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Today from Hiiraan Online:  _
Security Council, senior UN official urge support, patience as Somalia turns new page

Thursday, June 6, 2013

6 June 2013 – While welcoming recent progress in Somalia, the Security Council today recognized that gains in security and other sectors ‘remain fragile’ and urged the international community to support the efforts of the Somali Government to tackle outstanding issues vital for the county’s long-term stability.

In a statement adopted at a meeting on Somalia chaired by Mark Simmonds, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, which holds the Council’s presidency for the month, the 15-member body underlined the importance of international support to the Somali Federal Government in building a professional, accountable and capable security force as part of a comprehensive approach to security sector reform.

The Council also reiterated the importance of the Government addressing outstanding issues, such as political reconciliation, development of a federal system, the constitutional review and subsequent referendum process, and preparations for elections in 2016. The Council also reiterated its call for the full inclusion of women in all political process.

Members of the Council emphasized the need for the international community to provide well coordinated, timely and sustained humanitarian assistance “to the millions of Somalis who remain in urgent need of lifesaving support; and development assistance with a focus on livelihood recovery and building community resilience to support [the country’s] transition to sustainable peace and economic development.’

In his briefing to the Council, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson echoed many of those sentiments, as he stressed that dialogue among all Somali partners and continuous support from the international community are the only way to ensure unity and a sound federal structure in the long-troubled country.

“Realizing a federal State in Somalia is a complex and demanding task,” he said, adding: “[Issues] related to the unity and federalism of Somalia can only be resolved through dialogue among the Somalis themselves. This requires patience and pragmatism on all sides.”

Somalia has been torn asunder by factional fighting since 1991 but has recently made progress towards stability. In 2011, Islamist Al-Shabaab insurgents retreated from Mogadishu and last year new Government institutions emerged, as the country ended a transitional phase toward setting up a permanent, democratically-elected Government.

“Eight months since its formation, the Federal Government of Somalia has established its political programme and presented plans for stabilization and peace-building,” Mr. Eliasson noted, but added that recent tensions in Kismayo following the declaration of a regional state in April must be addressed immediately to sustain progress.

On 15 May, 500 delegates to a conference in Kismayo selected a president of what was called ‘Jubaland State of Somalia’, which the Government regards as unconstitutional. Since then, six other candidates have declared themselves president of the new entity.

“While there have so far been no reports of military confrontation, the situation remains volatile,” Mr. Eliasson said, adding that Somalia will need the support of its partners and neighbours to maintain stability the country.
“There is agreement that a strong and stable Somalia is in the interests of all. This recognition should guide regional efforts to address outstanding issues and potential sources of friction.”

Mr. Eliasson said the recently established UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) would help the Government meet this challenge by supporting political dialogue, peacebuilding and the protection of human rights.

“UNSOM has already set up its Headquarters in Mogadishu and will establish its presence across the country, notably in areas recovered from Al-Shabaab, as well as in Garowe and Hargeisa,” he said.

“UNSOM will be an integrated Mission, offering ‘one door to knock on’ for Somalia’s engagement with the United Nations.”

He also highlighted the need for both UNSOM and the Government to work jointly with the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) to ensure security and freedom of movement in the region.

Created in 2007, AMISOM conducts peace support operations in Somalia to stabilize the situation in the country to create conditions for the conduct of humanitarian activities.

“As in so many countries across the continent, partnership of the UN with the African Union is vital to reaching our objectives in Somalia,” he said.

“With the deployment of UNSOM, we will work together on political strategy, peace-building and stabilization, as well as protection of human rights. The new Mission’s impact will also depend on effective security arrangements in close collaboration with AMISOM,” Mr. Eliasson added, and called on the Council to ensure AMISOM has the necessary resources to carry out its operations.

Mr. Eliasson underlined that over the long-term, Somalia must assume its own responsibilities through accountable and effective security institutions.

“This requires a well-funded and coordinated strategic approach,” he said, welcoming the recent pledges of support of more than $300 million which made at the London Conference on Somalia in May.

“Somalia will require sustained and generous international support to continue on the path of progress. This means a clear commitment to the Federal Government to rapidly develop its plans and build its capacities,” he added.

The Deputy Secretary-General reiterated the UN’s engagement in the country in its new phase, and called on the Council to provide its full support to UNSOM, as well as resources so that the Mission can carry out its mandate.

“I call on all to come together in support of the new Government in its efforts to bring peace and stability to the people of Somalia. The Secretary-General and I firmly believe that with the continuous support and firm commitment of its partners, Somalia can achieve its vision: a country in unity and at peace with itself and its neighbours, living under the rule of law, and on the path to economic stability and decent living conditions for all.

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Armageddon — 2419 A.D. (13)
By: Philip Francis Nowlan | Categories: Radium Age SF, Sci-Fi, Serial Fiction

HiLobrow is pleased to present the thirteenth and final installment of our serialization of Philip Francis Nowlan’s Armageddon —2419 A.D..

In Philip Francis Nowlan’s novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories (the same issue which launched E.E. “Doc” Smith’s serial The Skylark of Space), 29-year-old WWI vet and mining engineer Anthony Rogers falls into a state of suspended animation in the year 1927. Five hundred years later, he wakes up in an America that for the past three centuries has been a backward province of the globe-spanning, part-Mongolian part-alien Han Empire. Taken in by a gang of American rebels, he becomes a freedom fighter in the Second War of Independence.

Nowlan’s long-running and much-imitated Buck Rogers comic strip, illustrated by Dick Calkins, first appeared in January 1929. The protagonist was renamed in imitation of the popular cowboy actor Buck Jones.

SUBSCRIBE to HiLobrow’s serialized fiction via RSS.

ALL EXCERPTS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

The Finger of Doom

As we crossed the Hudson River, a few miles north of the city, we dropped several units of the Yellow Intelligence Division, with full instrumental equipment. Their apparatus cases were nicely balanced at only a few ounces weight each, and the men used their chute capes to ease their drops.

We recrossed the river a little distance above and began dropping White Intelligence units and a few long and short range gun units. Then we held our position until we began to get reports. Gradually we ringed the territory of the Sinsings, our observation units working busily and patiently at their locators and scopes, both aloft and aground, until Garlin finally turned to me with the remark:

“The map circle is complete now, Boss. We’ve got clear locations all the way around them.”

“Let me see it,” I replied, and studied the illuminated viewplate map, with its little overlapping circles of light that indicated spots proved clear of the enemy by ultroscopic observation.

I nodded to Bill Hearn. “Go ahead now, Hearn,” I said, “and place your barrage men.”

He spoke into his ultrophone, and three of the ships began to glide in a wide ring around the enemy territory. Every few seconds, at the word from his Unit Boss, a gunner would drop off the wire, and slipping the clasp of his chute cape, drift down into the darkness below.

Bill formed two lines, parallel to and facing the river, and enclosing the entire territory of the enemy between them. Above and below, straddling the river, were two defensive lines. These latter were merely to hold their positions. The others were to close in toward each other, pushing a high-explosive barrage five miles ahead of them. When the two barrages met, both lines were to switch to short-vision-range barrage and continue to close in on any of the enemy who might have drifted through the previous curtain of fire.

In the meantime Bill kept his reserves, a picked corps of a hundred men (the same that had accompanied Hart and myself in our fight with the Han squadron) in the air, divided about equally among the “kite-tails” of four ships.

A final roll call, by units, companies, divisions and functions, established the fact that all our forces were in position. No Han activity was reported, and no Han broadcasts indicated any suspicion of our expedition. Nor was there any indication that the Sinsings had any knowledge of the fate in store for them. The idling of rep-ray generators was reported from the center of their camp, obviously those of the ships the Hans had given them — the price of their treason to their race.

Again I gave the word, and Hearn passed on the order to his subordinates.

Far below us, and several miles to the right and left, the two barrage lines made their appearance. From the great height to which we had risen, they appeared like lines of brilliant, winking lights, and the detonations were muffled by the distances into a sort of rumbling, distant thunder. Hearn and his assistants were very busy: measuring, calculating, and snapping out ultrophone orders to unit commanders that resulted in the straightening of lines and the closing of gaps in the barrage.

The White Division Boss reported the utmost confusion in the Sinsing organization. They were, as might be expected, an inefficient, loosely disciplined gang, and repeated broadcasts for help to neighboring gangs. Ignoring the fact that the Mongolians had not used explosives for many generations, they nevertheless jumped at the conclusion that they were being raided by the Hans. Their frantic broadcasts persisted in this thought, despite the nervous electrophonic inquiries of the Hans themselves, to whom the sound of the battle was evidently audible, and who were trying to locate the trouble.

At this point, the swooper I had sent south toward the city went into action as a diversion, to keep the Hans at home. Its “kite-tail” loaded with long-range gunners, using the most highly explosive rockets we had, hung invisible in the darkness of the sky and bombarded the city from a distance of about five miles. With an entire city to shoot at, and the object of creating as much commotion therein as possible, regardless of actual damage, the gunners had no difficulty in hitting the mark. I could see the glow of the city and the stabbing flashes of exploding rockets. In the end, the Hans, uncertain as to what was going on, fell back on a defensive policy, and shot their “hell cylinder,” or wall of upturned disintegrator rays into operation. That, of course, ended our bombardment of them. The rays were a perfect defense, disintegrating our rockets as they were reached.

