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VMAs Unfortunate Matching Hairstyles
I'm into whatever Miley Cyrus is selling these days. Engaged? Sure. Sassy new haircut that somehow reverberated around the world? All over it. I had to look up what she's actually working on right now – but that in itself isn't a bad thing.
I don't understand why she had to stifle The Haircut though – like, isn't one of the points of a short haircut that you can kind of dress it up or down? I was sort of looking forward to seeing those sassy pieces flopping all over the place – kind of a Chelsea cut that didn't take itself too seriously.
But someone talked her into it not being formal enough, or something – because, you know, the one thing you worry the most about at the VMAs is whether you're at an appropriate level of formality.
So she wound up with the same overly formal hairstyle as Pink, who came across as the grandmother of this event just by virtue of how often she's done this (seriously, I think she can sleepwalk through the trapeze work by now, right?) , and um, it's not a terribly youthful cut on Pink either, you know? We have officially reached the point in history where the blown-back bleached-blonde bouffant is a mommy haircut. Maybe with a tank top and Converse, it might have been fine. Coupled as it was with the world's most dour slinky black dress, and I was having some sort of stressed-out Sharon Stone fever dream.
Miley. The whole point is that it's flippy and adorable and cute. If you've never felt more like yourself than you do with this hair, don't let hairstylists who need to justify their day rate tart you up like this. Understand?
Good girl. Now go ride your bike or play with the dog or…I don't know, rent chairs for your reception. (Sidebar: does Miley have any girlfriends anymore? I might be worried about her.)
Wenn, Kevin Winter/ Christopher Polk/ Getty


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Valentine's Day Candy
The origin of Valentine's Day is shrouded in a bit of mystery (who was St. Valentine, anyway?), but everybody knows that February 14 is a day to show the loves in your life a little extra affection, starting with candy, of course.
Valentine's Day candy is the sweetest way to show your sweethearts that you care. We have conversation heart boxes and heart-shaped lollipops for all of your sweethearts and for sharing with your child's classroom, your coworkers, neighbors, and friends.
We have bulk Valentine's candy, too, for parties and events, or just because you really, really like Valentine's Day candy, in which case you should also take a look at our Pink Candy and Red Candy pages, or our handy Valentine's Candy Catalog to make sure you don't miss a thing.
Enjoy shopping, and we hope Cupid rewards you bountifully in turn.

subset: commoncrawl


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For information on Shelter Rentals, Splash Pad and other activities at Monroe County Parks, visit our main website at mcparksandrec.org. Additional questions please call 812-349-2800.
Image of the 18 hole Disc Golf Course. For holes near the walking path the walker have the right-of way at all times. Please do not throw your disc until the walkers have cleared the throwing zone.
For Field Status please call the Karst Athletic Complex Hotline (812) 349-2126.
Image of the athletic field layout of Karst Farm Park.
Please call (812) 349-2956 or email firstname.lastname@example.com for field reservation information.
Welcome to Karst Farm Park!!
Hi and welcome to the Karst Farm Park webpage. Karst Farm offers a wide range of activities including soccer, disc golf, ultimate, kickball and lacrosse. The Park also has seven shelters available for rent, as well as multiple play areas for kids.
The idea of this page is to give visitors information about scheduled activities, information about the park, and evenutally information on shelter rental. We hope that this page can provide the information you are looking for. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us.
Directions to Karst Farm Park
From Highway 37, go west on Highway 45 (2nd St.). Turn right on Airport Road, then turn right on Endwright Road. The entrance to the park is on the left.(map)
Karst Farm Park Athletic Field Maintenance and Cancellation Information
Karst Athletic Fields document from the Karst Farm Park Administrator.
Karst Farm Park
2450 S. Endwright Rd., Bloomington 47403
Monroe County Parks and Recreation
Copyright @ 2005-2018
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Diamond Radeon HD5770 XOC Review
The HD 5770 graphics cards is one of those rare products that offers the end user an almost perfect price to performance ratio. For somewhere around $160, you can get a card that will produce good frames per second in most games on the market and also includes new features such as DX11 support, Eyefinity and ATI Stream technology. So, how to do you take a product that offers as much as the HD 5770 does and make it even better? You crank up the performance. This is exactly what Diamond did with its latest offering based on the HD 5770 chip. This card, which is appropriately named the XOC (eXtreme OverClocked) version, comes with the core clocked in at 930MHz and the memory at 1300MHz, which is an 80MHz increase on the core and 100MHz increase on the memory, over the reference design. With these faster clocks, this card will achieve higher frames per second than the lower clocked versions and do so right out of the box, without additional tweaking. Just how much performance the additional clock speeds will yield though, is what I intend to find out as we delve into our in depth look at the Diamond HD5770 XOC.
Closer Look:
The graphic card comes packaged in a rectangular shaped box that devotes the entire front cover to Colin McRae's Dirt 2. This game goes well with the HD5770 line because it is one of the few DX11 games currently available. Other than the image of the game, you will find some additional information of the front, such a sticker identifying this card as the XOC version, the size of memory, and the PCI bus type. Turning the packaging over, you can see that the back panel is where you find the more detailed information about the graphics card. On this panel, you will find information explaining how the card utilizes the latest technologies, such as DX11, ATI Stream and Eyefininty. The box also lists the system requirements and features for the card, with these being found on the sides of the packaging.
The packaging we were looking at before is actually just the outer portion of the box that is used to advertise and give information about the product. To remove this outer covering, you simply open the side panel and pull on it until the inner packaging slides out. The inner packaging is just a plain white cardboard box that houses the graphics card and accessories. When opened, you are first presented with the included accessories sitting on top of a foam pad. Below this is the graphic card, which comes wrapped in a red anti-static bag, which will protect it from any electro-static damage prior to the card being removed from its protective casing. The accessories include a CrossFire bridge, VGA to DVI adapter, installation disk, and the manual.
Now that we have it out of the packaging, let's get a closer look.


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25 May 2006 09:45
Stuff n Things
This site has all the useless, stupid and funny crap one seems to come across on travels of the internet. Yes, thats right, Its another useless website full of little titbits, but that can be fun when your bored right?
1 (1 marks)


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This is my first time posting, so hi to everyone!
I'm posting a diary of how I built my latest creation (actually I'm still building it..). You can check it as I go at http://php-db.com - Follow the link on the upper right "curent projects".
I think this will be the latest wheel drive robot I will build in some time, I'm quite interested in legged locomotion and I've seen some very impressive machines on this site..


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The Patriarch Of Romania At The Saint Patron's Feast Of Saint Martyr Mercurie Church
Today, 25 November 2011, the parish of Saint Great Martyr Mercurie of Titan district of Bucharest celebrated its protector. On the occasion of the celebration of the saint patron of this holy place of worship, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel officiated the Divine Liturgy assisted by a group of priests and deacons, in the presence of hundreds of faithful who had come to worship Saint Martyr Mercurie.
In the sermon delivered His Beatitude eulogized the personality of Saint Martyr Mercurie, a man full of faith who sacrificed his life for Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church, as well as of Saint Martyr Ecaterina, both saints celebrated in the Orthodox Church on 25 November.
The crown of martyrdom is the crown of eternal life also said the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, showing that the holy martyrs got salvation through their sacrifice, having also become fruitful seeds of faith.
"The martyrs who have confessed Christ with the price of their own life have become seeds generating faith. This is why the holy martyrs are called in our Orthodox cult good victorious martyrs. Although they were physically defeated by beheading or violent torture, they have been good victorious. Why could they be victorious as long as they were killed? They were good victorious ones in the Spirit of Christ that they had inside them. That is why they have not answered with violence to violence, with malice to malice, but they kept the right faith without killing other people, without answering with persecution to persecution. This patience of the holy martyrs shows us that the Grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord, was dwelling in them for their strong faith and much prayer", also said His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
While referring to Saint Martyr Ecaterina, the Patriarch of Romania showed that human wisdom without faith becomes pride, but it is deified through faith when united with divine wisdom.
"When brought to judgement Saint Martyr Ecaterina converted 150 educated orators to Christianity, so that she is, in a way, the protector of the intelligentsia too, the protector of those who use all their culture and wisdom in the service of the Church and of the confession of Christ. Human wisdom without faith becomes pride, but it is deified through faith when united with divine wisdom, with Christ, the Word, and God's wisdom", His Beatitude also said.
"In Saint Great Martyr Mercurie we see bravery and much patience based on much faith in Christ, while in Saint Great martyr Ecaterina we see how her wisdom is used in the mission of the Church", said His Beatitude.
To end with the Divine Liturgy, parish priest Paul Lepadatu received the Sanctus Stephanus Magnus order for clergy on behalf of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. His Beatitude has also given several religious books for the church library, and a blessing cross for the altar of the holy place of worship.
The faithful who came to the Divine Liturgy could pray a particle of the relics of Saint Mercurie taken out yesterday, 24 November, in procession and laid in the courtyard of the holy place of worship for wrship, under a canopy specially arranged.
The foundation stone of the place of worship was laid in 2003. Besides the Saint Great Martyr Mercurie, the church is also dedicated to the "Falling Asleep of the Mother of God".


