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IBB Polonia is a long-term project
A conversation with the President of IBB Polonia London: Bartek Luszcz.
So IBB Polonia London is currently the best team in the country?
When I became involved with volleyball three years ago, I didn't do it just for the one season. I decided to treat it like a long-term project, developed with patience by a group of people who have a similar approach. Through the last three years, the club has evolved and gone through many changes; not only in terms of the players, but also Club organizational changes. We have a number of goals that we are trying to achieve for the benefit of the club.
The fans are desperate to know if you will play in the European Challenge Cup. Do you have any news for them?
We are working hard to ensure that IBB Polonia London will take part in this tournament organized by CEV. It is not a straightforward process! There are countless rules and regulations to follow. I'm optimistic that the news will be positive in terms of our participation in the CEV Challenge Cup.
Will participation in the CEV Challenge Cup result in some squad changes?
Of course there will be some new faces in the squad; but it's a little too soon for specific details! The last day of the previous season has automatically become the first day of the next season. The players are resting and recovering at the moment, but the management of the club are working hard to make the next steps materialize. We need to, not only, compete in the CEV Challenge Cup, but of course the Super8. We constantly have new ideas and are considering new players; sponsorship deals and plans for the fans. We are constantly working on the idea that IBB Polonia London remains the best in every respect.
I heard lots of mentions, not only of the team, but also of the IBB Polonia fans.
Our fans are famous across Europe, not only in the UK. we have introduced a high quality of volleyball to England and they were keen to watch us home and away. It's great to have a group of loyal supporters who are behind the team through thick and thin. Other teams are very envious of our relationship with them.
The team also consists of the sponsors. You've got a great partnership with IBB.
The boss of the company IBB polish Building wholesale is Jacek Ambrozy, a Patron of volleyball in England. His influence develops the club and also the sport in general in England. We are grateful for his faith in us and are delighted in his vision of the future.
IBB Polonia London also have a number of other Patrons I hear.
In 2015/16 we have had support from Maja Polish deli; CBL; Manualmed, Polka PR. We have excellent relationships with Witold Sobkow, the Polish Ambassador in the UK and also with the Foreign Office in Warsaw and Mr Bogdan Beclaa, the Director of Polish Tourism Office in London. a very special partnership links us with Mr Konrad Piechocki, the President of PGE SKRA Belchatow and also of course with the actual club from Belchatow- our official partners. I am so grateful for all of those whom I have mentioned on behalf of the club and also from a personal perspective.
I will keep my fingers crossed for you, and thanks for the conversation
Create volleyball with us
This season is special for us. We make the intense efforts to create conditions for the club to raise capital and, as a result:
Create a professional volleyball team by providing the best possible training conditions and attracting the best players
Provide impressive tifo display, live streaming, and broadcasting matches on TV channels
Provide assistance for the Official Club Supporters and helping the organisation develop
Popularise of the development of volleyball in England
Promote the sporting union between Poland and England on the basis of longstanding historical and cultural conditions – to which we can now add sporting ones as well.
Achieving this aims without support is not possible. We invite everyone to participate in the development of new quality – both of our team and volleyball in England as a whole!! Support us and be part of the club.
You can also choose different options to get involved:
Shares purchase - http://polonia.vc/sharesquickfacts/
Sponsorship and advertising opportunities - http://polonia.vc/sponsorship-and-advertising-info/


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There he is, sexy and smart, a man always enjoying life to its fullest.
The Imantado line is specially made for him with masculine, soft leather combined with a practical magnetic closure or zip.
Full-grain cowhide covers, both the inside and outside of each case.
i ordered this one for my wife. i got happy it arrives on time.
To my surprise, my wife is very much happy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Jane Fonda dropped some serious truths about her feelings on the patriarchy during a recent interview with Brie Larson for The Edit, Net-a-Porter's digital magazine. "To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females; I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn't do or say the right thing," she says. Later, she continues: "One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realise that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it's not right."
Trauma, blame, and guilt are braided into a survivor's life after sexual assault, and it's unfortunately normal for someone to feel like there was something they should have done to prevent the abuse from happening. "It's never the victim's fault," says Amy Edelstein, LCSW, Supervising Social Worker at Safe Horizon, a domestic abuse survivor assistance organisation. "People who perpetrate sexual violence are in charge of doing it or not doing it." Still, Edelstein says many sexual assault survivors are crippled by "should-have" thoughts.
The messages we hear about rape ("she should've known because she went home with him" or "she was wasted and asking for it") only perpetrate the rape culture myth that survivors have a choice and that they should've done something different, Edelstein says. "A lot of the way we blame ourselves comes from society and the messages we hear, but those aren't accurate," she says. Edelstein says that people engage in victim-blaming dialogue as a form of protection, but that's an unhealthy way to cope with the realities of sexual assault. "Some people say 'Oh, this couldn't happen to me,' to set themselves apart and feel better and safer about the world," she says. Sexual assault happens every 98 seconds, according to The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) — and it can happen to anyone.
When someone is sexually assaulted, they are faced with a life-threatening trauma, explains Edelstein, so your brain goes into full survival mode. "Your brain makes the choice that's the safest — it's fight, flight, or freeze," she says. "You can't make choices, because the logical part of your brain shuts down," she says. Sometimes, understanding the biological and physiological aspects can help decrease guilt and blame for survivors, she says.
Fonda's comments are incredibly important for survivors who may feel like their feelings aren't validated or important. "Being abused as a child isn't talked about enough, and there's so much shame and secrecy, especially back in that time period," Edelstein says. Thankfully, now there is at least a discussion happening, but that doesn't mean there isn't work to do. "When we see someone who's willing to share their story, it normalises something we see a lot more," she says. Edelstein encourages people who've been assaulted to seek out professional support from people who understand the implications of sexual assault. "They can talk through what happened and give [the survivor] options that will make them feel like they have control and a choice."
If you have experienced sexual violence of any kind, please visit Rape Crisis or call 0808 802 9999.


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This week's tips from the IAM's director of standards, Mark Lewis, are about driving safely in storms. As storm Imogen brings strong gusts of wind across the country, here's how you can make your journey a safe one for the road.
- If weather conditions are extremely bad avoid starting your journey. Take note of any weather warnings and traffic updates in your local area – this will help you make an informed decision.
- Driving in strong winds can be extremely dangerous, unsettling your car and even pushing it to change direction. Grip the steering wheel firmly and be mindful of vulnerable road users, such as motorcyclists, who will need more room than usual.
- Always look well ahead for gaps between buildings and be careful when overtaking larger vehicles – in both instances gusts might be particularly strong.
- The movement of trees on the roadside can give a useful indication of wind strength too.
- Be wary of debris on roads and allow yourself enough space to move around it if necessary. Driving at a steady speed will also ensure you give yourself more time to slow down before a hazard.
Mark said: "Keep an eye on the vehicles ahead of you – looking for clues as to how the wind may be affecting them will give you advanced warning of where it may be gusting strongly.
"Stormy weather can be extremely unpredictable – be prepared for the worst. And as always, avoid the journey where possible."


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March 17, 1960
Over 100 students picketed the Woolworth's store on Main Street, Poughkeepsie, to protest against lunch counter segregation in the chain's southern stores. Apparently by coincidence, simultaneous protests were staged by Smith College and Bennington College students at Woolworth stores in Northampton, MA, and in Bennington, VT.
Investigative reporter McCandlish Phillips put these incidents in context on March 20 in The New York Times:
"Informal organizations have sprung up in the last ten days at a score of colleges and universities, including some of the nation's foremost institutions. Many of these have gone into action within forty-eight hours.
"There is a quality of invention to their work. The students lack means and experience. They admit to uncertainty about what they can do.
"But money is being raised, meetings are being held and picket lines are forming in sympathy with Negroes who have protested segregation at chain-store lunch counters in the South.
"The present campus generation has been accused of self-concern and a pallid indifference to social or political questions. This issue appears to have aroused it as have few others."
Vassar senior Marian Gray '60 told Phillips that a meeting late in the first evening of the gathering at Yale with Democratic Socialist activist Paul DuBrul and Yale Law School alumnus Allard Lowenstein "stimulated us most in deciding to do something on our own campus about civil rights."
"'Mr. Lowenstein arrived from Alabama that night,' Miss Gray said. 'He and Mr. DuBrul explained the issues and urged students to return to their college communities and organize demonstrations and protests. They urged us to educate our home communities on the problems facing Southern Negroes….'"
Gray then told Phillips about the meeting she and her group arranged on campus with Herbert Hill and Paul DuBrul and about the protest the following evening, the late shopping night in Poughkeepsie:
"'We announced that we intended to picket Woolworth's and we got practically the entire audience,' Miss Gray said.
"Meetings were held in all eight dormitories Wednesday night.
"Late Thursday afternoon about 100 girls rode downtown and carried signs outside the store: 'Don't Buy From Woolworth—It Discriminates in the South.'
"'For the most part the reaction was one of indifference,' Miss Gray said. 'There was a little open antagonism and some curiosity. We do not feel we had any effect on the business of the store. We did not really expect to, but we had hoped that we might.'
"Miss Gray, a Negro, said that the picketing was 'about the most extreme thing we could have done. There have been no pickets at Vassar in the last twenty years. We did not know how to go about it, we did not know what our legal rights were, we did not know how the administration would react and we had to tell the girls that we could not offer them protection of any kind.'
"'Having told them the risk we did not lose a single girl who had signed up for the demonstration,' she said….
"Girls from Miami, Fla., Durham, N. C., and Frankfort, Ky., took part in the Vassar demonstration.
"A meeting will be held Wednesday night to decide 'what other action might be effective here,' Miss Gray said." The New York Times
Dr. Marian Gray Secundy '60, the first African American to serve on the Vassar board of trustees (1965-1971) and a founding board member of Triple A VC (African American Alumnae/i of Vassar College), was a professor and the director of the Program in Clinical Ethics at Howard University. Her brother, former Pennsylvania Congressman William H. Gray III, served for many years as president of the United Negro College Fund. He was Vassar' s commencement speaker in 1988.


