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10 Wildly Inappropriate Come-On Cakes
NOTE: No, really, these are wildly inappropriate. Not safe for kids! (Work should be fine, though.)
And now...
10 Wildly Inappropriate Pick-Up Lines
for International Flirting Week
Looking for love this month? Then why not try baiting your love hook (ew) with cake?
Punny and to the point. Best of all: No horsing around!
Admittedly, this will only work for half of you.
If you don't have access to cake, you could always write up one of those cute "love coupons."
So many jokes, so many relatives reading this blog.
(Hi, Mom!)
Just remember to keep it clean.
Awwww YEAH. Good times, indeed.
Maybe you don't want your cake to do all the talking, though. Maybe you just want it to be more of a conversation starter. You know, like this:
"You down with it?" [eyebrow waggle]
"Who likes oysters?!"
"Welcome... TO THE GUN SHOW."
Or if you really want to impress, try a quick serenade:
"Oh let me be... YOUR TEDDY BEAR."
And as a last resort, remember: sometimes bribery can work wonders.
"FREE MUSTACHE RI.. [noticing children in the room]... er ... slices!"
"And hey, just so you know: I come with free balloons."
Clean-up on aisle MY MIND, please. [shudder]
Thanks to Allison H., Cortney K., Michelle M., JM, Lauren E., Johnny D., Rosebud, Lara K., Lauren G., & Cat for the pick-me-ups.
Thank you for using our Amazon links to shop! USA, UK, Canada.


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Wanted: a restaurant with good food, dim lighting, a table in the back with a long tablecloth… and inattentive service so my boyfriend can attempt to give me a Big O without the waiter realizing it.
But alas, when one searches for this on Google Maps, nothing comes up. So after pounding the pavement for one week straight, D. and I finally found a restaurant with so-so food, dim lighting, and a table in the back… unfortunately without a long tablecloth.
It wasn't perfect, but I had to complete the challenge. Who knew that of all the things Cosmo has tasked me with, this would be one of the most difficult?
In preparation for the evening, I had put on a loose mini dress and gone commando. I had also packed something in my bag. A "cleansing" wipe. New York City heatwave + traipsing around said city sans skivvies = the need for a cleansing wipe.
After sitting down in a booth in the back, D. and I sussed out our surroundings. If we sat on the same side of the booth and he sort of leaned forward and lifted his legs a little, he could get a hand between my legs without anyone noticing (fingers crossed). I hit the bathroom, got myself in tip-top shape then walked back to the table, taking in the view. Yikes, people would see. Not necessarily my business. But that funny business was happening.
I relayed this to D.
"If there were no chance of being caught, it wouldn't be interesting," he said.
"You're finger blasting me in a crowded restaurant in Manhattan. I don't think we need the entire clientele watching to make this interesting."
But he had a point. The idea was that we could get caught at any moment. That's supposed to make it extra-hot, right?
We ordered drinks, I chugged half of mine, and turned to D. "Let's do this."
He let out a little squeal and I immediately chastised him for making a scene. D. promised to keep a straight face and even used his left hand to pick up his drink while his right hand reached for my thigh. As soon as he got under my skirt and was touching my upper thigh, I giggled. Loudly. The booth in front of us turned around. Whoooops.
After I calmed myself down, D. tried again. I strategically placed my napkin over the area, he hiked my dress up and went for it.
He jabbed his hand in the general right direction, but kept hitting the area above my clitoris.
"Enough meetings on my mound," I said. "Move an inch south."
I'm pretty sure the granny two tables away knew exactly what I was talking about. But she seemed to approve.
D. contorted his hand and managed to get to the bullseye. And ladies, let me tell you, I got turned on right away. I didn't expect to since I had been so nervous and wired. He rubbed my button using two fingers and since I couldn't make a peep, I just put on this goofy grin while trying to look really busy with other things. Nothing going on here. Just taking a sip of my wine. Why, no, my boyfriend's hand is not up my skirt, I'm simply eating a forkful of salad like one does at a restaurant.
And then suddenly our lovely server was coming at us.
"Stopstopstopstopserveriscomingserveriscomingserveriscoming," I said, panicked.
"Well, that wasn't my goal. But I'm glad someone is."
D. slid his hand back to his own lap. I don't think the server noticed.
This happened, oh, four more times, and I became convinced—conspiracy theory style—that the entire restaurant staff knew what was going on. I swore the busboy was smirking at us, I was sure the chef who came out to talk to the hostess only did so to get a look at my spread knees, and I would have put money on the fact that our server was texting the rest of the people in the kitchen, "U have to come see this!"
We decided to wait till our main course was served to avoid being caught red-handed again. Once our dishes were on the table, I leaned back in the booth and spread my legs slightly. D. came up with a totally new manual stimulation technique: his palm is facing down and he makes a loose fist so that his knuckles are aimed at me. He spreads the knuckles on his pointer and middle finger a fraction of an inch and places them around my clitoris. He rubs up and down and side to side. (I don't know if you can imagine it, but the parts of those two fingers below the knuckle were laying flat against my labia as he worked my button.) Ah. Mah. Zing. It felt really different than when he uses the tips of his fingers, plus he also covered so much more ground.
Unfortch, our server was way too attentive for D. to bring me to climax. (If you try this challenge, go to a restaurant where the server will leave you alone for 20 minutes.) But as soon as D. and I got back to my apartment, he threw me down on the bed, lifted up my dress completely and went to town. I was so primed from all of that foreplay that I orgasmed in what might have been record time. I attribute it to him using his patented new move—I've been referring to it as the Knuckle Ball, but that feels utterly unsexy. Any ideas for a better name?

subset: commoncrawl


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Barack Obama has never had a military uniform on his back. Joe Biden manipulated by deferrals to avoid the draft. Now I ask you, are these two qualified to order young Americans into a Civil War in a foreign nation between two Muslim factions? No.
So what do they do? They sent turn coat John Kerry to Congress to ask permission to go to war even though Obama claims he does not need their permission. The reason for this action is to have someone to blame when it all goes wrong.
This is the same John who went before Congress when he returned from cruising on a river boat in Vietnam to squeal on his fellow veterans. He claimed they extorted torture own citizens such as cut off ears, cut off arms, attached electric wires to their gentitals. raped women, etc. All the other veterans denied all of his accusations.
Can anyone understand how this gang of misfits took control of our great country and are now in the process of destroying it. Obama promised to pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan on day one in the Oval Office and to close Gitmo. Remember?


