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HaberkipCollege or work? Gap year or victory lap? And how should a young person choose among the multitude of programs offered through universities, colleges or a combination of both?Those are just some of the questions faced by today’s high school graduates.In... College or work? Gap year or victory lap? And how should a young person choose among the multitude of programs offered through universities, colleges or a combination of both?Those are just some of the questions faced by today’s high school graduates.In... College or work? Gap year or victory lap? And how should a young person choose among the multitude of programs offered through universities, colleges or a combination of both? Those are just some of the questions faced by today’s high school graduates. In an era of tough competition for jobs, the rise of precarious employment and the disappearance of a linear path from school to work, teaching kids career and life planning is more important than ever. But a new report from People for Education says Ontario students aren’t getting what they need from the province’s careers strategy, introduced over a three-year period beginning in 2013. Principals surveyed by the research and advocacy group cited problems implementing the plan, a shortage of guidance counsellors and lack of teacher training to help students at all levels. “The bottom line is it’s been hard for schools to implement this policy, which is a laudable policy, it’s something we need to be doing in our schools,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education. “We need to be thinking about the now multiple paths that our kids are going to end up being on as they grow up.” “The evidence tells us now you’re probably going to have multiple jobs in multiple different areas and also multiple paths even through your education.” So helping them understand themselves and their interests even as young students is key to making sure they have the tools to navigate a complex path. The Ontario strategy includes such mandatory components as: portfolios for every student from kindergarten to Grade 12 to help them reflect on their interests, strengths, learning and later career possibilities; career and life-planning committees in every school; and professional development for teachers to help them integrate career and life planning into the classroom. It is also linked to the existing 40 hours of mandatory community volunteering for high school students and the compulsory Grade 10 careers course. The survey of 1,100 principals found: Mandatory career and life-planning committees were in place in only 15 per cent of elementary schools and 39 per cent of high schools. And of those, only 8 per cent of secondary schools included community members. Thirty-four per cent of elementary and 56 per cent of secondary schools reported that every student had a career/life-planning portfolio. Teacher training on career and life planning was available at fewer than one in four elementary schools and 40 per cent of high schools. While high school guidance counsellors are the primary staff members responsible for student portfolios and planning, 16 per cent of secondary schools don’t have a full-time guidance counsellor. The average ratio is one counsellor for every 380 students — in line with what provincial funding provides — but one in 10 schools struggles with a ratio of 600 students per teacher. Principals said two years of education labour disputes interfered with the new strategy, but also blamed lack of technology support, workload issues, and a lack of overall understanding of the policy. “While lots of them talked about how great the policy was, an equal number talked about how difficult it was to implement,” says Kidder. She cited “initiative exhaustion” among teachers and administrators following a stream of new education strategies ranging from math to well-being to experiential learning, which can leave staff overwhelmed. And she called for better integration of the career and life lessons with all school subjects. For Bruce Lawson of the Counselling Foundation of Canada, making the most of the provincial strategy is key. And he says despite the challenges addressed in the report, it is one of the best in the country. By the time today’s elementary students graduate, at least one third of the occupations open to them will be jobs that don’t currently exist, says Lawson, president of the foundation, which promotes career planning and development. For kindergarten students, it amounts to more than half. “Given how the world is changing at such a rapid pace, we really need to equip young people with the skills, competency and resilience to be able to navigate the 21st-century workplace.” The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information. Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.

Gordhan asks for fresh thinking Business News / 9 July 2012, 4:48pm SAPA Cape Town 141010 Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan briefing parliment on the annal business report.South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday the world was heading towards a "currency war" unless developed nations gave ground in negotiations at the Group of 20 (G20). picture : neil baynes Gordhan told the 16th World Economic History Congress in Stellenbosch there was an imbalance between the locus of production and that of growth, and between political beliefs and the predominant reality. “The question is, is there an epochal transition, are we seeing a new configuration of political and social power?” Gordhan said history was essential to understanding society, but the challenge was to turn these insights into practice. “What we learnt from Karl Marx is that philosophers interpret the world. However the point is to change it.” When Gordhan became finance minister in 2009, much was made of his early affiliation to the SA Communist Party, but he said he was a no longer a member and had explored Marxism as a set of humanist values. - Sapa

Located in the Mohawk Valley of New York State just outside of Schenectady, Pathways Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is a Sentosa Care affiliated facility. Sentosa Care is an organization formed to service and assist affiliated nursing facilities in fulfilling their commitment to quality healthcare. The long-term FHA financing for Pathways carries a 30-year term at a low, fixed rate, and enables Sentosa Care to invest significant capital in upgrading the facility’s existing spaces and amenities, as well as construct a newly planned vent unit and upgrade the pediatric unit. “It’s especially gratifying to us at Greystone that we are able to provide capital to a facility like Pathways that provides care to difficult cases in their specialty units,” said Mr. Levine. “We truly value the trust Sentosa Care has in us to provide financing for their facilities and will continually work to exceed their expectations.”

The Difference Between Botox and Dermal Fillers Written by CG Cosmetic on February 19, 2015 CG Cosmetic understands the difficulties that come with aging. Everyone has days where they look in the mirror and are concerned with what they see. Whether or not you see deep lines and wrinkles, or fine lines, aging is inevitable. The question then, is what can you do about these signs of aging? Perhaps the most common solution people have heard of is Botox. However, Botox is not the only option. While CG Cosmetic offers Botox procedures, we also offer Dermal Fillers. Botox Most men and women have heard about celebrities using Botox to rejuvenate their skin and appear more youthful, but Botox isn’t just for celebrities. Botox has provided amazing and effective results that are also safe and convenient for many individuals. Facial lines and wrinkles often occur because of the way your muscles work underneath your skin. Overtime, as muscles tense due to making repeated facial expressions, your skin creates lines and wrinkles. Botox works by gently relaxing the muscles in your face, softening the wrinkles and leaving you with long-lasting smooth skin. CG Cosmetic patients have described their Botox experience as quick and painless, with most appointments taking less than one hour. Call to set up an appointment with our expert Botox specialist, Dr. Mayra Diaz, who has been in private practice for over 25 years. Dermal Fillers CG Cosmetic also specializes in Dermal Fillers. Different from Botox, dermal fillers work by lifting and plumping up skin, replacing collagen lost by the natural aging process. In addition to gently filling the skin, most dermal fillers also stimulate skin to encourage it to produce more collagen on its own. Dermal fillers are a great way to fix lines and wrinkles in the face, but they are also used for lip augmentations, creating fuller, plumper lips. It is important to fully research all of your options for cosmetic surgery before making a decision about what is right for you. Start your research with a call to CG Cosmetic and talk to a specialist by scheduling a free consultation: 305-446-7277.

Dominik Brunner - Nordketten Check out from go-shred.com on Vimeo. Home is where your heart is! Our heart, our office and our home is Innsbruck right now. One of the most amazing cities in the world! Probably the only SPOT where you can get to the slopes in less then 15 minutes. Certainly you ask Sadly this year K.O.T. Gruam was boycotted by bad weather, misunderstanding and lack of snow. But still some warriors showed up for chilling and grilling under the Dragon tent (thank you Dragon so much for keeping us dry). Near the bonfire amazing stories were told about the past weeks here in Nor

Executive and Special Sessions Thursday July, 26 2018 Executive and Special Sessions Thursday July, 26 2018 The Devils Lake Water Improvement District Board will be holding an Executive Session immediately followed by a Special Session (per ORS 192.640) at 10:00 a.m., Thursday July 26, 2018. This meeting will be held at Oregon Coast Community College Room 108, located at 3788 SE High School Dr. in Lincoln City, Oregon. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and finalize the contract for installation of the lake bottom aeration system All whom are interested are encouraged to attend this public meeting. Devils Lake in Lincoln City, Oregon is a naturally shallow, coastal lake. It is uniquely placed in the world sitting on the Pacific coast edge of the North American Continent, intersecting the 45th parallel, the mark half way between the equator and the North Pole. Devils Lake is managed by the Devils Lake Water Improvement District.

If you or your colleagues still "dump" static data from line-of-business systems into a tool like Excel to manipulate, analyze, or present it; or if you have colleagues who re-key data from Office tools like Word and Excel into line-of-business systems for processing, read on:

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get a tattoo on my ass shaped like Rainbow Dashes cutie mark and than I'm gonna cut out every piece of clothing I have into that sign so I can walk down the street with a cutie mark. I've had an idea. Coats matching the mane 6 and some extra ponies with the inside color the hair and the outside the ponies' coat color, with their cutie mark in the bottom left or right side on the back. With Rainbow Dash's, the elastic fabric that's on the end of the sleeves and on the waist of the coat can be rainbow colored, with the inside color matching her eyes. Oh and the zipper handle being something they enjoy, for example, Pinkie Pie's would be a cupcake, Twilight's a book, and Applejack's an apple. Sound good?

Event Description Professor Bill Lee, Former Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering, Imperial College London Speakers include: Dr Dan Poulter MP Tim Yeo, Chairman, New Nuclear Watch Europe (NNWE) Nick Butler, Energy Commentator, Financial Times Peter Atherton, Associate, Cornwall Energy New Nuclear Watch Europe (NNWE) invites you to attend our upcoming Parliamentary Briefing on The future of nuclear energy in Europe following Brexit, due to be held in the House of Commons, London, on the 14 March 2017 at 16.00. The event will focus on the opportunities and challenges facing the nuclear energy sector across Europe following Brexit. With the UK moving forward with a pipeline of new nuclear build projects, most recently with the CGN-EDF Hualong 1 application for GDA approval, this event will bring together leading policymakers, industry, academics and commentators to discuss how Europe can continue to be a global leader in nuclear energy development. NNWE intends to promote discussion on the need for a Pan-European, or EU+, policy framework when discussing new nuclear build. With Brexit likely to occur in 2019, and the recent announcement that the UK will be pulling out of the Euratom Treaty, NNWE envisages the development of an Organisation for Nuclear Cooperation and Development in Europe, to continue and further enhance nuclear cooperation. The latest EU PINC report highlights that 105GWe of new nuclear generation will be needed by 2050 – roughly 100 new reactors – to meet existing demand and climate change targets. However, only eighteen nuclear power plants are in development, planned, or proposed within the European Union itself. Whereas ninety-five reactors are planned throughout our EU neighbours – including Belarus, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and now the UK. NNWE believes an organisation is needed to drive the future of nuclear energy development across Europe and help us reach the ambitious 2050 target. Agenda (subject to change) Time Description 16.00 Registration and light refreshments 16.15 Introduction Dr Dan Poulter MP Professor Bill Lee, Former Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering, Imperial College London NNWE was established at the end of 2014 under the chairmanship of Tim Yeo (former UK Member of Parliament and Chair of the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee) and is an interest group which aims to ensure nuclear power is recognised as an important and desirable way for European governments to meet the long-term security needs of their countries.

Seven rare rhinos spotted in Indonesian jungle August 9, 2012 in Biology / Ecology In this undated photo released by Leuser International Foundation, a Sumatran rhino roams at Gunung Leuser National Park in Aceh province, Indonesia. A conservationist from the foundation said Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 that seven of the world's rarest rhinoceroses were photographed at the national park. It is the first sighting there in 26 years. (AP Photo/Leuser International Foundation) NO SALES Seven Sumatran rhinos have been captured on hidden cameras in an Indonesian national park where the critically endangered species was feared extinct, a conservationist said Thursday. The Sumatran rhino had not been sighted in the Mount Leuser National Park on the northern tip of Sumatra for 26 years, the project's team leader Tarmizi of the Leuser International Foundation said. "This discovery can allay doubts over the rhino's presence in the park," Tarmizi told AFP, adding he hoped the discovery would encourage more efforts to conserve the species. Images of the rhinos were captured by 28 infrared cameras set up between June 2011 and April this year and confirmed six female and one male rhino appearing in 1,000 photo frames. The Sumatran rhino population has dropped 50 percent over the past 20 years, and there are now believed to be fewer than 200 left in the world. The rhinos are commonly targeted by poachers and rampant illegal logging has destroyed much of their habitat.

Long Beach Film Festival - Now Accepting Films & Screenplays From: Robin Duarte Subject: Long Beach Film Festival - Now Accepting Films & Screenplays Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 15:13:14 -0800 Filmmakers & Screenwriters (please forward to interested parties): The Long Beach Film Festival is now accepting screenplays and films (short, documentary & feature) in all formats. The winners' work will be reviewed by a committee of established production companies. This is a great way to get exposure and even discovered in Hollywood. The festival is being held onboard the renowned Queen Mary in Long Beach, California (30 miles from Hollywood). The dates of the festival are September 13 - 22, 2002. You can view an 8 x 10 flyer here: http://www.longbeachfilmfestival.com/poster.html A 20% discount has been set up for students and independent filmmakers. The discounted submission prices are as follows: ORIGINAL PRICE DISCOUNTED PRICE Short Film $45 $36 Feature Film $60 $48 Screenplay $50 $40 To take advantage of these discounted prices, simply include a printout of this email with the submission form and legibly write 'email discount' on the payment check. The submission forms can be found here: http://www.longbeachfilmfestival.com/entry.htm All submissions must be received by August 15th, 2002. We look forward to receiving your work. Robin Duarte http://www.longbeachfilmfestival.com

Spain is the EU country where most people live in apartments Eurostat spends a good amount of money in producing statistics about almost any activity within the EC and offers very valuable information about the construction industry. This time it has produced an array of figures about where the European likes to live. I am not one for statistics I must confess, but as I have mentioned in many other articles we do obtain a lot of useful information especially for those of us involved in the construction industry. Spain tops the ranking According to the latest data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), Spain tops the ranking of countries in the European Union (EU) where the highest percentage of population lives in an apartment: 66.5% of Spaniards live in this type of building compared to 33.1% it does in a house. The figure is striking especially when compared with other neighbouring countries. In France, for example, the ratio is almost reversed: seven out of 10 French lives in a house for three out of 10 in apartments. The difference is even greater if we take the number of UK, the country with the highest percentage of population living in households: 84.7% versus 14.4% living in a flat (0.9% of those interviewed answered with another category called "other"). The closest country to Spain with apartments as the most widespread living accommodation is Latvia (65.1%), followed by Lithuania (58.4%) and Greece (56.9%), in that order. The result of the average of the EU countries also marks a clear dissimilarity with the Spanish context: six out of 10 Europeans live in a house opposite the remaining four does so in an apartment; more than 2.5 points of difference from the Spanish proportion. There are more home owners in Spain than in other European countries. Another interesting figure from Eurostat study on the conditions and characteristics of housing in the EU is about ownership, all data shown here are obtained from 2014. In this respect, nearly eight out of 10 Spaniards (78.8%) own the property in which they live, 8.7% more than the European average. For rent they are somewhat below the average: 21.2% versus 29.9% for the European Community. Why is the apartment so quintessential to the Spanish people and why are they so prone to this property regime? The reasons can be explained by three factors: the historical, economic and sociological. From inside the castle wall to the apartment block. Let’s start from the beginning. We have to roll back to the turbulent middle ages, when wars determined the pattern of urban settlements. The cities were walled, the ground was very limited and already at that time housing needed to be built in height. It was also the same in other countries, but in those countries wars did not last centuries as in Spain. More recently, we had the rural exodus: Farmers left the countryside and moved on to the city. In Spain this happened not long ago just in the decades of the 60’s to the 80’s. People migrated to cities and property developers sorted the problem out with a quick construction method: the block of flats. Today, vertical construction has been widely accepted because it is greener and more resource-efficient. Spain is an increasingly empty country where it is increasingly easy to build horizontally. Still remember that, despite everything, the Spaniards hardly see the good side of an ecological construction and tend to seek the villas from a prestigious point of view. Property developers take control. The role of the economy and the current situation of crisis arising from the bursting of the housing bubble, are some of the explanations that make almost seven out of 10 Spaniards to live in apartments. There has been a very uneven economy and there are the selected few who control the sale of development land. The property developer gets more economic benefit from building in height because they can make more profit. A conservative family orientated society. The Spanish idiosyncrasies explain the property ownership regime being most widespread among the Spanish people on one hand, and developments been built around the block of flats on the other. The Spaniards are very conservative and fear and loath financial investments. You only have to read recent news to see what happened to those who tried buying complicated financial products that they didn’t understand. In general people have always seen the brick as a solid long term investment, unlike financial products. They are also conservative in its family structure. There is less geographical mobility than other countries and historically people have bought a house because they did not anticipate moving for work reasons for a long time. Having said that, due to the current crisis there a good percentage of the working population ready to move anywhere, even abroad for a stable job position. This has impacted directly on the sale of properties, now the tendency has changed to rent. However, figures for rental in this country still far from European countries more oriented in that direction. As shown in Eurostat study, Germany with 52.5%, Austria with 57.2% and Denmark with 63.3%, are the countries where most people opt for the lease in detriment of an ownership regime.

TMBA 166 (LBP142) – The Hiring Golden Triangle Happy Valentines Day from the fellas at The Lifestyle Business Podcast. Everybody’s back together this week to bring you some love. Ian has determined Tokyo to be his favorite Asian city and Dan has returned from some business (and pleasure) in the Philippines. Dan and Ian discuss hiring, when to use interns vs. VA’s vs. professionals and how this can have a profound impact on your business’ growth. They have also been getting an incredible amount of emails, reviews and feedback from everybody so the fellas take some time to answer your most pressing questions, concerns and confessions. To Hire or Not to Hire… How you can scientifically determine the best time to hire your first employee.

Guard youths from alcopops 9:55 AM, May 8, 2013 Written by Dylan Goodman OPINION Attending any high school means you hear a lot about what everyone is doing - from after-school activities to alcohol. One of the major problems are alcopops - alcoholic drinks marketed toward youths that are easy to mistake as juice, soda or energy drinks because of their packaging and taste. I attend Asheville High School and work with Youth Empowered Solutions, a youth advocacy group that focuses on everything from youth obesity to substance abuse. We've worked before on labeling alcopops with stickers that remind adults not to purchase the products for youths and help distinguish the ...

Review Transcript: October is finally in full swing, giving us four (count them: FOUR) movies in one week, one of which is the latest in supernatural horror: Sinister. Truth be told, this is a pretty solid horror movie overall, and gives a fresh spin on the idea of “found footage” movies! It’s brought to us by the producer of Paranormal Activity and Insidious, but doesn’t suffer from some of the issues that both of these had. Paranormal Activity suffered from being regarded as either incredibly boring or weird and somewhat tense until everything comes to a head at the end. Insidious on the other hand, had a very strong and refreshingly scary feel to it that took a major nosedive in the third act. Sinister manages to maintain a consistent tone to its horror that builds over time…you know, like a proper movie should. It never quite reaches the heights of terror that either movie achieved when at their best, but is a strong effort that’s overall enjoyable. Of all the characters involved, the most intriguing is easily Ellison Oswalt, played by Ethan Hawke. He’s a true crime writer with a desire to write his best book ever, and the desire quickly turns to an obsession, as the last time he achieved fame was a decade ago with his first book. This obsession drives him to not only move to the same town where the grisly deaths of a family occurred, but into their house where they were murdered! Now it’s obvious that Sinister is a horror movie, but…the first act of the movie could very well be the first act of a crime thriller along the same lines as Red Dragon (a great movie that should be seen if you haven’t already). This provides the audience a good portrayal of the mental and physical toll that the story takes on Ellison, as well as the family dynamics and how his obsessions affect his wife and children. Although a successfully scary film, there are two issues that were hard for me to ignore. The first is that the actors playing Ellison’s children, Ashley and Trevor, were less than impressive. It’s no surprise for kid actors to not give great performances, but the daughter’s deadpan performance was incredibly distracting. Then again, my disappointment could be from comparing these kids to Pierce Gagnon, the kid from Looper. The second and most jarring issue is Sinister’s reliance upon loud music and sounds for many of its scares, like Insidious. Or as my friend the Film Phage put it: “LOUD NOISES!” Despite the annoyingly influential LOUD NOISES…*ahem*…despite the annoyingly influential loud noises and music however, these elements are used in a way that lead to an effectively creepy and unnerving movie. Sure it’s a manipulative tool, but a tool that is used really well. While Sinister may let down horror purists by relying too much on occasional jump-scares and way too many LOUD NOISES, it is a horror movie that most audiences will enjoy. It will legitimately scare, or at the very least creep out many viewers, while some might leave the theater terrified. I give Sinister: 8/10. I’m Papa Kenn, and I’ll see you next review. Fair Use: All copyrighted material used under Fair Use. If you are a copyright holder and believe your material has been used unfairly, please contact me at: PapaKennMedia@gmail.com

There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable -- unobservable in principle -- it is not part of Science...By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality -- it's just a figment of our imaginations. ~ Leonard Susskind,~

Oh, Boo-Hoo, Hillary But Hillary’s is not the caricatured, bitchy, ball-breaking toughness that their enemies like to attribute to her. She has almost always been much more thoughtful than they granted. It is more like a kind of military rigor: reading the landscape, seeing the obstacles, recognizing which ones are malevolent or malign, and taking expedient action accordingly. Whatever, Skippy. We know better and socialists/communists have you all afoul. Like this: LikeLoading... Related This entry was posted on June 4, 2007 at 2:03 am and is filed under Character. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 4 Responses to “Oh, Boo-Hoo, Hillary” Where is the G-damn f**king flag? I want the G-damn f**king flag up every f**king morning at f**king sunrise.” (From the book “Inside The White House” by Ronald Kessler, p. 244 – Hillary to the staff at the Arkansas Governor’s mansion on Labor Day, 1991) “You sold out, you mother f**ker! You sold out!” From the book “Inside” by Joseph Califano, p. 213 – Hillary yelling at Democrat lawyer. “It’s been said, and I think it’s accurate, that my husband was obsessed by terrorism in general and al-qaida in particular.” (Hillary telling a post-9/11 world what a ‘great’ commander in chief her husband was; Dateline, NBC 4/16/2004.) “I have to admit that a good deal of what my husband and I have learned [about Islam] has come from our daughter.” (TruthInMedia.org 8/8/1999 – Hillary at a White House function, proudly tells some Muslim groups she is gaining a greater appreciation of Islam because Chelsea was then taking a class on the “religion of peace”) “F**k off! It’s enough that I have to see you shit-kickers every day, I’m not going to talk to you too!! Just do your G*damn job and keep your mouth shut.” (From the book “American Evita” by Christopher Anderson, p. 90 – Hillary to her State Trooper bodyguards after one of them greeted her with “Good morning.” “You f**king idiot.” (From the book “Crossfire” p. 84 – Hillary to a State Trooper who was driving her to an event.) “If you want to remain on this detail, get your f**king ass over here and grab those bags!” (From the book “The First Partner” p. 259 – Hillary to a Secret Service Agent who was reluctant to carry her luggage because he wanted to keep his hands free in case of an incident.) “Get f**ked! Get the f**k out of my way!!! Get out of my face!!!” (From the book “Hillary’s Scheme” p. 89 – Hillary’s various comments to her Secret Service detail agents.) “Stay the f**k back, stay the f**k away from me! Don’t come within ten yards of me, or else! Just f**king do as I say, Okay!!!?” (From the book “Unlimited Access”, by Clinton FBI Agent in Charge, Gary Aldrige, p. 139 – Hillary screaming at her Secret Service detail.) Hillary represents “What’s wrong with America….always blaming someone for his or her perceptions and actions , rather than assuming responsibility” and the scaring part is, Americans have supported the Clintons. She has been and is,… a total fraud WILLING TO SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED. She is about as ‘warm’ as a cold blooded rattlesnake.

Work It Work It But it was Melissa Fleis' royal-blue cowl-neck frock that earned her the win. Rightfully so. "I want to do away with typical 'office clothes,'" Fleis says, echoing a popular sentiment among so many busy ladies. "Working women today are looking for that edge in life and the workplace. I want to help them achieve it." Fleis, however, who had yet to win a challenge in the season, was shocked to have landed on top. Alex Wynne in top by Raul Osorio and skirt by Sonjia Williams; Lacee Teel in the winning dress by Melissa Fleis.

We now require registration to download high resolution fan art. Please take a few seconds to register absolutely free! Click here now. (Registering will also let you tell this artist how much you enjoy their work in the comments below.) Here's the picture I made. Ducky edited it and made the lines cleaner so it'd look better than before. It's a heartless!!! A sad one. Isn't it cute?

Cryopreserved (frozen) Donor vials are available to individual Client(s)/Recipient(s), within the United States and Worldwide to achieve Assisted Reproduction. BioGenetics Corporation was established in 1980 to become the first commercial sperm bank in the United States located in New Jersey. BioGenetics respects the current medical standards and ethics set forth by the: American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) American Society of Andrology (ASA) The American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) The American Urological Association (AUA) and all related scientific associations as well as regulatory government agencies that may impact Reproductive Cell and Tissue Banking. BioGenetics is FDA Registered BioGenetics is licensed by The New Jersey State Department of Health as a Laboratory under CLIA The New York State Department of Health as a Reproductive Cell & Tissue Bank BioGenetics Corporation operates under the direction of Albert Anouna, President and CEO. Mr. Anouna holds a B.Sc. and is certified as a High Complexity Laboratory Director (HCLD). Mr. Anouna is a member of the following professional and scientific organizations: American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) American Society of Andrology (ASA) American Association for Clinical Chemists (AACC) American Association of Bioanalysts (AAB) International Society for Environmental and Biological Repositories (ISBER) International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) The BioGenetics Corporation staff includes a Medical Director, a consulting Pathologist, Geneticist, an Embryologist, several Phlebotomists, Medical Technologists, Laboratory Technicians as well as Administrative support personnel.

Lucknow, Nov 7: Ayodhya Deepostav 2018, an event organised to mark Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya town - has entered Guinness Book of World Records on Tuesday. A Guinness certificate was issued to UP government's tourism department and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Avadh University, Faizabad, on Tuesday evening when over three lakh clay lamps were illuminated at Ram Ki Paidi on Chhoti Diwali as part of Deepotsava. Faizabad district will now be known as Ayodhya The event also witnessed some important announcements. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that Faizabad district will now be known as Ayodhya. "Ayodhya is a symbol of our pride. Ayodhya's identity is with Lord Ram. From today, Faizabad district's name will be Ayodhya," he said. Three lakh Diyas on banks of river Sarayu The mega Deepostav 2018 celebrations which began today with an aim to set a world record, entered the Guinness Book of Record for lighting as many as 3,01,152 earthen lamps, on the bank of River Sarayu. More than three lakh ‘diyas' or ‘earthen lamps' were lit on both sides of the banks of River Saryu. 30-feet statue of Lord Ram A massive 30-feet statue of Lord Ram was also installed on the banks of Saryu, along with that of Lord Hanuman, for Diwali celebrations in the city. Ayodhya Deepotsav 2018 The Deepotsav is an initiative by the Tourism and Cultural Department of Uttar Pradesh to celebrate Lord Rama's victory over Ravana and return to His kingdom in Ayodhya. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This includes cookies from third party social media websites and ad networks. Such third party cookies may track your use on Oneindia sites for better rendering. Our partners use cookies to ensure we show you advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on Oneindia website. However, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Learn more

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Follow Us Timberwood Park, San Antonio, Texas Nestled in the foothills of the Texas Hill Country in San Antonio, Timberwood Park offers its residents the kind of views and peaceful calm that only nature can provide. Upon easily accessing this North-Central community from Blanco, Borgfeld, and Canyon Golf roads, its easy to see why this 2,200 acre custom home development is the ideal location. Commuting, shopping, and medical services are just around the corner with Loop 1604 just 5 short miles away, and Hwy 281 less than three. The private 30-acre park with lake, pool, clubhouse, weight room, pavilion, playground, picnic and barbecue area, par 3 golf course, green belts and unobstructed views round off this perfect place to call home. Local Agents Dan Kubinski They told me, "Dan write a Bio!".... Now who wants to talk about themselves? Well here goes: I remember being about 4 or 5 and sitting on a bench in front of a store with my older sister Karen. Picture a towheaded kid wearing one of his 4 older brothers stained, hand-me down red and white stripped shirts, with a hole over the belly button area, sporting worn cut-off shorts and a tattered pair of J.C. Penny tennis shoes, with convenient air holes for my toes to stick out. Shabby would be too kind of a word. My Sis tells it this way: Danny, you said, " Sis, someday I'm gonna be able to buy my own clothes, not hand me downs!" That was followed up with, "I'm gonna be rich Sis.... You just watch!" Its all vague now but she swears by it. Somehow, someway, I ended up doing something that I have a passion for and now over 40 years later, that passion still resides where the little determined boy once ruled my thoughts. I have been blessed with more than I ever deserved. I am rich in spirit, health and family. God has been good to that little boy from long ago, enabling me to do something I love. I am amazed and thankful every day. Fast forward a few years and envision a teenage boy in El Paso who is intent on buying 4 acres of land in Chaparral, New Mexico, on a note for $14,000. I told my family it was going to be worth much more soon. They thought I was crazy and had no business buying some land. My friends were making payments on their used Chevy Camero's, Monte Carlo's, Ford Pinto's or even 4 x 4 Ford pickup trucks, I wanted to invest in buying land. I knew it was going to go up in value soon. It did, I resold it for $19,000 just 5 months later. I was hooked and I think I even bought a new pair of shoes! That was a start of many transactions. Now, after helping over 7000 families buy or sell homes across Texas, that fire still burns deep inside me. I always have had a feeling that everything will work out! It really does when you think about it. For some reason optimism followed me like the wind, always there whispering that I could do it. You see, just as that little kid of long ago or that teenage boy full of dreams believed anything was possible, I still think I'm going to win. From those early days till now, I have been privileged and honored to have had a chance to help so many people with their real estate buying or selling needs. We have a super talented and dedicated staff to help people and without them, and of course, Tracy my wife, it would not be possible to have closed over 500 million dollars of sales in the past few years. We keep things simple. We offer, "Over the Top," service to our clients and that has been a recipe for success for us. We are truly a full service real estate office. We now even have been entrusted with government contracts from HUD, the US Marshals office, the US Attorney Generals office as well as close ties with hedge fund groups. As our client, you will receive the best we have to offer in personal service, knowledge of the current real estate market statistics, upcoming trends, home values, and expert negotiation skills. We also guide you through every step of the home buying/selling process so you will never feel alone. When you hire us, we come to work for you and will bring along years of experience and sage advice. To quote one of my favorite speakers, Zig Zieglar, "You will get everything you want in life as long as you help everyone get what they want!' Thanks for reading this and taking a look at what we are about. I thank God for what he has done for me. Dan Jonathan De La Garza No Agent Found Pilar Gonzalez No Agent Found Geoffrey Myane My family has been involved in real estate as investors, agents, renters, and advisors since before I was born. I have followed up in every role, trained by winners in the industry and successfulexperience. I do real estate because of only one reason – I truly enjoy it. I enjoy my clients getting the deal that makes them happy, and I enjoy giving fifteen percent of every commission to a nonprofit of their choice here in San Antonio to help our great city become even better. I work to find and sell properties through both traditional and contemporary options available in today’s world – online websites, MLS, mailed flyers, open houses, social media, youtube, community social events that I host, and more. Real estate is less work and more passion for me, so my phone and computer is always on and busy. No matter what you’re looking for, allow me to help you in any way I can – even if it’s just a call for advice. Rechelle Glendenning Rechelle Glendenning is an accomplished realtor and has been in real estate now for five years, one year with Crowned Eagle Realty. She has an insiders knowledge of the San Antonio area-commercial and residential market. If buying, selling or just dreaming, she places the utmost attention to service and detail. She represents buyers and sellers in any price range.

Like many others I've been creating a simple PHP/XML CMS with a wonderful tutorial on this site. Essentially it's a 'latest news' page. The stories display on the web page with the most recent item created at the top, but I want to be able to 're-shuffle' the stories based on a number I add to an XML node.I'm sure there must be a way with PHP to order the results based on a number in one of the nodes? For example: In the above example, because it has been given the rank '1', I would like it to display first on the web page no matter when it was created. Other stories with higher numbers would appear below it. Does that make sense?! Here is the php code that extracts the info and displays it on the web page:

Follow me on Thursday, 29 March 2012 This is a card I made for my friend Eileen who's birthday it is today.....Happy Birthday Eileen...I just love this S.U. Elements of Style stamp set. Coloured with Copic pens and I have 3D some of the flowers.Card, papers and the embossing folder are all from Stampin Up...just added a touch of glittered lace and a few pearls. Saturday, 24 March 2012 This is an image from the Oh La La CD Carnival of Colours which has some beautiful images and is lovely to use especially when you need a quick card.For part of the background I have stamped an S.U. script background a onto old olive card. Leaf branch is also from S.U.....faux brads added. Wednesday, 21 March 2012 The challenge over at Penny Black this week is 'This, That and the Other (Anything goes). Haven't had time to craft since Friday as we have been baby sitting but managed to produce this card for the challenge.Stamped image is called 'Sweet surprise' and coloured with Copics.Backing paper is from my stash but I know the yellow paper is from Papermania.Sentiment is Personal Impressions stamp... Sunday, 18 March 2012 Firstly Happy Mothers Day to every mum out there in blogland....I hope you are all being thoroughly spoilt today. This is also my mid month post for St Lukes charity card challenge and our challenge was Spring into Spring.My stamp is an old one and although is wood mounted does not have a name on it....this stamp really needed to be 3D to make the tulips stand out...image was embossed with copper and then painted with some Daler-Rowney Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic paints which I have had since the year dot!Corner dies are from Cuttlebug... sentiment is stampin up. You still have time to make your Spring into Spring creation...and we are hoping we might top 100 entires this month...so come on crafters help us reach our target.Have a lovely day..... Saturday, 17 March 2012 She's a wonderful daughter and a fantastic mum. Martin her husband is taking her away for a couple of days and we are looking after the children, we are having a family meal today which will be lovely... Friday, 16 March 2012 I love these sets where you get stamps and dies together although I have just used the die cuts on this Die-Namics set, its does save you having to cut out the images! I have used a tiny stamp from the set on the background behind the tea pot. Backing papers is S.U.....just added a little bit of lace for the tablecloth and made some faux brads.Hope you all have a great week end whatever you do.. AnneI've just noticed the word tea is upside down..so had better change that!! Thursday, 15 March 2012 I've been playing with my S.U. Fresh Vintage stamp set.Stamped the main image using old olive and also stamped the larger flower stamp using real red and 3D the flower head. Mounted onto Nesties. For the background I used S.U. designer paper which matches the stamp set and one of the S.U. embossing folders. I used 2 of the small butterflies from the S.U. Butterfly Sizzlet die.We have thick fog again here in Somerset and it quite cold so think today could be a crafting day....well who needs an excuse to craft!! Wednesday, 14 March 2012 Ok I know its the same image as yesterdays post but haven't got another card to post today so thought you might like to see the Baby Boy version of yesterdays card.Image is from Sugar Nellie called 'Bambino'....coloured with Copic pens...backing papers are all from S.U., sentiment from LOTV.....S.U> eyelet punch. Embellishments from my stash. Think my daughter will happy with the baby cards.Its our club night tonight and we stamping onto candles with Michelle and doing a parchment project with Janet....hopefully if I remember I will take my camera tonight and take some photo's. Tuesday, 13 March 2012 Two posts in one morning!!! I've finished the first baby card for my daughter and I've used this lovely image from Sugar Nellie called 'Bambino'.....coloured with copic and mounted onto Nesties. Again I have used some gathered ribbon around the edge. Backing papers are from S.U. The little silver flowers are buttons which I have had for ages. S.U. eyelet border punch and of course a few pearls.... Right off to make a the baby boys card now...which I will post tomorrow!! Another 'quickie' LOTV card for you this morning using the die cuts....love these two little chaps... Papers are from K and Co Hopscotch pad...MS border punch and Su star punch...Off to make a couple of baby cards for my daughter, her friend is having a C.Section next week and of course they don't know what sex the baby is so need to make one of each.... Monday, 12 March 2012 I am still plodding on with my 60 card order...nearly there now just Wedding and a few mens cards to do...This is one of my 'quickie' cards using one of the lovely LOTV die cut images which I have added more colour to. For some reason the colours haven't colour come out very well...I used Copics next time I will use pencils and hopefully that will be better...Anyway back to the card...backing paper is from S.U. so is the cardstock, Nestiies die, E.K. Success scallop border punch, sentiment is from Craftwork Cards...Thanks for popping by... Sunday, 11 March 2012 Another great challenge this week from Chrissie and Mandi over at Less is Moreits One Layer and the subject is Script.I've used two stamps, one script one if from Hero Arts called Manuscript Background and the lady is a Rubber Stampede stamp and is just called 'Woman in a Hat'. I stamped the lady first then masked her before popping the script stamp over the top.The weather here in Somerset is a bit foggy and overcast so an ideal day to spend in the craft room!Enjoy your Sunday... Saturday, 10 March 2012 Our challenge over at the Penny Black Saturday challenge this week is 'The Young Ones'.... This is one of my cards that I made for my big order so thought you would fit this challenge has you cant get any Younger than a baby!Colours with Copic pens. mounted onto circles with a touch of pink lace around. Backing paper is from Craft Creations, embossing folder used is from S.U.Sentiment is an Art Impressions one...Think my scanner is giving up the ghost as it wont copy very well so will have to get my camera charged up! Thursday, 8 March 2012 This weeks challenge over at Less is More is Colours and the colours we have been given to use are Neutrals...Mandy and Chrissie have given us some lovely inspirational cards... I have used the Stampin UP Triple Treat Flower which I bought a while ago..stamped the flower in Black and Soft Suede. Backing papers are also from S.U. and so is the border punch and the sentiment, Just added a little black ribbon across the centre. Wednesday, 7 March 2012 I have been lucky enough to receive this lovely award from Pauline over at Craft Obsession so thank you Pauline very much.So, to accept this award there are a few rules:Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.Reveal your five blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.Copy and paste the award on your blog.Hope that those you honour forward it to their favorite bloggers.Here are just 5 ladies who visit on a regular basis, and provide a lot of inspiration when the old mojo is lacking but I could add a lot more to my list.... Sunday, 4 March 2012 Penny Blacks challenge this week is CASE-IT and this is my take on the challenge.I've used my Butterfly Kitty stamp and coloured it with Copic Pens.Flower punch is one of the Nellie Snellen ones, Senitment and punched label is from Stampin Up.My lovely friend Val and her husband come to visit on Friday and we always have a bit of a 'show and tell' of our crafty things we have done and Val very kindly let me use one of her new Go Kreate dies which was a scallop circle which just about went through my Bigshot..so thank you Val.Easel cards aren't the easiest of cards to photograph thats why I dont put many on my blog!! Thursday, 1 March 2012 Where did February go to?? Its the 1st of the month and that means another challenge over at St Lukes Charity card challenge and this month our challenge is Spring into Spring...anything to do with Spring....flowers, animals, fresh Spring colours so lets see what you can come up with.The stamp I have used is an old PSX Clematis stamp, coloured with Prismacolor pencils, backing paper is from Stampin Up the Trellis punch us a Martha Stewart one, leaves punched are from the SU bird punch.We have two great giveaways this month so if you enter a card you could win this lovely set of Waltzing Mouse stamps and a great magazine Paper Crafts for lots of inspiration: Pop over the the St Lukes Challenge blog and see what the other members of the DT have come up with for this challenge.....wouldn't it be great if we would reach 100 entries this month, so come crafters show us what you can do. Follow this blog with bloglovin Followers Translation Follow by Email About Me My name is Anne I have been a crafter for many years but making cards for 18 years. My friend Karen and I started a Craft Club in a little village in Somerset 11 years ago.I have the best hubby in the world', 2 lovely daughters and 4 beautiful grandchildren, who could ask for more?

