Plan B and Nixon release the Soundclash Project with boards, wheels andspeakers

Updated: October 19, 2012, 7:06 PM ET

Plan B Skateboards and Nixon just released the Soundclash Project, which they describe as being "A limited collaboration of sight and sound." This signature series of skateboard decks, wheels and a TPS (Travel Party Solution) speaker. Visual-appeal not withstanding, this collab works because the five pro skaters selected all ride for both companies. Each pack has a corresponding color-way for Colin McKay, Danny Way, Paul Rodriguez, Torey Pudwill and Ryan Sheckler. Nixon co-founder and VP of Marketing Chad DiNenna put a lot of thought into the Soundclash Project, which came together over the course of seven months. DiNenna explains, "We like the idea of not milking the skate community, [while] building things they need and would use, and leave out the knick knacks that people tend to add in as revenue drivers. We were focused on the skaters and what they needed more than anything."

It appears as though the TPS speaker, the one thingthat is not like the others,is the best part of the deal. DiNenna explains, "The TPS has been incredibly successful for us and because everyone on the team travels with it, it made a lot of sense." With function and portability in mind, Nixon made the speaker weigh less than a pound, and with 3.5mm connectivity it easily plugs into iPods and laptops. And it's louder than expected! Nixon "aggressively tuned it to milk every decibel possible." It has a rechargeable battery that charges from your computer's USB port and the battery life lasts up to six hours. The speaker's body is made from one piece of strong aluminum and if you have more than one, you can connect them for more volume and better sound. DiNenna can't stop singing its praises. "This thing is extremely tough, sounds great and can go anywhere, and that is what the team needs for a life on the road."

One complete Soundclash Project set will run you just under $200 but both companies wisely gave retailers the option to sell all 20 items separately, so anybody can afford any part of this high-quality collaboration. DiNenna says, "We could have made it that way and just say all or nothing but who wins in this situation? A lot of people wouldn't be able to get a piece of it. Thinking about the skaters, most are not running around with $200 bucks burning a hole in their pockets so we wanted the flexibility of getting what you need first, and filling in the rest of the collection from there."

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Plan B x Nixon release the Soundclash Project

Caltrans officials canceled a second closure of the San Mateo Bridge scheduled for next weekend after deciding Sunday that construction crews could complete all of their repairs by early Monday morning.

The 7-mile-long bridge between Foster City and Hayward, which carries about 92,000 vehicles each weekday, was expected to reopen on schedule at 5 a.m. Monday in time for the morning commute.

"That second weekend work, we were able to complete this weekend," said Traci Ruth, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

So instead of shutting down for a second weekend at 10 p.m. Friday, as it was last weekend, the San Mateo Bridge will remain open.

"There won't be any detours or any closures," Ruth said.

Caltrans officials decided Saturday night to try to complete the work in a single weekend after making more progress more quickly than expected. Workers removed and replaced decks on the part of the span between the elevated segment and the trestles, along with a cracked beam - part of an expansion joint - discovered during a routine inspection in October 2010. Caltrans performed emergency repairs on the bridge then, installing steel plates on both sides of the damaged joint.

Fixing it permanently will cost about $3 million, which will come from toll funds. Completing the work in a single weekend won't increase the cost, Ruth said.

The original plan was to complete repairs to the westbound section of the bridge last weekend and work on the eastbound section next weekend. The contractor replaced the westbound decks sooner than anticipated, so Caltrans engineers looked at the work that needed to be completed, decided it could be completed a little more quickly if done all at once, and figured it could be finished before the 5 a.m. Monday reopening.

Even rain, forecast to start late Sunday night, shouldn't slow construction, but Caltrans has contingency plans if the rains are heavier than anticipated, Ruth said.

The bridge closure failed to snarl Bay Area traffic over the weekend, despite the Big Game in Berkeley and the usual assortment of festivals around the region. Drivers were advised to use the Dumbarton Bridge or the Bay Bridge, which seemed to handle the increased traffic without unusual backups.

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San Mateo Bridge work ahead of schedule

What do you do when you break a board? Toss it in the Dumpster, save it for your wall collection or paint something on it and make it an art piece? George Rocha takes his broken decks and makes them into decks! How is Rocha resurrecting the dead? Black magic, perhaps? Well, he wouldn't go too deep into the actual processof his technique, but you will find out that he's a 100%skateboarder and that his company, Iris skateboards, is making a deck skateboarding has never seen before.

