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Gone Paddling: The Credit River
A group of adventurers challenges the Credit River during spring runoff.
March 21, 2009 | Gary Storr | Back Issues
Debby Storr (bow) and Dan Bell (stern) lead the flotilla around a pleasant bend.
My canoeing partner Geoff Ching and I are poised at the edge of the Credit River. Inches from our feet the water hurtles past with unbridled purpose. It's early April and the river is running high – higher than we've ever seen it.
Shaking off the rust from a long winter I stare into the current and follow its line, slowly dialling in until my focus is clear. In midstream the water drives against a concrete bridge support that knifes the flow into twin sluiceways. We ready the boat, then choose our path. The Credit won't be tamed until the melting snows have surged into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, 65 river-kilometres to the south.
We're here to scout the river in Geoff's new canoe, an Old Town "Discovery," for a larger flotilla to follow in three weeks time. I've naïvely invited several friends for a day on the Credit. I'd expected maybe half to show up, but now I'm scrambling – they're all coming, and some of them are novices without their own gear! So when Geoff suggests we check out the route beforehand, I nod eagerly. Better to know what we're up against than to send our crew into uncharted waters.
The air feels damp and our anticipation is palpable. I take the bow seat – the law of the sea decrees that Geoff captain his own ship. Unbeknownst to him, I relish the bow in fast water – it heightens the excitement. There's no better fun for a canoeist than to run a rapid knowing the slightest miscue could send him ass over tea kettle into the drink for the ride of his life. And should the need arise, the kneeling position lends itself nicely to moments of urgent supplication.
"Hang on!" Geoff shouts over the chaos of water churning against rock. Bracing the canoe, we skid around a tight bend and almost lose it. Geoff catches us by leaning back and executing a broad, arcing sweep behind the stern. For more than three hours we perform our paddling acrobatics through riffles, waves and drops, occasionally bailing, once pulling ashore to dump the water from our boat. The canoe has a low prow and each time we plow through a standing wave we ship copious quantities of frigid water. I've worn rain pants in anticipation of the soaking, but instead of keeping the water out, they hold it in. Overall, though, the canoe performs admirably and Geoff is pleased.
Verdant life has yet to unfold; the brittle, brown mat left from the previous autumn reveals no sign of spring. Downstream from Terra Cotta, a deciduous woodland stands bleakly naked. Here, we pull ashore for a snack. Dirty, granular snow blankets much of the landscape and the sedge is dry. A solitary spider stumbles across the expanse of a miniature arctic wasteland.
Back on our way, we flush mallards, mergansers and a pair of common goldeneyes from the reedy shoreline eddies. Canada geese are abundant and, as we approach, their cacophonous din shatters the tranquility. Looking up, we spot a hawk and later a belted kingfisher.
Below the remains of the Barber Paper Mill Dam at Georgetown, we run swifts as they tumble over rock and sediment, the meltwater careens and collides, leaping up in sparkling sprays only to fall and rejoin the flow in its manic quest for open water. Drenched and sporting grins as wide as our faces, we land at the Silver Creek confluence and carry our gear to the parking lot where we've left our return vehicle. It was an exhilarating run and back in Geoff's garage, we celebrate with a beer.
Three weeks later we're back in Inglewood below the bridge on McLaughlin Road, amazed at how quickly the water has fallen. Since Geoff and I scouted the river, it has dropped 30 centimetres. Where twin torrents had forced us to duck under the bridge, there is now only a single passage along the left bank. Putting our heads together, we make the call: we'll take out at Glen Williams. Downstream from Georgetown the river will be unnavigable.
Our loosely organized band of canoe enthusiasts calls itself "The Canoeing Legends." That we are legends is irrefutable: it's painted on our trailer. For this adventure, we number seven canoes. There is an easy ambience as we mill about preparing the boats for launch. After all, we are kindred spirits. A day earlier, thunderstorms had been forecast and no one backed out. That was a relief because to outfit this crew I've had to beg favours from people I don't even know.
Novice paddlers are paired with veterans. One of the novices, our young photographer, Tom Partlett, sits amidship in my boat. Andrew Hughes settles into the bow seat and we push away, letting the river do the work. Before we have a chance to practise our paddle strokes, we round a bend and immediately become mired in the branches of an immense, overhanging sweeper.
We struggle to disentangle ourselves, but we're not quick enough. The others round the bend and catch us in our glory. Geoff later jokes that he noticed an expression of grave concern on Tom's face as our canoe heeled dangerously toward capsizing.
Writer Gary Storr led a flotilla of seven canoes on the Credit River excursion.
The Credit River meanders south through farmlands and sleepy hamlets from its headwaters in Dufferin County, and is joined en route by its main tributaries: Shaws Creek in Alton, the West Credit River at the Forks of the Credit near Belfountain, and Silver Creek at Norval. Along its 90-kilometre course, the Credit is fed by 1,500 kilometres of creeks and streams, finally flowing into Lake Ontario at a rate of 690,000 cubic metres per day.
On this day, the river carries our flotilla at a leisurely pace, allowing us to hone our paddling skills. For the most part we successfully skirt the sweepers waiting to snatch us from our seats. We scan the route ahead for tell-tale riffles that betray sandstone rocks and pieces of shale lurking beneath the surface. As we pass the Caledon Country Club, some of us run a chute under the bridge, but not before emptying our gear from the boats to increase buoyancy.
Further downstream, another chute cascades past a concrete bridge abutment where a group of fishermen cheers us on. Everyone makes it but Andrew and me – we grind to a halt on the ledge and perch there awkwardly amid the rushing water. The anglers watch with fascination as we carefully step out onto a submerged rock and pull the canoe back from the brink. Instructing Tom to take a hike, we slip through on the second try, then collect Tom back into the boat below the chute.
Our final obstacle is the Haines Dam at Cheltenham, which must be portaged in low water. My wife, Debby, is paddling with Dan Bell who speculates about whether they should try the drop. I crane my neck to see over the precipice and my pulse quickens, but Debby says no. We pull up onto the right bank and lug the canoes to the base of the dam. There, we are shocked to see the river studded with huge boulders that weren't visible from above. Any one of them would have knocked a canoe off course and dumped its paddlers unceremoniously into the rock garden. Dan turns to Debby and intones, "Good call."
The slower course of the river affords us glimpses of spring. Bloodroot and trout lilies bloom on the sunlit floors of the still leafless maple forests and trilliums dot the valley sides. Graham Bryan, our man from the Canadian Wildlife Service, cheerfully provides us with astounding observations. Among other things, he points to a mature elm tree in Terra Cotta that escaped the scourge carried by the elm bark beetle in the 1950s and '60s. Below Terra Cotta we pass alongside the brownish-red layers of Queenston shale that gave the village its name. Further along, Geoff notices a colony of fiddleheads and we fantasize about steaming the coiled young fern fronds with a little salt, butter and lemon.
Glancing ahead, I notice a canoe stuck fast in midstream, the current slicing high over its haunches. This can mean only one thing: it's hung up on a rock. Smiling, I tap Tom on the shoulder and he promptly slumps against a thwart and coolly begins to shoot what will be an amazing sequence of photographs illustrating a classic case of misadventure by canoe. Probable cause: rubbernecking.
Karen McKimmon (red) and Leslie Schwarzl tip into the drink.
Slowly, the water pivots the boat until it comes broadside to the current. Now the river has it pinned against the rock. Our approach has brought us close enough to identify the occupants: Leslie Schwarzl and Karen McKimmon, two of Debby's pals from previous canoe trips. They have stopped paddling and are firmly gripping the gunwales. Next, the canoe begins to tip upriver and fill with water. As I watch, it all seems to be happening in slow motion. But the spell is broken when suddenly, in real time, Karen tries to scrabble up the raised side of the hull. Leslie leans away, but it's too late – they're past the point of no return. The canoe flips and with a splash they disappear from view. Mercifully they pop up an instant later, grab the overturned canoe, and wade laboriously to shore in the knee-deep water.
Andrew and I had already begun sidling alongside for the rescue operation, but now that simply involves hauling the canoe ashore and dumping out the water. Great sports that they are, Leslie and Karen smile broadly and pose dripping wet for photographs.
Back on course, it's only minutes before we reach our destination in Glen Williams where we take out and load the canoes onto the return vehicles. The swimmers are almost dry. We hike up the hill to a local pub where, in high spirits, we enjoy a pint and some fish and chips, and entertain ourselves with the pictures stored in Tom's camera.
After what she calls a "fun, fun day on the Credit," Karen sheepishly admits that neither she nor Leslie "thought we could actually tip in the Credit … 'til we were in and scrambling to grab the canoe. We ended 'up the creek' – well, 'down the river' – without a paddle!" She notes that she too experienced the action in "slo-mo" – one of the brain's survival mechanisms perhaps.
When I return to work the day after the Credit River runs under my belt, I catch myself in a reverie: I hear the sound of the river ahead – the turbulence, the chaos; it won't be long before the "Gone Canoeing" sign is posted again on my door.
Red Canvas Canoe
An ad in the paper: "For Sale a Canoe,
It's red and it's wooden; very well used.
Come by to see it, you may want to call first,
It's been out in the yard now for better or worse.
Make me an offer and take it away
From Forty-Four Wildflower Lane."
I went down to the cottage and knocked on the door.
An old woman answered, she was eighty or more.
She said "It's out by the back fence, I'll show it to you,
It's been down the Dumoine and the French River too.
Harold bought this for me on the day we were wed,
A canoe for a canopy, our wedding bed.
We carried it outside and slept on the lawn
And slapped at mosquitoes until it was dawn
Then we sailed away
All the way to the sea
In this red canvas canoe, Harold and me.
It's been fourteen years now since Harold is gone.
This cottage is lonesome, I'm moving on.
I'll give you my paddle and, oh, by the way
We used to float in the moonlight
Out on Georgian Bay
As we sailed away
And at night when I'm wishing upon a star
And we'd dream of the rivers we travelled afar
Make me an offer, please take this away
Words and music by Mono Centre singer/songwriter Lorraine McDonald, on the compilation CD, Canoe Songs, Volume II, available at www.canoesongs.ca. Partial sales proceeds go to the Canadian Canoe Museum.
… Meanwhile on the Grand
The Credit is just one of four rivers in the Headwaters region, along with the Grand, the Nottawasaga and the Humber. With the Credit under our belts, "The Canoeing Legends" are keen to tackle another one.
Bob Jerome, a former resident of Waldemar on the Grand River, had tantalized us with a scene worthy of Canadian Geographic: during spring breakup the ice floes on the Grand can become wedged under solid sheets, causing them to shift like tectonic plates and heaving up magnificent crystalline sculptures. One year, Bob watched from his window as the village dam burst under the pressure and, unleashed, the icy debris swept downriver. A stake in his property near Bob's house marked the high-water mark – fully 2o metres beyond the riverbank. Taking into account the incline, Bob figures the river swells to a depth of three metres.
That same year, shortly after breakup, he watched incredulously as five canoes swept past at breakneck speed, the paddlers hollering like cowboys. It was Al Pace and Lin Ward of Canoe North Adventures taking their clients on a "test run" before they whisk them away during the summer to the rivers of the far north. Last spring, photographer Tom Partlett and I were invited to join them in one of these orientation sessions – a combination meet-and-greet and Introduction to Whitewater 1o1.
A clay canoe by Al Pace.
Based in Hockley Valley, Al and Lin have been operating their canoe-trekking business for eighteen years, offering two-week excursions along wilderness rivers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Although he had canoed in the north since he was a youth, the excursion business was a second career for Al, who is now 5o. He studied pottery in the arts program at Lakefield College near Peterborough and, after graduating, quickly established a successful career as a potter. His Farmhouse Pottery studio on Hockley Road now also doubles as headquarters for Canoe North Adventures.
Over the years, the two businesses have coalesced through Al's art, as he has integrated the textures, forms and iconography of the northern landscape into his wheel-thrown vases, urns and display plates and bowls – including a popular series of canoe-shaped vessels.
Last year, in a career highlight that truly merged his two passions, Al was invited to return to Peterborough to show his work in a solo exhibition called "Legacy Wild" at the Canadian Canoe Museum. The show was officially opened by Prince Andrew, Duke of York. The prince had been a Lakefield schoolmate of Al's and a companion on some of his northern adventures. He is also the patron of the Canoe Museum.
Unfortunately, on the day Tom and I eagerly met Al and Lin on the banks of the Grand for the test run, we were destined for disappointment. Spring runoff is ephemeral, in the blink of an eye it's over. The swollen waters of just a week previously were now shallow and tamed. We called off the session, but we knew the "Legends" had discovered another fast-water gem. This spring, when the skis have been put away and the smell of renewed expectation hangs in the air, you'll find us hustling about on the riverbank, eagerly preparing for our wild ride.
For information about Canoe North, visit www.canoenorthadventures.com.
Canoeing the Credit
Although Credit Valley Conservation "does not endorse navigation of the river," its website does include tips on navigating the river successfully, as well as some highlights along the route. See www.creditvalleycons.ca. Last spring the Credit Valley Conservation Foundation hosted a canoe excursion along the river in support of the Conservation Youth Corps program. The event attracted 1oo paddlers and raised $26,ooo for reforestation projects.
Before you launch, consider the following advice and cautions from CVC:
Given its overall high gradient, currents can be dangerous especially during high flows at locations (old dams or log jams) where constricted flow chutes are present.
At low flows, many boulders and shallow riffles are present (even small kayaks get scraped, bumped and beached).
Lifejackets are a must, and hypothermia a serious concern in late spring.
Water quality can be unsafe for body contact (eyes, ears, nose, mouth and cuts), especially following rainfalls (never drink the water).
Log jams and beaver dams can require portages.
Some reaches may have fencing or barbed wire stretched across the river.
Much of the upper reaches are privately owned such that trespassing is a concern (the Ministry of Natural Resources should be consulted).
Privately owned dams (existing and old) require portages that result in trespass.
Dogs and even cattle along private property could present a problem.
Liability and injury concerns re: navigation through various golf courses.
Watch out for poison ivy and stinging nettle plants along the banks.
The entire Credit cannot be navigated in one day and there are no camping opportunities along the way, but one is usually within an hour or so from a public road crossing.
Public phones and general stores are found near the river in Orangeville, Alton, Inglewood, Terra Cotta, Glen Williams, Norval, Huttonville, Meadowvale, Streetsville and Port Credit.
Topographic maps for navigation purposes are not readily available for the Credit River from CVC, but are available from normal government map outlets. Two National Topographic Series (NTS) maps and about 15 Ontario Base Maps (OBM) cover the river from source to mouth. Even the best ones do not show rapids, old dams or constrictions and log jams.
About the Author More by Gary Storr
Gary Storr sits when he's tired of standing. When not capsizing canoes, he and his wife, Debby, operate a general store in the village of Alton.
Canoe North Adventures
Mar 23, 2012 | Nicola Ross | Leisure
Taylor Pace, Al Pace and Lin Ward of Hockley Valley operate Canoe North Adventures and have led 90 expeditions on 21 rivers in the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut.
Hi Mr. Storr,
Are you related to someone named Al Storr who was a canoeing guide at Keewaydin Temagami in the summer of 1960?
Joseph Burns
Joseph Burns on Mar 22, 2015 at 3:06 pm | Reply
Although my canoeing companion Geoff Ching was pretty excited when he acquired his new canoe, giving it a name was the furthest thing from his mind. In my experience, the only canoeists to christen their boats are expeditioners who chew up vast tracts of real estate for worthy causes. These hardy souls come to know their canoes as individual entities, even paddling partners.
Jay Morrison, who in 2oo7 completed a two-year, 7,ooo-kilometre journey from the Atlantic to the Arctic to raise awareness for wilderness conservation, named his homemade conveyance Daki Menan, Ojibway for "Our Land." In his journals he refers to himself and his canoe as "us" and affectionately calls the boat "Daki." In all likelihood, there were some one-sided conversations happening during their travels together.
My canoe, like Geoff's, is nameless. Purchased with a gift from my grandmother who decided we should enjoy her legacy while she was still among us, I toyed with the idea of conferring her name on it. Una: "one" – what a perfect fit for a vessel with which a solo canoeist becomes one!
But then, for that very reason, I realized I couldn't christen my beautiful new craft. Moving together with it over each wave, across every ripple, I came to know the canoe as an extension of myself, like my right arm or pinky finger, and that as a part of me, it didn't need a separate name. But when I paddle it, I always think of my grandmother.


