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Well, no one can accuse my readers of sitting back and ignoring the Bruins, even in the dog days of July.
I put out the call for mailbag questions and received enough to fill two entire posts – or even more. Most of you want to know about Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder, Tuukka Rask, Tim Thomas and Marc Savard. Even in the middle of summer, these topics are hot. So without further ado, here's Part I of my mailbag.
Jonathan S. writes:
I don't understand why Chiarelli constantly wastes valuable cap space on mediocre players (Ference, Thornton, Thomas etc.). The Ference contract is beyond bad. Not only is the guy always hurt, he is not a good player yet he gets a raise plus a 3-year extension. Mind boggling. Where is the cap management?
MK: Jonathan, I would disagree about lumping Thornton and Thomas in with Ference. When Thomas signed, he was on his way to the Vezina and still had a solid season last year. Thornton is a perfect fourth-line player and enforcer, and he makes less than a million dollars.
By the same point, the Ference deal boggles my mind as much as it does yours. Even if the Bruins value him as a top-four defenseman and believe that he'll be healthier the next few years, to jump the gun and sign him to a deal that rich for that long without seeing how the offseason market would play out was maybe Chiarelli's most bizarre and unexplainable act. At least you could make an argument that the Thomas deal made sense because of the way he was playing and the questions about Rask's ability to play in the NHL. Ference has had stretches where he has been Boston's best defenseman. But he was a guy I thought they could bring back on the cheap, or even on a tryout, based on the fact he was going to get surgery this summer.
Your questions about the Bruins' cap management abilities are valid. While there are a few other teams in similar situations, Boston seems to be in deeper because while Philadelphia can go and move a Simon Gagne, Boston doesn't seem to be able to move any of its bad deals because those contracts, and the players, are that bad.
Keith writes:
Who in your mind is more important to sign to a long-term deal before the end of next year, Bergeron or Chara? I say Bergeron due to his age and three-zone play. I would like to see Chara back at a cap hit of around 5 million. I am sure Bergeron will command a raise and years. With him at such a young age, it seems like it would have to be something in the 10+ years to make it a cap friendly deal.
MK: The way the Bruins are currently built – with Savard, Seguin and Krejci in the fold – Chara is the more important re-signing to me. Some of my readers give Chara a bad rap, but they fail to think what the Bruins would look like without one of the league's best defensemen back there to clean up others' mistakes and shut down some of the top snipers in the league. You can knock his offensive production this season, but considering his busted finger and everyone else's struggles, you have to look more at what Chara does with his defensive skills and with his intimidation.
Throwing out the fact that his conditioning level probably would allow for him to play five or six more years at a high level, for at least the next three years, he'll be one of the top five blueliners in the league. The Bruins cannot afford to let him to play those years in another uniform. They haven't drafted anything resembling a future backline star, and with most of the league's top young stars signed to long-term deals with their current teams, it'll be impossible to add another No. 1 defensemen, let alone someone to replace everything Chara provides.
As for Bergeron, he's a great two-way center who probably has more offensive abilities than he has shown the last two years. All indications are the Bruins want to re-sign him as much as Chara. But when you add Campbell, Colborne and Hamill into the mix of centers, obviously Bergeron would be the easier of the two players to replace – although I wouldn't want to be Chiarelli if he has to try to do that.
Matt writes:
I find it strange that there has been so much talk about trading Savard these past few weeks. He is a gifted player who can help this team. I read somewhere that he is not well liked in the locker room. Is this true? Is that the reason there wasn't the expected "fire" from the team when he was hit by Cooke? If Bergeron was hit that way by Cooke do you think there would have been a different response?
MK: While I would never profess to be able to get in the minds of Savard's teammates, as far as I can tell he's one of the guys. He might rub some the wrong way with his odd quirks about his sticks and his checking of the stats, but he's also a light-hearted character that can joke around with everyone. In any dressing room, there are going to be guys that don't get along. But there are plenty of guys that sing Savard's praises.
Those drawing connections between the reaction to the Cooke-Savard incident and some dislike of Savard among the Bruins are really stretching. That response was due to other psychological problems the Bruins were suffering from, the least of which was animosity toward Savard. The only reason Savard is on the trading block is he has value and the Bruins need cap space.
Dan writes:
Obviously the Bruins would like to trade Ryder, and probably Tim Thomas as well, but since there seems to not be any takers, could they offer a pick along with one of those players to entice a rebuilding team to take these guys? I know picks are valuable, but I feel strongly that the Bruins are very close to being a true contender, and with 2 firsts and 2 second-rounders in the 2011 draft, perhaps the B's could part with one or two to get the salary relief they so badly need.
MK: Dan, sweetening a deal with a draft pick is definitely a possibility. But I think Chiarelli values those picks too much to do that. If he can get ownership's permission to bury Ryder in the minors this season – if Ryder doesn't look like he's going to turn things around – he can solve his cap problems without executing a salary-dump deal. Thomas coming back wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, especially if Julien gives him enough playing time to raise his stock for a potential midseason trade.
Black Eye writes:
Let's say that Tim Thomas is on the Boston roster at the start of the 2010-11 season. That seems highly likely. If that comes to pass, will either Thomas or Rask accept a backup role in the good sport fashion we've seen from them in the past? Or will the team try to balance the workload so as to keep both relatively happy and increase Thomas' trade value? It seems like an unfortunate situation — albeit the kind of problem you like to have, I guess. I just wonder how long both guys can keep egos and professional ambitions in check if this isn't resolved.
MK: We all know that there are few better people in the Bruins' locker room that Thomas. His competitive nature will force him to battle for playing time, but I can't imagine him ever doing anything to sabotage Rask or the team. That being said, there's no doubt that if both players are in black and gold Julien will try to balance things out for the first two months the same way he did last year, the same way he did with Fernandez two years ago. If both players play their best, Boston could have the best one-two punch in the league and Thomas' value could go through the roof. If the Bruins can't make a move, then they'll have two solid fresh goaltenders come the stretch run. Rask is definitely going to be a great goaltender for a long time, but there's no guarantee he won't have some hiccups in his second full NHL season.
Digger writes:
What's it going to be? Tuukka has a Vezina-worthy year? Tuukka does okay but has to lean on Thomas as a back-up? Tuukka keeps letting in the frequent softy and he and Thomas split the season? Tuukka has a sophomore/Raycroft slump and Thomas takes the No. 1 job?
MK: Ah, I love the crystal ball question. First off, don't ever say Rask and Raycroft in the same sentence. Many goaltending experts saw the holes in Raycroft's game long before he fell off the cliff. And his inability to get playing time during the lockout really sidetracked him.
Do I expect Rask to win the Vezina? No. But I expect him to duplicate last season's performance over the course of the season. I also expect him to get more playing time regardless if Thomas is here or not, and that could open the door for a few more poor games or maybe a few spectacular performances that put him in the Vezina discussion. The Bruins obviously want to see how Rask responds now that he's a known quantity, and that's why they haven't jumped at just any deal to get Thomas' $5 million off the books. We shall see if Rask can live up to the hype this fall.
Keith writes:
In the past couple of years, we've seen a number of young goaltenders suffer from "Andrew Raycroft syndrome" — namely tanking after a successful rookie season. While I would imagine that the specific reasons vary from case to case, I was wondering if you had any general thoughts on the causes of this syndrome and which of next year's crop of sophomore puck stoppers are most likely to come down with a case of the "Raycrofts."
MK: I thought this was going to be another Raycroft-Rask comparison question, but I guess you're looking at the league in general. When it comes to Rask and Howard in Detroit – really the only two netminders that could fit this category – I don't see either being anything less than a standout No. 1 for years to come. Like Rask, Howard was developed in the Red Wings organization for a few years until he was ready and he did a great job when finally given a chance. Playing in a star-studded lineup with some of the best defensive players in the league in front of him, Howard should be ensconced in Detroit's crease.
The reasons for Raycroft's decline were as much about the lockout and his mental makeup as they were about his abilities. Rask is in a different class than Raycroft, Blaine Lacher, Hannu Toivonen or any of the Bruins goaltenders of the past that probably still give you nightmares. So you can breathe a sigh of relief now.
To submit a question for a future mailbag, click here.


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Fable: Legends game director doesn't know if it's always-online yet
Fable: Legends appears to be some sort of MMO or persistent online take on Lionhead's franchise, but when asked if the Xbox One title would require an always-on connection, game director David Eckelberry said he didn't know.
When asked by OXM if the game requires a constant internet connection, he replied, "I don't know the answer to that. The fact that we want to do a lot of things, a lot of systems on a servers, characters on a server…If it's online we can monitor you and make sure you don't edit your character file, or do something nasty there.
"Because if you're playing single player, all your accomplishments in the game are going to eventually matter if you're playing against a villain player, or alongside other heroes. If you've somehow cheated your way to victory – so that's a concern for us. If you're somehow cheating, online is way for us to track it, because your performance can be measured in the Xbox Live cloud."
While EckelBerry makes mention of single-player in the interview, the game's official FAQ reads, "you can enjoy all of the game's content in a single player experience", which is still quite vague.
What do you think Fable: Legends is? Let us know below, and be sure to check out the debut trailer here if you missed it.


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Farm Bureau Agents Know Health Insurance
Medical insurance can be complicated. Finding the right coverage shouldn't be. Whether you are searching for a policy for yourself, your family, or your business, your local Farm Bureau agent is here to help. Farm Bureau agents know health insurance. They can make getting quality coverage easy to understand and easy to buy.
Don't Go It Alone.
The open enrollment period for 2018 individual plans is November 1, 2017 – December 15, 2017. I can help you understand your options and make the right choice for you and your family. For a purchase of such importance, isn't it best to work with a neighbor who cares about their community and wants to get you the right coverage?


