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If baby girls are protected from unnecessary genital cutting apart from any inquiry into health benefits, why shouldn't baby boys?
Many people distinguish between male genital cutting and female genital cutting by stating, "Well, male circumcision has health benefits!" This statement is invalid for two reasons: (1) the medical community worldwide is far from a consensus on the supposed health benefits of male circumcision, with most medical bodies worldwide recommending against circumcision as a health measure, and (2) you can't use the supposed health benefits of male circumcision as a distinction until we actually research the health benefits or lack thereof of analagous forms of female circumcision. But we haven't, so "health benefits" is not a true distinction between male cutting and female cutting.
We have created an entirely separate discourse between the genders on the issue of genital cutting and enshrined it into law. This dual discourse is entirely arbitrary (we could just as well ban male genital cutting without looking into health benefits while always looking out for health benefits for female cutting), and therefore the protection afforded by the FGM law is entirely arbitrary. I will spell out the separate discourses below for future reference.
- Discourse with respect to female genital cutting: ban it (including the forms far less invasive than male circumcision) without ever having researched the health benefits or lack thereof in the same conditions in which we study male circumcision, despite the fact that the female genitals have more folds and are more prone to smegma, odor, urinary tract infections, yeast infections, hygiene issues, genital cancer, and contracting HIV and most STIs from heterosexual intercourse. And you'll probably recognize quite quickly that these are all health issues, interestingly enough, that have been proposed at one point or another as a justification for male genital cutting. So why not apply the same scrutiny to female genital cutting as to male rather than simply banning it? Wouldn't women have even more to gain from various preventative measures, surgical or non-surgical, since their genitals are more prone to infection to begin with? Why the separate discourse between the genders, especially in this age when gender equality is so passionately pursued in every sphere? Female genitalia = more folds, more prone to infection. Yet the discourse is, "Ban all forms of female genital cutting, no matter how minor, and no matter what the parents want, without inquiry into potential health benefits."
- Discourse with respect to male genital cutting: constantly look for new medical justifications and hold that up for the reason why it should be legal and a "parent's choice". Male genitalia = a single fold, less prone to infection. Yet there is no regard for the male child's right to his own genitals (as is granted to female children), and the discourse is to constantly look for justifications for cutting, despite the male's lesser tendency to infections.
These separate discourses are sexist regardless of your stance on whether circumcising babies is ethical or not. I am of the persuasion that the excision of normal, healthy, erogenous genital tissue from a non-consenting minor's perfectly healthy penis or vulva is not ethically permissible for prophylactic reasons, nor at the parents' whim, nor for the sake of the parents' religion and culture, and that parents may only give proxy consent to such a procedure after all less invasive treatment options have been exhausted. Therefore, I believe that this separate discourse is sexist against males in that it, negatively speaking, does not afford them protection from the unnecessary excision of erogenous genital tissue and, positively speaking, guarantees the female's right to grow up with all of her erogenous genital tissue but not the male's.
If you believe that circumcision is permissible to perform on infants, and that it has the potential for health benefits, then you would have to argue that the law is sexist against girls because it does not permit the study of surgical procedures that could spare them from painful genital infections and life-threatening diseases, which they are, in fact, more prone to than males. The same tissue, mind you, that comprises the fold of the male foreskin exists on the folds of the female vulva, and the same Langerhans cells that are hypothesized to create an entry point for HIV on the fold of the foreskin exist on the folds of the vulva as well, yet no one thought to research the health benefits of excising female folds. The separate discourse is astounding, defies all logic, and is entirely sexist.
The fact of the matter is that the health benefits or lack thereof of minor forms of FGM (say, labiaplasty or clitoral hood excision) have never been studied in sterile Western environments in which American male circumcision is performed, and the West at large considers it unethical to do so, so it is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy to say, "Female circumcision has no health benefits." We all know that cutting a girl's clitoris off with a rusty razor blade and sewing her vagina shut is harmful, but what about cutting off infant girls' labia at birth in sterile, anesthetized conditions? It is simply an unfounded assumption that cutting vulvar tissue in sterile environments has no medical justification and confers no health benefits.
In fact, it is ILLEGAL to research whether the excision of vulvar tissue in infancy has health benefits due to the U.S. FGM Law. It is simply a given under American law that a female's right to grow up with all her genital tissue should trump any potential health benefits of excising any of her genital tissue preventatively at birth or in childhood (which, again, have never been studied in the same conditions that we study male circumcision), despite the fact that her genitals have MORE folds, require MORE maintenance, and are MORE prone to hygiene issues and infections–including UTIs, yeast infections, and the transmission of HIV and most STIs via vaginal intercourse–than the male genitals are. This being the case, how does it make sense that we gladly permit the study of excision of male genital tissue but have prohibited the study of excision of female genital tissue? It doesn't. This differing discourse between the genders is sexist and should be remedied.
The sexism under U.S. law in this matter is despicable. I can't think of a law that so plainly discriminates on the basis of gender–and in such a violent way. Put simply, the U.S. FGM law is based on the assumption that ALL baby girl genital cutting is wrong on its face, regardless of any potential health benefits (which have never been researched in sterile, anesthetized Western conditions–the conditions in which we examine male circumcision). If this is the reasoning for protecting baby girls' genitals–genitals that have MORE folds and are MORE prone to infection than male genitals–how is it not sexism under the law to not apply the same reasoning to baby boys' genitals? Why should the discourse differ between the genders? It shouldn't if we're truly about EQUAL protection and not ARBITRARY protection.
>>> P.S. Brian Earp of Oxford University says this much better than I could here.
>>> This all being said, it's at least plausible that removing a girl's labia at birth would have NOMINAL health benefits in that there is one less fold of skin to rinse in the case of hygienic incompetency, just like removing a boy's foreskin at birth may have NOMINAL health benefits in that there is one less fold of skin to rinsein the case of hygienic incompetency. Labial adhesions affect up to 2% of girls aged 3 months to six years, and "about 20 per cent of girls with labial adhesions develop asymptomatic bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine without symptoms of infection) and up to 40 per cent experience urinary tract infections." Cut the flaps off at birth, and you eliminate the risk of this happening. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/labial_adhesions
>>> Moreover, sometimes during puberty, a young woman's labia minora become hypertrophic, meaning they extend past the labia majora. This is a risk factor for UTIs. No labia = no labial hypertrophy = reduced risk of UTIs. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23442511 And the authors of the study confess, "There is currently a paucity of published literature describing reduction labiaplasty performed for functional reasons." Compare that to the overflow of American research on male circumcision. It's a complete separate discourse on genital cutting between the genders, and it's sexist and wrong. Full study here.


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It's that time again! Come & visit me at Awesome Con (6/3-6/5) in Washington, D.C.!
My table number is I-8 and I'm so happy to be returning for the third time!
I will be selling my prints and doing 9×12 face portraits at the show for $30! You can also order a Sketch Commission Here: firstname.lastname@example.com (PayPal) or Square Cash
See you all there!
from Instagram: http://ift.tt/25d3EHo

subset: commoncrawl


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Crew Hire
Brightworks media can provide a full shooting crew for professional video production, however sometimes our clients are just looking for a single crew member to work alongside them.
Brightworks Media can provide the following experienced, competent production crew:
Camera Operator - Includes Sony PMW-200 Camera, Tripod, Shotgun/Radio microphones, tracks, 7ft jib.
Lighting Camera Operator - Includes Sony PMW-200 Camera, Tripod, Shotgun/Radio microphones plus selection of Arri/ Dedo/ Redhead lights and Geko light panels.
Autocue Operator - Includes 28" autocue/ teleprompter, Sony PMW-200 Camera, Tripod, Microphones, Lighting rig, portable greenscreen (optional)
Director - Our experienced director will visualize the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in fulfillment of that vision.
Editor- Sit in at our comfortable edit suite in central Bristol and call the shots as our experienced editor works their magic
Photographer- With portable studio, whitescreen & lighting if required.
Production Assistant- An extra pair of hands will save time and help the production run smoothly.
Audio Technician- Our technician provides sound design, composition, mixing/ mastering, repair and restoration.
Hair & Make-up- Our talented stylist will get the on-screen talent looking their best for camera.


