Newsletter February 17, 2004

                      RIVERS, RAILS and BACKROADS
                  Your Daily Neighborhood Newsletter
           The Very Best of Everything in Alle-Kiski Valley
                    http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/
                                   
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                      Thursday, February 17, 2005
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       You may also read Rivers, Rails and Backroads online at:
              http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/newsletter/
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             ___ TODAY IN RIVERS, RAILS AND BACKROADS ___
                                   
       1.   WHAT’S NEW IN ALLE_KISKI TODAY ONLINE
           * Creative Techniques Captivating Learners
       2.   WEATHER FORECAST
       3.   TODAY’S FEATURED CLASSIFIED
           * Dinning Room Table & Chairs
       4.   COMPUTER~INTERNET TOOLS AND TIPS
           * How do I adjust Virtual Memory settings?
       5.   OUR LOCAL HERITAGE
           * The conflict between the British and French
       6.   COOL WEB SITES FOR KIDS
           * KittanningKidz!
       7.   TODAY’S SPORTS WEB SITE
             * Kiski Area High School Swimmers: Mentally Prepared
       8.   TODAY’S FEATURED WEB SITES
           * Instant messaging, photography, personalized news
     
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     WHAT’S NEW IN ALLE_KISKI TODAY ONLINE
     
     Creative Techniques Captivating Learners
     http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/articles/1822
     
     Teachers  today face incredible challenges in their effort  to
     engage  students  in  the learning process.  With  television,
     video  games, and active extracurricular lifestyles,  children
     receive  a  constant stream of stimuli. How does  an  educator
     effectively  grab students’ attention and infuse  a  love  for
     learning? One of Freeport Area’s teachers is paving a path  of
     success in this pursuit. Read the complete story online.
     
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     WEATHER FORECAST
     http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/weather.html
     
     Wednesday  night:  Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent  chance  of
     snow  showers.  Low around 20. West winds 10 to  15  mph  with
     gusts  up to 30 mph. Thursday. Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
     chance  of  snow  showers. Colder with highs around  30.  West
     winds  10  to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. Thursday  night.
     Mostly  cloudy. Low around 13. West winds 15 to  20  mph  with
     gusts  up to 30 mph. Friday. Mostly cloudy. Highs in  the  mid
     20s. Northwest winds 15 to 20 mph. Friday night. Mostly cloudy
     in  the  evening. Then becoming partly cloudy. Low 10  to  15.
     Saturday.  Partly  cloudy. Highs around  30.  Saturday  night.
     Partly  cloudy. Low around 20. Sunday. Mostly cloudy. A chance
     of  rain in the afternoon. Highs around 40. Chance of rain  30
     percent.
     
               Alle-Kiski Today weather is a direct feed
              From the National Weather Service. Be sure
          To check it online for your latest weather report.
     
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     TODAY’S FEATURED CLASSIFIED
     http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/classifieds/
     
     Dinning Room Table & Chairs
     Medium Oak. Only has 5 chairs. On the older side. Table is  in
     good  shape.  42x63 but has 2 leafs for it, can be  very  big.
     Chairs  are  high  back with padded seat.  Chairs  need  work.
     Asking $60 OBO. Please call after 5pm. Mike Neville Phone: 724-
     567-2213
     
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     COMPUTER~INTERNET TOOLS AND TIPS
     Google Zeitgeist
     http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
     
     How do I adjust Virtual Memory settings? My computer tells  me
     I  don't have enough virtual memory. What do I need to  do  to
     get more?
     
     A  simple  setting controls the amount of virtual memory  your
     computer  has available. On Windows XP look in Control  Panel:
     System,  Advanced,  Performance  Settings,  Advanced,  Virtual
     Memory. I believe it's in a similar location in other versions
     of  Windows. IMPORTANT: usually running out of virtual  memory
     means  that you are running to many programs at the same  time
     for  your system, or one of them is attempting to use too much
     memory.  You might also want to check out what's running  when
     this  happens,  and  how much memory each  program  is  using.
     Another  way to help is this hint: the best course  of  action
     here  is  to  open your Task Manager and locate the  processes
     that  consume a big amount of system resources. In some cases,
     these  are  some buggy programs (programmers often  forget  to
     free the objects:)) or just a hanging game (Counter Strike for
     example). The easiest way is to kill all the related processes
     and  threads. Right-click the selected process and then  click
     "End process tree". This will kill all the related threads and
     will free the virtual memory.
     
        “Computer~Internet Tools and Tips” is at your Own Risk.
     
