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Positive Psychological Traits Linked to Longevity<|fim_middle|>!! » |
Optimists live an average of 7 years longer than pessimists. A new study of Italians found they share distinct positive psychological traits that contributes to their longevity including optimism, stubbornness and bond with family, religion and land.
In remote Italian villages nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and mountains lives a group of several hundred citizens over the age of 90. Researchers at the University of Rome La Sapienza and University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified common psychological traits in members of this group.
The study, published in International Psychogeriatrics, found participants who were 90 to 101 years old had worse physical health, but better mental well-being than their younger family members ages 51 to 75.
"There have been a number of studies on very old adults, but they have mostly focused on genetics rather than their mental health or personalities," said Dilip V. Jeste MD, senior author of the study, senior associate dean for the Center of Healthy Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "The main themes that emerged from our study, and appear to be the unique features associated with better mental health of this rural population, were positivity, work ethic, stubbornness and a strong bond with family, religion and land."
There were 29 study participants from nine villages in the Cilento region of southern Italy. The researchers used quantitative rating scales for assessing mental and physical health, as well as qualitative interviews to gather personal narratives of the participants, including topics such as migrations, traumatic events and beliefs. Their children or other younger family members were also given the same rating scales and additionally asked to describe their impressions about the personality traits of their older relatives.
"The group's love of their land is a common theme and gives them a purpose in life. Most of them are still working in their homes and on the land. They think, 'This is my life and I'm not going to give it up,'" said Anna Scelzo, first author of the study with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Chiavarese, Italy.
Interview responses also suggested that the participants had considerable self-confidence and decision-making skills.
"This paradox of aging supports the notion that well-being and wisdom increase with aging even though physical health is failing," said Jeste, also the Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging and director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at UC San Diego.
Some direct quotes from the study's interviews include:
"I lost my beloved wife only a month ago and I am very sad for this. We were married for 70 years. I was close to her during all of her illness and I have felt very empty after her loss. But thanks to my sons, I am now recovering and feeling much better. I have four children, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. I have fought all my life and I am always ready for changes. I think changes bring life and give chances to grow."
"I am always thinking for the best. There is always a solution in life. This is what my father has taught me: to always face difficulties and hope for the best."
"I am always active. I do not know what stress is. Life is what it is and must be faced … always."
"If I have to say, I feel younger now than when I was young."
"We also found that this group tended to be domineering, stubborn and needed a sense of control, which can be a desirable trait as they are true to their convictions and care less about what others think," said Scelzo. "This tendency to control the environment suggests notable grit that is balanced by a need to adapt to changing circumstances."
The researchers plan to follow the participants with multiple longitudinal assessments and compare biological associations with physical and psychological health.
"Studying the strategies of exceptionally long-lived and lived-well individuals, who not just survive but also thrive and flourish, enhances our understanding of health and functional capacities in all age groups," said Jeste.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/researchers_find_common_psychological_traits_in_group_of_italians_aged_90_t
Anna Scelzo, Salvatore Di Somma, Paola Antonini, Lori P. Montross, Nicholas Schork, David Brenner, Dilip V. Jeste. Mixed-methods quantitative–qualitative study of 29 nonagenarians and centenarians in rural Southern Italy: focus on positive psychological traits. International Psychogeriatrics, 2017; 1 DOI: 10.1017/S1041610217002721
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Siddha and the way of Rasa
[Dear vasudev-anand , the subject of Siddhas, Rasa, sexual fluids, rejuvenation etc is rather bizarre. Here, I hesitate to write about it candidly. But, since you persist, I am posting an outline of it – for whatever it is worth. Trust this helps your task. ]
1.1. A Siddha is one who is said to have attained superhuman powers (Siddhis) or Jivanmukthi (It could also be perfection? or immortality?). Such a Siddha with a divine body (divyadeha) is Shiva himself (Maheshvara Siddha). He is the perfect One, who has transcended the barriers of time, space and human limitations. A Siddha in his idealized form is freed from all wants (anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam), the one who has attained flawless identity with the Reality.
1.2. For a Siddha, the world is a play-area (Lila kshetra) in which he experiences the absolute as he does the world. He, therefore, seeks Jivanmukthi, freedom from human constraints and weaknesses; and, not Moksha the total liberation from existence. A Siddha is thus, a death-defying, wonder-working wizard. He is in the world; and yet, he is out of it. For a Siddha, the world has gently slipped away, even as it still remains.
1.3. Siddha is also described as a Kavi, in the Rig-Vedic sense of an exalted seer, in the mold of Asura Kavya Usanas (Shukra – ?) – said to be the son of Rishi Bhrigu and Kavyamata (Ushana) – who brought together the worlds of the Indra and Rudra. It is said; Kavya Usanas alone knew the secret knowledge (guhya vidya) of life-giving-magic that rejuvenated the old and ailing, and also brought the dead back to life (Sanjivani vidya). A Siddha , who is pure , is also compared to Brihaspathi (the counterpart of Kavya Usanas – Shukra), the Guru of the light-filled worlds of the gods and demigods.
[ It is interesting that the healers in the Ayurveda tradition go by the title Kaviraja]
2.1. There have been various traditions of Siddhas: Ancient Alchemist Sittars of South India (18 Sittars starting from Agastiyar and including Kagapujandar, Boghar and others); the nomadic Buddhist Tantrics of Bengal, adepts in Vajrayana techniques (Maha-siddhas, Siddhacharyas); the Alchemists and Yogis of medieval India (Rasa Siddhas); and mainly the North Indian hoard (ganas) of Natha Siddhas, following the cult founded by Matsyendranatha and developed by Gorakshakanatha.
2.2. In the tradition of the Siddhas (Siddha Sampradaya), 84 *Siddhas and 9 Nathas are recalled with awe and reverence. Though there are many classifications among the Siddhas, there is no strict demarcation between the various the Siddha Sampradayas. The titles, Siddha, Mahasiddha, Natha and Yogi are used by all interchangeably. Further, the Siddha traditions occur in Hindu, Buddhist , Tibetan and also in Jain traditions alike . The Caturasiti-siddha-pravrtti 'The Lives of the Eighty-four Siddhas', a Sanskrit text compiled by Abhayadatta Sri during 11th or 12th century provides brief sketches of the 84 Mahasiddhas. Four of the Mahasiddhas were women: Manibhadra, Lakshmincara, Mekhala and Kanakhala. By and large, typically, the Siddhas were saints, doctors, alchemists and mystics all at once.
[* The number eighty-four is regarded a 'whole' or 'perfect' number: (3+4) x (3×4). The number is matching with the number of Siddhi or occult powers .Thus, the eighty-four Siddhas can be seen as archetypes representing the thousands of exemplars and adepts of the tantric way.]
2.3. Despite wide disparities among the diverse Schools of the Siddhas in regard to their unique techniques and goals of their Sadhana, one of the major aims of all the Siddhas was to attain a state of deathless-ness. That is, their goal was to deliver the body free from ravages of age and disease; to attain a sort of Invincibility. This, they sought to achieve through a sustained and an incredibly rigorous process of Hata Yoga aided by an Alchemic process (nectar making – amrtikarana) involving the production and consumption of a concoction (rasayana) based mainly in purified Mercury.
3.1. Mercury is one of the densest possible substances; and, it is in liquid form – the only liquid metal. And, it always stays in liquid form. It is highly sensitive to heat; and expands quickly as its temperature rises. That is the reason it is used in thermometers. Once the Mercury is energized and maintained in proper conditions, it stays energized for a very long time, without dissipation. In the olden times, it appears, mercury deposits/ traces were found in the Siddhipur region of Gujarat; and, in Srisailam hills in AP (?). Mercury in purer form was imported from Roman regions.
3.2. In India, there is an abundance of traditional literature about alchemical and clinical mercury; and about the many ways it can be prepared, purified and handled. Several classical works praise solidified mercury, and talk about the various processes of its purification and solidification to perfect it into a glorious Rasa.
3.3. Because of its popular appeal, Mercury is called by various names, such as: Rasa, Padarasa, Parada, Sukta, Vaikrnta, Vyomadharana, Avithyaja, Rasayana–shresta, Rasendra and by many other names/epithets. Mercury is also associated with Moon: as Soma, Indu, and Bindu (drop or mind). It is also related to Amrta Rasa, the elixir of immortality and to Soma offered to gods.
3.4. Mercury occupies a very important position in the Siddha ways of training and also in Ayurveda, the science of life. In the Indian traditional literature there are copious references to Mercury, to its properties, its virtues and its supposed magical powers. There are elaborate descriptions of various processes of purification and solidification of Mercury in order to render it perfect, into an exalted essence.
Mercury in Ayurveda
4.1. The Ayurveda has eight divisions; and, the seventh is titled Rasayana – (Rasa+Yana), Rasa meaning Mercury, and Yana the clinical procedures involving Mercury (Rasa Chikitsa). Generally, Rasayana is taken as the way or the procedures of Mercury. In Ayurveda, Rasayana refers to Mercury as medicine (elixir), as also to a whole group of medical tinctures based in Mercury , herbs and other minerals (including processed gold).
[For the process of cleansing and preparing the the Mercury for clinical purposes – Rodhana Samskara of Parada – please click here.]
4.2. As a method of treatment, Rasayana is a way of cleansing the body (samsodhana cikitsa; and, a rejuvenation therapy for replenishing the bodily fluids (rasa) and supplementing other substances (dhatus) of the body. The treatment is also termed as kshetri-karana, preparation of the body for absorbing the medicines per se. Here, Rasa or Rasa-bija – the essence in a substance – is used to influence and enhance the health of vital bodily fluids or its constituents in the body.
4.3. The Rasayana line of treatment aims to arrest physical and mental decay. This is a part of sets of detailed procedures, regimen, meant to ensure a prolonged healthy and happy life. Ayurveda claims the clinical use of systematically purified and treated mercury can stimulate cerebral functions without agitating the mind; improve concentration, reduce fickle mindedness; and, enhances memory power. And physically it renders the person vigorous, disease-free, enabling him to enjoy a long youthful life.
Mercury in Siddha traditions
5.1. The wonderful and exhilarating elixir-like benefits of Mercury-treatment seemed to have excited the Siddhas, inspiring them to speculate on achieving a sort of an amazing immortal body. That prompted Siddhas to explore the diverse and manifold possibilities surrounding the applications of solidified Mercury. Ayurveda thus, it seems, paved the way for Alchemist Siddhas to speculate on the immortality of the body and to concoct an enabling elixir. Attaining immortality then became the life-ambition and the goal of many Siddha traditions.
5.2. According to Siddhas, Mercury is a poison for the uninitiated who partake of it or its compounds improperly. Mercury, they said, has always been a part of the nature; and, has not poisoned either the air, the waters or the earth. It is only its abuse that brings forth its deadly effects. Even the combination of the so-called poisons – neither too strong, nor too weak- when properly prepared, can act as nourishing medicine. The medicinal blend of poisons (Visha) in prescribed proportions can energize the body, invigorate its functions and generally act as a tonic. And, in some ancient temples (e.g. Palini Hills) the idol of the main deity, it is said, is crafted out of an alloy of nine types of deadly poisonous minerals, herbs, chemicals and crystals (nava-pashana).
5.3. The Siddhas asserted that for an initiated alchemist Siddha, Mercury if properly treated and processed can be transformed into nectar of immortality. It converts from visha into amrita. They believed that its soft and subtle blue energy invigorates the vital functions of the body; and 'through the use of mercury that is healing and medicinal in nature, one rapidly obtains a body that is un-aging and immortal; and endowed with concentration of the mind. He who eats treated mercury (mrtasutaka) truly obtains both transcendent and mundane knowledge, and his mantras are effective' (Rasasara, XV, 19-22)
Rasa Siddhas and Natha Siddha
6.1. The Siddhas therefore became engaged in developing a branch of chemistry or proto-chemistry known as Rasa-shastra (science of Mercury) or generally the Rasayana-shastra. This whole science of solidifying and energizing mercury is called Rasa Vidya.
The prominent among such Alchemist Siddhas were the specialist Rasa Siddhas and Natha Siddha.
6.2. The most important innovation of the Rasa Siddhas and the Natha Siddhas was the method they crafted for attaining Siddha status and Siddha powers. They claimed that dedicated humans through practice of Yoga, Tantra and Alchemy can become Semi Divine Siddhas, provided they rigorously followed the prescribed disciplines.
6.3. Apart from the Semi Divine Siddhas, there is another classification of Siddhas into three strands (ogha): the divine, the perfect and the human. Among these, the human-kind Siddhas sought an ageless physical body (svarna deha); the perfect sought a perfected (siddhadeha) or indestructible (vajradeha) physical body; and Maheshvara Siddha sought to attain an ethereal divine body (divyadeha) of an integrated nature. Otherwise, the dividing lines among them are rather unclear.
6.4. The Natha Siddhas along with Rasa Siddhas recount their lineage from Shiva (Adi Guru) himself and from Dattatreya, Adinatha, Naganatha, Caparti, Matsyendranatha, Gorkhnatha, and other Gurus of Natha Sampradaya.
7.1. These two groups, in particular, – Rasa and Natha Siddhas- interacted with a third group that flourished mainly in the Nepal region (though it is likely the cult was initially based in the western Himalayas). This was the Pashima-amnaya (the westward), a Shakta cult devoted to a Tantric goddess Kubjika. They too were engaged in alchemy.
Kubjikā a secret goddess, having immense metaphysical depth, a large varieties of forms, and varied methods of yoga (especially those linked with the movement of vital breath), appears in the Bhairava and then the Western Kaula Tantra (Paschima-amnaya ) Traditions of the Himalayan regions during 7th century. She is variously addressed in her Tantras as :Kubjinī – the Hunchback Girl; Kubjī, Kujā, Kujī, Khañjinī – the Lame One; Vakrikā or Vakrā – the Crooked One; Ciñcinī – the Goddess residing in the Tamarind tree; Kulālikā – the Potteress; Ambā or the vernacular forms as : Avvā, Anāmā, Laghvikā; and, most common of all as Śrī – the Royal One who has as her scripture, teaching, school and tradition (anvaya, āmnāya); and as the Śrīmata. Kubjinī, a very secret goddess is worshiped in her Tantras along with Bhairava, her consort. As Kundalini, Kubjika is worshipped as the Goddess who is curled up and sleeping, waiting to be awakened. The sect of Nine Natahas is believed to have propagated the cult of Kubjika throughout Nepal and North India.
In the Kaula Tantra (Paschima-amnaya ) Tradition, Devi Kubjika is worshiped with Shiva with his five faces Sadyojata; Vamadeva, Tatpurusha; Aghora and Ishana.. The hallowed mother Kubjika has six faces. She is adorned with serpents: Karotaka as a waist band; Takshaka as a mid-riff ornament; Vasuki as garland; and, the venomous cobra Kulika as an ear ornament. She holds in her arms as skull, a king-cobra, a crystal-bead rosary, skull-topped rod, a conch, a book, a trident, a mirror, a straight sword, a gem necklace, an ankusha (goad) and a bow. She is of fair complexion like a young jasmine flower.
The mantra of Kubjika is Om Shrim Prim Kubjike Devi Hrim Thah Svaha. The yantra of her worship is
https://www.scribd.com/document/167318139/Kubjika-Kali-Tripura-and-Trika-Mark-Dyczkowski
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-76-the-canon-of-the-saivagama-and-.aspx
https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2006/07/20/kubjika-and-the-panchavaktra-mahadeva/ ]
7.2. Apart from their traditional goals, the one other interest that Natha Siddhas and Rasa Siddhas shared with the Pashima-amnaya Siddhas was the mystic doctrine and practices involving sexual fluids – male and female. Their beliefs in this regard were rooted in Rasa vada, the theory concerning Rasa.
8.2. In the Taittiriya Upanishad (2.7) the expression 'Raso vai sah' is meant to suggest the essence, the very core of ones being; and it is of the nature of pure bliss (Raso hyevayam labdhva anandi bhavati). But, elsewhere, Rasa is the fluid element (essence) that Vedic sages identified as the juice of life and of non-death (a-mruta), which sustains both the gods and the humans. Rasa is also understood as Dravya – the substance combining in itself the properties of all the five elements – having sixty three varieties. Rasa, as essential element, in its many forms is both manifest and dormant.
8.3. In Ayurveda, Rasa stands for vital body fluids. Its treatment (Rasayana), the Rasa or Rasa-bija – the essence in a substance – is used to influence and enhance the health of bodily fluids or its constituents in the body.
8.4. According to Tantra ideology, male and female vital fluids, semen and uterine blood, are power-substances (Shakthi dhathu) because their combination gives rise to life and vitality. These Rasas are even identified with gods and goddesses whose boundless energy was often portrayed as sexual in nature. Usually the god invoked in this context was some form of Shiva and the female was some form of Devi.
8.5. Those ardent followers- the Tantrics , Siddhas and others – who aimed to attain the status of second – Shiva sought to realize their goal through the conduit of wild goddesses (who then were identified with their human consorts) generally known as Yoginis. These 'bliss-starved' minor goddesses would converge into the consciousness of the Sadhaka the ardent practitioner, to transform him into a sort of god on earth.
8.6. The doctrine of Rasa (Rasa vada) as adopted by the mystique Siddhas is based on the theory that Rasa – all kinds of fluid elements found in universe , world , human beings , plants , rain , waters , and the oblations in the Yajna – is the fountainhead of life. There are countless manifestations of Rasa including the vital sexual fluids in male and female, blood, bone marrow, mucus and every other fluid substance in body and as water , snow , moisture etc in nature.
Alchemist Siddhas
9.1. With the advent of the great scholar and Tantrik Abhinavagupta (ca.10th century – Kashmir) and his school of Trika Kaula philosophy, the messy parts of the Tantra practises were cleaned up, 'sanitized', refined , and given a sophisticated look ( at least outwardly).In these "High' Tantric Schools many of the sordid looking elements and practices were sublimated . The cult of the Yoginis, ritual reproductions, offering and consuming sexual fluids etc were refined and re-defined. However, the old practices did not go away altogether; but, they went underground and were practiced as 'secret-learning' (gupta vidya) by closed circle of initiates.
9.2. Then came the Siddhas of Natha Pantha, who brought into fore the Hata yoga, a rather violent method of exertion. Matsyendranatha was the pioneer of this School of Natha Siddhas. He preached the doctrine of Six Chakras of transformation. But, the secret part of it was the belief in the transformation of the sexual fluids into a sort of potent power, the amrita, the nectar of immortality.
9.3. According to this sect, the combination of male and female sexual fluids brings into existence an explosive power that is truly unique. No other elements or fluids in the whole of the universe have the power to create life. And, that is remarkable. For the Natha Siddhas, persuasion of that line of creative power became the route to attain Siddhis (miraculous powers) and Jivanmukthi (liberation while in the body).
10.1. They were followed by a third group, the Rasa Siddhas, the alchemists who coined the phrase: yatha lohe, tatha dehe (as in the metal, so in the body). They, in principle, adopted the doctrine of Natha Siddhas regarding the power of sexual fluids. But, they lent it a rather unexpected twist, that of metallurgy.
10.2. The Rasa Siddhas seemed to believe that metals are living-substances; and, gold was the natural endpoint of their countless years of gestation within the earth's womb. Adopting the metaphor of the humans, they said mica (abhraka) and sulphur (gandhaka – literally meaning that which has aroma) were analogous to the female reproductive fluids from which the metals arose. Here the male fluids came to be identified with the eighth metal, the Mercury, Rasendra, the King of Rasas, the shining liquid amazingly volatile, as if having a life of its own.
[The Alchemist Siddhas equated Mercury with a male, warm substance which controls the elements Earth and Water. And, symbolically it was called the semen of Shiva. Mica which is cold was the element of air; and regarded the female counterpart of Shiva, the Shakthi. Therefore through the union of mercury and mica, male and female, (Shiva and Shakthi or Yang and Yin), they sought to obtain a married metal which controls the elements Earth (solids), Water (fluids) and Air (mental aspects in the body). But, it increases the element Fire, the invigorating heat in the body. ]
10.3. An important finding that the Rasa Siddhas came upon was that purified mercury, through a special process, can be made to devour or digest (meaning, assimilate) an enormous amount of other metals without the swallowing (grasa) mercury gaining appreciable weight. The assimilation (jarana) of base metals into mercury became the hub of an entire regimen of an alchemy engaged in transforming base metals into gold.
[In the Indian alchemy texts, the chemical substances are divided into five main categories: Maha (primary) Rasa; Uparasa (secondary); Dhatu (minerals), Ratna or Mani (crystal or salts -lavana) and Visha (toxins or poisons). And again within these , there are eight Maha Rasas ; eight Uparasas; seven Dhatus – Sapta Dhatu – Suvarna ( gold) , Rajata ( silver) , Tamra (copper ) , Trapa (tin) , Ayas or Tikshna (iron ) , Sisha or Naga (lead ) and Vaikrantika . And, Mercury in a special category is included under metals. The alloys include alloys: brass (pitala), Bell metal (kamsya), and a mixture of five metals (kamsya). The Salts are five: Sauvaechala, Saindhava, Vida, Aubhida, and Samudra. The powdered metals and salts are Bhasmas. Substances derived from animal (horns, shells, feathers etc) and plant sources are also grinded into it.
Various plant products, minerals, fluids etc having toxic properties are included under Visha. In Siddha system sixty four types of poisons are mentioned for therapeutic purpose].
Rasa-karma
11.1. The Siddhas have always been technicians of the concrete; transforming base metal into gold, ailing into the healthy; and mortals into immortals. They are the masters of the process, seeking raw and ruthless power over natural processes, say over aging, death and political, social rulers and leaders.
11.2. The process of transforming Mercury into gold or elixir (Rasa-karma); to transmute a base metal into the noble one; and to make the perishable body an ever immortal is very complicated and time-consuming, spread over several months. Indian alchemy developed a wide variety of chemical processes.
11.3. The Rasashastra texts – such as, Rasarnava of 11th century (perhaps the oldest Rasa Tantra text available , narrated as series of dialogues between Bhairava and Devi), Rasarathnakara, Rasendramangala, Bhutikaprakarana and Rasahrudaya – describe the procedures meticulously and in great detail. There are hundreds of verses in the Rasashastra texts which deal with a wide variety of processes. The texts also caution that among all the Sadhakas only an infinitesimally small number of worthies might achieve their goal.
11.4. According to Rasa-shastra texts – Rasa-ratha-samucchaya and Rasa-rathnakara – the Alchemic Siddha (Rasacharya) should be a highly learned person (jnanavan), respected by all (sarva-manya ), well versed in the science of Mercury (Rasa-shastra-kovida) ,proficient in processing Mercury ( Rasa-karma-kaushala) , highly competent in his task (daksha) , free from greed , lust, hatred and other weaknesses (dhira -vira) , dear to Shiva (Shiva vatsala) and devoted to Devi (Devi bhaktha) . His intentions for undertaking task should be pure and noble; and, blessed by his Guru. Else, the entire process would end fruitless (nishphala).
Needless to say, a worthy Rasa Siddha is extremely hard to find.
12.1. The process, which is spread over eighteen stages, and carried out over several months, involved planting a 'seed (bija)' of gold into a mass of mercury (whose power of absorption has already been increased enormously by series of treatments of mica, sulphur and other female elements) which then becomes a 'mouth' capable of swallowing incredible amounts base metals (usually, 1:6; mercury absorbing six times its mass of Mica).
[The process of making the Mercury absorb (grasa) in ever increasing quantities of Mica or Sulphur called Jarana is carried on till the Mercury becomes (baddha) or killed (mrta).This is done in three stages each consisting six steps. In the first stage; Mercury is made to take in mouthfuls (grasa) of mica, in six successive operations. At each step in this process, the mercury becomes physically altered: in the first step, in which it consumes one sixty-fourth of its mass of mica, mercury becomes rod like (danda vat). It next takes on the consistency of a leech, then that of crow droppings, thin liquid, and butter. With its sixth and final "mouthful," in which mercury swallows one-half its mass of mica, it becomes a spherical solid.
This six-step process, by which mercury is bound, is followed by another six-step process, in which the proportions of mica or sulphur swallowed by mercury greatly increase. It is this latter process that constitutes jarana proper. Here, mercury is made to absorb a mass of mica equal to its own.
Next, mercury is made to swallow twice its mass of mica, and so on until the proportions ultimately reach 1:6, with mercury absorbing six times its mass of mica. In this final and optimal phase mercury, said to be "six-times killed," is possessed of fantastic powers of transmutation. At the conclusion of this process, mercury takes the shape of a linga. ]
12.2. Mercury is regarded as 'killed' when it becomes a hard metal or a red-blood stone. The mercury that is 'killed' – mrta or stilled (rendered non-volatile – baddha and reduced to ashes- bhasma) with the help of powerful herbs, is transmuted into gold through a mystic process (samskara).That is to say; after having been killed or fixed, Mercury changes its character, it takes on a nobler, more exalted form and is reborn.
After the mercury has been completely purified, a process which usually requires several months<|fim_middle|> Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India by David Gordon White
Mysticism and Alchemy through the Ages: The Quest for Transformation by Gary Edson
Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde by Aaron Cheak
http://ignca.nic.in/ps_04014.htm
Alchemically purified and solidified mercury by Petri Murien
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddha
http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=904&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
ALL PICTURES ARE FROM INTERNET
Posted by sreenivasaraos on January 10, 2014 in Siddha Rasa, Tantra, Uncategorized
Tags: Bhairava, Kaula Tantra, Kubjika, Kubjika Tantra, Mercury, Paschima-amnaya, Rasa, Rasa siddha ;Natha Siddha, Rasayana, Siddha
18 responses to "Siddha and the way of Rasa"
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Dear Shri Bala, The use of mercury for therapeutic purposes has been in vogue since the ancient times. For instance, Charaka Samhita (dated before first century), a treatise on Ayurvedic medicine, prescribes Parada (mercury) – literally meaning that which protects – as a cure for skin diseases. A later work of about fourth century AD, Sushruta Samhita (Chikitsa 25/39), recommended mercury as a component in the preparation of tinctures for external applications. And again, the text of the sixth-seventh century, the Astanga Samgraha (Uttara 13/36) of Vagbhatta contains references to internal therapeutic uses of mercury. Following that, the school of Rasa Siddhas rose into prominence by about eleventh century.
All these were, of course, prior to eleventh century that you referred to
Marco Polo (13th century) refers to the ancient practice of preparing elixirs by the mendicants of Malabar region.
The use of mercury in the ancient India, for various purposes, is fairly well documented.
As regards gold Swarna, a noble metal known to Indians since antiquity is mentioned in Charaka and Sushruta Samhita where it is used in a wide range of applications. In its elemental form, Gold has been employed for centuries as an anti-pruritic agent to relieve itching palms. 'Swarna Bhasma' is a combination of metallic Gold (96.76%), silica (1.14%), ferric oxide (0.14%), phosphates (0.78%), potash (0.16%), salt (0.078%), and traces of copper and magnesium. It is useful as an alleviator, particularly in chronic debilitating diseases.
[Following Robert Koch's observations, since 1973 gold and its compounds are used at different levels to decrease concentrations of rheumatic factors and to influences the immunological responses. It is also said; that gold suppresses the anaphylactic release of histamine more effectively than gluco-corticoids.]
Now , I am rather gullible. Pray, tell me what is "scientific"?
Dear Shri Gopal, Thanks for the visit.
Regarding the Tamil Siddhars, I reckon, they were perhaps the earlier set of Siddhas. Though most of the other Siddha Schools did not come into their own until about the 11th -12th century, the Tamil Siddhar School seemed to have in place a fairly well defined system earlier to the eighth century itself.
Out of the 18 Siddhars celebrated in the Shaiva tradition some (say, like Agashthyar) seem to be mythological or semi-divine figures. Yet; by the time of Tirumular (revered as one of the 64 Nayanars), in the eighth century, the Tamil Siddha tradition had a fully developed Siddha system. Tirumular in his work "Tirumanthiram" outlining the philosophy of the Shaiva Siddhanta, discusses the basis of Kundalini Yoga which expands the consciousness of the Siddha beyond all limitations, leading to an highly idealized state of what is called the Maha Chitta or "Great Awareness" which is the nature of Shiva himself. The Siddhar way is a kind of inner journey towards the Absolute Shiva Consciousness.
It is said; Tirumular is among the earlier set of Siddhars; and, is highly respected for his pioneering works (it is another matter that the orthodoxy could not accept him without reservations). Tirumular describes the Siddhas as those "who have experienced divine light (sakti) from within through yogic integration (Samadhi). The Tamil tradition holds that Tirumular was the disciple of the alchemist Nandikesvarar. Even prior to Nandi was another renowned alchemist Bogar (Bogha Siddhar) who is said to have lived , around the Palini Hills region , sometime during third to fifth century.
Traditions and legends concerning Bogar talk of him either as a Chinese philosopher who came to India, along with his guru Kalangi Nathar, for the study of medicine, travelling first to Patna and Bodhgaya before taking up residence in Palini area. The other version describes Bogar as a south Indian Siddhar, who travelled to China and taught alchemy to a ruler named Kong (his disciple Konganar, according to Siddha tradition) before returning to south India.
All this suggest that even prior to middle periods the Tamil Siddha tradition was fully developed.
Tamil Siddhars, as you said, generally aimed to attain an expanded consciousness where he merges with Shiva himself. Yet; there were also among them Rasa Siddhars and Swarna Siddhars who practiced medicine besides alchemy.
And though the Tamil Siddhars as also the other Indian alchemists sought to develop the chemical processes of transforming base metals into gold , along with pursuit of bodily perfection, they viewed their inner processes of Kundalini Yoga (mirroring the alchemical process which purifies and elevates the base up into the noble state) as their primary pursuit, the Sadhana.
Pardon me for the length
Cheers and Regards
Dear Shri Gopal
You mentioned about the Tamil Siddhars being 'away from Tantric'. I missed that remark last time .Pardon me.
Well; all such practitioners did have something to do with Tantra. Here, Tantra does not necessarily mean occult or left-handed practices carried out in secrecy. Tantra, here, denotes 'duality' in approach, where the whole of existence is viewed as manifestation of Purusha and Prakrti; or, of Shiva and Shakthi. It is the kind of duality that leads to the union of the two. The Siddhars, of all kinds of Schools, seemed to share a common cosmology, principles, practices and symbols.
To the Tamil Siddhars, Shiva is the unqualified and ultimate reality beyond form or comprehension; while Shakthi, the Goddess, is the divine force abiding within the body itself. Shakthi is accessible; and, She is the way (margi) to Shiva. It is only her grace and love that can elevate the consciousness of the Siddhar into union with the Absolute. The Siddhar beseeches the Mother Goddess to intercede on his behalf and expand his consciousness beyond all limitations, so that he may become Shiva himself. (Meand God becoming one; like wind becoming breath.)
Even in the comparative recent times, a Tamil Siddhar Ramalingar (around 1840) in his verses praising Shiva begs the Mother calling her out as "Amma" or "Akka". He requests the Mother Goddess to plead for him with Shiva.
Though the Tamil Siddhars, in general, were away from orthodoxy and temple–culture, their works speak, frequently, in terms of Tantra imagery with references to Kundalini, the ways to control unruly feminine power through breathing practices (Yoga) and mindful repetitions (japa) of Goddess's sacred mantra. (For instance; Tirumular in his work "Tirumanthiram ".)
The elements of Tantra, its terms and practices, it seems, had already spread through the south by the time of Tirumular. Tantra, here, represents a profound refinement of the symbol system of the individual's religious experience.
Tirumular, views the human body as the temple of the Goddess Shakthi .He says, using the terms of Kundalini Yoga, such as: prana, solar and lunar vital currents (naadi),
In Shakthi's temple if you control the left and the right you can hear a lute in the center of your face. And Shiva will come out dancing sweetly. I swear upon Sada Nandi we have spoken the truth
The Siddhars, as in the Tantra, emphasized that the Universe (macrocosm) is reflected within the individual (microcosm) .The Universe (the Shiva) in all its totality is contained within the body of the individual.
The smaller than the smallest, The larger that the largest, stands within… like ripe sugarcane.
Dear Shri Sekhar, Please pardon me . I do not know how I missed your comment (perhaps due to lack of practice in responding). I am sorry.
Yes; what you said may be a fact. But, there has been a long tradition of alchemists in India, China and in Europe striving to transform a base metal into a noble one. I do not know how well they succeeded. Apart from the alchemists, I find that, nearer home , Yogi Vemana story too mentions about his 'gold-making' efforts.
Yes; again, use of mercury, a known poison, for therapeutic purposes is well recorded since the old times. I reckon, it is still being used in present-day medicines.
About solidifying mercury, it appears to be quite possible. I find that many temples in South India proclaim that they enshrine "Rasa Lingam "– Lingam made of mercury. In fact , the Ashram at Coimbatore run by Jaggi Vasudev , a Swami , is said to have a 'Lingam made of solidified and 99.8% purified mercury".It is said to be housed under water.
The 'Mercury Lingam. business appears to be a thriving one. Google search for Rasa Lingam throws up plenty of vendors marketing mercury-lingam of various sizes.
Thanks for the visit
To the Tamil Siddhars, Shiva is the unqualified and ultimate reality beyond form or comprehension; while Shakthi, the Goddess, is the divine force abiding within the body itself. Shakthi is accessible; and, She is the way (margi) to Shiva. It is only her grace and love that can elevate the consciousness of the Siddhar into union with the Absolute. The Siddhar beseeches the Mother Goddess to intercede on his behalf and expand his consciousness beyond all limitations, so that he may become Shiva himself. (Me and God becoming one; like wind becoming breath.)
The smaller than the smallest, The larger that the largest, stands within…like ripe sugarcane.
punamchand pancharia
I want alchemy swarn by mercury processgive andbook of agastiyar alchemy rasasashtar
Dear Punamchand , thank you for the visit.
The question was not quite clear.
Can you please put it more clearly and amplify it?
Thanks for sharing knowledge, i found it very very useful
Dear Suresh
I am glad you found the artice useful.
I am curios.
Pray, let me know
In what way did you find this useful.
Please keep talking.
One eyed Odin could be one eyed shukra. Odin is called as a poet. Father of Aesir. The Danava branch of Asura is related to goddess Danu who is an European goddess of river Danube, Don.
Dear SH, OK. I am not so sure
Asura Maya (Mayasura) could be Ahura Mazda.
Dear SH , Please read my post -: Varuna and his decline – Part Seven- which discusses about Varuna – Asura and Ahura Mazada a t https://sreenivasaraos.com/2012/10/05/varuna-and-his-decline-part-seven/
Btw- this article was about Rasa-vidya which combines in itself the science of Alchemy , the medicinal science of Ayurveda , the efforts to rejuvenate and a sort of spiritual practice (Tantra)
Dear scholar, Thank you for your detailed monograph.
I have to read more of all the immense material you have developed.
I want to respectfully ask you a question.
Do you know anything about the properties of the Sacred Pearl Navapashanam?
What opinion deserves this product according to your knowledge?
Personally I respect that pearl a lot, but your opinion is very important to me.
Thanks in advance, Angel, Argentine
Pranam!
I'm simply stunned by your vast knowledge.
If I may, could I ask you certain questions via email regarding the alchemical process involving Mercury?
I'm doing research for a book I'm writing….
Dear Dimple, thank you for the visit
Regarding the alchemical and clinical treatment of mercury ; and the Rasa siddhanta , as per Indian traditions : please read my post : Siddha and the way of Rasa ; and also follow the reference/sources and links given therein
https://sreenivasaraos.com/2014/01/10/siddha-and-the-way-of-rasa/
For further , please let me know | , it must be allowed to cool down and solidify. The cooling-operation is done with the application of concentrated vegetable extracts and mineral ashes which have cooling properties. These ingredients help the Mercury to coagulate quickly.
13.1. It was believed that after undergoing seventeen sequential processes, the mercury would be rendered pure (detoxified) solution and fit for consumption. At this stage, the Mercury cleansed of its poisons can be handled safely. The Mercury thus treated and processed over elongated procedures acquires new properties and becomes beneficial to humans.
[There is a mention of another peculiar property of solidified Mercury: its psychological effect. Those who swallow it become aware of an aspect of their consciousness which they did not explicitly know. Solidified mercury thus acts as a revealing agent, providing the person an opportunity to cleanse himself.]
13.2. At the end of the fantastic series of samskaras, the mercury itself would have disappeared leaving only the 'noble and immortal' metal – the gold. The final product, if consumed in prescribed quantity would, it was claimed, rejuvenate the body and make it as resplendent and burnished as gold. "The Siddha who ingests is immediately transported to the realms of the gods, Siddhas, and Vidyadharas".
13.3. The gold here becomes an insignia of immortality. And, by swallowing a pellet of such created gold the alchemist becomes a second Shiva, a Siddha, perfected, golden and immortal*. There is also a Vedic myth of Prajapathi turning into gold (hiranya purusha): 'he is Prajapathi, he is Agni, he is made of gold, for gold is light and fire is light, gold is immortality and fire is immortality' (Shatapatha Brahmana: 4.1.18).
[*This is regarded a re-enactment of the cosmic process. Mercury here symbolizes Shiva, the all-absorbing supreme ascetic, at the end of time cycle, effortlessly withdrawing into himself the whole of the Universe; transforming matter into essence – Rasa. The swallower and the swallowed are immortal.
The process is also described in another manner: metal, the earth element (muladhara) is absorbed into water element (svadistana); the water element into fire element (manipura); the fire element is absorbed into element of air (anahata) ; and the air is absorbed into ether – akasha (vishuddhi) . And, at the sixth stage, all these are telescoped, swallowed back into manas – mind (ajna). Finally, everything merges into pure Shiva consciousness, prakasha – at the thousand-petalled sahasra.]
13.4. In a way of speaking, the shodhana (purification) of mercury and the Sadhana (accomplishment) of the Siddha are analogues; as they both aim for perfection.
The goal of Siddha alchemy (which essentially is a spiritual technique) is immortality of body, invincibility and transcendence of human conditions. The transformation of base metals into gold is largely a symbolic concept than a concrete objective. At another level, what is of prime importance is liberation (Moksha or Paramukti) which requires self-purification and separation from baser earthly bonds, as also from their tendencies. The path of the Siddhas though alchemic in nature is entwined with Yoga and spiritual traditions.
[In comparison, the Ayurvedic use of mercury (rasa shastra) which by far pre-dates that of Siddha Alchemists was for medicinal purposes. Rasa Shastra was basically a medical alchemy. It was a process which attempted to fuse metals, minerals, gem-stones, animal products, herbal ingredients and other substances to concoct medicinal compounds aim to cure chronic diseases , to rejuvenate the system and ultimately achieve indefinitely long-life. Thus, its primary application was therapeutic (rogavada), to restore health; and not to create a second Shiva or a Superman.]
Decline of the Siddha traditions
14.1. However, in the later times, the practice of consuming treated mercury and its allied elixirs in order to attain various Siddhis and longevity sharply declined. That was, perhaps, mainly because the samskara techniques of purifying mercury, and transforming it into elixir were lost. Another reason could be that the standards set by the texts for a qualified Alchemic Siddha (Rasacharya) were exceedingly high; and in the later periods there were hardly any who measured up to those lofty standards.
14.2. Because of such imperfections, the Siddha techniques and aspirations became rather faulted. In recent times, many would- be – Seekers have attempted to bind Mica, Sulphur and Mercury together, but with little success. And, in a few cases where they succeeded the mercury could not be entirely detoxified or the resultant 'gold' did not gain the requisite physical (specific gravity, colour etc) and chemical properties of true natural gold. Therefore, the sort of transmutation power ascribed to mercury in the old texts could not be realized. Some scholars even wonder whether Mica and Sulphur mentioned in the texts did actually mean the metals. It is quite likely, they surmise, those terms might have been employed as symbols or codes to denote something else.
15.1. As regards the Siddha cults, except for a sprinkling of Natha Siddhas in North India the other Siddha sects have virtually vanished. The sects of the Siddhas were, mostly, the victims of their own excesses.
15.2. The first, I reckon, was the bad publicity they gained because of their reckless living and lack of decorum in public. But, to be fair to them, they were merely living out or putting into practice, in good faith, the traditional beliefs of their sect. In seeking to be true to the principle of non-difference, being indifferent to – the good and the bad; sacred and the profane; beauty and ugliness; pure and the sordid; exalted and the demented; squalor and grandeur; decent and indecent etc – many aspiring Siddhas, clueless , indulged in what appeared to common people as anti social, atrocious and totally unacceptable reprehensible behaviour. The Siddhas were in due time ostracized by the polite society.
15.3. The other was the sanitization or sophistication brought in by Abhinavagupta and his School. This rendered the Siddha and Tantric ways into refined, mystique, highly complicated and theorized schools of thought. Such elite and cerebral teachings were beyond the ken of most initiates who ordinarily came from the lower rung of the society. The new entrant could neither grasp nor identify himself with such ethereal discourses. The new teachings were unrelated to a common man's day-to-day experiences, entangled in a web of social and family bonds; living, loving, eking out a living; aging and dying as anyone else did. The thirty-six or thirty-seven steps of metaphysical levels of existence (tattvas) charted out by Abhinavagupta were beyond the understanding of common man; and, it held out few answers to his concerns and aspirations.
The adherents of Natha Siddha cult, therefore, fell back to the older and primitive beliefs of Pashupathas and Kapalikas, the devotees of terrible forms of Shiva, who practiced in seclusion and lived away from the puritan and highly discriminating learned class. Natha Siddhas, away from public gaze, now offered concrete pleasures and powers that could be experienced in the real world by aspiring men. The Natha Siddhas, the kanphatas (split ear lobes) thus emerged as a sort of power brokers for the ordinary men of this world.
[A Note:
A-mruta (non-death) or immortality has been one of the fascinations of the ancients. It is said; in the Vedic times the gods attain and maintain eternal life by offering Soma to one another, as oblations among themselves. The message is: It is not enough to merely possess the Soma drink to gain immortality. The secret lies in offering it as oblation to another god. It is only then , one gains immortality that Soma confers. The Asuras were perhaps not aware of this secret; and greedily drank the soma without offering it to others. And, therefore they gained no benefit from the Soma drink.
The premise of the Yajna, it is said, is based on this secret. The humans offer oblations idealized as Soma into Agni who in turn hands them over to Svaha Devi to pass on to other gods. The oblation offered sustains the gods; and, maintains their immortality. The humans receive from the gods the benefit of the Soma offered to them, as god-given gifts of wealth, happiness, full-life span (visvayus) and even immortality. In order to live a full and a satisfying life, one needs to be ever engaged in Yajnas, in giving and sharing. ]
The Alchemical | 1,933 |
Home Entertainment Dubai wants to be one of the world's smartest cities.
Dubai wants to be one of the world's smartest cities.
Dubai world's smartest city leveraging its position as a technology-driven
Euronews was informed by Khalifa Al Qama, Director of the world's smartest cities future Labs at Dubai Future Foundation:
"We've been on this journey for the last 20 years, where robots are enabling digital services to provide additional levels of comfort to the citizens of the city… Because of that layer of infrastructure, now we can start benefiting from having robots exist within our societies to provide us with services." This journey has been going on for the past 20 years.
Impact on the industry One important area in which robotics is providing crucial assistance in healthcare.
According to Dr. Yaser, the technology makes it possible for surgeons to carry out intricate procedures with greater precision and minimally invasiveness thanks to the use of robotic arms.
He<|fim_middle|> evolved now with robotic surgery." Because laparoscopic surgery naturally evolved into robotic surgery, and the majority of surgeons are gradually shifting toward robotic surgery, outcomes are significantly superior to those of traditional surgery, including reduced blood loss and faster recovery.
DG World, a robotics, industrial automation, and advanced mobility solutions provider, has been taking advantage of the industrial sector's shift toward autonomous systems. The autonomous robotic dog from Boston Dynamics performs inspection tasks, such as searching high-risk areas and crime scenes for data.
"There has been a significant increase in interest in robotics, especially in the Boston Dynamics robotic dog," stated Matthias Krause, General Manager of DG World. Nuclear authorities have investigated use cases. We have seen the police examining greatly, investigating how they can involve it for or for common various undertakings, for crime location checking, and a lot of different purposes and thoughts. We talked to Dubai's world's smartest cities Customs here, and they looked into advanced and repetitive area monitoring. As a result, there were a lot of applications of this kind, most of which came from customers.
Arious Holding's A Conscious City Singularious takes artificial intelligence and robotics to a new level, moving beyond a smart city.
Singularious' Board Chairman and Eltizam's Group CEO, Chris Roberts, explained: For the future, we want to design and construct new cities. A conscious city in which artificial intelligence enables the city to think for itself. When it comes to how we actually maintain and manage cities in the future, this is something that will have a significant impact on lifestyles.
Famous scientist Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNet and Chief Scientist at Singularious, is also working on the Singularious Conscious City master plan. He helped develop the social humanoid robots Sofia, the Desdemona music robot, and Grace, the healthcare robot.
He started to Euronews, "What you really have in the majority of smart cities is a sort of disparate collection of intelligent devices doing particular things." They do not form a cohesive cognitive system. What's more, that is actually the objective with the cognizant city, [it's] city level knowledge in the assistance of the people living in the city."
In the next three to four years, Dr. Goertzel anticipates that AGI and the future will also make the transition from the research lab to widespread deployment with the same capabilities as humans.
"I believe that having humanoid robots share our everyday environments gives us a very natural way to interact with the overall AI systems in our environment behind the scenes. In the future, I believe that will be a much more natural way to interact with our environments than, say, typing into a phone, speaking into a phone, or using something like Alexa. Publish By World News Spot Live
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The Batman 2 and Colin Farrell's Penguin Series will be linked.
Dwayne Johnson has confirmed that James Gunn's DC Universe will not... | told Euronews, "Laparoscopic surgery has | 12 |
Four p.m.—The only thing notable is that nothing is notable. I wonder if any writer has ever recorded the observation that most time passes and most events occur without notable significance. I am sitting here looking out the window at a tree and wondering why it is that though it is a splendid tree, it is of not much account. It is no good to me. Is it the nature of the human condition or the nature of the age that things of value are devalued?
Essays such as "The Loss of the Creature" and "The Man on the Train" explore this peculiar devaluation and then posit avenues of recovery. One such avenue is catastrophe or death. Why is it we can remember where we were when we heard the news of the 9/11 attacks or of the assassination of President Kennedy? Why do people crane their necks to<|fim_middle|> Thus arises, Percy claims, the secret longing for apocalypse—a longing for destruction in hopes of building anew from the rubble.
Principalities and power are everywhere victorious. Wickedness flourishes in high places.
So begins the dream that is the novel, peopled by Bantu guerillas overtaking the Paradise Estates Country Club, hysterically deep political divisions, the vanity of science—Tom More is tempted by the prospect of the Nobel Prize for his "lapsometer," a device that can "probe the very secrets of the soul, diagnose the maladies that poison the wellsprings of man's hope"—and the glib spirituality of New Agers.
Love in the Ruins depicts the violence and catastrophe of apocalyptic times. In so doing, the novel itself becomes an avenue of recovery. Percy thought the novel an especially suitable medium for the possibility of renewal. If the world and the self are devalued, art, particularly the novel, can awaken the reader to their recovery. For Percy, the novelist resorts to malice, deceit, and indirection to jar the reader into recognition of "the peculiar malady of the age"—loss, deprivation, devaluation, alienation, violence.
