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A side Hustle Anyone Can Do
A few months ago, I was looking into additional ways to make money, and specifically make money on the side and from home. I thought it might be a good venture to share on the blog from time to time since I do earn some money from several different ways "specifically crafty" ways or side hustles. And while it is nice to share craft business tips for other makers and crafty creatives, I thought that before I do, I would go into the easiest, fastest and rather a fun way to make pretty decent money from home.
Now, don't get too excited, I've only tried or done this myself a handful of times, and that is manly because one, I do have my other side hustle of selling handmade goods, like embroidery or vinyl, or jewelry through my online shop, The Dashing Pearl, and my orders and customers take precedence. BUT, that all being said, if the orders are slow, and I have down time, and want to pull in some extra bucks, this is what I would do, and still do.
So do you want to know what it is?
It is User Testing. User Testing, ehh? You might be thinking – what the heck is that? Well, it is basically being paid, typically $10 for every 10-15 minute website test you complete. Now, dont misunderstand me, it is NOT, you actually completing a test of your skills or know. It is more a test of you "testing out" or experiencing someone else's website within the requested time. It's pretty neat, right?
How User Testing works:
First you have to make an account at usertesting.com. Once you do, you will be asked to go through a short survey of questions so that the site can match you to clients who have websites that need to be tested specifically from within your area, geo graphics or some other qualifying, like if you use android versus apple. Tests can be completed on laptops (my preference) however, some require a test being done via your cell phone or tablet.
Once you have your account and profile all set up, you will be asked to complete a sample test, or what I call the actual "interview" of being a tester. Yes, you must pass this part of it before you would begin getting user tests to do for money. This test is done on your laptop, using your laptop's microphone.
Testing is done by you speaking out into the mic your thought process of going through the website, really explaining what you see and or possibly what you thought or expected to see. This lets the website owner know exactly what they need to do to change the site to be more user friendly, or what may be happening if there is a glitch. So during the test or "interview test" make sure you are absolutely in the quietest area of your home, and that you speak loud and clear into your microphone. My best tip is that you try not to stop talking the entire time, and that you do not ramble on about just anything either.
The Interview
This test is to test how you speak, do you speak good English, or do you mumble, speak slang or slur, do you comprehend what you are seeing on your screen and turn it back into feedback verbally for the website owner to use. That in itself is the way to be great a user tester.
Why I love it:
I love it because it doesn't feel like it is work, and it takes only a few minutes to make a few quick bucks without leaving home, packaging anything, and basically I can do tests while sitting in my pjs, in bed with my laptop. I'm a talker by nature, so doing user tests is natural for me. Nobody is in the room when I do them, so I speak as if I am speaking to myself and as to what I'm really thinking about website. I love visiting different websites.
One test I completed required me to go through the checkout process of a hotel website, and they issued me a "fake credit card number" that would act as a real one when testing on the site. So I made a pretend reservation to Paris, France (the destination was my choice, so why not) for two nights for two people. Throughout the test, I had to give my thoughts, and then was also asked to provide feedback on the checkout process, and notate specifics that were confusing. Pretty cool, right??? It took all of 15 minutes of my time, and I was paid $10 approximately 3 days later into Paypal for my test. And the best part is, that this momma got to escape being a mom for those few moments pretending a mini vacay away!!! One can dream right?!?!!
So to do some simple numbers for you, if you were to complete just 5 tests per week, that is $50 bucks and over the month that could easily turn into $200 dollars of extra income. Over time I could buy that vacation. But hey, $200 extra bucks a month is not bad for practically doing nothing except for giving your best professional opinion of someone's website. All you really need is good laptop that has a microphone to do this job. You can buy other equipment, like a microphone to ensure better quality sound, but it is not necessary.
The Downside of User Testing
Okay, so I wouldn't be completely honest with you if I didn't also explain the downside of this side hustle job. Every job has them right? And the one downfall of this one is that, tests are sometimes hard to get. You may only get 1 test per day. A lot of times they are emailed to you. If you happen to be in your email inbox at the time the tests pops in you can quickly log in and snag the test. Other times, you can automatically be logged in to see any first test that comes up, or look for other possible tests that you qualify for. I was able to find a few 5 minute tests, but note those 5 minute only tests pay $3. So you have to weigh that in when considering this for part time cash or work.
However, I do know that people log in for a few hours and pick up tests while doing other things on the computer, and so if you are one of those people who can do that – most likely during the day, then you could make some pretty good money with this side hustle. I just want to be honest with you from the beginning, it is not a get rich quick gimmick by any means, but it is a decent fun and interesting way to make a few extra couple bucks.
Do you have a side hustle, or part time gig that you do to make additional money? If so leave me a comment and let me know about it. I am always interested in finding new ways to pick up some extra cash without ever leaving home. I find it fascinating how even some make a full time salary from doing 1 or more side hustles from home. Hope you found this helpful, thanks for reading.


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A Guide to WooCommerce and Magento
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows a website owner to sell their products easily. It is an eCommerce platform that allows the seller/website owner and the website developer to have complete control. Due to the open source nature of WordPress, WooCommerce is open source as well.
Check out this video for helpful visual aids that further explain the use of WooCommerce:
What is Magento?
Magento is an eCommerce platform that allows shops to sell their products on their websites via credit cards and other forms of payment.
Magento is an open source technology that provides a flexible shopping cart system and control over other aspects of the display and selling of products.

subset: commoncrawl


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USC got the job done in Jersey, pulling out a 42-29 win against Syracuse.
Matt Barkley threw 6 TD passes, Curtis McNeal and Silas Redd posted good numbers on the ground, and Marqise Lee and Robert Woods had their usual share of impressive plays.
On defense, Dion Bailey had two interceptions, and Morgan Breslin looks like the reincarnation of Clay Matthews.
The Trojans' depth is being and will continue being put to the test. The defensive line in particular is playing well, but this is a position that just cannot afford any more injuries.
Enjoy the highlights.


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FMI, the largest provider of management consulting and investment banking to the engineering and construction industry released today its Q1-2013 Construction Outlook. Although the strength of individual markets is shifting, the forecast for total construction-put-in-place for 2013 continues to show an increase of 8% over 2012 levels. The $918,897 million estimate is a solid improvement, but FMI does not expect to return to the days of annual construction above the trillion-dollar mark until 2015.
The star of the show is residential buildings with a 23% rise in single-family buildings. While much of business sector is still in wait-and-see mode, some industries are breaking the mold and planning for growth. Commercial, lodging and office construction are starting to pick up.
The rich shale regions of the country are seeing a lot of construction activity. With oil and gas exploration booming, these regions are in need of housing, as well as the construction of roads, rail and pipelines to move the product from the fields to refining and distribution sites.
In addition, the potential for greater energy independence and lower energy prices is helping to make the U.S. more competitive in the global market and enticing more manufacturing to relocate in the U.S.
Residential Construction Single-family housing put in place grew 19% in 2012, and FMI expects another 23% growth to reach $161 billion by the end of 2013. Multifamily construction improved a whopping 47% in 2012, with FMI looking for another 31% in 2013.
Nonresidential Construction Trends and Forecasts by Sector:
Lodging — After three years of steep declines, the market for lodging construction came back a strong 25% in 2012 and FMI expects another 10% growth in construction put in place for 2013.
Office — Office construction is finally showing a solid but slow turnaround with 5% growth in 2012 and another 5% increase expected in 2013.
Commercial — Commercial construction is the third largest nonresidential construction market behind education construction and manufacturing construction. That is why it is good to see that it continues into its third year of good growth, moving up 8% in 2012 and looking for another 7% to reach $50.3 billion in 2013.
Health care — Health care construction was moderate in 2012, growing only 3%, but FMI expects it to pick up in 2013 to 8% to $44.2 billion construction put in place for the year.
Manufacturing — Manufacturing construction increased 17% in 2012. It will continue with another 6% increase for 2013 through 2014.
Power-related — Construction for the power market grew 9% in 2012 and will continue to grow between 8% and 9% through 2017.


