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Vatican Has Strictest Immigration Policy in the World
Do as I say not as I do. While Pope Francis is in the United States effectively advocating for a borderless America, many people are amused by the irony and hypocrisy of the giant wall surrounding his own Vatican City.
Pope Francis is more than head of the Catholic Church — he's also the head of state of the Vatican, which as a government has possibly the most restrictive immigration and citizenship policies of any nation in the world.
Immigrants or Pilgrims?
The pope, traveling to the U.S. for the first time, has made a special appeal to Americans to welcome immigrants, "Pilgrims using his address to a joint meeting of Congress Thursday to invoke the Golden Rule in demanding generosity toward the millions of Central and South Americans seeking to come to the country.
"Thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children?" he said. "We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'"
Immigrant rights groups had eagerly anticipated the pope's message, as had illegal immigrants themselves.
From the Washington Times:
The strict policy has left the Vatican open to criticism in the past, including from right-wing political leaders in Italy who want tighter immigration controls in their country and have rebuffed the papacy's calls for leniency by asking how many refugees live in the enclave.
But it is indicated that Francis is trying to quiet those attacks by announcing that the Vatican will be taking in "a couple of refugee families" from Syria.
Meanwhile in America, young 5-year-old Sofia Cruz, born to illegal Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, traveled to Washington, D.C. and broke through the security barriers during Pope Francis's visit to hand deliver the pontiff a note written on behalf of the millions of undocumented immigrants in America. The letter said:
I want to tell you that my heart is sad. All immigrants just like my dad help feed this country. They deserve to live with dignity. They deserve to live with respect. They deserve an immigration reform.
Again, I mean no disrespect but this is coming from a man who lives in a city-state completely surrounded, literally, by giant walls. Vatican City is a literal fortress.
What would happen to Vatican City if it was to do what Francis is asking America to do?
I'm assuming Pope Francis could order such a thing tomorrow, and after the walls came down he could also choose to greet the wave of "pilgrims" with the "warmth of the love of Christ."
Of course Pope Francis would never do such a thing because he knows what would happen: Vatican City would be no more, everyone's security and well-being would be compromised, and the standard of living for close to a thousand residents would be destroyed. Chaos would completely destroy the home of St. Peter.
Just as the loss of Vatican City would be detrimental to the world, so too will the loss of an America as we know it if our culture and free enterprise system is exploded into a giant welfare state by waves of immigrants embraced by mercenary, power-hungry Democrats desperate to use them to increase the power of the State.
Vatican City's walls allow the Vatican to save itself in order to hold tight to an invaluable culture that exports its generosity and charity and missionary work. Vatican City cannot take everyone in and survive. And it must remain Vatican City or be destroyed at the expense of all the incalculable good it does.
By all means, Pope Francis should push and prod and even shame America and Americans to give and give and give and give. We should do whatever we can to help the refugees in the Middle East and do whatever we can to influence and help Mexico and its people.
But we cannot do that if we're no longer America.
And all I'm asking is that for the good of the world Pope Francis allow America the same border security the home of no less than St. Peter enjoys.
Texas Representative Michael Burgess stated the following about the pope's call for generosity toward immigrants:
The thing that always strikes me when we get into these discussions is the United States takes in more people every year legally than the rest of the world combined. You start from that premise — it was 1.7 million last year, you want to add another 400,000 to 600,000 that came in without the benefit of doing it the right way. What is the right number? If over 2 million is not enough, would someone please tell me what that right number is, and would other countries act accordingly.
"Diverse" means formerly White… –Bob Whitaker
Bob Whitaker: A true American who worked for the CIA under the Regan Administration.
Political Power for European Americans!
European people should organize and advance their own interests just like every other group. Join our fight for Heritage and Identity!
The American Freedom Party needs your help! Send $10, $20, $50, $100, or any contribution you can via PayPal "Send Money" to firstname.lastname@example.com or click here:
The American Freedom Party (AFP) supports the right to keep and bear arms. Emancipate yourself from the dinosaur Democrat and Republican parties. Join a National Party that puts America first, The American Freedom Party!
Support American Freedom Party growth and our heritage of Western civilization! The American Freedom Party is the only party that addresses issues concerning European-American communities and all Americans.
Nationalism! Not Globalism! — America First! Not America Last!
Freedom from Republicans. Freedom from Democrats. American Freedom Party! Political Power for European-Americans!
European-Americans should push back! European-Americans should abandon the Republicans and Democrats. Change your party allegiance to the American Freedom Party. A Nationalist party that shares the customs and heritage of the European American people. We need a Nationalist Party interested in defending our borders, preserving our language and promoting our culture. The American Freedom Party is not beholden to foreign governments, special interest groups, nor Wall Street. The American Freedom Party is for America First!
Category: American Voice, Establishment News


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We have already covered vaping in a couple of previous blog posts. As more and more research is done on the subject, we want to keep you updated. The latest studies on vaping show that e-cigarettes could be even more dangerous than smoking due to the chemicals used in the vaping liquids.
What two recent studies have found out about vaping
A recent study in Greece, run by Dr Constantinos Glynos showed that e-cigarette vapour containing propylene glycol (a solvent) can trigger inflammation in the body. This is worsened by flavourings which cause even more inflammation on their own. Dr Glynos remarked "In many cases, the added flavour in e-cigs exacerbated the detrimental effects of e-cig vapour which means some of the many flavouring components on the market may not be safe for even short-term use."
The Greek study confirmed a study from the University of Birmingham earlier this year. This study showed that vapourised e-liquids increase the production of inflammation-causing chemicals in the body. In addition, they also attack protective cells in the lungs whose job it is to protect the lungs from potentially harmful particles. This causes a similar effect on the lungs as seen in regular cigarette smokers and patients with chronic lung disease.
With more and more research into vaping it becomes clearer and clearer that vaping is not a healthy alternative to smoking. The only healthy option is to cease smoking altogether.
How Hypnotherapy can help
The good news is that there is a lot of support out there. Many people have managed to kick the nicotine habit. Many of them have succeeded with the help of hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy has a proven track record of helping people to stop smoking faster and more permanently. Of course, as with any of these techniques, individual results vary. But here is a statistic that speaks for itself.
Of 43 consecutive patients undergoing this treatment protocol, 39 reported remaining abstinent from tobacco use at follow-up (6 months to 3 years post-treatment). This represents a 90.6% success rate using hypnosis. This study was performed at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Depts. of Anesthesiology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2001 Jul;49(3):257-66. Barber J. [for more statistics and studies see here]
Whether you have tried quitting before or whether you have only just started giving up let me help.
Get in touch with me, Samantha Culshaw-Robinson for an informal chat. Based in Nottingham, I am a clinical hypnotherapist successfully helping clients to quit smoking since 2010. You can email me at firstname.lastname@example.com or call 075 222 777 22.
Here are the links to the previous posts to give you even more information on the subject:
Why e-cigarettes aren't better than smoking

subset: commoncrawl


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Ways a Faulty Thermostat Impacts Your AC Unit
Can a thermostat wreak havoc on your entire HVAC system? While it may seem like a small component of a much larger appliance, a damaged thermostat has the ability to completely throw off the way your system functions, from causing it to constantly run to cooling your home too much. Here's what you need to know about your faulty thermostat.
If your thermostat is damaged, it may not be able to accurately read the temperature of your home. When this happens, it can trigger your HVAC system to turn on at the wrong time. You may find that your home becomes hotter or cooler than you'd like based on the incorrect readings of your faulty thermostat.
A broken thermostat can also cause short-cycling. Short-cycling occurs when the HVAC system cycles on and off rapidly. It causes your appliance to spend a great deal of energy simply powering up and down without actually heating or cooling your home. If your unit isn't running for at least 15 minutes before shutting down, a damaged thermostat could be to blame.
An older or out-of-date thermostat might as well be faulty. Chances are it's unable to run on a program, which means your system isn't running as efficiently as it should be. A quick replacement makes it easy for your HVAC system to get back on track and function properly.
If you're experiencing short-circuiting or dealing with an old thermostat, it's time to call Shriver Mechanical, Inc. Since 2003, we've provided HVAC repair, service, and installation to the Acworth and Metro Atlanta area. We're dedicated to providing nothing but the best customer service to each one of our clients. For that reason, we carry top-of-the-line brands and offer 24-hour emergency services, ensuring that each of our customers gets exactly what they need. Due to our high standards, we have earned the status of an independent American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning Customer Care Dealer. Come and see what sets us apart! Learn more at www.shrivermechanical.com.


