text:
The LM809 and LM810 microprocessors supervisory circuits can be used to monitor the power
supplies in microprocessor and digital systems. They provide a reset to the microprocessor during
power-up, power-down and brown-out conditions.
The function of the LM809 and LM810 are to monitor the VCC supply
voltage, and assert a reset signal whenever this voltage declines below the factory-programmed
reset threshold. The reset signal remains asserted for 240 ms after VCC
rises above the threshold. The LM809 has an active-low RESET output, while
the LM810 has an active-high RESET output.
Seven standard reset voltage options are available, suitable for monitoring 5-V, 3.3-V,
and 3-V supply voltages.
With a low supply current of only 15 µA, the LM809 and LM810 are ideal for use in
portable equipment.


text:
This Week In Island History
The news of 10 and 15 years ago is from the Jamestown Press. The news of 100 years ago came from the collection of the Newport Historical Society.
From the Newport Journal, March 6, 1914
The island experienced the worst blow for a number of years Sunday afternoon, the wind reaching the proportions of a gale shortly before sunset. The tide was at the time the highest of the winter, and helped increase the damage along the east shore, which was exposed to the wind. Wharves, bathing houses and boats that were hauled up several feet above the usual high tide, were damaged. On shore everything movable was blown about, shutters were blown from houses and loose shingles were torn from the roofs. The worst damage was done at the Gardner House, where the wind gained a hold under the tin roofing and stripped almost the entire roof of the wing on the front of the covering, which lies in the back yard of the hotel, a crumpled and twisted mass.
75 years ago
From the Newport Daily News, March 1, 1939
The Thomas H. Clarke School assembly was filled to capacity Tuesday evening, when a meeting of the Jamestown Athletic Association was held, and the advantages of a recreational center for the younger generation were discussed by many of those present.
From the Newport Daily News, March 2, 1939
Gov. William H. Vanderbilt will be asked by the Jamestown Town Council what part the state will take in the rehabilitation of the West Ferry, inactive since the hurricane of last Sept. 21.
50 years ago
From the Newport Daily News, March 3, 1964
Test borings for the proposed Newport Bay Bridge are scheduled to start tomorrow in the East Passage of the bay. Bridge Authority Chairman Frances Dwyer said today results of the borings can be expected by about June 1.
From the Newport Daily News, March 9, 1964
An attempt to burn the abandoned former Conanicut Yacht Club building south of the ferry landing in Jamestown Sunday afternoon failed when the fire was discovered and the flames extinguished after burning six feet of the pier.
25 years ago From the Newport Daily News,
March 1, 1989
Jamestowners will get their own token lane. In January 1988, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority completed construction of a new $1.82 million plaza. The project added seven lanes to the old five-lane plaza.
The Coast Guard will discontinue use of the Brenton Reef Light Tower, replacing it with a variety of navigational aids. From the Newport Daily News,
March 7, 1989
With only a few dissenters, Jamestown voters passed a $6.48 million 1989-90 budget Monday evening at the annual financial town meeting. The meeting attracted 385 voters, the largest turnout since 150 voters showed up in 1984.
15 years ago
From the Jamestown Press,
March 4, 1999
At the annual financial town meeting Monday, it took 48 minutes to approve a $11.66 million budget for fiscal 1999-2000 and raise the tax rate from $15.13 to $15.63 for each $1,000 of assessed property value.
An independent national survey agency recently released a document that ranks the country's top libraries. While it did not make the top 20, the Jamestown Philomenian Library was named the third best in the state of Rhode Island.
10 years ago
From the Jamestown Press,
March 4, 2004
The annual financial town meeting Monday evening drew 224 voters who made 18 nearly unanimous voice votes to adopt the special 16-month budget, as amended to give the town's volunteer Fire Department the additional $39,269 it requested. A total of 4,343 residents were eligible to vote.
The fate of the old Jamestown Bridge, once destined for demolition, has been put on hold since the state Department of Transportation has been instructed last week to look into the feasibility of re-using the span as either a park or a bike path.

subset: commoncrawl


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text: Figured we needed a thread for this already since there's a considerable amount of people into this kind of music on the board. I've been craving a lot of it lately myself. Discussions of pretty much any punk influenced guitar rock that's heavy and noisy and isn't metal goes in here.


text:
Battery park city parks conservancy, Community Room at the Regatta, 21 S. End Ave., 212-267-9700: Through April 27-Stories and Songs, share the joy of music and storytelling with your infants, toddlers and preschoolers, sessions run on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m.-12:40 p.m., $192 for 16 sessions; Mar. 15-April 26-Early Spring childrens gardening, Rockefeller Park, Tuesdays, 3:45-5:30 p.m., call for registration.
THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB, 308 Bowery, 334-6414: Feb. 26-Dr. Seuss reading, with Bob Holman playing the Cat in the Hat, noon, $10 adults, kids free.
Childrens galleries for jewish culture, 515 W. 20th St., 212-924-4500: Weekly-Arts & crafts for children ages 6-12, from mosaics and models to weaving and jewelry, 2-5 p.m., $5 per person; Feb. 27-Arts & crafts, work with little stones to create mosaics, 2-5 p.m., $5.
The educational alliance, 197 E. Broadway, 212-780-2300, x378: Starting Feb. 14-After school and weekend classes in art for kids ages 10-18, registration still open, $95 per 10 week course.
The eldridge street synagogue, 12 Eldridge St., 212-219-0888, ext. 302: Feb. 27-Crossing Eldridge Street Family program, children learn about cooking while preparing a savory Sabbath meal, 11 a.m., $8 per child and accompanying adult.
Gotham comedy club, 34 W. 22nd St., 212-877-6115: Mar. 6-Childrens stand-up comedy show, 2 p.m., $15, plus a one-drink minimum; Mar. 13-Kids N Comedy workshop, children should arrive with 2-3 minutes of original material, call for reservations & details, $50 per child.
Los kabayitos Puppet & childrens theater, 107 Suffolk St., 212-260-4080, ext. 14: Through Feb.-Little Red Turns Tables on Wolf, a bilingual childrens play presented in English & Spanish simultaneously, Sat, 3 p.m., $10-$12
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text:
Why are less women choosing to enter computer science classes NOW, than in 1984? Seriously? According to the New York Times, there will be over 1 million jobs in computer related fields by 2020. Let's close the gender gap, beginning now.
From NYTimes.com:
It's 1984 and you're sitting in your college Computer Science class. You take a look around the classroom of 100 students and count 37 women.
Fast forward to today. It's 30 years later and the world has changed quite a bit. Women have become the majority in college and the majority in the workforce. We're approaching gender parity in the life sciences and mathematics fields. These new devices called laptops are everywhere.
Teaching computer science to girls has the potential to turn these eager consumers of technology into unstoppable creators of it.
Today, in your classroom of 100 C.S. majors, 12 will be women.
The gender gap in technology has never been wider, and with the 1.4 million jobs that will be available in the computing related fields by 2020, we need a national, girl-led movement to close it.
via Teach Coding to Girls Before Negative Stereotyping Starts – NYTimes.com.


