Ask DT: Maya Rendering - How to Set up a Technique for Outdoor Lighting
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PHILADELPHIA (Tribune News Service) He went to war with a Marines regiment known as the Cannon Cockers, an artillery unit that rained explosive shells on the enemy in Iraq.
He didnt stay long less than three months in 2008. But Bradley Stone claimed he had been fully disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder and was taking medication as part of his mental health treatment.
Its clear he struggled with alcohol. And on the license for his second marriage, he listed his occupation as disabled veteran.
In a patch of woods not far from his Pennsburg, Pa., home on Tuesday afternoon, police found Stone dead of self-inflicted cutting wounds a gruesome end to a manhunt that began after he killed his ex-wife and five of her relatives in Montgomery County on Monday.
On Tuesday, service-veteran friends of Stone struggled to make sense of the killings. None condoned them. At the same time, they said, Stone was a man who suffered.
He saw war, said Seth Howard, 27, a Marines veteran who served in Iraq. How are you supposed to be healthy after that?
Howard stood at Vets for Vets, a nonprofit center located almost across the street from Stones house in Pennsburg. He said the two often talked about their combat experiences.
Stone, friends said, was a Marine through and through, a family man who happily lent a hand to shovel snow and a former sergeant who struggled with stress disorder and with physical injuries from carrying heavy backpacks in Iraq.
Vietnam veteran Clyde Hoch, 68, said he and Stone werent close, but he considered the younger man a pretty decent guy.
You cant condemn someone until you understand what they went through, he said.
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Fellow vets, friends of slaying suspect struggle to make sense of killings
He went to war with a Marine regiment known as the Cannon Cockers, an artillery unit that rained explosive shells on the enemy in Iraq.
He did not stay long - less than three months in 2008. But Bradley Stone claimed he had been fully disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder and was taking medication as part of his mental-health treatment.
It is clear that he struggled with alcohol. And on the license for his second marriage, he listed his occupation as "disabled veteran."
In a patch of woods not far from his Pennsburg home Tuesday afternoon, police found Stone dead of self-inflicted cutting wounds - a gruesome end to a manhunt that began after he killed his ex-wife and five of her relatives in Montgomery County on Monday.
On Tuesday, service veteran friends of Stone's struggled to make sense of the killings. None condoned them. At the same time, they said, Stone had suffered.
"He saw war," said Seth Howard, 27, a Marine veteran of Iraq. "How are you supposed to be healthy after that?"
Howard was at Vets for Vets, a nonprofit center close to Stone's house in Pennsburg. He said the two often talked about their combat experiences.
Stone, friends said, was a Marine through and through, a family man who happily lent a hand to shovel snow, and a former sergeant who struggled with stress disorder and physical injuries from carrying heavy backpacks in Iraq.
Vietnam veteran Clyde Hoch, 68, said that he and Stone were not close, but that he considered the younger man "a pretty decent guy."
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After Iraq, a life unraveled
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJBK) - A massive ice storm brought down power lines across the state last winter, knocking out power to 600,000 DTE Energy customers.
The utility company said that trees were to blame and now it is aggressively chopping them down.
In Bloomfield Township, some residents say it is ruining the landscape and that the utility is taking extreme measures, doing it without notice.
Resident Inge Gray called DTE and told them to stop cutting down her trees before the buzzsaws ceased.
"(They) make no apologies for any of the cutting and would actually have preferred to do more cutting than what was done," she said.
DTE says this work is done all the time for good reason.
"This program is something we do every single day because it's the right thing to do to assure reliable electric power for our customers," said Trevor Lauer, senior vice president, DTE Energy.
After last year's ice storm, the state's public service commission wants DTE to be more aggressive in removing trees near power lines.
"About half of the outages that we have on the electrical system come from trees," Lauer said. "And the number one goal of removing trees is to reduce the number of outages."
Living in a wooded area, Gray has dealt with this before and expects some clearing to keep the lights on.
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Aggressive DTE tree removal ruining landscape says Bloomfield Twp resident
From 2,090 Archimede (sleeps four); from 2,400 Ortigia (sleeps six) (020 7377 8518; thethinkingtraveller.com). LM
Not so much a villa as a village, Borgo di Vagli is a hamlet of 14th-century houses, expertly renovated but gloriously lost in time. Just getting there will help you shake off the 21st century quite literally, as the bumpy final 2km of unpaved approach road are a serious challenge. In this hilltop fastness the internet seems an anachronism, with wooded mountains as far as the eye can see: in the restaurant kitchen, the cook is floury to her elbows, while the vegetable garden yields wonderful produce for the table. But a landscaped terrace has two pools for sun-worshipping, and the rustic simplicity of the 21 self-catering houses conceals a wealth of up-to-the minute facilities. For guests who can handle the road, pretty Cortona is nearby, and the historic towns of Tuscany and Umbria are conveniently close.