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Duo steals 9 air conditioning units, police say
Duo steals 9 air conditioning units, police say
DELAND, Fla. —
DeLand police arrested two people they said were responsible for multiple air conditioning thefts.
Police said they began receiving reports about the thefts on March 13.
The reports included air conditioners stolen at two unoccupied residences and six medical facilities. In all nine air conditioning units were stolen.
Officials said 30-year-old Kyley Prestidge and 40-year-old James Clark are responsible for the thefts.
Prestidge is charged with one count of grand theft and six counts of dealing in stolen property. She is being held on $35,000 bond.
Clark is charged with two counts of burglary and 11 counts of grand theft. He was booked on $140,000 bond.


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TUCSON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Mark Lyons scored a season-best 25 points and led a game-closing run Wednesday that rallied No. 7 Arizona to a 73-66 win over Stanford.
The Wildcats moved a half game in front of Oregon for the lead in the Pacific-12 Conference, but needed a late surge to do it.
Stanford held a 54-49 lead with 5:45 to play, then fell to a 24-12 Arizona rush down the stretch.
Lyons made 9-of-13 from the field and was backed up by Solomon Hill, who scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half. Arizona (20-2, 8-2 Pac-12) has won four in a row since falling at home to UCLA.
Stanford had won three straight, including a surprising victory over Oregon. Dwight Powell scored 24 points to lead the Cardinal, who produced the first 10 points of the game.


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It is a happy and positive track, a bit ironic and playful, with piano, acoustic guitars, strings in pizzicato, bass and Strings. You'll hear also nice and catchy whistle and voice motif in the verses. Target audience – young people, youth, teens, young adults. Ideal for cartoon and motivational video that need positive energy.This track is perfect for providing a joyful for your project. Hope you'll enjoy.
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Please don't forget to rate after purchasing! If you have used this music in your project please let me know and I'll be happy to showcase it at my Audiojungle profile!


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This pledge closed almost 4 years ago
The Organic Consumers Association, along with Friends of the Earth, SumofUs.org and other protectors of the environment have called on Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling plants coated in neonicotinoids. Neonics, as they're not-so-affectionately called, are a class of pesticides considered largely responsible for killing off the honeybee.
So far, neither Home Depot nor Lowe's has responded to our petitions. So we've designated this week as "Swarm Home Depot and Lowe's Week." How can you help? By tapping the power of social media, of course.
Here's what to do. First, visit Home Depot and Lowe's on facebook and ask them to stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned bee-friendly plants.
Next take to twitter. Here are a couple of tweets for inspiration, but you can create your own messages, too.
@lowes: 1 out of 3 bites of food need #bees! Stop selling bee-killing
pesticides! #BeeAction @foe_us www.beeaction.org
Buzz kill: @Home Depot @Lowes: stop selling bee-killing pesticides #BeeAction @foe_us www.beeaction.org
And of course, sign the petition if you haven't already. And forward it to a friend.
TAKE ACTION: Home Depot and Lowe's: Stop Selling Bee-Killing Garden Plants!


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Phils take down Marlins
Philadelphia, PA – Hector Luna had two hits and knocked in three runs to help the Philadelphia Phillies take a 6-4 decision over the Miami Marlins in the opener of a three-game set at Citizens Bank Park.
Hunter Pence added three hits, including a two-run home run, and scored three times in the Phillies' seventh win in nine games.
Kyle Kendrick (2-4) allowed two runs on eight hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. Jonathan Papelbon left the bases loaded in the eighth while recording the final five outs of the game for his 15th save of the season.
Mark Buehrle (5-5) gave up four runs on 11 hits through a five-inning start to suffer the loss.
"Just a bad day at the office," Buehrle said about his outing. "I thought I was making good pitches but a lot of balls were finding holes."
Logan Morrison and Justin Ruggiano each homered for Miami, which had its three-game win streak snapped.
Miami trailed, 6-2, entering the eighth inning, but started the frame with back-to-back home runs by Morrison and pinch-hitter Ruggiano off Antonio Bastardo to close the gap to 6-4.
John Buck then worked a walk before a pair of singles by pinch-hitter Donovan Solano and Jose Reyes off new pitcher Jake Diekman loaded the bases with one out.
But Papelbon entered the game and was able to preserve the Phillies' lead by inducing a pop up to shallow center field by Omar Infante before Hanley Ramirez was caught looking at a called third strike.
Ruggiano reached base with a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate for Miami, but John Mayberry Jr. was able to make a running, off-balance catch of a ball in deep center field off the bat of pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to end the game.
"Any time [Phillies manager] Charlie [Manuel] calls on me to get in the game, I'm ready and more than able," Papelbon said about his five-out save. "I look forward to any opportunity to get in the game."
The Marlins took the early advantage in the top of the first inning when Infante hit a one-out single and rounded the bases on Giancarlo Stanton's double into the left-center field gap.
But Philadelphia quickly answered in the bottom of the frame after loading the bases on three straight singles by Placido Polanco, Pence and Carlos Ruiz. Two batters later, Luna pulled a ball through the left side of the infield to score Polanco and Pence, giving the Phillies a 2-1 edge.
Miami filled the bags with one out in the third when Reyes doubled, Infante reached first on Kendrick's errant throw to first on a sacrifice bunt attempt and Stanton walked. But the Marlins would come away empty-handed when Morrison grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Kendrick again left the bases loaded in the fourth inning by snagging a line drive back at the mound by Infante before the game was suspended by rain in the top of the fifth.
Kendrick remained on the mound when the game resumed 48 minutes later and Ramirez reopened the contest with a double to right field. Ramirez would later move to third on a Morrison groundout to first, but he would be stranded there as Bryan Peterson popped out to third to end the inning.
The Phillies then added to their lead in the home fifth when Polanco doubled before Pence hammered a ball into the left-field bleachers.
A pair of one-out singles by Coghlan and pinch-hitter Donnie Murphy in sixth inning placed runners on the corners and knocked Kendrick out of the game.
Chad Qualls came in next and induced a grounder to second by Reyes that Freddy Galvis fielded and tossed to first for the force out. Murphy was tagged out in between first and second on a rundown for the double play, but Coghlan was able to score on the play, bringing Miami within 4-2.
Philadelphia, though, answered with a Jimmy Rollins' RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth and a run-scoring double by Luna in the seventh for a 6-2 lead.
Game Notes
Phillies pitcher Jose Contreras was forced to leave the game in the seventh inning after injuring his arm during the first batter he faced...Reyes went 3- for-4 to extend his hit streak to 12 games...Buehrle had won his previous three starts and fell to 3-2 in five career starts against the Phillies...Kendrick improved to 8-2 in 17 appearances -- 12 starts -- against Miami...The Phillies are 20-8 over their last 28 contests against the Marlins.


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Travel Photography Photos tagged as usb
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Grab a quick quote from firstname.lastname@example.com for expert print and supply of real estate corflute signs and lightboxes for hotels and clubs. Full credit card facilities! ChinasignCo.com ships illuminated signage, pullup banners, tradeshow displays, offset printing of catalogues and books, promotional pens and USBs as well as our renowned corflute signs, laser-cut lettering and lightbox products. Worldwide signage supplies to the trade.


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Lucus Eques wrote:Double negatives are always positive in Classical Latin. Like proper English.
Like improper English, however, the Romance languages fell from this grammatical grace and established double negatives as negative.
... Modern Greek too.
quendidil wrote:That point about the Old French double negative development was interesting; but what about "Je ne mange rien" forms in modern French?


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As market euphoria begins to wane over the Federal Reserve's latest stimulus, investors are now forced to confront growing worries about China, whose powerhouse economy appears increasingly vulnerable to a dreaded "hard landing" scenario some have long warned about.
Dour figures and warnings from major companies have raised growing concerns about the world's second-largest economy. The developments mark a stark turnabout from just a few years ago, when its ability to weather the fallout from the 2008 crisis made China the envy of most G7 economies.
Until recently, most investors have been fixated on the woeful state of affairs in the U.S. and the euro zone, where the European Central Bank unfurled its answer to the Fed's massive quantitative easing to staunch a debt crisis that threatens to rend the 17-nation currency bloc asunder. (Read more: ECB Bond Buying Likened to Work of the Devil.)
Now, a raft of negative data is dogging what some observers called "the leading dragon" of the global economy. It's calling into question whether China can save the global economy with outperforming growth.
China economic travails are due primarily to factors outside its control. The synchronized slowdown in both US and Europe has dragged the dragon's economy into a vortex, making China more cautious with its policy levers.
"It's primarily external with this slowdown in some of china's biggest market …putting a damper on China's export growth," said James A. Dorn, vice president for academic affairs at the Libertarian Cato Institute and an expert on China's economy. "They're still a country that depends on exports."
Its economy is getting blasted by a double barrel of softening domestic demand and weakening foreign investment. Increasing those woes are a growing war of words between Beijing and Japan that threatens to spill over into financial markets.
Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk on the Street"Thursday, prominent hedge fund titan Jim Chanos harshly branded China a "roach motel" that routinely inflates economic data as a figleaf to mask domestic and economic worries that run deeper than most investors suspect. (Read more: China's a 'Roach Motel'; Don't Trust the Numbers: Chanos.)
Markets fell on Thursday's news that the country's manufacturing activity rose only marginally in September, with the sector still mired in recession. That followed data showing that foreign direct investment in China fell in August for the third consecutive month.
Meanwhile, multinational US companies are feeling the chill of the ill winds blowing across the Chinese economy. Earlier this week, FedEx lowered its profit targets for next year, citing weak growth in the global economy overall and China in particular. Elsewhere, internet search juggernaut Google said it would close a music download service in the country next month, after the platform fell short of achieving the market impact it hoped to find.
Over the last decade, China has averaged growth of 11 percent, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the world's growth. That has benefited manufacturers like Caterpillar ,which over the same ten year period has seen its stock surge fourfold on equipment sales to Asia's largest economy.
Beijing has pledged economic growth this year will meet a 7.5 percent. Still, some market observers expect China's growth to sink below 7 percent, a psychological barrier that would have serious implications for the world's economy. A slowdown could bleed into emerging markets that have thrived on the back of a surging Chinese economy. (Read more:China Appears More Competitive Than US: Dalio.)
"Our baseline is that China will slow to 6.5 percent to 7 percent,"Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday, adding that emerging market indicators "are pricing in lower growth" in China.
Cato's Dorn still believes Beijing can deliver on growth above 7 percent. However, he warns of trouble ahead. Loose monetary policy in both the U.S. and euro zone may put pressure on China to do the same by loosening the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for its lenders – something it can ill-afford as it battles rising prices. (Read more: Tight Liquidity, Looming Data Prompt Talk of More China Easing.)