The Bauer Memorial Path provides a short route through residential and commercial areas of Machesney Park, a northern suburb of Rockford. The trail begins at the Harlem Community Center and travels in... The Busse Woods Trail system is located within Ned Brown Forest Preserve, a 3,700-acre property in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. There are 11.2 miles of paved trails for cyclists, equestrians... The Cal-Sag Trail (or, Calumet-Sag Trail) is currently under active construction. As of early 2018, it has a competed section of about 13 miles, stretching from near its western terminus at the John... Illinois’ Centennial Trail runs through parts of three suburban counties from Willow Springs Road to Romeo Road/135th Street southwest of Chicago. The trail occupies a thin strip of land between the... The Chain O' Lakes Bike Path is a paved trail that runs between E. Grand Avenue in Fox Lake and Grant Woods Forest Preserve to the east. The trail parallels the railroad track and Rollins Road/CR 31,... The Charles Street Community Path offers a neighborhood route through southeastern Rockford, connecting residents to CherryVale Mall on its eastern end. On its western end, Alpine Park is just north... The Commonwealth Edison Bikeway is a short paved trail that occupies an overhead electric utility corridor owned by Commonwealth Edison, the local utility company—hence the trail's name. While lacking... The DeKalb-Sycamore Trail—also known as the Peace Road Trail—parallels the eastern side of Peace Road from DeKalb to Sycamore in northern Illinois. Along the way, you'll pass a mixture of residential... The Deer Grove Trail is one of several great Chicagoland trails located in properties of the Forest Preserve of Cook County. Deer Grove is the oldest of all the Cook County preserves. It's comprised... The Duck Lake Nature Area Trail follows the southern side of Lake Como between Lake Geneva and Como, Wisconsin, not far from the Illinois state line. The trail is more rustic than most rail-trails and... The East Northbrook Trail is a 1-mile route through a wooded corridor adjacent to an out-of-service rail corridor in the Village of Northbrook. The trail provides access to residential neighborhoods,... The the Fox River Trail (FRT) was built on stretches of three former railroads: Chicago, Aurora & Elgin; Aurora, Elgin, & Fox River Electric; and Chicago & North Western. Today, it hosts a multitude... About an hour northwest of Chicago, the beautiful Grant Woods Forest Preserve spans more than 1,000 acres, offering an outdoor respite of prairie, woodlands and marshes. The crushed limestone pathway... The eastern segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 12 miles of an abandoned railway corridor through DuPage County, between Villa Park and West Chicago. There are plans to extend the... The western segment of the Great Western Trail in Illinois follows 17 miles of a former railway corridor through DeKalb and Kane counties, between LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve and the town of Sycamore.... The Harlem Township Bike Path lies not far from the Rock River in western Machesney Park in the Rockford metropolitan area. The trail consists of a lower (southwest) and an upper (northeast) loop in... The Hononegah Recreation Path begins near the State Route 2 bridge over the Rock River in Rockton, a small town about 4 miles south of the Illinois–Wisconsin border. The paved trail follows Hononegah... The John Husar I&M Canal Trail is the northernmost trail developed on the Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. The Illinois & Michigan Canal provided the final link in the water route... The Joliet Junction Trail is a paved path that travels north–south through the west side of Joliet. It occupies an abandoned Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway corridor that in its last years was known... The KR Trail is a new addition to Kenosha County’s growing bike-ped network. The trail picks up where the Kenosha County Bike Trail leaves off, in Petrifying Springs Park. From the northwest corner of... The Kishwaukee Riverfront Path winds nearly 7 miles through downtown Belvidere, east of Rockford in northern Illinois. As its name implies, the paved scenic trail follows the waterway for most of its... The Kishwaukee-Kiwanis Trail winds through the northern Illinois town of DeKalb, coursing along a river, through woodlands, among open spaces through parks and through suburban back yards. The trail... The Kuhn Road Trail starts on Lies Road, at Glenbard North High School and continues south along Kuhn Road, past single-family homes and Friendship Park. The trail officially ends at Barbara O'Rahilly... The 13.5-mile Lake Michigan Pathway keeps you in close touch with the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world as it links rail-trails north and south of the port city of Racine. Along the way, the... Although a relatively short trail, the Leland Path provides an important connection between the Hononegah Recreation Path and the Stone Bridge Trail. The pleasant, tree-dotted pathway travels through... The Millennium Trail currently spans just over 30 miles in two disconnected segments, but there are plans to extend it to 35 miles and connect it to the Des Plaines River Trail. The trail goes through... The North Branch Riverwalk is a 0.6 mile biking and walking trail located on Chicago's northside along the North Branch of the Chicago River, nestled between Gordon Tech High School and Lane Tech High... The North Branch Trail follows the North Branch of the Chicago River over 20 miles through Cook County. The trail was originally a dirt path often used for horseback riding; though it’s now paved, an... The North Shore Bike Path runs for nearly 8 miles between Lake Bluff and Mundelein, paralleling State Route 176 for the path's entire length. The trail is one of dozens in the Chicagoland area, all of... The North Shore Channel Trail extends from the junction of Green Bay Road and McCormick Boulevard in northern Evanston to the junction of Lawrence Avenue and Francisco Avenue in Chicago. All but the... Racine’s southeastern neighborhoods are home to the North Shore Trail, which extends south to the Racine–Kenosha county line. Because Racine County standardized its signs several years ago, you won't... The Orland Park Bikeway provides a great connector across the Chicago suburb of Orland Park. On its southern end, the trail begins at W. 159th Street and winds its way through Centennial Park, which... Stretching from Afton to Janesville, the northern section of the Peace Trail offers a paved, tree-shaded route paralleling the Rock River and an active rail line. At its northern end, the trail merges... The Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail runs for 6 miles along an abandoned railroad corridor, between the towns of Allens Grove and Clinton. The trail is open to snowmobiles, cyclists, horseback riders and... The Perryville Path runs nearly 7 miles, connecting the communities of Loves Park and Rockford, not far from the northern border of Illinois. A pleasant place to begin your journey is Rock Cut State... The Pike River Pathway is a short trail on both sides of the reconstructed Pike River in the Village of Mount Pleasant. The path is convenient to several neighborhoods in the community. Birds, frogs... The Prairie Point Trail is a scenic neighborhood route that connects twice to the longer Grove Road Trail. While never far from houses, the trail offers surprising scenery, including a stretch along a... Prospect Heights has very few sidewalks, so biking, inline skating or walking are moved to the streets or in the parks. Don't underestimate the Prospect Heights Bike Path which is over four miles of... The Puri Path is a paved route in Rock Cut State Park, a beautiful outdoor destination of more than 3,000 acres for the city of Rockford. The path runs through the heavily wooded northeast corner of... The 4.4-mile River Bend Trail is so named for the loop of Fox River along which it follows on its eastern end. It's here that you can connect to the scenic Fox River Trail to travel 43 miles along the... The Robert McClory Bike Path runs the length of Lake County, knitting together a string of communities on the north shore of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. In 1997, the trail was named... The paved Rock River Recreation Trail winds throughout downtown Rockford and environs, following the east bank of the Rock River through Shorewood Park and Martin Memorial Park. Officially, the trail... The Rock Valley College Path is a paved route looping around and through its namesake campus in Rockford. At its southern end, it connects to the Spring Brook Road bike lanes that continue east to the... An excellent example of land use in greater Chicago, the entire Skokie Valley Trail corridor is a rail-with-trail, paralleled by double tracks that sit about 40 feet to the west of the trail surface.... The Southern Dupage County Regional Trail connects multiple of the larger forest preserves in Dupage county together. Starting near the intersection of 75th st and Ogden Ave in Aurora, the trail runs... The Stearns Road Bike Path is a dedicated sidepath traveling from Hanover Park to the Bartlett, in the Chicago suburbs. The asphalt path sits on the north side of Greenbrook Boulevard/ Stearns Road,... Built on a former rail bed dating back to the 1850s, the Stone Bridge Trail provides a crushed limestone pathway through rural countryside. A highlight of the trail is passage on Stone Bridge over the... The Struckman Boulevard Path is just over a mile long, stretching between Bartlett Road and State Route 59, (although the path narrows from the end of Sunset Park up to the end on SR 59). That said,... The Tall Grass Greenway Trail is a trail that runs along the right of way for ComEd powerlines. The trail goes mainly through neighborhoods in south Naperville, and meets up with the south branch of... In just a few short miles, the Wauponsee Glacial Trail leaves the urban confines of Joliet to bask in open farmland and reclaimed tallgrass prairie where the bison roam again. Named for a glacial lake... Recent Trail Reviews Kinstone Recreational Path Side trail that leads to others It seems to me this should have been called the Hononegah Trail given it passes through the forest preserve and etches the road with the same name. Anyways, the far east part of this path stems off of the Old Bridge Trail which is a great place to bike. When you come off that trail and onto the Kinstone, you go through a small forested area before heading up a hill that starts you along Hononegah Rd. The trail is asphalt/cement and is in pretty good shape. As mentioned, it goes through the front section of the Hononegah FP where they have a bathroom, picnic tables and a water pump all near the trail. The trail ends just east of downtown Rockton but another path picks up that takes you past the Rock River and the downtown area. There aren't many bells and whistles along this short path but it is a nice continuation to other trails in the area. Stone Bridge Trail Continue the Long Prairie Trail A month or so ago I rode the full length of the Long Prairie Trail. When I reached the Ronald Olson FP I realized that the trail continued as the Stone Bridge Trail. Having liked the Long Prairie Trail I marked the path for a future visit. That didn't take long, I was back a month later and ready to tackle the Stone Bridge and four other paths in the area with my son. The Stone Bridge Trail is a very well kept limestone trail that only spans about 6 miles. Although short it features areas where you are in a gorge, then on a steep hill. In the middle you can get a history lesson by demounting and walking down the hill at the Stone Bridge site. At the base of the hill you can see the preserved site and read about its historic value. At the northern base of the trail you can see where the train track line continues north. I sincerely hope they turn this into more biking trail that heads into Wisconsin. Waterfall Glen great ride We rode the main trail and explored a few trails leading off the main trail on our mountain bikes. The only complaint is the lack of water. We are going back in a couple of days to do two loops and try more side trails. We will bring a cooler with our supplies Pecatonica Prairie Trail On the decline I've used this trail for years. The past couple have seen serious decline in the trail's condition. It once was nicely and evenly packed with crushed gravel as recent as three years ago, but now most of it has been overtaken by grass and heavy rains have washed out parts of it. It's still passable on mountain bikes and fat tire bikes, but that's about it. I'm not sure why it has stopped being maintained but at the current rate, in another year or two nature will take it back completely. Fermilab Trail Good ride, Kirk Road is a mess We came thru off of Batavia Rd and was an easy no traffic ride. Easy loop back to Prairie Path Trail. Headed north on Kirk and is under construction and west side bike trail is terrible going up to Faybian Pkwy. Fox River Trail (IL) Oswego to Algonquin and back We’ve spent many hours on this trail since we started riding a tandem two and a half years ago. We live close the Virgil Gilman trail in Sugar Grove and have spent most of our time on the southern half of the Fox River trail north and south of its junction with the Gilman Trail. The Fox River Trail also connects with the Illinois Prairie Path and its spurs as you venture north of Aurora through Elgin. Six weeks or so ago we decided that we would try to ride the entire length of the trail and back. We spent the last couple of weeks on the northern section of the trail making sure that we knew our way through the northern half which has a few sections that go around short breaks in the paved trail such as north of State Street in South Elgin and heading south into South Elgin where the trail meets Raymond Street, there is also a junction to the Elgin spur of the Prairie Path. If you cross Raymond Street, you’ll be on the Prairie Path which you can use to go around South Elgin. To stay on the Fox River Trail, do not cross Raymond – go around the corner to the right. Each of these practice runs also included the hilliest section of the trail between South Elgin and Batavia. Tandems are crazy fast downhill due to the mass and aerodynamics but riding up long hills takes a special kind of love! Yes, the trail can be busy around the towns; especially on weekends. The same reasons we are attracted to this trail also brings out the people walking and families. We thought doing our end to end ride would be better on a Friday but there were a surprising number of folks enjoying the beautiful day with us. We’re just patient with passing and give a thank you as we go by. More so than some other trails, there are many surface crossings so this trail will not boost your average speed, but we find these limitations to be a reasonable trade-off for this well-maintained trail. The ride yesterday was generally incident free and went according to plan and was our longest ride to date on the tandem. We started out with a rear derailleur skipping issue which was very annoying (you shift more on a tandem than a single) but a quick adjustment at our first rest stop and all was well. The only other issue was a bridge replacement over Poplar Creek just north of South Elgin. Last Sunday there was no sign of construction, but we approached yesterday to find the trail closed. We checked it out to find that the old bridge had been removed but the new one was not yet installed. Fortunately, we found an unofficial detour and continued. Southbound, there was a sign that indicated the trail would be closed through the end of the month. Cal-Sag Trail Beautiful trail, no street crossings!! Loved exploring this trail today! A bit hillier than Prairie or Salt Creek but nice rolling up and down both ways. We easily found Sag Quaries with Google Maps off of 83 and jumped right on. Couldn't believe no street crossings all the way to Nicks BBQ at the end of the trail! We stopped for lunch than headed back. Nice 24 miles! Loved the Lake Katherine area and the low traffic on this trail! We'll do it again in the fall as the foliage will be beautiful! Danada and Herrick Lake Regional Trail Herrick Lake - A Little Gem in Western DuPage County I am embarrassed to admit that I have lived in the area for 20+ years and have driven by this little gem more times than I can remember. It is gorgeous!! I took my bike and was amazed at the number of trails and how large the area is. I went on a weekday afternoon so while many people were there walking their dogs or just enjoying the solitude, it never felt crowded. There were many stretches where I was completely alone and had the trail to myself. The parking lot of the Herrick Road entrance can accommodate many cars. It's a great oasis in the Western suburbs and I can't wait to go back!! Prairie Trail (IL) Awesome Path! August 7th. Almost a perfect summer day and definitely perfect for a ride. Did a 30 mile round tripper from just south of Wisconsin line to south of McHenry and back. Condition of trail for that portion was about the best I've ever seen on any trail. Highly recommend parking at the trailhead for the Hebron Trail off Keystone Road at the north end of the trail. Hebron Trail will then take you straight east to hook up with Prairie Trail where you can begin and head south. No problems, well maintained all the way. Passes through several small, medium sized towns on this stretch with McHenry being the biggest. Plenty of access to services, food, water if you need it. Plan is to continue from McHenry on down south for my next leg of this trail. Can't wait to see what's ahead. Baumann Park Recreation Path Very Nice Fox River Trail (IL) Best sights of any bike trail! This bike trail has the best sights of any! In Batavia you have the huge windmill, Fabyan Japanese gardens, and trolley museum. Pretty wildflowers as you go through Saint Charles and pass Camp Kane. The train museum in St Charles is neat as well as the collection of signals with the Woodcliff sign, then once you get to Elgin you can see a little castle off the path, Pratt's castle! I don't think any other path has as cool sights as this one.

is needed. Air conditioners are rated according to energy output, measured in BTUs. Simply put, the larger the room, the more energy output required. One more important point: Modern equipment is more energy efficient than older models. New Energy Star–rated models use 10 percent less energy than conventional models. These new-gener-ation air conditioners often have timers to turn down the power when it’s Hot tips for not needed. Smart usage tips Once you have the keeping cool right air conditioner in place, AHAM suggests following these tips to optimize performance. • Turn off the unit and open doors and windows during cooler periods. • Use the unit fan and portable fans to draw in cooler outside air and increase circulation. • Use a dehumidifier in the basement to prevent excess moisture seepage through the house. • Use a higher (warmer) thermostat setting during peak periods or when the area is unoccupied. A 75- to 80-degree setting will cut power consumption by 15 percent. • Don’t let heat build up all day and then try to cool areas quickly. Start units earlier in the day and cool areas slowly before they are occupied. • Avoid activities that generate high heat and humidity (such as cooking, bathing and laundering) during high-heat hours. • Draw shades or window blinds to reduce solar and outdoor heat. Reflecting and dou-ble-pane glass, awnings, overhangs, louvered sunscreens, plantings, fences or an adjoining building also help—but don’t block the back of the air-conditioning unit. • Regularly change or clean filters and check airflow for blockage or frost on the evaporator coil. • Have the air conditioner checked and cleaned at the start of the season. During the off-season, make certain it is cleaned and properly covered and disconnected.—Tim Talevich KEEPING COOL in your home or business in the summer months can roast your energy bill. But taking energy-smart steps can help keep air-conditioning costs as low as possible. The two keys are buying the proper air conditioner and running it properly. Here’s a primer. Buying the right air conditioner It’s easy to understand how an undersized air conditioner won’t properly cool a room. Units that are too small simply aren’t strong enough to cover a large room. However, an equally common mistake is having an air conditioner that is too large. Air conditioners remove both heat and humidity from the air, explains Energy Star, a federal government organization that promotes energy-efficient products and practices. “If the unit is too large, it will cool the room quickly, but only remove some of the humidity. This leaves the room with a damp, clammy feeling. A properly sized unit will remove humidity effectively as it cools.” Determining the right size of an air conditioner involves calculating room size and other factors. Energy Star offers a basic chart to calculate these figures on its Web site at www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=roomac.pr_ properly_sized. But a more detailed calculator is offered by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) at its site, www.cooloff.org. This program asks for information on which region you live in, whether the room has windows (and which direction they face), what’s above the room and so on. Either way, once you establish room size, you can determine what size air conditioner • EnergyStar certified for high energy efficiency • Electronic controls (including remote control) • High power cooling and low noise operation • Washable air purifying filter (anti-bacteria filter) • Effective dehumidifying operation • Indoor temperature sensing thermostat • Energy saving switch • 24-hour On/Off timer • Window kit for easy installation The Costco Connection Costco offers a variety of air conditioners from leading manufacturers in the warehouses and at costco.com.

2007 to be hottest year ever, says Met Office The UK's Meteorological Office predicts that 2007 will be the hottest on record, due to a combination of global warming and the El Niño weather phenomenon, Reuters reports. This year will, the Met Office and prediction partner the University of East Anglia say, top the current record set in 1998. 2006, meanwhile, currently lies sixth in the all-time hottest years globally chart. All ten of the hottest years during the last 150 (when records began) have occured since 1994, the UN's weather agency adds. Specifically, the upshot is that the world's average temperature in 2007 will be "0.54 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 long-term average of 14.0 degrees". 1998 clocked up 0.52 degrees above said average. Met office scientist Katie Hopkins said: "This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world." The long-term prognosis is alarming. As Reuters puts it: "Most scientists agree that temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due mainly to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport." ®

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insuranceQuotes in the news Get My Best Advice Laura Adams is an award-winning personal finance expert, consumer advocate and author of Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich. As insuranceQuotes spokesperson, she has been featured on USA Today, FOX News, CBS News, NBC News, ABC Radio, NPR, The New York Times and thousands of other media outlets. Is it the right time to shop for Auto Insurance? Did you know that car insurance rates constantly fluctuate and vary each month? Find out when you should shop for new quotes. See how my rates are trending: Average Insurance Rates 6 Month Trend How we calculate these rates How we calculate these rates:X In addition to your input, rates are based on one car and one driver with no traffic violations and state minimum coverage. Rates assume the driver is an employed college graduate and a homeowner with no lapse in coverage. Vehicle is assumed to be garaged on premises and used primarily for commuting and is driven 15,000 miles annually. These rates also include a percentage discount to reflect an aggregate of commonly available carrier discounts. Rates displayed are estimates and are not guaranteed. State: Vehicle Type: Gender: Age: Marital Status: Rates are moving up! Lock in rates before they rise. $101a month Drivers like you are paying an average of $101/mo right now. How we calculate these rates: How we calculate these rates:X In addition to your input, rates are based on one car and one driver with no traffic violations and state minimum coverage. Rates assume the driver is an employed college graduate and a homeowner with no lapse in coverage. Vehicle is assumed to be garaged on premises and used primarily for commuting and is driven 15,000 miles annually. These rates also include a percentage discount to reflect an aggregate of commonly available carrier discounts. Rates displayed are estimates and are not guaranteed. Rates are on the rise for drivers like you! If you are currently paying more than $101/mo, now may be the perfect time for you to lock in low rates before they rise again. Give our free customized quote comparison tool a test drive to see just how much your rates can be reduced!

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The environment minister, Emmanuel Niyonkuru has been killed by an unknown gunman in the conflict-ridden East African Nation of Burundi, ... The environment minister, Emmanuel Niyonkuru has been killed by an unknown gunman in the conflict-ridden East African Nation of Burundi, as said by a police spokesman on Sunday. According to police spokesman, Pierre Nkurikiye, who said on twitter that the minister was shot dead with a pistol in the early hours of Sunday along the streets of the Rohero neighbourhood in the capital, Bujumbura. Police also arrested a woman over her alleged involvement in the assassination, the spokesman added. However, Burundi has been suffering from ongoing political violence since president Pierre Nkuruziza won a third term in office in July 2105 elections, even despite the constitutional two-term limit.

School Level After eight hours of casting and touching a creature of little or no intelligence, the creature would gain average intelligence (compared to humanoids) and learn the language of the caster. Plants also gained the ability to move their "limbs". The creature was effectively charmed by the caster for thirty days; after that, the creature could chose to stay or turn hostile to the caster.

The temps have finally trended under 100 degrees in Arizona and parts of the nation are already getting downright chilly. Hooray for sweater and jacket weather! It's the most fashionable season in our opinion. Cuts are tailored and sophisticated, fabrics are rich and textured, and layering is where it's at! On NBC Channel 12's Arizona Midday, Angela walked us through the latest in key layering pieces from Vida Moulin boutique, and shared style hacks on how to get creative and create the perfect layered look to transition into fall. For questions on the looks pictured below or on Arizona Midday, please email ...Read more. Fact: If you ask a random group of women what their favorite season is for fashion, the majority will enthusiastically respond -- fall, of course!! Why? Well, fall styles are notorious for their sophistication, tailoring, luxe accents, and rich textured fabrics. Yum! And, who doesn't love to layer? Fall gives the fashion lover lots of room for styling and customization. The Fall 2019 collections are an impressive mix of classics like precision-cut tailored suits and separates, a variety of animal prints (especially leopard and python) and cozy knits. On the trendier side, we're seeing an '80s and '90s resurgence - ...Read more. We're seeing an extra dose of '80s glam mixed with '90s edge in the fall collections this season, from sequins and satin to patent leather and utility chic. All luxe, very wearable and easy to mix and style. Sequins for day? YES! Moto jacket for evening? YES! On Channel 3's Your Life Arizona, Angela shows us some of the latest fall trends we'll be featuring at our 4th annual “Sip, Shop & Style” event on September 27th at Saks Fifth Avenue, plus how to take them from day to night. The gorgeous outfits on the show are from Saks Fifth Avenue at Biltmore Fashion Park. Plus, makeup artist Lisa Moore ...Read more. YASSSSS!! It's time for our 4th annual Sip, Shop & Style event hosted by Saks Fifth Avenue and Mom Style Lab! And, we're excited to have ICONIC magazine join us as a media sponsor this year! This event just keeps getting bigger and better. Boots, sweaters and fall decor are popping up in stores, signaling that fall is so close we can almost taste our first pumpkin spice latte of the season... oh wait, it's already on the menu at Starbucks. It may be a little too toasty where you live to don a sweater yet, but you can start embracing fall colors and transitioning to booties. Hmmmmm.... we LOVE fall and all its ...Read more. Every year we travel to Seattle for several weeks to visit family and escape the heat in Phoenix, but it had been years since I'd been to Victoria, British Columbia. I decided to take Christina up on the Victoria Clipper to see the beautiful city and stay at the Fairmont Empress, which presides regally over Victoria Harbor. Known for its history and world-famous high tea, staying at the Empress has been on my bucket list for years. Plus, we have relatives in the area, so it was a terrific opportunity for some quality family time. All in all, we had a wonderful, memorable trip and can't wait to go back! Leaving ...Read more. Back-to-school time is exciting, nerve-wracking, invigorating and emotional all at the same for both parents and kids. Whether your child is starting kindergarten or middle school, picking up some new outfits that your kids feel confident in is an important part of the process. Involving your child in the shopping -- if they let you -- is a good idea, since it gives them an opportunity to express their style and individuality. Of course, some kids are more interested in their wardrobe than others, and many wear uniforms, which puts the focus on shoes and accessories. We turned to locally-owned boutique for both moms and ...Read more.

It wasn’t long ago that Germany was considered one of the few countries with a stable political situation. On the surface at least, with high economic growth and a dominant position within Europe, everything seemed to be going well for the German ruling class. However, this stability is turning into its opposite. On Sunday, 14 January 2018, tens-of-thousands of activists from different labour and left-wing organisations came to the Berlin Socialist Memorial Cemetery in the Eastern suburb of Friedrichsfelde to commemorate the murder of the outstanding German revolutionaries and Marxists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht on 15 January 1919. Early on Monday morning, 20 November, the leaders of the German, right-wing, liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) suddenly declared their exit from preliminary coalition talks and walked out of the room. The negotiations with Chancellor Angela Merkel`s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Greens had been going on for nearly five weeks. A political earthquake is the best way we can describe the federal elections that took place in Germany on Sunday, September 24. For the first time ever in post-war history an extreme right-wing party has been elected to the Bundestag (federal parliament). At the same time the parties that formed the “Grand Coalition” lead by Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2003 have suffered historic defeats. On Monday, a truck ploughing through a crowded Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin highlighted once again the mess that has been created in the Middle East by imperialist meddling. Twelve victims are believed to have been killed while 49 have been injured. The perpetrator of this crime had hijacked the truck from a Polish driver whom he subsequently killed. After the attack, he fled the scene and is still unaccounted for.

OUR WORK To truly see if MP is the right firm to partner with for your project, you should take a look at the successful projects that we have undertaken. The real value of our firm is the expertise and experience that we can bring to you. Biloxi Athletic Building, Biloxi, MS The Biloxi Public School District hired M|P Design Group to design a new state of the art athletic facility at Biloxi High School. The facility totals 10,000 sq. ft. consisting of a large weight lifting area, cheerleading room, locker rooms, shower area and a storage area. The new athletic facility will be utilized by the football, baseball, softball, soccer and track teams. M | P performed the architectural design, structural design, electrical & mechanical design, as well as the civil design for this project. M | P provided the construction administration services for this project.

