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Other big cities, like Atlantic City, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, Trenton and nearly 60 other New Jersey towns, scrambled to enact regulatory measures to cash in on cannabis. Camden’s regulations for pot businesses appear to be weeks or maybe months away. “I’m not concerned with expediency. I’m concerned with getting it right,” said Nichelle Pace, chair of this city’s 18-member cannabis committee. Pace says, at this point, “all things are on the table.” Pace is confident Camden will be a prime venue for marijuana businesses. “There’s high interest from cannabis companies (because) we’re right across the bridge from Philadelphia,” said Pace, noting that cannabis companies routinely phone her, eager to do business in the city. New Jersey towns face a hard deadline of Aug. 21 to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of pot businesses, including adult-use dispensaries and delivery services, wholesalers, distributors and pot cultivators. Camden is not in danger of missing out. The City Council gave itself more time to write its own rules by voting in mid-June to “opt-out” of the state program. Towns that “opt-out” can switch at any time to allow pot businesses. Municipalities that quickly open to cannabis companies must wait five years to reverse their decisions or make significant changes to local restrictions.

How to Catch Mesprit Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl : Mesprit is a legendary roaming Pokemon that first appeared in Generation 2. This means that it doesn’t stay in one place, but moves around the map. Using the Marking Map, you can find them. Find out how to catch Mesprit in Pokemon BDSP by reading on. Before you can start the quest for Mesprit, you have to get a long way into the main story and finish the team Galactic story. Go to Lake Verity after this. In the middle of the lake, there’s a small cave where you can find Mesprit. How to Catch Mesprit Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl In the middle of the cave is where Mesprit will be waiting. The bird will fly away as soon as you touch it. Professor Rowan will show up and tell you to follow the Marking Map on your Poketch. Then you can figure out where Mesprit is and go there to catch the Pokemon. This is where the problem starts, because Mesprit won’t stay still. If you want to know where to find Mesprit, the place moves around. If you use fly, they will go to a completely different place when you travel. Even if you walk there, they will have moved by the time you get there. This means you have to think of some smart ways to meet it. One of the best ways is to go to a city with more than one way out. Try going across the border and back until the Pokemon shows up on a route near the town. There are two good places for this. On Route 205, Floaroma Town and the Valley Windworks are good places to keep going. This method also works well in Jubilife City, which has a lot of exits. Save the game as soon as the Pokemon is in the right place. You can then try again, even if another Pokemon gets in the way or you don’t catch it. You can look for Mesprit in the tall grass in both of these places. When you run into Mesprit, you only get one turn before it runs away, at which point you have to start over. There are a few things you can do to avoid this. The first thing you should do is use your Master Ball, if you haven’t already. Besides that, try to keep it still. Mean Look can make it stop running away. The good news is that the damage you do stays with you until the next fight, making the next fight easier.

Kim has deep roots here in Oregon. Not only did she grow up here, but she also attended Portland Community College for general studies. In fact, her only stint outside the state was a year-long exchange student experience in Sweden. She’s still benefitting from that time today, as she is in the process of learning to speak Swedish. Like many Portlanders, Kim spent some time (four years, to be precise), working with NIKE. She was in their immigration department, helping to obtain the legal permits needed for employees to move from one country to another. Before and after her time with NIKE, she settled in as a legal assistant for a sole proprietor, a role she would hold for more than 15 years. Ultimately, though, as that attorney transitioned to retirement, Kim started looking for new opportunities. Fortunately, Rod Boutin, JD, our general counsel, had her ear. “Rod sold me on FPT being a great place to work,” she explains. Now, in her role as our project coordinator, she plays a key role in supporting our legal team. She says, “In a nutshell, my role is helping the attorneys shine brighter than they already do!” As part of our team, Kim says she enjoys both the camaraderie of the co-workers and the flexibility of the workday. When she’s not at work, Kim does a good job of blending relaxation and fun. You might find her glamping, kicking back with her nearly-21-year-old daughter, her spouse of 25 years, and their pets. They have three big dogs (“no appetizer dogs for us,” she says), a cat, and a fish called Mr. Wanda, although the last might not get the camping invite. Or you might find her chasing thrills, whether that’s hopping on a roller coaster or enjoying a spicy meal. Kim’s even willing to take a dip in the infamously cold water of Oregon beaches, arguing that you can enjoy the freezing water once you’re numb. And here’s a hot take. When the Angels come to play the Mariners, you might find Kim at the game — rooting for Los Angeles. © FP Transitions, LLC Privacy Policy Terms of Use 4900 Meadows Suite 300 | Lake Oswego, OR 97035 | p. 800.934.3303 | f. 503.452.4205

Conduent Introduces BenePath® Suite of Solutions to Assist States with Eligibility and Enrollment for Medicaid, SNAP and Other Benefit Programs | Conduent Conduent Introduces BenePath® Suite of Solutions to Assist States with Eligibility and Enrollment for Medicaid, SNAP and Other Benefit Programs November 14, 2022 Government Innovation Healthcare Services Customer Experience Image for BenePath Suite Newsroom The BenePath Suite is cloud-based and modular for easy integration with a state’s existing solution, helping to transform the delivery of benefits The Suite’s digital solutions can help agencies as they face changing eligibility requirements following the COVID-19 public health emergency and proposed regulations to streamline Medicaid applications and renewals FLORHAM PARK, N.J., Nov. 14, 2022 -- Conduent Incorporated (Nasdaq: CNDT), a global technology-led business process solutions company, today introduced its BenePath ® Suite , a comprehensive set of digital solutions designed to modernize the eligibility and enrollment process for social services and government aid programs, from start to finish. The BenePath Suite delivers cloud-based, modular products that agencies can use for application processing, eligibility assistance, enrollment broker services, program education and outreach, and digital communication to beneficiaries. Conduent’s BenePath Suite offers numerous operational benefits for state agencies and service enhancements to the recipients that they serve. It integrates easily with states’ existing legacy systems and other service delivery products, and it provides omnichannel contact center operations. Agencies can use the Suite to address the challenges associated with reaching constituents whose eligibility may have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and to achieve federal, state and local regulatory compliance. The BenePath Suite can help transform the health and human services ecosystem in which traditionally siloed and fragmented social services often increase administrative costs and impede modern service delivery. In addition to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Suite can support agencies with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and other constituent benefit programs. “States are always looking for cost-effective ways to modernize and enhance services for programs like Medicaid so they can improve delivery of benefits to recipients while reducing costs and improving efficiency,” said Scott Cade, General Manager of Eligibility and Engagement at Conduent. “Our BenePath Suite is designed to enable agencies to expedite the delivery of services, enhance customer satisfaction and provide the on-demand, self-service experiences that constituents now expect – particularly as requirements change and agencies must quickly adapt.” The introduction of Conduent’s BenePath Suite comes as states prepare for the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). Agencies across the country are preparing to re-verify millions of people who became eligible for Medicaid under expanded eligibility rules during the PHE. States may also soon be subject to new regulations that aim to simplify the process for people to enroll and renew their coverage in Medicaid, CHIP and basic health programs. The BenePath Suite can help agencies navigate these unique challenges and rule changes, all while expanding self-service options and making it easier to communicate more effectively with constituents. With more than 50 years of healthcare industry experience, Conduent supports more than 30 million customers annually with government healthcare services, including 23 million Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. In 2021, Conduent disbursed a total of $125 billion in payments to support government programs, including approximately 45% of the nation’s SNAP payments. For more information about the BenePath Suite of solutions, visit www.conduent.com/benepath-suite . About Conduent Conduent delivers mission-critical services and solutions on behalf of businesses and governments – creating exceptional outcomes for its clients and the millions of people who count on them. Through our dedicated people, processes, and technologies, Conduent solutions and services enhance customer experience, increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve performance for most Fortune 100 companies and more than 500 government entities. Whether it’s touching three out of every four health insured lives and delivering 45% of SNAP payments in the U.S. or enabling 1.3 billion customer service interactions and empowering 10 million employees through HR services worldwide, Conduent services and solutions interact with millions of people every day and move our clients’ operations forward. Learn more at https://www.conduent.com . Note: To receive RSS news feeds, visit www.news.conduent.com . For open commentary, industry perspectives, and views, visit http://twitter.com/Conduent , http://www.linkedin.com/company/conduent or http://www.facebook.com/Conduent . Trademarks Conduent is a trademark of Conduent Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Although there is a drop in the real estate market in Singapore, the city state still remains as one of the highly sought after places to buy a property in Singapore. Despite the fact that there is additional buyer studies as well as Total Debt to service ratio, the high end property sector still offer a glimmer of hope for aspiring property owners. Singapore’s top of the line property market got destroyed a year ago as the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) kept on harming opinion. The ABSD forces an additional 15 for every penny charge on home costs for nonnatives and this drove princely outside purchasers to look for choices in the district, fundamentally in Hong Kong and Australia. The general perspective of Singapore’s extravagance market stays negative for speculators. A couple indications of this are discernable: Luxury property costs have been falling subsequent to 2013, loan fees have risen and are set to go much higher, and there are heightening reasons for alarm among expats that their lodging stipends will decrease in the midst of an unverifiable worldwide financial viewpoint. Most private property credits are pegged to the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR), which has surged since end-2014, with the most recent three-month rate at 1.2515 for every penny. The reason for this is the United States Federal Reserve finding a way to standardize financing costs for the US economy. In the outcome of the worldwide monetary emergency in 2008, the Fed set its key benchmark rate focus almost zero, which thusly sent SIBOR rates to memorable lows and fuelled Singapore’s property buys. Last December, the Fed reported a rate climb of 0.25 for every penny, with an eye towards steady increments, viably denoting the end of modest property advances here. While princely proprietor occupiers are flexible to rising loan fees, the higher expense is a major disincentive to financial specialists. Higher month to month reimbursements eat into rental yields and decrease capital additions upon resale. The worldwide standpoint is negative after a huge number of feeble monetary information from China and the determined droop in oil costs. Combined with rising loan costs, the circumstance is not looking good for organizations. Despite the fact that not definitively demonstrated, it is a common recognition among financial specialists that the extravagance business sector will dependably be most noticeably bad hit amid a worldwide downturn. This is on the premise that lodging stipends for ostracizes will recoil, provoking a move far from extravagance investment properties towards mid-range properties. This looks at Northwave EC in Woodlands by Hao Yuan. LIGHT AT THE END OF TUNNEL? In spite of the negative slant, we have seen a late surge of consideration in top of the line properties. Area 9 homes keep on fixing list items for both deal (representing 7 for every penny of hunts) and rental (representing 7.5 for each penny of pursuits). URA information demonstrates that District 9 remains the second most famous range for rentals for condos near to Woodlands EC Causeway Point, representing 10.4 for every penny of rental exchanges in Singapore. The high volume of rentals near Sembawang Secondary School and Sembawang Primary School, combined with high view numbers, recommend that exiles keep on survey the locale as an attractive area to lease. Be that as it may, URA’s record of offers exchanges for District 9 places it in fifteenth spot, representing just around 3 for every penny of aggregate deals volume at North South Corridor and Yishun Public Library. The blend of high intrigue combined with a low number of genuine buys proposes purchasers are embracing a sit back and watch state of mind. With costs reliably declining, purchasers are sitting tight for the business sector to hit rock bottom before making their turn. A comparative pattern can be seen with scans for Districts 10 and 11, the third-and second-most looked areas, individually. In spite of the elevated amounts of hobby, these regions represent not very many deals, as per URA’s exchange records, with District 10 representing under 4.3 for every penny of offers volume and District 11 representing only 1.8 for each penny. Once more, we deduce that enthusiasm for these top of the line zones stays solid and that purchasers are sitting tight for further rebates or a change to the ABSD. The general notion keeps on winning that Districts 9 to 11 are the evergreen safe venture wagers. The genuinely troubling news for extravagance property is in District 4, which covers Sentosa and the encompassing properties close Harbourfront. Low query items recommend frail enthusiasm in spite of the lofty fall in costs from 2013. URA results for rental and deals volumes in this region additionally stay poor. Taking everything into account, while the extravagance section holds its long haul offer on account of Singapore’s solid basics, it is losing its radiance now as present circumstances give purchasers no motivation to enter the business sector. The cooling measures, for example, the ABSD, some of which were declared as brief when they were executed, are still set up. While purchasers realize that these measures will stop sooner or later, numerous are slanted to endure things, particularly given that costs appear to continue declining meanwhile.…

Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction. Angelina Rose CEO Machanical Inc. Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction. Michel Brown CEO Industrial Inc. Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction. Jonathan Smith CEO Construction Inc. Kiralık Vinç, Vinç Kiralama, Mobil vinç, Hiyap vinç, Kiralık Sepetli Vinç Platform,Teleskobik Vinç, Denizli Vinçli Kamyon, Geniş Makine Parkı 7/24 Hizmet Garantisi İle Koral Vinç Hizmetinizdedir.

Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki greeting Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Burhan at Asmara International Airport ( photo : Eritrean Ministry of Information) borkena September 7, 2020 Sudan’s Sovereign Council President, Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, was in Eritrea on Monday for a one day working visit. He arrived in Asmara in the mid-morning hours, according to Eritrea’s Minister for information , Yemane Gebremeskel. Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki greeted Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, and members of his delegation upon arrival at Asmara International Airport. The purpose of the visit is said to be to bolster the relations between the two countries. Eritrea’s Minister for information tweeted that the two leaders met and discussed issues in the areas of trade, security and military affairs. “In the meeting between the two leaders, #Eritrea & Sudan have agreed on concrete measures that will be taken to implement comprehensive bilateral agreements reached in the economic, trade, security & military sectors as well as mechanisms and timelines for their commencement,” Yemane Gebremeskel tweeted. The two leaders have reportedly reached an agreement to reach an agreement to enhance efforts to enhance efforts for peace in the region. Join the conversation. Like borkena on Facebook and get Ethiopian News updates regularly. As well, you may get Ethiopia News by following us on twitter @zborkena

A few weeks ago I had the honor to work with Emily Charron & Blair Staky, the team behind Chicago’s lifestyle website Wandeleur to work on an exciting project titled “When Interior Design Meets Fashion“. When talented luxury designer Donna Hall, and the team at Wandeleur asked me and three other Chicago bloggers if we wanted to take part in this exciting project I immediately said “Yes”. Why?! Because, besides fashion, I also have a love affair with interior design, I really do. When my husband and I purchased our first home together we took such pride in it to make it our own. We completely gutted our house ourselves, we put in new floors, painted the walls, and I even learned how to put in a back splash to our kitchen and bathrooms walls. Yes, if I wasn’t a fashion/jewelry designer I would most definitely be a interior designer. But enough about that. It was truly exciting to explore Donna Hall’s newly-refreshed home. From Donna herself, “The overall approach was to honor the architecture of the early 1900’s but modernize it by adding elements of French Moderne period, hints of Miami Deco, and glimpses of the Hollywood Regency era. Get all the scoop, and tap into the insight of Donna Hall’s apartment HERE and be mesmerized. As always, thanks much for reading & a BIG THANK YOU to the amazing team at Wandeleur and to Donna Hall who was kind enough to share her living space with us for a day. Much love. SHOP THE POST DRESS: CHOIES c/o (ON SALE FOR $26!) | BRACELETS: What Would V Wear & Cartier Love Bangles | HEELS: Wild Diva via Lulu’s

In this Dropispy review, ecom royals analyze and compare the main features that a good Adspy tool must have in order to be the #1 dropshippers top choice. Keep reading Why a Dropispy review? Dropispy has one of the largest classified databases of social network ad. In fact, its database represents tens of millions of … Read more Categories How To Dropshipping Tags AdSpy, adspy tools, facebook ads, product hunt, store spy 1 Comment Alishark Review (Jan 2021): 3 hidden reasons to use it. December 6, 2021 October 5, 2021 by Frank Maug In this Alishark review we explain why is important to have a reliable Aliexpress product research tool. This is a true game-changer for finding profitable products to sell on Shopify or other platforms. Alishark Review 2021: smart spy tool for drop shippers. Whether you are a professional marketer or just started up with your online … Read more Categories How To Dropshipping Tags Aliexpress, aliexpress product research, Alishark, dropshipping tools, product research software Leave a comment Why I Use Minea Product Research Instead of Droppoint February 28, 2022 September 4, 2021 by Frank Keeno Minea product research Minea is a desktop app that allows you to quickly find products that are selling well in main com stores via social media . Dropshipping is a business model in which e-commerce entrepreneurs sell products without having to carry any inventory. When a store owner receives an order from a customer, they … Read more Categories Apps And Tools, Product Discovery Dropship Rabbit: 2021 Best Winning Dropshipping Product Research Tool? December 6, 2021 September 2, 2021 by Frank Bugatti This Droship Rabbit review analyzes the best way to use this research tool for eCommerce in 2021. This tool recently came under the spotlight thanks to Kamil Sattar, from *** Ecom *** Youtube’s Channel. It is a curated listing of winning products that are popular in the dropshipping space. Dropship Rabbit vs EcomHunt Dropshiprabbit is … Read more Categories Apps And Tools, Product Discovery Tags droprabbit, dropshiprabbit, hottest dropship products, product discovery software, product hunt, winning product research tool, wow factor products

