Miro by Polygon, by award winning arch James Hancock, sleek contemp styling. Beautiful 1 bedroom & den in the heart of Downtown. Functional floor plan w/brand new hardwood floors & California closets. Very clean well maintained homeperfect to live in or use as an investment. All S/S appliance & quality finishings thru out home. A must see. Home also comes w/1 parking & storage. Call now to see. Open House Saturday & Sunday, December 6th & 7th, 2-4 pm.
Pacific Point- Originally build in 1992 and considerably retrofitted in 2013 by BOSA. Large one bed room and den with amazing False Creek and David Lam Park view. More details
When given the chance to work with Itchy Baby Co , we obviously jumped at it – Evie’s eczema has plagued us since she was a few months old, and though we had it fairly under control with the elimination of lactose, it has been going through a rather large flare up lately. Itchy baby co. has a range of natural products which target eczema as well as itchy, dry and irritated skin.
Combined with some elimination diet tactics from our Naturopath we’ve been using Itchy Baby Co for a few weeks now and things have been going well.
The first night we used Itchy Baby co. natural bath soak my initial thoughts were ‘wow, I expected this to be grainier and harder to get out of the bath’ but the mixture actually effectively dissolves in water.
After her bath when Chris was applying the Natural Oatmeal Moisturiser with organic coconut, he even commented on how smooth it was, with a tiny bit of grit which is due to its raw and unprocessed ingredients and how we only needed to use a small amount to go and how far it went over her body – not something I would expect him to take note of, let alone tell me ha.
One thing we like to do is mix a small amount of the Natural Scalp Oil and the bath soak together, and while she has a bath I rub it into her for extra effect – honestly the day after a flare up, her skin is almost back to normal. We’re religious with using this every night, so Hunter is benefitting from it as well! I also have been using the Natural Scalp Oil as a face oil for myself and even though I have no idea if you’re supposed to, I quite like it! It only has a few natural ingredients so I can’t see why not.
So would I recommend it? Yep, I find it very effective, even if her eczema keeps coming back. Its a 2 fold condition and this is great for the surface.
Portion wise we got through 2 bags of bath soak to one tube of moisturiser over 3 weeks, almost to the last drop together.
We’re lucky enough to team up with itchy baby co. and hold a giveaway – so if your young children are plagued by eczema or itchy, dry skin and are looking for a proven and natural option (or know someone who is) make sure you like both @itchybabyco, The Bean Bible, and tag two friends in the Instagram post!
He became known as a writer in the mid-1980s, when his collection of stories entitled light sabbatical debauchery (1986) won the VIII Premio de Narrativa erotic "La Sonrisa Vertical".
Within coordinates issues imposed by gender, this opera prima of the Barcelona writer presents the peculiarity of recounting the alleged links between two of the most famous characters in detective literature, Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson, as well as meetings libertine held in Mrs. Johnson House.
Three years after this initial success, Mercedes Abad returned to the shelves of bookstores with a new collection of short stories, conjugal congratulations (1989), which followed, in the 1990s, other titles like just tell me where to do it (1991) - a new foray into the genre of the erotic, now embodied in a series of lively reflections on the most appropriate for the loving meeting places -, and another collection of short stories entitled blowing in the wind (1995). The Catalan writer has also collaborated on another volume of erotic nature, seeing you naked (Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 1992), collective work directed by Lourdes Ortiz and illustrated by Manuel Lago.
In 2000 published its ollanta novel, titled blood, which chronicles the life of Marina Ulibi Cano, a woman of thirty-six years of age who prints a sudden shift in the direction of his life after breaking with easements linking it to his family, his religion and his former lovers in the first person. Four years later he published a new volume of short stories, friends and ghosts, composed of twelve brief usually on random; with this book he received in 2005 the Vargas Llosa NH prize of stories.
Witty, clever and brash writer - possessor of a style that contemporary critics described as "chisposo, uninhibited, irreverent, senseless and critical"-, Mercedes Abad collaborates in the Catalan Edition of the newspaper El País, where his articles are followed by a legion of faithful readers.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper will sue state legislative leaders over two proposed constitutional amendments that he wants to keep off the ballot in this November’s elections.
Cooper, a Democrat, said that the amendments would be an unconstitutional power grab by the Republicans in the General Assembly and that the amendments themselves are worded in a misleading way to trick voters. The two amendments would take away Cooper’s power to appoint judges, regulators, board members and other state officials, and transfer that power to the legislature.
Cooper’s announcement came Saturday evening, just hours after the legislature overrode two of Cooper’s vetoes on different election-related bills that are now law.
One of the bills that became law on Saturday strips power away from a committee that previously would’ve been responsible for writing short descriptions of the amendments for the ballot. Cooper said that with that law now in place, the only language describing the amendments will be “false and misleading” descriptions written by the legislature. He believes a judge should order two of the six amendments to be taken off the ballot entirely.
A draft copy of the lawsuit Cooper plans to file Monday begins with sweeping accusations against the Republican-led General Assembly.