Work Would be Great Without the Coworkers The French philosopher Jean-Paul Satre once famously said, “Hell is other people.” I’m not sure who poor old (unfortunate) Jean-Paul’s neighbors, friends, or coworkers (people who work at the same place you do) were, but obviously they were not exactly ideal (perfect; the best possible). There’s no question (no doubt) that getting along with other people can be difficult, especially when you are at your job. A recent article tried to look on the bright side (focus on the positive) of bothersome (causing trouble) coworkers and suggest ways that these types of people can actually be helpful. I’m not sure if I’m buying that argument (am convinced; agree), but I thought I’d talk about a few common terms used for these difficult types of coworkers in the U.S. Perhaps you know someone who fits (is similar to) one of these descriptions: A social butterfly is a person who likes to talk a lot, be around other people, attend parties and other social events, and meet and know a lot of people. A gossip is someone who likes to talk about other people, even if what he says isn’t true. You can have a social butterfly who just likes to chat (talk informally), but who may also be a gossip. A workaholic is someone who works too much, and is always thinking about work, even when not working. Malcontents are people who are generally unhappy and who may find ways to do things they are not supposed to do, or may express their unhappiness in other ways. Someone who is passive-aggressive is someone who shows her unhappiness in small ways, rather than confronting (meeting face-to-face or openly) the person who is making her unhappy. A passive-aggressive person might misplace (lose temporarily) important papers, not return your phone calls, or “forget” to do the things she promised to do for you. So, it’s possible for someone to be a malcontent who is passive-aggressive. Even worse, this person could be a workaholic who is a passive-aggressive malcontent! A narcissist is someone who believes everything should be focused on him or her, believing his or her own ideas, views, and beliefs are the most important. A person who is a narcissist might attract people who are suck-ups. A suck-up is willing to say or do things — such as compliment someone a lot or say how great he is — to get an advantage in the workplace. Backstabbers are people who pretend to be friendly with you, but make critical (disapproving) comments or do things to harm you when you’re not around. Who do you think are the most disruptive (interfere with your work or cause the most problems) where you work: social butterflies, gossips, workaholics, narcissists, malcontents, suck-ups, backstabbers, or passive-aggressive people? 26 Responses to Work Would be Great Without the Coworkers There are these kind of jewelleries every place you could be working and every one of them are really a good piece to be off from them if it could be possible but some time it is not. I think one of the most disruptive could be the passive-agressive that usually is also adorn with other virtues like gossip and suck-up. Working in a large place for years, being with dozens of chaps and women every day I have met every kind of these jewelleries inside the office, but what is even worst could be that this kind of people usually have the hability of going up from their position and get what they really want just to be a boss because in fact they cannot do another thing as gossip, suck-up, or backstabber. The common rule should be that fair workers or persons don´t get anything more than too much work every moment. My best dear Jeff, you are a fair good worker without any of these attributes that you have mentioned above, that´s for sure. A piece of paper, a line, at the right side all the negative things about a subject, a place, a decision, a trip, or which ever other matter you need to think on. On the right side all the positive things of the same subject, decision or question. Read all carefully, think on all the negative and the positive things about the matter you need to have a resolution and act accordingly with the result, or not, but you already know the PROS AND CONTRAS ( in Spanish) of the subject. I have done that execise several times along my life, but never about a person, I love or want the person or not, to me that is enough. Cuca an me are watching a new TV serial “Breaking Bad” (one of the best I could remember) and on the second or third episode the protagonist take a paper and make a list that way. It could be one of the few occasions I have watched that on the TV., he has taken a man he thinks wants to kill him, he cannot advise the police and have to decide if he kill the man or not, so take a paper and write all the negative and the positive things of taken his resolution. I am not going to tell you the end, see the serial that is incredible good. I love what Cuca tells us about the themes or stories that she has, itself, to make life easier, sleep, do not think about their future, not thinking about their disease, multiple sclerosis , that have no cure. Ultimately we could all, we know that we must die soon, today, tomorrow, or in a few years. Get sick if we are healthy, and if we ailments, with more reason to live today the present. Cuca gives us a practical example of our destructive thoughts away and have incentives to entertain our intellect. She tells us nice or comical real stories of the men and women who were living hundred of years ago and all of them are so interesting that have a great success in the “gatufo´s blog”, till the point some time emiliano/gatufo. is jealous with her exit. (it could be good to put some of them here in the ESL blog with Jeff´s permiss that sure he gives me) +++++ Second and most important point, reflect on what we are humans. Yes, the second point to ponder here is much more difficult and painful than the first. What happens to human beings? No second day someone dies not massacred, murdered, raped, by one or more other human beings. Humans beings themselves massacred by fellow like them. The other living things of this world kill to eat, or to survive, we kill us humans? Which purpose or we have in our minds to assassinate each other. To crush the weak, the innocent, invent the worst destructive weapons imaginable. Was started with a stone, a stick, a jawbone of an ox or lamb, and so have been used increasingly, knives, swords, spears, arrows, maces, fire, stones, boiling oil, rifles, guns, planes, missiles and even gas mass murder our neighbors. It is a malignant virus that is within our existence that makes us so aggressive, violent, butchers, with ourselves and our neighbors? It is said that God made us in his image and likeness, that mystery is to doubt amazing and frankly, can not be that the image or likeness of God, the supreme being all goodness, you can be the man throughout his existence. Evil, murders, wars, famine and so continue. Humans never learn? Goodness is inside the human soul, of course, thankfully, but there are many doses of evil, violence, mindless aggression leads to kill our neighbors that we do not know, that finally, since such an attitude leads repeatedly million times, today, yesterday, and thousands of years before. We have the gift of speech but not talk to our neighbors, our brothers, we can write and we do not, we can reason and not reason. Simply kill to impose our criteria, for fun, for amusement, for simple and clear evil. And most of the time by ambition, power and money. We forget that we die, sooner than later, and to live well and in peace treasure not need wealth, power and hatred. The world is plunged into extreme violence of the human race, as always, destroys itself and other living things, as long as all this for what purpose? I myself look inside myself and I know I can be violent in other circumstances, in other religious or dictatorial environments. Nobody can understand what is happening today, yesterday, or tomorrow. We’ll finish everything that exists? Could be. I have no explanation for this, nobody does, extreme good and evil that is the human being. Good Samaritan, good father, good mother, and cruel murderer simultaneously if need be. Who can understand? More to the questions “to be or not to be that is the question” or “who I am, where I come to where I’m going”, we might think that we do so much damage to our neighbors and ourselves, while we are charitable, solidarity patients. Frankly it is very difficult to understand ourselves. But life, death, kindness, sadism and violence continue today in any part of the globe, and particularly in certain areas called “hot” of a lifetime. They fight, they kill, die innocent and this continues more. Happen as usual, about the last years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and many other countries. Well, frequently I think on these subjects, but what could be done? Humans are what they are along history, destroy everything they touch but even kill their humans brother without reason and any profit to their souls or the kind of life it is supposed to have. History follows always in the same way, the world if full with last examples of wars, destructions and pain. I tend to agree with your title “Work Would be Great Without the Coworkers”, especially if we have to spend time together with Backstabbers, gossip, malcontents, narcissist, passive-aggressive, social butterfly, suck-up and workaholic. In fact, these kinds of people don’t just exist in our work place, they are everywhere – at home, at work, even a stranger like a sales person could suddenly tells you how horrible her mother-in-law is. There is a saying in Hong Kong: one type of rice feeds hundred types of people. We are all different. I would try to avoid those people who are bothersome. I would like to thank you again Jeff for using this opportunity to teach us more special terms to describe those kinds of people. It is useful to know the use of them. I believe that the best way to get along with the people of these categories is to know their inner world and expectations. Let me clarify my point. A social butterfly is a good mixer who mingles with people easily. Consequently, he can give good advice on how to throw parties, prepare brilliant speeches and do presentations. If I, for example, ask for his wise tips, he will definitely wish to help me because he is an expert in this field. As a result, we will establish a steady long-term relation. By asking for his wise advice, I will boost his self-confidence and self-esteem. In return, I will improve my communication skills. It’s a win-win situation. Moving on to a Gossip, he knows much about the coworkers, their problems and strong and weak points. If I want, for instance, to resolve a conflict with someone or clarify misunderstanding then I can come up to the gossip and ask everything about the person I am about to talk to. After hearing him out, I will be able to set the best strategy to tackle some problems. Besides, I can ask the gossip to get some important information about somebody for me. I bet the gossip will be glad to reveal his true talent. Again, it’s a win-win situation. If a Malcontent bothers you, then you can download a video on crippled and mentally ill people from YouTube who are looking for some sponsors. Explain to him that these people are more miserable than him and need his help. Then, ask him to make a donation or provide them with any possible help. Next, always ask him whether he has done it or not. He will end up contacting you. If it doesn’t work, you can say that there is always some stink coming out of his mouth. He should see the doctor ASAP. Eventually, you will get rid of him. Keep a distance from Backstabbers. Keep your conversations with him to the minimum. The less he knows about you the less vulnerable you are. If you have to deal with narcissist, a few penny compliments will make him happy. Highlight his importance in the company and point at his unique approach to tackling various problems. Don’t overdo, of course. Otherwise, you will be considered as a Suck-up. Jeff’s post provoked so many thoughts that I am writing again. I do not see any problem with that. There is so many white space just waiting to be filled. I am trying to looking at the picture from a different side here. With these individuals it is not all pain and negativity, they also make the world different, less boring and various. So, I am pleased with their presence. Just as an example, without them, there would not be this same post! we would be here complaining about how perfect we are. I do not want to work in a place that looks like the covers of the Jehovah’s witness publications of paradise on earth where you see everyone smiling and the kids play with lions. Maybe that yes, I mean playing with lions, I would like that. So, I am glad there are such individuals around. Personally, at the workplace I experience lots of fun. We are all relatively young and there is abundance of joking around and jerks to make fun of. Answering Jeff’s question, I would say that the most disruptive person is the woman that instead of working goes b@#£@ing around. I could be wrong about that, but geez …women can be disruptive just like hurricanes. Don’t you guys agree? Hi! I like the psychological topic even if I always have a guiltiness feeling. I think we all are a little narcissist, a little gossip, a little backstabber. This is the human nature. I look at the little children. They don’t know to lie and their parents must teach them not to have bad manners with their mates, having a good bahaviour. Because of many troubles, failures from our own life we can harm work place life or even productivity. We start to envy, to hate anyone, especially the success persons. Or simply, we were born with these “manners”. Hi! With regard to the bosses…I agree with the mentioned article. “The narcissists are terrible listeners and apt to gobble up all the credit. Many bosses are narcissists. Take care ensuring that the narcissist doesn’t rule your work life.” One of my bosses was very gossip, backstabber, very, very narcissist, but workaholic and clever. We have sometimes to tolerate some “sins”, if it is possible. Hi! Dear Neal, you are a new comer I think. Glad to meet you. Thank you for your very good advices. For sure you are talking from a boss view point. A good boss must know to use all his employees abilities and “sins” for his profit. And I agree with you: the less he knows about you the less vulnerable you are. This was one of the first advices received when I started to work: don’t talk too much about you. Thank you. Hi! Dear Emiliano, I am reading with interest every thing you are writing. I was worried about you said: around February/ March I began to regain my life again. I’m not really a believer but I pray to God when I lose hope. I do the same, too. I wish you all the best. Hi! Work would be great without the coworkers… I don’t know what to say… I have had the oportunity to work alone in an office. It was quiet, pleasant, but I was isolated from the rest of the coworkers. As I am a lonely person, being and isolated…you can imagine how nice it was. Neal, my eyes are opening wide reading your post as it is wise, absolutely wise and certain. I think you have given us such good advises that I can only said you ¡BRAVO¡ they are really nice and incredible wise advises what you have written in the post. Reminds me what my wife Cuca use to do in her common life, she is really an intelligent wise person just in living without problems with other, family or wich eve other person who could be beside her. I am not so, I am a fighting man that says just what me have not to say being so frank and crude (some times) that seems I am looking for problems every where or moment. To persons like you and Cuca I only could say, Bravo, that is the right attitude to be happier, Neal sincerely yours emiliano. A stimulating issue,I guess.After reading this,some kind of faces,faces of my coworkers, have come out of my mind immediately. some of them are more or less like Jeff said.And it seems to me that a suck-up may disturb me a lot,which could be called ‘friendly-looking tiger’ in China,I guess. But there is a saying in my country,all rivers run into sea because it has wide heart and is capable of embracing all.We are not sea though,we could still learn to sea and try our best not to be influenced by those kind of persons. Anyway,I guess we are not perfect as well and we sometimes are more or less like them. So thinking of more positive sides of people would do good to all of us. Dear Tania, I don´t know if these poems have been here in this land of peace before but again they are here, just for you dear friend. My Love Without wanted, without feeling it nearly without being concious I fell in love. Thin, nice, beautiful crazy girl, we were living the sixties. Deluded years from one generation that confused everything. Love, miracle daily bright that enlight my entire life. After fourty years or more of living, without feeling them being together. Today I still fell in love with you once and again till I´ll die. Depression I am not the same I felt yesterday. Changed without knowing why? It is today what let me empty? Ideas come and go without any sense Thoughts incessant that drill the head Not hopes only awaiting everything go by Be you I say, but so another day Going after chimeras that vanish There is not any sense or hopes just wait One and another day, waiting for what Dead without doubts, easy relax for ever Sleep, not to think, not to suffer, not await Sleep for ever, at the end rest perhaps? Who knows? life it is a not sense being so when there is not will to continue Only rest is the time, today only rest is my will. ++++ Yes, they are quite different, but some time sadness gives a way of inspiration, don´t you think so dear? Hi! Dear Emiliano, very nice poems! I consider them a spring present for me. Thank you. I copy all your poems in a special notebook. I copy to remember them and all good thoughts from all our blog friends who address me.

MadagascarThe rich neon blue color in apatite is often due to the presence of rare earth elements or by natural iridiation. This attractive sphere, having many "gemmy" areas, would make a fine decorative statement in any home or office interior. weight: 15.71 kilos. diameter 8in This auction is now finished. If you are interested in consigning in future auctions, please contact the specialist department. If you have queries about lots purchased in this auction, please contact customer services. Buyers' Obligations ALL BIDDERS MUST AGREE THAT THEY HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD BONHAMS' CONDITIONS OF SALE AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THEM, AND AGREE TO PAY THE BUYER'S PREMIUM AND ANY OTHER CHARGES MENTIONED IN THE NOTICE TO BIDDERS. THIS AFFECTS THE BIDDERS LEGAL RIGHTS. If you have any complaints or questions about the Conditions of Sale, please contact your nearest customer services team. Buyers' Premium and Charges Buyer's Premium Rates25% on the first $150,000 of the Hammer Price20% from $150,001 to $3,000,000 of the Hammer Price12% on the excess over $3,000,001 of the Hammer Price Payment Notices Payment for purchases may be made in or by (a) cash, (b) cashier's check or money order, (c) personal check with approved credit drawn on a U.S. bank, (d) wire transfer or other immediate bank transfer, or (e) Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover credit, charge or debit card. A processing fee will be assessed on any returned checks. Please note that the amount of cash notes and cash equivalents that can be accepted from a given purchaser may be limited. Shipping Notices For information and estimates on domestic and international shipping as well as export licences please contact Bonhams Shipping Department.

So, now that the Xoom has flopped, can we finally agree that "tablet" means "iPad"? Yeah, I don't see how the Android tablet makers are going to make money, Apple won't worry too much as people who want iPads are probably still going to buy iPads. Amazon's only liability is that their business model limits the Fire's availability & distribution.... at least until they can make their way through the tangled labyrinth of international media rights. If - or rather when - they do address that, I think they're going to commandeer the Android tablet market much in the way Samsung commandeered the Android smartphone market, if not more so. Between the Fire and W8/RT, Google-sanctioned Android on tablets may well find itself in a tough place. I do think the new line of Fires put a lot more pricing pressure on Apple than last year. The Fires are more media-centric, but Whispersync for games + parental controls + a new bundled e-mail client make them a bit more competitive with iPads. It's not the problems of printing that keeps the price high - but the publishers definitely introduce an artificial economy of scale. You really are better off with big orders, but it's almost completely artificial as a means to keep smaller publishers out. Breaking the big 3 is the key to opening up the textbook market. Which is exactly what handing students a tablet does. Now what do the publishers do? Where' their "hook"? They don't own the copyright to these things for the most part; the authors do. The authors, in the majority of cases, would have nothing much preventing them from producing an eBook edition at whatever price benefitted them. Looks like a classic "cut out the middleman" to me. And, not a few professors have always been chafing at the problems involved with getting their courses published, especially at the graduate school level. Not all of them are in it for the textbook money, to say the least. State governments at the secondary school level are going to see the advantage here, big time, as well. A lot of smaller states are chafing at the fact that places like Texas and California tend to limit what gets published. But, with no real economy of scale problem anymore, it wouldn't be all that hard to do an end-run around these problems. It wouldn't be totally easy or pretty at that level (the school would have to be willing to deal with the check-in and check-out of tablets and dealing with kids throwing them against walls -- though they have to do that with books as well). The economics of this could get very interesting. Won't happen overnight, but the leverage alone might change the way textbooks work. I foresee another little cosy empire to disrupt. The problem is cost. WHo will be buying the tablets? Do they have to buy the textbooks each year for each student? A decent textbook can last for 10 years (or longer) for many subjects. That is a nice amortization. It could end up that if the school has to provide the tablet and the license each year for the book that it might end up costing more in the long run for ebooks. Eldest wanted a Fire last year. He got a laptop instead. Now this year he's going to get a 16GB Fire HD 8.9 for Christmas. 1920*1200, HDMI out, HD Skype calls to grandma, kid friendly filtering so he can watch Prime streaming without the R rated stuff, no need to settle for the shitty Tegra 3 in the Nexus 7, $300. Yeah, I don't see how the Android tablet makers are going to make money, Apple won't worry too much as people who want iPads are probably still going to buy iPads. Amazon's only liability is that their business model limits the Fire's availability & distribution.... at least until they can make their way through the tangled labyrinth of international media rights. If - or rather when - they do address that, I think they're going to commandeer the Android tablet market much in the way Samsung commandeered the Android smartphone market, if not more so. Between the Fire and W8/RT, Google-sanctioned Android on tablets may well find itself in a tough place. I do think the new line of Fires put a lot more pricing pressure on Apple than last year. The Fires are more media-centric, but Whispersync for games + parental controls + a new bundled e-mail client make them a bit more competitive with iPads. Except Samsung could lose it overnight really. nothing really holding them there. Amazon has price as their big thing, and Amazon content. As for the professors, well, you're right, some do enjoy socking it to their students. That's really a myth. Authors get relatively little per book. The main reason why instructors push their own textbooks is because they think it's the best out there and because publishing helps with career advancement. On a $100 textbook, the author will earn about $15. With a class of 100 students, that's probably 5% or so of what they'd earn teaching the course considering buybacks and so on. You can make real money as a textbook author, but you make your money when you become the standard text and are selling to all institutions. To one class won't make much difference and certainly doesn't cover the 2-4 years of time you invested writing the book. The bigger problem is instructors that self-publish through the institution. That's quite common at for-profit institutions and many smaller schools. They'll create the course materials and then demand the students pay $100 for the photocopies after the course begins. They didn't earn enough on the course fees, so they made it all up on the material kickback. It was a big enough problem that Congress passed a law requiring education institutions that receive federal student aid to publish all course costs before student enroll. It remains a problem nevertheless. Except Samsung could lose it overnight really. nothing really holding them there. Amazon has price as their big thing, and Amazon content. Agreed. Amazon's lock-in goes much deeper. (Of course, Amazon isn't pulling in the billions that Samsung is. But I think I like their odds in the very long run better.) Eh. Apple doesn't make real money on content. Amazon can't either. Amazon is building a storefront for your lap. They want you to buy underwear with this thing, and their profit margin is on the Amazon Prime subscription you need to keep in order to make the device useful. This is the carrier model - they subsidize the hardware and you pay them $80/yr to use it. Once you're paying the $80, you might as well take advantage of the 2 day shipping and whatnot. It's an odd model, but one that Amazon can pull off to some degree. But it's going to have limited success because it only works in the US and to a limited degree in Canada and the UK. In every other market Amazon has nothing. Even if Amazon can beat Apple and Google in the US, development of the competing products will advance unhindered because overseas sales dominate. Eventually Amazon is going to fall behind. And eventually Amazon has to make money here - they can't keep dividing up their profit margins as they are. And they're starting to lose their sales tax benefits - starting in a week they need to collect CA sales tax. That will immediately make my local stores the same price or cheaper than Amazon for most things. But it's going to have limited success because it only works in the US and to a limited degree in Canada and the UK. In every other market Amazon has nothing. What makes you think you can't expand, slowly, internationally? The new Fire is being rolled out in the U.K. offering a very similar ecosystem. Quote: Even if Amazon can beat Apple and Google in the US, development of the competing products will advance unhindered because overseas sales dominate. Eventually Amazon is going to fall behind. And eventually Amazon has to make money here - they can't keep dividing up their profit margins as they are. And they're starting to lose their sales tax benefits - starting in a week they need to collect CA sales tax. That will immediately make my local stores the same price or cheaper than Amazon for most things. I strongly doubt Amazon is going to beat Apple. But they have a very good chance of being the biggest Android tablet vendor, by a long shot. Personally I prefer the smaller device, the ipad is bulky and heavy, why follow that trend? 5 inches is too big for a phone. Fixed that for ya there. Comparing a 5" phone to the ipad? Remember, for the medication to work, you need to take it every day. Please explain the difference between your objections to the iPad being too large and the objections of the people who said that 5 inches was too large for a phone. It should be enlightening. Why would I be concerned about those who think 5" is too large for a phone? My next phone will probably be a Note 2. If some people are happy settling for a 3.5" screen that you have to squint at, then good news for Apple? What makes you think you can't expand, slowly, internationally? The new Fire is being rolled out in the U.K. offering a very similar ecosystem. Their model requires getting a LOT of pieces in place. It's really damn hard. There's a reason why only Apple has been able to pull it off so far. And if they they want the meatspace sales included, they have to work out shipping on top of everything else. So far, they've only expanded into markets where they were also expanding their meatspace business. That's why I think focusing exclusively on digital when assessing Amazon is a mistake. Clearly their traditional sales model remains their core model. The Fire isn't really an iPad killer - it's a retail bankruptcy machine. It's designed to some day let you snap a photo of something you see in the park, pull it up on Amazon, read the review, click the Buy Now button, and have it the next day. No need to visit the mall. Oh, and it streams movies and stuff too. Quote: I strongly doubt Amazon is going to beat Apple. But they have a very good chance of being the biggest Android tablet vendor, by a long shot. Amazon can't win the digital war. Apple can go loss leader there if need be, and Amazon doesn't control the consumer endpoint well enough. They're more integrated than they used to be, but not nearly well enough integrated to pay off. And if they're not careful, they'll piss off their dependent partners like Google did. I'm sure Amazon makes more money through their iOS originated sales than they do through sales on their own device. They can't afford to break that. Bottom line, you need to make real money someplace. You can use that to subsidize other parts of your business, but you can't use low-margin divisions to subsidize no-margin divisions. That's basically what Amazon is doing. It's why they have a PE of 300. They're growing revenues but not profits, so I have no clue why investors keep rewarding them. There's no possibly way Amazon will ever grow profits to match that PE based on anything they're showing us now. That's why I think focusing exclusively on digital when assessing Amazon is a mistake. Clearly their traditional sales model remains their core model. The Fire isn't really an iPad killer - it's a retail bankruptcy machine. It's designed to some day let you snap a photo of something you see in the park, pull it up on Amazon, read the review, click the Buy Now button, and have it the next day. No need to visit the mall. Oh, and it streams movies and stuff too. Hmm, not sure I agree. Amazon's model is wildly different than Apple's, and no way as profitable, but if they can capture a sizable portion of media that people purchase (and keep, in media libraries) with their DRM, I think there's a real opportunity for establishing critical mindshare and lock-in, ensuring revenue and profit (low-margin, but high volume, and all locked-in). Amazon *has* to succeed in digital, because so much of the media they sell will be displaced by digital formats. Quote: I doubt it too, but it's hard to compete with loss leaders. Yeah, but Apple has supply-chain mastery and economies of scale that Amazon can't (so far) match, which makes the fight more equal. And Amazon can't compete with Apple in the software dept. The new Fires look like great media-centic tablets, but the iPad is so much more versatile. I can't imagine Fires establishing much of a foothold in education or enterprise. Quote: Bottom line, you need to make real money someplace. You can use that to subsidize other parts of your business, but you can't use low-margin divisions to subsidize no-margin divisions. That's basically what Amazon is doing. It's why they have a PE of 300. They're growing revenues but not profits, so I have no clue why investors keep rewarding them. There's no possibly way Amazon will ever grow profits to match that PE based on anything they're showing us now. Amazon's PE is just insane. I wouldn't go near their stock for that reason. It is very strange. That said, I *think* Bezos' long-term vision is genius (or crazy? ). Capturing a significant chunk of the tablet and digital media market *now* has potential to pay great dividends in the future. The Fires, while at the moment may be no-margin (or perilously close), could become low- or even medium-margin products once Amazon hones their supply chain and can establish themselves as a standard. 'dunno, I could be wrong, but I think Amazon has something good going on, strategically. The discussion lookmark and johnsonwax are having is what I find so puzzling about the Kindle strategy: the hardware is a loss leader at worst, break even at best. They can't be making a significant amount off digital content either as the lion's share of the money paid goes to content owners. So what is the goal of these devices? I don't begrudge Amazon's process, especially since it benefits the consumer with good value and low cost products. But from a business point of view I find them intensely fascinating. What makes you think you can't expand, slowly, internationally? The new Fire is being rolled out in the U.K. offering a very similar ecosystem. Their model requires getting a LOT of pieces in place. It's really damn hard. There's a reason why only Apple has been able to pull it off so far. And if they they want the meatspace sales included, they have to work out shipping on top of everything else. So far, they've only expanded into markets where they were also expanding their meatspace business. That's why I think focusing exclusively on digital when assessing Amazon is a mistake. Clearly their traditional sales model remains their core model. The Fire isn't really an iPad killer - it's a retail bankruptcy machine. It's designed to some day let you snap a photo of something you see in the park, pull it up on Amazon, read the review, click the Buy Now button, and have it the next day. No need to visit the mall. Oh, and it streams movies and stuff too. Quote: I strongly doubt Amazon is going to beat Apple. But they have a very good chance of being the biggest Android tablet vendor, by a long shot. Amazon can't win the digital war. Apple can go loss leader there if need be, and Amazon doesn't control the consumer endpoint well enough. They're more integrated than they used to be, but not nearly well enough integrated to pay off. And if they're not careful, they'll piss off their dependent partners like Google did. I'm sure Amazon makes more money through their iOS originated sales than they do through sales on their own device. They can't afford to break that. Bottom line, you need to make real money someplace. You can use that to subsidize other parts of your business, but you can't use low-margin divisions to subsidize no-margin divisions. That's basically what Amazon is doing. It's why they have a PE of 300. They're growing revenues but not profits, so I have no clue why investors keep rewarding them. There's no possibly way Amazon will ever grow profits to match that PE based on anything they're showing us now. New Fires (with the exception of the 8.9" model) are apparently available in the U.K, France, Germany, Spain and Italy: The discussion lookmark and johnsonwax are having is what I find so puzzling about the KindleAmazon strategy: the hardware is a loss leader at worst, break even at best. They can't be making a significant amount off digital content either as the lion's share of the money paid goes to content owners. So what is the goal of these devices? I don't begrudge Amazon's process, especially since it benefits the consumer with good value and low cost products. But from a business point of view I find them intensely fascinating. I think Bezos wants cool stuff; unlike Jobs, however, he doesn't actually care about the profit. How he managed to sneak that buy stockholders I have no clue. It's a Ponzi scheme at that point where new customers generate the profit to pay for the investment to attract them, thereby creating new network effects to attract more future customers et al. So long as the Internet grows, mail order distribution grows, and digital content grows, they are fine. As soon as the market is mature and there are two retail giants, then the game is played by profit since it will be at that point a zero-sum game. That's interesting - and a new development from Amazon. I wonder what services will be available in those countries? App stores. Amazon own Lovefilm in the UK. Kindle books. MP3s. So some of the content. Got to say as pleased as I am to see any Fire in the UK, I am itching to get a tablet, but I don't want one of the 7" models now. The 8.9" model is almost perfect. If anyone from Google is reading, please copy it and make it a Nexus. I don't really think so. Not from what I see now. I can get the Amazon app for free on my Nexus tablet. And, I wonder if 50 dollars (the difference between the new Fire and the Nexus) is going to be that compelling if the only thing Amazon is really selling is a storefront. It needs to be more. What does Amazon bring to the table as far as apps go? As far as services go? Will there be things like Google Earth? Will it get everything or even most things? How good will they be? If I want Amazon right now, on my Nexus tablet, I simply install the app and I have the store front. And, I have everything else out there without fuss. The only way Amazon really wins this game is that it gets a large stable of apps and services. In short, it has to move beyond the store front. Well past the store front. Will it really do so? I wonder if this is some of the reason behind the fact that the original Fire, by all accounts, ran out of gas. Maybe it is a seasonal thing, like other books you buy at Christmas. Or, maybe at around 200 bucks, a lot of people end up with both. My wife likes her Nook, but I ended up with a conventional Google tablet. At 200 bucks, I couldn't resist. But, the Fire, I could. Probably because it looked like just a bookstore to me. My wife already has that. Heck I have access to her bookstore on my tablet, since she's willing to share her B&N account on it. It's just not clear that I'm missing anything by not having the Nook or the Fire. I am reasonably assured at getting the whole tablet experience, whatever the heck that turns out to be. Maybe I won't turn out to be typical, but this doesn't strike me as a very geeky line of thought. The question will probably boil down to how serious Amazon gets about being more than a storefront. The discussion lookmark and johnsonwax are having is what I find so puzzling about the Kindle strategy: the hardware is a loss leader at worst, break even at best. They can't be making a significant amount off digital content either as the lion's share of the money paid goes to content owners. So what is the goal of these devices? I don't begrudge Amazon's process, especially since it benefits the consumer with good value and low cost products. But from a business point of view I find them intensely fascinating. Because not everyone cares about gouging their customers. For some a few percentage points of margin are enough. Aha: here is one catch. With the new Fires, no way to opt of Amazon's Special Offers on the lock screen. Kinda cheesy. That's rather unfortunate. I don't live in the US, so the Fires are of limited interest to me aside from on a technical level. I do, however, have a huge mancrush on the e-ink Kindles and dislike ads enough to spring for the models without ads. I can only hope that removing the option to purchase an ad-free device doesn't spread to the e-ink models. Aha: here is one catch. With the new Fires, no way to opt of Amazon's Special Offers on the lock screen. Kinda cheesy. That's rather unfortunate. I don't live in the US, so the Fires are of limited interest to me aside from on a technical level. I do, however, have a huge mancrush on the e-ink Kindles and dislike ads enough to spring for the models without ads. I can only hope that removing the option to purchase an ad-free device doesn't spread to the e-ink models. Their inclusion in the Kindle tablet devices suggests them using the revenue stream to make money over the long term. Clever idea really. They really are approaching these devices with more of a long term revenue model, womewhat similar to game consoles. Aha: here is one catch. With the new Fires, no way to opt of Amazon's Special Offers on the lock screen. Kinda cheesy. That's rather unfortunate. I don't live in the US, so the Fires are of limited interest to me aside from on a technical level. I do, however, have a huge mancrush on the e-ink Kindles and dislike ads enough to spring for the models without ads. I can only hope that removing the option to purchase an ad-free device doesn't spread to the e-ink models. Their inclusion in the Kindle tablet devices suggests them using the revenue stream to make money over the long term. Clever idea really. They really are approaching these devices with more of a long term revenue model, womewhat similar to game consoles. So ads ship enabled by default until you pay a fee to have them removed, that's interesting. Odd that they didn't just do it like the e-ink Kindles and make a SKU with no ads. Guess they're hoping many people won't opt out. The question is, will consumers sell their soul to ad campaigns for 20 to 50 bucks a device? I kind of hope this fails, because if it doesn't, then we're going to see ads on everything -- quite probably including iOS. Sooner or later, the lure of money will win. If you think Apple won't do that, well, there's this: http://arstechnica.com/staff/2012/08/op ... t-machine/ I kind of hope this fails, because if it doesn't, then we're going to see ads on everything -- quite probably including iOS. Sooner or later, the lure of money will win. If you think Apple won't do that, well, there's this: http://arstechnica.com/staff/2012/08/op ... t-machine/ Well, so far that's one new guy at Apple, so let's not blow it up into a trend until we get at least a 2nd data point even within the retail arm. I agree it's troubling, but it's waaaay too early to panic. That said, Apple's not going to put ads on iOS. They'll do ads as a way to monetize content - tv shows, music, etc. but not the devices themselves. Everything in Apple's last 15 years indicates they would profoundly oppose that. They didn't even ad ads to the iTMS back when they desperately needed the money. Yeah, I know Steve is gone, but Cook is as much at the heart of Apple's reinvention as Steve was.

Honeymoons and weddings abroad are tailor-made by Expressions Holidays. Contact us for a range of honeymoon and wedding destinations around the world and an amazing choice of honeymoons from island-hopping to visiting cultural sites. With Authentic Experiences from Expressions Holidays you enter a world of genuine holiday and travel experiences within the framework of one of our tailor-made holidays, be its significance culture, gastronomy, wine appreciation, wildlife, sports or special occasions. Expressions Spas opens a world of tailor-made spa holidays that allows you to choose according to region, type of treatment desired, product type and recommends for your party type, whether it be for couples, singles or perhaps mothers and daughters travelling together. Expressions Families affords you an amazing choice of sophisticated resorts ideally suited to families in selected destinations worldwide. You can also choose according to required facilities in resort and we suggest holidays for families with grandparents and single parent families too. Gastronomy holidays Gastronomy holidays - luxury food breaks and holidays Gastronomy conjures up images of the world’s best restaurants and master chefs; it brings to mind the flavours of delicious world cuisine and the exquisite tastes of the foods used to create them. In a world where exotic foods from around the globe can be transported to your table in a matter of hours, a holiday themed around world gastronomy is delightful concept to explore. Dine in the world’s most coveted Michelin-starred restaurants and sample the gastronomic delights of world-famous chefs and their young prodigies. Taste some of the world’s most exotic dishes and sample rare delicacies in their place of origin.Whether you want to enjoy a food and wine holiday in Italy or Spain, or to visit Sri Lanka to learn about gastronomy or the tea industry, Expressions Holidays can tailor make a gastronomy holiday to suit your culinary preferences and is guaranteed to be a wonderful experience to savour to the full.Expressions Holidays has been creating bespoke holidays and travel experiences for more than twenty years, so you can trust in us to take great care of your next holiday. Gastronomy breaks Food and wine holidays in Italy Savour the very best of Italian food, learn to cook in Italy and enjoy wine appreciation and wine tasting all

Willie Nelson Tickets Sell Out Posted: Sat 9:04 PM, Feb 07, 2004&nbsp|&nbsp Updated: Sat 9:17 PM, Feb 07, 2004 02-07-04-- Willie Nelson fans in Texoma made history in Ardmore Saturday! Many waited in line all night for the " Highway-man's" March concert and tickets sold out in just two hours, making it the first sell-out concert in Ardmore history. Fans started lining up last night and at one point, the long was so long, it actually wrapped around the building.1,900 tickets sold in the first hour alone as many people bought the limit of ten tickets at a time. Many of the fans made a $5 donation, which makes them eligible to win an autographed guitar signed by Willie.For those lucky enough to get tickets, the concert is scheduled for March 24th. Doors open at 6:30pm. Online Public Information File Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.

I specialise in creating unique 28 mm scale miniature armies, for Warhammer 40,000, Dust, Urban War and other science fiction games Friday, 11 October 2013 Angry Angron: Converted Daemon Prince Today's post is to showcase a commission that I have literally just finished: Angry Angron! This has been quite a lot of work, and lots of techniques went into the finished model, so I've uploaded several pictures of the finished piece. The model came to be already assembled, from a client in America, and was converted from (I think) a WFB giant, with Tyranid Hive Tyrant wings, and parts from a Chaos kit as well. The face and head were from a metal gorilla of some description - the overall model is quite heavy, but well-balanced on the base. I must say that I was impressed by the conversion work that went into this model! This shot demonstrates the work on the wings. I wanted a "bat-like" wing membrane, so used several passes of light dry brushing alongside some thinned washes. The final pass was with just a touch of varnish, enough to give the membranes a leathery finish. I added mottling and small dots to some areas of the wings to add interest. The shoulder pads were from an unknown soft plastic kit (perhaps an action figure!?!), and their positioning did conflict with the wings a little. I used Citadel metallics and washes, then highlighted up so that the gold/brass work really screams. More mottling was done on the back, around the spines and hair. This model also had a lot of skulls! This photo shows the skulls around the belt and groin. The sword was my client's idea. I envisage that maybe it was once a noble, perhaps Imperial, weapon, but has been corrupted and degraded over time. I therefore went with a high silver finish, but ran blue and green washes into the blade. This gave a nice verdigris or patina effect. I finished it with Runefang chipping. Another good view of the wings and back - the model was so big that it barely fit into my photo booth. More skulls on the spines; Angron seems to have been busy... A shot of the face - I went with simple "human" eyes, demonstrating the tragedy of this fallen primarch. Beneath all of the savagery and bloodshed, two human eyes peer from the body of a monster... This photo shows the hands - they are mechanical, and I used weathering powders and washes to demonstrate their age. Rust pigment was brushed into the joints, then sealed with pigment fixer. (Excuse the balance on this shot: the brass looks very orange, whereas in real life it is much more like aged gold.) So, that's Angron finished - hopefully my client will be pleased with him - and I move on to the next project: another squad of Blood Angels Centurions. I've actually been doing these alongside Angron, so they should be finished in the next few days...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 I had a memory tonight, which is rather rare for me. My memories are few and far between. It was a sound that triggered the memory, one from forty years ago. The sound of a cat. It was around this same time of year, when two young boys, one that I knew personally, were playing outside. They had just learned how to tie a noose. These two boys, for whatever reason, tied nooses on opposite ends of a rope, placed them around their necks and climbed a tree. Somehow, in the process of their playing, they fell across a tree branch and the rope wasn't long enough for them to get their legs under them, to get weight off the nooses. After hearing of the tragedy, I was lying in bed, crying. This was back in the days of attic fans and open windows. Somewhere, out in the dark of night, a cat was crying out. The sound reminded me of a child, crying out for it's mother. It broke my heart, more than it was already broken. Hearing that same sound tonight, brought back the memory. The memory of two young lives, cut short. After forty years, it still brought with it, a chill. Sunday, May 22, 2011 During the recent Blog Out, it gave me a tiny bit of comfort to know I wasn't suffering alone. Not sure if anyone else in blogland has been struggling with the new Xfinity business, but I certainly have. Surprisingly, there were only minor glitches and interruptions to my cable service. Phone and internet, on the other hand, have been a real nightmare. When I think back over the years, to all the hours I've spent on the phone... hours I will never get back... talking to people whose accents I struggled to understand, it makes me want to scream. Thinking about all the money we've paid them, for all the aggravation, doesn't make me a happy camper, either. I THINK I'm up and running, again, for now. We'll see how long it lasts. Special thanks to my oldest son, for running telephone interference for me. Hearing the land line ring, music to my ears. Having my internet working, wonderful. Two Advil for the headache... PRICELESS! Just so this post isn't a total rant, I'm adding a recent picture of the ever growing, ever changing, "Chunky Monkey", fresh from a bath, smelling sweet. Friday, May 13, 2011 Monday, May 9, 2011 Much to my surprise, Mother's Day went great. Considering we thought we might have to cancel our plans, since my mother in law went to the ER on Saturday evening, we were shocked we didn't have to spend the day at the hospital. She's fine, still a little weak, but otherwise ok. She's a pretty tough ol' lady. She can still run circles around me and she's old enough to be my mother! She's a force to be reckoned with... reckon I'll pass. I've suffered plenty of her butt kicking over the past 35 years. The target may be larger, but I try to keep it covered. My sweet daughter helped me get the food in order. (Bless you!) We ate, chatted, I held the baby... lots, sat outside and sweltered, some had after dinner coffee, some had wine. The baby had liquid gold, (breast milk) which he shared with me, (reflux) several times. He's very generous that way. I tried to convince him I didn't need it, to keep it for himself. No way, he insisted on sharing. Shares with anyone close. He shared a couple of other things, too, I'll spare you the details, but... I swear I was careful and didn't pinch ANYTHING.A little later, with bellies full, my mother in law and I, opened our cards. My youngest son, the ever witty, thoughtful, ingenious person he is, handed me a book. Upon first glance, I thought for sure it was specially made. (he does things like that) It truly looks like it has tape on the front. See, doesn't that look handmade? I was so excited, UNTIL I OPENED IT! Much to my chagrin, this book is filled with pages that require the owner to basically destroy the book. The book my Son gave me, for Mother's Day. Just look at a couple of the pages... To top it off, he put a message inside... This MUST be a test! He knows how OCD/uptight/anal, I am. He expects me to cut loose and destroy this book AND give it back to him as proof I could do it! To think I gave birth to all 9 pounds, 3 ounces of him and that I could intentionally destroy something he gave me!!! I've got a newsflash for him... IT AIN'T HAPPENING, MISTER! My daughter, on the other hand, gave me a rose. It was one of her roses that adorned my header, when I first started this blog. She specifically said it's a "Sarcastic Granny" rose. Yes, it will wither and die, but it won't be because I destroyed it on purpose. Smart girl, she knows not to mess with my two remaining brain cells. She will need a sitter, at some point. Monday, May 2, 2011 ** Pat, and any other males stumbling in, you may want to leave now. ** I was a bad granny. I've been so traumatized by something that happened the day my daughter brought my new grandson home from the hospital, I've been beside myself. I may have permanent damage. My first three kids were boys. It's not like I've never been around them, or taken care of them, it's just been a REALLY LONG TIME. I do remember that changing their diapers is risky, if you aren't careful. I've been christened, more than once. My first four grandchildren are girls. That's what I've grown accustomed to. The traumatizing event happened during a diaper change. I wasn't even doing the changing, for crying out loud. Daughter and SIL were in the process and had everything laid out to do the job at hand and take care of the newly done circumcision. Prior to pulling the diaper off, they were doing the peek thing, to see what was in store. Everything looked fine and it was pretty hard to tell if the diaper was even wet. No point putting him through all that, for nothing, I decided to lend my experienced hand. Boy, did I! I reached down and squeezed the diaper, in the front, to see if it was wet and out comes the tiniest little scream, much like a newborn kitten!!! In a mere fraction of a second, I realized what I had done! I thought for sure I was going to faint, or vomit, I wasn't sure which. Forgot all about those boy bits. Remembered quickly, but not quick enough to avoid what I had already done. He must have thought Granny was trying to circumcise him again. Do you think he will remember? God, I hope not. I don't think I did any permanent damage, but if his first words sound like Mickey Mouse... I'm headin' for the hills! Followers About Me Ms. Anthropy aka Ms. A (misanthropy: n. dislike or distrust of mankind) I'm a coffee loving, brain dead wife, mother and grandmother... that stays home too much, pondering things I can't possibly fix. When my kids have a problem, I take it personally. Bringing them into this world has left me with a sense of responsibility I'm unable to ignore. Them being adults has not diminished those feelings. I am too honest, a bit sarcastic and will criticize myself more than you will be able to do. I would appreciate you not trying.