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|06 Nov 2017
Windows Themes choices are grayed out..how do I change theme?
Here is a picture of my screen when I click on Personalization and try to change the desktop theme on my PC. In the past these were live links. What happened?
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.
|My System Specs
|06 Nov 2017
Hi therealsimpsons, One place you can try is, from the startmenu search box, type services.msc
scroll down to themes and right click, and click restart.
|My System Specs
|06 Nov 2017
When I do that, the 'themes' is grayed out. I'm going to do a repair installation. Think that will help?
|My System Specs
|06 Nov 2017
Hi again, If it was me I would try sfc /scannow first from the link below, and see if it can repair the files,
and do this twice, and reboot after first check.
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker - Windows 7 ...
|My System Specs
|06 Nov 2017
Hi Ethel, thank you for the help. I discovered my anti-virus hid a bunch of stuff in order to "make my computer run faster by disabling unneeded software. I have reversed that, and all is well.
|My System Specs
|06 Nov 2017
Hi therealsimpsons, You are welcome, and I am glad you sorted your problem out.
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The Wilderness Committee focuses on wildland and forest conservation, and ecosystem-based forest management.
We currently have two main areas of focus:
- Our Public Lands project works closely with government and other non-governmental organizations to preserve wilderness on crown land.
- Our Forestry Program works with woodlot owners, the forest industry and government to promote ecologically responsible forestry and a viable, rural-based forest economy.
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Shrug, actually
I'm in my first serious relationship. It started off super-hot and sexual. Now, a year in, it's lovey-dovey and cuddly. Not that my boyfriend and I don't have sex. We do, and it's still good. But we no longer sext or send cute selfies, and the butterflies feeling is gone. Is it all downhill from here? — Worried
Once you've been together for a while, you may still have vivid fantasies running through your head during sex, like the one where you get to the dry cleaner's before closing time. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that we have a right to "the pursuit of Happiness," but it doesn't get into actually having it, which, as you've discovered, can be a bit of a bore. This makes biological sense, considering that there are stages in attraction and bonding and a cocktail of biochemicals behind each. Dopamine, a neurochemical that researchers associate with wanting, "novelty-seeking" and focused attention, is a star player when you're in chase mode (aka "infatuation," "attraction," or, more descriptively, "Who knew you could get a callus down there?").
However, evolution is no fool, and it realized that we couldn't spend all of our time chasing each other around whatever passed for the kitchen table back when "the man cave" was an actual cave. So bonding hormones — oxytocin and vasopressin — eventually take charge. And that's why, a year into a relationship, you may be doing "unnatural acts" in the bedroom, but they probably involve things like dusting the miniblinds.
Going from hot sexts to ho-humming is a result of "hedonic adaptation." "Hedonic" comes from a Greek word for pleasure, and hedonic adaptation describes how we quickly acclimate to changes in our circumstances — positive or negative — to the point where they no longer give us the boost (or kick in the teeth) that they first did. Research by social psychologist Philip Brickman and his colleagues suggests that we each have a happiness "set point," and we keep getting pulled back to it. A fascinating example of this is their finding that people who won big in the lottery were (of course) stoked at first, but ultimately, they ended up being no happier than victims of crippling accidents.
Happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky finds people in relationships can resist hedonic adaptation, but it takes "ongoing effort" to bring in variety. She's talking about varied experiences and, especially, varied surprising experiences. Surprise, Lyubomirsky explains in The Myths of Happiness, delivers "strong emotional reactions." Remember strong emotional reactions? They're a little hard to come by once you can close your eyes and draw a solar system of your beloved's every birthmark, freckle and mole.
The good news is that you can bring surprise into your relationship; you just need to stage it. Try to inject it into every day, and maybe take turns planning a weekly secret date night (secret from the person who isn't the planner) so at least one of you is surprised. You might also take turns planning separate sextracurricular activities. Without this extra effort, sex may still be fun, but the only way it's likely to be surprising is if one of you tries to sneak out the window afterward.
Really old men in the hood
When I was in my youth, a lot of women I knew fell for bad boys. I'm now a man in my 60s, entering retirement. Amazingly, I'm finding that even women my age prefer bad boys. What's this about? — Nice Guy
Since older women often end up dating much-older men, this leads to the question, what's the profile of the elderly bad boy? Cheating at bingo? Swearing on the golf course? Shotgunning Ensure?
Some older women — like younger ones — go for bad boys because they don't think much of themselves and feel most comfortable with someone who seems to share their view. But even older women who aren't emotional shipwrecks can be drawn to the aging delinquent. It turns out that a bad boy's unreliability has a neurological upside. Neuroscientist Wolfram Schultz finds that unpredictable "rewards" seem to be the most satisfying for the brain.
So, as a nice guy, the thing to be is exciting and unpredictable — without the downside of the deviousness, thieving and unreliability. Use the element of surprise — even by hiding small presents (tiny chocolate bars) or funny notes around her house (as opposed to a bag of unmarked bills). Ultimately, even thrill-seeking women prefer a man who says, "Quick, grab your suitcase. I'm taking you to Paris," and not "Quick, duck down. The cops are here, and they have a warrant."
Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave., #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or email email@example.com (advicegoddess.com). Her latest book is Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck.


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Saturday, August 7, 2010
"Only clowns would play with those balloons"
I just finished re-doing my blog layout and adding new pages. It took me about 4 hours, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Tank by Abercrombie; Tie-Dye pants by S Nikki; Clogs by Fioni; Purse by Kirra.
16 comments:
I like the new layout, nice work! I also really like your bag!ReplyDelete
The Pretty Pauper
Layout's looking goood!ReplyDelete
Really like your necklaces.
love the new layout of your blog!!ReplyDelete
I really like the clogs.. =D
Cool new layout...worth the time! Love this outfit and how your style is evolving!ReplyDelete
i'm loving the hippie vibe! Great clogs by the way. You should drop byReplyDelete
getmeouttasuburbia.blogspot.com sometime!
Harley :)
Awesome banner!! Love it!ReplyDelete
Great pants, and clogs!
<3 Kelly
I Neeed A Pair Of Clogs!ReplyDelete
so boho chic!! great pants!!ReplyDelete
Hi, hope it's OK to contact you here. We would love to include your blog on our giveaway search engine: Giveaway Scout (http://www.giveawayscout.com). Have a look and if interested, use our online form to add your blog (http://www.giveawayscout.com/addblog/ ). thanks, JoshReplyDelete
New layout looks great! And you look quite hippy-chic lovely :)ReplyDelete
You looks great, so hippy! :)ReplyDelete
Love your bag
nice look. . .coolReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 2, 2010 at 12:18 AM
I am totally in love with those pants!ReplyDelete
ahhhh i totally have that bagReplyDelete
its been a lifesaver one too many times
Those pants are the most awesome things ever.ReplyDelete
Oh and I very much agree, thrift stores ARE the best!


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Subscribe To It All Ends For Hermione In This Deathly Hallows Part 2 Poster Updates
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Here's another Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 poster predicting doom and gloom, or maybe just that the credits are about to roll on this series. It's a companion to the Daniel Radcliffe fronted poster we showed you yesterday. Now it's Hermione's turn to look brave and deeply concerned. Or maybe she just misses Dobby. Creepy little bugger.
Click the one sheet image below to see it in magical Hogwarts high-res.
Here's a weird observation. All the red, floating stuff on the poster which I assume is supposed to be fire? If you look at it in the high-res version it actually looks a little bit like blood. Blood platlets to be exact, the kind you might find bopping around in your bloodstream. That can't be on purpose.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 arrives in theaters on July 15th this summer. For more on the movie visit our dedicated page in the BFD


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Percutaneous Closure of Left Atrial Appendage May Decrease the Risk of Death and Hemorrhagic Stroke Compared to Warfarin in Patients with Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation
EBM Focus - Volume 9, Issue 47
Read the full EBM Focus and earn CME credit.
Reference: JAMA 2014 Nov 19;312(19):1988 (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
Atrial fibrillation affects 1.5-2% of the general population and is associated with a five-fold increased risk of stroke (Eur Heart J 2012 Nov;33(21):2719). Antithrombotic therapy is consistently recommended for most patients with atrial fibrillation and until recently warfarin, a vitamin K antagonist, has been the antithrombotic of choice (J Am Coll Cardiol 2014 Mar 28 early online, Eur Heart J 2010 Oct;31(19):2369, Can J Cardiol 2012 Mar-Apr;28(2):125). Warfarin use requires monthly blood monitoring and is associated with an increased risk of bleeding. The left atrial appendage has been suggested as a major source of thromboembolism in patients with atrial fibrillation and left atrial appendage closure without long-term antithrombotic therapy may prevent stroke (Circulation 2002 Apr 23;105(16):1887). The PROTECT AF trial compared percutaneous device closure of left atrial appendage vs. warfarin in 707 patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation plus ≥ 1 risk factor for stroke including age ≥ 75 years, history of previous stroke or transient ischemic attack, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, or left ventricular systolic dysfunction (Lancet 2009 Aug 15;374(9689):534). A four year follow-up of the PROTECT AF trial was recently published, providing long term efficacy and safety data.
In the PROTECT AF trial, patients randomized to left atrial appendage closure initially continued taking warfarin and aspirin to promote device endothelialization. At 45 days after the procedure, 86.8% of patients receiving device closure were able to discontinue warfarin and 93.2% discontinued warfarin within 1 year. After randomization, 8.2% of patient did not receive the intervention to which they were randomized and 15% of patients withdrew or were lost to follow-up before the 4 year evaluation, but all patients were included in analysis. Comparing device closure vs. warfarin over a mean follow-up duration of 3.8 years (2,621 patient-years), device closure was associated with a decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (0.2 per 100 patient-years vs. 1.1 per 100 patient-years, p < 0.05), cardiovascular or unexplained death (1 per 100 patient-years vs. 2.4 per 100 patient-years, p < 0.05), and all cause mortality (3.2 per 100 patient-years vs. 4.4 per 100 patient-years, p = 0.04). No significant differences were observed in rate of any stroke, ischemic stroke, or adverse events.
The results of this trial suggest that left atrial appendage device closure appears as effective as anticoagulation with warfarin for preventing ischemic stroke and may improve both cardiovascular and overall mortality while reducing the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The initial trial report found that device closure had more adverse events than warfarin, but most adverse events related to device closure occurred in the periprocedural period, while adverse events associated with warfarin occurred throughout the follow-up period. Therefore, over 4 years of follow-up, the rate of adverse events evened out between the two interventions. Device closure may be especially appealing for patients with increased bleeding risk and patients unable or unwilling to follow the monthly monitoring routine required with warfarin use. However, the results of this trial cannot be extended to novel Factor II and Xa inhibitors and further studies are required to determine the efficacy of percutaneous left atrial appendage closure compared to these newer drug therapies.
For more information, see the Atrial fibrillation and Prevention of stroke topics in DynaMed.