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The Art of Not DoingCategories Cliché-yey, existence
All the books which analyse humanity and its behaviours seldom offers answers. But in its analysis there is a momentary glimpse of something which seems to transform you every so slightly. But for me, all of these books do point straight back to meditation. Meditation is not the word, its the act of self study, and self observation. The truth has not really changed, its always been us, but most of us don't choose to dig through it. The weird thing is that in idleness we are faced with this truth which normally comes as a form of anxiety. Forgive me if I am talking about something which has somewhat become a cliché, but I think its worth looking into deeper than you would a cliché. Its in idleness that something new seems to happen, something which you've not experienced before. Its normally when someone retires, or loses a loved one and they faced with themselves that insights seem to start pouring in. I guess it could be a form of loneliness. I guess any form of idleness, you would experience a form of loneliness.
The activity of daily life just seems to put a veil over an empty object, but like the magicians curtain, once you remove the veil and the smoke cleares you find that there is something there. The things you saw were just an impression of things, but the impression seems to be enough for us to keep driving towards it. Keeping busy is a way of distracting yourself from the knowledge that you are the magician and you know that there is nothing there behind the curtain in the first place. You've created the show, you've made the props, you've put yourself in this show, but we've somehow forgotten that. We seem to have forgotten that the show is just a play, its made up and its momentary.
On a very practical level, we seem to be faced with a form of anxiety when we are given time to ourselfs, when we become aimless. Employment and the daily life just seems to give us something which gives the impression of progress, which seems to be enough to stop us from asking the questions which we asked when we were children. Somehow, those questions seem to come back to you when you get older, and when you are faced with idleness. Questions like, why are we here? And how the universe can be infinite and for us to take this space in its infinity. These curiosities which we run away from seem to rush back to us when we are in idleness, but these questions also seem to give us a form of rest which 'things' doesn't seem to.
Older people are the folks we ignore in society, they are seldom talked about in popular culture. Like discarded leafs, we just wait for the rain water to take it away into the gutter. But the irony is that, as we get older, and as we get more useless to everyone else, and we get the time to remain in idleness is when a lot of us have the space to expand, and flourish. Its this time when we become in reality, the most useful for humanity.
I wonder what would happen if all the able bodied people took a break from employment for just a year, what kind of changes we would see. Because in that space where we are faced with idleness, we begin to wander and when we wander we open ourselfs to experiences which actually challenge us. There is so much talk about pushing past your comfort zone, to 'put yourself out there' but we can all do this just by sitting alone in any space by yourself. In that space there seems to be a kind of growth which goes beyond something you can write down in a resume. When you are retired, you start to paint, you start to write, you start to play. Somehow these goals which come from within seems to be more much fulfilling than the goals which seems to be come from without. Why do we run away from idleness which can bring us so much? Because idleness won't type out your insurance claim forms, idleness won't deliver your amazon parcels, idleness won't write any code. The nature of idleness is inactivity. But its in inactivity that inspiration is. Its in inactivity that the right action is. Its in inactivity that you are. Its in inactivity that the universe is. The content is action, where it resides is inaction.


