text:
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
A reporter would like to talk to you; please reach out to [email protected] for more details.
Hyundai Accent Prices Paid and Buying Experience
manofteflon Posts: 2I just paid $12.3k out the door (with Chicago's 9% auto sales tax, ugh) for a 2008 Accent GS with the AC/stereo package.0
giribt Posts: 1Does anybody know where to get owner manual for hyundai accent gl 2000 4dr model. Can you send me to giribt @ gmail.com0
sandman46 Posts: 1,798Put a down payment on this car in Charcol Gray today for a price of $14,570...basically Edmunds TMV price. This includes the $1k rebate. Tried all over the state and even Fitzmall in Clearwater couldn't locate a car with the power package that we needed. Found two of these in Miami and would've given us both for $14.3 each, but my older girl didn't want the Accent. They started at $14.8 and we at $14.3 for just one of the cars and met in the middle.
Pick up the car during the week after I check it out to see all is right. Been a long few months on test drives and such but we got the car for a price we can live with and just a couple of weeks before our target date whcih was between Thanksgiving and the 14th of November.
Kid's happy and we're o k with the deal.
The Sandman0
Kid loves her Accent GLS and must admit, it scoots around pretty effortlessly. Ended up with $15.5 OTD so everyone's happy. Looks great in the charcol color and luckily it has the upgraded 15"'s and alloys.
Other kid finally got the Versa SL hatch in the new Arctic blue color...sweet car also. Got the only one in the region with all the power goodies.
The Sandman
2015 Audi A3 (wife) / 2015 Golf TSI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2008 Hyundai Accent GLS (daughter #2)0
tightonbudget Posts: 1I am recently looking into buying a GS Hyundai Accent with premium package. So far the price I got is 11,625 including freight. Is it a good deal? (The $1,500 rebate and recent college grad rebate $400 are included.) But I know this 1,900 has nothing to deal with the dealer. So with this much rebate, I might get a better deal than this?0
brunojoe Posts: 22Los Angeles Area OTD price on 2009 Accent with auto any info please? thanks brunojoe0
A national reporter is looking to speak to consumers who purchased a Hyundai vehicle recently (within the past four months) because of the Hyundai Assurance Program. Please send your daytime phone number and the vehicle you own to [email protected] by Friday, June 5, 2009.0
tamoshanter Posts: 33picked up a 2009 Accent, GS (hatchback), automatic, option package #02, mudguards and floor mats for $11700. basically OTD price was $12500 (included freight), add 3% VA sales tax, $345 processing fee, $75 title/registration, and subtracting $1500 rebate (was for my mother-in-law, so she wasn't eligible for military and college graduate rebate). $1500 rebate expires today, basically got about $11800 price estimate in the Washington DC area, then took this to a couple of Richmond, VA Hyundai dealers. one said that there was no way he could come close to the $11800. the other said wait, talked to his manager, and offered $11700 out the door. my mother-in-law is VERY HAPPY with this; her first new car, limited budget, and perfect for her needs (green apple color, black interior). this was even better than the TMV and consumer reports dealer price was!
all dealers are hurting, so it's a buyer's market - waited until last weekend (near the end of the month), and for using the rebate.0
Please let me know where you went in Richmond, VA. I'm in northeast OH, but willing to drive within a day's drive to get a decent price. I was looking at buying a 2009 Hyundai Accent after 7/23 with the CARS program, but of course the dealer had a great deal this week!
I'm 5'1" and I just love our 1997 Accent. I started out at the dealership looking for a 4-door auto Accent. Salesman, of course, worked us up to Elantra GLS because it got the "Consumer Reports top recommendation due to electronic stability control". We got him down to a price of $17772 for Elantra GLS with power options and moonroof. He was nearly dancing with delight, so I was really hesitant to sign anything although he wasn't very happy about not getting our signature.
Anyway, after going home to research the Elantra GLS Auto , I discovered the GLS does NOT have electronic stability control and $17,722 definitely was pretty high. That explained his ear to ear grin!
To get to electronic stability control in Elantra - I need to get a Elantra SE. I was able to find one each at three different dealers yesterday. The second dealer went to $17,500 on a Elantra SE without any hesitation whatsoever - which really made me wonder if that price was pretty much in line with the Sonata why go with the smaller car.
I know there is a $3000 rebate on Sonata, $2000 on Elantra and $1500 on Accent - so please let me know if the $$$ you recommend for negotiating a high and low is before or after any rebate.
I'm heading back out today to check with other dealers. Price will drive it all, so I may need to drop back down to an Accent and will be delighted to do it!
I can definitely drive to Richmond, VA to get a decent price. Richmond, VA is about 8 hrs away, so if anyone has a dealer they would really recommend closer to Ohio, I'd be interested too!0
2009 Accent GS, Automatic, Premium Package (power windows, door locks, mirrors, 6-speaker w/ XM, auxiliary input jack)
Negotiated price w/ rebate - $11,570
After Orange County, CA's huge 8.75 tax, license, doc, OTD was $13,022. Traded in an old crap clunker that was worth $1,000 at best for the full $4,500. Total cost to us was $8,522. WOW! What a steal. Surprisingly nice ride. Dark Sapphire Blue ext/Black int. Great car for Mom. Now all I need is a Genesis for myself, haha.0
Sorry, I forgot to mention it was a 3-door hatchback. I got it from Garden Grove Hyundai in Southern California.0
What proof of registration did you have to give the dealer.
My dealer here said that I need to provide both the 2008 and the 2009 registration because my 2009 registration started on 3/9/2009 and expires 3/9/2010 and does not cover the full 12 month period.
Supposedly I don't qualify unless I can somehow get proof of my 3/9/2008 to 3/9/2009 registration to show it was registered for the past 12 months.
NOTE: I do have my insurance proof showing that it was insured for the past 12 months.
When I called the CARS hotline, they said if the dealer was requiring it - it must be needed. They suggested I contact my state BMV and ask them to provide proof of my 2008 registration so that I can qualify for the CARS program.0
I had both the insurance and reg info to show a year. You also need the pink slip, which I forgot to bring...but they said they could do it without it but it would cost $25. So I'm going to bring it within a few days which they said was okay. Let me say though, The Accent is a nice car, very comparable to the Yaris hatch...Better warranty though. Just wanted some trouble free driving for many years. For $8500, I feel that even keeping the car for 5 years would be a huge win. However, I'm sure it will last much longer the way my Mom drives.0
fitdc Posts: 9Started my shopping for 09 Accent Hatchback SE w no extras. Offered one in stock for $12,870 plus tax-tags and registration just outside the DC beltway. No Hyundai dealers in the district so residents go to MD or VA.0
HAHA!! Just had to update my post because of the following: In case you didn't read post #43 (read it for details) I ended up paying $8,522.19 out the door for my 2009 Accent GS w/ Auto, Premium Pkg. Well, I just found out that according to the California Board of Equalization, the $4,500 is considered a nontaxable government purchase. I clued in my dealer, they had a meeting, and now I'm going to get a partial sales tax refund! Where I live in Southern California, the sales tax is an ungodly 8.75% - so I will be getting a check for $393.75! That makes my total cost for this car $8,128.44!! Super deal. I'm glad I did it early too before all of the chaos...:)0
autonomous Posts: 1,769Traded in an old crap clunker that was worth $1,000 at best
What was the clunker? Year? Mileage?0
pandamotorist Posts: 1I ended up paying 12,600 not including taxes and financing interest. I believe I could have got it for 11,900 or 12,000 even, but this was just after the cash for clunkers program and they only had one 2009 Accent left in stock. I wanted a Toyota Yaris but three local Toyota dealers were all out of stock. Oh well.
This was in Missouri by the way.0
ceej Posts: 1In Richmond, Virginia I just purchased the Accent 4 door sedan.
The only "features" are air conditioning & floor matts.
After fees, taxes & licensing, I paid $12,406.
Then bought & installed a radio.
This was the first purchase I've ever made from a dealership, as I've always purchased used cars from individuals.
I had a very smooth buying experience without the pressurizing dialogue that I experienced at other dealerships the week prior to this purchase.
I recommend Micky at Pearson Hyundai on Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, Virginia.0
Kirstie_H Posts: 11,077A reporter is looking to speak to consumers who recently purchased a Hyundai. Please send your daytime phone number to [email protected] by Tuesday, September 8, 2009.
Corporate Communications
Need help navigating? [email protected] - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
Share your vehicle reviews0
We were offered a car they listed at $17,130.00 which is roughly $1,290.00 over car's MSRP's $15,840.00 pricing let a lone the TMW pricing of $15,677.00 with the Electrical Premium Options upgrade. There are 5 Automaxes in Oklahoma, but only the Broken Arrow dealership Edmunds.com Premier Dealer raised their on line prices way above the regular high MSRP prices. With these higher prices on Accents, it looks like your really saving a lot when your not. They also advertised 15" Alloy rims on their 18 Accents in this price range that actually only come with 14" steel rims, so why is this one dealer listed as a Premier Dealer knowing these facts made me wonder about referral from Edmund.com's web site as a place to get a good deal. Here is their web site for only one of 18 such Accents and look under Specifications on this car:
Copied and past Specs here for all to review if interested:
# Summary
* Body Style: 4 Door Sedan
* Vehicle Name: Accent
# Wheels
* Front Wheel Material: Alloy
* Front Wheel Size (in): 15 x 5.5
* Rear Wheel Material: Alloy
* Rear Wheel Size (in): 15 x 5.5
* Spare Wheel Material: - TBD -
* Spare Wheel Size (in): Compact
Premier Dealer, Automax Hyundai, 2380 W. Kenosha, Broken Arrow , OK 740120
I tried to respond to your listed email, but it would not go through at all.0
Thanks for bringing this to our attention and we will be investigating. In the meantime, please post your experience with the dealership in our Dealer Ratings & Reviews.0
sachin24k Posts: 31Can you tell me which dealer did you go?
aalsherri Posts: 68Is a $12,500 plus tax, document fee, title a good price for a 2010 "four" door Accent GLS automatic? The car has power windows and locks. It retails for $15,460.0
tarunkalra1 Posts: 10Bought a 2010 Hyundai Accent (3 DR Hatchback with Automatic Transmission) for $10300 OTD. It includes everything (Title, PA Tax & Registration). I had to use Hyundai Finance and ALL other rebates to get this price. My out of pocket expenses were $10300.
I have put 1400 Miles on it, the car runs great. Spent another $150 and got stereo installed from local store. The Hands Free telephone, Blue Tooth Music (IPOD, SMART PHONE), Tuner and CD Player run great with preinstalled Hyundai 4 speaker system.0
carfreak09 Posts: 160Holler Hyundai in Winter Park, Florida sold me this car for $13888, plus $599 dealer processing fee before taxes were added and rebates subtracted with no haggling. This price was about $400 below invoice with the dealer fee added. OTD cost was $13862 after $2000 rebate. I was very impressed with this dealer advertising such a low price right from the start with no gimmicks about down payment or military or college grad rebates. Could I have gotten a better deal? Maybe, but why go through the stress and hassle of haggling if you get a good deal up front?0
kallat Posts: 1So including tax and title this was the price? So what was the price before tax and tag. I need to ask dealer for this price since tax and tag differ across states. Also was there any special incentives..0
When does this new model debut? It looks like a mini Elantra, which is a good thing. Just saw a new Elantra in our preferred color over by the Hyundai shop & I was blown away. Just hope the rear vision is good & not compromised due to the sloping C pillar. This, or the new Accent will most likely take the place of the wife's Mazda 3s within the next year and a 1/2. Mazda won't step up to the plate on our current problem...we found a TSB for our particular problem but they said..."too bad". Seriously doubt she'll consider another 3...don't want the same car for 7 more years personally, that would be a total of almost 13 years!!
The Sandman :sick: :shades:
2015 Audi A3 (wife) / 2015 Golf TSI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2008 Hyundai Accent GLS (daughter #2)0
I just paid $14,600 ($13,708 without tax, tag, and documentation fees) out the door at Lee Hyundai in Fayetteville, NC for a Nordic White five-speed 2010 Accent SE three door. I handled the whole thing over the internet and the dealership was great. They beat every other dealer I talked to on their first offer.0
Correction. The pre-tax, tag, and doc fee price was $13,662.0


