Today’'s breaking news stories…

History has shown that the decline in print revenue continues unabated and in an effort to reverse its eventual demise T R Yagain issued the following editorial review:

It is important to engage the reader and enlist their support by focusing on subject matter that kindles mutual interest. For example; It is not enough to just say 'pets are cute.' The writer should offer husbandry advice and perhaps suggest The Ten Best Ways To spit Roast a Poodle, thereby bringing cooks onside.

I would also suggest that Wall Street Stock Tips in the Redneck edition feature advice on worming their hogs, and the book section make it clear that Sherlock Holmes is not a Jewish housing project in Biloxi.

I also take this opportunity to thank all contributors as my heart is filled with joy, when I see you here, as the brooks fill with water, when the snows melt in the spring, and I feel glad, as the peonies do when the fresh grass starts in the beginning of the year.

Let us then unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.

I think pets are cute.

Just what I would expect, but sweet just the same.

Killing a Poodle to roast on a spit will have the whole dog world snapping at your heels Tryagain!

LUGE Pole in Winter Olympics to swap to LUBE for A Steel Pole.



NAUGHTY GAMES IN OLYMPIC GAMES!


Pole dancing needs to first gain IOC recognition as a sport " an uphill battle if ever there was one. No matter, pole dance enthusiasts say.

Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, the founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport's fledgling supervisory body, believes Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.

"There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport," she said. "The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."

KT Coates, a leading pole dancer in Britain and director of Vertical Dance, is leading the effort to make pole dancing a "test" event in 2012 and foresees a more formal pitch in 2016, when the Olympics go to Rio de Jeneiro.

"After a great deal of feedback from the pole dance community, many of us have decided that it's about time pole fitness is recognized as a competitive sport, and what better way for recognition than to be part of the 2012 Olympics held in London," Coates wrote in a petition she is readying for the London organizers. "It has the wow factor," she told The Associated Press in an e-mail. So far, the petition has about 4,000 signatures. Coates is shooting for 5,000.

<snip>

But some pole dancers worry the sensual side of pole dancing, and its counterculture undertones, would be destroyed in an effort to clean it up for the Olympics. After all, would it really be the same without stilettos, a boozy audience and a red-tinted spotlight? And how do you score for sexiness?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35524563/ns/world_news-weird_news/



T.R.Yagain has requested through SATaLIGHT channels via the HTC Sprint (Real Hero) that the A2PDFH (Able to Pole Dance Female Hamsters) select committee come together at the earliest convenience to ascertain the criteria as to how sexiness should be scored

Judging Panel to be de-sigh-ded.

Special Agent Wandel, Dutchy and Msr F are enlisted to changing the pure pearlescent bulb to a red-tint; one must read the directions, one must stand on the chair whilst the other holds the chair (health and saftey in such circumstances is paramount). TRYagain will advise them which way to screw.

Pole Tokens will be stored in the The Gold Bullion A2K Pole Vaults.



Mr Gentel and Mr Ashley will be raising funds via a poker game to be scheduled in due course. Level heads will be required.

My, my, is that an Olympic Torch in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Naysayers knew that dueling pistol was one of the events in those controversial Olympics, said debate would be over on account of awesomeness.


No no, that's a pistol packing shootist Olympics-Shooting-Men's 25m rapid fire pistol qualification


one of these methinks

Great Olympic Events of Yore: Dueling pistol



Olympic scholars debate whether the Intercalated Games of 1906 should be considered official. If naysayers knew that dueling pistol was one of the events in those controversial Olympics, said debate would be over on account of awesomeness.

Let me stop you right there. No, the competitors didn't actually shoot at one another. Had the O.K. Corral been successful in its bid to land the '06 Games, maybe that would have been an option. But Athens got the nod, so no actual dueling, which made the ghost of Aaron Burr very upset.

What did happen was that participants stood 30 meters from dummies dressed in a buttoned frock coat with a bulls-eye painted in the middle of the chest. They shot, and whomever was closest earned the most points. Leon Moreaux of France was the first, and only, winner of this competition. The Frenchman's victory came only after he was told that surrendering to the dummy was not an option.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Great-Olympic-Events-of-Yore-Dueling-pistol?urn=oly,96858

Olympic team representing A2K will consist of female hamsters with pole-dancing skills if I correctly understand what Tryagain was telling us. This could be Robert Gentel's proudest moment.

