Look out! There's an app barreling toward your skull, and it's going as fast as a car.
Among the most powerful things about the first iPhone was how it made old software metaphors — pressing buttons, scrolling through pages — much more literal. Scrolling was now linked, one-to-one, to the tip of your finger. You didn't click a button on a mouse to command a software cursor to press a button for you, you just tapped it with your thumb. This was a profound change and one that was hard to advertise or talk about. But it was something that users were able to grasp almost immediately.
Movement in iOS, and in Android, is generally directly connected to one of two actions: a tapping or swiping, or hitting a button or dragging (or pushing!) something around. The weirdest these direct actions really get is pinch-to-zoom, which is somehow intuitive but doesn't really have a real-world equivalent. These are all vital in making iOS feel like iOS.
Also vital: the animations, which, in iOS 7, are centered around zooming. Or, more accurately, flying. Tapping an icon sends it flying at your face, at which point it begins to transform into an app. Closing it pulls it back away from you; it's as if the app is falling into the screen. Our minds take every other movement metaphor in iOS literally, but this one is weird. It feels three-dimensional in a way that others don't.
The sensation of depth is exaggerated in iOS 7, and profound enough that it led some users to complain of a sort of seasickness (which Apple both acknowledged and provided a fix for, in an update).
I used the small-angle approximation since the size of the object (in this case the app) is significantly smaller than the distance from which you are observing it. This allowed us to assume that the apparent size of the object is inversely proportional to the distance from which you are observing it.
In order for an iPhone app to appear to be the width of an iPhone icon, it would have to be about 5.33 feet away. That is to say, if iOS animations suggest that the icons are falling away from you, they are falling about 5 feet, and moving pretty fast. Assuming it takes about 0.8 seconds for this animation to complete, the app is moving at an average of about 6.6 feet per second, or about 4.5 miles per hour: a slow jogging speed.
Those 19.29 feet are traveled, again, in about 0.8 seconds, which works out to a little more than 24.1 feet per second, or 16.4 miles per hour. That's an average too — the animation accelerates then decelerates. Or at least it looks that way. It seems probably that, at its top speed, this icon is flying at or away from your face at over 20 miles per hour.
Kind of casts that motion-sickness stuff in a new light! iOS 7 certainly hints more strongly at depth than iOS 6, in which the zooming felt less physical. It was more like expansion than zooming, a closer relative to pinch-to-resize.
Update: Developer Steve Streza provides some background, on Twitter: "Those animations are based on spring physics. So it's like you stretched a spring from you to the folder and then let go... Animations pre-iOS 7 were based on sine wave curves. iOS 7 animations have a more gradual decay." Thanks Steve!
Anyway, now you know why iOS 7 doesn't just look different, it feels different: Every time you close an app to a folder, you're hurling it about 25 feet away from your face.


Every day we make decisions: about the things that we buy or the meals we eat; about the investments we make or our children’s health and education; even the causes that we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. We are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions that make us poorer, less healthy and less happy. And, as Thaler and Sunstein show, no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way. By knowing how people think, we can make it easier for them to choose what is best for them, their families and society. Using dozens of eye-opening examples the authors demonstrate how to nudge us in the right directions, without restricting our freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new way of looking at the world for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging, provocative and important books you will ever read.


NEW YORK – Stocks sagged Friday after a closely watched report on U.S. economic growth came in well below Wall Street expectations and raised concerns about the strength of the current economic recovery.
The Dow Jones industrial average (search) ended down 22.22 points, or 0.21 percent, at 10,488.07. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (search) fell 2.98 points, or 0.26 percent, to 1,131.13. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index (search) slipped 2.08 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,066.15.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.8 percent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 2.7 percent.
U.S. economic growth slowed to a 4 percent annual rate in the final three months of 2003, less than half the third-quarter pace as consumers cut back spending, the Commerce Department (search) reported early Friday.
Traders attributed the market's declines to the disappointing GDP data, but also said many investors were cashing in gains after the market's recent run-up.
"The market's lower because of the GDP, but I think almost everything people look at now can be seen as an excuse to sell. The market by all technical terms is overbought," said Pat Fay, director of trading at D.A. Davidson & Co.
"Earnings still matter and everyone's beating estimates, but that's already expected. The easiest way for this market to go is down, because it's so overbought," Fay added.
January started with a surge in buying throughout the market amid high expectations for the latest round of earnings reports. But investor enthusiasm dropped when the Federal Reserve (search) changed its stance this week, opening the door for a possible interest rate hike later this year. The resulting sell-off put a big dent in the month's gains.
For the month, the Dow rose 34.15, or 0.3 percent, the Nasdaq rose 62.78, or 3.1 percent, and the S&P climbed 19.21, or 1.7 percent.
The overall uptick in January — marked by weeks of buying followed by a sell-off this week — is good news to those who believe in the "January barometer." The barometer holds that a January rise in the S&P will make for a bullish year, and a lower S&P for January means a bear market is at hand. Since 1950, the barometer has been wrong only five times, with three of those years blamed on world events such as the Vietnam War and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Whatever your read is on January, there's still good news to be had on the economy, especially with the solid corporate earnings we're seeing" said Brian Bruce, director of global investments for PanAgora Asset Management Inc. "I think it will take a very solid economic report, or a series of positive reports, to assure people that things aren't as bad as the selling seems to reflect."
Partly offsetting the weak GDP report was another key indicator showing business activity in the U.S. Midwest expanded in January for a ninth straight month, and more strongly than expected.
The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago (search) business barometer rose to 65.9 from 61.2 in December, its highest level since July 1994. Economists had forecast the index at 62.0.
News of an unexpected loss at grocery chain Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (WIN) and the suspension of its dividend weighed on the market. Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) was another disappointment when sales of its key HIV drug, Viread, were reported to be not as strong as hoped. That offset a jump in Gateway Inc., which said it would buy profitable competitor eMachines Inc.
Winn-Dixie fell after posting its loss, dropping $2.53, or 28 percent, to $6.56, making it the biggest percentage loser on the New York Stock Exchange.
Nortel Networks Corp. (NT) topped the NYSE's lists of most actively traded and biggest percentage gainer stocks. It posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and its first full-year profit since 1997 after Thursday's close. Shares of Nortel leaped $1.25, or 19 percent, to $7.82.
Struggling computer maker Gateway Inc. (GTW) rose 63 cents to $4.72 after it met forecasts by posting an operating loss of 15 cents per share for the fourth quarter late Wednesday. The company also announced it would buy privately held eMachines Inc. for $235 million, creating the nation's third-largest personal computer maker.
The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) fell 45 cents to $24.00 after a distribution deal between the entertainment giant and Pixar film studios, maker of the popular films "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo," was not renewed. Pixar (PIXR), now free to find other distributors, was up $2.19 at $66.39.
ChevronTexaco Corp. (CVX) was down $1.14 to $86.17 despite reporting a 91 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits.
Wendy's International Inc. (WEN) was up 3 cents to $39.73 after reporting a 28 percent rise in profits, beating analysts' expectations by 2 cents per share. General Motors Corp. (GM) fell $1.29 to $49.42 after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 0.90, or 0.2 percent, at 580.76.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average was flat. Britain's FTSE 100 closed down 0.5 percent, France's CAC-40 finished 0.7 percent lower and Germany's DAX index closed down 0.9 percent.


Essex’s aspiring businesswomen are being encouraged to head to Colchester Business Centre with their best business ideas to take one of 100 places in the re-launch of an award-winning business support programme.
Have you got a great business idea and just want the opportunity to develop it?
Thanks to a £32,740 grant from the Natwest Skills & Opportunities Fund, Colbea is offering 100 places on In the Market for Success Too (IM4S 2) to budding female entrepreneurs for just £50.
The complete start-up package, worth over £2,000, includes training workshops, business mentoring, a free virtual office service for 12 months and a test trading spot on Colchester’s High Street market.
First launched in 2017, IM4S assisted in the creation of 83 new businesses over 18 months, won the National Enterprise Network Enterprise Engagement Award in November 2018, and culminated in Samantha Luxford, winning a two-month trading opportunity in Fenwick’s Colchester High Street store.
Jackie Clifford director of Clarity Learning & Development, is the course leader of the re-launched IM4S 2 programme.
She said: “I’m thrilled to be part of the team delivering In the Market for Success 2. This is a unique opportunity for women who are thinking of starting a business or who are in the very early days of their business to come together, learn heaps and form an ongoing network of support.
The first In the Market for Success 2 courses begins on March 8, 2019.


The president was wrong to malign the criminal-justice system in his State of the Union speech.
The claim that the criminal-justice system is racist is the mantra of left-wing activists the country over. Adopting it for the State of the Union was an unfortunate attempt to score bipartisan political points. The effort has already proven unavailing: Trump and his supporters continue to be charged with racism, while the legitimacy of law enforcement has been undermined.
It is crime, not the punishment of crime, that disproportionately harms the black community. And the demand for strict drug enforcement has always originated most forcefully in the black community. In 1959, Harlem’s New York Age newspaper called for “no leniency for the criminals, the recidivists, the junkies, dope pushers, muggers, prostitutes, or pimps. Clean out this scum—and put them away as long as the law will allow.” New York’s Rockefeller drug laws, now reviled by the elites, were passed in the 1970s because of activism in the black community, as Michael Fortner shows in Black Silent Majority.
Drug enforcement is not responsible for black overrepresentation in prison. In 2016, if all drug convicts had been released from federal and state lockups, the black share of the prison population would have fallen from 37.4 percent to 37.2 percent. In other words, drug convictions have no effect on the proportion of black prisoners; that proportion is driven by violent-crime rates.
Law-abiding residents of inner-city communities continue to ask the police to free them from the pall of open-air drug dealing and the scourge of illegal drug use. It is possible to have a good-faith debate about the optimal sentence length for violence and drug trafficking and even whether drug use and trafficking should be decriminalized entirely. But the charge of racial bias in the criminal-justice system is not supported by the evidence. President Trump and his advisors were wrong to throw this bone to his left-wing critics.


