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La Grange Police
Daniel J. Carson, 35 of La Grange — arrested May 17 for an Oldham County warrant of eight charges
Janice S. Pace, 36 of La Grange — arrested May 17 for an Oldham County warrant of one charge
Julius Jones, 28 of Eminence — cited and released Feb. 21 for improper display of registration plates; operating on a suspended license; failure to maintain required insurance; and no registration plates
Belida Morales-Ortiz, 38 of La Grange — cited and released Nov. 1 for failure to maintain required insurance; no operator's license; and no registration plates
La Grange Police Arrests
Shane N. Tadross, 42 of Cooperstown, NY — arrested Feb. 23 for trafficking in marijuana; possession of marijuana; possession of synthetic drugs; possession of controlled substance first; possession of controlled substance third; possession of controlled substance first; and possession of drug paraphernalia
Ramiro Sierra-Gomez, 34 of La Grange — cited and released Feb. 23 for speeding and no operator's license
John J. Prince, 45 of Smithfield — arrested Jan. 5 for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs, second; failure to maintain required insurance; and license to be in possession
Nathaniel S. Drury, 18 of La Grange — cited and released Jan. 5 for failure to maintain required insurance; disregarding stop sign; and no registration receipt
La Grange Police
Katherine Moorhead, 55 of Crestwood — cited and released Dec. 15 for theft by unlawful taking under $500 (shoplifting)
Jessica L. Dwinnells, 21 of Milton — cited and released Dec. 16 for failure to maintain required insurance; no registration plates; and no tail lamps
Two more people have been arrested in connection with the murder investigation of an Oldham County woman whose body was found in a shallow grave on Cropper Road Nov. 23.
Megan Elston, 24, and Bethany Nikki Thomas, 34, have been charged with complicity to first-degree assault.
Richard Wayne Johnson, a former Oldham County EMS employee, was sentenced Oct. 15 in Oldham County Circuit Court on charges of incest and other sex crimes.
Johnson, of La Grange, was first arrested by Kentucky State Police on Sept.17, 2013 on charges of 14 counts of possession of child pornography. In court, KSP detectives said they found hundreds of images on Johnson's computer and phone of young children performing sex acts.
John William Foster IV, who escaped from jail custody in Oldham County on Sept. 2, has been apprehended. However, Foster is in critical condition after shooting himself.
A press release from Kentucky State Police said that U.S. Marshals apprehended Foster shortly after 8 a.m. on Oct. 5 in Indianapolis.
According to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Public Information Officer Christopher Wilburn, Marshals cooperated with IMPD officers in an attempt to capture Foster, whowas first sighted during a traffic stop.
A once-wanted bank robber pleaded guilty last week in an Oldham County courtroom.
William Gary Grubbs Jr., 36, was indicted in August by an Oldham County grand jury on two counts of robbery in the first degree, related to robberies at Farmers Bank of Milton on Highway 53 on April 23 and again on June 1.
Copyright © 2019
The Oldham Era is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Oldham County and LaGrange, Kentucky, and the surrounding area.


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QR codes give you quick access to websites without having to type or remember a web address. You can use the Camera app that's built in to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to scan a QR code.
How to scan a QR code
- Open the Camera app from your device's Home screen, Control Center, or Lock screen.
- Hold your device so that the QR code appears in the Camera app's viewfinder. Your device recognizes the QR code and shows a notification.
- Tap the notification to open the link associated with the QR code.

subset: commoncrawl


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I have been on a weight loss kick since August 2010. I've lost about 20 pounds so far and still have about 10-15 more pounds to lose. It's been difficult. Actually, that's an understatement. It's been REALLY difficult, especially because I love to eat… and all I want to ever do is eat. I also loved to not do anything but sit on the couch and watch endless amounts of Food Network, HGTV, the Travel Channel (only if it about food), and the Bravo channel. My life was very sedentary and FULL-filling. I went to the gym one day in August, got on the scale, and almost had a heart attack. I realized I was at my heaviest, which made complete sense, because my "fat clothes" were starting to become a little snug on me. So it finally occurred to me that I needed to lose some weight or else I was putting myself at serious risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. All of which runs in my family. Eek!
So here I am, twenty pounds lighter, and still going. I've really cut down my portion sizes, and eating a lot healthier than I used to. I've also reduced buying out for lunch by about 90% while at work, which I feel has helped me significantly! In fact, packing my lunch and dinner (I work 12 hour shifts) has forced me to get creative with making healthier, yet enjoyable recipes. I've experimented with many different kinds of salads for lunch. Unfortunately, I was as creative as I was getting, I started to get bored with salads. So my new obsession is the veggie wrap that I came up with recently.
Just in case you're wondering, I still occasionally enjoy my favorite foods. Moderation is the key to success. Who ever said you had to completely cut out all those unhealthy foods was wrong! If that were true, I would have failed my diet by now.
Vegetarian lavash wrap with Tofutti and Hummus
2 whole wheat lavash
1 small yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 roma tomato, seeded, thinly sliced
2 medium-sized artichoke hearts (in water), chopped or sliced
1 small carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 avocado, sliced
Baby lettuce mix (or whatever you have on hand)
4 tablespoons Tofutti cream cheese
4 tablespoons of your favorite hummus
Spread 2 tablespoons of toffuti and hummus onto the middle of the lavash. Top each lavash with thinly sliced bell peppers, sliced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, carrots, 1/4 of the sliced avocado, and a little lettuce mix. Roll each of them up tightly and cut in half on a diagonal.
Makes 2 servings.


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'Just Win, Baby!'…
So far, the Yankees have started like last season…winning their series as they've taken the first two from the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins. As the saying goes, 'Two outta three ain't bad!'. Keep it all season and it would equate to a divisional championship.
Simmons/NY Daily News
I was a bit surprised about Rafael Soriano's implosion that cost the Yankees the second game in the series with the Twins. His career high three walks in an inning proved fatal as the Twins rallied in a game CC Sabathia should have won. But the bigger problem was avoiding the media after the game. Being in New York is about being a stand up guy through thick and thin. Frustration is understandable, but unfortunately, there is more to baseball than just a game. I think Soriano will learn from the situation and of course being around Mariano Rivera is sure to have its positive impact. There's not too many people that understand New York better than Mo and Derek Jeter.
I was really sorry to hear that Twins second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka broke his leg on a hard slide at second base by Nick Swisher. I thought it was very classy of Swisher to visit Niskioka after the game to express his apology. Swish likes to have fun but he's certainly not a dirty player and it would be unfair to pin that tag on him because of the incident. I thought Nishioka has done an admirable job in his MLB debut season and wish him the very best for a full and speedy recovery.
For all the problems that A.J. Burnett has endured in New York, I am amazed about the stat that he is undefeated in April. Of course, with today's win, the streak continues. I want to say that Burnett is pitching so much better than last year and I don't have the fear I used to have when he took the mound. But still, I guess I had better wait until May before forming any opinions. Whatever it is, I hope that A.J. can keep it going.
Who would have thought the biggest pitching concern in the rotation would be Phil Hughes?…
Freddy Garcia did miss out on his start because of a rain postponement when Joe Girardi skipped his turn in the rotation for the next game. So the Yankees still don't know what they have at the back end of the rotation. If Hughes implodes again, I'll definitely be concerned since it will put a fair amount of pressure on Ivan Nova.
I am very surprised that both the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays are a combined 0-12. Despite the slow start, I still recognize that the Boston Red Sox have a very powerful and formidable team. With 156 games to go, I am sure the Red Sox will have a higher winning percentage than most teams over the same period of games and will be leading the way into October. Actually, I am not too excited about the Yankees facing their most bitter rival at a time when they've been backed into a corner. A win or two against the Yankees can definitely kick start the Red Sox Machine and give them the momentum to charge forward. I don't think the series will be a sweep in either direction but it is going be a hard-fought battle, and the winner will have their share of bumps and bruises.
Of course, with the Yankees playing the Red Sox, it is time for yet another wager with my good friend, Julia, of Julia's Rants. For the latest bet, the loser will write a critical analysis of what ails his/her team. The loser will also have to write about why the other team is better. Pride and ego will definitely have to be checked at the door for this one. The opening game of the series on Friday pits two huge question marks against each other…Phil Hughes versus John Lackey. The game will most likely set the tone for the rest of the series. May the best team win…which, of course, are the Yankees! 😉
It should be a great weekend for baseball!


