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Latest Posts
Fogo De Chao opens in Downtown LA
Who doesn't like Gaucho's roaming around with skewers of meat
Now, whenever you need your endless meat fix, you can skip the drive to Beverly Hills and head down to Fogo De Chao's new DTLA location. We checked out their grand opening to partake in their parade of protein.
As with all great AYCEs, the Market Table has more than just lettuce and ranch dressing. Cold cuts include a smoked salmon, Brazilian hearts of palm, an aged manchego cheese that has an interesting fruity note to it, prosciutto and more. Read More
See what's cookin'
ChocoChicken is coming and its coming your way! An idea born by an indecisively hungry man, Sean Robins, Keith Previte, Lee Weinberg, and Adam Fleischman [Umami Burger and 800 Degrees] bring you a whole new fried chicken experience. Located in Downtown Los Angeles, ChocoChicken dishes up a chocolate inspired menu from the fried chicken itself, to sides and desserts. Read More
Refreshing Memorial Day Cocktail!
Napa Valley Grille's Pineapple Cucumber White Sangria
Memorial Day Weekend is around the corner and celebratory barbeques are amongst us! This year, down your grilled meats with this refreshing Pineapple Cucumber White Sangria a la Napa Valley Grille! Read More
The Fare Trade
Artisan foods shipped straight to your door
The ease of home delivery is undeniable and with the addition of a monthly subscription? Hot dog. The surprise of a monthly gift to yourself can brighten anyones day and now with The Fare Trade, you can sign up to receive specialty artisan foods in the mail. Read More
8th Annual California's Artisan Cheese Festival
A weekend event: March 21st -23rd!
It's time to get cheesy, people! This weekend, March 21st-23rd, the 8th Annual Artisan Cheese Festival will be held at the Sheraton in Petaluma, California! Read More
Happy Pi-Day! (π)
3/14, or 3.14159265359
Happy Pi-Day! For those of you who don't know, Wikipedia defines Pi as:
"The number π is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century though it is also sometimes spelled out as 'pi' " wikipedia
Celebrate this mathematical constant as you would any other, by gorging yourself! Check out the pies offered at these restaurants:
Post & Beam
Do you like tubers in your sweets? This restaurant's Sweet Potato Chocolate Pie plays with the classic combination of sweet and savory, served with a maple pecan topping and cinnamon whipped cream.
Post & Beam, 767 Santa Rosalia Dr, Los Angeles, California 90008
BOA Steakhouse
Looking for an extra-southern kick to a classic? try the Deep-Fried Pecan Pie, it features two donut-sized hand pies covered with whiskey caramel sauce and served with vanilla ice cream.
BOA Steakhouse, 9200 W Sunset Blvd #650, West Hollywood, California 90069
Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen
Executive Chef Jeremy Fox is baking up banana caramel cream pie, chocolate pie, strawberry rhubarb crumble pie, and blueberry crostata!
Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen, 1119 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401
CAFE del REY
The favorite, Maple Berry Pie has a maple berry filling and spiced streusel topping, served with brown sugar ice cream. Chef Dunn serves up a classic flaky, thick pie crust, and uses huckleberries, gooseberries, and blackberries in her recipe.
Cafe del Rey, 4451 Admiralty Way,Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Pitfire Artisan Pizza
The Burrata Pie, the only savory pie on this list, is is topped with housemade burrata cheese, wild arugula, caramelized onion, hazelnuts, and a pesto drizzle. Did we mention that the burrata cheese was housemade?
Pitfire Artisan Pizza, 108 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 and many other locations.
LA Weekly – The Essentials
A quick preview
On Sunday, March 9th, LA Weekly hosted the The Essentials at the LA Mart in downtown Los Angeles, CA. The event featured over 30 restaurants curated by LA Weekly, celebrating some of the best of the L.A. food scene. Event go-ers enjoyed the rustic Italian of SOTTO to the street tacos of Guerrilla Tacos to the Thai spices of Jitlada. Promptly washing down the flavors of LA, guest enjoyed a variety of libations such as the craft beers of Goose Island, the Backyard lemonade with Sailor Jerrys, and some of Handsome Coffee Roaster's finest. After a very brief preview and a tickling of the palate, let's explore eating LA.
This coming Monday evening at Parallel 37 (located in the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco) a few of the Bay Area's top pastry chefs will be coming together for a one-night event to support an incredible cause! In collaboration with This Bar Saves Lives (TBSL), pastry chefs Andrea Correa (Parallel 37), Cindy Falatic (The Ritz-Carlton, SF), Shawn Gawle (Saison), Joshua Meiseman (Commis and Box & Bells), Stephanie Prida (Manresa) and William Werner (Craftsman and Wolves) will be presenting a six-course Dessert for Dinner affair. Read More
The Centennial of the City of Beverly Hills. CA was reigned in by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce's Second Annual Experience East Meets West, which coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year. The event, which took place on Wednesday, February 5th was host to celebrities and business owners alike, adding to the experience of the Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive-proximate Crustacean Restaurant, which served as venue.
Valentines Day with your Sweetie
What to do? What to do?
Remember that one time – you know, that one time you thought "I don't need to make plans or reservations for Valentine's Day and it all worked out"? Right – SAID NO ONE EVER. Here's a short round up of where to take your sweetie with time to make some rezzies. Read More
Great news, folks! With the start of the new year, Bun Mee– San Francisco, CA's much loved Vietnamese sandwich eatery — has announced the date for the opening of their newest location to be on Tuesday, January 14th! Read More
Eggnog, the sweet dairy-based and sometimes boozy beverage is making its annual comeback this week. That must mean one thing – it's Christmas! This year, thanks to Flour & Co of San Francisco, CA, we've got the inside scoop on a great twist to the holiday classic. Once you've got those last-minute gifts wrapped and under the tree, enjoy a slice of this drool inducing Eggnog Pie. Booze included. Read More
Having to find the perfect gift(s) is enough to make planning a memorable Christmas dinner seem utterly impossible! This year, why fret? We've got a roundup of Bay Area eateries that are open to catering Christmas to you! Read More
Two weeks ago, Fast Food Français in Sausalito, CA hosted a pop-up night featuring Brian Felley and Mo Hodges of Encinal Spirits. The two bar aficionados showcased a seasonal menu of six cocktails for guests that paired with a dish or appetizer representative of the restaurants "playful American fast food classics with a hint of French inspiration". Some of the featured cocktails included the Marin County Cocktail with whiskey, Cognac, dry vermouth, chocolate and grapefruit bitters, garnished with a grapefruit twist; the Pompeii Fizz with gin, lemon, Pamplemousse Liqueur, Lillet Blanc and egg white; and the Marty Sour with barrel aged gin, citrus vermouth, Maraschino Liqueur and orange bitters. Read More
Thanksgiving Roundup!
Gobble gobble
Winter has finally arrived in Los Angeles – well an LA winter that is. It's time to stuff our faces and hibernate for Thanksgiving weekend. Read More
Thanksgiving is just… two weeks away? Yikes! The holiday season has once again managed to sneak up on us this year! Good thing we're prepared… or at least slightly so. Turkey, check! Brussels sprouts with loads of bacon, check! Dessert… right. Who's the baker in this family again?
The art of baking can be a daunting task. We know. But don't you fret! We've got an easy recipe for a great spin on pecan pie… because, let's face it, who doesn't love pecan pie?
Emily Day, baking expert and owner of Flour & Co, a modern American bakery located in Nob Hill of San Francisco, CA, shares her favorite autumn-themed pie recipe! This nutty, gooey and not overly-sweet dessert has got us rethinking the classic! Read More
Thanksgiving Recipe – Warm Brussel Sprout Salad
A la Napa Valley Grille's Taylor Boudreaux
As fun as Thanksgiving potlucks can be, the question is always "what do I bring?" Here's a delicious Warm Brussel Sprout Salad from Napa Valley Grille's Taylor Broudreaux! Yum: Read More