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The U.S. neighbor's aggressive pursuit of aerospace manufacturing is paying off
In the past decade, Mexico's welcome mat for the aerospace establishment has found an industry eager to manufacture ŌĆ£south of the border.ŌĆØ
The obvious attraction is Mexico's lower wage-structure: some say that in Mexico manufacturers pay a tenth of what equivalent assembly jobs cost in the U.S.; others cite a differential of about a third from what is paid in Europe. This discrepancy is best explained by the costs of different skill levels, and by a hesitancy to be too specific on a subject that raises political hackles back home.
But lower wages tell only part of the story for why Mexico, a nation of 115 million, now counts 270 aerospace factories within its borders. On national and state levels, the country is aggressively pursuing ŌĆ£high-techŌĆØ aerospace jobs as part of a broadening of its industrial base beyond automobiles and electronics, for which it is already a major producer. U.S. shoppers may think of Mexico mainly in terms of summer vegetables in the winter, but the World Bank reports that industrial products account for 90% of its export earnings. The bank ranks Mexico as the world's 13th largest economy in nominal terms and No. 11 in purchasing power. ŌĆ£Hecho en MexicoŌĆØŌĆöMade in MexicoŌĆöis more common everywhere, including in aerospace.
The aerospace influx has not happened overnight. Its roots date to the mid-1970s when U.S. companies, a mix of multinationals and lower-tier suppliers, began sending basic parts manufacturing and assembly tasks across the border, mostly to border towns like Tijuana and Mexicali but also deeper into the country to cities like Monterrey. Service operations followed, as did company research activities.
However, it has been in the past decade that Mexico's aerospace manufacturing growth has mushroomed. Political reform led it to pursue a global free trade agenda vigorously and its 1994 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) benefitted Mexico greatly. Still, it took about a decade for the aerospace sector to take off. Until 2004, growth was scattered, says Queretaro state Gov. Jose Calzada. Not anymore. ŌĆ£We've seen incredible changes in just the last five years,ŌĆØ he says.
The boom times are a testament to Mexico's geography, its embrace of free trade and adoption of legal mechanisms that provide a ŌĆ£soft landingŌĆØ for foreign-owned factories. Local leaders clear red tape and amaze U.S. and European executives at how quickly they can put up factories. A typical response comes from Peter Huij, a senior Fokker Aerostructures executive in Chihuahua, about how quickly the company went from bare earth in May 2011 to a completed 75,000-sq.-ft. factory in November: ŌĆ£It would be impossible in Europe.ŌĆØ
Behind all of this is Mexico's Maquiladora factory system for supporting foreign companies, which allows them to control their own destiny, importing raw materials such as aerospace-quality alloys, or wiring and then exporting the finished product tax-free. Foreign manufacturers commonly turn to a large service providerŌĆöIntermex and American Industries Group are leaders for the aerospace sectorŌĆöthat lease buildings to their clients and handle their human resources, tax and other business needs under Mexican law. About 80% of the aerospace companies in Mexico use such services. Of the 36 Maquiladoras registered by the Mexican government last year, six were in aerospace, including a GKN Aerospace plant in Mexicali, Latecoere in Hermosillo, coatings specialist Ellison Surface Technologies and Rolls-Royce turbine supplier JJ Churchill in Guaymas and a fourth division for Zodiac in Chihuahua.
Under the Maquiladora system, Mexico allows resident foreign companies to control 100% of their businesses. They do not face the ŌĆ£local partnerŌĆØ rules so common elsewhere that limit foreigners to a maximum 49% share.
ŌĆ£They make it easy for you to do business down here,ŌĆØ says John Gardner, strategic program manager at Kaman Aerostructures, another newcomer in Chihuahua. ŌĆ£They provide a 'soft landing,' to get a quick startupŌĆöa good startup. We got a lot of support up front and afterward.ŌĆØ
Besides lower costs, the business case for going abroad is often a need to penetrate a particular market. That is particularly true in China but is far less meaningful in Mexico for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Eurocopter is an exception. The French-German company says the country is a prize sales territory. ŌĆ£It's the most promising economy in the region, perhaps better than Brazil, says President/CEO Lutz Bertling, naming Eurocopter's other hot new growth market in New World sales. Eurocopter opened a $100 million, 130,000-sq.- ft. factory in Queretaro in February as an offset for a large Mexican military purchase. Making such ŌĆ£proximityŌĆØ manufacturing investments is ŌĆ£part of our DNA,ŌĆØ he says.
But for most, tapping into Mexico as a sales market is less important than the country's geography, trade policy and political and economic stability. ŌĆ£Our main reasons for being here are, number one, to be close to the U.S. market and number two, to be close to the U.S. dollar market,ŌĆØ says Stephane Lauret, Safran's national executive for Mexico and South America. The Mexican peso is pegged to the U.S. dollar, giving Europeans a currency hedge against the Euro. Nafta allows Safran to operate in a low-wage environment with access to the U.S. market. About 80% of everything Safran makes in Mexico, from Labinal's 787 wiring harnesses and Messier-Bugatti-Dowty landing gear to Snecma's CFM56-7B low-pressure compressors, is shipped across the U.S. border.
There is another, more subtle, reason why Mexico's star is rising. As they search for industrial development opportunities, the country's leaders emphasize their goal is for Mexico to become a key player in aerospace's global supply chain. The message is not new, they have followed it for yearsŌĆöand succeededŌĆöas automotive assemblers. However, what is not on the political agenda is a national aspiration to begin competing in aircraft, engine and major systems development or manufacturing. Of course, national ambitions are subject to change, but Mexico's focus on the valued-supplier role plays well with manufacturers concerned about the security of their intellectual property (IP) when they work in markets such as China, where a well-financed state agenda of competing with Western OEMs has been announced.
Besides IP protection, there are other benefits to this good-supplier attitude. Mexican workers are widely praised for their eagerness to meet their employers' standards. ŌĆ£Mexican workers want to learn the U.S. way,ŌĆØ says Alfred Espirio, senior vice president of international finance for General Electric in Mexico. ŌĆ£In China and India, they want you to do it their way.ŌĆØ
Mexico's aerospace industrial growth has followed a classic leader-follower pattern. Safran's first push was 25 years ago in Reynosa making electronics for cars. The company wanted to see how things went. Its first big aerospace bet was placed in 1998 when Labinal bought a General Dynamics wire harness factory in Chihuahua as part of a broader push in North America for Boeing contracts. Largely because of Labinal in Chihuahua, Mexico has become Safran's third largest industrial base, behind France and the U.S.
But no one can reserve Mexico exclusively for themselves. Labinal's biggest competitor, Latecoere, says it will build a factory in Hermosillo, Sonora's capital, that will employ 400 by 2015 to make harnesses through its LATelec subsidiary. However, the factory's output will be more diverse than Labinal's; it also is to produce transport passenger doors.
Westinghouse and Honeywell were the first U.S. companies to arrive in Chihuahua, making components for the defense industry in the 1970s. The mountainous city has a farming, mining and automotive supply background with touches of the U.S.ŌĆöHome Depot, Starbucks, Sam's Club. There also are 32 aerospace factories scattered across it in industrial parks, some neighboring car factories, and others for consumer electronics, such as China's giant Foxconn. Most of the aerospace activity has arrived since 2007 and the city has established itself as headquarters for general, business and rotorcraft manufacturing dominated by U.S. concerns, including MD Helicopters, Bell Helicopters, Cessna and Beechcraft.
The leader-follower rule is even stronger in Santiago de Queretaro. The capital city is about 140 mi. north of Mexico City and came to aerospace later than areas along the U.S. border. Its lifestyle, with an old town filled with cafes and historic churches, is especially appealing to Europeans. Observers of the progress of Mexico's aerospace industry count Bombardier's 2006 decision to locate in Queretaro as the start of the influx by other big companies, whether OEMs or major suppliers. In Queretaro alone, Meggitt, CFM, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, Precision Castparts, AE Petsche, Aernnova and Eurocopter have all taken up residence near Bombardier.
Baja California and Sonora are centers for parts shops and actually have bigger company rosters than Chihuahua or Queretaro. Baja's output covers a variety of engine, airframe and interiors supplier functions. Sonora is known as an aero-engines supply center.
Of the roughly 270 aerospace companies currently in Mexico, 79% are in manufacturing, 11% in maintenance, repair and overhaul and 10% in development and engineering, says Vladimiro de la Mora, president of the Mexican Federation of Aerospace Industries (Femia).
Femia's goals are to see the country rank among global aerospace's top 10 supplier nations by 2020; it is now ranks 15th. The federation wants exports of $12 billion a year by then, with half their value coming from local content, and employment of 110,000 workers. Employment is now more than 34,000 and exports are worth $4.5 billion.
Although Mexico's aero business is booming, it is riding a wave of global demand dictated by others. It will live and die by how well U.S., Canadian and European OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers fare. But its factories also can be the tail that wags the dog. In February, Bombardier announced a six-month delay in first delivery of the Lear 85 because of technical challenges with its all-composite airframe, manufactured in Queretaro. These problems have now been overcome, the company says.
In Mexico, plant managers see a national industry in its infancy, still learning the basics but with an eager workforce. ŌĆ£The numbers tell us we are attractive now,ŌĆØ says Kaman Aerostructures plant manager Francisco Meza in Chihuahua. ŌĆ£What I would say is that the industry is not mature enough. One of my major challenges is to make this business more innovative, to introduce more lean.ŌĆØ
Bombardier's director of strategy and international business development, Vice President Michael McAdoo, watches the wage and skill-set forces at work in Mexico closely. His job involves tracking costs and managing capacity for Bombardier's global supplier network. He sees a narrowing cost gap between Mexico and China. China still wins on costs but Mexico has advantages in terms of education, investment climate and infrastructure.
Mexico is ŌĆ£assembling forces for expansion,ŌĆØ he says. ŌĆ£It wants to move into higher value-added activities.ŌĆØ The question is how much it can expand, and how quickly.
Soon after the Queretaro factory opened, Bombardier pulled work into it from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a tradeoff McAdoo characterizes as common with a long-time partner. But even as Mexico becomes more attractive, Bombardier continuously evaluates other locations for its supply chain. New on the list is Casablanca, Morocco.
The question of whether low-cost Mexico is taking jobs from U.S. and European workers is a sensitive one, especially for Americans. Many U.S. OEMs declined to comment on this issue.
Old-fashioned labor-rate hunting explains much of the recent push into Mexico, especially from the U.S. and Canada. For instance, pricing pressure on the 737 trailing edge flap drive transmissions that it makes for Boeing prompted Curtiss-Wright Flight Controls of Shelby, N.C., to open a 70,000-sq.-ft. factory in Queretaro in January 2012. ŌĆ£Wages are one-tenth those in Shelby,ŌĆØ Director of Operations Everett Rice says.
But other factors are also at work. Kaman Aerostructures' lead factory in Jacksonville, Fla., is largely devoted to military contracts, notes Vice President-Sales/Marketing Jim Melvin. The company needed to expand its commercial operations and knew it would be under pricing pressure. ŌĆ£We looked globally, at Asia and elsewhere, but zeroed in on Mexico based on where commercial aerospace is heading,ŌĆØ he says. ŌĆ£We weren't looking to take work out of Jacksonville. Our strategy was to put in the [Chihuahua] facility and then go after work.ŌĆØ
The first parts produced by France's Manoir Aerospace's finishing and machining factory in Chihuahua in 2009 did not head back home. They were for its long-time customers Snecma and Messier-Bugatti-Dowty in Queretaro, says plant manager Nicolas Maillard.
Easy logistics across the U.S.-Mexico border were early attractions, but increasing demand has opened flight connections deeper into the country. For Rice, shifting work into Mexico instead of overseas keeps time-zone changes to a minimum and allows him to board a flight at 8 a.m. in Charlotte, make a connection in either Dallas or Houston, and be in Queretaro by noon.
European OEMs say rising demand means expansion in Mexico does not diminish jobs at home, but it does overcome concerns they have about finding new hires in Europe, where open jobs listings can last for months. In Mexico, they find workers in their 20s and 30s eager to make a transition into aerospace from other industries. ŌĆ£Aerospace is very sexy now,ŌĆØ says Fokker's Huij.
Which is not to say that qualified workers are always available in Mexico. ŌĆ£Queretaro needs more engineers,ŌĆØ says Lauret. ŌĆ£Schools in Chihuahua are goodŌĆöthey're a strength, but more are needed.ŌĆØ
Competition among Mexican states for jobs is no less intense than it is in the U.S. Not surprisingly, the biggest group of foreign plants is in the six states that border the U.S. A breakdown by Femia ranks 22% of the country's aerospace industry with just 11-50 employees and 7% with 10 or fewer. Forty-three percent have 51-250 employees and 28% have more than that. There are 15 corporations with more than 500 employees, with the largest concentration (8) in Baja California.
Security concerns, from shootings or kidnappings for ransom, remain a consideration in Mexico because of drug-war violence. The government reports that industry in general, and aerospace in particular, has not been targeted and no manufacturing executives interviewed by Aviation Week reported problems. But the issue remains, and is one of the biggest political concerns for Enrique Pena Nieto, who became president in January. A month later, when he celebrated the opening of a Eurocopter factory in Queretaro, the company's second in Mexico, there had already been 2,399 deaths since the first of the year.
The most violent areas tend to be in the north, along the U.S. border. Although they emphasize that their facilities have remained safe, U.S. executives still exercise caution. When senior U.S. officials visit they take precautions, like not bringing U.S.-licensed vehicles across the border and following a strict hotel-to-factory travel regime. Queretaro is regarded as safe, which is one reason it has had such success attracting foreign firms. Chihuahua had a spate of violence in 2009 but it is said to have settled down.
Still, one manager who makes frequent trips there hires a trusted driver, just to be safe.
Tap on the icon in the digital edition of AW&ST for listings of 250 aerospace companies in 15 Mexican states, or go to AviationWeek.com/mexicoaerospace