News of Walker Percy's death jarred me into a heightened sense of reality. The swing, oak tree, Baby Ben on my lap, and my wife took on a density beyond the everyday. A few days later, at Percy's funeral, the Mass of Christian Burial and interment at the Abbey Church and cemetery reminded the entire congregation of the hope of recovery and renewal amidst the loss of this great artist and thinker. His works remain, however, challenging all readers and me to the possibility of recovery from a malady of which we are dimly, if at all, aware.
Edward Dupuy serves as founding dean at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio. He is the author of Autobiography in Walker Percy: Repetition, Recovery, and Redemption (LSU Press). | see an automobile accident? A sense of heightened reality and paradoxical value accompanies these moments. Everyday moments, by contrast, are easily forgotten, unremarkable. | 32 |
Considering play: From method to analysis
Posted On 26.3.2018 Aleksi Kesseli 0
As the field of game studies has evolved, so has its methodology. There are different approaches to analyzing a game that a ludologist can employ, which are discussed in an article by Jasper van Vught and René Glas titled Considering play: From method to analysis. Elaborating and building on prior theories, the authors highlight different ways of playing games analytically.
Games as objects vs games as a process
There exist two different schools of thought within ludologists. Those who treat a game as an object and those who treat it as a process. The former assume that a game provides a core structure that encourages or enforces certain play actions to be performed, which then form the "game text" that is discussed and analyzed. Those who treat games as a process factor in the subjectivity of the<|fim_middle|> of objectivity.
A visualisation from the article
A fundamental research question in game studies is to choose from what angle to approach a game. Knowing which theoretical framework suits your research question is important in making the play process a more effective and well considered part of one's research.
Original article: http://digra2017.com/static/Full%20Papers/56_DIGRA2017_FP_Vught_Considering_Play.pdf
#game research#ludology#methods | play experience, meaning that they focus more on how players actually choose to play the game. Scholars who use this methodology might discuss how "a game of Counter Strike" might be amazing by analyzing what happens during an individual round or play session. These varying approaches are also called formalism and situationism, formalism focusing on the formal aspects of the game while situationists study concrete gaming practices and sometimes argue that gaming can't be studied in the abstract.
Focusing only on the structural elements of a game puts the researcher in the risk of ignoring the fact that play does not always abide by the rules set by a game's design, while focusing too much on play practices can ignore the meanings embedded in the game by its designers.
A game of Counter Strike.
Instrumental vs free play
Players can let their in-game actions be informed by two different approaches. Following the game's formal components (such as tutorials) and playing the game as intended is called instrumental play, whilst more unstructured and anarchic player behavior is called free play. Instrumentalism is more aligned with formalism, while free play is with situationism. There exist different subsets within both play types.
One form of instrumental play is exhaustive playing strategy, which means that one should perform all the different actions that a game makes available before making claims about a game as a whole. According to the authors, this strategy is inherently limited to small games and specific research questions.
Heuristic analytical strategies
For instrumentalists seeking to perform actions that lead to success (completion) in a game, the authors specify three different heuristic strategies:
Gameplay condition: Success can be defined by the ability to keep playing the game, thus every subsequent choice the player makes is based on the desire the keep playing. Works mainly in linear games of progression.
The rational player: As long as every move is informed by the desire to achieve the game's objective, one can focus on the way that game structures player behavior to positive and negative reinforcement.
The cooperative player: Here cooperation occurs between the player and the game, if the player follows the game's cues to play in "appropriate" manner. It's argued that unlike the aforementioned two methods, this one lets the player to distinguish between more and less important elements of the game's narrative and progress (such as between side and main quests).
Free play, or transgressive play, is intentional rebelling against the "intended way" of playing the game. There exist myriad of different transgressive approaches a researcher can take, but the authors highlights two above all else: cheating and "going native".
Cheating "allows us to reflect upon the presuppositions that we bring to games". Going native is a sociological term used to describe concerns with losing objectivity as a result of becoming too involved with a research subject. The authors argue that from a humanities perspective, a more subjective experience "is not just acceptable, but unavoidable".
Considering context
An important part of ludoliteracy is understanding context. Being ludoliterate means being able to place a game in the context of human culture (including the relation with other media); in the context of other games (including genre); and the context of the technological platform on which games run.
The importance of acknowledge one's own context as a researcher is stressed as well in the article. As a game's scholar is "inherently caught up in the object of study", it is argued that downplaying or obscuring oneself in the context of the study is problematic. Formalists might be more inclined to try and appear objective in their readings of games, while situationists prefer personal tellings of games over the notion that game criticism should be a pursuit | 738 |
I often shiver with apprehension when crossing the threshold of the latest overhyped eatery, and Kenmare was no exception. The place is partly owned by Chloë Sevigny's night-clubby brother, Paul—not promising—though the choice of chefs is: Joey Campanaro, whose pedigree includes two hits (Harrison, Little Owl) and one miss (Market Table). Like the name says, the restaurant is located on Kenmare Street, a gritty Lower East Side thoroughfare that takes up where Delancey Street leaves off, then promptly dead-ends into Lafayette Street.
For nearly a century, ending in 2000, the space held Patrissy, an Italian joint that became notorious as a hangout for the staff of EC Comics, who inked Tales From the Crypt and other goth-horror titles in the 1950s, in addition to launching Mad magazine. Indeed, the interior retains a certain sepulchral quality via a vaulted ceiling, arched doorways, dirty-beige stucco, and scary metal sculptures that might remind you of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you seek out the bathrooms down a darkened hallway in the rear, keep your eyes peeled for things that go bump in the night.
Though my date and I made reservations days in advance on our first visit, we were stuck with a 6 p.m. time slot, suggesting that Kenmare was already wildly popular. We weren't the only ones early-birded: Soon after we sat down, the greeter ushered in Jay Cheshes of Time Out and, later, Sam Sifton of the Times. The service had been exceedingly slow, but it improved markedly once Sifton—dressed like an undertaker in a somber charcoal-gray suit with skinny lapels—was seated. For the next hour or so, critics and their cohorts were nearly the only diners in the room.
The first dish to hit the table was promising. My date loved the slider ($5), a juicy puck of pork, beef, and veal. (Campanaro is sometimes credited with reinventing this bar morsel at Little Owl.) Less satisfactory was an asparagus gratin ($9) served on a giant plate. As we furiously shoveled like grave diggers, we realized that most of the mass was chopped endive, from which we were able to disinter only five or six mushy asparagus tips. A cup of beer-laced broccoli soup was perfectly edible, but seemed too much like bar food for a fancy restaurant.
An estimable innovation on the part of the chef involves incorporating pastas and risottos into the appetizer list, allowing you to treat them as shareable starters. In one risotto special, a Vesuvius-like heap of truffled rice comes with a raw egg yolk in its crater. Hello, sauce. Similarly tasty is spaghetti with shrimp and lobster in a spicy red fra diavolo gravy ($14).
As I plowed through the entrées, though, it became clear that many were seriously flawed. "Lamb t-bones" ($31) included two gorgeous chops with a blade-like bone running down the middle, charred on the outside while still bloody in the middle. Though the chops were<|fim_middle|> happy. | perfectly cooked, our pleasure was curbed by a sticky-sweet glaze, and the meat was crowded by a chaotic heap of boring baby lettuces, so that slicing the chops sent the infants spilling onto the table. Bad plating! With its superior salad of arugula and ricotta salata, a smallish breaded veal cutlet with salsa verde ($25) proved more satisfying, but, as with the lamb, the entrée arrived without any starch. Ordering the cheddar fries with giblet gravy ($8) wasn't the answer; it turned out to be merely another version of poutine.
Following the zeitgeist—and satisfying those who spend time thinking about how to ramp up their omega-3 intake—ocean-going fish predominate on the entrée menu. Steering clear of the creatures whose sustainability is questionable, my friends and I chowed down on arctic char ($23), a good-size piece of fish with its silvery skin cross-hatched from the grill. But the accompaniments provoked a laugh: a thin schmear of puréed turnips and a few shreds of pickled purple cabbage. Featuring four large specimens with no discernible sauce, the scallop entrée also suffered from inferior sides, including a spinach and strawberry salad and a rosti (Swiss lattice potatoes) barely bigger than a silver dollar.
Yes, Kenmare proved disappointing. While the ingredients were unimpeachable, the facile preparation of entrées was a deadly sin, making you wish the kitchen had managed to squirt an additional sauce or two. And the meager accompaniments seem devised for the kind of diner who just eats the flesh and leaves everything else behind. In other words, Kenmare is a place that could make zombies very | 362 |
Home News Mike Webster
Mike Webster<|fim_middle|> will be missed greatly.
From the Board, Honorary Members, and Staff at UK Deaf Sport.
Disclaimer: At the time of publishing all links included in this article were active and working, however over time they may have depreciated and no longer link to the original source page. |
All of us at UK Deaf Sport are saddened by the news of Mike Webster's passing on the 26th November 2021.
His contributions to Deaf Sport for the past 50 years has been many. The dedication and passion he has shown towards deaf sports has had a long lasting impact on the landscape. Here are some notable Deaf sporting achievements Mike has achieved over the years.
As a young man back in the 1970's, he led Luton Deaf Rangers football team to the British Deaf Sport Council (BDSC) Football Challenge cup final. This was very impressive since they were recently formed at the time and did not have the vast amount of experience that the other teams had at the time.
Mike was a former director of British Deaf Sport Council which is now called British Deaf Sport heritage. He was known at being very good at setting up and organising new and exciting events, such as the BDSA trip to Australia for a series of sporting challenges. He also founded the home nations of Deaf bowls and organised the World Bowls Championship in Wales.
Throughout the years Mike raised funds for deaf sports though fundraising events such as cycling from Cambridge to Oxford and doing collections at supermarkets throughout the country, to ensure that the next generation of deaf athletes get to experience sport and Deaflympics. Most notably his involvement in the 2005 Melbourne Deaflympics in supporting the GB team.
In 2020 Mike was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by Deaf Sport Personality of the year.
Our thoughts and condolences are with Mike family and friends during this time. Mike has been a wonderful ambassador for Deaf sport and | 344 |
As mid-career professionals, we have a unique set of challenges facing us when thinking of changing jobs, careers or simply progressing within our careers. We can not afford to start a new career as an intern getting the much-valued work experience, we don't have much time to adopt the required skills for that new role, we simply aren't the target audience for new careers. To make a successful transition, we need strategies that work for us. At Career Transitioners, we get you, because we have been there. We use cutting edge psychological strategies to help you supercharge your confidence and break through<|fim_middle|> range of psychometric and sociometric diagnostic tools, we are able to identify your unique skills and the unique skills required for the job you want and craft a plan with you that will help you bridge that gap successfully. | those limiting barriers that are holding you back from a successful career transition.
The traditional ways of career progression and successful career transition are quickly becoming obsolete: traditional job boards and recruitment agencies, as we know, are merely re-posts, just to get your data. The CV writing services seem to simply charge for reformatting and editing CVs. and the Careers Advice services are generally geared towards graduates and school leavers. At Career Transitioners, we will show you how to optimize and leverage your online social networks, your offline circle of influence and identify innovative ways to get access to the jobs that will really excite you.
There is a massive skills shortage in the UK. many industries are seeking skilled and talented individuals to fill jobs every day and many jobs are going unfilled due to this skills shortage. At Career Transitioners, bridging skills gaps is what we do best. Using a | 177 |
Whether it's premium suede, lush nubuck, or the finest Horween Leather, you can count on those materials being available on the New Balance custom programme – NB1 – at some point or another, but there's a brand new update, and it's possibly our favourite yet.
Over the last few years, there have been a few pairs of Made in USA New Balance released which have utilised Cone Denim, and they've been some of the most successful releases to date. The use of Cone Denim on the uppers of some of New Balance's most premium silhouettes adds a whole other dimension, and it's one that we are fully onboard with.
If you're unfamiliar with Cone Denim, for the last 125 years, they have been making some of the most beautiful denim in the world, and now, for a limited time only, you have the chance to make your NB1 with extremely high quality light or dark washes<|fim_middle|> you can use either 'washed indigo' or 'dark indigo'.
Now let's firstly dive into our favourite silhouette available on NB1 – the 998 – and take a look at all of the details.
As you can see, this particular NB1 998 features a lush black suede upper, with the dark wash Cone Denim underlay, a pretty perfect match if we do say so ourselves.
If the 998 is the preferred model for you, then you can start getting creative with the 998 here.
Next up is the New Balance 990v3, and it may not be the first choice for many on the NB1 custom programme, but we have to say, that with the new Cone Denim options, it looks particularly great with the panelling on the 990v3.
You can utilise the Cone Denim options and create your 990v3 NB1 here.
Last but not least, the Made in USA 574 is not to be forgotten about, the original New Balance custom model is looking as good as ever with the updated material options, and you can design a pair here. | of Cone Denim right here.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on the three models available on NB1 – 998, 990v3, 574 – with the updated Cone Denim material option, so of course, we took them out for a spin and took an in-depth look at each pair.
The three men's pairs featured in this post all come in subtle black colourways with the dark wash Cone Denim, and we've covered all the details on each model to show you just how the new material option will look on each of the three silhouettes.
Note that both washes of denim are available for the men's and women's pairs, so | 144 |
Messi Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah has the similarity with Leo – Arsene Wenger
September 9, 2019 October 15, 2019 Redford Arsene Wenger, Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah is a very familiar name<|fim_middle|> like LM10. He is a good finisher but Lionel Messi is a complete footballer. LM10 also assists many times.
Wenger also added that Salah wants to score goal most of the time but when he will mature completely, he will understand when to pass the ball to the teammates and when to finish alone. | in football World right now. He is an Egyptian professional football player and playing for the English club Liverpool. Now, he has become an inseparable part in the Reds squad. Salah who is often compared with the Argentine great Lionel Messi considering the playing style. He is also a dribbler and renowned for his amazing finishing skill. Now, the former boss of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Mohamed Salah has the similarity with Leo!
Like it or not, Mohamed Salah is one of the best players in the World right now and he is very much known for speed, dribbling and perfect finishing. Salah is currently 27 years old and already earned his place among the top-rated players in the World. He joined at the Anfield in the year 2017 and already played 78 appearances with the club and scored 57 goals so far. In the last season, he played a vital role for the Reds and so, his team won the Champions League title and also finished the league season with 2nd position. For just 1 point, they missed the top rank.
Arsene Wenger believes that #LFC star Mohamed Salah can match Leo Messi.
"I find him a just as good finisher but Messi is the complete thing – he gives the final ball as well and Salah is a bit obsessed now by finishing himself." pic.twitter.com/rH12tv8PLB
— SBOBET (@SBOBET) September 8, 2019
Yes, obviously we cannot compare him with one of the greatest players of all time like Lionel Messi but yes, they have something in common no doubt. And the former coach of the Gunners talked about the similarities.
Arsene Wenger is completely impressed by the playing style of Mohamed Salah after arriving at the Anfield. And so, he has found a similarity between Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah. In the last week, Liverpool played a Premier League match and won against Burnley by a 3 – 0 goal. In the game, his teammate Mane was in a suitable position to score a goal but Salah did not pass the ball but tried himself. So, after the game, the Egyptian star has been criticized strongly.
"He has similarities to Messi."
Arsene Wenger is a big fan of Mohamed Salah. pic.twitter.com/BatkUnOc0p
— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) September 8, 2019
Arsene Wenger does not like to see it as a major mistake. This experienced coach believes that Salah is a good finisher but it will take time to come maturity. He also added that Salah has similarity with Leo but obviously, he should keep his performance continue | 549 |
Inside the London Marathon<|fim_middle|> | 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Runner-Up, Pro Runner for Saucony | Bubble with Molly Seidel
A quick bonus episode of "More Than Running" as we're in-between seasons. We get to catch up with the inaugural guest and 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials runner-up Molly Seidel as she gets ready to run the London Marathon. The race is typically held in April but was postponed until October and then scaled down into an Elite-only race involving 19 clockwise laps of a 2.15-kilometer course around St James's Park and finishing on the Mall as per tradition. Seidel is one of three American women racing.
Molly tells us what it's been like living in the 40-acre biosphere where all elites, coaches and staff members have been quarantined ahead of the race to prevent any possible coronavirus outbreak or spread.
You can find all past episodes of the podcast here.
Subscribe and listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Anchor.
➡️ Follow Molly on Instagram.
▶ Follow Dana: Twitter | Instagram
Introducing 'More Than Running with Dana Giordano'
More Than Running: Molly Seidel | 227 |
Crash Commando- Your Questions Answered!
Just in time for today's Update and DLC releases, all of these questions were submitted by our listeners, and the team over at EPOS were kind enough to answer.
The concept was born as we wanted to do something out of the ordinary in a multiplayer environment. We wanted to take the elements from a first person shooter and convert it into 2D.
Yes, if we can come up with a really good concept that feels<|fim_middle|> for CC? Is it easier to develop / to play?
We had classes earlier in the project's design cycle ,but we felt that we wanted to make something that would be easy to pick up and play without forcing the player to make too many strategic choices.
Also, it is easier to balance a game without having to take classes in account.
We don't know what the future holds for us, we just want to make fun, additive games that our players will love.
Our thanks to the team at EPOS for answering everyone's questions, and for their continued support of this awesome game. Don't forget to check out all of the DLC hitting the PSN today!
Posted by: Glenn Percival on August 27, 2009.
Celebrate Warhawk's 2-Year Anniversary With Us!!!! | both new and cool and at the same time have the addictiveness of Crash Commando.
We loved the PS3 from the second it was released and wanted to do something fun and special on this new platform.
We also thought that making the game exclusive would help us to concentrate on building "just one" game engine instead of two, which would have forced us to expand, which we didn't want to do at the time.
I just can't imagine playing Crash Commando on such a small screen, without zooming in heavily on the player.
A side effect of this would be that the view distance would drastically decrease and you would not know if an enemy is close-by or not.
Not at the moment, as all five of us are invested in both Crash Commando and new concepts.
None of us have ever played it and the first time I myself heard of it was just before we were finishing Crash Commando.
I'm sure there are more games that would remind you of Crash Commando, as 2D platform shooters are not that rare.
We've been through this and discussed it internally many times, but have yet to come up with a solid solution that would work for a game like Crash Commando.
This feature would also take a lot of development time to implement as there aren't a "simple" way to render many screens at the same time without making compromises on both the frame rate and the feeling of the game.
"What factors led you to choose a loadout-based shooter versus a class-based shooter | 305 |
I've been watching the debate over Amazon's e-book rental service, announced a few weeks ago. I can't help but notice how it recapitulates the debate over streaming music.
Here's a pretty normal day for me and music: I'll listen to the radio in my car en route to work.<|fim_middle|> that the existence of one technology supplants another. Sure, technologies become obsolete. But as a user and a lover of the content (the text, or the music, or the images), I'm not interested in hurrying up the process. Different technologies have different affordances, and my primary interest is in being able to reach for the most appropriate one for my purpose.
what will music fans pay for? | I take my iPod, loaded with MP3s, to the gym. At my desk, I stream music via Spotify, or Last.fm, or by using ex.fm for MP3 links, or Hype Machine, or more. Or I stream more radio. On the way home, I listen to CDs (my car is too old to have an auxiliary input). I might stream Spotify to my phone as I walk out to meet friends for dinner. And I'll put a vinyl record on when I come home.
Similarly, my office is full of text. Textbooks. Large-format coffee-table style books. My Kindle. Hand-bound copies of all of my theses. PDF e-books on my computer. Printouts of manuscripts to review. Bookmarks to online texts in my browser. Novels: hardbound, trade and pocket paperback. On my phone, Kindle and Instapaper. Workbooks.
I recently downloaded a number of illustrations from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 book, Kunstformen der Natur, from the Wikimedia Commons. They first existed as sketches, then engravings, then the lithographs that went into the book. Someone scanned the pages and uploaded them as high-resolution images, which I downloaded, opened in image-editing software, converted to greyscale and resized, and then downloaded to serve as the screensavers on my Kindle.
It's a fallacy to think | 286 |
Fresh from playing her dream role 'Girl' in the multi award-winning musical Once at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin this summer, Bangor actress Niamh<|fim_middle|> stars as Michael Carney in the new Jez Butterworth play The Ferryman, at London's Gielgud Theatre until January 6.
'Musical Theatre Workout' takes place on Sunday, Sepember 17 and is followed by 'Le Coq Physical Theatre Methodology' with Tinderbox Artistic Director Patrick J O'Reilly on October 21 and 'Acting for Screen' with actor Genevieve O'Reilly on November 4. All workshops are held at the MAC and each cost £25. For further information and booking email theatremasterclassni@gmail.com. | Perry will turn her attentions to training the next generation of musical theatre performers. The West End star, who came to prominence in the BBC One talent show I'd Do Anything, will run a musical theatre workshop at the MAC Theatre, Belfast next week.
Despite spending her adult life in London, Perry started her own early theatrical work in Northern Ireland as a member of Music Theatre for Youth (MT4Uth) and McMaster Stage School in Bangor, and is delighted to be back home on Sunday September 17 teaching what she hopes will become the future stars of musical theatre.
Perry has been invited to lead the workshop by Theatre Masterclass NI which, through monthly workshops, aims to give Northern Irish performers the opportunity to receive expert instruction from specialist tutors, whether they are emerging actors or already established in the industry. The company was inspired to action by the abolishment of both the BBC Performing Arts Fund and Northern Ireland's only Higher Level Performing Arts course, and is open to all actors age 14 and above.
Theatre Masterclass NI is the brainchild of local actor Fra Fee, who leads many of the workshops himself, and who also uses his contacts to encourage his friends and colleagues who are actively working in the industry to teach.
In its first year, 2016, a wealth of top-class talent led workshops for local actors including film and theatre giant Ciarán Hinds, acclaimed actors Dan Gordon, Glen Wallace and Jonjo O'Neill, casting director Carla Stronge and Irish Broadway sensation, Killian Donnelly. This year, Theatre Masterclass NI in association with Scott Williams, provided Meisner-technique training for established actors, and also led training at a number of higher level education colleges in association with Theatre NI.
The musical theatre workshop with Perry and Fee will include an intensive dance and physical training workout, a masterclass on voice qualities and technique, singing anatomy and physiology as well as stagecraft and acting techniques. There will also be a performance class in the afternoon when participants will have the opportunity to perform and work on either a song or monologue with both tutors.
Perry will be back in Belfast on Sunday, December 10 to perform in the Christmas in the City concert at the Ulster Hall. Meanwhile Fee, best known for his role in Hollywood blockbuster Les Misérables, currently | 472 |
'The Red Mill' offers merry night with Troupers
Jerome Sehulster
April 8, 2013 Updated: April 8, 2013 10:09 p.m.
NORWALK -- The flowers that bloom in the spring (tra la) bring promise of merry sunshine ... and also the merry Troupers Light Opera, who this season have opted to stray from the familiar Gilbert & Sullivan canon with a fully staged production of Victor Herbert's operetta "The Red Mill."
It's not the first time they've looked beyond G&S: In 2011 they plunged headlong into the froth of Viennese operetta with "Die Fledermaus." But in many ways this season's choice is a happier diversion. It's not that "The Red Mill" is a better show than "Fledermaus." No, rather this time the Troupers have assembled a cast that, happily, has coalesced nicely, a cast that creates a certain synergy where each player seems to enhance the performances of the others. It is indeed quite pleasing to witness such fun on stage in an evening with the Troupers.
Victor Herbert's "The Red Mill" was a smash hit on Broadway, both in its first run in 1906 and in a major revival in 1945. Though it's set in Holland at the turn of the<|fim_middle|> at least there is a Red Mill big enough for Gretchen to hide in and Willem's rather small tavern across the way for Kid and Con to climb out of in their attempts to beat the room tab.
The Troupers Light Opera production of Herbert's"The Red Mill" is performed at the Norwalk Concert Hall at 120 East Ave. in Norwalk on Saturday, a matinee at 2:30 p.m. and an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or visit the website at www.TroupersLightOpera.org.
Jerry Sehulster is a free-lance writer who lives in Stamford. He can be reached at jsehulster@att.net. | century, Herbert rarely, if ever, tries to evoke a Hollandaise sound. The score of "The Red Mill" is totally Knickerbocker, with dashes of ragtime. The story is typical operetta fare: suffice it to say everyone finds the right someone to love and all of the couples are happy and better off at the end.
At the center of the plot we find two Americans stranded in Holland, broke, but clever and ever so resourceful. Stephen Faulk (Con Kidder) and Nathan Brian (Kid Conner) play off each other with rapid fire wit and a winning charm. The pair's banter flows effortlessly, as does their singing and dancing. Bravi!
Of the several couples in the show, the Burgomaster's pretty daughter Gretchen and the handsome young sea captain Davis fill the "romantic category." Soprano Brett Kroeger's lovely voice shines in its upper range, especially in her musings on moonbeams from the upper floor of the Red Mill. Tenor Donald Haviland is a fitting partner in their duets.
Then there is the delightful Tina, the innkeeper Willem's daughter, sung by Jamie Caporizo. She is fond of Kid Conner but pursued by Franz, the town's sheriff. Caporizo exudes a positive energy throughout the show, in marked contrast to the sheriff's appropriately dour mien. Martin Diamond is Franz.
Wendy Falconer sings Bertha, the Burgomaster's sister. She is the practical one here. She helps Gretchen hide in the Red Mill, thus preventing her marriage, arranged by her father, with the prestigious governor of Zeeland. In the end Bertha convinces the governor to consider herself instead as his bride. Falconer brings a proper reason and firmness to the role.
Bob Scrofani's governor is an elegant creation, a man whose disdain for any long-standing relationship pervades his entrance song, which includes the refrain "Every day is Ladies Day for me." Scrofani's timing and delivery are polished.
Another comic couple forms only at the show's conclusion. Linda Palmer is the French Countess who enters the drama by an automobile accident. She ultimately finds a mate in Franz, the sheriff rebuffed by Tina. Palmer, a master of this sort of role in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, gives us a seasoned performance.
John Matilaine is well cast the Burgomaster who will sacrifice his daughter's happiness for a gain in prestige; Jim Cooper is Willem the Innkeeper. Hans (Bill Abbott) is pursued by Giselle (Deb Connelly), Brigitte (Rosa Parotta), and Rose (Tammy Strom); Rob Strom is Featherstonhaugh, the lawyer searching for Capt. Davis; Dan Montez's direction includes many gags that work, but, importantly, much of the humor comes from the characters themselves. Henry Blossom's book and lyrics are from a bygone era, quaint enough to make you smile, as do an insertion from today's celebrity news and a few one-liners from Gilbert's better known libretti.
Music director Jun Nakabayashi led the Troupers' orchestra with a precise hand. By even the second performance the band was playing like an ensemble. At times, however, the orchestral sound covered the smaller voices on stage.
The playing space of the Norwalk Concert Hall is built for concerts, not for elaborate sets or subtle lighting. But | 708 |
Captain Scott Fawcett has become one of the top ranked captains in Florida. His knack for finding fish and then staying with them has paid big dividends for anglers lucky enough to fish with Fawcett. His humble demeanor on the dock is a contrast to his focused business-like approach to keeping his anglers in the bite. Enjoy this look back at a tournament win earlier this year for Fawcett, which appeared in our print publication in March 2016 issue.
Wins to Date: Gold Cup Team Fishing Tournament, 1st Place, 500 Pts.
For anyone who is tired of hearing the same lineups winning all of the sailfish tournaments, just give Captain Scotty Fawcett a call. F<|fim_middle|> so he leased the Trust Me Too from Captain Steve Castellini.
With Castellini in the tower, mate Matt Coppoletta in the pit, Fawcett directed anglers Clark Beaty, Walker Royal, Mike Ivancevic, and Gunnar Askeland to 14 sailfish releases over three days to take home victory. "They are really good clients. They are experienced fishermen, who don't really get the chance to fish much anymore. They usually charter me for this tournament," Fawcett describes.
The first day of the tournament, the anglers and crew learned the boat but didn't tally too many points. The action picked up for the team, who trolled hooked ballyhoo and ran mullet dredges. On the afternoon of day three, Fawcett put the team on a quad. Successfully releasing all four of the fish vaulted the hybrid team into the lead, a lead they would not surrender.
Fawcett credits his first mate Matt Coppoletta for his consistency throughout the tournament season. The Trust Me Too went 14 for 14 during the Gold Cup. According to Fawcett this incredible ratio is due in large part to the gear deployed—Finnor Marquesa 30 reels paired with Blackfin sailfish rods. As the architect of this unlikely winner circle story, Fawcett describes the tournament—charter guests on a leased boat—as a "weird situation," but it was certainly one that produced results. | awcett runs his Off the Chain Fishing Charters out of Stuart, Florida. Six out of the last 14 or so years he has been hired by the same group of charters to fish the Gold Cup. This year, the group wanted a larger boat than Fawcett operates himself | 61 |
Im<|fim_middle|>020
The National Geographic Photo Ark: Oct 2018 – Jan 2019 | mersive exhibits and innovative experiences
Expand your mind with hands-on activities, exciting collections and moving stories. Explore the interconnectedness of our world, how it works and our place in it. What will you discover?
Energy on the Move
Energy on the Move focuses on how energy is harnessed for use on land, sea, and air. As Woodward, Inc. commemorates their 150th milestone anniversary, the exhibit also highlights Woodward's history and the innovative contributions they have made across the aerospace and industrial industries.
Music & Sound Lab
Whether your taste in music is rock 'n roll or Rachmaninoff, you'll find something to inspire you in the Music & Sound Lab, supported through the generosity of the Bohemian Foundation. You'll learn about the physics of sound (and why your parents were right about not listening to your music too loud), the technology behind everything from Edison wax cylinders to iPods, the history of the Fort Collins music scene, and have the opportunity to play instruments including guitars, drums, marimbas, keyboards, and even a theremin!
Schatz Family Exploration Zone
Roll up your sleeves and get in touch with your inner scientist! The Schatz Family Exploration Zone is full of intriguing hands-on ways to turn scientific concepts into action. Encounter light, color, air, and motion in a whole new way!
The Tot Spot
Designed for our littlest visitors, The Tot Spot reflects the larger museum in toddler-friendly ways! Check out the train table, water zone, art center, and the centerpiece – a giant crawl-through tree!
Wildlands & Wildlife
Begin your natural history adventure at the fossil wall, where you'll see the plants and animals that called Fort Collins home – millions of years before there was a Fort Collins! Opposite of the fossil wall is the regional biodiversity wall, home to the flora and fauna of our four ecozones of today. In between you'll find two creatures that connect past and present with their special stories.
FCMoD's live animals exhibit gives visitors an up close and personal experience with animals they can find in their backyard and beyond.
Sun, Earth, Universe
In this hands-on exhibition, you'll learn about how scientists study the Earth, Sun, solar system, and universe. Design, build and test your own model spacecraft; use tools to see the invisible; and see how scientists use color to help us understand data. Sun, Earth, Universe (Sol, Tierra, Universo) is bilingual, with all information in English and Spanish.
Food, Forage, & Farm
From ancient times to today people have found ways to survive and thrive in this challenging landscape and to make it home. Discover the rich story of how the land has shaped us and how we have shaped the land in the Food, Forage, and Farm exhibit.
People called this area home long before the first European settlers arrived. At least 13,000 years ago these people lived along the rivers and hunted the plains and mountains we see today, leaving traces of their complex cultures for us to marvel at. Learn about the Lindenmeier archaeological site and our original inhabitants in the First Peoples exhibit.
From its founding as a military camp in 1864 to today, the story of Fort Collins has moved! Why did people come to this town, how did they get here, what did they do to shape it into the prosperous and vibrant city we know today? Explore this story in the People on the Move exhibit.
Fort Collins is home to many wonderful natural areas, from the sweeping expanse of Soapstone Prairie Natural Area to the intimate river walk of the Gustav Swanson Natural Area. Get to know all the great recreational opportunities that our natural areas offer, and come face-to-face with two live black-footed ferrets – their incredible story of recovery from the brink of extinction will amaze you.
Ferret Cam
Healthy Steps
Take the Healthy Steps during your next visit! Healthy Steps is a new exhibit at Fort Collins Museum of Discovery made possible by the McKee Wellness Foundation. Together, we encourage you to climb to new, healthy heights and learn about Fort Collins on your way! Experience this interactive exhibit today - after all, good things happen one step at a time.
Explore past special exhibitions hosted in the Woodward Special Exhibition Gallery
Mental Health Matters: Sept 2021 – Jan 2022
Life in One Cubic Foot: Jun – Sept 2021
Once Upon a Playground: Jan – May 2019
Game Changers: Oct 2018 – Apr 2 | 940 |
Mario Perelli-Minetti Winery
Continuing to make outstanding wines using the same family recipe from 1978
This month's Platinum Wine Club selection is unique in a number of ways. While the history of the Mario Perelli-Minetti Winery dates as far back as 1978, the indelible stamp of the Per<|fim_middle|> it has.
Mario Perelli-Minetti
Dear Platinum Wine Club Members,
It is truly an honor to present Mario Perelli-Minetti Wines, 2005 Miriam Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in the Gold Medal Wine Club Platinum Wine Club members. As a small family winemaker in Northern California, I spend most of my time hiding out in the vineyards, wineries and restaurants of Napa Valley and the greater Bay Area, and while it would be my pleasure to meet all of Gold Medal Wine Club's distinguished Platinum Wine Club members in person, it's unfortunately not possible. This is an amazing opportunity for my family to showcase our boutique style wine and centuries of winemaking tradition.
To give you a little background about our winemaking process, one of the reasons Mario Perelli-Minetti makes such great wine is the personal attention and care taken at a small winery. Our barrel room is small and closely maintained; only one specialized wine worker will have his hands in the proverbial almighty French oak barrel. This guarantees tremendous cleanliness and discipline in the winery. Clean wine is happy wine!
With all due respect given to myself as a winemaker and business man, anyone can do what I do. It's the grape grower who deserves all the credit. It's how well the fruit can develop in the vineyard, it's how well the vines absorb sunshine, it's how well the soils can dance with the rootstalks…As a "California Wine Pioneer" (a title given to him by The Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation) my great grandfather Antonio Perelli-Minetti, son of a winemaker and graduate of the school of enology in Conegliano, Italy, came to California in 1902. He was always in the vineyards – every picture I have of him is in a vineyard or wine laboratory, and he knew the grapes were ready to make wine by sight, smell and taste. My great grandfather Antonio and grandfather Mario were true artists in the winemaking process. Today, 111 years later at Mario Perelli-Minetti Wines, we try and perpetuate the same characteristics of winemaking. "Wine is made in the vineyard."
Please enjoy this special wine. Thank you,
Andrew Perelli-Minetti | elli-Minetti Family dates back to the very early part of the 20th Century.
It was in 1902 that Antonio Perelli-Manetti first stepped foot in California to seek his fortune. His family had been in the wine business for several generations in Northern Italy and Antonio was determined to prove himself in California. He brought with him a proven record for making quality wines.
He settled in Sonoma and in a few years had his own winery. His son Mario worked in the vineyards and later graduated from Stanford Law School. After a few years in private practice, Mario felt the calling of the grape and returned to the family business because, "It was in my blood."
The Perelli-Minettis owned a number of wineries in different parts of California and became icons of the early California wine business. Mario, a salesman extraordinaire, became a living legend in the San Francisco Bay Area where he was said to know personally every person of importance in the wine business.
The baton of succession passed on to Andrew 'Andy' Perelli-Minetti when his grandfather Mario passed away at the age of 101 in August of 2010. It should be noted that Mario dressed (suit and tie) until his death and continued to call on his loyal cadre of customers.
Today's Mario Perelli-Manetti Winery is a sleek version of its former self. It will produce around 2,000 cases of exceptional wine that is usually divided into small lots. Owner Andy Perelli-Minetti sources extremely high quality grapes from growers that have known his family for many decades.
"I only seek out the very best fruit from people I know and trust. My customers know me well and they recognize what they are getting in the bottle. It's the same recipe that my family has followed for centuries now, buy great grapes and make even greater wines."
Andy seems well-suited for his immediate quest. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo just after the turn of this century and majored in agricultural business with an emphasis on wine marketing. His academic endeavors lend great credence to what he has been taught his entire life.
"When your family has been in a business for so many generations," Andy related, "certain aspects of the business filter down without ever being spoken. You learn from the family in a way that simply cannot be taught. My grandfather as an incredible person, and everyone who ever met him thought he was his best friend."
While the winery's finest wine, Miriam, comes from Napa Valley, the emphasis these days is more towards Sonoma Valley and its myriad of fruit choices.
"Miriam was named after my grandmother after she died," Perelli-Minetti continued. "They had been married more than 70 years. It was my grandfather's tribute to her memory and he wanted the very best to be in the bottle. Its source will never change nor will anything else about the wine. It will always be made with 100% new French oak and will only be available in very small lots."
Andrew Peretti-Minelli has also decided to stick with the old school labeling that his father began decades ago as a tribute to his father's memory. "It's what our customers are used to," he explained further. "Why change something that has worked for many years?"
Mario Perelli-Minetti Winery releases are only available in California, Florida, Georgia and Texas. Internationally, the wines can be found in both Canada and the Republic of South Korea.
It is always neat to see a winery reborn before our very eyes. Such is the case with Andrew Perelli-Minetti at the winery his grandfather founded. He refers to his calling as a "passion", rather than a labor of love. It is something I was destined to do and I know that people will judge me by what I accomplish. It is my desire to grow our winery slowly and keep the cost of production under control. In that way, I will be able to continue to purchase the finest grapes available and hopefully make wines that still have a great price/value relationship."
The addition of new winemaker Jim Mann (Luna Vineyards) will aid in Perelli-Minetti's pursuit of greatness for his company. It is only with people like Andy that the California wine industry will continue to improve as | 895 |
The Age of Consent – Who Owns "Big Data<|fim_middle|> into the findings of the recently published Global Payments Insight Series. Register to secure your place for the live webinar. | "?
Posted by Lu Zurawski to Payments and Industry Trends
The EU General Data Protection Regulation will enter in force at the end of this week, and there can be very few businesses today that are not scrabbling to meet compliance objectives.
GDPR sets out rights of citizens and consumers as owners of their own personal data, meaning that data can only be processed by a company if the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for specific purposes, or if that data is essential to fulfil the service contracted by the data subject. So far, so good. Arguably many companies will alter existing customer agreements in search of compliance.
Companies need to think beyond GDPR compliance and move towards proactive data privacy, consent management and customer-centric controls
Recently, however, GDPR and its potential ramifications reached a whole different level. The revelations about Cambridge Analytica and the alleged illegal access to the private data of almost 87 million Facebook profiles might turn out to be a turning point in consumers' expectations on how big data can be harnessed safely.
GDPR was never just a data security issue aimed at discouraging physical data breaches. The new regulation focuses on the rights of companies to use data, and the obligation to have explicit and informed consent from the people who own that data. GDPR should not be treated just as a compliance issue. It opens up a whole new industry for personal data management.
I predict a wave of class actions once GDPR has come into force, brought forward by legal groups and consumers, fuelled by occasional data breaches – both physical and legal.
This is likely to be noisy and chaotic, but it could pave the way away from traditional definitions of B2B and B2C towards a personalised data economy, where consumers become far more aware of the potential value of their own data, and of their opportunities to convert this potential value via new so-called 'Me2B' propositions.
'Me2B' means the consumer dictates the terms of how business relationships are formed. The 'Me2B' customer defines his or her own concept of loyalty, inviting businesses to sign up to the ultimate customer-centric loyalty program managed by 'me.' This would turn existing notions of loyalty and marketing upside down.
Companies need to think beyond GDPR compliance and move towards proactive data privacy, consent management and customer-centric controls. Data users will need to invest in data management architecture, such as the use of meta data definitions that include information about the use, origins and provenance of a specific data field or record (in addition to the definition of the field itself).
Awareness of citizens' rights regarding their own data is growing. The winners in the new 'Big Data world' so far have relied on consumers not really noticing. But as the unfolding Facebook/Cambridge Analytica saga shows, the landscape for big data has shifted. It will no longer be acceptable to process and monetize consumers' data without their explicit buy-in. And that will require new incentives and motivators. The winners in the next generation of big data will need to work out how to manage relationships with and preferences of individual consumers.
Lu Zurawski will be joined by Kieran Hines (Ovum) at 1:00pm (BST) on May 29 to take a deeper dive | 665 |
Erick Williams
Chef Erick Williams joined the opening team at mk The Restaurant in 1998 and took over leadership of the kitchen in the fall 2008. Under his direction, the menu at mk has retained<|fim_middle|> 7, 2022
Nashville Wine Auction raises more than $2.1 million at the 43rd Annual l'Eté du Vin August 8, 2022 | its farm-to-plate seasonal approach and has continued to receive accolades from local and national press. He is inspired every week at the farmers' markets in Chicago and has formed lasting relationships with mk's partner growers, among them the crews at Werp Farms, Nichols Farm, and Spence Farms.
Williams has been recognized for maintaining mk's three-star review given by Chicago Tribune Food Critic Phil Vettel and received yet another award from the Tribune in 2014 as a chef that has left "the most indelible impressions" within the industry. Willam's responsibilities cast a net beyond just the realm of the kitchen as he is also a partner alongside David Morton and Michael Kornick at DMK's County BBQ. Throughout his culinary career, Williams has worked with renowned artist Theaster Gates on Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art which was organized through the Smart Museum, cooked at the James Beard House in 2014, and was a co-host of the James Beard Dinner at mk with guest chefs Grant Achatz, Paul Kahan, Grant McPherson, and Mindy Segal, to name a few.
In addition to his numerous honors, Williams supports a number of charities within the restaurant community including the Charlie Trotter Education Foundation, Share Our Strength, the Green City Market, and the Anti-Cruelty Society.
Williams spends his spare time teaching and training at-risk youth and is a mentor to many; he believes in the value of education through cooking and strives to be an example for those in his community. He has worked with youth from Disney II Magnet School, Perspectives Charter School and adults from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, as well as fundraises for Sweet Water Foundation, which helps bring urban gardening and aquaponics to Chicago and Milwaukee area schools.
Williams sums up his feelings for cooking succinctly: "It was once said to me by my father that the search for equality is found through common ground, and sharing a meal is a universal expression of respect and dignity."
Website: https://www.mkchicago.com/
Pairings: Where the Stars Align featuring Nashville Chefs and West Coast Wines January 19, 2023
Nashville Wine Auction Presents Beneficiaries with End-of-Year Checks December 22, 2022
Nashville Wine Auction raises more than $330k at the inaugural Music City Harvest Party October 28, 2022
Nashville Wine Auction to Host the Inaugural 'Music City Harvest Party' September | 518 |
"?gua de Beber" by Hendrik Meurkens
Heather Bambrick and Diane Leah's new Christmas song is an 'emotional' ode to hope
By Raina Hersh
Heather Bambrick is a Juno-nominated vocalist — and if you've ever seen her perform, you'll know how much fun her shows are. Those performances have often been described as what happens when Carol Burnett meets Ella Fitzgerald at a Newfoundland kitchen party.
She's also a founding member of Broadsway, a jazz cabaret comedy enseble with Diane Leah and Julie Michels. And of course, she's also one of our beloved and award-winning hosts here at JAZZ.FM91.
Bambrick recently teamed up with Diane Leah to write a new song that's very appropriate for the holiday season — particularly this holiday season. It's called (Maybe We'll Have) Christmas This Year. For the New Music Spotlight, she stopped in after her show to talk about the new tune.
It's so nice to get to talk to you. With all of the cleaning and safety practices we have here at the station, it's rare that we actually get to pass each other in the studio anymore.
I know. We just wave from behind our masks, from a distance. "Oh yeah, it's you, hi!" Either that or I'm just waving to random strangers now, which is fun.
When you decided to get together with Diane Leah to write this song (Maybe We'll Have) Christmas This Year, it seemed like you had a mission. What inspired you to write a Christmas tune this year?
We had written one together last year or the year before — I can't remember now, time is flying — and it was a happy-go-lucky thing called Santa's on His Way. It was upbeat, lively, very typical Christmas.<|fim_middle|>It is really cathartic to hear you sing about the Christmas season the way it is for us now — to hear someone acknowledge that this has been a hard year. Did it feel that cathartic to write it, as well?
Oh gosh, yes. Absolutely. It happened really quickly. Diane and I have written a lot over the years. Some of it happens over a period of weeks, some of it happens over a period of days, and this happened over the period of an hour. It just flowed. It was emotional. It was very emotional for me to even sing it as we were working on it. There's one line, "We couldn't say goodbye the way we wanted to," and that referred to so many things. I know friends who have lost parents, and they were stuck across the border and couldn't get home, or their parents were in long-term care facilities and because of the regulations they didn't get a chance to say goodbye. In my case, I was able to be with my dad but we couldn't have the type of funeral we wanted to have. Singing that line was really hard for me, even in the studio. The catharsis was definitely there. The emotional purging was there. But it just felt like it was the right thing to do. We've heard from a lot of people who have commented on the fact that this is something that so many people can relate to.
Heather Bambrick wins Broadcast Dialogue award for best on-air host
A guide to some of the best jazz on Bandcamp
One of the lines that really sticks with me is, "It's not me and you and what we're going through / It's everyone." It's a reminder that it really is all of us who are in this together. What has it been like for musicians during this time — is there a galvanization of everyone coming together?
Everyone is doing their own thing and handling this differently. I've been fortunate enough that I have a place to go Monday through Friday. I've been able to go into the radio station. It's not singing my own music in front of a live audience, but it's playing the music of my friends and presenting it to people from whom I hear through emails and what not. But everybody's taking it differently. Some people are really struggling. Some people are having a hard time being creative. Some people are using this time to focus on different things — develop new projects, write new music. When we got into the studio to record this tune — distanced, masked up, all that sort of thing — it felt so good to play together again. It's been missing for almost a year now. It's hard, I'm not going to lie. For anyone in the arts who really focuses on live performance, we're struggling because it's what we do — it's who we are. It's been a rough year, and we're looking forward to some things changing.
It does feel like we as a society have been leaning on artists to get us through this time and to provide us with that sense of hope. Do you feel like there's a different connection now between you and the people who are listening to your music?
I think so. You're right, Raina. Whenever there's any sort of a fundraising event, you get musicians to come do a performance. When this first happened, there was a lot of that going on, and musicians were asked to partake in it. I think this gives us a good opportunity to say to people, "We were there for you when this first happened, when you needed consolation, when you needed inspiration. When you needed us to be there, we were there. We kept making music, we kept making online appearances." When everything is said and done and we're able to get out there and perform again, I think we're going to feel a little more comfortable saying to audiences, "Now we need you to come back for us." There are a lot of options out there. There are so many things that you can do at home and not ever leave your house, but I think we're going to need live music again. We're going to need to have that feeling. I think it'll be easier for us to say it's time to come out of hibernation and see some live music again as soon as it's safe to do so.
In the meantime, how can we support you and your music?
It's a great question. A lot of people don't really understand the ins and outs of so many parts of the music business. We all talk about streaming, and you can get things on iTunes, Spotify, etc. — and yes, you can — but the easiest thing to do is to go directly to the artist whenever you can. If there's an artist you like and you want to support them, wherever possible, go to that artist's website. If they have merchandise that you can buy directly from them, that's always the best way to do it, because they get the majority of the income without having to pay a lot of revenue to services that provide their music, etc. Direct consumption through an artist is always the best bet. When it comes to getting music that you'd like to hear — be it a full record or just a single — a lot of the time artists will sell it directly on their website. And Bandcamp is a brilliant organization that is very artist-friendly; their overhead and admin fees are very low, so the artists get the majority of the income from sales, and the first Friday of every month, they've been foregoing all of their admin fees and all the money goes directly to the artist. It's their way of giving back to the artists who are struggling right now. So I say, make your own decisions and go wherever you feel comfortable, go to the artist's website or a place like Bandcamp — either order a physical copy or get a download — and the majority of the money goes directly to the artist.