text:
I've been a bit lax at blogging lately, sorry, but as some of you may know I've been busy setting up a business to sell my own cupcakes. I've finally tired of buying bad cupcakes and have decided to give it a go myself. More details about it will follow soon..
As mentioned in a previous blog, my first stall is going to be at Going for a Song Vintage jumble at the Amersham Arms next Saturday, June 4th. I aim to have 5 or so flavours there so hope some of you can come along and taste them! There is an offer available for the event via my website so please check out the events section if you plan to come along. It's free entry and is in a pub, so you can enjoy a pint or a coffee/tea with your cake, and from the other vendors I've seen it will include some fabulous clothes and jewellery.
Anyhow, in anticipation of baking for others, including a wedding I've been asked to do, I thought I'd do a course at one of my favourite cupcake bakers, The Gourmet Cupcake Company. Originally I was just going to do the wedding and fondant masterclass course, however I thought I'd do the original course as well and I'm so glad I did. Eloise is a great teacher, the classes were really informal but very informative. We baked cakes, learning some insider secrets, and then got to decorating. Although this is perhaps more for a beginner, even as an experienced baker I learned some new techniques and I really recommend her courses for everyone. I can't wait for my wedding course next month - just looking at the lovely cupcakes Eloise has made for previous weddings has me all excited as to what I'm going to make!
As well as making exciting cupcakes, and business planning, I've also been lucky enough to be visited by the Appliances Online Fairy Hobmother. Appliances Online offer everything from cookers to my ultimate want for my kitchen, the pink Smeg fridge, and after I'd left a comment on Eat Like A Girl's blog post the Fairy Hobmother visited me with a prize. I didn't win an appliance (boo!) but I was chosen to carry on the gifting chain and was awarded some Amazon vouchers (yay!) - something I will always use. Never mind shoes, I can never have too many cookbooks.
As I'm carrying on the chain, the Fairy Hobmother is offering a lucky commenter on this blog a prize so please leave a comment below to be in with a chance to win a lovely gift from him. Perhaps you could share with us your favourite item in your kitchen - I'm going with my gorgeous pink Kitchenaid.
Leave a comment by Friday June 3rd to win. Good luck.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Riders stuck on snow-trapped train sue NY agency
NEW YORK - Subway riders stuck all night in a train trapped by snow after a blizzard sued a transportation agency on Tuesday, saying officials told them it was simply "an act of God."
In court papers describing last year's ordeal, they said they had no heat, food, water or bathroom facilities while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority kept promising help.
The city was all but paralyzed when the storm hit on Dec. 26, 2010, with 2 feet of snow piled around an A train on elevated tracks in Queens. Inside were about 500 passengers who spent eight hours there in freezing temperatures.
The conductor refused to allow passengers off the train, "resulting in a deplorable imprisonment," said 22 of them named in the suit, which was filed in Queens state Supreme Court.
They are seeking unspecified damages from the New York City Transit Authority, part of the MTA, which runs the nation's largest mass transit system. The subway alone has a daily ridership of more than 5 million.
Manhattan attorney Aymen Aboushi said the stranded passengers decided to sue after a year of meetings with transit officials convinced them that suing was the only way to get the MTA to pay attention. He said he's handling the case pro bono in hopes of forcing changes in the emergency response system to avert a similar nightmare.
The MTA issued a statement Tuesday saying it already has implemented changes to improve performance in future storms. The changes include "protocols to suspend service in harsh conditions" and assigning a rider advocate "to ensure the safety and comfort of our customers."
The blizzard, just after Christmas last year, was part of a mammoth nor'easter that stretched from Florida to Maine.
More than 2 feet of snow fell on some parts of New York City, combined with strong winds that led to a massive transportation gridlock. Hundreds of buses were stuck on streets, commuter trains were frozen onto tracks and major airports closed.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration was criticized for its slow response to the foul weather and its aftermath. Streets went unplowed for days, and cars, buses and other vehicles were stranded. Bloomberg acknowledged the response wasn't good enough.
A year later, more than $1.8 million has been paid out in claims, with more pending from people who said they were injured on snowy and icy roads and walkways or whose cars and other property were damaged from snow removal efforts, according to the city comptroller's office.
Passengers on the stranded A train say their frantic cellphone calls to 911 and the MTA did not result in any action or even helpful information.
"It's pretty clear that the MTA dropped the ball," Aboushi said.
With frost developing on the subway windows inside, passengers spent the night huddled together in one of the five cars to create some body heat, they said.
One woman resorted to a makeshift toilet outside between subway cars. Others urinated or defecated in the car filled with riders, some standing for hours because there wasn't enough room, according to the complaint.
Several others had to be hospitalized after finally being rescued from the Manhattan-bound train, which was stuck on the tracks between the Aqueduct and Rockaway Boulevard stations. One rider developed bronchitis, another pneumonia.
"When the train was finally moved, the passengers were off-loaded at the next stop, in the freezing cold, with about three feet of snow on the ground," the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit.
As for any changes being implemented, Aboushi said: "There really hasn't been any meaningful policy change."
The passengers named in the suit met with MTA officials repeatedly in the past year to voice their complaints, but transit officials insisted they "did nothing wrong and that the passengers being trapped was an act of God outside the defendant's control," according to the suit.
Aboushi said transit officials should introduce "an effective communication policy with passengers" that would make it possible to provide accurate information to anyone stuck during an emergency. In addition, he said, there should be a way to get basic resources such as food and water to passengers in need.
"We're not asking them to provide three-course dinners," he said. "But there were grandfathers on that train."
At a City Council hearing earlier this month, NYC Transit President Thomas Prendergast acknowledged that transit officials had lost track of the stranded train.
"We forgot about it," he said, adding, "It's inexcusable."


text:
Use mouse scroll wheel over image or pinch-to-zoom on touch devices. You can also click and drag around on image.
Mercedes AMG GT-S Edition 1
Parked toMercedes Benz
byADV.1 Wheels
ADV.1 Wheels x Wheels Boutique Mercedes AMG GT-S Edition 1 Wheel Specs: ADV5.2 Track Spec CS 50/50 Exposed Hardware Finish Disc: Matte Bronze Finish Lip: Polished Matte Brown 20x9.5 | 21x12
Vehicle Info: 2016 Mercedes-Benz
KeywordsSign up to add your own keywords
More from this Profile:
Project 2017 Ford GT - SEMA Show
Garage Audi
Garage BMW


