text:
He swaggers onto the stage of the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, looking as psyched and proud as the day of "Mission Accomplished." He's wearing a blue suit, American-flag pin, green tie—a tanned and fit 62-year-old version of the Yale frat boy they used to call "Gin and Tonic."
For a man whose approval rating was among the lowest of any president upon leaving office, whose appearance at the inauguration of his successor was booed by many in the crowd, who, just a few nights before, was lampooned by the comedian Will Ferrell in an enthusiastically reviewed HBO special (You're Welcome America), which even made light of the size of his manhood, George W. Bush shows no signs of concern, regret, or wear and tear. He's relaxed and smiling, seemingly at peace with the world, which, some would argue, he left so much worse off.
At the sight of him, this Canada oil-country crowd jumps to its feet, erupting in thunderous applause. Here in Calgary, Bush is widely thought to be underappreciated and unfairly judged. Meanwhile, protesters outside the convention center are declaring him a "war criminal" and throwing shoes at a poster of his likeness, a nod to the Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, who did the same last December, calling him a "dog."
"He was incredibly quick, dodging those loafers," remarked a Canadian banker I stood next to in the long security line leading into the event.
"George Bush is a very healthy man," agreed a Japanese businessman. "A strong man."
The 1,500 people in the audience—men in dark-blue suits and women who look like they could be B.F.F.'s with Sarah Palin—spent $400 each to hear Bush give his first speech since leaving office. This is his test run, kicking off his post-presidency. No media invited. The organizers of the event, Andy McCreath and Christian Darbyshire of tinePublic (pronounced "Tiny Public"), won't say how much W. is getting for this appearance, but they're the same guys who helped launch Bill Clinton's lucrative post-presidential juggernaut, with a multi-city tour of Canada—reportedly at about $150,000 a stop.
On May 29, they'll take Bush to Toronto, where he'll appear with Clinton for a first-time-ever public "conversation." "His popularity is only going to increase with this," predicts McCreath.
"This is my maiden voyage," Bush says, onstage, in that way of his that could almost be ironic. He starts off by telling everybody he's feeling great. "I'm a lucky man," he says, "to have been married to Laura Bush. She's awesome!"
Applause—everyone claps for awesome Laura Bush!
The former president says that his first day home in Preston Hollow, the suburb of Dallas where he and his wife moved in January, he kicked back on the couch and hollered, "Baby, free at last!" To which Laura responded, "'Yeah, you're free to take out the trash. Consider it your new domestic policy agenda.'"
Big laugh. A woman at my table mouths, "He's so funny!"
"I had not gone for a walk in a neighborhood in 14 years," Bush says, referring to his time as governor of Texas and then president. He tells of how weird it felt to be able to go outside and take his Scottish terrier, Barney, for a walk. "Barney made a deposit in the yard," he says, adding that when he bent down to retrieve it with a plastic bag, he got to thinking, "I was dodging this stuff for eight years—now I'm picking it up!"
The crowd goes wild on that one. Welcome to the George W. Bush post-presidency, which will be all about exorcising the demons, and trying to forge a comeback for a failed figure and his party.
Is it possible that, in the wake of so many Bush-administration disasters—the meltdown of the economy, the Iraq war, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, Hurricane Katrina, domestic spying, torture, and on and on—the so-called "worst president ever" could somehow manage to remake his legacy?
In the annals of presidential history, nothing stranger has ever happened, though there have been some remarkable turnarounds. "Some of his Republican predecessors who had deeply uninspired to over-the-top terrible presidencies—Rutherford B. Hayes, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon—once out of office revitalized their lives," says Leonard Benardo, co-author of Citizen-in-Chief: The Second Lives of the American Presidents. "If they didn't change the way people understood their terms in office, they did a huge amount for people to rethink them as a person."
Hayes, for example, worked tirelessly to provide education for free blacks; Hoover devoted himself to food relief worldwide; and Nixon made the miraculous morph from "crook" to, in biographer Stephen Ambrose's words, a "senior statesman above the fray." But when it comes to George Bush, the pundits still wax skeptical.
"Can you imagine any scenario in which a future president would say, 'I have to know what George W. would do here? I must know what George Bush thinks?'" asks comedian Bill Maher. "I don't think he'll see the day when any future president calls him."
"I think it's likely that in time people are going to see [Bush] very differently," counters former White House press secretary and Bush loyalist Ari Fleischer. "When Bill Clinton left office, he was a pariah. Look at him now—people can't get enough of Bill Clinton. When Reagan left office, people thought he was a cowboy and a militarist; then the Berlin Wall came down, and the Europeans loved him for it. Now people love Ronald Reagan."
For most people, however, this prediction still sounds a little optimistic, if not downright delusional. "I think [Bush] and his advisers understand the low perception of him, but they have a refusal to accept it or come to grips with it," says former White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "It's a very hard thing to do, to admit that things didn't turn out the way that he had hoped—that we all had hoped. The only thing he's left clinging to today is that history will vindicate him on Iraq, that Iraq will turn out to be a sustainable democracy and bring about a wider change in the Middle East. It's his driving motivation, the only thing he can cling on to, and that causes self-deception as well."
If it's self-deception, it has been recently rewarded, to the tune of $7 million from Crown, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, which will publish Bush's upcoming memoir, tentatively called Decision Points—an apt title for "The Decider." (Crown also published Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and already has a deal with the sitting president to publish his post-presidential memoir.) Bush didn't get the $12 million Bill Clinton got for his recollections, or the $8 million Hillary Clinton got for hers, but $7 million is still nothing to sneeze at; and the figure came as a surprise to many in the publishing world. "I don't think this is the best time for him to be shopping or publishing a memoir," says Michael Morrison, president of HarperCollins. "America needs a bit more time to digest what his administration meant."
"What his administration meant" is precisely what Bush seems to want to address with this book—which, according to Crown, "will not be a conventional memoir, but instead will focus exclusively on approximately a dozen of the most interesting and important decisions in the former president's personal and political life." It will be, as Bush explained in a characteristic gaffe in Calgary, "an authoritarian" view of his presidency.
Not only Bush but also many key people in his administration have recently exhibited an interest in reshaping his legacy—and not just for the sake of history, it seems, but as part of the ongoing ideological struggle in Washington. With President Obama already running into the inevitable political trouble—much of it arguably stemming from the problems he inherited from his predecessor—members of Bush's inner circle are seizing the moment to step out and criticize and compare their boss's tenure to the current administration.
In March, on CNN's State of the Union, former vice president Dick Cheney got the ball rolling, going so far as to say that he believed Obama is "making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another [terrorist] attack." Since then, Cheney has become the most relentless attack dog on behalf of the Bush administration. Former White House deputy chief of staff and current Fox News commentator Karl Rove is also writing a book, said to be a defense of his ex-boss's legacy.
"I don't think there's a concerted effort to defend [Bush]," says former deputy White House counsel William Burck, who recently spoke out in support of the ex-president's policy on signing statements. "What it is is a lot of people who were with him to the end, when we hear him or his legacy being attacked in ways we think is unfair, we want to say it's unfair and say why. And we just love the guy."
So do, still, a lot of Bush's fellow Texans, who on April 6 gave him a standing ovation when he threw out the first pitch at the opening home game of the Texas Rangers. The coverage in The New York Times was unusually upbeat on the subject of the former president—and pictured him grinning and surrounded by giddy Baylor cheerleaders at a women's basketball game in Waco—giving credence to the notion that he is "moving on."
"I think that the most misunderstood thing about him is this idea he went too far with trying to protect the country and that he bent the Constitution or bent the law," Burck continues. "I reject that—I think it's legally unsound. His number one was to make sure there was no attack on this country and he succeeded for seven years in protecting American lives."
This particular talking point—"he kept us safe"—seems to be number one on the legacy-burnishing list, with Ari Fleischer announcing on Hardball, "I think Barack Obama should say thank you [to Bush] every day that he inherited a world without Saddam Hussein in it." In Calgary, Bush echoed this sentiment, saying, "The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power."
"This is how the Russians are revising the history of Stalin right now, by appealing to patriotism," observes Deborah Kaple, a professor of comparative historical sociology at Princeton. "Stalin was persona non grata for a while, but now in the Putin era he's being brought back, and the message is 'It's O.K. to have done really scary things. It was O.K. to have a repressive system and a gulag, because it helped get our country out of a crisis.'"
"With [Bush's] top advisers it will be a massive effort to shape the legacy for the better," says Scott McClellan. "I don't think they're going about it in the right way; if they want to have an impact, he and his advisers are going to have to openly and honestly confront some of the difficult issues and admit that things went off course and not shift the responsibility to everyone else."
Their strategy seems to be just the opposite, in fact: to shift the blame to the man who inherited the problems. In his Calgary speech, Bush vowed not to criticize Obama, but then went on to make several not-so-veiled criticisms of his administration's two months in office. "I'm reminded of Hoover!" he exclaimed. "Run up taxes!"
If Bush is going to succeed at remaking his legacy, a lot will depend on the thing Karl Rove spotted long ago as his greatest political asset: his ability to charm, to come across as a regular guy. That's the stuff most likely to win back America's often amnesia-addled republic, and what Bush and his current handlers seem determined to capitalize on.