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New tax increases on the way
To the editor:
I read with great interest the top front-page story in the Jan. 24 issue of the Sanford News. The article states that the city could lose $2.4 million under the governor's budget.
City Manager Steven Buck stated that if the proposed budget comes to pass, it would result in a tax increase for the homeowner of $206.66 on a $160,000 valued home. Not only would your property tax go up, but there would be a tax increase on excise tax on all tractor trailer trucks. That will come to another $14.16 tax added to the homeowner. The total increases would come to 6.68 percent. The loss of the homestead tax would bring another cost of $193.20 for the poor homeowner. Changes in the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement would mean another cost of $17.29 for the homeowner. All this would mean an increase of 14.4 percent to the Sanford mill rate. That will make the total increase of $431.31 in tax for the homeowner of a $160,000 home.
Once again, all that is said is to raise the taxes of the people of Sanford. Not one place in the article was anything said about Sanford cutting back in its expenses. Just raise the tax on the homeowner.
Don't you folks out there think we have had enough of being overtaxed year after year for the benefit of the good old boys and girls running our city? Why do we have to keep paying more and more when the city does nothing to cut costs? If the state adopts this proposed budget, then every Sanford department should be told to make cuts to offset any related tax increase. Hate to keep reminding you, but the new charter gives them the right to do what they want — not what is good for the people.
Please write, or call the council and demand that they cut back on expenses. If you don't, you will see more and more people that will have to leave Sanford because they can't afford to live here anymore. If the State of Maine can figure out how to save money, why can't Sanford?
Roger Christensen
New committee comprised of good old boys
To the editor:
My, oh, my.
Well, after watching the Sanford City Council Meeting on Jan. 22, I can see, as many of us predicted, increases in taxes are on a roll. We now have new Budget Committee that is comprised of some of the good old boys — two former school committee people and three city councilors, a dentist and a software expert who will evaluate the budgets presented to them. Oh, goody.
I am sure they are quite knowledgeable and capable in their own fields, but for a city budget committee? I also have concern with the process of choosing the applicants, as none were interviewed. I can't say that I ever saw anyone hired for any position without a personal interview. Well, it goes to show you that adopting the new City Charter did in fact give the council the right to do just about anything it pleases.
I have always felt that Sanford is being run by those who want nothing but to raise taxes so they can proceed with their pet projects and give the Good Old Boys running Sanford's departments nearly everything they want. I have yet to see any of our city leaders mandate department heads to cut their prior year's budgets by any percentages. Ten years before retiring, I was in charge of Reclamation, Salvage, Transportation and Garage Services of a Fortune 500 Company. As the economy started to go bad, we were instructed to cut our previous year's budget by certain percentages. If we didn't, we might find ourselves replaced with someone who would. I had intended to send in a resume for a position on the new budget committee, as I feel well qualified to hold the position and to do a good job. Unfortunately, I never saw any advertisement for it. Oh well, my fault for not paying attention.
It is time for all Sanford taxpayers to contact the city councilors and tell them we need some tax relief and to stop pushing for things we don't need. Lets see how the two new former school committee people — who, by the way, were chosen by two current school committee people — work to cut costs on the school department's budget. I bet I can guess. Talk about conflict of interests.
Hold on to your wallets, as they will be digging deep into them again and again. God help Sanford and the poor taxpayer.
Dan Condon
Bashing school department is uncalled for
To the editor:
In a letter to the editor in last week's issue of the Sanford News, I observed the predictable mix of teacher bashing, misinformation, and fanciful nostalgia to justify the argument that the Sanford School Department squanders local taxes. To the contrary, Sanford Schools are third from the bottom in student-funding ratios.
Faculty and students must contend with an anti-intellectual climate, overcrowding, barely functioning technology, and an anachronistic curriculum that can't address the demands of the 21st Century. Thirteen percent of the student body is failing even at this pedestrian level. The dropout rate is higher than the state average of 4.3 percent, and the district is on monitor status after failing to achieve the Adequate Year Progress (AYP) rating for "No Child Left Behind."
Yet, the Governor sees fit to slash the school budget and municipal revenue sharing, and compounds this by diverting the casino revenues earmarked for schools and hospitals to fill the gap in the general budget left by his tax breaks to the wealthy.
Sanford Schools have regularly provided candidates for the Maine State "Teacher of the Year" Awards. They have attracted funding from the Nellie Mae Foundation, the largest educational reform program in New England. A small, committed group of parents, counselors and teachers have formed the "Sanford Vision" to implement solutions rather than grouse in the newspaper.
Just as legitimate an argument can be made that the Sanford community has failed its schools as to the contrary. Students arrive from impoverished homes, racked by poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, neglect and abandonment. Please get your own houses in order before attacking the schools.
John M. Flagler
Time to end the tirades
To the editor:
Another day in Augusta, another outburst by Governor Tirade-icus.
Some senators were in discussion with him on his budget proposal and their proposal when suddenly he ended it with a tirade.
Proponents stated it was only his imitation of the mediators in the U.S. Congress, used as a means of establishing his position of budgets. Simply put: "Mine or nothing."
In all discussions, this must be the way forward? Truly, we must hope this is not always the case. Having a stand and principles is fine, as most in politics do, but rigidly holding those beliefs too sacred to ever be compromised is a poor way to attain the governance necessary to complete the people's work. Adding obnoxious and juvenile behavior to the case can win no battles and can only serve to harden opponents who might be most likely to sit down and negotiate across the table of bipartisanship.
With economic stagnation, a slow-moving economy and the many state-funded and -operated programs, the time to reach compromise agreements across all party lines is truly at hand. Hopefully, the governor will choose to end this obstructionist policy of revulsion and seek the diplomatic course of tempered, moderate negotiation and discussion of all the issues at hand. This would help reach a consensus in the best of the government and its people.
Let the tirades end, the vitriol evaporate, and the hostility and frustration give way to meaningful legislation and agreement. Both sides of the aisle need to realize that governance through compromise, with the amicable participation of the governor, is the true will of the people, by the people, and for the people.
John Flynn
There are good people out there
To the editor:
During the start of a new year, I always sit back and reflect about the holidays.
One event that really stands out to me took place at a Hannford's Supermarket. My family and I were making a quick trip in to get a few items, and we had our fussy two-year-old with us. She was having a particularly hard day, and we were all worn out. While standing and looking over items on the shelf and holding my daughter, I was approached by a man and his daughter, not much older than my own. The little girl held out a small wrapped present. I looked down at her in surprise and then to the father, who smiled and told us that it's a present for our daughter. He understood the confusion I must have had painted on my face, and he said that it was a game they were doing this year. I nodded to my daughter to take the present, and we thanked the man and his daughter.
To be completely honest, I had a lot of things running through my mind — one being, "Who is this stranger and what is the scheme going on here?" and another being, "What's hidden in the wrapping paper — should I be worried?" I told myself to stop being so paranoid. Not surprising, it wasn't anything bad. It turned out to be a sealed pack of Dora The Explorer frisbees. I was stunned at the kind gesture and what a good lesson to be teaching a young child. I was also stunned at myself, stunned for letting myself to be swallowed into the paranoia of questioning the kindness of strangers. There are good people out there, but they always seem to be overshadowed by reports of abductions, shootings, and other horrible crimes. It's sad that we, as a society, have come to this point of being distrustful of others, and when a kind act is made, we look for the hidden agenda.
Joshua Herring
'Christmas Child' gifts make a difference
To the editor:
I wanted to write to thank fellow Sanford-area residents who generously gave of their time and means to help impact thousands of hurting kids this Christmas. Together, we were able to pack 4,040 shoeboxes — filled with toys, school supplies and basic necessities — for Operation Christmas Child. Our packed shoebox gifts, joined by millions of others, are now on their way to needy children in 100 countries. During the 2012 collection season, Operation Christmas Child reached a milestone: more than 100 million children have been impacted by the power of a simple gift since 1993.
I would like to thank the volunteers at our local collection sites and all those who packed an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift. For many of the children who receive these gifts, this shoe box will be the first gift they have ever received.
Although our local drop-off locations in the Sanford-area are closed, gifts are received year-round at Samaritan's Purse by mailing them to 801 Bamboo Road, Boone, N.C., 28607.
There are also year-round volunteer opportunities available to serve with Operation Christmas Child. Find out how you can use your gifts and talents to make a difference in children's lives around the world by visiting www.samaritanspurse.org or by calling the Northeast regional office at (518) 437-0690.
Thank-you again to everyone who participated in this project. A simple gift, packed with love, can communicate hope and transform the lives of children worldwide.
Gaye Newlun
Northeast Regional Director
Operation Christmas Child