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How to make the component dialog floating and set a default size
I recently ran into a situation where I wrote a custom widget for a client which had a list of 25 items to be displayed. The default dialog size of CQ wasn't big enough for that and the users would have had to scroll up, down, right and left to cover the whole list. I figured out a way to make the dialog floating (which would give the users the ability to resize it by dragging) and to set a default size that can be as big or small than the default CQ dialog box. Here's how to do it.
1. Create a node in your component of type cq:EditConfig and name cq:editConfig, this should be a sibling of the dialog node.
2. To the cq:editConfig node add a property with name "cq:dialogMode", type "String" and value "floating"
3. To your dialog node add two properties of type Long, name height and width and value to what the you want the size of the dialog to be.
4. That should be it. This should open the dialog with the size that you mention in the height and width properties you created in the earlier step and give the users the ability to resize the window by dragging.


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INDIAN WELLS, Calif., March 12 (UPI) -- Second-seeded Roger Federer breezed into the fourth round and No. 5 Rafael Nadal won in a walkover Monday at the BNP Paribas Open in California.
Federer needed only 61 minutes to speed past Croatia's Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-1, cruising into the round of 16.
He'll next face fellow Swiss and No. 18 seed Stanislaw Wawrinka, who bested Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-5.
Nadal, meanwhile, didn't even have to take to the court to advance into the fourth round. He was set to meet Leonardo Mayer on Day 5, but the Argentine pulled out of their scheduled third-round match with a back injury.
The Spanish superstar now goes on to face Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who rallied for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Italian Andreas Seppi.
Also Monday, sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych needed only 68 minutes to dispatch No. 27 German Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-1; 13th-seeded Gilles Simon outlasted Frenchman Benoit Pare 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; and No. 10 Richard Gasquet of France bested 24th-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz 6-1, 6-4.
South African Kevin Anderson prevailed over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-1 in another third-round match.


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- Book of Yum - http://www.bookofyum.com/blog -
Valentine's Day Gluten-Free Wheat-Free Coconut Muffin Heart Shortcake Recipe
Posted By yum On February 4, 2008 @ 8:00 pm In Baked Goods, Dessert, Muffin, coconut, fruit | 16 Comments
[1] [2]The last time I ordered gluten-free flours from Bob's Red Mill, I noticed that they sold GF coconut flour. I had been hearing rumors about the wonder of low-carb, high-fiber coconut flour and couldn't resist adding yet another flour to my collection. South Beach or other low-carb dieters use coconut flour straight in their baking, but this kind of baking demands a lot of eggs, and I'm not that crazy about eggs. So, I decided to try the coconut flour as a supplement to my favorite gluten-free blend in a recipe. For some reason, I kept thinking about vanilla muffins, thinking that the coconut flour would add complimentary dessert-like notes, so I took a (non GF) recipe from Recipezaar as my inspiration and came up with the coconut flavored, vanilla muffin recipe below. I sneaked off to the kitchen to make them one night, leaving DH unaware at his computer. As you know, I have a serious crush on mini-muffin-tins, so I baked some of the batter in those tins, some in my mini bundt cake tins, and some in these wonderful heart shaped baking cups that I'd found in a local store. As the smell of the coconut flour and vanilla wafted through the house, DH looked up from his computer and said "Hey, are those cookies I smell?" I hated to break it to him that they were actually muffins- but he enjoyed them anyway. The coconut flour gave them a wonderful spongy texture not unlike that of bean flour, and was the perfect compliment to the copious amounts of vanilla in the recipe. However, it was the early Valentine's Day Shortcake recipe that I came up with a day or two later that earned the rave review in our house.
[3] I had been thinking about Kochtopf's Heart for my Valentine [4] blog event. (Roundup is Here [5]) I knew I wanted to use the heart shaped muffins as the base for my entry, but it wasn't until I tasted the faintly sweet coconut and vanilla flavors of my creation that it occurred to me- it would be the perfect base for a strawberry shortcake! Trader Joe's didn't have fresh strawberries, but they did have lovely fresh blackberries and organic frozen strawberries, so I modified my initial vision. I wouldn't just use them in strawberry shortcake, but rather, a shortcake topped with strawberry sorbet with hints of meyer lemon juice, macerated blackberries, and fresh cream (or cashew cream).
The result was one very happy Valentine (DH.) His rating? A nine out of ten, which from this picky libra boy is no small compliment. He raved that the muffins were not only as good as regular shortcake but actually better than regular shortcake. Not too shabby considering it was my first experiment with coconut flour! I'll definitely be trying my coconut flour in other muffin recipes… and soon. I've already got mango cubes in the freezer, dried pineapple, and dried cranberries just crying out to be used in a tropical coconut or cranberry coconut recipe… And I can't wait! Now, where's that mini-muffin tin…
[6]No coconut flour in the cupboard?
Try Lea's Gluten-free shortcake biscuits [7]
Elise's Strawberry Shortcake with Gluten-Free Variation [8] (scroll down)
Or Elise's Marion Blackberry Shortcake with GF Variation [9] (scroll down)
Looking for more Gluten-Free Treats for your Valentine? Try this low-carb agave-sweetened vegan brownie recipe
Looking for more Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Recipes using Coconut Flour? Try these:
BytheBay's Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffin Recipe [10]
Cindalou's Cran-Blueberry Coconut Flour Muffin Recipe [11]
Glutenagogo's Coconut Gluten-Free Bread [12]
GF Teff Coconut flour Pancake Recipe
Gluten-free Dessert's Chocolate Coconut Cookies
Bob's Red Mill Coconut Flour Recipes- Biscuits, Scones, and Almond Cake [13]
Toys for making YOUR OWN yummy muffins in Fun Shapes. GF Mini-Baked-Coconut-donut anyone?
Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Vanilla Muffin Recipe
Bread [14] Alternative Grains [15] American [16]
1 1/2 cup Bette Hagman GF mix (rice, potato starch, tapioca blend)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 lg egg, beaten
1 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt (or 1 cup plain yogurt with 1 tsp vanilla and confectioners sugar to taste) [DF option: use soy yogurt]
1/4 cup milk [DF option: use rice, almond, hemp or soy milk]
1 tbsp. vanilla
6 tbsp. butter, melted [DF option: use dairy free margarine, shortening, or oil]
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Prepare mini muffin tins, muffin tins, mini bundt cake pans, or mini heart baking tins for a Valentines Day treat by spraying with butter flavored nonstick cooking spray.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix them together, quickly, combining ingredients thoroughly but not over mixing.
Bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on size of tin, with mini muffin tins baking for 12-15 minutes and larger tins baking longer…)
Try subbing some applesauce for the butter next time!
After the first day or two, these are best heated briefly in the microwave. It's best to slice them AFTER you heat them for the moistest muffin, or even to avoid slicing them.
Valentine's Day Heart Blackberry and Strawberry Shortcake Recipe
Dessert [17] Alternative Grains [15] American [16]
Gluten-free Vanilla Coconut Flour heart shaped muffins (1 or more per person)
Macerated Blackberries:
Strawberry Sorbet:
Dairy or Dairy Free Whipped Cream:
Macerated Blackberries:
Mash at least half of your blackberries with a potato masher or a fork. Add sugar and combine thoroughly. Let rest for 30 minutes or so.
Strawberry sorbet:
Use slightly warmed muffins, either heated in microwave or fresh from the oven. If you like, you can cut them in half horizontally, or just leave them as is. (I like the second method.) Layer Strawberry sorbet, Macerated blackberries, and Cashew Cream OR Dairy Cream. Garnish with fresh berries and sprig of mint (optional).
Serve to your sweetie in exchange for lots of kisses!
Cashew Vanilla Cream
Sauces & Condiments [18] American [16]
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Soak 1 cup of cashews in 2 cups of water. If you're in a
very warm climate, soak them in your refrigerator. After 8-12 hours,
discard the soaking water and rinse the nuts. In a blender, place the
nuts and enough fresh water to allow the blender to operate. Blend,
gradually adding enough water to achieve a smooth consistency. Yields
1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups.
Really lovely served with fresh fruit and chocolate fondue as a substitute for whipped cream, or collect an assortment of beautiful organic fruits from the farmers market and top with Cashew Vanilla Cream. You can even add edible flowers for garnish!
found at
Article printed from Book of Yum: http://www.bookofyum.com/blog
URL to article: http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/valentines-day-gluten-free-wheat-free-coconut-muffin-heart-shortcake-recipe-1496.html
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.bookofyum.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/heart2.jpg
[2] Image: http://www.bookofyum.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/heart5.jpg
[3] Image: http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/4625274/
[4] Heart for my Valentine: http://www.kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/4625274/
[5] Here: http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/4632712/
[6] Image: http://www.bookofyum.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/heart4.jpg
[7] Lea's Gluten-free shortcake biscuits: http://leaisglutenfree.blogspot.com/2007/05/shortcake.html
[8] Strawberry Shortcake with Gluten-Free Variation: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000270strawberry_shortcake.php
[9] Marion Blackberry Shortcake with GF Variation: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001303marion_blackberry_shortcake.php
[10] BytheBay's Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffin Recipe: http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-first-experiment-with-coconut-flour.html
[11] Cindalou's Cran-Blueberry Coconut Flour Muffin Recipe: http://cindalouskitchenblues.blogspot.com/2007/11/cran-blueberry-coconut-flour-muffins.html
[12] Glutenagogo's Coconut Gluten-Free Bread: http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/2007/06/coconut-bread-gluten-free-whats-not-to.html
[13] Bob's Red Mill Coconut Flour Recipes- Biscuits, Scones, and Almond Cake: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipe/search.php?category_ID=14&product_ID=596&keywords=&submit=%3A%3A+search+%3A%3A
[14] Bread: http://www.bookofyum.com/recipes_v2/listrecipes.php#Bread
[15] Alternative Grains: http://www.bookofyum.com/recipes_v2/listrecipes.php#Alternative Grains
[16] American: http://www.bookofyum.com/recipes_v2/listrecipes.php#American
[17] Dessert: http://www.bookofyum.com/recipes_v2/listrecipes.php#Dessert
[18] Sauces & Condiments: http://www.bookofyum.com/recipes_v2/listrecipes.php#Sauces & Condiments
Click here to print.
Copyright © 2010 Book of Yum. All rights reserved.