text:
|Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange
previous taxon |
next taxon
Jepson Interchange (more information)
©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
Annual to tree
Leaves basal or cauline, alternate to whorled, simple to compound
Inflorescence: 1° inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower, 1many, generally arrayed in cymes, generally subtended by ± calyx-like involucre; flowers 1many per head
Flowers bisexual, unisexual, or sterile, ± small, of several types; calyx 0 or modified into pappus of bristles, scales, or awns, which is generally persistent in fruit; corolla radial or bilateral (rarely 0), lobes generally (0)45; stamens 45, anthers generally fused into cylinder around style, often appendaged at tips, bases, or both, filaments generally free, generally attached to corolla near throat; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 1-chambered, 1-seeded, style 1, branches 2, generally hair-tufted at tip, stigmas 2, generally on inside of style branches
Fruit: achene, cylindric to ovoid, generally deciduous with pappus attached
Genera in family: ± 1300 genera, 21,000 species (largest family of dicots): worldwide. Largest family in CA. Also see tribal key to CA genera: Strother 1997 Madroño 44(1):128. See glossary p. 25 for illustrations of general family characteristics.
Annual, perennial herb, subshrubs, decumbent to erect, taprooted
Stems simple or branched from base or above
Leaves simple, entire to pinnately lobed; basal petioled, ovate to spoon-shaped; cauline reduced upward, sessile, (ob)lanceolate to (ob)ovate
Inflorescence: heads radiate or discoid, terminal, solitary or clustered; involucres hemispheric, bell-shaped, obconic, or cylindric; phyllaries in 49 series, thin to tough but flexible, tips green or tinged purplish; receptacle concave, naked, shallowly pitted
Ray flowers present or 0, fertile or sterile; corollas yellow or white to purple
Disk flowers generally fertile (except L. occidentalis); corollas yellow, violet, purple, pink, or white, funnel-shaped to cylindric, marginal ones in rayless heads often enlarged and bilateral, deeply lobed on inner side, lobes spreading from head center; style appendages flat, triangular, awl-shaped, or cusped
Fruit obconic, mottled purple-brown; hairs dense, appressed, silky; pappus 0 in ray flowers, in disk flowers of many bristles, these free or fused at base, or fused throughout into awns, white, tan, or red-brown
Species in genus: 14 species: CA; NV, AZ, n Baja CA
Etymology: (C.F. Lessing, 18091862, German specialist in Asteraceae)
Incl CA sp. previously treated in Benitoa and Corethrogyne.
Annual; herbage grayish tomentose, sometimes becoming glabrous with age
Stems decumbent or erect, 0.34 dm
Leaves: basal deciduous, < 6 cm, oblanceolate or long-tapered obovate, entire to pinnately lobed; cauline < 2 cm, awl-shaped or linear to obovate, entire or tip with few teeth
Inflorescence: heads discoid, solitary, terminal; involucres 46 mm, narrowly obconic to bell-shaped; phyllaries oblong, obtuse or acute, puberulent or tomentose, margins with large sessile glands
Ray flowers 0
Disk flowers 1025; corollas funnel-shaped to tubular, marginal corollas funnel-shaped in small heads, yellow, with or without white band in throat; style branches 12 mm, appendages 0.71.3 mm, with long, abrupt point
Fruit 1.53.5 mm; pappus bristles many, free to base, white or tannish white
Chromosomes: 2n=10
Ecology: Sandy soils
Elevation: 2001850 m.
Bioregional distribution: Transverse Ranges, White and Inyo Mountains, Mojave Desert
Distribution outside California: w Nevada, nw Arizona
Varieties intergrade.
Herbage tomentose, becoming less so with age
Leaves: cauline many, clasping base of involucre
Inflorescence: phyllaries puberulent
Ecology: Very dry, sandy soil
Elevation: 8001200 m.
Bioregional distribution: Transverse Ranges, White and Inyo Mountains, Mojave Desert
Distribution outside California: w Nevada
Sometimes forms tumbleweeds.


text:
The world's biggest helicopter has begun airlifting food aid into a remote part of Southern Sudan after river boats trying to deliver urgently needed WFP supplies were attacked. The airlift comes amidst growing concerns about the fragile security situation in the south.
>> Sudan is the biggest country in Africa, covering an area comparable to eight countries the size of Italy.
>> In 2009 alone, 130,000 Sudanese have fled their homes due to fighting in the south.
>> A WFP assessment for 2008 to 2009 estimated that more than one million people in Southern Sudan are in need of food assistance.
>> Only one in four school-age children are enrolled in education in south Sudan. In 2009, WFP hopes to reach more than 400,000 children - especially girls - with food to encourage them to go to school.
An Mi-26 heavy lifting helicopter capable of transporting 10 metric tonnes per flight has been deployed to deliver food to 19,000 displaced people in Akobo in Jonglei state. The giant aircraft was moved to the area when a 27-barge convoy of aid navigating along a tributary of the White Nile came under fire on 11 June and the 735 metric tonne cargo of sorghum and pulses was lost (read more).
"We prefer not to use an airlift – normally we use the river in this part of Sudan because of poor road conditions and the security situation in the area," said Amorcecille Almagro, a spokeswoman for WFP in Khartoum. "Now we have had to resort to an airlift, even though it is very expensive."
Unfortunately, the helicopter cannot operate in heavy rain, and it has been unable to fly every day. WFP has also been using a Buffalo transport plane but this can only carry half as much cargo as the giant helicopter.
WFP has been providing food assistance to the displaced in Akobo – near the Sudan border with the Ethiopia – since they fled their homes in April this year when fighting broke out between rival tribes over cattle grazing rights and other issues.
The upsurge in violence in the area has meant that WFP has had to concentrate on providing emergency assistance at a time when it had planned to focus a lot of its work on reconstruction and recovery projects such as road-building and Food for Education.


text:
Some occupations should be represented more in Congress: Accountants because they make the numbers add up; engineers because they make things work with quiet competence and efficiency; NFL referees because they follow the rules and do the right thing regardless of the noise around them.
Kevin Kelley deserves his own category.
The head football coach at Little Rock's Pulaski Academy high school almost never punts, even on fourth down deep in his own territory. On kickoffs after a score or to start a half, he usually attempts an onside kick, which involves kicking 10 yards to give his team a chance to recover the ball, rather than booting it downfield to the other team's returner.
These tactics aren't just innovative, they're unheard of. Football at all levels is a conservative sport. Coaches do what other coaches do.
When Kelley started coaching Pulaski Academy in 2003, he decided to take a different approach.
"It starts from just going, 'Why are are we doing what we're doing?'" he told me. "And if the answer is, 'Well, that's what everybody else is doing,' or 'That's the way we've always done it,' you know, commonsense stuff, then that's not a good answer. If you don't have numbers to back it up, what are we doing?"
He read books, not by other football coaches but about human nature and mathematics. Basing his decisions on the numbers, he concluded that football's conventional wisdom wasn't always so wise.
According to his analysis, a college team that fails to make a fourth down conversion near its own goal line gives the other offense a 92 percent chance of scoring a touchdown. But punting the ball from such deep territory only reduced that chance to 77 percent. So, why not go for it and give yourself a chance to keep the ball?
Kelley applied that same approach to onside kicks and decided that the rewards outweighed the risks. An astrophysicist later confirmed he was right there, too.
The result? Kelley's teams have won five state championships in 10 years. He's spoken before college and NFL coaches. But despite his success and the force of his arguments, pretty much no other coaches have adopted his methods – even those who tell him he's right.
They tell him that if they ever went for it on fourth down from deep in their own territory and didn't make it, they'd be fired.
The big leap that Kelley made — the thing that separates him from other coaches — was not in his punting and kicking philosophy. The big leap came in his personal philosophy. He's willing to risk a significant short-term loss — giving the opposing offense the ball in scoring position — because, over the course of a game, that strategy gives him a better chance to win.
More importantly, he decided it was worth the risk of looking incompetent, being embarrassed, and maybe even getting fired. Because sometimes things don't work out in his favor, and then everyone can question why that idiot went for it on fourth down.
"We are about winning football games, so our decisions need to be based, period, on winning football games," he said. "Not on, 'Are we going to lose our job?' Not on, 'Do we have a big booster that's giving a lot of money and his son needs to play so we keep the money coming in?' None of that stuff. It's about winning. It's about doing right, and everything else will take care of itself."
It's not hard to find parallels with American democracy. The numbers, starting with the federal government's $17 trillion national debt, prove that the system isn't working as it should. Part of that system is a process called baseline budgeting, where agencies and programs routinely receive the same money as they did the previous year, plus a little more. In other words, what's done today is based on what's been done in the past.
Voters engage in the same behavior by almost always electing Republicans and Democrats instead of giving independents and third party candidates a chance. Meanwhile, many members of Congress avoid making tough votes for fear they'll be fired by the voters in the next election.
So elected officials in Washington just punt problems down the field. It's easier. It protects their jobs. They don't have to be different.
Coach Kelley has been taking the opposite approach since 2003. He's won five state championships basing his decisions on numbers, not on tradition, and by believing that if he does what's best for the team, everything else will take care of itself.
That's why more people like him — and accountants and engineers and NFL referees — are needed in Congress.
Steve Brawner is an independent journalist in Arkansas. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.


text:
Launch! Edicy reaches private betaMar 27, 2008
Our small team has worked almost constantly during the last month. And now we can finally relax for a second – Edicy has been launched! Yes, Edicy. It's the brand new name for our core product – the unprecedentedly easy-to-use web-editor.
We are happy, satisfied and completely exhausted :) More info soon, we'll take a rest for a short while. Until that—browse around Edicy's site, take the tour and sign up in the public beta's waiting row. All your questions are welcome!
Replies to this post
- Zahhar Kirillov Mar 28
Congratulations! I am really looking forward too see Edicy and feel its mighty editor, as the idea behind it is just amazing. Hope you will have a little bit of spare time to introduce innovative ideas behind Edicy here in your blog as well as promote RoR in general among Estonian web developers. I wish good luck and prosperity to Fraktal team!
- Tõnu Mar 29
Big thanks for the support and kind words (: As you know it's the fountain of motivation for the start-up teams and we really do appreciate it. Of course we acknowledge that those little bits of information we have provided so far about Edicy, are just too few. Even for understanding what he hell actually is Edicy? So, a lot more "behind the scenes" information is going to be blogged here. Piece by piece.
- Sven Apr 01
Congrats! But how come your own website looks much better than your product's?!
- Tõnu Apr 02
Well, I think you just stumbled upon the April Fool's Day prank, Sven :) Now it's nice and clean again.
- Sven Apr 03
Damn! I want beta invitation for that! ;)
- brasiu Apr 16
Congratulation! I would like to try the beta version


text:
Barneys Farm - Vanilla 2009 T-Shirt
Barneys T-shirts are made from 100% heavy grade cotton and are of a high quality! Fantastic artwork with a huge range of styles models and colors to suit.
Barneys T-shirts can be worn anywhere, as there's nothing to do with Cannabis on them, just a cheeky illustration that only people in the know will understand the meaning of. A great souvenir from Amsterdam, or a gift for someone else, Barneys clothing range is a great choice.
Shipping details
Kiwiland sells & ships Cannabis Seeds to the following countries: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, Canada, Canary islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia (Hrvatska), Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, Korea, Republic of, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Island, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Federated States of, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, Norway, Pacific Island Trust Territory, Palau, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Saint LUCIA, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Spanish north africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu.
Usually we ship (Cannabis Seeds) orders within two working days.
Quantity discounts / prices
|You save (eur)
|You save (%)
|Price / item


text:
Due to the retirement of Brian Spratt it has been agreed to transfer the MLST databases hosted at mlst.net from Imperial College London to Oxford, where Keith Jolley and Martin Maiden have kindly agreed to host them at PubMLST.org.
This agreement will provide a home for the MLST database for the benefit of the international microbiology community.
David Aanensen and Brian Spratt
To access the database please visit: http://pubmlst.org/spneumoniae/
You can still use eBURST and we shall be updating shortly:


