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What if one were to abandon the classical 4-6 element fantasy universe and instead consider the real elements in their place? For one thing, you open up the possibilites for a lot of different types of 'elementals'.
A Mendeleevian Elemental is composed entirely of a single element as normally encountered at standard room temperature and pressure. Some highly reactive elements will appear to perpetually react and so will resemble fire elementals, etc.
It is suggested that when two Mendeleevian Elementals react with eachother, the resulting compounds should be non-sentiant and non-magical, resulting in the destruction of both elementals. For this reasons, they will always seek to avoid each other, regardless of any form of command.
This Scroll/codex is intended to introduce this idea, and to allow for the collection of related ideas all in one place.
GM's could reasonably limit summoning elementals to element types they would be reasonably aware of.
Also, for game balance, assume that all but the most common elements dissipate when slain - otherwise everyone would try to summon Gold elementals and try to kill them…
Try and avoid 'compound' elementals, since they are not, by definition, elementals. Chemantals perhaps :)
Additional Ideas (11)
One of the Gas elementals, the oxygen elemental is invisible, unless they form a whirlwind, picking up debris and the like. They are more noticeable by the effects they can have on objects and materials.
They have completely erratic, unpredictable personalities, as reactive as their component element. In their presence, even minor static discharges will start fires, should anything burnable be nearby. Iron and other metals will oxidize rapidly, causing weapons and armor to rust. Being so concentrated, they can silently and invisibly envelope oxygen breathing creatures and cause intoxication, lung damage and eventually, death.
The Oxygen elementals are generally excited by fire and rejoice in causing infernos. Materials with exotic behaviors are appealing to the Oxygen Elementals and can be used as offerings when summoning.
It should be noted, that as a supernatural entity, the elemental is able to 'oxidize' normal matter without losing mass. This does not hold true if it reacts with another Elemental - both elementals lose mass as they react, possibly destroying both if the reaction proceeds long enough.
It is for this reason that Oxygen elementals will avoid other Mendeleevian elementals.
Also a Gaseous elemental, these beings have very indistinct forms, ranging from simple clouds to forms roughly that of various creatures. In all cases, they appear with a greenish form and always impart a distinct chlorine smell.
These elementals are highly dangerous. In addition to being highly reactive, they are both poisonous and corrosive to most organic beings. They can form a whirlwind like all of the gaseous elementals, and simple contact will raise blisters. If they envelop a foe, massive damage to the skin, eyes and lungs will result, and will eventually destroy them.
If Oxygen elementals are erratic, then Chlorine elementals are outright hostile. They understand the effects they have on most life and revel in their power. Little is known about what these Elementals desire - they are usually simply summoned to cause havoc, the summoner making a speedy exit.
One of the Solid Elementals, the Iron elementals appear in a wide range of forms and appearances. They take froms ranging from vaguely humanoid lumps to anachronistic forms resembling machines. They can appear as pure, grey iron, or apparent hulks of solid rust. Their eyes appear as points of heated iron, ranging from deep red,orange,yellow to brilliant white.
As combatants, they rely on brute force - either blunt or edged as their form dictates. There is little in existance that can stand up to the force they can bring to bear.
They have indominitable personalities ("Iron Will"), but like iron, are both flexible and strong. They respond fairly well to summoning, eager to serve as either labor or in war. Sacrifices of other precious metals, or even fine works of iron and steel appeal to these beings - the latter often being added to their own masses.
One of the few liquid elements, Mecury Elementals are quite spectacular to see. Being of varying forms - humanoid, blobs and otherwise, the brilliant silvery forms are beautiful to see.
As a liquid, they can move through very small openings. Being extremely heavy, they can strike a foe with tremendous force, though are a little slow. Their very touch is dangerous - the elemental mercury being toxic and readily absorbed through the skin. The supernatural nature of the being further increases this effect, resulting in dementia and madness from even brief contact.
Their personalties are defined by the term mercurial - quick and changeable in temperment. This makes then unreliable at best - they are not even assured to cause havok when summoned for that purpose - they may simply wander off.
It is not known what the best attractants are for these elementals - each is different from the next, and their tastes are always changing. Summoners are advised to seek more predictible elementals, or failing that, provide a 'buffet' of possible offerings.
These appear in one of two colours, glowing green or slate grey, and appear in humanoid lumps. Even standing near one of these things for too long is dangerous, unless protected by powerful magic or leaden armour. Their touch on bare flesh causes small burns and much worse, cancer. They are generally hostile beings, with explosive temprements, but unlike the Clorine elementals they can be spoken to.
They greatly like respect, and offerings of gold. They like being called to battle, but find low grade carrying work insulting. Lead weaponry can harm them seriously and burns them with it's touch.
One of more common elements, Carbon elementals can manifest in multiple forms will still remaining pure. Forms of Graphite, coal and even Diamond are possible. One might even encounter Carbon elementals taking fullerene forms, though this would be rare in the extreme.
Their personalities are as varied as their forms, and reflects the same diversity as humanity.
Compared to other elements, the Carbon Elementals are benign, lacking toxic affects and not having the raw power of the Metal Elementals. They are flammable, perhaps with the exception of Diamond types, and so can assume a flaming form. Due to their supernatural nature, no mass is lost while burning, so they can burn indefinitely without harm.
Carbon elementals have as varied a range of desires as Mercury elementals, but individuals tend to be quite stable in their choices.
As a rather common element, their summoning is less difficult then the rarer ones, and are not so powerful as to be hazardous to the summoner.
I'll just drop it here, no reason there can't be several views on one:
Carbon Elemental, alternative view:
A Solid Elemental, Carbon is highly malleable in shape and combat potential. It can be soft, and utterly malleable; but it can be fiendishly hard as well, deep black, or crystal-clear are the colours of his both extremes. Luckily, it changes between these two modes very slowly, so it often keeps both components in even ratios. The creature has surprising immunities to many effects, only fire can cause it substantial wounds, and even that slowly. It usually assumes a shape similar to their counterpart, and can even learn their weak and strong points quickly.
For these reasons it is often summoned as a soldier or bodyguard.
The problem is, they can be quite hard to motivate (see val's view on their personality).
Lithium elementals are calmer then most elementals and appear in a circular form, that can extend arms or tentacles if needed. Their touch can in the short term at least, heal many forms of madness. Like all elementals they should be treated with respect. If wounded a few times by one of these, a human will lose the will to fight and will slump to the ground, helpless, until killed or rescued.
The Krypton elemental is barely noticable at first. A thing of wisp and of no shadow, if its place of rest is undisturbed, it is completely colourless, odourless, andd makes no sound. If ever disturbed, it will energise to create shapeless shimmer. Being completely unreactive and formless, its only attack is to smother the PCs and deprive them of oxygen. This isn't very hard to combat, since one can pass through the elemental at will, so simply wakling away will prevent the problem. (if some Krypton has been inhaled, The PCs get a high pitched voice in the same way as inhaling helium)
This elemental becomes incredibly dangerous when reacted with two different things:
1. Firstly, attacking this elemental with a frost spell would be the last thing that an adventurer would do. Once attacked, the elemental would form small crystallised shards of Krypton, at -157 degrees C, these shards will cause incredible frostburn should they make contact with skin. These shards would slowly dance around the elemental until it decided to attack, and send them towards the unlucky adventure's exposed skin.
2. If attacked with lead weapons or in contact with lead, the magical energies animating the elemental lower the nuclear reaction energy, and the two elements would fuse, and immediately decay from instability, leading to the legendary (and very ephemerous) Ununoctium elemental, as well as radiating vile energies (neutron radiation) on the adventurers, causing burns and consumption of the skin and internal organs. Often, this is a slow and painful death, difficultly curable by magic or lore.
If hit by lightning, the elemental glows a bright orange/red, hinting at the exotic energies within. This does not affect it.
One of the nastier elementals, the sodium elemental is normally enveloped by searing yellow flame. As well, caustic sodium hydroxide vapor will billow about, making the air both poisonous and corrosive. If they are encountered somewhere with little to no oxygen, they appear as a grey metal figure.
Their personalities are aggressive and condescending, on those rare occasions that they choose to communicate. They find rare crystals interesting and find salt an acceptable offering, but they require rather large amounts to gain a positive reaction.
Since their presence is very damaging - both through fire and corrosive gases, they see little use apart from guardians and agents of destruction. If they come into contact with water, they will erupt into violent bursts of more flame and gas, but are themselves unharmed.
This distant cousin of the Krypton elemental is just as harmless, and can sometimes occur naturally in caverns rich in both magic and xenon. These elementals are peaceful and docile, and will sometimes occur naturally in caverns rich in both magic and xenon. Mages often summon them to neutralise other elementals, since being 'noble' they refuse to mingle with the other elements, so can form a shroud around the opposing elemental and stop it from reacting.
If struck with a lightning spell, however, they will give of a violent flash of bright white light, quite enough to permanently damages someone's vision if they were in close proximity to it. But beyond the light, nothing much will happen.
However, if this elemental is struck by a frost spell, lo and behold, for the terrible Quick-Xenon (Xenon trioxide) elemental will be created. This furious beast is the bane of elemental mages. Incorporeal, it will ignore physical attacks. However, if it makes contact with water, it will imediately turn the water to a highly acidic mix, easily capable of dissolving flesh, as quickly as a lump of sugar melts away in boiling water. If in a moist evironemnt, Quick-Xenon's touch will cause severe acid burns. This is why to attack, Quick-Xenons force themselves into the victim's repiratory tract and dissolve them from the inside, burning the lungs to uselessness resulting in quick demise. Some might think that this is quite enough for such an elemental, but no. Quick-Xenons can ignite flammable substances with a simple touch, and rust metals as fast as oxygen. Indeed, Quick-Xenons are so reactive that they will sometimes explode in contact with almost anything, from oil to wood. If it encounters a phosphorous elemental, the reaction is commonly known as MOAE or Mother Of All Explosions.
As a gaseous elemental, the Fluorine Elemental takes one a wide variety of forms, but all are variants upon billowing clouds of yellowish-brown gas. They are one of the most dangerous of elementals, fiercely reacting with pretty much anything, and are surrounded by a haze of hydrofluoric acid - an acid so strong as to dissolve glass, metal and even stone. In addition, the acid is toxic, and even small quantities are lethal.
In combat, they are a weapon - a single strike will, in addition to buffeting, will cause ridiculous damage as the victims flesh burns, dissolves and is dosed with toxic hydrofluoric acid. One had better have strong magical defences before dealing with these creatures.
The Fluorine elementals are not as aggressive as Chlorine elementals - destruction is simply too easy for them. However, their dreadful lethality makes interacting with them dangerous in any case. As a result, they are usually summoned for destructive purposes. In truth, the fluorene elementals are fascinated with all things, but perpetually denied contact, as few beings or objects can survive their touch. Who knows what mysteries they would share with those immune to them?
The preferred antidote is Calcium Gluconate, applied directly to the burn site, then a calcium based solution is administered intravenously. Even then, a victim of such an elemental is probably going to die. It's that bad.