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The location is one of the most exclusive in the heart of Rome, 50 meters from Piazza di Spagna, with the magnificent Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, better known as the Spanish Steps, surrounded by the major monuments; on the ground, first and second floor of a historical building -no lift-, in one of the crossways of the prestigious via dei Condotti, encircled by the most famous boutiques (Gucci, Prada, Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Cartier……), but also by renowned restaurants, bars and tea & coffee rooms of the Eternal City.
Crossing Condotti is well connected to the whole city area. Bus stops, underground stations and taxi stands are available within few meters from the location.
Near Crossing Condotti:
Within a 5 minutes walk:
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Within a 15 minutes walk:
How to reach us
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A Moroccan-Themed Explorer's Nursery
Name: Perseus
Location: San Mateo, California
My husband is Greek, I'm American, and we met when we both lived in London. We've done a lot of traveling with friends, and our rallying cry on these trips became, "Are you ready, Explorers??" Somewhere along the way we realized that babies are the besst explorers, because they're exploring everything all at once.
And that is how we decided that a Moroccan Nursery would be a great way to instill a love of the exotic in our tiny explorer. Plus I've decorated some Moroccan bedrooms for myself in the past, and always found them to be extremely soothing and stimulating at the same time.
The baby's room is pretty small, and has only one window that just looks onto the neighbor's house (about 5 feet away) but does let in a lot of light. People tend to think that brighter colors always maximize light, but I disagree - colors with depth, plus mirrors and a host of indirect light sources, can maximize the light you have and make a very appealing mood. For maximum atmosphere, I draped the walls with fabric, and put curtains around the crib, then used translucent contact paper to make a Moorish pattern on the window, and draped it in unlined cream silk.
I had a lot of existing Moroccan/vaguely exotic accessories and furniture we could use but we definitely needed more "baby stuff". We used a combination of things from our travels around the world, used or modified furniture, sewing projects I did myself, and inexpensive finds from around the SF Bay Area. One big impact item here is the dresser/changing table, which I painted to look like it's tiled and wood-inlayed, based on a pattern we saw on a trip to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain - I posted a "how-to" here.
Obviously this is going to require some modification as the baby grows, but I love projects like this and look forward to working on them.
Thanks, Angela! Readers, see more of Perry's nursery on Angela's blog.
(Images: Angela Grammatas)


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Ready to rock? You will be when you hit the scene in these too-hot destroyed jeans. Style them for day or night and get ready to get noticed.
• Low rise
• Regular fit
• Straight leg
• Five pocket construction
• Button fly
• Destroyed areas with a layer of solid black fabric below
• Back pocket embroidery
• 10 ½" front rise
• 14 ½" back rise
• 16 ¾" leg opening
• 32" inseam
• 100% Cotton
• Machine wash
Measurements taken from a size 32
DARK WASH: Offered in a medium weight, rigid, slub yarn denim with a soft hand feel. This jean has a medium indigo cast, with high contrasting details, natural whiskers and heavy destruction.
Shipping Options:
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Business days are limited to Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST. We do not ship on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays and we do not ship to P.O. Boxes. Please allow an average of one additional business day for processing and note that your order may be shipped in multiple packages at no extra charge to you.
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While we take pride in all our GUESS products, if you are not satisfied with your online purchase we are happy to assist you with a return by mail or at a store location closest to you.
Please view our Return & Exchange policy here.


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Continuation: The Farthest Reaches of Our Impact EvaluationJune 10th, 2013
This post is a continuation of the last update on our blog, a trip report by George Muwowo, program manager of the Riders for Health evaluation. For more information about Stanford's work in Zambia, please visit our website.
CONTINUED: On the second day of our trip to Itezhi-Tezhi district, our team ventured to two health facilities, Kaanzwa and Ngoma, both were accessible only by poorly maintained roads.
Ngoma, although well stocked with medical supplies, is located inside the Kafue National Park and patronage is limited to a small population comprising Wildlife Police camp staff and their families. Mambwe Ng'oma, the Stanford Data Collection Officer working in this area, collected data at this center at the beginning of the study but had a difficult time traveling there because park regulations restrict access due to large and dangerous game such as lions and elephants.
Next we visited other distant health facilities. Unbelievably, because of the vast distances, we spent more time on the road than at the actual health facilities. This gave us an opportunity to understand the distances and obstacles our DCOs face. Even with a vehicle we could not reach the two furthest health centers: Nansenga and Mbila. The roads are poor and the vehicle basically can only run at 30 km per hour for most of the journey. We however managed to reach seven health centers in four days.
More about the dusty roads in Itezhi-Tezhi, these have a fine deposit of alluvial soils from flood waters in the low lying areas. But higher ground is not spared by the dusty conditions. A slight movement of our vehicle's wheels raises a lot of dust particles. A large number of health centers are located in the flood plains which are seasonally inundated and for most part of the year are impassable by vehicle. The grasslands are devoid of woody vegetation, dominated by grass and bush fires in the dry season are common. Due to flooding the district tends to have seasonal routes as well, created by vehicles during the dry season. There are no standard roads and they are difficult to map, because they shift to a large extent after every rainy season. Only housing infrastructure is permanent and is built on higher ground within the flood plains.
We kept wondering how these settlements received their supplies of food, medicines, clothing, etc. We got the same response from everyone; that supplies are stocked prior to the rains starting, which could be in November, earlier or later. The rains stop in March or April, but the plains remain impassable until somewhere May or June. On average, for six months in a year residents are cut off from the rest of the district.
You can never run out of amazing surprises in Itezhi-Tezhi district. While there is no gas station operating as a business entity we had to plan ahead of each day to ensure we had enough diesel to take us into the field. The only gas station in town belongs to the electricity supply company (ZESCO) for its private use, but has extended this facility to the community. It operates at unreliable hours, which again ensures that our work remains unpredictable in Itezhi-Tezhi!


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Antico Amore: Jewels from the Classical and Baroque Eras
Friday 26 January
Italian soprano Luciana Di Bella and tenor Yuri Sabatini will guide you through an exquisite journey of discovery of the most beautiful and sometimes forgotten antique arias from the classical and baroque eras.
Reception with a complementary glass of wine or soft drink at 6:30pm.
Tickets £20 available by calling Caroline Hames 07956650852 or emailing email@example.com
Kindly sponsored by Stan Spurling of Apollo Colours, Micheal Hames, ConTatto and G&S.


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On The Hook needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 101 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
Wheelhouse Media
We are a media company specializing in video production.
Our target audience is Media Buying companies, company that buy advertising for other companies, cool and hip people are usually media buyers. At least the ones we want to attract! We are also targeting businesses that are ocean related, marine industry, high end boats and more.
Open to your designs as well, But am looking for a basic, crisp and clean logo. Using the text "Wheelhouse Media" (name of the company) I'd like to see a flowing wave begin to the bottom left of the "W" in Wheelhouse, flow up through the "ee"'s cresting towards the "M" in media, then flowing outwards to the right above the word "Media"...
Again, looking for something clean and crisp, not to busy. Text font could be italicized, tilted, or bold - looking for a cool hip font. HOWEVER, if you have a better design than my example, please feel free to submit.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Aishwarya Rai and her husband Abhishek Bachchan share a sweet glance on the red carpet at the amfAR 2014 Cinema Against AIDS Gala held at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday (May 22) in Cap d'Antibes, France.
The 40-year-old Bollywood star has been walking the 2014 Cannes Film Festival red carpets alone thus far this festival, but Abihshek just made it to town to accompany her for this event.
The amfAR Gala is an annual event held every year during the film festival – stay tuned for more pics throughout the night!
FYI: The event was presented by Worldview, Bold Films, and Bulgari.


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See No Doubt Live in Los Angeles
Want to fly to Los Angeles to see No Doubt? We've got your chance right here.
Just enter here and win a chance at airfare for two and two tickets to No Doubt's show at the Gibson Amphitheatre on Nov. 24.
The band is back with 'Push and Shove,' their first album as a band since 2001′s 'Rock Steady.'
Not only do you get a flight, tickets to the show, and two night's stay in LA, but you'll also get $500 of walkin'-around money to make your trip to LA as awesome as possible.
To enter, you must be a KISS VIP. Registration is free and you get exclusive access to station contests and events. The contest is over Sept. 30, so sign up now!
Brought to you by Taylor's Sports Bar and Package Liquor, The Party Starts Here!


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NEW YORK --Enrique Iglesias won't be joining Britney Spears on an upcoming tour despite her announcement that he would. Spears said Tuesday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the pair would be hitting the road together.
Iglesias representative Gary Mantoosh said later in a statement to The Associated Press his client and Spears won't tour "despite initial reports based on formal discussions of the possible run."
The statement says Iglesias "is very sorry for the confusion this might have caused to anyone." It says the Latin singer respects Spears and is a fan of her work.
Igelesias is on tour in Europe.
Spears on Tuesday released her seventh album, "Femme Fatale." Her U.S. tour kicks off June 17 in Sacramento, Calif.
A representative for the pop singer hasn't returned an email seeking comment.