Pistol practice commencing in secret prairie compound.

dummies needed.

Questioning the real motives of this pole dancing trigger happy pistol packing queen of the yabber thread.

Resources!

Java Tip 132: The Taming of The Thread

A process-driven approach to avoid thread death

Threads can be nasty beasts This is partly attributed to their delicate nature. Threads can die. If the causes of thread death are not in your code, then MutableThread may keep your code running. This article explores a solution using an object-oriented, problem-solution method.

Note: Download this article's source code from Resources.

The problem
...the problem is: threads die, and the application stops running. No exception is thrown since the cause of thread death is external to the application.

The what and the how

It is extremely important to isolate the objective from the technical aspects of a possible solution. If design concerns influence the requirements early on, creative solutions might be prevented. It is a designer's nature to think about how to do everything and therefore his temptation to avoid challenges that might result in a superior solution by declaring them problematic, too ambitious, or even impossible.

The it-would-be-wonderful-if statement is a liberating way to imagine an ideal world. It produces the ideal what without regard to design limitations.

Let's define our what: Objects do not depend upon particular threads. If a thread should fail, the thread is recreated, and the object continues to run. This should be as unobtrusive as possible.

Scenarios can clarify the requirement and save time. Following the what review exercise, run through some scenarios the particular what will do.


To generate some scenarios, simply imagine the potential objects created by the what and consider the possibilities that could happen. Try to think outside the box.

...we know the thread might die, and we need to deal with the consequences.

We must provide memory management to prevent so-called memory leaks. However, memory management has nothing directly to do with our thread-oriented requirement"it's beyond the scope of the what.

The crucial issue is that we want to maintain thread operation. There are a few possible subscenarios:

1. Sunny day: All is well. Just restart the thread and keep running.
2. Rainy day: Bad things happen. The object is somehow corrupted
3. Typhoon: Really bad things happen. The JVM may be unstable.

...for our simple case, the sunny day scenario suffices



<so says Watchdog Vicky >


The how: Identify objects and create a design

We must identify the objects involved in the design. First, there should be a detection object; we can call this object the watchdog. In our particular design, the watchdog watches all other threads. The watchdog runs in its own thread and has a collection of references to other threads so it can monitor them and make sure they're all alive. Conveniently, the Thread class provides an isAlive() method to determine if a thread is alive. The watchdog uses this method to detect each thread in its collection. If a thread fails, it's the watchdog's responsibility to report it.

For more robustness, this design will include a second "dog," the beta dog (the watchdog is the alpha dog). The beta dog's purpose is simply to check that the alpha dog is alive. The alpha dog also detects the beta dog.

Watchdogs:
The ThreadWatchDog is a particular MutableThread instance that monitors threads, and monitored threads must be either MutableThread or Thread (or their descendants). The watchdog runs through the collection of threads and invokes the isAlive() method. When it notices that a thread is dead, it uses reCreate() to recreate the thread if it is a mutable thread. Otherwise, it simply reports the failure.

Here's how this looks (in the ThreadWatchDog test program associated with this article):


This tests the mutable thread to see if it is alive. In the case of a MutableThread, it reports an exception and then attempts to restart the thread, if possible, with the following code:


For a MutableThread, the ThreadKey is the name assigned to the thread when it is created. The application sets up the threads and assigns them to the watchdog on startup. This is done as follows:



This starts up the watchdog(s), and thread monitoring is now active. Note clearly that the threads should be started up before initializing the watchdogs, or things will get really confusing.

<confused yet>



Note that the put() method adds threads to the ThreadWatchDog. This adds the thread to the collection. The put() method is also overloaded with a put(MutableThread mutableThread). This is because MutableThread isn't really a Thread; rather it implements the MutableRunnable interface, much as Thread implements the Runnable interface.

The MutableThread includes a handle to the actual Thread, and this can be recreated, which replaces the thread owned by the mutable thread:



Note that the mThisThread is created by passing the this through the thread constructor. That allows the current object to be assigned to the new thread.

The actual thread is encapsulated within the MutableThread and can be recreated and restarted.

The deprecated Thread.stop() method is used in the test program to show what happens when threads die:



Later in the test program, we even kill the alpha watchdog to make sure the failure is detected and reported. The watchdogs are named internally and do not need to be named as do the application threads.

