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September 29, 2014
0245, 1259 BELARUS - The map and the flag of the country
I have the conviction that Belarus and Ukraine broke away from Russia in 1990s for purely political reasons; ethnic and linguistic differences between the three being minimal, not to say also that they share the same history.
History: Many of the Russian principalities were first gathered under the flag of Kievan Rus, its dissolution in the 13th century following the Tatars attacks leading to separation of northern Russians from Belarusian (White Russians) and from Ukrainians. Moscow principality, became more stronger, shook the Tartar yoke in the late 15th century, conquering many of the Russian lands and becoming Grand Duchy of Moscow. Starting with Ivan the Terrible, the rulers took the title of "Grand Duke of all the Russias", but White Ruthenia (Belarus) and Ukraine remained under the rule of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (subsequent Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) until 1795, when both were annexed by the Russian Empire (except a small part of Ukraine, Galicia, which remained under austrian control).
Language: Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Ruthenian have a high degree of mutual intelligibility, i.e. the speakers of any of these languages can readily understand without a previous study, and without the need for translation, many scholars claiming that they are dialects of the same language, and not different languages.
Name: "Belarus" corresponds literally with the term "White Rus" (White Ruthenia). The name first appeared in the chronicles of Jan of Czarnków (1381), as "Alba Russia" (in latin), and its first use to refer to Belarus was in the late 16th century. Regarding the meaning of the appellation "white", opinions are divided, two being more reliable: one that claims that relate to the lands populated by early Christianized Slavs (in opposition to Black Ruthenia, predominantly inhabited by pagan Balts), and one that claims that relate to the old Ruthenian lands that were not conquered by the Tatars.
Of course that all these arguments are less important than the inhabitants will, so if the Belarusians want to live in their own state, so be it.
Publicat de Unknown la 10:30 PM 1 comentarii
Etichete: BELARUS, Maps & flags
September 28, 2014
1257, 1258 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Divi-Divi Trees on Eagle Beach
Mostly flat, with only a few hills, and without inland water, Aruba isn't the stereotypical tropical island of lush, steamy forests and constant rains. Its best-known geographical feature is its white-sand beaches, which are the basis of an active tourism industry. One of these beaches, considered by many one of the best beaches in the world is Eagle Beach, known also as home of two of the most photographed and renowned divi-divi trees in Aruba, with its trademark silhouette pointing in the direction of the Caribbean.
The Divi-Divi Tree (Caesalpinia coriaria), called Watapana in the Arawak language, is an endemic bush in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), which rarely reaches a height of 9 m, and is permanently bent, at nearly a right angle, with Medusa-like branches seemingly swept back by the wind. It is Aruba's natural compass, always pointing in a southwesterly direction due to the trade winds that blow across the island from the north-east. All attempts to plant this tree in other parts of the world have proved futile. That is why divi-divi is the national tree of Curaçao, and is also very common and popular on Aruba.
Publicat de Unknown la 8:06 PM 2 comentarii
Etichete: ARUBA, DUTCH CARIBBEAN, NETHERLANDS, NETHERLANDS (Aruba), Plants
1256 UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Office at Geneva
Publicat de Unknown la 4:00 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: SWITZERLAND, UNITED NATIONS
1255 UNITED NATIONS - Non-Violence
The complex which houses the United Nations Headquarters in New York City is notable not only for its buildings, but also for its gardens and outdoor sculptures. One of the iconic sculptures is the Knotted Gun, called Non-Violence, a bronze statue of a Colt Python revolver with its barrel tied in a knot, which was a gift from the Luxembourg government. It was made by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after the singer, songwriter and peace activist, founder member of the Beatles, John Lennon was murdered in New York on 8 December 1980. There are currently 16 copies of the sculpture around the world, nine of them in Sweden. Since 1993, the Non-Violence sculpture is the symbol of The Non-Violence Project, a non-profit organisation, promoting social change with violence prevention education programs.
Publicat de Unknown la 11:18 AM 0 comentarii
Etichete: UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES (New York)
September 27, 2014
1252 TUNISIA - Amphitheatre of El Jem (UNESCO WHS)
El Jem, or El Djem, was built by the Romans on a former Punic settlement, under the name Thysdrus. In a less arid climate than today's, Thysdrus, which became part of the Roman province of Byzacena, prospered especially in the 2nd century, at the time of Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138), when it became an important center of olive oil manufacturing for export. It was the seat of a Christian bishopric, which is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees. By the early 3rd century AD, it rivaled Hadrumetum (modern Sousse) as the second city of Roman North Africa, after Carthage.
Publicat de Unknown la 11:08 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: Aerial view, TUNISIA, UNESCO World Heritage Sites
1250 MEXICO (Querétaro) - Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro (UNESCO WHS)
Santiago de Querétaro, the capital and largest city of the state of Querétaro, located in central Mexico, at 213km northwest of Mexico City, was founded on 25 July 1531, when during a battle between the Spanish and the natives of the area, an eclipse occurred during which Saint James on a white horse carrying a pink cross supposedly appeared, causing the natives of the areas to surrender. The old colonial town of Querétaro is unusual in having retained the geometric street plan of the Spanish conquerors side by side with the twisting alleys of the Indian quarters. The Otomi, the Tarasco, the Chichimeca and the Spanish lived together peacefully in the town, which is notable for the many ornate civil and religious Baroque monuments from its golden age in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Publicat de Unknown la 2:13 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: MEXICO, UNESCO World Heritage Sites
1249 PHILIPPINES (CALABARZON) - Kumintang
The kumintang is the name given to several distinct styles, techniques and forms in music and dance, probably originating in the areas used by early Spanish chronicles to denote a province centering around what is known as Batangas, on the southwestern part of Luzon. Early 19th-century travelers' accounts often mention the kumintang as a Tagalog "chant national", describing them as dance-songs performed by pairs of men and women, with texts concerning love and courtship. All accounts mention a glass of coconut wine passed from hand to hand by the dancers as they sing. Jean Baptiste Mallat describes it as a pantomimic dance where the man runs around and gestures to a woman, and finally pretends illness to get the woman's full attention. In the 20th century, Francisca Reyes-Aquino dubbed as kumintang the circular hand and wrist movement also known as the kunday. Among present-day afficinados of musical and dance events called awitan and pandangguhan in and around the city of Batangas, kumintang also refers to a guitar-plucking style, considered the most melodious and beautiful of all guitar styles accompanying the old kinanluran style of pandangguhan dance songs.
Publicat de Unknown la 10:48 AM 0 comentarii
Etichete: AS - ASIA, AS-Philippines, PHILIPPINES
September 26, 2014
1247 UNITED STATES (North Carolina) - North Carolina map and flag
Located on the Atlantic coast, between South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, and known as the Tar Heel State and the Old North State, North Carolina has a wide range of elevations, from sea level to 2,037m at Mount Mitchell (the highest point in the Eastern US), consisting of three main geographic sections: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont region, and the Appalachian Mountains and foothills. Its capital is Raleigh, founded in 1792 specifically for this purpose, and its largest city is Charlotte. Most of the state falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. In the past five decades, North Carolina's economy has undergone a transition from heavy reliance upon tobacco, textiles, and furniture-making to a more diversified economy with engineering, energy, biotechnology, and finance sectors.
Publicat de Unknown la 1:42 PM 0 comentarii
September 25, 2014
1246 AFGHANISTAN - Paghman Valley
Located very near for the capital Kabul, west of the city, the fertile Paghman Valley is one of the most visited places, mostly for the Paghman Gardens, arranged by King Amanullah after his 1927-1928 tour of Europe, India and Iran. Paghman, a small village at the bottom of the Hindu Kush, became a holiday retreat with villas and chalets as well as the summer capital. The region seriously suffered during the soviet war in Afghanistan, but also after becoming a Mujaheddin battleground at the close of the 20th century.
Publicat de Unknown la 10:38 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: AFGHANISTAN
1245 ROMANIA (Sălaj) - Baking moşocoarne on House-Museum of Ligia Bodea
Although in nowadys it has a population only slightly more than 800 inhabitants, the village Iaz in the commune Plopiş (Sălaj County) is known throughout the country due to the House-Museum of Ligia Bodea, which hosts an ethnographic collection with hundreds of folk costumes, thousands of ceramic pots, glass icons and dowry chests, and other traditional objects. The museum has a short history, but very special. In 2003, at the death of his grandmother, Ligia Bodea, who was then only 12 years old, persuaded his parents to not demolish the old house, built around 1880. She also kept in good condition the objects with which had grown, as ordained them her grandmother, and began to gather other from the village. Amazed by the girl's tenacity, her parents were also involved and thus the house became a museum, extending then on the yard, where, in an gazebo, are exposed various agricultural machines. Ligia dreams of a ecomuzeu and, until be able to fulfill this dream, participates in exhibitions and cultural projects, teaches children to paint icons on glass, and talks to the elders, because the memories of the old world must not disappear along with them.
Publicat de Unknown la 3:31 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: EU - EUROPE, EU-Romania, Foods, ROMANIA, ROMANIA (Sălaj)
September 24, 2014
1243 PORTUGAL (Lisbon) - A shoeshiner in Lisbon in 1987
In Western civilization, the occupation of shoeshiner was probably one of the most ephemeral, appearing in the early 20th century and disappearing in most European countries before its conclusion. However, shining shoes still is an important source of income for many children and families throughout the world. Some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoe repairs and general tailoring. Although this occupation is generally regarded with condescension, quite a lot well-known and high profile people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents, such as James Brown, The Godfather of Soul, the human rights activist Malcolm X, or the brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Publicat de Unknown la 10:56 AM 1 comentarii
Etichete: EU - EUROPE, EU-Portugal, PORTUGAL
September 23, 2014
0636-0644, 1241-1242 ROMANIA (Suceava) - Churches of Moldavia (UNESCO WHS)
Posted on 11.05.2013 and 23.09.2014
This series of postcards, named Patrimonio and depicting Churches of Moldavia (listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1993 and 2010), has for me and my collection a particular importance, and the reasons are very well founded. It hasn't yet appeared on the market, so I'm the first who had the joy of receiving it, through the courtesy of Marius Vasiliu, author of the photographs, and of Terra Design, the printing house in Gura Humorului which issued them. I must say that the collaboration between Marius and Terra Design is already old, and this isn't the first very special achievement of this tandem, in previous years being edited numerous postcards (normal or folded), related primarily to the Bukovina's traditions, and its cultural and artistic heritage, but also to the present of this historical region and its inhabitants. You can find some of them on the official website of the printing house, here.
The Churches of Moldavia are eight Orthodox churches built between 1487 and 1583, in a time when the increasing threat of the Ottoman Empire and then pressures exerted by the Protestant Reformation were an ongoing concern for the princes of Moldavia, boyars and the Orthodox Church. The architecture of these churches has been developed over the 15th century, in a cultural ambience marked by the influence of Byzantium and Serbia. In terms of the plan were adopted original solutions with a development trend in length, some Gothic elements stressing the originality of this architecture that blends the Byzantine and Gothic traditions. The silhouette of the buildings, strongly individualized by the broken line of the roofs, contributes decisively to define specific aspect of this architecture. But the most distinctive element of these churchs are the external paintings, which cover all the facades, masterpieces of mural painting, with a consummate chromatism and a remarkable elegance of the figures. In addition, not fewer of the topics chosen for the paintings, mostly taken from the Bible and the Holy Scriptures, are encountered only here.
• PROBOTA (Church of St. Nicholas and the Catholicon of the Probota Monastery)
Erected in 1530, Probota Monastery served as the royal necropolis (1522-1677), here being the tombs of the Voivode Petru Rareş (illegitimate son of Ştefan cel Mare, and founder of the monastery) and Ştefan Rareş (son of Petru Rareş), Lady Elena Rareş and other members of the princely family of Moldavia. Plundered in 1622 by thieves, was later restored by Voivode Vasile Lupu, and in 1677 was dedicated to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Greeks monks who were installed there totally neglected the conservation of the ensemble. After secularization of monastic estates (1863), the buildings have been degraded further, the cells and princely houses being consumed by fire in the early 20th century. It was restored in several stages, 1934-1937, 1986, 1992-2001, and in 1993 the monastery was re-established, as a nuns community. Recent restoration revealed, under a layer of newer painting, the original painting of great artistic value. The church's distinctive note is given by the vault painted, which remind of the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
• ARBORE (Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist)
Erected in 1503, was the court chapel of Luca Arbore, pârcălab (burgrave) of Suceava, one of the great boyars of Ştefan cel Mare, beheaded in 1523 from the command of Ştefăniţă Vodă. Being founded by a boyar, it has no towers, and was designed in a simple form, stunning through its great stylization, but in its construction can be observed some architectural innovation and a great equilibrium of proportions. Mural painting, executed in 1541 by Dragoş Coman from Iaşi, is characterized by the exceptional durability of the blue pigment. Was preserved the tomb's ark of the monastery's founder, considered the most valuable funeral mark in Gothic style in Bukovina. Instead, the boyar's court completely crumbled over time, being destroyed by fire. The interior painting was severely damaged, but however can be seen clearly enough, and the exterior one, including scenes populated by many characters in constant motion, has a rare artistic value.
• MOLDOVIŢA (The Church of the Annunciation of the Moldoviţa Monastery)
Built by Petru Rareş in 1532, Moldoviţa Monastery is surrounded by walls and towers for defence, as a fortress, in that time being situated at the northern border of Moldavia. Between 1610 and 1612 was built clişarniţa (the abbot's house), where were kept the treasures of the church, but also operated a school of copyists and miniaturists. Moldoviţa's frescoes were painted by Toma of Suceava in 1537. The predominantly yellow-and-blue paintings on its exterior represent recurring themes in Christian Orthodox art: a procession of saints leads up to the Virgin enthroned with the Child in her lap, the Tree of Jesse, the Siege of Constantinople, which commemorates the intervention of the Virgin in saving the city of Constantinople from Persian attack in A.D. 626. The Last Judgment covers the entire surface of the west wall. Sister Maika, who has been living in the monastery for more than 50 years, says that it is "the holy scriptures in color". Moldoviţa and Humor are the last churches built with an open porch, a hidden place above the burial-vault, and with Gothic-style windows and doors.
• HUMOR (Church of the Assumption of the Virgin of the former Humor Monastery)
Erected in 1530 by Petru Rareş and his chancellor Teodor Bubuiog, Humor Monastery was one of the first of Moldavia's painted monasteries to be frescoed and, along with Voroneţ, is the best preserved. The dominant colour of the frescoes, painted in 1535 by Toma of Suceava, is a reddish brown. The subjects of the frescoes, common to the painted monasteries of Bukovina, include the Siege of Constantinople and the Last Judgment. In 1641, Vasile Lupu surrounded the monastery with stone walls and built a massive tower with ground floor and three floors. In 1653 the Cossacks looted and torched it, and in 18th century the church was converted into a parish church. The frescoes was restored in the years 1971-1972, as also the roof and the tower. In 1991 the monastic settlement was reactivated as a monastery for nuns.
• PĂTRĂUŢI (Church of the Holy Rood of Pătrăuţi)
Buit in 1487, it's the first definite foundation of Ştefan cel Mare, and her reputation comes from the narthex wall painting with a topic rare: cavalcade Holy Cross. The monastery was abandoned repeatedly, being plundered by the Cossacks, Tartars and then Poles (in 1684). In the early 18th century it was repaired, and in 1711 was reestablished convent of nuns, but only for a few decades. It was closed in 1783 and the church was converted into a parish church, in this situation being even today. In 2003 have started restoration works, being brought to light some fragments of interior fresco of inestimable artistic and historical value. The church has exterior painting only on the west wall, representing the Last Judgement. It was discovered in the 1980s and is considered the oldest exterior religious painting in Moldavia. In 1725 was built a wooden belfry, which exists today. In the churchyard there is a stone round table, also assigned by tradition of Ştefan cel Mare.
• VORONEŢ (Church of St George of the former Voroneţ Monastery)
This monastery was built in less than four months in 1488 by Ștefan cel Mare, to commemorate the defeat of the Ottomans at Podul Înalt (the High Bridge) in 1475, a battle described as "the greatest ever secured by the Cross against Islam," with casualties, according to Venetian and Polish records, reaching beyond 40,000 on the Ottoman side. For this Ştefan was awarded the title "Athleta Christi" (Champion of Christ) by Pope Sixtus IV. Often known as the "Sistine Chapel of the East", the frescoes at Voroneţ, made in 1547, feature an intense shade of blue known in Romania as "Voroneţ blue". Another characteristic note is painters' rich creative imagination, who introduced folk elements in the composition. Inside the church hold the attention the pews and the armchair from the 16th century (including a royal armchair, a true masterpiece of wood sculpture), the tomb of Bishop Grigore Roşca, in the porch, and the tomb of Daniil the Hermit, in the narthex. Monastic life was interrupted in 1785 and resumed in 1991 as a nuns community.
• SUCEVIŢA (Church of the Resurrection Suceviţa Monastery)
Built in 1585 by Ieremia Movilă, Gheorghe Movilă and Simion Movilă and painted in exterior around 1601, Suceviţa was not only a fortified monastery, but as well a princely residence, surrounded by high (6m), and wide (3m) walls, and guarded at the corners by four towers. The thick walls today shelter a museum that presents an outstanding collection of historical and art objects. The tombs of Ieremia and Simion Movilă - rich portraits embroidered in silver thread - together with ecclesiastical silverware, books and illuminated manuscripts, offer an eloquent testimony to Suceviţa's importance first as a manuscript workshop, then as a printing center. Is the only church of the eight which was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2010. Like to the others, exterior and interior mural paintings is of great artistic value, being a comprehensive biblical narrative of the Old and New Testaments.
• SUCEAVA (Church of St. George of the Saint John the New Monastery)
The present church of the monastery was started in 1514 by the son of Ştefan cel Mare, Bogdan Chiorul, and finished by Ştefăniţă Vodă in 1522. It was intended to be the new headquarters of the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and was painted both inside and outside between 1532-1534, during the reign of Petru Rareş, the iconography being characteristic to the monuments builded during this period. In 1589 they were brought relics of St. John the New of the old metropolitan. The iconostasis dates from 1796 and belongs to Moldavian Baroque style, remarking from the impressive sizes, ornamental and chromatic richness. The frescoes are the work of Moldavian craftsmen from the time of Petru Rareş.
Publicat de Unknown la 9:30 PM 6 comentarii
Etichete: Photo by Marius Vasiliu, Places of worship, ROMANIA, ROMANIA (Suceava), UNESCO World Heritage Sites
1240 TUNISIA (Kairouan) - Kairouan (UNESCO WHS)
Located in the centre of Tunisia, in a plain at an almost equal distance from the sea and the mountain, Kairouan (Al Qairawān) was founded around 670, as an Arab military post for the conquest of the West. The site had housed a Byzantine garrison before the Arab conquest, far from the sea - safe from the continued attacks of the Berbers, who had fiercely resisted the Arab invasion. In the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (r. 661-680), it became an important centre for Islamic and Quranic learning, and thus attracting a large number of Muslims, next only to Mecca and Medina.
Publicat de Unknown la 3:04 PM 0 comentarii
Etichete: Aerial view, Palaces / Castles / Fortress, Places of worship, TUNISIA, UNESCO World Heritage Sites
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text:
What a weekend! Gorgeous weather, Costco, Trader Joes, a trip to the Planetarium, and the Badgers won! Did you watch any of the Elite 8 basketball games? We don't watch a lot of basketball, but come March Madness, that is about all that is on here. We are from WI, and big Badger fans in this house. So it was a stressful Saturday night around here. But we are now so excited for them to be going to the Final Four for only the 3rd time, ever! My son also had his first two games of the spring flag football season. So it was a sport filled weekend around here. Almost looking forward to getting back to the work week, so things can settle down a little……Almost.
Have you seen the two new Oreo flavors that came out a couple months ago? There is Cookie Dough and Marshmallow Krispy. I was finally able to get my hands on them, so I decided to throw them into a recipe. I have to say, even though I am cookie dough and chocolate obsessed, the Marshmallow Krispy ones are my favorite. The Cookie Dough has a hint of coffee to them, which isn't my favorite. I might have to try my hand at a homemade version of the cookie dough ones, so they can be pure cookie dough!
I wanted to make something that would let the Oreo's stand out, so I went with Blondies. Blondies are a favorite around here. They aren't chocolate based, so my husband loves them. For me, they have the rich brown sugar taste, so I love them. Plus they come together in about 5 minutes, with no mixer required. So they are something that anyone can whip up!
Oreo Cookie Dough Blondies
Classic blondies filled with Cookie Dough flavored Oreo's
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup butter, , melted
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup Cookie Dough Oreo's, , crushed
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare an 8 inch pan or line with foil.
- Mix brown sugar and egg together, until it's light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and melted butter, mix well
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and incorporate with a spatula. Fold in crushed Oreo's. Do not over mix.
- Pour batter to the prepared pan. Bake for about 25-28 minutes. The top will be dry.
- Cool completely before cutting.
Nutrition Information
Serving Size1
Amount Per ServingCalories 332 Total Fat 15g Saturated Fat 8g Trans Fat 1g Unsaturated Fat 6g Cholesterol 38mg Sodium 323mg Carbohydrates 46g Net Carbohydrates 0g Fiber 1g Sugar 27g Sugar Alcohols 0g Protein 3g
Erin S
Latest posts by Erin S (see all)
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie - November 22, 2019
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- Chicken Gnocchi Soup - November 18, 2019
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
THIS is how an angel earns her wings. First, she is born, in someplace like Belarus or Florianópolis, the spot in southern Brazil where an awful lot of folks with German names fetched up over the centuries, or, well, Saskatchewan.
Then the angel grows up pretty. (There are no homely angels.)
Next, the angel is discovered, most likely in a mall.
The angel, at this point, does not realize she is an angel, because the process of becoming an angel requires time and guidance and support and miracles and, O.K., occasionally a sleazy boyfriend, as well as a decision at some point by Steven Meisel, or by some other star-making fashion photographer to choose a woman from among the thousands who would gladly sign away their firstborn for a chance to appear in front of his lens.
Although it is doubtless the dream of untold numbers of hopefuls to be discovered at a Victoria's Secret open call some day — their beauty so radiant that they rise above the ranks of ordinary flesh-and-blood humans and appear as dazzling supernovas in underwear and stripper heels — the truth is that those destined to be cast in the coveted role of a Victoria's Secret angel are not drawn from the general population. There is no democracy in angel land.
"We cast 30 models, but 10 times that many are sent to us by the agencies to be considered," Edward Razek, the chief marketing officer for the Limited Brand, the parent company of the lingerie powerhouse, said last week before a casting session for this year's Victoria's Secret show, which will be televised on Nov. 30 to 11 million people in 185 countries, but will be taped before a more modest crowd in New York on Nov. 10.
"And 100 times that many would want to," Mr. Razek said. "That's why I hate castings, because I'm basically a softy and I hate the broken hearts and I hate saying no."Continue reading the main story
As it happens, "no" is seldom heard at a Victoria's Secret casting, at least not within earshot of the hopefuls. What the aspirants instead hear, during the roughly 120 seconds each is given to present herself to a specially selected panel, are phrases polite and generic enough to be anodyne.
They hear, "Lovely." They hear, "Thank you for coming." They hear, "Do it again, please, with a little more energy."
The people who spoke these words one chilly fall morning, on the 12th floor of an office building in Midtown, under lighting that flattered no one, included Mr. Razek and Monica Mitro, the executive producer of the Victoria's Secret fashion show; Alexander Werz, a fashion show director; John Pfeiffer, a casting director; and Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou and Dan May, two London-based editors (Harper's Bazaar and the luxury quarterly 10 Magazine) who somehow eke out time in between intercontinental jet crossings to serve as highly paid stylists for global brands.
There were other professionals in the room — production people and a photographer and a small group of assistants who stood beside a wall of model headshots. But the crucial people, the ones deciding the fate of the angels, sat at a folding table about 10 long strides away from a makeshift privacy screen created from a rack of Victoria's Secret panties and bras.
Behind that screen, for close to three hours, some of the most beautiful beings on the planet, one after another, stripped out of their street wear and underclothes and changed into a generic audition outfit consisting of a satin finish bra, a pair of lace bikini panties and champagne-colored platform heels.
Exiting the makeshift dressing area, these women then walked toward the table casually, or as casually as a nearly naked person can under the circumstances, and shook hands with the Victoria's Secret crew.
"What people don't realize is that they're rarer by far than superstar athletes," Mr. Razek said of women who fit precise but unwritten physical parameters for becoming a Victoria's Secret angel. "The numbers of people who can do this are probably under 100 in the world," Mr. Razek said. "And in the show it's only 30 girls." (Actually, there are 33 this year.)
Anyway, people do realize. And, as with most disagreeable facts, they block that one out.
This is worth noting because the fantasy (by merely laying out $53 for a Miraculous Multi-way Gel-Curve Bra one will somehow be transformed into a winged creature resembling Gisele Bündchen or Heidi Klum or Helena Christensen or Adriana Lima or Irina Shayk) is so powerful that the Limited, Victoria Secret's parent company, posted a 12 percent increase in comparable sales in September over the same period a year ago.
That growth, industry analysts said, was led by the Victoria's Secret division, which itself posted a 13 percent year-over-year increase. What is more, the company's October results, to be posted today, are expected to be stronger still. Call it the uplifting Gel-Curve effect.
Nobody that morning was thinking about any of that. The focus of those behind the table was on Carolyn Winberg, a tomboyish Swedish model with a board-flat belly and limited décolletage and well-toned buttocks and blond hair that, like that of so many successful models, had been frazzled by styling until it was the texture of wood shavings.
"Never mind the hair," Ms. Mitro said after Ms. Winberg had changed, walked, smiled, laughed, turned, laughed and changed again, packing up her T.G.I. Friday's tote bag and blowing the panel a kiss as she made her way out of the room.
"Carolyn always takes it away on the runway," said Mr. Werz, the show producer.
"She's a baby doll," Ms. Mitro said.
"The body's amazing," said Mr. Pfeiffer, the casting director. "She's got this amazing, 1970s, Sharon Tate-y thing."
"So much energy," Ms. Mitro added.
"And energy, grace, poise is what it's all about," said Mr. Razek, who added, "You've got 16 or 18 cameras on you and the show is broadcast around the world, so you have to bring something special and unique."
"Anyway, we can always do something about the hair," Ms. Mitro said.
Next up was Bruna Tenorio, an aquiline Brazilian beauty favored by European designers for their haute couture shows; followed by Chrishell Stubbs, 18, a newcomer with cascades of dark curls; and Marloes Horst, a Memling Madonna in a lace mesh bikini; and Liu Wen, a Beijing native with longer legs than most point guards; and Cameron Russell, a part-time ("very part-time") economics major at Columbia; and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the woman best known as Megan Fox's replacement in "Transformers 3"; and Maryna Linchuk, a young woman from Belarus who, although she has already been anointed a Victoria's Secret angel, was auditioning again this year because, as Ms. Mitro said, bodies do change.
"You don't see them for a minute, and..." Ms. Mitro said and then fell silent. She held her cupped hands wide in the universal gesture for hips as broad as a barn.
Does it go without saying that no Victoria's Secret angels are fat? It does. A person cannot be expected to attain the angelic heights on a diet of Tasti D-Lite cone or Cinnabons
"With the smile, the hello, the walk, they get maybe two minutes," to make an impression, said Mr. Razek, who has worked for the Limited since the early 1980s and who is notably tan and whose enviable shock of graying hair closely matched the salt and pepper flecks in his custom-made socks. "Maybe it's not even that much."
Maybe it's just seconds, which was all it took for Ms. Linchuk to win over the panel, partly because she is beautiful in an uncontroversial and generic blond way but also because she is brisk and efficient and works out five days a week. The model Angela Lindvall, another occasional angel, at a certain point compared her particular line of work with that of a boxer. "You have to make weight," she said. Ms. Lindvall herself once shed 20 postpregnancy pounds to make angel weight by jumping rope and subsisting on nothing but spinach, chard and kale.
The fitness horizon for a model preparing to audition for the Victoria's Secret fashion show is perhaps 12 weeks, said Justin Gelband, a personal fitness trainer known in the business as the Model Whisperer. "We've been killing ourselves for this show," Mr. Gelband explained before the casting call, referring to clients like Ms. Linchuk and Ms. Shayk and Anne Vyalitsyna, a model whose career has risen and fallen over tiny weight gains but whose physique that day was so starkly fit that it elicited a collective gasp.
"This all looks straightforward, but it's not," said Ms. Neophitou-Apostolou, the editor and stylist. "It's not just women of a certain shape or size who can do this, although you might think so. And it's not such an obvious proposition," to choose from among so many seemingly flawless female specimens those who will best make the transformation to the status of mythic lingerie seraphim. Few are called, and fewer still are chosen to wear the strap-on wings of a Victoria's Secret angel.
"The girls actually dream about it," said Ms. Mitro, referring to the wearing of feathers. Flipping open a scrapbook, she pointed briskly to a photo of a teary model seeming to stagger under the weight of a costume that looked like a something Cher might wear to a powwow.
"These," she said, "are the wings that made her cry."
An earlier version of the article stated that the Victoria Secret show will be taped on Nov. 11. It will be taped on Nov. 10.
An article on Nov. 4 about aspiring Victoria's Secret models misspelled the surname of a model who attended a recent casting call. She is Anne Vyalitsyna, not Vialitsina.