Where can we find (Maybe We'll Have) Christmas This Year?
I have it on my Bandcamp site. I promise Diane that I absolutely will give her half of everything that we get in.
(Maybe We'll Have) Christmas This Year (Adult Contemporary mix) by Heather Bambrick
You can visit Heather Bambrick's website at heatherbambrick.ca and Diane Leah's website at dianeleah.com.
Daily playlist for Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Randy Bachman is jazzing up the classics | And then 2020 hit. Diane and I have each individually had stuff cancelled and postponed, and we've had a bunch of Broadsway stuff that was cancelled. Diane has been a dear friend of mine for many years, and so she was a part of things when my dad was sick in the summer. She watched dad's funeral online and commented on how many people couldn't be there in person. We saw everything that was happening in the world, and it felt like we needed to write something to acknowledge the fact that there were so many things that changed, so many things that affected us more negatively than positively, unfortunately. To write something that was just, "Oh well, let's celebrate this year anyway," it didn't seem like something we could do. The line that was running through my head was, "We're living in a world that's not the same." That's the first line of the song. As we go into Christmas this year, so many things have changed. We wanted to acknowledge that, while still having a little bit of hope that maybe Christmas will still be OK. Maybe we can get through it. Maybe we'll have something to look forward to. At a time when so many things had been cancelled, postponed, moved, shifted, changed, the thought that maybe Christmas will happen was the inspiration for this song.
| 275 |
Here Comes the Bus®
Don't ask where the bus is. Know.
Right Bus. Right Stop. Right Time.
Here Comes the Bus, the award-winning, industry-leading, and parent-approved mobile app highlights the tremendous power mobile technology portends to solve longstanding, real-world problems in a fresh yet familiar way.
Dubbed "ridesharing technology for school bus" by the media, the app marries powerful GPS data from location management units with customer<|fim_middle|> fleet management applications to help school districts track bus location and leverage telematics data insights to increase savings, enhance driver safety and ensure peace of mind for students, parents, and administrators.
Synovia's school bus application leverages data delivered over wireless broadband and uses highly accurate GPS to provide a real-time location, geofencing to deliver departure and arrival alert notifications, and engine diagnostics to enable vehicle health visibility remotely.
The devices connect directly to the vehicle's engine control module (ECU) to supply continuous vehicle health metrics and maintenance alerts that help reduce maintenance costs and further increase safety by enabling predictive maintenance to reduce the chance of inopportune breakdowns.
Synovia's application currently serves approximately 1,100 school districts throughout North America. Reliable and accurate location and vehicle event information from location management units enable optimized school bus operations by reducing fuel waste and excessive idling and decreasing unnecessary miles driven.
Learn how Synovia Solutions can improve your business.
Improving Service, safety and savings
Synovia aims to continue promoting safer routes to school for children across North America. An estimated 125,000 vehicles use the Synovia application. More than a million registered users enjoy the school bus application to receive notifications when a bus enters or leaves specific locations, alerting parents so they know when the bus arrives at pick-up and drop-off students.
Along with student and vehicle safety, the solution promotes training and safety measures for school bus drivers. For example, managers can coach and guide a driver on how to proceed while on-route using data transmitted from the GPS tracking device.
With Synovia's school bus application powered by GPS real-time tracking info, school districts deliver enhanced safety, increased savings and improved service to their communities. This translates to peace of mind for parents and administrators while improving savings on vehicle maintenance and, ultimately, on the schools' bottom line.
OUR FLEET ADVISOR COMMITMENT
Synovia recognizes software is only as powerful as the people who stand behind it. That's why we've organized our business to ensure every fleet has a dedicated resource to ensure they're getting the very highest return on their investment.
Think of a Synovia Fleet Advisor the same way you would your personal dentist or physician. Or the way you work with your home's heating and cooling or plumbing contractor. They understand your history, your fleet's unique challenges, and your long-term vision. Working together, your Fleet Advisor can help your fleet get the very most out of your investment. | -focused software to deliver a sleek user interface that solves a universal problem: the arrival time of the school bus.
The result: a transformative school bus ridership experience in which parents, students, and educators never have to ask, "Where is the bus" but instead turn to the app and say "Here Comes the Bus". Has grown from a handful of school districts in 2015 to more than a million registered users today, including schools in Atlanta, San Antonio, Charlotte, Orlando, Indianapolis, and the metro Washington, D.C. area.
Saves parents time and helps de-stress the chaotic morning refrain of shuffling students to the bus on time. The mobile app captured an Innovation Award from IHS Markit at CES 2019 and was nominated for a Mira Award as one of the best tech innovations from Indiana in 2019.
Meanwhile, the backend of the fleet management software provides educators the ability to save money, improve safety and enhance service by delivering real-time and historical data that helps fleet managers reduce fuel consumption and support drivers with independent, data-driven reporting. Here Comes The Bus, powered by GPS technology, delivers a robust user experience that keeps families connected and protected and helps school districts save taxpayer resources and demonstrates how mobile technologies solutions can be applied to deliver truly revolutionary customer experience.
Schedule an Online Demo with a Synovia Expert
DATA POWERS A SMARTER SCHOOL BUS EXPERIENCE
Without real-time data, tracking methods are challenging for school bus fleet managers. To address their needs, Synovia Solutions developed enterprise-grade, GPS-driven | 320 |
shrewsbury Postcodes
ShrewsburyPostcode Map
Contains Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail data © Crown copyright and database right.
ShrewsburyPOSTCODES
Shrewsbury<|fim_middle|>APEST houses on the market. Is there a solution to the 'impossible challenge'? | Outward Postcode (SY)
Click on an outward postal code below for more information about the area.
Each 'outward' postcode give you a comprehensive list of all postcodes within the outward code area (SY) and estimated address.
SY1
Click on an 'outward' code for more information. For example, the outward postcode page 'EC2M' will give you an alphabetical list covering all postcodes located in the region, from 'EC2M 1BB' through to 'EC2M 7YA'.
Famous for its wide flowing rivers, picturesque moorland and heather covered valleys, Shropshire is a delightful slice of the English landscape. Located on the England / Wales border, Shropshire is arguably one of the most peaceful and rural counties in England, the perfect destination for those hoping to unwind and relax amidst gorgeous scenery and endless English heritage.
Shropshire has numerous charming and vibrant market towns to choose from, such as Ellesmere with its narrow medieval streets and well preserved Georgian buildings, or Market Drayton, (hometown of Clive of India) known for its 200 year old Wednesday market as well as its walking routes along the Shropshire Union Canal and its fantastic 40 step aqueduct.
Also worth visiting is Shrewsbury, Shropshire's county town with its distinctive black and white buildings and windy cobbled streets along the banks of the River Severn (and famous as the birthplace of Charles Darwin) and Stokesay Castle in Craven Arms, one of the best 13th Century fortified manor houses in Britain. The landscape in the area surrounding Stokesay Castle is also a good starting point for some beautiful strolls through the idyllic Shropshire landscape. Lastly, a must-see historic site is Ironbridge, home to the original Iron Bridge and a World Heritage Site.
To really get to grips with Shropshire it is essential to get out in the countryside and the best place to start is the impressive and exhilarating Shropshire Way walking trail, (the old village of Whitchurch is a good place to start.) In addition there are hundreds of miles of long distance trails all passing through sumptuous unspoiled countryside and past over 30 separate nature reserves and more than 32 castles.
Also worth a day's walk is Offa's Dyke, the UK's longest archaeological site, (built by King Offa in the 8th Century to keep out the Welsh Princes) and now central to the Offa's Dyke Path. Lastly, there is the lakeland of Meres and Mosses near to Ellesmere which is a haven for wildlife and offers both fishing or boating for even more Shropshire relaxation.
The Shrewsbury postcode region (SY) contains 25 unique 'outward' codes. Shrewsbury is the main postal town/district for this region, with all postcodes starting with the following outward codes.
This page contains a list of postcodes for Shrewsbury area. Select a postcode to see the map location, demographics, house prices, local information, tourist guides and statistics:
Local demographics, guides and information
There's plenty of local information, guides and useful data to browse and explore, whether you're a Shrewsbury resident or a visitor to the area.
Scroll down to discover all you need to know about the Shrewsbury postcode area.
Local AuthoritiesShrewsbury
The SY postcode includes the following local authorities:
Herefordshire, County of
Local News Shropshire
Liverpool's FA Cup opponents Shrewsbury get Grenada support
'You can expect everyone back home will be watching' - the Caribbean island nation of Grenada's connection with Shrewsbury Town.
Shrewsbury v Liverpool: FA Cup hero Jason Cummings is dressing room joker
Jason Cummings had the last laugh as Shrewsbury's dressing room joker scored twice to earn the League One club an FA Cup replay at Anfield against Liverpool.
Brexit: Young farmers call for government support
Agriculture students at Harper Adams University want the UK to be a beacon for ethical farming.
England kitman saves Adidas trainer fan from streets
Craig Bell was faced with selling off some of his beloved Adidas collection to pay his rent.
Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Liverpool: Jason Cummings scores twice in fightback
Substitute Jason Cummings scores twice against Premier League leaders Liverpool as League One Shrewsbury Town earn an FA Cup fourth-round replay at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool's first team will miss FA Cup replay v Shrewsbury
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and his first-team players will not be involved in the FA Cup fourth-round replay against Shrewsbury Town, the Reds manager says.
Jurgen Klopp stands firm on plan to miss Liverpool v Shrewsbury FA Cup replay
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says he is standing firm on using his under-23s in the FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury Town, otherwise "nothing will change".
Shrewsbury v Liverpool: 'I don't class this as work', says Daniel Udoh on Sunday's FA Cup tie
Shrewsbury striker Daniel Udoh was down in the ninth tier of English football six years ago - which is why facing Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday is such a thrill for him.
From the Postcode Area blog
The BBC reports that despite councils' attempts to kurb them, the UK's high streets have seen a huge growth in fast food outlets. Could this mark the death knell for the Great British high street, and what can we do about it to halt its decline?
You really couldn't make it up, could you? Some of the country's most vulnerable people are missing out on their weekly £25 Cold Weather Payment, just because the system that's in operation is discriminating against them because payments are based on postcode, rather than geographic location.
Well, the current website was absolutely in dire need of a good redesign - from the ground up. So I set out to pull it all apart and get it up and running again to become the most comprehensive guide to every postcode in the UK. And it's been a long, tough job from start to finish - and quite possibly the biggest project I've ever undertaken.
No wonder the younger generation are getting more and more frustrated with money - new research has revealed that even with a 10% deposit, 25-34 year olds are struggling to afford even the CHE | 1,345 |
DISA Outlines 4 Lines of Effort in Data Strategy Implementation Plan; Caroline Kuharske Quoted
by Jane Edwards
The Defense Information Systems Agency has unveiled a plan to improve DISA's data utilization and integration, network and information technology capabilities and advance its capacity to use data as a strategic asset in accordance with the agency's strategic plan for fiscal years 2022 through 2024.
The DISA Data Strategy Implementation Plan has four lines of effort that seek to meet the goals established by the Department of Defense's chief information officer within the DOD Data Strategy, the agency said Tuesday.
These lines of effort are data architecture and governance; advanced analytics; data culture; and knowledge<|fim_middle|> of DISA.
For the data architecture and governance line of effort, DISA's office of the chief data officer will explore the agency's state of data architecture and further develop it into a cohesive system that facilitates data collaboration, data sharing and transparency while meeting mission priorities and complying with laws, policies and best practices.
Caroline Kuharske
data culture
Data Strategy Implementation Plan
IPlan | management.
"The IPlan will guide how DISA will manage and exploit data as a critical asset to deliver agile digital capabilities to the nation's warfighter and achieve information dominance," said Caroline Kuharske, acting chief data officer | 46 |
The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Certified Economists of Ghana Gideon Amissah has<|fim_middle|> Attta.
"I am looking forward to the National Fiscal Council promised. I will want the Finance Minister to lay emphasis on One District : One Warehouse". | said the widely publicised Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme will have a negative effect on the Ghanaian economy.
He said jobs under Nabco are not sustainable and will not make the recruits productive.
"I think that from the economic perspective we need to create jobs that are sustainable, decent and productive. We don't tickle ourselves by just engaging people without it having an effect on productivity. As a nation, we have not been able to measure the level of unemployment in the economy. If we cannot measure this, we will hardly put in place the right policies.
"We may have given jobs to people in the meantime but it will have a negative effect on government expenditure. It looks like a knee jerk approach and I even have an issue with the models. Govern Ghana, Heal Ghana, nurses and medical professionals cure, they don't heal," he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr.
On revenue measures by the government, Dr. Amissah said he is hopeful the ongoing National Identification exercise will help the efforts.
"I believe the National Identification system together with the Addressing system can help get all into the tax bracket. If the National Identification system and the Digital Addressing system are well implemented, we can get a whole lot of people into the tax bracket".
The economist also noted he expects government to announce the establishment of the fiscal council as was promised by the NPP in opposition in Thursday's budget presentation by the Finance minister Ken Ofori | 292 |
WordPress.com Review
By Michael Muchmore
MSRP $0
Great blogging options.
Scheduled posts and draft saving.
Good-looking design themes.
Free option.
Reasonable pricing for paid plans.
Sites can be transferred.
No WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop functionality.
Limited customization of page layouts.
Counterintuitive interface.
No email campaigns.
Store integration not as seamless as in competition.
No photo editing tools.
No phone tech support.
Website builder WordPress.com is a fine and low-cost choice for blogging, but building customized sites with it is not as easy as with competitors.
WordPress.com offers a lot of website building, hosting, and blogging options at a reasonable price—even for free. Though it started life as a pure blogging play, and still includes blog community features, WordPress.com can now handle most website building needs, including commerce, social integrations, and mobile presentation. The service as a whole is not truly WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop simple the way many competing services are, however. It's also less of a unified solution than many site-builder competitors such as Wix, Duda, and Squarespace.
Before we get any further, you should know that WordPress.com is not WordPress in the commonly understood sense, but rather a service from Automattic Inc. that uses code from WordPress.org, a free, open<|fim_middle|>
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How to Register a Domain Name for Your Website | -source blogging and site-building platform. WordPress.com hides the server code and handles hosting for you. In that sense, it resembles entries in our online site builder roundup more than sites built using the open-source WordPress.org code, which requires you to sign up for your own WordPress web hosting service.
Pricing and Competition
WordPress.com's free account level includes 3GB storage. The Personal plan costs just $4 per month with an annual commitment and adds a custom domain name, support, a limited selection of themes, and 6GB storage. It also removes WordPress ads, but not all WordPress branding. Personal doesn't offer any way to monetize your site, but does include SEO, spam protection, social sharing, and site stats. The $8-per-month Premium Plan ups the storage to 13GB, removes customization limits, and allows some monetization. The $25-per-month Business plan has unlimited storage space, SEO tools, and plug-in support, and it also removes all WordPress branding.
As mentioned, using WordPress.org software is free, but you need to pay for web hosting if you opt for that less-turnkey option. Such services start at about $3 per month and range up to about $20, depending on the amount of storage, number of sites, and length of your contract. Among the pure site-builder plays, Squarespace starts at $12 per month, Wix at $11, and Duda at $14.25, but keep in mind that the last two have free account levels. So, the bottom line is that WordPress.com's pricing is quite reasonable.
$4.08 at Wix
Simvoly
$8.00 at Strikingly
$7.50 at Jimdo
$8.33 at Yola
uCoz uKit
$4.00 at uCoz
Start Building Your Site
When you select Add a New Site from the My Sites page, you have two choices: You can create a brand-new site or add a WordPress site that already uses Automatic's JetPack plug-in, which powers much of the service's functionality. I opted to start fresh with a new site.
The first step is to fill out a form asking your desired site name, topic, and goal. The last is a multiple choice among the following: typical blogging with media, business promotion, education, selling, and portfolio. Next, you choose a URL, which can be a free one with lots of numbers in the web address unless you pick a less-common character string.
Then you choose a plan; I started with Free to see what you get for nothing. After a short wait, my site was ready to view, even though I hadn't picked a WordPress theme, or template. It looked pleasant enough, if a bit generic. The themes thankfully use responsive designs, so they look good on mobile devices and don't offend search engines.
WordPress.com lets you easily post to the included blog from a clearly labeled Write button at top right. But in order to change the design, you have to select Site Pages from the left panel and then choose the page to edit from a list, click its three-dot overflow menu, and choose Edit. (The other options there are View Page, Stats, and Copy.)
Web Design With WordPress.com
The editor is definitely more suitable for blogging than for general website creation. It feels outdated compared with modern web-based site builders, because it's not at all WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop-based the way Wix ($4.08 at Wix) and other modern site builders are. In general, you're in for a less-intuitive site designing experience with WordPress.com. You do most editing from the Site Pages and Customize tabs. The first lets you add text and media, and the second controls the fonts, colors, backgrounds, menus, and other sitewide options. You have to navigate around between these two interfaces to do things you can do all from the same interface in other services.
In Site Pages, You can change the Featured Image that takes up most of the page, and add more images, documents, and (if you have a paid account) video and audio. This design page, however, doesn't look anything like your actual site page. You can switch between Visual and HTML design modes, but the former still doesn't look like your webpage.
You have more leeway if you enter the Customize tab on the left sidebar. From this, you actually see the site as it appears and can replace or remove images and edit text. Clicking on-site items displays pencil icons that offer editing options. You can also add a site icon (aka "favicon") easily from the Customizing page.
A Themes button lets you change your site theme at this point, too. Most sites let you choose your theme at the start, but better late than never. That said, WordPress.com offers a good selection of themes, some of which are premium and cost extra. But some of its free themes rival Squarespace ($12 Per Month (Billed Annually) - Personal Plan at Squarespace) for style. When you click on a theme entry, you get a preview showing tablet, phone, and desktop previews. Simply press the Activate Theme button to get started with the Customize options.
Despite all that, you still can't move elements around a page at all, the way you can in Wix and other competitors. You can only add widgets such as Audio, Calendar, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, RSS, Twitter, or Video, to a sidebar or footers, not anywhere on the page, as other site builders, including Wix and Jimdo, let you. A Simple Payment widget lets you add a PayPal button that also accepts credit card payments.
Page Management
When you add a page, there are no choices of page types, like those offered by Duda , for things like Contact, About, and Store. WordPress.com is GDPR-ready, with the help of a widget that pops up a cookie and privacy notification. By choosing Status from the Page Settings right-hand sidebar, you can password-protect any page. You can't drag page entries up and down to change the navigation hierarchy here, but you can do exactly that on the Customizing > Menus page. Having these closely related functions in very separate parts of the interface doesn't make much sense in today's world of DIY site builders.
WordPress.com offers no real built-in photo editing software: You're limited to cropping and rotating. By contrast, Duda, Squarespace, and Wix offer integrated photo editing courtesy of Adobe's Aviary online photo editor. I do, however, like how the service lets you save any images you upload to an online repository for reuse later—on a per-site basis.
For blogging features, WordPress.com is hard to beat. WordPress as a whole started life as a blogging platform, and that continues to be a strength. From just about anywhere in the interface, a tap of the Write button lets you start venting your mind to the world. The blogging interface is simple, and in fact it's the same editing interface you see for any site page. After you title the post, you can choose fonts and formatting, and add media, a payment button, or contact form.
When you're done crafting your post, you can publish it immediately, schedule a date and time for publishing, and even password-protect individual posts. You can also assign categories and tags to the post, connect social media sites for sharing, and add a location. Once your post goes live, your readers can add comments to and favorite it.
As mentioned earlier, WordPress.com hosts a community of blogs you can find under the Reader tab of the start interface. Any users signed up for the WordPress.com accounts can follow your site, find it in a Discover section, and search for relevant blogs. Wordpress.com even recommends blogs you may be interested in following based on your activity.
I already noted the easy PayPal payment option, but for full store functionality, you can add a plug-in, such as WooCommerce (made by WordPress.com's developer, Automattic). The company claims that WooCommerce powers 30 percent of all online stores. Just a half-minute or so of setup is all it takes to add a Store entry to your site dashboard. Clicking it takes you to a page with just one button: Set Up My Store. After you add standard contact info, it's a five-step process: add products, set up shipping, payment methods, taxes, and customizations.
WooCommerce is a well-equipped web storefront, with promotions, coupon codes, inventory tracking, buyer reviews, and product options like size and color. Only Stripe and PayPal are available as payment processors, but those are all most users will ever need.
When I got to the last step in store creation, Customize, my site template wasn't optimized for an online storefront, so I changed it to one that was. Unfortunately, the new template wasn't as attractive as my original choice. And no Store page was added to my site menu after all the steps, though new pages for the store appeared in Site Pages—Store, Shop, Cart, Checkout, and My Account. You also can't edit these in the standard page editor. I finally figured out that using Customize > Menus > Primary > Add Items, I could get the store pages in my menu. Needless to say, other site builders like Duda, Squarespace, and Wix make adding a web store a more intuitive and integrated process.
One commerce feature missing is the ability to send out newsletters and email marketing blasts. This feature is available in several competing products, including Wix and Squarespace.
The WordPress.com site builder offers no specific tools for mobile site design, not even a mobile preview, but the templates display perfectly well on the smaller screens, complete with mobile-friendly menus. Other site builders I've tested let you customize your site for mobile to varying degrees.
WordPress.com also offers mobile apps for editing your site. In addition to adding blog posts and media from the phone, the app lets you change your theme, menus, and even install plug-ins. Further, you can check your site stats, but you can't add or manage store products, something that Wix's mobile app offers.
Publishing and Traffic Stats
A WordPress.com site is published as soon as you create it, but some edits require republishing. You can preview the site at any time and schedule page updates by date and time. Save a draft after an edit without specifying a time if you're not ready. You can make a whole site private, only accessible to those whose emails you enter, and you can password protect individual pages, as you can with many site builders, including Weebly and Yola.
WordPress.com's site management console site offers robust site statistics. You get the expected tallies of view, visitors, likes, and comments, but you also get top search terms and even a map of your visitors' geographic location. An Insights tab lets you see your top days and times, as well as top posts and products.
WordPress.com claims that its sites have excellent SEO, and you can tweak things like metatitles and descriptions. The WP Admin page (separate from the sites dashboard or the individual site editing menu) offers a place to submit your site to the search engines, which is a must if you want any traffic.
One advantage of WordPress is that your site is portable: You can save its contents as an XML file and bring it to another WordPress web host if you like. Doing so requires that you install the JetPack plug-in on your WordPress host server.
WordPress.com Customer Support
Free WordPress.com sites offer only community support, while paid accounts get email and chat support 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Most WordPress.com pages also offer support from a question mark icon in the lower right of the editor page. After clicking that, you can type in a search box to find knowledge-base articles on your question, or initiate a chat. Business plan customers are entitled to a one-on-one, 30-minute Concierge orientation session (Zoom video screen share with audio) with a WordPress expert, but there's no regular phone support, otherwise.
I asked about how to sell digital downloads and how to connect a domain from another registrar. After I typed a query in the help panel, the panel displayed the message, "We've received your message, and you'll hear back from one of our Happiness Engineers shortly." My initial chat was answered in less than a minute, and the support representative was knowledgeable, helping me locate a capability I had no idea where to find. I prefer Squarespace's chat, though, which also gives you the name of a rep who's connected, since pauses in WordPress's chat give you no indication that anyone is there with you.
Blogging and Then Some
WordPress is not a WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Squarespace. Its primary focus is blogs, but you can customize your site's look and add plugins for store and social functionality. Doing so with one or our Editors' Choice website builder services, Duda and Wix, is far more straightforward, however. The WordPress.com interface feels dated and counterintuitive at this point compared with more modern site builders.
For tips on getting started building a website, you can read our primer, How to Build a Website.
Our Best Web Hosting Picks | 2,754 |
The Problem with "Velocity of Money"
December 17, 2018 - 10:19 AMFrank Shostak [1]
Some commentators are of the view that when the velocity of money rises, all other thing being equal, the buying power<|fim_middle|> the Concept of the Velocity of Money Make Sense?
From the equation of exchange, it would appear that for a given stock of money an increase in velocity helps finance a greater value of transactions than money could have done by itself.
As logical as it sounds, neither money nor velocity have anything to do with financing transactions. Here is why.
Consider the following: a baker John sold 10 loaves of bread to a tomato farmer George for $10. Now, John exchanges the $10 to buy 5kg of potatoes from Bob the potato farmer. How did John pay for potatoes? He paid with the bread he produced.
Note that John the baker had financed the purchase of potatoes not with money but with bread. He paid for potatoes with his bread using money to facilitate the exchange. Money fulfills here the role of the medium of exchange and not the means of payment.
The number of times money changed hands has no relevance whatsoever on the bakers' capability to fund the purchase of potatoes. What matters here is that he possesses bread that serves as the means of payment for potatoes.
How the same $10 bill that is used in several transactions can add anything to the means of funding? By what means does the speed of money circulation add to the ability to fund transactions?
Imagine that money and velocity would have indeed been the means of funding or the means of payments. If this would have been the case then poverty worldwide could have been erased a long time ago. If rising velocity is supposed to boost effective funding then it would have been to everyone's benefit to make sure that money circulates as fast as possible. This implies that anyone who holds on to money should be classified as menace to the society for he slows down the velocity of money and hence the creation of real wealth.
According to Mises in Human Action,
In analyzing the equation of exchange one assumes that one of its elements--total supply of money, volume of trade, velocity of circulation--changes, without asking how such changes occur. It is not recognized that changes in these magnitudes do not emerge in the Volkswirtschaft [political economy, or more loosely 'economy'] as such, but in the individual actors' conditions, and that it is the interplay of the reactions of these actors that results in alterations of the price structure. The mathematical economists refuse to start from the various individuals' demand for and supply of money. They introduce instead the spurious notion of velocity of circulation fashioned according to the patterns of mechanics.
Also, according to Mises, money never circulates as such;
Money can be in the process of transportation, it can travel in trains, ships, or planes from one place to another. But it is in this case, too, always subject to somebody's control, is somebody's property.
Why Velocity Has Nothing To Do with the Purchasing Power of Money
Does velocity have anything to do with the prices of goods? Prices are the outcome of individuals' purposeful actions. Thus, John the baker believes that he will raise his living standard by exchanging his ten loaves of bread for $10, which will enable him to purchase five kg of potatoes from Bob the potato farmer. Likewise, Bob has concluded that by means of $10 he will be able to secure the purchase of ten kg of sugar, which he believes will raise his living standard.
By entering an exchange, both John and Bob are able to realize their goals and promote their respective well-being. John had agreed that it is a good deal to exchange 10 loaves of bread for $10 for it will enable him to procure 5kg of potatoes. Likewise, Bob had concluded that $10 for his 5kg of potatoes is a good price for it will enable him to secure 10kg of sugar. Observe that price is the outcome of different ends, and hence the different importance that both parties to a trade assign to means.
It is individual's purposeful actions that determine the prices of goods and not some mythical velocity. The fact that so-called velocity is '3' or any other number has nothing to do with average prices and the average purchasing power of money as such. Moreover, the average purchasing power of money cannot be even established. For instance, in a transaction the price of one dollar was established as one loaf of bread. In another transaction, the price of one dollar was established as 0.5kg of potatoes, while in the third transaction the price is one kg of sugar. Observe that since bread, potatoes and sugar are not commensurable no average price of money can be established.
Media of exchange are economic goods. They are scarce; there is a demand for them. There are on the market people who desire to acquire them and are ready to exchange goods and services against them. Media of exchange have value in exchange. People make sacrifices for their acquisition; they pay "prices" for them. The peculiarity of these prices lies merely in the fact that they cannot be expressed in terms of money. In reference to the vendible goods and services we speak of prices or of money prices. In reference to money we speak of its purchasing power with regard to various vendible goods
Now, if the average price of money cannot be established it means that the average price of goods cannot be established either. Consequently, the entire equation of exchange falls apart. Conceptually the whole thing is not a tenable proposition and covering it in mathematical clothing cannot make it more tenable.
According to Rothbard in Man, Economy and State,
The only knowledge we can have of the determinants of price is the knowledge deduced logically from the axioms of praxeology. Mathematics can at best only translate our previous knowledge into relatively unintelligible form.
Even if we were to accept that, the essential service of money is its speed of circulation this service as such could not explain the purchasing power of money.
On this Mises explains in Human Action,
Even if this were true, it would still be faulty to explain the purchasing power--the price--of the monetary unit on the basis of its services. The services rendered by water, whisky, and coffee do not explain the prices paid for these things. What they explain is only why people, as far as they recognize these services, under certain further conditions demand definite quantities of these things. It is always demand that influences the price structure, not the objective value in use.
Velocity Does not Have an Independent Existence
Contrary to mainstream economics velocity is not an independent entity — it is always the value of transactions P*T divided into money M i.e. P*T/M. On this Rothbard wrote (again in Man, Economy and State),
But it is absurd to dignify any quantity with a place in an equation unless it can be defined independently of the other terms in the equation.
Given that V is P*T/M it follows that the equation of exchange is reduced to M*(P*T)/M = P*T, which is reduced to P*T = P*T, and this is not very interesting truism. It is like stating that $10=$10 this tautology conveys no new knowledge of economic facts.
Since velocity is not an independent entity, it as such causes nothing and hence cannot offset effects from money supply growth. Additionally, does so-called unstable velocity imply an unstable demand for money? The fact that people change their demand for money does not imply instability. Because of changes in individuals' goals, he may decide that at present it is to his benefit to hold less money. Sometime in the future, he might decide that raising his demand for money would serve better his goals. So what could possibly be wrong with this? It is simply the same that goes for any other good and services - demand for them changes all the time.
Contrary to popular thinking, the velocity of money does not have a life of its own. It is not an independent entity and hence it cannot cause anything, let alone offset the effect of changes in the supply of money on the prices of goods and services.
Source URL: https://mises.org/wire/problem-velocity-money
[1] https://mises.org/profile/frank-shostak | of money declines, (i.e., the prices of goods and services rise). The opposite occurs when velocity declines.
If, for example, it was found that the quantity of money had increased by 10% in a given year, while the price level as measured by the consumer price index has remained unchanged it would mean that there must have been a slowing down of about 10% in the velocity of circulation.
If the quantity of money had remained unchanged, but there has been a 10% increase in the price level in a given period, it would mean that there must have been an increase in the velocity of circulation of money of 10% in that period. It would appear therefore that velocity is an important determinant of the purchasing power of money.
Mainstream View of Velocity
According to popular thinking, the idea of velocity is straightforward. It is held that over any interval of time, such as a year, a given amount of money can be used again and again to finance people's purchases of goods and services.
The money one person spends for goods and services at any given moment, can be used later by the recipient of that money to purchase yet other goods and services. For example, during a year a particular ten-dollar bill might have been used as following: a baker John pays the ten-dollars to a tomato farmer George. The tomato farmer uses the ten-dollar bill to buy potatoes from Bob who uses the ten dollar bill to buy sugar from Tom. The ten-dollar here served in three transactions. This means that the ten-dollar bill was used 3 times during the year, its velocity is therefore 3.
A $10 bill, which is circulating with a velocity of '3' financed $30 worth of transactions in that year. Consequently, if there are $3000billion worth of transactions in an economy during a particular year and there is an average money stock of $500 billion during that year, then each dollar of money is used on average 6 times during the year (since 6*$500 billion =$3000).
A $500 billion of money by means of a velocity factor has effectively become $3000 billion. This implies that the velocity of money can boost the means of finance. From this it is established that,
Velocity = Value of transactions / supply of money
This expression can be also presented as,
V = P*T/M
Where V stands for velocity, P stands for average prices, T stands for volume of transactions and M stands for the supply of money. This expression can be further rearranged by multiplying both sides of the equation by M. This in turn will give us the famous equation of exchange
M*V = P*T
This equation states that money times velocity equals the value of transactions. Many economists employ GDP instead of P*T thereby concluding that
M*V = GDP = P*(real GDP)
The equation of exchange appears to offer a wealth of information regarding the state of the economy. For instance, if one were to assume a stable velocity, then for a given stock of money one can establish the value of GDP. Furthermore, information regarding the average price or the price level allows economists to establish the state of real output and its rate of growth.
For most economists the equation of exchange regarded as a very useful analytical tool. The debates that economists have are predominantly with respect to the stability of velocity. Thus if velocity is stable then money becomes a very powerful tool in tracking the economy.
The importance of money as an economic indicator however diminishes once velocity becomes less stable and hence less predictable. It is held that an unstable velocity implies an unstable demand for money, which makes it so much harder for the central bank to navigate the economy along the path of economic stability.
Does | 771 |
Oh, how I have struggled with aspects of life, wanting my own way, not wanting to lose control of things that I believe I have control over. There have been times where I just refused to give in and other times where I gave in feeling defeated. Either way, it was all about SELF, about ME!! My will, my ego needed nourishing and placed above all else, even above God…OR so I believed.
As I grow in the LORD, He shows me His way, His will. I let go, but not always without a struggle. So the lessons must be taught and re-taught. My desire to write about "letting go" has taken me down a sweet road with Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, for never giving up on me, even when I have been stubborn. Thank You for walking with me and teaching me the Truth. You are The Word. You are where I desire to dwell.
In the Name of Jesus, The Word. Amen.
A rope with two stories upon which I dangle and learn letting go!
"… But You have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.' " Genesis 32:12 How often I pray and then wrestle with all that I prayed, even with the prayers I did not know how to utter, often keeping me awake for hours into the night! Jacob stayed strong in his struggle and did not quit although he received an injury in the hip joint by a touch. Jacob's faith in God and his deep prayer life prevailed above his fears. Jacob's strength caused him to wrestle and prevail with God for promised blessings. God did bless him with a new name, Israel, meaning prince with God, a most honorable name, plus God fulfilled His promises. Jacob was forever reminded of this struggle by the hip injury, a limp. Jacob did not let go until God released him, yet he was humbled by the injury, yet praised and honored God for blessing him as well as deliverance of his life. As the sun rose, communion between Israel and God was shared. Jacob, now Israel, let go of his fears and no longer needed to wrestle with God.
This woman struggled with a spirit that disabled her for a long time. Jesus touched her. Her body was healed…from bent-over to straight. She had lived in a humbled position all bent over for years, possibly dependent upon others, made fun of, or even neglected. The healing may have changed her posture and removed the disabling spirit, yet she did not go around saying, "Look at me! Look what I did!" What she did do was…"She glorified God." I believe she remained humbled, recalling often her blessing from God. In continued humility, she praised Him, seemingly being able to let go of eighteen years of suffering and maybe there was self-pity to release too. How else<|fim_middle|> a "Let It Go Master" so to speak, does have its disadvantages. One of those being that you spend a whole lot of time alone.
Even though I am merely 56 years of age…I sometimes feel so much older….or maybe that is just the age of wisdom. I have no problem physically letting go of things…or even shutting the door behind negative people….it's the emotions that I have a problem with because I am known as a "hyper-sensitive" therefore I feel things far more deeply than most. Now, if I could just learn how to let go of that…..I'd be great!
Ps. thanks for stopping by my blog earlier & sharing your thoughts. I will see you again soon.
Letting go and looking ahead …. perhaps we really can't look ahead UNTIL we let go.
Love the imagery here with connecting these two stories to the rope!
My simple brain needs vivid word pictures,and God has given you a vivid one here, Linda. Blessings to you this weekend!
I am so moved by your convicting words today. Yes, I want to let go of my own ways of looking and seeing, and truly LOOK UP to give God Glory, whether He chooses to bring physical healing, or spiritual strength. Either way, HE brings HIS Life to me, and that is what I truly need. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful heart of surrender here. You are in my prayers, dear Fellow-Fibro-Sister, with eyes fixed on Jesus! | can one rejoice as she did? God healed her. She could stand tall. I believe she could let go of the past, looked ahead and UPward unto God!
Letting go humbles me by understanding God's promises, believing Him for them, praying unto Him, and standing strong in those promises and blessings, knowing He will, indeed, fulfill them. He may allow me to struggle with fibromyalgia, spinal stenosis, hip and knee issues. But I am continually reminded Who granted the blessings and promises.
Letting go humbles me by acknowledging God's healing power and knowing that it is not me who heals myself, for I am poor, meek, and a sinner. God loves me and drew me to Him. He is my Healer. He is All I need. I can stand upright in Him no matter my physical, mental, emotional condition. He heals my spiritual health and will heal all else in His will and in His timing.
No matter where I am on the rope, the healing touch or the wounding touch, I learn to bring praise and honor to my God.
LORD, I am humbled no matter where I am on the rope. I am humbled because You are You and You love me. I ask for Your help that I would let go, living for You in all ways. I want to be healed physically, desiring to be strong spiritually even more so. I want to walk in Your will and desire You always by my side, Father. I know You will hold me upright as You fill me with the fruit of Your righteousness through Your Son's death on the Cross. I love You more than all, Abba Father. Amen.
Thank you so much for sharing this part of your walk with God. I am struggling to let go of health issues, but your writing certainly gave me food for thought. Thank you!
Linda, I love your words! ❤ They resonate so much with my soul. These stories you shared are some of my favorites because they are full of so much hope for us in Jesus! It is a daily struggle to let go. I will let it go and then take it. back over and over again. This was so helpful to me in my journey to lay my worries, anxieties and cares at Jesus' feet and trust Him. Thank you so much for sharing!
Linda, I'm praying for you today. Your words are beautiful and thought-provoking and I know they come from a place of struggle. May God continue to bless you as you let go to Him. This is a lesson that I too have to relearn again and again, and to be honest I'm not very good at it, but God is faithful and ever-patient, and He continually bears with me. Praying that He lifts you up today, both physically and spiritually.
I always think of Elsa in FROZEN! Just let it go!!! Easier sung than done!!!
Ah….yes dear Linda…the act of letting go is a difficult one for most humans. I've never had a problem letting go or walking away….I think I mastered that skill early on in childhood. But even being | 647 |
No matter how much or how little money you have for your wedding, a budget will help keep you from spending more than you'd anticipated. If you track your expenses carefully, you might even come in under budget! Let this motivate you: Anything that's left over in the wedding budget can be used for a new home, car, or vacation!
What is your wedding philosophy?
If you're a math loving technophobe, by all means, create your wedding budget with paper and pencil. For the rest of us, there's Excel, Google Sheets, or a wedding planning website such as Wedding Wire or The Knot.
While Excel is a powerful spreadsheet tool, it is difficult to share updated versions with your fiancé, parents, or other wedding money decision makers because your spreadsheet is saved onto your computer's hard drive.
TheKnot.com and WeddingWire.com both have free budgeting tools. This a great option if you're feeling overwhelmed because you don't know where to start. There are suggested fields for you to fill in under headings such as "Reception," and "Ceremony." This means you don't have to come up with much from scratch.
You can just skip the fields that aren't applicable to you. The downside is that it's not easy to share with others, although it is printable. I didn't end up using this tool, but the suggested fields did guide the creation of my budget.
The advantage of Google Sheets is that you can easily share them with others. If you have a Gmail account, you can create a Google Sheet for free. You can adjust the settings so the people you share it with can view the sheet or view and edit it.
Your budget needs three columns. "Items," "Projected Cost," and "Actual Cost". Don't forget to use a sum formula at the bottom of your Project<|fim_middle|> dreams I had for my wedding was to have an inflatable bounce house at my reception! I didn't care what it would cost; I had to have it. My parents really wanted to serve coffee at the reception, but I felt coffee had nothing to do with my wedding philosophy, and it just wasn't a priority to me like the bounce house.
Needless to say, our wedding guests jumped around in a bounce house, caffeine-free. Your list of. It is totally possible for you to stay within budget and go all out on some things, as long as you're willing to save on details that aren't as important to you. Your list of negotiables vs. non-negotiables will allow your budget to focus on what you can buy, instead of what you can't.
Browse our Local Venues & Vendors Directory, make phone calls, and search the Internet to get estimates for the items you envision for your wedding, and enter the prices into your budget under Projected Cost. Start with big ticket items such as venue, catering, and photography or any extremely important non-negotiables.
Once you've seen your projected expenditures, you and your fiancé may need to discuss tweaking some things in order to stay within your budget.
Creating the budget isn't the hard part; sticking to your budget is the hard part. When disagreements arise about how to spend the budget (and they will arise) check to see if the expenditures in question align with your wedding philosophy to keep decision making simple.
What are some negotiable expenditures you're going to cut in order to stay within your budget? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! | ed Cost and Actual Cost columns which will total up each amount for you.
Using your wedding philosophy, you and your fiancé can decide what is important enough to you to splurge on, and what would be okay to cut in order to save money. For every couple, these things will be different.
For example, as ridiculous as it may sound, one of the few | 75 |
This hotel is situated around 3 miles South East of Cancun Airport. The Hotel complex is massive, stretching for more than a mile along the beach and with dozens of individual 3 storey accommodation blocks. The resort is split into 3 distinct areas. From north to south, these are known as Sunrise, Nizuc and Grand. We were in a 2nd floor (top floor), north facing ocean room view in the Sunrise section (Pina block).
The most northerly buildings in Sunrise would be closest to the path of departing aircraft (or landings on the rare occasions when the wind is from the north). The buildings are well spaced from each other,with gardens in between, so<|fim_middle|>mm lens. | even a 1st floor or ground floor room should have views of departing aircraft, although landing aircraft would be lower.
Location: * A fair way from the airport, however this is an ideal family resort with the added bonus that aircraft can be read off from this hotel.
Spotting: ** Around 75% of the traffic can be read off from this hotel as they pass directly overhead. Flighttracking equipment would be required for the remaining flights.
Comment! If you want to add or update anything, please use the comment form at the bottom of the page!
I stayed at this hotel in sunrise but in PINATO block i took some photos from my room with a 300 | 139 |
De : Jill Mansell
Lu par : Hilary Neville
Catégories : Anglais - Fiction, Chick Lit
Good at Games
Lu par : Esther Wane
Jill Mansell's hugely entertaining best seller Good at Games is perfect for you if you love listening to Cathy Kelly, Milly Johnson and Lucy Diamond. Suzy fell for Harry the moment she showed him her husband's sperm sample. It didn't really belong to her husband, though, because she wasn't married. It wasn't a sperm sample, either, it was a drinks carton containing the dregs of her milkshake.
Maybe This Time
Lu par : Imogen Church
When Mimi first visits her dad's new home in the Cotswolds, she falls in love with Goosebrook and the people who live there. (Well, maybe not snooty Henrietta, who lets Mimi walk miles in the rain rather than give her a lift.) There's Paddy, with his flashing eyes and seductive charm. Friendly and funny Lois makes Mimi laugh. And seriously gorgeous Cal is welcoming and charismatic. Though Mimi loves her city life and her career, she'd be very happy to return to Goosebrook if it means seeing more of him.
Lu par : Patricia Gallimore
Jessie has kept the identity of her son Oliver's father a secret for years. She's stunned when she discovers that the man in question, actor Toby Gillespie, has just moved in next door. The truth's about to come out. One glance at Oliver, and a little mental arithmetic, and Toby has the situation sussed. Meeting the son he never knew he had is the shock of a lifetime. It's a shock, too, for Toby's wife, the beautiful Deborah, though she seems to take it in her stride.
Making Your Mind Up
Lu par : Julia Franklin
Lottie Carlyle faces a bittersweet romantic dilemma in Jill Mansell's engaging best seller, Making Your Mind Up - not to be missed by fans of Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson. Lottie Carlyle isn't looking for love when she meets her new boss, Tyler Klein. Living in a beautiful cottage with her two adorable - sometimes - kids in an idyllic village in the Cotswolds, on good terms with her ex-husband and with friends all around, she's happy enough with her lot.
Lu par : Willow Nash
It's been a while, but Lara Carson's back in Bath, and lives are set to change as a result. Because Lara left her family and boyfriend, Flynn, 18 years ago without a word to anyone. Why has no one heard from her since? Her childhood best friend, Evie, is thrilled Lara's back and able to share her happiness. Evie's about to walk down the aisle with her dream man, Joel. Or so she thinks.... Then there's Flynn Erskine, even more attractive now and stunned to see Lara again.
From the best-selling author of Three Amazing Things About You and The One You Really Want. Jill's Mansell's Mixed Doubles is a deliciously romantic read for fans of Lucy Diamond, Cecelia Ahern and Cathy Kelly. Rules are made to be broken when you're playing mixed doubles.... New Year is looming, and best friends Liza, Dulcie and Pru are making their resolutions. Liza wants to get married - she's never had any trouble hooking a man.
Fast Friends is a warm and funny romantic novel from Sunday Times best-selling author Jill Mansell. For fans of Lucy Diamond, Cathy Kelly and Marian Keyes. When bored housewife and mother Camilla Stewart impulsively invites her old school chums for dinner, she hardly imagines that the evening will shatter her comfortable existence. But Roz Vallender and Loulou Marks are no ordinary guests.
Lu par : Karen Cass
Number one best-selling author Jill Mansell talks with sensitivity and optimism about love, loss and new beginnings in To the Moon and Back. Not to be missed by fans of Jojo Moyes and Veronica Henry. When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband, she feels her life is over. But eventually she's ready for a new start - at work, that is. She doesn't need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company.... Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo, who has a secret of her own.
Lu par : Annie Aldington
Jill Mansell's best seller Take a Chance on Me takes listeners on an entirely unpredictable romantic journey.... For fans of Carole Matthews and Lucy Diamond. Cleo Quinn doesn't have a great track record when it comes to men, but now Will's come along she's optimistic. Handsome, attentive and an absolute gentleman when it comes to her questionable cooking skills, he could be her Mr. Right. Things are definitely looking up for Cleo...apart from one small problem with a rather large ego.
Don't Want to Miss a Thing
Lu par : Clare Corbett
An irresistible, heart-warming novel from the much-loved author of numerous Sunday Times best sellers, including A Walk in the Park and To the Moon and Back. Dexter Yates loves his fun, care-free London life; he has money, looks and girlfriends galore. But everything changes overnight when his sister dies, leaving him in charge of her eight-month-old daughter Delphi. How is he ever going to cope? Comic-strip artist Molly Hayes lives in the beautiful Cotswold village of Briarwood.
Lessons: Part 1
De : Jenny Colgan
Lu par :<|fim_middle|>ell's enchanting new novel will drive readers to seize life with both hands and make the most of every minute... Hallie has a secret. She's in love. He's perfect for her in every way, but he's seriously out of bounds.
This Could Change Everything
On the one hand, if Essie hadn't written that letter - the one that only her best friend was meant to see - then she'd still be living like an actual proper grown-up, tucked up with Paul in his picture-perfect cottage, maybe even planning their wedding.... On the other hand (if her true feelings hadn't accidentally taken the Internet by storm, that is), she never would have met Zillah and Conor - not to mention Lucas. And she'd never have found out just how much life there is to be lived....
The Difference a Day Makes
De : Carole Matthews
William and Amy love their busy city life, but when Will collapses on his way into work he decides enough is enough and moves his family to the country. Three months later, Amy is standing outside Helmshill Grange, a sullen monstrosity of a house, deep in the Yorkshire moors. Within days, Will has traded in the Audi for a Land Rover and brought home chickens, goats, sheep, a serial-killer cat and a mad dog. But when tragedy strikes, Amy finds herself living a dream that isn't hers....