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Heart attacks down 24% in decade, 62% for worst
HEALTH Kaiser finds 24% drop in heart attacks over decade; most serious type down 62%
A study of more than 46,000 Northern California Kaiser Permanente patients found a significant drop in heart attacks over a 10-year period, and more importantly, a major decrease in the most serious type of heart attacks - results that show that communitywide efforts to help people reduce their risk of heart disease seem to be working, doctors say.
The study, published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the heart attack rate among Kaiser patients fell 24 percent between 1999 and 2008 - the rate increased from 1999 to 2000, but declined every year after that. The types of heart attacks that do the most damage - known as ST-segment elevation heart attacks - fell 62 percent.
Over the same time period, more Kaiser patients lowered their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and smoking rates decreased. The use of medications like beta-blockers and aspirin that are known to prevent heart disease increased. It would seem, authors of the study noted, that these preventive measures are working, perhaps even better than expected.
"Researchers keep trying to find more ways to treat heart attacks, but we need to focus just as much attention on things that we know work now, and doing those things on a large scale: adopting healthier lifestyles, stopping smoking, taking medications," said Dr. Alan Go, an author of the study and director of the Comprehensive Clinical Research Unit at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland.
A diverse study
Heart attack rates have been falling for more than 20 years in the United States with vastly improved preventive care and an understanding of the risk factors that lead to heart disease. But very few studies have looked at heart attack rates over the past 10 years, and the Kaiser study is one of the largest and most diverse in terms of age, race and sex.
The drop in heart attack rates is especially noteworthy, researchers said, because technology introduced in the last decade actually makes it easier for doctors to identify smaller, less serious heart attacks that may have gone undetected before. So even as doctors were able to catch more heart attacks, the rate continued to decline.
"If anything, the study underestimates the tremendous improvements that have been made to date," said Dr. Robert Pearl, executive director and CEO of the Permanente Medical Group.
In addition to the decrease in heart attack rates, the short-term death rate for heart attack victims improved. About 10.5 percent of patients who suffered a heart attack in 1999 died within a month, compared with 7.8 percent in 2008.
Looking at all heart attacks, the percentage of patients with the most serious types fell from 47 percent in 1999 to 23 percent in 2008. Part of that shift was due to doctors' ability to detect more of the less severe heart attacks, but part was due to a decline in the most severe heart attacks.
The more severe ST-segment elevation heart attacks - the name refers to a section of the waves produced by an electrocardiogram - occur when plaque builds up and ruptures, leading to a thick clot forming in a major artery and blocking blood supply. People with these heart attacks must have surgery immediately to unblock the artery.
In non-ST-segment elevation heart attacks, a less stable clot forms and blood is still able to move through the artery, although slowly. These patients can be treated with drugs that break up clots and thin the blood.
A wake-up call
These smaller heart attacks are, in a way, wake-up calls to patients that they need to make serious changes to prevent a more severe heart attack in the near future, said Dr. Michael Crawford, chief of clinical cardiology at UCSF Medical Center.
He said he wasn't surprised to see the overall drop in heart attack rates, but he didn't expect to see the rate of very serious heart attacks decline so much.
"That was really good news, because it suggests that the prevention things we're doing are really working, especially in terms of these events that really kill people," Crawford said. "It's hard for people to see on a personal level what preventative therapies are doing for them. By looking at the population, this really demonstrates that we're actually making headway."


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First Semester Group (FSG)
First semester GROUP
Prof. Johan Bettum
Guest Professors: Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley
teacher: yara feghali
The First Semester Programme at SAC is common to all the students of the M.A. Architecture course and aims to introduce them to select theoretical and practical aspects of the contemporary architectural milieu. During this year the foundation is laid in terms of a conceptual, methodological and technical expertise for the research based, thesis work in the second year.
The intensive, one-semester long training equips the rich collection of students from all over the world with the knowledge and executive ability to critically engage and deal with contemporary issues in architectural design. Personal interests of the students are contextualised and concretised.
The programme thus arms the next generation of architects with advanced design techniques, methods and strategies, the critical capability to see emerging and relevant design and project opportunities within their own work and the wherewithal to strategically use their imagination and personal interests to drive their design work; thereby becoming part of and furthering the discourse of the school and consequently the discipline of architecture at large.
The first semester programme draws in part on the respective thematic areas that the three, second-year Master specialisations present; thereby fully integrating the streams of knowledge within the school but also helping students in choosing their respective specializations for their second semester at the school.
Each academic year FSG engages with a specific overall theme. This guides in part the theoretical readings and discussions as well as the practical work. The overall theme embraces generic as well as specific or context dependent aspects pertaining to contemporary architecture and frequently pits its students against societal as well as cultural topics that are as engaging as they are perplexing.
The students go through a manifold training comprised of various sets of theory seminars and design and experiment workshops. The results are accumulative as each separate module is designed to coordinate with all parallel modules. The semester ends with the students being presented with an architectural design brief that lasts about six to eight weeks. The final architectural design serves as a proof-of-concept for each student with respect to her or his portfolio of research and experimental results. The End-of-semester presentations are held in front of a jury panel consisting of invited guests and faculty members.


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Nightclubs are, mercifully, a distant memory for me. As much as I enjoyed shoe-gazing to Indie tunes in the late Eighties and early Nineties at The Ritzy in Newcastle, 'dance music' – and the whole popping pills mullarky – left me cold.
It didn't help that I'm no Travolta, neither. When I was in The Regent theatre's panto a couple of years ago, Welsh star Christian Patterson, who played the dame, wrote: 'Martin is to dancing what King Herod was to babysitting.'
It was a harsh, but fair assessment.
My drinking days are long gone too.
In truth, I never really enjoyed booze like my peers did and was almost always the driver for my mates when we went on pub crawls around Hanley or up 'Castle.
My friends would shrink with embarrassment when I ordered a glass of red wine in a pub as part of their round of manly pints.
Four bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale or four pints of Löwenbräu (laughing juice as we used to call it) up the Duke of Wellington at Norton and I didn't know whether it was Friday or Norway.
To be honest, I could never understand why anyone would want to drink pints of anything. It just made me need the loo. I always regretted it the day after too: Waking up with a banging headache and stinking of cigarette smoke.
We weren't bad lads by any stretch of the imagination.
Unless you count running past Hanley nick late at night with a traffic cone on your head and being chased by a couple of coppers.
Then there was the time I drove down the A500 in the dark in my bright yellow Austin Metro, forgetting to put the lights on and barely able to see out of the windscreen because of the smoke from the marijuana spliffs being passed around by my passengers.
In truth we were far too square to get into any real trouble.
However, even in our day – 20 odd years ago now – there were always idiots looking for a fight in pubs and clubs and we got into a few scrapes.
It seems some things haven't changed.
This week's figures showing that Stoke-on-Trent is ranked as the 15th worst local authority area in England and Wales in terms of violent crime, shouldn't really surprise anyone.
For starters, the city is 16th in the list of most populous built-up areas in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics, so our position in the 'league table of troublespots' sort of makes sense.
Around 13 per cent of violent incidents in the Potteries happen in Hanley. Again, this is to be expected, I suppose – given that the city centre has a large number of pubs and clubs concentrated in a relatively small area. Apparently, most of the trouble – involving drunken youths – occurs between 9pm and 4am.
Why anyone would still be out drinking at three or four o'clock in the morning is beyond me.
It was only when I met recently with Hanley's pub and club owners that I realised that the night-time scene has actually changed beyond all recognition in the last two decades.
Gone are the days when 10, 15 or even 20,000 people were out in the city centre on a Friday or Saturday night – moving from pub to pub and ending up at The Place or Valentino's – then finishing up with a kebab and a taxi ride home before mum got too worried.
Nowadays, Hanley is a ghost town most nights.
Licensees are fighting for custom from the two to four thousand young people who don't actually turn up in Hanley until after 10 o'clock – many arriving 'preloaded', having drunk copious amounts of alcohol before leaving the house.
They then flock to the Trinity Street area and cause police a huge headache – especially at closing time.
The real problem here, in my opinion, isn't the fact that a minority of boneheads can't handle their ale – it's that Hanley is dead of an evening – with the exception of audiences who visit The Regent, the Victoria Hall or Mitchell Youth Arts Centre when there's a show on.
This is absolutely not the case in other comparable city centres which have a far more cosmopolitan ambiance and where people of all ages feel comfortable walking round.
The night-time economy in Hanley is genuinely struggling and really needs some urgent help. It is simply not viewed by over-30s as somewhere they'd like to be of a Friday or Saturday night – unless they have a theatre ticket.
Even if they do visit the theatre, the vast majority park up, watch the show, and go home – rather than heading to a pub or going for a meal. Hanley is currently undergoing major regeneration work involving the expansion of the Potteries Shopping Centre and the creation of the Central Business District.
Meanwhile, we've all had a punt in the great sweepstake on whether or not the ridiculously-named City Sentral development will actually happen and finally lead to a much-needed makeover of the old bus station site. Over to you, Realis…
Parts of our city centre now look bright and modern but the problem remains that it isn't somewhere most people over the age of 30 or anyone with children really wants to visit.
This isn't a question of demonising young people.
I don't believe for a second that there is a higher proportion of yobs these days than there was when I was queueing at the bars in Macy's or the Market Tavern.
Helping the police to reduce violence is, of course, important but – to me – of equal value is assisting those businesses who rely on night-time trade for their survival.
That includes the restaurants and businesses which don't benefit from an influx of teenagers and 20-somethings of a weekend.
While Hanley is, undoubtedly, a work in progress I think that more needs to be done to tempt families, couples and those born before 1985 to spend their evenings in the city centre.
Christmas shopping nights shouldn't be the only time when the majority of us want to visit Hanley of an evening. There should be more continental markets and street entertainment, the superb Potteries Museum – for example – could be opened up for evening visitors and more should be done to promote some of the terrific restaurants.
Successful city centres don't close down at 5.30pm and I would suggest we neglect Hanley's night-time economy at our peril.
Read my Personally Speaking columns every Friday in The Sentinel