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Welcome to the 24th Annual Mopar Nationals! This year's theme is the Dodge Charger. And what better way to celebrate this great car than with the news that the Charger name will return to the Dodge lineup for 2006. The very name Charger brings to mind its dominating success in NASCAR, movies such as Bullet, Crazy Mary & Dirty Larry, and, of course, the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazard.
Every entered Charger participant will receive a special goody bag and reserved parking in the feature display area. We will be selecting one model from each year to showcase in the center of the display, with the remaining cars parked around the perimeter.
The Charger has always represented the pinnacle of performance at Chrysler. From its inception in 1966, the styling and performance have been unsurpassed in the market segment. The Charger nameplate was used from 1966 to 1978. Then it took a hiatus until 1982, when it was reintroduced on the L-Body Charger. It was again dropped in 1988 with the debut of the Shadow. While various performance packages were offered on Dodge models (ES, RT), the Daytona and Viper made their appearance, and the Charger name was sadly missing from the line up. Now with the return of RWD and the Hemi engine, it only made sense to bring back the Charger. But this tribute to the Dodge Charger is only a small part of what makes up the Mopar Nationals event this year.
The Mopar Nationals consists of Drag Racing, Judged Car Show, OE certification, Fun Field, the largest all-Mopar Swap Meet, the Mopar Manufacturer Midway, deals on Mopars in the Car Corral, Chrysler Concept Cars, and so on-all bundled into the premiere Mopar event of the year. While the Nats is often imitated, it has never been duplicated for sheer enjoyment and event fun. Priding itself as a family event, there is something for everyone. It's three action-packed days and nights of Mopar. Many view it as the Mopar version of Woodstock. all we know is the Chrysler heritage is alive and well and will be in Columbus, Ohio, the weekend of August 13-15 at National Trail Raceway.
Each year the Nats brings something new to the event. New for this year is the Year One F.A.S.T. class. This is for factory appearing stock race cars that are running in the low 11s on the OEM-style, original, bias-belted tires! This class, with its unbelievable low e.t's, is quite the crowd pleaser. We have expanded the show car, car club, and young gun parking areas and moved the Car Corral to a better location. We are bringing in special attractions and guests. Returning this year, the Young Guns judging and Drag Racing classes for those young Mopar enthusiasts (age 25 and under) and the Match Box Drag Race for children (age 10 and under). We supply the cars, and the kids will compete in a ladder-style elimination. after the race, the kids get to keep their car as a souvenir, and the winner(s) will receive special prizes. We will be sponsoring the Heath Cruise on Saturday night at Tri-County Chrysler again. Participants and spectators will get to see the all new '05 Chrysler 300C, Dodge Magnum, Grand Cherokee, Crossfire SRT-6, and a few other surprises. See the latest Mopar accessories, performance parts, and their updated road show. With 1,500 vendors, 50,000 die-hard enthusiasts, and a chance to win Hemi power, you won't want to miss the '04 Mopar Nationals.
We would be remiss if we did not mention the great sponsors who back this event. Through their support, they enable us to bring to you, the Mopar enthusiast, the ultimate Mopar event. This year a special thanks goes out to Mopar Performance, the Paddock, Monicatti Chrysler-Jeep, Year One, Malcom C-D-J, Flowmaster, Mopar Muscle, Trailer World, Mancini Racing, tti, South Oak Dodge, Jeg's, Fine Lines, and Mopar Action. Make sure you remember these fine companies when you need parts and service for your Mopar. they support you and the hobby.
As always, we would like to thank you, the participant, for bringing your pride and joy to this event. If it were not for you, the car entry attendee (Regular, Race, and Judged), there would be no Mopar Nationals. We thank you for your continued support, and sincerely hope you enjoy this weekend of special attractions and activities.
Welcome to the 24th annual Mopar Nationals-the Ultimate Mopar Experience!Jim BielendaMopar NationalsPresident


