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"No obstacles are insurmountable when God commands and we obey"
- - Heber J. Grant
August 17, 2015
R.I.P. Cecil
by Kathryn H. Kidd

When I was lying in a hospital bed recently, all pretzel-shaped because the bed was somewhat lacking in the mattress department, Fluffy looked for anything he could to distract me from my pretzel status. One of the things we discussed was the sad death of poor Cecil the Lion, over in Zimbabwe.

Cecil's sad fate is old news to most of you, but in case you were hiding under a rock or on vacation or have quit reading newspapers (as I have) because you are fed up with the state of the world's affairs, I will tell you the condensed version.

Cecil the Lion, in happier days. Photo by the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit.

A hapless Minnesota dentist, whose hobby is shooting exotic animals with the intent of killing them dead, went over to Zimbabwe with the intent of bagging a lion. He spent a whole lot of money -- $55,000 according to the news story Fluffy read -- to buy the permits that would allow him to do this legally and lawfully.

Unfortunately, the guides he hired were not as excited as he was with the prospect of doing it legally and lawfully. They lured a lion out of a protected game preserve, where the dentist shot him with a bow and arrow. When the lion didn't die after more than 40 hours of being tracked, it was eventually dispatched with a gun and decapitated so the dentist could take home his expensive new trophy.

It was only after the animal was dead that the dentist realized something was wrong. For one thing, the lion was wearing a GPS tracking collar, meaning that perhaps it wasn't as wild as he had hoped. Oops.

But things would only get worse from there. It turned out that the lion wasn't just any old GPS tracking collar lion. Oh no. This lion was Cecil, Zimbabwe's all-time favorite mascot lion. And when the people of Zimbabwe found out he had been killed by an American hunter, they were steamed.

Before I go any farther in the story, I need to tell you where we in the Kidd household stand as far as the hunting of animals is concerned.

First of all, I am an unabashed carnivore. If it is a meat product, bring it on. Bones and fat and sinews are fair game. No, that is an understatement. Bones and fat and sinews are the stars of the show. I can chew on your standard pork chop bone for over an hour, removing every atom of non-bone material.

My mother once asked the doctors she worked for if there was something wrong with me because I ate so much of the animal, up to and including the gristle and the marrow. The doctor said if I was eating that, it was because my body needed it. Sure enough, I have been anemic for most of my life. I crave liver and spinach, too.

So yes, if you hunt the animal with the intent of eating it, go ahead and hunt. We have friends who bag twenty deer (and more) per year, and they eat every scrap of the meat. More power to them.

But if you're hunting big game animals such as lions or giraffe or wildebeest, we would prefer you use a camera. There's a compelling reason for doing this, and that's that only one person can bag a lion with a bow and arrow, but tens of thousands can shoot the same lion with a camera. Why in the world would someone choose to destroy such a magnificent creature?

Despite this bias against trophy hunting, it may surprise you to learn that we have come down firmly in the camp of the Minnesota dentist. Here is a guy who spent $55,000, thinking he had dotted all his i's, and crossed all his t's. He thought he had bagged a completely legal lion -- right up until the moment his guides cavalierly cut off the GPS collar from Cecil's neck and proceeded to destroy it.

I'll bet the dentist had his own "Oops" moment then.

As odious as the whole lion-shooting thing is to me, lion-shooting is legal, or at least it is legal where the dentist did it. I am assuming (and we all know that "assuming" is a big word) that the dentist could not see the GPS tracking necklace on the lion's neck when he shot the lion, and that his story that he shot the lion in good faith is the truth.

If that is the case, why has he been harassed to the point that he has had to close his dental practice and go into hiding? Why is he getting death threats? Why is his summer home in Florida being vandalized (with bloody pickled pigs' feet, no less)?

Why are the do-gooders who write YELP reviews writing phony reviews that give the dentist's practice one star, not because of his dental work but because he is a hunter?

I have always thought YELP reviews were worthless for exactly this reason, and this only confirms it. Millennials get in a snit and ruin someone's reputation over something that has nothing to do with the business at hand. And I wondered how many of these enlightened YELP users were proudly pro-choice, and therefore supported a practice that is light years more barbaric than trophy hunting. But I digress.

What I find more than a little pathetic is one little bitty news story that appeared last week about an Idaho woman who just killed a giraffe in South Africa.

I had to look really hard to find this article the second time. I knew it was there, but it took nearly fifteen minutes before I finally tracked it down. And I consider myself to be almost expert on the internet.

You can be sure this hunter is not going to get back to Idaho to find pigs' feet in her driveway, or death threats, or other horrible things going on in her Idaho community. Do you know why? I will tell you.

This hunter has the ultimate free pass. She is a woman. And right now, women can do just about anything and get away with it. The lion killer's sin was not that he killed a lion. It was that he was a white man who killed a lion.

If he had been a woman who killed a lion, he would have gotten a slap on the wrist, and the people who would have been blamed were the people who should have been blamed all along -- the guides who baited the lion out of the protected game preserve for the hunter to shoot.

But because he was a privileged white man, nobody is blaming the people in Africa who set up the kill. Everyone is blaming the hunter who paid $55,000 to kill "a" lion and instead killed "Cecil the beloved mascot lion." And I am not at all sure that is where the blame belongs.

I am sorry that Cecil, the beloved mascot lion, is dead. But you know what? I am equally sad about the giraffe. And I think that the Minnesota dentist is an idiot. But you know what? I think the Idaho woman hunter is an equal idiot. If one deserves to be pelted with bloody pickled pigs' feet, so does the other.

I am fed up with a country that treats men like pariahs just because they are men, and treats women better than men just because they are women. Didn't women campaign for equal rights? Then why are they demanding to be treated better than equal, and why do they not speak out for men who are attacked for just being men?

I don't like any of it, but I'm just a grumpy old person. I like women and men, just as I like lions and giraffes.

So sue me.

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About Kathryn H. Kidd

Kathryn H. Kidd has been writing fiction, nonfiction, and "anything for money" longer than most of her readers have even been alive. She has something to say on every topic, and the possibility that her opinions may be dead wrong has never stopped her from expressing them at every opportunity.

A native of New Orleans, Kathy grew up in Mandeville, Louisiana. She attended Brigham Young University as a generic Protestant, having left the Episcopal Church when she was eight because that church didn't believe what she did. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a BYU junior, finally overcoming her natural stubbornness because she wanted a patriarchal blessing and couldn't get one unless she was a member of the Church. She was baptized on a Saturday and received her patriarchal blessing two days later.

She married Clark L. Kidd, who appears in her columns as "Fluffy," more than thirty-five years ago. They are the authors of numerous LDS-related books, the most popular of which is A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life.

A former managing editor for Meridian Magazine, Kathy moderated a weekly column ("Circle of Sisters") for Meridian until she was derailed by illness in December of 2012. However, her biggest claim to fame is that she co-authored Lovelock with Orson Scott Card. Lovelock has been translated into Spanish and Polish, which would be a little more gratifying than it actually is if Kathy had been referred to by her real name and not "Kathryn Kerr" on the cover of the Polish version.

Kathy has her own website, www.planetkathy.com, where she hopes to get back to writing a weekday blog once she recovers from being dysfunctional. Her entries recount her adventures and misadventures with Fluffy, who heroically allows himself to be used as fodder for her columns at every possible opportunity.

Kathy spent seven years as a teacher of the Young Women in her ward, until she was recently released. She has not yet gotten used to interacting with the adults, and suspects it may take another seven years. A long-time home teacher with her husband, Clark, they have home taught the same family since 1988. The two of them have been temple workers since 1995, serving in the Washington D.C. Temple.

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Archive for the ‘Wow! I didn’t know that!’ category

Each year aircraft encounter birds and other flying animals in the same skies.  The majority of time this results in a near miss or no damage to the aircraft.  Sometimes if an aircraft comes in contact with large birds or groups of birds, it can cause damage to the aircraft and jeopardize the lives of those on […]

Everyone and their grandmother is on Facebook it seems. Twitter is becoming one of the largest growing social media sources on the Internet. All of that is great but what does it have to do with the Navy? A lot more than you might think. This generation of Sailors has adopted those channels of communication […]

Lately I’ve noticed a bunch of news coverage about flights experiencing turbulence especially after the Air France flight over the Atlantic. While as tragic as that flight was for those people, turbulence is not an uncommon thing. Anyone who has flown has probably experienced some level of turbulence. In fact it’s graded and is talked […]

Commemorative patch created after Irish peace protesters vandalized a C-40 twice at the Shannon airport (represented by two band-aids) In January 2003, during the initial build up for Operation Iraqi Freedom, a strange incident happened at the Shannon Airport in Ireland involving a brand new Navy C-40A and Irish peace protesters who were unhappy with […]

Ever wonder as you’re sitting in that window seat and looking out at the engine hanging under the wing just exactly how does it work?  I’d be willing to bet your extra bag of peanuts you scored from the flight attendant that a lot of folks don’t know exactly how it works. (most don’t even […]

I’m sure that everyone’s heard this question, “When we are flying, can a small hole in the airplane cause it to burst?” I know I have from new crew members in training as well as civilian passengers when I’m flying commercially. Its actually a very astute question but its based on the assumption that an […]

Funny Fix Names

June 20th, 2009

If you’re an instrument pilot, you’ve definitely got to have a sense of humor when you look at the approach plates and notice the different names for fix points at airports across the United States. If you’re not a pilot that statement may sound like geeky humor. And perhaps it is. But since I hope […]

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Seduced for a night. Taken forever.