Burning Moon: The laugh-out-loud romcom about the adventures of a jilted bride
De : Jo Watson
Lu par : Carly Robins
We promise this rom -com will make you laugh out loud! Again and again and again. Jo Watson's Burning Moon brings you laughter, adventure and a love story to give you the warm-and-fuzzies. Perfect for fans of Cate Woods' I Just Haven't Met You Yet, Joanna Bolouri's The List, The Bad Mother's Diary and Tracy Bloom. Chase your dreams. Dance under the stars. Fall in love at the festival of Burning Moon.
Two's company, but three's a calamity.... Two's Company is a funny, romantic novel from best-selling Jill Mansell, author of The One You Really Want and Three Amazing Things About You.
Jack and Cass Mandeville are a dream couple, ridiculously happy together and successful to boot - Jack as a journalist and Cass with her own hugely popular radio show. Indeed, almost every member of the Mandeville family is famous in their own right: from stunning Cleo, a supermodel with attitude, to Sean, the rising star of the comedy circuit.
Incredibly good looking and likeable, the family have captured the hearts of the nation - and the nation's press. But on the day that Jack hits the big 40 - the same day that a redhead called Imogen turns up to interview Jack and Cass for Hi! magazine - their proverbial bubble is about to burst....
©2007 Jill Mansell (P)2010 Isis Publishing Ltd
44 Scotland Street
Espresso Tales | Alex Tregear
As the summer holidays start, scandal hits Downey House. The attraction between Maggie Adair, the fiery, committed English teacher at Downey House and David McDonald, a teacher at the local boys' school, has escalated - and now both are facing an uncertain future. The girls of Downey House - mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice and shy, dependable Simone - are facing long summers at home. But the new term is not far away - and it will bring new pupils and lots of fresh new challenges....
The One You Really Want
Lu par : Sarah Barron
When Nancy spies her Christmas present from her husband sitting on the lawn, she realises the jewellery she thought was for her must be on someone else. Her best friend, Carmen, isn't surprised (she never liked Jonathan) and persuades Nancy to leave Edinburgh and come and stay in her luxury London flat - far too vast for Carmen since her husband, millionaire rock star Spike Todd, died. Soon Nancy's met gorgeous Connor O'Shea, who lives next door, and his daughter, Mia, is matchmaking.
The First Time I Saw You
De : Emma Cooper
Lu par : Aidan Kelly, Helen Keeley
Lost: Six-foot-two Irish man who answers to the name Samuel McLaughlin. Has weak shins and enjoys show tunes. If found, please return to Sophie Williams. Before Sophie met Samuel she saw the world in grey. Before Samuel met Sophie, he never believed in love at first sight. When they first meet, something tells them they are meant to be. But fate has other ideas. Now they have lost each other and can't see a way back.
Miranda's Big Mistake
Lu par : Patricia Jones
Readers of Lucy Diamond, Cathy Kelly and Milly Johnson will love Jill Mansell's touching best seller, Miranda's Big Mistake. Is he the answer to a single girl's prayers? Or is he Miranda's big mistake? Miranda is thrilled when she meets Greg at a cocktail party. He's gorgeous, he's funny - and he's very keen. Just what a girl needs to put some sparkle in her life. Heavens, he's practically perfect! Greg likes Miranda a lot. She's young, she's pretty, and she never talks about babies.
Three Amazing Things About You
From the number one bestselling author of The One You Really Want comes a poignant romantic novel about a young woman whose time is running out. Not to be missed by readers of Jojo Moyes and Erica James. Jill Mans | 521 |
Il castello Svevo si trova a Porto Recanati, nelle Marche.
Il suo nome deriva da Federico II di Svevia. Fu costruito nella prima metà del XIII secolo, probabilmente intorno al 1225, anno di costruzione di alcune strutture della Torre quadrata.
Fu poi fortificato con nuove mura nel 1369 e vi fu<|fim_middle|>, diviene palcoscenico di spettacoli ed eventi culturali.
Al primo piano dell'edificio residenziale del castello è possibile visitare la Pinacoteca Comunale che ospita opere collezionate dal cittadino portorecanatese Attilio Moroni (1909 – 1986) storico rettore dell'Università degli studi di Macerata, giurista e appassionato d'arte; la sala di ingresso è invece dedicata al pittore portorecanatese Biagio Biagetti (1877 – 1948).
Galleria d'immagini
Note
Altri progetti
Voci correlate
Pinacoteca comunale Attilio Moroni
Collegamenti esterni
Castelli della provincia di Macerata
Architetture di Porto Recanati
Fortezze delle Marche
Porto Recanati | aggiunto un fossato nel 1404.
Storia
Del 1229 è il documento con il quale l'imperatore Federico II di Svevia ratifica il possesso, da parte di Recanati, delle terre che andavano dal Musone al Potenza, autorizzandovi la costruzione di un nuovo porto e delle strutture atte a difenderlo. La concessione federiciana venne confermata nel 1240 da papa Gregorio IX e, nel 1243, sotto il pontificato di Innocenzo IV divenne porto franco.
Descrizione
L'edificio si presenta come un vasto quadrilatero con un'alta torre principale a metà circa del lato est, verso il mare.
La torre venne eretta prima dell'intera fortificazione con evidenti scopi di vedetta. Lungo il perimetro delle mura, nell'angolo sud ovest, si trova una seconda torre di forma semicircolare che venne costruita intorno al 1400. Su tutta la cinta muraria è visibile un camminamento di ronda utilizzato per la guardia e la protezione dall'alto.
Attualmente l'ampio cortile ospita l'arena "Beniamino Gigli" intitolata al celebre tenore recanatese che, durante la stagione estiva | 322 |
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Eco-friendly homes for sale near Lincoln …
Woodlands Edge is an eco-housing development, with solar panels and electric car charging points as standard with every home. Located on a leafy 12-acre site, just five miles from Lincoln city centre, Woodlands Edge is an eco-housing development with a difference. It has its own private woodland, tennis court, ponds and an allotment for every household.
The development is designed by Gusto Homes, who has been specialising in eco-housing since 1999, and when complete, will offer just 29 homes.
Steff Wright, CEO of Gusto Homes, and resident at Woodlands Edge, says: "Twenty years' experience of building eco-homes has gone into this site, not just the sustainable houses but the community element as well. We've really pushed the boundaries and built something absolutely unique in terms of the energy performance of the houses and the lifestyle. This is how housing should be."
The first phase of the development was completed around two years ago, and a further 11 homes are currently being built: six four-bedroom properties, and five two-bedroom homes, which range in price from £300,000 to £499,000.
All the homes are fully electric and generate the majority of their power from integrated solar panels on the roof. They contain air filtration and heat recovery systems, and the heating can be controlled by an app on your mobile phone. Running costs are typically less than £1 a day.
But the eco-credentials are just a small part of life at Woodlands Edge. Everybody who buys a property also gets a share in the resident-owned management company, giving them input into improving and managing the site.
There are regular community activities including Bollywood dance classes, tai chi lessons and even an annual gin festival. And for those that really want to muck in and get their hands dirty, there's a plant store on site containing lawnmowers and rotavators, while regular working parties are organised to carry out things like bulb planting.
Find out more from selling agents Mundy's (01522 510044 / www.mundys.net)
Gusto Group Limited
Millennium Green Business Centre
Rio Drive, Collingham
Newark, Notts NG23 7NB
Please note that all images and computer-generated images used on this website are for illustrative purposes only, and do not form part of sales contracts. See our full Terms & Conditions here
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mail@gusto-uk.com
Personal data is collected, processed, & safeguarded strictly in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations.
Personal data is used only for the purpose stated at the time of its collection. See our Privacy Policy here
Personal data is collected, processed, & safeguarded | 620 |
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Happy June! Since it is my birth month, I am being self-indulgent and writing about all of my favourite movies. For some of the more well-known movies out there, I will be mostly reflecting on the why it is one of my favourites, as opposed to the usual format of a plot rundown and a wee little bit of reflection. Not all of my favourite movies are classics – some fall into the guilty pleasure category – but whatever. It's my birthday month, deal with it. OK, disclaimer out of the way, let us begin…
#340: National Treasure (2004). If you know me, you knew this was coming… Yay, CRAPPY HISTORY!
Benjamin Gates: Played by Nicholas Cage. Ben is an historian/treasure hunter. He's a wee bit obsessive, and more than a wee bit nuts sometimes, so really it's Nic Cage being Nic Cage. And being awesome at it. Ben is also a little pretentious and arrogant when it comes to his history knowledge. Which makes him kinda sexy, too…
Riley Poole: Played by Justin Bartha. Riley is Ben's assistant/wise-cracking sidekick. He is every nerdy girl's dreamboat. He's not so much into the historical end of things, but the technical side. He trusts Ben implicitly, and is snarky to boot. Love.
Abigail Chase: Played by Diane Kruger. So many pretty people in this movie… anyway, Abigail is a curator at the National Archives and gets sucked into the treasure hunt while she tries to protect the Declaration of Independence. She is the romantic interest for Ben.
Patrick Gates: Played by Jon Voight. He's Ben's father who is the family grump. He is totally against hunting for the treasure, but gets sucked into it by association with his crazed son. He's often the voice of reason, but since reason has no place in this movie, he gets shut down a lot.
Ian Howe: Played by Sean Bean. Ian starts out ok, (funding the treasure hunt and all), but he really wants his piece of the treasure pie, so when he suggests they "borrow" the Declaration of Independence because there's a map on the back, and Ben won't let him, he takes his toys and goes on his own treasure hunt. Because you can't have a treasure hunt without some asshole competing with you.
Sandusky: Played by Harvey Keitel. Sandusky is the FBI agent who is assigned to getting the Declaration of Independence back after it's been "borrowed". There seems to be more to him than initially thought, and he turns out to be a pretty groovy dude.
John Gates: Played by Christopher Plummer. He's Ben's grandfather, and tells him the story of the treasure, leading him on his lifelong quest. A small but important role, played by Captain Von Trapp himself.
OK, so the rundown? There's this treasure to end all treasures, Knights Templar, too big for just one man, blah, blah, blah. Somehow, it wound up in the North American colonies, and the founders hid it and devised a series of clues. The last clue (really, the first clue if you think about it) wound up in the hands of a stable boy named Thomas Gates. This is the big family heritage, and apparently a lot of people lost a lot of money and good name searching for this treasure.
Ben wants to find the treasure. Not for monetary value, but to prove his family isn't crazy. Also, for the historical significance, which, again: sexy. So, the clue is "The secret lies with Charlotte", and after a lifetime of searching, Ben discovers that "Charlotte" is actually a ship. They find the ship (buried in ice in the arctic) and on the ship is a pipe that leads them to the next big clue: there is a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
OK, see how many times I have typed out Declaration of Independence so far? That is nothing compared to how often they say it in this movie. There's a drinking game. You will die.
So, Ian decides he will steal the Declaration of Independence (drink!) because obviously no one will let them look at it because they're all nuts. Ben can't allow that, so Ian winds up blowing up the ship. My little historian heart wept a little.
So, Ben realizes that Ian will steal the document with or without him, so he decides to try and stop him. When alerting everyone in Washington DC doesn't help, he goes to the National Archives, figuring someone's passion for historical documents will be an asset.
There he meets Abigail, who is gorgeous, loves history (she has Washington's campaign buttons, save for one. WANT!) and is a little snarky. I not only have a huge girl-crush on her, but I kinda want to be her when I grow up…
So, there's this gala for the National Archives, and Ben explains his elaborate plot to steal the document during the gala. It's pretty badass, and smart, and I love it. But Ian's there, too, and he's more of a "smash and grab" thief. Oh, Ian, these things are always won with brains. You already lost, dude. Also, after you blew up The Charlotte, I would not trust you within fifty feet of any historical artifact. Asshole.
And we're off to the races! They follow the clues they find (with a little help from Ben's dad), while being followed by Ian and his band of history-haters and the FBI. They wind up momentarily working with Ian when all hell breaks loose in Philly, and wind up in NYC.
Ian has taken Patrick hostage, and they all go down under Trinity Church to hopefully, finally find this damn treasure. But once they get to the bottom of this insane hole, all that's there is an empty room with a lantern. Ben and Patrick, being all smart, give Ian a fake clue sending him off to Boston, and Ian falls for it because he is stupid.
Of course, they eventually find the treasure (the pipe they found waaayyy back on the dearly departed Charlotte comes into play, which I actually love) and it is damn impressive. Ben strikes a deal with the FBI and gives them Ian to toss in jail so he doesn't have to go. Ben and Abigail get together, Riley gets a fancy new car he doesn't know how to drive, and we all anxiously await the sequel. Unfortunately, we get one…
So, I majored in US History. I should really hate this movie, because while some of the history is well-done, so much of it is inaccurate or just plain made up. But… it's so much fun! And it shows how exciting and fun history can be! Which is important. And treasure hunt movies are always fun. Unless it's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which is just depressing.
Me in what they refer to as "The Signing Room" in Liberty Hall. I was so.excited!
When I was in college, I was an active member in the History Club on campus. This movie somehow became our unofficial History Club movie. When we went on a trip to Philadelphia, we referenced the hell out of it. When we got back, we watched this at a meeting, and I turned to everyone and said "Oh my God, I am so sorry!" They looked at me funny, and I went on to say "I am so Nic Cage in this movie!" This was met with a bunch of head nods and a collective "yup!" So, I know why I love his character. He is just so into the history of everything, and gets excited and shares that, which comes off a little "know-it-all<|fim_middle|> into everything – like I said, some stuff is just not real. But it makes for a great story, so who cares?
That's a wrap! Up next: get out the hankies.
Posted by BethieJean at 8:38 AM
Another Round of Catch-up!
Mr. Holland's Opus
BethieJean
I am in my 30s, just graduated college with a BA in US History, am a big old nerd, and have no clue what the next step in my life is. But man, oh man, do I love movies. | ". So, I relate to him a lot.
This movie is actually what piqued my interest in American Revolution-era history, which resulted in me taking a course on The American Revolution in college, which resulted in awesomeness. It is my favourite time period in American History (aside from film history), and this movie played a part in discovering that.
If you are a "serious historian", A: why are you reading this blog? and B: avoid this movie at all costs. If you just have a passion for the field, treasure hunts, and intellectual pretty people, check it out. It's a harmless and educational way to spend two hours. Just make sure you look up some of the stuff before you buy | 147 |
I build on a variety of Fiberglass, Graphite and Bamboo blanks. I have built two weight rods, up to ten weight. The array of lengths and actions and<|fim_middle|>0 foot length for keeping line off the water. The rod was also feather light in the hand. | travel rod options has never been better than now. The quality of components available to build a custom rod has also never been better. A custom crafted rod is no doubt a fishing tool, but also a representation of a unique collaboration between builder and customer. In other words, get the exact rod that you want.
A custom rod's pricing varies depending on blank selected, and components requested. What can I build for you?
I build a number of Bamboo rods each year to sell. My tapers are currently in the Hex configuration. I am also happy to build a particular taper you may be interested in fishing. I have a few favorites that I feel fit the State of Maine and our waters particularly well. Have a bamboo rod that needs repair or restoration? I am always happy to look at a rod in need of restoration or repair.
I build a number of graphite rods each year. Graphite rods offer a lot of options in travel blanks and length. I did a lot of nymphing with a Sage 10 foot 3 weight last year and enjoyed the 1 | 215 |
July 19 (BusinessDesk) – Infometrics says strong growth in major exporting regions will help underpin the country's economic growth during 2019.
For the first time since the consultancy started tracking regional performance in 2001, all four of the largest urban areas are growing slower than the national average.
Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury were the slowest-growth regions in the year ended March. Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty were the fastest growing at rates of more than 4 percent, Infometrics said.
Chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan says the recovery in<|fim_middle|> country's other export commodities have boosted spending in the provinces.
Population growth, bolstered by the international migration boom and an increasing outflow of Aucklanders seeking a better and more affordable lifestyle, has also contributed.
"Many of the drivers of urban growth have peaked, including migration, the housing market, and construction activity," Kiernan said in a statement.
New Zealand's exporters are enjoying strong international prices for logs, meat, oil and aluminium, while a weaker local dollar since May is also boosting returns. Log exports were a record in March and an index of dairy prices has been relatively stable the past two years after plunging through 2014.
Infometrics says the strength of the provinces has contributed to an upward revision for its growth outlook during the next two years. The government's fiscal position is also stronger than previously thought, leaving more room for spending that may also stimulate the economy.
It has now added a half percentage point to its expectations for government consumption growth in 2018 and 2019. That growth now averages 2.9 percent for the two years. Its April forecast had assumed that growth would trough at about 2 per cent in early 2019 before rising slowly through to 2021.
Infometrics also expects stronger household spending for the next 18 months, relative to its April forecast. Stronger wages growth had also contributed to that lift, the firm said.
While the regional outlook is good, Infometrics said it's not all rosy and growth in 2019 will still be the slowest in five years.
Other risks facing the provinces include the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak in some regions. The disease, commonly found in cows globally, does not affect people or meat quality but does cause other health issues for stock.
Infometrics said the government's plans to eradicate the disease are not guaranteed and it could spread further.
Other risks for the regions include the on-going shortage of skilled workers and the potential for the trade ructions between China and the US to slow global demand growth. Any further slowdown in China would also affect New Zealand, given it is the biggest buyer of the country's exports. | dairy prices since 2016 and strong prices for most of the | 15 |
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Immersed in New<|fim_middle|> in those areas," says Francesca Bastianini, a graduate of the MFA Lighting Design program, former thesis advisee of Rozot's, and senior designer at Lumen Architecture, who has researched lighting options for homeless populations in New York. "Several of her advisees have gone on to provide services for underserved populations."
This year represents a bright moment for socially engaged lighting design. In January, the United Nations launched International Year of Light (IYL2015), a campaign that aims to raise awareness of the achievements of light science and its importance to humankind. Rozot believes that the attention given to "the right to light," as she calls it, can help bolster the work of socially conscious designers.
Says Rozot, "Lighting designers have a large role to play by teaching and supporting quality control and empowering communities with the lights that are right for them."
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On an evening walk through Martissant's informal settlements in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nathalie Rozot stepped into a reality that would be unthinkable to the average New Yorker.
"We were in almost complete darkness," Rozot, a part-time professor at Parsons School of Design, recalled of her last trip to the Haitian capital.
With its luminous skyscrapers and ubiquitous streetlights, lighting is often taken for granted in New York City. But for the residents of Martissant, where electricity is nonexistent, inadequate illumination is a fact of life. After the sun goes down, shops cannot sustain business, people cannot travel safely, and students cannot study.
Rozot is hoping to change that. Working with Concepteurs Lumière Sans Frontières (CLSF) (aka Lighting Designers Without Borders) and Fokal, a nonprofit in Haiti that is part of George Soros' Open Society Institute, she is leading a pilot initiative to bring solar-powered lighting to about 1,000 families. For Rozot, lighting designers have a role to play in ensuring that the need for light is answered with the right expertise.
"Lighting design is not a field generally associated with socially engaged work," Rozot says. "However, a few lighting professionals with a social conscience have organized nonprofits and provided pro bono design work for public interest worldwide; they are proof that lighting design can be a force for social good."
Rozot and like-minded lighting professionals will be on hand to present their projects and initiatives at a public event, From the Right to Light to the Right Lights, on Friday, March 13, 3:00–6:00 p.m., at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue.
A former director of l'Observatoire International Inc., Rozot started her own lighting design and research practice in 2006. At that time, she also began to pursue a long-held interest in socially engaged design, lecturing internationally and writing on the topic (she published a piece in Scapes, a publication of Parsons' School of Constructed Environments). In 2007, she joined CLSF, a nonprofit dedicated to meeting the lighting needs of populations in emergency or post-emergency situations; in 2011, she founded PhoScope, a think tank committed to facilitating change in the practice, teaching, and critical study of lighting.
The project in Martissant's settlements began in 2013. After her first trip, Rozot drafted an analysis to "break down the need for lighting into three scales of solar-powered solutions": lighting for community gathering places, such as playgrounds; stationary fixtures installed in a variety of "circulations," or paths of human movement; and portable lights for homes. She researched solar-powered lighting fixtures from Haitian-based manufacturers and local distributors and set up a process for quality assessment before the pilot project could be launched.
"Our mission is to provide expertise and transfer our knowledge, not to impose design projects," Rozot says. "For every aspect of the project, we report to members of the community."
Rozot's practice also extends to the classroom. At Parsons' MFA Lighting Design, where she has taught for 15 years and currently leads the program's thesis year, Rozot advocates for socially engaged design to her students. Not surprisingly, some of them have participated in activist-driven projects and initiatives both in the United States and abroad.
"Nathalie always encouraged social activism and community-oriented design in class, and she has always been supportive of students who want to pursue work | 923 |
Born and raised in New York City, Jimmy Aponte captures an abstract point of view of the city. We found Jimmy painting on the streets of Manhattan.Taking advice<|fim_middle|> on your face! | from old time graffiti artist, Mark Alaquin "TEV 1." Mark advised, "when you open shop, don't be lazy and do some work; look busy. Start painting on your pictures or something." When painting on his 1st photo creating a photo/painting, it sold. Jimmy continued this process and soon became a popular SOHO street artist; selling his work to locals and art lovers from around the globe.
The strong and stylish women that are Betty and Veronica have inspired generations of adoring fans who have kept the tradition of classic American attitude and style close to their hearts.That theme is continued today in the CW show Riverdale, which showcases Betty and Veronica's close yet chaotic friendship during a tumultuous period of small-town drama.
Blaq is an Australian skincare brand designed to take prime position on your bathroom vanity. Our products are minimal, our packaging is desirable and the results are downright remarkable!!
Vegan, non-toxic and guaranteed to brighten your day!
I wanted to make sure our candles were clean burning and free of harsh chemicals, phthalates, and pollutants. The wax used in the candles is soy wax grown from American soy beans. That piece of wood in the middle of your candle? Yup. That the wick, made of 100% organic untreated native cherry wood. Not only do our candles smell amazing, but they are also guaranteed to put a smile | 286 |
'Berrigurra' is located 70km east of Emerald. It is typical of industry standards within its region. The property runs a herd of composite and crossbred breeders, and give students an invaluable experience in intensive beef cattle production.
Students are an important part of the College's crop production team, gaining extensive hands-on experience in crop production, harvesting and storage, water harvesting and irrigation management. The College runs a combination of dryland and irrigated operations, with <|fim_middle|> our courses online or contact us to find out more. | 440 hectares dedicated to irrigated cropping. The crops grown on the College farms are influenced by the seasonal and market conditions of the Central Highlands district and can include cotton, sorghum, wheat, forage, and barley among others.
Emerald Agricultural College has renowned Australian Stock Horse and Quarter Horse Studs which have been in operation for over 35 years.
Students gain practical horsemanship skills and proficiencies in horse breeding, stallion management, health and welfare, and stud stable management in our state of the art facilities. The College horse complex boasts a 1200 sqm undercover arena plus a 250 sqm cemented, undercover, fully equipped shoeing bay including hot shoeing specialist tools.
To read about our residential facilities, visit the Student life and accommodation page.
View | 165 |
The Power of Roles
February 7 2023 @ 9:00 am - February 14 2023 @ 12:30 pm EST
« Foundations of Inclusive Practice: A Glimpse of SRV (Bengali)
The Power of Roles »
This workshop gives participants a practical introduction to the principles of Social Role Valorization. Through a combination of multimedia presentation and small group discussion, participants will learn about the phenomenon of social devaluation. This event includes discussion of how people with disabilities and other devalued groups have been systematically hurt and harmed by society, and what the impact of that devaluation has been. Participants will also learn about ways to help people have better lives by supporting them to achieve positive valued social roles. We will discuss practical strategies to make this a reality for the people you support.
*This workshop takes place in two parts over two separate days via Zoom. It is necessary<|fim_middle|>1 February 7, 2023 9:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
Day 2 February 14, 2023 9:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
February 7 2023 @ 9:00 am EST
February 14 2023 @ 12:30 pm EST
Education, Social Role Valorization | to attend both parts to receive credit for this workshop. KHS employees should register for this workshop through Relias.*
2/7 and 2/14 Registration
Day | 36 |
slept til 11:50am. I never do that.
Jess W was coming to pick me up at 11:45am (yes thats right). Told me the night before to be sure to be ready as I don't want to have to come inside and get you. Thankfully she was late. Got here about 11:55 instead. In a good mood 😛 so she gave me a fraction longer.
Fall out of bed. find clothes somehow, find shoes, find water, fed the dog, grabbed an apple to eat in the car (for breakfast), money, phone, assignment to hand in. left.
Got talking on the way to Tabor and so missed the turn off on to Oban Rd (erm. yes we do go the same way every time) had to go the long way round. Handed in essays with half an hour to spare. I went looking for Rowan to get my USB stick back, but their offices were all locked up, will just have to wait for camp.
Drove to Eastland (that would be the shopping centre) to meet Alecia infront of Macca's for lunch (infront, not at). Subway for me, some a little sorry looking pasta<|fim_middle|> might as well.
So 🙂 I have a camera. finally!
Fun evening, even though I did have an 'oversleep' headache.
caught up with Jaclyn (cousin) very good to see her again 🙂 Miss not seeing her now I'm not at school.
And that is the end of the saga of my day. Thank you for listening if you got this far, if you didn't I don't blame you. | for Jess and Alecia (when she came).
Jess and I then went Camera shopping. Teds Camera House first (which I told Jess was overpriced) weren't there long. Then to Kirks. Nice shop. Jess got asked what she was looking for, "a camera" (A and I gave her lots for that seeing the whole shop was devoted to them). I managed to talk Jess out of giving into the sales lady's advice and to wait and look round a bit more. Saw the camera I found last night for $649 the rrp listed on the Nikon site. Too much.
Then dropped Alecia back at her car and we drove back to Croydon. Second shop, much bigger range. Jess found something better, cheaper and I made her ask/get a deal for everything else thrown in. There's some of the dutch coming out.
Managed to find one myself.
Same camera as before. Nikon Coolpix 4800 was after at least 4mp. and more zoom. Surprisingly $100 cheaper. Ho hummed for a bit, got sales person to chuck a card in with it, cost a bit extra but not too much. Decided I | 248 |
A View of Engagement - Fred 1.0
Nine years ago, bestselling author and business consultant Mark Sanborn introduced the world to "The Fred Factor" - a book - with a focus on delivering extraordinary service in simple, yet, remarkable ways. Fred's story inspired millions.<|fim_middle|> you how.
if you would like to book me to speak or conduct a learning event...
operators are standing by!! | Companies and even entire cities were inspired to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary each day.
We've all encountered people like Fred. In this writing, Sanborn illuminates the simple steps each of us can take to transform our own lives from the ordinary into the extraordinary.
The Four Engagement Based Principles of Fred
Sanborn, through stories about Fred and others like him, reveals the four basic principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work. The principles are:
Make a real difference everyday,
Become more successful by building strong relationships,
Create real value for others without spending a penny, and
Constantly reinvent yourself.
And now - Fred 2.0
Today, with stiff competition from the networked global economy, delivering extraordinary results is more important than ever. With Fred 2.0, Sanborn not only revisits the original Fred to gain new insights, but also equips all of us with new strategies to achieve more.
By following these principles, and by learning from and teaching other "Freds," you, too, can excel in your career and make your life extraordinary. As Mark Sanborn makes clear, each of us has the potential be a Fred. The Fred 1.0 and Fred 2.0 show | 255 |
Meet Gibson T Dog – the Unashamedly Creative Morale Officer.
It truly is a dog's life for the Unashamedly Creative Morale Officer, Gibson T Dog.
Gibson works part time as light relief from the day's work, often reminding coach, trainer and all round creative copy<|fim_middle|> discover why every office should have a Labrador here. | writing, content creating word nerd Rebekah Lambert that a well needed tug of war break or walk around the block does wonders for the creative soul.
He works as inspiration through his forever positive attitude, his joyful approach to lunch time and the fact he rarely drops the ball, even when asked.
Gibson is passionate about animal rights, sunbeam chasing, visits to the dog beach, pelican heckling and is often heard snoring strategically during the working day.
He may have missed his calling as a support dog, but he's certainly the right ticket for Unashamedly Creative operations.
You can follow Gibson's antics on Twitter as @gong_dog and | 135 |
Find Bike Ride
Innsbruck - Kühtai
Road<|fim_middle|>.innsbruck.info | bike riding in Kühtai, © Tirol Werbung / Soulas Oliver
Roadbike Ride
Kühtai has already achieved legendary status in Tirol's local road bike scene and features in many races such as the Tour of Austria. Every year it is also the first of four major climbs which make up the Ötztal Bike Marathon. The ride from Innsbruck to the Ötztal Valley, up to Kühtai and back down through the Sellraintal Valley to Innsbruck is an absolute classic. With 110km of riding and 1,720 vertical metres of ascent it is a challenging route which rewards riders with magnificent views of the Ötztal and Stubai Alps. There are plenty of quaint villages along the way where riders can stop off for a meal.
"Most of this climb is in the shade, making it an ideal challenge for hot summer days. Thanks to the Ötztal Cycle Marathon this route is today an absolute classic in the cycling scene."
Martin Weiss, former roadbike racer
powered byContwise Maps
Hike to
Mountain chain
Stubai Alps
Riding time
Circular route
Handicap-accessible
Route with e-bike charging station
2,020m 590m
Elevation uphill 1,720m
Vertical metres downhill 1,720m
* These are approximate values and recommendations. Please take your personal fitness level, technical ability and the current weather conditions into account. Tirol Werbung cannot guarantee that the information provided is correct and accepts no liability.
Trail description
This ride starts in Innsbruck. Riders take the tarmac Inn Cycle Path in a westerly direction past the airport and cross over to the nothern side of the river Inn before continuing along the B171 main road in the shadow of the Martinswand rockface. Stay on this mostly flat road for around 20km until you reach Telfs. Depending on the wind direction - the wind can often be strong in the Inn Valley - this section can be either a joy (if there is a tailwind) or a trial (if there is a headwind).
Staying on the B171, cross over to the other side of the Inn when you reach Telfs. The next section is also flat and takes riders through the villages of Rietz, Stams and Silz before reaching Ötztal-Bahnhof at the start of the Ötztal Valley. With around 48 kilometres but just 140 vertical metres completed, riders should be nicely warmed up for the challenging climb to come.
Shortly after reaching Ötztal-Bahnhof turn left off the B171 and follow the B186 into the Ötztal Valley. This slightly uphill section of road is wide but also busy with traffic. Continue all the way to Oetz (812m), where the 10km climb via Ötzerau and Taxegg to Ochsengarten (1,538m) begins. The twisting L237 winds its way up via several hairpins and climbs around 700 vertical metres before flattening off slightly in Ochsengarten.
It is here that things get really steep, with sections of up to 18%. The final section leads past the Speicher Längental reservoir and the pretty Dortmunder Hütte hut to the village of Kühtai at 2,020 metres. This high alpine settlement is generally quiet in summer but still has a few restaurants serving food and drink.
With your batteries recharged, it is time to embark on the adrenaline-pumping descent through the Sellraintal Valley with sections of up to 20% and long, sweeping corners. Riders pass through the villages of St. Sigmund, Gries and Sellrain as they descend 1,400 vertical metres all the way back to Kematen (610m) in the Inn Valley.
The final section leads through fields and meadows back to Innsbruck. In Völs riders cross underneath the motorway and then take the Inn Cycle Path back to the regional capital Innsbruck.
TIP! Ambitious climbers should try the route up over the Haiminger Sattele (1,690m) to Ochsengarten. Instead of riding from Haiming to Ötztal-Bahnhof, turn off onto this challenging climb over the Haimingerberg mountain to the Haiminger Sattele.
Places along the route
Innsbruck has everything a lively, vibrant city needs, and yet it is just a ten-minute journey into the high mountains which dominate the skyline.
Go to place
Oetz is a small village located on the valley floor between the sites of two ancient rockslides. It lies at the start of the Ötztal Valley, in the shadow of the mighty Acherkogel mountain.
The Inn and Melach rivers form the border of the municipality of Kematen and also divide the Oberland in the west of Tirol from the Unterland in the east of Tirol.
Kühtai lies at an altitude of 2,020m and is surrounded by more than 25 mountains over 2,000 m and 20 mountains over 3,000 m in the Stubai Alps.
The mighty and iconic Hohe Munde mountain watches over the town of Telfs in the Inntal Valley. At 2,662m, it is popular with both hikers and rock climbers. Visitors with a passion for plays will be…
Your destination address: Innsbruck
Innsbruck Information
Burggraben 3
t +43.512.53560
e info@innsbruck.info
w www | 1,231 |
SCROLL DOWN TO ENTER GIVEAWAY!
What is it about tea that makes it so comforting? Every thought of having tea is comforting. I love the warmth, the flavors, the colors, the richness, the smoothness, the freshness…I could go on and on.
Twining's of London provides all fo these wonderful aromas and feelings that tea gives us. Their new flavors are spot on – Berry Fusion, Lemon Delight and Buttermint have such wonderful flavor and comfort in their very own unique way.
I have tried all three and I have to say I love them all for very different reasons. The Lemon Delight is so refreshing, the Berry Fusion is sweet and satisfying and the Buttermint is down right smooth and calming.
Although Twining's provides 17 herbal teas, what I love most about tea is how it makes me feel, regardless of flavor.
As I mentioned above there is something so comforting about it<|fim_middle|> this one. Thank you Twining's of London for allowing me to talk about your delicious herbal teas and for allowing me to take a step away just for one day to chat and reflect.
I would love to hear from you and how you are being your best blend. Leave a comment below or on social media with the hashtag #BeYourBestBlend and #stuckonsweet and tell us!
To learn more about Twining's Tea, check out their social media pages!
There really is nothing quite like a warm cup of delicious tea!
Enter Giveaway below for a chance to win three herbal tea blends from Twining's of London! It's easy! Leave your email below then head over to my INSTAGRAM page and leave a comment with your favorite tea flavor using hashtag #BeYourBestBlend and Participants must be 18 years of age and reside in the U.S. Good luck! | …even the thought of it makes me happy. I wake up sometimes thinking I can't wait to have a cup of tea today. Ya feel me?
Twining's has done such a wonderful job of creating amazing herbal teas while also making sure their teas provide a sense of being. In this case, they want all of us to be our best blend! I am so into this idea!
This is my third post about tea and I've written a few things about how I like to be my best blend…taking time for myself, exercising and simply drinking tea. How are you being your best blend? What do you do? What do you enjoy? How do you make it happen?
This blog post may not share an indulgent recipe but what it does do is gets US, gets ME thinking. Thinking about being positive, not taking life too seriously, to not sweat the small stuff and even the big stuff and do what you LOVE. I LOVE creating recipes and I LOVE sharing inspiring messages from campaigns like | 203 |
Museum Week: Colorful Me!
Spring: May 7, 8<|fim_middle|>, boxed lunch, and a free pass for each student (and up to three guests) to return to the museum for additional sketching opportunities.
Sponsored by The Tia Palermo and Jess Ravich Trust
TEACHERS! Sign up to receive THE MUSE, our twice-yearly newsletter for arts educators. Click here to read our latest issue. | & 9, 2019 | 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Fall: October 2, 3, 9, 10 & 11, 2019 | 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Immerse your 3rd and 4th grade students in discovery through hands-on activities, gallery tours, and a musical performance connecting with the day's theme of COLOR! State and National standards are important guides for this fun, educational experience.
Colors are important tools informing us about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and even the pets we choose. When we look at a work of art, the first thing we might notice are the colors chosen by the artist…but there is a LOT more to color than meets the eye!
This journey through color reinforces vocabulary like hue, saturation, temperature and value. We will explore the role of color in creating harmony, rhythm, emphasis and mood. While always focusing on visual learning, we will see how art and science work together, and we will use language arts to document our exploration.
After exploring the Maryhill collection, students will enjoy a new way to think about colorful expression through the cello performance of Gideon Freudmann from Young Audiences Arts for Learning.
Cost: $3.00 per student; schools provide one chaperone per 10 students.
Maryhill Museum of Art wishes to thank the following for their support of the museum's Spring or Fall Museum Week: Columbia Bank; Cross Three Foundation; Robert and Barbara McCormick Fund at the Gorge Community Foundation, Caithness Shepherd's Flat Wind Farm, J.D. Fulwiler, and Windy Flats Wind Farm.
High School Museum Day: Reading Rodin
This unique experience gives high school art students an opportunity build their portfolios and learn more about careers in the arts. Participants take a guided tour of the museum's masterworks with an eye toward artist intent and technique, and enjoy a figure drawing session in the Rodin Gallery guided by a professional artist. This is a fantastic opportunity for serious art students to further develop their portfolios for college applications. Students also will receive a coupon for a free return visit to Maryhill (for up to four people), and are encouraged to use it to continue their sketching experience independently.
To arrange, please contact the Curator of Education to make a reservation at 509-773-3733 x25 or email education@maryhillmuseum.org. The program has no cost, thanks to our generous sponsor, for up to 20 students. Includes an application for bus reimbursement, all supplies | 549 |
Posted 26th Mar 2013
Team Bath to host Storm, Mavericks and Dragons in Phase Two of Superleague
Team Bath's netballers will continue their quest for a fifth Superleague title with what promise to be three thrilling home fixtures against Surrey Storm, Hertfordshire Mavericks and Celtic Dragons next month.
The action gets underway in Phase Two of the Superleague, the Showdown League, with a televised game against Surrey Storm at the Sports Training Village on Monday 15 April.
Three days later, on Thursday 18 April,<|fim_middle|> out more about Team Bath on our website teambath.com
You can also follow Team Bath on Twitter at twitter.com/teambath or facebook.com/teambath
For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd on 01225 383518 or 07765 071683. | Team Bath host Hertfordshire Mavericks. And on Monday 29 April Team Bath will entertain Celtic Dragons at the Sports Training Village in another televised game.
Tickets for Team Bath's Phase Two home games are available to buy online now at http://teambath.ticketline.co.uk/ or by phoning 0844 8884412. They include a special offer if you buy tickets for any two of our three home fixtures – this offer is only available on phone purchases. See below for further details.
Team Bath's 54-34 away win over Hertfordshire Mavericks on Friday meant Team Bath ended Phase One of the Superleague at the top of the table.
The Superleague is now taking a break to allow for the senior England team to tour Jamaica and the under-21s to pla y in Australia. The two tours feature no fewer than eight members of Team Bath's Superleague squad.
But the Superleague will be back with a bang when Team Bath host Surrey Storm mid-April.
Jess Thirlby, Team Bath's head coach, said she is relishing the return to Superleague action.
"Psychologically I think it's important that we've finished top of Phase One," she said. "It means we have overcome all but one of our opposition that we'll face in Phase Two and we'll face them, Surrey, in our first game at home, so we're really looking forward to that.
"Our home crowd made a real difference to our performances and we really hope people will come out in force in Phase Two.
"We had a few players with injuries in Phase One, but most of them are now back to fitness and with eight players featuring on national tours before Phase Two, we should be match fit and raring to go!"
And she said she was pleased with Friday's victory at Mavericks.
"I was really pleased with the result on Friday, particularly our first half performance, which was one of the best, more cohesive passages of play we have out together so far this season.
"We pulled away to 14 very quickly and that was really pleasing. In both our attack and defence we could start to see the transition of the work from training into the game with a higher number of live turnovers and some more clinical attacking play."
Team Bath's Superleague Phase Two fixtures
Monday 15 April: Team Bath v Surrey Storm
Thursday 18 April: Team Bath v Hertfordshire Mavericks
Monday 22 April: Celtic Dragons v Team Bath
Monday 29 April: Team Bath v Celtic Dragons
Monday 13 May: Surrey Storm v Team Bath
TBC: Hertfordshire Mavericks v Team Bath
Team Bath's home fixtures are played at the University of Bath Sports Training Village – doors open at 7pm, games start at 8pm.
Team Bath home fixtures ticket details
Tickets are available online from the Ticketline at http://teambath.ticketline.co.uk/ or by phoning 0844 8884412.
Tickets cost £8 for adults and £6 for concessions.
Special offer: buy tickets for any two of our three Phase Two home games – adults £12, concessions £9.
Please note, this offer is only available for tickets booked by phone.
You can find | 678 |
Explanation of our mobile first approach: Use the mobile-first grid to get support for the largest number of old devices.
Deep dive into our flexible, powerful grid: Learn how to quickly build complex responsive layouts using the Foundation XY grid.
Block grid: Create evenly spaced blocks and get elements to line up easily.
Source Ordering<|fim_middle|> 6.4's biggest change: The new XY Grid and learn how it will change what's possible on the web.
Advanced XY Grid: Build complex web app type layouts with the Grid Frame feature of the XY Grid.
The Grid and Sass: Now take the grid fully semantic by using the Sass mixins provided by Foundation.
Initializing: Gain knowledge on the many ways to initialize Foundations JS and when to use which.
Manipulating Components: Take the default JS components and make them yours by modifying their core attributes.
JS Utilities: See how to create your own plugins and use Foundations built in utilities to make it even easier.
JS Optimization: Make your code more efficient by removing what you didn't use. | : Shift columns around between our breakpoints to dictate how responsive layouts are viewed.
Buttons: Create clear calls to action by just adding a style.
Typography: Get great looking type and vertical rhythm right out of the box.
Callouts: Highlight content or sections of your page.
Forms: Layout inputs, selects, and labels to create easy to use forms.
Navigation: How to quickly implement 5 common navigation patterns.
Pagination, Breadcrumbs: Create useful sub-navigation patterns that create simple user flows.
Magellan: Build a solid navigation that scrolls users to the content they want to see.
Visibility classes: Show different navigation or content elements for different devices.
Toggler: Creating your own plugins with toggler and using Motion UI to animate them.
Reveal: Create dead-simple responsive modals and add Motion UI animations.
Dropdown Pane: Organize multi-tier content — just add links and go.
Getting Started: An in-depth look at which version of Foundation is right for you and a peek at how ZURBians start their projects.
The Build System: A look at how the ZURB Stack build system is created and how to control all the parts.
Using Panini: How Panini works and how you can maximize the use of a flat file generator.
Customizing Foundation: Learn how to make foundation yours by removing unnecessary code or altering the code that's already there.
Learn Sass and how to maximize its use in Foundation.
File structure: Learn the Foundation way of structuring your file folders and our efficient use of CSS imports.
The Sass Language: Take a crash course in Sass and learn about its most important features.
Sass Architecture: Get familiar with how Foundation uses Sass and how you can organize yours too.
Best Practices: Keep your Sass concise and easy to use with tips from the ZURB team on maintainable Sass.
Learn about the Foundation XY Grid in all its shapes and forms.
Mobile First: Take a dive into the strategies of mobile first web creation and why Foundations grid is built that way.
The XY Grid: Get the scoop on Foundation | 413 |
Crispy chicken with crisp lettuce, roasted peppers, a slice of cheese and a Cajun mayo in a toasted roll.
Kcal: 680 for the sandwich only.
As the horse meat 'crisis' continues we decided to try something different in our latest review. An item from McDonald's had been calling to me recently… ever so softly… almost like a whisper… "Burger Lad….Burger Lad….review me….review me now".
What was this item calling to me? The McDonald's Cajun Crispy Chicken Sandwich.
I believe this is a limited time only promotion but I may be incorrect on that assumption. Anyway, we had a thirty minute timeslot in which to get to the nearest Maccas and savour this Cajun offering.
It was quiet when we got there (thank goodness it was not half term week) and I soon placed my order. I had a feeling these would need to be made-up from scratch and this was confirmed when I was told it would be a few minutes wait – always a good start!
I could see the sandwich being made up in the back and it wasn't long before we made our way to a table. After the usual photo shoot I was ready – as you can see from<|fim_middle|> flavour on offer. I picked one out and tried it on its own and it had a subtle, sweet taste.
The sub-style roll didn't seem toasted to me but it was soft and fresh and held all the components nicely together.
I had a closer look at the chicken in the 'semi burger style' pieces and it had white breast meat and was fairly moist.
The Cajun mayo was a real winner.
I didn't expect much in terms of heat but it did have a bit of a kick to it and had a real distinct flavour which complimented the rest of the ingredients.
If I could change one thing it would be the cheese – it's your standard American from McDonald's and I really believe they could have gone with a pepper jack on this one to really give it something extra. I imagine that cost savings is the reason why a different one is not added.
Overall, the sandwich is a decent size and a good lunch for anyone on the go (and not risking beef at the moment).
This Cajun concoction from McDonald's might be around for a while and I would recommend it.
At 680 calories it is certainly better for you than some of the other menu items so you won't feel quite so guilty afterwards.
I think McDonald's have stopped selling this- I never even got to eat this one! | the picture it was nicely packaged up.
I peeled the wrapper off my lunch date and was impressed with how well it had been put together.
The chicken, cheese and lettuce always works as a good combination and I was impressed after my very first bite.
Upon further inspection, I noticed the crispy coating on the chicken had a 'herby' flavour to it and it was pretty tasty too.
I forgot the sandwich contained the roasted red peppers so this was a pleasant 'surprise' when I found them and contributed to the overall | 105 |
Because we believe in culture and counter-culture. Because we believe in reinventing classics. Because we want to go further and find all of those who venture beyond the beaten track. Because we're fascinated by tribes. Their free spirit, their colors, and their ability to be<|fim_middle|> We've selected 17 lens types that fit in with the "vintage" aesthetic while also providing maximum protection for the eyes thanks to their special properties.
HD, photochromic, polarised and anti-reflective lenses make up the range that the Etnia Barcelona design team has selected for the Vintage collection. We know that the eye is 200 times more sensitive than the skin, and that's why Etnia Barcelona uses the best glass in the world for its sunglasses.
Our Vintage collection pays incredible attention to details. The metal rods of the temples are decorated with Modernist motifs, created by the brand's design team. This detailing was created using a laser-cutter to achieve high precision etchings. The metal rod is visible inside the acetate and it's the core that structures the frame and connects to the hinge that joins the frame front to the temple.
that mix the spirit of the brand with the old school style.
Malasaña – Madrid, Shoreditch – London, Kreuzberg – Berlin, Mission District – S.F.
The Vintage collection was inspired by cultural movements, intellectuals and everything that ventures off the beaten track – creating independent culture.
That's why we chose the hotspots of culture and creativity to name the models in this collection. It's a tribute to these neighbourhoods and its people. | themselves without following anyone else.
Etnia Barcelona presents a brand new collection featuring six models of sunglasses and eight models of optical glasses, combining original acetates from the 70's – recovered from the Mazzucheli factories – and then injected with our own colorful DNA.
The iconic frames are reinterpreted with our ethnic identity in mind to create our own signature look, Vintage Indie. Etnia Barcelona's Vintage collection blends classic styles with the spirit of the brand and always with exquisite attention to every detail. The collection consists of fifteen acetate colors, drawing upon the history of the glasses for the base of the frame. Dark colors such as brown, crystal and honey are combined to imitate tortoise shells – known as "Havana", "Tortoise" or "Carey". These dark colors are mixed with the acetates that the Etnia Barcelona design team has created for the inner parts of the frames. A dozen ethnic color schemes created based on stripes, herring bones and horn textures can be glimpsed peeking out from the interior of the frame.