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American Opera to Present BLESSED ART THOU AMONGST WOMEN, 7/21
On Saturday, July 21 at 2:00pm, and Sunday, July 22 at 7:30pm, American Opera Projects, in association with Opera New Jersey, will premiere Blessed Art Thou Amongst Women, an operatic meditation in three parts on the religious and feminine icon Mary with music by Tarik O'Regan, Gregory Spears, and Antonio Vivaldi and performed by countertenor Ryland Angel and mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn. The Sebastian Chamber Players and keyboardist Mila Henry perform under the musical direction of Steven Osgood, with stage direction by Crystal Manich. Performances will be held at the Berlind Theatre at Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center and feature an artist panel discussion. Tickets are $15 and available at operanj.org or (609) 799-7700.
Blessed Art Thou Amongst Women consists of two contrasting contemporary monodramas - Gregory Spears' Our Lady (from medieval Provençal texts) and Tarik O'Regan's The Wanton Sublime (with a libretto by Anna Rabinowitz). The new works will be paired with a unique staged performance of Vivaldi's Stabat Mater. The performances will mark the second partnership between AOP and Opera NJ, following last season's exciting workshop premiere of The Family Room by Thomas Pasatieri.
TARIK O'REGAN (composer, The Wanton Sublime)
Born in London in 1978, Tarik O'Regan was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He now lives and works in New York City and Cambridge, England. His compositions are performed internationally by opera and ballet companies, symphony orchestras, choruses, chamber ensembles and soloists. Available on over 25 recordings, mostly on the Harmonia Mundi label, his music has garnered two GRAMMY® nominations (including Best Classical Album) and two British Composer Awards. His opera Heart of Darkness, based on the novella by Joseph Conrad (Tom Phillips, libretto) was developed by American Opera Projects and premiered to rave reviews at the Royal Opera House in a co-production with Opera East and ROH2. Tarik O'Regan is published exclusively by Novello & Company. www.tarikoregan.com
GREGORY SPEARS (composer, Our Lady)
Gregory Spears writes instrumental and vocal music that blends together stylistic aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. His music has been performed by Houston Grand Opera (HGOco), the American Composers Orchestra, Center City Opera Theater, Opera Index, and the NOW Ensemble (MATA), among many others. Current projects include a new collaborative dance opera (Wolf-in-Skins) with choreographer Christopher Williams and an evening-length opera based on the novel Fellow Travelers written in collaboration with playwright Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury. Spears' first opera, Paul's Case, was developed by American Opera Projects' Composers & the Voice Program and was noted for its "solid dramatic timing, compassionate characterizations, and huge potential" (Philadelphia Inquirer - David PatRick Stearns' Best in Classical Music for 2009). www.gregoryspears.com
ANNA RABINOWITZ (librettist, The Wanton Sublime)
Anna Rabinowitz's fourth volume of poetry, Present Tense, was published by Omnidawn Books in fall 2010. Her previous volume of poetry is The Wanton Sublime: A Florilegium of Whethers and Wonders, published by Tupelo Press, 2006. Her book-length acrostic poem, Darkling: A Poem (Tupelo Press, 2001) was transformed into an experimental, multi-media opera theater work by AOP. It had its world premiere and ran for three weeks off-Broadway in 2006 and was performed in a concert version in Berlin and Poland in 2007. Center City Opera of Philadelphia performed a concert version at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2009. Other awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and nominations for a Pushcart Prize and Foreward Magazine's Best Poetry Book of the Year for Darkling. Rabinowitz is Editor Emerita of American Letters & Commentary, a vice-president of the Poetry Society of America, and a member of the Board of Directors of AOP. For more information, visit www.annarabinowitz.com.
RYLAND ANGEL (Counter-tenor)
Born on St Cecilia's day, Ryland Angel has received a Grammy nomination. Recordings include music of Charpentier, Scarlatti, Stradella, Lorenzani, Peri, Handel, Monteverdi, Beaujoyeux, Purcell, Bach and Spears (EMI, Universal, K317, Koch, Virgin Classics etc). New and upcoming recordings include "Sacred Seven - Chant"(Cosmos), "Freud und Lust" - Buxtehude/Bach solo cantatas (Deux-Elles), Rosenmuller solo cantatas with Artek and Vespers by Colonna (Houston Chamber choir). www.rylandangel.com
HAI-TING CHINN (Mezzo-soprano)
American Mezzo-soprano, Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Pierrot Lunaire, Cherubino to The King & I, J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach. She is currently featured in the revival and tour of Phillip Glass' Einstein on the Beach, which will be performed at venues around the world through March 2013. She has premiered new works by Du Yun, Conrad Cummings, Stefan Weisman, Yoav Gal, and Matt Schickele. www.hai-ting.com
Steven Osgood has conducted for Fort Worth Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, New York City Opera, and for many American Opera Projects workshops and premieres. The current season included conducting appearances with Beth Morrison Projects for Songs from the Uproar, Long Beach Opera for Glass' Aidanamar, the Manhattan School of Music for The Ghosts of Versailles, and Opera Memphis for Die Fledermaus. Next season, he will debut with Hawaii Opera conducting Tosca, Sarasota Opera conducting Little Nemo, and return to Opera Memphis to conduct The Rape of Lucretia, This Is the Rill Speaking & Bon Appetite. www.srosgood.com
Crystal Manich has been praised for her "lively staging", "quirky touches" and "visual impacting pictures" by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other major publications. She has directed various main stage productions for Pittsburgh Opera, Utah Opera, Lyric Opera of Baltimore and Opera Omnia, a New York-based company that produces baroque works of which she is co-founder and co-Artistic Director. Other directing credits for American Opera Projects include world premiere semi-staged performances of Model Love and Brooklyn Bones. Upcoming productions: Don Giovanni for the Bay View Festival, The Flying Dutchman for Opera Roanoke and Madama Butterfly for Pittsburgh Opera. Crystal holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University. For more information visit crystalmanich.com.
Praised for their "well-thought-out articulation and phrasing" (Early Music Review) and "elegant string playing... immaculate in tuning and balance" (Early Music Today), the Sebastian Chamber Players (www.sebastians.org) specialize in music of the Baroque and Classical eras and newly commissioned works for period instruments.
Mila Henry is a New York-based pianist who specializes in contemporary opera, musical theater, and chamber music. She is currently Resident Music Director with American Opera Projects and a music director for their nationally recognized Composers & the Voice workshop series. She has worked with both emerging and established composers alike, including Libby Larsen, Conrad Cummings, Douglas Cuomo, Herschel Garfein, Gilda Lyons, and Daniel Felsenfeld. www.milahenry.com
American Opera Projects
For over 20 years, American Opera Projects (AOP) has been creating, developing and presenting exclusively new American opera and music Theatre Projects. AOP, based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has presented over 15 world premiere operas including Patience & Sarah (1998), Stefan Weisman's Darkling (2006), and Lee Hoiby's This is the Rill Speaking (2008). AOP-developed projects include Stephen Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon (Opera Santa Barbara, 2009; New York City Opera, 2011), Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls (Fort Worth Opera, 2010), Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness (Royal Opera House (UK), 2011), and Jack Perla's Love/Hate (ODC Theater and SF Opera, 2012). Upcoming: Phil Kline's Out Cold (BAM, October 2012), and Gregory Spears's Paul's Case (Little Opera Theatre of NY/UrbanArias, 2013). www.operaprojects.org
Opera New Jersey
Opera New Jersey is the Garden State's largest and busiest opera company, recently named New Jersey's favorite opera company by JerseyArts.com's People's Choice Awards. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2012, Opera New Jersey presents a summer season of fully staged opera in July at Princeton's McCarter Theatre, Morristown's Mayo Performing Arts Center and Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre, with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as its official orchestra. In addition, the company performs one opera in February in collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Princeton and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, in partnership with NJPAC. Three times awarded a Citation of Excellence by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Opera New Jersey has become known for the highly artistic quality of its productions. Opera News has called Opera New Jersey one of the Garden State's most enticing summer offerings. For more information, visit www.OperaNJ.org.


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City of Pflugerville, TexasHome Menu
Pflugerville Event Calendar
- Date: 01/16/2019 8:15 AM - 9:15 AM
- Location: Pflugerville Recreation Center
400 Immanuel Road
Pflugerville, Texas 78660
- Featured ItemNo
Return to full list >>
This is a continuous class - join anytime!
- Recreation Center Classes
- Wednesdays, 8:15 a.m.
- Thursdays, 6:15 p.m.
- $7 per class / $45 for a 10-class punch card
A fusion of hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves create a one-of-a-kind fitness program that is fun and good for the body!
Pay just before class begins or pre-registration also available. Purchase your single class or 10-class punch-card at the Recreation Center front desk. For more information, contact the Recreation Center front desk by phone at 512-990-6350 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Pre-registration is required. Register online or in person at the Recreation Center, located at 400 Immanuel Road.


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The HTAi vortal (*) is a product of the HTAi Interest Group on Information Retrieval (IRG). It aims at organising at one place information of interest about Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The HTAi vortal is composed of four sections and a bibliography.
- HTA producers and networks
- Selected resources
- SuRe Info
- Career development
- Bibliography
[Read more in the About section]


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go site A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
watch ebs (member since 2002-02-11)
follow Has worked on 51 tunes.
If you want to send a message to this member, please log in using your own user name and refresh this page. Once you are logged in, a form for sending a message will be shown when you load this member page again.