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Watch: First Trailer For 'The King' Starring Timothée Chalamet
By The Movie God | @ | August 27th, 2019 at 10:30 am
A teaser trailer has been released for The King starring Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird), which is inspired by Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V. Starring alongside Chalamet is Joel Edgerton (Bright, Loving, The Great Gatsby), Sean Harris (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Macbeth), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One, Bloodline), Robert Pattinson (Good Time, The Lost City of Z), Lily-Rose Depp (Yoga Hosers, The Summoning, The Dancer), Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk, Tolkien), Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), and Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones, The Commuter).
The movie comes from Animal Kingdom, The Rover, and War Machine director David Michôd, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Edgerton. You can find the first trailer for The King, along with a synopsis and a poster, below.
Tags: Ben Mendelsohn, David Michod, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joel Edgerton, Lily-Rose Depp, Netflix, Robert Pattinson, Sean Harris, Shakespeare, The King, Thomasin McKenzie, Timothee Chalamet, Tom Glynn-Carney, William Shakespeare
TV Review: Into The Badlands 3.1 "Enter the Phoenix" (Season Premiere)
By Dr. Zaius | @ | April 23rd, 2018 at 5:00 pm
Episode 3.1 "Enter the Phoenix"
Directed by Paco Cabezas
Written by Matt Lambert
Created by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Starring Emily Beecham, Sherman Augustus, Daniel Wu, Ella-Rae Smith, Orla Brady, Ally Ioannides, Nick Frost, Dean-Charles Chapman, Babou Ceesay, Maddison Jaizani, Aramis Knight
Air date: Sunday, April 22nd, 2018, 10pm
Warner: Spoilers for Into The Badlands below:
Finally, we re-enter the Badlands! Last season, Sunny (Daniel Wu) finally was able to slay his ultimate demon, his former Baron, Quinn (Marton Csokas). In the battle, Veil (Madeleine Mantock) was killed leaving Sunny a widower and father on the run. Meanwhile the Badlands exploded into a war of Barons and Baronesses until only two remain, The Widow and Chau. The Widow (Emily Beecham) has M.K. (Aramis Knight) held captive but her desire to control the Badlands lost her her daughter. Tilda and her had a violent falling out and now The Widow will stop at nothing to gain full control over the Badlands.
Topics: Recaps, Reviews, Television, TV Reviews
Tags: Ally Ioannides, AMC, Aramis Knight, Babou Ceesay, Daniel Aranyo, Daniel Wu, Dean-Charles Chapman, Ella-Rae Smith, Emily Beecham, Into The Badlands, Maddison Jaizani, Matt Lambert, Nick Frost, Orla Brady, Paco Cabezas, Sherman Augustus
'Game Of Thrones': Ian McShane For Season 6; 8th Promised!
By Olympus Athens | @ | August 2nd, 2015 at 2:34 pm
Deadwood actor, Ian McShane is coming home to HBO! He has been officially cast in Season 6 of Game Of Thrones. Who he will be, is as yet unknown. But it seems a good fit. He already looks like he lives in one of the Seven Kingdoms, although I do feel he would be more at home in the North. Who knows? Maybe he is in the Bran and Hodor storyline, when they return in season 6. We really don't know much about season 6 yet, but we will give it as we get it. Tune in right here.
More on that and an 8th season below.
Topics: News, Television
Tags: Aidan Gillen, Dean-Charles Chapman, Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, HBO, Ian McShane, Jonathan Pryce, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Natalie Dormer, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner
TV Review: Game Of Thrones 5.10 "Mother's Mercy" Season Finale
By Empress Eve | @ | June 14th, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Episode 5.10 "Mother's Mercy" (Season Finale)
Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Starring Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Natalie Dormer, Sophie Turner, Dean-Charles Chapman, Jonathan Pryce
Air date: Sunday, June 14, 2015, 9pm
Spoilers ahead for Season 5 of Game Of Thrones, and a recap of Episodes 5.9 and 5.10.
Remember back in Episode 8 when shit got real when the White Walkers showed up at the Wildling camp, killed tons of people, and then rose them from the dead to be a part of their undead army? Ok, well, that was shit getting real on a supernatural level. On last week's Game Of Thrones, Episode 5.9 "The Dance Of Dragons," it got real on an emotional level. "King" Stannis finally agreed to let Melisandre sacrifice his only child — his lovable, sweet daughter Shireen — to the Lord of Light so he'd have the means to continue on to Winterfell so he can defeat Roose Bolton. We had to watch in horror as poor young Shireen realized her fate and called out to her parents for help as she burned at the stake, but her cries fell on deaf ears. Over in Meereen, Daenerys once again came under attack by the Sons of the Harpy, who infiltrated the stands at the Daznak's Pit, slaughtering the spectators and taking aim at their new ruler. Dany and her council barely escaped with the lives thanks to the return of Drogon, the large of Dany's dragon's who's been out flying free for a long time now as his siblings stay chained beneath the The Great Pyramid.
Tags: Aidan Gillen, Dean-Charles Chapman, Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones, Jonathan Pryce, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Natalie Dormer, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner
TV Review: Game Of Thrones 5.9 "The Dance Of Dragons"
By Empress Eve | @ | June 7th, 2015 at 10:32 pm
Episode 5.9 "The Dance Of Dragons"
Air date: Sunday, June 7, 2015, 9pm
Spoilers ahead for Season 5 of Game Of Thrones, and a recap of Episodes 5.8 and 5.9.
In last week's Game Of Thrones, Episode 5.8 "Hardhome," shit got real. Seriously. After five seasons of waiting for it, winter finally arrived and with it came the Undead. Jon Snow had taken several brothers of the Night's Watch with his to Hardhome, the Wildling camp, in an effort to convince the Free Folk to join the men of Westeros against the coming White Walkers. As luck would have it, soon after Jon's arrival, the White Walkers came and did the unimaginable — they slaughtered lots of people and then rose them from the dead to serve in their army!
Back in King's Landing, Cersei Lannister was still rotting in her cell beneath the Red Keep, awaiting her trial, still refusing to confess her sins. Arya Stark assumed a new identity as part of her training to become one of the Faceless Men. Sansa was given a glimmer of hope when Theon/Reek revealed that he never murdered her brothers. Sansa's sadistic new husband Ramsay wanted "20 good men" to defeat Stannis, whose withering forces are struggling on their way to Winterfell, where Ramsay's father Roose resides as Warden Of The North. Over in Meereen, Daenerys appointed Tyrion to be her new advisor as she resumes her plans to take over Westeros.
Topics: Recaps, Reviews, TV Reviews

