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Inter Partes Review (IPR), created by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), 125 Stat. 284 (2011), has become a prominent part of patent litigation. Accused infringers can challenge asserted patents based on printed prior art by petitioning the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to "institute" an IPR "trial." An IPR before the PTAB is an administrative proceeding with no right to a jury trial on patent validity. If instituted, non-Article III judges receive evidence and arguments and determine whether the patent is valid. Many IPRs arise out of pending District court patent infringement litigation and parties to an IPR proceeding can be estopped from re-litigating issues that were raised or could have been raised in the PTAB. At the discretion of the federal judge, district court litigation may be stayed pending the outcome of the IPR. Ultimately, IPRs can be less expensive than district court validity determinations and often contribute to efficient resolution of patent disputes.
The constitutionality of the IPR process itself is before the Supreme Court this month. In Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Grene's Energy Group, LLC, No. 16-712, Petitioner Oil States will argue on November 27 that IPRs are unconstitutional because they can cancel private property rights without a jury trial presided over by an Article III judge. At play is whether a patent is a public or private right. Generally, determination (or invalidation) of a private right requires an Article III court whereas a Government-issued public right can be determined by administrative action. Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462, 490-91 (2011). Whether patent validity is a "suit at common law" and subject to a jury trial is the subject of much commentary and dispute, especially where damages may not be at issue (such as some declaratory judgment actions or various ANDA litigation). See, e.g., Atlas Roofing, 430 U.S. 442, 449 (1977). The Federal Circuit takes the view that patents are public rights and has rejected challenges to the IPR procedure.
According to Oil States, the 2011 procedure is unconstitutional because 18th Century patent validity cases were tried in English courts by judges and questions of fact regarding patent validity were decided by juries. Oil States does not argue that interference proceedings, ex parte reexaminations and inter partes reexaminations, are unconstitutional. Instead, it attempts to distinguish these procedures from IPRs.
In response, the U.S. Patent Office and Respondent argue IPRs are consistent with Article III because Congress has long-authorized the Patent Office to reconsider its own patent grant decisions (which Oil States concedes). They further argue the Seventh Amendment is not offended because Congress has permissibly assigned IPR adjudications to non-Article III tribunals.
While difficult to predict which way this case will go, what should parties do in the meantime? First, patentees being taken to an IPR amidst district court litigation should preserve the issue. Likewise, error should be preserved as to any district court decision impacted by an adverse PTAB IPR decision. Accused infringers need to know the law may change quickly and that needs to be factored into strategy decisions. If the IPR process is invalidated, it is unclear what will become of past case resolutions. Parties already involved in an IPR should exploit the process to secure useful discovery and strategic admissions from experts. If the constitutionality of IPRs is upheld in Oil States, pay attention to a companion case, SAS Institute, which addresses the scope of IPR estoppel on district court litigation. For more information on this issue, please contact Erin Knese or Steve Holtshouser.


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While a shortage of workers is pushing wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor's degree is softening, even as the price — and the average debt into which it plunges students — keeps going up. But high school graduates have been so effectively encouraged to get a bachelor's that high-paid jobs requiring shorter and less expensive training are going unfilled. This affects those students and also poses a real threat to the economy. "Parents want success for their kids," said Mike Clifton, who teaches machining at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, about 20 miles from Seattle. "They get stuck on [four-year bachelor's degrees], and they're not seeing the shortage there is in tradespeople until they hire a plumber and have to write a check." (Read more.)Share
A Prayer Against Spells
4 days ago

subset: commoncrawl


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|Clark Kent's hair actually flips out of the box
Purchased on 4 November 2014, at Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong
Consumed on 4 November 2014 in Singapore
Combo Price - 38HKD - $4.90USD
Calories - Unknown
|Yep - Those are also DC Comics toys available for purchase. $15HKD ($1.95USD) each
This is review 2 of 2 for the Superman series from Hong Kong, the first being the Potato Cheese Balls. A quick recap for those that didn't read that review, this burger was flown down from Hong Kong to Singapore (a 3 hour flight) by Valerie, a very kind reader. Although the Superman Honey Mustard Chicken burger didn't sound nearly as interesting as the Batman Burger which preceded it, but I was not going to turn down possibly the only DC Comic burger I might have from HK (I'm unlikely to be there when The Flash and Green Lantern promos are on). Like the Potato Cheese Balls, I tossed the bacon, chicken patty and bun onto a hot pan to give them a little heat, and hopefully kill any bacteria which might have grown in the 6 hours since it was made.
|My newly toasted 6 hour old Superman burger
Right off the bat, I was a little disappointed by the sweetness of the Honey Mustard sauce. Although there were large mustard & pepper seed pieces within the sauce, it was still heavy on the sugar, I guess I have the same complaint every time I have Honey Mustard, but I would have much preferred a stronger mustard similar to the Korean Grilled Chicken burger. McDonald's Hong Kong had 4 promo McNugget sauces last summer, and Honey Mustard was one of these flavours. This version tasted similar, but luckily, was wasn't exactly the same.
Where the mustard was disappointing, the bacon was a nice surprise - I guess I had a bit too much Halal McDonald's lately and the Turkey Bacon they serve, but this thick proper-streaky-bacon was a nice change to the often overcooked crispy bacon in other parts of Asia. Apart from those two toppings, there wasn't much else of interest. The lettuce and cheese were a little on the dry side, but the burger was unrefrigerated for 6 hours, so I can't really complain about that. The chicken was an all-whitemeat patty, which is also a very nice change from the skin-on chicken thigh patties of Singapore. The cornmeal & oat topped bun held up surprisingly well for the conditions the burger was stored in.
From all those that tried the Batman Burger, they said that it was great, so maybe this is just the calm before the (Flash) storm. Nothing glaringly wrong, nor bad with this burger, just it wasn't anything all that...'Super'.
Rating - 3/5


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(If you had previously opted into the Tech Diving forums, you can ignore this. That usergroup is now the Advanced Diving usergroup.)
Go to your control panel and select the "Usergroups" tab.
Click the radio button next to "Advanced Diving Opt-in".
Make sure the select menu shows "Join selected" and click Submit.
Enjoy the witty banter from our Advanced Diving community.
How to opt in to the Advanced Diving forums
Need help with a site function? Looking for a how-to? Have a request for a new feature? Welcome to geekville.
1 post • Page 1 of 1
1 post • Page 1 of 1


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About Us
Meet Growth Opportunity Partners—an organization dedicated to helping Northeast Ohio's most promising job-creating small businesses reach their full potential.
We provide lending and coaching assistance to small businesses that are ready to grow, but for a variety of reasons are unable to secure funds from traditional banking sources.
We are not a lender of last resort. The businesses we partner with must meet stringent credit underwriting standards and be committed to community development through the creation "meaningful-wage" jobs.
At Growth Opps, our success is the success of our clients; when they leave us, they should be in a stronger position than when we met them.
Our Model
Growth Opps focuses on businesses that are already healthy, thriving and ready to expand further, but for a variety of reasons cannot access traditional bank financing.
We are not confined to specific industries.
We work with small businesses we believe can create meaningful-wage jobs and make an economic impact, especially in low-income urban core neighborhoods and economically disadvantaged rural areas.
We pair access to capital with coaching and mentoring.
We use all the tools are our disposal to help our clients attract traditional financing moving forward and retire their debt. We are not looking for lifelong clients. We are looking to make a measurable impact in the community.
We're a lender, not a bank.
Because we are mission-driven and combine lending with coaching, we are very different from a traditional bank. And because our models are fundamentally different, we are able to work cooperatively with our banking colleagues rather than competitively. In fact, one of our first clients was referred to us by a trusted banking partner.
"Growth Opportunity Partners was interested in much more than our balance sheet … I could say that we have our own high level two man consulting firm; however, it feels more like they are executive members on our team. I believe we found the right partners and I foresee an ongoing relationship that will foster our growth."
Leon Anderson
President, Sports and Spine Physical Therapy Inc.
Our Process
We commit a great deal of time and energy interviewing our potential clients on the front end to make sure they are a good fit for Growth Opps, and vice-versa.
Once we decide to work with a small business owner, we become a true partner who strives for a comprehensive understanding of not only their business, but their people. We then leverage all of our expertise, networks and community resources to help our partners remove their barriers to growth and get where they need to go.
Most Growth Opps loans will have terms of three to five years. As the loans are repaid, the dollars can then be redeployed to other small businesses with similar needs. During the life of the loan, the Growth Opps team performs regular check-ins to analyze the company's financials, operations and accounting practices and conducts periodic reviews of the company's growth plans to determine how well our clients are meeting their own milestones.
Meet Our Team
Michael Jeans
President & Chief Executive Officer
Michael has spent his career enhancing organizational structure, increasing organizational visibility and improving performance. Prior to helming Growth Opps, he worked with established and respected leaders in the financial services industry including KPMG, McDonald Investments, Morgan Stanley, National City Bank and KeyBank. Michael brings a wealth of business knowledge to Growth Opps including healthcare consulting, tax, wealth planning, retirement, investment research and securities selection, portfolio management, small business, municipal and non-profit finance, cash management, sales and credit training and strategic planning.
Michael earned his Bachelor's Degree from Ashland University in Business Administration with a focus in Finance and a minor in Spanish.
Jeff Clawson
Chief Credit Officer
Jeff is a banking veteran with two decades of financial experience and a keen eye for evaluating both the risks and opportunities inherent in community lending. Prior to joining Growth Opps, he served as a credit officer and later Midwestern Team Lead for Origination at KeyBank, managing a team of business banking credit officers while supporting the credit needs of relationship managers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Prior to KeyBank, Jeff spent a decade as an AVP at Huntington National Bank, working as a portfolio manager in Northeast Ohio community bank markets.
Jeff earned his Bachelor's Degree from The Ohio State University in Business Administration.
Marcus Glanton
SVP, Operations and Risk Manager
Marcus brings over 16 years of experience working with clients to identify risk and implement loss mitigation strategies across multiple industries, including technology, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. Prior to joining Growth Opps, Marcus was VP at Chubb Ltd, leading underwriting teams responsible for the growth and profitability of their property & casualty insurance portfolio across Northeast Ohio. Marcus brings together a unique combination of hands-on experience, ranging from project management in the technology field to franchise ownership in the food industry.
Marcus earned his Bachelor's Degree from Rowan University in Business Administration.
Growth Opps and Citizens Bank on WKYC Channel 3 Live on Lakeside
May 28, 2019
Growth Opps President & CEO, Michael Jeans spent time with Ndeda Letson of Citizens Bank and the WKYC Channel 3 Live On Lakeside team to discuss the strong partnership between Growth Opps and Citizens Bank supporting financial literacy and small business growth.
Help Wanted: Wealth Building in Minority Communities
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Michael Jeans
President and CEO, Growth Opportunity Partners, Inc.
John McMicken
CEO, Evergreen Cooperatives
Khrystalynn Shefton, PMP
Director of Real Estate Development, Famicos Foundation
The racial wealth gap is one of the more pressing economic issues facing cities across the country. Because of a history slavery and oppression, discrimination, and Jim Crow laws, most African-Americans were not afforded the opportunities to build wealth—and pass it down to the next generation—at the rate of their white counterparts. This history, coupled with the rising income disparities of today, means many people of color are still struggling to realize the American Dream.
Growth Opportunity Partners seeks to work with bright, energetic and highly qualified individuals from all backgrounds. The value we provide to our clients and supporting partners is directly linked to the caliber of our staff.
Growth Opps only accepts electronic submissions. Due to the volume of applications received, we will only contact candidates that will be considered further for a position. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Contact Us
Ready to find out if Growth Opps is the right partner for your small business? Fill in your contact info below and we'll be in touch.
Company Details
Growth Opportunity Partners Inc.
6001 Euclid Avenue, Suite 120
Cleveland, Ohio 44103
(216) 462-0640


