Continuing family tradition of making rag rugs | OurValley.org

NEW CASTLE ? When the Craig County Artisan Center opened in New Castle back in June, 2012, vendors were assigned numbers, to identify their craft items. No. 1 was assigned to Jeanie Drummond, who was the first vendor to set up shop in the center.

Since she?s had two major surgeries in the last few months, Jeanie has not been present in the center as often, but she has kept her display stocked with her usual variety of arts and crafts.

Jeanie Drummond hooks a rag rug, carrying out her family traditions at the Artisan Center. Photo by Ann Harrell

Jeanie?s sign identifies her space as The Shabby Corner, but it?s anything but that. The rack displaying her handmade rag rugs is the first thing you see as you approach her area. Making rag rugs is an old family tradition, taught to Jeanie by her grandmother. The rugs are colorful as well as durable.

The Shabby Corner also has crocheted hats, mittens, fingerless gloves, scarves, cowls (neck warmers), along with baby buntings and baby blankets. All of the crocheted work is made without the use of patterns. The patterns are in Jeanie?s mind. There are several tote bags on display, each one featuring a ?picture? drawn and painted by Jeanie. The multi-talented crafter also has some ?red-neck? greeting cards and gag gifts nestled among her more traditional items.

One of Jeanie?s hobbies is canning, especially jams and jellies made from her homegrown fruits. These spreads are also sold in the center and include peach (from her backyard trees), strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry. These are all made fresh each year. She has also made pepper jelly, tomato preserves, pumpkin butter, and watermelon preserves. Jeanie?s other hobbies include crafts, reading, and eating out. In the past, she wrote and directed plays and was active in the Masonic Theatre in Clifton Forge.

Jeanie grew up on Potts Creek in Alleghany County and attended Alleghany High School. She and her husband, Bernie Arthur Drummond, have been married 45 years, and have lived in Oriskany off and on for 40 years. They have a son, Tommy (and wife, Teresa), and a daughter, Shannon Compton, plus a ?handful of grandchildren?.

Jeanie?s first job was working at the Halmode factory in New Castle. She next worked several years as a teacher?s assistant at New Castle High School. Then she worked as post master in numerous post offices in the area. After retirement, she had more time to devote to her craft work, and sold her crafts in numerous shops, including one that she opened in a renovated outbuilding at her home in Oriskany.

When the Artisan Center opened in New Castle, Jeanie says ?it was the best thing that ever happened for me, to become involved with something that I felt was very worthwhile in our area. So many talented people in the area. I want the Center to grow and be successful, to provide a venue for people to sell their arts and crafts.?

While Jeanie is recuperating from surgery, her Shabby Corner is still stocked with a varied selection of gift ideas. In anticipation of folks shopping for gifts, Jeanie says ?I have rag rug kits, various crocheted pot holders and coasters, I will have redneck wine glasses, some homemade jewelry, all my design, several gag gifts, and whatever else I can think up.?

Jeanie expects to soon be back in the center on a regular basis, and she invites everyone to stop in to visit with her and to see the many arts and crafts. If Jeanie is there, visitors can expect to hear her friendly greeting, ?Come on in and sit a spell.?

The Artisan Center is now open on Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

?Ann Harrell, contributing writer

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Tags: Alleghany County, Alleghany High School, Artisan Center, Craft, Craig County Artisan Center and Farmers' Market, Jeanie Drummond, New Castle, Oriskany, peach preserves, Potts Creek, rag rugs

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 11:45 am and is filed under FEATURES, The New Castle Record. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Source: http://ourvalley.org/continuing-family-tradition-of-making-rag-rugs/

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The Work from Home Calculus: Productivity + Inequality - Corcoran's ...

Yahoo?s newish CEO, Marissa Mayer, recently reversed the company policy that allowed, even encouraged, employees to work from home.? This action has generated a lot of news copy, both for and against, and as is now the norm the masses are weighing in via social media.? Most views I?ve read tend to be stridently for or against working from home, with little middle ground:? one camp assumes such a policy encourages lazy people to watch Ellen all day while the hard workers toil; the other camp assumes such a policy extracts more output from workers who no longer know when the workday ends.? There are endless variations on the theme.? I first worked remotely in 1991 while living outside Boston for a Denver-based company, and since then I?ve seen every permutation and combination of work-from-home policy and I?ve seen both experienced and novice executives fumble with managing in such an environment.? My view is that such a policy is a simple study in microeconomics:? if you?re clear what outcome you?re solving for, the correct policy is easier to choose.? Wearing my former CEO hat, here are the issues I think about when deciding whether an employee may work from home.

Inequality ? Let?s tackle this right up front. Few businesses can operate 100% virtually. This means that, sooner or later, some people will have to be centrally located and won?t have the option to work remotely. Get over it. Your H.R. professionals will quake at the notion of treating employees inequitably, but that?s just one of many reasons H.R. professionals rarely end up as CEO. The fact is, treating everyone the same is a stupid idea. Hersey and Blanchard in their Situational Leadership theory posit that people have to be managed differently based on their individual skill set and the task at hand. One person might need to be micro-managed for a task that another person can handle unsupervised. ? As I?ve discussed previously, too often managers make decisions out of a misguided sense of fairness, whether it?s cutting all budgets proportionally during down times without regard to profit contribution, or, in this case, refusing to allow a work-from-home policy because if we can?t offer it everyone, then we can?t offer it at all. Simply put, good leaders focus on what?s right for the business and what?s right for the individual, and when you have to break ranks and treat someone differently in order to achieve a better outcome, and you can do so without imposing undue hardships on the business, you act.