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An EPIC approach to chamber awards effort
The 14 finalists for the first-ever EPIC Awards sponsored by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce have been selected, and, in fact, they were saluted last week at a reception held at San Chez – A Tapas Bistro, in downtown Grand Rapids.
Wednesday evening at the JW Marriott, the top winners in five categories will be recognized at a dinner that has attracted more than 400 attendees.
The EPIC Awards combine the chamber's annual Small Business Celebration, Minority Business Celebration and Salute to West Michigan Business into one evening awards celebration. Nominees for each category went through a two-step selection process. After being nominated, they completed an extensive questionnaire that was reviewed by a committee of business leaders. The top two or three in each category were then invited for interviews to determine the recipient.
The finalists are profiled in this section.
"We spent an extensive amount of time asking our members about how we should be serving them," said Jeanne Englehart, the chamber's president and CEO. "We used a professional approach, including the use of focus groups. We asked them: What's your perception of the chamber, our events, public policy and other topics. One of the things we heard were there were just too many events. People were being put in a position to pick and choose. So for the 2010 budget year, we listened to what we heard. We will do fewer events but still recognize those who deserve it because people said that process still has a value. So we combined the awards into one event."
Englehart acknowledged the chamber "is trying something different. We don't typically do an evening event. We're excited. I don't even know who the winners are. They will be announced that night."
The nominees "present a great story about entrepreneurship in West Michigan," Englehart said. "This is a place people want to start a business as well as be involved in their chamber of commerce and its activities."