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The push to legalize ticket scalping in Michigan was put on hold Tuesday, with the Senate Government Operations Committee opting not to vote on the matter.
The committee chose to table House Bill 5108 until it could investigate the issue further.
"I believe there is enough work to be done … I don't think we are ready to vote … today," said the committee chair, Sen. Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe.
The bill would repeal a state law from 1931 that barred the practice of selling tickets above face value and bring Michigan in line with more than 30 other states that allow some form of the practice.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, and was approved in the House in February on a 66-42 vote.
Kelly spoke briefly in favor of the bill, saying it is an archaic law and that polls show the public supports allowing ticket scalping, so that ticket owners can sell their tickets for above or below face value if they wish.
Scott Hagerstrom, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Michigan, said in written testimony that subjecting individuals to criminal charges for engaging in a mutually agreed transaction is inappropriate and a waste of finite law enforcement resources.
A number of venues and organizations oppose the bill, including the Detroit Lions, Olympia Entertainment, Palace Sports & Entertainment, Saint Andrew's Hall, the University of Michigan and Michigan International Speedway.
Thomas Ferrugia, government relations director for the New York City-based The Broadway League, spoke in opposition to the bill, saying it will harm consumers and allow ticket brokers to confuse patrons.
He said brokers often mislead customers, and those who have a poor experience are left blaming the venue and might not choose to return to that venue again.
The Broadway League represents a variety of venues in the state, including the Fisher Theatre and the East Lansing-based Wharton Center for Performing Arts.
Diane Willcox, director of marketing and communications for the Wharton Center, said multiple ticket brokers are currently selling tickets for the center's upcoming musical, "Kinky Boots."
The most expensive ticket is $74 at Wharton, but the most expensive ticket for "Kinky Boots" she found online this morning for $289, she said.
The problem is, she said, Wharton has not printed any tickets for the show, not even for season ticketholders. These brokers are selling tickets that do not even exist, she said.
That practice is already illegal, but has become more prevalent in the past few years.
"It's insane," she said.
She said tabling the bill is the smart thing to do, because while it would not solve the problem of brokers who are already breaking the law, it would remove any protections they already have.
"It's the wrong direction," she said.
Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403, [email protected] Twitter: @chrisgautz


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User login
Meet the Curd Nerd: Janet Fletcher
Janet Fletcher is a staff food writer and cheese columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Recently, Curdnerds.com chatted with her about her love of cheese, as well as a beautiful new iPhone app based on her book Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
Describe your interest in cheese and how it started.
Which pairs better with cheese? Wine or Beer? Why?
Which cheeses make you swoon?
What advice can you give to a cheese newbie overwhelmed by the selection available at their local shop?
How do you recommend people learn more about cheese if they are interested?


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|System: PS3
|Dev: System Prisma
|Pub: NIS America
|Release: August 21, 2012
|Players: 1
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
|Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity
by Becky Cunningham
It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached Legasista, the latest dungeon-crawling RPG from System Prisma. The company's Cladun series left many players cold, with their retro charm being buried beneath bland, repetitive gameplay. After adventuring with the cast of Legasista, I'm happy to report that it's a definite improvement over the company's previous offerings. With sharp HD graphics, action combat that requires both skills and strategy, and an interesting dungeon to conquer, Legasista is a nice treat for fans of dungeoneering.
The game stars Alto, a young man whose only goal is to save his sister, who has been turned into a crystal by a "curse" from an ancient artifact. Like many Japanese RPG settings, Alto's world is a low-tech place that houses the ruins of a highly advanced society. Most people fear these ancient ruins, but Alto is desperate. He has come to a massive facility known as the Ivy Tower due to rumors that it houses an ancient weapon that can cure his sister.
Once arriving, Alto becomes entangled with a number of colorful characters, including the ruins' android supervisor, who insists on being called Ms. Dungeon and cultivates both sentient and non-sentient bean sprouts. Then there's the ancient weapon, who turns out to be very different from what Alto imagined. There's a lot of familiar wacky humor here for fans of publisher NIS America, but underneath the insanity is a touching story of two siblings. Alto and his sister may bicker, (not far into the game, he gains the ability to communicate with her spirit in the crystal) but in the end, they'd do anything for each other. It's a simple and touching story, albeit with occasionally convoluted trappings, that works well to keep the player moving through the Ivy Tower.
Legasista describes itself as a "dungeon-crawler style survival action RPG," which is certainly apt. The game marries a strategic action combat system with the kind of trap-filled dungeon exploration that will be familiar to roguelike players. Dungeon exploration has three main features: combat, strategic use of traps, and careful use of items.
Combat is a fairly simple action-based system in which the characters can only be equipped with a single kind of weapon at a time, but also have access to a number of spells and abilities to back up their weapon strikes. Up to three characters can be taken into the dungeon at once. Only one character is active at a time, but the active character can make use of other characters' support abilities, and the characters can be switched between with a simple press of the right analog stick. This keeps dungeon exploration lively, giving the player several types of characters to switch between as well as providing backup should one character fall. There's a nice variety of enemies to tackle, and choosing a good variety of weapons and spells to spread out amongst the party is crucial to surviving battle.
The Ivy Tower's dungeons are filled with a variety of traps that do everything from shooting fire arrows to making spikes pop out of the ground to triggering every other trap in the area for an impressive trapmageddon. While the traps are visible to the player and can be avoided, it's better to make creative use of them in order to dispatch enemies. Arrow traps, for example, behave predictably, so the player can set them up in order to hit a charging monster in the back. An earthquake trap, on the other hand, won't hurt anything in the air, so the player can set one off, then hold the jump button while the trap does its work on nearby foes.
Useful items such as lanterns, keys, and healing foods are scattered around the dungeon, and are meant to be used strategically in order to survive. In particular, the game has an intricate poison system that the player will want to manage via deciding when a poison symptom is bearable and when it absolutely needs to be removed via a curative item. One-use items like this will only last through a single exploration session, and many degrade from floor to floor, so players are encouraged to use them, just not too liberally.
The Ivy Tower's main dungeons are hand-designed, and each floor features a particular theme or challenge to solve. These dungeons are relatively short and provide a satisfying bite-sized experience. After completing a certain percentage of the main dungeon area, the player gains the ability to dig for randomly-generated dungeons known as Ran-Gens, which are far longer and much more unpredictable.
In fact, Legasista is essentially two games in one. The Ivy Tower provides focused, carefully designed dungeon floors that emphasize careful planning, exploration, and problem solving. The Ran-Gens are a far more savage beast, throwing hordes of monsters at the player and putting the emphasis on survival. Traditional JRPG fans are likely to prefer the Ivy Tower, while roguelike fans will enjoy the brutal (though not quite as brutal as the average roguelike) world of the Ran-Gens. Although the Ivy Tower becomes increasingly difficult as the player scales its heights, braving the Ran-Gens doesn't appear necessary in order to complete the main campaign. It's simply up to gameplay preference.


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Welcome to Family History eBooks
Showcase your family stories on tablets, eReaders, and other digital devices by converting them to eBooks that you and your family can conveniently read. Popular digital devices include Android devices, iPad, iPhone, iPod (Apple), Kindles (Amazon), Nexus (Google), Nook (Barnes & Noble), Sony Readers and others.
Benefits of Family History eBooks
- Share family stories in an engaging, popular format
- Make and share for free or publish free online
- Give family their own copies to personalize with notes and highlights
- Change font size and type to suit reading preferences
- Read family stories anytime, anywhere on popular digital devices
Create Your Own Family History eBook Now
You will need the following to create your own family history eBook to read on popular digital devices:
- The eBook: Make Your Family History into an eBook: A Step by Step Guide by Susan Holdaway
- A family history and some photos
- Microsoft Word 2007 or later (or Open Office)
- Free eBook software (discussed in eBook above)
Think of it, with a bit of work, a family history eBook can bring together stories, pictures and other content about your family that can be conveniently read and carried around to entertain and inspire.
Why not make an eBook now to share the stories behind your family pedigrees?