The metal earpiece, designed using laser-etched Modernist motifs can be seen inside the acetate and is the core that structures the frame. In the Vintage collection, we've applied mineral lenses also created in the 70's era by the Barberini Factory in Italy. The collection includes seventeen lens types that offer maximum protection for the eyes. The new Etnia Barcelona Vintage collection is a tribute to independent culture. Malasaña, Kreuzberg, Williamsburg, Shoreditch, Mission District… Each model takes its name from a historic neighbourhood in a major global city, known for the cultural movements that started there and defined each of them.
For the campaign, the Etnia Barcelona team travelled to these neighbourhoods in search of the faces and histories to help tell the story of the collection. The result, naturalistic images of people linked to the culture, fashion, music and art. People who breathe the histories that are still alive in each of these neighbourhoods. With this collection, Etnia Barcelona reaffirms its experience in the study of and blends it with vintage style to create a perfect collection that combines quality and fashion.
Acetate is a material that comes from cotton. It is manufactured artisanally in a factory in Italy (Ma-zzu). For over 50 years, quality glasses have been produced in this material, making it possible to obtain such colorful structures.
In the Vintage collection, we've introduced 15 acetate colors for the base of the frame, frame front, and temples. The colors selected are part of the history of glasses and have achieved the status of "classics" in the optical industry.
Their creation dates back to 1970 and are essentially dark colors made from a range of brown, glass and honey tones. These acetates are the result of imitating the shells of tortoises. Internationally these colors are known as "Havana", "Tortoise" or "Carey".
Etnia Barcelona wanted to combine the classic appearance with the spirit of the brand. The Vintage collection was designed to create a personal connection with the wearer. This connection is created using the acetates Etnia Barcelona has designed to dress up the interior parts of the temples.
The collection carries our ethnic identity on the interior parts of the frames. We've designed a dozen ethnic color schemes based on herringbones, stripes and horn patterns. The lamination created by Etnia Barcelona gives you a glimpse of the interior color of the frame on the temple tip.
Etnia Barcelona continues to opt for top-quality lenses for an unparalleled vision experience. The Vintage collection uses mineral lenses also created in the seventies, always from Barberini. | 763 |
Math<|fim_middle|> 9311186 or email us. | s & English | 11+ After School Tuition in Reading, Berkshire.
"Mum/Dad, this is not the method we use for division in school".
Many parents do want to help their children at home but are unable to, because they are not familiar with the different methods used in school. Indeed, children are taught various methods in school these days to do number operations; however, they sometimes get confused because they do not understand the concepts.
While these methods are not in themselves wrong, it is imperative that a child can see and process the links adequately in order to apply mathematics to problem solving and practical daily life.
The session lasts for one hour and ten minutes a week and each lesson will be targeted towards both subjects. Homework is set after each lesson and would usually take about 20- 30 minutes a day. We place a high value on your child's learning and utilize a mix of innovative teaching strategies to make difficult concepts easier. This includes mental exercises, games and experiential learning.
As the classes are small, up to 12 (ratio is a maximum of one tutor to 8 pupils), we are able to meet the individual needs of each child. Contact us for an appointment time: call us on 0118 | 257 |
Change your habits for 6 weeks and you could change your WHOLE LIFE.
We've done many Whole Life Challenges in the past and many people have been amazed that a few staple tips that can make the Challenge a little easier.
Shelly Wolf put together many in the list of 16 below.
Success Strategies for having a successful Whole Life Challenge experience.
If it's meditating (one week always has this as Well-Being Practices ) get up a bit earlier and devote some early morning time to do this. Get up and drink at least twelve ounces of lemon water first thing.
Exercise is about having a daily relationship with your body." When you commit to that "relationship," the focus shifts from "how hard" or "how long," to simply "showing up for yourself." And if you do that consistently for eight weeks, you'll feel like gangbusters.
Don't go anywhere without snacks. Bring sliced apples, raw almonds, and carrot sticks to work. Don't ever rely on there being compliant snacks out there on Commercial Drive – there often aren't.
Kelly and I like to lay out meals in advance for the week. She finds a lot of the great recipes that are WLC compliant and now we have a bunch that are go-to favorites, that we eat off the challenge regularily.
From Connie: "Every Sunday evening, I grill six chicken breasts and a big flank steak, and I hard boil six eggs. I then have<|fim_middle|> will appreciate it.
So if you want to learn more about making healthy choices in a way that doesn't add stress to your life? Join us for the Next Whole Life Challenge. This six-week challenge will improve your mind, your body, and your daily habits, leaving you happier, healthier, and in control of your lifestyle. | protein for the whole week. My go-to snack is protein-rich: strips of grilled chicken and guacamole." Bake up some compliant Bacon as well.
Have fun with these Tips.
To give and get support throughout the Challenge with your teammates is sooo important. If you're a repeat player, please help the others with the teams comment feeds! Everyone | 71 |
Jumping From The 'Top Of The World,' Skydiver Breaks Sound Barrier
By Dana Farrington
Published October 14, 2012 at 7:13 PM EDT
Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria and technical project director Art Thompson celebrate after Baumgartner completed a skydive from the stratosphere Sunday.
"I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see."
Those were the words of Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner as he plummeted toward Earth faster than the speed of sound. He jumped 24 miles from the stratosphere and landed gracefully just more than nine minutes later in a desert in Roswell, N.M., Sunday.
His plunge was record-breaking on three fronts: the highest jump, the longest distance of a free fall and the fastest vertical velocity. Baumgartner's free fall was seconds shorter than the record set by Joe Kittinger in 1960.
Brian Utley of the International Air Sports Federation gave the preliminary numbers during a press conference Sunday. The data still needs certification before it is an official world record:
Jump: 128,100 feet
Free fall: 119,846 feet; about 4 minutes 20 seconds
Velocity: 833.9 mph; Mach 1.24
Cheers erupted once it became clear that "Fearless Felix" had actually broken the sound barrier. He is the first person to ever reach that speed wearing only a high-tech suit, The Associated Press reports.
"This is mind-blowing numbers, but I couldn't have done it without my team because you're only as good as your team is," Baumgartner said. "I want to say thank you to everybody who was joining my dream."
His dream was years in the making, the Red Bull Stratos team says on its website. Baumgartner began skydiving at 16, Red Bull Stratos says, and was later part of the Austrian military's demonstration and competition team. He's been collaborating with Red Bull since 1988.
"His training started years ago practicing high altitude jumps with Luke Aikins, his skydiving consultant, to ensure a solid body position in a relatively stiff pressurized suit. In addition to skydiving Felix has a whole team who supports him from every angle you can imagine, just to get him to the point where his performance in the pressure suit feels like second nature."
Suspense had been building over the past week, after the team called off the attempt multiple times. But when he finally was about to leap Sunday, Baumgartner says he wasn't even thinking about records:
"When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore. You do not think about gaining<|fim_middle|> to go up really high to understand how small you are."
Dana Farrington
Dana Farrington is a digital editor coordinating online coverage on the Washington Desk — from daily stories to visual feature projects to the weekly newsletter. She has been with the NPR Politics team since President Trump's inauguration. Before that, she was among NPR's first engagement editors, managing the homepage for NPR.org and the main social accounts. Dana has also worked as a weekend web producer and editor, and has written on a wide range of topics for NPR, including tech and women's health.
See stories by Dana Farrington | scientific data. The only thing that you want is you want to come back alive because you do not want to die in front of your parents, your girlfriend, and all these people watching this. This became the most important thing to me when I was standing out there."
As he said during the fall and repeated during the press conference, "sometimes you have | 71 |
Industry Voices, Supporting Young Actors
singer/songwriter, producer, and author, but she's most proud of her role as devoted mother to three talented sons (Tyler James, Tyrel Jackson, and Tylen Jacob), each of whom have successful careers in show business. They'd be the first to agree that much of their success is due to their mother's hard work behind the scenes, efforts that inspired her to write My Child is Going to Be Rich and Famous as<|fim_middle|> them.
Tagged: child actors, PARENTING, Industry Voices Series, angela williams
We're excited to continue our series of interviews with Hollywood parents and industry insiders who share their secrets of success for their children, clients, and families.
In part one of our conversation with Bonnie Wallace (BW), she discussed what inspired her to write her book, A Hollywood Parents Guide, its unique point of view, and how child actors and parents should define success. In the conclusion of our interview, Bonnie defines stage parents and discusses the importance of support systems and professional organizations to the child actor's successful career.
Tagged: Child Actors, PARENTING, Interviews
STAGE PARENTS SHOULD BE WAITING IN THE WINGS
Good parents naturally want what's best for their kids, but the road to success for young performers can be long, winding, and fraught with extraordinary challenges, making it difficult for their parents to help guide the way. Use these strategies to avoid three common pitfalls:
The journey is about them.
Tagged: PARENTING, Child Actors, STAG PARENTS | a guide to budding young actors and the families that support | 11 |
Most people who are familiar with me have seen me in countless discussions on television or the Internet. Typically, these episodes include<|fim_middle|> understand the fundamentals of our current crisis, and how the government's misguided stimulus and bailout policies are sowing the seeds for economic devastation.
So if you have a free 75 minutes (no one has ever accused me of being short-winded), click on the above link to get some straight answers with no commercial or political interruptions. | lots of shouting, quick interjections, some ridicule, and little chance to present serious ideas or explanations. It is rare that I have the blessing of uninterrupted time to explain why we have arrived in our current state of affairs, and how we can get out of it.
In the talk I provide a detailed overview of how the bubbles in both tech stocks and real estate were extremely easy to foresee and how government policy played such a large role in creating and nourishing the bubbles as they grew. I also spend a great deal of time analyzing why mainstream economists still do not | 113 |
Sony Delays First Blu-Ray Disc Titles
CIO May 4, 2006 8:00 am PDT
Sony Pictures Entertainment is delaying the launch of its first titles on the new Blu-ray Disc high-definition video format for a month, it said Thursday.
The company had originally planned to ship<|fim_middle|> Pictures Entertainment.
The delay is unlikely to inconvenience consumers, as the first Blu-ray Disc player isn't expected to be available until five days later on June 25.
Samsung Electronics has originally planned to launch a player on May 23, and Sony's original launch date was chosen to coincide. However, a month ago, Samsung said it was delaying the sale of its player. At the time, Sony said it wouldn't hold up its Blu-ray Disc launch, but on Thursday said retailers had requested a delay to match Samsung's launch date.
The fist 15 Sony titles will be: "50 First Dates," "The Fifth Element," "Hitch," "House of Flying Daggers," "A Knight's Tale," "Kung Fu Hustle," "The Last Waltz," "Legends of the Fall," "Resident Evil Apocalypse," "Robocop," "Stealth," "Species," "Swat," "Terminator" and "XXX."
Lionsgate Films is also planning to launch Blu-ray Disc titles on June 20.
Blu-ray Disc is one of two new optical disc formats vying to replace DVDs for high-definition content, such as movies. The format battle has pitted industry giants against each other. The main backers of Blu-ray Disc include Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) and Samsung, while companies supporting the rival HD-DVD format include Toshiba, NEC and Intel.
Players and discs for the rival HD-DVD format went on sale in Japan in March and in the United States in April.
-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
For related news coverage, read Panasonic to Launch Blu-Ray Disc Drive in June.
Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. | eight movie titles on May 23 and seven more on June 13, but shipments of all 15 titles have been pushed back to June 20, said Fritz Friedman, a spokesman for Sony | 43 |
I have been thinking about the approach different performers take when creating a new solo show. You can put on some music and<|fim_middle|>. It should be noted, unlike in contemporary movies (usually with three act structures), the climax in Freytag's five -act arc takes place over an entire act, not a quick scene.
A reversal happens in this fourth part where the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is beginning to resolve. The protagonist either wins or loses to the antagonist by this point. There are usually a brief series of unexpected incidents which make the final outcome a bit more suspenseful. The falling action designates the story is heading towards its conclusion.
The conclusion is the end of the story which is sometimes called dénouement or resolution. After conflicts are resolved, the characters resume their normal lives. The dénouement is a French word for untangling. The conclusion is explained and there is a metaphorical untying of the plot complexities.
There is no rule that says you have to follow a traditional three or five act structure when you are putting together your show. And even if you do, you can play around with parts of the structure. Sometimes, especially in contemporary works, the ending comes very abruptly or there is purposely an open-ended conclusion that does not bring the story to a terminal finale.
I have seen many plays structured as a series of unrelated episodes that are kind of tied together themetically. I have seen a sort of Gestalt structure with seemingly disparate scenes that build on top of each other to leave the audience with a sort of over-all cumulative impression by the end.
I have even seen a piece structured like a metaphorical Russian nesting doll where the protagonist in the story encountered a hydra of new problems every time he overcame the next step in the tale. He was comically pushed further and further from accomplishing his orginal goal until he just gave up and stopped.
I remember another show where the plot wound around on itself cyclically like a snake eating its own tail and he ended up at the conclusion right back where it had started.
Though you are free to structure the order of events in your piece however you like, audiences nowadays are pretty sophisticated. With the complex television shows, variety of movies and constant stimulus of the internet today's theatre audiences are often rather savvy when it comes to understanding story, especially on an instinctual level.
Audiences can sense if you are skipping over important sections, or will rightfully be angered if you indicate that the story is leading up to a terminal ending and you don't deliver. Audiences have been conditioned to listen and pick up on hints, symbols, tone and so on. More important that a traditional structure is a sense of completeness in your show.
Tell what needs to be told. The order you putting that telling in is called structure.
"Everyone carries a room about inside him", Franz Kafka wrote in his diary in 1916. Today, over a century later, we are delighted to be able to unlock the doors to a few such rooms for the eleventh time. All of them are different: more or less comfortable, lonely, captive, hopeful, forgotten, loving, desperate, waiting, consoling, playful or fighting. Already the first room is rather extraordinary – it belongs to Karl Rossmann, Kafka's fortune seeker, portrayed by Philipp Hochmair whom we welcome at Thespis for the second time. Monodrama is as alive and diverse as never before – and all that a world which threatens to become smaller and narrower. Solo performance is most probably the theater form of the hour to tackle isolation and egoism. It challenges us to take our time for the outrageous stories that one single life, often remote from our own, can write. And to cast one's gaze into a room that appears so alien and so very far from ours… We hope to have piqued your curiosity and look forward to your visit to the 11th edition of THESPIS.
7 CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE SOLO PERFORMER resource for FREE!
Minion Production's own Grant Knutson answers some questions on how touring Fringe performers can market their shows and get butts in seats.
Hey there, if you know of someone or some festival/event that should be covered here on TSP, drop us a line. Thanks.
Back in 2015, we linked to an article about solo performer Siobhan O'Loughlin and her site-specific show Broken Bones Bathtub.
"The audience's knees are up against the tub, where I'm naked, covered only with bubbles. And they're giving me a bath. They're washing my hair. As I shared my stories, people began to share their stories. It turned into this hour-long immersive experience," she says, laughing again at the pun, which is excellent and completely inescapable.
I have been in a Spalding Gray mood lately. Found this great interview from 1997.
I am making my way through the Masterclass series, where filmmakers, dramatists, actors, architects, cooks and writers share their stories and techniques.
I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell discuss writing in one "Masterclass" and he said something that may be beneficial to creating solo shows.
He was discussing this idea of "the imperfect puzzle" and illustrating that sometimes a narrative is intersting if the pieces "don't all fit together perfectly." He used as an example an article he was reading written by a British researcher in the 1970s.
The researcher was tasked with investigating juvenile delinquents around the United Kingdom. What the researcher found was that there were schools where students always ran away, and schools where no students ran away. The researcher hypothesized that deliquency had something to do with the schools themselves not the students. The article, however, ends with no conclusions. The researcher states he was called to research some other subject and never found out what exactly was causing juvenile delinquecy around England.
Gladwell cites this as an example of an open-ended puzzle. The reader doesn't get a perfect argument with an obvious conclusive answer. Instead the article is memorable and caused Gladwell to ruminate, not jut with a kind of WTF? mentality, but to reflect, himself, on what could have been causing the juvenile delinquency.
This may be something to bear in mind when creating a solo show. Does your character need to answer every question that arises? Solve every dilemma? Could it be more dynamic, more memorable, more intriguing by leaving certain summations out? | begin to move organically. Pick up and begin to play around with props. Stream-of-conscious journaling. There are lots of ways to generate ideas. But what about once the seed of idea is in your brain. How do you mold the initial idea into a structured solo show?
You have to bring the audience along with you. That means there has to be some place to start and then someplace to go in the piece you are creating. This means there is at least some kind of structure. Structure is just a fancy way of emphasizing that there is an order of events, a beginning, middle and end... even if you don't put them in that particular order.
Many plays have been written based on a three or five act structure. In 350 BCE, ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his collection of lecture notes on the theatre, The Poetics, cited three parts of a play (he was specifically referring to tragedy, but in broad terms it applies pretty much across the board.). These three parts are protasis, which is the introduction; the middle or epitasis which contains the crisis point and the catastrophe, which has the resolution to the conflict.
In the 1860s, Gustav Freytag, a German novelist and critic, observed the similarity of plots in many stories so he created a sort of pictorial graph to visually illustrate dramatic structure. Called Freytag's Triangle (you'll also see it called Freytag's Pyramid), he constructed a pattern in the form of an ascending and descending spike to analyze the plot structure of dramas. We use the terminology Freytag came up with nowadays when we talk about dramatic structure.
Freytag's Pyramid is a modification of Aristotle's structure where he transformed the basic three parts into five by adding two other levels. At the beginning he put a level he referred to as exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and then the resolution.
The exposition/introduction presents the setting (time and place), main characters (protagonist – hero/heroine, antagonist – villain), and establishes the mood or atmosphere of the world of the story before the plot kicks into gear. This is often called the status quo. This first part enables the reader to know more about the circumstances and the relationship of the characters with each other. We are often told of events that happened before the play started that are relevant to the story (think the death of Hamlet's dad. It happens before the play, but is hugely important to the plot). These events that affect the story that happened prior are called exposition. This is usually sprinkled in as information through the beginning of the play. Sometimes, there is a scene or a monologue that serves up a bunch of exposition called a prologue. The introduction ends when an exciting event happens leading to the conflict which impels the story to move forward.
Rising action is the second part where the basic conflict has been presented and the audience is beginning to feel the rising tension associated with this conflict. At this point, the basic conflict is further complicated by the introduction of obstacles frustrating the protagonist and other characters from easily reaching their objectives.
The climax is the big turning point and this third part effects a change either for the better or for the worse in the protagonist's situation. In a comedy, the protagonist positively faces his obstacles and there is a great chance that things will turn out well; but in a tragedy, the conflict of the protagonist is worsening which will ultimately turn disastrous for him | 706 |
Playing their first games in Florida uniforms, freshman Jennifer George and sophomore Jordan Jones combined for 38 points to direct the Gators to an 85-63 season-opening win against in-state foe Stetson on Saturday in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
The Gators (1-0), who won their 17th consecutive non-conference home game, shot 50 percent (33-of-66) from the field in the game, making seven 3-pointers, and out-rebounding the Hatters (0-1), 35-30. Florida came up with 14 steals in the game.
George turned in the third-best offensive performance by a Gator in her collegiate debut, finishing with a game-high 21 points, including 7-of-9 from the floor to complement five<|fim_middle|> – including three 3-pointers - to go along with a game-high five assists and two steals.
Senior forward Sharielle Smith finished just shy of her third career double-double, tallying nine points and a team-high nine rebounds. Senior guard Steffi Sorensen, who made her team-high 32nd consecutive start, tallied eight points, six rebounds and came up with a career-high six steals. | offensive rebounds in just 16 minutes of play. Jones, playing her first collegiate game in 601 days after transferring to Florida from South Carolina, tallied 17 points | 38 |
Cardinal Stage
9/5/2019, 9/6/2019, 9/7/2019, 9/12/2019, 9/13/2019, 9/14/2019, 9/19/2019, 9/20/2019, 9/21/2019
Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center
122 S. Walnut Street,<|fim_middle|>925 novel…This is indeed a grand GATSBY." ~ London Free Press
Find more information and tickets on our website! cardinalstage.org
September 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, & 21 at 7:30pm
September 8, 14, 15, 21, & 22 at 2:00pm | Bloomington, IN 47404
Adults $34.95-$29.95, Ages 35 & under $28.95, Students $23.95
Cardinal Stage presents "The Great Gatsby" September 5-22 at the Ivy Tech Waldron Auditorium. The breathtaking glamour and decadent excess of the Jazz Age come to the stage in Simon Levy's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel. Nick Carraway finds himself drawn into the dazzling world of flappers, bootleggers, and a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. But beneath all the romance is a harsh reality that cannot be escaped, no matter how hard Gatsby may struggle to row against the current of his past.
"A beautifully crafted interpretation of the 1 | 168 |
Bye bye black box: Researchers teach AI to explain itself
Tristan Greene
Editor, Neural by TNW
Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns: (show all) Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns: He/him
A team of international researchers recently taught AI to justify its reasoning and point to evidence when it makes a decision. The 'black box' is becoming transparent, and that's a big deal.
Figuring out why a neural network makes the decisions it does is one of the biggest concerns in the<|fim_middle|> research builds on the group's previous work, but this time around they've taught the AI some new tricks.
Like humans, it can "point" at the evidence it used to answer a question and, through text, it can describe how it interpreted that evidence. It's been developed to answer questions that require the average intellect of a nine year old child.
According to the team's recently published white paper this is the first time anyone's created a system that could explain itself in two different ways:
Our model is the first to be capable of providing natural language justifications of decisions as well as pointing to the evidence in an image.
The researchers developed the AI to answer plain language queries about images. It can answer questions about objects and actions in a given scene. And it explains its answers by describing what it saw and highlighting the relevant parts of the image.
Credit: ArXiv
It doesn't always get things right. During experiments the AI got confused determining whether a person was smiling or not, and couldn't tell the difference between a person painting a room and someone using a vacuum cleaner.
But that's sort of the point: when a computer gets things wrong we need to know why.
For the field of AI to reach any measurable sense of maturity we'll need methods to debug, error-check, and understand the decision making process of machines. This is especially true as neural networks advance and become our primary source of data analysis.
Creating a way for AI to show its work and explain itself in layman's terms is a giant leap towards avoiding the robot apocalypse everyone seems to be so worried about.
Want to hear more about AI from the world's leading experts? Join our Machine:Learners track at TNW Conference 2018. Check out info and get your tickets here.
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The European automobile industry is going quantum | field of artificial intelligence. The black box problem, as it's called, essentially keeps us from trusting AI systems.
The team was comprised of researchers from UC Berkeley, University of Amsterdam, MPI for Informatics, and Facebook AI Research. The new | 49 |
Home General news
Mining Sector Will Need More Innovative Funding Structures in 2014, Standard Bank Says
TOPICS:Stanbic BankStandard bank
Posted By: Editor 06/02/2014
The mining sector will need to<|fim_middle|> from these sources but they haven't filled the equity gap entirely," says Mr Kohli. "There's still some scope for them to increase their exposure to financing mining exploration and extraction."
Mr Kohli says 2014 will also see innovative new funding structures become more prominent in the mining sector, such as the streaming agreement between Teranga Gold Corporation and Franco-Nevada, which helped fund the acquisition of the remaining interest in Oromin Joint Venture Group. The agreement saw Franco-Nevada advance cash to Teranga to help fund the transaction in exchange for a supply of future gold at a discount to the spot price.
"We're likely to see a lot more examples of this sort of funding arrangement in 2014 and beyond," said Mr Kohli. "Everyone is looking to fill the equity, and indeed debt, gap, and this is an innovative example of how to achieve that."
The Federal Reserve's decision to cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion as part of a decision to unwind the monetary stimulus mechanisms that were implemented in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has had a major impact on the gold price, prompting a 15% decline in the precious metal last year. While gold's status as an alternative store of value to the dollar makes it the most vulnerable asset to the Fed's so-called monetary tapering, Mr Kohli believes other commodities will not be immune to the reversal of cheap US central bank funding
"Tapering will undoubtedly suck a bit of froth out of base metals although it won't be as dramatic as gold," said Mr Kohli. "Last year was a difficult one for commodities as the negative impact of tapering was priced in, along with question marks about Chinese growth, and we think that will keep investors relatively cautious on commodities well into 2014."
Mr Kohli says Africa continues to offer considerable development potential with West Africa's gold and iron ore deposits, the central African Copper belt and fertiliser raw materials such as phosphate and potash being prime examples. Nevertheless, financing will remain a challenge given the uncertain outlook for commodity prices.
"Africa remains an attractive mining destination due to its ability to offer assets at relatively attractive prices compared to other jurisdictions," says Mr Kohli. "Political and regulatory stability is improving. The only question is what sort of funding will be forthcoming."
Power Projects In Africa Get $300 Million Funding Facility
Stanbic Bank wins numerous categories at Global Finance Foreign Exchange Awards 2014
Copper & Nickel, General news
Stanbic Bank Zambia helps Copperbelt Energy raise USD70 m in rights offer
Standard Bank scoops 18 Awards for its activities across Africa at SIBOS 2014 | consider more innovative funding structures in 2014 as equity markets spurn new resource ventures amid continuing uncertainty in the commodity price outlook, spurred in part by the Federal Reserve's decision to begin withdrawing its unprecedented monetary stimulus.
"Equity valuations for mining companies remain depressed and if you can't raise enough capital in the share market it's going to be even harder to raise debt finance for all but the most established miners," said Rajat Kohli, the London-based global head of mining and metals at Standard Bank. "In that context mining companies are going to have to make use of more creative financing solutions to access project gearing. We may see a combination of debt and equity financing as well as hybrid structures involving mezzanine debt, subordinated debt or convertible arrangements."
"Standard Bank estimates that net financial outflows of investments (e.g. ETF's and commodity index swaps), in 2013 was $USD35bn, the majority of this coming in gold. But, ex-precious metals, the picture was more stable."
Mr Kohli says mining houses can access alternative sources of capital with sovereign wealth funds, private equity, hedge funds, high net worth families, and commodity trading firms the most likely sources of new capital.
"Because equity markets have dried up we have seen some influence | 265 |
Over the last years, the former CBA has collaborated with the Municipality of Almada (CMA) in several projects. The last one was part of the Local Agenda 21 - Almada 21 and had the following main objectives: (1)<|fim_middle|> of ecological corridors of high value and efficiency regarding nature conservation.
Scientific Advisory protocol with the Municipality of Almada. | to characterize and monitor the biological terrestrial communities of flora and fauna, (2) to assign value to Municipality's ecosystems, and (3) to develop procedures for the recovery of ecosystem functionality, continuity and services.
1) To monitor the evolution of plant and animal communities of São João da Caparica´s coastal dunes after the implementation of the program "ReDuna – Recovery and ecological restoration of the S. João da Caparica sand dune system", managed by the Municipality of Almada.
2) To assess ecosystem services (support and regulation) in the green area "Parque da Paz", towards its future classification as an urban LTER site.
3) To monitor and develop procedures to minimize the effects of fragmentation created by the road network, namely the implementation of wildlife.
4) The definition of ecological restoration plans for riparian galleries in order to promote a network | 179 |
7th Grade Art will offer students the opportunity to engage in experiential learning activities, Art appreciation, Art History, and Art Criticism. Classroom activities may include: drawing,<|fim_middle|> and historical context to deepen understanding.
To work safely within an independent studio setting.
To take an active part in discussions.
To work cooperatively in groups.
To complete all projects and assignments in a timely manner.
To obtain a clear understanding of the materials during the course. | painting, sculpture, collage, and digital media. Each student will keep a record in their sketchbook of observations, drawings, skill building exercise and reflections. This course will help develop lifelong skills in creative problem solving and self-evaluation while learning to recognize the important role of visual art in the world.
8th Grade Art will offer students the opportunity to engage in experiential learning activities, Art appreciation, Art History, and Art Criticism. Classroom activities may include: drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and animation. Each student will keep a record in their sketchbook of observations, drawings, skill building exercise and reflections. This course will help develop lifelong skills in creative problem solving and self-evaluation while learning to recognize the important role of visual art in the world.
Achieve greater understanding of how artists communicate in the arts.
Develop and refine artistic techniques.
Analyze, interpret, and evaluate art work.
Relate artistic ideas and works with cultural | 194 |
Another Bi-yearly trip to Moab is under our belt.
This trip we tons of fun and a little different from the usual excursions.
First, we didn't take the jeep. *GASP* WHAT?!?! I know, I know. We didn't really like it either. I was actually kind of excited not to at first but once we got down there and saw the other rigs I was sad :(. But it's not like we're never going back. The "second wife" as I've come to call it needs repairs and we just don't care to fix it right now haha. We would have, had there been enough jeeps to take people on trails but the people to jeep ratio was highly unbalanced. So we left it at home and our car finally got to experience red dirt. The ride down was much quieter and comfortable. And dare I say much faster? We left Thursday afternoon and arrived down in Moab just before 8:0<|fim_middle|> didn't get enough swing and when the rope caught them it was quite the snap. I think I'll be passing on this thrill ride. But I would definitely hike it again!
The trail crossed the train tracks. What a scenic route!!
After the hike we went climbing! We started out on some easy stuff then tried this crack that was pretty tough. It was tons of fun, as always. Collin tried the easier stuff and had everyone laughing at his humor. He's a funny guy!
Sunday we went back into Arches and hiked down Park Avenue.
Kennedy was pretty done with hiking at this point and it was windy and the wind kept blowing sand in our faces. She HATED that! So we had lunch at the big park in Moab and then headed home. Kennedy slept almost the entire way home!! Way more fun than the way down.
Overall it was a great trip. We had lots of fun, no one was injured, Kennedy slept really well, and we were sad to leave. See you in 5-6 more months, Moab! | 0 p.m. Kennedy was not a gem on the way down but I guess it could have been worse.
I had to get creative to keep Kennedy from crying.
The ugly scenery and the sunset totally made it look like we were on Mars.
Friday I got a 5:30 a.m. wakeup call from the little monster. So not cool. Many hours later we had breakfast in our tummies and were on our way to hike Delicate Arch. Natalie had never seen it before. It's such a great hike. We even saw several people from home! Kennedy did awesome on the way up but not so great on the way down. It took some creative thinking from Cory to keep her from crying in her backpack. But she wasn't too bad.
After hiking we went back to camp and had an amazing dinner that my uncle made for us. So delicious!! And it was even better topped off with cobbler and s'mores.
Saturday we headed over to hike Corona Arch. You may recognize this arch from all the YouTube videos. This is the one where people jump off the top and rope swing under neath. The hike itself was way cool and adventurous. I forgot to take pictures of some of the things we had to go up and down. But we watched a few people jump off. I didn't expect the arch to be that big and before seeing it, I always thought trying to jump would be fun. Not anymore. It looked painful! Not to mention reckless. Some people | 305 |
Photo Credits: Zagreb Tourism Board – www.infozagreb.hr
This year, the main theme is 'Green Solutions for Destinations', and will bring together leading sustainability experts in government, business and academia in a series of workshops, field trips, in-depth sessions, and panel discussions.
Destination: Croatia
Photo Credits: Croatia Tourism Board – https://croatia.hr/en-GB
This year's GGDD will be held in two cities: Zagreb, the capital of Croatia andMali Lošinj, one of our Top 100 Destinations located in the Kvarner region.
Your visit to Croatia and Mali Lošinj provides excellent opportunities to visit the region and surroundings, as well as to learn from their sustainability challenges, dilemmas, and solutions.
WELCOME TO CROATIA
This year's GGDD will be held in Croatia, The event will be held in two cities: Zagreb, the capital of the country and Mali Lošinj, one of our Top 100 Destinations located in the Kvarner region.
A panel of experts
This year's event will bring together selected destination leaders representing globally important tourism destinations. A unique opportunity to learn from specialists in the field, to discover practical tools and solutions in sustainability issues.
Destinations and businesses are invited to propose presentations on Green Solutions for Destinations – Good practices on the following themes:
Two of our Society for Sustainable Tourism Directors are Guest Speakers!
WHERE IN CROATIA?
Zagreb (Day 0 – 1)
The capital of Croatia and one of the oldest cities in Central Europe. This city is considered the political, commercial and cultural heart of the country.
Zagreb is connected to the Franjo Tuđman airport with shuttle bus which drives every half hour (40 min ride). See the timetable here. The same shuttle bus is connected to Rijeka main bus station (Žabica). See the timetable here.
Other bus lines can be found here.
For any bookings in Zagreb, we recommend contacting Globtour Event.
We recommend the Hilton Garden Inn***** to stay in the city. Discounted rates to GGDD attendees will be available soon.
Hotel Hilton Garden Inn*****, Radnička cesta 21.
More information about activities, accommodation, and practical information on www.infozagreb.hr
Gorski Kotar (Day 2)
Photo Credits: Gorski Kotar, green heart of Kvarner! http://www.gorskikotar.hr/en/
This mountainous region was one of the 2016 Sustainable Destinations Top 100, 63% of its surface consists of forests so it is popularly known as 'the green lungs' of Croatia.
Mali Lošinj (Day 2- 3)
Photo Credits: Mali Lošinj Tourist Board https://www.visitlosinj.hr/
The town of Mali Lošinj is nationally considered as an example of good tourism management and sustainable practices. Here, great attention is being given to preserving its natural and cultural resources, they were elected the 2nd winner of the Best of the Mediterranean awards category in 2018 and the 3rd winner of the Best of Europe awards category in 2019.
Arrival by plane
We recommend the Hotel Bellevue***** to stay on the island. Discounted rates to GGDD attendees will be available soon.
Hotel Bellevue***** , Čikat ul. 9.
Plitvice Lakes (Optional)
Photo Credits: Plitvice Lakes National Park Official Website https://np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/en/
On Saturday 12 October*, you will have the possibility to visit the Plitvice Lakes National Park, one of the oldest and largest national parks in Croatia and a UNESCO World Heritage.
*Subject to sufficient interest. Surcharge for the visit: € 20.
For more information and to register for the Global Green Destinations Days, visit the GGDD Event website.
Our Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc.-SST offers Learning, Capacity Building, Educational programs, Green Solutions and Services for public stakeholders: Destinations – LGUs and host communities; Private stakeholders – Hotels, Resorts, Hospitality, Tour Operators and Businesses with Green Destinations, Global Leaders Program and Green Travel Guide platform to include Environmental Conservation and Compliance, Good Governance, Climate Resilience, to address global challenges of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): food security, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and climate resilience for the local host community. Contact us on how to help you.
Posted in Ecotourism, Green Destinations, Sustainable Tourism
Tags: GGDD, Global Leaders, Green Destinations, Sustainable Tourism
Andaz Resort, Mayakoba, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
The first Sustainable Tourism National Forum in the Philippines was held in Boracay Island, just days before it was declared a cesspool by the President and thereby ordered its closure for six months for "rehabilitation". Even before the Conference, a lot of controversy arose why Boracay Island was chosen as the venue, as it is not exactly an example of sustainable tourism. Our Society for Sustainable Tourism (SST) and countered, the island at its then deplorable environmental state is the best graphic showcase to learn the lessons about flawed tourism development and how to avoid the pitfalls of unsustainable tourism practices.
Philippines Sustainable Tourism National Forum, March 2018, Boracay Island
Beatriz Barreal, Sustainable Riviera Maya
At the National Forum<|fim_middle|> enthusiasts upload their photographs of birds online as a feedback system for identification and added information on its behavior, habitat, ecological/economic value and conservation measures.
Coron Photo Expedition, Birding & Nature Adventure by Coron Galeri. Photo by Al3Photography.
For more information and travel assistance about our Birdwatching in Coron, visit our Green Travel Exchange and for your Green Hotels stay , send us a message. Join our Society of Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc. SSTDI- advocating green, eco-friendly and responsible travel. Promote your eco destination, hotel, resort, lodging, restaurant, festival, event venue or hospitality services, spa or sports, transport, real estate development or any tourism-related enterprise espousing green or sustainable practices.
Posted in Eco Conservation, Ecotourism, Green Destinations, Sustainable Tourism
Tags: biosphere reserves, bird watching, Coron, ecotourism, Green Destinations, green travel guide, Palawan, Philippines, Sustainable Tourism | , Guest Experts all the way from Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya, Mexico, came to share the lessons and good practices of resort developments and sustainable management of beach destinations. Ms. Beatriz Barreal, CEO and Founder of Sustainable Riviera Maya, GSTC Country Representative and Trainer, the force behind the public-private stakeholders' cooperation in the area and recently working towards México Sostenible, and
Architect Arturo Amaya, Direccion Arquitectonica
Architect Arturo Amaya, of Dirección Arquitectonica SC, and original team member behind the development of Mayakoba, a group of sustainable resorts in Quintana Roo gave vivid insights on sustainable tourism development and stewardship in Playa del Carmen.
Communing with nature, Grand Palladium Kantenah, Riviera Maya
SST President and CEO, Ms. Susan Santos de Cardenas herself shared the best practices of these sustainable resort- models as she visited and experienced first-hand, not only as a guest but also as a seasoned hotelier to verify the "back-of-the-house" operations of each and every accredited GSTC-complied, Sustainable Riviera Maya Ambassador.
The Grand Palladium Riviera Resort & Spa considered environmental impacts throughout all phases of its construction and operations. Only thirteen percent (13%) of the 200-hectare property is built up. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of the terrain is used for habitat conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity. Among its GSTC complied standards: structures are low level in height designed to blend with their surroundings; recycled/captured water is 73% of the usage; energy efficient and low GHG emission; ecological solid waste management and recycling programs; sustainable purchasing– 97% of consumable products are locally produced; community empowerment and support programs.
Grand Palladium Resort and Spa, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Turtle Hatching Area – Guests are OFF limits!
The environment features a network of underground rivers that feed three cenotes and extensive mangrove forests that serve as important habitats for fish and wetland bird species. The four massive hotels educate their staff, guests and local community about ways to reduce their ecological impacts, with twice weekly programs respectively. Palladium is known for its commitment to helping the communities in which they have properties by sharing the area's natural resources while simultaneously working to mitigate the impact of climate change and fortify the area's resilience to natural disasters and resource conflicts. Sea turtle conservation is a priority as one of its beaches is a nesting ground for Green and Hawksbill turtle species, thus, the beach area is fenced off from the public between May and October annually. No, sir, they do no such downright unwitting activity as "turtle release" program!
Paradisus, Playa del Carmen, a model of sustainable efficiency. On top of its development philosophy, is the advocacy that the resort was built following international regulations and agreements focused on environmental development. Special considerations in the design include biodiversity protection and restoration (coral reefs, dunes, mangroves and jungle), correct use of streams and a solid and dangerous residues urban management plan.
Other good practices adhering to the GSTC standards include ecological impact relief and carbon footprint reduction, osmosis plant, water metering regulation and discharge control, sustainable hydro hotel certification, waste management and recycling, greenhouse gas inventory and emission reduction, flora and fauna inventory and endangered species conservation program, all Silver EarthCheck certified.
From its groundwork, Mayakoba was envisaged as a resort development with preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems at its core and one of the best examples of sustainability in the country. The integrated design of tourism infrastructure was to follow the contours of the existing topography, to enhance, not replace, the ecological make-up of the place. Architects, biologists, geologists and engineers worked to map out the master plan, that does not destruct, but even boost its environmental assets. As part of the original team that worked on the master development, Architect Arturo Amaya showed us during our inspection tour of the four properties, the epitome of resorts development that corresponds to the local community in a harmonious way.
Architect Arturo Amaya, explained how the forest trees were saved and re-planted around Mayakoba and man-made waterways are now habitats of coastal and marine biodiversity.
Fauna flourish at Mayakoba's conserved and protected flora.
From flora and fauna inventory and management, new species "migrated" and used the property's natural resources as their habitat, and for 16 years, coastal and marine species are monitored and inventoried. Likewise, its integral management of solid, water and hazardous waste are carried out in accordance to the law and observed with a Waste Management Plan. Environmental, social and cultural outreach is performed not only for the staff but also all the guests and visitors. Mayakoba is certified by Rainforest Alliance and is a UNWTO Ulysses Awardee in Innovation of companies with sustainable and socially responsible development.
Since 2010 to date, our Society for Sustainable Tourism have proposed to the Department of Tourism (DOT) and talked with three Department Secretaries about adopting the UNWTO – Sustainable Tourism criteria, to no avail. Recently, the newly appointed DOT Chief is pronouncing "sustainable tourism" as the norm for the country, however, we have yet to see if they are Green Destinations standards and not just green washing. No ifs and buts here. If the Department of Tourism, DENR, DILG and all the other government agencies concerned truly want to save Boracay for a longer time, and all the other Philippine tourist destinations for that matter, then it's high time for the Philippine tourism industry, public and private stakeholders and developers to adopt and implement GSTC Standards not only for destinations but also for resorts, tour operators and businesses, like most of its ASEAN neighbors.
Our Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc.-SST offers Learning, Capacity Building, Educational programs, Green Solutions and Services for public stakeholders: Destinations – LGUs and host communities; Private stakeholders – Hotels, Resorts, Hospitality, Tour Operators and Businesses with Green Destinations, Global Leaders Program and Green Travel Guide platform to include Environmental Conservation and Compliance, Good Governance, Climate Resilience, to address global challenges of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): food security, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and climate resilience for the local host community. Water waste -STP (P.T. Amanaid Philippines) and Waste to Energy (W2E) solutions as well as other green destinations innovations are now offered to LGUs and tourism industry for law compliance.
For more information and assistance, contact us.
Green Destinations Sustainable Tourism Learning, Capacity Building to Awards and Certification!
Posted in Green Destinations, green hotels, Sustainable Tourism
Tags: Green Destinations, green hotels, green travel guide, Sustainable Tourism
Customized Learning for hotels, lodgings, resorts, tour operators, MICE venues and companies – hotel, resorts and hospitality businesses by GSTC recognized Green Destinations standards and be included in the Green Travel Guide
Divine and Right. Banyan Tree Mayakoba.
In the framework of the Green Destinations Global Leaders Program, the Green Travel Guide concept is developed as a means of strengthening sustainable regional development and green promotion. Since early 2019 we cooperate with a number of destinations in piloting the concept; one of these is Schouwen-Duiveland, the first certified Green Destination in the Netherlands.
Paradisus Riviera Maya – La Perla and La Esmeralda: a model of eco efficiency and sustainability.
The aim of a Green Travel Guide is to promote an attractive and responsible holiday and leisure offer in selected destinations by:
Encouraging businesses and governments to meet criteria that are aligned with the GSTC Industry Criteria and with Green Destinations' G.R.E.E.N. values;
Monitoring and verifying sustainability aspects through independent checks;
Supporting the promotion of regions as green holiday destinations.
Architect Arturo Amaya showing the architecture, nature and design, highlighting environmental conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, Mexico.
In addition to participation in our destination certification program, the Green Travel Guide offers local governments and their business sector a new tool to boost its development as a "Green Destination" and for a more coherent promotion of "sustainable attractions and companies ". Based on the first pilots we will evaluate the wider market potential of this tool among tour operators, travel agents, consumers.
At Rio Secreto, Riviera Maya multi-awarded natural reserve and ecotourism company. From left: #SustainableRivieraMaya CEO Ms. Beatriz Barreal, Society for Sustainable Tourism President & CEO Ms. Susan Santos de Cardenas and Ms. Kristel Arce, PR Manager of Rio Secreto.
Provided that the destination makes active use of the Green Travel Guide, companies will be encouraged to take all kinds of improvements in the field of sustainability with the aim to put themselves on the map. This improves the quality of the destination as a whole. This reduces the risk of over-tourism, on the one hand by preventing unsustainable developments (as we see them e.g. in Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam) by specific policies and regulations and on the other by attracting specific target groups with a responsible green offer.
Grand Palladium Riviera Maya Hotels – award winning Earth Check certified and GSTC Sustainable Hotel Ambassador
Paradisus Riviera Maya – Trip Advisor's Eco Leader, Earth Check Certified.
Global Leaders – Green Destinations- Green Travel Guide South East Representative
SUSAN SANTOS DE CÁRDENAS – Green Destinations Representative for the Philippines and Southeast Asia, CEO and President, Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development- SSTDI
Saying "hola" to the iguana, at the Grand Palladium Riviera Maya, Sustainable Hotel Ambassador of Sustainable Riviera Maya.
See her bio in our Society Stewards Page.
Learn more about the Green Destinations in our programs or how we can help your hotel/resort/lodging/tourism business implement sustainability best practices.
Posted in Green Destinations, green hotels, Green Meetings, Sustainable Tourism
Tags: Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Destinations, green hotels, green meetings, green travel guide, sustainable events, Sustainable Tourism
Green Destinations Standards for Sustainable Community Based Tourism
The Green Destinations Standard is a tool to measure, monitor and improve the sustainability profile of destinations and regions. The Green Destinations Standard for sustainable community development and management satisfies the need to make sustainable development concrete, objective and demonstrable. Communities and cities can adapt their sustainability management system and implementation actions to the requirements the Green Destinations standard and obtain recognition of their efforts.
The Green Destinations standard is inspired by internationally recognised standards such as ETIS, ISO 14001, EMAS and the Global Reporting Initiative. The standard is "Recognised" by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
About Green Destinations
The Green Destinations standard is owned based on equal shares by a consortium of 3 organisations based in The Netherlands:
Coastal & Marine Union – EUCC
European Centre for Eco and Agro Tourism (ECEAT)
Green Destinations' core values
What does it mean, better and more sustainable places? It means that we support destinations in adopting the following core values:
Genuine and authentic: supporting the celebration of local culture and tradition.
Responsible and respectful: defending people against exploitation, enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities, and preventing disruptive mass tourism (overtourism).
Economically sustainable: involving the local business community and enhancing local community employment during and beyond the holiday season.
Environment and Climate: ensuring environmental health and safety, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Nature & scenery: protecting scenic views, habitats and wildlife, and respecting animals that are used in tourism.
Adopting these G.R.E.E.N. values will help destinations to enhance their quality, attractiveness and competitiveness. It will help attract green travelers, visitors who are respectful, and will spend more in the destination. These values are at the heart of our programs for destination improvement and certification.
Danjugan Island
The Green Destinations Partnership is forming the Advisory board of the Green Destinations Standard and its related Reporting System. The role of the advisory board is to provide input to review and improvement processes, and to support the application of the standard in various corners of the world.The Partnership and Advisory Board consists of individual experts from around the world related to tourism in the field of Education/Science, National and International NGOs, and members with a tourism industry background.
The Coron Initiative – a UNEP APFED Showcase Program Sustainable Tourism for Destinations!
Green Destinations Representative for the Philippines and Southeast Asia
Susan Santos de Cárdenas, President & CEO, Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development, Inc. – SST & Global Leaders Member
President of Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc. (SST), a pioneer advocate specializing on sustainable tourism development and stewardship initiatives with community social responsibility at grassroots application. She had been a staunch innovator, keynote speaker and resource person in learning and capacity building workshops for sustainable tourism to include Ecotourism, Community-based and Agri-Tourism promotion. She was a consultant and adviser for Local Government Units (LGUs) in the Philippines and a founding board member of the Asian Ecotourism Network.
A savvy tourism professional and hotelier with more than 20 years' experience managing sales, marketing, operations, events – M.I.C.E. and human resources for small and luxury hotel resorts, tour operators, travel agencies, lifestyle events and publications, in the Philippines, Singapore, Peru, Japan and currently, based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Posted in Ecotourism, Good Governance, Green Destinations, Sustainable Tourism
Tags: good governance, Green Destinations, green travel guide, Philippines, Sustainable Tourism
As a link between tourists and service providers, tour operators and activity providers play a significant role in implementing sustainable practices.
Sustainable tourism is looking out for the economic, social and environmental influences – including the visitors, the economic sectors linked to the tourism industry and the host communities.