Productivity ? Studies have shown that people are generally more productive when outside distractions are minimized.? I?d provide a few references here, but it doesn?t take a double blind study to agree that limiting the interruptions of phone calls, sneezing co-workers, lengthy commutes, endless status meetings, emails, periodic fire alarm drills and long lunch breaks can lead to increased focus and output. In fact, as many companies have learned, those who work from home often fail to adhere to regular work schedules and often work far more than if they were sitting in an office or cubicle for 7.5 hours each day. But the key is to recognize which tasks can benefit from prolonged and isolated focus, and which tasks are unsuitable. I can?t answer that for you, but I have enjoyed success asking my various teams to conduct a self-assessment and recommend which of their jobs could be performed remotely, and I?ve been pleasantly surprised at the candor and objectivity. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, I have rarely been impressed with my H.R. staff?s assessments, primarily because so few of them understand the business, let alone individual job designs or tasks. Will some of your employees occasionally watch television, or duck out for a dentist appointment? Of course. But no workplace, even those with an open floor plan, prohibitions against personal phone calls and restricted access to social media, is fully productive at all times.? Also, if you or your managers are unable to hire responsible adults, then I question your own competence.

Collaboration ? Technology exists that fosters virtual collaboration, whether it?s the awe-inspiring Cisco Telepresence video-conference system, the document management systems allowing simultaneous annotation by multiple parties or business-oriented social media like Chatter or Yammer (although let?s not get carried away with our virtual tools!)? Trouble is, many organizations invest in technology as if its presence alone will somehow change behaviors. The fact is, where there is a culture of collaboration, people will find ways, even inelegant non-technology ways, to interact; where there is no culture of collaboration, no technology will solve the problem (One example, law firm CRM, a technology asked to solve a problem lawyers refuse to acknowledge; here?s another).? Some who work remotely will suffer from the lack of creativity and innovation sparked by interaction with others ? often spontaneous and unscripted and unrelated to the given task.? Salespeople who primarily operate independently and in the field, but who periodically need more brochures or contracts reviewed, can typically do so without ever setting foot in an office. Programmers who are constantly sharing code or who regularly need input from other teams writing code sets immediately upstream or downstream tend to perform worse when they delay collaboration until pre-set meeting times rather than simply getting up and walking two rows over to compare notes. Again, you?ll have to assess the importance of collaboration in your own organizations, but don?t underestimate its importance, even in jobs that don?t ostensibly appear to benefit from it.

Cost ? A former colleague of mine substantially raised his profile and career prospects by spearheading a controversial initiative to close all regional offices and send employees home to work, saving millions of dollars in office leases, equipment and presumed lost productivity from employee commute times.? Like many organizations, we talked of long-term strategy in our annual reports but spent most of the year focused on short-term performance, and make no mistake we saved a lot of money and boosted earnings for a few years through this initiative.? But be sure to focus on the net savings, once the transition costs are calculated. For example, in our case we had to purchase desktop computers or laptops for scores of employees, reimburse in full or in part for an extra phone line (this was before ubiquitous high speed internet access), and reimburse for hotel meeting rooms and countless Starbucks for confabs of small groups who needed to interact regularly. Our savings were still substantial, but your mileage may vary.? An economist might also point out that one man?s cost savings is another man?s cost shifting. For example, those who regularly visited customers were now required by IRS guidelines to treat their first and last appointments of the day as a commute, which is not typically a reimbursable business expense. The company saved a few bucks in the short run, but the employees devised ingenious solutions to limit their personal outlay by re-arranging their days (and impairing their productivity) in ways that we didn?t anticipate. (For more on the cost savings vs. cost shifting debate, see this health care example.)

Quality of Life ? An employee who was facing some troubling family health issues and who needed to be home approached me and asked if he could work from home.? The nature of the work he performed for me was pricing analysis, forecasting and modeling, and he could access all systems from home and join meetings by phone or, with sufficient time to plan, in person.? He was far too valuable to lose, and his remote working arrangement posed no burden to the company (other than feelings of inequity from other cubicle-bound colleagues), so I agreed.? For quite some time he was able to attend to his family issues and deliver a quality work product.? When his situation changed, he returned to the office, grateful to his forward-thinking employers for the opportunity.? Without question, the loss of income would have burdened him as would the loss of his specialized expertise have burdened us. It was an optimal arrangement.? For me, even when I was a HQ-based executive, I periodically worked from home in order to avoid the stress of my harrowing hour-plus commute on the highways of New Jersey.? Simple common sense suggests that, all else being equal, a happier employee is a more productive, stable employee.

Your own calculus may differ.? To me this is a fairly straight-forward linear programming equation.? Factor in the things that matter to you ? cost, quality of life, productivity, collaboration, equality, etc. ? weight the factors accordingly, determine specifically what you?re solving for, and do the math.? If cost savings is what matters most, you may choose a different path than someone focused on employee retention or someone focused on a short-term max productivity to push a product out the door.? And don?t invite the contribution of the silly protectors of the status quo, the H.R. staff, unless they can add demonstrable value.? Whatever you choose, make it a rational choice based on a variety of factors.? And if you choose to conduct this analysis at home on your comfy recliner while watching funny daytime TV, you have my blessing.

?

Source: http://www.corcoranlawbizblog.com/2013/02/work-from-home/

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90% No

All Critics (58) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (6)

Nominated by the Academy as the year's best foreign-language film, No grabs you hard, no mercy, and keeps you riveted.