text:
On November 14th, IBM announced it was opening up its Jeopardy-winning Watson technologies as a cloud service and development platform.
To enable these "Watson-powered" applications, IBM's offering has three parts:
A Watson Development Cloud (which some are labeling the "Watson Cloud") that includes tools and an API to attract application developers.
A content store that serves as an information clearinghouse for data providers.
A talent network of people with the skills for cognitive development.
It is important to note that this is not the first "cloud brain" available to the masses. Wolfram Alpha was launched in May 15, 2009, and it also offers a developer program and APIs. (Though, it is also significant to note that Wolfram Alpha did not whoop us puny humans in Jeopardy!)
I'm not surprised to see this development. My new book, The Great Cloud Migration, includes a section on the future of cloud computing that predicted this occurrence. Here is an excerpt:
"The cloud will take on a more active role in connecting the Internet of Things by acting as the ever-present 'brain' that ties everything together. While I am not going as far as to suggest a 'singularity' event where artificial intelligence becomes 'aware'; I am suggesting that the cloud takes on functions that mimic or act like our brain in terms of rule execution, inference and deduction — similar to Apple computer's Siri or IBM's Watson — that is available to everyone, everywhere.
More important, this feature could be built into a future cloud so that every application could leverage these functions. This would act as the glue that enables the Internet of Things to work in a coordinated fashion, sharing these 'brain-like' functions of the cloud."
Other capabilities enabled by the Cloud as a Brain, would include:
It will be interesting to see if and when other major cloud players open up their intelligent assistants, including Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana (not yet released) and Apple's Siri. My guess is that the Watson Cloud opens up a new front in both the cloud provider wars and the smart phone wars, where other vendors are compelled by the marketplace to release their Cloud as a Brain platforms.
Fortunately, such increased competition is a boon for application developers, data providers and ultimately every consumer.
Michael C. Daconta (email@example.com) is the Vice President of Advanced Technology at InCadence Strategic Solutions and the former Metadata Program Manager for the Homeland Security Department. His new book is entitled, The Great Cloud Migration: Your Roadmap to Cloud Computing, Big Data and Linked Data.
Posted by Michael C. Daconta on Nov 20, 2013 at 12:04 PM
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The beginning of the end...
Using large-scale brain simulations for machine learning and A.I.
Recent research on self-taught learning and deep learning suggests we might be able to rely instead on unlabeled data
Arthur C. Clarke -- Dial F for Frankenstein
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STOCKTON - The Board of Supervisors allowed a developer to pay a fee instead of providing an acre-for-acre swap to preserve 5 acres of lost farmland Tuesday, the first time a controversial agricultural-preservation ordinance was utilized since being adopted seven years ago.
STOCKTON - The Board of Supervisors allowed a developer to pay a fee instead of providing an acre-for-acre swap to preserve 5 acres of lost farmland Tuesday, the first time a controversial agricultural-preservation ordinance was utilized since being adopted seven years ago.
County staff recommended Love's Travel Center be allowed to pay the $8,675-an-acre fee after unsuccessfully trying to buy land or an easement to preserve 5.06 acres of farmland to replace a piece of the approved 12-acre project to add a new truck stop in Flag City, where Highway 12 meets Interstate 5.
The board unanimously approved the fee payment, but it revived the debate from seven years ago when the ordinance was adopted to keep growth from eroding agricultural land in the county. And supervisors said they wanted to take a closer look at how the farm-preservation rules are used, but they stopped short of calling for an overhaul.
The $43,895 fee will still go toward farmland preservation, likely through the Central Valley Farmland Trust. It is difficult to purchase 5-acre easements, and the trust typically deals with larger tracts of land, county officials said.
"It doesn't make any sense if you're looking at small parcels like this if you can't find the exact fit," Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller said. "The thing to do is give the money to something like the Central Valley Farmland Trust."
The unsuccessful search did take months, said Kevin Huber, who represents Love's. "It's very difficult unless you're looking in small ranchette areas," which are not ideal areas for farming operations, he said.
The opportunities are there for the buyer who is looking for them, said Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, which lobbies for agriculture in the county. Paying a fee instead of finding an easement moves the responsibility from the developer to the county, he said. Most of the projects in the unincorporated county are smaller than 40 acres, he said. And the fees don't match reality, he said. "Fair market value has gone up for these easements," he said. "Allow the market system to work."
But the market demand was created by the ordinance, said John Beckman, CEO of the Building Industry Association of the Delta, a lobbying group for developers. "That interferes with the philosophy of supply and demand."
The builders group was part of a lawsuit brought against the city of Stockton's agriculture-mitigation plan in 2007.
Developers, farmers and environmentalists were part of the discussion in the lead-up to the county ordinance, Community Development Director Kerry Sullivan said. And the board at the time expressed great concern about pressure on farmland and the threat of urbanization, she said.
Since 2006, there have been few requests subject to the mitigation ordinance, and this is the first request for the fee option. But when the county finishes updating its General Plan, there could be many new landowners subject to the ordinance, Sullivan said.
The county should always be sensitive when fees are involved, but this is the first time they've come up with the mitigation rules since 2006, Supervisor Steve Bestolarides said. "I don't think the ordinance needs to be revisited."
Board Chairman Ken Vogel said he didn't necessarily want to reopen the ordinance, "but I think we need to get a little bit better idea about what is going on."
He did note that the flagging economy of recent years is one reason the board hasn't dealt with as many development issues.
"It's nice to have this problem again," he said.
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or email@example.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/johnsonblog.


text:
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text:
SteveW wrote:Where did the 600m number come from? I don't think that's doable to be honest. Unless they completely strip the side.
eujin wrote:changwonmatty wrote:Changwonmatty, do you have the 2016 numbers for all teams or just the projection for Gyeongnam?
I cant remember where the 600 million number has come. Got a feeling it was a private discussion with second information from club officials and what the provincial office is willing to offer as well as zero foreign players will be signed next season.
I could find an article (in Korean)however that Gyeongnam is cutting back their squad to 26 players for next season and cutting their youth program.


text:
Petr Cech and Mikel John Obi have hailed the talents of Oscar after the Brazilian marked his Champions League debut for Chelsea – Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Juventus – with two goals, the second of which was a sensational curling, bending strike on the turn.
Cech even went as far as to suggest that the 21-year-old, who was signed for £25m from Internacional in July, has already proved to be "good value".
"He plays great football, a simple one or two touches, and he's always available," said Cech. "He has a pretty big price tag on him for a young guy and that's an extra pressure. So it's been great for him that we see this performance, and two goals will give him a lot of confidence. People will realise he is good value."
The draw at Stamford Bridge was Oscar's first start for Chelsea after he had featured as a substitute on three previous occasions for the club, and his impact was such that observers are already suggesting he has the potential to emulate his fellow Brazilian playmaker, Kaká.
"Only time will tell [if he can be as good as Kaká] but he's on a very good way," Cech added. "He's settled in quickly and you can see he's worth the money the club spent. He's only 20 [sic] so let's see how he's going to develop."
For the goal that put Chelsea 2-0 up against the Serie A champions, Ashley Cole played the ball into Oscar's path just outside the penalty area and, having spun away from Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Pirlo in one movement, he instantly bent the ball over Gianluigi Buffon and into the top corner of the net. The quality of that strike may have come as a surprise to some but, according to Mikel, Oscar's team-mates have been aware of his capabilities for some time.
"We have seen him in training smash balls in like that," said the midfielder. "We knew it was just a matter of time. The English game is not easy. It is very difficult to come in and straightaway adapt to it but we have seen what he can do and hopefully he can keep going. He can only get better."
Oscar's display was the highlight of an otherwise frustrating night for Chelsea as they marked their first ever match as European champions by throwing away an early lead through defensive carelessness.
Cech admitted such lapses were a concern but aggressively disputed the notion that Chelsea's collapse was down to a desire by the team to prove their Champions League credentials, having been deemed by some as lucky winners of last year's competition.
He said: "We got sucked into the atmosphere of the first Champions League game as European champions and wanted to win. We got 2-0 up and at that point we attacked too much and we could have slowed the game down, kept more of the possession.
"We don't need to prove anything – you have to play 13 games to win the Champions League and you might be lucky in only one or two of them. Whenever it was that we got knocked out by Barcelona [the 2009 semi-finals], they were lucky to be in the final. Everyone said that they played brilliant football and were worthy winners but they shouldn't have been in the final. Nobody talks about that.
"We didn't steal it [the Champions League]. We deserved to win."
This article was written by Sachin Nakrani, for The Guardian on Thursday 20th September 2012 23.00 Europe/London
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
image: © Jason Bagley


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Taylor Swift & Reese Witherspoon: Lunch Date!
Reese Witherspoon takes control of the wheel as she and Taylor Swift leave a lunch date at Boa Steakhouse on Friday (August 26) in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 35-year-old actress and the 21-year-old singer have something in common – they both famously dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal!
Taylor is taking a break from her Speak Now tour to attend the MTV Video Music Awards this weekend. Reese recently returned from a family vacation in Hawaii.
Also pictured inside: Reese going to the gym with a friend on Thursday (August 25).
25+ pictures inside of Reese Witherspoon and Taylor Swift out and about…


text:
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text:
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Back to Marco Zehe's profile
See a11y conferences.
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Michael Shedlock
Michael ShedlockInvestment Advisor Representative at Sitka Pacific Capital Management LLC
Primary Tel: 707.933.0322538 Broadway Ste A Sonoma CA 95476
Industry: Financial Services—Asset Management
Industry: Financial Services—Asset Management
investing @ sitkapacific.com
About Michael Shedlock
Mike 'Mish' Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance, low volatility, regardless of market direction. He has a blog, "Global Economic Analysis" which has commentary 7-10 times a week, and is a "professor" on Minyanville. Mike does weekly live radio on KFNX, the Charles Goyette show every Wednesday. When not writing about stocks or the economy he spends a great deal of time on photography. He has over 80 magazine and book cover credits. Some of his Wisconsin and gardening images can be seen at MichaelShedlock.com.


text:
According to Paul Schrader, directing Lindsay Lohan in a film is everything you might expect it to be--and then some.
"Tardiness, unpredictability, tantrums, absences, neediness, psychodrama--yes, all that, but something more, that thing that keeps you watching someone on screen, that thing you can't take your eyes off of, that magic, that mystery," writes Schrader, who directed Lohan in "The Canyons," in the latest issue of Film Comment.
He compares Lohan, who celebrated her 27th birthday in rehab a week ago, to iconic (and iconically troubled) star Marilyn Monroe, whom Lohan herself has said she identifies with.
PHOTOS: Sexy still from The Canyons
Schrader notes how that now infamous New York Times Magazine article about The Canyons' tumultuous production was headlined (in print, not online) "The Misfits," the title of what turned out to be Monroe's last completed film.
"Monroe and Lohan exist in the space between actors and celebrities, people whose professional and personal performances are more or less indistinguishable," Schrader writes. "Entertainers understand the distinction. To be successful, a performer controls the balance between the professional and personal, that is, he or she makes it seem like the professional is personal. It is the lack of this control that gives performers like Monroe and Lohan (and others) their unique attraction...We call them 'troubled,' 'tormented,' 'train wrecks'--but we can't turn away."
Prior to "The Canyons," Lohan played Elizabeth Taylor in the widely panned, so-bad-it's-awesome Lifetime biopic Liz &Dick.
PHOTOS: Celebs channeling Marilyn Monroe
"I'm sure Paul Schrader and I could compare some interesting stories on making a movie with Lindsay Lohan, but I'm not so sure we should compare them in the press," Liz &Dick producer Larry Thompson told E! News in January after the Times piece came out.
But Schrader insists that, despite the horror stories that were true, "LL is not MM."
"LL lives in a world of instant celebrity gratification Monroe could have only dreamed of," he writes. "Paid for public appearances, paid to wear clothes, paid to pose, paid for gossip tips, paid for tweets. These rewards are available without the pretense of responsibility. On the other hand, there's no system to protect today's celebrities from the media or the courts or themselves."
He doesn't say whether he would work with Lohan again, but he doesn't seem to regret the one time at least.
"From a selfish point of view, from a director's point of view, that is, from my point of view, it was a treat to work with Lindsay," Schrader concludes. "All the drama, the mishegas, all the stress--that means little. A director can shoot around misbehavior. He can't shoot around lack of charisma. I just wish it was easier for Lindsay."
Select city dwellers and cable subscribers will be able to judge the finished product for themselves when "The Canyons" opens in New York on Aug. 2 and Los Angeles on Aug. 9, while simultaneously becoming available On Demand.
PHOTOS: Lindsay Lohan lighting up in rehab