The question is Whose Responsibility Is It to Educate Travelers?
Tour operators and activity providers can influence their consumers, suppliers and the routes chosen (Tour Operators' Initiative, 2003) in order to increase the awareness of the responsibilities each party involved should take on to achieve more sustainability in tourism.
When contributing to sustainable tourism, tour operators and activity providers should work to:
Make sure that the local community receives full benefits
Minimise the negative impacts on the environment
Educate tourists about their responsibility
Source: How Tour Operators Can Take Responsibility
SST is a Green Destinations Partner in Southeast Asia.
Tags: Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Destinations, green travel guide, responsible tourism, Sustainable Tourism
Why Biodiversity Matters
Danjugan Island Marine Biodiversity – a genuine ecotourism experience in Negros Occidental, Philippines
A guest post from Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Cielito M. Habito.
Consider the following: Southeast Asia occupies a mere 3 percent of the earth's total surface, yet is home to 20 percent of all known species of plants and animals on the planet. The region possesses 284,000 square kilometers, or one-third, of all of the earth's coral reefs, and as divers will attest, what we have are among the most diverse, and the most beautiful, in the world. The mountains, jungles, lakes, rivers and seas of our region make up one of the biggest pools of biological diversity in the world.
Isla Bulungan, Coron, Palawan, Philippines, one of the attractions being conserved and protected by The Coron Initiative.
Three Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines—are among the world's 17 megadiverse countries, a term applied to those that harbor the majority of the earth's species, and large numbers of endemic (native) species. But there are also "biodiversity hot spots"—geographic areas with significant levels of biodiversity under threat from humans. Such "hot spots" are distinguished by having at least 1,500 endemic plant species, and have lost at least 70 percent of primary vegetation. And it is alarming that among the three Southeast Asian megadiverse countries, only the Philippines is in the biodiversity hot spot list. We are, unlike our neighbors, causing the destruction and disappearance of plant and animal life at a rate so fast as to imperil our environment's ability to sustain human life.
Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Canopy, Madre de Dios, Peru. Learn about the Amazon biodiversity and its inter-relationships at various levels of the rainforest ecosystems. Travel green to Peru!
Human life is only one form of an estimated nine million life forms that inhabit our planet. Most of us understand that the myriad life forms all around us interconnect in simple and complex ways to one another, in an intricate "web of life." The interconnections can be visible and obvious, as with predators and prey in the food chain. They can also be subtle, indirect or invisible, as when chemical reactions in certain organisms affect other organisms positively or negatively. For example, the class of plants called legumes develops nodules in their roots that host bacteria capable of converting nitrogen from the air into ammonia. As such, otherwise unusable nitrogen in the air is turned into useful compounds like amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which are in turn vital to animal and human life.
Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental, Philippines has a rich rainforest soon to be claimed by urban development.
In this intricate web of life, a change in one link of the food chain can lead to far-reaching disruptions elsewhere in the ecosystem. A 2011 study conducted by 24 scientists from six countries documented how the decline of large predators at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems all over the planet. As observed by the study, large animals were once ubiquitous across the globe, and shaped the structure and dynamics of ecosystems. Their decline, largely caused by humans through hunting and habitat fragmentation, has had far-reaching and often surprising consequences, including changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality, and nutrient cycles.
Bulabog Beach, Boracay Island in the early 80s. The island has but a few remaining forest and The Boracay Initiative is aimed to save Boracay Island and its remaining biodiversity. Photo via Rene Thalmann.
A well-studied example of how human intervention can severely disrupt the natural equilibrium was the deliberate elimination of wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the United States between 1872 and 1926. When the wolves were gone, the elk population rose, and led to overgrazing of deciduous woody species such as aspen and cottonwood. Over the years, conditions in the park drastically deteriorated, leading park authorities to trap and move the elk, and eventually, kill them. Elimination of wolves also led to a dramatic increase in the population of coyotes, which in turn adversely impacted the population of the pronghorn antelope. Studies on the park's ecosystem spanning decades led to the decision to reintroduce wolves into Yellowstone in 1995. This has since led to a decline in the elk and coyote populations, which in turn had further effects on the population of foxes, and on various forms of plant and insect life in the park. The new and often unexpected impacts of the reintroduction of wolves continue to unfold to this day.
There are many other similar documented examples elsewhere in the world of ecological disruption arising from human intervention into the biological system on land and in the seas. The lesson is clear: Compromising biological diversity and the complex interrelations therein will have unforeseen and far-reaching undesirable impacts that are bound to hit back on us humans in ways hard to anticipate. The World Wide Fund for Nature asserts: "Biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives. Put simply, reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease, and where fresh water is in irregular or short supply."
Twin Lagoons, Coron, Palawan, one of the target conservation sites of The Coron Initiative. Palawan is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Photo by Al Linsangan III.
The Philippines has the distinction of hosting the Asean region's knowledge and advocacy center for biodiversity conservation, at the University of the Philippines Los Baños campus in Laguna. Established in 2005 with initial funding support from the European Commission, the Asean Center for Biodiversity is now supported by the 10 member-states. In the second Asean Conference on Biodiversity that it organized in Bangkok last week, hundreds of scholars, government officials, stakeholders and advocates explored the links between biodiversity and human health, business and biodiversity, and how biodiversity permeates the global Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
"A treasure trove of plant and animal life"—that's how our part of the world is often described. Protecting that treasure is critical not just for the sake of the treasure per se, but also for the sake of our very welfare as human beings, now and far into the future.
Photo Credits: Al Linsangan, Rene Thalmann, Inkaterra, Danjugan Island
Posted in Eco Conservation, Ecotourism, Green Destinations, Uncategorized
Tags: biosphere reserves, eco conservation, ecotourism, Green Destinations
Go on a green beach holiday to Coron!
World's Best Island Green Getaway
Go off on a green beach holiday, swim in pristine white beaches and turquoise lagoons surrounded by limestone cliffs, snorkel in cerulean lakes blessed with overwhelming marine biodiversity, go on island hopping excursions on over 60 islets or scuba dive in stunning corals where World War II ship wrecks lie. Travel to a virtually unspoiled countryside, with cows grazing through rolling grasslands and sometimes crossing the road where practically no man-made structures is in sight. Discover the Philippines'"last frontier!"
Twin Lagoons. Photo by Al Linsangan III.
Limestone landscapes – the steep and protruding karst cliffs and spires at the Ancestral Domain of the Tagbanua indigenous tribe.
Islands and Beaches – pristine, uninhabited white sand beaches and dozens of islands.
From reefs to wrecks – Busuanga Island and its bays offer a very peculiar combination of relatively rich coral reefs (notably in Siete Pecados, Bintuan-Sangat, etc) and the famous 12 Japanese World War II shipwrecks.
Wildlife sanctuary areas – The Calauit Game Reserve and Wildlife Refuge is a major tourist destination for wildlife interaction, as well as routes and trails along the way.
Bird watching trails offers good forest cover, such as the beach forest in Barangay Old Busuanga and the rich mangroves in Bugtong, Sagrada, and Concepcion.
Foremost Jaunts (Full-day excursions):
Iconic Coron excursions.
Islands Expedition – swim and snorkel at select pristine islands and beaches: Malcapuya, Banana & Bulog Islands.
Wildlife Safari – go on a tropical wildlife adventure : Calauit Wildlife Park, Concepcion Falls & Bintuan Mangrove Walk.
Reefs and Wrecks – set off to a green diving and snorkeling expedition: Lusong Ship wreck, Coral gardens, Calumbuyan Island & Sangat gunboat.
Nature Park Hiking & Kayaking – all aboard to Kingfisher Park for nature hiking & kayaking: nature trail, picnic lunch by the river and kayaking by the mangroves. Ideal for birdwatchers too!
Coron: A birdwatching paradise!
Green Honeymoon
Kayangan Lake Wedding & Coron Honeymoon.
Eco Friendly Escapade
Nature & Wildlife Photo Expiditions
SUGGESTED ITINERARY
In order to make the most of your visit and trip, you deserve to stay at least 4 Days & 3 Nights, no less!
Suggested Itinerary: 4 Days & 3 Nights minimum.
For more information and reservations send us a message.
One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
Tags: Coron, Green Destinations, green travel, green travel guide, Palawan, Philippines
Love the green? Travel green in Negros Occidental!
Countryside, Crafts & Culinary delights Travel green to Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, the Philippine's foremost sustainable agri-tourism and organic farm capital. Step back in time to the countryside, re-living turn of the century old towns and haciendas, feeling a sense of green and tranquility as you traverse along undulating sugarcane fields. Take an eco-trip to a rainforest and marine reserve, learn the importance of coastal biodiversity conservation to combat climate change and savor exquisite Negrense cuisine from freshest exotic seafood to healthy options of organic farms and produce.
Rapha Valley, Don Salvador Benedicto
Focal Points:
Visit remarkable churches, stately mansions, and diverse organic farms
Enjoy culinary delights from traditional home style cooking to East-West fusion, with a wide array of seafood, organic and healthy options.
Buy local, support local – world-class handicrafts, from exclusive factory visits, to community and producers' shops, souvenirs showroom.
Buy local, support local. Eco-friendly, world-class arts and craft abound in Bacolod City! Photo via Handmade Gallery.
Foremost Jaunts:
Organic Farms & Sustainable Agri Tours: North, Central & Southern loops.
Sustainable Agri Tour- Northern Loop, Negros Occidental
Souther Farms Loop
Central Farms Loop
Don Salvador Benedicto (DSB) – Rapha Valley
DSB's Rice Terraces. Enjoy it while it's clean and green!
Green Weddings & Events (M.I.C.E)
Green weddings and events at Nature's Village Resort. Photo via midorimoon.com
Stay green!
Nature's Village Resort, Negros Occidental, ASEAN Green Hotel Awardee
Ecofriendly Family Getaway & Educational trips
Danjugan Island Environmental Education Program
SUGGESTED ITINERARY – 4 DAYS/3 NIGHTS
To make the most of your visit and trip, stay no less than 4 days/3 nights, otherwise, before you know it, you'll be planning your next vacay again!
Day 1- Arrival, Check in at Nature's Village Resort. Bacolod City Half Day tour
Day 2 – Full Day Tour, Southern & Central Loop, Overnight at Rapha Valley
Day 3 – Full Day Tour – Northern Loop & Souvenir Shopping, Overnight at Nature's Village Resort
Day 4 – Departure
For more information and reservations, please send us a message.
"We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls."
Our Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc.-SST offers Learning, Capacity Building, Educational programs, Green Solutions and Services for public stakeholders: Destinations – LGUs and host communities; Private stakeholders – Hotels, Resorts, Hospitality, Tour Operators and Businesses with Green Destinations, Global Leaders Program and Green Travel Guide platform to include Environmental Conservation and Compliance, Good Governance, Climate Resilience, to address global challenges of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): food security, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and climate resilience for the local host community. Water waste – STP (P.T. Amanaid Philippines) and Waste to Energy (W2E) solutions as well as other green destinations innovations are now offered to LGUs and tourism industry for law compliance.
Tags: Agri-tourism, Danjugan Island, Green Destinations, green travel guide, Negros Occidental, Philippines, Rapha Valley
Discover Danjugan Island – the Philippines' conservation pioneer
"We saved an island…now we invite you to EXPLORE it."
It was in 1974 when Gerry Ledesma, first visited Danjugan Island with some of his diving mates. Its thick limestone forests hosted many different kinds of birds and bats; its underwater was so clear with schools of fish and magnificent, intact coral reefs. Scuba diving became popular and most divers then were spear fishers—and at the end of each dive day, tall stories were told about the sharks seen —there were tigers in the outer reefs surrounding the island and white/black tipped in the nearby reefs– and the big fish that got away.
Photo credits Danjugan Island Facebook Page
The early 1980s saw the decline of scuba diving due to the economic crisis brought upon by the government's mismanagement of the sugar industry that most of the divers in Negros depended on. 1984 was a bad year too for Danjugan Island as Maricalum Mining Corp (MMC) stopped operations and its displaced workers started destructive fishing with blasting caps and cyanide from MMC. The year also brought Typhoon Nitang that destroyed the shallow reefs of the island as well as in the entire foreshore of municipalities of Cauayan, Sipalay, and Hinobaan. The years of early to mid 90s emphasized the need for Danjugan's conservation with episodes of logging and poaching and this finally provoked the offer to buy the island but Gerry didn't have money. William Oliver, a British zoologist working on Negros endangered wildlife species, suggested contacting John Burton of the World Land Trust (WLT) whose thrust is the purchase of important biodiversity sites for conservation. Soon, a noted marine scientist from the UK, Sue Wells, came to visit and not long after, Peter Raines of Coral Cay Conservation (CCC). Then, an invitation to England for the launch of the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Project (PRRP) and within a month, a fund was transferred to PRRP for the down payment of Danjugan Island.
Danjugan Island Marine & Wildlife Camp led by Gerry Ledesma, PRRCFI founder. (right)
The Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PRRCFI) was established to manage and operate the PRRP, as well as the conservation program based on Danjugan Island that was expanded to include Southern Negros Occidental. Due to the ignorance of marine and wildlife conservation, the group piloted the 1st Youth Marine Camp in 1991 with their children and children of friends and relatives. The camp had pleasing results and children from the village of Bulata were included in the subsequent camps. Presently, the camps are conducted each summer as the Youth Marine and Wildlife Camp and with the Philippine Department of Education as the Danjugan Environment Education Project (DEEP).
Location & Biodiversity
Resting 3 kilometers southwest off the coast of Negros Occidental, Danjugan is a lush, 43-hectare island rich in marine and terrestrial biodiversity. This island, about 1.5 kilometers long and 0.5 kilometers at its widest point, has 5 lagoons and is covered with limestone forests providing asylum to many wildlife species that struggle to exist in the mainland.
Together with Sipalay City and the Municipality of Hinobaan, it forms the southern border of the province and is situated in the Sulu Sea, an important eco-region for marine biodiversity. The island's surrounding reef is under the Danjugan Island Marine Reserve and Sanctuaries with three Special Management Areas or No Take Zones established in 2000 through Cauayan Municipal Ordinance 99-52.
Danjugan Island protects three major! marine ecosystems: sea grass, coral reefs and mangroves! Photo via Danjugan Facebook Page.
It holds an incredible biodiversity given its small size. At least 72 bird species have been recorded on the island, including a nesting pair of White- breasted Sea Eagles Heliatus leucogaster that have been breeding atop Typhoon Beach Camp since 1974 and Tabon scrub fowls Megapodius cumingi which are common around the island.
Danjugan Island "DEEP Camp". Photo via Danjugan Facebook Page.
Increasing environmental awareness in the youth has been one of the major priorities of PRRCFI. The Danjugan Island Environmental Education Program (DEEP), funded by the Foundation of the Philippine Environment (FPE), endeavors to teach Biodiversity Conservation, Sustainable Development, Climate Change Issues and Values to teachers and elementary/highschool students of Cauayan, Sipalay and Hinobaan municipalities in Southern Negros. These are where the last remaining good coral reefs in Negros Occidental remain. DEEP attempts to inspire to teach students to be stewards of the environment.
The DEEP was implemented starting June 2011. In the two years that it was executed, it aimed to address the shortcomings of environment education by delivering modules on biodiversity, marine and terrestrial wildlife awareness, climate change adaptation and mitigation, sustainability, and principles of responsible ecological stewardship to select public school teachers, students, barangay councils, and LGUs.
Genuine green ecotourism
Danjugan Island is now open on a limited capacity basis for visitors, to experience ecotourism at its purest: learn about the biodiversity within the area, its conservation efforts, eco-friendly facilities to include eco cabanas, solar powered electricity, communal served meals based on native cuisine and seasonally-available local produce and services offered by the locals within.
Make a difference and travel green to Danjugan!
You may also support its programs in environmental conservation and education when you visit. For more information and and travel assistance about our Green Travel Exchange, contact us.
The Danjugan Island is part of our Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development Inc.-SSTDI – Negros Occidental initiative, the sustainable tourism development & stewardship program for the province.
Tags: Danjugan Island, eco conservation, ecotourism, Green Destinations, green travel, green travel guide, Negros Occidental, Philippines
Bird Watching, prime ecotourism activity in Coron
Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater, Tulbuan Coron, Palawan. Photo by AL3Photography/CoronGaleri.
At the final and culminating Coron Initiative Capacity Building Series (TCI- CB Series IV) last March 2014, a presentation on Coron Bird Watching for Conservation and Ecotourism was conducted by Mr. Chin Fernandez, president of the The Wild Bird Society of Coron (or Birdwatch Coron). Mr. Fernandez is also the president of Calamianes Association of Tourism Establishments (CATE) and COO of Darayonan Lodge. Highlights of the presentation are as follows:
Birding must be promoted as an ecotourism activity in Coron. There is a growing trend among bird tour operators to practice sustainable and socially responsible ecotourism, while relying on local goods and services or supporting local conservation projects. Due to their accessibility and ubiquity, birds are a useful tool for environmental education and awareness on environmental issues. Birds easily transmit values on respect to nature and the fragility of ecosystems.
Bird watching is a hobby for enthusiasts, but it can be packaged targeting nature travelers in general who are into it as an alternative activity, since not all tourists may be fond of snorkeling/diving; or they may be both.
Bird watching can be an added value to spend one more day in Coron or some tourists may have an extra day, either for rest or for on any other possible activity for them. Bird watching may be introduced as it is a little challenging to see and detect birds in their natural habitat. However, once seen, tourists may be enthralled to witness the other wonders of nature.
A local group in Coron, called the The Wild Bird Society of Coron (or Birdwatch Coron for short),seeks to identify current and potential hobbyists in promoting the activity.
Adequate information campaign must however be conducted in collaboration with other bird watching and conservation groups as to the proper way of conducting the activity.
There is a move to declare by legislation, the Blue-headed Racquet-tail (an endemic parrot species), also locally known as "Kilit" to be a flagship species for Coron.
Lesser Coucal at Sitio Banga, Coron Palawan. Photo by Al3Photography.
After Mr. Fernandez's presentation, Mr. Alex Marcaida, from Palawan Sustainable Development Council (PSDC) the Workshop Facilitator had additional comments that bird watching is indeed an alternative activity to decrease pressure of tourist influx in water activities, or on a bigger scale, a tour package can be developed using the ridges to reef approach, wherein appreciation of nature may be on land and on water. He also lauded the movement of the Coron Birdwatching Society for the adoption and declaration of "Kilit" by the Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council) of Coron as its flagship species along with the underlying protection of the species and its habitat. Such movement may be adopted by other Palawan municipalities and incorporated into the Palawan Provincial Tourism Development Plan targeted for enactment on 2016. It is also beneficial that bird | 7,732 |
Popular Dublin nightclub announces negative antigen test requirement
Pygmalion on Dublin's South William Street is set to offer free antigen tests to customers to help protect staff and customers from COVID-19.
Pygmalion in September 2020. Rolling News
A popular Dublin nightclub has announced that customers will require negative COVID-19 antigen tests to enter the establishment.
Pygmalion on South William Street in Dublin is set to offer free antigen tests to customers to help protect staff and customers from COVID-19.
All ticket holders for club nights at the popular venue will be required to take an antigen test upon their arrival. The tests will be self-administered, while Pygmalion staff will be on hand to assist with any problems.
Customers must present a negative test to enter the venue. If a customer returns a positive test, they will be refused entry and issued a refund.
Taoiseach refuses to rule out introduction of new COVID restrictions
In a statement, Pygmalion said: "We feel<|fim_middle|> with antigen testing with support from their respective governments in implementing testing. Research shows rapid tests are 99.9% accurate. This means the chance of getting a false-positive result (where the result shows as positive but is actually negative) is extremely low.
"We have seen how venues similar to ours have reopened safely with antigen testing in place, this was also in place for Ireland's pilot nightclub event which took place on September 30th."
A start date has yet to be confirmed for the new measures, which will only apply to the nightclub section of the South William Street venue when it opens at 11 p.m. Customers will not need a negative test result to enter the venue's bar and restaurant.
14-year-old recorded as Ireland's youngest Covid death
Taoiseach Micheál Martin hinted on Sunday that antigen testing will become more widespread in coming weeks and said that the Government would be introducing measures to make antigen testing more affordable.
"The Minister for Health will be bringing forward proposals in respect of a wider deployment of antigen testing and also making it that bit more affordable for people if we want to introduce a culture of greater utilization by people of antigen tests," Martin said in Enniskillen on Sunday.
Related: Dublin, Health | that this is best practice for our staff and customers alongside the need to produce a digital COVID vaccination certificate, and purchasing tickets for contact tracing purposes. Negative test results will be necessary for entry to the venue, if a customer receives a positive result outside the venue then a refund will be issued. Tests will be self-administered, and there will be assistance available if necessary.
"Countries such as Germany & Sweden have had success | 85 |
Inside Walmart's plans to convert parking lots into 'town centers'
Walmart is setting the stage to add town-center-style retail buildings to a dozen or more of its U.S. properties as part of its Walmart Reimagined campaign, which is aimed at reutilizing excess parking space and boosting store traffic.
Artist's rendering of potential development in a Walmart parking lot
The company is promoting these plans just as other large retailers are similarly pressing to extract additional revenue from their own existing real estate. Walmart unveiled its Walmart Town Center plan at the ICSC Southeast Conference & Deal Making, held in October in Atlanta, during a keynote speech by L.B. Johnson, Walmart's vice president of U.S. realty operations. Since the announcement, though, the company seems to have walked back the status of the add-on buildings from imminent to conceptual.
Each town center will be customized to its community, offering combinations of shops, restaurants, entertainment providers, food halls, fitness centers, parks and diversified services providers, the company says. A video shown at the session featured such potential tenants as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Orangetheory Fitness, Pinstripes and<|fim_middle|> ground on the first such center this coming spring, on six acres of parking space and 12 acres of vacant land at its Loveland, Colo., Supercenter, according to Johnson. Torchy's Tacos, Wake & Bake, Wahlburgers and possibly a skate park could be among the tenants at the Loveland site. Kelly Jones, economic development director for the city of Loveland, says officials have met with Walmart about a new town-center prototype for the store in Loveland off Highway 34. As of late November those plans remained only formative. In general, Jones says, the idea of beautifying and activating oversized parking lots is "uplifting."
Among other markets where Walmart is considering town centers are Rogers, Ark., near the Walmart headquarters; Garland, Texas; Gresham, Ore.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Springfield, Mo. Smaller off-site projects are slated for Walmart properties in Lucas, Texas; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Stockton, Calif., among other places.
It remains to be seen whether Walmart's lower-density rural and suburban stores can benefit from attached town centers, says Nii Ahene, COO of CPC Strategy, a San Diego–based digital-marketing agency with a focus on retail. "This sort of repurposing is not only viable for Walmart, but [even] necessary for the retail giant to fortify its position against Amazon," he said. Like other major retailers, Walmart knows it needs to evolve beyond mere product fulfillment into richer customer experiences to stay competitive, Ahene observes. "The town-center format takes this further by surrounding a retail location with amenities like fitness centers and dining, which are naturally more resistant to online disruption," he said. Such projects would also help ensure that the stores are linked with complementary, traffic-driving tenants, Ahene says.
"Walmart wants to provide community space — areas for the community to dwell: a farmers market, an Easter egg hunt, trick-or-treating. We want to provide pedestrian connectivity from our box to the experiential zones that are planned on our footprint. We want to augment these experiences and activities with more food-and-beverage, with health-and-fitness, essential services and entertainment"
Johnson said at the conference in Atlanta that Walmart wants "to provide community space — areas for the community to dwell: a farmers market, an Easter egg hunt, trick-or-treating. We want to provide pedestrian connectivity from our box to the experiential zones that are planned on our footprint. We want to augment these experiences and activities with more food-and-beverage, with health-and-fitness, essential services and entertainment." Looking across the country to evaluate these town-center opportunities, Walmart will "be tapping the talent, expertise and partnership from members of this community to support our efforts," said Johnson.
Some observers are skeptical that such developments can really attract quality town-center-type tenants. Among these watchers is David Livingston, a Hawaii-based independent supermarket analyst. The idea of a Walmart town square may sound quaint, but there is more to it than that, Livingston argues. "In my opinion, these will be few and far between," he said. "Most likely, anything done regarding Walmart will be done on the cheap, not the chic." Other large retailers, including grocery chains, are actively parceling off excess parking space too, "but they are doing it for things less desirable or revolutionary," such as car lots, storage facilities, clusters of food trucks and medical offices, according to Livingston.
But others seem confident that Walmart can at least blaze a trail with the idea. Walmart may not have pioneered this vision, these optimists say, but it is surely the largest retailer now in pursuit of it. And that, they assert, could make all the difference. Walmart "may very well spur an acceleration among the other major players who are defining their own strategies for building experiential communities," noted Robin Lewis, a consultant for the retail and consumer-products industries, in his online Robin Report.
Kohl's says it is working with a list of possible partners from the grocery and convenience channels to develop parking acreage at some 300 stores, while Macy's points to about 50 of its stores that it thinks may be conducive to such parking-lot repurposing. The typical Macy's tract measures about 20 acres.
Kimco Realty Corp. CEO Conor Flynn said in October that his firm, too, is looking at "activating underutilized parking fields," in addition to retenanting 14 old Sears-Kmart buildings in the Kimco portfolio to create better rent spreads.
Walmart is reimagining its interiors as well, investing some $480 million in Florida and Texas to open 14 new stores and to remodel 82 others; about $145 million to remodel 34 units in California; $94 million to renovate 27 stores in Ohio; and $75 million to upgrade 14 stores in Virginia. Meanwhile, the company is investing millions more to help streamline customer-pickup systems for online-grocery purchases at about 1,000 U.S. store locations and to add customer-pickup towers at 500 others, according to published reports.
"Walmart hopes to slow the shift of wallet share to online competitors," Ahene said. Such changes could ease Walmart's order-fulfillment time considerably, "from two days to a matter of minutes," according to Ahene. "This also eliminates the need to find a parking spot, navigate a store and stand in line to check out."
The Walmart town-center concept is an example of the ways existing assets can be reimagined to help transform and boost the customer experience, Ahene says.
Johnson concurs, asserting: "A transformation is under way."
By Steve McLinden
Contributor, Shopping Centers Today
$200 million upgrade draws tenants to Irvine (Calif.) Spectrum
$300 million mixed-use project planned on iconic mall site | Shake Shack. Pet stores, urgent-care centers and multifamily units were held out as possibilities too.
Design drawings were featured on the Walmart Reimagined website, which suggested that some of the new merchants could be occupying reused shipping containers. A Walmart representative told media that the centers remain "very much in the conceptual stage."
Walmart said it planned to break | 71 |
That is where Leadpages comes in. As you'll discover in this Leadpages review, the web-based platform guarantees to give you the tools you'll have to publish high-converting landing pages to your lead-generation campaigns.
Leadpages is designed to help users create Stunning landing pages — all without the need for design or coding experience. During these landing pages, users will have the ability to prompt customers to provide their email or other relevant information.
To get you started, you will find over 100 templates to Select from and can be filtered by business. The templates are sorted by conversion rate which is quite useful. It provides users with an chance to pick an established template according to Leadpages' data.
Do note, however, that there are many factors which Influence conversion rate. Since the templates are customizable, it's hard to attribute conversion to the template by itself. For what it's worth, Leadpages claim it as its most powerful and one of a kind sorting feature.
You can perform A/B testing so you can decide Which landing pages work great. You are able to assess your performance during the built in analytics (you can incorporate it using Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics).
If you've ever encounter those pop-up boxes which Appear just as you're going to leave a website, you've probably encountered Leadboxes.
This nifty box may either pop up mechanically or Be triggered by a condition you set. The most popular affliction is possibly the 2-step opt-in where a visitor has to click a button for the pop-up box to look.
If done right, Leadboxes could raise engagement And bring about more prospects for your company. Much like the landing pages, there's a drag-and-drop editor for Leadboxes to make it much easier for users to get up and running in minutes.
The reason for this one is build a text list. Thus, instead of merely collecting email addresses, you can get folks on a listing with their phone numbers. This might be incredibly valuable especially with the younger generation that's more likely to text than email.
When the recipient clicks on that linkthey are Instantly enrolled. They will not have to enter additional information. This is particularly useful for training registration and the like.
After a quick registration process, you'll input The dashboard and also be invited to create your first<|fim_middle|> headlines, text, pictures, videos, buttons, and much more. It is here where you are going to encounter among Leadpages' most notorious kinks. The website's drag-and-drop performance is faulty.
Putting elements where you want them may be a pain. For starters, you may just set them in areas that the template permits you to. There are grids where widgets can be added while other places are off limits. Then there's the matter with precision. The widgets have a tendency to snap into position. And as is the case during our testing, they end up nowhere near its intended destination.
Editing the text and graphics, nevertheless, is a cinch. Click here on any placeholder text and replace the present one . You may resize and move elements around.
You'll find all your saved landing pages at the dashboard. You may go back and make more edits, rename the document, create a split test (A/B testing), replicate the landing page, or have it deleted.
Customer service does exist but priority is given To advanced subscribers. They have access to a 1-on-1 Quick Start Telephone as well as free digital workshops. Those below the standard plan will need to make do with chat support (9 AM to 5 PM Central time during weekdays) or open a support ticket.
You can print your landing pages on their own or under your domain name. However, publishing beneath a Subdomain can possibly turn off your viewers. It is advisable to publish under your own domainname.
To do that, click on the user icon onto the top-right Part of the display to open the drop-down menu. Pick"Domains" to load the page where you are able to connect your own domain.
Users may subscribe on a monthly, yearly, or Two-year basis with all the two-year plan being the very cost-efficient provided you're in for the long haul. There are three tiers to pick from: standard, expert, as well as advanced.
At $25/month, Leadpages is cheap enough for startups and one-man showrunners. The benefits of having the ability to install and design landing pages for direct generation compensate for the price. However $48/month can be a steep price to pay given the small perks you unlock at the level. Unless you've got a real demand for internet sales and obligations and A/B testing, then you are better off with the most elementary plan. It should also be sufficient to help you earn more with your blog or site.
For the average consumer, Leadpages will probably be more than Enough to meet your lead generation objectives. In the end of the day, all you will need is a searchable landing page that will wow your audience. Leadpages is much more than capable of getting the job done. It does not require any prior coding or design experience.
The sheer number of available templates will be More than sufficient to get you started on the right path. There's a template for almost every circumstance. Options vary from webinar webpages, thank you pages, product launch webpages, checkout pages, and even 404 pages. Leadpages claim they have at least 160 free templates in their library.
The Majority of the Leadpages inspection was concentrated on The landing page builder but let's not forget that subscribers also get access to Leadboxes. There is no denying that pop-up boxes are powerful and can lead to conversions that would otherwise be overlooked if not for Leadboxes.
The drag-and-drop functionality issues need to be addressed. People who are very particular in their landing page designs can battle with the program's interface. The instrument can also slow down every now and which can be problematic especially for people who are looking for a tight deadline.
Leadpages themselves promote users not utilize their standard templates. There's barely any customization options. The lack of drag-and-drop feature is unavailable for regular templates. Thus, even if you do find a template worth using in their dated selections, you would be not able to customize them as you see fit.
There's no denying the significance of A/B testing. It is the only real way to see that pages are working and which ones require refinement. Regrettably, standard users have no access to A/B testing and will need to update to a higher plan to generate use of this feature.
Leadpages is a good bargain for startups given the Reasonable $25 entry point. Should you want sleek, responsive landing pages quick and would help you better your conversion funnel and earn more money, the tool will be more than capable of delivering just that. But, there are lots of alternatives out there which do pretty much the exact same thing. Maybe not on the exact same level, but you really do have choices.
Large-scale businesses are likely to have in-house Solutions to developing landing pages for their lead generation campaigns. The $199/month innovative plan appears too steep of a price point for big corporations. | effort. By default, you're taken to Leadpages at which you can make a landing page. You can get into the site's other attributes through the navigation bar.
To start your initial landing page, click on the Let's Do It button. The site will walk you through the procedure by asking you questions regarding the nature of your landing page. You will be given access to all the available templates not long afterwards. As an alternative, you can get the templates straight via the navigation bar.
Now, It's important to note that there Are two kinds of templates available. First, you've got drag-and-drop templates which are more customizable and modern. Then you've got your standard templates which are tried and tested to guarantee high conversion rates.
Standard templates are simple with small Room for modification. You will have the ability to edit the text and replace the sample pictures but will not have the ability to transfer any of those elements around. You can elect to hide any element that you don't have any use for but users need to do so with caution. Hiding elements can result in apparently empty spaces.
Drag-and-drop templates operate somewhat differently. Right off the bat, you'll notice that you have additional options. The sidebar houses four buttons: widgets, page design, page design, and page monitoring.
By dragging and dropping widgets into your landing Webpage, you are able to insert new elements to edit. You can add | 285 |
The minor distinction between petros and petra only exists in Attic Greek, not Koine Greek. Most of my interactions with people at these levels have been very positive though, as is to be expected, not 100% positive. My heart was grieved when I realized that a number of my friends at work were Christians but did not attend church. I often wonder what these people think of when they contemplate if they do that Jesus took mud and spit and used it to heal a man's eyes. Being Catholic was not just my religion, it was a part of my identity.
He has only one body. The virtue of the Restoration Movement, is that the individual congregations are willing to break with others, and loudly proclaim why they are doing so. And while there may indeed be truly non-denominational churches, the label is in practice self-applied by fundamental evangelical Christians in line with their historical distrust of everything Catholic. Why don't you focus on that instead of all that other -- dirty -- stuff? Roman Catholics believe they belong to the One True Church so this is why they behave this way. In fact, the mother church is very controlling of the member-churches, Satellite campuses as they call them. I would like to know more about it, but I feel like there is a pressure one should not have by basically saying do or die.
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. So Jesus is talking about how His Kingdom or Church is structured. I ask the Holy Spirit every day to give me the strength I need to let go of the hurt and anger that I have been carrying in my heart. Hey, so The Bible was the guide line for our lives. First, the words petros and petra had the same meaning rock in the Greek which was used at the time of Christ.
Some also see denominational churches as being old with entrenched leadership. I got so frustrated I did a debate with one of them at the study on sola scriptura and this caused a riff in the study although it did win my friend back to the Catholic Church and he stopped going to a baptist Church abnd became a strong Catholic afterwards the people there some of them looked at me like I was the<|fim_middle|> is a structure of doctrine that is in place for people to already have a reference point when they join the church. I believe, no matter what denomination you may choose to be from, you choose it because you feel it is the best way to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ. | anti-Christ. Ignatius Press, 1998 You Can Understand the Bible by Peter Kreeft Ignatius, 2005 How to Read the Bible Every Day by Carmen Rojas Servant Books, 1988 Books that answer common Protestant questions: Where Is That in the Bible? Other examples are Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16. I left the Catholic Church twice, the last time for good. If you are a Presbyterian, John Knox an ex-Catholic founded your sect in Scotland in the year 1560. .
Yet, some Christian non-Catholics have a Catholic father or mother due to lack of honesty. I believe I have a stronge relationship with Christ. For Sunday School, we open with worship service then we have an ongoing study of a book from the bible for example; lets say we started to learn from the Gospel according to Matthew in January. The priest who gave the Homily was inspiring. You're right that Protestants generally won't place those restrictions, though Catholics are generally prohibited by their own Church from taking Communion in other Protestant Churches.
Anyway, I truly mean no disrespect to my fellow Christians who remain Catholic. Your girlfriend has a faith that is unlike any protestant denomination. Hence, Jesus not only commissioned Peter to feed His Church, but to rule it. People listen, I am a man that sees to truth with the church, today. The has defined criteria on interfaith marriage recognition and the also has rules which are similar in most respects. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. D: Some time had passed since then and I had gotten super sick and nearly died. I wanted to be baptized as an adult due to my choosing, but the Episocpal church saw my baptism as a baby as sufficient and no reason to baptize me as an adult. Like you it would make me quite uncomfortable. D Fundamental Differences Between Catholics' and Other Christians' Worldviews One's basic religious assumptions act as a lens onto the world; like the proverbial rose-colored glasses, they color everything one sees, and the Protestant and Catholic lenses are no different. From what I can tell from these respondents, they are current and former members of mainline churches.
I believe, no matter what denomination you may choose to be from, you choose it because you feel it is the best way to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve… And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Martin Luther likened this to the idea of a red-hot iron in a fire—united, but not changed. Even the apostles, with all the gifts God gave them, were not without error. Individuals of that specific congregation do not consider themselves to be part of a denomination.
So, it's little things to big things. You are either in, or you are out. As an adult I had been crossing my arms and receiving blessings from the Eucharistic ministers. Likewise, when there was a great need, the churches worked interdependently to meet that need—for example, the collection for the famine in Jerusalem Acts 11:29; 2 Corinthians 8:4. My husband and I were both born and bred in our denomination. Non-denominational churches also have a structural organization — they need one, they are organized bodies after all. I will cling to the risen living conquering freeing empowering Christ of the Bible.
Thanks Tom for all of your hard work. I was very involved with parish activities in my last parish from 1990-2010. I think most people run to non-denominational churches because normally the commitment level is a lot lower than a denominational church. I went so far as to think we were the best. Churches are free to preach what they will, but there | 870 |
Arts + Culture What's New
The SPOT.ph Guide to University Museums in Metro Manila
School isn't just for students.
by Christa I. De La Cruz
(SPOT.ph) Universities in Metro Manila are known for their expertise in various academic fields, state-of-the-art facilities, world-class faculty, and valuable areas of research. But within these compounds of intellectual pursuits are rooms and halls that remind us that unravelling the past is always important in discovering the future, may it be the Philippines' oldest fossils, a school's humble beginnings, or an inspiring historical story.
Here are some of Manila's most interesting university-based museums. Admission is often free or less than P50. That's pretty much a steal if you ask us.
IMAGE Wikipedia / DLSU Facebook
The Museum at De La Salle University - Manila
2/F Don Enrique T. Yuchengco Hall, De La Salle University-Manila, 2401 Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila
Contact: 524-4611 local 368
E-mail: buncabr@dlsu.edu.ph
Website: themuseum.dlsu.edu.ph
Open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Monday to Friday)
As a university-art museum, The Museum at De La Salle University in Manila showcases a collection of Philippine modern art donated by the heirs of Wili and Doreen Gamboa-Fernandez. These include works of prominent Filipino artists such as Fernando Amorsolo, Ang Kiukok, Carlos "Botong" Francisco, Jose Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Vicente Manansala, J. Elizalde Navarro, and more. It also houses temporary exhibits in its halls.
IMAGE MCAD Facebook
Museum of Contemporary Art and Design
College of Saint Benilde's School of Design and Arts, Dominga Street, Malate, Manila
Contact: 230-5100 local 3897
E-mail: mcad@benilde.edu.ph
Website: www.mcadmanila.org.ph
Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Tuesday to Saturday); 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (<|fim_middle|>
The Invertebrate Museum of the University of the Philippines was established in the 1930s when the Department of Zoology and Department of Botany were still separate units. The 4,000 specimens housed in the museum were properly accessioned and documentedin 2014. This repository of well-known invertebrates includes the hermatypic corals of Francisco Nemenzo Sr., regarded as the "Father of Philippine Coral Taxonomy," that date back to 1935, Neon Rossel's cirriped-type specimens, and even a bivalve mollusk collected in 1909.
IMAGE UP website / Bulwagan ng Dangal Facebook
Bulwagan ng Dangal
South Wing Basement, Gonzalez Hall (Main Library Complex), G. Apacible Street corner Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
E-mail: bnd.uhm@gmail.com
Website: updbnd.wordpress.com
Open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Tuesday to Friday), 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Saturday)
The Bulwagan ng Dangal was established in 2009 as the University of the Philippines' heritage museum. It houses artworks by distinguished UP alumni and professors at the College of Fine Arts, including four National Artists for the Visual Arts. It takes its name from a line in the university's anthem, "UP Naming Mahal."
IMAGE Nadine Dela Cruz
UP Geology Museum
National Institute of Geological Sciences Building, G. Velasquez corner C.P. Garcia Streets, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
E-mail: ampanigs@yahoo.com
Website: nigs.upd.edu.ph
The National Institute of Geological Sciences - UP Geology Alumni Association Geology Museum, which opened in 2007, serves as a teaching platform for earth sciences education in the Philippines. It features a comprehensive display of various types of minerals, rocks, and fossils, especially those specimens found in the country. A section is devoted to explaining how geothermal power plants work, how ore deposits are obtained, and how volcanic eruptions and earthquakes happen.
IMAGE Vargas Museum Facebook
Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center
Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
E-mail: vargasmuseum@gmail.com
Website: vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph
Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Tuesday to Saturday)
The in-house museum of the University of the Philippines prides itself on "being the only art repository in the country embracing the entire range of Philippine artistic creativity from the 1880s to the 1960s." Aside from permanent displays, specifically Jorge B. Vargas' own prized collection, it showcases works of students from the university's College of Fine Arts and other contemporary artists. Exhibit openings in the gallery often include shows by performance artists, cultural advocates, and indigenous groups.
IMAGE Aprille Tijam / Ricky Ramos
Adamson University Museum
G/F SV Building, Adamson University, San Marcelino Street, Ermita, Manila
Open from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (Tuesday and Thursday)
Adamson University Museum opened its doors in November 2013 and completed its final wing in September 2014. It showcases the history of the university, starting from the life of its founder, Greek chemist and educator George Lucas Adamson, to the passing on of its administration to Vincentian Fathers and Brothers of the Congregation of the Mission. Aside from these, it also features rotating exhibits.
IMAGE Museum of a History of Ideas Facebook
Museum of a History of Ideas
University of the Philippines - Manila, Philippine General Hospital Compound, Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila
Contact: 0916-796-4117
E-mail: historyofideas@upmanilamuseum.com
Website: www.facebook.com/UP-Manila-Museum-Of-A-History-Of-Ideas-895966087090846/
Open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Tuesday and Thursday)
The Museum of a History of Ideas, which was inaugurated in 2014, highlights the role of the University of the Philippines in the intellectual and cultural development of the country. In focus are the years between 1910 and 1929, the period of the university's establishment. It houses textbooks, photos, and dental and medical instruments that are mostly donations from UP alumni. The building where the museum stands was constructed in 1931.
IMAGE Museo ni Apolinario Mabini Facebook
Museo ni Apolinario Mabini
Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Sta. Mesa, Manila
E-mail: mabinishrinepup@gmail.com
Website: elearning.nhcp.gov.ph/mabini-shrine
Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Tuesday to Sunday)
The Mabini Shrine at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines features a reproduction of the nipa hut where Apolinario Mabini, regarded as "The Brains of the Revolution," used to live as a law student. His original portrait photographs, a replica of his recliner chair, and a long wooden bench owned by his family are also on display.
IMAGE UST Museum Facebook
UST Museum of Arts and Sciences
3/F, Main Building, University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila
E-mail: museum@mnl.ust.edu.ph or ustmuseum@gmail.com
Website: ustmuseum.ust.edu.ph
Open from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Monday) and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Tuesday to Friday)
As the oldest university in the Philippines, it doesn't come as a surprise that University of Santo Tomas's museum has a collection that dates back to 1682. It presents "Gabinete de Fisica," a room full of animal, mineral, and vegetable specimens used as study aids by students of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty Medicine and Surgery. The museum also takes pride in owning the country's largest carved ivory image of the Crucified Christ. Aside from archiving these important collections, it also houses temporary exhibits and holds symposia and lectures.
Metro Metro Manila City Guide Museum University Museum At De La Salle University Museum Of Contemporary Art And Design Ateneo Art Gallery Up Biology Invertebrate Museum Bulwagan Ng Dangal Up Geology Museum Vargas Museum Adamson University Museum Museum Of A History Of Ideas Museo Ni Apolinario Mabini Ustm Museum Of Arts And Sciences
Art Fair Philippines 2017: Scenes From the Fair, in Illustrations
Wicked Manila extends theatrical run yet again | Sunday)
The College of Saint Benilde's School of Design and Art is one of the few art colleges in the Philippines, so it doesn't come as a surprise that their museum is more of an art gallery than a repository of artifacts. This is especially true for the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, which is housed within the unique architecture of the school. It displays solo shows and collaborations by professional artists, both local and international, to facilitate and enhance its global education platform.
IMAGE Ateneo Art Gallery's website
Ateneo Art Gallery
2/F Old Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Contact: 426-6488
E-mail: aag@ateneo.edu
Website: www.ateneoartgallery.org
Open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (Monday to Friday), 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturday)
The Ateneo Art Gallery was established in 1960 after Fernando Zobel gave his personal collection of works by Filipino artists to the university. Among its prized possessions are works by Vicente Manansala, Arturo Luz, Jose Tence Ruiz, and Impy Pilapil. The gallery also spearheads the Ateneo Art Awards, which is now considered one of the most prestigious award-giving bodies recognizing emerging artists in the Philippines.
IMAGE UP website
UP Biology Invertebrate Museum
Room 111, West Wing of Zoology Building, Quirino Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
Website: www.biology.upd.edu.ph | 352 |
MCN Scholarship and Awards Banquet
Amy Irving October 14, 2017 Filed Under Mennonite College of Nursing
The MCN Scholarship and Awards Banquet was held on September 21.
Illinois State University's Mennonite College of Nursing (MCN) held its annual Scholarship and Awards Banquet on September 21 in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center. The purpose of this event is to invite donors to meet with their student recipients, and to recognize new scholarships that have been established. Each recipient also receives a certificate for the scholarship they received.
Kurt and Joyce Moser with their student recipient, Alison Alcazar.
During the banquet, Joyce Moser talked about establishing the Coletta Kintzle Endowed Memorial Scholarship for her mother. A few days prior to her mother's death, Joyce was sitting by her bedside when Coletta began to share memories of her life. What stood out most to Joyce in that conversation was the fact that Coletta had always wanted to be a nurse, a dream that Coletta had not shared with anyone before. It wasn't long before Joyce began to think about ways she could honor her mom with a Memorial. Since Joyce was an Illinois State University graduate and her mom had always wanted to be a nurse, a Mennonite College of Nursing Scholarship at Illinois State seemed to be a perfect match.
Kylie Fuller and Stevie Joslin
Kylie Fuller is the recipient of the Roger and Stephanie Joslin Endowed Scholarship, and she attended the banquet and met her scholarship donor, Stevie Joslin. Fuller gave remarks on behalf of all of the student recipients, thanking them for helping students chase their dreams of being the<|fim_middle|> a video about their story of establishing this scholarship.
MCN is grateful for all of the scholarships and awards that have been established to help deserving students, who would not be able to attend the University without the help of need-based scholarships.
Visit the MCN Flickr page to see photos from the banquet.
For more information about establishing a scholarship, contact MCN Director of Development Jennifer Sedbrook at (309) 438-7178.
Kurt and Joyce Moser honor the past, provide for the future
Nurse credits Mennonite College of Nursing (MCN) for career
How we met: Jim Brinkmeyer and Joyce Cunningham
From scholarship to working for the Portland Trail Blazers
Outstanding Service Award announced
ISU surpasses $150 million Redbirds Rising campaign goal; campaign to continue through June 2020 | best nurse possible. Fuller has many family members who are nurses, and the biggest influence was her mom who is a peritoneal dialysis nurse. She is a triplet, and her sister, Teagan, is also a student at MCN. Fuller said, "With this scholarship I will be able to continue my studies here at Mennonite, receiving an amazing education and learning how to provide the highest quality care to my patients so that I can be that caring, compassionate, knowledgeable nurse that I aspire to be."