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Community Impact Directory
The PEOPLE Academy and Do It Local have partnered to create a comprehensive Community Impact Directory that brings together all categories of services, support or individuals who are having a direct impact on your community. The directory listings are constructed in short audio soundbytes, telling you what they do, who they impact and what they need for support. This directory is a powerful engine that is easy to use. Just enter your keywords, i.e. homeless, women, veterans, education, financial and you will be able to search for either the support you are looking for or determine where you may want to lend your support either financially or as a volunteer.
Do you know how many support services are in your community? Do you know of their impact? Do you need to benefit from the impact of their work for yourself, a loved one or your family? Do you want to support organizations or individuals that are having impact within your community? Do you know how to support them? What's the best way to support them? What do they need?
Check it out. Talk about it. Use it. This is YOUR Community Impact Directory.
Use the Search Area below to search by categories or keyword!
Find out more @ http://www.autismsocietyofberkscounty.org/
Help support us @ https://tinyurl.com/ybr8egcn
Help support us @ https://tinyurl.com/ybr8egcn


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The wait is over! Keep reading, to learn more.
Even better? You can already register right now for next year's convention: NAA20!
NAA Annual Convention is where afterschool professionals and leaders gather to get inspired, connected, learn, and share! Each convention includes four days of networking, learning, and inspiration: special events, workshops, daily keynotes, and an interactive Learning Expo—all designed to meet the needs of the developing professionals and emerging and current leaders of afterschool. Come to NAA Annual Convention and leave saying, "I've found my people!"
WASHINGTON, D.C. | March 15 – 18, 2020 | Gaylord National- REGISTER
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | March 14 – 17, 2020 | Gaylord Opryland
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA | March 20 – 23, 2022 | Caesars Palace
ORLANDO, FLORIDA | March 19 – 22, 2023 | Gaylord Palms
DALLAS, TEXAS | March 17 – 20, 2024 | Hyatt Regency Dallas
Excited for NAA20? Don't hesitate and register to join us now! And in case you're feeling nostalgic, check out these highlights from NAA19 in the Big Apple.


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Year-Round Rental Information
Diana Bisbee
House for rent in Eureka, SD. Nice home new flooring, cute, comfy. By the year, fisherman, hunters or pipeliners. By Eureka lake. (605)-265-0097
Double G, Inc.
(605) 284-2370 Houses for families or singles. 2-3 bedroom houses. Allow one small pet. No smoking. Not subsidized. email@example.com
Kay or Kevin P. Hinton
(605) 284-2395 Completely furnished house: 4-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath. Long term rental preferred. 809 J Ave.
Pratt, Roy
(605)-380-3871 Partially-furnished 4-bedroom, 1-bathroom house. 2 single garages. Large yard. 1008 L Ave.
Weixel, Jim
Houses for rent in Eureka. 1-5 bedroom homes. Furnished & unfurnished, long term preferred, Executive type home available, clean, reasonable, no smoking. (605)-339-3004, (605)-321-7851, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Facebook Ramping Up Automated Efforts To Purge Questionable Likes
Facebook likes are not the only element that should be considered by brands using the social network for marketing purposes, but they still mark the entry point for user interaction, and Facebook is taking steps to automatically remove questionable likes.
Facebook likes are not the only element that should be considered by brands using the social network for marketing purposes, but they still mark the entry point for user interaction, and Facebook is taking steps to automatically remove questionable likes.
The social network announced in a post on its Facebook Security page that it is ramping up its automated efforts to remove likes that were generated via methods that violate its terms of service, at the same time issuing a reminder that the purchase or sale of likes is a no-no.
Facebook said in its post:
A like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no one. Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook's mission of helping the world share, but also the need for people and customers to authentically connect to the pages they care about. When a page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that the connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific page and engaging with that brand's content. As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to remove likes on pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook terms.
On average, fewer than 1 percent of likes on any given page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms. These newly improved automated efforts will remove those likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk likes. While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious likes.
To be clear, we do not and have never permitted the purchase or sale of Facebook likes, as we only want people connecting to the pages and brands with whom they have chosen to connect. Beyond the need to maintain authentic relationships on Facebook, these third-party vendors often attempt to use malware or other forms of deception to generate fraudulent likes, which is harmful to all users and the Internet as a whole.
These improvements to our site integrity systems benefit both users and brands alike. Users will continue to connect to the pages and profiles they authentically want to subscribe to, and pages will have a more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics. This improvement will allow pages to produce ever more relevant and interesting content, and brands will see an increase in the true engagement around their content.
Readers: Would you like to see more similar measures from Facebook?


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This simplified version of a traditional Filipino homemade meal has been designed for your Instant Pot (slow cooker, pressure cooker and stove all in one). The pressure cooking setting prepares it in no time and, above all, only one pot is needed to prepare which means only a pot is needed to be cleaned after this delicious delicacy.Print
Special Instant Pot Chicken Adobo Recipe
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 55 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 5
- Category: Brunch
- Cuisine: Filipino
This is a very simple delicacy to prepare which the whole family will enjoy to the fullest. The steps are quite easy and even a novice can make a great meal out of this just following the steps below
- 4 chicken thighs, separate legs and chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced
- 2 shallots, sliced
- Cooked rice, to serve
(Special equipment: an Instant Pot® multi-purpose kitchen.)
- Season chicken legs generously with salt and pepper.
- Turn the Instant Pot® (see cooking note) over high heat.
- Add the oil and, once it shines but is not smoked, add half the chicken pieces and brown on both sides, about 7 minutes.
- Remove with the pliers from a plate and brown the rest of the chicken pieces.
- Put all the chicken back in the pan and add the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, onion and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
- Follow the manufacturer's instructions to close the lid and prepare for cooking.
- Cook over high heat for 8 minutes.
- Once the pressure cycle is complete, follow the manufacturer's instructions for quick release and wait until the quick release cycle is complete.
- Beware of steam residue, unlock and remove the lid and return the Instant Pot® to the high temperature cooking position.
- Boil the sauce and reduce it until it turns dark brown and very fragrant, about 20 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves.
- Transfer chicken and sauce to platter, sprinkle with shallots and serve with rice.
Parameters may vary depending on your Instant Pot depending on the model. Refer to the manufacturer's guide.


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Kendriya Vidyalaya Financial Management System
Bank's Schemes and Products
USSA Scheme
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Pioneering since 1896
Downhill World Champion, bike athlete, and forward thinker Guido Tschugg. He set the starting shot, that the eMountainbike became trend and pure performance likewise. For him, as former motocross and e-bike Pro, this was the logical consequence: back to the roots and towards to "Next-Level of eMobility"


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Research Repository
Browse by Author: Ryan, Yoni
|Up a level
Group by: Item Type | No Grouping
Jump to: Monograph
Number of items: 1.
Percy, Alisa, Scoufis, Michele, Parry, Sharon, Goody, Allan, Hicks, Margaret, Macdonald, Ian, Martinez, Kay, Szorenyi-Reischl, Nick, Ryan, Yoni, Willis, Sandra and Sheridan, Lynn (2008) The red report, recognition - enhancement - development: the contribution of sessional teachers to higher education. Project Report. The Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Sydney.