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Or continue shopping
Looking for
Walnuts or
Our unsweetened shredded organic coconut is simply that, with no sugar or additives. Enjoy all natural coconut flavor and great texture in baked goods, oatmeal, cereal and more.
Go coco-nutty for these unsweetened coconut chips! With a light flavor and crisp texture, these coconut chips are perfect for baking, cooking, and tossing over salads. They're packed with fiber to boot!
Our unsweetened organic coconut chips are perfect for baking, cooking, and making granola. Enjoy their mild coconut flavor and light, crisp texture in your recipes.
Toasted coconut has a caramelized sweet flavor and crispy texture. Our toasted shredded coconut is the perfect topping for ice cream, sliced fruit, and even salads.
Our organic coconut flour is a perfect wheat flour alternative for low-carb and gluten-free diets. High in protein and fiber, coconut flour produces nutritious baked goods with great texture and flavor.
Diced sweetened dried coconut is the perfect size for snacking. Mix it in yogurt or granola for a real treat. Diced coconut is also a good source of fiber and vitamins.
This delicious dried coconut, in a sweetened shredded form, is ideal for baking. Our Registered Dietitian loves it, too!
Organic Coconut Sugar is an all natural caramel-like crystal sugar. It's a perfect 1:1 replacement for table sugar. Coconut sugar is a naturally low-glycemic index food. Also known as coconut sugar.
Take your taste buds to a tropical paradise with these Coconut Stacks, also called Island Delights. Fresh and soft, these delicious bites are made from shredded coconut and smooth caramel.
Go coco-nutty for our creamy and delicious coconut bon bons! These cream coconut centers are coated with assorted fondant flavors like lemon, strawberry, chocolate and coconut.
Sweet, tangy, and just a touch of spice! These Thai coconut curry cashews are blended with coconut chips and are then coated in an irresistible blend of red curry paste and spices.
Our sweetened macaroon coconut is the finest shred of coconut available. Delicately sweetened with powdered sugar, it lends the perfect flavor and texture to cookies, candies, pies and baked goods.
All natural completely raw extra virgin coconut oil. Loaded with healthy vitamins, minerals, and fats, raw organic coconut oil is great for cooking, baking, or frying.

subset: commoncrawl


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Church of San Salvador
Contact details
Plaza del Salvador s/n
46340 Requena, Valencia-València (Region of Valencia)
Tel.:+34 962303851
- Autonomous region: Region of Valencia
- Province/Island: Valencia-València
A Spanish Elizabethan Gothic style church in the fascinating neighbourhood of Villa de Requena
Salvador parish church is an ornate Gothic building from the fifteenth century, although Baroque modifications were made to it in the eighteenth century, when a Communion Chapel was added and the bell tower was rebuilt. Located in the beautiful neighbourhood of La Villa de Requena it has been declared a national Historic-Artistic Site. It has three naves, with adjoining chapels in between the buttresses. The main front has three archivolts with images of virgins and angels. It is currently the only church open for worship in the whole of the neighbourhood of La Villa.
- Construction: Church
- Artistic period: Gothic
- Historic period: 15th century
- Setting: The Villa de Requena neighbourhood was declared a national Historic-Artistic Site in 1966, because of its wonderful buildings and churches that are of major cultural and patrimonial importance.
Practical information
- Admission free


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Valerie Shesko
Valerie Shesko
Clearing Sky
Egg Tempera on Panel
25 x 28 inches
"My work builds on the legacy of abstract expressionism, particularly the gestural approach of American action painters, while integrating influences from 19th century American landscape and Chinese painting."
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Valerie has been exhibiting her work locally, nationally, and internationally for three decades. She was one of six Ohio artists selected to show with Israeli artists in Common Ground; Contemporary Landscapes from Israel and Ohio that traveled within Ohio and to Jerusalem. She received a B.A. from SUNY Binghamton and advanced degrees from Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Enquirer's Marilyn Bauer described Shesko's work as "evocative, yet serene, beautiful with a Capital B."
"Shesko specializes in transcendental landscapes that are inspired by the Hudson River School and Turner, she builds up strata of glazes to represent transitions of light. Subtle textures infuse these paintings with vigor and a contemporary look that one might not expect from such a traditional subject matter. The best of these paintings glow from within. These are paintings to live with - peaceful, contemplative, luminous. -Michele Natale, Art critic
Ohio Arts Council Professional Development
Assistance Award, 1990


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Photographer's Note
Well, to those who does not know the characters in LOTR, this is Smeagol aka Gollum who drastically changed from his original Hobbit form to what he is now !
This picture was taken at the Wellington Airport at my last day in NZ and also the day where the Oscars arrived in Wellington, back to 'Middle Earth'
Cropped and left the carts at the bottom left to add a depth of scale to the model ie Smeagol.
Critiques | Translate
gadinga (626) 2004-05-10 10:23 [Comment]
smeagol (136) 2004-11-24 13:32
Hey, who took my picture? I love LOTR and this picture sure made me laugh, thanks!
cigdom (2594) 2005-05-17 8:19
yeah i love lotr ,too.and this pic is great for me .thank you for sharing.
Photo Information
- Copyright: Danny Tan (tdanny) (663)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2004-03-03
- Categories: Artwork
- Camera: Olympus C-740 UZ
- Exposure: f/3.2, 1/650 seconds
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Theme(s): Middle Earth, New Zealand [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2004-05-10 10:16
- Favorites: 1 [view]


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I thought all had been discovered (I REALLY should have known better with that thought) about Olive Bauser Stephens.
But, I WAS WRONG. I subscribe to the PA Allegheny County Roots Web and they are the greatest and best bunch of fellow genealogist I have come across.
I had posted another query about Olive Stephen trying to find her in a census record and the name of her parents, of which I was having zero luck. I mention what I knew about Olive, DOB, died on Christmas Eve in Ohio, and the newly found maiden name Bauser.
A very kind woman on that Roots Web list send me a copy of an Ohio death certificate she had found. It listed a Olive Rauhut, with husband Oswald and date of death as 24 December 1923. Her father was Jacob Bowser and mother Mary UNK. I was really surprised.
Then I did a search on Ancestry for Oswald and came up with the family in Missouri in 1900 and Pittsburgh in 1910. They had lived in the same community, so now it explained where they had met, and I had been suspecting they met in Ohio.
But the biggest surprise was his application for Naturalization and it listed Olive as his wife and the four Stephens children (including grandmother Mary) as step children. Never once did I ever hear Mary mention she had a step father…I asked Chuck and he said he never remembered his grandmother talking about her side of the family at all.
So it seems that they got married in 1913, the year that Robert had died. Did a lot of women remarry because they had no means of supporting themselves and their children?
I was really surprised with this turn of events. I have to give Aunt Edna a call.


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3 November 2011 at 4.59pm | Comment on this article
With Winter's cold evenings drawing in, The Royal Opera continues its start to the Season with La sonnambula wandering onto our stage. Returning for the first time since 2002, Marco Arturo Marelli's production of Vincenzo Bellini's opera opens for a string of nights through November.
The return of the Cuban-American soprano Eglise Gutiérrez in particular is eagerly anticipated. Eglise will sing the highly technical role of Amina, the sleepwalker engaged to Elvino, sung by Celso Albelo. Gutiérrez's recent performance as the Fairy Godmother in last summer's Cendrillon delighted audiences and was described as "seductively glittering" by the Guardian. She's sure not to disappoint on her return.
In between rehearsals, we met up with Eglise to speak about why she enjoys this role, about her love of Bellini's music and her admiration for Royal Opera legend, Joan Sutherland – the focus of the current Collections exhibition.


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Nothing is more satisfying than a pantry full of glistening jars, packed full of delicious, healthy, seasonal flavors - right at your fingertips. Now you can learn how to can your favorite foods to enjoy year around. Stock your pantry with healthy produce including such things as fruit butters, relishes, condiments, tomato salsas, pickles – while learning how to avoid added sugars and salts and with no preservatives or artificial anything!
This Immersion Workshop is a complete hands-on experience that will give you the basics of safe food preservation using the most popular method: water-bath canning. We'll explore and preserve three different delicious pantry staples:
- Apple Butter
- Bread & Butter Pickles
- Local, Organic Tomatoes
We'll also talk about how to use these pantry staples in everyday meal preparation, healthy snacks, tasty appetizers, desserts and more.
You'll go home with a jar of each product to take home (3 in all) and the notebook used in the class covering the how-to's and standards of canning along with recipes of the products. All supplies are included.
About the Instructor:
Lyn Deardorff started canning when just a child with her German grandmother making dill pickles and sauerkraut in large crocks in her basement. For over forty years, she has canned many kinds of seasonal bounty for use in her home and for sharing as gifts with family and friends. She has been teaching for four years in the Atlanta/North Georgia area. Lyn holds a ServSafe Food Safety Certificate and has done advanced coursework in food processing, preservation and certification. You can find out more about Lyn at Preserving Now.


