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Today's prompt: Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.
My paternal grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, has left me a boatload of information and I've recently been concentrating on blogging about the scrapbook she kept as a young woman. But she, along with her beau and my grandfather, spent nearly three years apart and actually 'courted' through letters. They weren't that far apart geographically (he in Fresno, she in either Monterey or Oakland) so they were able to see each other occasionally but the letters flowed in the days they weren't able to be together. And after nearly 100 years in either a basement or storage unit, I have the honor of transcribing these letters which are in absolutely amazing condition. At the rate I'm going, though, I'll be hard pressed to complete the project in my lifetime but I'll give it a try.
|Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer
20 Jan 1896 - 8 May 1982
Several of the letters hold special significance so I'll share some excerpts here:
January 7, 1918
Monday eve
My very own Sweetheart,
We are a house of mourning here at 1933 tonight, my Grandmother passed away at 15 minutes to six tonight, poor soul, she is much better off, but, of course, we all shall miss her terribly. She is to be buried Wednesday.
Enough about sorrow, sweetheart. You can see how much I think of you to be writing tonight, all the folks are in the front room and I am in the dining room trying to collect my thoughts for you only.
Loraine lived with her her grandmother's brother, Samuel Steen, and his wife, Rachel Letter Steen, at 1933 Harrison in Oakland, hence the reference to 1933. Her grandmother was Rebecca Steen Schwartz, someone I've written about before.
|Rebecca Steen Schwartz
8 Feb 1848 - 7 Jan 1918
Not even two months later, another tragedy struck the couple – my great grandfather, Herman Levy, died.
March 6, 1918 – 10 pm
Wednesday night
My own sweetheart
If there are tear drops mingled with the ink in this letter tonight forgive me, as I am thinking so much of you that the tears won't stay away. Ever since I heard your voice I have wanted you so badly, the message was all too short though. Why didn't you let me talk longer, dear? I wanted to talk to you so badly but was afraid that it might be disturbing. I hope it wasn't.
You surely have all my sympathy in your bereavement, sweetheart, and if I could only have been with you now when you really need to one who loves you and whom you love, I would be happy. Instead, though, I'll be with you in spirit every minute to help you overcome your sorrow. You and your family probably realize that it is all for the best but knowing your temperament like I do, I know how badly your father's passing will affect you. But make the best of it all, sweetheart, and remember that you still have me and I'll never fail you, if I can help it.
Please, sweetheart, extend my condolence to your family and I do hope your mother will hold up all right after the severe strain that she has been under.
Oh, yes, when I found your telegram today, before I opened it I said, as usual, "now what is the matter". I rather had an idea that it was pertaining to your father, though, knowing that he was so ill.
Just talked to Aunt Charlotte, told her that I phoned to you. She felt badly to hear of your sorrow. She surely is an admirer of yours, dearest.
As much as I want to hear from you Friday I don't want you to write to me tomorrow if it will inconvenience you. At this time all your time should be for your family and not for me even though I am one of your family.
It is fine that your business will be so nicely taken care of. You'll probably be worn out, though, by the time you are finished reorganizing. Don't forget that we still have our lives to live and you must take care of yourself. The above sentence reminds me of you – always wanting me to be so careful, but never thinking of yourself.
I'm not going to take up any more of your time this time so I'll stop now. My very own, please don't forget for a moment that all my love is for you and these next few days you'll, doubtless, not be out of my thoughts a minute.
I truly love you with all my heart and tonight of all nights I feel that we are very close to each other, even though miles separate us. I realize what a poor letter of sympathy this has been – I'm not a composer so in my few words I've merely tried to tellk you how much I love you and long to be with you to comfort.
All the love possible, my love, to you tonight. Thanks for the kisses, I'll have to imagine them.
Your very own Loraine
It is so wonderful to be able to know the "real" words that were spoken (or written) in response to something I've otherwise only known through records, obituaries, etc. Sadly, Loraine never met the father of her future husband.
And then World War finally came to an end – I can't imagine the excitement!
November 11, 1918 – 9 PM
My dearest Boy
I was so overjoyed this morn at the wonderful news that I just had to telegraph you and hope you received my telegram O.K. At 4:20 A.M. I was awakened by whistles blowing and bells ringing out the joyous news of peace. They kept the racket up for two hours and started it again at nine this morn. Then at two this aft all the automobiles who could paraded and everyone was so happy. Everything was closed up so we went for a lovely ride around the 17 mile drive and just returned.
My, but I was busy this afternoon down town receiving congratulations from friends I met, dear. It was rather hard to recognize people in their masks but I managed to.
And to think that my boy is really flying. Received your letter this morn and was so happy to get it and to learn that your first flight was so successful and I hope the rest have been likewise. And now that the war is a thing of the past, love, am so anxious to know what they are going to do about discharging you. Guess now that you have had a start at flying you would like to continue but I'd rather have you safe on terra firma. And I hope my wishes will have some weight. But it must have been a wonderful sensation – flying 2000 ft and I am so proud to think of my boy being so brave and fearless. If conditions hadn't changed you would have probably been driving alone in a very short time. I am wondering and wondering if they will still continue to train you. Hope not. So please, let me know, sweetheart, about it as soon as you can.
Those were lovely letters from your cousins and I want to answer them but don't know their last names or addresses. Please send them.
Am so sorry that the food is miserable. Hope it improves. Want to send you something but don't know what will keep for so long a journey as to Riverside. Will try to send a cake.
Oh, Wilt phoned at 8:30 this morn to rejoice with us. Said they got word at 1 A.M. and everyone dresses and paraded over the campus and there were several bands out to[sic]. I can just imagine how immense the noise was in S.F.
I am sending you the clipping from the S.F. Chronicle. They didn't put it in the way I gave it but we should worry.
My girl friend and I are going to see a young married couple for awhile tonight. Shall I try to get some pointers, love? I don't think we need any, though.
Believe me, dearest, I am so happy tonight and am just bubbling over and how I'd like to see you so we could be happy together. Your love is so wonderful and I love you so very much and now we can really plan for the future and our hopes will be realisms quite soon.
I hear the whistle of the evening train and I wonder if the train could be bringing me a letter from you. Possibly I won't hear until tomorrow.
All for tonight, love. Be the best boy in the world and be careful. All the love that my heart possesses for you dear and a whole lot of kisses from
Your very own
Sig Levy, my grandfather, was a Flying Cadet stationed at March Field in Riverside, California on November 11, 1918. Thankfully, he hadn't been there long when the war was over and he never saw active combat. Wilt Gunzendorfer was Loraine's younger brother.
|Sigmund Levy
31 Jul 1888 - 16 Aug 1968
As I transcribe the hundreds of letters I have, I often wonder what Grandma would think to know that her granddaughter was reading them 100 years later. But somewhere in my gut I know that she saved them hoping that someone would one day read them and love them like she obviously did. Thanks for thinking ahead, Grandma!


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Husband – Wife Suspects Appear in Justice Court Related to Transient Death [DOCUMENT]
A husband and wife appeared via video from the Missoula County Jail before Judge Karen Orzech to face charges related to the torture, beating and shooting death of a transient, whose body was found in the Clark Fork River on Tuesday night.
Kenneth Hickman and Mechailiah Tembrueull, both 21, were both allegedly involved in the death of Berry "Jack" Gilbert.
Hickman was charged with aggravated assault, while Tembrueull was charged with accountability for aggravated assault.
According to court records, Gilbert's girlfriend told authorities that on July 30, a group showed up at a transient camp she was sharing with Gilbert. She said the group consisted of a man she knew as Phoenix, Hickman, and their girlfriends called Ginger (Tembrueull) and Angie. She said Phoenix and Gilbert got into a confrontation and that Hickman struck Gilbert and knocked him to the ground. Records indicate that Phoenix and Hickman then kicked and stomped Gilbert and cut gang symbols into his body with a knife.
She said at that point Hickman and Ginger then escorted her to another camp nearby, and shortly thereafter she heard a gunshot, and never saw Gilbert again. His body was found floating in the Clark Fork River on August 5.
Deputy County Attorney Jordan Kilby requested requested bail for Hickman at $150,000, and $50,000 for Tembrueull. Judge Orzech agreed and remanded both back to the jail.
During her appearance, Tembrueull tearfully pleaded to the judge that she didn't do anything, that she fully cooperated with law enforcement, and begged her not to take her husband away. She also said the two individuals still at large, Kevin Lino and Angela M. Marchese were on their way to South Dakota.
Missoula County Captain of Detectives Mike Dominick said early Friday morning that the two would probably still be driving a white Ford Focus with temporary plates from West Virginia. The two are considered to be armed and dangerous.

subset: commoncrawl


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Oct. 2 2009 I was out on my Harley Davidson motorcycle on my way to a job when some one turned left in front of me. I had two choices. Hit the pickup or lay down my beautiful bike. I chose to lay down the bike over hitting the truck. People that ride their bikes into other cars and trucks don't do so well. My bike sustained sever damage. The truck responsible had no damage. I was hurt and angry. I called the police, not the driver of the truck. The driver of the truck seamed to not care if I was alive or dead. They didn't come to see if I was OK or if I needed help. The only call to the 911 operator was mine. When the emergency people of Ogden Fire and Police arrived they did their typical good job. Ogden has some of the best emergency responders in the United States. I thank you. I had some serious injuries! The investigating Officer collected all the information to make a case against the driver of the pickup for failure to yield right of way, driving on suspended driver's license and no insurance. The no insurance part left me to deal with a $20,000 motorcycle that has $8,000 in damages, my injuries and not being able to work. I have insurance! What would have happened if I had been killed? Who would have taken care of my family? It is simply STUPID and against the law to drive around without insurance! John G. Moon Ogden
The comments to this article point out that regardless of the law people, for whatever reason, will persist in driving without insurance. So what is a motorcycle rider to do? Buy insurance yourself, that's what! This is even more important in tough economic times because the estimate of uninsured drivers in Utah is about 12 percent. In other words 12 out of every 100 drivers are out there driving without any vehicle insurance whatsoever!
Uninsured coverage kicks in if the offending driver has no insurance coverage, like in the article above. In that case, with clear and convincing evidence, you would make a claim on your own uninsured coverage. If you had purchased $100,000 in uninsured coverage chances are your own insurance would pay for all of your damages.
So the answer is to make sure you carry enough insurance yourself to cover your damages should the other driver that causes the crash either does not carry enough coverage or no insurance coverage at all. Furthermore, underinsured coverage is a right in Utah. Often I discover that our clients have not made a knowing waiver of that right and under Utah law if that right to underinsured coverage is not made knowingly you are entitled to full underinsured coverage. At utahbikelaw it is part of our routine investigation to make sure that you get what you are entitled to under the law in Utah when you are in a motorcycle crash.


