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Posts Tagged 'beauty'
Ten Creative Garden Design Ideas
Posted October 27, 2011on:
- In: Flower | Flowers | Garden | Growing Flowers | Orchid Flowers | Orchids Tips | Types of Orchids
- 2 Comments
It always gives great pleasure to the gardeners to add some new design ideas to their gardens. There are a lot of ideas which can be added to the garden. Some of them need much time to give them a finishing touch, while others need just a moment, but all of them help in beatifying the garden.
Here are some of the most popular and unique garden design ideas. Gardeners can use them to make the garden look wonderful and attractive, and also to add style to the landscape.
1.The Rose Walk
If you have enough space in your garden then constructing a chain of three to five arches of uneven-cut cedar, and planting the climbing roses at each foundation is the good idea to make garden look attractive. The path surrounded by them, could be grassy, flagstone, or pea gravel. If you like, you can also use thyme or chamomile as a path.
2.A Florid Patio
Another great idea is to place the big square stones close together giving a little space between them and utilize the open areas for planting creepers, herbs, and other low-growing plants. Violets and pinks thyme looks perfect here. A florid patio is best for small gardens.
3.The Chamomile Lawn
Chamomiles are beautiful and scented plants that give their strong scent when walked over. Therefore, making a chamomile lawn or chamomile path is a wonderful idea for designing a garden.
4.The Laburnum Walk
Planting the yellow hanging flowers or laburnum on the sides of walkways is a great idea. It adds romance to the garden as these flowers make the tunnel affect of a traditional laburnum walk. If you do not want to plant laburnum then you can go for easy-to-grow vine plants.
5.Morning Glory for Quick Coverage
Annual vines, such as morning glory, not only give colorful flowers but also make a quick coverage over an unattractive wall, shed, or fence. You just need to twine a wire upright from the top to the base, and sow the plant seeds just a few inches away from the base of the wire. This plant is very fast growing and gives splendid flowers in the mid-summer.
6.A Rock Garden on the Flat
Generally, rock gardens are made on hillsides to keep the soil in place. The low-growing alpine plants grow well in the spaces of a rock garden.
However, you can also make a rock garden on a flat surface. The plants in it grow vertical and the attractive stones are more visible. Also, weeding and cultivating become easier if stone pathways are made between the beds.
7. A Topiary
Topiary surely adds interest, innovation, and formality to a garden. You can spruce and prepare at least one evergreen into topiary. A lot of informative books are available in stationery shops about the different ways to do this. A garden gate having smaller topiary in iron or cement pots at each side of it provides a graceful welcome.
8.Runner Beans and Sunflowers
Runner beans and sunflowers can be grown side by side. The strong stems of the sunflower provide a support to the beans and both the plants grow up collectively. This idea creates a great interest to the vegetable garden.
9.The Plant Collection
Another design idea is to start collecting a particular plant species. Many plants come in a number of varieties that are not only available in the garden centers but also online. Get the information as much about your favorite plant as you can and grow its different types to add more colors to your garden.
You can also make separate sections of the garden and devote each section to one plant such as lily garden, rose garden, or peony garden.
10.The Pink Garden
Pink gardens are very eye-catching and make your garden beautiful. For this, you can plant a border with pink flowers but the trick is to disintegrate the many shades of one-color garden. Adding some gypsophila and different shades of green foliage will do just fine.
These are some of the design ideas that can be applied in the garden. It all depends on the gardeners' own sense of creativity that how many ideas they can introduce to their gardens to make them beautiful.
Building Rock Garden
Posted October 26, 2011on:
- In: Flower | Flowers | Garden | Growing Flowers | Orchid Flowers | Orchids Tips | Types of Orchids
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A rock garden is an area with different types and sizes of rocks and various species of small flowers. It looks quite natural and also gives you a great pleasure to have a rock garden in your back or front yard.
Building a rock garden is not a difficult task. If you have an area in your yard with a mild slope that receives a good amount of sunlight then you can easily build a rock garden in it. If you do not have that type of sloping place in your yard then you can use your own imagination to create a natural looking rock garden.
There is no specific layout or design for building a rock garden. But there are certain steps that should be kept in mind while building a rock garden. They are as follows:
- Lay the foundation:
The good rock garden depends on the good foundation. An ideal natural slope also needs to be dug up so that a proper foundation can be laid down. It is because many rock garden plants require water-retentive and fast-draining soil.
- Excavate:
It is ideal to dig down a slope at least 1 foot to clear out all the weeds and their roots. If you are not having a natural slope for building a garden, then you can build a raised bed elevated upheld by walls. It is recommended for a raised bed to dig down about 3 feet. The higher the walls, the more your delicate flowers will be safe from the pets.
- Put down the drainage layer:
It is important to place a layer of a hodgepodge of clunky rocks, old pieces of concrete or brick and even broken pieces of clay pots in the base of the foundation. As this drainage layer will absorb excess moisture from the soil above, you need to make up about one third to one half of your trough's deepness.
- Put down the sand layer:
The sand layer will hold up the topsoil and acts as a water-absorbent layer. A few inches of coarse layer should be added between the drainage layer and the soil layer.
- Put down the soil layer:
Blooming of your garden plants highly depends on this layer. It is best to use a mixture of following components for the proper growth of garden plants:
- 1 part leaf mold
- 1 part topsoil
- 1 part small gravel
- Place the rocks:
You can use rocks found in your surroundings. However, there are several different types of garden rocks are also available. It is a good idea to get one variety of rock in various different sizes. Arrange them in a way that it looks natural and blends in with your environment.
- Let the garden settle:
Before planting the flowers, let the garden settle. This is important because the soil can fall a bit after few weeks. If this happens then fill it with the remaining mixture of soil.
- Plant flowers:
Planting should always be done carefully and properly to make the flowers grow fast. Many different plants can grow easily in the rock garden. The best evergreen plant to use is low growing junipers such as the Armstrong, and the low growing conifers, ground covers, and bulbs are also a good choice for the rock garden. You can also grow Alyssum, Gazania, Pansy, Verbena, etc.
- Proper and regular care:
If you select your plants wisely and according to your climate then they will require less care. You just need to weed them occasionally to keep them healthy. During dry season, always give them plenty of water so that they could not wither away.
Following these steps will make it easy for you to build a nice, beautiful and natural-looking rock garden.
Flower Planting Tips
Posted October 19, 2011on:
Gardening is a wonderful hobby but it is not a simple task unless you know the basic knowledge of planting and taking care of different kinds of plants and flowers. Fortunately, there are some easy-to-follow tips which can help you in making gardening easy and enjoyable. They are briefly discussed below:
- Identify the suitable area for planting:
Before start planting, you need to identify the suitable area of the garden where you want to plant the flowers. Generally, plants and flowers require proper and adequate sunlight to thrive and grow. But it should be remembered that different flowers need different amount of sunlight. Some flowers flourish well in direct sunlight while others need indirect sunlight to bloom fully.
Therefore, you should not only know the basic light requirements of the specific flower you want to grow, but also know that particular area of your garden where that flower will get enough sunlight and thrive well.
- Buy the flowers carefully:
Planting should be done properly so that flowers can bloom soon. For this, always try to buy those flowers which have the tags attached to it. These tags provide you the necessary instructions for planting the flowers in a most suitable way.
There are several kinds of flowers that you can buy. Some of them are perennial flowers, annual flowers, flower bulbs, and roses.
Perennial flowers include perennial fruits (such as banana), perennial herbs (such as fennel), and perennial vegetables (such as eggplant). On the other hand, annual flowers include henbit, peas, deadnettle, chickweed, winter cress, etc.
Flower bulbs and roses can also add beauty and color to your garden. Flower bulbs include flowers like daffodils, tulips, crocus, allium, etc. On the other hand, different types of roses are also available such as hybrid tea roses, floribunda roses, shrub roses, and polyantha roses.
Besides flower bulbs and roses, it is always best to purchase perennial flowers as they bloom yearly, on the other hand, if you go for the annual flowers then they will last only for a year and need replanting next year. You can also consider purchasing inexpensive wild flower seeds to make other areas of your garden more colorful. However, the selection of flowers entirely depends on you.
- Plant the flowers properly:
When planting, you need to follow the instructions given on the tags. Mix some fertilizer in the soil and water it thoroughly so that the soil absorbs maximum water which is good for the proper growth of the flowers. Ensure that flowers are placed into a loose soil flower bed, providing each of them proper space. It is also necessary to transfer the flowers carefully into the dug hole to avoid any damage to the stem or leaves. After placing the flowers, fill the hole with the soil and water the plants.
After planting, dispersing a thin layer of mulch over the flower bed not only helps in preventing weed growth but also give a finished look to the flower bed. Regular watering and frequently feeding will reward you with colorful and beautiful flowers in the coming spring season.
Thus, by following these simple tips, a novice can easily create his own wonderful flower garden. And if perennial flowers are grown in the garden then they will bloom every year adding colors to your garden.
Water Orchids
Posted October 18, 2011on:
- In: Flower | Flowers | Garden | Garden Decoration | Growing Flowers | Orchid Flowers | Orchids Tips
- 1 Comment
The beauty of Orchid flowers is the main reason for its increasing popularity. In order to make Orchid plants bear more flowers, they need to be provided an adequate amount of sunlight, minerals, and water.
The quantity of water required by the Orchids highly depends on the type of Orchids. Some species do not need plenty of water, whereas others need a lot of water more often. Therefore, it is very important to know what type of Orchids you are growing and how much water they need. You can get complete information about your Orchid type from Orchid stores, through internet, or by consulting a professional Orchid grower. These sources help you in finding out whether the Orchid plant needs more or less water.
Orchids are generally inhabitant of tropic climates where there are heavy rainfalls throughout the year. The humidity level in these regions reaches up to 80% which is quite suitable for the Orchids but not for the indoor home environment. However, you can easily recreate this humidity level around the Orchid plant by putting water in a deep tray or saucer full of pebbles or stones, and after that placing your Orchid pot onto these pebbles. You just need to ensure that the water level is not reaching the bottom of Orchid pot so that the plant roots can be protected from getting soaked. This artificial water Orchid source can provide sufficient amount of humidity to the plant the whole day.
When it comes to watering Orchids, some people give too much water to their plants because they think that a dry potting mix is harmful for the plant growth. This is not true for the Orchid plants. The Orchid potting mix contains bark which preserves water like a sponge. When water from the surface area of the bark is used by the plant then it seems like the bark is dry but actually it still holds much wetness in it. Over watering Orchid leads to the rotting of roots and destroying the whole plant.
Orchids can survive for quite a long time without water in their natural environment. But it does not mean that you start under-watering your Orchids. There are many ways of under-watering. The most common of these is when the Orchids are just sprayed with water and are not given adequate amount of water. Another way is to water the Orchid with enough water, but infrequently. Under-watering results in damaging the root system of the Orchid plant which eventually kills it altogether.
Thus, it is evident that Orchids should not be given over or under water. You should check the dampness just below the surface of the potting mix before watering, which should not be drenching wet or not extremely dry.
It is highly recommended to use lukewarm or room temperature water for watering Orchids. You should always water in the morning or early part of the day so that roots and leaves can get enough time to dry during the day. Also, you need to water the Orchid potting medium thoroughly so that fertilizer salts can be flushed out from around the roots.
Orchids are lovely plants and just need proper care to award you with wonderful Orchid flowers that you can enjoy throughout the year.
Growing Orchids
Posted September 28, 2011on:
Orchid plants are very fastidious, bearing the most attractive flowers having a wide range of colors. They can easily be grown both indoors and outdoors with minimum amount of care. Some of the Orchid species require to be kept in greenhouses, whereas some varieties of Orchids can grow among other house plants.
Growing Orchids indoor and outdoor could be a great fun. You just need to know some important general guidelines.
Natural light is very vital for the Orchid plants. Normally, an east or west facing window is more suitable for the growth of these plants. Direct sunlight can be harmful for them; therefore, you need to make sure that they are placed in the shaded area, having indirect sunlight. They need to have 10 to 15 hours of light everyday. Artificial lights can also be used in winter season.
Proper temperature is also necessary throughout the year for the good growth of Orchids because Orchid plants do not bear hot and unventilated conditions. They need to have daytime temperatures about 70 F in summer season and 60 F in winter season. In cold and frosty nights, keep your Orchid plants away from windows.
Watering is also very significant for the proper growth of these plants. Overwatering is fatal for them; therefore, let surplus water to seep away. You should water them when you feel that the growing medium is about to dry. Usually, watering the Orchid plants once a week would be enough.
Orchid plants flourish well in a humid atmosphere. Placing the plant on a tray of small wet pebbles would be quite helpful in increasing the humidity level. Be sure to place the Orchid pot on the top of the pebble layer, not in the water. The water around the pebbles will fade away and moisturize the air around the plant.
When growing Orchids, regular fertilization will lead the plant to grow soon and bloom well. But it should be kept in mind that over fertilization will harm or destroy the plant completely. Giving fertilizer twice a month is highly recommended. Avoid feeding the plant during winter season.
It is also important to know that you should reduce watering and fertilizing the Orchid plants once they stop blooming. Start giving water and fertilizer regularly when new leaves begin to appear.
The yellowish or brownish spots on the leaves are the indication that plant has red spider insects on it. In this situation the leaves wither away prematurely.
Re-pot the plant in new medium when you see small yellowish leaves with few or no flowers because this condition shows that the plant needs fertilizer or the medium is too damp. After repotting, water it carefully.
If your Orchid plant is unable to grow flower buds properly, it means that temperature is too cold or too hot for the plant. In this condition, you need to keep it in proper place.
Orchid plants can grow well in the places like cellars, terraces, or living rooms only if they are provided with appropriate light, temperature and moisture.
Wild Orchids
Posted September 27, 2011on:
The wild Orchids are beautiful flowers that everybody should have in his/her garden or in the backyard. They grow in different style and have a unique look. The good thing about wild Orchids is that they have wide range of species; each kind of specie has its own unique and attractive form and vibrant coloring. The most popular types of wild Orchids are Lady's Slipper, Calanthe, and White Egret.
One of the most admired wild orchid types is the Lady's Slipper which comes in a number of different varieties varying typically in the size of the flower and colors. Snowy color Lady's Slipper is thought to be the most attractive and is in high demand by the Orchid lovers.
Many of these Orchids are about three inches in diameter and come in colors like pink, purple, or maroon with white blended in all over the petals. The wild Orchids can reach about two feet of height when fully grown. This is the maximum height of the Orchid plant.
Calanthe variety of Orchids is the more classic in shape, and has variety of colors. They give more flowers per stalk than the Lady's Slipper. These Orchids are able to flourish in almost every climate on condition that you keep them in moderate temperature and prevent them from exposing in the direct sunshine or in the frost of winter season.
The most distinctive kind of wild Orchid is White Egret. It commonly grows in Asia and has been successfully flourishing in the United States. Its different appearance makes it feel like a flying bird. As its name shows, this type of wild Orchid comes only in white flowers. A completely grown flowering spike can have ten flowers, and can attain the height of sixteen inches.
Orchids, in general, bear capsules which contain thousands of microscopic seeds. These seeds need to have Mycorrhizal fungi to sprout. Therefore, wild Orchids require producing lots of seeds in order to grow and become a fully grown flowering plant because only the small portion of all the seeds has the ability to germinate and become a plant.
It takes at least 3 to 5 years to turn a seed into a plant and bear flowers. Some of the wild Orchids even take 15 years from seed to fully grown orchid plants, bearing flowers. Therefore, deciding to grow Orchid from seed is not a good idea as it is very time-consuming process and you need to be very patient as well.
Specialized horticultural methods abolish the requirement of fungi which the wild Orchid needs. You can easily buy a plant from the plant sales outlets and then providing adequate water and humidity will be enough for the plant to grow. Taking proper care of it will give you flowers that last for more than a month, giving you inner satisfaction and pleasure.
Orchid Flowers
Posted July 8, 2010on:
Orchid flowers belong to the Orchid family, Orchidaceae, which is the second largest flower family in the plant kingdom. The number of known and accepted species of Orchids ranges from 25,000 to 30,000. Orchid flowers are found in all parts of the world, except Antarctica.
Orchid flowers are considered as the most beautiful flowers on earth. They are highly in demand as the ornamental plants, and believed to be the symbol of love, comfort, splendor, and strength. Large variety of Orchids is available in the market as they come from an extremely large flower family. Orchids are also easy to look after however they do demand some attention.
Talking about owning the Orchids, wild Orchid could be the magnificent choice. It has a distinctive look and growth style. Wild Orchids have wide, wonderful and attractive range of species. It should be kept in mind that placing a wild Orchid at home (inside the house), and having an Orchid in the garden are two different things and there is an enormous difference between them. Orchid flowers need adequate humidity and air flow.
Besides house decoration, Orchid flowers are also used for stress relief and relaxation. They give plenty of enjoyment, pleasure and satisfaction. These flowers are intended to attract insects for reproduction means. Wide variety of Orchids is formed by attracting insects to transfer their pollen from one flower to the other. Some of the Orchid species attract the pollinators by producing flowers similar to female insects in color, appearance and scent. Male insects move from flower to flower in search of a mate. Thus, pollens are easily transferred to other Orchid flowers through these male insects.
Being the most popular flower around the world, Orchid flowers have a well renowned history. Many books and articles are written on the Orchid flowers and the Orchid family. Back in 700 B.C, Chinese and Japanese drawings and literature shows that it was believed that the Orchid flowers have the curing powers, and was used as an herbal remedy.
Orchid flowers are among the most beautiful, sensual, amazing, and costly decorative plants. These flowers can easily be bought from the flower shops. But they will not last long if exposed to sun, wind and cold. Orchid flowers need to be placed where there is lot of humidity and air flow. Taking care of these delicate and magnificent flowers can be a tricky task. One needs to know how to make Orchid flowers last as long as possible.


