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Rupture discs – an introduction
Why rupture discs?
Rupture discs are, next to safety valves, the most commonly used pressure protection devices in industrial plants. They protect vessels and pipelines from deformation and other damage. The main objective is to optimally protect and, at the same time, minimise the downtime of the system.
What is a rupture disc?
Rupture discs are safety devices with a defined breaking point, which respond to a specific pressure and are used for pressure relief in the most diverse range of applications. They are used to protect against overpressure or vacuum within a process, for the protection of man, environment and machine. Originally a very simple solution, rupture discs have evolved enormously in response to growing industry requirements such as alternating pressures or higher process temperatures, and the increasing technologisation of processes in recent years. The biggest advantage over electronic, pneumatic, or spring loaded safety systems is the failsafe performance of rupture discs - this makes them the most economical and most important safety device in industrial enterprises. High reliability is important to prevent unnecessary downtime of the system. However, how failsafe a rupture disc is significantly depends on the workmanship and the material used.
Design of rupture discs
Rupture discs for pressure relief are round or square, consist of one or more layers, and are either flat or domed.
Many rupture discs are equipped with breaking points which are created for example, by means of lasers. These can be simple cuts or even special geometries. This part of the rupture discs is known as the rupture element.
Different applications require different types of rupture discs. They are made of metals or plastics, from one or more layers, and they can be domed or flat. Domed rupture discs either have the dome towards the process (reverse acting rupture disc), or away from the process (forward acting rupture discs). Within these different varieties, there is a broad range of possible combinations.
For example, plastic film is sandwiched between metal layers for triple section rupture discs, in order to reach even the lowest burst pressures. The materials used range from various stainless steels to higher quality materials such as Inconel, Hastelloy, or Tantalum, and all the way up to coatings or plastic liners such as PTFE or FEP.
Rupture discs are either installed directly between flanges, or inserted into a corresponding rupture disc holder, which is then mounted between flanges. In some cases the rupture disc is already soldered or welded into the holder by the manufacturer. These holders are then fitted with the necessary connections, e.g. thread (NPT, G or customer-specific thread, connection systems (e.g. VCR) or various flanges (ISO-K, KF, ISO-F, CF)).
A large number of rupture discs and other safety devices are installed in industrial plants. A broad range of signalling options are available, to immediately receive information about the triggering (opening) of a rupture disc. The easiest way to achieve this is with a tripping wire which is fixed on the rupture disc, and is connected to the process control system. With the opening of the bursting disc, the wire breaks, the circuit is interrupted and the triggering of the rupture disc is communicated to the process control system. If there are particularly high demands for leak-tightness, non-invasive signalling methods (e.g. magnetic proximity sensor NIMU) are used.
Type classification of rupture discs
Reverse acting rupture disc
The dome of the rupture disc faces the process and enables very high operating pressures (see also: key technical information on rupture discs) and a very high operating pressure ratio.
Forward acting rupture discs
The dome of the rupture discs is faced away from the process.
Compact rupture discs
These are usually very small nominal pipe size of reverse-acting or forward acting rupture discs which are often adhesively bonded or soldered to the housing / holder.
Key Technical figures of rupture discs
Dimensions: The diameter of the rupture discs is specified matching the diameter of pipes or flanges as the nominal pipe size DN (Diamètre nominal) in the European context, or as NPS (Nominal Pipe Size) in other regions.
Burst pressure (also referred to as set pressure): This is the pressure at which the rupture disc opens. It is selected in such a manner, that the rupture disc opens before there is any system damage. The burst pressure is above the prevailing pressure during normal operation (also referred to as working pressure or process pressure) and below the pressure resistance (MAWP) of the respective system.
Example: At an operating pressure (working pressure) of 1 bar and a 2 bar pressure resistance (MAWP) of the system, the burst pressure is at max. 2 bar or lower, depending on the type of rupture disc.
Burst tolerance: Defines the tolerance around the defined burst pressure, which opens the rupture disc. If a rupture disc type has a burst tolerance of +/-10%, and the defined burst pressure is 1 bar, the rupture disc will open between 900 mbar and 1.1 bar.
Depending on the valid or applied rules and regulations the burst tolerance is at +/-10% (e.g. Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EC), or +/-5% (e.g. ASME section VIII, Division 1), or +/-3% for very high burst pressures. Other burst tolerances are possible depending on the requirements of the respective process.
What must be observed when selecting a rupture disc?
Reliable and economical rupture discs are not standardized products, but are always individually tailored to the respective process conditions. Numerous parameters are taken into account for the manufacture of rupture discs, in order to ensure optimal function.
These include, for example:
Contact us and we will gladly provide you with a comprehensive consultation on the rupture discs which are suitable for your individual process, taking into account all relevant parameters - for minimal downtime and maximum safety.
Overview of REMBE® rupture discs
All designs shown here refer to rupture discs to relieve unwanted overpressure and/or vacuum. Rupture discs are also used for explosion safety. These rupture discs, also referred to as explosion vents, are often rectangular and have a much larger footprint. More information about this topic can be found under explosion safety - explosion vents.
Rupture discs from REMBE® - minimum downtime, maximum safety
REMBE® rupture discs are technically sophisticated safety devices, which are individually manufactured and tested for each application. They open at an exactly predefined pressure and relieve it from the system. Our rupture discs can be used as primary or secondary relief devices. In combination with a safety valve they are often an economically attractive option which protects the valve against product contamination or corrosion damages
All REMBE® rupture discs are made in Germany and certified according to PED (2014/68/EU), as well as all common and industry-specific international regulations and standards. These include ASME sec. VIII, Div. 1, KOSHA (South Korea) and TR ZU 012 / 2011, TR ZU 010 / 2011, TR ZU 032 / 2013.


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In the late 1800s, baseball players didn't have the luxury of high-tech cameras to capture their in-game bravado. Instead, players would sometimes pose with imperceptibly hung baseballs in portrait studios.
This bit of camera legerdemain was supposed to make players appear as if they were furiously concentrating on America's pastime. More often than not, this trick made the athletes look like telekinetic popinjays with fantastic mustaches.
Here's a sampling of these unintentionally hilariously moments of frozen valor. You can see even more of these photos at the New York Public Library's website — all of your favorite sports stars from the Philadelphia Quakers and Atlantics of Brooklyn, in one place! And for more photographic curiosities of a bygone century, check out the women of the future, these naughty cats, the master of bacon, and the horrors of ventriloquism.
[Via Ptak Science Books]

subset: commoncrawl


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Beyoncé's Publicist Asks Internet to Remove Unflattering Beyoncé Photos; Internet Turns Unflattering Beyoncé Photos Into a Meme
When Beyoncé's publicist emailed Buzzfeed earlier this week to ask that they kindly remove "some unflattering photos" of her client that were included in a listicle of "The 33 Fiercest Moments From Beyoncé's Halftime Show," little did she know that the Internet doesn't quite work that way.
In fact, that's the exact opposite of the way in which the Internet works.
Now, thanks to an unforgiving Internet phenomenon known as the Streisand Effect, those photos are not only everywhere — they've become a full-fledged meme.
Folks on Reddit and other social websites have been trampling over each other to come up with ways to make Bey's "unflattering" candids even more unflattering.
Some of the more superb examples have been posted here, but there is always room for more, so grab a template and join in.
[H/T: The Daily Dot, BuzzFeed, Uproxx, Reddit, top photo via Getty]


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Arnie Beswick: Drag Racing's Consummate Underdog
The Farmer's Scrapbook
Born into a farming family in 1930, Arnie and his parents ran a 160-acre spread with 1,000 chickens, 300 hogs, hundreds of feeder cattle, and many acres of corn. But when not planting (April through May) or harvesting (October and November), Beswick traded tractors for traction as one of drag racing's most popular personalities, bagging his first big win at the 1955 NHRA Nationals in Great Bend, Kansas, where his B/Stock 1954 Oldsmobile took class honors.
Although it's rare, good things sometimes do emerge from the dustbowl of calamity. In the case of Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick's half-century-long drag-racing career—most of it aboard Pontiac products—there's little doubt that General Motors' March 1963 decision to pull out of all forms of auto racing was a very good thing. It may not have been immediately apparent—Beswick's supply of vitally needed 421 Pontiac Super Duty cylinder heads, crankshafts, and engine blocks dried up overnight—but the move put the Morrison, Illinois, farmer forever on the map as an underdog. And spectators love nothing more than an underdog.
Before the suits on the 14 floor of the GM building decided to pull the plug on automotive exhibitionism (as a means of reducing corporate profile that was under scrutiny from trust-busting lawmakers), Chevrolet and Pontiac had poured vast resources into their racing programs in an effort to reach the unprecedented number of young new car buyers from the post-WWII baby boom. With 76 million American kids born between 1946 and 1964 (38 million of them were hatched before 1954 alone), smart marketing teams knew it would take exciting, youth-oriented models, as well as racing, to attract them to the showrooms.
Though it was Ford that launched the Total Performance advertising campaign in 1962, the term is perfectly descriptive of the three-pronged approach taken by those carmakers with pockets deep enough to develop the wide variation of machinery needed for NASCAR-, SCCA-, and NHRA-sanctioned events. That's what it took to reach every type of buyer in the red-hot youth market, and it was a true "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" scenario with billions of dollars at stake.
And it worked. Chevrolet performance engineers crafted the 348 and 409 Super Stock engine and vehicle packages for use in NASCAR and NHRA events. Victory came quickly with Junior Johnson taking the 1960 Daytona 500, while the top tiers of 196162 NHRA Stocker action were dominated by W-motored cars driven by Don Nicholson, Frank Sanders, Dave Strickler, and Hayden Proffitt. On the twisty SCCA road courses, Rochester fuel-injected solid-axle Corvettes thwarted Europe's finest on a regular basis. All of the positive race publicity undoubtedly helped Chevrolet remain the premier U.S. automaker, selling an average of 1.7 million new cars every year in 196062.