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ALESSANDRO Del Piero and David Beckham pairing up on the Central Coast to take on the best of Asia? It's ambitious, but that is the dream of Central Coast Mariners owner Peter Turnbull.
Having seen the interest generated by Del Piero on his arrival at Sydney FC, and with Beckham's appeal unmatched in the world game, the Mariners are considering a bid to sign the duo for their Asian Champions League campaign.
If Turnbull is successful in his quest, Beckham would join the Mariners for the second half of the A-League season and stay on for the ACL campaign, while Del Piero would see out the year at Sydney FC before switching to the Mariners.
However, given the ACL group stages begin on February 27 for the Mariners, at home against Korean side Suwon Bluewings, if Del Piero did join, he wouldn't see any continental football until the knockout stages later in the year. That is, of course, unless Sydney released Del Piero early to join the Mariners - a highly unlikely proposition.
The Mariners were one of the first A-League clubs to express their interest in Beckham and are still waiting on a final response from his management to gauge the English superstar's interest in coming to Australia.
But as Sydney FC stall on offering Del Piero a second year, the Mariners see an opportunity to lure the A-League's biggest name to Bluetongue Stadium.
While the possibilities of seeing both on the Central Coast at the same or even various times may
seem a dream from afar, Turnbull told Fairfax Media yesterday he's sizing up the possibility.
''You could say that we're definitely interested in speaking to Alessandro's management team because we can see the upside, especially in relation to his profile in Asia,'' Turnbull said. ''The leverage of having a player such as Alessandro would be massive in countries such as Korea, China and Japan. It's interesting and something we're looking into. We can definitely see some commercial benefits having a player of his stature.
''But imagine them playing together. Now that would something.''
After initially announcing they had agreed terms on a two-year contract, it has been revealed Sydney's deal with Del Piero is for one season with an option of a second at $2 million per season.
However, despite Del Piero being an instant success with the Sky Blues, scoring five goals in nine games, the club is stalling on offering him a contract extension.
Turnbull said there should be no doubt Del Piero was deserving of another deal beyond this season based on what he had produced so far.
''His class is absolutely unquestionable. You can see every week how much of a world-class player he is,'' he said. ''I've watched him quite a few times with my own eyes now and what he does is brilliant. There's nothing which excites people as much as outright skill.''
Asked how interested he thought Del Piero would be about a move north, the Mariners' owner said he thought the Italian would be quite open to it. ''He can live the Mediterranean lifestyle here on the beautiful Central Coast,'' he said.
The deals for both players will be negotiated independently.
''We're still in contact David's management team and we're confident that if he chooses Australia as his final destination, we'll be the club he comes to,'' Turnbull said.
''We're hoping to get an answer just after Christmas. Our understanding is that he's having a family Christmas for the first time in a long time and he's going to think about it over that.''
Despite Del Piero and his family settling well in Sydney, they are growing increasingly concerned about why the club has so far been reluctant to open fresh discussions.
However, it is thought the club wants to monitor how many games Del Piero plays, and whether there is a risk of any further breakdowns before committing to a new contract.
He has missed two games so far with injury, a hamstring complaint that also limited his output to a shortened cameo in last week's Sydney derby.
Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow said in a statement on Tuesday the club was looking forward to opening discussions on a contract extension.
"We would like for Alessandro to remain at Sydney FC next season and we will also begin talking about opportunities beyond 2014,'' he said. ''There are a number of details yet to be worked through with Alessandro's management, these discussions will take place over the coming weeks.''

subset: commoncrawl


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Addictive Desert Designs Stealth Front Bumper - F053192400103
Stealth Front Bumper
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CLOSEOUT SPECIAL 16 Piece Accessory Set for Castle Doll House
General Features
- Badger Basket Castle Accessory Set includes a complete royal family and their entourage with furniture ready to move in!
- Watch out for the dragon! Is he friendly? Maybe yes today, maybe no tomorrow! Your child has endless fantasy play scenarios to explore!
- Accessory set includes: one king, one queen, one prince, one princess, one dragon, two standing knights,
- one mounted archer, one mounted knight, one cannon, one bed, one night table, one table, two chairs, and one couch.
- King and Queen fit in the bed side-by-side.
- All of the people are full color on both sides.
- The people and furniture are made with wood and MDF with some detail painted, some decals, and some detail applied with full color lithographed and coated paper.
- People/Furniture measurements:
- Queen: 2.25 inches W x 4.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- King: 3 inches W x 4.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Princess: 2 inches W x 4.25 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Prince: 2.75 inches W x 4.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Dragon: 4 inches W x 5.25inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Standing Knights: 2.25 inches W x 4.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Mounted Archer/Knight: 4.5 inches W x 4.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Canon: 5.5 inches W x 2.5 inches H x 5/8 inch thick.
- Dining Table: 6 inches L x 2.5 inches W x 2.5 inches H.
- Pink Armchairs: 1.75 inches W x 2.25 inches D x 3.5 inches H.
- Night table: 1.5 inches W x 2 inches D x 1.5 inches H.
- Couch: 5.5 inches W x 1.5 inches D x 3 inches H (sitting area 3.5 inches W).
- Bed with plush fabric covering: 5.25 inches W x 7 inches L x 3.25 inches H (inside length of bed 6.5 inches L).
- All measurements approximate.
Care Instructions
- Wipe the surfaces clean with a very lightly dampened cloth as needed and dry thoroughly.
Safety Information
- For ages three and up.
- Complies with all current, applicable safety standards.
- Non-toxic finishes.
- /!\ WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD - Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs.
Good To Know
- Designed for Badger Basket's Fantasy Play Castle Dollhouse (the castle is Model 40101 and it is sold separately).
- No assembly needed.
- Product may vary slightly from shown and described.
- This item ships in its original carton which may include a photo of the product.
Additional Information
- Manufacturer: Badger Basket
- Assembled Size: 7x5.25x0.63
- Shipping Size: 19x10x5
- Shipping Weight: 3.5 lbs
- UPC Code: 0-46605-40201-6
- Country of Origin: Imported
- Needs Assembly: Yes
- Assembly Instructions40201_1.0_0712WL.pdf


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Looks like it's not just those Bing apps that are getting released today as the Wells Fargo banking app is now finally available for Windows Phone 8. Ever since Bank of America, Chase and numerous other financial institutions released their apps over the last two years, we've been hearing requests for Wells Fargo—now those wishes have been answered.
The Wells Fargo app is everything you'd expect from a modern banking institution - it allows you to check account balances, pay bills, send money, make balance transfers, deposit checks, and track investments.
Overall, there's not too much to say except that we're excited for the legions of Windows Phone users who have been yearning for this app.
Head to the Windows Phone Store now to grab it by clicking here, swiping to the right in our app or scanning the QR code below.
Via: Windows Phone Blog; Thanks, everyone, for the tips!


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In the past month in your district, there has been 52 burglaries, 8 robberies and 9 cases of shoplifting.
Burglary 52
Robbery 8
Shoplifting 9
Criminal damage and arson 21
Bicycle theft 3
Vehicle crime 61
Other theft 40
Other crime* 175
All crimes 369
Protect yourself and your family better with an efficient security system.
(*) Anti-social behaviour, Drugs, Possession of weapons, Public order, Violence and sexual offences.
Exact places are not indicated on the map to protect victims privacy, but you can see it at street level.
Data and statistics are provided by www.police.uk. The information and statistics displayed are for information purposes and may be subject to change.
Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government License v2.0.