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Hundreds of AOA advocates take to Capitol Hill
Optometry's advocates are making a real difference in the lives of patients and for the future of their profession. That was a key take-home message of the AOA's 2014 Congressional Advocacy Conference (CAC) in Washington, D.C.
Led by AOA President Mitchell T. Munson, O.D., President-elect David A. Cockrell, O.D., and the entire AOA Board of Trustees, attendees pressed lawmakers on optometry's top priorities, including:
- Full and fair implementation and enforcement of the new Harkin Law that bans health plans—including long-biased ERISA plans—from discriminating against ODs;
- Safeguarding continued full-physician status for doctors of optometry in Medicare and ensuring full-eligibility for new reform-based physician-level payment incentives; and
- Securing new Congressional co-sponsors to AOA-backed bills seeking fair treatment for ODs in Federal health programs (H.R. 855, H.R. 920/S. 1445).
This year's conference took place April 27-29 and drew more than 300 participants. AOA doctor and student volunteers used the CAC—optometry's largest annual gathering of advocacy leaders—to focus the national spotlight on the profession through visits to the offices of every U.S. Senator and House member and by playing key roles in a series of briefings and forums held around the nation's capital. (Click here to view pictures from the Congressional Conference)
A focus on pediatric care
A special summit highlighted a timely issue: the new pediatric essential eye health benefit, which launched earlier this year. The provision ensures that any parent who signs up for new insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as some plans outside of the law's marketplaces, gets access to annual comprehensive eye exams, materials, and treatment for their children.
"Optometry's Healthy Vision: The First 100 Days of Essential Pediatric Eye Health Coverage" examined the positive effects of the benefit, which is helping more children meet developmental milestones and find success in school. ODs who are seeing newly covered children were joined by members of Congress, officials from the U.S. Department of Education, children's health and education advocacy groups, and Jennifer Cross, M.D., a leading pediatrician.
Other conference highlights
Advocates met with their U.S. Senate and House members to encourage co-sponsorship of key AOA-backed bills seeking fair treatment for ODs in federal health programs. One bill, the National Health Service Corps Improvement Act (H.R. 920/S. 1445), would reinstate ODs into the NHSC student loan repayment and scholarship programs. The legislation's goals are two-fold, "placing ODs in underserved areas and helping to relieve massive student debt," said Terri Gossard, O.D., president-elect of the Ohio Optometric Association. Gossard led a group of ODs who met with Ohio's House and Senate delegation.
An AOA-led briefing on Capitol Hill explored optometry's leadership on improving care for patients with diabetes. Sponsored by the Diabetes Advocacy Alliance—composed of Novo Nordisk, the AOA, and other leading health groups—the briefing served as the Capitol Hill unveiling of new AOA evidence-based guidelines for eye care of the patient with diabetes mellitus. The AOA's Director of Clinical Resources Beth Kneib, O.D., discussed new challenges and opportunities with the roughly 50 Congressional staffers in attendance. Michael Duenas, O.D., the AOA's chief public health officer, covered policy implications.
A policy discussion on Medicare underscored the importance of replacing the program's sustainable growth rate payment formula. It also highlighted the need to ensure that any reform bill safeguards the continued full-physician status of ODs and ensures full-eligibility for new physician-level payment incentives going forward. The profession needs to reinforce with lawmakers that "we are physicians under Medicare. We provide medical eye care that helps diagnose, manage and treat chronic disease," said Roger Jordan, O.D., chair of the AOA Federal Relations Committee. After being updated on the long-string of AOA Medicare pay reform wins, advocates directly urged Congress take action later this year.
Seeking full and fair implementation of the Harkin Law, which prohibits discrimination against ODs, attendees urged their senators to join the law's lead champion, Sen. Tom Harkin, on a committee-level letter urging federal agency officials to scrap misleading and inaccurate sub-regulatory guidance now threatening the law's implementation. Although the AOA has already enlisted the help of leading members of Congress in this effort, a growing number of U.S. Senators are expected to join the fight as a direct result of AOA doctor and student advocacy.
Conference catch-up
Get more conference's highlights on the AOA's Facebook and Twitter pages, and learn what attendees had to say—and share—on the CAC's social roundup page.