text:
|Remove Year: 2012
|Energy topic:
|Smart grids
|Remove Energy topic: Smart grids
World Energy Perspective: Smart grids – best practice fundamentals for a modern energy system
The transition towards a low-carbon economy will change both the way power is produced and the way it is consumed. Smart grids are an essential element to facilitate this transformation and for achieving energy security, affordable energy and climate change mitigation—the three elements of the "energy trilemma". To help facilitate the deployment of smart grids, […]
Published in October 2012


text:
The sculpt on Yubaba is really awesome. Great sculpt from the great film!
The sculpt on Yubaba is really awesome. Great sculpt from the great film!
Great sculpt form this great movie, indeed!
Excellent sculpt Ralf, as always.
Many thanks for your comments.
Dragon: No video tutorial yet, I made some small tutorials in this Forum.
Search for my username.
Here is my final Yubaba Sculpture. Hope you like it.
Ralf Stumpf
another cool design from Ralph
I'm glad to see the textured Yubaba!
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." -E.F. Schumacher
Really beautiful, as always Ralf! Glad to have you back here.
Just a question, in a textured render like this, do you use one material for the entire character, or do you use different ones for cloth, skin, fan, etc.?
YUBABA came out great. Nice texturing/painting and rendering.
And you know, I have the same question as POLAROID29-"Just a question, in a textured render like this, do you use one material for the entire character, or do you use different ones for cloth, skin, fan, etc.? " You see, I have been playing around lately with Polypainting and LightCap etc. So, just wondering.
Hello, I'm back with a new »Scary Toons« character, this time
to an epic theme »The Ride of the Valkyrie«.
It took quite a long time to design and create this two complex characters.
I want to make something different from the normal point of view of a Valkyrie.
Also I want a little twist towards humor. For the conception I take a look to
illustrations from the middle age, they often has characters with long and
straight noses.
Technically I model the most parts direct in ZBrush with dynamesh and made
a new topology to keep the polycount as low as possible. 50% are still dynamesh's.
I polypaint and render in ZBrush. For rendering I use a multipass technic where
I render passes for color, different materials, lights from different directions
and AO/shadow and compose these frames in PS.
Hope you like it.
Ralf Stumpf
Excellent art and lots of fun. Kudos Ralf.
Terrific, I can hear Wagner
.:|Sketch Book |:.
Awesome Sketch book....am a fan of steampunk...... ( You inspire, I admire )
...email me
...on facebook
"Time's the thief of memory"
Fantastic work – as always!
The forms, colours, materials and especially the proportions are all perfect
Great stuff Ralf, great style!!!! keep it up!
Best regards mutte
My ZBC sketchbook / Z4beta thread
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freelance cg sculptor/creature designer


text: Hunting: Recipe Recipe Posted 05-09-2013 Campfire Quesadillas (Recipe) By: DirtyGourmet.com Permitted use provided by: DirtyGourmet.com Campfire Mushroom and Corn Quesadillas Yield: 4 quesadillas Prep Time: 5-30 minutes, depending on your ingredients Cook Time: about 5 minutes Ingredients: 2 teaspoons oil 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced 10 button or cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced 1/2 cup cornsalt and pepper, to taste 4 flour tortillas 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese Tools: Heavy duty aluminum foil Grate (for campfire) or grill Skillet (optional) Cutting Board Knife Tongs or spatula For Veggie Mixture: Lay out a piece of foil and center onion, mushrooms, and corn on the foil. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bring up the sides of the foil and double fold the ends to make a packet. Place on the grate and cook until veggies are tender. Alternately, you can cook the veggies on your camp stove. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and mushrooms and saute until softened and lightly browned. Add corn and stir to combine. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper, to taste. Note: The veggie mixture can be made a day or two ahead of time. For Quesadillas: Lay out four pieces of foil and place a tortilla on top of each piece. Divide half the cheese among the four tortillas, sprinkling it down the center of each. Divide the veggie mixture evenly among the tortillas, and then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the veggies. Fold the two sides of the tortilla toward the center and then wrap the quesadilla in the foil, sealing the edges to make a packet. Place the packets on the grate and cook for a few minutes on each side, until the cheese is melted and the tortilla crisp. http://www.dirtygourmet.com/campfire-quesadillas Tried this recipe? Share your comments below using Facebook! Share This Story Next From Recipe Crush Recipe: Mini Elk Meatloaf Related Hunting : Posted 05-22-2013 Chipotle Turkey Bacon Sandwich (Recipe) View Hunting : Posted 05-08-2013 Secret Weapon Brown Sugar Spice Rub (Recipe) View Hunting : Posted 01-07-2010 Camper's Stew (Recipe) View Comments Categories News Stories Recipes Tips Gear Videos Photo Galleries Viewer Photo Galleries Features Deer Season Outdoors 365 with Lynn Burkhead Everything Deer with Jeremy Flinn Short Stories by Larry Potterfield Opening Days Live Hunts Hunting Check Out All The Photos Explore the United States. Find information about and activities within your state. Get Started


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Volunteers can help the Will May Memorial Dog Park come to life by putting their hands in the soil today. A work day and groundbreaking begins at 8 a.m. on the 2.5-acre site in Munny Sokol Park.
Volunteers can help the Will May Memorial Dog Park come to life by putting their hands in the soil today. A work day and groundbreaking begins at 8 a.m. on the 2.5-acre site in Munny Sokol Park.
It's also a day for the May family to be recognized for its invaluable contributions, said Kimberly Krause, whose dream of a place for dogs to run leash-free, yet safe, set the wheels in motion. Physical work has begun on the site, so the groundbreaking is symbolic. Once fences are up, in about a month to six weeks, the dog park will have its grand opening.
"About a year ago I was standing here and sketching a dog park, before anything," Krause said, "and now that sketch is becoming a reality. And that's really cool."
Krause is executive director of Fresh St-Art, a not-for-profit group which designs and builds public community spaces, such as the Alberta Gathering Place. As interest rose for the project, Fresh St-Art joined forces with the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority, which operates Sokol Park.
The budget for the project is $163,000, including $120,000 from the city and a $43,000 donation from the Will May Foundation, which raised money through a 5K run in the spring. The park is being named for animal lover Will May, a 13-year-old son, nephew and grandson of veterinarians, who was accidentally killed on a hunting trip in January.
The larger-than-expected May Foundation money upgraded plans a bit, so the parking lot will be asphalt, not gravel, and sidewalks will be constructed inside the park.
"Ideally, that's how you want them set up, so people can exercise while their dogs get to run around, too," said Gary Minor, executive director of PARA.
Some non-skilled manual labor opportunities will be available for the work day, he said.
"We've got a bunch of volunteers coming out tomorrow, but we don't know exactly how many," Minor said Friday. "We're doing like a half-day, four-hour work day ... to rake up dirt, plant grass seeds, put some hay out."
If enough people show up, volunteers will be put to work digging postholes for the fencing, which will be among the last bits of this first level of construction. Volunteers should wear closed-toe shoes. PARA will provide gloves and tools.
After the work day, and the next week of construction, it should be easier to tell when the park will have its grand opening, he said.
"We should have the parking lot and rest of the sidewalks done next week. Really, probably within a month, we should have everything up and going," he said, though it might take as long as six weeks to complete the fencing, which of necessity must go up last.
"I think it's going to be heavily used; no doubt about that. I've been going out there several times in the mornings, just looking at what's happening, and there are a lot of people out walking their dogs, on leashes," he said. "I think just the publicity of the dog park going to be there has encouraged them to go out get used to the place."
Krause said she has been on site frequently and has seen the same thing: people out walking their leashed dogs, also driving by and pointing at the location.
"It feels so good to see people happy," she said. "It's already spectacular. It's art. It moves, the harmony of it all," after the Frank Lloyd Wright fashion of bringing the inside outside, and making it sing together.
"I'm very content. I'm seeing the unity and community already; I can see people laughing and playing and learning. It's just great because everybody's so into it."
As with many nonprofit community projects, reality sometimes lags behind dreams, so Krause is considering this level of the dog park's construction phase one, with art and educational stations to grow onto it as funds arrive.