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On Campus - Recipe for success
Philadelphia, PA – If you can't beat them, join them. If you can't join them, at the very least, emulate them.
The SEC has won each of the last six national titles, so clearly the conference is doing something right.
Alabama takes aim at its third national crown in the last four years and once again Nick Saban's philosophy has been physical lines on both sides of the football, a strong ground game and dominant defensive play.
The Crimson Tide will square off against Notre Dame on Jan. 7 with the national title up for grabs. The betting lines have Alabama as a prohibitive favorite and it would be hard to find fault in that logic, considering the way Alabama plays the game, the veteran leadership that has been in this position before and a coach that simply knows how to win big games.
Still, Brian Kelly's Irish aren't just another run of the mill program that lucked into a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. Notre Dame has earned its spot, playing a brand of football all too familiar to the SEC elite.
It starts on the line of scrimmage. Across the board, Notre Dame has won the majority of the battles up front.
Offensively, the numbers speak for themselves. The offensive line paves the way for a running attack that averages over 200 yards per game and amassed 22 rushing scores this season. The ground game is as effective as it is thanks to fresh legs. The Irish rely on a stable of quality backs, led by Theo Riddick (880 yards, 4.9 ypc, 5 TDs), Cierre Wood (740 yards, 6.7 ypc, 4 TDs) and George Atkinson III (361 yards, 7.1 ypc, 5 TDs). Quarterback Everett Golson may just be a freshman, but the youngster has grown up over the course of the 2012 season thanks in large part to the efforts of his offensive line. While throwing the football is option number two in South Bend, pass protection is still a strength, with the line yielding only 16 sacks this season. It is a big, nasty offensive front that likes to get after defenders and win each and every individual battle.
The defensive numbers have been even more impressive. The Irish defense as a whole has given up just 10 touchdowns this season and leads the nation in scoring defense (10.3 ppg). While three-time All-American Manti Te'o is the centerpiece of the unit and for good reason, the play up front has been almost as important.
The team has three big bodies that all have flourished under Kelly and perfected their roles.
Sophomore end Stephon Tuitt has received the most attention on the defensive side outside of Te'o and has molded himself into a legitimate NFL caliber downlinemen in just one season as a starter. The 6-foot-6, 304-pound sophomore was named a First-Team All-American, posting 42 total tackles, with 13.0 TFLs and a team-high 12.0 sacks this season.
Kelly credits Tuitt for working hard to be a force on every down.
"Stephon's process in terms developing into the player that he is today has been one where he had to be unselfish first and foremost," said the Irish head coach. "He had to be a guy that was committed to being solid against the run and not just, I want to be an edge player.
"He's seen, by the number sacks that he has this year, that he can be both. So the transformation for Stephon Tuitt for us is that he's embraced his role of being a guy that will play the four technique and be a two gapper were against the run and also be able to rush the passer and do both.
"That's the transformation that we've seen that we're most pleased with as relates it Stephon. And he's only going to continue to get better as we move forward. This is really, truly his first full year of playing the game."
Veteran Kapron Lewis-Moore (6-4, 306) comes off the other edge and has been highly successful as well (39 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, 6.0 sacks). The job of winning one-on-one battles is made possible by mammoth defensive tackle Louis Nix III (6-3, 326). The junior nose tackle (45 tackles, 5.5 TFLs) is an anchor against the run, taking on multiple blockers on most plays, freeing up the rest of the defense to get to the ball carrier.
That is something that the Irish thrive at, led by Te'o (103 tackles, seven INTs). Players like linebacker Prince Shembo (48 tackles, 10.5 TFLs, 7.5 sacks), safety Zeke Motta (61 tackles) and cornerback Bennett Jackson (61 tackles, four INTs) have all hit their stride in 2012, feeding off the frenzied play off Te'o and the defensive line.
It remains to be seen if Notre Dame can impose its will on an Alabama squad that has proved time and time again that it can do that very thing on the biggest of stages.
Following a blueprint set forth by the Crimson Tide themselves though, certainly gives the Irish more than a fighting chance.


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 5th Nov 2008 16:12 UTC, submitted by Michael
I collect manuals. I have so many of them, that I'm starting to wonder where on earth I'm supposed to put them all. Somewhere in the back of a closet, I keep all my manuals in three huge boxes, with manuals dating from the early '80s to just a few days ago when I bought a new mouse. However, none of them are as dear to my as my extensive, fully illustrated Dutch manuals for Windows 3.0, which accompanied my parents' first PC in 1990. An enormously detailed manual covering every aspect of Windows 3.0 - with special sleeves for the various floppy disks that held the Windows 3.0 operating system. I still have those original floppies, and they're still fully functional. Last week, the era of Windows 3.x finally came to an end when Microsoft ceased to give out licenses for the operating system.
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Top Selling New Food Products of 2008
The new "kids" on the block: top-selling new products of 2008 focused on convenience, steaming technologies, full flavor and fewer calories, according to IRIs annual list of Pacesetters.
Even in good times, launching a successful new consumer packaged goods (CPG) product is a daunting task. In a recessionary economy, new product successes are even harder to achieve as consumers count their hard-earned pennies.
New products are the life force of food and beverage manufacturers. A hit sustains consumer loyalty, drives profits and pays off the R&D costs behind less successful introductions. When a new product hits the ground running, it has the potential to be a Pacesetter, as defined by Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. IRI has tracked CPG introductions for 14 years via its New Product Pacesetters Report, which ranks each year's most successful new brands.
The 2008 Pacesetters report is full of brands that used innovation to beat the new product odds and a recessionary economy. Pacesetters are those products launched between February of one year and January of the next that reach two milestones: 30 percent national distribution and retail sales of at least $7.5 million. After those criteria are met, IRI tracks them over the next 12 months to determine the most successful new products in their first year of "national" sales in food, drug and mass merchandising channels, excluding Wal-Mart.
Successful brands and products have characteristics that make them unique and qualities consumers are looking for. Performance among top food and beverage introductions has remained steady over the past decade, with about 9 percent earning more than $20 million.
"These brands are truly remarkable," says Anne Berlack, IRI's Consumer and Shopper Insights Practice executive vice president. "Even in the best of times, approximately 75 percent of new products fail to earn more than $7.5 million during the first year of availability. In 2008, 78 percent of food products failed to break that revenue threshold. [The 2008] New Product Pacesetters faced unprecedented challenges and came out on top, even though last year was less kind than most."
New brands vs. extensions
One would assume that given today's economy, characterized by Americans eating out less and dining at home more, shoppers would snap up new products in an attempt to add variety to their home menus. Instead, they are staying with familiar brands that provide comfort, and they're diversifying their meals through brand extensions.
There were 859 new food and beverage introductions in 2008 (excluding Wal-Mart), and an unusually high 94 percent of the Pacesetters were brand extensions. Historically, new food brands outperform brand extensions. However, this trend slipped over the past two years, and in 2008, brand extensions ($27 million) and new brands ($26 million) had nearly identical average year-one sales.
This downward slide across new products is partly attributable to the prevalence of brand extensions made with niche-market focus — such as organic products or those targeting specific health concerns or day parts. But it also reinforces the importance of innovation offering authentic and enticing product features.
In the face of mounting financial pressures, away-from-home dining activity saw sharp declines in 2008. Answering consumer needs for quick and convenient but novel solutions are Hormel Compleats (No. 5), DiGiorno Ultimate pizza (No. 6) and Tyson Any'tizers (No. 9). Other offerings such as Healthy Choice Café Steamers (No. 3) and Progresso Light soups (No. 4) marry convenience with a health message.
Two new beverages boast new experiences with few or no calories. The No. 1 product on the list, Gatorade G2, provides all of the electrolytes of regular Gatorade but with only 25 calories. Pepsi Max (No. 8), with ginseng and added caffeine, provides a calorie-free energy boost.
And despite hardships, consumers are not willing to give up occasional indulgences. No. 2 Dunkin Donuts coffee and No. 7 Smirnoff Ice Flavors malt beverages bring the indulgence of restaurant dining to the home. With distinctive flavors, products such as these allow consumers to enjoy a treat without breaking the budget. Speaking of distinctive flavors, Doritos Collisions (No. 10) offers two different flavors of chips in the same bag.
"In a world of economic uncertainty, consumers seek comfort and stability in small ways," adds Berlack. "Home dining occasions are proving to be an area of opportunity. Shoppers are staying with trusted brands that provide value and comfort and are diversifying their menus through brand extensions, such as chicken breasts with new flavor offerings or ice cream with new, indulgent mix-ins."
Back to basics
Looking beyond that top 10 list to other products that made the Pacesetters cut provides more insight into product development trends. This past year, a whopping 13 new cereal introductions vaulted into the ranks of New Product Pacesetters. Several, including General Mills' Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters, Post's Live Active line and Kellogg's All Bran Strawberry Medley, target the health-conscious at-home breakfast diner, and Kellogg's Cereal Straws targets younger households with children.
In the frozen meals aisle, Bertolli's Mediterranean Style Multi-Serve line and Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Flatbread Melts found success.
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The sun was shining for the first time in several weeks, prompting many an outdoor enthusiast to hit the trails for a long overdue hike. Four of this weekend's numerous hikers ended up with unexpected adventures.
"It's all about the good weather," said Hood River Sheriff Joe Wampler, commenting on his involvement in two search and rescue missions occurring over the last three days. "People need to realize that even if it's sunny on the river, there is still plenty of snow up above 2,500 feet."
The more dramatic of the lost hiker stories began on Saturday, Jan. 22, when Teresa Collins, 30, of Portland sought out the peak of Mt. Defiance.
Collins parked at the I-84 Starvation Creek State Park lot early in the day and planned a full-day for the 14 mile round-trip hike into the steep terrain offered on the Mt. Defiance trail.
Hiking alone, Collins made the summit by mid-day and began her return downhill through the snow covered ground. At about 3:30 p.m., Collins became frightened, realizing she had entered a treacherous area, could proceed no further and was no longer sure of where the trail lay.
Using her well-charged cell phone, Collins phoned for help. Wampler at first attempted to assess her location and direct her back to the trail.
"It became clear that Collins was going to get herself into trouble trying to find her way out," said Wampler. "The area she became disoriented in is a common site for this problem when there is snow on the ground."
"She had wandered into the Warren Creek drainage area which is very hazardous with lots of places to fall," Wampler said.
Still looking for Collins as darkness set in, Wampler determined it was best to call in for a helicopter assist for the on-ground search and rescue volunteers.
"We had three people from the Sheriff's office, six Crag Rats and, after nightfall, the Oregon National Guard MEDEVAC Blackhawk helicopter and crew. They all arrived at her location at the same time."
Collins was located at about 8:30 p.m. Once the copter arrived and got into position, she was loaded onto a litter, airlifted from her ravine location and taken to Cascade Locks to receive medical evaluation by ambulance personnel.
After it was determined that Collins was unharmed, Cascade Locks Fire Chief, Jeff Pricher drove her back to her vehicle where Collins was met by her boyfriend.
Hood River County Sheriff, Joe Wampler, coordinated the search teams with assistance from long-time search plane volunteer Randy Franz.
In a second incident on Sunday Jan. 23, Wampler received a hauntingly similar cell phone call for help from a group of three hikers, also lost in the Mt. Defiance area.
"I got their call at about 4:30 p.m.," said Wampler of lost hikers Donna Regan, Louise Gilas and Jacob Korngold from West Linn, Ore.
"They also lost sight of the Starvation Creek trail in the snow - once again, a fairly common occurrence in that area."
The small group assured Wampler they would be fine to wait it out over night even though they had no sleeping bags.
"They had food and water and warm clothing," said Wampler "and the sun was already down. It's a good thing we waited because they were not where they described themselves to be. Our ground crews would not have found them."
Setting out in his search plane at first light on Monday, Jan. 24, Wampler and search volunteer, pilot Mike Cochran, spotted the group fairly far from where they thought themselves to be.
"We were able to guide this group back onto the trail once we located them," said Wampler. "They got back on the trail within a half and hour and later called us from the parking lot to say they'd arrived safely."
"Communication is essential in these situations," said Wampler, "and a GPS is especially nice if you have one with you."
Wampler also noted that people are very difficult to spot in the forest.
"It really is best if you can find a big, open space to get yourself into. That helps us a lot," concluded Wampler
The MEDEVAC helicopter unit used in Saturday's rescue is based in Salem and returned from a deployment to Iraq last January.
Supporting search and rescue missions such as the Collins incident provide Oregon National Guard units opportunities to train incoming crew members, according to Wampler.
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Nymbler is the smart baby name guide that responds to your personal taste.
Nymbler makes name connections with insights from baby-naming expert Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard.
DemetriasInspire Nymbler with Demetrias
A boy's name of Greek origin. Demetrias has never been a common name in the United States. Meaning: Greek: lover of the earth. Mythology: a follower of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest.
U.S. popularity statistics:
|Peak year:
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|3-year trend:


