Billy West, voice of Ren and Stimpy, Futurama, on the rough start that shaped his life

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Popeye the Sailor Man. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern’s voice guru in the 1990’s, you have heard him. West’s talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons.

What is the fulcrum in Mr. West’s life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? Wikinews reporter David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father (“I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up.”), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use (“There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.”).

I’m telling you stuff that I never said to anybody…

If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West’s own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband’s abuse of young West. “I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it.”

But West has also enjoyed the sweet. His career blossomed as his talent for creating entire histories behind fictional characters and creatures simply by exploring nuance in his voice landed him at the top of his craft. You may never again be able to forget that behind the voice of your favorite character, there is often an extraordinary life.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with renowned voice actor Billy West, who for the first time publicly talks about the horrors he faced in his childhood; his misguided search for answers in anger, drugs and alcohol; and the peace he has achieved as one of America’s most recognizable voice actors.

Contents

  • 1 The use of celebrities for voiceovers
  • 2 Iconic characters and choosing projects
  • 3 Discovering his talent
  • 4 “It was a horror chamber where I grew up”
  • 5 West moves to Boston after his parents divorce
  • 6 How West dealt with his father’s abuse
  • 7 Rehabilitation and sobriety
  • 8 Is West glad he experienced addiction?
  • 9 West on his career
  • 10 West on politics
  • 11 Billy West on modern American society
  • 12 Billy West on telling it like it is
  • 13 Source

Highway overpass collapses near Montreal

Sunday, October 1, 2006

An overpass has collapsed in Laval, a suburb of the Montreal area of Quebec, Canada. Three lanes of the Concorde Boulevard overpass collapsed into Highway 19. At least 5 people are dead, 6 others injured, 2 critically and least 3 cars are reported to be trapped underneath the overpass. Authorities have stated that 3 cars and a motorcycle were on the overpass when it collapsed.

Rescue workers and construction engineers have brought in heavy equipment, cranes and drills to break up the overpass into roughly a dozen smaller segments for removal. At the time of the collapse, authorities reported that 2 vehicles were trapped under the debris. Around midnight, the two vehicles were removed from the debris, and the five occupants of both vehicles were pronounced dead on the site.

Transport Quebec and Sûreté du Québec have reported that around 9:30 a.m. local time, people called 911, reporting that small chunks of concrete had fallen from the Boulevard de la Concorde (Concorde Boulevard) overpass over Autoroute 19, and Transport Quebec sent a crew to inspect. At around 11:55 a.m., Transport’s Québec patrol arrived at the overpass confirming the facts. The patroller moved the chunks off the highway and produced a report, sent to the Transports Quebec branch responsible for Laval.

The incident happened at approximately 12:30 p.m. local time, local residents described what sounded like “an earthquake”. It is not known at this time how the collapse occurred, or when it might be repaired. It is currently assumed that the cement bondings to the steel rods which held the overpass to its approaches gave way, and with nothing to hold the overpass’ central span up, it collapsed.

This isn’t the first overpass collapse in Laval. In 2000, a section of the Highway 15 overpass collapsed, killing one and injuring two others. It was later determined that the collapse in 2000 was caused by a manufacturing defect.

Viktor Schreckengost dies at 101

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Many Kinds Of Skin Sun Damage Can Be Reversed By Using A Top Natural Anti-Aging Skincare Cream

It’s unbelievable how many people still don’t realize that many types of skin sun damage can be reversed provided you use a top brand skincare cream that contains the best natural ingredients capable of repairing damaged tissue cells.

If you’re anything like me, your skin will have been damaged when you were in your teens by over exposure to the Suns UV rays. Back in those days we were ignorant of the danger of over exposure to this type of radiation.

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Your skin naturally tries to protect itself from damage by increasing melanocyte cells that produce the dark brown pigment melanin. An irregular increase of these cells may produce an uneven coloration or pigmentation.