If they had not sent out ships before turning on the rays, and if they had none within sufficient radius already in the air, all would be well.

I queried Garlin on this, but he assured me Yellow Intelligence reported no indications of Han ships nearer than 800 miles. This would probably give us a free hand for a while, since most of their instruments recorded only imperfectly or not at all, through the death wall.

Requisitioning one of the viewplates of the headquarters ship, and the services of an expert operator, I instructed him to focus on our lines below. I wanted a close-up of the men in action.

He began to manipulate his controls and chaotic shadows moved rapidly across the plate, fading in and out of focus, until he reached an adjustment that gave me a picture of the forest floor, apparently 100 feet wide, with the intervening branches and foliage of the trees appearing like shadows that melted into reality a few feet above the ground.

I watched one man setting up his long-gun with skillful speed. His lips pursed slightly as though he were whistling, as he adjusted the tall tripod on which the long tube was balanced. Swiftly he twirled the knobs controlling the aim and elevation of his piece. Then, lifting a belt of ammunition from the big box, which itself looked heavy enough to break down the spindly tripod, he inserted the end of it in the lock of his tube and touched the proper combination of buttons.

Then he stepped aside, and occupied himself with peering carefully through the trees ahead. Not even a tremor shook the tube, but I knew that at intervals of something less than a second, it was discharging small projectiles which, traveling under their own continuously reduced power, were arching into the air, to fall precisely five miles ahead and explode with the force of eight-inch shells, such as we used in the First World War.

Another gunner, fifty feet to the right of him, waved a hand and called out something to him. Then, picking up his own tube and tripod, he gauged the distance between the trees ahead of him, and the height of their lowest branches, and bending forward a bit, flexed his muscles and leaped lightly, some twenty-five feet. Another leap took him another twenty feet or so, where he began to set up his piece.

I ordered my observer then to switch to the barrage itself. He got a close focus on it, but this showed little except a continuous series of blinding flashes, which, from the viewplate, lit up the entire interior of the ship. An eight-hundred-foot focus proved better. I had thought that some of our French and American artillery of the 20th Century had achieved the ultimate in mathematical precision of fire, but I had never seen anything to equal the accuracy of that line of terrific explosions as it moved steadily forward, mowing down trees as a scythe cuts grass (or used to 500 years ago), literally churning up the earth and the splintered, blasted remains of the forest giants, to a depth of from ten to twenty feet.

By now the two curtains of fire were nearing each other, lines of vibrant, shimmering, continuous, brilliant destruction, inevitably squeezing the panic-stricken Sinsings between them.

Even as I watched, a group of them, who had been making a futile effort to get their three rep-ray machines into the air, abandoned their efforts, and rushed forth into the milling mob.

I queried the Control Boss sharply on the futility of this attempt of theirs, and learned that the Hans, apparently in doubt as to what was going on, had continued to “play safe,” and broken off their power broadcast, after ordering all their own ships east of the Alleghenies to the ground, for fear these ships they had traded to the Sinsings might be used against them.

Again I turned to my viewplate, which was still focussed on the central section of the Sinsing works. The confusion of the traitors was entirely that of fear, for our barrage had not yet reached them.

Some of them set up their long-guns and fired at random over the barrage line, then gave it up. They realized that they had no target to shoot at, no way of knowing whether our gunners were a few hundred feet or several miles beyond it.

Their ultrophone men, of whom they did not have many, stood around in tense attitudes, their helmet phones strapped around their ears, nervously fingering the tuning controls at their belts. Unquestionably they must have located some of our frequencies, and overheard many of our reports and orders. But they were confused and disorganized. If they had an Ultrophone Boss they evidently were not reporting to him in an organized way.

They were beginning to draw back now before our advancing fire. With intermittent desperation, they began to shoot over our barrage again, and the explosions of their rockets flashed at widely scattered points beyond. A few took distance “pot shots.”

Oddly enough it was our own forces that suffered the first casualties in the battle. Some of these distance shots by chance registered hits, while our men were under strict orders not to exceed their barrage distances.

Seen upon the ultroscope viewplate, the battle looked as though it were being fought in daylight, perhaps on a cloudy day, while the explosions of the rockets appeared as flashes of extra brilliance.

The two barrage lines were not more than five hundred feet apart when the Sinsings resorted to tactics we had not foreseen. We noticed first that they began to lighten themselves by throwing away extra equipment. A few of them in their excitement threw away too much, and shot suddenly into the air. Then a scattering few floated up gently, followed by increasing numbers, while still others, preserving a weight balance, jumped toward the closing barrages and leaped high, hoping to clear them. Some succeeded. We saw others blown about like leaves in a windstorm, to crumple and drift slowly down, or else to fall into the barrage, their belts blown from their bodies.

However, it was not part of our plan to allow a single one of them to escape and find his way to the Hans. I quickly passed the word to Bill Hearn to have the alternate men in his line raise their barrages and heard him bark out a mathematical formula to the Unit Bosses.

We backed off our ships as the explosions climbed into the air in stagger formation until they reached a height of three miles. I don’t believe any of the Sinsings who tried to float away to freedom succeeded.

But we did know later, that a few who leaped the barrage got away and ultimately reached Nu-yok.

It was those who managed to jump the barrage who gave us the most trouble. With half of our long-guns turned aloft, I foresaw we would not have enough to establish successive ground barrages and so ordered the barrage back two miles, from which positions our “curtains” began to close in again, this time, however, gauged to explode, not on contact, but thirty feet in the air. This left little chance for the Sinsings to leap either over or under it.

Gradually, the two barrages approached each other until they finally met, and in the grey dawn the battle ended.

Our own casualties amounted to forty-seven men in the ground forces, eighteen of whom had been slain in hand to hand fighting with the few of the enemy who managed to reach our lines, and sixty-two in the crew and “kite-tail” force of swooper No. 4, which had been located by one of the enemy’s ultroscopes and brought down with long-gun fire.

Since nearly every member of the Sinsing Gang had, so far as we knew, been killed, we considered the raid a great success.

It had, however, a far greater significance than this. To all of us who took part in the expedition, the effectiveness of our barrage tactics definitely established a confidence in our ability to overcome the Hans.

As I pointed out to Wilma:

“It has been my belief all along, dear, that the American explosive rocket is a far more efficient weapon than the disintegrator ray of the Hans, once we can train all our gangs to use it systematically and in co-ordinated fashion. As a weapon in the hands of a single individual, shooting at a mark in direct line of vision, the rocket-gun is inferior in destructive power to the dis ray, except as its range may be a little greater. The trouble is that to date it has been used only as we used our rifles and shot guns in the 20th Century. The possibilities of its use as artillery, in laying barrages that advance along the ground, or climb into the air, are tremendous.

“The dis ray inevitably reveals its source of emanation. The rocket gun does not. The dis ray can reach its target only in a straight line. The rocket may be made to travel in an arc, over intervening obstacles, to an unseen target.

“Nor must we forget that our ultronists now are promising us a perfect shield against the dis ray in inertron.”

“I tremble though, Tony dear, when I think of the horrors that are ahead of us. The Hans are clever. They will develop defenses against our new tactics. And they are sure to mass against us not only the full force of their power in America, but the united forces of the World Empire. They are a cowardly race in one sense, but clever as the very Devils in Hell, and inheritors of a calm, ruthless, vicious persistency.”

“Nevertheless,” I prophesied, “the Finger of Doom points squarely at them today, and unless you and I are killed in the struggle, we shall live to see America blast the Yellow Blight from the face of the Earth.”

RADIUM AGE SCIENCE FICTION: “Radium Age” is HiLobrow’s name for the 1904–33 era, which saw the discovery of radioactivity, the revelation that matter itself is constantly in movement — a fitting metaphor for the first decades of the 20th century, during which old scientific, religious, political, and social certainties were shattered. This era also saw the publication of genre-shattering writing by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sax Rohmer, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Aldous Huxley, Olaf Stapledon, Karel Čapek, H.P. Lovecraft, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Philip Gordon Wylie, and other pioneers of post-Verne/Wells, pre-Golden Age “science fiction.”

HILOBOOKS: The mission of HiLoBooks is to serialize novels (both original and reissued) on HiLobrow, and to reissue Radium Age science fiction in beautiful new print editions. The following titles can be read in serial form via HiLobrow.com and/or purchased in gorgeous paperback form online or via your local independent bookstore: Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, Rudyard Kipling’s With the Night Mail (and “As Easy as A.B.C.”), Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Poison Belt, H. Rider Haggard’s When the World Shook, Edward Shanks’ The People of the Ruins, William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land, J.D. Beresford’s Goslings, E.V. Odle’s The Clockwork Man, Cicely Hamilton’s Theodore Savage, and Muriel Jaeger’s The Man with Six Senses. Also serialized on HiLobrow: W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Comet”, Homer Eon Flint’s The Devolutionist, Philip Francis Nowlan’s Armageddon — 2419 A.D., Jack London’s “The Red One”. For more information, visit the HiLoBooks homepage.