While some market predictions are accurate, many are not. It is commonly heard that the housing market is nearing it’s peak, but Founding Partner of Charlesgate Realty, P.T. Vineburgh believes otherwise. Read below as he debunks what you have been hearing about the future state of the Boston real estate market and offers some insightful predictions of his own. 2019 will be an interesting year for the Boston real estate market. Media outlets and “experts” fall into the trap of making blanket statements and overly generalizing macro trends in what in reality is a hyper local and highly segmented market. In fairness, if you only have a “1/4 page” or a “column” (to use some old school journalism terms) to encapsulate a market, then often times there is little choice but to blend data together that candidly has no business being intertwined. That being said, what we do is extract relevant data into the correct buckets, so we can accurately look at each specific sub market. That being said, in our primary areas of focus (Greater Boston) this is what I see for 2019: Rising Interest Rates Rising rates will have some marginal impact, but they are not the driving factor on where the market will go. We are not in a highly rate sensitive market for the end users, as the average price in most Downtown Boston neighborhoods are in the $700K-$1M+ range. This also applies to new product in historically less expensive sub-markets like Allston/Brighton, Eastie, Southie, and Charlestown. This pool of buyers is not significantly impacted by a 1/4-1/2% fluctuation in rates. In a rising rate environment the 5/7/10-1 ARMS also start to become more common, and typically satisfy the rate concern for most buyers. Rising rates can tend to impact overall consumer confidence, so there is some collateral damage if on a national level (where rising rates are more significant) this becomes a constant talking point and that bleeds into the psyche of our local buyers. Also, it’s worth noting that the investment market will see a leveling of prices, as rates do have more impact for people buying multi-unit properties and those sellers looking to unload investment assets or development opportunities will need to re-calibrate expectations a bit. Sale Prices and Days on Market In the general sales market days on market will increase and prices will not be going up 7-10% in 2019. Sellers will need to realize that things may take a little longer and the run up of +-10%/year appreciation that we have seen (citywide up 92% from Q1 2011-Q3 2018 according to LINK) is winding down. That being said, I do not foresee prices declining, specifically top tier product in top tier locations. New Construction Condos New construction condos in general, and particularly in up and coming sub-markets (Allston/Brighton, Eastie, Southie, et al) should remain very competitive. Older inventory, especially that which is needing renovating, will lag on market and need to be discounted. Luxury Apartments I would not want to be putting up ultra luxury apartments in 2019 and beyond, especially in B sub-markets. Land and construction costs have soared, inventory for this market segment has increased overall, much of it concentrated in what the market perceives as superior locations like Seaport, South End, Fenway, et al, . Thus, ultra luxury product at the top of the market in terms of price, in historically “B” locations will be a challenge to get top dollar. Overall 2019 Predictions Big picture, Boston is well positioned, and in some respects insulated (relatively speaking) compared to other major metropolitan markets. We have a lack of raw land that can be developed, a lengthy and often cumbersome zoning process that doe snot seem to promote or want height/density, strong core industries that drive the local economy (education, medicine, biotech, finance) and an overall lack of housing supply. All that being said, though many feel that the national housing cycle is nearing its peak, I think there is still some excellent runway for Boston into 2019 and beyond.

• The finesse, timing, and power of Ki-Aikido arise out of the internal “aiki” of mind body unification • More than a martial art, the mind/body coordination practice of Ki-Aikido develops physical and mental balance, flexibility, and focus for handling the challenges of everyday life What is Aikido? • Japanese defensive martial art • Aikido means “the way of harmonizing with energy” Ai = harmonize Ki = energy Do = the way or path • Aikido utilizes powerful flowing moves that defuse and redirect an attack by working with the opponent’s force • The techniques “unbalance” the opponent and lead them to the ground in a pin or a roll (participants learn to fall safely by rolling with the momentum of the throw) • Aikido does not rely on size or strength; the art provides an excellent self-defense practice for women and men of all ages

Jazz’s Chief Executive Officer, Aamir Ibrahim, recently visited the Tech Valley Durshal in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to explore further collaboration opportunities between the National Incubation Center’s Jazz xlr8 program and Durshal, a joint venture of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB). Since 2017, Jazz has embarked on a journey to digitalize Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has been proliferating the benefits of connectivity and digital enablement under its ‘Make Your Mark’ program by empowering youth through technology and Digital Skills & Literacy. The main objective of this visit was to meet and interact with startups, various policymakers, and seek prospective alliances within the tourism sector. Jazz, the country’s leading digital communications company, has always strived towards making Pakistan a better country for its people as well as others who wish to visit it, which is why it is working hard to collaborate and strengthen ties between itself and various other sectors of the country. Aamir Ibrahim was introduced to a number of Durshal Startups where possible synergies were discussed. The upcoming Tech Valley Conference 2020 and Tourism Hackathon at DYS19 Peshawar were also discussed. Most of the consultations centered on startups already working in the tourism industry, what kind of value they offer to some of the already established names such as booking.com and Airbnb, and how Jazz can support the tourism sector through its continuous efforts to make a Digital Pakistan. During his visit, Aamir Ibrahim also met with notable dignitaries to discuss opportunities within the tourism sector. Aamir said, “Pakistan is home to some of the most picturesque landscapes; however, tourism facilities from a tourist’s perspective need support and development. We are excited to play our part and help promote tourism across Pakistan to portray a positive image of the country globally. I am sure other organizations in Pakistan will also come forward whole-heartedly to support tourism in Pakistan.” Aamir Ibrahim also met with Director General Galiyat Development Authority, General Manager of Careem, Mr. Shezad Jamal, Head of Department Tourism and Hospitality Department, Hazara University and the team behind Chkar, a startup with up to 2000 rooms and houses on board in Galiyat with a vision to expand all across KP and Pakistan. Chkar is the Pakistani version of Airbnb. Categories Tech Tags Featured, Jazz realme becomes no. 1 smartphone of choice for youth in Pakistan after being recognized as ‘Most Popular Brand’ at Daraz Mall Summit 2019

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For Restart a Heart Week in October 2022, we partnered with Resuscitation Council UK and Brentford FC to shine a light on teaching CPR. Lack of confidence in performing CPR is one of the core reasons why people are uncertain and don’t take action. We wanted to find a way to give people the confidence to act in such a situation and find a way to support the sporting community and its fans. Introducing the CPQR code, a QR code that directs people to a short video that teaches CPR in under 2 minutes. Like the Breast Cancer Ribbon, or the Remembrance Poppy, the CPQR code is an emblem that can be used by anyone and everyone who wants to raise awareness for the importance of learning CPR. But the CPQR code is an emblem with a twist: its very design holds the information needed to learn how to save a life. In the Premier League game against Chelsea FC, Brentford FC launched the CPQR code on Brentford FC players’ shirts. The code also featured on the screens around the Gtech Community Stadium, on the Club’s digital platforms and on the cover of the matchday programme. In addition to this, Brentford FC first team players Mads Roerslev and Kane Lewis-Potter filmed their own instructional video which is live on social media. The game aired on Amazon Prime and the in-stadium activity also involved live CPR demos before the game and during the half-time break. After the game, the players? shirts featuring the CPQR code will go on auction to help fund innovative treatment for heart health charities, as well as go on sale in stores for fans to buy.

Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback 45mm Black ALCHRON Case Automatic Chronograph Watch 24.2060.405-21.c714 Posted on February 11, 2014 by Kyle O'Connor SOLD This watch is currently out of stock. Please CONTACT US to locate another watch with these specifications for you. OC Watch Company is a watch store located in downtown Walnut Creek California. **If you would like to subscribe to our New Inventory Newsletter please enter your email address below.**

Continuing our series based on the remarkable and provoking book on the state of Western Catholicism "Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus" by Sherry Weddell, we take a closer look at the notion of "cultural Catholicism" and it's affect on our church. In her book, Weddell, co-founder of the Catherine of Sienna Institute quotes Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles' remark that “Jesus Christ did not come to suffer and die so that he could make "cultural Catholics".[i] As uncomfortable as that may be, the truth of those words is hard to deny. Simply attending mass with reasonable regularity and generally adhering to the rules was not what Jesus had in mind when he commanded his disciples to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow him.(Luke 9:23) The fact is, it has now become the norm, even "deeply Catholic", for us to refrain from discussing our relationship with God at all (other than in the confessional booth - and how many of us now do that?!) The result? A prevailing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" culture where personal faith has become an uncomfortable and embarrassing topic of conversation, substituted instead for a vague and impersonal "catholic identity". Does that strike anyone else as a rather far cry from the lives of the first apostles who "dropped everything and followed him" (nothing accidental or unintentional there!) and the other great fathers of the faith? If we are serious about inviting God to use our schools as "hot beds" for reviving the Catholic Church and raising up a generation of passionate disciples of Jesus, we need to get a clearer idea of what true discipleship looks like. For what is not believed and lived out cannot possibly be passed on. Weddell writes of how "Disciples pray with passion. Disciples love the Church and serve her with energy and joy. Disciples give lavishly. Disciples hunger to learn more about their faith. Disciples fill every formation class in a parish or diocese. Disciples manifest charisms and discern vocations. They clamour to discern God's call because they long to live it. Disciples evangelise because they have really good news to share. Disciples share their faith with their children. Disciples care about the poor and issues of justice. Disciples take risks for the Kingdom of God." [ii] Challenging words that both convict of how little we often settled for in our relationship with God and inspire hope of what could be. However, having established what intentional discipleship looks like, the question that remains is how this beautiful ideology can become a daily reality in our own hearts and lives, staff teams and schools? What do you think? Is "sacramentalised but not evangelised" a fair description of your Catholic School and parish today? What steps can be taken in your own parish and school to raise up intentional disciples? Please share your thoughts and ideas. [i] Weddell, S (2012). Forming Intentional Disciples:The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus. Indiana,USA: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Divison. p49. [ii] Weddell, S (2012). Forming Intentional Disciples:The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus. Indiana,USA: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Divison. p81

The carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic activity. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. How to reduce your carbon pollution in your daily life? In this article, we give you simple and effective solutions to reduce your pollution and help maintain environmental protection. Simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint reduce your food waste. Store leftover food in your refrigerator or freezer before throwing it away. Composting food scraps is a great way to reduce waste and can be done in a backyard compost bin or the local non-profit organization; look for local places to buy surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the day or donated to a shelter; shopping for meat, dairy, and eggs at a local farm or farmers’ market can further reduce your food footprint; limit your single-use plastic products. Avoid using water bottles and buy reusable ones; use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins and take them with you when you leave the restaurant; make your own reusable bags and containers and take them with you when you leave the store; switch to buying organic foods that are not wrapped in plastic or cardboard packaging; if you have young children: use washable diapers rather than disposable ones and opt for paper towels rather than plastic ones; reduce your energy footprint. Reduce your electricity consumption by turning off the lights when you leave a room; when you’re done washing your laundry, hang it up instead of putting it in a dryer and save energy; help the animals. Buy from animal-friendly companies like vegan leather and cruelty-free cosmetics; Adopt a responsible attitude by buying consciously dig into local farmers markets to support the community and get fresh produce at cheaper rates than grocery shopping; make your own cleaning products. Make your own eco-friendly cleaning products from vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice. Replace harsh chemical cleaners with simple ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice. Fill a spray bottle with water and dish soap to clean the floor in one step. Mix equal parts white vinegar and hydrogen per oxide for an all-purpose cleaner; compost. Make a compost bin to recycle food scraps, yard waste, and plant matter in one convenient place; reuse grocery bags. Use the grocery bags you buy to carry your groceries home from the store or use them as trash bags at home;

