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You'd never know it from the picture but this is very close to the car park. One of my favourite ambles back to the car.
Image | This entry was posted in Photo Album, Stumbling through the forest. Bookmark the permalink.


Gase was sacked at the end of the season by the Miami Dolphins after three seasons.
Adam Gase looks on during a game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in September.
Dowell Loggains is expected to be named as an offensive assistant with the Jets, sources told ESPN's Jeff Darlington.
Prior to his time as head coach in Miami, Gase was an offensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos. The team has a young, promising quarterback in Sam Darnold, almost $100 million available to spend in free agency and the third overall pick in April's draft.
McCarthy was sacked as the Packers' head coach mid-way through the 2018 season.
Mike McCarthy and Matt Rhule were also candidates.
The Jets fired Todd Bowles on December 30 after going 24-40 in four campaigns at the helm.
McCarthy, who took over the Packers in 2006, was sacked by the team in early December after it got off to a 4-7-1 start. And if this report is anything to go by, it appears McCarthy views the Jets as that ideal fit for his services.
There are only three head coaching vacancies remaining in the National Football League, with one of them being the New York Jets.
Some analysts say China could use its cooperation on the North Korean issue as a bargaining chip in the USA trade talks . Kim added that the ongoing US-China trade talks seem to be Trump's priority more than any other issue at the moment.
He was then traded to the Golden State Warriors , where he played for two seasons and won a couple of championships. Of course, how McCaw became an unrestricted free agent is one of the stranger stories in recent memory.
But he added that the two of them had both signed long-term exclusive deals with the promotion. But just what does the new deal entail? "You don't want to get in a carbon copy of contracts".
Fox News averaged 8 million total viewers and 1.9 million in the 25-54 age demographic from 9-9:30 p.m. That prompted a bitter exchange between the two. "He played them, and they let them do it".
Fast radio bursts have been speculated to be the result of everything from exploding stars to transmissions from aliens. The first FRB was recorded in 2001 and identified in 2007, while the first repeating FRB was detected in 2012.


text:
IG Group Releases 2015 Annual Report, Growth Strong Despite Black Thursday
Despite an 8% YoY increase in underlying revenue, profits remained flat as the company invested to develop and grow its
Andy Traveller | Brokers ( Retail FX ) | Tuesday, 15/09/2015 | 09:23 GMT+1 2015-09-15 08:23:33
Leading online broker, IG Group Holdings plc (LON: IGG), has released its Annual Report for the 2015 financial year, which saw continued growth in underlying net revenue as well as an expanded product and geographical footprint of the company. However, profits remain flat as a result of the company's expansion activities, not to mention the heavy hit that it took on Black Thursday at the beginning of the year.
Source: IG Group
In line with its preliminary results, which IG Group released in July, revenue continued to grow on an annual basis, with net trading revenue ahead by 4.9% at £388.4 million, compared to £370.4 million in 2014. To be clear, the company highlighted the fact that the figure represents statutory trading revenue after the impact of the extreme fluctuation in the Swiss franc in January. Excluding this incident, on an underlying basis, revenue was even brighter, increasing by 8.0% YoY to £400.2 million.
Indeed, the company emphasised the extent of the impact of the Swiss National Bank's unprecedented decision to unpeg the franc from the euro on 15 January, which saw the franc appreciate by 30% in a matter of minutes. This led to a resultant negative impact of £27 million for the broker.
Breaking down revenue by geography, IG Group pointed out that it achieved double-digit underlying revenue growth in the UK, Australia and Rest of World, which together comprise 80% of its revenues. This growth was driven by the combination of higher active client numbers and higher average revenue per client in the UK and Australia, and strong client growth in Rest of World. However, this was partially offset by a 1.5% fall in European revenue.
Looking at the bottom line, profits remained flat due to increasing operating costs as the company sought to develop and grow its business. Indeed, underlying profit before tax was down slightly (0.9%) on the prior year at £193.2 million, while underlying administrative expenses increased by £27.3 million.
In the Annual Report, the broker alludes to significant investment in its expansion activities and technology. As already highlighted in previous quarterly announcements, the firm's new execution-only stockbroking offering has gone live in the UK, Ireland the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
Moreover, IG Group made forays into new geographies, opening new offices in Switzerland and Dubai. Commenting on the expansion, retiring CEO, Tim Howkins, said: "The challenges in obtaining the types of licence which we have been granted in both Switzerland and Dubai are considerable. I am delighted that we have been able to obtain these licences. This is testament to our ongoing investment in people, systems and processes to ensure that we remain fully compliant with the ever increasing regulatory burdens."
In an interesting post-script, the company also mentioned that it has obtained a license from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to open a representative office in Shanghai, which happened subsequent to the year-end. The license allows the broker to establish a small office but does not give it any right or ability to transact business in China.
Source; IG Group
Underlying diluted earnings per share was up by 2.1% to 41.07 pence, benefiting from a fall in the Group's effective tax rate. On a statutory basis, profit before tax was down by 13% and earnings per share was down by 10.5% at 35.99 pence (2014: 40.22 pence).
Commenting on the overall performance, Mr Howkins said: "2015 was another year of solid underlying financial performance. We took an important strategic step with the launch of execution-only stockbroking, based upon our leading-edge technology, and also increased our global reach with offices in Switzerland and Dubai.'
Tags: Annual Report / financial-results / IG Group / IG Group Holdings plc (LON: IGG)
Trading 212 Bucks the Trend, Reports Rising Profits in 2018
Breaking: GAIN Capital Up 23% on Unconfirmed Acquisition Rumor
Monex Boom Securities Launches Global Futures Trading

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Adding color to the ocean in R I am mapping using the "oce" package in R and want to add color to the ocean. I can manipulate the land color but not the ocean, and the mapping function omits "bg" to add background color. Here is my current code and parameters:
library(oce)
library(ocedata)
data("coastlineWorldFine")
par(mar=c(2, 2, 1, 1))
lonlim <- c(-79, -76)
latlim <- c(33, 35)
mapPlot(coastlineWorldFine,
        projection="+proj=moll",
        col = "lightgray",
        longitudelim=lonlim,
        latitudelim=latlim,
        grid = FALSE,
        bg = "lightblue")

Any suggestions on how to change the color of the ocean from white to a light blue?
Thanks!

A: Bit of a hack, but you can plot a rectangle the same size as the plotting area, then use par(new = TRUE) to plot mapPlot on top:
par(mar=c(2, 2, 1, 1))
plot(0, 0, type="n", ann=FALSE, axes=FALSE)
user <- par("usr")
rect(user[1], user[3], user[2], user[4],
     col="lightblue", border=NA)
par(new = TRUE)
lonlim <- c(-79, -76)
latlim <- c(33, 35)
mapPlot(coastlineWorldFine,
         projection="+proj=moll",
         col = "lightgray",
         longitudelim=lonlim,
         latitudelim=latlim,
         grid = FALSE)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Do you know what charter template is? Do you need some samples to help / guide you to have a deal with it? Dmngroup can help you with that. We have more than one hundred charter template samples in here. Just browse our site, and you will know how to make a powerful charter template for your projects. No need registration or credit.