Larra?n's unarguable point is that, in politics, if we wait for good to issue only from the pure in heart, we will be waiting a very long time.

[Lorrain has] made a few daring choices here, not all of which work.

A troubling, exhilarating and ingeniously realized film that's part stirring political drama and part devilish media satire ...

For anyone fascinated by the political process and the powers of persuasive advertising, No is a resounding yes.

It hangs on three ideas...While each...is intriguing, the execution of all is less than satisfying.

Larra?n's script is punctuated by dark bursts of humour, and the filmmaker knowingly navigates his audience to a nail-biting - though never cloying, and fully warranted - climax.

It makes the superficial Mad Men seem like, well, a commercial. Buy, buy, buy.

A fascinating period re-creation if not an especially compelling drama.

Evocative and suspenseful, the film is a fascinating glimpse into recent history and the democratic process.

The film highlights the sad fact that logical arguments don't win political debates or elections. Sloganeering and advertising do.

Using a technique borrowed from cinema verit? documentaries, the director succeeds in making us feel as if we're living each moment right alongside his politically-charged characters.

It's a perfectly fine movie, but given its fairly radical storyline, the filmmaking tends to hew toward the safe and the familiar.

"No" gives a fresh look at the little known history of a country whose duly elected government under Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup led by Pinochet in 1973.

Savvy, often brilliant ...

Bernal plays the creative type perfectly. His big eyes always seem to be seeing things that others don't, and through his calm, methodical demeanor, you can sense the wheels turning in his head.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_2012/

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Ammar Harris Search: Warrant Issued For Suspect In Deadly Las Vegas Strip Shooting Suspect

LAS VEGAS -- Police said Monday they have a warrant for a 26-year-old ex-convict identified as the prime suspect in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three people last week on the Las Vegas Strip.

"We can say with certainty that Ammar Harris is the suspect who fired the fatal shots," Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones told reporters at an afternoon update about a manhunt that he said would be advertised on southern Nevada billboards.

Police previously released a photo of Harris taken after his arrest last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case. It showed Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.

Jones said investigators were looking everywhere Harris had lived in the past. He wasn't specific.

Public records show that Harris previously lived in South Carolina and Georgia, and told a police officer when he was arrested in Miami Beach last December that he had lived in Florida for about a year.

Harris was convicted in 2004 in Orangeburg, S.C., of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol, Jones said. The conviction was not in California, as police said earlier.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson attended the news conference and said afterward that the case was getting top priority from prosecutors and he hoped Harris would turn himself in. He said the warrant was issued Friday.

"If Mr. Harris is listening, I would urge him to surrender," Wolfson said.

Harris used the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris when he was arrested last May in Las Vegas in the June 2010 case. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon.

Las Vegas police also sought pandering by force and ex-felon in possession of concealed weapon charges stemming from allegations that Harris was a pimp and attacked a woman.

Court records show the case was dismissed last June. The prosecutor and a public defender who handled the case didn't immediately respond to messages Monday.

In Miami Beach, Harris was arrested Dec. 7 after he was accused of driving a silver 2006 Hummer H3 the wrong way on a congested street at 2 a.m. The arresting officer said Harris produced a Florida state identification card and provided a Miami address. The status of the case in Miami-Dade courts was unclear Monday.

In Atlanta, Harris was arrested in June 2004 on a felony marijuana possession with intent to distribute charge. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge and was sentenced to three months in jail.

Fulton County jail records show Harris spent about two weeks in jail in February 2008 after a misdemeanor battery arrest. The outcome of that case was not immediately clear Monday.

In Las Vegas, investigators say Harris was driving a black Range Rover SUV when he fired shots into a Maserati before dawn Thursday, killing an aspiring rapper and causing a crash that killed two people when the Maserati slammed into a taxi that exploded in a fireball at the heart of the Strip.

Police said several other people were with Harris in the SUV as it fled the scene of the six-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.

Jones and police homicide Lt. Ray Steiber said they were confident that Harris was the only shooter. They didn't say whether police intend to prosecute anyone else in the SUV.

But, "To anyone who is aware of his location or is assisting Ammar Harris in any way, you will be arrested and prosecuted," Jones said. "You may think you're being a friend, but keep in mind Ammar Harris is wanted for the murder of three citizens."

The SUV was the focus of an intense search before it was found Saturday parked in the garage of a gated apartment complex just a couple of blocks east of the Strip. Harris wasn't found at a nearby apartment where he was believed to have been living.

Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. was mortally wounded when the dark gray Maserati he was driving was peppered by gunfire from the SUV. Taxi driver Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi.

Police say the triple homicide stemmed from an altercation between Cherry and Harris in a valet area of the upscale Aria resort a block south of the crash scene at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm, and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the crash.

Las Vegas police sought help during last week's search for the Range Rover from local and federal authorities in Nevada and neighboring states of Arizona, California and Utah.

___

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/ammar-harris-warrant-vegas-strip-shooting_n_2764637.html

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The Passion of Rand Paul

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at the Capitol in February

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Shortly before noon, before the vote on whether to move forward on Chuck Hagel?s nomination for secretary of defense, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul walked onto the floor of the Senate. He stood near the well, where he would have to cast his vote. After Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander cast the first vote?an aye?he and Paul chatted off to the side. When his own name came up in the roll call??Mr. Paul???Paul said nothing.