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To use all features of KLM.com safely, we recommend that you update your browser, or that you choose a different one. Continuing with this version may result in parts of the website not being displayed properly, if at all. Also, the security of your personal information is better safeguarded with an updated browser.
Discover a bustling city just 80 kilometres from the Rocky Mountains. Book flights to Calgary, visit the Canada Olympic Park and witness the famous Calgary Stampede. Enjoy views of the city from the Calgary Tower and eat at some top restaurants in the downtown area. Or relax and unwind in the awe-inspiring nature that surrounds the city. Not only during the summer, but also in wintertime, as Calgary has some superb ski areas.
Nature is one of Calgary's main attractions. Go to the nearby Banff National Park with the deep blue Moraine Lake and wonderful mountains. The vast Alberta Badlands are an attraction of a different calibre, where you can admire sights, such as fossilised dinosaur bones. You'll even find nature in the city: Fish Creek Provincial Park is the largest urban park in Canada. And the banks of the Bow River are perfect for hiking. Calgary is not just the ideal destination for a city trip, it is also the perfect starting point for a longer holiday in Canada. Let yourself be surprised: book a flight to Calgary now!
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Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said that he sounded the alarm four years ago to regulators about problems with the benchmark interest rate known as Libor.
But Geithner, who was then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, did not communicate in key meetings with top regulators that British bank Barclays had admitted to Fed staffers that it was rigging Libor, according to people familiar with the matter.
Instead, regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Justice Department worked largely without the Fed's help to build a case against Barclays. That work has culminated in a massive scandal rocking the banking industry on both sides of the Atlantic.
As Geithner prepares to testify Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill, he returns to a familiar position as a lightning rod for critics on the left and the right who find fault in his work as a banking regulator before he joined the White House and as a bailout architect under President Obama.
He will face a key question from House and Senate members this week: Did he and others at the New York Fed, the country's most powerful banking regulator, act urgently enough to stop fraud at Barclays and potentially other banks?
Geithner has said the New York Fed did everything in its power.
"We moved quite quickly to try to get the British to address it and make sure that we brought it to the attention of the full complement of U.S. regulatory agencies so that they could take a careful look at it, which they did," Geithner said Monday night on Charlie Rose's interview show. "And to their credit, they've done a pretty strong enforcement action right now, but there's more work to do on this."
Documents released by the New York Fed show that the agency chose to focus on structural problems with Libor rather than help to bring corrupt actions at Barclays and other banks to light.
"At no stage did he [Geithner] or anyone else at the New York Fed raise any concerns with the Bank that they had seen any wrongdoing," Bank of England governor Mervyn King said in testimony before a British parliamentary committee last week.
Geithner was aware there were problems with how Libor was calculated because it relied on self-reporting by the world's biggest banks. But it's unclear from the documents whether he knew about numerous phone calls in which Barclays employees admitted to New York Fed staff members that the bank was manipulating Libor.
In a phone call from April 2008, a Barclays employee made such an admission to New York Fed staff member Fabiola Ravazzolo: "So, we know that we're not posting um, an honest Libor." Then in October again, in three separate phone calls, Barclays executives told Fed employees that Libor was "unrealistic" and "absolute rubbish."
Throughout the spring and summer of 2008, in the midst of increasing turmoil in the financial world, the Fed studied what was wrong with Libor.
Two weeks after the April phone call, Geithner held a meeting called "Fixing LIBOR" with senior New York Fed staff members. A few weeks later, in a meeting with U.S. Treasury officials, New York Fed staffers, including Ravazzolo, presented slides saying there are "questions regarding Libor's accuracy and relevance."
Then, on June 1, Geithner e-mailed recommendations to King, the British central banker, on how to improve the process for setting the rate.
The New York Fed also says that it raised the Libor issue in a meeting around this time with the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which consisted of top officials from Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the CFTC.
But two people with knowledge of the matter said senior officials and investigators never heard an appeal from the New York Fed to investigate possible wrongdoing over Libor. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely about the ongoing investigation.
Geithner, through a spokesman, referred questions to the New York Fed, which declined to comment. The New York Fed, in response to requests from lawmakers, is set to release more documents.
The Fed seemed unsure in the summer of 2008 whether it could prove that Libor was rigged. In a presentation June 5 given to staff members to other regulatory agencies, New York Fed employees said: "These claims are difficult to evaluate."
Still, the Fed proceeded to use Libor as a benchmark to determine how much insurance giant American International Group would pay back the government during its bailout. The measure also was used in the fall of 2008 to set the interest rate for the emergency lending program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.
"That number [Libor] determined how the taxpayer would be compensated," said Neil Barofsky, who was the chief watchdog of the financial system's $700 billion bailout. "That's putting the Federal Reserve's imprimatur on a rate it has suspicion to think was fraudulent. The Federal Reserve's use of that and Treasury's use of that in the bailout sends a powerful message to the market: 'Hey don't worry about this, we're endorsing it.' "
He added that the Fed's response can be measured by the fact that no one has reformed Libor.
Libor is critical because it is used worldwide to set the rates for trillions of dollars' worth of mortgages, student loans, auto loans and many other financial contracts. It was an especially important metric during the financial crisis because it was a key indicator for the health of the banking industry.
Congress is ratcheting up pressure on the New York Fed over its handling of the manipulation of Libor.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) on Monday sent a letter to the New York Fed requesting all of its communications from August 2007 until July 2012 with staff at the 16 banks involved in setting Libor, British regulators and U.S. regulators.
The documents already released by the Fed failed to show what actions were taken after Barclays' admission, he said.
"We know the New York Fed eventually briefed Treasury, but what was the follow up? Did anyone ask if folks were still manipulating the rate?" said Neugebauer, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which is questioning Geithner on Wednesday.
A group of Senate Democrats earlier this month sent a letter to Justice saying that "regulators who were involved should be held to account for any failures to stop wrongdoing that they knew, or should have known about."
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) said nothing was done by the New York Fed to inform Congress, an oversight he considers negligent.
"You can make the argument that Libor was permitted to run its course so as not to add to the questions that were being raised about the health of international banking," he said.


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By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Clash: Cheryl Cole's family are begging her not to forgive cheating ex Ashley
Cheryl Cole's concerned family and friends are urging her to reconsider letting ex-husband Ashley back into her life.
Reports today claim that the singer's mother Joan Callaghan is furious that her cheating former son-in-law may have wormed his way back into Cheryl's heart.
The 27-year-old singer yesterday told confidantes she will not rule out a reconciliation with the Chelsea and England footballer, 30, who had a string of affairs during their marriage.
Furious: Cheryl's mother Joan Callaghan is understood to have challenged her daughter's judgement in letting the footballer back in her life
But Joan is said to have challenged her daughter's judgement, asking, 'How many times do you want your heart broken?' the Daily Mirror reports.
Cheryl's family and friends believe that 'once a cheat, always a cheat - and Ashley will go and break her heart again,' a source told the paper.
Close friends of Mrs Cole last night confirmed she returned to their £5million marital home in Surrey three weeks ago to spend the evening with him.
It is believed Cheryl and Ashley recently spent a night together at their marital home in Godalming, Surrey
A source said the couple did not share a bed, but added: 'Who knows what is going to happen in the future with them?
'Ashley is a predator, he likes a challenge and Cheryl is so tired and emotional that she may just give in.
'He is the only man she has ever truly loved and that's a powerful thing – and Ashley knows how to play her like a violin.
Maestro: A friend said Ashley, seen here in LA, knows how to play Cheryl like a violin
'Cheryl has only a very small core group of friends and family whom she trusts – her mother, her brother, the girls from Girls Aloud and her PA, who is one of her best friends – and that could make anyone feel lonely and insular at times.'
Joan is also understood to be furious with Derek Hough for seemingly abandoning Cheryl at her most vulnerable.
Hough was a constant presence at Cheryl's side throughout her divorce and battle with malaria last year, but has disappeared from her life.
Protective: Joan is also said to be angry at Derek Hough for 'abandoning' her daughter during her lowest point
Cole, 30, is currently on a 'lads' holiday in Los Angeles, while Mrs Cole – who has kept a low profile for the past month after being sacked from the U.S. version of The X Factor – is at a rented home in North London.
Last night, a source close to the footballer said he had even made plans to cut short his holiday to try to win back his ex-wife.
'Cheryl told him she needs him and that she wants him to come back early and he's agreed,' the source said.
Mrs Cole last saw him two weeks ago before he flew to California.
Her divorce was made final in October shortly after she had battled malaria. In a recent TV interview with Piers Morgan, she said: 'We had a great relationship.
There's part of us that will always love him.'
source :dailymail
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Don't do it pet! Cheryl Cole's family beg her not to forgive cheating ex Ashley as rumours of reconciliation heat up
Labels: Celebrities, Entertainment
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Hartlepool United Vs Brighton & Hove Albion, Mon 5 Apr 2010
Norwich will be without goalkeeper Fraser Forster when Stockport come to Carrow Road.
Forster was sent off after just 10 minutes of the 3-1 defeat at Tranmere on Good Friday and begins a two-match ban, meaning youngster Declan Rudd will start against the hapless Hatters.
Rudd has started just two league games in his career to date but will be trusted to deputise while on-loan Newcastle man Forster sits in the stands.
Midfielder Korey Smith missed the Tranmere defeat with a dead leg and will be monitored, while Chris Martin could return to the starting line-up in place of Stephen Elliott.
Defender Zak Whitbread (calf) and striker Cody McDonald (thigh) are both now available but young striker Luke Daley is again on the sidelines after suffering a recurrence of a thigh injury.
Defender Jens Berthel Askou is also out as he recovers from a foot problem.
Stockport manager Gary Ablett may be without David Perkins after he picked up a knock against Walsall.
The midfielder limped off during Saturday`s 1-1 draw with Walsall and now looks set to miss this top against bottom clash.
Otherwise, Ablett has no new injury or suspension concerns.
Despite County being near certainties for the drop Ablett is still eyeing new players, having ran the rule over triallists Cedric Ngakam, Goffin Boyoko, Matthew Brown and Adam Vickers last week, although it is unlikely any will be signed for the trip.
The Hatters could go down if they lose and Tranmere win but Ablett will be hoping they can maintain their League One status for as long as possible.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.News Now - Sport News