There are many skin conditions that excessive Sun damage can contribute to like dilation of small blood vessels resulting in a mottled reddish appearance. Liver and age spots (solar lentigines). Labial lentigo a small spot on the lower lip. Solar elastosis a breakdown of collagen and elastin connective tissue fibers in your dermis.

The often more serious solar keratoses (Actinic keratosis) is common in fair skinned people with sun damage. It appears more often on exposed areas like the face, arms and hands as scaley, rough areas that tend to be brownish or flesh colored. If left untreated this condition may degenerate into a type of skin cancer.

If you are fair skinned like me with damaged skin and have reached middle age, I recommend you consult your doctor or dermatologist at least once a year for a skin checkup. If any changes to moles or irregularities appear have them checked out as soon as possible.

Many types of skin sun damage can be reversed by firstly not letting it get additional damage by more exposure to UV radiation. Secondly find and use a good natural anti-aging cream that contains antioxidants to fight the damage caused by oxidation.

Use creams that have nourishing ingredients like natural vitamin E, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 (coenzyme Q10), functional keratin, Phytessence Wakame and natural oils.

These substances help to combat oxidation, increase your collagen and elastin protein levels in your dermis and boost your hyaluronic acid level, whilst the natural oils keep your skin well moisturized.

The final ingredients your anti-aging cream should contain are emollients that are needed to keep moisture from escaping your outer skin layer; this results in more hydration to your epidermis eliminating many excessive dry skin problems.

To learn more about these excellent ingredients that are only available in the best quality natural anti-aging skin cream

Visit Kathy’s site where she discusses more about using natural anti-aging skin care products that are extremely effective and 100% safe to use. Go to –> http://www.best-health-skin-site.com today.

Why Choose Organic Cotton For Your Baby?

First, Some Facts About Conventionally Grown Cotton:

When we think about cotton, we think about cleanliness, purity and comfort. In reality, conventionally grown cotton is one of the world’s dirtiest agricultural commodities and is one of the most environmentally damaging crops grown in the world.

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Unfortunately, nearly all cotton production is hugely (and increasingly) reliant on pesticides derived from petrochemicals. Because it is not a food crop, cotton is routinely sprayed with an even heavier cocktail of poisonous pesticides than normal agricultural crops. In fact 2.5% of all farmland worldwide is used to grow cotton, yet 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. This means that eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops.

Heavy pesticide use reduces biodiversity, disrupts ecosystems, and contaminates water supplies. Worse still, more and more chemicals are being used each year as the pests exposed to the synthetic pesticides build up a resistance to them. Many of the chemicals used in cotton farming are acutely toxic. At least three of them are in the “dirty dozen” – so dangerous in fact that 120 countries have agreed to ban them. So far this hasn’t happened and they are still being used, resulting in an estimated 20,000 deaths and three million chronic health problems each year in developing countries.

In the U.S. it takes nearly a third of a pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton for just one t-shirt. It is estimated that less than 10% of the chemicals applied to cotton are accomplishing their tasks, the rest are absorbed into the plant, air, soil, water and eventually, our bodies.

Organic Cotton:

The alternative is organic cotton, which in contrast, uses agricultural methods to help sustain the land it grows on, the people who grow and harvest it, and the planet in general. It is not only less destructive to the environment, but provides a better income for farmers and is sustainable long term.

Organic cotton farming uses natural pesticides (usually containing a mixture of chilli, garlic and soap). This keeps pests off the crops but does not destroy their natural predators – which survive to control their numbers naturally. Organic farming really does start with the soil. Compost, frequent crop rotations and cover crop strategies replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy, fertile and productive. Unlike the insatiably thirsty conventional methods of production, our organic cotton is largely rain-fed.  Organic cotton farming actually promotes biodiversity: the fields contain a significantly higher number of insect species (especially those which are beneficial).

When it comes to harvesting by hand, it follows that organic cotton is also much safer for those who pick it. Workers aren’t exposed to breathing in or otherwise ingesting toxic chemicals while active in the field, and don’t have to worry about the same nasty chemicals getting into their water supply if they live nearby. Therefore they can raise healthier children and livestock.