With only nine months left at Stanford, and despite being top of her law school class, Lori Havens takes leave to care for her sick mother. That means she juggles three jobs, the best of which is researcher for novelist, and syndicated columnist of "Cat Does Crime," Cat Summer.

One evening after finishing up her work at Cat's apartment building, Lori has an encounter with a sexy stranger, and does something out of character. She goes home with him. The night is perfect, he's perfect, wealthy, powerful and from out of town. Morning comes, and despite their connection, Lori leaves before he finds out she's far from the equal he believes her to be. She's not a charity case and she's not after his money. She will make her own. In other words, she leaves before her prince charming finds out she's no princess.

Flash forward a few months, Lori’s mother is healing, and Cat's husband, Reese, has merged his firm with another and Lori lands an internship there, with school credit and scholarship money.. Everything is falling into place. That is until fate reveals a wicked twist of events and Lori walks into a conference room to find her new boss, Cole Brooks, one of the partners, is her one-night prince charming. One sizzling shared look across a boardroom, and it’s clear: this man is not done with her. It’s not long before Lori is informed that she’ll be working high profile cases with her one night prince charming which will require long nights and travel, starting immediately.

Goodreads | Amazon

I want to make sure you understand that I'm a huge fan of LRJ. HUGE!! She's written and created some of my most favorite of all book boyfriends. They're alpha and sophisticated and charming and intelligent and sexy and despite many of them not being immediately open to love, the way they fall is always a thing of beauty. Cole Brooks, the male protagonist in Dirty Rich Cinderella Story was absolutely no exception. I loved how he felt an immediate connection to Lori and didn't really fight it. I loved how protective he was of her and how much he wanted to take care of her. So. Freaking. Sweet.

But Cole is where my love affair with this story ends.

I didn't like Lori. Actually, my unfiltered opinion of her was worse than not liking her. I don't hate anyone, but I came pretty close when it came to her. She was an entitled broke chick, with a condescending and judgmental attitude, and didn't know when to count her blessings.

✦ she freaked because the man wanted more
✦ she freaked because the man wanted to wipe out her debt
✦ she freaked because he was worried about her safety and wanted to provide her with a safe environment
✦ she freaked because he wanted to spoil her
✦ she freaked because he paid her mother's exorbitant medical bills
✦ she freaked because the man saw her struggling and wanted to ease her load
✦ she freaked because the man was so freaking awesome
✦ she freaked because she didn't deserve all of these gifts!!

Lori had me skimming pages. Lori had me losing interest. Lori made this my least favorite LRJ book of all time. This breaks my heart :(

The writing was superb. The plot was more than engaging. And Cole was the epitome of what is a good man. I wish he didn't have to run after her so hard. I wish he didn't have to constantly defend his actions when they were so very kind. I wish his happiness wasn't so hard to get.

Release: 05.23.2018
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat: 3.5
Standalone - Dirty Rich #2 with character crossover

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Arts & Peer Support Group

  • Art Therapy Institute 200 North Greensboro St. Suite D-6 Carrboro, NC, 27510 United States (map)

Free, arts-based,  weekly group for adults living with severe and persistent mental illness. The group is a safe space for creative and reflective work, and to celebrate ourselves as artists rather than as damaged people, continually challenging the stigma that shapes our public conversation about mental illness. Members have individual therapists in addition to participating in the group.


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Live Online Courses

Need convenient and affordable training for your entire staff?

We Can Help!

With our EZ-STEPS live online courses, we bring the classroom to you. Participants receive the same training as they would in a classroom environment while the agency saves money on travel costs and lost time away from the job.

Our instructor led courses provide an interactive learning environment where participants can ask questions both electronically and verbally and get responses in real time. Each course emphasizes procedures to help you understand and apply essential regulatory requirements right away.

As in a traditional classroom, case studies and group exercises are interspersed throughout the training to reinforce concepts presented. Classes can be viewed at individual computers or in group settings.

Training presentations and resource materials including forms, checklists, and desk gides are delivered electronically prior to class in an easy to download format. Certification exams are offered for select courses and certificates of completion are mailed upon completion of all courses.

Still unsure about online training? we offer free online training demonstrations prior to your registration to ensure ease of use and to address any questions you may have. All you need to participate is a high speed internet connection and a computer with speakers. Webcams are recommended, but are not required.

For Online Course Schedule and Description Click Here

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NerdKits - electronics education for a digital generation

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NEW: Learning electronics? Ask your questions on the new Electronics Questions & Answers site hosted by CircuitLab.

Project Help and Ideas » Atmel Studio 6 - Include paths????

February 02, 2019
by BobaMosfet
BobaMosfet's Avatar

If anyone is using Atmel6 Studio, can you tell me please if there is a way to specify include paths in a project?

All real compilers fundamentally let you specify a path to external directories to access libraries you may have that you want to link in, but you don't want to create copies of (those files) within the local project. You do it once in the project settings, or global compiler settings, and if the compiler can't find a source or header or library file via relative path (from #include), it will check there to see if the file being referenced is found.

This lets you use the same libraries across multiple projects without creating endless copies of the library files.

February 11, 2019
by BobaMosfet
BobaMosfet's Avatar

Nevermind, I found the answer. You can't. They used this silly dialogue driven method for each and every external non-compiler library you wish to include that was obviously designed by a non-coder.

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17th Apr2015

‘LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin’ Review (Nintendo 3DS)

by Phil Wheat

The latest game in the now long-running LEGO Ninjago franchise, Shadow of Ronin is also apparently the 24th LEGO title in the video game series (can you believe that?). Based on both the building set line and moreso the cartoon it spawned – in particular the characterisation and the humour – LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin sees the titular ninja’s take on Ronin, an evil ninja with an army of dark samurai, who is on a mission to steal the Ninjas’ memories using an ancient and powerful weapon called the Obsidian Glaive.

It’s been quite some time since I last played a Ninjago video game, a VERY long time. In fact despite being a huge fan of both ninjas and LEGO (and the LEGO Ninjago mini figure line), the only previous game in the franchise I’ve played is the original title – simply entitled LEGO Ninjago: The Videogame – way back on the Nintendo DS. And it’s fair to say a LOT has changed…  For one, in the intervening years between the first game and this, makers TT Games have taken production in-house and, honestly, LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin is all the better for it. Having much more in common with other games in the series rather than the RTS type gaming previously linked to this franchise, this game plays much more like a small-screen iteration of  its home console brethren rather than any “portable” iteration of a LEGO game I’ve experienced.

LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin takes place in iconic locations from the TV series, including the Ice Temple, the Toxic Bogs, Chen’s Island and the mountain village of Spinjago where the Ninjas train in the art of Spinjitzu. Speaking of which, the game allows players to use the famous Spinjitzu abilities to unleash each Ninja’s unique elemental power to deal with bad guys and solve puzzles – there are even points in the game when the ninjas must team up to create the fabled multi-elemental Tornado of Creation!

Graphically there is little difference between this new game and those found on previous gen systems, PS# and Xbox 360, admittedly that’s because there is not much to the LEGO-ised imagery in every game but it was a surprise to see such detail included on a small-screen game; previous LEGO games have alwasy seemed to scrimp on the finer points of the graphics and gameplay but here, they don’t. I cannot stress it enough, this REALLY is a console title on a handheld; and much like previous generations of consoles saw some of their most graphically impressive titles debut towards the end of its life, so does the Nintendo 3DS (which has been superceded by the “New 3DS” with a faster processor and more graphical and processing power).

For fans of the TV show, LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin continues the long-standing traditions of the franchise. From the humour, to the characterisation, even the core story and plot points are followed through and referenced in this game. For the target audience who voraciously eat up all things Ninjago, the little touches such as this will surely be a crowd-pleaser. Yet for those who aren’t overtly familiar with the Ninjago universe there’s still plenty to love about this title, even if taken purely as a new game in the LEGO series: the off-the-wall, offbeat humour and the “gotta collect it all” mentality is here, as is the need to redo levels over and over to FULLY complete the game 100% – a formula which anyone who’s played a LEGO game before will be well-versed in.

Easily the best iteration of a LEGO game on handheld systems (on a personal level I enjoyed this game much more than the Pirates of the Caribbean and LOTR/Hobbit tie-ins), replete with some amazing voice-acting, LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin is out now on Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita.

**** 4/5

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Cycle accurate NES/Famicom emulator.

Home - News - Features - Screenshots - Building - Downloads

Welcome to the nesemu2 website. There has been 16429 unique visitors.

nesemu2 is an emulator for the NES/Famicom/Dendy. It strives for perfection by favoring accuracy over speed. nesemu2 should run at full speed on any modern computer. It supports many mappers and has excellent compatability with just about any ROM image you encounter.


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Daedalus was the mythical great architect and artificer of the classical world. Today, embedded intelligence is enabling the most profound changes in the way we create and use buildings since his day.

Building Intelligence meets the Intelligent Building. The Intelligent Building negotiates with the Intelligent Grid. How will this transform how we interact with the physical world?

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Pumpkins on the Bridge

I live in an shuttered mill town; the mill closed nearly 40 years ago. Many of the places my children explored while growing up were forbidden relics. They would creep up the rotting stairs of the county’s first cinema, no bigger than many home theatres, to view the still-open projectionist’s log. They would hunt snakes and crawfish under the old general store. They even made excursions into the old mill itself, until it burned sown in a succession of surprisingly large fires. Those fires were probably the dire consequence f misguided environmental policy—of which I may write on another day.