Nearly half of Paul?s fellow senators voted in the first alphabetical run-through of names. It was clear, almost immediately, that Hagel would have enough votes to break a filibuster. Paul walked over to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the unofficial whip of the unofficial Dump Hagel campaign, spoke briefly, then returned to the well. He cast his vote.

Hagel was vaulting over this final hurdle, but Paul wasn?t going to help. Two weeks earlier, Paul had cast a decisive vote against cloture, making Hagel the first-ever national security nominee to face a filibuster. ?There's all kinds of rumors all over the Internet about foreign groups that may have provided financing,? explained Paul, ?and I think he needs to reveal that.? Had Paul voted the other way, Hagel wouldn?t have spent those extra days being beat up by hawkish Republicans, Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin, and groups like the Emergency Committee for Israel.

Forty other Republicans joined Paul on that first filibuster, and 26 more joined him in the first vote opposing cloture today. But conservative foreign policy ?realists,? the sort of people who backed Rep. Ron Paul?s campaigns for president, were uniquely disappointed in the heir. ?Sen. Paul is aiding and abetting a disgusting McCarthyite campaign against an honorable man,? wrote AntiWar.com?s Justin Raimondo. ?Paul endorsed one of the worst, least credible anti-Hagel arguments of all,? wrote American Conservative columnist Daniel Larison, ?which is essentially the Ted Cruz argument that Hagel needs to ?prove? that he is not in league with foreign governments or sympathetic with terrorists.?

Overcoming that kind of guilt-by-association politics was one of the points of the Hagel nomination. Wasn?t it? Rand Paul, too, had challenged the wisdom of the neoconservatives and been battered for it. If Hagel could be confirmed, it would mean you could name and shame the ?Israel lobby? (or, okay, the ?Jewish lobby?) without being banished to Siberia. If the Senate really debated Hagel?s views, really revisited the wisdom of the Iraq War and whether the 2007 surge worked and whether Iran can?t ever be negotiated with, it would expand the aperture of ?serious? foreign policy debate.

Paul was aware of that. To him, delaying Hagel was in keeping with the actual goals of the realists and libertarians. ?I wanted to get more information not only on Hagel but more information on [CIA nominee John] Brennan,? he said, after leaving the post-vote Republican luncheon. ?That didn?t work because we didn?t stick together on it. Last week?s vote was useless. If you don?t stick together, you won?t have leverage.? And Paul will now turn his attention to the Brennan nomination, to demand and get more answers on the legality of the drone program and whether Americans, on American soil, could be targeted for killing. ?It?s blatantly illegal?we have probably a dozen laws saying the CIA can?t operate in the United States, and neither can the Department of Defense.?

That wasn?t obvious to libertarians and paleo-conservatives. One year ago, Sen. Paul was criss-crossing key Republican primary and caucus states to whip up support for presidential candidate Ron Paul. I remember cranking the speedometer of a rental car, and parking illegally near the University of Northern Iowa, to see the Pauls work a fire-hazard-crowded ballroom. Ron Paul would go on to win that county. Rand Paul would go on to filibuster Chuck Hagel.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=a0f442e3c823e3c66da44d808c6a8ce3

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Treat malware as biology to know it better - Miles Maddox 95's blog

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

Classifying different kinds of malware is notoriously hard, but crucial if computer defences are to keep up with the ever-evolving ecosystem of malicious programs. Treating computer viruses as biological puzzle could help computer scientists get a better handle on the wide world of malware.?

Ajit Narayanan and Yi Chen at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, converted the signatures of 120 worms and viruses into an amino acid representation. The signatures are more usually presented in hexadecimals - a base-16 numbering system which uses the digits 0 to 9 as well as the letters a to f - but the amino acid "alphabet" is better suited to machine-learning techniques that can analyse a piece of code to figure out whether it matches a known malware signature.

Generally, malware experts identify and calculate the signatures of new malware, but it can be hard for them keep up. While machine learning can help, it is limited because the hexadecimal signatures can be different lengths: Narayanan's team found that using machine learning to help classify the hexadecimal malware signatures resulted in accuracy no better than flipping a coin.

But some techniques used in bioinformatics for comparing amino acid sequences take differing lengths into account. After applying these to malware, Narayanan's average accuracy for classifying the signatures automatically using machine learning rose to 85 per cent.

Biology might help in other ways too. Narayanan notes that if further study shows malware evolution follows some of the same rules as amino acids and proteins, our knowledge of biological systems could be used to help fight it.

Journal reference: arXiv:1302.3668

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/28ee8ddf/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A130C0A20Cmalware0Ebiology0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Source: http://milesmaddox.typepad.com/blog/2013/02/treat-malware-as-biology-to-know-it-better.html

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Pro wrestlers call out Glenn Beck for calling WWE ?stupid? (video) (Americablog)

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Review: Flame Tree Barbecue at Disney's ... - Disney Food Blog

Last week, I had the pleasure of heading to Walt Disney World for a super quick jaunt around the parks.

And while there, I decided it was high time to stop by one of my (and yours!!) favorite spots in Animal Kingdom, Flame Tree Barbecue.

Flame Tree Barbecue consistently gets rave reviews from Disney food fans as one of the top ? if not the top ? counter service spots in all of Walt Disney World. I was anxious to see if it still lived up to my fond memories?

Atmosphere

Located in the Discovery Island section of Animal Kingdom, you?ll find this colorful restaurant adjacent to the entrance to Dinoland (which is awesome, and you should totally go there). And as the name clues you in ? they specialize in barbecue, with meats that are smoked right in the ?Flame Tree Barbecue Smokehouse.?