Bush's notorious mangling of the English language aside—and at odds with reports of his lack of smarts—he can be very funny, if sometimes meanly so, starting with his nicknames for colleagues and staff members. The best is Rove's: "Turd Blossom." I laughed out loud when, in his exit interview with Larry King, Bush interrupted a senior moment King was having, casting about for a question, by saying, "My favorite color is blue and I love enchiladas."
"He gets into a mode sometimes where he's the funniest person you've ever seen," says William Burck. "He's very self-effacing." Onstage in Calgary, Bush played up his winning down-to-earthness with a story about taking a trip to his local hardware store, where the owner, Kyle Walters, offered him a job as a "greeter." ("He'd be lucky to get a job as a casino greeter," opines Bill Maher.)
"And a guy in there says to me, 'Hey, did anybody ever tell you you look like George W. Bush?'" Bush said. "And I said, 'Yeah, man, happens all the time.' And the guy says, 'Oh, that must make you mad!'" Big laugh there.
"He's got a very irreverent sense of himself," says Ari Fleischer. "I've never met anybody as comfortable in their own skin as George W. Bush." And now, Fleischer says, the former president is "loose and comfortable about it all"—"without the weight of the world on his shoulders," says Burck—and this might strike some people as very appealing, in hard times; even if the hard times are largely of Bush's own making.
"I'm the only former president to have both parents alive," Bush told his audience in Calgary. "I said to my mother, 'Mother! I can't wait to get back to the way we used to be!' And she said, 'Is this gonna be like when you were young?' And she immediately checked herself into the hospital for open-heart surgery." (Barbara Bush is doing well, as her son also reassured the crowd, after undergoing surgery on March 4 to replace her aortic valve.)
Bush went on: "My mother said, 'I wish you hadn't called me 'a tough old bird.'" Here he snickered a moment, and added, "Sorry—but ya are!" While much has been made about the ex-president's antagonistic relationship with his ex-president father, his equally significant relationship with his formidable mother has gone largely unexplored. He's said to be more like her personally—tough, stubborn, and congenitally convinced of his own rightness. The overarching theme of his post-presidency may well be a quest to re-assert the rightness of his decisions as president not just to the American people, but to his two still-living parents, to whom it seems he has always been trying to prove himself.
"There's an ideological struggle playing out," Bush told the Calgary crowd, after his talk turned more serious. "It's tough, man, it's tough. Nine-eleven affected me. I saw it as clear as day. Nineteen kids following an ideologue come and murder 3,000 people—that's a war!"
Crashing applause. No mention of cooked-up intelligence, the absence of W.M.D.'s, yellowcake uranium sales that never happened, or Saddam's illusory connection to al-Qaeda. Bush was here to peddle his ideology, and the people were prepared to let him.
His voice rising to a zealot's pitch, he said, "How noble it is for a nation to make sacrifices for people to be free!"
The final, central element of the Bush post-presidency will be the library and George W. Bush Policy Institute (once tentatively titled the "Freedom Institute") he is building at the Southern Methodist University, just a 10-minute ride from his new home. The proposed 25-acre, $300 million center, whose stated purpose is to foster the blossoming of freedom internationally, has already sparked a heated debate among the faculty of the college.
Their objections stem from the fear that the Bush center will act like a private think tank for neoconservative ideologues. "They get the cover of a university without having to play by its rules," says Benjamin Johnson, an associate professor of history whose Bush Library Blog detailed the controversy at its height, between 2007 and 2008. The plans for the Bush institute sailed through S.M.U.'s administration, however, with the help of people like Ray Hunt, the oilman and longtime Bush supporter and friend, who is on the university's board of trustees.
"We're not going to have any of the usual controls over teaching and research hires and reviews," complains Johnson. "My concerns have actually been heightened by the collapse of the Bush administration because it seems to me he and his circle are intent on rehabilitating him, and he is held in such disrepute by so many people across the country and the planet. I'm afraid this is going to be the main vehicle by which they try and rehabilitate their reputation."
Sort of like a neocon Bat Cave. Indeed, recently in Dallas, several core members of the Bush administration got together for a daylong discussion about the future of the Bush Policy Institute: former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former White House counselors Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett, and former speechwriter Michael Gerson. Can we really believe that they weren't also talking about the future of their ex-president and his party?
Bush, meanwhile, maintains that his new center, for which he is actively fund-raising, "is not going to be a 'George Bush Is a Wonderful Person Center,' or 'The Center for Republican Party Campaign Tactics.' It's going to be a place of debate, thought, writing, lecturing."
"None of which was part of his administration," Bill Maher remarks.
"He loves Vaclav Havel," says former White House press secretary Dana Perino. "He told him, 'When we're up and running, I'd like to have you come write a book there.'"
"Vaclav Havel is not going to come to the fucking Bush center!" scoffs Benjamin Johnson.
"In his father's library, there is a 12-foot piece of the Berlin Wall," says Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington. "What will George Bush have in his library—a monument to Hurricane Katrina? A pile of Ground Zero rubble?"
The George W. Bush Presidential Library Complex has also become a pet project of Laura Bush—who, of course, is a former librarian. She is the chair of the design committee, working with Michael Van Valkenburgh, professor at Harvard University's graduate school of design and head of a New York– and Cambridge-based design firm.
Despite years in the spotlight, Laura Bush remains a mysterious figure (and it's not likely we'll find out much more about her in her upcoming memoir, which she sold to Scribner for an undisclosed sum). She's said to be more liberal in her politics than her husband, and yet—contrary to frequent tabloid reports about the demise of their marriage—she remains, publicly, fiercely loyal to him. Of his critics, she says, "They don't know George."
"He still likes to make us laugh," she said in one exit interview, "and I appreciate that very much. That was one of the characteristics I liked most about him when I met him."
"Their marriage is so strong and fun," says Dana Perino.
"She's got this great idyllic vision of me," George Bush told NBC News, "kind of with a little apron … that says 'Barney's Dad' on it, you know, flipping burgers. Is that what you want me to do?"
"Exactly," said Laura.
And so the Bushes, a couple of barbecuing retirees, have settled into their new, $3 million, 8,500-square-foot home (soon to be equipped with a state-of-the-art security gate) on Daria Place, a cul-de-sac in the so-called "honey pot" of Preston Hollow. The area has changed in significant ways since they lived there in the early 90s, when Bush was an owner of the Texas Rangers. Dallas County went 57 percent for Obama, who became the first Democrat to win the presidential race there since Johnson in 1964. There were reportedly Obama signs on the lawns of a lot of the Bushes' new neighbors. Bush fatigue has become a factor even in parts of his once monolithically enthusiastic home state.
But none of that is likely to intrude on the bubble of the Bushes' closely knit circle. "Throughout his time as president, he was never a fancy guy who would hobnob and go out for meals," says Ari Fleischer. "Their friends from Texas would come to the White House and have dinner with him and Laura."
"He hasn't been out much yet," says Skip Hollandsworth, a Bush neighbor and writer for Texas Monthly. "There is a lurid fascination with what is he going to be doing in Dallas. A lot of us were stunned that he had already gotten down 45,000 words on his book!" (With the help of former speechwriter Christopher Michel, 27.) "He doesn't go out for meals. Bush eats lunch at home; he can get through a nice dinner in about 15 minutes. Still there's a quickening of the heart whenever the black motorcade passes by."
On one of their first nights in Preston Hollow, the Bushes had dinner at the home of billionaire (and financier of anti-Obama ads) Harold Simmons—a $20 million benefactor of S.M.U.—and his wife, Annette. Billionaire banker and former S.M.U. board chair Gerald "Jerry" Ford (for whom the school's stadium is named) was there, with his wife, Kelli. As Hollandsworth noted in Texas Monthly, when Bush gets lonely, he can always go next door to the 28,996-square-foot mansion of his friend Ron Hicks, the billionaire who bought the Texas Rangers from him and his partners in 1998 for $250 million (Bush got $15 million in the deal). Or he could go visit billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at his French chateau, or billionaire T. Boone Pickens at his nearby Mediterranean villa.
As Bush told the crowd in Calgary, "Life is good." He said he feels no regret for any of the decisions he made as president: "If you're a leader, you have to have principles that are inviolate, and make tough calls." It will be interesting to see if history comes around to seeing his side of things.
In the meantime, the pundits will continue to have their say. "I'd suggest he look into political asylum somewhere," says MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. "Just in case. And remember, check those extradition laws!" In March, a Spanish court decided to move ahead with a criminal investigation into allegations that former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzalez and five other Bush-administration officials violated international law by coming up with the legal cover to justify torture. The debate has now reared its head Stateside, with a growing chorus calling for an inquiry into the administration's torture policies.
"It could very well go way beyond these six men," says international lawyer William Pepper, an adviser to the Spanish investigation. "As Bush himself says, he was the ultimate decider."
Nancy Jo Sales is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.
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In a blunt assessment of the current ownership of MediaNewsGroup, The Seattle Times editorial board advised the new owners of MediaNews Group to break up the national newspaper chain and put its newspapers in the hands of local owners. We couldn't agree more.