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NEW YORK -- U.S. airlines' revenue from bag fees fell last year for the first time since they started collecting them, signaling that more passengers are packing light to save cash when they fly.
The Transportation Department said May 17 that the 17 largest airlines made $3.36 billion in bag fees last year, down slightly from $3.4 billion in 2010.
The total number of passengers last year on those airlines rose by about 2.4 percent.
Fees for first and second checked bags began four years ago, when fuel prices soared to all-time highs. But many airlines charged extra for extra heavy or oversized bags before then.
The revenue airlines collect has been climbing ever since. Between 2008 and 2009, money from bag fees jumped by 42 percent. From 2009 to 2010, it increased by 24 percent.
Delta Air Lines Inc. made more than any of its peers last year with $863.6 million in bag fees. That was more than the $854 million in net income that the world's second largest carrier posted, highlighting how vital the fees have become.
For American Airlines, at No. 2, fees saved it from an even wider loss. The airline made $593.5 million in fees last year. Parent company AMR Corp. posted a $2 billion net loss.
Spirit, the only U.S. airlines that charged for carry-on bags last year, was eighth on the list, raking in $134 million in fees. That was double what the next airline collected. JetBlue brought in just $64 million even though it has nearly four times the traffic of Spirit.
JetBlue does not charge passengers for the first checked bag.
Fees for reservation changes and cancellations rose 4 percent to $2.38 billion in 2011.
Bag fees and reservation change fees are the only ancillary fees paid by passengers that are reported to BTS as separate items. Other fees, such as revenue from seat assignments and on-board sales of food, drinks, pillows, blankets and entertainment are not identified separately.


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Ignore the fact, if you will, that two of Oakland's three victories are against 1-6 teams, but they are a Broncos loss to the Saints away from a first-place tie in the AFC West after their win against the Kansas City Chiefs today.
Sure, it was the Chiefs, just as last week it was the lowly Jaguars without their starting quarterback and starting running back for most of the game, but it's also the kind of game the Raiders had a penchant for losing in recent seasons.
From that standpoint, give the Raiders credit for taking care of business and buying another week to get more players healthy and find some answers for their offensive inconsistencies.
— Running back Darren McFadden rushed for 114 yards Sunday. Make no mistake, most of that yardage came long after the outcome was sealed and the Chiefs had cashed it in for the day.
Best case, it's a start. Worst-case, the Raiders still haven't figured out a way to get McFadden untracked for an entire game.
At one point, he had 17 yards on 12 carries before he bursted for 19 yards. Late in the game, he tacked on a 28-yarder and finished with 73 yards once the Raiders led by 14 or more.
In other words, the run game very much remains a huge concern.
— The Raiders benefitted from four Chiefs turnovers — interceptions by Matt Giordano and Pat Lee, a fumble by quarterback Matt Cassel and a muffed punt by Javier Arenas.
That was more than enough to offset an interception of Carson Palmer on Oakland's first offensive play.
— Former Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt intercepted Palmer on a pass for Darrius Heyward-Bey to start the game. From there, the Raiders got the better of Routt, by far, the rest of the game.
Heyward-Bey put a move on Routt on a sideline pass that Heyward-Bey turned into a 32-yard touchdown. Routt also was late making the play on a post route by Denarius Moore that went for a touchdown.
Routt said he enjoys getting paid by "half the AFC West." On Sunday, he helped both teams, so that's only fitting.
— The Raiders offensive line did a much better job looking after Palmer today, as promised.
Palmer got smacked around pretty good against the Jaguars a week earlier, prompting the offensive linemen to redouble their efforts and make a point of playing better against the Chiefs. It worked.
Palmer wasn't sacked on 28 dropbacks, and he wasn't hit much, either. Palmer did have at least three passes tipped at or near the line of scrimmage.
Overall, Palmer finished 14 of 28 for 209 yards. However, he had a handful of passes dropped that were right on the money,
— The Raiders committed only two penalties for 20 yards today, which represents a huge improvement over the past couple of games.
The Chiefs, by comparsion, got called for five penalties for 40 yards.
— Philip Wheeler led the Raiders with 11 tackles and recorded one of his team's three sacks. Rookie Miles Burris added sevent tackles.
Rolando McClain rounded out the solid game for the linebacking corps with a sack of Brady Quinn and a few other key plays.
— Coach Allen opted against activating linebacker Aaron Curry to the 53-man roster. He has another week-plus to decide whether to activate Curry, waive him or place him on injured-reserve.
Allen said he anticipates Curry being activated before the 21-day window expires, perhaps in time for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game next Sunday.


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Best treatment for childhood epilepsy
Oregon Health and Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital is part of largest-ever NIH-funded paediatric epilepsy clinical trial to examine which of three standard treatments is most effective.
One of the oldest available anti-seizure medications, ethosuximide, is the most effective treatment for childhood absence epilepsy, according to initial outcomes published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital is one of 32 comprehensive paediatric epilepsy centres nationwide selected to participate in this landmark clinical trial as part of the NIH Childhood Absence Epilepsy Study Group.
The study group compared three medications typically used to treat the most common childhood epilepsy syndrome, childhood absence epilepsy, which is characterised by frequent non-convulsive seizures that cause the child to stop what he or she is doing and stare for up to 30 seconds at time.
Prior to this study, there was no definitive evidence on which drug worked best.
"Much of our scientific understanding of childhood epilepsy care today comes from historical experience or studies involving adult patients with related, but not identical, conditions," explained Colin Roberts, MD, OHSU Doernbecher's principal investigator for the study, assistant professor of paediatrics and neurology, and director of OHSU Doernbecher's Pediatric Epilepsy Program.
"This study is an important milestone in our understanding of childhood absence epilepsy. Never before have we been able to document in such a comprehensive, scientific fashion the best options to treat children with this condition."
The study group enrolled 453 children newly diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy from July 2004 to October 2007. Study participants were randomly assigned to ethosuximide, valproic acid or lamotrigine. Drug doses were incrementally increased until the child was seizure-free. After 16 weeks of therapy, the researchers found ethosuximide and valproic acid were significantly more effective than lamotrigine in controlling seizures, with no intolerable side effects. They also determined ethosuximide was associated with significantly fewer negative effects on attention.
Nick and Michelle Skimas, of Vancouver, Wash., enrolled their daughter Julia in the study in April 2007. Julia stopped having seizures after starting medication.
Before diagnosis and treatment, Julia, now 8, would stop abruptly while reading aloud, pause for 10 to 15 seconds, then resume where she left off, not aware that anything had occurred. Michelle assumed Julia was just taking breaks to look at the pictures.
This went on for two to three weeks, and Michelle didn't think anything of it. Then, while on a family vacation, Julia suddenly stopped in the midst of pitching a baseball and began slowly turning in a circle. Julia was unaware of what was happening and had no recollection of what had occurred.
"That did it," said Michelle. "We took Julia to be evaluated as soon as we got back." After an EEG, and an MRI to rule out a brain tumour, Julia was diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy. Her primary care physician recommended she enrol in a new drug trial at OHSU Doernbecher. Nick and Michelle were leery of giving their daughter medication, but Roberts and his team explained that without treatment Julia's seizures would have a serious impact on her learning and development.
"They said to think of Julia's brain as a classroom in which one child is continuously disruptive. The rest of the class can't function. It was a hard decision, but we are glad we participated. We feel blessed that she has been seizure-free for more than 2 ½ years."
The national study group recommended long-term follow up for the study participants and recently received a five-year extension from the NIH.
Julia, who stopped taking the medication several months after she became seizure-free because it increased her BMI, or body mass index, continues to participate in the newly extended trial, representing one of three study groups: participants who took medication, became seizure-free and stopped taking the medication. The other groups comprise children who are taking the medication but still having seizures, and children taking the medication who are not experiencing seizures, respectively.
"We told Julia all along that what she was doing could very well help other kids in her position, and now she knows it did. That will make a big difference in her life," said Michelle.
"The initial outcomes from this study describe one of many aspects of childhood absence epilepsy evaluated by the study group. Collaborative studies like this lay the groundwork for many critically important studies to follow that will define the proper care of children with seizures," said Roberts.
The lead author for the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine is Tracy A. Glauser, MD, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The study is supported by grants from the NIH.
(Source: Oregon Health and Science University: New England Journal of Medicine: March 2010)
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Lessons Learned from Patient Engagement Efforts in Louisiana
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 10 blogs containing over 8000 articles with John having written over 4000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 16 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John is co-founder of InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and LinkedIn.
We recently sat down to talk with Jamie Martin and Linda Morgan from the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum (LHCQF) about their efforts to promote patient engagement in Louisiana. They've taken a unique approach to encouraging the use of health IT and getting patients engaged in their healthcare and so we wanted to share their lessons and experience with the rest of the world.
In our conversation we talk about what is patient engagement, the importance of having providers ready for patients that want to engage, different approaches to promoting patient engagement statewide, the proliferation of portals and the challenge that provides, and the value of incorporating patients into all of your efforts through a patient advisory board. If these topics interest you, then you'll enjoy this chat with Jamie Martin and Linda Morgan.
Unfortunately, we had a little tech issue half way through our chat, so you only get the first 30 minutes above, but there's plenty of meat in that 30 minutes. Luckily that was the majority of the chat, but I'm sure we'll have Linda and Jamie back again to talk to us about their ongoing efforts and other things like the risque ad option they considered using but didn't. Of course, their bosses might be glad that part got cut off. Either way, it's great seeing people so passionate about improving healthcare in their state.