text:
Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK
Trusted Zimbabwean News Worldwide
LATEST: President Emmerson Mnangagwa to fly out
President Mnangagwa will tomorrow join fellow Sadc leaders for the 39th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government scheduled to take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this weekend. The President is also expected to assume the chairmanship of the O…
President Mnangagwa will tomorrow join fellow Sadc leaders for the 39th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government scheduled to take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this weekend. The President is also expected to assume the chairmanship of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security. In a statement yesterday, Foreign Affairs and International […]
Author adminPosted on August 16, 2019 Categories Uncategorized
CSOs scrutnise Marriages Bill
Source: CSOs scrutnise Marriages Bill | Newsday (News) A GROUP of civil society organisations (CSOs) are working with grassroots communities to ensure that the Marriages Bill contains sections that promote women and discourage early child marriages. BY OBEY MANAYITI The organisations, which include Plan International, Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) and the Zimbabwe […]
The post CSOs scrutnise Marriages Bill appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.
Source: CSOs scrutnise Marriages Bill | Newsday (News)
A GROUP of civil society organisations (CSOs) are working with grassroots communities to ensure that the Marriages Bill contains sections that promote women and discourage early child marriages.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
The organisations, which include Plan International, Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) and the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association yesterday met various groups of people from Harare, Bulawayo, Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East for the training of trainers on the Bill, which is set for public hearings soon.
In various interviews during the training workshop attended by traditional leaders and various other participants, attendees said they realised the importance of the Bill in dealing with negative patriarchal inclinations, hence they were adequately preparing for the hearings.
"The people that are gathered here work with various community-based organisations across five districts of Zimbabwe," Michelle Bonzo Brings, a lawyer with WLSA, said.
"They work mostly around issues to do with children and some of them also work with women. The importance of this training is so that they can go back to their communities and unpack the Bill in a simplified manner so that citizens are able to contribute meaningfully on consultations that are going to take place.
"We are looking at the ban of child marriages and perhaps the gaps that need to be addressed in effectively banning child marriages and make sure that our traditional leaders, who will be marriage officers, can satisfy themselves that they are not pledging children into marriages."
Bonzo-Brings said they were also focusing on issues regarding rights for women in marriages and with particular reference to property rights.
"This is not covered in the Bill, but it is a gap which needs to be addressed. We are also trying to see how the Bill can protect women who are neither in a civil marriage nor customary marriage for various reasons, among them disabilities or financial issues among couples, but without interfering with the sanctity of marriage."
Blessing Mushohwe, a child rights and protection adviser with Plan International, said the objectives of training CBOs is to prepare communities to fully utilise the opportunity presented by the marriage Bill to fight certain vices.
"We unpack the marriage for community members and when Parliament goes there, they will participate meaningfully," he said.
"Our focus is on child marriages and we are hoping that this Marriages Bill is going to protect children's rights. We are looking at having a concrete law that criminalises child marriages."
The post CSOs scrutnise Marriages Bill appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.
Seed Co anticipates firm demand across region
Source: Seed Co anticipates firm demand across region | Herald (Business) Seed Co group chief executive officer Morgan Nzwere (right) speaks while flanked by (from right to left), group chairman David Long, non executive director Davidzo Chitengu and head of legal and corporate affairs and group company secretary, Terrence Chimanya, during the company's Annual General […]
The post Seed Co anticipates firm demand across region appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.
Source: Seed Co anticipates firm demand across region | Herald (Business)
Seed Co group chief executive officer Morgan Nzwere (right) speaks while flanked by (from right to left), group chairman David Long, non executive director Davidzo Chitengu and head of legal and corporate affairs and group company secretary, Terrence Chimanya, during the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Harare yesterday. — (Picture by Edward Zvemisha)
Enacy Mapakame
Regional seed manufacturer, Seed Co Limited's expansion initiatives in Africa are expected to bear fruit this 2019/20 farming season on the back of increased varieties and capacity, good weather and a generally firm demand across the region.
This comes as Seed Co is consolidating its market dominance across the continent for grain and vegetable seeds.
In Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique and Ghana as well as parts of East and West Africa, the group anticipates increased sales as some countries are recovering from drought experienced in the prior year, while others have increased production after suffering product shortages.
The group is also anticipating to cash in on increasing Government support programmes across the region as well as an anticipated good rainfall.
Bad weather conditions have had a knock-on effect on agriculture-related companies while inflationary pressures have also narrowed disposable incomes. However, governments from across the region have several input programmes for their countries and the seed-making firm is angling itself to capitalise on such.
In Zimbabwe, Government is targeting 210 000 hectares of maize for the 2019/20 farming season as well as 30 000 hectares of soya bean under the Presidential Input Programme.
Government is also looking at an additional 640 000 hectares of maize and small grains under support for the vulnerable groups.
Group chief executive officer Morgan Nzwere said they were anticipating to benefit from such programmes as well as firming demand across the region.
"What we will get from Government programmes is debatable, but we will try and get a significant share of that. There is also a drive to cut on imports and this should see an increase in planting," Mr Nzwere told shareholders at the group's annual general meeting in Harare yesterday.
"The Government input programme in Zambia is continuing with input distribution starting on September 1, and we expect to get a decent share of the business," he said.
In Malawi, its subsidy programme is continuing although government has decided to cut the targeted beneficiaries to 900 000 families from one million in the prior season.
Mr Nzwere acknowledged that the operating environment was increasingly becoming unpredictable, especially in Zimbabwe due to inflationary pressures. However, the company has in place strategies to stay relevant both as a business and to its market.
"In Zimbabwe, whilst as a business we are doing everything within our control to prepare for the main selling season, the operating environment is increasingly becoming unpredictable," he said.
Apart from Government, prospects are generally good for the seed producer on the back of favourable weather conditions across the region as well as increased production capacity in some regional markets.
Said Mr Nzwere: "From the regional operations, we anticipate rebound performance with adequate product and better rainfall forecasts, unlike last year when our markets were badly affected by drought. We expect continued market share growth in East Africa."
Kenya is expected to recover this season after it suffered product shortages as well as depressed demand last year due to drought and other supply chain-related constraints. Seed Co has since increased production capacity in Kenya, and has adequate stocks to meet local demand during the season.
In Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Kenya, vegetable seed business units are expected to start contributing to the bottom line following their full roll-out last financial year.
The group is also upbeat about Mozambique, Angola and the Tanzania where the seed producer has increased production to meet demand after suffering product shortages.
Other market areas are also being explored within the different countries as the firm consolidates its market share.
Business development work is continuing in Franco-phone Africa with demonstration plots of several varieties established this year in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville.
More Details: Police block Nelson Chamisa's MDC #People'sMarch (WATCH VIDEO)
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has issued a prohibition order against demonstrations planned by MDC-Alliance today, saying anyone taking part in such action will face the full wrath of the law. A prohibition notice compels one to stop an activity i…
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has issued a prohibition order against demonstrations planned by MDC-Alliance today, saying anyone taking part in such action will face the full wrath of the law. A prohibition notice compels one to stop an activity immediately. In a statement last night, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said peace-loving […]
LIVE : HARARE THIS MORNING
https://t.co/WezFmqjg0c
— DailyNews (@DailyNewsZim) August 16, 2019
https://t.co/WezFmqjg0c — DailyNews (@DailyNewsZim) August 16, 2019
Author adminPosted on August 16, 2019 August 16, 2019 Categories Uncategorized
LATEST: Poisoned Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's TRUE state of health REVEALED
Vice President, Rtd General Constantino Chiwenga, has reportedly started to fully recover from his health woes at a top notch Beijing military hospital and is bouncing back, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has been told. A senior aide in the VP's office who …
Vice President, Rtd General Constantino Chiwenga, has reportedly started to fully recover from his health woes at a top notch Beijing military hospital and is bouncing back, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has been told. A senior aide in the VP's office who was recently with him here in Pretoria, before his transfer, has for the first time […]
More Details: Chief Ndiweni in hot soup for destroying property, remanded in custody at Khami Prison
CHIEF Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni together with 23 of his subjects were yesterday convicted on charges of destroying a villager's property in Ntabazinduna and will be sentenced today. Ndiweni (54) and 23 other villagers pleaded not guilty to d…
CHIEF Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni together with 23 of his subjects were yesterday convicted on charges of destroying a villager's property in Ntabazinduna and will be sentenced today. Ndiweni (54) and 23 other villagers pleaded not guilty to damaging Mr Fetti Mbele's property but they were convicted by Bulawayo magistrate, Ms Gladmore Mushove. They were remanded […]
High drama as man enjoys sex with Form 4 girl in moving kombi full of passengers, impregnates her
A 22-YEAR-OLD man from Victoria Falls has been arrested for having sexual intercourse with a minor girl in a moving commuter omnibus full of passengers. The Form Four girl, now 16, is seven months pregnant following the consensual sexual encounter that…
A 22-YEAR-OLD man from Victoria Falls has been arrested for having sexual intercourse with a minor girl in a moving commuter omnibus full of passengers. The Form Four girl, now 16, is seven months pregnant following the consensual sexual encounter that took place on December 24 last year in a kombi that was heading to […]
Botswana Battles Influx of Zimbabwean Illegal Immigrants
Source: Botswana Battles Influx of Zimbabwean Illegal Immigrants | Voice of America – English FILE – Residents collect water at night from an electric-powered well, as the country faces 18-hour daily power cuts, in a suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe, July 30, 2019. GABORONE, BOTSWANA – Botswana is battling an influx of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, […]
The post Botswana Battles Influx of Zimbabwean Illegal Immigrants appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.
Source: Botswana Battles Influx of Zimbabwean Illegal Immigrants | Voice of America – English
FILE – Residents collect water at night from an electric-powered well, as the country faces 18-hour daily power cuts, in a suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe, July 30, 2019.
GABORONE, BOTSWANA – Botswana is battling an influx of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, as the Zimbabwean government struggles to overcome a deep economic crisis. But authorities in Botswana appear to be losing the battle, as those who are deported are soon back in the country.
Prosper Kandanhamo and Thomas Gundani left Zimbabwe and entered Botswana illegally because of the moribund economy in their homeland.
"I came to Botswana because back home in Zimbabwe, there are no job opportunities," Kandanhamo said.
The two are among the many illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe who line the streets of Gaborone looking for odd jobs.
Not so welcome
But they are an unwelcome sight for authorities and subject to frequent police raids.
The number of Zimbabweans arrested and deported in Botswana rose from 22,000 in 2015 to nearly 29,000 in 2018.
Kandanhamo, an accountant, says they are often caught.
"It's better to be caught by the police," he said. "At the (police) cells, they will give you food and transport to the border. They deport you, and you find your way back (rather) than to go back to Zimbabwe."
Gundani, a painter, says they would rather risk arrest than return to face hardship in Zimbabwe.
"We just have to come back," he said. "The situation here is difficult for us, but compared to Zimbabwe, it's worse."
Botswanan citizens like Moemedi Mokgachane say illegal immigrants contribute to rising crime and are demanding a solution.
"We take them back today, tomorrow they are here, because there is nothing to hide. There is nothing that can put them to stay where you are taking them. They will come back because they know there is a fruit here," Mokgachane said.
Solution lies in Zimbabwe
Illegal immigration will persist as long as Zimbabwe's economic crisis is not addressed, says Gaborone-based analyst Lawrence Ookeditse.
"For so long as economic and other opportunities are not quite there, people are going to move, and you can't stop them from moving," he said. "It is not nice going through a border hunted with guns and all those things. When you see people doing it, it means the cost of doing it is higher than the cost of staying."
Botswana spends about $100,000 a year deporting Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
Farming mainstay of rural economy: Nzenza
Source: Farming mainstay of rural economy: Nzenza | The Herald Minister Sekai Nzenza Runesu Gwidi Masvingo Correspondent Farming is the mainstay of Zimbabwe's rural communities and prevents them from being heavily dependent on Government-sponsored food handouts, a Cabinet minister has said. Speaking during the recent tour of Chebvute conservation and irrigation projects here, Public Service, […]
The post Farming mainstay of rural economy: Nzenza appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.
Source: Farming mainstay of rural economy: Nzenza | The Herald
Minister Sekai Nzenza
Runesu Gwidi Masvingo Correspondent
Farming is the mainstay of Zimbabwe's rural communities and prevents them from being heavily dependent on Government-sponsored food handouts, a Cabinet minister has said.
Speaking during the recent tour of Chebvute conservation and irrigation projects here, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Sekai Nzenza implored villagers to take farming seriously.
She said no one would die of hunger should other rural communities take a leaf from what is happening at Chebvute.
"The entire country should emulate Chebvute villagers who have valued farming as the backbone of rural economy.
"They are hard workers. Government and its funding partners can only chip in to support existing projects," said Minister Nzenza.
She said it was important to remember that failure of the country's agricultural sector had ripple effects on the entire economy.
"Take note that although Zimbabwe has other economic sectors, it largely depends on farming, hence poor performance by the agricultural sector will inevitably affect other sectors."
Minister Nzenza said sustainable agro-based projects were key to ongoing efforts to unlock the country's economic opportunities.
"Government-sponsored food aid will only be done in very few drought-stricken rural communities if the nation seriously embraces farming projects in line with the ease of doing business mantra championed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa," she said.
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Kristi over at La Bella Figura posted about her new Merona Tote from Target. Her selection is a bold black and white print. Even though I do love the graphic quality of black and white, I saw the varieties using a quatrefoil print when checking them out in store. I adore quatrefoils. You find them in lots of places …like Italian architecture and in the Moorish decoration at the Alhambra. An accessory featuring the quatrefoil design is so me. I own many earrings and other pieces of jewelry with this particular shape. I suppose I like it because it's simple and bold yet unique, and of course reminds me a bit of Italy. One pair of earrings is a large silver quatrefoil with a latticework of quatrefoils inside. It feels like I'm wearing a teeny piece of architecture. Anyway, I chose this chocolate brown tote with a grid of tan quatrefoil outlines. Every so often one is yellow. Chocolate brown is a good neutral color. I think this can be an everyday tote for the fall. I've already started to carry it because I'm so ready to wear jeans and jackets. ...and not to be so uncomfortable in my car; my A/C just went up! Did I mention that this perfect fall tote is just $12.99?!
This season's bag has improved. Instead of a couple of handles total, this one has two leather handles on each side, which are linked to the bag through a couple grommets. One side features two open exterior pockets.
Isn't it beautiful? I love the design. This is my second bag from a particular company. I wish I could show the monogram on the other side, but, alas, I'd prefer to remain more anonymous online. It turned out better than I expected! The font resembles the cutout design. It's small and fits inside of one of the outlines. And I chose my favorite color, a dark pink, the color of the dark pink azaelas that are always in bloom on my birthday. ...which is perfect because of the flowery silhouette. This bag is constructed very well too. The fabric seems nice and thick. The top closes with velcro and there are a few open pockets on one side of the interior and another with zipper closure on the other. It's a great size for going somewhere overnight.
I just so happen to sell luggage for a living and love all kinds of bags!