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High Point, NC- The Lees-McRae College men's tennis team has been voted the preseason top team in Conference Carolinas by league head coaches. Lees-McRae also enters the spring ranked No. 15 in the DII National Preseason ITA poll.
The Bobcats finished the 2009 season with a 19-7 overall record and an 8-0 conference record to earn the Conference Carolinas regular season title. Lees-McRae fell in the conference tournament finals, but advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they won their opening round match, but fell in the second round to end their season.
Individually, junior Nandor Solymosi is ranked 21st nationally and 7th in the southeast region. As a doubles team, Solymosi and junior Travis VanHoy are ranked 24th nationally and 6th in the southeast region. "I am very proud of the work my guys have put in to get us to this point," head coach Paul Goode said. "There are many things we want to accomplish in the coming season, and we are very focused on those goals.
The Anderson University men's tennis team was ranked second in the preseason poll. The Trojans are coming off a very successful 2009 season, finishing 14-7 overall (7-1 conference) and are ranked 22nd in the nation after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans suffered just one conference setback en route to capturing the programs' sixth straight Conference Carolinas men's tennis tournament title and its eighth in nine years.
Anderson's second-year head coach Joey Eskridge will look to a blend of talented veterans and versatile newcomers as the Trojans return four letter winners from last season. Sophomore Stephane Murray and senior Renato Assuncao were named to the Conference all-tournament team, while and Assuncao and Benjamin Pepion each garnered wins in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
The Limestone College men's tennis team was voted third in the preseason poll. The Saints, who earned the program's first ever NCAA tournament bid last spring, are eager to contend for the 2010 conference title. The team was ranked No. 33 in the national ITA preseason poll and No. 10 in the Southeast region.
Limestone returns six players from last year's roster, including Miguel Lopez Zuniga, who is ranked No. 10 in the region and No. 47 in the country. Other key returners include Henrik Nordquist, Paulo Avila, and Christian Warnholtz. The team has added two talented players in transfers Jordan Vicain and Mike Stephenson.
Rounding out the men's tennis preseason poll 4-9 is: Queens, Mount Olive, Barton, Erskine & Pfeiffer (tied), Coker, and Belmont Abbey respectively.
- Lees-McRae College (7) 77
- Anderson University (2) 71
- Limestone College 64
- Queens University of Charlotte 52
- Mount Olive College (1) 50
- Barton College 46
- Erskine College 32
- Pfeiffer University 32
- Coker College 17
- Belmont Abbey 9


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marcmpc needed a new print or packaging design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 274 designs submitted by 87 freelance designers.
NEW NOTE: I am considering an EMBOSSED SILVER MOUSE on the cover besides the 3 words. See if you can tie that into the three words.
FYI - LOOK AT WHAT I HAVE RANKED....I added another $250....maybe you all can see the 3 I like best and try to create around those or something new and different all together?
The is a contest for a book cover and logo. That is, while the contest is for a BOOK COVER...I will use the logo portion "Get Rich CLICK!" for a logo. THe cover will be simple and to the point....those 3 words, the subtitle and the name of the author. There may be a quote atop the book cover. For this contest, you want to submit a book cover/logo for the words "Get Rich CLICK!"
Get Rich CLICK!
This is a book cover and logo. The book series to come out is called 'Get Rich CLICK!" The tag line is "How ANYONE can make money and get rich using the internet". The concept is to take the logo "Get Rich CLICK!" and use it on other media materials as the company moniker. The logo will be used again and again for other books in this series....ie, Get Rich CLICK for Teens, Get Rich CLICK for Extra Income, Get Rich CLICK 2.0. and of course a web site.
- Item 1... SImple. Classy. To the point. Jumps off the book cover. While I of course want to create excitement and get buyers to want to buy the book, I want to keep it simple, classy and use the cover design on other books in the series. If it is done correctly, i would use the "look" on a website being designed and try to maintain the theme throughout the graphic design process. Simple. Classy. 3 words. Option A will be with the word CLICK in the colors of google. But I think I like Option B better....black, white and maybe 1 color (red, blue or green?). LOTS OF WHITE SPACE with the 3 words getting the potential buyer to pick up the book and open it. Want one "icon" to help with the word "click".
- Item 1... do not want a monopoly look....junkie, cartoonish, etc.


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Babe of the Month, June 2014 – Christy Koller
Babe of the Month, June 2014 – Christy Koller
Are you BOTM material?
This month we're shifting gears back to the roots of BOTM, and we will be selecting the winners each month. So, if you want to get in the mix, be sure to send great photos, and detailed information about the lady and the Mustang(s) in the photos. That's just what Brad Koller of Stillwater, Minnesota, did to seal the deal for his wife, Christy.
In presenting his case, Brad started off on a good foot. "She is a hardworking registered nurse and a mother of two, as well as a hardcore Mustang fan," he explained. "She actually owns two of the Mustangs in the photos. The first is a '67 coupe with a mild 351W/C-4 combo. It features an Edelbrock carb/intake, headers, a 21⁄2-inch exhaust, and a functional '69 hoodscoop."
No we didn't go with the '67 photos for obvious reasons, but Christy's other ride is right up our alley. It's still a stone-stock time capsule from the late '90s, but Brad promises "an upgraded exhaust is in the near future."
He also tried to sneak in some shots of his own ride. We know the winning combo is the girl with her car, and that's the way it worked out again. However, we have to give his '87 love, because it is 5.0 LX with a five-speed and a long list of bolt-ons. He didn't give us the list, but Brad did share that he made the move to SN-95 brakes, rear axle, and spindles.
Enough car talk though. This is the BOTM, and Brad seems to have a winner on his hands with Christy. "Not only does she drive both her Mustangs, but she also had a lot to do with their restoration," he explains. "She's helped rebuild the engine and suspension, and also with the recovering of the seats on the '67."
See more at 50mustangandsuperfords.com and vote at facebook.com/50mustangmag
Adult Stars News
Check out the latest Mustang and Ford's Girls articles and updates at Mustang 360. Chicks and cars.
Babe of the Month, June 2014 – Christy Koller
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WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules late Thursday to curb pollution from industrial boilers and cement plants, agreeing to give industry additional time for compliance and easing some emissions limits from earlier proposals.
The new rules, which have been enmeshed in a fierce regulatory and legal fight for more than a decade, drew criticism from environmentalists. Earthjustice staff attorney James Pew, who fought earlier versions in federal court, called the set of rules ''an avalanche of bad news.''
For the first time, large boilers and cement kilns will face strict limits on mercury, acid gases, and fine particulate matter, or soot. But the EPA will give boiler owners three years to meet the standards, with a possible extension for another year after that, meaning the earliest they will take effect would be in 2016. Cement plants will not have to comply with the new limits until September 2015, two years after they were originally set to take place.
''We were looking to realize the significant health benefits from regulating these uncontrolled sources but maintain some flexibility for implementing them,'' a senior EPA official said. ''We want to make sure these rules get implemented.''
There are fewer than 115 cement plants in the United States, but they account for seven percent of the mercury emitted into the air from stationary sources. Mercury contamination gets into the food chain when it enters waterways and soils in the form of precipitation and can cause neurological damage in infants and young children.
Although the most restrictive limits will affect just 1 percent of the nation's nearly 1.5 million boilers, the industry had fought restrictions because these facilities are integral to the operations of hospitals, paper plants, and factories. Boiler operators had sought to delay the rules by five years, until 2018.
The measures will deliver significant health benefits and impose major costs on the US manufacturing sector. Meeting the standards for boilers and some incinerators will cost industry between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion annually, the EPA estimates, and is expected to avoid up to 8,100 premature deaths, prevent 5,100 heart attacks, and avert 52,000 asthma attacks each year once fully implemented. The annual cost of the cement rules will run a few hundred million dollars, according to the agency, while delivering billions annually in health benefits.
Donna Harman, chief executive of the American Forest and Paper Association, said in an interview that the Obama administration has come to recognize that her industry and others faced the daunting prospect of competing against other sectors to install pollution controls on a tight deadline.
''This is one of the most costly and complicated rules, and there's going to be a lot of competition for these resources [to upgrade boilers and incinerators] all at the same time,'' Harman said. ''You can put a stricter and arbitrary deadline, but if it can't be done, it can't be done.''
Pew, the environmental lawyer, said that his group would challenge the new regulations in court, but added that ''even if we win in court, it will be years until EPA gets around to doing this right.''


text: The Author tried to explain three concepts and He did an excellent job. Sentiment analysis is descriptive if only summary is provided by the data analyst but it is a starting point of predictive analysis as why positive sentiment and what are the key behavior impacting positive sentiment will provide predictive analysis of respective behavior associated with sentiment. Based on historical timeline and respective sentiment of user can be predicted applying time series models.