subset: commoncrawl


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Word on the street has it that the follow-up to Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class will be written by Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes). The scribe will have to try and match or outdo the first film, which has grossed over $350 million to date and was well-received critically. Some of the films in his resume suggest he'd be a good fit: Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Sherlock Holmes. Then, some make my head hurt: xXx: State of the Union, X-Men: The Last Stand and Jumper.
Kinberg was a producer on X-Men: First Class. He was also the writer behind the 2012 releases This Means War and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which he is also executive producer on. Hit the jump for more on the sequel to X-Men: First Class.
The news of Kinberg's writing duties comes via SuperHeroHype, but we may have a few plot details to share. Vaughn himself shared some thoughts on potential sequels in an interview before the first film hit theaters. One little tidbit from that conversation included what the opening sequence of the X-Men: First Class sequel might be: "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy Assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto."
Vaughn also mentioned that there may also be (at least) one more character entering the mix in the follow up:
"We will only have one more new character. I won't say who he…I won't say who he or she is! But we will only be bringing one more new character in. Because, I think, as Professor X is in a wheelchair, Magneto needs to have a nemesis he can fight with. Someone that will be his equal. I know who it is. It would be nice if I could say something, but I can't, mate!"
Could we possibly see more of Wolverine than just a cameo next time? We'll have to wait and see. James McAvoy also offered up his take on a sequel (or sequels) and how he'd like to connect it to the existing films:
"Ideally you have a story arc that lasts three movies and at the end of the third it leaves you ready for the story in X-Men 1. It would be nice to explore things in two more films."
The director and cast seem more than eager to make a sequel and have a lot of ideas about where the franchise will go. Do you think Kinberg is up to the task? What's the over/under on how long it takes to report Vaughn himself is doing a rewrite?


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Who would believe that a translucent sightless amphibian that dwells only in dark underground caves could force a big Texas city to not only slash its water use but make water waste illegal? But the rare, four-inch Texas blind salamander has done pretty much just that – and spawned an unusual water story in San Antonio, where impressive conservation efforts are now being tested by one of the worst droughts in memory.
While most Americans can't even name the source of their drinking water, many San Antonians know not just their water source – an underground limestone formation called the Edwards Aquifer– but its height above sea level. That's because that level, which is posted every day on the city water authority's website, determines whether they can sprinkle their lawns — and whether the water police are likely to be out in full force. Recently the Edwards level has measured between 640 and 650 feet, which means that residents can irrigate only once a week. If the aquifer's level drops below 640 feet, the city will declare Stage 3 Drought and allow landscape watering only every other week.
So what's all the fuss about the level of the Edwards Aquifer? Enter the Texas blind salamander.
By the early 1990s heavy pumping from the Edwards had substantially reduced flows in San Marcos and Comal Springs, which harbor seven unique and endangered species, including the fountain darter, the Comal Springs riffle beetle, the Texas blind salamander, and Texas wild rice. These species are found nowhere else in the world, so their local extinction from these aquifer-fed ecosystems would mean their exit from the planet. The Sierra Club and others filed a lawsuit under the federal Endangered Species Act to limit pumping so as to sustain flows to the springs. In response, the Texas legislature established the Edwards Aquifer Authority, which is charged with enforcing a cap on pumping that will keep the springs flowing and the species' habitats intact.
Last week, I met with the talented team at the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) that is responsible for figuring out how this south-central Texas city can grow and thrive while living within these water limits. While focused intensely on the current drought, SAWS is aggressively tapping water conservation, wastewater recycling and groundwater recharge as long term solutions to their water dilemma.
"We try to do one billion gallons of proactive permanent savings per year," said Karen Guz, San Antonio's energetic director of water conservation.
Guz lists a few dozen water-saving incentives and measures that she and her year-round staff of twenty-five push forward to relentlessly drive down water demand. These include large-scale commercial retrofits, a tiered water rate structure that doubles the unit price of water for the highest usage tier, irrigation check-ups for large properties, rebates of $400 per acre-foot for proven savings, and a highly successful toilet-replacement campaign.
"We do a lot of potty training," says Guz with a quick smile that belies her steely-eyed seriousness about water conservation. Besides encouraging good toilet maintenance to avoid leaks, Guz's team targets homes built before 1992, when federal efficiency standards for toilets took effect, and offers to replace old guzzlers that gulp five to seven gallons per flush with new dual-flush models that average just one gallon per flush. (Dual flush refers to two flush volumes, one for solids and another for liquids.)
When public doubt crept in about how effectively these high efficiency units would work, SAWS set up a demo toilet and filmed it flushing a four-inch Russet potato. Two retired military officers showed up with their own potato, Guz recalled. They said, "We want to see." They saw, and lined up for their toilets.
To date, SAWS has replaced one quarter million toilets. Guz, of course, is fixated on the 100,000 older units still in place. "That's too much water to leave on the table."
The water authority also works with farmers who use city water to irrigate their corn and other crops. Though just a fraction of the system's 1.3 million customers, farmers pump a lot of water during the peak summer season, and their irrigation practices can make the difference between a Stage 2 or Stage 3 drought declaration in a year like this one.
According to Mike Brinkmann, SAWS vice president for operations services, a farmer shifting from old-style flood irrigation to precision sprinklers can reduce water use by two-thirds. SAWS might strike a deal to lease the saved water from the farmer or to pay for the irrigation upgrade in exchange for the water rights the farmer no longer needs– a win for the farmer, the city, and the Texas blind salamander.
Besides conservation, SAWS runs perhaps the nation's largest direct water recycling system. Up to 17 million gallons per day of treated wastewater is sold to golf courses, power plants, and other local businesses, including Toyota and Microsoft. In addition, up to 100 million gallons a day of recycled water gets released to the San Antonio River. Since the river's natural flow stops when the Edwards Aquifer drops below 670 feet, the river's entire flow in summer can consist of recycled water, as it did when I paid a visit to its banks in Brackenridge Park last week. An outflow pipe was discharging a hefty volume of flow into the channel.
"We consider the river one of our customers," said Meg Conner, SAWS director of environmental services. Recycled water also makes up most or all of the flow along San Antonio's famous Riverwalk, which winds through the downtown and attracts hoards of tourists each year.
All of these measures add up. Since 1984, San Antonio's total per capita water demand including residential, commercial and industrial uses – has dropped 42 percent.
In many ways, the city's ace-in-the-hole strategy – and perhaps the savior of the Texas blind salamander and its other endangered compatriots – is its $250 million Aquifer Storage and Recovery System. To avoid pumping the Edwards too low during dry periods, the city pumps more than it needs during wet periods, when the aquifer level is high, and stores that "surplus" in the shallower, lower-quality Carrizo Aquifer. The city then taps this bubble of stored Edwards water for use during dry spells. Conservation director Karen Guz calls it " saving for a drier day."
At the moment, SAWS has about 97,000 acre-feet of Edwards water stored in the Carrizo, about half of the city's annual water demand. Last week, water managers were pulling 40 million gallons a day out of storage to meet 20 percent of the city's daily water demand. So this "dry day fund" is helping the city avoid a Stage 3 drought declaration and keeping the springs flowing for the fountain darter, riffle beetle, blind salamander and other species skating on the brink of extinction.
For the past four years, the city, farmers, environmental groups and other stakeholders of the Edwards Aquifer have been negotiating a "habitat conservation plan" to assure federal officials that future pumping from the Edwards will not destroy the species' habitats. Nearing completion, the plan is expected to cost $20 million a year to implement, with the aquifer storage and recovery scheme accounting for 60 percent of that total.
During my final hours in San Antonio, I headed out of town for a look at the springs at San Marcos. There I saw the little blue jewel of south-central Texas called Spring Lake, which is fed entirely by the springs that also sustain the endangered species hanging in the balance. And I couldn't help but feel that the lowly, pigment-less, blind salamander with the broad head and flattened snout has done San Antonio a huge favor. From the quiet darkness of the limestone caves it calls home, this most uncharismatic amphibian has connected an entire city to its source of water and the amazing variety of life it sustains.
Sandra Postel is director of the Global Water Policy Project and lead water expert for National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative. She is the author of several acclaimed books, including the award-winning Last Oasis, a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, and one of the "Scientific American 50."