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Community Benefit Day
Ski for a cause! On Sunday 2/23, 20% of lift ticket proceeds will benefit the Flagstaff Unified School District Foundation. Founded in 2005, the Flagstaff Unified School District Foundation enhances the educational experience of FUSD students with the support of alumni and community resources. Come support the community and have fun while doing it!


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4/18/2014 1 Comment
Why Massage?
Massage Therapy is a great rehabilitation or muscle maintenance treatment. Massage Therapy helps to realign muscle fibers that are tightened, strained, over worked and not functioning properly. Massage helps to increase circulation, allowing more blood flow the all areas of the body which promotes a quicker healing time, lymphatic drainage helps decrease toxin build up with in the muscles which also helps prevent muscle fatigue. Massage also increases range of motion within the joints. All of theses benefits of massage work together to keep our bodies working properly. Proper body maintenance and body mechanics are important for posture. We only have one body..... keep it working, keep it moving.... keep it healthy. Healthy Body.... Healthy Mind.
Your massage therapist will work with you to design a treatment or maintenance plan suitable for your needs.
Candace Grant,


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Title: Death Warmed Over
Series: Lily Drake #3
Series: Lily Drake #3
Author: T. Michelle Nelson
Release Date: June 30, 2014
Release Date: June 30, 2014
Summary from Goodreads: In the conclusion of the Lily Drake series, Lily must choose not only what is best for herself and her son, but for her people. Her sword will be stained with blood through her efforts to preserve the lives of the people she loves, but she won't be able to save them all.
When a devastating loss crushes her will to live, can Lily go on and be the leader she has to be? What is she willing to sacrifice to save others?
Death comes to everyone...even the Queen's house...
What doesn't kill you will make you wish it did...
About the Author
T. Michelle Nelson is a native of Benton, Kentucky and a graduate of Murray State University. Currently she resides in a small town in Ohio, which is also the setting of her Lily Drake series. The first two books in the series, Life and Death of Lily Drake and 'Til Death Do Us Part, are currently available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or any of your other favorite online bookstores. A short story prequel The First Time is also available. Death Warmed Over, the third and final book of the series will release in late June.
When she isn't writing, you can usually find her spending time with her son, singing out of key, watching B-Horror movies or discussing world problems with her little dog, Toadie.
Author Links:


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The Wayback Machine: Space Angel (1962)
We are not talking Angela here, soon to be of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
No, this is Space Angel, a true lost gem. Truth to tell, I had never heard of Space Angel until fellow
Space Angel was an animated science fiction TV series produced in the U.S. from early 1962 through 1964. It used the same Synchro-Vox lip technique as Clutch Cargo, the first cartoon produced by the same studio, Cambria Productions.
The series chronicled the adventures of three astronauts who worked for the Earth Bureau of Investigation's Interplanetary Space Force on board the spaceship Starduster: Captain/Pilot Scott McCloud, also known as "The Space Angel" (voiced by Ned Lefebver), Electronics/Communications expert Crystal Mace (voiced by Margaret Kerry), and the immensely strong Scottish-born Gunner/Engineer Taurus (voiced by Hal Smith).
The character name Space Angel was a secret identity. Scott McCloud had an eyepatch; when he appeared as Space Angel, he would lower bulging sunglasses from his helmet to cover it.
Apart from the use of Synchro-Vox, animation was very limited, but the static panel art by legend Alex Toth was often well-drawn. Storylines were serialized over five episodes which ran five minutes each, the idea being that stations could show one episode per weekday, with the climax coming on Friday. Cliffhangers were sometimes used, as in an episode with McCloud finding a derelict spacecraft beyond the light barrier, looking inside and exclaiming "Oh my God!" Another memorable sequence occurred with the heroes involved in a best two-of-three gladiator battle, using future visions of Roman combat.
There were several episodes involving space combat between the Interplanetary Space Force and various enemies. After the Space Angel and his crew had discovered the villains' plans or forces, he would call in reinforcements made up of one or more squadrons of the ISF. Squadrons were organized by planetary patrol areas such as the Venusian Squadron, Mars Squadron, etc. The identifying squadron symbols on the ISF ships were the ones used in astronomy charts of the time to identify the planets, such as the Female symbol for the Venusian Squadron, the Male symbol for the Mars Squadron and a circle with an enclosed plus sign for the Earth Squadron.
The main antagonists in the show were the Anthenians, who were modeled on a combination of Ancient Rome and Sparta; their home planet is shown in the episode involving the gladiatorial games. The city looks like Rome, including a coliseum. The civilians are dressed in togas and the soldiers are wearing a combination of Greek/Roman armor with Corinthian-style helmets. They are armed with blaster rifles.
Another antagonist is the Evil Queen of Space, who resembled Nefertiti, and her henchmen, "The General" and "The Major," who all spoke with Central European accents. Predating the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror," their claim to fame is an invisible spaceship they use to disrupt interstellar trade.
In the opening sequence of "Space Hijackers (Solar Mirror)," a delta-winged spacecraft, The Starduster, docks with a space station. The ship matches velocity and rotation with the station and is talked in with instrument assist. This sequence foreshadows the space dock sequence of the delta-winged Orion from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which would be made seven years later.
The Starduster contains a smaller vessel, a space fighter flown by Space Angel, which looks like the XF-92 and is about the same size, though with a pointed nose. It is called the Space Dart.
The theme music was written by Walter Greene and was originally used in Roger Corman's film, War of the Satellites (1958).
As you can see, there was a lot going on in the static world of Space Angel. In July, 2008,
Now, back to the future!


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It took my a while (I know), but I learned quite a lot about my photography in the last weeks. I needed some time to evaluate it, to better understand what I want, and how I might want to achieve this.
In the meantime Ricoh announced a new firmware update for their Ricoh GR Digital 3 which can be found here. They included two new scene modes, high-contrast B&W and Cross Process. Both are actually pretty cool and I like them a lot. See the examples above and below. These were only resized and slightly sharpened. Other new feature is the manual focus magnified ratio. Default was 2x, but you can now also select 4x. The remaining features is a delete option for the key custom settings and my settings.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma


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There is a basic synergy between recorded sound and the human spirit. People react to recorded music in a visceral way. You hear something, it moves you, and you want to hear it again. I know this as a record producer, technology executive, industry association volunteer and, most importantly, as a music lover.
Recorded music companies, consumer electronics audio manufacturers, music retailers and CE stores live and breathe the same air. The challenge in today's digital music universe is ensuring that consumers give as much consideration to their audio equipment as their music files.
The good and bad news is that people can enjoy recorded music even when the sound quality is lacking. For those who believe that today's MP3 files sound bad, imagine listening to recorded music on Edison's cylinder machine! But poor sound quality could never compete with humans' innate love for music.
Today, high-resolution playback equipment and surround systems can make that same music sound rich and exciting. A whole world of recorded music and CE gear is available to make music even more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, audio gear manufacturers have no control over how people (like me) produce music. There are many low-bit-rate files that "sound" better than many SACD or DVD-Audio discs — the music is the controlling factor. For me, hearing Norah Jones on an iPod through a great playback system is far more exciting than hearing a hi-res disk with some music that I don't know.
Thiel had this in mind when it put together its demo at the 2005 International CES. By feeding an iPod into a six-figure playback system, they were able to create amazing results.
Like many consumers today, I love my iPod, so this demonstration was a creative way to link the popular device to high-end audio equipment and get consumers thinking not only about the music, but about the quality of sound. Compelling demonstrations such as this are critical in today's digital audio world.
Every time we excite a consumer with surround sound, we've enhanced the possibility of selling them a surround system. Consumers have been repeatedly exposed to demonstrations from DTS and Dolby, courtesy of their local movie theaters. Not surprisingly, those companies have set a kind of standard for surround listening.
The DualDisc will succeed in getting surround into more homes as well. Somers labels are releasing these disks with DVD-A mixes. Sony/BMG put Dolby Digital AC3 (only) on some disks.
Despite the advances in high resolution audio, low-bit-rate listening certainly is not going away. I believe that iTunes will continue to dominate in the low-resolution market.
A relatively new company, MusicGiants, is selling Windows Media lossless files, which when played back are identical to the files coming off a CD. These files cost more than $1 since they are real CD quality. Stores like iTunes and MusicGiants will prevail in the digital music space because both have business models that make sense, and both sell hardware as well as downloads.
Pairing great music with great audio is both easier and more difficult in the digital world because consumers have more choices in where and how they listen to their music. The key is to focus on the particular consumer. The people who need access to 10,000 songs may be more concerned with quantity than quality. Serious music consumers will buy the music they want and be more willing to invest in the right equipment to make it most enjoyable.
If the industry continues to push the notion that great playback is important whether the source is MP3, iTunes, Dolby or DTS, we can help educate consumers and persuade them to buy more audio gear.
- Pairing Great Music With Great Audio Gear - October 10, 2005


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I remember the feeling of walking down the hallway in high school. Everyone had their own routine around saying "hi" or nodding and smiling as we passed each other en route to class. For close friends, the greeting was a no-brainer and was always happily reciprocated. But for others, there was wider variation in whether a greeting was offered or returned.
Those "others" are what the sociologist Mark Granovetter famously called "weak ties" in a 1973 journal article. And while friendships with them might have been spelled with a lowercase "f," his research shows that simple gestures of casual greeting and other connections can have a tremendous impact on our overall happiness and well-being.
Even borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor fosters a feeling of a caring community. Creating casual or "weak ties" relationships can even open doors, from getting fresh recommendations from others (think doctors, mechanics, travel ideas) to building greater empathy and less loneliness for everyone involved.
Importantly, this kind of connection also exposes us to a rich variety of information and advice, things you might not know about if you only turned to your most trusted inner circle for every social interaction.
"The people we know that we're close to tend to know the same things we do and so it doesn't expand our information," Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer of psychology at the University of Essex, recently told The New York Times. "The argument is we have more to learn from the people that we don't already know so well."
The next time you find yourself waiting for your barista to make coffee or when your PTA or church meeting ends, ask yourself who you haven't spoken to recently. At the very least, don't forget to say, "hi." It could make your life a llittle better in a surprising, new way.