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This is a longer version of a story that will appear in the Sunday Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times and also on the cover of Brand X.
Through the years, comic-book films took audiences to all the predictable places, including the grim streets of Gotham City and the doomed spires of planet Krypton, but, a decade ago, a new type of comic-book film had the audacity to set its opening sequence in a truly unexpected place — the gates of Auschwitz, where Jewish families were being marched through mud on their way to death and despair.
From those first moments, "X-Men" set itself apart from the entire Hollywood history of comic-book adaptations and marked the beginning of this current era of fanboy cinema, which has dominated the box office and elevated San Diego's Comic-Con International into something resembling a Cannes for capes.
"The opening, it really was a declaration of intent," producer Lauren Shuler Donner said of that sequence, which showed a terrified young boy exhibiting mutant powers as his family was separated by German guards. "It said to the audience this is a serious film, grounded in the realistic and the historic and somewhat dark. It was so smart. And it was all totally Bryan."
That would be Bryan Singer, the director of "X-Men" and its first sequel, who was sitting next to Shuler Donner in her office on a recent afternoon. The pair both had big smiles on their faces — they had been reunited by an invitation to reminisce about the legacy of the July 2000 release, which they were happy to do, but the conversation kept veering into giddy plans for the future. Singer is returning to the "X-Men" universe, it's clear now, for a project called "X-Men: First Class"; it's all just a matter of timing.
"I had lunch with Hugh Jackman today," Singer said, and Shuler Donner, after asking for an off-the-record moment, pressed the 44-year-old filmmaker for details. A few minutes later, with the recorder back on, Singer said he is mightily enthused to work again with Shuler Donner, who has produced two X-films without him, the Brett Ratner-directed "X-Men: The Last Stand" in 2006 and the Gavin Hood-directed "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in 2009.
"I genuinely like the people, and my personality meshes more with this universe than it does with other universes, I think; I see that now at this point," Singer said, no doubt referring to his defection to the DC Comics universe to make the oddly lifeless 2006 movie "Superman Returns." "I feel a connection to the X-Men characters and also the ensemble nature of the films. If you look at 'Usual Suspects'' or my last film, 'Valkyrie,' I feel especially comfortable with ensemble juggling. In the space between all the characters you can disguise a central thought that's hidden in all the discourse. I missed that with the singular relationship story of Superman. And, well, it always gives you something to cut to…"
More on the future of "X-Men: First Class" in a moment, but first let's cut to the past — 1999, when the Hollywood approach to comic books was a far different one.
It was the year "Mystery Men" was released as yet another campy spoof of the masked-man sector. Still fresh in the public mind, too, was Joel Schumacher's "Batman & Robin" (1997), which stripped away any psychological elements of the orphan-turned-vigilante tale and instead gave the world the questionable innovation of putting nipples on the bat-suits. Marvel Comics, meanwhile, was a joke when it came to the silver screen, with only three wide-release films based on its characters — "Howard the Duck" in 1986, "Punisher" in 1988 and "Blade" in 1999 (that last one was actually satisfying for movie fans but had very little in common with the comics and was based on a relatively obscure character from the "Tomb of Dracula" comics of the 1970s).
Considering all that, the plan for "X-Men" was nothing short of revolutionary. Singer and his team, working from a script credited to David Hayter, would take the mutant superheroes of the wildly popular "X-Men" comics and treat them as believable outsiders in a reality-based world. Instead of spandex suits, though, they were outfitted in black leather, following in the fashion-savvy footsteps of "The Matrix," which hadn't been a comic-book movie but certainly felt like one.
"Some reviews were brutal and some lovely, but we had a $21-million Friday, a record at the time, and we knew we had turned a corner," Singer said.
The movie became the opening salvo in an onslaught of superhero movies that were like night-and-day when compared to the films of the 1990s and earlier. "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," three "Spider-Man" films, "Iron Man," two "Hellboy" movies, two "Hulk" films and "Watchmen" all followed "X-Men" in tone and spirit. There are many, many more to come: "Iron Man 2" arrives in May, "Thor" has just begun filming, and "Green Lantern," "The First Avenger: Captain America," a third Batman film and reboots of Spider-Man and Superman are gearing up. That's just a few; there are three dozen other comics-based projects at various points in the Hollywood pipeline, which was unimaginable in the days after "Batman & Robin," when the source material was considered radioactive in studio boardrooms.
Shuler Donner has watched the legacy of "X-Men" grow but she says that, at the time, in the closing days of the editing process she wasn't sure what kind of movie Singer had on his hands.
"There wasn't anything else like this; all the other superhero movies were made with a different tone and we were nervous," Shuler Donner said. "You lose perspective, and now in hindsight it seems like the right choices were made but at time it was scary, believe me."
Singer was feeling the fear for sure. In the editing bay, at one point, the director wondered if the train was about to leave the track. "I was in the cutting room and I got up and went for a walk with [Twentieth Century Fox executive] Peter Rice and I said, 'When this thing fails critically and financially, I will never have the opportunity to make this kind of film again.' I was very depressed. Peter said, 'Well, let's just hope it doesn't fail. That was his advice."
Singer was no comic-book fan growing up; his compass point for heroic tales was Richard Donner's "Superman" film in 1978, which made it no surprise that he jumped at the chance to work with that director's wife on "X-Men" and then jumped ship after two films — with the blessing of both Donners — so he could re-conjure Metropolis for a new generation.
Even without the comic-book passion of, say, Sam Raimi, the director of the three "Spider-Man" movies, Singer knew that "X-Men" would need to win over the true believers who had been reading the comics for years. The characters of Wolverine, Magneto and Cyclops were hardly household names like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, and the director believed that the Hollywood tradition of dismissing hard-core comics fans would be a disaster in this case.
"Ultimately, the comic-book fans are your first core audience, the ones that are going to embrace it and talk about it and embrace it or reject it," Singer said. "They were the first people we worried about."
Shuler Donner nodded. "If the fans didn't embrace us, we knew we were in trouble. We wanted a wider audience, but it began with the comic book fans. The approach was to do a more realistic approach to the characters that the fans loved. They second-guess us a lot, still, but we did win them over."
The film made a star out of Hugh Jackman, who was a late-in-the-game replacement for Dougray Scott, who was tied up on the set of "Mission: Impossible II."
Jackman arrived on the set late in the day and Singer took a good look at him. "I thought, 'Oh his face is rounder than I thought.' It was important that Wolverine have a round face and I thought Hugh's face looked longer in the tape I had seen. He also wasn't as huge as I thought he would be. My opinion was, 'Maybe this isn't as impossible as I thought it would be.' "
To make the final call, Singer had two cameras set up in the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall, where the crew had been shooting a U.S. Senate scene that day. Jackman and Anna Paquin, who played young Rogue in the film, were seated in two folding chairs put side-by-side so they could run through a scene where they are driving in a pickup truck together.