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An hour before dawn on September 3, 1798, the waves of the Mediterranean tugged at the coast of the island of San Pietro near Sardinia, lullabying the thousand or so sleeping residents. So peaceful was it, so rhythmic and hypnotic the sound—or perhaps it was due to a bottle of local vino bianco—that even the two municipal watchmen in the church tower had fallen asleep. So there was no one to puzzle out the faint white flecks of sails growing larger on the pinkish gray horizon, and no one to ring the massive church bells to sound the alarm that a fleet of seven ships was approaching.
Standing silently at the rail of these lateen-sailed ships, visible in faint silhouette, were bearded men in loose billowy pants and turbans, carrying scimitars and pistols. The vessels, packed with one thousand Barbary Pirates from Tunis in North Africa, glided to anchor inside the harbor. The crews quietly lowered small landing boats and began to ferry men ashore. The first group, barefoot and heavily armed, raced to seal off the two roads leading out of town.
Surprisingly, the leader of this attacking Moslem fleet, the pirate commodore, as it were, was an Italian who had converted to Islam. The ritual had involved losing his foreskin and gaining a new name. He was now Mohammed Rumelli, and in the Lingua Franca slang of the Mediterranean, he was dubbed a "rinigado," a renegade. Over the centuries, the rulers of the Barbary countries of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, , had learned that Christian captains could navigate better than their homegrown Moslem talent.
Another Italian, acting as harbor pilot, had guided the fleet to the perfect anchorage. This fellow from Capri (never identified by name) carried a deeply personal motive for joining the attack. He had married a woman from San Pietro but she had abandoned him; he was now convinced that she was cuckolding him here on the island. He had turned Turk expressly to seek his revenge.
As the first ray of dawn caught the sails, Muhammed Rumelli gave the signal to "wake up" the townspeople. The pirates unleashed a sudden unholy thunder. The ships' cannons bellowed out broadsides. The sailors on shore added a lunatic's drum roll of small arms fire. The cacaphony climaxed as close to a thousand mouths let loose impassioned Arabic war cries and the men rushed into the town. Allahu akhbar speeded their pursuit of profit.
The corsairs engulfed the tiny town; they battered down the doors, burst into homes, brandishing torches and scimitars, rousting the stunned citizens from bed and kicking them into the streets. They cursed their victims as Romo Kelb ("Christian dogs"). The women cowered in corners, trying to avoid what one observer described as "shame and villainies."
A French naval officer, arriving the next day, found that five women had died in their beds of knife wounds, their bodies entwined in sheets caked with blood. The first female victim, according to local accounts, was the unfaithful wife of that pilot from Capri. A Sardinian historian later called her a "fishwife Helen" who had no idea that her husband's jealous rage had drawn the enemy to her homeland.
The attackers spent the entire day hauling money, jewels, church silver, silks to the harbor but by far the most valuable commodity to be stolen walked on two legs: human slaves. Surah 47 of the Koran allowed these Moslem attackers to enslave and ransom any of these captives. Young Italian women would fetch more than the men in the flesh markets of Tunis and Algiers.
The crews dragged the townspeople aboard various ships, tossing them like ballast willy-nilly belowdeck into the holds for the 160-mile voyage. The prisoners wore only what they had slipped into at bedtime on that seemingly unimportant September night, which would turn out to be their last night of freedom for half a decade.
This was life on a Mediterranean island, circa 1798, in the age of Napoleon and Nelson and the waning days of the Barbary Corsairs.
The Bey of Tunis, the country's ruler, had commissioned these seven ships and a thousand men to attack San Pietro. To the Bey, they were his privateers, fighting a legitimate war against Sardinia which had refused to pay tribute to him for the right to navigate the Mediterranean; to the rest of the world, these seven ships were Barbary Pirates, part of a centuries-old extortion scheme.
Fall weather on the Mediterranean can run skittish and storm winds kicked up. The San Pietro prisoners spent the next four days seesawing in the windowless foul-smelling dark, appalled at their fate, vomiting, weeping, with no sanitation, and almost no food or water.
That is, all except six young women. "Six jeunes filles," ran a later report in French from a Dutch consul, Antoine Nyssen, in Tunis. "Six young girls, alas, that they were still so, were selected by the Rais (captains) to serve their filthy desires, and the most disgusting forms of volupte' were their pasttimes during the voyage."
The ships, nearing Tunis, passed the site of ancient Carthage, and the captains fired off celebratory cannon shots to signal their victory. The city of Tunis lies six miles inland from the harbor, connected by a stagnant reddish-colored lake. The pirates rushed the prisoners aboard small barges; boatmen, pushing poles, then strained to follow a winding route indicated by pillars rising a foot or two above the surface. "On these pillars, standing silent, sad, wings furled, seeming like those birds sculpted on tombs, are cormorants," wrote French novelist, Alexander Dumas, who fifty years later took this same route. Dumas said the birds of prey would suddenly swoop down on some fish swimming near the surface, then calmly return to re-assume their crypt-like pose. It's doubtful that many of the Italian captives noticed the wildlife.
The city soon announced itself by smell as much as by sight. The prisoners later learned that fecal ditches run along the northern and eastern walls to receive the human waste from 300,000 inhabitants of various races: Moors, Arabs, Turks, Jews, European merchants and diplomats, African and Christian slaves. Runoff from the ditches feed into the stagnant shallow lake making the fish poisonous to humans but edible by the likes of cormorants, flamingos and seagulls.
The corsairs, swinging leather straps, herded the filthy exhausted prisoners through the narrow byways of the whitewashed city on the unusually hot day of September 8, 1798. "I saw them harassed by blows, by fatigue, covered in dust and dying of thirst, dragging themselves along a burning street, barefoot, hatless," wrote the Dutch consul. "There was a huge crowd drunk with joy to see so many Christian victims of the bravery of their soldiers."
These unfortunate captives staggered forward two hours to the palace where the Bey of Tunis, Hamouda, in his jeweled turban and diamond-encrusted silk vest, inspected them. For him it was like counting money. Each of the prisoners was now a slave to be sold at his whim. The Bey's corsairs had captured an astounding 950 people, including 702 women and children.
On the northern coast of Africa circa 1800, blacks and whites could still be sold into slavery. Men were usually peddled near naked, or in dangly shirts, in an outdoor auction; women could be inspected privately in stalls nearby. Unlike slave auctions in the southern United States, male buyers here openly acknowledged lustful desires for their human purchases; matrons inspected the women, and virgins were sold at a steep premium, often with a written guarantee.
Of all the fears of people living in the 1780s and 1790s, a fear perhaps exceeding death itself was the terror of being made a slave on the Barbary Coast; in sermon after sermon, it was portrayed as Hell in life. (Twenty-one free-born Americans had spent eleven years in slavery in Algiers from 1785 to 1796, bringing their stories home to the nation.)
Foreign consuls begged the Bey not to break up the San Pietro families, not to sell anyone off to Algerian slave traders. The ruler of Tunis set his opening asking price for the women at 600 Venetian Sequins each, about $1,371 at a time when a U.S. sailor earned $144 a year. He would charge half that amount for the men. The Bey, to save on the costs of feeding and dressing, then farmed many of the captives out to the leading citizens of Tunis, including the representatives of foreign countries who accepted the slaves on humanitarian grounds. (Six years later, Tobias Lear, United States consul-general to Algiers, would accept two female Italian slaves to work as housekeepers in the consulate. He would expense-account their $75-a-year upkeep.)
Among the San Pietro prisoners, one young girl stood out. Strikingly beautiful and of aristocratic birth, Anna Maria Porcile was 12 years old, a ripe age on the Barbary Coast, a marriageable age. She was the grand daughter of the Count of Sant-Antioco, the admiral of the Navy of Sardinia. Brought up in a strict Catholic household, Anna had led a sheltered life; private tutors taught music, literature and dance to this naturally vivacious girl.
The Bey, to keep loyalty high among his officers, decided to allow his six corsair captains to select one female each as his own personal slave. The Admiral of the fleet, Rais Muhammed Rumelli, chose Anna.
Rumelli was quoted as saying he "had fixed his desire on her"; he intended her as his concubine unless someone would immediately buy her from him for the record asking price of 16,000 piasters, or almost $5,000 (the price of a mansion in Manhattan).
Anna's entire family had been captured in the raid, including her mother Barbara, her father Antonio and her two sisters. While the negotiations for the rest of the slaves could drag on over months via shipboard messages to and from Sardinia, Anna's fate must be decided quickly. Rumelli demanded an answer. Anna's father desperately tried to find financing. He naturally turned to fellow Italians who happened to be in Tunis and he fortunately found a Tuscan merchant, one Felipe Borzoni, who would loan him the entire sum. The man paid Rais Rumelli and Anna was suddenly free… almost.
She was the human collateral for her father's loan… the Bey would not grant a tiskara or passport to her until the loan was repaid. With Anna as hostage for her father's return, Don Antonio Porcile was allowed to travel to Europe to raise the money but in the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he failed. So the Tuscan merchant sold the debt to the aged prime minister Mustapha Coggia, a man known for his wisdom, courtliness and a complete lack of teeth.
The months of 1799 slipped by, and these white-skinned slaves joined the 2,000 or so slaves of various hues laboring in Tunis. Negotiations dragged on… the price for the women dropped in half to 300 Venetian sequins… the exasperated Bey, to encourage a speedier payment, sold eleven to slave traders of Algiers; nonetheless, the king of Sardinia, harassed by Napoleon, was unable to redeem his countrymen. Italian slave mothers gave birth to dozens of new slaves in Tunis.
On Oct. 10, 1800, 87 year old Mustapha Coggia—who held the Porcile debt—died, and all the prime minister's possessions passed to the Bey of Tunis. The very next day, the Bey demanded that the Porcile family pay off the debt immediately or else the Bey said he would reclaim lovely Anna and add her to his seraglio. Or, more ominously, he said he might instead auction her off in the slave markets of Istanbul. (Since the Bey made little secret of his preference for men over women—his foreign minister Yussef Sapatapa, a 33 year old former slave, was his lover—selling Anna was the likelier scenario.)
That afternoon, Anna and her mother and her sister tried desperately to figure out a way to raise the money. Her grandfather, the admiral, had died and her father, the new count, was at that moment in Sardinia, still trying to amass the huge sum with absolutely no success. The pirates had stolen everything. His credit was suspect. European banking was a mess. The mother and her daughters were running out of options and time… they considered the various consulates, such as British, French, Danish, and the Catholic Redemptionist charities, Jewish moneylenders, European merchants.
On that afternoon of October 11, 1800, frantic, they presented themselves at the door of the consulate of the United States of America, a fledgling nation that trumpeted itself as a bastion of freedom; they sought refuge under the red-white-and-blue flag which then had 15 stars and 15 stripes and was represented in Tunis by one of the most unlikely diplomats ever to be forgotten by history: William Eaton.
A former Army captain, Eaton had recently been court-martialed and convicted. He was impetuous, hard-headed, argumentative. His loud voice cut through conversations; his ramrod straight stance inspired respect; his Dartmouth education added polysyllables to his vocabulary. Diplomacy, he had very little, he was blunt-spoken, exceedingly direct. He once wrote of the feeble efforts of the U.S. Navy that "a fleet of Quaker meeting houses would have done just as well." This bulldog of a man, age 35, stood 5'8", with deep set large blue eyes. A friend described his eyes as "expressive of energy, penetration and authority" but also of "impatience and disquietude."
Eaton had arrived in Tunis on the little merchant brig Sophia in 1799 and was immediately appalled. "Here I am,… under the mad rays of a vertical sun reflected and refracted from wall and terraces of white-washed houses, hotter than tobacco & rum, with plague and scorpions suspended over my head, menacing death, surrounded by brutal Turks, swindlers, jews, perfidious Italians, miserable slaves, lazy camels, churlish mules, and savage arabs --- without society and without amusement. Is not this enough to constitute a hell?"
His irritation only grew, as he observed slavery close up. "For my part, it grates me mortally when I see a lazy Turk [a Moslem] reclining at his ease upon an embroidered sofa, with one Christian slave to fan away the flies, another to hand him his coffee and a third to hold his pipe…. It is still more grating to perceive that the Turk believes he has a right to demand this contribution and that we, like Italians, have not the fortitude to resist it." (The United States government, with a huge debt from the Revolutionary War, found it cheaper to pay off Tunis--and keep the pirates away--than to fight against them.)
Eaton, a New England patriot, was appalled that the United States would pay bribes to pirates, and was deeply annoyed at having personally to hand out diamond-encrusted watches, gold watches, pairs of gold-mounted pistols, gold tobacco boxes, silks, and many others items to sixty different government officials in Tunis from the Bey and Admiral down to the infamously ugly eunuch who guarded the Bey's harem, the dark-skinned giant with the raspy meuling infant's voice.
The Porcile women stood crying before William Eaton. Anna's honor hung in the balance. "Imagination better than language can paint their distress," Eaton later wrote. From a conviction about freedom that literally had its roots near Plymouth Rock with Eaton's great great grandfather, he could not abide this form of persecution.
Against all common sense, Eaton agreed to guarantee a six month loan for Anna's father, allowing himself to stand as surety for the repayment of $5,000. "I ransomed your daughter," Eaton later wrote to the Count, "because being in my house, both the honor of my flag and my own sensibility dictated it." If at the end of six months Count Porcile couldn't pay, then Eaton was obligated to do so.
What is striking is that Eaton at that moment had absolutely no money. At least, none of his own, and yet, he was committing to pay a small fortune to rescue an Italian slave girl. Impetuously. For Honor. William Eaton, throughout his life, would be drawn to commit deeds that he considered righteous and others would consider reckless.
His flurry of letters to Count Porcile received eloquent replies but no money.
And in June of 1801, the homosexual lover of the Bey, Yussef Sapatapa, told Eaton that he must repay the $5,000. Eaton, after failing to raise money through trading ventures, was now forced to borrow the large sum from a Tunisian merchant, named Unis ben Unis.
In February of 1803, to show some force and fend off any threat of war, the United States sent armed ships to Tunis. An old Barbary maxim states: "Whoever acts like a sheep, the wolf will eat." So, the young United States did not want to be mistaken for a sheep. Commodore Richard Morris, with Captain John Rodgers, arrived in three heavily armed frigates. The mission seemed successful; the odd new nation across the Atlantic did indeed have a navy. But as Commodore Morris, in blue uniform with gold epaulettes, was about to embark to cross that stagnant lake to go to the harbor, he was suddenly arrested… because of the thousands of dollars of debt of William Eaton. The highest ranking United States Navy officer found himself surrounded by Tunisians wielding scimitars and he was forced to return to the city. "It was impossible to apprehend that the respect attached to the person of the Commodore would be violated," Eaton wrote. "It is unprecedented, even in the history of Barbary outrage."
Commodore Richard Morris—a scion of the wealthy Morris family of Vermont, whose brother had cast the deciding ballot to elect Jefferson over Burr--was furious with Eaton. He assumed that the man's debts were mostly personal. Eaton, Morris and Unis ben Unis walked to the palace where Bey Hamouda, wearing a jeweled silk cloak, greeted them on his luxurious sofa. Eaton vehemently denied that he had ever promised to repay Unis ben Unis whenever the American squadron arrived. Unis demanded payment of $22,000… of that, $5,000 came from Eaton's ransom of Anna and $10,000 came from Sapatapa claiming that Eaton had promised him a large bribe and the remaining $7,000 from a commercial dispute. Eaton snapped. He called the Bey's lover, the prime minister, a "thief" to his face and said all he had experienced in Tunis was "violence and indignity." The Bey, unaccustomed to contre-temps, shouted over and over that Eaton was mad. Eye-witnesses said that the Bey's lip trembled and he oddly clutched his mustache as he yelled: "I will turn you out of my kingdom." When the Bey had calmed down, he told the commodore: "The Consul is a man of a good heart but a bad head. He is too obstinate and too violent for me. I must have a consul with a disposition more congenial to the Barbary interests."
Commodore Morris had no appetite for remaining in Tunis, for fighting for the loud-mouthed consul. He agreed to replace Eaton and to pay off the $22,000. He later wrote "As security for the money paid by me, I insisted on Mr. Eaton assigning all his real and personal estate to the government."
On March 10, 1803, Eaton boarded the U.S. Chesapeake. He was on the verge of ruin. Disgraced as a diplomat, he was returning home to his wife; he was financially devastated. This last twist was ironic since Eaton had accepted the post of consul to Tunis in the hopes that he might make enough money to re-enter his marriage as the financial equal of Eliza, a widow of a wealthy Revolutionary War general. "[I hope] the hour is not far distant," he had written to her before the disaster, "when I may demonstrate to the world that it was not Mrs. Danielson's fortune but her person that Captain Eaton married."
In his official report, Morris stated that "[Eaton] appeared to be a man of lively imagination, rash, credulous. And by no means possessed of sound judgement."
Within two years, this disgraced diplomat would lead a band of eight marines, eight, and several hundred foreign mercenaries, the dregs of Alexandria, on a mad hopeless mission to march across the hell of the Libyan desert. He would try to finance the mission with the funds owed to him for ransoming Anna, the Italian slave girl. Thomas Jefferson would send Eaton on America's first covert military op overseas, to try to overthrow the government of Tripoli in order to free the three hundred American sailors enslaved there. This man on the verge of personal ruin, joined by his handful of marines including violin-playing Presley O'Bannon, would surprise-attack Tripoli's second largest city, and they would achieve a near miraculous victory. He would help stamp the then second class service, the United States Marines, with a new reputation for courage. His exploits would lead future generations of Americans to sing proudly: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the land and on the sea."
In 1805, in the first decades of our North American experiment in democracy, when the nation's future prosperity was very much in doubt, William Eaton made one of the loudest statements to the world that the United States was not a country to be mocked or bullied. While politicians and military officers mouthed the same patriotic phrases, Eaton risked his life to back up his statements. He helped set a national tone of defiance and daring.
But in William Eaton's flinty outspokenness and fearlessness, there lurked the seeds of his own destruction. Thomas Jefferson could not abide the man's relentless belligerence. The aftermath of victory in Tripoli for Eaton would be less than sweet. After taking on Tripoli and the Barbary pirates, he would challenge and defy Thomas Jefferson. It would be a battle between unequals, and no good can come of that.###
Go back to Mission page index.


