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Tens of thousands of people descended on Black Rock Desert in Nevada this past week for Burning Man 2014 to express themselves and watch the Man burn.
Here's a look at some of their photos and videos.
Having trouble viewing this on a mobile device? Click here to see all the images.

subset: commoncrawl


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#PutiTrump | #WhatTheyVotedFor
There are days when the primary argument against the idea we really are witnessing this debacle is, really, it just seems impossible that anyone could possibly be so bad at this. It seems even more impossible that the Trump administration should be inflicting so many wounds against itself. To wit, the lede from Reuters seems, by comparison, nearly harmless:
President Donald Trump sought to insert himself into congressional investigations on Russia on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to hear from one of his former advisers, Carter Page, to counter testimony by directors of the FBI and CIA.
Well, okay, we are discussing Carter Page, which is never quite as harmless as it ought to seem.
For instance, the lede and some detail from Roll Call:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Democrats of resisting testimony from Carter Page, his former campaign adviser, because he "blows away" allegations they have made.
In two tweets, the president went on to say that this alleged change of heart by Democratic members comes because they have concluded Page "blows away their … case against him."
Trump, referring to the FBI director he fired and the Obama administration's last CIA director, wrote that his former adviser "wants to clear his name by showing "the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan…"
A'ight, so, are we ready for the tricky part? Is there always a tricky part? Never mind.


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(a) No person may operate a motor vehicle that is registered or required to be registered in the state on any public highway, road or street that has a sun-screening device on the windshield, the front side wings and side windows adjacent to the right and left of the driver and windows adjacent to the rear of the driver that do not meet the requirements of this section: Provided, That law-enforcement K-9 and other emergency vehicles that are designed to haul animals, unmarked law-enforcement vehicles primarily used for covert or undercover enforcement and automobiles that have sun-screening devices installed at the factory by the manufacturer are exempt from this requirement. No unmarked law-enforcement vehicle, herein exempted, may engage in routine traffic stops.
(b) A sun-screening device when used in conjunction with the windshield must be nonreflective and may not be red, yellow or amber in color. A sun-screening device may be used only along the top of the windshield and may not extend downward beyond the ASI line or more than five inches from the top of the windshield whichever is closer to the top of the windshield.
(c) A sun-screening device when used in conjunction with the automotive safety glazing materials of the side wings or side windows located at the immediate right and left of the driver shall be a nonreflective type with reflectivity of not more than twenty percent and have a light transmission of not less than thirty-five percent. The side windows behind the driver and the rear most windows may have a sun-screening device that is designed to be used on automotive safety glazing materials that has a light transmission of not less than thirty-five percent and a reflectivity of not more than twenty percent. If a sun-screening device is used on glazing behind the driver, one right and one left outside rear view mirror is required.
(d) Each manufacturer shall:
(1) Certify to the West Virginia State Police and Division of Motor Vehicles that a sun-screening device used by it is in compliance with the reflectivity and transmittance requirements of this section;
(2) Provide a label not to exceed one and one-half square inches in size, with a means for the permanent and legible installations between the sun-screening material and each glazing surface to which it is applied that contains the manufacturer's name and its percentage of light transmission; and
(3) Include instructions with the product or material for proper installation, including the affixing of the label specified in this section. The labeling or marking must be placed in the left lower corner of each glazing surface when facing the vehicle from the outside.
(e) No person may:
(1) Offer for sale or for use any sun-screening product or material for motor vehicle use not in compliance with this section; or
(2) Install any sun-screening product or material on vehicles intended for use on public roads without permanently affixing the label specified in this section.
(f) The provisions of this section do not apply to a motor vehicle registered in this state in the name of a person, or the person's legal guardian, who has an affidavit signed by a physician or an optometrist licensed to practice in this state that states that the person has a physical condition that makes it necessary to equip the motor vehicle with sun-screening material which would be of a light transmittance or luminous reflectance in violation of this section. The affidavit must be in the possession of the person so afflicted, or the person's legal guardian, at all times while being transported in the motor vehicle.
(g) The light transmittance requirement of this section does not apply to windows behind the driver on trucks, buses, trailers, mobile homes and multipurpose passenger vehicles.
(h) As used in this section:
(1) "Bus" means a motor vehicle with motive power, except a trailer, designed for carrying more than ten persons.
(2) "Light transmission" means the ratio of the amount of total light to pass through a product or material to the amount of the total light falling on the product or material.
(3) "Luminous reflectants" means the ratio of the amount of total light that is reflected outward by the product or material to the amount of the total light falling on the product or materials.
(4) "Manufacturer" means any person engaged in the manufacturing or assembling of sun-screening products or materials designed to be used in conjunction with vehicle glazing materials for the purpose of reducing the effects of the sun.
(5) "Motor homes" means vehicular units designed to provide temporary living quarters built into and an integral part of or permanently attached to a self-propelled motor vehicle chassis.
(6) "Multipurpose passenger vehicle" means a motor vehicle with motive power, except a trailer, designed to carry ten persons or less which is constructed either on a truck chassis or with special features for occasional off-road operation.
(7) "Nonreflective" means a product or material designed to absorb light rather than to reflect it.
(8) "Passenger car" means a motor vehicle with motive power, except a multipurpose passenger vehicle, motorcycle or trailer, designed for carrying ten persons or less.
(9) "Sun-screening device" means film material or device that is designed to be used in conjunction with motor vehicle safety glazing materials for reducing the effects of the sun.
(10) "Truck" means a motor vehicle with motive power, except a trailer, designed primarily for the transportation of property or special purpose equipment.
(i) Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $200.


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Summer in motion
Summer is traditionally the warmest season and most people are out for summer holiday. It is also the season that people get to pamper themselves with leisure activities and a time to relax. The images presented during summer are worth putting in a poster. This brightly colored season usually bring out posters that are ideal decorations for your room or office.
Summer images
Most art print images during this season reflect the sun and heat. Generally, artists tend to incline to beach images and the fun associated with the brightness of the sun. You will find stunning art print works from ARTFLAKES that can fit in any space of your choice. Usually, summer is the best time to find a colorful poster with vacation ideas and other artworks that depict the joys of playing outside, like hiking, biking, swimming and sports. A large poster imprinted with these seasons activities can be used as a gift to your friends or as decoration in your luxurious room.
Poster that glows
Artists associated with ARTFLAKES are talented folks that bring the pictures to life. You can expect to get a poster as a canvas print that truly brings out the colors of summer and the fantastic activities in the most creative style. The young and talented artists on ARTFLAKES make sure that you can find any types of poster prints.


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I am reposting this article with permission from My Life Yoga blog on the ego and our illusion of reality, enjoy!
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Pettry amzanig huh?
The above paragraph illustrates that we do not read by assembling letters into words from left to right. Instead we use forecasting to predict what a jumble of letters means. This allows us to read fast and correct for errors.
The key idea here is that forecasting is central to how we function. This is not limited to just reading but pretty much everything we do. The central aspect of forecasting is that it needs a model. A model is an idea of how something works. Once the model is in place we can input a limited number of details and simulate the rest. When we read the words in the first paragraph we are able to simulate the words in the original sentence through the model of English Language in our head. Somebody who is not a native English speaker may find it hard to read the first paragraph because the English model in his head may not be very good.
When sight is restored to somebody who has been blind since birth, he does not immediately begin to "see". All he sees is fuzzy formless light. It may take months, if not years before normal seeing commences. This is because the person has no model for vision. Only once this is built can normal sight work. When we look around the room we do not scan every part of the room starting with the top left corner zigzagging down. Instead we take in the details of a few spots and simulate the rest using our in-built model for sight.
So here are some details of the models in our head:
1. Our models may not be perfect but they work.
2. Our models may work but they are not complete.
Some philosophers have suggested that since our perception of reality is based on simulation of imperfect models that all reality that we perceive is merely illusory. This may be not be an appropriate way of interpreting this discussion. The models in our head are pretty good because they work and reliably allow us to navigate the world.
However, we must not go to the other extreme. Just because these models work, in the current context, we must not assume that these model represent reality completely. These models are just good enough for our species to survive and get by. For example we do not see in the ultra-violet or infrared spectrum. We are completely oblivious to that portion of reality. In fact the model of reality in our head is like the tip of the iceberg. What we know and perceive is vastly undermined by what we are ignorant and oblivious of. For example, who knows how a whale percieves the world?
Similar to the models of the external world we also have a model of our internal selves. This model of ourselves is termed as an ego. Just like we think that the model of external reality is complete we are fooled into believing that we are our egos.
Our ego is not our complete self. It is at best a very incomplete model of ourselves in our head. The journey of yoga is a journey into a deeper dive into ourselves. It is a journey of discovery of that portion of us that lies beyond the ego. In fact the root of most of our problems lies in the subtle belief that we are our ego and the interest of our ego and our deeper selves is the same. We spend every moment of our conscious experience as captives of our ego-identity. We think, emote, and act on behalf of our ego, little knowing that we are spending our lives at the service of a wrong master.
The journey of discovery of our identity beyond our ego is not an easy one but it may be the most important journey we may undertake. After all who wants to spend a lifetime as a slave of something only to realize that it was all in vain?


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Day 4 of Iceland Airwaves. A little crazy with the schedule but I managed bounce to and from different venues and at least see all I wanted to see, and I managed to photograph most of it as well.
Started off with Kælan Mikla which was followed by the legendary Dr. Gunni. Then we moved across town to see Mr. Silla perform before crossing back to a very packed dj. flugvél og geimskip set which was followed by Árni². Árni² is Árni Valur and Árni Grétar, both legends in their musical fields here in Iceland and they did not disappoint. Then quickly after that I went to see Kontinuum, but there was no possibility of getting close enough to photograph and after their set I finished the night watching Milkywhale. I may be biased, but I honestly thought the shiny new floor at Iðnó was going to break from all the jumping and mass partying that went on for that gig. At least the floor is well worn in now.