At Pontiac, the Super Duty racing engine and vehicle program was launched in 1959 and grew from strength to strength with each model year. Without a sports car in the lineup, SCCA road-race action was nil, but consecutive Daytona 500 wins in 196162 only hinted at what future NASCAR racing efforts might hold. Despite their size, on the dragstrip, Pontiacs diced with Chevys, while the Ford and Chrysler contingents generally struggled for Third Place as their respective Super Stock programs were not yet fully mobilized.
And Arnie Beswick was there, winning the 1960 NASCAR/NHRA Winternationals (Top Stock) and 1961 NHRA Indy Nationals (Super Stock). Additional headline-making NHRA and AHRA national event victories by Pontiac Stock and Super Stock racers Jim Wangers, Hayden Proffitt, Mickey Thompson, and Lloyd Cox undoubtedly played a certain role in boosting sales from 396,179 in 1960 to 521,477 in 1962.
And then it all came crashing down. With GM's sudden and voluntary termination of all factory-backed racing and development on that mid-winter day in 1963, Chevrolet fans lost the lightweight Corvette Grand Sport, the canted-valve 427 Daytona Mystery engine, the Z-11 lightweight Impala, and the Rochester fuel-injected Chevy II FIA road racer. At Pontiac, the ban squashed the 421 Super Duty engine program, the Swiss Cheese Catalina lightweight and the 421 Tempest LeMans swing-axle A/FX package. Fortunately, a handful of each example had been released before the axe fell.
Let's speculate for a moment: If GM had not withdrawn from racing, there's no doubt that a succession of wilder off-road, drag-, road-, and stock-car racing packages would have been developed by Pontiac and Chevrolet. It is also probable that the Ford 427 SOHC and Chrysler 426 Race Hemi would have been met head on with equally exotic machines—and would not have seemed so invincible. Alas, we'll never know what we would have missed.
As for Arnie Beswick, his skill as a driver in such a free-for-all would have seen him continue as a Pontiac racer, with full access to the latest go-faster factory parts. But again, there is a strong likelihood Arnie would not have been alone. And with other Pontiac racers at each meet, the chance of winning would shrink. It is certainly possible that Arnie's star might not have shined as bright had he not been one of the stalwarts who stuck with Pontiac after the GM plug was pulled. But, stay he did. And by enduring a constant uphill struggle against Ford and Chrysler Funny Car teams—as well as grief from Chevy racers, who benefitted from an open back door to the engineering department—Beswick has carved out his place in drag-racing history as one of the sport's true underdogs.
Still racing at 84, Beswick and his 1964 GTO "Tameless Tiger" Pro Modified match racer can be seen at several annual events running deep 7s at nearly 200 mph. Thanks to Arnie for giving Elapsed Times access to his personal scrapbook and sharing some wonderful memories.
I had a 1954 Oldsmobile that won Top Stock at the 1955 and 1956 Nationals in Kansas, but this was my very first Mopar, a 1956 Dodge Coronet D-500-1. This was a 316ci Hemi with two four-barrel carburetors, backed by a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. A friend of mine ran a D500 on the circle track, and it was equipped with the same motor, only it was just a single four-barrel carb motor, hence the D500 designation. This was the year Chevy introduced its 265 two four-barrel Power Pack and thought it had the baddest of the bad—until it looked at the taillights of my Dodge too many times. Ford didn't have much better luck.
After giving the Chevys and Fords a butt-kicking in my D500-1, I knew I had to have the new 1957 Dodge D501 model. They were putting that animal together with a big Chrysler 354 Fire Power Hemi, but it was just too nose-heavy. In those days, we had to run a 7-inch tire in Stock class, and the car was a big disappointment because there was no way to get it off the line. Dodge only made 56 of these cars built to legalize the package for racing, plus maybe 10 more used by the Ohio state police. This car broke me of my Mopar habit; the final straw was its pin-type synchronized transmission that'd break if power-shifted. This car was on display at Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing in Florida for more than a decade.
When the Mopars let me down in 1957, I didn't want a Chevy since they were like belly buttons, even then. So I looked at Pontiac and liked the 1957 Tri-Power 347. When it grew to 370 cubes for 1958, I bought one. My Chieftain ran in A/Stock in 1958 and left the starting line OK, but again, I got tired of rebuilding the steering-column-mounted shifter. So for 1959, I swapped in a Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed with a floor-mounted shift—and ran in C/Gas where the switch was legal. The four-speed was a quick fix to the busted steering column problem. It even helped the e.t. a bit. I also ran a new 1959 389 Tri-Power Catalina in legal A/Stock. Yes, it also had three-on-the-tree but ran strong.
Though fullsize Chevys had four-on-the-floor in 1959, Pontiac waited an extra year. I bought this 1960 Ventura hardtop with the 389ci Trophy 425-A Tri-Power engine and new-for-1960 eight-lug wheels from Morrison Pontiac in Clinton, Iowa, where I worked as a part-time mechanic during slow months. I made sure they kept the window sticker on the side glass to avoid hassles with the NHRA inspectors over the four-on-the-floor. Still, at the NASCAR/NHRA Winternationals in Daytona, they made me sit out one night over protests from other racers who thought the four-speed wasn't legit. I had to get a telegram from Pontiac sent to clear up the problem. This picture shows the final run of six nightly points races of the week; I'm in the near side. I won the Stock Eliminator title and actually drove the car to the race from Illinois, and back again pulling a U-Haul cargo trailer.
My 1961 Ventura hardtop was named the Passionate Poncho and is seen with permanent painted lettering I had applied after I got it home from the 1961 Daytona races, where the paper sponsor banners I stuck to the car blew off in the wind. At the time, my dad was dead set against painted lettering on my cars. I ran a semi-stock 425-A until late May when the 363hp Super Duty parts became available. That over-the-counter Super Duty kit included a four-bolt block, forged steel crank, 8-quart oil pan, forged 11.2:1 pistons, big valve heads, a clutch fan, deep groove pulley, dual-point distributor, iron headers, an aluminum Tri-Power intake manifold, and the McKellar No. 7 solid cam. This stuff represented Pontiac's most serious effort to that time.
Here's the same 1961 Ventura facing Dyno Don's 409 with updated sponsor art at the 1961 U.S. Indy Nationals. I'd already won S/S, and Dyno Don had taken the Optional Super/Stock title—or so we thought. But this run was for the overall Mr. Stock Eliminator title. Don's 409 had new heads and carburetors since its Winternationals victory and beat me in this race, then the Ramchargers Dodge for the win. But after it all, he was declared illegal due to questionable valvesprings and the bigger AFB carbs. As for me, my 389 was declared 1.5 thousandths oversize on one cylinder and booted out. I raised Cain and hired one of Roger Ward's Indy-car mechanics to measure the bore again. It came up one-thousandth less than the allowed 0.060 overcut. Mickey Thompson's seven-car fleet of Pontiacs had the same machine work—but nobody protested them. The tech people were in bed with Mickey's team, for sure. Note I only ran the eight-lug wheels up front. I switched to conventional five-lug rear wheels to make it easier to juggle tires around to suit changing track conditions.For having the nerve to dispute the NHRA's ruling, I was banned from competing in any NHRA national competition for the 1962 race season, but i was no big deal to me. I had plenty of lucrative match races to fill in the void.
The year 1963 was the high-water mark for my direct involvement with Pontiac. Though I never got my cars for free, I had access to the latest packages. This was my Swiss Cheese Catalina in B/Factory Experimental trim note the missing low-beam headlamp duct for extra carburetor cold air access. This was also the first year I had a car hauler. Prior to this, I either used a tow bar or if the track was close enough, I'd actually drive the race car over the road. The truck is a big GMC gas job I bought from NASCAR great Cotton Owens. Remember, while big Chevy trucks of this era ran Chevy power, GMC units had Pontiac 347s for a few years. That made it a natural fit for me and Owens, who was also associated with Pontiac at the time. A couple years later, fellow Pontiac drag racer Jess Tyree had an old Dodge cab-over car hauler he used to transport his 1963 Tempest Funny Car. He stuffed a 421 in that truck and really covered the miles fast between match race engagements.
Taken at the 1963 U.S. Nationals, the wagon's exceptional traction made for strong launches and frequent FX and Modified Production victories. Here, I'm about to eliminate the Frederick Motors aluminum-nose Max Wedge Dodge, though Dave Strickler's Z-11 Impala kept me from taking the trophy that day. The 13 Super Duty Tempests were equipped with an exotic Powershift transaxle essentially two Corvair Powerglide two-speed automatic transaxles mounted inline to yield four forward speeds that worked kind of like a four-speed automatic with a clutch pedal. The limitation was that 3.90:1 was the lowest gear possible and that limited me to 5,200 rpm in the lights. The 421 wanted to go 6,500 at the finish line and that cost me some races. Also, I had to replace the ring gear in the Powershift unit every 12 to 13 runs. And that meant an all-day job—not something I could do between heats.
I have four daughters. These are the two oldest, Arnette and Paula, sitting on the aluminum fender of my new 1963 Swiss Cheese Catalina. Yes, they left some imprints in the flexible metal surface. My two younger daughters are both in the Air Force. One just retired after 23 years. The youngest has been in for 17 years, so she'll be hanging in there for a little while yet. The Catalina was a big car, but the weight reduction measures cut total mass to about 3,300 pounds, and it'd run 11.69 at 123.5. The 26-gauge aluminum fenders were even thinner than the ones used in 1962. This car usually rode on a trailer towed behind the ramp truck. I could run it in B/FX and clean up after sweeping A/FX with the smaller Tempests, or add ballast to hit 3,650 pounds and run in B/Super Stock.
These are the same daughters, this time sitting on the thin aluminum hood of my 421 Super Duty Tempest wagon, which I named Mrs. B's Grocery Getter after their mother, Evelyn, and for the cash winnings, which paid for plenty of food in our household. I put up such a fuss after they indented the Catalina's hood that Mom pulled the same trick, setting them on the wagon. The wagon is one of six, along with seven coupes, built before GM shut everything down in March of 1963.
The wagon's finest hour was at the 1963 Drag News Invitational, where I ran it and the big Catalina and downed all challengers. That really helped put me on the map and led to a steady demand from dragstrip promoters and operators who paid me appearance money to run. This picture was taken indoors at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, where they raced inside during the winter months. The strip was only about 500 feet long, and at the finish line each car had to thread through a narrow doorway—at speed. Plenty of guys crashed, so they shut it down after a few winters. My wagon's rear overhang was hard to beat on that slippery surface.