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"Africa for Norway" Global Aid Spoof Goes Viral
You've heard of the starving children, homeless refugees, and millions of people dying of disease; not to mention wars, disasters, and celebrities raising money to fix the problems of the Global South.
But what about the Norwegians?
Where are Bono and Angelina when it comes to the invisible people of Norway, who are suffering, unnoticed, in their freezing habitat?
A new charity, Radi-Aid, seeks to help these poor Northerners by collecting and donating unused radiator space-heaters. As their promotional music video belts, "There's heat enough for Norway, if Africans would share."
The video, which was released on YouTube on November 16, has already garnered more than 1.5 million views and has been featured in media outlets like Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and NPR.
The homepage for Radi-Aid, a campaign spoofing the approach of celebrity-driven charities, states: "Imagine if every person in Africa saw the "Africa for Norway" video and this was the only information they ever got about Norway. What would they think about Norway?"
The organization's true purpose is to spread the idea that the media should show respect for, provide better information on, and not just exploit stereotypes of the people they seek to help. Radi-Aid says aid should be "based on real needs, not 'good' intentions."
Click here to find out more about Radi-Aid and their mission.
Eve Ensler has said that nothing is more important than stopping violence against women. Her new short film encourages us to rise up do just that.
Volunteers from both the Jewish and Arab sides of the conflict join forces to rebuild homes demolished by the Israeli governmen
Cambodian sex trafficking survivor Somaly Mam rescues girls from brothels—and offers them a second life.


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|Exercise Help & Tips: Swimming
|Starting Position
Lie facedown, arms and legs outstretched a few inches above floor, head in line with spine.
Raise left arm and right leg off floor. Lower and repeat with right arm/left leg. Return to start and repeat the series.
Special Instructions
Don't lower arms or legs completely until the end of the set. Don't hold your breath.
Muscles Worked: Lower back


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This game will be the 15th game in the Dead or Alive series. It will also be the first Dead or Alive game on a Nintendo system.
According to Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja, Dimensions will offer a framerate of 60 frames per second with the Nintendo 3DS' 3D feature turned off. With it turned on, however, the imagery is divided by two for the players individual eyes--30 frames per second to each eye.


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Visit the Norwegian Nature!
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Big win for Werder Bremen
Marko Arnautovic scored a hat-trick as Werder Bremen claimed a dominant 4-1 victory at Hoffenheim.
Last Updated: 02/12/12 5:01pm
Marko Arnautovic scored a hat-trick as Werder Bremen closed in on the Europa League places with a dominant 4-1 victory at Hoffenheim.
Sebastian Prodl gave Bremen the lead after just 21 minutes before Arnautovic registered his first goal in the 29th minute.
Sejad Salihovic pulled a goal back five minutes after the break but Arnautovic confirmed a comfortable away win with two more successful efforts in the last 20 minutes.
Bremen moved into eighth place - two points shy of a Europa League spot - with Hoffenheim remaining in 16th place courtesy of a fourth straight defeat.
Bremen grabbed the lead in the 21st minute from a set-piece as Kevin de Bruyne's free-kick met Prodl, who jumped above Joselu to send a looping header over Hoffenheim goalkeeper Koen Casteels.
Arnautovic doubled the advantage just eight minutes later after Daniel Williams lost the ball deep inside his own territory. Arnautovic played a one-two with De Bruyne before beating Casteels with his left foot.
Bremen had a number of chances during the remainder of the half, including a counter-attack in the 45th minute that saw De Bruyne fire well wide of the target instead of passing to a team-mate.
Hoffenheim pulled a goal back five minutes after the break as Salihovic beat Bremen keeper Sebastian Mielitz to his far corner with a left-footed shot.
The hosts had a number of chances but could not convert any, with Joselu's volley flying just over the crossbar.
Bremen missed a couple of chances in the 72nd minute as both Lukas Schmitz and Theo Gebre Selassie came close.
But Arnautovic re-established a two-goal lead a minute later with a curling free-kick that flew over the wall and dipped into the top-left corner.
And the Austrian completed his hat-trick in the 79th minute, running onto a through ball from Joseph Akpala and chipping it past Casteels.


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Pam London
|Head Coach
|(203) 396-8121
|31st Season
Pam London enters her 31st season as a member of the Sacred Heart coaching staff in 2018-19. She will begin her first year as the head coach of the team.
Outside of her coaching duties, London is the co-owner and operator of H.H.H. Cleaning Services in Bridgeport, CT.
Coaching Accomplishments
- Named the Northeast Conference Co-Head Coach of the Year in 2009, leading Sacred Heart to its first Northeast Conference Championship. Under London and Luckie, the 2009 squad made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance a successful one with a 3-1 victory over Cornell
- London captured her second Northeast Conference title in 2011 as SHU won 29 games en route to a second crown in three seasons. London had two Pioneers earn major Northeast Conference awards in 2011 as Taylor Froelich was tabbed the NEC Player of the Year and Nicole Sidor was selected the league's Most Improved Player
- In 2014, she was recognized for her career achievements when she was inducted into the Connecticut Scholastic and Collegiate Softball Hall of Fame
Playing Career Highlights
- As teammates for two seasons, 1984 and 1985, London and Luckie anchored the middle of the Pioneers infield, leading those teams to a sparkling 89-12 record, which was highlighted by back-to-back trips to the Division II Final Four
- London was a three-year starter at second base from 1984-86 and appeared in two NCAA Division II Final Fours. As a senior tri-captain, London was named to the All-NECC Team


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LG Optimus M+ Detailed for MetroPCS (Images)
MetroPCS is poised to replace its year-old LG Optimus M with the similar-sounding LG Optimus M+, which appears to improve upon its predecessor in almost every department. Whereas the original Optimus M featured a 3.2-inch, 64,000-color HVGA display, the 800MHz M+ steps the screen size up to 3.5 inches and the color gamut up to 256,000 (although the resolution reportedly stays the same).
The camera sensor should move up from 3.2 to 5.0 megapixels, while also adding a flash. Bluetooth gets a boost as well, moving from the 2.x standard to 3.0 EDR. The Gingerbread-powered LG Optimus M+ — model MS695 — should hit Metro shortly, joining the higher-end LG Esteem and LG Connect 4G.


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Vegan Week in Review
– Gathering of the Tribes was a great success. The raffle was epic, with over $500 worth of prizes. Dan won an adorable "Kale is my Power-Plant" t-shirt made by local vegan t-shirt designer Jeff Zick. Jealous? You should be – but don't worry, you can purchase your own through Rabbit Food Grocery!
– Mr. Natural's first vegan-friendly Sunday brunch starts today! Brunch will be served from 10am-3pm, only at their South Lamar location.
– As a California transplant, I'm pretty familiar with all things Trader Joe's, so I was really stoked to learn that they plan on opening up an Austin location by 2013! Most Trader Joe's locations have a decent selection of vegan yogurts, non-dairy milks, mock-meats, and yummy frozen items – all at incredibly affordable prices. It seems like they get more vegan friendly each year, so who knows what they'll carry by 2013? I look forward to finding out.
– When the story about cochineal extract in Starbucks frappuccinos first broke about a month ago, I assumed it would be contained to a couple of vegan bloggers getting the word out to warn people – but it turns out no one wants crushed up bugs in their food. What a surprise. Starbucks has announced that it will phase out the bug-laced beverages, and replace them with ones colored by lycopene (a tomato extract) within a couple of months.
– Sweet relief – Arlo's is open again! They're finally settled into their new location at Cheer Up Charlie's, just in time for the next ATX Vegan Drinks, planned for Friday, May 4th. It's going to be awesome, with a pop-up shop from Rabbit Food Grocery and baked goods from Capital City Bakery. You can also grab food from Arlo's, Me So Hungry, Fire & Soul, Via 313 Pizza, COOLHAUS and more. Make sure to RSVP!