text: Ever wonder what your home is worth? In the current economy, I'm not always sure we want to know, but it is interesting. You can now get that information on all www.ourtown.com websites, including this one.Just find the Zillow box located on the home page, type in your address, or your neighbor's, your friend's, or even your mother-in-law's address and Zillow will give you an estimated home value based on comps in the area. Zillow also provides other helpful real estate tips for your area. It's important to be in the know, now more than ever, and www.ourtown.com, through our Zillow.com affiliation can help you stay on top of the real estate market.


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There are, in all probability, more hangdog experiences than letting your softball team down. At this time of year, though, as the days get longer and the sounds and smells of this spring and summertime sport permeate the air, we're hard-pressed to think of others.
To make sure you're the player hefted onto teammates' shoulders as the game ends (or at least not the one glared at during recaps of games lost), we sought tips from softball experts. Amber Conner is head coach of the University of Dallas women's softball team. T.J. Hubbard holds the same position at the University of North Texas.
For starters, Conner says, don't sell yourself short. Anyone can play the game.
"Softball does not discriminate," she says. "You see all shapes and sizes who have great success at our sport at all levels."
If you want to play well, Hubbard says, start by being enthusiastic.
"The big thing to me is walking off and on the field instead of hustling or sprinting," says Hubbard, who's coached the Mean Green women's softball team for 10 years. "That's a personal pet peeve."
Echoes Conner: "Hustle! That's something you can always do, no matter your skill level. I will take a kid hustling and giving me everything they have physically and mentally over an extremely talented kid who gives me 75 percent every time."
Once you've mastered enthusiasm, here are some tips from Conner and Hubbard about the physical aspects of the game.
Swing to hit the good pitches. That might sound obvious, but it's very tempting to get revved at the plate and think any pitch is a good one.
"Some people, if the ball's between them and the dugout, they're swinging at it," Hubbard says. "If they can touch it, they want to hit it, which isn't necessarily the best plan to take."
Know the basics. What's the strike zone? Where is the plate in relation to where you are? "If you can have a picture in your mind of what those look like, it will be a lot easier to swing."
Focus on form. "Keep your feet shoulder width apart, your weight evenly distributed," he says. "Have the bat on the back side of your body, your front shoulder and hip sideways to the direction of the pitch."
Hit from the core. "Explode the bat through the strike zone," says Conner, who played softball for Texas State University. "For me, the hands are only for holding the bat. The core is where the hit comes from."
Catching a fly ball
Make sure you can see it. It might sound like a well-duh suggestion, but if you're playing during the day, be sure to wear sunglasses and-or a cap. (Also, sunscreen, which won't help you catch a ball, but it could save your life.)
Don't run with your glove up. "A lot of would-be players have it over their heads," Hubbard says. Instead, just hold it while you run like somebody handed it to you before you started a jog.
Get behind the ball. "Everyone struggles to catch balls in the air — running around to the right, to the left and forward, and the ball falls behind them," Hubbard says.
Don't run directly underneath it, he says. "It doesn't reach a peak and then come straight down. It will always have an angle on the downward slide." If you are directly underneath it, it will always fall behind you.
Warm up. Conner has her teams start on their knees. "We work from the ground up on how to throw, every single day," she says. "We start with wrist flips, then progress all the way to throwing hard."
Grip the ball with three fingers. Not five, not two, not one. Three: index, middle, ring, Hubbard says. "Put your top two fingers perpendicular to the horseshoe-shaped seams. You don't want them to run along the seams, but across. If your fingers are on the seams, that will make the ball spin like a flying saucer."
Think of the ball as a clock face. "If your fingers are on the 3 and 9, you can't control it. You want it on 12 and 6, and it'll stay on its path."
Position yourself. "The elbow should be above or even with the shoulder for a good overhand throw," Conner says. "Point the elbow, not the glove, toward the target."
Take the step. Make sure you do so with the opposite foot from the one holding the ball. "I've seen people try to step with the right and throw with the right," Hubbard says.
Let 'er rip, like a kid would. "Get your elbow back, arm swing going forward," he says. "Aim for the target and go. You want to get into a straight line. That's how the body works efficiently."
"I don't teach my daughters [he has three] a lot of mechanical stuff. Your body will naturally teach what you need to do to perform correctly."
"Follow through," Conner says. "There's nothing worse than throwing and standing straight up. You have to have follow through, some bend-at-the-waist action."
Keep running at full speed. "The biggest mistake is trying to slow down before you slide," Hubbard says. "That's when your feet get tangled or stuck in the ground if you're wearing spikes or cleats."
He compares it to playing on a Slip 'n Slide: "You don't get to it and stop. You keep running."
Lean back a little, "almost like you're going to fall on your back," he says.
Kick your feet into the air as you near the ground. "Let your bottom take the brunt of it as you slide forward."
Practice on the ground. "We have the team members sit on the ground, straightening out their left leg. Take the right leg and fold it under, like you're making a 4 with your legs. That's the position you should be in when you hit the ground."
Leave your gym shoes at home. First, they won't give you enough traction on dirt and grass. Turf shoes or cleats will, Hubbard says.
Additionally, "I'd think if you show up with flat-soled tennis shoes and it was down to you and someone with cleats, I'd pick the person with cleats."
Take care of your glove. "If I was the guy picking the team, I'd look at gloves," he says. "If you have one that looks like it's from 1937 with broken laces … if I don't think you can catch with that glove, I wouldn't pick you. It doesn't have to be new, but it had better be in good shape."
Be prepared. "If you show up and don't have a glove or bat or cleats, it would be pretty tough to pick you," he says.
Follow us on Twitter: @dmn health; @ohlesliebarker.
Attitude matters
Tips from coach Amber Conner:
On making mistakes: Don't hang your head; don't point the finger at someone else, she says. "Nobody wants to play next to Debbie Downer."
On listening: Be coachable. You have to be able to take criticism. "No coach is out there to hurt your feelings or make you feel silly."