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Ancient roofing materials remain the modern-ideal for Spanish, Mediterranean, and Italian home styles. While it is undoubtedly true that authentic clay roof tiling is not cheap, the saying still stands that you get what you pay for. Visit: Carsa Construction – Roofing
Many would reason that concrete roof tiles for Frisco Roofing offer the same look, and it costs less. However, these cement mixtures soon lose its color. Then again, concrete is the stuff curbs and sidewalks are made of to divert stormwater. Is there any romance in that?
On the other hand, authentic clay tiling proves to be historic as it dates back to ancient times, and features soft, rich, and earthy colors. It is the type of look that cannot easily be replicated by pigmented concrete. Clay tiling for roofing Frisco doesn't fade away with time, but it patinate, and blossoms remarkably. They tend to be the perfect option if you afford them.
What Type of Material are Clay Tiles Made Of?
Clay was first used on Chinese roofing and is a natural material that was used during the Neolithic age, which is roughly 12,000 years ago.
What makes clay so unique is its fire-retardant nature, which is why clay experienced such a widespread adoption by Ancient Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians.
The manufacturing process used of concrete like tiling and clay tiles is similar in that they are molded before the tiling gets coated. The difference being that clay tiling is fired at a much more intense temperature than its concrete companion. Therefore, the tiles are more colorfast and less porous.
No wonder that modern-day Frisco roofing contractors consider clay tiling to be a premium roofing material. The only thing is that clay tiles cost 50% more than its concrete alternative.
We are talking about prices that range from $1,350 to $1950 per roofer's square, which is why it's considered as among the most expensive roofing Frisco materials around.
Seeing that a roofer's square is equal to a 100 square feet of roofing, clay tiles that are installed on 2,000 square foot, would amount to a maximum cost of $39,000.
What Are Your Options?
Clay tiles are either semi cylindrical or flat, matching every old-world style imaginable. They are made available in a variety of natural clay colors that one can augment using kiln-fired coatings. The most prevalent colors for clay tiles would be brown and red. But, you get natural clay colors that are darker gray or lighter beige too.
A long time ago, tiles were piled in a waterfall manner, and concrete mortar got used to keeping these in place. Nowadays, horizontal battens and metal fasteners are used. In some instances, mortar boosting installation methods are used to replicate ancient architecture.
In some of the roofing restructure projects, tiles would be layered, one on top of the other with cement mortar between them as a way to replicate the age-old looks of Ancient day tiling that you'd find on historic structures.
What Are the Pros to Using Clay Tiling?
- Number one would be an authentic old style appearance as clay captures the romance of old world architecture while it maintains a more natural color.
- The second reason is its long life as clay tiles tend to last for ages. You would have to replace the underlayment in a single generation though.
- Thirdly, clay is very low maintenance and more resistant to decay and to stain than its concrete counterpart as they absorb less water.
- Last but not least is that clay is fireproof.
What Are Some of the Downsides to Using Clay Tiling?
- It costs too much as it is, after all, a premium roofing material. Besides, concrete tiling for your roof can provide one with the same look for 65% less than what you'd pay for clay tiling.
- Fragility is another factor as clay tiles can crack easily when you walk on them. The cracking issue can also be a calamity during extreme cold climates.
- Even though it is not an easy task to justify what you would have to pay for clay tiles, there is no denying the fact that it has a lot of appeal. Clay roofing materials age beautifully and feature the same reliable integrity that you would experience from ancient civilizations.
- What is more, clay is easy to mold into all kinds of shapes that would conform to various design criteria.
Better Built Construction cover alternative roofing styles and materials to include among others; plastic, copper, and rubber. You can discuss the installation of solar panels and other roofing materials with them. You can get more information at Carsa Construction Frisco