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GE LM500s to Power Korea Navy Ships
GE Marine reports its LM500 aeroderivative gas turbine has been selected to power the Republic of Korea Navy's PKX-B patrol boat program. The LM500 gas turbines will be manufactured in-country by Samsung Techwin at its Changwon, Korea, facility.
The potential gas turbine propulsion system value over the life of the 34-ship PKX-B program is approximately $400 million. The program will be conducted in two phases. The first phase is for 16 shipsets. After completion, Phase II will proceed according to ROK government procedures.
"We are delighted that the ROK Navy continues to put their trust in GE's gas turbines with the selection of the LM500 as the prime mover for the PKX-A and PKX-B programs. Standardizing power plants around the LM2500 and LM500 allows the ROK Navy flexibility in moving crews from ship to ship and great economies of scale in training, maintenance, and logistics. Together with Samsung Techwin, we have established in-country capabilities to support all the GE gas turbine needs of the ROK Navy," said Brien Bolsinger, Vice President Marine Operations, GE Marine, Evendale, Ohio. "GE – through Samsung Techwin – expects to provide more than 100 LM500 engines for the PKX-A and PKX-B programs."
The PKX-B patrol boats will use LM500 gas turbines, rated at approximately 6,017 shaft horsepower, in a combined diesel and gas turbine arrangement. The PKX-A program is also powered by GE LM500 gas turbines.
Continuing PKX-A program capabilities into the PKX-B program, Samsung Techwin locally manufactures selected parts of the LM500s, and assembles and tests the completed engines. GE will provide support of the gas turbine, control, and reduction gear system to Samsung Techwin, shipyard Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, and the ROK Navy throughout installation, sea trials, and commissioning.
The LM500 is derived from GE's TF34/CF34 turbofan aircraft engines, and has 90% commonality with the CF34 engine that powers the popular CRJ100/200 regional jet with more than 14 million hours of operation. The simple cycle LM500 is a two-shaft gas turbine consisting of a gas generator, a free power turbine and cold end drive capabilities. The 14-stage axial flow compressor offers a 14.5:1 pressure ratio.


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I encountered The Color of Magic when I was 17, a college freshman enrolled in Creative Writing. It wasn't my favorite book, but it did send me chuckling quite a few times. I wanted to read more, and luckily, there were a couple of tables for used books set up every month where I could get my fixes with my allowance.
I got through Carpe Jugulum, The Truth, Monstrous Regiment, and The Folklore of Discworld all in the same year. People started giving me Discworld books for my birthday and Christmas, and I even asked my mom to bring me back any Discworld book she could find while she traveled the US that year.
It was as if someone flicked switch on in my head.
Confession time: I became a journalist because I read somewhere that Neil Gaiman started out as such and he had met Terry Pratchett that way.
As of this month, I am no longer a journalist. I have met some very cool and inspiring people during my time as one, but I met no Terry Pratchett.
Should've known those kinds of things don't happen twice. But I had hoped that one day, if I ever got myself to a con in the US or the UK, I'd still be able to meet him.
I came across a rare find in a very tiny bookstore in 2011: The Art of Discworld by Paul Kidby, and for cheap. I fell in love with how Mr. Kidby really brought Terry Pratchett's characters to life–especially Death. Who could have thought the Grim Reaper could look so gentle and kind?
I emailed Mr. Kidby my enthusiasm. He actually wrote back and told me that I could expect more, perhaps another book in the future. Another book! Couldn't wait.
There are three things about Sir Terry's work: one, you cannot help but want more. Two, he inspires collaborators to do their absolute fucking best. Three, you, a fan, will want to make things, too.
I know I did. I wrote a short story in which I tried to mimic some of his comedic techniques. I still haven't sold it, but it was one of the stories I submitted for my Clarion application. However indirectly, I have Terry Pratchett and his work to thank for my being at San Diego last year.
I let my godmother, the lady who taught me to read and write, borrow The Color of Magic. She taped a 'thank you' note to the cover and told me that it took her a while to understand why I said it was funny, but then she got it, eventually.
My godmother died suddenly a few months later. I never removed the note from the cover. Throughout her wake and in the months following, I either stared at the book or kept turned the image of it over and over in my head. I still stare at the book sometimes, note and all. It's still not my favorite, but now, especially after March 12 (or 11 on the other side of the world), it's really special.
Discworld books have their very own space on my beloved shelf. I'll admit that I haven't read maybe half of them, and I don't even have everything. I stalled buying them a few years back. There'll always be time to read them, I thought. There will always be a new Discworld book. I still have to look for space on my shelf.
Except, there won't always be new books. I know that now. I knew that for quite some time, ever since I found out that Sir Terry had been using speech recognition software or dictating to his assistant in order to write new books.
But, despite the Alzheimer's, he kept going and he lost none of his brilliance. It proves that you're going to write no matter the hardship, if you want it enough.
We should've known he'd lose none of his brilliance, really. We–the world–were going to lose it, instead, and much too soon.
Farewell, Sir. I hope Death is as gentle and kind as you made him out to be. You will be sorely, sorely missed.


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Sound Decision Hearing Aid Centers is locally owned and we take pleasure in providing the personal attention you expect from a hometown business.
Sound Decision Hearing Aid Center provides state-of-the-art hearing solutions from Signia Hearing Aids.
Sound Decision Hearing Aid Centers guarantees that you will be satisfied with your customized hearing solution. We even offer a free trial period.
About five years ago I first noticed that I was having difficulties hearing my wife and the television. Wearing hearing aids has allowed me to enjoy both again. The people of Sound Decision have provided me with excellent service and care.


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Give Kolaj
Give the gift of Kolaj Magazine this holiday season.
Kolaj Magazine is a quarterly, printed magazine about contemporary collage. We are interested in how collage is made, how collage is exhibited, and how collage is collected. We are interested in the role collage plays in contemporary visual culture. This full colour, internationally-oriented art magazine is published in Montreal, Quebec by Maison Kasini.
What to give?
A subscription to Kolaj, a collectors pack of back issues, or a pack of Collage Artist Trading Cards.
What is a gift of Kolaj?
Gifts include a special card for the recipient that tells them who it is from and, in the case of a subscription, when it starts and when it ends.
What happens when I give Kolaj?
We made it super easy! You can turn any order into a gift subscription. Visit the Shop and place your order. Once you do, you will receive an acknowledgement email from PayPal. Forward that email to email@example.com and let us know:
1) This order is a gift;
2) Who the gift is for? (The name of the recipient.)
3) Where we should send the gift?
4) If you have a special note for the card.
That's It!