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text:
- Navigazione
- Curriculum Vitae
Cheese Boys
A simple and (I hope) funny arcade game made with the
pygame library.
Originally started for fun, begin giving some times to it also for learn more about the Python language that I use at work.
Of course, the town where the game is played is my hometown! I've no time (and ability) to imagine and drawn a complete new place, so why don't using on I really know?
Also why don't create a story where my town take the world?!
The preamble
At the beginning of the 21th century, in a little city on Italy named Codigoro, a Dark Presence of unknow origin contacted and corrupted five friends giving them new dark magic powers...
Even if the Dark Presence quickly disappear (someone says that it wasn't real) the Cheese Boys (as the five call themself) begin a silence plan to take the world.
The most dangerous power of the Cheese Boys wasn't the new physical strength gained after the contact with the Dark Presence, but the power to turn other men to their cause, transforming normal people to a kind of mindless minion.
Every member of the Cheese Boys choose another city near to Codigoro to create his own Clan,
and quickly transform the entire population of those cities in warrios to use.
Migliarino, Lagosanto, Comacchio and Ferrara (the bigger city in the region) were the choosen cities.
The younger of the Cheese Boys (Mio) but also the more powerful because he met the Dark Presence for first, chose Codigoro itself.
The Cheese War
After a few months the secret project to conquer the world was revealed. Even if the Cheese Boys at this time controls only a little portion of the italian territory, the rest of the world understimate the problem, or simply don't understand how is possible that thousands of men and womens became mad withou reason.
When finally the five clans reach the control of about the half of Italy, the world react with the force and the
Cheese War begins!
But somehow they are late. The magic power of the Cheese Boys was grown a lot and many other minion begin to obtain magic powers too!
However they were only some millions, but then begin the Disease.
This illness (or curse like other call it) was for sure an effect of the Cheese Boys of unknow origin and was never found by scientists or medicals. In some way the population of the planet begin to be randomly transformed to minions of the Cheese Boys.
Lesser was the distance from the Cheese Boys territories, faster was the speed of the Disease over the population.
European people (soldiers, leader, actors, advocates...) suddently change side and betray, giving to Cheese Boys armies more power.
After the conquer of Europe, the Asia fall, then Africa and Australia.
In some year the Cheese Boys armies land on America conquers the souths countries.
The last territory that surrender to the Cheese Boys and went transformed were the United States.
Someone again tell of the final battle of the Cheese Boys again Chuck Norris...
... but the Cheese War was not at the end. Like a copy of the
Asterix's village, very near to the new capital of
the Earth, Codigoro, a region resists to the Cheese Boys and also to the Disease!
The Veneto.
For some reason the dark magic power that beat the world resistence was weak onto this population.
Even if the armies of the Cheese Boys now count millions of minions, no one can enter Veneto without became sick.
To the same effects are also subjects the original Five Clans and (someone says in secret) the five Cheese Boys.
On the other hand, no one from Veneto can leave the land and enter what now is the Cheese Empire without begin to feel the Disease, and finally became another of the Cheese Boys slave.
Today - the begin of our story
You are playing in the year 12 of the Cheese Boys Age (AKA 12 year after the Cheese War begin).
A big army of the Cheese Boys has passed the borderline near to Ferrara and enter the Veneto, taking the famous
Last Brige that divide Ferrara from Veneto.
You, one of the most powerfull Veneto warrior, have the duty to drive them back and discover why they tried this.
Overland map
Show a map of the area where the story is developed
State of the project
The game is now entered in a livin alpha version! I need to work some other hous to keep some feature more stable.
Now the Game
- The PyGame project page. Most updated and where you can leave comments (and rate!).
- SourceForge home. Real code and SVN repository is here.
- SourceForge download page. Direct link to SourceForge download page.
- Cheese Boys's blog. The blog related to the Cheese Boys world and news.


text:
There was so much amazing fucking music this year, I had to put together not one, not two, but FOUR lists, this is the first of em, and it's a fuckin doozy, since there were wayyyy too many killer drone records, I split it up and made a more niche list of drone collaborations, and as usual, this isn't even all of em. My main rule for this list was that the collaborations had to be people working together for the first time, so the new From The Mouth Of The Sun was out. And since I didn't review any of these originally, I can't link you to the review which has a streaming song, which is why I decided to include a song for each of these.
Have fun. Thanks for reading/listening/appreciating.
UPDATE: I have no idea how I didn't realize that EUS, Postdrome, & Saåad broke the only rule I had for this list. I didn't even realize it when I was linking to my previous Top Drone list from 2012 that had their first record. So, oops. I'm an asshole and I'm sorry.


text:
Find Your Perfect Home.
Chippewa Lake Real Estate
Chippewa Lake is located in Michigan. Chippewa Lake, Michigan has a population of 18. Chippewa Lake is less family-centric than the surrounding county with 0% of the households containing married families with children. The county average for households married with children is 27.07%.
The median household income in Chippewa Lake, Michigan is $26,250. The median household income for the surrounding county is $40,396 compared to the national median of $53,482. The median age of people living in Chippewa Lake is 63.4 years.
Chippewa Lake Weather
The average high temperature in July is 81.2 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 11.4 degrees. The average rainfall is approximately 33.8 inches per year, with inches of snow per year.
View Homes for Sale in Chippewa Lake
Chippewa Lake Map
Real Estate Near Chippewa Lake
Nearby Cities
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Chippewa Lake Zip Codes


text:
COCCINELLA - Ladybug Italian Leather Key Chain
Each leather accessory is hand-crafted in Italy using vegetable-tanned Vacchetta leather and innovative applications of ancient stitching techniques. Gianni is the "master of miniatures" and each animal design is a product of careful research and innovation. The leather says "Eternally Classy", the inventive designs say "Unique", and the Italian origin says "Only the Best"! As with many leather accessories, these leather items look great worn-in … they will grow even more beautiful with age and use!
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(Item: IT-GI-P287)
Ladybugs bring you good luck ...but this is no ordinary ladybug.
It's a handmade, leather ladybug that flew all the way from Italy!
You can count on this coccinella to bring you eternal good luck and never fly away!
Also see the key chain and cell phone charm set.
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text:
The PR2 Cleans Up After Our Hackathons!
While we at Willow Garage tend to be paragons of tidiness, there
are times when we do forget to pick up after ourselves. Our second
hackathon this month made the robot do this for us by pushing around a
wheeled cart and using it to take used cups, bowls, and boxes of Spam
to the kitchen. Because, what's a roboticist without Spam?
Cart pushing presented new challenges for our navigation stack. First, the cart occludes the area immediately in front of the robot from the robot's sensors. Second, our default planning algorithm works best for approximately circular robots, while the robot and the cart together form a long, thin shape. The navigation stack has a highly modular, plug-in based architecture, though, so we were able to substitute in the sbpl forward-search-based planner, from the University of Pennsylvania, which works much better in this setting.
The robot must also recognize cups and bottles in its environment, and decide which ones need to be removed, and don't contain liquids, which could be unsafe for our robot to carry. We used a human-in-the-loop approach, in which the robot sends an image of the scene to a (possibly remote) human, who draws a box around the next object to grasp. The robot figures out the 3D position of the corresponding object, then uses our soon-to-be-released grasping pipeline to pick up the object and place it in the cart.
Our robot probably can't apply for a job at a restaurant just yet. However, we believe that pushing carts, wheelchairs, and other wheeled objects is a very useful capability for personal robots, and we're continuing to work on improving its robustness.
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Obscured sensors
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Cart before the horse
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text:
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Weekly Update
I learned late yesterday that one of my students was hit by a car and is in serious condition. From what I've heard it seems that he ran out into the street from between two parked cars, right into the path of a car. He was airlifted to the hospital with a head injury so I am quite worried. I doubt I'll learn more before I go back to work on Tuesday.
Last weekend was the regional Road-eo. It was different being there as a team leader rather than as a contestant. Our team did well and we had a great time.
I've spent a lot of time taking pictures of bus exits and controls for a display board for the Build the Bus fund raiser. I've spent hours working on putting together backpack tags and thanks to my coworkers they are now done. Less than a week to go and then hopefully things will get back to normal.
I took Friday afternoon off to see my brother's family. My niece graduated from Clark University in Worcester, MA and they stopped at Country Girls for a few days on their way home to Texas. My nephew is on summer break from Embry-Riddle University so we were able to see everyone and had a nice day visiting and catching up.
Yesterday we spent the day at BJ's for Alex's birthday party. Any spare time has been spent in the garden. So I'm not only exhausted, I'm a bit sore too. :-)
5 comments:
It's no wonder you haven't had much time for blogging...sheesh! How very sad to hear about that little boy...so many accidents happen that way, with the children running out on the road in between parked cars! I do pray he'll recover fully!! xoxReplyDelete
You have been busy! So sad about the child being hit by a car. You must worry about that a lot when driving a bus where children tend to dart here and there..ReplyDelete
I hope that the young boy is OK. Kids don't realise that it only takes a moment of inattention for everything to change.ReplyDelete
Don't worry about not being able to blog every day. The great thing about being subscribed to your blog is that no matter how often you post I always get to read what you have to say.