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Thursday, June 17, 2010
No More Sympathy For the Impatient Motorist
Sometimes I go through ebbs and flows of more aggressive and cooperative stances with the world of driving. Lately reading the book Fighting Traffic, about the history of the dawn of the auto age in America, has me leaning a little more on the aggressive side. Automobile interest groups and drivers wrestled the purpose of streets from everyone else, often by bloody force (200,000 Americans were killed on roads in the 1920's, a majority were pedestrians back then). It was not uncommon in the early decades of automobiles on the streets for newspapers to depict the typical driver as Satan, and mass memorial services for slain children were common in urban places. Safety campaigns eventually brought down the proportion of pedestrian fatalities, but in the process began to highly limit what had been previously very liberal rights to those who walked in cities. Eventually "motordom", as the auto interests called them selves began influencing the entire design of cities around principles essentially tailored to sell more cars. Auto clubs tried to sell the idea of cars with sexy ads, and promises of freedom, but just as often they were launching campaigns against pedestrians, referring to them as bumbling idiots and creating the term jay walker, blasting against campaigns for car regulation with counter ads that fed on anti-government fears and even stoking racism at times. If we are going to create a culture change of the purpose and dynamics of city streets to be safer and more inviting for all users, we will sometimes have to play dirty too, and we cannot simply back down and make way for every driver who is quick to their horn.
8 comments:
- danceralamode said...
I know what you mean, sometimes I just want to enjoy my ride and not fight traffic, so I'll be more docile, but sometimes, dammit, I have a right to be here.
The same thing happened to me on a long ride down and back up the coast. I was on PCH going through Laguna, and was stopped in the right hand lane that was not a right turn only sign. Not only was I there, but also another cyclist next to me (who had shoaled a little but was waiting behind).
The woman honked on her horn twice, and I ignored her. Then she rolled down her window and called out (politely) "excuse me, but I need to turn right and I don't want to hit you."
All I could think is, "so, regardless of whether I move or not, you're going to turn right. You're going to just mow me down, but you'd rather not hit me?"
I turned to her and said, "I'm sorry you don't want to hit me, but I have a right to the full use of this lane. You'll just have to wait." Then, as I was speaking, the light turned green. She then says "well, will you go then because the light is green." Of course, I didn't see the green light now because I had to turn around to deal with her harassment. I just gave her a look of "you're an idiot" and started pedaling.
I don't want to be overly aggressive, but I want to be inexorable.
- June 17, 2010 at 3:01 PM
I used to stay to the curb at intersections, but now I take the lane. Once in a while, even while in the middle of the lane, someone will squeeze up the left side pretending that there is still enough space there, so generally I try to take all of the lane to discourage passing while waiting at intersections.
When they honk, I usually give a thumbs up. In my mind, it's a middle finger, but they can interpret as they choose :D
I'm a vehicle on the road, and they will just have to wait. If they seem particularly impatient, I try to recite their license plate a few times, just in case they decide to do something really stupid when the light goes green.
- June 18, 2010 at 5:24 AM
I usually stop on the left side of the rightmost lane (where the bike lane would be if it were to continue through the intersection), so that right-turning cars can get by me on the right.
I'm all for asserting my presence on the road when it is required for safety, but when I can safely share the road, I'd rather do so.
- June 20, 2010 at 9:09 AM
- Gary said...
I usually stop to the right side of the next lane over as well, but if there is a row of cars already present there, I am not going to tuck in the little space usually left there and be sandwiched between car idling waiting to go straight and car making right, unless there is obviously plenty of room. Also I don't like to do what many cyclists do and ride so far up as to get in the way of the pedestrian crossing. I much prefer to be respectful of sharing space with pedestrians than to "get out of the way", of motorists.
- June 20, 2010 at 9:37 AM
- Gary said...
Also, if the driver had rolled up and said hey could I get by, I might have done it, I am usually nothing but nice and accommodating, but she decided to honk 3 times first. More and more I feel like unnecessary honking is a rude, brutish and uncivilized form of communication. As long as drivers can simply assume that any cyclist will scatter out of their way if they just honk, we will never be seen as having equal right to the road.
- June 20, 2010 at 9:42 AM
- danceralamode said...
It depends on the width of the lane, where I decide to put myself. I try to not block people from turning right, but sometimes the lane just isn't wide enough. And I won't hug the curb so they can right-hook me. What really ticked me off, was that she expected me to get off my bike, pick it up, and move to the side for her. I don't ask her to get out of her car, pick it up, and move to the side for me, do I?
In the end, why can't they just wait 3 seconds?
- June 21, 2010 at 10:48 AM
- Larry Clarkberg said...
I think motorists are blissfully unaware that to people outside their car their horns are startlingly heart-stoppingly loud. What they think is a friendly toot is an angry shout to us. For the record, even without honking cars make a lot of noise. When I walk my son to school there are certain streets where we have to shout to hear ourselves over the car noise. Do these people even know that they are making life miserable for the rest of us?
- July 3, 2010 at 3:59 AM
People are idiots anymore. They are completely unconcerned about safety and are more often than not discourteous. I am a bicycle rider and a motorcycle rider, but have relegated my motorcycling to weekend mornings only now after a few close calls caused by distracted motorists, discourteous motorists, or drivers who simply do not obey traffic laws (i.e, driving 15+ mph over the speed limit and nearly driving over me, coming with a foot or so of my back wheel on the motorcycle.) Not sure when civility will return. Cops don't enforce the law... not enough patrols.
- February 19, 2011 at 12:08 PM


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Work begins on Tioga Pass but opening day is still uncertain
The big winter has Mammoth celebrating, but Lee Vining residents are getting worried.
The record-breaking winter raises a worrisome question – when will Tioga Pass open?
More snow means more snow to plow, and the cool April so far isn't helping much, either.
But all is not lost. On Tuesday, April 12, Mono County found out that Mammoth Mountain will be donating some plow equipment to the cause, said county officials.
And, a new park superintendent has helped, too, according to Mono County supervisor Vikki Bauer, who said that relations between the county and Yosemite National Park have continued to improve in the last few years. This is good news for Lee Vining and June Lake, which both depend heavily on cross-Sierra traffic in the spring, summer and fall.
In fact, the park has begun plowing from the west side. In addition, Mono County and Caltrans started on the east side of the pass last week.
Bauer lives in June Lake and is a longtime veteran of the yearly fight to open Tioga Pass as early as possible.
This year, she sees signs of hope, given the park's increased emphasis on working with the county, and help from the Mountain.
But she also sees reason for caution.
"It's all about April," she said. "The weather in April can make or break the snowpack up there. We have had normal snow years with a cold April and had trouble getting through, and we have had heavy snow years where April is hot and the snowpack disappears.
She said that snow has a temperature threshold and can react in a big way to differing temperatures.
"It can swing dramatically in either direction," she said.
"Along with that, add the unpredictable factors like 'how many trees do they find in the roadway, are there any equipment failures and what is the avalanche danger' that also factor in," she said.
"It has been my experience over 30 years that it is a very difficult process to predict. You can only forge ahead and do your best to influence the things that come at you."
Yosemite park officials back Bauer's assertion that what happens in April is more critical than the snowpack depth.
In an e-mail sent to Bauer, then to the Mammoth Times, Marty Nielson, Chief, Division of Business and Revenue Management at Yosemite National Park, had this to say.
'Overall, the Tuolumne drainage is 178 percent of average water content and the Merced Drainage is 172 percent of average. These results are similar to 1995, which is generally considered to be the third or fourth largest snowpack on record.
"Keep in mind that opening dates of park facilities, including the Tioga Road, are generally more dependent on April and May temperatures than on the April 1 snowpack."
Given April's cold, record breaking temperatures and several feet of new snow already, given predictions of more of the same for the next week or two, it's not wonder Eastside communities are beginning to worry, watch – and hope.


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ReleasesBack to
Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan's debut album for Blue Note, Movin' and Groovin', is a thoroughly impressive affair, establishing Parlan as a distinctive hard bop stylist. Working with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Al Harewood, Parlan steals the show, playing hard-driving, bluesy bop and lyrical ballads. If it weren't for the inventive chord voicings and percussive right-hand attack, it would be impossible to tell that he was missing two fingers on his right hand, since his playing is remarkably agile and fluid. Parlan sounds vital on swinging blues, slow ballads, and straight-ahead bop, and Jones and Harewood provide appropriately empathetic support on this collection of standards, blues, bop, jazz, and originals. Everything swings, no matter the tempo, and the end result is a fine debut from a distinctive pianist.


