Available in 2kg, 4kg, 6kg, 8kg, 10kg & 12kg weights and tailored mixed weight sets.
Ergonomically designed kettlebell with comfort handle for better grip and handling.
Colour coded design with wipe clean vinyl outer and anti-slip base.
Designed for whole-body, functional training.
Develop co-ordination flexibility and build solid core strength.
The JLL Kettlebell range is perfect for cardio and strength training. Lose weight and build great muscle definition and have great fun all at the same time and do it in the comfort and privacy of your own home.
JLL Kettlebells are built to the highest standards. Hard-wearing vinyl coating complimented by an anti-slip base. This provides extra safety and also protects the floor from scratch damage.
The JLL Kettlebell comes in a variety of individual weights 2kg, 4kg, 6kg, 8kg, 10kg & 12kg variations. Or if you're feeling more adventurous, why not try our tailored kettlebell sets? A mix and match of our more popular weight combinations at prices that won't break the bank.
Our kettlebells work a broad range of muscle groups including the biceps, triceps, deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, quads, glutes, calves, hamstrings and core abdominals.


Thinking about serving in SalemKIDS?
SalemKIDS offers a variety of areas to serve. Pick an area that sparks your interest!
Every Sunday, our preschool volunteers show up and work together in their unique roles to create a loving environment for our preschoolers. Our preschool department is completely fueled by volunteers. We could not exist without their leadership and expertise.
Room Leaders are responsible for partnering with parents and loving and caring for infants so that they can understand the loving embrace of their heavenly Father.
Room Assistants assist room leaders in loving and caring for infants and making sure their needs are met.
Room Leaders are responsible for partnering with parents and leading toddlers in a bible story and activities that will help them establish a loving relationship with Jesus.
Room Assistants are responsible for assisting room leaders in leading toddlers in a bible story and activities that will help them establish a loving relationship with Jesus.
Small Group Leaders partner with parents and connect relationally each week with an assigned group of eight to ten children to speak truth into their lives and celebrate spiritual growth.
Small Group Assistants connect relationally each week with kids and assist small group leader in leading kids in activities.
Worship Team leads kids in song with energy and enthusiasm to worship God for who he is and what he has done.
Small Group Coach provides support and assistance to small group leaders during an assigned service on Sundays and during the week. Helps with training and communication with small group leaders.
Small Group Assistants work along side the small group leader by connecting relationally with kids and leading kids in activities.
Bible Storyteller communicates the Bible story and Bottom Line in such a way that it becomes unforgettable to a child.
Bible Story Host is the "emcee" of large group who sets the tone and creates the tension for the Bible story. The Host also wraps up Large Group with application for the kids to put the Bible story into practice.
The set up and tear down crew are dedicated to creating a place where kids belong. Each week they meet and make sure the elementary environments are ready to go for Sunday.
Guest Services makes the best first impression by greeting first-time guests and guiding families through the registration and check-in process to make them feel welcome and informed.
Check-in Host make the first impression of the morning by guiding parents and kids through the check-in and security process so they feel welcome and safe.
Provides a fun and safe environment for kids in order to give their parents the opportunity to serve strategically on Sundays.
Room Leader leads kids in activities.
Room Assistant helps lead kids in activities.
A monthly event designed to keep 5th & 6th graders connected and engaged through fun activities and interaction with leaders that care.


I know this may sound stupid but this actually happened.
It slightly reminded me of "The Slenderman" A favorite creepypasta of mine but this man was a little taller than 7 feet, plus it wore red not black, I ended up disregarding it and just ebjoyed the rest of the trip but the mans image was stuck in my head.
The man wasn't really that creepy but I still wanted to know about him so I decided to look him up but found nothing at all about him. I'm telling you again this really happened.
I next saw him at the mall we stopped at, I was sitting on the bus with my mother since she was the driver we had just gotten some Chic-fil-a And I was sitting behind her to the right I glanced up and saw the man walk out of my view I leaned over to look and he wasn't there I looked around more but he was nowhere to be found.
Now just so you know he never did anything to harm me or anyone else on the bus but it gave me an eerie feeling to think about him mainly because I didn't know who (Or what.) He was. I told my freind once again, he just gave me a look like I was retarded.
I saw him again that same day walking up to our hotel room I saw him looking at me from around a corner I got a good view of his face this time. He had no lips, his eyes (Or lack there of.) Were hollow and black, It felt like he was stareing through me right to my soul. I granbbed my mothers shoulder pointing the man ducking behind the wall. "Mom there was some man stareing at me." I knew I couldn't say exactly what I saw or else she'd think I was hallucinateing. She walked over looking around the corner. "Theres no'one there honey." I looked aswell no'one was there.
This time its not me its a girl who usually sat next to me, She was there again watching PewDiePie play happy wheels with me when she lookedd out the window and jerked back, "Look out the window!" She yelped, I looked and saw the "Red man" as I started calling him walking towards the parked bus his lipless face in a grin reminding me quite alot of "Jeff The Killer." I went wide-eyed as he walked towards the busses door his pale hand reaching at the handle. My mother was in the rest stop useing the restroom everyone else was off aswell either buying snacks or useing the restroom, But when my freind started screaming my mother came running weilding her stungun my dad had gotten her the man jumping out of the window after opening the lattch to the fire escape.
My mom got everyone onto the bus and drove off from the rest stop, only stopping once more for gas.
My freind the girl from earlier was in our hotel room, she was going to sleep over here because her brother loved playing pranks on her the Red Man now a perfect way to.
We went to sleep at 4:45, I woke up in the middle of the night to my freind screaming, The Red man was standing over her tearing her abdomen open with its hands and teeth my mother on the ground her throat torn open. The creature dropped my freind and jumped at me. I drew my hands up for defence I started thrashing about Punching, kicking, squirming anything. I kicked the creature off. And ran from the room running down the hall hideing in the public restrom. I sat in a corner and cried, Once I was cried out I stood shakily and peeked out and ran back to my room, I saw the body of my freind and mother and started crying again wrapping my arms around my mothers abdomen.
It shreiked at me before its clawed hand swung at me and I went black.