text:
Q: Create Android APK I just created a nice little memory game with HTML and Javascript in Phpstorm.
But I would like it to get my game as a APK so I can submit it to Google Play. And I aslo don't know anything about APK's
Could some tell me how I can do this?
Thanks!

A: Yes, you can create the APK for your little game.
Firstly you should have some basic knowledge of Android. Load your URL inside a webview(take care of loading the page and stuff like that) and create the APK.
Now, you are readywith your app to be loaded into the Play Store.


Available in red, orange and yellow, these Flower Prints Foot Bed Flats add just the right amount of flair to a solid color design. The flower print runs along the top edge, interior and toe edge of the shoe. A color matching bow is attached just behind the toe-peek for added style.


Source: Wagner, Henry R. (editor and translator). "Journal of Tom�s de Sur�a of His Voyage with Malaspina to the Northwest Coast of America in 1791." The Pacific Historical Review. (Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1936). Volume 5, pages 234-276.


text:
package snappystream

import (
	"hash/crc32"

	"code.google.com/p/snappy-go/snappy"
)

// Ext is the file extension for files whose content is a snappy framed stream.
const Ext = ".sz"

// MediaType is the MIME type used to represent snappy framed content.
const MediaType = "application/x-snappy-framed"

// ContentEncoding is the appropriate HTTP Content-Encoding header value for
// requests containing a snappy framed entity body.
const ContentEncoding = "x-snappy-framed"

// MaxBlockSize is the maximum number of decoded bytes allowed to be
// represented in a snappy framed block (sections 4.2 and 4.3).
const MaxBlockSize = 65536

// maxEncodedBlockSize is the maximum number of encoded bytes in a framed
// block.
var maxEncodedBlockSize = uint32(snappy.MaxEncodedLen(MaxBlockSize))

const VerifyChecksum = true
const SkipVerifyChecksum = false

// Block types defined by the snappy framed format specification.
const (
	blockCompressed       = 0x00
	blockUncompressed     = 0x01
	blockPadding          = 0xfe
	blockStreamIdentifier = 0xff
)

// streamID is the stream identifier block that begins a valid snappy framed
// stream.
var streamID = []byte{0xff, 0x06, 0x00, 0x00, 0x73, 0x4e, 0x61, 0x50, 0x70, 0x59}

// maskChecksum implements the checksum masking algorithm described by the spec.
func maskChecksum(c uint32) uint32 {
	return ((c >> 15) | (c << 17)) + 0xa282ead8
}