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – MIT's men's tennis team had no problems running its winning streak to six matches this afternoon as the 28th-ranked Engineers shutdown Emerson College by a 9-0 score. The victory improved MIT's record to 11-3, while Emerson fell to 4-5.
MIT's No. 1 doubles team of junior Matthew Skalak (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and sophomore Edwin Zhang (Falls Church, Va.) had no problems in their match, taking an 8-1 decision. The No. 2 match was closer, with the Engineer duo of seniors Robert Wheeler (Denton, Texas) and Biafra Ahanonu (Tucson, Ariz.) winning by an 8-5 score. Emerson, which had only five available players, was forced to default the No. 3 match, putting MIT up 3-0 going into singles play.
Junior Troy Astorino (Laguna Hills, Calif.) took the first point in singles action, scoring a perfect 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4 over junior Nate Fuller (Rehoboth, Mass.). In the No 5 match freshman Jeffrey Sperling (Los Angeles, Calif.) was nearly as good in a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Junior Brian Oldfield (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) was impressive as well in the No. 2 match as he defeated sophomore Brent Walkoff (Bolton, Mass.) 6-1, 6-1.
Emerson junior Mitchell Lance (Tarrytown, N.Y.) battled back against sophomore Curtis Wu (Yorba Linda, Calif.) in their No. 3 match, but came up short in a 6-1, 7-5 decision. Junior Larry Pang (Torrance, Calif.) also fought off a challenge by a Lions player in the No. 1 match, holding off Kevin Blisniuk in the first set in a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Due to its lack of players, Emerson also had to default the No. 6 match.
MIT will return to NEWMAC play on Saturday when the Engineers host Wheaton College at 1:00 p.m. Emerson will host a match on Saturday as well as the Lions entertain Johnson and Wales at 3:00 p.m.


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Steelman makes it to second round of match play; Jordan also in match play.
Michael Steelman made his first experience in the Missouri Amateur one to remember.
Steelman and Jared Jordan were two Rolla golfers who competed in the 106th Missouri Amateur golf tournament, held last week at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City.
And both Steelman and Jordan survived two rounds of medal play to advance to match play.
In medal play Steelman, a 2013 Rolla High School graduate, finished tied for 34th by shooting eight-over-par 80-72-152 while Jordan tied for 43rd with 76-77-153. The low-64 cutoff for match play was 155.
In the match play Round of 64 the two Rolla players split, with Steelman defeating Garrett Sneed of Chesterfield 4 and 2 and Jordan falling to Jefferson City's Will Nixon 5 and 3.
Steelman ran into a buzz saw in the Round of 32, losing to three-time Amateur champion Skip Berkmeyer of Wildwood 5 and 3.
Berkmeyer would go on to advance to the quarterfinals of match play over the weekend before finally falling to finalist Ryan Zech of Kearney 2 and 1.
In the Amateur 36-hole championship match Sunday, Joey Johnson, from Ozark who plays for the Missouri State golf team, defeated Zech, who plays for the Mizzou golf squad, 7 and 6.
Steelman, who made it to the Missouri Class 4 State Tournament a couple of times for the RHS Bulldogs, including this past spring, had attempted to qualify for the Amateur a couple times previous. He finally got there this year, making the cut in a qualifier June 3 at Twin Oaks Country Club in Springfield.
And an even-par second round sent him to match play.
"I felt pretty good." said Steelman of last week's medal play. "My first day I started with an 80. I knew the second day it would take around a 75.
"My dad caddied for me the second day and we read the putts pretty well. I think I had three birdies and three bogeys; I really didn't make any mistakes. Those greens at Blue Hills were huge and old and had real subtle breaks."
Then came the first round of match play. The goal of every Amateur player is to make match play, for anything can happen in that format. And in the Round of 64 Steelman ran into a strong NCAA Division II player in Sneed, who plays for McKendree University.
"That first match play (against Sneed); it was a grind," Steelman said. "The wind was blowing and the greens were fast. Neither one of us played as well as we could have. It was a matter of outlasting him in the wind. We were tied after nine holes and I starting making some putts from around 10 feet out."
Then the real test came, as Steelman was face-to-face with one of the most successful players in Missouri Amateur history. And Berkmeyer's skill and experience proved much too much.
"I was talking to my mom about it; if I could have played someone else in the second round and beat him, I don't think I would have wanted to," Steelman said. "I learned what it takes to win at that level. Skip was on a different level. His ball may have been left or right but it was pin-high every time. His ball flight was beautiful."
Steelman, who is a golf student of Rolla's Chad Saladin, said he chatted with Jordan some during the first few days of the Amateur.
"Although we both play at Oak Meadow (Country Club), we don't play a lot together," Steelman said. "He was in high school with my (older) brothers, Sam and Joe.
"But we talked a lot out there (last week). After the first round (of medal play) he said it was going to take 75 to qualify and he was right on the money. Had I shot 75 in the second round and would have just made it."
Now Steelman has to firm up his decision on where he's going to attend college. Wherever it is – and Drury University in Springfield is definitely on the list – Steelman is going to play collegiate golf.
And he feels his Amateur experience will go a long way in preparing him for the next level.
"I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said of last week. "I'm trying to play as many tournaments as I can in the summer, to build up some scare tissue for college."
And for the first time in his athletic career Steelman can solely concentrate on golf. He was a key member of the RHS football team the past three seasons, starting at quarterback his senior campaign.
"That definitely will help," Steelman said of being a one-sport athlete. "I had to bulk up for football. I'll be able to keep a nice size for golf."
Here are the results for Steelman and Jordan during last week's Amateur:
Match Play
Round of 64 (June 20)
Steelman defeated Garrett Sneed, Chesterfield, 4 and 2.
Jordan lost to Will Nixon, Jefferson City, 5 and 3.
Round of 32 (June 21)
Steelman lost to Skip Berkmeyer, Wildwood, 5 and 3.
Medal Play (June 18-19)
Steelman T-34th, eight-over 80-72-152.
Jordan T-43rd, nine-over 76-77-153.
Medal play winner: Doug Albers, Leawood, Kan., 3-under 141.
Cutoff score: 155.


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Shaped with group interaction in mind, Correll's Kidney Activity Table is a great addition to any classroom. This durable activity table has a 1 1/4" high-pressure laminate work surface that resists scratches and stains from substances like juice and markers. The durable leg mounting system keeps joints in place and reduces the risks caused by unsteady tables. Every Correll Activity Table comes with a free wrench for easy height adjustments; choose standard or short legs. Select from lots of fun colors for the high-pressure laminate and the T-mold edge band. This Correll Kidney Activity Table has a 48"W x 96"L top and is backed by a five-year warranty.
Key Features
- Sturdy particleboard top with high-pressure laminate finish
- 48"W x 96"L kidney work surface
- Tubular steel legs are adjustable
- Available in a variety of top colors
- Backed by a five-year warranty
- Table Material: Particleboard
- Top Finish: High-pressure laminate
- Frame Material: Tubular steel w/ chrome leg inserts
- Edge Band Material: T-mold
- Warranty: 5 years
- Tabletop Dimensions: 48"W x 96"L
- Height: 21" – 30" (with standard legs); 16" – 25" (with short legs); tables adjust in 1" increments


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About Verrill Dana LLP
Verrill Dana, LLP is one of the pre-eminent law firms in New England, widely known for delivering high quality legal services in an efficient and responsive manner. Verrill Dana provides sophisticated legal representation to businesses and individuals in all traditional areas of practice, including business law, litigation, real estate, labor and employment law, and estate planning. The firm also advises a wide variety of specialized practice areas, such as health care and health technology, immigration and global migration, employee benefits and executive compensation, intellectual property, energy, timberlands, and environmental law. Verrill Dana's high degree of specialization enables its lawyers to handle most complex legal issues in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Through scalable staffing, thoughtful communication and skillful project management, the firm helps individuals and businesses achieve their goals in a manner that suits their unique needs and preferred work methods. In addition, unlike many law firms, Verrill Dana has embraced a "Total Quality" approach to delivering services to our clients and is committed to continuous quality improvement. Verrill Dana's enduring commitment to quality client service is matched by its commitment to community service, through both the personal service of its lawyers in numerous community organizations and the firm's prominent charitable giving program, as well as its support for an inclusive array of pro bono legal services. Truly a leader in the profession and the community, Verrill Dana is indeed the law firm of choice in New England and beyond. Based in Portland, Maine since 1862, the firm has offices in Boston, Westport, Providence, Washington D.C. and Augusta, Maine.


