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|Brandi Blackbear says she is the victim of a modern-day witch hunt, one that raises the issue of how far schools should go to protect students and teachers from possible harm.
Union Intermediate High School is a sprawling, beige-brick compound located in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a fast-growing suburb of Tulsa. Built in 1989, the school for 9th and 10th graders is surrounded by newish neighborhoods with evocative names like "Berkshire," "Oak Tree Village," "Wood Creek," and "Waterford Crossing." Directly across the street is Liberty Church, which looks more like a warehouse than a place of worship, as well as an empty lot marked by a sign that reads, "Future Home of Cedar Heights Covenant Church." About a mile south of Union, at Grace Fellowship Church, Pastor Bob Yandian is putting up a new building that, when it opens next fall, will rival a big-city high school in size. And several miles to the east is the 100-acre Rhema Bible Training Center, whose enormous church puts the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter to shame. Tulsa's most famous religious institution, Oral Roberts University, is about six miles to the west, just across the street from Victory Christian Center.
Oklahoma is Bible Belt country, and Tulsa, some say, is the buckle. Conservative Christians are a dominant force, both socially and politically. In the ongoing conflict over the proper role of religion in public schools, Tulsa—and the rest of Oklahoma, for that matter—is one of the battlefields. Although compulsory school prayer was banned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, Christianity remains an undeniable presence in many Tulsa-area public schools.
At Union Intermediate High, part of the Union school district that includes portions of Tulsa and Broken Arrow, many students wear WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets and T-shirts. Cedar Ridge Elementary School even has its own before-school Bible-study group. A popular annual event at Union High School is the student-led prayer meeting called "See You at the Pole," which started in Burleson, Texas, in 1990 and has since spread to schools across the country. Last September, at Union High's performing arts center, a Saturday night rally featured speakers offering prayers for teachers and students and encouraging others to make a regular practice of praying for public schools.
Superintendent Cathy Burden says her district has taken measures to ensure that teachers and administrators adhere to the law when it comes to religion and schools. "We're real sensitive to First Amendment issues around here," she says. The district, she points out, employs a resource manual titled Finding Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education. Published by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, the handbook has been endorsed by organizations as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Christian Coalition. It offers legal and practical advice for districts seeking to understand the proper role for religious expression in the public schools.
But others say the district doesn't go far enough. The Rev. Gary Blaine, minister of Tulsa's Hope Unitarian Church, claims, "There's really a lot of pressure put on the kids to conform to the status quo." And the status quo, he contends, is an "aggressive fundamentalism."
Brandi Blackbear was not part of the status quo at Union Intermediate High. Although baptized as a Catholic, she didn't go to church, and she was intrigued by Wicca. An increasingly popular nature-based religion, Wicca takes its name from the Old English word for wizard. Followers call themselves Wiccans or Witches (as opposed to the more generic "witches"), and they practice a form of magic. When Brandi was in 8th grade, she and her friend Justin found a book on religion in the school library with a section on Wicca, and out of curiosity, they read up on the subject.
Two years later, Brandi claims she is the victim of a modern-day witch hunt, one that raises the issue—now debated nationwide—of how far a school should go to protect its students and teachers from possible harm. As the result of two run-ins with Union administrators, Brandi and her parents, Tim and Toni Blackbear, are suing the district with help from the ACLU. They claim that Brandi's civil rights were violated when she was accused by school officials not only of being a witch, but of casting a spell that resulted in a teacher's illness.
Sitting at a large conference table in the office of their lawyer, John Mack Butler, the Blackbears come across as a typical working-class family, albeit one that's reluctantly in the spotlight.
Tim, a full-blooded Cherokee and Oklahoma native, is 42 years old. He works as a deliveryman for the Wonder Bread company. Toni, 38, is originally from Patchogue, New York, a blue-collar town on the south shore of Long Island. She works as a cook at a local racetrack. Brandi, who is shy and somewhat awkward, is wearing jeans and a bulky blue nylon jacket over a black T-shirt. When she speaks, she tends to stare at the table. A big man with longish black hair and dark-brown eyes, Tim does most of the talking. He's protective of his daughter—he calls her "his baby"—which isn't surprising, given the controversial nature of the lawsuit and the publicity it has attracted.
'She's an average student, a sweet little girl who was singled out by a few individuals, and they reacted overzealously and wrong.'
"Brandi isn't a troublesome student," her father says. "She's never late for school. She had never missed school at all since the 2nd or 3rd grade until this started. She always enjoyed going to school. She's not a valedictorian, and she's not the worst student in class. She's an average student, a sweet little girl who was singled out by a few individuals, and they reacted overzealously and wrong."
According to the Blackbears, this is what happened: On Monday, December 13, 1999, Brandi, then 15 and a 9th grader at Union Intermediate High, learned that her ceramics teacher, Kyle Kemp, had gone to the emergency room sometime over the weekend for an undisclosed ailment. Brandi told her friend Justin about Kemp's absence, to which the boy jokingly replied: "Well, you know about Wicca. You probably put a spell on him."
"Yeah, right, I did that," Brandi remembers saying.
"She's an average student, a sweet
little girl," Tim Blackbear says of his daughter.
—Dave Crenshaw
Brandi insists she was just joking around. She says she's not a Wiccan, and she denies trying to cast a spell on anyone, least of all Kemp, who was one of her favorite teachers. (Wiccans do cast spells, but not for evil purposes. "You are not a real Witch if you hurt anybody," says Silver RavenWolf, the author of several books on Wicca.)
Nonetheless, by the time Brandi went to her ceramics class, where a substitute was filling in for Kemp, the rumors were spinning out of control. "The whole class was sitting there telling me that I had put a spell on Mr. Kemp," she says. "I said, 'No, I didn't,' and they said, 'We don't believe you.' It was a mess. Some people sat there and accused me of killing him. And I was like, 'He's not dead.' " (Kemp had reportedly gone to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy.)
Eventually, the rumors reached the main office. At the end of the day, Brandi was told to report to guidance counselor Sandi Franklin's office. When she got there, Brandi claims she was interrogated by Franklin and assistant principal Charles Bushyhead, who, Brandi recalls, demanded to know if she was a Wiccan.
At first, she said no. "But he asked me again and again until I finally said yes," she recalls. "I wanted him to stop. I just wanted to get out of there."
Meanwhile, Brandi's parents were notified. Tim, who was the first to arrive, recalls being told by Bushyhead: "We have a situation here with your daughter. She's been going around telling people that she cast a spell on Mr. Kemp. That creates a problem for us at the school. We don't condone that type of behavior."
Tim was flabbergasted. As far as he knew, Brandi wasn't into Wicca, and even if she were, he didn't see what business that was of the assistant principal. "I said: 'Where are you getting this? Do you hear what you're saying to me?'"
As Tim remembers it, Bushyhead held up Brandi's hand, on which she had drawn a star with a circle around it, and said: "This is a Wiccan pentagram. This shows me that she is studying witchcraft." A pentagram (known to Wiccans as a "pentacle") is indeed a symbol of witchcraft, but Brandi says she drew it simply because she was bored. "I had also drawn a smiley face on my hand," she adds.
But as far as Tim was concerned, Bushyhead was using the symbol as proof that Brandi was a witch. "There wasn't any, 'Do you believe this?' or 'Is this possible?' Without a doubt, he had already decided what the facts were."
And so, at the end of the meeting, the Blackbears were told that Brandi was being suspended from school for five days, starting immediately, to be followed by 10 days of in-school suspension. The official reason: She had disrupted the school process.
"I felt that I hadn't done anything wrong," Brandi recalls, "and that I didn't deserve to be treated this way." Her parents agreed. Tim says: "I told her, 'You didn't do anything wrong, I know you didn't.' And I told her we would figure out a way to take care of it."
When Brandi returned to school following her suspension, the name-calling began. "Here comes the witch," students would say as she walked down the hall. "Watch out, she'll put a spell on you."
"She'd come home from school upset," her father says, "but Brandi's a very strong girl."
She must be. Because, as the Blackbears now allege, Brandi had been targeted by another school administration a year earlier. For the Blackbears, in fact, the Union Intermediate High debacle was, in Yogi Berra's famous words, "like déjà vu all over again."
The first incident took place at the Union 8th Grade Center in April 1999, just days after the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Brandi, at the time, loved to write stories. She filled notebook after notebook with fiction, which she modeled after the work of her favorite author, Stephen King. In one of her stories, just four or five sentences long, a boy with a gun boards a school bus and confronts a girl. "After what happened at Columbine," Brandi says, "I just wanted to write a story kind of like that."
But a friend who heard about the story started telling other students that Brandi had put together a "hit list" with the names of students she intended to harm. It wasn't long, Brandi says, before school officials were searching her locker and backpack, looking for evidence. When they found the story, they concluded that she was a threat to the school and suspended her for the remainder of the year.
The Blackbears, of course, were outraged, but Tim says that when he tried to discuss the matter with the school's administration, he was shuffled from office to office and never given a straight answer. He still hasn't seen a copy of the story. "They told me they would get it back to me," Tim recalls, "but they never did."
When Brandi returned to school in the fall—she was now at Union Intermediate High—the students turned against her. "They were making fun of her," Tim says, "asking her if they were on her 'hit list.' They totally isolated her. Her friends from 8th grade would have nothing to do with her. She was all alone." As a result, Tim says, Brandi's grades began to suffer.
|When Brandi returned to school following her suspension, the name-calling began. 'Here comes the witch,' students would say.
