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(This is the third edition of View Source, a weekly column in which Rex Sorgatz obsesses over the new ways we create, consume, and manipulate moving images.)
During Sunday night's season premiere of The Newsroom, you probably saw something that made you guffaw, laugh, squeal, or yell at the television. You made a sound, but the television didn't hear you.
The internet has been trying to spark a conversation with television since it could talk.
The telly was oblivious to your elation or annoyance, so you fired up Twitter to announce your celebration or grievance. In the morning, you hopped online and gorged on other people recapping their concerns about the same episode. You probably also perused comments from other viewers at the bottom of the page; possibly, even typed in a few words yourself.
You kept talking to the television, but the television wouldn't listen. But soon, very soon, it will be forced to hear you.
The internet and television are unnatural siblings. They don't particularly like each other, and the elder considers the younger petulant and fickle. Because it is!
The internet is a never-finished thing. Even a web page created years ago keeps changing. It gets redesigned or deleted, new comments are submitted, new ads continue rotating, "related stories" from the future are unwittingly appended. And then browsers update, reformatting old code in unforeseen ways, or plugins disappear, leaving sad face icons (new ones, too; there are always design updates to the sad face). Like Heraclitus's river, you can never step in the same webpage twice.
In that sense, a wiki represents the web in its purest form: A page that anyone can edit, a conversation that is always happening. (Even if a Wikipedia entry hasn't been edited in years, it still feels unstable, always subject to change.) The web is a contested place, where debates are never completely resolved, where the page is never officially "finished."
The internet's big brother, who is of course television, is nothing like that. TV is a highly structured system, resistant to manipulation or feedback. You can't go back and change an episode of The A-Team. You can gripe about its characterization of post-Vietnam America, but B.A. Baracus won't hear you, fool. Its meaning or significance can change, but its content is locked in time.
The internet — this funny kid who thinks instability is a feature — has been trying to spark a conversation with television since it could talk. For a long time, the television couldn't hear the kid's caterwauling, and later, it pretended it didn't understand. But now, finally, it is being forced to listen.
The TV recap is the internet screaming at your television for recognition.
To proclaim The TV recap has exploded in popularity! is about as insightful as saying water is refreshing. Rather than listing a swarm of sites that write recaps, it seems a greater challenge to list sites that don't.* Everyone is a TV critic.
Criticism, when good, provides a way to understand a piece of culture. But most of today's popular criticism doesn't do that. Most movie, music, and book reviews, for instance, address another question: Is this worth my money or time? Even when lofty readers of the New York Times Book Review read a review, they hope to know whether to invest their time and money in Freedom. (Pro tip: Skip it!)
Recaps don't retell the story so much as perform it.
Reduced to a commerce decision, most popular criticism dedicates a great deal of space to description — this book depicts an orphan who joins a wizardry school, this song concerns a paranoid android, this painting consists of splatters of brown and black and white. After all that description, the critic, finally, reaches her diagnosis, whether the thing is good or bad. Thumbs up or thumbs down?
But TV recaps are completely unlike that. Recaps don't try to convince you to spend your time and money, because they assume you already have. In fact, they actually demand you have. That's the purpose of a "Spoiler Alert" — to signal to newcomers, Enter ye watchers through the narrow gate of people who saw last night's Breaking Bad.
The recap removes the rhetoric of commerce, but it also puts the critic and the reader on equal ground: We have all seen the same episode and we are here, together, to judge it. Because it doesn't dwell on describing the show, the recap becomes more open and fluid, engaging the show in new ways. (If this sounds like a minor thing, just imagine if A.O. Scott could write movie reviews with the knowledge that we've already seen the movie. So much better!) The recap is afforded the time and attention to interrogate the show.
The recap is the younger sibling sneaking into the older sibling's bedroom.
A modest lie was told above. Recaps don't completely abandon description. After all, they are called recaps (but that seems to be residue from a pre-DVR era when one sought recaps because they missed an episode). Recaps still describe, often in precise detail, the narrative of an episode. But these retellings are seldom direct renderings of plot or character, because that would be boring to those of us who have already seen it.
Recaps don't retell the story so much as perform it. Vulture's recap of last week's The Newsroom, for instance, takes the form of an oral history about The Newsroom. (To recap: It's a real recap disguised as a fake oral history book excerpted for a real website about a fake show about a fake cable network reporting on real events.) That isn't "criticism" as much as some sort of strange embodiment or assimilation of television. (In our overwrought metaphor, the kid is now trying on his sister's clothes.)
If you read enough recaps, you start to realize that "criticism" is probably a misnomer. First of all, recappers tend to engage with shows in extremely personal ways, which is problematic for most forms of criticism. Secondly, some recappers become so embedded in the show that they try to fix a character or suggest episode rewrites. (So-called hate-watching bears similar qualities.) This trait — participation, rewriting, immersion — makes for very bad criticism, but it makes for very interesting reading.
Recappers are more like sports analysts. (Armchair quarterbacks also like to yell at their televisions.) Or better yet: Fanfic. (Which would make historical sense, because if our sibling metaphor persisted, the recap is basically a mutated clone of fanfic.) Criticism today rarely gets you to change your mind, but recapping frequently does. Could there possibly be better praise than that?
So I'm here to confess: I think recapping is better — more engaging, more insightful, more important — than popular criticism. I often hear people disparage the quality of TV recaps, but I find myself uninterested in that discussion. For me, TV recaps are more like a manifestation of a problem, which is that television is a one-way medium entering a world that is distinctly not headed that way.
There is a scene in an upcoming episode of The Newsroom where the protagonist, Will McAvoy, types his name into Google and adds the word "hate" to his search query.
Spoiler Alert: This is television finally hearing the internet.
* Ah heck, who can resist a link list? Noted recappers: Entertainment Weekly, HuffPo, Yahoo, Gawker, Grantland, Television Without Pity, Slate, The Onion, Hitfix, Hollywood.com, Hollywood Reporter, Buzzfeed, New Republic, LA Times, Videogum, MSN, TIME, The Atlantic, Previously.TV, and, of course, NY Mag, which now even does recaps of recaps. Slideshows like 25 Best TV Bloggers celebrate the craft, while television itself recreated the format with self-recapping shows like AMC's Talking Dead.
Rex Sorgatz is a writer, media consultant, and creative technologist who lives in New York City. Unsurprisingly, he is on Twitter: @fimoculous.


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~Michael Plontz
While everyone else is enjoying the hustle and bustle and the joy of the holiday season, there are many caregivers out there who just want the whole thing over with. Caregiving creates a level of stress unmatched by most endeavors. Add to that the extra stress of family gatherings, gift buying, cooking, and other obligations and it is almost unbearable. How can caregivers better cope with this stress on top of stress?
The following tips may help you weather the holidays much better:
Start your own tradition. Often we feel bound by past holiday traditions, but it doesn't have to be that way. Instead of having 20 family members and guests in your home, and cooking for all of them, try a different approach. Suggest that someone else host Passover or Easter dinner. Or, if your home is the only appropriate one, enlist the help of friends and relatives for everything from cleaning to preparing food. A potluck is a great idea—you can even assign specific dishes to ensure that a complete dinner is provided.
There are great ways to shop non-traditionally as well. The Internet is a fantastic way to shop for food and gifts without leaving home. Another way to shop from home is using catalogs (many people feel uncomfortable about putting credit card numbers out in cyberspace). If you would rather go out, use the catalogs to make lists of specific gifts for each person. That way you know exactly where to go and exactly what to get.
Make sure you leave enough time to enjoy the holidays. It shouldn't be all about the hustle and bustle.
The motto "Everything in moderation" should be your guide through the holidays. There are many temptations abundant throughout the season—alcohol, sweets and rich food. Go ahead. Have some. Just don't over-indulge. It may make you sick or uncomfortable even through the following day.
Be prepared for unexpected circumstances. Something may come up, and probably will, so what can you do? If you can, change the situation. If you can't, accept it and move on. You cannot control life no matter how planned out you believe you have things. Laugh a lot…
Try to keep up on your regular exercise routine, or start one, during the holidays. Walking five times a week is a great way to stay in shape. There is also something about pounding the pavement that helps release frustrations and clears your head. If your looking out your window and the snow is flurrying and drifting, find an alternative. Many health clubs have indoor tracks. If that doesn't appeal to you, check with the nearest shopping mall. Some open early just for walkers.
Ideally caregivers should have a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly break.
Daily-Half an hour of yoga, meditation, needlepoint, reading, etc.
Weekly-A couple of hours spent away from the house at the mall, library, coffeehouse, etc.
Monthly-An evening out with your friends, a play, a concert, etc.
Yearly-A well-planned (and well-deserved) vacation.
Planning ahead for these breaks is imperative. You may need to arrange for respite care for your loved one.
It can be done. You can care for your loved one, attend to your daily activities, and enjoy the holidays. We all do what we can, and nobody should expect more than that from us. Especially us. Happy Holidays.
In Raleigh, NC contact Raleigh Geriatric Care Management, www.rgcmgmt.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Quick Contact
Tel: (02) 4472 6771
Fax: (02) 4472 6991
Email: email@example.com
The Oyster Shed on Wray Street is located on the banks of the beautiful Clyde River at Batemans Bay. The Oyster Shed is a "farm gate" for fresh oysters sold direct to the public. Our Oysters are sold either opened, for your immediate enjoyment, or un-opened, for extended shelf-life or if you enjoy that extra freshness.
Not only does The Oyster Shed offer farm fresh oysters, the view of the surrounding area, including the Clyde River, is just spectacular. We therefore invite you to come and enjoy the beautiful panoramic views while you relax and indulge in our fresh oysters.
Opened oysters must be stored in the refrigerator at 4'C, and will keep for 7-10 days. When traveling, it is best to keep them in an esky or cool bag with enough ice for the journey. Put the oysters into fridge on arrival. Ensure they are covered with plastic wrap or a wet cloth to keep them moist and to exclude the fridge odours that can contribute to deterioration of oyster quality.
Unopened Oysters are still alive in the shell, and will keep in good quality for up to 2 weeks. Refrigeration of unopened oysters is not recommended, as this will kill the oyster. Unopened oysters are best stored between 8'C-15'C and out of direct sunlight.
The Oyster Shed on Wray St proudly supports the efforts of:
On The Pier-Batemans Bay Seafood Restaurant