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There's a long history of writers revealing a little more about their lives than they should. Now more than ever, we're all at it: blogs, Facebook, confessional memoir, songs. But people's personal revelations still have the capacity to shock. Those who prefer privacy would sooner dash themselves on the rocks than unleash the truth about their travails to a bunch of strangers. If, for instance, a certain writer disclosed in an album review that their main memory of Ben Folds' last release, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, was listening to it to get over the fact that the only girl they'd ever really loved had dumped them, that would be pretty dumb, wouldn't it? If they proffered evidence gleaned from iTunes which confirms that they'd listened to the song 'Bruised' fifty seven times since having their stuff thrown up the stairs (it was a basement flat), that would be a fairly embarrassing confession to front up, yes? Yes, you really would have to be an idiot to submit words like that. Or perhaps these days you wouldn't. You see, we're all becoming more open. And Folds, more than anyone, has a history of crossing the line. He can put the listener into confessional mode because he himself is so candid. It's like some sort of group therapy session - one whose core membership apparently consists mainly of men who read Nick Hornby books.
On Way To Normal, his third solo studio release, Folds takes his 15 year mission - to document romantic catastrophy - to a whole new level. 'You Don't Know Me' is, for instance, almost callous in its bald assertion that most couples are anything but open with each other and 'Cologne' is an incredibly tender song about the final, frantic stage of accepting that a relationship is over. If this is all sounds a bit twee, well - it isn't entirely. Granted, the ire of the more cynical DiS board poster might be raised to fist-smashing-against-keyboard levels - if not by some of the soppier numbers on this record then perhaps in the first instance by the overtly sentimental tone of this review (cue: get slagging). But let me offer a defence. The reason Folds can get away with it is that, for much of the time, the emotional core of his songs come liberally coated with humour. Laughing at the pathos of failure is a de facto reflection of the way the male mind copes with trauma (eg: see above). Folds taps into the psyche of men, and there is perhaps no better current songwriter who can give voice to this curious contradiction between openly laughing and secretly crawling under the duvet - a contradiction that lies at the heart of what it means to be a man who's got 99 problems - with a girl being the main one.
It's for this reason that Folds gets compared so much with the likes of Elton John, from whose sad-but-funny piano-pop lineage he is so obviously descended. So, where you have the holy trinity of 1) genuine emotional depth, 2) wry humour, and 3) perfect jumpy pop on Way To Normal; then you get classic songs. The three best album tracks share these three characteristics: 'Bitch Went Nuts', 'Brainwascht', and 'Effington', following each other in a beguiling emotional ebb and flow which reminds you just why Folds can be so enchanting.
The man's a veritable dynamo of subversiveness too. He recorded fake versions of half the tracks here and made the spoof lyrics sound deliberately cloying in a dig at the haters who knock him for his emotional candour. Though, in a twist, these fake songs aren't actually that bad (- and there are allegedly plans to release them separately|). At the age of 42, to see Folds still capable of making mischief and writing songs of such distinction is pleasing. You'd think he'd have traded in "making good music" for "Marmite on toast + slippers" years ago, but the title of his latest album speaks like a clarion about his ongoing project to tell all about the ups and downs of love.
The Way To Normal he speaks of is essentially the struggle to grow up and settle down. The revelation - explored beautifully in 'Effington' - is that attaining a "normal" life (woman, house, cat) doesn't mean you're going to keep it for ever. This is, after all, a man who is now onto his fourth wife... How his exes feel about him cataloguing his myriad turbulent relationships is a moot point. It is of course the writer who gets the privilege of documenting history - which means it's the writer who opens himself up to the flak, but also the writer who can describe things the way he sees them. But one suspects that Folds' former wives club might quibble with certain things he's said.
Way To Normal is not, by any means, a perfect record. But no Ben Folds album is. You need to skip through the songs which are too jazzy, too American, too preppy. In this case, that means ditching 'Dr Yang', 'The Frown Song' and 'Errant Dog', which reek like the bins on a Sunday evening. But when you come to a mesmerising stompalong song like 'Brainwascht', you forgive him and wonder why more people haven't given Folds a chance to wheedle his way into their heart.
Some people think true truths and real feelings should stay locked in the box. Certainly, the English revile American candour at some level. But if there's one person who can be forgiven for getting drunk and letting it all spill out, then Folds is one of them. And Way To Normal is closer to the heart-stopping intensity of his previous solo outings - Songs For Silverman and Rockin' The Suburbs - then we ever dared expect. It would be fitting if Folds never found his way to normal; if this littlest hobo continued to produce his peculiarly open, often majestic and occasionally transcendental brand of potent piano pop - songs which give a particular personal take on the universal truths about lost love we can all relate to. Folds proves that, sometimes, the gamble you take on saying too much can pay off.
8Chris Beanland's Score


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Lil' Kim has filed a $1 million suit against a lawyer and businessman, claiming that she was convinced to sign a series of bad licensing agreements.
According to NYDN, the Queen Bee sued Sunny Barkats and Andrew Ro for having her sign the agreements. She claims that Barkats tricked her into entering transactions that gave him and Ro a 44 percent stake in a corporation formed to license her brand names. After confronting him about the deals in December, Kim claims that Barkats refused to rescind them and called the suit a "frivolous" attempt for her to back out of the contracts.
Kim's financial matters have been documented in the past. In February 2012, the IRS claimed that she owed $1,026,862.42 in unpaid taxes.
The Notorious B.I.G. protege was recently in the news after her publicist battled claims that she distorted her face with plastic surgery. She is also reportedly working on new music, having hit the studio with Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and Rockwilder.
RELATED: Lil' Kim Says She's "Just Now Getting Over" Notorious B.I.G.'s Death


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If all the talk is true, Christopher Nolan and his crew will be finished filming the next Batman movie, about an insane psychiatrist obsessed with Batman and desperate to replace him, by November 2011.
"Emma [Thomas], the producer, said we'd get the script in January. Christopher [Nolan] said: 'Script in January, shoot in May, finish in November,'" Michael "Alfred" Caine told Empire.
And who will the Caped Crusader be battling in this film? Allegedly, it will be Dr. Hugo Strange, as played by Tom Hardy, according to Batman-News, who acknowledges that this is rumor and not news. Lending a measure of credence to the talk is that Strange is featured in the upcoming video game Batman: Arkham City. But then, so is the Joker, so...
U.S. & World
So who tha'.. is Dr. Strange? Hes just, "The most dangerous man in the world! Scientist, philosopher and a criminal genius ... little is known of him, yet this man is undoubtedly the greatest organizer of crime in the world, according to Bruce Wayne by way of the Batman Wiki.
Strange was "abandoned as a child, grew up in state homes. A bright kid, but he apparently had a hell of a temper. Nobody knows how he put himself through college and medical school,"according to Commissioner Gordon. And he was smart enough to be able to figure out Batman's secret identity, but kept it to himself.
The character certainly sounds like one Hardy could nail--though we're so blinded by our man crush we'd cast him to replace Julie Andrews in a "Sound of Music" remake. But Strange also sounds like the kind of guy that Nolan could have some fun with, to discuss matters of identity and privacy and the like.
In any event, this is gonna be awesome.