Explore mutation
That's about it....download and extract various bits to explore the notion of mutable threads and watchdogs on your own.

mutablethread.jar contains all the code for MutableThread and the watchdogs... there is also a ReportingException that handles nesting and reports the exception that a thread has died.




Finally, don't forget to summarize requirements and separate the requirements from design concerns. <easy peasy lemon squeezy>



Try try to keep up " have a cuppa java

Simply put; it was far from an auspicious time to announce that the first meeting of the Droid Appreciation Club had been disrupted when the madding throng were evicted from their venue when an old drunk happened by and wanted to use the phone booth. It is believed they both then decamped to a local MacDonald's.

TR Yagain denied any complicity in the affair and said he had relieved himself in MacDonald's and was not to blame for the mess in the booth and in any case he was not a subscriber to AT&T nor did he possess a Motorola Backflip.

Predictably the finger of suspicion gyrated in the general direction of JW Wandel...

The jury are still out.

Tryagain desperately searching for alibi in connection with yesterday's tragedy in which several A2K hamsters sacrificed their very lives.

Understandably, the hamsters' families were upset.

Virtual Hamster Day Broke News when half the tribe were errored and departed the former spinning wheels at A2K. Could this be strike accident.... or where they on early Spring Break.



HOWEVER -

EXstatically HAPPY THEY ARE HERE TO RETURN AND SPIN FOR US.


Very rested


Little bit of something....




Special Agent Wandel has been putting them through strict FBI training to maintain our normal high standards

obviously, being the FBI Instructor, jw instructor had to show them what to do..... nauturally, and a fine job too methinks


to this.




and Super Hamster (well skinng pig> returns to break news for our Editor in Chief.



Sunny Day - ze thread izzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz alive


Phew

Wandel receives well-deserved praise for his work in rehabilitating the A2K hamsters.

Xenodochial Hamster Hubby Celebrates HIS Special Day!