The Cleveland State University wrestling team won each of the first three bouts Saturday afternoon, but visiting Binghamton stormed back to claim a 22-13 victory in the Vikings' regular-season finale inside Woodling Gymnasium. The dual began at 149 pounds, and redshirt junior Grant Turnmire got the Vikings off to a good start. Filling in for primary starter Brady Barnett, Turnmire built a 5-0 lead after two periods. His opponent broke the shutout with an escape in the third, but Turnmire would a point of riding time to claim a 6-1 victory. After a scoreless first period at 157, redshirt sophomore Nico O'Dor found himself trailing after five minutes. However, after tying the bout with an escape, he secured a takedown and held on for a two-point win. Redshirt sophomore Ryan Ford was tied, 1-1, in the third period at 165 with each wrestler having secured an escape. Like O'Dor, Ford secured the tiebreaking takedown and was able to claim a 3-2 victory. The Vikings would drop the next two bouts but still held the team score lead halfway through the dual. Junior Chris Morrow had fought valiantly against a top-10 opponent at 184 pounds, trailing by a single point late in the bout, but his opponent held off the upset bid. True freshman Ben Smith never trailed in collecting a bonus-point win at 197 pounds. He had a two-point lead after five minutes but really poured it on in the final frame. He used three takedowns and an escape in the third stanza before adding a point of riding time to claim the major decision. Junior Collin Kelly held the lead after the first period at heavyweight but was unable to hang on. Redshirt sophomore Cameron Lathem was tied, 2-2, with his foe in the third period, but this time the Bearcats got the final takedown to claim the win. After trailing by as many as seven points in his match, redshirt senior Armando Torres had cut his deficit to just three points late in the bout. In the top position, Torres was fighting to earn back points, but the period expired before he was able to do so.

Tomato Bruschetta With Anchovies, Parmigiano Reggiano & Basil Like so much Italian food, the success of this is all about the quality of the ingredients. Don’t make this from supermarket tomatoes in June – don’t make this from supermarket tomatoes at all! The tomatoes have to be perfectly ripe and in season, and not the types that have had the character bred out of them – pick old varieties that are full of flavour Ingredients 6 slices of sourdough bread, sliced 2 cm thick on an angle 2 large garlic cloves peppery extra-virgin olive oil 3 large oxheart tomatoes (or other full-flavoured tomatoes) salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper 6 anchovies 80g parmigiano reggiano, shaved (you might not need all of this, but it is easier to shave from a larger piece) 1 handful of basil leaves Method Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced. Place the bread on baking trays and bake for about 25 minutes until well toasted. Rub the toasted bread all over with the garlic and drizzle with oil. Cut the tomatoes in thick slices directly on top of the toast to catch the juices. Mash and press the tomato into the toast and season with salt and pepper, then top with the anchovies, parmigiano reggiano and basil and pour over a good drizzle of oil. Serve immediately.

we collect information about New Small Family cars from Volkswagen group - VW up, Skoda Citigo and Seat Mii Thursday, March 5, 2015 VW Up facelift - when? Up seems to be forgotten model in VW structure. Hey VW we want see new facelift at least. It is 4 years from the Up! world premiere. And readers share your expectations in comments and put your guesses when new up's facelift will come.

Pages Wednesday, September 9, 2009 The Evolution of Home Sewing: 1958 and Today Did you know that the Time Magazine online archives go back to 1923? I sure didn't, so I was amazed and delighted to find this very informative article called "Sew & Reap" about home sewing from the November 10, 1958 issue.According to this article, home sewing was a billion dollar industry at the time. This is in 50's money! I would be very interested to compare that to the profits of today's home sewing industry, wouldn't you? The article really outlines the ways in which home sewing in 1958 was so influenced by Paris fashion: Every calculated change in Paris means more money spent [on patterns]. So fashion-bent have sewing women become that patternmakers have all but junked the simple housedress designs that used to be their bread and butter. What more and more women want is the kind of high-fashion Vogue patterns long sold by Conde Nast. The originals would cost perhaps $600, but almost any woman can copy them for the cost of a $3 pattern and $50 worth of fine fabric (Vogue patterns even supply a Paris label). That's interesting to compare to today's Vogue designer lines. I've enjoyed some of their Anna Sui offerings, but the others (Michael Kors, Donna Karan, etc.) have been a little staid for my taste - certainly not the trend-driven machine that it seems to have been in 1958. What really blew my mind, though, was the fact that 20% of all women's garments in 1958 were made at home. Can you imagine? And then there was the age of the women who sewed their own clothes: One return prize for the industry is more and more younger sewers: the average home sewer's age has dropped from 45 in 1928 to 27 now, and by 1960 millions of teenagers will be sewing. A common but fashionable wedding present for suburban brides: a sewing machine. These 27-year-old women of 1958 would be 78 today. Are they still sewing, do you think? I tried in vain to find the average age of the home sewer today to compare to the stats of 1958. Though there has been an indisputable rise in young women sewing today, I would guess that the average person purchasing sewing supplies is of the boomer generation (the teenagers that the article predicted would be sewing in the 60's, I suppose!). But there was such an incredible drop in average age from 1928 to 1958 - do you think it's possible we could see the same thing happen in the coming years? One parallel I can see between the young women sewing in 1958 and young women sewing today is that is was viewed not as necessity, but as a creative outlet: Millions of women now rank sewing as their No. 1—and often only—hobby. "There's a whole new climate," says Simplicity's [director] Shapiro. "They do it as an art form." Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on all this. From your age perspective (whatever it may be) how do you see the future of the home sewing industry? Let's see, my mom would have been in her 20s in 1958 and was definitely sewing at least 20 percent of her clothing, if not more like 50 percent. Had she not had a stroke in recent years, she most definitely would still be sewing. I was a boomer, a preteen who learned to sew in the 60s. Still sewing, but not so much clothing these days. I do view it more as an art form now, not necessity, a hobby. My young adult daughter has little interest in sewing, unfortunately, but she likes seeing what I can make--maybe some day! I'm not sure what a boomer is, but my mum grew up in a little village in the north of Sweden in the 60's and she had to sew her own clothes if she wanted something cool. There just wasn't any retail to speak of in that part of the country back then. Not for fashionable teenagers anyways. When I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, my mum sewed for me, too. I was never interested in learning for myself. Until a couple of years ago when a friend taught me how to sew. Now it's a hobby I share with my mum. :-) I ran the numbers through an inflation calculator, the first one a google search turns up, converting from 1958 dollars to 2008 dollars, cited in round numbers cause I already closed that browser page. The Vogue pattern: 1958, $3; 2008, $22 The fabric: 1958, $50; 2008, $350+ The designer comparison price: 1958, $600; 2008, $4000+ The pattern price is in line with the printed price for Vogue patterns today, though I can't imagine anyone paying full price for a Vogue pattern. What I find interesting about this little exercise is that a reason I usually hear cited for the decline in home sewing is the cost of fabric. But even the women I see who buy expensive fabric don't spend this much, as far as I can see. Let's say the average fancy dress requires five yard of fabric for a full skirt and a yard of fabric for a bodice. That's 6 yards of fashion fabric. Double it for lining to get twelve yards. That would be nearly $30 a yard, on average, for that fabric. While I have seen sewing bloggers who do spend that kind of money per yard, my sense is that is limited to clothing that requires much less total yardage to constuct. How many yards of fabric did your red sheath dress take, Gertie? Five total, with lining?. If you spent $30 a yard average on that fabric it would have cost you $150. I don't know about most of you, but I would find material that cost me half of that or less. I'm currently making a Victorian ball gown that I will wear at least four times a year for a few years. I will have spent just over $75 when I'm finished. That's for more than 10 yards of fabric. No, I don't think women quit sewing due to the oft-cited notion that fabric got expensive. I'm 25 and have been sewing for about 3 years. I have several friends who do so as well, but the "hobby" really came out of a desire to make cute things for our baby girls. I am however the only one I know of that is pursuing sewing as a professional career. I am a dressmaker's apprentice currently with some of my own work (which seems to be quickly building). It seems a not so lost art anymore though. Just wanted to throw in a comment on the "fabric got expensive" argument aurelia.donka mentioned... Fabric may not be any more expensive than in the 50s, but clothes can be bought REALLY cheap these days. Fast fashion is the thing now, and women are used to inexpensive, almost disposable clothing. You could probably buy multiple dresses from H&M for the cost of making a nice one yourself. I doubt that was true in 1958, no? My great grandmother and grandmother used to sew and knit. They used to make all their own clothes and the clothes for their husbands and kids. My mother was not interested in sewing. She was more interested in pottery and painting. So my great grandmother and grandmother passed the craft on to me. For the longest time I wanted to become a fashion designer. Due to family pressure, that flew out the window and in turn I stopped sewing. I started sewing again 5 years ago and I kick myself for ever stopping. I had forgotten how much fun it is. Being of the boomer age group (and still in my 50's) I might be able to offer some insight. I have recently gotten back into sewing quite a bit. I never didn't sew, but sometimes it was only two or three things a year. However in my teen years (late 60's/early 70's), I was the only one of my group of friends who did sew. And still am, except for those friends I've specifically met through sewing. As to those of the next generation, I haven't met any who sew. I work with a variety of 20s/30s year olds, and they can't even imagine doing this. My nieces and daughter-in-law express interest very occassionally, but have not taken action. I think sewing is a great creative outlet. I'm not sure anyone is sewing from economic necessity these days - so you are sewing because: - you don't fit into the norm as to size (height, weight, etc.)- your taste is different than the garments the racks in the store hold;- you are looking to sewing as a creative outlet (OR SOME COMBO of all three). to aurelia.donka and the fabric at $30/yard. I think that while that number is a little high, to buy the quality of fabric that could be found in the 50s you will definitely spend more (maybe not $30/yard but I've seen good quality everyday wools and silks for close to that) than they did in the 50s per yard. At least it seems that when I get vintage fabric from my Gran, the similar ones today are outrageous prices. This is a very interesting point, Gertie (beware, long, clumsy English discourse to follow...). I have no clue wether the situation has been the same in France at the time, because at this very moment, the clothing industry was very different in USA and in France (which took the ready-to-wear turn much later than USA, where big stores bought licences from Paris designers). No idea if it helps on the price question. For what I see now, there are much more young women sewing in USA than there are in France, but I really think US is faaaar more crafty than France. I (a student) personnally began to sew two years ago, my grans learned to sew at school (one didn't sew anything but cushions and curtains since, the two others don't sew at all), but my mother, who began school in 1968, did not. If it's sometimes an economical option, I learned to sew because I considered it the best way to get clothes the way I liked (no relation to the vintage question, since I heard of vintage patterns less than a year ago and also sew neon madras minikilts), and also because I liked the feeling of a slightly more ethical, durable wardrobe. So to me you're right: it has a lot more to do with creativity, but I'm also wondering if it is not, as Sarai pointed it, an reaction to consumerism; I'm far from a sewing expert but I hope I'll improve enough to move to slow fashion. As for the future of home sewing, I sincerely think it has to do with how people will react to fast fashion and related issues such as ecology and human rights but maybe that will go with a renewal of custom-made and the raise of quality second-hand or micro-enterprise, or the pleasure you may have to buy something from someone you 'know'(Colette patterns as an example are not absolutely my style, but since I read Sarai's blog, I'd love to purchase one of the next seasons); I really think it has to be seen within a larger perspective, it's not home sewing alone. Home Economics. Required girl course in junior high. I loved it, but I can imagine other people resented it.And of course we should include a discussion of minimum wage. And the near death of fabric-for-clothes stores once quilting took over. (I live in the far reaches, and the only fabric stores within 50 miles are Big Box and quilt stores. And no, I won't spend my not-enough money on something I can't touch first.) My Mum is 78, loved sewing , made all her clothes and those for my sister and me, not because she had to but because she loved it, my auntie was the same. Mum has done little sewing since the late 1970s when her daughters left home and she started working and had more fun buying clothes, she has continued to knit though,that is her other passion. My auntie, however, is in her early 80s and has continued sewing and I don't think she will stop until she becomes incapable or dies. I enjoy reading your interesting blog very much. The sheath dress looks very similar to one my mom wore in a photo dated 1960. She received a Singer sewing machine as a wedding gift from my father in 1959. I have many wonderful memories associated with that sewing machine and of my mom sewing in the 1960s when she was in her 20s and a homemaker. She quit sewing when she went to work. I am born in 1961 and have been sewing since a kid. I sew both crafts and garments. Some homedec. I sew less when I was younger because of time and money. Now that I have more of both, I sew more. I view sewing as a luxury hobby. I think it is less expensive to buy clothes than to sew them especially if you take time and effort into consideration. I have 2 teen daughters who took some sewing classes at JoAnn. The youngest show interest in elementary school but she is now "too busy" to sew. The eldest dislike sewing but love fashion design. They both love that I can shorten hems, mend tears and fix zippers for their favorite ready to wear which seems to fall apart easily. I think for teens it is more practical to buy than to sew since their size and fashion tastes change pretty fast. With the exception of special occasion eg prom gowns. No matter how much you pay for a dress, you always risk showing up at the event and finding someone in the same ready to wear dress which happened to both my daughters before. Fashion-conscious career women who wants more quality and better fit and whose clothing can be worn longer may have more reason to sew. Also people with time and money to spare eg. retirees and empty nesters in their late 40s and older which make up most of my classmates at sewing classes. I think the internet and shows like Project Runway have help alot in bringing excitement to sewing and to connect people who sews. Personally I think home sewing is here to stay, maybe not for necessity but for fun. I hope that people continue to learn to sew and pick it up like I have, but I don't know how it will synthesize with the culture of today, with people who rely on their microwave and Hamburger Helper for a 'meal'. I think the majority of people of my generation are obsessed with moving and doing things fast, so I don't know how sewing for pleasure could flourish. As Sarai mentioned - clothing can be bought so cheaply. It's crap quality, but is cheap, and it means that people can buy 'new' things more often even if they aren't getting a deal. Taking the time to make something themselves, or PAYING someone else to do it, would probably not be seen as an option. And poor poor seamstresses, people so undervalue their work and the effort it takes to make something. I think a LOT of people today probably don't sew because (as previously mentioned) clothing is so cheap. But, most cheap clothing (here in the UK, obviously I can't speak for elsewhere) is so poorly made, that I find it can actually work out cheaper to make yourself something, even if the fabric 'seems' pricey. The garment you make is likely to be twice as durable and probably better constructed.I'm a 70s baby so obviously can't comment with any degree of accuracy about 60s sewing trends but, I know my Mum (and her sister) did make their own clothes, both sewn and crocheted or knitted. My Nan sewed for a living, making men's trousers in a small factory but she still made most of her own clothes right up til she passed away. I always got the impression from my Mum that sewing amongst her generation was popular, if you wanted something nice, you made it. I do think, that it's no coincidence that a lot of the sewing community appears to be fairly eco-conscious. I myself, find it quite distateful that shops can sell a skirt for as little as £5, the economics just don't add up. Yet another engaging and thought-provoking post from you Gertie. Thank you! Like you, I would be interested in knowing what the statistics are for our time: what's the average age of sewists, what percentage are women (I would guess 99.99%, but I've been wrong before), how many sew as an art form (again, probably 99.99%, but...), etc. My mom, one of those teenagers in the 60s, has sewed since she was 8. She entered doll clothes she sewed into the local state fair, and won a prize and the age of ten. Art form for sure. But when she was older, mother of five children on a Navy income, she sewed clothes for herself, the kids, even my father. That was more out of necessity. Now she sews as a way to unwind, keep herself busy, help other people (she often donates the things she makes), and so on. I suppose that for some people their reason for sewing changes depending on their stage in life. When I was in middle school, then 'junior high' we still had Home Ec. I sort of learned to sew. We made a very unbecoming skirt that we had to wear to school. it scarred me and I didn't start sewing until a few years later when I was about 16. I am not only still sewing but making more and better clothing than ever before. I am now 59. I am thrilled to see so many young women sewing and using it as a creative outlet. Now young women can buy fashionable clothing at any price point so their reason for sewing is not going to be necessity, but enjoyment. Sewing is a deep pleasure for me as I am sure it is for most of the women sewing today. I think the critical issue is that young women from my generation on (I was born in 1959) were encouraged to liberate themselves from the domestic arts. I went to a school that taught typing, cooking and sewing and not a lot else. By contrast my own daughters attend a school where they were not taught cooking and had on semester of sewing - taught by a woman who couldn't sew properly herself. Sewing has moved from domestic necessity (my family didn't have much money and the only store bought clothes were my father's business suits and shirts) to creative outlet. I really believe in the transmission of skills from generation to generation - and the blog is now making it cool to sew again. I believe that the decline in home fashion sewing is due to the fact that sewing is not taught in school anymore. I learned to sew in school even though I had a mother and two sisters who could sew. My junior high school threw me in a sewing class(kicking and screaming by the way). I can remember Mccalls and Simiplicity patterns costing 25 - 50 cents and having a heart attach over the cost of Vogue patterns - 1.00 to 1.50. Of course it was Vogue you wanted. I remember this from the mid 60's. And of course it was always cheaper to sew then to buy ready to wear. In 1958 my mother was 5, and she knitter her first jumper when she was 7 (Her mother knitted all the decreases around the shoulders and stuff) but she sewed most of her clothes as a teenager. She told me this horrible story of embroidering a wonderful hippy patch on the back or some store bought jeans that had worn a little thin. Her coal mining father got so angry at the thought of HIS daughter wearing a PATCH on her clothes that he threw the jeans into the fire. He associated patches on clothes as being really poor. Also as a 23 year old I try to sew and knit as many of my clothes as possible. In Serbia, clothing is really, really expensive. It is cheaper to buy the material and pattern and pay someone to make you a custom made piece, since the cost of labor here is negligible. I would guess that while it's true that sewing in the US is becoming more "cool," the hobby will never come close to approaching the popularity levels of the '50s and '60s. Factors that limit its growth include: high cost of materials; lack of access to quality materials; decline in sewing literacy; lack of patience in a culture driven by instant gratification; needlessly large wardrobes (back in the day when a girl only hoped to have 5 dresses, taking the time to make one right made more sense); opportunity cost of labor (women's time in general is "worth more" than 50 years ago, when one considers that today's woman is (in economic terms) overqualified for traditional homemaking tasks; the prevalence of cheap, high quality ready made clothing (you might gripe about quality control issues, but in other parts of the world the quality of ready made is much, much lower); the growing sentiment among women over 30 that ill-fitting ready made clothing is normal and acceptable; and last but not least, the myriad socially-acceptable (and less demanding) creative outlets for women that were not available 50 years ago. I'm one of those "boomer" girls - the one that learned to sew in the 60's and at age 50 - I'm still sewing! However, there is a difference now. I remember that I could purchase fabric and patterns anywhere...Woolworths, Macys, Kmarts as well as the local fabric store which there was one in every town. I also remember that I could take a sewing class from 6th grade on. That every home had a sewing machine and some sewing supplies. That is not the case today. I have two thoughts on this...one that as we became a more consumer driven society, more women who sewed only because it was "cheaper" to do so became purchasers of cheap goods from discount chains. And two as more women gained access to more "professional" jobs some of the more "womenly" pursuits fell by the wayside. Seriously, how many women do you know that sew, cook well, garden, and/or can their food? These were all normal pursuits of the 50s woman! And sewing has become an artform - because the people left pursuing it have turned it into a love, a craft, a way of expressing themselves the same way that a painter or a sculptor does. As with all things, sewing has evolved...very few things in our society are the same as they were in the 50s! My grandmother (born in 1920) used to sew everything when she was a young woman. Back then it was a necessity, since she didn't have the money to buy clothing for her large family. Right now she is 89 and hasn't sewn in a long time. My mother (born in 1949) used to sew a lot when we were little. For herself, for us, for my father. But she doesn't anymore. She found a job when we were getting a little older and says she doesn't have the patience anymore to sew difficult garments. She does knit a bit sometimes for my daughter's dolls, or my little ones, but that is rare. I am 33 years old now. I learned how to sew when I was little, then forgot about it for years and picked it up again when I was pregnant of my first born. I love it and can't imagine that I'll ever stop loving being creative. But ofcourse, you never know. I don't sew because I have to, like my grandmother. I don't sew, because it's cheaper than buying, like my mother. I sew, because I want to. Because I like the sewing itself, because of how I feel when I sew, or knit for that matter, because it relaxes me and makes me feel grounded. And because I am starting to feel more and more that I want to surround myself with things that mean something. That were made with love, instead of in factories, without a thought. And because of that last factor I think sewing could become more popular in the future. I hear more and more people around me getting tired of all the materialism. I hear them grow tired of all the 'stuff', the 'clutter' that surrounds them. I hear people say that they, like myself, want to go back to a more 'basic' lifestyle. A slower lifestyle, a simpler lifestyle. And making your own clothing, baking your own bread, it all seems to fit in the trend I think I see. Ofcourse trends go by and are followed by other trends. And I can imagine that I come in contact mostly with people who think like I think. So maybe my idea can't be projected on a large scale. But still... I wouldn't be surprised when sewing would win in popularity the following years. I certainly do hope it will.. My goodness, I enjoyed each comment! It is like a breath of fresh air to read about people who know how to sew and love it. I was born in 1947 to parents who grew up during the depression, and who learned that saving money was a necessity. They passed it on, and I sewed a lot in high school, then majored in clothing and textiles at Texas Tech during the '60s. I learned how to sew at Tech--tailoring, flat pattern design, draping (still have the dress form from the draping class), and I wouldn't take for what I learned. I still teach some Family and Consumer Science classes at high school, and believe me I teach how to cook and sew. I believe that kids have an inner desire to create something with their own hands, and if they never pick up a needle or sauce pan again, at least they will know how. Besides, who know which kid will become a designer or interior decorator, and they will need to have the skill of sewing. I really liked what Sarai said about the "disposable wardrobe." Clothing is so cheap, and women are so busy there is no need to sew, but we all have a need to relax, and create. Pass on the skill girls, and have fun doing it. I just spent a few days in North Dakota helping my mom go through her storage room. I was horrified and amused that, while wedding dresses and a couple wool suits and amazing formals my grandma (b. 1911) sewed for my mom (b. 1945) had survived, nothing that my grandma sewed for herself had been saved! Only the scraps of some tantalizing, to-die-for fabrics had been preserved in some quilts. I thought we'd hit pay dirt when we found a zipper hanging bag that was Grandma's. Inside, lovingly preserved, alongside her treasured mink stole, were three scratchy polyester gowns. Not my taste but I figured still interesting to see her construction- but no! Turned out all three were store bought! I turned to my mom aghast, she laughed and said that I didn't understand how rare and exciting store-bought clothes were to them in "those days". Grandma didn't find any reason to save the things she made for herself, but was so proud of these dresses from a store! As others have said, a lot of their sewing was more out of need and budget than preference, although my grandmother did enjoy the creative side of it. But my mom particularly was too tall for off-the-rack, especially where they lived, an 8 hour drive from the nearest big department store. As for the next generation, my half-sister, who grew up without any sewing in the home at all, asked that my mom and I teach her kids as much as they'd sit still for, so they could at least have a little of that demystifying exposure at a young (preteen) age. We ran out of time this trip, but we'll see how it goes at Thanksgiving. I like that my sister had the idea, though. I'm more of a sporadically-enthusiastic than an accomplished sewer, but I've always known I can go back to it and have the confidence that I can learn because of the constant exposure when I was growing up-- it's just something I take for granted that I can do, even if never to the level my grandmother did. But it's just the reverse for my sister; she's always been kind of off-put and intimidated by sewing because of her lack of exposure or instruction. It feels more like a club she's excluded from. Of course she could learn if she wanted to and I'd love to teach her, but to her it feels like too big an undertaking, more like belatedly taking up a new language from scratch. But she wants her kids to have that initiation, so they know they can do it later if they ever want to. Talking to my sister made me think about how it really does make all the difference to pass on by example through generations-- pass on that initiation. I don't know about others' Home Ec clases, but the uninspiring duffel bag I made in mine would never have made me want to touch a sewing machine ever again! Also, as many things as I've learned from books, the web, and trial & error, nothing beats taking home a frustrating project to my mom and getting that hands-on help. She gets a kick out of my renewed interest in something she pretty much packed in for lack of need anymore in the 80s.

4 Ways Authentic Leaders Use Feedback Subscribe to Email Updates “When we were a smaller organization, I had a lot more influence on the culture than I do now,” says Sean Kelly, CEO of SnackNation, a company that delivers healthy snacks to offices and homes across America. SnackNation currently has about 150 employees headquartered in Culver City, California. Sean says as the company roster has expanded, he’s had to be more intentional about scaling the culture, and that includes being more proactive about collecting team members’ feedback. “There were multiple phases where the influence of culture changed as our company grew. But we certainly felt it when we got to around 90 to 100 team members. I'd even say around the 30- or 40-person mark, our mid-level leadership influenced culture more than top leadership,” shares Sean. “As a leader, I could still help guide and shape our culture—but it was really no longer primarily under my influence.” “I’ve become more accepting of poll assessments and various surveys as the organization has grown larger; I'm not shaping the culture as much as I used to, and so it's very good for me to continually ensure that I understand what's going on, what's being said, and what's being felt.” 1. Use feedback to measure progress “Everything's relative, but as long as you're getting better, and as long as people have a reason to believe that—or that there is the chance for things to get better—the team members are going to be excited, and they are going to be engaged.” Don’t focus too much on where you are at now; instead, consider culture assessments as a barometer to examine over time. Another tip from Sean: Start by seeking to understand what motivates people and what people need to do their best work. If you don’t know the answer to those questions, then the information you’re gathering may not be as useful as it could be. 2. Use feedback to promote accountability Getting feedback from employees or using engagement surveys is also a way to ensure and promote shared accountability. “It helps to build a culture of ownership. If we ask somebody, ‘What is your plan to achieve success?’ Or, ‘What support are you seeking from us to help you achieve success?’ We are able to get answers to those questions, and then hold people accountable for growth,” explains Sean. “Often times, there are a lot of answers to these questions that indicate how someone is feeling about the organization or what they need. If we give them what they need to be successful, then we have a plan together, where as long as we're both improving, we're going to get there and we can hold all parties accountable.” 3. Use feedback to build transparency One of the best ways SnackNation is able to check the pulse of their company culture is through monthly, open Q&A sessions. These are anonymous, question-and-answer format sessions where anyone within the company can ask top leadership any question they want. In turn, leaders get vulnerable and honest in front of the entire group. “We don't know who wrote any of the questions. We also don't allow anyone else to see the questions that other people are asking beforehand. They just enter it into a shared Google Document and we answer it in front of the team,” he says. The open-ended questions uncover deep, meaningful insights around what people are thinking and feeling—and better yet, why they are feeling that way. “You can spot trends. You can also see if it's one person who's just frustrated and having a bad day, or maybe it's a disgruntled employee versus actually recognizing themes that multiple people feel,” explains Sean. While they also use regular surveys, this is just one more way leaders at SnackNation embrace transparency while equipping team members to share what’s on their mind. 4. Use feedback to celebrate shared values In this video, Mari Wenrick, Chief Champion of Culture at Value Added Packaging (VAP) explains how the company conducted a culture survey to gauge attitudes and perceptions within the company. “There were certain questions that I asked, such as, ‘What do you think about the company?’, ‘What do you think about the owners?’” Employees had the opportunity for the feedback to be anonymous. It might have taken vulnerability on leadership’s behalf to ask such questions, but the feedback resulted in a major milestone for the company in terms of its culture journey. The employee feedback was consistently articulated using the VAP language; it focused on the company values of love, family, care, and respect. “[This feedback] showed that they…really understood what we were doing and believed, and they had ownership in it, which was fantastic,” says Mari. What employees wrote in their feedback was so moving that they put the messages on display on campus, which was another way they were able to celebrate the company’s culture. The behavior of employees shifted from conscious actions to unconscious, cultural norms in alignment with the company values, says Mari. The unconscious was, “This is now what I'm a part of, and this is what I believe in,” she explains. “And that, to me, was an amazing turning point because it showed that they bought into what we were doing and really had ownership in it.” Work On the Next Best Version of Your Business The Course for Presidents®sets you on the pathway to the next best version of your business. You’ll join forces with your Aileron partners and get an introduction to the Professional Management System. Through two days of interactive learning with peers and six sessions one-on-one with aBusiness Advisor, you’ll develop your to-do list for where you want your business to be. This is where you take possible and make it certain. Related posts “When we were a smaller organization, I had a lot more influence on the culture than I do now,” says Sean Kelly, CEO of SnackNation, a company that delivers healthy snacks to offices and homes across America. SnackNation currently has about 150... Read More “When we were a smaller organization, I had a lot more influence on the culture than I do now,” says Sean Kelly, CEO of SnackNation, a company that delivers healthy snacks to offices and homes across America. SnackNation currently has about 150... Read More “When we were a smaller organization, I had a lot more influence on the culture than I do now,” says Sean Kelly, CEO of SnackNation, a company that delivers healthy snacks to offices and homes across America. SnackNation currently has about 150... Read More

PaperThin Named to Deloitte's New England Fast 50 PaperThin, a mid-market Web Content Management (CMS) vendor, recently announced that they have been named to Deloitte's prestigious Technology Fast 50 Program for New England. The Fast 50 is a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the area by Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the nation's leading professional services firms. Program winners are ranked based on their percentage growth in fiscal year revenues over five years, from 1999 – 2003. PaperThin recently released CommonSpot 4.0, their flagship Web CMS product. "In an era where technology companies come and go, making the Deloitte Fast 50 is a testament to a company’s vision," said Stephen DiPiertro, Deloitte partner responsible for the New England Technology Fast 50 Program. PaperThin’s leadership has the right stuff for growth, and Deloitte salutes their accomplishments.” To qualify for the Technology Fast 50, companies must have had operating revenues of at least $50,000 in 1999 and $1,000,000 in 2003, must be public or private companies headquartered in North America, and be a "technology company" defined as owning proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues and/or devotes a significant proportion of revenues to research and development of technology. Related: PaperThin Strong in Non-Profit SectorProduct Briefing: CommonSpot 4.0 Web Content Management CMSWire is a leading, native digital publication produced by Simpler Media Group, Inc. We provide articles, research and events for sophisticated professionals driving digital customer experience strategy, evolving the digital workplace and creating intelligent information management practices. The CMSWire team produces 450+ authoritative articles per quarter for our 750,000 community members. Join us as a subscriber.

Trieste Science+Fiction 2016 Edizione 16 | 1 – 6 novembre 2016 In 1926 Hugo Gernsback founded in the United States the first magazine completely dedicated to science fiction literature, “Amazing Stories”, thus establishing the existence of a genre which the authors already knew very well but which still didn’t have a name. In 1976 the International Science Fiction Film Festival in Trieste remembered the 50th anniversary of this event with an exhibition dedicated to pulp magazines at the Castle of San Giusto. In that same year, the retrospective Fant’Italia, organized by La Cappella Underground, ventured – for the first time in a systematic manner – into the research of the Italian fantastic, among lost celluloids and repertoire films, widely anticipating the more recent secret stories of our cinema, which have caused its rediscovery and revaluation on a global scale. This is where the 16th edition of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival starts from. In the DNA of the event there is always the good old Science Fiction Festival, but in the algorithm that animates us in the cockpit there is above all the spirit of research at 360 degrees, to bring on stage the best and the most recent independent sci-fi productions coming from all the corners of planet Earth. This is also the reason why in this 16th edition the cinéphiles will benefit of one extra day of program. But the Festival broadens its range of action especially in a multidisciplinary direction, if in the age of crossover this term can still be used. More music, with the ultra sounds “made in FVG” of the opening concert of TARM and of those by DJ Yoda during the Invasion of the Body Snatchers Night. More comics, with the o cial image signed by Davide Toffolo and the exhibition of Nathan Never in the 25th anniversary of the most popular science fiction series in Italy. More video games, with the vintage video game space Play It Again. More animation and stop motion, with two dedicated labs. More attention to the industry dimension and to training, with the first Fantastic Film Forum open to the professionals of the sector. More science, with the Futurology Meetings in collaboration with the most prestigious scientific institutions of our territory and Future Environment screenings. More attention to the younger audience, with a greater number of initiatives dedicated to schools and teenagers. More of Trieste, with Esterno/Giorno walks through the movie scene locations in town. More dramatics, with an exceptional guest star and Urania Life Achievement award who has seen things you people wouldn’t believe… It is no chance that in our vision between science and fiction there is a plus! And so, quoting a song particularly in tune with the image of this edition of the Festival: “Come one, come all. The incredible spetaculo de la vida, the incredible spetaculo de la muerte!”. And we’d like to add: “the incredible show of scientia, the incredible show of fantasia!”

opinion The Newlyweds. Katy Perry. The Cousins. This is how my family characterized several different people we recently crossed paths with while on vacation. Here’s a brief description of each. The Newlyweds: Without going into too much graphic detail, this young couple basically couldn’t keep their hands... , 2013-03-20 11:25:42 The Newlyweds. Katy Perry. The Cousins. This is how my family characterized several different people we recently crossed paths with while on vacation. Here’s a brief description of each. Advertisement Advertisement The Newlyweds: Without going into too much graphic detail, this young couple basically couldn’t keep their hands off each other or their faces far apart. They gave the impression they were on their honeymoon. Our first impression of the Newlyweds was that they had no time for anyone but each other. Katy Perry: This beautiful young woman looks like a less voluptuous Katy Perry, the “California Gurls” and “Firework” pop singer. She’s tall, confident and willowy, with jet black hair and big, round eyes — just like Katy Perry. We noticed that Katy Perry was traveling with an older man and wondered if they were a couple (surely she was in it for the money, our devious minds figured) or a father and daughter. The Cousins: These five little boys are ages 4 and 5 with lots of energy. The Cousins appeared to be traveling with their grandparents. On the second day of our vacation, I found myself next to the Newlyweds. So I asked if that, indeed, is what they were. Turns out they are not married and were not on their honeymoon. But the man, Adam, had recently proposed to the woman, Jennifer. (She said yes!) It also turns out they were quite nice and friendly, and they did have time for and enjoyed talking to others. They even offered to lend my husband a pair of Adam’s pants for a fancy dinner if need be since my husband hadn’t packed nice pants. We crossed paths with the Newlyweds several times and always had pleasant conversations and enjoyed learning about their backgrounds. While I was trading introductions with the Newlyweds that first time, I was pleasantly surprised to look up at one point and see that Katy Perry had engaged my shy, younger daughter in conversation. Turns out she wasn’t a pop singer, but rather a Mankato State University student who was vacationing with her dad. She was fun and energetic and often took my daughters under her wing and encouraged them to participate in different activities. We learned this wasn’t the first time someone told her she looked like Katy Perry. We even had a bit of interaction with the Cousins. When asked, Grandma confirmed that the young boys were, indeed, cousins and not quintuplets. A few of them came up to me one day, somewhat shyly, and said “hi.” They actually said quite a bit more, but in a language I didn’t understand. They entertained us as they darted about and sneakily crept up to me to try to converse, and we admired the grandparents for taking the five boys on vacation. One of the most fun aspects of this vacation was the people watching we did. Even better were the people we met who became friends for the week, including the Newlyweds, Katy Perry and many others. These were people we attached a label and story to based on their looks. We were lucky enough to get to know them a bit to go beyond the label. First impressions — we learned it’s worth looking deeper and is worth the time and effort to go beyond the first impression.