I’m setting my sights on another no drinking booze record. Last time I got to 37 days and now I’m eyeing 50 days which will bring me in line for my 30th birthday. For context I am now the lightest I’ve been this year and probably the healthiest; these two achievements alone isn’t why I’ve chosen to abstain from booze; I hate the fact I sometimes act like the way I do after a drink and of course the hangover but I probably won’t ever give it up completely, I am a writer after all. Zero percent beer has been a life saver and although it’s a kind of a weird feeling to taste something that is associated with ‘easin’ the pain’ it does do enough the replace the thirst, for the time being anyway. In the past three months I have also changed my eating lifestyle; I haven’t eaten a ready meal in 3 months! Everything I cook now is from fresh. Frozen veg and meat also counts these days because the quality is so much better now and this also means they don’t perish as quickly. There are a stack of great meals out there that can be made healthy. The vegan stuff is also so much better now and has more options; the days of one vegetable/quorn quesadilla being the only vegan/veggie choice on a menu is disappearing, and although I am not a full vegan, I have meals and days where I am inspired by it. Ben and Jerry’s vegan non dairy ice cream is my pro dieting tip! Exercise has always been a pillar of my lifestyle and right now like the past few years I am a big advocate of yoga – DDP Yoga to be specific. I’ve put up some reviews of the program up on here before and I cannot stress how good yoga is for not only the body but mind as well. This year I have also got back into running and can now do up to 5k in distance! My advice for anyone looking to battle stress, depression and injury – three things I have been through; is to take up more of an active lifestyle even if it’s just a little more than before – go for a walk, start making fresh meals, do a little yoga; all of this stuff keeps my mind in check and looks after the body also. And I say this a lot, as a writer and person YOU CAN DO IT! Because I did and continue to do so! Thanks for reading. Hello to new followers. Those who have been tuning in and are part of the writing community, I shall be putting up my Bookbub promo results this week! A thank you to everyone! April 30, 2019 Lee Hall 5 Comments I don’t normally post something on here unless I have the material but guys the follows and overall support I have got this month as an author is incredible! From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU ALL. Like publishing a book in general I took a plunge or leap this month while already riding the coat tails of some already epic numbers this blog has seen in 2019. Just look where we stand now…. I mean those figures speak for themselves alone just for this month, but 2019 so far has been huge compared to before and there’s another incredible result… Last year I dove into the unknown of publishing a super hero comedy novella. Upon release the sales figures were insulting, my ego diminished and all belief in book stuff pretty much gone. We all want instant results but they don’t happen and so after some serious time spent making a name for myself in the literary world of indie publishing/ reviewing, The Teleporter finally arrived! As you can see The Teleporter shifted some big time numbers and even had a stint as #1 in it’s particular ‘genetic engineering’ chart… And that isn’t all because there are some genuine results from the Teleporter’s arrival! This slideshow requires JavaScript. I had to put together a fricking slide show to display the amount of new reviews we got! But wait there’s more, I’ve even had fellow bloggers write reviews which I then re blogged here so Thanks to Mullen Crafts and also thanks to Elysia Lumen Strife. Both of your reviews were probably better than the damn book itself, and they made it all the way to Amazon.com! the holy grail of places for reviews! There was also a 1 Star review which I won’t dwell too much on, but I think some people came out to read the Teleporter in response and support of me, so thanks folks. You can read my reaction to it here via weekly ramble numero 30…. For those looking for book promo tips I recommend this little results post I put together earlier in April And to everyone else, writer, blogger, tweeter or reader, a tip of the cap to you all. Peace out! That’s April folks… my best month ever in writing! April 7th… April 30th Amazon US Weekly Ramble #31 April 29, 2019 Lee Hall Leave a comment Writing is home for me. But right now I feel far from home. Things are busy, damn busy and although it’s the fashion these days to have loads going on, it’s relentless right now. I just can’t catch a free moment, and I know if one want’s to write, one will write, but time is something I don’t have and inside it’s partially killing me not to be sat at the keyboard creating. I’m an adult now, perhaps that’s the problem because I have responsibilities and stuff, that’s something I have to learn to live with whilst also feeding the need to write. 2019 is proving to be one of those important season finale type of deals with loads of plot arcs wrapping up and people rushing to resolve their stories whilst I’m jumping from one turning carousel to another. Many of the things I’m wrapped up in this year are more significant to others while I play the passenger and it’s tiring. But the most important thing above all for me is that I am not alone and I haven’t been for seven years to the day. Today I celebrate walking my significant other home on a rainy late April night and asking her to be my girlfriend, it sounds like some next level sitcom romance stuff, and back then it was, and still is. I can only function while being happy, all of this circles around the concept of having someone and I do. Somebody said once that all you need is love, and beneath the shroud of busy and hectic life I have right now is just that. Don’t ever understimate the power of having someone and that makes me feel at home more than anything. Weekly Ramble #30 April 16, 2019 Lee Hall Leave a comment I find myself resisting the urge to react to a negative review of The Teleporter. I know the ‘rule’ is to ignore and move on but this format here is my yard and I’ll use it however I like. First of all I don’t wan’t to appear to ‘retaliate’ in anyway but everyone whom I have spoken to about this has deemed the situation a little unjust and that’s something The Teleporter fights for… You can find the review on Goodreads and if you ask me; like others have pointed out, it’s contradictory. And should I even be doing this? Right now, yeah, as I’ve said this is my motherfu**ing yard’ll say what I like. The main gripe focuses on the reviewer not appreciating name calling of a certain character. In fact this reviewer clocked up the precise amount of times this character was called a certain name or referred to it as that name, which tells me there was more counting going on than reading and delving into the words. I just feel as if this book reviewer has rushed through my work and not actually read it properly. Maybe we’re just looking to add another number to the goodreads list… The focus on this name calling which I wont fully explain because I don’t need to, can be defined with this statement: If you don’t get it, you don’t get it, but the whole name calling thing of this character is a part of her journey. Plus this book is a comedy of the comic book persuasion, sometimes people and places are named quite literally. It’s never said in an abusive or bullying type of manner. Her journey which includes this name she is called comes to a culmination with her winning and then choosing to embrace the name everyone calls her, how can’t you see that? This reviewer has totally misinterpreted The Teleporter by basically concentrating on finding something that could be deemed as offensive. Maybe we were looking to slam a book because we haven’t given a bad review before… Unfortunately the world is full of name calling, sometimes it can be considered as banter or fun and sometimes it’s part of wider story that the reviewer didn’t quite grasp. We live in a world where if one person gets offended by something arbitrary then all of a sudden everybody grabs a pitch fork and torch; this is my one fear in the outcome of this review. I’m not against anyone having an opinion, that’s allowed, but make sure you execute what you have to say in a less contradictory manner. I don’t give shit if it got one star and it wasn’t somebodies cup of tea, try tequila instead and grow the fuck up. Weekly Ramble #29 April 3, 2019 Lee Hall Leave a comment This week more than any I stand by my decision to write and tell a story about a drunk super hero. Like all of my books they are about so much more than what’s on the surface. Blurbs and covers sometimes do a book zero justice and even now I have a feeling people judged the Teleporter harshly to begin with and most probably still do (I guess I cant win them all). How dare I write a story with a genre that’s ‘in’ at the moment because even now I can see my own logic in doing it. Super heroes are more popular than ever, and did people just see through that? Did everyone just see me trying to ride a trend and attempt to cash in on it? Was it just an empty grab a fashionable genre? To begin with that’s what I set out to do, but in the end, this book became something so much more. The sheer will of my main characters journey is what makes The Teleporter worth reading. 13 people purchased a copy of the Teleporter on release. That was my lowest ever book launch sales figure until Cemetery House but we won’t count that or talk about that (sequels are strange) and even though it’s low, I have zero complaints. That number grew by a handful until this year and back then (even January this year) my following was a lot less than what it is compared to today. This whole deal; reviewing books, interacting, giving back to the writing community has opened a huge door for me. And I haven’t just reached out past my own shores of Hall island to sell books, I’ve done it above all to become a better writer and to be taken seriously, and people are taking this seriously now. There are two ways a writer learns their craft; by doing and by reading. Along the way I’ve met some pretty bad ass bloggers and authors, types whom I share this voyage with. Perhaps building bridges is what leads to real success in creating. This week The Teleporter has owned the day. Several times when complete strangers have cast the net out into the twittersphere looking for reads; my scrappy little underdog of a book has come out on top; above other books from authors with huge amounts of follows. That has always been my gimmick, the underdog who waits on the fringes of the unexpected, waiting to strike, waiting for my moment and proving to the international stage that I’m good at what I do. Thank you to everyone this week, and before this moment. Those who left a review for the Teleporter before today are probably a huge reason why it’s been downloaded over 600 times in two days! Weekly Ramble #28 March 19, 2019 March 19, 2019 Lee Hall 6 Comments Success as a writer will always be in the eye of the beholder. The real aspiration is simple for me and plenty of other wordsmith folks out there. To get better. Everything else is just a reaction to the effort we put in as writers, a bloggers or content creators. Of course most of you know how much I appreciate the support. A follow, a like, a share or even a comment can propel amyone towards having a better day. The arts will always be subjective. So will percieved success. Whether or not we reach such a thing doesn’t actually matter. To create something that takes just one person away from the mundane of life is to really succeed. I do this because I enjoy it and it makes me happy. To find something like that is rare. If you enjoy something make it your passion, want to get better at it by simply doing it. Put in the hours. Toil over the words, the characters, their conflict, the setting, everything. Listen to those closest to you and even those who are distant, especially when they give constructive advice, yeah we know they haven’t lived the lives we have through words, but their perspective counts, they live in this world too. In every project I take on, I simply look to deliver it in a different way to the last as well as proving to those who follow me that I am getting better. Although I realistically do it for me, they are the ones who will be reading my work. Progress may be slow, but then again when was the last time you turned around and realised not just a handful of loyal people were following you, but 200 plus. It took me 6 years, four books and 2 plays to convince enough people my voice was worth hearing, and still I try to prove to more people everyday. Good things can happen in creating. The best results take time, work, honesty and above all, the desire to want to get better is all you need . 200 Followers Special! March 18, 2019 Lee Hall 3 Comments It’s finally happened, I did it, more like we did it! Lee’s Hall of information blog has reached 200 followers! It’s taken the best part of 6 years but together we have built a following that is 200 strong. So this post is dedicated to those who have helped, inspired and shaped this blog. There are even some out there who aren’t aware of their influence and that can sometimes be what the definition of a writer or blogger is; creating something and not knowing how far it will stretch… I will get to those individuals shortly but first and foremost to everyone… THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING! This journey into the unknown of words began way back 2014 and now we are here! And so now I must acknowledge some folks who have influenced and helped me over the years… Way back before I took the path of indie publishing, I had a starry eyed view that some literary agent would notice my below par unpolished work and take me under their wing, a six figure publishing deal would follow and Spielberg would be on the phone at tea time. As far as I am aware, that didn’t happen, to me anyway, but like many indie authors out there, they are non trad published authors who never gave up and so I needed to start from the very beginning. I needed a guiding light with self publishing. And this biblical level of advice came in the form of a self help book called ‘Self Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing’. Written by Catherine Ryan Howard; a now very successful author who has just got herself a huge publishing deal; a phenomenal achievement and also pretty damn inspiring for small time indies. Self Printed’ is written in a light hearted and sometimes comedic style which works as a no nonsense useful guide to anyone who is interested in taking self publishing seriously. I particularly took inspiration from much of her blogging advice and without that book this Blog would not exist! Her equally helpful blog has a huge amount of stuff that I must recommend to anyone looking for a guide in writing and blogging! Matthew Streuli is the go-to blogger for all things mental health; he has also been a close personal friend of mine for the best part of 10 years. Matt’s blog contains a wealth of personal mental health experiences that he has bravely shared with the world. From battling depression and even a suicide attempt his blog is a vitally important contribution to mental health campaigning and awareness. Depression is something many of us will suffer from at some point in life and Matt has been leading the charge with his blog for many years. He has even written articles for the Huffington post as well as making many television and radio appearances. His contribution to blogging and the mental health community deserves to be acknowledged. Without Nicky Fitzmaurice there would be no ‘Open Evening‘, ‘Darke Blood‘, ‘The Teleporter‘ or ‘Cemetery House’. Nicky has worked with me as an editor, formatter, uploader, publisher and expert advisor for all of my books. It’s s a rare thing to find someone trustworthy, honest and reliable in the world of publishing and Nicky is all three and more! Without being over assured or straight up arrogant the reason why my books are as good as they are is because of the work that goes in after I have drafted them. Specificly speaking, the ending to ‘Darke Blood’ was shaped by Nicky’s advice and the reason why ‘The Teleporter’ flows like it does; especially in the latter chapters is because of her wonderful work! It is also safe to say there would be no ‘Open Evening’, ‘Darke Blood’, ‘The Teleporter’ or ‘Cemetery House’ without Design for Writers, and these books would look nowhere near as good without their fantastic work on what are incredible looking covers. Andrew and Rebecca work trumendously hard and they have always been there for me and a huge array of authors. For what is such an important part of book publishing, I would always reccomend Design for Writers! In more recent times I have changed my whole approach as an author and blogger. My belief now is that no wordsmith is an island, as you can see above the people that have influenced this operation. But by just interacting with others via social media you can build a readership and following; something every author needs. During that journey of interaction I met a fellow blogger who has not only become a loyal reader/ follower but also a friend and blogging influence, plus she nominated this very blog for an award! Jaycee Lynch has helped and contributed to the growing of this blog and my overall following as an author. I very much carry the simple philosphy that consists of paying back people who help you. Jaycee has always taken a genunine interest in my work and has left reviews, blogged about my stuff and has overall been a great supporter. In return I sent her a signed copy of Open Evening; something I feel obliged to do when I get support of this level. She has a blog also which has a crazy amount of followers and content. This place is basically a beaten up old shed compared to the castle that is the Thinking Moon Blog… My final acknowledgement of those who shaped this blog is The Writers Community of the Tweet machine! Late last year I started taking Twitter ‘seriously’ and just put out some feelers to see if there were any indie authors who wanted a review…. As you can see the response only got a few hits… it was at this moment whilst I was watching something on Netflix, I briefly looked at twitter via my google chrome app on my phone and realised… I used to have the app but deleted it to save phone memory… Since that day I vowed to review all of the indie books! This year alone I have read and reviewed 10 indie books and that number is steadily growing. Without reading and reviewing some awesome titles, this blog would have never surpassed 200 follows! Final Thought (Jerry Springer style) And so as the 203rd blog post, a 200 followers special comes to a close we should take some time to reflect and look to the future… Without that being an obvious plug to Jack Thorn; my sci fi dream novel which is going to be serialised via this here blog, I would like to just share with you what blogging progress looks like… Bad times don’t last, but good words do, especially when they are followed by even better people! Thank you. Weekly Ramble #27 March 4, 2019 March 4, 2019 Lee Hall Leave a comment Dreams are weird. There are so many people (probably all of us at some point in time) that say we want to do something and never get there. The amount of variables that surround us at one time deny us of achieving that dream or cut it short, then there’s the whole deep down fear of can I really do this which is in turn followed by do I want this? Fear can keep dreams from being achieved. Even I’ve suffered from being somewhat scared of what people think. Coming out as a writer in 2012 was the biggest plunge into the unknown I have ever taken. Many around me still aren’t convinced, and that’s fine, opinions are allowed and this has always been a one person at a time deal. Overall it fuels me to prove what I am and what I will achieve. Then again I don’t really care what people think of my work, I do it because it makes me feel free in this world where we are all confined. To be able to create is to feel free and to to feel free is to truly live. I’ve found my freedom in writing stories and building worlds. I first did this when I was 12 years old and haven’t ever thought twice about not wanting to write. Success is another variable that combines itself with fear to keep us from getting to our dream. What if nobody likes my stuff? What if I don’t sell any copies? What if writing a book isn’t a success? The biggest personal achievement in writing is simply being able to write ‘The End’ when you finish a project. Everything else, the hard stuff, comes later and actually doesn’t really matter. I’ve found that out gradually. Reviews are great and I am so damn grateful for the ones I have, sales also mean a lot along with social media follows and interaction. I have met and know so many awesome wordsmith people and bloggers along with readers. All of that is material compared to being able to say you wrote and finished a book. There are so many people out there who say they tried but never got there. The true success and achievements in writing come from where everything else does in writing. Our ability to write, our sustainability is creating, our editing skills, our scope for characters, theme, settings, characters, all of it comes from within. I have an excellent memory, even though I work shift at the moment and that’s a sure fire way to frazzle some cells; I still remember the story that brought me to this point. After all these years, I still remember being 12 years old facing a windows 98 computer and writing a story about robots in the future called Jack Thorn. It’s not just some empty one dimensional action story and in the very preliminary stages it may seem like an out of date male lead character fest, but it isn’t and that’s the beauty of it. Jack Thorn isn’t just about Jack Thorn, it’s about humanity, equality, family, destiny and prophecy. I know that story because I have carried it with me since then. It is my dream, and sometimes they can be weird. (Jack Thorn – a science fiction story of the future will premiere on Thursday the 14th of March in serialized form on this very blog.) 4 More reasons why you should read indie books! March 1, 2019 March 1, 2019 Lee Hall 2 Comments Reading indie books is becoming a hobby of mine. I have my reasons which are many. Firstly I know what its like to feel like nobody is reading my stuff let alone leaving a review. I understand the work and financial commitments to getting a book out there, and overall reading enriches the mind. If you are published you’ve got to give back to the community and help the brethren of wordsmiths. No writer can expand by being an island, plus there are some amazing indie books out there that are as good as any trad’ published ones… Like me, many authors can only talk about their stuff so many times until the inevitable broken record begins to play, so how about I talk about them instead! Here’s the rundown of the 4 indie titles I read in February…. Over The Pass, and Other Stories by Susan Mary Malone was the first book I picked up in Feb and this immersive collection of shorts whisks the reader away to the sights of american country. All of the stories are linked by a very human style of telling and description of feelings with a setting that moves in and out of focus. I managed to get through the entire collection within a few days, and as my review said this is literary art of the highest caliber and a unique collection of stories… Next up I read ‘Odd Spirits’ by S.T. Gibson Like the title suggests this a story that delves into the spiritual and occult world but it’s done in a more lighthearted kind of way that makes this unique to the genre. It’s a novella, but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact its a fantastic well paced story. Quoting from my review ‘there are elements of several genres blended together in this book such as romance, paranormal and spiritual they are all combined in a light way that makes for some great and very addictive reading which would suit all readers.’ The story centers around a married couple who are both active in the world of witchcraft and spirits, their house is being ‘haunted’ by a presence which they must look within to exorcise. Seeing as I have written a vampire book, I should also read vampire books, so Nocturnal Blood by Villimey Mist was next… This was quite a long read, but as I got further and further into the story I found myself supporting the main character who suffers from OCD and anxiety. This is a brave and difficult thing to execute well and a real strong point of the book. We’ve all heard vampire stories and some think they have been done, but Nocturnal Blood proves there are more to offer from the world of blood suckers! This book is journey within a journey and for anyone who likes the young adult genre, you should check it out! Also the cover art is awesome, Design for Writers did a top job, they are also behind the covers of my stuff! And so with only a few days left of Feb I consulted my TBR list and found a shorter book about fairies. My review for Silver Princess By Lea Carter literally dropped yesterday but I will say this is a charming story like nothing I have read before, mainly because I’ve never read a story about fairies but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a great well paced story that twists and turns. This book truly proves that good things come in small packages… This was a great way to cap off another month of indie reads and to quote my review this was ‘part love story and part coming of age, the book focuses on Rebecca; a fairy princess who is rescued by a mysterious man-fairy named ‘Scamp’. Their romance is subtle and gradually reveals itself much like the story as a whole making it an enjoyable read suitable for all ages, something which is rarely well executed in literature these days. Its a sort of princess and the pauper story until more is revealed in the latter stages.’ And so that’s it for another month of reading Indie books! How many reviews have you left recently? (I’m not sure if that was rhetoric or even slightly sarcastic, answers in the comments folks…) Weekly Ramble #26 February 27, 2019 February 27, 2019 Lee Hall 1 Comment I’m writing the book I was always destined to write. Of all the writing journeys we take, they can normally be linked back to a pinnacle moment in time. Many of us hold the memory of it close and dear, we’re protective of it, for some of us it has grown alongside our own personal growth much like our dreams. It feels far away from now and it could be that manuscript sitting in a drawer, or a file unopened for years on an old computer. It may not have ever graced the writing process and sits forgotten whilst we have moved on. What if that story stayed in the back of my mind since this whole deal began? What if I never forgot what it did to inspire my writing efforts. What if everything I did in writing was for that story inside me? So what good is it just sitting forgotten when really it’s the purpose of all of this. We cannot take our dreams with us, so why the hell should it sit gathering dust on the mind? This blog and my writing is the most successful it has ever been right now. If I could ever define my efforts as a writer it would be one of a chancer who takes the risk from opportunity that is sometimes presented by circumstance. Holy shit that sounds technical but I know what I am, I always have. Slowly people are taking that on with appreciation, and I very much admire the efforts people make to tell the world about my work, I am thankful also. I started this whole deal when I was twelve years old on a rainy Sunday afternoon facing a windows 98 computer. It was an escape and that was when I typed the initial words about a character named Jack Thorn who fought against robots in the future. The story and premise grew up with me and took on many incarnations from a handwritten Tesco value notepad to a fully typed up first attempted draft of 40,000 words when I was fifteen and should have been studying. 40k aint bad considering it was attempt numero uno. Still this story and those within it stayed alive in my mind. Even back then I vividly remember sighing and looking at the keyboard whilst muttering “What the hell have I got myself into? Writing books is hard…”. Even when life took center stage I was reading, Crichton, King and Conan Doyle who were residing on my growing shelf. I moved house, jobs, had tough times and good. Witnessed great successes and losses, I lived until the dream of writing fully gripped me. Still that story stuck out, even when I started again with a character named Clark Thorn, I learned to write by figuring out his journey. Those first few years (2012-2015) I was writing 4 hours a night. You have to find the ability to write within, it cannot be taught, anyone who says that is a bullshit merchant no matter how subjective. I found my voice during those years, my starry eyed belief thought a literary agent would pluck me from the slush pile and I would be on Graham Norton in two years time. Pipe dreams are nice, but they are not reality. I’ve only ever got anywhere by rolling up my sleeves to prove that I can write, I know I can and so do my audience. It’s going to take a lot of work to convert an old time action story to today’s audience, there will need to be a balance, but Jack Thorn is home to me, it always will be, and his story will reside in serial form on this blog from next month. It’s a story of humanity intertwined with the destiny of those who look to defend it. This is the book I have always aspired to write, and write it I will! In the future there will be robots… (Jack Thorn will premiere on Thursday Evenings from March and will be serialized through this blog. Next year I shall be querying agents with my story of the future. Do not fear though, I have at least 3 other writing projects currently in development for I am the writing machine! And I’m still reading and reviewing indie stuff)