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Conrad Knauer
March 2005
Zoo elephants swaying back and forth, polar bears swimming in endless circuits and manic monkeys grooming themselves to baldness.
Such disturbed, trance-like behavior in some zoo animals and the deaths of four elephants in the past year at two U.S. zoos have sparked animal rights protests and renewed a larger debate over the purpose of zoos.
Defenders say zoos serve important purposes, including offering access to researchers, providing money and expertise for habitat preservation elsewhere and as repositories of genetic material for fast-vanishing species.
Critics say captivity is both physically and mentally stressful.
"We might see within our lifetimes a great reduction or extinction of these animals," as their natural habitats are squeezed by the crush of human populations, said Bill Foster, president of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. "Extinction is not acceptable."
Zoos originally gave city dwellers the chance to marvel at the world's fauna and later promoted habitat preservation, but those purposes have been eclipsed, critics say.
"In the old days, when you didn't have television, children would see animals for the first time at the zoo and it had an educational component," said Tufts University animal behaviorist Nicholas Dodman.
"Now the zoos claim they're preserving the disappearing species, preserving embryos and genetic material. But you don't need to do that in a zoo. There's still a lot of entertainment to zoos," he said.
Elephants are often chosen in surveys as the most popular zoo animals and a newborn calf draws many visitors. But seeing animals behaving oddly in zoos is more disturbing than educational, said a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Oxford University researchers contended 40 percent of zoo elephants display so-called stereotypical behavior, which their 2002 report defined as repetitive movements that lack purpose.
The report said studies have shown zoo elephants tend to die younger, are more prone to aggression and are less capable of breeding compared with the hundreds of thousands of elephants left in the wild.
Elephant deaths
Moreover, critics say many zoo elephants, though hardy, spend too much time cramped indoors, get little exercise and become susceptible to infections and arthritis from walking on concrete floors.
Following the deaths of two of three African elephants housed at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in the past four months, animal rights activists said their demise was hastened by the stress brought on by their 2003 move from balmy San Diego.
Zoo curators denied climate was to blame and concluded that Tatima, 35, died from a rare lung infection and Peaches, at 55 the oldest of some 300 elephants in U.S. captivity, suffered from organ failure.
When two elephants in San Francisco's zoo died within weeks of each other last year, the resulting outcry prompted the zoo to opt to send its remaining elephants to a California sanctuary against the wishes of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.
Detroit's zoo director, who decided his zoo lacked the space or resources to keep elephants, also had a fight with the association about sending his elephants to a Tennessee sanctuary. The association relented only when one elephant showed signs of herpes.
Detroit's zoo was the eighth North American zoo to stop exhibiting elephants since 1991, according to PETA.
"For the modern-day zoo to have elephants does nothing for the preservation or conservation of the species. And it does nothing for the welfare of the elephant," said Carol Buckley, who created a Tennessee sanctuary that now cares for a dozen cast-off zoo and circus elephants.
Foster of the zoo association countered that many northern zoos have successful elephant programs with plans to expand.
Calves born in captivity have higher mortality rates and survivors often have to be isolated for a time from their inexperienced mothers, who may trample them.
Based on the Oxford University report that found 40 percent of zoo elephants engage in stereotypical behavior, the report's sponsor,
Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, urged European zoos to stop importing and breeding elephants and to phase out exhibits.
Dodman said he frequently observes stereotypical behavior among zoo animals: polar bears rocking in place or swimming in endless circuits, parrots grooming themselves until they bleed, gorillas regurgitating and re-ingesting meals, and big cats pacing the same routes in trance-like patterns.
Most zoos embrace efforts to enrich the animals' lives by varying feeding rituals and providing toys, with some success; an Alaskan zoo is even building its elephant a treadmill. But elephants and other animals that range widely in the wild are less easily distracted, critics say.
Some zoos give animals behaving stereotypically the same antidepressant drugs found to ease compulsive behaviors in people, Dodman said.
The key is providing more space and companionship for elephants, which often travel in large herds and forage for hours, Buckley said.
Return to Zoo Vs. Sanctuary: An Ethical Consideration
Read more at Animal Rights Articles


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Mary Pride
Carole Adams
Ray Andree
Karen Andreola
Frank Armbruster
Dr. David Ayers
Larry Bailey
Lawrence Bangs
Johanna Banham
Lisa and Rhonda Barfield
Peggy Barker
Dr. Kuni Beasley
Jonathan Bechtle
Russ Beck
Alisyn Bennett
Vicki Bentley
Betty Berring
Mary Biever
George Bigham
Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn
Sam Blumenfeld
Lydia Guy Burchett
Charles and Betty Burger
Linda Burklin
Wes Callihan
Holly Capeda
Heather Chapman
Harry Cheney
Clay and Sally Clarkson
Marian Kester Coombs
Deborah Copelin
Lois Corcoran
Cheryl Costello
Martin Cothran
Jim Couch
Lorraine Curry
Michelle Dalrymple
Chris Davis
Ellyn Davis
Kandie Demarest
Tom DeWeese
Joan Donaldson
Richard Driggers
Cathy Duffy
Jonathan English
Carolyn Flanagan
Samuel Francis
Amanda Freitag
Marshall Fritz
Lisa Gard
John Taylor Gatto
Brittany Glenny
Tricia Goyer
Pat Graves
Steve Hake
Ken Ham
Kristin Lee Hamerski
Gregg Harris
Joshua Harris
Laura Harris
Lori Harris
Bob Hazen
Barbara Henderson
Sarah Hensley
Laura Hinely
Fritz Hinrichs
Regina Hogsten
Mercy Howell
Jessica Hulcy
D. Russell Humphries
Nicole Johnson
Elizabeth Kays
Diane Flynn Keith
Stephen Kemp
Rebecca Kenney
Andrew Kern
Chris Klicka
Antony Kolenc
Dr. Jim Kramer
Michele Lee
Steve Leer
Lenora Levia
Ann Lloyd
Diane Lockman
Isabel Lyman
Christina Magnaghi
Michael Maloney
Jason Makansi
Paula Mann
David Marks
Rodney Marshall
Shelly Mathiot
Renee Mathis
Pam Maxey
Theresa May
Kristen West McGuire
Joyce McPherson
Geneva Miller
Katie Michelli
Melissa Morgan
Sarah Morgan
Gretchen Mork
Natalie Muus
Edwin Myers
Naomi Nattress
John Nixdorf
Shelley Noonan
June Oberlander
Joy Pavelski
Mary Pecci
Dennis Peterson
Nikki Pheneger
Dr. Michael Platt
Drue Porter
Bill Pride
Franklin Pride
Joseph Pride
Madeleine Pride
Magda Pride
Mary Pride
Sarah Pride
Theodore Pride
Bob Reith
Michael Reitz
Howard and Susan Richman
Elizabeth Roberts
Dr. Arthur Robinson
Penny Ross
Teresa Schultz-Jones
Rebecca Sealfon
Rob and Cyndy Shearer
Scott Somerville
Bruce Shortt
Gail Small
Elisabeth Snell
Barry Stebbing
Andrew Stone
Alexandra Swann
Benjamin Swann
Joyce Swann
Janis Tatum
Jennifer Thieme
Heather Thompson
Christopher Thorne
Rita Tubbs
Dale Turner
Jamie Turner
Maryann Turner
Janice VanCleave
Brad Voeller
Kathy von Duyke
Steve Wagner
Eric Wallace
Austin Webb
Jeannette Webb
Natalie Webb
Pat Wesolowski
Carol Wickwire
Peter Williams
Douglas Wilson
Kym Wright
Lisa Yoder
Vivian Young
By Joyce Swann
Printed in Practical Homeschooling #22, 1998.
I cannot count the number of times I have answered my telephone to hear the voice of a homeschooling mother on the other end blurt out, "Did you ever have a child who . . . ?"
When I reply, "Of course!" a burst of laughter almost always follows, and I can hear the tension drain away as another homeschooling mom discovers that she is not the only one who has ever felt overwhelmed by the awesome task of educating her children.
Because of its very nature, homeschooling tends to isolate us. Although many of us belong to homeschool organizations where we have contact with other homeschoolers, in our classrooms we work alone. While we have access to a number of excellent publications that give some very helpful information about a variety of homeschooling related subjects, we rarely find articles that talk about the day-to-day difficulties we encounter as home teachers.
Few people will write an article saying, "Yes, I get pretty discouraged on a regular basis. Most days I want to pull out my hair and run screaming from the classroom!" Yet I think this kind of candor is often very helpful to a frustrated mom who is ready to call it quits because she is the "only one" who has not mastered all aspects of homeschooling.
In addition to the isolation factor, we also have the anxiety factor working against us. Nearly all homeschooling parents have some pretty lofty ideas about how we want our children educated. Not only do we want them to learn the basics, we want them to learn all the subtle nuances of every subject they encounter. But even that is not enough. We also want them to love every minute of their homeschool day and to be constantly enthusiastic. Somehow we are certain that this is the way other homeschools operate; at least the successful ones. We forget Edison's statement, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." And when we find Johnny staring out the window or drawing Batman symbols in the margins of his paper, we think we have failed. (Unfortunately, Edison failed to mention that, in the case of homeschooling, the one percent is your child's inspiration and the ninety-nine percent is your perspiration!)
Most of us have a difficult time accepting that we cannot have a "perfect" homeschool in which every hour of every day provides a meaningful learning experience for our children. We have a hard time dealing with the reality that every child has some subjects that he does not like, and there is nothing that we can do to make them appealing. We just have to let the child know that education is not optional and that it is not necessary to like everything. It is, however, necessary to do the work.
So, what do I want every homeschooling family to know? Simply this: Whatever you have gone through, or are going through, or will go through, other homeschoolers have already experienced. But you will never be able to benefit from that experience if you refuse to ask for help. Talk about your problems with other homeschoolers, and ask how they dealt with those problems in their homeschools.
Ultimately, of course, you are still the only one who can decide what will work best for your homeschool, but you will feel better just knowing that you are not alone.
Joyce Swann has home educated her ten children from first grade through master's degree programs. The Swann children typically receive high school diplomas at age eleven, bachelor's degrees at age fifteen, and master's degrees at age sixteen. All of the academic work has been completed at home through correspondence schools and external degree programs offered by major western universities.
Laptop Homeschool
Columbus and the Flat Earth...
The Gift of a Mentor
Character Matters for Kids
The History of Public Education
Myth of the Teenager
The Charlotte Mason Method
A Reason for Reading
Start a Nature Notebook
I Was an Accelerated Child
The Benefits of Cursive Writing
Classical Education
How to "Bee" a Spelling Success
The Charlotte Mason Approach to Poetry
Getting Started in Homeschooling: The First Ten Steps
University Model Schools
Interview with John Taylor Gatto
Getting Organized Part 3
How to Win the Geography Bee
Shakespeare Camp
Phonics the Montessori Way
Can Homeschoolers Participate In Public School Programs?
What Does My Preschooler Need to Know?
Teaching Blends
The Benefits of Debate
Critical Thinking and Logic
Getting Organized Part 1 - Tips & Tricks
Give Yourself a "CLEP Scholarship"
What We Can Learn from the Homeschooled 2002 National Geography Bee Winners
Don't Give Up on Your Late Bloomers
Montessori Math
Joyce Swann's Homeschool Tips
Saxon Math: Facts vs. Rumors
Discover Your Child's Learning Style
Art Appreciation the Charlotte Mason Way
Narration Beats Tests
Top Jobs for the College Graduate
Who Needs the Prom?
A Homeschooler Wins the Heisman
The Equal Sign - Symbol, Name, Meaning
AP Courses At Home
Patriarchy, Meet Matriarchy
Why the Internet will Never Replace Books
Teach Your Children to Work
Bears in the House
Combining Work and Homeschool
Montessori Language Arts at Home, Part 1
Advanced Math: Trig, PreCalc, and more!
Whole-Language Boondoggle
Top Tips for Teaching Toddlers