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Selena Gomez Opens Up About Dating: I'll Always Be a Good Girl
Though her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber seems to be out to prove that he'smusic's next bad boy, Selena Gomez says that's just not her style.
In a new interview with Teen Vogue , Gomez says that after their breakup, she tried being a bit more rebellious, but it just didn't feel right.
25 totally unnecessary spin-offs
"You fall in love and it completely consumes you. So a part of you is broken when that's gone. And part of you wants to have that rebellious feeling where you're just like, 'Forget it - I can do anything I want,'" Gomez said. "I've tried it, and I've never been that girl. I'm always going to be the girl you want to take home to your parents, not for the night."
Gomez and Bieber split earlier this year, and the actress revealed that she's open to meeting someone new. "I like to say I have a good sense of judgment, but I know that not everybody does," she told the magazine, in excerpts released in The New York Daily News. "The older I've gotten, the more I've learned that I have to open myself up to all opportunities. Maybe I'll get burned and not meet the right people, but I won't know until I do it."
View original Selena Gomez Opens Up About Dating: I'll Always Be a Good Girl at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Sandys, George
Sandys, George, 1578–1644, English poet and traveler, b. Yorkshire, son of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. He was educated at Oxford and in 1610 began an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East, which he wrote about in A Relation of a Journey (1615). In 1621 he became a treasurer of the London Company. He accompanied (1621) the new governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, to Virginia, where he remained until 1631, serving three terms on the governor's council. While in Virginia, Sandys produced his most famous work, a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1626). His other works include paraphrases of the Psalms, hymns, and a translation of a work of Grotius under the title Christ's Passion: A Tragedy (1640).
See his works, ed. by R. Hooper (1968); biography by R. B. Davis (1955); study by J. Haynes (1986).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: English Literature, 1500 to 1799: Biographies


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Travel RN ICU, MICU - Medical Intensive Care (RNs Only)
Company: HealthCare Travelers
Location: Quincy
Posted on: May 24, 2023
Job Description:
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HealthCareTravelers.com makes it easy, fast and free to reach out to the premier healthcare staffing agencies with one information request. Just sit back, relax and let the staffing agencies come to you.
HCEN wishes you a prosperous and enjoyable career as a traveling healthcare professional. Being an ICU RN requires excellent critical thinking skills. The Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse must be familiar with ventilators, central lines, EKG strips, among other specialized skills.
Tired of always being asked to complete a lengthy application?
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Travel Nurses Needed - RN Intensive Care Units
Keywords: HealthCare Travelers, Quincy , Travel RN ICU, MICU - Medical Intensive Care (RNs Only), Healthcare , Quincy, Massachusetts
here to apply!


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"I Am Ozzy" is a "true Hollywood story" in book format, a ride through rock 'n' roll history with a driver saturated in controlled substances.
It's Ozzy Osborne's stumbling, rambling, decadent-beyond-recognition memoir, as over the top as the author himself. The book would be heartbreaking if it weren't so hilarious.
This autobiography of the indefatigable Prince of Darkness chronicles the often obscene life and times of John Osbourne. It follows his winding path to stardom from a meager upbringing in Aston, Birmingham, in Britain, where he lived in a post-World War II house with his parents and five siblings.
His early life was severely troubled. After stints as a mediocre student (he was diagnosed with dyslexia in middle age), a failed day worker and an inept burglar, Osbourne found himself in Winson Green prison. His time behind bars may have been brief, but it weaned him off petty crime.
Osbourne still itched for stimuli outside the mundane blue-collar existence that permeated his town. His love for music — the Beatles tapped into his earnest sonic zeal — prompted him to pursue music as a career. Armed with a PA system and ragtag gaggle of local musicians, he began planting the seeds for Black Sabbath, the rock band that would gain notoriety for occult-themed music and drug-fueled antics.
For much of their career, Black Sabbath lived on a diet of groupies, beer and cocaine. The quantity and rapidity of their binges were legendary, and their buffoonery on and off the stage was unsurpassed.
Osbourne's life played out like a rock opera. He started his band, married young, had children, got divorced young and was fired from Black Sabbath. He then built a solo career; married his second wife, Sharon; had three more children; and continued as a force in rock.
He operated in a self-professed pharmacological stupor until he was diagnosed with Parkin Syndrome in 2005, forcing him to abandon drugs and alcohol.
His story is told in a Dickensian monologue, replete with British colloquialisms and poor grammar, as he relates tales of debilitating drug-induced paranoia, drunken rooftop orgies and driving drunk to the hospital when his first wife was in labor.
If you're looking for a fine-tuned, poetic, literary gem, look elsewhere. This book is gritty and raunchy. But while Osbourne's memoir is sometimes painful to read, it's also sidesplittingly funny. The narrative is like a bear trap laced with opium; it hurts, but you soon enjoy it.
Osbourne holds himself to task for his run-ins with the law, not financially providing for his parents when Black Sabbath was signed and nearly killing a priest with hashish baked goods.
But he gives himself a pass for other actions, such as the forceable removal of cats from his garage by way of shotgun and countless infidelities during his first marriage.
As a storyteller, Osbourne is like an aging, long-winded sage with a pint on hand, and he's not a writer (the book was dictated). But he is certainly entertaining.
Title: "I Am Ozzy"
Author: Ozzy Osbourne, with Chris Ayres
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Cost: $26.99


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Headed out to the beach on a gloomy, grey day. I like the lighting on days like that. It gives the beach an almost surreal effect.
I also found another old, abandoned building. I would love to know the stories surrounding these places. Maybe, I'll just have to make up my own.
(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)
For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream and my 365 Project Page.
To see other city scenes from around the world, check out Unknown Mami's Sundays in My City. Don't forget to show the love to Mami and the other City contributors.
More Weekly Winners photo galleries can be found at I am Lotus. Please leave a little comment love for our lovely hostess and the other WW photogs.


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Lest you think I have bounced back from my surgery in record time and couldn't wait to go back into the kitchen, I am working on some sharing some special meals prior to our trip. Truthfully, my appetite has taken a while to bounce back and we suspect my standard vegan diet contained too much fibre for my (at-the-moment) delicate gut.
As we move towards spring produce, this quick and easy stir fry with mushrooms, cabbage, sauerkraut and soy curls is delightful with a hit of fresh dill. The recipe is from The Great Vegan Protein Book and was originally called "Cabbage-n-Kraut with Seitan" but I alternated the main protein source, swapping seitan for soy curls. After a taste test form Rob, he told me I had just made a vegan version of the national Polish dish, Bigos, traditionally known as a Hunter's Stew with different kinds of meat simmered with cabbage, sauerkraut and mushrooms with a touch of tomato. Score!
For those concerned with protein sources as a vegan, The Great Vegan Protein Book helps by tackling that question directly. Main vegan protein sources, legumes/beans, whole grains, nuts/seeds, tofu/tempeh and seitan are highlighted in the recipes. Ingredients less often thought as protein-dense, such as nutritional yeast and vegetables such as mushrooms, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, are also highlighted making recipes that are quite diverse. There are also snacks and desserts, including a No-Bake Choco Cashew Cheesecake with 9 g protein per serving.
All recipes include the protein content of each dish, although no other nutritional information like total calories which is a shame. Certainly the dishes featuring tofu, tempeh and seitan contain the most protein. Examples include Tempeh Banh Mi (41 g protein/serving), Higher Protein Sausage (86 g protein/sausage), Sesame Seitan Super Salad (55 g protein/serving), Pecan-Crusted Seitan Cutlets with Brussels Sprouts (51 g protein/serving), Braciola (68 g protein/serving) and Homestyle Potpie (47 g protein/serving). There is also a Beans and Greens Bowl with 23 g protein/serving and the BBQ Lentils with 12 g protein/serving.
Personally, I like to plan my meals around some sort of vegan protein. Once you figure that out, the rest of a balanced meal naturally takes place. Beans will contain protein and carbohydrates, tofu and nuts contains protein and fat, etc. Rounded out with some vegetables, this is how I try to craft my eats. This book is welcome to my cookbook collection with its varied and balanced meals.
Thankfully, the publisher allowed me to giveaway the cookbook to a reader living in the United States or Canada. To be entered in the random draw for the book, please leave a comment below telling me about your favourite vegan protein and how you like to cook it. The winner will be selected at random on May 1, 2015. Good luck!
Recipes from The Great Vegan Protein Book shared elsewhere:
Apple Breakfast Farro Burrito (with a giveaway, too)
Unicorn Tacos (with a giveaway, too)
High protein seitan recipes shared here previously:
PS. I am sharing this with Cooking with Herbs, Bookmarked Recipes and Vegetable Palette.


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Three days. She had done nothing but look at Pinterest for three days. Scrolling and scrolling. Scrolling past pasta and puppies, quilts and cakes, DIY and reclaimed wood. Picture after picture. But today she stopped, carefully zoomed in. "I can build that," she whispered, "I can do it!" She went to her potting shed, another long discarded project, and set to work.
That is where Tom found her six hours later standing in a bed of terra cotta shards, she turned to him, wild-eyed, "Look, I made it myself!"
Tom stood, "Awww honey. Again? Lets get you some help."