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99 Maxima Starting Issues and other problems
Hi everyone,
I have been having a problem with my maxima that has lasted about a year. In the past year I have had the starter replaced twice and the car has failed to start on me a third time. With each replacement the car still did not seem to start as readily as it did when we first got it and it would gradually get harder and harder to start until it just did not turn over at all. What could be the cause of the repeated starting issues?
Also before the car failed to start this last time it began to have a rough idle. Do you know what is causing that?
The blow motor also won't blow out any air, hot or cold, unless it is on the highest setting.
Lastly, there seems to be something leaking into the car on the drivers side. It is constantly wet underneath the pedals. What could that be?
If you could please tell me at least one of the solutions to one of the problems and how to fix it in detail for I am a novice at the car thing. If you can't tell me how to fix it but you know the cause I would appreciate that also. I greatly appreciate all of your responses.
The starting problem could be caused by a bad ignition switch. It was pretty common on the older maximas. When it doesn't start try wiggling the key in the ignition cylinder to see if it will crank.
Several things could cause the rough idle. I would start with a basic tune up (spark plugs air filter and fuel filter)
The blower motor working only on the high setting is caused by a bad blower resistor
The leak under the pedals could be caused by a plugged evaporator drain. This could also be the reason that the blower resistor went bad.
Thank you mpe235. I will try all the things you stated starting with testing the ignition switch and I will let you know the outcome.
I'm sorry that I am replying back so late. My computer broke on me. I tried shaking the key in the ignition switch while trying to start but that did nothing. I also tried starting while in neutral and drive, which did nothing as well. We tried to take the starter off so it could get tested but because of lack of the right tools got down to the starter and had to quit. From there we sent it to our personal mechanic who finished taking out the starter and replaced it, and since this is the third starter placed in the car the autoparts store said we had to pay for the starter because it must be an electrical issue within the car and not the starter. After replacing the starter, the car would not start at all so my husband used the key fob directions on the site and at least got the car to crank... but it did not start. The mechanic then hooked it up to some machine and said that he was getting a code for the MAF but he did not want to replace it when he wasn't sure if that was the actual problem, because its so expensive. He recommended that we take it to a business that had more machines and computers that could test it further.
So we've spent more money towing it to the new business. Bless them because they have been trying to figure out what is wrong with the car and they can't seem to get anywhere with it, but they are still trying. This happened when we changed the battery a little over a year ago, before we knew about the key fob reprogramming, and we ended up having to take it to nissan dealership where they charged us for reprogramming the key fob, thus letting us know that it was the security system that was stopping the car from starting.
The new repair shop says they have hooked t up to every computer and machine they have and everything seems to be working fine, except for not getting a signal from the fuel injectors. So they are thinking its the security system also. They tried calling the nissan guys but of course nissan would rather see us waste more money than help us with solving the problem.
So in all we have gone from the computer at Advanced auto parts stating that we had a problem with the EGR valve and nothing else reported (this was when the car was still running a day or two prior to completely shutting down). To the personal mechanic saying he was getting a reading for the MAF and nothing else. Now to the auto repair shop that says they are only not getting a reading from the fuel injectors and from all the tests they have done everything else seems to be okay.
I know this is a lot in one post and I'm sorry but I and the repair shop are at our wits end! Does anyone possibly know what to do next? How to get the security system to allow the car to start? Anything?
is the security light on solid while cranking? Do the car crank at all? If it is a security issue you should be able to deactivate the security using the key by locking and unlocking the drivers door. Also I did have a problem like yours on same year and it was the anti theft relay giving the problem. I hope this helps.
Thanks streamcast. I will have to see if the security light stays on when I go to get the car, which will be late next week. I'm not exactly sure where the anti-theft relay is though. I'm going to try the lock and unlock method and the on switch method I just found in the owner's manual. Hopefully something will give. I would like to make the car totally functional very soon and spending all of this money is really wearing on us. Is there a place in the factory service manual where I could find info on the relay system and the security and immobiliser systems? I'm not exactly sure where to look.
Thanks again for your quick reply.
Look in the index section of the manual. It may give a fuse and relay location/. I do beleive that the relay is out side by the battery. Should be marked on the covers.
Ok... so here is what has happened in the past two days. We ended up towing the car to the nissan dealership. Which in turn told us that the problem is the fuel pump, that there is no pressure whatsoever and we must have it replaced to the estimated tune of $790. Needless to say this put us in complete shock. We called the previous mechanic to let him know and he said that he tested the fuel pump (he did have it for a whole week and ran a myriad of tests and consulted quite a few people about the car) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fuel pump. The pressure was just fine. So that mechanic called the nissan dealership to let them know that he tested it and there was nothing wrong with it and that everything is pointing to the anti-theft system within the car. During the conversation the dealership told him that our key fob does not work, but we know it does work and so does the mechanic. So pretty much that let us know that they charged us over $100 to test nothing. And our mechanic is pretty mad at them for trying to take advantage of us. He said that if we needed a fuel pump he would have put one on and it would have been a good job because it is one of the money makers in the business. And this mechanic I trust more than the dealership at this point.
Our mechanic said that the security light just stays on, no blinking or anything when the key is put into the ignition, and the car does crank. So right now the car is still at the dealership, we may have it towed back home since we do not know what to do with it. At this point we wish we had enough money to take advantage of the cash for clunkers program. I'm ready to chuck this car in the lake, it has given us nothing but problems since we bought it.
I don't know if we have any other options. Our mechanic said that if we could get another key and have that programmed into the car then it should start to work again, but the dealerships are insisting that they must have the car in order to order the correct key and program it into the computer. Which of course would cost us another $100 plus the amount for the key and programming.
I don't know what to do.
if it is at the dealership have them reprogram the existing keys and see if this works. Alos poss a code once scanned will exist if the security system is failing. Also when you lock the car using the key with the drivers door wait 60 sec and see if the security light flashes. But I would recommend have he dealership reprogram the key, and start from there especially if the light stays solid while cranking.
Try replacing some coal packs that will make it idle funny because the engine is misfiring.
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Phonak Virto™ M Black
It's the world's first custom-made hearing aid that features Marvel technology with a sleek-looking design. Virto M Black offers clear, rich sound including exceptional sound quality from first fit, better speech understanding in noise and reduced listening effort in noise. Plus, it directly connects to iOS, Android and other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
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International Ballet
The highest level of classical ballet training for the young student to the professional dancer; Building technique, musicality, coordination, & strength through structured classes; Community-focused with high value placed on respect, self-discipline, responsibility, and peer support.
For 16 consecutive years, IB has offered Upstate dance students and their families the opportunity to learn, work, grow and serve in a community of others who share a passion for beautiful classical dance. We welcome you to inquire and learn more.
Register by calling (864) 879-9404 or by clicking the link below. We would love to welcome you to the IB family.
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We are a family friendly dance studio who values respect, peer-support, and self discipline. We have high standards for our dancers and we seek to inspire them through excellent training and an environment of positivity.


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first published on November 29, 2016 by Will
This ruthless sniper kill montage, recently released by the Islamic State's northern Iraq public relations team, proves that an animal is most dangerous when it is injured and backed into a corner.
Reports from the fight suggest that 600 civilians have been killed in the fighting to retake the city, while several dozen Iraqi and Kurdish troops have also been killed. Iraqi commanders are frustrated with the slow progress as a result of not being able to use heavy weaponry for fear of killing more civilians and creating a public relations backlash, both in the city and internationally. Instead of leveling insurgent-held buildings from afar, the pro-Iraqi troops are forced to close with and destroy the enemy in close quarters battles.
The battle is an absolute nightmare for those fighting it. Heavily armored car bombs continue to charge the perimeter, while every block of every neighborhood holds hidden, explosive booby traps. The following video shows just one more element of that nightmare… talented enemy snipers.
The video, although originally 20 minutes in length but edited down to remove unnecessary propaganda, begins with an ISIS sniper team using an American sniper rifle built off the Remington Model 700 platform with freshly packaged NATO ammunition. This prop placement was done intentionally.
The following video contains extremely graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.


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Asset manager
The Asset Executive manages the highest level of our financial managers. This office is responsible for the all of the accurate financial reporting for the project.
Finance manager
The Finance Executive establishes credit standards for the project. This includes deciding who the company will issue the credit to, developing the project's credit rating criteria, determining the maximum amount of credit a given individual or company may receive and deciding the method by which the company will handle collections.
The Business Project Manager manages the project's budget and makes adjustments to the budget as needed. The manager is also in charge of matters such as the deployment of funds. If a borrower expands or merges with another business, a business solutions manager will closely interact with a portfolio, asset or a finance officer to coordinate the expansion or merger.