Carrying the torch for South African soul stylists Miriam Makeba and Busi Mhlongo is KwaZulu-Natal singing sensation Melody, who is the star of this weekend’s Sundowner Session presented by the Playhouse Company.
The singer will take advantage of the venue’s excellent acoustics and laid-back ambience. Admission is free and the bar is open.
Playhouse Grand Foyer, Friday March 2 at 6pm.
Tel: 031 369 9596/9540 Website: playhousecompany.com.
? During auditions for the new talent stage at the 2010 World Cup, Neil Comfort, owner of live music venue the Rainbow Restaurant, was blown away by Nigerian guitarist Solomon Willy. Willy subsequently performed several solo slots at the restaurant and recently performed with a five-piece band at Sibusiso Mndaweni’s Jam Session. This weekend, the seven-piece Solomon Willy Band takes centre stage at the Oude Meester Jazz Session, an event not to be missed by anyone even vaguely enthusiastic about the rich musical traditions of the continent.
Rainbow Restaurant, 22 Stanfield Avenue, Pinetown, Sunday March 4 at 2pm. Tickets are R20 presale and R30 at the door. Expect a big party with lots of goodies from Oude Meester to be won. Tel: 031 702 9161/083 463 8044. Website: therainbow.co.za.
? Steve Newman and Greg Georgiades are two virtuoso acoustic guitarists whose respective solo repertoires are legendary. So when they combine forces it is something with which to be reckoned. Newman and Georgiades are renowned for transporting audiences along melodic trails of rhythmic delight.
Bluestockings, Kloof, on March 2 at 7.30pm. Entrance R80 with advance booking essential. Tel: 083 659 3628.


Kitchen and bathroom renovations top the list of improvements for increasing the value of a home. But this labor-intensive remodeling can get expensive. Even without changing room layouts, the simple job of replacing finishes and fixtures can cost more than the price of a new car.
What builders call “pull and replace” remodeling can run about $12,000 to $22,000 for the average 5-by-7-foot bathroom and $29,000 to $52,000 for a 12-by-12-foot kitchen, estimates Rick Matus of Bethesda-based Case Design/Remodeling Inc. “As soon as you start moving plumbing, electrical wiring and walls, the costs go up substantially from there,” he says.
Budget-minded homeowners are finding cheaper solutions in the $10,000 to $20,000 range by making do with existing appliances and fixtures, refinishing kitchen cabinets and shopping for bargains. Suppliers and builders, in turn, are responding to the recession-driven demand for cost-conscious kitchen and bath remodeling with package deals aimed at guaranteeing the costs of materials and labor.
Laufe and husband Richard Miller, a teacher, decided to renovate the outdated and worn master bathroom in their 1960s rambler. “Everything was pink, the medicine cabinet was rusty and the faucets didn’t work as well as they should,” Laufe says.
The couple tapped Case to remodel the space based on the firm’s new renovation program, called the 2012 Bath Collection, launched in January. For $13,000 to $25,000, the company will demolish an existing space, remove lead paint if necessary, and install backer board and tile. New plumbing fixtures, vanity, towel bars, lighting and painting are included in the price. “It saves the headache of shopping different sources,” Matus says. He says Case is now considering similar package deals for kitchens.
Laufe and Miller had a choice of designs in contemporary, traditional and transitional styles, but within a narrow range of products. They chose a stained maple vanity with a granite countertop, a glass door for the shower, and marble-look-alike porcelain tile on the floor and shower stall, spending about $20,000 on the project. “It took less than two weeks to complete,” Laufe says.
Management consultant Cope Willis and wife Sophie, who works for an educational software company, spent about $9,000 to partially remodel their pink bathroom. They kept the existing toilet and pedestal sink, and hired a local handyman to install a new bathtub and finishes. “We worked within the existing constraints of the bathroom to keep costs down,” Cope Willis says.
New subway-style tile around the tub, marble tiles on the floor and beadboard wainscoting create what Willis calls “a clean, traditional look” in keeping with the architectural character of the couple’s 1938 Colonial in upper Northwest Washington.
Most of the renovation dollars were spent on the installation — about $6,000. Budgeting that amount is realistic, according to several experts who say labor accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of bathroom remodeling costs.
“To save money, do as much as you can, like installing the toilet and doing the painting,” says Dominic Piccininni, senior director in merchandising for Home Depot, which offers free DIY workshops on bathroom repairs.
Matus recommends using leftover remnants of granite for vanity tops instead of ordering an entire slab.
Instead of replacing a tub or a shower stall, Piccininni recommends installing glass doors to create a fresh look and reduce costs. “If your plumbing is all good, you could do your whole bathroom yourself with a new shower head, toilet, vanity, sink and light fixture for under $1,000,” he says.
Kitchen remodeling costs less when major fixtures are swapped out rather than moved to new locations. For a typical kitchen, about 12-by-12 feet, a budget of about $13,000 will allow a builder to install new countertops, backsplash, sink and faucet, decorative hardware and lighting, according to Matus.
Replacing the cabinets, countertop, sink and flooring — but not the appliances — in the kitchen of their Alexandria condominium totaled $8,350 for Barbara Bosworth, a teacher’s assistant, and husband Ron, who works for a rental car company. The couple hired United Floors, Kitchen and Bath, a Rockville-based company that specializes in affordable renovations.
According to United’s owner, Koksal Keskin, the $7,900 kitchen package advertised on the company’s Web site includes 10 wood-finished cabinets, granite countertops and backsplash and installation. Increasing the budget to $16,900 adds more cabinets and granite countertops and a glass-tile backsplash and ceramic or wood flooring. Both packages include appliance hook-up and plumbing, but not the appliances themselves.
Few kitchen designers will consider a makeover for less than $20,000. But Savena Doychinov, of Design Studio International in Falls Church, is trying to make that budget work in a D.C. condo kitchen by leaving the refrigerator and flooring in place and using stock rather than custom cabinets. Even in small kitchens, costs can escalate when specialized appliances are needed to fit a confined space. “A narrow range or a shallow refrigerator can cost more than standard sizes,” Doychinov says.
To reduce costs, Gaithersburg homeowners Sherry and Joe Warsaw hired carpenter Mike Van Meer of Van-Walker Woodworking to replace the doors of their 1990s-era kitchen cabinets with more contemporary designs in a white oak veneer.
The retired couple spent about $11,000 for the woodworking.
Van Meer points out that replacing or refacing doors is easiest and most cost-effective for frameless cabinets, commonly called European-style, as those in the Warsaws’ kitchen. The doors are sized so they fit over and conceal the edges of the cabinet box. “You can just replace the door and the hardware,” says Van Meer.
More standard American cabinets feature a frame around the opening of the box that is used to secure the door to the cabinet. Because this frame is visible, it has to be refaced along with the door.


We are looking for a hardworking, friendly service - oriented person.
2:00pm - 10:30pm & 10:00pm - 6:30am with every other weekend off.
To Director of H.R. & a High School Secr.
Pittsburgh area. Flexible hours. No on-call, weekends or holidays.


You might be shocked to learn exactly how much those bad habits are costing you in potential retirement savings.
We get it. You enjoy your morning latte, and we don't want to take that away from you. But we could all cut back on some guilty pleasures without sucking the fun out of life.
Don't think you can do it? Take a look at just how much more money you'll have in retirement if you make these small changes to your spending habits.
Dining out in restaurants is fun, but doing it too often is expensive and unnecessary. Get into the habit of eating at home for just one weekend a month, that's all we're asking for. You can still go out for dinner every other Friday and Saturday night. The average American spends $252 a month eating out, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you skip two restaurant meals, we figure you'll save $63. By the time you hit retirement age, you'll have a couple hundred thousand extra in the bank.
A quicker ride home is always tempting. But barring a torrential downpour, maybe the convenience isn't always worth the cost. Though a $20 cab ride might not seem like a big splurge, doing it once a week is costing you $960 a year. That alone could be enough to buy you an entire house in retirement.
Can't stand to give up the convenience for good? If a cab-free life feels like too much of a sacrifice to you, try doing it for just one year. You'll still end up with an extra $19,365 in retirement.
Smoking a pack a day costs Americans an average of $176 a month, according to WalletHub. Plus, it's bad for you, so quitting is a win-win. If you have trouble kicking the habit, just think of the cumulative savings of well over half a million dollars. When we did the math we assumed you'll go cold turkey -- and never go back.
Don't worry, you can still splurge on a latte here and there. But consider this: A $10 bag of ground coffee should last you at least a month and still give you the same caffeine fix. So skip buying your daily $2.50 Cup of Joe and brew it at home. As a reward, splurge on a tall Starbucks latte once a week. You'll still come out ahead $24 a month.
It's important to stay fit, but there are plenty of ways to do it that won't put your financial health at risk. If you're only going once or twice a month, it might be time to quit the gym -- especially if it's a pricy sports club.
We don't expect you to say goodbye to treadmills forever, but maybe a membership doesn't fit your schedule right now. If you cancel a $40 monthly membership, it would save you $480 over the next year. That alone could give you an extra $9,682 of spending cash in retirement.
Americans spend an average of $46 a month on alcohol, according to the BLS. You might spend a lot more or a lot less. No one is saying you have to kick the habit altogether. But wine drinkers could probably save at least that much by choosing a BYOB restaurant twice a month, or drinking at home instead of going out. Restaurants are notorious for marking up the price of wine, charging upwards of $25 for a bottle that could cost you $12 or less at a liquor store.