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Welcome To Audi West Springfield
2022 Magna Society Winner
View Current Specials
A Fathers & Sons Company
Welcome to Audi West Springfield, MA dealership's website. Here you'll find all the information you need to make an informed purchase of a new Audi, or used car at our Springfield car dealership. If you're looking for a Audi in the greater Northampton, Springfield MA, Chicopee, Enfield CT, and West Springfield MA area, stop by Fathers & Sons Audi where you'll get a great price and service! Have questions? Give us a call!.
While you're visiting our dealership's website, take a look at our inventory of Audi vehicles, including the new Audi models like the A3, A4, A5, A6, Q5, Q7, S6, TT, S4, A8 and R8 for the Springfield, MA, Northampton, Chicopee, Enfield CT, and West Springfield MA region. Audi West Springfield is a leading provider of new and used Audi cars to Springfield thanks to our quality automobiles, low prices, and superior sales staff. We encourage you to come and visit us at 434 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA to view our selection of new luxury and sports cars in person, speak to a sales professional or take a new Audi A3, A4, A5, A6, Q5, Q7, RS5, RS7, RS Q8, S4, S5, S6, TT, RS or R8 in Massachusetts for a test drive. Call us if you have any questions about a new or used Audi vehicle at our Springfield, MA dealership that we can answer for you.
Audi West Springfield's used vehicles in Springfield, Massachusetts are carefully inspected by our technicians to guarantee quality for our Springfield, Massachusetts customers. We are continually receiving vehicles for our used car inventory, so check back often. Visit our inventory page to browse through the Springfield, MA used cars we currently have in stock. If you see a used car you like, give us a call or stop in and see us at 434 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA.
For a car loan or Audi lease in Springfield, MA the Audi West Springfield finance team has you covered. By working with a network of financial institutions for a car loan, we make our customer's dreams of owning a Audi come true. Get the Audi car loan or Audi lease that you desire by completing our online financing application.
We offer professional Audi car repair at our state-of-the-art service facility. Audi West Springfield's car repair experts will diagnose your vehicle's problem and make a repair as quickly as possible. Schedule Audi car repair and Audi service in Springfield, MA by completing our online Audi service application. Fathers & Sons Audi also has a stocked inventory of Audi auto parts to repair your car, truck or SUV. Our auto authentic Audi car parts will keep your vehicle running like new for many more miles to come.
We hope to have the opportunity to meet you soon at our greater Springfield Audi dealership. Our helpful staff is always available to answer any question you may have about purchasing a new or used car, financing, repair or car parts. Call Audi West Springfield today at (888) 904-1906 or stop by our dealership located at 434 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA. We are ready to serve our customers from all over including Springfield, Northampton, Chicopee, Enfield CT, and West Springfield MA. 888-904-1906


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For those that wish a more easy to understand template for what is happening to the financial markets of the nations today, and also just what inflation causes and what its eventual result in all cases must be, we must try and metaphorically consider the so-called "economy" as a ballon. Some may say it's a bubble, or that it is full of sector-based bubbles like the exploding and then imploding tech bubble not so long ago. Remember that now president Trump, in his pre-elections speeches, declared the whole economy to be essentially the result of a massive "bubble" about to burst (paraphrase). Now he uses those same, insubstantial bubbles to declare that his administration has improved the economy. But so would any president of any corporation take credit for this scheme. It's just business. And the king must have his pretended glory.
Please understand that for the organized criminal element of the commercial government, banks, and its institutionally stock-owned corporate, commercial world, inflation is a wonderful tool. It works! For them…
But Confuses say: that which inflates must also deflate. Well, not really. But I'm sure that's what he would say. What goes up must come down, etc.
The problem with deflation is that, unlike inflation, which pumps artificial value (form with substance) into the "economy, deflation represents the destruction of both that artificial value plus the actual (market) value as it deflates back to nothingness it was built upon. In other words, the foundation of the market is not inflated, only the overhead space above it, so that the market appears stronger than it is. But when the deflation hits, it takes the foundation down with it. In sound engineering and editing we might call this as compression. To create inflation, first compress the foundation, then bring it back up so that its "volume" is louder but not necessarily of any more substance.
So let us now consider the ballon. What is actually happening to the ballon with inflation? It is not that more air (substance) is being pumped into the ballon, it is that inflation squeezes and tightens the ballon to the point where it appears to expand, and is then tied off. What remains after the tie is the True effect of inflation of the form, which is deflation of the substance. This never-ending cycle of the cause and effect of pumping in false value and then pumping out Real assets (as value) is called reflation. Once the initial inflation happens, and the necessary compression and detraction of deflation results, each new cycle is a reflation.
But what is reflation?
Reflation is the process of that squeeze and tie off of the ballon, until eventually only a small part of the balloon is actually inflated, the rest lying dormant and without substance. The ballon is compressed, leaving even more empty form, and that compression expands the lie that is the appearance of wealth and prosperity. The "economy" (compressed ballon) appears to be just as large as it was 10 years ago, and yet even bigger from completely unsubstantiated "growth" (false valuation). But the fact is that it's only the elasticity of that ballon (economy valuation) that has now been squeezed so extremely tight that all the real or actual value of the original substance is so low as a percentage of the balloons' actual value (substance) compared to the injected filler, the false value (form) caused by inflation. In other words, the economy is full of hot air. It's like a 10×10 foot box that is filled with Styrofoam all to hold and protect a single, minuscule small coffee cup. And I think most people at some level deep down already know this to be True.
The problem we are seeing today is that these current attempts at reflation are having none or little effect on the actual market, because most of that small amount of actual market valuation is already a result of the inflation process. In other words, there are no ice cubes left in the glass to float when the glass is filled with water. There's no more room or elasticity to inflate and crimp the rubber walls. And any newly infused inflation does not cause the actual value to increase anymore, just remain stagnant. The growth is artificial, no longer effecting the bottom line. There is just not that much actual wealth left to prop up. The ballon is so tightly squeezed that its about to pop.
So what does our current economic ballon basically look like? It looks like this massive, overstretched air bubble at the very tip of the ballon, while the majority of the actual balloon is completely depressed (deflated). The real wealth has already been extracted, leaving a bubble unrooted to any foundation.
Are you grasping the metaphor?
Can you see where there once was inflation, now there is devaluation (depression),
while reflation causes it to appear the same size in form without substance?
Oh, and here's what the "tech bubble" looked like in 2007,
Only you have to imagine the empty tail of this stinking rat to go on another 10 feet!
Awe, how cute. I'm Joe public. All I really see is a cute little ballon animal.
Meanwhile, so as to extract all of the public wealth out of the public sector
and into the hands of government and corporate money-changers,
here we see a behind the scenes look at the real movers and shakers of these bubbles.
That's a bed of nails, in case this isn't clear.
But don't worry. Be happy!
For as your entire wealth and prosperity is being drained
like a bunch of hot air from this economy you love so much and have gambled
your whole life and retirement upon, government is allowing other types of
legal glass bubbles that are enjoyable for one and all…
These stylish bubbles are guarantied to make your
half-gram or 1-ounce investment get you feeling even higher as well,
at least, while the effects of the bubble last.
Note: resealable baggies can be blown up like bubbles too!
I also enjoy bubble wrap.
And Congress says:
Be a doper or a crackhead, your choice. Just stay out of our business!
Meanwhile, let us suck your investments funds dry
like a delicious, artificially flavored Slurpee from 7-11
so that we can continue on with the war on drugs.
In conclusion, we are being exposed to two types of extremely mind-altering bubbles here, and it may very well come to pass that only the users of the second type may not feel the need to kill themselves or even notice the economic depression that will happen because of the first type. It's a correction, they tell you. We must correct the inflated markets. Duh! You inflated them, assholes, with the intent of stealing any actual wealth, replacing it by toxic-debt-instrument-backed pretend reflation, and now you are playing Captain Obvious?
This is not a confession by these organized criminals, mind you, just a bit of business-as-usual, social programming-based disclosure that our public psychological tests show most people will just sit back and watch it happen. They will even speak of it as if it's normal, or as if they know how and why it happened.
What's so damned funny about this little practical joke called the market economy is that all that wealth, all that real estate, all those foreign exchange certificates and bonds, all those precious metals, and all of every other possible asset made contracted or incorporated and thus redeemable since the dollar got turned into the worthless fiat shit-show it is today, the dollar of course being the most extreme example of an over-inflated bubble imaginable, has all but been removed from the value markers of all these investment and debt instruments. In other words, if the stock market crashes tomorrow, the truth of the matter is that if all stocks went to $0.0, this should not effect in any way the actual corporate structure of that which the stock supposedly represents. The stock and its value is so distant, so detached from the actual company and its business dealings and earnings, that everything could just crash go on as usual, except that the stock market would be gone.
But it's not that simple. Here's the real problem: The only way for governments and corporations to make profits and gains is to invest in stocks, bonds, and other debt instruments. On paper, at this moment, a corporate stock may be trading at and therefore artificially valued $100.00 per share. But that's only if you are holding the stock itself. To realize that price, the holder must do one of two things. Sell the stock, or use it as collateral, as a false equity, so as to acquire the value of that stock in the form of a loan against it. For if one institutional holder sells the stock, this may trigger others to start the same sell-off, bringing the completely artificial market price of the stock and the market itself, which represents the artificial bubble based on the artificially reflated prices with nothing of substance backing them, into what we are entrained to call as a crash, as if it was an accident the could not be avoided.
But make no mistake, my fellow debt-slaves. When this happens, every time it will happen and has happened in the past, this is nothing more and nothing less that exactly what by now you should have figured it out to be, a well-orchestrated extraction of trillions of dollars of wealth from all of us by replacing real assets with paper ones. This is not a correction, it is the greatest continuous wealth exchange in history. It is the virtual selling of all public assets and shareholder control to government and corporations (institutional investors). It is the communistic takeover of the entire economy and public and private wealth. It is the final flight of the phoenix burning to the ground and emerging as that New World Order we all love to drone on about but never do anything about.
Remember. It's all a practical joke. It was designed to fail, because failure to us is access to them. Try not to take it so seriously. It's just fiction in the end.
Thank you for attending this Red Pill Sunday School once again.
Look out for my next post, here, which will be a large section of my 2nd book, titled for this blog as:
Replacing "God" With "Logos" – The Most Unholy, Logical Fallacy
Just in the final editing now, coming in at over 125,000 words so far, and certainly designed to both enlighten, cause unwarranted controversy, and generally piss you off like only I can with the Truth, not to mention keep you busy for a while.
Until then, fare thee well brothers and sisters. Why not grab a lawn chair, a bong or fruity cocktail, and an oversized umbrella so we can watch the best shit-show on earth together, the completely staged, global economic meltdown, sponsored by the Congress of the United States and its investment strategy and stockholder portfolio that most of you have no idea even exists. But why learn now that governments own all corporations by ownership stock holdings in those companies while also passing all the laws that give those corporations license and permit to be total dicks? The deed is done, and so if you're a nationalist you should be happy about this. For the corporation nation that is the commercial "United States" along with its United Nations partners is about to take control of the entire economy in one fell swoop. That's what stockholders receive, for they won't be selling but buying what you and your agent sells. And what care does government have if its economy crashes if in the end it stands collectively with the other governments of the world as the majority owner of the entire corporate structure and the almost totally privatized public infrastructure?
I think I'll go watch The Corporation Nation (15 parts) and The Great Pension Fund Hoax again for posterity, and to say: see, I told me so.
–Clint richard-son (Realitybloger.wordpress.com)
–Tuesday, October 30th, 2018