text:
William deVry on General Hospital Contract Drama: "I Feel Bad For The Fans"
William deVry is being very frank (no pun intended) regarding his contract issues at General Hospital. deVry was in deep negotiations with GH to continue as Julian Jerome when things went seriously sour.
RELATED: Contract Talks Break Down For General Hospital's William DeVry
In an interview with Michael Fairman Soaps, deVry breaks down what went down and offers a message to his fans:
Recommended Articles
So, take me though what happened. You taped, which was for now, was your last episode of GH at the end of June, and at that point contract negotiations were still going on?
WILLIAM: The negotiations were sort of starting at the point. I had hoped we could wrap it up quickly. I guess, times in daytime have changed quite a bit and things weren't wrapped up as quickly as I would have preferred, and for all I know, maybe they did not get wrapped up as quickly as Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital) would have preferred. Everybody has mandates. In the meantime. they are telling a story that allows them the freedom of having a little bit of breathing space for when I am hopefully back. I am auditioning for other shows right now, and have a couple of things that I am close to getting. I feel bad for the fans, really.


text:
It's all about the money. Get to know where your closest bank is located. Get all the important information about transactions in the following.
Big banks in Munich: HypoVereinsbank, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Sparda Bank
In order to open an account you need to bring your pass
Required time for a bank transfer:
- Not more than one day inside the European Economic Area (€)
- Not more than two days for bank transfers commissioned in bank transfer forms
- Not more than four days inside the European Economic Area (anything but €)
- No deadline outside the European Economic Area
Costs of a bank transfer:
- No costs at most banks (all-inclusive price at beginning)
- Otherwise a few cents
- No bigger costs in other countries
- There may still be huge differences between different banks


text:
Top Items:
Michael P. Fleischer / Wall Street Journal:
Why I'm Not Hiring — When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally's pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits. — With unemployment just under 10% and companies sitting on their cash, you would think that sooner or later job growth would take off. I think it's going to be later—much later.
MichaelW / Questions and Observations: The Economy In An Anecdote — I think this entire article entitled …
Betsy Newmark / Betsy's Page: Why businesses aren't hiring
James Joyner / Outside the Beltway: Hiring Workers Too Expensive!
Paul Chesser / AmSpecBlog: Sally Just Sat There Crying
Logan Penza / The Moderate Voice:
Why They're Not Hiring — It's those Evil, Greedy Corporations. — That's the simple explanation most of the talking heads have for the continuing high unemployment numbers. Those Evil, Greedy Corporations horde their money and refuse to hire anyone. When they do hire someone …
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Marriage Ideal — Here are some commonplace arguments against gay marriage: Marriage is an ancient institution that has always been defined as the union of one man and one woman, and we meddle with that definition at our peril. Lifelong heterosexual monogamy is natural; gay relationships are not.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish: The Unique Quality Of "Lifelong Heterosexual Monogamy"
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Douthat on Gay Marriage
B. Daniel Blatt / GayPatriot: On appreciating sex difference in the gay marriage debate
Wayne Besen / Truth Wins Out: Possibly The Dumbest Column Ever Written
Tristero / Hullabaloo: Argumentum Ad Douthatem
Jay Stevens / Left in the West: Douthat's nanny state
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Marriage and the role of the state — Ross Douthat uses his New York Times column today to put what he undoubtedly considers to be the most intellectual and humane face on the case against marriage equality. Without pointing to any concrete or empirical evidence, Douthat insists …
Discussion: National Review and GayPatriot
Jonah Goldberg / National Review: Douthat, Greenwald, and Marriage
B. Daniel Blatt / GayPatriot: On courts resolving controversial social issues
Steve Chapman / Reason:
Overreaching on Gay Marriage
Overreaching on Gay Marriage
Discussion: protein wisdom, Hit & Run and Balloon Juice
Shannyn Moore / The Huffington Post:
Palin's Homer Moment: Celebrity Sarah Confronted by Citizen (WATCH) — I'm really proud of my home town. When I say, "I'm just a girl from Homer" on my blog, radio or television show, I like to think it's not so much self-deprecation as it is a friendly warning.
Discussion: Think Progress, Mediaite, SHANNYN MOORE, Political Byline, Gawker, Brilliant at Breakfast and Wonkette
Zaid Jilani / Think Progress: Palin laughs and rolls her eyes when demonstrator says she's a teacher.
Glynnis MacNicol / Mediaite: Sarah Palin To Angry Protester: I'm Honored You Think I'm A Celebrity!
Jack Stuef / Wonkette: 'Worst Governor Ever' …
Dan Amira / New York Magazine:
Did Sarah Palin Roll Her Eyes at Teaching? — Sarah Palin was up in Homer, Alaska, recently, fishing with her Discovery Channel crew in tow, when she was met with an unpleasant protest: a giant banner reading "Worst Governor Ever," unfurled nearby by local Kathleen Gustafson.
Discussion: The Politico, Ballot Box and Towleroad News #gay
Andy Barr / The Politico: Sarah Palin gets in dustup with teacher
Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box: Voter to Palin: You sold out Alaska
The Politico:
Rep. Maxine Waters charged with three violations — The House ethics committee released its formal charges against Rep. Maxine Waters Monday. AP — The House ethics committee released its formal charges against Rep. Maxine Waters Monday, accusing her of three counts of violating the letter …
Michael Memoli / The Swamp: Waters charges released by ethics committee
Zach Behrens / LAist: L.A. Congressmember Maxine Waters Charged with 3 Violations
Wendell Cochran / msnbc.com:
Bank in Maxine Waters case was weakest to get TARP help
Bank in Maxine Waters case was weakest to get TARP help
Discussion: Michelle Malkin, TPMMuckraker, Weasel Zippers and The Huffington Post
Megan Carpentier / TPMMuckraker: More Details Emerge In Waters Ethics Investigation
Earl Ofari Hutchinson / The Huffington Post: Why Waters and Rangel's are the Poster Duo for Political Corruption
New York Post:
The end of responsibility
The end of responsibility
Discussion: NewsBusters.org
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
America Goes Dark — The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.
E.D. Kain / Balloon Juice: The unlit, unpaved road to somewhere
William Teach / Right Wing News: Paul Krugman: You Anti-Government Folks Are To Blame For State/Local Money Problems
Joe Weisenthal / Clusterstock: Krugman: American States Are Literally In A Blackout, And The GOP Is To Blame
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion: We Are All Central Falls, Now — Someone please tell me why I fall for it every time.
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo: A Solution Staring Us In The Face
Melissa McEwan / Shakesville: The Dark Ages of America
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
The tea party's growing money problem — Some leading tea party activists are concerned their efforts are undermined by a shortage of cash. AP — Some leading tea party activists are concerned that their efforts to reshape American politics, starting with the 2010 elections …
Discussion: Washington Wire, Think Progress, Hot Air, Political Byline and FrumForum
Mary Lu Carnevale / Washington Wire: Political Wisdom: Tea Party Money and Myths
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: Does the Tea Party have a money problem?
Fox News:
86 Days to Decide: Activists Say Tea Party Imposters Infiltrating Elections
86 Days to Decide: Activists Say Tea Party Imposters Infiltrating Elections
Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, skippy the bush kangaroo, The Atlantic Online, Taylor Marsh and Scared Monkeys
David Frum / CNN:
Frum: Bristol-Levi more significant that Prop 8 ruling — Editor's note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2001-02, he is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again," and is the editor of FrumForum.
Discussion: Box Turtle Bulletin
Jim Burroway / Box Turtle Bulletin: Frum: Did California's Marrying Gays Destroy Bristol Palin's Marriage?
Nelson Lund / San Francisco Chronicle:
Prop. 8 judge makes strange charge
Prop. 8 judge makes strange charge
Discussion: The League of Ordinary …, National Review and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Jason Kuznicki / The League of Ordinary Gentlemen: Name-Calling and Public Policy
Ed Whelan / National Review: Sense and Nonsense on Anti-Prop 8 Ruling
GQ Exclusive: Rand Paul's Kooky College Days (Hint: There's a Secret Society Involved) — When the Lexington Herald-Leader reported last week that Rand Paul was, in effect, a college dropout, it looked like the 2010 midterms might feature yet another fabulist.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog: Charge: Rand Paul tied up teammate, tried to 'force her to take bong hits'
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly: RAND PAUL AND HIS AQUA BUDDHA.... As a rule, adult political candidates …
Alan Colmes' Liberaland: Rand Paul Camp Won't Deny He Tied Up Woman In College And Forced Her To Smoke Pot
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo: Reefer Madness! — Rand Paul was a member of a secret irreverent …
Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC: Stoner Kidnapping 101, AKA 'Rand Paul: The College Years'
Michael McAuliff / Mouth of the Potomac: Bongs and Kidnapping? Rand Paul? What the...
Xeni Jardin / Boing Boing: GQ: Woman claims to have been kidnapped by Rand Paul, forced to take bong hits
Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:
Democrats Duck an Unpopular President — Ever had a date you didn't want to introduce to your mother? — Bill White knows how you felt. The Democratic nominee for governor will campaign today in Midland, Abilene and Alvarado. Where he won't be is in Austin and Dallas …
Discussion: Dallas Morning News, The Atlantic Online and Weasel Zippers
Todd J. Gillman / Dallas Morning News: Obama visiting Dallas today to raise campaign cash
Chris Good / The Atlantic Online: Hiding from Obama in Texas?
Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box:
Obama not miffed by White's absence in Texas
Obama not miffed by White's absence in Texas
Discussion: CNN
White won't meet Obama on Texas visit; Perry will
White won't meet Obama on Texas visit; Perry will
Discussion: Riehl World View
James Surowiecki / New Yorker:
SOAK THE VERY, VERY RICH — The fight on Capitol Hill over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts is about many things: deficit reduction, economic stimulus, supply-side ideology. But at its core is a simple question: who counts as rich? The Obama Administration's answer is that you're rich …
Discussion: Ezra Klein, The Atlantic Online, FiveThirtyEight, JustOneMinute, Clusterstock and Democratic Strategist
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online: Should We Raise Tax Rates on the Rich?
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight: How Much Revenue Would a Millionaires' Tax Raise?
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute: Soaking The Really Rich — James Surowiecki thinks …
Joe Weisenthal / Clusterstock: A Strategy For Raising Taxes: Start A Class War Between The Rich And The Super-Rich
Mark Whitehouse / Wall Street Journal:
Some Companies Struggle to Fill Jobs — In Bloomington, Ill., machine shop Mechanical Devices can't find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries.
Discussion: Salon, The Atlantic Online, The Glittering Eye, Clusterstock, Outside the Beltway and Crooks and Liars
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online: Is It Too Expensive to Add New Workers?
James Joyner / Outside the Beltway: Unemployment Paradox: Vacant Jobs Unfilled
NY Daily News:
Republican Party starts to kill its own: S.C. Rep. Bob Inglis ousted for not hating Obama enough — There are landmarks all over our city named after LaGuardia and Javits and Rockefeller, names out of the city's great Republican past, when the party was one of intelligence, not fear-mongering and hate.
Discussion: Little Green Footballs, About.com Conservative …, The Impolitic, JammieWearingFool and Don Surber
Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: "The ignored conscience of an increasingly crackpot party"
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Avg. Midterm Seat Loss 36 for Presidents Below 50% Approval — Presidents above 50% lose average of 14 House seats in midterm elections — PRINCETON, NJ — Presidents who retain majority job approval from Americans at the time of midterm elections are much less likely …
Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Politics Daily, Hot Air, YID With LID and Commentary
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: Gallup: Average loss of seats for midterms is 36 ...
Jeff Dunetz / YID With LID: Gallup: History Shows Democrats Will Lose House
Peter Wehner / Commentary: From Gallup, More Bad News for Obama
Quinnipiac University:
Dem Gov Primary Too Close To Call As Malloy Closes, Quinnipiac University Connecticut Poll Finds; McMahon Up 22 Points In GOP Senate Primary — The Democratic primary for governor in Connecticut is going down to the wire with businessman Ned Lamont at 45 percent and former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy …
Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Fix, Ballot Box, My Left Nutmeg, Daily Kos, Taegan Goddard's … and TPMDC
Aaron Blake / The Fix: Connecticut governor primaries tight; Linda McMahon coasting in Senate primary
Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box: McMahon holds commanding lead ahead of Conn. Senate primary
Scarce / My Left Nutmeg: Q poll Lamont 45 Malloy 42
Thomas Rhiel / TPMDC: Quinnipiac Poll: McMahon Leads By 22 In GOP's CT-SEN Primary
J. Christian Adams / Washington Examiner:
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is out of control — Two unpleasant topics of conversation most of us avoid are the epidemic of HIV/AIDS among prison inmates and a variety of sometimes violent events resulting in transmission of the disease. Some states long ago implemented policies …
Discussion: Moe_Lane's blog, International Liberty and The Daily Caller
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
"Public Internet," Private Plan: Verizon, Google Announce Joint Broadband Policy — Oh, now I get it.... (photo: tantek) — Google and Verizon have announced their joint policy agreement on the Internet and broadband, seeking a continuation of the free and open policies around …
Agence France Presse:
Taliban execute pregnant woman in Afghanistan — HERAT, Afghanistan — The Taliban publicly flogged and then executed a pregnant Afghan widow by firing three shots into her head for alleged adultery, police said on Monday. — Bibi Sanubar, 35, was kept in captivity for three days …
Discussion: TalkLeft and Weasel Zippers
Mike Mandel / Mandel on Innovation and Growth:
Where Americans Are Spending More.. — Since the recession started in the fourth quarter of 2007, the common theme has been about Americans cutting back on their spending. But the latest numbers from the BEA show aggregate personal consumption expenditures are up 2.9%, or $285 billion.
Discussion: The Atlantic Online
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online: What We're Buying Today: Smartphones, Hair Product, Guns
Paul Krugman:
Self-induced Paralysis — Reading Jon Hilsenrath's column today, I was initially a bit skeptical about this assertion: … I knew that I had pushed that option (pdf); I was less sure that Bernanke had, since he often focused more on quantitative easing. But Hilsenrath is right …
Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Tim Duy's Fed Watch, Calculated Risk, Free exchange, Wall Street Journal and Economist's View
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Desperately Seeking Confirmation of Federal Reserve Board of Governors Nominees
Tim Duy / Tim Duy's Fed Watch: Waiting for Nothing? — Incoming data give the Fed a green light to ease further.
Jon Hilsenrath / Wall Street Journal: Might Take 'Hail Mary' to Recharge Economy
Mark Thoma / Economist's View: Fed Watch: Waiting for Nothing?
Gingrich ramps up Iowa activity — Gingrich is stepping up his activities in Iowa. — Washington (CNN) - With his busy travel schedule and penchant for wading into heated national debates, Newt Gingrich has gotten plenty of presidential buzz. — But the former House speaker is doing …
Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Page and FrumForum
Feifei Sun / The Page: Gingrich Does Iowa