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The military records website Fold3.com had started digitizing the WWII navy muster rolls for the period 1939-1949. Although Fold3 is a fee site, this set of records is free. This periodic list of the personnel on a ship can prove a valuable souce of information about their movement/assignments and more.
The documents can be searched by name or by ship name. So if you know the name of the ship your ancestor severed on, you can easily check the rolls. To do that click on the "Records" tab at the top of the home screen and select "Browse Records." Then click on "World War II" and "WWII Navy Muster Rolls" on the next two lists that appear. The next list is where you select the name of the ship and then you can see the rolls. They are organized alphabetically by surname.
The digitizing project is on-going so it is worth while checking back often as new records are added.
Check it out at http://www.fold3.com/


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So the other night when Bryan was writing a post for his blog I was getting real bored. Real, real bored. So, naturally, I was being a bit of a pest. Then, because I love this phrase, I said, "Riddle me this..." and then just sort of trailed off. Bryan looked at me, waiting for me to riddle him something, but the truth is, I'm pretty terrible at riddles. And I don't even have any memorized. So I confessed that I just liked to say, "Riddle me this..." but that I didn't actually have any riddles up my sleeve. I think Bryan saw this as a golden opportunity to get me occupied while he finished his post, so he told me to come up with a riddle. When I was about to blurt out some dumb riddle right away, he also said that it had to rhyme. Which isn't really any problem. I am kind of a rhyming master, if you don't mind my saying so. But it did take me a minute to put one together. But riddles, like easy poems, are a bit contagious. Once I came up with one, I kept thinking of more. Turns out they're not really so hard to think up after all. Not that mine are all that impressive or anything. Still, if you'd like to read them, Bryan wrote them down and posted them HERE on his blog today. Riddle me that!
P.S. Don't forget to enter HERE for a chance to win some awesome FREE FABRIC! Woot! Woot!


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Heather Everitt
My family history is entwined with textiles; weavers, sheep farmers and textile engineers I have fibres in my bloodstream.
My embroideries are in silk appliqué embellished with machine stitching and hand beading and all begin as a drawing or a painting. My sketchbooks are an invaluable part of my creative process. The beautiful landscapes of North Devon are a constant inspiration as are all aspects of the natural world.
I currently combine creating my own work with making masonic and ecclesiastical banners.
Emily Notman
I create bespoke textile instillations mixing media and building up tactile delicate surfaces. I work and rework my pieces with paint, dyes, bleach and ink, burning and layering until finishing it with hand stitch. I find beauty in flaky walls, overgrown buildings and encrusted surfaces; this is something I recreate in my work.
I studied at Leeds College of Art and Design between 2006 and 2008, which resulted in a passion for Photography, Textiles and Fashion. I then attended the University of Cumbria, graduating in 2011, with a 1st Class BA Honours Degree in Contemporary Applied Arts - specialising in Ceramics, Embroidery and Printed Textiles.
Sarah J Penny
My name is Sarah Perry, I have been sewing all my life and very few days go by without me doing some stitching (or threaders, as my Grandson calls it) I have a passion for birds and fabric, especially vintage fabric. Having lived in the West Country for most of my life I am drawn to our beautiful British garden birds. I now live on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall but originally from Clyst St George in Devon and am delighted to be coming back to my roots at the wonderful Make at Monteray.
Tracey Benton
My name is Tracey Benton and I love a bit of fluff. I spent many years studying and exploring ceramics, but the moment I started to experiment with wool, I was hooked.I start the process with a ball of pure wool roving. This is shaped using a special barbed needle that binds the fibres together. After much jabbing and stabbing a beautiful sculpture emerges. A single piece can take several hours to make.The sculptures are displayed on hand made ceramic bases to show each piece off to its best advantage.
Kate Toms
I love to create characters. Describing myself as a textile and mixed media designer maker, I tap into childhood memory, a love of animals and everyday observation for inspiration - aiming to engage and amuse the observer. Over the past fifteen years I have supplied various galleries with my work as well as selling directly at retail shows. I am a published author/illustrator of many books for the very young.
Natasha Smart
Felt has been my 'thing' ever since I made felt clothes for peg dolls with my nan as a child. It took me until my 30s on a textile foundation course to learn how to make felt itself, wet-felted from wool fleece, after which I was completely hooked! I've been felting and creating textile art, jewellery and accessories now for nearly 10 years. I love working with felt, wet-felting fleece by hand and incorporating other fibres and yarns to create totally unique designs, often inspired by the sea and patterns found in shells and fossils. As well as creating work to sell, I develop one-off designs for magazine project articles and regularly demonstrate and teach felt making workshops. I moved to Devon in 2015 and am enjoying even greater inspiration from coastal living. www.facebook.com/NatashaSmartTextiles
Linda Miller
Linda Miller BA Hons. Has been a professional embroiderer since she graduated from Winchester school of art in 1988.
Linda regularly holds workshops and gives slide talks and lectures for Adults, Children and Community groups; she enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for textiles and her love for Machine Embroidery.
Anna Bowen
I create wire and paper mobiles featuring mostly boats/galleons, fish and birds, using hand made papers, glass beads, shells and other beach found objects.
I also work with fine silver, producing contemporary jewellery. Again boats, birds and shells feature frequently along with words and lettering. Having trained initially as a sign writer, I have always been drawn to the shapes and forms of letters and the part they can play within the design of a piece.
I have recently opened a shop in Topsham where I produce and sell my work.
Louise Nichols
My name is Louise and I'm a textile artist lucky enough to be living in lovely Cornwall. I'm inspired by everything! People, scenery, walks in the mist, colours and textures….all the beautiful things that surround me.
I'm originally from Nottingham and after graduating with a B.A.Hons.
Degree in fashion and textiles, have worked freelance designing upholstery fabric, wallpaper, cards and wrapping paper. My real passion though has always been textiles.
I create original pieces of work in my studio, sometimes using just fabric and stitch and sometimes using lino prints that I've designed and printed onto linen. I then layer on other fabrics and add all of the detail by hand and occasionally machine, to create a truly unique piece of work.
Liz Cooksey
Liz Cooksey is a textile artist living and working in Manchester her inspiration comes from natural habitats; hedgerows, garden boarders, meadows. She creates shapes and structure with wire and copper in which she combines delicate fine crochet in a varied palette of subtle colours. In her more recent work there has been a development from mainly framed relief pieces to free standing three-dimensional work, where simple wooden plinths become fertile ground from which springs an exuberance of natural forms.
Ros Hills
Ros Hills BA Hons is an artist whose work with Needlelace is both nationally and internationally known. Most recently two pieces of work to be exhibited at the Hunterdon Museum, New Jersey in an exhibition entitled Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lace Making Techniques.
Her work is held in both public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
She has written two books, Colour and Texture in Needlelace published by Batsford and Needlelace Stitches, Classic and Contemporary in collaboration with Pat Gibson.
Ros regularly teaches workshops to beginners and those with some experience.