text:
Board of Education: What Forum Culture Taught Us About Style
ByJian DeLeon
Jian DeLeon is a former editor at Complex.
More info: Twitter
Late at night, men would stare into the dimly lit vastness of the Internet, feverishly typing URLs that led them to the kind of sites where they could see the sort of things they lusted after in secret.
Written by Jian DeLeon (@jiandeleon)
Some even did it in the workplace, hiding behind anonymous names and figuring out ways to outsmart the I.T. department—clearing caches and deleting web histories. These were the type of guys who were not yet ready to let the world know that deep down, they really, really liked clothing.
Well before the days of menswear blogging, there was already a thriving community of men who discussed the minutest clothing details at length. Since the early 2000s, Internet forums like Ask Andy About Clothes and StyleForum provided older men with a predilection for bespoke suits and Goodyear-welted, shell cordovan footwear an outlet to talk about their mutual interests with other like-minded men. And then something happened. A younger crop of sneakerheads and streetwear aficionados began using similar fora, and inadvertently birthed a digital subculture.
Next to World Star, NikeTalk is probably the site I check the most. - Bobby Hundreds, The Hundreds
Unlike modern forms of social media, message boards thrive on longform conversation. It's not about simply throwing 140 characters out into the ether and hoping for a retweet. While today's media diet of shortened links, status updates, and endless aggregation is akin to small bites, gleaning useful information from a forum is like a five-course meal to be savored, not just skimmed through.
Besides being a resource of information on clothing, these forums also facilitated the buying and selling of these cult brands. Before Kiya Babzani opened his San Francisco denim store, Self Edge, in 2006, there was hardly a place in the United States where people could buy artisan Japanese denim brands like Iron Heart, Momotaro, and The Flat Head.
Of all the multiple forums that would comprise this niche culture of Internet sneaker and clothing nerds, undoubtedly the two that had the most clout were NikeTalk and Superfuture. Both sites began in 1999, and both sought to bridge the same information gap: helping men spend money on cool shit. For NikeTalk founder Nelson Cabral, that meant anything and everything Air Jordan.
PART ONE: Enter NikeTalk
"NikeTalk was born out of my obsession for all things Air Jordan," wrote Nelson Cabral in a 2009 e-mail to Complex Sneaker Editor Russ Bengtson. Cabral, 35, launched the site when he was 22. "This started thanks to my dad, who thought a good shoe might prevent me from spraining my ankles so much. Back before the Internet age, shoe release information was basically non-existent, especially for me in Canada. Every few months you'd go to your local sneaker store and cross your fingers they'd have your size, or you'd go a size bigger just to be able to get a pair. Just seeing them before they came out was a huge deal."
Cabral's obsession with Jordan sneakers was exacerbated by a series of ads featuring the Spike Lee character Mars Blackmon, which fueled his desire to cop a pair of Black/Cement Jordan IVs. Unfortunately for him, by the time he got to a store, it had been three days since the shoes had dropped, and they were long sold out.
That's when he decided to start NikeTalk. A recent college graduate, Cabral was spending his days fine-tuning his resume, but when night fell he often found himself trapped in an Internet k-hole of shoe information, scouring NikeTalk predecessors like 23 JumpmanSt and NikePark for whatever dirt he could find.
"It's one of the reasons that NikeTalk's background is black—it's so much easier to read at 3 a.m.," he said. "My first objective for NikeTalk was to create a place one could go to freely exchange ideas, opinions, and of course, release dates in a comfortable, serious environment with that was being run with the community's best interests in mind."
Unlike modern forms of social media, message boards thrive on longform conversation. It's not about simply throwing 140 characters out into the ether and hoping for a retweet.
Cabral had spent time on message boards before, based around cars and toys, and he thought the same system of community moderators and e-mail-based registration would translate well to a sneaker board. NikePark's unmoderated discussion and no-registration-required posting system meant any information posted had to be taken with a grain of salt. He sought to build a self-policing community that sneaker heads could trust, so Cabral and his team went to work.
On December 10, 1999 NikeTalk went live. The date was chosen to predate the release of the White/Black-Fire Red Jordan V retros on January 5, 2000. Within days, the site accrued over 200 members. Today, it boasts thousands, with numerous unregistered "lurkers"—guests who simply read the site's content without contributing—visiting daily. The Hundreds co-founder Bobby Hundreds has been a member since 2001.
"Next to World Star, [NikeTalk is] probably the site I check the most," Hundreds says. "When NikeTalk came around, the obvious commonality was collecting sneakers and the streetwear that would complement those type of shoes," he says. At the time, brighter colorways started making their way onto sought-after kicks like the Nike Dunk, and the big trend was matching your clothing to your sneakers. Although much of the The Hundreds' gear ended up coordinating well with numerous colorways, the designer insists this was pure coincidence.
"I wasn't intentionally trying to lock up the color combos with the shoes, but it just so happened that a lot of it worked out because I had a lot of the same inspiration and influence in my design as the guy designing the Dunks at the time," he says.
In the mid-2000s, Hundreds' interest in the sneaker game dwindled, but NikeTalk had become useful for reasons beyond gathering information on the latest kicks. "I kind of stopped collecting sneakers for whatever reason, but I stayed on NikeTalk for the community," he explains. "There was a subforum on NikeTalk called 'General Forum.' In there, you don't talk about shoes at all. You just talk about everything outside of sneakers. That's where I fit in; I don't visit anywhere else." To Hundreds, the forum had superseded its original purpose of connecting him with the latest info about drops, and become a way to keep his finger on the pulse of pop culture in general, as filtered through the unique lens of the sneaker head community.
"That's the beauty of NikeTalk. There are so many community members involved that it's just constantly updated. I get all my news from there; it's more active than Twitter for me. I don't follow a lot of people on Twitter because I find them annoying. I go on NikeTalk to find out celebrity deaths. NikeTalk is just where it happens first." In addition to being a resource of information, Hundreds also uses the forum as a way to gauge the interests of streetwear's most fickle consumers: high schoolers. "It's kind of like hanging at a high school every day, seeing how kids are thinking. If it wasn't for NikeTalk, I don't know how else I would be tapped into that community. I can kind of get engaged in what the kids are into." To this day, NikeTalk serves as an important hub for Hundreds to stay connected to his demographic, his customers, and the world at large.
"This is still my little underground club and you can't forget that. The Internet is everywhere, but there's only so many websites you can check in a day," he says. While NikeTalk is arguably the most popular community based around sneaker culture, streetwear and clothing still played second fiddle to coveted sneaker drop dates. In that realm, another forum would soon establish itself as the go-to destination.
PART TWO: The Future Is Super
In 1998, Australian designer Wayne Berkowitz set up a crude private bulletin board to keep in touch with friends and family around the globe. The board quickly grew to a community of about 300. Conversation tended towards jet setting and store recommendations around the world, giving Berkowitz the idea for a travel website with a focus on design, retail and shopping. He shut down the forum in lieu of creating this new venture, and on September 1, 1999 he launched Superfuture, which sells PDF shopping guides for cities like Tokyo, Paris, and New York. Not until 2003 would he revisit the idea of a community message board with Supertalk, of which Bobby Hundreds was an early member. Supertalk was initially meant as a way to cultivate a community of "Supershoppers," discerning consumers with extremely high taste levels.
"Superfuture really did give a lot of brands and designers a big step up in that kind of community," says Hundreds. "I was on Supertalk; I'm probably still registered. I think I was the 13th person to ever register on their message board." Hundreds wasn't the only style-minded guy who stumbled upon the site. Billy Fischer, Art Director for menswear e-commerce site Boylston Trading Co., discovered Supertalk by chance.
"I actually came across Supertalk by mistake, trying to find information on Levi's Shrink to Fit jeans," he says. "I lurked for like two months before finally joining in January '05, but that's kind of where I found my online home." What separated Supertalk from its contemporaries was that it allowed members to interact freely and form their own subculture. Whereas NikeTalk's focus on sneakers, drop dates, and streetwear set a distinct tone for the forum's tastes, Supertalk's flexible subject matter allowed the forum to be defined by its community.
None of what's currently going on in terms fashion media, especially as it relates to menswear, would be happening if it wasn't for forums. - Jose Mejia, Superfuture
Jose Mejia, who served as Superfuture's Editorial Director from 2007–2009, is a stout Dominican man with a penchant for Japanese brands like Post O'Alls. No, he's not the kind of corpulent you'd associate with a mouse-wielding World of Warcraft-playing stereotypical nerd, but he does wear glasses and has a unique sense of humor, which he shares with other Superfuture denizens. Like them, Mejia is also much louder on the Internet than in real life.
"Even as early as 2006, there was a totally unique set of inside jokes with multiple layers that you could sort of trace back to specific groups of like-minded posters," he says. "I noticed it was something like our own little universe." That online camaraderie helped establish the unique identity of Supertalk, Mejia says, which embraced a wide swath of style tribes. "What always set the forum apart was that the sneaker fiends, denimheads, goth ninjas, and every other clique you could think of, interacted on a level beyond style. I didn't see that on any other forum," he observes. "Superfuture was in some ways a haven for all the outcasts from other sites."
Mejia compares the whole "forum ecosystem" to the social dynamics of high school. Except here, the nerds were the ones calling the shots, and while some came off as nebbishy or extremely introverted when not cloaked by a username and avatar, many members were quick to eviscerate the uninitiated who tried to jump in on their conversations without doing their homework—namely, reading the forum and picking up its nuances for weeks or months prior to deciding that they finally had something worthwhile to say. This was especially true of Supertalk's subforum, Supertrash—a place where the topic was everything and nothing, akin to NikeTalk's "General Forum."
While there was definitely talk of streetwear brands like Supreme, Stussy, and FUCT—along with occasional references to designer labels ranging from Rick Owens to Band of Outsiders—what really became popular on the boards was raw, selvedge denim. When the Americana movement began to gain steam in the mid-2000s, more and more guys started to embrace the idea of breaking in a pair of unwashed jeans, but these picky customers needed something much better than the Swedish company Nudie or French label A.P.C.—two popular denim brands that signaled the movement towards raw jeans—rather, Superfuture's clientele sought out obscure Japanese brands like Eternal, Samurai, and Skull. These artisan labels offered far superior denim, construction, and were much, much harder to obtain—which made them all that much cooler.
These newly-born denimheads sought to learn as much as they could about the fabric—which mills produced the best denim, dying processes, types of stitching, down to the significance of the embroidery on the back pockets. There was really no other place where all this assorted information was archived, except in a plethora of posts on Supertalk from guys who were just learning about it all themselves, and couldn't wait to share their newfound knowledge—as well as old vintage heads who had geeked over this kind of stuff for decades.
In terms of sheer information and knowledge, forums still trumped these fledgling menswear blogs. Forums also offered a thriving secondhand market.
"I can pinpoint a laundry list of trends that bubbled out of Supertalk's threads. Part of that came from the fact that our active member base was thoroughly international in scope and the crossover of ideas was high, but the other major component was simply that the taste level ran off the charts regarding the forum's eclectic brand predilection," says Mejia.
Members like Kiya Babzani established Supertalk as a mecca of denim knowledge in the mid-2000s.
"I got into Japanese denim brands in the mid-Nineties on some trips to Hong Kong, where I realized that the Japanese are making reproductions of vintage American garments," says Babzani, whose first forum experience had to do with yo-yos.
"On yo-yo forums, I realized you can harness the power of the community you're already in to support a business if you truly are and were a fan," he says. "When Supertalk came around it was the same game, just a different scene."
Fischer's memories echo this sentiment, recalling a time when forum members geeked out over a pair of jeans: "When someone took the plunge and ordered a pair of Eternal 811s from Japan, it felt really exciting. We were all waiting for it to arrive. Pics would get posted, sizing advice could be shared first-hand from a fellow fucking nerd, and not from some dude trying to force a sale."
PART THREE: You Are SO Getting Negrepped For This
On Supertalk, cultural currency was measured in the form of "rep." Members could rate each other positively or negatively—the latter was a practice known as "negrepping." Out of all the forums, Supertalk was the only one to utilize this process where members actually review each other's contributions to the forum. As founder Wayne Berkowitz explains: "In theory, rep helps the community police itself, though it can be easily manipulated by members. We didn't treat it as seriously as some of the members did. The members on Supertalk exploited it and turned it into as rampant popularity system and we really lost control of it."
On eBay, sellers and buyers rely on feedback to vet whether or not a business is legitimate, or if a potential buyer has a history of not paying. Supertalk's rep system served the same purpose, but evolved into something a little more nitpicky.
"The rep system was just a way of putting a really crude game-like layer on top of the entire forum experience," explains Mejia. "It also served to facilitate interaction between members in the Supermarket section, so you knew the used Supreme you just bought wasn't fake."
Community members used rep as a way to call out people who didn't know what they were talking about. An incorrect or ignorant post about jeans, rap, or anything really, was fair grounds for negrepping, while detailed, informative posts on jeans, fit details on obscure Japanese brands, and reviews of recently opened stores could net members positive rep. On the forum, rep was visualized in the form of a bar under each member's name, which was colored in either a red gradient (mostly negative rep) or a green gradient (mostly positive rep). People with no rep had no bar at all.
If someone wants to spend 3 days camping out to flip a pair of sneaks and make $300, go for it. I always thought there were more productive ways to make, in essence, $4 an hour. - Eric Heins, Corter Leather
According to Fischer, positive or negative rep did play a part in how many grains of salt one should take prior to reading any given member's post, but seniority was also a factor. "Join date and rep gave you a quick reference on how serious you should take this person's bullshit you're about to read. I thought it was fair because there was no restriction on what posts you were allowed to rep."
Eric Heins, founder of Corter Leather, definitely looked at rep when considering making a purchase from a stranger on the forum, but not so much when it came to taking advice. "I learned just as much from people with low rep as with high rep" he says. "I'd just research the low rep people a bit more if I bought something from them." Heins' company remains a one-man operation. He makes a variety of leather goods by hand: belts, wallets, bracelets, key hooks—accoutrements with a patina you have to earn. What separated his business from others is that Heins' orders would come from fellow members of Supertalk.
In fact, Heins decided to start making his own leather wallets because he couldn't afford many of the goods championed by the forum's other members. Being a design major, he picked up the basics from online tutorials.
"I honestly didn't realize I had started a business until people outside of the forums started writing about what I was up to," he says. "It was just a cool way to pay for art school supplies and have a bit of beer money." But people didn't just use Supertalk to order custom, handmade goods. Plenty of members also wanted to score a deal on secondhand designer gear—people like Ryan Willms.
With his meticulously-groomed sidepart, he looks like every other menswear blogger of today. Willms is decked out in a navy blazer, chambray shirt, and flannel bowtie. He is turning various ways in front of the camera for director Jake Davis, adjusting the artfully-rolled cuffs on his indigo-dyed selvedge jeans, a pop of fair isle socks separating them from a pair of burnished brogues. The video was uploaded on January 27, 2010. It was the first in Davis' "Test Shots" series—short vignettes focusing on stylish men and how they dress themselves.