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Manuelito was a founding father of today's Navajo.
This is his wife Juanita.
Charcoal and white charcoal on coffee stained watercolor paper
Like the blacksmiths in the Old West, Debra Jones is a skilled craft person who takes making pictures very seriously. Her Western oils and unique "tincup" style, using stained paper and fine charcoal drawing, are a commentary on the NEW and OLD West of today. Prints may be ordered from FineArtAmerica.com or contact firstname.lastname@example.com


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A pernicious myth, repeated with good intentions in many places and by many people, is that children are natural scientists. They are born with something that gets beaten or worn out of them by bad teachers, bad schools, bad educational practices, and then must relearn what it means to be a scientist later in life. Like many myths, there's a mixture of truth and falsehood, but ultimately the myth is damaging and leads us into bad habits of thought.
After all, what we really mean when we say "children are natural scientists" is that kids are curious about the world and open to learning about it. So, last year's Scientific American article "More Than Child's Play: Ability to Think Scientifically Declines as Kids Grow Up" by Sharon Begley, both intrigued and bothered me. "Thinking like a researcher" is not the same thing as a natural curiosity and mental plasticity — scientific research is very much a learned skill, in my experience, but I admit to being entirely ignorant of child development, so maybe I was missing out on something.
However, the great thing about the internet is if you wait long enough (in that case, less than two days!), an expert will step up. Marie-Claire Shanahan in her essay "Students Don't Lose Their Ability to Think Scientifically" points out that there are indeed two things going on: the specific idea of experimentation, which young children are pretty good at, and the more general, abstract idea of controlled research. As she writes,
It is one thing to measure the length of a particular piece of string, quite another to conceive of length as a general property that can be measured or manipulated in any object. This especially true because it is also somewhat arbitrary, requiring the person doing the experiment to choose an operational definition (e.g., by defining length as the measurement of the longest side). There is no concrete thing called length. It is an abstract word that describes a type of measurement.
Marie-Claire's follow-up post goes even farther:
[S]cience isn't just a grown up version of a child's curiosity. While kids have the fertile beginnings, becoming a scientist requires that they learn and skillfully practice many abstract skills that are far from intuitive. When students struggle with scientific thinking later in life it isn't because they have unlearned or lost the ability, it's because they (for any number of reasons) didn't get to take the next steps to developing those skills and understandings.
I'm going to tentatively say that none of us are "born scientists". We have the potential to become scientific thinkers and researchers, and some of us will have an easier go of it than others (for reasons springing both from nature and nurture). The job of an educator is to feed the curiosity, use the plasticity, and help the student build scientific intuition, to borrow a phrase my college advisor often used. It may seem paradoxical to talk about building intuition, but it seems to be a useful concept: we can learn to think in certain ways, especially if we start early. We humans aren't naturally scientific or skeptical thinkers: we often get the wrong end of the stick on basic notions like correlation/causation, randomness, probability, and the like.
Think of it this way: say you toss a coin fives times in a row, and it comes up heads all five times. Our natural inclination is to think that the coin is more likely to come up tails on the sixth toss, but it's not—the chance is still 50% (well, approximately, since coins aren't perfectly symmetrical). Successive throws of the coin don't depend on the previous toss: if you repeat the trial 50 million times, the 50,000,001st trial will still have a 50/50 chance of landing on tails, no matter how many heads or tails preceded it. Lest you think this only relates to coins, think the couples choosing to have another child with the specific hope of giving birth to a boy or girl, having birthed several children of the opposite gender previously. However, the sex of a specific baby doesn't depend on the sex of its older siblings. (It's true that some factors can skew the gender of a child, but based on my limited understanding, those are undesirable to subject yourself to.) The intuition has the feeling of correctness—after all, if you look at the population at large or a huge number of coin tosses, you'll see a rough 50/50 division of girls and boys or heads and tails. However, each individual toss or birth is itself effectively random.
This kind of woolly thinking is as true for professional scientists as for non-scientists, but training can help. Assuming that scientific training automatically makes you immune is a common pitfall, alas (just as being brilliant doesn't keep you from being a sexist deep-sea grade douchecanoe). The key in all of this is to remain skeptical even of your own thinking, not to trust it without evidence—and that's something that can be learned. Another recent example is the much-touted success by statistician Nate Silver in predicting the outcome of the 2012 United States Presidential election. Silver's basic premise was simple: polls should provide enough information to know what the voters will decide. That's it! The rest was statistical techniques that can be learned; I know what they are, in fact, and have used them in modeling white dwarf binary systems. But many political reporters acted as though he had done something new and phenomenal, because their methodology is based on an intuitive reading of the national mood, or some similar set of ideas—in contrast to their own stated beliefs in polling.
One of my favorite memories from my all-too-brief tenure as a planetarium director was the group of five or six young kids who came up to me after a show to ask, "Are you a scientist?" in an awed voice. Yes, I am. And they can be too. It's something they can learn, and grow into, and flourish.
[Adapted and enlarged from an earlier post. You know the drill: writing my book, not much time for blogging.]


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The year of 2012 will soon be over, we will wave it farewell as we enter a new chapter.
Is it because I'm getting older or do the years really fly by so quickly? It seems not so long ago I was sat here writing a post summing up 2011 yet here we are again fast approaching the year 2013… I can hardly keep up!
So, how was 2012 for us? Well, amazingly it was pretty drama free (just the way we like it)! With little man now really settled at his new school things have been… Well… "Normal" I mean I no longer get daily phone calls from head teachers demanding I collect little man! I'm actually able to go shopping without that niggling fear that my mobiles about to ring as soon as I start loading the supermarket trolley.
We have had some wonderful highlights to this year one being our second Mad blog awards win where the blog was crown most inspiring for the second consecutive year in a row. It was a truly wonderful surprise and one we didn't expect. Lets just say I woke up with a somewhat sore head the following morning.
I was also a runner up for most inspirational blog in the BIBs (brilliance in blogging wards) run by Britmums.
At the beginning of the year I got to attend Little mans first ever sports day. Ok, his 12 years old so that may seem strange for some. But those who like me have a child on the autism spectrum will likely have experienced the same… Their child being excluded from everyday activities as they are branded something of a health and safety risk.
Little mans attendance at his new special school has brought with it a lot of "firsts" this year, including his most recent Christmas performance that almost had me in floods of happy tears. I also attended the school Christmas lunch which is such a big deal when you have got to the stage of thinking "You're child will never be given such opportunities" such negative thoughts are all based purely on the bad experiences of the past.
Other wonderful things that have happened this year include, being chosen as Toy R Us Toyologist. Alice and little man were blue group reviewers and lots of fun was had reviewing all the great toys in the run up to Christmas. Little man discovered his love of making review videos and mini tutorials, his confidence grew and as a result his only gone and started his very own youtube channel.
We were also invited to be LEGO Family bloggers this year and as you can guess, that news had the little man excited beyond belief.
Another really big surprise was being chosen to be one of Butlins Ambassadors. Next year we will be visiting Bognor Regis resort and I'll be able to share with readers our experiences including how the park caters for children with additional needs and sen. We start our holiday on the 1st April and I for one really can't wait.
October see me as one of ten bloggers and writers who were chosen as finalist in the Savoo smartest shopper competition. I was in with the chance of winning a prize of £10,000 plus the chance to write my own money saving blog. No I didn't win! But looking back I do realise what a wonderful achievement it was to be in the final amongst the red hot competition.
This year seemed to be the year for competitions. What with Alice being a runner up in the Ice Age Jr reviewer competition winning a fab trip to Bristol, Little man bagging himself an iPad Mini on an online raffle that was organised by his school reward system Vivo, and that of Alice finding out on Christmas Eve that she had won £750! This was for her amazing entry into the post card from Santa competition run by Travel Supermarket (the entry & video can be seen on my sister blog mummy of many talents).
Above… A beautiful trip to bristol
On the whole the year has been a kind one. Sadly we do still have the worrying situation involving my sister and the SS (see the blog post peek a boo) following us into this coming new year. As a family we are continuing to support her the best we can while fighting the system that is destroying her.
So… What will next year bring? New opportunities, more school plays and sports days. I don't hope its a good one I'll be sure to make it a great one.