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The list of stupid gaming terms I think should be completely abolished from people's vocabularies is long, but today the one on the top of that list is Heal Sniping.
I first heard this term back in Ulduar. My Horde main was my Shaman back then and my go-to spells were Riptide and hasted Lesser Healing Waves. As I read through blogs and forums looking for healing tips, I noticed that many people referred to this method of healing as sniping.
What is heal sniping?
Heal sniping is healing a target that will be healed by someone else shortly. If you can get your heal off faster, you get all the credit on the healing meters, while the person whose heal lands after gets nothing but overheal. Sniping is stealing a heal from someone else. The term generally implies competition among healing teams and bad, meter-whoring intentions by the sniper.
I've seen people refer to all sorts of things as sniping:
- My RT/LHW example above. Fast heals = sniping
- Pre-HoTing = sniping
- Power Word: Shield = sniping
- Healing someone with a HoT on them = sniping
- Using healing cooldowns outside of emergency situations = sniping
- Healing anyone you're not specifically assigned to heal = sniping
I call bullshit.
The biggest problem with the term heal sniping is that it implies bad intent. If I know that the other druid is casting a slow Healing Touch on target A and I cast a fast Regrowth on them before it goes off so I look good on meters then yes, technically I'm sniping. But does that really happen? Raid frames can tell you when someone has a heal incoming but they can't tell you if the caster is going to have to stop casting to move out of something bad, may not tell you if the heal will bring them to full and there's likely more damage coming soon anyway. Am I using a fast heal to be an asshole or am I just trying to save target A from floor-tanking for the rest of the encounter?
Healing is a team effort, and the healers work together to keep everyone alive. If we avoided any healing spells and tactics that could be considered sniping, no one would get healed. Thinking about healing in terms of sniping is the wrong mindset. It's not a competition. If everyone gets healed and no one dies, you win – collectively.
If I'm assigned to heal the tank and I use a spare GCD when the tank's not in danger to cast a Wild Growth on the raid am I sniping from the raid healers? No. I'm helping them. If I'm assigned to raid heal and I stack Lifebloom on the tank along with a few direct heals when I can manage them am I sniping from the tank healers? Nope, just helping out. If my assignments are at safe health levels and I pop a quick heal on someone dangerously low on health who is not my assignment am I sniping in an attempt to appear higher on the healing meter? Of course not, I'm trying to save someone from dying. Cross-healing is an important part of being a healer – knowing when you should stick to your own targets and when you can afford to help out others is one of the things that separates the good healers from the bad.
Snipe healing is often paired with another stupid concept – meter padding.
I need to clarify (because I know some people are misinformed) that overheal does not pad the meters. Healing meters (such as those on World of Logs) show the amount of effective healing done. So if I throw Rejuvs on as many people as I can even if they're not taking damage, I'm not making myself look (superficially) better in any way. I'm just being an idiot. It is impossible to 'pad the meter' with overheal.
If your assignments don't die and you're not running out of mana too soon, tossing out your high HPS spells to put out as much healing as possible isn't meter padding. It's doing your job to keep the raid healed.
Every healer should be healing their ass off and working to put out as much healing as they possibly can.
There are a couple real examples of meter-padding, but I would hope they don't happen often. If you take extra damage so you have more to heal or continue to heal after a wipe has been called, that's meter-padding. Of course, those things are extremely obvious to anyone paying attention and those caught doing either should be laughed right out of the raid.
But what's the real problem?
The problem with terms like sniping and meter padding is that they are non-descriptive, blanket statements that get thrown around too much. You could call any healer who does well on the meters and casts a lot of high HPS spells a meter-padder, when in reality they're just doing their job to the best of their ability. These terms also distract from what's really going wrong. Almost every problem that can be generically attributed one of these things has a real, specific problem behind it.
If my assigned target dies because I'm busy healing someone else's target then I lack focus, the ability to follow assignments and the instinct to know when I can safely spare a heal for someone else.
If I run out of mana because I've been busy casting heals on those who aren't taking damage or casting more heals than necessary then I'm inefficient, and need to learn how to manage my mana better.
If healers have spare GCDs and mana to heal everyone else's targets consistently, there are too many healers in the fight.
If everything goes well, no one dies due to lack of heals and the boss goes down, congratulations! There's no need for slinging around terms like sniping.
I'm not saying that players who'd rather place highly on the meters than play effectively don't exist, but to any healing lead/raid leader/log analyser worth their salt it's going to be pretty obvious who these players are. Who cares if you have the highest HPS when your targets are always dead? Or if you're wiping? No one focused on progression does.
When your healing team runs into trouble, address it head-on and find out what the real problems are. Stop using terms like sniping and meter padding and remember that healing is a team sport.
*Just to clarify, before the comments start, this post has nothing to do with me or either of my raid teams. I read a couple posts this week that talked about snipe healing – one condemning it, one extolling its virtues. This isn't even a direct response to either of those posts, just a tangent my brain went on after thinking about the subject for a while.*


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Why, why, Wibree?
Is Nokia's new wireless standard really mature enough?
Analysis We're not short of wireless standards these days, so quite why Nokia felt the need to launch another one on Tuesday is open to question.
Wibree is a low-power option for Bluetooth, at least that's how it's being pitched by Nokia. But in reality there seems little similarity between the two. Wibree will use the same antenna and frequency (the increasingly crowded 2.4GHz band), but other than that the work has been to ensure that it will happily co-exist with Bluetooth, not be compatible with it.
The Bluetooth SIG said it has been in discussions with Nokia about incorporating Wibree into its standard, but that discussions were still proceeding - which is unsurprising given the lack of details yet available on Wibree.
Bluetooth works because it incorporates a couple of really useful technologies, which Wibree will struggle to emulate.
The first of these is the comprehensive frequency hopping which Bluetooth devices do when communicating. Interference in one part of the 2.4GHz band will have little or no impact as Bluetooth devices leap around, unlike their becalmed Wi-Fi cousins. This hopping does consume some power, so Wibree won't use it, but will instead do something very clever indeed; the details of which are not yet available.
Bluetooth devices can also interrogate each other to ask about capabilities and functions. This is known as the Service Discovery Protocol and prevents you sending documents to your headset or routing a phone call to your printer. Again, Wibree will have something very clever to replace this, but we don't know what yet.
We do know that Wibree packets will be dynamic in size, unlike the fixed-length Bluetooth packets, so there is some power-saving there if small amounts of data are being sent. We also know that Nokia has developed prototypes to test parts of the technology, and that we should have the full standard some time towards the middle of next year.
This looks pretty poor in comparison to some of the other short range wireless technologies on the market, such as Zigbee and Z-Wave, both of which are established with hardware in production.
Neither standard feels they have much to fear from Wibree. In a statement, the Zigbee Alliance said: "We can only surmise that this is simply a proprietary solution masked as some type of industry driven push."
A representative of Zensys (owners of Z-Wave) was equally taciturn: "It seems like a marketing spec, they have said nothing which would worry me".
So, is there room for another wireless standard? Nokia certainly thinks so, and says that while Zigbee and Z-Wave are aimed at home automation and industrial markets, Wibree has a different focus.
Quite what that focus is isn't clear. Nokia keeps citing the connected watches and shoes, as well as keyboards and mice, as its target market. But it seems unlikely that those constitute enough of a business to justify their own wireless standard. Most wireless mice and keyboards use proprietary protocols, but where a standard is needed then Bluetooth seems to do OK. Squeezing their market down to watches and shoes surely makes it insignificant, and ironic, as sales of watches are dropping because people use their phones to tell the time.
So we are left with a half-finished standard, addressing a tiny market which might not even exist, and the question of why Nokia chose to announce it now. Surely it would have been better to wait until the standard was completed, at least in draft form?
It seems Nokia is not entirely unaware of the challenges facing Wibree. It tells us the reason for the announcement was to allow other companies to sign up early, something Nokia will be urgently hoping some of them will do. ®


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The ABUS 64TI Series TITALIUM™ Padlocks are ideal for medium to high risk of theft, recommended for a wide range of security requirements. All models in this series have a paracentric keyway and chrome plated cylinder cores. Hardened steel shackle, 30mm and above, with NANO PROTECT™ shackle coating which assures security and high corrosion resistance.
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cherokeegirl on Family Tree Circles
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Looking for William Clarke,Virginia
Looking for any info about William Clarke born 1634 in England and died in 1713 Henrico County,Virginia. Need to know what happenened to a Indian boy named Robin that he owned. Trying to trace my Cherokee Ancestry.
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Dallas Buyers Club and Gravity were the toast of the 2014 Oscars on Sunday, but it was 12 Years A Slave which was named Best Picture on Hollywood's biggest night.
The Steve McQueen slave drama was a triple threat, also scoring Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o and Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley.
AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club served up a double win in the male acting categories with Matthew McConaughey earning his first Oscar for Best Actor and Jared Leto claiming Best Supporting Actor, while Cate Blanchett took home the Best Actress title for her star turn in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.
However, it was Gravity which scored the most wins of the night with seven, including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron and a string of technical awards.
The 86th annual ceremony was presented by Ellen DeGeneres and she opened the prestigious event by joking about the heavy rain which has lashed the usually-sunny state of California in the past few days, and poking fun at Jennifer Lawrence for her clumsy nature after she stumbled and fell to her knees on the red carpet as she arrived at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood – a year after she tripped up the stairs on the way to pick up her 2013 Best Actress Oscar.
Each of the nominations for Best Original Song were performed, but it was Frozen star Idina Menzel's rendition of Let It Go which earned husband and wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez the award.
Pop star Pink helped to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz by belting out Somewhere Over the Rainbow in front of Judy Garland's children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft, who were among the guests in the audience, and Bette Midler made her performance debut at the awards by singing Wind Beneath My Wings following the annual In Memoriam segment, which featured tributes to the likes of James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Karen Black, Paul Walker, Annette Funicello, Peter O'Toole, Richard Griffiths, Sid Caesar, Shirley Temple Black, Harold Ramis, film critic Roger Ebert and former Academy president Tom Sherak.
The full list of winners at the 2014 Oscars is:
Best Motion Picture of the Year:
12 Years A Slave
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave
Best Achievement in Directing:
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Best Writing, Original Screenplay:
Spike Jonze, Her
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay:
John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave
Best Animated Feature Film:
Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee & Peter Del Vecho
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:
The Great Beauty (Italy)
Best Achievement in Cinematography:
Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Achievement in Film Editing:
Gravity – Alfonso Cuaron & Mark Sanger
Best Achievement in Production Design:
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin & Beverley Dunn
Best Achievement in Costume Design:
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin
Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling:
Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee & Robin Mathews
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score:
Gravity – Steven Price
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song:
Let It Go from Frozen – Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing:
Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead & Chris Munro
Best Achievement in Sound Editing:
Gravity – Glenn Freemantle
Best Achievement in Visual Effects:
Gravity – Timothy Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk & Neil Corbould
Best Documentary, Feature:
Twenty Feet From Stardom – Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers
Best Documentary, Short Subject:
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Best Short Film, Animated:
Mr Hublot – Laurent Witz & Alexandre Espigares
Best Short Film, Live Action:
Helium – Anders Walter & Kim Magnusson
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:
Angelina Jolie.