972 - King Robert II of France (d. 1031)
1416 - Antonio Squarcialupi, composer
1554 - Everhardus van Bronchorst, Dutch lawyer
1627 - Stephen Fox, English politician (d. 1716)
1665 - Benjamin Neukirch, German poet (Herrn von Hofmannswaldau)
1676 - Francis II Rákóczi, leader of the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburg (d. 1735)
1696 - Antoine Court, French Huguenot minister (d. 1760)
1702 - Johann Ernst Eberlin, composer
1710 - Joseph Marie Clement dall' Abaco, composer
1712 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (d. 1779)
1714 - Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian theologian and historian (d. 1795)
1730 - Thomas Tyrwhitt, English classical scholar (d. 1786)
1746 - Augustin Ullinger, composer
1746 - Carlo Bonaparte, Corsican attorney/father of emperor Napoleon
1746 - Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (d. 1767)
1757 - Richard John Samuel Stevens, composer
1760 - Ishmail Spicer, composer
1760 - MJ Auguste Vestrius, French ballet dancers
1765 - Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher/theologist
1772 - Giovanni Liverati, composer
1780 - August L Crelle, German inventor/mathematician (1st Prussian Railway)
1785 - Louis XVII Charles, king of France (1793-95)
1797 - Alfred V Comte de Vigny, French musketeer/writer (Moise, Chatterton)
1809 - Georges Eugene Haussmann, Paris France, architect
1810 - A Glabbrenner, writer
1810 - William Hepworth Thompson, English classical scholar (d. 1886)
1813 - Nathaniel Currier, lithographer (Currier & Ives)
1816 - George Elvey, composer
1817 - Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss biologist (d. 1891)
1818 - Jakob Axel Josephson, composer
1823 - Samuel Kosciusko Zook, Bvt Mjr General (Union volunteers)
1844 - Alophus Washington Greely, US, Arctic explorer
1845 - Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, Germany, discovered X-rays (Nobel 1901)
1847 - Otto Wallach, Germany, chemist (Nobel 1910)
1851 - Ruperto Chapi y Lorente, composer
1851 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
1857 - Karl Pearson, London England, mathematician
1857 - Pearson, mathematician
1858 - Peter Christian Lutkin, composer
1859 - George Giffen, cricketer (one of Australia's greatest all-rounders)
1860 - Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (d. 1924)
1863 - Henry Royce, automobile founder (Rolls-Royce)
1867 - Edyth Walker, US singer
1868 - Patty Smith Hill, author/songwriter (Happy Birthday To You)
1869 - James McNeill, Irish politician (d. 1938)
1871 - Heinrich Mann, Germany, novelist/essayist (Blue Angel); bros of Thomas
1871 - Petrus J M Aalberse, Dutch minister of Labor (1918-25)
1879 - Edward Steichen, pioneered American photography
1879 - Miller Huggins, American baseball player and manager (d. 1929)
1883 - Jan Kunc, composer
1883 - Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (d. 1980)
1886 - Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, German/US architect (Bauhaus)
1886 - Sergey Kirov, Russian bolshevik leader (d. 1934)
1889 - Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, Turkish writer/diplomat
1892 - Ferde (Ferdinand Rudolf von) Grofe, NY, composer
1892 - Thorne Smith, author (Topper, Rain in the Doorway, Stray Lamb)
1893 - Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic, Yugoslavian general/nazi collaborator
1893 - Karl Mannheim, Hung/German/British sociologist (Ideology & Utopia)
1894 - William Harrigan, NYC
1897 - ... Hartree, mathematician
1897 - Carlo Mierendorff, German politician/anti-fascist
1899 - Gloria Swanson, Chicago Ill, actress (Sadie Thomson, Queen Kelly) [NS]
1901 - Albert Henneberg, composer
1901 - Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (SPD)
1901 - Sato Eisaku, (Lib) Japanese PM (1964-72) (Nobel 1974)
1901 - Wilhelm Conrad von Roentgen, physicist (Nobel)
1901 - Carl Barks, American illustrator (d. 2000)
1902 - Mary Armour, artist
1902 - Charles Lang, American cinematographer (d. 1998)
1903 - Walt Kiesling, NFL guard/coach (HOF)
1905 - Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (d. 1980)
1906 - Pee Wee Russell, American musician (d. 1969)
1907 - Mary Treen, St Louis Mo, actress (Emily-Willy)
1908 - Jacques [Izaak] den Haan, Dutch writer (Dangerous Book)
1909 - Ben[jamin F] Webster, US tenor saxophonist
1909 - Golo Mann, [Gottfried], German/US historian (Antisemitism)
1910 - Rudi Ball, Germany, Jewish ice hockey star (Olympic-bronze-1932)
1912 - James Callaghan, (L) British PM (1976-79)
1912 - Reuel Lahmer, composer
1912 - Robert Watson Hughes, composer
1913 - Godfrey Turner, composer