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Deputies: Spearmint Rhino stripper caught having sex in restaurant parking lot
Kristina Averbach arrested on prostitution charge
A stripper was arrested Wednesday after she was caught giving a man oral sex in the parking lot of a West Palm Beach restaurant, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report.
Kristina Averbach, 38, of Boca Raton, was in the passenger seat of a Mercedes-Benz parked outside Island Jack's Patio Bar & Grill when a deputy spotted her performing oral sex on a man in the driver's seat, according to the report.
During a recorded interview, the man claimed he met Averbach at Spearmint Rhino, where she works, and agreed to pay her $50 for oral sex, the report said.
Averbach said she met him for drinks and then fooled around when things "got carried away," but she denied that any money was involved and said she wasn't a prostitute. But that's the charge she currently faces.
The arresting deputy wrote in the report that Averbach "had a large amount of cash" in her purse at the time.


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Killswitch Engage Members Discuss New Song, Jesse Leach's Return + More
Our coverage of the Heavy MTL Festival is far from finished, as we give you an exclusive interview with Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio and drummer Justin Foley.
During our chat with the Killswitch Engage duo, we discuss the band's new track 'No End in Sight,' their inclusion on the 'Trespass America' tour, vocalist Jesse Leach's onstage return at the 2012 New England Metal and Hardcore Festival + much more.
Check out our Heavy MTL interview with Mike D'Antonio and Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage!


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Connected throughout the world by OC 192 Internet backbone fiber and Telco cabinets, CalPOPhas been providing Angeleno's with spectacular service for years. Located in the heart Downtown Los Angeles at 600 W. 7th Street, CalPOP is similar to your one stop shop for your broadband and internet needs.
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Their customer service representatives are available 24/7/365. They are open all hours of the day, seven days a week, which I find quite comforting. With a website, you want help anytime you need it and normal business hours do not work in this world for online services. I can fill out an online form or phone tech support, either way, the CalPOP professionals, will trouble shoot any problems I may be experiencing and even walk me, step by step, through of the process of fixing my problem. CalPOP has provided me, and is known to provide its clients with friendly, knowledgeable staff who provide superior customer service, making the process of having your server hosted, much easier than its competition.
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Learn much more at http://CalPOP.com/home.php or phone Sales at 213-627-1947


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Steven A. Cook, an expert on Middle East policy, who served as an adviser to the Iraq Study Group, says the Bush administration's decision to participate in a regional meeting on Iraq, including Iran and Syria, marks "a positive change in policy," at a time of widespread criticism of its Iraq policy in Congress.
The Iraq Study Group, in its report last December, called for a dialogue between Iraq and the United States on one side and other countries in the Middle East including Syria and Iran. The administration seemed to go out of its way to denigrate that recommendation; in fact, it said that until Iran and Syria changed their unhelpful behavior in Iraq, it wasn't going to talk to them. What do you think brought about this change yesterday in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would attend such a regional meeting?
There are a number of things that have happened that have forced the administration's hand and forced it to change tracks. One, the political pressure in Washington has been building for a regional dialogue. Since the administration is on the defensive with regard to its Iraq policy, with nonbinding resolutions in the Congress opposing the administration's policy, this is a way in which the Bush administration can demonstrate that it learned it can actually change, that it has learned from the experience and it is now willing to talk to the regional actors.
"It is true that they've ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranians. But at the same time, the Iranians hold many of the cards, and even with this pressure they have the means to make the U.S. military's life much more difficult in Iraq."
Now that's not necessarily the way the administration sees it. The official reason for the change in policy is now the United States is not on the defensive vis-à-vis Iran in particular. They've ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranians over the course of the last month to six weeks. They've arrested Iranians in Iraq, they've made a big push to demonstrate that the Iranians are supplying a variety of Iraqi militia groups with these things called EFPs [Explosively Formed Projectiles] and the means to develop them. The United States has also sent another carrier battle group off the coast of Iran in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on the Iranians. So the administration feels they would be negotiating with the Iranians from a position of strength now. I'm not necessarily sure that I buy that argument. It is true they've ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranians. But at the same time, the Iranians hold many of the cards, and even with this pressure they have the means to make the U.S. military's life much more difficult in Iraq. Even though we have done this "show the flag" operation with the navy, it hasn't altered Iranian behavior. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said as recently as yesterday that the Iranians will continue to develop their nuclear weapons. This is a positive change in policy; we need to have a broad discussion with the Iranians. But I don't necessarily see this as being the end of the story here.
As many people have pointed out, the forces that have killed more Americans are the al-Qaeda and Sunni forces in Iraq, which presumably Iran has little influence over. Can such a regional conference do anything to halt that violence, since most Arab countries who would be at the conference are largely Sunni?
It should be part of our foreign policy to be talking to the Iranians and the Syrians. I'm not sure that in the region the Sunni powers can tamp down on al-Qaeda-type violence. This is a group that is not going to be satisfied by political deals, by carrots and things along those lines. The hope is that the broader Sunni population of Iraq will not feel so vulnerable if the whole region is involved, if there is support from the Saudis and the Jordanians. But with every action there's a reaction. So if the Saudis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, and the other Sunni powers seem to be supporting the Sunnis, what will the majority Shiites do in response?
There are competing visions over the future of Iraq. The Shiites clearly see power in their demographic numbers. The Sunnis, who don't necessarily feel themselves as a minority, would like to regain power. But even if the Sunni powers were able to manage to help the Sunnis regain 30 percent of the power that they once held, that's still 70 percent less than what they once held. So it's a good thing for the United States to be discussing the region with folks like the Syrians and the Iranians, but I don't see this as a panacea. It can help, but it's not the magic bullet.
Now you and I talked recently when Rice started the round of talks with the Israelis and Palestinians because the Iraq Study Group had also said progress should be made on that front. That started before these Iraq talks will start. Is there still a relationship, you think?
I do think there is a relationship. The Sunni powers, the people who are going to help us on the Palestinian front, need to demonstrate something as a result of their helping the United States. This is the obvious thing for them, so I think there's a relationship. And that's why the United States has been so involved. You hate to be cynical about these things, but clearly, Condoleezza Rice has been as active as she has been—after six and a half years of this administration holding the Arab-Israeli conflict at arm's length—because we need help from other Arab capitals, and this is clearly the price that they're extracting from the United States. Bottom line, it's a good thing for the United States to be involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking. One of the things that outrages Arab publics is that we haven't been involved. And if we can be seen to be constructive, it may help our very weak position in terms of public opinion in the Middle East.
Now the Palestinians still haven't announced officially this new unity government. I guess people are waiting to see who's in it and whether the United States and Israel will deal with it.
The United States has taken the position it'll deal with that when they see the makeup of the new government. Do you think there's any chance the United States might be more flexible?
My sense is that what we'll see exactly what we've seen all along. The United States is going to follow the Israelis' lead on this one. If it's good enough for the Israelis, then it'll be good enough for the United States. Interestingly though, the Europeans are starting to peel away from the United States on this. There have been some statements from British diplomats saying that if this national unity government is good enough, we should start dealing with whatever national unity government comes about. The Mecca agreement is enough for the European Union. So now you're going to have a split within the "Road Map" quartet. Russia all along has been saying that we should lift the ban on aid to the Palestinians. The European Union has stood with the United States, but now we're seeing some daylight between the United States and the European Union.
Coming back to yesterday's announcement by Secretary of State Rice that the United States would participate in this regional conference, it has now been expanded I gather to include the European Union and the UN Security Council.
And invitations were sent to representatives from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations last night. So this is going to be rather expansive, and I think the administration is hedging. It's going to be at a meeting with the Iranians and the Syrians, but there is a desire to have enough people around the table so that it dilutes this. It's unclear as of yet whether Secretary Rice will meet one-on-one with the Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers. There's something else about this proposed meeting that I think is important. There has been continuity in Iranian foreign policy going back even to the days of the Shah, and this is a quest for recognition of Iran's role as a regional power. Here's an opportunity to open a broad dialogue with the Iranians in this way and implicitly recognize their regional role and their regional influence. I wonder whether this might be the start of a dialogue that would change in some ways Iranian behavior. I wonder if an acknowledgement of its role in the region and its importance may not ameliorate other areas where we're having problems with the Iranians, particularly in the Gaza strip, particularly in Iraq, maybe that will change to some extent Iranian policy, and also in Lebanon.
"I wonder if an acknowledgement of its role in the region and its importance may not ameliorate other areas where we're having problems with the Iranians, particularly in the Gaza strip, particularly in Iraq, maybe that will change to some extent Iranian policy, and also in Lebanon."
The Iranians are hard-nosed negotiators. We do have a difference of interests with the Iranians and they still see large American forces on all of their borders, but this is a step that we should take before we take military action against the Iranians. We should exhaust the discussions with them.
You're already talking about military action?
I'm not jumping into it. I'm saying we need to exhaust this diplomatic avenue before we move to military action because military action would actually be disastrous for the United States.
The administration keeps saying it's not planning any military action.
The administration says a lot of things, but of course they are doing things that are ratcheting up the pressure. And from the other side, the Iranians perceive the United States to be weak. So, you know, that's not a good combination. I'm not an advocate of military action and that's why I think ultimately these talks are positive. We need to explore this avenue. If the Iranians reveal themselves to be noncooperative, well, then we're on a different road.
What about Syria? Can they do anything to help out Iraq?
The Syrians can do a better job on policing their border. But what's uppermost in the minds of the Syrian leadership is relieving the pressure on the investigation and international tribunal on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. That is essentially the price the United States is going to have to pay. That's what the Syrians are looking for in terms of gaining its cooperation. Talks with the Iranians are much more important than the talks with the Syrians, to be honest with you. But there is a Syrian-Israeli angle here. The Israelis have demonstrated an interest in dealing with the Syrians as a result of the war in Lebanon over the summer. There may be something that can be done as a result of these talks to jump-start a Syrian-Israeli negotiation. But the Syrians have a history of playing both ends of the fence, being constructive in one area and being the furthest from constructive in another area.
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The move follows a claim that GSK staff allegedly handed doctors cash and other rewards for prescribing Botox treatment, which the British group sells in China under an agreement with patent-holder Allergan.
The latest allegations against GSK, which is already under investigation by Chinese police for unspecified "economic crimes", were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper said internal documents and email showed GSK's China sales staff were also apparently instructed to use their personal email addresses to discuss marketing strategies related to Botox.
A GSK spokesman in London said the company believed the new allegations over Botox came from the same source who previously made claims over corruption in China - claims which GSK said earlier it had investigated and found to be without foundation.
"Nevertheless, we are investigating these new claims. However, our inquiries to date have found no evidence of bribery or corruption in relation to our sales and marketing of therapeutic Botox in China," the spokesman said.
"GSK has some of the toughest compliance procedures in the sector. We are proud of our high standards and operate in accordance with them."
The Wall Street Journal said emails and documents it had seen also discussed a marketing strategy for Botox that targeted 48 doctors and planned to reward them with either a percentage of the cash value of the prescription, or educational credits, based on the number of prescriptions the doctors made.
The strategy was called "Vasily", after the Russian World War II sniper Vasily Zaytsev.
"We have investigated the specific claim on the so-called Vasily programme. Our investigation has found that while the proposal didn't contain anything untoward, the programme was never implemented," the company spokesman said.
GSK is responsible for therapeutic sales of Botox in China - for example, to treat facial spasms - rather than its use as a cosmetic treatment to remove wrinkles.
The allegations come as police in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha investigate high-level Chinese staff at GSK on suspicion of economic crimes. It is not clear if the Changsha investigation is related to any of the allegations.
GSK, Merck and other foreign and domestic drugmakers are also being investigated by China's top economic planning agency on cost and pricing issues, as foreign firms come under pressure from Beijing over possible price-fixing.
China is an increasingly important market for international pharmaceutical companies, which are relying on growth in emerging markets to offset slower sales in Western markets where many former blockbuster drugs have lost patent protection.
IMS Health, which tracks pharmaceutical industry trends, expects China to overtake Japan as the world's second-biggest drugs market behind the United States by 2016.