The final cloth is unbleached and dyed with natural plant dyes; therefore it really is a truly natural product.

Best For Baby

After all this, I don’t think I have to do much more to explain why organic is best for us and for our babies. 

A baby’s skin is 5 times thinner than our own, allowing toxins to penetrate much more easily. It is even more necessary to protect their growing bodies and immature immune systems from harmful chemicals.

When you buy organic cotton baby clothes you have the peace of mind that the fabric which is in contact with your baby’s delicate skin is pure, natural and free from harmful chemicals. Organic cotton is so soft, and this is because the fibres have not been damaged by the chemicals used in the farming and processing of conventional cotton. Being free from harmful chemicals also makes it less likely to trigger allergies.

So by choosing organic you are not only helping the environment and saving lives, you are providing your baby with the safest, healthiest, softest clothing available.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

Can the hue of your uniforms really make a difference to your business?

When deciding on uniforms for work an imperative issue to consider is which colour scheme to opt for.Colour can play a most important role in the look of your uniforms and your overall corporate appearance.

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When deciding on uniforms for work an imperative issue to consider is which colour scheme to opt for.Colour can play a most important role in the look of your uniforms and your overall corporate appearance. Below are our top five issues when picking your work uniform:

1. What are your company colours? This is the best place to begin and a key point to consider when determining uniform colour. Bear in mind, there are different ways to utilise colour – if you can’t source suits or shirts in your corporate colour, you can employ custom ties or company scarves as a low price way to put you’re branding across. Below are a number of less obvious but equally vital considerations.

2. Approachability vs. Authority. Colour can play a large role on how nice your staff appear. For example a pastel shade uniform can come across as more friendly to potential buyers. Client service workers want to regularly interact with the community and need to be approachable at all times. By using lighter colors this can appear more friendly and crack down walls. A direct comparison would be darker colors such as black & navy which can build a more of an “arms length” or authority look. This can be an improvement for the police force and comparable roles which benefit from demonstrating a depend

able presence.

3. Does your staff’s work role involve possible confrontation? If this is the case then darker shades as described above are perfect to make an impression of authority.

A study in Copenhagen reflects just this – by changing their uniforms from green to dark navy, attacks on parking attendants went down by 75%!

4. Casual vs. Professional. Colours can also differentiate work uniforms to look either casual or professional. Warmer, lighter or very fashionable colours can appear more casual and even provide a “cooler” company image; though smart casual is a tricky thing to pull off. Alternatively darker colors such as navy, charcoal and pinstripes can make an extra efficient, smart, professional image. This is great to consider as you will need your uniforms to reflect your business image.

5. Consider how your staff will feel in the new uniform colour – The option of fluorescent pink shirts might have seemed superior on the drawing boardArticle Submission, but are your male employees going to be comfortable in this new look?

I hope this has been helpful and something to bear in mind when looking at uniforms.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

Get A Hot Tub: Shopping Tips For Indoor And Outdoor Spas

byAlma Abell

Spas and hot tubs can most certainly be a benefit to the home. They can increase the property value, and also have many health benefits for users. However, before you Get a Hot Tub, it is important to know what to look for. While you might believe it’s as simple as choosing the one that looks the best, there are factors that must be considered including seating capacity, site preparation, and electrical hookups. As you begin shopping for the new hot tub or spa of your dreams, consider these important shopping tips below.

Location and Space

Whether you’re going to have your hot tub installed indoors or outdoors, you will need to have a good idea of where you’d like to have everything set up. You should start by designating either an area in your home or your yard. Next you will need to determine approximately how many people you will entertain in the hot tub at once so you can determine the size hot tub you will need. If you’re placing your hot tub outdoors, you can use a rope to mark off the area you think it would best fit.

Electrical Hookup

No matter what type of hot tub you get, it’s going to be operated with the use of electricity. While there are some models of hot tubs that operate on standard 120 volt electrical outlets, this is not always the case. There are some brands that require 240 volt circuits instead. It may be advisable to have a qualified electrician do a quick survey of your home’s electrical system. This will determine whether or not the hot tub you wish to purchase will be compatible with your home’s electrical source or if you will have to install additional circuits.