ORIGINAL FICTION from HILOBROW: James Parker’s swearing-animal fable The Ballad of Cocky The Fox, later published in limited-edition paperback by HiLoBooks; plus: a newsletter, The Sniffer, by Patrick Cates, and further stories: “The Cockarillion”) | Karinne Keithley Syers’s hollow-earth adventure Linda, later published in limited-edition paperback; plus: ukulele music, and a “Floating Appendix”) | Matthew Battles’s stories “Gita Nova“, “Makes the Man,” “Imago,” “Camera Lucida,” “A Simple Message”, “Children of the Volcano”, “The Gnomon”, “Billable Memories”, “For Provisional Description of Superficial Features”, “The Dogs in the Trees”, “The Sovereignties of Invention”, and “Survivor: The Island of Dr. Moreau”; several of these later appeared in the collection The Sovereignties of Invention, published by Red Lemonade | Robert Waldron’s high-school campus roman à clef The School on the Fens | Peggy Nelson’s “Mood Indigo“, “Top Kill Fail“, and “Mercerism” | Annalee Newitz’s “The Great Oxygen Race” | Charlie Mitchell’s “A Fantasy Land” | Joshua Glenn’s “The Lawless One”, and the mashup story “Zarathustra vs. Swamp Thing” | Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri’s Idoru Jones comics | John Holbo’s “Sugarplum Squeampunk” | “Another Corporate Death” (1) and “Another Corporate Death” (2) by Mike Fleisch | Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer and Frank Fiorentino’s graphic novel “The Song of Otto” (excerpt) | “Manoj” and “Josh” by Vijay Balakrishnan | “Verge” by Chris Rossi, and his audio novel Low Priority Hero | EPIC WINS: THE ILIAD (1.408-415) by Flourish Klink | EPIC WINS: THE KALEVALA (3.1-278) by James Parker | EPIC WINS: THE ARGONAUTICA (2.815-834) by Joshua Glenn | EPIC WINS: THE ILIAD by Stephen Burt | EPIC WINS: THE MYTH OF THE ELK by Matthew Battles | EPIC WINS: GOTHAMIAD by Chad Parmenter | TROUBLED SUPERHUMAN CONTEST: Charles Pappas, “The Law” | CATASTROPHE CONTEST: Timothy Raymond, “Hem and the Flood” | TELEPATHY CONTEST: Rachel Ellis Adams, “Fatima, Can You Hear Me?” | OIL SPILL CONTEST: A.E. Smith, “Sound Thinking | LITTLE NEMO CAPTION CONTEST: Joe Lyons, “Necronomicon” | SPOOKY-KOOKY CONTEST: Tucker Cummings, “Well Marbled” | INVENT-A-HERO CONTEST: TG Gibbon, “The Firefly” | FANFICTION CONTEST: Lyette Mercier’s “Sex and the Single Superhero”

Philip Francis Nowlan was a Pennsylvania-based journalist and author of Radium Age science fiction. In addition to Armageddon—2419 A.D., he wrote The Airlords of Han (1929), The Onslaught from Venus (1929), and The Time Jumpers (1934). His long-running and much-imitated Buck Rogers comic strip, illustrated by Dick Calkins, first appeared in January 1929.

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Timbaland Signs Deal With Sony Production House, Extreme Music

The music of producer Timbaland to be featured in both movies and television shows thanks to new deal with Sony.

The music of Virginia-born producer Timbaland may soon works its way onto both the small and big screen thanks to a new deal the producer has just signed on to.

According to AllHipHop.com, Timbaland and producer Mike "Daddy" Evans have just signed a deal with Sony’s Extreme Music. Extreme Music provides background music for a number of television shows and movies including 30 Rock, Glee, and Inception.

Both Evans and Timbaland will produce a total of 75 tracks as part of their deal with Extreme Music.

On top of their upcoming projects with Timbaland, Extreme Music has also worked with other well-known Hip Hop artists including Xzibit and Snoop Dogg.

Aside from producing for various artists and beginning his latest venture with Extreme Music Timbaland is also working on wrapping up his next studio album titled Shock Value III.

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Overwhelmed by Stuff

“When people think about getting organized, many times they get defeated before they even start.  I call this “ but there’s too much” syndrome.  You take a look at that basement or that closet and say ‘but there’s just too much stuff.  I don’t even know where to begin.’  The sense of dread and overwhelming takes over and you close the door or walk out of the room.  Nothing gets closer to being organized, and on top of that, you tend to feel guilty about not getting it done…again.  But I’m here to tell you a little unknown secret…come closer…don’t want everyone to hear…ready?...”
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Dealing with an Estate

“Joann and her husband were married 26 years when he passed away in September 2007. Because he was responsible for paying the bills and maintaining much of the finances, Joann found that paperwork was piling up and she was having a difficult time coping with it all…”
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Even Organized People Can Use a Hand

“A couple weeks before Jeannie’s arrival, my husband says, “I hate this cabinet!” as he tries to find a used plastic grocery bag. I tell him not to worry … Jeannie will be here soon. So I’m thinking I’ll ask her to organize that one cabinet. Which I do. And she does. My husband is very happy. Then I happen to open a cabinet near that one, and Jeannie kindly asks if I’d like help with that cabinet. I never thought that cabinet really needed organizing, until I looked at it a bit more closely….”
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Beth and her family were moving and Beth remembered how long it took her to completely unpack all her boxes the last time they moved - it seemed like three years! She wanted to move into her new house and hit the ground running by being organized from Day One.
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Crafts Were Taking Over

Liz was ready. She’d had enough. Liz lived in a two-bedroom condo with her cat, Baby, and a lot of clutter. Liz loves to do crafts - lots of different crafts - and they were taking over her life and her home.
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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Jane Austen's account of a November ball in 1800

In November 1800, Jane Austen was a month short of her 25th birthday. The following is a much edited letter, written to her sister Cassandra, but I particularly love her description of the ball and more particularly the images that are conjured up by the descriptions of the people who attended.
The lovely illustrations are by Philip Gough from Sense and Sensibility.

Steventon: Thursday, November 20, 1800.

Your letter took me quite by surprise this morning; you are very welcome, however, and I am very much obliged to you. I believe I drank too much wine last night at Hurstbourne; I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand to-day. You will kindly make allowance therefore for any indistinctness of writing, by attributing it to this venial error.

Your desiring to hear from me on Sunday will, perhaps, bring you a more particular account of the ball than you may care for, because one is prone to think much more of such things the morning after they happen, than when time has entirely driven them out of one's recollection.

It was a pleasant evening; Charles found it remarkably so, but I cannot tell why, unless the absence of Miss Terry, towards whom his conscience reproaches him with being now perfectly indifferent, was a relief to him. There were only twelve dances, of which I danced nine, and was merely prevented from dancing the rest by the want of a partner. We began at ten, supped at one, and were at Deane before five. There were but fifty people in the room; very few families indeed from our side of the county, and not many more from the other. My partners were the two St. Johns, Hooper, Holder, and very prodigious Mr. Mathew, with whom I called the last, and whom I liked the best of my little stock.

There were very few beauties, and such as there were were not very handsome. Miss Iremonger did not look well, and Mrs. Blount was the only one much admired. She appeared exactly as she did in September, with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, and fat neck. The two Miss Coxes were there: I traced in one the remains of the vulgar, broad-featured girl who danced at Enham eight years ago; the other is refined into a nice, composed-looking girl, like Catherine Bigg. I looked at Sir Thomas Champneys and thought of poor Rosalie; I looked at his daughter, and thought her a queer animal with a white neck. Mrs. Warren, I was constrained to think, a very fine young woman, which I much regret. She has got rid of some part of her child, and danced away with great activity looking by no means very large. Her husband is ugly enough, uglier even than his cousin John; but he does not look so very old. The Miss Maitlands are both prettyish, very like Anne, with brown skins, large dark eyes, and a good deal of nose. The General has got the gout, and Mrs. Maitland the jaundice. Miss Debary, Susan, and Sally, all in black, but without any stature, made their appearance, and I was as civil to them as their bad breath would allow me.

Mary said that I looked very well last night. I wore my aunt's gown and handkerchief, and my hair was at least tidy, which was all my ambition. I will now have done with the ball, and I will moreover go and dress for dinner.

We had a very pleasant day on Monday at Ashe, we sat down fourteen to dinner in the study, the dining-room being not habitable from the storms having blown down its chimney. Mrs. Bramston talked a good deal of nonsense, which Mr. Bramston and Mr. Clerk seemed almost equally to enjoy. There was a whist and a casino table, and six outsiders. Rice and Lucy made love, Mat. Robinson fell asleep, James and Mrs. Augusta alternately read Dr. Finnis' pamphlet on the cow-pox, and I bestowed my company by turns on all.