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Right now I am so busy juggling two books, that my readers and friends worry about me. Their primary concern is that my work is too isolating and that it keeps me too burdened down at my desk. I am at my desk a lot, especially at this moment as I'm editing what's called the galleys or first pass of my upcoming book (to be released September 25), Becoming Clementine; producing, writing, directing, designing, acting in, and scoring a trailer for the book; and researching/outlining/writing the book that comes after, due to my publisher September 15. It's true I'm at my computer or working somewhere for hours every day. But, while I may at times feel overwhelmed (to put it mildly), I never feel limited.
As a little girl, the thing I loved most about writing was that it could take you anywhere. Through my stories, I could see the world– the universe!– or imagine a new one. I could be anyone or anything.
Now that I'm all grown up and writing for a living, this is still the thing I love most about writing. I get to travel, through words and computer, to distant, exotic, foreign lands, often going back in time to long ago worlds or forward in time to ones that haven't even been created.
One of the other best things about writing books is that they can literally take you to the most interesting places.
I've written each of my books because they were stories I wanted to read. I didn't write them because I wanted to travel to this setting or that one to do research or because I hoped I might be invited on nice trips someday. But that's exactly what has happened.
For research, I've been all over Scotland and Canada. I've been to Paris, London, Maine, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Vermont, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, the Smoky Mountains, Missisippi, Newfoundland, and the tiny town of Wilson, North Carolina, to eat barbecue with the son of Arctic heroine Ada Blackjack, the subject of my second book. I've toured Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert and climbed around the imposing Devil's Courthouse on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stood on the dock in Victoria, BC, where the men of the Ice Master expedition set sail in 1913. For my memoir, The Aqua Net Diaries, I even reunited with my high school classmates in our small Indiana hometown, retracing the steps of my big-haired, boy crazy teenage self.
With my publishing team from Pan Macmillan, I was one of the first to ride the London Eye, soon after it opened.
I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, with the jawbone of one of the sailors I wrote about in The Ice Master to reunite his last remains with his great-nephew while teams of news crews filmed us.
I was invited to Venice, Italy, to speak to the Italian Explorers Club and receive the Giuseppe Mazotti Prize for Literature, Italy's highest literary honor.
I've attended a ball on the Queen Mary, had tea at the home of Lord George Emslie, Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General, Scotland's senior judge from 1972 until 1989, and drunk moonshine with gold miners in the mountains of Georgia. I've posed for pictures in front of icebergs and on top of mountains, in graveyards and ruins, and with puffins and moose and llamas. I've become good friends with the families of the men and women I've written about.
In 2005, a few years after the publication of my Arctic nonfiction adventures The Ice Master and Ada Blackjack, I was invited to the high Russian Arctic for two weeks aboard an ice breaker. With Quark Expeditions, I traveled up the Bering Strait, stopping at remote Inuit villages, before reaching Wrangel Island– the setting for those first two books– where I was dropped by helicopter with Bob Headland, then head of the Scott Polar Research Institute, and a Russian translator, and allowed a private tour.
I appeared at the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show in Charlotte, North Carolina, where award-winning designer Joycelyn Armstrong had created a kitchen inspired by Velva Jean Learns to Drive.
Just last year, I returned to my Indiana hometown for the official book release party for Velva Jean Learns to Fly, and listened to Mayor Sally Hutton proclaim it "Jennifer Niven Day."
In 2014, I've been invited to go back to the Arctic– for a month this time– for the 100th anniversary of the Ice Master expedition rescue, and will once again travel by ice breaker up the coast of Siberia to Wrangel Island.
Most recently, I was invited to the San Diego Air & Space Museum for a Velva Jean Learns to Fly Aviation Adventure, hosted by Adventures by the Book. As we were on our behind-the-scenes tour, exploring the basement of the museum where all the planes are constructed and refurbished, my boyfriend said, "You get to go to the coolest places."
And I do. But perhaps none cooler than the places I get to go to every day when I'm just sitting at my desk.