From 820 through Traditional Tuscany (0800 975 5379; traditionaltuscany.co.uk). LM
On the western edge of the Cinque Terre that string of near-vertical Ligurian villages beloved of walkers Levanto is a characterful, cultured seaside town with a long sandy beach. Its perfect for families keen to combine gentle coastal walks made more accessible thanks to frequent, cheap trains that link the town with all five Cinque Terre villages with some bucket-and-spade time for the kids. Up above the town, but only a 15-minute walk from the beach, pretty, ochre-washed Villa Levanto would work well for a group of friends or two medium-sized family groups. Think of it as a country villa near the beach.
Between June and September, weekly rental varies From 4,550 through Bridgewaters Idyllic Italy (0161 787 8587; bridgewatertravel.co.uk). LM
For a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, you could do worse than this magnificent 18th-century villa in Tremezzo on the western shore of Lake Como, frescoed and stuccoed to the hilt and surrounded by formal gardens that descend to your own private landing stage. Once owned by Duke Gian Galeazzo Serbelloni, an Italian supporter of Napoleon, the villa is a living museum, with trompe-loeil artworks by two pupils of Tiepolo and a historic weaponry collection among its many treasures. There are six luminous double bedrooms done out with true antique noblesse oblige. And if the rental seems steep, bear in mind that it includes your own private butler and chef. It makes George Clooneys place down the road look positively shabby.
From 19,000 through Bellini Travel (020 7602 7602; bellinitravel.com). LM
Sometimes its worth looking beyond the villa rental companies especially in areas like Le Marche, which are patchily covered by most of the usual Italy specialists. Cut-out-the-middleman websites like Owners Direct (ownersdirect.co.uk) and Airbnb (airbnb.com) offer a degree of anti-scam protection and allow you to check out reviews left by previous tenants. Among the well-liked Owners Direct properties in Le Marche is the Monastero di Favari (search for Villa in Apiro) a sensitively restored 17th-century monastery, owned by an Anglo-Italian couple, that sleeps up to 15. On Airbnb, home in on the area just to the north of Urbino and among the first results youll see a lovely old farmhouse near the village of Mondaino, which sleeps six, restored and decorated in romantic bohemian style by an English artist couple, Phelan and Susan Harlock-Black.
Monastero di Favari is a restored 17th-century monastery
Monastero di Favari from 1,180; Mondaino from 610, including Airbnb service fee. LM
Continued here:
The top 10 villa holidays in Italy
By OLIVIA LAMBERTDec. 17, 2014, 5 a.m.
A CHARRED hill stood out yesterday in what is normally a picturesque North East landscape.
A CHARRED hill stood out yesterday in what is normally a picturesque North East landscape.
Dry, brown grass swayed weakly towards the firefront.
A mob of kangaroos was seen leaving the West Wodonga hill, headed for greener pastures.
About 150 firefighters armed with water took up the fight against the flames, wiping their dusty and sweaty brows in response to the suns intense heat.
The erratic wind gusts were the worst enemy for those attempting to control the blaze and firefighters were hoping they would die down and leave a still summers day.
But not even those in charge of fighting the blaze would make predictions or speculate as to what would happen with the weather, because of the likelihood that conditions would change in an instant.
An air crane, two helicopters and a plane circled above the blaze, dropping water and retardant to deter the flames from spreading further.
A shooting range off Plunketts Road became a staging area for fire trucks and their crews to refuel.
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North East Fires | Firefighters battle intense heat, unpredictable winds
Dec. 17, 2014, midnight
A CHARRED hill stood out yesterday in what is normally a picturesque North East landscape.
Firefighters check trees as they mop up after the fire had moved through. Picture: MATTHEW SMITHWICK
A CHARRED hill stood out yesterday in what is normally a picturesque North East landscape.
Dry, brown grass swayed weakly towards the firefront.
A mob of kangaroos was seen leaving the West Wodonga hill, headed for greener pastures.
About 150 firefighters armed with water took up the fight against the flames, wiping their dusty and sweaty brows in response to the suns intense heat.
The erratic wind gusts were the worst enemy for those attempting to control the blaze and firefighters were hoping they would die down and leave a still summers day.