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MoinMoin Wiki
What: MoinMoin Wiki (Python)
When: Wednesday, 24-October, 6:45pm to 9:45pm
Where: Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St., San Francisco, 94114 (at 18th St., near 16th St. BART station).
Map: Getting_Here
Who: Anyone with interest in MoinMoin, Python Web Development or some libraries we use.
Cost: free!
Instructor: Thomas Waldmann and Bastian Blank from MoinMoin Wiki development
MoinMoin Wiki[edit]
MoinMoin is a wiki written in Python. The current stable release 1.9.x is used at many community sites, in intranets and on local desktop installations.
We are currently mostly working on MoinMoin 2.0 (short: moin2), which is a rewrite of the codebase, quite different internally, much more powerful and easier to hack than 1.x was.
moin developers visiting Noisebridge[edit]
Bastian Blank and Thomas Waldmann will be in California between Oct, 12 2012 and Oct, 26 2012.
We'll visit Noisebridge Wed 2012-10-24 late afternoon / evening (and we'll be at Baypiggies meeting on the 25th in case we won't meet at Noisebridge).
We could do a small presentation about moin2:
- what is it?
- what's new? (in general and also recent news from GSOC 2012)
- what needs to be done to release it, how you can help
We could also do some moin hacking, if there is interest.
In moin2, we use quite some 3rd party python stuff, like:
- whoosh - indexed search library
- Flask + misc. extensions - micro framework
- Jinja2 - templating
- Werkzeug - http stuff
- flatland - forms and validation
- pygments - highlighting source/texts
- pytest - testing framework
- sphinx - documentation generation
- XStatic - include static files the python way
So, if you're interested in any of them, we can talk about some of them also.


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I spent an hour and a half this afternoon taping my son's pedigree chart together…and used 2 full rolls of Magic tape. It's 3 feet wide and 13 feet long. I say it's only a "half" pedigree because it only represents his ancestors on his (birth) mother's side of the family. I have not researched his "birth" father's lineage yet. I may have to wait until 2012 when the 1940 federal census is released to begin that project.
To save expense I have not used a professional chart printing service like Janet Hovorka's "The Chart Chick" --- although I'd LOVE to! I printed the 60 pages out for this chart, then trimmed and taped them together. My husband is good about helping me with the next step..he takes it to a local Copy Shop and the proprietor runs our chart through his blueprint copier and makes one seamless copy. That's the one I'll give my son. That way I can keep the "rough draft" for my own reference.
Now back to inserting photos in his narrative report. I hope to get his book done in another week or so. I'll post pictures when it's ready.


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Melanie Edwards
Melanie Edwards is the founder and editor of ModernMami™.com, an award-winning lifestyle blog, and owner of Ella Media. Married 9 years, she is the proud mother of an energized 6-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy, who are being raised in a bilingual, multicultural environment. Originally from Puerto Rico, Melanie now resides in Orlando, Florida. Connect with Melanie on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!


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N. Korea may consider H-bomb test in PacificBy CHRISTINE KIM and STEVE HOLLAND
September 22. 2017 7:12PM
SEOUL/NEW YORK — North Korea said on Friday it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean after President Donald Trump vowed to destroy the reclusive country, with leader Kim Jong Un promising to make Trump pay dearly for his threats.
Kim did not specify what action he would take against the United States or Trump, whom he called a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" in the latest bout of insults the two leaders have traded.
South Korea said it was the first direct statement of its kind by a North Korean leader. However, Kim's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said North Korea could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale over the Pacific Ocean. Ri told reporters in New York he did not know Kim's exact thoughts.
Japan, the only country ever to suffer an atomic attack, described the threat as "totally unacceptable."
The U.S. president, who has not shrunk from fighting fire with fire in his rhetoric on North Korea, sent another message Friday on Twitter.
"Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before," Trump said, a day after announcing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
Trump said in his first address to the United Nations on Tuesday he would "totally destroy" North Korea, a country of 26 million people, if it threatened the United States and its allies, and called Kim a "rocket man" on a suicide mission.
Kim said the North would consider the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history" against the United States and that Trump's comments had confirmed his own nuclear program was "the correct path."
Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched dozens of missiles this year as it accelerates a program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.
"I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire," Kim said in the statement on the KCNA state news agency.
Asked about the North Korean hydrogen bomb threat, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told ABC that diplomatic efforts will continue but all military options were still on the table.
"We are quite challenged" with the escalating rhetoric, he said, but hoped increased sanctions and "voices from every corner of the world" would help lead Kim to talks.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States is taking Kim's threat seriously. Such a test would be a "game-changer" if North Korea actually did it, the official said.
But the official said there were questions about Pyongyang's technical capabilities and Washington does not give "too much credence" to Pyongyang taking such action. "There's a certain amount of bluster that's taken for granted when you're dealing with North Korea," the official told Reuters.
Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have agreed to Seoul's "acquisition and development of highly advanced military assets" and to increased deployment of U.S. strategic assets in and around South Korea on a rotational basis," the White House said on Friday. The statement did not name any specific weapons systems.
'Sleepwalking' into war
In a separate report, KCNA made a rare criticism of official Chinese media, saying their comments on the North's nuclear program had damaged ties. It suggested Beijing, its only major ally, had sided with Washington.
Singling out the official People's Daily and its more nationalistic sister publication, the Global Times, KCNA said Chinese media was "openly resorting to interference in the internal affairs of another country" and driving a wedge between the two countries.
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for statesmanship to avoid "sleepwalking" into a war.
South Korea, Russia and China all urged calm.
"All relevant sides should exercise restraint and dedicate themselves to easing the situation rather than irritating each other," said Lu Kang, China's foreign ministry spokesman.
However, the rhetoric was starting to rattle some in other countries. French Sports Minister Laura Flessel said France's team would not travel to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea if its security could not be guaranteed.
The 2018 Games are to be staged in Pyeongchang, just 50 miles from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the world's most heavily armed border.
Asian stocks fell, and the Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained after the North Korean statements.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan handed back earlier gains and was down 0.4 percent.
More time
In Thursday's sanctions announcement, Trump stopped short of going after Pyongyang's biggest trading partner, China, praising as "tremendous" a move by its central bank ordering Chinese banks to stop doing business with North Korea.
Asked about the order on Friday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "As far as I understand, the situation you have just mentioned does not accord with the facts.
"In principle, China has always fully and strictly enforced U.N. resolutions and accepted our international obligations."
He did not elaborate. Chinese government ministries generally do not offer comment on decisions taken by other government departments.
The additional sanctions on Pyongyang, including on its shipping and trade networks, showed Trump was giving more time for economic pressure to weigh on North Korea after warning about the possibility of military action on Tuesday.
Asked before a lunch meeting Thursday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea if diplomacy was still possible, Trump nodded and said, "Why not?"
Trump said the new executive order on sanctions gives further authorities to target individual companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea.
It "will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind," Trump said.
The White House said North Korea's energy, medical, mining, textiles, and transport industries were among those targeted and that the U.S. Treasury could sanction anyone who owns, controls or operates a port of entry in North Korea.
The new measures do not target Pyongyang's oil trade.
'On notice'
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said banks doing business in North Korea would not be allowed to operate in the United States.
"Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or with North Korea, but not both," Mnuchin said.
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously imposed nine rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006, the latest this month capping fuel supplies to the isolated state.
The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.
The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.


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Warning: This is not low fat. This recipe will never have one of those Heart and Stroke foundation stickers on it. As a matter of fact, consult your doctor before making this recipe. Oh but if you can sample these delights, you will declare they are totally worth the potential myocardial infarct.
Now there are a number of different ways these babies are served. Some people eat them with the scrunchins, others without. Some people have them with butter, others serve them with molasses, and others with both. I like it with both, hey you may as well go whole hog here.
• 1 c 2% milk .
• 1 (16 g) packet traditional yeast .
• 2 tbsps shortening .
• 1 tbsp sugar .
• 1/2 c lukewarm water .
• 1/2 tbsp salt .
• 1/2 c cold water .
• 1 tsp sugar .
• 1/4 lb finely cubed bits of fatback pork .
• 5-6 c all-purpose flour
You will need a deep fryer with cooking oil for our family's method. Though some people do it with oil in a frying pan or fry the toutons in the pork fat until golden on both sides. We do them in the deep fryer because it is safer and because the toutons come out lighter and less doughy.
We begin by making bread dough. If you have your own recipe and already know how to bake bread you can go to the front of the class and skip to step 9.
1) Dissolve 1 tbsp sugar in the lukewarm water. Sprinkle top with the yeast let this stand 10 minutes, then stir briskly with a fork.
2) Scald the milk; add shortening, stir until melted.
3) Add cold water, salt and 1 tsp sugar.
4) Make sure that the milk mixture is lukewarm then add yeast. Stir until mixed.
5) Add 2 c flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
6) Gradually add more flour until you have a moist dough that no longer sticks to the bowl.
7) Turn dough onto a lightly floured board & knead for at least 10 minutes.
8) Shape into a ball and place this in a greased bowl, turning the ball to grease the top. Now my Grandma Browne used to make a sign of the cross over the dough with her wedding ring, as it had been blessed. You don't have to do that part, but her bread always came out perfect. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size. When it is almost ready, fire up your deep fryer.
9) And now for the fun part: punch down the dough a little (it might fart a bit but that is ok.- it is just air escaping). Then tear off pieces of dough (approximately 1/3 cup). We just pull it apart in sort of circular shapes, but some people who do them in the fry pan in pork fat pull them a little flat. It makes 'em easier to cook in the fry pan I guess.
Now here is where the recipes diverge:
Scrunchins method:
10 a) While you are doing this recruit another foolhardy soul to make the scrunchins- which is fried pork fat. I can just feel my arteries clog now as I write that. Cut up the pork fat into teeny tiny pieces and then fry until scrunchins are golden brown & crisp. Now as I said before, some Newfoundlanders do not use the deep fryer like we do. At this point they remove the scrunchins and fry the toutons in the pork fat. I don't like it this way- but you might. If you do try it this way you can put some scrunchins on the touton after it has cooked in the pork fat and begin to eat. I have seen people use this as a side for baked beans instead of serving buns.
Non Scrunchins method:
10 b) Once you have torn a few pieces of bread dough off, carefully drop them into the hot oil. Careful not to splash yourself. Have a box of salt standing by in case something bursts into flames; remember you can't use water on fat fires. The dough will drop to the bottom of the fryer, and pop up and then bob in the fat, turning a beautiful golden brown on the bottom. Flip them over and let the tops cook, and haul those babies out. Drop them on a piece of paper towel to remove some of the excess fat. Snigger- like that willl really make a difference. Now put a few on your plate drizzle with molasses and a pat of real butter. Yes the real stuff, not the plastic yellow poo euphemistically known as margarine. Take a moment to worship your creation, and then pop that sucker right into your mouth….ah…that's it. Yes like that….ohhhhhh.
Repeat until stuffed like a turducken… (What is a turducken you ask? Well that my friends is another heartstopper we shall explore in the near future).