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By Henry Chu
Note: This article was first published April 30, 2014 by the Los Angeles Times.
Contraception, cohabitation, divorce, remarriage and same-sex unions: They're issues that pain and puzzle Roman Catholics who want to be true to both their church and themselves. Now those issues are about to be put up for debate by their leader, a man who appears determined to push boundaries and effect change.
On Pope Francis' orders, the Vatican will convene an urgent meeting of senior clerics this fall to reexamine church teachings that touch the most intimate aspects of people's lives. Billed as an "extraordinary" assembly of bishops, the gathering could herald a new approach by the church to the sensitive topics.
The run-up to the synod has been extraordinary in itself, a departure from usual practice that some say is a mark of the pope's radical new leadership style, and a canny tactic to defuse dissent over potential reforms.
Within a few months of his election last year, Francis directed every diocese in the world to survey local attitudes on family and relationships and report back to the Vatican, a canvassing of a sort that few of the faithful can recall previously. The results are being tallied and synthesized behind the walls of the Vatican.
The exercise reflects Francis' desire for less centralized and more responsive decision-making, mirroring his own self-described evolution from a rigid, authoritarian leader as a young man into one who consults and empathizes. His training as a Jesuit has taught the pope to cast as wide a net for information as possible, analysts say.
Taking the public temperature also brings tactical advantages. Nobody at the Vatican will be surprised to learn that vast numbers of Catholics disobey its ban on premarital sex and birth control, or that some are in gay partnerships. Setting down those realities irrefutably on paper, however, could strengthen a bid by Francis to soften the church's official line and put pressure on bishops inclined to resist, including some in the United States and many in Asia and Africa, conservative areas where the church has been growing.
"It is telling the pope and the Vatican what they already know. But it's what the Vatican in the past has not wanted to hear," author and Vatican expert John Thavis said.
"It's strategic, but it's also a genuine effort to find out what the voice of the church really is on this," Thavis said. "It's very much Pope Francis who wants less of a top-down model — the bishops preaching the rules and doctrine down to the faithful — and more of a dialogue."
Hardly anyone expects the pope to propose sweeping changes to Catholic doctrine at the synod in October despite widespread criticism that the modern world has left the church behind. Indeed, Francis has unequivocally upheld heterosexual marriage and procreation as God's established, sanctified ideal.
But liberal reformers have been excited by the Vatican's shift in tone under Francis. His remark regarding gays, "Who am I to judge?" has gone viral, as has his warning to the church not to obsess over "small-minded rules" and contentious subjects such as abortion.
So, although Francis almost certainly will not call for ditching the church's policy of denying communion to Catholics who have divorced and remarried, his emphasis on pastoral care and compassion could offer local priests a work-around, with greater flexibility to address individual circumstances. That would fit with the pope's vision of the church as a "field hospital" that triages people's spiritual wounds rather than aggravates them.
Likewise, Thavis said, Francis has hinted that same-sex unions, though not "marriage," could serve a practical purpose, if not a sacred one, by legally protecting the children of such relationships. This month, in an event that made headlines, the infant daughter of a lesbian couple was baptized in a cathedral in Francis' native Argentina, apparently with the Holy See's tacit assent.
"When he was cardinal in Buenos Aires, he really had a go at priests who wouldn't baptize the children of single mothers," said Catherine Pepinster, editor of the Tablet, a Catholic weekly in Britain. "He takes it back to a human place. It's more about the person than about sticking to the letter. He's willing to find a way through things."
But analysts warn that Francis' global popularity could fuel inflated expectations of the changes he is able, or wants, to deliver.
Although he's unquestionably the man at the top, disgruntled underlings can ignore or seek to thwart his injunctions. Conservative bishops in the U.S., most of them appointed by Francis' conservative predecessors, have grumbled about the direction Francis is taking and oppose relaxation of traditional strictures on marriage and family, said Massimo Faggioli of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
"The Catholic Church is not a military dictatorship where, if they don't obey, you can send the army. It's very difficult for a pope to force bishops to do what you want them to do," Faggioli said.
Some jockeying is already underway.
Prelates in Germany, Switzerland, parts of the U.S. and a few other jurisdictions who favor a softer line have published their survey findings to bolster the case for change. The German bishops reported that many of their parishioners view the church's teaching on sexual morality as "unrealistic," its prohibition on artificial contraception as "incomprehensible" and its treatment of remarried divorcees as pitiless.
That the Germans also publicized their results in English "clearly meant they were trying to influence public opinion in a worldwide manner," said Robert Gahl, who teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
The Vatican has reportedly requested church officials in Ireland, England, Wales and other places not to release their findings out of concern over stoking division.
The survey asked 39 lifestyle questions in each diocese — including whether unmarried couples living together was common, whether same-sex unions were legal, how many children were being raised in non-traditional families, and what programs effectively conveyed Catholic teaching on such matters.
Although the Vatican told bishops to distribute the questionnaire as widely as possible, apparently not all complied. In the U.S., the National Catholic Reporter found that many dioceses posted the survey online for parishioners to fill in, but others did not seem to notify laypeople at all.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese put a simplified version of the questionnaire on its website in English, Spanish and Korean and invited parishioners to participate. The results have been kept secret.
"There was no pretense of this being a scientific, neutral study," Gahl said. "It's like a massive global brainstorming."
While the published results from Western countries show large-scale rejection of Catholic dogma on sex and marriage, little is known of the response in Asia and Africa, where conservative views are more likely, analysts say. That could complicate reforms by Francis, who wants to broaden the input and influence of those growing regions.
Some critics also demand more participation by women in the discussion, so that crucial decisions on marriage, sex and family life are not made exclusively by a group of single, celibate, childless men.
The "extraordinary" synod in October is the first half of a two-phase process. Bishops will discuss the findings of the survey and air proposals to deal with them. They will then settle on new guidelines at an "ordinary" synod next year.
The two-step process should give prelates time to reflect and adjust to reforms proposed by Francis, author Thavis said.
But the pope would need to tread carefully, maintaining a tricky balancing act between ordinary Catholics who desperately want change and those among their leaders who spurn it.
"The pope is the pope, and I think we can expect that even more conservative bishops will listen to what he says," Thavis said. "In the end, it comes down to a policy that could be changed without causing people to leave the church or causing people to slam the door on the way out of the synod."
Related Off-site Links:
Pope Francis Convenes Vatican Synod on Family and Sex – Kevin Drum (Mother Jones, April 30, 2014)
Reconciling the Factions Within Catholicism – Commonweal (April 30, 2014).


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Research shows a good kindergarten education makes dollars and sense (8/12/2010)<
There isn't a lot of research that links early childhood test scores to earnings as an adult. But new research reveals a surprising finding: Students who learn more in kindergarten earn more as adults. They are also more successful overall.
Harvard University economist John Friedman says he and a group of colleagues found that students who progress during their kindergarten year from attaining an average score on the Stanford Achievement Test to attaining a score in the 60th percentile can expect to make about $1,000 more a year at age 27 than students whose scores remain average.
Taking into account all variation across kindergarten classes, including class size, individuals who learn more--as measured by an above-average score on the Stanford Achievement Test--and are in smaller classes earn about $2,000 more per year at age 27.
Moreover, students who learn more in kindergarten are more likely to go to college than students with similar backgrounds. Those who learn more in kindergarten are also less likely to become single parents, more likely to own a home by age 28 and more likely to save for retirement earlier in their work lives.
"Kindergarten interventions matter a great deal for long-term outcomes," said Friedman. "For instance, being in a smaller class for two years increases the probability of attending college by 2 percent.
"We find that both smaller class sizes and teachers with more experience improve long-term outcomes," he said. "We believe that other teacher characteristics, as well as various characteristics of a student's peers, also have significant impacts on later life outcomes, but the data did not allow us to measure those effects well."
Friedman and colleagues from Harvard, Northwestern University and University of California, Berkeley, used a well-known education experiment conducted in Tennessee as a starting point to measure adult outcomes of early childhood learning. In the mid-1980s, the Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project placed students in classes of different size to determine how class size affects student learning. Results showed that students in small classes learn more and have greater academic success.
This new study, funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Social and Economic Sciences, examined adult outcomes of nearly 12,000 students who took part in the original study and who are now 30 years old. It allowed the research team to go beyond what children learned during their year in the STAR project to see how their kindergarten learning experiences affected their lives. Researchers recently presented results of the new study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, at an academic conference in Cambridge, Mass.
To learn more about what the researchers found, see John Friedman discuss the recent study in the accompanying video.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the National Science Foundation
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Double click on above image to view full picture
Availability: Out of stock
Four colorful and durable Serving Mats/ Large Placemats designed with Whitbread Wilkinson. Each placemat features one image of "good stuff" from the Eames House of Cards including: Crayons, Numbers, Pens & Pencils, and Cotton Reels. With a cork back and double lacquered, these placemats are extremely durable and are sure to impress your guests for years to come!


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Discoverer WebFind
- Coverage Dates: Current file
- Update Frequency: Ongoing
- Audience: Middle and elementary school students and teachers
Discoverer WebFind is an online database of reliable and credible Internet resources on most subjects appropriate for researchers in grades 1-9. WebFind web sites are carefully selected for their research value, credibility, age-appropriateness, and reliability. Each site is accompanied by a summary to help students and teachers decide on how they might use it. WebFind is dynamically updated and offers Internet resources from around the globe, including those of leading universities, government agencies, and respected organizations. SIRS evaluates and continuously monitors each site to ensure quality and accessibility. Each site is editorially selected for K-8 appropriate content and is coded to show one of four reading levels.
- Database Provider: ProQuest Information and Learning
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Express Link (bookmark): http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zswf


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This allows the Opera engineers to focus on the user interface, and that's where the innovation lies. Opera's goal is to put the website content front and centre, eliminating virtually all of the user interface elements in favour of gestures to perform basic UI functions.
"We need to go into a new phase, we need to lift our games on certain areas to ensure we continue to grow," said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera, "We need to focus on getting strong products out on iOS and Android. These are the two leading platforms we will focus on… They are the ones phones are being sold for."
Opera Mini will continue to exist and be developed, but Boilesen claims it's simply not up to par with browsers like Chrome and Safari.
The new browser will be released for iOS and Android come February, and while Windows Phone is not off the tables, it's not exactly a priority until sales of the platform pick up. PocketLint mentions that "a desktop Opera browser" will be launched in March as well, but the article is unclear whether or not that will be WebKit based as well. This is a pretty heavy blow for competition between rendering engines, but it's hard to blame Opera - the company needs to stay relevant, and WebKit is pretty damn good. However, as a consumer with Internet Explorer 6 firmly implanted in his memory, I know what happens when we focus too much on a single rendering engine, leaving everything else behind.
A question for those of you using Opera: if you take Presto out of Opera, is it still Opera?