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Congress workers litter BMC office premises, as they demand clean roads
Over 100 protestors, who took part in yesterday's rally led by MP Priya Dutt, from Kherwadi to BMC ward office in Santacruz (E), dumped waste inside the premises and surrounding areas
In what could become a major embarrassment for Congress MP Priya Dutt, who spearheaded a protest rally demanding clean roads to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) office in Santacruz (E) yesterday, the party workers dumped plastic glasses on the premises of the BMC office and its surroundings.
Utter rubbish
Over 100 party workers took part in the procession that started from Kherwadi Junction signal to Prabhat Colony. While clean roads and maintenance of proper sewage system were their primary demands, construction of bridges, hospitals and schools also made the list.
But the protestors forgot to follow what they demanded and littered the surroundings before dispersing. Water was distributed to these participants, while Dutt and a few senior Congress leaders went inside the BMC office to discuss their demands with ward officer of H-East.
Almost all the protestors forgot to dispose of their respective glasses properly. While a few just dropped them where they were standing, others threw the waste towards nearby trees, on the road and nullahs.
Addressing the party workers after an hour-long meeting with the ward officer, Dutt said, "The BMC officials have promised that they will work on the points we presented. But if they don't do anything, we will agitate and intensify our protest. The people have been harassed by them."
'BMC not listening'
She also slammed the ruling party in the BMC for its lackadaisical approach in doing civic work. Speaking to MiD DAY, Dutt said, "I am following the issue for the last one year, but the BMC officials are not listening.
There are several important works that haven't been done in the area. Some of which include cleaning of Kalina talao, playground and renovation of the V N Desai hospital."
Despite repeated attempts to contact Dutt about the issue, she remained unavailable for comment.
One of the residents of Prabhat Colony said, "Such people holding a rally against uncleanliness is beyond one's understanding. Now this waste will remain here until tomorrow. We are finding it difficult to walk, as plastic glasses are strewn all over the place."
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Did you know that 60 percent of cyber attacks on corporations come from people and devices inside the company? Whether the attacks are by malicious employees trying to steal information or by external hackers finding vulnerabilities in your infrastructure, endpoint security software can help protect your company's valuable resources. Implementing a protective solution entails you have a firm grasp of critical endpoint security requirements.
Get our Endpoint Security Software Requirements Template
Endpoint security systems provide your company with the means to protect all endpoint devices, such as PCs, workstations, tablets, phones and servers. But in order to get the right functionality from your endpoint protection system, you'll need to come up with a list of requirements. As luck would have it, we've created an endpoint security requirements checklist to help you decide what features your company needs from its endpoint security software integration. Use it in conjunction with our customizable template to create your own list of requirements.
This article will:
- Help you ask some questions as a starting point for your research.
- Specify key endpoint security requirements that you should explore.
- Understand the next steps to consider before investing in a software.
It can be confusing to choose the right software during the vendor selection process because of the wide variety of options present that offer different tools and features. Our comprehensive checklist can help you avoid such distractions and assist in selecting the best endpoint security software solution.
Begin With These Questions
What objectives are you trying to accomplish?
Security breaches are increasing at an alarming rate, and traditional antivirus solutions provide minimal security benefits to organizations. As signature-based security tools, they don't protect against unknown malware and create new vulnerabilities due to integration issues with modern operating systems. These challenges can also occur with endpoint security solutions that don't meet your individual use case. Therefore, you should carefully examine your security needs and the capabilities you require.
Does the vendor offer solutions specific to your industry?
Look for endpoint protection features that satisfy the expectations of your company's industry. These industry-specific solutions are essential for meeting compliance mandates. The companies' future development and growth should also be considered to discern how scalable your new system should be.
What is your cybersecurity budget?
Cost is a significant factor to evaluate in your endpoint protection requirements. The prices of solutions vary significantly depending on the number of tools, technical assistance and implementation support offered by the products. After creating your endpoint security checklist, you can cut unwanted costs and make a better decision.
Get our Endpoint Security Software Requirements Template
Top Requirements
Policy Management
Policy management is really just a fancy term for what kind of rules you can set for users and devices. Companies can use policy management tools to decide who gets access to certain data and what tasks they have to perform to get it. You can set up policies custom to the user and to the device. You can also set up policy override protocols to allow higher ups access to data wherever they may need it. Additionally, override procedures include alerts and audit trails, making it easy to trace unauthorized access.
- Device Based Policies
- User Based Policies
- Override Policies
Patch Management
Patch management ensures that any security vulnerability is repaired in a timely manner. Many cyber attacks target weak points in a system for which a patch has already been created. But it takes a certain level of vigilance to ensure each device in a company is up to date, especially when using end-of-life operating systems or with a number of employees working remotely.
Patch management automates the collection and delivery of patches company-wide. Some systems can create a convenient list of devices that need patching and allow users to schedule and deploy patches remotely. Patch management also uses machine-learning and analysis to determine patch priority. If multiple patches are needed for one device, your endpoint security solution should be able to determine which is addressed first.
- OS and Applications
- Asset Management and Discovery
- Remote Devices
- Deployment Architecture
- Scheduling Updates
Configuration Management and Management Options
These tools provide a centralized control panel to manage all your other endpoint security features and requirements. System administrators use configuration management to edit and establish policies, receive alerts, view audit trails and detect when users are attempting an override. This allows greater visibility into threats and gives administrators the ability to make exceptions when users need to access certain applications or information.
Conversely, system administrators have the ability to completely shut down processes when an unauthorized user attempts restricted activities. Furthermore, this is the space in which users can perform or schedule mass updates outside of work hours. But users can install software or update endpoints on an individual basis as well.
- Defining and Managing Configuration
- Policy Editing
- Scalability
- Exception Management
- Application Control
- Automatic Client Updates
- Live Security Alerts
- Mass Updates
- Remote Software Installation and Updates
Device Control
This feature allows users to inspect external devices connected to the endpoint, typically through USB. However, many systems also have the capability to monitor local disk, CD and DVD drives, Bluetooth connection, and cloud storage. Moveover, users can pick and choose which devices to allow and which to block. For instance, you may choose to allow a USB connected mouse but not a USB connected hard drive. Exceptions can be applied using product information such as serial numbers.
Additionally, device control supports encryption of any data that does make it onto an external device. Unauthorized parties won't be able to access any of the stolen data without the encryption key. Further, device control can extend to offline endpoints or endpoints not connected to the company network. These systems will log all user activity offline, while continuing to enforce usual policies.
- Multiple Device Support
- USB Device Access Control and Monitoring
- Workstations
- Encryption Algorithms
- Offline Support and Forensics
Get our Endpoint Security Software Requirements Template
Advanced Endpoint Protection
Even though the internal threat to corporations is large, it's still an important requirement to ward off outside attacks. Top endpoint security systems provide protection against known security threats as well as zero-day attacks. These systems can block attacks coming from email, social media, P2P applications (like Skype and Dropbox) and websites. This ensures that your devices and employees will be protected where they use the internet the most.
Endpoint solutions protect against threats like viruses, rootkits, Spyware, Trojans, Worms and the like. Companies can utilize these systems to detect and automatically remove threats using heuristics and other advanced detection technologies.
- Blended Threats/Malware Protection
- Host-Based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS)/Behavioral Analytics
- HTTP/Malicious Traffic Detection (MTD)
- HTTPS Malware Detection
- Automated Malware and Threat Removal
- Web Filtering
- Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA) Blocking
- Email Filtering and Attachment Scanning
- Botnet Protection
- Exploit Blocker
- Social Media Protection
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Applications
Server Security
When shopping for a new security solution based on a set of requirements, you'll want to make sure all your endpoints are protected. Servers are an especially sensitive endpoint, so it's important to choose a system that can protect them just as well as it would a desktop PC. Make sure your system can block threats to collaboration servers, data storage servers, internet gateways and your email servers. Some vendors apply existing features to protect your servers, while others use specialized tools for each type of server.
- Collaboration Servers
- File Servers
- Gateway Servers
- Encryption Algorithms
- Email Servers
Data Loss Protection
Data loss protection (DLP) includes tools that allow system administrators to manage the network and prevent data loss and leaks across all company endpoints. DLP works through encryption, customized rules, remote access and user authentication. Encryption tools prevent files from being shared by employees through the internet via chat or email. Further, if the system administrator detects a user attempting to share privileged information, the admin can remotely wipe the hard drive to prevent any breaches.
- Endpoint Encryption
- DLP Configuration
- Remote DLP
- Secure Authentication
Mobile and Virtual Environment
The same way you need server protection from your endpoint software, your company needs protection for mobile devices, too. Just like with a desktop, endpoint solutions allow restriction of application use. You can choose which apps a user will have access to and can monitor activity as well. For further security customization, admins can set lock screen timers, password requirements and block camera usage. And in the case of stolen or lost property, an administrator can erase all data from the device.
This feature also supports virtualized environment security. Virtualized environments are a great way to maximize capability from existing hardware, but you have to make sure each virtual machine (VM) is protected. Endpoint security solutions provide protection for your VMs even when they exist in the same physical equipment.
- Mobile Device Management
- Mobile Security
- Virtualized Environments
- Full Disk Encryption
Security Management Options
On-premise and cloud-based security both have their pros and cons. But since most of the top systems offer both management options, this requirement probably won't affect your software selection. But it's still good to look out for so you don't find the system of your dreams just to learn it's not offered in the cloud or vice versa.
Cloud systems offer security management from any internet connected device and can provide robust reports and real-time notifications. Cloud-based products also reduce the initial resource spend setting up the system. On-premise software isn't necessarily more expensive long-term, but it does require more investment up front.
It also gives companies more control and privacy, as all the data is hosted in-house. However, this privacy benefits hackers as well. With an on-premise system, they can launch "practice" attacks on their own servers without anyone knowing what they are working on. It's much harder to find vulnerabilities in cloud-based products, since they need to be connected to the vendor who would be able to see the attacks.
- On-Premise
- Cloud-Based
- Hybrid
System Performance and User Productivity
Explore security products with a small footprint so that you don't overburden your system resources like CPU, RAM or disk storage. A lightweight solution can preserve bandwidth and processing speed, which does not negatively impact productivity during scanning processes. Also, look for a non-intrusive suite that does not degrade the user experience.
- Lightweight Agent
- Non-Intrusive
- User Productivity
Get our Endpoint Security Software Requirements Template
Next Steps
Compiling your list of requirements before selecting a system is vital, if you need more help getting started take a look at our free requirements template. After you've decided what features and other aspects of endpoint security software your business needs, it's time to compare vendors. In addition to our customizable template, we also offer a free comparison report detailing the top systems' features and how they compare to each other. Our analyst team scores each vendor based on how well they offer top requirements, like the ones listed above. Use the report along with your own requirements to see which vendor can offer you the perfect endpoint security solution for your business.
So, what will you be looking for in your next system? Let us know if you have any endpoint security requirements we didn't list in the comments below!


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Why I love Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by the fun blog, Reflections of a Bookaholic. It's a mid-week meme focusing on something loved about books or bookish. I do a lot of memes already that are general questions, but some of these themes and prompts are a bit different so thought it looked fun!
Books Challenges
Why I love...Book Challenges!
I blogged for years, read for years amongst the internet community, while everyone else seemed to be doing reading challenges year in and year out. There's many themed ones that don't appeal to me, and then there's author specific ones, genre specific, and just goal count challenged to encourage.
Finally I gave in and tried it the summer of 2011. I have been bitten by that bug too now, ladies and gents. Bitten big time. This year I'm going even more all out.
I love book challenges because they encourage me to read more, keep expanding the genres I'm into so I don't grow stale and rutted, share challenges with others and see their progress, and feel accomplished at something I love doing anyway.
I don't enjoy ones such as "By State, by Alphabetical name", but all encompassing genre tracking, author specific when I have a lot of them on my TBR shelf to get to, those are completely fun.


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2. Book that was read and Reviewed in the Fall Challenge
My expectations were very high for this book, the story begins with a quick history of the drakon, then begins with background story of Clarissa and Chrsitoff. The story jumps few years later and we discover that Clarissa now Rue has become a thief, she is no regular thief she has special powers, but unfortunately are only those that are drakon. Now that Christoff is older and has taken the place of his father he along with the council know they need to find this mysterious thief who has the same powers and bring them back before they are discovered, but no one knows who it could be. Once Christoff arrives he is also done in by the thief, but using his special powers he begins to track the thief.
Up onto this point I was really into the story and enjoying it very much, but about midway through the story went downhill, toward the end of the story it again comes alive but only for a few pages. I wanted to give it 2 stars, but again the beginning was great and again dragged me in at the end, so I went for 3. I know so many enjoyed this series, but not sure what I missed but during the middle of the book I had to force myself to pick up and continue.