Flame Tree Barbecue Sign

Normally, you see lines snaking back from the ordering area ? note the cow-line ropes in the picture. But it was shockingly not busy when I got there late in the afternoon (around 4:30pm). See? I told you those Disney Dining Tips are for real!

Flame Tree Barbecue -- Outside View

The set up is your standard Disney counter service situation, with multiple ordering stations and pick up lines. You won?t find any automated kiosks here?yet!

Ordering Kiosk

For guests who aren?t familiar with smoked meats and the pink color that the meat takes on due to the process, you?ll find these signs. You can be sure that your meat is thoroughly cooked, even though it may appear pink inside.

Sign Regarding Smoking Process

Once you?ve chosen your food, be sure to take a look around at the fantastic themeing that Imagineers have dreamed up for this corner of Animal Kingdom. The surroundings here depict the Circle of Life (i.e. animals eating other animals?seriously) and you see it everywhere.

Circle of Life on Lanterns Featuring Owls and Rabbits

With the bright, cheerful colors, what?s actually happening in the carvings and pictures might escape your notice. But look closer, and you see that predators and their frightened prey are pictured in carvings and statues throughout the various pavilions. It?s a fascinating combination of the whimsical and the slightly disturbing. OK?really disturbing if you really thing about it.

Decor with Circle of Life Theme

While we are on the subject of decor, this is a great time to mention the unique seating situation at Flame Tree. You may not realize how extensive the seating areas are at first glance, but if you follow the paths through the jungle and off to your left, you?ll find lots of interesting places to enjoy your meal.

And some of these spots are really gorgeous. This is what I really, really love about dining at Disney. It?s about so much more than the food (which is usually pretty good.) Where would you ever go in the United States to find such a lovely fast food destination? This spot by the reflecting pool is among my favorites.

Table Next to Reflecting Pool

If it?s shaded seating that you prefer, you?ll find several open-air pavilions like this one. Protected from the sun and cooled by ceiling fans, the spots are very pleasant, even during the heat of summer. But if it?s super cold outside, you may prefer a restaurant with indoor dining spots ? Flame Tree is all outside.

Seating Pavilion

But on a quiet day like this one, there was no better place to relax and enjoy our lunch than in this shaded spot by the water, which offered a fantastic vista of Expedition Everest in the distance. Framed by trees, the view just doesn?t get any better than this.

View of Expedition Everest from Waterside Dining Pavilion

While I really love showing you all the beautiful details about Flame Tree?s setting, it?s time to turn our attention to the other big star of the show ? the food!

Eats

Because this is a barbecue place, it?s just sort of a given: your top choices are going to be meat-centric. All the traditional standards are here: St. Louis-style ribs, chicken, and pulled pork figured prominently in the line up. (You can see my review of the pulled pork sandwich here!)

The day that I visited, I really only noticed one option, the Fruit Plate, that would have been appropriate for my vegetarian friends. (More vegetarian options would likely be available upon request.)

Menu -- Entrees -- Click to Enlarge

There are a couple of sides that are big enough to share, as well as some on-theme options for the kids, like a Baked Chicken Drumstick.

Menu -- Kids' Meals, Sides, Beverages, and Desserts -- Click to Enlarge

A limited selection of beer and wine are available too. Check out the fun taps.

Beer Taps

Safari Amber is specially brewed for Disney, and you?ll find it at both Animal Kingdom as well as Animal Kingdom Lodge (the picture below was taken during a visit to Sanaa.) While it?s a more interesting option than Budweiser, we haven?t found it to be anything super special. It does make for a great pairing with barbecue, though!

Safari Amber on Draft at Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge's Sanaa at Kidani Village

Because of the completely open and spread out nature of Flame Tree?s seating, you?ll find condiment stations located at the seating pavilions, rather than near the ordering area. This makes it much easier to find a seat before fetching your sauces and napkins.

Condiment Counter

Meats are smoked but not necessarily ?sauced.? You can add just the right amount of sauce so that your meal is to your liking (extra for me!)

Ketchup Dispenser

There are a couple of different varieties of barbecue sauce available, but they?re both fairly traditional options.

Regular Barbecue Sauce Dispenser

I love the Sweet and Spicy Sauce, with that little kick it provides!

Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Sauce Dispenser

It?s nice to mix them together in just the perfect ratio for a custom sauce experience. If you?d like to try your hand at recreating that signature Flame Tree Barbecue sauce flavor at home, check out our Flame Tree Barbecue Sauce Recipe! You?ll swear you?ve been transported.

Sweet & Spicy and Regular Barbecue Sauce

I was really excited to try the new-to-me Mandarin Orange Lemonade during this visit ? it?s one of the new lemonade flavors that?s been spotted at the Animal Kingdom dining locations.

It has more flavor than regular lemonade, and the beverage was a nice match for the smokey-sweet barbecue we were consuming. I really enjoyed this, and would gladly have gone back for more!

Mandarin Orange Lemonade

Having tried the Pulled Pork Sandwich and 1/2 Slab of St. Louis Ribs on a previous lunch visit, we decided to go with a few other options this time.

I always like variety, so I opted for the Ribs and Chicken Combo, featuring a quarter of a rack of ribs and a quarter chicken. This platter is served with two sides ? Baked Beans and Cole Slaw.