The three Digweeds all came on Tuesday, and we played a pool at commerce. James Digweed left Hampshire to-day. I think he must be in love with you, from his anxiety to have you go to the Faversham balls, and likewise from his supposing that the two elms fell from their grief at your absence. Was not it a gallant idea? It never occurred to me before, but I dare say it was so.

Farewell; Charles sends you his best love and Edward his worst. If you think the distinction improper, you may take the worst yourself. He will write to you when he gets back to his ship, and in the meantime desires that you will consider me as

Your affectionate sister, J. A.

Jane Odiwe - click here to read my blog

Jan Jones said...

Oh, I do love Jane Austen's descriptions! A few words - and the people are there in front of your eyes.

Colleen Duffy said...

This is wonderful! I have a book of "Selected Letters of Jane Austen" and I must really get into reading it, after enjoying this extract so much!

Jane Odiwe said...

You must read them-I am constantly surprised by what I find in them!


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United Textile Workers Ready to Strike

Rating: No votes.

The textile workers had had enough. On September 1, 1934 at 11:30 p.m. they went on strike. Francis J. Gorman, Chairman of the National Special Strike Committee of the United Textile Workers of America, sent a telegraph to Alabama Governor Benjamin Miller to make him aware of the strike and the reasons behind it. Gorman reasoned that the workers themselves provided the authority for the strike and that it is a “result of abuses no longer bearable.” He listed several grievances of the textile workers and asked Governor Miller for the “protection which you are required to give all citizens.” Gorman sought protection from the “forces of employers” and, interestingly, “the insidious and disruptive forces of communism.” Gorman assured Miller that the strike will be “an orderly lawful and democratic procedure.” He concludes the telegram by requesting that the Governor ensure that they be treated fairly during the strike.

Historian Robert Ingalls discusses the plight of union workers and communist agitators in Birmingham during the 1930s. He asserts that the communists worked to provide equality between the classes and the races but were victims of the status quo. Big businesses, the employers Gorman feared, covertly promoted violence against communists in order to keep themselves in power. Ingalls writes that the communists wanted to improve workers’ rights and promote unions. Yet, in this telegram, Gorman spurned the communists. This is a unique perspective that historians have not fully studied. Ingalls acknowledges how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People rejected any association with the communists, even as they attempted to help end racism and discrimination. However he doesn’t mention any tensions with unions. According to Ingalls, by 1934 Birmingham was “in the throes of strike fever.” He notes as labor unrest grew, so did anti-communist violence.  In fact, the crackdown caused some union spokesmen to argue that communists were being used as scapegoats to distract the public from the real cause of the strikes. Ingalls provides evidence that the communists and unions were on the same side yet this document opposes that belief. Perhaps pro-union men like Gorman simply did not like being associated with such an unfavorable group as the communists, even if they did share some beliefs. What is clear is that conditions for United Textile Workers were deplorable and they were ready to act.


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July 3, 2015

Hot Mic: Senator Can’t Wait to ‘Jet’ Out of Town (Video)

As the Senate worked through a series of procedural motions and votes on Thursday night, one senator just wanted catch his flight home.

Caught on a clerk’s microphone as the roll call for a vote on the Highway Trust Fund patch was read, the senator tells the clerk it is time for “summer vacation.”

“We have a plane home … [at] 9:30,” the senator says to the clerk. “Bags are packed, ready to go … leaving on a jet plane.”

Although the Senate is in session today, the next vote series is scheduled for Sept. 8,  when senators return from a five-week recess.

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  • CapHappenings

    To be fair and comprehensive… That is Senator Barasso, who was hoping that he would be able to catch the CODEL flight to the southwest border that had a departure deadline of 9:30pm. He was not simply hoping to jet home for vacation.

    • oaklanddog

      Why does he say “we have a plane home”?

      • CapHappenings

        I think the captioning is inaccurate… sounds to me like he says “We have a plane holding on the runway”

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Josh Hutcherson & Vanessa Hudgens North Carolina Date — Is She She Staying With Him As He Films 'Hunger Games?'

Tue, May 24, 2011 1:41pm EDT by 35 Comments

Josh and Vanessa enjoy a day of zip-lining in North Carolina where Josh is shooting his huge new film — will new girlfriend Vanessa be by his side all summer?

Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens seem to be the real deal as Vanessa joined Josh for a romantic day date — across the country! Vanessa and Josh plunked down $89 for a canopy adventure at Navitat in Asheville, N.C., where Josh is filming The Hunger Games. Among the activities the duo may have enjoyed? Zip-lining, rappelling and enjoying views of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. How outdoorsy!

One thing this photo of the pair’s date does not show, sadly, is Josh’s new blond hair! Josh had to go from brown to blond for his role as Peeta in The Hunger Games, but sadly his helmet makes it difficult to see.

Given Vanessa flew right to North Carolina following her trip to the Cannes Film Festival it seems clear these two are serious, but do you think Vanessa will spend the summer with Josh in North Carolina?


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Selena Gomez: Why I'm Completely In Love With Justin Bieber

Tue, January 31, 2012 9:40pm EDT by 108 Comments
Selena Gomez Justin Bieber

Selena says Justin is exactly what she needs in her life — read on to find out the secret to their happy and healthy relationship!

Selena Gomez is head-over-heels in love with Justin Bieber! The 19-year-old superstar graces her first-ever Cosmopolitan cover and she looks phenomenal. In her in depth interview, Selena says looking back she feels like she “wasted” time dating other boys!

“It was like a year of my life completely wasted,” she says of dating an ex-boyfriend who remains unidentified in the article. But why is she so in love with Justin? Is it because he takes her on lavish dates all over the world?

“I’m just like every 19-year-old girl,” she says. “If you’re in love, you’re in love to the fullest, and you just want to go to the movies, hang out, and be as normal as possible. I’m fortunate that I’ve found someone who has that philosophy.”

That is just the sweetest thing, it’s amazing to see how happy Justin makes Selena!

“[Love] is the most powerful thing,” she adds. “When it comes to my family, friends, a relationship … it centers me. You only live once, and I want to be proud of everything that I do and just have fun. I want to be able to say that I had a really fulfilled, fun life.”

— Chloe Melas

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More Selena:

  1. Selena Gomez, Kristen Stewart & More: Hollywood’s Good Girls Gone Wild
  2. Selena Gomez Supports 5-Year-Old Girl With Cancer Who Sings ‘Who Says’
  3. Selena Gomez: Barefoot And Beautiful In Mexico City


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Rihanna Calls Her New Balmain Campaign ‘Brilliant’ — Watch

Thu, January 2, 2014 5:56pm EDT by 14 Comments

Go behind-the-scenes with RiRi herself as she gushes about her latest gig — as the face of Balmain!

Rihanna is nothing short of a fashion icon at the moment — so who could be better to front the edgy Spring 2014Balmain campaign? Rihanna and creative director of BALMAIN Paris, Olivier Rousteing, admire each other and are great friends, too! Both RiRi and Olivier were quick to share their excitement behind the scenes on set — and you can see it all unfold here.

Rihanna’s Balmain Video — Her Campaign Shoot:

RiRi is all smiles backstage at the Balmain campaign shoot and she had nothing but wonderful things to say about the designer and the new line! “Everything we have done together has been amazing,” RiRi says about her pal, Olivier. “Now we get to shoot Balmain which is freaking epic! Balmain has been a friend that I’ve loved for so long and now, to actually get to work with him…it’s brilliant!” Rihanna was obviously having a blast because she told the cameras: “we had fun today…we had so much fun” — well, it sure looked like it!

Olivier’s Thoughts on Why He Chose Rihanna:

“Dreams do come true… When the woman that inspires you wears your creations, your vision feels complete. Not compromising, fresh, modern, the icon of my generation, Rihanna embodies my vision of Balmain in this new campaign. In front of the camera, she makes you feel like she is the only girl in the world,” said Rousteing. “A few months ago, she came to the studio and from that; I wanted to create all this collection around her. She mixes fashion with music & I think my collection is based around that.”

He had nothing but compliments for our girl RiRi, continuing on to say: “I just think, she’s this girl that everybody knows…she’s boyish, she’s strong…she’s powerful — she knows how to mix beauty– she’s the new icon.”

We couldn’t agree more. What do you think of her campaign?

— Olivia Elgart

More Rihanna News:

  1. Rihanna Rocks A $990 Bikini In The Barbados
  2. Rihanna Flaunts Her Cleavage In A Sexy Bikini In Barbados
  3. Rihanna Attends Christmas Party In Super Sexy Red Lingerie — Pic


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Oat Pilav

Oat Pilav in the skillet

Gluten free steel cut oats are not just for breakfast. Oats is a nutritious grain, and it produces a flavorful and chewy pilaf for lunch or dinner. This recipe used 1/2 cup of steel cut oats for 2 servings, but you can adjust the amount to suite.


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Cricket PCB Layouts

Cricket PCB - Top Layer

Cricket PCB - Bottom Layer

Cricket PCB - Parts Layout

Cricket PCB - CAD File - This file works with the PCB service

Express PCB fabricates PC boards quickly and inexpensively. Two boards can be purchased including tax and shipping for $96 US. I also have a design file that complies with Express PCB's Mini board service which allows you to purchase three boards for $59 US. These boards will be a little over size but can be trimmed to size. Here is the design file for the Express PCB Mini Board Service.