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Candlestick Park braces for its final goodbye
SAN FRANCISCO -- The first goodbye obviously wasn't enough for Giants fans.
Candlestick Park, the Giants' home from 1960-99, likely will stage its last major athletic event on Monday night when the San Francisco 49ers play their final regular-season home game against the Atlanta Falcons. Next season, the 49ers will christen a state-of-the-art stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., spelling Candlestick's end.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The first goodbye obviously wasn't enough for Giants fans.
Candlestick Park, the Giants' home from 1960-99, likely will stage its last major athletic event on Monday night when the San Francisco 49ers play their final regular-season home game against the Atlanta Falcons. Next season, the 49ers will christen a state-of-the-art stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., spelling Candlestick's end.
Candlestick's demolition date hasn't been scheduled, though it's unlikely to occur before late next year.
The 49ers' departure from Candlestick, where they began playing in 1971, has unleashed a torrent of nostalgia from their fans. The franchise has conducted a season-long celebration of the team's accomplishments at the stadium. It's a long list, given the 49ers' many remarkable performances while engineering five Super Bowl championships.
Judging from the public's reaction on talk shows and Internet sites, Candlestick's imminent closing also has stirred the emotions of Giants fans. They joke about the stadium's notorious climate, which made the place seem perfect for a meteorology major's final exam. They cherish their memories of legends such as Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal.
A similar outpouring accompanied the Giants' ultimate countdown of home games at "The Stick" in 1999. But reminiscing seems just as irresistible the second time around. Maybe that's because the combination of people, place and events remains so vivid for baseball audiences.
Candlestick was where the sky disappeared and the earth shook. It was where spectators swooned from the heat and froze in summer. In the first 14 games played there in 1960, according to a 1963 book, "The Giants of San Francisco," five fans sustained fatal heart attacks due to the steep incline from the parking lot to the front gates. Years later, in the face of natural disaster, the park would be credited with saving lives.
"It was a ballpark like no other," said left-hander Shawn Estes, who pitched for the Giants from 1995-2001. "There's no comparison to it in all of baseball."
Blown away
The wind alone made Candlestick a singular place. Many ballplayers would replace "singular" with stronger, saltier adjectives.
"You'd see infielders' caps blow off and get pinned on the center-field fence within three seconds," said first baseman Will Clark, who made five All-Star teams with the Giants from 1986-93. "You'd look at the flagpoles in center field and all of the flags would be blowing at one another. You'd be in the batter's box trying to pick up the baseball in the middle of 50 hot-dog wrappers blowing around in a little mini-tornado right in front of home plate."
Excessive fog occasionally halted play. Sometimes the sun's emergence was equally unwelcome, though.
"First base, second base and right field was a sun field," Clark said. "So when the ball went up, everybody had to put gloves up [to shade their eyes] and glasses down."
Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, who played 103 games at Candlestick in his long career, pointed out that the combination of sun and wind proved treacherous for infielders. "Usually when a pop fly went up high, nobody actually wanted it, even though it might be in your area," he said.
Candlestick just happened to be built in what might be the coldest part of San Francisco, where above-average temperatures usually don't materialize until mid-September -- "Indian summer." Second baseman Jeff Kent, who won the National League Most Valuable Player Award with the Giants in 2000, recalled commuting from Foster City, a suburb located 12 miles south of San Francisco, to Candlestick.
"The temperature would drop 20 degrees," Kent said.
The Giants of the 1960s rarely complained about Candlestick's conditions.
"It kept you strong," McCovey said.
Often, McCovey recalled, the Giants made three-week road trips to cities where temperatures exceeded 90 degrees and humidity approached 100 percent.
"After those three weeks, we were happy to get back to Candlestick," he said. "It seems like that cold air just picked you right up. I think it helped you just as much as it hurt you."
But adjustments were necessary. Long underwear was a common accessory at Candlestick. Also, McCovey said: "They used to have this hot Vaseline -- we just called it 'Hot Stuff' -- that you put all over your body. Actually, you would burn up if you put too much of it on. So you could put on only a little bit of that stuff. It kept you warm underneath."
Right fielder Bobby Murcer spent only two seasons in San Francisco (1975-76), but that was long enough for him to start a trend with his complaints about Candlestick. Giants players griped freely about their home ballpark until late in the 1985 season, when Roger Craig and Al Rosen, the club's new manager-general manager tandem, issued an edict.
"I'll never forget their speech," said right-hander Mike Krukow, now a Giants broadcaster. "They basically said, 'We're sick and tired of the moaning and groaning about how bad this place is. Unless you guys have figured it out, you guys are complaining the loudest, but everybody else coming in here just wants to get out of here. And that is the greatest home-field advantage if we use it in that regard.' They went on to say, 'If you bitch and moan, you're going to be out of here. We won't tolerate it. This San Francisco Giants team will never complain about this ballpark again. It's not happening. If you want out, let us know. We'll get you out.' It really was a powerful moment in my career to see how a negative can be turned into a positive."
Balking in the breeze
Stu Miller's balk in the 1961 All-Star Game cemented Candlestick's reputation as an oversize air conditioner.
The game began in warmth that was unusually brutal for San Francisco. A game recap in "The Giants of San Francisco," stated that 95 fans were treated for heat prostration.
Conditions changed drastically by the middle innings. In came the wind, and one of its manifestations amused Wills, who played the entire game for the NL squad.
"I saw the same hot-dog wrapper hover over the infield for three or four innings with the wind taking it in different directions, about 100 feet off the ground," he said.
Miller, a Giants right-hander, relieved Sandy Koufax in the ninth inning with one out, Roger Maris on first base, Al Kaline on second and the NL clinging to a 3-2 lead. Miller said in "SF Giants: An Oral History," that it was the windiest day he ever experienced at Candlestick. As Miller went into the stretch position to pitch to Rocky Colavito, a gust of wind upset his balance. He threw the pitch anyway, but was called for a balk after doing so.
The incident has been remembered as Miller being "blown off the mound," though that didn't actually happen. As a fellow pitcher, Estes completely understood what happened to Miller. "I specifically remember pitching a few times when I would get to the top of my leg kick and the wind would gust, and I would be blown forward," Estes said.
World Series heartbreak
In 1962, the Giants came frustratingly close to winning their first World Series since moving from New York four years earlier. They forced a Game 7 against the mighty Yankees but lost, 1-0. With Matty Alou on third base, Mays on second and two outs in the ninth inning, McCovey scorched a line drive off Ralph Terry directly at second baseman Bobby Richardson, whose catch ended the game and the Series.
Asked if that was about as hard as he could hit a ball, McCovey replied, "I wouldn't say that." He added politely, "Well, I guess you could say that. I could have hit it in a different direction, that's for sure."
Of course, weather was a factor in the outcome. Three days of rain preceded Game 6 in San Francisco. Candlestick's outfield grass remained damp during Game 7. That slowed down the ball when Mays drilled a two-out, opposite-field double to right in the ninth. Without the moisture, Mays' drive likely would have rattled around in the corner, enabling Alou to score the tying run. Instead, Maris cut off the ball and quickly relayed it toward the infield, forcing Alou to hold at third.
The Giants would wait 48 years before finally winning a World Series.
Can't keep good men down
Ceaseless as the wind was, it couldn't blow away the Giants' elite.
McCovey proved resilient after his gallant final out against the Yankees. He tied Hank Aaron for the 1963 NL lead in homers with 44. In 1965, McCovey began a six-year span in which he hit at least 31 homers a season. His annual averages during this period included a .291 batting average, a 983 on-base plus slugging percentage, 38 homers and 106 RBIs. That was while pitching began to dominate the game.
"Pitchers were glad that Mac was starting to pull the ball because he was the most feared hitter I saw in baseball," said Hall of Fame right-hander Gaylord Perry, who spent his first 10 seasons (1962-71) with the Giants. "It was a thing of wonder that he didn't really hurt somebody because he hit the ball so hard. I think if the wind had been blowing straight out, he would have gone more up the middle and would have hurt somebody."
Mays lost a countless number of home runs by pulling pitches into Candlestick's crosswind. "I can remember so many balls that went into left-center field that turned out to be dying quails. These were balls that would have gone out of any other ballpark," said outfielder Ken Henderson, a member of the Giants from 1965-72. "Because of the wind, they were held up and caught. Which made his statistics even more incredible, I think."
A baseball genius, Mays became adept at stroking pitches to right-center field. During the 12 full seasons he played at Candlestick, he hit more homers there (202) than on the road (194).
Candlestick favored pitchers, so it figured that Marichal thrived there. After throwing a one-hitter in his Major League debut on July 19, 1960 against the Phillies at Candlestick, he proceeded to compile a 122-58 record there. That's an otherworldly winning percentage of .678. Marichal particularly excelled at home against the archrival Dodgers, compiling a 21-4 mark.
Great moments abound
Much of the Giants' history revolves around home runs, including several that occurred at Candlestick.
On Sept. 30, 1962, Mays broke an eighth-inning tie with a massive drive that defeated Houston, 2-1, and forced a best-of-three playoff against the Dodgers for the NL pennant.
Mays prompted a five-minute standing ovation during a game on May 4, 1966, against the Dodgers, when he hit his 512th career homer to break Mel Ott's National League record.
A particular favorite of beloved broadcaster Lon Simmons was Mike Ivie's pinch-hit grand slam against the Dodgers on May 28, 1978. It erased a 3-1 deficit and led the Giants to a 6-5 triumph.
A more-storied homer against the Dodgers was Joe Morgan's three-run, eighth-inning line drive over the right-field fence on Oct. 3, 1982. It propelled the Giants to a 5-3 win and knocked Los Angeles out of the NL West race on the season's final day.
Yet that was topped by Brian Johnson's leadoff homer in the 12th inning on Sept. 18, 1997. Johnson victimized Dodgers left-hander Mark Guthrie to give the Giants a 6-5 victory and forge a tie between the teams atop the NL West standings. The Giants rode that momentum to the division title.
Then there were the triumphs of the spirit.
Bob Brenly was having a horrible day on Sept. 14, 1986, against Atlanta. Playing third base, he committed four errors in the fourth inning that generated a 4-0 Giants deficit. Undaunted, Brenly drove in four runs, including the game-winner on a tiebreaking, two-out, ninth-inning homer in a 7-6 win.
Dave Dravecky's comeback will forever be remembered. In 1988, a cancerous tumor was discovered in the deltoid muscle in his upper left arm -- his throwing arm. The tumor was removed, along with half of the deltoid. But Dravecky kept striving to compete. On Aug. 10, 1989, he fulfilled his quest by pitching eight innings in a 4-3 victory over Cincinnati.
An unlikely refuge
On Oct. 17, 1989, most of northern California was focused on Candlestick, where the Giants and their neighbors, the Oakland A's, were scheduled to play Game 3 of the World Series. Pregame ceremonies were about to begin when, at 5:04 p.m., an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook the entire Bay Area for about 15 seconds.
At Candlestick, the light towers swayed and the field undulated. Krukow compared the latter sensation to "a 600-pound gopher going 40 miles an hour under my feet."
Clark watched the San Andreas Fault slip before his eyes. "I had just gotten through running a sprint to center field," he said. "I was walking back towards the right-field line. And I could see it coming. You could actually see the wave coming through the stands."
Fans briefly celebrated once the shaking stopped. "A big roar went up from the stands," Krukow said. "The attitude was basically, 'All right, now we're gonna rock the A's.' People were psyched. They were into the whole deal."
Nobody knew yet that a significant portion of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland and part of the Bay Bridge had collapsed, or that fires would erupt in San Francisco's Marina District. The game was postponed, and the Series, which Oakland ultimately swept, didn't resume until 10 days later on Oct. 27.
Through it all, Candlestick proved heroic. Except for a few relatively small concrete hunks that shook loose, the edifice remained intact. Tens of thousands of people remained unharmed.
"That could have been catastrophic had one of the sections collapsed," Krukow said.
The last goodbye
What came to be known as the Loma Prieta earthquake couldn't destroy Candlestick, but in a year or so, explosives or a wrecking ball will. Emotions will be mixed, though the Giants have clearly found a better home in AT&T Park, generally considered one of MLB's best ballparks, and the 49ers are eagerly anticipating their switch to Levi's Stadium.
One might imagine that if anybody should bid a tender farewell to Candlestick, it's Johnson, an Oakland native. Not only did he author one of the most memorable moments in the ballpark's history, but he also excelled there while playing for Skyline High School, pitching a no-hitter and homering in the same game. But Johnson took a realistic view, comparing Candlestick's closing to seeing that the home he grew up in was rebuilt by subsequent tenants. As he related, he consoled his saddened sister by pointing out that they had their photographs and memories.
"I kind of feel the same way about Candlestick," Johnson said. "I enjoyed it. I went there as a kid. But it's time to go. We've moved on and the new home for the Giants is pretty special."
For some, Candlestick will forever remain more than just real estate.
"It's a very special place and near and dear to my heart," Dravecky said.
McCovey played more games (1,086) and hit more homers (236) at Candlestick than any other ballplayer. "That's one thing I'm kind of proud of," he said. Predictably, he embraces the stadium and all it represents.
"I'm very sentimental about the place," McCovey said. "I'm going to be sad to see it go. I have fond memories of it."
Asked to cite a favorite memory, McCovey paused before replying, "It's hard to pick just one."
Despite Candlestick's flaws, a lot of other people probably feel the same way.
Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Haft-Baked Ideas, and follow him on Twitter at @sfgiantsbeat.