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Globalisation and technological communication tools require ongoing adaptation of commercial agents and independent sales companies to their constantly changing function and making use of available educational opportunities in order to be well equipped for reaching the highest level of performance. The IUCAB Expert Group worked out a training frame with different training modules for the Member Associations. The objective is to harmonize training, to encourage the commercial agents and all interested persons to attend these training courses and to give them an certificate granted by their member association and validated by IUCAB.
The following member associations or its regional associations offer national training courses according to the IUCAB Training Standards:
• Alliance Professionnelle des Agents Commerciaux (APAC), France
• Associazione Piemontese Agenti e Rappresentanti di Commercio (APARC USARCI), Italy
• Bundesgremium der Handelsagenten, Austria
• Camara Peruana de Comercio Exterior (CAMEX), Peru
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (PTZ), Slovenia
• Col·legi Oficial d'Agents Comercials de Barcelona (COACB), Spain
• Dutch Association of Trade Agents and Importers (VNHI), Netherlands
• Fédération Nationale des Agents Commerciaux (FNAC)


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SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Two major non-profit agencies that help those in need on the Suncoast are joining into one.
Coastal Behavioral Healthcare is consolidating with First Step of Sarasota to offer that they call a "one-stop shop" for mental health and addiction services in the region.
The non-profits said they have a similar focus and one that compliments each other well. Coastal Behavior Healthcare primarily works with the mentally ill, providing behavioral health services and offering some substance abuse programs. First Step of Sarasota is the opposite. Their primary focus is addiction recovery with a lesser emphasis on behavioral health.
But staff said many of their clients need both and they are constantly referring people to each other, so this consolidation offers one point of entry for those suffering from addiction and mental health disorders. It solves a problem they often encounter where the families of those who need these services are unsure how to navigate the many different facilities and programs that will best suit their loved one.
This doesn't mean any cuts to either facility, at least for now, but after a nine-month consolidation process, Coastal Behavior Healthcare will take on First Step's name and brand.
According to staff, both agencies' boards have been considering this merger for a long time, but there is no particular reason as to why now other than contracts with their sources of funding that are coming to an end.
Coastal Behavior Healthcare said this consolidation helps ease the pressure of costs that keep rising while funding steadily decreases.
First Step hopes this expansion is only the beginning. They want it to set the stage for further collaborations with other local private and public entities in an effort to better tackle the serious issue of addiction and mental illness on the Suncoast.
Copyright 2019 WWSB. All rights reserved.


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Did we have an Avril Lavigne thread yet?
I'd put it on the music board, but it doesn't qualify.
she's 29monoshono this'd this
This is what happens when you marry
Chad Kroeger
i like her stuff normally
but that's firmly in the I'd rather not hear that again pile. I can't watch the video at work. I've only heard strange things.
I liked her early stuff,
why did she have to go and make things so complicated though?Gringo, japes, and pieces_of_reece this'd this
talking of lavigne
"the british avril lavigne" amy studt is back playing gigs. supported my mate's band in a pub the other week. apparently very nice songs. still weirds me out
proper indie popstar
http://vimeopro.com/loganfilms/musicvideos/video/6055510 i remember she did this about six years ago, post-just a little girl/under the thumb/misfit
Under new name MercyMadeMe, a collaboration between singer Mercy (Studt) and Toby Kidd from the band Hatcham Social, the debut single "Sleepwalker" was released on 23 January 2012, via the Cool for Cats Download Club label. MercyMadeMe is described as a revolt against the current day, BBC Radio 1 friendly, voice production techniques. Singer Mercy stated "This is the voice of the disillusioned fighting back".


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When I was a wee one, the moon sat outside my window and listened to my prayers. Her milky light poured into my bedroom and I was comforted.
A stream ran past my shady yard and I used to find sticks to swirl in the mud under the water. The sediments would swirl to the top and I imagined this was the magic of a spell set forth. When my first wish came to pass, I became a life-long believer in magic.
My dreams would wake me in the night from vivid journeys. Characters would reappear relentlessly so much that I could write whole books on them. Sometimes I would find that a dream happened again when I was awake.
When my mother warned me of the dangers of witches on Halloween night I became intensely curious instead of afraid.
Trees were my friends. When my neighbor died, his grown children came and chopped down his apple tree. I, in return, confronted them in a full, blown-out rage and then ran away crying.
I never doubted what I saw or how I felt, even if it was against what others wanted me to believe. If no one wanted to take the time to understand me I felt like it was their loss, not mine.
Sunday school was fun for me. I had an intense faith in God. Only when I became a teenager did I learn that how I perceived God clashed with what most in the church wanted me to feel.
So when I became eleven and my parents found out I had started to become interested in the occult they thought it was the worst possible decision on my part. But here is the thing, was it really a decision? If I had not delved into deeper mysteries, I would have simply been going against what came natural for me.
I went through many trials with adults on the subject of witchcraft. So many were afraid for my soul. I was forbidden to hang out with friends by their mothers. I was forced unwillingly to go to church events. As I grew older, I was threatened to be kicked out of the house on several occasions. I understand now that they were only doing what they thought was best for me or their kids.
But it all came down to this: If magic =evil. Then little me= evil. They didn't get it (and still probably don't) that being a witch is so truly ingrained into my blood that I could not have possibly made a different choice. I fought it for a while, sure you can bet that- it took a while to get out of my head the idea of hell and what the devil may be doing. I went through a phase of burning all my witchcraft books when I was fourteen out of guilt, only to be lulled back into the mystery of the cicada's songs in the night a few weeks later.
Finally I realized I was happiest on the sacred, wooded path that I felt alone traveling. I was more balanced, too. No one could ever again convince me that the Goddess was really the devil in drag. She was my Great Mother who protected me when I snuck out my trailer window in the night to see the stars over the cornfields. She was the voice of the toads croaking by the pond where I first made love. I allowed magic in and I felt like my skin glowed like glittering dew and my life was eternally blessed.
I praise everyone who has continued to live their lives in harmony with their own natural rhythm of how they feel love. Love cannot be defined- it is beyond logic. Love shows itself infinitely in our world, even if it goes against the grain of what most think it should be. It is no one's business to decide what form it takes, because true love is nonharming. Even if it is a man loving another man, a group of people sharing a household, or a witch partaking in relationship with the gods, we should accept and celebrate love in all of love's forms! So blessed be.
images from:
Deer, hare and mother by Jessica Galbreth
"The Siren" by John William Waterhouse


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Yesterday, for the first time in my recorded memory I had an ice cream cone that bored me.
Both Bill and I are on a diet. However, yesterday I decided to give ourselves a little treat. After dinner, I asked Bill is he would like to get an ice cream cone. We have a dairy farm about a mile away that serves fresh, home made ice cream. This is not low calorie ice cream. When you're on a diet, the only way the diet works is that you have to give yourself a little treat every now and then. Yesterday was that time.
So I rev my new Subaru Forester and we take off Dairy Cream Road (yes, that is the name of the road to the dairy farm - very original.) The time is about 6:30 pm, the end of another of our seemingly endless long, hot, and humid summer days. The dog days of summer. A perfect time for a cold ice cream cone.
We get to the dairy farm and I see a problem right away. The place is packed. I find in my older years, that not only does the extreme heat and cold bother me more but crowds also stress me out. Especially crowds with a lot of antsy kids running about and screaming. Yesterday was no exception. I walked right into the Trap.
I park my Forester and get out and head to the ice cream stand which is located immediately to the left of the cows in the barn. This being the end of another hot and humid summer day, the odor of the cow poop was particularly strong. In fact, the fresh Farm Smell was making me light headed. That along with the families with the little kids and all those baby voices talking at once and scooting around the place was causing me to think I made a Big Mistake.
I go to one of the windows. There is a family of about 15 at that window. They want every concoction and different flavor of ice cream that the farm made. I wait patiently. Finally, after the last Little Darling got their scoop of creamy goodness, it was my turn. The young girl at the window was pleasant enough when she said to me "Hi! How are you? What would you like?" Well, this was different. When we used to go for ice cream last year I was always waited on my some faceless young girl (why is it that only girls work these ice cream stands and not young guys? Just wondering.) She usually gave me a tired look and said "Yes?" Maybe business dropped off because of this kind of sullen customer service and someone advised them to perk up the customer service angle. Whatever.
So I tell her "I would like a double dip of black raspberry." For me, brings back memories of my childhood when after picking raspberries with my Mom and Pop and brothers they would treat us to an ice cream cone at a local gas station on Rt. 322 right outside of West Chester, PA.) I told her I wanted a double dip of banana ice cream for Bill.
She scoops out the ice cream and gives me my cones. Already they're melting in the summer heat.
I quickly go back to my car where Bill is waiting for me. I hand him his cone through the window. I stand outside and lick my cone because I don't want to take a chance on any black raspberry ice cream dripping on my new gray car upholstery. I didn't dare ask Bill to step out, I didn't want to get into an argument tonight.
As I was standing outside my Subaru, a local, tattooed, flabby red neck brushes by me and says something to me. I didn't understand what he said but I sensed by his tone of voice and body language and the way he looked at me it wasn't something kind or complimentary. I turned and looked at him and he gave me a sneer and look at Bill. "What's his problem?" I thought. Then it dawned on me. Bill and I were the only couple there that was male. Well actually he was there with three other guys who were seated at one of the picnic tables and were looking at us. Uh oh. I think I know what was going on. Bill and I were out of our Safety Zone and now in Straight Country. Only families need apply.
You see, Bill and I live on the east side of Rt. 1 in a new development in a diverse community. In our community there are four gay and lesbian couples that I know of. There are several black families. Our neighbor directly across our house are a husband and wife doctor team who happen to be Muslim. Most of our other neighbors are retirees I only know of two families in our neighborhood who have small children. In other words, we live in a "mixed" neighborhood. And today we ventured into Sussex County. We crossed over Rt. 1 and then Rt. 9 and deep into Redneck territory. We were out of our element. Apparently what my tattooed friend said was a reminder of that fact.
I wasn't in the mood for THAT attitude yesterday. My Mom's dying, this heat and humidity this summer has been brutal, I'm trying to stretch my retirement income and part time job income into paying every increasing bills and this Sussex County Yahoo is going to remind me that I'm out of place? I glared back at him daring him to say anything else to me. I wasn't going anywhere.
Here in our little area of Rehoboth Beach we have what is called Camp Rehoboth. They like to think that they have made the area safe for gays and lesbians. That's what they LIKE to think. In reality all they are is a clique of mostly Washington D.C. gays and lesbians who like to go to each others parties and raise funds to keep Camp Rehoboth going. They're more interested in drag shows and their various faux causes in Rehoboth than the real life I encountered at the dairy farm yesterday. I reality I faced down my very own display of homophobia yesterday deep in Sussex County. Not to brag on myself but this is what I have been doing most of my adult life (since I came out at 21 years of age.)
I have to admit that I was lulled into a false sense of security and safety living as I do in our diverse community east of Rt. 1. Yesterday was just another rude reminder that homophobia is alive and well. Even in "enlightened" southern Delaware.
As a result of this drama yesterday, for the first time in my life the ice cream I ate was tasteless. Oh, it tasted like black raspberry ice-cream. It was cold and creamy and had the fresh taste of black raspberries. But I was bored eating it. I wanted to throw it away. I didn't. I finished it. But I didn't enjoy it.
Maybe I'm getting too old for this blind hatred I have endured all my life from ignorant and hateful people like yesterday. I am just so tired of them.