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Practiphone necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 91 diseños de 11 diseñadores freelance.
We are developing an iPhone application that is a timer for automating a flexible series of steps in a routine, such as a workout, taking medications, or household chores. This contest will be designing the icons for this application which consist of a main app icon and 9 smaller icons.
We are looking for a crisp, professional motif that is not too "busy" and whose icons are consistent with each other in terms of style and color palette.
- Main icon for the application. This icon will be displayed on the mainiPhone screen. Two sizes are needed: a 57x57 PNG and a 512x512 72 dpiJPEG. Here are the details of what we are looking for here: (i) Deep blue or purple background (examples: see icons for the following apps on the iPhone - iTunes, AppStore, Facebook, Loopt)
(ii) Stopwatch as metaphor for graphic.
(iii) Artwork in solid white silouhette (see following app icons as examples: iTunes, AppStore, Facebook, Loopt, iPod, Phone). Other examples of "solid white" artwork are here on 99designs.com ... see icon for "read the brief")
(iv) Checkmark to represent watch hands in the center of the stopwatch.
- Nine PNG icons (likely 24x24, 32x32 at the largest) representing the different categories of routinesavailable. The icons should all be compatible with each other in terms of style and color palette. We are not opposed to these also being all white silouhette on dark background either. Surprise us. The nine categories are below, with thoughts on metaphors for each: (i) Exercise - running man, barbell
(ii) Cooking - fork, fork + knife
(iii) Medication - capsule
(iv) Meditation - sitting person in meditative posture, om symbol
(v) Diet - Scale, fabric tape measure
(vi) Affirmations - Exclamation point
(vii) Chores - Broom
(viii) Miscellaneous - Manilla file folder
(ix) Favorites - Star
Please include larger versions of these icons than 24x or 32x for review purposes, just make sure that they will retain their definition, crispness and clarity when they are reduced to the smaller dimensions.
- Source files for all graphics in vector format (e.g., Adobe illustrator files).--------------
UPDATE 06.09.2008 - The following URL contains a screenshot of one place within the application where the 9 icons will live:
Each icon will be placed to the left of its related title. As youcan see, space is limited. 32x32 is the maximum standard size forthese images. The 24x24 size tends to look a bit better (less crowded). Please do not present your entries within this screenshot until their icons are late in the design process. The 24x24 size is too small to review online. We include this screenshot so you can have a context for where these icons will live and also to use as a testbed for you to see how your icons will look like once reduced and placed within the application.
- Item 1...


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Your browser does not support iframes.
Mark Twain, the famous 19th century author, once wrote, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," in response to some newspaper stories stating that he had died.
The same is apparently true of an article that appeared in another county newspaper that reported a heated debate between members of county administration and some members of the board of supervisors during a Jan. 11 retreat held at the Peaks of Otter Lodge.
Was there a heated debate?
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors held a discussion, at a 5 p. m. work session Monday, on proposals initiated by the supervisors to change the county's zoning and subdivision ordinances. No action was taken at the regular 7:30 p.m. meeting that followed.
Signage restrictions
One item was a proposal to eliminate the signage restrictions from corridor overlay districts. Corridor overlays are applied to certain highways and add additional restrictions to the underlying zone's requirements.
Calling it "irrational" and "unnecessary," representatives from the Bedford Regional Water Authority have crafted their response to a lawsuit challenging the legality of the proposed Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Plant Project.
Earlier this month Bedford Weaving filed the lawsuit in an attempt to block the BRWA from constructing the new water treatment plant at Smith Mountain Lake and the water lines that would carry the treated water from the Lake to Forest.
The Board of Directors of Bedford Memorial Hospital and Oakwood Health and Rehabilitation Center have endorsed a plan to transfer full ownership of the facilities to Centra in 2014.
Since 2001, the 50-bed community hospital and 111-bed long-term care facility have been co-owned by Centra and Carilion Clinic. Carilion will sell its 50 percent ownership to Centra.
By Eric Luther
Capital News Service
RICHMOND -- A new bill aiming to amend and reenact the Code of Virginia requirements allowing individuals guilty of misdemeanors and certain nonviolent felonies to serve nonconsecutive jail sentences has been proposed by Sen. William Stanley Jr., R-Moneta.
Senate Bill 167 seeks to remove a code provision stating a criminal sentence of nonconsecutive days only be issued on the basis of allowing a convicted individual to retain employment.
Bedford County's board of supervisors began the new year with its annual organizational meeting, choosing District 4 Supervisor John Sharp as chairman and District 7 Supervisor Tammy Parker as vice chairman.
Then, the supervisors got down to business. A request by the Bedford Regional Water Authority to transfer the former Camp 24 property to the Authority for a site for its proposed new water treatment plant proved to be contentious.
October 1 brought some big changes for the Bedford County Department of Social Services.
Prior to that, according to Andy Crawford, the county's director of Social Services, the department used one eligibility computer system for all the programs Social Services administers.
"Of course, that system is very outdated," Crawford commented.
Bedford County's planning commission held it's last meeting of the year last week and a final recommendation on board of supervisors' proposed changes to the zoning ordinance is still pending.
After debate, the planing commission chose to recommend leaving the signage restrictions in the corridor overlay districts as they are.
This could be the last bit of action related to Bedford's reversion to town status that will take place for some time.
The Bedford County Planning Commission began tackling the latest set of board of supervisors initiated amendments to the subdivision and zoning ordinance last week.
Although the supervisors ultimately voted, at their Monday night meeting, to eliminate the requirement for developers to hold neighborhood informational meetings, the majority of planning commission members were uncomfortable about the idea. District 4 planning commission member Frederic Fralick felt it was important to maintain transparency.
Copyright © 2018
The Bedford Bulletin is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Bedford County and Bedford, VA and the surrounding area.


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Your wedding or event at Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo is guaranteed to be a spectacular occasion. With our wealth of experience and legendary service we can assure you luxury, style and a very special day.
Mandarin Oriental has been hosting weddings from Hong Kong to London for over 40 years and we have brought that legendary reputation to Tokyo. With our depth of knowledge and experience, we will help you organise the day of your dreams.
Every facility and service required for planning your wedding is available within the hotel, including a wedding dress shop, beauty salon and flower shop staffed with some of the most experienced arrangement specialists in Tokyo. What's more, our expert team of wedding planners can manage every aspect of your wedding, from flowers to photographer, catering and cake, leaving you time to relax and enjoy the excitement.
Our tranquil and spacious wedding chapel opens out onto an indoor terrace overlooking a large atrium of glass and light. The chapel can accommodate ceremonies for up to 90 guests, while our superior technology means that the event can be broadcast into the ballroom which seats 260 guests. We also offer waiting rooms for the bridal and groom's parties prior to the ceremony as well as a private room for the bride to use throughout the day.
Our serene spa is the perfect space in which to relax. We also offer the services of our beauty salon, where our expert team will help you prepare for your big day.
With Weddings and Honeymoons by Mandarin Oriental, couples who wed at our hotel receive a complimentary honeymoon night and other special benefits at another Mandarin Oriental hotel in the Group.
For special mementos our Business Centre and Spa Boutique offer a variety of items such as evocative aromatics and luxurious robes. We also offer gift vouchers which guests can choose as wedding gifts to be redeemed against anything from honeymoon suites to VIP spa packages.
We love to celebrate special occasions at Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo. Whether your special occasion is an intimate affair or a party for 400 guests, and whether they include royalty, family or friends, we will ensure your event is effortlessly achieved and distinctly memorable. Through experience, excellent facilities and high creativity we promise to make your event a huge success.
Please provide us the details of your wedding or event and our dedicated specialists will contact you with a proposal that meets your requirements.