At the urging of a friend, Tim contacted the Oklahoma chapter of the ACLU, in Oklahoma City. While the organization contemplated filing a lawsuit, Brandi was suspended for the second incident. That was the clincher, says Joann Bell, executive director of the state's ACLU chapter. "We thought there were some good First Amendment issues involved," she says, "or rather, bad violations of the First Amendment, whichever way you want to look at it." She brought in John Mack Butler, a prominent Tulsa civil rights attorney who decided to roll both incidents into one lawsuit.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, alleges that school officials violated Brandi's constitutional rights of due process, privacy, and freedom of speech. It also accuses the district of attempting "to suppress any religious inclination toward or expression of the religion of Wicca" by Brandi and of attempting "to force certain religious concepts" on the girl. As a result of the district's actions, the suit alleges, Brandi "has suffered continuous ridicule and humiliation from other students." The ACLU is seeking an undisclosed amount of punitive and financial damages on behalf of the Blackbears, an injunction preventing the school from banning any non-Christian religious paraphernalia, and an order expunging Brandi's school record.
On October 26, 2000, the day the lawsuit was filed, the ACLU held a press conference in front of the U.S. courthouse in downtown Tulsa. "These outlandish accusations have made Brandi Blackbear's life unbearable," Bell stated. "I, for one, would like to see the so-called evidence this school has that a 15-year-old girl made a grown man sick by casting a magic spell." And Butler added, "This is taking us back to the Salem witch-burning times."
Filed five days before Halloween, the suit—and Brandi's story—made headlines in the United States and abroad. People magazine blared: "Witch Is It? Brandi Blackbear says she was suspended from her Tulsa school for witchcraft. The school says nonsense." The London daily the Independent opted for the feisty "Brandi, the Teenage Witch." Even Jay Leno joked about the case during one of his Tonight Show monologues.
But to the Blackbears, it's no laughing matter.
"I want to defend my daughter because she didn't do anything wrong," Tim says. "And whatever it takes to get the school to admit that they were wrong, that's what we'll do."
Officials from the Union school district have said little about the case. Cathy Burden, the superintendent, reports that she and the other administrators named in the lawsuit have been told not to comment by the district's lawyer, J. Douglas Mann, who did not return calls for this article. She insists, however, that the district did nothing wrong.
"There would not have been a suspension if there hadn't been a violation of school policy," she offers as a general explanation. "And we don't have a school policy that addresses witches. We have a school policy that addresses threats and disruptions to the educational environment. . . . If a student threatens another student or if they make lists suggesting that they're going to hurt other students, then we take that very seriously. And we will punish or discipline that student, and it has nothing to do with their religious preference."
Burden admits the district takes a hard line on discipline. Students are expected to follow the rules spelled out in great detail in handbooks distributed at the beginning of each school year. One catch-all policy states that any student who creates a disturbance that "interferes with or disrupts the normal educational process . . . will be subject to disciplinary action." Another warns that threats, whether verbal or written, "will not be tolerated."
Five days before Halloween, the
Blackbears' lawyer invoked the Salem witch trials.
—A. Cuervo/Tulsa World
Although Burden won't discuss the case in detail, a court document filed in response to the Blackbears' allegations offers a glimpse at the district's version of events. After administrators at the Union 8th Grade Center were told that Brandi might be the author of a hit list, they called in her parents and asked them if her backpack could be searched, according to the document. "Mr. and Mrs. Blackbear agreed," it continues. "Mr. Blackbear and Mr. Ojala [the school's assistant principal] then examined the contents of Brandi's backpack and found some notes which supported the accusations against Brandi."
But Brandi says her backpack had been searched, without her knowledge, several days before. When she was called into the office, she adds, "they had my spiral notebooks already in the room. They had had them there for a few days, and I didn't notice that they had been missing."
As for the incident at Union Intermediate High, the court document confirms that Bushyhead, the assistant principal, identified the pentagram on Brandi's hand and that she told him "she had seen the design in the book about Wicca she claimed to have read, did not know what the symbol was, but liked it." According to the document, Brandi then was suspended "because of her actions," though what exactly those actions were is not made clear.
The Blackbears' lawsuit claims that Bushyhead told Brandi that she was not allowed to wear any kind of emblem or paraphernalia even remotely related to the Wicca religion. Burden insists, however, that students in the Union district "can and do wear their religious insignias on their sweat shirts, on their bodies, on their jewelry, or on anything else. There's no prohibition against that whatsoever."
So if the Blackbears' version of what happened is accurate, Bushyhead may well have crossed the line.
Ever since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's rampage at Columbine High School, many districts have adopted zero-tolerance policies regarding threats of violence from students. As a consequence, Bell of the ACLU says, some students' civil rights have been trampled on. "We understand the importance of school safety," she says, "but people have a right to walk around freely without being harassed."
In recent months, the ACLU has defended several students who were suspended for writing stories or journal entries that contained scenes of violence. The civil liberties group even has a name for the trend: "post-Columbine hysteria."
In Johnston, Rhode Island, for example, 11th grader Matthew Parent gave his English teacher several pages from his "free write" journal for extra credit. Those pages eventually made their way to the school's psychologist and social worker, who determined that Matthew would be a "safety issue" were he to remain in school. Their reasoning: the "suicidality, homicidality, mood concerns, . . . delusions of grandeur and narcissistic themes" found in his writings. Matthew, an A student, was suspended and told he would not be allowed to return until he underwent a psychological evaluation. His attorney charges that school officials "totally failed to distinguish between a student who is a danger and a student who is different, extremely bright, and imaginative."
There are other examples. Last year, a student in Boston was suspended from school for writing a disturbing horror story in English class, and in Arkansas, a letter that was deemed a "terroristic threat" got another student expelled. Just before Christmas, a 17-year-old boy in Morristown, New Jersey, was arrested and accused of distributing a manuscript that included passages about killing faculty and students. "He's not a violent person," his mother said at the time. "His outlet is his writing."
Such incidents may disturb civil libertarians, but school administrators feel they simply are being prudent. Better to err on the side of caution, they say, than to risk another Columbine, which some believe could have been prevented if school authorities had paid heed to warning signs.
'I, for one, would like to see the so-called evidence this school has that a 15-year-old girl made a grown man sick by casting a magic spell.'
John Mack
Even before the Columbine shootings, the U.S. Department of Education published a school-safety guide, which lists early warning signs of danger, including the "expression of violence in writings and drawings." However, the guide cautions that "many children produce work about violent themes that for the most part is harmless when taken in context." In all cases, schools should seek the opinion of a professional—a psychologist or a mental health specialist for instance. Otherwise, the guide states, "there is a real danger that early signs will be misinterpreted." Elsewhere, the guide makes clear that "early warning signs should not be used as a rationale to exclude, isolate, or punish a child."
Taking a different tack, the National School Safety Center, based in California, publishes a "Checklist of Characteristics of Youth Who Have Caused School-Associated Violent Deaths." Some of the 20 items listed, such as "[student] has previously brought a weapon to school," are obvious. But others are more subjective, particularly, "[student] prefers reading materials dealing with violent themes, rituals, and abuse" and "[student] reflects anger, frustration, and the dark side of life in school essays or writing projects." One can imagine a well-intentioned teacher or principal using such a list to implicate a student who likes to read books by, say, Stephen King, or, for that matter, Edgar Allan Poe.
Jon Katz, a journalist who passionately defends the rights of "geeks, nerds, and dorks" on the Web site Slashdot ("News for nerds. Stuff that matters"), has railed against buying into the recent crackdown on student expression. Several months after the Columbine incident took place, he told a reporter: "A lot of educators feel that the safest thing to do is to take every utterance seriously and, if a kid says anything even remotely off-color, suspend them or even throw them in jail. That way, if anything happens, you're covered."
For this article, Katz, who is also author of Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho, was reached by e-mail. He writes: "Our culture has gone to war against kids who are in some way different, not mainstream or 'normal.' Since this is often the case with bright and creative people, it has especially tragic consequences for this vulnerable group of kids, who should be nurtured and taught and protected, rather than attacked, sued, suspended, and arrested."
Brandi seems to prove Katz's point. Until recently, when Seventeen magazine asked her to write about her experience, she had all but stopped writing. "It just kind of makes me nervous," she told People. "You've got to feel to write, and I just don't feel like it anymore."
And what about Brandi's interest in Wicca? Did that get her into trouble?
The Blackbears argue that Charles Bushyhead's interrogation of Brandi regarding her Wiccan beliefs was a form of harassment, one that violated her constitutional rights. While the Supreme Court has made it clear that schools may not sponsor or organize religious activities, students are allowed to express their religious faiths in schools in a number of ways. They're free to pray alone or even in groups, as long as the activity does not infringe upon the rights of others. They may wear religious garb or display religious messages on their clothes. And schools must not allow students to be harassed for their religious views.
"I think the district overreacted," the Rev. Gary Blaine says of the Union Intermediate High incident. "If she had a pentagram on her hand, personally, I think it's her right to bear that religious symbol. I don't believe in paganism, I'm not a pagan, but I believe in her right as a religious person to wear the same symbols of her faith as Jews and Christians do. So if that was an issue, it was a fatal mistake on the part of the school district."
Blaine, who helped form the Tulsa Task Force on Religious Freedom, was so outraged by the incident that he sent a letter to the Tulsa World, the city's daily newspaper. "If school administrators saw a connection between the alleged hex and the teacher's illness," he wrote, "they only affirmed the power of Wicca. Who in this case needs to demonstrate some common sense and maturity?"
To be sure, Wicca is a hot topic these days, in Tulsa and elsewhere. Many fundamentalist Christians see the practice as nothing more than a New Age version of Satanism, and they warn against its pernicious influence. The Cult Awareness Network lists Wicca on its catalog of "Controversial Groups," which includes such organizations as the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology.