1913 - Theodor Dannecker, SS officer (d. 1945)
1914 - Budd Schulberg, NYC, novelist (On the Waterfront)
1914 - Richard Denning, Poughkeepsie NY, actor (Steve-Karen, Hawaii Five-0)
1914 - Snooky Lanson, Memphis Tn, singer (Your Hit Parade, 5 Star Jubilee)
1915 - Richard Sharp, civil servant
1917 - Cyrus R Vance, US Secretary of State (1977-80)
1917 - Harry West, Unionist party leader (Unionist)
1919 - Julian Amery, conservative minister
1919 - Simon van Collem, Dutch journalist/TV host (Amsterdamned)
1920 - Richard Hayman, bandleader/conductor/pianist (Theme of 3 Penny Opera)
1920 - Robin Jacques, illustrator (d. 1995)
1921 - Tom Bevill, (Rep-D-AL, 1967- )
1921 - Harold Nicholas, American dancer (d. 2000)
1922 - Margaret Stacey, sociologist
1922 - Stefan Wul, French author (d. 2003)
1923 - Louis Simpson, Jamaican/US poet (Good News of Death)
1923 - Shusaku Endo, writer
1923 - Victor Hochhauser, British impresario (Israeli Philharmonic Orch)
1924 - Harold Nicholas, US actor (Tap, 5 Heartbeats, Stormy Weather)
1924 - Sarah L Vaughan, Newark NJ, jazz scat singer (Broken Hearted Melody)
1925 - Lord Plumb, MEP
1925 - R P Cohan, choreographer
1925 - Robert Cohan, artistic director (Contemporary Dance Trust)
1926 - Louis Blom-Cooper QC/press arbiter
1927 - Anthony Lewis, columnist (NY Times)/author (Gideon's Trumpet)
1927 - Lord Fanshawe of Richmond, MP
1927 - Mstislav Leopold Rostropovich, Baku USSR, cellist/conductor
1928 - Douglas Applegate, (Rep-D-OH, 1977- )
1930 - Bob den Uyl, Dutch journalist/writer (Bird Watching)
1930 - David Janssen, [Meyer], Naponee Nebraska, actor (Fugitive, Harry O)
1930 - Richard Hayman, Cambridge Mass, orch leader (Vaughn Monroe Show)
1931 - Burt Collins, trumpeter
1931 - R P Bauman, CEO (British Aerospace)
1931 - Yoriaki Matsudaira, composer
1932 - Wes Covington, baseball player (Phila Phillies)
1933 - DRG Andrews, CEO (Land Rover-Leyland)
1933 - Frank Taylor, Chief Constable (Durham)
1933 - J Geoffrey Parker, high master (Manchestrer Grammar School)
1934 - Arthur Mitchell, choreographer (Dance Theater of Harlem)
1934 - David Hancock, secretary (British Dept of Education & Science)
1935 - Earl of Suffolk & Berkshire
1935 - Julian Glover, London England, actor (QED, Heat & Dust, Mandela)
1935 - Abelardo Castillo, Argentine writer
1935 - Fr. Stanley Rother, Roman Catholic Priest, Martyr and Missionary to Guatemala (d. 1981)
1936 - Jerry Lacy, Sioux City Iowa, actor (Play it Again Sam)
1936 - Malcolm Goldstein, composer
1937 - Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, US blues guitarist/singer (Lion's Den)
1937 - Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter
1938 - A J Bellingham, president (Royal College of Pathologists)
1938 - Jock Slater, admiral
1938 - P Daubeny, CEO (Electricity Assn)
1939 - Cale Yarborough, auto racer (Daytona 500-1968, 77, 83, 84)
1939 - Jay C Kim, (Rep-R-California)
1939 - Judy Carne, comedienne (Laugh-In, Love on a Rooftop)
1939 - Lord Lyell
1939 - Ruth Ashton, general secretary (Royal College of Midwives)
1940 - Austin Pendleton, Warren OH, actor (Short Circuit, Simon, Hello Again)
1940 - June Wilkinson, Eastbourne England, actress (Absolutely Glamarous)
1940 - Janis Martin, American singer (d. 2007)
1941 - Charles Pashayan Jr, (Rep-R-CA, 1979- )
1941 - Liese Prokop, Austria, pentathlete (Olympic-silver-1968)
1941 - Ivan Gašparovič, President of Slovakia
1942 - Michael York, England, actor (Cabaret, Logan's Run, 3 Musketeers)
1942 - Raymond J McGrath, (Rep-R-NY, 1981- )
1942 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1942 - Michael Jackson, English writer (d. 2007)
1943 - M Robert Carr, (Rep-D-Michigan, 1975-81, 83- )
1943 - Phil Frank, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
1944 - Khosrow Shakibai, Iranian actor (d. 2008)
1945 - Briton Selby, NHLer
1946 - Bill Sudakis, baseball player
1946 - Carl Weintraub, actor (Harry-Executive Suite)
1946 - Jerry Lacy, actor (Rev Trask-Dark Shadows)
1946 - Olaf Malolepski, German musician (Die Flippers)
1947 - Daphne Todd, president (Royal Society of Portrait Painters)
1947 - Dough Wilkerson, football
1947 - Tom Sullivan, Boston MA, blind actor (If You Could See What I Hear)
1947 - Walt Mossberg, the highest-paid journalist at the Wall Street Journal
1949 - Patrick Deuchar, CEO (Albert Hall)
1950 - Maria Ewing, opera singer
1950 - Tony Banks, rock keyboardist (Genesis-Against All Odds)
1950 - Vic Harris, baseball
1950 - Petros Efthimiou, Greek politician
1951 - Bobby Lalonde, NHLer (Boston Bruins)
1951 - Tony Banks, rocker