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(Images Courtesy of Toni Maguire)
Last year's BBC documentary on Ireland's "Limbo Babies" [featured on our Family History YouTube channel] brought to light an emotionally charged issue that affected almost all of our Irish ancestors. Ever since the Roman Catholic Church declared that the non-baptized were forbidden burial in consecrated ground, faithful Catholics, particularly parents, were tormented by the uncertain fate of these infants.
|In Milltown Cemetery's unconsecrated cillíní
lie the graves of thousands of unbaptized babies.
The lack of records for the cillíní [children's burial grounds] make it challenging for archaeologists to identify them. This difficulty is compounded by the Church's ambivalent attitude toward those buried within – they were, in the Church's view, neither in nor completely beyond the family of Christianity. Even the word cillíní itself, meaning 'little graveyard' in Irish, suggests the separation of the graves.
Toni Maguire, the archaeologist and anthropologist featured in "Limbo Babies," started her research in 2006 with the 11 sites recorded by the Northern Ireland Environmental Agency (Sites and Monuments). Maguire eventually recorded 97 cilliní for County Antrim alone, a number that is growing. "Cillíní sites can vary from bog land to hill tops, fairy trees and prehistoric standing stones, to disused Christian and pagan sites down through the ages," says Maguire.
This issue was drawn into the public eye when in 2000 the Diocese of Down and Conor, the trustee of Belfast's Milltown Cemetery, sold 37 acres of cemetery land to the Ulster Wildlife Trust for £37,000 [$57,000 US]. The church later described the sale of the land as a "clerical error." This acreage had long been known to contain thousands of bodies in mass inhumation (unconsecrated) graves. Maguire came in to assist the families in finding proof that there were far more burials in the land sold than the 11,000 listed in the cemetery records, so they could convince the diocese to buy back the land and return it to its stewardship. The diocese authorized a survey using ground-penetrating radar to determine just how far into the bog meadows the graves might extend. The results were so staggering that an extensive excavation project, exploring 51 trenches, was started last month, headed by the Northern Archaeological Consultancy (NAC).
Alannah Ryane, TheWildGeese.com's Family History Producer, posed, via e-mail, questions to Maguire as the archaeologist was on site at the Milltown Cemetery dig. Ryane asked Maguire about the status of the project and what she hopes to accomplish with it.
TheWildGeese.com: Toni, as the on-site archeologist, you have been at the center of this controversial, sensitive issue almost from its beginning. Now that the excavation has started, would you please give us an update on your progress.
|Toni Maguire at work
in Milltown Cemetery
All those involved in the current phase of this project are sensitive of the emotive nature of the issue at the center of this research. The potential for shallow graves, coupled with the easy access to the site of passers-by, exacerbates the fragility of maintaining a balance between getting the work done and respecting the sensitivities of the relatives who may be present.
The work will be slow, as the excavation team must proceed with care, while the weather at this time of year has impacted of the progress. There will be at least 51 trenches dug across the 37 acres, just one trench at a time. The first of the trenches located at the St. Gaul's Gate, where there is a concentration of infant burials, was opened today [January 3] and will continue tomorrow. The personal account [of Dan Skelly, a local gravedigger] described the burial of infants here: "We laid the babies out in layers, like carpet." I will send regular updates on the progress of the excavations at Milltown Cemetery and the Bog Meadows to your readers.
TheWildGeese.com: How do you feel about getting this close to your long-awaited goal?
Maguire: It was hard to challenge the Church, but this issue needed to be addressed on behalf of all the parents who had asked for my help. Milltown is a test case for the recognition of cillíní by the Catholic Church and the Environment Agency, as I have 97 similar sites in County Antrim alone. The excavation at Milltown will continue into April and it could be June or July before the true extent of the burial ground is known.
We will publish Part 2 of this 3-part interview Thursday
For more information about cillíní, please contact Toni Maguire, at email@example.com .
ABOUT TONI MAGUIRE: Toni has a BSc, MA. BSc in Archaeology and Palaeoecology and an MA in Social Anthropology. She is currently involved in PhD research at Milltown Cemetery and is married to Leo Maguire, the Northern Ireland National Taekwondo Coach. Toni has lost three babies, so she can empathize with the families at Milltown.


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1596: St Pauls, Prescott, Arizona, USA
Mystery Worshipper:
Amanda B. Reckondwythe, accompanied by Pigwidgeon.
The church:
St Pauls
, Prescott, Arizona, USA.
United Episcopal Church of North America
The building:
A small lavender colored building, with belfry, of unremarkable architecture. The interior is very plain, with frosted glass windows covered by vertical blinds, and white walls on which the stations of the cross are displayed. An east-facing altar sits on a raised platform.
The church:
Morning prayer and two communion services are held each Sunday; and morning prayer, a communion service, and Bible study each Wednesday. They also conduct a Sunday school and offer nursery care at the later of the two Sunday services, and sponsor mens and womens social groups.
The neighborhood:
Located in the mountains well north of Arizonas Sonoran Desert, Prescott enjoys a less severe climate than Phoenix or Tucson, with pleasant summers and snowy but not especially cold winters. President Abraham Lincoln established Prescott as Arizonas territorial capital in 1863 when the territory was split off from New Mexico; it served as such until 1867 and again from 1877 to 1889. Settled primarily by Midwesterners, Prescott lacks the Spanish adobe architectural influence so prevalent elsewhere in the American Southwest. The historic downtown area is rich with examples of turn-of-the-century Victorian commercial architecture marred, alas, by modernized facades and paint schemes that make one wonder if the contractors thought they were working in San Francisco. Prescotts agreeable climate plus numerous lakes, campsites and hiking trails make the area a favored vacation destination.
The cast:
The Revd Peter D. Robinson, FSSM, rector. The deacon and an elderly acolyte both introduced themselves, but I forgot to make note of their names and they are listed neither in the bulletin nor on the churchs website. Father Robinson was vested in green chasuble; the deacon in alb and a green deacons stole. The acolyte wore cassock and cotta, but he must remember to add a bit of bleach to the wash water next time he launders his cotta.
The date & time:
Ninth Sunday after Trinity, July 20, 2008, 10.30am.
What was the name of the service?
Sung Holy Communion.
How full was the building?
There were about 35 people in a room that could hold about 120. There was an even mixture of young families, middle aged and elderly men and women.
Did anyone welcome you personally?
Everyone did! We arrived early after a very rainy drive up from Phoenix. As we entered, the deacon and acolyte were making last-minute preparations for mass. They both introduced themselves and said they were glad we had come. They also saw to it that we met Father Robinson. As parishioners entered, they all came up to us to introduce themselves.
Was your pew comfortable?
The padded wooden pew was comfortable, as were the drop-down kneelers.
How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere?
People confined their talking to outside the church, but some conversations could be heard from within. Once inside, people quietly found seats. The acolyte lit the altar candles in proper order first the epistle side and then the gospel side. The church bell was rung.
What were the exact opening words of the service?
"The Lord be with you."
What books did the congregation use during the service?
Book of Common Prayer
, 1940
, service leaflet.
What musical instruments were played?
An electronic organ in the back of the church, about which Ill have more to say directly.
Did anything distract you?
The electronic organ was a major distraction. Im sure the instrument had a full range of church stops, but the organist chose (and stuck with) a registration that made it sound like a circus calliope recorded at 45 rpm but played back at 33 rpm. At communion he switched to synthetic strings and piano, but succeeded only in sounding like a gypsy guitarist trying to imitate Franz Liszt. He also had a habit of adding Frescobaldi-like flourishes to the conclusion of each hymn. Frescobaldi may have gotten away with it on Baroque pipe organs, but on this instrument? Im afraid not.
Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
Prayer Book
through and through. The acolyte picked up the altar missal to read the epistle, after which he switched it from the epistle side to the gospel side. The deacon then picked it up to read the gospel. The Nicene Creed preceded the sermon, and the Gloria was sung at the end of mass. The elevation of the consecrated elements was accompanied by bells, but no incense was used. There was no peace ceremony.
Exactly how long was the sermon?
15 minutes.
On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher?
8 The rector removed his chasuble to preach, revealing a crossed stole but no maniple. Hailing from Yorkshire, he has retained enough of a British accent to please the American ear. He spoke well, referring now and then to notes.
In a nutshell, what was the sermon about?
He spoke on the gospel lesson for the day, the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Each character in the parable has something to tell us. The prodigal son utters the classic cry of a penitent heart the British Royal Family have had much practice at being prodigal sons. The reaction of the father is the reaction of God toward us forgiving of his children who wander but return to him. We cant blame the elder son for feeling that his brother got off too easy. But the parable is not about human conduct; rather, it is about the nature of the kingdom of God. Modern society has no concept of sin and regards man as the highest being. If something is lawful, then it must be moral. Not so in the kingdom of God! We are not free to make up our own minds about whats right and whats wrong God is the authority, and he has given us an example: love God fully, and love your neighbor as yourself. Do our actions reflect the love of God and neighbor? The prodigal son came to realize that his conduct was wrong, and so he received forgiveness. God is loving and merciful even when we mess up. We should rejoice in the abundance of Gods grace.
Which part of the service was like being in heaven?
The overwhelmingly friendly welcome we received.
And which part was like being in... er... the other place?
The music. Ive already described the organ. The hymns were all from the 1940
. Im sure there are some wonderful old chestnuts in that venerable collection, but somehow the organist managed to choose the hokiest of the hokey, give them a calliope accompaniment, and (as if that were not enough) pitch them too high. I tried to sing as best I could, but I had to stop after awhile. I just couldnt go on! The Gloria was sung to a Scottish chant, which was nice, but the woman behind me kept hitting so many wrong notes that again I had to give up trying to sing along.
What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost?
As before, everyone spoke to us and made sure we knew about the coffee hour. The acolyte extinguished the candles once more in the proper order gospel side first this time, then epistle side.
How would you describe the after-service coffee?
Coffee, tea and apple juice were all available in the church hall, along with cheese danish and a delicious chocolate walnut cake. We had an extended conversation with Father Robinson and some of the parishioners.
How would you feel about making this church your regular (where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)?
3 The congregation were wonderful, but I couldnt take a steady dose of the 1928 Prayer Book and certainly not of the parishs musical preferences.
Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian?
What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time?
How much the organ sounded like a calliope on the wrong speed.
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A Brazilian school uses technology to connect English-language students and senior citizens
An English-language school in Brazil has begun a program called "Speaking Exchange," that uses online, real-time video chats to connect students with men and women living in retirement communities in the United States — simply to talk.
It is often expressed how youth can learn from the wisdom and experience of their elders. With their new language-refining program, the CNA language school network is taking this sentiment to heart.
"Not all of our students have the chance to travel abroad and to interact with native speakers of English," pedagogical coordinator Vanessa Valença says in the program's promotional video. "What our students really want is to speak English fluently, and we're always asking ourselves, 'how can we make it more real, more human?'"
Currently in its trial period, the main goal of the program is to give students a more interactive and realistic way to practice and improve their English. At the same time, it has the added benefit of giving some of the U.S.'s older citizens a chance to share their stories while forming new friendships.
A student uses the program by logging in on a computer with a webcam enabled and choosing a senior who is online. In the beginning, the conversation may be guided by topic suggestions, but then the senior and student can "chat freely," the CNA website says. When the session is over, the video gets sent to a private YouTube channel where teachers at the school monitor and evaluate the student's language progress.
The practical advantages of the program are clear. But as the video highlights, it goes beyond that: The program's greatest strength is perhaps the very human, cross-cultural, cross-generational relationships that form.
The motto the CNA English school expresses at the end of their video says, "More than better students. Better people."
For information on how to sign up a retirement community to participate once the trial period ends, visit cna.com.br/speakingexchange/.
An easy-to-use, practical guide helps parents be informed and engaged in the faith formation of their child.
Children encounter models of our Catholic faith through these beautifully illustrated People of Faith cards. Contains a prayer and brief biography on the back of each card.
$7.95 (25-pack)