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Great to Have on Your Board
Fund: Crosslink Capital
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-08-16
They were very straightforward to deal with throughout the entire funding process. When we first pitched to them, they had done their homework on our space and asked some of the most relevant questions we were asked by any of the VC firms that we met with. As an early stage company, it was important to me to work with investors who not only looked at the numbers, but also really understood the vision. Crosslink really understood our vision, and even provided helpful suggestions during our first pitch meeting. In particular, Peter Rip is smart, thoughtful, experienced, and fair. If you're looking for funding, make sure to give Peter a call.PRIVATE: Members Only (858 Characters)


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Celebrity Shoe Lust: Christian Louboutin's Red Cap-Toe Heels
Christian Louboutin's "Un Bout" pump is one of the most popular shoes in Hollywood right now, with Brooklyn Decker, Jennifer Lopez, Ashley Madekwe, and Emma Stone all scooping up the crimson version of these illusion heels. We love how Lopez and Stone defied the matchy-matchy rule by pairing the heels with scarlet dresses in the same color, and also how Decker and Madekwe highlighted the splashes of red in their ensembles with Louboutin's design. While the strawberry shade was popular for spring (and sadly no longer available), Louboutin rolled out a new black version for fall, complete with spikes and studs ($1,435 at net-a-porter.com). See more celebrities in shoes we love—plus, information on where to buy them—in the gallery.
MORE:• Everyone's Crushing on Emma Stone• Jennifer Lopez: One Oscar, Two Dresses• Found 'Em! Miley Cyrus's Floral Sneakers


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There have been literally millions of man-hours of research into how to design the user experience of Oracle's Fusion Application - this goes beyond colors and fonts and is about how humans interact with IT applications. Its a science I don't understand but now I don't have to...Now you can learn from the UX experience of Fusion applications. Oracle has just published the design patterns for Fusion Applications. These show things like common flow and page layout. This is part of a larger usability site for Oracle Applications which are driving new standards in usability.
So, for those building Oracle ADF applications, you have at your fingertips the collective brain-dump from our UX specialists to ensure you can build accessible, usable, engaging and exciting applications.


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In which Kiseru meets his match.
"Pirates and Ninjas are natural enemies". This is commonly said today but, are they? Why, how come? Find out in this comedy of errors.
Be one of the cool kids, get rewards and help the comic's improvement.
1$ monthly: get monthly previews!
5$ monthly: get old chapters' e-books!
10$ monthly: become a ninja/pirate in the comic!


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Posting a New Chapter of the Wattpad Story: Swing for the Fence
The following blog post is from Allen Lau, Wattpad's co-founder and CEO, who has some great news to share.
Today I am super excited to announce a new round of funding for Wattpad, totalling $46 million. The round was led by OMERS Ventures, and we are excited to welcome new investors August Capital, Raine Ventures, and Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund. All existing investors also participated in this round in a big way. We're glad to continue to have the support of Union Square Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jerry Yang of AME Cloud Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, and Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures.
At Wattpad we want to build a billion user community that connects people through reading and writing. We want to give people from every corner of the world free access to this community from the devices they already own. No matter what language you speak, we want you to find a story you want to read on Wattpad. This latest investment will allow Wattpad to realize this vision even faster.
We'll use this latest round of funding to support product development and community growth. There are 25 million registered Wattpadders, and millions more join the community every month. Collectively, these people spend more than 6 billion minutes, monthly, on Wattpad, and we want to give them an amazing reading and writing experience. Together with our readers and writers, we will change the world in a positive way.
We will continue to expand our team in Toronto. In a few weeks we'll move to a new downtown office space that will better accommodate our rapid growth. Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world and is home to some of the best technical talent. I have lived and worked in numerous places in the world, and out of all those places, I know that Toronto is clearly the best place to build Wattpad into one of the world's largest consumer Internet companies.
In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, baseball legend Babe Ruth made a pointing gesture to the center field bleachers during his at-bat. It was a declaration that he would hit a home run to this part of the park. On the next pitch, Ruth hit a home run to center field, which helped the Yankees to win the game and, eventually, the World Series.
With this round of financing, the Wattpad team is now stepping up to the plate. We have some very ambitious goals, but we know exactly what we're going to do to accomplish them:
We're swinging for the fence.
I can't wait to show you what the next chapter of the Wattpad story has in store.
- Allen Lau Wattpad CEO and Co-Founder
P.S. To hear the real story behind this funding round, I'd like to suggest the Wattpad story September Capital. It was written by David Hornik, one of the partners from August Capital. The story is about an entrepreneur named Len Au who pitched to September Capital's partner Tripp Skip Jones and his team. According to a credible source, this is a fictional version of a real story. You can see from the story that David is a great writer, and I hope he posts the next chapter soon!


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Farewell to the BAF
Jeff VanderMeer has announced that the Best American Fantasy series, for which I served as series editor, has been cancelled. I've known about this for a while now, but reading the announcement was a particularly sad moment for me, because I'd been looking forward very much to seeing what the next few books would look like, with new series editor Larry Nolen taking over for me, new resources to open up the literature of Latin America to the book, and exciting guest editors lined up: Minister Faust, Junot Diaz, and Catherynne M. Valente.
There are lots of reasons why we couldn't bring the series beyond three volumes, most of which boil down to the fact that we weren't able to find a way to reach a large enough audience to be profitable. As Jeff wrote, "BAF did not having a wide margin for error. A cross-genre fantasy year's best that focused not just on genre magazines but also on literary magazines, that required sympathy and generosity from both the mainstream and genre, as well as the right placement in the chains, was always going to be a difficult sell."
Larry Nolen, the new series editor, had just sent a set of 65 stories on to Minister Faust for consideration when the decision to end the series was made. He has posted the list of those stories for all to see, and to offer a glimpse of what might have been.
The books are still out there, and I'm proud of all three of them -- each volume is different from the others in tone and style, but the three stand as a testament to the breadth and vigor of short fiction being published today.


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Creative Spaces: May/June 2010
Monogram Makeover
Add a personalized touch to your creative surroundings with monograms. This hip decorating tips is as easy to master as it is affordable to apply. Start your letter collection at home with your own crafting supplies and build from there with craft-store, stationery-shop, and home-décor store options. Before long, you'll have an eclectic collection to be proud of!
Monogram Option #1: Scrap Supplies
Thanks to chipboard, rubber stamps, and even patterned paper, letter accents are already in your possession. Rather than tuck those away in their assigned locations, why not pull them out where they can double as room décor?
Monogram Option #2: Home Décor
Monograms are making the home décor scene. With cool products including wall art and throw pillows, you're sure to find stylish options that have your name written all over them.
Monogram Option #3: Craft-Store Finds
The next time you make a craft-store stop, wander beyond the scrapbooking aisle to the alterable and wood items. These are excellent sections to score some new letters for your shelves. And all it takes is a little paper, paint, or ink to make them true to you!
Monogram Option #4: Stationery-Shop
Don't let this category fool you-stationery shops (and the stationery aisle of your local big box stores) are full of more than just pretty paper and fancy envelopes. They often times carry an assortment of magnets and decorative items that would make an attractive addition to your home.
Monograms from Margie
In Creating Keepsakes' May/June 2010 "Creative Spaces" column, we shared a look inside Margie Romney-Aslett's craft room. Check out how she's put monograms to use in her space. Find an additional home décor idea inspired by Margie's surroundings in our online exclusive article, and in our bonus article "Build a Banner."
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|Heroes of Kalevala
Quick Download
Choose your favorite hero and lead your tribe towards a bright new future in the lands of Kalevala.
Exciting new match-3 mechanics, powerful hero powerups, and an extensive village building game provide hours of exciting new entertainment. Experience over 140 hand made levels featuring never before seen match-3 game play like lock bomb combos and tar fights. Build your own village from scratch and see how it starts to thrive and produce wealth. Can your tribe acquire the fabled Sampo?
- Match and build your very own custom village
- Over 140 unique hand made levels
- Eight powerful heroes with distinct abilities
- Story with english language voice overs
- Play as long as you like after completing the story
- Unique match-3 mechanics like tar fight and lock bombs
Watch videosiPad Video
iPhone Video
PC Video
Match-3 gaming with a fun building sim twist.
"Stunning graphics. Plenty of match-3 fun to had. Lovingly crafted blend of match-3 and building sim."
10tons delivers with Heroes of Kalevala
"I wouldnt recommend a single match-3 game on the iPad over it. The developer goes above and beyond the efforts of their competition and it pays off big time."