"...the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology. ... The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. ... As yet there is only one country which has succeeded in creating this politician’s paradise.” - Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society, 1960. Monday, September 15, 2008 Miami: FBI's John J. Connolly Arrives in Court ... Prosecutors contend that Callahan planned to expose the orchestration of a Tulsa businessman's murder by James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. The body of the 45-year-old Boston business consultant was found riddled with bullets and stuffed in the trunk of his Cadillac on Aug. 3, 1982, in a parking lot at Miami International Airport.

“Jargon is part of office life and while it can often be regarded as baffling and frustrating, there are advantages to speaking the office lingo, the Telegraph quoted David Clubb, the managing director of Office Angels, as saying. “These can range from bonding with a team to understanding mind-boggling conference calls, he added. (ANI)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 I just took a pie out of the oven. A pie and two custards, actually, as I had too much pumpkin filling for the crust. The pie turned out wonderfully--the custards a winning experiment. Best of all, though, was what happened while they were baking. The house was quiet and I was alone in the kitchen. After stirring up the pie filling, I tucked into the corner chair/step-stool, a treasured perch of several in the house, leaned back against the wall, and napped gently to the smell of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger while next to a warm oven with a window open to the cool behind me. It was a most welcome and needed embrace. School is out until next week but the freedom is filled with a significant writing project that I need to begin these days. I wonder if the naps are my body and mind's way of helping me make the transition to writing mode-- a way to put the kids and the chaos of school aside and turn my face again toward the muse, toward the spirit, adopting anew the feeling of being loved like no other, the feeling of being a delight and beholding a delight. The feeling of living inside the Word and trying to write an opening for others as well as marking my own journey for myself. Sunday, November 23, 2008 "9:51 AM. Tucked into the stairwell above the entrance to the main church level, waiting for the 9:00 Mass to let out but not in any hurry. I am quite comfortable, actually...warm, pleasantly secure, and in a position to hear and see much. Listening to the cantor sing during communion-- "Soon and Very Soon" which blended into the Taize "Jesus Remember Me." So lovely and so smooth the pieces fitting into one another. It occurs to me as I sit here, listenign to bits of the Family Faith program going on in the Mary Chapel, watching people begin to gather in the foyer, and hearing the movement that indicates the close of Mass, that a stairwell might not be where most would choose to perch while picking up a pen and paper. What is it about this place that speaks to me of being at home? Hmm. I think some is that it is a bit worn and rubbed down at the edges from years of use and prayer. The whole building. The steps are scooped out in the middle from a hundred plus years of ascent and descent, the pews are darkened and worn to a shine. Yes, I find God in the broken-in-ness. That, actually, is where I most readily find God. There is a depth, a longevity, a history, to what is broken-in. A comfort in one's own being. Perhaps it is me who is becoming broken-in and more comfortable... Funny, this makes me think of one of my favorite words...glory. There is a depth there for me too. A history, a richness that comes with living, with seeing, tasting, knowing, feeling. The glory of God made known in me? Deeper and deeper it reaches to draw out the story, the richness, the full-being-ness. Instead of dust to dust, perhaps instead glory unto glory--from the creative, story-filled, loving, depths of God to broken-in and flexible, stretchable, open humanity and then back again to the heart of all that is most wondrous, most just, most compassionate, most glorious..." 1) Do you have a food processor? Can you recommend it? Which is to say, do you actually use it? Have access to one--but prefer chopping by hand. There is something satisfying about wielding a knife and watching the pile of ingredients mound.... there's also the sensory experience--the feel of the knife slicing, the sound, the juices, scents, and textures all immediately at hand. 2) And if so, do you use the fancy things on it? (Mine came with a mini-blender (used a lot and long ago broken) and these scary disks you used to julienne things (used once).) Nope. 3) Do you use a standing mixer? Or one of the hand-held varieties? Hand mixer when necessary--stiff arm and a good spoon otherwise. I do admit to coveting my Grandmother's vintage KitchenAide, though. 4) How about a blender? Do you have one? Use it much? Now we're talking! Love the blender--especially when it comes to soup. Nothing better for mixing-ing/smoothing into creamy goodness. The first time I used our new one, though, whoa! Everything and every one within a block's radius (give or take) was baptized. Tomato soup every which way. Let's just say a new motor is far, far more potent than one, say, twenty years old. 5) Finally, what old-fashioned, non-electric kitchen tool do you enjoy using the most? We have a fabulous wooden... implement. I think it must have been a spoon at one point, but the round edges have flattened some and it is now more of a gentle triangle on a handle. Terribly practical for picking things up and flipping, scooping and scraping. And, nothing, nothing, nothing, beats a good sharp chef knife, a heavy bottom dutch oven, and a cast iron skillet. Monday, November 17, 2008 A homily for the Feast of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Religious of the Sacred Heart who brought the Society to the United States in 1818. Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10 ; Psalm 63; Lk 12:22-34 "Do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear…can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?" A good question. Go ahead, Philippine Duchesne! Get on the ship! Sail across a tempestuous ocean, to an unknown land, to uncertain work, in an unnerving language, with unfamiliar people… And by the way, don't you worry about a thing… Ummm Hmmm…. How much easier for us to hear this in our time—because we know it all came out! Philippine became a saint, the network of Sacred Heart schools exists, and there are over 300 Religious of the Sacred Heart in the United States. We know how it all came out… or, do we? I wonder if this story might have sounded familiar to some of you…perhaps if I put it this way— Go ahead, new fifth graders! Climb those stairs! Go to the new land known as the Middle School! Don't worry about your uniform, where you are supposed to be going, or when lunch will be. Sixth graders—learning the names of new students, new teachers, all that new English vocabulary?? No problem. Seventh graders, that new language of Upper School—peer group, life skills, X-period, Advisory, Visual Foundations… I'm sure it will work out just fine. And teachers, go ahead, teach the subject you've never taught! Be a homeroom teacher for the first time! And, by the way, don't worry. Yep. Right. What was Philippine's response to the multitude of unknowns? She prayed…always, according to her beloved Potawatomie. She turned to her God who she believed would not abandon her to her worries, she turned to her God that would not cast her hope back into the sea but rather would lead her feet through the prairie grass…all the way until today when with the eyes of faith, we look to the mountain of those who have made a difference in our world and are able to say "How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of the one announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation." But, today, in this time and place, I'd like us to think bigger than feet. How beautiful upon the mountain are the heart, the hands, the mind, the feet…of those who work to bring about a world where we help one another, where we treat everyone with dignity, and where all are loved…that is God's vision… this is what Philippine now sees from that mountain. This is what we will see when we join her and walk our own journey with our heart and hands and mind and feet… without worry about the small matters, but by prayer and trust in God and the multitude around us. Our hands, mine, yours, yours., yours… our hearts, minds, …these are the hands and hearts and minds of God. The only ones God has. God's people, God's beloved children who are called to put aside concerns for ourselves and prepare the way for the coming of Love. As you now know, lunch is at 11:45, the uniform guidelines are in the handbook, and most specialized vocabulary is explained in orientation. What's left is only for us to seek God, bring forth the vision in own time and space and way. May Philippine's pioneer spirit be with us all. God already is. Always is. No worries. But not easy. Sunday, November 16, 2008 "Sitting in a pew, watching the choir arrange themselves in the section where I usually tuck in...now listening to them practice the Gloria and finding it a much more pleasant alternative to the woman who is speaking even louder now to be heard by the tour group members moving through the main part of the church. The choir has moved on now to the psalm and the aleluia...and just as I began to float on the acoustics, someone carried by a a box labeled "angel wings." For some reason, I find that rather endearing...and comforting on some level...spare wings...that there would be angel wings available to use when the proof was needed. And, all the better that it was a simple cardboard box, written on in marker. A simple container that lets glory be glory. I can't help but think that the angels would be perfectly okay with that. I can't help imagining the conversation--"Okay, folks, they're not buying it. Got to break out the wings." "Aw geez, the wings??" "Yep, no choice on this one. Formal occassion and all..." Someone gets sent to the closet to sift and sort through boxes until finding the one wrapped with a bit of twine and labeled in permanent marker, "Angel Wings." Then there's the trying on...sort of like choir robes, I imagine. Somewhat cumbersome, perhaps, but tradition. Big wings, small wings, fluttery wings and flappy wings... and you know when you found the right pair because your cheeks get warm and you find yourself wondering about the stars." Tuesday, November 11, 2008 I am planning a Mass with 45 kids and two other teachers. To get the maximum input, several different groups were created and pieces assigned. One homeroom, write the petitions and pick the kids to read; one homeroom, the offertory-pick the symbol to be carried forward in addition to the candles, flowers, bread and wine and who would carry each. My religion class, a mix of the homerooms, would pick the music and fill out the rest of the roles. In religion, the kids split into two groups--one starting with song selection--taking into consideration the readings which we read outloud together, the other with assigning roles. When done, the group switched to the other topic. The only input I had was that the selections for both had to give evidence of reasonable thought and ultimately, I was the one who ratified their selelctions. They chose fantastic music! Perfectly suited to the celebration and the readings and indicative of the preferred liturgical style of the kids-- songs with zip, songs with harmonies, songs with life and connection for the students. I took their papers, went to the music teacher, suggested a plan using a mix of the suggestions from the two groups, and she easily agreed. I told the kids the next day which songs we were doing and they were SO thrilled. We suggested those!! We can do these?? Really?? Awesome!! You listened!! Well, yes... you made wonderful suggestions, clearly connected to the reason for the celebration and the readings...why wouldn't I listen to you-- you are planning the Mass! They had such smiles on their faces. Makes me glad to be an adult at moments like that... an adult who has the chance to help a kid see their own worth, their own value, that what they have to say is important, that reasonable thought and passion behind something helps it to fly. Saturday, November 1, 2008 I was having tea while visting a friend this afternoon when conversation turned to music and whether someone who knows music parses sound into notes instinctively the same way my friend, an artist, can parse shades and colors into component pieces that add up to the whole. She sees the whole and can see inside enough to see the pieces that come together to create it. We mulled this for a while, the similarities between music and visual art--for the one who knows how, the vision is through the whole to the inside structure that created it. This got me thinking about writing and reading poetry and other forms of written expression. I realized that for me, the process with this format is reversed. I hear the pieces, I hear the structure, and a whole is created. By the rubbing of syllables, by the procession of patterns, images juxtaposed, and rhythmic rituals, something Other is created--a larger whole. I start, though, with the pieces...the words themselves. How they encounter one another in my mouth or ears when read aloud by me or someone esle, or how they interact when read silently in my mind, builds the larger picture. This moved our conversation into the role voice plays in helping the words find one another and welcome each other's company...or not. I was struggling to explain my meaning and ended up referencing pasta. Sometimes, when I hear things read aloud, the words are cut off from one another, not in relationship yet, simply occupying space next to each other. Crunchy raw pasta in the box. Sometimes, the voice overpowers the words, running them into one another, coming on too strong. The mushy, sticky with gluten, uni-pasta of overboiling. Then you have al dente when each piece is still itself, each word its own syllables, but flexible, chewy almost. It can bump into other pieces of pasta and you can feel the give and take, it neither falls to pieces nor adheres inextricably. It is filling and substantive... its best pasta-ness being drawn forth. I think the voice/outside the mind delivery of Word or poetry can achieve the same thing...Expression that satisfies by honoring the fullness of language's capacities... I'm making home-made mac and cheese for dinner, by the way. Tomatoes and sauteed onions are mixed in for a kick. A limerick, I think, would be the equivilent. Predictable...but often with a twist.

Careers in Shipping, Marine & Energy Sectors Making waves in the offshore industry Thursday, February 21 - 2013 V.Ships Turkey is delighted to announce it has successfully concluded an offshore crewing contract with Dubai-based seismic research vessel operator Polarcus DMCC. The agreement follows the news of the sale of Polarcus Samur - an eight-streamer 3D world class seismic vessel - to the Turkish owners TPAO (Turkish Petroleum Corp.) on February 11, 2013. Polarcus will continue to provide support services to TPAO, including technical and crew management as part of a three year contract. The vessel will be renamed Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa after the legendary Ottoman Admiral and will carry the Turkish flag under Turkish International Ship Registry (TUGS). Harun Duzgoren, Managing Director of V.Ships Turkey (pictured), said: "We are very excited to be part of this important initiative, which confirms Turkey's position as a new and emerging player in the oil and gas world. "As V.Ships' regional office, we possess the necessary skillset and experience to deliver on quality for our offshore clients like Polarcus. As a direct result of this dedication to quality and cost optimisation, this is our fourth back to back offshore marine services contract in the last three years. "The vast majority of our crew have been with us in other similar projects in the Black Sea and other parts of the world, so we are confident that they will integrate quickly with Polarcus crew on-board." As per the legislation, 51 per cent of her crew - as well as the Master - will need to be Turkish nationals. V.Ships Turkey will support Polarcus in complying with this requirement by providing 13 Turkish crew members. A seismic vessel uses seismic waves to pinpoint and locate the best possible area for oil drilling in the middle of oceans.

Applying for Passport and Visa? Here’s what you need to know about Police Clearance Certificate Applying for Passport and Visa? Here’s what you need to know about Police Clearance Certificate For the beginners, applying for a new identification or making a trip abroad offer ascend to many inquiries. One among the regular is presumably what does PCC demonstrate? Well, this post is an endeavour to highlight some of the important pointers on PCC. The Police Clearance Certificate, in short PCC, is issued to every single imminent candidate from India looking for an outing to a different country for business, long stay or for residential purpose. Be that as it may, individuals from India flying out to an alternate nation on Tourist Visa are not qualified to apply for PCC. This authentication assumes a crucial part while applying for an identification and visa; and relying upon the nation and reason for visit, candidates might be solicited to give different sorts documents while applying for the same. By and large, a PCC is given by the Regional Passport Office of the candidate’s area where he/she has been staying for most recent a half year or progressively and the same gets issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Henceforth, the area of the candidate is of the quintessence while issuing a PCC. Individuals applying for a PCC having no satisfactory address verification, may confront challenge while arranging their abroad excursions. A portion of the archives that a candidate can give to help his/her address verification may incorporate a bank explanation. To get this announcement as your current address evidence, you can ask for the bank expert for the same to change your address and issue a bank articulation for most recent one year. When you get this report, sign it and get it stamped. It would be ideal if you be educated that downloading the announcement won’t get the job done the reason, as it needs to get stamped authoritatively. While applying for a PCC, a candidate may experience two stages wherein, he/she may require either physical police check or PCC stamp. In the event that a candidate is requested physical police check then he/she will be given a receipt number alongside an archive that he/she needs to convey home. In like manner, the candidate is additionally imparted by the important specialist saying the name and contact number of the cop will’s identity going to the candidate’s home for verification. Once physical police confirmation is done, the following concern is acquiring the PCC. Accumulating a PCC after check relies upon two situations. To begin with; if a candidate is dwelling in his/her nation for not as much as a year then it might require half a month. Second; if the candidate is dwelling in his/her nation for over one year time then the check happens in next 2-3 days. After that a candidate is prepared to gather his/her visa from the passport center and get a PCC letter issued. Then again, the necessity of a PCC stamp appears when physical police confirmation isn’t required. To complete it, an applicant has to go to the counter where PCC letter is taken and stamped by the authorised individuals. There are three stamps that are put crosswise over including: An underwriting alongside the application number of the candidate saying the name of the visting nation A stamp of MEA An authorisation stamp giving the leeway From there on, the assigned individual from the counter stamp on applicant’s passport. Having done, the approved individual further signs the letter and the passport page. So this is what a PCC is all about. To know other information on visa, passport and documentation prerequisites for overseas trip keep following Visas of the World.

Gun Control Lawmaker Facing Recall The organizers of an effort to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse turned in Monday more than twice the number of signatures required to force a special election, possibly setting the stage for an expensive, national battle over gun control. If the signatures are determined to be valid and survive a court challenge, it’s likely voters in Morse’s Senate district will decide at a special election in September whether to oust the Colorado Springs Democrat. Morse’s support of gun-control legislation in the 2013 session as well as his leadership style sparked the recall effort.

“Spike! No, Spike!” Too late, my mutt Spike was busily sniffing up the butt of another dog, one that didn’t seem to mind really, but the gaze from the stud that held the other end of that dog’s leash made me embarrassed anyway. I tugged on the leash and finally Spike minded me, coming over with a hurt look on his face as if to say that he was just being a good neighbor. I fished around for something to say to the well built guy whose dog just got nose raped by mine when he smiled and reached out a hand. “No harm done as I can see and anyway, dogs will be dogs. My name’s Rick and Henry’s my dog.” I introduced myself and Spike, who decided since I was talking nicely with the fine fellow that it would be ok to start sniffing HIM. He’d just began at the man’s shoe and I hastily tugged on the leash again in fear that he’d complete the “trick” that I’d taught him. “No, Spike, no!” Again, he gave me that hurt look and came back to ‘hmpf’ at my feet, watching both Henry and Rick carefully just in case I changed my mind. Indeed, I would have been quite pleased to have Spike perform his “trick” with this young man, for he was tall, muscular in all the right places and had that smile that made me just melt when one was directed at me. His hair was dark blond, close cropped military style and his eyes were a deep blue that sparkled as he watched Spike and I. Clean shaven and wearing tight ‘mufti’ type t-shirt and shorts, I’d pegged him as one of the countless marines living off base as they had for many years. His body was in fine US Government shape, evident from the tight clothing as was the fact that he was well endowed at the crotch area. Later on I was to find that he was in the Reserves and actually it was that membership that brought us together through our dogs. As we talked we had headed to the apartment complex’s newly created dog park, a fenced area of well maintained grass and benches where dogs could run off leash and play in a secure area. I found it amusing that in the year before this same area was a children’s ‘tot lot’ but as it was never used by the few families with kids it was converted to what was really needed. We entered the dog park and secured the gate behind us, got ourselves a set of plastic poop gloves and released our dogs! Off they tore, like two school kids let loose after chores, romping and peeing on everything, sniffing everywhere and, of course, each other. Both dogs were ‘fixed’ males, but it was funny to see them still highly interested in each other’s butts. Rick and I settled on a bench and chatted about various things, until he got quiet as he watched our dogs play. “What is it, Rick? You seem distracted.” I said as I broke from watching HIM to see what was up. He shrugged and turned towards me. “Well, I got to leave here in a few weeks for my Reserve shift and I have nowhere for Henry to stay while I’m gone.” Rick sighed and I sighed as I watched his muscles flex under the tight clothing. “He’s a good dog, but most of my friends just don’t want the burden of taking care of a dog, even if it is only a few weeks out of the year.” I thought about it some and murmured that things would work out somehow. I had the same problem when I went on vacation, but made enough money to board Spike with the vet if I had to. Seeing this guy all concerned about his dog tugged at my heart (as well as his body did my cock) so I offered to take care of Henry as it was obvious to both of us that our dogs got along quite well. “Two dogs for a short time can’t be that much of a bother,” I said, basking in the growing smile on Rick’s face, “and I’m sure that they don’t eat so much that I’ll go broke. I figure I can take them for walks together and if Henry doesn’t mind going out to do his business when Spike goes, I think we can do this with no problem.” Rick looked like somebody just handed him a million dollars and to my delight, hugged me hard before I realized what he’d done. “Oh man, you just relieved me of my worst worry!” His hug had, of course, brought our lower bodies close enough to touch and our hairy lower legs pressed together briefly until he released me and sat back, grinning broader than any time earlier that day. “I know Henry and Spike will get along great and of course I’ll leave money for Henry’s food. I don’t think having a brother will bother Henry at all, in fact he’ll be almost on vacation himself!” We laughed and then it was time to head back to our respective apartments after policing the park as good citizens should after their dogs. Disposing of the used gloves in the special trash cans, we put the leashes back on our dogs and headed out through the gate. Rick stopped and grabbed my arm before I turned off towards my apartment. “Here’s my phone number and address. Feel free to drop by. I’m home most evenings and always keep a six pack and steaks in the fridge for my buddies.” He handed me a card from his back pocket with this information on it. “That sounds great, Rick,” I said as I pocketed the card and shook hands with him. “I’ll give you a call when I get back to my place and pass my info to you as well.” He grinned and we headed our two ways with our dogs, who looked a bit disappointed they couldn’t play more with each other. I called Rick a few minutes later and gave him my address and phone number and we also exchanged cell phone numbers just in case. After I’d hung up I was rather horny and had Spike perform his ‘trick’ before showering and setting up for my own dinner. A few days later Rick called and invited Spike and I to dinner. “Like I said, I got beer and steaks, but if you want to bring something that would be ok.” I volunteered to bring what I called a ‘man’s salad’ which made him laugh and later that day arrived with Spike and my salad. Rick whistled at the hearty salad I’d made and I explained that the idea of a ‘man’s salad’ was to make it chunkier and put more stuff in it than most women did. We shared the salad and steaks while our dogs had a little bit of steak as well and then took our beers out to Rick’s balcony to relax. I complemented Rick on his steaks and he made a comment that meat was his specialty, something that was loaded with innuendo and after a few more comments like that I turned and, emboldened, asked Rick if he was bisexual. “No, are you?” When I told him I was gay, he smiled. “Me too, cool how that worked out.” We laughed and now we openly cruised each other, checking out each other’s hard bodies and especially each other’s thickening crotches. Spike noticed us and happily went to Rick, first sniffing his bare leg and slowly sniffing and licking upwards until he got to where Rick’s shorts began. “Spike, No!” I wasn’t sure if Rick was ready for Spike’s ‘trick.’ “What’s wrong, Mike, he’s just interested in me, that’s all.” I shook my head, watching Spike as he ‘hmpft’ again and lay at Rick’s feet. “I taught Spike a special trick that you might find embarrassing, Rick, and unfortunately Spike likes the reward so much he tries his trick with every guy I meet.” Rick’s eyebrows went up and he said, “I’d like to see this trick if I can. Do I need to do anything special?” “The trick works best if you’re naked, at least that’s how I taught Spike,” I said, reddening a bit in embarrassment. My embarrassment changed to lust as Rick just nodded and stood up, peeling off his tight t-shirt and pulling off his shorts to reveal that he was going commando. He settled back in his chair, spread his legs and nodded to me. “OK, Spike, ‘Trick!’” Spike happily got up and started sniffing and licking up Rick’s leg again, moving up past his knee to where his thickly muscled thigh began. He paused a second to check to make sure I hadn’t changed my mind and then moved up Rick’s meaty thigh to where a nicely engorged cock was growing. Rick was uncut, and Spike got confused for a bit as he watched a different type of cock, but understood what to do after Rick’s head appeared from its skin covering. With a happy grunt Spike zeroed in on Rick’s balls and began licking them with long, slow strokes. “Umm… oh…” moaned Rick as Spike worked his heavy balls, licking up from the bottom of the ball sack and catching one ball lightly in the cup of his tongue before completing the stroke and going for the other one. The signal to move to the cock was always the presence of precum, and as the first pearly drop appeared at Rick’s cockhead, Spike move forward and began licking the underside of Rick’s hard cock. Of course, Spike had no way of knowing as I did that uncut cocks are very sensitive right there and, like a switch being turned on, my doggie was getting well rewarded in precum as Rick moaned louder and deeper as his cock sent pleasure signals all across his nerves. Rick moaned louder when Spike’s tongue would scrape lightly against his frenum, the most sensitive spot on men and, for uncut guys, where the biggest trigger was located. That and having a more sensitive head that would receive licks from Spike as he got his precum treat were enough to set off the orgasm and Rick was no exception to the rule. “Oh fuck!” yelled Rick as he began shooting thick cream from his cock, Spike yelping again happily as the man milk began coating Rick’s lap and chest. Spike kept up the work until Rick stopped shooting, and then helpfully licked up every drop of cum that had gone on Rick’s body. Weakly, Rick looked over at me and whispered hoarsely, “Some trick…” I grinned and motioned to Spike who headed over to where I sat, now naked and throbbing with my own need. “Spike, Trick!” Soon I was moaning and shooting my own load while my doggie lapped up the goods. Seeing neither man with a hard cock, Spike gave one last lick to my crotch and sat at my feet, watching the both of us just in case we were ready for a second round. Rick got up and came around to my chair, bent close to me and planted a big kiss on my lips. “Ok I think it’s time Master got a chance to have fun with me as well…” I grinned and told Spike to stay, which he did, content (and full of man spunk) to wait until I called again. The two of us headed into Rick’s bedroom and, after collecting a rubber and some lube from a handy side table drawer, Rick was on his back, his ankles resting on my shoulders and my rubberized cock ready to enter his pulsating hole! I slowly entered him, his moans deepening to groans as I spread his legs wider to get better depth and, when I hit his joy button, his cock leapt up like a startled fish. Long deep strokes slowly moved to the short ‘almost ready to cum’ ones and, with a yelp from Rick, his orgasm began pulsing around my cock, his cock coating his ripped abs and thick pecs with creamy goodness. I was in hog heaven with the feeling on my rod and it didn’t long before I was filling the tip of my rubber to bursting. When I was done I carefully pulled out of Rick’s fine asshole and rolled over onto my back beside my raggedly breathing fuck buddy and then carefully removed the rubber to empty the spunk inside it onto my belly. “Spike, Trick!” With a galloping sound my dog hustled into the bedroom and, nose aquiver, began vacuuming up the spooge on our bodies. Rick began laughing as Spike happily licked off his cum from his belly, saying that it tickled a bit and, with a little woof Spike continued cleaning of my buddy’s upper torso until he couldn’t find any more. Turning towards me, he cleaned off my belly, carefully licking out the depression where my belly button lay as well as a nice deposit of cum. I agreed with Rick, Spike’s tongue on the belly was rather tickling to the sensitive area right after cumming, and we giggled like two school girls as Spike completed his trick. We rested, side by side with our hands idly stroking each other as we waited for the post-orgasmic buzz to fade away and when we felt like moving again we got up and showered together, itself creating another post-orgasmic buzz, although this time it was my butthole that was stretched. Poor Spike didn’t get to do his trick this time as the shower cleared off all the spooge before I had a chance to call him into the bathroom. Towels around our waists, we headed to the living room and, with a couple more beers, chatted about not much of anything until Rick suggested I spend the night… …the next morning, after rounds of heavy sex that left my dog so full of spunk, the last time I called out “Trick” he just hmpfed at me and went back to sleep. Rick and I laughed at that and cleaned ourselves up, had breakfast that morning and then Spike and I went home to prepare for Henry’s stay. A few days later Rick and Henry came over, Henry all excited and sniffing everything in the apartment before we headed to the dog park together. Rick was getting Henry used to my place and that evening he and Henry stayed overnight, Henry confused by Spike performing his trick three times that evening and finally deciding that it was interesting enough to try for himself. I thought Rick’s smile couldn’t get much wider when he realized that his dog had found his crotch and was happily licking up his master’s cum. “Guess I don’t have to do cum rag laundry anymore,” he said, giggling as Henry’s tongue lapped at his belly button, “now I have my own personal spooge vacuum.” I nodded, Spike cleaning my belly off as well. “Saves a lot of energy and water too.” We both laughed and let the dogs finish before we settled into each other’s arms, slowly falling asleep… …unfortunately, the next morning Rick had to report for duty and we got up early, Rick taking a quick shower and getting dressed in his reservist’s uniform before eating what he called his last home cooked meal for awhile. Before grabbing his duffel and walking out the door, he stopped and pulled me into a huge bear hug. Kissing me, he whispered, “Thanks, Mike, for not only taking care of Henry for me but also taking care of me. When I get back, I’ll show you how appreciative I am!” I grinned and rubbed my ass. “Can hardly wait, Rick! Henry, Spike and I will get along fine. You go off and do your duty and when you get back in a few weeks, we’ll have a celebration all ready for you!” Another hug and kiss later, Rick had driven away and the dogs were now resting at my feet while I sat on the couch still tingling from that last kiss. The weeks rolled by and indeed, the two dogs were good friends and not any problem at all to manage. I developed a bit more muscle in my arms from having to restrain two dogs rather than one, but overall it worked out fine. I reinforced Henry’s newly trained ‘trick’ and Spike had to share the wealth, so to speak, but I knew Henry had received all the training he needed and now was in practice mode, the dogs again got along as long as they shared my cock, balls and spooge. There were three happy mutts when I heard the knock at the door and Rick stood there, Henry because master was home, Spike because Henry was excited and myself because I had really missed Rick! He laughed as we all tried to hug, lick and rub against him and finally we got ourselves organized on the couch, the two dogs at our feet and the two humans in each other’s arms. “I’m so glad to be home!” Rick said, smiling into my eyes as we embraced. “It was sheer torture to be without you guys, even for two weeks! I haven’t jacked off or anything as I shared bunk space with five other guys, none of them gay and too ‘uber-straight’ for me.” He grinned and continued, “Besides, my buddy at home and my dog will help me take care of that problem!” We laughed and then we got a bit more purposeful with our hands, finally stripping each other and kissing until we were so horny it was time. “Spike! Henry! ‘Trick…’!” The model used to illustrate this story is Alexander Keus. If you'd like to see more photos of him, click here.

DJs brings in help to review Myer merger Retailer David Jones will undertake a thorough assessment of a merger proposal put by rival Myer. David Jones has appointed consultants to help it review the proposal, and identify any benefits for the two retailers. The review will also assess the benefits of David Jones proceeding on a stand-alone basis. Nonetheless, the latest statement from David Jones represents a significant shift for the company after it stated last year there would be no fair value to its shareholders in merging with Myer. David Jones said that, given the Myer proposal was based on a share swap, and if talks between the two companies proceeded, an assessment would be made of Myer's business, requiring Myer's co-operation. David Jones chairman Gordon Cairns said it was imperative that his company undertook this initial strategic work prior to talks with Myer. "It will enable us to have a full understanding of the value that can be delivered to our shareholders if David Jones were to merge with Myer, versus the value that can reasonably be expected to be delivered to our shareholders if the company continues with its Future Strategic Direction Plan on a stand-alone basis," Mr Cairns said. "Once this work is completed, we will be in a position to engage in a meaningful way with Myer." The latest developments in the proposed merger follow David Jones chief executive Paul Zahra reversing his decision to quit the company, and Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes' re-appointment to his job. David Jones director Leigh Clapham also ended his role with the company on Tuesday. He and fellow director Steve Vamos, plus chairman Peter Mason, announced in February they would step down after controversial share purchases by Mr Clapham and Mr Vamos. Mr Mason and Mr Vamos have already left the company. Mr Clapham said it had been a privilege to work with David Jones. "I believe that I have acted in the best interests of the company at all times and it is clearly the right time for me to step down and wish the company well in the implementation of its Future Strategic Direction Plan," he said. David Jones shares gained four cents to $3.33 while Myer shares dropped one cent to $2.65.

I'm definitely going to look into this a bit more. Where can I find more information about how synchronization works? Having trouble locating this. Can it get through firewalls? Is the entire tree always synchronized?

Meet Dr. Carol Ford Dr. Carol Ford has been working in dentistry for the past 30 years. Her unique ability to connect with her patients on a personal level allows her to develop strong relationships and create long-range strategic plans for optimal oral health. Dr. Ford began her career as a dental assistant, during which time she developed a passion for helping people improve their health and quality of life. In 1983, she graduated from the University of Washington Dental School with honors, including Excellence in Pediatric, Restorative and Cosmetic Dentistry. Dr. Ford is excited to welcome Dr. Roya N. Asin to the practice! Dr. Asin was born and raised in Arizona, and attended high school in Scottsdale. After earning her Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, she came back to the valley of the sun to receive her dental degree from Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ. During her time in dental school, she took a special interest in leadership positions and led her peers as the class president. Dr. Asin’s main goal as a practitioner is to treat each of your dental needs as comfortably and painlessly as possible. Because dentists primarily work with their hands, she believes that dentistry is also a unique form of artistry. When she’s not spending time practicing dentistry, Dr. Asin likes to remain active, especially outdoors). From scuba diving to skiing, she particularly enjoys hiking and backpack/camping trips. As AZ temperatures soar in the summer, she travels to beat the heat or partakes in indoor activities such as yoga or cycling classes. Dr. Asin’s #1 pastime is spending time with her family.

Hyundai Motor Co. officially launched Santa Fe in New York Auto Show 2012 some time ago. Santa Fe planned to be marketed in Europe starting in June followed by America and China. Santa Fe is a premium car with a more daring design that is 'Fluidic Sclupture' with trapezoid shape grille. Side mirror-like leaves that provide a very sporty impression. Santa Fe will be available in two variants with specifications of different machines and haulage. First, Sporty with Theta II engine 264 PS with a capacity of 2.4-liter and 2.0-liter 6-speed automatic transmission. This variant has dimension length of4689mm,width1880mm, height1679mm. Second, Long Wheel Base with a Lambda II engine, V6, 3.3-liter, GDI is capable produce of power 290 PS. This variant has dimension length of4905mm,width1885mm, height1689mm Santa Fe also features an 8-inch LCD touch screen that displays menu navigation system, audio system, USB and iPod connectors, rear camera, as well as the latest technological Blue Link. Other features on Santa Fe is a sunroof, heated rear seats and steering wheel, remote engine start and speed warnings.

iCADE 8-Bitty to debut at Toy Fair 2012 You know that with the advent of tablets and smartphones, we are now very used to touchscreen displays – something which used to be in the domain of science fiction is now widespread reality. Even our ATMs these days tend to have a touchscreen display in order to keep up with the times. Well, having said that, touchscreen displays do do their part in making sure new genres of games are churned out in order to take advantage of this new interactive format, but what happens when you port over old school games onto a touchscreen display equipped device? Sure, the memories of yore might roll back the years as you indulge in a little blast from the past on your iPad or smartphone, and I am quite sure that deep down inside, you would probably feel that your gaming experience would have been far better with physical controls instead of just tapping on a glass display. Enter the iCADE 8-Bitty then, which is set to debut at the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City. Just in case the iCADE 8-Bitty seems familiar to you, it is actually the smaller sibling of the iCADE gaming cabinet, where that itself started off as an April Fool’s joke which ended up as one of the most anticipated ThinkGeek products ever. The iCADE 8-Bitty certainly lives up to that, bringing the magic of the iCADE to the pockets of smartphone and tablet users. According to Ty Liotta, head of ThinkGeek’s GeekLabs, “We’re excited to extend on the success of the original iCADE. And with millions of iOS and Android devices in circulation it only makes sense to widen the field and bring the fun of iCADE to every possible device.” The iCADE 8-Bitty functions as a wireless game controller which comes with the classic D-Pad and button layout that will remind you of retro 8-bit game consoles back from the 1980s and 1990s. It is battery powered, and will hook up to your device wirelessly, letting your fingers run all over the fully-functional directional game pad and eight buttons. A $24.99 asking price is not too much to fork out, is it?