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Lest We Forget
Private Harry Allen, 9th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment (1897-1916)
Harry Allen was born in 1897 in Leicester, the son of Charles Samuel Allen and Kate nee Thacker. His mother died in 1904, when Harry was just 7, and his father remarried a much younger woman, Edith Lount. They continued to live at 237 Avenue Road Extension until sometime between 1911 and 1914, when the family moved to 86 Lorne Road. He had three brothers, John Rose, Walter Edmund and Samuel Purver, and two sisters, Gertrude Emma and Beatrice Violet. Of these only his sisters survived to see the end of World War I.
In 1911, aged 14, Harry worked as a wool washer in the hosiery trade. Aged 18, fully grown at 5 ft 4 and 3/4, Harry weighed just 8 stones and 1lb. He had a fresh complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair.
At the beginning of the war he lived 86 Lorne Road with the rest of his family. His brother Samuel had died earlier that year aged 19. He enlisted early on, on 8th September 1914, joining the Leicestershire Regiment. His battalion, the 9th (service), was formed in Leicester in 1914. Harry was sent with the rest of his comrades, first to Bourley Camp, Aldershot and then to Pernham Down on Salisbury Plain for final training. In 1915 he embarked for France, landing on 29th July. He served on the Western Front, where 517 men from his battalion died.
Harry was wounded on 8th October 1916 – a "severe" shrapnel wound in his back (right scapula), chest and arm. He was admitted to the field hospital, then transferred to a hospital in Rouen, then on 4th November to the The King George Hospital, in Stamford Street, Waterloo, an emergency facility created in what is now part of King's College London. Between 1915 and 1919 over 70,000 soldiers were treated there. Harry was operated on and found to be in a very serious state internally. He died on 7th November 1916, of shock and loss of blood. He is buried at Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester, where there is a memorial plaque.
Harry's medals, the Star, Victory and British, were sent to his father Charles. None of Harry's personal effects survived to send with them.
I will be posting details of the remembrance plaque at St John the Baptist Church on Remembrance Sunday. Regards, Elizabeth.


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For shame
One of the most shameful and overlooked details of the housing crisis in Attawapiskat is that its people are living in desperate Third World conditions while an obscenely rich company is impacting their community by mining nearby for diamonds.
The media is missing a big story here. Sure, the crisis earned coverage in the national media when the northern Ontario reserve declared a state of emergency, but that coverage has petered out. The national correspondents have gone south again. One of the few recent reports, albeit a good one, was by a freelancer in The Globe and Mail.
In a classic case of the one percent exploiting the 99 percent, De Beers, the international mining colossus, paid the Attawapiskat band $1 million in signing bonuses and $2 million a year to open its Victor mine just 90 kilometres from the besieged community. By doing so, De Beers acknowledged that its operations would negatively impact the community.
In 2009, the Victor Mine's first full year of production, it produced hundreds of thousands of carats of high quality diamonds, creating revenues of $243 million. It expects the mine to yield $3 billion worth of diamonds in 12 years.
Chief Theresa Spence, who is under fire for her handling of the reserve's finances, has made much of the bitter irony of De Beers and Attawapiskat being in bed together. "While [Ottawa, the provincial government and De Beers Canada] reap the riches, my people shiver in cold shacks … Precious diamonds from my land grace the fingers and necklaces of Hollywood celebrities."
Her tale of exploitation is not the full truth. In addition to the $90 million Attawapiskat has received from the federal government over the past five years, it has also received millions from De Beers in construction and other contracts. Yet Attawapiskat has an unemployment rate of 60 percent. Inhabitants lack access to clean drinking water. They lack adequate shelter. There is strong evidence of financial mismanagement, yet there is also a sense that Ottawa is playing the blame game instead of rushing better water and shelter to the people of Attawapiskat .
It's a familiar story on First Nations reserves, and also familiar is the national media's short attention span for stories of aboriginal suffering and neglect. Thank God for APTN. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is punching way above its weight in its coverage of Attawapiskat, and in the last couple of days it has put the spotlight squarely back on De Beers and its diamonds.
This story by Ossie Michelin of APTN National News says the housing crisis in the reserve can be traced back to a sewage backup in 2005 that flooded the dirt basements of several homes in the community.
The sewage backup happened around the same time that De Beers disposed sewage sludge directly into the community's water pumping station. The network quoted from a report by engineers from Ontario First Nations Technical Services, who were called in to assess the situation, concluding that the De Beers discharge could have caused the sewage backup (what's not clear from the APTN report is what the sewage was from. De Beers didn't start construction of its mine until early 2006).
The engineers also noted that the federal government was informed that the pumping station was very fragile and at high risk of failing, but Ottawa did little to try to fix things.
In 2009, the warnings proved prophetic. There was another sewage backup which displaced more people, forcing many to be evacuated. Aboriginal Affairs refused to pay for the evacuation and the band was forced to foot the bill.
Throughout the current crisis, the federal government, from the prime minister down, have repeatedly blamed the band council for Attawapiskat's current state of affairs. This view is shared by media commentators like the National Post's John Ivison, who writes: "When the project was announced, the government made available $10 million in skills training, an amount De Beers augmented with a further $1.8 million in facilities and equipment. One person familiar with the training program said the numbers who enrolled were much lower than had been anticipated. Around 500 people from the reserve were hired during the construction phase but only 100 people still work there today."
As part of the deal with De Beers, Ivison claims, $325 million in contracts have been funnelled through solely owned or joint-owned companies based on Attawapiskat since construction started in 2006 (his figure appears to be an exaggeration; the company puts the value of the contracts at $167 million). "However," Ivison writes, "despite all that business ... the band's accounts suggest it has made just $99,867 in profits since its inception."
He concludes: "This is not the picture of colonial exploitation that many people have been quick to paint."
That may or may not be true, but it certainly seems to require the national media to look a lot closer at the deal between De Beers and the reserve. The impact-benefit agreement, which ironically earned the company Mining Magazine's "Mine of the Year Award" in 2009, took more than three years to negotiate and covers everything from De Beers' right to override Attawapiskat land claims to what's served at Victor Mine's cafeteria.
The company has pledged around $30 million over the 12-year life of the mine. The money is paid into a trust, to which the band has access. However, The Globe and Mail's excellent report by freelancer Genesee Keevil showed that band members are ignorant of many key provisions of the bulky, legalistic document. Band members even missed a deadline to pick an aboriginal name for the mine.
Many questions need to be answered. Where was Ottawa with expertise to help Attawapiskat negotiate, understand and follow through on benefits associated with the deal? Who certified that the deal was fair? Given the desperate living conditions on the reserve, does the responsibility of De Beers stop with letting its First Nations workforce walk away, or should it make a bigger effort to adequately train and provide support?
David McLaren writes in SunMedia papers: "It's an old colonizer's trick. First, hunt out Indigenous peoples' territories and then, with a dollop of human feeling, offer to take the empty lands off their hands in return for food .... Then, allow reserves to fall into such disrepair and despair that people will flee them for the cities and assimilation."
Sadly, he concludes: " We not only rammed the Aboriginal canoe, but boarded it, plundered it and, in trying to steer it through their own waters, have all but wrecked it."
And the national media quietly moves on to a sexier story.
For shame.
Think about these numbers
The city of Toronto has run a budget deficit for years, just like Attawapiskat. This thought-provoking article by lawyer Lorraine Land asks whether anyone would seriously consider putting Toronto under outside management.
Her numbers show that three levels of government spend $24,000 a year for each Torontonian.
Attawapiskat, on the other hand, is only funded by one level of government — federal. It received $17.6 million this fiscal year, for all of the programs and infrastructure for its 1,550 residents. That works out to about $11,355 per capita in Attawapiskat.


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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr."
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers their most detailed view yet of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter. For the first time in history, astronomers have witnessed the birth of a new red spot on the giant planet, which is located half a billion miles away. The storm is roughly one-half the diameter of its bigger and legendary cousin, the Great Red Spot. Researchers suggest that the new spot may be related to a possible major climate change in Jupiter's atmosphere. These images were taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys on April 8 and 16, 2006.