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Internet Traffic Continues to Explode, No End in Sight
"In 2016, over 1.3 Zettabytes of data will travel across Internet protocol (IP) networks. That's over 10 times the traffic generated in 2008 and more than all the IP traffic that traversed global networks from 1984 to 2012 combined (1.2 Zettabytes)."
This estimate is from the latest Visual Networking Index (VNI) released today by Cisco which forecasts IP network traffic patterns from 2011 to 2016. The annual VNI rolling five year forecast has become a trusted industry barometer for how rapidly the use of global IP networks is expanding.
So what's driving the explosive data growth?
Well, more Internet users as there will be approximately 3.4 billion people online by 2016; more devices with nearly 19 billion network-connected devices by 2016; faster broadband speeds that will support greater consumption of IP content; and much more video content driving demand.
And government policies will play a role in how quickly this transition into this "Zettabyte Era" occurs.
The networks of the future that will support this data explosion will require both fixed and wireless connectivity. As the VNI forecast illustrates, wireless portable and mobile devices are replacing fixed PCs. These untethered devices will place a greater demand on radio spectrum resources for macro and small cells at access points and will require greater bandwidth in the middle mile and backhaul, which will inevitably have to be fiber.
High bandwidth networks of the future will be "Het Nets", or heterogeneous networks, comprising wireless and wired technologies that increasingly rely on fiber optic cables and greater licensed and license-exempt spectrum.
So to get from the Exabyte era of today, to the Zettabyte era by 2016, we'll need industry, government and the technical community working together to solve the next set of challenges related to technical issues, business models, and public policy.
Click here to watch the VNI launch event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., including a panel discussion I hosted that featured government and industry leaders. And to read what my colleague, Doug Webster, who presented the VNI results at the launch event, has to say about the VNI, click here.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


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Jimmie Rodgers
The Father of Country Music.
Rock and roll owes an immeasurable debt to Jimmie Rodgers. Although he was a country artist, his fusion of blues, Appalachian ballads and spirituals was an early framework for rock and roll. He has influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Jimmie Rodgers was the first figure inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and is fondly referred to as the "Father of Country Music."
Yet his combination of blues and hillbilly styles made him a true forebear of rock and roll, and he was also part of the first group of musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jimmie Rodgers was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1897. At the age of 14, Rodgers began working on the M&O Railroad as a water boy. He had already started playing banjo and guitar, and he picked up blues influences from the black workers on his crew. He then worked as a brakeman for New Orleans and Northeaster Railroad until, at the age of 24, he contracted tuberculosis and was forced to quit his job.
He had already been performing in various places, but after leaving his job he turned to music full time. Initially, he was a black-face performer in a medicine show. In 1926 he appeared as a yodeler, and later that year, he formed the Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers. After that group broke up, he signed a solo deal with Victor Records. In 1927 he released "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep." Then in November Rodgers recorded four more songs for Victor, including "Blue Yodel," also known as "T for Texas." That record sold a million copies and made Rodgers the first country superstar.
Rodgers toured the country, selling out shows in nearly every city he played. "Brakeman's Blues," recorded in 1928, also sold a million copies, and the following year he filmed The Singing Brakeman for Columbia Pictures. The short film's title became his nickname. In 1930 he recorded "Blue Yodel No. 9" with Louis Armstrong on trumpet and Armstrong's wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, on piano. Overall, Rodgers recorded one hundred ten sides for the Victor label.
Rodgers' records continued to sell well during the Depression, but his health was deteriorating as a result of the tuberculosis. He had his last recording session in New York City on May 24, 1933, but he was so weak that he had to rest on a cot between songs. His final song, "Fifteen Years Ago Today," was recorded at that session. He died two days later from a pulmonary hemorrhage. He was only 35 years old.
Jimmie Rodgers' mix of Appalachian hill ballads, black spirituals, rural blues and white pop music served as a blueprint for what would become rock and roll. No less a kindred spirit than Bob Dylan had this to say in the liner notes to the Jimmie Rodgers tribute album that became the first release on Dylan's Egyptian Records in 1997: "Jimmie Rodgers, of course, is one of the guiding lights of the Twentieth Century, whose way with song has always been an inspiration to those of us who have followed the path...He was a performer of force without precedent with a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was dynamic. He gives hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty."
In addition to being inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Rodgers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Numerous artists have cited Rodgers as an influence, and many, including Van Morrison, have mentioned him in their songs. In 1978 the U.S. Postal Service issued a Jimmie Rodgers commemorative stamp, and in 1997 Rodgers was the second artist to be honored as an American Music Master by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
Inductee: Jimmie Rodgers (vocals, guitar; born September 8, 1897, died May 26, 1933)


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GODSQUAD: Sandberg, Solzhenitsyn, Rilke and Piglet: Prayers for Newtown
Carl Sandberg wrote, "A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."
Oh, God, dear God, what is your opinion about the slaughter of 20 babies and their brave teachers? Is it now your opinion that life should not go on? This is one path some have taken out of this darkness.
They say, with Franz Kafka, that "The meaning of life is that it ends." They say, with Thomas Hobbes, that "Each man is the wolf of his neighbor." If you don't want us to travel down that road of nihilistic despair, we pray to you now, help us to believe that the good in us will win! Even when our children and our hope are cut down like trees, help us to believe, with Job, that at the first scent of water we will send out new green leaves again.
At the coming of this winter of sorrow, dear God of all our seasons, help us to believe that spring will come again.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: "What seems to us more important, more painful, and more unendurable is really not what is more important, more painful and more unendurable, but merely that which is closer to home. Everything distant, which for all its moans and muffled cries, its ruined lives and millions of victims, that does not threaten to come rolling up to our threshold today, we consider endurable and of tolerable dimensions."
Oh, God, dear God, help us to mourn not just those children and those teachers taken from this life in the state of Connecticut in the country of America, but also, dear God, open our hearts to the suffering and deaths of other children and other teachers whose deaths have not come rolling up to our thresholds today: the children and teachers of Syria and Congo and North Korea and every place where children and their teachers are caught in the web of war. Each one of them was made in your image. Each one had the songs of their lives cut short even as they were singing them. We pray to you as Lincoln prayed to you that our hearts might become as large as the world.
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: "I would like to beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
Oh, God, dear God, help us to have patience with all the social questions raised by this tragedy and to be cautious of those offering neat and immediate answers. For well we know that there is no cure for evil here on planet Earth. Help us to help those among us who struggle with severe mental illness and who stare every day into the eyes of demons at the doors to their minds. Help us to love them while also protecting ourselves and our children from those who cannot conquer or control their demons.
May we never force the innocent among them to live like pariahs or prisoners of our collective fears. Help us also to learn how to defend ourselves against evil either domestic or foreign without making us victims of our own weapons of defense. Keep us far from those who are often wrong but never in doubt. Grant wisdom to our leaders that they might find a way to protect both our freedom and our future.
A.A. Milne wrote: "'It is hard to be brave,' said Piglet, 'when you're only a Very Small Animal.'"
Oh, God, dear God, help our children to be brave. Our children are very small animals and so many of them are so frightened now. Help them to be brave by believing in what they cannot always see, so that in time they can see what they believe. Help them to be brave by believing that the souls of these children are with God in heaven even though they cannot see heaven yet. Help them to be brave by believing that they do not need to cling to us always in order to be safe.
The most frequent phrase in your Holy Bible is: "Be not afraid." Help us to take those words into our hearts and hearths, so that our children can laugh and sing again.
May the Christians among us still find a way to celebrate the light and hope of Christmas and may those of us who do not celebrate Christmas find light and hope through them.
Send QUESTIONS ONLY to The God Squad via email at email@example.com.