text:
It�s just hair, right? Sure, and Michelle Obama is just a nice looking lady with toned arms � and those bangs.
It�s just hair, right? Sure, and Michelle Obama is just a nice looking lady with toned arms � and those bangs. The stir created by the first lady�s new locks is a little hint that hair does more than keep our head warm. It often determines how others see us and how we see ourselves.
Hair is extremely versatile, and not only from the styling standpoint.
Your hair can boost your self-esteem, call for self expression or even determine others� view of you.
That�s true for women in particular. A woman�s hair is often times referred to as �her glory.�
Sherry Yourdan, owner of Shear 7x salon in Kinston, said when a woman likes her hair, her self-image is improved.
�I think when clients are down, (getting their hair done) makes them feel better about themselves,� she said. �It is very much tied to self-esteem.�
Using a telephone poll, USA Today reported 44 percent of 1,031 women said their mood has been negatively affected by a bad hair day. Hair product line Tresemme conducted a study in 2010 that showed women are on average spending more than $1,000 a year in salon visits and on hair products, with major complaints include hair being too thin or thick, unmanageable or falling out.
Diane Bryant, Kinston Sally Beauty Supply assistant manager, said most customers visit the store searching for hair treatments to help moisturize, especially during the frigid winter months.
�Our products are newly stocked,� she said Thursday at the store in Kinston Pointe Shopping Center. �You at least have to be a cosmetologist to work here. If not, you�re not familiar with the products and cannot tell (customers) about what to use for their type of hair.�
Bryant was a hair stylist for 13 years and said she�s seen the difference well-styled hair makes on a woman�s image.
�To a woman, our hair is our glory,� she said. �You can�t go out with a million-dollar outfit without your hair not being kept up, because the first thing people notice is your hair.�
Although Michelle Obama�s birthday is on Jan. 17, a Yahoo! news story that day highlighted her new hairdo � the much-discussed bangs � and only mentioned it was her 49th birthday in the last line.
Local women and stylists had varied opinions about what their hair means to them. Some said it does make or break their day, others said it makes them unique, while one even called it a reward.
�I like to get my hair done. It�s almost like a luxury for me working hard,� said Juanisha Lawson, an Atlanta woman who was visiting family in Kinston. �I�m beautiful, regardless. My hair doesn�t make me.�
Sandy Mills of Deep Run said her hair means everything to her.
�If my hair is not right, nothing�s right,� she said.
She�s a client at the Hair Gallery salon in Kinston, which she found via word of mouth several years ago and has frequented since.
�Color is really important to me,� she said as she prepared for a touchup at the salon on Thursday. �I always leave here feeling good.
A Pantene Pro-V survey conducted in 2010 revealed women have a �love-hate� relationship with their tresses, with 91 percent of 2,000 women claiming to have a serious issue with their hair. It reported many women�s hair can affect their social interactions, including photo opportunities.
A local stylist believes having a good hairdo is a way to break from life�s issues.
�A lot of times women who have problems at home, (getting their hair done) is a way to escape,� said Nikki Morilla, owner of MNM Hair Spa, a Dominican salon in Kinston. �They want to look pretty.�
As she used a blow dryer on a young girl�s hair, she added, �When you look good, it makes you feel better.�
Hair � for men and women � can be linked to a person�s self esteem, according to many local stylists and community members, such as Wanda Hall, Gate Community Outreach Center director.
�We, as women, put a lot of emphasis on our hair,� she said. �I think it has a lot to do with how we see ourselves.�
She said there are many styles that help women define the importance of their hair.
�Whatever way you chose to wear your hair is definitely a part of you and means a lot to you,� said Hall, who rocks a short, natural cut. �I�ve seen a lot of women with a guy�s cut, but that works for them.�
Local men are noticing a trend in women with short hair � and they like it.
�Short hairstyles are in,� said cosmetologist and barber of NEDACUT Barber Shop, Anthony Coples. �I�ve seen women who had short hair and their personality made it look even better.�
His colleague George Garner said short hair is �cute,� but he is satisfied so long as a woman has some type of hair on her head.
�It�s an investment,� he said. �(A woman�s hair) has to be right. That let�s me know what the rest of her stuff is going to be like.�
He said the longer a woman takes in the shop, the better.
Depending on the style, women can log up to five hours in salontime, but Hair Gallery owner and stylist Michelle Cantu said clients could be in her shop from 30 minutes to two hours.
�You have some of them come in and they�re so depressed,� she said. �They feel so much better about themselves by the time they leave; it�s like a different person.
She said the reason she became a beautician was to boost others� confidence, calling her career, �rewarding.�
Several conditions can lead to hair loss, including chemotherapy for cancer patients.
�There are different ways to cope with it,� said Loretta Griffin, a nurse with Lenoir Memorial Cancer Center. �But it�s pretty overwhelming.�
She said cosmetologist Amy Hill demonstrates a variety of hair and make-up tricks for patients with Hill�s �Look Good, Feel Good� program.
�It�s pretty dramatic when you lose your hair,� Griffin said.
Locks of Love, a non-profit organization based in Florida, provides hairpieces for financially disadvantaged people up to 21-years-old suffering from a long-term, medical hair loss condition.
Tonya Adams, Kinston�s Beauty Box stylist, has witnessed a couple of clients donate their locks to the organization.
Cancer patients constitute the second highest percentage of Locks of Love recipients.
Wanda Hall survived a 1996 run of endometrial cancer during her last year of college at East Carolina University.
�When I went through chemotherapy and radiation, I lost my hair,� she said. �It wasn�t a big deal for me simply because I wore wigs for a while.�
She said the hair weaves were emerging in the 1990s, so wearing fake hair wasn�t going to stand out.
When her hair began falling out, she didn�t wrestle with trying to keep it � she immediately cut it off.
�I had to work with what I had,� said Hall, who experimented with various head wraps and pieces.
Although she had chemically straightened her hair since childhood, she made the decision to go natural � stop using chemicals in her hair � nearly three years ago because the perm�s upkeep became too difficult and it damaged her hair.
So she cut it off.
All natural
A USA Today Poll reported 36 percent of women chose to ditch relaxers in 2011 � a 10 percent jump from the previous year.
Stylist Danielle Noble of Kinston�s Simply Hair, a salon that specializes in natural hair care, said determining a texture is the starting point for newly-natural women.
�The difficulty, I think, for most women now is adjusting to their natural hair,� she said. �Most people have had chemically-altered hair for so long.�
Trending across the lands is the �big chop,� a haircut that removes chemically altered hair for a fresh start. Simply Hair teaches women to manage their hair during the natural journey.
�Some people don�t think you have as much versatility with natural hair,� Nobles said. �I think you have more versatility.�
Juanisha Lawson said although close family members wear perm-free hairstyles, going natural is too time-consuming for her.
�If it were more acceptable in the workplace, I would probably wear my hair natural,� she said, adding relaxed hair is also difficult to maintain.
Culture has a role in determining how women wear their hair, she said.
�I think sometimes African American women emphasize too much on the European look and (do) not appreciate the natural beauty of our hair,� Lawson said. �A lot of us don�t appreciate our natural beauty.�
Hall, though, enjoys being natural and said it shows her individualism.
�It doesn�t define me, but I think it makes me different,� she said. �In a professional setting, my hair certainly stands out.�
Achieving eye-catching natural looks can take many hours, but studies show more women are transitioning out of relaxers.
Nobles said a common misconception is natural hair is always healthier, but it�s not automatic.
�All natural hair is not healthy hair,� said Nobles, who encouraged finding the right treatment for a person�s own hair type.
MNM Salon owner Nikki Morilla said natural hair dries much faster than relaxed hair.
�You can�t put shampoos in it too much because they have a lot of chemicals,� she said, suggesting naturals should �co-wash,� washing with conditioner instead of shampoo each time.
She said both hair situations should receive treatments, keep up with chemical services and maintain moisture.
�Hair is like a plant,� said Morilla, who�s been styling hair for 24 years. �You have to feed and nourish it.�
Every two weeks, Clyde Harris Jr., 20, gets his dredlocks re-twisted.
�The lady (who does them) said that�s why they grew so fast,� said the Winston Salem State University student who began his dredlocks when he was a freshman in 2010. �It�s a way of me saying, �This is me, this is who I�m gonna be.��
He said women should take the same approach and chose whatever style suits them.
�A woman�s hair gives them confidence,� Harris said. �If they don�t have good hair, they might not have a good day.�
The men
Anthony Coples styles both men and women�s hair, believing women prefer a male stylist.
�They say we grow their hair,� he said.
While he�s personally experienced the importance of hair to women, he said the vanity goes both ways.
�We�re men, and a lot of times we don�t want to touch our sensitive side,� Coples said. �We are very particular about our hair. If a man is used to seeing his hair one way and he gets out of the (barber) chair and something�s wrong with his head, it�s going to bother him.�
Common man-problems linked to hair � along with a bad haircut � include balding and thinning.
�A lot of bald-headed men are pickier,� said barber Tim Brinson of Friendly Barber. �A lot of men who are thinning are more concerned, too. They�re trying to save it.�
Men, like women, have their hair care tips and secrets.
NEDACUT barbers said men dye and chemically process their hair to hide the gray and make their locks appear fuller.
�A lot of men are scared of going bald,� barber George Garner said.
He said keeping a fresh haircut is important to a man�s appearance because of stereotypes.
�You have a certain image you want to hold up,� Coples said. �Everyone does.�
Tonya Adams said some men are pickier about their hair than women, noting one of the longest times she spent on a haircut was on a man.
�He was just so peculiar about his hair,� said Adams, who remembers the 45 minutes she spent on that man 20 years ago.
She said clients at her shop at times don�t want to cut off half an inch of hair because they closely link personality with their tresses.
�For some ladies, their hair is their identity,� she said. �It shows a reflection of who they are.�
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-259-1078 or at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.