text:
Needles, drugs, and dates. All of them acquired yesterday. Wow.
On the advice of a really smart friend, I flat out asked nurse wonderful if perhaps she had any drug samples of the one really expensive stimulating drug that I needed. No begging, or tears, just asking. And know what? Yeah. She did. I now have enough for probably 2 (or more) cycles. Amazing.Â
We also paid in full for the procedure. Also a big wow. I've never signed for something that cost that much and not actually gotten something tangible, like a car in the driveway or travel tickets, etc.  It's kind of weird and surreal all at the same time. I wasn't planning on talking about money or how we paid for it, but so many of you have asked "how," so I'll get over my "this is incredibly tacky" feeling and just let you know how we took care of our bill.
S and I have excellent credit but we don't really own anything. We share one car, and rent, rather than own. Due to this fact, getting a bank loan was pretty much out of the question, as the lowest interest rate we could secure was much higher than I was willing to pay. Our clinic doesn't play with any of the infertility lenders, preferring to offer a lower rate for the procedures but have patients secure their own funding, so this wasn't an option.
I called my favorite credit card and asked what they could do. Turns out, they could do a lot. They bumped up my credit limit to above the whole cost of the IVF, and also lowered my APR to almost nothing. It seemed logical to do what you're not supposed to do, and so we charged the whole amount. We plan to pay this debt off in big chunks, but it's nice to know that if there is a lean month, or something unexpected comes up, we won't be strapped to make a defined payment amount. This is not the preferred method of payment, I know, but I think it will work well for us.
We enjoyed quite a bit of face time, both with our doctor and our nurse yesterday and I was reminded again how much I like using a clinic that has a relatively small amount of patients at the same time. I think it makes their success rates higher, and also forges a more personal connection. I feel like I really am cared for by all involved, rather than being shuttled through the process quickly, just being a number rather than an individual. I also remember that this clinic is the ONLY option around here, and well, I'm just very thankful.
Interestingly, later in the afternoon, S called me in to watch a news segment on our local station about something to be careful of at fertility clinics. Turns out they did about a 1 minute segment on how fertility clinics are doing ICSI on couples who don't need it just to make the extra money. While this may be true, I think it's really fucked up to air something like that in their broadcasting area where there is ONLY one clinic, and NOT give that clinic a chance to talk about it. No chance to deny it, and no chance to say something like, "Yes, unfortunately this is something that does happen at some fertility clinics, though you can be assured it is something that doesn't happen here, and this is why….." It just rubbed me the wrong way and seemed like really irresponsible journalism (if you can call it that.)
Ok, back to the stuff you care about.
Lupron starts next Thursday. Stims start in the second week of August. Tentative retreival/transfer? August 20/23.
Holy shit.


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Learning from Lombardi
This was originally prepared in 2009 for a panel assembled by Alice Rawsthorn at Experimenta in Lisbon, Portugal. I found myself thinking about it again last week with the release of the Panama Papers, and decided to re-post it here.
I first became familiar with Mark Lombardi's work in April 2000 while in the midst of finishing my master's thesis at the MIT Media Lab. Lombardi began as a painter who was also deeply interested in research, with a natural bent toward reading and absorbing large amounts of information. In 1994, he began to create drawings such as this one to depict the complex narratives he would uncover through his curiosity about anything from failed banks to corruption in government to organized crime.
Gallerist Deven Golden describes how Lombardi began creating these works:
[He was] talking to a friend of his, a lawyer, in California. Mark was telling him about a couple of banks that had closed in Texas, and the lawyer said, "Yeah, and because of that, these Savings and Loans closed in California." And his friend proceeded to tell him how a series of byzantine corporate connections tied the various financial institutions together. It was very convoluted, and so Mark made some notes — he obviously was predisposed to thinking about this sort of thing. As Mark told it to me, it was kind of like how some artists . . . do the New York Times crossword puzzle in their studios to help them clear their minds. Anyway, every couple of days, after going over his notes and diagrams, he would call his friend back and ask him more questions, which would lead him to make more diagrams. Then, one day, after what I understood to be a couple of months of working on these diagrams to "relax," Mark had this "aha!" moment . . . The diagrams were more visually interesting than his paintings. And, perhaps just as importantly, they pulled together everything Mark was interested in — drawing, social/commercial interactions and their hierarchies, and politics — into a single pursuit.
Lombardi had not originally planned for his sketches to become actual artworks; instead they were intended as a means for him to work out the connections for himself, while preparing to perhaps write stories or articles about them. In the years that followed, the images grew into sophisticated networks that told an exceptionally detailed story.
This is an early sketch for one of his works. The sketch itself is informative in understanding his thinking process, and the early messiness involved in assembling such a story.
This piece is titled "George W. Bush, Harken Energy, and Jackson Stephens. 1979–90." In it, Lombardi created a drawing that depicts a story about George W. Bush, before he was governor of Texas, much less the President. In those days, he received $4.7 million from about 50 different family members to start an energy company. The company did poorly, posting enormous losses, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Further down the line, this company was eventually sold to individuals with connections to the Bush family, with George W. himself receiving millions of dollars in stock in spite of the venture's obvious failure. The head-scratching story is difficult to believe—but even harder to tell if you have to rely only on words in a newspaper article instead of an image such as this one.
The actual piece is 4 feet wide and 2 feet tall; here we have a detail of one small section. Lombardi's image lays bare the complexity of the story, making it accessible even to an audience with neither the inclination nor the mental capacity to understand such a mess.
In his artist statement for a show in the late '90s, Mark described his work as follows:
In 1994 I began a series of drawings I refer to as "narrative structures." Most were executed in graphite or pen and ink on paper. Some are quite large, measuring up to 5 x 12 feet.
I call them "narrative structures" because each consists of a network of lines and notations which are meant to convey a story, typically about a recent event of interest to me, like the collapse of a large international bank, trading company, or investment house. One of my goals is to explore the interaction of political, social and economic forces in contemporary affairs. …
Working from syndicated news items and other published accounts, I begin each drawing by compiling large amounts of information about a specific bank, financial group or set of individuals. After a careful review of the literature I then condense the essential points into an assortment of notations and other brief statements of fact, out of which an image begins to emerge.
My purpose throughout is to interpret the material by juxtaposing and assembling the notations into a unified, coherent whole. In some cases I use a set of stacked, parallel lines to establish a time frame. Hierarchical relationships, the flow of money and other key details are then indicated by a system of radiating arrows, broken lines and so forth. Some of the drawings consist of two different layers of information — one denoted in black, the other, red. Black represents the essential elements of the story while the major lawsuits, criminal indictments or other legal actions taken against the parties are shown in red. Every statement of fact and connection depicted in the work is true and based on information culled entirely from the public record.
Seen above, "World Finance Corporation, Miami, ca. 1970–84" is part of a series of works that relate the story of a global banking conglomerate thought to have a role in the Colombian drug trade and money laundering of drug money.
Here is a detail of the fourth version in that series, which measured 60 inches across and 30 inches tall.
In another drawing, Lombardi created a timeline, moving left to right, covering fifty years of organized crime in Chicago. Starting with Al Capone at the left, it follows the network of his associates and how their activities evolved from bootlegging to racketeering and gambling, and also as they expanded their reach into other major cities with more gambling, prostitution, and money laundering.
Many of the reviews of Mark's work frequently reference "conspiracy," though this seems a disservice brought by articles like this one that prominently feature conspiracy in their titles or as a central theme. A conspiracy theory usually implies the work of a naïve crank with an agenda, and a subjectivity that seems thankfully absent from Mark's work. Lombardi himself made light of the notion, printing "Death-defying acts of Art and Conspiracy" on his business card. He thought it was a good icebreaker.
I think we're only beginning to appreciate why Lombardi's work is important. Following his untimely passing in 2000, Lombardi's work saw a resurgence as part of a traveling exhibition in 2003 that was curated by historian Robert Hobbs. In just three years, the audience had widened considerably from his earlier exhibitions in the '90s. Perhaps this was due in part to an increase in the awareness of "networks" of people. On one hand, the evening news in the United States had for two years been talking about "terrorist networks" and loose associations of individuals on a global scale. On the other, social networking by way of sites like MySpace and Friendster (this is 2003) had grown past their early adopter phase and become more common, so the idea of having one or two degrees of separation to a network of people was understood much more broadly. Even in the years since first writing this essay in 2009, there has been a remarkable proliferation of books and exhibitions about his work.
Lombardi's work encapsulates two themes that are important for the future of design. First is that we must maintain a humanist view of data, relying on our own faculties to tell a story. Second, to improve the discourse surrounding data, we need to disclaim our fascination with the intricate and complicated and learn how to throw things out.
To provide some background, my own work is focused on visualization of complex data sets, whether the human genome, millions of words of text, or truly important things like showing which American baseball teams are over-paying for star players. But my assumption is that regardless of whether you think it's relevant or not, working with ever-larger data sets will remain the domain of design for years to come, as we continue to be inundated with more sources of information, and proportionally fewer ways to handle and understand them.
In the past few years, data visualization has seen far more exposure amongst the design community. It's a natural progression from the information design examples found in books by people like Edward Tufte, but data visualization also exists as an emerging aesthetic that relies on intricate diagrams and complex visual images. Every once in a while, a client even sends us images that follow this pattern, describing what they want us to create for them. But this nothing more than the pursuit of the visualization aesthetic, which is, of course, the opposite of design.
But that sort of complexity isn't limited to high-gloss infographics. This is an image from the Wikipedia entry on social networks, and is typical of projects like it that deal with data similar to Lombardi's. It is created by starting with a long list of names and links, and then running a piece of software to sort them into an image.
Here's another social network visualization, clearly too complicated to understand, but typical in its overuse of elements.
And another using the same software, that depicts part of the Al Qaeda terrorist network. This one highlights the fact that even with fewer elements, you cannot magically create insight.
By relying too much on a computer algorithm to lay out the position of individual nodes in the network, we're presented with what might be charitably considered a mess, or worse, that the image actually obfuscates the meaning of the data it depicts. This is a mixture of two things. First, that the creator gave up before they tried to really understand the information. And second, that they pushed no further because they were sated by the subjective beauty and intricacy of the image, even if meaningless. This map of the Internet made headlines in the '90s and was printed in Wired magazine, but offered little insight aside from "the Internet is made of lots of connections between lots of things" or simply "the Internet is complicated."
In Lombardi's case, even his early scribbles on a project are more informative, because they show a fundamentally human thought process, of trying to draw the story out of the mass of data he had collected. This is the opposite of many computational approaches that begin with a mass of data, followed by an often failed attempt to simplify it.
As part of the research for his drawings, Lombardi assembled some 14,000 index cards, which are now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Each 3 x 5 inch card referenced a person or other entity. In too many computational approaches, it's as if we're looking at all 14,000 index cards at once. Having completed the research and data collection process, Mark knew that he must first synthesize that information into something useful. Too often, we try to make the machines synthesize for us, but in fact, synthesis — from the Greek and then Latin meaning to place together — is a fundamentally human task. It's what separates us from Google.
Too much work in visualization, or even the more complicated end of information design, is just showing us the index cards. Would this ever be accepted in other fields? What writer would rely on the computer to organize their notes and produce a finished story? Fact of the matter is, understanding information is difficult. And the most difficult parts rely on the sort of thoughtfulness and focus that is the hallmark of Lombardi's work.
Lombardi's drawings walk the fine line of the informative and the aesthetic, but even more importantly, his projects give us an eye into the possibility of, and the depth to which we can understand, complicated information.
Ben Fry (Lisbon, 2009)