text:
Race, Bolt, Charge, Fly and Sprint
Are all words that relate to one thing.... SPEED
it is the essence of Hockey, the pivotal factor which will measure your success in this Sport.
Speed as it relates to Hockey Equals Success.
The Faster you are the more opportunities in this Game you will receive.
We are not born with speed,
it like everything else in life is accomplished through Effort and Dedication.
You must train your functional muscles properly,
you must focus your effort and energy not on excuses, but possibilities. You must train everyday to improve and while doing that ask yourself one simple question...Why NOT ME?
When roughly 700 amateur hockey players each year begin their careers in either the CHL or U.S College Hockey... Why NOT ME?
When 211 individuals are drafted into the NHL each year... Why NOT ME?
When 25 players are selected by each participating country in the Men's and 21 in the Women's Hockey Programs to represent their Nation every 4 years.....Why NOT ME?
Whatever your ambition, whatever your goal, whatever your dream, you should ask yourself one question... Why NOT ME?
Vertical Divider
If someone told you in 12 Short weeks these Speed Increases were possible in a sport many have been playing for years... you should ask yourself one question...


text:
Why Quake Changed Games Forever
By: Ryan Winterhalter October 10, 2011
Quake may be the most influential game of all time. Not the best game, not the most innovative, but the most influential. Without it, the industry would be a very different place today. It gave rise to many of aspects of modern gaming that we take for granted. Its developers, modders, and even the very code of the game itself are ubiquitous in the industry today. Id Software's 1996 FPS gave rise to 3D gaming, client/server online play, the most prolific mod scene in history, multiplayer clans, server browsers, eSports, mouse-look as the PC control standard, Valve and dozens of other companies, and even 1UP's sister website, GameSpy. Without Quake, it's unlikely another game that featured the same suite of innovations would have come along. We would have had to wait for each of those things one at a time.
Quake came together almost by accident. There was no design document for the first half of its development, and the game that shipped was very different from what the creators first held in their minds in the beginning (if they had anything in mind). In 1994 id Software released Doom II. The company was riding high and seemed unstoppable. They announced that their next game would be Quake, a project they had started and abandoned years earlier, according to John Romero, id co-founder lead game designer, and Tools Programmer, "When we finished our first Commander Keen series on December 14th, 1990, we immediately started working on Quake in January. It was a top-down RPG, and was supposed to be based on our D&D campaign we were playing. The character of Quake was in this group called the Silver Shadow Band. It was a very small elite group of super badass characters. [He was this] Thor-like guy, and he had this amazing hammer, and this thing called the Hellgate Cube -- which was a sentient inter-dimensional cube that would rotate around him and go do its own thing depending on what was going on." He continues "We worked on it for two weeks and it was like, 'you know what, there's no way that this thing is looking as awesome as Quake really is, so let's just stop making Quake right now. So we decided to just sort of shelve it and wait until we had really great technology to make this a reality."
The tech came quickly. Each new id game was a technological revolution. Wolfenstein made the first-person shooter mainstream; Doom introduced the world to deathmatch and modding. It seemed only natural that id's next game would be an equal leap forward. The team made it look so easy. It was anything but. The tech required for Quake was far more complex than they ever imagined, and the id Software that started the game was very different from the one that finished it. In the year following the game's release developer blogs and interviews to the press were filled with gossip about id's troubles. At the same time, the team was revolutionizing 3D graphics and online play with an OpenGL version for then-cutting edge 3D accelerators (known today simply as video cards) and QuakeWorld, which added server browsing and improved online performance.
How did a small company of less than two dozen change the entire industry? The various stories from the game's developers fit together in a Rashomon-like way. Often during our interviews, we would hear the same story from three different people and get three drastically different takes on the past. Sure, the general facts line up, but if we didn't know better, we'd suspect our interview subjects were working on different games entirely. The men who were there making Quake can't even agree on the origins of the game's most revolutionary feature, internet play.
Before Quake, online gaming was something for those willing to pay a premium. Services like DWANGO (Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation) and TEN (Total Entertainment Network) sprang up overnight to provide online play for games like Duke Nukem 3D and Doom that supported LAN play, but had no internet functionality. Quake changed everything with the creation of the server/client architecture still used by games today. Players would login to a host computer that was preferably dedicated solely to that task alone. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, according to level designer Tim Willits, "In 1996 there wasn't much of an internet. Doom was a peer-to peer-system, and a pain in the ass. Quake was the first true PC server/client architecture system. People told us we were crazy. They said, why would anyone run a Quake server on their machine to allow people they don't know to play a game?"
See Also
Comments (53)
wowPosted: Mar 25, 2012 12:00AM PST by DarkshinesRawwr
these articles are so much better than the trash and shit on IGN; props to the writer of this! Very interesting XD
For further reading...Posted: Nov 06, 2011 12:00AM PST by SquirrelEiserloh
...check out Masters Of Doom by David Kushner. A fun and easy read.
Great writing.Posted: Oct 26, 2011 12:00AM PST by falcon_spawn
Another quality article. I learned lots of stuff reading this. I had no idea that Quake, a game I thought for years as just another id game, did so much for the video-game universe.
I heart Quake.Posted: Oct 24, 2011 12:00AM PST by DamnThoseWiffyDogs
Quake was what got me into gaming. I miss the days of CTF on the Texas and Purple vs. Yellow servers. I would always be losing my shit in grapple chases.
Quake Rulez!Posted: Oct 21, 2011 12:00AM PST by PLATINO_ITA
Quake: was, is , will be FOREVER the best game ever! and i'm a teenager from 1996!! :-) quake rulez!!
Mouse-Look was Marathon's InnovationPosted: Oct 21, 2011 12:00AM PST by UnicornWhisprer
I am sorry to be a dick and point out one partial inaccuracy in such a great article, but the mouse-look was the innovation of the polarizing developer Bungie 2 years prior in Marathon. I do realize that you Michael Moore'd it by saying "mouse look as the PC standard" and Marathon was a Macintosh game, but being the condescending douchebag I tend to be, I still felt I needed to correct it.
Now, despite the nerd-ragey tone of what I just now wrote, I loved this article for both the fascinating subject matter and for the quality of the Winterhalter's writing. I really miss in depth features on gaming like this since the death of nerd-publications not financed by Gamestop.
The Article DIdn't Say ThatPosted: Oct 22, 2011 12:00AM PST by Rwinterhalter
Yes, Marathon had mouse look, but it didn't invent it. You can go all the way back to Wolfenstein and find that Romero reccomended playing that game with mouse look in the game's strategy guide. What Quake did, is make that control scheme standard and nearly universal.
Thank you idPosted: Oct 20, 2011 12:00AM PST by whiskey002
As corney as it sounds, Quake changed my life. I never would have been a gamer if my neighbor hadn't come over and said "I gotta show you something, it's going to blow your mind" He downloaded Quake on my PC and I've never looked back. I have fond memories of playing Quake on line and now Rage is here and I'm totaly useless around the house once again!!! Thank you id, your the best.
Still love QUAKE!Posted: Oct 18, 2011 12:00AM PST by jsdeprey
I am 40 years old, never been to a quake
con (to far away for me) but I have always loved this game, my name is in the
first or second quakelive skin pack (evil clown), and I still think that is so
cool. before quake I played 4 person DOOM on a BBS, and you had to fool the IPX
networking in DOOM to work over a dialup serial link, it way crazy. But those
days changed my life, and drew me in to computers more and more, its the reason
I work on the ISP service industry today I am sure. before QUAKE I used to sit
in IRC channels and wait for John Romero to come in and give us ideas for what
he thought QUAKE would be like, I actually printed the IRC chat out back then
and saved it, I only wish I had it in digital form cause it is pretty neat to
read. I still have that shit somewhere. QUAKE was a big leap back then from
DOOM's 2d characters, and to us that where waiting for that game at the time
was mind blowing when we saw the beta or test that was 1 level you could run
around in, just to see the 3d characters and weapons, and the fact you could
have complex levels with room over one another was crazy. I still love that
game and will never forget it. I still real all anything Carmack writes today
and we all know he is a pretty special guy... THANKS!
Gaming HistoryPosted: Oct 16, 2011 12:00AM PST by ApocalypticSpasm
From all of the discension that occurred during it's development, it is surprising to a degree that it actually got completed. Thanks for the article.
Gaming HistoryPosted: Oct 16, 2011 12:00AM PST by ApocalypticSpasm
Terrificly written article. I couldn't stop reading it. Hearing all of the discension that occurred during it's development almost makes me wonder how it ever got completed. It really does look like a great deal of what goes into modern gaming did originate with Quake. Thanks for the article. I learned a lot.
Good ArticlePosted: Oct 15, 2011 12:00AM PST by Timberwolf8889
Good article, nice that you managed to get all of those interviews, interesting stuff.
Those were the days!Posted: Oct 13, 2011 12:00AM PST by DaveFrehley
Oh man, I've got some great memories making my own maps in Quake. My best friend created maps for Heretic & Hexen and designed all kinds booby traps that only he knew of that he could use against me. I did the same thing with Quake. He & I are Star Trek nerds so I would use Star Trek texture packs I found and I would create different rooms within a starship. (i.e. the bridge, transporter room, holodeck) I came up with some pretty creative traps to get him.... like a transporter pad that would crush him to death rather than transport him. I also tried to come up with inventive ways to create special effects that would replicate Star Trek stuff. I designed a holodeck that would change instantly at the push of a button... a shuttlecraft that would fly around a big open area. Ahhh those were the days. lol
My MemoryPosted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by Necroserpent
My first memory of Quake was it being advertised in a game magazine with a picture of a knight and dragon. Then when I played it on my 133Mhz it was this dark, gory, improved kind of Doom. My friends and I were blown away by the realism and enjoyed finding various easter eggs the developers had snuck in. Though I still favor Doom, the original Quake deserves mass respect.
Quake never changed anythingPosted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by BananaJane
It's as horrible as it ever was.
Denial or Ignorance?Posted: Oct 15, 2011 12:00AM PST by Circlestrafe