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Our Southside Maker Arts Center (SMAC) has evolved from a brick and mortar on the southside into a fleet of vehicles that can bring programs to any events, classrooms, recreation centers, or other groups where learning and fun go hand in hand. Introducing the new SMAC (STEM Mobile Arts Classroom). Programs include:
Childrens' Sculpture Park - Make and create on a large scale with these giant blocks, chutes, balls and objects. The full garden can handle twenty-five children at a time and provides creative play for hours. This is available for a daily rental fee and teachers are available for an additional charge. Perfect for primary grades (and adults too).
Sphero Paint Party - Spheros are sphere-shaped robots that roll on the floor to a user's commands. Art 120 takes this one step further by adding textures, paint, and a dozen Spheros for students to create and make their own artwork with. This program is great for groups ranging from 12-24 in size. All supplies are provided and an Art120 teacher will be on hand to assist. Primary to junior high.
Chibitronic Art - Create murals, cards or pictures that light up while learning about electronic circuitry. Our curriculum is customizable to accommodate up to twenty students and engage learners from 3rd grade through high school.
Squishy Circuit Light up Figures - First through third graders learn how to create conductive and non-conductive materials to create figures that can light up, blink and turn off or on. This is a great precursor to Chibitronic Art and can accommodate a large group of students.
Urban Art Bike Program - Our mobile classroom allows us to setup a three bay welding class anywhere. Learn to weld, use power tools and make fully rideable sculptures in this immersive class for ages 10 and up. This is a great add on for a workshop, class project or summer program.
Attention principals and teachers: Funding available through the Tennessee Arts Commission for Title 1 schools.
Contact Kate Warren to schedule a meeting and get signed up today!


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|Offensive Line Coach/Director of Football Operations
|Alma Mater:
|St. Olaf College 1994
Mike Fossum has been a member of the Wisconsin Lutheran College football coaching staff longer than any other coach, entering his 21st season as an assistant for the Warriors. Fossum serves as WLC's offensive line coach and director of football operations.
In the 17 seasons the Warriors have been affiliated with a conference, Fossum has developed 22 all-conference offensive linemen, including at least one every year since 2002. Last season, Connor Young received Honorable Mention recognition.
Wisconsin Lutheran won the league's rushing title in 2009 behind Fossum's offensive line and has ranked second four times since. In 2014, running back Mike Reeves finished his Warriors career tied for the all-time lead in rushing touchdowns (23) and as the sole leader in average yards per carry (5.62).
WLC produced two of the conference's top three running backs in 2011, when Jesse Muldrow and Donavin Tucker combined to create a formidable duo in the backfield. Fossum's offensive line also helped pave the way for Tucker to break the single-game rushing record with his 220-yard performance against Rockford that season. The Warriors offensive line also led the way in a 42-20 win over Minnesota-Morris in which WLC had three players rush for over 100 yards.
Fossum's offensive line played a crucial role when former running back Matt Kehl broke the MIAA career rushing record in 2006. Kehl, who was inducted into the WLC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015, finished his career with 3,190 career rushing yards.
Fossum had five seasons of experience at the NCAA Division II and III football ranks prior to his appointment at Wisconsin Lutheran. His most recent assignment was as an assistant coach for two years (1997-1998) at Division I-AA South Dakota State University for head coach John Stiegelmeier. There he worked primarily with the defensive secondary, and assisted with special teams and scouting. For three seasons (1994-1996), Fossum coached the defensive line at his alma mater, St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. During his stint, six linemen earned all-conference honors and one was selected to the all-region team.
An offensive lineman while at St. Olaf, Fossum was an all-conference selection under former head coach Don Canfield and earned the team's Most Inspirational Leadership Award his senior season. During his prep days at Black River Falls High School, Fossum played football for Warren Rosin, a member of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Fossum earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. Olaf (1994), a master's degree in athletic administration from South Dakota State (1998), and a master's in business administration from the University of Phoenix (2004).
Fossum, who is actively involved in summer camps throughout the Milwaukee area, is a member of both the American and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association. He and his wife, Astrid, have two sons, John and Will, and a daughter, Julia. The family resides in Milwaukee.


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Thank you! We will reply to your message within 24 hours during normal business hours: M-F, 8am-4pm.
Emergency/Urgent Need? Call 800-787-5885. Select option '2'. Record your name, phone number, and brief description, including:
1. What happened?
2. When?
3. Most recent fabric protection treatment?
4. Care/Containment actions taken? Observations?
A Christopher's representative will contact you ASAP.


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Major corporations often have large in-house legal teams. These internal lawyers review contracts and documents, advise human resources on employment law matters, and help to avoid expansion missteps caused by regional or national variations in regulations. Hiring a lawyer or lawyers to provide the first line of defense against expensive legal screw-ups is just a part of doing big business.
But smaller companies, especially those with less-experienced management, often forgo the hiring of in-house counsel or the retention of outside legal advisors, sometimes for years. Usually this is due to budget constraints, but even fast-growing young companies with money to burn can put off adding legal staff for far too long, confident that a lack of legal trouble early on means no legal trouble will ever develop.
But if a company has clients and hires employees, eventually they will find themselves in a legal dispute. It's inevitable; a predictable cost of doing any kind of business.
It is a common occurrence in any kind of employment practice to see employee agreements with horrible flaws, such as illegal provisions regarding hours and overtime, unnecessary arbitration clauses, unenforceable non-compete clauses, and the like.
Or you will see contracts signed with clients that lack vital terms of the deals - like payment schedules or rainy-day backup plans - leaving it up to a court to figure out what performance the parties owed to each other when they inevitably disagree and accuse each other of breach.
Too often small companies try to coast on their history of legal peace, confident that simply because they have not so far been sued by anyone that they will never be sued. But as they grow and employ more people and take on more clients, the odds of conflict increase dramatically. It's just a matter of statistics. The more people you work with, the greater the chance of legal dispute. Not every deal will work out. Not every employee will be compliant. Not every manager will behave themselves.
Though the majority of my practice is on the plaintiff's side of employment disputes, it would not hurt my feelings at all if more companies took the important step to add wise internal counsel to avoid or mitigate many of the conflicts that can arise in the usual course of doing business. The fewer employees who suffer discrimination, the better. The fewer client contracts that turn out to be huge legal losses instead of huge revenue gains, the better. The fewer managers who have to take the stand and risk the reputations of themselves and their companies by giving embarrassing testimony about their mistakes, the better.
Young and growing business owners: when it comes to legal issues, don't fly blind.


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Scenic City Opera (SCO) is currently seeking covers for principal roles in Marschner's "Der Vampyr". Specific characters needing covers are Lord Ruthven (baritone), Edgar Aubry (tenor – almost a heldentenor), and Malwina Davenaut (soprano). We are also seeking tenors and basses for our chorus. Note that covers will get at least one performance, and will be required to sing in the chorus for the other performances.
Staging rehearsals begin May 16. There will be 6 performances beginning May 26
Friday, May 26 – 7:30pm
Saturday, May 27 – 7:30pm
Sunday, May 28 – 2:00pm
Friday, June 2 – 7:30pm
Saturday, June 3 – 7:30pm
Sunday, June 4 – 2:00pm
Please note that the chorus in this opera is really a character unto itself. Preference will go to fairly local singers who can attend at least a few chorus rehearsals during the month of April and early May.
There is no pay available, however we will offer a small honorarium to hopefully cover at least the cost of travel to and from Chattanooga (for covers only).
If interested, please contact us today.