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Warning: These are long form editorials that usually take about 10 minutes to read. This particular article is split into Current Developments, Near Future, Distant Future and Final Thoughts. Feel free to skip to "Distant Future" if you just want the spooky stuff.
Marketing as an industry is undergoing metamorphosis. The big three (TV, Print & Radio) have been the backbone of campaigns for almost a hundred years. Now they're rapidly dying. "New media" replacements are proving ineffective. Even though companies can get more eyes on their promotions they can't get anywhere near the conversion. As anyone who runs a website will tell you: online advertising ain't worth shit.
However, this wild west will not last forever. Already a number of new technologies and tactics are boiling below the surface. Whether these will be good or bad is up for debate however they no doubt will drastically affect the world. So in this editorial I will attempt to use my voodoo to predict the future… and if I'm right I will have this as a testament to my brilliance, which is pretty cool 😉
Current Developments
In the modern world everything is done online and all that touches the web is recorded. People's entire lives are digital, conversation, consumption, selling, business, entertainment, relaxation, enlightenment… Data is taken from your, well, everything. All turned into 1's and 0's and put on a hard drive, somewhere. Understanding this information would allow you a deep understanding of who someone is as a person; better then they know themselves. Despite these companies capturing your soul they don't have the keys… yet. For that to happen they require an invention called: neural networks.
The simple truth is neural networks are going to kill almost every office job. We mock prostitutes but having destroyed farming and manufacturing and on the verge of killing mental labour they might be the only jobs left. Ironic that the world's oldest profession might be it's last. Neural networks are the mapping of human brain like structures onto silicon. You want a computer to be able to see like a human? Do a brain scan and then map the visual cortex onto a chip. How easy… The reality of neural networks is it's not quite that simple. It's not a 1:1 translation. However as sci-fi as it sounds you've probably already used them and as we know with anything computers: they're going to get better very, very quickly.
So how does this affect advertising? Well I imagine you've already guessed. Currently corporations are having difficulty reaching consumers. Particularly the meme generation. Online pays pennies on the dollar compared to eyes on traditional media. Humans are too biased and emotional; we can't adapt to change quickly enough now that humanity's progress is set to ludicrous speed. Today a month is a long time. Look at the newscasters being laughed at for doing the Harlem shake weeks after it was "cool." The solution? Businesses are going to cram all your personal information into a program and they are going to make so, so, so much fucking money.
Near Future
The first wave of implementation will be seen almost instantly. Only a few years away. A cosmic sneeze. Marketing targeting software like AdWords or Facebook Promotions will shift to basic profile analysis rather than the broad demographics and search/page/keyword targeting. These services are already offered by most online marketing platforms. They just don't do much at the moment and aren't very good.
Example tags: "recently set relationship status to single," "recently stalking ex-partner's pages," "recently searched for bleach, shovels and isolated locations."
Linking basic descriptors to basic online behaviour will package consumers up into more targetable groups. The linkages and analysis between different data sets will also become more and more advanced. Instead of large scale marketing campaigns targeting everyone resources will shift to small batch advertising. Advertisements relevant to a small subset of people that are only shown to that subset. Ads like "fuck her go go-karting" to men recently broken up, for example.
New forms of online ads will be invented as well that are more effective. While it's hard to predict exactly what form these might take we can guess some of the themes. The problem with current online advertising is it's paid by quantity not clarity. If I raped your eyes and did header, footer, sidebar and inline advertising I would make a lot more than if I placed one ad in the sidebar. Yet that one ad in the sidebar would receive far more attention because my minimalistic design draws eyes to any details. It's like putting a billboard in the middle of a field versus two in times square. What's going to receive more attention (assuming the same number of people in both situations which would never happen)? The new forms of online advertising are going to take over more of the screen and your focus. They're going to be fewer and farther between but when you do see them you have to see them.
Also this is more a side note but over the next few years we are going to witness the death of Adblock. Whether it be sites creating work arounds or enough getting together and banning the users. Adblock is a beautiful mistake that's only been allowed to exist because of the browser wars. Its days are numbered. Companies are well aware losing up to 70% of their audience is unprofitable.
Ad cycles and CRM (customer relationship management) are going to become an increasingly important focus rather than one off campaigns. Currently a firm will develop a theme and then based off that make a video ad, YouTube ad, billboard ad and online ad. They will all be launched at once for a set amount of time. Lifecycles and moving individual customers along their path to purchase will replace this archaic tactic. Instead of big blitzes, ads will focus on the personal. Teaser ads will bait interest; then increasingly detailed ads will inform about the product. Finally, at the optimum time, conversion ads will strike.
Distant Future
By distant future I'm not talking that long away. I'm unsure if my predictions will happen ten years from now or thirty but we are talking within our lifetimes. A cosmic chuckle.
Emotions are the major influencing factor in consumption behaviour. Ladies love to eat chocolate when they're sad, guys like to get drunk on cheap liquor. If you're a company that knows when people are sad, happy or hungry you can make big profit. Obviously you know what I'm going to say. Complex data analysis run by neural networks which can interpret peoples writing and behaviour like a perfectly unbiased emotionless super phycologist will allow companies to figure all this out. The keys to your soul. However, no platform solely can create these analyses without mingling data sets with other collectors.
I believe within the next few years some enterprising start-up will have the bright idea to purchase user data from many major online platforms. Being an innocent start-up they won't be considered competition. They will then begin the process of creating behavioural models and detailed personal descriptors on individuals by tracking their behaviour across the web and analysing emails, conversations etc. At first companies like this will seem like typical Silicon Valley start-ups: 90% buzz 10% results. But before long they will actually start creating sales due to the aforementioned importance of understanding the emotional state.
Instead of creating a campaign off simple descriptors, now it can be done by feelings, personal beliefs and position in life e.g. "Brent: lonely, dad issues, retail manager, introverted, Buddhist, needs new car, just received pay check…"
The benefits extend past targeting the emotionally vulnerable. Monitoring of each user's reaction to marketing materials will allow campaigns to predict responses to various tactics. Imagine a politician running a simulation on every registered attendee at a public debate, testing his various phrases and zingers to maximise laughs. Maybe then we wouldn't get such retarded lines like "Trumped up trickle down."
Not only will artificial intelligence allow companies to target the vulnerable in ways they predict will be successful they will also be used to customise ads to what will work on individuals. Imagine you crash your car. You immediately upload some pics to Facebook with crying emoji's. As is tradition. Boom. A data analysis program runs on the visuals, checks police and your insurance details as well as ownership records of any nearby accidents. It determines correctly you've just been in a crash. Then it figures out the intensity of the accident, cost of repairs, whether your car can be repaired, ability to get to work without car, public transport costs, your expected emotional reaction to such an accident etc. Now on "DataMarket.com" or whatever it makes a listing "You: recent crash, this emotional state, this physical state." Hundreds of automated bidding programs assess the expected value someone with your personality and situation could generate. Then they work out their maximum bids and go to war.
Suddenly wrecking companies are bidding for your next ad time, competing with lawyers, healthcare providers, car rentals, taxi companies… Within seconds your next few days of ad time have been sliced up by various companies looking to capitalise on your situation. Next time you open Facebook there will be a hoard of companies ready to woo your dollars. Even the billboard nearest to you flicks to a new ad "hi [your name] this looks like it hurt [drone footage of crash] public transport to work will take you an uncomfortably long time as well as cost you $X/wk. Why not head to Dave's Car Rental down the road and pick yourself up a Mustang for $XX/wk, you can afford it. We know you've been working hard recently why not treat yourself to your childhood dream car." The uses of detailed behavioural models and automated marketing management are endless.
Exact predictions of expected return from a campaign will become possible. Exact amount of each type of branding touch points needed for optimum outcome will become easy to figure out. Your likes and interests all there for the manipulating. Who you admire and who you hate. What types of things you like. What types of promotions you find interesting. All there. Gone will be the days of 90% of advertisements being for things you'd never consider. Say hello to the "difficult to say no's."
Final Thoughts
A lot of people are probably finding all this pretty spooky. But the truth is humans and advertising always seem to reach equilibrium. Advertising improves and consumers grow immune. Fresh tactics see huge success for a little while and then the win's fade. Personal advertising might be a whole new paradigm that changes the game and proves predatory. Or it might actually change ads from being boring and for stuff you don't care about. Maybe the suggestions prove helpful and better our lives. Maybe they don't. The big takeaway is that neural networks and artificial intelligence are coming. They are going to change the world. They are going to destroy a lot of jobs. We really need to begin problem solving now before we wake up one day with a crisis. Things like Universal Basic Income and increased consumer protections should be experimented with. Hopefully these artificial brains will help us think a way out of humanities problems; but like always they'll probably end up being used to make some guy a lot of fucking money.
Thanks for reading, what do you think the result of all this technological improvement will be, will man be replaced by machine? Tell me down below and if you like my writing make sure to subscribe to /r/ini0n to see when I post more riveting content.