var crcTable *crc32.Table

func init() {
	crcTable = crc32.MakeTable(crc32.Castagnoli)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
`Waltz' bittersweet for many, but not Robbie Robertson
Greg Kot, Tribune rock criticCHICAGO TRIBUNE
Punk was looming as the new sound, and memories of the Woodstock-era rock aristocracy were fading. On Thanksgiving Day in 1976, "The Last Waltz" was to be the last hurrah of the old guard -- the final concert by one of the most revered rock ensembles of its time, The Band.
Now, 25 years after that performance in San Francisco, Robbie Robertson speaks fondly of a band and an era that in his opinion still haven't been topped.
"To this day that film is unsurpassed, the talent on that stage is unsurpassed," he says in an interview at the South by Southwest Music Conference, where he has been busy crowing about what it all meant to industry tastemakers and fans.
"I don't want to be one of those people saying, `Remember when things were better?' But somebody, please, step up! Because nobody has."
The occasion for all the bravado is the theatrical re-release of "The Last Waltz," the Martin Scorsese-directed movie of The Band's farewell concert (it opens April 19 in Chicago); the first-time availability on May 7 of a DVD version featuring new interviews and additional footage, and the release on April 16 of a four-CD box set that augments the original 30-song soundtrack with 24 previously unreleased rehearsals and performances.
"The Last Waltz" was hailed as the greatest rock 'n' roll movie ever made, and its stature has only increased, providing a snapshot of legends and cult figures from the quarter-century when blues, country and pop merged into rock, as epitomized by The Band's rhythm-and-soul eclecticism. Here were Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood, Ronnie Hawkins and Paul Butterfield sharing a stage with The Band's Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko on a night that would be captured on film by Scorsese, one of America's greatest filmmakers.
But for a movie intended as a celebration, "The Last Waltz" now also can be seen as something of a wake: a monument to self-importance that virtually excludes the audience, a look backstage at the fissures and tensions that had begun to consume The Band, and a portrait of five men walking their separate ways after a divorce that only one of them (Robertson) had fully endorsed.
Little remains
The Band today is in tatters. Danko died in 1999 and Manuel hanged himself in 1986, victims of the road life Robertson had come to loathe. Helm has turned into Robertson's bitter enemy, in a dispute over songwriting credits. Robertson, meanwhile, has steadfastly refused to rejoin the remaining members of The Band for live performances, even at Dylan's 30th anniversary party in New York in 1993. In the movie, he claims to be sickened by the decadence of touring life after 16 years in a rock 'n' roll band, and the "Waltz" is his way of waving it goodbye. He hasn't looked back since.
"I understand why the Eagles get together and say, `I really don't like the rest of you guys, but the money is too good to pass up because next year nobody may be offering me that,' but this isn't about prostitution for me," Robertson says of his ongoing indifference to a Band reunion, even for a potential big-bucks tour with Dylan.
At 57, he is a dapper presence in a suit jacket; the face is puffier, but the jet-black hair and hooded eyes still smolder like they did in "The Last Waltz," the movie that opened the door to his career in Hollywood.
Never looked back
He is currently an executive at the entertainment giant DreamWorks and has scored numerous Hollywood movies, starred in one ("Carny"), and released four solo albums.
"I'm really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do," he says. "I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I'm not a slave to the dollar."
Helm claims the opposite in his 1993 autobiography, "This Wheel's On Fire," in which he claims that Robertson ripped off his bandmates by claiming the lion's share of songwriting credits in The Band (he could not be reached for an interview): "I even confronted Robbie over this issue during this era," Helm wrote. "... I cautioned that most so-called business moves had [destroyed] a lot of great bands and killed off whatever music was left in them. I told Robbie that The Band was supposed to be partners ... Well, it never quite worked out that way. We stayed in the divide and conquer mode."
Robertson claims not to have read Helm's book, but he nonetheless responds to his former bandmate's accusation with a mixture of empathy and indignation: "I know that Levon's had a tough time, he's had health problems, but it's not my fault and I wish him the best. To say that it was an issue [while they were together in The Band] is just nonsense, utter nonsense, after all these years. Who did the work? I tried, I begged Levon to write songs or help me write songs -- all the guys. I always encouraged everybody to write. You can't make somebody do what they don't want to do or can't do, and he's not a songwriter.
"With The Band he started to write one song, `Strawberry Wine,' the whole time and couldn't finish it, and I helped him finish it. And there were some other songs that I wrote and he was there when I was writing them, and just because he was being supportive, I gave him credit on a couple of songs. He didn't write one note, one word, nothing. What he's saying now is the result of somebody thinking about their financial problems. I wrote these songs and then 20 or 30 years later somebody comes back and says he wrote the songs? It never came up back then, and it's preposterous that it's coming up now."
The end was near
Viewers catch a whiff of the acrimony that began to tear The Band apart in its waning years during the interviews sprinkled throughout "The Last Waltz."
Robertson dominates the screen time; he stands at center stage through most of the songs, and offstage he is clearly the most eager to respond to Scorsese's questions. He isn't just a participant in the film, he is its catalyst; it was Robertson who enlisted Scorsese to make the film six weeks before the concert and later became the director's roommate in Hollywood while the movie was being readied for release in 1978. The rest of The Band were unenthusiastic participants at best. They slouch or mumble through the interviews, and Helm is sometimes downright hostile, his blue eyes like knives piercing the camera lens. He is even more unsparing in his autobiography:
"As far as I was concerned, the movie was a disaster. ... For two hours [at a screening] we watched as the camera focused almost exclusively on Robbie Robertson, long and loving close-ups of his heavily made-up face and expensive haircut. The film was edited so it looked like Robbie was conducting the band with expansive waves of his guitar neck. The muscles on his neck stood out like cords when he sang so powerfully into his switched-off microphone."
Helm claims that he and other band members never received a royalty from the movie. "Today people tell me all the time how much they loved `The Last Waltz,'" he writes. "I try to thank them politely and usually refrain from mentioning that for me it was a real scandal."
It's a shame, because Helm sings his heart out in the movie, particularly his moving performance of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." His yodeling and drum volleys on "Up on Cripple Creek" are spine-chilling in their intensity. The Band attacks its world-class batch of original songs with gusto, and affirms for the last time what made them great: Robertson's stiletto guitar incisions; Hudson's Mad Professor whirlwind of keyboards, pump organ and saxophone; Danko's dancing bass lines and high, lonesome vocals; Manuel's Ray Charles-like soul inflections; Helm's growling baritone and painterly drum grooves. Scorsese scripted the camera angles with Robertson as if directing an elaborate play (the DVD shows instructions such as "general amber lighting on band on downbeat" plotted for every turn in the music), and the stunning lighting effects and crispness of the stationary-camera 35-mm. images set a standard for rock movies that still stands (previously most concert films had been shot with shaky hand-held 16-mm. cameras).
Scorsese shines
Scorsese's editing ensures a galvanizing viewing experience that, by most accounts, surpasses the actual event, which was marred by a number of indifferent or ragged performances. But the heart of the performance is undeniable: Waters' growling "Mannish Boy"; the doomed Manuel howling, "How in the world do ya get to heaven," on "The Shape In" and summoning tears with a wrenching "Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)"; Morrison's "Caravan," punctuated by Rockettes-like kicks from the normally reserved Irishman; Dylan's anthemic roar during "Forever Young"; the Robertson-Clapton guitar duel on "Further On Up the Road"; the Staple Singers trading fevered hosannas with Danko and Helm on "The Weight" (one of two postscript performances shot on a sound stage).
Yet the movie is also oddly distant and cool. There are few pictures of the audience, which paid a then-scandalous $25 (more than triple the going rate) to attend. Scorsese's cameras instead train on the musicians and cast them as beautifully lit rock gods looking down on their anonymous worshipers. There was also an attempt to sanitize the event's reality: the cocaine powdering one of Neil Young's nostrils was edited out, and some of The Band's more ragged instrumentals were overdubbed. And then there is the air of drug-induced burn-out and spiritual exhaustion that hangs over the various members of The Band -- except Robertson. Robertson is a man with a future, a man with plans, who would go on to preside over projects such as "The Last Waltz" reissues, and its inevitable re-canonization as The Greatest Rock Movie Ever Made.
Robertston legacy safe
It just might be, and Robertson remains a brilliant songwriter and guitarist whose best songs -- "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Stage Fright" -- tower over the last half-century.
But for his former bandmates, their future is typified by Danko, who when asked by Scorsese what he plans to do next, mumbles a reply, tucks his shaggy head inside his hat, and sinks into the darkness while a mournful song plays from his forthcoming solo album. In the movie, Robertson calls the touring band "a goddamn impossible way of life" and "The Last Waltz" would be his doorway to a different, more lucrative and comfortable world. But for his former band members, the "Waltz" was just a pause in the endless grind.


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I count Brandon Sanderson a friend. And one of my favorite authors.
I know I'm not alone. I loved Mistborn when it published and when Brandon was tapped to finish the Wheel of Time series, I knew he would do Robert Jordan's world justice even as it vaulted Brandon into the stars. It did just that.
And thankfully, he has not squandered that chance, writing numerous books, novellas, and short stories for all of us to enjoy. He was also one of the first people to support me in Unfettered. He fought to include what has been the final Wheel of Time piece of fiction ever published. For helping me when I needed it, I count him a friend. So when Brandon visited Seattle earlier this month for Emerald City Comic Con, I knew that I'd visit his Spotlight Panel. Spotlights are great because you get the author — one-on-one as it were — for an entire hour and you never know what they are going to say.
To bring that panel to all of you who couldn't attend ECCC, Jeff and I videotaped it. It is featured below, which includes a Q&A as well as Brandon reading the forthcoming new Legion novella.
Be sure to support Brandon's work. If you haven't, read Mistborn or The Way of Kings. Great works of fantasy for every reader! I doubt you will be disappointed.
Until then, watch the video and enjoy!