There is another old relic at the heart of town, one that the state and its rational engineers tried to destroy: the old bridge. The old bridge was built in the 20’s, when Bynum was the end of the paved road. A cement roadbed still extrudes from the north end of the bridge up to the second general store where it ends in blacktop.

When 15-501 was paved, it swerved to miss the town, crossing the Haw River just upstream. Some old timers claim they avoided the town so folks could drive from Chapel Hill to Pittsboro without being shot at. That was a lucky break, because it preserved a quiet community and the one lane bridge crossing the river by the old mill.

When the State was planning to make 15-501 a divided highway, they first scheduled the old bridge for destruction. Tear it down, make it bigger, and folks can drive through the town during the highway construction. This, of course, would years later still encourage impatient folk to speed through town to get past a slow school bus on the highway. The free-ranging flash crowds of dogs that characterize Bynum would have been quickly culled. So the unincorporated town protested, eventually successfully

In a fit of petulance, the State next announced that they would tear the old bridge town, cutting the town in two. Not up to standards. One lane bridges are outmoded—you might have to wait on one end for the other driver to cross. Finally, after more protest, the State relented, but still insisted on blocking each end to prevent traffic crossing.

PumpkinHappy.jpgIn central Carolina, there is a tradition of placing jack-o-lanterns on country bridges at Halloween. Higher speeds on newer roads have made that dangerous. New designs offer no ledge to place the pumpkins on. But the old Bynum Bridge, with its squared off concrete sides, can still hold and display the giant squash. Now blocked off, a virtual 1/8th of a mile walking plaza, the old bridge has become Pumpkin Display Gallery for the whole county.

Last night there must have been 80 or so carved vegetables. A few were traditional, albeit better than I ever manage. Others offered radical designs, or were carved with linoleum cutters, and awls, and who knows what to produce translucent cave drawings, and demonologies, and even nature scenes. Some were influenced by Bosch, or Durer, or the rock painting of the Anastasi, or the folk art of the Mexican Day of the Dead. There was even a small can of pumpkin pie filling with a votive candle in front.

PumpkinDemon.jpgLater in the evening, two nameless individuals began drumming at the end of the bridge. There were wearing costumes with a line of glow-sticks sewn down each limb, making a read stick figure, and a blue stick figure that danced, and drummed, in the dark. When their performance was over, they vanished into the dark. Their performance made a fine end to the evening.

It was a triumph of local good will and creativity over the single purpose engineering of the Department of Transportation. Halloween evening was just one other experience of what makes Bynum a special place to live and raise a family.

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Frank's Weekend Faves, Feb. 10, 2019

Frank's Weekend Faves, Feb. 10, 2019

No need to sit out February like a groundhog hiding from its shadow. The C-U Folk & Roots Festival's third annual Folk and Roots Winter Weekend in downtown Urbana offers ample reason to venture out and get down this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The mini-festival features eight musical acts over three days at two local venues — including the Cajun band T'Monde from Lafayette, La., and as festival steering committee co-chairman and local musician Rob Krumm puts it, "they are top notch."

But the CU Folk & Roots Festival prides itself on highlighting local music talent, and most of the acts booked — six out of eight — are based in Champaign-Urbana. Thursday and Friday's performances will take place at The Iron Post; Saturday's at The Rose Bowl Tavern.

Three-day passes are available in advance for $20 at, or for $30 the day of the show. Single-show prices vary and are also available online or the day of the show.

The annual C-U Folk & Roots Festival has been going strong since 2009 and the group also sponsors shows and events year round. This year's festival is set for Oct. 24-26.

In the meantime, the schedule for this Winter Weekend is as follows:

Thursday at The Iron Post:

7 p.m. — The Chickadee Sermon (Krumm describes this local band as Comfort Folk, featuring original songs with an emphasis on vocal harmony).

8 p.m. — T' Monde (Louisiana trio plays a creative fusion of classic country and out-of-the-way Cajun.

Friday at The Iron Post:

Early show: 5-7 p.m. — Meadowhawk (Local act featuring two fiddles performing traditional and original music for dancing and enjoyment).

Late show: 9 p.m. — Hobnob String Band (Local faves' brand of bluegrass, newgrass, blues and calypso features "top-notch flatpicking, vocal harmonies and a tight rhythmic groove.")

10 p.m. — Buffalo Wabs and The Price Hill Hustle (Cincinnati-based four-piece Americana/folk band that, according to Krumm, "stirs up traditional early American music in a contemporary foot-stomping pot."

Saturday at The Rose Bowl Tavern:

8 p.m. — Cole Bridges (Krumm describes him as a local artist "honestly singing honest songs, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, in the vein of the greats like Woody Guthrie, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Patty Griffin and more").

9 p.m. — Hot Club of Urbana (A collection of local musicians paying tribute to the musical legacy of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli).

10 p.m. — Timbalú ("C-U's premier Latin American dance band" playing salsa, timba, boogaloo and more).

And if that's not enough local music for you, or at least, not soon enough, how about some blues — like, today?

The Cobalt Blues Band is hosting a Prairie Crossroads Blues Society Blues Jam from 4 to 7 p.m. at Pipa's Pub on Country Fair Drive in Champaign. Cobalt is Mel Hoaks, percussion; Nancy Leonard Livingston, vocals; Jack Davis, bass guitar; Tom Cortese, keyboards; Lee Reed, saxophone; and AJ Williams, lead guitar — all of whom hail from the C-U/Danville area.

I can't wait for ... The 210th birthday on Tuesday of Illinois' favorite son, celebrated at its favorite museum

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield will celebrate Old Abe's birthday on Feb. 12 by offering free admission, providing music and children's activities and revealing the winners in a statewide student art contest (admission usually costs $15 for adults and $6 for children).

Historic interpreters portraying President and Mrs. Lincoln will visit with guests, and a roundtable of Lincoln scholars will discuss the 16th president's legacy.

The Lincolns (portrayed by Randy Duncan and Pam Brown) will be at the museum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A Civil War soldier and Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah, will also be on hand to chat with visitors.

Closer to home, the Vermilion County Museum Society is also celebrating Lincoln's birthday with an open house from 1:30 to 4 p.m. today in the museum center and historic Fithian Home at 116 N. Gilbert St., Danville. Admission will be free, and both buildings will be open for viewing.

Punch and cake will be served, and Lincoln birthday cards, created by students from Vermilion County and Danville schools, will be on display. Students from 15 area schools entered 586 cards in the contest, which was judged by members of the Danville Art League. This year's grand prize winner is Bismarck Henning Junior High fifth-grader Lexie Hall. A full list of winners can be seen at

That's the ticket: The 28th annual Great Cover Up at the City Center

Hottest ticket for a local concert this week? No contest. They've been on sale for weeks, and the event itself is nearly half over, but tickets to the remaining three nights of the 28th annual Great Cover Up are still available at or at the door at The City Center, 505 S. Chestnut St., C. Prices range from $10 to $40, but the best part? The proceeds will benefit the C-U One-To-One Mentoring program, Matthew C. Farrell Memorial (scholarship) Fund and Urbana Middle School Bands program.

And the next best part? A lot of great music and great Cover Up fun are still ahead. Check out this weekend's lineups:

8 p.m.: Zorila
8:40 p.m.: Planet Piss
9:20 p.m.: Slick Lisp
10 p.m.: SPRK
10:40 p.m.: V.V. Lightbody
11:25 p.m.: We The Animals
12:15 a.m.: Elsinore

8 p.m.: Three Hour Tour
8:40 p.m.: Nadafinga
9:20 p.m.: Nick Rainey
10 p.m.: Caleb Cook Band
10:40 p.m.: Decadents
11:30 p.m.: Underwerewolves
12:20 a.m.: The Bashful Youngens

7 p.m.: Charlie & The Possibly Wilds
7:40 p.m.: Love Handles
8:20 p.m.: Love Roxx (Love Sign + Pet Roxx)
9:05 p.m.: Whiskey Shadows
9:55 p.m.: X-Krush
10:45 p.m.: Brother Embassy
11:35 p.m.: 90's Daughter

What I'm watching this week: 'Miracle Workers' on TBS

Steve Buscemi as God? TBS definitely works in mysterious ways in casting its new sitcom, premiering at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Based on the novel "What in God's Name" by Simon Rich, "Miracle Workers" is a heavenly workplace comedy starring Daniel Radcliffe as a low-level angel named Craig who is responsible for handling all of humanity's prayers. Unfortunately, his boss — Buscemi as the Big Guy Himself — has pretty much checked out to focus on his hobbies.

In Tuesday's pilot episode, Craig and fellow angel Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan) must prevent Earth's destruction by answering a seemingly impossible prayer: help two humans (Jon Bass and Sasha Compère), fall in love.

Think Buscemi as God is a stretch? Count your blessings. The role was originally supposed to go to former co-executive producer Owen Wilson. Now THAT would have been hard to believe!

Have a question, suggestion or fave nomination for Frank? We'd love to hear from you. Please email it to


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STILLWATER - In the most recent spring scrimmage for the OSU football team, Mike Gundy's biggest takeaways were: Not many turnovers and very few penalties.

We'll see if that kind of play continues in the spring game, which is one week from Saturday.

"There's a lot more sideshow in spring games than there are actual football, I don't think there's any reason to deny that. Our goal is to try and provide a good show for our fans, give them an opportunity to meet us and do things like that and then also get some quality work done. Hopefully 20 to 25 minutes of quality football,” said Gundy.