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We are excited to announce that we are selling one of a kind, FUN socks to help fight our battle against food insecurity! If you know Matthew, you know he loves fun and funky socks, so he decided to incorporate his fun personality into his passon of helping others. The socks are $15 a pair and 100% of the proceeds go towards helping those he helps! We hope to see you out and about with your socks!!
Socks can be purchased through


text:
Between now and the holidays I am going to periodically include product recommendations for things I have personally reviewed and tested and that I think will make good, reasonably priced gifts. This first one is for the RAVPower Dynamo On-the-Go Power Bank.
The Product
RAVPower's Dynamo-On-the-Go super high capacity charger (model RP-PB07) has 10,400mAh capacity and will charge an iPhone or iPod and an iPad at the same time. Inside the case are Grade A+ Samsung batteries with molded aeronautic material casing.
There are two USB ports, clearly marked as 1A and 2A. Output for 1A is DC5V/1A and for the 2A it is DC 5V/2A. The charger is compact, measuring 4.4 x 2.76 x 0.83-in (11.17 x 7.01 x 2.11-cm) and weighing 8.04 ounces (229.63 grams). A one year limited warranty accompanies the product.
The package includes the charger, two USB to micro-USB cables, a USB charger, flannel bag, and a good, helpful little manual. The manual includes directions in English, German, French, Chinese, Italian, and Japanese.
Using It
The size of this compact charger makes it easy to transport in pocket, purse, or bag. The power button and four LED lights that monitor charge status are located on the top and are easy to access. I like the fact that the USB ports are labeled so that it is easy to tell which one will recharge an iPad. I charged my iPad mini from 52 percent capacity to 100 percent capacity in a little over an hour.
The MSRP for this product is US $69.99. I found it on Amazon for only US $29.99
Why I Recommend It
It works quickly and efficiently and has lots of power. In addition to working well with Apple products, the inclusion of two USB to micro-USB cables makes this product a good candidate for gifts for friends and relatives who are not Apple users. I'm giving one to my brother who pilots his own plane and uses an iPad to access all the maps he needs. Up in the air is not a good time to have your iPad run out of battery life.


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Better Together, communities of wildflowers. Bluebells, Red Campion & Stitchwort light up the margins of a spring meadow.
Taraxacum of Time (Dandelion)
A Dandelion Clock – the ripe seed head of Taraxacum officinale – waiting for a gust of wind, like escape pods strung to silken parachutes.
Bluebells – Spring brings a divine blue mist to the woodland floor and a sweet heady scent to match.
Forest Moon
Forest Moon – A beautiful spring moon rises above Dyfi Forest, heralding Easter to our calendar.
Dreamy Morn
Dreamy Morn – A horse snoozes in the warmth of the morning sun after the chill of the frosty night before.
Pushing Forward (Violet)
Pushing Forward – The Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) pushes her beautiful little flowers to the fore, hoping to attract an early insect pollinator. Particularly valuable for Fritillary butterflies.
Blackthorn Beauty
Blackthorn Beauty – The early spring blossom of Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), a valuable starter for bees that have survived the winter.
Tawny Mining Bee
A Female Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) on route between her soil nest & the spring blossoms above.
Change of Guard (spring flowers)
Change of Guard – As the Snowdrops fade away, so the Crocus appear – beckoning Spring onward.
Sentinels (Snowdrops)
Sentinels (Snowdrops) – Guards from the dark countenance of winter not done.
Spotters of a spring soon to be sprung.
Blanketed by snow's cold embrace, frosted as delicate lace;


text:
- Algorithms: http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~galles/visualization/Algorithms.html
- Sorting: https://www.toptal.com/developers/sorting-algorithms/
Testing Techniques
- A few small manual tests.
- A test for each possible type of answer (smallest answer, biggest answer, answer doesn't exist, etc.)
- Test for time/memory limit: generate a test with the largest possible size of input ("max test"), run your program, measure time and memory consumption.
- Tests for corner cases:
- Smallest possible "n": the length of the input sequence or string, the number of queries, etc.
- Equal numbers, equal letters in the string, more generally, equal objects in the input. Any two objects that are not restricted to be different in the problem statement can be equal.
- Largest numbers in the input allowed by the problem statement – for example, to test for integer overflow.
- Degenerate cases like empty set, three points on one line, a tree which consists of just one chain of nodes.
Stress Testing
Implement two different solutions, one correct and fast, other a significantly different(perhaps even brute force) and compare the solutions obtained from both using random numbers for test cases. This significantly reduces failure and is guaranteed to give you edge test cases. Stress Testing is considered as last resort!
- It is very important to write programs that work correctly on all the allowed inputs.
- Testing is essential to writing correct programs.
- First test on a few small manual tests, then test for each type of answer, then test on large test cases for time limit and memory limit, then test on corner cases.
- After that, apply stress testing to ensure your program works – it will almost always lead to correct solution. You can do it before your first attempt to submit your solution – and will often get it right from the first attempt!
- Stress testing consists of implementing the intended solution, another simple possible slow solution, a test generator and an infinite loop which generates tests and compares answers of the two solutions.
- Always try to find the smallest test cases on which your solution fails.
- Try different regions of the test space when generating cases for stress testing.
Asymptotic Notation
Add images for the increasing run-times for different complexities as well as limits of n.
nth Fibonnaci number= Approximately (n/5) digits
Greedy Algorithms
Greedy strategy
- Make a greedy choice
- Prove that this choice is a safe move
- Break problems into sub-problems
- Iterate over each sub problem
- Estimate running time
General Example- Line, Points, covered by segments
Safe Move
A move is called a safe move if there is an optimal solution consistent with this first move.
Before solving any algorithm, try and covert it into a mathematical problem.
Divide and Conquer
- Break into non-overlapping subproblems of same kind
- Solve sub-problems
- Combine results
Solving using Recursion, we have:
- Create a recursive solution
- Define a corresponding recurrence relation using T(n)
- Determine worst case runtime T(n)
- Optionally, create iterative solution
Run time of binary search is Theta(N)
Normal polynomial multiplication= O(n^2)
Karatsuba polynomial multiplication= O(n^1.58)
For multiplying very large numbers using the Karatsuba algorithm, make x=10 and construct appropriate polynomial from the numbers.
Master Theorem
- Maximum number of leaves in a tree of depth d ==> d>=log(2) L, where L is the number of leaves
- log(n!) = Omega( n* log n)
Dynamic Programming
- String similarity using reward, penalty for mismatch and insertions
- Longest Common Subsequence
- Edit Distance problem
- Minimizing edit distance= Maximizing Alignment Score
- Knapsack Problem
- Polynomial Multiplication- Naive and Karatsuba
- Solve UNIONSET- JUNE17 question using Bit Masking
- Develop Intro Sort–> Develop Heap Sort
- Watch Coding Blocks Seminar, revise Greedy vs DP
- Revise Divide and Conquer paradigm
- Implement Doubly Linked Lists
- Section 10.1 and 10.2 CLRS for Data Structures.