Once you’ve determined which hot tub you’d like to purchase, it is imperative to have it installed by professionals to ensure that you’re in compliance with all local codes. To learn more about how to Get a Hot Tub, contact experts at East Coast Leisure. They can help you with determining the best hot tub and spa to have installed either indoors or outdoors.

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Packaging Meat Products- Advantages and Marketing Strategies

Learn more about why packaged meats are an essential part for your business. Also learn about their advantages and market strategies that are used.

Meat is usually a traditional diet in most parts of the world. With the increase of population, there was an increase in the quantity of meat products as well. Processed meat products are technologically advanced because they are seasoned with special herbs and spices.

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Packaged meat usually retains the shape and texture of the original cut as it is preserved for a long period of time. Smoked meat is preserved through the use of heat, smoke and salt. Pickled meat is prepared by adding vinegar to the solution. Dry meat is one of the oldest method of preserving meat. It involves cutting meat into small strips and leaving in an open environment so that the heat can reduce the water content. Fermented meat is usually ground, spiced and prepared in the shape of sausages.

If you want to learn more about the meat products in Armenian, then you can take advantage of the Armenian Meat Products Translation. There are several advantages of packaged meats products and how these products can be best used for advertising.

Advantages of Packaging

A lot of people have become health conscious so, they like to buy packaged foods. Proper packaging of your meat products can protect from damage and contamination by micro-organisms, air, moisture and toxins. The packaged meat product also acts as a barrier from bacteria, oxygen, dust etc.  Packaging can easily help your customers to compare between similar products. The color, material and size of the package also gives information about the quality of the meat product.

One of the best way to package your meat products is by using the vacuum packaging method. This is very essential because it prevents your meat products from bacterial growth without stopping the natural aging process. Vacuum packaged meat is a little pale once it is opened due to lack of oxygen but within a while it blossoms into a cherry red color. Once the vacuum has been broken you can only use the meat products within four to five days.

According to the medical studies, it is very important to package your meat products. For additional reference, you can use the Medical Translation Services for those customers who cannot understand your language.

Marketing Your Packaged Products

When you go to a store, the shelves are full of various products stored in bottles, jars, boxes and other containers. Similarly, the same goes for packaged meat products. You will find several types of packaged meat products such as undercut meat, sausages, nuggets, ham, hot dogs, beef patties and many more.

According to the studies, packaging your meat products can increase customer satisfaction and also can be easily noticed. In addition, packaging plays a significant role in the labelling the product. It can also attract the customers by giving them a variety of packaged meat products to choose from. Packaging can also help in increasing the sales by sharing information about the product such as nutritional information, usage or directions. If you want to properly advertise your meat products, try not to hire the Cheap Translation Services just because they are cost effective. Get the best translation services especially for people who have no knowledge of English.

If you have customers all over the world, you can hire the Global Translation Services that will be very helpful and will translate the information about your meat products in all the different languages. Moreover, if you are starting a business in ArmeniaArticle Search, make use of the Armenian Meat Products Translation.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

Web Development Guide

Website development is the process of creating or developing website. We can define the web development as presentation of information in organized and lucrative manner. This process involves graphic design, animation, website coding, photography, search engine optimization. However among web professionals, web development usually refers to non-design aspects of building websites, like writing markup and coding. Commonly websites have two types of pages dynamic or static. The dynamic page automatically adapt to content or visual appearance of web page.


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Now let’s talk about the main four major stages in the process of developing a website. These four stages are website definition and planning, information architecture, site design, and site construction.

The first step is to define your goals and objectives for website. Then collect and analyze the information you have to justify the budget and resources. Write website contents, which fill out the reader’s expectations. Define interactive functionality and technology support required to reach the mind of a visitor. Involve the design aspect as soon as possible in this stage.