On the second take, Singer stepped away from the monitor so he could just filter everything out and listen to Jackman's voice. A janitor working for the venue sidled up to the baby-faced filmmaker and, mistaking him for a production assistant, began whispering a question.
"He didn't want to bother anyone important, so he sees me, this kid, and walked up and whispered, 'Hey, is that the guy they got to play Wolverine?' And I thought, 'Hmm, this is the moment, take the leap.' I said, 'Yes.' The first guy to know was the cleaning guy. And he said, 'Cool.' It's a good thing he didn't say, 'Ugh, are you kidding me?' "
Singer offered the role to Jackman then and there. It took a month, though, for the actor to really find the feral center of his character.
"He's a real sweetheart," Singer said. "He's the most loving guy, and someone who came out of musical theater. I send some ridiculous note, 'I need anger, that rage, that Russell Crowe side, get into a fight with your wife or something.' The next day he came up to me and said, 'Bry, I thought about what you said but if I ever got in a fight with Deborra, I would show up for work in tears.' I realized that's the other side of Wolverine and we didn't want to lose that either — he's a guy you wouldn't want to get into a bar fight with but you'd let him babysit your kids."
Jackman was the breakout star but the cast was an especially deep one. Paquin would go on to the success of "True Blood" and Halle Berry would a year later win an Oscar for "Monster's Ball." Ian McKellen (who had worked with Singer on "Apt Pupil") was a year away from his signature role as Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and, along with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" veteran Patrick Stewart, he brought a gravitas to the superhero film that kept it from slipping into a camp affair.
"I was a big Trekkie, so I was excited to go see Patrick and meet him," said Singer, who dropped by the set of Richard Donner's "Conspiracy Theory" to make his pitch to Stewart. "He didn't know much about the X-Men at all, we had to explain it all. As for Ian, he liked the idea of the movie because of the gay allegory — the allegory of the mutants as outsiders, disenfranchised and alone and coming to all of that at puberty when their 'difference' manifests. Ian is activist and he reality responded to the potential of that allegory."
How did Fox respond to Singer's plan to start a superhero movie with a Holocaust scene and infuse it with subtext about the struggle of homosexual teenagers in modern America? Singer said there were really no battles to be won. "There was no particular expectation, really, or pressure — it wasn't an enormous budget — and there was no template because these characters were not Superman or Batman. There was no issue of content or even tone."
The reviews were generally good (the film stands at an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) but not fawning. For instance, Kenneth Turan, writing in the Los Angeles Times, was supportive but not dazzled: "While 'X-Men' doesn't take your breath away wire-to-wire the way 'The Matrix' did, it's an accomplished piece of work with considerable pulp watchability to it. And having a self-referential sense of humor ('You actually go outside in these things?' Wolverine says when face-to-face with an X-uniform) makes the special effects go down that much smoother."
The first "X-Men" film made $296 million worldwide, but its sequel, "X2: X-Men United," with the benefit of a bigger budget and story elements already in place, rang up $408 million worldwide and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest win, though, was in the hearts and minds of Hollywood. As time went on, people began to see Singer's "X-Men" films as special. David Denby, in the New Yorker, wrote in praise of "the liquid beauty and the poetic fantasy of Singer's work." Denby didn't feel the magic with replacement director Ratner, however, whom he dismissed as "a crude synthesizer of comedy and action tropes."
The third X-Men movie made the most money at the box office ($459 million worldwide) but many fans found it unsatisfying, and Shuler Donner, choosing her words carefully, made it clear that she is ready for Singer to come back to the mutant universe. "He has an authorship, I feel, and I love all of my directors but with Bryan I would send him e-mails saying 'Where are you? You should be here.' "
That's why Shuler Donner went to Singer with "X-Men: First Class," a prequel to the 2000 film that shares its name with the eight-issue comics series that began in 2006 and was written by Jeff Parker with art by Roger Cruz. Singer says the film will find its axis in the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the point where their friendship soured. It will also detail the beginning of the school for mutants and have younger incarnations of some characters with new actors in roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, the Beast, etc. (He only shrugged when asked if Hugh Jackman might appear as Wolverine, the one character who doesn't age at the same rate as humans.)
The premise has compelling elements to it, Singer said. "Just doing younger mutants is not enough. The story needs to be more than that. I love the relationship between Magneto and Xavier, these two men who have diametrically opposite points of view but still manage to be friends — to a point. They are the ultimate frenemies."
Before Singer can dive into casting, he has a rather large problem — the fact that Warner Bros. has the filmmaker on the hook to direct "Jack the Giant Killer." Fox, flush with money from "Avatar," is eager to move forward with its mutant franchise in all of its permutations, so there are negotiations that need to be done.
Shuler Donner also has pitched Singer on doing a fourth installment of the previously established "X-Men" franchise and Jackman had that lunch with Singer to coax him into a project as well, which may or may not be a "Wolverine" film, which Jackman has said will be set in Japan and released in 2011. "I wish I could be four people," the director said with a moan. "I could make everybody happy."
Singer turned to Shuler Donner and said of "X-Men 4": "Hold that one off for just a little, I'm fixated on the other one right now." She nodded and answered, "I will, I will … I'm holding it open with high hopes. It's totally different [from 'First Class'] and it will be so interesting for you."
At that point, Singer and Shuler Donner asked for some more off-the-record time to talk about the future instead of the past. Then, with the recorder rolling once more, Singer was asked if he believed his first mutant movie would be remembered as a pioneering moment in Hollywood.
"I don't know if people followed in our footsteps or maybe we were just the first of a group going down the same path together," Singer said. "I can tell you this: I remember when Marvel Comics was in bankruptcy and I bought stock for a friend as a joke. That was before 'X-Men' and it was one of the reasons we had so much freedom. And now Disney paid $4 billion for the company. That sort of caught my attention. I just think we made some good movies. And now we're going to make more."
— Geoff Boucher
Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in "Godot"
Ian McKellen surrounded by evil mutants on "The View"
'X-Men' future looks uncertain
Hugh Jackman says there's a lot of Mike Tyson in Wolverine
Peter Jackson and Patrick Stewart, to sirs with love
Bryan Singer flirts with "X-Men" return
SCOOP: Christopher Nolan talks Superman & third Batman movie
Raimi's Spider-Man regrets: "I would have done everything differently"
PHOTOS: Top and sixth: Bryan Singer and Lauren Shuler Donner (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times); Second, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (Fox); Third, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Jackman and Halle Berry in "X2: X-Men United" (Fox); Fourth, Berry as Storm (Fox); Fifth, Bryan Singer and Ian McKellan on the set of "X-Men" (Attila Dory / For The Times). Seventh, "X-Men First Class" the comic book (Marvel).