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Kevin Schultz

Vice President of R&D

As vice president of R&D, Kevin Schultz oversees the development and direction of products for the continued leadership and success of NI in multiple areas, with a current focus in RF product development.

Schultz joined NI in 1991 as a digital design engineer. He has held numerous management positions across R&D, including leading the CompactRIO, DAQ, Vision, and Motion teams.

Additionally, Schultz has directed the acquisition and integration of two subsidiaries and regularly works with a broad range of suppliers to help provide technology direction. He is the inventor or coinventor of 25 patents in areas such as imaging, bus interfacing, and graphical software for algorithms.

Schultz holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from St. Cloud State University and Texas A&M University, respectively. In addition, he is a member of the Dwight Look College of Engineering Advisory Council at Texas A&M University and an active supporter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.


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Friday, September 22, 2017

Let's Eat! - Molinaro's Ristorante

Molinaro's Ristorante is one of those places that kind of snuck up on me and then became a part of our family routine. I remember having lunch with my mom at Molinaro's when it was in a house, and then taking the wife to the actual restaurant years later. A pizza place that also has a bakery is a dangerous combination for anyone afraid of excess. What makes it worse is that both sides of Molinaro's are usually the best there is in the city.
This week's eatery: Molinaro's Ristorante
Address: 90 Walnut Street, Lockport, NY
Phone: 716-438-0631

Molinaro's is the kind of place that will either drive you crazy, or become a weekly spot for your family to go for foods everyone in the family will love. It can become your weekly spot because the pizza, subs, and baked goods are really worth having on a regular basis. One of the things I like about Molinaro's is that they are always trying out new baked goods, and every baked good this place makes is the biggest portion you will find.

Molinaro's can drive you crazy because you figure that a place that can make food like that should have a more diverse menu. You can get one of the best burgers in town at Molinaro's, but you cannot get a steak. I think that the ambiance of the dining room helps to make people think that the menu will have more to offer. But if you really give the menu a chance, you will find that it is actually a smart approach to running a premier pizza place. Molinaro's only offers the food that it is really good at, which is all customers would ever really want.

Everything Molinaro's makes is fresh, which can sometimes slow down the service in the dining room. The servers are all extremely courteous and professional, but a busy night at Molinaro's means a bit of a wait. As long as you remember that the wait is caused by the awesome food you will be getting, then the whole evening becomes quite tolerable.

Molinaro's delivery service is very fast, but a little pricey for us. When we order out from Molinaro's, we always pick our food up to save some money. Every cashier and server I have ever dealt with at Molinaro's has been courteous and fun to deal with, which is always refreshing.

The biggest complaint I have against Molinaro's is the inconsistency of their food. We have eaten at a lot of pizza places in Lockport, and the best ones deliver the same quality food every time. Yes, there are times when you get a dry turkey sub or overcooked fries. Those things happen with any restaurant, but they seem to happen more often with Molinaro's. When you get yourself all ready to bite into a Sicilian pizza and it is obviously overcooked, it can be disappointing.

If Molinaro's could solve its consistency issue, then it could be in contention for the best pizza in the city. When Molinaro's gets it right, it serves the best food in the area. The problem is that you have to hope you don't get an off-night for the kitchen if you want to enjoy your meal.

Rating: 3 out of 5

George N Root III loves food and local restaurants. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3, or send him a message at


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Saturday, May 19, 2018

Old Fort Niagara To Present "Soldiers Through the Ages"

Old Fort Niagara welcomes the public to its “Soldiers through the Ages” military history re-enactment event on Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and 27, over Memorial Day weekend. This annual event features special displays of military vehicles, period camps from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, weapons demonstrations, uniform programs and hands-on activities for families. In commemoration of the centennial of the Battle of Cantigny in World War One, a special program will also be presented in the Fort Niagara Officers’ Club.

 “Old Fort Niagara sits on historic ground that has been touched by more than 300 years of military history,” said Robert L. Emerson, Executive Director of the Old Fort Niagara Association. “Visitors have a chance to understand the scope of our history during ‘Soldiers through the Ages,’ plus it’s a great way to make a memorable start to the summer season,” he added.

Schedule of Activities (both days)
10:15 a.m. Military Parade and Colors Ceremony
11:00 a.m. Small Arms Demonstration 1645-1945 (Matchlocks to M1s)
Noon Artillery Demonstration
1:00 p.m. Military Uniforms and Weapons of the Flintlock Era
2:00 p.m. Military Uniforms and Weapons of the 19th Century
2:30 p.m. Concert of Military Music
3:00 p.m. Military Uniforms and Weapons of the 20th Century
3:30 p.m. Small Unit Tactical Demonstration
4:15 p.m. Retreat Ceremony
Ongoing Exhibits: Military Vehicles, Rations, Living History Camps, Militaria Displays, World War One Display at Officers’ Club

Food and drinks will also be for sale at the Log Cabin.

Admission to “Soldiers through the Ages” will be $13.00 for adults, $9.00 children ages 6-12, free for children under 6, and free for members of the Old Fort Niagara Association.

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, at 11:00 a.m., the VFW Lake Ontario Post 313 will hold a special memorial service at the historic Fort Niagara Cemetery. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

Upcoming Re-Enactments:

June 9-10Civil War Garrison
Travel back to the 1860s when the Union feared British intervention on the side of the Confederacy.

June 29-July 1French and Indian War Encampment
Relive the Siege of 1759 when British and New York soldiers besieged French-held Fort Niagara. Battle reenactments, large living history camps. The site’s largest event of the year.

July 28-29: War of 1812 Grand Encampment
This event commemorates the fort’s role in the War of 1812. Large-scale battle reenactments and living history programs will make this the largest binational War of 1812 reenactment of the year.

August 18-19Soldiers of the Revolution
This living history event recreates the War for Independence on the New York frontier. Battle reenactments, hands-on activities for families, plus music and games.

Old Fort Niagara ( is a Registered National Historic Landmark and New York State Historic Site operated by the Old Fort Niagara Association, a not-for-profit organization, in cooperation with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The site is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the last tickets sold at 4:30 p.m. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Photos courtesy Wayne Peters.


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Saturday, November 17, 2018

Book Reviews Reloaded: Evergreen

This article first appeared on East Niagara Post on March 24, 2015. It is repeated here as I work to put all my book reviews in one place. They will be posted on Thursdays or Fridays and only be altered from the original in that I will add publisher information and pages. Hopefully, by revisiting these reviews, other people might find a book they'd like to pick up for their own enjoyment.

Evergreen -- Rebecca Rasmussen
Knopf Publishing
352 Pages

As a reader who loves character-driven novels, sometimes I look for a book that I know will be all about the characters. I especially love novels that span a couple generations of the same family. The same family reacting to similar situations, separated by twenty-five and fifty years can be intriguing. Different decades each have their own way of public thinking. For an author, it not only takes the skill to write these different characters, but it also takes the knowledge of historical societal norms. Rebecca Rasmussen’s novel, Evergreen, tackles all this and does it very well.

The story begins with newlywed, Eveline Sturm, arriving in the backwoods of Minnesota where her husband, Emil, has acquired a lonely cabin near Evergreen. Continual flooding along the rivers has forced the government to seize property in order to construct a dam to control the waters. These governmental officials are sending out letters warning the occupants of the valley that they really are squatters and that the government is not responsible for any damages incurred by the construction of the dam.

The year is 1938 when Eveline’s husband, Emil, is called back to Germany to see his sick father before he dies. The onset of World War II traps him within the German borders. His poor wife is left alone in Minnesota with their newborn son, Hux. While Emil is gone, Eveline befriends the local crazy lady, Lilly, and her family. Lilly helps her in her time of need. That time of need is an unforeseen visit by a governmental assessor.

A government man enters the valley to ascertain the value of the lands and homes in the valley as they prepare for the dam. Eveline is polite for her visitor, and when he returns later, she invites him for dinner. He invites himself for more than dinner and leaves Eveline in shambles on the floor….and pregnant. Lilly is there for moral support as Eveline struggles with the idea that she is carrying a child that is not from her husband. Upon the birth of a daughter, she takes the newborn to an orphanage. Her husband can never find out.

We skip ahead about a dozen years. Sister Cordelia, at the convent, is trying to steer the life of one young girl, Naamah, onto the straight and narrow. Against all the efforts of the nun, the girl seems to be uncontrollable. No one know who her mother is, but the Sister claims she is probably one of the hangers on from the logging camps who got into trouble and left that trouble on the doorstep. The only clue is the blanket she was found in as a newborn, with the strange word “Hux” stitched on the corner.

Naamah, ready to be free of the overbearing Sister Cordelia, runs away into the night. She disappears to the chagrin of the Sister, who actually had her best interests in mind. The young girl takes only what she can carry in her bindle, including her stitched blanket.

Again, the timeline is skipped ahead another decade. Eveline, Emil, and Lilly have all passed away.  Hux has taken over his parents’ cabin and is best friends with Lilly’s son, Gunther. Together they run amok over the valley in which they grew up. Hux discovers that somewhere in the world, he has a sister who he never met. It becomes his mission to find her.

He visits the orphanage where he is introduced to Sister Cordelia. She assumes Naamah went to the logging camps just like her mother because that’s all those women are good for. Hux travels from logging camp to logging camp searching for the lost girl. When he finally finds her, she is a crazed woman inhabiting bars and worksites. Hux takes her back to the cabin where they try to bring their lives together into some semblance of normalcy.

