So Powerful? (2:19)
Building a Robust Lookalike Targeting Strategy (4:02)
NEW: A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Lookalike Audiences (in Ads Manager) (8:20)
The "Learning Stage" of Optimization (1:46)
Preventing "Significant Edits" & Learning Resets (3:08)
What Exactly is the Facebook Pixel? Why is it a MUST? (2:51)
Facebook Pixel Implementation Principles (5:45)
Placement Liquidity (Automatic Placements & Asset Customization) (3:16)
Post-Click User Experience (2:49)
Key Takeaways (3:29)
Ad Auction Quiz!
What the Best Advertisers Do
Who are the Best? Why Should We Care What They Do? (2:12)
The Automation Mindset (1:02)
5 Principles to Remember (0:38)
1. Automated Account Structures (3:17)
2. A) Campaign Budget Optimization (3:28)
2. B) Example of Campaign Structure (2:44)
3. A) Bid-Constrained vs Budget-Constrained (2:41)
3. B) Manual Bidding - How Do You Do It? (3:39)
3. C) Manual Bidding - How Does It Actually Work? (4:06)
3. D) Manual Bidding Examples - How to Choose the Right Bid Amount (5:04)
3. E) Advanced Bidding Strategy with LTV Cohorts (2:40)
3. F) Cost Cap vs Bid Cap vs Target Cost Bidding (3:43)
4. Laser Focused on Signal Volume (6:28)
5. Fully Leveraged Targeting Capabilities (4:11)
Key Takeaways (1:47)
What the Best Advertisers Do - Quiz!
How to Build Amazing Ads
The Mobile Attention Span (1:55)
Creative Best Practices and Considerations (2:39)
Stories + Feed Video + Static = Winning Combination (0:55)
Deconstructing Excellent Ads - Part 1 (2:52)
Deconstructing Excellent Ads - Part 2 (2:29)
Deconstructing Excellent Ads - Part 3 (1:55)
Adding Motion to Static Images (Cinemagraphs) (0:59)
The Ad Library - An Incredible Tool No-one Knows About (3:14)
Animoto - My Choice for Building Great Ads (4:52)
Creative Hub Gallery - For Inspiration & Exploring New Formats (1:33)
Native Ads Manager Editor - Quick & Easy Templates (0:56)
Canva - General Design Resource with Templates (1:18)
Key Takeaways (3:26)
How to Build Amazing Ads - Quiz!
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Lead Ads Part 1: What are Lead Ads & Who Should Use Them (4:34)
Lead Ads Part 2: Why Use Lead Ads? (3:28)
Lead Ads Part 3: Step-by-Step Tutorial (18:05)
Lead Ads Part 4: Best Practices (4:43)
Best Practices for Local Service-Based Businesses
How to Navigate Ads Manager (19:25)
Building Custom Reporting Templates
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Creating Your First Campaigns
eCommerce Best Practices & Common Issues (30:05)
Dynamic Creative: Super-Easy, Automated Ad Creation (10:35)
Ad Policy Part 1: Policy Compliance (19:26)
Ad Policy Part 2: Preventing Disables, Appeals, Limiting Impact on Business, and More (16:55)
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Scaling Ad Spend Part 2: How I Scale, Scaling Tactics, and Leaky Buckets
The Audience Overlap Analysis Tool! (11:26)
COLD Starts: How to Start with No Data, the Cascading Method
Dynamic Ads Part 1: Intro, Benefits, and Requirements
Dynamic Ads Part 2: Step-by-Step Tutorial
Video Poll Ad Unit: Quick Tutorial
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Writing, Grammar, Literature, ACT Prep
Education: M.Ed.,Stanford University
Katie is an enthusiastic teacher who strives to make connections between literature and student's every day lives.
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Writing, Grammar, Literature, ACT Prep
Education: M.Ed.,Stanford University
Katie is an enthusiastic teacher who strives to make connections between literature and student's every day lives.
When I was in high school, my dad got a huge promotion. And along with that promotion, came a membership to country club in my home town. Now everybody in my family was really excited about this. I wasn't so excited though. When I went to the country club, I just didn't get how to play by the rules. I didn't know that it was inappropriate to yellow across the golf course to say hi to my dad. And I wasn't sure why I got in trouble for launching the tennis balls overs the fences of the tennis courts. I felt like I'd been invited to a game but nobody was willing to tell me what the real rules were.
I imagine Jay Gatsby must have felt the same way when he moved to the east. Let's take sometime to look at the different settings in the Great Gatsby, and see how F. Fitzgerald used those settings to communicate ideas about the characters to us.
So the East Egg in Great Gatsby must have been a lot like the country club that my parents joined, that I wasn't quite privy to the rules. In the Great Gatsby, we see the East Egg over here. And this is where Tom and Daisy house is. It's described as being "across the courtesy bay," from the West Egg and the houses on it are described as the "White palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water." So we get this kind of sense of magnificence that these houses have.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan's house on the East Egg is specifically described as a "Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front door for a quarter of a mile." So we get this idea of kind of this large palace that glittered and glowed, very representative of the old money that lived on the East Egg. Also it's noted that "the front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now reflected with gold," So again, we get this imagery of richness, of shinning, of sparkling of gold. All these things really ring of money, which is what the East Egg had on it.
In direct contrast with the East Egg island in Great Gatsby, is West Egg island. It's located directly across the courtesy bay, almost directly across from Tom and Daisy Buchanan's. You'll find Jay Gatsby's. However West Egg island is noted as "the less fashionable of the two." Though the houses are just as big, and just as elaborate, it doesn't quite have the same umph that East Egg has. In fact Jay Gatsby's house if you know, was described as "a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy."