text:
From car insurance basics to answers about coverage and claims.
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Your declarations page explains how much your car insurance costs and how much coverage you're getting.
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Cost & Coverage
How Much Does Car Insurance Cost?
The cost of auto insurance depends on factors about you, your car, and where you live.
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What Age Does Car Insurance Go Down?
If you're a safe driver, you should start seeing a decrease even before you turn 25.
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From Alaska to California and Indiana to New York, each state has minimum car insurance requirements.
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Car insurance covers situations where you'd be liable to pay for yourself, your passengers, or a third party.
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American Family
Affordable coverage and respectable (if slightly below-average) claims satisfaction ratings.
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One of the largest insurance providers, with a wide network of company affiliates who offer discounts.
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text:
15 "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17 And the Lord said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.'"Nearly fifteen hundred years later, when Jesus called Philip and he went to get his brother Nathanael, Philip exclaimed to his brother, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (Jn. 1:45) The people who followed Jesus, listened to His teaching, and saw His miracles knew it as well (Jn. 6:14). When Peter addressed the Jews in Solomon's Portico, he too reminded them that Jesus is the prophet who was to follow Moses (Ac. 3:22). And, when Stephen (the first martyr) was before the Sanhedrin charged with preaching Jesus, he told them that Jesus is the prophet Moses promised (Ac. 7:37-38).
The office of prophet is one of the offices that Jesus executes for us as our Redeemer. The Westminster Short Catechism asks in question #23, "What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?" and it answers, "Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation." Then, to further explain what this means, in #24 it asks, "How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?" and it answers, "Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by His word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation." A prophet told people the will of God. He was God's spokesman. In the OT, there were many prophets, but now that Christ has come there is only one and it is Jesus Himself. Through His Word He informs us of all we need to know about God and His will (2 Ti. 3:16-17), and through His Holy Spirit He gives us wisdom and understanding of it (1 Co. 2:9-12).
This Advent season, remember that you would not know anything about salvation, Jesus, Advent, or God, if it were not for Jesus being your prophet. He is necessary for us to know God and He is also sufficient for us to know God (we need no other prophets in our lives).
By His Grace,