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     OUR LOCAL HERITAGE
     http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/articles/archives/8
     
     Allegheny County: The conflict between the British and  French
     over  claims in this area was settled in 1758 when  Gen.  John
     Forbes and his British and American army forced the French  to
     abandon  Fort  Duquesne, a post they had built  in  1754.  The
     British  completed Fort Pitt in 1761. After the defeat  of  an
     Indian resurgence in 1763 and the end of a dispute for control
     with   Virginia  (1780),  settlement  swelled.  This  was   an
     outfitting point for settlers who rafted down the Ohio  River,
     and  soon  shipbuilding developed. A blast furnace erected  by
     George Anshutz about 1792 began the long rise of the iron  and
     steel  industry.  In  1845  a  fire  destroyed  one-third   of
     Pittsburgh, but in 1852 the Pennsylvania Railroad  was  opened
     to  Philadelphia and in 1859 coke was first used  in  a  blast
     furnace and cold rolling was invented. Pittsburgh was a  major
     manufacturing  center during the Civil War. Between  1874  and
     1880 oil refineries, papermaking, and wood products industries
     were pushed to other locations because products that were made
     through high heat processes took over in Pittsburgh. From 1882
     to  1901  the  partnership  of Henry  Clay  Frick  and  Andrew
     Carnegie  achieved  world leadership in steel.  Violent  labor
     strikes  included the railroad strike of 1877,  the  Homestead
     Steel  strike  in  1892, and the SWOC  1936  strike.  In  1901
     Carnegie sold out to the new U. S. Steel Company. In 1920  the
     “value added by manufactures” figure for Pittsburgh’s industry
     began  to  decline, but from 1939 to 1954 steel experienced  a
     second   period   of   grandeur.  In  1946   the   “Pittsburgh
     Renaissance”  city revivals (I and II) were  first  conceived.
     From  about 1970 to the present, an era of deindustrialization
     has  prevailed.  However, an increase of  15  percent  in  the
     county’s figure for value added from manufactures between 1987
     and   1992   suggests  that  the  economy  may  have   finally
     stabilized.  The  peak  of Allegheny County’s  population  was
     1,628,587  in  1960; the peak for Pittsburgh  was  676,806  in
     1950—and  it is now only 369,879. The county has also  been  a
     major   bituminous  producer,  blessed  with  the  magnificent
     Pittsburgh coal vein. In the last five years subsurface mining
     has  almost ceased. Farms still cover 9.2 percent of the land,
     and  Allegheny is the ninth ranked mushroom-producing  county.
     Read  more interesting history at Our Local Heritage at  above
     site. Click on “Archives” for a list of history tidbits.
     
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     COOL WEB SITES FOR KIDS
     
     KittanningKidz!
     http://www.kittanningkidz.com/
     
     A  Local  Parent's  Pit  Stop  - Find  fun  youth  and  family
     activities, events and destinations in Kittanning, PA, and the
     following  communities:  Dayton, Elderton,  Ford  City,  Rural
     Valley,  Smicksburg,  Templeton &  Worthington.   The  network
     showcases   products  and  services  that  are   healthy   and
     beneficial  to  a  child's emotional, intellectual,  physical,
     social and spiritual education.
     
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     TODAY’S SPORT’S WEB SITE
     
     Kiski Area High School Swimmers: Mentally Prepared
     http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/articles/1840
     
     "They're  good kids, they help me more than I help them.  They
     are great kids," notes Cavaliers Swim Coach Ron Ruggieri. "I'm
     very  fortunate." Ruggieri, now two years into his  retirement
     from teaching, likes the frame of mind the swimmers carry with
     them into the sport. Read the complete story online.
     
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     TODAY’S FEATURED WEB SITES
     
     Findory News: Personalized News
     http://www.findory.com/
     
     Findory  News  is a newspaper built just for you.  Other  web
     news  sites show the same news to everyone, but not  everyone
     is the same. Findory News shows you articles that you want to
     see.  It  adapts  to your reading habits and emphasizes  news
     articles  from around the world that are most  likely  to  be
     interesting to you. Following the world events? Findory  News
     will show you more articles about world events, even focusing
     on  the  particular  parts  of  the  world  you  seem  to  be
     interested in. Following the presidential elections?  Findory
     News  will favor articles on the presidential campaigns, even
     emphasizing  the  campaigns you've  been  reading  about.  By
     paying   attention   to  the  news  you've   read   recently,
     Findory.com finds the news articles you don't want to miss.
     
     H.H. Bennett: Photographer Extraordinaire
     http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/hhbennett
     
     "During a career that lasted from 1865 to 1908, H. H. Bennett
     photographed  the  rugged landscape of his beloved  Wisconsin
     Dells,  and  became one of the premier photographers  of  the
     era."  Browse more than 650 images, organized by themes  such
     as  bridges,  Civil  War  era, lumber rafting,  sailing,  and
     steamboats.
     
     How Americans Use Instant Messaging
     http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/133/report_display.asp
     
     A  report  based  on surveys conducted in  2004  by  the  Pew
     Internet  & American Life Project. "Surveys reveal that  more
     than  four in ten online Americans instant message (IM).  ...
     About  11  million of them IM at work and they  are  becoming
     fond   of   its   capacity  to  encourage  productivity   and
     interoffice cooperation." Includes charts and a copy  of  the
     questionnaire.
     
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