text:
Our family trace their roots back to the European continent. It wasn't until 1967, when Denis Graham, the author of this work, married Chie Abe, that the ancient Japanese heritage was first introduced into the family.
Until 10,000 B.C. Europe was dominated by the last ice age. As the great ice fields receded, civilizations began to form, as we understand them. Modern man came to Europe perhaps as long ago as 100,000 B.C. These Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) people were hunters and gathers, and lived in caves and other natural shelters. The Neolithic era (New Stone Age) began at the end of the last ice age, and the climate approached that of the present. The Neolithic people were able to begin agricultural economies to supplement and eventually replace hunting. Between 6,000 and 4,000 B.C. man discovered copper, gold, tin, and other metals. Tools could be made which were stronger and made tasks easier. Towns and cities grew out of villages as life became less of a struggle.
During the 3rd millennium B.C. Indo-Euopeans, from north of the Black Sea, spread into south-eastern Europe, introducing horses and their language to the region. In this area was born the Minoan and Greek cultures. With the coming of the Iron Age came the Celts, Slavs and Germanic peoples of central Europe.
The ancestors of our clan are predominantly of Celtic and Germanic origin.
The Celts, or Kelts, were really a variety of people, most of which had the common heritage of ancient Israel. During the Iron Age, Israelite seafarers traveled through the Mediterranean and settled in France, Spain, Ireland and even into the Scandinavian countries. Spain became known as Iberia, which is derived from the name Hebrew, which, itself, comes from Eber, an early patriarch of the Hebrew people. Gaul, which is what early France was known by, comes from Galatia, an early colony of Israel where their language became known as Gaelic, and, in fact, the Celtic language as a whole was known as Gaelic. Gaelic is still spoken in parts of today's Ireland and Scotland.
Denmark, the land of Dan, also comes from the ancient Israelite seafarers. Dan was one of the tribes of Israel. And, the northern portion of Denmark, still known today as Jutland, actually means "land of the Jews."
A later influx of Celts came into Europe from the east. These, too, were from the house of Israel. Decades after they were taken into captivity into Assyria and still long before the birth of Christ, these people began to migrate into southern Russia and Turkey and later entered Europe along the Danube river valley, occupying central Europe.
During the millennium before the birth of Christ, these Celts came to be the predominate peoples of central and western Europe. They established trade routes with the Etruscans, Greeks and Italians, which brought them into contact with the Romans, who called their lands Celtica.
The Celts lived in fortified villages, with a tribal organization that became increasingly hierarchical as wealth was acquired. Priests, nobles, craftsmen, and peasants were clearly distinguished, and the powers of the chief became king-like. The Celts believed in a demonic universe and relied on the ministry of the Druids.
Because of over population, the Celts began pushing south and east. As they roamed
they struck terror into Europe; their very appearance generated fearsome legend:
The Celts were highly mobile and fast. They respected nothing in their path. In 390 B.C. Celtic tribes sacked Rome, entered the Senate and pulled the Senator's beards.
The Celtic language was called Gaelic, from which Gaul (France) and Galacia (Turkey) derived their names.
The whole race was madly fond of war, high spirited and quick to battle, but otherwise straight-forward and not of evil character. They were fond of gold and often wove strands into their clothing.
The Celts, never organized into a nation, were always a series of tribes scattered throughout Celtica. They tried to unite when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, but it was to late. They were defeated by Caesar in campaigns between 60 and 56 B.C.
After their defeat the Celtic tribes were on the decline, even though other Celts persisted, in mainland pockets, on the isles to the west of Europe, and in Scandinavia, the Roman conquest of Gaul heralded the beginning of the end of major Celtic European distinction. They would, however, exist and flourish under other names.
The religion of the Celts was Druidism. The druids constituted a priestly upper class in command of a highly ritualistic religion, which apparently centered on the worship of a pantheon of nature deities. Druids were also responsible for the education of the young and generally the intellectual life of the community. The druids believed in immortality of the soul and, apparently, its departure at death into another, not earthly, body. Their religious ceremonies were conducted primarily in tree groves (the oak and the mistletoe that grows on oaks were held sacred) and at river sources and beside lakes. The druids performed animal, and sometimes human, sacrifices and practiced divination and other forms of magic.
Of our known Celtic European ancestors, most came from the British Isles of England, Scotland and Ireland. It is this British heritage with which we are most clearly associated.
The English people are of mixed origin. The ancient Britons were absorbed by the waves of invading Celts, Romans, Jutes, Danes, Saxons, and Normans. The mingling of these and other groups through the many centuries gradually produced the English people, culture and language.
England's first known inhabitants were cave dwellers who hunted and fished and lived under Stone Age conditions until after the year 2000 B.C. They were a blend of various peoples who came from the continent of Europe before glaciers separated the British Isles from the continent.
Early Israelite (Celtic) tribes came to England from Europe circa 1000 B.C. to 800 B.C. They knew how to make bronze and iron weapons and soon became dominant. They came to be known as Brythons, a corruption of the Hebrew terms "berith," meaning covenant, and "ish," meaning man. It was these Brythons after whom the Romans called the area Britain.
Julius Caesar landed in Britain in 55 B.C. with an army and returned with a larger one the next year. He defeated the Celts, but soon left. Romans did not return for nearly a century. In 43 A.D. Roman soldiers under Emperor Cladius landed in Britain and began what was to be a long occupation. It ended in 407, when the legions were recalled to defend Rome from the Visigoths. Despite more than 300 years of domination, few traces of Roman civilization remained in Britain, except for the fine Roman roads and the ruins of Roman cities.
Even before the Romans withdrew, Angles, Saxons (sons of Issac), and Jutes--Germanic Celtic tribes from north Germany and Denmark--had begun raiding the island. There were also invasions of Britain by the Picts from northwest Scotland and by the Scots from Ireland and west Scotland.
The Britains tried to force back the new invaders. (The King Arthur legend probably arose from this resistance.) However the Saxons, of which the Angles and Jutes are a part, became dominant. The area they won was eventually called Anglaland, or Englaland, from which came England. It was from this influx of these various Saxon tribes that the modern people of England arose, bringing with them their language, laws, religion, and other ways of life.
For several centuries the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes often fought each other. They formed a number of kingdoms: the Saxons--Wessex, the Angles--East Anglia, Mercia, Deira, and Bernicia. Northumbria later was formed from Deira and Bernicia.
In the ninth century, Egbert, Saxon king of Wessex, was recognized as overlord of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Actually, however, he was not sole ruler. The task of unifying England under the West Saxon monarchy did not begin until the reign of Alfred the Great (871-899).
Vikings--Danes and Norwegians--began plundering England's coast about 787. By 877, Danes held East Anglica, Northumbria, and much of Mercia. In 878 Alfred the Great of Wessex, after a great victory at Edington, compelled the Danes to agree to stay within the Danelaw, an area in the east.
Alfred's West Saxon successors finally established their supremacy over the Danelaw by 954, when a united England under Anglo-Saxon rule came into being. But in 1013 King Swein I of Denmark won control of most of England. His son Knut (Canute) in 1016 became the first of three Danish kings of England. The Danish rule ended in 1042 when Edward the Confessor, a Saxon, became king.
A struggle between the crown and the nobles developed and reached an important climax during the reign of King John. Enraged by John's despotic policies, nobles and churchmen revolted in 1215 and forced the king to issue the Magna Charta, or Great Charta. One of the great documents of human liberty, the Magna Charta set limits on the king's power in many fields, and established the principle that the king was subject to the law.
During the reign of the Plantagenet rulers, from 1154 to 1485 England changed a great deal. The Magna Charta was signed, Wales was won, so was Scotland, only to be lost again, the Hundred Year's War was fought in France. The Black Death, which struck England in 1348 and killed perhaps half the population, helped bring important social changes. The rise of towns and commerce brought money into free circulation, breaking down the manorial and feudal systems.
In 1447 there began a 38-year struggle for the throne between two royal families, the houses of Lancaster and York. This struggle, called the War of the Roses, took its name from the family symbols--red for Lancaster, white for York. It ended in 1485 when Henry Tudor of the Lancastrian party was crowned Henry VII. His marriage to Elizabeth of York united the rivals.
Henry VII regained some lost powers for the crown. Henry VIII separated England from the Roman Catholic church. Mary I restored Catholicism until her successor, Elizabeth I, again abolished the religion. During her reign of 45 years--the Elizabethan Era--commerce flourished. The Golden Age of English literature, which included Shakespeare and other great writers, began. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 established England as a sea power.
Elizabeth's death in 1603 brought James VI of Scotland to the English throne as James I, but Scotland and England remained separate countries. James was the first of the Stuart line of kings. During his reign the King James version of the Bible was prepared, the first permanent English colony was established at Jamestown, Virginia, and the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. James I and his son, Charles I, were at odds with Parliament, which grew until its culmination exploded in the Great Rebellion of 1642. This led to the rise of the commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell and the beheading of Charles I.
The monarchy was restored in 1660 under Charles II. The union with Scotland came about in 1707 under Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts. Scotland and England was from then known as Great Britain.
The region known as Scotland was named Caledonia by the Romans in the first century A.D., when legions led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola pushed from what is now England until they reached the Firth of Forth. The Romans called all the people they found in the area Caledonians, though there were at least twenty separate tribes.
Eight hundred to a thousand years before the birth of Christ, Celtic tribes arrived in Scotland, absorbed the local population, and brought Scotland out of the Stone Age. The Gaelic language they brought with them is still widely spoken in Scotland today.
The Romans never conquered Scotland and withdrew their legions in 407. Tribes of Celtic Britons then banded together and formed the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Eventually four kingdoms emerged: those of the Britons, Scots, Picts, and Angles. The Scots were the last of these on the scene, arriving from Ireland as invaders early in the sixth century.
With them the Scots brought Christianity to the area. Soon the new religion spread throughout the land. The Christian religion helped to draw the four kingdoms closer together.
Beginning in the 700's, Norsemen began raiding and invading Scotland. Partly for this reason, Kenneth MacAlpin, king of the Scots, was made king of the Picts as well in 844. Malcolm II, king of the united Picts and Scots, defeated the Angles in 1018 and became ruler over most of Scotland.
Until her unification with England, Scotland and England were for the most part enemies. England continually pushed for its domination over Scotland. Eventually English began replacing Gaelic, Scottish commerce became more dependent on trade with England, and at the time of the unification the Stuarts of England were also monarchs of Scotland.
Under the Stuart, Queen Anne, Scotland and England united as Great Britain in 1707. In 1715 and again in 1745 the Scottish Jacobites tried by violence to bring the Stuarts back to the throne of Scotland, but failed each time. The last attempt, made by the followers of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stewart) met with disaster at Culloden Moor.
Ancient Israelite seafarers settled Ireland some 4,000 years ago. Later, a people of uncertain origin known as Picts came into northern Ireland and Scotland. About 700 B.C. Celts moved into Ireland, calling themselves Gaels, and their country Erin. The Romans called them Scots and their land Scotia or Hibernia (another corruption of Hebrew).
Ireland was divided into five tribal areas, each ruled by a king. About 200 A.D. the king of Connacht and Meath established himself as a high king, or leader of the Irish kings. The sacred Hill of Tara became the capital of the high kingship.
The religion of the Gaels was Drudism. Conversion of Erie to Christianity began in the fifth century under Saint Patrick. Isolated from Rome, the Celtic church developed its own character and customs, with emphasis on establishment of monasteries, where Latin culture was preserved and encouraged.
By 800 the Gaels were supreme in Ireland. Shortly after 800 Norsemen began settling in the British Isles. Soon they established cities along the Irish coast--Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick--and gained control over much of the country. At the battle of Clontarf in 1014 the king of Munster, Brian Boru, led the Irish to a decisive victory over the Norsemen. The Norse cities became Christianized and their people gradually assumed Irish speech and customs.
In 1170, Henry II of England, began taking over Ireland. He established many English nobles in Irish earldoms. He made his son, John, lord of Ireland, and when John succeeded to the throne in 1199 Ireland became a domain of the English crown.
It took the English 400 years to completely subdue the Irish and in 1541 Henry VIII took the title of king of Ireland. In 1641 the Irish rebelled because of England's persecution of the Catholic church. The rebellion was finally crushed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.
In 1801 Ireland was brought into the United Kingdom as equals. The potato famine of the 1840's reduced the Irish population from 8,000,000 to 6,500,000 in only seven years.
Our Germanic ancestors came primarily from Germany, as opposed to Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czecholovakia, or other areas which also have large Germanic stocks.
German legend claimed that the oldest city in Europe was Trier, founded more than twenty centuries before Christ by Trebeta, a son of the famous Assyrian King Ninus. Ninus stood for Nimrod, the founder of Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria. In fact, one reads...in Trier the inscription reading, "Trier existed for thirteen hundred years before Rome was built."
Central Europe was invaded very early by peoples coming from Asia and Russia. There were two distinct groups, the Celts and the Teutons. The Celts, descendants of the "Lost Tribes of Israel," went on to conqueor and settle Western Europe. The Teutons, descendants of the Assyrians, conqueored north central Europe, today's Germany.
Teuton means "spear-men." The Romans, whose unaccustomed ears tried to translate into their own tongue the names of these fierce "Germanic" peoples, rendered the "Deutschen" as "Teutons, the "t" in their language being pronounced very similarly to the "d" in English.
The Romans, for all their efforts to conquer Germany between 12 BC and AD 16, met with only limited success. The Germans held their ground tenaciously, and Roman leadership varied in quality. In AD 9, German forces under Arminius annihilated three Roman legions in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. The Romans were abe to avenge that defeat but not to consolidate their rule in most of Germany nor to establish the Elbe as their outermost European frontier. Instead, they fell back to a 300 mile fortified border, called the limes, which extended from the Rhine to the Danube.
As the German tribes overran the Roman Empire in the 5th century, one tribe, the Franks, expanded its base in northwest Germany until it controlled territories from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Bavaria and Thuringia in the east. The first great leader of the Franks, Clovis (ruled 481-511), established the Merovingian dynasty, which lasted until 751. It was this Frankish kingdom which began the merger of Roman, German, and Christian elements that was the foundation of medieval German culture.
The decline of the Merovingian dynasty in the 8th century placed power in the hands of royal officials, one of whom, Charles Martel (ruled 714-741), established a new Frakish dynasty. This Carolingian dynasty was named after its greatest figure, Charles I (ruled 768-814), better known as Charlemagne. Charlemagne conquored still more lands in Germany, including Bavaria in the east and Saxony in the north. To the Saxons, particularly warlike and unruly, he gave a choice of death or conversion to Christianity.
Charlemagne made additional conquests in Italy and Spain. When the pope crowned him emperor or Christmas day of the year 800, Charlemagne was recognized as master of a revived Roman Empire in the West. But this restoration was more nominal than real because the economic disintegration that had undermined the original Roman Empire made it difficult to create a centralized state in so vast a realm.
Charlemagne, himself, stipulated that his lands should be divided among his heirs after his death, according to the long-standing German tradition. The result, therefore, following his death, was almost a century of civil war among the heirs and the eventual emergence (870) of two Frankish kingdoms, that of the West Franks (France) and that of the East Franks (Germany). The general political chaos of these decades was complicated by invasions of barbarian Vikings and Magyars. Cental government became all but impossible, and the great landed nobles of the realm asserted their local powers. Feudalism took hold in most of Germany as a means of preserving a modicum of law and order.
The last Carolingian king of the East Franks was Louis the Child (ruled 899-911). On his death, Lotharingia (Lorraine) was the only East Frankish duchy to transfer its allegiance to the Carolingian king of the West Franks. The dukes of Bavaria, Franconia, Saxony, and Swabia--the other so-called stem duchies--initially elected the duke of Franconia king of Germany as Conrad I. In 919, however, they turned to the house of Saxony as their best defense against the Magyars (today's Hungarians).
The first two Saxon kings, Henry I and his son, Otto I, were able to reassert the strength of a centralized monarchy. They stopped the Magyar onslaught and expanded German holdings into Eastern Europe. Working closely with the church, they also established effective administrative machinery that succeeded in keeping the ambitious rival German dukes in line. When Otto I founded the Holy Roman Empire in 962, he gained both a powerful ally in the papacy and new resources of taxes in northern Italy. To maintain these advantages, however, his successors were frequently obliged to preoccupy themselves with Italian affairs instead of attending to matters at home.
Early in the 11th century, the Saxon line of monarchs died out, and the German princes began to elect a series of Salian (Franconian) kings. Of these, Henry III (r. 1039-1056) brought imperial control over the church to its pinnicle, deposing three rival popes in 1046 and nominating four popes in succession. His successor, Henry IV, however faced a resurgent papacy, which not only resisted lay control of the church but also did so in alliance with the German princes, who sought to win back the powers taken from them by the kings. This struggle, usually called the Investiture Controversy, lasted until 1122 and ended essentially in victory for the papacy and the German nobility. The German king's powers over the church and the great German princes were gravely weakened, and the process of feudalization in Germany was accelerated.
The Hohenstaufen dynasty increased the power of the monarchy briefly. First elected to the throne in 1138, the Hohenstaufens held it, despite vigorous challenge from the rival Welf family, until 1254. The dynasty's greatest figure, Frederick I (r. 1152-1190), known as Barbarossa, chose to work within the feudal structure as a partner of the great princes. Although he acquired the valuable province of Burgundy by marriage and subdued most of Italy by force, his successors were overwhelmed by a resurgent papal-aristocratic alliance and by French and English intervention. Only the brilliant Frederick II (r. 1212-1250) was able to restore a measure of order, but he was so absorbed in Italian affairs that he neglected Germany. Hence, at a time when England and France were being welded into modern nation-states, Germany fell once more into the hands of regional princes.
There were sufficient intervals in this turbulent age to permit some economic progress and cultural achievement. Cities and commerce made a solid comeback, and by the end of the period there were no fewer than 1,600 cities and towns of varying size in Germany, many of them crowned by impressive Romanesque cathedrals.
None of Frederick II's successors was able to regain the imperial powers that had been usurped by the German princes. The period immediately following Frederick's death was one of particular chaos. During this period the Hohenstaufen were finally extinguished, and foreign princes contested for the imperial title. In 1273, Rudolf I of the house of Habsburg was elected king. The German princes were suspicious of Habsburg territorial ambitions, however, and elected a series of kings from other dynasties in succession to Rudolf. One of these kings, Louis IV (r. 1314-1346) of the Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, had to fight off a challenge from a Habsburg antiking, Frederick the Fair. Consistently opposed by the papacy, Louis rallied the support of the German princes for his 1338 declaration asserting the authority of these princes to elect the emperor without confirmation by the pope.
Charles IV (r. 1347-1378) of the house of Luxemburg, formally acknowledged the principle of elective monarchy with the Golden Bull, of 1356, which regularized elections by naming seven electors: the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, the count palatine of the Rhine, and the king of Bohemia. Far from endorsing or deliberately encouraging disorder, the Golden Bull accepted the political realities of an age in which unified monarchy had become impossible in Germany. Real power rested with the princely and ecclesiastical states, the imperial free cities, and the imperial knights.
From 1438, members of the ruling dynasty of Austria were elected Holy Roman emperors, with only one short break (1740-1745), until the empire's dissolution in 1806. Acquiring Burgunday, the Low Countries, Spain, and much of Italy by marriage, they came closest to restoring full dignity to the imperial crown. The ablest of the early Habsburgs, Maximilian I (r. 1493-1519), decreed "Eternal Peace" in 1495 in order to control the unrully imperial knights and restore order in his divided realm. He also created an imperial court of justice to help enforce his decrees.
The German princes, jealous of their powers and still fearful of Hapsburg ambitions, responded by demanding an imperial governing council to control imperial policies. As constituted in 1500, it included several of the great princes and representative of the imperial free cities. It did not, however, evolve into an effective organ of representative government. The princes were more interested in hamstringing the emperors than they were in assuming the burden of statesmanship, and the additional divisions generated by the Reformation overwhelmed the council and left Germany as fragmented as ever.
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed to a church door in Wittenberg his 95 theses condemning the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic church. This event is usuall taken to mark the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Luther's revolt against what he regarded as abuses by the Roman Catholic church swiftly became entangled in larger political and social issues. The peasants of much of Germany, chafing under the oppressive rule of aristocratic landowners, drew some unwarranted political conclusions from Luther's religious independence and rose in the revolt known as the Peasants War in 1524. The revolt was suppressed, with Luther's help, but religious and social radicalism lived on in the Anabaptist sects. After the Peace of Augsburg (1555), Lutheranism was recognized as the religion of most of northern and central Germany.
Calvinism, a rival Protestant sect, began making progress in Germany. This, along with the desire of Catholic princes and church leaders to stamp out the new religions, led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). This was a series of four related wars, in which the Protestant states barely held their own, although they were aided by the Swedes and French. When hostilities were ended by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), a devasted Germany was still torn hopelessly in a collection of more than 300 virtually sovereign states without any effective central government.
Prussia and Unification
Prussian greatness began at Brandenburg, a small military frontier state created on lands conquered brom the Saavs in the 13th century. It began to expand under the Hohenzollern rulers of the 17th century. Prussia was acquired by Brandenburg in 1618 bu inheritance.
The earliest of the prominent Hohenzollern rulers were Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg (r. 1640-1688), and his grandson Frederick William I (r. 1713-1740), king of Prussia. The title of king had been assumed by Prussian rulers in 1701.
Prussia built an army that was far larger than those of other states of comparable population. Their purpose was defensive because Prussia had suffered hideously during the Thirty Years' War. However, Frederick II (r. 1740-1786), later called the Great, used the army to expand Prussia's borders. As a result of the war of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), Frederick won the valuable province of Silesia from Austria. He also participated in the first of three partitions of Poland with Russia and Austria. When Frederick II died, Prussia was the largest and most significant northern state in divided Germany.
During the wars of the French Revolution and the era of Napoleon, Germany was conquered by the French. The chief impact of the conquest was to instill a sence of unity and nationalism in the German people. Prussia, although defeated by Napoleon I, carried out drastic military and social reforms and ultimately led the other German states in the victorious War of Liberation against the French in 1813.
The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) restored most of the major princes while retaining Napoleons simplified structure of only about three dozen, instead of three hundred German states. These states were bound loosely together in the German Confederation.
Beginning in 1862, Prussia's minister-president, Otto von Bismark, eliminated Danish, Austrian and French influence from Germany. In 1867, Bismark unified northern Germany. Three years later, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the southern German states agreed to join the federation, and on January 18, 1871, the Prussian king William I was crowned emperor of a new German Reich at Versailles.