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DamonLayne Woodworking is an Iowa business located in Earlham. For the past 6 years, I have spent my free time working from a renovated Madison County, one-room school house to create beautifully designed items for your home. My woodworking products include cutting boards, cheese slicers, and amazing cribbage boards.
I am excited to be a part of Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 because it displays the unique European holiday traditions. Talented artisans will be displaying their creations while families stroll along listening to music, sampling the food, and sipping warm mulled wine. This is an amazing event to have in Des Moines.
My products for this year's Christkindlmarket Des Moines include cribbage boards, cutting boards, and cheese slicers. These handmade items make wonderful gifts to include in your holiday baskets.
I am happy to be a part of this magnificent event again this year. The little vendor huts, the wonderful smell of food, and lively polka music are sure to make this event a holiday tradition for your family.
Andy Klindt is an Iowa artisan who creates using wood and iron.
Andy uses native Iowa timbers for his wooden creations, utilizing anything from chainsaws to traditional hand tools. When blacksmithing, Andy uses time-honored methods to forge his metal art/pieces.
Fanciful , functional, or a fusion of each…watching Andy craft original pieces is sure to delight people of all ages!
Christkindlmarket Des Moines is an AMAZING event! You can't beat the festive holiday atmosphere and there is something for everyone…traditional Christmas market foods, live entertainment, wonderful shopping for unique gifts, and Glühwein! We love being a part of Christkindlmarket Des Moines!
This year we will have a variety of gifts to choose from! Of course there will be chainsaw carvings, but you're also likely to find things like handmade wooden spoons and cutting boards, tradition wooden boxes for whatever you can imagine, wooden Christmas ornaments, hand forged hooks, bottle openers, grill accessories, and decorations. You just never know what Andy might decide to make next!
Be one of the first to experience Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 during this private, ticketed preview party at Principal Park, on Thursday, December 5, 2019 from 5 – 9pm. GET TICKETS!
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – DSM Dueling Fiddles In the style of "dueling pianos," the Des Moines Dueling Fiddles is an entertainment duo that provides a repertoire consisting of World fiddle music, Gypsy, Celtic, Pop, Rock, Latin, Klezmer, Irish, Bluegrass, and Classical selections. The DSM Dueling Fiddles may currently be found performing for various concerts and events in the Central Iowa area. Highlights from previous performances include: Celebrate Iowa Gala, Newton Fest, and CelebrAsian, among others.
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Barefoot Becky & the Ivanhoe Dutchmen are based out of Mt Vernon, IA and have been performing all over the country for 31 years. We play polkas, waltzes, big band, old country and party songs! We like to have fun and hope you do too!
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm The Jim Kucera Band has been performing since 1984. The group has not only performed in Iowa and Nebraska, but throughout the Midwest. The group has 5 recordings on CD, one of which (Play A Polka Daddy), was featured in the Polka Countdown top 10 recordings in 2001. The group specializes in all styles of polka music, and enjoys playing many Oktoberfest celebrations each year throughout the Midwest.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Top Hat Carolers is a local singing group that has performed holiday music for over 25 years. They sing traditional Christmas carols and contemporary holiday tunes dressed in Victorian garb.
6:00 pm – 6:10 pm Opening Ceremony
6:10 pm – 6:30 pm – Kantorei is a small group of college students drawn from the Grand View Choir that sings a variety of music. For Christkindlmarket Des Moines they will be singing Christmas carols.
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Malek's Fishermen Band is one of the finest polka bands in the Midwest; and continue the great tradition of dance music excellence started by Syl Malek in the 1930's with Malek Bros. Accordion Band. The modern Malek's Fishermen Band plays a wide range of dance music that includes the traditional old tyme polkas, waltzes, two-steps, and schottisches as well as country, big band, dixieland, and other dance hall favorites. Malek's Fishermen Band has it's own distinctive sound that is a favorite of dancers and listeners throughout the Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin region. Over the years, they have recorded many albums, and can be found at dance halls, polkafests, and parties in this four state region.
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – The Central Chapter, Polka Club of Iowa is organized as an educational and social organization for the preservation and advancement of polka music, dancing and folklore.
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – The Central Iowa Wind Ensemble is an adult symphonic band with musicians drawn from the greater Des Moines area.
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – DSM Dueling Fiddles In the style of "dueling pianos," the Des Moines Dueling Fiddles is an entertainment duo that provides a repertoire consisting of World fiddle music, Gypsy, Celtic, Pop, Rock, Latin, Klezmer, Irish, Bluegrass, and Classical selections. The DSM Dueling Fiddles may currently be found performing for various concerts and events in the Central Iowa area. Highlights from previous performances include: Celebrate Iowa Gala, Newton Fest, and CelebrAsian, among others.
2:00 pm – 2:20 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm – Heartland Youth Choir's Cantilena Choir is an auditioned choir of 3rd and 4th grade singers. Heartland Youth Choir has 5 levels of choirs from 4 years old to senior's in high school. This will be our 4th year performing for Chirstkindlemarket Des Moines.
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Foy School of Traditional Irish Dance Celebrate Irish culture with the Foy School of Irish Dance. The revelry includes delightful traditional dances and contemporary choreographed numbers that both enchant and entertain!
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm – Mackenzie Highlanders Pipes and Drums of Iowa The mission of our band is to support active and reserve military units, law enforcement agencies, and fire departments. We regularly perform at local events that support these groups.
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Alpensterne Combined Alpensterne musical talents can't be numbered by years but by their youth and spontaneity. Their authentic German singing and yodeling are true crowd pleasers They are equally at home doing the standards, Latin, and all of your favorite musical genres. The group performs at many Upper Midwest largest German Festivals and Oktoberfests.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
12:00 pm – 12:30pm – International Folk Dancing will be taught to the public and will require their participation. You will learn circle and line dances from France, Europe and other countries.
12:30 pm – 12:50 pm – Schuhplattler Gruppe Edelweiss SG Edelweiss, the award winning Bavarian dance group from St. Paul, MN, will perform traditional German and Austrian folk dances.
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – The Metro Brass Quintet performs a fun variety of music from polkas to jazz and has been entertaining the Des Moines metro since 2014.
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm Des Moines Chantants (strolling) is a group of French speaking Iowa residents getting together to sing french carols and other French songs.
Des Moines European Heritage Association connects Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences; and it provides resources and tools to other cultural heritage organizations.
For four years, I've been developing my skills and style in pottery and sculpture. My work consists of three thematic elements: agriculture and rural heritage; Celtic and Irish Dance, and contemporary geometric and abstract designs. I enjoy making functional items that contain subtle symbolism.
Every bowl or mug is created by hand via the wheel or slab and coil techniques. Special attention to decorative embellishments or glazing ensures each piece is one-of-a-kind. I welcome commission work.
I first attended the Christkindlmarket in 2017, when my daughter's Irish dance troupe performed on stage. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and ethnically diverse elements of the event. This past December, we attended the event again as part of the Foy School of Irish Dance and I felt confident that I had enough stock to be a vendor at the 2019 Christkindlmarket Des Moines. I'm excited to be part of this growing, unique offering on Des Moines' thriving entertainment and cultural calendar.
My products will consist primarily of mugs, trays, boxes, and bowls, as well as other small items with European historic and cultural designs. I will also have a collection of items celebrating Iowa with agriculture motifs. I am choosing items based on size, price range, design, and relation to the theme of the event. I aim to make it affordable and easy for the shopper to carry their purchases while enjoying the event.
Tell us about your business
Now in its fifth year, Dakota Tinworks is a family-owned business, specializing in traditional, handmade tinware and tin decorative items. Karl, the tinsmith in the family, uses mostly 19th century tinsmith's tools in the creation of his tin goods. He trained as a historical tinsmith with Loren Miller at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska, and with master tinsmith William McMillen at Historic Eastfield Village in New York. He's also taken an advanced tinsmithing workshop co-taught by Steve Delisle, head tinsmith at Colonial Williamsburg.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019?
We were invited to participate in CDM 2017, and we all enjoyed it so much, we wanted to come back the next year. People seem to really like the tin goods we produce and sell. We enjoy meeting everyone who stops by our pop-up tents. We're looking forward to Christkindlmarket 2019, with a new and larger location!
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 and why did you choose them?
Our tin ornaments and tree tinsel remain very popular, so we will, of course, have plenty of those on hand. We also plan to offer some new items for sale, including pierced tin candle shades, with traditional designs. These can be used with tea lights to highlight the design. And, of course, we'll have a full range of other tin items for sale — cups, lanterns, candle sconces, and cookie cutters, among many other items.
Anything else you'd like to share?
We're excited to be a part of this wonderful event once again. We unfortunately had to close one day during CDM 2018 because of storm damage to our set-up, but we have plans in place to strengthen the pop-ups and we'll be ready for whatever weather comes our way!
Tell us about your business
Jarrod and Misty reside just outside of Polk City, Iowa, right off Saylorville Lake. They started Curbin' Cuisine in May 2013 with just a food cart & a huge dream. Over the next five years, Curbin' Cuisine grew more popular and has been requested by numerous businesses & event coordinators in Des Moines and in surrounding towns. Curbin' Cuisine is a featured food vendor at several Des Moines and surrounding area events, breweries & festivals. Check out the "Where is Curbin' Cuisine" section for full details on dates, times & locations. Curbin' Cuisine has been voted Best of the Best Top Three Food Trucks by City View Magazine two years in a row.
What inspired you to get involved as a vendor at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019?
Misty loves Christmas anything. We visited this market a few years back and knew we wanted to be apart of it with our food truck. We serve Globally Inspired Foods and this market brings European/German heritage right here to Des Moines, that we knew we could serve delicious eats to customers. This market made our "Hogfather" very popular.
What products will you be selling at Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 and why did you choose them?
The Hogfather Sausage Sandwich w/ BBQ Bacon Kraut; Corned Beef Reuben Sandwich or The Rachael w/ Turkey; German Style Mac N Cheese "Spatzle"; German Skillet Bowl; Garlic Parm Pretzel Bombs W/ Cheese Sauce; CinnaBomb Pretzel Bombs w/ Frosting Dip; Coffee & Water.
The Danish Windmill is a proud sponsor of Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 representing the Danish of Iowa and will make a guest appearance at the mug unveiling on May 21st.
The 1848 Danish Windmill was brought piece by piece from Denmark in 1975 and rebuilt by community volunteers as a memorial to their strong Danish Heritage. The historic 60 foot tall windmill just completed a 2-year major restoration project and now is in working condition and turns by the wind as it once did over 170 years ago in Denmark.
Be one of the first to view Christkindlmarket Des Moines' 2019 Glühwein mug design at Jasper Winery on Tuesday, May 21 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Sip the signature drink (warm mulled wine) while shopping a mini market featuring foods and handcrafted items from Christkindlmarket Des Moines 2019 vendors. Other Jasper wines and Madhouse beer will also be available for purchase.
The first 25 attendees to donate $25 (or more) to guarantee their 2019 mug will receive a goody bag. A limited quantity of commemorative mugs are ordered each year. The mug design will be revealed at 6:30 p.m.
Learn more about Des Moines European Heritage Association (DMEHA), the non-profit that produced Christkindlmarket Des Moines. Sign up to become a Silver or Gold member and show your support for an association whose mission is to connect Iowans with European traditions, language education and cultural experiences.
Feeling festive? Bring your own Glühwein mug (0.2 liters) from a past Christmas market.
Admission is free; donations accepted.
Offering: advent calendars, imported chocolate, baumkuchen, Mozart kugeln, Asbach filled chocolates, assorted marzipan, Haribo, Pandoro, Pannetone, butter cookies, stollen, beer steins, beer mugs, beer glassware, shot glasses and Christkindlmarket Des Moines merchandise. Price Range: $1 – $200
Offering: Steinbach nutcrackers and smokers; INGE glass ornaments.
Price Range: $5 – $400
Damon will be selling unique, hand-made cutting boards, cookie molds, and cheese slicers.
Offering: Woodworking: cookie molds, cutting boards, cheese slicers
Price Range: $20 – $200
Ornaments, lanterns, signs, maps, and any other decorations we can cobbler together. Hand made in Des Moines with a laser cutter, woodworking, and a host of other mediums.
Offering: Lanterns, ornaments, decorative signs and maps, laser cut artwork
Price Range: $1 – $100
At Pickle Creek, we use organic herbs we grow on our Iowa farm to handcraft artisanal herbal products, including infused olive oils and vinegars, soaps, salves, salts, and balms.
Offering: Herb-infused olive oils and vinegars, soaps, salves, salts, and balms that we handcraft ourselves using original recipes and the herbs and other produce we grow in our garden.
Price Range: $3 – $25
At Held Companies we make handmade wooden snowmen and deer of all sizes. We also create laser cut decor such as; signs, ornaments, coasters and magnets.
Offering: Birch Snowmen, Birch Deer, Repurposed wooden signs, ornaments, wooden trees, etc.
Price Range: $2 – $150
Three In One Artworks offers unique, hand-crafted functional and decorative clay mugs, trays, boxes and bowls. Designs include agricultural and rural heritage, Celtic, Christian and contemporary designs.
Offering: Ornaments, coffee cups, mugs, serving trays, serving bowls, trinket boxes, trinket dishes, candle holders, vases, kitchen utensil holders, decorative trays, plates and bowls. (Celtic, agriculture and contemporary designs)
Price Range: $15 – $100
Authentic 1848 historic Danish Windmill located in Elk Horn, Iowa. The Windmill was built in Denmark in 1848 and reconstructed in Elk Horn in 1975 to working condition and stands as a memorial to the areas Danish Heritage.
Offering: Danish Christmas giftware celebrating old world traditions. Prepackaged Danish candy and Danish food
Price Range: $1 – $100
Andy Klindt creates using wood and iron, utilizing anything from chainsaws to traditional hand tools when working in wood and time honored methods of blacksmithing when working with metal.
Offering: Chainsaw carvings, Wooden ornaments, Hand forged kitchen ware, decorations, tools, knives, jewelry, Hand carved wooden kitchen ware, Handmade wooden boxes, totes, tables
Price Range: $7 – $3000
Nymph in the Woods creates one-of-a-kind jewelry combining fused glass and wire wrapping! See how the pieces are created during wire wrapping demonstrations!
Offering: Jewelry combining fused glass and wire wrapping – necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings and more!
Price Range: $15 – $150
We make everything we sell in Indianola, Iowa. They are one of a kind fused and stained glass jewelry and home decor pieces. Will be demonstrating blown glass ornaments.
Offering: Fused glass pendants, earrings, bracelets, hair accessories, pop sockets, tie-tac's, tie-bars, money clips & key chains. Fused glass plates, bowls, soap dish, spoon rest, business card holder, napkin holder Christmas ornaments. Stained glass Christmas ornaments pendants, earrings, picture frames and small panels. Blown glass ornaments, hand painted glass Christmas ornaments and hand painted wine bottle lights with winter scene.
Price Range: $8 – $150
Handcarved wooden home, kitchen, and lifestyle goods made from ethically harvested urban lumber.
Offering: Hand-carved wooden: spoons, spatulas, kitchen utensils, cutting, serving, and presentation boards and trays, pizza cutters and paddles, shaving razors, shaving brushes, shaving stands, baby spoons, coffee scoops, beer flights, bottle openers, muddlers, wooden bowls.
Price Range: $5 – $125
Support Des Moines European Heritage Association (DMEHA), the non-profit that produces Christkindlmarket Des Moines with a purchase from this stand.
Offering: Usinger Brats, Käse Spätzle and bottled water
Price Range: $1 – $5
Glühwein (roughly, "glow-wine", from the hot irons once used for mulling) is popular in German speaking countries. Glühwein is prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, star aniseed, citrus, sugar and at times vanilla pods.
Ukrainian style foods, gifts and desserts
Offering: Perogie, pelmeni, cabbage rolls, candy, sweets
Price Range: $1 – $10
Fine European chocolates and confections.
Offering: hot chocolate, prepacked chocolates, stroopwafels handmade, speculaas
Price Range: $3 – $40
Offering: Cinnamon or maple flavored roasted almonds, cashews, pecans
Price Range: $5 – $8
State of the art, wickedly designed bright green food truck.
Sugarplums is a local bakery that specializes in traditional gingerbread and other European baked goods for the Christkindlmarket. Everything we sell is made completely from scratch from family recipes.
Fresh baked sweet and savory strudels, handmade pretzels
Cheese Bar DSM will be unveiling our newest addition, Cheese Cart. We will be featuring Raclette prepared in the European Traditional Method of scrapping melted cheese over potatoes and sausage.
French Style Crepes with a sweet or savory filling
The Kringle is made of very high quality dough folded and buttered 81 times to get all the lightness and air pockets associated with Danish Baking. We blend Almond Paste with all our Fruit to come up with an irresistible, melt in your mouth flavor.
Christkindlmarket Des Moines is proud to present a unique fundraising opportunity for nonprofit organizations. We invite up to 15 participants to decorate 6-8 foot cut trees** that will be displayed during the market and sold via a silent auction. The organization that decorates the tree will receive 100% of the profits earned from Des Moines European Heritage Association following the event.
Individual organizations are responsible for all tree decorations, and all items used on the tree will be given to the winning bidder. We encourage decorations that are able to withstand the temperamental Iowa weather (snow, sleet, rain, and/or wind). The trees remain outside for the duration of Christkindlmarket Des Moines.
Relocating Christkindlmarket Des Moines to Principal Park this year has afforded us the opportunity to make some exciting changes relating to the Silent Auction.
We will once again be using off-site bidding technology to garner bids and use i-Pads on site to help interested bidders register. Minimum bids will start at $60 and increase in increments of $10. Organizations will be asked to decorate their tree on Wednesday, December 4th. Bidding will begin Thursday night, December 5th, at 5pm and close Sunday, December 8th, at 3pm.
Please use this link to register your nonprofit organization as a participant at the Chistkindlmarket Des Moines Silent Auction tree decorating. Once the form has been submitted, additional information will be sent via email.
If you have any questions, contact Missy Mootz at firstname.lastname@example.com.
** Cut trees are not perfect and will have a tendency to lean. We have upgraded our stands this year to help with leaning, but they will not always allow for the optimal display of the tree. We will present the trees in the most positive way given our circumstances. Please manage your expectations accordingly.