At the end of the book, we are jumped ahead in the timeline once again. Hux and Gunther are raising Naamah’s daughter after Naamah disappears. Hux takes his niece to the airport where they each fly for the first time. Hux looks down on the wooded valley that has been his home all his life. Hidden beneath the forest canopy is Hux’s entire life. He realizes life is fleeting and fragile.

Rebecca Rasmussen has written a book that takes place over three generations. Starting in 1938, Evergreen takes place over four decades. The same cast of characters are born, live and die in the same square mile of Minnesota. It is an interesting story that will keep the reader engaged. She writes well, with good development, especially with Naamah’s struggles as a teen and young woman. This novel is engaging, pulling the reader into an environment that is simultaneously fascinating and depressing.

Probably one of the biggest problems I had with this book was the abrupt changes in the timeline. Rasmussen could have spent more time with these time shifts. She builds a character in Eveline that the reader comes to sympathize with only to write her off with a quick memory of her death later by her son. The same thing happened with Lilly. Again at the end, the time change at the end of the book seems sudden. These transitions were not very smooth.

One of the things that seems to have become the norm in contemporary fiction is the idea that all people of faith, or who show religious beliefs are cast in a negative light. It’s happening more and more in new writing. I am not a religious person, but the constant barrage of negativity surround faith in nearly every book is tiresome.

Aside from these small criticisms, I really enjoyed this book. I wish she had dedicated a few more pages, or chapters, to building the back story. Another hundred pages could have made this good novel simply magnificent. However, the story was fun to read. The flaws of the characters are well developed with those very flaws steering them toward their ultimate goals.

Evergreen by Rebecca Rasmussen is a fine novel. She is an accomplished writer and teaches writing at UCLA. Her previous book, The Bird Sisters, was well-acclaimed and likely will be one the reading list in the very near future. Sometimes, when you find a writer you like, just cross your fingers and hope their other books are just as great as the first time you opened their book. I’m confident that Rasmussen’s other works will be just as engaging and intriguing.

Craig Bacon’s life extends over four decades, just like this story. He has no lost children or siblings, but he does have some friends he’d like to lose in the woods.


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Author and Institution:
Helen Roeth, AIT, Hong Kong
Leena Wokeck, AIT, Hong Kong

This paper discusses needs and opportunities for ICT-enabled climate change mitigation in emerging economies. It was written against the backdrop of challenges to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, increases of emissions in rapidly growing emerging economies, and the need for technological ‘leapfrogging’ to low-carbon development trajectories. It demonstrates how ICT-enabled climate change mitigation could help pave the way for low-carbon development pathways in the world’s developing countries.

Section 1 outlines the challenge of climate change mitigation in emerging economies, which is compounded by the need for sustained economic growth and the alleviation of widespread poverty on the one hand, and the imperative to reduce GHG emissions on the other. There is an urgent need for emerging economies to make the transition to a low-carbon development pathway, whereby economic growth is decoupled from an increase in GHG emissions.

Section 2 describes the critical role that ICTs can play in mitigating climate change in these economies and lists some key opportunity areas. Each country faces its own set of opportunities in the context of national development objectives and constraints. But a number of main sectors with significant ICT-enabled carbon reduction opportunities can be identified across all economies, including energy generation, urban transportation and buildings, manufacturing and international trade.

While the opportunities for ICT-enabled carbon reductions in emerging economies are compelling, major barriers to widespread commercial deployment of these solutions remain. Such barriers, discussed in section 3, include the lack of awareness of technological developments, and the limited or uncertain suitability of these technologies. In many emerging economies there is no favourable regulatory and political environment incentivising necessary investments and research. Small and medium-sized enterprises – the main users of low-carbon technologies in these countries – also face limited access to capital, and limited capacity and skills to adopt low-carbon technologies.

In conclusion, section 4 outlines key recommendations for governments in emerging economies and large businesses leading on low-carbon technologies. The support of both stakeholders will be crucial to enable a transition to low-carbon development. Governments will need to create an enabling policy and market environment to encourage necessary investments and research. Big businesses will need to make technology available to small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies, and to help build innovation capacity in these countries.

Thematic Paper


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Author and Institution:
Faisal Chohan, Pakreport
Vaughn Hester, CrowdFlower
Robert Munro, Stanford University

This case study focusses on Pakreport, an ICT initiative between crisis mapping organisations, engineers, relief agencies and crowdsourcing companies that began in July 2010 as a response to the floods in Pakistan. We will review emergency communication using ICT tools and volunteers, employing crowdsourcing platforms to perform verification, categorisation, translation, and mapping of the information in real time.

This initiative demonstrates ICTs’ impact on climate change in the domains of both adaptation (disaster management) and monitoring (Heeks 2009). The case study extends previous research on crowdsourced workflows for crisis relief in Kenya and Haiti.

Case Study Report


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Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Knitter's Book of Yarn:
A Knitter's Review

I am an information junkie. I have been that way since I was a little kid. I loved to read encyclopedias and dictionaries just to KNOW stuff. The Knitter's Book of Yarn feeds the junkie in me when it comes to learning stuff about yarn.

It is written by Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review fame. I'd often visit the site to read her reviews on everything from books to yarn. She is thorough in her assessment of yarn, giving honest first impressions and warnings on things you should look out for. If you've never heard of Knitter's Review, I suggest you get thyself there now. Chances are, she's reviewed a yarn/book you're interested in purchasing.

Clara ('Cause we're on a first name basis. Heh) has taken her knowledge of yarn and placed it in book form. A treat indeed. She teaches you how to look for the best yarn to use for your projects. Do you want to chose a yarn that will allow you to create a sweater that does not pill a lot? The book tells you which type of yarn to use for that. Want to know the best fiber length a yarn should have if you're going to knit a piece that is subjected to a lot of abrasion (like socks)? It tells you that too. This amazing book includes information about the characteristics (both good and bad) of the various protein, plant, and synthetic fibers, and supplies patterns for projects that are geared toward showing off the best characteristics of the yarn used. You even get a lesson on how yarn is made.

The Knitter's Book of Yarn gives you a great deal of information without sounding too stuffy or scientific. The book retails for $30.00. I bought my copy from for $19.80. I am quite pleased with this purchase. And if you're an info junkie when it comes to knitting, I think you'll love it too.


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Anthony Tony: The Air I Breath

Born in Washington, D.C.
Raised in Roanoke, Va.

DJ Mingo A.K.A. Anthony Tony, been spinning for over 20 years.

First Professional Break was as The Opening DJ For DJ Kool.

He has opened for acts such as Mad Lion, Chante Moore, Krs-One, Mixmaster Ice (U.T.F.O) and more.

It's about the Music & Business with him.

He has had Residencies at venues Up and down the East Coast like The Vault (D.C.), The Paradox (Baltimore), Ivory's (Richmond, Va.), Old Glory's (Georgetown) and Skyboxx (ATL)

DJ Mingo is now Producing and Engineering EDM/House Productions under the name "Anthony Tony" and #TurnTableMusic.

For Collabs, Live DJ Sets, Drops, and Interviews
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This is nldsolutions

This is what Urban Digital Radio is supposed to sound like. We spin the whole record with no talking over it. We play Hip-Hop, RnB, House, Reggae, Funk, Urban Jazz, Pop, Ol' Skool, and Gospel.
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The Writers Poet @thewriterspoet - "Africa"

The Writer's Poet @thewriterspoet - "Africa"

The Writer's Poet, born as Martin Pounds, is a passionate spoken word artist hailing from the Bronx,

New York. Harnessing the skill of poetry writing at the young age of 14, Martin set the course for a
successful journey. Even though he was drawn to music he focused on refining his writing. His fusion
of music and eloquent poetry is fulfilling and culminates into bringing people together across oceans.
In his arsenal are two previous full-length album releases 'Reality Check' and 'The Rock Chronicles'.
He is set to release a new album entitled '11:11 Elements Of Me' on the 11th of March 2017. This album
is a collection of his personal, spiritual and historical experiences that depicts reflections of moments in
everyday life. With One Mission, One Goal and One Dream, The Writer's Poet unequivocal fervor for
the aesthetics of word play, intonation and voice infliction produces an unforgettable experience.

Twitter @thewriterspoet
Share on Google Plus

This is nldsolutions

This is what Urban Digital Radio is supposed to sound like. We spin the whole record with no talking over it. We play Hip-Hop, RnB, House, Reggae, Funk, Urban Jazz, Pop, Ol' Skool, and Gospel.
    Blogger Comment
    Facebook Comment


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News -
Kelis, music news,
Kelis Airs New Song With Dubstep Producer Skream

US neo-soul artist Kelis reveals the new tune ‘Distance’, co-written by UK dubstep hero Skream.

July 2, 2012
Cosmic Psychos
Cosmic Psychos Doco To Crowdsource Funding

Cosmic Psychos. Pub rock doesn’t get much more iconic than them. For thirty years the band have been touring relentlessly with thirteen albums under their belt and some fans in high places.

July 2, 2012
Brand New Heavies
Brand New Heavies Tour The East Coast In September

British soul-funksters Brand New Heavies return to Australia for three shows in September.

July 2, 2012
Vampire Weekend - photo by Ros O'Gorman.
Vampire Weekend Have “80 Percent” Of New Album Songs

Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig reveals that the band are close to having a new album written.