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Captain America John Carlson Signs Autographs at Blood Drive
Friend of the Blog, Suzanne Kang is a big Caps Fan. She also lives in Virginia. With these two requirements satiated, she's fit to guest-write for our blog. Today, the Washington Captials hosted a blood drive for Inova Blood Donor Services in Sterling, VA. Here's a recap of her day.
I've donated blood a time or two, both on my own and through blood drives. So suffice to say, I was expecting the usual: go in to a room full of stations, get stuck by a needle,
watch Ian cry, get my blood drained, get a cool colored bandage and sticker, drink juice and eat cookies and go home. While the process of the actual blood donation was pretty much the same, there was one big difference.
Read More


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The Irwin Cordless Multi-Purpose Drill Bits have been designed for cordless, low speed multi-purpose drilling. They offer around 10% extra battery life per charge.
They have a four-facet ground carbide tip for lower drilling pressure and better centring and allow for combined drilling into wood and brickwork: the Cordless Drillbit is excellent for such drilling jobs - where you drill through wood into brickwork.
Only one drillbit is needed to do the job and will drill a wide selection of different materials like:BrickworkCeramic TilesBreeze BlockWoodDry WallGypsum BoardLimestoneSlateMarbleEternitePlastics/Reinforced plastics.
Availability: In stock
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Geometric Print Shirt
Geometric Print Shirt
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Anyone got any idea what this is all about when trying to put an web image in a post..??
It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image.
The Other Rob wrote:
Hunner wrote:I noticed in some older posts of mine I was checking out that the images I loaded directly to the forum now have to be scrolled to see all of it? I think they were all uploaded at 800 x 600. What caused that?
I tried some using a link to Photobucket and they don't do that.
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Sitemap NEW: Holiday Home Rental
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Skyscanner will help find the cheapest flights to Vienna in Austria and around the world by searching hundreds of airlines and thousands of routes. You can easily search for cheap flights, budget flights and scheduled flights to Vienna. Skyscanner is an award winning site recommended by: The Independent, The Guardian, Which? Travel, BBC Radio 1 and more! Skyscanner has been consistently found to be comprehensive, fast, and the best way to find cheap flights. When you find your flights to Vienna just click to book directly with the airline.Skyscanner Flights to Vienna
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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Claims of Sexual Harassment of Women by Male Co-Worker Resolved in Farmington, New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Several companies doing business as Roberts Truck Centers, including Roberts Truck Center in Farmington, New Mexico have agreed to settle a class sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $300,000, the agency announced today.
The EEOC's lawsuit, EEOC v. Roberts Truck Center of New Mexico, LLC, Roberts Truck Center of Texas, LLC, Roberts Truck Center, LTD, and Roberts Truck Center Holding Company, LLC ("Roberts") 10-cv-00904 JCH/KBM, charged that Larry Leyva, then a co-worker of Katherine Abernathy, subjected Ms. Abernathy and a class of three other women to sexual harassment. The EEOC also alleged that Katherine Abernathy suffered retaliation for complaining about the sex harassment and was fired due to the retaliation and/or because of her sex, female.
Sex discrimination, including sex harassment and retaliation against persons who oppose unlawful employment practices violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation voluntary settlement through its conciliation process.
"Employers must constantly remind their managers of their obligation to maintain workplaces where employees are not subjected to illegal harassment or retaliation. Also, when managers fail to satisfy these obligations, it is the employer's responsibility to correct the violations and prevent other violations from occurring," said Regional Attorney Mary Jo O'Neill of the EEOC's Phoenix District Office, which has jurisdiction over Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah. "Also, women like Ms. Abernathy, who have the courage to complain, must not suffer retaliation for their efforts to prevent further harassment of themselves or others."
In addition to monetary relief for Ms. Abernathy and the three class members, the decree provides for other important relief, including an injunction prohibiting further sex discriminatory or retaliatory practices; institution of policies and procedures to address sexual harassment and retaliation; institution of training for employees, manager and human resource officials regarding sex discrimination and retaliation; and an oral apology from involved managers who failed to address the co-workers' harassment of the women.
EEOC Deputy District Director Elizabeth Cadle said, "We are pleased that this employer is taking appropriate steps to assure that no further harassment occurs in its workplaces. Federal law protects a woman's right to work without harassment because of her sex."
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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To celebrate the availability of Princeton University Press's bird books through the iBooks store, we are hosting a sweepstakes giveaway of all 6 titles. See below for several ways to enter or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
The prize will be 6 promo codes that allow the winner to download complimentary copies of The Crossley ID Guide, The Warbler Guide, The World's Rarest Birds, Hawks at a Distance, The Birds of Peru, and The Unfeathered Bird. This prize can only be used through the iBooks store and to view these books, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 3 or later and iOS 4.3 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later. There is no device or tablet included in this giveaway.
The giveaway will run from 12:15 AM EST, Monday, February 3 through 12:00 PM EST, Friday, February 7.


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Keep the excitement going for hours with our All-Day Science Experiences! Our dynamic science shows are jam-packed with spectacular science, awe-inspiring demos, and hands-on activities that students will love—and that reinforce science concepts!
Our staff will be at your site for a full day and can accommodate up to 480 students per day, two hours per class.
For grades 1-8
Capacity: 480 students
Time Required: 45 minutes
Fee: $850
Two breaks during the school day: One hour for the assembly and 45 minutes for the adventure stations. 12–15 adult volunteers, students, or combination of both. (Your Science Center presenter will conduct a training workshop for volunteers 45 minutes before the first scheduled group.)
Batter up! Discover the science behind America's favorite pastime, from the physics behind your favorite pitches to the science of the perfect swing. Step up to the plate for exciting demonstrations that will leave your students ahead of the curve! Find a bat's "sweet spot," measure reaction time, or predict a ball's trajectory. Our science scoreboard features the Pittsburgh Pirates, slow motion footage, and animations illustrating the physiology of the human body and the aerodynamics of a baseball in flight. You'll be "rootin' for Newton" through nine interactive "innings" of physics fun. Round the bases with a legendary line up of live demonstrations, then slide into home for a fireworks finish that's sure to be a blast!
This show was developed in partnership with Chevron and Pirates Charities
Anatomy Academy wants YOU! Our "cranium commander" will train your brain as you participate in exciting live demonstrations about health and the human body.
Take a fantastic voyage the bloodstream to learn about human body systems through the "eyes" of a miniature robotic probe. On this Body Trek, explore the workings of internal organs through live demonstrations. Discover the science behind your gut reactions. Explore the heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, skeletal muscles, eyes and brain. Meet local medical experts and discover innovations in medicine, from cryogenics to lasers. Learn how positive food and fitness choices help to build a better body from the inside out! All Systems Go!
Produced in partnership with:
Content themes: Astronomy, Physics, Technology, Environmental Science
This theater-style assembly show will employs large-scale props, costumes, banners, stunning visual imagery, and live physics and chemistry demonstrations, as well as audience participation, to immerse students in a futuristic journey through the Solar System.
A 10-minute, full-dome digital planetarium show – a "fly-through" of the Sun/Earth environment – is incorporated through the use of a portable digital planetarium system.
Ten hands-on learning stations – including tabletop explorations for individual students, as well as small groups – reinforce and further develop the scientific concepts related to heliophysics and the Solar Dynamic Observatory that are introduced in the assembly show. Grades K-8.
Living with Our Star in partnership with NASA
Content themes: Zoology, Physics, Engineering, Regional Science
When engineers want to make something better, faster, or stronger, they look for the answer in nature! Join local zookeepers, chemists, and robot designers (and some on-screen zoo animals) on a biomimetic adventure to discover technology inspired by the natural world. Explore how the physics of whale flippers are improving wind turbine designs, and test a "gravity-defying" slow motion slinky to study how innovative robot arms are inspired by an elephant's trunk.
Produced in partnership with PPG
Special thanks to Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium
Learn how a Public Education Leadership Community (PELC) grant can provide the financial support for your school to participate in educational outreach activities. Go to PPGFoundation.com to find out more.