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It's crazy how fast time flies.
I was just recently reminded on Facebook about how long ago I had travelled to LA to do a shoot for SG. It seems like a lifetime ago.
Now I go through my sets and I feel as though I don't even recognize myself. I feel like I look so different...but all this was also like
Read More


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Error handling is an essential part of all T-SQL code, but many developers regard it as at best a nuisance or at worst irrelevant. Even when developers do implement error handling, misconceptions about how various error-handling strategies behave under different conditions can lead to poor implementation. Because the use and misuse of error-handling routines is poorly understood, I've introduced a major education drive at my workplace to improve the standard of new and modified code we're releasing into our production environment. To help you improve your organization's error-handling procedures, I want to share what we've learned by introducing rigorous scrutiny into our code-review process. First, I explain the reasons for using error handling in code and the best ways to use error handling. Then, I offer template code snippets that you can paste into your own T-SQL code. Finally, I show examples of common mistakes in T-SQL error handling.
Why Use Error Handling?
T-SQL changes data by using Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands, namely INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and SELECT. Although these commands generally work correctly, DML statements can fail for any of several reasons including lock timeout, deadlock, and constraint violations. When such failures happen, the executing code needs to detect the condition, send a response to the code that called it, and take an appropriate corrective action.
Failure to correct an error can result in undesirable situations such as "leaky" transaction handling, which leaves transactions and causes excessive blocking. Non-termination of a transaction that encounters an error can mean that subsequent updates to that transaction continue and complete, causing data inconsistency. If you don't detect the resulting data errors that lead to incorrect results, those errors persist and propagate within the database.
When and How to Use Error Handling
After every DML statement, your code should use the @@ERROR system function to test for system errors and the @@ROWCOUNT system function to test for logic errors. If your code doesn't include this testing, the calling application won't know that anything has gone wrong and therefore can't take appropriate action.
The way error handling works depends on the type of application environment you use. For example, many applications use COM+ architecture to make database requests through Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), which lets the application layer optionally control error handling. Other applications (e.g., Query Analyzer, osql) don't use MTS, which means that the T-SQL code must control error handling. It's possible to call one piece of code from both types of environment, depending upon the circumstances, so error handling should work with both types of architecture.
Recommended Error-Handling System Functions
Whenever a T-SQL error occurs, you can get the error number by calling the @@ERROR system function. A non-zero value for this function indicates that a DML statement has executed incorrectly and you need to take action. @@ERROR returns the status value of the most recently executed statement. Table 1 lists the various values that @@ERROR will take on.
Note that nearly every statement— including such statements as IF, PRINT, and SET—will modify the value of @@ERROR. The three ex- ceptions to this rule are RETURN statements that have no specified return value (RETURN n resets @@ERROR to zero), BEGIN statements, and DECLARE statements.
Because the value that @@ERROR returns always has the potential to change, testing the value of the function directly is an unreliable error-handling method. You need to save the value in a local variable immediately after a DML statement; then, you can base tests for the statement's success or failure on the more predictable value of the local variable.
The @@ROWCOUNT system function displays the count of the number of rows affected by the most recent DML statement. However, like @@ERROR, nearly all statements affect this function's value. The two exceptions to this rule are the BEGIN statement and the DECLARE statement, which don't affect the value of @@ROWCOUNT. Table 2 lists the value of @@ROWCOUNT when it appears after different categories of command statements.
Because the value of @@ROWCOUNT, like @@ERROR, is constantly changing, you should store the function's current value in a local variable immediately after every DML statement so that subsequent tests on that value are reliable. Most DML statements affect an expected number of rows (i.e., you usually know whether a statement will affect 0, 1, or many rows), and you should always use @@ROWCOUNT to confirm the number of affected rows. For example, if the update of a supposedly unique row actually affects two or more rows, your code should roll back that transaction and display a sensible message indicating the nature of the error so that you can investigate the problem. In some situations, knowing the correct number of records is impossible or irrelevant, so the rowcount check isn't mandatory. However, I would urge you to use it whenever possible.
As I explained, I don't recommend testing the value of system functions directly because these values can change frequently. Thus, you need to save the two functions' values into local variables, but you must do so in one command. If you save the values in separate commands, the action of saving the first value will modify the value that the remaining function returns. The code in Listing 1 shows how to correctly save the values, whereas the code in Listing 2 shows what happens when you try to save the values incorrectly.
The RETURN Statement
All T-SQL code should exit with a RETURN status on both success and failure. You can select the value you want SQL Server to return based on your own standards and how you want the calling code to respond, but I recommend returning 0 on success because this value matches the no-error value of @@ERROR and is the default value if you use a RETURN statement without an explicit value. On failure, I recommend your code returns the error number so that you can determine exactly what caused the failure. If an unexpected rowcount is the culprit, the code can't return an error number because none exists, so I suggest a standard return code (we use -999) that any calling application knows to interpret as "unexpected rowcount."
Untrappable Errors
The previous examples show how to "trap" the error number of a particular error and act on it. Some types of error cause immediate termination of a batch, giving you no opportunity to call @@ERROR, and so are "untrappable." For example, if you reference a non-existent table, the result is a resolution error with the error message Server: Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Invalid object name '%d!
When this error occurs, no further code executes in that batch or stored procedure and the current transaction does not roll back. In this example, @@ERROR is set to 208, but no subsequent tests for @@ERROR in that batch or stored procedure are valid (SQL Server will never execute those lines of code), and no return status is set. The code that calls the routine in which the error occurred needs to test for @@ERROR immediately after calling the routine. I haven't been able to find any definitive documentation listing which particular errors behave this way, but another common example is a data-type conversion error. Such errors are generally of severity 16 or higher, but not all severity 16 errors are untrappable. Microsoft acknowledges this problem and provides a workaround in the article "PRB: Inconsistent Error Handling Behavior Occurs with @@ERROR in SQL Server," http://support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811034.
Recommended Error-Handling Templates
Listing 3 shows a suggested error-handling template that caters to both MTS and non-MTS environments. This template provides a consistent type of check for both errors and rowcount and ensures that a return value is always specified. Listing 4 shows a suggested template for executing stored procedures and testing for their return status.
Listing 4's template is designed to work in partnership with the procedure code in Listing 3. Where I work, we now insist that everyone writes all new code to this format, and any bug fixes that involve changes to existing code must also include modifications to the error handling to bring the old-style code in line with the new as much as possible.
Common Error-Handling Pitfalls
The code in Listings 5 through 10 shows some problematic error-handling implementations that I've encountered over the years. Some of the code is just plain wrong. Some might appear to work at first glance but on closer inspection is unreliable. In all cases, these snippets assume the update is failing with a trappable error.
Not testing @@ERROR immediately. In the example code that Listing 5 shows, even if the update fails with a trappable error, @@ERROR will be zero when the code tests it because it takes the value of the most recent T-SQL statement, which in this case is the SET command.
Storing system function values separately. In the example that Listing 6 shows, the code stores @@ERROR and @@ ROWCOUNT in separate SELECT statements. As a result, the SELECT @row_ count command will reset @@ERROR. Always store @@ERROR and @@ROW COUNT in one command.
Inadvertently resetting @@ERROR to 0. This one is a bit more subtle. In Listing 7 the line IF @@ERROR <> 0 will reset @@ERROR to zero as it executes. This means that the line set @err_status = @@ERROR will always set @err_status to zero. The result is that the RETURN command always returns zero instead of the error number. Thus, the calling code will take a different action than it would if a non-zero result was returned. Listing 8 shows another way this common mistake can occur. Like the code in Listing 7, the line IF @@ERROR <> 0 resets @@ERROR to zero as it executes.
Calling code doesn't check correctly for return status values. A common assumption is that simply testing for @@ERROR outside a stored procedure call is sufficient to trap an error. It isn't. True, this is the only way to detect untrappable errors occurring within the stored procedure, but such errors are comparatively rare when compared with trappable errors, and the template in Listing 4 works for both trappable and untrappable errors far more reliably.
Code that incorrectly tests for return status from stored procedures. In the code that Listing 9 shows, the value of @@ERROR will be set to whatever the last statement in SP_1 happens to be. This means that @@ ERROR isn't guaranteed to be non-zero, even if SP_1 fails and rolls back correctly. The value might be non-zero, but it's the unreliability that makes this method a poor choice. The only time that @@ERROR will definitely be non-zero is if SP_1 fails with an untrappable error.
Listing 10 shows another example of how this kind of problem can occur. Because of the way that SP_1 is coded in Listing 10, the stored procedure always resets @@ERROR to zero before it returns. Even though the stored procedure returns a non-zero value, the calling code doesn't test for a non-zero value; it merely tests for the value of @@ERROR, which by now is zero. Thus, the calling code never enters the error handler. Although the missed rollback isn't important (SP_1 has already rolled back the transaction thus far), the fact that the calling code doesn't return at this point is disastrous because it continues to execute and calls SP_2. If SP_2 completes successfully, you'll have a partially complete transaction instead of one that has completely aborted.
Error-Handling Best Practices
Although incorrect error handling is common, many valid ways of achieving a good, thorough error-handling standard exist; the templates in this article are only one approach. In general, remember that you must save the values of both @@ERROR and @@ ROWCOUNT in local variables immediately after every DML statement—and save them in one statement. Remember that all stored procedures must include both MTS and T-SQL error handling (i.e., Raiserror and Rollback). Always check the expected rowcount. Remember that all stored procedures must return an error status—preferably 0 for success or non-zero for failure, because 0 is the default return status in T-SQL. Also, @@ERROR takes the value 0 to indicate "no error." Finally, stored procedure execution must test for non-zero return status and also test for @@ERROR to catch untrappable errors from within the stored procedure.


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Undergraduate Regulations
Admission and Retention of International Students
University requirements for admission to graduate study do not vary for foreign nationals except that individuals who are not United States citizens are required to provide documentary evidence of their competency in the English language through TOEFL test scores. Normally a minimum TOEFL of 500 is required for admission. Additionally, such students are required to report visa information to the University. Non-U.S. citizens are allowed to continue study as long as they are legally permitted to reside in the United States. Revised 11/01/2005


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Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) is a global internet services company that operates the Yahoo! Internet portal. It provides varied products and content, from email and search to media streaming and downloads. Its main revenue sources come from advertising and marketing services. In fiscal year 2010, Yahoo reported revenues of $6.3 billion and net income of $1.2 billion. While Yahoo's main presence is in the United States, its well-established name and solid partnerships in Asia make international expansion a promising opportunity for the company. In response to the fast growing mobile advertising market, Yahoo has been actively pursuing partnerships with carriers and original equipment manufacturers in the mobile industry, as well as tailoring their existing marketing services to mobile users.
Founded as a web directory by two Stanford graduates in 1994, Yahoo! had become a dominant player in the field of Internet services although its competitive position has since become eclipsed by Google and others. The company had experienced healthy growth in top-line revenue year over year for the last four years, but net income has fallen year-over-year due to increased costs of doing business in the increasingly competitive sphere of internet advertising. Specifically, Yahoo!'s year over year cost of revenue is increasing faster than their revenue growth.
Advertising spending continues to show a disproportionate skew in favor of newspaper, TV and direct mail. However, the Internet channel has grown at approximately 18% per year--faster than any other channel--taking share from stagnant channels such as newspaper, which has been flat over the same time period. Continued growth in quality and availability of Internet access means that the Internet services sector--particularly Internet advertising--will remain lucrative for some time to come. An increasingly pronounced trend of replacing print directories and classifieds with virtual alternatives will also create a push for online search use as well as increase demand for online classifieds.
Online Video Advertising Growth
Video advertising promises to be a particularly lucrative area of rapid growth in the online advertising sector as online video viewership continues to rise. In research released by comScore, data shows that 175 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 15.1 hours per viewer.[1]. In terms of video property and viewership, Yahoo ranked second with 53.8 million viewers, behind Google Sites's 146.3 million unique viewers and ahead of Viacom Digital, VEVO, and Facebook[1].
Branded advertising is often image-based and usually priced on an "impressions" basis--the more times it shows up, the more the advertiser pays. Search advertisements are primarily text-based and usually rely on click-through; the more times a particular link is clicked, the more Yahoo! is paid. Together, the two constitute a good balance of different kinds of online advertising. However, branded advertising tends to depend very heavily on the economic situation of the brands in question.
Mobile advertising is in its nascent stages and is currently growing at more than 20% per year, making it a powerful source of potential growth for Yahoo! On its end, the company has been actively pursuing partnerships with carriers and original equipment manufacturers in the mobile industry, as well as tailoring their existing marketing services to mobile users.[2]