Until Microsoft fixes this issue removing any external media is a decent workaround, but those who use an SD card to make up for a lack of disk space will face problems. Threshold 2 requires 20GB of free space for the installation and that may prove a lot to free up.
A Reddit thread notes that Threshold 2 is deleting a number of installed programs as it upgrades. Posters have a long list, including CPU-Z, speccy, 8gadgetpack, a Cisco VPN client, SATA drivers, SpyBot, RSAT, F5 VPN, HWMonitor and more.
Of course these can be reinstalled and you will be notified of any removed programs after the installation, but 1. This shouldn’t happen in the first place, and 2. There should be a warning in advance, not just after they were removed. There’s also something a theme here: many are system monitoring tools. Has Microsoft something planned in this space for the future and is quietly removing the competition? Only time will tell, but I suspect that won’t stop the conspiracy theories growing.
On top of this gHacks has spotted that after installing Threshold 2 users are finding it has changed a number of default app choices back to Microsoft services. Microsoft has been guilty of this before, but your choices can easily be restored by going to: System > Default Apps and rechoosing what you want - not that you should have to do this in the first place, of course.
This is a somewhat baffling decision since Threshold 2 allows users to downgrade to a previous version of Windows. Furthermore - in something of a Windows 10 update role reversal - if you uninstall the Threshold 2 update then it won’t reinstall automatically and you’ll need to get it from the Microsoft website.
I suspect this is just until the next batch of updates which will trigger more automatic updates, but it’s a curious move in the first place which will have some users hopeful that Microsoft is considering loosening some of its vice-like control over the OS.
Surface Pro 4 Vs Surface Pro 3: What’s The Difference?


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has demanded a strong reaction from his team, stunned by their 4-0 loss to Everton, when they face title-chasing Manchester City in Wednesday's Premier League derby at Old Trafford.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - The following are talking points from the weekend's Premier League action.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he would not have been able to recover, as a player, from Wednesday's Champions League exit to Tottenham and then beat the same opponents on Saturday in the Premier League.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Steel and pragmatism are words rarely associated with Pep Guardiola's thrilling Manchester City side, but they are characteristics that would have served them well in their Champions exit at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - There are great goals, lucky goals, own goals, winning goals and now, in the era of VAR, we have the 'provisional goal'.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Little over 60 hours after their extraordinary Champions League drama, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will face each other again at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, this time in the Premier League.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his team would "stand up" and fight for the Premier League title after their dreams of a quadruple were ended by Wednesday's dramatic exit from the Champions League to Tottenham Hotspur.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino hailed his team as "heroes" after Wednesday's astonishing Champions League quarter-final with Manchester City ended in an away goals win for his team after ending 4-4 on aggregate.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - After an astonishing encounter at the Etihad Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur reached the semi-finals of the Champions League on away goals following a 4-3 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday.
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - A spectacular strike from Mohamed Salah helped Liverpool maintain their two point lead over Manchester City in the Premier League title race with a crucial 2-0 win over Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.


After another blank Saturday in the London Three South East programme last weekend, H&B will return to action with an away match against Bromley this coming Saturday.
A 45-19 win at Sheppey in their last outing two weeks ago has left H&B seven points and two places above the third and final London Three South East relegation spot with five games to go.
But given their difficult upcoming run of matches, and third-bottom Folkestone’s next two home fixtures being against the two sides cast adrift at the bottom, H&B know there is still work to do.
H&B were 51-22 winners over fourth-placed Bromley in the reverse fixture on the opening day, but a far tougher assignment is on the cards this time around.
H&B head coach Chris Brooks said: “We’re one of the few teams that have beaten Bromley this season, but they weren’t at full strength and we had a very good day against them.
“They’re going to be aware of that as well and they’re really not going to want to lose to us at home so it’s going to be a tough day.
Hastings & Bexhill’s remaining 2017/18 London Three South East fixtures: March 3 Bromley (a), March 10 Old Dunstonians (h), March 24 Thanet Wanderers (a), April 7 Lewes (h), April 14 Park House (a).


The Petersen Automotive Museum has had motorcycle exhibits before, but its new show isn’t about your typical bikes.
On April 14, the museum will open “Custom Revolution,” a yearlong exhibition made up of about two dozen customized motorcycles that showcase how builders take stock bikes and transform them into one-of-a-kind machines.
“These builders in our exhibit really are at the pinnacle of the movement. They’re the best in the world,” said Paul d’Orleans, a motorcycle historian and author who curated the exhibition, which is set to run through April 2019.
The exhibition will showcase the work of 22 builders who use both new and old engines, chassis and other parts to reimagine factory-built machines.
Among the bikes on display will be an electric dragster called the E-Lisabad. It was built out of a BMW scooter by German custom builders Krautmotors in 2017.
The – shh – silent speedster was lowered and with its matte-black angular design looks more like a stealth plane than a scooter.
Also on display will be the Black, built by Los Angeles-based company Falcon Motorcycles.
The bike was made using the engine of a 1952 Black Shadow motorcycle with most everything else, such as the frame, tank, handlebars and seat, fabricated at Falcon’s shop.
“Some people consider it one of the most important custom motorcycles in the last 10-15 years. It’s incredibly elaborate with tens of thousands spent on it,” d’Orleans said.
When: Exhibition opens April 14. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.
Where: The Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.
Cost: General admission is $16, $13 for seniors and students with ID, $8 for children ages 3 to 12.


NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Air cargo carrier Emery Worldwide grounded its fleet of 37 freighters Monday as the Federal Aviation Administration prepared to pull its operating certificate because of maintenance problems.
An official of the FAA said the agency pushed for the grounding because its investigation discovered more than 100 violations of safety regulations.
Air cargo carrier Emery Worldwide agreed Monday to ground its fleet of freighters instead of having the FAA pull its operating certificate due to more than 100 alleged safety regulation violations.
"This gives us a lack of confidence in the carrier's ability or willingness to fly safe aircraft," said Ava Mims, the deputy director of the FAA's flight standards office.
Mims said the current agreement with Emery will keep its planes on the ground for at least 30 days, but that it likely will take much longer to resume operations.
A spokeswoman for Emery, a unit of CNF Inc., said the move by the FAA came "out of the blue." Shares of CNF (CNF: down $1.19 to $30.31, Research, Estimates) were off about 4 percent in trading Monday.
"We were called Friday and told to come to a meeting Saturday," Emery spokeswoman Nancy Colvert said. "We think it's unnecessary and unwarranted. We've been working with the FAA on an almost daily basis for the last 18 months. All the issues they raised are things we've already remedied or were in the process of remedying. We reached an interim agreement with them and said we will cease our operations until the issues are resolved."
Mims said the FAA has been investigating safety problems at Emery since January, 2000, when it uncovered problems as part of a normal safety audit. The following month three crew members were killed in the crash of a DC-8 in Rancho Cordova, Calif., just outside Sacramento, shortly after takeoff as the pilot attempted to return to the airport due to what he reported was an extreme center-of-gravity problem, initially suggesting that the plane was improperly loaded.
But the National Transportation Safety Board, in setting a hearing on the crash for later this month, said the major issue now being examined centers on contract maintenance and the associated oversight by Emery and by the FAA. That hearing was indefinitely postponed Monday due to the action by the FAA against Emery.
Mims said Emery responded to concerns about improper loading of aircraft in the wake of that crash, suggesting to the FAA it was prepared to correct other problems. But she said it has not followed up on other problems found by inspectors or its own pilots. She cited examples of Emery pilots writing-up equipment problems on the same aircraft time after time without the problems being corrected.
Emery said it had leased the necessary aircraft from other cargo carriers to operate a full schedule of flights Monday and for the immediate future, although Colvert could not estimate the cost to the carrier. The only air cargo carrier named by the company as providing planes is privately held Ryan Aviation of Wichita, Kan.
This is a relatively good time for Emery to be searching for aircraft, said Ron Ryan, chairman and owner of Ryan Aviation. He said air cargo has been so slow there are plenty of excess cargo planes available for Emery.
"I think Emery is in excellent shape," he said. "They can get all the lift they need and then some." Ryan said the seasonal pre-holiday pickup in air cargo likely won't be seen until late September.
"If this was December and something like this happened, it would be a disaster for their customers. But their customers won't even notice it happening now," Ryan said.
Ryan said Emery also stands to have 22 Boeing 727 freighters become available at the end of this month unless it wins an appeal of a lawsuit, which thus far has unsuccessfully tried to block the U.S. Postal Service from shifting some of its priority mail business from Emery to FedEx Corp. (FDX: up $0.18 to $40.15, Research, Estimates). Ryan is leasing those 22 planes from Emery and flying them under contract for Emery, and they are not affected by Monday's grounding.
Emery said that as a result of the grounding of its own planes, 800 pilots, crew members, and other administrative personnel will be laid off, although details of those layoffs were not immediately available. Emery had about 1,100 employees before those layoffs.
About 500 of those being furloughed are pilots and crew members. Capt. Tom Rachfort, a pilot with Emery, said that the pilots have been complaining for some time about the maintenance performance of Emery and CNF, trying to raise alarms with the FAA and the media.
"I don't think it was a surprise," he said of the shutdown of the airline operations. "We were hoping we'd be able to get it rectified with the airline prior to it being shut down. We've got no money for parts. Without proper financing, there's no way to correct problems."
Alex Brand, analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, said that he believes this will be the final push to have Emery move away from owning planes altogether, and to be what is known in the field of freight transportation as a non-asset based carrier, or a third party, one that arranges to move freight on other companies' planes, trucks or ships.
"They've stressed on conference call after conference call the desire to be asset light," Brand said. "They feel like they need a network of planes to fuel the kind of freight they carry. But now they're going to be running a third-party network anyway. I can't see them going out of their way to put the planes back in the air."
Emery's main business is transporting heavy-weight air cargo, rather than the letters and packages handled by carriers such as FedEx, United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS: down $0.11 to $55.97, Research, Estimates) and Airborne Express, a unit of Airborne Inc. (ABF: up $0.13 to $13.52, Research, Estimates).
Bear Stearns transportation analyst Ed Wolfe said some of Emery's competitors that stand to benefit from its problems include freight forwarder EGL Inc. (EAGL: down $0.11 to $12.59, Research, Estimates) and BAX Global Inc., a unit of Pittston Co. (PZB: up $0.01 to $21.63, Research, Estimates) and, to a lesser extent, USFreightways Corp. (USFC: up $0.24 to $34.10, Research, Estimates), which has a freight forwarding unit that competes for the same customers.
Brand said the heavy-weight air cargo business has been a money-losing sector even in good times, and that it apparently is unable to support both Emery and BAX Global.
"It's a foregone conclusion there's one carrier too many," Brand said. "But even with this, I don't think it's definite that Emery will be the one that disappears."
CNF's other businesses, Con-Way Transportation Services, a leading nonunion trucking company, and Menlo Logistics, a third-party logistics provider, are both among leaders in their field, but they are being drawn down by Emery's problems. Emery lost $25.2 million even before special charges in the second quarter, as revenue fell 16 percent to $530 million.
Even before this latest problem Emery was cutting the size of its fleet from 54 aircraft a year ago. Including special charges for write-down of those and other assets and a restructuring charge, Emery had an operating loss of $370 million in the second quarter, plunging CNF to a net loss of $227.9 million with the charges, rather than the earnings of $43.7 million it posted excluding the charges.
Since the Feb. 16, 2000, fatal crash in Rancho Cordova, Emery has had three other incidents investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. Mims cited one from April of this year in which maintenance workers installed the wrong kind of equipment in one landing gear, leaving the crew unable to lower its landing gear and forcing it to land the DC-8 in Nashville, Tenn., on two landing gears and a wing. No one was hurt in that crash, though.
"That's a perfect example of the cavalier attitude of Emery," said Emery pilot Rachfort. "The airline had not been giving them the money to buy the parts. They took a part off one airplane and tried to make it work on another airplane. They said they check this thing. Obviously they didn't. This is the stuff the feds are upset about."
In another incident, an Emery crew was able to land a plane in Denver in April 2000 after the failure of the clamp that secured the high-pressure air duct caused an engine failure, a hole in the fuselage and the loss of cabin pressure.
The FAA proposed fining Emery $500,000 on Feb. 28, 2001, charging that it failed to notify pilots on 19 occasions that hazardous materials were being transported on their aircraft.
It also announced proposed fines totaling $198,000, charging Emery operated one DC-8 without proper maintenance and another aircraft was operated despite not being in compliance with an airworthiness directive. Cory said that those are just two of "many" proposed fines pending against Emery.
Emery's Colvert said that those complaints are still only pending and that in only one case has a proposed fine against the carrier reached the point of being settled and paid.


Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson rode out Superstorm Sandy in Sea Gate, where his apartment and car were destroyed by the storm surge. On Sunday, September 22, his documentary “The Storm” is premiering at the Coney Island Film Festival. The 20-minute film shows rare and dramatic footage of the storm coming ashore on the evening of Oct. 29, 2012, as well as preparations for the storm, the surge at Coney Island and Sea Gate, and the storm’s aftermath.
On September 22, prior to the film screening, the Coney Island History Project exhibit center will be open special hours, from 3-5 p.m. View historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island’s colorful past. The exhibit center is located on West 12th Street at the entrance to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. Admission is free of charge.
“The Storm” is part of Program 16, featuring several Coney Island-themed films, and the screening will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $7. Advance ticket purchase is recommended. The screening venue is Sideshows by the Seashore at Coney Island USA, 1208 Surf Avenue, ground floor.
In just a little over an hour, you can be transported from the glitz and glamor of Manhattan to the old-school amusement of Brooklyn's storied Coney Island. The destination offers thrills, sun, surf and a unique brand of entertainment that will feel worlds away from the rest of the City.


If Eminem is coming for President Trump, the Secret Service is coming for him.
The Detroit rapper, whose real name is Marshal Mathers, reignited his musical feud with Trump on the first track of his surprise album “Kamikaze,” which dropped early Friday. In the third verse of “The Ringer,” Eminem claims his 2017 freestyle for the BET Hip Hop Awards earned him a visit from the Secret Service.
The Secret Service in a statement said it “does not confirm or comment on the absence or existence of specific investigations.
Comedienne Kathy Griffin, who gets a seemingly more positive shout-out in another “Kamikaze” track, similarly earned a visit from the Secret Service last year after a wildly controversial image that showed her holding a bloodied, severed effigy head of Trump. She appeared in Eminem’s “Real Slim Shady” music video nearly 20 years ago.
Eminem’s alleged Secret Service visit was apparently prompted by his scathing anti-Trump cypher, in which he called the President a “kamikaze that will probably cause a nuclear holocaust” — perhaps a foreshadow of his latest album with the same name.
Eminem also draws “a line in the sand,” urging those who support Trump to stop listening to his tracks.
“’Cause like him in politics, I’m usin’ all of his tricks/’Cause I’m throwin’ that piece of s--t against the wall ‘til it sticks,” he adds.
If the blistering lyrics did in fact catch the eye of the Secret Service, it wouldn’t be the first time. The agency also investigated Eminem following the leak of his song, “We Are Americans,” in 2003.
“F--k money, I don’t rap for dead presidents/I’d rather see the President dead/ It’s never been said, but I set precedents,” he rapped.
The word “Dead” was censored upon the song’s official release.
The 45-year-old Grammy winner has also previously taken aim at former President George W. Bush and first daughter Ivanka Trump with fiery lyrics.
“Stomp, push shove, mush; f--k Bush,” he raps at the end of the second verse.
Eminem isn’t reserving his digs only for politicians on his new album — he also takes aim at fellow rappers Drake, Lil Pump, Lil Yachty, Lil Xan and Tyler the Creator as well as the media, Harvey Weinstein and award shows.


By Monday night, 23-year-old Tori Kelly might be in possession of her very first Grammy. But only a year ago, she was a relative unknown whose audiences were rooted mainly in YouTube subscriptions.
Kelly, who auditioned for American Idol's ninth season as a teenager in 2010, was cut from the show just before the its live semi-finals after some particularly harsh criticism from judge Simon Cowell. While the rejection hit Kelly hard, she told Ryan Seacrest last year it incited her to buckle down on her craft and prove her worth as a musician.
"I was bummed when I got cut, of course,” she said. “But then it was kind of awesome because, I think, by getting cut from the show, something stirred up in me to want to write."
And that's precisely what she did. In 2012, after releasing six-track EP Handmade Songs By Tori Kelly that Kelly, herself, produced in her bedroom, the singer caught Scooter Braun's eye, and found herself under Capitol Records' management within the year. A second EP, Foreword, continued to cultivate a fan base, and demonstrated her appeal as a complete, wild-maned package.
It was 2015, though, that signaled Kelly's rise into official breakthrough artist territory. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, and armed with only an acoustic guitar, she tore through "Nobody Love," her debut album's first single, and delivered what was generally considered to be the show's most striking performance. Unbreakable Smile's release a month later was proof of the broadcast's power — the LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and "Nobody Love," which peaked inside Billboard's Top 20, was certified gold. By pairing an enduring singer-songwriter sound with more explosive tracks like "Expensive," Kelly honored her most devoted fans while opening herself up to a more mainstream audience.
"Should've Been Us," released next, also went gold.
As pop began to embrace Kelly's relaxed attitude and penchant for producing radio-worthy hits, she reminded everyone with a tribute to Smokey Robinson at the 2015 BET Awards that she was, at her core, a soul artist. Fans — old and new — went wild on Twitter after her rendition of "Who's Lovin You." Even Snoop Dogg, who watched the show from home, couldn't help but cry out in favor of her voice.
And, in case anyone hadn't been officially converted to T.K.-standom by August, Kelly's electric MTV Video Music Awards performance proved that she was one of the industry's most formidable and versatile contemporary singers, earning praise from both Pink and Foxes in the process.
Now, Kelly will square off against Meghan Trainor, James Bay, Courtney Barnett and Sam Hunt for the Grammys' Best New Artist distinction...and she's performing. Plus, she's got a new nationwide tour kicking off April 5.
"I'm having a hard time processing all of it, but it's definitely a huge honor," she told Access Hollywood of her Grammys nomination.
Tori fan? Share your thoughts on her banner year, and be sure to keep up with PopCrush on Grammys night for live coverage — the magic begins with the 6 PM EST pre-show on February 15!