ESPN.com: Can you explain what is an Iris skateboard? Rocha: They are cruiser boards made entirely of broken skateboard decks. Skateboards are made with glue and the catalystin that glue is toxic, so it can't be put into landfills. So you have to do something with them. So I take broken ones and make them into skate-able ones and it just perpetuates the idea of keeping skateboards under your feet.

Are you an eco-conscious person? Yes, I am. I'm not, like, a tree hugger, but I do think that we do have a responsibility on this planet not to kill it. So this is like an extension of that.

YamaodaHow many people do you know that skates a recycled board in their own backyard pool they've poured themselves? George Rocha goes frontal.

Is that the inspiration for making these decks? No, it was more like a bonus. The inspiration is skateboarding itself. There are other people that will take broken boards and make sculptures -- for example,Haroshi,who's amazing at his craft. I'm not trying to copy; I'm just doing my version of what to do with a broken board.

Where are you getting the broken boards from? Fortunately I live in San Francisco, where a lot of great companies exist here and they allow me to use their returns -- places like Deluxe, FTC and NHS. Big thanks to them. I do want to make a note that every board I use must be broken or cracked. If it's rideable, I'm gonna go down to the park and find a kid who wants it.

Is it possible to take a broken Iris board and make another one? That's a good question! I can't wait for the day to have a stack of broken Iris boards and glue them together! Just perpetuate the cycle, you know.

What's your work background? I've been building skateparks and working as a masonry carpenter most of my life. I started making ramps when I was 10 years old. I got hooked on making skateparks first at Freddy Smith's Skate Park, called "The Skate Hut," in Providence, RI. When my friend Sloppy Sam began a company [called] Breaking Ground is when I learned concrete. I basically jumped in and had to learn; that was 1999 or 2000ish. After that I've worked withGrindline,Redand theDreamland crew -- great dude doing great work. Then I decided to stop traveling so much and to try and make my living in SF. I made Thrasher's "Double Rock" park and I make private pools for people.

How long does it take to craft an Iris board? It varies. I make them by hand, so at best I can probably make 10 a week, just me. You can't walk down the street with one of these boards without someone stopping you and being like, "What is that?" It's obvious it's made of other boards, but [you] don't know how or the story behind it, so hopefully when someone gets one, they will know the story and keep passing it on.

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Broken-board resurrection

BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com October 12, 2012 9:42PM

Updated: October 13, 2012 5:20PM

When youve got to go, youve got to go to one of downtown Napervilles two public parking decks.

In an effort to end a surging scourge of people urinating in public, Naperville police are urging patrons of the citys downtown to head to the toilets provided in the municipal parking decks at 75 E. Chicago Ave. and 43 W. Van Buren Ave., both just off the main drag of Washington Street.

Between Oct. 4-8 of this year, a total of 10 visitors in the downtown area have been cited for public urination, police Sgt. Louis Cammiso said Friday. Fines for that offensive offense range from $100 to $500, not including court costs, he said.

Police records indicated public urination tends to occur in downtown alleyways and seemingly secluded portions of parking lots and strip malls. Three people were ticketed between 2 a.m. and 11:55 p.m. Oct. 6 in separate incidents on the 0-99 block of East Chicago Avenue, records showed.

Cammiso said police would like to remind the public a Port-a-Potty is in place on the ground floor of the Chicago Avenue parking deck. Public bathrooms can also be found on the ground floor of the Van Buren deck.

On behalf of the Naperville Police Department, we welcome and encourage patronage of the citys many businesses and sights located in the downtown area, Cammiso said. But we ask that everyone Keep It Clean.

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Naperville parking deck toilet use urged when ‘going’ downtown

Bet You Didn't Know 13 October 2012

By John Marchel

Vingt-Et-Un Corporation developed a system called Blackjack II. It consisted of two separate dealing shoes holding six decks each. Depending on the color of the first card, red (diamonds hearts) a card would be drawn from the red shoe. If black (spades clubs) the 2nd card would be drawn from the blue shoe. It was designed to prevent card counting, but it never caught on with casinos.

When playing at a shoe game of blackjack you will play the same number of hands in one hour as you would in three hours against a single deck.

There are 96 ten value cards in a six deck shoe. Each deck has four - 10's, four - J's, four - K's, and four - Q's. Therefore each deck has 16 face cards. 6Six decks x 16 face cards = 96 cards with a value of 10.

Pai Gow Poker is one of the slowest table games in a casino with only about 40 hands played in an hour. Blackjack can have 60 to 100 hands per hour.