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> His treatment of love
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His humour
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
Volume XII. The Romantic Revival.
Sir Walter Scott
§ 16. His treatment of love.
Generally, it may be said that Scott is least successful with his more morally correct and least eccentric personages. He specially fails to interest us in his loversperfectly proper but rather buckram young men, with merely average commonplace characteristics. Of Waverley, he himself said:
The hero is a sneaking piece of imbecility, and if he had married Flora, she would have set him up upon the chimney piece, as Count Borowlaskis wife used to do with him.
As for the heroines, their main fault is their faultlessness; they do and say nothing that provokes criticism; and he is more careful that we should respect and admire than understand them. Catherine Seton is clever, witty and sprightly. Diana Vernon is rendered interesting by her peculiar surroundings, and, though in a quite ingenuous fashion, verges on unconventionality. Julia Mannering, Lucy Bertram, Flora Mac-Ivor, Edith Bellenden, Miss Wardour are all charming in a slightly different fashion from each other; but little more than the surface of their natures is revealed to us. On account of the peculiar prominence of the love episode in
The Bride of Lammermoor,
and its strong tragic characteristics, some have been inclined to pronounce this novel Scotts masterpiece; but, while the tragic painfulness of portions of the novel is undeniable, and no small art is shown in creating a general atmosphere of tragic gloom and conveying a sense of impending calamity, its tragic greatness is another matter. The chief personalities hardly possess the qualities needful for evoking the highest form of tragic pathos. The almost ludicrous subjection of Sir William to his masterful wife is a serious hindrance to the achievement of the desired effect; while, again, disgust at her besotted prejudice and narrow, stolid pride tends to prevent us from being roused to any other emotion as to its consequences. Then, Lucy Ashton is too weak to win our full sympathy; and her sudden lunacy and mad murderous act shock, rather than impress, us; while, on the other hand, Ravenswood is at once too readily conciliatory and too darkly fierce. And, even if the tragic elements were better compounded than they are, the novel, in other respects, is decidedly inferior to the best of his productions. It has very patent faultssufficiently accounted for by Scotts condition of almost perpetual torture when he wrote itand, except in the case of the weird crones, displays less than his usual graphic felicity in the portrayal of Scottish characters, Caleb Balderstone, for example, being a rather wearisome caricature, and the wit expended on his ingenious devices to hide the extreme destitution of his masters larder being of the very cheapest kind.
However admirably he could create a strong and thrilling situation, Scott, in the portrayal of love episodes, fails to interest his readers so much as do many less distinguished novelists. Here, he shows little literary kinship with Shakespeare, with whom he is sometimes compared, with whose influence he was in many respects strongly saturated, from whom he obtained important guidance in regard to artistic methods and whose example is specially apparent in some of his more striking situations. For his almost gingerly method of dealing with love affairs, the exceedingly conventional character of the Edinburgh society in which he moved may, in part, be held responsible. He had an inveterate respect for the stereotyped proprieties. By the time, also, that he began to write his prose romances, love, with him, had mellowed into the tranquil affection of married life. It was mainly in a fatherly kind of way that he interested himself in the amatory interludes of his heroes and heroines, who generally conduct themselves in the same invariably featureless fashion, and do not, as a rule, play a more important part in his narration than that of pawns in a game of chess. With him, romance was not primarily the romance of love, but the general romance of human life, of the world and its activities, and, more especially, of the warring, adventurous and, more or less, strange and curiosity-provoking past. For achieving his best effects, he required a period removed, if even a little less than sixty years since, from his own, a period contrasting more or less strongly, but in, at least, a great variety of ways, with it; and he depended largely on the curiosity latent, if not active, in most persons, about old-time fashions, manners, modes of life, personal characteristics and, more especially, dangers and adventures.
No fresher paintings of Nature, says Carlyle, can be found than Scotts; hardly anywhere a wider sympathy with man; but he affirms that, while
Shakespeare fashions his characters from the heart outwards, your Scott fashions them from the skin inwards, never getting near the heart of them! The one set become living men and women, the other amount to little more than mechanical cases, deceptively painted automatons.
Though a characteristically exaggerated pronouncement, it is undeniable that there is a
of truth in it. Scott would have been the last to liken himself to Shakespeare as a delineator of character. He is a little lacking in depth and subtlety; he has an eye mainly for strongly marked characteristics, and certain of his personages are but superficially delineated. He makes no special intellectual or moral demands on us, as does, for example, Meredith or Thackeray; he had little sense of the finer shades, as had Jane Austen; and he cannot quite compare with Carlyle in the portrayal of historic personages. Further, it is a notable circumstance that few or none of his personages develop under his hands; for the most part, they are, throughout the narrative, exhibited with characteristics which are unmodified by time, experience or events. To analyse character was, in fact, as little his aim, as it was to promulgate any special social dogma. As Carlyle laments, he was not possessed with an idea; but, however predominant and effective a part ideas may play in modern drama and fiction, they have their disadvantages; they are apt to prove rather a hindrance than an aid to more than temporary success in the more creative forms of literature. That Scott was not actuated by any more special purpose than that of giving delight to his readers may even be reckoned one of the chief sources of his charm and of the widely beneficent influence he exercises. He attracts us mainly by an exhibition of the multifarious pageantry of life; or, as Carlyle puts it, his was a genius
in extenso,
as we may say, not
in intenso.
Yet, as a delineator of character, he has his strong points. He had thoroughly studied the lowland Scot. If, not knowing Gaelic, he never properly understood the Highlander, and portrays mainly his superficial peculiarities arising from an imperfect command of lowland Scots and a comparative ignorance of the arts of civilised lifeportrays him as the foreigner is usually portrayed in English novelshe knew his lowland Scot as few have ever known him. Here are no deceptively painted automatons, but living men and women. He is more especially successful with the Scot of the humble or burgher class, and with Scottish eccentrics gentle or simple. Jeanie Deans and her Cameronian father David, the theologically dull but practically wide-awake ploughman Cuddie Headrigg and his fanatic mother the covenanting Mause, Meg Merrilies, even if she be a little stagey, the border farmer, Dandie Dinmont, Dominie Sampson, Ritt Master Dalgetty, Baillie Nicol Jarvie, the bedesman Edie Ochiltree, that pitiable victim of litigation, the irrepressible Peter Peebles, the Antiquary himselfthese and such as these are all immortals. His success with such characters was primarily owing to his genial intercourse with all classes and his peculiar sense of humour. In depicting eccentrics or persons with striking idiosyncrasies, or those in the lower ranks of life, he displays at once an amazing fecundity and a well-nigh matchless efficacy. Here, he has a supremacy hardly threatened amongst English writers even by Dickens, for, unlike Dickens, he is never fantastic or extravagant. If not so mirth-provoking as Dickens, he is, in his humourous passages, quite as entertaining, and his eccentrics never, as those of Dickens often do, tax our belief in their possible existence. As a humourist, his one drawbacka drawback which, with many, prevents an adequate appreciation of his meritsis that his most characteristic creations generally express themselves in a dialect the idiomatic niceties of which can be fully appreciated only by Scotsmen, and not now by every one of that nationality.
The characters in his novels
His humour
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Last evening at Furthur's Capitol Theatre show, Bob Weir fell down during the performance and was assisted off stage. The incident took place late in the second set as the band played "Unbroken Chain." Crew members helped Weir move over to the wings and Furthur continued the song. Weir had been experiencing issues throughout the night and during "Unbroken Chain" a chair had been provided for him. Then after a brief break the show resumed, with Lesh indicating that Weir had injured his shoulder in a workout. It is believed that the guitarist took a muscle relaxant which ultimately inhibited his performance. Following his departure the group closed out the run with a pass from "Stella Blue" into "China Cat Sunflower" and then "I Know You Rider" before a "Built To Last" encore.
John Kadlecik posted a few things about the incident earlier today.


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Diane Kruger: Catalina Sandino Moreno Joins 'The Bridge'!
Diane Kruger holds onto some papers while heading into her car on Monday (November 19) in West Hollywood, Calif.
The 36-year-old actress was spotted over the weekend going shopping for some baking supplies with her longtime love Joshua Jackson.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Diane Kruger
It was recently announced that Oscar nominated actress Catalina Sandino Moreno will join Diane in the new FX pilot The Bridge, according to Deadline!
Catalina will play the second wife of Demian Bichir's character, who is at home to tend to the kids while he works long hours.
FYI: Diane is carrying a Barbara Bui bag.


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STOCKTON - Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart is coming to Stockton to compete on the city's newest track.
STOCKTON - Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart is coming to Stockton to compete on the city's newest track.
Stewart will be competing in the World of Outlaws' STP Sprint Cars race on March 22 at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds. It is the inaugural race at the newly developed dirt track located at the fair's horse racing facility, and Stewart brings quite a bit of star power to a national event.
"This is a high-quality race, and Tony Stewart is a great race-car driver," promoter Tony Noceti said. "To bring a Sprint Cup champion to Stockton is huge. One of the reasons we want to do things like this is to show that there are good things happening in Stockton."
Stewart will be fitting the race into a busy schedule. He will take part in qualifying for the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in the afternoon, travel to Stockton for the race that night, then return to Southern California for the Sprint Cup race on March 24. He will drive the No. 14 car, the same number he uses on the Sprint Cup circuit.
"Undoubtedly, it'll be a busy Friday in California," the 41-year-old driver said. "We'll be qualifying our Cup car before heading up to Stockton to mix it up with the Outlaws. This will be my first time racing my winged sprint car in the state of California.
"I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing a packed house of passionate Northern California dirt fans at Stockton."
Stewart has 47 Sprint Cup victories and won the series title in 2002, 2005 and 2011. He is the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which fields cars driven by Danica Patrick and Ryan Newman. In addition to his stock car success, Stewart has remained involved in dirt racing, where he started his career and owns open-wheel teams.
Last season, he competed in 14 Outlaw races, winning twice.
Stewart brings more than just his racing abilities to the race, according to Nick Davis of Stockton, who plans to compete in the same race.
"Obviously, it ups the level of the competition. But it's also great for the community," said Davis, 31. "Tony has given a tremendous amount back to dirt racing, and he gives our sport more attention. And to have a driver like him in Stockton will be tremendous for the fans."
Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Ticket information is available at worldofoutlaws.com
Contact reporter Scott Linesburgh at (209) 546-8281 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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some days, all you need to spend is 1.99 to bring a little fun to your day....
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
fun stuff
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