Chicken and Ribs

Since it tends to be lean, Barbecue Chicken can be a tricky thing to make because it becomes dry so easily when smoked. Unfortunately, I found that to be the case here. While the flavor was good, there was no juiciness to the meat because of the extended ?low and slow? cooking time. Lots of sauce helped the situation, though.

Chicken -- Up Close

The Ribs, on the other hand, were tender, moist, and delicious. Ah, you have to appreciate the goodness of fat when it comes to meat!

Ribs -- Up Close

Now, let?s talk Turkey. Sandwich, that is. According to the menu, the sandwich is made with turkey breast that is smoked on-site.

Turkey Sandwich

The sandwich does boast a lovely House-Made Cranberry Mayonnaise, which will be a winner if you?re a mayo fan. The sweet and creamy combo worked well with the salty, smokey meat. It also stood up nicely to the hearty, multigrain bread. The tomatoes were kind of weird, though.

Turkey Sandwich Cranberry Mayonnaise -- Up Close

Still, you can see that they weren?t stingy with the sauce ? even if they could have included a little more turkey.

Turkey Sandwich -- Up Close

The sandwich was just okay. I think the next time we are craving a turkey sandwich, we will stick with The Earl of Sandwich or another special spot we found on this trip! I can?t WAIT to tell you about the World?s best turkey sandwich?coming up on DFB soon!

As for desserts, we tried the Key Lime Mousse on a previous visit. Since I?m not a big fan of the gelatinous green goo that appears on top of the parfait, I don?t really recommend it.

Key Lime Mousse

Instead, I suggest you head over to Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery to snag a Paw Print Brownie or White Chocolate Elephant Cupcake (oh how I love you, Elephant Cupcake!) if you fancy something sweet to end your meal.

Overall

Although the chicken was a bit dry and the turkey sandwich a little chintzy, I still think that Flame Tree Barbecue offers some fantastic food value. With slow-cooked meats that are akin in quality to some table service spots, you?ll get a good meal here without having to wait or pay a tip. The sides are delicious as well, and I appreciate the interesting option of the Mandarin Orange Lemonade.

But when you factor in the incredible themeing and beautiful seating area, Flame Tree becomes a can?t-miss counter service destination for your Disney World trip. With spectacular views and thoughtful touches, a meal here really is a feast for the senses. And that?s not something you can say about every counter service experience you have, to be sure.

What?s your favorite food find at Flame Tree Barbecue? Share your thoughts in comments below!

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

Source: http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2013/02/24/review-flame-tree-barbecue-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/

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Not-so-hot seat?

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is entering the final chapter of a three-year contract that he signed in 2010. So it?s time to start printing more pages.

According to beat writer Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, Dodgers officials have spoken to Mattingly recently ?about a new contract,? though there?s no hurry to get anything done this spring.

?We?ve talked to Don a lot about what he does and doesn?t want right now,? Dodgers chairman?Mark Walter said Saturday at the team?s spring training complex in Arizona. ?I think you might see something come up before the end of the year.?

Mattingly holds a 168-155 managerial record in his two seasons with the Dodgers. That?s all well and good, but the stakes are significantly higher now that the club boasts the largest payroll in the major leagues.

Mattingly does hold an option?for 2014, but the Dodgers don?t want to pick it up quite yet.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/24/dodgers-have-talked-extension-with-manager-don-mattingly/related/

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Samsung Galaxy S IV to Launch March 14

Samsung is set to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S IV, in New York on March 14. The consumer electronics giant e-mailed the press on Monday, inviting them to Radio City Music Hall for the product launch of ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/xOCjn-skBZE/

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Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' Wins Writing Oscar

Controversial filmmaker thanks the 'Django' cast for bringing his characters to life.
By Josh Wigler

Quentin Tarantino at the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702520/django-unchained-quentin-tarantino-oscar.jhtml

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AT&T, union reach tentative agreement on benefits

WASHINGTON (AP) ? AT&T is announcing a tentative agreement on wages, pensions and other benefits for more than 20,000 of its unionized workers.

The four-year agreement covers members of the Communications Workers of America in 36 states and the District of Columbia. AT&T is not disclosing the details of the agreement until it has been presented to union workers.

The CWA confirmed in a separate statement Saturday that an agreement had been reached, but is declining to provide details.

The agreement, which must be ratified by union members, covers wages, pensions, disability and work rules. The union negotiates health care benefits separately.

AT&T Inc. is based in Dallas, Texas.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-23-ATandT-Union/id-35cb8b1e3c7040fcb62b9d9e337ba598

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Horrifying crash at Daytona exposes risks to fans

Kyle Larson's car (32) gets airborne during a multi-car wreck on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Graham)

Kyle Larson's car (32) gets airborne during a multi-car wreck on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Graham)

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne into the catch fence in a multi-car crash including Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88), Parker Kilgerman (77), Justin Allgaier (31) and Brian Scott (2) during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Kyle Larson's car is on fire as he slides down the track with Regan Smith after being involved in a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kyle Larson climbs out of his car after being involved in a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Track workers repair the safety fence along on the front grandstands, where Kyle Larson's car hit it on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? The risks of racing extend beyond the drivers.

Fans can wind up in the danger zone, too.

A horrifying crash on the last lap of a race at Daytona International Speedway injured at least 30 fans Saturday and provided another stark reminder of what can happen when a car going nearly 200 mph is suddenly launched toward the spectator areas.

The victims were sprayed with large chunks of debris ? including a tire ? after rookie Kyle Larson's machine careened into the fencing that is designed to protect the massive grandstands lining NASCAR's most famous track.