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Assessment |
Biopsychology |
Comparative |
Cognitive |
Developmental |
Language |
Individual differences |
Personality |
Philosophy |
Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Statistics: Scientific method · Research methods · Experimental design · Undergraduate statistics courses · Statistical tests · Game theory · Decision theory
One may be faced with the problem of making a definite decision with respect to an uncertain hypothesis which is known only through its observable consequences. A statistical hypothesis test, or more briefly, hypothesis test, is an algorithm to state the alternative (for or against the hypothesis) which minimizes certain risks.
This article describes the commonly used frequentist treatment of hypothesis testing. From the Bayesian point of view, it is appropriate to treat hypothesis testing as a special case of normative decision theory (specifically a model selection problem) and it is possible to accumulate evidence in favor of (or against) a hypothesis using concepts such as likelihood ratios known as Bayes factors.
There are several preparations we make before we observe the data.
- The hypothesis must be stated in mathematical/statistical terms that make it possible to calculate the probability of possible samples assuming the hypothesis is correct. For example: The mean response to treatment being tested is equal to the mean response to the placebo in the control group. Both responses have the normal distribution with this unknown mean and the same known standard deviation ... (value).
- A test statistic must be chosen that will summarize the information in the sample that is relevant to the hypothesis. Such a statistic is known as a sufficient statistic. A sufficient statistic for a parameter of a distribution exists if and only if the distribution forms an exponential family. In the example given above, it might be the numerical difference between the two sample means, m1 − m2.
- The distribution of the test statistic is used to calculate the probability sets of possible values (usually an interval or union of intervals). In this example, the difference between sample means would have a normal distribution with a standard deviation equal to the common standard deviation times the factor $ \sqrt{\frac{1}{n_1} + \frac{1}{n_2}} $ where n1 and n2 are the sample sizes.
- Among all the sets of possible values, we must choose one that we think represents the most extreme evidence against the hypothesis. That is called the critical region of the test statistic. The probability of the test statistic falling in the critical region when the hypothesis is correct is called the alpha value (or size) of the test.
- The probability that a sample falls in the critical region when the parameter is $ \theta $, where $ \theta $ is for the alternative hypothesis, is called the power of the test at $ \theta $. The power function of a critical region is the function that maps $ \theta $ to the power of $ \theta $.
After the data is available, the test statistic is calculated and we determine whether it is inside the critical region.
If the test statistic is inside the critical region, then our conclusion is one of the following:
- The hypothesis is incorrect, therefore reject the null hypothesis. (Therefore the critical region is sometimes called the rejection region, while its complement is the acceptance region.)
- An event of probability less than or equal to alpha has occurred.
The researcher has to choose between these logical alternatives. In the example we would say: the observed response to treatment is statistically significant.
If the test statistic is outside the critical region, the only conclusion is that
- There is not enough evidence to reject the hypothesis.
This is not the same as evidence in favor of the hypothesis. That we cannot obtain using these arguments, since lack of evidence against a hypothesis is not evidence for it. On this basis, statistical research progresses by eliminating error, not by finding the truth.
Some statisticians have commented that pure "significance testing" has what is actually a rather strange goal of detecting the existence of a "real" difference between two populations. In practice a difference can almost always be found given a large enough sample, what is typically the more relevant goal of science is a dermination of causal effect size. The amount and nature of the difference, in other words, is what should be studied. Many researchers also feel that hypothesis testing is something of a misnomer. In practice a single statistical test in a single study rarely "proves" anything.
"A little thought reveals a fact widely understood among statisticians: The null hypothesis, taken literally (and that's the only way you can take it in formal hypothesis testing), is always false in the real world.... If it is false, even to a tiny degree, it must be the case that a large enough sample will produce a significant result and lead to its rejection. So if the null hypothesis is always false, what's the big deal about rejecting it?" (Cohen 1990)
"... surely, God loves the .06 nearly as much as the .05." (Rosnell and Rosenthal 1989)
"How has the virtually barren technique of hypothesis testing come to assume such importance in the process by which we arrive at our conclusions from our data?" (Loftus 1991)
"Despite the stranglehold that hypothesis testing has on experimental psychology, I find it difficult to imagine a less insightful means of transitting from data to conclusions." (Loftus 1991)
See alsoEdit
- Falsifiability
- Statistical theory
- Applied statistics
- Null hypothesis
- Checking if a coin is fair
- Behrens-Fisher problem
- Type I error, Type II error
External linksEdit
- Hypothesis testing in six sigma
- Bayesian critique of classical hypothesis testing
- Critique of classical hypothesis testing highlighting long-standing qualms of statisticiansde:Statistischer Test
fr:Test d'hypothèsenl:Statistische toets
{enWP|Statisical hypothesis testing}}


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Before you add or download content, subscribe to Apple Music and turn on iCloud Music Library on all of your devices.
When you add content to your Library, you can access it across all of your other devices, as long as you're signed in to all of your devices with the same Apple ID.
After you add content, you can download the content to your iOS devices or computers so that you can listen to or watch it when you're not connected to the Internet. You must download the content to each device that you want to use for offline listening.
There's no cost to add or download content. Learn more about Apple Music and how to join. If you don't subscribe to Apple Music but want to download content to your device, you can buy music from the iTunes Store app on your iOS device or in iTunes on a Mac or PC.
Apple Music features might vary by country and region. Learn more about what's available in your country or region.
Add content
To add content, find what you want to add, then follow the steps for your device.
When viewing an album in Apple Music, you might see to the left of to the song's title. The star indicates that the song is one of the most popular Apple Music songs. Look for the star to find hit songs.
On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Android device
- Open the Music app on your iOS device or the Apple Music app on your Android device and find something that you want to add to your Library.
- Tap to add a single song or tap +ADD to add an entire album, playlist, or video content.
After you add content, you can find songs, albums, and video content in your Library, and playlists in Library > Playlists.
On your Mac or PC
- Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and find something that you want to add to your Library.
- Click to add a single song or click +ADD to add an album, playlist, or video content.
After you add content, you can find songs, albums, and video content in your Library, and playlists in the sidebar of Library under Apple Music Playlists.
On your Apple Watch Series 3 or later
You can add songs from the Radio app.
- Open the Radio app.
- When you hear a song that you want to add to your Library, tap , then tap "+ Add to Library."
Download content
You can download content from the Apple Music catalog or from your iCloud Music Library. If the content is not already in your Library, you must add it before you can download it.
To download an item, find it in your Library and look for near it. Tap or click to download the item to your device. On your iOS device, when you download an entire album or playlist, changes to DOWNLOADED when the download is complete.
Use the Watch app on your iPhone to add music to your Apple Watch.
If you have Automatic Downloads turned on, content automatically downloads to your device or computer when you add it to your Library. You won't see .
You can download content on up to 10 devices. This content is accessible only when your Apple Music subscription is active.
Learn more
- Learn how to delete content that you've added to your Library from Apple Music.
- Learn how to access your music collection on all of your devices.
- If you don't subscribe to Apple Music, you can use sync content with iTunes on your computer.


text: Find this wine Find this wine Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 Chile Cab...ok Pin It Tweet 6 years ago by Mrwarmgun More posts Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon $12 bottle. Chilean. Very nice, good value. Full bodied. 5 years ago by Schester Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Reserve 2007 Santa ema reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 maipo Valley 6 years ago by jon Santa Ema 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Millen and I post d day. Aka waxing 6 years ago by Kerry's Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Delicious! $9.98 6 years ago by Bnatural Santa Ema Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Deep violet-ruby-red. Blends cherries, prunes, tobacco, and roasted coffee. From Chile, South America 90 points 6 years ago by John


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Blood pressure is the force of the blood pushing against the walls of the body's arteries. Consistently high blood pressure, or hypertension, is dangerous to a person's health. High blood pressure is defined in an adult as consistent pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm/Hg systolic pressure (pressure that occurs when the heart contracts) over 90 mm/Hg diastolic pressure (reduced pressure when the heart relaxes). The more trouble the blood has flowing through the arteries, the higher the numbers will be. When left untreated, high blood pressure can lead to arteriosclerosis, heart attack, an enlarged heart, kidney damage and stroke.
St. Joseph Hospital offers the latest therapies for hypertension, from lifestyle management to medical treatments.
Because high blood pressure has no easily recognized symptoms, the only way it can be diagnosed is to have blood pressure checked. The blood pressure test is painless, using a rubber cuff that is inflated with air to compress the artery in the upper arm and monitor the pressure in the artery. The more difficult it is for blood to flow through the compressed artery, the higher the blood pressure reading will be.
In most cases, high blood pressure cannot be cured, but it can be controlled. Lifestyle factors are the first line of defense, including maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in regular exercise, choosing foods that are lower in sodium, reducing alcohol use to low or moderate levels, identifying stressors, and utilization of complementary and alternative therapies.
St. Joseph Hospital Heart and Vascular Center experts, including cardiologists, nurses and nutritionists, work with patients to design a diet and exercise plan for optimal heart health. Smoking cessation programs are also important, because smoking increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
If lifestyle management is not effective at lowering a patient's pressure, a number of prescription medications are also available. Our heart health experts work with patients to develop a treatment plan featuring the drugs proven to be most effective at relaxing and opening up the narrowed blood vessels and lowering blood pressure.
Each month the St. Joseph Hospital Heart and Vascular Center staff offers patient seminars on nutrition, exercise and stress reduction to help those individuals with high blood pressure to more effectively manage their condition.