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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PileDriver Magazine: Living out a Legacy, A Career Story
April 15, 2020 Matt Bisbee
A Career Story in PileDriver Magazine
Chris Pashkevich, Clark Construction
By: Natalie Pressman
Having worked for Clark Construction for 45 years, Chris Pashkevich says that friends and family are probably getting sick of him pointing out jobs he's worked on in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas.
"I did a job recently where I stood on one corner and saw ten different buildings that I had worked on," he said. "I've done a hundred or so jobs, easily, just in D.C."
Construction, for Pashkevich, is a family affair.
His father was a pile driver beginning in the early '50s until he retired in 1992, and his older brother started in 1971 until his 2016 retirement. Likewise, Pashkevich's younger brother started at Clark Construction in 1980 and still works there today.
"My family has always been here," he said. "We all drive pile."
Even with retirement on the horizon, driving pile will continue to stay in the family. Pashkevich has a son and stepson who are both foremen at Clark Construction, in addition to another stepson who works for the company as a foundation superintendent.
In spite of his long career and family legacy in the industry, Pashkevich didn't always see himself working in construction he originally wanted to be a police officer. But when he went down to the police academy in 1973, he was told that at 5'7", he was two inches too short. That's when he decided to join his family in construction.
Click here to read more in PileDriver Magazine, 2020 Issue #2
Posted in PileDriver Magazine.


Vantage Bank Texas was founded in 1923 and is a family-owned, community-based financial institution headquartered in San Antonio, Texas with deep roots in the border regions of the State. We are focused on providing dedicated banking services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses as well as to our international customers who live and work in the communities we serve. The Bank has full service banking centers in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Laredo, El Paso, Hondo and Refugio.
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At Vantage Bank Texas we are committed to Texas and we invite you to consider us as a source for all of the specialized financial counseling, banking products and services you need.
Vantage Bank Texas was founded in 1923 and is a family-owned, community-based financial institution headquartered in San Antonio, Texas with deep roots in the border regions of the State. We are focused on providing dedicated banking services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses as well as to our international customers who live and work in the communities we serve. The Bank has full service banking centers in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Laredo, El Paso, Hondo and Refugio. Vantage Bank Texas prides itself on its culture and commitment to building long-term relationships and delivering extraordinary customer service. Our customers enjoy the benefits of local decision making along with a suite of traditional and technologically advanced banking products typically offered by larger institutions. At Vantage Bank Texas we are committed to Texas and we invite you to consider us as a source for all of the specialized financial counseling, banking products and services you need.


Albany, NY – Feb. 24, 2017 – (RealEstateRama) — The home sales growth trend continued in New York State during January with the 8,472 closed sales setting a new high-water mark for the month, according to the housing market report released today by the New York State Association of REALTORS. The January statewide median sales price of $250,000 represents an increase of 8.7 percent from a year ago.
The January 2017 sales total of 8,472, represents an increase of 4.1 percent from the January 2016 total of 8,142.
The January 2017 statewide median sales price was $250,000, an increase of 8.7 percent from the January 2016 median of $230,000.
January 2017 pending sales increased by 8.5 percent from a year ago to reach 8,513.
The months supply of homes for sale dropped 26.4 percent at the end of January to 5.3 months supply. It was at 7.2 months at the end of January 2016. A 6 month to 6.5 month supply is considered to be a balanced market. Inventory stood at 59,771, a decrease of 19.3 percent compared to January 2016.
The New York State Association of REALTORS is a not-for-profit trade organization representing more than 53,000 of New York State's real estate professionals. The term REALTOR is a registered trademark, which identifies real estate professionals who subscribe to a strict code of ethics as members of the National Association of REALTORS. These REALTORS are also members of the New York State Association of REALTORS as well as their local board or association of REALTORS.


The cycle lanes on the Marston Road are a good example of how cycle lanes should be: cyclists are separated from both pedestrians and motor vehicles by a grass verge. And when the lane meets a junction, as shown below, the cyclist has right of way.
But even here things can go wrong: the picture below shows a tree that fell on a cycle path in the gales of the weekend of 1/2 April 2006 and was still lying there on Monday when this picture was taken. Obstacles on cycle lanes are a major problem and can be very dangerous, especially at night.
… and cycling along a path that you cannot actually see because it is flooded can be very dangerous.


