Story Link: Forbes

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Story Link: NewsDay

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Story Link: Courier Post

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Jewelry making is interesting work for children who wish to make jewelry of silver and other metals. It is an ancient and honorable craft which has unlimited possibilities.

An interesting feature of this type of craft work is that from the beginning, with a few essential tools, materials, and simple working drawings, one can learn to make really wearable gucci jewelry. As in any craft, practice is necessary in order to acquire the workmanship which will give good results.

Wire Work

Wire may form the foundation of a piece of jewelry, or it may be applied as a decoration. It is often twisted to add lightness to a design, and can easily be formed into coils or line units of decoration for flat or curved surfaces. Twists and coils of wire can be made of round, half round, or square wire.

Keep the 14 gauge or heavier wire in coils. Wire of a lighter gauge may be wound on spools. If kinks occur in the lighter gauge wire they can be removed by holding the wire ends firmly and the length taut while drawing it over the edge of a wooden bench, or block of wood.

The word "jig" is a mechanics' term given to a device which is used to guide a tool or a material. A jig makes the forming of an article easier during construction and makes the finished pieces mechanically more perfect. When a design requires duplication of parts, a jig is often used.

Wire Twisting

Often a design calls for a twist of given length, sometimes a tight or loose twist. To determine the length to cut the wire is important. The gauge of the wire as well as the number of twists the wire is given will determine the length of the finished piece. When round wire is used, two or more lengths are necessary for the twist. A rope-like effect may be obtained by twisting a single length of flat or square wire. All wire should be annealed.

Twisting Wire 18 Gauge or Lighter

Measure the amount needed for the twist. Loop the wire length in the center, and insert the two loose ends through the hole in the spool. Hold the ends in the jaws of a table vise. Insert a small steel rod through the loop of wire, and pull the wire taut. Hold the spool firmly against the rod. Turn the rod to twist the wire.

Twisting Wire 16 Gauge or Heavier

Hold the looped end of the wire in the jaws of the hand vise. Clamp the loose end in the jaws of the table vise. Turn the hand vise to twist the wire.

To Determine The Length

In cutting the wire for a definite length of finished twist, the following examples have been given of two round wires of different gauges and lengths.

18 gauge, 26 inches, twisted 50 times, gives 11 1/8, inches

18 gauge, 26 inches, twisted 75 times, gives 9 5/8 inches

18 gauge, 14 inches, twisted 50 times, gives 5 1/4 inches

Select a round steel mandrel the diameter of the coil desired. Place between two blocks of soft wood parallel with the grain of the wood.
Press the blocks between the jaws of the table vise to form a groove in each block. Remove the mandrel from the blocks, and file a groove at a right angle to the groove made by the mandrel.

Theatre Exile presents a return engagement of The Philly Fan by Bruce Graham, starring Tom McCarthy, and directed by Joe Canuso. This one-man hit show is a hilarious romp through fifty years of Philly sports history as seen by a hard core fan used to watching sure-thing victories turn into “oh-my-God-they-blew-it” defeats. June 10-15 at The Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street. Tickets are $25 - $50; call (215)922-4462 or visit www.ThePhillyFan.net.

The cat, not yet having mastered reading, naturally assumes the newspaper is a special sleeping mat whose cryptic symbols mean "Lie here, please."

Koto is more than happy to oblige, while Lyra patiently waits her turn.

“Good evening, M’am.” The gentleman startled me, as I did not hear him approach as I stood on the darkened street, outside a lovely Victorian era house. “Good evening,” I replied, “I was just admiring your home.” Thank you,” he responded, “but my wife deserves the credit. She did all the work.”

A rather pedestrian conversation, if not for the fact that the “gentleman” I was chatting with was actually an adorable little teddy bear wearing flannel pajamas and a wizard’s hat. (I didn’t dare ask the species of his wife.)

Have I neglected to mention that this chat was in text form, and taking place on my computer screen? Yep, it was just another evening in Second Life, the online 3-D virtual reality world that I have been visiting with all too much regularity.

Oh wait – how rude of me! I haven’t properly introduced myself. I am “Cyn Peccable,” a steampunk Victorian woman of little means but great reserve (or at least that’s how my Second Life profile reads.)

Um…yeah…seriously…I’m waaaay too into this.

But let he who is without a time-wasting hobby cast the first stone…keeping in mind that in Second Life, you could throw that stone haphazardly about in a glass house without breaking a single window -- cool!

Mixed imagery aside, my attraction to Second Life can be summed up in two words: no cellulite.

So, what’s a person to do with their nice cellulite-free avatar? Explore! Shop! Make friends while shopping! Shop! Try on the stuff you bought shopping!

And find a place to live.

While I’ve mastered shopping, and even have a “partner” (my real life husband, who signed on to Second Life just long enough to take me off the market) so far I’ve resisted the urge to settle down.

Not that I’m unfamiliar with others’ residences. While Cyn is a proper Victorian lady, it seems she is also quite the peeping Tom. I’ve peered into houses ranging from haunted to Architectural-Digest-ready.

I’ve seen clam shells for mermaids, post-apocalyptic sheds for those surviving an imaginary blast, and double-wide trailers for wannabe trash.