And if you think back at the quotation we discussed of the Buchanan's mansion, know that though the Buchanan's is this legitimate Georgian Colonial, Jay Gatsby is described as an imitation. So that really showed you a little bit about the attitudes in terms of money, when we're looking at the East Egg versus the West Egg. The West Egg is really reserved for a people of new money. People who haven't been established as families. So though we see people of the same social standing, in terms of the money they've earned, they don't quite have the same social standing in terms of the company that they keep.
Also on the West Egg island, you'll find Nick Carraway's house. It's located just around the corner from Gatsby's. In fact it's described as being set between Gatsby's mansion and another mansion. Though Nick Carraway says, "My own house was an eye-sore, but it was a small eye-sore and it had been overlooked." The reason this is important to know, is that an eye-sore would never have been overlooked on East Egg island. So this again is more proof of the fact that West Egg, though it's trying to be of the same standing as East Egg island, just doesn't quite make it.
Another important location in Great Gatsby is an area called the Valley of Ashes. And this is actually an area that's located between the Eggs and the actual city here. You'll see it's where the transportation routes intersect and it's really meant to represent where the working class of America lives. In fact it's described kind of grimly as it being "a valley of ashes-a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and ... of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air."
So we get this very grim, this very dark, this very kind of monotonous feeling when we hear the description of the Valley of Ashes. And the reason it's important to note this location is, not only do a lot of important events in the book take place here, but we've got a couple important objects that we need to know.
The first is the billboard with TJ Eckleberg's classes on it. Now this is literally a billboard that rises here in the Valley of Ashes. And it's a billboard for an opthalmologist named Doctor. TJ Eckleberg. And what you see is a big set of wire rimmed glasses with a pair of eyes peering out over the valley. It says, "above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg." So we get this image of somebody watching over this area of Ashes.
Another important thing in the Valley of Ashes is Wilson's Garage. We've met Myrtle and George Wilson. These two characters meant to represent the working class of America. What's interesting to know is, when their garage is described, it says, "The interior was unprosperous and bare." And at first this seems like a really basic and natural description, but note that the terms unprosperous and bare, that are being used to describe this garage, are terms of wealth here. It doesn't say that it has yellow walls, or concrete floors, instead it's described by what it doesn't have. It does not have money and it clearly does not have things. And this is just another thing that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses to show how people make value of things in the 1920s. It's to note that it was empty it had a lack of material wealth.
The final location that we need to talk about in the novel Great Gatsby is New York City. And the one of the important place that we see a lot of action taking place in the beginning of the book is Tom and Myrtle's apartment, which is located just across the bridge. Tom and Myrtle's apartment is described as being kind of a small apartment "with a set of tapestried furniture too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles."
The important thing to note about this particular quotation, is that this is a rather small apartment. And keep in mind Myrtle is Tom's mistress. So he's provided her with an apartment and Myrtle wants desperately to be a part of Tom's upper class, East Egg, old money lifestyle. But it seems, Myrtle, just like the furniture that's being described here, doesn't quite fit. So we can see this, the furniture, with the ladies Versailles on the tamper street couches, being represented of Myrtle herself. Though she's trying hard, she doesn't quite fit into Tom's old money lifestyle.
So again we see the five most important locations throughout the New York area for the Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald specifically picked New York as a setting here, so that he could provide an area where all of these characters of vary in social classes, could cross paths and thus really demonstrate what wealth is doing to the American dream.
In this episode we talk specifically about setting. And remember, in the Great Gatsby, where a character lives speaks volumes about who that character actually is. Think about East Egg island, how Fitzgerald describes it and what that reveals about Tom and Daisy Buchanan's, and the values that they hold. We see Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway over on West Egg island, how their less sophisticated style of life really influences who they are. And then we see Myrtle and George Wilson in the Valley of Ashes representing working class America. All this is set against the setting of New York city where anything is possible and characters of every different social class can come together.
So as you go through the novel, really keep setting in mind because for the Great Gatsby, setting reveals a lot deeper meaning about the characters and who they truly are.


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It is absolutely amazing how much our lives are influenced by myths and legends. Tales that happened, tales that might have happened, and tales that never could have happened have all found their way into our language, our customs and the way we look at our world, our past and each other.
Greek and Roman mythologies have survived for thousands of years. Norse legends have been reverberated for more than a millennium. Native American legends have been passed down by word or mouth since the time people crossed the land bridge into North America.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush's myth about an economy-stimulating "tax cut" didn't even last a summer.
Alas, myths and legends, like nostalgia, just aren't what they used to be. Words have been devalued, myths have been misused, legends have been cheapened. Indeed, all too often, legend has been replaced with hype.
Well, that's why we're here 52 weeks of the year, to answer the big questions. Who's doing what and to whom? Where's the money going and why? Really, what's going on?
And one week of those 52, we put together an issue that answers the really big questions. What's the best Mexican restaurant in South Tucson? Is UA softball pitcher Jennie Finch really myth Tucson. And which local hotshots are really just legends in their own minds?
What awaits you is 100 or so pages of the best that the Old Pueblo has to offer. The tastiest, the most talented, the strongest, the most generous. Where to eat, where to shop, where to commune with nature. Learn how to jive, how to thrive and how to find our favorite dive. Great eats, amazing feats, the best theater seats. Basketballs, waterfalls, curtain calls. Tricky climbs, tasty limes, infuriating rhymes.
Jump right in. We've separated the wheat from the chaff, the myth from the fish story, the legend from the hype. It's all right here... The Best of Tucson™.