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By ED DUVIN, Editor at Large
The founder of this publication, Patrice Greanville, and I made our way to the beginnings of the "activist" animal rights movement in the 1970s, believing it was an overlooked bastion of exploitation. Ignoring the intrinsic interests of our nonhuman family makes a mockery of social justice, as justice is indivisible. We eventually returned to our broader quest for an egalitarian ethos, but our hearts remained with the plight of oppressed beings. As we turned our attention to other moral imperatives, we weren't about to leave our animal friends behind.
I penned an essay in 2008 for Cyrano's Journal Today, addressing the ever-growing dominance of the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS). A new leadership team assumed the reins at HSUS, believing the cause suffered from a surfeit of diffusion. Their vision for remediation was not without merit: acquiring sufficient clout through mergers and other means to match power with power, dealing with our formidable adversaries from a position of strength. They increasingly became the prevailing force in the movement, and as I wrote in 2008, "It is difficult to hear other voices when one organization owns the preponderance of microphones."
HSUS' tactical expertise is principally legislative, an area in which they set the standard for proficiency. For that and other achievements, we owe them a profound debt of gratitude. Questions remain, however, vis-à-vis the strategic soundness of their moral compass. This inexorably leads to the old incremental vs. abolitionist debate, which is hardly the crucial issue. Indeed, all social change is incremental. The salient question is whether a given step sets the stage for the next advancement toward ending speciesism, or does it in fact impede future progress by institutionalizing cruelty? In the Battery Cage Agreement with the United Egg Producers (UEP), it is axiomatic to any thoughtful person that HSUS woefully lost its way.
Without enumerating every detail, HSUS negotiated some cage and climatic "enrichments," along with egg-carton labeling. In return, HSUS agreed to stop undercover investigations, ballot measures, state legislation, and litigation during the 18 year implementation period. HSUS and UEP are now imploring Congress to codify this agreement into law, confining many millions of hens to "enriched" cages in perpetuity, as the UEP has no further mandate or incentive to ever reach a cage-free end point. These hens will never know a day of freedom…not in 18 years, not ever. How in the name of sanity did we get here, literally settling for crumbs baked by the UEP at the expense of any hope for liberating hens from their heinous imprisonment.
Having formerly headed an environmental ethics center affiliated with HSUS and knowing many of the principal parties involved in this agreement, I neither question their good faith nor doubt their negotiating skills in light of UEP's intractability. It was the best they could achieve, but instead of walking away and relentlessly intensifying pressure on the egg industry, HSUS confused compromise with concessions. No agreement at all would have been infinitely preferable to forever condemning many millions of hens to confinement for life. Are those in healing professions not morally bound by the Hippocratic "do no harm" maxim, and yet HSUS incredulously continues to defend the indefensible.
The 34 board members of the UEP consist of egg farmers, representing the collective voice of the egg-producing industry. Conversely, HSUS, absent the authority to represent any other organization, unilaterally signed on to this agreement as though "father knows best." Who ordained HSUS as spokesperson for a diverse movement composed of several thousand organizations? What unmitigated hubris, as though might makes right. The French speak of sine qua non, an essential element, and is it not essential if one speaks for the movement that they represent the movement? It would seem so, but apparently not to our friends at HSUS.
The central players in this tragic farce, however, are not HSUS' leadership, but a broken movement that is largely paralyzed by passivity and myopia. Were it not so, organizations across the country would be looking in the mirror, not simply seeing the aforementioned limitations of HSUS, but also galvanizing a massive effort to defeat the ill-advised legislation—legislation that mortgages our core principles to expediency. HSUS didn't steal our votes; we freely gave them away by proxy. If we are to criticize HSUS, let us not give ourselves a pass.
We are granting to HSUS that which is not our right to grant: our solemn responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. With a few notable exceptions, our movement's unconscionable silence speaks to our complicity. We claim to be the voice of the voiceless, but who is speaking for the hens whose freedom and future were negotiated away? Even traditional groups that concur with the Battery Cage Agreement should be offended, as no organization vested HSUS with the power to negotiate on its behalf. As noted above, if HSUS is a "runaway" organization, it reflects a damaged movement as much as HSUS' manifest lack of humility.
Over two decades ago, I "indicted" the shelter industry for accepting the mass killing of healthy cats and dogs as an acceptable means of "controlling" overpopulation. Compounding matters, a quiescent animal rights movement sat silently on the sidelines while the barrels were filled with precious bodies. Once again, I feel that same shame, not only due to HSUS placing its imprimatur on such an agreement, but the acquiescence of the movement to the blatant usurping of power by a sister organization. Send a message to Congress opposing H.R. 3798 today, before it does irreparable damage to our extended family. If we fail to do so with efficacy and urgency, it will leave an indelible stain on the very fabric of this movement's conscience.
Some might see these criticisms as unfair, as why would HSUS negotiate such an agreement with endorsements from several organizations? Doubters can form their own opinions by going to HSUS' website and reading, "An HSUS Report: Welfare Issues with Furnished Cages for Egg-Laying Hens" (if it hasn't vanished!). (1) The abstract's conclusion from HSUS' own report follows: "While allowing for some natural behavior denied in conventional cages, furnished cages remain unable to adequately provide for an acceptable level of welfare for hens kept in commercial egg production." If an agreement takes 18 years to implement and fails to "provide for an acceptable level of welfare," is this the future for hens we want Congress to enact into law?
Ed Duvin, serves as Editor-at-Large with Cyrano's Journal Today and The Greanville Post, and also as a member of their editorial boards. His writings and example—often controversial— on politics, philosophy, civil rights, and questions relating to the morality of human interactions with animals and nature have inspired generations of activists in the US and abroad. His characteristically low-key contributions to the humane movement, in particular, are simply enormous. In 1989, Ed wrote a landmark article that ignited the "no-kill" movement among humane societies. Until then, most shelters just gave animals a few days' reprieve for adoption prior to being euthanized. Today many shelters and humane societies—not just in the US and developed nations— have banned automatic euthanasia from their normal practices. Many call him the "movement's conscience." In my view, he has amply earned that title.—PG
(1) If the document should prove unavailable for any reason, try this location in our own servers, where we store background information.


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This article addresses the question of how states can best promote citizens' compliance with laws that regulate livelihoods. Based on ethnographic data from fishing communities in three countries—Norway, Canada, and South Africa—the article compares compliance motivations that exist under different socioeconomic and political conditions. The comparisons give rise to a typology of three compliance motivations: deterrence, moral support for the law's content, and the legislator's authority. This article then identifies three governable preconditions—enforcement, empowerment of citizens, and civic identity—that respectively explain these motivations. The article argues that the compliance discourse in a given type of state must be framed such that it includes at least the governable preconditions for compliance that have not been met in that state. Consequently, a functional compliance strategy would vary between different state types. The article thus questions the transferability of the developed world's compliance discourses to the developing world.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Stig & Hauck's Comparative Study of "State-Regulated Livelihoods" in Law & Society Review
Readers may find "Toward a Theory of Compliance in State-Regulated Livelihoods: A Comparative Study of Compliance Motivations in Developed and Developing World Fisheries," published by Stig S. Gezelius (Norwegian Agricultural Economics Institute, Oslo) and Maria Hauck (University of Cape Town, South Africa--Environmental Evaluation Unit) in the new issue of Law & Society Review (June 2011) of interest. The abstract follows.
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Technical Assistance
The FTDC, located in Weir Hall, is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We're happy to assist UM faculty, staff, and TAs with issues related to software and hardware. We provide support for Blackboard, Test Scoring, Faculty Activity Reports, Course Materials Management, and other applications that run on the University's campuswide systems. Come by or call us at (662) 915-7918.
You may also email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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I haven't eaten oxtail in years, but I remember my parents cooking it and the meat being really delicious. I cooked this Italian style stew in my Tefal 4-in-1 and it was really nice.
- Serves: 4-6
- Cooking time: 9 hours
- 3 Tablespoons plain flour
- Salt and pepper
- 1.5kg/3lb 5oz oxtail pieces
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar mixed with 150 ml water (or the equivalent amount of red or white wine would be good)
- 2 x 400g/14oz tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 beef OXO cube
- Put the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper.
- Roll the oxtail pieces in the seasoned flour and shake off the excess.
- Heat the oil in a large pan, then fry the oxtail pieces until brown all over. You will probably need to do this in batches. Set the browned oxtail aside.
- In the same pan, fry the onions and garlic until the are just starting to soften and colour.
- Add the white wine vinegar and the water and rapidly boil until it has reduced by half.
- Add the tinned tomatoes and bring to the boil.
- Crumble in the OXO cube.
- Pour everything into the slow cooker and cook for at least 9 hours for tender meat (this is the maximum time you can set the Tefal to slow cook), but anything up to 12-15 hours would be even better.
- Ideally I would cook this in advance and allow to cool so I could skim off the excess fat as oxtail is quite fatty and then reheat to serve.
- Oven Cook: You can also cook this in the oven in a covered casserole dish for 5-6 hours on Gas mark 2/300°F/150°C/very low.


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crick in back
a crick in (one's) back
A sudden pain or stiffness in one's back, as from a cramp or spasm. Dad got a crick is his back while trying to move that big box.
crick in one's back
a twisted or cramped place in the back that causes pain. I can't move! I've got a crick in my back! I had a crick in my back all night and I couldn't sleep.