Not to mention a gigantic undersea rusted-metal seahorse/house that would set Jules Verne’s heart a-racing (if he weren’t dead, that is.)

And plain old normal stuff too. Sometimes a house is just a house.

With all this in mind, I set off to educate myself about the cost of Second Life housing. A quick search gave me the location of a sales area, appropriately named “Home Sweet Homes.” One mouse click later, I had teleported there. (Teleporting = fun!)

Materializing in the center of an expanse of neatly-trimmed grass (that never needs mowing), I found the landscape dotted with model houses of different sizes and styles. And each lot had a large sign stuck in the front yard; if you didn’t fancy the model sitting there, a click on the sign would materialize another in its place.

In a blink of an eye, I conjured up a large 3-story Victorian mansion, complete with wrap-around porch and turret…and an asking price of 6,000 Linden Dollars (the currency of Second Life.)

Oh, did I forget to mention that the exchange of (real) money is a very real part of this virtual world?

The 6,000 Linden price tag of my Victorian dream house translates to about $23 U.S. dollars. A bargain in real life, but pricey for the SL world. And I’m not sure if I’m ready to make that kind of commitment.

I mean, it’s lovely…but why be tasteful, when you can be tacky? Methinks a castle might be more suited to my flights of fancy. As a point of reference, I decide to check out Victoriana Castle, which bills itself as “The Most Beautiful Castle in SL.”

Holy Ice Princess, Batman! Blindingly white and overdone in every way imaginable – Victoriana Castle has more spires than I can count. Its curlicues have curlicues! My blood sugar level rises to a dangerous level, forcing a quick teleportation escape…

…to “Elite Estates” -- where one can buy a castle of more modest proportions. In fact 1,500 Lindens (about $6) will get me my very own a starter castle!

Unfortunately, “Dakota Castle” is unimaginatively rectangular –and its façade bears a strong resemblance to cinder block. I half-expected to find medieval-themed dinner theater going on inside. Instead, the interior was empty, if slightly dungeon-esque (which could be a positive, depending on what one is into.)

Still…hmmm…even cinderblock could be made cozy with the right furnishings. After all, isn’t décor what makes a house (or castle) a home?

So, a new mission – furniture shopping. To that end, I enlisted the companionship of my sister, AKA “Angelique Nightfire.”

We meet in the small but elegant showroom of “Capalini Fine Furnishings.” There we playfully threw our avatar-selves onto an extremely tasteful Federal style sofa; then each chose a side of a four-poster bed (and just as when we were children on family vacations, I threatened her with a karate chop if she strayed over to my side.)

Then somehow, we veered off course. The next thing I knew, we were wearing diver’s suits outside a pirate bar. Once inside said bar, Cyn put on a kimono and served Angelique a gin and tonic.

Such is the waking-dream semi-hallucinatory Second Life experience.

Leaving Angelique to nurse her virtual hangover, my next stop was the vast showroom of “Prim Goddess Creations,” which seemed prepared to fulfill my every interior decorating need…as well as needs I never knew I had. Like – what exactly is a “cuddle rug”?

(Leading to the philosophical question: Why do avatars feel a need to cuddle anyway?)

In the bedroom section, I spy a mahogany sleigh bed just like the one in my real life bedroom (except in SL, the bed is made.)

And over there -- toilets! I can’t resist the urge to walk into a bathroom display and touch the handle. It flushes! (Or more accurately, the picture of water in the bowl rotates in a clockwise fashion for a few seconds.)

Very amusing, but does it sell? In all my spying into virtual houses, I have never encountered one with a bathroom – for good reason. A virtual bathroom would only prove a rude reminder of the real life bathroom that one should be cleaning instead trying on that dreamy flowing gown.

So…bye-bye Prim Goddess!

But then I find myself in a store called “Dust Bunny”…

...prompting a glance towards the real life dust creatures forming at my feet. Seems no matter how hard one tries, some things (like housework and Britney Spears) are inescapable. Sigh.

After all my “research,” I conclude it’s easier (and cheaper) to keep my avatar homeless.

Thus resigned, I fly off to a small deserted island I’d scoped out on an earlier expedition; where a creative somebody-I’ve-never-met has turned a lighthouse into their home, complete with a life-sized (and very cuddle-able) stuffed bunny sitting by the bed.

By afternoon’s end, my avatar lies stretched out on a pillow-laden hammock by the water’s edge. All alone, save a small squirrel darting around the base of a nearby tree. It eyes Cyn suspiciously, but I don’t care.

Ah, yes…(virtual) life is good.

(If you made it here, to the end of the article, first of all, congratulations on your perseverance! Secondly, if you look closely in the last snapshot, you'll see the "squirrel" of the article was really a tiny rabbit. But I thought I had just one too many bunnies in my tale, and there is a SL squirrel that I'm fairly certain has been stalking me...so...

Hey, it's all pretend anyway!)

(To learn more about Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com/)

I just got an anonymous tip that supposedly, a major motion picture will be filming extensively on Penn's campus this summer.

Click to find out which film!