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Baring Fruit
Stan Kwasniowski 8/19/2012 4:46:59 PMDavid, gorgeous #1481244
Robert R. Goodman 8/19/2012 5:09:20 PMHi Dave,Your work is always beautiful my friend.Stunning capture!!!! #10282217
Rudi Reiner 8/19/2012 5:49:37 PMNice work! #10282257
Stephen Zacker 8/19/2012 6:11:38 PMReally enjoy your still lifes. Terrific background #10282288
Jean-Pierre Ducondi 8/19/2012 6:50:53 PMAmazing still life Dave. Wonderful work.
Bill Houghton 8/20/2012 5:32:59 AMDave, your still life's are amazing. Thanks for your comment on my 'Long Pier' photo. Bill #10282747
Nancy L. Green 8/20/2012 11:48:59 AMThis is one GORGEOUS still life Dave, and by looking at your wonderful gallery, I see you are a master of the art, WTG!! <>< #10283131
Diane E. Deming 8/20/2012 7:46:12 PMDave,
JO ANN CLEVELAND 8/21/2012 1:31:34 PMOhhhh Dave...you are the master of set up and Still Life...you see things and present them the way "ordinary" folks don't and I love it!
jo ann c. #10284358
Peggy Pfister 8/21/2012 6:14:56 PMAnother stunning still life, Dave. Just beautiful! #10284815
Leslie McLain 8/22/2012 9:20:11 AMBeautiful still life, colors, and light, Dave. #10285607
Jill Odice 8/22/2012 12:38:01 PMEach one of your images is such a work of art! I would love to see a gallery filled with them ! Love the way you peeled the apple :-) #10285768
Kirsten Kiki Kjaer 8/23/2012 6:47:21 AMA beautiful painting for sure!! #10286695
Karen Celella 8/23/2012 7:35:40 AMThe master strikes again! Gorgeous, Dave! #10286791
Don Christiana 8/24/2012 8:57:17 AMDave...your still life is perfection as always. Beautiful capture and presentation. #10288259
David Phalen 8/24/2012 5:52:56 PMAnother beautiful still life!! The peeled apple is special!! #10288782
Evy Johansen 8/24/2012 7:51:58 PMSimply beautiful, Dave!! #10288913
Lindley Johnson 8/25/2012 3:18:57 PMGreat title and another wonderful still life, Dave. I love your arrangement and the light is perfect! #10289918
Renee Doyle 8/25/2012 4:57:29 PMSo are you signing up for giving classes yet Dave ?? :-)
Debbie Bray 8/25/2012 9:05:47 PMOh, wow, yes yes yes!! (Bet you've been missing your biggest fan, eh, Dave? - hehee, I'm back to pester you!) Wonderful work, beautiful light, and yummy looking too! #10290333
Kathy Reeves 8/26/2012 4:41:26 AMWow, Dave. Outstanding. You are the master at still life! #10290606
Robert K. Bemus 8/27/2012 10:50:24 PMBeautiful still life, textures and double entendre for a title!! #10293226
Douglas Pignet 8/28/2012 2:36:52 AMlovely still life capture..nicely done #10293336
Danny B. Head 8/28/2012 5:10:53 PMI wish I had the ability to capture still life images like you do. Beautiful work...awesome light! #10294264
Dorann Weber 8/30/2012 9:41:42 PMGorgeous!.. I love the deep tones, so rich... Beautiful! I went through your gallery, you do amazing work..... #10300765
frank w. degenhardt 9/1/2012 6:08:58 AMWhat makes still life so beautiful to see for me is the way the artist puts a lot of thought into how each piece fits into the picture, the way things get moved around until it all fits perfectly together. The use of textures, lighting, layout, colors, all come into play to make this a work of art my friend. Incredible look.
Wendy Stevenson 9/1/2012 4:31:37 PMA gorgeous classic SL with beautiful light and hues! Love this! #10304389
Ellen Hodges 9/3/2012 4:10:13 PMSuper cool and beautiful capture, Dave!!! Lovely light!! #10307199
Millie A. Talarico 9/9/2012 8:53:20 PMWow, wonderful still life, Dave! #10316278
Stefania Barbier 9/9/2012 10:32:01 PMfantastic still life capture! #10316331
Connie J. Bagot 9/10/2012 4:23:52 PMAnother beauty---you have such a talent for light and arrangement--wonderful! #10317225
Terry Cervi 9/10/2012 5:55:31 PMYour still life work is always inspiring, Monte'! Beautiful work! #10317310
R. J. Laudenbacher 9/11/2012 4:50:03 AMSuch a beautiful still, Monte. I love the light and the tones in this one. #10317983
Alex T. Mizuno 9/11/2012 11:35:14 PMYour still photos are all exquisite Dave! Lighting and composition are both masterfully done! #10319199
Jeffrey M. Smith 9/12/2012 3:03:21 PMDave;
Gina M. Savage 9/13/2012 2:06:39 PMBreathtaking still life capture. Love the POV and light. Well done. #10321712
Heather Loewenhardt 9/14/2012 8:59:35 PMYour still life artistry is top notch Dave. Your lighting, texture and composition are so wonderful. #10323404
Nina Shields 9/15/2012 8:02:37 AMDave, setting up and capturing still lifes is an art form unto itself; you're obviously a master; beautiful tones and use of lighting in this perfectly composed image; congratulations! #10323886
Linda S. Smith 9/15/2012 4:43:07 PMFantastic capture here Dave! Beautiful details, colors and very creative as well. #10324358
Nadia Paul 9/15/2012 6:35:40 PMLove your setup and lighting - just beautiful Dave!
Shelly A. Van Camp 9/16/2012 12:07:31 PMBeautiful still life, lighting and colors....Well done. #10325312
Kathy Reeves 9/16/2012 3:07:30 PMAnother outstanding still life, Dave. You are the best! #10325514
Gail Sullivan 9/16/2012 3:19:29 PMDave...this iis so a peeling,(!) love the peeked apple!
Claudia Kuhn 9/16/2012 4:44:54 PMWonderful harvest still life Dave, beautiful tones and color #10325594
Lorna Shutter 9/16/2012 6:14:02 PMWhat can I say that hasn't already been said?! You really are the King of Still Life images! This is just another fine example of the magnificent work you do with inanimate objects! Your presentation is stunning as usual! Awesome setup and capture, Dave! :) #10325751
Brenda W. LaFleur 9/23/2012 4:03:38 PMHi Dave! Thanks for your recent comment on one of my photos. So glad you did comment as it prompted me to check out your gallery. You do great work and you're now a Favorite Photographer of mine! Looking forward to seeing more. #10334555
Jeff Robinson 9/23/2012 4:22:25 PMWow Dave - Your work is always amazing! Outstanding job here!! #10334586
Amalia Sylvia Arriaga Salinas 9/23/2012 8:18:18 PMFantastic work Dave!,
Songbird Cline 12/8/2012 12:22:06 PMbeautiful presentation.. very inviting. #10456171
Uploaded on 8/19/2012 4:08:36 PM
Camera: Nikon D300 Digital SLR Camera
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to David M. Montero. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
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— James Downey Jr., who survived the infamous Bataan Death March in 1942 and became an inspiration to his family, died Monday. He was 96 years old.
Downey served with the Army's 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts, a decorated unit that still rode horses into battle in the early days of World War II. Half-Filipino by birth, his mother was of Philippine and Spanish heritage and his father was from Augusta County, a cavalry officer who fought in the Spanish-American War.
News of his death came from family members.
In 1942, Downey was a young soldier in the prime of life, six years removed from a tryout on the 1936 U.S. Olympic swim team, when Japanese soldiers captured him on April 9.
He was put in line with thousands of other prisoners and ordered to start walking. The rule was simple, he recalled. If you stop, you die.
The forced march to a Japanese POW camp covered 60 miles and lasted five days. For a time, Downey carried his little brother, Robert, who survived the march but ultimately died of sickness.
Downey recounted his experiences last year in an interview with the Daily Press. After more than 60 years, his memories were still chilling.
"A lot of my friends died along the way," he said. "And sometimes a Japanese tank would go over – Oh God – you'd see them along the road. It was terrible."
By some estimates, 11,000 men died.
But his determination in surviving one of the darkest chapters in American military history was not lost on his family.
His son, Gary Downey, said the themes of never giving up and always helping a brother were impressed upon the children at an early age.
"The journey that happened to him on Bataan, it still continues for him," Gary said last year.
James Downey retired from the Army in 1963 as a master sergeant. He served a stint at Fort Eustis in Newport News, where he met his wife, Frances.
She died in 2006. She and James were married 57 years and had four children. He was a former resident of Yorktown.


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The Chicago Fire passed in Phase Two of the 2013 MLS Re-Entry Process Wednesday but did see one eligible now-former player selected in Jamaican defender Shaun Francis.
The club declined the options on Francis, Michael Videira, Joel Lindpere and Maicon Santos last week while utility player Wells Thompson was out of contract at season's end, making the five eligible for the 2013 Re-Entry Process.
Francis' MLS rights have been acquired by San Jose, while the remaining four players are now MLS free agents.


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"Star Wars Rebels" has introduced its first female character, Sabine, a Mandalorian with an interest in art—and explosives.
"She likes to blow things up," says actress Tiya Sircar, who is voicing the character. "She does it with flare, because she's also an artist."
Sabine is a key member of the Ghost crew, which consists of its captain, Kanan; its muscle, Zeb; its young con man, Ezra; and its cranky droid, Chopper.
The latest video introduction from Lucasfilm and Disney shows early design concepts of the character, animation tests and final art, along with interviews from Sircar and the creators.
Sabine is unlike any "Star Wars" character, exec producer Dave Filoni says. She has a great understanding of weapons and combat and uses them both against the Empire.
After the Ghost crew attacks the Empire, Sabine tags their work with distinctive graffiti so the Imperial forces know who went after them. Sabine's love of art is not just reflected in her graffiti calling cards, but also in hair and personalized armor.
"She is spunky, she's feisty, she's got a little bit of attitude," Sircar says of the no-nonsense heroine."I think she's kind of an inspiration."
Premiering with a one-hour special this fall on the Disney Channel before moving to Disney XD as a weekly series, "Rebels" will cover the action between big-screen films "Episode III--Revenge of the Sith" and "Episode IV--A New Hope."
Disney and Lucasfilm have been dropping teasers and introducing characters on a weekly basis to pump up the already huge interest in the series:
Meet Zeb, the brawn and brains
Meet Kanan, a Jedi Knight survivor
Meet Chopper, the cranky droid
Meet The Inquisitor, Darth Vader's henchman
Want more? Discuss this article and others on Show Patrol's Facebook page.


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Wheatley Laboratories Messenger Bag
Under new management
- This Wheatley Laboratories bag totally didn't start out life as an Aperture Laboratories Messenger Bag.
- Nosireebob.
- What makes you ask that?
We thought it was about time for a change around here. No more assistant to the guy in charge of the neurotoxin release button. No more nanobot work crew duties rebuilding shafts. No more tending to all the smelly humans. The... um... sorry. I wouldn't say "smelly." Just attending to the humans. Right. Moving on.
Welcome to new Wheatley Laboratories! We're still updating all the corporate letterhead and mugs and whatnot. But here. Have a lovely bag. Good for carrying all your human things, like... you know. Things humans need. Oh! Like jumpsuits, of course. And mashy spike plates.
Product Specifications
- Wheatley Laboratories Messenger Bag
- Officially-licensed Portal 2 merchandise
- Totally didn't start out life as an Aperture Laboratories Messenger Bag, nosireebob. What makes you ask that?
- Dimensional Wheatley applique with embroidery
- Top handle makes it easy to grab and go
- Shoulder strap adjusts from 7" to 20" drop
- Materials: Nylon
- Care Instructions: Spot clean with a damp cloth and mild detergent
- External Dimensions: 11" tall x 15" wide x 5" deep Interior Dimensions:
- Main Compartment: 10 1/2" tall x 14 1/4" wide x 4 3/4" deep (padded, covered by a flap with 2 magnetic snaps)
- Pocket: 7" tall x 13" wide (inside main compartment)
- Front Document Pouch: 7 3/4" tall x 13 1/2" wide (closes with magnetic snap, also protected by the flap)
- Rear Document Pouch: 8" tall x 13 1/2" wide (closes with magnetic snap, on outside of bag)
"Will my laptop fit in this bag, ThinkGeek?" Let's find out together!
|Laptop Fitting Guide
| Measure your laptop.
Like TVs, laptops are listed by their measurement on the diagonal. Bags, on the other hand, are measured on the edges. Not all 17" laptops are the same size, so you'll need to measure the length & width of your closed laptop.
"But my laptop is at home, ThinkGeek!"
If you can't wait, Google has superpowers to tell you the dimensions of your laptop if you ask it nicely. Just input the make and model of your laptop and ye shall receive.
"I've got the measurements! Now what?"
Compare your laptop's measurements to the measurements of the bag. If the laptop's measurements are smaller than the bag, it fits! If one or more of the laptop's measurements are bigger, you're out of luck with this bag. Try another.