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See what questions
a doctor would ask.
A study claims that the diuretics used to lower blood pressure reduce the long-term risk of death due to heart attack or stroke by 15% compared to placebo. Diuretics function by removing body fluid but it has come to notice that it increases the risk of diabetes and hence the resulting risk of heart attack and stroke. Thus, some doctors believed that the risks outweighed the benefits. Diuretics have been used to treat blood pressure for a very long time and are very inexpensive.
Source: summary of medical news story as reported by The Australian
About: Diuretics are cheap and the benefits outweigh the risks
Date: 8 January 2005
Source: The Australian
Author: Linda Johnson
http:/ This summary article refers to the following medical categories:
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Copyright © 2014 Health Grades Inc. All rights reserved. Last Update: 12 August, 2015 (23:56)


text: 26 November 2001 Make Mine A Double Ten Bin Laden lookalikes have allegedly been hired by al-Qaeda Sign-up 1. I am a rock, I am an islamabad. 2. I am a Caesar saladin: Veni, vici, video. 3. I am an announcer Just muezzin around. 4. I am appearing nightly On Kabul television. 5. I am a stalking-horse Ridden by Donald Rumsfeld. 6. I am a scot-free Camel laird. 7. I am a son of the desert, A Laurel and Hardy perennial. 8. I am a pillar of salt: Taliban upon Cerebos. 9. I am a lost harpsichord, A Scarlatti Pimpernel. 10. I am a sheik, A hippy-hippy sheik. Subscribe For more great writing from our award-winning journalists subscribe for just £1 per month! This article first appeared in the 26 November 2001 issue of the New Statesman, The New Statesman Special Report - The SAS story they want to suppress SUBSCRIBE More


text: Once again for this holiday season we are proud to have our Baby Brownies featured by Neiman Marcus. You can see Brownie Points own Baby Brownies on ads all over this holiday season. Check out their link and don't forget to check out all of our Christmas brownie gifts rolling out everyday.


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Holden Wreckers Brisbane
Holden is an Australian automaker that has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings out of all the manufacturers. Their head office is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company was first founded in 1856 and in 1908 they moved into the automotive industry before becoming a subsidiary company of General Motors in 1931.
Holden Cars for Cash
GDM Wrecking offers cash for Holden cars of any make, model, year and colour! We offer competitive pricing for any vehicle in any condition, dead or alive! Do you have a hobby vehicle that you no longer use? Do you have an old Holden vehicle taking up space? Do you have a husband who promises he'll finish his hobby car soon, but never does? Look no further! Check out our Sell My Car section for more information or call us on (07) 3277 3222.
Family Owned and Operated
GDM Car Wreckers has been a family owned and operated business since 1972. With all of those years of experience, why go anywhere else? GDM Wrecking is a proud Australian company primarily based in Brisbane in Archerfield. However, they offer a convenient location with easy accessible from surrounding suburbs such as; Forest Lake, Coopers Plains, Rocklea, Salisbury, Sunnybank, Oxley, Yeerongpilly, Moorooka, Sherwood, Mount Gravatt, Holland Park, Greenslopes, Indooroopilly, Toowong, Rochdale, Carindale, Cannon Hill, Mount Ommaney, Inala, Willawong, and more!
Holden Car Parts
With a large stock list of Holden cars, GDM offers affordable prices for high-quality parts for most major Holden models, including but not limited to; Holden Astra, Barina, Captiva, Commodore, Cruze, Rodeo, Vectra
Used Holden Parts
If you're in the market for used Holden car parts, second-hand car parts, Holden Accessories or anything in-between look no further than GDM Wrecking in Brisbane. Drop us a line, give us a call or leave a message in the easy to use Part Finder form. We'll be in contact with you!


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pushing up daisy
In past years, Tim Daisy would have performed four or five concerts in Lexington with as many different jazz and improvising ensembles by the time autumn rolled around. But with the closing this year of The Icehouse and the overall lack of functional, non-club performance venues (or actual clubs, for that matter), Daisy has been absent for 10 months from his performance home away from home.
But with the recent introduction of a new North Limestone performance space adjacent to Al's Bar called Cultural Preservation Resources (CPR, for short), the Chicago drummer will be back in our back yard again. On Saturday, he will show off a new trio called Vox Arcana. It utilizes modern classical composition and instrumentation but still retains the sort of open-ended improvisation that has been an earmark of the many ensembles Daisy has played with in Lexington over the past six years.
The concert will also reignite the long-running Outside the Spotlight Series of improvisational music performances that has been responsible for introducing Daisy and many other indie and avant jazz artists to Lexington audiences. Vox Arcana includes another OTS regular, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. His solo cello concert at the Morris Book Shop in July serves as the only other OTS performance of 2008. Clarinetist James Falzone completes the trio lineup.
Daisy said much of the music of Vox Arcana was inspired by two very different schools of experimental music.
One was a late '50s and '60s wave out of New York led by John Cage, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown whose then-radical works redefined the avant garde with literary and philosophical inspirations as well as non-traditional instrumentation. The other consisted of '60s and early '70s pioneers from Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) – specifically violinist/violist Leroy Jenkins and multi-reed player Anthony Braxton. The collective's music has long embraced jazz, classical and world music while targeting international and as well as inner city audiences through education and performance programs.
"In writing this music, the first thing I thought about was the instrumentation," Daisy said. "I wanted clarinet. I wanted cello. And even though I won't be playing it on this trip because it's such a large instrument, I've incorporated marimba into my own playing. And because I'm working in such a great city as Chicago, I had the luxury of bringing in all the musical personalities I wanted to use. It's always much easier for me to write when I have the actual personnel in mind."
It was likely an even easier task to write for Lonberg-Holm. The cellist – who has designed a broad, improvisational vocabulary for his instrument that includes scorched, electronically enhanced sounds – already works with Daisy in one of Chicago's most heralded indie jazz ensembles, the Vandermark 5.
Falzone, though, establishes much of the classical direction in such new Daisy compositions as The Silver Fence and White Lines. It is a sound that is sometimes pensive, sometimes playful. But while the harmony created between clarinet and cello is especially expressive, there is still plenty of room for Daisy's considerable percussion work – especially the chatter he regularly creates by placing smaller cymbals and bells on top of drumheads.
"James is a very accomplished classical player," Daisy said. "And on top of being a fantastic improviser, he is also a nice foil for Fred, who has this punk rock kind of element to his playing."
Daisy doesn't entirely view himself as a group leader when performing with Vox Arcana, even though he composes the bulk of its material. In fact, an arrangement of pianist Carla Bley's And Now the Queen was been one of the few non-Daisy pieces performed during summer performances by the trio. He instead sees his role, figuratively and literally, as a middleman.
"The thing is, James is coming from a very different place, musically, than Fred is," Daisy said. "Their musical personalities are very strong, but they're really different. That's one of the strengths of this group, I think.
"It's funny. When we set up on stage, Fred will be on the left, James is on the right and I'm in the middle. That set up is kind of a metaphor for our personalities. I'm always somewhere in the middle."
Vox Arcana performs at 7 p.m. tonight at Cultural Preservation Resources, 607 N. Limestone. $5. Call (859) 536-5568.


text: Every trendsetting 'lil fashionista must have one of these straw hats to top off her pretty spring outfits! It's guaranteed to make her look chic and oh-so-adorable. Well, even more adorable than she already is *heart eyes*. The pearl embellishments along the edge and the cute bow are all the dainty deets that make it so endearing. Get one in all the colors so she can grab it for everything from sundresses to swimsuits!


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The pick of the week is a cute little tree motif. The mini-version I'm naming an "Orange Tree". It's so cute, I've decided to make it into wall art.
The magnified variation, a Lemon Tree, is also pretty cute, so it's going to turn into wall art as well 🙂 I'm still to crochet a border to frame the canvas that the pieces are to be pasted on. I might post an update when that's complete 🙂
To be continued 🙂


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Ulitharids are elite, extra-large mind flayers with better ability scores, a couple of additional traits, several extra psionic "spells," telepathy that extends to a range of 2 miles, and moar tentacles. They work in conjunction with elder brains to extend the influence of mind flayer colonies over a greater distance. In fact, their Psionic Hub trait assumes and requires a connection with an elder brain, so without a mind flayer colony built around one, there's not much reason to write an ulitharid into your adventure.
An ulitharid's Strength and Constitution are significantly higher than those of a normal mind flayer, but these are still outweighed by its extraordinary mental abilities, which predispose it toward spellcasting and Mind Blast rather than melee attacks. However, since its Constitution is higher than its Dexterity, it's more willing than the average mind flayer to charge forward in order to make use of these psionic powers. An ulitharid leads from the front.
The one thing an ulitharid lacks that an ordinary mind flayer possesses is proficiency in Deception and Persuasion. As part of their mind-control schemes, mind flayers may try to tempt victims with rewards, either real or imaginary; ulitharids aren't about that. They're the muscle, not the face. Continue reading Ulitharid and Mindwitness Tactics


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What could be causing me to have recurring and very painful scabs in my nose?
Anonymous 0 Replies
Posted in: Scabs January 31, 2014 09:40 PM
In October of this past year I got a scab that just showed up in my left nostril. it was painful to begin with, but after several days the pain became unbearable and started to spread accost my cheekbone. This frightened me, so I went to the ER. The doctor said it was an abscess and shoved a needle...