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- Welcome
Welcome to the State of Tennessee's Unclaimed Property Division.
We are thankful that we can provide this service to you. Millions of dollars are turned over annually to the State of Tennessee by businesses and organizations who cannot locate the owners. This includes intangible assets such as bank accounts, stock certificates, checks, unclaimed wages, refunds, and gift certificates. It is our desire to reunite this unclaimed property with the rightful owner.
On this website you can find the information regarding Unclaimed Property that you are looking for. Our website is divide into two major sections:
Unclaimed Property is coming to you! View the current schedule of events by clicking on the image below.


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Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
Vintage photos of:
1919. "Washington Monument, view from air." Harris & Ewing. View full size.
Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Minute Service Station, 17th & L streets N.W." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
March 1865. "City Point, Virginia. General U.S. Grant's horse Cincinnati." Wet plate glass negative, left half of stereograph pair. View full size.
New York, July 15, 1908. "Temporary footpath, Manhattan Bridge." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
Washington, D.C., 1922. "Surgery #16." National Photo Co. View full size.
1920. "Washington School for Secretaries classroom." Our second look at the school's facilities. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
Washington, D.C., circa 1917. "Friends School. Girls basketball team." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
July 1909. "Some of the workers in a Maryland packing company." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.


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Improvocative is the new improv group
that James Phillips, assistant professor of theatre, helped
organize this spring semester as part of the theatre program.
The group is made up of Joyce Hausermann, Tom Kellett, Liliana
Peralta Zapata, Billy Biersack, Tom Fallon, Alexander Florez,
Camille Gandolfini, Arianna Guevara, Sarah Fulton, Erin-Therese
Vecchi, Brandon Lillard, and Genesis Valverde, along with Megan
Panagia as stage manager. True improvisation is getting on stage
and performing without any preparation or planning.
The objective is to create an interesting story on stage that
somehow relates back to a topic that was called out at the
beginning of the performance. Improv is an exciting and
nerve-wracking experience that, when done well, is very fulfilling.


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Program #1,287
Hosted by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle
The 25th annual World AIDS Day will be observed on December 1st. But several years before the first World AIDS Day, activists like AIDS Quilt founder CLEVE JONES were sounding the alarm about the coming crisis. He described the era to "This Way Out's" STEVE PRIDE. [www.clevejones.com]
There are happily other lesbians and gay men with us who bring a historical perspective to their present activism. Veteran lesbian-feminist agitator IVY BOTTINI shares some lessons learned with "This Way Out" correspondent ABBY DEES (produced with STEVE PRIDE) [www.ivybottini.com]
Privacy Statement
© KFAI, 1808 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454 Tel: 612-341-3144


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In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Ants' Kingdom
[6:38] All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this book.** To their Lord, all these creatures will be summoned.
Of all the myriad of animal systems that God has set up on earth, certainly ants are among the most amazing. There are about 10,000 species of ants, and they live essentially everywhere on earth. They have been around for 100 million years or so, with fossil ants nearly identical to ants of today. Most species live in highly organized colonies with a queen, a few males for mating and many female workers.
In starting new colony, an amazing string of instinctive behavior occurs. The Queen flies out, is mated (like the honeybee, the males fall dead), and finds a new place. She makes a shallow nest and dismantle her wings. She uses the wings as food and also absorbs the flight muscles in her body as nutrition. That may support her for a year with no other food. Unlike the queen bee who is accompanied to a new place by many workers, the queen ant goes all alone and must provide for herself until new workers hatch.
She lays egg-100 an hour, 30,000 in a week. After about 20 days, the eggs turn into wormlike larvae, which the queen washes and feeds. After another 20 days or so, the ants are ready to face the world. They instinctively know the role they are to play. The first ones out are always worker/gatherers. They go out and get food to bring back to the nest for the queen. Her job now is only to lay eggs.
There is a specific division of labor among the ants. Unlike the bees, that progress from one job to another, the ant is born into the job it will perform for life. The nurses are meticulous in caring for the young, They make sure dirt does not get into body segments, constantly licking the eggs and larvae.
They carry them gently to the proper place within the colony for each stage of development.-the right amount of moisture, warmth, etc. They move them to upper chambers for warmth during the day and lower chamber at night.
If it is raining outside, the nurses will dash around carrying their charges lower and lower where the rain might not penetrate. Worker ants concentrate on enlarging the nest, digging new chambers underground, making repairs where needed. They also keep the colony clean, removing dirt and debris and the dead. Soldiers are equipped with larger heads, a hard armorlike covering and larger and stronger jaws. They will attack insects, both for protection and for food. gatherers get the food. They can carry up to 50 times their weight. Or they may go as far as away as 600 feet and return with a single seed to store deep in the nest for the future- similar to a man walking 6 miles to the store and back for a loaf of bread.
Ant colonies depend on the female of the species for their creation and their continued existence. The queen and all the workers are female. Interestingly, scripture clearly indicates the female gender of workers ants-a fact that could not have been known when the Quran was revealed and certainly not when the Old Testament was written.
Yet Proverbs chapter 6, verses 6 through 8 says :Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn the wisdom; for though she has no chief, commander or ruler, she procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest. And in the Quran, sura 27, entitles "The Ant" there is the charming story of Solomon's troops verses 18 and 19:
[27:18-19] When they approached the valley of the ants, one ant said, "O you ants, go into your homes, lest you get crushed by Solomon and his soldiers, without perceiving."He smiled and laughed at her statement,* and said, "My Lord, direct me to be appreciative of the blessings You have bestowed upon me and my parents, and to do the righteous works that please You. Admit me by Your mercy into the company of Your righteous servants."
Both references are pointedly feminine, again something that would not have been known at this time.God has provided some amazing ways of life among the many species of ants. There are ants which steal eggs from other ant colonies and raise them as slaves. There are army ants which are constantly moving and hunting down insects. There are ants which keep herds of aphids and actually milk them, enjoying the substance the aphids produce from flowers.
There are ants which work in teams to sew leaves together to use in building their nests. And there are "parasol" ants which carry large leaf segments over their heads like umbrellas back to the nest,, where they partially chew them, then use them as mulch to grow mushrooms-their food of choice.
[55:10,13] He created the earth for all creatures... Which of your Lord's marvels can you deny ?