Cricket PCB - CAD File for Mini Board Service


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An Interview with Bing McCoy

Ever since starting Rom, Spaceknight Revisited, I've wondered who created the Rom action figure and how I could find out. I would like to say that after weeks of research, I was finally able to track him down, but that's not what happened. From out of the blue in April 2004, I got an e-mail from a man known as Lawrence "Bing" McCoy saying, "greetings from the guy who created ROM. I've got some bits and pieces around - what do you need?" My immediate answer was, "an interview!" Thank goodness he agreed. Due to his busy schedule, it's taken some time, but here, finally, is a brief interview with the man who created Rom.

Rom, Spaceknight Revisited: There's very little info about you on the Web. What was your background before creating the Rom action figure?

Bing McCoy: [I'm] not surprised as I've generally kept a low profile and away from the media. Here's the URL to all my info at my company website:

[Interviewer's note: The page did not exist at the time I first asked the question. McCoy's credits include Electronic Battleship; the Starbird (check out Bug Eyed Monster's page on it); the direct to video children's show Adventures of Gregory and Bushkin, which he wrote, produced, and directed; and the Photon Guitar Synthesizer.]

Prior to making toys I was a touring musician. [I] played with people like EmmyLou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, etc. (Odd, because I am not a country musician.) Music has become a great hobby and now and then I put out a CD for friends. [Here's a] link to streaming mp3s of recent music, if of interest.

RSR: What term do you use to describe your job title/career? Both now and in the late '70s, if they're different.

McCoy: Never had a title or thought about it. Used to be an inventor. Now I'm told I'm an executive producer. Sounds fancy, but doesn't really mean anything to me.

Action Figure

RSR: What was the toy market like around 1979, when Rom was released? Electronic toys were still very new, right?

McCoy: Electronic toys were very new and as a result we sold them as fast as we could make them. I probably sold 20 - 30 toys in the space of five years.

RSR: Tell me about the genesis of Rom.

McCoy: ROM started out as an Egyptian mystic toy. Of course I was young and dumb and didn't consider that no toy company would want to sell an Egyptian mystic, so I made it into a cyborg (part man / part machine) after all the toy companies passed on the "Egyptian" concept. Parker Bros. picked it up because they thought it would be good to try something outside the board game business.

RSR: Did you name him or did Parker Brothers? Was he named for Read Only Memory?

McCoy: I originally named him "COBOL" after the programming language. Parker Bros. changed the name to ROM. I figure that was because of read only memory - plus it sounded like a name.

RSR: Rom's box is marked "patent pending." I have been unable to find any patents related to him in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's database. What was the patent for? Was it merely a design patent or was it related to his electronics?

McCoy: The patent was issued May 12, 1981. Patent #4,267,551.

[Interviewer's note: This is an off-site link to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database. The patent is for a "multi-mode doll," described as, "an electronic toy doll including electronic circuitry for selectively generating a number of simulation sounds typically associated with a mystic or science fantasy character."]

In addition to your name, I see Scott Dankman and Richard C. Levy on the patent. What were their roles?

McCoy: Scott Dankman and I originally started a company after my success with Electronic Battleship. Scott handled the biz stuff and I did the inventing. Later on we brought Richard Levy as the 'marketing guy'. I agreed to let them sign on as co-inventors so that they could [claim] capital gains status on their tax returns. Both Scott and I dissolved the partnership after a few years.

RSR: Did Parker Brothers make any tweaks to your design?

McCoy: Well, of course they improved/designed the appearance, but the electronics and basic concept stayed the same.

RSR: Why does Rom have so few points of articulation?

McCoy: Cost. At that time, making an action figure that large was considered a gamble, so Parker Bros. cut cost anywhere they could. The original ROM had green LED eyes and those were changed to red becuase green LEDs were a lot more expensive back then.

[Interviewer's note: Upon later consideration, this probably isn't a fair question. The Rom action figure had about the same number of points of articulation as Barbie did back then.]

RSR: What sort of toys were Rom's main competition? Big Trak? The Starbird (which you also designed)?

McCoy: I actually don't know what toys were competition. I know later on other companies decided to put electronics in action figures.

RSR: Did you plan or design any other toys to go with Rom?

McCoy: I didn't plan any more toys for ROM. It was a one-off.

RSR: Did you create any sort of backstory for him?

McCoy: My only back story was that he was a cyborg. Marvel came up with the main story concept.

RSR: Do you know why Parker Brothers never created any Dire Wraith toys? If not, do you have any theories?

McCoy: ROM pretty much flopped as a toy, so Parker Bros. didn't want to make any more stuff. My (personal) theory is that Parker Bros. didn't market it very well. Which is understandable because they were a board game company, not an action figure company.

RSR: What do you feel could have been done to make the Rom action figure more successful?

McCoy: Better marketing. And the box was a terrible graphic design. It just didn't look very sexy.

RSR: Rom was sold by Parker Brothers in the U.S. and Palitoy in the U.K. What other countries was it available in?

McCoy: I don't know. If Palitoy sold it, then it was probably available in a number of European countries - but that's just a guess.

RSR: Do you know roughly how many Rom figures were manufactured or sold in the U.S.? The U.K.? Elsewhere (if applicable)?

McCoy: I think about 200k-300k units were sold.

Comic Book

RSR: Early interviews with the comic book's creators indicated Parker Brothers came to Marvel with the name "Dire Wraiths," but had no idea what a Dire Wraith might be. Was that a name you created?

McCoy: No. I did not create the name. Parker Bros. pretty much took it and ran with it. Then Marvel took over the story line.

RSR: Did you read the Rom comic book?

McCoy: Definitely.

RSR: Were you surprised that the comic outlived the toy by so many years?

McCoy: No - the comic was good and the final toy product didn't really fulfill the story in the comic.

RSR: Does it bother you that Rom was more successful as a comic book character than a toy?

McCoy: No. I thought the comic was better than the toy and was happy just to be part of it. The only thing that ever upset me was when Paul Verhoeven blatently ripped it off as "RoboCop". Pretty much same design, and very similar storyline. Unfortunately "intellectual property" lawsuits of this nature rarely succeed, so we just let it go.

RSR: Marvel, however, went on to secure the rights to produce a RoboCop comic. Also, well known comic book creator Frank Miller wound up writing RoboCop 2 and 3. And when the Rom comic book series debuted, Miller provided the cover for #1. There's a certain irony there, don't you think?

McCoy: Yes, I knew about all that. When Marvel became so successful that Stan Lee was no longer in control, things changed - and I don't mean for the better. After Frank Miller wrote the second RoboCop he realized he didn't want to do that anymore, but he was stuck. His quote about writing features - "you're a fire hydrant and there's a line of dogs around the block."

RSR: Did you ever meet any of the creators behind the comic?

McCoy: I know Stan Lee pretty well. We used to go to lunch regularly, though I haven't talked to him in a long time. Other than that I didn't meet any of the people behind the comic.

RSR: Any parting comments you'd like to make to Rom's fans?

McCoy: Long live ROM, those who have followed his chronicles, and the pursuit of galactic peace. If you want more info my on current projects, go to the website:


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Suggestions for the Soil to Use for Cymbidium

by Cathryn Chaney Google
    Cymbidiums grow in well-drained potting mixes without soil.

    Cymbidiums grow in well-drained potting mixes without soil.

    Spring floral corsages for proms, Mother's Day and Easter usually depend heavily on the waxy subtle beauty of cymbidium orchid flowers. Elegantly colored 1- to 3-inch blossoms are produced abundantly on sizeable flower stalks that arise from clumps of long green leaves. Cymbidiums are native to Asia and Australia, where they grow as epiphytes without soil. Potting mixes for cymbidiums do not use soil, but rather combinations of loose, well-draining materials that will anchor roots but not keep them too wet. Recipes vary depending on the size of the orchid plant and where you grow it.

    Basic Potting Mix Considerations

    Most cymbidium potting mixes contain larger pieces of organic material, such as fir bark or redwood bark, which keeps the mix open and well-draining and gives spaces for roots to grow into. Another necessary component is finer water-absorbing organic matter such as peat moss or sphagnum. Using peat ensures a slightly acid soil, which cymbidiums prefer. Orchid roots need moist but not soggy conditions, so there has to be a balance between drainage and water retention. Most mixes also contain an inorganic substance, such as perlite, to ensure excellent drainage. Many other ingredients serve these same functions of anchoring roots, retaining water and providing drainage. You can create your own custom mixes to suit individual growing situations.

    Seedling Mixes

    Seedling cymbidiums have smaller roots and are put in small pots, so you'll need to use finer grades of ingredients. One combination uses seedling-grade fir bark with bark pieces 1/8 to 1/4 inch in size for 80 percent of the mix and No. 3 perlite for 20 percent. Another mix suggested for seedlings contains coconut husk chips instead of bark in the proportions of 40 percent fine chips, 40 percent medium chips and 20 percent perlite. Coconut coir -- a fibrous material from the coconut husk that resembles peat moss -- works better for very young seedlings.