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First Bank Announces Hiring Culver Native as VP
July 20, 2017
Frank Tapia joins First Bank's Business Banking Group in Southbay, Greater LA area Frank Tapia has joined First Bank as a Vice President of Business Banking for the Southbay and Greater Los Angeles area. His office will be located at First Bank's Torrance branch (21705 Hawthorne Blvd). In his new role Tapia will manage the business portfolio for his assigned branches while growing them organically and acquiring business clients. Prior to joining First Bank Tapia served as CFO for a private venture capital firm. He has more than 13 years of commercial banking experience. Active in the community, Tapia has served as a volunteer with the March of Dimes as well as the Ben's Bells Project. He was also a board member of The Art of Elysium. Tapia resides in the South Bay with his wife and three children. First Bank firstbanks.com is one of the largest privately owned banks in the country with $6.1 billion in assets and over 100 locations in California, Missouri, and Illinois.


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Daria of Kitten Hood creatively found a secondary use for badminton birdies when she turned a series of shuttlecocks into a string of sporty backyard lights. Up on Daria's blog is an easy to follow how-to if you'd like to add these athletic lights to your outdoor decor.
To make this illuminating garland for your porch or deck, begin by collecting several shuttlecocks. While most shuttlecocks come in a white or neon yellow color scheme, feel free to change things up by painting the shuttlecocks in fun and bold colors. Daria even painted some of hers in a rainbow design. Then, thread through each shuttlecock's mesh wings a clear dangling light garland. The mesh material will create a transparent shade for the soft glowing lights.
These Sporty Patio Lights are Made from Upcycled Badminton Birdies
Misel Saban — July 7, 2014 — Art & Design
References: kittenhood.ro & makezine


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There In Spirit / Rain IIMichael David
Michael David has made many kinds of records, but always with other people — as one half of dance duo Classixx, and one third of Cascine-signed pop group Mt. Si. Now, Michael has completed a pair of singles set for release this fall. On There in Spirit / Rain II, there is a bending of organic instruments: guitars chop and glimmer, and beats cascade and push forward, but always with a sense of gentle resignation. This is the sound of a mind searching through time, exhuming memories and emotions ― good and bad ―to try and know, recapture, reclaim, and most importantly, feel. The B-side features two new takes on Rain II — an alternate, slow version and a remixed version by fellow seeker, Jex Opolis.


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It seems false and hypocritical for a white person to write about racism, white privilege, human rights, equality, and equanimity. It feels as if I just want a pat on the back for how racially sensitive and amazing I am. As if I want a nod because "my best friends are black," "my students are black," and "my niece and nephews are black." As if that somehow means I understand. As if that somehow means I'm cool, and I don't benefit from that privilege. As if I'm off the hook and don't have to stand up. Well, I don't understand, I'm not cool, I am so on the hook, and I do benefit. Every day I benefit.
At the end of the day, I am white, and I, along with all people who look like me, rule the world. Not because we work harder or are smarter, it's because we are white.
So, here is my small attempt at standing up.
Jodi Piccoult explains privilege in her book, "Small, Great Things." (background, a white defense attorney is addressing a jury in a capitol murder case in which the defendant is a black female nurse accused of murdering an infant in her care.)
"What if, ladies and gentlemen, today I told you that anyone here who was born on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday was free to leave right now? Also, they'd be given the most central parking spots in the city, and the biggest houses. They would get job interviews before others who were born later in the week, and they'd be taken first at the doctor's office, no matter how many patients were waiting in line. If you were born from Thursday to Sunday, you might try to catch up – but because you were straggling behind, the press would always point to how inefficient you are. And if you complained, you'd be dismissed for playing the birth-day card." I shrug. "Seems silly, right? But what if on top of these arbitrary systems that inhibited your chances for success, everyone kept telling you that things were actually pretty equal?"
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things
I have repeatedly heard white people deny the existence of their privilege. They claim that they have worked hard and earned everything they've gotten in life.
1. I do not doubt the work ethic of people making such claims, but we also have the privilege of being born white. Or being born on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. How do you ever catch up when you're simply born a day that is not favored? You don't.
2. Statements such as this indicate that people of color in this country do NOT work hard, and are offensive. So stop.
I write this today because last night, one of my favorite families in the entire world was locked out of a Subway sandwich shop at 8 pm. They knocked on the door, and were turned away. As they were returning to their car, a white woman knocked, and was granted entrance. The doors were then locked again, and another black person was denied entrance. Their young son asked why they weren't allowed in. What would you say? How would you answer?
White privilege means never having to answer this question,
and denying it doesn't make it any less insidious, pervasive, and real.
Again, please call
1-800-888-4848 or email (store #18547-0)
and complain if you find this disgraceful, offensive, and unacceptable.
JFK is often quoted as saying
"one person can make a difference, and every person should try."
Please try.
Light and Love,
Big Laura


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Overcoming message size limits on the Windows Azure Platform with NServiceBus
June 26, 2011 3 Comments
When using any of the windows azure queuing mechanisms for communication between your web and worker roles, you will quickly run into their size limits for certain common online use cases.
Consider for example a very traditional use case, where you allow your users to upload a picture and you want to resize it into various thumbnail formats for use throughout your website. You do not want the resizing to be done on the web role as this implies that the user will be waiting for the result if you do it synchronously, or that the web role will be using its resources for doing something else than serving users if you do it asynchronously. So you most likely want to offload this workload to a worker role, allowing the web role to happily continue to serve customers.
Sending this image as part of a message through the traditional queuing mechanism to a worker is not easy to do. For example it is not easily implemented by means of queue storage as this mechanism is limited to 8K messages, neither is it by means of AppFabric queues as they can only handle messages up to 256K messages, and as you know image sizes far outreach these numbers.
To work your way around these limitations you could perform the following steps:
- Upload the image to blob storage
- Send a message, passing in the images Uri and metadata to the workers requesting a resize.
- The workers download the image blob based on the provided Uri and performs the resizing operation
- When all workers are done, cleanup the original blob
This all sounds pretty straight forward, until you try to do it, then you run into quite a lot of issues. Among others:
To avoid long latency and timeouts you want to upload and/or download very large images in parallel blocks. But how many blocks should you upload at once and how large should these blocks be? How do you maintain byte order while uploading in parallel? What if uploading one of the blocks fails?
To avoid paying too much for storage you want to remove the large images. But when do you remove the original blob? How do you actually know that all workers have successfully processed the resizing request? Turns out you actually can't know this, for example due to the built in retry mechanisms in the queue the message may reappear at a later time.
Now the good news is, I've gone through the ordeal of solving these questions and implemented this capability for windows azure into NServiceBus. It is known as the databus and on windows azure it uses blob storage to store the images or other large properties (FYI on-premises it is implemented using a file share).
How to use the databus
When using the regular azure host, the databus is not enabled by default. In order to turn it on you need to request custom initialization and call the AzureDataBus method on the configuration instance.
internal class SetupDataBus : IWantCustomInitialization { public void Init() { Configure.Instance.AzureDataBus(); } }
As the databus is implemented using blob storage, you do need to provide a connection string to your storage account in order to make it work properly (it will point to development storage if you do not provide this setting)
<Setting name="AzureDatabusConfig.ConnectionString" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName={yourAccountName};AccountKey={yourAccountKey} />
Alright, now the databus has been set up, using it is pretty simple. All you need to do is specify which of the message properties are too large to be sent in a regular message, this is done by wrapping the property type by the DataBusProperty<T> type. Every property of this type will be serialized independently and stored as a BlockBlob in blob storage.
Furthermore you need to specify how long the associated blobs are allowed to stay alive in blob storage. As I said before there is no way of knowing when all the workers are done processing the messages, therefore the best approach to not flooding your storage account is providing a background cleanup task that will remove the blobs after a certain time frame. This time frame is specified using the TimeToBeReceived attribute which must be specified on every message that exposes databus properties.
In my image resizing example, I created an ImageUploaded event that has an Image property of type DataBusProperty<byte[]> which contains the bytes of the uploaded image. Furthermore it contains some metadata like the original filename and content type. The TimeToBeReceived value has been set to an hour, assuming that the message will be processed within an hour.
[TimeToBeReceived("01:00:00")] public class ImageUploaded : IMessage { public Guid Id { get; set; } public string FileName { get; set; } public string ContentType { get; set; } public DataBusProperty<byte[]> Image { get; set; } }
That's it, besides this configuration there is no difference with a regular message handler. It will appear as if the message has been sent to the worker as a whole, all the complexity regarding sending the image through blob storage is completely hidden for you.
public class CreateSmallThumbnail : IHandleMessages<ImageUploaded> { private readonly IBus bus; public CreateSmallThumbnail(IBus bus) { this.bus = bus; } public void Handle(ImageUploaded message) { var thumb = new ThumbNailCreator().CreateThumbnail(message.Image.Value, 50, 50); var uri = new ThumbNailStore().Store(thumb, "small-" + message.FileName, message.ContentType); var response = bus.CreateInstance<ThumbNailCreated>(x => { x.ThumbNailUrl = uri; x.Size = Size.Small; }); bus.Reply(response); } }
Controlling the databus
In order to control the behavior of the databus, I've provided you with some optional configuration settings.
AzureDataBusConfig.BlockSize allows you to control the size in bytes of each uploaded block. The default setting is 4MB, which is also the maximum value.
AzureDataBusConfig.NumberOfIOThreads allows you to set the number of threads that will upload blocks in parallel. The default is 5
AzureDataBusConfig.MaxRetries allows you to specify how many times the databus will try to upload a block before giving up and failing the send. The default is 5 times.
AzureDataBusConfig.Container specifies the container in blob storage to use for storing the message parts, by default this container is named 'databus', note that it will be created automatically for you.
AzureDataBusConfig.BasePath allows you to add a base path to each blob in the container, by default there is no basepath and all blobs will be put directly in the container. Note that using paths in blob storage is purely a naming convention that is being adhered to, it has no other effects as blob storage is actually a pretty flat store.
With the databus, your messages are no longer limited in size. At least the limit has become so big that you probably don't care about it anymore, in theory you can use 200GB per property and 100TB per message. The real limit however has now become the amount of memory available on either the machine generating or receiving the message, you cannot exceed those amounts for the time being… Furthermore you need to keep latency in mind, uploading a multi mega or gigabyte file takes a while, even from the cloud.
That's it for today, please give the databus a try and let me know if you encounter any issues. You can find the sample used in this article in the samples repository, it's named AzureThumbnailCreator and shows how you can create thumbnails of various sizes (small, medium, large) from a single uploaded image using background workers.
Have fun with it…