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Largest Melges 32 World Championship Ever Is San Francisco Bay Bound
22 September 2010
San Francisco, California - The International Melges 32 Class Association (IM32CA) is just days away from commencing its second World Championship, hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) in San Francisco, Calif. on September 22-25 with a record-breaking 32 entries. The fleet is naturally dominated by 23 North American entrants, 3 from Japan, 2 from Great Britain and one each from the Czech Republic, France, Italy and New Zealand. The illustrious Rolex Big Boat Series (RBBS) provides the perfect stage acting as Pre-Worlds. It is the ideal warm-up opportunity that promises a full serving of Bay Area breeze and stiff current for the 26 registered teams as they hone in on the class' World Championship trophy.
To no one's surprise, the entry list is long and right on target with class estimates. It is also safe to assume that the World Championship in San Francisco will produce intense competition as a vast number of teams have an excellent chance of doing well. A quick glance down the Official Event Crew List gives every indication that not only is sailing's elite present, but the racing will be tight, competitive, fast and seriously fun. From top to bottom it includes many of the season's owner/driver regatta champions. 2010 Key West Race Week Champion John Kilroy with tactician Stu Bannatyne on Samba Pa Ti, Jean-Francois Cruette's Teasing Machine and Miami Grand Prix winning tactician Christian Ponthieu, Gold Cup winner Rod Jabin on Ramrod with Chris Larson on tactics, East Coast Champion Alex Jackson on Leenabarca with tactician Rob Greenhalgh and Northeast Regatta Champ John Porter with tactician Jonathan McKee on Full Throttle will all be on task for a win.
The European contingent is equally strong. Front and center is 2010 Melges 32 European and USA Winter Series Circuit Champion Joe Woods on Red in true form with steady tactician Paul Goodison. Recently crowned 2010 Audi Melges 32 Sailing Series Champion Luca Lalli on B-lin Sailing will be in very good company with tactician, double (reigning) Melges 24 World Champion Lorenzo Bressani. Also, amongst his crew is former America's Cup helmsman Flavio Favini and triple Melges 24 World and multiple European Champion Federico Michetti.
"The Melges 32 is the most exciting one design class in the world." says North American Fleet President Stephen Pugh. "We are very excited about welcoming everyone to what is unequivocally the most beautiful and popular sailing venue in the world. The always exciting San Francisco Bay will fully satisfy the thrill seekers. Pair that with StFYC's world-class race committee led by John Craig and you have the makings of a monumental event."
If one were to attempt to narrow down the field and examine who potentially is in best position for trophy contention, it would include Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti. He has had a phenomenal year with exceptional high-end results beginning in Key West, simultaneously acquiring the prestigious Boat of the Week award. Kilroy has ventured beyond his backyard multiple times in 2010 in preparation for Worlds. He competed in Europe twice then returned in late August to win the inaugural California Cup/San Francisco Race Week.
Luca Lalli's B-lin Sailing will be a force to be reckoned with. His strong and consistent performances throughout Europe in 2010 places him high on the list alongside of fellow European Woods. His collection of accolades span regattas in North America and Europe that include second place finishes in Ft. Lauderdale and Key West, a fifth in Miami and a fourth in Harbor Springs. The icing on the cake was a more than well-deserved win in Cagliari at the European Championship.
Porter's powerful Full Throttle should not be underestimated either. A nice finish in Miami, a win in Newport and a fourth at Nationals is nothing to take lightly. He is also a former Melges 32 Division Champion at the Rolex Big Boat Series.
Returning to Worlds in full defense of the title and trophy, is Pieter Taselaar on Bliksem. Like Kilroy, Taselaar realizes the value in racing the European circuit and that it effectively raises the bar regarding crew work and pushes more aggressively for acquired boat speed. Two components, that Taselaar can attest, to win a World Championship is more than required, it's mandatory.
RBBS/Melges 32 Pre-Worlds competition commences on Thursday, September 16 and runs through Sunday, September 19. Official World Championship racing begins on Wednesday, September 22.
Moving forward into World Championship competition, seven of the eight scheduled 2010 USA Sailing Series events are complete with Porter leading by two slim points. In second overall is Woods and Kilroy is third. Woods captured the Winter Series title back in March (Gold Cup, Key West and Miami). Kip Meadows on roXanne, currently seated in fifth, had control for a short period of time, as did fourth place Jabin. Clearly the chase is on. Only seven points separate first from fifth positions.
View 2010 USA Sailing Series Standings
Full Entry List
1.) Phil Lotz/Rick Merriman, Arethusa
2.) Jason Carroll/John Baxter, ARGO
3.) Derek Campbell/Dalton Bergan, Banshee
4.) Martin Knetig/Martin Trcka, Black Mamba
5.) Pieter Taselaar/Jeremy Wilmot, Bliksem
6.) Luca Lalli/Lorenzo Bressani, B-lin Sailing
7.) Michael Dominguez/Anthony Kotoun, Bronco
8.) Naofumi Kamei/Kan Yamada, Bros.
9.) Malcolm Gefter/John Mollicone, Celeritas
10.) Ed Tillinghast/Charles Enright, Dark n' Stormy
11.) John Porter/Jonathan McKee, Full Throttle
12.) Doug Douglass/Russell Coutts, Goombay Smash
13.) Bob Hughes/Chris Rast, Heartbreaker
14.) Alex Jackson/Rob Greenhalgh, Leenabarca
15.) John Taylor/Andrew Campbell, Ninkasi
16.) Philippe Kahn/Mark Christensen, Pegasus-MotionX
17.) Jim Swartz/Gavin Brady, Q
18.) Rod Jabin/Chris Larson, Ramrod
19.) Joe Woods/Paul Goodison, Red
20.) Andy Lovell/Johnny Lovell, Rougarou
21.) Kip Meadows/Andy Horton, roXanne
22.) John Kilroy/Stu Bannatyne, Samba Pa Ti
23.) Geoff Pierini/Brad Read, Shakedown
24.) Takashi Okura/Francesco de Angeles, SLED
25.) Jeff Ecklund/Nathan Wilmot, STAR
26.) Stephen Pugh/Mark Ivey, Taboo
27.) Stuart Simpson/Nigel Young, Team Barbarians
28.) Jean Francois Cruette/Christian Ponthieu, Teasing Machine
29.) Stefan Goldwater/Andrew Wills, Tirade
30.) Don Jesberg/Zarko Draganic, Viva
31.) Steve Howe/Morgan Larson, Warpath
32.) Yukihiro Ishida/Hamish Pepper, Yasha Samurai
Full Entry List : Audi Melges 32 World Championship
Visit the official website of the International Melges 32 Class Association. If you are unable to attend the 2010 Melges 32 World Championship, stay in touch by subscribing to the IM32CA RSS Feed or visiting the Official Melges 32 Blog. The Melges 32 can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Melges 32 Pre-Worlds : Viewer Friendly
The St. Francis Yacht Club is considered one of the world's most spectacular venues for sailboat racing, with the club perched high on the shore of San Francisco Bay, where spectators can watch boats chase one another to the finish line set between a special mark and the yardarm atop the club's second-floor Race Deck.
Competitors, friends and fans can follow the regatta through the Event Website. With streaming blogs and race results direct from the race course, GPS-based boat tracking, live video, sailors interviews and daily highlights videos, all of the site's information will stream to the website courtesy of the StFYC's recently launched WiMax network.
Rolex Big Boat Series is part of the Rolex Yachting Portfolio that includes over 20 world-class sailing events that take place around the world including the Rolex Miami OCR, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Rolex Fastnet Race, Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
About St. Francis Yacht Club
Founded in 1927, St. Francis Yacht Club, within view of the Golden Gate Bridge, is a year-round host of over 40 regattas on San Francisco Bay. The club is renowned for its expertise in running world and national championships.


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SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Using a hand-held cellphone while driving soon will be illegal in Illinois.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Friday banning the use of cellphones held to the ear. Motorists will be able to use speakerphones or headsets that allow one-digit or voice-activated dialing.
The law takes effect Jan. 1.
The ban, which doesn't include emergencies, puts Illinois among 11 states and Washington, D.C., which also prohibit hand-held devices. Texting behind the wheel already is illegal in Illinois.
"We want drivers to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel," Sen. John Mulroe, a sponsor of the bill and a Chicago Democrat, said in a prepared statement. "The phone call can wait."
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, drivers using hand-held devices are four times more likely to get in a crash involving injuries. Distracted driving caused 387,000 injuries and 3,000 fatalities in 2011, the agency said.
House sponsor Rep. John D'Amico, D-Chicago, said motorists using a phone are not giving their full attention to "the most important task they have."
Quinn also signed into law Friday a measure increasing the penalties for motorists whose accident was caused by using an electronic device. It also takes effect Jan. 1.
Such an accident causing great bodily harm can earn a driver up to a year in prison, three years if death results. Current law only allows charging violators with traffic violations.
The initiative was sponsored by Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat, and Joliet Democratic Rep. Natalie Manley.
Quinn has been a strong supporter of measures to improve traffic safety and has promoted the fact that during his first year in office, in 2009, Illinois highway deaths dropped to fewer than 1,000 for the first time since 1921. They've stayed below that number each year since.
The hand-held phone bill is HB1247. The enhanced penalties bill is HB2585
Online: http://www.ilga.gov


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Idiot Steals A Bait Car & Fronts Like He Was Headed To Police Station! "I Was Bringing It Here So I Can Turn It In To The Cops. I Swear To God Sir!"
Posted by: @WorldStarVids
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A National Cotton Council leadership team visited China on Sept. 4-12 to gather information from Chinese cotton industry officials and update them on key facets of the U.S. cotton industry.
The U.S. cotton industry delegation was the fourth to visit China since the establishment of the U.S. — China Cotton Leadership Exchange Program by the NCC and the Chinese Cotton Association (CCA). This visit was part of the ongoing exchange between the two countries as was established by a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006 that promised cooperation between the countries' cotton industries.
The NCC delegation was led by NCC Vice-Chairman Charles Parker, a Senath, Mo., producer. Other team members included David Dunlow, a Roanoke Rapids, N.C., producer; Kirk Gilkey, a Corcoran, Calif., produce/ginner; Shawn Holladay, a Lubbock, Texas, producer, Richard Kelley a Burlison, Tenn., producer; Mike Quinn, a Garner, N.C., marketing cooperative representative, and Harrison Ashley, vice-president of NCC's Ginner Services.
While in Beijing, delegation members heard reports from CCA, the China National Textile and Apparel Council and Chinatex. In the Hebei Province, members visited Gaoyang Shuofeng Farm Products Co. where they visited farms, a cotton variety research center, a cotton gin and the Hongrun New Materials textile mill.
In Tianjin, the delegation visited the Tianjin Cotton Exchange Market, the Dongjang Free Trade Zone, the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, and the Tianjin Tianfanfg Textile Mill, which is a Cotton USA licensee. While in Hangzhou, the group visited JNBY and Saintyear textile mills, and they toured the Shanghai offices of Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated.
Parker said that one of visit's primary purposes was to relay the message to key Chinese cotton officials the U.S. cotton industry's continued commitment to deliver high quality cotton in a timely manner.
"China is the United States' largest customer of raw cotton and we are committed to meeting their needs in terms of both quality and timely shipments," Parker stated. "It was apparent the Chinese greatly appreciated our visiting them in their country and they expressed their desire for doing business with the U.S. cotton industry. This visit gave us the necessary platform to discuss issues surrounding U.S. raw cotton quality and reinforced our continued commitment to ongoing dialogue between our two countries."
The tour was coordinated by Cotton Council International, the NCC's export promotions arm.