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Just wondering if anyone has had anyone bail on them for this game and wants to sell that ticket. I'd be interested in making an offer. One that you might be able to refuse, so I'm no Godfather, but hey I'm just trying to save you some cash and watch the Hawks curbstomp the Jags all at once.
PM me or just respond in this thread. Thanks!


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Retail Trust terms and conditions
Terms & Conditions
Service – means the Retail Trust service presented at all the stores of S3Stores, Inc.
Service sign – means the logo of Retail Trust service, presented in several product pages.
Service refund – 100% of the item(s) cost, excluding the Service price.
- This Service provides you with an option of returning products you purchased from S3Stores, Inc. during 3 months (90 ongoing days) after the purchase date. You must meet the conditions in this list in order to get a refund.
- Only products where the Service sign presented are eligible for buying this service.
- If you buy a set of products or several products of the same type, then buying the Service will mean that whole set is the subject of the Service.
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- The service provides you only a return of the products cost, not replacement.


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Member Price: $49.00 / List Price: $59.00Your Price: $59.00
In a field with the unique mission of helping budding artists, teachers, students, and researchers embrace all ways of knowing, what might we learn from Indigenous research, pedagogy, and contemporary art practices? And how might educators approach Native cultures differently if contemporary Native artists were studied as agents of social change with important stories to tell, if research was seen as a connecting and emancipatory practice, and teaching as holistic and egalitarian?
Transforming Our Practices addresses these questions through a blend of voices and experiences, creating a resource that has not been present in the field of art education. Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors explore Indigenous research methods, pedagogy, and contemporary art studio practices—providing a reference, a model, and a spiritual source for educators who wish to expand their knowledge about Native ways of knowing, artistic practices, and philosophies.
Chapters in three major sections, each with a lead essay and a separate focus—Indigenous Research, Indigenous Pedagogy, and Indigenous Contemporary Studio Practices—illustrate the application of the methods and philosophies presented in each section through case studies, curricular examples, and classroom practices. Ideas related to studio practice are integrated as inseparable from teaching and research. This exploration of new artistic and scholarly terrains, filtered by Indigenous perspectives, creates a space for sharing conversations and for learning truths and wisdom through the ideas of Native artists, researchers, and educators.
248 pp. (2017). ISBN 978-1-890160-69-2
"These artists, along with their artwork, can act as a catalyst for in-depth analysis and thoughtful reflection to provide portals for sometimes difficult, but revealing conversations."
© 2018 National Art Education Association


text:
My LG dishwasher LDF6810ST leaks a small amount of water from the bottom right corner below the door. It appears to happen during or at the end of the drying cycle. A technician replaced a gasket but it still leaks. Please help me fix the problem.
We disassembled the dishwasher door as you noted and resealed the blower tube. Since the tube is on the left side of the dishwasher and our leak is on the right side, do you think this is our problem or might there be something else to look for before we reassemble the door? Thanks for the help.