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Wing Village Hall
Saturday February 4, 2017 @ 7.30pm
A welcome return to Wing for The Opera Dudes. With their unique blend of style, swing and slapstick humour, this is one of the funniest and most original classical double acts you will have seen.
No other act will take you from Verdi and Elvis Presley to Lloyd Webber, via Rachmaninoff and Donald Duck! Don't be surprised to find your feet tapping, your sides splitting and your heart breaking.
This show is pure entertainment. Expect the unexpected – opera, swing, showstoppers and impressions that would make Mike Yarwood blush – yes, that good!
As well as terrific singing, the show includes funny stories, singalongs, a concert piano solo and a silly piano duet in the style of Morecambe and Wise!
Tickets are £10 each and will be available later.
Why not phone John Hackett on 01572 737394 and reserve your tickets now?


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Note: The Spider III was released in 2006 and discontinued in 2010. The Spider III is now listed as a Legacy Product.
Q: How are the Artist preset banks categorization and alphabetized?
A:When looking at the list of the banks in the unit, the banks seem to be broken into four different sections:
1. Albert Lee - Julien K
2. Ash - Volto
3. The Accident Experiment - Thursday
4. Songs 50's - Misc. Fun
Each of the first 3 sections (artist banks) is alphabetized. Is there a reason all the artist presets overall aren't alphabetized?
The artist banks are categorized by Clean, Dirty and Heavy:
1. Albert Lee - Julien K: Cleaner patches
2. Ash - Volto: Midgainy patches
3. The Accident Experiment - Thursday: Heavily overdriven patches
Q: How do I perform a factory reset on my Spider III?
Line 6 Device Factory Reset Procedures
Q: How do I use the compare mode (to find where the knobs were originally set)?
A: Press and hold the Tap button, then turn the Amp Models knob. This activates Spider III's "Compare mode". Now turn any knob other than Amp Model and Master Volume, and the channel lights
will tell you whether you need to turn that knob up (Channel A lights) or down (Channel D lights) to match the stored setting. The Channel B & C lights will be lit at the same time once the knob position matches the stored setting exactly.
Q: How do I connect the Spider III HD 150 to the Spider Cabinet?
A: The Spider III HD 150 is designed to see a load on *both * speaker outputs by connecting the left and the right inputs to the Spider cabinet with speaker cables. Running the Spider III HD 150 into a 4 ohm load may result in damage to the amplifier. Please see the following link for more information:
Cabinet Connection and Ohm F.A.Q.
Q: Can I use two Spider III cabinets with the Spider III HD 150?
A:The Spider III HD 150 was designed to power a single Spider III Stereo Cabinet with a stereo 8 ohm load. Using two Spider III cabs would require a modification to each cab so that they are each rewired to produce a 8 ohm mono load. This modification would preferably be done by an authorized Line 6 service center, which can be located from the Service Center link on the Support page.
Q: How do I connect external speakers to my Spider III 150 amplifier?
A: You will need to disconnect the internal speakers (covering the dry-solder clips with electrical tape) and connect both external speaker outputs to an 8 ohm (or higher) load. Do not connect just one side, as this may cause a power amp failure. Powering the internal speakers along with a external speakers may cause a power amp failure and is not supported.
Q: What type of speaker is used on the Spider III combo series?
Spider III 15: Custom 15 (4 ohm)
Spider III 30: Celestion G12E50 (4 ohm)
Spider III 75/150: Celestion G12P80 (8 ohm)
Spider III 120:(2) Celestion G10P80 (8 ohm)


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(Baptized April 26, 1564- Died April 23, 1616)
Son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.
Married to Anne Hathaway.
Father of Susanna Hall, Hamnet Shakespeare, and Judith Quiney.
William Shakespeare was a poet and playwright. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all of English History and one of the greatest dramatists of all time.
William Shakespeare was born to John Shakespeare and his wife Mary Arden in Stratford-upon-Avon. We do not know his exact birth date, but many believe that he was born on St. George's day, which is April 23rd because he was baptized on April 26, 1564. His father John Shakespeare was an alderman and a successful glover while his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a successful landowning farmer. We believe that William Shakespeare went to King's New School, which was a free chartered grammar school that was located in Stratford. It is here where Shakespeare learned Latin and his passion for the theatre. Since he was a commoner, there is no record of him ever going to university, which was a luxury that was reserved for upper-class families.
At the age of 18, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who at the time was 26 years old. The marriage licence was issued on November 27, 1582. At the time of their marriage, Anne was already pregnant with their first child, Susanna, who was baptized on May 26, 1583. Two years later, William and Anne welcomed twins Hamnet (son) and Judith (daughter), in 1585. They were baptized on February 2, 1585. Unfortunately, Hamnet would tragically die at the age of 11 from an unknown cause and he was buried on August 11, 1596.
After the birth of his twins in 1585, there are not many historical records about Shakespeare's life until 1592. These years are known as "Shakespeare's Lost Years" and many stories have emerged about what he supposedly had done during this time. One of the stories states that Shakespeare was in Stratford to avoid persecution for deer poaching. Another claims that he was a schoolmaster for some time. The problem with these stories is that there is no evidence to support them. We do not know what Shakespeare was doing during these years.
Shakespeare's plays started to appear in London theaters in 1592, but we do not know when his writing career actually began. He was well known just enough for him to be attacked in newspapers. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.
In 1599, Shakespeare and others purchased some land near the river Thames and created the Globe Theatre and in 1608, the group was able to take over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Shakespeare was able to become a very wealthy man and was able to own property in both London and Stratford, but he preferred to live in London. In 1594, the first known quartos of Shakespeare's plays were published, solidifying his reputation and by 1598, his name became the selling point in new productions. He gained a reputation of not only being a talented actor but a playwright as well.
In 1609, London suffered from the bubonic plague and in 1610, Shakespeare decided to retire from public life, which was extremely unusual. This, however, did not mean that he was not busy. Shakespeare is known to have collaborated with other playwrights like John Fletcher. William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and was buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
In total, Shakespeare is known to have written at least 38 plays and over 150 poems, both long and short. If you would like to read more about his works, The Folger Shakespeare Library is a fantastic place to start: https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-works


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Ben Affleck was photographed out on the town Thursday night in Los Angeles with the woman rumored to be his new girlfriend, Lindsay Shookus. Here are the things we know about Shookus: Shookus is a 37-year-old producer at SNL, Shookus is an Emmy winner, Shookus is one of the "most powerful women in music," Shookus has—like Affleck—been married before, and "Shookus" has just been added to my Chrome dictionary because I have a feeling I'll be using the name a lot in the near future.
Here's what a source told E! about Affleck and Shookus:
"It's more than a summer fling. They are having fun and care for each other. It's early and they are taking it slow."
Below are a few alternative headlines for this post written by the Jezebel staff:
- "Ben Affleck's New Girlfriend Has Jenn Shook(us)" - Madeleine
- "Ben Loves That Shookus Tuchus" - Hazel
- "Shook? Us?" - Julianne
- "Shookus Done Hooked Us" - Aimee
- "Hookus Shookus! Ben's New Gal Has Him Under a Spell" - Emma
- "Who Needs Ouzounian When There's Shookus?" - Bobby
- "Shook-Me + Shook-You = Shook-us" - Joanna
- "2 Wrongs Make a Shookus"- Joanna
- "Lindsay Shookus All Night Long"- Joanna
- "Did Ben Shack Shookus?"- Joanna
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post did not include Joanna Rothkopf's Shookus headlines. They have since been added to the list.
In case you couldn't tell, the lead story today isn't actually that interesting. The only reason it's up top is because A) it's Friday and anything goes, and B) I did not want to give this new story about Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna all the attention.
TMZ reports Kardashian has cut Chyna off financially. He has apparently stopped making her house payments, and has regained possession of the "two cars her gave her and jewelry as well."
But Chyna is "fine paying the rent herself" and "confident of her earning power post-Rob."
[Page Six]
- In other news, Joe Jonas is a fish. [E! Online]
- No offense Celebitchy, but he is not. [Celebitchy]
- This is very sweet. [Page Six]
- Taylor Swift didn't throw a July 4 extravaganza this year because she had too much on her mind. [Celebitchy]
- Marc Antony is "a couple" with an "Italian model-actress" named Raffaella Modugno. [People]
- "Joanna's lawyer asked, 'Do you think that means you can say things like her pussy smells?' Glanville replied, 'Well, yeah.'" [TMZ]


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Fire Marshal On Chevy Volt Garage Fire: "It Wasn't The Cars"1
Sponsored Links
About two months have passed since a suspicious fire burnt the garage of Storm Connors and all that was in it, including a Chevrolet Volt and a homemade all-electric Suzuki Samurai. Since then, low blows were thrown by pundits at GM and the Volt, and more or less looking for a reason to downplay the engineering of the vehicle and make themselves look like asses in the process. We hope, yet doubt, that their enormous egos will deflate a little when the read the latest news that clears the Volt (and the homemade Samurai EV) of suspicion.
When asked by GM-Volt.com, Barkhamsted Fire Marshal William Baldwin proclaimed that "it wasn't the cars" that were to blame for the fire. Still, GM is currently working on its own assessment, and have yet to announce anything.
Source: GM-Volt
- Sweepstakes Of The Month: Win a 2023 Corvette Z06 Convertible. Details here.