The GTO was the big thing for 1964, so I built the Mystery Tornado with a GMC supercharged 421 Super Duty for the new Supercharged/Factory Experimental class. I was 34 at the time, and Hot Rod magazine gave the car a nice four-page story in the May 1965 issue. I'm seen here with my wife, who worked at the GE plant but managed to take some vacation time to attend the 1965 NASCAR Winternationals in Daytona. Here, we're posed at a local Sears store alongside the Patterson Motors F/Stock Automatic 273 Barracuda Formula S during a pre-race car show. The GTO was purchased from Bill Knafel Pontiac in Akron, Ohio, and started out as a 348hp Tri-Power, four-speed pillar-coupe. There were only 16 miles showing on the odometer when we pulled it apart.
This is a very historic and tragic picture from April 1965. It's my Mystery Tornado GTO and Richard Petty's 43 Jr. Outlawed Hemi Barracuda, just hitting the gas at Southern International Dragway in Dallas, Georgia. After about 400 feet, he crossed the centerline directly behind my GTO. He near-missed the corner of my rear bumper and came across my lane and directly into the crowd standing along the fence by parked cars and atop pickup truck beds. An 8-year-old boy was killed outright and many others injured. After the crash, Petty locked himself into the cab of his tow rig because things got very ugly. Dale Inman Petty's crew chief of more than 30 years was helping keep things calm, but there was an angry and drunk crowd, who wanted to get at him. Inman had to physically take three guys down before the cops arrived and restored order. The strip organizers canceled further racing after that accident. (Editor's note: At the time, Petty gave an interview to the Feb. 1966 issue of Car Life magazine and said, "I don't know what's going to happen; I feel strongly that we were not to blame, but the courts will decide that, I guess." A $1.5 million lawsuit resulted, lawyers settled, and Petty continued running an updated version of the match Barracuda through 1965 before returning full time to NASCAR track racing. The hulk of Petty's Hemi Barracuda was later junked but exists today after being exhumed by a collector in the 1990s.)
Seeing my success as a drag racer first, and my association with Pontiacs second, Lincoln-Mercury race honcho Fran Hernandez came calling in 1965 with an offer to run a new SOHC 427-powered Comet Cyclone in A/FX. After struggling as an independent with zero parts support from Pontiac for almost two years, I figured maybe the Mercury deal might be a good one, so I took it. But I soon realized that the SOHC was one complex engine and maintenance was a nightmare, what with different thickness lash caps needed to set the valves and two camshafts to synchronize. Plus, after a few months, spectators got used to the exotic SOHC cars and the novelty wore off. You can't imagine the pressure I got from tracks to bring the Pontiacs. To top it off, the sodium-filled exhaust valves were failure prone. I lost two engines due to this and had to return the entire engines to Ford for repairs. For a while, I had Don Gay drive my supercharged Pontiac at the same event where I ran the Comet, but Lincoln-Mercury didn't approve so I happily returned the car. It went to Paul Rossi. But I till got to pose with Dyno Don and Hayden Proffitt in a Mercury magazine ad, sipping victory champagne no less.
Bill Stroppe's Long Beach, California, shop put the fleet of four SOHC Comets together, and I was first introduced to mine about one hour before registration for the 1965 NHRA Pomona Winternationals closed for the day. It wouldn't pass tech due to thin welds on the rollbar. So I borrowed a welder in the pits, beefed the welds, and finally got approved. My first ever pass in the car was made during eliminations, and I was eliminated by Tom Grove in one of the 2 percent Plymouth altered wheelbase cars. Knowing I'd be doing a lot more match racing than sanctioned NHRA racing, I requested a spare SOHC motor to explore and make better, maybe with a supercharger. But getting one was difficult, so that was another thing that made leaving Mercury easy. Besides, on the match-race circuit, strip promoters would pay me three times as much to bring the Pontiac as they would the Comet.
In late 1965, I knew the Mercury deal was unwinding, so I completely transformed my 1963 Tempest Super Duty sedan into a full-blown altered wheelbase match racer called the Tameless Tiger. I did this because at 3,450 pounds the Mystery Tornado 1964 GTO was too heavy. It's full frame and standard wheelbase was a drawback against the ever-lighter Ford and Mopar match racers on the circuit. So I kind of followed the Mopar pattern and pushed the Tempest's rear axle forward a foot then moved the front wheels forward about 7 inches, secured with a basic straight axle and leaf springs. Notice how the rare aluminum front fenders were simply slashed for tire clearance. Since the Tempest was a unibody car, the end result weighed 2,800 pounds. By this time, I was having a really rough time getting enough Super Duty crankshafts and cylinder heads. The block situation was OK since standard 1965 and 1966 passenger car 421 Grand Prix and 2+2 units were strong enough as long as Super Duty or aftermarket steel caps were swapped i
Compare this picture to the preceding one, and you'll see that Jess Tyree and I stretched the front fenders and frame for extra stability at high speed. The Tameless Tiger was nudging 170 mph and mid-8s on fuel, and the extra wheelbase helped keep it pointed straight. The original aluminum fenders gave way to a one-piece fiberglass flip-nose by Fiber Glass Ltd.—notice the sponsor logo added to the rear quarter-panel. This car covered most of the quarter-mile with the front wheels in the air. If I was ahead of my competition, I had a terrible time lifting my foot off the pedal, so as you might guess, the car got crashed several times. Depending on how bad and where it crashed, it frequently got repainted with different lettering to help give exposure to whoever helped me repair the damage. I was also appreciative of any sponsor who came on board with anything, even some oil or spark plugs; their name would go on the car.
After facing the 1966 tube-frame, flip-top Mercury Funny Cars with my steel-bodied 1963 Tempest and 1964 GTO, I knew I had to follow the same formula to remain competitive. My 1966 Star of the Circuit Gee Tee O match racer was completed in mid-October of 1966 and featured a Fiber Glass Ltd. body mounted to the lightly modified framerails that were taken from my 1964 Mystery Tornado GTO. The Star of the Circuit name stems from a dragstrip announcer who loved the paint, and also due to the fact I toured the car all across the country, from Cecil County, Maryland, to Bakersfield, California. At 2,800 pounds ready to race, it ran 8.50 at 170 mph at Rockford, Illinois, on its first pass. It wasn't a flip-top car; the main body was bolted to the frame, but the one-piece fiberglass nose tilted forward for access to the front of the nitro-burning Pontiac motor. I still got in and out through the doors, which were hinged like a normal car. Serious engine work required removal of the tinwork inside the car, since I drove from the back seat area. In this shot, I'm racing Al VanDer Woude's Flying Dutchman Hemi Dart roadster at Lions. Pappy Hart knew how to get the word out. I was never there with anything less than a packed crowd in the stands.
For 1968, Pontiac radically restyled the GTO body, so I kept up with an all-new car, the Star of the Circuit II. It was my first true flip-top Funny Car. The one-piece fiberglass body was made by Fiber Glass Ltd. Under the skin was a copy of the round tube frames being made by the Logghe Brothers but with some of my own ideas. This picture shows the car before it had ever been down the track. I was on my way to the weeklong NASCAR Daytona speed weeks drag event in 1968. Each year, I stopped in Atlanta, at Ron and Joan Garwick's home to do some final detailing. Our parents were good friends, and we grew up on nearby farms before he moved to Georgia. No doubt, his neighbors got a kick out of seeing my match race Pontiacs appear every year in their backyards for a few days.
I got talked into racing the Boss Bird on dirt at a few state fairs against quarter horses and pulling tractors. The course was about 300 feet long, and the promoter set it up in front of the main grandstand. I loaded a bunch of ballast and replaced the slicks with knobby snow tires. I won, but it was close. This tractor is one of many I raced. Notice the carbureted Chevy big-block and International Harvester radiator shell. I've always been a fan of IH tractors.
I ran everybody from Dyno Don to the Ramchargers in the 1966 GTO. Despite their use of Hemi heads and overhead camshafts, my "obsolete" Pontiac gave them all fits. By this time, I was using a 428 Pontiac block but with 1963 SD heads and cranks, since they were still the best parts available. My fans loved it when I led the more powerful Funnies to the finish line, which happened a lot. Here's a late-1967 matchup between my 1966 and Doug Cook in the Stone, Woods, and Cook Dark Horse 2 Mustang at Green Valley Dragstrip in Texas. Cook was an independent racer like me. That meant zero factory support. That explains why he ran a 1958 Chrysler Hemi in his Mustang. There's no way a Ford-subsidized driver could get away with that. A little bit later, I was at Alton Dragway in Illinois coming back down the return road when I saw Doug's Mustang get airborne going through the lights. He got banged up pretty good, and it was quite a while before he was healed enough to drive again.
I'm pretty sure this picture shows my Star of the Circuit GTO racing Jungle Jim's Chevy II at Capital Raceway during one of their King of Kings shootouts. I think this might have been the run where we both got really loose, crossed into each other's lane but kept on it before crossing the finish line, side by side. The crowd gave us a standing ovation as we passed the stands on the return road to the pit area. I might have been known as one of the more fearless drivers on the circuit, but you can be sure I met my match any time I lined up against Jungle. The word "fear" was not part of that man's vocabulary. I loved Jungle Jim. In many ways, we were like brothers.
When I heard the NHRA was starting the Pro Stock category, I wanted to be part of it. I built a Ram Air V-powered 1969 Judge called The Righteous Judge, seen here in testing at Jacksonville, Florida, prior to the Daytona Speedweeks event. By the late 1960s, Pontiac engineering, like Chevrolet, was dabbling in some exotic metal. The RA-V program was an outgrowth of the Trans Am 303 engines that were considered for SCCA use. They had even-spaced exhaust ports and huge intake ports, more like tunnels. The motor had ungodly rpm capability, but the low-end torque wasn't much better than a basic D-port head. They worked best with a supercharger on my Funny Car. I wasn't competitive against the likes of Grumpy, Dyno, Ronnie, or other big-name racers. Plus, the Funny Car was in such high demand, I only ran the Pro Stocker about a dozen times.