text:
Rez Day
Posted by Chic Aeon in comment, iheartslFeed on Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Six years old I am.
Working towards old lady status.
It has indeed been fun.
Hair: Flawless by Vanity Hair
Eyes: Mayfly Deep Sky Mesh Eyes (Deepest Purple Shadow)
Pose by: Beehive
Posted by Chic Aeon in design, events, iheartslFeed, new releases on Monday, December 30, 2013
This month's theme for The Challenge is Glass. Two early arrivals worked very well together.
The chairs, table, very cute candy cane coffee cup and books are from "Just My Imagination" -Cleo Design.
The extremely well made daisy in glass container is original mesh from Kuro.
20.FIVE has a lot of new releases out with my favorite being MESH UNDIES. Who knew? The tank could certainly be worn as outerwear. A color change hud lets you pick between three colors plus black and white.
Poses by: furniture and Diesel Works
Posted by Chic Aeon in comment, iheartslFeed on Sunday, December 29, 2013
It is Thursday.
I have no Op Ed post written for Sunday.
What to do?
Well I don't actually HAVE to wax poetically each weekend, but since folks appear to enjoy my musings I will once again.
A forum post on another grid lead me on a thoughtful journey. The writer was mentioning the money he had made on that platform and that he typically, being a creator, made what he needed and hadn't spent any money in that world.
Now I am not a big shopper on any platform, real or virtual. I honestly don't believe much in "stuff"; I think many of us have too much "stuff" :D. I don't shop much in Second Life as I have a plentiful and ever expanding inventory from some of the best creators on the grid. I haven't shopped much in other worlds because, "A" there was nothing I wanted to buy or "B" I have been too busy building.
Berry asked in a meme some time ago what one item you would save from your inventory if you could only keep one thing. I am not sure what I said at the time, but in actuality it would be ----
I have only purchased one item in Cloud Party, mesh eyelashes. Truth be said I would have been very happy with traditional old fashioned eyelashes but I really did want those fluttery appendages even if we don't bat them all that much virtually.
In InWorldz my first (and only so far) purchase has been eyelashes. There was a time when the typist would never, NEVER, leave the house without earrings. With no holes punched, I had to remember to clip something on as I exited the door. I am not sure I wore earrings going to the gym, but for every other outing, they were a must.
We are a vain bunch, most of us anyway. We have our quirks and our ego needs.
Mine, in the virtual world, are from Amacci.
Getting Smutty
Posted by Chic Aeon in hair, new releases on Saturday, December 28, 2013
Once in awhile a new hair comes along that really feels like "me".
This is Flawless by Vanity Hair. I can feel a new profile picture in the future *wink*.
Chandra gave out a very special holiday gift to her group. I am not in her group, but I am "special". NO, she didn't say that, but I know I am. Anyway we were joking a lot in IMs the other day and she asked me a question about "smut". I told her I didn't do smut except for her.
Now this is very tasteful "smut", I mean don't I look like a candy cane? But in the interest of Iheartsl's safe for work policy, I am adding a cut here.
So that didn't work :D. Taking out the cut and the feed to Iheartsl!
See those pretty feet? They are in great part a gift from the GOS group. The holiday gift was a very generous store credit. I added a little more to get these bare feet. The color matching of skins on the web worked great (I am SO not good at that). So happy girl with happy feet.
Poses by: Everglow
The Collage December
Posted by Chic Aeon in design, events, iheartslFeed on Friday, December 27, 2013
The Collage has opened its December round. If you haven't journeyed over, it is a fun place with a very creative layout. Not only is it arty and inventive, it is super easy to see the items out.
With fantastic details, this {CE} Cozy Cuddle Bed Set is outstanding. Click the bed; the covers roll smoothly back. Sit in the desk chair; the computer and other office items appear. SIT on the bed and start dancing. I kid you not, the first animation that comes up is a very nice dance. There are plenty of other choices of activities. The bed features singles, couple's cuddles and parent with baby.
This set is copy only.
From Bellarose - the Italia Navy Living Room Set which also includes a very nice sofa table that would also work as a buffet. I especially like the decor items. The couch has a large variety of PG animations as well as an XPOSE menu. Most items are transfer only; the couch has no permissions.
For the bargain hunters, check out this Shutter Field Country Coffee Set which includes teapot and muffins.
You might be a tag tired after exploring the streets at The Collage (nope, I am not giving any more info out). This Serenity Chair from Dreamscapes Art Galley might be just what you need to wind down.
Outfit by PARADISIS; GOS boots; Raspberry Aristocrat hair (old)
Poses by the furniture.
Gothmas by Gaslight
Posted by Chic Aeon in events, iheartslFeed, new releases on Thursday, December 26, 2013
Now I knew I would love Gothmas by Gaslight but it took me until Christmas eve before my expectations were realized. Dark buildings against the snow covered hills. Constant, very realistic falling snow; it is indeed lovely.
Two very pretty releases can be found at this venue.
The lassitude & ennui Batty necklace is a "cute & gothy little necklace, with a bat wing pendant on a ribbon and a large bow at the side. Ribbon and pearl are texture-change, and there are 6 coordinated textures. Comes in silver, gold or black metal".
The Bliensen + MaiTai Drusilla Earrings come in three colors of globes with a choice of either red or black bows. Don't let the delicate nature fool you, those are skeleton hands holding the globes *wink*.
Find them both at the event.
My dress is a new release from Blue Blood, Themi. It comes in black, blue, pink, purple and red.
Poses by: Diesel Works
Happy Holidays - Advent Finale
Posted by Chic Aeon in events, freebies, iheartslFeed on Tuesday, December 24, 2013
After three weeks of gathering and pictures, the Advent Hotlist comes to an end. We wish you all a wonderful holiday.
* 22769 - Holiday outfits for gals and guys
*EMO-tions - blond hair, earrings and dragon necklace for males
* Ginza - bunny outfit (hair voting present from Alli&Ali)
Also of note:
* Formanails - color change nails and bangle set
* Vivanne - very nice gray zip jacket
KittyCats was once again empty so go later as you can only click once.
My Advent list is here: http://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/advent-second-life-2013.html
Poses by: aDORKable and Vista Animations
All That Shines
Posted by Chic Aeon in iheartslFeed, new releases on Monday, December 23, 2013
Just a simple pretty picture this morning.
New from BAIASTICE for the holidays -
* Grace dress
* Rajah jewelery set
Classic and lovely.
Find the color perfect for you.
Hair by Vanity Hair
Pose by Diesel Works
Advent Hotlist - Day 23
OK. I admit it. While Bee did HER job in a timely manner, the blogger was sleeping in. But never fear a plethora of wonderfulness awaits you today.
On the Advent Hunt from LaRosa, this very lovely holiday gown. It comes with jewelry and nails. Small reindeer; large store, Bee says to look in a room with jewelry.
* EMO-tions - punky brown hair for girls, dragon earring for guys (or gals)
* Vivanne - handkerchief shirt in turquoise
* LC Fashion - a long skirt with COLOR CHANGING HUD
* Loordes of London - a simply gorgeous short dress don't miss it.
In the home, garden and prop arena the winner is StoraxTree with this very pretty vintage set. Oh, ALL the StoraxTree gifts will be available the 24th and 25th. So if you missed one, you will have a chance to pick it up.
With so many great things, I would check all the places but here are some of note:
* 22769 - small cabin skybox room with misty mountain view
* Abranimations - couples piggyback set (I don't want to miss this)
* Fallen Angel - large white angel wings
* Ginza - tennis bracelet bangles in various colors
* KittyCats (Callie) - diamond kitty ears
* Kinzart - plushie for your collection
* Sway's - Christmas fence (better check my answer list - very cute)
My advent list (you MUST have it bookmarked by now) is here:
Poses by: aDORKable
Grids - Grids - Grids
Posted by Chic Aeon in comment, iheartslFeed on Sunday, December 22, 2013
Busy busy gal lately I have been exploring both inworld and outworld. So I thought I would give you a little lowdown on what I have seen. These are of course only opinions and I am not any way advising you to "jump ship" and leave your grid of choice -- indeed it is mine too.
Second Life - I think I will be six in a week; I don't keep track any more than I do in real life. That's plenty of time to see the world change. There is no doubt that the best content creators are here. They may be other places too of course but many are JUST here and busy enough in one world. Our platform is vast and encompasses almost anything you could think of.
And that's part of the BAD side LOL. It does just that. It is a big world and you need to pick your corner of it and for me -- not stray too much. Generally I am in the fashionable, arty areas and that works fine for me. Now and then I somehow get off the path and out of my personal comfort zone and note that parts of SL have not changed since my birth. Poseballs are still in use; garish signs clutter the landscape.
Materials and alpha blending (sorting? I haven't looked at the SL build menu in awhile) are wonderful options to have. Prim size limits (both large and small) and the PHYSICS for mesh that so don't work without a lot of work-arounds are NOT good. Much of the nicest furniture out there has bad physics. We just ignore it, but it "could" be correct on upload with not a lot of effort (at least it is correct on several other "lesser" grids).
Cloud Party - With wonderful tech albeit very different than what we are used to and a browser based experience (no viewer uploads or updates), the ability to send your mesh back to your computer and unlimited free land of humongous (four sim) size -- you would think that CP would be further along the acceptance path than it is.
The two stumbling blocks seem to be the PG status and no money out issue. It seems like in limiting the issues of running the world, the devs have also limited the growth. And they have been on a one month "quiet period" (nope, the citizens really don't know what is going on) which seems to me a very bad plan. Hence the world pretty much stopped. The boards are quiet; I haven't made a sale since the beginning of the month when it became apparent (OK, "I" posted on the forums) that we had seemingly been deserted.
I have great hopes for Cloud Party. So many very good ideas there. Time will tell what happens.
Avination - I checked out this grid again briefly a few weeks ago. I had been there as a guest (another body) when it was young. Now, you can't currently (I didn't check this today but this has been true in the past) take money out of Avination -- so there is that.
My biggest gold star goes to the default avatar which really looks better than most. I am there, in my own shape with my name saved. I did some exploring but found that most of the shops were not taken care of by their owners. Very old signs and advertisements for events long past were often found. Checking the forum posts, it had been a VERY long time since they were active. Hence, I moved on.
Kitely - Getting a lot of press these last couple of months, I wanted to see how Kitely was. Now the biggest alarm bell for me with Kitely is that it isn't really FREE. When I was there you got 2 hours a month for free except in the sandboxes where you could upload your products to a Marketplace that can sell to many (not sure about how many) Open Sim worlds as well as Kitely residents. My brief stay in another body didn't have me wanting to go through all the work to list products on the Marketplace once I saw that there is a 45 day waiting period for cashing out.
InWorldz - I am now two days old or maybe three in InWorldz. There is a long story here and I want to in part thank Berry for her post on The Knitting Circle and InWorldz in general.
I need to preface my musings on InWorldz with the revelation that I had past issues with some of the gird owners. It was in another lifetime before I even came to Second Life. But it was nasty and premeditated and I will likely never forget that. STILL, in the spirit of one of my latest Sunday posts, I am making every effort to put that behind me.
So just how did I get to InWorldz? Well a SL customer wanted a product of mine. She waved many real life dollars in front of my eyes (well, everything is relative) and on a morning when my todo list was shorter than usual I ventured over.
I had been there in another body a few months ago when the TOS fiasco was in full fumes. I can say, things seem much better now. Horray.
I logged in, found a sandbox, uploaded some parts of the build she needed (free happily since I had no money) and then set out to see if I could improve my avatar's look. I wasn't planning on staying but I like the adventure of putting together a new me.
I headed over to The Knitting Circle which indeed is a very PRET-TY build. I was in the Singularity viewer at the time as I had that installed. I made a complete circle of the two sim complex, doing what any good newbie does -- looking for free stuff. I picked up a really cute mesh top from Bilo by joining the group. I do have to say that it looks like many of the folks joining The Knitting Circle haven't actually moved in; there was very little there in many of the shops. I hope that improves soon as it is a lovely place.
By using the Explorer Hud that you can pick up at the welcome area, I found a really nice free skin at CMC, some eyes, a lovely set of underwear as a holiday gift at the GLAM Mall, and hair at both EMO-tions and Mimi's Choice (Bryce guy hair but works for gals too). All decked out at the end of day one, I looked like this for my newbie profile picture.
I uploaded my own Ug Boots from Cloud Party to finish up my completely free not-such-a-newbie wardrobe. I was a VERY good girl this morning and sorted my inventory in the new V2 InWorldz Beta Viewer which is working well except for taking off my mesh top on single clicking another object. Happily I have my snazzy undies on.
Now somewhere along the way I am setting up a shop in InWorldz, certainly not my intention but I am having fun and that IS the point. Oh, I forgot to mention one of the reasons I am willing to move my items over to IW -- the PHYSICS WORK THERE automatically much like in Cloud Party. Not only that, you don't need to mess with any of the uploader functions.
The uploader actually DOES work just like SL, but truthfully it doesn't matter so much on bigger builds. For small items it would be best to work with the sliders or custom LODS.
Perfect physics (no walking through walls or being shut out by invisible ones), long distance viewing and TINY land impact count on some things (a mystery still). Oh my! My exact IM quote at the time was "DAMN it worked!" LOL. I guess I should add that there are three times the amount of prims per sim (two times for mainland) than in SL. So land impact isn't such a big deal. Still it is easier on the server and that is always good.
So that's my news of the week on the personal side. There were some really fantastic new releases this week so if you missed any posts, cycle back through a bit.
See ya Monday.
Advent Hotlist - Day 22
Busy day for me so this will be a short on prose post.
* KittyCats (Silken Moon) has a fun pack of goodies including these legging on many layers
* EMO-tions - hair for gals and guys (brown short)
* Loordes of London - hot pink hoop earrings (cute and sorry you can't see them well here)
* StoraxTree's gift is a traditional couch
Also of note:
* Sway's has a pretty armchair in brown with pillows in holiday colors
* Ginza's gift box holds a delicate butterfly necklace
* LC Fashion's stocking gives a very cute table tree with particles
Pose by: aDORKable
Posted by Chic Aeon in iheartslFeed, new releases on Saturday, December 21, 2013
New releases are out from BAIASTICE. Now I have to admit the the one you are NOT seeing in this post seemed the most "me". But I was feeling romantic and feminine this eve -- a place I don't go all that often. So instead of the obvious choice -- which you will likely see later -- I give you Gemma. With tons of colors to choose from I picked "green". Actually I think of this as kiwi, one of my favorite colors.
This is a lovely gown that wraps enticingly in the front, but for me it is all about the view from the back. So gorgeous. Most of you wont really care but for anyone who has actually made mesh clothing (mine are very simplistic but I have still gone through the motions), the inside of the bodice is also textured. That means that the tiny gaps between skin and dress don't show that nasty transparent effect. SO realistic! Very lovely.
I needed the perfect ladylike and demure jewelry to go with this dress. No big surprise, I found it in my Eclectica folder. Look for the Vintage Rose set, not new; still exceptional.
My backdrop in case you are wondering is an older release from Barnesworth Annubis. Standing the test of time beautifully, it is.
Hair by Vanity Hair.
Poses by: aDORKable and Diesel Works
Almost Free
I can remember traveling in the tourist areas of Mexico long before I became a "traveler". The word on the street from the vendors was often "Almost Free!". They really wanted to sell their goods.
This is the Trompe Loeil Willoughby Lakehouse in warm (there is a cool version also). Now I don't know the story behind this build but it is for COLLABOR88 and it is just now out. The notecard mentioned the words "FINALLY".
It really doesn't matter. This is a great medium size house. 129 land impact with the snow (119 without) you will probably need a 64 x64 ish plot. It has a complete wrap around deck, a cosy second story bedroom and it is beautifully made.
Wait for it ---- $88 while at COLLABOR88. I seldom mention prices, but I wanted to get your attention.
Did I?
Advent Hotlist - Day 21
This pretty coat (navy jacket for the guys in a SEPARATE BOX) is today's prize on the Advent Hunt (look for a reindeer in this case a SMALL one) from {REVERIE} @ {Elysium}. Hair is one of the RANDOM prizes at Alli&Ali.
* EMO-tions - dark mesh hair for gals and curly pony (non-mesh) in black for the guys.
* Vivanne - skirt and top as a dress (one-piece)
Also of note:
* Sway's - floor pillows with 5 animations
* Abranimations - Hobby horse
* Kinzart - another full avatar
* Loordes of London - pretty copper collar with gold insets
* Kittycats - a very cute chair (3 colors) from MALT [Yesterday's gift from Somnia is now out - really nice kitty beds which are actually low stools.]
* Formanails - gold snake armband
* 22769 - fireplace
* LC Fashion - some fancy gold and diamond hoop earrings
Poses by: LAP (nla)
Not Ready
Posted by Chic Aeon in design, events, iheartslFeed, new releases on Friday, December 20, 2013
I am playing "what's in my inbox" this eve. It is Wednesday as I type this. Auto accept is a wondrous thing EXCEPT that you miss the text that often accompanies the review copies. But tonight I think I have it.
From Bliensen + MaiTai - Mazurka - Ankle Boots for Genre in December. LOTS of color combos are available.
From Second Spaces - "Not Ready for the Holidays" goodies which are SO much fun. There are three different decor items; presents, lights (includes all white version) and ornaments. I marvel at the creative efforts of Elle Kirshner.
Poses by: aDORKable
Shades of Golds
Posted by Chic Aeon in design, events, hair, iheartslFeed, new releases
My new hotpants and tartan top outfit from ArisAris isn't going to keep me very warm, but we don't need to WORRY about that! Ain't it great? "Get In" comes as a set but you could wear the items separately. Together they are just darling. So darling that I the tomboy shaped gal adjusted my measurements to comply with the curves needed. So cute!
We Love RolePlay.
My hair is a brand new release from Vanity Hair, La Latina -- perfect for Salsa dancing or pretty much any other activity. Tons of great colors to choose from of course.
The [ba] home features a patio and multi-paned windows (happily we can enjoy those without the washing detail). Inside details abound and there is -- of course -- a built in fireplace as well as a large wall hutch.
But as I said, this is a BIG house and there is plenty of room for a second traditional heating source. How about another one in a bedroom?
This is the new set from Atelier Visconti for The Garden. The textures are gorgeous and the details superb. I especially like the decor pieces; check those out even if you don't have need for bigger furnishings at the moment. Texture change huds let you match fabric to your decor.
Poses by: Wetcat, !bang
Advent Hotlist - Day 20
* 22769 has a really lovely holiday hutch out for today.
Several places had empty boxes or yesterday's gifts still out so later in the day may bring YOU better results.
See ya tomorrow morning!
POE - My Top Ten - 7
Posted by Chic Aeon in events, hunts, iheartslFeed on Thursday, December 19, 2013
A lover of retro, I couldn't pass up showing you this stunning cocktail dress from Sonatta Morales (# 088) on the Peace On Earth Hunt.
Hair by EMO-tions
Rounding out my picks for the hunt, I give you a very pretty dress from [LivGlam] Boutique (#004); a very lovely and feminine present.
That's my top ten. Oh, you say it's only seven? Ah, but there were three more posts (plus a few highlights here and there) before the top ten report started.
So I am calling those as three *wink*.
There were also a very nice selection of jewelry in this hunt, so don't overlook those stops.
Enjoy the hunting!
Poses by: !bang, aDORKable
Garden Goodness
There is plenty going on over at The Garden these days. One of my favorite releases is a collaboration between Consignment and Cheeky Pea, Quiet Night.
Along with the general comfortable feeling of the set, there are the details -- and you know how I love details!
Both couch and -- wait for it -- HIDE-a-Bed come in fabric as well as leather, both in neutral shades to blend with many decors. Adult and family versions are available. There are sitting poufs and a rug as well. I added a different floor covering courtesy of Storaxtree as it went so well with the wall decal from Little House of Curios.
The set includes a very detailed entertainment area with lots of built in decor. If you don't actually watch videos, you can easily replace the video prim with a painting or photograph.
There are pose props and gatchas outside the entrance and lots of furnishings indoors. One item I particularly liked was these marquee letters from 7.
Advent Hotlist - Day 19
Find your "must haves" from today's Advent countdown gifts. There are many to choose from.
* Ginza - flower earrings that match the necklace of a couple of days back
* LC Fashion - a pack of blush makeups perfect for any time of year
* Vivanne - Cute Spring dress in blues and neutral print
* EMO-tions - belt for gals; necklace for guys (resizes for gals attaches to hand so needs to be reattached :D)
* Formanails - long zebra stripe in brown and black
* 22769 has a holiday sofa with many poses for singles and couples
* Le Cock has three TRANSFER holiday boxes for gift giving
Also of note:
* Sway's has a darling Santa Cookie tray today. Unfortunately I didn't find the clue and Bee had no better luck. Good hunting!
* Abranimations has a robot dog avatar
* Falln Angel has a lovely red ribbon (modern) holiday tree with particles
* KittyCats has SLink sock appliers if you have SLink feet
* Kinzart has another full avatar
Poses by: aDORKable
POE - My Top Ten - 6
Posted by Chic Aeon in events, hunts, iheartslFeed on Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Fun and futuristic -- hoodie and vest from [sYs] (#035) and printed mesh jeans from *TuttiFrutti* (#074)
It's good to be young on the POE6.
Boots by Prim and Pixel.
Pose by: Diesel Works
Advent Hotlist - Day 18
Posted by Chic Aeon in design, events, freebies, iheartslFeed
It's an eclectic Advent Day; something for everyone I suspect.
*KittyCats (*Funky*Junk*) - gorgeous holiday pergola. Beautiful detailing.
*EMO-tions - hair (one for guys also)
*StoraxTree - Reindeer and decorated tree decor
*Needful Pixel - latex outfit with Xcite! and Sensations
*Formanails - black with hot pink details - optional bangles
*Sway's - padded stool with animations
*22769 - rustic side table
Also of note:
*Loordes of London - multicolor flats (shoes)
*Kinzart - another full avatar (M and F)
*Ginza - pretty butterfly earrings
*Le Cock - nice gray beanie with badges (doesn't resize well)
Not all gifts were out; not all places accessible this morning.
My advent list is here: http://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/advent-second-life-2013.html
Pose by: Sugar Mill (nla)