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Big 5Tours Co., Ltd. Can provide different foreign language Tour Guides who were under professional trainings, including English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Arabic and many others more. Our foreign guests will certainly fall in love with beautiful Taiwan island and won't have any regret or disappointed because of the obstacles from language communications.; and vice versa, we'll show to every of our Taiwan guests an unforgettable world travel experience too.
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Home Games Game Interviews
Game Interviews
Looney Labs: Interview with Andy and Kristin Looney
Meagan Meehan
Kristin and Andrew Looney love games…and science fiction. In fact, it was a science fiction story, written by Andrew in the 1980s, that kickstarted their first game, which turned into a company, which became their careers, livelihood, and passion.
Looney Labs is famous for their colorful triangular "pyramid" playing pieces. Originally popularized through word-of-mouth, community events, and Comic Cons, Looney Labs creations have become favorites amongst gamers—largely because the games can be customized, added to, and broadened based on the creativity of and communication between the players.
Recently, the husband and wife duo discussed the history of their company, their games, and their hopes for the future.
Meagan Meehan (MM) of Entertainment Vine: Your company has a very interesting history to say the least…essentially, this all started because of a science fiction novel. When you were kids, could you ever have imagined the careers and paths your lives have taken?
Andy: When I was a kid, I always hated being asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" because I didn't have a good answer. I had many interests, but I didn't know "game designer" was a thing you could be. In those days, board games never included the designer's names, so it wasn't clear that actual, individual people made them. It seemed more like something whole companies created together. So, no, I never would have imagined I'd become a famous game inventor someday.
Kristin: I studied computer science in college and started a career as an electronics engineer designing telemetry ground systems at NASA. I never took a business class in school and starting and running my own business was never a thing I ever imagined doing. But I found myself sharing an office with this guy named Andy Looney who had written a novel about a city where everyone played this game called Icehouse that was played with these little gaming pyramids. We became close friends and started working on all sorts of creative projects together.
MM: Andy, were you always interested in science fiction? What prompted you to start writing and how did you find publishers?
Andy: Yes, I've been a fan of sci-fi since I was a kid. My dad and older brothers read & watched sci-fi stories, which made them seem cool to me, so I read and watched them too. And when I wanted to start making up my own stories, sci-fi was what I naturally tended to focus on. I got more and more into writing as friends and teachers who read my work told me they liked it and encouraged me to write more. But finding publishers was something I never had any patience for… I just wanted to create. I hate the task of promoting my creations. Fortunately, I paired up with Kristin! One of the many titles she's earned over the years is She Who Makes Things Happen.
MM: Overall, how many books did you publish, do you still write, and is science fiction your sole genre?
Andy: I've written a few unpublished books, but The Empty City is the only novel I've published. I basically put my writing career on the back burner when I became a game designer instead. Nowadays my writing is more focused on game rules, sales pitches, business plans, and social media posts than fiction. But I still dabble in fiction. As for non-fiction, we recently published my coffee table book full of photos I've taken in the coffeeshops in Amsterdam over the last 20 years.
MM: Can you tell us a bit about the plot of the novel that resulted in the "pyramid" game and the inspiration behind it?
Andy: The Empty City is a rather odd book, actually. It's a rambling story about one man's search for romance and entertainment in a world shifted slightly out of the reality of our own. It's not really sci-fi although it does have a bit of time travel and life on other planets and other such things. The main thing is, I described an imaginary (at the time) board game played with small colorful pyramids, which some of the characters in the story play obsessively, and my friends who read it became so interested in that game that we created a real version as a result. And that led to everything that is Looney Labs.
MM: The popularity of your fiction prompted fan interest in the game…so you invented one! Prior to this, had you ever thought of becoming a game designer?
Andy: Nope! Even after creating that first game I didn't think of game design as a thing I could actually do. It wasn't until after I'd accidentally invented a video game (as a programmer trying out new concepts) that I started to try inventing games on purpose.
MM: How long did it take to think up the play pattern for the first game and then what was it like to actually make the game?
Andy: I think it was about a year after writing that first short story and the time when we had a real game we could play that was based on the one I described. It was AMAZINGLY COOL to have a real-life version of my imaginary game!
MM: Kristin, you met Andy at work, how did you learn about his science fiction novel and game?
Kristin: Andy and I shared an office at work, and had become great friends, but we didn't socialize outside of work. So our friends didn't overlap. When he needed a group to test his first set of written rules, he asked me to invite a group of my friends over for him to test them on. I played the game before reading the story that inspired it – he brought me in as someone who knew nothing about it, to find out if the written rules would explain the game well enough for me and my friends to learn how to play the game correctly. It's a process we now call Trial By Rulesheet. I was hooked – and spent the rest of the weekend making a set of pyramids out of a modeling clay called Super Sculpy, since Andy had taken his set home with him, and it was the only set that existed.
MM: You also helped Andy create the early pyramid pieces, Kristin, so what was that process like?
Kristin: We made pyramids out of a bunch of different materials in those early days. When we decided we wanted to run a tournament, and needed more sets than existed, we got a friend with a basement full of woodworking equipment to make us 4 wooden sets which we painted with acrylic paints. Everyone who played in the tournament wanted to know how/when they could buy a set – so later that year we made 100 signed and numbered poured acrylic sets that we sold to our earliest fans. But that process was too difficult and inefficient and we couldn't keep making sets that way. So next, we made a run of pre-punched fold together paper pyramids, and later we hired a real woodworking factory to build a jig and do a run of wood pieces – which we stained with leather dyes in our basement. Andy and I have made a lot of hand-made pyramids together in those early days.
MM: You two ended up getting married, which makes this one of the most romantic "game company" stories I've ever written about! At your wedding, did you include any references to the game, like little pyramid placeholders, etc.?
Kristin: We got married before the pyramid thing had really gone very far, so no. But my bridal shower was lego-themed! We just had our 28th wedding anniversary. If you have a chance to marry your best friend who you love creating crazy fun projects and products with – go for it. It has worked out really well for us.
MM: Back to that first game, how did you promote it and how much did Comic Cons and similar events help you out?
Kristin: Our earliest promotional efforts were at a science fiction convention in the Washington DC area. We held the 1st International Icehouse Tournament at a little convention called Disclave in 1989. It was so much fun! We ran our annual tournament at this con for 5 years, until the convention folded, and the tournament had to find a new home. Each year we built up a larger and larger following for the game and added more and more names to our Icehouse Mailing List. All of this was before social media existed. The internet existed for email, mostly at universities and at geeky jobs like NASA, but the world wide web hadn't been invented yet. We collected physical mailing addresses from new players, and added them to the list of people we mailed out a little newsletter called Hypothermia. It was filled with stories and strategy tips and an invitation to whatever event we were running the game at next. In later years we had an active community of email mailing lists, then forums. Now our fan community is in Facebook Groups.
MM: From the success of that first pyramid game, you branched out into many more. So, which are your favorites and which have been most popular among fans?
Kristin: One of the most popular games for the pyramids is Zendo, which is so good we released a standalone edition. Another big favorite is Volcano, which I actually designed myself. I was REALLY hooked on Zark City when Andy first invented it. My friend, Davy, and I played it every chance we could for a bunch of months leading into the pyramid tournaments in the summer of 2009. I am also very fond of 3 simple but surprisingly deep little strategy games: Hijinks, Petal Battle, and Twin Win.
Andy: I designed almost 30 different games for the pyramids and many of them are pretty great, but my favorite game for the pyramids is Homeworlds, designed by my lifelong friend John Cooper. Homeworlds is a complex, interstellar space game, which is also a pure abstract strategy game, often compared to chess in its depth and replayability. I love this game but it's so difficult to master that it's hard to find people to play it with, which is why I started awarding really cool limited-edition medals I had made, which say "I beat Andy Looney in a game of Homeworlds." I'm trying to create a "gunslinger culture," as I like to call it, in which people feel inspired to learn the game so that they can challenge me and hopefully win that medal. I've given out 17 so far.
MM: The new edition of "Zendo" uses shapes aside from pyramids. Did you enjoy branching out like that?
Andy: That process was more challenging than I expected, actually, but I'm very pleased with the end result. But it took over two years of tinkering with various shapes before we settled on the set that works. At first, I thought cubes and domes would work, but after getting some 3D printed prototypes made, we realized they didn't work as well as we thought they would, and tried various other shapes before settling on blocks, wedges, and pyramids.
MM: Your wonderful new product "Pyramid Arcade" includes twenty-two games! What are your favorite things about "Pyramid Arcade" and have you ever been truly amazed by a game a fan has thought up for it?
Kristin: I love how pretty the box is, and how you have everything you need to play so many truly amazing games. Everything looks like it belongs together and it's easy to pull it down off the shelf and invite a group of people to play some pyramid games together. In the old days everything was DIY – you bought rules and pyramids separately, and stored them in whatever, and it was much harder to convince non-gamers to play. Now it's easy to pull almost anyone in!
Andy: I like to describe Pyramid Arcade as "the greatest thing I've ever made" and it's hard to imagine ever topping it, since it's the culmination of decades of iterative design and ideas built upon ideas built upon ideas. My favorite thing about the pyramids is the depth they offer, and the way we keep discovering more new ways to play with them. I've been amazed time and time again over the years as new ideas keep popping up. It seems so obvious now that these pieces, like a deck of playing cards, can be used for an endless series of different games, but at first we were locked into the single-game way of thinking. It took 8 years of playing that first game before we had the realization that the pieces could be interpreted and manipulated in so many different ways and started intentionally designing new pyramid games. Soon we had several cool games, then dozens, then we started hearing from fans who had invented their own games. And I'm still being surprised by the new ideas fans, as well as me, keep having. The most amazing thing is the endlessness. Just when you think we must have already thought of all the ways you could use these pyramids, someone will come up with something else totally new.
MM: Your instruction booklets and box art are *really* well thought out…how long do they take to put together and how do you get the designers for the boxes? The art on the "Pyramid Arcade" box is gorgeous.
Andy: We're still a very small company so we don't have enough day-to-day work in game illustrations and packaging to require someone to do that full-time. Instead, we hire independent artists and designers to work on each game with a single-project focus. This allows us to hire various artists with different styles for different games, and we have some excellent designers on call.
Kristin: For Pyramid Arcade, we wanted to really knock it out of the park, as they say, so we chose the team who'd already proven themselves with the updating of our company logo and several other projects, Other Studio in Chicago, led by Eileen Tjan. We really love the work she and her team did for us, on that and every other project they've done for us.
MM: You travel all over the country often as guests at conventions. Do you find this really helps you raise awareness of your brand?
Andy: I think it does, yes! When someone has the experience of actually meeting us, it stays with them. They think of us as real people, not just a faceless corporation, and I think that really helps build fan devotion. It's all about the human connection, you know?
Kristin: We love being guests at conventions and getting to know our fans! And yes, I do think it's great for brand awareness! It doesn't matter where we are, people see my tie dye and bandana and lab coat and shout, "Looney Labs is here!" Conventions and trade shows also offer an excellent chance to teach the "alpha gamers" how to play our games and get them hooked enough to go home and teach their friends. I love win-win situations, and attending conventions is always a win for everyone involved.
MM: What opportunities and experiences has founding Looney Labs provided you?
Andy: Too many to list! Not sure where to even start with this question. Running our own company to publish and promote my creations has been so fulfilling and wonderful that I can't imagine what my life would be like if we hadn't made this choice and followed our dreams.
MM: What is most challenging about owning your own company and what advice would you give to aspiring game company founders?
Kristin: There is never enough time. We are good at making sure we take time to play, but be it play or work we are always running so hard, trying to do everything. There are always more ideas and opportunities than there is time and money to work on. Learn to have a stop doing list – it is so hard but oh so important.
MM: Is there anything else that you would like to mention?
Andy: We haven't talked about any of my other games! When I'm asked which is my favorite of my games, I have to say Fluxx simply because it's done so much for us. And even after creating 25 different versions (literally!) I'm still not tired of playing Fluxx and I'm still finding new ways to make each version unique. I also have a game about dessert which everyone likes a lot, called Just Desserts, and I'm always very proud of my time travel card game, Chrononauts. In fact, I'm working on a new time travel game right now with the Star Trek license! But in my heart of hearts, the pyramids will always be my true favorite.
Kristin: I want to mention Andy's new card game Get the MacGuffin. It came out earlier this year, so you likely have not heard of it yet. Andy invented it on Fluxx's 21st birthday – and it is REALLY fantastic. The game takes only 5 minutes to play, and works for 2-11 players. So it will entertain most any size crowd, for whatever time you have to hang out playing a fun little card game. We have been running Get the MacGuffin Raffle Tournaments at conventions all over the country all year, and will continue to do so for years to come as it's the perfect tournament structure – please sign up for our mailing list (looneylabs.com/newsletter) so we can let you know if we are ever running an event nearby where you live! I hope we get a chance to meet you someday and get to play some pyramid games together!
MM: Where can someone buy your book and this amazing game?
Kristin: Look for a copy of Pyramid Arcade in your local area game store, or buy it online from Looney Labs, and you can buy a copy of Andy's original novel at our website too! Thanks for playing and buying our games!
To learn more, visit the official Looney Labs website.
http://www.looneylabs.com/our-history
Andrew Looney
Kristin Looney
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/meagan-meehan-96405270
Meagan J. Meehan is a published author, poet, cartoonist and produced playwright. She pens columns for the Great South Bay Magazine, Examiner and AXS. She is also a stop motion animator and an award-winning abstract artist. Meagan holds a Bachelors in English Literature and a Masters of Communication. She is an animal advocate and a fledging toy and game designer.
6 Fun And Educational Interactive Online Entertainment Websites
Death Stranding Trailer And Pre-Order Bonus Items
Free Agatha Christie's 'Murder on the Orient Express' puzzle game by Spil Games