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We made sure to get there early. After all, John Carter was so well advertised that almost two of my friends had heard of it. What if it sold out? This was opening day after all. As we pull into the theater, I see a giant, swarming mass of bodies. Lines everywhere! Noooo! Whyyy? Why didn't we get there even earlier?
Turns out it was Bollywood night and it was just a bunch of Indian folk lined up to see Kahaani-D. Still, we barely managed to snag a seat for John Carter. By the time we arrived, they only have 307 seats remaining, at least, 307 in the IMAX theater. As far as I could tell, the other showtimes were completely empty.
And by the end of the movie, did we ever feel foolish for being there. What an utterly horrible attempt at cinema! The acting was flat and generally atrocious, the characters unlikeable, and their motivations were muddled or non-existent. The love story was totally stale and unbelievable, and the girl wasn't even that hot. Even the color scheme of the movie was confusing! All people are red people, but some red people fight with blue energy? And some blue energy users are bad, and there's green aliens who are good, but also green ones who are evil, and…Oh god.
The first problem with the movie is the opening scene, always a bad sign. It begins on Mars with some lofty explanation of some cultures and their problems. One city at war with another one or something, and there's an evil one and a good one, but who knows which is which? Then there's a battle on some sky-ships, and you have no idea which characters represent what, but one ship is getting shot the fuck up by three other ships, so you immediately start rooting for the underdog. And then, suddenly, when he's about to be overcome, some godlike people come down and grant him an all-powerful wristband. If he chooses to wield it, he can be the next king.
Now, my friends and I are pretty intelligent. High SAT scores, good schools. But as we watched this, we assumed that this underdog was the aforementioned good species and that he would now have a way to fight off the villains. Yay! I thought. The hitherto unseen villains are about to get some serious comeuppance. And then my mind continued. Is this in the past? Does this king go mad with power after so many years? Will John Carter have to stop him now that he's abusing his bracelet, and if so, how will he defeat the bracelet?!
Turns out this wrist-band wielding character is the villain and some god-people decided to give him the bracelet for no reason, and now John Carter has to defeat him. And when I say "no reason," I mean no reason. This movie commits the worst atrocity I've ever heard of in the history of storytelling. At one point the villain (played by Mark Strong, who is awesome) has captured John Carter. And Carter says something like "Why are you doing all of this?" And the bad guy replies, "We have no goals. Our species is immortal. We have no motivations for any of the things we do."
Whaaa?!?! I'm sitting there, mouth agape, utterly taken aback. That's the opposite of characterization! How can I possibly buy into the storyline if—what?!?! If you have no goals or motivation, why are you doing any of the things you're doing?! Why are you doing anything? Wouldn't everyone be living peacefully if you hadn't interfered? I just, I, ergg, laskjg ahhhhhhh.
I still can't think about that statement without my brain breaking. It's like Captain Kirk outlogicing a robot into blowing itself up "Russ, I have this great idea for a character," Kirk would say to me. "Sweet. Tell me about him." "Ok, so he's this immortal guy, but when I say immortal, I mean that he immediately dies from even a single gunshot no matter where it strikes him, and he has no goals or reason to do anything."
And then my head explodes.
My friends and I decided that these immortals had lived so long that almost nothing could entertain them anymore. They'd seen and experienced so much that only the most epic situations could stir any emotions in them. Thus, they traveled from planet to planet, riling up the local species and working behind the scenes to create an all-out war. Watching it unfold and seeing all living creatures murdered in their apocalypse is the only thing that can help keep the boredom at bay for a moment.
That would also explain why these all-powerful beings chose to interfere in only the most minor of ways. They have access to an infinite amount of energy, can shape-shift to look like anyone, and can teleport. Who knows what other powers they have? If they want to get something done, they could fucking do it. Why have the princess come to her wedding? Why not just shapeshift to look like her and attend the wedding yourself? Why give the evil king that bracelet? Why not just kill him and become king? Why do anything at all?! Oh wait, even the movie couldn't figure that one out. That's why they had the villain state his complete lack of motivation! Well I guess that justifies it then. They're 100% illogical beings.
Oops, this is already really long and I haven't talked about the main character. I'm just trying to make the experience of reading this review a lot like watching the movie. Confusing, out of order, and utterly terrible. In the best way, of course! John Carter himself is completely unlikable. He's a confederate cowboy who doesn't care about anyone or anything and just wants to find a cave full of gold (and then he fights aliens. Sound like Cowboys & Aliens, anyone? And then he ends up spending a lot of the movie wandering through the desert with a princess. Prince of Persia much?). He sucks in every conceivable way. He has no sense of humor, he's only sort of attractive, and the actor has no range whatsoever.
Throughout the film, he's constantly bludgeoning into your head the idea that he fights for no man, that causes are for chumps. And this princess chick keeps trying to convince him that her cause is worthy, and then he says, "I fight for no man. Causes are for chumps," and so forth and so on.
That's great. At least this guy has characterization, albeit a crappy one. And you're watching, thinking, I bet he'll undergo a thing called character change, and by the end he'll realize what's important. I don't think the people who wrote this have ever heard of character change, because it DOES NOT OCCUR.
He never, ever decides to fight for a cause. He's never convinced that princess girl's cause is just. The first time he fights, it's to save the girl because she's hot and he wants to bone her. And then he's fully committed to going home and letting all the Martians perish, but someone points out that technically hot girl is a Martian, and that she'd be perishing. And you can see the moment when the thought crosses his face (again, thanks to such great acting). Wait, if hot Martian girl perishes, I will have no place to house my glorious cock! "To battle!" There is no indication ever given that John Carter gives one modicum of a shit about anyone. The moral of this movie is: don't believe in anything. Believing in things is stupid. Now, how do I get laid?
Some of you might say John Carter has a change of heart because he falls in love. Love? LOVE?! There are a few scenes that look as though they might be trying to convey this feeling, but there are only about 2 such scenes, and they take up almost no time, and they're horrible written. "Still playing at the madman?" asks the princess, referencing an earlier line of dialogue. "Or the thief," smiles John Carter. And the princess swoons. Have you ever heard a line so charming? Oh wait, it's not charming at all, and yet the director clearly tells the girl to swoon, and he asks John Carter to try to make it sound like he's wooing her, although I'm sure no direction is capable of altering his monotone feeling: mild anger.
I can see casting an actor without range. Sometimes movies cast a hot person instead of a talented one, you know, to appeal to us young folk. But this movie was so poorly cast I wanted to tear my beard out. The main actor is such a pretty boy that he clearly cannot grow a beard. He wears one in the beginning of the film, and it looks so ridiculous that when you first see him you can't help but laugh. He's supposed to be this withered old war veteran with a wife and children, but he's super young looking. This role absolutely needed to be played by someone much, much older, like Harrison Ford or Daniel Craig (oh shit! Cowboys & Aliens again!).
Those are most of the major problems, but I still feel that I haven't accurately conveyed how riddled with minor flaws this film was. What about the time Carter, princess, and that utterly irrelevant green alien girl all go to that mystical river? Green alien girl is about to get into a canoe, which, to me, seems like a completely reasonable action. Then Carter sprints over to her all dramatic-like and says something along the lines of "Noooo! Don't throw your life away!!" What?! What is he talking about? Is it some sort of suicide canoe? How do you even kill yourself with a canoe? Like, maybe if you had some rope, you could tie yourself and capsize it, but that doesn't seem that effective, and they didn't have any rope. This movie never explains the stakes of any given action, so they all just seem silly. And after Carter successfully convinces her that life is worth living, after she's determined to avoid the dangers of canoeing, Carter goes "Let's all hop in a canoe!" And the three of them start canoeing down the river. Whaaa?!
What's so mystical about the river anyway? I get that there's important technology at the center, but the green chief makes it sound like no one ever goes to the river because it's so powerful and ancient and whatnot. But then Carter and co. run into a giant horde of violent green aliens who are right there. They don't seem worried about the river's mysticism one bit.
They seem more interested in fighting John Carter, which is a bad decision, because he and his dog-like companion fuck them up in one of the worst examples of intercutting I've ever seen. Some sappy music sets the mood, drowning out the sounds of violence, and we're treated to scenes of Carter burying his wife and child spliced in with scenes of him killing huge quantities of aliens. His shove stabs the earth, his sword stabs an alien. What a clever juxtaposition! Too bad we know nothing about his wife and feel nothing for his plight. Too bad the actor doesn't have the gravitas to make us care. The scene does not work at all.
On the plus side, the dog creature is a real champion. In fact, he was my favorite character. He seemed to make the most logical choices and have the clearest motivation. He took a liking to John Carter and spent the movie trying to protect him, always choosing the course of action that would best bring about Carter's safety. The more I thought about it, the more I figured maybe the whole thing was the dog's plan. There was only one of his species shown the entire film, so he has to be some sort of rare magical beast. Maybe he's the counter to the villain—an all-powerful creature who uses his strength for good instead of evil. Maybe he knows that John Carter is the key and is nudging him to greatness. Yeah. I like that.
Almost done, but first I have to talk about some fun logic problems. Carter explains at the end that teleportation works like a telegram. A copy of his earth-based body is created on Mars. He then goes on to explain that his earth body must be protected at all costs, because if he dies on earth, his copy dies on Mars, you know, like a telegram. That's what made those early world wars so problematic. Burn the original telegram and all others are immediately destroyed! Made sending orders super difficult.
So based on this, Carter devises a way to protect himself. He will lock his earth-body in a crypt that only opens from the inside. This stone structure will surely protect him from the immortal beings who can shoot blue rays that incinerate everything in their path including giant metal warships. Brilliant, Carter. Brilliant!
And he also doesn't explain what his body is doing the whole time he's on Mars. It's not like telegrams instantly fall into comas or anything. The way he tells it, it seems like his body would keep doing stuff, completely unaware that a copy was out on planet number 4 being a hero. When Carter teleports back to earth, what the crap is happening? In order to accomplish that, wouldn't he actually just be producing another copy of himself? Wouldn't there be two of him on earth now? One that had the memories of the Mars trip, and one who just thought he fell asleep in a cave? Jesus. I don't know.
And what's up with Carter drinking some weird Martian liquid and then immediately understand Mars-speak. You know what, I'm actually ok with that. It's science fiction. They can have some magic. But why does the universal translator juice selectively malfunction? It's able to translate every word perfectly, that is, unless it sounds cool not too. I was dying of laughter every time Carter and the princess bickered over the correct name of something. Like Mars was called "Barsoom." But they were both perfectly happy to call water "water." And sex was easily translated to "the only reason I choose to do anything."
And yet it was all worth it, because once we got out of the movie (which began after TWENTY-FOUR minutes of trailers), we stood outside in the freezing cold for an hour and a half, just to tear the thing apart. We got an entire movie's length of entertainment ripping on the thing! And what a blast that was! So if you have a couple of good friends who are great at picking apart every single aspect of a film, bring them along. It's worth your money.