"I love the sport," said Shannan Devine, who witnessed the carnage from her 19th-row seat, about 250 feet away. "But no one wants to get hurt over it."

The fencing served its primary purpose, catapulting what was left of Larson's car back onto the track. But it didn't keep potentially lethal shards from flying into the stands.

"There was absolute shock," Devine said. "People were saying, 'I can't believe it, I can't believe it. I've never seen this happen, I've never seen this happen. Did the car through the fence?' It was just shock and awe. Grown men were reaching out and grabbing someone, saying, 'Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!' It was just disbelief, absolute disbelief."

From Daytona to Le Mans to a rural road in Ireland, auto racing spectators have long been too close to the action when parts start flying. The crash in the second-tier Nationwide race follows a long list of accidents that have left fans dead or injured.

The most tragic incident occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, when two cars collided near the main stands. The wreck sent debris hurtling into the crowd, while one of the cars flipped upside down and exploded in a giant fireball.

Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh were killed, and 120 fans were injured.

The Daytona crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.

The entire front end was sheared off Larson's car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

"I thought the car went through the fence," Devine said. "I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think. I'm an emotional person. I immediately started to cry. It was very scary, absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."

The fencing used to protect seating areas and prevent cars from hurtling out of tracks has long been part of the debate over how to improve safety.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti lost close friend Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas in the 2011 IndyCar season finale, when Wheldon's car catapulted into the fencing and his head struck a support post. Since his death, IndyCar drivers have called for studies on how to improve the safety barriers.

Franchitti renewed the pleas on Twitter after the Daytona crash, writing "it's time (at)Indycar (at)nascar other sanctioning bodies & promoters work on an alternative to catch fencing. There has to be a better solution."

Another fan who witnessed the crash said he's long worried that sizable gaps in the fencing increase the chances of debris getting through to the stands.

"I've always thought the netting was very wide and pieces could fly through," said Lenny Brown, who was attending races at Daytona for the fourth time.

Among the most frightening accidents involving fans:

? In 1987, Bobby Allison's car lifted off the track at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama while running over 200 mph, careening into the steel-cable fence and scattering debris into the crowd. That crash led to the use of horsepower-sapping restrictor plates at Talladega and its sister track in Daytona, NASCAR's fastest layouts. As a result, the cars all run nearly the same speed, and the field is typically bunched tightly together ? which plenty of drivers have warned is actually a more dangerous scenario than higher speeds.

? That same year, at the Indianapolis 500, a fan was killed when struck by a tire that came off Tony Bettenhausen's car. The tire bounced off the front of Roberto Guerrero's car and flew to the top row of the grandstand.

? In 1998, three fans were killed and six others were injured in CART's IndyCar race at Michigan International Speedway when Adrian Fernandez crashed, sending a tire and other parts into the stands.

? The following year, three fans were killed at Charlotte Motor Speedway during an Indy Racing League event when debris from an accident flew into the stands. The track never held another IndyCar race.

? In 2009, Talladega was the scene of another scary crash during a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Carl Edwards' car sailed upside-down into the front-stretch fence on a furious dash to the finish line, showering the stands with debris. Seven fans sustained minor injuries.

? In 2010 at a National Hot Rod Association event in Chandler, Ariz., a woman was killed by a tire that flew off Antron Brown's crashing dragster at Firebird International Raceway. The wheel bounced a couple of times and soared over the grandstands ? missing the bulk of the spectators ? before it hit the woman.

? Also in 2010, at an off-road racing event in the Southern California desert, a truck flew off a jump and landed on a group of spectators, sending bodies flying. Eight were killed, 10 injured. There also have been deaths at the Baja 1000 and Dakar Rally, the two most famous off-road races, though multiple-death crashes into the crowd like the one in the Mojave Desert are rare.

? Last year, in a rally car race in Ireland, a car went out of control on a rural road and crashed into a crowd of about 30 spectators, killing two people and seriously injuring seven. Witnesses said the car crashed through a fence and into the onlookers before coming to rest on its side beside a home.

At Daytona, workers scurried to patch up the damaged fencing and left little doubt that the biggest race of the weekend, Sunday's Daytona 500, would go on as planned.

Brown, who saw the crash from his 38th-row seat in the Petty grandstand, said he would be back in the same section for the season-opening Sprint Cup event. He has no qualms about his safety, sitting so high up, but said he would think twice about the seats he had for the race two years ago.

"The last time I was here, we were only about six rows up," Brown said. "I had even told some people before the crash, 'I would never sit that close to the track ever again.'"

But someone surely will ? mindful of the risks but eager to be among more than 100,000 fans cheering on stock car racing's biggest stars.

"Here we are, playing money to sit next to cars going 195 mph," Devine said. "We do it because we love it. That's what we expect."

___

Associated Press writer Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-23-NASCAR-Fan%20Accidents/id-bf9b9040418c440ea68802cc194933d3

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NFL Combine Live: Lane Johnson Runs 4.75 Unofficial 40-Yard Dash at 303 Pounds, Luke Joeckel Timed at 5.22

12:25 p.m.:?The official times are in and Terron Armstead still leads the way. Though he was unofficially clocked at 4.65, his official time is 4.71. Lane Johnson actually improved his time once it became official. His initial time was 4.74 and it boosted up to 4.72.

11:40 a.m.:?Lane Johnson?s second 40 matched his first at 4.75, but he improved his 10-yard split to 1.61. That?s the best of the day, and it?s significant, because that?s usually all an offensive lineman would ever be asked to run at full speed.