Sometimes life gets really busy and we need more hours in the day...but there's always the same amount....imagine that! I can't fit everything in either at the moment, but it's good to be able to catch up with each other when we can.ReplyDelete
What a horrible accident. I hope the poor little fellow will be OK. His poor family!
Love the picture of your team :)
We got that rain storm around 5:30 this evening, and have just had another cloud burst around 7:30. It smells so good, and yes, we need it.
So awful about the little boy...I hope he is doing OK.ReplyDelete
Loved the pictures, and sitting around that front porch looks so inviting! I almost expect Andy or Opie to be there! (I say this with respect, since it's one of my favorite old shows.)
Happy Memorial Day, Apple!


text: Use mouse scroll wheel over image or pinch-to-zoom on touch devices. You can also click and drag around on image. Park it 1 1 Follow '13 3-series on ADV.1's Parked to BMW by ADV.1 Wheels Vehicle Info: 2013 BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo Keywords Sign up to add your own keywords More from this Garage: More from this Profile: Project 2017 Ford GT - SEMA Show Garage Audi Garage BMW


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The Browns are looking for a quarterback. But which one(s) are they considering?
A position-by-position look at the roster from Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer includes a report, sort of, that the effort to upgrade the position won't include an attempt to trade for Patriots backup quarterback Ryan Mallett.
The possibility of a Mallett trade has been churning on the rumor mill since Mike Lombardi became the Browns new V.P. of player personnel last month. The chain of logic is fairly simple; Lombardi is tight with Pats coach Bill Belichick, if Belichick likes Mallett then Lombardi presumably likes Mallett, and Mallett likely will leave via free agency before ever becoming the starting quarterback, so the Pats should trade him at some point.
What better year to do a deal than this year, when the draft lacks the kind of high-end quarterbacks it produced in 2012?
It's unclear why the Browns aren't keen on Mallett. Maybe they don't want to use draft picks on a quarterback. Or maybe coach Rob Chudzisnki isn't enamored with Mallett's skills. Or maybe CEO Joe Banner is troubled by the off-field issues regarding Mallett that have become forgotten since he became a member of the NFL's platinum-standard franchise.
So what will the Browns do? Cabot mentions Brian Hoyer, another former Pats backup who was out of football until the Cardinals broke the glass late in the regular season. We've heard that Lombardi is a fan of Hoyer's, who can be had without a draft pick or any other compensation.
We remain intrigued by the possibility of a run at Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, if he's tendered as a non-exclusive franchise player. And Mike Vick is a possibility, if the Eagles let him go.
Regardless, a new owner, a new CEO, a new front-office chief, a new head coach, and a new offensive coordinator means that last year's brand-new quarterback of the future may eventually be a thing of the past in Cleveland.


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Each number plate has 1, 2 or 3 letters and one or more numbers. Number plates listed here have recently been sold but we have many similar numbers. Please call us or visit our main number plate website
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Regplates have over 99% of all available number plates available to buy online 24 hours a day. We are members of MIRAD, APRT & CNG trade dealers associations.
All number plates are transferred in accordance with the DVLA.
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Our team of trained personalised number plate staff will professionally handle your transfer as swiftly as possible with all paperwork change over handled for you including the V5, tax disc and MOT certificate. We offer advice without technical 'jargon', and are always competitive on price.
If you are looking to sell a private plate, our personalised registration plates valuations department can give you an accurate market value on your registration number by post or by e-mail.
Personalised Cherished Number Plates
Since their humble beginning in 1903, cherished numbers have continued to increase in popularity often adding the finishing touch to our prized possessions and very often prove to be a valuable investment.
The First Number Plate Ever Issued
A1 assigned in 1903
The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register, and to carry number plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration number plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.
You can find out where your personalised registration number plate was originally issued here.
Recently, Rishi Kapoor bought himself a new set of wheels - a shiny new luxury SUV - and took it out for a spin yesterday. Mumbai Mirror couldn't help but notice the common thing between Kapoor's cars, old and new - the number plate digits of all cars in this Kapoor household total up to '8'.
A source close to the family told the tabloid that the Kapoor trio - Rishi, Neetu and Ranbir - have always considered the number '8' very lucky for the family. When Ranbir purchased his first jeep back in the late 2000s, the number plate was a one digit, '8'. Later, two cars that followed, one a fiery red sports car and another sedan, too featured a single digit plate.
On the other hand, Neetu, whose driven a blue SUV for the last couple of years, also has a number plate that adds up to 8. "It's also because it coincides with Neetu's birthday, July 8, and everyone in the family makes sure that the registration number totals up to it," the source added pointing out that even Ranbir's football jerseys always have the same number.
The Kapoor clan's affinity for numerology comes as no surprise, since it's always been about digits with Bollywood stars. Amitabh Bachchan, whose birthday falls on October 11, considers his lucky number to be 2 and many of his dozen cars feature the single digit on their plate, three of which have been photographed at multiple events.
Similar for Shah Rukh Khan, who has a triple five (555) on all his number plates. Shahid Kapoor also makes sure to flaunt his lucky number 700 on his plates and even added a custom plate to his Harley Davidson, with the three digit figure on it. Saif Ali Khan sticks to the number 7, since his birthday falls on August 16 and Sanjay Dutt always has a 4545 plate.
Also in the News:
HALIFAX—A Nova Scotia man fighting to have his last name — Grabher — reinstated on a licence plate says police have now forced him to remove an inactive Alberta plate from the front of his car.
Lorne Grabher said he received a call from police Monday after a complaint was lodged against the personalized Alberta licence plate he had on the front of his car.
Nova Scotia requires only one valid plate, at the rear, and drivers in the province often place inactive or novelty plates on the front of their vehicles.
Grabher says police told him he would face a stiff penalty for driving with a fraudulent plate if he did not remove the Alberta plate, which had his last name on it in capitalized letters.
The 69-year-old man said he feels he's being unfairly targeted.
"I've been red-flagged," he said from his Dartmouth home, noting the large number of vehicles in the province that have inactive out-of-province plates on the front.
It should be noted that the date denoted by a registration plate is the date a vehicle was first imported into the United Kingdom and registered with that registration system. For instance a vehicle manufactured in say 1991 and registered in Northern Ireland might have been given a 1993 registration letter when it was registered on the Swansea system. This also applies to vehicles imported from other countries. This is apparent by examining the registration document which will show a date of manufacture different from the date of first registration. The date of manufacture is notional, though, as vehicles may be manufactured and stored unused, for many years in some cases, and then registered as new when first registered into the system. This allows manufacturers to sell cars as new allowing for shipping, storing at dockyards etc.
In fact, when the DVLA issues a car's registration plate, they actually follow a very distinct system.
While it may look like a random combination, a number plate can actually tell you how old the car is and where it was registered.
A new format for registrations was introduced in September 2001, meaning all cars registered after that date would have their number plate made up of three parts.
How to tell where the car is from
The first section of a number plate is the local memory tag – the first two letters of the plate.
This identifies where the vehicle was registered, and is itself broken down into two parts.
The first letter stands for the local area, for example E denotes Essex, while L stands for London.
The plate's second letter then identifies at which DVLA office in that area the registration took place – multiple letters can signify the same DVLA office.
How anyone can tell how old your car is just by looking at it
The two numbers in the middle of your plate identify how old the car is.
The DVLA issues two lots of number plate combinations each year on March and September 1st.
All plates issued between the 1 March and the end of August will use the same two numbers as the year they are registered.
For example, a car registered in May 2017 would have "17".
Vehicles registered between September 1 and the end of February the following year, use a similar pattern of higher numbers.
When the format changed in 2001, this group of vehicles were identified differently by starting the labelling from "51" rather than "01".
Therefore this second lot of numbers will always be 50 plus the year the car was registered – so after 2010, the number starts with a 6.
For example, a vehicle registered in December 2009 will show "59" on its plate but December 2011 will be "61".
Is any of the plate random?
The final three letters of the number plate tend to be a random combination that make the registration unique.
But it's not uncommon for cars with neighbouring letter sequences to be from the same manufacturer, due to batch allocation of new registrations to dealers by the DVLA.
The letters "Q" and "I" are excluded from the random sequence, along with any phrases that are deemed offensive.
Using the current scheme, there will be a sufficient combinations to last until the end of February 2051.
What about registrations before September 2001?
From 1983 onward, licence plates used a leading single letter to represent the year of first registration.
The letter "A" was used in 1983, progressing through the alphabet, finishing with "Y" at the end of August 2001.
The rest of the characters on the plate were random.
Prior to 1983, the same system was used, but with the year letter at the end of the plate rather than the beginning.
A PETITION against a police chief's decision to sell the first number plate issued to the county has gathered over 850 signatures.
Retired police constable Alan Matthews started the online petition after he found out that the 'AB 1' licence plate was up for auction.
Police enthusiasts have lambasted the decision to sell the plate, which has traditionally been used on the staff cars of Worcestershire's Chief Constables.
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) John Campion claims the sale will enable him to invest in frontline policing.