July 2, 2012
Van Morrison photo by Ros O'Gorman images
Van Morrison And Don Was Collaborated For New Van Record

Don Was has produced the next Van Morrison album ‘Born To Sing: No Plan B’.

July 2, 2012
The Go-Betweens
The Best Of The Go-Betweens Album Coming Soon

Look out for a Go-Betweens ‘Best Of’ hand-picked by Forster, Morrison, Brown and Vickers, complete with a live disc.

July 2, 2012
Ron Pope
Pope To Visit Melbourne Chapel

American YouTube balladeer Ron Pope will play Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel, as well as Sydney and Brisbane.

July 2, 2012
Chris Brown photo by Ros O'Gorman images
Chris Brown Slams Drake On New Tune, Still A Douchenozzle

Chris Brown has taken a stab at Canadian rapper Drake in a verse he added to The Game’s remix of a Chief Keef tune.

July 2, 2012
Ben Harper
Ben Harper Books His First National Acoustic Tour

Roots star Ben Harper will play three East Coast shows in his first headlining Australian acoustic tour.

July 2, 2012
The Vaccines, music news,
The Vaccines Announce Their Second Album With A Video

The Vaccines Come Of Age will be the Brit-rockers second album and they’ve delivered a video for 'No Hope'.

July 2, 2012
The Living End. Photo by Ros O'Gorman.
The Living End Announce Their Landmark Retrospective Tour

The Living End will play each of their six albums in full in week-long residencies around the country. Wow.

July 2, 2012
Gotye image photos
CNN Kills Gotye

Gotye has had to deny his death in a Twitter post after a comment was posted on the CNN website stating that the Australian singer had killed himself.

July 2, 2012
Karise Eden from team Seal on The Voice images
The Voice, Australia’s Music Chart Road Kill Revealed

The Voice gave this week’s Australian chart a number of firsts and they were all bad. Never before have so many songs debuted one week and disappeared the next.

July 1, 2012
The Flaming Lips. image by Ros O'Gorman photos
Flaming Lips Smash Jay-Z Guinness World Record

The Flaming Lips have successfully smashed the Guinness World Record previously held by Jay-Z for most concerts performed in multiple cities after a historic road trip through the Mississippi Delta region which now ranks as the most-viewed digitally driven event in Viacom Music & Logo Group history, including generating more than 43 million votes.

July 1, 2012
Natasha Duarte - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Glenn Wheatley To Manage Natasha Duarté

17-year old Melbourne singer/songwriter Natasha Duarté has signed a management deal with Australian uber-manager Glenn Wheatley.

July 1, 2012
Crooked Saint, Tim Wheatley - Photo By Ros O'Gorman, Noise11, photo
Tim Wheatley’s Crooked Saint Gets Hot & Heavy

Melbourne via Sydney via L.A.’s Tim Wheatley has just released a new double A-side ‘Hot & Heavy / Outta Sight Outta Mind’ under his guise of Crooked Saint.

July 1, 2012
David Lee Roth with Van Halen image,, photos
Van Halen Tour Officially Cancelled

The Van Halen dates postponed last month have now been officially cancelled.

July 1, 2012
EMI images photo
EMI Publishing Sold For $2.2B To Sony

Sony has paid $2.2 billion for a 50% share of EMI Publishing.

July 1, 2012
Lamb Of God, Randy Blythe - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Lamb Of God Singer Out On Bail Following Manslaughter Charges

Randy Blythe, lead singer of Lamb Of God, has been released on bail following his arrest for the manslaughter of a fan in the Czech Republic this week.

July 1, 2012
Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones (photo by Ros O'Gorman)
Charlie Watts Debuts A, B, C & D of Boogie Woogie In NYC

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has debuted his other band the A, B, C & D of Boogie Woogie in New York City at the Iridium Jazz Club.

July 1, 2012
Adele 21 image photos
Adele 21 Departs Australian Top 10

The Adele album ‘21’ has departed the Australian Top 10 for the first time in 15 months.

July 1, 2012
Jade Jagger and husband Adrian Fillary with dad Mick Jagger and mother Bianca photos image
Jade Jagger Marries DJ Adrian Fillary

Mick Jagger has a new son-in-law. His daughter Jade married DJ Adrian Fillary in a ceremony at the Aynhoe Park hotel in the Cotswolds yesterday (June 30, 2012).

July 1, 2012
Kiss Monster Book (Australian Edition) photos image
Kiss To Unleash Monster Track Monday – Listen to Preview

Kiss will give fans the first taste of their new album ‘Monster’ with the release of the first single ‘Hell Or Hallelujah’ tomorrow (July 2, 2012).

July 1, 2012
Karise Eden from team Seal on The Voice images
The Voice ARIA Slaughterhouse, Karise Eden 1 to 54

For all of the huge debuts that The Voice racked up last week, their presence in the Top 10 has been reduced to one song within the entire ten.

July 1, 2012
Karise Eden My Journey images photos
Karise Eden Takes Top Spot On ARIA Chart

Karise Eden drops from the No.1 spot on the singles chart, but claims the new No.1 album in the country with instantly platinum certified “My Journey”, which is also the sixth consecutive No.1 debut in the past seven weeks.

July 1, 2012
Chris Brown photo by Ros O'Gorman images
Billionaire Offers Chris Brown And Drake To Punch Each Others Lights Out – VIDEO

A Hollywood billionaire has offered a $10,000,000 purse to Chris Brown and Drake to get in the ring and punch each other’s lights out.

June 30, 2012
Lil' Band O' Gold with Tim Rogers - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Tim Rogers Does Led Zeppelin And AC/DC With Lil Band O Gold

Last night’s Lil’ Band O’ Gold gig in Melbourne (June 29, 2012) had a special treat when You Am I’s Tim Rogers joined the Louisiana supergroup and performed Led Zeppelin and AC/DC covers.

June 30, 2012
Bruce Springsteen - image by Ros O'Gorman,, photos
Bruce Springsteen Will Be MusiCares Person Of The Year

The Recording Academy and the MusiCares Foundation have announced that Bruce Springsteen has been selected to be the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year.

June 30, 2012
Bob Seger Ultimate Hits
Bob Seger Burglar Arrested

Bob Seger's burglar has been caught and arrested.

June 30, 2012
Rolling Stone Eddie Van Halen cover image photo
Eddie Van Halen Takes A Slam At Sammy Hagar And Michael Anthony

Here's a quote that won't be making Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony's days.

June 30, 2012


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Actor, BOLANLE NINOLOWO, Reunites With Estranged Wife

•Reveals Why He Reconciled With Her Nollywood bad boy Bolanle Ninolowo, popularly known as Nino, doesn’t need much introduction, as he is presently rated one of the best actors in both English and Yoruba movie industry. He joined the movie industry a few years ago and within a short […]

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Humanity In Action Senior Fellows Network dinner 2012

performance, poetry December 1, 2012

You miss the directions
and end up in another era.
A watch is watched
as the chimes of the clock
tell what time it is.
We’re here to address the past
not as boulders that block passages
but as sand found
in eyes
carried through veins
found in pockets

even after clothes
have been washed and hung
out to dry.
We’re left hanging
when we push stories
that aren’t shoved down throats.
Shared tongues split
syllables until embraces
put us in the crosshairs
of circles with hands
that reach out.

Zarayda stands up
and i wonder when we’ll have
a female referee in the football world.
The rules are told
and the game begins
with the first course.
Beet roll on tonuges
and nuts hit teeth.
Smiles are uncorked
and conversations find their way
unto folded linen.

Sounds light up the room
as clothing is critically inspected.
Would Africans not be wearing dashikis
or djellabas?
Even in our imaginations
Europe remains the center
around which the self revolves.
History needs to be liberated
and not left to be silenced
by those who would rather
have the other be at the margins.

Throats are cleared
and lungs are filled.
Air recognized gives rise to chests
beaten into paragraphs,
pages, book, studies, libraries, armies.
Pens are mightier than the sword
for they can kill more than one
with a single stroke.
Wiped from existence
only to appear in salty tears
that stream once told you are
less, lesser, least able to be complete.

Pillars gave way
as if Samson himself
was among us.
But the hair is on a chin
as hands are put
in a blazer pocket
while an accented voice
shifts the world
with a bounce in his step.
He rocks back and forth
plays hide and seek
with technologies of humanity.
Expensive tools of the trade

meet candle light
as sounds of hearts
in throats beating words
into bodies become apparent.
Feet move
arms gather
as shoulders hit doors
telling stories not to jump
from balconies
or table tops
without parachutes.

I hear Kunta
tell the meaning behind ‘neger’
and find myself remembering
the state and the capital.
The center of the country
turned into a metaphor of money
in pockets of few
who define the worth of many.
And I hear a man
talk about what makes a woman
conscious and worthwhile.
Who’s defining who now?

I’m reminded of that
which i can never forget
as the marker leaks
onto my hand.
My skin color jumps out at me
as if caught in an unheimlich realization.
With reales in hand
Brazilian stories reach me
and I wonder about the love
that brought my Danish great great grand dad
to my yu di Korsou great great grand ma.

I’m caught
in between choosing
orange and purple carrots.
Nationalism and naturalism
are found on the tips of shoes
and tongues that kick and
spit and buts on seats
that face or turn
and trigger a change of sight.
A black body is not a commodity
a costume to be co-opted.
My body is not somebody’s property.