Using a ferocious pass rush that never stopped harassing Rodgers, the Giants pummeled the Green Bay Packers, 38-10, in a Sunday night mauling that was settled by halftime. The Giants showed America why they are still a threat to repeat as Super Bowl champs. They have a great quarterback in Eli Manning, a pressure-tested coach in Tom Coughlin and a knack for playing their best when the lights are the brightest. The Giants (7-4) will get another chance to shine in prime time next Monday night, when they visit RG3 and the Washington Redskins (5-6). Should they win that game, the Giants will take a major step toward winning the NFC East. Giants outside linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka was already thinking about RG3, who played well in a 27-23 loss to the Giants in October. “We understand what we have to do in terms of rushing and collapsing the pocket,” Kiwanuka said. “We have to be disciplined. It’s a tough matchup.” The Packers, who had won five straight, could have been a tough matchup. But the Giants dominated. That’s what happens when the Giants’ pass rush takes over. They sacked Rodgers five times, including a strip-sack by Osi Umenyiora that led to a Giants touchdown. A relentless pass rush is the best way to slow down a high-octane NFL offense. The San Francisco 49ers did it to Drew Brees on Sunday afternoon. The Giants did it to Rodgers (14-of-25, 219 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception) on Sunday night. No quarterback enjoys being battered like a pinata, even quarterbacks as good as Rodgers and Brees. Rodgers never found a consistent rhythm because he constantly had Giants like Umenyiora, Kiwanuka (two sacks), Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck buzzing around him. “That was something we felt we absolutely had to do with someone with the talent of Aaron Rodgers and having the type of year that he’s having,” Coughlin said. “Have him throw the ball on our timing rather than his.” Packers coach Mike McCarthy admitted that he changed his play calling in the second half to keep Rodgers from taking more punishment. “The New York Giants have an outstanding defensive line,” McCarthy said. “We had a plan, and we didn’t execute it very well. They did a hell of a job tonight. They were dynamic, very talented, very productive. “When your quarterback is under pressure like that, it affected me. I probably didn’t call the best game. You have to protect your quarterback. It’s the No. 1 responsibility of our offense.” The NFC playoff picture is hard to predict, but the Giants can’t be overlooked. They dominated the 49ers in San Francisco earlier this season. They have beaten the Packers two straight times—Sunday night and in last year’s playoffs. The Giants have proved what they can do when the stakes are high. For now, they will focus on their next challenge—the Redskins and Griffin. The Giants were impressed with his ability to improvise when they saw him last month. Mobile quarterbacks like Griffin have a better chance to escape the pass rush and make a play when protection breaks down. Rodgers did it a few times Sunday night, but Griffin is even more willing to run and to use his legs to make plays. Before the bye, the Giants looked lethargic. Perhaps they were tired—a veteran team hitting the dog days of the season and dealing with outside distractions like Hurricane Sandy that affected every player on the team. Against the Packers, the Giants looked a step faster and focused from the opening kickoff. Manning was sharp, the running game clicked, and it did not take long for the Giants to take control. Once the Packers fell behind, the Giants ignored Green Bay’s running game and the pass rush took over. It was a familiar formula for the Giants, but it still works. In today’s pass-happy NFL, getting to the quarterback has never been more important. The Giants can still get to the QB. Which makes them a threat to reach another Super Bowl.

The problem. The four keys at the bottom of the phone are monitored by a melfas touchkey chip (http://www.melfas.com/english/touch/sensor.asp) that connects to the main processor via an I2C bus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/i2c). The melfas chip generates an interrupt whenever one of the keys is touched or released. The processor then reads the key value from this chip over the i2c bus. The problem is that the touchkey chip is located right next to the 3G antenna. When the phone is accessing the 3G network the RF energy gets transferred to the interrupt and i2c clock and data lines causing false interrupts to occur. The processor responds to the interrupt by reading the key value from the cypress chip. The symptoms occur more frequently in low signal areas because the phone outputs a higher RF level in those situations which causes more RF interference on the interrupt line. Most of the time when a false interrupt has occurred the touchkey chip will return a value of zero for the key and the driver will recognize this as a bad key press and ignore it. Sometimes the RF interference on the i2c clock and/or data line causes a valid value to be returned and the driver reports a key press value to the application. In the case where the driver reports a Ďbackí key down, the software sees this as holding the back key down so when you press the power button you get a screen shot. The easiest way to cure this is to always press and release the back key before pushing the power button. This causes the software to see both a key down and key up event which cancels the screenshot mode. This RFI induced touchkey interrupt happens hundreds of times per second when the phone is using 3G. It produces lots of different symptoms including applications that always seem to shut down. A wide variety of problems can be attributed to this failure. In addition, the processor spends a lot of time servicing these bogus interrupts, which take cpu time away from the other applications. This can make the phone appear to be slow or even freeze up for short periods of time. Thereís a good chance that most people have experience this to some degree without realizing the root cause. Solution one. Fix the driver. Since this is a true hardware failure, a software solution is going to be less than perfect. After dozens of experiments rewriting the interrupt service routines in the driver Iíve settled on a combination of fixes. The first is to re-test the interrupt input line several times. In normal operation when you touch or release a button, the touchkey chip drives the interrupt line low and keeps it low until the driver reads data over the i2c interface. Since the RF interference is a sine wave and is being sampled it causes the interrupt line to go high and low at a fast rate. Sampling the line multiple times in software increases the chance of finding it in the high state. This is done both in the interrupt handler and then again in the interrupt thread. About 90% of the false interrupts are filtered out by testing the line in the handler. If the interrupt handler doesnít find the line high after 10 samples, it masks the interrupt so that another falling edge doesnít produce another interrupt. In testing Iíve noticed that the interrupt handler would run multiple times before the interrupt thread was even called. Once in a while, so many interrupts would get stacked up that the phone would just reboot. It was probably a stack or buffer overflow that wasnít being handled. Remember, this interrupt would happen many hundreds of times a second. About 90% of the remaining false interrupts are filtered out by sampling this line in the thread. That leaves about 1% of the interrupts that need to be further tested. The second test is to read the data from the chip and discard anything that isnít a valid key press value. This is easily done with a case statement. Finally, since occasionally a bogus valid value will get through, I set up a timer so that any key down event that doesnít have a corresponding key up event within 3 seconds is canceled by calling the all_keys_up routine. This combination all but eliminates the symptoms produced by this failure. The only draw back is that the processor still spends a considerable amount of time servicing the false interrupts. And rarely a phantom keypress does get through. In all, itís a fairly good piece of duct tape and JB Weld. During my experiments I used a copy of the kgb kernel. My version with the modified driver is in github at https://github.com/dmriley/kgb. If you want to try this yourself, be sure to use the Ďdeví branch. Solution two. Fix the hardware. There are three signals that connect from the melfas touchkey chip to the processor. They are the two i2c lines: sdc which is the clock and sda which is the data. The third line is the interrupt. In troubleshooting this problem, I took my phone apart and put oscilloscope probes on the three lines. This allowed me to see the real cause of the problem. Since the interference is RFI (or EMI) the only real way to fix the problem is to either remove the RF or make the impedance of the signals much lower. Removing the RF is easy if you donít need to use 3G. When the phone is using wifi (or no network connectivity at all) the problem does not exist. Also, when you are very close to a cell tower, the phone transmits at a much lower level. This lower level greatly reduces the RFI. Lowering the impedance is a little harder. I2C uses active pull down and passive pull up for the logic levels for both sda and sdc. This means that the impendence is mostly governed by the pull up resistor. This resistor value is typically upwards of 1kohm and probably as high as 3kohms (I didnít measure it in this phone). Since the impedance only needs to be lowered for the 3G frequencies of around 800MHz, a capacitor can be added from the signal source to signal ground. At 800MHZ a 100 pf cap is about 2 ohms (1/ 2*pi*f*c). Thatís a couple of orders of magnitude lower than the pull up resistor alone, and much too low for the RF signal to induce any significant voltage on the line. This value is also low enough not to interfere with the signal rise and fall times for the interrupt line. In the case of the interrupt line, the melfas chip drives the signal low and keeps it low until the interrupt is serviced. Discharging a 100pf cap with a 2mA driver takes only microseconds. This much delay is not noticeable when touching the key and is much less than the amount of time that the processor takes to service the interrupt. Adding the cap to the interrupt line eliminates false interrupts. A chance does exist that a valid key event during 3G access could cause an incorrect key value to be returned due to RFI on the clock and data lines. The i2c protocol is designed to compensate for capacitive loading on the lines. Although it would cause the clock period to be stretched out significantly it would still only take milliseconds to read the key data from the chip. The difference would be imperceptible. To date I have only added the cap to the interrupt line and have yet to experience an invalid key press. Iíll post pictures of cap mod. Summary. Most people will be satisfied using the software fix. I think that a couple of the kernel devs are incorporating some or most of the driver mods outlined in this document. Both comradesven (kgb dev) and ssewk2x aka Efpophis (glitch dev) were involved in the test and debug process. Much appreciation is given to both of them for the help that they gave me and for allowing me to use and hack up their code on github. Efpophis saved me hours of searching through code. Without their help, Iíd still be unable to build a kernel. UPDATE:30 Mar 2012 The phone had been working fine since the mod. I hadn't seen a screen capture or any of the other symptoms. Then, a couple of nights ago, while I running maps on 3G (a data intensive app) the touchkey backlights started flashing rapidly like the phone was having a little seizure. And then it happened, the voice search popped up. A couple of debug kernels later I've come to the conclusion (and I'm never wrong) that the clock line (SCL) going to the melfas chip was being toggled by the same RF interference that was causing the false interrupts. A random clock along with random data was causing the chip to turn the backlights on and off as well as generate a false interrupt. I was able to reliably duplicate the problem in a couple of really low signal level areas (not hard to find when you live out in the boonies). I tore the phone apart (again) today and added a 100pf cap to the scl line right next to the chip. I also added another cap in parallel with the 100pf on the interrupt line. I spent about 1/2 hour tonight running 3G data apps in the same location where the problem first appeared. So far, no problems and none of the debug messages have shown up on dmesg. Wow, we're lucky to have someone as capable as yourself figure out this annoying issue! I've kinda kept up on your work, but seeing this breakdown and the photos is helpful in understanding the root cause of the problem. I do wonder sometimes how Samsung missed this issue in their testing, but at least we have custom kernels that implement your fixes and dramatically reduce the phantom presses! wasn't just me. had help from other members here. I didn't even know where to start looking when I first started. It's so cool that people are willing to do the level of work that the devs here do without expecting anything back. wasn't just me. had help from other members here. I didn't even know where to start looking when I first started. It's so cool that people are willing to do the level of work that the devs here do without expecting anything back. Thanks so much for all the work, and the detail in your post. It is amazing the work everybody does here and the knowledge you pass on to us. I do have a few questions Would you mind sharing what kind off iron you used? is that the most bottom line on the board you soldered to? If so, did you have to scratch it or something first? Is it the farthest left line on the chip that was used? Do they make caps that size with leads coming of the 2 sides, and if so would that be a easier mod? Is there a positive and negative side to that capacitor? I'm really thinking about doing this, if i decide to would you mind sending me 5 of your extra caps for a $10 donation? XDA Developers was founded by developers, for developers. It is now a valuable resource for people who want to make the most of their mobile devices, from customizing the look and feel to adding new functionality.Are you a developer?

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What's new in this version (1.6): Description This is an UNLOCKER app for Shelves (com.miadzin.shelves). After you install this app, the ads are removed from Shelves. YOU MIGHT NEED TO REBOOT YOUR PHONE FIRST. Installing this app will unlock certain features in the Shelves app. It will not erase your previous collection. It will not magically add brand new, never-before-seen new features. Unlocked features include: * Removal of ads * The ability to add any item manually * The ability to multiselect items for tagging, rating, deleting, e.t.c. * The ability to add items to a wishlist Thank you to everyone who supports a one-man development team, acting as developer, tester, documentation writer, customer relations, and public relations. I wouldn't do this if it weren't for all of you. Last comments from Android Market Alejandro (*****)There is no "bait & switch". Just a single man who made a great app for free, decided to make it trial, then ad supported FOR his users. Support him. Christopher (*)I'm so sick of the ads coming back and having to backup my database, uninstall, reinstall, restore database. For this kind of money, it should work. Jerry (*****)Would be cool if you could add a custom field where you could enter a catalog# for each dvd Emma (****)Glad I noticed the new update. It's back to being best app ever ;-) maotx (*)Bait and switch. Price to high. No integration with other services. No way to customize shelves. Can only backup one category at a time. Real (*)No manual entry. High asking price with still no access to amazon db. Scan couldn't identify canadian upc. Sean Mc. (****)If the app wasn't so good, I would have uninstalled it due to the bait and switch tactics. Price should be determined before it goes to market. Randall (****)Garen Torikian has more than once personally responded to questions as well as quickly made desired improvements. I fully support his need to charge! Androlicious.com is a website that shows applications and games from Android Market. You can download and install apps and games directly from Android Market using an Android phone or by using WebConnect mobile application.

This blog was originally a set of reflections as a student teacher, full time teacher, and then technology director in K-12 education. It is currently a place for educational technology reflections and features a few interesting assignments during my masters degree program. Monday, March 2, 2009 Job Fair – Round One So today I ventured out to a new experience, one that I had heard a lot about but not experienced – the job fair. So this morning I got up and put on my Sunday best and headed out to a school and into the dog pen. I got here, along with a lot of other people, a little early and got registered. Then I stood in line and waited, and waited, and waited some more for the doors to open. Then finally they did and all of us, I would have to guess somewhere around 550 teachers, educators, and support staff all searching for a job. So there I was, a student teacher thrown into a huge gym full of people. Armed with my resume and a smile I approached my first school district to talk to them. Of course there were lines, but some places were worse than others. Last night I made my short list of schools that I was interested in, so I started off there. The format is that prospective educators have about two minutes to impress the representatives of the district with the few words and ideas that you have. So that’s what I did, I said a few things about student teaching, technology, finishing my degree program, and then trying to ask a question to keep the conversation going. From there they would probably tell me, at least at most places, that they do not have any openings right now. So I would hand them my resume, tell them thank you, and then move on. That’s what I found in a lot of districts, but in just a few I had a little more luck. If you make it past the first round of interrogation and approval, then they grant you a thirty minute interview later in the day. At first I started to wonder if I would even get any interviews. I kept getting turned down by school district after school district, because of a lack of openings. As I was waiting in line I met a friend who chatted with me for a while and then she encouraged me to throw my plan out the window. My short list, what did it really matter? Of course, make sure that I hit those schools, but other than that I have nothing holding me to Denver. Why not go around to every table and get my information out. So that’s what I did, I hit them all up. Mostly I got turned down, time and time again. One school district in particular would not even look at student teachers. Which, I think is good for the students and parents in their district, but some student teachers are fantastic and I think worth looking at – I am included. However, I guess I somewhat understand the policy. That was frustrating; however this market is hard. The jobs are few and far between, so I kept trying. Then I finally got a huge break with a large district outside of Denver and that made me really excited. From there I tried a few other places and then started getting the line, “We would love to interview you today, but our sheet is already filled up.” They only have so much time to interview so many candidates, it makes sense, but I feel like they fill them on a first come, first serve basis, which I believe they are leaving out some quality candidates. I was excited, though, because even one school district told me, “We’re really interested and if anything opens up today, like someone does not show up for an interview, I will call you.” That was really nice to hear. In addition, I also got an interview at a smaller district that will serve as a preparation for the larger school district. I was able to schedule it right before too, so that was a good thing. All in all, there were a lot of people, a lot of standing in line, and very little progress. A few interviews, that was good, but overall I’m still not ready for school on Monday and this ate up my day. I understand that finding a job is really important, but I want to make sure that it is worth my time. Many of these districts were like, did you apply online? To which I thought; No, if I had time I might take you up on that. Which leads me to the kicker – It will be this week when I carve out time for me to actually get on the computer and actually get things situated. I am watching a few other school districts and a few other jobs around the state and this week I have to make time to start applying. So my first interview was with the really small school district. It was good to go in there, see what questions they had, and then move from there. They strongly encouraged me to apply to their open position. My second interview was with an interviewee that was really excited to meet me and interview me. My interviewer was really impressed with my resume and “everything I had done in my short life.” She said, “It was one of the best resumes I have seen in a while,” which made me feel good about my accomplishments and that my resume was attracting attention. From there she asked me a few standard questions about education, teaching, and then she asked me about publishing relevant material. I took that and ran with it. I showed her how my students were publishing to Wiki spaces, blogging, Fishbowling in class, and really publishing to the world. I also told her about how we are using cell phones in the classroom and really trying to make the content that the students write worth while to the students and publishable to the world. From question three on, I do not think she went back to the “prepared questions.” Instead, we just had a chat about engagement, technology, teaching, and middle school students. At the end of the interview, my interviewer strongly encouraged me to apply for a recent posting of an opening at 7th and 8th grade. I was a little hesitant at first to even think about and acknowledge teaching middle school students, but then my interviewer told me a little bit more about the school district and how it is growing and how it passed a very large bond last year. To that end, they will be hiring many teachers and spending a lot of money on technology and a brand new P-20 school that will open in 2011 I believe. So it was a great interview that actually went over time, but made me excited for teaching and the prospect of a job in the near future. This whole career fair thing is very daunting at first and even seemed like part of it was not worth it, but I really felt that at the end of the day I had two good jobs to look into and start applying to. I had built up confidence in my skills, resume, and presentation, which all was very helpful, and I had even had some interview experience. Now off to the search for the online applications and the time to fill them out. The search continues, but all in all it was a good day. About Me Randon Ruggles is currently a Education Services Engineer at JAMF Software. He was previously a high school English teacher and Technology Director at the FAIR School Downtown (Minneapolis, MN). Prior FAIR he student taught at Arapahoe High School (Centennial, CO) where this blog got its start. In addition to his work at JAMF, Randon has taught classes for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in the GPDE program and is currently completing his Instructional Technology masters degree through the University of Northern Iowa. When Randon is not found blogging, tweeting, or checking out new technology, he is usually watching MN Wild hockey, water skiing on the Mississippi River, or hanging out with his wife.

Recently, Times Higher Education released their 2016/2017 World University Rankings. The rankings look at teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook of universities from every corner of the globe. Here at WebsEdge we were excited for this announcement as we have worked closely with many of the universities for our Conference TV projects. Looking at [...] The MarCom Awards has announced WebsEdge as a gold winner in the education institution – video category, titled The Fetal Heart Program by Cath Sheehan, Executive Producer at WebsEdge. Stephen Horn CEO of WebsEdge said “With video technology more widely used and accessible at peoples’ fingertips, it is great to be recognized for quality video [...] Announced last week (03/05/17) in front of 500 attendees, the European Association of Urology (EAU) was named the winner of Best TV Video Channel – EAU TV at the Association Awards in Vienna. Attracting over 60 nominations, EAU TV was one of only ten associations to be recognised during the 2017 International and European Association [...] We here at WebsEdge have fond memories of Dr Millie Dresselhaus. Over the years we have been fortunate to interview her a handful of times about her career, achievements and her commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, particularly for women. The MIT professor, named ‘Queen of Carbon’ was a pioneer in material [...] You probably don’t need me to tell you that video is fast becoming the common currency for online communications. But even so the figures are truly amazing. According to a new report from Cisco global Internet traffic is going to rise three fold by 2017. By then half the world’s projected population – or 3.6 [...] Contributors Click below to find blogs written by various members of the WebsEdge team and Stephen Horn, our CEO. You are currently browsing the WebsEdge Blog blog archives for June, 2013.

When your done with the game for Nba 2k9 for the Ps2 what else can you do? 1. Can you unlock new shoes, hair styles, Etc. 2.can you have a slam-dunk contest? all I do is create a new team and go to game modes and go to street if you got any new and cool stuff please let me know Answers: 1 Hi, I've just bought the game and playing season mode. When I save my season, turn ps2 off and next wanna play it. I cant load it. I just have to play a new season mode. And, how do you buy/trade players? Answers: 5 Can you hav a 3 point shoot out or slam dunk contest for nba2k9 cuz dats one of my favorite things to do and I cant find them Answers: 2 Ask a question about PS2 2K9's player trade Every time I made a trade(ex:Kobe for Roy) then I played with that team(POR) i found that Kobe just played for 3~4 mins and he would be substitute with bench player(like Webster) then didn't back to lineup again by coach's decision A starter just played for 3~4 mins per game? i check of other traded team, but the condition is the same! Please tell me how to prohibit CPU's coach from these ridiculous substitutions or prevent this conditons? Thanks a lot. Answers: 6 I know this question is stupid, but I can't get any of my players to dunk the ball. How do you dunk the ball on the PS2 Answers: 3 Can you create a team on NBA 2K9 for PS2? Please answer me! Answers: 1

Very well, this is not the first story that I write in English, but is the first that is going to be published and NOT removed Very well, this is not the first story that I write in English, but is the first that is going to be published and WONT be removed. So I'll be so honored if you read it even if it's not perfect, and what's more: you can even personal message me if you want to correct it, then, you can put your mail and be sure that no one but me is going to see it. Then I can send you the chapters or the story, 'because I actually don't know if it's going to be a long one shot or a novel. I guess that's something I'll have to see as I write the story. Not an orphan. Chapter 1 I'm not an orphan; I think you already got that right? I have a Mum and had a Dad. Though I have no idea were exactly my mum is, I know that wherever she is she is working for our goodness (yes our: my sister Lucy and me, Sara) and that she is deeply in love with us. Or at least, that's what Grandma' tells us every day. She is very poor and bit old, but again, she works hard for our goodness and she loves us deeply, as does her friend Mónica. Well, as I said, I'm Sara, I'm 17 and there's nothing more you would actually like to know apart of the fact that my father died the day before yesterday. He, a man of hard working fell ill the past month and it was that strange illness what actually finished him. He didn't own much money, and all he had was left for education and food mainly, so that's why he was so full of debts when he died. And as it's easy to figure out, my family is now in complete ruin, more than it was before, and yes, I had the opportunity to study in a quite good school, but now things have changed and the only way out of this is for my Grandma' to do as my mother and try to make it better somewhere out the country, maybe in USA, where I was born. That's why I speak in English, even if it's hard for me to do it, 'cause I've lived almost my whole life here in Colombia. Unfortunately, we can't go with her, 'cause as I say before, there's no money and she can't stay, 'cause she may be picked by the police because of my father's debts. But she may travel to USA searching for some help 'cause, again, my family is American. As we haven't got any more family in the entire world, there's nothing left but go to an orphanage, to a good one we've been told. In there, we'll have food, a roof, and (as my father would have liked) a good education. We're on our way right now, but you shouldn't feel sad for us, because is better than going to a bad school and living in the streets. It would be so dangerous for us to sleep in the streets, I know! For everyone is dangerous, but more for kids in Colombia, and what's more: if they have USA blood (for this effects, like it or not, capitalist blood). Back to us, we're on our way, in a bus, and can't help myself but spend my time watching the awesome landscape. It's full of hills and mountains nicely decorated by trees and bushes. The bus zigzags its way through the road. Lucy is sleeping next to me. I'm thinking about my friends back at my other school that had to leave in mid term. I also think about the boy I like, he's called Sebastian, but I guess he doesn't sees me as more than friends. And very apart friends I have to say! He is one of those people I didn't tell I was leaving. I guess I won't care. Any ways, it's something I'll have to forget because there's no go back at least for a while. I'm suppose to leave the orphanage next year, but I don't reckon I'll do, 'cause I just can't leave Lucy alone. She is only 5 and I don't want her to forget me, or our family, or worst: forget she HAS a family. I still have my MP3 (I know, I know it's something old, but remember I'm not a powerful money owner) and my cell phone, but can't know if they're going to take it off from me. I'll do my best so that it doesn't happen, really, I'm so a no one without my music or my cell phone. I stand up a bit to get a bit more comfortable. The bus is passing beneath some tall trees and its shadow feels fine in my skin. Lucy wakes up and sits straight. "Were are we going Sara?" I have told her a thousand times we're going to a new home. But I guess she doesn't get the idea of what a new home is. 'Cause I guess you know, but a different home is not the same as a different house. At least, not this case. This time, we're going to have a new house, it's true, but more important is the fact that we're going to have a new 'family' if that's how you can call an orphan. "We're going to a new home?" "A new house?" I nodded; I guess that's just too hard for a small kid to understand the difference between those two concepts. "And" she proceeded "Is it to far?" "I don't know Lucy" I look through the window "I don't know" The bus keeps going in its way, the humming noise doesn't stop. And things in my head began to change. I guess is because things are really going to change from no on. How can I possibly know how the future is going to be like? -- And there it is! My very first chapter of my very first English fiction press. I know! It's short, but is just the beginning. Anyways. Remember I said I didn't know if it was going to be a story or a novel? Well, it's going to be a novel (here again, I think that you may already noticed that ¬¬), but a short novel I guess, no more than six chapters. Anyways: Who knows? If it really gets good, things can possibly change. I'd like to know how you feel about it: If you liked it, if you didn't, If you think I'd better continue writing some pokemon fanfiction, or whatever you'd like to say, it can even not be related to the story at all, just REVIEW! But try to make it according to the story anyways please… The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.

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Is SXC Health Overtaking RIM as Canada’s Biggest Tech Success Story? SXC Health CEO Mark Thierer on CNBC's Powerlunch. Under Thierer, SXC revenue has grown from under $100 million to $5 billion. We’ll forgive you if haven’t yet heard their name. After all, as late as 2004 this Milton, Ontario company was plodding along more than a decade after it was founded with just $33 million in revenue. There was no big, splashy Bay Street IPO; the company went public in a reverse takeover of a publicly listed shell, allowing it to raise a relatively meager $10 million in 1997. In February, however, SXC Health (TSX:SXC) reported its fiscal 2011 results and the numbers surprised even its most ardent supporters. SXC’s revenue grew a whopping 155% to $5 billion, from $1.9 billion in 2010. Earnings were up too, increasing 45% to $166.4 million. This story is brought to you by Serenic (TSXV:SER). Serenic’s market cap of $3.18 million (as of January 27th, 2012) was less than its cash position of $4.03 million (as of Q2, 2012). The company has no debt. Click here for more information. SXC Health, alongside US-based companies such as Medco and Caremark, is a leader in the Pharmacy Benefit Management space. PBM’s process and pay prescription drug claims and act as an intermediary between the health care system and the claimant. The space has grown rapidly; today more than more than 210 million Americans receive drug benefits administered by PBMs. With today’s $4.4-billion acquisition of Catalyst Health, SXC has vaulted itself into the arena of the big boys. On BNN today, Versant analyst Tom Liston said, with SXC acquiring $299-million in EBITDA next year, the Catalyst Health deal is “transformational”. For many observers of Canadian tech, the timing of SXC’s rise couldn’t be better. 2011 was, without doubt, Research in Motion’s worst year. The company’s entry into the tablet space, The BlackBerry PlayBook, was widely regarded as a flop, and RIM continued to lose market share in the mobile device sector. RIM’s current problems are well documented. But between 2008 and fiscal 2011 the company’s revenue more than tripled; from $6 billion to $19.9 billion. In 2012, however, RIM’s revenue growth has completely stalled; nine months revenue was down to $14.24 billion from $14.35 billion a year prior. Even more concerning is the fact that gross margins are eroding, from 44.4% in 2011 to 36.3%. The space between SXC’s $5 billion in revenue and RIM’s near $20 billion is a wide chasm. But with RIM’s future looking uncertain in a increasingly competitive space, the gap may tighten quickly. Before today’s deal, Versant analyst Tom Liston thought SXC’s revenue will grow to $8.2 billion in fiscal 2013. SXC is the Versant analyst’s top pick, and the stock he says is simply a “must own”. But is there there room in the Pharmacy Benefit Management space for SXC to continue its torrid growth? In 2010, CEO Mark Thierer told Cantech Letter’s Nick Waddell that he believes there are still “great growth opportunities within the U.S. market for SXC…” and that the company would not have necessarily have to look outside the US anytime soon because “…approximately 40 percent of the worldwide pharmaceutical sales, the EU 35 percent and the rest of the world is the remainder.” And although SXC most direct competitors are not as vertically aligned as SXC, their numbers dwarf even RIM’s topline. Medco’s fiscal 2011 revenues increased 6.2% to a record $70.1 billion. With 2011 revenues of $107 billion, CVS Caremark is even bigger. While the slide of RIM’s share price has perhaps been disproportionate to the slide in its business fortunes, shareholders are continuing to gain confidence in SXC Health’s stunning rise, which began through the recession of 2008 and hasn’t stopped. On March 14, 2008 shares of SXC on the NASDAQ could be had for $5.22. At press time, SXC was trading, on the TSX, at $85.58. About Nick Waddell Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.

Frequently Asked Questions 1. Who is providing this test and information? This health promotion website is provided by the Alcohol Health Network - an independent not-for-profit social enterprise which aims to promote health at work online. 2. Who is this website for? The AHN is working with the Royal Borough of Kingston's Public Health Department, as well as other local areas / companies to provide individuals with confidential, anonymous and independent online health assessments, helping you to make informed choices about your drinking. 3. What device do I need to do the test? You can complete the alcohol health check online on a web browser on any computer or smartphone at work, home or anywhere else. 4. What’s the point of doing the test? The alcohol health check will give you confidential, personalised feedback on your drinking and how your health might be affected. It will help you work out how much you are drinking, whether this is a problem for you and how your drinking compares to the national average. If you want to make any changes, it will give you help and support in doing that. 5. How accurate is it? The Drink Test is based on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, validated by NICE and the World Health Organisation. The Drink Test website has been approved by Alcohol Health Network’s Advisory Board, made up of academics from University College London. Websites like Drink Test have been shown to help people to make healthier lifestyle choices. 6. Is it confidential? Yes. Your alcohol health check, together with advice about how to improve your health is completely free and completely confidential. No one at the Royal Borough of Kingston's Public Health Department will know what you say in your health check, or what feedback we’ve given you. All the information that you give will be treated in the strictest confidence. The information will be collected and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. It will be stored in an anonymised format, so you cannot be identified. We will provide the Royal Borough of Kingston's Public Health Department with anonymised information on the proportion of people who used the site (ie x% of site users were men or women) and what the average drinking levels were. This will help the Royal Borough of Kingston's Public Health Department plan future health promotions effectively. 7. What if the results show I am drinking too much? You may get a surprise if the results of the alcohol health check suggest you are at risk of a health problem. If you are worried about your health and you feel you need more advice than we can give online, please go and see your family doctor. Your doctor has your personal health records and is the person best placed to help you with your health problems. You can also get a list of NHS services here 8. Who do I complain to if I don’t like the website, or contact if I have a query or feedback? If you have any comments, queries, concerns or complaints about this website, please contact Alcohol Health Network by email on info@alcoholhealthnetwork.org.uk

Blog Our primary field is set, now that the filing deadline has passed. Two other candidates have also filed to run for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 14th District. They’re already actively pursuing a negative campaign against me. This is my first re-election campaign for Congress. I’ve worked hard — really hard — to do the people’s work, but I need your help. We can’t take this election for granted and I’m working hard to earn every vote. I need you. Together, we can be victorious in 2016. Support is Building I’m honored to have recently earned the endorsements of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers Region 1, Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, Sheet Metal Workers Local 80, Pipefitters Local 636, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, The Sierra Club and dozens of other community leaders and organizations. Please let me know if we can add your name to our list of endorsers. To see the current roster, visit www.brendalawrence.com Opening our Detroit Campaign Office We’re already out in the community, continuing to build grassroots support. This Saturday, April 23rd we’re officially opening our Detroit Campaign Office. Please join us for this free event from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Its located at 18409 Livernois Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48221. Building the party organization in preparation for a strong general election effort is very important to me. This office is a joint effort with our 14th District Democratic Organization. At the office opening, we’ll be collecting donations of office supplies to help get it started. Come out and enjoy the food and fellowship! Cecile Richards is Coming to Michigan I’m excited to share that on Friday, May 6th Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards will be in town. She’s an amazing progressive leader, fighting every day for women’s health care on the national level. She’ll be here as a special guest for a reception in support of my campaign. It’ll be a private gathering, but if you’re in the Detroit area that day I’d be honored if you could join us. Are you interested in attending? Again, I can’t do this alone. I need your help. Together, let’s win this nomination! If you’re able to donate to my re-election campaign, but unable to give online, please make checks payable to ‘Brenda Lawrence for Congress’ and mail to Post Office Box 3060, Southfield, Michigan 48037. For any questions, you can contact our campaign at info@brendalawrence.com or (248) 410-0702.

Fort Bragg soldier dies in Afghanistan The military said Thursday that a Fort Bragg Soldier with the 44th Medical Command died in Afghanistan Dec. 29. Staff Sgt. Ronald Jay Spino, 45, from Waterbury, Connecticut was assigned to the 274th Forward Surgical Team (Airborne) as a licensed practical nurse. Officials said Spino was shot while unloading medical supplies in Bala Morghab, village in Badghis Province in northwestern Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation. "Staff Sergeant Spino was a hardworking, diligent airborne combat medic,” said Col. Scott Putzier, chief of staff, 44th Medical Command. “For those who knew and worked with him, we will remember him as a dedication non-commissioned officer. He was quiet, so when he spoke, everyone listened and were often caught off guard by his sense of humor … he was really funny.” Spino deployed with his unit to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in February, and was re-missioned to Afghanistan in November.

I have configured my PayPal account in my Magento website. But even after I publish my website, there were no orders placed. Now I recieved an order from the website, but there is no money transfer to my PayPal account. I am not sure how to check if PayPal is working correctly or not. Any suggestions or references for me to check? 1 Answer 1 In your Magento admin, go to System -> Paypal. Check to see if "Sandbox mode" is activated in the Payment System you are using. You can set up Magento and Paypal to work fairly seamlessly together. The easiest is probably to use the Paypal API. Log into your Paypal account and obtain the API username, password and signature, then just copy & paste those into the corresponding fields in the Magento admin. You can test this by setting up a developer account in Paypal Sandbox. It is a bit difficult to get used to at first, but basically the steps are as follows: Create a Seller test account. This is a simulated merchant account that will act as the payment receiver. Create a Buyer test account. This is the simulated customer account that you will use to make test purchases in your store. Note that you have to create email addresses for each of these accounts. They do not correspond to any real email accounts, and the mail you receive in these is always checked from within the Paypal Sandbox. Once you have these test accounts, you sign into them from within the Paypal Sandbox. So you would sign into your test Seller account, get the API data mentioned above, and paste it into your Magento admin. (Be sure to set Sandbox mode to "true" in Magento when you are trying this). In order to be able to make test purchases, you have to be signed into the Paypal Sandbox and have it open in the browser. Note that nobody else will be able to make actual orders through Paypal while you are in Sandbox mode. You can then go to the public area of your store and purchases using the test Buyer account. If everything goes well, you will be able to see your fake orders placed and registred in the Magento admin area. As a final note, I recommend having a preproduction version of your store for doing this kind of testing. This means setting up an exact copy of your Magento store (with a recent copy of the database) on another domain and activating it when you are doing testing.

Will my confidentiality be protected at MRS? Federal law protects client confidentiality. From the first time you call and ask about our program, all of your information is protected by the Federal Regulations pertaining to confidentiality and privacy. No staff member at MRS will release any information about any client, past or present, to anyone without the client's written permission. If we do have a release of information for an individual or an agency, which the client can revoke at anytime and no further information will be given to that individual or agency. What is Methadone ? Methadone is a long-acting synthetic narcotic, used primarily in the treatment of opiate addiction. It suppresses withdrawal symptoms, allowing methadone patients to lead normal lives.With innumerable successes over the past 40 years, methadone maintenance is recognized by the medical community as the most successful way of treating people addicted to opiates. How to use Methadone Safely: U.S. Department of Health & Human ServicesSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - Food and Drug Administration Methadone provides relief for patients who do not respond to non-narcotic pain medicines and has also been used for decades to treat individuals who suffer from addiction and dependence on heroin and narcotic pain medicines. When taken as prescribed, methadone is safe and effective. But all medicines have risks. Patients and healthcare providers need to understand the power and physical effects of methadone in order to get the maximum benefits.A Proven Road to ReliefWhether known by Dolophine, Methadose or its generic name, methadone has provided relief to millions of patients. Methadone works by changing how the brain and nervous system respond to pain. It is also used in drug detoxification and treatment programs to lessen the symptoms of withdrawal and to block the effects of opiate drugs. Methadone allows individuals to recover from their addiction and to reclaim active and meaningful lives. Patients being treated for pain generally receive a prescription from their doctor and take the medication at home. Patients taking methadone for addiction receive their doses at accredited programs under supervision. After a period of stability, these patients are given methadone to take at home between program visits. In all cases, if not taken correctly, methadone can be dangerous.The Dangers of Overdose Pain relief from a dose of methadone lasts about four to eight hours. But there are big differences in how each patient reacts to methadone. Even after the pain relief effects wear off, methadone remains in the body for much longer. Taking more methadone to relieve the pain can cause unintentional overdose. Navigate the Risks: Two Simple Steps 1. Take Methadone exactly as prescribed. To be safe, people must take only the dose prescribed, at the times prescribed. Methadone can build up in the body to a toxic level if taken too often, if the dose is too high, or if it is taken with certain other medicines or supplements. 2. Know—and share—your complete health history. People who take methadone need to give health professionals every detail of what they are taking. This is especially important for a firsttime user of methadone. A long list of medications can interact with methadone: Methadone may be more hazardous when used with alcohol, other opioids (opium-like substances) or illicit drugs that depress the central nervous system. Be especially careful about other medicines that may make you sleepy, such as other pain medicines, antidepressant medicines, sleeping pills, anxiety medicines, antihistamines, or tranquilizers. Other medicines to watch out for include diuretics, antibiotics, heart or blood pressure medication, HIV medicines and MAO inhibitors. If you are taking medicine that may cause disruptions in your heartbeat (known as arrhythmias), you should be especially cautious taking methadone. Even if a medication is not on this list, it could still be dangerous. Older adults and people with debilitating conditions may be more sensitive to methadone's effects. To avoid danger, people should tell health professionals about any illnesses or conditions. Here are just a few that doctors must know about: A history of drug or alcohol addiction Pregnancy and nursing (current or planned) Seizure disorders, such as epilepsy Cardiac conditions such as low blood pressure or long QT syndrome (racing heart) Use Methadone only as directed: Methadone can be addictive. Patients should take care not to abuse it. Never use more methadone than the amount prescribed. If you miss a dose or if you feel it is not working, do not take extra. For pain management patients, take only the recommended dose at the recommended time. For patients in methadone maintenance treatment for addiction, contact your clinic for instructions. No one should use methadone if it has not been prescribed for them. Be especially careful if taking methadone for the first time. When Taking Methadone: Do not consume alcohol or medicines that contain alcohol. Be careful when driving, operating heavy machinery or doing anything that requires you to be alert. Methadone, like many other medications, can slow thinking and reaction time and make you drowsy. Store methadone at room temperature and away from light. Always take methadone in the exact dosage amount and form you have been prescribed. Take steps to prevent children from accidentally taking methadone. Never give methadone to anyone else even if the person has similar symptoms or suffers from the same condition as you because it can be dangerous. Dispose of unused methadone by flushing it down the toilet. Suddenly stopping or going off methadone treatment can be dangerous. Patients should talk to their doctors first. To minimize withdrawal symptoms, health professionals can work out a plan to gradually reduce the medication. Take Side Effects Seriously: Some side effects are emergencies. Patients should contact a physician or emergency services right away—if they: Have difficulty breathing or shallow breathing Feel light-headed or faint Get hives or a rash; have swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat Feel chest pain Have a fast or pounding heartbeat Have hallucinations or confusion Make sure your family members and members of your household know what symptoms to look for, especially signs of shallow breathing or loud snoring. Other side effects are not life threatening, but can still be cause for concern.Patients should immediately talk to health professionals if they have: severe or persistent nausea, vomiting, constipation, loss of appetite, weight gain, stomach pain, sweating, mood changes, vision problems, flush or red skin, sleep difficulties, decreased sexual desire or ability or missed menstrual periods. Feel Lost? Here's Help Patients who develop a problem with methadone or have questions should speak with a physician or contact 1-800-662-HELP.