text:
LAKELAND | One is a former master sergeant now working as an Orlando theme park guard.
The other has no job, deputies say, and spent time online talking to children.
LAKELAND | One is a former master sergeant now working as an Orlando theme park guard.
The other has no job, deputies say, and spent time online talking to children.
Both men were arrested Tuesday by Polk County deputies, charged with downloading numerous images of child porn that Sheriff Grady Judd called "horrific."
Thomas Wheeler, 46, of Davenport, retired from the U.S. Air Force, was charged with seven counts of possessing and one count of distributing child porn.
Edward Joseph Freiberger, 67, of Clermont, was charged with 60 counts of possessing child porn.
The suspects were arrested after deputies searched their homes and computers.
Wheeler, who works as a guard at Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom, had numerous images in his home at 540 Fox Loop in Davenport of children between 9 and 11 having sex, deputies said. He admitted to viewing them for several years out of curiosity, deputies said, and because of the children's "innocence."
Freiberger, who lives at the Outdoor Resort mobile home park at 9000 U.S. 192, Lot 6, in Clermont, had a large child porn collection on CDs and his computer, deputies said. Some of the images showed children as young as 6 months being sexually battered.
He also had 15 high-powered rifles, shotguns and handguns, which deputies removed from his home.
Deputies said they found notes with a child's contact information and alcohol preference — Mike's Hard Lemonade. Freiberger had plans to meet the child at the Altamonte Springs Mall.
They never actually met, deputies said Freiberger told them, but he admitted to talking sexually to children in chat rooms.
Both men are being held at the Polk County Jail. Wheeler's bail is set at $64,000, and Freiberger's at $300,000.
[ Matthew Pleasant can be reached at email@example.com or 863-802-7590. ]