But the U.S. military's handbook for chaplains states: "Wiccans do not in any way worship or believe in 'Satan,' 'the Devil,' or any similar entities. They point out that 'Satan' is a symbol of rebellion against and inversion of the Christian and Jewish traditions. Wiccans do not revile the Bible. They simply regard it as one among many of the world's mythic systems, less applicable than some to their core values, but still deserving just as much respect as any of the others."
|More and more teenagers—girls in particular—are turning to Wicca to fulfill their spiritual needs.
Wiccans say they have long been harassed for their views. Just recently, a North Carolina high school teacher was escorted off campus by officials and suspended indefinitely when it was learned she was a practicing Wiccan. The teacher said she did not talk to her students about Wicca but disclosed her religious beliefs to administrators after a reporter asked her about a Wicca-related Web site maintained by her husband.
In 1998, a 17-year-old high school honor student in Detroit was told that she could not wear a pentagram, even though the girl was a practicing Wiccan. Pentagrams, along with vampire makeup and black nail polish, were prohibited under the school's anti-gang policy. With help from the ACLU, the girl sued, and the district later amended its policy.
Despite such incidents, Wicca has entered the mainstream. In the January issue of the Atlantic Monthly, writer Charlotte Allen describes Wicca as "the fastest-growing religion in America," with, according to one estimate, more than 200,000 adherents in the United States. Wiccans, Allen writes, "tend to be white, middle-class, highly educated, and politically involved in liberal and environmental causes." Some Wiccans call themselves Witches, but they "neither worship Satan nor practice the sort of malicious magic traditionally associated with witches."
Wicca is also the subject of dozens of books, including the bestseller Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation, by Wiccan Priestess Silver RavenWolf. The book's cover features five clean-cut teenagers in miniskirts, blue jeans, and pentagrams. Inside, RavenWolf describes Wicca as "a nature-based, life-affirming religion that follows a moral code and seeks to build harmony among people and empower the self and others." Wiccans, she writes, "commune with streams, sky, fire, trees, animals, and rocks, much like the indigenous ancestors of America. We see everything on our planet as a manifestation of the Divine."
More and more teenagers—girls in particular—are turning to Wicca to fulfill their spiritual needs. Wiccan Web sites thrive on the Internet, and many of them have pages specifically for teens. Television shows like Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, have only fueled adolescent interest in Wicca and witchcraft. One episode of Charmed was even titled "Something Wicca This Way Comes."
It's hardly surprising, then, that a girl like Brandi would be curious about the topic. "It just seemed interesting," she says. And even though she claims her fascination with Wicca has waned, her case has become a cause célèbre among real Wiccans. Her story has made the rounds on the Internet, and at least one Wiccan has circulated a petition protesting Brandi's treatment by Union school officials.
"I even had a phone call from someone in California who wanted Brandi to come out there and heal her," says her mother, Toni, laughing at such nonsense. "She wasn't joking. She said that someone had put a hex on her, and she wanted Brandi to lift the spell. She offered to pay her expenses."
John Mack Butler, the Blackbears' attorney, thinks it may take up to two years for Brandi Blackbear vs. Union Public School Independent District No. 9 to make its way through the court system. That is, unless the district decides to settle before it goes to trial. Joann Bell of the ACLU says she hopes that happens, "but it looks like they're going to dig their heels in on this one."
Tim Blackbear admits that the publicity surrounding the case has been stressful for his family. His phone hasn't stopped ringing since the press conference last October. "I didn't know my caller ID box went up to 50," he says. "I've tried to talk to everyone, but when you get phone call after phone call, it's tough. You just try to do what you can. But it all wears on you. As a bread man, I don't have time for much of anything."
Tim says he and his wife thought long and hard before filing the lawsuit. They were especially concerned about the effect it might have on their sons, 14-year-old Timmy and 9-year-old Tony. (Next year, Timmy will attend Union 8th Grade Center, where Charles Bushyhead is now principal.) In the end, however, they decided to go ahead. It was a matter of principle.
"The biggest thing that swayed us was the fact that Brandi didn't do anything wrong," he explains. "She shouldn't be treated this way. And it was the only way that we were going to be able to defend her in her eyes. If we just let it go and did nothing, we would be as wrong as the people who were accusing her. If we go through this whole thing and lose, then that's the chance we're taking. But I want Brandi to know that I, as her father, did everything I could to defend her."
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Skip to 0 minutes and 12 seconds KIM DICKSON: Good day! My name is Dr. Kim Eva Dickson. I'm a public health physician from Ghana. I'm the senior advisor for maternal newborn health for UNICEF, and I'm based in New York. I'm also the co-chair of the Every Newborn Action Plan partnership, a group of partners that work together to develop and plan for countries to work towards the reduction of newborn mortality. I'm from a culture where we do not name our babies until the seventh day of life. This is based on the fact that we believe that many babies will die within the first week of life, and therefore, we wait to see if they will live. And after the seventh day, only then do we name them.
Skip to 1 minute and 2 seconds During those seven days, baby is called by the name of the day on which they were born. I'm sure many of you have heard of Kofi Annan. He was the Secretary General of the United Nations. Kofi basically means a boy who was born on a Friday. So the Secretary General himself, along with many others of my culture, are not given a name until the seventh day. Why do we expect a child to be born only to die? So it's based on this that I have been motivated to work together with partners to give guidance to countries that we can reduce newborn mortality.
Skip to 1 minute and 46 seconds We can prevent babies dying, and therefore, we have worked on an action plan that provides this guidance to countries. I will now tell you about the Every Newborn Action Plan process and the plans for implementation and action. Thank you. I'll talk about the process of development and outline the five strategic objectives. The vision of the Every Newborn Action Plan is a world in which there are no preventable deaths of newborns or stillbirths, where every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is celebrated, and mothers and babies and children thrive and reach their social and economic potential. Around this vision, partners have mobilised to work together to achieve this vision.
Skip to 2 minutes and 48 seconds There are five strategic objectives of this Every Newborn Action Plan, and I'll give examples of two milestones. Plan development has been a process of real collaboration, of partners working together globally and within countries to move together for action for newborns. As we started in about May 2012 with the development of the Born Too Soon report that really focused on newborns. And then, in June, there was a call to action for child survival. This is A Promise Renewed, which we built upon. Again, in November 2012, The World Prematurity Day mobilised several partners together, within countries and globally, to give a voice to the work of prematurity. The real action was in April, 2013, around the Johannesburg Newborn Conference in South Africa.
Skip to 4 minutes and 1 second And over a period of 2013, up until the 2014– the beginning of 2014, there were a series of global and country consultations to really work with partners, stakeholders, governments, policy makers, to begin to understand what was needed in the development of the Every Newborn Action Plan, to get the evidence that was needed to ground the Every Newborn Action Plan. This all resulted in the publication of a Lancet series in May 2014, and a WHA, World Health Assembly, resolution and endorsement of the action plan in May 2014 and, eventually, the launch of the action plan. So a series of events, a series of collaborations.
Skip to 4 minutes and 57 seconds This has really been a process that shows that by engaging together with partners, we can move from evidence to policy and now to action within countries.
Skip to 5 minutes and 12 seconds The global Newborn Action Plan has a particular focus, and this is based on the evidence. And the particular focus is around the time of birth, around providing quality care for the mother and the newborn during labour, around the time of birth, and in the first week of life. The evidence shows us that if we focus on this time, we can save two of– we can save at least two million lives per year if we provide universal coverage of quality care. We can save mothers lives. We can save newborn lives, and we can prevent stillbirths. The strategic objectives of the Every Newborn Action Plan. We have five strategic objectives.
Skip to 6 minutes and 8 seconds Objective 1 really is about strengthening and investing care during labour, birth, the first day, and the first week of life because the evidence tells us this is the time when we can make the greatest impact. Objective 2 is really about improving the quality of care for mothers and for newborns. Objective 3 is about reaching every woman and every newborn, really focusing, also, on the most marginalised, the most vulnerable, and the most disadvantaged so that we can reduce inequities. So this applies to every country, not just the high burden, but even countries that have low mortality to reach out to those that have been previously left behind.
Skip to 7 minutes and 0 seconds Objective 4 is how we engage and work and harness the power of parents, families, and communities so that, working together, we can really make a difference for mothers and newborns. And objective 5 emphasises the importance of counting every newborn. Unless we count every newborn, unless we pay attention to those that die as soon as they're born, unless we account for those that never make it to life– this is the stillbirths– and really focus on measurement, programme tracking, and we hold ourselves accountable, we will not make a difference for mothers and for newborns. This is the Every Newborn Action Plan and the five strategic objectives. Thank you.
Every Newborn Action Plan: development and five strategic objectives
The Every Newborn Action Plan was endorsed by all the world's countries at the World Health Assembly 2014, but where did it come from? How was it developed? In this and the subsequent step we are led through its conception and content by Dr Kim Dickson, a Senior Maternal and Newborn Advisor at UNICEF who was closely involved in the plan's development and implementation.
The plan's five strategic objectives are:
- Strengthen and invest in care during labour, birth and the first day and week of life
- Improve the quality of maternal and newborn care
- Reach every woman and newborn to reduce inequities
- Harness the power of parents, families and communities
- Count every newborn through measurement, programme-tracking and accountability.
The next step highlights two examples of action resulting from the plan.
© London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