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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) Billy Donovan has coached plenty of good defensive teams in his 17 seasons at Florida.
None of them quite like this.
The fourth-ranked Gators have been ridiculously stingy this season, especially in Southeastern Conference play.
Florida (17-2, 7-0 SEC) ranks second in the nation in scoring defense, giving up a paltry 50.4 points a game. The Gators have held 15 teams under 60 points, 11 under 50 and three under 40.
The latest defensive masterpiece came Wednesday night against South Carolina. In winning its ninth consecutive game, Florida allowed the program's fewest points (36) in conference play during the shot-clock era.
For an encore, the league's top scoring team, Mississippi visits Gainesville on Saturday to test Florida's defense.
The 16th-ranked Rebels (17-3, 6-1) are averaging 80 points a game and should provide a tough test for Florida's stout D.
No SEC team has really challenged the Gators so far. Florida has won seven games by an average of 28.3 points, looking like the class of the field in a watered-down league.
``We're just consistent,'' forward Will Yeguete said. ``We have a couple of breakdowns a game, but we stay consistent. We keep guarding teams every single time, possession after possession. ... It's good to say that you're a really good defensive team.''
Few Donovan-coached teams even compare.
The back-to-back national champions - the ones led by Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford and Joakim Noah - used to be considered Donovan's best defensive group. And the 1999-2000 team, which advanced to the NCAA final, had top-notch defenders in guard Justin Hamilton and forward Brent Wright.
But none of those teams had as much defensive depth as this year's unit.
Between guards Scottie Wilbekin and Kenny Boynton, swingman Casey Prather, Yeguete and center Pat Young, the Gators have five players who take as much pride in stops and steals as dunks and jumpers.
``When you're a kid growing up playing the game of basketball, or if you're a kid growing up playing the game of football, I can't imagine that many guys that want to go to the park today and play and say, `I'm not going to take my ball, but I'm going to do defensive slides for two hours. I'm going to work on running back in transition. I'm going to grab some people in the school yard to run me over and take charges,''' Donovan said. ``Those things that you're talking about doing are not things that are enjoyable.
``But I often find that the things that make teams successful are the players that have the desire to do the things that are uncomfortable.''
Making opponents uncomfortable starts with Wilbekin and Boynton, both aggressive, on-ball defenders who have the quickness and stamina to run the press, the length to affect perimeter shots and the kind of experience that makes it easy to get them on the same page.
Wilbekin kept Georgia's Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (season-low 11 points), Texas A&M's Elston Turner (4 points on 1-of-10 shooting) and Missouri's Phil Pressey (2 points, 10 turnovers) in check last month. And Boynton was equally effective the last two games against Mississippi State's Jalen Steele (scoreless) and South Carolina's Bruce Ellington (7 points on 2-of-9 shooting).
Maybe the most overlooked part of what Wilbekin and Boynton have done is how they have made everyone around them want to play better defense. Young, forward Erik Murphy and guard Mike Rosario are playing the best defense of their careers.
``It's contagious,'' Rosario said. ``We're all feeding off those guys and what they're doing in the press and on the defensive end.''
The Gators are motivated to keep it going, too.
They ended NCAA tournament runs the last two years by collapsing on the defensive end.
Florida was up 11 with about 8 minutes to play against Louisville last year, but managed just three points the rest of the way and lost 72-68. The 2010-11 season ended in similar fashion. The Gators led Butler by 11 points midway through the second half before faltering down the stretch and losing in overtime.
``This team has been to two Elite Eights and we've seen how a lack of defense will let a team back in a game,'' Boynton said. ``It's definitely a mental thing with us: we've been there before and we're not to let it happen again.''


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Judge Denies Defendant Employer's Motion for Summary Judgment
CHICAGO – A federal judge has affirmed the authority of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to proceed with actions on behalf of discrimination victims even if they had not yet been individually identified before lawsuit was filed, the agency announced today.
Judge Ruben Castillo of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has issued an order denying an employer's motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the federal agency under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (EEOC v. United Road Towing, N.D. Ill. No. 10-cv-06259; Order, 5/11/2012, J. Ruben Castillo.)
In its motion for summary judgment, the defendant employer contended that EEOC failed to satisfy the administrative requirements provided for by the ADA. Under the law, before filing a lawsuit, the EEOC must investigate allegations of discrimination to determine whether there is probable cause to find that there has been a violation and, thereafter, attempt to resolve any violations found through a negotiation and conciliation process. Specifically, the company argued that EEOC failed to specifically identify class members who suffered discrimination, failed to individually investigate the experiences of unidentified class members, and failed to engage in the statutory conciliation process on an individual basis with respect to each class member separately.
In its opinion, the district court rejected these arguments, declining to judicially review the adequacy of the EEOC's administrative processes, including investigations and conciliations. Relying on existing case law precedent, Judge Castillo wrote, "[C]ourts may not review EEOC administrative investigations to determine whether a particular investigation sufficiently supports the claims that the EEOC brings in a subsequent lawsuit."
The court also rejected the argument that EEOC had failed to conciliate in good faith by not specifically identifying class members during conciliation. The court noted that the EEOC had communicated to the defendant that it found reasonable cause to believe that the law had been violated with respect to a class of disabled individuals. Accordingly, the court found that the defendant was aware, or should have been aware, that conciliation efforts encompassed class members. Finding summary judgment was not warranted, the district court said that it would "nevertheless" stay proceedings in the case for 14 days to afford the parties an additional to time to reach a negotiated resolution. The EEOC noted that such stays are routine in such cases, and indicated that it did not object to additional time for negotiations.
"The EEOC takes seriously its statutory duty to investigate and attempt conciliation ofcharges prior to filing suit, and believes it fully satisfied both duties in this case," said EEOC General Counsel P. David Lopez."We are pleased that Judge Castillorejected the defendant's invitation to scrutinize the sufficiency of the EEOC's investigation. This ruling follows the well-established view that a judicial inquiry into EEOC's investigative process is improper because it deflects the efforts of the court and the parties from the main purpose of the case - to determine whether the defendant violated the law.We are likewise pleased that the judge agreed that our conciliation effortswere sufficient to seek relief for all victims in this case."
The EEOC Chicago District Office is responsible for processing discrimination charges, administrative enforcement and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North and South Dakota, with Area Offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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The mission of Onslow Caregivers, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is to assure that patients in home health care and hospice programs in Jacksonville/Onslow County do not suffer additionally because they cannot obtain needed services, support or materials such as food, medicine, transportation, shelter and additional medical special needs.
To the editor:
The mission of Onslow Caregivers, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is to assure that patients in home health care and hospice programs in Jacksonville/Onslow County do not suffer additionally because they cannot obtain needed services, support or materials such as food, medicine, transportation, shelter and additional medical special needs.
We are an all-volunteer organization that helps with any of these unmet needs for these patients. As the home health workers care for their patients, they observe these significant needs. The unmet needs are provided by funds raised at the Festival of Trees.
The Festival of Trees, Onslow Caregivers annual and main fundraiser, is such a wonderful event now in its 11th year. We could not have accomplished it without our giving community here in Jacksonville and Onslow County.
The Onslow Caregivers is a group of faithful volunteer community members working all year planning and coordinating all aspects of the festival, selling the Christmas trees, collecting thousands of items for the silent auction, country store, bake shop, gingerbread house and door prizes. There is arranging for ongoing entertainment, contacting schools for hundreds of children to attend, contacting community groups, churches, military service members, getting out our stories by news media, area business people and government organizations for the event displays and signing up festival volunteers.
The Festival of Trees renews my faith every year as to how much our community cares for their neighbors. It is just a $2 donation to experience a true heart-warming �Winter Wonderland� of over 65 decorated Christmas trees, Santa, children�s activities, an old-time quilt display, a unique silent auction, homemade sweets, holiday gifts to purchase made by local artist and crafters, fantastic entertainment, the ongoing salute to our military and so much more.
New this year is the Council for the Arts �We Little Tree� contest. There is a precious pride in the help from all the individuals, businesses, churches, private and government agencies, volunteer groups, schools, civic organizations and the military community that is so deeply woven into this special community. They make this festival happen each year.
We are starting in January, 2014, on our plans to have a Hospice House in Onslow County. Yes, Martha Jacob, there is a Santa Clause for your dream of a community Hospice House.
The Festival of Trees symbolizes the positive strength of goodness in our coastal area and is now an annual tradition being the sweetest holiday event for all of us � eagerly anticipated by young and old. It is a festival of �comfort and joy� for those we help; so join us in this Christmas celebration on Saturday, Nov. 23, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 24, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., at the American Legion Building (fairgrounds). Nov. 25 is school-children�s day by making reservations for classes to attend. Thank you for caring about your neighbors and have the most wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Come to see and feel the real Christmas spirit of sharing with our neighbors.
For more information, call volunteer festival coordinators: Jean Cole at 910-324-1650, Terry Jarman at 910-389-6220 and Victoria Bourg at 910-750-5166.
Jean Cole