    Mixes for Larger Plants

    Older cymbidiums have thick, coarse roots so use larger grades of bark in mixes. For 6-inch pots, combine 40 percent medium chips, 40 percent large chips and 20 percent perlite. You can also try just large coconut husk chips for growing cymbidiums in 8-inch pots or larger. Use large bark as a bottom layer in pots that contain finer ingredients that might leak through the drainage holes. In place of or in addition to the perlite, you can use pumice or scoria.

    Mixes for Mild Coastal Areas

    In mild coastal climates, you can grow cymbidiums outdoors, either planted in beds in reliably frost-free areas or in containers. For planting beds, the soil needs to be amended with at least 50 percent coarse organic material such as orchid mix, fir bark or wood shavings. In addition, use bark or shavings as a top mulch around the base of the orchid. For containers, a basic mix combines fine fir bark, loam or planter mix, and sand.

    Ingredients for Drier, Warmer Climates

    Where cymbidiums are in lower humidities and higher ambient temperatures, the potting mix dries out faster. To counter this, add more water-retaining ingredients such as sand or coarse peat. Coconut coir hydrates well and retains enough air spaces to aerate orchid roots -- about 30 percent air in fully moistened coir. Coir also is easy to remoisten if it dries out, unlike peat which resists water absorption when dry.

    Australian Ingredients

    Keep track of your mix recipes as you experiment and evaluate resulting growth, recommends the Queensland Orchid Society. Ingredients for Australian mixes include pine bark, tan bark, hardwood shavings, wood that has been chipped, peat moss, shellgrit, gravel, scoria, oak leaves, pebbles, washed sand, rice hulls, peanut shells, charcoal, marble chips and isolite, a commercial product consisting of diatomaceous earth calcined into grains of porous ceramic).

    About the Author

    Cathryn Chaney has worked as a gardening writer since 2002. Her horticultural experience working in the nursery industry informs her garden articles, especially those dealing with arid landscaping and drought-tolerant gardening. Chaney also writes poetry, which has appears in "Woman's World" magazine and elsewhere. Chaney graduated from the University of Arizona in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

    Photo Credits

    • Jupiterimages/ Images
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    Thank you for providing feedback to our Editorial staff on this article. Please fill in the following information so we can alert the Home Guides editorial team about a factual or typographical error in this story. All Fields are required.


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Homer Sports and Outdoors

  • “Welcome to the Warrior dome,” the voice of Bea Klaich, head coach of the Nikolaevsk High School girls basketball team, boomed across Nikolaevsk School gym the evening of Jan. 2.  Full bleachers, thundering music and a strong current of excitement made it clear something big was about to ha...

    Wed, 01/08/2014 - 4:30pm
  • Attracting hundreds of skiers and with a lengthy Homer history, the Besh Cup continues on Homer’s Lookout Mountain Trails Jan. 18-19. “It’s been around for a long time,” said Jan Spurkland, president of the Kachemak Bay Nordic Ski Club. “In the 1980s, it was called the Tang Cup and then in...

    Wed, 01/08/2014 - 3:44pm
  • Oh, what a difference a few hundred feet in elevation can make. At sea level Sunday, it was spring-like. Green grass poked through melting layers of snow on front yards and temperatures actually reached the low 40s. Up on East Skyline Drive, the sun was shining, but there was definitely more snow an...

    Wed, 01/08/2014 - 3:43pm
  • Even with a few players out of town for the holidays and sidelined for poor health, the Homer High School Mariner hockey team wasn’t about to miss an opportunity to take on alumni players at the Kevin Bell Arena on Friday. Forced to pull from the alumni roster to fill in for missing players, the M...

    Tue, 12/31/2013 - 4:54pm
  • Now that the big mat rats have finished their season, it is time for the middle school and local elementary programs to start practicing to become state champions. Practices for the Homer Middle School and Chapman Middle-Elementary School programs begin on Monday and are held every day after school....

    Tue, 12/31/2013 - 4:52pm
  • In their third and final game at the Clarke Cochrane Christmas Classic in Ketchikan last week, the Homer Mariner girls battled against the Craig Panthers, the defending 2A state champs, for fourth place and lost by a narrow-two-point difference. Then, the watchful eyes of Homer at-home fans viewing ...

    Tue, 12/31/2013 - 4:48pm
  • Some people may have awakened Dec. 26 feeling drained of energy and sluggish from too much holiday eating. Not Margit Andersson.  The 100-year-old, with the help of her son, Ole, strapped on a set of skis and joined in the fun at “Ski Your Age,” an annual event held at Lookout Mountain Recr...

    Tue, 12/31/2013 - 4:45pm
  • Back on the road after claiming first place in the three-day Christmas Round Robin at Big Lake last weekend, the Homer Mariners hockey team found the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears to be doing anything but hibernating. Playing at Juneau’s Treadwell Arena, the Crimson Bears claimed a 4-1 victory over...

    Thu, 12/26/2013 - 2:34pm
  • Ski Your Age in Kilometers Lookout Mountain WHEN: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Dec. 26 WHAT: This non-competitive community event benefits the Homer High School cross country ski team. There is no entry fee, but donations are accepted. Participants are asked to b...

    Thu, 12/26/2013 - 2:32pm
  • Lack of snow for training early in the season hasn’t slowed down Homer Mariner cross country skiers Brian Rowe and Aspen Daigle. In the Candy Cane Scramble Dec. 19, with skiers from Kenai Central, Skyview, Soldotna and Homer competing, Rowe took first in the boys competition and Daigle took first ...

    Thu, 12/26/2013 - 2:30pm

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Sarah Outen Kayaking Photos


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03 March, 2014

~Win from FAAP Etsy : A Heartfelt Love Celebration~

Pictured above is the cute pattern I chose with the $5.00 gift certificate won in FAAP Etsy team's: ~A Heartfelt Love Celebration~. The gift certificate was from Karen at: Red Dirt Primitives Etsy shoppe. Hand Made creates an 18" mammy doll with a darling little sheep. I have named her Beulah. This pattern is unlike any I had made, and was a fun one that will be used many times more, 'guarantee it. Beulah's dress is 100% cotton mustard with little bumble bees. Her apron and head wrap are 100% cotton homespun in burgundy and cream checked. The pantaloons are bleached muslin. Her hair is black wool roving. The painted face was a bit daunting, but got it done without a disaster, lol. Beulah is coffee and vanilla stained. Her little sheep is made of 100% cotton white terry cloth with black painted features. Thank you so much Karen and the whole FAAP Etsy team. There were several lucky winners in this awesome giveaway. Don't you think this pattern is just too cute? 'Gotta love mammy dolls and sheep. Prim Spring blessings.

1 comment:

  1. Very sweet! Reminds me of Belindy dolls.Of course you picked the cutest fabric.Warm Blessings!~Amy

Thank you for your comment. However, due to spam attempts, any comment unrelated to this blog's theme and/or containing a link to another site/blog will not be approved. Thank you for understanding.


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Monday, June 11, 2012

Squash Bug Trap

Squash Bug Trap & Frost in June - Back to the Homestead

We are moving along. The bean and pea seeds that I replanted in the bare spots of the rows are starting to come back. I took your advice and held off on watering them for a while but nature keeps interfering with my plans (not complaining at all). It's strange how some plants need more water than others. They are greening up a bit but I am still keeping an eye on them.

This video has a kaleidoscope of topics: Frost, Green Beans, Rain, Wind, Squash Bugs, Duckweed and...well...there's got to be a topic or two that I could squeeze in there. We had a big storm come through the area and it blows in Idaho. There sure is no shortage of wind here in the potato state.

You'll see in this video:

1. Wind on the Homestead
2. Duckweed Update
3. Building a Squash Bug Trap
4. Frost in June

I have another experiment that I am going to try. Stink bugs and squash bugs look so much alike to me. I know they share some similarities. According to

The stink bug's classification is as follows:

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Superfamily Pentatomoidea
Family Pentatomidae (Stink Bugs)

The squash bug's classification is as follows:

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Superfamily Coreoidea
Family Coreidae (Leaf-footed Bugs)
Subfamily Coreinae
Tribe Coreini
Genus Anasa (Squash Bugs)
They follow the same classification all the way down to the Suborder. They are "True Bugs." Nope, and I don't know if there is a "fake bug" out there. Anyway, it makes sense that they will follow some sort of pattern that are similar. Hopefully they both like a bright light at night.

In this week's video, I demonstrate setting up the squash bug trap. I will check it every day until I start getting some bugs in the trap (or not) and let you know how it turns out on subsequent videos.

Here's a link to the video where I got the idea:

Lastly, I have a video I uploaded called, "Video Response to Strong Points during SHTF or DHTO - Back to the Homestead." I was tagged in a video and posted my response...

1 comment:

  1. EGFR TKI resistance mechanisms and c-Met inhibitors will become a hot spot

    EGFR mutations in patients with EGFR TKI gradually determine the first-line treatment of status, the EGFR TKI get drug resistance mechanism of their resistance should be taken treatment strategies will gradually become the focus of attention.