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Maxime Denuc: Solarium
Cindy Castillo, organ
Solarium is a piece for organ, first performed by Cindy Castello in l'église du Gesu, Toulouse during the 2019 Électro Alternativ festival. It is an hour-and-a-half organ piece intended for "… that period of slack that follows the frenzy of a techno-fuelled night" and took place at 10am on a Sunday morning as an "after-party". I am not sure that many organists get up to frenzied techno-fuelled nights, but there is much here for organists to appreciate, not least the extraordinary sounds that a traditional pipe organ can produce, as well as anybody interested in the techno world of ambient minimalist music.
The formal description of Solarium is that "It leans on dawn's emotional potency to interweave those in need of the curative benefits of organ frequencies to end the night with those in search of a new temporal encounter to begin the day. Moulded by the tenets of rave culture, the piece upholds the freedom of its audience … it spawns the frame of a collective experience that reclines on its braided threads, whether they be sonic, scenic, somatic or social."
During the live performance, speakers were spaced around the church to subtly amplify the pipe organ and listeners could "wander, sit, stand or lie, to focus on the score or lose themselves in sound". It is seen as a response to "… an age of digitally enhanced musical overconsumption" by "fabricating new ways of listening to music together is a means of generating the unheard-of. Instead of a one-way ejection in the face of the public, Solarium spawns the frame of a collective experience that reclines on its braided threads, whether they be sonic, scenic, somatic or social".
It is now available to listen on Soundcloud, view on YouTube or to download. Although all these options miss the experience of the live event, they provide an evocative experience of the extraordinary sounds that a traditional mechanical action pipe organ can produce by manipulating the wind supply to the stops. The organ is the 1864 Cavaillé-Coll organ in l'église du Gesu, a former 19th-century Jesuit church on the edge of the ancient Roman city, and now the the secular home of Toulouse less Orgues and several other musical organisations. The organ has 24 stops on two keyboards and pedal.
The composer is Maxime Denuc, an electronic music composer and producer and co-founder of the duo Plapla Pinky, "a duo noted for their atypical approach to club music, somewhere between rave, baroque and contemporary music". I reviewed their 2015 performance with Cindy Castello of Raver Stay With Me in the spectacular church of Saint-Sernin (with its world-famous 1889 Cavaillé-Coll organ housed in a 1674 case) during the 2015 Toulouse les Orgues International Festival. Although it was far more update, it had a similar concept to Solarium in representing "the early morning remnants of the all-night rave and the church Mass" ideally performed in a church on a Sunday morning so that ravers could come to end their night lost in a deep harmonic and emotional experience."
Solarium starts with around seven minutes of repetitions of the opening of Bach's Orgelbüchlein chorale prelude, Jesu, meine Freude before dissolving onto a low pedal note and the exotic aural world of microtonal oscillations and the interference beats produced by two very slightly out of tune notes sounding together, an effect used to tune many instruments, including organs. Long periods of what seems to be an attenuated single note are moderated by subtle shifts in the tone, produced by slowly manipulation the stops pulls that regulate the wind supply to the pipes. An additional pitch is added, then, after about 30 minutes, there is an almost imperceptible crescendo. It builds to a climax after about 60 minutes with changes in texture and pitch. After what is almost an acoustic silence, rather strident higher pitches are added before a gently rocking sequence. At about 85 minutes we hear little melodic snippets that eventually become recognisable (to me, at least) as they morph into Buxtehude's E minor Ciaccona which form the conclusion to the piece.
As far as I could tell, it would be possible to create all the sounds from the organ alone, so I am not sure to what extent electronics were involved in the production. It would be fascinating to find out, and to see the score that Cindy Castello was playing from. As can be seen from my photograph of Cindy taken just before her 2015 performance of Raver Stay With Me in Saint-Sernin, her 'score' consisted of a tiny set of written notes with registrations and timings and a mobile phone timer.
Cindy Castillo is titular organist at the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels. For a number of years she was producer and host at the Musiq3 Belgium classical radio station. She teaches the organ at the IMEP Graduate School of Arts (Namur) and at the new educational project OrgueStudio. You can read my review of her 2015 CD, Fragments, here.
Music and performance like this are an excellent way of bringing the usually rather cloistered world of organ music to a much wider audience. There are several other musicians exploring the organ in similar fashion, reinforcing the organ's position as the original sound synthesiser and, for several centuries, one of the most complex known mechanical devices known.


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Think You May Have a Mold Problem? Call the Mold Inspection Experts … Read more about Mold Inspection
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Property inspections are a very intricate process and there is no such thing as a dumb question! Whether you are a first time home buyer or renter, our friendly customer service staff is there for you both during and after your inspection. All of our detailed reports are written in plain language that is easy to understand, and are accompanied by photos to illustrate our findings.
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If you are buying a new property, or even thinking of selling your property, … Read more about Residential Home Inspection
Quality commercial inspection is just as vital as a pre purchase home … Read more about Commercial Property Inspection
To guarantee your peace of mind, a residential home inspection is mandatory when buying or selling a property. If there is any structural damage or issues that need to be addressed, our thorough housing inspections will pick it up and everything we find will be written in our report.
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Mold is typically the result of a water leak or damp environment. A serious mold infestation often starts in the roof cavity or the walls from an unseen water leak in parts of the home. Once mold starts to stain your ceiling and walls, it already has a major foothold on your property. Furthermore, it is important to have a certified mold inspection performed before the purchase of any home or property.
At Clark Home Inspection, we test with an inspector lab and get you results ASAP (as long as the samples are sent in by 3 PM that day). Our top priority is to provide the best mold inspection services at an affordable price, therefore we offer discounts if you have a home inspection at the same time. Mold testing costs start at $300, depending on the samples that have to be taken.
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Contact us today to see what we can do for you.


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When, in the early 1960s and recently graduated as trained teachers from Goldsmiths' College, my friends and I were looking for somewhere outside London to ply our trade, and we decided, after a relatively small amount of research, that Nottingham was just the place. Rents were significantly cheaper than in the capital [nothing changes] and, according to the back pages of the TES, there were jobs. A couple of brief visits aside, however, our knowledge of the city and its environs was less than well-informed. We'd seen, and been braced by, Tony Richardson's film of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night & Sunday Morning; seen and just managed to stay awake through Jack Cardiff's tame version of D. H. Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, a novel I would have read as part of my English studies, Lawrence being more academically respectable then than I believe he is now. [Except at the University of Nottingham, of course.] We'd heard and half-believed the rumours about there being 10 young women for every man – or was it a baker's dozen? What clinched it, however, was the opening, in 1963, of the newly designed Nottingham Playhouse – Peter Moro's modernist building, John Neville's fine profile and artistic reputation … if the city could support a theatre like that, well, there had to be something special going on … and it was only a few hours away from London.
As it happened, my friend John Phillips and I ended up getting jobs in South East Derbyshire, some ten miles west of Nottingham in the small mining town of Heanor, just across the Erewash Valley from Lawrence's birthplace, Eastwood.
I was born nearly forty-four years ago, in Eastwood, a mining village of some three thousand souls, about eight miles from Nottingham, and one mile from the small stream, the Erewash, which divides Nottinghamshire from Derbyshire. It is hilly country, looking west from Crich and towards Matlock, sixteen miles away, and east and north-east towards Mansfield and the Sherwood Forest district. To me it seemed, and still seems, an extremely beautiful countryside, just between the red sandstone and oak-trees of Nottingham, and the cold limestone, the ash-trees, the stone fences of Derbyshire. To me, as a child and a young man, it was still the old England of the forest and agricultural past; there were no motor-cars, the mines were, in a sense, an accident in the landscape, and Robin Hood and his merry men were not very far away.
D. H. Lawrence: Nottingham and the Mining Country, 1929
Most mornings, unless we chose the alternative route through Ilkeston, John and I would drive out, often in thick fog, past the hosiery factories on the outskirts of the city, on and on towards Eastwood, then down into the valley and up again into Langley Mill, on the edge of Heanor, which was where both our schools – secondary modern in my case, primary in John's – were situated. It was a journey rarely undertaken without another section of Lawrence's essay playing somewhere at the back of my mind.
Now Eastwood occupies a lovely position on a hilltop, with the steep slope towards Derbyshire and the long slope towards Nottingham. They put up a new church, which stands fine and commanding, even if it has no real form, looking across the awful Erewash Valley at the church of Heanor, similarly commanding, away on a hill beyond.
So, somehow, those sentences, that essay 'placed' the area for me in a writerly way, gave it a kind of added resonance, just as, I suppose, Sillitoe's writing did for much of inner-city Nottingham. I continued to read Lawrence for my own pleasure [The Rainbow & Women in Love] and read his poems – Snake! – and the short stories with my classes – Sillitoes's stories, likewise. All of this without any suggestion, any idea or ambition that I might one day attempt to be some kind of writer myself; that was to come later, more than a decade later, and from a quite different direction. Though I suppose, in retrospect, what was learned, what was carried through, was some belief that story and character were best told, best seen and understood, when they were most closely allied with place. Which, in my case, has most usually been Nottingham – that and the few other areas I've spent enough time in to feel I know beyond the lines and contours of a map.
And speaking of maps …
The above is 'borrowed' from the newly redesigned website of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society – https://haggsfarm2.wixsite.com/lawrence – an organisation dedicated to encouraging the preservation of the farm buildings and reinforcing the vital importance of Haggs Farm to the early formative years of D.H. Lawrence's development as an internationally renowned writer.
The farm was the home of the Chambers family, both farm and family being inspirations for much of Lawrence's early writing; the daughter, Jessie, being the clear model for the character of Miriam in Sons and Lovers. The farm, unfortunately, has been uninhabited for over 50 years and is on private land with no public access. Despite being a Grade ll listed building since 1966, the house is in a serious state of disrepair and I would encourage readers to log on to the society's site and pay the small amount [surely, it should be more?] it takes to become a supporting member.
Looking at the map above took me back to the many times I've walked, usually with friends, from the site of Moorgreen Colliery, north along the sparsely wooded side of Moorgreen Reservoir and then across the open fields towards Felley Mill, with Haggs Farm off to the west, turning then towards Beauvale Priory and round in a sweep back to Moorgreen. Beautiful country, indeed.
Since the summer, I've been reading – a group at a time – through the two-volume Heron Books edition of Lawrence's Collected Letters, and just recently came across the following, written in response to a request from H. A. Pilcher, a writer of travel books.
from Del Monte Ranch, Questa, 17 April 1925
Dear Sir: I received your letter only last night.
The scene of my Nottingham-Derby novels all centres round Eastwood,Notts (where I was born): and whoever stands on Walker Street, Eastwood, will see the whole landscape of Sons and Lovers before him. Underwood in front, the hills of Derbyshire on the left, the woods and hills of Annesley on the right. The road from Nottingham by Watnall, Moorgreen, up to Underwood and on to Annesley (Byron's Annesley) – gives you all the landscape of The White Peacock, Miriam's farm in Sons and Lovers, and the home of the Crich family, and Willey Water, in Women in Love.
The Rainbow is Ilkeston and Cossall, near Ilkeston, moving to Eastwood. And Hermione, in Women in Love, is supposed to live not far from Cromford. The short stories are Ripley, Wirkswoth, Stoney Middleton, Via Gellia ('The Wintry Peacock'). The Lost Girl begins in Eastwood – the cinematograph show being in Langley Mill.
I hope this will meet your requirements.
Now you know!


