tested charismatically

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Sun, sand, and summer on the streets of Paris

Our Paris bureau chief takes her family to the city's famous artificial, temporary beach.

By Sara Miller Llana,?Staff writer / July 29, 2013

People enjoy the sun next to Pont Neuf bridge as 'Paris Plage' (Paris Beach) opens along the banks of River Seine in Paris on July 20.

Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Enlarge

?Paris Plage,? the annual transformation of urban concrete into faux beach in Paris, was begun more than a decade ago as an experiment of equalization. The French are famous for taking off the entire month of July or August ? but of course not everyone can afford such summer rituals. For those who cannot, the thinking went, why not bring the beach to them? It?s been such a hit that it?s been copied the world over.

Skip to next paragraph Sara Miller Llana

Europe Bureau Chief

Sara Miller Llana?moved to Paris in April 2013 to become the Monitor's Europe Bureau?Chief. Previously she was the?paper's?Latin America Bureau Chief, based in Mexico City, from 2006 to 2013.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Battlefield 4 On Windows 8 Will Have Better CPU Optimization

Now here?s something interesting for all Windows 7 users looking forward to Battlefield 4: Technical Director on Frostbite at DICE Johan Andersson, has stated that Battlefield 4?s Frostbite 3 engine would fully support Direct X 11.1 and that systems utilizing this API would see better CPU performance.

Which systems feature Direct X 11.1? Why, only Windows 8 systems of course!

As stated on NeoGAF, Andersson explained that, ?We use DX11.1, there are some optimizations in it (constant buffer offsets, dynamic buffers as SRVs) that we got in to the the API that improves CPU performance in our rendering when one runs with DX11.1. This will be in BF4.?

Not that the game won?t be running great on other machines ? it will certainly look better on more powerful machines like the latest computers, Xbox One and PS4 in comparison to the current generation. However, Microsoft?s decision to make Direct X 11.1 exclusive to Windows 8 might come back to haunt them given the OS?s notoriety.

Shilpa Shetty thanks well-wishers on Twitter

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: sports.in.msn.com --- Sunday, July 28, 2013
Raj Kundra was cleared of fixing charges by the BCCI-appointed two-member probe panel ...

Source: http://sports.in.msn.com/cricket/shilpa-shetty-thanks-well-wishers-on-twitter

boston herald mit nfl schedule brittney griner ied Texas Bombing breaking news

After Italian bus crash kills 37, cause remains unknown

The bus plunged off a highway in southern Italy Sunday night. The driver was among the dead.?

By Frances D'Emilio,?Associated Press / July 29, 2013

A firefighter walks at the site of a coach crash near the southern town of Avellino July 29, 2013. 37 people were killed and around 10 injured when the bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in what Prime Minister Enrico Letta described on Monday as a huge tragedy.

Ciro De Luca/REUTERS

Enlarge

A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle.

Hours after the crash, firefighters said that they had extracted 37 bodies. Most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side, while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, state radio and the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The radio report said 11 people were hospitalized with injuries, two of them in very critical condition. It was not immediately known if there were other survivors or any missing.

Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted metal to better probe the interior of the bus, stopping occasionally in silence to listen for any cries for help, even as the bodies were put into coffins to be taken to a morgue.

Reports said as many as 49 people had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail after slamming into several cars, then plunged some 100 feet off the highway and into a ravine near a wooded area. In its plunge, the bus tore away whole sections of concrete barriers as well as guardrail. The concrete lay in large chunks in a clearing in a wooded area where the bus landed.

State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead.

Occupants of cars which were hit by the bus stood on the highway near their vehicles. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.?

The highway links western and eastern Italy across the south.

Early reports said the passengers had spent the day in Puglia, an area near the Adriatic on the east coast famed for religious shrines. But on Monday, a state radio reporter at the scene said authorities told him that the bus had been bringing the passengers home after an outing to a thermal spa area near Benevento, a town not far from Avellino. Others at the scene said the passengers might have visited a town near Benevento that was the early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk highly popular among Catholics in Italy.

Passengers came from small towns near Naples, and relatives streamed to the crash site.

The bus dove off the highway near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 40 miles inland from Naples and about 160 miles south of Rome.

A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. He said some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.

A local prosecutor arrived at the crash scene to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/tHpAt6dNKac/After-Italian-bus-crash-kills-37-cause-remains-unknown

Mlk Quotes Elder Scrolls Online joe biden lupe fiasco jason wu jason wu Mavericks Surf

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Lost Photos Facebook page helps reunite quilt, owner

JOPLIN, Mo. ? Charlotte Duke said every quilt tells a story.