text: Hey all! I don't know if anyone remembers me, but I was around a bit a couple of years ago. I just moved back into the area for a while and getting back into geocaching while I'm at it. :) It's really exciting to see all the new caches in the area. I'm especially liking all the ones on the Rotary Trail in Benton. Hoping to get to those next week. Anyway, not sure how much talking I'll do (always more of a lurker), but maybe I'll see some of you around.


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This last Friday of August 2009 marks the final post of my third stint with GetReligion. I am grateful for each of my excursions with GetReligion since February 2003, and I thank my longtime friend Terry Mattingly for making each one possible. I have made new friends among this blog's readers. GetReligion has helped me adapt my style, shaped by roughly 20 years in print journalism, to the rowdier medium of the blogosphere. I will miss my colleagues, but I am eager to return to full-time work on the Godbeat. A reporter who is not reporting tends to be fidgety and neurotic, and I am already neurotic enough about plenty of other things.
My new work will be with The Living Church, a magazine that has covered the Episcopal Church since 1878. I am thankful for this opportunity to join TLC in promoting and supporting Catholic Anglicanism within the Episcopal Church. I have written freelance articles for TLC for more than 15 years. Some years, especially those involving the Episcopal Church's trienniel General Convention, have kept me busier than others. TLC is based in Milwaukee, but I will remain in Virginia. Thus my new job title, which I requested: editor at large. It reflects my geographical distance, and it is lighthearted.
I have engaged in a lover's quarrel with the Episcopal Church since the late 1980s, when I began feeling tensions between my understanding of the gospel and my church's public image of finding a middle way in all things, including ethics and theology. Through much of the 1990s, this quarrel kept me in a place of anger.
Since then, I have found a deeper affection for the church that formed me from my earliest days as an acolyte. I have a renewed love for interviewing other Episcopalians, across the church's theological spectrum, about what they believe and how they live in light of those beliefs.
My work now seems less like reporting a war and more like chronicling an impassioned, protracted family argument. (Yes, this thought occurred to me before I read Lisa Miller's similar comparison in Newsweek.) My church family reminds me, in its lighter moments, of the Castorinis in Moonstruck: One minute we're yelling at each other operatically, and the next we're eating together.
In these days of shrinking news pages, widespread layoffs in newsrooms and imperiled metropolitan dailies, it's a remarkable gift to be paid to write about something I love so deeply. I had better get on with it.


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This Is Why You Always Knock
Remember that time when you were six and you accidentally opened the bathroom door without knocking first and then you saw your grandmother naked and there was lots of screaming and then you whimpered yourself to sleep for the next few weeks?
This is kind of like that.
Now I know what you're thinking: "That looks a little like 'Merry Ghristmas.'"
You're right, and we've trained you well.
There are a few other things worth noting:
Like the empty bottle of XXX booze.
Or the little sack of "toys."
Or Santa rubbing Rudolph's hoof.
Or Rudolph splayed drunkenly across the bed with a towel covering his twigs and berries. His bells and clapper. His partridge in a pear tree? His one horse open sleigh. His...ok, you get the idea.
Or - in case you missed it - Santa rubbing Rudolph's hoof.
Or the fact that Rudolph CLEARLY had a cigarette in his mouth that has since been removed.
Now, originally John and I tried to write some dialogue for this scene, but then the word "coitus" came up and I knew we just couldn't do it, so to speak. So I leave it to you, my sweet, snarky wrecktators: Write us your best caption for this scene and we'll send our top three favorites a signed copy of Wreck The Halls for Christmas. Good luck, and do try to keep it "clean." ;)
Thanks to Lisa D., who will never be able to look
my grandmother Santa in the eye again.
Update! After reading through more than 500 comments, I am now thoroughly uncomfortable. And I think I need a shower. Here are the winners:
"And that was when Santa realized that he should probably stop taking his work home with him."
"Santa's 2012 presidential hopes dashed as secret 'reindeer games' are uncovered. 'It was all consensual,' claims Santa."
"Um, Santa? I fly everywhere. So I'm thinking this hoof rubbing is more for your enjoyment than mine?"
Congrats to our winners and thanks for playing!


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Leading Events In The Gaiscioch Family
How to Claim Leadership Tutorial
Leadership is one of the most critical aspects of having a successful community. You can have thousands of people involved but unless there are activities to participate in the crowd will grow restless. Leaders come in many varieties. Some don't think they have what it takes to lead, but lead very well. Some have lead in the past and know how to encourage and motivate people to better themselves. Others demand respect and try to force their way into the leadership seat. Our family is designed to keep the self proclaimed leaders out of the leadership seat.
Leading is not about telling people what to do or how to do it. It's not about being a dictator. It's about encouraging & motivating people to better themselves. It's about building confidence in your troops, building morale, and most importantly fostering healthy relationships among your followers. The Gaisicoch family is all about building memories and friendships. That is our end game goal in whatever it is we are doing. Leaders within our family must be calm under pressure, be the rock for all to lead on, show confidence in their decisions and stick by them even when things go bad. They must never push blame on others, never belittle those who follow and always be accountable for their choices.
Being a leader is not for everyone. It takes a great deal of patience and perseverance. However those that do lead will find greater glory within the Gaiscioch Family. We honor those who make things happen, who spend their nights and weekends planning activities not only for our family but for our community as a whole. It is a highly encouraged practice to involve the server community in anything we do. The Gaiscioch family recruits by action, not words. Therefore our only way of finding new members is through our community involvement and leadership.
Taking this all into consideration there are several systems in place to help monitor and guide leaders to greater victories. There are 20 Valor Ranks that can be obtained through leading and coleading events within the family, there are 10 warlord ranks which allow you to take on tougher foes, and there is the Tokens of Valor which you will earn from your peers that act as their endorsement of your leadership skills.
The Valor Ranks
Objective Valor Point Values
Information for members of the Gaiscioch & Tuatha.


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The Knitter's Book of Yarn
$30.00 $22.49 25% off
Clara Parkes, publisher of KnittersReview.com, has written this book in order to turn knitters into "yarn whisperers" - people who can pick up a skein of yarn, examine the twist and the fibers it contains, and naturally understand what it wants to be. Clara starts off with a section on fiber foundations in which she examines protein, cellulose, cellulosic and synthetic fibers at the microscopic level, explaining the characteristics of each fiber and how to evaluate quality. She covers dyeing, spinning methods and plying. For each type of yarn construction, whether it be single, two-ply, three-ply, four-ply, cabled, textured, boucle, brushed or chenille, Clara asked some of the most creative and inquisitive minds in the knitting world to design an assortment of patterns to let you see and play with that type of yarn to experience its behavioral tendencies. There are hats, gloves and mittens, socks, bags, shawls and several tops – pullovers and cardigans. Knowing what you'll know after reading Clara's book will enable you to substitute yarns with impunity for whatever pattern you choose.
Item no. 30962
Sorry, this item is currently not available for purchase.
Author: Clara Parkes
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 40 projects—255 pages
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 40 projects—255 pages