They say don't feed the trolls, but I can't let someone starve to death, even if it's just for attention. Quake is, was, and forever shall be the best online multiplayer DM & CTF game ever!
Quake ran fine on a 486.Posted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by Attorney_at_LOL
The article is mistaken - Quake didn't require a 75 Mhz Pentium to run. It ran at a fairly solid 20-30 fps on my 486DX2 66 Mhz Packard Hell. Awesome memories: )
Quake was awesome, but...Posted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by aharrison1988
Quake II was the shit, first ID game I ever played and most awesome FPS ever, the guns were so cool and remembrable...
Never played Quake 4, although I really want to, but no xbox or powerful PC, oh well...
Is there more to this piece?Posted: Oct 11, 2011 12:00AM PST by secularsage
This was an interesting read, but I don't think it did a very good job of explaining how Quake changed gaming forever. We get a few points (internet servers, the 3D engine, modding, clans) before it turns into a piece about the game's development history. And that, while interesting, is a little different from what the headline promises.
It would have been nice if you guys had taken the concept a little further and interviewed more of the developers who have Quake DNA in their more modern games, and maybe even offered some more insight into the evolution of the Quake engine in modern gaming. Sorry to gripe, but I was hoping that a 6-page piece would have a little bit more meat and a little bit less of John Romero contradicting everyone else about his role in the project.
Also, I hate to nitpick, but the phrase for revealing a conflict of interest is not "Full Discloser," but rather, "Full Disclosure."
yeahPosted: Oct 13, 2011 12:00AM PST by pinchedace
It was a great article, but I agree that they could have said more about how they shaped the fps. It's interesting to see how these guys were getting on in the end, it seems like the game is like the yoko ono of the game world.
My friend had 3 comps growing up, we used to deathmatch with his dad all the time. Espicially with quake 2. We used to download so many maps and mods it was awesome. Its a testament to the code they wrote for quake 1 too, the game played at a faster framerate than duke nukem 3d. Quake (like doom) is one of the few games of that age that you can still pick up and play today.
master of doomPosted: Oct 19, 2011 12:00AM PST by kudoshinchi
if you want you can read the book call "master of doom" it does explain more details of how they created quake
Quake is why I work in video gamesPosted: Oct 11, 2011 12:00AM PST by EvangM
It's not an exaggeration to say Quake literally changed my life. Fresh out of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself. College was not for me, but I knew I liked tinkering with computers and I loved video games of all types. When Quake came out, I was instantly addicted and sunk thousands of hours into Q1 and QWTF (Quakeworld Team Fortress for the uninitiated) and led a well-known TF clan for many years. Indirectly, it taught me all sorts of valuable lessons about what it is to be a leader, how to act responsibly and be civil with others, and many other important facets of interacting with a large community of fellow gamers. I would not a multiplayer QA lead and QA manager without Quake in my life, I'm absolutely certain of that. Thanks so much iD and thanks 1Up for taking me down memory lane!
a Quake fan for life
Very awesome!Posted: Oct 11, 2011 12:00AM PST by crimsonsquall
That was fascinating, thank you for the insightful article. And that video of Carmack...good god the nineties were rough. :)
Yuck, QuakePosted: Oct 11, 2011 12:00AM PST by Mr.LametoWatch
I played a demo of 1, played II and IV on Xbox 360, tested out III and I find the games so medicore. The Doom games were so much more stylish and if you want a good 3D FPS, turn to UT.
HmmmPosted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by ZiggyMoShriff
Kinda missing the point of the article. Although i do agree UT is the shit
bsofhPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by ChaironDeCeleste
Back at work, each time when the UniX network had a slowdown, it didn't take long until the team received angry and worried calls - the canonic answer was 'no worries - we're just implementing new software.' Next moment they were Clan MadDog again, vs Clan Crimson (the Novell network pc guys in another building on the campus)...
I remember ....Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by Nachtritter
Installing that game, DOOM II, and others like ROTT, DN3D and Descent on the PCs in the small computer tech room in college (this was a tiny college in a small Quebec town) back in the 90s. LAN parties in the middle of a computer classroom during break hours. My, that was so f*n awesome!
makes you wonderPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by invidcyborg
Custom skins, levels, weapons, talk shows and capture the flag. When I logged onto a 32 player CTF map I was blown away. This game had a 6 year track record. Always something new coming out for Q2 every day. The days of bringing your computer over to people's houses and LAN partying. People overclocking to the point their shit catches fire. Grand local social circles were made with these games, Wonder when did these type of games became so blase?
My favorite Quake-related memory:Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by Keylimepies
My folks bought me Quake 3 Team Arena on Dreamcast the year it came out for Christmas, and every night over Christmas vacation I would lock myself in my room and stay up till sunrise playing online. I caught a lot of flak from my parents for sleeping in so late when they wanted me to be in the family room since my aunts and uncles were over, but staying up till the crack of dawn fragging fools over Sega's 56k modem was way more appealing. No regrets.
SaturnPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by ShadowTheSecond
Played it on the Saturn first, and later on the PC. The PC version is naturally better, but the Saturn version blew my young mind away.
Ah, memories!Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by spanky_mcnasty
Well I say memories...didn't have a PC when I was a lad (!), so my experiences of Quake and Hexen were N64 ports (Hexen 64...tut tut tut), and Doom on a friends computer. It's amazing how remenants of these games still come up over time!
And if it wern't for Quake, there surely wouldn't be cloud gaming.
That feelPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by Revrant
Augh, that's good mojo, thanks guys, after this catastrophe called RAGE I needed to remember the company that started my gaming romance as a kid, those days on QuakeSpy bumping into the founders of what would one day be GameSpy, and first meeting Dave "Fargo" Kosak, now at Blizzard.
Those were the days, man, when you were a kid and the horrifying blood curdling Shambler scream sent you reeling, I played it through just a little while ago and that scream still makes me jump a bit.
Now...RAGE, which I can't even get to work on my powerhouse PC because it's so poorly bug tested, so poorly optimized, and so directed at consoles that id just didn't even bother trying to get a quality experience for me.
What happened, dudes?
Impulse 9Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by amicusorange
Man, what a great article. It's hard to believe that Quake could be perceived as overlooked -- playing it, working on half-completed mods for it with friends, LAN parties, the whole thing was a defining part of my adolescence. It really was the birth of the mod and clan community, which was a grand old time. On the other hand, I don't really miss the days of keeping server IPs in a .txt, then printing out the document and keeping a log of good servers. You actually had to have a fair bit of know-how just to make the games work properly.
No Mention of Trent Reznor/NIN?Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by Titus_Pullo
I'm surprised there's no mention of Trent Reznor providing the soundtrack, given how big NIN were in the immediate aftermath of The Downward Spiral and Cobain's suicide, it was a pretty huge thing to have him scoring the game. While it wasn't ground breaking as people like Michael Jackson had provided music for Sonic 3, it's one of the first examples of Rock music and computer games colliding.
The fact the guy has gone on to win an Oscar only emphasises this.
great read.Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by kittenkilla
quake was amazing. i didn't catch it until two came out. those bomb throwing guys pissed me off so much. scroll left they get you. scroll right they get you. scroll back and then right they still get you... fuck. fuck those things.
Agreed, should have mentioned TrentPosted: Oct 12, 2011 12:00AM PST by SpinoPrime
It was HUGE that they got him to make the soundtrack for this game. I love NIN and was a little dissapointed to not see this in the article. The soundtrack to Quake was great. They even had the NIN logo on the ammo boxes for the nailgun. Also, Kittenkilla, what does that have to do with the post you replied to?
hear hearPosted: Oct 19, 2011 12:00AM PST by foodi
Somewhat shockingly, little is typically said of the powerful mood Quake created. One of the essential aspects of Quake's longevity was its atmosphere, and music and sfx have everything to do with that. Not only was Quake obviously breaking technical ground, but it was taking an unconventional and unique aesthetic approach as well. This, atleast in my mind, raised the idsoftware folks to the level of artisans rather than fanboy-catering geeks.
This despite the unfocused/troubled nature of the development. Quite an accomplishment.
None of their other games, prior to or since, has managed this quite as well as Quake did.
It certainly didn't hurt that at this point in his career Trent could literally do no wrong. In many ways i consider his work on Quake to be some of his most memorable (and underrated).
Ah Quake...Posted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by imercenary
When I first played Quake I was still sticking to keyboard-only controls and the singleplayer campaign absolutely crushed me. But I was stubborn. It wasn't until I played a LAN multiplayer match with my friend did I see the errors of my ways and adopted the keyboard+mouse controls we all know and love today. (With inverted mouse controls! Its all about the flight sims!)
Oh and online multiplayer? MADNESS! My 9600 baud modem would never allow it!
My absolute fav to this dayPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by BadTron
Quake will forever hold a piece of my heart. When I first bought this marvel, I only got it because a X-Men game was an expansion pack to Quake. At first play, Quake blown me away forever. Left behind the N64 or SNES and stayed hooked. The music score was hauntingly amazing. To this day, I still listen to this high calibur score created by Trent Reznor. It makes perfect Holyween music :D The graphics, beautifully cadent. It deffinitely has aged but with a nostalgic charm. I would gaze at the details in this game from the slow cloud movement to the haunting lighting effects. Quake really has helped shape the gaming industry to what we see today. I look to the 'dark' day when we can exalt the glory of a true Quake HD version.
Romero told me he uses thisPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by Rwinterhalter
If you want Quake in HD. You can use this to mod it to more modern form. http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/
Glad you've addressed this game's importance in the industryPosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by asoasojapanapuh
Incredilbe article! Boy I have so many amazing memories with this game.
QuakePosted: Oct 10, 2011 12:00AM PST by 6StringSamurai
Quake Multiplay and the mods were the best. Quake II really brought it up a notch. I remember Battle of the Sexes. ActionQuake II was one of the best.