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– TNA taped a major angle at the end of last night's Impact Wrestling tapings, to air next Thursday, that may be the exit of Hulk Hogan from the company.
We've noted how Hogan's contract is up on October 1st. Last night's appearance at the tapings was Hogan's last scheduled appearance under this contract. Both sides have been in talks for a new deal but nothing has been signed or agreed on. Because it was Hogan's last scheduled appearance, TNA chose to shoot a potential exit for him.
Another Major Name Leaving TNA?, Revealing New Velvet Sky Pics, More
Source: PWInsider


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7 1/4" X 9 1/4" trade paperback, 224 pages, 200 color illustrations;
* Step-by-step lessons cover every aspect of digital nature photography* Clear text and helpful photos demystify digital photography
From the tiniest ladybug to a towering glacier, from a horse running in a field to a leaf falling slowly from a tree, nature subjects offer some of the greatest challenges and the greatest rewards to photographers. In the BetterPhoto tradition, heres a complete photo course in a book. Hands-on lessons cover every aspect of digital nature photography, from buying the right camera for close-ups, landscapes, and movement, to understanding how the camera works, to taking great pictures. Author Jim Miotke uses straightforward text and inspiring yet informative photos to show the best ways to approach nature photography. Everything a beginner or intermediate photographer needs to know is here, including a buyers guide, full information on camera features, file formats and settings, exposure, low-light photography, filters and white balance, composition and lens choice, creative ideas, manipulating, and printing, along with a glossary and list of useful websites. The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography helps photographers everywhere get great photos in the great outdoors.
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Kew Garden Cocktail: A Fresh Way to Celebrate Spring Straight Up Cocktails and Spirits
I wanted to try a new recipe this week. Something light and clean and fresh-tasting as a way of toasting the new spring season. Well, I found one I'm absolutely over the moon about: the Kew Garden cocktail.
Created by Jim Meehan - the same mixologist who brought us the Black Cup - the Kew Garden is a combination of blended rum, elderflower liqueur, simple syrup, and lime juice with a healthy dose of mint and cucumber muddled in for extra flavor and a splash of club soda to give the drink a little extra lightness, brightness, and fizz.
Billed as a "floral, savory Mojito variation," the Kew Garden gets its name from the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew in southwest London (not to be confused with the neighborhood of the same name in Queens). The botanical connection? This recipe features a complexly flavored blended rum, Banks 5-Island, named for the globetrotting, plant-gathering British explorer, Joseph Banks, who curated the gardens as an adviser to King George III sometime around 1773.
The unique taste of the rum itself is a point of interest too. A blend of over 20 aged spirits originating from 5 distinctive rum-producing regions: Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, and Java, Banks 5-Island has a complexly layered flavor profile: a combination of tropical fruit, grass, and a faint whiff of cachaça-like funk.
Given the drink's promising list of ingredients (a flavorful rum, elderflower liqueur, mint, cucumber, lime), my expectations were already pretty high for this recipe. Well, I've got to say, when I tried it out myself at home, it was even better than I imagined: fresh, clean, herbaceous. Not too sweet or too sour. A perfect balance of elements. A gorgeous drink for spring.
Kew Garden (by Jim Meehan, used with permission)
2 ounces Banks 5‐Island Rum*
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water - for the super-simple recipe, just click here)
1/2 ounce St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
8 mint leaves, plus 1 sprig for garnish
3 cucumber slices, plus 1 for garnish
club soda
[*Banks 5-Island started rolling out in U.S. markets in the fall of 2010. If it isn't yet available in your area, I'd suggest substituting another flavorful white rum, such as a rhum agricole.]
Add 8 mint leaves, 3 cucumber slices and the simple syrup to a mixing glass and muddle. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the club soda) and ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig and a cucumber wheel.
What are you drinking this spring?
Related: Maple Syrup Cocktails: A Sweet Way to Celebrate Spring
Nora Maynard is a longtime home mixologist and an occasional instructor at NYC's Astor Center. She is a contributor to The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries and is the recipient of the American Egg Board Fellowship in culinary writing at the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow. She previously covered food and drink in film at The Kitchn in her weekly column, The Celluloid Pantry.
(Images: Nora Maynard)


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Kennesaw, Ga. - The Tennessee State volleyball team split its first two matches of the KSU Owls Invitational. The team defeated Chattanooga for the first time in program history, 3-1 (25-19, 28-30, 25-22, 25-23), but followed the win with a loss to Kennesaw State, 0-3 (22-25, 12-25, 21-25).
Sophomore outside hitter Naomi Wells led the Tigers with 31 kills, including 23 in the win against Chattanooga. Freshman middle blocker Lindsay Hornsby and sophomore outside hitter Sherryce Butler added 22 and 18 kills, respectively.
Junior setter Erika Moss had 37 assists in match one, and recorded 18 in match two. She also had a team-high 14 digs versus Chattanooga.
Seniors Calasia Williams and Britani Hathorn had double-digit digs in match one, along with Moss and Well's 11.
In set one of match one, Wells had eight kills including TSU's set-tying 11th point and go-ahead 12th point. The set went back and forth, and the Tigers were still only up by one at 19-18. From that point, TSU went on a 6-1 run to win the frame.
After a heart-breaking 28-30 loss in set two, TSU rebounded well by pushing ahead 3-0 to open the third period. The Mocs tied the score at three and the teams traded blows until the score got to be 21-21. Another late run from TSU, this one 4-1, propelled the Tigers to set a victory and a 2-1 lead.
The Tigers came roaring out of the gates in set four and jumped out to a 10-3 lead on the back of three straight service aces. The Mocs fought back and got within one at 22-21. However, an emphatic kill from Wells ended the set and the match.
The Tigers' luck ran out in the second match of the night when an 8-2 KSU run early in the first frame allowed the Owls a 1-0 set advantage.
An 11-4 Owls run to start the second frame, put the Tigers behind early. TSU got within four at 15-11, but the Tigers would score just one more point for the remainder of the set.
Neither side could gain the edge early in set three, and the score was tied at five apiece. A slew of TSU errors and kills from KSU's Emily Bean doomed the Tigers' chance for a comeback.
The next opponents for the Tigers are North Carolina Central and Troy tomorrow at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively.


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Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Review
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is an unusual videogame in that you're put behind the wheel of a cop car, and you haven't stolen it. You actually play as a police officer in this game, something the Grand Theft Autos and street racing games of the world have made feel like unfamiliar territory. The rest of Hot Pursuit won't feel quite as fresh if you've played the Burnout series, but when something's done this well– even if it's been done before– we can't complain too much.
Hot Pursuit is set up like many racing games. In the single player campaign, you compete in challenges on 24 tracks across four tiers of advancing difficulty. You can earn up to three stars on each track, which gives you "bounty" that unlocks new tracks, higher tiers, and more specced-out police cars.
If only there was time to admire the sunset.
What sets it apart from other racing games is that much of the time the focus isn't on being the first to the finish line. Instead, you're chasing criminals, and the goal is to whittle away at their health meters by smashing into their vehicles or forcing them to hit oncoming traffic. You even get police tools to assist you, like road blocks, spike strips, and electromagnetic pulses. You win by making these low-lives crash and burn in glorious slow motion. Yes, victory is sweet.
Traditional challenges, where you race other cops or try to reach checkpoints before the time runs out, are also included; but these aren't as exciting as the takedowns. The gameplay feels spot-on overall, with tilt steering and automatic acceleration. You can flick the screen to use a nitro boost or perform a skidding 180. It's all very natural, and you'll get the hang of it very quickly.
Another high point is the graphics. Big colorful skies stretch over a variety of environments that look great as they stream by. The cars are shiny, and they travel suitably fast. Everything looks particularly crisp and enhanced on Retina displays. Even the onscreen user interface stands out as particularly cool– it's very Minority-Report-modern.
Road blocks only stop chumps.
But don't expect to breeze through the game. Enemy cars drive fast and intelligently, and pesky civilians never pull over to let you by, so you'll have to dodge them as well. Even earning two stars on most tracks takes serious precision steering. To reward you for your hard work, the game doles out achievements liberally. And if you re-play challenges you've already completed you can rack up enough bounty to unlock faster cars early.
So far so good, but there's a pretty big oversight: Multiplayer is local only, via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and it's limited to one-on-one. We've seen plenty of other racers, like GT Racing: Motor Academy and Split/Second offer online racing options, making us miss them all the more here– particularly because we can imagine how fun it would be to run real people off the road.
But if it's Burnout-style takedowns you're looking for in a racer, look no further. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has great racing mechanics, killer speed, and awesome graphics. It doesn't push the genre forward like how Need for Speed Shift did, but the experience is highly polished nevertheless. We just wish we could bring our road rage online.