1952 - Chick Vennera, Herkimer NY, actor (High Risk, Milagro Beanfield War)
1952 - Maria Schneider, Paris, actress (Last Tango in Paris, Crime of Honor)
1952 - Rocky Maffit, rocker (Champaign)
1953 - Pamela Roylance, Seattle Wash, actress (Sarah-Little House on Prairie)
1955 - Kim Brassey, racehorse trainer
1955 - Patrick McCabe, novelist
1956 - Brian Kelly, CFL wide receiver (Edmonton Eskimos)
1956 - Thomas Wassberg, Sweden, 15K/50K cross country skier (Oly-gold-1980)
1957 - Billy MacKenzie, rock vocalist (The Associates-Affectionate Punch)
1957 - Duncan Goodhew, England, 100m breast stroke swimmer (Oly-Gold-1980)
1957 - Nicholas Hawkins, MP
1957 - Nick Hawkins, British politician
1958 - Bart Connor, gymnast/sportscaster (Olympic-gold-1984)
1958 - Shaun Cassidy, rocker/actor (Hardy Boys, Texas Guns)
1958 - Susan Molinari, (Rep-R-NY)
1960 - Clare Lucy Madeleine Evans, historian
1960 - Jennifer Grey, actress (Dirty Dancing); Joel Grey's daughter
1960 - Steve Jarvin, Australian soling yachter (Olympics-96)
1960 - Hans Pflügler, German footballer
1961 - Clark Datchler, vocalist (Johnny Hates Jazz-Don't Say it's Love)
1961 - Ellery Hanley, rugby league player
1961 - Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (B'z)
1961 - Tony Rominger, Swiss cyclist
1963 - Dave Koz, saxophonist
1963 - Ed Pinckney, NBA forward (Phila 76ers)
1963 - Quentin Tarantino, director/screenwriter (Pulp Fiction)
1963 - Randall Cunningham, NFL QB (Phila Eagles, Minnesota Vikings)
1963 - Todd Graves, Laurel Miss, skeet (Olympics-1992, 96)
1963 - Xuxa, [Maria da Graca Meneghel], Brazil, actress (Xuxa Park)
1963 - Charly Alberti, Argentinian musician
1965 - Region Philbis (Bahstin Hamster Gatherer, Spoonerismer Extraordinare & Sox Fan)
1966 - Kate Donahoo, Las Vegas NV, US judoka (Olympic-92)
1967 - Jaime Navarro, Bayamon Puerto Rico, pitcher (Chic Cubs)
1967 - Talisa Soto, [Miriam], Brooklyn NY, actress (License to Kill)
1967 - Tom Hammonds, NBA forward (Minn Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets)
1967 - Paul Adams, American celebrity
1968 - Irina Belova, Russian pentathelete (world record 1992)
1969 - Tom Beer, NFL running back (Detroit Lions)
1969 - Kevin Corrigan, American actor
1969 - Pauley Perrette, American actress, photographer, poet, writer
1970 - Anthony Prior, NFL cornerback/safety (NY Jets, Minnesota Vikings)
1970 - Corey Page, actor (Richard Wilkins-Loving/City)
1970 - Ed Philion, NFL nose tackle (Buffalo Bills)
1970 - Brendan Hill, British drummer (Blues Traveler)
1970 - Princess Leila of Iran (d. 2001)
1970 - Elizabeth Mitchell, American actress
1971 - Mariah Carey, NYC, singer (Love Takes Time, Hero)
1971 - Thom Barron, German porn star
1971 - Nathan Fillion, Canadian actor
1972 - Kirby Dar Dar, wide reciever (Miami Dolphins)
1972 - Charlie Haas, professional wrestler
1972 - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer
1973 - Serge Tremblay, La Malbaie Quebec, weightlifter (Olympics-96)
1974 - Rosanna Gimenez, Miss Paraguay Universe (1997)
1974 - Russ Haas, wrestler (d. 2001)
1974 - Gaizka Mendieta, Spanish footballer
1975 - B J Gallis, CFL linebacker (BC Lions)
1975 - Gregory DuBois, hockey defenseman (Team France 1998)
1975 - Stacy Ferguson, American pop singer (The Black Eyed Peas)
1975 - Tom Goegebuer, Belgian weightlifter
1975 - Chakrit Yamnam, Thai film and television actor
1976 - Danny Fortson, NBA forward (Denver Nuggets)
1976 - Roberta Alma Anastase, Miss Universe-Romania (1996)
1976 - Djamel Belmadi, Algerian footballer
1977 - Tom van der Leegte, Dutch soccer player (PSV)
1977 - Violetta Blue, American porn star
1977 - Vitor Meira, Brazilian racing driver
1979 - Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota Twins baseball player
1981 - Lin Jun Jie, Chinese Singer
1981 - Terry McFlynn, Northern Irish footballer
1981 - Carey Davis, National Football League fullback
1982 - Kurara Chibana, Japanese beauty queen, first runner-up Miss Universe 2006
1984 - Emily Ann Lloyd, actress (Sarah Kramer-Something So Right)
1984 - J P Steur, actor (Grace Under Fire)
1985 - Dario Baldauf, Austrian footballer
1985 - Stijn De Smet, Belgian footballer
1985 - Caroline Winberg, Swedish supermodel
1986 - Melissa Stern, [Baby M]/[Sara Whitehead], surrogate baby
1986 - Valerie "So Cal Val" Wyndham, American professional wrestling valet
1986 - Ramani, Indian Girl
1987 - Chad Denny, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 - Kerri Ann Darling, actress (Alli Fowler-Another World)
1988 - Brenda Song, American actress
1990 - Scott Selwood, Australian rules footballer
1995 - Taylor Atelian, American actress