That being the case, the story told by the quilt that was reunited with Becca Alves on Saturday in Joplin could fill a novel.

Duke found the quilt in a tree soon after the 2011 tornado.

Duke is a member of the Town and Country Quilt Guild along with Carol Reed, and it was Reed ? who also volunteers with the Lost Photos of Joplin Project ? who had the idea of putting the quilt on the Lost Photos Facebook page.

Duke said she was just excited to get the quilt back to its original owner.

?I thought there was an outside chance that someone might recognize it from someone?s house,? Reed said. ?Within an hour, we were in contact with the quilt?s original owner, who made a claim on it.?

Alves said that family members were quick to point out the quilt on Facebook.

?That photo was shared to us because our names were on the back and my husband?s relatives recognized it almost immediately,? Alves said. ?After that it, was a quick phone call and a verification that we were the original owners.?

Alves said that her family lost in the tornado their home near 26th Street and Wall Avenue, which is almost a mile east of Duke?s house.

?You just become numb to losing things that you had, and you don?t expect to ever find anything that had any value, sentimental or otherwise,? Alves said. ?It shows a lot of heart from the quilting community and from this Lost Photos organization. I?m just glad it found someone who knew that it wasn?t just another blanket.?

Alves said the quilt was a gift from her husband?s grandmother, who purchased it at a bed and breakfast in California.

The Lost Photos project has been an undertaking of the First Baptist Church in Carthage, where photos blown about by the tornado are cleaned, archived and made available to the public to be reclaimed. As recently as the end of February, photos were still being turned into the group.

To date, the project has returned 16,610 photos to their rightful owners, according to Donna Turner, who coordinates the claim day events. Saturday?s event returned photos to six families.

However, the group still has more than 20,000 photos collected after the tornado that have not been returned.

?This was a unique situation for us, and it is a coincidence we are happy to be a part of,? Turner said. ?Because we are in this situation where we get in contact with so many other people, sometimes you get to reunite a family with more than just photos.?

Source: http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1538952736/Lost-Photos-Facebook-page-helps-reunite-quilt-owner

new black panther party lost in space elizabeth banks battle royale key largo ryan madson louisiana primary

Saturday, July 27, 2013

When is Rakhi 2013: The Best Way to Celebrate ... - India Gifts World

Everywhere there are hoardings and advertisements of Rakshabandhan these days, may be it be on television or on roads! I think its a good thing because it keeps on reminding us of the festival so that we can prepare for it well in advance. With Rakshabandhan comes lots of preparations like buying and sending Rakhis, getting the best of Rakhi gifts for your siblings, new clothes etc. But amidst all this, the first question that pops into our heads while seeing these ads is when is Rakhi 2013 coming! For all those who are still wondering about the when is Rakhi 2013, then wake up its just round the corner on August 21. So better pull up your socks and start preparing for it, if you haven't started. Rakshabandhan is an exclusive festival for brothers and sisters and seems to be one of kind festival in the world. No wonder all the sisters and brothers wait for this one day that comes once in an year! Since Rakhi festival arrives just once in a year, there are lots of preparations to be done well-in-advance. The sisters of the world work well-in-advance to find the Rakhis of their choice for their brothers and send it across to their places if they live out of town or in some cases, even out of country. The brothers in turn get lovely rakhi gifts for their sisters. It is a perfect festival to celebrate siblings love.

Shopping for Rakhis and Rakhi gifts online is the best way to shop and ship your gifts to your loved ones in an easy way. Also, you get to view a large variety of gifts sitting right at your home with online shopping. So make sure you don't waste your time and energy in going shop to shop looking for rakhis this time! Be smart, shop online. Its the best way to shop for your festivity while relaxing at home.

Source: http://www.indiagiftsworld.com/2013/07/when-is-rakhi-2013-celebration-india.html

mc hammer pecan pie recipe Hector Camacho Jill Kelly McKayla Maroney gronkowski jeremy renner

Tralfaz: The Woolworth's of Animation

An awful lot of cartoons over the years have been neglected and even ridiculed. There was a time a few decades ago that the feeling was if it wasn?t Disney, it was junk. Then came the rise of animation historians who rightfully pointed out the funny characters and dialogue of the Warner Bros. cartoons, the genius of Tex Avery, the fluidity and expert pantomime of MGM?s Tom and Jerry and the off-beat sense of humour employed in the Fleischer cartoons. But everything else? Well, that left something to be desired.