In an age where social media is omnipresent, why not use your online presence to build more and better business relationships? Here are some simple do’s and don’ts to keep you on the right track. Do: Reach out regularly Online business relationships are similar to offline ones – regular contact is required for the relationship to stay alive. Adding or following someone on a social media platform is just the first step. Beyond that, you need to take action to ensure you don’t become just another vaguely familiar name on their contact list. Take the initiative to reach out in a more meaningful and memorable manner. Start a conversation, share useful information on your own profile, comment on articles or links they have shared, or ask for help in their area of expertise. The key is to stay on their radar through regular interaction. Don’t: Mistake quantity for quality From your follower or contact list count to the number of likes, shares and so on, a lot of emphasis is placed on numbers. This blurs the line between quantity and quality – the former does not necessarily translate into the latter. Having a few thousand followers or contacts means nothing if none of them think about you first when they are looking for a business solution. Therefore, avoid adding just any person you find on your social networks. If valuable business partners see you associating with questionable individuals on Facebook or those that do not come with solid professional backgrounds on LinkedIn, it could seriously damage your reputation. Similarly, buying fake followers simply to boost your contact list figures could backfire, causing immeasurable harm to your business prospects. Do: Treat your online presence as your ‘brand’ Anything you post online is representative of who you are and affects your reputation – in other words, it’s your very own online brand. So take the effort to treat it as such, paying special attention to how you interact and behave online. Log in regularly to keep up to date with your social interactions, and make sure you fully understand that article you're sharing and the impression it creates on your followers. A proactive approach, where you check your content and interactions online, would be far more beneficial in building a strong brand that others will be drawn towards. Don’t: Mix your business and personal accounts Professionalism is important while trying to build business relationships. Rather than constantly limiting your personal interactions or worrying about whether you are portraying a professional image, it would be far simpler to separate your business and personal accounts on social media channels. That having been said, it is never a good idea to say something that could potentially damage your – or someone else’s business – on a personal or professional account, without solid evidence to back it up. Do: Follow up offline Online platforms are great for expanding your contact list, but taking a new business relationship to the next level requires offline interaction. Whether it’s a quick catch-up over coffee or a meet-up at a conference, following up in person helps deepens the relationship and shows sincerity. Physical presence is important in any relationship – so once you’ve established a rapport online, find the right time to strengthen the association offline. When building offline relationships, giving and receiving business cards solidifies the new connection by anchoring it in that little palm-sized token. For effective storage of business cards and to be able to retrieve them at a moment’s notice, use a professional contact management solution such as Sansan. This software allows you to share your database with all the employees in your organisation, making it easy for someone to pick up the conversation from where you left off. The volatile nature of social media makes it imperative that businesses use it with care. But by remaining professional, careful and sincere in your online conduct, social media can open a world of new connections and opportunities for you and your business like never before.

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Dulzura, California - U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued a man that had been lost for four days on Wednesday morning. The incident began at approximately 10 a.m. when agents assigned to San Diego’s Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR) team received a call from San Diego Sheriff’s Department regarding a lost individual. The lost man relayed to Sheriff’s Department personnel that he had been lost for approximately four days, had no water, and was unable to walk. Sheriff’s Department personnel relayed the approximate location to BORSTAR members. Agents deployed via all-terrain vehicles due to the remote location and located the lost man. The man stated he was in good health aside from being dehydrated. BORSTAR personnel evaluated the man for further trauma and provided him with water and electrolytes. After treatment, the man was extracted via all-terrain vehicle. The man was determined to be a 35-year-old citizen of Mexico unlawfully present in the U.S. He was subsequently transported to a nearby Border Patrol station for processing. "Many of the heroic missions accomplished by our agents go unseen as they steadfastly patrol remote locations along the border and respond to these types of emergencies," said San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke. "Time and again our search and rescue team has proven to be an invaluable asset in effecting our national security mission and preserving lives. I am grateful for their efforts.” To prevent the illicit smuggling of humans, drugs, and other contraband, the U.S. Border Patrol maintains a high level of vigilance on corridors of egress away from our Nation’s borders. To report suspicious activity to the U.S. Border Patrol, contact San Diego Sector at (619) 498-9900.

Whether you followed the tabloid coverage of Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles during the 1980s and 1990s, or have been binging the reenactment of their relationship on Netflix's The Crown, surely it's crossed your mind: How did these two really feel about each other? On one hand, together, the former royal couple raised two handsome boys, Prince William and Prince Harry. On the other hand ... Prince Charles infamously had some side action going on with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Queen Elizabeth II ended up granting them a royal divorce two years before the People's Princess' tragic death in 1997 (per Town & Country). So, was their marriage always doomed to fail, or did it start out like the storybook it seemed to be, and then slowly splinter? To get the answers to these burning questions, The List reached out to body language expert Nicole Moore, who is also a life coach and relationship expert. After studying numerous video clips of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Moore pointed to signs that they may have always been at odds, even before they said "I do" in 1981. Princess Diana and Prince Charles' first appearance together was super 'awkward' Anwar Hussein/Getty Images Ah, new love. When you're first falling for someone, you just can't keep your hands off each other. Except, this didn't appear to be the case for Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Moore explained. "Diana and Charles appeared awkward together from their very first public appearance," Moore told The List. "Charles was friendly with Diana from the start, not romantic at the beginning like you'd expect a man to be with his fiancée." She pointed to the couple's very first interview after they got engaged. "At the very beginning of the clip, Charles puts his hands on Diana's shoulders, but it's a light touch and he pats her on the shoulder like you'd pat a friend," Moore observed. "Diana appears uncomfortable, and shrugs her shoulders up when he touches her, a subtle body language sign indicating that she's not in love with his touch and wanting more, she doesn't want him touching her at that moment at all." When Prince Charles touches Princess Diana again, she downright cringes! "Right after he touches her on the shoulder, she puts her head down for a second in a shameful, embarrassed way," Moore continued. "Her body language here seems to indicate that she's not happy and perhaps playing along with Charles' mock show of affection for the cameras." Did Prince Charles' proposal story fall flat? Anwar Hussein/Getty Images After a couple gets engaged, it's always fun to hear them tell the story about popping the question. However, Moore did not see any of this enthusiasm from the royal groom and his bride-to-be. "When Charles is asked to describe how he proposed to Diana, he shows no change in facial expression or emotion. This is a huge red flag," Moore said. "Anyone that is truly excited about their engagement would immediately smile, open their eyes wider, and change their tone of voice when detailing how they proposed to their fiancé. Instead, Charles maintains the same flat tone in which he started the interview." The princess, meanwhile, was not behaving like she'd just been swept off her feet. "Diana, for her part, appeared awkward and embarrassed when Charles brought up the fact that even after Diana had said yes, he 'let her sit on it' for three weeks," Moore noted. "When he said that, Diana's face and eyes cast downward in a shameful, embarrassed way." Princess Diana and Prince Charles did not seem to be in love when they got engaged John Downing/Getty Images Why would Princess Diana feel shame when listening to her royal fiancé describe their engagement? It could have been a hunch that the two weren't destined to live happily ever after, according to Moore. "Perhaps the writing was on the wall from the very beginning, and Diana knew there was something off with the partnership based on how Charles conducted the proposal," she speculated. Either way, it seems as though Prince Charles and his future bride just did not have that lovin' feeling! "Perhaps the most telling part of the interview was when the reporter asked the couple if they're in love," Moore continued. "Diana says with her words 'of course,' but then visibly reacts to this question by stepping back a bit and sucking air in while looking off to the side." Moore added, "This body language shows that she did not believe what she was saying. She knew the couple was not in love and was almost sucking the lie back in after she said it." Perhaps sealing the deal was the hue of Princess Diana's face as she awkwardly discussed their engagement. "Her cheeks got red with embarrassment, indicating again that she was extremely uncomfortable having to say that she and Prince Charles were in love," Moore observed. Was Prince Charles in love with the attention or Princess Diana after their wedding? David Levenson/Getty Images Two years after the epic wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, you could see their happiness during their first filmed dance together, Moore observed. The supposed problem, though, was that it wasn't thrilling to them because they were in love with each other. Although "Diana was happy to be with Charles," according to Moore, "Charles was happy with positive attention." Speaking about the apparent contrast between their attitudes as they dance, Moore continued, "Diana is beaming with happiness as soon as the dance starts. Charles, on the other hand, has a more focused look on his face and doesn't break a smile until the audience starts cheering for them. This body language suggests Charles may have been more in love with the camera and the attention than Diana." If this sounds a bit harsh, Moore noted that the Prince of Wales "made no efforts during the dance to pull Diana closer, or really take in her enjoyment of the dance." She added, "His body language appears to indicate that for him, the dance was just business and any fun he was having was simply a result of dancing being fun, not because it was Diana there with him." Moore went on to claim that there was absolutely no personal connection between the two: "If you watched the clip without knowing it was a couple, you could easily mistake the two for a pair of dance partners who just love dance, not lovers." Becoming parents did not appear to bring Princess Diana and Prince Charles closer together Mike Lawn/Getty Images In fairness to the former royal couple, having your relationship in the spotlight has to be stressful! Perhaps that awkwardness gave way for love after Prince Charles and Princess Diana had a child together? It appears to be quite the contrary. "By the time William was a toddler, any friendship, connection or love between Charles and Diana appeared to be gone," Moore said. "Even a new baby couldn't bring this couple closer." Pointing to a video clip of the young family as evidence, she continued, "It's evident that the relationship between Charles and Diana had turned cold by then. The couple barely looks each other in the eyes the entire time they are parading William in front of the press and only interact with the baby." The princess, at this point, had seemingly resigned herself to a loveless marriage. "When sitting next to each other on a bench, while William stands in front of photographers, you can clearly see that Princess Diana's shoulders are slumped, and her body is pulled in toward itself," Moore explained. "Her body language indicates that she feels defeated." While spotting the literal distance between these two, Moore said, "The couple is sitting apart from each other and making no effort to connect or interact." While their adorable little prince hams it up before the cameras, Moore added, "Prince Charles and Princess Diana appear to be in their own worlds, smiling at William, but not sharing the experience with each other."