Mr Matthews, aged 69, who worked for West Mercia Police from 1985 to 1994, said: "It's a piece of police heritage that shouldn't be sold off.
"It was the original number that the chief had. I just think that there's other ways the PCC could save money.
"I'm getting quire ratty about it. When you have been in the police you see how much waste there is.
"It's a sad thing that people in the UK have so much history but don't think much of it."
Jon Cherry, the director of regplates.com, thinks the plate will sell for between £225,000 and £275,000.
He said: "We have sold similar plates recently at this level and the market for high quality original issue number 1 plates is very strong.
"The buyers of these are intent on having only the best and only this plate will suffice!"
Mr Campion said his priority is use the assets at his disposal to make West Mercia a safe place.
"The prospect of a chief constable or any public servant using a private number plate belongs in a time gone by, both for security reasons and public expectation," he said.
"Therefore a considered decision has been made to market 'AB 1' and any sale proceeds will be reinvested towards frontline policing in West Mercia."
He acknowledged the history behind the plate but said it had not been used for around six years.
A spokesman for Mr Campion said he was not selling anything else apart from the number plate.
Vehicle registration was introduced in 1903 and it is believed 'AB 1' was first issued to Worcestershire's Chief Constable Herbert Sutherland Walker in 1908.
The current format of number plates started in September 2001 with the '51' number identifier as shown in the 'DE51YRE' example above. The idea was to make vehicles easily identifiable and to allow 2 changes per year instead of the traditional one issue per year. This took pressure away from car dealers and diluted the rush with registering all new vehicles at the same time. This new format created several million new combinations offering scope for specific unreleased numbers to be purchased.
A high-end four-wheeler carrying an 'MLA' sticker was spotted parked in Prakashnagar, Begumpet with a fancy registration plate carrying the number AP2 AB 2222.
The vehicle was spotted by Mr Hari Satya Sandeep, a social media user who often shares pictures of traffic rule violation on the Facebook page and Twitter handles of the Hyderabad traffic police. Mr Sandeep said the car with MLA sticker was not parked properly and its fancy number plate was a violation of the rule.
"When I checked its challans on the Hyderabad traffic police e-challan portal there were no pending challans. They may have cleared the challans but in that case they would have changed the number plate if they were fined for it," Mr Sandeep said.
Asked about this, Dr V. Ravinder, joint commissioner Hyderabad traffic police, said, "As we have received the complaint we will look into the matter and will take action accordingly."
Mr Vinod Kanumala, chief functionary of the Indian Federation of Road Safety, said, "Abuse of rules by LAs is very common. The law makers are the primary law breakers." He said he had noticed a barcode number plate on a car in the city.
Number plate 2 of category 1 was the biggest attraction at the Abu Dhabi Police's open vehicle number plates auction on Saturday, sold for Dh10.1 million.
The popular auction generated a revenue of more than Dh55 million, auctioning 60 distinguished Abu Dhabi number plates at Emirates Palace hotel.
Abu Dhabi Police, in cooperation with Emirates Auction, held the public auction on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its establishment.
Organised by Emirates Auction, the auction listed the numbers on the company's website, including five double-digit plates, 15 three-digit plates, 19 four-digit and 17 five-digit plates.
Number plate 2 was the only one-digit licence plate in the auction, and was the first one-digit Category 1 number plate sold in a public auction.
Other number plates featured in the auction were 10, 60, 333, 600, 999, 1000, 1111, 5050, 6000, 6060, 6666, 9090, 9999, 10000, 55555, 60000, 66666.
WOULD you pay more than $150,000 for a piece of metal measuring just 19cm by 13cm?
That's the length to which collectors of historic South Australian licence plates are prepared to go to secure their piece of SA motoring history.
The 17 historic SA plates to go under the hammer have reserves ranging from $2999 for SA "467-470'' to $120,000 for SA "90'', right up to $149,999 for SA "29''.
Stewart Kay, proprietor of Historic Plates, said licence plates had proven to be great investments.
"In terms of their metallic value, forget gold and platinum, it's the most expensive metal in the world," he said.
"Some of the three-digit numbers we have ranging from $17,500 to $22,000 – and we've sold some three-digit numbers for more than $50,000 previously – they were $1500 only in the late 2000s, so they've increased quite significantly in that time.
"We find people are using them in their self-managed super fund or to finish off their collectable car.
"If you've just bought the latest $400,000 Porsche or Mercedes or whatever, a $20,000 numberplate is the only way to finish it off."
SA Government records show the "29" plate was first issued in 1907 to Dr E.V Fooks of Gawler, who registered it on an 8hp De Dion car.
"The reserve is $150,000 and we've arrived at that on past sales, but interestingly a couple of months ago, the number 29 Sydney plate sold in Sydney for $750,000," Mr Kay said.
"All of our plates usually sell online or the following day but we offer all our plates at a market correct reserve. But under auction, anything is possible.
"The days of a $1 million South Australian numberplate is not too far off."
So what else could you spend $150,000 on in South Australia?
According to realestate.com.au, $149,000 will buy you a three-bedroom home on 615sqm at Elizabeth East. For $149,990 you could drive away in a new 2017 Maserati Levante 3L 6 cylinder SUV.
And if you'd prefer a holiday, $150,000 will buy a couple 34 nights in the exclusive Osprey Pavillion of Kangaroo Island's luxurious Southern Ocean Lodge.
If you are buying the plates separately then you'll need to go to a registered number plate supplier to get new number plates for your vehicle. The registered supplier will need proof of your identity, as well as proof that the registration number belongs to you. The number plate supplier will need to see at least one document from each of the lists below. This will allow the number plate supplier to confirm your name, address and entitlement to the registration number. All documents must be original, not copies.
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- Free transfer service - your paperwork is handled by our trained team
- Over 25 years expertise - long established and trusted company
- DVLA Recognised Reseller - linked directly from the DVLA website
- DVLA Registered Number Plate Supplier - in line with all DVLA & MOT regulations


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On a night when East Duplin senior Brittney Woodard surpassed the 1,000-point milestone, the Panthers also emerged with a key victory that kept them in a first-place tie in the East Central 2-A Conference.
On a night when East Duplin senior Brittney Woodard surpassed the 1,000-point milestone, the Panthers also emerged with a key victory that kept them in a first-place tie in the East Central 2-A Conference.
Woodard recorded 14 points and 16 rebounds, and junior Makayla Byrd added 14 points to lead East Duplin to a 39-36 win at Northside on Tuesday night in a girls� basketball game that featured two of the four teams tied atop the ECC.
Later, Northside defeated East Duplin 91-40 in the boys� game.
The East Duplin girls� (14-3, 6-1) are now tied for first with Clinton (13-4, 6-1), which beat South Lenoir 53-42. East Duplin, Northside, Clinton and South Lenoir entered Tuesday night�s action tied for first.
�This is a big win for us because we still have a chance at first place,� Woodard said. �Now we have to beat Clinton.�
First, however, East Duplin plays host to South Lenoir (11-4, 5-2) on Friday. The win at Northside (12-4, 5-2) should give the Panthers plenty of confidence, although the victory didn�t come easy and came in what wasn�t necessarily a clean game by either team.
The Panthers shot just 36 percent from the floor while the Monarchs were 23 percent.
Senior Ashanti Curry was the only Northside player to score in double figures with 14 points.
�I think both teams had moments of really good play and moments when we both probably felt like we didn�t play our best game,� East Duplin coach Mark Lane said. �We had moments of good defense and moments of not very good defense. Neither team shot the ball well.�
But East Duplin made some shots early in the fourth quarter to go on an 8-0 run to take a 35-28 lead with 4:18 left. The spurt followed a 3-pointer by Journee Collins that gave Northside a 28-27 edge.
Still, the Monarchs answered the Panthers� run with a 6-0 spurt to cut East Duplin�s lead to 35-34 with 2:40 left. Northside actually had several chances to take the lead, but missed four point-blank looks inside.
�The girls did a good job of getting themselves shots. They were moving off the ball better and they were putting themselves in positions to score,� Northside coach Chad Novelli said. �We didn�t lose that game by missing shots. We lost that game by not making stops and not rotating on defense.�
After Northside got within 35-34, East Duplin�s Tenae McKinzie made a free throw with 2:11 left before teammate Taylor McGowan hit a foul shot with 31 seconds left to put the Panthers up 37-34.
Following a missed 3-pointer by Northside, Woodard made a pair of free throws with 9 seconds left to make it 39-34. Curry scored on a jump shot as time expired for the final margin.
�We executed when we had to,� Lane said. �We wanted to make sure they didn�t get drives and kicks. We had certain ones we didn�t want to leave open. We got fortunate they missed at the end.�
After falling behind by seven in the fourth quarter, the Monarchs made things interesting by picking up their full-court pressure. It just wasn�t enough.
�I can say the clich� thing and say our shots weren�t falling, but the fact of the matter is we are a much more intense team that this,� Novelli said. �I know it was hard to come back after an emotional win last Friday over Clinton, but we have to be able to do it back to back nights if we want to get to where we want to be.