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The story about drugs in our water supply is still in the news.
Philadelphia is at the top of the 24 cities reported.
The trace amounts, however, are being measured in 'parts per billion'.

The Philly Water Department has tried to put it in perspective by stating -
A resident would have to drink 8 glasses of water every day for 40,000 years
to equal the dosage in 1 over the counter pain pill.

Good news for some, maybe not for others...

Story Link: Drugs in the water

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Calling it cross-dressing might be stretching it a bit, though technically the term is correct.
The kids were taking part in a school function called Wacky Week.
The week before Wacky Week, the kids voted on how they should dress up each day.

The last day of Wacky Week, the vote was to dress as either Senior Citizens,
or have the boys dress as girls, and girls dress as boys.

It was Wacky Week, get it? A time for the kids to have fun.
It brought the whackos out instead.

Story Link: Playing dress-up

Cartoon from Sid in the City

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, also known as PennDOT, has been awarded the nation's 2008 Best Sounding DOT Award. Every state in the country has a department of transportation and each shortens the name to the first sylable of the state plus DOT, such as CalDOT, MassDOT, NJDOT, etc.

Each year the American Department of Transportation(AmDOT) honors the state with the best ear-pleasing abreviation. "We're really honored, our team works hard every year to make the PennDOT name roll off the tounge. We really take pride in this award," said Doug Stillman, PennDOT official.

This year's second place finisher was DelDOT, which has claimed this position seven times in the last ten years but has never won. PennDOT has now won the award ten times in the last forty years.

MaineDOT, the only state that uses its full name with DOT, finished third this year. Honorable mention went to MissDOT but officials never clarified whether Missouri or Mississippi was the recipient. UtDOT and HawDOT finished 49th and 50th respectively. "We'll bounce back next year," said Jim Flores, Hawaii's Department of Transportation director.

News Item:
Catholics, Muslims, ink pact

Catholic and Muslim leaders in South Jersy signed an agreement yesterday, pledging cooperation and understanding of each other. It was the second such signing in the US. The first occured in 2003 in Rochester, New York. If the effort will now migrate to other states across the nation, and what impact, if any, it will have, remains to be seen. It is an effort, however, so that's a good thing, but radical factions from either side were notably absent.

News Link: Courier Post

Cartoon from Sid in the City

News Item:
Danish police foil cartoon murder plot.

It's two years ago already that this cartooon

caused riots all over the Muslim world.

We thought the reaction was extreme, to say the least.
If, two years later, you think the foment has died down, you'd better look again.
Three suspects are, at present, sitting in a Danish jail cell, accused of plotting to murder the cartoonist. Not get mad at him, not call him names, not write him nasty letters, but cut off his head, with no qualms about it.

These individuals are described in the dictionary thusly -
rad·i·cal
adjective
1 - Marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional.
2 - Disposed to make extreme changes.

Concentrate on the extreme, because that's what these folks are.

It's not a religious issue here, has nothing to do with a belief in Allah, or Homer Simpson for that matter. It's about morons going off the deep end. It's about idiots still living in the Dark Ages. It's about grown men, real adults, actually believing that if they should die while committing murder for their cause, they'll be rewarded in heaven with 72 Virgins.

Now we're not here to mock anyone's religious beliefs, there's no point in that, but take a potshot at mental defectives like these? Oh yeh, we'll do that every time.

News Link: Bloomberg.com

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Karen Knotts, daughter of the late actor Don Knotts(pictured), is putting excessive pressure on Mike Knuble, Philadelphia Flyers forward, to change the pronunciation of his last name, by eliminating the 'k' sound. This issue originally surfaced back in October at the beginning of the hockey season. Knotts was in town to attend a 'kn' Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and discovered the hockey player pronounced the 'k' in his name.
The 'k' is silent in most English words containing the 'kn' combination. Exceptions include know and knever. "It sounds funny to pronounce the 'k,' but it's part of my heritage,"said Knuble. Knotts is continuing in the footsteps of her father who originally started the campaign to rid the country of all 'k' pronunciation in 'kn' words four years ago. Don Knotts, who passed away two years ago, started Know Knonsense, a for-profit organization, late in his life to combat this terrible problem. "Just before my father passed he told me to be courageous in this dangerous pursuit. It is now my mission," said Knotts. Knuble did not know nor had he ever met the actor but realized the 'kn' cause was an important part of Knotts' later life. "Out of respect for Mr. Furley I am considering it," said Knuble.

The three month old Hollywood writers strike could be hopefully coming to an end tomorrow (2/9) when writers guild members gather in L.A. and New York to consider a proposed contract.

In the event that there are further delays, Brian Appel (C'01, Mask and Wig) has a fun new reality show video (spoof) he edited that he wants us to consider:

"As the writers strike -- FOX gets REAL. "Annie...the REALITY!" is a feel good family show in which 12 orphans compete for the heart -- and home -- of Daddy Warbucks. You can bet your bottom dollar it's a hard knock life, but for ONE of these girls the sun will come out TONIGHT...on FOX! 8pm"

Click here to watch this HYSTERICAL video

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*DuelingTampons.com is a blog which reports on all the latest exclusive entertainment news about Penn alumni and undergrads