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Monday, June 20, 2011
When your child has a habit of craming all her food in her mouth thinking she will get more because it's all gone....and you tell her, "no....you only get one cupcake."
This is the reaction you get.
We managed to get a family picture before church yesterday. We need to do this more often but I seem to think about it...ummm...about 5 minutes before church starts.
Hope yall had a great weekend!
3 comments:
Your hair looks great! I am dying for a haircut! I must confess it has been since DECEMBER since I've had a haircut!ReplyDelete
Poor little miss and her foiled cupcake dreams! Oh that little face- just breaks my heart!
I love all parts of this post! :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 21, 2011 at 11:18 PM
Oh my gosh, the look on your daughter's face is AWESOME - - - - I'd feel the same way if somebody said no more cupcakes. I guess that's one really good reason I have more voluptious "curves" than most. Anyway, I love your blog (just found it) and will visit often.ReplyDelete
I'm a huge supporter of local produce and make at least two trips back Kentucky to gather as many boxes, jars, and Ziploc bags of goodies from my parent's garden as possible. My pantry and freezer rejoice!
Check out my blog and enter the giveaway - it ends Saturday, June 24.


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We're committed to excellence every step of your journey – and it's our job to ensure that first step lands on a solid foundation. Being a licensed and accredited school means more than having a few pieces of paper; it's our promise to remain vigilant in providing a quality education.
Celebrity School of Beauty is licensed by the Florida Department of Education's Commission for Independent Education.
We are also accredited by the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS).
But what, exactly, does that even mean? Impartial nongovernmental agencies, like NACCAS, establish national performance standards which must be met in order to receive the title "accredited". Basically, it shows that a school (like yours truly) is committed to high educational standards and providing quality training to its students. In a nutshell, it means we're overachievers for you.
An added benefit of attending an accredited school is the availability of financial aid. The U.S. Department of Education provides several federal student aid programs; however, only accredited schools can participate in them. So, really, we're the gift that keeps on giving!


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Best Of Boardgames
Welcome to the best of boardgames, a site that hunts down the best board games for you to play. We have played all of these games before adding them to this site making sure each game is worth playing!
Across the top of the site you can filter the results by the board game theme and tags.
Enjoy your stay!


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OK so I've been racking my brains to figure out the best way of achieving this and wonder if anyone has any experience of ideas?!?
We've heavily extended a version of MemberProfiles for a MemberDirectory based website and are providing a number of DataObjects within a front-end tab structure for editing. Part of this is an event calendar. Naturally, users what to be able to search for event within specific data criteria. Functionality wise, we've got it all working, but ONLY if we return $this->customise. This wouldn't normally be an issue, however using the Zurb Foundation 6 framework to display the data within a tab structure, we need to direct the users back to the URL with an #anchor appended to ensure the correct tab re-opens on page launch.
We can achieve the #anchor and correct page launch using a GET method, but the results won't populate (we assume because MemberProfilePage.php already uses the index() function? Then the $this->customise will produce the results, but not reload the page on the correct tab (always default).
So.... is there a way of adding an #anchor to the customise() or renderWith() based on this existing return code?
return $this->customise(array('eventResults' => $eventResults))->renderWith(array('MemberProfilePage_profile', 'MemberProfilePage'));
Any help would be massively appreciated as we're cutting it fine for beta testing and have 2 other little quirks that need addressing :(
Thanks guys


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All content on this site is available, via phone, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, by calling 1-800-960-8400. Again, that phone number is 1-800-960-8400 . If you experience any accessibility issues please contact us.
As a centerpiece for a truly impressive feast - no matter the occasion - our New Zealand Boneless Leg of Lamb is truly incomparable. This robust 3.5-lb. portion of premium leg of lamb could only be brought to you the master butchers at Omaha Steaks. Meaty, complex-yet-familiar flavor is the hallmark of perfect lamb, and that's exactly what you'll find here. Each Boneless leg of lamb is reared in the rolling grasslands of New Zealand, where it's humanely pasture-raised and sustained on eco-friendly native grasses, like rye, clover, and alfalfa. This guarantees you get a well-marbled portion of lamb that's remarkably lean, while also boasting the fine succulence, uniquely subtle earthy flavor, and tender texture characteristic of top-quality, responsibly sourced lamb. And thanks to the care undertaken by our master butchers, who hand-trim each and every leg of lamb with the utmost precision, the flavor of this lamb is second to none. Our careful knife-work only amplifies the meat's natural high quality and creates an exceptionally lean product. Meticulous trimming means unadulterated delicious lamb flavor and even cooking. Our expertise combined with our signature flash-freezing process allows you to experience the thrill of preparing and enjoying this unique roast at it's very best, right from the comfort of your own kitchen. Its excellence is sure to be the talk of your table whenever you choose to prepare this one-of-a-kind delicacy. High in protein while naturally low in both fat and cholesterol, this well-marbled, luscious, and highly coveted leg of lamb is the perfect way to add variety to special occasions or your weekly menu. Don't wait to try it!
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text:
Price: $48.94
Quantity: 1 available
Book Condition: Very Good
Previous owner's name and addresses in front pastedown. Rear hinge well started. Spine lettering faded. Occasional foxing ; Biography of Civil War notable William Tecumseh Sherman; B&W Photographs; 8vo; 690 pages
Title: SHERMAN Fighting Prophet
Categories: Civil War, Available Inventory,
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: New York, Harcourt, Brace & Company: 1932
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Item: 1.00 Item
Order Number: 8905


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Pandugadu audio released
The music of the film Pandugadu was released through Supreme Music at a function held at Film Nagar Cultural Center in Hyderabad.
The first audio cassette was released by DVS Raju and handed over to VB Rajendra Prasad. The first audio CD was launched by D Rama Naidu and presented to Kaja Suryanarayana.
Pandugadu is a dubbed version of Kannada film Bindaas starring Puneeth Rajkumar and Hansika. This film is produced by K Balaraj.
Pandugadu is slated for release on February 28.


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Locked Out of the Wine Party in the Garage Once Again
Locked Out of the Wine Party in the Garage Once Again
Vermouth in Palma
My wife and I passed La Sifoneria many times on the way to and from our accommodation in Palma's Old City. It was always closed. For three days, we'd followed our host's advice on where to eat and what to see in Majorca, with great success. A visit to the wine bar in a garage was the last box to tick, and we kept coming up short.
We left the house on our final night on the island and saw a dim light spilling from an open garage at the end of the street. We beelined for the entrance.
The ancient flagstone floor dropped into a low-ceilinged room. Chalk-scrawled barrels of vino tinto and cava were precariously stacked against the right-hand wall.
The owner turned out to be a middle-aged blond woman standing next to a battered vanity table, deep in conversation with an older German couple as my wife and I sat down amid a pile of empty Chianti jugs. When she eventually came over to us, she asked us in English what kind of wine we liked, and made recommendations. A younger, fruitier wine for my wife and an aged, dry one for myself. Both were excellent.
Other customers came and went around us. Most seemed to be regulars, because they were greeted enthusiastically with a brief kiss, and served right away. Some folks brought back glasses that they had liberated during previous visits, which were promptly replaced and refilled.
We had finished our first glass of wine long before we thought to ask for a second. It seemed rude to interrupt the owner in the middle of her conversations.
Two Spaniards came in and took seats near us. Without placing an order, they were served short glasses of brown liquid mixed with seltzer. I asked what they were having. It was vermouth, and the owner began to prepare the same mixture for us.
Light, sweet, and vaguely effervescent from the seltzer, the mixture was subtle and round. We lingered over our drinks and watched as the owner bounced from person to person, shifting seamlessly between Spanish, German, and English.
Two slowly sipped drinks were all we allowed ourselves. We had dinner reservations across the street, but we agreed to come back afterwards for a nightcap.
When we emerged from the restaurant into the evening air, the doors to La Sifoneria were closed. We saw light coming from beneath the door and heard voices inside, but the party wasn't for us. The neighbors were enjoying themselves on their own terms—as well they should.