subset: commoncrawl


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Lore:Cidade de Vivec
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- "Finally the bones of Horde Mountain landed and became the foundation stones for the City of Swords, which Vivec named after his own sigil, and the net fell across it all and between, or became as bridges between bones, and since its segments had been touched by his holy wisdom they became the most perfect of all city streets in the known worlds." — Vivec
Vivec City (often shortened to simply Vivec), named after the god of the same name, was the largest city in Vvardenfell, once situated on its southern coast in a large lagoon. The city was a collection of nine artificial islands; each island was a separate district or canton and was made up of a large multi-tiered building the size of a small town. The many bridges and walkways between these cantons created a maze that could be intimidating for new arrivals. Water was the dominant element in the architecture, present even inside. The entire city of Vivec was considered a holy place, as it was home to the Living God Vivec himself. The city was policed by special guards drawn from the militant order of the Temple, the Ordinators.
Most cantons were generally built of four tiers. The lowest, only accessible from drainage grates or trapdoors, was the Underworks, or the canton's sewer. The Underworks were located on the water-line, and were a nest for criminals, rats, and other undesirables, as Ordinators never ventured into them. Above the Underworks, at the level of the main walkways and canals, were the Canalworks, where tombs, homeless paupers, storage rooms, and a few small shops could occasionally be found. The Canalworks of a canton were generally only accessible from the upper levels, or via trapdoor from the Underworks. Above the Canalworks were the Waistworks, filled with shops, clubs, temples, and residences. The top of a canton contained a large domed courtyard known as the Plaza, with standalone buildings rather than doors built into corridor walls. Canton plazas were filled with manor-houses and fine shops, and could usually only be accessed through large doors from the exterior. All of the space within a canton had to be leased from the Temple, and the only Guards allowed to police the area were Ordinators.
The first of these cantons from the Vivec landing on Vvardenfell's mainland was the Foreign Quarter, the entrance to Vivec. Originally, this was as far as outlanders were allowed into Vivec, although this law was repealed long before Vivec's destruction. The Foreign Quarter housed the Mages and Fighters Guilds, a cornerclub containing the Thieves Guild, a small Imperial Cult shrine, a tomb, and many shops. It was also the largest canton in the whole of Vivec, having two Waistworks levels, once known as the Lower and Upper Waistworks.
Three of the next four cantons were under the control of the three Great Houses that had land on Vvardenfell: Hlaalu, Redoran, and Telvanni. Each of these cantons represented the wealth of each Great House, and, as one might expect, housed shops, services, and lodging for House members. The cantons also each had a small individual temple, and a large treasury, which contained numerous rare items, gems, and a significant stash of gold, all under heavy guard.
The fourth of this group of cantons was the Arena, where public entertainments such as comic plays or mock battles were held, along with any duels to honorably settle conflicts of interest or advancement. All fights there were special events; there were no routinely arranged fights or tournaments in the Arena. The Arena's plaza was taken over by the vast Arena Pit itself, and below the plaza were facilities for training, equipping, and lodging arena fighters, as well as a good sized storage complex.
The next two cantons were residential ones named in honor of two of the saints of the Tribunal Temple, Saint Delyn and Saint Olms. The St. Delyn Canton and St. Olms Canton provided low-cost housing to the commoners and paupers of the city, and also had nicer homes for the more affluent in their Plaza areas. Both cantons had several shops in the Waistworks, and small temples.
South of these two cantons was the Temple Canton, which was unique in its construction. The Temple canton was flat atop its canalworks, which were devoted to the Halls of Wisdom and of Justice. The Hall of Wisdom contained a large library of religious books, and many low- and mid-ranking members of the Temple bureaucracy worked there. The Hall of Justice housed all of the Ordinators in the city, as well as the various offices related to Ordinator activity throughout the district. Atop these halls was the cathedral of High Fane, once home of the Archcanon of the Temple, Tholer Saryoni as well as many other high-ranking Temple members. Above it hovered the Ministry of Truth, a hollowed-out moon housing prison cells for dissidents of the Temple. According to lore, Vivec himself stopped the moon from falling onto the city, and it was thought that it would remain hovering as long as people believe in the Tribunal.
Behind the Temple canton was the Palace of Vivec, the residence of the Living God Vivec. The Palace itself was a small if grand-looking one-room affair, but it was mounted on its own canton, which is built from five levels of sewers hiding a shrine somewhere in their midst, known as the Puzzle Canal. The door to the Palace was kept locked at all times, as access is by special invitation only, and no one but the Archcanon is normally allowed to speak to Vivec himself.
Due to Vivec's absence early in the Fourth Era, the Ministry of Truth finished its fall into the city of Vivec in 4E 5.[1] The rock, resuming its previous velocity and trajectory, crashed into and destroyed Vivec city, which caused the eruption of Red Mountain in what is known as the Red Year.[1] The area where Vivec's awe-inspiring cantons stood is now known as Scathing Bay because the rock opened up a fissure into an active underwater volcano.[2]
See Also
- For game-specific information, see the Morrowind article.
- ^ a b The Reclamations: The Fall of the Tribunal and the Rise of the New Temple — Thara of Rihad
- ^ [[Lore:The Infernal City|]]


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Apple's New Subscription Plan Not So Great for Publishers
The program Apple is poised to announce is targeted at newspapers, according to the San Jose Mercury News. But it's a reasonable guess that the same template will also apply to magazines, which until now have been mostly sold as single copies through iTunes. Right now, only a few papers, including The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, offer paid subscription apps that give buyers access to the whole paper.
Apple's new program would allow other newspapers to join them, but not in the way they'd like. The big issue is control -- of the relationship with the customer, and of the customer's information. Publishers want to know who their subscribers are so they can hit them up with renewal notices and tie-in offers, and sell their eyeballs to advertisers more effectively. But Apple sees app users as Apple customers, not someone else's -- and it would prefer to keep it that way. "Steve Jobs believes that if he made recurring credit card charges available to vendors, that it would be abused, and he doesn't trust developers to use that judiciously," says one publishing executive who deals with Apple.
A better compromise would allow publishers to offer some kind of incentive to subscribers to yield up their information. Perhaps those who opt in could receive a discount off the subscription price. But that would run up against another Jobs prejudice, his preference for simple pricing structures.
"He's so caught up in control of his ecosystem, there are times when he misses the desire of his customers," says the executive who deals with Apple, "both the publishers and the end users."


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Weight: 0.56 LBBryndza is a traditional sheep cheese popular in mountains of Eastern Europe, specially in Podhale region of Poland (surrounding the Tatra Mountains). Very healthy. In a plastic box. 9 oz (0.56 lb)
Deborah Martin -Thursday, 12 November 2015
I received Bryndza sheep cheese among other things as a gift. Oh my goodness is it good. I have never tasted a cheese like this. It is so sweet, & creamy. I would highly recommend this cheese to anyone who likes cheese. rnrnDebbie Martin


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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Be the first AL.com user to add photos or videos of Mccullers Capps & Associates Inc
Surveying Services Engineering Services Mapping, Land surveying, Cartography, Map production, Photogrammetry, Building construction management, Well engineering, Technical drawing, Harbor or water ports engineering, Structural engineering, Naval architecture, Dam engineering
Mccullers Capps & Associates Inc was founded in 1987, and is located at 5533 Bankhead Hwy in Birmingham.
Mccullers Capps & Associates is located at 5533 Bankhead Hwy, Birmingham, AL. This business specializes in Land Surveyors.


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Arrange a Viewing
3 Bedroom House to Rent
Open Plan Kitchen/ Living Room
Separate Reception Room
2 Bathrooms
Private Garden
Near Dollis Hill Station (Jubilee Line)
Available Now
3 bedroom family house to rent in NW10.
This lovely mid terraced house features an open plan kitchen/ living room and separate reception room, 3 double bedrooms, a tiled bathroom with shower and an additional tiled shower room and has a private garden.
The house has been extended and modernised to a very high standard while retaining many original features.
This high quality property is located close to the green spaces of Gladstone Park and is within easy reach of the local shops, cafes and restaurants of Willesden Green and Dollis Hill.
The A406 provides convenient access into central London and Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station is a short walk away.
Transport links:
Nearest station: Dollis Hill (Jubilee Line)
Buses: 52, 98, 206, 302, N98
Viewings with Mapesbury Estate Agent in NW2.