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8 Things We Want to Read About in Lindsay Lohan's Tell-All Book
By Emma Goddard
Brad Barket/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
First, an appearance on Oprah and now a tell-all book? Lately, it seems like Lindsay Lohan has been doing it all. The 27-year-old actress has plans to write a tell-all book about her life, detailing her experiences from diary entries she reportedly wrote down while in rehab. And let me tell you… We can't wait to read it.
Lohan has already met with Waxman Leavell Literary Agency about her book, which will open up about her career, drug abuse, family and relationships. This meeting was also filmed for her docu-series on OWN. So, if I were to have things my way, here are some things that I would kill to see in Lohan's new book:
1. Everything About The Parent Trap
If you still haven't seen this movie for some reason, then shame on you. However, I assume everyone has, otherwise the world would probably be ending right now. Lohan playing twins? Classic. The fact that she also had to act with an English accent while also learning how to have a temper tantrum in French? Epic. If Lohan wanted to write an entire book about The Parent Trap, I certainly wouldn't be opposed. If not, I would at least like her to spend an entire chapter discussing what it was like to work with Dennis Quaid, because, let's be real… he was everyone's favorite hot dad. Too far? Also, does she actually eat her Oreos with peanut butter? Because I would really like to know.
2. Working with Tyra (I Swear This Isn't All About Her Movies. But Maybe It's All About Her Movies) #sorrynotsorry
All I have to say is, "Shine bright, shine far, don't be shy, be a star." Oh, and show me your 100 watt smile. I kid you not, my roommate and I were just singing this last night. Clearly, Lohan has had an effect on girls everywhere since childhood. I'd just love to know what it was like working with Tyra Banks in Life Size. And with that aside, generally how did she feel experiencing stardom at such a young age?
3. Then There Was Mean Girls
So there were movies like Get a Clue and Freaky Friday, which were spectacular. I always wanted to learn Anna Coleman's guitar solo. Not to mention she kissed Chad Michael freakin' Murray and listened to him singing "Baby One More Time." Swoon. But then there was Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, which no one really cared about. AND THEN FETCH HAPPENED. As someone who is obsessed with fashion, I would be extremely excited to read about the style transition she made throughout the movie. I don't know about you guys, but all I wanted was a pink shirt with "rebel" on it and dozens of mini skirts because of this movie. I'd also like to read how she feels about her now-more-successful coworkers, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried… and all the costars she probably lost touch with going in and out of rehab.
4. Where it All Started… Maybe?
Seriously though, does anyone actually know what triggered her downfall? Sure, when I was a tween I remember all the headlines about Lohan and Wilmer Valderrama when they first began dating. She was a party queen — but then again, who wasn't at that age? For many, it would probably be safe to assume that Lohan's struggle began during this time frame, but that's not necessarily true. Honestly (and this is just my theory), I'd place a bet on her troubles beginning with her first girlfriend, which takes me to my next point.
5. Samantha Ronson
So there was that time when Lohan came out of left field and suddenly revealed that she was in a relationship with Samantha Ronson. I'm pretty sure no one saw that coming. Or at least I didn't, but then maybe that's just saying something about my lack of foresight. Oh, and let's not forget that a few years later she told Piers Morgan that she didn't really think she was bisexual. You do you, Lohan. Regardless of what she was or wasn't, her breakup with Ronson seemed to take a toll on the rest of her life. If it weren't for the paparazzi, they may have been able to push through. There's only so much that the public knows about Lohan and Ronson, and of course, because of negative media, we never truly had the opportunity to read about the positive aspects of their relationship. That's what I would want to read about: how Lohan fell in love.
6. Speaking of Paparazzi
If anyone knows what this is like, it's definitely Lohan. Sure, she hasn't ever shaved her head and attacked them with an umbrella (hah) but she has experienced some freak run-ins with them. Literally. As in, they have actually run into her car because they're crazy.
7. There Was Also the Drunk Driving…
Okay, so the paparazzi are not completely to blame for everything that happened. Lohan frequently had car accidents of her own, including the time when she was charged with drunken driving, cocaine possession and driving with a suspended license. I can't even tell you how many times I was not surprised after hearing how she had gotten in yet another fender bender. Even Pink mocked the actress, using her accidents for comedic purposes in her music video, "Stupid Girl." That was such a good video.
8. And of Course, the Drugs
It's a widely known fact that Lohan went to rehab numerous times for drug abuse, and for the first twenty or so times, we were all rooting for her. However, it just continued. I can only imagine that this will be the most intriguing part of Lohan's tell-all book. Sure, we have seen her court appearances on TV and all of the surprisingly glamorous mugshots, but only Lohan experienced this. Hearing how everything played out from her perspective will definitely be worth the read.
Images: survivingcollege.com; livejournal.com; perezhilton.com


Between Tuscany and Liguria on the Italian Riviera lays the Lunigiana, an area which owes ist name to the ancient roman colony Luni, a city built in 177 AD. It stretches from the Ligurian Sea and the river Magra to the beautiful hills of Tuscany. In this lovely surroundings can be found numerous little villages, ancient cities, old castles and palaces, amongst which the famous castle of Malaspina in Fosdinovo.
Here, on these green hills, which mark the beginning of the Apennine Mountains, the Hotel La Castellana is located. Once a Villa of the 18th. century, now renovated and enlarged, with an exceptional view over the lowlands of Luni and Sarzana, to the sea. La Castellana is embedded into a fantastic environment. Surrounded by vineyards, where an excellent Vermentino is made, and old olive-tree plantages, the source for a particularly valuable oil.
The rooms of the Castellana Hotel are decorated with a modern and functional design. They all have spacious marble bathrooms with shower.
All rooms are equipped with air conditioning, LCD television, mini fridge, safe and free internet access.
There are different room categories, and from nearly all you can enjoy the beautiful view to the sea.
The Hotel La castellana is a green oasis for its guests, offering terraces with sea view, an outdoor pool with solarium, several event rooms, a conference room, two restaurants and a Pizzeria. Ideal for business and leisure travellers, single persons as well as families, looking for peace and relaxation.
Embedded into this fantastic environment La Castellana is a venue for those who love delicious food. The hotel complex includes a restaurant for 150 guests and a Pizzeria.
Our cuisine combines the various tastes, flavours and even colors of the Tuscan-Ligurian cooking tradition, creating tasty and varied menus. The ingredients are always fresh and linked to the seasons. Our chefs select them personally from a wide range offfered by the many regional suppliers.
Should you have special requirements it would be our pleasure to discuss them with you.
Our conference room provides space for a hundred people, and is equipped with video projector, speaker system and wireless microphone. Additional equipment on request.
"Great location: a few miles from the sea, from the city and immersed in the hills. Basic and clean room.
"Great location and place, with pool and panoramic garden, clean modern rooms, nice staff, good breakfast and food.