text:
Category Archives: Asheville Airport Limo
GrandyCo Transportation
GrandyCo Transportation of Asheville, NC 828-273-3214 Asheville's #1 Transportation Company Buses, Vans, Limos, Cars 828-273-3214
Dinner in the Limousine
"Out to Dinner Limousine Special" by GrandyCo Transportation of Asheville 828-273-3214 Take Her to Dinner in our Executive Stretch Limousine You pay only the fare to and from the restaurant We provide the Limousine Transportation at regular car prices and nobody knows your cheap but us. LOL Call for Reservations Ask for Brett 828-273-3214
Transportation in Asheville
Transportation in Asheville, NC by GrandyCo Transportation 828-273-3214 Don't Call a Taxi, Lyft or Uber We have vehicles to meet every budget: Cars, Towncars, Minivans, Full Size Vans, SUV's and Limos. You have to ride in a Stretched Executive Limo at least once in your life. So, for the entire summer we will book you in […]
Asheville Airport Shuttle
Asheville Airport Shuttle by GrandyCo Transportation 828-273-3214 Servicing all Asheville and out of town hotels including: Hilton, Holiday Inn, Indigo, Days Inn, Aloft, Cambria, Omni, Grove Park Inn, Crown Plaza, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheridan, Four Points, Best Western, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Foundry, and more. We can even give you a Stretched Executive Limo for regular […]
Asheville Area Transportation
Asheville Area Transportation by GrandyCo 88-273-3214 Call for Reservations All Hotels Transfers / Airport Shuttles, AVL, GSP, CLT Ridgecrest LifeWay Transfers 828-273-3214
Asheville Transportation and Shuttles
Asheville Transportation and Shuttles by GrandyCo Transportation 828-273-3214 Asheville's Number One Transportation 828-273-3214
Asheville Airport Shuttles
Asheville Airport Shuttles by GrandyCo Transportation 828-273-3214 Service to all Hotels 828-273-3214
GrandyCo Airport Transportation
GrandyCo Airport Transportation Shuttles Servicing all Hotels 828-273-3214 Asheville's Number One Transportation Company
Billy Graham Shuttle
Billy Graham Shuttle by GrandyCo Transportation 828-273-3214 Hotel Shuttles, Limos Available Asheville's Number one Transportation Company Airport Pickup (AVL, CLT, GSP) 828-273-3214
GrandyCo Transportation
GrandyCo Transportation Ridgecrest Transportation 828-273-3214 Asheville's number one transportation company. Shuttles to all hotels Call for reservations 828-273-3214


text:
(Corrects story to reflect status of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule on auto finance)
The surge in subprime auto loans since the end of the recession has been most pronounced among riskier borrowers, and auto finance companies typically tied to car manufacturers are leading the parade, according to a new study released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday.
Banks make up only a small share of the subprime auto lending, the study found.
The dollar value of originations to people with credit scores below 660 has roughly doubled since 2009 while originations to other credit score groups increased by only about half.
Delinquency rates highlight the different risk appetites. The quarterly flow of 30-day delinquency for bank loans has been about 1% in recent years and about 2.5% for loans by auto finance companies.
General Motors reported last month that the Justice Department is probing its subprime auto loans.
"There has been a fairly aggregious widespread drop in lending standards, and a significant increase in lending to less credit worthy borrowers," said Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets.
Auto finance companies, typically affiliated with car manufacturers, fall under the jurisdiction of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But regulation of these firms is in its infancy.
Earlier this year, the CFBP said it will put out a rule that would identify a market for auto lending and define "large participants" of the market that would be subject to its supervision.
The New York Fed study found that auto loan balances have increased for 13 straight quarters. New auto loans grew to their highest level in eight years in the second quarter. the study found.
-- Greg Robb
Follow Greg on Twitter @grobb2000
Follow Capitol Report @capitolreport
More must reads on MarketWatch:
Jobless claims at six-week high
America's top prep schools can cost $1 million per family


text:
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Our herd.
Billy The Goat died on Father's Day, we are so sad, and we buried him in the hope of planting a big old fruit tree atop of him. We had fun as a family getting the herd round up and into a pen so we could inoculate and drench them. Man, the boy kids are the biggest sooks. Every time we grabbed hold of a little kid, and it screamed loudly, we all laughed shouting, "It has GOT to be a boy". Please feel free to look at the slide show of our herd. I promise you will smile :)
2 comments:
- Betty said...
I don't know why, but when you first said you had goats, I pictured a couple of them in a pen. But, this! This is a herd! Maybe I'd better read more closely from now on. lol
- Cazzie!!! said...
lol Betty, it WAS just a FEW goats, and now, it is a whole herd of more than 50!
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
Lancaster County residents who fish, canoe, birdwatch or otherwise enjoy the Catawba River probably already find the waterway scenic.
County Council recently voted to begin the process of making that scenic designation official. The resolution council approved allows the Catawba Regional Council of Governments to apply to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to become a S.C. Scenic River. The application will be made on behalf of Chester, York and Lancaster counties.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Lancaster News, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


text:
SEARCH KEYS: Bible, Dictionary, English, Fairy Tales, German, History, Italian, Letters, Mark Twain, PHP, Philosophy, Plato, Plays, Poetry, Python, Shakespeare, Spanish, Stories, Upton Sinclair
Search results for: 'Fritz Reuter Leiber'
Updated 06-26-2019
Copyright 2017 CheapBooks®. CheapBooks® is a U.S. Registered trademark. All Rights Reserved.
"It's a textbook case of saving cash!" - 3824 Cedar Springs Rd #801-4427, Dallas, TX 75219