11:28 a.m.:?The guard that Mike Mayock is touting as the best player in the draft, Chance Warmack, ran a 5.55 40-yard dash with a 1.85 10-yard split. That time is a little disappointing, but overall it shouldn?t matter.

Menelik Watson was supposed to light up the 40, but turned in an only respectable 5.25.

11:18 a.m.:?These incredible 40 times for linemen just keep coming in now. Vinston Painter of Virginia Tech just ran a 4.87. He looked to have a lot of room to bulk up. His build looked more like a linebacker than an offensive lineman.

11:15 a.m.:?Kyle Long, Howie?s son and Chris? brother was timed at 4.93. That?s three 300-plus pound offensive linemen that have been timed under five seconds now ? Long, Lane Johnson and Terron Armstead.

Of course, these are unofficial times and the official electronic times usually come in a few ticks slower.

11:08 a.m.:?Tanner Hawkinson out of Kansas came this close?to being the second offensive lineman to run a sub-5 40. He ran a 5.00 flat 40.

Mark Jackson of Glenville State ran the slowest so far at 5.63.

Potential No. 1 overall pick Luke Joeckel just ran a 5.22. he may improve on that in his second heat.

Lane Johnson, the former quarterback and tight end just ran a 4.75 at 303 pounds. Wow.

10:50 a.m.:?South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore is progressing from his knee injury incredibly well. He told Gil Brandt of NFL.com that he?ll begin running on Monday.

10:10 a.m.:?The linemen are going through their positional drills now and Jonathan Cooper is flashing, which is no surprise. Cooper is even higher than Alabama guard Chance Warmack on some draft boards.

Eric Fisher has been impressive, and Mike Mayock says he?s just as good as Luke Joeckel (which this NESN.com writer disagrees with).

Travis Frederick didn?t run the best 40 time (he actually ran the worst), but he?s looked much better in lineman drills.

Alabama tackle/guard D.J. Fluker is supposedly a first-round prospect, but his footwork still needs a lot of work. His future may be at guard since he has trouble kicking out against faster defensive linemen.

9:45 a.m.: It all reality, an offensive lineman won?t be asked to run 40 yards down the field (unless you?re Dan Connolly on a kick return), but a 40-yard dash does show off athleticism. The more important figure for offensive linemen are 10-yard splits. That?s the first 10 yards of a 40.

Armstead leads the way with a 1.64 10-yard split, followed by UCLA OT Jeff Baca with a 1.68. Eric Fisher?s 1.70 and Jonathan Cooper?s 1.73 look good as well. BYU OT Braden Brown and Arkansas OG Alvin Bailey finish out the top 10-yard splits with 1.74?s.

9:34 a.m.:?Terron Armstead?s second 40 time wasn?t quite as impressive, but a 4.71 at 306 pounds is still freakish athleticism.

FSU kicker Dustin Hopkins ran a 4.69 on his second 40, which is pretty insane for a kicker. You?ll rarely see a sub-5 40 for a kicker.

Jonathan Cooper ran a 5.25 on his second attempt. He?ll impress at the 3-cone drill today.

9:23 a.m.:?Terron Armstead turned in the fastest time at 4.65 unofficially and Wisconsin center Travis Frederick just ran the slowest at 5.60. His impressive beard may have been slowing him down.

9:17 a.m.:?Jonathan Cooper wasn?t able to get under five seconds on his 40, but a 5.13 is a great time for a 312-pound guard.

First-round prospect Eric Fisher just impressed with a 5.07.

9:08 a.m.:?The combine speed drills just started off with a bang. Terron Armstead of Arkansas-Pine Bluff ran an unofficial 4.65 unofficial 40-yard dash at over 300 pounds. That would set a combine record for an offensive lineman.

Arkansas punter Dylan Breeding kicked off the event with a 4.75 40 and Florida State kicker Dustin Hopkins ran a 4.81. It?s rare for special teamers to run sub-5 40s.

Virginia tackle Oday Absoushi disappointed with a 5.44 and Colorado offensive tackle David Bakhtiari, who met with the Patriots, looked smooth with a 5.01.

8 a.m. ET: The NFL scouting combine is officially upon us, and you know what that means: draft season has officially begun. The offensive linemen and tight ends will be out on display, and this is a great class for both positions.

Among the offensive linemen, Oklahoma offensive tackle Lane Johnson is supposed to test the best. He?s a former quarterback and tight end prospect who could run a 40-yard dash as low as 4.7. That would be an incredible figure for a player who?s over 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds.

UNC?s Jonathan Cooper is expected to be the most athletic guard in Indianapolis on Saturday. He?s among the best pulling guards the draft has ever seen. His speed and agility should test out very well. Some other names to watch are Alabama?s Chance Warmack, BYU?s Braden Brown, Texas A&M?s Luke Joeckel and Florida State?s Menekik Watson.

At tight end, San Diego State?s Gavin Escobar, Stanford?s Zach Ertz and Notre Dame?s Tyler Eifert are players to watch. Those are the top three players in the class and should all test out well in speed and agility drills. Some more under the radar players are Florida?s Jordan Reed, who is looked at as an Aaron Hernandez clone, and Rice?s Vance McDonald.

Stay here for the news and analysis coming out of Day 3 of the combine. We?ll send out the best 40 times, most impressive performances and all the biggest news.

Source: http://nesn.com/2013/02/nfl-combine-live-lane-johnson-gavin-escobar-among-offensive-linemen-tights-ends-expected-to-shine/

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