text:
How to Brew with Cholaca
Brew the best chocolate beer with Cholaca
Cholaca is an exciting and innovative ingredient for brewers. Our pure liquid cacao contains only two ingredients: cacao and water. The secret to our success is how we emulsify cacao in water – something that no other company besides Cholaca has been able to successfully do. We enable brewers to safely use chocolate without having to worry about organisms like salmonella, E.coli and botulism (commonly found in cacao nibs).
Cholaca helps brewers enhance their beer by actually adding chocolate into the beer instead of trying to extract chocolate flavor from cacao nibs or powders. Leaving a rich, smooth, chocolate tasting beer! Cholaca sources its cacao directly from farmers and co-ops in Ecuador and Columbia.
What is Cholaca's average dosage rate?
Cholaca dosage rates will vary on how flavor forward you want your chocolate to be. But, in general:
- Craft breweries add 1 gallon of Cholaca per bbl
- Home brewers add 32 oz per 5 gallon batch
Does Cholaca need to be refrigerated?
What is the shelf life on Cholaca if it is refrigerated?
Cholaca's shelf life is 1 year from the date of production. Once the container has been opened, it should be used within 30 days or frozen for long term use. Cholaca should be refrigerated at 40 degrees or cooler at all times.
How long is Cholaca good for once opened?
The product is good for about a month once opened. Unopened, it lasts for about a year.
How much will a 32 oz sample bottle of Cholaca make?
Typically brewers are dosing between .5 and 1 gallon Cholaca/bbl. That bottle is good for 7-10 gallons. There's some info that you may find helpful at https://cholaca.com/brewmasters-cacao-nibs-alternative/
What if I find that the product has separated and solidified at the bottom, is that normal?
Sometimes, the bottle sits and solidifies slightly but just needs to re-emulsified. We suggest opening the bottle so more air gets in, putting the cap back on and inverting it while shaking it vigorously so the product will re-emulsify.
We've been using cacao nibs in our chocolate beer, what is the dosage conversion rate from cacao nibs to Cholaca?
Because Cholaca is typically added into the secondary process, comparing nibs/Cholaca is a bit of apples to oranges comparison. Nibs are being added at different rates depending on whether it's added to mash, boil, or ferment.
You can compare what you previously used to any finished batch. So, if you have a 10bbl beer run, you would use between 5-10 gallons of Cholaca depending on how chocolatey you want the beer to be.
Is your product pasteurized?
Do you ship product internationally?
We can yes, but you will have to pay the shipping cost depending on location. Please email email@example.com
Where does the cacao come from? And, is it fair trade?
By purchasing Cholaca, you support a fair-trade cacao supply chain and contribute to the sustainable economic development of both Peru and Ecuador.
Are there other ingredients and/or additives?
Our "raw" version includes just cacao and water. We also have an "original" version that includes a small amount of coconut sugar.
Can you add Cholaca to the beer post fermentation?
Do you add it to the boil and/or fermentation process?
You can add it to the fermentation process, but the beauty of our pure "liquid" cacao is that you can add it directly to the bright tank post fermentation.
Is the cacao emulsified?
Yes, the cacao is emulsified with water.
Is Cholaca organic?
Do we offer a special order Kosher Cholaca variety for brewers?
Yes. Email email@example.com for more info
The beer making process with Cholaca was incredibly easy because we were able to let the fermentation go through and then able to infuse the Cholaca because of its liquid state! We then could layer the chocolate flavors with the beer flavors and it was the perfect fit!
– Tim Matthews: Head of Brewing Operations at Oskar Blues Brewery
– Todd Thibault: Culture Czar, Breckenridge Brewery
– Dan Ditslear, 300 Suns Brewing Company
– Jason Yerger, Ghostfish Brewing
– Bret Kollman Baker, Urban Artifact Brewing
– David Lin, Comrade Brewing Co