"It was a more intimate option than eBay, and the selection of goods was much more focused," says Willms of Superfuture's market forum, Supermarket. One of the earlier menswear blogs, Willms launched h(y)r collective in the spring of 2008 as a way of highlighting certain items he liked. At the time, sites like A Continuous Lean and Valet were barely a year old. In terms of sheer information and knowledge, forums still trumped these fledgling menswear blogs. Forums also offered a thriving secondhand market.
"It was a great place to get items I couldn't buy locally for a reasonable price, often slightly worn," says Willms. "It still is probably the best place to buy something from a brand like Visvim, since most people can't afford to buy it at retail." Even forums like NikeTalk and StyleForum had kids peddling gear from Supreme and The Hundreds alongside cult Japanese labels, foreshadowing the "buy it then flip it" culture of enterprising hypebeasts today.
"The flipping thing on fashion forums was a bit crazy when Dunks were huge," recalls Heins. "If someone wants to spend 3 days camping out to flip a pair of sneaks and make $300, go for it. I always thought there were more productive ways to make, in essence, $4 an hour."
"It just changed the notion a little bit of what is really exclusive," says Bobby Hundreds. "When I was a kid I saved money to fly to New York to go to Supreme, and ALIFE when it was on Orchard. I couldn't buy those clothes anywhere else. That doesn't exist anymore. You can buy anything, anywhere now. That kind of ruined it, but what are you going to do, fight the Internet?"
I think the Internet sped up the trend process... and the forum subcultures were a part of this. - Ryan Willms, Inventory Magazine
By this time, graphic tees and limited-edition sneakers were starting to get overlooked in favor of hard-wearing jeans and sought-after cult brands like Nom de Guerre, Engineered Garments, and Yuketen. Men like Willms regularly looked at Supertalk and StyleForum for lookbooks, interviews and product shots. Willms was not, however, logging in for style advice.
"It could be a valuable source of information," he says, "but if you go in there blind, you could end up taking advice from somebody who knows less than you. I do feel that for the most part, there were a lot of uneducated folks passing themselves off as an authority."
In 2009, Willms met Fashion Director Simon Roe, and the two decided that h(y)r collective needed to be rebranded. They also decided to go into print. In October 2009, the first issue of Inventory magazine was released. Printed on high quality paper, its first two covers were of Yuketen's Yuki Matsuda, and Christophe Loiron of Mister Freedom. Inside the pages, brands like Engineered Garments, Nom de Guerre, and Duluth Pack were given shine in a way they had never before seen in North America. Yet, these were the sorts of cult brands that had been buzzed about on forums already for months.
"I think the Internet sped up the trend process and the reach," says Willms, "and the forum subcultures were a part of this."
"Superfuture—and forums in general—are usually the first place you see trends emerge," says Babzani. "So you hear about these brands before they've blown up. Some guy in San Francisco, London, or Tokyo goes and discovers some random brand like Band of Outsiders or Rick Owens and posts a photo online. Now, the guy in Austin or wherever knows about this brand. It had nothing to do with advertising or a blogger or a magazine."
Willms begs to differ. "I think that people can get sucked into the forum world a little too much sometimes," he says. "In the big picture, it is still a very small portion of consumers in the global market. It is interesting because it didn't exist 5-10 years ago as it does now, and it does have a certain amount of buying power and influence on some retailers. However, I don't think its dictating trends or changing the market as a whole."
Mejia believes that forums' effect on trends is bigger than many people realize. "I honestly consider forum culture the springboard for almost everything going on in menswear today," he asserts. "None of what's currently going on in terms fashion media, especially as it relates to menswear, would be happening if it wasn't for forums. Superfuture, Hypebeast, and all the others are where the community-at-large of hyper-attentive consumers came to hone its sense of ever-shifting identity and thirst for all things new. A lot of folks claim they never checked forums in their heyday like it's some sort of badge of honor to them, but really: we all know you're lying."
PART FOUR: What Are You Wearing Today?
Kevin Ma, founder of Hypebeast, started his blog in 2005 but didn't implement a message board until a year later. While the term "hypebeast" has become something of a pejorative towards streetwear's primary consumers, it remains one of the most popular lifestyle websites for men's products. During its seven years in existence, Hypebeast has stayed relevant by broadening its scope without losing its filter. It claims to garner about 20 million pageviews a month.
"Though our content has evolved over the years, our mission remains the same—to continuously discover the latest in cool stuff," said Ma. Before, Hypebeast was the website people would come to and find out about releases from brands like A Bathing Ape, The Hundreds, FUCT, and Supreme. Today, they continue to cover those brands—alongside designers like Givenchy and Alexander Wang, as well as cult Japanese labels like Visvim and White Mountaineering, but he doesn't believe that it's solely forum culture that dictates trends.
"Musicians and cultural icons speed up the process as well," he says. "Celebrities have a strong reach because of their fame and media attention and when they do something bold, it easily leaves an impression."
But forums did have their own celebrities—whether button-pushers like wEstsIdE or knowledgeable sources like Kiya on Supertalk, or Ben Baller and future Complex Sneakers Editor Russ Bengtson on NikeTalk. Still, the most popular faces tended to be the ones you could actually see, and most of that action took place on street style's precursor: the What Are You Wearing Today? (WAYWT) and What I Wore Today (WIWT) threads.
Nowadays, WAYWT forum threads have evolved into websites like Lookbook.nu but the phenomenon definitely has its roots in the forums. - Kevin Ma, Hypebeast
"WAYWT kicked off on Superfuture in 2005 or so, and I'm down to fight to defend the fact that we were the first fashion forum with a heavy skew towards male members that had a highly active WAYWT thread," claims Mejia. "I definitely didn't anticipate that it would grow into a huge phenomenon. If anything, I thought it was something that only appealed to the typical Supertalk member."
"It takes a certain kind of personality to post their own outfits on the forums—people can be quite harsh, and it takes courage to withstand the criticism and still stay true to your own style. I admire people who do that and contribute to the fashion community," Ma notes. "Nowadays, WIWT/WAYWT forum threads have evolved into websites like Lookbook.nu but the phenomenon definitely has its roots in the forums."
Much like Reddit's Male Fashion Advice subreddit, brave guys (and a small number of girls) post photos of their outfits, effectively throwing themselves to the wolves. Sometimes it was a way for men in remote locations with a big bank account to stunt—dressed in head-to-toe designer gear. Other times it was merely clueless guys just wondering if their outfit matched.
"Everything from WAYWT photos turning into popular Tumblr posts to people tweeting photos of their new purchases the second they show up at the door. These were things that started on forums," says Babzani.
"I always thought this was an online extension of the way magazines would document street fashion," says Berkowitz. "This goes all the way back to the '80s with magazines like I-D and all the Japanese street fashion magazines."
Supertalk's WAYWT threads got more attention when photographer Sidney Lo, an avid Supertalk contributor, decided to spend three years documenting some of the thread's inhabitants for a self-published book: Taking Pictures of People Who Take Pictures of Themselves.
"Somehow that became the first 'hit' for Superfuture—'What Are You Wearing Today?" says Lo. "Before it was actually a pretty small group of people. They were definitely a lot older streetwear heads who were familiar with the NYC street scene."
Everything from WAYWT photos turning into popular Tumblr posts to people tweeting photos of their new purchases the second they show up at the door. These were things that started on forums. - Kiya Babzani, Self Edge
One of the book's subjects, clad in skin-tight zebra-print pants, electric blue Nike Blazers, and a sea foam graphic T-shirt from Cassette Playa, was an infamous poster known as "wEstsIdE."
"He was a big fucking troll," recalls Lo. "But he was a really intelligent person. He was doing it thoughtfully."
Fischer remembers him dearly: "wEstsIdE is a legend. He changed the way half of the forum typed, and the way I speak to this very day."
Much of the forum slang and vernacular spilled over into the world of blogging and tumblr. Fischer says wEstsIdE helped popularize terms such as "cop," meaning impulsively buying, and "jawns," which usually referred to clothing.
"My very basic understanding of the word 'jawn' is that it's from Philly. It just means thing, any random thing," says Lo.
Lo's travels for the book took him to Singapore, Canada, and all over the West and East Coasts of the United States. By the time Lo had resolved to make his book in 2008, a new website, lookbook.nu, served to further popularize WAYWT? culture. Lo said he had worked with the founders prior to launch.
"Lookbook.nu and other bloggers remind me of the fact that retailers now have to acknowledge the online market as a larger demographic that they're missing out on. The fashion industry could no longer ignore the online presence of fashion."
In today's culture of Instagram and Twitpics, anyone who follows a menswear blogger has seen a pair of cordovan shoes or sought-after Nikes, usually shot from the crotch down. It's not uncommon for both well-known bloggers and the average consumer to photograph new purchases—a practice referred to as a colloquial "haul photo." Forums predated this practice, with entire threads dedicated to members' recent purchases: ranging from mall brand pickups to luxury gear worth thousands of dollars. According to Lo, the main difference between now and then is that it's never been easier for the average person to take a decent looking photo.
"I would say like a good 90% of people in New York probably have a camera phone. And it just so happens that some of the people who take photos of themselves are wearing insanely expensive stuff," he laments.
"Back then I set up a tripod every fucking day, pulled out a camera, pointed it at myself, auto-focused, and took a shot," he says. "That required way more effort than most people would willing to care to try." When Lo's book finally got printed, about 80 Supertalk members had their portraits taken for it, including Kiya Babzani, Jose Mejia, Billy Fischer, and Josh Kissi of Street Etiquette.
"I don't mean this in any negative way at all, but you can follow Street Etiquette's own style evolution as a guideline to track how the forum tastes evolved—except for the goth ninja set," says Fischer.
Anyone who's followed the sartorial tastes of Street Etiquette's Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs can see how they went from beanies, cardigans and Air Max sneakers to crisply-tailored tweed suits and camouflage button downs. They won't, however, find any indication of the "street goth" look currently favored by rappers like A$AP Rocky and brands like En Noir.
PART FIVE: Goth Ninjas and the Future of Forums
The term "goth ninja" is another example of slang that originated on forums. It refers to a dark aesthetic that mixes drapey silhouettes with washed lambskin leather jackets and designers like Rick Owens, Boris Bidjan Saberi, and Siki Im. These high-end designers were often talked about on forums like TheFashionSpot and also Superfuture—which is how Eugene Rabkin discovered Supertalk.
"I stumbled upon Superfuture through TheFashionSpot. I think it was on the Dior Homme section of the forum back in 2005 or 2006," he says. "I was dissatisfied with the way that TheFashionSpot was run. I didn't want to read about models and celebrities. I just wanted to see the clothes and know about the designers and their philosophies. That was all."
A fan of metal and industrial music, Rabkin credits Nine Inch Nails' music video for "March Of The Pigs" as inspiring his style. In the video, the band thrashes about in a flesh-like, cavernous setting, dressed in all manner of sleeveless shirts, leather pants, and drapey v-neck shirts. All of it is black.
"I wanted to live in the clothes," says Rabkin. "I view style as being an outward expression of who we are internally. Those guys spoke to me through their designs."
And what exactly does dark designer clothing have to say?
"That the world is not this cute, optimistic place," Rabkin explains. "It's not a 'Barbie' world. There are problems we have to face. The world is not always sunny, but still a beautiful place."
Rabkin's forum, StyleZeitgeist, was established in 2006. Its dark aesthetic catered to fans of brands like Julius, Yohji Yamamoto, and Cloak. Carol Christian Poell was revered highly. Whereas Self Edge became the go-to store for a standard Superfuture uniform, StyleZeitgeist's members patronized Atelier New York. Both forums place an emphasis on craftsmanship, but for the SZ member, the artisan nature of the goods must also be reflected in the aesthetic. Whereas a modern-day menswear enthusiast would love details like functional button holes at the cuff, the average SZ member appreciates clever design nods like asymmetrical zippers and seams that are literally taped together.
They are the geeks — but the fact of the matter is when these geeks get together and they share in these passions a lot of people listen. - Dan Gill, CEO of Huddler
"Fashion, at its best, is a creative discipline alongside art, music, literature, and architecture," Rabkin says. Like Inventory before it, StyleZeitgeist recently made the jump into print. Rabkin is no stranger to writing, he's contributed articles to Vogue Russia and other publications, and held down some teaching gigs at Parsons, where he taught critical and fashion writing. StyleZeitgeist recently dropped its second issue in April, featuring a story about the friendship between noted Antwerp Six designer Ann Demeulemeester and musician P.J. Harvey, photographed by the designer's husband, Patrick Robyn.
Despite launching the magazine, he still maintains a very active presence on the forum. "Forums will be here forever. They draw people from everywhere."
According to Kiya Babzani, clothing forums' influence is behooved by software companies that are helping them become more popular. "Forum culture is thriving and with a company like Huddler behind a lot of the most successful forums, it's not a surprise that more people are turning to forums for information. They're the brains behind some of the top forums in the world."
Dan Gill, the CEO of Huddler, does not consider himself a style guy in the least. Founded in 2007, Huddler makes software that allows forums to run more smoothly or gives them a much-needed facelift. Huddler's software made over the front ends of both StyleForum and NikeTalk. Currently, StyleForum nets about 10 million pageviews a month. For NikeTalk, it's closer to 7. Gill thinks both of these forums exemplify market leaders in their respective fields: clothing and sneakers.
"I do think they are the early adopters," he says. "They are the geeks—but the fact of the matter is when these geeks get together and they share in these passions a lot of people listen." One of StyleForum's most popular threads—The Allen Edmonds Appreciation Thread—might only have one or two thousand responses in it, but can generate over 250,000 pageviews. A lot of that traffic is due to optimal search results, which Huddler helps perfect.
"A lot of people come in from search engines, and a lot of lurkers on the site read this content and are influenced by it, and that's where we see them to be so powerful in terms of being an opportunity for savvy marketers to build relationships with these communities," says Gill.
As far as social media is concerned, Gill says forums offer more in-depth conversation than Twitter or Facebook ever could—even more than most popular blogs. "Blogs are still one-to-many communication, whereas forums are many-to-many communication, and I really love that aspect," he said. Huddler's strategy to capitalize on the wealth of content stored on StyleForum? Condensing threads like the Allen Edmonds Appreciation Thread into an easily digestible read, curating the truly informative posts, while leaving some of the snarky humor intact. Of course, Gill isn't going to do this himself, rather, the forum's members help determine the usefulness of certain posts.
"That's the great thing about forums: they do self regulate in that way," he says. "If you don't know what you're talking about, you'll get sniffed out in that way and pushed out very quickly and I think that's a good thing in terms of keeping the caliber of opinion high."
With the advent of Tumblr and Twitter, many of the trends and brands that are currently given shine on blogs and magazines have been seen in forums months, if not years ago. If fashion is cyclical, then the types of people that populate these forums are like a chalk mark at the very beginning of the wheel's next rotation—fairly close to the ground so it won't get noticed yet, but ultimately destined to be at the forefront.
"Award Tour, Street Etiquette, all those guys were just kids on forums plugging their shit constantly. Now they're writing and being written about in the feature articles, working with and advising the huge companies because they got such a global, rounded education on these forums," says Heins.
Mejia has a more aggrandizing outlook: "I think if you've opened a menswear-related business sometime within the last five years, you owe a huge debt to forum culture."
It would seem that in the increasingly faster-paced world of men's clothing, your rep just might precede you.
InterviewsHypebeasts