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In a few hours of pageantry in Paris today, before the real work begins, François Hollande officially became president of the French Republic, the second Socialist ever to win the role. On the red-carpeted front steps of the Élysée Palace, the new leader sent off Nicolas Sarkozy with a cordial handshake, as France's new first lady, the journalist Valérie Trierweiler, said au revoir to her own predecessor, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, with a two-cheeked kiss.
The deliberately un-Sarkozy new president has promised to lead with simplicity, to be open and close to the people. But for a moment at least, on his very first day in office, wild weather in Paris put those promises to a tough test. In an open-roof car, a hybrid Citroën DS5, a sodden Hollande stood through the beating rain, without umbrella or overcoat, his suit glistening as drops pooled on his shoulders, his eyeglasses fogging, waving to supporters along the Champs Élysées.
As he stood beneath the Arc de Triomphe to rekindle the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier, with a military band playing "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem, Hollande's wet, white, and now see-through shirt clung to his chest. His tie sat a little crooked, the right cuff of his shirtsleeve stuck out of his jacket from all the waving, and rain dripped from his ear. This may be the calm before the storm for a president who takes office as economic crisis continues, but the rain brought drama to a deliberately solemn and sober power handover in France.
Earlier, in his investiture speech at the Élysée Palace, in the gilded festival hall where every new French president is invested under frescoes of cherubim, Hollande emphasized the challenges ahead. "I measure the weight of the constraints we are facing: massive debt, weak growth, high unemployment, degraded competitiveness, and a Europe that is having trouble exiting the crisis." But Hollande said French strengths and assets could carry the country through it, in a speech ultimately designed to inspire confidence. And he paid his respects to his predecessors, complimenting them all, from Charles de Gaulle to Jacques Chirac, and merely wishing Nicolas Sarkozy, the man he defeated May 6, well in his new life beyond the palace.
The president-elect arrived alone at 10 a.m. sharp, greeted by Sarkozy on the red carpet in the Élysée Palace courtyard, for a traditional handover chat with the outgoing leader, which lasted 38 minutes behind closed doors. France's new first lady, Valérie Trierweiler, too, arrived alone, in a white coat over a black dress. Indeed, neither Hollande's four children from a previous union with former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal (also absent), nor Trierweiler's three teenage boys attended the ceremony.
It was yet another difference Hollande chose to mark with Nicolas Sarkozy's flashy presidency. In 2007, when Sarkozy was invested, the appearance of his catalogue-worthy blond brood—a modern family of step-siblings, his second wife Cécilia, their young son Louis, his two other boys and her two girls from previous unions—was compared to the arrival of movie stars on the famous steps of the Cannes Film Festival. Hollande's personal guest list was deliberately thin. It included former Socialist prime ministers and 10 French Nobel Prize winners.
The new French president continued his first day in office with homages to symbolic figures in French history. Beyond the tradition of rekindling the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier, Hollande chose two figures in keeping with his campaign emphasis on youth. To the squeals of middle-school children invited to watch, he laid a wreath (in brilliant sunshine) in the Tuileries Gardens at the statue of the 19th-century educator Jules Ferry, who is credited with making school in France secular, co-ed, and free for all. Minutes later, under a sudden hail shower on the Left Bank, Hollande laid a second wreath at the foot of a monument to Marie Curie, the Polish-born Frenchwoman who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, in physics and chemistry, in the garden of the institute that bears Curie's name. At every stop, rain or shine, Hollande sought out contact with crowds of well-wishing strangers, indulging in hugs, handshakes, two-cheek kisses, and smartphone photos, as Trierweiler looked on.
Three suit jackets later, Hollande's long first day continued with a ceremony at Paris city hall, another tradition for new French presidents, during which he paid tribute to the capital and asked that Paris always remain Paris.
Now, the real work begins. This evening, Hollande heads to Germany for his first trip abroad—another French tradition—for a meet-and-greet dinner with Chancellor Angela Merkel, amid a backdrop of disagreements over austerity. Don't expect fireworks, at least not yet (although Hollande's plane to Berlin was struck by lightning minutes after takeoff, and he had to double back to Paris for another plane—that's the kind of weather day it's been for the new French president). Merkel has said she would greet Hollande "with open arms," and he has struck his own conciliatory notes. Indeed, as the new French president's motorcade made its way to a military airport for the trip to Berlin this afternoon, the Élysée Palace named his new prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, an experienced parliamentarian who is also a German professor by training and known for his keen sense of France's crucial neighbor across the Rhine River. One way to start building bridges in the tempest.


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An artist's book is a book made by an artist that has a visual impact, whether it is through the overall design, the typography, the pictures within, or the binding. The books are usually produced with painstaking care in very limited editions, or as unique examples.
The collection at the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library has a wide-ranging variety of shapes and sizes, some more book-like than others. We have an emphasis on books that are 3-dimensional or have a sculptural quality, collecting objects that can be displayed in our display cases at the Little Library, which were provided by the Donovan Trust at the University of Kentucky for this purpose.
The A - Z tabs of this online guide link to lists of the books in our collection, organized by the artists' last name.
If you are interested in reading our artists' books in person or using artists' books for a class, please contact the library to make arrangements.
A Guide to Higher Learning by Julie Chen, Flying Fish Press, 2009. Edition of 100.
Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates, contained in a cloth-covered clamshell box. The book is a central box surrounded by rows of square pages which unfold clockwise. In the center is "The Answer Book." The inspiration comes from the field of mathematics, incorporating abstract algebra, analysis, geometry, and number theory.
Family by Rita MacDonald, 1994. Edition of 100.
Silkscreen prints, bound in a wooden box. The front door opens to reveal a collection of household items that represent portraits of individual family members. The concept relates to gender stereotypes and family roles.
Red, Yellow, Blue by Alice Austin, 2000. Edition of 500.
Little Pink Houses by Maryann Riker, 2009. Edition of 3.
Seeker, Healer by Su Lund. One of a kind.
The Spectrum A to Z by Karen Hanmer, 2003. Edition of 20.
To locate materials from the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library Artists' Books Collection in InfoKat Discovery, follow the following steps:
1. Open InfoKat Discovery and type "artists' books" in the search box.
2. Go to the drop down menu and select "Subject."
3. Hit search. This will pull up several lists of artists' books grouped by subject heading.
Common subject headings are Artists' books and Artists' books--United States
Items cataloged as part of this collection should have the label "Fine Arts Library - Artists Books Collection" in their description. These materials are not available in the regular circulating collection, and you must ask at the front desk in order access the materials.
For additional resources for and about Artists' Books, please check out the Artists' Books Resources tab.
Thanks to the efforts of Kimberly Trinh-Sy and Digital Library Services, digital versions of four of our artists' books are now available on the Kentucky Digital Library for viewing!
Please click on a title to visit that book's record (links open in a new window):
Winter Elk
by Jill Timm
Little Pink Houses, Too
by Maryann Riker
The Beet
by Mary Rezny
Memory Loss
by Scott McCarney
Please note: These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically.


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Google Calendar App Download
Get the official Google Calendar app for your Android phone and tablet to save time and make the most of every day.
• Events from Gmail – Flight, hotel, concert, restaurant reservations and more are added to your calendar automatically.
• Goals – Add personal goals—like "run 3 times a week"—and Calendar will schedule time for them automatically.
• To-dos on your calendar – Use Reminders to create and view to-dos alongside your events.
• A new Schedule View – See your schedule at a glance with photos and maps of the places you're going.
• Assists to fill in your calendar – You can quickly create events with smart suggestions for event titles, places and people.
• Different ways to view your calendar – Speedily switch between viewing a single day to getting an overview of multiple days at once.
• All your calendars in one, easy place – Google Calendar works with all calendars on your phone, including Exchange.
• (Google Apps for Work and Education only) Find a time – Add colleagues as guests to your event and let Google Calendar find the best meeting times for you.
Similar Apps