Owner, MD and teaboy at Aqueous Digital, a specialist digital marketing and SEO agency. With over 30 years experience in Advertising and Marketing Aqueous aims to bring that experience together with sound Marketing principles to create fabulous results for clients in the digital world.
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The sweet spot is, of course, making sure both end users and search engines find your site equally as appealing.
Great post - many thanks. I've always maintained the KWP is wrong, but I didn't know how right that was!
Sorry to hear about your site; once you get hit it can seem like an impossible task to recover.
To answer the first question we did actually remove some of the links, disavowed those that wouldn't respond to us and in a couple of cases where we or the client could control the link we changed the anchor text, but this last instance was a tiny number.
If your site and business is called 'knowledge base software' then you shouldn't be penalised for these links but having said that we've seen a number of sites fall for excessive site wide footer links recently. Indeed there was a good article on this here on Moz http://moz.com/blog/lifting-a-manual-penalty-given-by-google-personal-experience.
Without knowing your domain it's difficult to give precise help however based on Lewis's experience in the link above a good start would be to make all those footers 'no follow' but I would keep the naming convention.
Remember, if Google didn't exist you'd want to promote your product and brand name as far and wide as you possibly could and to do this you would use both your company name and the product/brand name. Nothing is different here, it's just that with embedded site wide footers it can appear to Google that you are trying to fool their index by letting PR flow to your site from all your customers.
Promote the brand as hard as you like and if you make it clear to Google that this isn't an attempt to make PR flow to you artificially then you should be OK.
Interesting site. I lasted four seconds on it. In that time two pop ups threw themselves up despite me having a pop up blocker installed. If your site has been hit I suggest you go back to here https://support.google.com/webmasters/?hl=en and familiarise yourself with what Google considers good practice.
Thanks - we try to do the best for everyone but we know that there is always someone out there who will promise to do it faster and cheaper!
I'm guessing we were lucky in that whilst the penalty was algorithmic, it wasn't linked directly to an update (not that we could see) and the problem was the work done by the other agency. On that basis we had an easier job to clear it up and yes, whilst we did disavow links that probably hasn't kicked in yet.
We're bracing ourselves for when it does and trying to build some better links but on a limited budget it's quite hard! The client is great however and has been really actively promoting them on social so we're expecting an uptick in traffic from other sources.
In terms of the recrawl we simply use 'Fetch as Google' in WMT and specify the home page. When the pop up box appears tick for 'all linked pages' and then check back a day later and see if the crawl rate has gone up. If you change some of the meta descriptions as well you can sometimes see a change in the cached version (which is also dated) which tells you that Google has been back.
You nailed it Jonathan. Trouble is without good DA/PA users never get to see the content so it's a vicious circle.
To answer the first one, not yet. We'd of course love to see improvement in the short tail but as this is a regional service then we don't really expect to rank nationally. Even if the site did rank for the national keyword then it would probably deliver the wrong type of enquiry as limos typically don't go on long runs.
The time line for the turnaround was quite quick and needed to be as the collapse of the rankings meant that the traffic and enquiries dried up. The two AWR ranking reports are just four weeks apart.
In this case we didn't consider a reconsideration request as we knew it wouldn't work. by coincidence we took on a new client a few weeks earlier and had submitted one for them only to be told with a canned response that there was no penalty. We knew therefore that as nothing had arrived in WMT that there was nothing for them to reconsider.
It could be that the disavow file hasn't yet been activated. We only did it to cover all bases and having done the deep dive we knew, irrespective of this episode, it needed doing anyway. Now all we need are more and better links to replace them! All suggestions welcome!!
In this case all we did was ask Google to recrawl and that seemed to work. If it had been an algorithm update that had caused the issue then I agree, it would have been a major issue but as we knew what Google didn't like (or at least thought we did) then the actions worked.
Point 2 in the key takeaways is really the crux of the matter - if you know what you did wrong then you have got a chance of putting it right but most algo penalties we've seen happen without warning and most site owners don't know what they have done wrong. I suppose in this case we were quite lucky.
But you're right - we can't hurry the process.
Too right! I can point to two search queries right now where the number one return doesn't actually do the thing you were looking for. Still we're hoping that as Google continues to improve search then it will address these problems. Fingers crossed!
Hi there, lots of good points!
You could well be right about the disavow file, we did that more as a 'belt and braces' exercise to make sure we didn't miss a trick. If, as you say, it hasn't kicked in yet then we should logically get back to the previous traffic levels however even if this hadn't happened the links were due a prune as they had some horrors lurking in there!
With regards to the algorithmic penalties regarding a refresh, Matt Cutts repeatedly says that if you clean up the site, as long as you have removed what was causing the problem in the first place then the site should be able to rank again. From what we saw be believed that the problem was solely down to the new geo pages, so having removed them all we did was ask Google to recrawl the site. Having checked in WMT we could see that after the re crawl the site bounced back. It didn't require a refresh of the algo as it was more a case of removing what had harmed it in the first place.
You could be right about the seasonality however it doesn't match last years pattern and the good news is that even after submitting this article the latest graph shows the traffic still improving. We were happy with the improvements of a couple of slots in most cases as those few places typically got the pages to number 1. Not much more we could do there! But you are right about re building links and we are actively looking at doing this through a range of more sustainable methods.
Absolutely true and it frustrates the heck out of a lot of my clients. Even more so when I dive into the PA/DA and report back that most of the links are pingbacks, spammy forum comments and sitewide footers. It's almost like Google has done half a job!
As I read your article I felt a huge grin growing across my face. You seemed to be describing my journey albeit a couple of years ahead of me on the curve. There were so many similarities even down to not lying to clients and giving them 'added value reports'. I like to say that clients can get Data and Information anywhere, they are paying us for the Intelligence.
"Honestly, I'm not that happy about it, because we need real competition in the space badly."
Absolutely. History shows that monopolies always behave monopolistically and Google is, and will be, no exception.
Sadly PMD and EMD's have been wiped out in a lot of localised search as well. We have a client with a PMD who has lost all their positions bar one. No black hat, no spam, great fresh and relevant content, just a dislike of the domain as far as we can tell.
The huge concern I have with all this is that traditionally in the UK (and US I'm sure) businesses have set up with what they do in their name. Penalising your site because it contains what you do seems bizarre to say the least.
As an example, take a look at 'Skip hire' on a national search in the UK. The current number one does not have the word 'skip' or 'hire' in the domain, and the landing page it takes you to has an H1 that says 'Skip Hire Alternative'!
Given that yesterday the mozcast went to 120 degrees I'm waiting with bated breath to see what happens over the weekend!
PS - Google Places is fluctuating wildly in the UK as well - not sure if this is part of the update as well?
I understand your pain greenbergb and your message is definitely not lost on me. If you Google "sorry google but you are wrong" you should find a piece I wrote about this not long ago. In it I argue that there is a much better, fairer and simpler system that eventually uses market forces to drive the behaviour Google wants to see and clean up backlink profiles.
At the moment Google have created this mess with backlinks but their approach to cleaning it up in unacceptable.
skifr, that's far too long. Matt Cutts did a video on this on the Google Webmasters channel - you should simply put in another reconsideration request with a note to explain that you have not received a reply. If you have actually been penalised they will respond - we're currently going through this with a client (4th reconsideration request just denied :( ) and each time it takes no more than four days to get a response.
Interestingly I've just tried the delete backlinks with our clients url and it can't find any!
Six months sounds like an age but we're now three months into the process so maybe this is a common thing.
Thanks for sharing - as soon as we get a result we will share our top tips as well!
Thanks for sharing Lewis, we're still trying to remove an algorithmic penalty for a client who got hit before they came to us. The one hugely valuable takeaway from this for me is the use of Google Docs and a link to show them what you have done.
The one other thing that we have done is to create a separate Gmail account specifically for this work and sent the username and log in with the reconsideration request so Google can see that we have been doing the right things for the client.
I'd be very interested to know just how long it took in total from the first penalty notice to the lifting of the penalty?
"SEOs themselves will need to say no if clients comes asking for quick wins "
Oddly enough I did that recently. The potential client wanted guarantees that they would be number 1 for a core keyword within three months or they wanted out of the contract. I politely explained that I couldn't do that and even though they were willing to spend a lot of money I wasn't prepared to take the job on.
Turning it down allowed us to get into a much better dialogue and after six weeks of negotiation we have finally agreed realistic targets based on a sound marketing approach, not just a load of link building.
I agree, saying no does make a difference. It makes me poorer today but wealthier tomorrow and I know that I can at least sleep at night with a clear conscience.
Totally agree with your last point Dan. Too much power in too few hands is a recipe for disaster. The beauty of the internet is that everyone gets a voice, but if some are then deemed to be more equal than others.....not good.
Thumbs up from me David - good piece. I'm increasingly disillusioned with review sites as they have become the spamming grounds and have of necessity therefore locked down their reviews.
The consequence of this as you point out, is that people like me who infrequently take to a review site to leave fulsome praise for a business I have dealt with are probably filtered out of the visible reviews for that business. Suddenly my voice is irrelevant because I don't often praise businesses? I was brought up in an era where praise was earned and not some cheap currency to be thrown out with every till receipt. If you tie it into transactions at the point of sale and don't allow people to reflect or even consume the product they have bought then the reviews are meaningless.
From an SEO perspective we avoid these sites; they are simply not worth it and if the filtering is as strong as you suggest then what we are seeing is at best a subjective view and therefore, by definition, untrustworthy.
My advice for customers seeking local search prominence? Pretend the internet was never invented, then create a sustainable Marketing plan. When you've done that then we can talk about the digital channels to help you get there, not the other way round.
Nail on the head. Our view has long been to forget about the search engines. Sounds almost counter intuitive but your point is spot on in that if you go back to good marketing principles and create value for your customers then that is what they are looking for.
In the days before SERPS we had to create an offer that had some value, create an advertising campaign that conveyed that value and ensure that the processes were in place to service it. Nothing should have changed. People still want this and still buy this way. They just happen to use search engines now to find what they want.
Good three point list Matt.
I'm still not convinced that they will play any part in the next two years as the world has moved on. As someone pointed out below the web removed the requirement for a directory, which only ever was the one place you could find a comprehensive list of suppliers for what you were looking for.
But if people want to continue to use them then the rule must be to think like an old time Marketer (that'll be me then...) and ask yourself, if this was in print would I pay good money, either mine or the clients, to appear in it? Would it bring leads and business? Is it relevant? Do my potential customers use it? Would it drive an ROI? Would I be likely to renew it? And finally are there better sources for driving leads?
If you can still justify the inclusion then it must be worth it.
Thakns Ruth, great post. Particularly liked the reference to Wil's previous post which I totaly agree with. It's hard sitting with clients telling them that their hard earned cash is going on writing great content, which might help move them up a notch in a couple of months when the guys in the black hats are spamming their way past you.
Having said that it's a much easier conversation than having to explain to a client why their site got wiped out!
Thanks Ross, great case study. I particularly appreciated the way you stressed that this is NOT a template, more a list of suggestions. As none of us can actually know with certainty what the algo is doing the advice would seem to be 'be clean at all times'!
It has made me wonder however about sitewide footer links built into Wordpress - we found one carefully hidden and coded into a plug in on our main site recently and had to re code to get it out. This kind of 'hidden' link building profile must surely be the next big hit from Google?
Great post! Many thanks for this - I'd been wondering for ages whether this would actually work but hadn't plucked up the courage to try it!