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Those trading small accounts wishing to primarily sell premium incur the task of trying to gain as much long theta as possible for the buying power that they have at their disposal. In this week's tastybites, we share a few tips on how traders of small accounts can reduce their buying power reduction (BPR) in certain trades while still gaining the exposure that they desire.
Tom and Tony talk through adding long wings to short straddle positions in order to reduce the amount of BPR that the trade requires. Though this reduces the credit received, traders still gain long theta and are exposed to less gamma risk. Next, the duo show how options can be used to replicate long or short stock so that small account traders do not have to put up as much money to gain delta exposure. Finally, the conversation concludes with some notes on why we sell premium primarily during high IV Rank (IVR) environments; that is, we get a larger credit and potential return on capital (ROC) for the BPR posted for the trade.


Just purchased a new Caravan? What batteries should you buy?
There are many accessories for Caravans, such as the different types of batteries, fridges, solar panels, battery chargers to name a few. Trying to find out what best suits your needs can be difficult, especially with the huge variety available to choose from in the market today.
Home of 12 Volt has a great reputation for knowing what best suits your need. Just bought your first Caravan and need to know what type/how many batteries best suits your needs? Putting Solar Panels on your Caravan and need to know how many Solar Panels you'll need and which type of Regulator you'll need with to put with them? Home of 12 Volt can offer advice on these problems and more, helping you work out what to purchase and supplying people to fit them to your Caravan, Motor home, 4WD or Boat.
We at Home of 12 Volt want nothing more than to help you to Get Outback and Stay There. Spend time browsing the Home of 12 Volt Northern website or if you're near Adelaide why not visit our store at Pooraka and experience our service for yourself!
Safe and happy traveling from the Team at Home of 12 Volt Northern!
Home of 12 Volt Northern opened in September 2006 at Montague Farm Shopping Centre. Since then we have continued to expand and improve our product range and service, which caters for all of your 4WD, camping and caravaning needs. A strong partnership has seen Home of 12 Volt Northern grow into a respected and trusted business that now has customers from all over Australia.
Home of 12 Volt still supplies Thumper Battery Power Packs, still very popular with Home of 12 Volt customers, have the Highest Cranking Power and fastest recharging time of any Power Pack on the market today. The Thumper power packs are completely Australian manufactured and owned. With over 10 years on the market and over 90,000 units sold Australia wide, the Thumper has proven to last the test of time!
Home of 12 Volt can help you accessorise your Caravan with Solar Panels, Inverters, Battery chargers and plenty more. The Home of 12 Volt Northern Team will happily assist you where they can with any problem, no matter how small. Our advice is always courteous, professional and honest. As every situation is different, we at Home of 12 Volt Northern always recommend what is best for you, whether it be it our own range or another.
How is Home of 12 Volt different?
Home of 12 Volt Northern operates from a retail branch that can be found at Montague Farm Shopping Centre, Shop 1b, 2 Montague Road, Pooraka in Adelaide's Northern Suburbs. Customers may also find us at the majority of the Caravan & Camping, 4WD and Fishing Shows around Australia.
By combining sales with manufacturing, servicing and shows, Home of 12 Volt Northern has the advantage of being able to test the equipment it recommends. Home of 12 Volt can help you pick and choose which Inverters are more reliable, which Battery Chargers will increase the life of your battery and which Thumper will suit your power needs most appropriately.
There are many things Home of 12 Volt can offer the weekend camper or the full blown caravanner or 4w driver who wants to travel around Australia forever and a day. Spend time browsing the Home of 12 Volt Northern website and if you get the opportunity visit our store at Pooraka in South Australia and experience great old fashioned service, reliability and a great range of products.
Stay safe and happy traveling with help from the team at Home of 12 Volt!