“The General Assembly has proposed two amendments to the North Carolina Constitution that would take a wrecking ball to the separation of powers,” Cooper’s lawsuit states. “These proposed amendments would rewrite bedrock constitutional provisions— including the Separation of Powers Clause itself.
“They would overrule recent decisions of the North Carolina Supreme Court,” the legal argument continues. “They would strip the Governor of his authority to appoint thousands of officials to hundreds of boards and commissions that execute the laws of our State. They would confer exclusive authority on the General Assembly to choose those whom the Governor can consider to fill judicial vacancies. And they ultimately threaten to consolidate control over all three branches of government in the General Assembly.”
Earlier on Saturday, Republican legislators anticipated Cooper’s lawsuit and criticized anyone who would sue over the amendments.
“It’s an attempt not to let the voters weigh in and speak their minds if they’re for or against the amendment,” Harnett County Republican Rep. Davis Lewis, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, said. “It’s an attempt to once again use the courts to short-circuit the will of the people.”
In the past several years, state and federal courts have overturned more than a dozen laws written by Lewis and his colleagues. One of those was a 2013 voter ID law, which a federal court struck down as unconstitutional for targeting African-American voters “with almost surgical precision” — but legislators have not been dissuaded, and one of the six amendments on this November’s ballot would create a voter ID law.
All six of the amendments that legislators want to put before voters this November have drawn at least some controversy, and the two Cooper is targeting are among the most controversial.
Both would take power away from the governor’s office and transfer it to the legislature, which has been a continuing goal of Republican lawmakers since before Cooper was sworn in at the start of 2017.
One of the proposed amendments would transfer the power to fill judicial vacancies from Cooper’s office to the legislature. The other proposed amendment would make even broader changes to state government, giving the General Assembly all of the power to appoint regulators, board members and other officials.
But when voters go to the polls this November, they won’t know any of that simply by reading their ballots, Cooper said. The only language describing that amendment on the ballot will say: “Constitutional amendment to establish a bipartisan Board of Ethics and Elections to administer ethics and election laws, to clarify the appointment authority of the Legislative and the Judicial Branches, and to prohibit legislators from serving on boards and commissions exercising executive or judicial authority.”
This is not the first time Cooper has sued the General Assembly in his 18 months as governor, alleging unconstitutional power grabs.
As soon as Cooper defeated the Republican incumbent, Pat McCrory, in the 2016 election, the Republican-led legislature began stripping powers away from the governor’s office.
Republican lawmakers reclassified the jobs of hundreds of McCrory’s political appointees within state government to stop Cooper from replacing them with his own picks, and they changed the law so that Democrats would not be able to have a majority on the state elections board. They’ve also acted to constrain Cooper’s ability to appoint judges and members of state boards.
The Confirmation Files	Crime, current events, Society	AR-15, CNN, florida, governor, legislature, mass shootings, President Donald Trump, rick scott, school shooting, Tallahassee, town hall	Leave a comment	
This coming Wednesday, CNN will hold a televised town hall event on the recent horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The live event, which will be held at BB&T Center, will include classmates of the victims, parents, and members of the community. CNN also invited prominent Florida lawmakers and politicians to take part in the town hall.
While Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have all confirmed that they will attend the forum, the state’s Republican governor has told CNN he won’t be there.
“With only two weeks left of our annual legislative session, Governor Rick Scott will be in Tallahassee meeting with state leaders to work on ways to keep Florida students safe, including school safety improvements and keeping guns away from individuals struggling with mental illness,” Gov. Rick Scott’s office told CNN.
Following the deadly shooting, Parkland student Cameron Kasky said Scott had the blood of the 17 people who died on his hands.
The Confirmation Files	current events, Education, Politics, Race, Racism	adan patrick, Brown vs. Board of Education, defunding, Diane Ravitch, education, fight, legislature, Lt. Governor, public schools, race, racism, segregation, texas, vouchers	Leave a comment	
Texas has a Lt. Governor named Adan Patrick who hates public schools. Before he was elected to the legislature, he was a radio talk show host, a small-time rightwing shock jock. Patrick’s favorite cause is vouchers and defunding public schools.
He needs to be reminded that “school choice” originated as the battle cry of white segregationists after the Brown decision of 1954. But maybe he knows that.
Just in case you missed this: Iowa Dem rips Republicans for bill that would let children carry guns: ‘We do not need a militia of toddlers’
The bill would allow anyone under the age of 14 to handle handguns under adult supervision, with no age limit.
Texas moved Monday to ban its own cities from imposing prohibitions on hydraulic fracturing and other potentially environmentally harmful oil and natural gas drilling activities within their boundaries – a major victory for industry groups and top conservatives who have decried rampant local “overregulation.”
The bill last month overwhelmingly cleared the House, which Republicans control by a 2-to-1 margin, and passed the GOP-dominated Senate almost as easily Monday – sending it to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.