text:
I was dying for some Thai food that would make my eyes swell and my forehead sweat. The kind that lets you know three hours later how often you pick your nose. I wanted SriPraPhai, or any of five neighborhood places that make me cough from the ambient chili in the air when I walk inside to pick up my order.
But I was in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where my ethnic choices are limited to nachos at a bar and grille, fried cheese curds and pretzel nibs (if those count as German,) or gelatinous Chinese from a restaurant that recently moved into a space occupied by a furniture store. Funny, there's a jewelry store in town that inexplicably occupies a gaudily ornate and out-of-place Chinese Pagoda. I've always thought the two businesses should trade digs.
On my way to a lonely complex of box stores that rise like ominous commercial silos from the pastures along Highway 43, I spotted a promising option: "Noodles and Company.†I fantasized that it was a Phở restaurant as I drove past. Sure it was in a sanitized strip mall with a loopy corporate looking sign, but in Cedarburg one would put up a sign if they were selling weed out of their basement. It's standard issue.
First, I went to the Michael's hobby store, the only place within 20 miles to buy art supplies, salivating in anticipation of peppery noodles. In the aisles, kind ladies politely smiled and I charged past them machine-gunning head nods back, crazed by a jones for hot chilies and a fear of the dopamine-sapping low that overcomes me when I stay inside a large craft store for more than five minutes. Taylor Dayne's 1987 hit "Tell it to my Heart†was playing, giving me even less time before I cratered. I overpaid for some matte medium and exploded out the building in under three minutes like a ten year old coming up for air after grabbing thrown pocket change from the bottom of a pool. I aimed my mother-in-law's SUV, with its personalized plates announcing her by name, D-O-R-E-E-N, and headed for "Noodles and Company.â€
Surprisingly there was a line. And there were siracha bottles on each of the well-spaced tables. Two promising signs. A teenager who would be played by Paul Dano in the movie about his life gave me a lukewarm smile with his fingers poised over a keypad to enter my order. Not a promising sign.
The menu featured "Bacon, Mac & Cheeseburger,†"Wisconsin Mac and Cheese,†"Beef Stroganoff,†and a couple of perfunctory pan-Asian style dishes, "Bangkok Curry†and "Japanese Pan Noodles.†I honestly thought Beef Stroganoff was something only my grandmother on my dad's side made. I thought it was her own recipe. I grudgingly ordered some pan noodles, took a number and sat down at a clean table by a window looking out on a mattress superstore, recognizing that in the greater scheme of foody pretense, offering a beef stroganoff dish was a fairly advanced move.
Paul Dano's girlfriend arrived with a disappointing stir-fry of bland noodles and sautéed vegetables, a pack of soy sauce and a fork and knife set. The plate was sprinkled with black sesame seeds, the cheap signifier for Asian food of any sort. Put sesame seeds on a bratwurst and it's an "Asian Dog.†I had to go back to the counter to ask for chopsticks. Udon noodles with a fork? Really? When I did, Paul Dano looked at me like a dog does when you hide food behind your back.
"Do you have chopsticks?â€
"Maybe…I'll check in the back.â€
Dano came back a few minutes later with a pair of basswood sticks in a paper sheath. The girl who brought out my tray was looking at me now, and so were two people waiting in line to be served. I felt like an alien troublemaker.
I ate my noodles alone without reading material. And my table was too far away from the others to see what others were reading, to look into purses, or to overhear conversations; all favorite New York pastimes that almost make up for having to dine like chickens in a Perdue plant. I thought of Ray Liotta's line at the end of Goodfellas, "Right after I got here I ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles with ketchup.â€
Four days later, I got my chance to eat like a penned chicken, when my wife and I tried a popular restaurant in Long Island City. It was really dark..either that or my cones had reset to Milwaukee dining light levels. I started talking to my wife in my loud voice, not realizing the lack of a 12-foot buffer between tables that I'm used to at my local fine dining establishment in Wisco. I ramped up into a magnificent polemic about a writer who wrote a lazy review of a recent exhibition. My wife moved my glass of water toward her in anticipation wild hand motions. Before I could reach my Al Pacino-scent-of-a-woman finale, a head appeared from my blind spot.
I couldn't make him out in the dark, but my stomach jumped into my throat. I felt as found out as Rumpelstiltskin. My rant was wine-fuelled, ad-hominem and not meant for anyone who didn't know me well enough to know why I hate riding in the back of pickup trucks.
"I overheard your, uh, conversation.â€
I took my candle and brought it up to his face sheepishly. "JOHN! How much of that did you hear…and how much hush money do you want?â€
"It happened 14 inches from my head, I couldn't help it. I could taste your hostility in my root vegetable gratin. I'm kidding..Don't' worry,  I'm on your side, but you have to know everyone's reading over your shoulder on a New York subway in rush hour and hearing your conversation at dinner. That's part of the fun of living like sardines."
"..I always say penned chickens."
Latest posts by Shane McAdams (see all)
- Gavin Brown at the Green Gallery in Milwaukee - January 16, 2014
- The Wisconsin Triennial and the Value of Context - December 11, 2013
- From the Curb in Milwaukee: Usable Space - October 25, 2013