text:
Chilifest 2019 Official Website/John Hord
John Hord
John Hord – LIVE AT CHILIFEST
FRIDAY (APRIL 5TH, 2019) – Set Time Coming Soon – BUY TICKETS
About John Hord Band:
John Hord has been taking the Texas Country music scene by a storm. Growing up he found influences in almost everything he listened to, from George Strait and Garth Brooks to his very own father, Houston singer Jeff Hord. He spent his younger years singing around campfires and in a church band, and decided to pursue music professionally in early 2016.
You can hear the early traditional country influences and hear the Texas Country influences of Aaron Watson and Cody Johnson as soon as he begins to sing. He's used these influences to mold his sound, and begin telling stories through his songwriting. Including his first radio single, "Blame It On the Whiskey."
As he's continued to grow as an artist, John has followed the paths of his influences and began heavily playing the Texas Country scene. When he's not playing shows he enjoys spending his time with his family, hunting, fishing, and playing the guitar.
His first single, "Blame It On the Whiskey," peaked at #33 on the Texas Regional Radio Report and top 40 on the CDXtraction charts.
His next single releases March 2017 "More Than I'm Used To" off of his EP released in March 2017.


A nation-wide shortage of sheep and cattle has seen prices sky-rocket at local sales, with record prices being achieved at Finley in the last few months.
Elders livestock agent James Kennedy said the market boost is a reflection of changing supply and demand rates.
With sheep sales reaching a high of $217 at the Finley saleyards, he also said this year's yarding numbers have had a fantastic turn-around from 2016.
''Up until this year, we hadn't seen a sale over $200, but we've had quite a few sell for over $200 recently,'' he said.
Overall, Mr Kennedy said on a per kilo basis, saleyard prices were stronger compared to over the hook rates.
''We've seen better finished lambs this year with more weight, and the stock has been quality,'' he said.
Like sheep sales, cattle prices have also been strong at recent sales despite lower yarding numbers. The most recent cattle sale was held on June 7, with the next to be held today.
''At the fortnightly cattle sales, there's been a consistent yarding of around 350 cattle, whereas 12 months ago we saw the yarding reach around 500,'' Mr Kennedy said.
For vealers, prices have reached towards 390c per kilo, while cows have seen sales of 260c per kilo and heavy steers have climbed to 330c per kilo.
''It's an exciting time for the industry and as the supply has dropped, producers are being rewarded with great prices,'' Mr Kennedy said.


Do you plan to participate in the May 2016 Commencement ceremony? The deadline to apply for graduation and RSVP for the ceremony (two separate things) is March 4.
For more information on the ceremony, how to apply for graduation, how to order your cap and gown and just about anything else you need to know, go to the Commencement page on the College's website.
On Tuesday, March 8, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., the WVU Career Services Center will hold its 5th annual Mocktail Party & Fashion Show in the Mountainlair Ballrooms.
This spring, the West Virginia University College of Media will continue to push the boundaries of storytelling with the help of two new media innovators.
When black soldiers returned home from World War I, many of them went to battle on a different front, becoming the foot soldiers of the modern civil rights movement.
West Virginia University Reed College of Media associate professor Joel Beeson has spent the past decade researching the black experience in WWI. Now he will take his expertise to Washington, D.C., and speak to Congress about that time period in our Nation's history and its similarities to the current racial climate in America.
Beeson is one of three professors in the country invited to the special briefing—the other two experts are from Emory University and New York University. The event is being held in honor of Black History Month and will take place February 25. Speakers will focus on the contributions that African Americans made during WWI.
West Virginia University Reed College of Media Professor Joel Beeson is receiving international recognition for his work in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) storytelling.
His ground-breaking reporting project, Fractured Tour: An Immersive VR Tour of Selma's Divides, was singled out of 1,500 entries to win the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) "Best of Festival" award. Only 18 winners received this prestigious honor at the BEA Festival of Media Arts.
"Fractured Tour" won first place in the Faculty Interactive Multimedia competition. The project is a product of collaboration between Morgan State University's School of Global Journalism and Communication, a historically black urban institution, and the Reed College of Media. Morgan State student Emily Pelland was the assistant producer for the piece.
Journalist and author Sam Quinones will be featured along with Associate Professor and American Pain author John Temple for a discussion on America's Opiate Epidemic.
The next David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas will be held on March 1, 2016 at 7:30pm in the Fukushima Auditorium at the Health Sciences Center.
The event is free and open to the public. A book signing to follow.
The center, which is an expansion of the WVU Reed College of Media, officially opened to the public on January 29 with an open house celebration.
Students and faculty showcased projects involving virtual and augmented reality (AR/VR), sensor journalism, community branding, 3D modeling, digital storytelling and even computer brain interface. President E. Gordon Gee was on hand to experiment with the center's technology and take 360° selfies with students. WVU Reed College of Media Dean Maryanne Reed and MIC Creative Director Dana Coester welcomed the packed house and thanked those who supported the project, which was nearly three years in the making.
WVU STUDENTS: Do you have big ideas? Of course you do! So, enter THE QUESTION's big ideas contest!
THE QUESTION invites all WVU students to submit a short essay (300 word maximum) or short video (2 minute maximum) in response to our question. The top student contribution for each question will be published on our website. Submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria: technical quality of writing or video, creativity, interest to a university audience, and the accuracy of ideas presented.
Christine Lesniakowski, Associate Media and Digital Director at MARC USA in Pittsburgh, will talk to student in the Media planning and strategy class via Blue Jean video conference.
MARC USA is the biggest agency in Pittsburgh. This session will be valuable for students who are interested in digital, social, internet media.
Strategic communications senior and WVU American Advertising Federation (AAF) Ad Club secretary Charity Junkins can now count herself among an elite group of advertising students nationwide. Junkins is one of twenty-five AAF members in the entire country selected to participate in the Chicago Portfolio School (CPS) webinar.
The CPS webinar, which is co-sponsored by AAF, is completely online and is a year's worth of portfolio school condensed into two to three months. Topics include the hiring process for firms and agencies, the difference between concept and execution and understanding the importance of keeping them separate, and how to land the ideal internship.
Junkins was selected based on two essays and a personal slogan. For her essays, she selected two topics that she is passionate about.