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*Special thanks to Senator Ben Cardin, whose idea served as the inspiration for this blog post.
Baltimore's National Aquarium celebrated its 32nd birthday on Thursday – officially unveiling the new $13 million Blacktip Reef exhibit in a style that invoked the iconic image of William Donald Schaefer wading into the seal tank while wearing a 1920s bathing suit and carrying a rubber duck on August 8th, 1981. Thirty-two years later, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and National Aquarium CEO John Racanelli risked the shark-infested waters for Thursday's ribbon cutting, officially ushering in a new era of exhibits at the "crown jewel of the Inner Harbor."
As anniversaries often do, the commemoration of another successful year offers an opportunity to look back at where things began and how far they have come. It is easy to forget that when the concept for an aquarium in Baltimore's then-sparse waterfront was first proposed there were those who vehemently opposed its founding and the public support that helped fund its construction. Yet since breaking ground in 1978, the Aquarium has proven that it's not the floundering fishbowl people imagined, but rather a deep sea of success. Nearly 50 million people have walked through our doors. Of them, 2.5 million Maryland students have been inspired by the 16,000 animals from more than 650 different species that call the Aquarium home. The National Aquarium remains the number one tourist attraction in Maryland with nearly 1.4 million visitors every year. And a recently completed economic impact study concluded that the Aquarium is responsible for $314 million worth of economic impact and an additional $19 million fiscal impact on the City and State every year.
Given this tremendous contribution to the state, it is almost hard to believe that the National Aquarium was once decried as "frivolous" and just one of the Mayor's "pets" during the contentious debate over the bond referendum to help fund the Aquarium in 1976. Critics worried that attendance would be low and the resulting reduced revenue would not be enough for the experiment to be self-sustaining (in fact, the Aquarium only planned to host 600,000 people – instead it saw 1.6 million visitors in its first year). Finally, opponents argued that the presence of such a project would not be "essential" to the City of Baltimore.
While I was not alive to witness this debate or Mayor Schaefer's infamous plunge, a picture of him tipping his straw hat, eyes staring up at the glistening glass pavilion he spent nearly a decade bringing to life hangs on my office wall. It reminds me on a daily basis that, national designation or not, we are still Baltimore's Aquarium[1]. It was Mayor Schaefer and his Commissioner of Housing and Community Development, Robert Embry, who first dreamed up the idea to attract tourism to the Inner Harbor with an aquarium in the early 1970s. It was Baltimore City residents in 1976 who voted to fund the Aquarium's construction via a bond referendum. And it was Baltimore's native son, former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, who led Congress to designate the new facility the "national aquarium" in 1979.
A day after Mayor Schaefer took his dive with an 800-pound seal named Ike, the Baltimore Sun opined: "On Pratt Street yesterday were crowds of people where crowds never existed before." So here is to another 32 years. Another 50 million visitors. Another 2.5 million Maryland students. Thousands more breathtaking animals to visit. And hundreds of millions more economic and fiscal benefit to the City and State.
Happy birthday, National Aquarium! Apart from crab cakes and the Orioles, I can't think of another symbol that is more "essential" to the City of Baltimore.
[1] The land and the buildings are owned by the City of Baltimore. The City of Baltimore funded most of the Aquarium's $21.3 million construction cost. Other major sources include: $7.5 million from City capital funds generated by the sale of Friendship (now Baltimore-Washington International) Airport to the State of Maryland; another $7.5 million from the 1976 bond issue referendum; and $2.5 million from the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department. The private sector contributed about $1 million.
National Aquarium intern and Towson University student, Kelsey Fielder, contributed greatly to the research and writing of this post.


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Tankard - "Rules For Fools" AFM Records
Director: http://www.tankard.org
Tankard is a thrash metal band from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, founded in 1982. After losing their guitarist because of their image as a bunch of drunks, they moved on to issue their first record in 1986. From that point on, the band has continuously made songs and records in the same style they started out with - fast metal songs in honor of alcohol. Thus they claim to have invented a new genre called "alcoholic metal". Tankard are self-proclaimed "Kings of Beer" in honour of the folkloric character Gambrinus.
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He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.(Albert Einstein)


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Sierra Leones VP is Cuttingtons 2015 commencement Speaker
(elbcradio.com/Sept. 22, 2015)-Sierra Leone's Vice President, Victor Boacharie Foh, is expected to serve as Keynote Speaker of the 2015 commencement convocation of the Cuttington University.
Vice President Foh, along with a 12-member delegation, including the Second Lady of Sierra Leone, Jonta Foh, will be visiting Liberia from September 22 to 28.
A Foreign Ministry release says other members of the Sierra Leonean Vice President's delegation include the country's Minister of Youth, Alimamy Kamara, and the Vice President's Advisor, Jengo Stevens, among others.
While in Liberia, Mr. Foh and delegation will be guests of the Vice President of Liberia, Joseph Boakai.
During Cuttington University's 2015 commencement convocation, Vice President Foh will be conferred Honorary Doctorate Degree for humanitarian services being offered the Government and People of Sierra Leone.
His visit represents the long standing and cordial relationship that has subsisted between the peoples of the two West African nations.
The Vice President Foh will be met at the Roberts International Airport by senior Liberian Government Officials, including Vice President Boakai and Acting Foreign Minister, Elias Shoniyin.


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Rich and diverse
The Alps are home to a wide variety of languages and cultures.
In addition to the four main Alpine languages used in ALPARC, namely French, German, Italian and Slovenian, the Alps are home to a very diverse linguistic heritage. Languages range from Slavonic to Germanic, with Alemannic German, Bavarian and the Walser dialect still being spoken in some regions, to the Rhaeto-Romance languages (Romansch, Ladin, Friulian) and Gallo-Romance and Italo-Western dialects. Many of these languages and dialects are now only spoken in remote areas and are gradually dying out.
Cultivated landscapes
Traditional agricultural and pastoral activities have shaped the farmed landscapes in large sections of the Alps for over a thousand years and are a significant factor in maintaining biodiversity.
Architecture, food, traditions and craftsmanship...
The architectural heritage also bears witness to the diversity found in the Alps. It is fascinating to examine both the differences and also the similarities in the solutions used to cope with the steep gradients and harsh climate.
The same is true of the culinary heritage, costumes and traditions, not to mention the skills of local craftsmen and artists...


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Advanced Product Feeds for Magento 2
This is an outstanding extension for generating and publishing your store product feeds in comparison shopping engines and marketplaces. Operates with all comparison engines.
Fast and flexible, interacts with Google Analytics to measure campaign results, has a lot of options and more than 50 ready-made configurations including magento 2 google shopping feed.
Sphinx Search Ultimate for Magento 2
Get an innovative approach to search for your online store and increase your website conversion from search results by more than 50% with Sphinx Search Ultimate!
Incredible relevancy within milliseconds, search autocomplete, misspelling correction, searching by multiple content types (CMS pages, forums, catalog products, categories and attributes).
Advanced Reports for Magento 2
Analytics for any ecommerce store is the number one everyday activity. Magento 2 Reports extension utilizes the cutting-edge UI technologies and improvements of Magento 2 to help you get deep insights of your shop performance indicators. Level up your store analytics flows with Magento 2 Advanced Reports!
22 ready-made reports with real-time data
Mobile and desktop dashboards with key metrics
Interactive charts for visualizing your data
Flexible filters by any column
Custom Reports (Report Builder)
Web API
Advanced SEO Suite for Magento 2
This is a powerful Extension for SEO compliance of your online store. Search engines want your website to be perfectly tuned for users, which may cost a lot for you. Advanced SEO Suite solution allows you to automate most magento 2 SEO settings and save time and money for SEO specialists!
Reward Points + Referral program for Magento 2
Benefit more with Magento 2 Reward Points extension! Reward Points + Referral Program extension will enhance your store and attract clients with points, rewards, referral program.
Fully featured and flexible marketing tool to implement a Loyalty Program for your online store! Reward Points+Referral Program is designed to appreciate your customers every time they benefit your shop in some way. Encourage your shoppers and they will be returning for new purchases over and over!
Elastic Search Ultimate for Magento 2
Elastic Search Ultimate will lead your customers exactly to the products they are looking for! This will ultimately create an increase in your store conversion using just your search results!
This extension creates an incredible search experience. It returns the right search results within milliseconds. All required search functions are built-in: search autocomplete, misspelling correction, searching by multiple content types and much more.
Even more: by using the Elasticsearch engine extension you can speed up your catalog's layered navigation! So customers will be able to navigate through catalog pages faster.
Full Page Cache Warmer for Magento 2
The Full Page Cache Warmer solution solves an issue with cache updating. Whenever your customer or Google visits this page, it will be loaded in a split second!
This extension brings a unique robot designed to monitor cache status. Once some page cache was cleared, the robot visits this page and warms the cache for it!
Layered Navigation for Magento 2
Layered Navigation extension allows you to add super flexible and attractive navigation that matches all modern approaches and trends to your Magento store. It significantly expands default Magento navigation, fixes some issues with it and adds a lot of new features to it.
Must Have Extensions for Magento 1
Reward Points + Referral program
This extension allows you to reward your customers with points for any purchases or any other actions they do in your store. They can then be redeemed for discounts or any other benefits you wish to create.
RMA is a powerful tool for managing the processing return and exchange requests within your workflow. This, in turn, allows your customers to request and manage returns and exchanges directly from your webstore.
Advanced Reports
Sales analytics is applied in order to determine, understand and predict sales trends. Good analytics is required for successful sales management. 20+ ready Magento reports.
Follow Up Email
Trigger messages have proven to be a reliable tool of email marketing with a very high rate of response and conversion. Follow Up Email can bring up to 40% of the total income that you receive through the email distribution.
Advanced Product Feeds
Publication of your products in the comparison shopping engines will allow you to attract more new buyers to your store. This extension allows you to automatically generate a feed with products for all common comparison shopping engines (Google Product Search, Shopping.com, Nextag.com, Twenga.co.uk, etc.).
Full Page Cache
Full Page Cache extension is the best solution for a Magento store that significantly speeds up page load time, reduces the load on the server, improves website ranking and remarkably increases sales conversion. This is a extension that directly affects sales conversion and successfully generates the revenue.
Advanced SEO Suite
Advanced SEO Suite allows you to optimize the specific categories and product groups for specific search terms on a template. This will greatly improve the performance of your store in various search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc).
Sphinx Search Ultimate
Sphinx Search Ultimate is a Magento extension that combines the most modern approaches to the product search for online stores. Here you'll find all you need in order to create an ideal product search in your online store.