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Flu is here and for the next couple of months or so many of us will need to take precautions to prevent, if possible, getting sick.
Some influenza seasons are worse than others, and this year appears to be more severe than the last few flu seasons. But no matter what year it is, it's doubly important to help aging parents avoid influenza exposure as much as possible — for elders every season is a severe flu season, and no senior of any age should get very far into the fall months without getting a vaccination at a physician's office, pharmacy, or local clinic.
Today I went to Google Flu Trends to learn where in the United States influenza is hitting the hardest, and right now this dynamic mapping site indicates that the flu is everywhere. Google collects its data by keeping track of internet searches for symptoms such as fever, headache, or sore muscles. The collected search statistics turn out to be good predictors of what parts of the country are experiencing influenza-like illnesses.
Right now, January 12, 2013, the Google flu map shows that the flu is widespread — almost every state in the U.S. is the same bright read color, indicating that lots of people are sick with the flu and searching to learn more. A user can click in each state to look at the influenza-related searches from there. Click on the map to visit Google Flu Trends.
The data depicted by Google Flu Trends often corresponds to, but is not a substitute for, the hard data that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives when epidemiologists from around the country collect and submit data about actual diagnosed influenza cases in their states. In tracing the course of an epidemic, epidemiologists and health officials need to collect the specifics about place and time of an illness as well as general characteristics of the people who are sick (age, gender, ethnicity, seriousness of illness, pre-existing health conditions, etc.). At this time, Google Flu Trends, while predictive of case counts, does not provide public health officials enough detailed information. Look at the CDC Influenza Summary Update.
Resources on Influenza
- Flu.gov Senior page – Department of Health and Human Services
- CDC Flu Page – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Doctor Say Flu Prevention Especially Important for Seniors – Weather.com
- Flu Rages, Caregiving Suffers – NYTimes New Old Age Blog
- Flu FAQ – Oregon Public Health Authority
- Educating Older Adults About Influenza and Vaccination (PDF) – National Council on Aging (NCOA)
- Preventing Influenza in Older Adults (PDF) – National Council on Aging (NCOA)
- Flu Prevention Tips for Seniors – Aging Abundantly blog


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The 2014 Cloud IaaS Magic Quadrant
Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, 2014, has just been released (see the client-only interactive version, or the free reprint). If you're a Gartner client, you can also view the related charts, which summarize the offerings, features, and data center locations in a convenient table format. (The charts are unfortunately less readable than they could be, as our publication system doesn't allow comments in Excel spreadsheets. Sorry.)
We're continuing to update this Magic Quadrant every nine months, since the market is moving so quickly. There have been significant changes in vendor positions since the August 2013 Magic Quadrant (the free reprint has expired, but the graphic is floating around, and Gartner clients can use the "History" tab in the online Magic Quadrant tool, which allows you to compare 2012, 2013, and 2014 interactively).
We've observed, over the last nine months, a major shift in Gartner's client base — the desire to make strategic bets on cloud IaaS providers. In general, this reduces the number of significant suppliers to an organization to just one or two (whereas many organizations had as many as four), with the overwhelming bulk of the workloads going to one provider. It also means that clients are interested in knowing not just who is winning right now, but who is going to be the winner in five or even ten years. That's really the lens that this Magic Quadrant should be viewed through: Who has what it takes to convince the customer that they can serve both current needs and will sustain market leadership over the long term?
Our clients have, since September of 2013 (which seemed to mark a change in Microsoft's go-to-market approach for Azure), consistently viewed this as an AWS vs. Microsoft battle, with AWS continuing to win the vast majority of business but Microsoft winning significant inroads, especially with later-adopter customers. In recent weeks since the big price drops, lots of clients have been asking about the future of Google, as well, and there are a lot of curiosity questions about IBM (SoftLayer) also, although the IBM questions tend to be more outsourcing and broader-strategy in orientation. Of course, prospects consider other vendors, especially their existing incumbent vendors, as well, but AWS and Microsoft are overwhelmingly the top contenders.
What's interesting about this year's Visionaries is that they all have new platforms — CenturyLink with the Tier 3 acquisition, CSC with the ServiceMesh acquisition coupled with the AWS partnership, Google with Google Compute Engine, IBM with the SoftLayer acquisition, and Verizon Terremark with the still-beta Verizon Cloud. (Arguably VMware falls into this bucket as well, despite being a Niche Player this year.) These providers are in the middle of reinventing themselves, most with the idea of battling it out for the #3 spot in the market.
This is not a market for the faint of heart. (I recently asked a large vendor if they intended to compete seriously in the IaaS space, and was told, "Only an idiot takes on Amazon, Microsoft, and Google simultaneously.") For that matter, this is not a market for the shallow of pocket. You can't spend your way to success here, but you need engineers, intellectual property, and to be a real #3, substantial capital investment in infrastructure.
There's also a clear convergence with the PaaS market that's taking place here. AWS has long offered an array of services that are PaaS elements, as well as many things that sit on the spectrum between pure IaaS and pure PaaS. Microsoft and Google started as PaaS providers and then launched IaaS offerings. The distintions will blur and increasingly become less relevant, as providers fight it out on features and capabilities.
Gartner continues to separate our evaluation of related managed and professional services from the core cloud IaaS platform, because we believe that clients are increasingly choosing a platform, and then choosing consultants and managed services providers (or alternatively, turning to a trusted integrator who helps them choose the right platforms for their needs). I'll be writing on this more in the future, but keep an eye out for the upcoming regional Magic Quadrants for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting for a managed services-oriented view.
Posted on May 30, 2014, in Infrastructure and tagged cloud, Gartner, IaaS, MQ, research. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Congrats Lydia to you and Tiny, Doug, Gregor and Bob. I kind of miss the chaos of creating an MQ with you. Kind of……………………