Lincoln is one of the iconic architecture in Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan New York.
We enjoy seeing Lincoln Center especially at night when the steps are all lite up and around this time of the year, it has also the Christmas tree in the center of the building.
The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center is running until December 30, 2012, it is a very popular Christmas event in NYC. Other times of the year, Lincoln Center also host New York city Ballet, New York philharmonic, The Julliard School, and many other performaning Arts.
We have been Upper West Side Lincoln Center residents for many years now. We love the neighborhood and have sold many condos to other Upper West Side lovers. Let us introduce you to the neighborhood and show you what this neighborhood has to offer. Call us today at (917)837-8869 to discuss the what is available on the market for what you are looking for.


text:
by Audrey Couloumbis
Open eBook Preview
War Games (eBook)
by Audrey Couloumbis, Akila Couloumbis (Author)
Based on a true story of World War II.
For 12-year-old Petros, World War II feels unreal and far away. What's real is working in his papa's garden. Playing marbles with his friends. Fighting with his older brother, Zola. Zola, who must always be first. Who must always be best. But when the Germans invade Greece, the war suddenly comes impossibly close. Overnight, neighbors become enemies. People begin to keep secrets (Petros's family most of all). And for the first time, Petros has the chance to show Zola that he's not just a little brother but that he can truly be counted on. Soon what were once just boys' games become matters of life and death as Petros and Zola each wonder if, like their resistance fighter cousin, they too can make a difference.
:
Average Reading Time Login to Personalize
Categories: Children & Teens
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Audrey Couloumbis ...
Write a Review for War Games
by Audrey Couloumbis, Akila Couloumbis
War Games has been added
War Games has been added to your wish list.


text:
Slide the City event draws scrutiny from Ann Arbor officials
Updated: Apr. 03, 2019, 2:09 a.m. | Published: Jul. 07, 2015, 9:37 a.m.
Photo gallery: Slide the City Ann Arbor
Gallery: Photo gallery: Slide the City Ann Arbor
By Ryan Stanton | ryanstanton@mlive.com
While thousands enjoyed a slippery ride down an inflatable water slide on State Street on Saturday, it wasn't a universally positive experience for everyone.
Ann Arbor officials are looking into what led to unexpectedly long lines at the Slide the City event, and concerns such as lack of water for people standing in the hot sun.
"I was hearing from people it was taking about 2 1/2 hours just to get one time through," said City Council Member Julie Grand, D-3rd Ward, who raised the issue at Monday night's council meeting. "And when I spoke to the manager, she said they oversold tickets. It was really infuriating for people, and it felt dangerous, too."
Grand said she checked in with police officers working the event and they indicated as of 2:30 p.m. there had been one instance of someone needing medical attention because of dehydration. She considers it a public health issue.
When the City Council was asked a month ago to approve closing part of State Street between Monroe and Packard streets on July 4 for the first-of-its-kind event for Ann Arbor, there wasn't any discussion at the council table.
But after seeing the event in action Saturday, city officials say whether the event returns in 2016 will depend on how Slide the City's promotors respond to this year's concerns. The Salt Lake City company behind the event, which travels from city to city across the country, hopes it will return to Ann Arbor in 2016.
"I think people looked forward to the Slide the City event," said Mayor Christopher Taylor. "If we're going to have it again, if we're going to welcome them back to the city, there are a lot of questions that are going to need to be answered. We're going to need to be assured that they have treated customers this year, and that they will treat customers next year, in an acceptable manner."
The 600-foot water slide opened around 11 a.m. Saturday, but the first hour was only for VIP riders who had purchased unlimited, all-day passes. After the slide opened up to everyone else at noon, wait times increased.
Meredith Dalenburg, event director for Slide the City, said the company sold more than 3,000 tickets. One reason for the extended wait times, she explained, was riders having to sign a new legal waiver the day of the event.
"We've been working with the city to get everything handled through the legal department, and we had to make a couple changes to the waiver just this week," she said during Saturday's event. "Because we had so many people that had already pre-registered and not sign that waiver yet, we decided that we would just have everybody sign a second waiver here so it went OK with the legal department in Ann Arbor."
As a condition of approval of the permit for the event, the city was required to be included in the Slide the City release and waiver form. City officials said Slide the City's electronic registration process keeps a list of each person registered online and counts them as having signed the waiver, while individuals who do not register online are required to sign a physical copy of the waiver on-site.
Since the electronic copy of the waiver online did not properly include the city of Ann Arbor when registration opened, execution of a physical copy of the waiver was required on-site for both online registrants and same-day registrants.
Grand used her opening speaking time at Monday night's council meeting to encourage members of the public who had bad experiences Saturday to contact Slide the City. She said she expects some refunds to be given.
Grand said she took her family, including two children ages 6 and 9, to Slide the City on Saturday and experienced the long lines firsthand.
"I did have a few concerns," she said. "We had friends visiting from Chicago, a whole family, so there were eight of us, and we waited for an hour and 20 minutes just to check in, even though we had pre-registered. And then we went to try to find the line, and it went from Monroe to about Ali Baba's down Packard."
She said there were some people selling water, but people standing in bathing suits don't necessarily have money on them.
"The people from Slide the City really didn't have any water available, so you're standing in the sun for 2 1/2 hours," she said.
"And also businesses were taking advantage of people in line, charging -- I was hearing -- $4 and $6 for water," she added.
Grand said her family and their friends ended up leaving and coming back when lines were shorter. She said luckily her house is nearby and they could do that, but she's still concerned about the people who had to endure the long lines.
"When we have our out-of-town guests, we want to provide a positive experience in the city when we approve events like this," she said. "And I didn't think that was what this event was doing. They were really fleecing people in some way. If you bought three or more slides and it was going to take you 2 1/2 hours to get through the first one, then that was false advertising to me."
Grand said she wouldn't be in favor of approving the event again next year unless changes are made.
She said she has spoken with the city's administration, and she'll be following up with Slide the City to see if any refunds are given.
"If you can't get through the slides you paid a lot of money for -- and it was a significant amount of money -- in a reasonable time, and they oversold tickets, then they weren't fulfilling their end of the obligation," she said.
Grand said her children did get to go down the slide quite a few times later in the day, so it wasn't all bad.
[View the story "Slide the City - Ann Arbor" on Storify]
Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com or 734-623-2529 or follow him on Twitter.