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An outlet for the fourth (?) side of me.
posted by paul at 9:16 pm
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Moderators: JohnV, Arron, garym
mommylondon wrote:Hi Blue, this is how my left leg felt all the way through my first year with BFS...It was very uncomfortable, the muscles in that leg always felt like they had been over stretched, or over pulled...they could feel so tight like the muscles would rip through the skin, or I could feel my pulse so strong in that leg...it could keep me up at night...I'm sorry you are having this too, the only thing that I can suggest is some gentle stretches, massages, and keep walking...be sure you keep moving or this symptom only gets more annoying...
Take care
blue123rd wrote:My left leg aches mostly muscle from right up in the thigh around the knee to the foot. Its hard to stand on it for any lenght of time and when i sit at work all day thre leg feels like the muscles are tight and pulling. i get a little throbbing sometimes in the foot. im still worried about ALS. are exercises good for this walking stretching etc. Please help.
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What is this I see?! After being a bit behind on reading the blogs over the last few days, I sat down to catch up on what's been going on - and lo and behold! I've been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award, TWICE!!! That seriously made my evening, thank you so much Pony (Bionic Pony) and Laurie (Frozen Woman: Life with RA)! Glad someone enjoys my rantings...
Can I give it right back? I love those ladies, both are Canadian and I love Canada. And Canadians. And Canadians with RA. But seriously if you haven't read their blogs, go check them out, they're two awesome, funny, strong women who don't let RA stop them.
I'd also like to give it to Rheuma Girl (There's Always Rheum for Improvement). She's a fellow UK lass, the same age as me, who's had a lot on her plate the past few years. Her blog's awesome and she's really getting her life together and kicking RA's butt. It was also her birthday the other day.
Then there's Cathy (The Life and Adventures of Caterpoo) whose lovely heartwarming posts about her family always make me smile. She's been doing a lot better with RA lately and that also makes me happy ^_^
I'd also like to give it to Jenn (Project Jennifer) who is one cool chick who's been dealing with RA for a long time. She always entertains and inspires me with her funny and thoughtful musings. And she has an awesome fashion sense and lives in LA - so jealous.
Last but not least I'd like to award Terry (Dual Sport Life) because I don't want to forget the boys and men out there. Terry is such an inspiration and makes me want to keep pushing past my limits. He's not having too great a time lately but I know things will turn around soon. Oh and he rides motorbikes - so cool!
Is that too many?! Oh oh and I can't not award Amanda (All Flared Up). The first blog I started to read and oh my god that girl is funny. She's having a rough time too just now but she's always in my thoughts because when I was first diagnosed her blog gave me hope that you can be young and fun AND have RA. So yeah. Go Amanda.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'MTX' tag.
This week it will be 5 months since I started taking methotrexate. I'm grateful to say that my overwhelming experience has been positive. The anticipated post-medication nausea, headaches, and exhaustion have been minimal. And my body's overall response to the medication has been positive. I find myself with almsot "normal" energy on many days, which has been fabulous for my spirits, my life and my business.
But … and you know there's always a "but" … I do have one side effect that is a bit troublesome. I think MTX is affecting my menstrual cycle. Now I've discussed this with both my GYN and my Rheumy, and they both say this cycle distruption is "normal" for a 45-year-old. But I didn't have the slightest cycle disruption until 3 months ago. Nothing had changed in the last 8 years! So why, all of a "sudden," am I experiencing complete menstrual chaos?
Everything I find about MTX and menstrual cycles says there is the possibility of disturbance or spotting. What I don't know is whether it can induce complete menopause or if the effect is amenorrhea with hormones still present in some level. And again, it is frustrating to have the docs both saying … don't worry, you're 45 anyway. That seems like a lame excuse!
I know … I know … it IS a minor side effect in the big scheme of things. And it certainly isn't significant enough for me to stop taking methotrexate. Plus I think of friends who have had emergency hysterectomies for a variety of dramatic reasons when they were younger than I am now. And it was all bound to happen eventually. But I kinda like estrogen … it helps with a lot of vital functions in my body. And I just wasn't mentally prepared for this … thought I had about five years to wrap my brain around "the change."
They say that nothing is ever simple. And that's been the story of the last couple of Sundays (my MTX day) for me. Sunday of Week 4 was pretty good … if you don't count the two feet of snow that fell the day before. Sunday of Week 5 was pretty nasty … but not really because of the MTX.
I'm still finding that the ginger nearly eliminates the nausea. And that MTX makes me a bit more tired than usual.
But the biggest lesson over the last two weeks has been what my limits are. The snowstorms of February 2010 taught me that I may be able to do something I used to do (like shovel snow for an hour), but that the price I will pay is a steep one. And because I work in a business where happy clients are essential to my livelihood, it's been a challenge to figure out how to reschedule people and not hurt myself even further.
I have had alternating days of great accomplishment and productivity. Followed almost immediately by days of incredible fatigue and frustration. But somehow this still feels like an improvement.
Last summer when the RA hit my life with full force, I had a very simple rule. Do only what is necessary and take it very slow. My main symptom was overwhelming fatigue. I did have some joint pain, but it was 20% of the issue while fatigue was 80%.
Then when I began to take medicines for the RA, the rules changed. The fatigue levels are improving markedly, and actually that is making it harder. I find that I can do more, but that this is making the pain levels go up quite a bit. So, the new rule seems to be do whatever I can one day but don't forget I will pay for it the next day with exhaustion and discomfort. And if I go really nuts, I WILL be in pain.
My big challenge seems to be finding a balance of accomplishment and recovery. MTX day / Sunday seems to fit well as a recovery day. However, I clearly need more than one recovery day in the week. This is a very new concept for me … and one that will be another part of this luscious journey.


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How well do you know television shows? Test your skills by guessing the titles of TV shows - and use hints, skips and your friends along the way to help you conquer levels and climb the LEADERBOARD.
The game has tons of levels, categories, and hundreds of TV titles to guess. Each level consists of 12 TV cover images. A new level is unlocked after a player correctly guesses 8 of the 12 images. Additional points and achievements are earned for correctly guessing all images in a level.
The game offers tons of Game Center achievements to unlock, and has a LEADERBOARD on which players compete for global ranking. Better be fast, the quicker you answer, the more points you will be awarded.
The game enables players to use hints and skips to help answer questions. Hints can be earned by answering questions correctly and skips are awarded for completing certain tasks.
Players also have the opportunity to ask their friends for help on Facebook and Twitter by uploading an image and asking friends to comment.
Test your television skills and play the game that everyone is raving about.
Legal Disclaimer:
All TV show titles and images shown or represented in this game remain the property of their respective owners. We make no claim to and do not have any rights to any of the foregoing.


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Log analysis and log management are often considered dirty words to enterprises, unless they're forced to adopt them for compliance reasons. It's not that log analysis and management have a negative impact on the security posture of an organization -- just the opposite. But their uses and technologies are regularly misunderstood, leading to the potential for security breaches going unnoticed for days, weeks, and sometimes months.
According to the Verizon 2009 Data Breach Investigation Report (PDF), "66 percent of victims had sufficient evidence available within their logs to discover the breach had they been more diligent in analyzing such resources." This begs the question: Why is it that organizations big and small fail to do proper log analysis? Or after going through the effort to set up logging, why aren't they using those logs to detect issues as they arise?
The root cause of such problems stems from a fundamental lack of understanding about what should be logged, how the data should be centralized, and how it should be analyzed once collected. Even when a company implements a solution to address the first two issues, it's No. 3 that sends their staff straight into information overload -- a problem that can be just as bad as not having logs at all.
Log analysis is a daunting task that can benefit an organization both proactively and reactively. For example, if log analysis is done regularly, events leading up to a user account being broken into or a piece of hardware failing can be caught before serious damage can occur. Likewise, if a security breach does occur, then log analysis can provide the forensic evidence to determine what happened and which systems were affected.
Centralization is the first step. System administrators and security professionals do not have time to log into tens, hundreds, or even thousands of systems, so logs need to be shipped from the source to a hardened log collection server. The central collection server, whether located geographically or organizationally, can be as simple as a syslog server or as complex as a security information and event management (SIEM) solution.
Collecting logs is the easy part. It's how to manage them that's difficult for most IT shops: how to store the logs, how long to store them, whether you keep all of them, etc. Sometimes that can be handled by a SIEM or complementary product that focuses just on those tasks.
Then there's the analysis. Because no one wants to sit around and stare at logs all day, automation and correlation play a huge role in separating the wheat from the chaff. The key for any solution is to bring the events of interest to the surface so an analyst can alert the right people to address the problem. Essentially, log analysis, whether done through homegrown tools or an expensive SIEM, needs to feed actionable information to operations staff to deal with daily issues and security teams to handle incidents.


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This article discusses how hurricanes form, are named and categorized. An online game related to hurricanes is included, as is a short video featuring Hurricane Katrina.
Keywords: Hurricanes
Audience: Informal education
Materials Cost: Free
Materials Cost: Free


text: The Crimean War (1853-1856) stemmed from Russia's threat to multiple European interests with its pressure of Turkey. After demanding Russian evacuation of the Danubian Principalities, British and French forces laid siege to the city of Sevastopol in 1854. The campaign lasted for a full year, with the Battle of Balaclava and its "Charge of the Light Brigade" among its famous skirmishes. Facing mounting losses and increased resistance from Austria, Russia agreed to the terms of the 1856 Treaty of Paris. Remembered in part for Florence Nightingale's work for the wounded, the Crimean War reshaped Europe's power structure.