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Find the Book You Were Looking For
(or the one you didn't know you were looking for)
The Activity: (take notes in your daybook)
- Walk over to the library with someone you don't know very well, and chat with them about their intellectual interests. What did they find during the last library trip? What do they think they might read and write about this semester? Note your partner's name and write down some of what they say to you.
- As we get in the hallways of the library, check out the signs on the wall that inform you what numbers (PN 1345 etc) are on what floor. You can also check with me, or the staff of the library for help.
- You were to come to class with three call numbers for books in the Queens library that might interest you. Try to find these books.
- As you find a book, be sure to check around the same shelf and the shelves close to your book to see if there is anything there that interests you. This could be a section of the library that you return to again and again. Write down the author and title of a book that is close to the book that you meant to find. You're going to spend the class reading and you'll check out a book or two at the end of our time. Be thinking about what books you might want to take with you.
Take Notes in Your Daybook that look something like this:
Book 1 Title and Author:__________________________________________________________________________
Book Close to Book 1 Title and Author:____________________________________________________________
- When you're done, you should have written down the names of at least six books: the three books you were looking for and the book that looked interesting that was near the book you were looking for.
- Take books with you that you might want to read around in. You don't need to re-shelve these. From what I understand, the library wants to get a sense of what books you are looking at. There are carts placed around the library where you put the books when you are done looking at them.
- Sit down somewhere in the library and read around in the books and see what you find interesting.
- For this week or next week, do a Reading For Writing (RFW) entry on a book that you check out from the library. See the syllabus for a full description, but this means you'll choose golden lines from the article. Type up those lines in bold, and then free write after the quote sharing whatever the writing gets you thinking about.
- Somewhere in the piece, tell us about whom you visited with.
- Be sure to use the "son of citation" website (or something like it) to give the full MLA works cited entry at the bottom of your post.
- Copy and paste that works cited entry into your "Reading Bibliography" tab on your blog.
- Print out a copy of the entry for reading groups next Wednesday and bring your book or books to class next time.
Want the handout? See the handout tab at TheTorg.Com
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The International Polo Club Palm Beach seen from above during half time when the audience is invited out for complimentary champagne.
Field One of the International Polo Club Palm Beach seats 1.650 - the world's largest structures for viewing Polo. Divided into three buildings linked together by foot bridges. Each private box seats 8 and can be leased by season.
Jason, Joyce, Marcel and Julian Maison at the entrance to the International Polo Club on opening day 2004.
For the entrance to The International Polo Club, we complemented our architectural and landscape design by creating these two handcarved granite crocodiles (as the club is near the Florida Everglades). They face each other with water running down their back, into a hole at the back of their heads, and then out the mouth into the pond.
The main entrance into the International Polo Club Palm Beach :
Hand made earthen tiles on the walls around an enclosed lush tropical garden and central pond featuring two stone Crocodiles sculptures.
Entrance to the Central Pavillion, Field One - IPC.
The grandstands pavillions of the Polo Club from behind, with flags of each team currently competing. By the end of a championship, only two flags are left.
Main entrance into the grand pavillions of the Field One, each seating 550 people, the largest structure for viewing Polo on earth.
At the main entrance to the grandstands we made three boards to listing today's games and the current championship line up with points. They are flanked by two antique cast iron scones.
Pool area IPC.
Pool area at The International Polo Club Palm Beach-a/k/a I.P.C.
The pool area is lined with these recliners made of Cipo. Each cushion has rounded river stones tied to it to hold down the cushions when strong sudden Florida rainstorms show up.
Social cocktail hour pool side, Marcel Maison and IPC manager Julie Pickens. In the back ground : The Mallet Grill Restaurant.
Outdoor lounge area by pool
Outdoor lounge area of the International Polo Club Palm Beach. We designed a few of these extra deep sofas hand made in Brasil from cipo vines.
We designed and built this Fountain and Pond to sit by the outdoor dining area of the restaurant along side the main field.
The Bar dominates the center of The Mallet Grill Restaurant in the Polo Club. As its center piece we made a sculpture out of old polo mallets from famous players, finished with a polo ball at the bottom of it.
Upon designing this sculpture, made of Polo mallets used by famous players, and hanging over the center of the Bar of the Polo Club's main restaurant - the name of the Restaurant was decided : "The Mallet Grill".
Mallets sculpture in the International Polo Club Palm Beach by Maison e Maison.
Bar stools made from horse harness's at the Mallet Grill's Restaurant.


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Good Morning, Friends Vol. 1 (audiobook)
A Collection of Weekly Radio Messages by R. J. Rushdoony
From 1953 to 1956, Reverend R. J. Rushdoony gave weekly radio talks at Santa Cruz, California station KSCO that reveal a perfect blend of strong theology with poignant pastoral counsel. In fact, these insightful, concise messages are so well done they could be used for both individual and group discipleship at any level. They are a storehouse of wisdom, inspiration, strong doctrine, exhortation, and comfort for the Christian life.
Spanning subjects from the Reformed faith to the Trinity, life, suffering, prayer, the Bible, church, wisdom, and much more, you'll hear Rushdoony in a way you may not have heard him before. You'll sense he's speaking directly to you in pastoral fashion, and you'll enjoy every chapter.
This three-volume series is must have for any Christian of any age and experience.
Sample Audio
Read inside...
|Product Contains
|209 MB & 196 MB zip files
|Media Length
|4 hrs and 48 mins
|Poetry & Wisdom Literature, Reformed Thought, Theology