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At first glance, these brilliant photos might appear to be shaky images of a distant nebula, but that's just a clever illusion. Photographer Fabian Oefner actually created these images using fiberglass lamps, Photoshop, and a bit of ingenuity.
Just last week, we featured Oefner's trippy photos of ferrofluids, portraying a scientific phenomenon as abstract art. In this series, Nebulae, Oefner instead uses a range of photography tricks to create the impression of a natural image. Using those spindly fiberglass lamps (which are terribly ugly, but I remember loving as a kid), Oefner creates his pseudo space porn by taking long exposures of the lamps moving around a darkened room. He then multiplied portions of the images in Photoshop to lend greater density to the shapes. The results are these beautiful, twinkling images that create the sense of far-off worlds.
Visit his website to see the rest of these remarkable photos.
Nebulae [Fabian Oefner via My Modern Met]


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Showering that special someone this Valentine's Day doesn't have to clean out your wallet. If you're stuck on gift ideas, we're here to help. We've created a list of the top 10 Valentine's Day offers that will surely put a smile your sweetheart's face. Be sure to use these coupon codes to get even more for your money this Valentine's Day.
- Macy's is offering up to 50% off during their semi-annual jewelry sale. Use the code SHINE to save an extra 15% off. Free shipping on $99+ orders. Exp. 2/11/2013
- Godiva already has low sale prices up to 50% off. Use the code HEART to save 15% off $60+. Stack on the code HUG to receive free shipping on $60+ orders. Exp. 2/11/2013
- Walgreens doesn't usually offer coupon codes so take advantage of this Valentine's Day deal. Use the code HEART to save 20% off perfumes & colognes. Free shipping on $25+ orders. Exp. 2/9/2013
- 1-800-Baskets offer a great selection of gifts on sale. Use the code LOVECHOCOLATE to save 20% off select Valentine's Day chocolate. Exp. 2/14/2013
- Harry and David sell gourmet gifts at affordable prices with up to 38% off sale items. Use the code CUPID and save 20% off Valentine's Day gifts $39+ orders. Exp. 2/13/2013
- Build-a-Bear has hundreds of furry animals on sale up to 50% off. Use the code 98240 and save $10 off $30+ orders. Exp. 3/1/2013
- Bath & Body Works is always running great sales where you can receive up to 50% off select items. Use the code GIFT20 to save an extra 20% off your order. Exp. 2/15/2013
- 1 Sale a Day is offering up to 95% off jewelry. Click here to check out jewelry for as low as $12.99. Free shipping included on all items.
- 1-800-Flowers have hundreds of fresh flowers on sale for up to 45% off. Use the code LOVE15 to save $15 off $79.99+ orders. Exp. 2/14/2013
- Amazon is offering up to 40% off on select Valentine's Day gifts for women and men. Free shipping on select items of $25+ orders.
Click here for a full list of Valentine's Day deals.


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By Zal Bilimoria, KF9 Ecuador
Let me start off by saying that I think everything will be fine. Everyone is safe – no injuries but a few terrified souls. I wish I had brought my camera with me, but we were told to leave instantly. It all started when Rocio – the Kiva Coordinator at Fundacion ESPOIR in Quito responsible for uploading loans from the branch offices to Kiva.org – was showing me the painstaking manner for how she uses a combination of Excel spreadsheets, a scratch piece of paper and a calculator to upload the monthly repayments of ESPOIR's borrowers from the two offices in Cuenca and Manabi. More on that later.
I was facing the terrace window at the time and saw a large flash followed by smoke as the ground shook momentarily on the top floor of the Comandato building where ESPOIR's administrative office is located in Quito. Simultaneously, we lost power, and fire alarms started to pierce our ears. We quickly went outside to the terrace – unwisely I must say – to understand the cause. Based on the location from where the smoke was coming, it could only have been the elevator right outside the office. My heart sunk a bit, as I feared for any people that might have been inside (luckily, no one was). We still do not know the cause, as this just happened less than 30 minutes ago.
Apparently, the cable broke, but the elevator had remained steadfastly in place. I can still smell some smoke, but what I'll remember most is the terrified look of a few individuals in the office who were being comforted by those of us who were trying to calm them down and even laugh about it a bit to ease the tension. Even more concerning, there is a gas station next door!
I walked over to the desk of Karina – with whom I'm currently staying in a very nice, comfortable apartment in New Town – and asked her how the servers were doing since she's been head of Systems for ESPOIR for 15+ years. All of them were down, and the head office was not able to connect to the branch offices – a potentially serious issue when thinking about the sheer amount of data that is being downloaded and stored – tens of thousands of loans and the associated data. We believe there was no data loss, but the staff is still in the process of verifying as the servers are now back up and running.
We quickly exited the building as the fire truck, ambulance, and police cars drove up. After 20 minutes, we re-entered the building after the emergency support crew reassured us.
The cable broke. I found it incredible that I was speaking to a few friends and family back home last night about my overdependence on the Internet, as both Facebook and YouTube are blocked in ESPOIR's offices and there is no connection available in the apartment where I'm staying. I even started a draft of that post, but when I heard that the cause was a broken cable, it reminded me that there are more important things in life than my access to the web. As I now hear laughter and talk of where to each lunch permeating the office, I know we'll all be fine, and that I bonded 30 minutes ago with the incredibly warm and friendly staff members at ESPOIR.
Check out Kiva.org and lend to the hard-working women of Ecuador./>


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Donald Trump to Start National Robo-calls for Mitt Romney
(NEW YORK) -- In Tuesday night's list of "thank yous" during the speech at her husband's victory party, Ann Romney made sure to highlight the campaign's "honorary Buckeye," Donald Trump.
Mrs. Romney added, after an especially loud burst of cheers from the audience in Boston, "He was on the radio all the time for us in Ohio."
All told, Trump participated in more than a dozen radio interviews and robo-calls statewide in Ohio. And ABC News has learned that many more American voters will soon be getting a call from "The Donald" too.
"Voters across the United States should expect a call from Donald Trump praising Mitt Romney for his tough stances on China, OPEC and other foreign countries that are depriving Americans of opportunities and jobs so that they can fulfill the American dream," confirms Trump Executive Vice President & Special Counsel Michael Cohen.
Trump has been working on a national robo-call -- a type of automated message -- for the Romney campaign, taking his efforts for Romney from focused states with upcoming contests to an all-50-states approach. "Conversations continue with the Romney campaign managers seeking Mr. Trump's continued assistance in states to ensure additional Romney victories," said Cohen.
Ohio is the most recent example of Trump's primary season handiwork. The business mogul did similar stumping last week in Michigan and is participating in fundraising for Romney as well.
Cohen points to Romney's strong surrogate network as a way for the candidate to get around his trouble connecting with voters.
"Supporters like Mr. Trump introduce voters to the real Mitt Romney. And once that happens, people believe in him, believe in his campaign and go out to vote for him in the primaries and caucuses," he said.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio


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Peacekeeper Products Offer Secure-Lock Rotational Baton Holster
At the 114th Annual IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) Conference and Expo in New Orleans, LA; Peacekeeper Products International, LLC, introduces a new rotational holster that revolutionizes the holster industry and brings security and safety to Law Enforcement officer's world wide, www.PeacekeeperProducts.com
The Secure-Lock Rotational holster has been uniquely designed to rotate 30, 60, or 90 degrees from perpendicular, in either direction, by manually depressing a button at the top of the holster. The holster locks in place once the button is released and the appropriate angle of the holster has been achieved. Unlike other holsters that inadvertently move from one position to another after a few months of use, the Secure-Lock Rotational Holster is designed to keep your baton in the same position that you left it regardless of physical activity.
The Secure-Lock Rotational holster holds the baton securely and allows for efficient release. Like all Peacekeeper holsters, the Secure-Lock allows for the insertion of the RCB expandable baton back in the holster in the expanded mode. This feature allows an officer the ability to retain their baton safely in the expanded mode until the suspect is contained and it is safe and convenient to collapse.
- Convenient "On demand" positioning
- Secure locking mechanism
- Rotates 30, 60 or 90 degrees
- Provides ability to Cross Draw baton
- Slender design
- Extremely Durable
- Light weight
- Snug fit for a secure baton
- Baton won't inadvertently expand in holster
- Ability to insert expanded baton in holster when necessary.
The unique design of the Secure-Lock also gives officers the option to move their baton away from their firearm if desired. This gives officers the opportunity to place their baton on their non-dominant side and still draw on the baton with their dominant hand if desired. This benefits officers by allowing for a rapid draw with out the necessity for transitioning their baton from one hand to another.
Request more product info from Peacekeeper International
Thank You!