text:
Q: Enum Throws Error when loading Image This is all in Java. The main problem is that inside the Enum class I have many different enums declared. When each is declared there is an image path that tells the constructor where to load the image from. But when I call the enum.getImage() method I created, it throws an ExceptionInInitializerError. Here is the Enum class:
    import java.awt.Image;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import java.util.HashMap;

public enum Cards {
    ACE_HEART(11,1,"acehearts.png"), ACE_SPADE(11,2,"acespades.png"), ACE_CLUB(11,3,"aceclubs.png"), ACE_DIAMOND(11,4,"acediamonds.png"),
    TWO_HEART(2,5,"twohearts.png"), TWO_SPADE(2,6,"twospades.png"), TWO_CLUB(2,7,"twoclubs.png"), TWO_DIAMOND(2,8,"twodiamonds.png"),
    THREE_HEART(3,9,"threehearts.png"), THREE_SPADE(3,10,"threespades.png"), THREE_CLUB(3,11,"threeclubs.png"), THREE_DIAMOND(3,12,"threediamonds.png"),
    FOUR_HEART(4,13,"fourhearts.png"), FOUR_SPADE(4,14,"fourspades.png"), FOUR_CLUB(4,15,"fourclubs.png"), FOUR_DIAMOND(4,16,"fourdiamonds.png"),
    FIVE_HEART(5,17,"fivehearts.png"), FIVE_SPADE(5,18,"fivespades.png"), FIVE_CLUB(5,19,"fiveclubs.png"), FIVE_DIAMOND(5,20,"fivediamonds.png"),
    SIX_HEART(6,21,"sixhearts.png"), SIX_SPADE(6,22,"sixspades.png"), SIX_CLUB(6,23,"sixclubs.png"), SIX_DIAMOND(6,24,"sixdiamonds.png"),
    SEVEN_HEART(7,25,"sevenhearts.png"), SEVEN_SPADE(7,26,"sevenspades.png"), SEVEN_CLUB(7,27,"sevenclubs.png"), SEVEN_DIAMOND(7,28,"sevendiamonds.png"),
    EIGHT_HEART(8,29,"eighthearts.png"), EIGHT_SPADE(8,30,"eightspades.png"), EIGHT_CLUB(8,31,"eightclubs.png"), EIGHT_DIAMOND(8,32,"eightdiamonds.png"),
    NINE_HEART(9,33,"ninehearts.png"), NINE_SPADE(9,34,"ninespades.png"), NINE_CLUB(9,35,"nineclubs.png"), NINE_DIAMOND(9,36,"ninediamonds.png"),
    TEN_HEART(10,37,"tenhearts.png"), TEN_SPADE(10,38,"tenspades.png"), TEN_CLUB(10,39,"tenclubs.png"), TEN_DIAMOND(10,40,"tendiamonds.png"),
    JACK_HEART(10,41,"jackhearts.png"), JACK_SPADE(10,42,"jackspades.png"), JACK_CLUB(10,43,"jackclubs.png"), JACK_DIAMOND(10,44,"jackdiamonds.png"),
    QUEEN_HEART(10,45,"queenhearts.png"), QUEEN_SPADE(10,46,"queenspades.png"), QUEEN_CLUB(10,47,"queenclubs.png"), QUEEN_DIAMOND(10,48,"queendiamonds.png"),
    KING_HEART(10,49,"kinghearts.png"), KING_SPADE(10,50,"kingspades.png"), KING_CLUB(10, 51, "kingclubs.png"), KING_DIAMOND(10, 52, "kingdiamonds.png");
    int value,id;
    Image image;
    private HashMap<Integer,Cards> cardmap = new HashMap<Integer,Cards>();
    public void setMap() {
        for(Cards c : Cards.values()) {
            cardmap.put(c.getValue(),c);
        }
    }
    private Cards(int value, int id, String imagepath) {
        this.value = value;
        this.id = id;
        ImageIcon i = new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource("img/" + imagepath));
        Image image = i.getImage();
        this.image = image;
    }
    public Image getImage() {
        return image;
    }
    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }
    public int getValue() {
        return value;
    }
    public Cards getEnum(int id) {
        return cardmap.get(id);
    }
}

If you have any ideas on what is wrong (no I'm not asking for code) could you explain what I am doing wrong?
edit: Full stack trace:
    Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
    at blackjack.Board.paint(Board.java:22)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(JComponent.java:870)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(JComponent.java:1046)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(JComponent.java:870)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(JComponent.java:1046)
    at javax.swing.JLayeredPane.paint(JLayeredPane.java:567)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(JComponent.java:870)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paintToOffscreen(JComponent.java:5139)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager$PaintManager.paintDoubleBuffered(RepaintManager.java:1523)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager$PaintManager.paint(RepaintManager.java:1454)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager.paint(RepaintManager.java:1257)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(JComponent.java:1023)
    at java.awt.GraphicsCallback$PaintCallback.run(GraphicsCallback.java:21)
    at sun.awt.SunGraphicsCallback.runOneComponent(SunGraphicsCallback.java:60)
    at sun.awt.SunGraphicsCallback.runComponents(SunGraphicsCallback.java:97)
    at java.awt.Container.paint(Container.java:1778)
    at java.awt.Window.paint(Window.java:3390)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager$3.run(RepaintManager.java:825)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager$3.run(RepaintManager.java:802)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:87)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager.paintDirtyRegions(RepaintManager.java:802)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager.paintDirtyRegions(RepaintManager.java:745)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager.prePaintDirtyRegions(RepaintManager.java:725)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager.access$1000(RepaintManager.java:46)
    at javax.swing.RepaintManager$ProcessingRunnable.run(RepaintManager.java:1668)
    at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:209)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:672)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.access$400(EventQueue.java:81)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:633)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:631)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:87)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:642)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at javax.swing.ImageIcon.<init>(ImageIcon.java:181)
    at blackjack.Cards.<init>(Cards.java:26)
    at blackjack.Cards.<clinit>(Cards.java:7)
    ... 40 more

edit 2:
Exactly how the package is set up:
package blackjack.
inside package: Blackjack class, Board class, Cards class, img folder with images.
Package Explorer Snip

A: Your enum cannot be correctly initialized, most likely because it throws a NullPointerException in the constructor.
ImageIcon i = new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource("img/" + imagepath));

With the above statement, you are looking for img/imagepath in the same package as your enum. Prefix the path with / instead
ImageIcon i = new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource("/img/" + imagepath));

so that it is relative to the root of the classpath, as I assume your file (img package) is.
If /img is just a folder, you need to add it to your classpath. Drag and drop it into the src folder if you are on Eclipse.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is only the latest in a string of federal agencies who've been sued recently in an effort to stop their regulations from taking effect.
DISCLAIMER: The First Lady does not necessarily endorse this lawsuit.
Being part of the "in" crowd with the FBI apparently does not protect you from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
To the contrary: It was an FBI contract that subjected a California-based technology company to an OFCCP review that has resulted in an administrative complaint.
A Boss's Day letter from . . . The Boss.
DISCLAIMER: The Boss in this blog post is fictional. Any similarity to actual bosses, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No bosses were harmed in the writing of this post. If you'd prefer something warmer and fuzzier, try this.
On this Monday, October 17, 2016, I thought it would be an opportune time to let you know that your efforts are appreciated!
As we knew it would, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has appealed the decision of Judge Sean Cox, who granted summary judgment to a Detroit-area funeral home chain in a transgender discrimination case. Here is my analysis of Judge Cox's decision.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has vacated Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, which found that Title VII did not protect against sexual orientation discrimination. I wrote about the decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit, in August. The court will rehear the case with all of the judges participating.
Here is a copy of the order.
Karla Miller of the "WorkAdvice" column in the Washington Post had a doozy last week.
I cannot tell a lie. I love Mr. Peanut and everything he represents.
I'm going to assume that all the people involved in this story are female. I'm probably wrong, but that will allow me to make up fake names for them.
2016 Employer's Guide to Employee Voting Rights is here!
For better or worse, it won't be much longer before the 2016 election is over. In honor (?) of the occasion, we've updated our Employer's Guide to Employee Voting Rights, and it's available now on our website -- both in html and as a (free) downloadable and printable pdf.
According to a study recently published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, there are indications that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is not effective in stopping discrimination.