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The Department of Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education prepares highly effective and qualified teachers, interpreters, and other professionals with the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and cultural/linguistic competencies to meet the diverse educational and accessibility needs of children and adults in education and community settings.
The undergraduate program in Exceptional Student Education prepares teachers with competencies necessary to produce achievement gains and desirable behavior changes in students with disabilities. Successful completion of the programs of study prepares the student for the certification exams in Exceptional Student Education. The undergraduate program in Deaf Education prepares teachers for initial certification in Deaf Education and is also ESOL endorsed. Additionally, the department offers a B.S. degree in American Sign Language/English Interpreting. Students seeking to complete the B.S. in ASL/English Interpreting can attend UNF as Freshmen for a concentration in Community Interpreting, or students can transfer to UNF during the last two years with a prior associate-level degree in Interpreting or Pre-Interpreting for a concentration in A.S. to B.S. General Practice.
Undergraduate Programs
Bachelor of Arts in Education
• Deaf Education
• Exceptional Student Education
Bachelor of Science
• ASL/English Interpreting
• ASL / Deaf Studies
• Deaf Education Minor
• Disability Services
• International Education
My Osprey Map (Course Sequence Guide)
Graduate Programs
Master of Education
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Special Education
• Exceptional Student Education
Master of Science
• ASL / English Interpreting
• Applied Behavior Analysis • International Education • Partnership with Individuals with Disabilities and their Families
All courses have field assignments. Students are expected to be proficient in the use of the computer for word processing and Internet access.The program is blocked sequentially with some courses being offered once a year only; therefore, students are requested and encouraged to enter in the fall term. Before beginning course work, students must consult an advisor in the Office of Academic Advising.The state of Florida mandates certification requirements for teachers. Students should see their advisors frequently to obtain appropriate advisement for current certification requirements. All students enrolled in College of Education and Human Services courses that require a field or clinical component are taught at a school site or require the student to complete work at a school are mandated by state law to be fingerprinted and cleared prior to being permitted on elementary and secondary school campuses. Students should be aware that noncompliance with fingerprinting requirements will result in the inability to complete course requirements. Contact the Office of Educational Field Experiences for information regarding fingerprinting procedures.
The ASL/English Interpreting program has two concentrations that are delivered via distance technologies that do not require residence in Florida: Interpreting Pedagogy and General Practitioner. Both concentrations result in a degree that prepares students for doctoral studies, should they desire to pursue an advanced degree. A reduced tuition and fee schedule is in effect for out of state students


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From Laura Bankey, Director of Conservation
I recently attended the National Wildlife Federation annual meeting. This is the one time during the year that all state affiliates gather to decide areas of focus for NWF in the future. At this meeting, conservation resolutions are proposed, debated, and voted on.
With fewer than 1,100 individuals remaining, the Hawaiian monk seal is the most endangered marine mammal in U.S. waters. Monk seals are at risk due to entanglement in fishing gear and other marine debris, overfishing, inadequate marine protected areas, invasive species, canine diseases, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and intentional killing by individuals who view the seals as competition for declining fish stocks.


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Hi all, chiller maintenance question.
I have budgeted for 5-year maintenance for a chiller at 1 of my props. 1 HVAC vendor provided me w/a tear-down quote items like O-rings replacements, etc. that I have seen for other 5-year maintenance. Another vendor said that the type of chiller does not require tear-down.
It is an 80 ton Trane unit w/screw compressors the vendor that said tear down is not applicable said that because it is a screw unit, rather than centrifugal, just checking oil, brushing tubes is enough.
Any comments welcome. thanks


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Be skeptical about the hubbub over Tau Ceti and its five planets.Sometimes, we journalists get stuff wrong. I have a well-founded knowledge of that dirty secret: my last job was as a fact checker. So when a press release came out this week announcing a purported system of five planets (with one in the habitable zone) around the solar-type star Tau Ceti (HD 10700), my colleagues and I were skeptical. Astronomers have studied this nearby star for years — at a distance of 11.9 light-years, it's one of the closest star systems to us — and there's been no hint of a planet. To go from zero to five sounded rather like conjuring from the ether.
So we went to the source: the actual study and the astronomers who wrote it. The authors are more cautious in their paper. Yes, they announce the detection of five itsy-bitsy signals that might be planets, but they don't trumpet the planet conclusion from the highest hills. As lead author Mikko Tuomi (University of Hertfordshire, England, and University of Turku, Finland) told me, "I believe the signals are there beyond reasonable doubt. However, their planetary origin is more uncertain, and an independent confirmation is necessary to conclude that we have indeed found planets."
Let's step back and look at what the team did.
Tuomi and his colleagues wanted to test a new analysis method for uncovering periodic signals in starlight, created by stars' tiny wobbles along our line of sight as one or more planets orbits the stars. Such radial velocity measurements are the most successful planet-hunting technique thus far (unless you add in Kepler's unconfirmed planets, which I don't).
The astronomers used more than 4,000 archival observations of Tau Ceti by the HARPS spectrograph in Chile, one of the world's premier instruments for finding exoplanets. To see if their techniques could find small signals hidden in data, they added fake signals to the Tau Ceti observations — Tau Ceti is a quiet star with no known planets, so they figured that using it as a source of "noise" was reasonable.It worked. Kind of: their method spotted the fake signals, but it also found periodic variations in the real data. So they removed the artificial signals and ran their analysis on just the HARPS data. When they did that, they found three signals. Combining the HARPS data with observations from two other instruments — one at Keck, the other at the Anglo Australian Telescope — turned up two more signals, for a total of five.
The team's analysis determined the signals in the combined data have periods of 14, 35.4, 94, 168, and 630 days (the signals do not show up in more than one data set when the three sets are analyzed independently). The strongest signal is the 35.4-day one, but that's uncomfortably close to the star's 34-day rotation period. These signals are also incredibly small, around the same amplitude as the background noise.
However, if they're from planets in stable orbits, these planets could have minimum masses of 2, 3.1, 3.6, 4.3, and 6.6 Earths, at distances from the star of 0.11, 0.2, 0.37, 0.55, and 1.35 times the Earth-Sun distance.
HARPS observer Stephane Udry (Geneva Observatory, Switzerland) has his doubts. He says there are interesting aspects of the authors' analysis, "but a fancy approach is not a guarantee of truth. You have to know intimately your data, and especially their limits." Coming at data collected by someone else, a researcher might not have that visceral knowledge and could improperly include or exclude parameters that would lead to a false detection. "This paper does not give, with good probability, any (final) answer about the planetary content of the system, but only a first guess."
Tuomi does not think the signals are artifacts of the analysis; rather, he says the signals appear because his team's method is more sensitive to weak signals than previous work. Still, he does offer a slew of stellar variations that could create such signals — starspots, pulsations, flares, magnetic cycles, and differential rotation (where the star's surface has different rotation speeds at different latitudes), to name a few. The final answer will have to wait for follow-up work and further observations.
Caveats aside, it's good that astronomers are pushing the limits on data analysis. As the recent announcement of a planet around Alpha Centauri showed, new tools could reveal planets where none were detected before. There might well be one or more planets around Tau Ceti. But we shouldn't jump on the exoplanet bandwagon just because it rolls by.
Speaking of which, you shouldn't take my word on this stuff: read the paper yourself:
Reference: M. Tuomi et al. "Signals embedded in the radial velocity noise." Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics.