I built the Boss Bird for the 1972 race season, but splayed-cap Ram Air V engine blocks were impossible to get. I only had one Ram Air V block left, and I didn't want to wreck it, so by the end of the season, I switched to a 426 Chrysler Hemi. This picture was taken at a small gas station in College Park, Georgia, I used to visit on my way south each year. Model kit maker MPC did a 125 scale plastic model kit of this car. I hear there is talk of it being re-released by Round 2, the outfit now in control of the MPC kit tooling. Round 2/MPC already re-released the kit of my 1969 Super Judge GTO. I've had many of my cars modeled in scale. I sell them at ArnieBeswick.com.
Funny Car chassis technology was progressing so fast I had the Logghe Brothers build me an all-new car for 1969 based on one of their superlight frames. It had the right suspension geometry for high-speed stability. I named it Super Judge, and I guess you could say it was my first professionally built car. Here, I'm running Hayden Proffitt's Grant Rebel SST at Oswego, Illinois. Like Pontiac, AMC had very few off-the-shelf pieces available for supercharged engines. Hayden ran an honest-to-gosh AMC 343 engine bored out to 438 inches. When it ran well, it'd go 8.11s at just more than 180 mph. I was still running Turbo 400s in my cars. I really have to give a big thanks to Tom Nell, the Pontiac engineer who helped me rework the Turbo 400 to live under the strain of blown fuel racing.
This picture of the 1972 Boss Bird was not staged but sure is fitting, what with me being a corn farmer. But seriously, I ran at many cow pasture strips and cannot begin to count the number of times I blew through makeshift fencing then plowing through corn or beans after running out of shut-down area. It was a bigger problem after I put the Hemi in my Boss Bird and started running more than 220 mph. Sadly, I had a huge fire near the end of 1972 that saw the loss of everything I owned, including my farm equipment, race cars, haulers, and tools. It put me out of racing for many years.
After the 1972 fire, I quit racing to focus on rebuilding my farming interests. But in 1986, I played part in a Blast From The Past nostalgia drag race show. At first, I drove a friend's 1963 Tempest with a carbureted 455 street engine but got the bug again as Dyno Don Nicholson, Ronnie Sox, Malcolm Durham, Phil Bonner, Dick Brannan, and others also came out to play. My current race fleet consists of a 1963 LeMans with a 462 Pontiac engine and this 1964 GTO with a 572-inch Pontiac-type Pro Stock motor. For several years, I raced the Tempest against Dyno Don's 1962 Impala. At a three-day Labor Day race at Great Lakes Dragway in 2003, I beat Dyno three nights in a row in a best-of-3-out-of-5 match race series. He came up to me, mad, and asked if I'd let him win the next pairing. I said, "Dyno, in our years of racing, how many times did you let me win? None." I wouldn't do it. He turned and said "F you," then walked away mumbling to himself.
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text:
Cycling stands apart. It is a means of travel; a mode of transport ubiquitous around the world, unbound by creed or class or gender that connects millions of people to their communities every day. And it is an elite sport; a global entertainment industry built on an unparalleled history of perseverance, suffering and achievement. In sport and activity, these two identities collide. Arenas erupt on roadsides in Europe, the Americas, Asia and beyond as cyclists - professional and amateur - gather to ride and race. Occasionally, they create enough noise that the world takes notice. Grand Tours, great races and gold medals are won or lost; new feats of human achievement are written into history and old scandals return to undo them; stories of personal triumph, collective commitment and sheer force of will are written and cycling's incredible appeal is restated.
Rapha was founded with a deep respect for that appeal. The company believes cycling can and should be the most popular sport in the world and has worked since 2004 to demonstrate its commitment to the activity, inspiring participation and loyalty around the world. We love the sport and have dedicated significant energy in our business to working within the professional sport to promote its growth. For 15 years, through sponsorship of numerous professional teams and dozens of individual elite riders at the top of the sport, we have sought to connect with and champion the best of professional cycling. Since 2016 onwards, Rapha has embarked on an unprecedented research project in an effort to further refine our relationship with elite road cycling and define our strategy moving forward. The Rapha Roadmap was commissioned to help the business understand the state of the professional sport, and inform our involvement in the future. We believe there is an incredible opportunity for growth in the sport, and this research is our attempt to chart a radically new path for Rapha within a radically reformed sport.
We also want to encourage honest and open debate about the state of the sport we love. Thousands of riders within our community are deeply passionate about the future of the sport and with this research we have sought to find and reflect opposing views on the opportunities and challenges facing cycling. We hope interrogation, counter-argument, feedback and robust debate will reveal new, unexplored areas of contention and potential reforms inevitably overlooked in this work. It is our belief that we can help to create momentum behind that discussion, ensuring the voice of the fan is heard when considering the future of the sport.
There is one conclusion that echoes most loudly from our research, in interview after interview; professional cycling is broken. Despite the obvious passion of countless stakeholders in the sport, and the hugely impressive strides made towards modernisation in some areas, the sport has failed to find new audiences or inspire younger generations of fans. Cycling has struggled to keep pace with the changes that have upended broader sporting, leisure and entertainment industries. The basic structure, format and presentation of the sport has barely changed since its inception. It is regularly argued that those involved have stuck too closely to the sport's heritage, missing opportunities for innovation. And as a result, the health of cycling has been left to wither on the vine. As the same tired narratives are retold and the same events replayed every year, the sport has failed to create new stories and elevate characters that capture the attention of fans around the world. That seeming inability to evolve is starting to show in its audience. While the number of people on bikes is increasing in every major region of the planet, engagement with professional cycling is stagnating.
The full compiled version of the Roadmap is now available to download.
A road less travelled
Cycling stands apart. It is a means of travel; a mode of transport ubiquitous around the world, unbound by creed or class or gender that connects millions of people to their communities every day. And it is an elite sport; a global entertainment industry built on an unparalleled history of perseverance, suffering and achievement. In sport and activity, these two identities collide. Arenas erupt on roadsides in Europe, the Americas, Asia and beyond as cyclists - professional and amateur - gather to ride and race. Occasionally, they create enough noise that the world takes notice. Grand Tours, great races and gold medals are won or lost; new feats of human achievement are written into history and old scandals return to undo them; stories of personal triumph, collective commitment and sheer force of will are written and cycling's incredible appeal is restated.
Rapha believes that cycling is the toughest and most beautiful sport in the world. That it should be introduced to more people and that in so doing our sport can transform lives. Professional racing is the shop window of cycling and at its very best, can inspire huge swathes of fans to embark on a lifelong journey through the sport. This report was written with that aim in mind, designed to answer the question of how the sport can be made more engaging, more exciting and more accessible to better connect with fans and better encourage participation in the sport.
In so doing, the Rapha Roadmap seeks to guide Rapha's involvement in contributing to a better future, one built on engagement with opportunities afforded by technical, commercial and social innovation to drastically change how the sport is consumed. The following pages identify the primary obstacles to the sport's growth and offer solutions that would radically reimagine its offering. Based on the latest analysis of cycling and other sports and informed by dozens of interviews with industry influencers and experts, it seeks to build on cycling's current position to create the environment for even greater reach and value. The format and structure of professional racing, the economics of the sport, its media distribution and broadcasting, sponsorship and ownership as well as amateur, club and geographic dynamics will all be considered. It should at once offer potential routes for realistic, meaningful reforms across the sport and encourage debate about its future. We have conducted this research in the hope that we might contribute and by way of inviting much broader participation in that discussion.
Our research was compiled over more than 18-months and draws on the experiences of the sport's most established stakeholders. As well as interviews with current and former leaders in the sport (a full list is available in Appendix 1), it was researched by Daam Van Reeth, a sports economist at the Research Centre for Economics in KU Leuven University, Joseph Harris and Steve Maxwell, part owner of VeloNews and together co-editors of The Outer Line, a US publication dedicated to the advancement of professional cycling, and Oliver Duggan, Head of Media and Copy at Rapha. The recommendations for reform and commitments for action from Rapha outlined below are based on our research for the Roadmap, but they are not universally endorsed by all interviewees. Their thoughts were invaluable but these are Rapha's conclusion alone. The work identifies and addresses a broad set of problems for the sport:
- A failure to grow the sport as a whole, resulting in far too little revenue across the board and therefore a lack of investment in initiatives that could make professional cycling more exciting and more accessible to more fans.
- A weak financial model that is almost entirely dependent upon unpredictable commercial sponsorship, leading to a constant state of economic instability and ultimately creating an extremely poor model for meaningful growth.
- An out-of-date and regularly changing competitive structure, with an overloaded and overlapping calendar of races at the elite level that make it increasingly difficult for fans new and old to enjoy the sport.
- Outdated models of broadcast production, content accessibility, viewership measurement, and media distribution systems, as well as failure to champion characters and narratives within the sport on new platforms and a challenging media cycle focussing on doping and safety.
- Under-investment, under-development, and inconsistent focus on women's professional cycling and youth development programmes, as well as a staid approach to team and athlete management with a lack of emphasis on engagement.
- Systematic failure amongst almost all stakeholders in the sport to encourage and facilitate fan access and participation in the spectacle of professional cycling.
- A confusing and often conflicted governance structure, which does not have the resources necessary to oversee the sport and which has given rise to conflict at the centre of the sport's organisation.