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Dog Bites Car
It was a great northeastern Nevada Autumn day and the Quaking Aspen had turned gold up north in Columbia Basin. The trip was Dale Porter's idea. With his wife, Celeste, and the Hicksons, Terry and Howard, he drove north from Elko on the Mountain City Highway. We had everything we needed - lunches, binoculars, and cameras.
A few miles past North Fork we turned west and there was the start of countless explosions of gold, red, and green splashed on the mountainsides. Each turn in the road revealed another breathtaking landscape. We did a lot of oooing and ahhhing. We also do this during the spectacular fireworks shows in Elko on Independence Day. Mile after mile, nature put on a magnificent performance for us. Why am I trying to describe the colors with words? Can't be done. You have to go and see for yourself.
We had lunch in a campground near Jack Creek then continued down the canyon and turned right toward Deep Creek and headed back east on the Trail Creek Road. Remember now, out here a creek is called a crick.
Driving over a hill, sheep suddenly surrounded us. It was almost gridlock until one of them saw us and took off. Well, you know sheep. They all scampered away while we looked at a sea of sheep rumps.
A mile or so down the road we saw sheep pens, livestock trucks, and several men. The pens were packed with sheep waiting for transportation to winter grazing grounds. We waved as we drove by.
Then it happened. Two white sheep dogs jumped a fence near the road and took off after us. Barking and snarling, they tried to jump on the car. We rolled up the windows. The dog at the back wasn't about to give up until Dale put the pedal to the metal. Both dogs, finally tired, reluctantly stopped on the edge of the road, tongues hanging out and breathing hard.
Naturally, we commented about the dogs. None of us had seen such a savage attack on a vehicle before. Most the time, when a dog chases a car it's all noise. The incident quickly was forgotten while we drove on continuing to admire the Quakies.
Continuing on Trail Creek Road, we stopped to look at the "Auto Parts Gang" which in itself is worth the drive. They're a bunch of sculptures made of pipe, tractor seats, metal drums and other miscellaneous parts, nuts and bolts. They're a hoot.
Late in the afternoon, back in Elko, we were unloading and saw several teeth scratches on the SUV. One had punctured plastic side molding, leaving a large bitemark. If a car could bleed there would have been a mess on the driveway. Dale didn't call his auto insurance agent - it would've been too hard to explain.
Photographs by the author.
©Copyright 2006 by Howard Hickson


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There were atleast two items that had been swapped. The below multipack (the sharp-eyed might be able to catch that those are not infact Clone Troopers.... ). Also swapped was an old Obi-Wan for one of the Obi-Wan Saga Legends. I took both up to the front desk and explained how the figures in the package weren't the correct items and that clearly someone had bought, swapped and returned them.
How the hell do figures that old still exist in WM's system?
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Common Causes of Tummy Aches in Children
Common Causes of Tummy Aches in Children from Tummy Calm is guide for all parents, because all kids get unexplained stomach aches at some point. The infographic does a good job of clearly walking the audience through the potential symptoms, causes and remedies.
A tummy ache can be a frustrating symptom to understand in small children. While it's a common problem, there are a wide variety of potential causes. This infographic reviews many potential causes of stomach ache and offers pros and cons to potential remedies.
Designed by InfoNewt, this infographic is much more visual explanation and less data visualization. Health-related topics are also designs that you need to be careful with. You want to provide good information to the audience, but you don't want to be interpretted as advising medical care. The design was carefully worded to be helpful to parents, but also reviewed by a pediatrician to make sure the information presented didn't cross the line into providing medical advice.


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Friend's Email:
Subject: I have found a DVD that I think you would enjoy
|Top Gun
Actors: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt
Director: Tony Scott
Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama
PG 2007 1hr 50min
Top Gun takes a look at the danger and excitement that awaits every pilot at the Navy's prestigious fighter weapons school. Tom Cruise is superb as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a daring young flyer who's out to become the bes... more »
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Movie Reviews
I demand re-release of this dvd.
Freddy | los angeles, usa | 01/28/2000
(2 out of 5 stars)
"4:3 ratio screen is very good transfer. However, wide-screen isn't really wide screen. it's a 4:3 screen chopped off from top and bottom. in other word, instead of having a whole theatrical picture, what you get is picture that's been chopped up both vertical and horizontally. what we are seeing is only 1/3 of what's filmed, which is even smaller than 4:3. somebody cheated big time from paramount. setup menu is false leading. I want to see entire wing span on F-14! It does make huge difference on impact in fighting scene. movie this good must be done right. and while at it, make it a anamorphic enhanced."
Nix Pix | Windsor, Ontario, Canada | 12/08/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Top Gun" is the mach ten 80s mega hit that set theatre attendance on fire and established producer Jerry Bruckheimer and actor Tom Cruise as two of Hollywood's king size titans, behind and in front of the camera. All about a military flight school run for `the best of the best,' the film stars Cruise as Lt. Pete Maverick Mitchell. Pete's too sexy for his leather bomber jacket and he knows it. He's also short on pleasantries when it comes to wooing the femme fatale of the friendly skies, Charlotte `Charlie' Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). But high flying maneuvers between Pete and Charlie quickly move from the school room to the bedroom. Then tragedy strikes and Pete has to pull it together to prove himself as the hero of the hour. Val Kilmer costars as Pete's annoying and priggish rival for the top honors; Tom `Iceman' Kazanski. The cast also includes Tom Skeritt, Michael Ironside and Anthony Edwards.
What sets "Top Gun" apart from similar military film fare of the 80s is its ability to combine a sense of the miraculous within the gritty world of tougher than tough obstacles. The dog fight footage is thrilling and the plot moves effortlessly from drama, to melodrama, to action/adventure yarn on testosterone overdrive. There's even a shirtless eye candy volleyball tournament thrown in, with the guys doing their machismo best to ignite interest in the female population. However, the soundtrack album, which fueled the film's high octane performance at the box office, now seems to have dated at twice the rate of any other from the 80s - save `Dirty Dancing.' Kenny Loggins' `Playin' With The Boys' and Tina Marie's `Lead Me On' have that faint tinny echo of a forgotten pop culture where hoop earrings and big hair were synonymous with wacky-tacky red carpet glamour. Berlin's `Take My Breath Away' does anything but.
After the disastrous effort put forth on Paramount's `Footloose' special editon, I didn't hold out much hope for this transfer either. However, "Top Gun's" anamorphically enhanced transfer is remarkably clean and solid. Color saturation is very nicely rendered with velvety blacks and very pristine whites. Occasionally one will note a slight hint of film grain. There are no digital anomalies (edge enhancement, pixelization, shimmering of fine details) for a smooth video presentation that is sure to please. The audio has been remixed but continues to exhibit that dated 80s quality that is best left to nostalgia for a time when sound wasn't quite so integral to one's overall appreciation of movie culture. Extras include an audio commentary that is adequate at best. There's also a 6 part documentary that really should have been played as one big one, four music videos which will confound people as to why MTV became so big, and some storyboards, production materials and vintage featurettes. So set your DVD player to `cruise' control and get ready to set off for the wild blue yonder. "Top Gun" is a blast!
Brandon Toy | Northridge, CA | 02/18/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Top Gun never claims to have epic scope, emotional gravitas, or a deep plot. I imagine that those who criticize this movie for its supposed shortcomings also look upon the Three Stooges with disgust for not exploring the depth of Moe's antagonistic relationship with Curly. The fact is that only about 10% of films released in general circulation attempt to have the depth of a Citizen Kane or Godfather. Among the other 90%, Top Gun is the best of the best.
Top Gun's obvious strength is the aerial visuals. Not since perhaps Howard Hughes' Jet Pilot has there been such an ambitious attempt to capture the look and feel of high performance flight. The F-14's photogenic qualities combine with Tony Scott's signature backlighting to create a terrific sense of energy and screen presence for the Grumman bird. The tactical realism may suffer, but the tight spacing and resulting packed frames of the ACM sequqnces are uniquely energetic and fast-paced. It is a shame that this may be the last time that anyone goes to the expense and hassle of using real film to capture such manuevers. The footage still compares favorably to state of the art CGI 20 years after its release.
The non-flying scenes are remarkable only for the collection of young talent that would eventually drive box office returns for a good part of the '90s. But the greatest compliment I could give the plot and acting is that they don't detract from the pacing and cohesiveness of a visually-driven movie.
*RE: Review Title- OK3 is the best grade possible for US Navy pilots performing carrier landings."
Great sound, poor video
L. Baker | Los Angeles, CA USA | 12/27/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Well, this was really a mixed bag for me. Top Gun was always one of my favorite movies growing up, and I've owned it on VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. The lack of aspect ratio information on the box is quite telling, as there is no TRUE widescreen - all video is letterboxed, even on a 16:9 HD LCD TV. The "widescreen" is simply a cropped version of the full screen edition, with black bars. This was very disappointing to me, as I was hoping for some full 1080 F-14 action.
That said, the EXCELLENT DTS 6.1 sound track nearly makes up for the visuals. The encoding seems theater-pure, and is one of the best BD audio tracks I've heard. It's really astonishing how defined the audio is, especially the spatial effects and rumble during the flying sequences. Simply superb audio.
Hopefully, Paramount can dig up a better quality version of the master and give us a TRUE widescreen, full HD experience for Top Gun. Until then, this is the best that we've got."


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Ken MacLeish, assistant professor of medicine, health, and society at Vanderbilt University and author of Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community, recently did an interview with the New Books Network about his book, which offers an illuminating look at war through the daily lives of the people whose job it is to produce it.
Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world, and many of the 55,000 personnel based there have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. MacLeish provides intimate portraits of Fort Hood's soldiers and those closest to them, drawing on numerous in-depth interviews and diverse ethnographic material.
The full interview can be found here on the New Books Network website by clicking on the "Play" button in the bottom left corner.
Don't forget to check out the Making War at Fort Hood Facebook Page.