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» Jerry Hopkins: Jim Morrison's Biographer Finds a Strange Kind of Bliss in Bangkok
Jerry Hopkins: Jim Morrison's Biographer Finds a Strange Kind of Bliss in Bangkok
LA weekly
The brazen hedonism of Bangkok agrees with Jerry Hopkins. The co-author of No One Here Gets Out Alive, the best-selling portrait of iconic Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Hopkins has been described as "the dean of pop biographers." He laughingly refers to himself as a free-spirited "bottom feeder" with good timing.
"I've been in the right place at the right time often in my life, just like Forrest Gump," says the 77-year-old wordsmith, who also penned the first bio of Elvis Presley, as well as accounts of Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Yoko Ono. As Los Angeles correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine in the late 1960s, Hopkins experienced flower power in full bloom.
Four times married, Hopkins has lived in Thailand since 1993; his current Bangkok apartment nestles on a restful downtown side street. With his thinning gray hair and trimmed beard, thick spectacles, beige slacks and gaudy, open-necked shirt, the writer has the avuncular air of a retired civil servant.
A short stroll from Hopkins' hideaway, however, lies the Thai capital's main sex-tourism avenue, Sukhumvit Road, where streetside stalls ply hard-core porn DVDs, sex toys and Viagra, as well as chromed knuckledusters and ninja throwing stars. "Being a bottom feeder has a long literary tradition," Hopkins says. "There's a whiff of danger about Bangkok. I hate to romanticize dirt, but we're talking whores and drugs and the fun things in life."
Over half a century, Hopkins has authored three dozen books, covering everything from groupies to the history of the condom. Originally rejected by some 30 publishers, No One Here Gets Out Alive — the first rock biography to reach No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list — has never been out of print since its publication in 1980. (Hopkins says his co-author, the late Danny Sugerman, didn't contribute much to the text but mainly helped get it sold.)
"Morrison was the most interesting of all the rock stars I met because he was the best conversationalist," Hopkins says. "Something I always had trouble with at Rolling Stone was that I was interviewing people whose avenue of communication was singing or playing an instrument. Why should anyone expect them to have a political opinion worth listening to? Most of them didn't, but Morrison was interesting on a totally different level."
Hopkins changes the battery in his hearing aid and sits down to reminisce about everything from the blame he gets for the conspiracy theories surrounding Morrison's perplexing death in Paris at age 27 to his personal taste for transsexual street hookers. (He's also dated a Playboy playmate.)
We begin in 1966. The soundtrack to that heady 12 months featured The Byrds' Fifth Dimension, Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beatles' Revolver. "1966 was a great year," Hopkins says. "I guess '67 was the Summer of Love, but '66 was when all the great records came out."
It was that year that Hopkins and a friend opened what was one of the first head shops in the United States. Los Angeles was a headquarters for the prevailing drug culture, so that became the name of their store. "Headquarters was the first head shop in Los Angeles. I didn't even know what a head shop was." Hopkins' store quickly became a community center for the hippie generation. "Kids would hang out in the afternoon so they didn't have to go home to mom and dad," he says. "They could be with these hip guys who openly sold rolling papers."
They also sold buttons with slogans, like "Save Water, Shower With a Friend" and "Even Paranoids Have Real Enemies." They had Peter Fonda and Bob Dylan posters and underground newspapers. They passed off the old uniforms from the minor league hockey Los Angeles Blades' brass band as Sergeant Pepper outfits.
Born in New Jersey, Hopkins' long and strange trip from Quaker roots to Californian bohemia was set in motion by conflict rather than peaceniks. "During World War II, I would read the dispatches of [Pulitzer Prize–winning correspondent] Ernie Pyle. He covered Europe and then the Pacific," he says. "I decided that was what I wanted to do when I grew up: Travel the world, meet interesting people, write about them and get paid for it."
After college, two years at a newspaper and a stint in the army in Georgia, Hopkins eventually found work for The Steve Allen Show. "I became his 'vice president in charge of left-fielders,' " Hopkins says. "I was Steve's 'kook booker.' Some of the people were genuinely strange."
One such eccentric was a pre-fame Frank Zappa, who wanted to teach Allen an instrument he called a "musical bicycle." "I knew it was a put-on, and Steve had always insisted 'no put-ons,' but Frank sounded interesting, so he came along. He played the spokes like a harp. He beat on the seat and blew at the handlebars. He would not admit it was a joke."
Eventually Hopkins became disillusioned with television, and the head shop ended up suffering financially. ("The big department stores started taking our business," he grumbles. "If you wanted a poster of Peter Fonda, you could get it at the May Company.") But he found another opportunity at Rolling Stone. "They were soliciting for freelance submissions, so I sent in a review of a Doors concert. They printed it and sent me a check for $15. I thought, 'This is terrific.' "
Soon, Hopkins became Rolling Stone's L.A. correspondent. Though he was at first a bit critical of the act, calling Morrison "pretentious," he liked The Doors' lyrics and got along with the frontman. "We drank in the same bars and he would invite me to poetry readings and screenings and stuff."
Hopkins gleaned many personal insights into Morrison during these years, and director Oliver Stone used Hopkins' interview notes, as well as No One Here Gets Out Alive, as the backbone to his 1991 biopic, The Doors. The movie's release resulted in the biography bounding back onto the best-seller list, but Hopkins is conflicted about Stone's cinematic portrayal.
"The look of the movie was bang-on," Hopkins says. "It was like being whiplashed into my past. Oliver had everything very accurate visually, which is interesting [considering that] 40 percent of the screenplay turned out to be total fiction. It's true that Jim was a drunken asshole, but that wasn't all he was. He read more books and was more articulate than anyone else I've ever met in the entertainment world. He had a sense of humor about himself. He didn't take his stardom seriously."
Hopkins also got caught up in the controversy surrounding Morrison's death. According to French police, the singer's girlfriend, Pamela Courson, found him dead in their Paris apartment's bathtub on July 3, 1971, apparently of a heart attack. Morrison was quickly buried in the French capital's Pere Lachaise cemetery. Conspiracy theories regarding the exact circumstances have multiplied ever since, and Hopkins says he gets blamed for them.
Why? Well, he originally planned a pair of different endings for the biography, one in which Morrison overdosed and one in which he faked his death and — like his idol, the French poet Rimbaud — wandered off to Africa to gain the freedom of anonymity. He was fed up with being a star.
"I suggested that if the publisher were to print 10,000 copies of the book, 5,000 should have one ending and 5,000 the other. Distribute them and don't say anything, which I still think is an interesting concept." Not surprisingly, the publisher declined, and instead the chapters were combined and the book ended ambiguously. "So now, many people say that book created the controversy over whether Morrison is dead or alive," Hopkins says.
At the time of Morrison's death, Hopkins had just wrapped up Elvis: A Biography. With that book on the shelves, the writer rejoined Rolling Stone in 1972, soon to be sent to cover the British music scene from London. He also spent time in Paris, researching Morrison's death. The people he spoke with said Morrison had been carried home from a nightclub after suffering a heroin overdose, and that a cold water bath was commonly considered helpful to drug users suffering from a surfeit of heroin.
"That had not been his drug," Hopkins insists. "Jim did do a lot of cocaine, but his drug of choice, since long before he died, had been alcohol. In my Rolling Stone interview with him in the early summer after the Miami arrest [for indecent exposure onstage] of March '69, he said that he had switched to alcohol because it was so much easier to obtain."
Whatever the case, a doctor found no signs of foul play, and, since it was the July Fourth weekend, the American Embassy was closed. Morrison, Hopkins notes, was in the ground in a hurry.
No One Here Gets Out Alive has been translated into 16 languages, sold millions of copies, and has made Hopkins royalties for decades. He doesn't know the exact sum, however. Millions of dollars? "Hell, no," he says. "I've lived comfortably, and I tried to shovel as much of it up my nose as I could, living well beyond my means at times." At various points he also ended up in divorce court, from his third wife, and bankruptcy court. "My feeling now is that I didn't take to being rich, and my idea was to get poor again as soon as possible, so that I could be happy again."
While living in Hawaii, Hopkins rediscovered his happiness in the arms of Vanessa, a transsexual hooker who worked the streets of Honolulu's Chinatown. "I was in love with her, I shared my bed with her, on the nights when she came home," he says, chuckling at the memory. He remains "fascinated with that lifestyle."
With light fading, we decamp from the writer's bolt-hole to stroll Sukhumvit to Nana Plaza, Bangkok's neon-lit warren of go-go bars and clip joints, which is perhaps the largest single compound of paid-for sexual gratification on the planet. We order beers and survey the spectacle. The licentious Thai capital, Hopkins insists, is inspirational to his work.
When not trawling Bangkok, however, he lives with his fourth wife — who is Thai and 25 years his junior — and her extended family on an idyllic rice farm close to the border with Cambodia. "We have 12 types of fruit, four fish ponds," Hopkins says. "We raise frogs, chickens, ducks. ... It's quiet. We have no telephones, no Internet."
Thailand, with its contrasting extremes, appears to be the right place for this time in Hopkins' unorthodox life. He's still active on the literary front, and in the process of researching a pair of books, he says. "One is about ladyboy sex workers, and the other is called Whore Lovers: The Aficionados and Connoisseurs."
He also recently penned the introduction to a compilation of poetry by tough-guy actor Michael Madsen, perhaps best known as the ear-severing Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs
Hopkins carries out much of his "research" at Cascade, a go-go bar that is headquarters for more than 100 transsexual prostitutes, including, he laughs, one chisel-jawed individual whose nickname is "Lights Out," for her devastating Muay Thai skills, which she employs to silence difficult customers. "All of that strikes me as a hell of a lot more interesting," he says, "than what my daughter calls a 'real job.' "
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Pinnacles power
Martin Witt 4/30/2005 9:00:57 AMBeautiful colors! Great work. #243125
Donna Roberts 5/1/2005 12:13:20 AMWillem - that sky is OUTSTANDING. This is a part of Australia that I haven't visited (yet).
Willem van Altena 5/1/2005 12:49:11 AMThanks Martin and Donna! Donna you really ought to visit WA... it is very different from the rest of Australia, and very photogenic! #1307944
Donna Roberts 5/22/2005 1:02:46 AMYAHOOOOOO - this is a fantastic result for you Willem.
Rhonda Smith 5/22/2005 8:29:36 AMThis is an outstanding image Willem.. don't know how I missed it the first time.. Congrats and good luck in the finals! #1379911
Piotr M. Organa 5/22/2005 10:21:10 AMBeautiful photo, Willem! Earth and sky together...
Carla Metzler 5/22/2005 2:58:23 PMCongratulations on your finalist, Willem! #1381833
Ermanno Radice 5/22/2005 3:24:08 PMCongratulations on your beautiful finalist, Willem!
Cora Miller 5/22/2005 9:04:04 PMExcellent work, Willem! Congrats on being chosen for the finals! #1383323
Kerby Pfrangle 5/24/2005 2:23:33 PMWilliam congratulations on your wonderful finalist.
Good luck in the next round.
Kerby #1391049
Willem van Altena 5/24/2005 2:27:49 PMThank you: Kerby, Cora, Ermanno, Carla, Piotr, Rhonda and Donna! I am so thrilled to have made the finals with my first few efforts and I am humbled by the company I am in. Your galleries are all outstanding and they're all an inspiration! #1391059
The heat, the amazing sky, the unearthly landscape of the Pinnacles (3 hours north of Perth, Australia) and a polarisation filter all collaborated to create this image!
Uploaded on 4/30/2005 7:55:46 AM
Camera: Minolta Maxxum 600si SLR Camera
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Willem van Altena. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
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