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Hello there! We have an exciting weekend going on here...a wedding, a half marathon (Doug, not me!) and a quick trip to the beach :) Before we head out though, I wanted to post the card I plan to give my hubby after he finishes his race. How anyone runs 13.1 miles is beyond my comprehension! I sure am proud of him though for continually working hard and challenging himself to do this.
Thanks for spending a part of your day with me :)
Enjoy your weekend!
Stamps: The Big, The Bold and You (Winnie & Walter) Spot On (Lil' Inkers) Epic Dad, So 80's (WPlus9) Mod Borders (MFT)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento) Wild Mango, Silver Lining (WPlus9) Aqua Mist (PTI)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black (SU) Aqua Mist (PTI)
Accessories: Enamel Dots (MME) Star Rhinestones


text: This is a collection of 5 delightful short stories. Each has a twist at the end and each got you thinking a little bit. I enjoyed this as a nice light 'easy' read but very different from Mel's usual style of writing. It's nice to see an author step away from what they are used to and try something different. Well done Mel!


text: Dell Computers is a leader in the industry with a strict policy against all e-waste, and They have partnered with Goodwill to create hundreds of "green jobs" and save the environment from toxic waste. You can drop off old electronics (Dell and any other brand of used equipment) at Goodwill, and they will properly dispose of it if they cannot sell it. No "environmentally sensitive materials" are sent to your local landfill, and your donations will never be sent to developing countries for dumping.


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In even numbered years, ACDA has a biennial conference at St. Mary of the Lake Conference Center in Mundelein, IL. During the odd numbered years, the organization has a one day meeting during the week of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Annual Conference.
For information on current and past year's meetings, please visit the following pages:
2018 Biennial Conference | 2017 ACDA at SAA | 2016 Biennial Conference | 2015 ACDA at SAA | 2014 Biennial Conference


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As I've mentioned in a previous post, I was amongst the lucky 500 chosen to be part of the first Beta for Runestone's SEED MMORPG. I've been watching these guys and the development of this MMO, and been waiting patiently for the beta to get here. And well, here we are.
So after getting my account creation info in an email on Tuesday, I just couldn't wait to download the game, install it and walk through this brand new and original virtual world. First I had to create an account, and that wouldn't happen until early Wednesday morning (the registration server didn't come online until then), which meant that I couldn't create mine until I got home from work last evening.
To my great disappointment though, the server was down when I tried to create my account! I would have to play EVE "instead". As if that was a poor second choice. No it was not. Never is. But the craving I felt was for SEED that evening, not EVE.
Tonight though, the wait was over. Sort of. You see, SEED is in Beta, and as with every beta version of any software it has bug, it crashes, it needs a lot of improvement. Which is why Public Beta exist in the first place. We're the Chuck Yeager of the MMO universe. That's us, the Beta Testers!! The Proud, the Few, the Lucky!!
So this first screenshot if where you create you your character. There's a bit of customization available though not as much as one could hope for. Still, these cell-shaded screenies are simply gorgeous! N'est-ce pas!
Then, once we have a character created, we're ready to step into this brand new world and explore it's farthest corners, it's every level.
And voila! Here we are, in the Tower! And this is pretty much as far as this went tonight. A couple of restart of the game, creation of 2 new characters and a few minutes after spawning to life, the game would crash. Too bad, cause it looks awesome and I wanted to explore some. Guess it'll have to wait.
All part of the Beta, all part of the fun. And there's more to come!


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Are you searching for a trusted painter to tackle your home's interior for your remodeling project? Blue Sky Painting has provided East Lansing, MI residents with exceptional painting services for over 12 years. You'll receive professional residential and commercial painting services that exceed your expectations. From your entire home's exterior to small offices and retail spaces, we complete each job to your satisfaction and always clean up after each project.
It's easy to update the exterior of your home or retail property—Call Blue Sky Painting to get started on your updated space. We're your top choice for:
Call now to receive your free estimate on interior or exterior painting services. Feel free to talk with us about your ideas—We're happy to take a look at your space and give you recommendations.
"WOW! We were looking for a painter to do a small job at our daughters house to get it ready to sell. Dave responded right away and scheduled an appointment to see what we wanted done. I thought because it was a small job he would not want to do it. But he was very professional and helpful. Suggesting paint colors, stain colors and and just ideas to improve the property. When they were finished our daughter loved it! They made the rooms look classy and modern. The lead painter Rick was extremely friendly and professional. The job was excellent, well worth the price. We will hire this company if we need any other painting done."
East Lansing, MI 48823GET DIRECTIONS
Call Us
Phone: (517) 507-1752
Mon: 8:00AM-5:00PM
Tue: 8:00AM-5:00PM
Wed: 8:00AM-5:00PM
Thu: 8:00AM-5:00PM
Fri: 8:00AM-5:00PM
Sat: Closed
Sun: Closed


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Property Location
With a stay at Azia Suites and Residences, you'll be centrally located in Cebu, steps from USC-North Campus and minutes from Cebu Business Park. This hotel is within close proximity of Ayala Center and Cebu International Convention Center.
Make yourself at home in one of the 60 air-conditioned rooms featuring flat-screen televisions. Complimentary wireless Internet access keeps you connected, and cable programming is available for your entertainment. Private bathrooms with showers feature complimentary toiletries and hair dryers. Conveniences include phones, as well as desks and complimentary bottled water.
Pamper yourself with onsite massages or make use of the other amenities, which include complimentary wireless Internet access and concierge services.
Grab a bite to eat at the hotel's restaurant, which features a bar, or stay in and take advantage of room service (during limited hours).
Business, Other Amenities
Featured amenities include complimentary newspapers in the lobby, dry cleaning/laundry services, and a 24-hour front desk. A roundtrip airport shuttle is provided for a surcharge (available on request), and free self parking is available onsite.


text: This Thanksgiving It's All About The Sides\\nWe always find ourselves doubling up on them—so we've put together fresh takes on the classics.\\nAt most Thanksgivings, the turkey is the main event—but it's the sides that make the meal. That's why we asked Daphne Cheng, a chef in New York City known for her delicious vegetarian fare and cool roster of clients, to design a menu that upgrades five classic sides to center-plate status with simple, seasonal ingredients and flavor-packed twists. Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, green beans, stuffing—the gang's all here and they taste so good, you might even skip the turkey this year. Invite everyone over for an informal affair, and make sure they save room for dessert: It's rich, chocolaty and nutrient-packed. You're welcome to seconds.\\nWhen it comes to these greens, it's all about the sauce, baby.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/roasted-brussels-sprouts-hazelnut-chimichurri)\\nA healthy, flavor-packed twist on classic stuffing.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/healthy-quinoa-stuffing)\\nA sophisticated upgrade to classic canned cranberry.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/cranberry-compote)\\nGet your green bean fix with this upscale remix.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/sauteed-green-beans-pickled-red-onion)\\nImpress guests with this inventive redesign of the classic.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/butternut-squash-polenta-shaved-apple)\\nMove over chocolate pie. Rich, creamy mousse is stealing the show this year.\\n\\n[See the recipe »](/body/recipes/2014/11/chocolate-mousse-coconut-creme-fraiche)