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8:00 pm
Joseph Rosendo's Travelscope "Riding The Range In Southern Alberta, Canada" Joseph visits ancient, sacred and historic native sites. He celebrates the rich heritage of the Blackfoot First Nations people. Then he saddles up and rides into the Alberta foothills in search of strays with Lucas family members on their ranch.G
8:30 pm
Lidia's Italy In America "California: Pasta - The Ultimate Showcase" Lidia returns to California to visit Andy Boy farm and learns all about broccoli rabe. Later, Lidia meets up with Dino Cortopassi, owner of Corto Olive, to hear his family's colorful culinary history. Join Lidia and Grandma in the kitchen as she makes Baked Stuffed Shells, Penne with Artichokes, and Bacon Orecchiette with Andy Boy's Broccoli Rabe. D
9:00 pm
Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen "Thrill of the Grill" NULL
9:30 pm
Simply Ming "Sake & Black Pepper" Guest Chef: Chris Schlesinger. The clean zing of sake works well with the rich heat of black pepper. These East-West ingredients show their versatility in Ming's recipes. D
10:00 pm
Taste of Louisiana with Chef John Folse & Co.: Our Food Heritage "The Battle of New Orleans" Although the American colonies declared themselves independent of Great Britain in 1776, true liberty was not achieved until 1783. But war raged again and Great Britain hoped to capture the mouth of the Mississippi River. Aly Baltrus visits with us about the Battle of New Orleans, and the victory that changed the course of American history. D
10:30 pm
Rick Steves' Europe "England's Bath & York" Rick takes in Medieval York and Georgian Bath, both easy sidetrips from London. He explores Roman hot springs, cruises canals, and marvels at England's finest Gothic church.G
11:00 pm
Adventists Explores the realities, and some of the ironies, of one of the few American-born religions: Seventh-day Adventism. Historical re-enactments offer a glimpse into the church's beginnings, including its defining moment: the mid-19th century event known as the Great Disappointment.G


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The son of slain Baltimore County police officer Jason Schneider threw out the first pitch at Thursday's Orioles game against the Chicago White Sox.
Brandon, 10, took the field at Camden Yards for the 7:05 p.m. game after attending a batting practice in the afternoon, where he met some players, said Orioles spokeswoman Monica Barlow.
She said the team is "more than happy to have him out. Anything we can do to help lighten the load for Brandon and help take his mind off of it for a little bit of time."
Schneider, an officer with the county's tactical unit, was killed while officers were attempting to serve a warrant at a Catonsville home Aug. 28, when he was shot by 25-year-old Tevon Smith. Schneider and a second officer returned fire, killing Smith.
Police were trying to arrest 16-year-old Rasheed Stanford, who was wanted in a previous non-fatal shooting in the area. Stanford was not at the house at the time but later turned himself in to police.
Schneider, a former Marine and Baltimore County officer since 2000, was buried at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium Saturday.
"We're appreciative of the opportunity by the Baltimore Orioles for Jason's family and the tactical team that worked so close with Jason," said Cole B. Weston, president of Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4.
He said members of the tactical unit were planning to attend the game with the family.
He said the union is also collecting donations for the Schneider Memorial Fund. Checks can be made to F.O.P. Lodge 4 with "Schneider Memorial Fund" on the memo line and mailed to:
F.O.P. Lodge #4
9304 Harford Road
Baltimore, MD 21234


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Micro businesses lift rural Nepalese out of povertyNov 22, 2011
Nepalgunj - Stalls at a fair in Nepal bulged with traditional textiles, art, spices, jewelry, bamboo furniture and food. The proud owners of these businesses are supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which has helped to build up micro businesses in rural areas like Nepalgunj, southwestern Nepal.
More than 80 percent of Nepal's population lives in rural areas where the lack of income-earning opportunities remains a central cause of the widespread poverty and worsening food security. Since 1998, UNDP's micro business project has created jobs for more than 50,000 new entrepreneurs, many of whom are women, young people or Dalits – a marginalized group in Nepal. The project also targets people with HIV, injecting drug users, and ex-combatants.
"UNDP always promotes what we call inclusive growth, and that growth should reach the furthest corners of the community," said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, who went to the Nepalgunj fair with Goodwill Ambassador Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway on the second day of their joint official visit to Nepal. "What I liked about this particular initiative is that is has been reaching people who had had very low incomes and had been very marginalized. It's about making sure that the growth strategies bring everybody's living standard up, not just the people at the top."
"It was fantastic to see all of the work that has been done here," said Crown Prince Haakon. "It is very impressive to see how you all are able to take an idea and make it real through relatively small investments and make it into a viable small business."
The programme has been so successful that the government has implemented it in 45 districts, with plans to double that number in the next few years. A 2010 assessment found that this initiative has had a large economic and social impact on its beneficiaries, with 73 percent of its participating households moving out of poverty. About 80 percent of the enterprises begun under the project continue to do business today, and nearly 500 of these micro enterprises have grown to become small enterprises.
Helen Clark and Crown Prince Haakon also inaugurated a new maternity centre in Kamdi Village that began as part of a grassroots project to improve maternal health through female community health volunteers. The centre was constructed earlier this year with support from UNDP as part of the joint UN local governance programme. The center will assist nearly 1,800 households in the village and neighboring villages. UNDP has been at the forefront of programmes supporting local governance and community development in Nepal for two decades.


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Fox Issues DMCA Takedown To Google Over SF Chronicle Article... Claiming It Was The Movie 'Chronicle'
from the on-the-penalty-of-perjury dept
SFGate? That's the website for the San Francisco Chronicle -- the main newspaper in San Francisco. So what was infringing? According to the DMCA notice (which says the filing came from Irdeto, the company that acquired BayTSP last year), insisted that what was actually at that link was:
"The copyrighted work at issue is the film "Chronicle", which is owned by "Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation"Now, wouldn't that be something if the SF Chronicle was distributing the movie Chronicle illegally? But, of course, that's hogwash. The truth is that BayTSP and Fox screwed up. The SFGate article is now back online and you can see it's just an editorial about how SF Muni (the local public transit authority) should let students ride for free. That has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the movie Chronicle. What's amazing is the word "Chronicle" doesn't even show up in the article. It obviously shows up elsewhere on the page. After all, it is the website for the SF Chronicle.
Of course, in filing this DMCA takedown, BayTSP -- who is a "trusted user" of the takedown system -- swears upon the following statements:
I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described in all notifications submitted through the Program as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.That's clearly bunk, however, since nothing on that page is even remotely related to the movie Chronicle. How do you have a "good faith belief" that there's infringement when you clearly didn't even take the briefest second to look.
The information in all notifications submitted through the Program will be accurate, and I swear, under penalty of perjury, that with respect to those notifications, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.


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Nueva Canción y Demás is an hour-long exploration of the protest music created throughout Latin America during the 60's and 70's, decades characterized by a particularly dynamic sociopolitcal climate. Nueva Canción itself coming out of Chile, with figures such as Víctor Jara, Violeta Parra, and Inti-Illimani adding politically-charged lyrics to traditional cuecas, huaynos, and other folk rhythms, listeners will also listen to and learn about similar genres and musicians of other nationalities, such as Cuban Nueva Trova and Argentinians like Atahualpa Yupanqui and Mercedes Sosa. This program may also feature indigenous music and revolutionary poetry of the region, and is conducted both in English and Spanish.
10:00pm - 11:00pm


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External VFS Handler Downloads
This page lists external VFS handlers that are available for source code download.
Pre-built versions of external VFS handlers may also appear here if the licensing terms for the related database package allows redistribution. Where a pre-built version is not available, users will need to compile the source program, using whatever libraries and include files are needed from their database product installation. See the relevant manufacturer's documentation for more information.
Before using a VFS handler, including pre-built handlers, please read the comment text at the top of the source code version as this may describe important issues that must be considered before using the VFS handler. In the worst case, failure to observe usage rules may result in corruption of data on the remote system.
Submission of handler programs for environments not currently listed here is always welcome.
Right click on the Download text and select Save Target As. (Mac users should hold down the Apple key and click).


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Invictus and Vanguard Games worked together on two games in 2011. Mist Bouncer features the robots from Greed Corp who have to jump higher and higher to reach the top to complete each level. Players have to be extremely careful: there are many perils and various enemies who wait eagerly to stop the way up to the top, and some of the platforms can easilly dissappear below them.
The game features:
- 3 different themes, with 9 exciting levels each
- 3+1 special robot characters from Greed Corp, all with their special abilities
- Various power ups: Hot-air balloons and Rocket-boosters to name a few
- In-game shop with numerous items to buy
- Cargo-breaking mini-game at the end of each level
After finishing each stage they are transported in a plane where the robots have to smash cargo boxes in a brick-breaking mini game. Mist Bouncer also features a survival mode and many extra gadgets that help players to achieve a higher score. Additionally, when users purchase Greed Corp they get another amazing robot with advanced features in Mist Bouncer.
Mist Bouncer is available for free on iOS.
Source: The Publisher Website.