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Today is finally the day! I picked up the Power Couple Sunday Riley kit from Sephora two months ago. Two! In the post where I mentioned I bought them I told ya'll i'd be back in a month with a full review. Well, a month went by and now two. After two months I looked at my bottle of Luna and noticed, i'm only 1/4 of the way through. Yup.
Spoiler: This stuff is worth the money.
Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment// $105 for 1oz
Can we just start out by saying how much I love the smell of this? I think it smells citrus-y… though I could be wrong. Good Genes is a lactic acid treatment that can be used day or night to even skin tone by reducing dark spots, plumping the look of lines, and helping with hyperpigmentation through gentle exfoliation.
I use 2-3 pumps of this (that might be excessive, Sephora's website says to use 1-2, oh well) every morning over my moisturizer/sunscreen and it really helps with hyperpigmentation. I have very red skin and this has helped reduce the look of that tremendously. In addition to helping with my redness I have found my skin looking much more plump when using this. I don't have any wrinkles but I do have a line in my forehead coming in that has been only noticeable to me since using this. I can certainly tell a difference in my skins appearance when I don't use this. I always apply foundation over the top and I have found that liquid foundations apply so much more smoothly and evenly when I use Good Genes.
Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil// $105 for 1oz
This night time oil had been on my wishlist for months. After hearing every beauty guru on YouTube mention it and even one of my favorite beauty bloggers Christine reviewed it it just had to be mine. I was not a fan of the price tag but I figured if it makes my skin as amazing as i've heard, i'll pay anything.
So what is this magical product you ask? It's a retinoid with every imaginable good oil for your skin. This stuff plumps your skin right up and helps the appearance of pores and wrinkles. While I don't really have any wrinkles the pores right next to my nose have always been a problem. I know nothing can permanently fix it but this stuff is a miracle at making my skin look better.
I use this 6 out of 7 nights of the week after taking off my makeup and using a toner. I use 4-5 drops (which may be excessive but it works for me) and gently rub it into my skin and then head to bed. It's that easy! I wake up with refreshed looking skin that hasn't looked this good since before I started getting acne.
So after mentioning how high the price tag is on Luna you're probably wondering why on earth I bought 2 of Sunday Riley's products spending over $200. Well, I didn't. I was shopping around on Sephora's website and found this great deal. I present to you…
Sunday Riley Power Couple Duo! This has both products for less than the price of one. So, instead of buying these each separately for $105 and getting 1 oz. You get .05 of an ounce of each for $78. Now, I know that's still expensive but i've had these for 2 months now and i'm only 1/4 of the way through the Luna oil. I can't comment on the Good Genes because the bottle is impossible to see through but i'm thinking i'm about 1/3 of the way through.
Basically, if you're interested in changing your skin for the better and are tired of using drugstore "retinol" products then give this a go. I highly, highly recommend these. And even though I love trying out new skincare I will repurchase this kit because of how nice my skin feels and looks.
- Helps with hyperpigmentation and brightens skin
- Reduces appearance of fine lines over time
- Doesn't irritate my skin
- Luna absorbs quickly and doesn't stain my sheets
- Good Genes leaves my skin super primed for makeup
- The packaging isn't great for travel because it's heavy glass
- The smell may turn off some people, Good Genes is citrusy and Luna smells like chamomile
- You definitely need to wear a sunscreen daily when using these. Retinol helps increase cell turnover leaving your skin more sensitive to the sun. Be careful!
//Overall opinion:
LOVE! i highly recommend this set to anyone, and I say set because I've been using both products together so I really can't pinpoint if one is doing most of the work or not. Together they're amazing and it's honestly a better deal if you buy them together. Plus, if you use EBATES you get some cash back! Win-win right?
Question of the day: Have any of you tried these products? What's the most expensive beauty item you own?
*None of the links uses are affiliates, however, I did use my referral code in the link for Ebates.


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Bank of America settles Parmalat suit related to 2003 bankruptcy for $100 million
Bank of America settles Parmalat suit for $100M
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will pay nearly $100 million to Parmalat SpA and its affiliates to settle lawsuits surrounding the Italian dairy company's bankruptcy in 2003.
Complaints in both countries alleged the U.S. bank knew of Parmalat's financial troubles, but nevertheless sold investors Parmalat bonds that ultimately soured — allegations Bank of America continues to deny.
The $100 million payment is a mix of cash and a non-cash component, the bank said. Details of the agreement will become available after it is filed in U.S. District Court in New York.
Parmalat had sought $10 billion in multiple claims in a lawsuit filed in 2004, arguing that sales of bonds by employees of Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America helped trigger Parmalat's collapse.
Both sides said the agreement cleared the way for future business between the companies. Shares of Parmalat resumed trading on the Italian stock exchange in October 2005.
Bank of America said Tuesday that the record of court rulings in the case "makes it clear that no one at Bank of America knew or could have known of the true financial condition of Parmalat. We have defended ourselves vigorously in these cases and are satisfied with this outcome today."
Shares of Bank of America rose 25 cents, or about 1.9 percent, to $13.34.
In a December 2008 ruling, an Italian court in Milan concluded that Parmalat's founder bore the brunt of the responsibility for the bankruptcy — a finding that disappointed defrauded bondholders who hoped to squeeze damages from Bank of America and other financial institutions that had sold them bad Parmalat bonds.
That court also convicted Calisto Tanzi of market-rigging and other charges, sentencing him to 10 years, but acquitted seven other remaining defendants in the trial. Among those acquitted were three former Bank of America employees.
Parmalat collapsed under crushing debt of $19.5 billion — eight times what it had disclosed to investors. Banks have claimed they were equally as duped as investors.
Tanzi blamed the banks for the labyrinth of shaky deals. Those transactions helped the once simple dairy business grow into a global empire with operations in more than 30 countries, but also led to its collapse. Tanzi has always denied having a secret account where the lost investments are stashed.
In December 2003, Parmalat acknowledged the $5 billion account with Bank of America did not exist. Shortly afterward, Parmalat filed for bankruptcy protection.
Filed under Legal Proceedings, News | Tags: bankruptcy, Cases, Charlotte, Damages, Debt, N.c., North America, North Carolina, United States | Comment Below


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Become a client
Leading Edge Forum provides a strategic touch-point for CXOs and senior teams, to provoke and challenge your thinking.
As business and IT have become inseparable, virtually every aspect of work and the modern firm must be reimagined, creating exciting new digital opportunities in this tech-driven world.
At Leading Edge Forum (LEF) we believe passionately in challenging convention and helping clients to seek a deeper understanding of the world by revealing more than just insight and ideas. By championing business leaders to deepen their intellectual capital, network and evolve relationships, we support CXOs and senior leaders in areas such as strategy, organizational change, executive education, talent development and the future of the IT function.
Client Benefits
Unlimited access to LEF research & content
One place annually on LEF Study Tours
CXO attendance at Executive Forums
Participate in new research projects
Exclusive access to P2P ecosystem
Tailored advisory workshops
Extensive access to research team
Access all LEF events & briefings
Live broadcasts & online tools


text: [YARN003] Terrorrythmus – Adaption Disorder Yarn Audio 24.2.2013 netlabel release Artist: Terrorrythmus Title: Adaption Disorder Label: Yarn Audio Cat#: YARN003 Date: 2013-02-22 Style: Bass Music, Juke "Adaption Disorder", the third EP for the Berlin-based netlabel Yarn Audio, comes from Terrorrythmus following releases for Betonblume, Abulia Concepts und World Wide Juke. Banging 808-beats meet nasty rhythms. Experimental enthusiasm encounters dreamy pads and mangled vocals. An insider tip for fans of TNGHT, Flosstradamus, Murderbot and co. Who says fresh juke- and trap-sounds are coming exclusively from the UK or USA? The gentle chords and brutal beats of the opener "40h" only need a few bars to transport you deep into the world of the "Adaption Discorder". With its chirping hi-hats, exaggerated low-end and sharp melodies "From the Hood" could easily become the next ghetto-anthem and even be played in the pimped BMWs of Berlin's petty criminals. Fortunately the third tune "Post Smack" doesn't sound lose any of that energy at all: The smooth melodies of "40h" come together with "From The Hood"'s energetic trap-sound. Terrorrythmus, a German producer and DJ from Bremen, has been involved in the bassmusic-scene for ten years, back when jungle and breakcore were hip. His party-series "Subunternehmen" has been the first ever event to bring Dubstep into the Hanseatic city . By now the 26-year-old musician is crazy about footwork and trap but still hasn't forgotten his roots. He promotes his sound with his own imprint Latenz and the "DOOM"-parties. The latest EP from Yarn Audio fits perfectly into the trap- and juke-genre, which slowly but surely also gets German dancefloors to go nuts. The three tracks are full of wicked breaks and broken beats, a homage to the roughness of early jungle. You instantly hear that "Adaption Discorder" is inspired by a decade of bassmusic. The EP's title reflects its programme: Terrorrythmus isn't chasing the hype but jumps easily between elements of various genres. A refreshingly personal interpretation of bassmusic. Who'd have thought that an "Adaption Discorder" sounds so good! Download the EP for free in your favorite format: MP3 (320) | Alac | Wave | Flac We are running a remix contest from time to time. If you want to collaborate in any kind or just want to stay informed on new releases, follow us on Facebook and Twitter! ____________________ Alternative streams: 01 40h 02 From The Hood 03 Post Smack


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Discover and download the Earth observation data you need from the broad catalogue of missions the European Space Agency operate and support.
data description
ERS-2 GOME Total Column Amount of Trace Gases Product
GOME Level 2 products were generated by DLR on behalf of the European Space Agency, and are the end result of the Level 1 to 2 reprocessing camp...
data description
ERS-2 GOME Spectral Product L1
GOME Level 1 products contain Earthshine radiance at the Top of the Atmosphere and solar irradiance spectra. They were generated by DLR on behal...
data description
GOME Total Column Water Vapour Climate product
The GOME Total Column Water Vapour (TCWV) Climate product was generated by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC), and the German Aerospa...
data description
ERS-1/2 ATSR Gridded Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_NR__2P]
The Gridded Surface Temperature (GST) Product is the Level 2 full resolution geophysical product. The product contains gridded sea-surface tempe...
Discover the latest news on the European Space Agency's Earth Observation activities. Learn all about new data availability and how ESA's missions are performing.
operational news
Updated Precise Orbit data (POD) for the full ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission available
The Precise Orbit files (ERS.ORB.POD) for the entire ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission periods have been reprocessed with up-to-date standards.
operational news
Envisat-ERS (A)SAR - Enhanced Dissemination Service
ESA is pleased to announce the release of several new features as part of the ESA On-The-Fly data processing and dissemination service.
Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme.
Learn about upcoming Earth observation conferences, workshops and training courses that the European Space Agency organise or support. Discover the results of past events, which may provide useful reference or material for your work.
EVENT - conference
World-class scientists, engineers and educators in geoscience and remote sensing gathered in Yokohama, Japan, for the 39th annual IGARSS symposium.
EVENT - conference
Living Planet Symposium 2019
ESA's Living Planet Symposia are amongst the biggest Earth observation conferences in the world. The events see scientists present their latest findings on Earth's environment and climate.
Browse through mission documentation and reports, and learn more about European Space Agency Earth Observation projects and opportunities.
DOCUMENT - Technical Note1 Mar 2019
Long-term monitoring of the GOME thermal environment - 1995-2002
In this document the analysis of the GOME thermal environment aboard ERS-2 during lifetime was updated to cover the period April 1995 - March 2002, for the pre-disperser prism, the radiator, the four charge amplifiers, the scan unit electronics and motor, the DDHU DC/DC converter and the DDHU Peltier board. Download


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"A picture is worth a thousand words" is an English idiom. It refers to the idea that an image of a subject conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does. This could not be more important when it comes to your website. There are two kinds of visitors who look at your website – those who are more drawn to reading the words on your webpage, and those who are more drawn to the pictures on your website. At Shortgrass, we think both types of website visitors should be catered to.
Gathering photos for your website is not always easy. If stock photography is what you would like to feature on your website, we can help you out with that since we have multiple partners in the stock photography industry. If your needs for photography are more customized and you would like to feature your own business, its products, and your staff more nearly on your website, we can also help you. We can schedule an affordable photographer to visit your place of business, for purposes of taking your website photos. All pictures taken become your property. and can be used not only on your website, but for other print media uses you may have.