text:
Mining Through Roots: Displacement, Poverty and the Global Extractive Industry
July 7, 2010 in Asia, Capitalism, Class, Enclosures, Environmental Justice
Sakura Saunders' excellent article from ZNet exposing one form of the "modern Enclosures" – displacing communities from their land to make money for transnational corporations, in this case mining companies in Papua New Guinea. Read this closely!
As described by Silvia Federici's excellent book Caliban and the Witch, the Enclosures are the violence and displacement that created the first class of landless workers in Europe, commodifying their labor with the wage. And these Enclosures have continued to expand and develop alongside the system of capitalism, in fact I will make the argument that this violence is the base, the foundation, for the system as a whole, and it could not function without it.
We must never forget that at every moment, capitalism is committing violence against poor and indigenous communities in order to make its profits. As Sakura cites, "more than 10 million people are involuntarily displaced every year to make room for development projects." So much for 'laissez-faire'! [alex]
Mining Through Roots
Displacement, Poverty and the Global Extractive Industry
By Sakura Saunders
In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, several villages rest on a man-made island literally surrounded by an open pit gold mine and its expanding waste dumps. As the waste dumps have grown, they've devoured homes, schools, and most of the areas once used for gardening, making the indigenous population rely on money to acquire food while crowding them into increasingly squashed living quarters. At the same time, these same communities – the original landowners of the mine site – are criminalized for what the company calls "illegal mining," a practice of panning for gold that the local community considers its birthright.
This so-called illegal mining is used by the company as a pretext for detentions, killings, and even the burning down of an entire hillside of homes*. Meanwhile, public funds are diverted from schools and hospitals to deal with "law and order" issues and the construction of a multi-million dollar fence to surround the mine site.
This scenario – the protection of the have's from the have-not's by a process of criminalization, militarization and the construction of walls – is an all-too-familiar response to the social issues created by global capitalism and colonization. Immigration policies criminalize people, militarize borders, and separate communities along boundaries set up to trap people in an economic reality that conspires against them. Meanwhile, the developed nations that aggressively protect their borders against new entrants have created a global economic and military system that forces people out of rural areas that are then used by large industry to extract resources, be they cash crops, minerals, lumber, oil and gas, or the industrial infrastructure needed to produce and export these goods (such as dams, highways, and pipelines). This rural to urban migration turns cities into sweatshops with expendable labor and the corresponding rights, leaving few options for the dispossessed. Labor exploitation becomes codified in Temporary Foreign Worker Programs, where developed countries attempt to receive maximum benefit from the desperation of the world's impoverished.
In Papua New Guinea, approximately 5000 adults** live within the Special Mining Lease area of Barrick Gold's Porgera mine. They are desperately seeking resettlement into another area that could provide them with the means to live the subsistence lifestyle that remains the livelihood of 75% of the country. Their requests have been denied by the company, which prefers to offer individual cash payments to villagers as their homes fall victim to waste-related landslides and police-instigated arson.
They are not alone. According to the Sustainable Development Sourcebook for the World Bank Group's Extractive Industry Review, more than 10 million people are involuntarily displaced every year to make room for development projects***. Worse, these development refugees are not adequately compensated for their forced removal. The World Bank Group's review of involuntary resettlement in WBG-assisted projects between 1986 and 1993 found that only one project had satisfactorily compensated and rehabilitated affected people.
Besides the direct impact of development projects on migration, World Bank-promoted privatization schemes which convert collectively-held or untitled "state" land into individual land titles lead to the consolidation of land ownership by locking farmers into a path of debt and land-loss. This trend has been observed in many countries, from Latin American countries like Mexico and Honduras to South East Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia, which did not have privately held land until 1989. Additionally, many countries, such as Canada, have mining rights that supersede property rights such that the state reserves the right to usurp land if it can be used for mineral development.
Despite evidence that land privatization leads to land consolidation and increased social stratification, the lead advocate of these policies, Hernando de Soto, is hailed as the "Poor Man's Capitalist." De Soto argues that land titles pave the way out of poverty for poor people, as it gives them access to capital through loans. His stated analysis fails to recognize that this process also leads to land-loss, because the capital accessed through property titles necessarily puts land ownership at risk, especially when domestic markets are opened to cheap imports.
De Soto's simplistic analysis and dangerous oversight seem disingenuous when viewed in combination with his former post as the president of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries. Additionally, his ideas are promoted by mining industry magnates such as Peter Munk, the chairman and founder of Barrick Gold, who benefit from policies that facilitate privatization and dispossession. In particular, Barrick's claim to land on and near the Pascua Lama project on the border of Chile and Argentina relies on a series of fraudulent land claims to collectively held- Diaguita Huascoaltinos land. Additionally, Barrick's manipulation of Native Title at their Lake Cowal mine in New South Wales, Australia has led to the desecration of a Wiradjuri Sacred site and important wetland.
While large-scale mining operations directly displace people from their land and livelihoods all over the world, the environmental havoc caused by mining operations further pollute and deplete soil and water sources, robbing the land of its ability to sustain life. Approvals for such projects typically occur on a national level, with minimal consultation of impacted communities and minimal infrastructure provided to combat the negative social and environmental impacts that these operations bring.
Canada's Dirty Secret is only a Secret to Canadians
In 2003, the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxic Waste and Products had made special note of Canadian corporate behavior and lack of accountability. The report also noted that illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes by Canadian corporations had adversely impacted human rights. The rapporteur recommended "that particular attention is paid to allegations relating to threats to the traditional lifestyles and rights of indigenous groups" and called on "the Canadian and other Governments to explore ways of establishing extraterritorial jurisdiction over human rights violations, committed by companies operating abroad."
Since then, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) joined the chorus condemning the Canadian mining Industry. It called on Canada in 2007 to better regulate and monitor its mining corporations abroad when they are operating on indigenous lands.
According to a Harper government-issued report entitled "Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector," 75 per cent of the world's mining and exploration companies are headquartered in Canada. This report rejected previous attempts to create corporate accountability in Canada's mining industry and offered no tools for redressing the abuses of Canadian industry abroad. Instead, it offered more subsidies to Canadian mining companies under the banner of CSR.
In reaction to this dismal response to calls for corporate accountability, Liberal John McKay has introduced private members bill C300 to introduce consequences to corporations that abuse human rights abroad. This bill – while a positive step forward in holding corporations to account – exposes the degree to which the Canadian government supports and promotes its mining industry abroad. This is because this bill merely withholds governments funds and diplomatic support for companies found – following a government investigation – to be abusing human rights. Government support (including billions worth in CPP investments) accounts for a large force in financing and promoting mining projects abroad, and the mining companies are fighting hard to maintain this relationship. But as awareness of these projects continues to grow, so does the awareness of Canada as a player in a global system of exploitation, displacement, and long-term environmental devastation.
These combined insights challenge us to abandon the charitable posturing that often accompanies debates around immigration, as they force us to recognize our own part in these systems of exploitation. In order to really address the impacts of global poverty, we must remove our support for the mechanisms which create it.
* Between April and July 2009, police officers in Papua New Guinea – based on situation reports presented by Barrick Gold – illegally and forcibly evicted people from their homes and then proceeded to burn down a hillside of homes. When the villagers – original landowners from that area – rebuilt their homes, the police burnt them down again in June and then again in July. Locals allege that the company burnt down the homes to make way for mine expansion.
** This figure is according to estimates from the Porgera Landowners Association, who only surveyed the adults in the area.
*** This figure includes displaced people from non-World Bank funded projects. The Sourcebook was authored by Robert Goodland, who served the WBG as chief environmental adviser in Washington, D.C. for twenty-five years, during which time he wrote – and persuaded the WBG to adopt – most of its social and environmental safeguard policies.
Tamela Vandorien
Long time viewer / 1st time poster. Really enjoying reading the blog, keep up the excellent work. Will definitely start posting more in the near future.
hi tamela!
thanks for posting. hope to hear more from you.
« BP Using Toxic Dispersant to Hide True Size of Oil Spill
Break the Chains of Student Debt! »


text:
Last Night's Action: Uh-Oh
Peter Trinkle
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Phoenix 112 New York 107: Don't let the score fool you,other than a forfeit, there was little chance the Knicks were ever going to win this game. The Suns are an offensive force and New York doesn't play defense, so the result is no surprise. It's what happened in the game that could change the rest of the season.
Eddy Curry limped off the court and the season may have gone with him. At this point, we know very little about his injury other than the fact the medical staff called it "serious". What we do know is that without Curry, the Knicks are headed into a tailspin. He was the focus of the offense and had even added some rebounding this year. Tests are expected back sometime today.
Randolph gets an extension: He only turned the entire franchise around from the Art Howe era, so why he was one of the lowest-paid managers in the league is a mystery to us, but now Willie should be here through 2010. Now, if Omar can only find another pitcher….
Around the NHL: While the All-Star Game ended in 12-9 victory for the West, it was the new uniforms that stole the show. Meanwhile, the Rangers decided to waive Darius Kasparitis and apparently didn't tell him about it. Nice work Glen!
Art Howe
Darius Kasparitis
eddy curry
Star Game
The Suns
MORE miscellaneous
A holiday guide to NYC recycling
What you can and can't recycle from your holiday gifts and celebrations.
Arya Sundaram
Even in a melting pot, uncommon names can boil over
New Yorkers share their experiences of carrying names that are challenging for English speakers, along with the perpetual microaggressions they must navigate.
Enrico Denard
Gothamist unveils new website, larger vision for combined WNYC newsroom
Audrey Cooper
A note to our commenting community
Veronica de Souza
Siblings, Cats And Other Disruptions: New York Students Reflect On Their First Week Of Online Learning
Caroline Bauman, Chalkbeat


text:
/**
 * This file contains the "in-memory database", or as it really is, a blob of JS objects, as well as
 * handlers and helpers to pick at and update the data. We will move to a real database soon, but right now,
 * losing history on server restart is not a problem since we're building an alpha version.
 */
var logger = require('logger');
var _ = require('lodash');
var Meeting = require('model/meeting');

var db = {
    meetings: [],

    /**
     * Creates a new meeting.
     * @param settings
     * @param admin
     * @returns {Meeting}
     */
    createMeeting: function (settings, admin) {
        var meeting = new Meeting(settings, admin);
        this.meetings.push(meeting);
        logger.info('Created meeting with id [%s]', meeting.id);

        return meeting;
    },

    /**
     * Gets a meeting by id.
     * @param meetingId
     * @returns {Meeting}
     */
    getMeeting: function (meetingId) {
        var meeting = _.find(this.meetings, function (meeting) {
            return meeting.id === meetingId;
        });

        return meeting === undefined ? null : meeting;
    }
};

module.exports = db;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: JInt (Javascript interpreter for .NET) with multistatement in Formula I try to use JInt (Javascript Interpreter for .NET) with simple expression:
var engineTest = new Engine ()
    .SetValue ("X", 10.1)
    .SetValue ("Y", 20.5)
    .SetValue ("Code", "A");
    var dFormula = @"if (Code === 'A'){X+Y;} if (Code === 'B'){Y-X;}";
var result = engineTest.Execute(dFormula).GetCompletionValue();

for this Formula result will be 'undefined'. If I change dFormula to
var dFormula = @"if (Code === 'A'){X+Y;}";

or
var dFormula = @"if (Code === 'A'){X+Y;} else if (Code === 'B'){Y-X;}";

result will be correct. What's wrong with JInt (2.5.0).
Or may be it doesn't support multiple statement in Formula? I tried to wrap Formula with "{}" bracket with no result.