Our coverage of Fortinet provides a good example of how our research approach, outlined on the Why Convequity page, has led to alpha rich, excess returns. We have been relatively more bullish versus the consensus since we first published Fortinet research to clients in January 2020. Since then, the share price has appreciated 160%. Product At the product level, we had a clearer understanding of the importance of Fortinet's custom silicon development and how that was to give them substantial competitive advantages. Fortinet, driven by the long-term vision of co-Founder and CEO Ken Xie, has been a unique vendor inasmuch that they are the only pure-play cybersecurity player to have developed its own custom silicon. For over two decades, they have developed ASICs specialised for specific network/security functionalities and built them into a SoC (System-on-Chip). This compact, multi-functional SoC delivers superior processing speeds and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) compared to standard CPUs. Additionally, it allows Fortinet to pack together various networking and security functions, that are conventionally in separate appliances, into one box, known as the FortiGate. When it was crystallising that COVID-19 was reshaping enterprises, forcing them to adopt hybrid environments (cloud + on-prem, remote + office), we informed our clients that Fortinet's hardware focus ought to be a significant business driver. As hybrid environments increased in number and complexity, it was inevitable that latency also had to increase. Traffic must pass through more gateways and ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) entails continual user/machine identity verifications. Collectively, these add a lot of network latency. Therefore, Fortinet's superior computational power, thanks to its custom SoC, offsets much of this incremental latency of hybrid environments. For enterprises looking to maintain or improve network latency while controlling costs, Fortinet has been an ideal vendor to choose. Fortinet's custom silicon's advantages amid hybrid environments, is what we believed to be a significant source of alpha - mainly because no other analysts (Wall Street or FinTwit) were discussing the connection. Fortinet further differentiates its product at the software level, by being one of the early vendors to fully leverage SDN (Software-Defined Networking). SDN separates the data plane from the control plane in a networking device. It allows for the control plane to be centralised, so that SysAdmins can centrally control and update hundreds or thousands of individual routers and switches. Fortinet developed its capabilities in SDN early on, which, combined with its custom silicon resources, gave them an opportunity to develop SD-WAN solutions. SD-WAN is a technology that enables NetOps to prioritise different network traffic types and utilise a broader range of connectivity in order to lower costs. The technology had been around during the 2010s, but it received more attention in 2019 when it was considered a key enabler of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). Gartner coined the SASE term in 2019, causing a stir in the market and compelling vendors to rush toward being one of the first to release a SASE service. It was the younger vendors that began life in the cloud that received most of the attention in regards to SASE. Fortinet, being considered a legacy name, did not receive the same attention, and this is reflected in the 2020 share price performance, when tech investors were focused on cloud-delivered or cloud-native vendors. During this period, however, we viewed Fortinet as being the most complete SASE vendor. One of the key principles of SASE is the convergence of networking and security, such that data packets can be processed at faster speeds. Another key principle of SASE is for it to be off-prem, thus alleviating SysAdmins of the workloads and burdens of managing a plethora of appliances on-prem. Hence, with its specialised SoC, advanced SD-WAN capabilities, and global presence of PoPs (Points of Presence, or data centres), we believed Fortinet was the strongest vendor for the convergence of networking/security component of SASE. Furthermore, the multi-functional SoC enables various networking and security functions (router, switch, VPN, firewall, IPS, SWG, etc.) to be packed into one appliance, making life far easier for SysAdmins. Even before the COVID outbreak, we concluded that Fortinet was the most accommodative SASE vendor. Because they could/can deliver SASE in the Gartner sense - that is, off-prem in a PoP - but unlike any other vendor, they can also deliver SASE, or converged networking/security, in a single appliance that can be deployed on-prem, in a home office, or in a cloud environment. This 'most accommodative' label is attributed to Fortinet's unique product that consists of specialised chips, standard COTS (Commodity-Off-The-Shelf) hardware, and advanced SDN technologies. And in the wake of the pandemic, these attributes have made Fortinet very appealing for enterprises that have hybrid environments and those that are deploying Zero Trust. So much so, that during 2021 and 2022, Fortinet accelerated growth from < 20% to > 30%. Architecture Since we began covering Fortinet, we also felt that there was an information edge to be gained by understanding the longer-term implications of the architectural decisions they've made. While vendors, analysts, and the general market, have been beating the drum for cloud-only vendors, Fortinet has been steadily building out its own network of PoPs. The company cannot put its custom SoC into public clouds, so it has invested in expanding its network of PoPs around the globe. It has colocation arrangements whereby it can setup its own hardware at a data centre provider, like Equinix. Colocation data centres don't have the benefits of public clouds, and hence are cheaper in opex and can be customised to specific requirements. Having its own customisable data centres, consisting of the custom SoC and its SD-WAN technologies, has made Fortinet a favourite among telcos. Such service providers have been preparing for the 5G era. 5G, especially the mmWave band, requires a greater number of cell towers, and this creates additional traffic management complexity. Fortinet's SD-WAN can simplify these operations for telcos and speed up last-mile connectivity. Fortinet has such an abundance of both hardware and software innovations, that the potential would have been stifled had they become overly dependent on the hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP). Now they are in control of their own dense network of data centres, packed with specialised chips and advanced SD-WAN, they are strongly positioned to shine as the world demands increasingly more connectivity within limited bandwidth. This divergent architectural bet, is already paying off, but it's also likely to be a long-term sustainable advantage. Vision To date, Fortinet has been driven by the founding Xie brothers' vision of converging networking and security via custom chip development. Back in 2000, when Fortinet was founded, it was incredibly visionary to envision that standard CPUs would be inadequate for the needs of networking and security 15 years into the future. Though, many people have visions of the future, so in itself, that is not what is impressive. Rather, it is the Xie brothers' commitment to their vision that is truly remarkable. 10 to 20 years ago, and even today, it requires several hundred million dollars to develop and build custom ASIC chips, and the lead times are measured in years. The risks to custom silicon development are colossal, indeed. This makes it apparent that Ken and Michael Xie had a really crystallised vision of how the future would unfold, because if they didn't have such clarity then they wouldn't have taken such mega risks. We think the vision of tighter integrations between software and hardware still has a long way to go. Moore's Law, in its original definition, has faltered. Indeed, there are ongoing innovations at the hardware level to squeeze out further performance gains. However, it seems as though making hardware and software more compatible is another avenue that will be further explored - in other words, designing software to run on specialised chips (or vice versa) rather than on standard CPUs to accelerate the rate of progression. Fortinet is one of only a few companies that have gone down the road of custom silicon development. The others are much more well-known names - Apple, Amazon, Tesla. So, if greater hardware/software compatibility is to be a forthcoming trend, Fortinet is ideally positioned to prosper. The Xie brothers' current long-term vision is to propel Fortinet to a leader within another new-ish Gartner term, Cybersecurity Mesh. As described by Gartner and Fortinet, a cybersecurity mesh is a highly interoperable platform that connects with disparate security technologies via plug-in APIs, and provides a unified view of the enterprise's entire defense posture. To us, pushing Fortinet along this path makes a lot of sense. Fortinet will continue to benefit from vendor consolidation, but cybersecurity is so dynamic that there will invariably be new startups and new point solutions pop up in the market. We view the mesh approach as somewhat accepting this and capitalising on these industry dynamics by being the connective security glue for modern enterprises. Business Fundamentals Fortinet's upstream integration - developing its own silicon - allows it to extract more value out of the value chain, and this is reflected in the 77% gross margin, 30% FCF margin, 20% EBIT margin, and attractive 40% ROIC. The healthy margins and returns are also attributed to Fortinet's decision to build out its own PoP network rather than rely on the public clouds. Using the hyperscalers can generate great business value, but at a certain level of revenue diminishing returns creep in. Being aware of this, Fortinet has adapted itself accordingly to generate incremental value gains over the long-term. This level of vertical integration helps Fortinet extract more value, leading to higher margins and returns. However, the downside is that Fortinet can sometimes be slow in adapting to the latest trends. This is partly because of the engineering culture that wants to build everything in-house, but partly because of them being integrated and a more capital-intensive business compared to peers. Though, where they might not be the first to react to the market, building in-house (limited M&A) has resulted in Fortinet being known for smooth deployments and ease of use. Valuation When we first began researching Fortinet, the valuation looked attractive, both relatively and from a DCF perspective. We periodically checked Fortinet against a group of ~ 100 peers, and the company always had a top 5% Rule of 40 (revenue growth plus FCF margin), while its EV/FCF was in the lowest quintile. And given the outlook and Fortinet's unique competitive advantages to capitalise on the emerging hybrid trends, we were bullish that c. 30% growth and c. 60% Rule of 40 could be sustained to increase the valuation. Over the course of about 18 months, Fortinet's multiples had more than doubled and our DCF valuation indicated a fair value range. We cut our position and bought again on significant corrections, and advised clients to do also. Going forward, given Fortinet's unique business characteristics and the tailwinds of networking/security convergence and greater hardware/software compatibility, we believe growth will be more durable than market expectations. This ought to support its elite Rule of 40 and improve its GAAP profitability. Among the peer distribution, when comparing Fortinet's Rule of 40 percentile with its EV/FCF percentile, there still appears to be a notable value discrepancy and our DCF valuation supports that. Hence, we have high conviction that this is a good stock to hold for long-term investors.

Past week review (no longer than 10 - 15 minutes). Although you didn't have any specific homework this past week, hopefully, you spent some time thinking about your answers to these three questions: 1. What purposes is food serving in my life? 2. What do I need to be doing differently to meet my needs? 3. Am I practicing these new approaches...my "Better for Me Behaviors?" So, today, we're going to share with one another our answers. If you're still in the process of trying to work out your answers, that's OK. Now is a good time to let the group help you. So, who would like to begin? If no one volunteers, start things out by calling on someone who's been vocal during meetings to break the ice. If people are shy to speak, remind them that this is the purpose – and strength – of working in a group setting like this…getting help, suggestions and support from other group members. Discuss. Now, before we go on to the lesson, does anyone have any other insights or interesting experiences that they think would be valuable to share with the group? What about any questions? Wait for any response/discussion. (Be sure not to let this run too long or get too far off topic.) Then, play the lesson. (Next Slide ) After Audio Check-In: What did you think of the lesson you just heard? Anyone have any thoughts they'd like to share? Questions? "Ah Ha Moments"? Give people a bit of time to flush out initial reactions before moving on to the next discussion point. If there are no responses, simply move forward. Discussion Point 1: Please note: This week’s talk on exercise can be triggering for some, as it is often an area where people feel they have failed. Be on the lookout for people wanting to get the group to agree with them about their unhealthy behaviors around exercise and encourage them to take responsibility for their choices moving forward. But always keep in mind, you want the discussion to be kind and understanding. This is not about shaming. The group is not here to make people feel bad or uncomfortable; its purpose is to help one another. Remind people of this, if necessary. Well, this was it – the inevitable lesson on the need for Exercise. Your reactions to this lesson were probably very straight-forward – positive if you are exercising and negative if you are not. So, let's talk about what we are – or are not – doing with regard to exercise. So, who is exercising? Look around the room for “Yes” or “No” nods. It's important to get as many group members as possible speaking up in this discussion. So, even those group members who do not exercise and who are resistant to the idea can get in on the discussion and say what they think or feel out loud. Discussion Point 2: Now, let's start with those of you who do have an established exercise routine. First, tell us about how you started out: Did you exercise before taking this course or did you start as part of your new "Better for Me Behaviors"? - What made you choose this particular type of exercise? - What changes have you experienced? - Overall, how do you feel about it? Call on group members who said that they exercise regularly. Be sure that they answer the questions above and give them an opportunity to talk about why they find exercising to be a worthwhile endeavor. Next, let's hear from those of you who exercise on occasion, but haven't yet made exercise a regular part of their daily lives. What are the factors/issues that keep you from having a regular, established exercise routine? After someone has responded, ask the group to help out with this question: What are some suggestions for ways of overcoming these obstacles? Finally -- and you knew this was coming – let’s talk about the issues that are stopping some of you from making regular exercise a part of your lives. So, what is keeping you from exercising? Call on people who exhibited resistance or who have had nothing to say so far. And, again, ask the group to come up ideas and suggestions to help them overcome whatever obstacles they bring up. Wrap-Up: As the lesson said: Exercise is not an option, it's 150% necessary! For those of you who are exercising, great! You are already getting the rewards. For those of you who aren't yet, think about this: You should already be feeling pretty good about yourself. You've lost a significant amount of weight and you're already looking better and feeling healthier. Any inhibitions you have are lessening. You've learned more about yourself; you understand diversions and over-learned thoughts and behaviors. You are more open to change than you've ever been before. Why not give exercise a try now? And, remember, this is an order week! It's important that you place your order for the next Program Segment – that is, for weeks 21 – 24 – right away. This will be your last order. And, as always, it's best to place your order right after this meeting. If you can't do it immediately, be sure to get your order in within 3 days from right now to ensure you get your shakes on time! Finally, just one more thing. In your workbook for this week, you’ll find an article called “Focus on Nutrition” which contains some really helpful tips on restaurant eating with suggestions for ordering wisely. Take the time to read it. See you next week! Track Your Progress:

We stopped in our tracks. A respite from birds and postcards? Was it possible? Even Isaac paid attention as we crossed the frightfully busy one-lane motorway. (Forget pedestrian rights of way; here you have the right to be hit. Even the red lights were treated as suggestions by the drivers, all of whom seemed late to the same appointment. :-) In spite of the Duncin' Donuts at the left edge of the plaza (visible in the photo) we ventured towards the crowds. The first thing I noticed was the salami and other sausages hanging in one vendors stand. In a few more seconds we were overwhelmed by the incredible assortment of fresh foods, fish and shellfish, legumes, meats, and cheese for sale at what must be at least a hundred stands. Little old ladies (and a few little old men) manuvered covered pull-carts in front or behind them, the better to make way and to carry purchases home. We were enchanted; wandering the aisles, letting the sights and sounds roll over us. All sorts of tantalizing unfamilar foods could be seen, and many more that we thought we recognized. Mmmm. Sadly, we were beginning to run out of time in Barcelona. We had but a few hours left to see more of the city and make it back to the airport. We moved on. Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!

We recognize that, and understand why one of the most common questions we are asked is: What does photography coverage of our day look like? We’d like to let the photos speak for themselves. Here’s a real-life wedding, from start to finish. This couple received almost 1,000 photos! We call that full coverage. Vanessa & Evan’s Extraordinary Celebration at the Wickaninnish Inn (Yes, their day deserves all caps – like a National Holiday, cause it was just that epic!) These two included every element that you see listed in our Wedding Planner, and it went like this. {Getting Ready} in their room with family and bridal party members. We captured details, while they were already sharing laughter, anticipation, and joy. A truly romantic {First Look} in a hidden glade. Just the two of them having an intimate moment before the festivities begin. {Ceremony}, at the seashore? Yes, please! Especially if it’s at The Wick’s famous, oh-so private Shell Beach. {Family and Bridal Party Formals} immediately following the ceremony. Check! These are your people; you need these portraits with them. Lots of time for {Couple Formals}. And even better? Personalize them in a way that reflects you! Like including the groom’s mountain bike. Yes, you’re speaking our love language!

As Sunday’s referendum in Crimea approaches, there seems little doubt that the peninsula’s majority Russian-speaking population will vote for a return to rule by Moscow instead of Kiev. However, it seems unlikely that the result will be accepted by the Ukraine or much of the world community. It’s extraordinary that such a huge amount of nonsense has been written and spoken about Crimea and then parroted by no lesser figures than the US President, the US Secretary of State and the British Prime Minister—among others, including senior members of our own government. All demonstrate a surprising ignorance of history, which is only likely to harden the position of Russia’s President Putin. The historical reality is that the Crimean peninsula became part of the Russian Empire late in the 18th century. As far as can be determined, Crimea hasn’t historically been part of the Ukraine except for a few decades during the 10th century when Kievan Rus’ first emerged—from that time on it has been the territory of various conquerors, including the Mongols and the Ottomans. Students of history might recall that France, Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire actually fought a war with Russia in the Crimea between 1853 and 1856. This involved events including the Charge of the Light Brigade, the siege of Sevastopol and the emergence of personalities such as Florence Nightingale. In 1954, in an unexplained and slightly bizarre development, the new First Secretary of the USSR communist party—Nikita Khrushchev—decided to transfer Crimea to the Ukraine, which of course was also part of the Soviet Union. Prior to that, during the period 1921 until 1954, Crimea had been a separate autonomous region within the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the civil war that broke out in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution, the peninsula was progressively occupied by more than half a dozen different warring factions. So, to say to Russia ‘hands off the Ukraine’ is one thing. To say ‘hands off Crimea’ is another matter entirely. By some readings of the situation, it was illegal under Soviet law for Khrushchev to have made the unilateral 1954 transfer in the first place. It’s impossible to determine why he took that decision because the USSR was behind the Iron Curtain then, only just coming out of the complete paranoia and secrecy of the final years of Josef Stalin’s dictatorship. Suggestions that he did so simply because he liked the Ukraine for personal reasons and had spent a lot of his professional life there seem odd. But no less strange than comments by his relatives that he took the decision because it was to do with the administration of hydroelectric projects in the region, or that it was connected with a Cossack 300th year anniversary. While the USSR existed, this probably didn’t matter so much because, even though Crimea was administered by the Ukraine rather than Russia, it was still under the effective control of Moscow. That situation changed in 1991 with the complete collapse of the old Soviet Union and so at that point it became part of the newly independent Ukraine, though even in these changed circumstances Russia continued to lease the major naval base of Sevastopol. Or to put it another way, only in 1991 was Crimea removed from Moscow’s historical political grasp. At least no one seriously disputes that the majority of present day inhabitants of the Crimea Peninsula consider themselves to be Russian, not Ukrainian. Since 1991 the status of Crimea has been the subject of ongoing squabbles connected to matters such as the future of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the rights of the minority Tartar population. However, until quite recently Moscow had accepted the legitimacy of the 1954 deal—though that wasn’t necessarily the view of a majority of the people living there. The situation has now become even more complicated, with the parliament of the Crimean region appealing to Moscow for assistance. This background probably explains why European leaders— generally intelligent and well read— are much more circumspect about what’s going on than those further removed from reality. And more cynically, it’s European countries that will suffer the most economically if the situation goes from bad to worse. After all, if Russia responds to sanctions against it met by turning off the energy tap, then there’s going to be widespread suffering. Given the complex histories referred to above, some sort of neat solution that satisfies everyone looks to be impossible. It seems likely that Crimea will be returned to Russia, which could prompt some mild economic responses from the EU and United States. The Ukraine will retain its independence—but with the clear message that Moscow has limits to what it will allow. Kym Bergmann is the editor of Asia Pacific Defence Reporter and Defence Review Asia. A longer version of this story will appear in the next DRA. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

With the flick of a switch, the powerful motor creates a super strong vacuum inside the chamber, forcing your erection to quickly expand its length and girth. Simply insert your penis into the tube, press the power button, and watch yourself grow. The soft TPR sleeve forms an air-tight seal against the skin, creating incredible suction and amazing results. The clear vacuum cylinder is made from thick, heavy grade acrylic and marked with metric graduations to measure your growth. A handy magnifying strip is on the front of the tube provides a clear readout and a closer look at your new size. When you’ve reached your desired size, simply push the quick-release button above the power switch to instantly relieve the pressure.

Ta spletna mesta uporabljajo cookies za boljše zagotavljanje storitev, prilagajanje oglasov in analizo prometa. Z uporabo te strani s tem soglašate. Delujoče več Ti piškoti so nujni za osnovno delovanje spletne strain in so vedno dovoljene. Uporabljajo se na primer za zapomnjenje prijavljenega uporabnika ali za shranjevanja blaga v košaro. Analytical cookies več Analytical cookies allow us to measure the performance of our website and our advertising campaigns. They are used to determine the number of visits and sources of visits to our website. We process the data obtained through these cookies in a summary manner, without the use of identifiers that point to specific users of our website. If you turn off the use of analytical cookies in relation to your visit, we lose the ability to analyze performance and optimize our actions. Personalized cookies več We also use cookies and other technologies to tailor our business to the needs and interests of our customers and prepare an exceptional shopping experience for you. By using personalized cookies, we can avoid explaining unwanted information, such as inappropriate product recommendations or useless special offers. In addition, the use of personalized cookies allows us to offer you additional features, such as product recommendations tailored to your needs. Advertising cookies več Advertising cookies are used by us or our partners so that we can display suitable content or advertisements both on our website and on the websites of third parties. Thanks to this, we can create profiles based on your interests, so-called pseudonymized profiles. Based on this information, it is usually not possible to immediately identify you, because only pseudonymized data is used. If you do not consent, you will not be the recipient of content and ads tailored to your interests.