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Difference between revisions of "Library Aerogel"
(New page: == Article 1 == http://eande.lbl.gov/ECS/aerogels/sa-making.html The formation of aerogels, in general, involves two major steps, the formation of a wet gel, and the drying of the wet ge...)
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3. Pour the mixture into an appropriate mold until gelation.
3. Pour the mixture into an appropriate mold until gelation.
4. Process as described above.
4. Process as described above.
Revision as of 23:27, 27 March 2008
What is aerogel?
It's a cool space age material formed by driving water out of a gel at a critical heat/pressure point so that the solid structure remains intact. Silica is the most common type. Aerogels are over 99% air, and so have many unusual properties. They are the world's least dense solid, the best thermal insulator, and surprisingly strong (though not very tough). These articles are not
Article 1 - Berkeley Labs
The formation of aerogels, in general, involves two major steps, the formation of a wet gel, and the drying of the wet gel to form an aerogel. Originally, wet gels were made by the aqueous condensation of sodium silicate, or a similar material. While this process worked well, the reaction formed salts within the gel that needed to be removed by many repetitive washings (a long, laborious procedure). With the rapid development of sol-gel chemistry over the last few decades, the vast majority of silica aerogels prepared today utilize silicon alkoxide precursors. The most common of these are tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS, Si(OCH3)4), and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS, Si(OCH2CH3)4). However, many other alkoxides, containing various organic functional groups, can be used to impart different properties to the gel. Alkoxide-based sol-gel chemistry avoids the formation of undesirable salt by-products, and allows a much greater degree of control over the final product. The balanced chemical equation for the formation of a silica gel from TEOS is:
Si(OCH2CH3)4 (liq.) + 2H2O (liq.) = SiO2 (solid) + 4HOCH2CH3 (liq.)
The above reaction is typically performed in ethanol, with the final density of the aerogel dependent on the concentration of silicon alkoxide monomers in the solution. Note that the stoichiometry of the reaction requires two moles of water per mole of TEOS. In practice, this amount of water leads to incomplete reaction and weak, cloudy aerogels. Most aerogel recipes, therefore, use a higher water ratio than is required by the balanced equation (anywhere from 4-30 equivalents). Catalysts
The kinetics of the above reaction are impracticably slow at room temperature, often requiring several days to reach completion. For this reason, acid or base catalysts are added to the formulation. The amount and type of catalyst used play key roles in the microstructural, physical and optical properties of the final aerogel product.
Acid catalysts can be any protic acid, such as HCl. Basic catalysis usually uses ammonia, or, more commonly, ammonia and ammonium fluoride. Aerogels prepared with acid catalysts often show more shrinkage during supercritical drying and may be less transparent than base catalyzed aerogels. The microstructural effects of various catalysts are harder to describe accurately, as the substructure of the primary particles of aerogels can be difficult to image with electron microscopy. All show small (2-5 nm diameter) particles that are generally spherical or egg-shaped. With acid catalysis, however, these particles may appear "less solid" (looking something like a ball of string) than those in base-catalyzed gels.
As condensation reactions progress the sol will set into a rigid gel. At this point, the gel is usually removed from its mold. However, the gel must be kept covered by alcohol to prevent evaporation of the liquid contained in the pores of the gel. Evaporation causes severe damage to the gel and will lead to poor quality aerogels Single-Step vs. Two-Step Aerogels
Typical acid or base catalyzed TEOS gels are often classified as "single-step" gels, referring to the "one-pot" nature of this reaction. A more recently developed approach uses pre-polymerized TEOS as the silica source. Pre-polymerized TEOS is prepared by heating an ethanol solution of TEOS with a sub-stoichiometric amount of water and an acid catalyst. The solvent is removed by distillation, leaving a viscous fluid containing higher molecular weight silicon alkoxy-oxides. This material is redissolved in ethanol and reacted with additional water under basic conditions until gelation occurs. Gels prepared in this way are known as "two-step" acid-base catalyzed gels. Pre-polymerized TEOS is available commercially in the U.S. from Silbond Corp. (Silbond H-5).
These slightly different processing conditions impart subtle, but important changes to the final aerogel product. Single-step base catalyzed aerogels are typically mechanically stronger, but more brittle, than two-step aerogels. While two-step aerogels have a smaller and narrower pore size distribution and are often optically clearer than single-step aerogels. Aging and Soaking
When a sol reaches the gel point, it is often assumed that the hydrolysis and condensation reactions of the silicon alkoxide reactant are complete. This is far from the case. The gel point simply represents the time when the polymerizing silica species span the container containing the sol. At this point the silica backbone of the gel contains a significant number of unreacted alkoxide groups. In fact, hydrolysis and condensation can continue for several times the time needed for gelation. Failure to realize, and to accommodate this fact is one of the most common mistakes made in preparing silica aerogels. The solution is simple--patience. Sufficient time must be given for the strengthening of the silica network. This can be enhanced by controlling the pH and water content of the covering solution. Common aging procedures for base catalyzed gels typically involve soaking the gel in an alcohol/water mixture of equal proportions to the original sol at a pH of 8-9 (ammonia). The gels are best left undisturbed in this solution for up to 48 hours.
This step, and all subsequent processing steps, are diffusion controlled. That is, transport of material into, and out of, the gel is unaffected by convection or mixing (due to the solid silica network). Diffusion, in turn, is affected by the thickness of the gel. In short, the time required for each processing step increases dramatically as the thickness of the gel increases. This limits the practical production of aerogels to 1-2 cm-thick pieces.
After aging the gel, all water still contained within its pores must be removed prior to drying. This is simply accomplished by soaking the gel in pure alcohol several times until all the water is removed. Again, the length of time required for this process is dependent on the thickness of the gel. Any water left in the gel will not be removed by supercritical drying, and will lead to an opaque, white, and very dense aerogel. Supercritical Drying Graph of temperature in degrees centigrade and pressure in psi versus time in hours, for alcohol drying and carbon dioxide drying.
Process conditions for both the carbon dioxide substitution/drying process and the alcohol drying process.
The final, and most important, process in making silica aerogels is supercritical drying. This is where the liquid within the gel is removed, leaving only the linked silica network. The process can be performed by venting the ethanol above its critical point (high temperature-very dangerous) or by prior solvent exchange with CO2followed by supercritical venting (lower temperatures-less dangerous) It is imperative that this process only be performed in an autoclave specially designed for this purpose (small autoclaves used by electron microscopists to prepare biological samples are acceptable for CO2 drying). The process is as follows. The alcogels are placed in the autoclave (which has been filled with ethanol). The system is pressurized to at least 750-850 psi with CO2 and cooled to 5-10 degrees C. Liquid CO2 is then flushed through the vessel until all the ethanol has been removed from the vessel and from within the gels. When the gels are ethanol-free the vessel is heated to a temperature above the critical temperature of CO2 (31 degrees C). As the vessel is heated the pressure of the system rises. CO2 is carefully released to maintain a pressure slightly above the critical pressure of CO2 (1050 psi). The system is held at these conditions for a short time, followed by the slow, controlled release of CO2 to ambient pressure. As with previous steps, the length of time required for this process is dependent on the thickness of the gels. The process may last anywhere from 12 hours to 6 days.
At this point the vessel can be opened and the aerogels admired for their intrinsic beauty. Typical Recipes Single-Step Base Catalyzed Silica Aerogel
This will produce an aerogel with a density of approx. 0.08 g/cm3. The gel time should be 60-120 minutes, depending on temperature.
1. Mix two solutions: 1. Silica solution containing 50 mL of TEOS, 40 mL of ethanol 2. Catalyst solution containing 35 mL of ethanol, 70 mL of water, 0.275 mL of 30% aqueous ammonia, and 1.21 mL of 0.5 M ammonium fluoride. 2. Slowly add the catalyst solution to the silica solution with stirring. 3. Pour the mixture into an appropriate mold until gelation. 4. Process as described above.
Two-Step Acid-Base Catalyzed Silica Aerogel
This will produce an aerogel with a density of approx. 0.08 g/cm3. The gel time should be 30-90 minutes, depending on temperature.
1. Mix two solutions: 1. Silica solution containing 50 mL of precondensed silica (Silbond H-5, or equivalent), 50mL of ethanol 2. Catalyst solution containing 35 mL of ethanol, 75 mL of water, and 0.35 mL of 30% aqueous ammonia. 2. Slowly add the catalyst solution to the silica solution with stirring. 3. Pour the mixture into an appropriate mold until gelation. 4. Process as described above.
Article 2 - 10 year old makes aerogels for science fair
This article has useful tips, read it.
Very few people have even heard of aerogels, the lightest and rarest stable form of solid matter. Even fewer have seen them, but William T. Wood of Bakersfield, California is changing that. Last year he introduced many in the community to aerogels for his science fair project, carrying them all over Bakersfield and surveying anyone who would give him a moment about them. He was surprised to find only one person who had heard of this rarest stable form of matter. Only one person knew a bit about what they were, correctly saying they had been used in outer space. He published his research in the Science Fair 2002. tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels.gifFigure 1 2002 SF project studied aerogels and showed them to many people for the first time.
This year he undertook a more ambitious project for the 2003 Science Fair: he decided to go where noone before seems to have gone, and make aerogels at home without the sophisticated and expensive equipment used and recommended by all authorities on aerogel production. The reasons for those recommendations are simple. Making aerogels requires close control of high pressures, the careful control of critical temperatures, and fine control of the flow of both fluids and gasses. The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory warns: "It is imperative that this process only be performed in an autoclave specially designed for this purpose."
The most difficult part of the process involves "supercritical drying." If gels are dried normally the surface tension of the gelling fluid pulls on the solid matrix in the gel and causes it to shrink. Jello left to dry in the air, for example, becomes a thin and hard crust. Aerogels, on the other hand, have all the liquid removed without collapsing the matrix. A little known property of most fluids allows this to happen. For every fluid there is a combination of pressure and temperature that changes it into a supercritical form. In that condition it becomes a fluid that acts like a gas, so it no longer has any surface tension. Under this condition it can be evaporated out of the gel with very little shrinkage.
Older methods of creating aerogels required bringing alcohol to its supercritical temperature of about 275 degrees Celsius (527 F.) and pressure of around 1800 psi. Those conditions are very explosive, and even highly sophisticated laboratories around the world have blown up making aerogels this way.
Fortunately a newer method allows for supercritical drying with liquid carbon dioxide. This gas is not explosive, the pressure required is still a hefty 1050 psi, but the maximum temperature is only 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 F.). This makes a properly designed project totally safe for the amateur experimenter. Nevertheless it seems not to have been previously tried because of the need to carefully control and maintain both pressures and temperatures for 10 to over 100 hours, depending on the thickness of the aerogels being made.
After studying the problem for a full year, William found a simple but elegant way to substitute human attention for expensive laboratory equipment. He would use the thermal properties of water to control the temperature and a hand-operated needle valve to control the pressure and liquid flow.
With the budgetary constraints facing a fifth-grader, William settled on modest ambitions. His homemade aerogels would not be large. For a chamber he settled on a 6" nipple of 2" schedule 80 steel pipe. Schedule 80 pipes are guaranteed to hold 3000 psi, giving William a 200 percent safety margin. The cylinder was closed with 2" to 1/4" schedule 80 adapters that threaded on. This gave a maximum size for the aerogels of about 1-1/2" by 5-1/2", and (for time constraints) about 1 centimeter thick.
Making the "wet" gel
The key to starting a silica aerogel is to find a source of the silicon base. The LBL recommends Silbond H-5, and William found that a phone call to the company netted him a free sample quart. Have an adult make the call, because H-5 is a hazardous chemical, and they need to know it will be safely handled. You also will need absolutely pure ethyl alcohol, and this is the hardest ingredient to find. In William's case, he finally obtained half a gallon from the local university science department.
Follow the Silbond-based recipe found at http://eande.lbl.gov/ECS/aerogels/saprep.htm. There are a few things they don't tell you. As soon as the gel has skinned over, cover it with more of the alcohol/water mixture. Let the gel set (covered this way) for about 2 day. This will insure that the gel matrix is fully formed and strong. You will have to get the finished gel out of the mold. This is a problem. Surface adhesion and air pressure will conspire to keep it in. Use a mold without sharp corners. If you can, get a surface with a non-stick coating such as teflon. (Don't try coating your surface with anything that dissolves in alcohol!) A fine wire, such as a straight pin, pushed down along the edge and moved along the sidecan introduce air and free the gel. Plan to break some gels before you get the technique, and even then up to half of them. If you can make your own molds, consider a rubber plug in the middle of the bottom. You can carefully remove it when your gels are done and slowly introduce air pressure into the hole. Most gels will come out intact.
During this whole process it is vital to keep the gels covered in the alcohol/water bath to keep the surfaces from drying out. Once the gels are removed from the molds they need to be kept separated and protected for the drying process They can be wrapped in filter paper, placed in chambers made from screen, or otherwise protected in a porous medium.
All the water must now be removed from the gel. This is a slow process, because the whole process is done by diffusion. The water in the gel must have time to mix with the alcohol and slowly ooze out of the matrix around it. For gels one centimeter thick this takes about four hours. The process is one of concentration reduced in steps. This means there must be several baths, each one taking out a little more water. Eventually the alcohol will be pure even after soaking. William used 6 baths with twice the volume of his aerogels in each. The gels soaked four hours or more in each bath (the more being due to sleep time). A rule of thumb gleaned from the University of Virginia Aerogel research lab: soak more times than needed just to be sure. The time you invest in making gels will be wasted if they still have water in them.
The Drying Chamber File:Http://adzoe.8m.com/tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels1.gif
The foregoing represents the easy part of aerogel making. Now we come to the most difficult phase, removing all liquid from the gel. This process involves bringing the liquid within an aerogel to its "supercritical" condition. For every liquid there is a temperature and pressure combination above which the liquid starts acting like a gas. The important fact is that it no longer has surface tension and no longer adheres to surfaces. For many years this was accomplished by raising the system temperature and pressure high enough to bring the alcohol to supercritical conditions. Under the required temperatures alcohol self-ignites, and many laboratories and production facilities exploded. tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels1.gifFigure 2 The complete drying system, chamber lifted so it can be seen.
Finally someone hit on the plan of replacing the alcohol with liquid CO2. Even then the required pressure is over 1000 psi, though the temperatures are the kind we encounter every day in our homes. To contain that high pressure William turned to schedule 80 steel pipe, rated at 3000 psi. His chamber was constructed out of a 2" ID nipple six inches long. This was capped at both ends with a 2" to 1/4" reducing adapter. His chamber was designed to use in a vertical position so the liquid CO2 could be introduced at the bottom and the alcohol removed at the top since the specific gravity of alcohol is half that of liquid CO2. This is helpful at the first exchange of fluids because most of the soaking alcohol bath can be bled away as the liquid CO2 is introduced.
1/4" schedule 80 steel pipe and fittings were used to bring both ends above the chamber level and then horizontal from the chamber orientation. On the output side he installed a needle valve to control the drain of liquid CO2 from the system. On the input side he used a 2000 psi pressure gauge and a ball valve to seal the chamber system. Beyond that is the standard coupling of brass that hooks up to the liquid CO2 tank. Make sure the tank is equipped with a siphon or no liquid CO2 will ever get into your system.
When putting the small diameter fittings together, double wrap the ends with teflon tape. For the larger pipes William found that four layers worked better. In tightening the pipes avoid clamping the nipples. Use the wrenches on the joints at both ends. This is especially important with the larger chamber piping. We damaged one nipple on one end by using a pipe wrench on the nipple itself. It would then never completely seal at the 1050 psi. We found that putting the wrenches on the adapters and tightening so that both were as tight as we could get them worked best. Then loosen them. One end will loosen first. This will be where you insert the wet gels. Remove the old teflon wrap and put on four fresh layers before putting the gels in.
The Drying Process
When your pressure system is complete and ready, as described above, set the system erect and fill the chamber with ethyl alcohol. Now put the wrapped and separated aerogels into the alcohol bath. Keeping the system erect (in a vise, e.g.), screw on and tighten the top nipple. William did that with the rest of the pressure fittings attached because we pressure tested the assembly beforehand. Once the chamber is tightly sealed the rest of the assembly can be done. tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels2.gifFigure 3 The quick response food thermometer.
The drying process involves carefully controlling both temperatures and pressures for about a ten hour period. The temperatures vary from maintaining a low of between 41 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 hours, to a high of above 90 degrees across an hour or two. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put the whole chamber assembly in a water bath. William used a plastic bucket from the local dollar store. His thermometer was a rapid action cooking thermometer from the grocery market. William needed a large bag of ice to cool the system down to 41 degrees F. I was easy to raise it up to and above the needed 90 degrees during the supercritical stage. Once the system is set up it can be pressurized by introducing CO2 at an ambient temperature of about 70 degrees. This will bring pressure up to about 850 psi. Once the CO2 has been turned on and the pressure is over 800 psi the temperature can be lowered to about 45 degrees F. Fr the next 10 hours you have to exchange the CO2 several times. This can be done in two ways. Either let the CO2 escape in a trickle or in gushes periodically. Professionals told me they prefer the trickle method. Alcohol will be seen dripping from the end of the outlet pipe. This procedure should be continued well beyond the point where no more alcohol drips from the pipe. William gave it an extra three hours. Err on the ie of safety. CO2 is relatively cheap, and at this point you have a sizable investment, and leaving alcohol in the gels will greatly reduce their quality. During this entire period the temperature and pressure must be carefully maintained. tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels3.gifFigure 4 William's first aerogels.
Once you are sure all the alcohol is gone it is time for supercritical drying. Close off the valve supplying liquid CO2. Over a period of 10 to 30 minutes slowly raise the water temperature to about 95 degrees F. This will cause the pressure to rise correspondingly to about 1200 psi. After a few minutes at this pressure you can begin to let the CO2 trickle out. Maintain the pressure as long as you can. If you keep the temperature properly high the pressure should stay up. When it began to drop William increased the temperature to bring it back up while maintaining the trickle of CO2 gas out of the system. After about 45 minutes the pressure would not raise with hot water, and soon dropped down to zero. tenyearoldchildproduceshomemadeaerogels4.gifFigure 5 William's 2003 Science Fair project display.
We opened the cylinder and found William's aerogels. They were curved. A scientist from th Berkeley National Laboratory said this was because we had not taken the gels out of the mold prior to drying them. That fact was something not explained in the Berkeley Lab recipe, and we learned it for future experiments.