text:
History of Triathlon
Triathlon is a relatively modern sport, as it originated in the early 20th century and didn't truly become popular until the mid-1970s. As a result, the history isn't nearly as deep as with most other sports. There are, however, plenty of interesting facts that any triathlon fan or participant should be eager to know.
The Beginning
Origins of the modern-day triathlon can be traced back to France in the 1920's, where declaration of the "Les Trois Sports" event was first published in a French newspaper. The event featured a 3-kilometer run, a 12-km bike, and a swim across the Marne Channel. Throughout that decade, the three events – held in sequential order with no breaks between – continued to be held in France as a publicized race. This type of race was the first of its kind and led the way for the sport to develop into the international phenomenon it is today. "Les Trois Sports" steadily grew in popularity over the next few decades, becoming an annual phenomenon on the international level. These days, the event is held in its location of origin, Meulan, France.
Triathlons in the U.S.
It wasn't until the late 1960s when the multi-sport training concept grew within another part of the world: San Diego, California. However, it is well-documented that the French events had little to no influence on the San Diego's expansion of the sport. "Modern-day" triathlon history dates back to San Diego Mission Bay, with the San Diego Track Club.
Pioneered by Don Shanahan and Jack Johnstone, both members of the club, the triathlon was designed as an alternative to rigorous track training to help prepare them for marathon and 10k events. The events began non-competitively, but quickly grew in popularity and competition. On September 25, 1974, the first official triathlon event was held. It featured a 10-km run, an 8-km bike race, and a 500-meter swim. The event was sponsored by the San Diego Track Club, and featured 46 competitors.
A Rising Trend
A few years later in Hawaii, an argument arose over which of the three disciplines required the greatest endurance. At that time, Hawaii hosted The Waikiki Rough Water Swim (2.4 miles), The Oahu Bike Race (112 miles), and The Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). Originally three separate events, they were rolled into one to become the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon.
The first Iron Man Triathlon event was held in 1978, attracting 15 total athletes. Three of the competitors didn't even cross the finish line. By 1982, the level of interest in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon had skyrocketed. It had 580 competitors and received extensive coverage in the United States on ABC's "Wide World of Sports".
National Organization
The United States Triathlon Association (USTA) and the American Triathlon Association (ATA) were both founded in 1982 with the intention of governing the rapidly developing sport. Not too long into its first year of existence, the ATA moved under the umbrella of the USTA. A year later, the United States Triathlon Association became known as Triathlon Federation/USA, and was commonly referred to as "Tri Fed." This organization quickly became the premier sanctioning body for triathlon events in the United States, hosting approximately 1,500 events in its first year of establishment.
Olympics & Beyond
Not long after its emergence, Tri Fed representatives met with the U.S. Olympic Committee in regards to the integration of a triathlon race in the Olympic Games. It was determined that Tri Fed needed to satisfy specific regulations mandated by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which were fulfilled over the next few years. In 1988, with the intention of still establishing itself as an Olympic sport, Tri Fed moved to its current home in Colorado Springs, Colorado – the same location where the headquarters for the U.S. Olympic Committee was located.
Two years later, after Tri Fed's regulations imposed by the International Olympic Committee were fulfilled and the sport demonstrated great potential in both popularity and competition, the sport of triathlon received official Olympic standing. Shortly thereafter, Tri Fed changed its name to what it is today, USA Triathlon, a name that would distinguish the organization as an officially recognized governing body by the U.S. Olympic Committee. At that same time, the International Olympic Committee recognized the ITU as the sole international governing body for the sport of triathlon.
In 1989, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in Avignon, France. The first official world championship was held in that location. Official distances for the race were established – they were: A 1500-m swim, a 40-km cycle, and a 10-km run. The event was a huge success and plans for the second world championship – determined to be held in Orlando, Florida – began immediately. The Florida event was also a success.
The first Olympic triathlons were held at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Switzerland's Brigitte McMahon won the women's race and Canada's Simon Whitfield won the men's race. By the 2000 Summer Games, USA Triathlon had exceeded 30,000 members and was continuing to grow at a rapid pace. By 2004, USA Triathlon had grown to 53,000 members and exceeded 100,000 members in 2007. At the 2008 Summer Games in China, Australia's Emma Snowsill won the women's race and Germany's Jan Frodeno won the men's competition. A total of 110 athletes participated in the triathlon event at the 2008 Olympics.
Continued Growth
Today, the sport of triathlon continues to grow, both in participation and popularity. Triathlon clubs have emerged in nearly every major city and thousands of races are held across the globe each year. USA Triathlon is committed to introducing the sport to all ages and lifestyles, specifically among youths (as the sport is primarily popular with adults). The extraordinary growth-rate over the past 30 years is due to the sport's fast-paced and challenging characteristics. Expect further developments over the next decade.


text: STA Victoria continues to support "Turfies of the future" by sponsoring students from TAFE's with an award each year. Pictured (right) is Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) 2010 winner, Brodie Dorgan with his parents. Below is a group photo taken of award all NMIT 2010 winners. Holmesglen TAFE 2010 winner is Tim Glover and Swinburne University of TAFE 2010 winner is Nicholas Skerys. We wish all good luck with their future careers.


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text:
Hey yall,
I (and a friend) have been working on starting a nonprofit in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala since October. It's called Mayan Co-op -snip-, and the point is to help Mayan artisans sell their goods over the internet. We opened the store in December, and had some modest word-of-mouth sales. Since then, we've struggled: it's become entirely a marketing effort, and sales are hard to come by. So, I'd like to ask the collective for advice on how to move forward.
(Please don't interpret this post as advertising. I don't get any money out of this project.)
Here are the things we've considered or tried, and the results, if any:
-Soliciting press. We've written several general newspapers of varying sizes with our story and why we think it's worth publishing. Most didn't respond to multiple phone calls and emails. We did get a story published in my former university's daily paper. They claim a circulation of 9000, not including online readers, and it was a half-page story on the second page, but it resulted in one (1) sale. We have a new tactic, which is to ask friends of ours to write their local newspapers and ask for an article about us. The theory is that newspapers would be more interested in story requests from uninvolved parties -- it would feel less like advertising -- but our friends are busy with their own lives, and they haven't actually written any newspapers yet.
-Soliciting blog attention. We wrote to maybe 20 authors of blogs on latin american travel, development, and culture, and talked about our project, and invited them to write about us if they thought we were interesting. Evidently, we're not One group blog offered me a guest spot if I wanted to write about what I've learned about Latin American development in the course of my project, and I plan to do that, but I've been a little busy, and it seems like a relatively low-payoff effort.
-Paid advertising. We did trial runs with Google AdSense and with the Facebook Fliers programs, with dismal return rates. We put a lot of effort into AdSense, designing two campaigns and struggling for hours to come up with the perfect 30 characters to convince people to check us out. $50 and several rounds of tweaking later, we had 1 sale. We didn't even get a single hit from 15000 displays of our Facebook flier, so we aren't following up on that system.
-Talking to resellers. We hoped to act as a supplier for brick-and-mortar stores, but that hasn't worked out. The big chains like 10000 Villages are impossible for us to work with because they need thousands of each item that they sell, and we're working with individual artisans that produce mostly one-of-a-kind work. We haven't found any small stores that are interested in working with us, but we haven't been able to find many options.
-Coffee shops -- We also have considered talking to independent coffee shops to see if we can work with them. Our products are very aligned with the coffee-shop vibe, and the coffee-shop customers are exactly the kind of people we want to talk to. We thought of two possible ways: first, we could act as an interior design option. We would bend over backwards to find anything a coffee shop would want, and we think that we would make a coffee shop look homey, international, and cool. Second, we could ask them to sell one or two of our products, like how Starbucks always has a book and a stuffed animal or something for sale. This would be done on a profit-sharing basis. We haven't talked to a lot of owners, but we've had no takers.
-Student groups -- we've emailed a bunch of student groups -- Latino Student Associations, Latin American support/solidarity groups, etc -- asking them to help us in any of two different ways. First, we asked if they could hand out a flier at their next event. This flier would include a promotional code that would route 10% of the total sales to their group. Second, we asked if they would be interested in hosting a booth sale on their campus, again, on a profit-sharing basis. There was almost no interest. One group said they would pass out fliers, then flaked when we had them printed and delivered (at our expense).
-eBay and Craigslist sales -- our eBay sales attempts have been shot in the leg. Our first post was killed, they suspended our account, they will not give us an explanation, and we have to go through a difficult bureaucratic process involving faxes, bank statements, and two to four weeks. We considered selling over craigslist, but it works on a local basis, so that basically means that our US shipper (who has all the product) is the only person who can post and sell stuff, and he hasn't gotten around to it.
-Posting fliers around college campuses -- again, this is dependent on busy friends, and we're waiting on them to actually do it.
-Recruiting help with marketing -- we posted requests for help on idealist, college job sites, and craigslist. The requests on college job sites were advertised as internships -- we were looking for marketing students, and we figured we could help them in return by giving them experience and something to put on their resume. Finally, we also worked with one university to make an official program in which the student would get academic credit for helping us. We got a lot of responses, and we talked to them a lot and gave them lots of direction, but none of them ended up doing any actual work.
-Recruiting customers -- we write a personal thank-you note for every order, and ask that the customer help us spread the word if they like what they got. This hasn't resulted in any sales. We've started including promotional codes in orders to encourage repeat customers or referrals, and we have yet to see if this will work.
-Internet deal sites -- this has been our success story. We ask people to post on sites that collect promotional codes, like fatwallet.com. (We cannot post them ourselves because all of their terms and conditions ask that people affiliated with an organization do not post about that organization.) This has resulted in almost all of the sales that happened after our initial friends-of-friends burst.
-Facebook group -- we started a facebook group, asking everyone we knew to join. The group description talked about what we're doing and asked people to check out the site and buy stuff if they liked it, to get in touch with us if they wanted to volunteer, and to invite their friends to the group. The group stayed tiny and didn't result in any sales.
-Church youth groups -- I'm trying to get in touch with the national leadership of my old church's youth group. I'm going to offer them the same programs -- booth sales and fliers promotional codes -- that I offered the latin american student groups. My youth group was always running fundraisers, and when I was involved, I definitely would have jumped at the opportunity to work with a nonprofit like the one I'm starting now.
Ok, sorry for the novel-length post, but I'm winding down, I promise I'm looking for any ideas you all have -- you are many, and I am one. How can I get the word out about what I'm doing? (Please note that I don't have any budget to speak of -- I've built up quite a bit of credit card debt already.) How can I make this project grow and do good? Also, if any of you can help with any of the things I talked about -- press, blogs, talking to resellers, coffee shops, booth sales, fliers, etc -- feel free to pm me or whatever.
Thanks for reading this monster, let me know what you think!
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