As I’m speeding towards
self realization
I look up to see some ladies
whisper and shake their heads.
How I wish
that I could read their lips
as Kunta talks about schools
and omission of existences.
The politician next to her
joins the conversation
and hands make circular movements
while I catch a yawn
caught before release with a smile.

I smile to see my seat filled
and hear a question about belonging
I thought I longer belonged
until Marie told me to pull up
a seat
and taste coffee and chocolate.
Sitting in a house
built with money and now
filling my stomach with products
brought to us by slavery and colonialism
like pepernoten.

But a hand stretches out
and a warm hart is shown
through the flight of words
that bring us to Surinam and understanding.
Wisdom through personal experience
not a blanket statement
of red or black numbers
stops and gaps
but humanity recognized
and translated into arms
and legs that stopped leading
leaving, leafing through books

and acted upon
the sounds that came
from mouths whose
tongues, tonsils, throats
were recognized as primary,
not secondary or tertiary,
from fingers, palms, wrists
that tell stories that came from
elbows, shoulders, necks.
The bodies must be seen
to exist beyond the grasp,
beyond the words,
beyond the sights,
and in the here
and now.


text:
Categories: null, art, books, fashion, movies, music, television, ben tries to, ben tries to beat Livermore, ben tries to paint, fetishizing intellect and beauty, food, coffee, crepes, pizza, kittens, math, on writing, pictures, programming is for people with beards, ben builds a cluster, puppies, rant, sort of a business plan, the homeless don't eat bread, writing

Airfare Futures

posted by ben on 11.11.01 at 14:53, null, null, Leave a comment Permalink

Collin mentioned Expedia bought a company to track airline prices. It makes me wonder if there would be a market for futures to protect against price volatility. Maybe even ticket options that would be cheaper than a regular ticket (effectively what Ryan Air does with the £4 advance tickets).

Games to Solve Problems

posted by ben on 11.10.09 at 12:31, null, null, sort of a business plan, Leave a comment Permalink

I watched this a while back and suspect Stephenson did too (or maybe it's just in the zeitgeist).

The idea of using games to solve real world problems shows up in REAMDE -- outsourcing airport security jobs to asia via an MMO. Partially because of this (and having just read Ready Player One I downloaded WoW yesterday. I went to bed at 7am. These games are ridiculously addictive.

I really wonder if there's anything useful you could do in one. Walking back and forth across Azeroth and occasionally clicking on things seems hard to transform into viable labor.

There's another problem... at least for me, games stop being fun when they get hard, constrained, etc. Chess or go with expert players requires textbook openings. The same is even true of Starcraft. As you get better at shootumups they become less about the BFG and more about hopping instead of walking. I don't find these things entertaining and imagine any application of gamers to useful endevour would have to dance around this in a clever way.

posted by ben on 11.10.09 at 12:21, null, null, sort of a business plan, Leave a comment Permalink

I just started REAMDE. In it there's a ransomware scam that uses am MMO as a way to collect the money. There are many, many problems with this -- mostly around traceability of the transaction -- which Stephenson is using to drive the plot.

It seems ransomware is a great use case for bitcoins. I'm not convinced the MMO is necessary as part of the transaction when email would work perfectly well.

George Carlin and Stuff

posted by ben on 11.07.03 at 13:37, null, null, 1 comment Permalink

I'm a little concerned about the masses of things I cart around when moving from place to place. I think I have far more belongings than many of my old friends, yet fewer than most any of my peers. It's an odd place to be. The past few weeks I've been cutting down massively, selling all sorts of random stuff on ebay. That was more trouble than it's worth.

Thinking more about the Stross augmented consciousness sort of thing, I'm wondering if blindly getting rid of my belongings is a bad idea. The books, music and movies I've consumed have had a significant effect on my character.

The physical items serve as useful reminders. While I may never read most of the books I have, they are useful both as reference and as a symbol that serves to trigger memories. If I actually knew anything about how the brain works perhaps this argument would be coherent.

Comment from: Pat Burns [Visitor] · http://www.portfolioprobe.com/blog/
I think of my books as carbon storage.
Permalink 07/05/11 @ 09:16

The Ben in the High Castle

posted by ben on 11.07.02 at 12:09, null, null, 1 comment Permalink

I really like the high floor on buildings. This could be the result of 5 years of staring at walls out my window in Seattle, NY and London. I'm wondering if there's a way to get the high floor without all that bit in the middle.

In Texas they put the parking garages on the low floors and the apartments higher up. What about something a little more extreme?

I'm thinking Cloud City of Bespin from Star Wars or that floating city in Dragon Ball Z. I think we might be able to build that relatively cheaply.

You would need to generate lift somehow. Some options immediately spring to mind:
(1) Live in a tethered blimp. It could be filled with helium or perhaps hot air heated through solar, gas, even an electric heater tethered to solar panel/electric grid on the ground.
(2) As long as you're thinking about powering it, why not use gigantic helicopter like blades. I wonder what the math works out to on that one.

Really all I'm thinking is a tractor trailer in the sky with a little elevator. That should be eminently doable. I'm really wondering about buying a couple acres in the middle of nowhere on a lake in Texas... actually the lake might have an added bonus if this thing failed catastrophically...

In the meantime I'll have to settle for Hilton upgrading me to the executive floor.

Comment from: ben [Member] · http://ben.nonplatonic.com
Permalink 07/16/11 @ 15:40

Melty Plastic Goo

posted by ben on 11.07.02 at 12:02, null, null, technology, Leave a comment Permalink

I'm a little disappointed by the 3d printers out there, at least the hobbyist ones. I'm not sure about the professional machines yet.

I would think these things are going to explode as soon as it's possible to print a 3d printer on a 3d printer. The RepRap people seem to claim you can print one but that's a little disingenuous as you buy all the exciting bits and then print a little plast to help hold them together.

Part of the issue is that I'm having a hard time imagining what you could print out of plastic that would actually be useful. I look around my apartment and virtually nothing is made out of plastic. As many things as I could manage are wood, metal, paper, leather. I am wondering if I go ahead with this wearable thing if it might be useful to fab bits out of plastic on one of these things. Not sure...

Since 3d printers self duplicating seem a long way off, I'm wondering what else there might be.

Some sort of home lithography thing would be fascinating. Just keep printing more and more nodes, maybe buy a bunch of solar cells. If nothing else, I could always aim the thing at making me some bitcoins.

Not terribly exciting either, but better.

What if you could build a little solar powered earth mover? Set it loose on a couple acres in the middle of nowhere in Texas and have it build a modern great pyramid? That seems at least moderately feasible.

I wonder what it would take to get that going...

Gargoyle Cowboy

posted by ben on 11.07.02 at 10:56, null, null, hci, 1 comment Permalink

I just read Accelerando by Charlie Stross and am having a bit of a cyber utopian moment. Apparently this is well timed as I just got a call from a friend in London claiming the venture cap is flowing like it's 1999.

One of the three protagonists, Manfred, builds up a custom wearable from random bits and pieces to augment his memory. I'm wondering if technology has gotten to the point where it's finally possible to do this. I've made a few fitful attempts in the past but a combination of crap technology and my cheapness made it impossible.

I'm wondering if goggles/glasses are not the way to go. They'd be great if there were COTS HUDS but those don't exist. What if instead you had a number of small displays, much like a cross between a trader's workstation and the numerous magnifying glasses watchmakers used to mount on their heads. You could move them around and still have some semblance of interaction with reality even if no one would talk with you.

So, I'm thinking:

(1) Cowboy Hat (maybe a top hat?)
(2) Drill a couple holes in it and mount some little displays. Something like these http://www.emagin.com/. Of course it looks like these have some awful interface that is VGA but not through a VGA plug, so there's probably a lot of work involved in getting this going.
(3) Now you need to provide computer power for the thing. Maybe a stripped netbook with VGA out and a three way splitter? Maybe the innards of a full laptop? I'm a little stuck here.
(4) Then there's the question of battery life. This really needs to have enough juice to go for a day.
(5) Net connectivity is easy. Just jam a USB 3G card in the top and you're good to go.
(6) Input used to be a nasty problem. Now I'm just thinking bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Maybe those pretty Apple ones. It'd be nice if there were something you could use while wandering around but the convenience of a real input device probably outweighs this.

I really like the idea of building this all into a 5lb hat. It might be a little heavy, but it'd be some much better than dealing with a million cables.

Comment from: ben [Member] · http://ben.nonplatonic.com
It looks like putting together what I'm imagining would cost something like $10,000. I suppose I'll wait another 5 years and look again.

I'm thinking about buying a Lenovo X220T to replace my work computer. It seems like it would be a good ubiquitous thing to cart around the country.
Permalink 07/03/11 @ 13:32

posted by ben on 10.11.30 at 15:16, null, null, ben tries to beat Livermore, Leave a comment Permalink

...debt will almost always rise relative to incomes so long as we have an ever increasing division of labor and specialization of tasks, increasing productivity, and a consequent rise in both assets and liabilities as a percentage of income.

-Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence, pg 347

From a micro perspective, does this lead to a self reinforcing cycle where wealthy individual have the ability to take on more debt and thus receive greater benefit? ...makes me think of Ahead of the Curve and the suggestion to take on as much leverage as possible with good terms.

posted by ben on 10.11.01 at 14:14, null, null, math, math, rant, politics, rant, rave, Leave a comment Permalink

So, so wrong. We need more math education. Yes, set theory may not be terribly useful (unless you interact with tuples on a daily basis), but calculus is a prerequisite for understanding the world around us. If we want to understand how many of the automated systems around us work, linear algebra and more is neccessary. The math education that comes with a typical college degree is totally insufficient to understanding the world.