Recommendations for reform of the sport are therefore focused on five main topics that seek to stimulate debate over its potential future; 1) alterations that could be made to the format and structure of the racing calendar, 2) changes that could be sought to better connect teams and athletes to their fans, 3) improvements to the sport's organisation and governance to facilitate deeper connections between professionals and amateurs, 4) transformation of the media produced around the sport to better broadcast the personalities within it, and 5) reorientation of the economics to reduce instability. Each of these suggestions has been designed to work both together or individually to create an environment for growth within the sport. The central findings of the Rapha Roadmap suggest:
- Professional cycling must fundamentally reform and shorten its calendar to create a season-long series of linked races that reward individual triumphs throughout the year
- It must find new ways to judge riders' success, revolutionising traditional models of racing and winning to promote combative and aggressive racing across the season in new locations and formats
- It must promote team structures that elevate rider stories, rewarding riders as much for their roles as ambassadors as athletes and moving beyond performance as the sole motivation
- It must become the most transparent, media-friendly sport in the world, creating content that champions the human stories of the sport at every conceivable opportunity and building communities out of fans
- The production and distribution of entertainment must be integrated into the heart of the sport, giving fans more access, creating more content and evaluating success by engagement
- Teams, events and stakeholders must pursue solid links with wider participation in cycling, integrating with clubs, infrastructure lobbyists and broader fitness initiatives and taking on leadership roles on safety and environmentalism
- Coverage of the sport must be enhanced with the adoption of cutting-edge direct-to-audience broadcast models and episodic, free-to-view content creation on a variety of platforms
- Women's racing must be promoted as aggressively as men's, with greater emphasis on building and promoting characters and commitments to parity to capitalise on a huge untapped opportunity
- Events and teams must urgently pursue diverse revenue streams, monetising opportunities around gate fees, marketing opportunities, merchandise, public rides, tiered-access content, fan access and more
- The sport must better monitor and develop its sponsorship proposition locally and globally, and the main costs associated with the sport - team budget, event organisation, television broadcast - must be reduced through shared resources and modernisation
- The UCI's role must be reconsidered in relation to the friction with events organisers as leaders in reform of the sport
- Long-term plans for youth development, including a radical approach to talent programmes that promote careers in the sport beyond riding must be developed.
In each of these areas, there is potential for Rapha to actively work towards potential reforms that could encourage change within the sport. Based on the research within this report, the business has committed to several major initiatives that will help shape the future of Rapha. As well as continuing to develop products and services that perfect the average rider's cycling experience, it will endeavour to promote the characters and personalities within the sport with major investment in its own media creation. Launching for the first time during the 2018 World Tour, Rapha's editorial content will go on to contribute rich, entertaining content around cycling that connects new fans to the sport in new ways.
Rapha has also overhauled its approach to team and athlete sponsorship from 2019 onwards, completely changing the way it has previously invested in the professional sport. Working with the most exciting riders, men and women, and combining with the passionate advocates for the sport, we will seek to create a new model for a professional cycling team that fundamentally changes fan expectations and ultimately the sport itself. The team approach will change Rapha's relationship with the sport to better promote storytelling and reform within the World Tour. Starting in the 2019 World Tour through a ground-breaking media partnership with EF Education First Pro Cycling, Rapha will seek to engage millions of new fans by creating and publishing the most innovative portrayal of pro cycling. The approach will see riders race beyond the traditional confines of World Tour events, exploring the outskirts of the sport as it currently exists to expand its horizons.
Following publication of the Rapha Roadmap, the company will make a sustained effort to lead innovation to build a better future for professional cycling, building on the research herein by inviting criticism and contributions from stakeholders and fans around the world and providing the space for those discussions.
In the sections that follow, the Rapha Roadmap will expand on the problems facing the sport and its position within an evolving social, economic and technological landscape, and offer specific suggestions on how cycling could evolve in the 21st century. Cycling must be revitalised to become more widespread and more popular and it must prioritise meaningful engagement with the audience above all else. A new direction and more robust viewership for the professional sport can lead to greater visibility for cycling across the board, and can help to draw in new participants. Cycling should endeavor to become the world's most inclusive recreational and widely accessible sport, in which all can participate. To do that, it must reform.
8 Lessons from professional sports
Throughout the Rapha Roadmap there will be examples of reform in other sports from which professional cycling can learn. These appear where relevant in the text, but there are a number of key innovations that have broadly informed the research and our conclusions.
Start the conversation
- Formula One has successfully reformed its racing calendar since its inception, evolving the structure and geography of motor racing to improve fan engagement and eliminate the inefficiencies and distractions caused by overlapping competition.
- NASCAR sought to reform the internal points system of its sport in a bid to encourage inventive tactics and enhance suspense to create excitement for fans. A new points system introduced to the sport helped keep spectators engaged over long periods of competition that has historically seen few points of interest.
- Major League Sports throughout the US have pioneered strategies to connect teams to specific regions and communities. Teams are moved to, or created in, strategic locations, chosen through an assessment of local heritage, the size of the available media market, local competition, and other factors. The result is invariably a sound economic base, contributing to their longevity.
- Media distribution, particularly via social media and brand-owned channels, is a major tool of modern fan engagement. The collaboration between the NBA and Twitter to deliver timely, exclusive content to the platform helps the NBA capitalise on fan engagement and reactions.
- In 2017, Amazon secured the rights to broadcast ATP events and NFL Thursday Night Football, while Netflix have upped their investment in over-the-top content for a variety of sports. These investments signal the increasing importance for cycling to be broadcast on the internet, supported by human interest stories and behind-the-scenes footage.
- The rise of women's tennis shows that equal pay and gender equality is achieved by a combination of action by race organisers, riders, and governing bodies. The reward of investment in opportunities for women and equal prize money is a healthier sport with a deeper talent pool.
- The potential of merchandise as a major and consistent economic driver for teams, athletes and races, has been demonstrated by major developments in the marketing of on-the-road sports, such as marathons and triathlons.
- Streamlined broadcasting – with a regular cast of pre- senters, crew, and content segments – is necessary to create consistent, high quality broadcasts, as shown by the success of F1's race coverage. Compared to the current approach to broadcasting races, with race organisers having to coordinate their own coverage, a streamlined approach would offer significant cost savings in terms of personnel, equipment, and online broadcasting.


text:
http://mmajunkie.com A lightweight bout between Jadamba Narantungalag (3-2 MMA, 1-0 SRC) and Kazunori Yokota (11-4-3 MMA, 5-3 SRC) is the latest edition to World Victory Road's year-end "Soul of Fight" event.
Officials today announced the fight, as well as non-MMA matchups for the all-day martial-arts festival.
"Soul of Fight" takes place Dec. 30 at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, and some portion of the event is expected to air on HDNet in the U.S.
Narantungalag looks to build off a successful Sengoku debut back in August. After opening his career with back-to-back losses, the Mongolian kickboxer carried a two-fight win streak into a Sengoku Raiden Championships 14 fight with Akihiro Gono, who made the drop from welterweight to lightweight. But in a stunning upset, Narantungalag scored a unanimous-decision victory.
He puts a three-fight win streak on the line against Yokota, who opened his WVR career with a 5-1 mark. The lone loss came to Satoru Kitaoka in the finale of the organization's 2008 featherweight grand prix. However, after rebounding from the defeat with three consecutive wins, the Japanese fighter (and Gono teammate) has suffered back-to-back decision losses to Tatsuya Kawajiri and Brian Cobb.
Non-MMA bouts added to the card include "jacket fights" (likely to be points-based striking/grappling matchups) of Lee Sak Kim vs. Sotaro Yamada and Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita. Muay Thai fights include Fabiano Aoki vs. Ryuta Noji, Mutsuki Ebata vs. Arashi Fujiwara, Kanongsuk Weerasakreck vs. Genki Yamamoto, and females Erika Kamimura vs. Chiharu.
Finally, kickboxing bouts include Hiroki Nakajima vs. Buakaw Por. Pramuk, Yutaro Yamauchi vs. Karateka "Go" Yokoyama, and Yusuke Ikei vs. Shintaro Matsukura.
For the latest on "World Victory Road Presents: Soul of Fight," stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
(Pictured: Kazunori Yokota)


text:
A woman was rescued from the Mare Island Strait on Tuesday after possibly jumping off the Causeway bridge, Vallejo firefighters said.
Authorities were dispatched to a call of a possible jumper on the Mare Island Causeway, the bridge connecting Vallejo and Mare Island, at about 4:45 p.m.
The woman, 51, of Vallejo was in the water by the time firefighters and police arrived.
According to the city"s website, the bridge is about 12.4 feet above the water surface.
The U.S. Coast Guard was then called in to help rescue the woman, who had been in the water as long as 15 minutes and was conscious. She was taken to an area trauma center, firefighters said.
It was unclear if she had jumped off the bridge or fell in, firefighters added.
Vallejo police said on average they receive reports of a jumper from Mare Island Causeway Bridge about once a year.


text:
09:03, 24 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram
Hamparian offered the following comment on President Obama's April 24th
'Armenian Remembrance Day' statement.
"The sad spectacle of President Obama playing word games with genocide,
so obviously dodging the truth at the direction of a foreign power,
falls beneath the dignity of the American people," said Hamparian.
"Candidate Obama was right when he said that 'America deserves a
leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds
forcefully to all genocides.' He has, regretfully, proven to the
world today that he is not that president. In fact, it's now clear
that President Obama's misguided attempt to appease Ankara has only
isolated Washington," he added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPressSimilar Threads:
- Obama's Playing Word Games Falls Beneath The Dignity Of The American
- ANCA: Sad Spectacle Of President Obama Playing Word Games With Genoc
- Armenian Genocide Day: Why Won'T President Obama Say The 'G' Word?
- Obama Marks Genocide Without Saying the Word
- Obama Will Not Use The Word Genocide, Artak Shakaryan Says


text:
A reporter at Chinese tech news site, cnBeta, says he was just chatting away when white smoke started coming out from behind his iMac, turning black just as he cut the power. Here's the video he captured with his iPhone:
Yeah we've heard stories of exploding iPods (like this UK girl's) but I'm not saying this is part of some trend or anything. I just wanna know what you think happened here.
Looks to be enough air flow there...it's just gotta be one of those rare screen failures, right? You tell me. [cnbeta (translated) via Cloned In China]


text:
Story by
Emil Protalinski
Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, incl Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, including Ars Technica, Neowin, TechSpot, ZDNet, and CNET. Stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Wouldn't it be great if you could run Windows applications on your Android smartphone or tablet? Well, that may one day be a reality, and the person who is working on the new project is the best man for the job. That's right: Wine for Android is coming.
For those who don't know, Wine (WINdows Emulator or Wine Is Not an Emulator) is an open source application that allows applications designed for Windows to run on Unix operating systems such as Linux (there are also ports to OS X, FreeBSD, and Solaris). The project features the software library Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Linux.