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This looks like a nice place to spend some time and maybe get some great photos, a little exercise on the many trails..:D
The park map:
2010 "Eagle-Viewing Boat Tours"
on the Connecticut River.
Reservations are required; tickets are $40/person.
DATES for Eagle-Viewing Boat Tours:
February 6 through March...
Should be a great photo op.
Well it's that time of year again so I thought I'd post a few links to the foliage schedule and some of the hot spots to check out.
Notice on this one...
Birdwatching is the fastest growing outdoor sport in America and with more than 400 species, Connecticut is a great place to experience birds. Connecticut is home to the full range of desirable songbirds found throughout the northern United States. Among the most popular species are bluebirds,...
I've posted this in the Connecticut happenings thread, so I figured I post here also, some fantastic photo ops here
A Reminder that the Connecticut Antique Machinery Open house is coming on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 25, 26, 27, 2009
This is a fun day and some great photo ops,...
we went to the beardsly zoo in bridgeport it was ok not great not bad some of the exhibits are still fence's an some have the glass viewing area's it was cold the day we went some some of the exhibits were closed they did have a nice walk through avairy (small but...
SR-169 TourDeparture: Canterbury, ConnecticutDestination: Pulpit Rock Road Marker, ConnecticutTime to allow: 1 day
An amazing variety of locations, houses, and memorials reside along State Route 169. There are too many for one tour to cover. Instead, this driving tour outlines the stops to make...
one of the many photo subjects at chattfield hollow state park in ct,
Next week durning school vactation, there are some events scheduled at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT (near Bradley Field). A nice place to visit even if your not interested the events
event calendar
And now the show..
Greater New Haven
Location:Meet at the Audubon Shop
907 Boston Post Rd.
Madison, CT 06443 Date:September 15-Nov.17Time:Sat. only, 8-10:30 a.m.Description:See returning birds of prey, shore birds, waterfowl and song birds at Connecticuts premier birding...
Travel back in time to see how the colonial people lived, worked and played.
Colonial Connecticut
See how our colonial forefathers lived. Start at Putnam Cottage (c.1692) in Greenwich, I-95 Exit 3. It was a meeting place for local leaders during the Revolutionary War.
Henry Whitfield...
This 1 mile waterfront walkway, opened in 2005, offers inspiring views of Niantic Bay and Long Island Sound. Entrances to the boardwalk are provided only at Cini Park (located under Niantic River Bridge off Route 156) and Hole-in-the-Wall beach (Baptist Lane). Benches and interpretive signs along...
try this link if your looking for something to do in CT.
52 great get aways for everyone, young and old.
Have fun and bring home some SCAREY photos...:eek:
The Ghosts of History
Start this getaway in Hartford at the Old State House, 800 Main Street. It's the oldest state house in America, built in 1796, where you can see a reenactment of the first Amistad trial of the African captives...
Looking for fall colors? try these tours. :cool:
Fall Foliage
Driving Loops
Connecticut's scenic delights range from hilltop panoramas to colonial villages, from deep forests to busy cities. Although Connecticut is a small state, each loop has a look and flavor of its own. As you drive...
CT. Freedom trail tours....
The Freedom Trail was authorized in 1995 by the Connecticut General Assembly. Farmington sites on the Trail include Underground Railroad safe houses which hid fugitives from slavery, as well as sites connected...
stretching 5 towns up in Hartford County it is one of the biggest and oldest State Park (or Forrest) in CT. lots of Hiking and Mountian biking trails, or you can drive through.. I usually go in from the Glastonbury entrance and exit from the Putnam side.. its a very pleasing ride through the...
this might be current..Tom prolly knowes more as its in his neck o the woods.
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India's No.2 software services provider Infosys raised its revenue forecast after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, triggering a 15 percent surge in its shares, set for their biggest gain in more than a decade.
Many investors had dumped shares in the company after a string of disappointing quarters eroded Infosys' reputation as the sector bellwether, putting pressure on CEO S.D. Shibulal to win more deals and make the firm more profitable.
"We continue to gain confidence from a strong pipeline of large deals," Shibulal said in a statement on Friday. "We remain cautiously optimistic about the January-March quarter."
The Bangalore-based company unexpectedly raised its sales forecast for the year ending March 31 to at least $7.45 billion, including $104 million in additional revenue following its acquisition of Switzerland-based consultancy Lodestone Holdings.
That would be a rise of 6.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with a previous forecast for a 5 percent increase.
New deals, including 13 in Europe, helped boost Infosys' revenue. Spending on IT services by capital markets clients such as investment banks and brokerages has also improved, Ashok Vemury, head of Americas and manufacturing, told reporters in Bangalore after the earnings announcement.
Clients that have signed big contracts with Infosys, including Harley-Davidson, also accelerated spending during the quarter, he said.
However, some analysts said it was still too early to predict a recovery for the company.
"We are positively surprised by Infosys' performance, and need to study the durability of Infosys' comeback," JPMorgan said in a research note.
Infosys, for years an investor favorite for exceeding its targets, stopped providing quarterly guidance in July. It now provides only an annual revenue forecast.
(Read More: Planin Place for Struggling Infosys, but No QuickReturns)
Analysts had expected Infosys to trim its annual sales growth to as low as 3.3 percent after the company warned last month that U.S. clients had cut back on projects and delayed signing big deals.
"The market was slightly predatory, given that the last two times the company has disappointed, but this time the organic guidance is better ... which I think will be taken positively," said Rikesh Parikh, vice president for markets strategy and equities at Motilal Oswal Securities in Mumbai.
Profit Beats Estimates
Infosys, whose customers include Bank of America and BT Group, said profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 23.69 billion rupees ($434 million) versus 23.7 billion rupees a year earlier. That compares with the average estimate of 21 billion rupees in a poll of 16 analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.
In October-December, Infosys said revenue rose 12 percent to 104.24 billion rupees from 93 billion a year earlier. That compares with analyst estimates of 96.8 billion rupees. The firm added 53 clients during the quarter, the strongest pace of additions in at least five years.
With about 60 percent of its business in the United States, Infosys is vulnerable to swings in U.S. corporate sentiment and has been hit hard by project deferrals. The company is also particularly exposed to discretionary spending in the financial sector. Its premium pricing has also put off some customers.
Shares in Infosys, valued at about $28 billion, rose 15 percent after the earnings report, headed for their biggest gain since April 2001. The broader index advanced 0.4 percent and the sector index climbed 7.4 percent.
In 2012, shares in Infosys slumped 16.2 percent, under performing those of larger rival Tata Consultancy Services, which rose 8.2 percent.
Tata Consultancy is expected to report a profit gain of about 12 percent in the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data. India's top software exporter, part of the $100 billion Tata Group, will report its earnings on Monday.
Wipro, the country's No.3 software services provider, may report a quarterly profit gain of 6.7 percent, analysts said. The company, which is restructuring its non-information technology businesses and focusing exclusively on IT, will announce its earnings on Jan. 18.
Fourth-ranked HCL Technologies is expected to report a 43.8 percent jump in quarterly profit on Jan. 17.
India's $100 billion-a-year IT and back-office outsourcing sector earns about three-quarters of its revenues from customers in the United States and Europe, and faces intense competition from global rivals including IBM, Accenture and Cap Gemini.


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Asking for help when it comes to addiction or mental health issues is never an easy task, nor is navigating the realm of treatment options. Treatment4Addiction.com (T4A) can be your guide assisting in the sometimes complicated mission of seeking out help for you or someone that you love currently struggling with substance abuse or serious to moderate physiological conditions.
T4A boasts a compassionate and knowledgeable staff of addiction professionals available to guide you through the process of searching for the best match in regards to treatment. If it is a drug rehab center that is needed T4A is the most comprehensive nationwide treatment facility directory. Our website is a one-stop wealth of information complete with formidable and practicaladvice concerning all areas of recovery and treatment, as well as:


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AIDS Treatment Activists Form New Coalition
August 24, 2001
Twenty-one U.S. AIDS treatment activists met for three days in August and began to outline a new coalition to improve AIDS research, treatment access, and empowerment of new activists in communities most affected by the epidemic. The August 17-19 meeting, hosted by The Center for AIDS: Hope and Remembrance Project in Houston, Texas, resulted from earlier community meetings held at the annual Retroviruses conference in 2000 and 2001.
The new organization, tentatively named AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition, will address several concerns:
ATAC will focus on biomedical research, including diagnostics, vaccines and microbicides as well as drugs, and will include AIDS-related illnesses such as hepatitis C and tuberculosis, as well as HIV infection and its complications.
Membership policies, bylaws, and other specifics are still being determined. For example, it is likely that membership will be open to all persons with HIV and their advocates, with members joining as individuals (not as representatives of organizations) and paying nominal dues; but there might or might not also be a separate category of organizational member for nonprofit organizations. The organizers are seeking input from the public and can be reached through the email addresses below.
Standing committees so far are Bylaws; Communication; Fundraising; Membership; Mentoring; and Research, Development, and Access.
For More Information; Contacting ATACATAC has started a Web site at http://www.atac-usa.org; you can also send email to email@example.com.
ATAC has a temporary steering committee, and you can also contact the members individually:
Parrish Crosby firstname.lastname@example.com
Yvette Delph firstname.lastname@example.com
Larry Diaz firstname.lastname@example.com
Mike Donnelly firstname.lastname@example.com
Gregg Gonsalves email@example.com
Michael Marco email@example.com
Bob Munk email@example.com
Claire Rappoport email@example.com
Copyright 2001 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.
Copyright 2001 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.
This article was provided by AIDS Treatment News. It is a part of the publication AIDS Treatment News.