�They played hard and I know at the end that�s all you can ask for, but we still have to step it up a notch.�
Meanwhile, Woodard feels she can step up her game even more given she no longer has the pressure of trying to reach 1,000 points. She entered just two points shy of the mark and reached the milestone just 1:40 in when she scored on a putback that gave the Panthers a 5-0 lead.
�I can clear my mind and just play now instead of trying to get 1,000,� Woodard said.
Woodard, though, knows she has help, which was evident Tuesday as Byrd came up with some tough shots.
�I think she really stepped up,� Woodard said. �She had confidence in the 3-pointers and she took it inside.�
Northside 91, East Duplin 40: Northside used a 22-0 first-quarter run to pull away from East Duplin early and never looked back in an ECC win.
Jamal Parker overcame a 0-for-5 start from the field to score 13 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter while Davion Ayabarreno added 11 of his 16 points in the opening eight minutes.
�I wish I could take this and bottle it,� Northside coach Tony Marshburn said. �We had a good practice on Monday. We practiced for about 2 1/2 hours last night and we had a good little talk before practice. We talked about some goals we needed to set and things we needed to improve on.�
Montell Stalling led the Panthers with 12 points.
�They (Monarchs) shot the ball well and we simply didn�t execute,� East Duplin coach Robert Ross said. �We tried to play at their pace and we can not play that pace.�
East Duplin 10 7 10 12 � 39
Northside 9 4 12 11 � 36
McGowan 1, Woodard 14, McKinzie 8, Sharpe 2, Byrd 14. Totals� 14-38 9-23 39.
Moore 4, Bowerman 2, Curry 14, Collins 9, Perez 7. Totals� 14-60 6-16 36.
3-Point Goals� E 2 (Byrd 2), N 2 (Collins, Perez). Rebounds� E 38 (Woodard 16, Hall 7), N 44 (Curry 13, Co.llins 9) RECORDS� E: 14-3, 6-1, hosts South Lenoir on Friday. N: 12-4, 5-2, hosts Topsail on Friday.
East Duplin 6 15 7 12 � 40
Northside 35 23 14 19 � 91
Fla.Laporte 6, Baker 2, Stallings 12, Hall 6, Williams 9, Jones 4, Flo. Laporte 1. Totals� 8-33 24-35 40.
Cabrera 7, Parramore 4, Brown 4, Parker 25, Kr. Curry 6, Ayabarreno 16, Adams 4, Ko. Curry 10, Hilton 3, Morrison 3, McCarthy 2, Watkins 5, Reed 2. Totals� 34-66 15-20 91.
3-Point Goals� E 0, N 8 (Parker 4, Cabrera, Ayabarreno, Hilton, Watkins). Rebounds� E 23 (Stallings 4, Hall 4), N 40 (Ko. Curry 7, Ayaberreno 6). RECORDS� E: 6-11, 4-3, hosts South Lenoir on Friday. N: 13-2, 5-2, hosts Topsail on Friday.
East Duplin53, Northside 49, OT
LEADING PLAYERS � E: Moore 20 points, Scarborough 16 points. N: Colon 20 points, Tyrance 15 points. RECORDS � E: 10-5, 5-2. N: NA, 4-3 ECC.


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Freeh report: Paterno, others protected Sandusky: Penn State's leaders, including Joe Paterno, were more concerned about bad publicity than protecting children, which investigators in a report released this morning found "saddening and sobering."
Columbia car crash kills teenage driver: Shaquan Jamal Curtis, 17, of the 5300 block of Harpers Farm Road died in the 3:05 a.m. accident. Police said he lost control of the Audi sedan, left Columbia Road near Tarkington Place and struck a tree.
Second Linthicum sting leads to prostitution arrest: For a second time this month, the Anne Arundel County police's vice unit has arrested a woman for prostitution during an undercover operation targeting solicitation activities in Linthicum's hotels area, near BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Greens descend on Baltimore for convention: It won't have the glitter of the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions, but Baltimore will nevertheless get a piece of the 2012 nomination action as the national Green Party opens a three-day convention here today to pick a presidential candidate.
Another stretch of 90s in the forecast: This week was forecast as a return to the 80s, but there ended up being a one-day reprieve before what looks like another extended return to the 90s.
- The Anne Arundel County Council is seeking power to approve the replacement for retired police Chief William Teare.
- In Baltimore city schools, Maryland State Assessment scores show an achievement gap to those students who have been suspended.
- Twenty years after first building student housing, the Maryland Institute College of Art is adding a $16 million housing addition that aims to help transform the North Avenue corridor.
- A look at what the Orioles need to do to stay competitive in the second half of the baseball season.
- This week's Live! section provides a tour of bars of the "Dundalk Riviera".


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Phoenix Suns Tickets
Phoenix Suns Tickets Tickets Rated 0.00/5 based on 0 customer reviews 100 0
2013 Result: 25-57, missed playoffs The Suns have really fallen off the planet since the days of Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, and even Shaq. And now their roster is a very odd mix of low-ceiling players and random veterans. Goran Dragic (14.7 PPG) led the team in scoring, miscast as a starting point guard. Luis Scola (12.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG) was probably the most productive player, but even he had a real down year by his standards. Jared Dudley and Shannon Brown are those low-ceiling guys mentioned before. And Michael Beasley can't get out of his own shadow of unfulfilled potential, playing on his third team just five years after being drafted #2 overall by Miami. Jermaine O'Neal is here, and theoretically you could chalk that one up to 'veteran leadership'. But they did make some good moves this offseason, notably drafting Maryland center Alex Len with the 5th pick and trading Dudley and a draft pick to Milwaukee for PG Eric Bledsoe and SF Caron Butler. At least both are established names. Maybe the Suns can finally unlock Bledsoe's potential, most of which remains untapped. But Marcin Gortat is not a viable starter for a playoff team, so hopefully Len develops quickly. With this infusion of youth, the Suns will be much more exciting to watch this year than before. Make sure to get your tickets for this Suns season from GCT! The Phoenix Suns represent the city of Phoenix, Arizona in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference of the NBA. Founded in 1968, the Suns were the first major professional sports team in the state of Arizona. The Suns have been successful all-time, making the playoffs 29 times and posting nineteen seasons of 50 or more wins in 46 seasons overall. They have made 9 trips to the Western Conference Finals and advanced to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993, though they have yet to claim a NBA title. As a result, they are currently the most winning franchise to have never won a championship. Become a part of history by getting your tickets to the Phoenix Suns' 2012-13 NBA season today!
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This post was written by Lindy Shopper.
In light of a post I wrote on dressing appropriately for dances and the subsequent response (and many other responses) it garnered, I am shedding my Lindy Shopper hat for a post to address you all as a person. I would like to accomplish two things: 1) clarify some misconceptions about the post I wrote that have been taken to places I never even fathomed and 2) talk about how we can accomplish constructive criticism and incite meaningful, respectful discussion about topics within the community that we may agree, disagree, or agree to disagree on.
My intent with the Assaulted by Breasts post was to posit that you should dress appropriately for the athleticism of Lindy Hop, with considerations of mutual respect for those around you. I still agree with everything that I wrote, but I also agree with the feedback I have received that I should have tempered my hyperbole with more constructive how-to advice and delved more into considerations of mutual respect and boundaries.
Part of my hyperbole was in the use of the word "assault" in the title. For those of you who do not know me personally, I am an attorney by trade. If you know any attorneys personally, you probably know that their definitions, ultimate understanding, and frequency of using certain words is different from non-attorneys. When the topic addressed in my post came up in a discussion amongst friends at Lindy Focus, someone noted that in a comment on Dance World Takeover a male dancer had used the phrase "assaulted by breasts" to describe his discomfort in a particular situation. I began thinking about what I knew about assault after attending law school and practicing law and how that might relate to an incident where someone is on the verge of a wardrobe malfunction.
Assault, by definition (from the Barron's Law Dictionary in my office – it was cheaper than Black's), is "an attempt or threat, with unlawful force, to inflict bodily injury upon another, accompanied by the apparent present ability to give effect to the attempt if not prevented. Threat, coupled with a present ability, may be an assault. As a tort, an assault may be found where no actual intent to make one exists if the actor places the victim in reasonable fear. Because an assault need not result in a physical touching so as to constitute a battery, no physical injury need be proved to establish an assault."
I'll stop there, because there are many more considerations and variables that can come into play with assault, but I'm going to move on and address my rationale. You are given this basic definition, which, in turn, has been muddied, stretched, and pushed to within an inch of its meaning in order for lawyers to create arguments that will either meet the elements of the tort in order to obtain a conviction or judgment or argue a case that will absolve their client of liability. In my torts class in law school we read a case that I, in vain, have tried to locate (it must have been a handout, long gone, instead of in my textbook), but what I remember from the case is that the Plaintiff was a bystander/witness to a pretty gruesome automobile accident. If I remember correctly, his/her claim was that, by witnessing the automobile accident, this constituted assault and the Defendant should pay for their mental anguish.
I could see, in hyperbole land, how I could liken the assault contemplated by the Plaintiff in this case to a bystander's apprehension and/or witnessing of subsequent wardrobe malfunction. To clarify, I in no way think that this is a real tort or that this argument would hold water in a court of law.