The first known blackjack player barred from playing the game was John Scarne. Ben (Bugsy) Siegel personally barred him from playing at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

A $500-a-hand blackjack player with only a 1% advantage (using a card counting system) could make $600,000 a year playing the game.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.

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Bet You Didn't Know

Labour says Christchurch parents are worried the government's school closure proposals are a way of "clearing the decks" for charter schools. 10 October 2012

The government is being accused of using the Christchurch earthquakes as an excuse for privatising the city's schools.

It proposes closing 13 schools and merging 18 others while it is allowing a charter school to open and another private venture - a "character school" run by a relative of Education Minister Hekia Parata - is waiting for approval.

Labour MP Chris Hipkins says Christchurch parents are worried the government is "clearing the decks" so there can be more charter schools.

"Recovery from the earthquakes must not be used as an excuse to privatise Christchurch's education system," he said on Wednesday.

"Charter schools are untested, won't have to employ a full complement of qualified teachers and won't have to teach the same curriculum as public schools."

The government has given the go-ahead for two pilot charter schools, one in Auckland and one in Christchurch.

They will be state-funded and run by businesses or community groups.

Allowing them to operate is part of the government's support agreement with the ACT Party, which says state schools fail one in five students and charter schools will tailor their teaching to deal with those who aren't making it.

The school that Ms Parata's second cousin Rangimarie Parata Takurua proposes opening is a Maori immersion school similar to a charter school, The Press newspaper reports.

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Govt accused of school `privatisation'

Twenty hillside residents have banded together to successfully lobby against a neighbor's proposal to add two decks and a pool to his property, arguing that the project would intrude upon views and reduce property values in the neighborhood.

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday sided with the residents, denying Gevork Lekhlian's hillside development permit without prejudice, meaning that he can return with an updated proposal for his 12-year-old Howard Court home. City officials originally received his proposal in November 2011.

The decks were proposed to extend over the hillside, supported by concrete and metal posts.

It's just going to be a real eyesore, said resident and appellant Peter Berwick, adding that he bought his hillside home mainly for the view of the canyons and ridgeline. It seems almost criminal to allow this pool to be hanging out over this cliff and this mountain ledge in earthquake country.

Lekhlian said on Thursday he'd be willing to scrap the 12-by-26-foot pool from the proposal. A month ago, he became a grandfather and hoped the decks would serve as a place for the children in his family to play.

When the kids come to play, they don't have a place to ride bikes, he said.

Councilman Gary Bric noted that the Howard Court home and the Hamline Place homes aren't that close to one another.

That house is already there, so to extend patio decking out a little bit further, I really don't have a problem with it, Bric said.

Lekhlian would've been required to landscape the area around the decks with trees and vegetation to minimize the visual impact on neighbors.

In June, the Planning Board was split on the project, with two in favor, two against. Therefore, the community development director's approval of the project in April stood. The residents appealed the decision, citing safety concerns and visual impacts, which ultimately brought the proposal before the City Council.

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Burbank resident's pool plan scaled back after neighbors intervene

Cardinal's new Harvester truck scales feature high-tensile strength, patent-pending concrete decks for harvest season weighing on farms.

Webb City, MO (PRWEB) October 04, 2012

Cardinal offers single-source convenience and quality construction utilizing USA-made stainless steel model CBC compression load cells. Designed for light-duty agricultural weighing, the NTEP certified Harvester series of vehicle scales are the farmers choice for all types of vehicle weighing from planting to harvest. With a concentrated load capacity (CLC) of 25 tons and a 50 ton weighing capacity, the Harvester series of vehicle scale provides the perfect size and capacity for agricultural weighing.

The Harvesters low-profile design allows direct access to all scale components for ease of service. Multiple 10-ft wide modules can be linked together to accommodate almost any length of farm vehicle. The precast concrete weighbridge is lightweight but extremely strong allowing it to be easily transported to your site or moved as your operations change. When it comes to weighing your harvest, Cardinals American-made Harvester concrete vehicle scale is the economical solution to farmers weighing needs.

ABOUT CARDINAL SCALE:

Cardinal Scale, an ISO-9001 certified scale manufacturer, markets a complete line of quality weighing products and systems. Cardinals headquarters is in Webb City, Missouri, USA with warehouses in Canada and England and distributors in over 110 countries. Established in 1950 by founder WH Perry, the company has been featured on the TV shows How Its Made and Worlds Greatest!