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The X-Rated Run Features Some Down and Dirty Fun
How would you like to play around in the mud? No, that's not an innuendo (well, only kinda); it's what you'll be doing at the X-Rated Run in March.
On March 22, 2014, runners will gather in Bunnell, Florida to participate in the X-Rated Run. It is described as "THE ORIGINAL, FIRST OF ITS KIND, 5K adult-themed obstacle course race for all people over 18 of all fitness abilities!"
Runners will be tasked with conquering many sex-themed obstacle courses during the run, such as the Dominatrix Dungeon maze, the Deep Throat rope climb, the Boob Wall climb, the Back Door Crawl through the mud and a nice crawl through a giant penis. Plenty of runners will get to relive the journey they first made when they escaped the confines of their fathers' reproductive organs. Fun!
The X-Rated Run was started by Kelly Perez, an adult novelty store owner and obstacle-course aficionado. She teamed up with a former ING Marathon race director to bring her idea of a sex-themed obstacle-course to life.
According to an interview with Perez on Sports Illustrated: Extra Mustard, the run is only sex-themed in nature, but not in practice. That means that no nudity and sexual behavior is allowed.
Perez said, "The Dominatrix Dungeon will be an enclosed mud-filled maze resembling a dungeon. You'll be in almost complete darkness surrounded by metal hanging chains, whips, and bondage-like items. We'll have a surprise or two waiting for you inside that will 'whip' you into shape. The Blue Balls Dash is just that: A dash through very large, blue rubber balls that are hitting you in the face."
Check out the NSFW renderings of a few of the obstacle courses. There will apparently a few porn stars that will participate in the run, as well as other adult entertainment representatives, like pole dancers and burlesque performers. If you finish, you'll receive a free beer, a condom-shaped medal and get an entry to become Ms. or Mr. X-Rated 2014. This honor comes with a prize of $690. Get it?
You can register to be a racer for $65 or as a spectator for $25 on this site.


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Food Waste by Composting it for School Gardens.REDUCE Water consumption by educating about the safety of water
fountains and cutting down our water bottle waste. RECYCLE
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Report: U.S. Muslim Terrorism Was Practically Nil in 2012
Try as al-Qaida might to encourage them, American Muslims still aren't committing acts of terrorism. Only 14 people out of a population of millions were indicted for their involvement in violent terrorist plots in 2012, a decline from 2011′s 21. The plots themselves hit the single digits last year.
So much for a widespread stereotype. According to data tracked by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security in North Carolina and released Friday (.PDF), there were nine terrorist plots involving American Muslims in 2012. Only one of them, the attempted bombing of a Social Security office in Arizona, actually led to any violence. There were no casualties in that or any other incident. And the Triangle study tracks indictments, not convictions.
Terrorist incidents from American Muslims is on the decline for the third straight year. After an uptick in 2009, there were 18 plots in 2011 involving 21 U.S. Muslims. And it's not just violent plots: Fewer Muslim-Americans are getting indicted for money laundering, material support for terrorism, and lying to investigators. There were 27 people indicted on those terror-support charges in 2010, eight in 2011 and six in 2012.
"Online, there's all sorts of radical material out there — exhortations to violence, [instructions], and yet despite it being out there, so few people are taking it up," University of North Carolina sociologist Charles Kurzman tells Danger Room. Kurzman's research has been the driving force behind the Triangle study for the past four years. "From the democratization of the means of violence, accelerated by the internet, we might expect to see more violence and, fortunately, we haven't."
Chart: Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security
The encouragement is indeed widespread. Al-Qaida and its sympathizers propagandize heavily online, from message boards and YouTube videos that purport to provide religious justifications for violence to the English-language magazine of al-Qaida's Yemen offshoot that offers practical advice for DIY jihadis.
Since 9/11, Kurzman and his team tallies, 33 Americans have died as a result of terrorism launched by their Muslim neighbors. During that period, 180,000 Americans were murdered for reasons unrelated to terrorism. In just the past year, the mass shootings that have captivated America's attention killed 66 Americans, "twice as many fatalities as from Muslim-American terrorism in all 11 years since 9/11," notes Kurzman's team.
Law enforcement, including "informants and undercover agents," were involved in "almost all of the Muslim-American terrorism plots uncovered in 2012," the Triangle team finds. That's in keeping with the FBI's recent practice of using undercover or double agents to encourage would-be terrorists to act on their violent desires and arresting them when they do — a practice critics say comes perilously close to entrapment. A difference in 2012 observed by Triangle: with the exception of the Arizona attack, all the alleged plots involving U.S. Muslims were "discovered and disrupted at an early stage," while in the past three years, law enforcement often observed the incubating terror initiatives "after weapons or explosives had already been gathered."
The sample of Muslim Americans turning to terror is "vanishingly small," Kurzman tells Danger Room. Measuring the U.S. Muslim population is a famously inexact science, since census data don't track religion, but rather "country of origin," which researchers attempt to use as a proxy. There are somewhere between 1.7 million and seven million American Muslims, by most estimates, and Kurzman says he operates off a model that presumes the lower end, a bit over 2 million. That's less a rate of involvement in terrorism of less than 10 per million, down from a 2003 high of 40 per million, as detailed in the chart above.
Yet the scrutiny by law enforcement and homeland security on American Muslims has not similarly abated. The FBI tracks "geomaps" of areas where Muslims live and work, regardless of their involvement in any crime. The Patriot Act and other post-9/11 restrictions on government surveillance remain in place. The Department of Homeland Security just celebrated its 10th anniversary. In 2011, President Obama ordered the entire federal national-security apparatus to get rid of counterterrorism training material that instructed agents to focus on Islam itself, rather than specific terrorist groups.
Kurzman doesn't deny that law enforcement plays a role in disrupting and deterring homegrown U.S. Muslim terrorism. His research holds it out as a possible explanation for the decline. But he remains surprised by the disconnect between the scale of the terrorism problem and the scale — and expense — of the government's response.
"Until public opinion starts to recognize the scale of the problem has been lower than we feared, my sense is that public officials are not going to change their policies," Kurzman says. "Counterterrorism policies have involved surveillance — not just of Muslim-Americans, but of all Americans, and the fear of terrorism has justified intrusions on American privacy and civil liberties all over the internet and other aspects of our lives. I think the implications here are not just for how we treat a religious minority in the U.S., but also how we treat the rights & liberties of everyone."


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Are "The Entrappers" Causing your Hand and Arm Pain?Print
By Pressure Positive September 19, 2014 Leave a comment Go to comments
If there is one muscle group that must be evaluated in every case of hand and arm pain, it is the group of three neck muscles called the Scalenes. The ability of the Scalenes to trap and compress nerves and blood vessels led Dr. Janet Travell (physician to JFK) to give them the nickname, "The Entrappers."
Read the full article which includes valuable self care techniques by clicking below:
Are "The Entrappers" Causing your Hand and Arm Pain?
Posted in: Monthly Newsletter Tags: Backnobber II, neck pain, Trigger Point Therapy, Injury Prevention, trigger points, self care, self care tips, treating trigger points, Myofascial Trigger Points, Jacknobber II, Myofascial Pain, muscle pain, help with pain, self treatment, TMJ self care, Self Care in Trigger Point Therapy, Arm Pain, Hand Pain, Pinched nerve, Scalenes
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"I know people say ownership turned a blind eye to it, and they probably did in some circumstances. But people were going to start losing interest in watching a bunch of clowns out there on drugs, doing things normal people couldn't even think about doing."
—Former Chicago White Sox pitcher Kelly Wunsch on labor negotiations in 2002, when players and owners struggled to agree on a drug-testing program.
"I'm sure there have been mistakes made along the way, but we're here now. I'm a human being. I've had two hip surgeries. I've had two knee surgeries. I'm fighting for my life. If I don't defend myself, no one else will."
—New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez on his decision to appeal a 211-game Biogenesis-related suspension.
"They're making him earn that two-year extension."
—Detroit Manager Jim Leyland on Cleveland outfielder Ryan Raburn, who pitched a perfect ninth inning against the Tigers on Thursday, one day after signing a two-year, $4.85-million extension with the Indians.


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Members that look too old to be in the band
I thought Tommy Aldridge (first left)was Whitesnakes dad or summet.
Anyone else?
Charlie Watts
has always looked 20 yrs older than the Rolling Stonesfurio this'd this
Drummer exclusively?
Although Mick Marrs looks old, an pretty frightening
- Royter-Hatfood this'd this
- Dinohead86 this'd this
my bandAnthonyc this'd this
how does that work having an old geezer in the band?
how has that come about?
works like any other band really
we met him at a local music shop and discovered he had a band. We went to see them and was completely in awe. Soon after that we became the band. I think they've been around for 35 years now.
do you find you get funny reactions from people - cos its not the norm?
we did for ages
people often told us they'd like our band if our singer wasn't old, indicating that they like the music we play but for them is marred by how we look. Nice huh? We don't really get any weird reactions anymore though. We seem to play to an older demographic now, and incidentally they seem to give far less of a shit.
That photo has made me laugh, a lot
Mad props to him though.furio this'd this
That is
BADASSniallKP and theShipment this'd this
Thom Yorke
has not aged well.
- yuggy this'd this
- Teepee_uk this'd this
Pat Smear
in any band he's ever been in
Johnny Marr
in any band he's ever been in
Pretty much all of New Order.
The Only Ones, yikes.
Thor Harris
The drummer for Swans but he looks out of place in his other band Shearwater:
Excellent drummer btw.
i met Thor
after their set at an atp, seemed like a good egg.
The singer from the Peppermint Apes
he has a receding hairline ffs.


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Apr 14, 2009
April 14, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Sophomore Kevin Pang collected his first individual honor of the season after being named the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Tennis Singles Player of the Week. In a 2-0 week for MIT, he registered a pair of wins in the No. 1 singles position. Pang defeated Wheaton's Neall Oliver, 6-3, 6-3, before topping Greg Mitchell (Coast Guard), 6-1, 6-1.
Next up for the regionally-ranked No. 12 Engineers is a home non-conference tilt against Brandeis University on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.