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Brigitte Bowers: From insurance lackey to master falconer
Editor's Note: This is the second in a three-part series.
George Pena didn't exactly dislike his job with a life insurance company. It's just that his heart was elsewhere. Each day, as he sat at his desk analyzing statistics and tallying numbers, he couldn't help looking out the window as the afternoon passed by. He couldn't stop wondering what might be going on out there, beyond the city limits.
"I wanted to be involved with something that happens naturally. I knew that things were happening out there millions of times every day, and I was missing it."
Pena tells me this while we watch his falcon Sonic wing his way around the UC Merced campus. Sonic is the university bird abatement crew. His job is to keep pigeons away.
About 50 yards from where we stand, Pena's truck, with a camper shell over the bed, is parked in the shade of the library. Inside the camper are four more falcons, sitting on a perch and wearing hoods, waiting for their turns to fly at dairies and processing plants around Merced.
All of those years ago, as Pena sat in his office and looked out the window wishing he could be somewhere else, he didn't believe that he could make a living doing what he had loved most since early childhood.
Pena believes he is the victim of an errant gene, some recessive trait that goes back to ancestors long forgotten. No one else in his family cared much about the outdoors, and he had never met anyone involved in falconry. But by the age of 19, Pena had become an official apprentice to Aldo Stanzoni, a master falconer from Stevinson.
The process was not simple. To become an apprentice, the only way by which he could eventually graduate to licensed falconer, Pena first had to pass a written test. He had to obtain a hunter's license and then build a to house his falcons, which had to be inspected by the regional Department of Fish and Game.
Fish and Game had to also approve Pena's equipment, including leashes and a scale that could weigh the birds in half ounces. Pena made all of his leather gear, a habit he continues today.
Of course, an apprentice must also procure a falcon. Trapping season runs from October through January, and falconers must submit maps showing where they catch their falcons.
Today, Pena has one prairie falcon he caught in the wild, but he purchased his other birds, including a peregrine, from a breeder in Watsonville. Prices range from $800 to $1,500.
Now the owner of Fowl Play Bird Abatement and a master falconer himself, Pena has taught five apprentices, including a woman in her 40s. Even though an apprenticeship lasts two years, he said it is impossible to learn everything there is to know about falconry in such a short time.
"You can't even learn everything in five years," he says, before going on to mention that he still learns new things every day. "And it's not for everybody. Some people think it's cool, but they're not prepared for the carnage. There's a lot of carnage in falconry."
And falconry is time consuming. Falcons must fly every day and should go on regular hunting expeditions.
Falconers need to maintain equipment and clean the muse – no small task, as anyone who has ever owned a parakeet can imagine. Falconers also weigh their birds every day to predict how they'll respond to rewards. Feeding is an involved process, too. Pena cannot simply buy dead pigeons at PetSmart.
Perhaps the most cumbersome responsibilities, though, are the unexpected ones. Falcons are sensitive to heat, and so they are in danger when temperatures top 100 degrees in summer. In the wild, they fly to cooler locations, but Pena's falcons are, like many of us, stuck in the Valley during the summer.
"What do you do when that happens?" I ask.
"I bring them inside," he answers.
"In your house?"
"Yeah. I lay down a tarp and put their perches in the hallway."
"Your wife must really like that," I say, imagining five falcons perched outside the door to my bedroom.
"Well," he says, smiling, "she knew she was marrying a falconer."