Egersund is located on the coast, which offers good opportunities for deep sea fishing.
Grand Hotell can provide fishing boats certified for up to 12 people, including the captain, for a fishing trip at sea.
Grand Hotell organizes clay pigeon shooting in cooperation with Egersund Jeger & Fiskeforening (hunting and fishing association).


#1 BESTSELLER - this contoured eye mask with adjustable strap, won't put pressure on your eyes while you sleep. The #1 bestselling sleep mask on Amazon.com.
Includes ear plugs, and storage pouch for travel.
PURPLE IS PERFECTION - this contoured eye mask won't put pressure on your eyes, with a soft and comfortable bamboo and cotton lining and adjustable velcro straps.
SOLID IN BLACK - this contoured eye mask won't put pressure on your eyes, with a soft and comfortable bamboo and cotton lining with adjustable velcro straps.
VIBRANT AND VIVACIOUS - this contoured eye mask won't put pressure on your eyes, with a soft and comfortable bamboo and cotton lining and adjustable velcro straps.
BEAUTIFUL IN RED - this contoured eye mask won't put pressure on your eyes, with a soft and comfortable bamboo and cotton lining and adjustable velcro straps.


Isn't it great to meet new people? Think of your closest friends. When you were first introduced, did you ever think they would hold such a prominent place in your life? Introductions often lead to new relationships and new opportunities.
We are very excited to introduce you to the latest additions to the Trinity faculty, as well as our Little Warrior preschool mascot.
Mr. Mike Baldy joins the TCS faculty as the Physical Education teacher. A graduate of WVU with a B.S. in Physical Education, Mike joined the staff last year as Trinity's Head Basketball Coach for the middle school boys' team. Mike brings a high level of enthusiasm for teaching as he begins his career at Trinity Christian School.
Our science department continues to grow with the addition of Dr. Lois Campbell. Dr. Campbell joins us as a science teacher for grades 4th through 9th. Her 21 years of experience in education spans three decades and includes teaching at a Navajo Indian Reservation, several Christian schools, as well as at the university level.
student participation in science-related projects.
Meet the TCS Little Warrior preschool mascot! With the development of our preschool program, the timing was right for a unique identity of its own. Our Little Warrior is adorable, yet looks poised to learn, just like our K3 and K4 students. You'll see more and more of the Little Warrior in the days ahead.
Students enrolled in our summer camps are meeting new friends and learning new things! Check out the story on the TCS Summer Camp program that was featured on WDTV's website this week.


Steering Wheel and Head Restraints.
Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. (MBUSA) is recalling certain model year 2014 E350 and E350 4Matic sedans manufactured June 4, 2014, to July 9, 2014. The affected vehicles were built with a fuel feed line that has a single flare fitting instead of a double flare fitting..
If the fuel feed line has the incorrect flare fitting, the connection between the fuel hose and the fuel feed line might develop a leak or may completely disconnect. Leaking fuel in the presence of an ignition source increases the risk of a fire and if the fuel feed line disconnects, the vehicle would stall, increasing the risk of a crash..
MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will install the correct fuel line, free of charge. This recall began on January 11, 2016. Owners may contact Mercedes-Benz customer service at 1-800-367-6372..
JUN 03, 2014 to JUL 08, 2014.


Email Oracle, a nice service and extension for Google Mail (Gmail) to track your emails. It's a great way to see if your recipient opens your email. Unfortunately the service is shutting down. So I've found an alternative. More after the break.The alternative site is called http://email-tracking-with-google-analytics.com and is not as comfortable as Email Oracle, but for the advanced user it's easy to use. You need to have a Google Analytics Account and a site where you use this Account (normally your self hosted website). No special setup is actually needed, you just have to insert the site url and the parameters for the tracking. After that you get a image url to insert in your email. This iamge is actually a transparent gif, so it is even better than the free Email Oracle Service.
The tracked email will show up in your Google Analytics report - goal reached.
This works with all email clients. For Gmail though you have to activate a Google Labs feature to insert images in the message body. Just click on the green "Google Labs" icon on top of your Gmail Window and activate the "Inserting Images" feature.
On the site you will also find some tutorials and a complete description on how the service works. So enjoy tracking.


REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE MORPHOMETRIC QUANTIFICATION OF VASCULAR LESIONS IN RENAL ALLOGRAFT BIOPSIES.
JL Bosmans1, F Moreso², M Mengel³, D Seron², H Haller4, ME De Broe1 for the European Study Group of Renal Allograft Protocol Biopsies.
² Department of Nephrology, Hospital de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Department of Pathology, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, Germany.
4 Department of Nephrology, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, Germany.
Vascular lesions in renal allograft biopsies, either at implantation or in protocol biopsies, have been consistently shown to adversely affect the outcome of the graft. The development of a reproducible quantification method of these vascular alterations could therefore have important applications in both diagnostic and therapeutical interventional studies.
The present study investigated the reproducibility of the morphometric quantification of fibrous intimal thickening and arterial wall thickness in protocol biopsies of renal allografts, as assessed by two observers from two different centres, using two different image analysis programs.
Three transplant centres each provided fifteen renal allograft protocol biopsies. The biopsies were performed at a median time of 180 days after transplantation, and were either fixed in Duboscq-Brazil or in formalin, and cut at 4 mm. These 45 biopsies were collected and separately analysed in two centres, A and B. All biopsies were stained with Masson's trichrome and silver methenamine. The serumcreatinine at the time of biopsy was 142 ± 61 mmol /L.
Morphometric analysis was performed without knowledge of the clinical data. All arterial sections in a single biopsy were analysed. Arteries were defined as vessels containing at least two muscular layers. In centre A, the 45 protocol biopsies were analysed by observer A, on silver methenamine sections at 400x magnification, by means of the point counting method.
In centre B, the same 45 protocol biopsies were analysed by observer B, on Masson' trichrome stained sections at 400x magnification, by means of manual delineation of the lumen, intima and media, using a KS 400 (Kontron Elektronik GmbH, Release 2.0) imaging system, connected to a Leica-DMR microscope.
Following variables were analysed by both observers: mean time required to analyse a biopsy, number of arteries, ratio of intimal area / medial area, ratio of arterial wall area / total arterial area. Results are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. Paired T-test statistics were used to compare the results. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to study the correlation between both morphometric methods. Bland-Altman plots were used to compare agreement between both centres. The statistical analysis was performed with Medcalc 7.0.
The mean number of arteries per biopsy was 2 ± 2. Six out of fourty-five biopsies (13%) had no arteries. There was an excellent agreement between the two observers (R= 0.89, p<0.0001), with however a larger number of arteries per biopsy in centre A (mean difference: 0.4; p=0.02). There was a very good agreement between both observers with regard to the quantification of fibrous intimal thickening (R= 0.72; p<0.0001), with however a significant difference (mean difference: 0.19; p<0.0001). In addition, the agreement was almost optimal at the lower and middle values, but showed symmetric divergence at the highest values. There was a good agreement between the two observers with regard to the quantification of arterial wall thickness (R=0.67; p<0.0001), without any significant difference between the two measurements. Almost maximal agreement was observed in the higher range of values, while symmetrical disagreement was more prominent at the lower values. The mean time, required to analyse one biopsy, was comparable in both centres, and was 10 ± 5 min in centre A, while it was 11 ± 4 min in centre B, allowing the analysis of 5 to 6 biopsies per hour.
Our study clearly demonstrates that the morphometric analysis of arterial lesions in protocol biopsies of renal allografts, performed by two different observers, from two different centres, and using two distinct image analysis programs, yields a reproducible quantification of these lesions. Approximately five to six biopsies can be analysed per hour with both methods. Morphometric analysis of arteries in renal allograft biopsies may have important applications in future studies.