Take Terrytoons, for example. Leonard Maltin, in Of Mice and Magic, dismissed them as repetitious, artistically stunted and cheap. Frankly, he has a point. Even the studio?s founder dismissed them as inexpensive theatre time-filler before the feature film. But that doesn?t mean there was a complete lack of entertainment value in the studio?s output and, after all, entertainment is what animated cartoons are ultimately supposed to be (something UPA, with its ?Look at our Art-with-a-capital-A? attitude didn?t understand a whole lot).

The Terry cartoons have their champions today, who enjoy the taffy-pulling animation of Jim Tyer or the well-planned movement of Carlo Vinciguerra (later Vinci). And there are the early sound cartoons with inanimate objects springing to life for the sake of a gag. Among the champions when the Terry cartoons were still unappreciated by some animation critics were former Terry employees themselves. They took part in an exhibit in 1982 sponsored by the Council on the Arts in New Rochelle, New York, where the cartoons were made. The local paper gave space to a feature article on the history of the studio. It appeared February 1, 1982.

Terry?s works remain in tune
By JACQUELINE PERELSON
Mighty Mouse was born in New Rochelle. So were Heckle and Jeckle, Tom Terrific, Deputy Dawg, Dinky Duck and Hector Heathcote. They were born on the drawing boards of Paul Terry's Terrytoons animation studio located in this Westchester city for more than 40 years. This fact will be proclaimed for all to examine when the New Rochelle Council on the Arts holds a Terrytoons retrospective with an exhibition, reunion dinner, animated film showings, and other events, from Wednesday, Feb. 10 to Sunday, Feb. 28.
Whether seen in a ?trailer? after a movie or as the main attraction on early morning television, these cartoon stars and others, including Billy Bear, Farmer Al Falfa, Little Roquefort and Sidney the Elephant, remain nostalgic memories for children of all ages.
Dwarfed by the impact of Disney, the work of Terry and his studios has not been given its due, said Eli Bauer, a former Terrytoons employee, and others who are planning this event. Which is the reason behind the celebration.
Doug Crane of New Rochelle, a former Terrytoons animator, agreed. ?If we don?t do it now, the history of Terrytoons will be lost and people will forget it was ever in New Rochelle,? he said, just as they have forgotten that the West Side of New Rochelle was a movie production area in the ?20s.
Descriptions of the days at Terrytoons are a series of name-dropping sessions. Comedian Dayton Allen was the voice of Heckle and Jeckle, as well as Deputy Dawg, and Dick Van Dyke did Barker Bill. There are remembrances by Bauer of visits to the studio by Jonathan Winters and Carl Reiner , who brainstormed gag ideas and also did voice-overs.
Bauer and Jules Feiffer worked desk to desk. Feiffer ?knew that he would go on,? said Bauer. His time at Terrytoons ?was part of his growth period? during which he was doing ?Sick, Sick. Sick? for the Village Voice and working on a book of the same title.
Bill Tytla, who animated a ?Night on Bald Mountain? for Disney?s ?Fantasia,? started at Terry. As did Ralph Bakshi (creator of ?Fritz the Cat,? ?Heavy Traffic? and ?Lord of the Rings) when he was just a ?young kid.?
Bauer?s wife, Dianne, remembered studio employees working closely together. ?This one would say ?How about a wartime character?? and somebody else would say ?Right, he could be a Minute Man,? with a third saying ?How about a Minute-and-a-half Man because he?s always late.? And as they pitched the story they would use different voices. The head of the story department was Tommy Morrison, now deceased, who was the voice of Mighty Mouse,? she said.
Everyone connected with Terrytoons depicted it as a spawning ground for talent throughout the animation industry with alumni going off to Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation and other studios.
Crane, an animator, recalled Terry as ?a tough old codger. A businessman, not an artist, who was smart enough to hire the right guys. The right guys, according to Crane, were Connie Rasinski and Artie Bartsch, both deceased, plus Johnny ?Gent? Gentilella and Larry Silverman. ?When I walked in there I was fascinated by the smell of the paint... I could see Connie from my desk and I thought he was cracking up. He would do a little action, look in the mirror and sit down and animate,? said Crane.
On Thursday nights Rasinski would teach animation to fledgling artists at Terrytoons and that was how a whole generation of animators learned its craft. ?It?s a tough business trying to make these things move right,? Crane said. ?Disney wasn't the only one who did animation,? he emphasized.
?I think that Terry gave to the world a lot of smiles in bad times and he was there for a long time. If a man does nothing but lift your spirits when you're down he?s done a great thing.?