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Hello Drinkers,
Tonight we're kicking it old school and keeping it straight OG in Japan. I'm drinking Sapporo, a beer that dates back to 1876 and watching the original, 1954 Godzilla (OG. Get it?!) or, Gojira if your an purist. I'm not talking about the silly 1998 revamp (directed by our apocolyptic friend Roland Emmerich). Nor am I talking about the sad Americanized version of the Japanese classic. You know, the one where they just took the Japanese film, cut in a few scenes with an American reporter, and called it a new movie. No. Tonight was the original, unadulterated, purely Japanese version of Gojira and it was kind of sweet.
While Gojira is ostensibly about the threat of a nuclear-enraged Cretaceous sea monster oddly burning up all of Japan, the film itself focuses much more on the human drama and is surprisingly meditative. Aside from the obvious "atomic weapons are scary" theme, the movie is also about the debate between science and security, about love, trust and faith in your family. Visually the movie is quite remarkable and the special effects, however, cheesy, are solid. While at times Japan's destruction looks a little like my bedroom floor circa 2nd grade, Godzilla himself looks pretty badass. Moreover, the sound that he makes is impressive and haunting. Also, he can breathe fire.
My opinion of Sapporo is a little less flattering. The beer itself is light and crisp, but lacks any strong or defining flavor. Within seconds, the initial rice flavor disappears and leave very little to remember it by. To its credit, I was drinking from a can which, in my opinion, is never the best way to enjoy a beer. Also, I have to say, I was able to enjoy the beer a little more as it warmed, which is unusual in my experience. While I typically try to connect our two features for the evening, I can't say that Sapporo is really a great compliment to Gojira. It's not a bad beer, it's just nothing special. Granted if the beer dates back to 1876 and is still around today, it must be doing something right.
Overall, tonight was an odd combination. Gojira was a good movie. Albeit a bit slow and uneven at times, it holds up well with time. Sapporo on the other hand, did not fair so well in my memory. I've had Sapporo in the past when I've gone out to dinner and I remember it being more enjoyable. Maybe that has something to do with the food accompaniment or the non-can serving style, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. To link these two any more than their country of origin would be a stretch of the imagination.
Speaking of which, they kill Godzilla by using something called the "Oxygen Destroyer." It apparently it removes all of the oxygen from water, splits the atoms and then liquifies them, killing everything. Now that's science.
Tonight's Tasting Notes:
Sapporo Premium Beer:
Light and crisp.
Mild rice flavor.
Minimal aftertaste.
Godzilla looks pretty cool and sounds great.
Godzilla is simply a premise for larger, more human themes.
If Japan does it right the first time, don't remake it…I'm looking at you Roland.


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There has been a lot of stuff going on around here. Last week (right after I posted about the beautiful gray clouds), the rains began descending on our little valley accompanied by enough wind to knock out our electric for a few days.
We also have had some company (during the time the electric was out) and multiple other things going on. All of this to say I haven't really been in the mood to write, and I haven't forced myself to, therefore… I'm behind in my writing.
SO! Since there's some writing that I would really like to accomplish, I decided to set a challenge for myself. I'm going to go pretty easy: 2,000 words by midnight. That normally wouldn't be very much, but since my writing has been hovering around 100 words for each day this week, it's going to be a bit of work for me to force myself to do.
Alrighty now. Time to get to work.
What have y'all been up to, by the way?
^^^—– Procrastination on my part =)


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City Services
Community & Recreation
About Rock Island
City Services
Permits, Licenses & Inspections
Residential Rental Licensing Program
Changes to Rental Licenses
Changes to Rental Licenses
Changes to Rental Licenses Must be Submitted in Writing
Change in contact information
Per City ordinance, all rental property owners are required to notify the Inspection office within 30 day of any changes in:
Property Agent
Owner Address or Property Agent Address
(Per Chap 4, Art VIII Sec 4-182: If the property owner fails to notify the Code Official of any change in address all notice and invoices shall be sufficient if sent by first class mail to the owner or property agent's last address provided on the last license application).
The required
Change Contact Information
form must be submitted to the Inspection Division within 30 days of the change.
Reasons to Exempt or Deactivate License
If there is a change or a discontinuation of rental activity, the owner/agent must notify the Inspections Division, including for the following reasons:
If property was sold
If property is now vacant
If it is now owner/family occupied
If property is vacant for repairs or remodeling (for a long period of time or for a full licensing term)
The required
Exempt/Close License
form must be submitted to the Inspection Division within 30 days of the change.
Authorize a New Property Agent
The Inspection Division will not conduct inspection with or communicate property issues with any person not
in writing by the recorded property owner.
The recorded property owner may authorize more than one agent.
The required
Agent Authorization
form must be submitted to the Inspection Division within 30 days of the change.
Guide to the Rock Island Housing Code
Housing Code Regulations
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Phone Business Continuity Plans
Who will answer your company phone in the face of a disaster?
Include a Phone Answering Service in your business continuity plan
If a disaster occurs and effects your business operations, our contingency phone support service will guarantee that a virtual secretary is available during the disaster as well as during the recovery process.
A business answering service provides a seamless customer service experience for day to day calls as well as in the wake of a disaster. Most callers don't realize they've reached an answering service, they are just relieved to speak with a person instead of a machine.
Phone operators of the Red Bank Call Center can take orders, dispatch, provide answers to frequently asked questions, re-arrange appointment schedules, and much more.
Contingency Phone Support - Unparalleled Phone Reliability During a Disaster
A mission critical component of any business is "communications". The only way to ensure that you have phone coverage during a business site emergency is if you have contingency phone support.
A telephone answering service offers the most reliable and cost effective disaster recovery communications solution for your business.
Operating in an emergency capacity, if your phone lines are ever down because of power outages or your telephone company is down, the Red Bank Call Center can program your phones to automatically roll over to our call centers where we have backup phone lines, backup power, backup computer systems, and offsite data storage.
With multiple call centers throughout the United States, you can be sure that there will always be a live, friendly operator on the other end of the line ready, willing, and able to take your customer's calls.
The Red Bank Call Center
Makes it possible for you to never shut your doors!