Front row: Elijah Smith, Keith Smith, Julie Smith, John Parker
Back row: Thomas Schaefer, Regan Romshek and Kyle Alexander
The college was pleased to announce the John and Karen Parker Endowed Scholarship, and John Parker attended the banquet and met his first recipient, Regan Romshek. Parker's daughter, Julie Smith, established the Karen Griffith Parker Scholarship in 2007, in memory of her mother who was a nurse. Smith, her husband Keith, and son Elijah, have attended the banquet every year. They all participated in | 221 |
Astadia Enables SaaS Via Pervasive's Solution
Astadia, a business solutions consultant with expertise in software-as-a-service (SaaS), and Pervasive Software have formed a partnership. Under the deal, Astadia plans to use Pervasive's data<|fim_middle|> even really know their own data to the extent that it's not mapped out," Wills said. "Clearly, they don't necessarily understand the business logic that's been defined over time that creates that GUI for them to see whatever information they have today. So part of our process is sitting down and going through a data mapping exercise upfront. And then understanding what's going to be the system of record, whether it's Salesforce.com or a legacy system. Pervasive is that conduit that allows us [to write those business rules] … to manage that information between those two systems."
Pervasive's solution is embedded and enables data transformation, but it also supports "clean" data through the application of business rules.
"The need to clean data is not only to get it cleaned up on time when you are first going to get into the application, but then to make sure that any additional data updates follow the business rules you want to follow," Inbar said. "While in the database world, you may set up all kinds of constraints, triggers and stored procedures to do it, in the applications world, there's a whole set of additional business rules that need to be applied so that the data are consistent between one system and another."
The solution doesn't depend on a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It works with "traditional" systems too, according to Inbar.
"SOA is an option, and that's really driven by the customer," Inbar said, "because SOA is more of a journey than a destination. There's no reason why all of this couldn't be running as a service and a lot of the time it is. Sometimes it's implemented as a very traditional operating system service and sometimes it's set up as more of a classic Web service or part of an SOA approach."
Wills isn't seeing so much SOA systems to build solutions around at this point.
"We tend to find legacy systems that have no Web services and aren't built around SOA at all," Wills said. "And that's what's so powerful about Pervasive is that I am able to connect to that system and provide and enable that SOA, if you will, to expand and deliver data to Salesforce.com." | integration technology for customers moving to Salsesforce.com's SaaS-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution.
Astadia is using Pervasive's Data Profiler solution to check the quality of a company's data and compliance with Salesforce.com's solution "before deployment or reimplementation," according to an announcement issued by the companies.
Astadia currently is the number one partner with Salesforce.com, according to Lonnie Wills, vice president of global services at Astadia. However, the company does more than just integration with SaaS systems and customization.
"We're not just a technical team that puts together a solution, but we really are business people and we try to help [companies] better align their businesses to drive profitability," Wills said.
One example Wills gave was Astadia's work with a customer in the electronics manufacturing space. The customer wanted to build a manufacturing forecasting solution and used Salesforce.com and integration tools to make that happen.
The example is a sign that partnerships and customized solutions aren't going away with the SaaS distribution model, according to David Inbar, director of integration marketing worldwide at Pervasive.
"Successful SaaS models are changing the economics of consuming applications," Inbar said, "but the underlying data are still the same data. And some of the same disciplines have to be applied to [the data] whether it resides behind the firewall or with some SaaS vendor or in between. With Salesforce.com, you can deliver the applications faster, you can change them faster, but there's still the need for customization. There's still the need for partnerships, and really there's a new breed of partners [with Pervasive] like Astadia."
In addition to partnering with companies like Astadia, Pervasive has partnered directly with Salesforce.com since 2001, Inbar said. Pervasive's solution also has connectors to work with a variety of systems.
Astadia is agnostic in its selection of technology. It selects solutions based on its customers' needs, but it currently has staff trained to use Pervasive's solution, which provides greater support than just data mapping.
"Customers don't | 436 |
Based on the hilarious TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Measures 36-inches across and features the BAZINGA!™<|fim_middle|>A!™ Umbrella comes in a matching polyester case that also displays the logo. Ages 14 and up.
Click the button below to add the Big Bang Theory Bazinga Tri-Fold Umbrella Bif Bang Pow 017131 to your wish list. | logo from the show!
Folds to a mere 9-inches long. Fits in your purse or briefcase.
It's true: Even the great Sheldon Cooper has need of a fine umbrella like this. The brilliantly designed The Big Bang Theory BAZINGA!™ Tri-Fold Umbrella from Bif Bang Pow! measures a full 36-inches across when open, yet it folds up neatly to a mere 9-inches long - short enough to drop in your purse or briefcase! Based on the hilarious TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, this multicolored rain deflector features the famed BAZINGA!™ logo on 4 of the 8 black and red panels of the canopy… so no one can question where your entertainment loyalties lie! Made of 100% polyester, with a metal rod and plastic handle, the BAZING | 180 |
If you think this<|fim_middle|> a positive intelligent force to lead their campaign to bring the injustices to light.
Perhaps we will wake up to realize that these prisoners are someone's son, someone's brother, and in many cases someone's dad. The increasing of women as prisoners is also startling and the children of these prisoners suffer most without a parent available leaving long scars. I remember years ago reading about Jean Harris's campaign to keep a connection between mothers and their children when she was at Bedford Hills, this was considered groundbreaking back then.
When will be wake up to realize educating prisoners is the only chance to keep them from continuing a life of crime and away from drugs? | doesn't touch your life think again and read up on how many homeless people in our country are indeed veterans. Open your eyes to those around you who suffer behind closed doors to reorient themselves to their family and home lives after their military service. It is a sometimes hidden issue of significance to all of us if we are willing to face these tragedies and work to help them to heal.
Readers may be divided into four classes: 1. Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3. Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.
Listen to Indian author Akhil Sharma on the Diane Rehm program about how his novel "Family Life" blurs the lines between fiction and memoir and then read his thoughtful book about what it is to be the immigrant and the "normal one" in a family struggling to cope with a son and brother who has special needs. This is an amazing short but powerful read by a writer of considerable talent.
We meet young Ajay, in the mid- 1970s, as he is in Delhi awaiting news from his father in America when he and his older brother Birju and their mother can begin a new adventure in a America. Told with twist and turns, it is an immigrant's story, one of deep emotions told from the point of view of a young child struggling to grow up in a new country and to make sense of his past and many possible futures. He lives in the shadow of his older brother Birju who becomes disabled. This leaves the parents and brother coping in their own ways with what fate has dealt them all. Certainly it is a tale of growing up with many stresses and keeping nimble to cope with what life may toss your way.
Recently chosen by Kirkus as Best Fiction of 2014.
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform.
They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
Google Alerts is a simple way to keep track of yourself, your town, a topic that interests you most, or any other word or topic you can think up. When you log into Google Alerts you can set up so that as it happens, daily, or once a week. You can set how many things you want sent at one and have everything about a certain word or name be streamed into a notification sent to your e-mail address.
Are you a teacher who wants to know what is being said by your students about your classes? Do you want to keep up with the news in the small town you were raised in? Do you own a restaurant and want to keep track of comments made? Or a business competitor you hope to track of on-line? Then a Google Alert will be just the ticket to keep you current as to what is being posted on-line on a topic or name of your choosing.
Orange is the New Black the HBO series was recommended so I watch the first season via Netflix and was less than impressed having read the book. It has certainly gotten people thinking about prison who might not have realized the costs the criminal justice system is as our national budget and what a cycle it is when people have little support upon release.
The New Jim Crow's author Michelle Alexander appears on Moyers and Company in an segment titled Incarceration Nation to helps us to think a bit differently about our prison system and what really goes on.
Just recently launched is the new Marshall Project to bring attention to the problem of incarceration as a big job source for rural communities and the privatization of our prison system nationally.
The ACLU also just announced it will spend some of its energy focused on the high rate of incarceration, one of the largest internationally, has gotten out of hand in the USA. They have hired Alison Holcolm to head their new initiative "Campaign to End Mass Incarceration" and she is | 848 |
I am very excited to be playing two nights with the Bobby Selvaggio Quintet featuring special guest Robin Eubanks on trombone. We play March 9th at Blu Jazz+ in Akron and the following night, March 10th at the Bop Stop in Cleveland. Both shows are at 8 pm and both cost $20. I hope to see you there!
I'm looking forward to joining saxophonist Caroline<|fim_middle|> will be playing with the great Bill Dobbins on Tuesday, August 2nd, at Nighttown in Cleveland Heights, OH as part of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra Octet. I will also be playing with Bill as a part of Sam Blakeslee's Large Group at Blu Jazz+ in Akron, OH on August 4th.
Do have a look around and thanks so much for your interest in my music!
David Booth Beers on Welcome! | Davis and pianist Caili O'Doherty in their quartet, also featuring drummer Cory Cox, at their Cleveland shows on 10/21 at the Bop Stop and 10/30 at Night Town.
When I put together this website one of the most moving things was the very positive response from dear friends and colleagues throughout the world. One such friend is the amazing photographer and cellist, Susan Bestul. Susan offered the pictures in this blog post to me for use on this website. As you can see, she is a fantastic photographer and I happened to be lucky enough to be on the other end of her camera lens. I highly recommend checking out her other amazing photos at her website: susanbestul.com.
I am very happy and excited to share that I | 163 |
You can expect a lot from the <|fim_middle|>. When road conditions become unpredictable, rely on all wheel drive to maintain outstanding control. Our team is professional, and we offer a no-pressure environment. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Come on in and take a test drive! | 2019 Mazda CX-5. Under the hood you'll find a 4 cylinder engine with more than 170 horsepower, and for added security, dynamic Stability Control supplements the drivetrain. Mazda infused the interior with top shelf amenities, such as: front and rear reading lights, power front seats, heated door mirrors, a power rear cargo door, remote keyless entry, cruise control, and seat memory. Features such as automatic climate control and leather upholstery prove that economical transportation does not need to be sparsely equipped. Rear passengers enjoy the seat heating functionality, keeping them warm during the winter months. For drivers who enjoy the natural environment, a power moon roof allows an infusion of fresh air. Audio features include an AM/FM radio, steering wheel mounted audio controls, and 10 speakers, providing excellent sound throughout the cabin. Mazda ensures the safety and security of its passengers with equipment such as: dual front impact airbags with occupant sensing airbag, head curtain airbags, traction control, brake assist, a panic alarm, an emergency communication system, and 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS | 226 |
3 Tips for Talking Politics in the Workplace
AJ Griffin
With midterms right around the corner, and an especially divisive presidential election barely in the rearview mirror, understanding the implications of and tactics for discussing politics at work is vital. For some employees, avoiding political discussions is near impossible, and even the mention of a hot-button issue can send others running for the break room — talking politics in the workplace can be a bit of a minefield.
In fact, more than 25% of<|fim_middle|>depending on whether or not a business resides in the public or private sector) treads the line of illegality since it infringes on a person's right to free speech. The best tact for an employer is preparation and communication.
Employers should arm employees with tools for civil discussions rather than attempt to squash them altogether. Below are three tips employers can pass along to their workforce to ensure their company remains unified, rather than divided, after the polls close.
Keep it light
Though some current issues can produce heavier conversations and impact real people in serious ways, it's best to keep the conversation as light as possible in an office environment. Remind employees that it's extremely difficult to change another person's mind. A 10-minute gab over the coffee machine attempting to impact a person's stance on climate change will likely produce fraught relationships rather than enlightenment.
Employees should also know that arming themselves with facts as a way to modify a colleague's opinion is an exercise in futility. As scientist-turned-lawyer Orzan Varol put it, "As a result of the well-documented confirmation bias, we tend to undervalue evidence that contradicts our beliefs and overvalue evidence that confirms them. We filter out inconvenient truths and arguments on the opposing side. As a result, our opinions solidify, and it becomes increasingly harder to disrupt established patterns of thinking."
Leaders should remind employees that a change in opinion shouldn't be the goal of a political discussion, but rather discussions should be way to gain a better understanding of another person's perspective.
Listen first
Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, said it best: "No man ever listened himself out of a job." The workforce has expanded since Coolidge's time to include women as well, but the sentiment withstands the test of time.
Regardless of party affiliation, a listening-first mentality can cover many faults. With nuanced issues such as immigration and health care headlining many discussions, a willingness to listen to another person's viewpoint allows for a deeper understanding of the issues and more compassion for differing sides.
Don't force it
Sandra Spataro, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale University's School of Management, notes that political conversations should occur at an equal frequency to the amount of current casual conversations. In short, too much of a good thing is never a good thing.
"The amount of casual [political] conversation should be consistent with what that workplace has done traditionally," she wrote. "What you don't want to do is introduce 10 minutes for political talk when that has never happened before. It should be something that occurs naturally or doesn't happen at all."
Additionally, leaders should encourage employees to frame their political conversations as discussions rather than diatribes. Questions such as "what do you think of candidate XXX?" spur a more open dialogue than questions like "can you believe XX said that?" which can immediately create an "us against them" environment.
Openly discussing beliefs is a right many of us take for granted, and it's one of the founding principles of America. If done in a civil, gracious manner, and with clear knowledge of industry boundaries, political conversations can provide new ways of thinking and make space for empathy and understanding.
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A former political leader with social service experience and expertise in the nonprofit industry, AJ Griffin runs Paycom's government and community relations efforts, both on a local and national level. A former teacher and Oklahoma state senator with 20 years of experience working with and for kids and families in direct care service, Griffin earned a bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant administration from Oklahoma State University, and a master's degree in human environmental science from the University of Central Oklahoma. Griffin lives in Edmond with her husband and their two daughters.
See more posts by AJ Griffin | workers surveyed by the American Psychological Association in 2017 reported that workplace political banter was having some negative impact on them, adding stress to their days and decreasing their productivity.
With the proliferation of social media, a splashy 24-hour news cycle and an increasingly charged political climate, there's a high likelihood that such conversations will occur within company walls. Putting an end to all political discourse ( | 82 |
In 2018, organizations that run and maintain their own<|fim_middle|>, the company that wins the technological race in your industry will not be the first one to incorporate these new and exciting technologies – it will be one with the best and most stable infrastructure for supporting the long-term use of these technologies.
Looking for specific tools and frameworks that can generate these kinds of benefits in your office? Talk to a DME network management specialist today! | networks will become fewer and farther between than ever.
The motives are simple – managed network solutions generate value, decrease costs, and make life easier for organizations and enterprises that need to focus more on generating value than on maintaining a complex network.
Keeping pace with technological advances is becoming increasingly difficult, and actually implementing new tools in complex networks involves a great deal of risk. This is why organizations that operate their own networks typically fall behind those who subscribe to managed network services.
However, your organization can achieve the same – or even better – results by taking the same approach. Network management is a safe and easy way to comprehensively improve business processes across the board while fostering better and more reliable methods of communication.
Like any other product or service, not all managed network services are the same. There are numerous complex factors that go into even the simplest network solutions, so reliable assessment is key to truly deriving value from switching over.
But you can reasonably gauge the value a managed network provider can offer by looking at the technology it uses. 2018 is promising to be an exciting year in the world of networking technology, so include the following four goals when crafting your managed networking plan.
Enterprise businesses depend on a mixture of voice, video, customer care, web conferencing, and telepresence solutions to collaborate both internally and externally. All of these technologies rely on different hardware and software frameworks to operate. Employing your own experts in all of these technologies is not cost-efficient, but relying on a network service provider's in-house team of experts can be.
The future of cybersecurity is in predictive threat monitoring. As cybercriminals become increasingly clever and resourceful, simply encrypting and protecting data assets will not be enough. Even now, social engineering tactics undermine carefully laid cybersecurity plans with impunity every day. In order to truly benefit from a secure network, organizations will have to go on the offensive.
Predictive threat monitoring goes beyond simply looking for the tell-tale patterns of known cybercriminal processes and programs. Instead, these monitoring algorithms search network traffic for signs of bad behavior and continuously update a live security playbook, looking for suspicious activity that may not yet have been discovered or described.
The days of the large central mainframe are largely behind us. Today's infrastructure is now comprised of decentralized networks that combine physical workstations with cloud-based server architecture. This means data technicians have to do double duty – support legacy workloads while encouraging growing data management needs.
Network service providers mitigate risks and guarantee uptime by responding proactively to networking issues before they result in downtime. When compared to traditional break/fix IT solutions, proactivity is hugely beneficial. This approach lets you speed up digital transformation efforts, improve IT efficiency, and maximize the business impact of network processes.
Product life cycles are shrinking and competition is intensifying. Your company is not the only one looking to invest time and resources into high-profile game-changing technologies like Big Data and the Internet of Things. However, those innovations need capable network infrastructure to generate anything close to their true potential value.
Creating and maintaining that infrastructure requires ongoing dedication and highly experienced technical work. Ultimately | 620 |
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This month's Discussion Forum was held in Dublin's Temple Bar Hotel and involved three publicans who number among those who take a somewhat different approach to the licensed trade. Here, Noel Anderson of The Bridge 1859 & Grafton Lounge, Emmet Lynch of Lynch's of Tullamore and Aaron Groom of Oscar's in Smithfield & Christ Church discuss their take on the licensed trade with Drinks Industry Ireland's editor Pat Nolan.
Pat Nolan: As publicans you've a different way of doing business and it seems to be paying dividends. It's worthwhile looking at that. Maybe I'll start with you, Noel. To me you represent the most obvious case of it when you installed the tank of Pilsner Urquell at the side of the entrance to The Bridge 1859 that's filled by tanker once a week.
Noel Anderson: Before we opened The Bridge, I spent a week in New York and a week in London looking around at different stuff. I think that's important. People are looking for something different. It was my manager John who found the tank beer over in London.
So I went over and had a look. I'd worked with Richmond Marketing before so I thought that this was something completely different.
We were the first to bring it into Ireland and remained first for about a year.
I think craft beers are so important to people now and this was a different take on it. It gives customers an opportunity to taste the freshest beer: it's like tasting beer in the brewery and it's going down really well. We sell about a tank a week of it which equates to about 880 pints. The glassware and Point Of Sale around it are completely different. I suppose it's our Unique Selling Point.
PN: Is it acting as a draw for customers to come in?
NA: I think it is. At the start, it created a lot of interest. I think we had most publicans in Dublin coming in, having a nose at it. I didn't want to be seen as a one-trick pony, so I 'd come up with something different.
PN: Have you any other unusual items?
NA: We did our cocktail scene a little differently – maybe a bit too differently for some people. But we try as much as possible to come up with different things and you're always looking around. Yeah, we've a good cocktail guy and maybe he pushed the boundaries a little too far. Some of the feedback from the<|fim_middle|>itos – and now, all of a sudden, gin is a huge thing. In The Bridge we're selling a lot of gin" – Noel Anderson.
PN: Kevin Redmond in Andy's Bar & Restaurant in Monaghan tells me that they have no problem selling a premium G&T for €7 or €8 – and that's well out of Dublin. He says what's the point in having a premium spirit if you don't have a premium mixer to go with it?
NA: We have a gin and tonic cocktail; it's served in one of the big tumbler glasses. It has a wedge of coconut in it and grapefruit; it's completely different. It just shows you can create a cocktail out of a Gin & Tonic and it flies out the door.
AG: When we opened first, because of our location we were worried about doing drinks promotions. Because of the nature of the bar, it had had a rough kind of element to it. So when we did a promotion we did a €5 Gin & Tonic and we've continued it: it's very successful and hugely popular.
But where I see trends going, it's definitely casual dining. People want to go out mid-week. It's not a special occasion. People want good quality affordable food. When we opened up our second premises in Christ Church, we did a formal dining area upstairs and it just didn't work. We've changed it back to follow the trend of the first premises: very casual dining. That seems to be what people want. They don't want a formal diningroom, they don't want to be getting dressed-up to go out.
"In Christ Church we've had to adapt: certain elements of it didn't work and you have to make quick decisions to change. If you don't, you're dead in the water." – Aaron Groom. I'd recognise that trend….
PN: I'd recognise that trend….
NA: I'd agree with that big time.
PN: Noel, I'm going to give you an example and I'm going to ask you to advocate why people should go to a pub. My daughter – student over 21 – will get a bottle of vodka with her pals and they'll polish it off at someone's house before they head out. They'll go to the pub for one for appearances sake more than anything else. They'll go to the nightclub, they'll get one drink and they'll go back to somebody's house for another bottle of spirits. The on-trade is only getting one or two units out of all that and she's not alone here. Her question to me is: why would we go to a pub?
NA: We try to steer away from that particular market as much as possible. I suppose the pub is a great environment to go and meet people. It's still the Number One place for boy-meets-girl, a pub or a club.
I think you always get a bit of fun, a bit of craic, that you just can't get at home.
I still think that the Irish do pubs really well. I go off on stags or weekends away and I reflect back. Dublin would be a great city to visit compared with the experiences we have abroad. I think that what Dublin can offer in bars and restaurants is second to none. You can't beat the atmosphere in a Dublin pub.
"People want to go out mid-week. It's not a special occasion. People want good quality affordable food. When we opened up our second premises in Christ Church, we did a formal dining area upstairs and it just didn't work. We've changed it back to follow the trend of the first premises: very casual dining. That seems to be what people want. They don't want a formal dining room, they don't want to be getting dressed up to go out" – Aaron Groom.
People do like to go out but they expect a certain standard, so if they've got money in your pocket you have to deliver. I'm a big fan of the pub myself. Michael Wright was well-documented in saying that his place was a dance-floor for Tesco. There still is that element.
The young side of things – I'd run a mille. You'd see it with young people; they come up to the counter, two Diet Cokes and you give it 30 seconds and they're pulling a naggin out of their bag.
PN: You'd see that coming a mile off.
NA: I'd steer away from the young scene altogether.
"People do like to go out but they expect a certain standard, so if they've got money in your pocket you have to deliver. I'm a big fan of the pub myself"
EL: I still think it's a very relevant question. The hope is that these young drinkers will eventually migrate to the pub and will find that the pub has something to offer. So the question then is what kind of experience can we have for them – casual dining, premium spirits etc?
So when they get to the age of 25 and they've drunk all the vodka in the world, they'll discover that there's another drink that tastes slightly different. And trained staff will be able to talk to them about that drink and maybe they'll have three or four really nice drinks, understanding how these drinks are manufactured, by us serving them really well in nice surroundings in a really nice environment that has an appeal where it's worth parting with €50 to have that experience.
But you wonder will this drinker ever graduate to the next level of drinking? Will they see the benefit in the experience?
PN: … Rather than just getting hammered?
EL: That's our challenge as publicans, to make sure that the experience is relevant and that they're happy to pay for it.
AG: It's atmosphere, I think, it's a night out. People want to go out and I think they'll move to that. I think that when our customers come in they come in for the atmosphere, the entertainment, they're meeting people.
"The hope is that these young drinkers will eventually migrate to the pub and will find that the pub has something to offer. So the question then is what kind of experience can we have for them?".
NA: It's a cycle. You'd hope that at a certain point they'd break from that cycle and migrate back towards good pubs and restaurants. I think it does happen. It's nothing new that people when they're young they drink at home, but when they get a little older and wiser they go out on dates and nights out and stuff like that. They join work companies and they see the benefits of having a good night out in a pub.
AG: Certainly, as the economy changes, gets better, more people will go out.
PN: So where is the pub going next? What are you looking at and saying to yourself, "I've got to put money aside for this"?
NA: You've got to keep evolving or you'll be left behind. When I opened five years ago in the Grafton Lounge, I did a half-baked job, painted it myself and saved up and saved up and did the next job.
And finally I raised the money to do a really good job on The Bridge.
Since I opened up, Dawson Street is absolutely flying – you've got some really cool bars – you've got Harcourt Street.
The scene is evolving the whole time: if you don't keep up you'll absolutely be left behind.
Think of Sophie's in Harcourt Street. If you went to New York and saw something like that, you'd be blown away by it.
If you don't stay and keep re-investing, you can really be left behind.
EL: We've had our business in Tullamore for 45 years and there's guys who came in every day at tea-time. You were guaranteed a certain amount of business whether you put on music or had Pilates upstairs, you were still guaranteed a certain level of income. We still have people like that. But unfortunately those customers are literally dying: every year we lose five or six of these guys and that part of the business is getting smaller. And it's an exceptionally reliable part of the business so at tea-time every evening in Kilbride Street in Tullamore I know there's going to be about 15 guys there and they're going to drink three or four pints each. But that business – I can't really rely on that: I would say that in five or six years' time I might have none of that.
That's why we have diversified into the café area; we have another section of our bar which is a lot different. We have refurbished that in the vintage style that seems to be in vogue at the moment. And we have the room upstairs that we use for community events plus live entertainment, parties and all that.
The traditional business of the male customer who might visit the pub five or six times in a week and drink a certain number of pints – that's gone.
So you have to try and create an experience for the next generation of customers who might not visit as often and have a different requirement for what they expect from a pub – which is a range of products, an informed staff and very comfortable surroundings. Quality needs to be high – and food …
AG: For the fit-out of the bar, we have to constantly change. And we do change it quicker and quicker each time. Currently it's that 'retro-industrial' look but we'll have to change with the times as it comes. The cycle is getting shorter and shorter.
In drinks, we've seen a huge move to the craft beers, massive now compared to what it was. You can even see the big companies bringing in their own craft beer offerings – they're trying to go down that road with the craft beers.
Also with the liquors, the whiskeys and the gins, it seems to be that people are moving towards higher quality. With the craft beers, they're not drinking as much but they know what they want.
I suppose we have to change – like the coffee side of our business, we see it as a huge earner in the morning trade and it's just adapting to it.
In Christ Church we've had to adapt: certain elements of it didn't work and you have to make quick decisions to change. If you don't, you're dead in the water.
PN: Noel, you mentioned New York and London. Do you ever go over there with an eye to looking at what's coming next?
NA: That's what we did the last time when we were doing a job on The Bridge.
If you go away, your eyes are always open, you're looking at atmosphere and lighting and stuff and how they do things. If you can just pick up a little trick, it's key.
I think people should travel and look around them and see what's coming next. You don't have to copy something, just take some ideas and bring them back.
It's our job to excite the customers. You have to have something different to offer them and give them a reason to go to the pub. And you do that by going around and seeing what's happening. You'll be left behind if you don't.
EL: We've just completed our last renovation and I worked with a designer and I told him pretty much what I wanted.
To a large extent I was able to use what was current in Dublin and I did it the cheaper way! I went on the internet and looked at the top 20 bars in New York and in London. I worked from pictures and reviews, stuff like that. I took a lot of that material plus what was working in Dublin and put together a brief for the designer and I said, "I want to go down this 'vintage shabby chic' second-hand furniture look" which we've done and it's grand.
The only warning is that some of the second-hand furniture is so crap that you only get a few days out of it. You buy a chair for €20 and you think, "This is great, it didn't cost us much" but the chair is in a heap the next day. You have to be sure that the furniture will stand up to wear, that if someone sits on a table, it'll still be there!
So I did follow the trends in Dublin and then I looked to New York and London to see what was happening.
What I gathered was that the second-hand vintage look happened about three or four years ago in New York and it's happening here now. So it will be interesting to see what the next one will be.
NA: It's the same with the craft beer scene. The craft beers were huge in New York 10 years ago and everybody said it's coming and it did come with a bang.
A lot of the drinks companies didn't see it coming and they said it wouldn't happen. They're now reacting strongly to it.
That's the trick and they're playing it quite cleverly.
PN: Aaron, have you been influenced by New York or London?
AG: I did work in London but I did all the fit-out myself.
My business partner, Ronan, has worked in bars for all of his career. I've always been construction and structural engineering. I've done a number of bars over the years; the industrial-retro mid-20th Century furniture theme is definitely in fashion.
Having said that, before it was glass and shiny. If you had a break or a scuff on the floor you'd notice it. This new look is quite easy and forgiving. A scratch adds to it.
In terms of where it's going next, I'm not too sure. Certainly that industrial look, the steel windows with the putty, very much industrial feel at the moment, but as to where it goes next….
"They'll go to the nightclub, they'll get one drink and they'll go back to somebody's house for another bottle of spirits. The on-trade is only getting one or two units out of all that and she's not alone here. Her question to me is: why would we go to a pub?" – Pat Nolan.
Aaron Groom Emmet Lynch Lynch's of Tullamore Noel Anderson Oscar's Pat Nolan Temple Bar Hotel The Bridge 1859.Grafton Lounge
Closure Order on one pub in December
November Bar Sales volumes down 91% on 2019
Restaurant/Dining sector sees 28% drop in November...
AIR calls on European Commission to expand insurance...
Government must recognise decimation of pub trade | girls might be: don't change the wheel completely on it… So we pulled back a little on it.
PN: Some of the standard cocktails were a bit too different?
NA: There was some quite creative and innovative stuff but we'll probably pull back a little on it now and stretch the legs in a couple of years but the tank beer is going extremely well. When you walk in the door, it grabs you. It immediately creates a talking point. The idea was that as soon as they'd come in the door, we'd shock them with something.
PN: Emmet, what's your Unique Selling Point?
Emmet Lynch: It's probably more difficult in Tullamore to have a single Unique Selling Point. We have to package a lot of things together but we try to be a community pub as much as possible.
We've a function room upstairs and we offer it to the Chamber of Commerce or local residents' groups or we run Pilates classes from it. The drama group uses it and there's a rhymers' group using it too. We offer the space over the pub to whatever a community group wants.
We try to put ourselves in the heart of the community, to know what the community wants and hope that we gain business, parties and events from that. Apart from running Pilates in the pub we'd have a Medium and Clairvoyant now and again, so we'd have pretty random events upstairs and then downstairs we'd follow trends like selling premium spirits. Our cocktail list would probably be one of the better ones in town and we're following other trends like craft beers.
"We try to put ourselves in the heart of the community, to know what the community wants and hope that we gain business, parties and events from that" – Emmet Hughes.
PN: Did you also mention you'd put some money into your coffee section?
EL: Yes, just six weeks ago we converted a mini disco-bar into a café. So we designed it in a kind of vintage style. We've started doing food for the first time. We've been in business for 45 years and we started doing food about six weeks ago.
PN: Much more labour-intensive…
EL: A lot more labour-intensive. It's a business I'm just figuring out myself.
NA: You'll still be figuring it out in 20 years' time!
EL: The margins on the food seem low: the staff costs are ridiculously high and when you sit down to figure out where's the money in all of this…
NA: …There isn't any…
PN : But that's the draw-in, isn't it?
EL: What I've discovered since we opened is that we caught the end of the Six Nations and a few sporting events and certainly our Saturday day drink sales have increased dramatically.
People are coming in, couples or groups of four or six. They're having something to eat and then we're managing to hang on to them and sell pints or wine and they're staying to watch matches which previously didn't happen.
So I'm trying to console myself that the pay-off for all this – and all the hassle – is that I'm selling more drink.
NA: Yes there're a lot of misconceptions about food, that there's loads of money in food.
PN: Labour costs are astronomical and it's a thin margin. Aaron, you're in a very competitive part of town.
Aaron Groom: Our Unique Selling Point would be our opening hours. We run a café during the day so we'd be open from 7.30 in the morning. We don't serve drink until 2pm in the bar; the bar would be 60% food. We'd sell more coffee than we would draught beer. 30% of our coffee sales would be after six o'clock because we have a cinema next to us and we have about 500 apartments above us and strangely enough we would keep a Barista on right up to 9 pm. I suppose the coffee shop would be our unique side of things.
A lot of people come in during the day. We have the courts all around us and a lot of them wouldn't even know we're a pub in the evening and the evening crowd wouldn't know that we're a café during the day.
We also sell a lot of the craft beers.
Changing trends
PN: Going back to Noel, what trends have you seen in the last 12 months? Has there been a change?
NA: There has been a change. From the Grafton Lounge model I've learned a lot. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in the evening it's basically people going for a bite to eat and having a couple of drinks. Casual.
But we made The Bridge a lot more food-focused than the Grafton Lounge was. There's an awful lot of people who will go out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for a bite to eat and a couple of drinks and then home.
It's pretty well-documented that for the late-night scene, people are staying at home and going out later. That's the other trickier side of the town.
The Bridge is more of a pub than the Grafton Lounge: there are similarities but fundamentally they are a lot different.
PN: Are there different consumers in the Grafton Lounge wanting different things?
NA: The unique thing about the Grafton Lounge is that you go in there in the morning for breakfast at nine o'clock, then you go back and you're into lunch and then you're into an evening scene and after that into a night bar; it effectively evolves into a nightclub. And then if you come back in the morning you can get a Cappuccino and scrambled eggs. It goes full circle.
The Bridge doesn't have the late-night scene – I probably enjoy that end of it – it's a much easier operation to run.
PN: Emmet?
EL: The one trend that I've noticed is that there's certainly an interest in spirits – premium spirits and other spirits.
We've a large whiskey selection: we have 70 or 75 Irish whiskeys and customers are interested in talking about those spirits and tasting them. Going back to five or six years ago we had one vodka and one gin, a couple of whiskeys and that was about it. The customer wasn't that interested in the brand.
Now, with staff training, you can excite customers about particular brands, something that's slightly different, or a premium product as well. There's definitely an interest in that, more awareness.
PN: So I presume that there's more money in people's pockets if they're going for premium?
EL: Get something that people are interested in. They mightn't drink as many but you can start a conversation about whiskey and get someone to spend €7 or €8; they might not drink five or six of them, but they're interested in trying premium spirits, if you can start the conversation.
PN: Any other trends?
EL: We've started to sell a lot of coffee that we never sold before.
PN: That would go with your investment.
NA: Gin is becoming a huge thing now. It started off five years ago, when it was vodka and it turned to rum – an awful lot of Mojitos – and now, all of a sudden, gin is a huge thing. In The Bridge we're selling a lot of gin.
PN: What's the majority of it – G&T?
NA: Yes, even the tonics, the different tonics like the elderflower tonics. People are definitely changing it up and there's a couple of really good gins out there.
"Gin is becoming a huge thing now. It started off five years ago, when it was vodka and it turned to rum – an awful lot of Moj | 1,595 |
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PEP stood for "prize in every package<|fim_middle|> the box after extracting the pin. | ." It was Kellogg's answer to Wheaties, which would have mail in offers printed on the box (which usually required several boxtops along with a nickel or a dime).
Some famous American icons use to promote "Kellogg's Pep"
back in the 1920's and from the 1940's to 1950.."Superman"
promoted the cereal on the radio.
Sorry. I have no idea, but perhaps another Boomer will step in here...?
No. What I am referring to are the original Pep airplanes - printed on thin sheets of wood meant to be cut out and glued together as gliders (in The Day they flew great launched off the second floor back porch). I'd like to be able to duplicate some (or many) of these for my own (nostalgiac) entertainment.
Hi, Mild Bill. Do you mean like the balsa gliders in our Toys gallery? Try Googling "balsa wood model plane" and selecting "Images".
Where can I find images of the "thin wood sheet" model planes??
My dad's the one who suggested adding Pep to this gallery; he loved it.
I tried to get my dad to eat this cereal for the premiums but he wouldn't go for it. When I nagged, he got mad.
I was just the opposite. I preferred Pep to Wheaties, though generally I was a corn flakes or rice krispies eater. Back in the 40's they had Superman premiums.
I hated PEP, but I loved the premiums they put into their packages during and just after World War Two. During the war, the premiums were model fighter plane parts printed on thin sheets of balsa wood which you could punch out and assemble. And after the War, the prized premium were sets of small metal button pins, each one featuring a comics character. In fact, whenever I could scrape together 23 cents (!), I'd buy a box, then dump the cereal and | 410 |
A little off the beaten path, some quirky, psychedelic royalty free music lurks in the shadows, waiting to be brought to light in crazy, trippy projects. And that<|fim_middle|> off-beat nature. | happens to be the name of this week's production music pick of the week. This production music track boasts sitars, tablas, and ethnic and a hybrid trip-hop electronica undercurrent that will make your next multimedia production feel a little high.
While we'd probably classify this more as a world music track, the trance and electronica underpinnings make this a superb background track for any type of project needing an ethnic flair. We could see Trippy used as a sound bed for video games, or establishing shots, even as an eerie theme or film underscore. According to the composer, the track was inspired by The Beatles track Within You, Without You and Tomorrow Never Knows.
Trippy is track ID 384563, and for our video showcase, we've combined it with stock footage clip ID 300554 of a nice kaleidoscope effect to enhance it's | 185 |
Handkerchief, hanky, kerchief, pocket square, handkercher, tomayto, tomarto...whatever you call that square piece of fabric you blow your nozzle on, did you know that the handkerchief can be dated as far back as the Romans, when it was used for signalling the start to chariot races and according to research done by Handkerchief Heroes (I love that name!), some<|fim_middle|> and patterns. This tutorial by Liberty's on different methods for folding your hanky is particular good to get that perfect suit look!
All interesting stuff hey? I've actually found a whole heap of history on the kerchief, so rather than overwhelming you, I will share part 2 next week. And well, it would be remiss of me not to say that I'm actually flippin' proud to be keeping the tradition of handmade hankies alive and kicking in my Etsy and NOTHS shops.
Are you a hanky person? Do you have different hankies for different ocassions? I'd love to hear what you think about the good 'ol handkerchief! | historians state that it can be traced back as far the Chou dynasty. That's 1000BC folks! Apparently, it was used then to shield a person's head from the roasting sunshine! Now I can't help but get an image of grandads at the beach wearing white vests and hankies on their heads, knotted in the corners and also, a slight stretch admittedly but this sketch by Monty Python of hanky wearing on the head comes to mind and is just brilliant!
Hankies have certainly featured in Shakespeare's time (Othello, Cymbeline, As You Like It) and in the 16th century they started to come out of the dark and feature as fashion accessory. According to Fashion Encyclopedia, "King Louis XVI of France (1754–1793), made it a law that all handkerchiefs must be square, and they have remained square ever since"! What a strange thing to impose but hey how often do you see a round hanky? Maybe I should start selling them or would the french royality have something to say about that. Hmm, don't fancy having my head chopped off!
Since then, the handkerchief very much became part of men's fashion being carefully folded and tucked into the left breast pocket of suits and available in a whole range of fabrics, colours | 279 |
Frank, an 82 year old man comes to the emergency room after a fall. He has multiple injuries, with bruises on both sides of his face and a hip fracture. What happens next, including the questions his doctor asks, the physical examination, and the types of images and laboratory tests done, can be critical for Frank, and all elder abuse victims.
Each year, many older adults come to an Emergency Department (ED) with injuries purported<|fim_middle|> yet they rarely work alone. Hospital social workers and geriatricians often consult in the ED and work closely with this care team. Working to strengthen relationships with these hospital providers will increase access and coordination with the ED as well as benefit victims who are identified later in a hospital stay.
Strengthening relationships among emergency medicine providers and elder justice professionals can allow providers to better serve victims. Are there other ways that you think partnerships can be built? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. | ly related to a fall or other accidents. However, we know that many of these injuries are the result of elder abuse and neglect. This ED visit presents a key opportunity to detect elder abuse, collect evidence, make a report authorities, and initiate appropriate interventions, yet emergency physicians receive little elder abuse training and have few tools to assist them in detecting abuse.
Identifying elder abuse victims in a busy ED can be very challenging. Older adults commonly come into an ED with injuries from falls or other accidents, and it is difficult to distinguish whether an injury was caused intentionally or accidentally. Older adults and/or their caregivers may not be truthful about the circumstances surrounding their injury. Though suspicious injury patterns (such as bucket handle metaphyseal fractures and retinal hemorrhages) exist to assist ED physicians in identifying child abuse, no analogous patterns have been described for older adults.
The ED visit provides time where a victim can be interviewed alone and can be safely observed interacting with loved ones. It also provides a time where providers can collect evidence and develop plans for patient safety and care.
ED physicians routinely provide care for victims of violent crimes, including intimate partner abuse, and there are protocols in place to ensure the safety of the victim, staff members, and visitors. In addition, the physical layout and the providers' familiarity and comfort with these challenging situations makes the ED an ideal location for assessment of elder abuse potential abuse.
ED providers, who typically evaluate a patient soon after an injury, may also document critical information which is difficult to gain after admission. This includes photographing injuries and clothing, performing laboratory tests to indicate dehydration and malnourishment, assessing mental status and decision-making capacity before medical interventions, and interviewing emergency medical service providers who have visited the patient's home.
ED providers may also ensure that an elder abuse victim is, at least temporarily, removed from an abusive environment through a hospital admission. This admission gives in-hospital providers, including social workers, the opportunity to investigate the case in greater detail and identify appropriate interventions to ensure future safety. Hospital admission may also provide respite for an overwhelmed caregiver.
Despite a potentially significant role for emergency physicians in elder abuse detection and intervention, there is currently little contact between ED providers and elder justice professionals.
Emergency department physicians at Weill Cornell Medical College are trying to change that. In collaboration with colleagues 1, Tony Rosen, a fellow in the Geriatric Emergency Medicine program, and a recipient of a GEMSSTAR National Institutes of Health/ National Institutes on Aging grant are working to connect elder justice and emergency medicine. The team's work focuses on providing physicians with the tools they need to distinguish elder abuse from accidental falls. They are conducting an elder abuse case-control study in partnership with a large urban district attorney's office to help elucidate injury patterns in physical elder abuse.
There are many ways that elder justice professionals can work with emergency physicians to improve the detection of and response to elder abuse.
1. Educate ED providers about how to effectively document a patient encounter where elder abuse is suspected: District Attorneys' offices and other programs may give ED providers details about appropriate information that should be collected. Often, providers want to be helpful but don't know what information is useful for prosecutors or other professionals.
2. Provide training about elder abuse and invite ED providers to MDTs: Elder justice professionals can work with their local hospitals, medical schools, law enforcement, and other victim services groups to provide training for providers working in emergency settings, including emergency medical services. Another great educational opportunity for providers would be to attend an MDT as part of their regular training programs or in response to a case in which they are involved. MDTs can provide physicians and other medical providers with a better understanding of elder abuse complexities and how they can assist in the response. This may be particularly helpful for emergency medicine residents, who are at the beginning of their careers.
3. Reach out to ED leadership to coordinate reporting and response: Professionals can work with the ED leadership (head of the department, head of nursing, etc.) to identify the best ways to communicate with physicians and other providers about abuse victims. Given that ED physicians do not work 9 to 5 business hours and typically see patients only once, professionals should work with the leadership to determine the best way to partner. This could be expedited by encouraging geriatrician Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) members to contact their colleagues in emergency medicine to build relationships.
4. Strengthen relationships with hospital social workers and geriatricians: ED providers are the first care team a patient sees, | 916 |
Eldritch Arts - Gaming Accessories
Dice & Pencil Box - Grand Ranger - RPG, Dungeons and Dragons, DnD, Pathfinder, Role Playing and Gaming Accessories by Eldritch Arts
Style A - (Dice & Pencil) B - (Dice & Mini)
Quantity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Eldritch Arts presents - Grand Ranger - Dice and Pencil Box:
Graduating from our Special Projects Section to our regular lineup, we are pleased to offer a new, larger sized combination dice and pencil box.
Dice slots are felt lined on the bottom and top and the powerful magnets keep the lid safely in place during transport. Keep pencils, pens, dice, & tokens ready to travel at all times!
Measures roughly 9.25"L x 2.5" W x 1.25"H
Made of Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry)
Made in Pacific Northwest USA by Eldritch Arts
Why Jatoba? We chose to use Jatoba due to it's strength, wear resistance and beautiful gold and reddish hue. Also known as Brazilian Cherry, it is often used for applications requiring extreme wear resistance - ranking over 2600 on the Janka Hardness Scale (nearly twice the hardness of oak). Over time with exposure to light, Jatoba will darken and take on a rich reddish hue. We felt that the durability and beauty of the wood naturally lent itself to use for our boxes and helped to ensure they would last for a lifetime – or longer!
*Please note: due to the natural variations in wood color, grain & detail, items may vary slightly from the picture. We also try to preserve the natural features of the wood (knots, worm holes, etc) as long as they do not hamper the integrity of the design & structure.
*Dice and pencils not included.
***Safety Warning*** These products contain small magnets. Keep magnets away from small children as they pose a serious choking risk and possible injury to internal organs if swallowed. Seek immediate medical attention if<|fim_middle|>I bought this dice box to commemorate my brother's first D&D campaign. I selected the Ranger design for the front and had his character's name engraved on the back. The engravings were wonderfully sharp and detailed, and look just as good, if not better in real life than they do in the images. The rare Earth magnets hold the box together very well. Their grip is surprisingly strong, actually. Inside are two felt-lined slots that can hold two whole sets of polyhedral dice if you like (or extra d6's if you're a rogue or a spellcaster who loves Fireballs), as well as a dedicated foam-lined section for a miniature. Everything about this piece says quality. You won't be disappointed.
atproductions85
© 2023 Eldritch Arts - Gaming Accessories | any magnets have been swallowed or inhaled. Recommended for ages 9 and up.
Europe : 3 - 6 weeks
Australia, New Zealand and Oceania : 3 - 8 weeks
Asia Pacific : 3 - 8 weeks
Latin America and the Caribbean : 3 - 8 weeks
Reckless Royalty
The top engraving was a little bit off-center, but otherwise perfect. Would totally recommend.
northprairierising
| 96 |
At the University of Louisville, great strides are being made in the development of a bioficial heart.
This article was originally published on MedicalDesign.com in September 2014.
Stuart Williams, PhD, came from a family entrenched in medical science and technology. His father was a chemist and he became a vascular biologist, with a PhD in biology and chemistry. He got his first incentive to go into medical grafts when his father needed a bypass graft and he saw that what the medical world was using in this area was either some type of plastic or metal. That got him interested in finding out what it would take to create hybrid devices that were both standard materials but integrated with actual living cells so they would integrate better into the human body and work longer and better.
"I did my PhD at the University of Delaware, and my postdoctoral studies in cardio-vascular pathology at the Yale School of Medicine. Then I went to Philadelphia and went to Jefferson Medical College. That's where, with colleagues, we started putting devices together where cells were a big part of those devices. We worked on vascular grafts and we are still working on these devices," said Williams.
Along the way, he got involved with multiple facets, balancing his life between Federal grants from NIH/NSF and the Department of Defense and working with companies, helping to develop new technologies, including surface modification.
Additive manufacturing is a way of creating devices using layer-by-layer construction. At the University of Arizona biomaterials department, Williams had an appointment in material sciences where a number of people were working on additive manufacturing. "They still had never thought about extruding actual cells to use in this, however," said Williams.
Then fate stepped in and he got a call from someone in DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). They wanted to put a team together to build an instrument that would print human tissue in the additive manufacturing picture.
"I told them I was already working on this, so it sounded like a perfect fit. That was my introduction to true bioprinting. I have maintained that interest ever since then." The first project was to print a lymph node, using a three-dimensional printer.
When he heard that the University of Louisville was working on an artificial heart to really attack cardiovascular disease with a more biological approach, it fit in very well with his work. He joined the university and the first thing he discovered was that they needed a better robotic system to print all these tissues.
They built the robot. It's computer driven and, according to Williams, it has some of the best software to take medical images such as MRIs, CTs, and ultrasound, put them into the computer and then instruct the printer, which is actually an assembly robot, to begin to print out all types of different organ and tissue structures.