Denver, CO is among the most well-known cities in the United States. Marijuana dispensaries are throughout this fantastic city along with visitors group to Denver just to acquire their hands on some recreational marijuana. Marijuana legislations have really modified considerably throughout the U.S., offering individuals much more adaptability than ever when it entails using Marijuana for medical or recreational functions. We are right below to help you find the dispensary in Denver, CO that perfect matches your demands along with guarantee you're able to obtain what you came for! Cannabis Laws in Denver, Colorado Before you head to the shop, it's important to acknowledge the regulations pertaining to cannabis in Colorado. You require to be 21 as well as older prior to you can purchase or eat cannabis in Denver. Colorado does provide a medical card for those who want a discount rate as well as more powerful item for medical objectives-- nevertheless they need to be residents of the state. Anyone that wishes to obtain a medical card in Colorado needs to go through the state's Marijuana Computer pc registry program. When you make your way to a marijuana Denver dispensary, you are legally able to acquire as much as 28 grams of cannabis at once. However, the term "ounce" can suggest several factors relying on what thing or food point is being gotten. Cannabis bloom plans include.375 ounces per strategy, for example; edibles have no set criterion, and additionally concentrates synchronize as blossom. Numerous anxiety of marijuana are readily offered at dispensaries throughout Denver. Though the limit is 800 milligrams of THC per day, various users will certainly never ever before absorb that much. For edibles, the regulations allow you to purchase as much as 800 milligrams (or 1/4 ounce) with no greater than 80 milligrams in any type of kind of edible product. Planning is important to making sure that you obtain the experience you want from your selected dispensary. Even if you are a routine customer, bear in mind that there's constantly time for more, once you're high, it sticks with you for hrs or perhaps days. Use as well as driving under the influence of Cannabis. One of the most noticeable technique for browsing in Denver is cannabis intake while either hailing an Uber, calling a taxi, or arranging an adventure on the pot bus. Public Cannabis Intake Public cannabis use in any sort of kind has been unlawful under Colorado law, be it cigarette smoking, vaping, or consuming. You can still get made delighting in pot on the path, at an efficiency or in streets if you're captured. Cannabis consumption is also outlawed at state parks in addition to national parks that include Bureau of Land Management areas as well as parts of some national forests. The fee for public usage differs, yet it's generally a fine of approximately $150 or might cause jail time relying on the circumstance. Services in Denver Marijuana Dispensaries We've located 12 of the most reliable Marijuana dispensaries that our team believe you will certainly take pleasure in taking a look at if you stay in or see Denver! These marijuana dispensary examinations cover all aspects from option to set you back as well as group service. The Higher Grade Denver Dispensary is a terrific choice for anybody that lives or mosts likely to Denver. Like all dispensaries, they have an outstanding selection of Marijuana tension and also focuses including indica, sativa, crossbreed as well as CBD products to choose from. The employees at the Denver dispensary are extremely friendly as well as experienced about Marijuana. They additionally provide a variety of deals with, beverages, edibles as well as also topicals for customers to try if they're not specifically sure what they desire nevertheless acknowledge the outcome they are trying to find. Precisely How Recreational and also Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Work in Denver, Co There are 2 type of dispensaries for you to choose from: recreational and also medical. Recreational marijuana dispensary deal customers cannabis things that can be absorbed recreationally, like edibles or marijuana flowers. Medical marijuana dispensary supply different items for those that have a medical Marijuana card permitting them to purchase medical Marijuana. Medical marijuana cards are readily available just to people of the state, so if you do not currently live there it will absolutely be difficult-- though not impossible-- to get one that counts with federal law. Non-residents can still experience the Marijuana Computer computer system registry to purchase Marijuana if they have a legitimate ID. Dispensaries in Denver Offer Marijuana for procurement in lots of forms: edibles, topicals, concentrates and also THC-infused beverages. Marijuana blossoms are among one of the most common kind of Marijuana cost dispensary with alternatives that range from sativa to indica stress. The price of Marijuana differs counting on where you buy it yet generally ranges $20-$ 45 per 8th ounce. Marijuana and also Pets If you have a family pet, Marijuana can influence their health. Marijuana metabolites are found in the blood for up to 6 weeks after intake so it's essential to be careful around your family pet dog when cigarette smoking or vaping pot. Marijuana-laced edibles place an also much better threat due to the fact that they may mistakenly consume them while smelling around your waste. Medical Marijuana and also Insurance Coverage Dispensaries in Denver do decrease insurance plan as a kind of negotiation, so it is important to have the cash readily available prior to you have a look at one. Medical Marijuana card holders might get insurance coverage from their medical care carrier however otherwise they will require exclusive or public funds to spend for Marijuana products. There is additionally information readily available on site regarding lawful guidelines of recreational marijuana dispensary in Denver, CO. You can check out https://www.highergradeco.com/recreational-dispensary-denver for more information.