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It's almost the most wonderful time of the year! That means winter is approaching, and it's time to celebrate in the Smokies. If you are coming into town for the holidays, then you absolutely have to enjoy all the amazing activities at Smoky Mountain Winterfest. This festival is a celebration between Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Sevier County. You and your family will love driving around and looking at the Christmas lights displays all over town. There are so many ways to enjoy Smoky Mountain Winterfest. All you have to do is get ready to have a great time!
1. Go on the Winterfest Driving Tour to See the Lights
This year, there are more than 15 million lights covering streetscapes and businesses in the Smoky Mountain area.Your family can enjoy seeing the dazzling Christmas lights display at Smoky Mountain Winterfest all while in the comfort of your car. Each year, tons of visitors come from all over to witness the extravagant lights display. Some of the lights are even in the shape of fun fairytale characters for this year's celebration. It's really a wonderful sight to see for the holidays.
2. Hit the Slopes at Ober Gatlinburg
Take your friends and family to Ober Gatlinburg to feel the fun and excitement of going snow tubing. You can glide down the snowy slopes while the cool breeze runs through your hair. It's a high thrill activity that is sure to be fun for the whole family. Ober Gatlinburg also offers other fun winter experiences like ice skating, snowboarding, and skiing. When you purchase a winter wristband, you'll have access to several different activities for one inclusive price. You really can't go wrong with planning a trip to Ober Gatlinburg this holiday season.
3. See Dollywood's Parade of Many Colors
The Parade of Many Colors is a part of Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas Festival. You and your family can spend the whole day at the amusement park and be there in time to see the parade. The parade is hosted at the park each night beginning at 8 p.m. You'll get to see amazing costumes, enchanting floats, and of course, the brightest Christmas lights display. The parade is held outside, so don't forget to bundle up!
4. Listen to Music at the Gatlinburg Winter Magic Tunes & Tales
One of the best ways to celebrate Christmas is with music. Each year, Gatlinburg Winter Magic Tunes & Tales is held in downtown Gatlinburg. It is similar to their summer celebration, but it includes mostly holiday tunes and carols. Sticking to this theme, all the performers will wear festive holiday costumes. Musicians and performers will shows off their musical skills, and it'll be sure to get you in the holiday spirit!
You can enjoy all of these festive activities at Smoky Mountain Winterfest. If you're looking for more fun things to do, check out our blog on the best Gatlinburg winter attractions you should visit on your next vacation.


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Working at St Paul's Hostel
At St Paul's Hostel we deliver care to the elderly.
We cannot do this without a team of high calibre of employees, who are passionate about making a difference, the following are what we look for in our employees:
- Respect
- Justice
- Commitment
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Co-operation
Our staff work very hard and are highly devoted. It is very rewarding to know that you have made a positive difference to people's lives. Your job matters.
Aged care nursing offers an interesting and rewarding career path with plenty of diversity and opportunity for professional development. Nurses provide personalised care to elderly people with an array of health conditions, in a range of settings including the community, in their homes, and in aged care facilities.
Working in this interesting and complex area of health care will help you develop and use your clinical nursing skills, especially focusing on astute assessment abilities, great communication skills, and planning and management expertise.


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Congratulations to Jenni Kirby, the 2016 Distinguished Retailer of the Year!
Jenni Kirby is a proven leader in her field and dedicated to bettering our community. Her passion and commitment have earned her a well-deserved place among the many retail legends before her.
Starting in 1966, RMA has been honoring exceptional and distinguished retailers. Legends like William Thalhimer and Webster Rhoads were among the first to be recognized by this award. Now the title is passed down from Ronnie Adolf, Adolf Jewelers, to Jenni Kirby, Crossroads Art Center.
It is a pleasure to honor and celebrate retailers who make our community such a vibrant place.
Here's a great article by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, about how Jenni was able to combine her different passions: www.richmond.com.


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Print for applying "Fox"
75 ₴
An original drawing of an orphan from the Novoaidar boarding school in the Luhansk region, which can be placed on any thing (T-shirt, bag, cap, cup, etc.).
Moreover, you can order a basic T-shirt, the cost of which already includes the work of drawing.
By buying any thing or drawing in the "HANDCRAFTS by orphans" workshop, you help orphans to believe in themselves and adapt to independent living in society.


