Ligonier Tinkey Drones St. Paul`s houses vintage Steinway from

City Editor Rick Kazmer
Local
Daily American, Somerset, Pa., Sunday, September 8, 2013
A3
St. Paul’s houses vintage Steinway from Dressler
By the DAILY AMERICAN
A Steinway grand piano
— that could date back as far as
1928 — is one of the treasures
that members of Laurel Arts
are happy have in their collection.
The 7-foot 6-inch long piano
was willed to the organization
after the death of one of its
founders, Dorothy B. Dressler,
in 2005.
“Mrs. Dressler played it (the
piano) for many years and kept
it with her when she moved into
a small townhouse at Sherwood
Oaks, a retirement community
north of Pittsburgh,” according
to a Laurel Arts press release.
Dressler also willed her South
Harrison Avenue house to Laurel Arts, which has since been
converted into an art gallery.
According to Laurel Arts’
website, Dressler was a widow
who supported the arts in Somerset County for over three decades.
For estate purposes the piano
was appraised at $37,500 — half
as much as a new one.
Due to space constraints the
piano currently resides in St.
Paul’s United Church of Christ,
in Somerset Borough.
“I can say, hands down, that
it’s one of the finest pianos I
have ever played — and I’ve
played a lot of Steinways,” St.
Paul’s Music Director Bryan
Lohr said.
“The tone is thoroughly
pleasing.”
The piano is used in most
Sunday services at St. Paul’s,
and is to be used in upcoming
recitals arranged by Lohr.
“St. Paul’s is honored to give
the instrument a home,” he
said.
The piano has seen its fair
share of action. It has been used
in jazz events at Seven Springs
Mountain Resort, and has been
signed by some famous pianists
including: Ramsey Lewis, and
Marian McPartland, who died
Aug. 20.
It was formerly housed at
First Lutheran Church chapel,
Submitted photo
in Johnstown, before being re- Former Somerset resident Cory Davis plays a Steinway grand piano — belocated to Somerset.
lieved to be as old as 1928 — from the Laurel Arts collection.
Gill arrested in
stabbing case
By DYLAN JOHNSON
[email protected]
A man was stabbed in the back three times
in a dispute over $155 on Friday in the Windber Slovak Club at 1300 Jackson Ave.
According to Paint Township police, Aaron Gill, 27, stabbed a 35-year-old man at 8:06
p.m.
The victim, who told police he doesn’t
know Gill or owe him money, was transferred
by Northern Emergency Medical Services to
Windber Medical Center for muscle damage.
Police said Gill was intoxicated, and the
victim was not.
Gill was arraigned, placed in Somerset
County Jail and placed on $100,000 bond.
Submitted photo
Volunteers at work: Johnstown now has its first official “share-the-road” designated biking lane on Somerset Street.
Volunteers from around the area gathered Aug. 24 to paint colorful stencil designs on the road, part of a movement toward
developing communities that promote walking and biking and are not dependent on cars, according to Lift Johnstown, which
organized the event.
Drones
(Continued from A1)
The media outlet’s article
cited a university study that
indicates the use of drones
in Pakistan have killed more
people than originally acknowledged by the U.S. government. For more information
read the article at www.cnn.
com/2012/09/25/world/asia/
pakistan-us-drone-strikes. Despite their continued use
on the battlefield, private organizations, law enforcement
officials and civilians are now
using drones for a variety of
operations both internationally
and domestically, which has
other critics raising an eyebrow
of concern. The domestic use of drones
has raised concerns regarding
potential violations against
personal privacy and civil liberties. Drones are currently
being utilized in a variety of
applications including farming, wildlife observation, law
enforcement and providing a
recreational bird’s eye view to
the average consumer.
Some drones can range between the size of a small bird to
a commercial airliner, but they
are all utilized primarily for
audio and visual surveillance.
According to Source Interlink
Media’s special 2013 publication, “Drones: Are They Watching You?,” domestic drones are
already relatively inexpensive,
and as the technology improves,
they will continue to advance
and decrease in price.
Since 2001, drones have been
used by both the U.S. military
and by the CIA to eliminate alQaida and Taliban terrorists
through organized strikes with
capabilities that are not fully
disclosed. The exact number
of U.S. attacks utilizing drones
remains classified, but two separate drone attacks led to the
death of three U.S. citizens in
Yemen in 2011.
“On September 30, 2011, a
drone hit a jeep in Yemen that
was carrying Anwar al-Awlaki,
a radical Muslim cleric born in
New Mexico, and Samir Khan,
a naturalized American citizen
who lived in New York. A second attack, on October 14, killed
a group of people including Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, who was
born in Colorado,” according to
the publication.
The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney referred to
these attacks by saying, “they
are legal, they are ethical and
they are wise.”
