Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

This large bur oak is being protected by developers as they are building new houses and apartments near Harrodsburg Road and Military Pike. The tree is thought to be more than 300 years old. HERALD-LEADER|BuyPhoto

A towering bur oak, more than 300 years old, is dominating the eastern skyline just off Harrodsburg Road at Military Pike in Lexington, now that crews have removed undergrowth that hid much of it.

"I gasped the first time I saw it after the brush was cleared off," said tree physiologist Tom Kimmerer, who wrote a protection plan for the tree. "It's absolutely stunning, way taller than anything else around here."

Kimmerer added that he thinks the bur oak could be almost 500 years old, not the 300-odd years often estimated.

The venerable tree has been at the center of preservation disputes several times over the past several years.

The most recent one was last year, when some Lexington residents tried to block a Ball Homes plan for apartments and single-family homes off Harrodsburg Road because they feared the old tree would suffer. Ball Homes insisted that it would make sure the tree was protected, and the Urban County Council ultimately approved its development plan.

Now, the company is getting started on development. It also is moving ahead with plans to protect the tree, which Kimmerer was commissioned to develop.

Kimmerer said the first steps included having Big Beaver Tree Co. remove the brush and vines that had grown up around the foot of the tree. Some old, dead branches also were removed from the bur oak itself, he said.

"The tree now has been fenced off very carefully, and no construction equipment will be allowed inside the fence," Kimmerer said last week. "Ball Homes is being careful to make sure all the contractors know they may not violate the fence."

The next step will be a thick layer of paper, covered by mulch, to kill and keep down weeds in a three-quarter-acre area around the trunk of the huge tree.

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Harrodsburg Road developers try to preserve massive bur oak, which may be 500 years old

Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, gave field guidance to the Chollima Tile Factory.

He looked round the mosaics depicting smiling President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il newly erected in the compound of the factory and the monument to the field guidance given by them and he expressed satisfaction over the successful erection of the mosaics.

He went round the newly-built room dedicated to the history of the factory.

He told the officials to make a new history of the factory by keeping production going at a high rate, adding that he gave an instruction to the KPA to operate the factory to which Kim Jong Il attached great importance.

Stressing the need to make the heroic working spirit displayed in the post-war period of great Chollima upsurge run high at this factory in order to supply in good time the building materials needed by great socialist construction sites, he proposed naming the factory located in Kangson, hometown of Chollima, Chollima Tile Factory.

Going round various places including adhesives and tile production shops, digital natural color spray printing room and tile exhibition, he learned in detail about the production and new products development.

He highly praised the officials and employees of the factory for displaying patriotic devotion to overfulfill this year's tile production plan set higher than any other years.

He expressed great satisfaction, noting that the factory is the one strictly based on Juche and a patriotic one as it is capable of keeping its production on a normal footing, unaffected by any worldwide economic upheaval and the longer one watches the factory, the more attractive and useful it looks.

He set forth tasks to be fulfilled by the factory.

He instructed the factory not only to satisfactorily meet the domestic demands for tiles but further boost their production and improve their quality so that they might be exported to other countries.

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Kim Jong Un Gives Field Guidance to Chollima Tile Factory

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Introduction

Elephant Mouse (www.elephantmouse.com) is a mobile game development studio proudly located in the Research Triangle of Raleigh, North Carolina, a hotbed of tech innovation, game development, and tasty BBQ. EM veterans hail from the likes of Activision, Ubisoft, EA, Playdom, Zynga, and other industry giants. Weve released several highly-rated mobile titles, including Star Trek Rivals, The Godfather Slots, Lil Birds, and Archetype.

Robots Need Love Too is our new game that will be launching in September. A lite version is currently available in the Canadian App Store. If you are in Canada, please give it a try and let us know what you think!

The Setup for our New Game

We wanted to create a fun new puzzle game for mobile devices, and we wanted to target a casual audience who enjoy indie games. The entire team was invited to pitch concepts and prototypes, and we brainstormed tons of concepts.

One of the programmers created a playable prototype in Unity about robots in love. It was a side-view physics puzzler where the player tried to get two robots to meet. Though we liked the concept, we wanted to move away from physics-based games (because we thought that would be a lot of work for our small team). We kept the idea of robots, how they meet up at the end of each level, and the game name - Robots Need Love Too.

We focused on the mechanic of setting up actions, then activating the sequence to see what happens. Then our designer fleshed out some initial mechanics involving directional arrows. The whole concept was structured around a narrative of forbidden love (the best kind).

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How prototyping saved our game

#My20percent - install a water smart sprinkler system
What #39;s your 20 percent?

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West Metro job fair sheds light on latest unemployment figures
Minnesota #39;s unemployment rate has shrunk to 4.2 percent, the lowest level since 2007. But when it comes to job data, numbers can be deceiving. "In the suburb...

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New ad sheds light on domestic violence, gun control
Experts estimate that 39 percent of women who are murdered are killed by an intimate partner. A group with Indiana ties was placing domestic violence at the ...

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Sophia ball python sheds skin pt 2
It #39;s kinda cool to see the shedding process but it is a little like watching paint dry.

By: Kowiachobee Animal Preserve

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Sue's diet of junk food and snacking saw her eating 4,000 a day Was so large she had to make her own clothes using metres of material Decided to tackle her size after hearing a nurse make a hurtful comment Borrowed money from her father for gastric sleeve operation Dropped from 35st and a BMI of 79 to 15st and a size 18 Gone from taking 20 tablets a day for numerous illnesses to just vitamins Now able to get first job in 6 years and play with her grandchildren

Published: 05:43 EST, 4 August 2014 | Updated: 06:51 EST, 4 August 2014

A grandmother who used to eat 4,000 calories a day and weighed twice as much as a baby elephant shed more than 20st after she overheard a nurse say to a colleague: 'If I ever get that fat, shoot me'.

Sue Callear tipped the scales at a 35st at her heaviest and was classed as super-morbidly obese - meaning she could have died at any time.

The 50-year-olds body mass index (BMI) was a staggering 79 - almost four-and-a-half times the recommended 18.5 for a healthy adult.

Scroll down for video

Sue Callear, pictured in 2010, with her grandson Jack, shortly after his birth, weighed 35st at her heaviest

Sue has dropped an incredible 20st from 35st (left) to 15st (right) after having a gastric sleeve fitted

She even had to make her own clothes using two-and-a-half metres of material.

Sue also broke several beds and had to use special heavy-duty handrails to drag herself upstairs at her home in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.

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Grandmother Sue Callear who weighed 35st sheds 20 STONE

Living Room Addition Ideas
Rooms can be included to houses where everybody in the household can gather, read, dine or watch television together. Associated with pension transfer room a...

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Real estate for sale in Ridley Township Pennsylvania - MLS# 6296040
2967 Academy Ave Ridley Township Pennsylvania 19043 MLS# 6296040 For more info visit http://vt.realbiz360.com/Listing-1457891.html Immaculate updated Colonial. New kitchen with hardwood...

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Real estate for sale in Ridley Township Pennsylvania - MLS# 6296040 - Video