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We just recently celebrated our 2-year-anniversary as New Yorkers and I can't fathom how time has passed so quickly but also feel kind of like we have lived here forever. Our kid officially sounds like a total Brooklyn kid and says the following phrases with confidence, "I'm wahhhhlking here", "Whattyatalkkkinngbout", "Get online (instead of in-line)", "Ma, I'm taking out the Gaahhhhhbage", among other hilarious Brooklyn phrases. Also, we have a serious laugh developing here. Just trust me that it's a tiny bit like Fran Drescher on "The Nanny".
A 2017 interview with my favorite little lady (LL):
(Read last year's interview here.)
Me: What's your favorite thing about NYC?
LL: The playgrounds, the food, and the museums.
Me: Where's your favorite place in NYC?
LL: "Gino's (Pizzeria in Bay Ridge)."
Me: What's better, Brooklyn or Manhattan?
LL: "Manhattan because there are lots of parks there. Brooklyn because there's stores nearby."
Me: What's the best food in NYC?
LL: "The pizza."
Me: What's the coolest part of riding the train?
LL: "That man who plays music on his guitar or any instrument"
Me: Do you miss Maryland?
LL: "Kind of."
Me: Where should we go next in NYC?
LL: "To all of the parks and the playgrounds and some new museums"
Me: What's the best part of living here?
LL: "That we can scoot around and can ride bicycles instead of driving in the car. New York City has lots of good museums and lots of questions to answer."
Me: Do you remember the day we moved here?
LL: "Yes. Hard. We didn't find any of our plates or silverware or forks or anything!"
Me: Who are your best friends in NYC?
LL: "June, Amina, Lukas, Jude, Teddy, Nicholas, Violin Nicholas, Miss Sotiria, Ivo, Nessa, Louise, Vesper, Alessia, Eli, Esteban, Cody, and Adam."
Me: Do you like New York?
LL: "Yes!"
A list of things that will never, ever get old about NYC:
- When the nice Mariachi guys come on the train and serenade us on our ride home.
- Ordering any cuisine or wine online and having a nice guy on a bicycle bring it to you like a genie.
- Hearing 25 different languages at the park and wondering what everyone's unique story is.
- Being asked if I speak English. Do I look like I am from somewhere else? I am still confused.
- The food: OMG.
- Coffee Shops: The hidden, secret good ones.
- Family adventures all over the city: Picking a spot on the map (or subway map) and just going!
- Central Park & Prospect Park. Every single time we walk through them, we find something new and awesome to explore.
- Christmas in NYC.
- Springtime in NYC.
- ok, fine, I am completely in love and there's literally no day I hate in NYC. Except the days where the snow has melted just enough to create ENORMOUS puddles of slush. Those days are gross. Oh and the days where we catch mice in the mousetraps and I have to call neighbors and ask them to come rescue me like Rapunzel in her tower. But otherwise, yea, it's amazing here!
But the biggest lesson learned in 2017 is as long as we are all together, anywhere feels like home!


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eic, inc.
What we do
EIC, Inc. has over 20 years of experience in the field of custom-built software. Most of our software is written for the Microsoft Windows platform, but we also have experience with other platforms such as web development.
We have extensive experience in infrared cameras and thermal imaging systems as used for industrial safety and medical thermography. We develop and supply custom and standard infrared software to industries throughout the world. Our software is designed to work on PCs, embedded computers, or integrated into industrial systems with supporting hardware, all with many different infrared cameras.
How we serve you
- Standing behind the product.
- We support your software purchase with prompt and effective help when you need it.
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- We've been developing software for our customers since 1989.
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- We offer standard and custom software. Some of our products can be purchased off the shelf. Our extensive software libraries allow rapid deployment of custom software to maximize your capital.
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- Our software not only supports infrared cameras thatlead the industry, we also support them with an integrated product. Result - you purchase one package and deal with one supplier.
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This page and its contents are © 2004-2011 by EIC, Inc.


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Growing security risks in the Middle East are giving oil companies the jitters. French supermajor Total said recently that it was spending more on security since the January attack on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria. BP said it had its own concerns, noting it was holding back on natural gas projects in the country because of the security situation there. OPEC-member Algeria has seen production declines in every month so far this year. In a lackluster economy, there hasn't been much from OPEC members to suggest there was any sort of revival. But with seven of the 12 members of the cartel experiencing at least some form of upheaval, the cost of doing business suggests members may need more than a little bit of luck to return to glory.
In January, fighters affiliated with al-Qaida stormed the In Amenas natural gas facility in Algeria. The facility is operated by British supermajor BP, Norwegian energy giant Statoil and Algerian state-owned oil and natural gas company Sonatrach. A four-day operation by Algerian forces left dead more than two dozen militants and 37 hostages, some of them energy company employees. The attack was perpetrated by an al-Qaida group, dubbed Those who Sign with Blood, from across the border in Libya.
Four months on and energy companies working in the region are expressing concern that the cost of doing business in the region may be too high. BP suspended an oil contract in Libya when civil war descended on the country in 2011. By last year, it said the situation there had approved enough to consider exploratory drilling but backed off again after the cross-border attack in January. It's Algeria's turn this time around, with BP saying it was reviewing its plans to develop natural gas fields in the country.
For Total, the situation isn't much different. The Algerian attackers suggested their assault was in response to the French decision to enter the fight in Mali, where al-Qaida seized territory following a 2012 coup. Now, Total said it has to spend extra money on security in the Middle East to continue operating there, more than two years after the so-called Arab Spring splashed its democratic wave across much of the region. Algeria is one of the major suppliers of natural gas to the European community. While some analysts suggest recent discoveries mark a rebound for Algeria, Total's spending woes and BP's chin scratching may indicate there are still some lingering concerns less than four months after the terrorist attack.
But it's not just Algeria. Lawmakers in Venezuela were bloodied in a punch up following an election to replace Hugo Chavez. Sanctions on Iran, meanwhile, have forced many of its oil and natural gas customers away because of the economic risks of doing business. In Nigeria, the United Nations said it was deeply concerned about the bloodshed that followed a military attack on Boko Haram, a militant group with ties to al-Qaida. Rights groups, meanwhile, pressured British Prime Minister David Cameron to address the human rights situation in the United Arab Emirates, where some observers saw the recent arrest of al-Qaida sympathizes as a cover-up for repression. French concerns extended beyond Mali and Total's, meanwhile, when a car bomb ripped through part its embassy in Tripoli and April was the deadliest month in Iraq in roughly five years. Including Algeria, that's seven of the 12 members of OPEC embroiled in some degree of turmoil.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, in a much publicized speech last week, said there are no major plans to increase production capacity. Saudi Arabia will "be lucky" if it breaks the 9 million bpd mark by 2020, he said. Taking Iraq as a bellwether of how long it takes to sort out a post-war mess, he made need more than a bit of luck to revitalize the once-dominate OPEC cartel.
This piece is cross-posted from Oil Price.com with permission.


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Cultivating Success Stories Back Home
Republishing Guidelines
Carnegie Corporation of New York encourages you to share our content and permits partial or full reprints, but only with permission. Please read our guidelines.
Scholarship support in Uganda had unexpected benefits, as it enabled young women to help their families launch thriving businesses.
Blog Posts in this Series
A South African Audiologist Who Refused to Give Up
Tapping Indigenous Plants to Treat Disease in Nigeria
Cultivating Success Stories Back Home
A South African Doctor Finds Her Footing in a Turbulent Public Healthcare System
Transforming African Women's Lives through Education
A Pair of Good Hands
Overcoming a Traumatic Childhood
A Tanzanian Human Rights Lawyer Empowers Rural Women
Persevering Against All Odds
In South Africa, Celebrating Entrepreneurship and Teamwork
An Arduous Journey Made Better Through Friendships
A Peacemaker Returns to Northern Uganda
Inspiring Young Women to Pursue the Sciences
This article is part of a series exploring the transformation of African women's lives through education.
After visiting Gloria Natukunda in her chemistry classroom on a rainy Saturday morning, we stop by a small roadside shop to meet her mother, Margaret Tumusiime. This shop, where her mother sells a range of second-hand coats and bags, was an unexpected spin-off of a scholarship program backed by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The program, which ran from 2000 to 2010, provided comprehensive support to female scholars in select African universities, ensuring that all of their financial needs were covered. Often, the young women, including Gloria, would send some of their pocket money to their families back home.
Sensing an opportunity to create an enduring investment, Gloria asked her mother what kind of business she would like to run. Margaret came up with the idea of selling used clothing and accessories, and Gloria was able to provide the start-up capital.
From the proceeds of the business, Margaret was also able to establish a small catering business, and she now employs a handful of women.
"Before I had nothing to eat and no money to pay school fees. It was terrible," says Margaret. "Now I am comfortable. All of my children are educated with their degrees. I am very happy."
While African universities often attract criticism for failing to inculcate their students with entrepreneurial skills, Gloria's story serves as a counterexample. Through helping her mother launch two small companies, she gained valuable business experience and improved her family's financial security.
Other female scholarship recipients in Uganda shared similar stories with me. The financial award, combined with their newfound knowledge and confidence, empowered these young women to become breadwinners and trusted advisors in their families, often turning the established patterns of gender dominance and decision-making on their heads in the process.
For example Juliet Akello, whose family I met in the town of Gulu, was plowing part of her income back into reviving the family farm and making it profitable. They are raising chickens and cultivating crops such as groundnuts and bananas to sell in fast-growing Gulu, where the demand for fresh, good-quality produce is high.
Harriet Jongisha is another scholarship recipient who has employed her knowledge and financial resources to help her family establish a small agricultural business.
Currently a lecturer in agribusiness at Makerere, Harriet used a portion of her salary to purchase a large parcel of land for her mother. Her mother is now growing coffee, bananas, beans, groundnuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans, in addition to raising cows, goats and poultry. She has transcended beyond subsistence farming and is earning a comfortable living from working the land.
Harriet says many young Africans mistakenly believe that there is no future in farming, so they move to congested cities where jobs are scarce. Instead, they could be producing food for an expanding urban population, and earning decent money in the process.
"We don't have a culture of commercializing agriculture," says Harriet. "I want to help people like my mother use farming to alleviate poverty."
Megan Lindow is an award-winning writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a former Africa Correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education and the author of Weaving Success: Voices of Change in African Higher Education, the story of a major 10-year initiative investing in African universities.


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Download the Match Poster for Farnborough's Ryman League Premier Division fixture at Home to Hendon taking place next Monday 30 November, kick off 7:45pm.
Next up at The Rushmoor Community Stadium, Farnborough take on Hendon in Ryman Premier League Division.
Kick off is at 7:45pm.
- Please invite your family and friends along!
Please do your best to help us advertise our home fixture by sharing the Poster via social media sites, printing off copies and distributing them.
Click the above Poster to enlarge
Supporters can also confirm their attendance by joining the Facebook event page here.
Thank you for all of your continued support!
Keep up to date with your club on Social Media:


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NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Link Technologies today announced a deal with American International Chemical for the distribution of some Link products in North America.
Under the terms of the deal, AIC will distribute a subset of the Bellshill, Scotland firm's oligonucleotide reagents. The deal focuses on the bulk market for oligonucleotide modifiers and will initially begin with the distribution of Link's modified phosphoramidites, including dyes and labels and CPG solid supports. The products will be distributed through AIC's Advanced Technology Division.