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With less than an hour left to go until the official release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, it appears that the wallpapers included in the build have already leaked out. Whether you're someone who is eager for an appetizer to the impending CP build, or if you just happen to like the wallpapers and have no intention of installing pre-release software, you're in luck.
Included in the pack are various nature wallpapers (of green leaves, orange leaves, flowers, an island, a beach, a harbor) along with a betta fish wallpaper with some Metro flair.
This is probably the closest thing to an actual leak that we have seen in quite some time; somehow, Microsoft has been doing a great job at leak control. Since the Developer Preview build was published, there have been no new build leaks, and a relatively minimal stream of information leaks.
You may download them over at R27.


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Apple has upped the ante for iPhone enterprise use with the iPhone OS 3.0 update. In addition to a number of enterprise-friendly improvements added to the iPhone, Apple has also updated its iPhone Configuration Utility and published a handy guide for enterprise iPhone deployment.
It's no secret that Apple doesn't have a particularly ambitious enterprise program. For the most part, Apple is content with making killer hardware that people want to use, and typically users evangelize for (or in the case of C-level executives, demand) the ability to use iPhones with the company network. But that doesn't mean Apple isn't willing and able to continue to improve on the tools to make that happen as smoothly as possible.
iPhone OS 2.0 made the iPhone more "corporate-friendly" with the addition of Microsoft Exchange support, as well as remote wiping of a lost or stolen iPhone to prevent data theft. iPhone OS 3.0 goes even further, adding LDAP support for contacts, wireless CalDAV syncing, improved VPN support, improved Exchange support for meeting invites, encrypted backups, a variety of security and authentication protocols, additional device restrictions that include disabling the camera (a common security requirement, especially in government), and additional management capabilities with the new 2.0 version (Windows and Mac) of iPhone Configuration Utility.
Apple has also produced an 83-page how-to, titled iPhone OS Enterprise Deployment Guide, detailing configuring, activating and deploying the phones in an enterprise environment. It also includes an overview of the process of setting up provisioning profiles to distribute in-house developed apps. Further, Apple documents its mobile configuration file format so that admins can create or integrate with their own tools to manage the devices.
Though BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile devices still dominate the corporate mobile device space, the iPhone's ease of use, thoughtful design, and—let's face it—tech cachet have helped it gain inroads into the enterprise. As long as Apple continues to improve and enhance its enterprise-friendly features, it could easily be a contender in this space.