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Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) pioneered a brand-new market after the fall of The Iron Curtain while making powerful enemies — including Vladimir Putin. He is the author of Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice.
"I made a vow on that morning to Sergei Magnitsky's memory, to his family, and to myself, that I was going to go after the people who killed him and make sure that they face justice." -Bill Browder
What We Discuss with Bill Browder:
- How someone who grew up in a family of communist academics became one of today's most successful capitalists.
- How Bill Browder saw and continues to see and profit from opportunities that others discount as foolish.
- How Russian oligarchs rip off and defraud minority and foreign shareholders.
- How an Interpol Red Notice could mean arrest and extradition to Russia to face torture.
- Who was Sergei Magnitsky, and how is Bill seeking justice for his murder by the Russian state?
- And much more…
Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps!
(Download Episode Here)
(Subscribe in iTunes Here)
(Find Jordan Here)
After the fall of The Iron Curtain in the early '90s, Eastern Europe and Russia were ripe for investors poised to take advantage of a communist economy trying to make the jump start to a free market. State industries were privatized for pennies on the dollar, and the opportunity to profit was open to anyone paying attention.
Bill Browder, author of Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, was paying attention. Bill joins us to discuss how he went from a $2,000 investment to making millions — and the cost of disrupting business when organized crime and corruption rule the land. Listen, learn, and enjoy!
Please Scroll down for Full Show Notes and Featured Resources!
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More About This Show
How does a kid who grows up in a family of multi-generational communist academics rebel? If you're Bill Browder, author of Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, you become a hardcore capitalist.
"I finished business school at Stanford in 1989, and that was the year the Berlin Wall came down," says Bill. "And as I was trying to figure out what to do with myself, I came up with this idea that if my grandfather was the biggest communist in America, I'm going to try to become the biggest capitalist in Eastern Europe!"
The path was circuitous, but ultimately successful. By accepting a job in London with an American consulting firm, Bill was sent to Poland on a doomed mission to turn around a failing bus company. But while there, he picked up can't-miss privatization opportunities from the financial pages of a newspaper tucked casually under his interpreter's arm.
"A company cost 80 million dollars, and the previous year they made 160 million dollars," Bill says. "You're buying that company for half of their earnings for one year; all you have to do is stay in business for six months and you've made your money back. I thought to myself, 'Wow. I'm going to buy some of this stuff.' I ended up in the first privatizations investing my entire life savings — which was $2,000. My $2,000 over the next 12 months went up 10 times; I made $20,000…once I had that experience making 10 times more money, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with myself, which was go around and find more of these opportunities in Eastern Europe."
Seeing an opportunity to break into the Russian privatization market, Bill joined the cutthroat Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank chronicled in Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. It was 1992, and the government was practically giving away controlling shares in companies in order to make them appealing to people like Bill who were motivated to make them profitable.
"There's a billion dollars worth of ships and you can buy 51 percent for two-and-a-half million dollars," says Bill. "So that made my Polish deal look like nothing!"
The Russian government was trying to jump start its market economy, but the populace had been under communism for generations. So the idea was to turn a nation of communists into capitalists — and quickly.
"Everyone in the country was offered something called a voucher," says Bill. "So 150 million people got vouchers. They were freely exchangeable instruments and they were not registered in anyone's name — kind of like cash. And a secondary market developed for vouchers, so these things traded for about $20 each. And so 150 million times $20 gets you three billion dollars worth of vouchers. And those three billion dollars worth of vouchers were exchangeable for 30 percent of the share capital of all Russian companies, which meant that the market value of the entire country of Russia in 1992 was 10 billion dollars.
"To put this in perspective for you, this is a country where 35 percent of the world's natural gas, 10 percent of all the world's oil, 10 percent of all the world's steel, 10 percent of the world's aluminum, there's banks, there's fertilizer companies, there's timber companies, there's car companies, there's telephone companies, electricity companies — altogether, all in the aggregate of 10 billion dollars. At the time, I think that was like an 80 percent discount to the valuation of Walmart. This is the country of Russia. And there was no restriction — anybody could buy or sell shares. You didn't have to be Russian. Anybody could buy or sell shares, and so that's what set off what became the most phenomenal investment opportunity in the history of the world."
Listen to this episode of The Jordan Harbinger Show in its entirety to learn more about what it took for Bill to convince his colleagues at Salomon Brothers to take the leap into the Russian stock market when everybody else thought he was crazy, how the naysayers suddenly took an interest when he made the company five times its investments, how this put him in a position to give financial advice to the likes of George Soros, how voucher auctions and trading took place in the wild west of post-Soviet Russia, how Russian oligarchs ripped off and defrauded minority and foreign shareholders and what Bill did to work around and against them, the consequences of being a shareholder activist in such a corrupt climate, how many machine gun-toting bodyguards it takes to protect someone in such a position, what happened when Bill's lawyer was arrested and refused to make a false confession, and lots more.
If you enjoyed this session with Bill Browder, let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out at Twitter:
Click here to thank Bill Browder at Twitter!
Click here to let Jordan know about your number one takeaway from this episode!
Resources from This Episode:
- Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder
- Bill Browder's website
- Bill Browder at Twitter
- Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
- William Browder: My Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky Was Murdered By Vladimir Putin, MSNBC
- Q&A: The Magnitsky Affair, BBC News


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Roy Jules Henry Rousel
Roy Rousel Born: 1897- Died: 1986
Roy and his brother Harold took over the family business of 'Rousel Studio's', which specialised in Sign and Poster art after Roy's father Henry Rousel died in 1929. Roy was described as the Manager of the business.
Roy later earned an international reputation as a portrait artist. He had studied at evening classes conducted by the Royal Art Society of New South Wales under instructors Norman Carter, Antonio Datillo-Rubbo and James R Jackson while he completed his sign writing apprenticeship with his father. He twice won the Society's scholarship for drawing.
From 1935-1938 he studied at the Slade School in London as well as the Royal Academy. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Portrait Society, the London Portrait Society, the Paris Salon and the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Rousel was Vice-President of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In Australia his work is held in the Art Gallery of News South Wales, the Australian War memorial and other public collection (PowerHouse Museum, Paul Wilson & Jill Chapman, Nov 07).
Rousel is well-known for his screenprint posters promoting tourism in the Blue Mountains in the 1950s, which are also extremely collectible. He was also a resident of the Blue Mountains, purchasing 'Rosedale' in October 1948 in Hartley Valley, which is a beautiful colonial property built in 1839.
Overall Rousel was a very competent and established artist, who also had a fondness for the Blue Mountains.


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Radio actor Iron Rinn (born Ira Ringold) is a big Newark roughneck blighted by a brutal personal secret from which he is perpetually in flight. An idealistic Communist, a self-educated ditchdigger turned popular performer, a six-foot six-inch Abe Lincoln look-alike, he marries the nation's reigning radio actress and beloved silent-film star, the exquisite Eve Frame (born Chava Fromkin). Their marriage evolves from a glamorous, romantic idyll into a dispiriting soap opera of tears and treachery. And with Eve's dramatic revelation to the gossip columnist Bryden Grant of her husband's life of "espionage" for the Soviet Union, the relationship enlarges from private drama into national scandal. Set in the heart of the McCarthy era, the story of Iron Rinn's denunciation and disgrace brings to harrowing life the human drama that was central to the nation's political tribulations in the dark years of betrayal, the blacklist, and naming names. I Married a Communist is an American tragedy as only Philip Roth could write it.


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The Great Log Cabin Giveaway!
Every reader of this blog is in a different place. You may be in the research phase of building your dream home, you may be comparing log home floor plans, you might be a log home owner or a representative of a log home manufacturer. Maybe you've found your ideal log home, but one thing that we all share in common is that if someone wanted to give us a log cabin for free… we'll take it!
If you won a free log cabin, crafted by a major manufacturer, you could make it your home, build it as a vacation getaway, sell it or donate it to charity, but none of us would refuse such a gift. Well, Ward Cedar Log Homes in conjunction with the Log & Timber Homes Network want to give you a chance to win a log cabin kit valued at $28,000. That's right, a no-obligation giveaway is in progress right now and open to legal residents of the continental U.S. and you can enter every day until December 31, 2008. TIP – Bookmark this page so that you can enter as often as you wish!
Some details and legal stuff from their website… On or about January 5, 2009, representatives of the Sponsor will conduct a random drawing from among all eligible entries received for the entire Promotion Period to award one Grand Prize: a Ward Cedar Log Homes Baskahegan cabin kit. Kit includes solid Northern White Cedar wall logs, precut and numbered, ready for assembly; roof system (rafters, sheathing, feltpaper, shingles and tongue-and-groove pine ceiling sheathing); Andersen windows and Therma-Tru exterior door with cedar trim floor system up to and including subfloor (joists, girders, OSB sheeting); and loft ceiling joists with wood floor. First-level finished flooring, interior partitions and doors/cabinets/plumbing/heating, insulation for the roof, and interior and exterior stains/finishes are not included. Baskahegan cabin kit is valued at approximately $28,700. Shipping of the kit to winner's site within the continental U.S. is included and is valued at approximately $5,000. Total approximate retail value of the Grand Prize is $33,700.


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Though traditional stuffed cabbage recipes are made with meat, here Savoy cabbage leaves are stuffed with a combination of rice, mushrooms, onions, garlic and herbs for a healthy vegetarian stuffed cabbage recipe. The stuffed cabbage leaves gently bake in a simple tomato sauce. This easy stuffed cabbage recipe can be made ahead of time and baked just before serving.
Ready In


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Areas of Care:
Languages Spoken
Board Certification
Professional Statement
Dr. Ajit Arora is a board-certified gastroenterologist. He did a residency in internal medicine in New York. In 1991, he moved to Fresno after completing a GI fellowship in Los Angeles. He was actively involved with the UCSF medical education program as an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine until 2002. Since then, Dr. Arora has been in private practice and has served as chairman for the Department of Gastroenterology in Saint Agnes and Clovis Community Medical Center. He has been the president of the Indian Physician Association of Central California.
http://fresnogi.com/ If you would like to schedule an appointment at the office of Dr. Arora, please click on this link to be redirected to the office website.


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Food & Drink
Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood may get two food stars
A busy corner at 7th Street and Pecan Avenue in Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood may be about to become a new food destination.
First, Paul Verica, one of two Charlotte chefs to make the semifinalist list for the James Beard Foundation this year, released long-expected news that he's closing Heritage Food & Drink in Waxhaw and reopening in Charlotte. He's signed a lease on the building that was the former location of the salad restaurant Crisp. He's actually taking two spots, including the space at the back that used to be a barber shop. However, the owner of the building, Asana Partners, hasn't finalized the lease, Verica says.
"We have signed a lease, but the landlord has not signed off yet due to some complications."
In the meantime, there are persistent reports that Gary Crunkleton, the nationally known mixologist of The Crunkleton, a private cocktail club in Chapel Hill, is in negotiations for the space next door that will be vacated by Heroes Aren't To Find, which is moving to a larger space in NoDa.
Crunkleton grew up on Lake Norman in Denver and has been interested in opening in Charlotte for years. In an interview recently with the online magazine Bitter Southerner, Crunkleton told editor Chuck Reece that he was actively looking for a space.
Asked about reports that he's looking at the space on 7th Street, Crunkleton replied by email: "We are close to securing a lease in the Historic Elizabeth (n)eighborhood. The building is wonderful and will create a warm and comfortable place for the discerning palates and fun people of Charlotte."
While noting that no lease has been signed and he couldn't confirm an exact location, Crunkleton also noted that he'd love to be a culinary neighbor of Verica's: "Any rumors that we want to be his neighbor are accurate. Learning that Paul Verica is doing his thing in the Elizabeth neighborhood is great."
That also would put Crunkleton in close proximity to another cocktail star: Bob Peters. Verica also announced that Peters, the popular cocktail master at the Punch Room at the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, will work with his new restaurant as a consultant, developing new cocktail menus throughout the year.
Verica also will continue to work with pastry chef Ashley Bivens Boyd, who divides her time now between Heritage and 300 East. Verica's son Alex will remain with him in the kitchen, along with a couple of other staff members who work with him now.
On Thursday, Verica said he may keep the name Heritage or he may change it to a name that would reflect the history of the corner, an area of the city that used to be called Stanleyville.
While he'll add a patio with outdoor seating and a cocktail lounge, Verica wants to keep the seating small and intimate, with 64 seats in the main dining room, just a little larger than his current restaurant, plus 16 more in the lounge. The kitchen will definitely be bigger than the tiny space he now uses in Waxhaw, which can barely hold three cooks.
"It'll be so nice to have more space," he admitted. "There's a lot of stuff I really want to do."
Verica also plans to continue his focus on food grown on local farms, he says.
"Our dedication to local is never going to change."
But he says the menu will add some things he describes as "multiple sensory experiences," such as tableside preparations with nitrogen. One example: He's hoping to work with Sammy Koenigsberg of New Town Farms in Waxhaw to roast pasture-raised chickens on the pasture grass they were raised on.
Verica was one of the first chefs in the area to adopt the farm-to-table style. At the Club at Longview, where he was chef for eight years, he had a garden and started growing things he used in the kitchen. He continued working with area farms when he opened Heritage three years ago. He's been looking for a space that's closer to central Charlotte for months, with several rumors reported on different possibilities.
Verica expects the new restaurant to open late this year or early in 2018.
Kathleen Purvis: 704-358-5236, @kathleenpurvis