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It was late in the evening when Nitin came out of the lab, after spending hours analyzing samples that were collected during excavation. He was in an upbeat mood, eager to share his excitement with the team as the outcome of analysis was positive. Nitin is an archeologist who is working in an international project, consisting of specialists from interdisciplinary fields. They are studying the actual cause of decline of Indus valley civilization. While he hurried towards the Jeep, his phone started vibrating. He slipped his hand into the side pocket of his jeans to take the phone out. It was a call from his father Mahesh.
Nitin called out, "Hello, Papa".
"How are you, Nitin?", Mahesh inquired.
"I'm Good", Nitin replied, but sensed something amiss. "What has happened? You don't sound okay".
"Yeah… actually from sometime now, your grandfather has not been keeping well. No matter how much he was cajoled to come and stay with us, he showed reluctance to do so. You see, a persistent cough that has taken a shape of pneumonia", Mahesh informed.
"Okay, so now…", Nitin said pensively.
"Even though he was taking medicines… but grandma had called up to inform us that he has been experiencing breathlessness from a week." Mahesh was interrupted by Nitin. "What? breathlessness…"
"Yes, hearing which, we rushed to Simariya. After a brief stay at a hospital he is back to home now", Mahesh added.
"How is he… now?", Nitin asked.
"He is recovering slowly", Mahesh became silent.
Nitin asked in desperation, unable to bear the silence, "Is there anything that you are hiding from me?"
"Well… he wants to meet you, spend a few days with you. Can you make that possible, Nitin?" Mahesh asked with hesitation.
"No Papa, I can't come now. I mean…", Nitin said immediately.
Mahesh could sense that his son was getting disturbed by this conversation. As a result he quickly said,"That's okay son, I can understand that you have work commitments".
And then he changed the topic and asked, "How is your work going on?"
"Good, it is at a critical juncture. You could expect to hear from us anytime soon", Nitin said.
"Oh! That's wonderful", Mahesh exclaimed.
"Papa, I can't miss this opportunity. I have been waiting for this moment for years", Nitin said with a tinge of guilt in his voice.
"Don't think about it much and remain focused. Grandpa would understand", Mahesh said. "Give him a call sometime, he'll feel better", he suggested.
"Sure, I will…", Nitin replied.
After this conversation, Nitin drove to the place where the whole team was put up.That night the whole team had their dinner amidst discussions on the day's development and next plan of action and speculations. In the archaeological world, the actual cause of decline of this civilization has always been regarded as a final frontier. Something at this scale have never been done before. They were all charged up as they could see a possibility of a landmark discovery, something for which they have been working hard for almost five years now.
After dinner, everyone dispersed to their respective rooms, except for Nitin. While he was walking through the corridor, he could feel the cold breeze, caressing and ruffling him. As if to compel him to linger there before calling it a night. Watching the spectacular star studded sky, he was reminded of a childhood memory. Every summer vacation during his visits to grandparent's home, on hot summer nights they would sleep on the terrace. While laying on separate charpoys, watching millions of stars twinkling in the sky, feeling the breeze blowing from the Ganges, they would talk for hours before slowly falling asleep. He felt nostalgic, a strange familiarity in this ambience. But ironically, for him this moment was far from peaceful as he felt a tempest within him.
Meanwhile, Akshay, a fellow archeologist and a good friend of Nitin saw him from his window. Wondering what was Nitin doing there on a cold desert night, he proceeded towards him. Nitin was too engrossed in his thought processes and hence couldn't feel his presence.
"Hey buddy! All good?" Akshay asked, almost startling him.
"Oh, hi Akshay", He responded.
" I… I hope everything is okay?", Akshay asked with hesitation.
Nitin forced himself to smile and said, "Yeah".
Akshay looked at Nitin, he seemed to be in deep thought and somewhat disturbed.
After a bit of silence, Nitin spoke out, "My grandfather is not keeping well".
"Oh! ", Akshay exclaimed. With curiosity in his eyes he watched Nitin quietly, expecting more to come.
"He is interested to meet me", Nitin said.
"I see", Akshay sighed. After a pause.
"All my fond childhood memories are with my grandparents and not with my parents. My parents used to be busy with their patients… they hardly had any time left for us. Papa was busy building his career. But on the contrary, my grandfather had different priorities in life. After graduating from medical college, my grandfather chose to go back to his native place and serve his people as their was a dearth of doctors there. He led a very simple and peaceful life there." Nitin said.
"Where do they live? You had mentioned once, but I forgot", Akshay inquired.
"Simariya, a peaceful village in Bihar near the banks of river Ganges", Nitin said.
"I am trying to imagine… it must have been wonderful", Akshay said smiling.
"Yeah, those moments were so beautiful. I vividly remember… those early morning walks down the river bank, sitting there comfortably for hours, watching the sunrise, the breeze forming ripples in the water, small boats sailing and their oars making rhythmic sounds in the water, men and women taking a dip in the holy Ganges."
"Hmm, enchanting!", Akshay exclaimed.
"Yes, we used to discuss about historical events, ancient Indian history during those moments. I was introduced to Harappan culture, Maurya, Vijayanagara, Mughal and Maratha empires long before I had studied about them at the school", Nitin said.
"Oh, so he introduced you to these things!" Akshay exclaimed.
"Yes, you could say so. I still remember my first visit to the ruins of Nalanda University with him. I was about ten at that time. That visit changed my life for ever. Both of us had got engrossed in those ruins. Luckily, during that time we happened to meet a couple of field archaeologists working at the site. And I had said to my grandfather, "This is what I want to become when I grow up". With belief and pride he told me,"Whatever you wish".
"And… what was his equation with his other grandchildren?", Akshay asked inquisitively.
"I have always been very special to him. Maybe because with me he could experience grandparenthood in a true sense. We lived in Patna, a few hours drive from him. But others lived in distant places. As a result he didn't get to spend much time with them", Nitin sighed and silently drifted into his thoughts.
Now, slowly things were falling in place for Akshay. He could make out what was bothering Nitin so much. He understood that his friend's emotions were playing a tug of war, trying to pull him on either sides. On one side, thoughts of his grandpa's ill health, the fact that he wanted to meet him so badly was pulling Nitin and on the other hand his impending project was rendering him helpless. "What can he do, his hands are tied up…", Akshay thought to himself.
For five years they had toiled hard, confronting challenges at every front and finally they seem to have arrived at a conclusive position where they were about to realign the history of one of the oldest ancient civilizations of the world – The Indus valley civilization. Initially, coordinating with different agencies in order to raise funds was an uphill task. Thereafter, bringing on board scientists from various interdisciplinary fields such as archeology, mathematics, geology and geomorphology and then working in a perfect synchrony with each other for these many years. This, off course, needed a single-minded approach from the entire crew and a lot of sacrifices at every front. They had erratic work schedules. For instance, during hot summer months, they would work from dawn till lunch in order to avoid extreme heat. Sometimes, they would work at the site for twelve days at a stretch and then take a break of about three days or maybe spend time at the lab analysing things for couple of days.
With the help of advanced technology, they were able to achieve that which their counterparts of yesteryears could not. By combining satellite pictures with topographic data, maps of landforms built by Indus and neighboring rivers were prepared. Which were then drilled and dug manually. Samples that were collected from these trenches were studied to determine the source of sediments there. As a result the researchers were able to form a chronology of the landscape changes in the area.
For the next sixteen days, they worked day and night. For most of them, these were the moments they had always dreamt of living. They were able to conclude that the actual reason for decline of Indus valley civilization was not the Aryan invasion as was assumed by earlier scholars but a shift in the course of rivers and natural disasters like drought and floods. They also found evidence of a mighty river that no longer exists. The fall in the average rainfall lead to the increase in aridity. As a result, agriculture, upon which most of the trades were dependent also declined. The people gradually shifted to other places, abandoning what is known as an epitome of an advanced early civilization.
As from time to time the findings were being published in different journals, a lot of hype had been created around this. The press across the world had its eyes glued, keeping a close watch at the proceedings there. After the mission got accomplished, interviews and press conferences were conducted. Their achievements were hailed far and wide as they had made history.
During one such press conference, Jayanthi – a geologist, was asked by one of the reporters, "How did you choose such an unconventional profession such as geology?"
Hearing this question, Nitin felt a strange tug at his heart. He thought to himself, "It was not easy for me, without grandpa's support…"
Nitin recalled the moment when he had called up his grandfather to tell him that he had a heated argument with his parents. Coming from a state which is obsessed with more orthodox professions like medical, engineering and administrative services and also being a son of cardiologists, it was not easy for Nitin to choose a road not taken much. Mahesh, Nitin's father dreamt of sending him to a medical school so that Nitin could hold the reins of their nursing home, but the son wanted to study history. It was astonishing to see how within a few hours of phone call grandfather was by Nitin's side.
When Nitin had thanked him for coming, his grandfather had said, "I will always be there for you, as long as you need me."
And when Mahesh had asked with apprehension, "So, what might be his future if he goes for subjects like history?"
To this Nitin's grandfather gave a pat on Nitin's back and looked at him confidently and said, "Remember one thing, there is always vacancy at the top. It is up to you, whatever path you wish to choose. But don't forget to put your heart and soul to excel in the chosen field."
As time passed, he became extremely busy in his life. As a result, the frequent phone calls to his grandparents had drastically reduced. Especially during his doctoral research, while he was shuttling between Mesopotamia and Indus Valley regions, studying similarities between the ancient civilizations that evolved in these places. It is not that they meant nothing to him any more. But his priorities had changed a bit.
He was brought back to the present when he heard his name being called repeatedly.
"I am sorry, I didn't hear you. Could you please repeat the question?", He blurted out to the reporter.
The reporter repeated his question again, "Do you feel the society faced regression after whatever happened?"
"Yeah… of course. For almost a century, Indus valley civilization has been a subject of muse for many a scholars, since it was the oldest urban civilization in the world. It had a well developed trade system, cities, metallurgy, sewerage system, script and many other achievements. But still, this urban society witnessed slow regression when they had to deal with the changing climate. For instance, when from urban settlers living in big cities they became rural settlers in many small villages, they no longer needed large granaries as they had to cater only to the needs of smaller units. Trade relations with Mesopotamia and Egypt which they once had, stopped completely. There could be a possibility that they no longer needed to write in their new life, as a result the script was completely forgotten", Nitin said.
Cristina, a Romanian geomorphologist was asked by another reporter, "Is this situation a thing of a past or can we face similar problems in future?"
"Yes, there could be a possibility of a similar situation in future too. One thing we can't forget is that we are still dependent on rivers, they are our lifeline. Even today, we can see them changing their course, decrease in their flow. The perennial rivers in many places are becoming seasonal and also flood like situation is seen during the monsoons. This gradual change is even more dangerous than a sudden event. A sudden change gives us a jolt compelling us to act immediately but a gradual change takes a lot of time to manifest an impact so it is late by the time we start taking it seriously. Agriculture based economy thrived on the fertile soils of Indus and its tributaries but over a period of time the same land got converted into a desert", Cristina answered.
Soon after the conference Nitin called up his grandfather, "Hello grandpa! How are you?"
"Nitin, I am fine. I saw you on the television and also your father has read a newspaper article for me. It was about your achievements in this project", Grandfather said with a childlike excitement.
"I am sorry", Nitin said.
"Sorry, but why?" grandfather asked in a surprised tone.
"Whenever I needed you, you have always been there for me. But I couldn't reciprocate the same. I couldn't rush to your side immediately after hearing about your health", he said.
"No, Nitin. Please don't feel sorry for anything. I didn't feel bad, my child".
"Thank you, grandpa", Nitin said almost choked.
"For what? It is you who have made us all proud", grandfather said.
After composing himself, Nitin said, "You have been a great support. I couldn't have reached here without you.Thank you for loving me unconditionally and having faith in me". After a pause, Nitin added "I am coming home to see you."
to be continued…
– By Aradhana Basu Das


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Free chalk art workshop Saturday
Artists, art educators and art students are invited to participate in a free, three-hour class on the technique of chalk art with a professional chalk artist.
This chalking workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to noon April 5 at the Fullerwood Center, 10 Hildreth Drive.
As a preview to the upcoming St. Augustine Chalk Walk - Paseo Pastel in May, Lee Jones, the event's featured chalk artist, will offer workshop participants an experience of classroom learning and hands on chalking techniques.
There is no charge for this chalking workshop, but seating is limited and registration is required. Contact Cyndi Pennington at email@example.com to register, or go to staugustinechalkwalk.com.
"In 1994 I was introduced to street painting and I immediately fell in love with this centuries- old art form. I have been street painting throughout Central Florida and in festivals all across the country ever since," Jones said.
The St. Augustine Regional Council (StAR Council), the organizer for this workshop, will produce the St. Augustine Chalk Walk - Paseo Pastel, to be held on the promenade sidewalks in front of the St. Augustine Visitors Center near the parking garage. Hours of the Chalk Walk will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 3-4. Artists will create chalk art on May 3, with a public viewing on May 4. Go to staugustinechalkwalk.com.


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You are here:
Tony Page's Book Recommendations: Great Britain
Great Britain (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Doing a tour of England, Wales and Scotland? Get this book. Great regional coverage and a strong London section as well. Being Great Britain, historical background is important and there's plenty here without it getting too textbook-like. The numerous photos, illustrations and maps help immeasurably in keeping it all interesting. Indispensable.
NB: I rarely use the Eyewitness guides for hotels, and the selection given is a bit limited.
London (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
This book has to be the definitive souvenir guidebook of London. They claim 1,200 photos alone and the claim looks reasonable. I lived in London and found a lot of material new to me and fascinating!
London was originally a collection of villages, and this book gives succinct "portraits" of the various areas. Lots of practical information and exceptional cut away views of prominent sites are a big help.
On the other hand, if you're only in London for a few days, this is overkill. The London section in the GB Guide (above) is more than enough. Or the Top Ten Guide below.
Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide to London (Eyewitness Travel Top 10)
It's smaller (192 pp) and not so detailed, but how much do you actually need? This is a useful book that is easier to slip into your pocket than the bigger ones, so the decision whether to take it with you when you're walking is a LOT less of an issue.
My practice tends to be to take a general country or area guide and supplement it with a Top Ten Guide for particular cities.
Dk Eyewitness Travel Guides: Scotland (Dk Eyewitness Travel Guides.)
If you're specifically spending a lot of time in Scotland, this is the one to have in your bag. Really the equivalent of the London Guide but for North of the Border!
I particularly liked the way it deals with places on a seasonal basis as well as by location; this is an important consideration in the Scottish climate...
Again, beautifully illustrated.
Not enough for you?


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In 2005, Brian J. Owens founded a small excavating company. First contracting with local Clearfield builders, the company has grown over the years and expanded. BJOE is proud to offer our full range of services to Curwensville, PA. Located less than ten minutes away, we have been a proud member of this community since 2012, and offer a variety of services to the area and its surrounding communities. Whether you are a home owner and need help fixing leaky pipes or assistance with a pipe that burst, or a business owner who is looking for excavating, sewer laterals or bollard installation, we are happy to help. See below for a list of our services that we offer to businesses and residents of the Curwensville community.
BJOE is proud to offer the following services to the Curwensville community. We offer our services to both commmercial and residential customers. There is no job too big or too small for our team.
Fill out the form below to schedule a free consultation. One of our staff will be in touch with you shortly after to answer any questions you may have.