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I've had the good fortune of enjoying healthy, positive relationship with my pastors over the years, relationships that have left me with enormous respect for church leaders and the challenges they face daily.
Having befriended a lot of pastors' kids, I know that pastors and their families are often held to impossibly high standards that leave them constantly striving for perfection and subjected to great scrutiny. That kind of pressure is enough to strain marriages, hurt children, and trigger major burnout. I am thankful for all of the men and women who have persevered to share the gospel under such circumstances.
But lately I've been noticing something else. While some pastors are unfairly criticized by members of their congregation, others are overly revered. In conversations with friends and family, I've noticed more and more people talking about their pastors or priests as if they could do no wrong, as if they speak for God Himself. I'm not sure if circumstnaces have actually changed, or if I have changed. Perhaps I'm just now noticing - a result of my "posmodern" tenency to doubt and deconstruct.
These are three red flags that I've been seeing:
Red Flag One - Pastor as the Only Source of Counseling
I've known a lot of people to benefit enormously from pastoral counseling. Dan and I did our premarital counseling with a pastor, and we've certainly benefited from his advice over the past six years.
That being said, I think there are some issues that pastors are simply not qualified to address on their own.
I recently heard someone say, "My pastor counsels straight from the Bible...There's none of this Freudian crap."
That worried me a little. Freud had some good things to say, actually, and trained psychologists/psychiatrists bring lot of experience and education to the table when someone is suffering. Yes, reading the Psalms can be therapeutic and helpful...but so can cognitive behavioral therapy. It seems to me that Bible verses alone are not going to cut it when something more serious, like hypnosis or even medication, may be necessary.
Furthermore, I've known some pastors to give some bad advice...mainly because they are so close to the individuals involved. Sometimes you really need an objective third party to help you sort things out.
Red Flag Two - Pastor as the Only Source of Theology/ Biblical Interpretation
Recently I've been corresponding with several different pastors from a variety of denominations. This has been a fantastic experience, as I love talking theology with people who have really studied it! What has surprised me the most about these conversations is the wide range of responses I get when I pose questions or challenges. Most pastors talk to me like a peer, as if my thoughts are valid and reasonable and worth engaging. But a few have a tendency to get defensive or treat me like a child. They avoid answering my questions directly and instead turn the tables, posing litmus-test-type questions and then telling me whether I got them right or wrong.
I think perhaps some are just so accustomed to assuming the role of leader and teacher that they aren't sure how to respond to someone who has done her fair share of research on a topic. They seemed a little surprised that I didn't just accept their interpretation of Scripture as the only interpretation of Scripture.
I've never been the type of person to just believe whatever a pastor or teacher tells me to believe. For better or for worse, if something doesn't make sense, I question it. I look into it. Some pastors seem to be used to this; others seem caught off guard.
I would be wary of any congregation in which the pastor is revered too much to be questioned (though questions should obviously be posed in the right way, through the right channels, and with the right timing).
Red Flag Three - Pastor as the Only Example of How to Live
This happens when a pastor's lifestyle choices are hailed as "the only right way to do things." I'm thinking of spending habits, marriage relationships, gender roles, political persuasion, entertainment choices, etc. When everyone in a church eats, drinks, and talks like its pastor, something's not okay.
What red flags would you add?
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This is rather short-sighted. Whenever code is copied, the two instances will go and live separate lives. Code is never static, over time that copy becomes a partial reimplementation of the original.
There are a few conditions when copy-paste is acceptable:
- You can guarantee that the original code does not have any bugs and thus the copy does not have any bugs, now or in the future. Otehr
- You can guarantee that anyone making changes to this code in the future is aware of the copy and the original and their respective contexts.
- You can guarantee that the context of the original and the copy never changes in a different manner.
- You are happy to reimburse testers and developers for the time wasted tracking down bugs caused by ignoring any of the three above.


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The proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget which President Barack Obama unveiled Wednesday would raise taxes for some Americans, not all of them upper-income earners, while awarding tax breaks to particular groups and interests such as college students, people who don't save for retirement, and investors in low-income neighborhoods.
What's most notable in the Obama plan is that despite much talk from the Simpson-Bowles commission and from other reformers of simplifying the tax code, Obama would, if Congress passed his plan, still be very much in the business of using the tax code to try to fine-tune the economy and engineer certain policy outcomes.
This targeted tax break approach seems exactly opposed to the tax reform effort that the chairmen of the House and Senate tax-writing committees are planning later this year.
Now that the House, Senate and the White House have offered their own budget plans, is the U.S. any closer to solving its long-term economic problems? Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., discusses.
Under his plan – which covers the next 10 years – tax revenues would be nearly $1 trillion higher than the baseline current-law forecast by the Congressional Budget Office. Much of that additional revenue would come from tax increases he is proposing.
The president seeks to increase taxes by far more than the $600 billion tax increase in the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) of 2012 which he signed into law on Jan 2.
He would get the $580 billion by reducing certain tax preferences for upper-income earners. He would limit the value of itemized deductions to 28 percent for families in the highest tax brackets – an idea he offered in his very first budget proposal back in 2009.
Among the other tax increases Obama proposes:
- A new "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" imposed on large banks and financial institutions, a kind of retroactive charge five years after the 2008 bailout of the financial sector. The fee is intended "to fully compensate taxpayers for the support they provided to the financial sector during the 2008–2009 economic crisis and to discourage excessive risk-taking" in the future, the president's budget document says. If enacted, this targeted financial sector tax would raise nearly $60 billion, budget officials say.
- An increase in the estate and gift tax of nearly $72 billion. This was an issue Congress thought it had settled when it passed ATRA at the end of 2012.
- $78 billion in increased taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products.
- $44 billion in tax increases on oil, natural gas and coal producers by eliminating certain tax breaks for those industries.
- $10.7 billion from indexing all tax penalties to the inflation rate.
- $9.3 billion from limiting the amount of money that higher-income people could put in tax-sheltered retirement accounts.
Yuri Gripas / Reuters
A staff member prepares the release and distribution of President Barack Obama's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget at the Government Printing Office in Washington April 10, 2013.
Many of these tax increases can be seen as part of an ongoing project by the president to shift more of the burden of paying for government and especially entitlement programs to upper-income Americans, both retirees and the currently employed.
In the same vein, the president again offered certain Medicare ideas he'd included in his budget plan last year: $68 billion in higher premiums, co-payments and surcharges for mostly higher-income Medicare recipients.
He'd get another $120 billion or so in revenue by tweaking the inflation indexing formula used to set the levels for the tax brackets, the standard deduction, and other provisions in tax law.
But on the other hand Obama also proposes an array of new tax breaks.
For example, he seeks:
- A 10 percent tax credit for small businesses that hire new employees or increase wages. This would cost $25.7 billion in lost revenue.
- Creation of tax-preferred "Promise Zones" in high-poverty communities which would provide tax breaks for hiring workers and investing within the zones, an idea somewhat reminiscent of former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp's Urban Enterprise Zones. This would cost $5.3 billion in lost revenue.
- A new tax-preferred bond program called America Fast Forward Bonds, at a cost of $10 billion, for public school construction.
- A new tax credit to encourage employers to offer retirement savings plans and to automatically enroll workers in them. Cost: $17.6 billion.
Obama's proposal also makes some assumptions about future spending that might not turn out to be realistic: for example, it forecasts nearly $1.8 trillion in savings from overseas military operations that it assumes will not take place during the next 10 years.
The Obama blueprint isn't likely to be adopted, but some of its specific proposals might be, if the president can use his persuasive power to bring Republican members of Congress to accept at least some of his new tax increases.
The initial response from GOP leaders was at best tepid.
"The document headed our way does not appear designed to bridge the differences between the House- and Senate-passed budgets. That's the role Americans would expect the president to play at this stage," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.


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A long way from Arkansas, Mikhail Kalashnikov died two days before Christmas. He was 94 and a Russian, a proud Russian.
If his name does not ring a bell, his invention will. He created the AK-47 rifle. The name comes from Automatic Kalashnikov and the year of its birth, 1947.
Like many major developments, the AK-47 has its good sides and its not so good sides. It gave the world a cheap to make but reliable and efficient firearm. It fell into the hands of the military and the police and anyone who wanted a cheap, low-maintenance weapon.
The AK-47 spurred the United States military to drastically change its concept of firearms for foot soldiers, and today this new slant is showing up even in the deer woods of Arkansas.
Many hunters are buying and using rifles of the general AR-15 family. Most of these use .223-caliber cartridges, but some are coming out in .308 models. There is even a 12-gauge shotgun, not American made, built on the AR-15 design.
Kalashnikov's AK-47 has been built by the many millions, far more than the numbers of the Moisin-Nagant rifle, the old Russian bolt action firearm that numbered 37 million over its several decades that included World War I and World War II.
Kalashnikov was a soldier in WWII, a tank crewman who was severely wounded in battle. He came up with the idea of the AK-47 while recuperating. He was determined to create something equal to or better than the Nazi's superior arms. "Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer," Kalashnikov once said. "I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery."
The AK-47 brought forth the term assault rifle, a label often misused by anti-gun critics and by some media people. The phrase "assault rifle" should refer to a weapon that is fully automatic with a large capacity magazine. Semi-automatic rifles technically are not assault rifles even with large magazines or clips.
World War II saw armies of many nations using submachine guns that fired pistol-type cartridges. The AK-47 used a .30-caliber rifle cartridge that was shorter and less powerful than the rifle ammunition like the American .30-06, the British .303, the German 8mm and the Russian 7.62X54R.
A few years after the AK-47 burst on to the firearms scene, the United States military switched to the .308 cartridge, shorter than the .30-06 but more functional in rapid-firing rifles. It is more powerful than the AK-47's 7.62X39 ammunition.
The switch to the AR-15 and the .223 cartridge came later for the United States. This was a smaller, lighter cartridge, and some gun experts proclaim the AR-15 in general to be more accurate than the AK-47.
More and more .223 rifles are showing up in the hands of Arkansas deer hunters. Deer are being killed with them, and yes, there is debate as to whether the .223 with its bullet only a little heavier than a rimfire .22 long rifle load is enough for deer work.
Today's Arkansas hunters are using .223 rifles in single shot, bolt action and AR-15 style models.
But the AK-47 remains the firearm for Russia's armed forces and police as well as at the heart of the gun control debate in the United States.
And news reports tell us that Kalashnikov never made a ruble off the rifle. It was never patented.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The AK-47 is actually no longer manufactured in Russia in mass quantities, if at all, since it was discontinued back in 1959. The Russian military uses the AKM or the more modern AK-74. Air assault troops will use the AKS. The Russian police utilizes variations of the AKS (folding stock, shorter barrel) and more modern AK-74 designs. There's almost no difference in look with the casual glance. Those variations were designed by Kalashnikov.
While it's not mentioned, it should have been noted that the reason the AK-47, its related knockoffs and subsequent advance designs, are so popular because the guns can work in just about any weather condition and environment and requires very little maintenance. The gun also had a radical (at the time) design to expel the gases when the bullets were fired at the end of the barrel to help keep the rifle steady while firing.
Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.