Search This Blog Thursday, 30 April 2015 Swaziland police have said they will decide who can and who cannot take part in May Day celebrations on Friday. According to them only ‘recognised’ workers unions will be allowed to take part. This is seen as a deliberate snub to the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), the labour federation that has organized a rally in Manzini, the major commercial city in the kingdom, for Friday (1 May 2015). After a long and continuing dispute with the Swaziland state, TUCOSWA is not registered as a recognised federation in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. In Swaziland all political parties are banned from taking part in elections and organisations that advocate for democracy have been outlawed as ‘terrorist’ organisations under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. In a statement to media, Police Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba said only recognised unions would be allowed to celebrate the Workers Day. He added, ‘Having said this, as a police service, we wish to point out as previously stated, that we will be present at the celebrations for the purpose of making sure that law and order is maintained. However, this is on the premise and understanding that the Labour Day is to be commemorated by recognised workers’ unions in the country,’ Mamba said. Previously, Mamba had told media since May Day was an internationally recognised day police would not hinder the celebrations by workers but they would arrest people who uttered ‘defamatory statements about authorities’. As workers and pro-democracy activists prepare to mark Workers’ Day on Friday (1 May 2015) many will remember Sipho Jele who was killed by Swaziland state forces five years ago. The 35-year-old Jele was arrested and charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act on 1 May 2010 for wearing a T-shirt supporting the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), an organisation banned in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. He was taken to Manzini Police Station and then to Sidwashini Remand Correctional Institution. He was found hanging from a beam in a shower block on 3 May. The inquest verdict delivered in March 2011 said in effect that Jele levitated to the ceiling unaided, tied an old piece of blanket around a beam and then around his own neck and then allowed himself to fall to the ground, thereby killing himself by hanging. Coroner Nondumiso Simelane reported, ‘Further, although there was nothing found at the scene which the deceased could have used as a platform on which to stand to commit the suicide; upon closer examination of the scene and the photos of the deceased captured at the scene, and the pathologists concluding that “it is possible for the deceased to have mounted himself upwards from the floor and then suspended himself without the use of a platform,” and that “after the ligature was applied to the beam and neck he could have lowered himself and the feet would still be above the floor.” According to a report in the Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, Perumal said, ‘In this case there is no evidence of being hung. The perplexing thing is how he got suspended as there was no object on which he stood. In most cases the object is kicked away for the body to remain suspended. There was no such object that was found. That is the only feature that doesn’t confirm suicide. It is an enigma how he hung without standing on an object.’ Questioned by attorney Leo Gama on whether it was possible that Jele had tied the rope around his neck while seated on the beam he was found hanging from, and then threw himself down for the rope to tighten around his neck, Dr Perumal entirely ruled out this possibility. ‘In that case there would be stretching of the skin and moreover there would be problem with the spine. Looking at the findings, we can exclude that scenario. There are no features to suggest that,’ he said. It emerged at the inquest that Swazi police and prison warders lied a number of times about the circumstances up to the time of the death. They had claimed that they interviewed people who were in the same cell as Jele about the circumstances of his death; Perumal told the inquest that the cell mates denied being interviewed. Perumal said, ‘I asked if any of the inmates had been interviewed to see if they had seen him and if any fight had ensued during the night of his death but none had been interviewed.’ This was not the first time that the police had been found out lying to the inquest. Previously, it was discovered that police had recorded in an official journal that Jele was in good health when he arrived at Manzini police station. The official record – called the RSP 3 book – said the entry was made by Constable David Tsabedze, but he told the inquest that he never made the entry. This led to Attorney Leo Gama concluding that Tsabedze never made such entries and left the space vacant, but when the police heard that there was to be an inquest into the matter, someone filled up those spaces without telling Tsabedze. This was so they could show Jele was in good health when he left the police station. Another anomaly was that although Jele was brought to the police station at 5.30pm on 1 May, he was only placed in a police cell at 11pm and no one could come forward to state what happened in the meantime. In a bizarre twist the inquest heard that Jele asked to be sent to Sidwashini because he feared being ‘tubed’ (tortured and suffocated) if he was sent back to police custody. The Swaziland Director of Public Prosecutions Mumcy Dlamini said she was pleased to hear this because it meant Jele had not yet been tortured while at the police station. Dlamini told the inquest as far as she knew the only reason why Jele wanted to go to Sidvwashini was his fear of torture by police. The inquest was told Jele was taken out of the Manzini Police Station’s cell for interrogation purposes for hours on different occasions, but one officer said it was unclear whether they also took him out of the building. A jailor, Assistant Superintendent Richard Mthukutheli Fakudze,told the inquest he found Jele hanging from a concrete bar in the bathroom of his prison cell at about 5am on 3 May and he just knew Jele had killed himself. While he gave his testimony, he was interrupted by Prosecutor Phila Dlamini who warned him to only say what he observed and desist from giving an opinion. Fakudze had conclusively said Jele hanged himself yet he found him hanging. Said Dlamini, ‘If you insist that he hanged himself, you are actually saying that you saw him tying the blanket around his neck and hanging himself.’ Jele was charged under S19 (1) (a) of the Suppression of terrorism Act for wearing a T-shirt with PUDEMO written on it. S19 (1) (a) of the STA states, ‘A person who is a member of a terrorist group commits an offence and shall on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten (10) years.’ Wearing a PUDEMO T-Shirt does not make you a member of PUDEMO and therefore the police had no reason to arrest Jele. But after police arrested him they then took him to his home and searched it and later alleged they had found materials linking him to the banned political organisation. Amnesty International suspected that Jele might have been targeted for arrest at the May Day rally. Jele was one of 16 prodemocracy activists awaiting trial after they were charged with treason in 2005. In a public statement, Amnesty said, ‘Mr Jele had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in police custody in the past. He was detained by police in December 2005 and subsequently charged with treason along with 15 others. Mr Jele alleged that while in custody he was beaten around the head causing long-term damage to his hearing, for which Amnesty International was able to obtain independent medical corroboration. He also alleged that he was subjected to suffocation torture while forcibly held down on a bench by six police officers at Sigodvweni police station. Some of his co-defendants made similar allegations of torture by the police. ‘The presiding High Court judge hearing their bail application in March 2006 was sufficiently concerned to call on the government to establish an independent inquiry into their claims. An inquiry was established under a single commissioner who subsequently reported his findings to the then Prime Minister. To Amnesty International’s knowledge this inquiry report was never made public. Mr Jele and his co-defendants had still not been brought to trial on the treason charge by the time of his death.’ At the time of Jele’s death, PUDEMO said in a statement, ‘The Swaziland royal regime has always been giving the international community the wrong information that political dissenters are not imprisoned, harassed and killed. And that Swaziland is a peaceful country. But here is a political activist getting killed for attending Workers Day and wearing a PUDEMO T-shirt.’ Wednesday, 29 April 2015 It is hard to believe the police in Swaziland are serious in their intent to get the kingdom’s Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi to leave the house he has been holed up in for 11 days after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Ramodibedi who is in his luxury mansion in Mbabane with his wife and two adult children was allowed to send one of his sons out for food last Friday (24 April 2015) and it was reported that on Wednesday (28 April 2015) his maid delivered food to the family. Ramodibedi, a native of Lesotho, reportedly faces 23 charges, including abuse of power. Two High Court Judges, Mpendulo Simelane and Jacobus Annandale, and the High Court Registrar, Fikile Nhlabatsi, have also been charged in connection with Ramodibedi’s case. They have appeared in court and been bailed. The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported on Wednesday, ‘The movement, with ease, of some members of the CJ’s family in and out of his residence has left journalists wondering why the police were not using such opportunities to enter the house and arrest the CJ.’ Police Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba told the newspaper they were still waiting for negotiations between, Lesotho and Swaziland, to be concluded. It is not known who is negotiating and about what. Police officers have been camping outside the CJ’s house since Friday 17 April 2015. They said they would arrest Ramodibedi as soon as he came out of the house. There has been no attempt to enter the house forcibly, despite the comings-and-goings of people from the house. The lack of action by the police is unusual. They have a deserved reputation for smashing their way into the homes of pro-democracy activists, often without warrants. There is speculation within Swaziland and on social media about the reasoning for the delay in effecting the arrest warrant. On Sunday (26 April 2015), the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, speculated that Ramodibedi was waiting until King Mswati returned to Swaziland from a trip to the Bandung Conference for Asian and African countries. The newspaper reported, ‘The chief justice is said to have stated that the only person he trusts was His Majesty the King.’ The newspaper did not say so but it is assumed that Ramodibedi thinks King Mswati will cancel the arrest warrant. It is true that King Mswati personally appointed and re-appointed Ramodibedi to the post of Chief Justice and that Ramodibedi has been a loyal and vocal supporter of the King. But, it is not so clear that Ramodibedi still enjoys the King’s favour. The King rules over the judiciary and the Swazi Government which he hand-picks and it is inconceivable that the arrest warrant would have been issued without his permission. One speculation is that the Chief Justice will be allowed to leave his house at the dead of night and escape into neighbouring South Africa. Many observers find it hard to imagine that Ramodibedi, a personal appointee of the King, will be allowed to be tried in a court of law. The main charges against him are of abuse of power, but international observers will note that the (for now) alleged abuses were made on behalf of and for the benefit of the King. If the spotlight is allowed to shine on Ramodibedi, it will shine also on the King. Tuesday, 28 April 2015 Police in Swaziland said they would arrest anyone at this week’s May Day celebrations who ‘utter defamatory statements about authorities’. But, they said they would to allow people to mark the day on 1 May. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch, reported on Tuesday (28 April 2015) , ‘Police Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba said since this was an internationally recognised day, they would not hinder the celebrations by workers but would deal with those that would utter statements against authority.’ He added, ‘However, those that will utter defamatory statements about authorities will be arrested.’ This warning was aimed at people who advocate for democracy in Swaziland where no political parties are allowed to contest elections and opposition groups are banned as ‘terrorists’ under the controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008. At the May Day celebrations in 2014, People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) President Mario Masuku and the party’s youth congress leader Maxwell Dlamini were arrested and charged with uttering seditious statements. They have been in jail for a year awaiting trial. Monday, 27 April 2015 The Swaziland Tourist Authority (STA) falsified statistics on the number of passengers using the new King Msawati III Airport (KMIII) to make it look a success when it was not. And, the deception is part of an ongoing mission of misinformation about the success of the airport that has spanned several year. Figures for January 2015 were used by Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA), aided by the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, to state that the airport had defied its critics and was a success. The STA reported that there were 10,138 passengers departing the airport in January 2015 and 6,592 passengers arriving, making a total of 16,730 passengers. But these figures were entirely bogus. There are only three flights per day departing the airport and another three arriving. The airport serves only one route – to OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Swaziland Airlink is the only passenger airline that uses the airport. Airlink uses the Embraer J135 aircraft which has a maximum seating capacity of 50. If every flight was full a maximum of 150 people per day could depart the airport, which would make a maximum of 4,500 per month. The 4,500 is only 44 per cent of the numbers of passengers claimed by STA. The total possible number of passengers either departing or arriving at the airport could not be more than 9,000 in a month: 53 per cent of the figure claimed. No true figure for the actual number of people travelling by plane is available publically but anecdotal evidence suggests that the planes are rarely much more than two-thirds full, and often a lot less. King Mswati III Airport was built in a wilderness in Swaziland on the whim of King Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. No research was undertaken to determine the need for the airport. Critics of the airport argued for years that there was no potential for the airport. Major airports already existed less than an hour’s flying time away in South Africa with connecting routes to Swaziland and there was no reason to suspect passengers would want to use KMIII airport as an alternative. During the 11 years it took to build, the airport was called Sikhuphe, but the name was changed in honour of the King when it officially opened in March 2014. The airport cost an estimated E2.5 billion (US$250 million) to build. The Observer on Saturdayreported at the time of the opening, ‘The King stated unflinchingly that the airport was not a joke as some pessimists had already hinted that the country does not need such extravagance. He said the completion and commissioning of the airport had proved all doubting Thomases wrong.’ The newspaper added, ‘One thing was clear throughout the King’s address that he was extremely passionate about the project and that it was very close to his heart.’ When it was opened the international media derided the airport as a ‘white elephant’, meaning it was of little use. Since it opened only one commercial passenger airline, Swaziland Airlink, which is part-owned by the Swazi Government, has used the Airport. The airline was forced to move from the Matsapha Airport, even though an independent business analysis predicted the airline would go out of business as a result. No other airline has publically said it wanted to use the airport. Matsapha airport which handled about 70,000 passengers a year is close to Manzini and Mbabane, the two main cities in Swaziland. The new airport was built in a wilderness about 70km from Mbabane. Once it opened to traffic in September 2014, Matsapha was closed for commercial business. It is now mainly used by King Mswati when he travels in his private luxury jet. SWACAA had said the KMIII airport would attract 300,000 passengers per year (820 per day on average), raising E7 million (US$700,000) per year in service charges. In the present situation where only a maximum 300 people could travel per day, the total it could ever hope to achieve would be 109,500; only 36 percent of the numbers needed for the airport to reach its target. The Swazi Observer, which was described as a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a report on media freedom in the kingdom, used the bogus figure to talk up the airport’s supposed success. The newspaper was determined to mislead its readers about the success of the airport. The Sunday Observer, for example, in a report headlined ‘KMIII Airport surpasses expectations’ said, ‘When it started operating, sceptics were of the view that people would opt to travel by road because of, among other reasons, the distant location of the airport, which is situated about 70 kilometres from Mbabane. ‘However, passengers going through KMIII International Airport have surpassed the numbers that were recorded at the Matsapha Airport.’ The newspaper quoted SWACAA Marketing and Corporate Affairs Director Sabelo Dlamini saying, ‘We are noting that the figures are rising and for us, it points to a brighter future in aviation. It is also an affirmation of the massive work the government of Swaziland has done over the past five years to do right in the civil aviation industry, in particular the construction of an airport facility travellers are happy with.’ The newspaper reported, ‘Dlamini further noted that the drop in numbers that had been projected by critics had not happened at all.’ There has been a long history of misinformation about the potential for success of the airport. It was controversial from the moment the construction was announced in 2003. The International Monetary Fund said the airport should not be built because it would divert funds away from much needed projects to fight poverty in Swaziland. Today, about seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in abject poverty, with incomes less than US$2 per day, three in ten are so hungry they are medically diagnosed as malnourished and the kingdom has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. The false promises made about the airport are legion. In November 2013, SWACAA said that the Swazi Government was ready to recreate the defunct Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation (RSNAC0) and would set about purchasing a 100-seater jet, at a cost estimated by the Times of Swaziland of E700 million (US$70 million). This compared to the E125 million budgeted for free primary school education in Swaziland that year. It was never explained where the money to buy the aircraft would come from. SWACAA said RSNAC would fly to 10 destinations in Africa and Asia. Observers estimated RSNAC would probably need a minimum of 10 aircraft to service the routes. For that to happen, Swaziland would have to spend about E7 billion on aircraft. Such a sum of money would bankrupt the kingdom. To put the cost in context the Central Bank of Swaziland has estimated the kingdom’s gross official reserves were E8.24 billion at the month ended November 2013. The people were regularly misled about the opening date of the airport. At one time the King confidently announced it would be open in March 2010. Then his Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini said it would be ready for the FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South Africa in June 2010, but this deadline came and went. SWACAA continued to issue fresh completion dates but these were never met. Bertram Stewart, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development also misled about the readiness of the airport to open. In October 2010, Stewart said the airport would be open by the end of that year, but it was not. He misled again in February 2011 when he confidently told media the airport would be completed by June 2011. It was not. He also said a number of top world airlines (that he declined to name) were negotiating to use the airport, but nothing happened. There has also been constant misinformation about the prospect of airlines choosing to use the airport. In October 2009, King Mswati claimed Etihad Airways from the Gulf State of Abu Dhabi was showing ‘deep interest’ in using the airport. Nothing has been heard since. In May 2011, the Swazi Observer reported Sabelo Dlamini saying, ‘We have established possible routes which we want to market to the operators. Some of the proposed routes from Sikhuphe are Durban, Cape Town, Lanseria Airport in Sandton, Harare and Mozambique.’ In June 2012, he told Swazi media that at least three airlines from different countries had ‘shown interest’ in using the airport, but he declined to name them. He remained optimistic about the prospects for the future and said SWACAA was talking to airlines in other countries as well. Then in February 2013 SWACAA Director Solomon Dube told media in Swaziland, ‘We are talking to some including Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airline and various Gulf airlines.’ In March 2013 SWACAA claimed five airlines had signed deals to use the airport when it eventually opened, but an investigation by Swazi media Commentary revealed that two of the airlines named did not exist. It also said Botswana Airways would use the airport, but it has not. In October 2013 SWACAA claimed it had targeted small and medium business travellers to use the airport. It said low-cost airlines were interested in using Sikhuphe for business travellers who might want to fly to nearby countries ‘on a daily basis’. Now, in April 2015, there are still no prospects of airlines other than Swazi Airlink using the airport. Saturday, 25 April 2015 Trade unionists and democracy campaigners in Swaziland are on a collision course with the police and state security after they refused to seek formal permission to hold a May Day rally. The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) has confirmed that commemorations of the workers’ day will take place at the Salesian Sports Ground in Manzini, the commercial capital of Swaziland, on 1 May 2015. Vincent Ncongwane, TUCOSWA Secretary General, said his federation had informed the police of its decision to host the event. The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, reported him saying, ‘We will not be seeking permission from the police to host the event, it is unlawful to be forced to seek permission and there is no statute in the labour laws that allows the police to demand us to seek permission from them to host Workers Day.’ He added the fact that they had informed the police was sufficient and that they would not be seeking permission as police had instructed them to do in past years. The decision not to seek permission will almost certainly put TUCOSWA on a collision course with the police and the state security apparatus. Public gatherings are routinely disrupted by police unless they are sanctioned by the state. On Thursday (23 April 2015), for example, a newly-formed group called Swaziland Anti-Xenophobia Movement had a gathering broken up by police because they did not have permission from the Municipal Council of Mbabane to meet. They were trying to show their support for victims of Xenophobic attacks in neighbouring South Africa and tried to march to the South African High Commission in the Swazi capital, Mbabane. At May Day celebrations last year (2014), Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and Maxwell Dlamini, Secretary-General of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), were charged with ‘uttering seditious statements’. One year later they are still in prison awaiting trial. The two were arrested following a pro-democracy rally at the Salesian Sports Ground, the proposed venue for this year’s rally. PUDEMO has been banned in Swaziland as a ‘terrorist’ organisation since 2008, under the controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act. In May 2013, Muzi Mhlanga, the secretary general of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), was illegally placed under house arrest by police who wanted to prevent him attending a May Day rally. They had neither a court order nor warrant to place him under house arrest. Arrests were reported across the kingdom as democracy leaders refused police instructions to say at home and not attend May Day events.

Meteorologist Jim Cantore Defends Himself From Attack on Live TV with a Swift Knee to the Nuts [VIDEO] Seems like Jim Cantore would be one of the last people you would want to try and tackle. He’s fought hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes, and on live TV a guy decided to try and tackle him and ruin a live report… NEVER under estimate a good knee to the crotch! Seriously, Cantore is like a Weather Channel Ninja. He’s reported in Floods, Wild Fires, Hurricanes, Tornadoes and more. Sometimes he appears to be fearless (or maybe crazy). Jim was doing a live piece from Charleston College to cover the winter weather, when a guy, thought to be a student, comes running at him screaming, Jim keeps talking, sees the guy, then knees the guy in the junk, and keeps on talking like it’s no big deal. Watch this… Welcome back to Eagle VIP Club It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on . To keep your personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you. To activate your account, please confirm your password. When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites. *Please note that your prizes and activities will not be shared between programs within our VIP network. Welcome back to Eagle VIP Club It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing VIP profile. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://kygl.com using your original account information.

Cheater Payback-Chapter Seven Cathy told Bill to get her another towel, there was no need to say why because the old one was getting pretty soggy, to say the least. She folded it once and then got back into position. With open legs she reached over and grabbed hold of Rick’s pecker and pulled him with it, placing it at her cunt’s entrance. When Bill plunged into the very wet, well-lubricated, private place, her vaginal walls fluttered around it as he slid in, balls deep. It felt wonderful, and he could feel Cathy’s flesh spread while at the same time she was squeezing him with it. Cathy gave out a little laugh and asked, “Do you like that?” He answered her with a slap, slap, slap, slap noise of a dick and a wet pussy banging together. After a good long minute or so he was still going at her with his body. Cathy said “Rick, honey, take it easy, you aren’t going to wear my pussy out, you are just wearing yourself out. But, oh God your cock feels so good in there.” Bill was watching everything and did exactly what Cathy was hoping he would do, that being taking one of her legs and holding it up, pointing towards the ceiling. This allowed Rick better access and provided Bill a better scene for his perverted eyes. Cathy opened her legs wider and did what she had just been taught, that being pulling Rick into him hard and allowing his cock more penetration to squirt her deep inside her eggbox. She was also going to do this with her husband next chance he got. Anyway, Cathy was squirming and bouncing around, her tits jammed into his chest and her nails digging into his back like some sort of wildcat in heat. She was also cussing worse than a sailor with a lot of F, C, S, and P words. The nasty woman was an exciting and talented fuck. She had years of experience screwing and making babies in the marriage bed. As well as a few other places. She was nearing climax so she told Rick, “Don’t stop fucking me you S.O.B., faster, faster, fuck me hard, honey!” Slamming her naked body at him violently working on her orgasm. Bill was also helping her by pulling on her leg to meet their crotch slamming lewdness. Poor Rick was just along for the ride as he tried to keep his cum inside his balls for her. Cathy became limp as her body shivered and shuttered in pleasure as her jets inside released a load of girl cum soaking Rick’s already wet dick. With a smile of a satisfied woman on Cathy’s beautiful face she gave Rick a sexy kiss on the lips, and like a high school kid also gave him a hickey on his neck as her whole body continued to rock with sexual satisfaction. She said weakly, Go ahead Rick shoot your load in me now.” Rick went stiff as he shot off, he felt his cock going fwt fwt fwt fwt fwt, as five bolts of sperm went into her. He lied atop her as the two sweaty bodies hugged each other, exhausted and spent. Bill slowly eased Cathy’s leg down onto Rick and she rested it on his bottom. Bill had to wait patiently for Cathy to regurgitate so he could fuck her again. End of chapter seven.

TY - RPRT T1 - Weak looking-ahead and its application in computer-integrated process planning T3 - Kaiserslautern ; Saarbrücken : DFKI, 1993 A1 - Meyer,Manfred A. A1 - Müller,Jörg P. Y1 - 2011/06/27 N2 - Constraint logic programming has been shown to be a very useful tool for knowledge representation and problem-solving in different areas. Finite Domain extensions of PROLOG together with efficient consistency techniques such as forward-checking and looking-ahead make it possible to solve many discrete combinatorial problems within a short development time. In this paper we present the weak looking-ahead strategy (WLA), a new consistency technique on finite domains combining the computational efficiency of forward-checking with the pruning power of looking-ahead. Moreover, incorporating weak looking-ahead into PROLOG's SLD resolution gives a sound and complete inference rule whereas standard looking-ahead itself has been shown to be incomplete. Finally, we will show how to use weak looking-ahead in a real-world application to obtain an early search-space pruning while avoiding the control overhead involved by standard looking-ahead. KW - Künstliche Intelligenz CY - Saarbrücken PB - Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek AD - Postfach 151141, 66041 Saarbrücken UR - http://scidok.sulb.uni-saarland.de/volltexte/2011/3654 ER -

2 Comments: Men with high mate quality (e.g. handsome, rich, etc.) tend to do less parental investment (because they have greater mating opportunity costs). Their mates put up with it, as it were, because of the trade-off for high mate quality. These men tend to have greater facial symmetry and testosterone, and women are more likely to have sex with them. The men themselves, might provide positive feedback here as well (e.g. greater testosterone leads to greater sex drive). Its based on principles for Parentla Investment and Sexual Selection theory. Seems like they could easily be confusing cause and correlation. Seems entirely possible to me that men that are more prone to do "womens's chores" could easily be men with lesser sexual drives--or they simply have less direct and forward mentalities so they're less likely to initiate...activities...to begin with.

Copy the link below At Sunday night’s (August 7) Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, it was the battle of the bespectacled boy wizard vs. the vampire, and to our enjoyment, it was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that came out on top over Twilight: Eclipse. Part One picked up the Choice Sci-Fi/Fantasy gong, while its finale was crowned Choice Summer Movie. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson picked up a couple of awards, including one for Choice Movie Liplock, while handsome Tom Felton was hailed Choice Movie Villian. (via The Guardian) • John Barrowman recently revealed to The Daily Mirror that legions of female admirers go to great lengths when professing their fan devotion. “Sometimes I get sent knickers and occasionally I get requests to send some of my own underwear back,” the Torchwood: Miracle Day star said. “I always politely decline. It’s not going to happen. I get sent some seriously raunchy photographs too. They really don’t hold back, some of these women. The photographs are filthy but they’re not really my thing to be honest. All I’ll say is I appreciate the loyalty. So thank you.” • Boy George has been describing his reception when he arrived in prison in 2009, ready to start a four month sentence. It seems (and this may shock some of you) that the introduction of a gay pop star to a tense environment did not bring out the best in some of his fellow inmates. (via Pink News) • This probably won’t come as a surprise, but when Dionne Bromfield, Amy Winehouse‘s goddaughter, attempted to pay tribute by singing the most devastating song in her godmum’s catalogue – “Love Is a Losing Game” – at The Big Chill on Saturday (August 6), well, she could barely sing for crying. And you can imagine what kind of effect that had on her audience… (via Marie Claire UK) • Ever the gentleman, Simon Cowell is now attempting to fall on his sword, saying he probably shouldn’t have sacked Cheryl Cole, or try to move her back across to the UK version of The X Factor, but he’s sure their friendship will survive. (via Evening Echo) • But should he even be talking about Cheryl at all? I mean, we’ve all experienced a few pangs of outright disinterest since this story first started to play out, and now even Hollywood’s paparazzi, a gang who surely must be able to swallow down their boredom with whomsoever in the public eye they’ve got their lenses pointed at, have decided Cheryl’s too boring to bother with. She’s in L.A. right now, and apparently all she does is eat oatmeal and go to the gym. (via Heat) • Come hell or high water, Cowell was going to have Adele involved with the UK X Factor this season. And after trying to get the best-selling songstress to appear as a guest judge, he’s apparently landed her for the show’s finale at Wembley. It’ll be epic, no doubt. (via Daily Star) • Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) and her boyfriend of two and a half years, Henry Beckwith, have called it quits. (via The Sun) • In better Spice Girls news, Melanie Brown a.k.a. Sporty Spice is prepping for the arrival of her first child with Stephen Belafonte. But coaching her at her beside may be her two daughters, Phoenix and Angel, as her hubby might be passed out on the floor from all the excitement. (via Hello!) • Suede‘s Brett Anderson has fourth solo LP coming this fall. Black Rainbows, which he says is “restless, noisy and dynamic,” will be released September 26 in the UK. Fingers crossed that the U.S. gets it the very next day! (via Digital Spy) • Pirates of the Caribbean star Naomie Harris — who is thought to be bringing M’s secretary, Miss Moneypenny, to life in Bond 23 — has some friendly words of advice for aspiring actors: a “steely determination” is a definite must and expect to deal with “plenty of knocks along the way.” Oh and one more thing: “never take no for an answer.” (via The Daily Telegraph)

The collective hysteria over fake news, Russia’s alleged role in the DNC hack, and the unsubstantiated kompramat that supposedly links Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin has reached a fever pitch. But mainstream cable news and the Washington intelligentsia have somehow neglected to connect it to a crucial piece of the US history: its long-standing tradition, euphemistically known as the Truman Doctrine, of intervening in democratic elections abroad to promote its commercial and ideological interests. Truman’s doctrine would “support free peoples,” he proclaimed in March 1947, “who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Indeed, he and his successors would go to great lengths to keep this promise during the Cold War. American presidents repeatedly directed the CIA to overthrow freely elected leaders in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile because they nationalized industries, threatened corporate interests, and obstructed the United States’ imperial ambitions. American officials falsely branded these leaders as Communists, framed them as threats to national security, and authorized covert operations to replace them with dictators who would serve US interests. Omission of this history from today’s discourse on Russia and our adversaries prevents our leaders, and especially the American public, from realizing the same tools the United States used to interfere in others’ affairs are now being used against us. Shielded by this ignorance, it is easy for US officials to portray us as the victims of attacks rather than the inventors of the weapons. When Senator John McCain, for example, says, “If you’re able to change the results of an election, then you have undermined the very fundamentals of democracy,” he forgets to mention this is precisely what the United States did in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile when they were just beginning to experience democracy. In 1953, a US-backed military coup overthrew Iran’s first democratically elected leader, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, in response to his decision to nationalize the highly lucrative oil industry, cutting off the gravy train the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had been riding since 1909. Time had honored the Western-educated leader the year before the coup as its man of the year, hailing him as “the most world-renowned man his ancient race had produced for centuries.” Suddenly, because he wanted to use Iran’s oil wealth to benefit his country, he was deemed a pinko. Using American tax dollars to develop a network of Iranian agents and to bribe the regime’s opponents, the CIA launched political warfare against Mossadegh. It distributed fake news via posters and newspapers that called him corrupt, anti-Islam, and the Soviet Union’s ally, it encouraged religious leaders to criticize the prime minister from inside their mosques, and it enlisted street mobs to incite riots across Tehran. Success finally came on August 19. Paid infiltrators played both sides: some posed as Tudeh party members attempting to foment revolution while others convinced the citizens to rise up against this threat. Eventually, amid growing anarchy, General Fazlollah Zahedi, paid off by the CIA, ordered his bribed military units to seize government facilities and Radio Tehran. He proclaimed himself “the lawful prime minister by the Shah’s orders” and collected $1 million in cash from the CIA. Soon after, the Shah — Washington’s chosen dictator — assumed the throne, American oil companies moved in, and US-Iranian relations quickly warmed as the new regime squashed dissent, imprisoned opponents, and received unprecedented US arms shipments, American assistance to create the Monarchy’s secret police, and US support to develop Iran’s civilian nuclear program. The American recipe for overthrow continued to evolve. Guatemala’s freely elected president Jacobo Arbenz became the next target when his New Deal-style programs threatened the interests of American corporations. The powerful United Fruit Company, whose executives were in bed with a number of influential American officials — some of whom were former employees and some of whom had financial interests in the corporation — found Arbenz’s policies especially worrying. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1952 authorized the Guatemalan government to seize vast tracts of United Fruit’s uncultivated acres. The next December, the CIA’s Operation SUCCESS set in motion a six-month coup. CIA agents used Voice of Liberation radio to broadcast fake news describing an impending communist takeover and civilian uprisings, recruited a rebel army to sow unrest, distributed religious leaflets calling Catholics to revolt, and coordinated air raids that dropped bombs on military installations and other targets across Guatemala City. These efforts turned popular and military support against Arbenz, forcing his resignation and paving the way for Castillo Armas — the United States’ handpicked dictator — to become president. This established a long line of dictators, death squads, oppression, and near-genocide that wreaked havoc across Guatemala for the next four decades. In 1960, American meddling escalated. President Eisenhower decided to skip the coup and go straight to assassination. He ordered — once again using the false pretense of an impending communist threat — the CIA to assassinate Congo’s democratically elected prime minister Patrice Lumumba, the young nationalist who ended seven decades of brutal Belgian rule and promised Congolese citizens a better future with greater control over the country’s natural resources. When the plot to poison Lumumba failed, the CIA outsourced the job to Congolese accomplices and Belgian officers. With the help of Joseph Mobutu, the repressive military dictator installed by the United States who would rule for three decades, they eventually captured him and handed him over to his enemies. They tortured Lumumba, then murdered him by firing squad on January 17, 1961 — just three days before John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the freely elected president of the United States. During the early 1970s, commercial interests once again required CIA assistance. When Chile elected Salvador Allende, the anti-imperialist, working-class champion, he nationalized profitable American-dominated industries such as communications and copper, the resource gem for which Chile was the world’s leading supplier. President Nixon, who believed the false reports of Soviet influence he received from American and Chilean industrial titans, authorized the CIA to overthrow Allende, setting in motion a ferocious propaganda campaign that included distributing fake news, strangling economic development, conspiring with disgruntled Chilean officers, indirectly assassinating a senior military leader, and staging anti-government protests. On the climactic day of the coup, September 11, 1973, Allende gave his last words over the radio while barricaded inside the presidential palace. He indicted foreign capital and imperialism as the causes that “created the climate for the Army to break with their tradition” by carrying out American covert action. Moments before he died, he proclaimed, “Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!” It is slightly ironic, given the country’s record of international meddling, that American officials are whining about the “tradition in Russia of interfering in elections,” as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recently said. Or to hear McCain say Russia’s actions are “the sign of a possible unraveling of the world order that was established after World War II… one of the most peaceful periods in the history of the world” — the same period when the United States intervened in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile. Or to hear Representative Elijah Cummings say, “Russia’s attacks on our election are an attempt to degrade our democracy and should chill every American.” Our electoral integrity is a legitimate concern, and American officials should express outrage at Russia’s alleged actions (should they turn out to be true). But every American should feel equally chilled by our history of undemocratic electoral interference around the world. Millions of Iranians, Guatemalans, Congolese, and Chileans suffered under the iron grips of unelected dictators the United States installed. Hundreds of thousands died in the aftermath of these coups, countries split into civil wars, untold natural riches were stolen, and countless others endured unspeakable trauma and loss. Unforeseen blowback in response to these actions will likely continue in the years ahead. Whether it was Russian spies or American couch potatoes who convinced Podesta to give up his password, the United States has not suffered the way other countries have — at least not yet. As the tools of American power proliferate and fall into the hands of our supposed adversaries — arms, nuclear weapons, coups, drones, and cyber-warfare — we must confront the reality that as long as the United States continues its habit of meddling abroad, other countries will be tempted to use these and other forms of covert action against us.