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Drew's Reviews: JOKER
Editor October 22, 2019 Drew's Reviews, Movie Reviews
By Andrew Jenck
I guess I'm supposed to start out this review by commenting on how oversaturated the Hollywood landscape is by comic book adaptions, and lead into how Joker is a true revelation for the genre. However, I am a bit less surprised about this film's existence, as more experimental super hero movies have appeared in recent years with the likes of Logan, Deadpool, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While the filmmakers and studios deserve some credit for going for such a radical take on such an iconic figure like Batman's arch nemesis, we do need to judge these as movies themselves, solely through the mindset of whether it's a more in-depth character study than Ant-Man and the Wasp.
With that in mind, I found Joker to be rather underwhelming. The film has opinions across the board, so I will point out what I liked, disliked, and suggest how others may feel about it. Joker feels as if the mindset was more focused on the visceral and technical side than the narrative itself. The cinematography, score and the direction in most cases are top notch. Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, however, is the standout of the piece and will likely be the one aspect people will unanimously agree about. He has the rubbery face, the sadistic grin, and keeps you intrigued throughout the film, and that's especially good considering the script falls pretty flat.
While I won't call this a watered down Taxi Driver like other critics since, as I've said before, the technical side is impressive, but it does feel like director and writer Todd Phillips, best known for his comedic work, is out of his league. Based on his filmography that I've seen, he doesn't strike me as being nuanced or precise. Arthur's character development is understandable but sloppily handled. Taxi Driver, which Joker takes heavy inspiration from, developed Travis Bickle with more precision; everything contributed to his character development and always had some sort of presence. Joker, on the other hand, feels convoluted where plot threads stop in their tracks in order to develop others. There are his relationships with a talk show host played by Robert De Niro, and Thomas Wayne, the execution feels so muddled. There is a mixture of issues from the 2010s, but the film is set in the 1980s, possibly to make some sort of connection to the two time periods, but it is not achieved.
Nowhere is this better exemplified than in its portrayal of Gotham City itself. While the architecture and design is there and you get a sense of the city's attitude, the way the citizens themselves react to one of Joker's actions feels completely rushed and would often be out of focus for a good portion of the run time. A better way would've been to have the citizens have more of a presence throughout the film.
For many, Joker's visuals, ideas, and lead performance will be enough to qualify as a satisfying experience. However, I am someone who prefers the more nuanced and subtle approach, none of which I find in the picture. Todd Phillips, in my opinion, lacks the cleverness and writing skills to pull off his ambitions. While it is nice to see a film of this scale and budget become a big hit and consider that it could inspire more off-the-wall approaches to comic book movies, I hope filmmakers use Joker more as a launching point than benchmark of quality.
Drew's Editorials: NO WAY HYPED
MOVIE REVIEW: "Passing" Poses Many Questions
REVIEW: Britbox Series "TIME" – It's time to make mental health care a priority
Drew's Reviews: HALLOWEEN KILLS
Drew's Reviews: HILDA SEASON 1
Drew's Reviews: AVATAR…11.5 Years Later
Tillamook Police: Accident Report from Motor Vehicle, Pedestrian Accident at Tillamook HS Oct. 21st
FRIDAY NIGHT FLICKS: International Films Return to Hoffman Center Oct. 25


Wishing you a very Happy New Year and a great start to 2016! Need some ideas to help pass the time before kids go back to school on Monday? Check out these fun New Year's craft projects!
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! To celebrate, enjoy a gallery of the Christmas works of my favorite artist, Norman Rockwell.


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HomePosts tagged 'Henry Estes'
Henry Estes
November 7, 2016 November 7, 2016 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution	Benjamin Estes, Carolyn Crawford, Henry Estes, New-Hampshire Gazette, Real Estate, Sawmill, Technology
GUEST CURATOR: Carolyn Crawford
"To Be Sold at Public Vendue … One Quarter part of a Saw-Mill."
In this advertisement, Benjamin Estes and Henry Estes, two landowners, promoted the sale of "ONE Hundred Acres of good farm LAND" and "Forty-five Acres of good Land" at a "Public Vendue," otherwise known as an auction. Both of the landowners stated that their land would be sold to the highest bidder at the inn owned by Gideon Warren, in the town of Berwick. Benjamin Estes was the owner of the hundred acres, which included a house, a barn and "Twenty Ton of HAY." On the other hand, Henry Estes was selling forty-five acres that included a house, a barn, large bundles of hay, and perhaps, most importantly, a sawmill, an important piece of technology.
Over time, technology has dramatically changed. According to the historians at the Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill, "the first water-powered sawmills in New England were built near Berwick, Maine, in the 1630s." For the next two centuries or so these sawmills used "a wooden waterwheel with a crank connected by the 'pitman' arm to a wooden sash (frame) in which was mounted a straight saw blade." According to Barnes Riznik, "This so-called pitman arm was propelled by an iron crank fixed into the end of the waterwheel shaft."
During the colonial period, water was used as a source transportation and power. These sawmills "needed to have a dam and millpond to impound water for dry periods and to regulate flow; a millrace to carry water to the wheel itself; a sluice with a gate called a penstock to put the water onto the wheel; and a tailrace to carry off the spent water." It wasn't until the 1830s that the sawmills transitioned to circular saws which improved the size and sharpness of the blades. By doing so, the blades were able to produce a larger amount of equal pieces at a rapid rate. Overall, the sawmill technology was beneficial because it allowed for expansion and production to continue and grow.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
Although the Adverts 250 Project focuses primarily on advertisements for consumer goods and services, each guest curator may select one advertisement that explores some other aspect of life in colonial America. Real estate advertisements seem to be among the most popular. Carolyn has chosen one today, just a few days after Ceara Morse examined a real estate advertisement from the Georgia Gazette. The tracts of land offered for sale in the two advertisements were located about as distant from each other as was possible within the thirteen colonies that became the United States. Despite their differences, advertisers from Berwick, Maine, and Sunbury, Georgia, crafted advertisements that underscored the profits that buyers could earn from the land offered for sale. The dwellings seemed secondary to the resources and ability to earn a livelihood associated with each piece of land.
Benjamin Estes offered "good Farm LAND" that produced significant amounts of hay that could generate revenue for the new owner. Likewise, Henry Estes indicated that his "good Land" yielded nearly as much hay, even though his tract was slightly less than half the size. The hay, however, was not the only resource Henry Estes planned to auction. He also advertised "One Quarter part of a Saw-Mill." In other words, Estes sold a share of a sawmill; the purchaser would become the new partner alongside one or more other owners. This presented a different sort of opportunity than farming, but one that Henry Estes considered attractive.
The graphic design elements of the advertisement suggest that the seller believed the sawmill merited as much attention as the farmland. Four lines of the advertisement were set in larger type, one announcing the "Public Vendue," two listing the acreage of the land, and one devoted to the sawmill. Each of these underscored resources associated with the property for sale and the ability to convert those resources into financial security.