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【明報專訊】They say it's the most miserable month, but I love January. The days are longer, the cold is crisp (清新的、涼爽的) and real, and there's no more celebrations getting in the way of good old work. This week my bandmate Euan and I have been mostly demoing (製成樣本(唱片)) our album, in a studio in London's Kensal Rise. It's a pleasant way to ease into this year, a lot of which will be spent recording, and it's a good marker to see how far ahead we are in the process. It feels right now like we're behind, but songs are like thoughts. They come out of nowhere and gather when you're least expecting it. I believe the album will be finished by the deadline.


text:
Честер () — переписна місцевість (CDP) в США, в окрузі Честерфілд штату Вірджинія. Населення —  осіб (2010).

Географія
Честер розташований за координатами  (37.352045, -77.433695).  За даними Бюро перепису населення США в 2010 році переписна місцевість мала площу 34,39 км², з яких 34,08 км² — суходіл та 0,31 км² — водойми.

Демографія
Згідно з переписом 2010 року, у переписній місцевості мешкало  осіб у  домогосподарствах у складі  родин. Густота населення становила 610 осіб/км².  Було 8320 помешкань (242/км²).

Расовий склад населення:

До двох чи більше рас належало 2,7 %. Частка іспаномовних становила 8,4 % від усіх жителів.

За віковим діапазоном населення розподілялося таким чином: 26,7 % — особи молодші 18 років, 62,1 % — особи у віці 18—64 років, 11,2 % — особи у віці 65 років та старші. Медіана віку мешканця становила 37,1 року. На 100 осіб жіночої статі у переписній місцевості припадало 91,9 чоловіків;  на 100 жінок у віці від 18 років та старших — 86,7 чоловіків також старших 18 років.

Середній дохід на одне домашнє господарство  становив  доларів США (медіана — ), а середній дохід на одну сім'ю —  доларів (медіана — ). Медіана доходів становила  долари для чоловіків та  долари для жінок. За межею бідності перебувало 9,6 % осіб, у тому числі 12,4 % дітей у віці до 18 років та 6,7 % осіб у віці 65 років та старших.

Цивільне працевлаштоване населення становило  осіб. Основні галузі зайнятості: освіта, охорона здоров'я та соціальна допомога — 18,3 %, науковці, спеціалісти, менеджери — 13,2 %, роздрібна торгівля — 11,9 %.

Примітки

Джерела

Переписні місцевості Вірджинії
Населені пункти округу Честерфілд (Вірджинія)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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James C. Coyne
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text:
Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy
Allison M. Beese, Zhuqing Wang, Alexandru D. Stoica, Dong Ma
Dynamic strain aging (DSA), observed macroscopically as serrated plastic flow, has long been seen in nickel-base superalloys when plastically deformed at elevated temperatures. Here we report the absence of DSA in Inconel 625 made by additive manufacturing (AM) at temperatures and strain rates where DSA is present in its conventionally processed counterpart. This absence is attributed to the unique AM microstructure of finely dispersed secondary phases (carbides, N-rich phases, and Laves phase) and textured grains. Based on experimental observations, we propose a dislocation-Arrest model to elucidate the criterion for DSA to occur or to be absent as a competition between dislocation pipe diffusion and carbide-carbon reactions. With in situ neutron diffraction studies of lattice strain evolution, our findings provide a new perspective for mesoscale understanding of dislocation-solute interactions and their impact on work-hardening behaviors in high-Temperature alloys, and have important implications for tailoring thermomechanical properties by microstructure control via AM.
Dive into the research topics of 'Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
precipitation hardening Physics & Astronomy 100%
Nickel Medicine & Life Sciences 99%
heat resistant alloys Physics & Astronomy 87%
nickel Physics & Astronomy 67%
Strain Chemical Compounds 58%
Neutron Diffraction Medicine & Life Sciences 53%
manufacturing Physics & Astronomy 52%
Beese, A. M., Wang, Z., Stoica, A. D., & Ma, D. (2018). Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy. Nature communications, 9(1), [2083]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04473-5
Beese, Allison M. ; Wang, Zhuqing ; Stoica, Alexandru D. ; Ma, Dong. / Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy. In: Nature communications. 2018 ; Vol. 9, No. 1.
@article{8d03b6e899864e61a29f867d19d0106f,
title = "Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy",
abstract = "Dynamic strain aging (DSA), observed macroscopically as serrated plastic flow, has long been seen in nickel-base superalloys when plastically deformed at elevated temperatures. Here we report the absence of DSA in Inconel 625 made by additive manufacturing (AM) at temperatures and strain rates where DSA is present in its conventionally processed counterpart. This absence is attributed to the unique AM microstructure of finely dispersed secondary phases (carbides, N-rich phases, and Laves phase) and textured grains. Based on experimental observations, we propose a dislocation-Arrest model to elucidate the criterion for DSA to occur or to be absent as a competition between dislocation pipe diffusion and carbide-carbon reactions. With in situ neutron diffraction studies of lattice strain evolution, our findings provide a new perspective for mesoscale understanding of dislocation-solute interactions and their impact on work-hardening behaviors in high-Temperature alloys, and have important implications for tailoring thermomechanical properties by microstructure control via AM.",
author = "Beese, {Allison M.} and Zhuqing Wang and Stoica, {Alexandru D.} and Dong Ma",
note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation through award number CMMI-1402978. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. A.M.B. acknowledges funding from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. AMIN625 samples were fabricated at Penn State{\textquoteright}s Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D). The research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory{\textquoteright}s Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. Matthew Frost and Harley Skorpenske are acknowledged for their technical support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Author(s).",
Beese, AM, Wang, Z, Stoica, AD & Ma, D 2018, 'Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy', Nature communications, vol. 9, no. 1, 2083. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04473-5
Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy. / Beese, Allison M.; Wang, Zhuqing; Stoica, Alexandru D.; Ma, Dong.
In: Nature communications, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2083, 01.12.2018.
T1 - Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy
AU - Beese, Allison M.
AU - Wang, Zhuqing
AU - Stoica, Alexandru D.
AU - Ma, Dong
N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation through award number CMMI-1402978. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. A.M.B. acknowledges funding from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. AMIN625 samples were fabricated at Penn State's Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D). The research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. Matthew Frost and Harley Skorpenske are acknowledged for their technical support. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s).
N2 - Dynamic strain aging (DSA), observed macroscopically as serrated plastic flow, has long been seen in nickel-base superalloys when plastically deformed at elevated temperatures. Here we report the absence of DSA in Inconel 625 made by additive manufacturing (AM) at temperatures and strain rates where DSA is present in its conventionally processed counterpart. This absence is attributed to the unique AM microstructure of finely dispersed secondary phases (carbides, N-rich phases, and Laves phase) and textured grains. Based on experimental observations, we propose a dislocation-Arrest model to elucidate the criterion for DSA to occur or to be absent as a competition between dislocation pipe diffusion and carbide-carbon reactions. With in situ neutron diffraction studies of lattice strain evolution, our findings provide a new perspective for mesoscale understanding of dislocation-solute interactions and their impact on work-hardening behaviors in high-Temperature alloys, and have important implications for tailoring thermomechanical properties by microstructure control via AM.
AB - Dynamic strain aging (DSA), observed macroscopically as serrated plastic flow, has long been seen in nickel-base superalloys when plastically deformed at elevated temperatures. Here we report the absence of DSA in Inconel 625 made by additive manufacturing (AM) at temperatures and strain rates where DSA is present in its conventionally processed counterpart. This absence is attributed to the unique AM microstructure of finely dispersed secondary phases (carbides, N-rich phases, and Laves phase) and textured grains. Based on experimental observations, we propose a dislocation-Arrest model to elucidate the criterion for DSA to occur or to be absent as a competition between dislocation pipe diffusion and carbide-carbon reactions. With in situ neutron diffraction studies of lattice strain evolution, our findings provide a new perspective for mesoscale understanding of dislocation-solute interactions and their impact on work-hardening behaviors in high-Temperature alloys, and have important implications for tailoring thermomechanical properties by microstructure control via AM.
Beese AM, Wang Z, Stoica AD, Ma D. Absence of dynamic strain aging in an additively manufactured nickel-base superalloy. Nature communications. 2018 Dec 1;9(1). 2083. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04473-5