For while Terry was the first to acknowledge that Disney was the ?Tiffany's in this business? and he ?the Woolworth?s,? Terrytoons was a pioneer in the field of animation and created characters that are still popular today.
With a background in newspaper art, the California-native came East in 1911, worked for the New York Press and also drew a comic strip called Alonzo. On the side, using a secondhand camera, Terry began developing techniques for animation.
?At one time he devised an early matte system in which the background would be photographed separately and then the characters and action sandwiched together to make a print. His first film was animated on paper with the background overlaid on a cel (clear acetate sheet),? said Leonard Maltin in his book ?Of Mice and Magic.?
Terry sold his first animated film ?Little Herman? to Thanhouser, a New Rochelle-based film company, but not before screening it for some neighbourhood youngsters in the company?s projection room. There he learned a valuable lesson.
He learned that cartoons were for ?kids.?
According to Maltin, Terry said, ?When they ran the picture, these kids began to squeal. And that tipped me off to the idea to draw things that would appeal to kids; because if they laughed at it, the adults wouldn?t have to know if it was funny, or whether it wasn?t, because kids? laughter is so infectious. I decided right then and there, you make pictures for kids.?
Which he did. First as the creator of Farmer Al Falfa as a staff animator for John R. Bray and then as initiator of a series of animated cartoons based on Aesop?s Fables for Howard Estabrook. After an interruption for Army service in 1917, Terry was associated with Fables Studio, Van Beuren Productions and in various partnerships.
Terry and the late Frank H. Moser formed a partnership in 1929 with $500 in capital. They worked together until 1935, when following the studio?s move from New York City to 271 North Ave., New Rochelle, Terry bought out Moser for $24,200. A year later Moser initiated a lawsuit against Terry claiming ?fraud,? but lost. The remaining firm, known as Terrytoons, moved to 38 Centre Ave. in 1949.
Terry, who lived in Larchmont until his death in 1971, headed the firm until 1956 when the studio was sold to CBS. Terrytoons closed its doors for good in the early ?70s and its film library remains in the hands of Viacom.
?We knew we were part of a mass market,? said Bauer, who was with the studio from 1957-62 during its CBS era. In those days the studio produced 12 new cartoons a year and re-released 12 from their film library, generating a considerable output annually.
?We considered ourselves visual writers,? said Bauer, who worked as a story layout and design staffer. ?We started a cartoon with a series of gags and then added the dialogue, unless the gag itself had to do with the dialogue. There?d generally be a conflict (between the characters) and that would involve a series of gags.?
The early days attracted many young and eager artists, writers and aspiring animators to the studio?s doorstep. They included the late Tommy Morrison, whose mother worked at the studio and is now celebrating her 102nd birthday in New Rochelle, and the late Philip A. Scheib; as well as Jack Zander and Joe Barbera. William Weiss was in charge of the business end as executive producer and was assisted for many years by Nicholas Alberti.
When CBS took over, Gene Deitch brought in a new crew of young talent which featured Bauer, Doug Crane, Al Kouzel, Ernest Pintoff, Howard Beckerman, Paul Terry still at work years later and Tod Dockstader. The outfit also included future super-stars Feiffer and Bakshi. Looking back, Crane recently asked, ?Wasn?t it a thrill when you watched those films when Mighty Mouse came to the rescue? We thrilled and cheered. We knew he?d come through.?
And now this retrospective is coming through to ensure Terrytoons? place in history.
JACQUELINE PERELSON is Lifestyles Editor of The Standard-Star, New Rochelle.

If I had to pick a favourite Terry series, it?s pretty easy. It?d be Heckle and Jeckle, with Tom Terrific in second spot. The two lippy con artists are very much in the Warners vein, though they?re not as creative verbally as Bugs and Daffy and the direction isn?t on par with Chuck Jones and his poses or Friz Freleng with his impeccable timing. Still, the chase formula works as it keeps the pace of the cartoon going, the action can get creatively silly and, occasionally, the stars are victimised in twist endings and come out losers. Here?s ?Bulldozing the Bull? (1950). As far as I know, this is the only cartoon where the two magpies identify themselves. The animation of the pair of them walking in the stadium looks like Carlo Vinci?s work to me, if I had to guess.

Source: http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-woolworths-of-animation.html

Mens Gymnastics Allison Schmitt Olympic Schedule Kyla Ross Montenegro Olympic Games Dana Vollmer