For more information about Cardinal Scale, please visit: http://www.CardinalScale.com

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Cardinal’s New Harvester® Precast Concrete Deck Truck Scales for Agricultural Weighing

New Delhi, Oct. 2: The decks have been cleared for the signing of a settlement with the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) factions on Friday, unless pitripaksh casts a shadow on official business.

Contented with the steps the Centre is ready to take, more than 70 representatives off the two DHD groups will reach New Delhi tomorrow. Dilip Nunisa, chief of one of the factions, is already in the capital hoping that the signing of the memorandum of settlement which has been deferred twice since July is not put off once again.

The pitripaksh problem was discussed (with us by the government). We do not have any problem in signing during this period, Nunisa told The Telegraph. Pitripaksh is the ongoing fortnight-long shraddha period from September 30 in the Hindu calendar, which is considered inauspicious and in which politicians seem to have a deep belief.

Officials are unsure if the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) will take up the issue on Thursday. Last week, no cabinet meeting was held. If the matter is included in the CCPA agenda by tomorrow evening, North Block will intimate chief minister Tarun Gogoi to attend the signing ceremony, if it is scheduled for Friday.

The signing could be done anytime between October 5 and October 10, a government official said, leaving a large time window open till the ceremony. He, however, assured that the MoS would be signed soon. Pitripaksh ends on October 15.

Uncertainty over the schedule aside, all work by the government has been concluded. Several ministries, including defence and finance, whose schemes would be implemented as part of the settlement, have given their nod to the draft MoS. Both factions have already signed the draft agreement Dilip Nunisa on July 13 this year and Jewel Gorlosa in 2011. The Cabinet meeting is only a formality actually, a senior official involved in negotiations with the DHD factions said.

Nunisa hoped that the Centre would not call off the ceremony as it had done earlier. The MoS was to be signed on July 30 but it was deferred after violence broke out in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD). The signing was then scheduled for September 28, but the Centre cancelled the date again.

What is certain, however, is that with the signing of this settlement, one more militant group of the Northeast will dissolve itself. It will be a joint celebration of the Dimasa groups two factions in Haflong.

The DHD will be the second group within a year after the Karbi group United Peoples Democratic Solidarity that will be dissolved. The UPDS signed the MoS in November 2011.

DHD will be dissolved. Our cadres will be rehabilitated in the army or police depending on fitness and their willingness and all cases except those concerning heinous crimes, will be withdrawn, Nunisa said on Tuesday.

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Decks cleared for DHD pact

RALEIGH -- The walls of downtowns city-owned parking decks will remain unadorned by commercial displays, a City Council committee ruled last week.

The law and public safety panel rejected a plan to sell advertising space inside seven city decks, saying the concept was poorly devised and wouldnt generate enough money to justify the work.

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance had crafted the proposal at the request of the city and projected that it could generate about $25,000 each year to help close a budget gap in the downtown parking fund.

Committee members raised concerns about the potential for maintenance and vandalism. And they said the proposed displays, which would be pasted directly onto the walls using a stick-on material, could end up looking tacky. This seems like a lot of time and trouble for $25,000, said Councilwoman Mary-Ann Baldwin. If I thought we were going to make $100,000 or $200,000, Id say OK.

The money would go toward cleaning the decks and removing graffiti, bringing a new source of revenue to ease pressure on the general fund, which pays for parks, police and firefighters.

It is lamentable, but understandable, said David Diaz, head of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, wrote in an email. Lamentable I think because the revenue would have been used to clean the garages which get a lot of use on the weekends. Understandable I think because the concerns expressed over the aesthetics of the advertising are important values in our community; the council was reflecting that value in its vote.

Councilman John Odom, who has criticized the citys signage rules as too restrictive, took a different tack this time. He said the proposal was structured to attract national companies instead of locally owned businesses. Im for the local, not any of the others, he said.

The citys parking fund faces a $2 million shortfall, and the problem is only going to get worse, according to city projections, as the deficit rises to $3.7 million and $4.6 million in each of the next two budget years. The city must transfer money from the general fund to plug the gap.

Raleigh officials blame the shortfall on the soft economy, saying decks built in anticipation of future development now suffer from spotty use. Our parking fund is pretty stressed right now, said assistant city manager Dan Howe. We have been working diligently to come up with creative, outside-the-box revenue sources. Every $25,000 really helps.

Dash said the city has no plans to bring back the proposal in a different format. He said advertising in city decks is now a dead deal.

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Raleigh panel rejects plan for ads on parking decks