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Is there a connection between cesarean birth and cognitive delay in children?
An Australian study compared the cognitive performance of children born by cesarean section to that of children born vaginally. The former seem to have a delay compared to the latter. While the rates of births by cesarean section continues to increase worldwide, a new Australian study m...


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Random picture of the month…
On 30/01/2015
Sometimes something just catches your eye; this 'slither' of oak was just laying on the floor and I could not help but take a picture and share it.
You can see the growth rings and medullary rays really clearly.
Unfortunately within the hour it had already started drying out and just fell apart in my hand.


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London, United Kingdom – The British parliament has passed an amendment to ensure the rights of 3.5 million European Union citizens in the UK and 1.3 million British citizens living in EU countries remain protected, even in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Following the fourth parliamentary debate this year on Britain's departure from the bloc, the House of Commons on Wednesday voted on a series of amendments to a motion put forward by the government on the next steps for Brexit. Two out of five were passed almost unanimously.
The so-called Costa amendment – after Alberto Costa, the Conservative MP behind the motion – asks Prime Minister Theresa May to "seek at the earliest opportunity a joint UK-EU commitment to adopt part two of the withdrawal agreement on citizens' rights and ensure its implementation prior to the UK's exiting the European Union, whatever the outcome of negotiations on other aspects of the withdrawal agreement".
The vote followed May's u-turn on delaying Brexit on Tuesday, when she announced that should she fail to get a revised deal through the House of Commons by March 12, she would give members of parliament the last word on leaving the EU without deal.
Should parliament vote against leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement, MPs will decide on March 14 whether they want an extension to Article 50 – the part of the Treaty on the European Union that enables member states to leave the bloc – "not beyond June".
No-deal Brexit may hit UK health service, report cautions (2:41)
May's promises mirror an amendment tabled by Yvette Cooper, an MP for the main opposition Labour party, which was passed by 502 votes to 20 after a cabal of hardline Brexiter Conservatives objected.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's "softer" Brexit proposal, calling for a UK-wide customs union and close alignment with the EU's single market, was defeated by 323 to 240.
Corbyn will now have to follow up on his promise of supporting a second referendum, as announced earlier this week. The party has confirmed that the options it would support putting to the people include a "credible Leave option" or remaining in the EU – although these would ultimately have to be decided by parliament.
An amendment by the Scottish National Party's Ian Blackford to prevent the UK from leaving the EU without a deal "under any circumstances" was also defeated.
'Big step forward'
May had cast doubt on whether the government would support the Costa amendment during Tuesday's speech, claiming that "the EU does not have the legal authority to do a separate deal on citizens' rights without a new mandate" and that it was a "matter for individual member states".
A controversy also emerged over Costa's resignation from his role as parliamentary private secretary. However, Costa clarified during Wednesday's debate that "there is a convention that if a parliamentary aide tables an amendment they are expected to resign".
The government has now promised to push the EU to revise its mandate and negotiate a separate agreement on citizens' rights.
EU citizens living in the UK have been asked to make an online application for "settled status" if they have been in the UK for five years or more, and can get "pre-settled status" if they arrived in the UK before Brexit day. However, rights groups have warned that some applicants may fall through the cracks.
Most European countries have made unilateral offers for UK citizens living in the EU.
The UK's adoption of the amendment was seen as a success by campaign groups The3Million and British in Europe, which have been advocating for citizens' rights.
"It's a first step to put no deal for citizens off the table," Maike Bohn, of The3Million campaign for EU citizens in the UK, told Al Jazeera.
"It [provides for] social security and pension rights, especially for the British in Europe, that the UK would have to negotiate with 27 countries. It's a big step forward," Bohn said, adding that "now the ball is in the EU's court."


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In another case of life imitating art, the Arushi Talwar murder case will soon be presented on screen by director Meghna Gulzar. Titled Talvar, the film will be released on 2 October, 2015.
Just before leaving for the premiere of the film at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, Meghna told the media,
"Yes, Talvar is based on a true incident. We have given different dimensions to all the characters as this is a film and that's why we had to give fictional names to the characters as well. As far as the title is concerned, Talvar means a sword and not the surname (Talwar). It's a sword in the hands of the statue of justice."
Director Manish Gupta's film Rahasya, which was released in February, was also based on the Arushi Case. However, Gupta denied all allegations of the film being inspired from real life incidents.
"I have not watched Rahasya yet so I have no idea what that film was all about. But like I said, if we are afraid about the kind of film other directors are making then I don't think we could make more than one love story in Bollywood," quipped Meghna.
When asked whether the Sheena Bora case and the Arushi case were uncannily similar, she responded,
"Yes there's a lot of similarity. One is of course the media interest in both cases. Plus, family members seem to be responsible, making it all the more scandalous. What is happening currently is very unfortunate," she noted.
Talvar stars Irrfan Khan and Konkana Sen Sharma in pivotal roles.


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PSFVIP-10 will be convened at the University of Naples Federico II Conference Centre, located on the Naples waterfront, which offers an ideal location with a superb view of the Naples gulf. It is a first class venue offering superb flexibility and versatility, allowing the entire program for the PSFVIP-10 Congress to be comfortably accommodated in one floor and the relative mezzanine level.
The Conference Center Federico II is in Via Partenope 36 - 80121 Napoli ITALY.
The view from the Conference Center windows: old harbour and Castle "Dell'Ovo"
The Conference Centre Auditorium