The Wine software is being ported to Google's mobile operating system by Alexandre Julliard, the original developer behind the project. Julliard, who is employed by CodeWeavers to work on Wine, briefly showed off Wine on Android on Sunday in Brussels.
According to a report from Phoronix, performance was horrendously slow, but this was simply because Wine was running on an emulated Android environment, rather than on an actual device: "Julliard uses an Apple MacBook for development of his software that runs on Linux to run Windows software… Android was emulated for his demo."
Nevertheless, this is definitely a formidable start:
While Wine for Android likely won't be release-ready for quite some time, the fact that Julliard already has a working version is impressive and promising. Android users have been asking about getting Wine running on Android for years, and now it's finally something that is possible.
We'll be keeping a close eye on this project.
See also – WindowsAndroid goes above and beyond Bluestacks, lets you run Android 4.0 natively on your PC and Microsoft ad woos devs by touting more Windows licenses than Android, iOS and OS X combined
Image credit: Watje11
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text:
Flowers For Gary
Submitted: 05/31/12
Description: United fans gather round the Billy Bremner Statue here to pay their respects and remember the former United Midfielder Gary Speed. The shot coming from the Football League Championship game against Millwall at Elland Road on the 3rd December, 2011.
On the 27th November, 2011 it was reported that Gary Speed the Welsh International and Leeds United legend had died. Found by his wife Louise at 7.00am the same morning. She telephoned the police and ambulance service who confirmed him as being dead. His death was announced to the Football Association of Wales a few hours later.
Initial reporting of the tragedy said that Gary Speed had hanged himself. The official inquest that was taken in late January recorded a narrative verdict giving the cause of death as hanging but that: "the evidence does not sufficiently determine whether this was intentional or accidental".
The tragic news soon spread to the thousands of Leeds United fans throughout the world who immediately took to the message boards and social network sites. It was decided amongst the supporters that a tribute to the United legend should be made at the following game away at Nottingham Forest. Gary Speed wore the Number Eleven shirt for Leeds. It was arranged by the fans that on the eleventh minute of the game the United fans would sing his name for eleven minutes.
A further tribute for Gary Speed was also arranged for the next home game against Millwall. Members of the Leeds Utd Forum WACCOE got together and arranged for a banner to be made. The banner 30ft x 8ft would show the Leeds United badge that was used during Speeds era and also Speeds face with the words "GO ON GARY SPEED GET ONE YOURSELF SON". The words a reference to the television commentary that came just before his goal in a 4-0 win over Sheffield United. A win that helped Leeds win the League and gain promotion in 1989-90.
Gary Speed started his time with Leeds United at an early age in 1987, joining The Whites straight from school. It was manager Howard Wilkinson who first noticed his abilities, at the time Speed was playing in the Left Back position. It was under Wilkinson's managership where Speed made his First Team debut at the age of 19. A versatile player Speed played in nine out of the ten outfield positions but it was always on the left where Speed would shine. Gary Speed soon became a regular in Wilkinson's first eleven making 12 appearances and scoring 3 goals in United's push for promotion in 1989-90. The player went on and played an instrumental role in United's Championship win of 1991-92. Notably Speed was part of that famous United Midfield that also included Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister and David Batty a midfield that Leeds legend Eddie Gray called the greatest Midfield lineup of the modern era. Gary Speed stayed with Leeds up until 1996 before he moved to Everton the club he supported as a boy. He made 312 appearances for Leeds and scored 57 goals.
Leeds United: McCarthy, Connolly, Kisnorbo, Lees, Pugh, Brown, Snodgrass, Howson, Clayton, White, Becchio.
Subs: Sam for Howson.
Thanks To: N11 for this great pic.
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text:
p. 272
GANYÂQDEn HANÓWA
The Ancient of Bears
A MAN and his wife and children lived in a little house in the woods. They were destitute and had nothing to eat but the scraps and pieces the man earned in the village.
One day the father said to his eldest son "You are old enough now to work. Go to the village and ask the chief if he has anything for you to do."
The boy had a little dog that he called Yellowbird (the dog was a bird). After he had named the dog his family called him by the dog's name.
The chief of the village was Daddy-long-legs, the boy asked for work, the chief said, "Stay with me. I will give you work to do."
The chief grew so fond of the young man that after time he gave him his youngest daughter for a wife.
One day Yellowbird said to his wife, "I am going away
p. 273
for a while, I want to see who is in the world." And starting toward the South he traveled all day. When night came he lay down under a tree and slept.
Yellowbird traveled eight days. Then he began to feel weak and hungry, but he was in a forest and there were no signs of anyone living near, so he walked on. After a while he saw, off in the distance, a black object. When he came nearer he found it was a bear asleep on the ground. Yellowbird had neither a knife nor a bow, but looking around he saw a heavy stone. He picked it up and creeping near he threw it at the bear's head. The bear straightened out and died.
Then Yellowbird hunted for a piece of flint to skin the bear with. Not finding flint he took a sharp-edged stone. When he had the skin off, he began to wonder how he could start a fire. He didn't want to eat raw meat. He hunted for a rotten log and when he found one he got punk out of it. Then he struck stones together till sparks flew. With the sparks he lighted the punk and soon he had a good fire. Then he roasted pieces of meat and ate heartily.
Now Yellowbird made up his mind to gather a pile of wood and stay there in the woods as long as he had anything to eat. He rested a good many days. Then, when nothing was left of the bear, he started on.
He had traveled a long time and was getting weak and hungry when he saw, in the distance, something that looked as if a tree were on the ground and the roots were sticking up. When nearer, he saw it was a buck. He killed the buck as he had killed the bear, and making a fire, roasted some of the flesh and ate it.
Yellowbird stayed there in the forest till he had eaten the buck, then he started on. After many days, when he was again getting weak and hungry, and was wondering how he was to get something to eat, he saw a smoke off in the woods "Someone must have a hunting camp there," thought he.
When near the smoke he crept along carefully, then, not seeing anyone, he went boldly to the fire. Over the fire was, a kettle and in the kettle bear's meat was cooking Yellowbird took the kettle off from the fire, cooled the
p. 274
meat and ate all he wanted. Then he hurried on for he was afraid that, when the owner of the meat found it had been stolen, he would track the thief. When night came, Yellowbird lay down under a tree. Soon he heard dry leaves rattle and he thought, "The man whose meat I stole is tracking me."
The sound came nearer till at last someone stopped by the tree. The young man didn't speak. After a while a woman said, "Well, Yellowbird, are you going to stay here all night?"
"I am," answered Yellowbird.
"I have come to keep you from being lonely."
The young man recognized his wife's voice, and he was glad that she had come.
"I told you," said the woman, "that I should follow you. Hereafter I shall be with you. You'll not see me, but when you come to a fire and find food cooking you must not think that it doesn't belong to you. I shall be the cause of it. I shall be with my father in the daytime and with you at night."
Yellowbird was a great many days' journey from the chief's village, but this woman could travel as fast as thought; wherever her thoughts went there she was.
Before daylight, the woman rose and began cooking, When the food was ready, she awakened Yellowbird. They ate together, then all at once the woman was gone.
Yellowbird traveled till midday, then he saw a smoke and going toward it found a fire and cooked food. He ate all he wanted, gave thanks and traveled on.
Just as the sun went down, Yellowbird saw smoke ahead and soon he came to a small house. Going in he found a kettle of meat boiling over the fire. The meat wasn't quite cooked so he sat down and watched it. thought, "Maybe this meat belongs to someone else!" when it was done he took it out of the kettle and cooled
Just as he was ready to eat he heard footsteps. "Now I'm caught," thought he. He sat with meat in one hand and liver in the other, and listened. The footsteps stopped outside the door and a rap came; the man didn't answer; another rap, he didn't answer. He put the liver and meat into the kettle and crept under a bunk that was there.
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The skin door was pushed aside and a woman came in. She laughed, and asked, "Why are you afraid of me? I've come to keep you from being lonely."
"I wasn't afraid," said Yellowbird, coming from under the bunk, "I saw a mouse and thought I would catch it."
They ate and then slept. Before daylight food was ready. They ate, and the woman disappeared.
At midday Yellowbird saw smoke ahead and when he came to the fire found food ready, hulled corn and venison. He ate, gave thanks and went on. He didn't know how far or where he was going. At night he again found a house, and food ready. When he was about to eat someone came to the door. Yellowbird forgot the chief's daughter. He was frightened, and thought, "The owner of the house has come, he'll kill me." And taking up a club he went to the door to hit the man as he came in. When the chief's daughter pushed the door open, Yellowbird threw the club down.
The woman said, "I think you were going to kill me?"
"I was not, I was trying to kill a mouse."
They ate and slept. Before daylight food was ready. They ate again, then the woman disappeared and the young man went on. At midday he found food prepared for him. In the evening he came to a hut and went in. He stirred the fire and watched the kettle. When the meat was cooked, he took the kettle off the fire and was about to eat a piece of meat when he heard a noise outside. Again he forgot the chief's daughter and when a woman called, "Are you asleep?" he didn't answer.
"Can I come in?" asked she.
"Who are you? Where did you come from?" asked he.
"I came from the North."
After a long time Yellowbird said, "Come in."
The woman came in, laughing, and said, "It grows harder and harder to get to you. Why is this?"
"When I first came here," said Yellowbird, "people attacked me. I thought they had come back."
The woman laughed. She knew why he didn't remember her. The next morning, while they were eating, she said "At midday you will come to an opening and a long flat. The flat is guarded by women. Just before midday
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you will find food ready. After eating, creep up to the edge of the opening and watch. If the women are in groups, run to a large hickory tree on the opposite side of the flat. When in the middle of the flat, call out, 'Gowe! Gowe! I'm bound to run away.'"
Yellowbird started. Just before midday he came to a fire and found meat cooking. He took the kettle off cooled the meat and ate as fast as he could, then he hurried along. Exactly at midday he came to the edge of an opening and saw women sitting around here and there in groups. They were eating. He saw the hickory tree and ran toward it. No one noticed him. When he came to the middle of the flat he shouted, "Gowe! Gowe! I'm bound to run away."