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If your gynae is also an obstetrician, you might want to keep seeing a familiar face. If not, asking for recommendations is a good way to start.
Who does your doctor recommend? Have any of your friends or relatives in the area been particularly impressed by a certain obstetrician?
You may even decide to dispense with the services of an obstetrician altogether. Many women prefer to remain under the care of their General Practitioner while others prefer to deal with a midwife.
"Should I just rely on recommendations?"
Definitely not! Assess the suitability of an obstetrician with the aid of a few sensible guidelines.
Guidelines to Choosing an Obstetrician
Your health
If you have a chronic health condition, you should interview the obstetrician to determine if he has experience with people experiencing similar health issues. If you have a particularly high-risk pregnancy, you might prefer a different type of specialist. Perinatologists specialize in helping patients who may be at risk during birthing.
Your doctor's attitude towards childbirth and medicine
Find out the doctor's attitude towards issues that may later prove important to you such as his attitude towards natural childbirth and medical procedures such as fetal monitoring. Do you agree with his attitudes? If you're eager for a natural birth, you need to determine what your doctor's feelings are and agree on contingency plans in advance.
Do you get along with your prospective obstetrician?
There are also personal issues that are very important. You should feel comfortable with your prospective obstetrician and you should feel free to ask questions. The doctor should also be able to explain things in a way that you can understand without concealing any facts. Does the doctor treat you with respect and take your opinions into account?
What if your doctor isn't available when the time comes?
It's possible that you may begin giving birth when your doctor is not available: who looks after cases when the doctor is not available? It may be helpful to get to know the person you may ultimately end up having to deal with when the time comes.
At which hospital or hospitals does your doctor attend births?
Last but not least, at which hospital or hospitals does your obstetrician attend births? You need to feel comfortable about the facility where you will be giving birth. If you are at risk owing to health problems, a neonatal intensive care unit could save your life – but not all hospitals have such facilities available.
These questions should be answered early in your pregnancy. You might like the obstetrician, but if you don't like the facility where he or she attends births, you should choose another.
What if there are elements that make me feel uncomfortable?
Try discussing any issues that cause you to feel uncomfortable with the doctor to see if these matters can be addressed. If not, it may be time to look around for another option with which you feel more at ease. Your comfort and peace of mind are important to you and to your baby's well-being .


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Our Church Street kitchen remodel project is complete! Some unexpected water damage in this home led to a gorgeous brand new kitchen!
Job Details:
Cabinetry: Omega Manor Door; Pure White on Surround Cabinetry and Rain on the Island
Countertops: Soapstone Surround; Torquay Cambria Island; Locally sourced Mahogany hutch top
Installation: Southcoast Design & Construction


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Learn to Generate $100k worth of Media Coverage for Your Business
If you believe that a newspaper or magazine review on your product would help sell your product like hotcakes, then why not learn how you can get $100k worth of unpaid media coverage for your brand? If you have not heard of this form of awareness generation, then perhaps it is time you found out more! Hundreds of brands spend money on marketing hoping that they will be able to get awareness for their product so that they will fly off the shelf. Hundred of brands also spend this money in the wrong places. If you ever wondered why your marketing dollars are not getting you any returns, perhaps it is time to reevaluate what you are doing for marketing and learn how to do it the right way. Potence PR is in the business of helping businesses generate multiple awareness for their products. Over 8 years, we have developed a 16-step process to help businesses get the awareness they crave at a fraction of the cost. And we are about to teach you how YOU can also generate $100k worth of media publicity for your brand, without paying through your nose…in fact, the tips you learn will help you to generate $100k worth of publicity again and again, and you won't have to pay a cent… You just need to know how to do it. Join us in our special short course, filled with practical actionable strategies based in our deep industry experience in both online and offline PR. We welcome you to:
The 16-step Process to Unlimited $100k Worth of Media for Your BusinessDate and time: To be confirmed. Please send us a message so that we can inform you when we'll run the next training Refreshments will be provided.
TRAINING VENUE Our training will be held in a comfortable, modern setting for your comfort, with hi-speed broadband at Hong Lim Complex (next to Chinatown MRT, HDB sheltered parking at $2 per hour) Venue address will be given only to participants.
Case Studies:
Still not convinced? Check out the results derived for our clients over the years.
Get a headstart in your business. Register to sign up for the course below and discover how you can be your own expert PR person!36
By submitting your information in the form above, we have your permission to send you marketing information.


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The Wiz
Full Length Musical, Comedy / 6m, 5f, 4m or f
This beloved Broadway musical sets Dorothy's adventures in the Land of Oz to a dazzling, lively mixture of rock, gospel, and soul music!
Use this tool for cost estimates based on your specific needs.
Cast Size6m, 5f, 4m or f
Duration120 minutes (2 hours)
SubgenreFantasy, Adaptations (Literature)
AccoladesTony, From Broadway
Suggested Use
- Competition or audition material
Target Audience
- Appropriate for all audiences
Additional Info
A beloved Broadway gem, The Wiz infuses L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with a dazzling mix of rock, gospel, and soul music. This timeless tale of Dorothy's adventures through the Land of Oz is a fun, family-friendly, modern musical and one of the most popular shows in the Samuel French catalog.
Adapted into a film version featuring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
- Winner! Seven 1975 Tony® Awards, including Best Musical
Winner! Five 1975 Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical
"Radiates so much energy you can hardly sit in your seat [...] great fun." - New York Post
"A continuous festival of movement [...] splendid character songs." - WWD
"A carnival of fun [...] wickedly amusing show." - TIME
"A virtual musical circus [...] driving rhythms, soaring songs [...] boisterous, exuberant." - WABC-TV
"Unquestionably, the humor and the heartbeat of the piece remain African-American at their source, but the overall effect is pluralistic and inclusive. In the truest and most positive sense of the phrase, [the] show is color-blind." - Variety
Watch Female Inmates at Bedford Correctional Facility Perform a Gut-Wrenching Version of The Wiz here.
Ease on Down the Road: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Wiz
by Katie Coryell
November 29, 2018
Rehabilitation Through the Arts: Performing the THE WIZ Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3
by Courtney Kochuba
July 7, 2016
THE WIZ: A Bold Look at Oz, Dorothy, and the Emerald City
by Marisa Arellano
September 14, 2015
Ease On Down! THE WIZ Will Be NBC's Next Live Broadcast, And Then Head To Broadway
by Courtney Kochuba
March 30, 2015
So You Wanted To Meet The Wizard?
by Abbie Van Nostrand
February 23, 2015
KeywordsFairy Tales, Friendship, Parenting/Family
Performing Groups
- High School/Secondary
- College Theatre / Student
- Community Theatre
- Dinner Theatre
- Professional Theatre
- Large Stage
- Animals
License details
- Licensing fees and rental materials quoted upon application.
- Time Period: Not Applicable
- Duration: 120 minutes (2 hours)
- Setting:
Kansas and the Land of Oz
- Additional Features: Animal spot, Local Celebrity Cameo, Special Effects
- Features / Contains: Elaborate / High Volume Costumes, Fantasy Costumes
- Musical Style: Pop/Rock, Jazz
- Vocal Demands: Difficult
- Orchestra Size: Large
- Chorus Size: Large
Song Samples
Casting6m, 5f, 4m or f
Dorothy's Aunt. Life has not been easy for her and promises little else. Harsh towards Dorothy at times, but acts out of love.
DOROTHY: Female, 13-16 (Range: Mezzo Soprano, G3-B5)
Bright eyed and alive as can be. Would rather remain a child as long as possible instead of accempting the responsibilities of adulthood.
UNCLE HENRY: Male, Late 30's (Range: Non-Singing)
Dorothy's Uncle. Physically run down from years of hard work on the farm. Often acts as the voice of reason towards Aunt Em.
ADDAPERLE: Female, Age Flexible (Range: Mezzo Soprano, F3-C5)
Good Witch of the North. Has magic powers she refers to as "doing tricks." Her magic abilities don't always pan out as well as she would like them to.
YELLOW BRICK ROAD (Four Actors): Male or Female, Age Flexible (Range: Flexible, F4-Db5/F3-Db4)
Four dancing actors combine to create the Yellow Brick Road. Metaphorically represents the road Dorothy travels down, encouraging her along the way.
SCARECROW: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Tenor, D3-A4)
Tired of being a scarecrow and the prospect of not going anywhere. Embarks on the journey to see The Wiz in hopes he can provide a brain.
TIN MAN: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Baritone, E3-A4)
Human at one time. Lost all his limbs to a cursed axe. Joins in the journey in hopes the Wiz will provide him a heart because "it isn't enough to be good looking."
LION: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Baritone, G2-Bb4)
Travels around the jungle scaring people, but has "a yellow streak a mile wide." Coward state stems from deeper mother issues and gets regular counseling from an owl. Joins in the journey to see the wiz to gain some courage.
GATEKEEPER: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Non-Singing)
Guards the gate to the Emerald City.
THE WIZ: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Tenor, C3-A4)
All powerful leader over the land of Oz. Hides his true nature behind the façade of a temperamental leader. His true identity is an enigma.
EVILLENE: Female, Age Flexible (Range: Alto, Bb3-Db5)
Wicked Witch of the West. Low-down evil. Not a kind bone in her body nor kind thought in her rotten mind.
LORD HIGH UNDERLING: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Non-Singing)
Weak coward. Evillene's number one.
WINGED MONKEY: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Non-Singing)
Servant of the Wicked Witch of the West. Summoned to do her bidding. The mere mention of him brings fear.
GLINDA: Female, Age Flexible (Range: Alto, C4-Eb5)
Good Witch of the South. Prettiest of all the witches. Very wise in the way of show-business.
ENSEMBLE: TOTO - a dog, PIT SINGERS, TORNADO, MUNCHKINS, CROWS, KALIDAHS, POPPIES, FIELD MICE, EMERAL CITY CITIZENS, SOLDIER MESSENGER
Cast Attributes
- Expandable casting
- Flexible casting
- Local Celebrity Cameo
- Multicultural casting
- Room for Extras
- Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)
Casting Notes
Plus various small parts, singers and dancers
Originally produced with an all-Black cast, it is preferred that the main characters are cast with people of color but there are no restrictions so long as the spirit of THE WIZ is maintained and cannot be confused with THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Rehearsal Resources
Music Material Rental Packages
Full Package
Piano/Conductor Score (includes Synthesizer)
20 Vocal Chorus Books
Reed I (Flute, Alto Saxophone, Piccolo)
Reed II (Flute, Alto Saxophone, Piccolo)
Reed III (Alto Flute, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone) Reed IV (Oboe, Baritone Saxophone, Alto Flute, Clarinet, English Horn)
Trumpet I & II (2 books)
Trumpet III
Trombone I
Trombone II
Percussion I & II (2 books) (Timpani, Vibraphone, Bell-Tree, Bells, Tambourine, Xylophone, Triangle, Shaker, Conga/Tumbadora, Bongo Drums, Gourd, Cow Bell, Sand Block, Woodblock, Ratchet, Marimba, Cuica, Chimes, Whistle I & II, Cymbal, Timbale, Claves, Vibraslap, Cabasa)
Violins (2 Books)
Available Services
Want the full script?Rent a digital perusal
The Wiz originally opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on January 5, 1974 after only 15 previews. It shortly thereafter moved down the street to the slightly smaller Broadway Theatre. The show finally closed on January 28, 1979 after a grand total of 1,672 performances.
The Wiz also had a brief revival at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, opening on May 24, 1984.