Subsequently, I see that my use of the word assault was extrapolated to mean sexual assault, which was not my intent, but a leap that people made in reading my post, perhaps based on addressing issues of leads being uncomfortable asking a potential wardrobe malfunction to dance. This then lead to outrage, and, ultimately, to the use of the phrase "slut shaming."
I was not familiar with the phrase "slut shaming" prior to reading the comments I received on my blog post. In Christina Austin's response to my post, she links to the Wikipedia article on "slut shaming," which is defined as "the act of making someone, usually a woman, feel guilty or inferior, for engaging in certain sexual behaviors that violate traditional gender expectations. These include, depending on culture, having a large number of sex partners, having sexual relations outside marriage, having casual sexual relations, or acting or dressing in a way that is deemed excessively sexual. This is often done by name calling (often using the word "slut" itself) as well as covert shaming." The article goes on to cite "an incident where a Toronto Police officer told a group of students that they could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like 'sluts.'"
This kind of phenomenon pervades in our society and it is one of the most terrible atrocities of perception that we live with in our society. As someone who is, first and foremost, a woman who is both educated and liberal, and secondarily, a lawyer who has studied a body of rape case law spanning the past two centuries and who represents women who are victims of domestic violence, I understand, fully, the implications of this phrase, from a social, psychological, and legal standpoint. As a person, I have been assaulted, battered, and almost kidnapped by a man I did not know. If you would like to know more about my views and experiences, I would be happy to elaborate in a less public forum, but my point is that I disagree with "slut shaming" and everything that it stands for (and stands against) as to women.
When I started to get feedback on my post relating to "slut shaming," initially from the amazing Sam Carroll (aka Dogpossum) who I admire and respect for her activities online and in her dance community, I had immediate anxiety about how the meaning of my post could be misconstrued. Could I/should I fix it? I reread my post again, and, in light of my personal background and experiences, I thought it was still OK and hoped that others would pick up on the hyperbole and know that I was not capable of having such a negative viewpoint of women. I have not met Sam in person, so it was entirely possible something was lost in translation.
I see now that a lot has been lost in translation and I have learned my lesson about the use of hyperbole. That said, I believe that tossing around accusations of "slut shaming" is a very serious matter having very public and serious implications online. Before taking something to that level of seriousness, I would want to be sure that I was clear about someone's viewpoint before I labeled them with principles or values that they do not identify with or claim as their own.
Which leads into my second point – how to have a reasonable, constructive conversation or debate in the Lindy Hop community. Some might argue that this would be an impossibility, like having a reasonable debate in our U.S. Congress, but I have faith that we, as Lindy Hoppers, can maintain an environment of mutual respect and respectful dissent. We have this joyful dance in our lives, surely all is not in vain!
How can we have more constructive discussions?
Let's say you've read something that makes you pause. Angry, even. You've read something that is so fundamentally against who you are as a person that you are personally offended and must take a stand. Now, take a minute to think.
1. Re-read the post.
I always go back and re-read the post I have just read. Read it three times. Read it until things don't pop out as new to you. Every time I pause and go back and re-read a post, I find more intent, I find things that clarify, and I find more useful information to help me formulate an opinion and, in some cases, a response.
In this case, I am amazed at the number of people who have responded in a way that indicates they read my post to mean "no cleavage," when I clearly state at the end of the fourth paragraph, "I am all for cleavage, but proportion, fit, and security are certainly factors to consider." But I digress.
2. Think about all sides of the issue.
Take 5 minutes this time. Take a day. Take however much time you think you need to think about where this blogger is coming from and how they might have crafted this viewpoint based on their surroundings, their upbringing, their personal experience. We are all unique and our collective experiences have made us who we are and formed our opinions. You may not have experienced the same things as another person, or experienced them in the same way. It's important to take the time to know where someone is coming from and understand their reasoning behind an idea, even if you disagree with that idea.
3. Don't jump to conclusions.
If they said X, then they must believe Y! Go back and think about all the sides of an issue – if you can't think of any other possible explanation for X other than Y, then it's probably time to seek clarification and confirm that they do, indeed, believe Y. Regardless, it's good to have clarification, rather than base your opinions or your writings on speculation.
4. Ask questions.
If you are unsure of a person's position on a certain issue or find yourself jumping to conclusions, it's a good idea to ask questions. If comments are open, you will most likely garner a response from the author and may further the discussion in a constructive manner, so that we are all clear on a certain issue. You may also further the discussion amongst other people commenting, who may chime in with their own opinion on that particular issue.
5. Be respectful.
There is a way to set forth your opinion on a topic in a manner that is respectful. I will often reword a sentence in a comment or a post several times before I publish it to make sure that it conveys my meaning and intent in an optimal way, especially if it is a topic on which I disagree. Resorting to name-calling, labeling, or strong language is disrespectful, doesn't convey your ideas, ultimately detracts from your message, puts people on the defensive, and also detracts from the poster's original message.
6. Reference the post.
I find that if I am crafting a response longer than a sentence, I will go back to the original text and compare it to the single idea or thought I just crafted, just to make sure that I am addressing the topic or issue I want to address and to make sure that I have crafted a relevant response.
If you find that, after all these things, you are still so angry about a particular post or article, keep in mind that you can be the bigger person. Your viewpoint is important, but, unless you can engage people in ways that will make them think rather than react, then your communications may not be as effective as you would like for them to be.
I think an effective response to my post was written by Aries Reyes, who I met at Lindy Focus this past year. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Aries, but what time I did spend with her I gathered that she was a liberated, kind, engaging, and thoughtful dancer. Her response reaffirms my positive perception of her and, though she disagrees with me, she sets forth her position in a manner that is respectful, engaging, and informative.
I would like to further the discussion of how we can have reasonable discussions within our community. I've outlined a few points above, but I'm sure there are tips I haven't addressed that would be relevant and constructive. I hope that, in the future, we can all continue to engage in new ways online and show the world (since everything we post is public) that the Lindy Hop community is as welcoming and wonderful as I know it to be in person.
EDITED: To add that this post is, in no way, meant to attack Christina or call her personally unreasonable, childish, or disrespectful. There have been a couple of questions about this and I wanted to clarify. I have mentioned her in this post because she has been one of the driving forces behind furthering this discussion. This is an important discussion to have in our community and addresses issues that go beyond our little dance bubble. I'll also add that intent is not magical and it is entirely reasonable that the words I used in my Assaulted by Breasts post were read to contain problematic messages. If any of you were hurt, offended, or angered, I apologize for using those words in a way that hurt, offended, or angered you. The pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword and I will, in the future, wield my pen with more consideration and responsibility.
Also, if I haven't moderated or responded to your comment, please be patient as I have been bombarded with comments and communications about all of this.
EDITED: To add that Christina and I have had reasonable discussion about this and she has posted a follow-up: http://clausti.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-having-adult-discussion-in-lindy-hop.html. Sometimes things are better stated in private conversation and I'm happy that we have been able to effectively communicate our ideas.
EDITED: To add that Dogpossum has a timeline with links to relevant posts about this discussion, if you'd like to catch up on the background and full discussion as of February 8, 2013.


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|FM Home
FM Library: forms, processes, rules & tools
FM Daily Rental
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FM Vehicle Service
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FM Contact
About FM
Monthly Lease Rate Insurance Coverage Maintenance Fuel Tracking Lease vs. POV Lease Request
Monthly rate and mileage includes:
Monthly bill includes:
The FMD lease rate does NOT include the cost of fuel. However, every FM-owned vehicle is provided a Fleet Card. Drivers must use Level 3 gas stations (DCAM-PROCESS-FM-F001). Eligible fuel stations:
Every leased, FM-owned vehicle is equipped with a GPS device that reports vehicle performance and enables vehicle location when road assistance is requested.
Lease vs. Mileage Reimbursement/POV
Feature coverage for vehicles used for State business:
In order to lease a vehicle from Fleet Management:


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One of the more obscure and mysterious releases in the classic Takoma cannon. Out there, Bay Area hippie-improv jazz canoodlings. Woodwind, bass and echo-driven. All instruments played by Mr. Yost. Biographically, I've found next to nothing about him, online. 320 Vinyl rip by yours truly. Big thanks to D.
Phil Yost -- Bent City (Takoma Records, C-1016 **1967) *Re-upped 7/20/12
A1 Ellipse For Bluejay
A2 Solace Stone Somewhere
A3 Bent City I
A4 Ethan Dreams Two People
A5 Ever Surprised Blue Eyes
B1 Bent City II
B2 Vision At 1000 Centigrade
B3 Lizard-Watcher's Theme
B4 Wave Your Moonlight Hat For The Snowfall Train


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After their Thanksgiving dinner, Tandreia Bellamy and her two teenage children headed to the Fox Valley Mall near Chicago to do some shopping, but they had no intention of seeking bargains for themselves, friends or relatives.
After their Thanksgiving dinner, Tandreia Bellamy and her two teenage children headed to the Fox Valley Mall near Chicago to do some shopping, but they had no intention of seeking bargains for themselves, friends or relatives.