Well, I'm Tony. I live in Taichung, Taiwan, but I come from Nova Scotia, Canada. Like most expatriates here, I teach English to pay the bills. I'm married to a Taiwanese woman and plan on staying here. I started gaming around the time the Wilderness Survival Guide was released. As a player, my most fondly remembered game is a very competitive Dark Sun one shot throne war. As a GM, I ran what still looks to me like a very narrativist Vampire game for two years. I still haven't had a chance to play any of the games from this circle, although I've read a few. My current gaming group is also doing a rotating GMing thing with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I've been trying to do it thematically and with real player control and despite some system troubles it's working quite well. I stumbled on the Indie RPG movement after a very frustrating experience with another group here - the theory really helped me understand what was going wrong and what I needed to do about it. It's still an ongoing process. Beyond that, I'm very interested in the application of RPGs and game mechanics to other fields such as ESL and business consulting.

Politics FILE PHOTO. President Donald Trump's tweets calling for a probe of widespread voter fraud but providing no evidence that it actually took place have rankled California elections officials. Pool/Getty Images In the wake of President Donald Trump's call Wednesday for an investigation into widespread voter fraud, a claim widely seen as without merit, California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla pushed back sharply, calling the contention "a flat-out lie." Trump repeated his previous criticism of the voting process on Twitter saying he may move to strengthen voting procedures depending on the investigation's results. I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and.... Padilla said officials have been hearing for several months about Trump's allegations of rampant voter fraud across the country, especially in California, which voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. "But despite our request for any information he may have, they have yet to provide any evidence, any proof to back up their claims," Padilla said. "It's frankly dangerous to people's faith in our democratic system." Trump's insistence that there was massive voter fraud has confounded political observers who say he may be undermining his own election and that of other Republicans on 2016 voter ballots. Trump's yet unsubstantiated claim was also dismissed by Democrats and some Republicans. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that he has “seen no evidence to that effect.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference Wednesday that she cannot understand why the newly installed president is “so insecure.” “To suggest and to undermine the integrity of our voter system is really strange,” Pelosi said. “... On top of it, he wants to investigate something that can clearly be proven to be false, but he resists investigations of a Russian disruption of our election and any connection to his campaign. All we want is the truth for the American people.” On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer fielded questions during a press briefing about President Trump's views on voter fraud. Spicer did not provide specifics on what evidence the president based his statements on. "I think he stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him," Spicer said. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said he is concerned about the impression that Trump's tweets are sending to voters. "What I think is important is that we don't send a message to our electorate that their vote is in question or that their vote doesn't have value," he said. Logan acknowledged that in Los Angeles County duplicate registrations do occur, usually when voters move addresses. Logan also said sometimes people who have died are still on the voter rolls after their death. But he said there's no evidence that those situations have led to incorrect votes. "The voter registration list is a fluid list," he said. "There is going to be a timing issue." Logan said voters should be confident in the system. "I believe that there are safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of the election," Logan said.

Menu SELECT HowTo FROM WriteSQLSyntax Part 1 : DML In my years working in BPM, SQL syntax has played a part in almost every peice of work. The ‘long running’ characteristic of BPM requires that process and state data be persisted to a long term data store because this will ultimatley outlast the hosting server in terms of lenth of operation (some processes could go on for years). As well as using databases for peristing BPM state, almost every application that exists these days, including applications or systems that utilise BPM have a data store of some kind that will need to be queried for user or process data. It’s a given that you know SQL in this day and age. For the experienced developer, this article is not for you. SQL is a standard that allows for the general interaction with database data. We have the commands that manipulation existing data and the commands that build the structure of the data (tables, schemas etc). Microsoft have a flavour of standard SQL-92 that they name Transact-SQL and split this language into 2 main categories. DML (data manipulation language) are the statements used to manipulate your data using common statements such as SELECT and UPDATE. DDL (Data Definition Language) represents the TSQL statements that assist the management and maintenance of your database objects (ALTER PROCEDURE, DROP TABLE etc). SQL skills are seen as a basic essential requirement these days in the fields of software development, BPM, EAI, web site design and even scripting and so having a this under your belt is a must. I’ve tried to create a ‘cheat sheet’ of sorts for the DML side of the TSQL language which can be used as a quick reference, starting with the basics : SELECT (* means ALL columns) SELECT * FROM POItems | SELECT POL_RowID, POL_OrderNo FROM POItems DISTINCT(Unique values, non duplicates returned) SELECT DISTINCT POL_InvApproverName FROM POItems SELECT INTO (selects from one table and inserts into the other) SELECT * INTO NewPOItems FROM POItems SELECT POL_OrderNo, POL_Description INTO NewPOItems FROM POItems

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Monday, August 2, 2010 'AuGusT Has comE..But my MinD sEt Still' Ive intended to post this in the murnin...but it seems im not feeling that well before lunch hehe..gediks kan...after LUNCH i was simply FINE!!! I guess im pretty hungry ek today..huhu...for sure its sounds crazy for me or what...but i just want to admit that todays MOnDay it seems HAPPY+EXCITING for me..(sambil wat Mexican wave uol!!!) coz ive really HATE my Monday's usually..but today it turns out OK!!! as ive come early in the office + seeing my clinical trial patient in the ICU (his conditions turns out okay!!!) and after that back to the office and manage the time to just blogwalking on some of the B2B blogs (before doing my analysis + database update)...it makes u enjoy and do feel the excitement like they do...when some of them share their stories on preparations + theme+door gifts etc2...as im also busy with in that kind of state their goin through!!!huhu...its just that ive did'nt know how to start sometimes in talking about what i did for my weddings prep...heheh...coz there's lot of things that i just want to blurp it out...without stopping...i guess i'll be doin a full post of the vendors after the wedding itself i guess...mcm to lagi thrill la kot...heheh...as for now myb..akan post some of it..tapi tak byk sgtla..(sorry la yerk kwn2..kadang2 takder idea)..anyway some update's..last week when with my 2 besties(Syaz and Mirah) to "Pameran Pengantin KL 2010" at AEON Setiawangsa..what do we manage to find??tadaa...at last we ended up booking a Studio Photoshoot with Creative LiteBoxfor only RM140 for about 1hour and half!!! as we got 30% off.Thanks to Syaz as she mention that she visited their website and also their FB(kalo tak dier bagi 10% diskaun ajer)..tup tap tup tap..dpt harga mcmtu..best2..so as for now..we are thinking of a concept to do that day as the photoshoot will be on the 14/8/2010 at 11.30am(until now still thinking)...consist of me,Mr R (pun join heheh),Syaz and Mirah.Gambar dierong shot mcm best...coz we love it for the 1st sight we ended up want to try it for ourselves...kalo korang nak try tgk..pg kat blog dieorng,www.creativelitebox.blogspot.com ofis dieorng kat Bangi dkt ajer=) meanwhile this Thursday kiterong akan pagi memanjakan diri di TAJIRI spa(after magrib)...heheh...and not to forget this week 7/8/2010 we will be goin to Wani and Son wedding (majlis bertandang) yeahhh will be seeing Cammy to...ok back to work mode uols...XOXO

Dog the Bounty Hunter hunts down incredible ratings Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he... Dog and family dealing with personal issues Dog the Bounty Hunter is back for 2012! Find out what sort of shenanigans brought in millions of viewers during its Wednesday night debut. Duane "Dog" Chapman and his family of bounty hunters snagged nearly 2.9 million viewers for the first episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter for the new season, according to the network. "The eighth season premiere was cable's most-watched entertainment show in the 10 p.m. hour last night and A&E became the number one entertainment cable network in primetime among adults 25-54 and 18-49 for the night," the network said in a statement. This season is poised to explore some family problems within the large Chapman family — daughter "Baby" Lyssa Chapman's March arrest will air on an episode, as will tensions between Chapman and his oldest son, Duane Lee. "I love you, dad. This is Travis. I want to go home. I don't like it here," the boy told his father also named Travis. They gained custody after an audio recording surfaced that allegedly showed the father beating the child with a belt. "I've told (my grandson) that daddy is not gone forever. Daddy has to go to school and you know what he told me, 'will they really tell him not to hit me anymore?' I said yes they won't just tell him they'll make sure, and he goes (big sigh) 'good,'" Dog said. It sounds like they'll be dealing more with family drama than criminal drama this season. Image courtesy Michael Wright/WENN.com Did you watch Dog the Bounty Hunter Wednesday night? What are your thoughts on the new season?

Off The Wire Goldcorp says protest could halt production at Mexico gold mine MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Canada’s Goldcorp said on Monday an ongoing protest blocking entry to its Penasquito mine, one of Mexico’s biggest gold producers, could force the company to halt output. The mine, in northern Zacatecas state, produced 476,000 ounces of gold last year, comprising 18 percent of Goldcorp’s total production and generating more than 33 percent of its revenue. The demonstration began on June 1, led by local truck-drivers who say the company reneged on promises to hire locally. Local residents also blocked access at the mine last year, protesting for more than a week over a water dispute. The company later said it was able to resume normal operations without a hit to production. Michael Harvey, Goldcorp’s director of corporate affairs, said the current blockade was illegal and had prevented the flow of workers and supplies. “We are still working, but if we can’t let supplies in, at some point we will stop producing,” he said. Ascension Carrillo, one of the protest leaders, said the goal was to get Goldcorp to fulfill its hiring promises. “The only thing we want is the work that was promised to us ... we’re fighting to feed our families,” Carrillo said. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

Python swarm Just found out about PyObjC. Talked earlier this week with Corinne Coen, over in the School of Management, who has done some work with Swarm. I played with Swarm a bit while at Santa Fe, and would love to do more work with it, but I fear that writing objects for simulation in Objective C could be a stumbling point for some of our grad students. It seems that there are other efforts under way to simplify the process, but since I am planning on teaching an intro to “Programming for Informaticists” in Python next year, it might be worth looking into how to integrate python objects into Swarm.

Introduction Replace the Oil with Unsweetened Applesauce to make these Waffles perfect in taste as well as Calories and Fat. Replace the Oil with Unsweetened Applesauce to make these Waffles perfect in taste as well as Calories and Fat.

Same-sex marriage legalized in Australia by overwhelmingly public vote Australians at home and abroad are rejoicing because their fellow countrymen & women have made sure their voices are heard regarding same-sex marriage — and they are all unanimously in favor of it! According to the results of a groundbreaking national postal survey that was carried out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), close to 62 percent of Australians who voted said YES to legalize same-sex marriage with a clear majority in every single state and territory demanding they get marriage equality. The overall turnout of eligible voters nationwide was close to 76 percent. The government, which chose to survey the people instead of conventional methods, will present the results before the parliament to pass the verdict on the issue. Its expected that a bill for the same will pass, with many opponents of same-sex marriage in their parliament surprisingly promising to respect the result and provisions for amendments. Labor MPs are unanimously in favor of the bill along with a large section of cross-benchers expected to support the bill. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (who voted yes), has already pledged to follow through with the popular vote. “We must respect the voice of our people. We asked them for their opinion and they have clearly given it to us. It is overwhelming,” he said at a press conference. The Prime Minister said a decision vote will come sometime before Christmas. The Opposition Labor Party’s leader, Bill Shorten, at a rally in Melbourne, said: “What a fabulous time to be an Australian – because in this survey the Australian population has stated that Australia is absolutely ready for wholesome marriage equality. With this, Australia is en route to become the 25th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage (in at least some jurisdictions and provinces).

Liestal, Switzerland, September 28, 2016 - Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces that the first patient has been enrolled at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), Department of Neurology, Kansas (USA) in Santhera's randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III (SIDEROS) trial. The trial will assess the efficacy of Raxone in slowing the rate of respiratory function decline in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients receiving concomitant glucocorticoids. "We first observed the efficacy of Raxone in slowing the rate of respiratory function decline in DMD patients in both glucocorticoid-using and non-using patients in the phase II DELPHI study," commented Thomas Meier , PhD, CEO of Santhera. "The successful Phase III DELOS trial which enrolled glucocorticoid non-using patients then confirmed a clinically relevant and statistically significant benefit of Raxone treatment on pulmonary function. The now initiated Phase III SIDEROS trial is designed to confirm the efficacy of Raxone in patients experiencing respiratory function decline that are currently taking glucocorticoids. If successful, this study will provide data that support use of Raxone in all DMD patients experiencing respiratory decline irrespective of their glucocorticoid use. The high level of interest from investigators and the patient community should allow us to recruit this study quickly." "We are hopeful that this phase III trial is the final step in the development program with Raxone in DMD," said Gunnar Buyse , MD, PhD, Professor of Child Neurology at the University Hospitals Leuven (Belgium) and SIDEROS PI and Lead Investigator for Europe. "Following the exploratory phase II program and the successful phase III DELOS trial, I am grateful that Santhera is committed in exploring the full therapeutic potential of Raxone for patients with DMD." "Maintaining pulmonary function in patients with DMD has only recently become a prominent therapeutic objective in DMD, particularly in non-ambulatory patients," added Oscar Henry Mayer , MD, Medical Director of the Pulmonary Function Testing Laboratory at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Lead Investigator for US. "A patient and caregiver survey conducted by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy clearly demonstrated that the DMD community highly values treatment options for pulmonary complications." About the SIDEROS Trial SIDEROS is a phase III, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with Raxone in approximately 260 DMD patients receiving concomitant glucocorticoids. Patients with declining respiratory function on any stable glucocorticoid treatment scheme and irrespective of the underlying dystrophin mutation or ambulatory status will be eligible. Study participants will receive either Raxone (900 mg/day; given as 2 tablets 3 times a day with meals) or placebo for 78 weeks (18 months). The primary endpoint of the trial is change from baseline to week 78 in forced vital capacity % predicted (FVC%p). Secondary endpoints include changes from baseline in % predicted peak expiratory flow (PEF%p), time to first 10% decline in FVC and change from baseline in inspiratory flow reserve. Patients completing the trial will be offered the opportunity to enroll in an open label extension study where all patients receive Raxone. The study will be conducted at about 50 centers in the United States and Europe. Patients wishing to enroll in the study should contact their neuromuscular clinic physician. Further information about the study is available under www.clinicaltrials.gov . About Raxone ® (Idebenone) in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Regulatory Status Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most common and devastating types of muscle degeneration and results in rapidly progressive muscle weakness. DMD is characterized by a loss of the protein dystrophin, leading to cell damage, impaired calcium homeostasis, elevated oxidative stress and reduced energy production in muscle cells. This results in progressive muscle weakness and wasting and early morbidity and mortality due to respiratory failure. Idebenone is a synthetic short-chain benzoquinone and a cofactor for the enzyme NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) capable of stimulating mitochondrial electron transport, reducing and scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and supplementing cellular energy levels. The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is currently assessing a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for Raxone in DMD patients with respiratory function decline who are not taking concomitant glucocorticoids. The indication would include patients who previously were treated with glucocorticoids or in whom glucocorticoid treatment is not desired, not tolerated or is contraindicated. The MAA was submitted as a Type II variation of the company's existing marketing authorization for Raxone for the treatment of visual impairment in patients with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). About Santhera Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical products for the treatment of orphan mitochondrial and neuromuscular diseases. Santhera's lead product Raxone is authorized in the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). For Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the second indication for Raxone, Santhera has filed a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) in the European Union. In collaboration with the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Santhera is developing Raxone in a third indication, primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), and omigapil for congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD), all areas of high unmet medical need. For further information, please visit the Company's website www.santhera.com . Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. PharmiWeb.com is Europe's leading industry-sponsored portal for the Pharmaceutical sector, providing the latest jobs, news, features and events listings. The information provided on PharmiWeb.com is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician.

The new documentary Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas proves that democracy can and should be more than casting a ballot every four years. This empowering film gives hopeful and concrete examples from around the Americas of people taking back the reigns of power and governing their own communities. Beyond Elections is a road map for social change, drawing from communal councils in Venezuela and social movements in Bolivia to participatory budgeting in Brazil and worker cooperatives in Argentina. The film gracefully succeeds in demonstrating that these grassroots examples of people’s power can be applied anywhere. Particularly as activists in the US face the challenges of an Obama administration and an economic crisis, this timely documentary shows that the revolution can start today right in your own living room or neighborhood. In this interview, Michael Fox, Co-Producer of Beyond Elections, talks about how the film was created, what its aims were, and what impact the film has had among viewers in the US. Benjamin Dangl: How did you decide on the focus and message of Beyond Elections? Michael Fox: I’ve been living and working in Latin America for many years, studying and reporting on, above all else, the experiences in participatory democracy — cooperatives, communal councils, participatory budgeting, social movements, community radio, etc. . . . Sílvia (my wife, who grew up in Southern Brazil, and who is also Co-director of the film) and I were living in Venezuela in 2006 when the communal councils law was passed, and local communities all across the country began to come together and take on this new form of organizing. You could see how it was empowering people on an individual and local level. In March of 2007, Sílvia and I found ourselves in Porto Alegre, Brazil — where we now live — at the same time that the 2007 Participatory Budgeting cycle was about to begin. We realized that although there have been many local videos on the experiences of participatory budgeting, cooperatives, social movements and even some on the recently-formed communal councils, there was no documentary film that tried to give both the big and local picture of these new participatory concepts of democracy across the hemisphere. This concept is almost completely absent in the United States, and yet, it is absolutely necessarily for people to understand what is going on across Latin America, and also extremely important for activists and people in the United States to understand the failures of our own system and the lack of participation and input from everyday citizens. We originally planned the film to focus only on participatory democracy, but quickly realized that the only people who would want to see it would be activists that are already doing this type of work. We needed to open it up to the very concept of democracy itself. This was important to us, because time and again in the United States, pundits, elected officials, everyday folks, and even journalists use the word “democracy” as an excuse to de-legitimize extremely democratic groups and governments. They say, “Venezuela is threatening democracy in the region,” and yet depending on your definition, Venezuela is perhaps the most democratic country in the region — much more so than the United States. But these realities are very subtle, and if you have never been to Venezuela, or Brazil, or Bolivia, or Ecuador (or if you go and only stay at the resorts and the upper-class part of town), then you’re never going to know what to believe because the mainstream media is quick to repeat the manipulations. There are some mainstream media that actually call Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a dictator, despite the fact that during his ten years in office there have been more than a dozen free and fair elections in Venezuela legitimately recognized by international observers from around the world, and that he has always respected the Venezuelan Constitution and the laws. He may be a very charismatic, domineering, and powerful figure, but he’s not a dictator. Then the real question is, “What is democracy?” And that’s where we wanted to focus our attention — giving people the space to tell their stories across the Hemisphere. As the Portuguese Sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos says, (and you can find the link to more of his work on our website, www.beyondelections.com), the United States has created a monopoly on the definition of democracy — U.S. style hegemonic representative politics. But Sousa Santos points out that, in reality, democracy is a work in progress. As he says, “democracy without end.” His colleague, Leonardo Avritzer, professor from Brazilian Federal University of Minas Gerais, points out in our film, “What we’ve tried to stress is the idea that democracy is an open concept and the frontiers of democracy are always imprecise. For instance, in the 19th century you could say that it’s democratic to expand suffrage. And that’s true. It was democratic at the end of the 19th century to expand suffrage to women. Or at the beginning of the 20th century it could appear democratic to expand democracy to the countries of the global South. So the question today in the Southern countries is how to think about the democratization of things like the budget, health policies, education policies, urban policies, the democratization of life where you live.” Of course, it’s not always easy. Especially when you are trying to make a film for not one audience, but audiences in various languages all across the Hemisphere. But that’s what we set out to do, and I think we succeeded. BD: Could you talk a bit about the process of making your documentary? MF: This is very important, because we wanted the making of the film to reflect as much as possible the “democracy” that we are trying to portray. We used very little narration — only about two and a half minutes worth — because we wanted people to tell the stories in their own words. We tried not to change the scenery where we were filming. We only used music from local musicians, and tried to only use it when it was part of the scene. It is also a testament to what two people can do without any external resources or really expensive equipment. The entire budget came out of our own pockets and Silvia and I filmed nearly the entire film with our Panasonic 3CCD handycam, and edited it all on our aging G4 Powerbook. Of course, we had more than a half a dozen individuals and groups that supported with b-roll, and either shot for us, or allowed us to use footage they had already filmed in areas that we couldn’t make it to like Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Bay Area. The SF-based musician and sound editor, Ben Bernstein, donated his time to post-produce our audio, which came out great. The Venezuela-based film group, Panafilms was a huge support, as were hundreds of folks all across the region. BD: What was the response among viewers during your tour in the US? MF: We did our tour last fall from mid September straight through till two days before the 2008 Presidential elections. We drove from the East Coast to the West Coast and back, covering our costs with donations from the nearly two-dozen showings all across the U.S. It was an amazing experience. Of course, we were organizing the tour ourselves, so our audiences varied from a couple hundred people at some Universities all the way down to a living room showing with a few people in Oklahoma City. But really, the response was the best we could have hoped for, and both Silvia and I were impressed with the diversity of opinions. Some viewers were struck by the amount of local democracy and participation in Venezuela specifically, especially with the negative press that it gets in the United States. Many viewers were impressed with the democratic experiences, and the fact that people all across the region are all participating in similar ways. Others were shocked because so little of this is happening in the U.S. Others felt the movie really put things into a perspective that they had rarely seen or heard of before. This was the case of one gentleman in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans where we showed Beyond Elections with a projector on the side of a building. He said, “Wow, I’ve always known all of this, but I had never understood that everything was connected. I feel like I have a new perspective on things.” Without a doubt, the biggest and only major critique was that it was, and remains, a long documentary — just under two hours, which we’ll keep in mind for our next documentary. The DVD version of the movie is divided into chapters, which can each stand alone, so it can easily be used in university and high school classrooms according to theme. The right hand side of the website www.beyondelections.com has dozens of links to additional information, all also sorted according to the chapter and the theme. We tried to build the film in order to give people an understanding of the realities, and also leave them with a sense of hope. Because these experiences anywhere, be it in Latin America or the United States, in the local government, the community, the office, the school, or the home can only happen if we take the steps to open the democratic spaces of participation. This is the exciting thing about the film and I believe that people could feel it. The film gave people an idea about some of the things that are being done, and some of the things that they can also do. As Sílvia often said in our after-film discussions, “The best thing you can do to support these democratic experiences abroad is to make change in your own communities, attempt to open democracy in your own community.” As a Brazilian, she knows the effect that this can have. In our discussions after nearly all of our showings, we tried to stress this point: how we can open up these democratic experiences in our own lives. After numerous requests, we actually developed a “Beyond Elections Democracy Discussion Guide,” which attempts to help people to do just that, Bring Democracy Home. It is also available to download halfway down the right-hand side of our website, under “Beyond Elections Materials.” Monthly Review Essays Historically, capitalism develops institutions and ideologies that justify surplus extraction and capital accumulation. In the last decades of the twentieth century, the financialization of capitalism initiated a new era of accumulation which is known in academic contexts as finance-capital-driven neoliberalism. Both Sweezy and Dimitrov agree that fascism arises in the middle class and becomes a threat when the bourgeoisie embraces it, but Sweezy’s unique contribution is to demonstrate fascism’s relationship to the postwar transitional period of class equilibrium.

Marie phoned me to request that I send to Lindsay Hamilton, St.Johnstone, 1 pair 036 size 9 and they were sent (No.97). 28th November 1991 10.20 Marie also asked me to send to Nicky Hammond, Swindon, 1 pair 036 size 7.5, and they were sent (No.98). 28th November 1991 11.45 Marie phoned to say that she had forgotten to ask if the 2 pairs of gloves ordered earlier today could be sent today. I told her that they had already been packed. 28th November 1991 2.50 John Burridge, Hibernian, phoned to order some goods and 2 pairs 036 size 9.5 were sent to him (No.99) along with an uhlsport catalogue. He wanted the phone number in Germany which I gave him and he also asked what was new. I told him that Line 7 had seen the new range but that I had not yet seen any of it. I asked him what had happened about the signed gloves and newspaper competitions to win them, and he told me that he had sent off the gloves but had not seen or heard anymore about the competitions. I said that I would try to find out more information. 2nd December 1991 10.25 Marie phoned and asked me to send to Gerry Gallagher of Eurone Management 1 pair 036 size 8.5, 1 pair 040 size 8.5 for Paul Mathers, Dundee, and 1 pair 036 size 8.5, 1 pair 040 size 8.5 for Andy Murdoch. Partick, and they were sent (No.1). I asked Marie if David Spensley was yet available as I had left a message on Thursday, again on Friday, for him to phone me, but had not yet heard from him. She said he was on the phone but would ask him to phone me. 2nd December 1991 4.45 David Spensley called and I asked him about the competitions with John Burridge gloves. He said that he did not think anything had happened yet but Chris Jones was dealing with it. He suggested that if John Burridge really wanted to know he should contact Chris Jones. I asked if he was ready yet to take over promotion goods and he said no, although goods had been ordered from Germany. We then discussed matters in general. 3rd December 1991 Having received a delivery I sent to Theo Snelders, Aberdeen, 1 pair 566 XL (No.2). 3rd December 1991 Having received a delivery I sent to Ludek Miklosko, West Ham, 2 pairs 636 elbow pads Large, 2 pairs 638 knee pads Large (No.3). 3rd December 1991 11.35 John Lukic, Leeds, phoned to see if I could do him a favour. Theo Foley, the manager at Northampton, had asked John for some gloves as Northampton have no money and cannot afford to buy them. I said that this time I would send 2 pairs 073 size 9.5, 1 pair 040 size 9.5 to Theo Foley (No.4) along with details of the special prices scheme. John Lukic was grateful as it enabled him to help his old Arsenal coach Theo Foley. I saw Phil Parkes, coach at QPR, and asked him why Tony Roberts, who had been given uhlsport gloves, wore Reusch in the Zenith Cup match v Crystal Palace. He told me that it was because he had had the uhlsport gloves stolen from the kit room at the ground and only had old Reusch gloves. I said that if he wanted more gloves I needed back the signed 2 year goods only contract, and Phil told me that he would pass it on to Tony Roberts. 10th December 1991 10.15 Pat Jennings, ex Northern Ireland goalkeeper, who still wears uhlsport in the charity matches he plays arouind the world, phoned to ask about gloves for his son. He said that he would pay but I said that I would send them free of charge, and 1 pair 019 size 8, 1 only 010 glove bag were sent to him (No.6). 11th December 1991 4.00 Jochen phoned to ask me what "SHUT OUTS" mean as he had rceived a contract offer from Line 7 regarding Andy Goram, Rangers. I said that it was when he did not concede a goal in a game. He then asked me in general about Andy Goram and I said that he was very much the first choice for Scotland and he had played in every qualifying game for the European Championships in Sweden, and seemed likely to be first choice for Scotland in Sweden. However, I pointed out that he had previously been under contract with uhlsport, arranged by Readers, and there was a problem about the length of his contract. The contract he signed was dated 5th November 1986 and valid for 3 years meaning that it expired in November 1989, was later claimed by Goram to have been signed over a year earlier than it was dated, and in 1988 he changed to Sondico although the written evidence showed he was still under contract to uhlsport. The contract was for £xx , paid in full when the contract was dated and signed. Jochen said that the contract offer was complicated and I warned him to be very careful as playing for Glasgow Rangers, Scotland's most successfull club, they were likely to win most competitions they entered, meaning that uhlsport may have to pay out a lot in bonus's the way the contract is set out. I said that I would do some research and let him know the details. 12th December 1991 9.00-9.05 I phoned Jochen to give him details on Andy Goram including that at the half way stage of this season, 22 League games, he had conceeded 18 goals and had kept 11 "SHUT OUTS". I said that I would put down the information in writing and send it to him with the magazines. 12th December 1991 I bought and sent to Jochen this weeks issues of "Shoot" and "Match". 12th December 1991 1.00 Alan Knight, Portsmouth, phoned for some goods and 2 pairs 036 size 9.5, 2 pairs 040 size 9.5 were sent to him (No.7)

George Vierra Winemaking Monday, June 27, 2011 Get out of the Office and Into the Street When Multicultural is the Culture June 23, 2011 The 2010 Census confirmed something Nielsen has been noting for some time: multicultural consumers are rapidly becoming the majority in the United States and their buying power is significant. Understanding their purchasing and media habits is the next big challenge/opportunity facing marketers and brands today. Taking a deep dive into data and trends within the African American, Asian American and Hispanic communities, Nielsen’s Claudia Pardo laid out compelling statistics and a demographic framework shaping the future. It’s clear that marketers and brands will be forced to rethink their perspective — and their share of spend — when it comes to multicultural groups. “Can anyone in the room honestly say they’re doing everything they can to satisfy the consumption needs of this population?” Pardo asked attendees. “The demographic growth of these groups is simply becoming too great to ignore.” The good news, noted Pardo, is that multicultural groups are actually more loyal to brands and there’s an opportunity to win a consumer for life. In the past multiculturalism was talked about as a melting pot, but it’s really more like a salad bowl where each group stands out and is different in the way they value their culture and traditions. Pardo offered examples of notable distinctions in the way these diverse groups shop and consume media. BUYINGHispanics Spend the most per trip and annually Shop less often, usually with family Blacks/African Americans Shop more frequently than any other ethnicity The most brand loyal; fewer purchases of private label Asian Americans Most likely group to compare prices and shop online Frequent fewer super centers, dollar stores or convenience stores WATCHING Daily Total household TV usage by Race and Origin Hispanics: 4hrs 35min Blacks/African Americans: 7hrs 12min Asian Americans: 3hrs 14min National Average: 5hrs 11min Pardo noted that understanding these and other details (such as understanding that multicultural consumers are actually ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile phone adoption, understanding their different TV viewing and online browsing habits, or ensuring that ethnicities are portrayed more often and more appropriately in ads) is key to seizing the massive market opportunity ahead. “The story here is that within the next five years, multicultural clients will drive 86 percent of the total growth on spending in retail,” Pardo highlighted. “If you look at growth without these groups, you are only addressing 10 percent of the growth.” Pardo suggested a number of key questions organizations should ask before embarking on an effective multi-cultural strategy: What is your share of the multi-cultural market? Do you know this consumer better than your peers? Are you fishing where the fish are? Do you have the depth of consumer insight to ensure you deploy the most effective marketing mix? Is your advertising culturally relevant? Is your organization ready? Are you investing in the right structures and incentives to ensure multi-culturalism remains top of mind? A panel discussion with Roberto Ruiz of Univision, Idaliz Chacon of Procter & Gamble, Angela Joyner of ConAgra Foods and Bill Imada of IW Group followed the presentation and generated the following guidance for organizations looking to engage in effective multicultural strategies: Create Internal Champions: From creating a Center of Excellence for multicultural marketing, through tracking success via executive scorecards, all panelists agreed that a multi-cultural approach must be a top-down business imperative to avoid a transient, “flavor of the month” approach to engagement. Scale Your Investment: Bill Imada advised participants to “start small, get some wings, build confidence and go from there.” He maintained that many companies do not exploit what they already know and have in their historic “corporate inventory.” He advised participants to find which current product lines make the most sense in multi-cultural markets, to pick just one of the population segments with the biggest opportunity and build as much cultural learning and competency as possible before roll-out to other populations as part of an organic growth strategy. Idaliz Chacon said it was important to understand the “size of the prize” to build product category and right-size the investment. To close share gaps faster, she indicated that companies should “invest to win,” even disproportionately if necessary. This view was shared by Angela Joyner who stated that trying to drive brand penetration into new markets would potentially require substantial investment as part of a five year strategy to build brand presence and advocacy. Don’t over-segment: For an effective segmentation strategy, all panelists agreed that it was more important to look for similarities than differences among the focus population and that over-segmentation would decrease the opportunity. Roberto Ruiz stated that the key to effective segmentation is “actionability” and that the nuance of “bi-culturalism” of individuals, for instance being “dominant Hispanic,” while “fascinating,” was completely “worthless” as a segmentation consideration on the basis that people tend to be entirely immersed in both aspects of their culture. Get out of the Office and Into the Street: “Consumer immersion” was considered the most powerful way to energize a company’s multi-cultural strategy and summarized as “the power of being there and seeing what’s going on.” Leveraging employee ethnic groups within organizations was viewed as a unique asset companies could deploy to generate proprietary insight and delight and win with diverse consumers.

As Seen in Vanity Fair's August 2006 Issue! As Seen in US News & World Report's September 11 Fifth Anniversary Issue! As Seen in Time Magazine's September 11, 2006 Issue! As Seen in Phoenix New Times' August 9, 2007 Issue! Yet another poor "reaching" post. I'm beginning to thing you guys can't actually understand what you read taking quotes and ideas out of context like that. No wonder you think Osama pulled this thing off. You're brain has been turd to mush by the Zionist propaganda mainstream mechanism. Beleiving in Israel is like beleiving in a chair. It's there, it exists, what more is there to say? Why exactly do you feel a need to assign them a name? What's next, calling people who beleive in America "Americanists"? What would you call people who beleive in Palestine? Palestinianists? It wouldn't surprise me at all if there were more christian "zionists" than jewish "zionists". there's certainly more christians in the world than there are jews, and the majority of those christians are reasonable people. They're not going to deny the existance of a country which has been around since the 1940's. That you are a Zionist or have been conned to accept that satanic movement. Satanic? Are we getting religious now? ISRAEL EXISTS AS A COUNTRY. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Jews bought the land, and eventually a narrow strip was given to them by the UN. The land had been abandoned and nobody wanted it till those damn JOOOS came. Last Saturday morning there was a C-span call-in with an Israeli journalist and a Palestinian journalist. The Palestinian journalist stated this and the Israeli journalist made no attempt to object or correct: When the UN partitioned Palestine in 1948, it gave 55% of the land to the Jewish state and 45% of the land to the Arabs, even though, at the time, Jews owned only 10% of the land. So he didn't object, so what? It certainly doesn't make it true. When Israel was created, there was no such thing as Palestine. In addition to that, something like 90% of the land falling under the Brittish mandate went into creating trans-Jordan, which was specificaly intended as an Arab homeland. I don't see you complaining about all the Jews who were displaced from that area. Finaly, the question of land ownership is irrelevant. The UN mandate was passed by some 33 nations. It became binding at that point. Even if it didn't not have the authority of the UN behind it, the Arabs gave up whatever claims they may have made when they attempted to anhilliate Israel militarily. If they had continued to neogtiate diplomaticaly, perhaps they could claim the moral high ground. As it is, they tried to kill off the Jews, they got their asses kicked, and they lost whatever moral superiority they may have had. If the UN came in here and partitioned off 55% (or even 5%) of our country to give it to some ethnic group, I would hope there'd be some Americans who'd stand up and fight. The British were a colonial power ruling over land they had no right to. The proof is in the pudding and the indigenous people have suffered greatly from the League of Nations giving a "mandate" over Palestine to the British. They scrambled planes over New York too. They just got there about 10 minutes too late to do anything. Even if they did get there before impact, what could they have done? Does ANYONE really think that even after the first impact, the Air Force would shoot down commercial airlners over populated areas? Seriously? Could you imagine what the CTers would be doing with that if say after the first hit, the remaining 3 planes were shot down? They'd be screaming that the planes weren't even hijacked and the government shot down planes that posed no threat... Oh, wait, nevermind. If the UN came in here and partitioned off 55% (or even 5%) of our country to give it to some ethnic group, I would hope there'd be some Americans who'd stand up and fight. That's not exactly how it happened little girl... You see, before we even had that tragedy called the Holocaust, Jewish folks had been buying up land in a pretty much useless, abadoned strip of land. When the UN created Israel it didn't suddenly take away Palestinian land (as there were no "Palestinians" at the time), it just gave sovereignty to the area that had been bought up and no one wanted but the Jews. Arabs started moving back after infrastructure had been built up. The British were a colonial power ruling over land they had no right to. The Ottomans lost a war and European powers took control of the area. The proof is in the pudding and the indigenous people have suffered greatly from the League of Nations giving a "mandate" over Palestine to the British. The indigenous people were called Jews (but I digress). I assume you mean the occupants just before Israel was created. Well, as I stated before, the "Palestinians" kept their land (Egypt gobbled up a bit, Jordan some, and Syria the rest). Technically speaking, the creation of Jordan was the creation of the Arab Palestinian nation.