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NPHY is the most comprehensive service provider for the thousands of homeless youth in Southern Nevada, serving hundreds of youth through our core programs and touching the lives of thousands more through outreach each year.
NPHY's programs stabilize homeless teens' lives, meeting their immediate needs and providing a safe, supportive environment and a path to self-sufficiency.
Through work with homeless youth, NPHY creates productive, healthy adults who contribute to society.


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by Pete Mazzaccaro
Last month, two great local minds — historian David Contosta and landscape architect Carol Franklin — collaborated on a four-volume history of the Wissahickon titled "Metropolitan Paradise: The Struggle for Nature in the City, Philadelphia's Wissahickon Valley 1620-2020" (St Joseph's University Press).
As that title and the number of volumes suggests, Metropolitan Paradise is a comprehensive history that begins in the 400 year history of the valley from its time as the untouched wilderness home of the Lenni Lenape to a bustling mill corridor and from its protection as a post-Civil War park to its current place as an everyday destination for joggers and mountain bikers.
The book is the 18th by Contosta, who has been a professor of history at Chestnut Hill College for 37 years. Among those books, he is the author of the authoritative history of Chestnut Hill, "Suburb in the City." Carol Franklin is a founder of the world-renowned firm Andropogon Associates, a landscape and environmental design firm.
I had a chance to meet with David Contosta just before Christmas to talk about his book the book and about the Wissahickon, its history, its place in the fabric of life in Northwest Philadelphia and challenges facing the valley's preservation now and in the foreseeable future.
How did the idea for this book evolve?
The Friends of the Wissahickon approached me about doing something in the mid 1990s. And then I was working with Carol Franklin's firm on a landscape plan for Villanova University. I had done a book on Villanova. They (the school) called me because I knew how the landscape had evolved over the last 150 years.
I had met Carol before, I had heard her talk, but I didn't know her all that well. When we were working together, we talked about the Wissahickon. So we half-jokingly started talking about writing the book together. We started talking about it in1998. Merging our backgrounds is something that worked out very well. I'm a social and cultural historian, she's a landscape architect. We complimented each other.
What was the research like? How long did it take?
We did the research as we went along. I was able to draw on research I had already done on Northwest Philadelphia. Carol was able to draw on some things that she knew from her profession. I'd say the research and writing occurred over a 12-year period of time. We also interviewed people who were experts in their field.
What do you think the Wissahickon's place is in identity of Northwest Philadelphia?
Let me first say is that we don't see this as a local book. We see it as a microcosm of urban stream values throughout the United States and throughout the world. This struggle for nature in the city.
The first volume of the book is called Wilderness. We try to give a sense of what the valley was like before Europeans came. It's based on conjecture, because the Lenni Lenape didn't have a written language, but we based it on what some of the early travelers here and early settlers had to say about the area. We drew from what
Penn said and Pastorius, the founder of Germantown.
This was a perfect lace for an industrial revolution. The Wissahickon falls a little more than 300 feet from its source in Montgomeryville, so they could build dams and create mills.
In the last chapter we talk about the Romantics who went crazy for the valley. This paved the way for a park, because even when there were mills here, people were coming up here to paint and hike and picnic.
When did people get the impulse to say 'We need to hang on to this?'
Actually there was an international park movement. England established the first major public parks. It's again part of this romantic impulse that cities were crushing people. Cities are breeding violence and sickness. People are stultifying in offices and factories. They see it as a safety valve so people can get out of the pressure cooker of the urban area.
In the 1850s, Philadelphia is one the most important manufacturing centers in the United States. It's a major industrial hub. So the park is seen as a very important aspect of urban reform. They brought Frederick Law Olmstead down who designed Central Park — some people think Olmstead designed Fairmount Park, but he didn't — and he advocated that they take the Wissahickon. Olmstead thought that the park would have a democratizing effect. The park could be a country estate for everyone regardless of their socio-economic background.
The second impulse in Philadelphia had to do with the water supply. There was the water works where the Art Museum is now and the reservoir is where the museum is now. Warehouses and factories were being built on the Schuylkill above the waterworks and polluting the water. So part of the impulse was to buy the land and tear down the warehouses and factories on both sides of the Schuylkill to safeguard the water supply.
Because the Wissahickon was a major tributary to the Schuylkill, they wanted to take the Wissahickon partly for that reason, too. The Fairmount Park Commission was created in 1867 but they started to buy property in the Wissahickon in 1868. They wanted to buy the mills and tear them down.
I saw a piece you wrote recently about the difference between the way Roxborough and Chestnut Hill developed different relationships with the park.
The Wissahickon really divides the old German Township from the old Roxborough Township.
There's a great old aerial photograph in the book in which you can see on the Chestnut Hill and Mt Airy side, the forest is imperceptibly filtered into the community. You can't tell where the parks stops and the neighborhood begins. On the Roxborough side they clear cut right to the edge of the park. This partly has to do with when development took place. Upper Roxborough was isolated and relatively hard to get to until Henry Avenue was completed.
When the Houston estate was divided, Sam Houston got control of Roxborough side. Sam Houston had a really hard time developing upper Roxborough because, (A) it was inaccessible and (B) because it already had a reputation as a blue-collar neighborhood. He tried to get Temple University to move there and he even thought the U.N. was going to take Andorra. The U.N. was considering building its headquarters at the Belmont Plateau, but housing was going to be in Andorra. Nothing developed, and in the 1950s, they developed Andorra homes and the shopping center.
Another difference is in the main roadways to access each side of the valley. Lincoln drive was designed and planned in 1890s before automobiles appeared on the horizon. They started building it in 1900. It was built between 1900and 1907. Even then, the automobile was not that important. Lincoln drive follows the contours of the Wissahickon and the Monoshone Creek and brings the park into the community. They designed Henry Avenue to look like an interstate highway. It cuts Roxborough off from the park.
How important has Friends of the Wissahickon been to the Wissahickon?
Extremely important. There is a long tradition of voluntary organizations in Northwest Philadelphia going way back into the 19th century. It's partly because Chestnut Hill was far removed from the city. Even after the county consolidation, folks downtown didn't pay a lot of attention to things here.
People up here started their own voluntary organizations. They even paved Germantown Avenue at one point. You also had people up here who had the resources. They had the money and the know how. They weren't going to roll over and play dead. Later on they put a lot of pressure on the city to provide services.
The FOW was established in 1924 mainly as a reaction to the Chestnut blight. Between 1/4 to 1/3 of all the trees on the heights of the Wissahickon were chestnut trees. The blight started in New York and got here in 1914. By 1924 the chestnuts had all died. So the friends came together as a reforestation group. Dr. George Woodward was one of them. They began to clear away the dead trees and to replant trees.
They got into a big fight with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in the 1930s because the WPA gave the Fairmount Park Commission a big grant to put in ball fields and pavilions. People like George Woodward were purists. They said it was going to wreck the park and the purity of the wilderness.
Part of it was political because people in Chestnut Hill were Republicans and FDR was "That Man." Philadelphia tried to keep New Deal money out of Philadelphia because Republicans were afraid it would give patronage to the Democratic party — which was a joke because Republicans actually paid the rent for Democratic headquarters to pretend like there was opposition.
They finally cut a deal in 1938. They had a meeting at the Valley Green Inn and the park commission agreed to construct all these buildings out of local natural building materials: Wissahickon schist and local wood to fit in with the valley. They were designed to look like log cabins. It's an irony now that after the Friends of the Wissahickon fought them tooth and nail, they now have been responsible for restoring these structures.
They saved the Valley Green Inn in the 1930s. It had been saved from demolition by the colonial dames in the 1890s and the FOW took it over, and now lease it out to the Inn's restaurant business. Without the FOW, though, to raise money and organize work in the park, the Wissahickon Valley would be a real mess.
What do you think are threats to the valley in the future?
One of the threats would be invasive exotic vegetations. Plants not native to this area that are smothering out and crowding out native vegetation. A lot of these plants were brought in by nurseries in the late 19th, early 20th century.
The Andorra Nursery was the largest tree nursery in the Eastern half of the United States. They had 1,400 acres and extended all the way out the Ridge Avenue corridor to Ridge and Butler Pike. They advertised Norway Maples as perfect shade trees. Well they got out of people's backyards and they're terrible because they smother out everything beneath. Believe it our not Japanese maples are also a problem.
Deer, of course, are a real problem, too. Whitetail deer disappeared entirely from the Wissahickon and had actually disappeared from South Eastern Pennsylvania by the mid 1800s because they had been hunted to extinction. They gradually filtered back into the area. in the 1970s. Because there aren't any predators, they just reproduce massively and they eat everything on the forest floor. When seedlings come up, they get eaten. They were literally destroying the forest.
What people didn't understand is that deer had come back relatively recently. And they're a good example of how when a species is out of balance with nothing to balance its growth you can have a catastrophic situation. I think another threat to the valley is development along the edges of the valley. The city actually created a special zoning ordinance for the valley, but the runoff is still a threat. This is particularly true on the Roxborough side where there are large parking lots. The lots were put in before DEP regulations.
Is that more a problem outside the city?
Yes, in the last section, we talk about the corridor. A real threat is a lack of coordination around that corridor. Outside the city the Wissahickon goes through 12 different municipalities. In Pennsylvania, development issues are turned over to the smallest possible governmental unit. When you're dealing with a watershed it could be dangerous. We have situations where municipalities create problems for other townships to deal with. We have not only runoff, but also sewage and other pollution.
All the way back in the 1890s there was the desire to extend Fairmount park into Ft. Washington. The leader of this was John Morris, owner of what became the Morris Arboretum. They got the state to agree to buy up and land along the Wissahickon in Montgomery County. But it was not properly funded. What they were able to do in the '20s was to buy Fort Hill and Militia Hill, which became Ft. Washington State Park.
In the years since, through county park land, municipal parkland, Ft. Washington State Park and private land, there's a swath of over 3,000 acres of open space between the end of Fairmount Park in Chestnut Hill and Ft. Washington. So in a crazy patchwork, the dream of extending the park to Ft. Washington has been fulfilled, but not as it should.
Is the biggest point here that the Wissahickon was saved and restored by people who lived here?
Yes by people who lived here who rolled up their sleeves and did it. The original FOW members weren't the kind of people to do the work and get their hands dirty, but that all changed by the 1980s. So they have saved it either through putting pressure on government or raising their own money. The FOW has raised millions
of dollars because people really care about the Wissahickon.
We talked about trying to create a regional governing system not unlike SEPTA. Some authority to look after it and that would be super-imposed over local government to take fend off the threats of invasive species, deer and development.