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Perhaps we have brought them upon ourselves by putting success and the acquisition of things above relationships with our family and friends.
Part of the blame may also have to do with the garage door opener: With it we can zip into our "fortress" without facing the neighbors!
We could also point the finger at T.V. and air conditioning: Both serve to isolate us in that box we call "home."
Henry Ford may also share some of the blame: With the automobile came urbanization and the loss of community. Who today, for example, stands around at the post office jawing over the height of the summer corn or how the local baseball team is faring?
Jesus Christ, having gone to the cross alone, knows all about loneliness and isolation.
And if you are His serious follower, you also are no stranger to loneliness and isolation as you walk the near-vacant, thinning path of the pilgrim.
As Christ's pilgrim, you can identify with the cry of the Psalmist, "I lie awake. I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop." (Psalm 102:7)
How then are we to deal with these twin maladies of loneliness and isolation? Well, we can either view them as conditions that are debilitating and paralyzing, or we can choose to allow God to use them as influences that drive us toward intimacy with the Lord Jesus. Often, it is in our anguished loneliness and isolation that we find true spiritual depth in God. Can we cry out with William T. Sleeper:
"Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come… Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus I come… Out of my sickness into Thy health, out of my want and into Thy wealth. Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus I come to Thee… "
Jesus reassures us amidst our loneliness and isolation:
"I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you).! [Assuredly not!]" (Hebrews 13:5b – Amplified)


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Photographer's Note
Taken in the beautiful small village of Rydal in south Cumbria, just north of Ambleside, this is the Parish Church of St. Mary. It was built in 1824 by Lady le Fleming of Rydal Hall and the Lakeland poet, William Wordsworth, who spent most of his life living in this village, played a part in choosing the site which was originally an orchard.
I shall post a photograph from here of Wordsworth's home, Rydal Mount, later.
Click on the red text for A LARGER VERSION of this picture which can be seen on "Panoramio" and will, hopefully, soon be linked to Google Earth.
Critiques | Translate
npecanhuk (79319) 2013-08-09 20:30
Hi John!
Beautiful place!
Very attractive and charming picture!
Sharpness, exposure, colors, large vertical format, chosen pov and composition are all excellent!
TFS - congrats,
psamaddar (1089) 2013-08-09 22:22
Hi John, Nice picture..good color and composition.
romanaa (8286) 2013-08-09 22:34
Hello John,
very good composition with the lamp post in the foreground, I love the beautiful church and the garden is so neat.
Best regards
jjcordier (79299) 2013-08-09 23:06
Trčs jolie composition verticale présentant de trčs belle façon cette église photographiée sous une excellente lumičre.
jhm (190599) 2013-08-10 0:28
Dear John,
A splendid picture with the church taken out of a excellent angle.
I have your larger version viewed, these is simple wonderful.
John, I have the last version lens purchased 24-70mm 1:2.8 L II USM diameter 82, the deformations are almost gone.
On your picture see we the lantern a little bit deformation, I think with the new lens is the over
Excellent captured, nice composed.
Very well done, TFS.
Have a nice weekend,
vjmite (4216) 2013-08-10 0:45
Hi John,
There is a lovely light on the church and the grass, and the composition works well with the lamp in the foreground. Nice and sharp with excellent colours.
sabermonajati (11533) 2013-08-10 0:46
excellent composition with amazing view from church you captured.
bayno (18348) 2013-08-10 2:17
dear John,
more than a church looks like a small castle and the style is classic English that I really like, I like the composition with the lamppost in FG, the light was great and the shades of green really nice, the quality is excellent as always...
have a good WE...
timecapturer (49288) 2013-08-10 3:48
Greetings John
a lesson in composition and light management this. Enticingly beautiful place and a composition that makes it so irresistible. The detailing and bright green grass make the setting so idyllic and peaceful. Execution is flawless and the presentation a delight. Perfect!
Enjoy the weekend - Brian.
No_One (4) 2013-08-10 5:19
Hi John,
Superb composition. I would not have thought to position the lamp as you have here, but it adds such depth to the image, a brilliant idea. The church itself is of course beautiful, and the whole scene is rich with wonderful lush color. The sky is a wonderful compliment too!
All the best
This is pretty much beyond the need for words....
So any I use are really only of the nitpicky A.R variety!
Your inspired use of the lamp-post would be Even Better if it bisected the line of the path, and Even Better if the lamp itself did not cross the tree line. I.e, a view point inches left and a foot lower.
But this is something that is not always seen in the viewfinder, so I shall continue to not use words...
There, pretty much word free !!
kind regards
holmertz (82736) 2013-08-10 9:59
Hello John,
I like how you have anchored the composition steadily in the lamp-post, from where the path leads me up to the church. It looks like it had been raining not long before, which makes the grass look beautifully fresh and underscores the very English atmosphere created by the church. The sharpness is good enough for a considerably larger version, it's just a slight drawback that the Panorama version is too large for my screen. The details are impressive but I prefer to watch the whole picture without the need for scrolling.
What's that flag? It doesn't look like the Union Jack.
Kind regards,
emka (138698) 2013-08-10 12:13
Hi John,
Nice church in typical English style. It looks as it was in a beautiful park with nice trees. I remember that Wordworth, his sister Dorothy and Coleridge lived somewhere in Lake District. Such a romantic area.
I wonder what red flowers (?) are on the lawn. Charming view. nicely composed with the stylish lamp.
Warm regrads MAlgo
Kugart (1778) 2013-08-11 14:21
Hi John,
Nice shot of the old church. Beautiful rich colours lighting and sharpness along with a good POV go to make this a splendid capture. Nice work.
Royaldevon (63752) 2013-08-12 1:06
Hello John,
The Lake District is a wonderful place for photographers with so many varied aspects and subjects.
I love this!
That lamp standard is perfectly placed to anchor the f/g and link well with the path to guise deeper. The view of the church is, also, really good. Its angle produces a fine sense of perspective and terminates in that tower, with flag, to provide a most rewarding focal point.
The dof and the whole ambience created by the shot, is wonderful.
Have a great week,
Bev :-)
macjake (92235) 2013-08-12 18:54
Hi John
always a pleasure to re-visit your gallery to see whats new, even if you did post this a few days ago.
looking at all this greenery makes me want to take out the golf clubs and hit a few! haha.
by the way, one of my dream vacations is a golf trip to the UK, play some famous cliff view courses in Scotland and Ireland. What a dream that would be. Are you a golfer John?
I wonder if people are going to complain about the light post, it honestly doesn't bother me at all. I have similar shots in my own personal gallery like this from Poland.
you've obtained an excellent depth of field from front to back and side to side. and your chosen pov shows the girth, don't think i've used that word in a critique before :)
excellent light and exposure, nothing wrong with this one John.
enjoy your day, see you around
cjmm (4479) 2013-08-14 9:03
Hello John,
Although I am not 100% sure with the inclusion of the lamp on the foreground, the image looks great, with perfect sharpness in all the frame. (The ammount of detail in the large version is amazing).
Perfect exposure, too.
Kind regards,
mkamionka (53150) 2013-10-01 14:03
Hi John,
I admire your exposition here, the sky is just a tiny bit overexposed but except for that everything is perfect in spite of a very challenging light conditions. Composition is obviously well thought through. Both the lamp and the path add a nice touch. Lovely church and again great advert of this National Park. I really have to get back there again someday.
Beautiful work,
Photo Information
- Copyright: John Cannon (tyro) (29022)
- Genre: Miejsca
- Medium: Kolorowe
- Date Taken: 2013-08-07
- Categories: Natura, Architektura
- Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM, Hoya 77mm Pro1D UV(0)
- Naświetlenie: f/14.0, 1/100 sekund
- More Photo Info: view
- Map: view
- Wersja zdjęcia: Oryginalna wersja
- Date Submitted: 2013-08-09 17:51