<smooch>

You're verra thoughtful.

Zero tolerance for trolls!! The jury is still out on the actual count of who is a troll
on a2k. The usual suspects consider themselves valuable members, others have
a higher ignorance radar, and some like a good troll. What to do? Head in the sand and hope for a natural weed-out process.

Auðsug jötuns




Beware: Trolls ahead

VERMONT, St. Vernon, a small town nestled in the hills of southern Vermont has been invaded by a army of extremely aggressive trolls.

The first evidence of the trolls came from farmers crossing bridges. Farmers were met by ugly little creatures with protruding tusks demanding tolls for crossing the bridge. If the farmer was herding billy goats the trolls demanded unreasonably high tariffs for use of the bridge.

The second thing that alerted the citizens to the invasion was the teenagers in the area that generally listened to heavy metal were now playing troll metal.

Trolls originate from Scandinavian folklore and have been known to abduct humans and make them slaves. Trolls are also well known for stealing crops from farmers and could steal the food right off the plates of people eating dinner.

The mayor of St. Vernon said, we think they came to our town in a shipment of Swedish meatballs a couple of months ago.

Exterminators have been called in to eradicate the pesky creatures but standard methods have proved to be ineffective. It seems no one in the modern age is specializing in troll extermination.

Troll infestation can cause a myriad of problems ranging from missing treasure to small trolls drilling cavities in children's teeth.

Classic bridge trolls as opposed to haugtrold (mound-trolls) or bergtroll (mountain-trolls) tend to be the easiest to bribe and rarely take prisoners. Moreover, the Troll Defense Fund set up by the the Hamster Revolutionary Legion, who have been elected due to their ability to coff at the trolls <to coffer : third-person singular simple present coffers, present participle coffering, simple past and past participle coffered> , point out that there has long been an anti-troll prejudice that permits any cruelty or trick to be played on trolls, who merely try to scratch out a living under bridges while people drive them crazy by going “trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap” over their heads.


Troll kalla mik
tungl sjötrungnis - Gnawer of the Moon,
auðsug jötuns - Giant of the Gale-blasts,
élsólar böl - Curse of the rain-hall,
vilsinn völu - Companion of the Sibyl
vörð náfjarðar - Nightroaming hag,
hvélsvelg himins " Swallower of the loaf of heaven.
hvat's troll nema þat? - What is a Troll but that?





Special Agent Wandel has commenced investigations into dipping fingers into the Troll Defense Fund which has been taking place under the bridges of A2K County. There have been vehement denials of being "over the top, round the bend or up against the wall" leave alone finger dipping, from Trolling Round Yagain who, whilst dillydallying around with his accomplice, Sibyl, is responsible for the constant "tripping and trapping" over the heads of his fellow forum frolicking followers.

Agent Wandel has stated clearly that Auðsug Jötuns, aka, the Troll Yagain is simply full of wind and a Giant Gale Blast.

British Correspondent denies all attempts to have her aspersions cast as the NightRoaming Hag whereas the Dutchy has put his hands up to being élsólar böl denying all rain to his part of S.Australia.

The Swallower of the Loaf of Heaven has yet to be named




What is a troll.... but that

Coff up to cross the bridge.