    The EGFR TKI acquired resistance mechanisms are not yet completely clear. Previous studies show that approximately 50% of patients after EGFR TKI treatment after acquired drug resistance may be due to tumor cells secondary mutation. This resistance mutation No. 790 sites in the EGFR gene on the 20th exon methionine is substituted with threonine (T790M mutation), thus impeding the EGFR with erlotinib combination of erlotinib or gefitinib, erlotinib, or increase in the affinity of the EGFR and its ligands ATP.

    EGFR TKI acquired drug resistance in patients with no standard treatment options. EGFR TKI combined with chemotherapy, the 3rd generation EGFR TKI, second-generation EGFR TKI United Cistercian infliximab, second-generation EGFR TKI inhibitor of c-Met, the second generation the EGFR TKI United HDAC inhibitors as well as second-generation EGFR TKI United IFGF1RC inhibitors future promising drug post-processing program.

    The basis of studies have shown that a new generation of irreversible EGFR inhibitors may be acquired resistance to EGFR TKI patients. EKB-569, HKI-272, Canertinib, BIBW2992 and PF-299804 and other ongoing human clinical trials of drugs.

    c-Met is leading to tumor formation and metastasis of many passage cross point, the c-Met as a target can be relatively easily achieved while interference for many passages, to find efficient c-Met inhibitor antineoplastic study hot spots. Currently, capable of blocking the signal transduction pathway of c-Met has been found that many compounds, including monoclonal antibodies (such as OA-505) and small molecule kinase inhibitor of c-Met (e.g., PF-2341066, ARQ-197, XL-184 etc.). 2010 ESMO annual meeting of the multi-center, randomized, double-blind Ⅱ clinical study (OAM4588) of the Met receptor antagonist (MetMab) combined with erlotinib efficacy of the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC. The results showed that highly expressed in the Met patients, the erlotinib Nigeria United MetMab can improve PFS and OS, and no unexpected adverse reactions, but in patients with low expression Met erlotinib Stock MetMab of group PFS and OS was poor.

    Medchemexpress Can provide the above product,its

    AST 487
    Canertinib dihydrochloride
    CP-724714 (E-Double bond)


text:
NA Step 7

“We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”

—Step Seven

Though each of the Twelve Steps is a separate process unto itself, they all blend together to some degree as their parts interact with one another aspects of Step One fusing into Step Two, components of Step Four meshing into the following steps. Perhaps the finest line between two steps is the one between Steps Six and Seven. At first glance, Step Seven may seem almost an afterthought to Step Six. We spent a great deal of time and effort raising our awareness of our character defects in Step Six and getting to the point where we were entirely ready to have them removed; now all we need to do is ask, right?

Not exactly. There’s much more to this step than just filing a request with our Higher Power and waiting for a response. There’s spiritual preparation. There’s the need to develop an understanding about what “humbly” means in this context. There’s the need to find a way of asking that fits into our individual spiritual paths. And there’s the need to practice spiritual principles in the place of character defects.

Preparing to Work Step Seven

We’ve already done much of the spiritual preparation we’ll need to begin Step Seven. It’s important that we draw the connection between the work we’ve done and the results that work has produced.

The previous steps have all served to sow the seeds of humility in our spirits. In this step, those seeds take root and grow. Many of us have difficulty with the concept of humility, and while we began addressing this issue in Step Six, it merits attention in Step Seven, too. We need to understand what humility is for us and how its presence is revealed in our lives.

We should not confuse humility with humiliation. When we are humiliated, we are ashamed; we feel worthless. Humility is almost the complete opposite of this feeling. Through working the steps, we’ve been stripping away layers of denial, ego, and self-centeredness. We have also been building a more positive self-image and practicing spiritual principles. Before, we couldn’t see our strengths because the good, healthy part of us was hidden behind our disease. Now we can. That is humility. Some examples of how humility is often revealed may help us understand this concept.

We started out in recovery with fixed ideas. Since we’ve been in recovery, everything we believed in the past has been challenged. We’ve been barraged with new ideas. For instance, if we believed we were in control, just the fact that we’ve wound up in NA admitting our powerlessness was probably enough to change our outlook. Because of our addiction, we failed to learn the lessons that life itself would have taught us about how much control one individual has. Through our abstinence and the working of the first six steps, we have learned a great deal about how to live.

Many of us came to NA with a certain “street” mentality. The only way we knew to get what we wanted was by approaching it indirectly and manipulating people. We didn’t realize that we could just be forthright and have the same chance, if not better, of fulfilling our needs. We spent years learning to blank our facial expressions, hide our compassion, and harden ourselves. By the time we arrived in NA, we were very good at it—so good, in fact, that novice addicts were probably looking to our example the same way we looked to older addicts when we first started using. We learned to suppress all humanity and became, in many cases, completely inhuman.

Removing ourselves from the arena in which such games are played exposed us to new ideas. We learned that it was okay to have feelings and to show them. We found out that the rules of the street only made sense on the street; in the real world, they were crazy and often dangerous. We became softer, more vulnerable. We no longer mistook kindness for weakness.
Changing these attitudes has a dramatic effect. Oftentimes, it even changes our physical appearance. Knotted brows and jaws relax into smiles. Tears flow freely out, uncovering our drowning spirit.

Many of us arrived in NA convinced that we were victims of bad luck, unfavorable circumstances, and conspiracies to thwart our good intentions. We believed we were good people, but profoundly misunderstood. We justified any harm we caused as self-defense, if we were capable of realizing that we caused harm at all. Feelings of self-pity went hand-in-hand with that attitude. We reveled in our suffering, and we secretly knew that the payoff for our pain was never, ever having to look at our part in anything.
But the first six steps get us to begin to do just that—we look at our part in things. Once we thought that certain situations happened to us; now we see how those situations were really created by us. We become aware of all the opportunities we’ve wasted. We stop blaming other people for our lot in life. We begin to see that where we’ve ended up has been determined mostly by the choices we’ve made.

Humility is a sense of our own humanness. If this is our first experience with the Seventh Step, this may be the point when we first feel a sense of compassion for ourselves. It’s deeply moving to realize for the first time that we’re truly just human and trying our best. We make decisions, both good and bad, and hope things turn out okay. With this knowledge about who we are, we also realize that just as we’re doing our best, so are other people. We feel a real connection with others, knowing that we’re all subject to the same insecurities and failings and that we all have dreams for the future.

Now we need to acknowledge our own humility and explore how it makes itself known in our everyday lives.

• Which of my attitudes have changed since I’ve been in recovery? Where has the overblown been deflated, and where has the healthy part of me been uncovered?
• How does humility affect my recovery?
• How does being aware of my own humility help when working this step?

Our work in the previous steps has helped us build a relationship with a God of our own understanding. That work will pay off in a big way as we proceed with Step Seven. In Step Two, we first began to think about a Higher Power that could help us find recovery from our addiction. From there, we went on to make our Third Step decision to trust our Higher Power with the care of our will and lives. We called upon that Power many times to get us through Step Four, and then in the Fifth Step shared with that Power the most intimate details of our lives. In Step Six, we discovered that the God of our understanding could do more for us than just keep us clean.

• How has my understanding of a Higher Power grown in the previous steps? How has my relationship with that Power developed?
• How has my work on the previous steps made me ready to work the Seventh Step?

Asking to Have Our Shortcomings Removed

So how do we ask the God of our understanding to remove our shortcomings? The answer is likely to depend a great deal on what kind of understanding we have of God. There are many, many different ways to understand God, so many that we couldn’t possibly provide examples in this guide of how each person’s individual spiritual path would influence his or her Seventh Step work. Suffice it to say that our step work should reflect our own spiritual paths.

As individuals, we might pick a particular personal routine or ritual as our way of asking our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings. For the purposes of this guide, we will call that “prayer.” The word “prayer” is widely accepted in our fellowship as a description of the way we communicate with our Higher Power. The tone of asking is captured in the word “humbly.” Coming from the place in ourselves that is most honest, the place that’s closest to our spiritual center, we ask to have our shortcomings removed.

• How will I ask the God of my understanding to remove my shortcomings?
• Can other recovering addicts help me figure out how I’m going to ask? Have I asked them to share their experience, strength, and hope with me? Have I asked my sponsor for guidance?

As with any other aspect of our program, we’re not going to ask just once to have our shortcomings removed. We’ll ask again and again throughout our lifetimes. The way we ask is certain to change as our understanding of God changes. Nothing we do at this point locks us into one way of working the Seventh Step forever.

Getting Out of the Way

Most of us realize that we probably need to do something more in this step than just pray for our shortcomings to be removed. We need to take some action that will invite the God of our understanding to work in our lives. We can’t ask God to remove a shortcoming, then hang on to it with all our might. The more distance we keep between ourselves and our Higher Power, the less we will feel that Power’s presence. We have to maintain the awareness of ourselves that we gained in the Sixth Step, and add to it an awareness of God working in our lives.

• How does the spiritual principle of surrender apply to getting out of the way so a Higher Power can work in our lives?
• What might be the benefits of allowing a Higher Power to work in my life?
• How do I feel, knowing that a Higher Power is caring for me and working in my life?