Season recap: Solid all season, Nico Young enjoyed a postseason for the ages, even as part of it was disrupted by the Woolsey fire.
Young won the CIF Southern Section’s Division 2 individual title just days after most of his teammates were evacuated from their homes due to the quick-spreading wildfire. He set a Riverside City Course 3-mile course record with a time of 14 minutes, 24.2 seconds while leading Newbury Park to its first boys team championship.
He wasn’t done. The following week, he won the 5-kilometer Division II race at the CIF State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno in 14:59 while again leading the Panthers to a championship, this time at the state level.
Newbury Park performed so well, in fact, it earned a berth into the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, where Young again impressed with a fourth-place overall finish in 15:04.7.
Jackson Adelman, St. Margaret’s, So.
Cy Chittenden, Mira Costa, Sr.
Ethan Danforth, Canyon (Canyon Country), Sr.
Carrick Denker, Dana Hills, Jr.
William Frankenfeld, Long Beach Poly, Sr.
Simon Fuller, Dana Hills, Sr.
Cole Gamble, Mira Costa, Sr.
Alexis Garcia, Newport Harbor, Sr.
Dylan Gatua, West Ranch, So.
Cameron Hylton, Great Oak, Sr.
Mateo Joseph, Great Oak, So.
Ben McKenna, Aliso Niguel, Jr.
Lorenzo Orozco, Valley View, Sr.
Hunter Romine, West Ranch, Jr.
Ethan Ronk, Newbury Park, Sr.
Ryan Shields, Great Oak, Sr.
Ryan Smithers, Laguna Beach, Sr.
Tyler Tickner, Great Oak, Sr.
Josh O’Neill, Trabuco Hills, Sr.
Manan Vats, Crescenta Valley, Sr.
Chris Verdugo, Great Oak, Jr.
Dylan Wilbur, Crescenta Valley, Jr.
John Worthy, Great Oak, So.


In today's turbulent market prices are up one month and down the next. Rates are down from the Fed, but high for individuals. Banks require different information and credit scores -- not to mention down payments -- than ever before.
1.) Know how much house you can afford. A banker can tell you this, or websites such as Bankrate.com or Military.com, have mortgage calculators to help you out. Try to stick to a home that doesn't, including payment and insurance, exceed 35 percent - 45 percent of your gross income.
2.) If you have a lot of revolving debt, then consider pay it off with your down payment money and re-save the down. It will boost your credit score to get you a better rate, and will save you interest. Banks may require you pay off your debts through escrow to close the loan if you don?t.
3.) Prioritize your debts before you buy. Come up with a six-month or one-year plan that pays down the debts with the highest interest rates first. Go into your new home as debt free as you can. A good goal is to have no debt that isn't securitized by collateral. Cars are okay, because you can sell the car. Credit cards aren't. Chances are you-re still paying off a dinner or impulse purchase from a few months ago.
4.) If you can stick to the conforming limits (check with your bank on what number they use), this means your loan can be sold to the government agencies. Your rate will be much less. Generally try to find a house under $260,000. Be sure you take VA loan options when you can; this is a benefit you deserve and should take.
5.) Shop around. If you buy a new home, ask outright if they offer incentives. I haven't had one say "no" in the past year, and I've tested more than 15. If you buy a resale home, do your homework on comps (Zillow.com has great info) so you know what the house is worth.
*Bonus tip: Remember that being represented by an agent seems to cost you nothing, but the seller wraps the commission up into their price. If you can find another owner to buy from owner-to-owner, this is the best deal. You may feel more comfortable having an agent, by all means do so. Make sure you take charge though. Agents, though not legally allowed to show only homes with high commissions, may have a tendency to do so anyway. Hand your agent a list of homes you want to see, including those for sale by owner. It doesn't hurt to ask for some of that commission back, too -- many will do that in today's market. This is a nice bonus after closing.


The emphasis in the workshop is on \"just-in-time\" information as opposed to the \"just-in-case\" material that comprises most new faculty orientations. Besides tips on starting and building a research program and designing and delivering courses, sessions are devoted to dealing with common headaches in the life of a faculty member, including difficulty getting proposals and papers written and accepted; setbacks in research projects such as equipment breakdowns, unproductive research assistants, and loss of funding in mid-project; a wide variety of classroom management and academic advising problems; and cheating.
The standard way to prepare people for a faculty career is not to. At most universities, new faculty members go to a campus-wide orientation workshop to be welcomed by the Provost and hear about their insurance and retirement options and the locations and functions of various campus administrative units, and graduate students learn how to work on a research project someone else has defined, but that's about it for academic career preparation. Little or nothing is generally said to either future or current professors about the three questions all new faculty members at research universities have uppermost on their minds: (1) How do I start and build an effective research program? (2) How do I teach? (3) How can I manage to do everything I need to do to get tenure and promotion and still have a life?
This is an absurd state of affairs. Being a tenure-track faculty member at a research university requires doing many things graduate school does not routinely teach, such as how to identify and approach funding sources and write successful proposals to them, compete with famous and well-funded faculty colleagues for good graduate students, design courses and deliver them effectively, write assignments and exams that are both rigorous and fair, deal with classroom management and advising problems and cheating, and learn a campus culture and integrate smoothly into it. Figuring out all those things on one's own is not trivial, and while there is something to be said for trial-and-error learning, it's not efficient. Robert Boice  studied the career trajectories of new faculty members and found that roughly 95% of them take between four and five years to get their research productivity and teaching effectiveness to levels that meet institutional standards. A 4-5 year learning curve is long and costly for universities, which invest as much as a million dollars in each new faculty hire, and the costs continue to mount for those faculty members who never manage to become effective at either research or teaching.
Boice also observed, however, that 5% of new faculty members meet or exceed their institutions' expectations for both research and teaching within their first 1-2 years. These quick starters do several things differently from their colleagues, including scheduling regular time for working on scholarly writing and sticking with the schedule, limiting lesson preparation time to less than two hours per hour of lecture (especially after the initial course offering), and networking with colleagues several hours a week, which helps the new faculty members transition into their institutional culture and cultivates advocates for them among those who will eventually vote on their promotion and tenure. The problem is that new faculty members are seldom made aware of those strategies and other things they should be doing to get their research and teaching careers off to a good start. In the absence of appropriate orientation and mentoring, most make the same mistakes 95% of their colleagues make in their first few years, and the 4-5 year learning curve, tremendous stress and anxiety, and sometimes failure to earn tenure are the consequences.
As part of its comprehensive faculty development program, shortly before the start of the Fall 2000 semester the N.C. State University College of Engineering (COE) gave a four-day orientation workshop to its new faculty members, covering essentially all of the topics mentioned in the second paragraph of this column. Since 2001 the workshop has been given jointly to new faculty in the COE and the NCSU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS), and it has now reached 257 faculty members (171 from COE, 86 from PAMS). Most participants were concerned about spending four days at a workshop shortly before the start of their first semester, but they were assured by their department heads and faculty colleagues that it would be worth their time. Those who participated clearly felt that it was: end-of-workshop rating forms have been completed by 238 attendees, who gave the program 209 \"excellent,\" 29 \"good,\" and no \"average,\" \"fair,\" or \"poor\" ratings.
• Practicality. The emphasis in the workshop is on \"just-in-time\" information as opposed to the \"just-in-case\" material that comprises most new faculty orientations. Besides tips on starting and building a research program and designing and delivering courses, sessions are devoted to dealing with common headaches in the life of a faculty member, including difficulty getting proposals and papers written and accepted; setbacks in research projects such as equipment breakdowns, unproductive research assistants, and loss of funding in mid-project; a wide variety of classroom management and academic advising problems; and cheating.
• Interactivity. While there is some lecturing in the workshop, a substantial portion of the four days is occupied with activities. The participants critique research descriptions, proposals, learning objectives, and examinations; work in bi-disciplinary pairs to outline a research project that involves the areas of expertise of both team members, and find resolutions to hypothetical research, teaching, and advising crises. By the end of the first day the participants have clearly formed a learning community that continues to strengthen as the workshop progresses.
• Relevance to the participants' disciplines. Illustrative research and teaching scenarios and a mock NSF panel review are all STEM-related. In fact, a comprehensive workshop like this could not be given to a campus-wide audience, since many of the things faculty members need to know (especially where research is concerned) differ significantly between STEM and non-STEM disciplines.
• Relevance to the local campus culture. The participants learn about what they really need to do to succeed at N.C. State, with the message coming from engineering and science deans and department heads, research support staff, and some of the best STEM researchers and teachers on campus. Most participants leave the workshop with a strong sense that their administrators and senior colleagues are firmly committed to their success. They know where to go when they need help, and they feel comfortable asking for it.
To gauge the impact of the workshop, 32 attendees and nine non-attendees were surveyed three years after they joined the faculty. Attendees outperformed nonattendees in both research productivity and teaching evaluations. When asked to rate their orientation to their new profession, the attendees gave it an average rating of 4.6/5 and the non-attendees rated it 3.4/5. The workshop also plays an important role in faculty recruitment efforts in the two colleges. Candidates have said that its existence was a major factor in their decision to come to N.C. State, since none of the other universities they were considering offered anything comparable.
When we visit other campuses to give teaching seminars we generally mention the workshop to our hosts, observing that its benefits to both new faculty members and their institutions are significant and the total cost of food and facilitators' fees is in the noise level of most institutional budgets. The overhead from a single substantial grant that would not have otherwise been awarded would more than cover the cost, and based on the feedback we have received, there have been many such grants. We don't understand why every research university is not doing something similar for its new faculty members. Does yours? If not, why not?
1. R. Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members, Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.
2. R. Brent, R.M. Felder, and S.A. Rajala, \"Preparing New Faculty Members to be Successful: A No-Brainer and Yet a Radical Concept,\" Proceedings, 2006 ASEE Annual Meeting, June 2006. <http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/ASEE06(NewFaculty).pdf>.
3. D.F. Ollis, R.M. Felder, and R. Brent, \"Introducing New Engineering Faculty to Multidisciplinary Research Collaboration,\" Proceedings, 2002 ASEE Annual Meeting, Montreal, ASEE, June 2002. <http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Bidisciplinary.pdf>.
4. R.M. Felder, R. Brent, and M.J. Prince, \"Engineering Instructional Development: Programs, Best Practices, and Recommendations,\" J. Engr. Education, 100(1), 89-122 (2011).