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Q1. I have a younger sister who is 55 years old. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder many years ago. She has been treated for many years and has ongoing ups and downs. She recently informed me that she has been stealing high-priced items such as clothing, handbags and shoes for at least three years. She told me that she has given a lot of these items as gifts. She doesn't know why she does this, but she told me that she does get "a high" from getting away with this – and has severe guilt afterwards. She's too afraid and embarrassed to tell her doctor and keeps begging me not to tell anyone. I am very concerned about her getting caught and arrested. I would like your advice as to how to handle this situation.
This is an extremely difficult ethical dilemma, and you are absolutely right to be concerned. One question I have is whether your sister steals only when she is in a manic state, or does it seem to occur regardless of her mood state? It is possible that better control of her hypomanic/manic symptoms may improve this behavior. However, it also sounds like she may have, in addition to bipolar disorder, an impulse control disorder (kleptomania).
Nevertheless, it is clear that she does not have insight into the fact that her behavior is extremely dangerous and has potentially dire consequences for her. It may be necessary to tell your sister that if she does not agree to discuss this with her doctor, you will have no choice but to inform her doctor yourself. It is extremely important that her doctor knows about this behavior, not only to help her prevent it from happening in the future, but also because kleptomania can in many cases be effectively treated with medications used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders. While there are confidentiality issues surrounding what her doctor can tell you, there are no restrictions on what you can tell him/her.
Q2. I read about a supplement called Serenity that claims to be as effective as a prescription medication for bipolar disorder. The main ingredient is an organic mineral form of lithium that is supposed to be completely safe to use. Is it true that there is a safe, organic form of lithium that is effective?
— Diane, North Carolina
Bipolar disorder is a very complicated and life-altering medical condition and should not be treated lightly. There are effective medications available to manage bipolar disorder, but Serenity is not one of them.
Serenity is a dietary supplement containing what the manufacturer describes as "Micro Vortex Enteric-Coated Lithium Orotate," which contains 4.6 mg of elemental lithium. The enteric coating is used to prevent the product from degrading (breaking down) in the potent digestive acids in the stomach. This means any absorption of lithium would be in the small intestine. There is no information on what percentage of lithium does reach the bloodstream.
The 4.6 mg of lithium in each Serenity capsule is a very small amount. Even if 100 percent of the lithium is absorbed, the level of the drug in the blood would be very, very low — so low, in fact, that it would not have any effect on stabilizing mood swings. Even the manufacturer of Serenity states: "Research has demonstrated that this [supplement] does NOT raise the lithium levels in the blood at all or in any significant way."
Lithium is, in fact, an FDA-approved mood stabilizer that is used to treat bipolar disorder, but only in its prescription form. The safe and effective, or therapeutic, window for lithium is very small — meaning that dosages of lithium below a certain range have been shown not to be effective at all, and levels above this can lead to side effects.
The key to safe and effective management of bipolar disorder with any form of lithium is very close monitoring of the person taking the drug. If you have bipolar disorder, I would recommend that you discuss with your doctor which mood-stabilizing medication would be best for you.
Q3. How can I help my bipolar daughter handle money responsibly? She does not have access to a credit card or checking account. I dole out money to her, but she goes through it immediately. I gave her a card to withdraw $20 for gas and she spent $23 extra, overdrawing the account — even after I told her how much was in the account. She can't afford these charges, as she works two part-time jobs and is in recovery from drug addiction.
— Aubrey, New Jersey
This is an extremely challenging problem. One of the difficult dynamics in this kind of situation is that your daughter is probably resentful about being financially dependent on you (even though she has clearly demonstrated she can't manage her finances responsibly right now), and this can create a vicious circle.
The goal is to — eventually — provide her with more financial freedom, when she proves she is able to handle such responsibility. So it is best to keep the financial issues extremely non-judgmental, and deal with them with your daughter with as little emotional involvement (i.e., blaming, anger) as possible. If you provide her with a weekly allowance, you can give her incentives to gradually increase the amount of her allowance for "good behavior." For example, she can start keeping a spreadsheet or expenditure book to document her expenses. Both you and your daughter can agree on the terms by which she would have the amount increased. In addition, I highly recommend family therapy to help you and your daughter cope with these issues and the other challenges you probably are facing.
For more on how bipolar disorder can affect money issues, you may want to read Bipolar Disorder and Money Management.
Q4. I've heard about "rapid cycling" but don't know what it means. What is rapid cycling, and should people treat it differently than standard bipolar disorder?
According to the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association, rapid-cycling bipolar disorder occurs when a person experiences four or more mood swings or episodes in a one-year period. An episode can consist of depression, mania, hypomania, or even a mixed state. If you cycle through episodes within a month or less, the term "ultra-rapid cycling" is used, and if this pattern occurs within a 24-hour period, it is termed "ultra-ultra-rapid cycling" or "ultradian." Note that it is often difficult or impossible to distinguish ultradian cycling from a mixed episode.
It is estimated that 5 to 30 percent of those with bipolar disorder meet the criteria for rapid cycling. Children and adolescents are more likely to be diagnosed with this form of the illness, as are women. Unfortunately, however, very little is known about whether rapid cycling should be treated any differently than standard bipolar disorder.
We do know that rapid cyclers are more treatment-resistant and typically have a poor prognosis. Rapid cyclers are also likely to be particularly sensitive to mood triggers, such as sleep loss to date, the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), the use of antidepressants was associated with more frequent mood episodes. So I think it is fair to say that more aggressive treatment may be warranted for those with a rapid-cycling form of illness, and antidepressants may be contraindicated. But it is not clear whether certain mood-stabilizing medications work better than others.
Q5. I have bipolar disorder. When I was diagnosed by my doctor, he asked me if I worked outside the home. I said I was looking for a part-time job. He said it would be better if I did not work. Also he told me I should not volunteer at any school. I do not qualify for disability. My husband has a very good job. Is it usual that people with bipolar disorder cannot work and are not allowed to volunteer at any schools? One day, I was in line at the grocery store. Two ladies in front of me said "I would never work with anyone who has bipolar disorder. These people should be put in the mental hospital!" I was shocked!
If your mood symptoms are fairly well-controlled and this is not a time of excessive stress for you, it is quite surprising — and disappointing — to hear that your doctor advised you not to seek paid employment or volunteer opportunities.
Did your doctor explain why he felt it would be best for you not to work? If, for example, you had a history of your symptoms worsening due to a stressful job environment, this might be a reasonable suggestion. Then if you and your doctor eventually felt like your symptoms were under better control, you could re-evaluate.
But having a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is certainly not a reason in itself. Many people with bipolar disorder are highly successful — as physicians, university professors, entertainers, writers and CEOs — once their symptoms are treated effectively.
Although mental illness is much less stigmatizing than it was 20 or 30 years ago, we obviously still have a long way to go. Would anyone say that people with diabetes or a heart condition should not be employed, if they were able to do the work? Having a mental illness is really no different.
Q6. I have suffered from bipolar mania for most of my 37 years. I have had every symptom known to the disease including audio hallucinations. My hallucinations are not of a particular voice talking to me. I hear a faint radio from around the 1940s or 1950s. Has anything like this ever been reported? It's starting to scare me, and I would appreciate anything you can tell me about this for I like so many others am fighting the hardest battle of my life to be a productive member of society. Thank you very much.
Hearing faint, radio-like sounds is a fairly common type of "breakthrough" auditory hallucination – that is, sometimes people who have very vivid and frightening auditory hallucinations will become relatively stable on anti-psychotic medication but will occasionally still report this type of faint perceptual anomaly. If you are taking an anti-psychotic, this could be what's happening to you.
Although common, this kind of symptom can be extremely disturbing and is definitely something that you should discuss with your doctor. It is not something that you need to live with on a regular basis!
With some help and support, you can continue to be a productive member of society, although I know this is often a very difficult struggle.
Q7. My husband racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt during his manic episodes, with lots of reckless spending and extravagant purchases. He's doing better now, with the right medications, but I feel like I can't trust him with a credit card anymore. Do you have any advice on how I can have this difficult conversation with him?
This does sound like a very tough conversation to have with him. Like other serious illnesses, bipolar disorder can be extremely difficult for spouses, family members and friends to cope with. Particularly now that your husband is doing better, of course, you'd like to be able to trust him with financial responsibility, but it's obvious why you would not be comfortable with this right now.
This seems like a topic best discussed together with your husband and his prescribing physician. If you have a relationship with his doctor, it would be a good idea to discuss in advance how best to broach the topic with him, and what would be the best course of action.
You may also want to join a support group with your husband, such as those sponsored by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, so you both can talk to other couples and families who have faced similar situations. This may help your husband to get some better understanding of your perspective and what your (realistic) concerns are.
In addition, an excellent book which may be helpful for you is "Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder," by Julie Fast and John Preston. This book offers specific recommendations about how a couple can work together as a team to create a treatment plan that works, while still maintaining a loving relationship.
Q8. I am newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I'm starting treatment. My main fear is that I will lose the powerful feelings I get during my "high" episodes. What's the best treatment strategy to help me avoid the depressive episodes without giving up the highs?
This is a concern that is shared by many people when they begin treatment for bipolar disorder. The award-winning author Kay Redfield Jamison, who has bipolar disorder, wrote about this dilemma in her autobiographical book An Unquiet Mind. For her (as for many people with this illness), it wasn't until the manic episodes started becoming increasingly frightening, with severe agitation and psychotic symptoms, that she fully embraced treatment.
That said, low-level depression is a common problem for people with bipolar disorder, and one that clinicians are often not aware of. So the goal of treatment is to keep you on an even keel. I can't tell you, unfortunately, what particular medication or combination of medications and psychosocial treatments might work best for you — this is highly individualized — but you should work closely with your treatment provider to find the right combination, and the right medication dosages.
If your "highs" aren't getting you into trouble, your treatment provider might be willing to go with a low medication dose, which would preserve some of that mild hypomania — clearly a difficult thing to give up. On the other hand, full-blown manic episodes can be life-threatening or can ruin your finances and relationships. If that's the case, a treatment strategy that helps stabilize your mood is clearly critical for your long-term treatment success.
Q9. I am 50 years old, bulimic since age 16, and have major depression and bipolar 1. Since 1994, I have been taking a "cocktail" of three drugs (Lithium, Topomax, Effexor), and life has improved. However, I still see my reflection as obese — I have just learned to not trust the mirror. Do you think bipolar disorder and eating disorders could be due to similar chemical imbalances?
— Yvonne, California
I commend you for developing useful strategies (like not trusting the mirror), Yvonne. Your question is very precise and demonstrates a desire to understand the nature of your disorders. I wish I could give you an equally precise answer. However, as with most mental health issues, there are often few definitive explanations and many hypotheses.
Although there is no specific cause of bipolar disorder, there is a strong genetic link; an individual has a greater risk of developing the disorder if a first-degree biological relative has it. Other apparent triggers for bipolar disorder include severe emotional stress due to life circumstances, cocaine or methamphetamine abuse, and viral infections. As you alluded to, many experts believe that the disorder may result from a chemical imbalance in the brain. Simply put, the theory is that elevations in certain brain chemicals (e.g., neurotransmitters) trigger manic episodes, and if these same chemicals are too low, depression ensues.
This same theory does not seem to be prevalent in the literature on bulimia. Yet, as with bipolar, the exact causes of bulimia and other eating disorders are not known. The prevailing wisdom is that bulimia results from a mixture of genetics, family history, social factors and personality characteristics. As is often the case, individuals who develop a mental disorder like bipolar disorder may experience other disorders. In this regard, anorexia nervosa and bulimia are considered associated disorders that frequently occur with bipolar disorder.
Q10. Is hearing voices considered part of bipolar disorder? I thought it was a symptom of schizophrenia.
Hearing voices that are not actually present is the most common type of auditory hallucination experienced by people with psychotic disorders. Psychosiscan broadly be defined as symptoms involving a loss of touch with reality.
While we generally think of psychosis in association with schizophrenia, psychotic symptoms can also occur in the context of mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or severe unipolar major depression. In fact, about 60 percent of people with bipolar disorder experience psychotic symptoms when in an acute mood episode (mania or depression). This can involve delusions (false beliefs) such as believing oneself to be a famous person, or believing that one has special powers. It can also involve hallucinations like hearing voices.
If a person with symptoms of bipolar disorder also experiences frequent periods of psychotic symptoms without severe mood symptoms, however, then a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type may be more appropriate.
Q11. How can we help our 29-year-old daughter with management of her bipolar condition when she lives 10 hours away? She lives in New York City and has a good psychiatrist and a therapist. She has lost three jobs. She is currently working but is really not supporting herself financially now with high medical costs, which her father and I have had to take on. She works hard at staying "clean and sober," but regularly phones us that she isn't doing well. Our life is upside-down, and we're always walking on eggshells for fear of contributing to another relapse or worse. We think it is unrealistic for her to continue to live so far away when she is so dependent on us financially and mentally. Are we helping or hurting her?
This sounds like an incredibly difficult situation for you and your husband, and it's one that, unfortunately, many parents of adult children with bipolar disorder have to face.
Is your daughter eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)? It sounds like she would be, given the severity of her illness. Her psychiatrist can help her complete the paperwork for this. SSI would at least help relieve some of the financial burden being placed on you.
You ask whether your daughter would be better off coming back home to live with you. This is a very difficult decision for you and your daughter to make together, hopefully with input from her psychiatrist about her ability to successfully live on her own. If she feels like she has no choice in the matter, it may cause more conflict to come back home (or at least closer to home). But if she agrees to it and feels like she has been part of the decision-making process, then it may be the best thing for her, at least in the short term.
Q12. How likely is successful employment for bipolar patients once medication is instituted?
Very likely for those who respond well to treatment. In fact, in a recent study of 1,855 people diagnosed with bipolar disorder, almost half reported they were working (Bipolar Disorders 2007). Another recent study in the same medical journal examined how well people function at their jobs. In a very large sample of people with bipolar disorder, the researchers found that some of the factors that led to negative outcome with regard to employment were lack of insight into positive symptoms, lifetime substance dependence and lifetime repeated use of illicit or non-prescription drugs. This suggests that substance abuse is an important factor contributing to the likelihood of successful employment for people with bipolar disorder.
Q13. One of the symptoms of my mania seems to be the frightening experience of not being able to drive! I can't seem to keep the car straight. It's like I forget what I'm doing, and my brain has wandered off with all its other thoughts. Do I have to give up driving?
That is an extremely frightening experience, and it is good that you are aware of your difficulties with driving during these time periods. You certainly don't need to give up driving permanently, as there are many, many people out there with bipolar disorder who drive very well, and are highly successful at many things – once their illness is effectively controlled.
However, for the time being – while you are still experiencing episodes of mania like this – you are quite right that you should stay off the road. The decision about when it will be safe for you to drive is one that should be made between you and your doctor, preferably with the input of other family members and loved ones.
Q14. I'm looking for some inspiration and reassurance: Can you talk about some famous people who have managed to thrive with bipolar disorder?
There are many famous people — throughout history and in present-day society — who have led very successful lives once their bipolar disorder was effectively treated. The actress Carrie Fisher, the Johns Hopkins University professor Kay Redfield Jamison, the writer and producer Sidney Sheldon, and the TV journalist Jane Pauley have all written absorbing autobiographical books about their experiences, which I highly recommend reading.
Among the more well-known historical figures believed to have had bipolar disorder are distinguished political figures (Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt) and writers and composers (Balzac, Beethoven, Handel, Schumann, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway). In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Jamison examines the links between bipolar disorder and creative temperament and reviews case histories of famous composers and writers believed to have had bipolar illness.
Q15. I hear that having a good sleep environment is key to managing bipolar disorder. What does that mean? How important is it really?
This really refers to having a regular, structured sleep schedule — that is, going to bed at the same time every night (at a reasonable hour) and waking up at the same time each morning. Sleep disturbance is clearly a key aspect of bipolar illness, and many researchers believe that loss of sleep, for any reason, can actually trigger a manic episode.
Studies have found that among 25 to 65 percent of bipolar patients who had a manic episode, a social rhythm disruption (meaning a disturbance in routine affecting the sleep-wake cycle) occurred directly before the onset of the episode. Some things that can help improve your sleep environment are not watching TV in your bedroom, abstaining from drugs and alcohol (which can severely disrupt sleep patterns), and having regular, structured activities in the morning to keep your sleep-wake cycle regular. If you have poor-quality sleep or irregular sleep patterns, this should be brought to your doctors' attention immediately. Changing the way you sleep could significantly improve your bipolar symptoms.
Q16. I have bipolar disorder, and I am wondering what protections I have related to this condition in my workplace. Does my employer have to make accommodations for me at work? I've kind of worked my way through a manic and depressive cycle, and it wasn't easy. I know my employer knows I have a problem, and I think he's just waiting for an excuse to terminate me. Do you have any thoughts on this issue?
This is an excellent question. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for qualified people with disabilities in employment situations. These guidelines state that "an individual is considered to have a 'disability' if s/he has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment."
Now, a key issue here is the word "qualified." If your bipolar disorder has caused you to miss a lot of work or otherwise not fulfill your job responsibilities, or if you are having a lot of interpersonal difficulties in the workplace, your employer may have legitimate grounds for dismissal. Your employer is required to provide "reasonable accommodations" for your disability, but obviously, in the case of a mental illness like bipolar disorder, this is more of a gray area than it would be for an employee with, say, a hearing impairment.
Here are some articles on this topic that you may want to read to get more information: Bipolar Disorder and Legal Issues and Coping With Bipolar Disorder on the Job.
In general, the most important thing is not to give your employer any excuses to terminate you, by doing everything you can to manage your illness effectively (take your bipolar disorder medications as prescribed, get enough sleep, and stay in treatment!).
Learn more in the Everyday Health Bipolar Disorder Center.