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The Shibboleth of "The Literary Establishment"
The cause of the annoyance is an article in the latest New York Review of Science Fiction, which arrived in the mail today. First, before I really start a-ranting, I should say I am quite fond of NYRSF and recommend that everyone on Earth should subscribe to it. It presents an admirably broad collection of voices every month, and the discussions it engenders and hosts are often valuable and fascinating. In fact, if I ever get to the point of moving my ideas beyond blind ranting, I might write them up as an essay in response to the one I'm about to yell about, and submit it there. For now, though, I'm just going to vent some spleen.
The article that has caused me so much annoyance is by Jason Sanford and titled "Dipping Their Toes in the Genre Pool: The U.S. Literary Establishment's Need-Hate Relationship with Speculative Fiction". Even the title makes me want to scream.
If this article were anomalous, if it did not represent an argument that I have heard over and over again, it wouldn't bother me. Instead, it is simply a longer (and better written) version of what gets said again and again in book reviews in SF magazines, on the discussion boards for various SF groups, in conversations and panel discussions at SF conventions. And it is ignorant. Provincial, blind, idiotic, ridiculous, silly, simplistic. People making such an argument look like fools.
Sanford is upset that Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road is not recognized by book reviewers as part of the SF tradition of post-apocalyptic novels, particularly Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz. He blames "the U.S. literary establishment" and "elite reviewers". He attempts to define his terms, citing The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, and "many influential book publishers" in New York. He uses the word "literati". He cites A.O. Scott at the Times and the Times's list of the top novels of the past twenty-five years. (A list plenty of people objected to, laughed at, criticized, ignored.) He writes this utterly ignorant and self-evidently false paragraph:
While no one has done an in-depth analysis of the tastes of the country's top literary reviewers, the fact that Scott can publicly dismiss most speculative fiction out of hand without any public uproar or career repercussions suggests his views are not too different from the rest of the literary elite.What is there, some sort of secret room where the "literary elite" goes and sucks on cigars and dismisses popular fiction? Scott's horrifying statement, the one Sanford thinks he should suffer for is this: "With a few exceptions, I've never much enjoyed detective or espionage novels, science fiction or fantasy, largely because I often find the writing in these kind of books to be clumsy and uninspired." Obviously, he should be fired for expressing such an opinion. It's a far more justifiable one than nearly any sentence in Sanford's essay.
The problem with any argument about "the literary establishment" and "the literary elite" is that those things don't really exist. It's especially silly to say that reviewers are this establishment, this elite -- newspapers are cutting review coverage right and left, fiction coverage is becoming nearly as endangered as poetry coverage, major publishers are trying to maximize profits and minimize the midlist, and -- well, just read Galleycat for a week.
Are there reviewers who don't like much SF? Sure. There are reviewers who don't like John Updike, reviewers who don't like cookbooks, reviewers who don't like Hillary Clinton -- even reviewers who don't like stuff I do! There are also people like Michael Dirda at the Washington Post, who has an informed and nuanced and even passionate knowledge of all sorts of different types of fiction. Don't like the Times? Read the Post.
Sanford then goes off on "the canon". This doesn't exist, either, and even if it does, it's not the creation of reviewers (there you're going to need to talk about academics, but that's an entirely different and more complex conversation). First, he says, "The literary establishment continues to dictate what books are in and out of the literary canon (which, for our purposes, are those books which form an integral part of Western civilization)." He then moves on to that same NY Times list of twenty-five books. Ahhh, the books that are an integral part of Western civilization -- as brought to you by the Times!
Okay, so the Times polled lots of writers and critics, and we could say that's "the literary establishment" if we really want to give a few employees at one newspaper the right to determine such a thing, but it doesn't follow then that this is "the literary canon". While it might be possible to speak of some writers like Shakespeare and Keats as "canonical", it makes no sense to use the term "literary canon" to talk about anything recent, because there is simply too much disagreement amongst everybody -- no-one could possibly write up a list of canonical works or writers of the past twenty-five years and come to much agreement. It's hard enough to get anybody to agree about older writings, and even then the concept of canons is up for lots of debate, because you always have to ask who it is who is mandating these canons, who has the authority to enforce their power, what cultural and social factors affect their production and promulgation, etc. (At the beginning of his essay, Sanford asserts that there are only 25,000 readers of litfic in the U.S. -- even if all these people agreed about all the books in "the canon", what would it matter?)
Sanford asks, "But why does the literary establishment love letting their writers mine the themes and tropes of speculative and other genre fiction while still rejecting it as a whole?" Okay, so there's this literary establishment -- let's call it Biff's -- and at Biff's, Biff is the guy in charge. Anybody who comes in, Biff sez to 'em, he sez, "You know those themes and tropes of speculative and other genre fiction? That's good stuff. Use it a lot here. We like it. I'll give you free beer if you use it. But don't let me see you doin' any of that sci-fi in here. We hate that shit."
Come on! Does Sanford really believe there is a monolithic creature called "the literary establishment" and it has the power to let writers do some things and not others? Like, what, the Mafia? Publishers and distributors certainly have power to put work in print, to promote it, etc., but what profit-loving publisher wouldn't want a writer to be Stephen King or Dan Brown rather than a writer who is thrilled if they can sell 5,000 copies? Sure, a review in the Times can help a novel sell, but the Times reviews so few books, and particularly so few books of fiction, that the vast majority of what is published is not reviewed there, including books marketed as literary fiction.
Sanford then talks about Michael Chabon and about various novels that are "literary fantasies". He says, "Unfortunately, the genres are not getting credit for their victories and, despite winning battles, may still lose the larger literary war."
Huh? What war is this? To the victor go the ... labels? "There is nothing wrong with literary writers like Cormac McCarthy dipping into the genres of speculative fiction." (I'm sure that Cormac McCarthy will be thrilled to know he has Jason Sanford's permission to write his books.) "If a writer can craft a masterpiece of fiction, then who cares what genre the masterpiece exists within?" (This assumes we can define such things as genre and masterpiece, and that they are stable.) "However, if the United States literary establishment allows their writers to embrace speculative fiction, then the literary establishment should likewise acknowledge the great writers of speculative fiction whose works preceded these current literary trends."
Ay yi yi! Again with the "literary establishment" allowing things! When Cormac McCarthy came up with the idea for The Road, did he have to get a contract signed in blood by Biff that would allow him to write the book? Or else he would ... what, not be published?
What Sanford wants is for Cormac McCarthy to come out and say, "Hey, I read this Walter M. Miller guy, and he's pretty damn good! All you weirdos who read sci-fi, you know where it's at!" But he's not going to. Because he's probably never read Walter M. Miller.
I'm sorry, but Miller is at best tangential to any discussion of McCarthy. It might make for an interesting compare-and-contrast paper for a bright high schooler, but other than that, Miller and McCarthy have as little to do with each other as Heinlein and Voltaire.
See, the thing is, most SF tropes and subject matter are not unique, and few are even limited to books. There are a gazillion end-of-the-world movies that McCarthy could have seen, movies that perhaps informed his imagination. Or maybe not. Maybe he just came up with the idea on his own. It's not like apocalypse is something people haven't imagined for, oh, I dunno, a few thousand years.
Readers like Sanford love to think that they're part of a special, marginalized club, but the marginalization comes as much from within their own martyr complexes as any real-world action. There is no "need-hate" relationship, because whatever "literary establishment" you choose to identify doesn't care enough to either need or hate SF. Get over it!
I'm sorry all you suffering science fiction readers don't get the respect you cherish from the elitists you scorn. Once my heart stops bleeding for Paris Hilton, maybe it will start bleeding for you.


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Welcome Back
Now that I'm getting into Art Journaling, it is difficult to find rubber stamps that have the right phrases. I have individual wood mounted alphabets, but these are tricky to line up nicely. Whilst searching in the local Hobby Craft store, I found Making Memories Magnetic Stamp sets.
Like other font systems you need to buy a hand tool, to mount the stamps onto, but it is a one-off added cost. The hand tool has three space options for stamps; single letter, one line and two line.Once you have a hand tool, to mount the stamps on, you just choose the style that suits your project. I chose the Rummage font.
Rummage is a slightly distressed version of a classic typewriter style font. When I've had a play with this system, I'll write a proper review. Hope it works well, as there is a good-looking date set and a few word sets that look good too. The stamps and the hand tool, all come in their own metal storage boxes, making them easy to stack and store.
Here is a link to the Magnetic Stamp system I'm talking about, on the Making Memories site. There is also a video demo of the date stamp set on the site too.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie 🙂