Lake Auction Services Auction (Not a Live In-Person Auction). Published List Price is the "Suggested Starting Bid" and not a "Reserve Price". No Extra Buyer's Fees. Submit Offers Now because the Seller can Sell before the Auction Date. Incredible opportunity to locate your dream home or private getaway on Lake Erie. 3 Full private mostly wooded acres overlooking Lake Erie. Enjoy the gorgeous views and the peaceful serenity of one of the worlds great natural resources. Make it yours!


Here are five critical qualities of great leaders and how they can help you be a great leader -- or colleague, or family member, or friend -- as well.
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
Clearly, as Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, suggested, great leaders are inspiring. It's generally true that you know great leaders when you see them -- but what, exactly, are their characteristics? Here are five key characteristics and groups of characteristics to consider.
See which of them you might have, and which you might be able to develop or develop further, as they may help you get ahead in your professional (and even your personal) life.
This first characteristic of a great leader encompasses a host of similar ones, such as honesty, integrity, candor, transparency, and accountability. If you're the leader of a company, your underlings as well as those outside the company should get the sense that they can trust you. They need to believe that what you say is true and that you're not hiding things. They need to know that you are ethical and hold yourself accountable.
Laura Rittenhouse has made a career out of studying and writing about candor among CEOs. In analyzing CEO letters to shareholders, she has found that about a quarter of CEOs communicate clearly and with candor, discussing their business's progress with honesty. At the other end of the spectrum, around 25% to 30% of CEOs are "incomprehensible and so riddled with jargon that it's hard to understand what they're communicating." Warren Buffett is often presented as a great example of a candid CEO. In his 1996 letter to shareholders, for example, he cautioned investors in his huge company that "our past rates of growth cannot be matched nor even approached." In 1998, he lamented some investment decisions, noting, "Overall, you would have been better off last year if I had regularly snuck off to the movies during market hours."
Great leaders are inspirational, but how, precisely do they inspire us? Well, in several ways. They tend to have great passion for the work they do, and this dedication and enthusiasm can be contagious. Being authentic and honest, as described above, can also be inspiring, making others want to be authentic and honest, too.
They're often generous, too, and not in the sense of giving money away. (Though they might do that, too -- Buffett, for example, has given away tens of billions of dollars.) Instead, they're generous giving credit to those who work for them and generous in taking blame themselves instead of pointing at others. They're generous in caring about their workforce and having empathy for others. They want their workers to have a work-life balance and to feel valued. (Happy employees have long been tied to above-average productivity, with one recent study suggesting that happy workers are, on average, 12% more productive, while unhappy ones are about 10% less productive.) Generous leaders are generous with their time, their attention, and with information. (Having more information can help those below the leader make better decisions and feel more invested in their work, instead of feeling left out or confused.) They're generous with forgiveness, too, when necessary.
Of course, a leader may have great passion and great integrity, but if she's not a good (or, better still, great) communicator, then she will be less effective. Some ways of being a great communicator include reaching your audience at their level and not using fancier words than you need to or many more words than you need to -- these are true both for speaking and for writing. Think, for example, of Abraham Lincoln and how effective his Gettysburg Address was, despite being just 273 words long. Warren Buffett, meanwhile, has explained that when he writes his annual letter (and he actually does write his, while some CEOs will delegate that task), he imagines writing it to his sister, who is more of an ordinary person than a Wall Street analyst.
When communicating with employees, great leaders need to convey what the company's strategy is, why it makes sense, and how it's progressing over time, among other things. Great leaders will know what their audience is thinking or worrying about and will address such concerns. It's important to remember that what isn't said can be very important, too. Thus, the qualities above -- candor, generosity, etc. -- come into play here. It's also effective to keep in mind how your audience is feeling and to be aware of the effect your communication is having. As Maya Angelou famously observed, "People will forget what you said and did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
A sense of humor can be quite effective in communication, too. Consider the widely beloved Ronald Reagan. Speaking at the 1992 Republican National Convention, he quipped that, "according to the experts, I have exceeded my life expectancy by quite a few years. Now this is a source of great annoyance to some, especially those in the Democratic Party."
Up next is confidence, which can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Great leaders typically are quite confident in themselves and their abilities, and are ideally also confident of the abilities of those who work under them. This breeds a positive attitude, which can be inspiring and infectious.
When great leaders exhibit confidence in their workers or followers, it also reflects trust and respect -- they respect them and trust them to do what they need to do. In turn, this can build trust in and respect for the leader. Confidence is especially important in times of crisis when people will look to the leader for reassurance and inspiration.
A leader instills confidence and "followership" by having a clear vision, showing empathy and being a strong coach. As a female leader, to be recognized I feel I have to show up with swagger and assertiveness, yet always try to maintain my Southern upbringing, which underscores kindness and generosity. The two work well together in gaining respect.
Lastly, great leaders need to be open-minded -- eager to read and listen and learn, and willing to change. Open-minded leaders welcome others' thoughts and suggestions and really listen (as opposed to just hearing). Think about how rapidly many industries change. A leader can't know everything, so he or she should be willing to hear about how the company might adapt and change and tweak (or overhaul) its current strategy. Humility can help a CEO understand that others have a lot to contribute, too.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Warren Buffett again serves as a great example. He had had success by only investing in very undervalued companies, but by being open-minded to the perspective of his friend Charlie Munger, he came around to sharing the belief that it's better to pay a fair price for a great company than a great price for a fair company. That helped his company grow much faster over the long run.
Great leaders need to be willing to change course when needed. Some years ago, for example, it started becoming clear that the Internet was going to change how many companies did business. Those that adapted more quickly had an advantage over those that dragged their feet or stuck with their original plans.
The characteristics above are among the most important ones you'll find in great leaders. Consider developing some of them in yourself and your personal and business life. Open-mindedness and honesty can pay off in your family life, for example, while communicating more clearly and being more confident can pay off at work.


VOLUNTEERS who scan the seas off Redcar have called on the Government to revoke plans to cut Humber Coastguard’s opening hours.
The proposal was announced last year as part of plans to cut the number of UK coastguard stations from 19 to nine, only four of which would have remained open 24 hours a day.
Humber Coastguard, which takes in our stretch of coastline as part of its Scottish border to the Humber Estuary coverage, was due to be scaled back from 24-hour-a-day coverage to daylight hours only.
But reports now suggest the Government is thinking again about the UK proposals after widespread opposition.
Commons Leader Sir George Young told MPs the Government was ‘‘having another look’’ at the proposals and would respond before the Commons rises in July.
And one of the groups which works closely with Humber Coastguard, Redcar Coastwatch, hopes any review will reverse the plan to cut Humber’s hours.
Redcar Coastwatch station controller Ray Preston said: “If Humber went to daylight hours, it would make it more difficult for us, as volunteers, to do the extra work which coastguards rely on.
“A lot of local information would be lost. For example, recently, when Humber had a problem, our calls got redirected to Yarmouth. I reported a yacht close to the rocks at Redcar Scar - but he thought I said Ravenscar.
Mr Preston said Humber was “not just a coastguard station” as it helped with incidents inland and on waterways.
He added: “We do a wonderful job as volunteers but we can’t do everything the coastguard station, with all its technology and expertise, can do.


You probably don't think much about the community standards on the sites you use, such as Facebook. But when things go sour -- you get harassed online, you post something controversial or you otherwise get the Internet mad at you -- those stated rules of community courtesy become some of your greatest tools.
So it makes sense, then, that you should actually be able to understand them, right?
The makeover comes shortly after the company unveiled the design of its data use policy and privacy menus to be more friendly to its growing (and, often, aging) userbase.
This is almost entirely a cosmetic change, the company said. "We're not changing anything about the policies," said Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management. "We're just trying to explain what we do more clearly."
Previously, Facebook's Community Standards page was serviceable -- a single page that you could scroll through to find the policy that you wanted to peruse. It wasn't hard to navigate, but it wasn't easy either.
Now, the baseline rules of conduct on Facebook are grouped into four categories -- such as "Keeping you safe" -- that aim to make it easier to find a policy on a particular subject and offer a little more about Facebook's policies.
The new design also includes descriptions of existing policy that Facebook hasn't put in its community standards before, but do explain how the company currently operates, Bickert said.
For example, there's a section now in the community standards that explains how the company deals with "Dangerous Organizations," which makes it clear that Facebook doesn't allow "terrorist activity" or "organized criminal activity" to have a place on its site. The company had broadly covered that prohibition in its previous standards, but decided it was worth explaining a little more deeply in the new format. Facebook has also broken out a section detailing "Attacks on Public Figures."
Bickert said that the company wanted to keep the language as simple as possible since the community standards are universal across the company's approximately 1.3 billion users -- covering Facebookers of all ages, on all platforms and in all of the countries where the network reaches. The new design rolled out, globally, on Monday.
There is some squishiness to the rules at Facebook -- though this would be true of any global social media company. A group fighting for free speech in Europe might be considered dangerous to a government such as China. Or, while there are many women advocacy groups in the United States, such organizations may not be welcomed in a country such as Saudi Arabia. On this front, Facebook simply states that it complies with local laws.
Facebook also released its latest global government requests report, which outlines how many government requests for information the company has fielded globally in the second half of 2014, and how many pieces of content it's had to take down in accordance with local laws around the world. The company reported that it's seen an overall increase in government requests for restrictions, up 11 percent over the past six months.
Government requests for account information, the company said, stayed flat overall, though spikes in some countries such as Turkey were offset by declines in other countries such as Pakistan.