That means only a select few can understand how things work, which in turn means that an even smaller select group can improve on the working of things. This is a problem. Wider math education means the ability of society to build more complex machines. That means great productivity and that means greater wealth.

Some education has value. Some does not. Math has value.

posted by ben on 10.11.01 at 14:05, null, books, books, 1 comment Permalink

...shows up so many places:

The Once and Future King
Times Arrow
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Curious Case of Bejamin Button

...probably others I'm not thinking of right now. It's not exactly the hero with a thousand faces.

Comment from: Devin [Visitor]
We learned about Arthur-Merlin protocols in my complexity theory class today.
Permalink 11/04/10 @ 10:24

Almost Trout

posted by ben on 10.11.01 at 10:52, null, books, books, Leave a comment Permalink

In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.

Dan Simmons, Hyperion, pg 175

Heat Death

posted by ben on 10.10.30 at 06:37, null, null, 4 comments Permalink

I just read Pink Noise by Leonid Korogodski. In it, I'm sure all my old friends will be thrilled to hear, he discusses heat death and validates some of my old concerns. He also talks about far from equilibrium systems, particularly as an explanation for what we see in cosmology (vs dark matter) and how large scale thermodynamics gives rise to smaller scale complex systems -- life.

This all fits remarkably well with El-Erian's When Markets Collide. El-Erian talks about "stable disequalibrium," to explain properties of globalization. The processes here seem to be exactly the ones Korogodski describes.

There's something very interesting here, but I can't figure out how to express it.

Comment from: Leonid Korogodski [Visitor] · http://www.pinknoise.net
Thanks. On the evolutionary approach to economics, I highly recommend Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics by Eric D. Beinhocker.
Permalink 10/31/10 @ 23:34
Comment from: ben [Member] · http://ben.nonplatonic.com
Thanks for note! I actually already ordered the Beinhocker book. After finishing Pink Noise I went through and probably picked up 3/4 of the books in the bibliography. Looking forward to reading them...
Permalink 11/01/10 @ 07:20
Comment from: Leonid Korogodski [Visitor] · http://www.pinknoise.net
I'm happy that you have enjoyed the book. I wonder about the old concerns of yours that you mentioned in your post.
Permalink 11/01/10 @ 20:55
Comment from: ben [Member] · http://ben.nonplatonic.com
My little heat death argument goes something like this: imagine the universe trillions of years from now. The stars have all died. Matter has dispersed to a state of maximum entropy. Everything is gone -- all that man or anything else might have created has disappeared.

From the perspective of a historically naive hypothetical observer at this point it is impossible to determine whether anything of interest (humanity, art, whatever the meaning of life is) ever existed because the universe now sits at the same state it would have if nothing had ever existed.

Given this inevitable outcome, and the insistence of thermodynamics that it will come to pass, then life can have no meaning.

Some might argue that only reinforces the transitory precious nature of life, but such an argument willfully ignores the final, dreadful outcome.

From a purely rational standpoint, given what I understand about how the universe works, it makes no difference if I live a long, useful life or die pointlessly this instant.

Of course, there are ways out:
(1) Maybe the universe isn't closed (then, in the words of MCJB3, we wouldn't all be hosed).
(2) Maybe there are lots of universes and they interact and we can pass information between them, thereby giving some longer, hopefully perpetual, meaning to our lives
(3) Some other option neglected due to my poor understanding of physics
(4) Maybe there is something supernatural, some sort of afterlife, metaphysical force or something that can be used to give meaning to an otherwise bleak existence.

I still remember having this conversation while staring at a starry sky, imagining the lights going out. That led to another issue

I am also nervous that some piece of enormously dense matter will come wandering through the solar system, causing the earth to go careening off its typical orbit into interstellar space. That would make a much more frightening movie than all those asteroid apocalypse ones.
Permalink 11/30/10 @ 15:27

Why there is a mid/back office CEP market

posted by ben on 10.10.30 at 06:08, null, null, Leave a comment Permalink

...a typical plumbing problem: The pipes are simply unable to handle the flow of new and old transactions. This is true at the level of the individual firm, where the willingness of the portfolio managers to use new strategies is yet to be accompanied by the ability of the middle and back offices to adequately process and maintain them.

-Mohamed El-Erian, When Markets Collide, pg 16

Robotic Armageddon Playlist

posted by ben on 10.09.20 at 15:15, null, null, music, music, Leave a comment Permalink

The Apparations - God, Monkey, Robot
Flight of the Conchords - Robots
Laziest Men on Mars - The Terrible Secret of Space
The Flaming Lips - One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21

posted by ben on 09.08.01 at 07:58, null, books, Leave a comment Permalink

Like most things in the story the natural sciences can tell about the world, it’s all so beautiful, so gracefully simple, yet so rewardingly complex, so neatly connected - not to mention true - that I can’t even begin to imagine why anyone would ever want to believe some New Age ‘alternative’ nonsense instead. I would go so far as to say that even if we are all under the control of a benevolent God, and the whole of reality turns out to be down to some flaky spiritual ‘energy’ that only alternative therapists can truly harness, that’s still neither so interesting nor so graceful as the most basic stuff I was taught at school about how plants work.

-Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Pg. 117

posted by ben on 09.08.01 at 07:57, null, books, Leave a comment Permalink

...imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in’an interesting hole I find myself in’fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

-Attributed to Douglas Adams
-Found here: http://talkingincircles.net/2008/07/19/douglas-adams-on-religion-and-puddles/

Three Fundamentals for a VC

posted by ben on 09.07.08 at 13:36, null, null, Leave a comment Permalink

(1) What are you doing?

(2) How can I help?

(3) What do I gain?

Virgin is inept.

posted by ben on 09.06.11 at 11:01, null, null, London, Leave a comment Permalink

Virgin media disconnected my brand new fiber line for non-payment of my bill after 1 day of connectivity. My bill wasn't paid because Virgin put a "credit limit" on the account. This limit prevented them from taking the connection fee out of my bank account, despite the bank account itself having plenty of money. Now my access is going to be down for a day.

I pay for the downtime as well, since in their view this is my fault. You know, for being a foreigner.

The happy path worked!

posted by ben on 09.05.04 at 16:04, null, null, ben tries to beat Livermore, Leave a comment Permalink

Classification done at 2009-05-04T00:00:11.602436
The best symbol is HBC.
Scheduling trades for today.
Opening positions at 2009-05-04T09:29:30.100081
I am going to trade today.
Waiting for order to fill...
772.0 shares filled at 36.65
Closing positions at 2009-05-04T15:57:00.100089
We won today! All closed out.

Lack of Privacy

posted by ben on 09.04.17 at 14:50, null, boulder, Leave a comment Permalink

The arrow's pointing to Gene.

Or, see the original here. Graham pointed this out.

The guy in the foreground with his head blurred out, wearing the white linen, is always reading A Course in Miracles and that sort of thing. I can't remember his name.


text:
Saving for our Future in California

Wednesday, Nov 5th, 2014

California’s voters yesterday sent a very positive signal that they want to invest in our state’s future by saving our precious water and money during surplus times, so they are available during times of need—both droughts and recessions. The passage of the water bond, Proposition 1, with nearly 67% of the voter saying yes, is a major investment in our vital water resources that will help the Sacramento Valley and other parts of the state prepare for future dry years.

Vote YES on Prop. 1

The leadership surrounding Propositions 1 and 2 is amazing and shows that California, even with its complexities, can truly unify around important issues like saving water and money for the future. In Northern California, we express our gratitude to the Governor and his team for making Propositions 1 and 2 his priority this year; the Legislature, for its near unanimity in placing both Propositions 1 and 2 on the ballot, including every Northern California member of the Legislature who championed these efforts; and to our various partners throughout the state who worked tirelessly on these measures. This leadership is truly a step forward for California.

With Governor Brown now embarking on another term, the leadership in the Sacramento Valley stands ready to work with the Governor and his team to implement his California Water Action Plan for the Sacramento Valley. We need to invest in infrastructure improvements so we can be self-sufficient in a changing climate and provide reliable water for cities and rural communities, farms, fish, birds and recreation. To do this, the state needs more water–not just improved sharing–which requires an investment in new infrastructure to access our surface water supplies, as well sustainably managing our precious groundwater resources. In the north state, an investment in Sites Reservoir provides a great opportunity to save for the future, by integrating a new off-stream regulating reservoir into the water system, thus allowing us to store water in the reservoir and save additional water in our other North State reservoirs and our groundwater basins so the water is available during dry periods. Now is the time for progress to develop the infrastructure and the regulatory and operational certainty we need for regional sustainability and self-sufficiency.

As we look to the future, Propositions 1 and 2 have brought together a broad and diverse coalition from throughout the state that envisions a better future for California by saving our precious resources–water and money–for future years. We look forward to working with all these leaders in our continuing progress for California.

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California Water Rice Aquafornia


text:
Nouveaux produits

Five new, innovative features for Nortek’s Signature series
With latest release of Nortek’s Signature firmware and software, we are introducing five new features that enhance the capabilities of those who use Signature instruments.
Profiling 1000m Range with a single sleek instrument !
Earlier this year, the Nortek Signature Series long range profiler debut represented a breakthrough for us. We met and exceeded the profiling range goals we had set out to accomplish. However, starting from the ground up in hardware design, transducer manufacturing, and processing technology also took us beyond these goals.
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