With the holiday spirit ingrained, they hunted for trendy sweaters, jeans, boots and hair accessories for teenage girls in the ChildServ group home in Naperville, Ill.
�My kids are blessed, and many children aren�t as fortunate,� said Bellamy. �I just want to make the holidays a happier event for these girls. � And I know that when children are given opportunity and nurturing, they can flourish.�
As a ChildServ board member, Bellamy�s commitment is fulfilled through volunteer activities and cash donations.
The holiday season, and the end of the tax year, is a key time of year for writing checks to charity. According to a 2011 analysis by the National Philanthropic Trust, 88 percent of American households provided donations totaling $298.3 billion. The largest beneficiaries are religious institutions such as churches and synagogues. Next are education and human services. Meanwhile, 64.3 million people volunteer, donating about $296.2 billion through deeds that span the entire year.
Bellamy said she won�t be taking any deduction for the gifts she is providing the girls in the ChildServ home, because �it wouldn�t feel right. These gifts are from the heart,� she said. Yet she will deduct the cash contributions she gives to her church and other charitable groups.
It�s possible for Bellamy to deduct both the clothing and money, but she�d have to make a simple change in her approach with the clothes she�s giving the girls. Contributions cannot be deducted if they go directly to a person, but they are eligible if they go to an authorized charitable organization. Check these websites to see if organizations are eligible nonprofits and also good managers of donations: CharityNavigator.org, GuideStar.org and the Better Business Bureau, athttp://www.bbb.org/us/charity. Try to pick organizations that don�t spend more than 20 to 25 percent on administration.
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service tightened some charitable deductions because �people were getting piggish,� said Dan Morris, a San Jose, Calif., certified public accountant. Now, if you provide a car to an organization and the organization sells it for scrap, you will only get the value of the scrap, not the value Kelley Blue Book places on the car. Used clothes must be listed individually with appropriate values, and the organization that receives them must approve the list and provide a receipt.
Financial advisers encourage clients with stocks or other investments that are far more valuable than when they purchased them to give those investments directly to charitable organizations instead of cash.
�We�ve seen a lot of appreciation of stocks this year, and this is a great strategy to consider,� said Elizabeth Digani, UBS Financial Services financial adviser.
When an individual gives a stock or other investment to an organization, the charity sells it for its full value and doesn�t have to pay any tax on it. If, instead, an individual had sold the investment, they would have owed capital gains taxes on any value added since it was purchased.
�People in the 43 percent bracket could give $10,000 in investments and reduce their tax bill by $4,300,� said Morris. �The rich get a better benefit than the poor with charitable contributions.�
For the person who is facing an unusually high tax year, giving a large gift to charity in a single year can make sense. A donor-advised fund lets you get the full deduction for that year, but you can parcel out the donation over several years, Digani said.
Gail MarksJarvis is a personal finance columnist for the Chicago Tribune and author of �Saving for Retirement Without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery.� Readers may send her email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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In today's dream-fueled episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, amazingly-named commenter Mr. Allspark wants to give you all of the money in the world, hypothetically.
I have a question for you. What kind of nerdy/video game related things would you do if you were rich?
And I'm talking rich. That Scrooge McDuck swimming-pool-full-of-gold rich. Richie Rich my-dalmation-has-goddamn-dollar-sign-spots rich. Jay-Z "What's 50 grand to a mothafucka like me, can you please remind me?" rich.
The possibilities are endless, so the question is... what would you do?
About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.


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Parties allow you to get together and chat with your friends through your Xbox One. You can do this with a single pal or up to seven friends. For information on how to start a party, see How to start a party on Xbox One.
Note If you can't switch to party chat, see You can't switch to party chat on Xbox One.
To make sure you have correctly configured your sound system, see How to configure audio settings on your Xbox One console.
If you find you're having audio problems with parties, the solutions below may help you resolve common issues.
If you see any alerts here, wait until the service is up and running and try again:
If you can't hear the person you're trying to chat with after joining their party, try these tips:
If you're getting a lot of echo and are using Kinect as the speech input device, you'll want to run through the Kinect calibration process. Here's how:
If you're not seeing the green Kinect orb animate when you talk, you may have Kinect chat turned off. Connect your Xbox One Chat Headset, or try these steps:
Note This is a system-wide setting, so turning it on here also enables the Kinect microphone for games and Skype.
If you're hearing party chat through your TV speakers even after connecting a chat headset, you may need to re-associate your controller with your profile.
If your active game or app becomes quiet or inaudible when you're using Kinect in party chat or on a Skype call, your Chat mixer may be set to focus only on the conversation. To adjust the level of sound while communicating, adjust the Chat mixer settings:
Thanks for your feedback!
Provide feedback for this topic
Would you like to contact Support regarding the "Troubleshoot audio problems in parties on Xbox One" issue you were reading about or a different issue?


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Item description: This Football Youth product is by Schutt - Schutt Youth DNA Pro+ Football Helmet Helmet and Chinstrap only. Facemask not included. Redesigned shell with next generation Thermoplastic urethane (TPU) Cushioning remains the best performing padding system in football today. In game-like conditions the DNA Pro+ outperforms all the other helmets on the field. Its proven superior to traditional foam padding in game-like conditions: better impact absorption better heat management and better hygienics. TPU Cushioning wont take a compression set wont break down (even after thousands of impacts) and is resistant to mold mildew fungus and bacteria while providing a barrier against MRSA and staph concern. Exclusive SUREFIT Air Liner system provides ideal comfort and fit. AiR Maxx TPU jaw pads combine protection with superior air circulation. For Youth through Junior High Use. Youth Sizes: S - XL. Standard Molded Colors: Black White Burnt Orange Kansas Blue Royal Cardinal Gold Sunflower Gold Grey Kelly Green Dark Green Maroon Navy Purple Scarlet. Standard Painted Colors: Metallic Light Gold Metallic Vegas Gold South Bend Gold Metallic Silver. Official Product Of Pop Warner Football. Better Impact Absorption In game-like conditions when the temperature inside your helmet can rise in excess of 115 the performance of TPU Cushioning remains consistent. Better Heat Management Keeping cool and fresh on the field is at the top of every players list. The open-air sides of TPU Cushioning along with the channels weaving in and out throughout the cushion do a great job of circulating air throughout the interior of the helmet. Better Resiliency TPU Cushioning is ready to wear (comfortably) right out of the box. Theres no breaking-in period like you have with foam. TPU Cushioning doesnt take a compression set like traditional foam padding. Nor does TPU break down like foam - even after thousands of impacts. AiR Maxx (TPU) Jaw Pad The AiR Maxx Jaw Pad is a TPU jaw pad that combines the comfort and fit of a soft vinyl-covered pad with the better protection of TPU Cushioning. SUREFIT Air Liner The two-piece air liner. With two inflation ports the SUREFIT Air Liner gives a precise custom fit and is made from a soft but durable anti-microbial material. Valve Attachment System This new hook and loop attachment system locks the inflation valves into place. No more struggling to keep the valve aligned to the helmet shell. Quarter Turn Release The faceguard is locked into place but - if needed - a simple qu... Learn More
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Opportunity? Republicans find two candidates
Minority-party Republicans in Charlottesville always have a hard time scraping up candidates to run for City Council, and this year was no exception. Only hours before the February 9 convention, they found a second candidate to join already committed Kenneth Jackson in challenging the perennially powerful Dems.
"It was difficult," says local party chair Bob Hodous. It took some persuasion for him and City Councilor Rob Schilling to talk Ann Reinicke (rhymes with Meineke muffler), into running.
"Yesterday," says Reinicke the day after the convention, "I was prepared to tell them no. But two desperate men– how could I say no?"
Reinicke, 50, works for human resources at UVA, her second career after 18 years as a nurse at the UVA Medical Center.
She's a newcomer both to politics and to the city limits, and one of her concerns about running was "not being the politically savvy person they needed."
But one thing she noticed when she moved from Albemarle County into the Democrat-dominated city was at the polls. "The first time I voted, I had no choices," she says. "That's one of my driving factors."
Jackson, 37, is a Charlottesville native who's been unable to get City Council to appoint him to the School Board in two tries.
"It's time for a change, and change starts at the head of the snake," says the fiscally conservative Jackson. "It takes a lot of time to run, and I do have the time to invest."
Jackson, a restaurant manager for 16 years who is currently on disability, works as a cook at the Schnitzelhouse.
At the Democratic convention, the Meadowcreek Parkway was the big issue. Will that play out in the general election?
"Meadowcreek is a big issue because the Democrats won't let it go," says Hodous. "It's one aspect of how they treat infrastructure. There are some neighborhoods in Belmont that don't have sidewalks, while they're putting bricks around Court Square."
Reinicke says she was disheartened by the Dems' decision to ditch two-term incumbent Meredith Richards. "Meredith had a very reasonable voice. I can't say I agree with all her votes, but I respected her willingness to listen," she says.
Still, some think Richards' ouster could be a plus for the Republicans. "I hope so," says Reinicke.
The election is May 4.
Ann Reinicke
Kenneth Jackson