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
Chestnut Creek School of the Arts celebrated its fourth annual fundraising Gala on April 13, with the theme "Hand-Crafted in Galax: A New Woodworking Studio for CCSA."
Guests were treated to music, hors d'oeuvres, wine sampling and a silent auction. Local artisans contributed unique works to be sold at the auction, such as paintings, sculptures, fabrics and woodwork.
That night, CCSA's gala helped to raise more than $9,000 through ticket sales, pre-gala donations and the silent auction for the school's new woodworking studio.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Gazette, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


text:
Potty Training Tips From Moms
7 Potty-Training Tips From Real Moms
Are you longing to say goodbye to diapers but not sure when to start potty-training or how to go about it smoothly? Here to the rescue are the top potty-training tips from readers.
1. Be Patient
The top potty-training advice from many moms is to start only after your child signals her readiness. Usually children begin showing interest between the ages of 2 and 3. Keep an eye out for common clues, such as your child asking questions about the bathroom and toilet, staying dry for longer periods of time (indicating stronger bladder control), wanting to wear "big kid" underwear, or telling you when she's soiled a diaper. These signs of readiness may intensify gradually or, as Wisconsin mom Tracy M. found, appear quite suddenly: "One day she walked up to me, about three months before she turned three, and said, 'Mommy, I want to wear undies.' And since that day she has."
2. Make the Potty Fun
Several readers suggest making a potty chair or toilet seem interesting and nonthreatening. "We bought the potty chair and put it in the living room so he could play with it and sit on it for fun," shared Amy B. Others encouraged making "potty time" fun with special books or toys.
3. Skip Pants
Many moms find bare-bottom playtime can aid in potty-training. Amanda B., a mother of two children, shares: "I have just left her pull-ups off from the time she gets up in the morning." Of course, with this pants-free tactic, accidents are inevitable. To minimize messes, Lucy S. kept her 3-year-old in specific parts of the house while he was potty-training: "I blocked off rooms of the house where it wouldn't be okay to 'have an accident,' and just let him feel when he needed to go and run to the potty . . . after two days of wearing nothing and going when he needed to, he got it."
4. Offer Praise and Prizes
"Praise and prizes go a long way!" asserts Monica B., a mother of four in Wisconsin. "If they do anything, make the BIGGEST fuss you have ever made in your life. Cheer, clap, dance around . . . Make the child feel they have done something wonderful and they'll want to do it again and again." In addition to verbal praise, many readers have successfully used tangible potty-training reward systems involving candy, toys, and sticker charts. Renee H., a mother of two, remembers: "Each time he used the potty we made a huge deal about it and gave him a treat — M&Ms and Smarties worked the best. At first I gave him like six of one or the other; then as time progressed the treats got less and less until he forgot about asking for them all together."
5. Ditch Diapers
"Once you take off those diapers and put on the underwear, never put on the diapers again," recommends Emily M., one of several moms who argue that using diapers or hefty pull-ups after beginning potty-training is confusing for a child. Cecilia B., a mother of three children, also opted for training underwear, believing that training underwear is less comfortable after an accident than pull-ups or diapers and therefore more likely to encourage a child to use the toilet. Other potty-training moms follow a no-diaper policy during the day only, since nighttime potty-training often takes longer to achieve.
6. Ready, Aim . . .
The standing element presents additional challenges for potty-training boys. One trick many moms shared is to toss circle-shaped cereal (like Cheerios) into the toilet and have your son take aim. Brandie H., a mother of two boys, explains: "Get him a stool so he can stand up to pee in the big toilet. Throw a few fruit loops in the toilet. Have dad or an older brother show him how to pee in the toilet to make those fruit loops move around! You'd be surprised how fun that can be for a 3-year-old."
7. S#*! Happens
Just when you think you're done with diapers, your child may regress or have frustratingly inconvenient accidents. Christina H. remembers: "He was fully trained except for at night and then he went back to pooping in his pants. I wanted to scream." The truth is, accidents are a normal and common part of potty-training. "Have patience and expect setbacks," recommends Kelly S. And take comfort in the fact that the potty-training stage is just that: a stage.


text:
In Uptown Normal, Illinois, Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects completed work on The Circle, a multi-functional, sustainable roundabout that cleanses and re-circulates stormwater into a public fountain, improves traffic circulation at a busy five-street intersection, and provides community green space. The site's stormwater management system features innovative elements like filtration bogs, ultra violet sanitizers, and a "structural cell system." The Circle plaza sits adjacent to the town's planned multi-modal transportation center, which will connect residents to bus, train, or bike routes. The plaza and center received a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER grant.
Peter Schaudt, partner of Hoerr Schaudt, said: "The heart of Normal's new downtown is a model of environmental awareness that addresses two key challenges in American urbanism today: responsible use of water and a reduced dependence on automobiles. We will see the need for spaces that combine creative infrastructure with public space increase dramatically in the next decade."
The new roundabout features a stormwater management system that uses bog plants and ultra violet sanitizers to cleanse and recycle water. Hoerr Schaudt explains the process:
- "Water goes through a filter that traps excess debris.
- The water is filtered, then travels through an ultra violet sanitizer.
- Ultra violet light energy helps destroy micro organisms without using harmful chemicals that create a "dead zone" which can be toxic to humans and animals.
- The water is pumped up through the "bog" plants that will also help to clean the water by filtering excess sediments and absorb remaining toxins in the water.
- Like ancient Roman aquaducts, the water then uses gravity to move through four bog pools where it eventually terminates into the fountain turbulance pool, creating a water feature for the community to enjoy."
While the water isn't drinkable, park visitors can dip their feet in the fountain.
Excess runoff not captured by this sytem is funneled to a 76,000 gallon underground cistern, created from abandoned underground storm sewer infrastructure. Water in the cistern will be used to irrigate the surrounding street trees.
The new roundabout should reduce traffic accidents. According to Federal Highway Administration (FHA), installing roundabouts results in: 90 percent reduction in fatalities; 76 percent reduction in injury accidents; 75 percent fewer pedestrian and vehicular conflict points; and reduction in overall pedestrian injury. Hoerr Schmidt says roundabouts also help reduce idling, which in turn helps lower local air pollution.
The new green space offered in the middle of the roundabout also adds valuable community space. The center lawn is somewhat insulated from car noise. "The natural sounds of the flowing water help to mitigate the sounds of ongoing traffic."
See more images. Also, check out a review from The Architect's Newspaper.
Image credits: Hoerr Schaudt


text:
Please note: You are viewing an archived Bucknell University news story. It is possible that information found on this page has become outdated or inaccurate, and links and images contained within are not guaranteed to function correctly.
LEWISBURG, Pa. — Vocal trio Black Sea Hotel will perform in concert Thursday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Samek Art Gallery of the Elaine Langone Center at Bucknell University.
The concert, which is free and open to the public, is part of the continuing Gallery Series at Bucknell. The Gallery Series, a public program of experimental and world music, was founded by William Duckworth, professor emeritus of music, as part of his commitment to fostering new audiences for contemporary music.
The New York-based a cappella trio recreates traditional Balkan music, finding new ways to use melody, harmony and rhythm to tell ancient stories. Their voices create a harmonic bland that has been called haunting and otherworldly.
Black Sea Hotel has performed at venues as diverse as concert halls, universities, downtown clubs, folk festivals and the Bulgarian embassy. They have collaborated with such musical luminaries as Kremena Stancheva of Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, beatboxer Adam Matta of Carolina Chocolate Drops fame, Ansambl Mastika, and Raya Brass Band.
The group was the Editor's Pick and Featured Artist on CD Baby, number 2 on iTunes World Music Top Albums, and number 18 on Lucid Culture's top 50 best albums of 2009. In addition to PRI's The World Global Hit segment, Black Sea Hotel has appeared on WFMU, WNYC, and Sirius XM Radio Live on Fine Tuning.
Other events in Bucknell's Gallery Series this semester include an evening of new works by Bucknell composer Paul Botelho on Friday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Rooke Recital Hall.
Contact: Division of Communications


text:
Go for a dive with these luxurious combed cotton active fit socks with mesh vents and a reinforced heel and toe. And to cradle the contours of your feet, the sock sports a Y Gore Seam, deep heel pocket, and an elastic arch band.
1909 N. 45th Street Seattle, WA 98103 206.724.0123
Mon-Fri 11am–7pm
Sat 11am–8pm
Sun 12–6pm


text:
Assemblyman Marc Levine, in his first piece of legislation, is calling for banning plastic grocery bags throughout California, starting in 2015.
Levine, D-San Rafael, introduced Assembly Bill 158 on Tuesday, reviving a similar bill that got stuck in a Senate committee last year after it faced criticism from plastic bag manufacturers and grocers.
"A similar bill was held up in the Senate, but that's not a reason to advance good public policy," Levine said. "This is about advancing good environmental policy and best business practices."
Levine said plastic bags have a drastic impact on the environment, killing hundreds of thousands of marine fish and mammals each year. He said banning them could reduce beach debris by about 10 percent.
Under the bill, grocery stores with more than $2 million in annual sales or retailers with more than 10,000-square-feet of floor space would have to stop offering plastic bags.
These stores would be required to provide free recycled paper bags for their customers through July 30, 2016. After that, Levine said stores could charge a fee for recycled paper bags.
As part of the bill, stores would also be required to sell reusable grocery bags.
It's no surprise Levine is advancing the legislation, coming from a county where a plastic bag ban has been in place in unincorporated areas since Jan. 1, 2012. Under Marin County's ban, grocers can charge at least 5 cents for a recycled paper bag.
In addition, Fairfax has banned plastic bags since its residents in 2008 approved the idea with 79 percent majority vote.
Levine said he's ready to take on critics and fight for the environment.
Levine said the plastic bag ban won't apply to small bags in the produce area used for fruits and vegetables.
AB 158 is being coauthored by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, and Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach. Levine said other legislators have also expressed interest in supporting the bill.
State legislation to ban plastic bags has been debated for several years. In 2010, a bill backed by both grocers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't make it out of the state Legislature due to heavy opposition from the plastics industry.
Last May, Hawaii made headlines when it became the first state to ban plastic bags. San Francisco was the first city in the nation to ban them in 2007.
The last attempt to impose a statewide ban was put forth by termed-out Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, in 2011. Her bill reached the Senate Appropriations Committee after a committee staff analysis indicated the ban would cost $200,000 to implement.
Levine said there are multiple cities and counties throughout the state enacting plastic bag bans, each with different rules and regulations. An uniformed state law would streamline plastic bag reduction efforts.
"We're trying to make it easier for people, because those laws would apply the same way," Levine said.
Levine said he's ready to take on critics and fight for the environment.
"If oil and plastic companies want to put up a fight, we're on the right side of the argument," Levine said.
Contact Megan Hansen via email at email@example.com or via Twitter at http://twitter.com/hansenmegan


text:
Ultra Street Fighter 4 Release Dated Hinted
Hints for the release date for Ultra Street Fighter 4 have been dropped, pointing to a release sometime between spring and summer. Of course, it'll hit the arcades first before popping up on home consoles.
This post on the Capcom-Unity blog revealed that Ultra Street Fighter 4 will hit Japanese arcades in April 2014. The digital download versions of the game will hit North American and European consoles sometime after that, before EVO 2014, which takes place from July 11, 2014 to July 13, 2014.
The game's release might seem a little far off, but it's probably owing to the need to fine-tune the development of the new characters and the new fighting systems. We'll let you know when a hard release date has been announced, but until then, expect Ultra Street Fighter 4 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 any time between spring and summer.