Articles 1 - 1000 | Articles 1001-2000 | Articles 2001 - 3000 | Articles 3001 - 4000 | Articles 4001 - 5000 | Articles 5001 - 6000 | All Articles Family and Children | Hadith | Health | Hijab | Islam and Christianity | Islam and Medicine | Islamic Personalities | Other | Personal Growth | Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) | Qur'an | Ramadan | Science | Social Issues | Women in Islam | Can the Islamic Intellectual Heritage be Recovered? Can the Islamic Intellectual Heritage be Recovered? William C. Chittick 3/25/2008 By "the Islamic intellectual heritage" I mean the ways of thinking about God, the world, and the human being established by the Qur’«n and the Prophet and elaborated upon by generations of practicing Muslims. I use the term "intellectual" to translate the word ‘aqlâ, and by it I want to distinguish this heritage from another, closely related heritage that also has theoretical and intellectual dimensions. This second heritage is the "transmitted" (naqlâ ) heritage. Transmitted knowledge is learned by "imitation" (taqlâd), that is, by following the authority of those who possess it. This sort of knowledge includes Qur’«n recitation, Hadith, Arabic grammar, and jurisprudence. It is impossible to be a Muslim without taqlâd, because one cannot discover the Qur’«n or the practices of the Shariah by oneself. Just as language is learned by imitation, so also the Qur’«n and Islamic practice are learned by imitating those who know them. Those who have assumed the responsibility of preserving this transmitted heritage are known as its "knowers," that is, its ulama. In transmitted knowledge, it is not proper to ask "why." If one does ask why, the answer is that the Qur’«n says what it says, or that grammar determines the rules of proper speech. In contrast, the only way to learn intellectual knowledge is to understand it. One cannot learn it by accepting it on the basis of authority. Intellectual knowledge includes mathematics, logic, philosophy, and much of theology. In learning, "why" is the most basic and important of questions. If one does not understand why, then one will be following someone else’s authority. It makes no sense to accept that 2 + 2 = 4 on the basis of a report, no matter how trust worthy the source may be. Either you understand it, or you do not. The goal here is not taqlâd, but taÁqâq, which can be translated as "verification" or "realization." In the transmitted sciences, people must follows mujtahids, whether the mujtahids be alive (as in Shi’ism) or dead (as in Sunnism). In other words, one follows a mujtahid because the only way to learn the transmitted sciences is from those who already know them. But one cannot follow a mujtahid in matters of faith, because faith pertains to one’s own understanding of God, the prophets, the scriptures, and the Last Day. A Muslim cannot say, "I have faith in God because my mujtahid told me to have faith." Someone who said this would be saying that if the mujtahid told him not to believe in God, he would not. In other words, he would be saying that his faith is empty words. Although in theory we can distinguish between the transmitted and intellectual sciences, in practice the two have always been closely interrelated, and the transmitted sciences have been the foundation upon which the intellectual sciences are built. One cannot speak properly without grammar, and one cannot understand things Islamically without the Qur’«n and the Hadith. However, the fact that people may have an excellent knowledge of the transmitted sciences does not mean that they know anything at all about the intellectual sciences. Nor does the ability to recite the opinions of the great Muslims on matters of faith prove that the reciter has any understanding of what he is saying. Both the transmitted and the intellectual sciences are essential to the survival of any religion—not only Islam—and both are gradually being lost. By and large, however, the transmitted sciences have been preserved better than the intellectual sciences, and the reason is obvious. Anyone can learn Qur’«n and Hadith, but very few people can truly understand what God and the Prophet are talking about. One can only understand in one’s own measure. One cannot understand mathematics (or any of the other intellectual sciences) without both native ability and training. One may have a great aptitude for mathematics, but without long years of study, one will never get very far. And mathematics deals with issues that are relatively near at hand, even in the most sophisticated of its modern forms. What about theology, which deals with the deepest issues of reality, the furthest from our everyday experience? It is important to stress that no religion can survive, much less flourish, without a living intellectual tradition. In order to verify this—because this statement should not be accepted on the basis of taqlâd —we can ask the questions, What was the intellectual tradition for? What function did it play in Islamic society? What was its goal? To ask these questions is the same as asking, "Why should Muslims think?" The basic answer is that Muslims should think because they must think, because they are thinking beings. They have no choice but to think, because God gave them minds and intelligence when He created them. Not only that, but God has commanded them to think and to employ their intelligence in numerous Qur,«nic verses. No doubt, this does not mean that God requires all Muslims to enter into the sophisticated sort of study and reflection that went on in the intellectual tradition, because it is obvious that not everyone has the proper sort of talents, capacities, and circumstances to do so. Nevertheless, all Muslims have the moral and religious obligation to use their minds correctly—if they have minds. As the Qur’«n puts it, l« yukallifu All«hu nafsan ill« wus‘ah«, "God does not burden any soul save to its capacity." When people’s capacity includes thinking, God has given them the burden of thinking correctly. But He does not tell them what to think, because then He would be making taqlâd incumbent in intellectual matters. If many of the Ulama have forbidden taqlâd in matters of uÄël, it is because God Himself forbids it. He has given people minds, and they cannot use their minds correctly if they simply accept dogma or opinions on the basis of authority. To think properly a person must actually think, which is to say that conclusions must be reached through one’s own intellectual struggle, not someone else’s. Any teacher of an intellectual science—like mathematics or philosophy—knows this perfectly well. It is true that many if not most people are unreflective and would never even ask why they should think about things. They simply go about their daily routine and imagine that they understand their own situation. In any case, they suppose, God wants nothing more from them than observing the Shariah. But this is no argument for those who have the ability to stop and think. Anyone who has the capacity and talent to reflect upon God, the universe, and the human soul must do so. Not to do so is to betray one’s God-given nature and to disobey God’s commandments. Since some Muslims have no choice but to think, learning how to think correctly must be an important area of Muslim effort. But what defines "correct" thinking? How do we tell the difference between right thinking and wrong thinking? Does the fact that people have no choice but to think mean that they are free to think anything they want? The Islamic answer to this sort of question has always been that the way people think is far from indifferent. Some modes of thinking are encouraged by the Qur’«n and the Sunnah, some are discouraged. Islamically, it is incumbent upon those who think to employ their minds in ways that coincide with the goals of the Qur’«n and the Sunnah. In other words, the goal of the Islamic intellectual tradition must coincide with the goal of Islam, or else it is not Islamic intellectuality. So, what is the goal of Islam? In general terms, Islam’s goal is to bring people back to God. However, everyone is going back to God in any case, so the issue is not going back, but how one goes back. Through the Qur’«n and the Sunnah, God guides people back to Him in a manner that will ensure their everlasting happiness. If they want to follow a "straight path" (Äir«Ç mustaqâm), one that will lead to happiness and not to misery, they need to employ their minds, awareness, and thinking in ways that are harmonious with God Himself, who is the only true Reality. If they follow illusion and unreality, they will be following a crooked path and most likely will not end up in a pleasant place when they go back. The history of Islamic intellectuality is embodied in the various forms that Muslims have adopted over time in attempting to think rightly and correctly. The intellectual tradition was robust and lively, so disagreements were common. Nevertheless, in all the different schools of thought that have appeared over Islamic history, one principle has been agreed upon by everyone. This principle is the fact that God is one and that He is the only source of truth and reality. He is the origin of all things, and all things return to Him. This principle, as everyone knows, is called tawÁâd, "asserting the unity of God." To think Islamically is to recognize God’s unity and to draw the proper consequences from His unity. Differences of opinion arise concerning the proper consequences, not in the fact that God is one. The consequences that people draw from tawÁâd depend largely on their understanding of "God." Typically, Muslims have sought to understand God by meditating upon the implications of God’s names and attributes as expressed in the Qur’«n and the Sunnah. The conclusions reached in these meditations have everything to do with how God is understood. If He is understood primarily as a Lawgiver, people will draw conclusions having to do with the proper observance of the Sharâ‘ah. If He is understood primarily as wrathful, they will conclude that they must avoid His wrath. If He is understood primarily as merciful, they will think that they must seek out His mercy. If He is understood primarily as beautiful, they will know that they must love Him. God, of course, has "ninety-nine names"—at least—and every name throws different light on what exactly God is, what exactly He is not, and how exactly people should understand Him and relate to Him. Naturally, thoughtful Muslims have always understood God in many ways, and they have drawn diverse conclusions on the basis of each way of understanding. This diversity of understanding in the midst of tawÁâd is prefigured in the Prophet’s prayer, "O God, I seek refuge in Your mercy from Your wrath, I seek refuge in Your good pleasure from Your displeasure, I seek refuge in You from You." Obstacles to Recovery My title indicates that I think the Islamic intellectual heritage has largely been lost in modern times. This is a vast topic, and I cannot begin to offer proofs for my assertion, but I think it is obvious to most Muslims who have some awareness of their own history. What I can do here is to offer a few suggestions as to the obstacles that stand in the way of recovery. For present purposes, I want to deal with two basic sorts of obstacles, though there are other sorts as well. First are intellectual forces that originally came from outside. They are intimately connected with the types of thinking that grew up in Western Europe and America and have come to dominate in the modern world. However, they have long since become an internal problem, because most Muslims have either actively and eagerly adopted them as their own, or they been molded by them without being aware of the fact. Given that these intellectual forces have now been internalized, they have given rise to a second group of obstacles, which are modern attitudes and social forces within the Islamic community that prevent recovery. In suggesting the nature of the first category of obstacles, we can begin with a basic question: Is it possible nowadays to think Islamically? Or, Is it possible to be a "Muslim intellectual" in the modern world? By this, I do not mean an intellectual who is by religious affiliation a follower of Islam, but rather an individual who thinks Islamically about the three basic dimensions of Islam—practice, faith, and sincerity— while living in the midst of modernity. I have no doubt that there are tens of thousands of Muslim intellectuals in the ordinary sense of the word—that is, Muslim writers, professors, doctors, lawyers, and scientists who are concerned with intellectual issues. But I have serious doubts as to whether any more than a tiny fraction of such people are "Muslim intellectuals" in the sense in which I mean the term. Yes, there are many thoughtful and intellectually sophisticated people who were born as followers of Islam and who may indeed practice it carefully. But do they think Islamically? Is it possible to be both a scientist in the modern sense and a Muslim who understands the universe and the human soul as the Qur’«n and the Sunnah explain them? Is it possible to be a sociologist and at the same time to think in terms of tawÁâd ? It appears to me, as an outside observer, that the thinking of most Muslim intellectuals is not determined by Islamic principles and Islamic understanding, but by habits of mind learned unconsciously in grammar school and high school and then confirmed and solidified by university training. Such people may act like Muslims, but they think like doctors, engineers, sociologists, and political scientists. It is naive to imagine that one can learn how to think Islamically simply by attending lectures once a week or by reading a few books written by contemporary Muslim leaders, or by studying the Qur’«n, or by saying one’s prayers and having "firm faith." In the traditional Islamic world, the great thinkers and intellectuals spent their whole lives searching for knowledge and deepening their understanding. The Islamic intellectual heritage is extraordinarily rich. Hundreds of thousands of books were written, and in modern times the majority of even the important books are not available, because they have never been printed. Those that have been printed are rarely read by Muslim intellectuals, and those few that have been translated from Arabic and Persian into English and other modern languages have, by and large, been badly translated, so little guidance will be found in the translations. I do not mean to suggest that it would be necessary to read all the great books of the intellectual tradition in their original languages in order to think Islamically. If modern-day Muslims could read one of these important books, even in translation, and understand it, their thinking would be deeply effected. However, the only way to understand such books is to prepare oneself for understanding, and that demands dedication, study, and training. This cannot be done on the basis of a modern university education, unless, perhaps, one has devoted it to the Islamic tradition (I say "perhaps" because many Muslims and non-Muslims with Ph-D in Islamic Studies cannot read and understand the great books of the intellectual heritage). Given that modern schooling is rooted in topics and modes of thought that are not harmonious with traditional Islamic learning, it is profoundly difficult today for any thinking and practicing Muslim to harmonize the domain of intellectuality with the domain of faith and practice. One cannot study for many years and then be untouched by what one has studied. There is no escape from picking up mental habits from the types of thinking that one devotes one’s life to. It is most likely, and almost, but not quite inevitable, for modern intellectuals with religious faith to have compartmentalized minds — I will not go so far as to say "split personalities," but that is common enough. One compartment of the mind will encompass the professional, intellectual domain, and the other the domain of personal piety and practice. Although individuals may rationalize the relationship between the two domains, they necessarily do so in terms of the world view that is determined by the rational side of the mind, which is the professional, modern side. The world view established by the Qur’«n and passed down by generations of Muslims will be closed to such people, and hence they will draw their rational categories and their ways of thinking from their professional training and the ever-shifting Zeitgeist that is embodied in contemporary intellectual trends and popularized through television and other forms of mass indoctrination. Many Muslim scientists tell us that modern science helps them see the wonders of God’s creation, and this is certainly an argument for preferring the natural sciences over the social sciences. But is it necessary to study physics or bio– chemistry to see the signs of God in all His creatures? The Qur’«n keeps on telling Muslims, "Will you not reflect, will you not ponder, will you not think?" About what? About the "signs" («y«t) of God, which are found, as over two hundred Qur’«nic verses remind us, in everything. In short, one does not need to be a great scientist, or any scientist at all, to understand that the world tells us about the majesty of its Creator. Any fool knows this. This is what the Prophet called the "religion of old women" (dân al-‘aj«’iz), and no one needs any intellectual training to understand it. It is simply necessary to look at the world, and it becomes obvious to "those with minds" (ulu ’l-alb«b). It is true that a basic understanding of the signs of God may provide sufficient knowledge for salvation. After all, the Prophet said, aktharu ahl al-jannati bulhun, "Most of the people of paradise are fools." However, the foolishness that leads to paradise demands foolishness concerning the affairs of this world, and that is very difficult to come by nowadays. It is certainly not found among Muslim intellectuals. They are already far too clever, and this explains why they are such good doctors and engineers. In other words, they have already employed and developed their minds, so they have no choice but to be intellectuals. Inescapably, their intelligence has been shaped and formed by their education, their disciplines, and the media. The Gods of Modernity The information and habits of mind that are imparted by modernity are not congruent with Islamic learning. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this concisely is to reflect on the characteristics of modernity—by which I mean the thinking and norms of the "global culture" in which we live today. It should be obvious that whatever characterizes modernity, it is not tawÁâd, the first principle of Islamic thinking. Rather, it is fair to say that modernity is characterized by the opposite of tawÁâd. One could call this shirk or "associating others with God." But for most Muslims, the word shirk is too emotionally charged to be of much help in the discussion. Moreover, they have lost touch with what it really means, because they are unacquainted with the Islamic intellectual tradition, where tawÁâd and shirk are analyzed and explained. So let me call the characteristic trait of modernity "takthâr," which is the literal opposite of tawÁâd. TawÁâd means to make things one, and, in the religious context, it means "asserting that God is one." Takthâr mean to make things many, and in this context I understand it to mean "asserting that the gods are many." Modern times and modern thought lack a single center, a single orientation, a single goal, any single purpose at all. Modernity has no common principle or guideline. In other words, there is no single "god"—since a god is what gives meaning and orientation to life. A god is what you serve. The modern world serves many, many gods. Through an ever-intensifying process of takthâr, the gods have been multiplied beyond count, and people worship whatever god appeals to them, usually several at once. The truth of my assertion becomes obvious if we compare the intellectual history of the West and Islamic civilization. Up until recent times, Islamic thought was characterized by a tendency toward unity, harmony, integration, and synthesis. The great Muslim thinkers were masters of many disciplines, but they looked upon all of them as branches of a single tree, the tree of tawÁâd. There was never any contradiction between studying astronomy and zoology, or physics and ethics, or mathematics and law, or mysticism and logic. Everything was governed by the same principles, because everything fell under God’s all-encompassing reality. The history of Western thought is characterized by the opposite tendency. Although there was a great deal of unitarian thinking in the medieval period, from the Middle Ages onward there has been constantly increasing dispersion and multiplicity. "Renaissance men" could know a great deal about all the sciences and at the same time have a unifying vision. But nowadays, everyone is an expert in some tiny field of specialization, and "information" increases exponentially. The result is mutual incomprehension and universal disharmony. It is impossible to establish any unity of knowledge, and no real communication takes place among the specialists in different disciplines, or even among specialists in different subfields of the same discipline. In short, people in the modern world have no unifying principles, and the result is an ever-increasing multiplicity of goals and desires, an ever-intensifying chaos. Despite the chaos, everyone has gods that he or she worships. No one can survive in an absolute vacuum, with no goal, no significance, no meaning, no orientation. The gods people worship are those points of reference that give meaning and context to their lives. The difference between traditional objects of worship and modern objects of worship is that in modernity, it is almost impossible to subordinate all the minor gods to a supreme god, and when this is done, the supreme god is generally one that has been manufactured by ideologies. It is certainly not the God of tawÁâd, who negates the reality of all other gods. However, it may well be a blatant imitation of the God of tawÁâd, especially when religion enters into the domain of politics. The gods in the world of takthâr are legion. To mention the more important ones would be to list the defining myths and ideologies of modern times—evolution, progress, science, medicine, nationalism, socialism, democracy, Marxism, freedom, equality. But perhaps the most dangerous of the gods are those that are the most difficult to recognize for what they are, because we in the modern world take them for granted and look upon them much as we look upon the air that we breathe. Let me list the most common of these gods by their seemingly innocuous names: basic need, care, communication, consumption, development, education, energy, exchange, factor, future, growth, identity, information, living standard, management, model, modernization, planning, production, progress, project, raw material, relationship, resource, role, service, sexuality, solution, system, welfare, work. These are some, but not all, of the ninety-nine most beautiful gods of modernity, and reciting their names is the dhikr of modern man. Anyone who wants an analysis and explanation of the nature of these gods should refer to the book Plastic Words by the German linguist, Uwe Poerksen. The subtitle is more instructive as to what the book is all about: The Tyranny of a Modular Language. Poerksen explains how the modern use of language—a use that achieved dominance after the Second World War—has resulted in the production of a group of words that have turned into the most destructive tyrants the world has ever seen. He does not call them "gods," because he is linguist and has no apparent interest in theology. Nevertheless, he does give them the label "tyrant," and this is a good translation for the Qur’«nic divine name, al-jabb«r. When this name is applied to God, it means that God has absolute controlling power over creation. "Tyranny" becomes a bad thing when it is ascribed to creatures, because it indicates that they have usurped God’s power and authority. In the case of the plastic words, the usurpation has taken place at the hands of certain words that are used to shape discussion of societal goals. As Poerksen points out, these tyrannical words have at least thirty common characteristics. The most important of these is that they have no definition, though they do have an aura of goodness and beneficence about them. In linguistic terms, this is to say that such words have no "denotation," but they do have many "connotations." There is no such thing as "care" or "welfare" or "standard of living," but these words suggest many good things to most people. They are abstract terms that seem to be scientific, so they carry an aura of authority in a world in which science is one of the most important of the supreme gods. Each of these words turns something indefinable into a limitless ideal. By making the ideal limitless, the word awakens unlimited needs in people, and once these needs are awakened, they appear to be self-evident. The Qur’«n says that God is the rich, and that people are the poor toward God. In other words, people have no real need except toward God. But nowadays, people feel need toward meaningless concepts, and they think that they must have them. These empty idols have become the objects of people’s devotion and worship. The plastic words give great power to those who speak on their behalf. Anyone who uses these words—care, communication, consumption, information, development—gains prestige, because he speaks for god and truth, and this forces other people to keep silent. After all, we think, only a complete idiot would object to care and development. Everyone must follow those whose only concern is to care for us and to help us develop. The mujtahids who speak for these mini-gods are, of course, the "experts." Each of the plastic words sets up an ideal and encourages us to think that only the experts can achieve it, so we must entrust our lives to them. We must follow the authority of the scientific mujtahids, who lay down shariahs for our health, our welfare, and our education. People treat the pronouncements of the experts as fatw«s. If the experts reach consensus (ijm«‘) that we must destroy a village as a sacrificial offering to the god "development," we have no choice but to follow their authority. The mujtahids know best. Each of the plastic words makes other words appear backwards and out-of-date. We can be proud of worshipping these gods, and all of our friends and colleagues will consider us quite enlightened for reciting the proper dhikrs and du‘«’s. Those who still take the old God seriously can cover up this embarrassing fact by worshipping the new gods along with Him. And obviously, many people who continue to claim to worship the old-fashioned God twist His teachings so that He also seems to be telling us to serve "care, communication, consumption, identity, information, living standard, management, resource . . ." — the dhikr is well enough known. Because the plastic gods have no denotations, all those who believe in them are able to understand them in terms of the connotations that appeal to then and then convince themselves that they are serving the basic need that is stated in the very name of the god, because, after all, it is a self-evident need. We are poor toward it and we must serve it. It is obvious to everyone that these gods are worthy of devotion. Religious people will have no trouble giving a religious color to these tyrants. In the name of the plastic gods, people of good will join together to transform the world, with no understanding that they are serving man-made idols, idols that, as the Qur’«n puts it, "your own hands have wrought." The topic of false gods is vast, especially nowadays, when more false gods exist than were ever found in the past. The Qur’«n tells us that every prophet came with the message of tawÁâd, and that God sent a prophet to every community. Every community of the past had its own version of tawÁâd, even if people sometimes fell into shirk because of ignorance and forgetfulness. But in modern society, there are nothing but the gods of takthâr, and these gods, by definition, leave no room for tawÁâd. Understanding the nature of false gods has always been central to the intellectual sciences, but this cannot be the concern of the transmitted sciences. One cannot accept that "There is no god but God" simply on the basis of taqlâd. The statement must be understood for people to have true faith in it, even if their understanding is far from perfect. Hence most of the Islamic intellectual tradition has been concerned with clarifying and explaining the objects of faith. What is it that Muslims have faith in? How are they to understand these objects? Why should they have faith in them? The first of the Islamic objects of faith is God, then angels, prophets, the Last Day, and the "measuring out, the good of it and the evil of it" (al-qadri khayrihâ wa sharrihâ). In discussing God and the other objects of faith, it is important to explain not only they are, but also what they are not. When people do not know what God is and when they do not know that it is easy to fall into the habit of worshipping false gods, then they will have no protection against the takthâr of the modern world, the multiplicity of gods that modern ways of thinking demand that they serve. What is striking about contemporary Islam’s encounter with modernity is that Muslims lack the intellectual preparation to deal with the situation. Muslim intellectuals—with a few honorable exceptions—do not question the legitimacy of the modern gods. Rather, they debate about the best way to serve the new tyrants. In other words, they think that Islamic society must be modified and adapted to follow the standards set by modernity, standards that are built on the basis of takthâr. This is to say that innumerable modern-day Muslims are forever looking for the best ways to adapt Islam to shirk. Many Muslims today recognize that the West has paid too high a price for modernization and secularization. They see that various social crises have arisen in all modernized societies, and they understand that these crises are somehow connected with the loss of the religious traditions and the devaluation of ethical and moral guidelines. But many of these same people tell us that Islam is different. Islam can adopt the technology and the know-how—the "progress," the "development," the "expertise"— while preserving Islam’s moral and spiritual strength and thereby avoiding the social disintegration of the West. In other words, they think, Muslims can forget tawÁâd, embark on a course of takthâr, and suffer no negative consequences. The fact that so many people think this way and do not recognize the absurdity of their position shows that they have lost the vision of tawÁâd that used to give life to Islamic thinking. They cannot see that everything is interrelated, and they fail to understand that the worship of false gods necessarily entails the dissolution of every sort of order—the corruption not only of individuals and society, but also of the natural world. In other words, when people refuse to serve God as He has asked them to serve Him, they cannot fulfill the functions for which He has created them. The net result is that our world becomes ever more chaotic. A significant Qur’«nic verse here is this: "Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea because of what the hands of people have earned" (30: 41). When people follow the gods of takthâr, corruption can only increase, and it will end up by destroying the natural world just as it is destroying society. "Corruption" (fas«d), after all, is defined as the lack of "wholesomeness" (Äal«Á), and wholesomeness is wholeness, health, balance, harmony, coherence, order, integration, and unity, all of which are established through tawÁâd or "making things one." Attitudinal Obstacles The second sort of obstacle preventing the recovery of the intellectual heritage can be discerned on the societal level in the attitudes and habits of mind that have been adopted by modern-day Muslims. These result from the loss of intellectual independence and have become embodied in the institutions and structures of contemporary society. I will not attempt to go into details. Instead let me suggest that these obstacles become manifest in various currents that are not difficult to see, such as the politicization of the community, monolithic interpretations of Islamic teachings, and blind acceptance of the teachings of contemporary Muslim leaders (in other words taqlâd where there should be taÁqâq). Perhaps the broadest and most pernicious of these obstacles, however, is the general attitude that one might call "anti-traditionalism." Although Islam, like other religions, is built on tradition—the sum total of the transmitted and intellectual heritages—many Muslims see no contradiction between believing in the gods of modernity and accepting the authority of the Qur’«n and the Sunnah. In order to do this, however, they need to ignore thirteen hundred years of Islamic intellectual history and pretend that no one needs the help of the great thinkers of the past to understand and interpret the Qur’«n and the Sunnah. We need to keep in mind that if there is any universally accepted dogma in the modern world, it is the rejection of tradition. The great prophets of modernity—Descartes, Rousseau, Marx, Freud—followed a variety of gods, but they all agreed that the old gods were no longer of any use. In the Islamic view, God’s prophets share tawÁâd. In contrast, the modern prophets share the rejection of tawÁâd and the assertion of takthâr. One can only reject God’s unity by inventing other gods to replace Him. In traditional Islamic terms, God is qadâm," ancient" or "eternal." God has always been and always will be. In modernity, the gods are new. To stay new, they have to be changed or modified frequently. The new is always to be preferred over the old, which is "outmoded" and "backwards." Science is always making new discoveries, and technology is constantly offering new inventions that all of us quickly think we need. Anything that is not in the process of renewal is thought to be dead. One name for this god of newness is "originality." He rules by ordaining new styles and models, and his priests are found everywhere, especially in the domains of advertising and mass indoctrination. Thus we have the fashion mujtahids who tell women what to wear and who change their fatw«s every year. Originality’s priests also exercise authority in the world of art. Or take the modern university, where many professors adopt the latest intellectual styles as soon as they arrive on the scene. In much of the modern university, as in women’s fashion, Paris rules. The greatest danger of anti-traditionalism for modern Muslims is that they have accepted this god—like so many others—without giving any thought to what they are doing. Hence they think that for thirteen hundred years, Muslims had nothing to say. They want to retain their Muslim identity, but they imagine that in order to do this, it is sufficient to keep their allegiance to the Qur’«n and the Sunnah, blithely ignoring the great interpreters of the tradition over the centuries. If people think they no longer need the grand interpreters, this seems to be because they believe in the gods of progress, science, and development. They tell us that today we know so much more about the world than those people of olden times, because we have science. People who think this way usually know nothing about science except what they are taught by the media, and they certainly know nothing about the Islamic intellectual tradition. They are blind obedientalists on the intellectual level, even though taqlâd is absurd in such matters. What is worse, this is a selective taqlâd. They will only accept the intellectual authority of the "scientists" and the "experts," not that of the great Muslim thinkers of the past. If Einstein said it, it must be true, but if Ghazz«lâ or Mull« Âadr« said it, it is "unscientific"—which is to say that it is false. If such people really knew something about the intellectual roots and bases of science and theology, they would know that science has nothing to say to theology, but theology has plenty to say to science. The reason for this is that theology is rooted in tawÁâd, and hence it can look down from above and discern the interconnectedness of all things. But science is rooted in takthâr, so it is stuck to the level of multiplicity—the lowest domain of reality—and it can only dissect this multiplicity and rearrange it endlessly. Even when it is able to gain a certain overview of interconnections, it does this without being able to explain how it can do so or what the ultimate significance of these interconnections may be. By its own premises, science is banned from the invisible domains—what the Qur’«n calls ghayb. If it has nothing to say about angels and spirits, which are sometimes called the "relative ghayb," it has even less to say about God, the "absolute ghayb." In contrast, the Islamic intellectual tradition is rooted in knowledge of God, and thereby it also acquires various modalities of knowing His creation. These are rooted in absolute truth and in certainty, unlike modern disciplines, which are cut off from the Absolute. Only this sort of traditional knowledge can re– establish human connections with the divine. Finally, let me suggest that the most basic problem of modern Islam is that Muslims suffer from what has traditionally been called "compound ignorance," jahl murakkab. "Ignorance" is not to know. "Compound ignorance" is not to know that you do not know. Too many Muslims do not know what the Islamic tradition is, they do not know how to think Islamically, and they do not know that they do not know. The first step in curing ignorance is to recognize that one does not know. Once people recognize their own ignorance, they can go off in "search of knowledge" (Çalab al-‘ilm)— which, as everyone knows, "is incumbent on every Muslim," and indeed, one would think, on every human being. No recovery of the intellectual tradition is possible until individuals take this step for themselves. The tradition will never be recovered through taqlâd or by community action, only by the dedication of individuals, through their own, personal taÁqâq. Governments and committees cannot begin to solve the problem, because they start from the wrong end. Understanding cannot be imposed or legislated, it can only grow up from the heart. The Prophet said, "Wisdom is the believer’s lost camel. Wherever he finds it, he recognizes it." People today do not know what wisdom is, and still less do they know that it belongs to them by right. Until they recognize this, they will never know that their camel has been lost. They will think that in any case, camels are no longer of any use, since cars, airplanes, and computers will take them wherever they want to go. It is a tragedy when people have no idea that the only way to cross the desert of modernity without danger is by the camel of wisdom.