The women, who were of the White Heron family, sprang up and ran after him. They almost overtook him before he reached the woods on the other side of the opening. The chief's daughter was there to encourage and praise him. She said, "I shall come to you to-night for the last time." He left her and continued his journey. At sunset he saw a cabin, went in, and found food cooking. He poured the meat into a bark bowl and was ready to eat when he heard the rustle of dry leaves. He listened, and thought, "The Heron women are coming to kill me."
This time the chief's daughter didn't rap, she called out, "I've come to visit you."
Yellowbird seized a club, held it up ready to strike, then said, "Well, come in!"
When he saw his wife he sprang back and dropped the club.
She said, "You were going to strike me."
"I was not. I was trying to hit a mouse," said Yellowbird.
The woman laughed. They ate and then lay down but didn't sleep. They talked all night. The woman said, "This is the last time you will see me. Hereafter another person will care for you. You must travel in the same direction. Your happiness is at the end of this trail."
Before daylight the chief's daughter cooked a large quantity of food.--Food was always at hand. We are not told how it came to be there.
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While eating she said, "To-morrow at midday you will come to a pond of bright water. On the bank you'll find a tree turned up by the roots. Go around the roots and pick up a bark basket that you'll find there. Fill the basket with water and go on till you come to a village. The chief of that village has a great deal of wampum. Sell him the water for wampum, then say that you'll leave the wampum in his care for a while. Take only one string. Stay a day and a night, then go on. After three days' travel, You will come to a wide opening, at the end of the opening you will find a tree that shines. Pull up that tree, take it with you to the next village and sell it to the chief. My protection ends here. I'll give you food for to-day's journey."
When the food was ready, Yellowbird put the bundle on his back and started. He traveled till hungry, then ate and went on again. At night he slept under a tree. At noon the next day, when looking for a resting place, he saw something so bright that he couldn't look at it. When near he saw that it was water and then he remembered what the chief's daughter had said. He found the basket and filled it. "This is strange water," thought he, but he traveled on, carrying the basket, first in one hand then in the other, till he came to a village. He went to the chief's house, but men standing there wouldn't let him go in.
"I must go straight on," said Yellowbird.
"If you try to we'll cut off your head," said the men. "It's the rule of the place."
They pulled up long flint knives that were sticking in the ground, and were about to cut off his head when the chief called out, "Let the man come in!"
"Where did you come from?" asked the chief.
"From the North."
"How far is your place from here?"
"It takes many days to go there."
"Do you know a man whose name is Daddy-long-legs?" Yellowbird hung his head in thought, then a voice seemed to say to him, "Raise your head and tell him, the man he asks about is the father of the woman who has protected you so long, your own father-in-law."
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Yellowbird raised his head, and said, "I know that chief. I came from his village."
"Do you know a man called Inchworm?"
"I know him. He is my father."
"Do you think you will ever see him again?"
"I do not."
"If you do, carry him this message: 'His mother died here two days ago.'"
When Yellowbird showed the shining water, the chief said, "I have wanted to find this water. I will give you many strings of wampum for it. Where did you get it?"
"From the Pond of Brightness, not far from here."
The chief and Yellowbird went to that pond and when they came back, the chief said, "I am glad that you are Inchworm's son; he and I are old friends."
The next morning Yellowbird said to the chief "I am going away and I want to leave in your care the wampum you have given me for the bright water. I will take but one string now."
"Very well," said the chief, and he gave him one string.
The young man continued his journey. The first night he slept where darkness overtook him; the second night he slept in a hollow tree; the third night he camped in a hole in the rocks.
The fourth morning he had gone but a short distance, when he came to an opening in the forest and saw just ahead a shining tree. When he came to the tree, he pushed it over, then picked it up, put it across his shoulder and went on till he came to a village. He went to the chief's house and stood outside till the chief called to him to come in.
"Who are you and why have you come?" asked the chief.
"I have come to sell this tree," said Yellowbird
"I will give you wampum for that tree. I'll give you my daughter and still more wampum if you will go with me to the place where you found the tree."
Yellowbird agreed and the two went to the place, and in the hole where the tree had been they found bright dirt and stones.
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The chief said, "There are men who call these 'the eye-breaker stones.'"
Yellowbird married the chief's daughter.
After a while he said to her, "I want to go to my father's village. I will go with you," said the woman.
They started. When they came to the flat guarded by the Heron women they stole to the middle of the flat, then called out, "Gowe! Gowe! We are bound to run away." And they got to the opposite side of the flat before the Herons overtook them.
When Yellowbird came to his father's home, neither his father nor his mother knew him.
His mother said, "Our house is too poor for you."
"I went out of it to work for the chief," said the young man.
Then the mother recognized her son and was glad to see him.
The young man gave his father a string of wampum, and said, "Buy food with it, and get men to make me a bark house."
When the house was finished Yellowbird opened the door and threw in a string of wampum, then he closed the door and went away. The next morning there were a great many strings of wampum in the house, they had come from his father-in-law's house.
After many moons, a runner came to notify Yellowbird that a woman who lived on an island in a lake wanted him to come to her, and said if he didn't come he would lose his head.
Yellowbird was grieved, he didn't want to leave his wife and children, but that night he started toward the South, running as fast as he could. When he came to the edge of the lake, he said, "Now is the time to show my power to run on water."
He started and he ran on the water as fast as he had on land. When he was near the middle of the lake, he bent his head down, didn't look forward--the woman on the island made him do this. When she found that he was coming on the water, she threw a pebble telling it to
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go straight in front of the man and become a rock so high and long that he couldn't pass over it or go around it.
Yellowbird, with head bent down, was running very fast. He struck the rock, fell back in the water and was drowned. High waves rolled up and carried him in the direction from which he came, and toward night his body was thrown on shore.
The Ancient of Bears came, looked at the body, and said, "This man is like the brother of Turtle, the man who always says, 'If my brother is destroyed, I will put an end to this world.' I must bring the man to life."
The Ancient of Bears worked over Yellowbird, used all of his power, and at last brought him to life.
"You are alive," said Bear when Yellowbird opened his eyes. "Now you must go East, to the end of the world, Your brother lives there. You must pacify him. If you don't he will destroy us. Take one of my teeth; it will help you to go quickly. You must hurry, for your brother is angry, he thinks that someone has killed you."
While they stood talking they heard a great roar and far off in the East they saw a column of fire shoot up and spread out over the country.
"Hurry!" said the Ancient of Bears. "If you don't, he will destroy us!"
Yellowbird ran and his speed was so great that he seemed to fly. When he came to the edge of the world where the fire was, he saw a dark figure pushing its head forward.
"My brother," called he, "I want you to stop being angry, I am alive."
"If you are my brother," said Turtle, "you must sing our war song and cross the world four times."
The young than ran to the end of the world and back to his brother. The force of the flame coming up from below the edge of the earth began to diminish. He ran a second time and back: the flame was dying down. When he came back the fourth time, the fire was out.
Turtle said, "Thank you, Brother. Now I want You to tell me where the thing is that I gave you long ago."
"When did you give it to me? What was it?"
"I gave it to you when you were born."
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"Maybe my mother is keeping it for me," said Yellowbird. "I'll go and get it."
"Have you anything to help you run faster than you do now?" asked Turtle.
"I have not."
"I'll give you power to go so fast that as soon as you think of a place you will be there. And you shall have the power of turning yourself into anything you like."
He gave him a small piece of something like flesh, and said, "When you want to use this put it in your mouth. Now go as fast as you can."
Yellowbird put the thing in his mouth and started. Right away he was at his father's house, and going in he asked his mother, "Have you anything that my brother gave me long ago?"
"I have," said she, "Here it is, I have never thought of it till now," and she gave him a tiny hand.
Taking the hand, Yellowbird went back to his brother, who, when he saw the hand said, "You are my brother. Now we will go to the woman on the island. You will go ahead, I will follow. If I overtake you, I will cut off your head, for that will increase your speed."
They started and soon the elder brother began to gain on the younger. When he was about to overtake him, Yellowbird changed to a deer and shot ahead. The elder brother changed to a deer and had almost caught up when the Younger brother became an elk and ran away from the deer. They held on in this way. Whenever Yellowbird neared his brother, the latter changed into something, and right away the elder brother changed too.
When they came to the edge of the lake, Yellowbird turned into a bass and disappeared in the water, the elder brother' became a bass too. At the opposite bank Yellowbird was an eel. The eel touched land and became a man, then an enormous eel sprang to land, became a man, and called "Stop, Brother, I give up, you have beaten me. The woman who sent for you is chief of a village not far from here. An enormous water monster destroying her people. She wants you to kill the monster. When you reach her village I will be there."
Yellowbird came to the village and went toward the
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chief's house, but two men stood in his way. When they refused to let him pass, he drew out his basswood knife and cut off their heads. He went into the house and said to the chief, "I am angry, for it has cost me much labor to come here. What do you want?"
"I want you to destroy a monster that is killing off my people. He makes rain come, and he can bring water out of the lake to any place where he wants to kill a person. When the person is dead, the water falls back; whomever the water touches it kills. If you destroy this monster, you shall be chief in my place."
Early in the morning Yellowbird and the chief started for the lake. The villages were far apart. When they came to the last village the woman said, "The lake is close by. I will stay here in the village. I don't want Muck-worm to know that we are here; he is a bad man."
While they were talking, rain began to fall. The woman was frightened. "This will kill me," said she.
"It is nothing," said Yellowbird, and he went through the village and into a forest.
Just before coming to an opening he heard a whisper. He looked on all sides but could see no one. Again he heard some one whisper and turning he saw his brother.
"Now," said the brother, "You must use all the power I have given you. The only way to destroy the monster is to go to the lake and cut off its head. Bring its heart, tongue and claws away with you."
Yellowbird went to the lake. The place where the lake had been was covered with sand. There was no water except in the center where there was a hollow. In that hollow lay an enormous Beaver, asleep. Yellowbird cut the monster open, took its heart, tongue and claws and ran for his life. As he reached the forest down came the monster. It leaped toward Yellowbird and barely missed him. Turtle took the heart and pounded it to jelly.
Beaver spoke then to the brothers, and said, "You have great power, you have overcome and destroyed me."