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Hashmat Karzai was a campaign manager in the southern province of Kandahar for Ashraf Ghani, one of the two presidential candidates involved in a bitter stand-off that threatens to trigger worsening ethnic instability.
Hashmat, who famously owned a pet lion, was killed at his home outside Kandahar city by a man with explosives hidden in his turban as visitors arrived to celebrate the Eid holiday at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"A suicide bomber disguised as a guest came to Hashmat Karzai's house to greet him," Dawa Khan Minapal, the Kandahar provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP.
"After he hugged Hashmat, he blew up his explosives and killed him."
Ghani and opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah are at loggerheads over the June 14 second-round election, which has been mired in allegations of massive fraud.
Ghani won the vote according to preliminary results, but an audit of the ballots has started after Abdullah refused to accept defeat due to claims of "industrial-scale" ballot-box stuffing.
With the audit beset by another outbreak of complaints from both sides, many fear the country is at risk of returning to the ethnic violence of the 1992-1996 civil war.
US Secretary of State John Kerry flew into Kabul earlier this month to broker the deal for a complete recount of the eight million votes after Abdullah appeared ready to set up a "parallel government" in opposition to Ghani.
The deal averted an immediate crisis, but US and UN officials have struggled to get Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power back on the track as the two sides bicker over how fraudulent votes should be identified.
A credible election was seen as a key benchmark of the costly US-led military and civilian aid effort to develop Afghanistan since the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001.
President Karzai, who has ruled since the Taliban's fall, was due to hand over power to his successor on August 2.
Many diplomats insisted that holding the presidential inauguration on schedule was essential for future aid funding and military support, but the event has now been delayed without any new date being announced.
Abdullah, who draws most of his support from Tajiks and other northern groups, won the first round of voting, but preliminary results from the second-round run-off showed Ghani, whose support base is among the Pashtun tribes of the south and east, ahead by over one million votes.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of Hashmat Karzai, and no other casualties were reported.
Explosives hidden in turbans have been used on several occasions in Afghanistan, including an attack in Kabul in 2011 that killed former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Hashmat Karzai first worked in this year's presidential election campaign for Qayyum Karzai, the president's brother, and later moved to support Ghani when Qayyum withdrew from the race.
© 2010 Ahram Online.


text: Male patient with Gynecomastia (over-developed male breasts) and excessive adipose tissue around the waist. The 50 year-old man from Las Vegas, NV, consulted with Board Certified Dr. Mordcai Blau, a world authority and leading expert on Gynecomastia. In 2007, Dr. Blau was featured as an experienced Gynecomastia surgeon in the American Society of Plastic Surgeon's prestigious journal, Plastic Surgery News. Dr. Blau determined the 175 lbs, 6'6" patient was a good candidate for corrective surgery to treat his conditions. The patient traveled to Dr. Blau's accredited surgical center in New York for the procedures - an award-winning artist and sculptor, some of Dr. Blau's art is displayed at the facility. Even with reduced elasticity of the skin at age 50, the patient achieved good results from his combined surgeries. 35% of Dr. Blau's patients travel from other states. Including, San Diego, CA, Phoenix, AZ, and the Las Vegas, NV area. 95% of Dr. Blau's practice consists of Gynecomastia surgery.


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Let's talk about sex baby! Yoga is many things to many people. It's a way to clear the mind, relieve stress, get physically fit and yes, improve your sex life.
Spread the news, tell your friends! Those yoga blocks that you've been using in yoga class are way more than something that can "bring the ground up to you". Oh and for those who don't have to use the blocks, you're not better than the rest of us you're just...better at yoga.
You're a Yogi Warrior. You know you are. You feel you are. Because you are! But you need some help on how to be one. We got you covered!!
Taking yoga class for the first time can be nerve-wracking. See why it's going to be totally fine plus some tips on how to walk into the class like you own the place.
Meet Julia Contacessi


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Students and alumni of Shih Hsin University protested on Tuesday against the suspension of two campus newspapers funded by the university, urging the school's board of directors to continue to support the publications.
Dozens of students and alumni gathered in front of the administrative building of the school in Taipei, holding placards that read: "Give me back Taiwan Lipao (台灣立報) and Pots Weekly (破報)."
Pots Weekly stopped publication last month, while Taiwan Lipao recently suspended publication for four months, after the board of directors cut funding for the two papers.
The Shih Hsin University Students Labor Rights Group, which led the protest, said the board of directors' decision to cut the budgets was made hastily and most students and teachers did not have a say in the decision.
Chen Chiung-ting (陳炯廷), a member of the group, said Taiwan needs newspapers like Pots Weekly and Taiwan Lipao and he is against the board's suspension of public instruments based on private considerations.
The group called on the university to set up a monitoring mechanism to prevent its board from cutting budgets at will.
The university's alumni association also issued a statement on Monday voicing support for the publications.
It said that a trust should be established to run the papers, and cited as an example the British daily the Guardian.
Shih Hsin president Lai Ting-Ming (賴鼎銘) addressed the student protesters, saying that print newspapers are facing difficulties and even campus newspapers with higher circulations have dropped print versions to become online publications. The school is discussing such a path for Lipao, he said.
Wen Nien-hsuan (文念萱), head of Shih Hsin University Affiliated Institutions, said the two newspapers have been operating at a deficit for a long time and there was no choice but to suspend them.
However, the protesters asked whether Lai and Wen had the authority to speak on behalf of the board and insisted on a response from the board members.
Taiwan Lipao was established in 1988 by Cheng She-wo (成舍我), an educator, newsman and founder of Shih Hsin University.
It focuses on issues related to education, the environment, disadvantaged groups and social movements.
Pots Weekly was established in 1995 by Cheng's daughter, Lucie Cheng (成露茜), as a free publication.
It highlights arts, labor and gender and environmental issues.


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Many factors, including dietary habits (drinking coffee, tea, soda, and red wine) and certain medications, affect the whiteness of your smile. Tooth whitening is an affordable and effective way to combat common causes of tooth discoloration while boosting your self-confidence and improving your appearance.
Napa cosmetic dentist Silverado Dental Care offers Opalescence - a wide range of tooth-whitening products designed to brighten your smile! With custom designed take home, on-the-go, and in-office options, Opalescence Tooth Whitening Systems accommodate all lifestyles and budgets.
Prescription-strength Opalescence Tooth Whitening Systems are stronger and more effective than over-the-counter teeth-whitening products, and are only available through the Napa dental office of Napa dentist Silverado Dental Care.
Get more confidence in your smile — with the Opalescence Tooth Whitening System
Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels are only available through a dentist, like Napa dentist Silverado Dental Care. While using the Opalescence Tooth Whitening System provided by Napa cosmetic dentist Silverado Dental Care, your treatment will be supervised from initial consultation through completion. The special whitening gel will not affect your gums, and in many cases can help improve your oral health by strengthening tooth enamel, decreasing sensitivity, and offering increased cavity prevention.
Powerful, prescription-strength Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels are available in varying strengths depending on your dental needs. Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels can provide results after just one night, although results may vary and can take up to a week before you experience noticeable changes.
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They've loved us and so will you!
Stay updated with latest trends, inspiration, expert tips, DIYs and more


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Faber Castell Promoted Through Hundreds of Circles and Famous Art [Video]
Faber Castell is a worldwide manufacturer of pen, pencils, art supplies and other office products, including luxury ones. The way they promote themselves is original and artistic. We stumbled across this video that left us speechless and decided to share it further. The film was made by Eric Yeo and implies hundreds of circles carefully drawn by hand. The result is mind-blowing: a beautiful version of Johannes Vermeer's masterwork called "Girl with a pearl earing". The short film is truly captivating and surprising. One might even say unbelievable. We salute this idea and find it to be a positive example of promoting a multinational company. No drama, no forced plot, just a simple artistic idea with the power to impress its viewers and make them appreciate the brand's unique values. Enjoy!