But not even those in charge of fighting the blaze would make predictions or speculate as to what would happen with the weather, because of the likelihood that conditions would change in an instant.
An air crane, two helicopters and a plane circled above the blaze, dropping water and retardant to deter the flames from spreading further.
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Wind proves the enemy
Last month, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors voted to continue supporting higher rebate amounts for water conservation programs until next June. If you have been considering changing your landscape to make it more drought tolerant, now is the time. In most of Santa Clara County, you could be eligible for a rebate of $2 per square foot of converted landscape. In Palo Alto, Morgan Hill and San Jose Municipal Water's service area, local cost sharing makes the incentives are even larger.
Our landscape conversion rebate program is one of the many conservation programs that are helping us through this drought. More importantly, it will help us manage dry periods for years to come. We are working to save nearly 100,000 acre-feet of water a year by 2030. That's enough water to fill Lexington Reservoir five times.
Fortunately, the response to this program during the drought has been overwhelming. From July through October 2014, about 410,000 square feet of thirsty lawns have been converted. The conversion of another 1.4 million square feet of grass is in process.
Some people mistakenly believe that a drought-tolerant landscape only means a cactus or rock garden. In fact, our program allows a long list of approved plants, shrubs and groundcovers that are lush, flowering and very colorful. More and more, these types of landscapes will become the norm in our region, in place of lawns that requires mowing, fertilizers and frequent watering.
In addition, the water district offers rebates for irrigation equipment that can help you reduce your water use. This includes weather based irrigation controllers, rain sensors, high-efficiency nozzles, dedicated landscape meters and efficient sprinklers. Those rebate amounts have been increased as well. About 90,000 pieces of irrigation equipment have been replaced or are in the process of replacement.
To find out about our water conservation programs and their eligibility requirements, please visit save20gallons.org or call our water conservation hotline at (408) 630-2554. The water district strives to make the application process as easy as possible, but it is important to check the program requirements before starting any project.
The board also extended our call for water use reductions of 20 percent until next June. Despite all the recent rain, our local reservoirs and our groundwater levels are still severely depleted. It will take many more significant storm systems to make up for the three long years of dry weather.
Much of this county's water is imported from outside the county. Those water supplies depend on the Sierra snowpack and the conditions at key state and federal reservoirs such as Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville. State officials estimate that we will need precipitation rates of 150 percent of normal before those reservoirs will recover. As a result, the state has issued an initial forecast for the amount of water it can deliver to our county in 2015 of only 10 percent.
The bottom line is that we will start 2015 with far less water than we had at the beginning of 2014. It is essential that we continue saving, rain or shine, for the foreseeable future.
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Waterwise: Conservation program incentives extended again
Mega Mulchers - Brush Clearing and Land Clearing
Mega Mulchers - Brush Clearing and Land Clearing.
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Mega Mulchers - Brush Clearing and Land Clearing - Video
Dec. 17, 2014 @ 12:01 AM
HUNTINGTON The following information was provided by reports filed by the Huntington Police Department:
BURGLARY: A Huntington resident reported someone broke into a home in the 300 block of 6th Avenue between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Monday and stole a hot water tank, metal sink, oven, refrigerator, copper pipes and electrical wiring. The estimated loss is
$4,925.
A Huntington resident reported someone broke into an outbuilding in the 3100 block of 5th Avenue between last Wednesday night and last Thursday evening and stole a grass trimmer and tool set. The estimated loss is $1,050.
GRAND LARCENY: A Huntington woman reported on Dec. 15 that someone stole 42 pieces of jewelry from her home in the 600 block of 10th Street on Nov. 18. The estimated loss is $9,850.
A Huntington man reported someone stole nine guns and a credit card from his home in the 300 block of 2nd Street in Altizer between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30. The suspect used the card at least once at a gas station on Sept. 18 and charged $51.84. It was also discovered that some of the guns had been pawned at two businesses in Huntington. The estimated loss is $4,532. The victim was still gathering evidence at the time of the report.
A Huntington resident reported someone got into a garage in the 600 block of 17th Street between Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 and stole a cabinet, ladder, gas grill, dining room tables, and dining room table chairs. The estimated loss is $1,020.
BREAKING AND ENTERING AUTO: Property Connection reported someone smashed out a window to a van Friday night and stole $1,970 worth of tools.
ARSON: Firefighters responded to the 400 block of 14th Street early Friday morning to extinguish a fire that had engulfed a trailer filled with wooden pallets and other debris. The estimated loss is $1,500.
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$4,925 in appliances and more taken from home