Beaver went back to the hollow in the sand and as he went the forest moved up on both sides and occupied the place where the lake had been.
Turtle said to his brother, "Keep the claws, but give the
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tongue to the chief as a proof that you have destroyed the monster."
The woman made Yellowbird chief in her place and became his wife.
Yellowbird changed to an Eagle--his new wife, was an Eagle. He went high in the air and when he came to the ground, he was at his old home with his wife and children.
One day he sat very still as though listening. All at once he said, "Off in the West people are crying, I must find out what is troubling them."
The next morning Yellowbird started off, he traveled all day and at night crawled into a hollow tree.
Soon a voice asked, "What would you do if Whirlwind came?"
"I would be pleased."
The speaker went away and soon Yellowbird heard heavy wind and rain coming from the South. Whirlwind leveled the trees to the ground, struck the tree Yellowbird was in, raised it up, carried it away, whirled it over and over, played with it. Yellowbird got impatient; it was almost morning, still he was whirling through the air.
At last the tree fell into the sea and was torn to pieces. Yellowbird lay on one of the boughs. He fastened two or three boughs together and sat on them as on a raft. The water rolled up big waves, "My raft will go to pieces and I'll be drowned," thought he.
Someone laughed, and said, "You are a fool! You don't think of me, even when you are in trouble. You know that I am always behind you, waiting to hear you say, 'I wish my brother were here.' Sit on my back, I'll carry you ashore."
When they reached shore, Turtle asked, "Where is what I gave you?"
"I have lost it," said Yellowbird.
"No you haven't."
When Yellowbird found what he thought he had lost, he traveled on till he came to a place where the earth troubled people. It became soft, heaved up and rolled over their homes.
Then Yellowbird said to himself, "My Brother, I wish you were here,"
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That minute Turtle was at his side. "I thank you," said he, "for thinking of me. The people here do wrong, They kill and eat one another. If they will cease doing that, they will have no more trouble."
Yellowbird sent a runner to tell the people to assemble and when they had come together, he said, "You kill and eat one another. If you will promise to stop doing this, I will tell the earth to keep still. Yonder is a great forest in which there are wild beasts. Kill those beasts and use their flesh for food."
They promised to do as he told them.
When Yellowbird was about to start for home, his elder brother stood by his side, and said, "On your way home pay no heed to anyone."
Yellowbird traveled four days and then came to his own village. He had not been at home long when a runner came to notify him that a woman chief summoned him to be in her village at midday. He rose up and started. As soon as he was out of sight of the house, he changed to an eagle and flew along just high enough to see what was going on below. When he saw a lake, he dropped down to the edge of the water, turned to a duck and swam to the opposite side. Then he changed to a man and traveled on till he came to the village.
At the edge of the village was a cabin. In the cabin lived an old woman and her granddaughter.
When Yellowbird went into the cabin, the old woman asked, "My Grandson, which way did you come?"
"From beyond the lake."
"Why did you come?"
"The chief of the village sent for me. I came because I couldn't help coming."
"My Grandson, I pity you," said the old woman. "When our chief hears of a man who has power, she sends for him and gives him to a serpent that lives in the lake."
"Well" said Yellowbird, "if I am overpowered your chief and all of her people will be destroyed, my brother will come and punish your chief."
At midday Yellowbird went to the chief's house. When he saw the chief, he said, "I have come. What do you want? I am angry, for you called me from my work,"
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"I want you to kill a snake that is destroying my people. If you can kill it, I will make you chief in my place. You can try now, for at midday the snake comes out of the lake."
As Yellowbird went toward the lake, the water began to rise and soon the snake appeared. As it lay on the water it was the height of a man. When it reached the shore and came toward Yellowbird, he turned to run. The snake caught him by the feet and drew him into its throat to the arms, but the man stretched out his arms and saved himself from going down. The snake went into the water. The water moved away, piled up on both sides and left the snake on the bottom of the lake, on dry land.
Then over his head somewhere Yellowbird heard his brother laugh, and say, "My Brother, you are a fool, When you saw the snake coming, you should have thought of me. Exert yourself!"
Yellowbird pulled and easily got loose, then he ran between the walls of water, the snake close to his heels. When he reached the bank the water closed up. The elder brother threw a white flint stone at the snake's head and the snake rolled over dead. The water heaved up till it reached the village, then it receded.
Yellowbird went to the chief, and said, "I have killed the snake."
She thanked him, and said, "Now you are chief in my place," but she was not pleased.
Yellowbird went to the lake, turned to a duck and swam out a good distance, then he changed to an eagle and soon was at home.
Yellowbird remained with his wife and children till a runner came with a message from the chief of the village where he had killed the Beaver. She said, "Be here tomorrow at midday."
Yellowbird did not change his form but he ran in the air till he came to a lake. He was running over the lake, but near the water, when he struck against an invisible object and was thrown back. He rose again and ran on, ran swiftly and before be could stop he was in a tangle of grape vines. He bounded back and fell. He was
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terribly angry and as he rose up, he said, "Why should she send for me and then try to prevent my coming?"
He reached Eagle's house, rushed in and said to her, "I am here and I will punish you!"
He seized the woman by the hair and cut off her head then he started for home. When well on the way, he met a beautiful, smiling woman, who asked, "May I go with you?"
"Don't bother me," said Yellowbird. "I am traveling."
"Rest a while," said the woman.
"I will not stop. If you speak to me again, I will cut off your head."
"Oh, stop and talk," begged the woman.
Yellowbird turned, and seizing the woman by the hair, cut off her head. Then he went on till he came to his own village.
One day, after Yellowbird had been at home a long time, he heard a terrible noise and going out saw that the earth was cracking open here and there. It cracked more and more, opened great ditches. All at once a man appeared in the air, and said, "You are frightened. You think you and your people are going to die. You will not. Follow me."
Then Yellowbird rose in the air and the two traveled southward followed by all of Yellowbird's people. As they looked back, they saw the village, where Yellowbird had been, sink out of sight and water rise up there. Then the head of Turtle came from under the water and he called out, "Gowe! Gowe! This is the kind of man I am."
The guide, whom Yellowbird and his people were following, said, "Your brother is angry because you killed the Eagle woman. To show his power he has destroyed everything."
They traveled on till the air was fragrant. They saw beautiful ripe berries, and then houses where people lived. One house was larger than the others.
The guide said, "The man of controlling power lives there."
They went on and on till they came to a village that Yellowbird recognized. It was his native village.
The guide said, "Now you are at home, and safe."
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The people went into their houses and found everything, as it seemed to them, exactly as they had left it--But this village was above the Blue. Their guide was the man of the Blue.
Yellowbird, though he was called after his dog, was not a bird; he was an inchworm. His first wife was a grasshopper.


text:
Remembering Ray Bradbury
To remember Bradbury, I'm setting aside an hour to re-watch his speech from 2001, presented at the Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea. Bradbury's talk is gentle, practical, and engaging -- the then 80-year-old writer is in fine form. My favorite line from this talk about writing: "You don't need anything but a pad and a pencil, for Christ's sake!" Second-favorite: "Make a list of the things you hate, and the people you hate, and write about them." Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for bringing speculative fiction into schools and libraries around the world. You are already missed.
(Photo by Alan Light, from August 1975.)


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|Rep. Eric Swalwell and Stan Dobbs in Washington D.C.
HAYWARD | Does Rep. Eric Swalwell still support the fired Hayward superintendent who verbally abused two school board members last year, intimidated employees and allegedly struck his mistress in the middle of coitus?
Swalwell's office did not respond to an email sent last Friday on his current stance toward former Hayward Superintendent Stan "Data" Dobbs, who the two-term congressman has supported in the past. In fact, as recently as Thursday, the day after the Hayward School Board of Trustees voted to fire Dobbs with cause, Swalwell criticized the action.
"With many challenges still to face, it's too bad that (the district) has chosen to go forward without the man who helped get it back on the right path," Swalwell told the San Francisco Chronicle. The article, though, was published shortly before the school district's devastating report on Dobbs was released late Thursday afternoon.
Nothing lifted #Hayward kids higher in past few yrs than work of @stan_dobbs. The Board just hurt thousands of kids. https://t.co/dGlZQnydha
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) September 15, 2016
Swalwell's support for Dobbs is nothing new. At a town hall meeting in Hayward Aug. 13, Swalwell was asked to by a member of the coalition seeking to replace three incumbents on the school board this November with a slate of their own candidates whether he would join the group.
Swalwell declined, saying he does not typically get involved in local grassroots political organizations. However, he then added strong support for Dobbs retaining his job at Hayward Unified.
"On a personal level," said Swalwell. "They really need to bring back Stan." He then lauded Dobbs for his work in improving home sales in Hayward and promoting local businesses.
However, Swalwell has not made a public statement on the Dobbs firing since Thursday's report that found Dobbs often berated school employees, allowed free reign of the district's print shop to a school board member running for city council; allegations that he mislabeled as a "substitute teacher" a contract to a former Hayward councilmember worth up to $40,000 with the intent to evade the school board's attention; among other transgressions.
The investigation also included a signed statement by a former Hayward Unified employee who said she and Dobbs had a three-year affair from 2012 through early 2015. The woman said Dobbs became jealous of her newfound freedom following her divorce. Dobbs "became very aggressive and hit me to the point that I jumped out of bed and defended myself. I told him to stop and to never hit me again," the woman told the investigator.
Dobbs denied the affair ever took place and told the same investigator the entire story was a conspiracy created by the woman, her estranged husband and Hayward School Board Trustee Luis Reynoso to discredit him. The investigator, however, found email evidence to the contrary and concluded Dobbs' story was not credible.
The level of ambivalence toward the astonishing allegations made against Dobbs does not stop short of Swalwell. The tweet by Swalwell last Thursday supporting Dobbs was greeted affirmatively by Hayward Councilmember Francisco Zermeno, who responded by simply saying, "Agreed." Then, just last Friday, less than two days after Dobbs was fired with cause, Alameda County Superintendent Karen Monroe invited Dobbs to a gathering of county superintendents and thanked him for his service before presenting him with a ceremonial gavel.