Gilbert Dupont offers a stock market order execution service for establishments that manage significant numbers of individual client orders (financial establishments, online brokers, private portfolio management companies, etc). Gilbert Dupont is likely to act as a principal broker or as a back-up broker. Gilbert Dupont has developed a trading platform incorporating the latest technologies that: accepts all the commonly used transmission protocols, the establishment of transmission arrangements specifically adapted to the client’s infrastructure, as well as verbal order reception; enables orders to be presented to the market in different ways: either in “care” mode for large orders or orders that need to be managed in a specific manner (in this case the order is carried out by the dedicated team of market dealers); or in DMA (Direct Market Access) mode for orders to be presented to the market in an unaltered form; or on an OTC basis (trading of blocks of securities, bonds). accesses numerous liquidity centres. Gilbert Dupont is a member of the Euronext markets (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam), Chi-X and Bats, Equiduct, and the MTF Turquoise (a subsidiary of the LSE), as well as Société Générale’s Systematic Internaliser platform. Via the different partnerships that have been established, it also handles the collection of orders for execution on other foreign markets. The experience, flexibility, and reactivity of Gilbert Dupont’s teams enables the rapid provision of solutions that are perfectly adapted to the needs of its clients.

Gestation can last from 23 to 26 days, but if she is nursing a previous litter, it can go up to 40 days. During the gestation, you don't have to remove dad. He will help her in all the steps of parenthood. It's even advised to keep him with her. Handling Some females can be aggressive and won't let you touch them or get near the nest. In this case, you must respect that and leave her alone. But usually, they stay tamed and docile. It is then possible to take her out for a little walk. But be careful to her belly. As the time goes, her belly will get bigger and bigger. Leave her alone when you begin to see a belly. If you hold her to tight, you could hurt her or the babies or even cause an abortion. It's better to leave her. Recommendations Leave at the disposal of the future parents, some tissue, house and hiding place for them to build a nest. Place a piece of paper or cloth on one side of the tank to provide then a littel privacy. Give them quality food (18% protein and +) and don't forget to change the water everyday. How to do to know if a gerbil is pregnant In most cases, if you don't see your gerbils mating, it means that the fertilisation occurred and that the female don't have any heat. There is some ways to determine if a gerbil is pregnant. Because of her small size, it's hard to say only after one week if your female is pregnant. After 2 or 3 weeks, it's going to show a little more. You can try to make her stand on her hind legs by holing a sunflower seed above her. This way you can see if there is a shape on her belly. Weighing: Weigh your gerbil everyday from the 10th day of pregnancy and you'll see that she take weigh. Abdominal palpation: Done in the last third of the gestation period. Done only by Ça se fait à partir du dernier tiers de la gestation, mais par des mains expérimentées, car une pression trop intense peut causer un avortement. Echography: You don't really need that...but it's a method! Size of the belly After 2 weeks, you can see the belly shape have changed. One more week and you'll see the babies move in her belly! Increase in the size of mammal glands Only some days before giving birth, they will be a littel bigger and more visible. ©Manon Tremblay - Livre "La gerbille" Édition Le jour When the gestation is near its end, it's possible to see the babies move in the belly. Here's a video. Pictures of pregnant gerbils : Note the "little bird on the electrical wire at freezing temperature" effect! On the centre picture, she puffs her fur to keep the heat. They will often do this behaviour when pregnant. False pregnancy It is possible for a female who mated with a infertil male to make a false pregnancy. It will last 14 to 16, she will gain some weigh but after 2 weeks, she will become normal as she were before. Then, she will get her heat again after some days.

Vaccine coverage for recommended immunizations remains stable and high for US children, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, there are still gaps in coverage. Vaccine coverage for recommended immunizations remains stable and high for US children, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, there are still gaps in coverage. Based on data from the 2016 National Immunization Survey-Child (NIS-Child) of children aged 19-35 months old in the United States, coverage remained high for the poliovirus vaccine (91.9%), varicella vaccine (90.6%), and hepatitis B vaccine (90.5%). However, coverage remained below 90% for the hepatitis A vaccine (60.6%), the combined 7-vaccine series (70.7%), the hepatitis B birth dose (71.1%), and the completed series of rotavirus vaccine (74.1%). A small percentage, 0.8% of children, received no vaccinations. An analysis of trends by month and year of birth found no change in coverage by 2 years of age among children included in combined data from the 2015 and 2016 NIS-Child. However, the researchers found several disparities in coverage. Black children had lower coverage rates than white children for some vaccines, including DTaP, the primary and full series ofHaemophilus influenzaetype b (Hib), pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), and hepatitis A. Other disparities noted include lower coverage of most vaccines among children living below the federal poverty level, in which the largest gaps were seen for the rotavirus vaccine, PCV doses, the 7-vaccine series, and the full series of Hib. Vaccine coverage was also lowest in children who were uninsured or covered by Medicaid, when compared with children who had private insurance. Large gaps were noted between these two groups with respect to rotavirus vaccination, hepatitis B vaccination, and PCV. These disparities indicate that improvements are needed in access to and delivery of age-appropriate immunization to all children, regardless of insurance or financial status, the researchers concluded. The researchers recommended that health care providers use evidence-based strategies, such as provider reminders, standing orders to provide vaccination whenever appropriate, and immunization information systems. This article originally appeared on Pharmacy Times. Reference Hill HA, Elam-Evans LD, Yankey D, et al. Vaccination coverage among children aged 19-35 months — United States 2016.MMWR. November 3, 2017. 66(43);1171-1177.https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6643a3.htm?s_cid=mm6643a3_w

Although market leaders in the spray oil category, there was still significant penetration upside for the Frylight brand. One of the key barriers for nonusers was the brand just looked ‘artificial’. So the creative challenge was making it look more natural and less processed whilst also dialling up its real oil credentials. A secondary objective was communicating its versatility. A cleaner design for cleaner living Simplicity and a hierarchy that is easier and quicker to shop were the name of the game here. In research our redesign had significantly stronger shelf standout with its simplified brand marque. The rainbow of colours quickly suggests a range of opportunity with realistic illustrations pushing home both flavour and natural ingredients. One of the things I really like about working with Ocean is just how quickly they immerse themselves in your brand and what you’re trying to achieve. By working only with the senior Ocean team - you just get a higher level of strategic challenge, constant attentiveness and collaboration that you don’t always get from other agencies.Richard Davies, Managing Director, Frylight (Saputo Dairy) Get in touch… Footer Text Fancy a chat? We always enjoy talking brands and branding, so give us a call on 44 (0)20 7670 2370 or email hello@oceanbranding.com and we’ll organise the tea and cake...

Designed in response to its natural environment, the 7,000 sq.m Bee’ah Headquarters building is located on a 90,000 sq.m. site adjacent to Bee’ah Waste Management Centre. The design is informed by its desert setting An array of dunes lead to Bee’ah Headquarters, the two main dunes intersecting at a central courtyard. The building houses management and public areas – comprising of entrance lobby, cafe, auditorium, education centre, gallery, and management meeting rooms – as well as the administrative department, with offices and a staff recreational area. The 7,000 sq.m. project is located on a 90,000 sq.m. site adjacent to Bee’ah Waste Management Centre. Designed in response to its natural environment; the building references sand dunes sculpted by the Shamal winds, providing the interiors spaces with plenty of natural light and views while also limiting the amount of glazing exposed to the Sun. The exterior cladding is conceived to reflect sun rays, and the facade is operable to allow natural ventilation and minimise conditioned cooling usage. When conditioning is required, it is optimised by harvesting the waste heat generated by the chillers, which would otherwise be rejected into the atmosphere, to provide hot water. A cleaner vision Bee’ah is the Middle East’s leading environmental and waste management company, aiming to transform attitudes and behaviours towards achieving their goals of zero waste to landfill, cleaner air and water, renewable energy and sustainable practices. This building is a testimony to the company’s vision – active and passive energy solutions are deployed, reducing energy consumption by 30%; all power for the building is generated through ultra-low carbon sources from waste as well as from photovoltaic elements embedded into the landscape, non-potable water is recovered and recycled, resulting in a exceptionally low dispersion of potable water, earning Bee’ah Headquarters the LEED Platinum Certification. Our projects stand out, add a signature value to the built environment, benefitting clients and communities at large see all projects tariq khayyat design partners | 407, Building 1B, Dubai design district, Dubai, UAE | studio@tkdp.one

The year 2020 was heavily interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most gatherings and scientific conferences were cancelled, including ISME18, which was scheduled to take place in Cape Town, South Africa. Moreover, this year also saw a global uprising in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement starting in the United States and worldwide demonstrations advocating for racial justice. These events encouraged a group of early career researchers from the #UnityInDiversity committee and organize an ISME #UnityInDiversity virtual summit, on November 11-12 2020. The goal of the summit was to highlight the excellent research of diverse microbial ecologists from underrepresented communities around the world. It was an exciting two days with over 1000 registered attendees. We were treated to outstanding keynote talks from Janelle Thompson (Nanyang Technological University Singapore), Karine Gibbs (University of California Berkeley, and Harvard University, USA) and Thulani Makhalanyane (University of Pretoria, South Africa), which covered topics ranging from SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater, to polar microbiology, and bacterial collective behaviours. Other highlights included 21 invited talks, 10 short talks selected by anonymous judging of the best abstracts, and an interactive poster session. Thanks to our generous sponsors, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the ISME journals, we were able to award eight vouchers to cover the costs of open access publication fees in the ISME journals. Congratulations also go to our three main poster prize winners, Andrea Dos Santos, from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Arthur Prudêncio de Araujo Pereira from the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, and Martin Saraceno from the IEGEBA (Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Buenos Aires), Argentina. The #UnityInDiversity virtual summit was attended by more than 750 participants, which clearly demonstrates the enthusiasm of our community for the unique format and focus of this summit. We hope that this event gives additional momentum to ISME’s continuing efforts to foster inclusivity at all levels and in all activities of the society. All talk recordings are available to ISME members and registered participants. The organizing committee would like to sincerely thank ISME for sharing our vision, and for providing tremendous support during the planning and running of this meeting. If you are interested in more facts and figures with regard to this meeting, please read the statistics report on the virtual summit #UnityInDiversity.

This Human Traffic and Slavery Policy (this "Policy") exists to set out the responsibilities of Desdemona Limited with regard to observing and upholding our zero-tolerance position on human trafficking and slavery. We are committed to conducting our business in an ethical and honest manner and to implementing and enforcing systems that ensure human trafficking and slavery is prevented at all times. Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. We recognise that it can take various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person's liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain. POLICY STATEMENT We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and strive to implement and enforce effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere within our organisation. We are also committed to ensuring that there is transparency in our business and that our approach is consistent with our disclosure obligations under all relevant applicable Modern Slavery laws. We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners, and as part of our contracting processes, we include specific prohibitions against the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour, or anyone held in slavery or servitude, whether adults or children, and we expect that our suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards. WHO IS COVERED BY THIS POLICY? This Policy applies to all employees (whether temporary, fixed-term, or permanent), consultants, contractors, trainees, seconded staff, home workers, casual workers, agency staff, volunteers, interns, agents, sponsors, or any other person or persons associated with us (including third-parties), or any of our subsidiaries or their employees, no matter where they are located. This Policy also applies to our Officers, Trustees, Board, and/or Committee members at any level. In the context of this Policy, 'third-party' refers to any individual or organisation we meet and work with. It refers to actual and potential clients, customers, suppliers, distributors, business contacts, agents, advisers, and government and public bodies – this includes their advisors, representatives and officials, politicians, and public parties. Any arrangements made with a third-party is subject to clear contractual terms, including specific provisions that require the third party to comply with minimum standards and procedures relating to human trafficking and slavery. MITIGATING ACTIONS As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate the risk of human trafficking and slavery practices we have in systems in place to routinely: Identify and assess potential risk areas in our business and supply chains; Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains; Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains; and Protect any employee or person reporting any suspicions or knowledge of instances of human trafficking or slavery. HOW TO RAISE A CONCERN If you suspect that there is an instance of human trafficking or slavery activities, you are encouraged to raise your concerns at as early a stage as possible. COMMUNICATION This Policy and our zero-tolerance attitude will be clearly communicated to all suppliers, contractors, business partners, and any third-parties at the outset of business relations, and as appropriate thereafter. RECORD KEEPING We keep detailed and accurate records of all reports made and actions taken in relation to concerns raised regarding human trafficking or slavery. MONITORING AND REVIEWING Our internal control systems and procedures designed to prevent human trafficking and slavery are subject to regular audits to ensure that they are effective in practice. Any need for improvements are applied as soon as possible. AWARENESS-RAISING PROGRAMME As well as training key staff, the organisation also raises awareness of modern slavery issues by developing information for cascading and circulating in our employee intranet, including: The basic principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015; How employees can identify and prevent slavery and human trafficking; What employees can do to flag up potential slavery or human trafficking issues to the relevant parties within the organisation, and; What external help is available, for example through the Modern Slavery Helpline. If employees suspect that there is an instance of human trafficking or slavery activities occurring, they are encouraged to raise their concerns at as early a stage as possible. VERIFICATION All new relationships with suppliers are subject to standard due diligence requirements such as proof of business address, proof of ID, and proof of bank account. If a supplier is found to exhibit a risk of modern slavery practices in its operations, our procurement process requires immediate further investigation to take place with the outcome that the relationship be immediately terminated should any presence of slavery in the supplier's operations be confirmed. From an employer perspective, we conduct background checks on all employees and contractors to mitigate the risk of slavery and trafficking. All new hires are subject to verification checks, including national ID/passport checks, education checks, proof of bank account, and right to work documentation. Due diligence relating to customers requires confirmation that they are over 18 years of age during the signup process. At the point of uploading any adult content to the site they are prompted to provide a government-issued identification document such as a valid and current passport, driving licence, or national identity card. The validity of the ID and content are checked by our 24/7/365 moderation team prior to publication.

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