text:
Predicting Maximum Sea Levels
Requires a Wolfram Notebook System
Interact on desktop, mobile and cloud with the free Wolfram Player or other Wolfram Language products.
Extreme value distributions are used to model the occurrence of extrema (i.e. extreme deviations from the median of a probability distribution). The parameters for GEV Distribution 1 are taken from a model fitted to annual maximum sea level data in Port Pirie, Australia from 1923–1987. GEV Distribution 2 has the same parameters as GEV Distribution 1, only the scale parameter has been increased to create more variability. The return level curves shown in the bottom-left give the expected maximum sea level that will occur once every years. For example, the Port Pirie return curve (blue) indicates that one may expect the sea level to reach 4.3 meters once every ten years, or 4.6 meters once every 100 years.[more]
The purpose of this Demonstration is to show how to interpret PDFs and return level curves for a GEV distribution with a real-world example. Move the sliders to adjust the various parameters and notice how each parameter affects both the PDF and the respective return level curve.[less]
Contributed by: Scott Constable (April 2011)
With many thanks to: Tom Pfaff
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
The generalized extreme value distribution is a combined family of three distinct distribution families: Gumbel, Fréchet, and Weibull. It is a distribution function of the form
with parameters , , and for location, scale, and shape, respectively. Return level curves for a GEV can be generated by plotting
for the return period . The Port Pirie data and parameters can be found in [1]. Anyone interested in learning more about extreme value theory should also refer to [1]. Coles provides a clear and coherent overview of modeling extreme values and supplements with a variety of examples. The goal of this Demonstration was to put one of those examples into a more tangible form.
[1] S. Coles, An Introduction to Statistical Modeling of Extreme Values, London: Springer-Verlag, 2001
Permanent Citation


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How can we make an online shop that stands out better than overflowing competitors? Indeed online experience is offering useful information such as a comparison among several products with reviews. Researching became a typical behaviour for customers before making a decision. And there are even more interactions than only selling products on online shops.
In this article, I will describe the key practices how to capture customers needs in E-commerce by understanding them.
Who are the users?
This is always the first question that applies to every online shop we work on. The most common failure is, that product development teams focus hard on selling products without understanding what end users really want. From the beginning till the end, the project team should always keep in mind whom they are selling to and what the customers will do on the online platform. In E-commerce, the primary questions to the target group are ethnographic and demographic questions.
Ethnographic questions lead to understanding a person's ethnicity and cultural background whereas demographic questions lead to their lifestyle and social background. Understanding the user is an important step to reach the right target audience.
Questions should cover below topics:
- Age
- Cultural background
- Education
- Marital Status
- Employment Status
- Technology friendliness
Once the information about the target groups is gathered, it is ready to create personas which are agreed among project team members and stakeholders. Personas help, to make target groups more comprehensible and give people a feeling for them. Although stakeholders might be quite often in contact with their clients, they might experience them in different situations and therefore see different aspects of them. For creating a successful online shop, it is elementary, that all stakeholders have the same understanding of the target group and that's why you should create personas.
E-Commerce is more than just selling a product!
Buying a product is not the only activity a user is doing in an online shop, there can be more. When it comes to technical products, such as software, other activities can be involved besides payment. Customers may want to watch tutorials or do a request for consultation before making a purchase. Prioritizing the key motivation of users help to focus on deliverables to create a great User Experience that enhances customer loyalty.
How can we help users to find products better?
Just like walking into a store, displaying offerings is critical to capture customers. Imagina a store, where products are not grouped and customers find themselves in front of a wall with thousand of products. They would get lost and walk away.
Customers may know or don't know the right product. An easy navigation allows users to find their desired products flexible and efficient. Depending on customer's purchase behavior, the navigation tool should be designed accordingly. For example, if the customer already knows the product, they can simply type in search field. For those who don't know what they are looking for, a product finder is the better solution.
Below images are good examples showing category menu, search and product finders.
Especially when it comes to products with different versions, it's crucial to help user understanding the differences. One product can have many variations, just like a software with an option between Mac and Windows.
Variations can be the pricing model in software or the product format. Below, customers can see that there are different versions, but it's hard to understand at a glance what the differences are.
And what happens when it is hard to buy a product or taking londg time? The user will most likely move on to another shop, which offers an easy purchase experience.
Different product versions
Optimising product display helps customers to understand clear difference between offerings, hence it will lead to successful conversions.
Understanding customers to perform
Customers are not willing to search too long for their needed information. In most cases, there is more than one provider available, so why should they struggle with an online shop not satisfying their needs?
Understanding customers helps to capture their needs. E-Commerce project teams must keep customers in mind from the beginning to the end. Creating personas based on consensus with stakeholders helps to focus and will guide to targeted customers and to achieve key business goals. We must eliminate frustrations by providing effective navigation tools and optimised products display. Therefore great User Experience will lead to gain more customer loyalty.


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I am forever in awe of architects who are willing to maintain original features in a refurbishment whilst modernizing the structure. This narrow terrace home in Paddington, Sydney is absolutely gorgeous and has impeccable attention to detail. The little workspace nook built out of the side of the kitchen cabinet is brilliant, and I adore the skylights over the kitchen and the narrow display nooks among the upper cabinets (a great idea if you are trying to squeeze Ikea cabinets into a space that just don't fit). A sleek, chic and fabulous home. Kudos to Tom Ferguson (TFAD) on a superb project.
P.S. I am short on pets on furniture entries tso hopefully it will be back next Monday. Send your entries to me @ kim[at]desiretoinspire[dot]net or hashtag in IG with #dtipetsonfurniture.
Kim, thank you for praising the architect! Sometimes they are the unsung heroes. I could speak forever about all the unseen ways they promote success and prevent disasters. The photography is also awesome. Love the compositions, especially of the light fixture with the stairway pic, and the balance of light and dark. Nice project!
I love this place. So well thought of. Brilliant even. Love love.


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Atlantic Spas And Billiards
6315 Market Street
- Address:
6315 Market Street Wilmington, NC 28405
Get Directions
- Store Hours:
- Mon - Fri: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Sat: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Sun: Closed
- Phone:
- 910-799-9233
- Email:
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- Website:
- Atlantic Spas And Billiards
Pricing varies based on size, options, accessories, promotional offers and other local factors. Your dealer will help you select the right hot tub and options. Send your contact information for your personal quote.
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RAMMY | Benicia, CA
Hot Tubs in Wilmington, NC
As your authorized local dealer for Hot Spring spas, we are proud to offer you the world's number one selling brand in hot tubs. A visit to our showroom will allow you to experience why Hot Spring spas deliver the absolute best lifetime hot tub ownership experience. Whether you would like to enjoy a free test soak, a backyard consultation, or simply browse our showroom to see the various spa models and accessories, our professionally trained spa experts are available to answer all your questions and help you find the right hot tub for your lifestyle.
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We can meet with you to determine the best location for a hot tub in your yard.
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We can deliver your new hot tub right to your backyard.
Service Department
We're here to assist you after you purchase your hot tub.
Test Soak
Arrange a time to come in and give one of our hot tubs a try.
Watercare Analysis
We'll help you make sure your hot tub has the cleanest water possible.


text:
Will Robots Be Entitled To A Jury of Their Peers?
Annotated Outline of Book by Arthur F. Licata, Esq.
Barriers to Free Movement of Civil Justice" Conference - Salzburg, November, 3-6, 2001
By: Arthur F. Licata, Esq.
In order to improve the chance for a successful negotiation, INQUIRE, INQUIRE of the other side. Ask his point of view. Ask what are his perspectives.
Ask what issues are important to him. Ask what are the facts upon which he relies to support his position.
A metaphor for the degree of difficulty confronting the plaintiff's attorneys in Massachusetts, at the commencement of the tobacco litigation, is Lindberg
planning to fly solo across the Atlantic. No one had ever done it and those that had tried died. Flying across the ocean seemed an insurmountable obstacle.
The Outmoded Concept Of Charitable And Nonprofit Organizational Immunity
On Saturday, June 3, 2000 a revolutionary event took place at Boston College Law School. The judges of the trial court spent several hours listening
to members of the trial bar. The second extraordinary aspect of the occasion was that the members of the trial bar spent several hours talking,
debating, agreeing and disagreeing with one another in a spirited intellectual debate. The discussion was about how we practice and how we can
improve our skills in the preparation of jury trials.
The Risk May No Longer Be Worth The Benefit
Case: Keene v. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. 56 Mass. App. Ct. 10 (2002)
Listen... Do You Want to Know a Secret?
The Boston, Massachusetts Personal Injury Law firm of Arthur F. Licata, P.C. handles for clients throughout Massachusetts
including Suffolk County, Norfolk County, Plymouth County, Middlesex County, Worcester County, and Essex County, and cities such
as Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Cambridge, Brockton, New Bedford, Fall River, Lynn, and Quincy. Mr. Licata is also admitted to
practice in the state of New York. He routinely takes cases by referral from other attorneys located throughout the New England
region and the United States.
The use of the Internet or this form for communication with the firm or any individual member of the firm does not establish an attorney-client relationship