Spiritual Principles

In the Seventh Step, we will focus on surrender, trust and faith, patience, and humility. In the Seventh Step, we take our surrender to a deeper level. What began in Step One with an acknowledgment of our addiction now includes an acknowledgment of the shortcomings that go along with our addiction. We also take our Second Step surrender to a deeper level. We come to believe that our Higher Power can do more than help us stay clean. We look to that Power to relieve us of our shortcomings as well. As time goes by, we place more and more of our trust in a Higher Power and in the process of recovery.

• Have I accepted my powerlessness over my shortcomings as well as my addiction? Expand on this.
• How has my surrender deepened?

The spiritual principles of trust and faith are central to the Seventh Step. We must be sure enough of our Higher Power to trust that Power with our shortcomings. We have to believe our Higher Power is going to do something with them, or how can we ask with any faith that they be removed? We must avoid any tendency to keep score of how we think God’s doing in removing our defects. It’s not too hard to see where this kind of thinking can lead if we find we still have certain character defects after some arbitrary amount of time has passed. Instead, we focus on the action we must take in this step: humbly asking, practicing spiritual principles, and getting out of God’s way. The results of the Seventh Step may not materialize immediately, but they will in time.

• Do I believe that my Higher Power will remove my shortcomings or grant me freedom from the compulsion to act on them? Do I believe that I’ll be a better person as a result of working this step?
• How does my faith in the God of my understanding become stronger as a result of working this step?

Trust and faith alone can never carry us through a lifetime of working this step; we need to practice patience, too. Even if it’s been a long time since we started asking for the removal of a shortcoming, we still must be patient. Maybe, in fact, impatience is one of our shortcomings. We can look at the times when we have to wait as gifts—the times when we most need to practice the principle of patience. After all, one of the surest ways we progress is by rising up over the barriers we run into on our spiritual path.

• Where have I had opportunities for growth lately? What did I make of them?

Finally, we need to maintain our awareness of the principle of humility, more than any other, as we work this step. It’s fairly easy to see if we’re approaching this step with humility by asking ourselves a few questions:

• Do I believe that only my Higher Power can remove my shortcomings? Or have I been trying to do it myself?
• Have I become impatient that my shortcomings haven’t been removed right away, as soon as I asked? Or am I confident that they will be removed in God’s time?
• Has my sense of perspective been out of proportion lately? Have I begun thinking of myself as more significant or more powerful than I really am?

Moving on

At this point, we may wonder how we’re supposed to be feeling. We’ve asked the God of our understanding to remove our shortcomings; we’ve faithfully practiced the principles of our program to the best of our ability; but we may still find ourselves acting out before we’ve had a chance to think, and always struggling with our defects. Sure, we’re no longer using, and many of the outside circumstances of our lives have probably gotten better—our relationships are more stable, perhaps—but have we changed? Have we become better people?

In time, we’ll find that God has worked in our lives. We may even be startled by the level of maturity or spirituality we’ve demonstrated in handling a situation that in years past would have had us acting very unspiritually. One day, we’ll realize that some of the ways we used to act have become as alien as spiritual principles were when we first started practicing them. After such a revelation, we may begin thinking about the person we were when we first came to NA and how little we resemble that person now.

• Have there been times when I’ve been able to refrain from acting on a character defect and practice a spiritual principle instead? Do I recognize this as God working in my life?
• Which shortcomings have been removed from my life or diminished in their power over me?
• Why does the Seventh Step foster a sense of serenity?

We begin to live more spiritual lives. We stop thinking so much about what we’re going to get, even from our recovery, and start looking at how we can contribute. The things we do to sustain and nourish our spirits become habits; we may even look forward to them. We find that we’re free to choose how we want to look at any situation in our lives. We stop grumbling about small inconveniences as if they were major tragedies. We become able to hold up our heads with dignity and maintain our integrity, no matter what life presents us. As we begin to get more comfortable with our spiritual selves, our desire to heal our relationships will grow. We begin that process in Step Eight.


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text:
I keep forgetting to update this site.
I posted some shows I forgot to tell y’all about.

I have two shows coming up:

- 10/13/2013 – @ 1919 Hemphill. Fort Worth TX w/ Nicoffeine, Spacebeach, New Science Projects

- 10/17/2013 – @ CD Warehouse. Arlington TX w/ Cerulean Giallo (VISCERAL CUTS)

Visceral Cuts 2 Trailer:

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notes from beyond

we’re working on a new e.p… it will be called “stations at rest.” there will be a cassette tape. it will contain four songs. all but one of the songs are on the soundcloud, in demo form.

here is a video for “dangerous daughter,” a song of “stations at rest.”

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de futura

New software, new hardware. Everything I was working on in the past five years is completely inaccessible to me at the moment. That’s fine, though. To improve oneself requires drastic change – ripping it up and starting again. It may be a very long time before new naxat material surfaces. I listened to “Chambers of the Naxat” for the first time in at least a year, and while I am still fond of it, both in composition and production, I know I can do better. I know I can do a lot better. The album is only three years old, but it sounds older than that to me. I listened to “The Killing Jape,” which is only a few months old, and already, I am dismayed at the production quality, though it is a slight step in the right direction from “Chambers.”

The next album will be called “musik von naxat.”
Always forward, never backward. See you in a few years, maybe?

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naxat returns to fort worth

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the killing jape

the killing jape e.p. is now ready for immediate consumption

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A long over due post

I’m sure that not many people come to the official naxat site for any information, as the facebook page takes care of most impulsive updates. Anyways, a lot has actually been happening.

- Back in October, I played a solo show in a basement in Olympia WA, and it was fun.

- This las tweek, I played a show w/ Mig50, Raub and Aaron Burke (of Minibosses fame) as naxat, and it was a blast. The PA kept cutting out on the backing tracks, making me swear I would never use them again! I wll have to use them again, but I don’t want to. Video of this show is in the media section, so get on over there.

- I have been writing new material.

- Shows in Olympia will be coming soon.

- I am going to put out a new EP by the end of this calendar year, and I am pretty sure it will be called The Killing Jape.

- I am starting work on a full-length album of video game cover songs. I have some good ideas about some mega-medleys I want to do as well as individual songs. The goal is to have some stuff released in time to make it back out to MAGFEST in D.C. in 2013.

naxat is a slow, grueling processes that takes many man hours – lots of notes, multitracking, what have you.

Thanks for checking in, and see you out on the road.

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Greetings from Stupidville

Bad Times has been active and doing shit. Naxat has not been… until… now.

More stuff coming soon. Why don’t you head over to the bandcamp for a special treat to tide you over?

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Good Bye, DFW

At the end of March, I will be moving to Olympia, WA.

The show on the 29th was awesome. Pictures are up on the Facebook page.

It’s been a good one, DFW.

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Take five, guys.

First of all, QuickDFW just published this article about naxat.

I definitely am not abandoning  this “band” anytime soon, but after the show on the 29th, I am taking a break. I have been playing about twice a month since beginning the tour, and have not made time to work on any new music. writing a naxat song is a long, sometimes tedious process, but the results pay off (at least enough to satisfy my own ego).  New music is being worked on, just not for this project. Not sure how much time I’m taking off. Until then, listen to this amazing song by The Jam:

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Good Bye, Myspace

I am not sad to report that naxat’s myspace profile is gone, or rather, it will be gone in about 24/48 hours. If you are trying to link people to anything naxat related, this is the place to do it.

Added another show, too:

Current shows:
- MONDAY – 12/6/2010 – @ Play Pause Replay, Grapevine TX, w/ HARD TIMES, PAPAYA, and JOEY KENDALL
- WEDNESDAY – 12/29/2010 @ 1919 Hemphill St, Fort Worth TX w/ Eccotone, New Science Projects, Two Knights, Space Beach

MONDAY – 12/6/2010 – @ Play Pause Replay, Grapevine TX, w/  HARD TIMES, PAPAYA, and JOEY KENDALL

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text:
Swiss Clock Maker Agrees With Apple On Clockface License Agreement

For a company that knows how to dish out the lawsuits, it's pretty funny to think what would happen if the tables were turned. Of course, it doesn't look like it's coming to come to that in this particular case. Shortly after iOS 6 hit the iPad, Swiss Federal Railways recognized that the clock icon in the new Clock app looked a lot like a clock that it has a patent on. Too alike. So much alike, that it quickly sought out Apple and informed it that it best pony up. Now, it looks as if the two companies have reached an agreement on the use of SBB's station clock on certain devices such as iPads and iPhones. This arrangement has been mutually agreed by both parties in a license agreement.

For the use of the clockface on certain Apple devices such as iPads and iPhones, the parties have negotiated an arrangement that enables Apple to use the SBB station clock under a license agreement. The parties have agreed that the amount of the licensing fee and any further details of the licensing arrangement will remain confidential. Something tells us Apple didn't get out of this one too cheaply, but hey -- fair's fair.

Tags:  Apple, iPod, clock, ipad, ios
Via:  PR Newswire

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