"It is multiple generations beyond the simple 3-D model printer that extrudes plastic that is then solidified into a model of something. This does a very similar thing but with a few major components added to it. One, it can print materials that are living and maintain their viability. Also, if you print the old 3-D way, layer by layer by layer, and you want to come back and print a new layer underneath a layer, or in conjunction with a new layer–it won<|fim_middle|> conductive and valve area, so we will surely borrow from each other as some find more success. There are some groups forging ahead beautifully with the circulation system and valves. We will borrow from their success to build the perfect valves and then use our robot to put that valve into the heart," said Williams.
At this time, the bioficial heart is Williams' major target. But, he is also looking toward creating a bioficial pancreas--a way of making a viable tissue that will recognize glucose-produced insulin that can be re-implanted into patients for both type one and type two diabetes.
But that is the future. Right now, the bioficial heart is his first goal. That project will be ongoing for quite a few years. And every advancement made will add to the future of other areas where bioprinting will help develop new breakthroughs in medical technology. Dr. Stuart Williams will be there, hands-on in all areas. | 't let you do that," Williams explained. "Our robot actually has the ability to come back and print another layer on top of, or on the bottom of the sensory layer. It is another level of assembly and 3-D printing.
To create these hybrid models, methods of surface modification had to be developed to get cells to adhere to surfaces that are not organic, and also to keep cells from sticking to surfaces they were not supposed to adhere to. Williams explained that the cell biology world uses very simplistic glues to hold things in place. The No. 1 glue is collagen.
"Maintaining cell viability has been a big part of my career for a long time," he said. "How to develop instruments that can go into an operating room and allow a surgical team to take that tissue and isolate cells that are viable is key. The instruments need to be able to measure the viability of the cells to ensure that they are viable before they are put back into the patient.
There is another level to the whole project, though. Although Williams and his colleagues can print layer-by-layer cellular structures, without a vascular supply, once the organ being printed gets beyond half a millimeter in depth, there is a loss of oxygen or nutrients to the center of that material.
Williams and his team are currently developing structures that are "pre-vascularized" so the blood flows at the lowest vascular level to keep these cells alive. They have developed a way to use the 3D printing to print capillaries, the smallest blood vessels, so they are able to make very viable structures, particularly the ventricular walls of the heart, with the vascular supply built into it.
Williams boldly said that he believes they are farther ahead of any other group. "We are at the stage of doing implantation of pre-clinical models and are currently planning human clinical trials of pre-vascularized structures for a patch for the human heart. We are not that far away. This would be used on a part of the heart that had very poor or damaged vascular flow for whatever reason, where a bypass graft or a stent will not solve the problem. You have to get to the level of the smallest blood vessels. Using bioprinting to do this is still several years in the future.
To build the entire heart requires separating all the components first and building each one separately. Williams and his team have separated the heart into five parts: the small blood vessels, the large vessels, the valves, the contractile cells, and the electrical conduction system.
"As far as an organ, the heart is relatively simple," said Williams. "It only has five parts to it. The brain, for instance, is probably the most complex human system. Just the electrical transmission system is extremely complex. In the heart, the electrical system has a specific pathway, easily mapped out.
Williams explained that a "normal" heart runs into all types of different problems. One example is that there is only one major artery that feeds a major part of the heart, the left side of the heart. He said that is called that the "widow maker" because when this vessel fails, the patient is at risk of sudden death.
"My concept was, why not start with a new model and build a heart that has redundancy built in? Maybe we can build valves that will last much longer--and again, while the majority of hearts work quite well for 80-plus years--not a bad track record for anything to last--not all do. Some hearts give out quite young. Some have weak spots. It is an amazing organ, but it is not a perfect organ," noted Williams.
"Why not give these patients a new heart that has all metabolic defects of their original heart corrected? If a patient has a problem with LDL transport leading to arterial sclerosis at a very early age, we have an ability to correct that medically. The cells that we use to make the new coronary artery system would be resistant to the arterial sclerosis as it is built in.
Right now the team is currently focusing on the small blood vessels, the large blood vessels, and putting a significant amount of effort into the muscle cells.
"We are also working on printing of the heart valve system. How do you incorporate an electrically conductive system into the heart? But we are not as far along in that area yet. Many others are working on the | 884 |
A tableau of ingredients: sweet potato, russet potato, parsnip, ginger, flour, onion, egg and fennel seed.
When making latkes, the key is to get everything measured and ready before you grate.
This may look like a lot of flour, but it's just right.
The parsnip and sweet potato get peeled, but the Russets just get a good scrub.
Use the coarse side of a box grater, or your food processor's grating attachment.
Merrill found that parsnips are a bit tougher to grate than potatoes.
When you grate the onion, make sure to keep your face away from the bowl -- you don't want any stray onion juice in your eye!
The russets go last, as they are quickest to brown.
Amanda takes over for a bit.
In go the fennel, salt, black pepper and fresh ginger (also grated, but on a microplane).
After a few minutes, the vegetables release a lot of their liquid, and it's time to squeeze! Four hands are better than two for this job.
First egg, and then flour are folded into the potato mixture.
Sagegreen calls for peanut oil or another oil with a high smoking point; we used canola.
A few minutes on each side, and the pancakes should be golden brown.
Hand grate the sweet potato, onion, and parsnip using the large holes into a large bowl first. I think hand grating is the only way to go for these.
Wash and scrub the russet potatoes very well, leaving the skins on. Remove any imperfections. Grate these last into the bowl with the other vegetables. Add the salt, pepper, fennel, and ginger. Let rest a few minutes.
Using a colander (or cheesecloth if you prefer) wring all the excess moisture from the mix. Repeat, then return to the bowl. You can also squeeze handfuls of the mix in your hands to help.
Mix in the beaten eggs and flour.
Generously coat the bottom of a heavy pan with peanut oil (or other suitable oil). The<|fim_middle|> a classic to savor.
I also made these. They ARE really delicious. You can also decrease the amount of ginger you use.
I made these with the sweet and spicy horseradish sauce, http://www.food52.com/recipes/3544_sweet_and_spicy_horseradish_dressing, and they were a smash hit! Soo good Sagegreen!
And Thanks food52 for a great food site!
Thanks so much flavorfarm. What a great combination you made with the horseradish recipe. I will have to try that out, too.
Cool video!!!! Reminded me I need to make these again. So nice to see you!
Yes, thanks, Micki. It has been fun to get know you better through this site, too. I remember first falling in love with your snowflake plum soup that is so beautiful. Have enjoyed our email as well. Happy Holidays!
Thanks, adamsvetcooking! Good luck to you with the end of the term, too. Busy time!
Congrats on the win, Sagegreen. I love this recipe. I think next year I will use your ingredients with my food processor method for my latkes. In fact, I might not wait for next Hanukkah to give them a try.
Thanks, ChefJune. I have never tried using a food processor for latkes. Please let me know how it works out if you do. Actually, I do not even have a food processor, only a blender!
hahah! and I don't have a blender! The food processor grater makes the shreds long and lacy. A blender would liquefy them.
LOL. That's why I stick to the old fashioned box grater!
Thanks, vvvanessa! Love your mint limeade.
Congrats Sagegreen! I am so happy for you!
Thanks, ashley_samuel_pierson. Cooking is a such stress reliever for me, too!
Wow! I am so incredibly honored with this award. And the fact that this is the last night of Hanukkah, with all 8 candles, makes this a blessing! As my very dear Jewish friends are pointing out, this isn't bad for someone who isn't even Jewish! I have just finished teaching my last class of the term tonight. What a wonderful finish. I am so grateful to everyone for all your good wishes.
Congratulations, Sagegreen, how sweet it is, and thanks for sharing so many of your great recipe ideas!
Thanks, lapadia....pretty soon it will be time to come back to earth.
Congrats sagegreen!!! I'm sooo happy for you! You're such a wonderfully creative addition to this site and I love seeing and trying all that you come up with!! Love this one!
Congratulations, I knew you had a winner the first time I saw this recipe. I will put it on my list of things to make that is growing longer and longer by the week. I just love this site!
Thanks. This site is so easy to love, too!
Thanks, TiggyBee. I am almost giddy with excitement. | oil need not be deeper than 1/8 inch, if even that. If you prefer thicker latkes, then you might have up to1/4 inch oil. Heat to medium high until a drop of liquid would sizzle in the pan.
Working in small batches ladle the mix to the heated pan to form 5-7 latkes with about a 3 inch diameter and about a 1/4 inch thickness after pressing down gently on the mix with a spatula. Fry each one on one side until golden brown, then flip and cook the other side until golden. Try to keep the depth of oil as low as possible, but make sure the vegetables cook through- soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside. Drain on paper towels. You should have 15-20 latkes from this recipe.
Serve warm with generous dollops of sour cream and preferably homemade heirloom applesauce.
Your Best Potato Pancakes Contest Winner!
I have made this recipe a number of times and keep coming back to it, delicious! I love sneaking in different forms of veggies and I love the ginger. I don't really understand the traditionalist comments - this is clearly a variation and a great one at that! The only edits I make are food processor shredding (with an attachment top on mine..) of the veggies because I'm lazy and it works great. I also sub GF flour blend for the flour with great results! Thank you for sharing @sagegreen!
Thanks so much. It's the perfect time to make these, too!
I'm going to try these tomorrow for Thanksgivikkah, but my MIL is gluten free. Any thoughts/has anybody tried making these with a gluten free flour substitute? Anything I should keep in mind? Anything else I need to add to replace all the gluteny goodness?
Hi! I always sub a gluten free flour blend when making this and get great results!
We enjoy trying different kinds of latkes so I decided to give these a try. Honestly, they were ok but I won't be making them again. One person felt they were an Indian food inspired latkes. I love ginger but I discovered not in my latkes. I guess I'm a traditionalist because my favorite continues to be the latkes I grew up with - Kyeftes de Prasa (leek/potato latkes) - I'm of Sephardic heritage. Thanks for something new to try!
Thanks for giving this a go. Your leek and potato combination do sound classic.
I made these last night for Hanukkah and they were a big hit! Thank you.
So glad you liked them. Thanks for sharing!
Opps. I wanted to add Hanukkah as a category for this recipe, but guess it needs to be done by the editors now.
Since it's a winning recipe you can't edit it, even to add tags. I'm sure if you e-mail the editors they would gladly add Hanukkah as a tag!
Ginger with latkes? What happened to authentic taste?
mboerner, you need to try these, because they're really delicious! I've made them a few times and they never disappoint.
Scroll down to see Sagegreen make this recipe on a cooking show filmed in her local area.
Thanks, folks! You know if you didn't want the ginger, you could simply leave that out, or use less, as Bevi suggests. But I happen to like results of the blend of vegetables and spices in this recipe and am really happy others have too! Of course, an authentic basic latke recipe is | 735 |
By Pamela Hale-Burns | pam.hale@presstelegram.com |
PUBLISHED: November 10, 2011 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: September 1, 2017 at 4:57 a.m.
LONG BEACH – U.S. veterans have fought for the freedoms Americans enjoy, and many have paid the ultimate price.
Still others have returned home with serious medical needs.
That's where the VA Long Beach Healthcare System comes in.
"Here, we are more than just a hospital, we<|fim_middle|>99-1476
For more information on the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, call 562-826-8000 or 888-769-8387 or visit www.longbeach.va.gov. The hospital is located at 5901 E. Seventh St., Long Beach.
Pamela Hale-Burns | treat the whole person," said Director of Public and Community Affairs at VA Long Beach, Richard Beam.
Some service members travel long distances for the hospital's services, such as physical therapy and vocational rehabilitation.
"Health care is everything that makes us us," Beam said.
The VA is also committed to providing veterans with the most effective mental health care services available, Beam said.
In recent years, the Veterans Affairs Department has increased its mental health staff, tailored its treatments to meet the needs of the veteran and expanded access to care.
Services such as job training, driver training, educational assistance, disability compensation, home loan help and resources for homeless veterans are just a few services available at the VA.
"We work to improve the quality of life for the veteran," Beam said. "It's not just about broken bones. These are, many times, broken people, and we try to cover everything to make the person whole."
Thomas Lasser, a Vietnam War veteran, retired Army pilot and lieutenant colonel and two-time Purple Heart recipient, can attest to the "great" services provided at the VA Long Beach.
Lasser sustained a back injury when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam and he suffered some hearing loss.
When he went to join the VA Hospital, he was impressed by the hospital's many services, he said.
"When I went to enroll they treated me like a VIP. I've had some medical issues and they take care of me," he said.
Lasser retired after 40 years of military service, seven of which were on active duty with the Army and 33 years with the California National Guard.
"They do great things at Long Beach and I'm so glad that I enrolled in the VA, first because of the fact that I earned it, and they are good to me," Lasser said. "The VA at Long Beach is clean, organized and there is more stuff going on there."
Recent improvements on the hospital campus include the Blind Rehabilitation Center, which will provide inpatient and outpatient care to support blind and low-vision veterans and active-duty service members when it opens in early January. The center will help blind veterans regain their independence and quality of life to enable their successful integration into family and community life, Beam said.
"Anything we can do to get veterans well, we will do it," Beam said. "As long as we have the money, the space, someone to teach and someone to learn, we will do it."
pam.hale@presstelegram.com, 562-4 | 511 |
Avery Dennison's Intelligent Label Technology is changing the Retail Game at NRF Expo
Avery Dennison Corporation, a global leader in materials science and manufacturing specializing in the design and manufacture of a wide variety of labeling and functional materials, will showcase how its RFID applications play an integral role in enabling a fully omnichannel experience at the 2018 National Retail Federation's (NRF) Annual Convention and Expo. Building on its expertise in digital solutions<|fim_middle|> complete food safety and intelligent labeling solution for the food industry through temperature-tracking, RFID inventory visibility and automated food labeling for ingredient prep and prepared foods. | for the retail industry, the company will also launch its Dynamic Window Display Advertising System at the event.
Avery Dennison will host an Exhibitor Insights discussion with performance brand adidas and multi-brand retailer Sonae about how RFID is changing the game in retail, and will present some of its latest innovations in RFID solutions, designer partnerships, and more.
"As innovators in intelligent labeling technology, we are leveraging our key learnings in the apparel industry to make advancements in other categories, such as food and beauty retail, where we see great opportunities for RFID," said Francisco Melo, vice president and general manager, Global RFID, Avery Dennison. "Implementing RFID contributes to better inventory accuracy, more transparency in the supply chain and greater loss visibility, all of which ultimately leads to an enhanced consumer experience."
Panel Discussion: Changing the Game with RFID
Avery Dennison hosted the Exhibitor Big Ideas panel discussion at the Javits Convention Center. The panel, "Changing the Game with RFID," explored the increasingly critical role of RFID in retailers' digital strategies in this rapidly changing marketplace. Francisco Melo, vice president and general manager, Global RFID, Avery Dennison, moderated the panel.
Through its intelligent labeling solutions, Avery Dennison connects the physical and digital worlds, providing tangible benefits for retailers in supply chain management and improving the consumer experience. The company will present its latest solutions at NRF's EXPO through "Changing the Game with Intelligent Labeling Solutions," which provides a compelling view of how RFID is used across retail verticals, as well as the company's vision for the future, including:
Avery Dennison's new FLOW campaign supports omnichannel retailers in their quest to meet consumer expectations for a frictionless experience. By using intelligent label technology within a digital emotional intelligence (DEQ) framework, retailers can create "bridges" between touchpoints, platforms, devices, and apps to predict and seek to nurture consumer shopping behavior, increase consumer loyalty, and improve the consumer experience. A collaboration with Mishi Pay will demonstrate how products with a unique digital identity can enable mobile checkout in-store to create a truly frictionless shopping experience.
Designer Partnerships
Avery Dennison's latest designer partnership for its Janela Smart Products Platform, the #AlwaysOn handbags from Rebecca Minkoff, will be demonstrated at the booth. With this technology, the designer's customers are able to interactively engage with their handbags through a QR code to access personalized content, special offers, recommendations and other loyalty rewards, creating conversations at levels that encourage repeated interaction.
Dynamic Display Window Advertising System
Avery Dennison will launch its Dynamic Display Window Advertising System, the turnkey digital advertising solution based on technology developed by Gauzy, a leading provider of liquid-crystal-based materials, films, applications and solutions, with software provided by YCD Multimedia, a leading global provider of advanced digital signage software solutions.This innovative window film technology enables retailers to turn display windows into digital advertising screens by projecting campaigns, promotional offers and brand content to engage and enhance the consumer experience.
RFID has been proven to increase inventory accuracy to 99%+ and reduce waste by around 20% across the food industry, improving safety due to increased visibility of use-by dates. To deliver a true end-to-end solution for the food industry, Avery Dennison will launch its first microwave safe UHF RFID inlay. Designed specifically for the food industry, the UHF RFID inlay avoids arcing or excessive heating when used as recommended if subjected to a microwave environment, ensuring food safety and compliance. In addition, the company's Freshmarx solutions offer a | 730 |
A multitude of Pascal based processors has been released, among them the GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti. All models honestly are equally impressive within their product positioning and segment. With QHD gaming (a screen resolution of 2560x1440 pixels) I've always felt the GeForce GTX 1070 always has been the more attractive product due to its price level, while the 1080 cards are really what everybody wants (but perhaps cannot or will not afford). The good news though is that Nvidia has designed a product series that will fit smack down in the middle of these two, at what we hope will turn out to be an attractive enough price. Nvidia has enabled this new 1070 Ti GPU with 2,432 Shader processor cores (also referred to as Cuda and Stream processor cores). That number quite honestly means it's very close to the GeForce GTX 1080. However, Nvidia has "limited" the product series two ways. First off, the 1070 Ti will use "regular" GDDR5 memory and not the all newer and snazzy GDDR5X type of graphics memory. Secondly, to prevent the 1070 Ti series to cannibalize the 1080 products, the cards all get a fixed clock frequency, and that means an equal clock frequency for all board partners. Now that doesn't mean you cannot tweak these cards yourself, contrary they tweak really well into the familiar 2 GHz domain on the dynamic boost clock to bring in that bit of extra gaming value. However, AIB partner cards, no matter what model you purchase, will get the same clock frequencies at a 1,607 MHz base clock with a 1,683 MHz dynamic boost clock.
A fixed base-clock doesn't mean it's a little beast though, contrary, as for Nvidia to enforce this measure means there's plenty of pixel horsepower under the hood. In fact, so much they had to temper it. However it remains to be a product series sitting in an already saturated product series from Nvidia, and that will pose some issues as little is new for its performance bracket and features. So how different is the GeForce 1070 Ti compared to it's bigger brother the GeForce GTX 1080? Well, the GTX 1080 GPU (GP104-400) has 20 Shader clusters. The GTX 1070 Ti (GP104-300) has 19 Shader clusters enabled, that's a total of 2,432 Shader processors and only 128 shader processors lower than that<|fim_middle|>5 / 8000 MHz effective data-rate on the memory. By using their proprietary tweak software you can, however, have a default OC, but that requires the software to be active at all times. We'll test the default way, the way the card is clocked straight out of the box. We have enough to talk about and to show, let's dive into the review, shall we? | of the GeForce GTX 1080. The clock speeds of the GTX 1070 Ti are higher than the GTX 1070 but fairly similar to the GeForce GTX 1080 at 1,607 MHz and a 1,683 MHz GPU Boost with 8.00 GHz (GDDR5 data-rate effective) memory clock. The TDP is 180W, also similar to the GTX 1080 and all these facts combined means we have a product in the 8 TFLOPS perf range here, and that is substantial.
The STRIX series has a triple-slot design with a triple-fan cooling solution. Embedded as well as a funky LED lighting system, everything about this product states 'premium' really. Up-to 60 Degrees C the card will even stay in passive mode, e.g. the fans will not spin. The GTX 1070 Ti STRIX comes with just one 8-pin power connector. At the backside, you'll spot a nice matte black solid backplate with RIG themed logo. The ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Ti STRIX 8G is capable of clock frequencies of 1,607 MHz base clock with a 1,683 MHz dynamic boost clock with 8,192 MB GDDR | 282 |
Nuremburg, Germany and Shenzhen, China, 27th February 2019 – Giada, the number one media player brand in the German-speaking region in 2018, showcased the star products of its semi-out<|fim_middle|> connecting to the cloud or local network is quick and easy.
As e-commerce is booming these years, people rely more and more on online shopping. Consequently, an increasing number of intelligent express delivery cabinets are installed in neighborhoods. Many of these cabinets are placed in semi-outdoor environments. AP23, a Pico-sized industrial control board which powers the ISC-261, is an ideal choice for smart express cabinets solutions.
The new 100mm x 72mm motherboards, which include two models: the AP23-E3930 and AP23-N3350, offer ideal indoor and outdoor support for industrial, retail and digital signage solutions. Especially notable is the AP23-E3930, which can operate under an extremely wide operating temperature range of -20° C to 60° C (approximately -4° F to 140° F), with appropriate airflow.
Giada, which is focusing on new retail, industrial automation, smart education, and health-care enterprises and public services, will release more industrial computing products in 2019, including IBC361 and IBC381. IBC361, a 3.5-inch industrial control board, adopts Intel® Celeron J1900 / Intel® Atom E3825 / E3845 processors. The release of these products will enable Giada to provide more solutions for industrial automation applications. | door series, including the ISC-261, AE67 and AP23, at Booth 2-638 during Embedded World 2019 in Nuremberg.
Embedded World, the leading international fair for embedded systems, attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors from 52 countries and more than 32,000 trade visitors from 77 countries.
Today in manufacturing and production, linking information across all corporate levels increases the demands placed on computing power. As the industry automation develops, industrial PCs for process control and/or data acquisition are in larger demand. Giada has developed its industrial PCs series, which can work for a long time in demanding environments. These compact solutions can offer customers high performance in a small space. They are rugged and designed for an extended temperature range, allowing them to be installed directly in the control cabinet – the ideal solution for process and machine-level data processing or visualization.
Kiosks are a key element in the digital transformation of merchants and manufacturing. People are increasing accustomed using kiosks while shopping, communicating, receiving financial service and operating machines. Many of these kiosks are in outdoor or semi-outdoor environments, where they may have to withstand extreme temperatures. To better support these kiosks in outdoor or semi-out door applications, Giada has made great efforts to design new industrial PC and pico boards which combine extended temperature tolerance, high performance and a rich variety of I/O ports.
Meanwhile, industrial PCs and motherboards are being adopted in more commercial applications, such as control panels with displays in elevators showing various advertisements. Giada's semi-industrial players with their slim, fanless design can support such applications well.
ISC-261, a newly-released industrial control PC, is a sturdy option for demanding retail digital signage – both outdoor and semi-outdoor. Available in two configurations, with Intel® Celeron® N3350 for maximum performance, or Intel® Atom™ x5-E3930 designed for extended operating ranges, the ISC-261 excels through its high-efficiency processing and rugged design aimed at industrial use. The Celeron® N3350 powered ISC-261 is optimized for performance in regulated environments with an operator, while the Atom™ x5-E3930 powered version is certified for use in -20°C to 60°C (approximately -4 to 140℉) environments, ideal for remote locations and situations where minimum human interaction is required or possible.
The AE67-W1 is a high-end, fanless PC for 24/7 outdoor use. Powered by a 7th generation Intel® Core processor, it is able to deliver smooth content to any of its connected 4K displays. The AE67-W1 features a modular option design and is capable of fanless operation in both freezing cold (-20°C/-4°F) and blistering heat (60°C/140°F).
With numerous I/O ports (4x RS232, 2x RS485, 4x USB 3.0, and 4x USB 2.0) virtually any device currently used in retail and signage can be operated by the AE67-W1. With a Gigabit Ethernet controller onboard (Intel i219), SIM card slot, optional 3G/4G (Mini-PCIe) or WIFI (M.2 2230) modules, | 724 |
Putting change lifts MacKenzie to strong start
By Ryan Lavner
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Will MacKenzie's putting<|fim_middle|> ourselves."
COVID cases rising, WMPO reduces fan limit
BY Golf Channel Digital — January 13, 2021
The Waste Management Phoenix Open will be quieter than previously anticipated after reducing its attendance limits.
PGA Tour China season canceled for 2021
The PGA Tour released an update Friday on the status of its developmental tours for the 2021 season.
Fowler shoots under par despite early quad
BY Ryan Lavner — December 03, 2020
Rickie Fowler managed eight birdies on a brutal scoring day at the Mayakoba Classic. He also made two critical mistakes. | was so bad earlier this year, a friend begged him to try something, anything different on the greens.
That led to his experiment with the claw grip, and last week he shot a low round at Dye Preserve in South Florida.
"You've gotta keep clawing," fellow PGA Tour player Steve Marino told him, "because you're terrible the other way."
One of the Tour's worst putters – statistically, at least – MacKenzie has it rolling so far this week at the Valspar Championship. He needed fewer than 28 putts each of the first two rounds, holed more than 180 feet worth of putts and is ranked 13th in strokes gained-putting.
Best of all, after making a 37-footer for birdie on his final hole, he is at 5-under 137, one shot clear of the field after the morning wave completed play Friday at Innisbrook.
A massive improvement, indeed.
"I'm like 290th in putting," he said. "There's not even that many people out here."
Actually, he's 205th out of 213 qualifiers, but you get the idea. It's been a struggle.
"It was like run-away-to-a-little-room-and-hide type of stuff," he said.
MacKenzie admittedly came back too soon from left knee surgery last July. He played the fall events, but with minimal success, missing two cuts and finishing outside the top 50 in three others. He still doesn't have a top-50 finish this calendar year, either, and has cashed only $65,000 this season.
"My season has been totally awful," he said, "but I'm over it. I don't feel like my back is against the wall."
The strength of MacKenzie's game always has been his mid-iron game, and even being a decent putter, a top-100 putter, would produce different results. He is a two-time Tour winner, after all, and in each of those wins (in 2006 and '08) he used the claw grip.
So why did he ever ditch that method?
"Because I'm stupid," he said. "The claw is a crutch from putting regular."
MacKenzie uses a traditional grip on practice putts and then makes a late switch to the claw. He also puts his weight significantly on his left side – on his surgically repaired left knee – and pushes his hands forward, to drive the ball down the line.
"It's not necessarily going to keep working," he joked, "so let's not get ahead of | 552 |
Accra, March 17, GNA - Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has encouraged investors in India to constructively engage their African counterparts for business<|fim_middle|> let us push hard so we can improve the lives of ordinary citizens in India and Africa so that they too will realise that these industry conversations are also beneficial to them in the long run." | development as they gear up towards taking their destinies into their own hands to assume their rightful places in the comity of nations.
"The new scramble for Africa, according to the Economist Magazine, is now being led by a new generation of Africans determined to make a difference through technological innovations and development of enterprise and markets," he stated.
"The Africa we want can only be built by Africans in partnerships with countries and investors who also believe in this paradigm for change".
The three-day Conclave, under the theme, "Partners in Development, Building New Synergies," organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India, brought together more than 500 Ministers and Heads of Government from 41 African countries.
Outlining a number of areas, which would make an investment in Africa an attractive proposition, Vice President Bawumia urged participants to let the conversation about the future of Africa move outside "old boxes of doing business and old government-business engagements".
"Africa is an emerging market that offers great opportunities for economic growth and prosperity with over 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of US$2.24 trillion.
" It is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, and by 2050 will be the most populous continent in the world with an estimated GDP of $29 trillion."
He said the continent was endowed with natural resources with the right complementary factors, which could be leveraged on for accelerated and inclusive economic growth.
"This is a sure way for our two sides to explore the economic opportunities that abound in Africa and India.
"Let us leave here with concrete engagements in business partnerships in key strategic areas.
"Let us know what we are not doing well as governments and what can be done to strengthen business partnerships.
"Together, | 375 |
Monday: 8:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.
Tuesday: 8:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 9:30 a.m. — 1:00 p.m.
The physicians at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury provide expert care for pediatric and adult patients suffering from conditions of the ears, nose, throat, head and neck. We do not provide eye care in Duxbury. If eye care is needed, we have locations in East Bridgewater as well as 800 Huntington Avenue to accommodate general and sub-specialty eye care.
Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury specialists diagnose and treat pediatric and adult conditions of the ears, nose and throat. The Duxbury office offers a wide range of services to adults and children including diagnosis and treatment of common problems such as chronic sinusitis, sleep apnea (snoring), tonsil and adenoid disorders, chronic ear infections, as well as thyroid<|fim_middle|> in the drive, our building is in the SECOND parking area on the left. You will see a sign that says Buildings 1 – 9. We are in Building 9, 1st floor, office on the right (Suite 20). The office is handicap accessible.
Please note that GPS navigators will frequently incorrectly guide you to 20 Tremont St, in Kingston, and not Duxbury, so please be wary of using your navigator. It is best to use the directions above. | and parathyroid disorders and head and neck masses. Common ENT services for children and adults include hearing loss, medical treatment of nose and sinus disease, voice disorders, speech and swallowing problems, as well as all common otologic (ear) problems including balance disorders.
The ear, nose and throat specialists at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury provide care for the full range of nose and sinus conditions for adults and children. Our services include care for nasal obstruction, acute and chronic sinusitis, smell and taste loss, nosebleeds, septal perforation and pain and headaches related to the sinuses.
The sleep specialists at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury treat patients for a range of sleep disorders including obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. Obstructive sleep apnea is a common condition that causes brief interruptions of breathing during sleep; it is often characterized by loud snoring. Treatment options include surgical procedures, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure machines) and oral appliance therapy.
Our Duxbury specialists treat patients for a wide range of tonsil-related issues, including infections and lesions of the tonsils and adenoids. We provide surgical and non-surgical treatment for children and adults.
At Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury, we treat adults and children suffering from chronic ear infections, including infections in the external ear canal (commonly known as swimmer's ear) and the middle ear, using a variety of surgical and non-surgical treatment methods.
The tolaryngology specialists at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury offer diagnosis and treatment plans for patients suffering from thyroid and parathyroid conditions. Problems of the thyroid and parathyroid glands are common and can dramatically affect quality of life. Our physicians have extensive experience with a variety of these conditions, including thyroid nodules, goiter, thyroid cancer and hyperparathyroidism. We offer compassionate, expert surgical care when surgery is necessary.
The specialists at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury provide care for patients suffering from head and neck masses. Often these are problems that can be treated quite simply, for example, if the patient is suffering from cysts or infections. However, sometimes even a painless lump can be serious. Our physicians thoroughly evaluate each patient to give an accurate diagnosis; if the problem is more serious, we provide expert surgical care when necessary and a multidisciplinary approach in partnership with neighboring hospitals.
Audiology services are available at Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury.
Mass. Eye and Ear, Duxbury requires all new patients to fill out three paper forms: patient information, medical history, and communication. Please use the links below to download a PDF of the forms. Please fill out each form using black ink and then bring the completed forms with you to your first appointment.
Route 3 South to Exit 10. Left at the end of the exit ramp onto Tremont Street (Rte 3A).
Less than ¼ mile on your left is The Park at Island Creek, 20 Tremont St. When you pull in the drive, you will see our building is in the SECOND parking area on the left. You will see a sign that says Buildings 1 – 9. We are in Building 9, 1st floor, office on the right (Suite 20). The office is handicap accessible.
Route 3 North to Exit 10. Right at the end of the exit ramp onto Tremont Street (Rte 3A).
About ¼ mile on your left is The Park at Island Creek, 20 Tremont St. When you pull | 739 |
Sinead O'Connor Irish Tour
Main Artist:<|fim_middle|> be defined by what was at that time beyond her control. Her spirit would blossom and bloom manifesting her gift, her voice.
Discovered by the drummer of well-known Irish band In Tua Nua, she co-wrote their first hit. Shortly after being discovered by Ensign records her first album 'The Lion and the Cobra' released in late 1987 reached Platinum sales. Sinead had arrived.
From the early new wave explosion of 'Mandinka' to the multi–platinum soul of Prince's 'Nothing Compares to You' Sinead had left an indelible mark with her unique image and vocal style.
An artist beyond comparison - unique, uncompromising, a pioneer, a visionary are just some of the descriptions that might only touch the surface of Sinead O'Connor. Embodying a voice with beauty and innocence, a spirit part punk, part mystic with a combined fearlessness and gentle authenticity. This voice as Sinead's unique expression would be echoed in the voices of other artists who she would inspire who came after.
Chart topping singles, hit albums, numerous awards an array of collaborations later and Sinead's spiritual journey would lead her through a turbulent, troubled and restless existence to find solace in Islam.
This year marks the return of Sinead O'Connor and a new beginning that will see Sinead bring out new music and tour the world once again as one of the true and original living greats of our time.
Tickets priced €45 are on sale now through www.ticketmaster.ie | Sinead O'Connor
Irish Tour 2019
Oct 17th – Roisin Dubh, Galway
October 24th – Spiegeltent, Wexford
October 26th – Opera House, Cork
October 27th – Vicar St, Dublin
EXTRA VICAR ST DATE ADDED!
Having announced her come back Irish Tour last week, Sinead O'Connor has sold out her Vicar St date. Due to phenomenal demand an extra date has been added for October 28th. Tickets on sale now through www.ticketmaster.ie and other usual outlets.
As Jack Kerouac states "Genius gives birth, talent delivers".
So where did Sinead O'Connor begin?
1970s Ireland was the backdrop from which Sinead O'Connor began her life. Born into tragic times with her own tragic story, one among many from those days, Sinead would not | 198 |
What the Papers Say
A quick glance of regional news sources reflecting on Saturday's 2-1 win over Bradford.
Doncaster Free Press - "It was labelled as a 'smash and grab' victory, but that's not always a bad thing. Doncaster have been criticised for not being able to 'win ugly' in this division, and although it<|fim_middle|> which defences struggle to contain and the one time City let him go, he punished them expertly."
Telegraph and Argus - "It could have been very different if they had not come up against a goalkeeper in elastic-limbed form. Paul Dickov could not have asked for a better 42nd birthday present than the second coming of his on-loan Man United stopper Sam Johnstone. It could have been very different if they had not come up against another belligerent referee determined to defy the clear opinion of the masses and not award a penalty for a blatant handball."
Yorkshire Post - "At Valley Parade on Saturday he smashed home the 69th-minute winner with a shot off the outside of his right boot from just inside the area which flew past Jordan Pickford.
It crowned a comeback from Rovers which would surely not have been possible without the heroics of goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, on his second debut for the club."
And how we reported it - "Curtis Main scored a brilliant second half goal to give Rovers all three-points against Bradford. The hosts led 1-0 at half time, thanks to a brilliant individual effort from Jon Stead. However, Reece Wabara equalised for Rovers before Main netted the winner, in a second half spell that changed the match." | wasn't a classic performance by any standards against Bradford City on Saturday afternoon, it was an all-important three points."
Sheffield Star – Team of the week - "Sam Johnstone (Doncaster Rovers): On-loan from Manchester United for his second spell with Doncaster Rovers, the 21-year-old was in inspired form against Bradford City, helping Rovers on their way to a memorable 2-1 victory at Valley Parade.
Richie Wellens (Doncaster Rovers). The talisman caused the Bantams problems in the middle with his determined runs and attacking play. His second half was particularly impressive and was every bit as important at the match-winning goals from Doncaster. Wellens showed desire and commitment to the cause to stop Doncaster's recent barren run of results.
Curtis Main (Doncaster Rovers): The forward had a relatively quiet first half but showed his quality when he had one chance and put it away with precision and power. He's a striker | 201 |
No matter where you are staying, renting a small motor boat is a must. Viewing the island from a different perspective, visiting secluded bays, stopping for lunch or drinks at the many idyllic beachside tavernas Corfu boat Hire.
Why Rent a Speed Boat on Corfu?
Renting a motor boat will give a whole new perspective to your view of Corfu. You won't believe how many quiet bays and coves you will find as you motor along the coast. You could even have a beach all to yourself for the day to sunbathe, picnic and swim – imagining it as your own piece of Paradise!
The above video gives an overview of renting a boat and the different types available.
What if I'd never Hired a Boat Before?
Don't worry – you've seen hundreds of other people do it and so can you! (No licence is required for the rental speed boats up to 30hp.) When you go to pick up your boat, full instructions and safety advice will be given before you are allowed to go out on your own so that you have confidence to take the boat out for the day.
When you pick up your boat, we will give you a map of the sea areas in which you are allowed to go. This will also show approximately how far it is between each bay and the major resorts along the way. Generally, for the smaller boats, Ipsos up to Kassiopi, whereas the larger powered boats have a greater range.
Stop off for coffee in one bay and then have lunch in another.
Or check out the secluded beaches or waterfront villas along the way!
I expect we've all sat in tavernas watching the motor boats come in to tie up at the jetty. Well, it's not that difficult and with a little practice you will look very professional.
Basically, you slowly get to within two boat lengths of the jetty.
Throw out the anchor, put the boat into neutral and just glide towards the jetty.
Then your 'co-pilot' either throws the line to a helping hand on land or leaps out with the line to fasten it to the jetty.
Boats are available from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, seven days a week.
Any damage to the boat must be paid for.
If you have children in your party, please notify us before hand so that we can provide child life jackets.
The minimum rental period for pre booking is boat is 3 days.
What will a third party insurance cover?
A third party insurance will cover accident, you do to other boats that are in the water the same time as you are. Most of the times it will also cover damage to the engine or the propeller.
Any other damages have to be paid for.
Can I have a boat for a few non continuous days?
This will depend on a<|fim_middle|> agent to see how the 2 days left can be spred through out his/her holiday.
Can I have more photos of the boats?
In order to provide a good quality service, we tend to work with almost every agent in the areas we specialize in. This way we can find a lot more available and different kind of boats.
That, however, makes photoshooting every single boat impractical.
Photos of the boats above are as a guide only.
Generally speaking, you should expect to have a similar boat.
Can we keep the boat for the night?
Agents pick up the boat at about 18.00, for cleaning, refuelling and taking it in for safe keeping.
They will bring back the boat first thing in the morning.
You may be able to keep the boat for the night as long as there is a good mooring spot near your property.
Please note though, that you are fully responsible for anything that could happen to the boat during the night.
Unfortunately, I Am not renting a property with Eos Travel, can I still rent a boat with you?
Of course. As long as you stay in an area we operate, that will not be a problem. | few factors.
2. The number of days you are looking for.
3. The type of boat you are after.
– Client prebooks a boat for 3 days.
– Arrives and has the boat for the first day.
– On the same day, liases with the boat hire | 59 |
When attractive 35 yr outdated Natasha is chosen by Christopher by means of an web marriage company, she forsakes her native Russia – and the memories buried there – for a brand new life in London as Christopher's wife. Unlike busy, ambiguous mornings, evenings are almost all the time a superb time to textual content the girl you like. At this point, work is over, the gym is finished, and he or she's settling down in entrance of the tv in her casual garments. She's eaten dinner, she's snug, and he or she feels good. She is in the proper mood to be romanced.
These findings chime with these from Mr Thomas and Michael Rosenfeld of Stanford College, who work with data from the How Couples Meet and Stay Together survey, conducted each few years by GfK, a research firm. Again, married individuals who met their companion online reported slightly higher relationship high quality jump4love than those that met offline, and had been much less likely to have damaged up after a yr of marriage. Mr Rosenfeld has also proven that heterosexual relationships which begin online and progress to marriage achieve this faster than those which reach that honourable property from an offline beginning.
However don't talk about his ex-girlfriends, or<|fim_middle|>. You wish to have two parallel units of venues to minimize cross contamination. If you take your girlfriend to the identical bar as your creep girls, a bartender or common might jump4love accidentally out you, or tip her off while you're in the lavatory. We all know these don't-date-him girls who's life mission it is to warn different girls of cheating men.
Going into a date being interested by her is going to take things to a different level. Find out about who she is as an individual, find out what she's obsessed with, find out what makes her, her. Consequently, you jump4love may find out if she's the type of person you want to take out once more and doubtlessly be taught if she is right for you or not. Dialog will circulate extra naturally and she's going to usually be inclined to want to know more about you.
I cannot tell you what number of times a colleague has walked into work or sat down to talk to me at an occasion solely to say, Hey, I met your mom. She is so friendly and so nice." My mother truly does not meet a stranger. She seeks to find frequent ground with every individual she engages.
Have short chats with her. Preserve the conversations beneath 10 minutes, then say, "It was nice speaking to you. Gotta go." Squeeze her hand, or blow her a kiss, but jump4love russiansbrides don't go excessive. This will show her you like her and also hints at greater than associates.
Keep in mind, girls need time to open up. When you push too ahead and it's blatantly obvious, you would possibly as well call it quits. Because in most dating cases, first impressions change into your last. At some inside level, we are likely to categorize folks, objects, and so forth. There's your buddy with the #humorous tag. Then there's your #widespread buddy. Then there's #the-hottest-lady-I've-seen, and so forth.
Above all else, the golden rule for texting is to be having as a lot fun along with her as you'll in particular person. If you can get her feeling good with some cleverly worded messages, you will jump4love not even have to ask her out. Sometimes, a guy will feel as if the girl he likes is just too good for him.
There's nothing like the prospect of financial hardship to facilitate intercontinental liaisons, and so, removed from enterprise drying up in recent months, the romance and "bride" trade is booming. If anything, there are actually more western men planning trips to Odessa than there were last jump4love yr, after I accompanied a "romance tour" to Ukraine for a magazine story. I spent a week in Odessa with 29 males, all of them hoping to discover a wife throughout their trip. They had been primarily Individuals, but there have been additionally Brits, an Italian and a Saudi on the tour.
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← How come Data Storage space became the key instruments in business nowadays? | your ex-boyfriends. Ever. Don't hassle with him with the previous. It is you and him now. That is what issues. Arron Banks' Russian wife allegedly requested her first husband to rub butter on her because she 'could not afford sun lotion'.
2. One nice option to have enjoyable with it is to share together with her what excites you throughout your dialog. Household oriented. It has already been mentioned that Russian girls will all the time select in favor of their families, not jobs. They believe their major vocation is to develop into loving wives and caring mothers.
four. Don't mix dating venues | 125 |
Among big plans for Montbello is a proposed $30<|fim_middle|> 2014. Penn is running for the Denver City Council District 8 seat.
"We have the opportunity here to make something more," Penn said. "One of the things that was pretty traumatic for the community was the closing of Montbello High School … I think for this new space, it's a homegrown idea, it allows the community to get back together."
"These are the things that are going to start pulling people together," Penn added. | million community center
On the wishlist for the FreshLo Cultural Hub: affordable housing units, a grocery store and a theater.
Gailand Allen examines a potential piece of the Far Northeast Area Plan during a comment meeting at the Montbello campus cafeteria, July 12, 2018. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Esteban L. Hernandez
Jul. 16, 2018, 6:33 p.m.
As the potential for significant changes looms in far northeast Denver, a project in Montbello that could end up becoming a flashpoint for these and other changes is slowly taking shape.
Donna Garnett, executive director of Montbello Organizing Committee, discussed the ambitious project publicly last week during a The Far Northeast Area Plan meeting in Montbello on July 12. It's part of The Montbello FreshLo initiative, which is a broader plan to create a community space centered around a food market.
Garnett spoke to Denverite at length about the proposed project a day later while she visited the Dahlia Campus Farms and Gardens in Park Hill. The project involves building a $30 million mixed-use development called FreshLo Cultural Hub, which Garnett said would be a multi-floor space that will include a grocery store, meeting and retail spaces, a cultural center with a theater and 120 affordable housing units. The grocery store would be operated by Family Tree Food Market.
"We are in the final stages," Garnett said. "Now we're raising money. We've hired a developer. We're in the final stages of negotiating for the piece of property that we want. We're looking to have this whole cultural hub and grocery store be located on the west side of Montbello."
Garnett said they're hoping to break ground on the project by the end of August. She said a technical proposal has been submitted to the City of Denver, but they're still working on the land acquisition.
Currently, the project has funding from the Kresge Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation and The Denver Foundation, which have so far have funded about $400,000 toward the project. Garnett said they have funded planning and some of the early pre-development costs. They're currently in the process of working with private investors, other foundations and government agencies to put together the funding package to pay for the Cultural Hub, Garnett said.
"We know it's very ambitious but it meets a couple of goals," Montbello Organizing Committee Board Chair and neighborhood resident Chris Martinez said. Funding for the project would come from "a combination of grants and loans, on the local and national level."
Martinez declined to name the property MOC is looking at for its site since he said it's still on the market. He added they do have a Plan B and Plan C in place just in case.
Once it's completed, Garnett said they will use the location for their summer pop-up shop, FreshLo Farm Market. She said she expects the new development will also have space to grow food for the market and develop a walkable loop linking nearby gardens to the facility.
Donna M. Garnett poses for a portrait. A meeting for comments on an early draft of the Far Northeast Area Plan at the Montbello campus cafeteria, July 12, 2018. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
"It's really important to us that this project reflects what the community wants and so we've worked with a local developer, we've worked with people who are committed to this being what the residents have planned for and have created and envisioned," Garnett said.
"This is a wonderful project, it's very far-reaching," Garnett added. "I love it that people are starting to call it transformative. But in the end, we don't want the people who created this vision to be displaced. We want it to be…where they get to enjoy the benefits."
The farm market is a jumping-off point for this much bigger project.
The FreshLo Farm Market first opened last year to provide fresh food options for residents living in Montbello, where some residents still struggle to find fresh produce. Food for the market is grown locally at Montbello Urban Farm at the United Church of Montbello. Garnett said she the farm produces a majority of the food through the season, with additional food produced by gardens in three local schools.
The FreshLo Farm Market will reopen on July 28 and will run every Saturday starting at 9 a.m. to noon through September. It will be located at 12300 Albrook Drive.
"We're thinking we'll probably be able to supply somewhere between 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of food this summer," Garnett said.
The seeds for this market — and really the entire project — were planted in May 2016. That's when MOC was one of 26 organizations in the U.S. chosen by the Kresge Foundation to receive a $75,000 award to plan a "FreshLo" market, which is shorthand for "Fresh, Local & Equitable: Food as a Creative Platform for Neighborhood Revitalization."
Kresge Foundation describes itself as a private foundation that tries to expand opportunities in U.S. cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts, culture, health and human services. It is based in Troy, Michigan.
Garnett said the Colorado Health Foundation matched the Kresge grant. Before anything was open, Garnett said MOC members knocked on doors, rode buses, hosted meetings and traveled the community to figure out what they needed most. They found access to fresh food was one area in need of improvement.
"A lot of those people that are in those lower income categories actually do most of their shopping at the convenience store," Garnett said. "Both the Family Dollar and the 7-11 have participated in programs to bring some fresh fruits and vegetables, but it's not adequate for people by and large."
Those involved hope the center help keep Montbello's characteristic diversity intact in the face of more development.
As we saw last week, not everyone is necessarily sold on how changes to the area will positively impact Montbello.
"People have talked about the fact that we're such a diverse community," Garnett said, adding Montbello has a mixture of African-American, Latino, African and white residents. She said the cultural hub will give people an opportunity to celebrate and learn about their culture.
Vasji, a sophmore at Montbello High School, performs in a drum line at the Five Points Jazz Festival, May 19, 2018. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Martinez said their plan adds affordable housing options for residents as they begin to face, "a lot of gentrification." He said they want to make sure Montbello remains diverse.
Providing a space for performances, concerts, talents shows and other community-oriented events give people space to both see and possibly even develop art, Martinez said.
"We want to set it up so that it has a theater, which is something we don't have in Montbello," Martinez said. "We want to have a place where people can enjoy the arts, express their creativity."
Erik Penn, who's lived in Montbello for about 5 years (he lived in southeast Denver before that) and provided feedback to MOC's plan, said having a centralized community space could help alleviate some of the wounds left after Montbello High School closed in | 1,565 |
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