Fantastic location at the bottom of Summit Estates with excellent views and privacy. Beautiful home on a 3 acre lot in one of Summit County's finest subdivisions which includes an equestrian center. Extremely well built and well cared for home that is the embodiment of mountain living. The very large deck is perfect for entertaining on those beautiful Summit County summer days.


After four seasons in the NFL, Kyle Long should've learned one thing by now: the league takes everything seriously, especially when it comes to its players commenting on drug use.
The Chicago Bears' star guard tweeted about marijuana over the weekend, sarcastically saying he doesn't use the drug because his "superiors" told him it's "dangerous" and "addictive."
Long then criticized the NFL's hypocrisy for allowing players to drink alcohol and take prescription drugs.
Pot is a drug, and will kill you.


The Times is discontinuing the Green blog, which was created to track environmental and energy news and to foster lively discussion of developments in both areas. This change will allow us to direct production resources to other online projects. But we’ll forge ahead with our aggressive reporting on environmental and energy topics, including climate change, land use, threatened ecosystems, government policy, the fossil fuel industries, the growing renewables sector and consumer choices.
Thanks to all of our readers.


The old £10 note must be spent by March next year after the Bank of England revealed the date for when it will cease to be legal tender.
A use by date of March 1, 2018, has been slapped on £10 paper notes following the introduction of the plastic tenner on September 14.
However, old notes can still be spent ahead of the cut-off date, or exchanged at the Bank once this point has passed.
The Bank introduced the paper £10 note featuring naturalist Charles Darwin on November 7, 2000. Around 55% of the £10 notes in circulation are made from polymer, while 359 million are paper.
The new £10 banknote, featuring a picture of author Jane Austin, is the first Bank of England note with a tactile feature to help blind and partially-sighted users.
Like the £5 note already in circulation featuring Sir Winston Churchill, the new £10 banknote is made from polymer, which is more durable and expected to last five years in total.
The transition to polymer has sparked controversy after the Bank confirmed that an "extremely small amount" of tallow - or animal fat - was used to produce polymer pellets, which were part of the production process for creating the notes.
People who still have paper £5 notes can exchange them at the Bank of England in person, or via post by completing a form and sending the note to Department NEX, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH.


Calling a game requires plenty of interpretation.
Jim Evans, a former major league umpire, serves as special adviser to the president of Minor League Baseball.
I have been an umpire since I was 14. I have worked at every level, from Little League on up, and I worked thousands of games in the major leagues for 28 years. I don’t remember when I first heard the popular analogy comparing judges to umpires calling balls and strikes, but recently it’s been everywhere. When Brett Kavanaugh was first nominated to the Supreme Court, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council called him “a constitutionalist — someone who will call balls and strikes.” This past week, as Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings began, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) described him as “somebody who calls balls and strikes and doesn’t come up with his own strike zone.” Supposedly a judge is, and should be, as mechanical as an ump.
It’s true that there are similarities. Umpires have always been considered authority figures, like judges. Both are subject to a lot of scrutiny, and we do what we think is right by rule and tradition. Umpiring is a special calling and a learned skill that requires extraordinary mental toughness. When you put on your uniform, you are supposed to leave all your subjective feelings in that dressing room. Personal integrity and respect for the game are at stake.
But we have never been robots who simply call balls and strikes. Judges and analysts who describe an umpire’s job in those terms are oversimplifying.
Seeing the televised rectangle that allegedly represents the strike zone, you might surmise that any 3-year-old should be able to tell whether that little white sphere is in or out of that box. Replay has reinforced the feeling that it’s simple and obvious.
Yet there are many intangibles when it comes to calling balls and strikes. What the umpire’s actually doing is gauging a baseball’s relative position as it travels 95 miles an hour into a three-dimensional area. You’re judging a pitch as it leaves the pitcher’s hand and goes to the catcher’s mitt in less than half a second.
And when it lands, there are considerations beyond the strike zone: Did the batter swing and miss? Did the ball graze the bat even though the batter did not swing? Did the batter commit to the pitch without taking a full swing? Even if the ball is outside the strike zone, if the batter committed to the pitch, it’s a strike. Did he get his body in a hitting position before moving his bat? If he was in a hitting position, how far did the bat travel? Those critical adjustments happen in thousandths of a second. If you’re not trained to use your eyes properly, you’ll miss them.
Then there are the other plays, on the bases and at the plate, that require rule interpretations and judgment calls: catches and no catches, fair and foul balls, safes and outs, and base-running.
For example, the rule book states that a runner must avoid a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball. If you collided with a shortstop who was bent over in the act of fielding a ground ball, you would be guilty of interference. But if the shortstop had completed the act of fielding and was attempting to tag you when the collision occurred, there would be no penalty. Among elite athletes, this all happens in milliseconds, and to the untrained eye, the plays look the same — both violent collisions with the ball on the ground. This requires an interpretation of when one act ended and another began, and whose rights are in effect. This is a judgment call.
And it has to happen fast. Unlike a judge, an umpire can’t deliberate over days or weeks, reading briefs over and over, debating with law clerks or fellow judges. Umps don’t have that luxury. Both teams, a manager whose job may be on the line and a stadium full of paying spectators are impatiently awaiting an instant ruling.
When baseball was invented in the mid-19th century, it was a bit more like our adversarial court system. There were three umpires: One was hired by the home team and one by the visiting team, and a neutral third party was there to step in if the advocates couldn’t agree. But the teams disagreed so much that, eventually, the sport’s administrators decided that only the one impartial guy was needed. That one guy had to own his decision regardless of how spectators or players reacted. Nowadays, umpires work in crews and own their decisions as a crew. And at the major league level, replay officials thousands of miles away may have the ultimate decision — which you could consider the final appellate court.
As an umpire, you learn to position yourself on the field so that you’re in the most advantageous location to observe a pitch or a play. You learn to read cues and make the proper adjustments when something changes. It can take years of experience, an exhaustive understanding of the rules and consistency in your calls to become a credible umpire, and even then, you’re going to be in the middle of a lot of arguments and controversies. As a mentor of mine reminded me when I started: There was only ever one perfect man, and they crucified him, so umpires have to learn how to handle criticism. As with judging, the tough calls are hardly ever obvious. Balls and strikes are elusive creatures.


Sam Snead famously never won a U.S. Open, his national championship keeping him from completing the career Grand Slam in the same way it has eluded Phil Mickelson. And like Mickelson, Snead had his share of chances, finishing runner-up in the event four times -- two behind Phil's record of six. But one tournament, the 1939 U.S. Open, haunted Snead more than others.
Snead needed just a par on Philadelphia C.C.'s par-5 18th to win that year's U.S. Open. However, he believed he needed a birdie to get into a playoff with Byron Nelson, thanks to an incorrect fan and a lack of scoreboards. The result was a bad decision that led to a stunning triple bogey.
The disastrous 8 caused by hitting his "2 1/2 wood" (How about the fact he could hit that thing a "good 250" in 1939?!) instead of 3-iron gave Snead a closing 74 and a fifth-place finish. Yep, this wasn't even one of those four runner-ups -- and it probably could have been avoided had he just known where he stood in the tournament. Poor Sammy.


"significant" equity stake in the newly rolled up company, he said.
Washington, D.C., at least a little.
"and I think that's worth something."
Canadian-based DBS firm Star Choice Communications.
medium-power satellite service stagnate in recent months.
cable, and not just against its DBS rivals.
PrimeStar's new owners and board members will be.
MCI Communications Corp., which would give PrimeStar much-needed high-power slots.
if that would help the company to get federal approval.
Vogel replied, "We don't need to let a lot of grass grow beneath our feet,"
adding that much of that timing is out of PrimeStar's control.
would strike a deal with Loral Space and Communications Corp.
or silver bullet out there."
away from his position if the government denies PrimeStar access to high-power spectrum.
acquisition numbers, we're doing very well."
whether Vogel's appointment will produce an exodus of people from EchoStar.
can't do with the management team," Vogel said last week.


Jan. 9 - Hagerstown BNI Tuesday Morning Breakfast Group, 7:30 a.m. open marketing forum, 7:50 a.m. business meeting, Country Inn and Suites at Valley Mall. Breakfast buffet included. Call Pam Green at 301-639-3214 or e-mail fawgreendesigns@yahoo.com.
Jan. 9 - Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce, pre-legislative forum - health-care update, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Four Points Sheraton, Dual Highway, Hagerstown. $25 members and nonmembers. To register, call 301-739-2015, ext. 100; e-mail suzy@hagerstown.org; or go to www.hagerstown.org.
Jan. 10 - Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce, Eggs & Issues. 7:30 to 9 a.m. Country Inn & Suites, Hagerstown. $12 for members registered before Jan. 8; $22 for nonmembers and members registered on or after Jan. 8. Call 301-739-2045, ext. 100, e-mail suzy@hagerstown.org; or go to www.hagerstown.org.
Jan. 17 - Chamber of Commerce of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, BB&T. Call 304-267-4841 or e-mail chamber@berkeleycounty.org.
Jan. 17 - Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, business card exchange, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Gladhill Furniture, Frederick, Md. To register, call Linda Adams at 301-662-0745 or send e-mail toladams@frederickchamber.org by Jan. 15.
Jan. 25 - SCORE Counselors to America's Small Business and Smith Elliot Kearns Co. LLC, free small business and sole proprietor basic tax workshop, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Hagerstown Business College, CR 116, 18618 Crestwood Drive, Hagerstown. To register, leave name, address and phone number at 301-739-2015, ext. 103, or send e-mail to info@scorehagerstown.org.