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World Wish Day aims to help fulfill ill kids' wishes
Some wishes on hold due to travel costs
Cate Koslovsky opened presents and cakes Monday morning, celebrating her 4th birthday like any other child.
But the day also served as a milestone that her parents questioned would ever happen.
"Today was a day, had you asked us in January, I don't think we would have seen," said her mother, Lisa Koslovsky.
Cate was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form of nerve cancer, in January 2012, and she's been battling it with intense treatment ever since.
"She started with chemo, and has gone through 15 months, what started as chemotherapy, to radiation, to surgery, to immunotherapy has been the latest thing," her mother said.
When the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked Cate to make her wish, she said she wanted to meet the princesses at Disney World.
Doctors recommended that the family take the trip last fall, but her parents remained optimistic and looked toward making the trip later, when Cate would be feeling better.
After her immunotherapy treatment is finished next month, Cate, her three siblings and parents will fly to Florida.
Make-A-Wish has been my countdown, kind of like a 3-year-old at Christmas, just counting down the days," Lisa Kovlovsky said.
Cate's diagnosis has a high incidence of relapse, so her family is planning to cherish the trip.
About 70 percent of wishes involved travel, and airline tickets are the Make-A-Wish Foundation's biggest expense.
There are 140 local children waiting for their wish to come true, but their plans are on hold until airline tickets can be purchased.
To donate your airline miles to the foundation on World Wish Day, click here.


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