Discussion in 'Recruitment' started by Miki-Rei, Oct 21, 2013.
"And so they came, these Brothers of the Widow Black, to wreak havoc on the Enemies of Man. Suffer no Warp-Taint, abide no Chaos-Touched, the Black Widow Chapter snares all in our web of righteous fury."
The Black Widow Company, an award winning veteran founded, owned and operated gaming outfit and community with 10+ years of unbroken excellence is honored to serve the emperor in the Eternal Crusade. To combat the forces of chaos and spread the righteous wrath of the Adeptus Astartes, the Black Widow Company is founding a space marine Chapter unlike any other in service to the emperor of man.
BWC is a highly organized and competitive gaming Outfit and Community. We are not a clan, or a guild, but an Outfit that maintains a standard of excellence across multiple game properties. Due to that, we do have minimum expectations for recruitment and not all who apply are accepted.
Recruitment into BWC will require a commitment on the part of potential members even though the Eternal Crusade is still a distance away. You do not join BWC for a single game, you join BWC to participate in and experience excellence in gaming.
BWC is an award-winning Gaming Outfit which has been successful for over ten years, primarily in first person shooters and MMOs. In that time we have built a solid reputation in online gaming as an Outfit that believes in integrity, fair play, dedication and teamwork. That reputation has carried over to great relationships among the larger gaming community but also with game developers such as Riot Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Piranha Games, and most recently, Cloud Imperium Games.
We are military themed and active in multiple online games. There is a dedicated chain of command that oversees our well over 1000 active members. BWC has created and maintains our own Meta Game with our established Battle Decorations Program that allows members to earn awards based on activity and levels of participation.
BWC operates under a clearly defined Standard Operating Procedure which serves as our charter and code of conduct. This SOP sets the expectations that BWC maintains for all members at all times. Members may enter as a recruit, and after completing the recruit process to achieve their first promotion to Private, they can choose to remain there or engage in the Meta Game for recognition and promotion. BWC maintains a Rank and Promotion Points System that echoes the US Army's ranking structure. We expect all our members to embrace what we call "BWC Bearing" and conduct their gaming business as the quiet professionals we've established ourselves as.
Players who elect to sign on with BWC can expect to find their brothers-in-arms ready and willing to support them on the virtual battlefield and beyond. We practice teamwork, communication, and coordination. Our reputation as a military-style unit truly began in the world's first and only true MMO-FPS, Planetside. Ever since the closed beta days we have applied lessons learned on the virtual battlefield as well as real world battlefields from small unit tactics to combined arms assaults. We've taken those lessons a step further and are a renowned, award winning scenario Paintball team with a reputation for frontline grunts, hard hitting spec-ops tactics, and a Never Quit attitude.
We apply our "ONE TEAM, ONE FIGHT" mentality in every game we play, and to everything we do, without risking or compromising our desire or our ability to have a lot of fun at the same time. Those are never mutually exclusive endeavors for us. We invite you to heed the call and join the fight with us, so you can discover what makes us different for yourself.
One Team, One Fight. It's not what we say, it's what we do.
Spider, Evans, Aka and 15 others like this.
Burn the with, kill the mutant, purge the heretic. We of the BWC strive forth for the emperor!!!
I have been running with the BWC for almost a year now and I have to say that I would not trade this community for anything.
I'll never forget the first time that I encountered the BWC.
We (the zerg) were stuck assaulting an Amp Station during beta. After dying countless times to C4, turrets, tanks, planes and finally other infantry, I was about to call it quits after 2 hours of fighting there.
I then saw something that rekindled hope; I saw an outfit moving together and clearing rooms. They moved with purpose, precision, and a determination to win that I had not seen before. I quickly fell in behind them and started to help out in any way that I could.
I stared up at their outfit tag while we ambushed enemy infantry, armor, planes, turrets; all the enemies that were killing me for the last 2 hours were nothing compared to this outfit. I saw the name "BWC" and wondered to myself, "These guys are amazing, I wonder if I could ever be good enough to join their ranks." I did my best to follow them through the Amp Station; they moved so quickly through the area, only pausing to deal death and destruction, before they moved on to the next objective as a cohesive unit.
Only 10 minutes had passed and the Amp Station battle was over. The enemy routed, the rest of the zerg commenced their cap of the base.
Just as quickly as the BWC outfit had arrived, they vanished. I tried to search for them over the surrounding bases, but I found out that they had already redeployed to another continent to break the enemy resistance there as well. A group constantly on the move, chasing the fight across the battle lines, breaking the enemy wherever they may be.
I had been part of the zerg before... but after that experience, the game would never be the same again.
My first time being a Platoon lead was in the company of the BWC.
Initially I was squad leading an air squadron on Indar and we were advancing south toward the VS warp gate. As I directed my squad from the orders received by the current Platoon Leader, I was informed that the PL needed to step away for a few hours and wanted a Squad Lead to step and and take the reigns. At BWC, we are all encouraged to squad lead and platoon lead and anyone who accepts the responsibility will receive the respect of those below them.
I decided that I would try my hand at it.
After ensuring that comms were setup properly a smooth transition between myself and the off-going PL was performed. From there the game play of PS2 changed to that of an RTS. I observed the battlefield and directed the squads to locations were they could be the most effective at destroying and deterring the enemy. The squads responded quickly and with eagerness to complete their assigned tasks. It was an experience that I've never had before in directing other forces in other games; the efficiency and effectiveness of my orders being carried out was unparalleled.
My first platoon leadership experience was a lot of fun. After performing in the PL spot for around 2 hours, I had to step away myself and smoothly transitioned the PL to another member that also volunteered to take it.
It is not uncommon for the BWC to be outnumbered by our enemies on any continent that we fight on.
While running a joint operation with other allies of the BWC, I was in a CAS (Combat Air Support) role piloting a Liberator. Despite being outnumbered by the NC on Indar, we drove them back to their warp gate using superior tactics and surgical strikes designed to divide their forces so we could deal with them piecemeal.
I was part of the air squadron whose primary goal was to draw fire in our Liberators while flying map of the earth through the canyons around the NC warpgate... while in formation flying.
To say that we were effective would be an understatement; it's one of the most gratifying feelings to hear that the men on the ground were fighting against stiff resistance, only to see your wing of Liberators fly through the canyons and destroy the enemies that had them pinned down. After the operation was called and the battle considered won, we mustered our resources and gave an accounting of the operation.
To hear your own squadron called out as being a pivotal role in ensuring the operations success gives you a sense of accomplishment that you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere in any other game, or any other outfit.
My most memorable moment dropping with the BWC in MWO was during a weekly event that the BWC was running internally to get the other game divisions within the BWC to check out MWO.
I was piloting my Dragon when a stalker zipped around my 9 o'clock and tried to hit my battle buddy in the rear armor. I did a quick reflex action... just a jerk of my hand to target the stalker... and I alpha struck him just below the arm armor but in between the plates of the chest. I must have hit it perfectly and detonated an ammo magazine because in a single shot, the whole mech went up in smoke.
I spent the rest of the time on the enemies flank, pouring fire into them. WIth the loss of their strike leader, we overtook them.
It was a great moment and one that I'll not soon forget.
Something that separates the BWC from other groups and organizations that I have been a part of is the sheer amount of work performed by the C&S (Command and Staff) structure for each section of the BWC to ensure the best experience for all the members.
As mentioned previously, the BWC is not just a gaming group, but a community. This community runs off of the input of the member base with the free sharing of ideas, the hard work and know-how of its different departments, and a passion that I have not seen elsewhere. It is really inspiring to see what community members can come up with and create on-the-fly to meet the ever growing needs of every member, every day. I have seen many great things come from the collaboration between all members.
Another aspect that makes BWC stand out is the culture. Everyone is encouraged and inspired to become a leader in their own right; I have never seen this in any other gaming group or community. This breeds a certain mentality within the community ensuring that there will always be someone willing to lead the charge into battle, to speak up when necessary, or to do the right thing even when no one else is watching.
Being part of the BWC during operations is exactly as I describe above; unparalleled teamwork with a sense of accomplishment for the effort put forth to make your team successful. The BWC is not only a place for military Patton's but also a place for those who are new to the concept of leadership. As long as you have the guts to stand up and try, you will be rewarded with advice, training, and support from all other BWC members.
If you want to see more of what we are all about, then visit our site.
Kilrane, xCtc9592x, Jericho and 1 other person like this.
I've been running with Bwc for the best part of 3 and a half months now and I have got to say they have possibly been the best three months of online gaming I've had in a hell of a long time! I joined up cause I had heard a few of my friends had joined up and I decided to say hey what the heck and sign up and I think that was one of the best decisions I've made recently!
I joined the bwc crew to play Planetside 2 with them, up until I joined Bwc I only had around 2 hours into the game but now after 3 months I have almost 200 hours in the game and it is my most played game on steam! These guys give me a reason to play and even more of a reason to enjoy the game. If you like running as an organized squad in it then I suggest that you hit them up. Back in august we held a 24 hour gaming marathon/stream for St Judd childrens hospital, those 24 hours were a barrel of laughs and on Planetside 2 we hosted a number of operations, from dropping onto bases and fighting The Vs and Nc with only knifes to 60+ men sunderer races, the whole 24 hours hours were great!
If you enjoy playing games as part of a team, organised and such I suggest you atleast have a look into Bwc, everyone in the company is great and I'm sure that you will fit right in! For the emperor! FOR THE GOLDEN THRONE OF TERRA!
Khorne flakes the breakfast of bloodthirsty war mongers!
We will fill the skies with the our Battle Brothers and by the will of the Emperor the ground will tremble beneath our advance……none can stand before us.
We are the BWC and we are coming….
As our HMFIC Firefly mentioned BWC is unlike any gaming community you have ever seen. I am a Sergeant Major in Black Widow Company, I assist the Command Sergeant Major in overseeing our NCO corp. Our NCO's are the primary trainers, mentors, and In-game squad leaders in every game we support. We learn similar values that real world NCO's are taught, in fact many BWC NCO 's served in the armed forces from various countries around the world. We pride ourselves on taking average gamers and through training and leadership turning them into exceptional squads capable of all kinds of badassery. Make no mistake we aim to win in everything we do, and we do so as professionals always showing respect even to our enemies.
Whether it be Mechwarrior Online, Planetside 2, Star Citizen, Star Wars, Pirates, or War Thunder.
BWC is where you want to be (If you aren't a failure of a human being).
BWC makes bad games fun.