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01753 email@example.com
Fernside, Wexham Rd, Slough,
Berkshire SL2 5FF, United Kingdom
COVID-19 FPN Addendum
GDPR Data Protection Policy
2016 IRMS Toolkit for Schools v5
Parent and pupil FPN
Governor, Trustee & Volunteer FPN
Job Applicants FPN
ICO model-publication-scheme
I am delighted to welcome you to Iqra Primary School, Slough. This website contains a range of information about our school and I hope you find it useful.
Iqra Primary School is a Muslim faith primary school where we believe that every school day counts and every child matters. Our school motto, We Learn, We Lead, We Inspire reflects our belief that all children are entitled to a quality education to reach their highest potential and experience success.
Our pursuit of excellence embraces Islamic values aligned with the fundamental British values at the core of everything we do. We nurture the development of knowledge, confidence, creativity, skills and understanding to help our children develop into happy, healthy, caring and successful local, national and global citizens with a positive mindset .
At Iqra Primary School we want to develop children's passion for learning and celebrate their unique talents and interests. Through an enriched curriculum and vibrant, creative environments we offer unique experiences and opportunities empowering the future generation to acquire, demonstrate, articulate and contribute to a global digital world.
Within this website you'll find news and information about all aspects of Iqra life; from our vibrant classrooms and outdoor spaces, to our exciting Media Monsters curriculum and our PE and Music departments. Whether you are an existing Iqra parent, a new parent looking for the right school for your child, or a teacher looking for your next career move I hope you find everything you need. If you have any questions about the school, or suggestions for any further information you'd like to see on the website, please contact us
Dr Mineza Maher


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Hitting the gym can be hard to do during the holidays. There is less light in your day and more parties to attend, so it's easy to put on unhealthy weight. However, making time to flex your muscles and get a good workout can keep the pounds down during the holiday season. Here are some […]
Hitting the gym can be hard to do during the holidays. There is less light in your day and more parties to attend, so it's easy to put on unhealthy weight. However, making time to flex your muscles and get a good workout can keep the pounds down during the holiday season. Here are some fabulous iPhone apps to fit in a little exercise now so you are not paying the price later.
Learn Pilates ($1.99)
Pilates is a fabulous way to tighten up your abs, butt, and inner thigh muscles. With the Learn Pilates app for iPhone, you can find new exercises to target your trouble zones without hitting the gym. This fitness app takes you through 30 days of Pilate's exercises until you master all the moves. Learn Pilates is a great way to fit a little exercise into your day no matter how busy you are!
Tone It Up ($0.99)
Looking for an easy way to spice up your gym routine? Grab the Tone It Up app for iPhone and get a new workout routine every day for free. Check out the "Love" section of the app each day to see what the trainers, Karena and Katrina, have planned for you. Join the community in order to log your workouts and daily diet. Don't forget to set the "Booty Call" alarm so you don't oversleep and miss your workout.
Butt Workout (Free)
Have you been spending months on the treadmill only to see your butt shrink? Or do you sit all day at work and want to tighten your tush before it sags all the way to the floor? Set up a butt workout plan with the free Butt Workout app for iPhone. Personalize the workout plan and repetitions that work for you and coordinate the perfect butt bumping workout playlist. Do so and you should have the tightest tushie on the block before spring break.
Ray Lewis Workouts ($3.99)
Okay, okay, so Pilates and butt workouts aren't for everyone. If you are looking for a little bit of a more challenging fitness program, check out the Ray Lewis Workouts app for iPhone. You can train like a Super Bowl MVP when you get this fitness app. You will be training like a superstar athlete in no time with the 24 stellar work outs in this app concentrating on strength, power, endurance, and flexibility.
Bodyweight Training: You Are Your Own Gym ($2.99)
There are a ton of exercises you can do without the assistance of a gym, a personal trainer, or even weights. You can use your own body weight to get in shape. It's easy and it's free. If you have no idea where to start, check out the Bodyweight Training app for iPhone that is filled with ways to use your own body weight during your next workout. Choose a premade workout or build your own with this savvy fitness app.


text: Casa Mecano was designed by Arquitectos Costa Rica and is located in PenÃnsula de Osa, Costa Rica. The residence was especially developed to take in the surrounding landscape: Casa Mecano functions as an organism that adapts to its environment. The project maximizes the use of passive design strategies through bio-climatic architecture in order to achieve the thermal comfort levels, adequate for the tropical environment. The rooftop was projected as a sail and a manual system was designed, allowing the client to change its inclination, with the goal of controlling the direct sunlight projected inside the house. The interior design of this sustainable residence is highly modern, with a generous living and dining space acting as the core of the project. All the rooms have excellent views towards the infinity pool and the scenic vistas beyond.


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Eddy Whitely loads a blanket-wrapped item of furniture into his the van on a chilly weekday morning, but the co-owner of Orions Objects, a furniture dealer that specializes in midcentury modern design, isn't taking the piece for delivery.
He's taking it to the oven.
"We're the only place in Baltimore that sells baked furniture," Whitely says, followed by a laugh. He explains that he and his business partner, Stacey Greer, turn to the Baltimore Body Shop, an automotive repair and maintenance garage in Remington, to apply the lacquers to restoration projects that require it, a process that involves curing the finish in an oven.
"We do the prep work — the woodwork, the hardware — but then they finish it off," he says. "They have a big oven and they bake our furniture.
"And when it comes back — that's my favorite, favorite part of this business," Whitely says. "Witnessing the transformation of a piece."
The results of that transformative process fill Orions Objects' gallery showroom and workshop on Union Avenue just north of the Woodberry light rail stop in Clipper Mill. Inside, a string of credenzas, sideboards, chairs, tables and sofas run from the front door through the first floor of a large warehouse showroom and into the second.
Every one of the items is immaculately restored and lovingly finished. A pair of Milo Baughman chairs in a dark chocolate brown with white piping look more like decadent patisserie confections than objects made for sitting. The finish on a wood-and-chrome Baughman sideboard is basketball court-shiny. A reupholstered George Mulhauser "Mr. Chair" lounge seat is preposterously cool, the sort of chair that would make a man believe he could be a handsome and rich power player on television's "Scandal."
Whitely and Greer have a combined 30 years in the furniture restoration and sales business, and they joined to form Orions Objects in 2011. Their curatorial eye for items and high-quality restoration have helped them forge strong relationships with their primary customers, designers across the country and around the world who are decorating homes for their clients.
Greer estimates that between 60 percent and 70 percent of Orions' business is to professional interior design firms; the remaining clientele are retail customers from the area and region. She says the shop has even started being contacted by set decorators, noting that a table was rented for use in the Spider-Man movie sequel, "The Amazing Spider-Man: London Calling," and a few chairs were rented but not used for a New York commercial shoot featuring Tina Fey.
Earlier in each of their careers, Whitely and Greer spent more time searching for items personally, attending auctions on the Eastern Shore, scrolling through furniture online or responding to calls where somebody was looking to unload family pieces or an estate. Over time, they developed relationships with buyers who know what they're looking for.
Whitely says he's constantly on calls with somebody wanting to know if he's interested in something.
"You just heard me on the phone with one," Whitely says. "That guy is standing at an auction somewhere right now, and he's standing in front of an [Danish designer] Ib Kofod Larsen sideboard. The phone call before that was about a 1940s telephone booth with an operating telephone in it. It'll probably be here next week. We have a whole network of people like that, and we're very fair with people. If somebody we work with comes to us and wants $1,000 for a pair of chairs, we don't say, 'Would you take $600?' We know they work as hard as we do."
The fairness sensibility runs through the business. Greer points out that if there's an environmentally friendly product that can be used in the restoration process, they use it. And they both immediately bring up the many local skilled artisans they use when working on a project — woodworker Bill Hergenroeder when they need a wooden part fabricated; upholsterer Joseph Loiero; Ann Lauer, who does caning for chairs; faux finisher Kelly Walker; Cray Merrill's Brassworks in Fells Point for brass polishing; and Baltimore Body Shop for lacquering.
Any combination of these artisans may come into play when Greer or Whitely first encounter a piece of furniture. Sometimes items just need to be stripped and refinished. Sometimes there's surface damage that needs to be repaired or parts that need to be replaced. Sometimes they need to have new metal hardware. And sometimes the piece needs to be rethought completely: perhaps what was once a sideboard in the 1950s might work better as a showpiece shelving unit today.
Greer and Whitely make as many creative design decisions as they do functional restoration decisions. Their knowledge of 20th-century designers isn't just impressive but fearsome, as discussions with them move from popular Scandinavian designers quickly into lesser known European and South American designers that they're exploring.
The two also recently started talking with local woodworking firm Gutierrez Studios about developing their own furniture items, an opportunity to take what they've learned and develop unique pieces to add to their gallery.
They move items quickly — they rattled off pieces that they had recently sold to interior designers working with clients in Egypt, Dubai, and the Virgin Islands — and estimate that they introduce between 10 and 20 showroom-ready items to the floor every week, after they and their workshop team have restored them.
It's a labor-intensive, collaborative process, and sometimes Greer and Whitely's personal tastes differ, but they share the same high standards for quality — and, they discovered, a similar background with the celestial configuration invoked by their company's name.
When he was a kid, Whitely says, his father, an amateur astronomer, taught him the constellations, including Orion, which is so prominent in the night sky. "We both agreed on Orion, that we had in common," Greer says. "It's the first [constellation] my father taught me. It's big and really visible and just cool."
"And how perfect is that — the great hunter, that's what this is," Whitely says of the furniture restoration business. "This is like an adult Easter egg hunt. Ooh, look what I found."
Find it
Orions Objects, Clipper Mill Industrial Park, 1750 Union Ave., Unit E, Baltimore 21211