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Tiered Elastic Waist Peasant Dress
Additional Information
Item Number:
Please Select Color & Size
Plentiful ruffles set on delicate fall florals make this fresh silhouette perfect for the season ahead. Pair it with our faux fur cuff sweater & studded Chelsea bootie for a street-chic look.
- A-line silhouette
- V-notch neckline with self ties and ruffle trim
- Sheer bell sleeves with flounce hem and button closure
- Elastic waist at empire seam
- Two tiers
- Knit bodice lining
- Approx. 40" hits above knee
- Polyester Chiffon
- Machine wash cold. Imported.


text: US / Louisiana For Some in Plaquemines, No Power in Sight Hurricane Isaac hardly the first disaster to strike Plaquemines Parish By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff Posted Sep 2, 2012 2:49 PM CDT Copied Cows wander out of their flooded pastures and onto Louisiana Highway 23 near the Conoco Phillips Alliance plant south of Belle Chasse, La., on Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Vicki Smith) View 3 more images (Newser) – Sad sights litter the road as people return by boat to southern Louisiana: scattered steel drums, warped telephone poles, stranded cattle, a shrimp boat on its side. But residents devoted to the country life and independent spirit of Plaquemines Parish—a stretch of marshy land at the state's southeastern end—are used to disasters like Hurricane Isaac. "Call me crazy," one tells the New York Times. "I don't want to be nowhere else. If this happened a hundred times, I'm going to move back a hundred times." story continues below A hundred times it may be, considering that Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and the BP oil spill have all struck since 2005. What's more, a slab of Louisiana no smaller than Delaware has vanished into the Gulf over the past 80 years, and Plaquemines is growing ever thinner. For now, roads remain under water and one resident predicts power won't be completely back until Christmas. One shrimper's decision to live in a trailer, not a house that can be washed away, probably says it all. "My lifetime, my kids' lifetimes, we ain't going to be here no more," he says. "How much can you take?" (Read more Louisiana stories.) View 3 more images


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Show Only
*Get Today's Price is available to all customers and can also be obtained by calling or coming into the dealership today. Purchase prices do not include tax, title, license and $150 doc fee. Please verify all information. We are not responsible for typographical, technical, or misprint errors. Inventory is subject to prior sale. Contact us via phone or email for more details.
Used Cars for Sale in Mesquite
Are you thinking of getting a used cars, truck or SUV in the Mesquite area? If so, make our dealership your first stop. We are proud to provide customers with a broad range of premium Nissan vehicles. We have the latest models in stock, as well as a large supply of quality pre-owned vehicles, too. Perhaps you're thinking this is the year you want to get the Frontier you've always wanted, or drive to work in a tech-savvy Altima instead.
While we can't assure you that any particular model will be on our lot, we encourage you to browse our inventory when you are searching for a used car. Our selection changes regularly, which means the car you're hoping to get might be on our lot. If it's not, you may find it at our dealership soon. If you have questions about a particular car or want to learn more about the benefits of buying a used car instead of a new one, our customer-oriented staff will gladly help out.
Why Should I Buy a Pre-Owned Vehicle?
Why you might wonder, should you choose to get a Frontier that's a year or two old instead of buying the latest model? There are many advantages to getting a used car instead of a new one. If you're looking to save money and upgrade to more luxury amenities, you may very well find that a used car satisfies your needs.
Overall, a used car will provide a better value than a new car. When you buy a car used, you are not subject to the same taxes of a new car. This means you can save quite a bit of money on the car's upfront cost. While you'll still probably have some interest rates to pay each month with a used car, your overall monthly loan payments will usually be less than what you'd encounter with a new car. And if you choose to lease a vehicle, your rates will also be lower than what you would find on a new car.
Getting a used car also means that you have more access to a range of higher-end features. If you've ever wanted to get amenities like a sunroof, leather seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel, buying a pre-owned Nissan can make that happen.
Where Can I Find Quality Used Cars?
Not knowing who owned a car before you can raise some question as to the vehicle's history and quality. However, with our stringent inspection standards, we lay your fears to rest. Every vehicle that we get is carefully and thoroughly inspected to make sure it is problem-free. Only when we know a car is safe and sound to drive do we offer it for sale. If you have questions about our inspection standards, don't hesitate to ask!
You have many factors to consider when buying a used car. But one thing you don't have to decide on is where to get your next car. With a large inventory and a helpful, customer-oriented staff, we are here to help with all your car shopping needs. Just call or visit our website to learn more and arrange a test drive at your convenience.


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The Climate Jobs Now! Summit took place on Oct. 27, 2017 at the Cornell Club in NYC, convened by The Worker Institute at Cornell University's ILR School, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Climate Jobs NY. The summit brought together leaders from state government, labor, environmental organizations and the renewable energy industry to share strategies and best practices to increase the ambition and scale of regional climate efforts.


text: To Save Our Lives by LAHF published on 2012-07-02T21:27:16Z London Creativity and Wellbeing Week opening lecture by A.L. Kennedy - recorded at Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern on 13 June 2012. With introduction by Anna Cutler, Director of Learning, Tate. Presented by London Arts in Health Forum in association with Tate Community Learning. Genre Arts and Culture Comment by luis-magill Thank you !!! 2020-04-22T16:06:42Z Comment by Annie OConnor I absoloutly understand where you are coming from .I too have given up on working in community arts but am still maintain a passionate interest in arts and well-being aligned to my own art practice 2012-09-09T17:38:23Z


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Dear Baby Girl.
I get to meet you tomorrow, precisely one day from right now. I will sleep—or attempt to sleep- exactly one more night before the rest of my nights will wait on you.
It occurred to me today that I need more night lights, the kind that plug into the wall and have a bright bulb, because after this night, the very last night, I will need to be able to find you at any time of day. I will find you in the dark, even when I'm tired, even when I don't know why you need me.
I will find you, and I will come when you call.
Today, on the day before THE DAY, I will buy some night lights, so that when we bring you home you will know that you are never lost, especially in the dark, especially at home. Here you are safe.
Most mamas only know they are going to meet their babies in a window of weeks, sometime between here and there when labor arrives and contractions begin. Those mamas wait in mystery. They wonder. They ponder the days.
But the way you decided to grow in my belly made it important for us to schedule your arrival on exactly tomorrow, to make sure you arrived safely and quickly and happily. I sacrificed the mystery of your arrival for the safety of it, because you are worth it.
I know we are going to meet you tomorrow, probably in the morning and definitely before it gets dark. We will meet you at a hospital named after a park on a sunny day in San Diego with an estimated high of 70 degrees.
You will share a birthday with Jennifer Aniston, Thomas Edison, and Taylor Lautner, which means you will probably have great hair, a brilliant brain, and a strong aversion to vampires.
Your daddy is so excited to meet you. He is the tall, handsome one. The short, hairy one is our dog Bailey. The two should not be confused.
The daddy is the one who spoke to you through the mega phone of my belly button. It looked really funny from this side of the world, a grown man speaking to a belly, but he didn't care and only did it when no one else was around.
You should know that the daddy, your daddy, does a lot of muscle exercises with heavy lifting weights, so you will recognize him by his strong arms that can carry a heavy load, but mostly just want to carry you. You will also know him by that soft voice that you've heard before, the one that came through the amplified sound system of my belly button. You will love him right away. He is the best.
The daddy has been thinking for weeks about the first words he wants to say to you once you arrive. I don't know what they are; that's between you and him. Don't worry if you can't remember them, because he will. It's the parents' job to store your memories until you can do it for yourself.
We will do this through the use of a shiny glass germ-brick called the iPhone. This device acts like a mega phone to the rest of the world. It captures voices and images that are helpful for announcing your presence in the world. You will see these glass bricks around your face often, but don't be alarmed. We are just capturing memories on your behalf. Think of it as an obnoxious favor.
There are so many people who want to meet you, to hold you, to memorize your name and face and features. Soon your heart is going to become very full with all the love that will be lavished on you. In exactly one day you will know the diversity of ways you are adored and wanted.
But until that day, on this day before THE DAY, rest and grow and listen to the beat of my expectant heart. You know me already. I'm the mama, the one you've heard singing and shouting and laughing. You've known each time I've been excited or nervous or calm, because you have listened and learned the cadence of my heart.
All this time we have grown together.
Tomorrow is your birthday, baby girl. Can you believe it? We can't wait to celebrate.
It's all we can think about on this day before THE DAY while we buy night lights and pretend they are the last thing we need before you.


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Canadian Builder Sounds the Warning Bell
Canadian Builder Sounds the Warning Bell
TORONTO – Wake up. Your Immigration policies and programs are hurting the local economy. With whom do you consult before you decide who will come to Canada and whom you will exclude? You don't seem to have a plan, and you are bringing in people without thinking how you will integrate them into the structure of Canadian society, as we have come to know it. You are putting at risk the one industry that is 100% Canadian.
That is how the conversation over lunch with a prominent Developer/Builder/Entrepreneur began. He has been in business in this country – creating tens of thousands of jobs for Canadians and donating millions to philanthropic activities – for longer than the current (or the previous) prime Minister has been alive.
"Your policies are choking the engine of the economy in Southern Ontario – the construction sector," he said, with the emphasis of one who lives the myriad of complex interdependent economic activities spawned by a healthy Building Industry.
My efforts to clarify my standing as a former, not current, member of government were unsuccessful. "Don't be defensive; you have an obligation to shed light on the consequences of your party's policies," he said, "don't shirk your responsibility, too many families depend on it."
He was both frustrated and angry. We agreed to continue on condition that I keep names out of the conversation. He was a veritable torrent of facts, figures, circumstances, federal/provincial policy impacts. He also promised to provide me a memo, in confidence, summarizing "the tirade". I received it the next day.
The [housing construction] industry is directly responsible for 26% of the goods-producing sector in Ontario. That's not counting the multiplier effect on dependent industrial subsectors like furniture, appliances, utilities, attendant services, roads and transportation et cetera.
Yet "your short-sighted Immigration policies will wreck the market", he said with a firmness that called for remedial action. "Don't get me wrong, Canada needs people, talented and ambitious. My industry needs these people, otherwise we would not be in business. But of the 240, 000 permanent residents you landed last year, how many were bricklayers? Carpenters?"
Since I started in this business more than a half century ago, I have "never witnessed such a… shortage of skilled tradesmen", he said. Drive anywhere in the GTHA and you will see "thousands of houses that require bricking, carpentry, etc."
The business runs on presales, but if the tradesmen are unavailable, "closings" are put off. Penalties or premiums are applied. An already chaotic market is held ransom to labour shortage in a well paid marketplace.
"We've been forced to stop selling", says our Builder, "because we lack the skilled tradesmen to build the houses we've sold". What selling prices will be a year from now, he cannot anticipate, and can't budget.
But if he and others like him don't have the workers, they can't build anyway. That becomes our problem.