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Look at all the Cool Stuff You Can Make With Wine Barrels
One great thing about living in the Columbia Valley AKA "Wine Country Washington" is we have a ample supply of cheap wine barrels. I've always love the way wine barrels look because they're so rustic. Little did I know there are a million things you can create with a wine barrel. Here are some idea's for a weekend project featuring wine barrels.For more ideas check out my


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Most people get mail every day except Sunday. But what happens when the mail comes later than we expect?
We found out a few years ago, when the U.S. postmaster general had to take away overnight first-class and periodicals mail from most of the nation. That caused a problem for a lot of consumers and businesses. Now, we may be facing a new slowdown, if something isn't done by Congress very soon.
In the coming school year, USC Lancaster's 59th year, we will celebrate two significant anniversaries.
This year we will mark five years of access to four-year degrees through Palmetto College, and on Oct. 5 our Native American Studies Center on Main Street in Lancaster turns five. These milestones present significant opportunities for current and future educators.
Palmetto College
In Acts 5, the wonder-working apostles won multitudes to Christ, but the jealous rulers of the Jews rose up to oppose them. They arrested and jailed all the apostles, but God intervened by sending one of his angels by night to open the prison doors and lead them out.
He then told them: "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." The next morning they resumed teaching the people there.
Like everyone who watches the news, I have been inundated with the story of the protest in Charlottesville.
After days of watching CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox News and MSNBC, I'm troubled by the lack of focus on what actually happened in Charlottesville last Saturday. Most of the coverage has concerned President Trump's comments about the event.
Many of the news outlets are not reporting news as much as taking another opportunity to display their political bias and hatred toward Trump.
When I saw TV coverage of last weekend's events in Charlottesville, Va., I had a hard time distinguishing some of the civilians from the police and National Guard.
Some of them arrived in camouflage and riot gear, wearing helmets and protective vests. A few carried guns.
Some of these armed protesters openly identified themselves as "Unite the Right" supporters to reporters on the scene. The allegiance of others was not as clear.
It seemed to me they were spoiling for a fight. And they made sure they got one.
There is nothing "right" about racism and hate. It's a learned disease, and the best antidote is unity.
This weekend's events involving white-supremacist groups are as disturbing and disgusting as they are heartbreaking. The attack was a stark reminder of the darkness of hate. We must come together, as we have before, to confront the issues that chip away at the very foundation of who we are and what we stand for as a country.
Here's the issue: SCANA (the parent company of South Carolina Electric and Gas) and Santee Cooper (the state-owned utility that provides power for 11 local electric co-ops) tried to build two nuclear reactors and failed. They just pulled the plug on the projects, costing $9 billion and 5,000 jobs – so far.
Here's the question: Who is going to pay for this disaster?
At the end of September each year, Lancaster County mails property tax bills for real estate (homes and commercial buildings) and personal property (boats, business furniture and equipment, manufacturing, etc.).
While nobody likes getting a tax bill, it's important that they are sent to the correct address. Having the correct address on file is the taxpayer's responsibility, and that prevents you from having a late fee due to never receiving the bill.
S.C. businesses are much more likely to be white-owned than businesses on average in the United States, and less likely to be owned by women.
At the same time, businesses owned by men and by whites are more valuable than minority and female-owned businesses, and the difference in value in South Carolina is even greater than the average national difference.
Now that the legislative session is over, I wanted to do something a little different and tell you about some legislation before the General Assembly that I did not support this year.
A friend and fellow lawmaker shared the advice that the job of a legislator is 60 percent constituency work, 30 percent stopping bad legislation from happening and 10 percent passing good legislation. During my first year in the House, I have tried to model my time and effort around those three things.
Here are three bills that I did not support and why.
Copyright © 2019
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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Tamron is developing a cutting-edge high-power zoom lens, with expanded focal lengths at both wide-angle and telephoto ends of the zoom range, providing a zoom ratio of approximately 18.8X.
Photographer Mike Fuchs has a foible for snow and ice. On April the man from Berlin started his next polar expedition. He carries the Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2,8, with him, which has proven itself as a reliable partner in extreme conditions.
Tamron is developing an advanced new all-in-one™ wide-angle to telephoto zoom lens for full-frame DSLR cameras.
The previous two articles of our series "Image Structure" have dealt with the view frame and the (empty) space in a picture. In conclusion, it now gets a little less theoretical. In this article we want to inspire you to intensively deal with two main aspects of photography: Shooting distance and perspective.
Composition is the key to a good picture. In the first part of our series on composition we looked at the role of the viewfinder as the main composition tool in photography. A good photographer uses the viewfinder frame consciously to integrate or exclude certain elements.


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ajurries needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 48 designs submitted by 9 freelance designers.
http://www.clymr.com is a new social network where anyone interested in climbing can gather. Members can create their own profiles and blogs, chat with other members, post pics, videos, write articles for the collective clymr magazine, read climbing news, forums, etc. I want it to be a fun place for people to connect and hang out.
mountaineers, rock climbers, ice climbers or anyone interested in the sport
Looking for a logo that will be the brand identity for http://www.clymr.com I am open to ideas and looking for creative stuff. It would be great if it was the kind of logo where you look at it and instantly think "clymr" Have fun!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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All items > Knives > Fixed Blade Knives > ESEE Knives (Fixed) > ESEE-3
- Length:5.50"
- Width:0.36"
- Carry:Belt
- Material:Kydex
- Weight:2.05 oz.
- Brand:Armatus Carry
- Model:Architect
- Country of Origin:USA
- Product Type:Sheath
The Architect Sheath is an extremely durable kydex sheath custom made to fit the ESEE 3 fixed blade. It comes standard with 2 soft nylon loops that include mil-spec Pull-the-Dot snaps. The Architect is a fully ambidextrous sheath so it can be worn on either side of the body and drawn from any direction. This Architect model comes in a gunmetal gray color.Features:
- Fold-over sheath design offers far superior strength and retention than two-piece pancake style sheaths.
- Retention is set on each individual Architect sheath to snap firmly in place and never shake loose.
- Built in thumb ramp with a recessed finger index allows for fast and smooth deployment despite the firm blade retention.
- Compatible with Tek Lok, Mini Tek Lok, MALICE clips, and IWB Over-hooks.


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Nietzsche was a prolific, complicated, and sometimes contradictory philosopher. There's no neat way to reduce his whole body of work into a few key concepts, especially because that body of work was in many ways one enormous project that was constantly being refined and revised. You certainly can't reduce that project into a handful of pithy quotes.
But Nietzsche also happens to be that guy who said something about the death of God and the will to power. Everyone knows that! And so everyone seems to feel qualified to opine on his philosophy and legacy without having made a serious study of either.
That's how you get profoundly misguided assertions like this one from Andrew Sullivan:
The whole point of the Gospels is that Rand's value system leads to profound misery and spiritual loss. And the whole point of Rand is that Nietzsche was onto something.
Now, that Rand read and revered Nietzsche (at least initially) is indisputable. But does that make Objectivism a logical extension of his thought? I'll let respected Nietzsche scholar Brian Leiter answer that one:
Rand's "individualism"–if that is what one wants to call her juvenile fantasies about her industrialist heroes–owes as little to Nietzsche as to Smith. Nietzsche loathed capitalism and capitalists (and the cultural and aesthetic vulgarity he saw as their legacy) and also despised what he called "the selfishness of the sick" (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) and the "self-interested cattle and mob" (Will to Power). What he admired was "severe self-love," the kind "most profoundly necessary for growth" (Ecce Homo). "Virtue, art, music, dance, reason, spirituality"–all the things "for whose sake it is worthwhile to live on earth" (Beyond Good and Evil)–all demand such severe self-love, and for this reason, and this reason only, Nietzsche wanted to disabuse those capable of such excellences of their false consciousness about the morality of altruism. He certainly did not think everyone ought to be selfish, or that the pursuit of material goods had any value, or that indulgence of selfish desires was a virtue. What he did think is what is almost certainly true: namely, that if someone like Beethoven had taken Christian morality seriously, and lived a Christian life, he would not have accomplished what the actual Beethoven did (one need only read the famous Maynard Solomon biography to see that Beethoven was no moral saint). The "John Galts" of the world are just a more prosperous example of the "self-interested cattle and mob" Nietzsche always derided.
That Rand drew inspiration from Nietzsche tells us only how easy it is to misread his work. Probably millions of troubled adolescents have projected their neuroses onto his aphorisms and walked away clinging to a deeply warped and blinkered vision of his philosophy. That doesn't mean we should judge him for it! Nietzsche is no more responsible for Rand than he is for Jared Loughner, or the authors of the gospels are for Jerry Falwell.
It might very well be true that Rand's "point" all along was that Nietzsche was onto something. But even if that's true, it's barely half of the story — because if Nietzsche was onto anything, that means Rand most certainly was not.