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Ask your general man on the street what the 'Manchester Sound' is, and it's fairly likely that he'll come up with something woefully out of date – a simian stroll through lad-rock's back streets, all mouth and no melodies. Anyone who looks closer at the city or has lived within the borders of Greater Manchester for any amount of time will tell you, if there's one constant sound that's been present over the past 20 years or so, it's that of quietly unassuming men welding hefty melodies onto the side of gently experimental songs. It's the sound that Jim Noir, Alfie and Polytechnic attempted to bottle, that Badly Drawn Boy held firmly in his grasp for a while, and is now settled in the mind of Marc Rigelsford, who is also known as Magic Arm.
Magic Arm's first album, 2009's Make Lists, Do Something, garnered a healthy dose of praise, celebrity fans and even soundtracked a couple of TV moments, but failed to live up to the promise of its singles over the full stretch of an album. Here on the follow up, Images Rolling, Rigelsford seems to have found more consistency and room to manoeuvre, allowing his creations to stretch into the space they deserve.
Perhaps it's the prominence of the piano on this album, which naturally lends itself to a more ponderous mood, allowing Magic Arm to fill the extra space with some sumptuous melodious. One of the best examples of this is 'Great Life', which starts out as a lo-fi scuffle before breaking into beautiful string-laden territory, full of the ache and melancholy that Grizzly Bear do so well.
The single which opens the album, 'Put Your Collar Up', is probably the most instantly gratifying thing that Rigelsford has put to tape, its propulsive rhythm, giant stride of a chorus and Seventies brass-and-strings-breakdown seemingly pulled direct from Gruff Rhys' personal stash.
Elsewhere, 'Is History' adds a psychedelic tinge to proceedings - ghostly harmonies gathering round stabs of organ and a stomping beat - while 'Warning Sign' achieves the rare feat of sounding like a Sigur Ros song but also having a discernible melody, warm brass and spaced-out keyboards adding a wonderfully blissful air. That it also sounds noticeably like the aforementioned Jim Noir is also worth a mention.
Noir was a great white hope for Manchester a few years ago, soundtracking a whole summer after a couple of his tracks featured on World Cup TV adverts. However, he's never really made the step up to wider public consciousness, a fate that seems to befall many of those bearded types practicing this particular strand of Manchester music.
That's a fate that you hope won't also befall the man known as Magic Arm, but his gentle vocals and laid-back pace can occasionally allow a track or two to slip by without garnering much attention. However, Images Rolling is a definite step up in consistency compared to his debut, and will be well-suited as a soundtrack to the famous Manchester sunshine, whenever it remembers to make an appearance.
7Aaron Lavery's Score


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Saturday, November 22, 2008
Thoughts on another stimulus package (2)
His solution appears to be boilerplate New Dealism with a Green Twist: massive spending to rebuild infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, etc.), develop alternative energy sources, and build more efficient cars. (The latter being essential now that gasoline is on its way to under $2 per gallon.)
Investors whose portfolios have been devastated can now look forward to digging ditches, paving highways, pouring concrete and painting classrooms.
Excuse my skepticism, but I guess I didn't realize that decaying infrastructure, inadequate classrooms, and not enough Honda Civics were the root cause of the current crisis.
I'm led to revisit my concerns of early October. The market's collapse began around the time (late September) that an Obama victory began to be very likely. If another New Deal is the best he can come up with, then I can understand why the market is down.
UPDATE: The good news would be that he didn't mention raising any taxes. So as I thought before, he will probably allow the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule at the end of 2010. No new taxes, no higher taxes, for the next two years.
5 comments:
- Mark Gerber said...
I disagree about Obama stirring the pot by being honest and realistic. We just came through years where Bush and Paulson, and later McCain, repeatedly told the American people the fundamentals of the economy are strong. That distortion did not help anyone, and ultimately made things worse. Bush has spent years telling us how great the economy was when most people felt otherwise.
Now, most economists, including you, agree that unemployment is likely to rise going forward. About half the American people already believed a depression was in our near term future before Obama was elected.
Our country needs a president who is honest with the people. Obama is making it clear he understands the reality that our citizens facing economic challenges and are scared, and he is going to take strong action the minute he is inagurated. I find his directness to be a breath of fresh.
- November 23, 2008 at 9:06 AM
- Scott Grannis said...
Mark: you make some good points. I suppose my concern is that raising people's level of concern about all the bad things that might happen is not a good thing to do. After all, this plan he is talking about is going to take an awful long time to implement, even if Congress manages to pass it in a week. I can't imagine any meaningful amount of money would be spent until the middle of next year at the earliest.
The problem with stimulus via spending is that it is very clumsy and takes a long time to implement and can be extremely wasteful, if not totally ineffective. How about stimulus via incentives instead? Like cutting taxes, etc. That works almost immediately and can be far more effective.
If you were really worried about deflation and millions of job losses, would the announcement of this plan really make you feel better?
But I suppose there's a good side to it: if the economy can survive until the middle of next year we might realize that a big spending plan was unnecessary. The economy does have the capacity to fix itself I believe, given time and lack of government meddling.
- November 23, 2008 at 9:58 AM
- bix1951 said...
Kudos on your blog
- November 23, 2008 at 11:43 AM
- bix1951 said...
I just discovered your blog this morning when I googled "pent up demand."
To quote Chauncey Gardner,
"There will be growth in the spring."
My point of view is that the economy is all psychology. Confidence is the ultimate arbiter.
And it does hurt to have negativity from anyone. The biggest push over the cliff was from Hank Paulson. The markets have plunged from that point. (HIS SELLING OF TARP)
I run a small business on the west side of Los Angeles. I operate apartments. This has been my best year ever.
I always stay fully occupied because I set my prices according to what the market tells me. If I can't rent a place I drop the price until it rents. This is a simple formula. I also give good service to my occupants.
What will the future bring?
I am annoyed when I hear a talking head on the boob tube pontificating about how the recession will be long and deep.
Such certainty
Broadcast to millions
I suggest people look at their own lives and not be fooled by the distortions in the media and from politicians.
Most people are doing great
Most people are not unemployed
Things are much better than we are led to believe.
- November 23, 2008 at 11:51 AM
- Scott Grannis said...
bix: Thanks very much for your kind words, and the experiences you related reinforce my own belief that things are definitely not as bad as people are being led to believe. You represent the vast majority of people out there that work hard and smart; you're the backbone of this country and too often the unsung hero of the story.
- November 23, 2008 at 10:48 PM


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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Conservationists sued a federal agency Monday for allegedly failing to protect North Pacific right whales, which were hunted nearly to extinction more than a century ago and remain among the world's most endangered animals.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect a "critical" habitat for the North Pacific right whale, saying it is required to do so under the federal Endangered Species Act.
That habitat most likely would be in Alaska's Bering Sea, where an increasing number of whales have summered since 1996, said Brent Plater, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Hunters nearly eliminated the right whale population in the 1800s. The animals received international protection in 1931 and have been listed as endangered since 1973.
Experts believe there are probably fewer than 100 North Pacific right whales in U.S. waters.
"The right whale was nearly hunted to extinction, and so it is our shared responsibility to ensure that this species survives," Plater said. "We don't have time to sit around and wait."
NMFS spokeswoman Sheela McLean said the agency could not comment on the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, until it had time to review it.
According to the lawsuit, the agency has known for eight years that Pacific right whales were gathering in the Bering Sea during the summertime but has done nothing to protect them. The whales' range extends from Mexico, along the California coast, to the Arctic.
"Instead of actually working to protect the species ... they have just been sitting on their hands, saying we need more research, more research, more research and, in the meantime, the whales are on the brink of extinction," Plater said.
Plater said a critical habitat designation would not necessarily mean a halt to fishing, but the center would like to see fishermen use gear that will not harm the whales.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.