“This is a victory for the First Amendment and the right to live and work according to one’s conscience,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council and an attendant at the signing ceremony, in a public statement. “This commonsense measure was a no-brainer for freedom, and like the federal [Religious Freedom Restoration Act], it simply bars…
A little over a year ago, South Korean singer PSY galloped onto the global pop circuit singing about “sexy ladies” in the Seoul suburb of Gangnam. What followed were a flurry of articles (some going as far as to claim that PSY was offering a scathing critique of bourgeois South Koreans) introducing Western audiences to a formerly niche style of bubblegum pop called “K(orea)-pop”.
Many of those articles focused on the more “exotic” and outrageous aspects of K-pop: its cute aesthetic, the gruelling dancing and singing training programme and the genre’s association with plastic surgery.
Though K-pop had its origins with hip-hop outfit Seo Taiji and Boys in the 1990s, and has achieved astronomical success in the Asian market since the so-called “Korean Wave” (Hallyu) in the 2000s, a middle-aged man with a novelty dance was what it took for K-pop to “break” with Western audiences.
While the average listener may now be familiar with K-pop as a novel genre of global pop, K-pop’s precursor – and sometimes rival – J(apan)-pop is less well known.
Both proffer pop sung by impossibly good-looking young people, which ranges from sentimental ballads to highly-danceable tunes in Korean or Japanese, with a smattering of “cool” English words for good measure.
PSY is actually anomalous in terms of K-pop. He is older, a solo artist and his music is more satirical than sentimental.
But we need to understand both “pops” in terms of political scientist Joseph Nye’s idea of “soft power”. In short, Nye argues that, alongside political-economic might, key to contemporary manifestations of national power is culture.
He suggests cultural exports – such as food, fashion and music – are effective ideological vehicles.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Japan’s economy boomed. Key to this was a domination of the Asian pop music market. While Chinese, Singaporean and Malaysian consumers were wary of Japanese political clout following the Pacific War, the cute, catchy and apparently innocuous strains of Japanese pop music were seen as a “safe” mode of engaging with their formerly imperialist neighbour.
Of course, territories such as Hong Kong had their own pop music industries (“Canto-pop”), but Japan was most successful in exporting its pop product.
Unlike the gyrating rebelliousness of Western music, J-pop presented Asian consumers with a relatable “Asian-ness” that also appeared modern and cosmopolitan.
J-pop was – and is – run in a similar manner to other Japanese companies. The jimusho (management agencies) are vertically structured, and pop hopefuls undergo a rigorous apprenticeship before “debuting” in their mid to late teens.
J-pop stars are not simply singers: they are also accomplished dancers and often appear in Japanese soap operas, variety shows and even cooking programmes.
1990s J-pop aidoru (idols) such as SMAP and Wink garnered fans in Japan, but also in other Asian countries. But Korea restricted imports of Japanese goods due to the fraught historical relationship between the nations.
Instead, Korea developed its own popular music industry, spearheaded by the management agency SM Entertainment. Koreans flocked to buy albums by boy bands Seo Taiji and H.O.T.
K-pop’s musical style was similar to J-pop, as was the arrangement of the management agencies. Further, as with J-pop, K-pop was focused on cultivating a pan-Asian market. In particular, SM and its main competitors, YG and JYP, targetted Japanese consumers.
In a novel move, K-pop producers diversified their product to suit local markets. Crucially, K-pop stars, such as female idol B.o.A, were trained in Japanese language and “culture”. B.o.A. would release two versions of her songs – in Korean and Japanese. In the early 2000s, Korean pop music began to dominate the Japanese charts.
K-pop has further localised its music by training singers in Mandarin, Thai and, more recently, English. In a similarly market savvy move, K-pop “super groups” (often with ten or more members) have local “franchises” made up of mostly non-Korean members.
Super Junior, for example, one of K-pop’s most successful boy bands, has local language franchises in China and Taiwan.
Arguably, the “Korean wave” has been a more effective device of soft power than the “Japan boom”. While J-pop groups ruled the Asian market in the 1980s and 1990s, they never “cracked” the West. K-pop idols – PSY aside – on the other hand, have had some success overseas.
Super Junior visited Sydney in 2012 and attracted a large crowd. Further, auxiliary cultural products, such as Korean food, fashion and language classes, have surged in popularity.
Like J-pop, K-pop has a formalised fan-club system. Each group of fans has a “title” and even colour. Super Junior fans are known as “Everlasting Friends” (ELFs). Their colour is “pearl sapphire blue”.
Fans network online from around the world and often pool together money to buy extravagant gifts for their idols.
The cuteness and apparent innocuousness of cultural products is key to soft power. While ELFs brandishing pearl sapphire blue balloons and buying iPods for their idols may seem silly, K-pop’s revenue was US$ 3.4 billion in 2011, of which US$180 million was exports.
While “Gangnam Style” was a novelty hit, the business and cultural politics behind Korean and Japanese pop music is far more serious.
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