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Oil, gas and mineral exploration
Oil, gas and mineral deposits are the raw materials that drive the global economy.
As existing reserves dwindle, ensuring an adequate supply for the future requires the exploration of frontier regions for new supplies.
Entering uncharted territory
Inhospitable and inaccessible environments such as desert and Arctic regions are increasingly the focus of survey activities, but exploration managers find it demanding to operate in such uncharted territory, often lacking detailed maps and basic geological information about the areas they are interested in.
Earth observation makes possible the large scale surveying of unexplored regions in a cost-effective manner, providing an additional layer of information to managers to before they make the expensive decision to commit to on-site exploration.
Space sensors looking beneath the surface
Satellite data can map and identify large-scale geological structures related to hydrocarbon and mineral deposits that ground-based surveys may find more difficult to see: satellite radar interferometry can precisely identify surface faults or slight ground motion connected with hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Multi-spectral optical sensors can directly identify different minerals, either valuable in their own right or chemically altered by contact with oil and gas deposits.
Marine exploration
Detecting anomalies in the local gravity field is an accepted prospecting method often carried out with ship surveys. Earth observation can enlarge the field of view, deriving global and regional gravity maps from marine altimeter data.
Seepage from underwater hydrocarbon deposits forms natural oil slicks on the sea surface. Such slicks can be seen using space-based radar, and the tell-tale fact of their repetition can be established by analysing the decade-plus data archive of radar imagery that has been compiled.
Logistics support
As well as assisting with direct search efforts, satellite images can also provide indirect logistics support, for instance planning the most effective placing of sound sources and geophones in order to carry out a seismic survey, or selecting the most suitable sites for extraction facilities.


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text: ASTORIA, OR—The deadly auto wreck that claimed the life of local high school science teacher Donald Vaughan, 47, would have neatly and succinctly illustrated the basic laws of classical mechanics to his fourth-period physics class, sources reported Monday. Having struggled to grasp the rule stating that force is equal to mass times acceleration, Vaughan's students would reportedly have been given an elegant case study in the concept were he still alive to describe the way his 1992 Mazda Protégé lethally collided with a large oak tree late Saturday night. Sources also reported that, had Vaughan's students only witnessed their teacher's head separate violently from his spinal cord, they might have finally understood the fundamental idea that an object in motion will tend to stay in motion.


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Brew the coffee. Read the paper.Make some bagels. Enjoy the unseasonably warm winter day. It is just a tease for tomorrow comes snow, sleet, freezing rain and bitter cold. Will this winter ever end? We'll have enough bagels to sustain us for a few days!
This recipe is a variation of a recipe from one of those old Sunset cookbooks from the sixties. They specialized in one subject paperback cookbooks- Bread, Chinese, Vegetable, etc,. Lot's of photos and step by step instructions which were especially helpful for anyone unfamiliar with the subject at hand. They are still publishing them in addition to the magazine.
If you have not tasted a fresh bagel, you are in for a treat. It is nothing at all like those donut shaped white bread substitutes you get in the freezer case. The secret is boiling them before baking and they are really very easy to make. And if it is a lazy Sunday, you have the time. The only thing that makes them non vegan would be the topping-butter, cream cheese, smoked, salmon, etc. Today is our vegan day so we serve with vegan margarine or heart healthy olive oil.Break out the cream cheese and lox tomorrow!
Easy Sunday Morning Pumpernickel Bagels
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups warm water(110 degrees, test it on your wrist)
3 tablespoons dark molasses
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups rye flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon molasses in 3 quarts water
cornmeal for dusting
olive oil for glazing
caraway seeds for sprinkling
Turn on the Rolling Stones. Loud. No, really loud!
Stir the molasses into the warm water and sprinkle yeast over. Stir to dissolve and set aside.Let sit until foaming.
In a large bowl stir together the flours, caraway seeds and salt with a wooden spoon. Add the water/yeast mixture and stir together into a ball. Turnout onto a floured surface and knead until silky and smooth, 10 to 15 minutes. Add more flour if necessary to keep from sticking but the dough is drier than typical bread dough so this probably won't be necessary. Turn into an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.
Punch the dough down, knead briefly on a lightly floured board to release air, then divide into 12 equal pieces. Form each piece into a smooth ball by gently kneading. Holding a ball with both hands, poke your thumbs through center. With one thumb in the hole, work around perimeter, shaping bagel like a doughnut. Place shaped bagels on a lightly floured board, cover lightly and let stand in a warm place for 20 minutes. Don't worry if they don't look perfect like those ones that taste like Wonder Bread. It's all about taste.Turn on Neil Young.
Bring molasses and water to a boil in a large pot and lower to let it boil gently. Lightly grease a large baking sheet and dust with cornmeal. With a slotted spatula, drop 4 bagels(one at a time) into the gently boiling water and turn often for five minutes. Lift out and drain briefly on a towel before placing on the baking sheet.
Brush the bagels with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until well browned and crusty. Let cool on a rack.
See? Easy! Split.Toast. Dribble with olive oil. Grab the paper, a cup of coffee.Turn on Johnny Cash. Enjoy!


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Estudio Olaechea remains as one of the most renowned and prestigious firms in the country and our clients find in us a strategic advisor, with whom to work on a long term basis. Our objective and main responsibility are to promote growth and business development of our clients. Therefore, our professionals have a personal commitment with excellence which is reflected in coming from the main law schools of Peru, USA, and Europe. Our lawyers are constantly innovating and training through complementary courses and masters taken in Peru and abroad.