After over a year of negotiations, the very pro-industry bill appeared quickly and was passed by both houses in less than two days. It established Pennsylvania’s “impact fee” at a significantly lower rate than any major gas-producing states’ extraction tax. Neighboring states have a 4 to 5 percent tax. According to reports, the compromise bill was presented to the General Assembly before the conference committee even met, causing some more knowledgeable about Harrisburg politics than this writer to speculate about who had actually authored the pro-gas industry legislation.
Left in the dark? Maybe, — or maybe it was just the industry’s investment in Pennsylvania politics paying off.
According to Common Cause and the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, the natural gas industry has spent over $29 million dollars in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts in this state during the past dozen years. Top recipients of industry money given between 2000 and April 2012 included Gov. Corbett with $1,813,205.59, Senate President Joseph Scarnati (R-northcentral PA) with $359,145.72, Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana) with $137,532.33, House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) with $98,600, and Sen. Don White (R-Indiana & parts of 4 other counties) with $94,150. Jake Corman (R-Centre) accepted $91,290. Of the top 50 political recipients, 34 were Republicans and 16 were Democrats.
The Supreme Court ruling struck down three sections of Act 13. Section 3215(b)(4) required the Department of Environmental Protection to waive setbacks for drilling activities from streams, lakes and wetlands as long as a driller submitted a plan purportedly showing that those waters would be protected. Section 3303 established statewide rules for oil and gas activities irrespective of existing or future local zoning rules. Section 3304 required municipalities to allow oil and gas development activities in all zoning areas.
The court’s ruling is significant in that it nullified these three provisions of Act 13, but even more so because of the court’s reason for doing so. In the 162-page decision, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille referred many times to Article 1, Section 27, of the Pennsylvania Constitution — often called the Environmental Rights Amendment.
Castille noted that Pennsylvania “has a notable history of what appears retrospectively to have been a shortsighted exploitation of its bounteous environment.” He did not want to see that repeated.
In a phone interview late last week, John Quigley commented about the importance of the court’s ruling.
The gas industry was quick to blast the high court’s late December decision. Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer issued a statement in reaction to the ruling.
“Although we will continue to collaborate with communities across the Commonwealth, today’s decision is a disappointment and represents a missed opportunity to establish a standard set of rules governing the responsible development and operation of shale gas wells in Pennsylvania.
“This outcome should also serve as a stark reminder to policymakers of Pennsylvania’s business climate challenges. If we are to remain competitive and our focus is truly more job creation and economic prosperity, we must commit to working together toward common sense proposals that encourage — rather than discourage — investment into the Commonwealth,” Spigelmyer said.
Quigley praised the court’s decision.
The court’s decision was an early Christmas present for anyone who enjoys hunting, fishing or just being outdoors.


Alberta is working to encourage construction of a $2 billion partial-upgrading facility that would turn more of the province’s sludgy bitumen into higher-value products.
The facility, designed by Calgary-based Value Creation Inc., would be located near Edmonton and process 77,500 barrels of diluted bitumen a day into products like medium synthetic crude and ultra-low sulfur diesel. The province is offering a $440 million loan guarantee to help build the project, which is seeking additional financing as it works toward a final investment decision this year.
The loan guarantee is part of about $3 billion Alberta plans to invest to spur the construction of refineries, upgraders and petrochemical facilities to reap more of the value from the province’s oil reserves. The plan also is aimed at helping alleviate the pipeline bottlenecks that have hammered local crude prices and last year prompted Premier Rachel Notley to mandate a province-wide oil production cut to boost prices.
The upgrader would also allow Canadian companies to diversify the slate of crudes they produce from just light and heavy oil to also more medium grades, Kevin Birn, IHS Markit’s director of North American crude oil markets, said in an interview in Calgary. This would make the industry “more robust to weather disruptions in the market,” he said.
A decade ago, oil-sands companies would build refinery-sized upgraders to convert heavy bitumen into higher-valued light oil that was seen as increasingly scarce. But costs for such plants soared just as the U.S. fracking boom sent a surge of light oil onto the market, depressing prices for similar synthetic crude.
Closely held Value Creation was founded by Columba Yeung, a chemical engineer who has worked with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, according to its website. In 2015, the company took ownership of the Heartland Upgrader Project, which was first proposed to regulators in 2004 but has yet to be built. The company has sought to amend the project application to add a refinery and produce ultra-low sulfur diesel, naphtha as well as synthetic crude.
Notley said the province is working on $20 billion in projects to help add value to Alberta’s crude.


Need a little pick-me-up while you brush?
Wish you could do more with less during that frenetic morning scramble? Step right up, because stuff just got real with this Colgate-Palmolive patent for a toothbrush that releases sweet, sweet caffeine directly into your mouth.
Imagine a toothbrush capable of dispensing a little something extra while you polish your choppers, drizzling the equivalent of a double-espresso with your toothpaste — or, you know, a numbing drug like benzocaine to soothe sore gums or a pesky cough. In fact C-P’s patent (noticed by Yahoo News) mentions all sorts of topical and consumable fun, from bursts of fruit-flavor (orange, strawberry, berry, grape, apple, mint, lemon, lime!) to herbal or nutritional supplements (aloe vera’s mentioned, as are lavender and chamomile) to somewhat weirder-sounding “communicative elements” like hot, cold or “tingle”-inducing materials. No, we’re not entirely sure what they’re getting at here, either.
To be fair, C-P’s patent isn’t the first we’ve heard of dental hygienics mixing it up with stimulants: a search for “caffeine toothpaste” turns up something called Buzz Toothpaste, “a peppermint-flavored, caffeinated toothpaste that packs the same punch as a cup of Starbucks coffee or a can of Mountain Dew.” Dig a little deeper and you’ll even find stuff like whiskey-flavored toothpaste (circa 1961, no less).


Sam Robson has a confident answer to the question that will be his constant companion if, as expected, he opens the batting for England this summer.
The accent is a clue to the question, for Robson sounds more Sydney than St John’s Wood.
MARTIN SAMUEL: How can you NOT blame Giles for English cricket's latest shambles?
He is the Australian, born to an English mother, who will attempt to come to the rescue of our cricket at a time when it has been condemned to its lowest ebb by his fellow countrymen. He is a former ‘enemy’ now in our midst.
It is not without irony that Robson’s probable introduction at the highest level coincides with England’s stated attempt to regain a more ‘English’ feel to the national team.
Yet England will have no hesitation in making him Alastair Cook’s opening partner for the first Test against Sri Lanka if he carries on the form for Middlesex which saw him score 1,180 first-class runs last season at 47.
‘Look, I grew up in Australia,’ said Robson. ‘I still go back there occasionally and my family live there.
Robson, a technically accomplished opener with a hint of Mike Atherton about him, already has one influential supporter in director of cricket at Middlesex and England selector Angus Fraser.
‘It’s going to be a challenge for him this summer because a lot of people are going to be looking at him but that was the case in the winter when, as an “Aussie” boy as such, he succeeded in Australia with the Lions, which showed he’s got a lot of nous,’ said Fraser.
Robson appeared for Australia Under 19s and so disappointed are they to lose him that they changed their eligibility rules to make it easier for him to play domestic cricket as a non-overseas player.
But the lad’s head is not for turning, despite attempts from his Middlesex colleague Chris Rogers to turn it, not even after seeing his adopted country thrashed by his native one.
The coaches who have worked with Robson believe he is ready for Test cricket.
Does he? ‘I know how important the next couple of months with Middlesex are going to be and if I keep performing well you never know. I’ll just do my best and see how we go,’ he said.
And if and when the call comes, Robson is adamant that he will even have the support of his Australian father, who works as a coach in the indoor school at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground.
‘Both my parents have always been totally supportive,’ said Robson. ‘It’s just the way my life has panned out.
It would be even more amazing if he opens the batting at Lord’s against Australia next year.
HE MUST BE BETTER THAN 'RAT WHO JOINED SINKING SHIP'!
In the 19th Century, Trott, the only man to have cleared the Lord’s pavilion with a six, played Tests for both countries.
The ‘rat who joined the sinking ship’. McCague was said to be a big, brutish fast bowler. He was certainly big (about two stone overweight) but his bowling was help-yourself stuff.
An all-rounder, below, who didn’t seem good enough with bat or ball. Played well at times but was no ‘new Botham’.
4. Jason Gallian (1995) Top-order batter who was not quite up to it. Almost as well known for throwing Kevin Pietersen’s kit off the balcony at Notts.
Laid-back to the point of being horizontal, the left-arm seamer lacked the nastiness to cut it. Also laughably bad at batting.
Feisty competitor, below, but out of his depth when thrown in against the Aussies. An excellent captain who led England to a one-day trophy in Sharjah.
Adam’s younger brother looked a more natural talent, particularly with the bat. Tragically killed in a car accident.
Probably the most successful of the lot. Played a vital role with bat and gloves as England wrestled back the Ashes in that glorious 2005 summer.
Another keeper. Had a brief moment in the sun with a Test century in New Zealand before fading from view.
Left-field pick of a former roof-tiler against South Africa backfired spectacularly. Brother James is a better bowler ...but plays for Australia!