In second stage you need to finalize the contents as well as organization of the website. Here add new content in the existing contents if required and define the organization structure. With this content architecture you should build small prototypes parts of the sites to test what it feel like and how design looks with this contents. This prototyping will help you in site navigation and user interface. It also helps the graphic designers to develop relation between site look and navigation interface.

In third phase overall graphic design standards are created and approved like page grid, page design, photography, illustrations, and other graphic or audiovisual content. Research, writing, organizing, assembling, and editing the site’s text content is also performed at this stage. The programming, database design, data entry and search engine design should be well over and finalize by now.

In the final stage of the project the bulk of the site’s web pages constructed and filled out with content. You will always learn new things about your overall design as the prototype matures into the full-blown web site. Be prepared to refine your designs as you and your users navigate through the growing web site and discover both weak spots and opportunities to improve navigation or content.

By waiting until you have detail site architecture, mature content components, fully tested wireframes and prototypes, and a polished page design specification you will minimize the content churning, redundant development efforts, and wasted energy that inevitably result from rushing to create pages too soon. Once the site has been constructed, with all pages completed and all database and programming components linked, it is ready for user testing. Testing should be done primarily by people outside your site development team who are willing to supply informed criticism and report programming bugs, note typographic errors, and critique the overall design and effectiveness of the site. Fresh users will inevitably notice things that you and your development team have overlooked. Only after the site has been thoroughly tested and refined should you begin to publicize the url of the site to a larger audience.

The evolution of Ford Pick-up Trucks

Ford Pick-up trucks are very popular around the world especially in United States and Canada because of their reliability, power, face value and durability. It is believed that Ford built their pick-up trucks to be very tough that many rednecks as well as adventure lovers prefer to use it for heavy duty purpose. When we speak about Ford pick-up trucks, it is not possible for us to skip discussions about the F-Series.

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The Ford’s F-Series refers to the series of full-sized pickup trucks that have been in the market for more than 50 years now. Out of all the models included in the F-series and automotive repair manuals , the most popular is the F-150. It was considered as the top-selling vehicle in the United States for around 23 years and was characterized as the best-selling truck for more than 30 years excluding the joint sales of General Motors pickup trucks. It has also been claimed by the automobile analysts that Ford’s F-series alone comprise half of the company’s income for the past few years. Other popular models within the F-series include the F-250 HD and F-350 whose bodies were modified to fit the Super Duty series in their tenth generation.

Ford pickup trucks or the F-series and haynes repair manuals have undergone 12 generations of improvements and modifications since 1948 until 2010. The first generation was in between 1948-1952, second generation from 1953-1956, the third generation from 1957-1960, fourth generation from 1961- 1966, fifth from 1967-1972, the sixth from 1973-1979, the seventh from 1980-1986, the eight from 1987-1991, ninth from 1992-1996, tenth from 1997-2004, eleventh from 2004-2008, and the twelfth was from 2009 up to the present.

At least the first five generations of the Ford pickup trucks include models which have very vintage looks. Early models looked very masculine to the point that interior comfort is not so satisfactory as compared to more recent models. Moreover, the early designs of Ford pickup trucks possessed very poor aerodynamics because of their very bulky faces that produce a lot of air drag while travelling. Poor aerodynamics means that they are not advisable to be driven in high speeds or they are not capable to run that fast at the first place. The present generation of Ford pickup trucks look more elegant. A lot of improvements and innovations have been made to the present generation of Ford pickup trucks such as the F-100, F-150, F-250, F-300, and F-350. Recent models also come in several variations such as the type of fuel that the engine needs in order to run. It could either be gasoline or diesel. In addition, buyers can also choose whether they want it in four wheel drive or two wheel drives. Four wheel drive variations are usually the more expensive and powerful ones as they are being used to climb mountains and the roughest of the terrains. The two wheel drive on the other hand is very convenient for transporting heavy loads within the city where the streets are not so difficult to manage. The twelfth generation of Ford pickup trucks boasts a lot of exciting enhancements. You can ask the nearest Ford dealer in your area for the details.

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