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NEW YORK — Over the last 15 years, much of Ben Stiller's work — "Zoolander," "Meet the Parents," "There's Something About Mary," "Tropic Thunder" — has turned not only into box-office gold but something bigger, zeitgeist-defining comedies that continue to play in our minds and on our cable-TV schedules. Love him, get annoyed by him or simply think he'll never top a certain hair-gel moment, Stiller is one of this era's most influential comic presences.
Or maybe was one of its most influential comedic presences.
In 10 days, Stiller will, in many ways, say goodbye to all that. That's when 20th Century Fox releases "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," his fifth directorial effort, which he also produced and stars in. The movie doesn't pass up the occasional joke or fantasy sequence, but it has serious, even heartbreaking, stuff on its mind — big, meaning-of-life questions as a once-promising young man, now solidly in his 40s, stares into the chasm of squandered potential.
Older filmgoers will recall Danny Kaye's 1947 "Mitty," also based on James Thurber's 1939 New Yorker story. That film was a series of loosely connected sketch pieces about a henpecked suburban man. Not so here. As a former youth skateboard champion caught in a rut as a low-level Life magazine photo editor, Mitty 2.0 is pitched differently.
After a decades-long funk following the death of his father, Mitty decides to embark on a real-life quest to shake things up, pursuing a lost photograph halfway around the globe and slowly working up the courage to ask out a colleague (Kristen Wiig). Written by the dramatic-minded Steven Conrad ("The Pursuit of Happyness"), it's a movie that shows, with no small amount of melancholy, how bad breaks can negate hope and talent — and asks what, if anything, we can do about it.
If the film's mix of self-seriousness and whimsy has vexed some critics — Variety called it a "a feature-length 'Just Do It' ad for restless middle-aged auds" and noted its "mellow existential crisis of the sort Cameron Crowe characters routinely suffer" — it reflects a director himself struggling under the yoke of unrealized ambition and his encroaching AARP status.
"This movie relates to me personally," said Stiller, 48. "It's where I am in my life right now. When you're in the world of creating things you're constantly trying to get somewhere where you haven't been. And that's the dilemma Walter faces."
Stiller was looking out at the Manhattan skyline from a skyscraper astride Central Park, contemplating a career that has improbably taken him from quirky humorist to one of the world's most bankable comedy stars — his "Night at the Museum" and "Fockers" movies alone have grossed more than $2 billion.
Yet despite all that, a restlessness pervades. He wants to direct far more than he wants to act. He has a newfound inclination for historical tales, not the comedies he once seemed to crank out by the fistful as an actor, director and producer. One of Hollywood's most complex personalities — at once charming and irascible, performative and squirmy — stands at a threshold. And despite their places at opposite ends of the success spectrum, he and Mitty have more in common than you might expect.
Dedicated filmmaker
It was a cold day in Iceland, even by Iceland standards. It was even colder if you'd plunged into the sea, as Stiller had just done. He'd submerged himself to shoot multiple takes as Mitty, small watercraft buzzing around him. He emerged dripping and shivering and was hurried to an inflatable hot tub. Production assistants enrobed him in towels.
"Ben's teeth were chattering, and his whole body was rocking back and forth," said Jeff Mann, the film's production designer, recalling the shoot. "Most people would just try to warm up. But Ben asked for the handheld monitor and began studying it. Then he looked at it, gave some notes to the people around him and said, 'Let's go again.'" A few minutes later, he was back in the water.
A few weeks earlier, a similar scene played out in on the streets of midtown Manhattan, where Stiller and the actor Adam Scott, who co-stars as Mitty's smarmy boss, careened down Fifth Avenue on wooden boards at nearly 50 M.P.H. in a fantasy fight sequence. Nothing but thin wires tethered their bodies to the trucks hauling them; neither man held on to anything except the flimsy Stretch Armstrong doll they were fighting over.
When the trucks stopped, Stiller was quickly unhooked from the wires and ran up the street to look at the monitor.
"I remember thinking, 'There is no fear here,'" Scott said. "Just a laser-like focus."
On the two "Night at the Museum" films, director Shawn Levy had a similar encounter with what he calls Stiller's "fierce perfectionism," going through the script page by page with the actor as Stiller offered thoughts throughout. When they were finished, Levy took all the notes back to the writers for a new pass. He then took the revised draft back to Stiller and repeated the process all over again. "We'll do this 10-12 times," said Levy. "OK, 12 is the most we've done," he added and laughed. "But more than a half-dozen."
That pre-production meticulousness held on "Mitty." Stiller was initially set to only star in the film, which over 17 years in development had hit the shoals with several directors, including Steven Spielberg and Gore Verbinski, who couldn't find the right tone for an update. Shortly after reading Conrad's script as an actor, though, Stiller began writing elaborate notes in its margins. "It was not something you'd normally see an actor do," said John Goldwyn, the film's producer. "You could tell it spoke to him."
Soon after, Stiller decided to helm the movie too, despite the Kurtz-like efforts of those who came before ("It helped that I didn't think about it that way," he said dryly.)
As imagined by Stiller and Conrad, their movie would contain some comic nuggets. But it would largely reflect the frustration of middle-aged and middle-class males and the wages of loneliness, a bit like what "Falling Down" might look like if Michael Douglas had gone to a more lighter, more redemptive place. (The posters are eerily similar, with images of solitary men with ties and briefcases hovering over the world below.) "I felt that Steve made the movie about something more than just a daydreamer with incredible fantasies," Stiller said. "It became a story about a man willing to take a chance to connect."
So Stiller went to work. He wangled from Fox a budget of nearly $100 million, a gargantuan sum for a drama. He brought on a crack visual team, including Mann and the Oscar-nominated cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh. He began pushing the cast to enter the melancholy head space he wanted the film to occupy, sending them bunches of emo songs, like a track from the Oakland indie band Rogue Wave. And he honed the character into someone who, when he eventually responds to his circumstance, does so with surprising ferocity.
"It's almost pathological how many obstacles Ben chooses to put in front of himself," Mann said. "That makes some people daunted by him. But I find it exciting."
All of this doggedness hasn't exactly given Stiller a laid-back reputation. Over the years, stories have circulated about the precise demands he makes. Stiller has even nodded to this reputation in his work, playing a tantrum-prone loner in Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" and an erratic hothead in a guest spot on a "Friends" episode titled "The One With the Screamer."
Levy said the stories of Stiller's demanding ways are accurate, but the attitude almost always serves the piece, and is fairly applied. "Ben wants to be surrounded by people who work as hard and worry as much as him. That's all he wants," said the director. "If you're that breed of crazy, as I tend to be, everything is good."
Stuart Cornfeld, Stiller's longtime producing partner, said, "I think that most everybody who's worked with him understands he is driven and he drives the people he works with, but it's ultimately about the thing that's external to himself." Cornfeld added, "What's the old phrase, pain is temporary but art is forever?"
In person, Stiller can be thoughtful and even playfully childlike; his text alert on his cellphone, for instance, is the voice of George Takei. He also can be confident and funny, especially in front of crowds; before a New York Film Festival screening of "Mitty," he quipped that "a lot of people think studios are bad and these faceless, greedy corporations." Pause. "And they are."
But there's also a rawness and nervousness, a sense that certain questions can set him on edge.
Asked whether it matters that awards tastemakers haven't been kind to "Mitty," he tightly shook his head before attempting a joke that he faced similar expectations on "Dodgeball." He also seemed to take offense at the idea that he, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black and others had once formed a comedy "frat pack," the mid-2000's journalistic shorthand for the group after they collaborated on a string of hits. "I have no idea where it came from," he said. "Some website came up with it. I would venture to say none of us in this so-called thing — I don't even say the name — ever felt that."
Introspective pause
It's a little hard to remember, after the barrage of "Along Came Polly," "Meet the Fockers" and numerous other commercial comedies, but Stiller's early career — particularly his first two feature directing efforts, the generational touchstone "Reality Bites" and "The Cable Guy," along with his short-lived television sketch series "The Ben Stiller Show" — was marked by a darker brand of introspection, a commercial gloss hiding existential themes.
Back then, before he had chiseled out the nice-guy archetype that has proved so lucrative, we witnessed a man worried about the big questions and coping with them through his comedy, a Gen-X Woody Allen of sorts.
Stiller said that, while the instinct may have lain a little dormant, it hasn't gone away. In fact, he sees this picture as a bookend to his first film.
"With 'Reality Bites' I also was looking at my life. I had a different perspective. I was looking forward all the time, thinking about the next step, and the movie was about that," he said. "At this point it's wanting to put the brakes on and enjoy where I am and who I am right now, which is what this movie is about."
His personal life is at a different place than it was in the mid-90's, a period when he dated a number of tabloid-friendly actresses. Married since 2000 to the lower-profile performer Christine Taylor, Stiller and his wife have a son, 8, and a daughter, 11. Around 2010, after two decades in Los Angeles, he and his family decided to move to New York, a prodigal return of sorts for Stiller, who had a showbiz upbringing in the city himself as the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Stiller made the choice, he said, out of a sense that he wanted to hold on to something past--"I want to give my children the East Coast experience I had"—which is a sensibility that's also embedded in "Mitty." Much of the film centers on the soon-to-be-obsolete Life magazine as it's about to be shuttered and Mitty's job as an analog photo editor is set to be phased out.
"This movie is about capturing what could soon be lost," Stiller said. "There's something about holding a Life magazine in your hands from 1944 and knowing it was around in 1944. My kids will never have that experience."
Slowing down also means taking a look at his career, which has him feeling a little restless. Stiller has just finishing shooting "While We're Young" as an actor, reuniting with Baumbach for a movie in which he plays a filmmaker locked into an established style.
The actor says he found himself identifying with that character's dilemma. "I love making comedies. I just think it's what you find in the moment, and for me now it's more dramatic," he said. "I'd love to find ways to historical stories that don't feel like a biopic on the History channel." (One such project is "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," a movie he's long been developing based on George Saunders' surrealist story collection.)
Stiller is making an exception for a new "Night at the Museum," the series' third picture, which is set to begin shooting in a few months. But Levy notes there's good reason for it. "This new phase with Ben is real. 'Night At the Museum 3' is basically a farewell," both to the franchise and to the kinds of movie Stiller has been making.) Mann says he sees Stiller as inhabiting "a new chapter of wanting to do something memorable that goes beyond the weekend numbers."
Stiller takes a rueful tone about his career.
"In my head I've been thinking of myself as making all these different kind of movies. But the reality is that up to this point is these are the movies I've made," he said. "As a director I feel a lot more connection with wanting to explore different kinds of movies."
Stiller also said that to expand he'd very much like to direct films he doesn't star in, which will allow him to handle a wider range of characters and subjects. (On this he could face a bit of a Catch-22, since when it comes to hyphenates who are box-office draws as actors, studios will often hinge a greenlight for a directorial effort on the person's commitment to star.)
Stiller's switch may also be a recognition that some of the comedy ground he tilled has been overtaken by Judd Apatow and Todd Philips, who, despite some of their own travails, have found more success in the past few years than Stiller, whose previous two acting comedies, "Tower Heist" and "The Watch," were box-office disappointments.
In fact, many of the actors from the don't-call-it-a-frat pack have found their comedy getting a little long in the tooth — which may be why Vince Vaughn tried to go more heartfelt in "Delivery Man" and Jack Black and Owen Wilson are at their own crossroads.
Stiller said that he sees his own shift as more about his own tastes than a cultural cycle — those are, after all, turns he can't control.
"The last few years I've had a realization: that things happens for no reason whatsoever. Good stuff happens and horrible stuff happens," he said. "When I was younger I thought there was some way of figuring stuff out, that, you know, if you just eat well you'll be OK. But it doesn't. And life just keeps coming at you and time starts to pass quicker, and you just start to see how temporary it all is. So I want to seize the moment and try to find the right balance of what I want to do creatively.
He paused. "I told you I related to Walter Mitty."