A: The reason is:
Before executing each statement JInt resets Complition value. So, this formula will work only if Code === "B", otherwise result will be overwritten with 'undefined' value.
There are 2 ways to fix it:

*

*Combine into single statement (use else).

*Add to formula output variable, like
var dFormula = @"if (Code === 'A'){RESULT = X+Y;} if (Code === 'B'){RESULT = Y-X;}";

A: Why not use return:
if (Code === 'A') return X+Y;
if (Code === 'B') return Y-X;

or
return Code === 'A' ? X+Y : (Code === 'B' ? Y-X : undefined);

or using a switch
switch (Code) {
    case a:
...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
McCormack Power Drive DNA-1 power amplifier
Robert Harley | Apr 24, 1995 | First Published: Apr 24, 1992
For many audiophiles, choosing a power amplifier is a vexing problem. Just how much must one spend to get true high-end sound and a solid build quality? How much power is really needed? And what amplifiers are suitable for driving low-impedance loudspeakers?
These common questions reflect a need in the marketplace for an amplifier with high-end sonics, good build quality, and beefy enough design to drive even the most difficult loads. The ideal amplifier would approach the musicality of the best amplifiers available, have more than enough power to drive virtually any load, and be priced within the range of most music lovers. This utopian product would also put most of the build money into sonics rather than thick front panels and lavish cosmetics. In short, it would be a high-end amplifier for Everyman.
The amplifier under review, the $1995 McCormack Power Drive DNA-1, attempts to address this need. It aspires to high-end sonics, is a high-current powerhouse, and places an emphasis on most sonic performance for the money rather than ostentatious appearance. I've seen this product at shows and been eager to hear it had to offer. Does it fulfill the dream of nearly every audiophile—a truly musical muscle amplifier at an affordable price?
It's my job to find out. My name's Harley. I'm an audiophile.
Power Drive
The $1995 DNA-1 Power Drive amplifier is one of the first products to bear the "McCormack" name. Although McCormack may be unfamiliar to audiophiles, the other products from Steve McCormack certainly aren't; Steve is the designer of such highly regarded products from The Mod Squad as Tiptoes, the Line Drive, and the Phono Drive. In an interview elsewhere in this issue, Steve talks about the relationship between the musical experience and electronic design.
In deciding to design and build a power amplifier, Steve McCormack's goal was to make an amplifier that would drive virtually any loudspeaker, be intrinsically musical, and didn't cost an arm and a leg. He felt that the musicality of cost-no-object amplifiers could be brought to a more popular price. He did this by incorporating only cost-effective components, eschewing lavish cosmetics, and paying close attention to the product's execution and build.
The DNA-1 is attractively finished, with a ¼" grey faceplate and the McCormack logo recessed behind the front panel. An on/off rocker switch is accompanied by two LEDs to indicate power-on and if the protection circuit has been tripped. The rear panel holds a pair of gold-plated RCA input jacks, fuse holder, and IEC AC jack. Unusually, both five-way binding post and terminal strips are provided for loudspeaker connection. This gives the user the choice of screw terminals or posts, and also provides for easier bi-wiring. The screw terminals are the preferred connection method, both because they provide better contact with the spade lug and because they're connected more directly to the output stage.
The chassis is made from copper-plated steel, flanked by large heatsinks on either side of the unit. A "mechanical grounding" spike is provided that threads into the chassis bottom rear. In addition, DNA-1's Soft Shoes mounting feet can be fitted with Tiptoes for reportedly improved performance.
Inside, I was impressed by the DNA-1's clean layout and minimum of point-to-point wiring. The 900VA power transformer (made by Counterpoint) is mounted at the chassis front, with the left- and right-channel output boards on the chassis sides. The double-sided glass-epoxy input board—which also contains the protection circuitry and some power-supply components—is located at the rear.
The DNA-1 uses a unique power-supply configuration that gives it its name: Distributed Node Amplifier (DNA). Rather than have a few (usually four) very large reservoir capacitors next to each other (and to the bridge rectifiers), the DNA technique distributes many smaller reservoir capacitors among the output stage. Each output transistor (there are eight per channel) has its own 4000µF electrolytic capacitor mounted directly next to it. This gives the DNA-1 its unique internal appearance: 16 horizontally mounted caps attached to the output boards rather than a few vertical sodacan-sized caps on the chassis bottom. According to Steve McCormack, the DNA technique reduces the impedance of the high-current power supply, resulting in a greater sense of dynamic ease and clarity.
The power-supply regulation, mounted on the input and driver board, is a custom, all-discrete design. This circuit supplies ±60V to the input and driver stages. The only IC regulators supply ±15V for such housekeeping functions as the protection circuitry and DC servo. All power-supply electrolytic caps (including the 16 output-stage caps) are bypassed with Wima film caps.
The circuit is a direct-coupled design employing a DC servo. JFETs are used in the input stage, with a bipolar cascode stage and MOSFET drivers. The output section comprises four pairs per channel of complementary bipolar transistors. The design uses no local feedback, and only 6dB of global feedback. The protection circuit looks for DC at the output (appearing because of DC at the input or amplifier fault), shuts down the amplifier, and shorts the input to ground. The protection will also trip if one of the 8A rail fuses blows. The design of the driver stage is arranged to allow the amplifier to clip gently, rounding off the square edges of a clipped waveform. This prevents the hard snapping sound on transients that characterizes most solid-state amplifiers when driven to overload.
The DNA-1 can reportedly drive 2 ohm loads without problems. For those users with difficult-to-drive loudspeakers (less than 2 ohms), The Mod Squad will adjust the DNA-1's drive voltage to optimize 1 ohm operation (at no charge to the user except for shipping). Conversion to balanced mono operation will soon be available as an upgrade for $350 per amplifier. Retail price of a bridged pair is $4595.
NEXT: Page 2 »
2733 Merrilee Drive
www.mccormackaudio.com
1992 Review context
1992 Measurements
1992 Measurements part 2
DNA-1 Deluxe in March 1995
1995 System
SMc modifications for the DNA-1
Schiit Audio Tyr monoblock power amplifier
Primare A35.8 8-channel power amplifier
Simaudio Moon 860A v2 power amplifier
LKV PWR-3 power amplifier
Gryphon Apex Stereo power amplifier
Rotel Michi S5 power amplifier
Luxman M-10X power amplifier
darTZeel NHB-108 model two power amplifier
Accustic Arts AMP V power amplifier
Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Progression M550 monoblock power amplifier
Rotel Michi M8 monoblock power amplifier
NAD C 298 power amplifier
ELAC Alchemy Series DPA-2 power amplifier
Mytek HiFi Brooklyn AMP+ power amplifier
Counterpoint Natural Progression NPS-400 power amplifier
PS Audio Stellar M1200 monoblock power amplifier


text:
namespace ydd {

    struct PNPlace {
        PNPlace(std::size_t id_=0, std::size_t tokens=0) : id_(id_), tokens(tokens) {}

        bool operator< (const PNPlace& other) const {
            if (this->id_ == other.id_) {
                return this->tokens < other.tokens;
            } else {
                return this->id_ < other.id_;
            }
        }

        bool operator== (const PNPlace& other) const {
            return (this->id_ == other.id_) and (this->tokens == other.tokens);
        }

        bool operator> (const PNPlace& other) const {
            if (this->id_ == other.id_) {
                return this->tokens > other.tokens;
            } else {
                return this->id_ > other.id_;
            }
        }

        std::size_t hash() const {
            std::hash<std::size_t> hasher;

            std::size_t rv = 0;
            boost::hash_combine(rv, hasher(this->id_));
            boost::hash_combine(rv, hasher(this->tokens));
            return rv;
        }

        std::size_t id_;
        std::size_t tokens;
    };

}

namespace std {

    template<> struct hash<ydd::PNPlace> {
        std::size_t operator() (const ydd::PNPlace& place) const {
            return place.hash();
        }
    };

}

#endif