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(7) Customer Reviews
Price Range: USD $112.66 to $153.28
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These tires are grippy and comfortable but they wear fast. The rain traction is great as well as dry but as expected for an all-season they are not great in the snow. The noise is loud enough for me to notice. They wear fast and do offer nice performance but I wouldn't buy these tires again. At the moment they are at the $121 price range and I feel tires in the $100-110 range compete pretty well. I won't be buying these again.
Size: 205/55R16
Vehicle: 1998 Audi A4 Quattro 4 Dr Sedan Base (205/55R16) with 24135 KM of Tire Wear
made this review on 5/28/2014 and is a
Confident, Experienced Driver
I can't say very much good about these tires. Treadwear is non existent. Lets say under warranty I have had 5 tires replaced. 1 was due to a flat that could not safely be repaired. The other 4 were due to wear problems. In this time my car has three wheel alignments and the treadwear is even.
On the replacement I have got worse mileage. I am at 29000 km and told they need to be replaced. They are at 4/32.
The other two are at 7/32 and 19000 km.
The tires have been rotated every 10,000 km.
The reason the tires have different mileage because the BF would only warranty them when they got down 4/32.
Size: 205/50R16
Vehicle: 2005 Ford Focus ZX4 SES with 29000 KM of Tire Wear
made this review on 8/5/2013 and is a
Confident, Experienced Driver
To see all 7 reviews on tire reviews page
List of vehicles with original tire size (OEM) similar to 225/45R17XL


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Unflinching in face of 'curse,' Brady will be on 'Madden NFL 18' cover
"There is no such thing as the 'Madden curse,'" Brady says
"There is no such thing as the 'Madden curse,'" Brady says
The next NFL player to take on the "Madden Curse" will be New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
EA Sports announced Friday that he will be on the cover of the Madden NFL 18 video game.
For believers, the curse strikes players who've been on the game cover with season-ending injuries. Brady's teammate Rob Gronkowski was on the cover of the 2017 edition, and he was unable to finish the season due to a back injury.
Along with the announcement from EA Sports, Brady posted a video assuring fans, "There is no such thing as the 'Madden curse.'"
In the video, the five-time Super Bowl champion does everything he can to prove that superstitions aren't real. He smashes a mirror and walks under a ladder.
Still, we're holding our breath.


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by Tom Utescher
Last week Mount St. Joseph Academy fans learned that their favorite basketball squad would be back in the Class AAAA state tournament this year, but would not be returning to the District 1 championship game.
With Wednesday's home court win over 12th-seeded C.B. East (18-6), number five Mount St. Joe reached the quarterfinal round of the district tournament and assured itself of a place among the nine District 1 teams that will advance to the state playoffs. On Saturday, the Magic's bid to repeat as district champion went by the boards in a dramatic encounter at Downingtown West High School. There, the fourth-seeded Whippets scored the final nine points of the game over the last two minutes, chalking up a 42-35 victory.
While the district seeding committee had not forecast a final-four appearance for fifth-ranked Mount St. Joe, it had predicted better things for number one Cheltenham High School. However, the Panthers also lost on Saturday, and will play the Mount this week as part of a four-team bracket that will determine the fifth through eighth positions for the district in the state tournament seeding process.
After Saturday's loss, MSJ coach John Miller commented, "Both teams played hard and we just came out on the short end. Now we'll be playing for seeding in the state tournament, and sometimes you can't tell by the order which is the most advantageous. Last year we had the top seed in the district and wound up with a difficult draw. We started with Harrisburg and Cheltenham, and then even if we'd beaten Boyertown we would've played (state runner-up) Archbishop Carroll after that. So I told the girls to keep their heads up, and that this one game doesn't predict where we'll be at the end."
In terms of size, the Magic didn't match up well last Wednesday with second-round rival C.B. East, which had three players in the 6'0" to 6'2" range. Fortunately for the Mount, East didn't pose enough of an outside shooting threat to prevent to Magic from focusing on their interior defense. In this regard, the MSJ forwards got some welcome assistance from 5'11" sophomore guard Alex Louin, who often was able to disrupt East's attempts to lob the ball inside in the set offense.
Early on, the Patriots were able to get down the floor and have center Lindsey Kelly score before the Magic were fully assembled on defense. She hit three lay-ups in the first period, but a baseline jumper and a three-pointer by senior guard Bridget Higgins helped the Mount take an 11-8 advantage into the second round.
Back-to-back baskets by visiting guard Courtney Webster gave East a 12-11 edge, forcing an MSJ time-out with 6:08 to go in the first half. A three-pointer by junior forward Meg Geatens and a Higgins jumper off of a pass by Louin got the Magic back on track. The only other points that East scored before the break came from the free throw line, where Kelly shot four-for-four, helping create a 20-16 count at the half.
As it turned out, the Patriots would only score one more field goal all evening. It came with 2:03 left to play on a transition lay-up by Webster, who would foul out in the final minute.
The Magic were not exactly scoring up a storm, either. Louin hit a "three" and senior forward Cailin Schmmer sank a shorter jumper in the first 72 seconds of the third quarter, but that was it for the Mount until the period ended at 25-20. With a little over four minutes remaining in the game, the hosts called time-out with the tally at 27-22. Geatens drove past a larger but slower defender to score, and a technical foul on the East bench resulted in two made free throws by Louin.
The Magic weren't seriously threatened after that, as Louin finished with 13 points and Higgins with 10. Six from Schmeer, five from Geatens, and two from junior guard Kelsey Jones completed the winning total, while East was led by Kelly, with 13 points, and Webster, with six.
Saturday's tilt at Downingtown lived up to expectations for a match-up of two tough defensive teams seeded one place apart. With their victory, the Whippets' win streak was stretched to 20 games, with the only stains on their 25-2 overall record coming in December against the top two District 1 seeds, Cheltenham and Council Rock South.
After guard Brittany Sicinski scored the first two field goals on Saturday evening, her Downingtown team never trailed in the first half, although the Magic matched those first two buckets for a 4-4 tie. Sicinski, a senior who stands just under 5'10" and has committed to West Chester University, would register the game-high in both points (22) and rebounds (eight), along with three steals. After she scored all of the points that gave the Whippets a 7-6 edge at the quarter, she was held to a driving lay-up and a free throw during the second stanza, but other buckets in the paint by Kayla Feairheller and Lindsay Galczynski gave the hosts a 14-9 lead a little over four minutes in.
Downingtown West got a five-second call against the Mount on the Magic's defensive baseline, then Feairheller hoisted a jumper from the left edge of the foul line for a seven-point advantage (16-9), the largest lead of the night until the final score reflected an identical margin.
MSJ's Geatens converted off a rebound for her second field goal of the evening. Later, the Mounties eliminated most of their remaining deficit in the last 35 seconds of the half, when Higgins scored on a drive and Schmeer deposited a baseline jumper for a 16-15 halftime tally. Louin, who had started the Magic off with a transition lay-up, added a 15-footer and a three-pointer to lead the visitors with seven points at the break.
While Downingtown had enjoyed the lead for almost the entire first half (with just the one tie at 4-4), the last two quarters of the game featured six lead changes and three ties.
West had hit just one three-pointer before the break, but the Whippets immediately started out the third quarter with a triple by Allison Shaw. The Magic responded with regular baskets by Higgins, Louin, and Geatens, gaining their first lead of the evening, 21-19, with 4:40 left in the period. Two Louin free throws created a four-point spread, then West went up 24-23 with an effective inside-outside burst, scoring on a drive by Feairheller and then kicking the ball out for a three by Shaw next time down the floor.
In the middle of the period, both MSJ's Higgins and West's Devin DiFranks picked up a third personal foul, then with 1:27 left Shaw went down with an apparent ankle injury and had to leave the game.
Since only the Whippet starters tend to score in close contests, freshman replacement Maddie Dew was a relative unknown for the Mounties. She would supplement the two three-pointers of injured junior Shaw with a pair of treys of her own during the decisive fourth quarter. All this long-range offense by West took the Mount a little off-guard.
"I guess it can be dangerous to take a solid viewpoint of a team from watching one game," admitted Miller, "but from what I saw they were not an outside shooting team. In the game I watched, I don't think they even attempted a three, but obviously their outside shooting helped them tonight."
The Magic netted a big three-point bucket of their own with one second left in the third round, when Higgins struck from the left side to send the Mount into the fourth quarter with a 28-26 profit. A series of steals and re-steals started off the final frame, then Galczynski charged into MSJ's Jones, adding to West's mounting foul problems.
A "J" by Louin made it 30-26, then for the second time since the intermission the Whippets overcame a four-point shortfall with a drive-it-in, kick-it-out series of possessions. Sicinski supplied the lay-up, and Dew drained the three-pointer to move the hosts ahead, 31-30.
The eighth and ninth team fouls by West produced one made free throw by Higgins and two by Schmeer for a 33-31 Mount lead with 4:30 left to play. Two minutes later a lob inside led to a lay-up by Sicinski, but with 2:15 on the clock the Magic answered. Higgins hit a runner along the right side of the lane to push the visitors ahead one last time, 35-33.
With 1:58 showing, Dew knocked down her second big trey for the Whippets, and after Sicinski sank two free throws at 1:21 to make it 38-35, Mount St. Joe turned the ball back over with a walk. A few minutes earlier West fans had been riding the refs about a 9-2 team-foul discrepancy working against their team, but now it favored the Whippets. The Magic had to foul for possession, and precious seconds ticked away as they boosted their team total up to seven.
Finally, Sicinski went to the line to hit both ends of a one-and-one with 36 seconds left. On an extended possession that included two offensive rebounds, the Mount missed a short jumper and two three-point attempts. After the third shot the ball was tied up and the arrow pointed West's way with nine seconds remaining. With six ticks to go MSJ's Higgins left the court with her fifth foul, and the Whippets' Sicinski tacked the final score on the board with two more free throws.
Miller concluded, "Downingtown West is very well-coached and they do a good job of running their offense, and to beat a team like that we have to make a better percentage of our shots."
Louin came away with 15 points and five rebounds and Higgins had 10 points, four assists, and four steals for the Magic, who also marked down six points and five boards for Geatens, and four points and three steals for Schmeer. Backing up Sicinski's performance for the Whippets were Dew, Feairheller, and Shaw, with six points apiece, and Galczynski, with two points and five rebounds.