Drone pilots and operators
are able to sit from chairs in the
U.S. at a military installation
and deploy a Predator to the remote regions of Iraq for reconnaissance missions thousands
of miles away. As the Predator
soars at 10,000 feet, it can circle
for as long as 24 hours, gliding
at times using its 48.7 foot wingspan, according to the publication. The use of unmanned killing
machines is not new. As early as
circa 200 B.C., the Chinese used
kites as weapons of war and
the evolution of the unmanned
aerial attacker grew into what
is now the modern drone.
During World War II, Nazi engineer, Robert Lusser designed
one of the first rockets ever
used in combat. The German
V1 rocket would be the first in
the line of Vergeltungswaffen,
or “Vengeance Weapons,” used
by the Nazis, and would be deployed in 1943 to execute a series of attacks on London. The
allies would eventually refer
to these unmanned missiles as
“Doodlebugs” or “Buzz Bombs”
because of the unique sound
they made when entering their
fateful dive toward their target.
The Germans would improve
upon their original design with
the V2, which was a silent killer and carried more than 2,000
pounds of explosives and could
travel at speeds reaching 3,500
mph. The V2 was engineered
by Nazi scientist, Wernher von
Braun, who has been called the
“father of rocket science,” and
was one of the men who helped
pioneer NASA.
Drones are becoming more
sophisticated and may no longer
require a pilot to even operate
the basic controls. Completely
automated robotic killers are
already in development, including the Northrop Grumman X47B, an experimental U.S. Navy
aircraft that operates completely independent of human control. This aircraft is controlled
by its onboard computers and it
can make decisions with a computer algorithm based on the
data collected from its sensors,
according to Source Interlink’s
publication. The aircraft is able to carry
a 4,500 pound payload of explosives and is capable of maneuvering at speeds no human
being could manage due to the
intense G-force that is created.
According to NBC news, it completed its first successful takeoff from an aircraft carrier in
May, 2013. More information
about the X-47B’s capabilities
and flight can be found at www.
nbcnews.com/technology/navys-x-47b-drone-completes-firstcarrier-takeoff-1C9922371
The future of automated
drones that are capable of killing without human input has
sparked a backlash among critics including U.N. human rights
investigator Christof Heyns,
who called for a moratorium on
the use of “killer robots” earlier this year.
More information can be
found
at www.theguardian.
com/science/2013/may/29/killer-robots-ban-un-warning.
spaghetti dinners and other
fundraising events. The family
helps clean the church, too, and
Emily said she enjoys helping
her dad, John, with some of the
volunteer work there, too.
“Every summer, I put a sealer on the parking lot and paint
the lines,” she said. “Normally,
the guys do that. I was always
my dad’s little girl, so I tried it
and it kind of stuck.”
Aside from her work at the
church, Tinkey spent the last
couple years of her high school
career tutoring at the Boys and
Girls Club of Somerset County,
a post that made her consider
working with youth group in
the future.
“I think that’s where a lot of
my passion for helping out kids
came from,” she said.
Her volunteer work and
church leadership were part of
the reason she landed a Mercy
Presidential Scholarship, based
on academics, community service and leadership skills, to
help pay for her undergraduate
degree.
She was also a Maple Princess at the Pennsylvania Maple
Festival in Meyersdale earlier
this year, where her talent was
sign language.
She’s drawn to sign language,
she said, because it is both an
expression and a way to reach
out to others in the community.
“It’s not just about a talent.
It’s a ministry. It’s showing God
how much you love him by doing this.”
Saturday parade with more
than 16 bands from surrounding states already scheduled to
participate.
“The parade is probably one
of the best parades in the country,” Bennett said.
In addition, Fort Ligonier
will be open to the public each
day and include various re-enactments and an artillery demonstration.
“It’s very interesting to see,”
Mowery said.
“People come from out of
state and the actors stay at the
fort overnight.”
A 5K race, which is a new
addition to the event, will start
in the morning on the final day
of the event with an estimated
300 participants. Live musical
performances will be hosted
throughout the day along with
activities for children and
street dancing at night featuring popular tribute bands show-
casing music from Journey and
the Beatles.
More information about the
event and a full schedule can
be found online at visitligonier.
com.
For more information about
Fort Ligonier, visit fortligonier.
org.
Tinkey
(Continued from A1)
She added that she’s teaching herself to play tunes on a
keyboard now.
“I’ve played the flute since I
was in third grade. I love music,
whether it’s singing or signing.”
Her mom, Dorla, is the
church’s youth coordinator,
and Emily lends a hand with
Ligonier
(Continued from A1)
“It takes place right in downtown Ligonier in the Diamond,”
she said.
“We have approximately 30
food vendors, more than 150
craft vendors and other activities.”
The event will showcase a
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