Kagan's FREE Articles - There Is No "I" In Team - Or Is There?
There Is No "I" In Team - Or Is There?
Cooperative learning is all about the team, not the individual, right? Not entirely. Although in cooperative learning, students spend a lot of time interacting with teammates and classmates, the most effective cooperative strategies incorporate individual accountability. Ultimately, each student is accountable for his or her own learning. Let me elaborate.
We try harder when we know someone will watch our performance and they will attribute the performance to us alone. We all want to be evaluated well by others. Situations that include individual accountability promote hard work, preparation, and persistence. Who wants to fail publicly? Who does not want to succeed in front of others?
There are three critical components of individual accountability: 1) the performance is done without help; 2) someone witnesses the performance; and 3) the performance is required.
Is individual, public performance required?
1. You can ask for and receive help during the test.
2. You can grade your own test and no one but you will see the score.
3. The test is optional.
Individual Accountability increases achievement in athletics, in the workplace, and in everyday life.
• The baseball player tries harder knowing her/his performance will be witnessed by thousands, and her/his RBI and batting average will be published.
• The author gives extra effort to the book knowing that once it is published, her/his name will forever be linked to that book.
• An employee gives extra effort knowing her/his productivity and error rate will be posted.
• A politician prepares diligently for the debate knowing her/his command of and stance on the issues will be on display.
Thus, to release the full power of individual accountability, performance must be individual, public, and required.
Tests, quizzes, individual essays, and individual performances such as reports and term projects are all powerful ways to structure for individual accountability. However, they are evaluation tools, not instructional strategies. The problem with exclusive use of evaluation tools to structure for individual accountability is that they are one-time events that occur well after instruction. Tests are poor motivators. They occur too long after instruction to motivate attention and effort during instruction. To harness the full power of individual accountability, we need to structure for individual accountability on an ongoing basis during instruction as part of every lesson. We can do that through instructional strategies that require an individual public performance.
Whole Class Q&A, unstructured group work, and pair work lack individual accountability and should be used sparingly as more effective alternatives exist.
Whole Class Q&A. In Whole Class Q&A, the teacher asks a question, students raise their hands, and the teacher selects a student to respond. There is individual accountability in this structure when the teacher selects a student to respond. A student must publicly display her knowledge of the subject. However, only one student in the entire class is held accountable for each question, and many students simply choose not to participate by keeping their hands down.
When we ask if a structure has individual accountability, we ask if all students have to perform on their own in a way that will be known by at least one other. Volunteer participation fails the test for individual accountability. In working with teachers to convey the essence of individual accountability, Dr. Vern Minor explains individual accountability, as "You can't hide." Others will know what you know or how well you can perform. In Whole Class Q&A students can hide—they just don't raise their hands.
Group Work and Pair Work. We have all had the experience of being in a group where one or two people did all the talking or most all the work on a project, while others did little or even nothing. The problem: lack of individual accountability. Just putting people into a group and telling them to cooperate does not make them do so. During unstructured group work an individual public performance of each person is not required, so some are likely to lie back while others do most or all the work. Unstructured interaction equals an option not to contribute. Even in pairs, with no structuring of the interaction, some can choose to do little or even nothing. If the teacher says, "Turn to your partner and discuss what should be the response of our country to the tsunami disaster," it is inevitable that in some pairs one person may do all the talking. The teacher who uses unstructured group work and pair work hopes each student will participate, but there is nothing in the structure that ensures participation by all. Group work and pair work is wishful thinking.
There are over 200 carefully designed instructional strategies called Kagan Structures. The Kagan Structures are designed to include individual accountability. One the most important reasons to use established Kagan Structures is that they create individual accountability on an ongoing basis as part of everyday instruction. For example, the teacher asks a question. The teacher then says, "In pairs, do a RallyRobin naming possible responses of our country to the tsunami disaster." After Partner A gives a response, Partner B has to give a response. Within a moment every student in the class has given an individual, public performance. No one can hide; an individual public performance is required by the structure. To take another example, the instructor stops and says, "Turn to your partner and do a Timed Pair Share. Describe your reaction to the disaster." In a Timed Pair Share each student shares her/his ideas for a specified time. Again, with little effort, no special preparation, and no change in the curriculum, the teacher creates individual accountability for every student using a simple structure. Knowing that at any moment there may be individual accountability, students are more alert, pay closer attention, process more frequently and more deeply, and retain and achieve more.
Accountability "To Whom." Different structures have individual accountability "built-in," but in different ways. Students may be accountable to a partner, a team, the class, and/or the teacher. Reports home create accountability to parents. The greater the accountability, the greater the probability of achievement. In Numbered Heads Together, before students put their heads together each student writes their best answer on their own to share with the group. Thus each is held accountable to their teammates. Further, when a student's number is called, that student must share their best answer, so they are held accountable to the teacher and the class as well. In RallyCoach each student is in turn accountable for performing in front of a peer.
Accountability "For What." Depending on the structure and the content, students are held accountable for different things. For example, in Paraphrase Passport, the right to speak is earned by making an accurate paraphrase of the person who spoke just before you. This structure holds participants accountable for empathetic listening. Talking Chips holds participants accountable for participating. In a RallyTable of prime numbers, learners are held accountable for listing prime numbers. If the RallyTable were filling in blanks on the periodic table, the learners would be accountable for a very different content.
Individual accountability must be coupled with positive interdependence—otherwise it may backfire. For example, we can create very strong individual accountability simply by asking a question, randomly calling a number, and having the student with that number stand up and answer in front of the whole class. If we do that, however, many students will fail publicly and they will soon dread class, content, and the teacher. Learning and change come about best by a combination of pressure and support. Individual accountability creates the pressure; positive interdependence creates the support. Either without the other is ineffective. If we never quiz and never have students perform publicly, they will not achieve as well. However, if we do not provide plenty of instruction, tutoring, encouragement, and celebration of student accomplishments, they also will not achieve as well.
One main implication from brain research is the importance of creating psychological safety in the classroom. If students are in a constant state of apprehension because they fear they may be publicly embarrassed at any minute, individual accountability may do more harm than good. A supportive environment is critical to the success of individual accountability.
The Kagan Structures build in a combination of positive interdependence and individual accountability. For example, before doing problems alone in Team-Pair-Solo the students first do them as a team and as a pair, receiving plenty of tutoring, encouragement and support. The positive interdependence precedes the individual accountability so the student has received the necessary support prior to the individual performance. Similarly, in Numbered Heads Together the students have the support of their teammates (heads together) prior to calling a number and having them perform in front of the class.
Enormous empirical research demonstrates that cooperative learning increases academic achievement. "Of all the educational innovations we have reviewed for this book, cooperative learning has the best, largest empirical base."3 "Of all classroom grouping strategies, cooperative learning may be the most flexible and powerful." Cooperative learning consistently produces powerful gains in part because it includes individual accountability on an ongoing basis as part of daily instruction. Cooperative learning structures as opposed to unstructured group and pair work allow teachers to align instructional practices on a moment-to-moment basis. The proven power of individual accountability ensures academic gains.
In a team context, the aphorism "There is no 'I' in team" makes good sense and serves its motivational purpose. Putting team goals above personal gains has its proper time and place. "Taking one for the team," is now a common parlance as it pervades our everyday life. In baseball, there's the sacrificial bunt—a tactical team strategy in which a batter bunts the ball and risks getting out to advance teammates around the bases. In the workplace, there's the grunt work—the dirty job that someone on the team has to do to reach the team's goal. In the military, soldiers put their lives on the line to defend the liberty of others.
So, yes, sacrifices for the sake of others can be a virtue. But in the classroom, the acid test for success is the success of the individual student. Is EACH student learning, growing, and succeeding? With effective teaching strategies that integrate individual accountability, the answer is "yes." In the cooperative classroom, there is an "I" in team — and that "I" stands for Individual accountability.
1 Slavin, R. E. When does cooperative learning increase student achievement? Psychological Bulletin, 1983, 94, 429-445.
2 Kagan, S. Group Grades Miss the Mark. Educational Leadership, 1995, 52(8), 68-71.
Kagan, S. Group Grades are Pointless. Kagan Online Magazine. 2000, 3(2).
3 Ellis, A.K. & Fouts, J.T. Research on Educational Innovations. Princeton Junction, NJ: Eye on Education, 1993.


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Moraga Pear & Wine Festival on Sept. 26
By Lou Fancher | Correspondent
MORAGA — Among the three trillion trees a recent study by Yale forestry researcher Thomas Crowther says are on Earth, pear trees represent thousand-year histories.
Bearers of the simple, durable fruit that was cultivated in ancient China, recognized by Homer in "The Odyssey" as a "gift of the gods," painted by centuries of artists, imported by colonists and migrated to the West Coast, pear seedlings landed in the early 20th century most locally and notably in Moraga.
The 17th annual Moraga Pear & Wine Festival on Sept. 26 marks the occasion in the town's Moraga Commons Park with live entertainment, a pear recipe contest, wine tasting with the Lamorinda Wine Growers Association, grape stomping, kids activities, and local artist and community group booths.
Although the pear trees planted by James Irwin of the Moraga Company around 1913 are less glorious and prolific than in their heyday when Moraga Valley pears were shipped nationwide, celebratory traditions endure.
Pears in Moraga are a source of pride, and rescue missions — from fire blight, drought, marauding pear snatchers and other dangers — cause local residents' sense of ownership to swell most noticeably in the weeks and days before the six-hour festival.
"We make pear wine entirely from Moraga pears," says Tony Inzerillo, owner with John Piermattei of Vincenza Ranch Vineyard. The small vineyard tucked behind Campolindo High School and a stretch of Cottonwood trees produces 200 cases of wine each year: 50 of them are Pear Fest Wine at $10.99.
"We sell out every year," says Inzerillo.
A recipe developed and refined over the past four years includes 1,000 pounds of pears, 300 pounds of sugar, 150 pounds of golden raisins and 150 gallons of water.
"When you're working with fruits other than grapes, you have to have a recipe," he says. "Grapes are complete; you don't have to add anything. But you can make wine out of anything as long as you balance the sugar."
The careful balancing act begins with pears fermented in champagne yeast, followed by filtering and bottling after testing for sugar content to drop from 15 percent to close to 1 percent. All along, Inzerillo is reminded of pear wine history.
"It's a traditional wine in the Bavarian tradition," he says. "They take it to another level and actually put the bottles on the trees when the pears are very small. Each bottle has a pear inside of it. The bottles go for hundreds of dollars."
Pears' preciousness is also not lost on plein-air (outdoor) painter Teresa Onoda. The Town Council member is working with the Lamorinda Arts Council to expand its presence at the festival. She looks forward to the white blossoms that signal a coming crop every year.
"I've been painting the town's pear orchards for nearly two decades. The gnarly tree limbs and white blossoms are visually arresting yet challenging to present in oil paint," she said. "Because I'm a plein-air air painter, I can only improve my technique for a couple weeks every year when they're in bloom. On the plus side, it gives me something to look forward to, 50 weeks of the year."
At the festival, the arts council's influence will bring added value to the band shell and surrounding booths. Orinda Community Center Ukulele Musicians, Orinda Starlight Village Players, Rossmoor Community Chorus, Campolindo High School Jazz musicians, Orinda Ballet Academy and other groups will perform.
Onoda says that "mining the great resources" in Lamorinda doesn't mean telling artists their work must be pear-centric. Instead, the purpose is to support local singers, dancers and visual artists of all ages.
Arts-related organizations invited to participate include Saint Mary's College Museum of Art, several Lamorinda art galleries, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (a Japan-based organization offering education about Buddhists) and other community operations.
WHAT: Moraga Pear & Wine Festival
WHEN: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 26
WHERE: Moraga Commons Park, 1425 St. Marys Road
INFORMATION: www.moraga.ca.us/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=175061
Lamorinda
Lou Fancher
is a freelance writer. Contact her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.


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Teen Repellent generates irritatingly high frequency sounds similar to that of a mosquito. As one gets older they lose the ability to hear these high frequency sounds thereby limiting the target audience to a certain age group and animals.
Such uses for these high frequency sounds include.
Note: Hearing and target audience will vary by individual.
Plug into a pair of speakers for greater crowd control.


accesss we have to have a copy of either your drivers license or a passport.
I have no passport and driver's license.thanks.
SSH has been enabled on the account.
a different issue please create a new ticket!