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Some good thoughts on 'prayer' from the late Dr. Alvin Rogness:
"All sorts of reasons can be found for the futility of prayer. Why pray to a God who already knows what we need? He loves us, His children the world over, even when we ignore Him. Certainly He cannot withhold His blessings until we remind Him or press Him. There have been times when I have thought that He has told us to ask for all sorts of things, even trivial things, because He wants us to talk to Him. After all, it would be strange for members of the family never to communicate at all with their father. So I pray. I ask for health for myself and for my dear ones. I have along and assorted catalog—safety, security, guidance. On a Sunday morning I join the prayers of the congregation: "defend thy church…give it pastors according to thy Spirit…preserve our nation in righteousness and honor…sanctify our home…comfort all who are in sorrow and need…." I assume that God wants all these values for us long before we ask for them. I also assume that He will not, in some sort of pique, let these blessings lie in His celestial warehouse undelivered unless we ask for them. Yet we pray.
There are other difficulties. We pray for health, and health ebbs away. We pray for safety, and a dear one is struck down in the streets. We pray for the end of war, and wars grind on. I dare not put limits on God. What He may do or be able to do in the wake of my prayers… I leave to Him.
A friend of mine, more cautious than I, said, "Prayer does not change things; it changes you." Of course it changes me. I am in God's presence when I pray and am therefore exposed to Him and to the powers that surge from Him. But I must disagree with my friend. I believe that in some mysterious way prayer also changes things — maybe the chemistry of the body, the hearts of people I pray for, the turn of events, even the shape of history. How this can be, I cannot know. But God has invited me to pray; in fact ordered me to pray. He has assured me that I can dial Him direct, and the line will never be busy.
The more we pray, the more likely it is that we will spend more time thanking Him than requesting favors from Him."
From Dr. Rogness' daily devotional book, "The Word for Every Day"
Filed under: "Why Pray?", Dr. Alvin Rogness, Prayer | 2 Comments »


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mouriri aupres de toi: spike jonze collabs on felt-animation inspired by handbags
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Born in Kailua, Hawai`i during a nurses strike in February of 1984, Micah, a bald new born with slight 'dumbo' ears, was called a "potato head" by the first man to set eyes on her: her doctor. This set into motion insecurities that would last well into puberty, highlighted by a year of wearing her hair down over the two flapjacks upon each side of her not so potato-like head. In perhaps an attempt to compensate for the lack of hospital staff, Micah's parents felt it necessary to overcompensate in names on her birth certificate. In the end, 34 letters and a hyphen would make up her full name, requiring more space than is available on class rosters and leaving professors guessing at her name. Micah, the daughter of a hustling Jewish father and a Dharma School teaching Buddhist mother, was promptly put into a Catholic school (complete with nuns, priests, and rulers). At age 9, she received a 35mm SLR camera. Eventually, she assimilated into public school and attended the oldest school west of the Mississippi River: Lahainaluna High School, est. 1831. This period of Micah's life is hazy. In 2002, shortly after her 18th birthday, Micah became violently ill with island fever and moved to Los Angeles. With nothing else to do, she did what all the other kids were doing, and enrolled in a college (one that didn't require an essay or any plan in general). After spending 3 years at a 2 year college, Micah felt that it may have been time to move on and transferred to USC. The next 3 years were full of photos, writings, delayed bus transfers, and some mean spills while trying to navigate her longboard around the fractured sidewalks of downtown. Eventually, Micah got a BA degree and left her name on the wall in the library at USC. Across the Pacific, in Aotearoa New Zealand, Micah watched TV for her Masters, thanks to a Fulbright Grant. She then wrote a paper on connecting through popular media, aided by new media. View all posts by msmlska

subset: commoncrawl


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Beacon_A Room For London_UK
Competition Entry / Living Architecture, Artangel and The Southbank Centre
To balance the scale of the Queen Elizabeth Hall together with surrounding architecture and almost one thousand square meters of the roof surface we decided to propose a vertical feature. Beacon – a device designed to attract attention and to cradle the occupants. The structure is a 31m tall leaning tower, producing energy for the habitable capsule inside and as a dramatic sculpture by day and luminescent at night.
The Beacon is orientated towards furthermost north-east edge of the roof leaning towards the Thames. The extraordinary city landscape of this setting and panoramic views required a special geometry to entirely embrace this spectrum. The geometry of the capsule inside is designed as inverted colossal diamond strictly in accordance to diamond cut ratios. It measures 8.1m across the table, 9.4m in girdle diameter with a crown height of 2.2m and with a 4.6m tall pavilion. It constitutes a symmetrical arrangement of facets which together modify the shape and appearance creating an out-flowing spacious feeling, opening up and out in all directions and providing magnificent views. A jewel crowning the top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall displaying the ultimate luxury enclosed by brutal concrete around.
All facets are covered by lightweight glass and aluminium panels. Beacon is leaning towards the north-east so the sun can penetrate the south side more consistently therefore selected few facets will be covered by photovoltaic building glass to gain additional energy.
Diamond shape inspired us to design habitable space with an emphasis on a quality of the interior and the views. It is planned with a bedroom and bathroom/kitchenette to east and west accordingly screening the central living space which makes a perfect setting for entertaining. To contrast the sharpness of diamond cut structure all furniture is custom designed to bring softness to the immediate body contact.
To improve both impact and airborne noise nuisance floor construction is raised by 350mm and consist an acoustic underlay with underfloor heating. All services connections including a water recirculation system are placed under and are surrounded by the cedar decking all-around at 150mm above the roof level with a path towards indicated entrance point to the roof.
The Beacons tower is divided into 5 segments in perfect golden ratio proportions highlighted by intermediate rings in Olympic colors. The first segment is connected to the diamond at the girdle. The second segment houses the aero turbine positioned to work in winds from any direction and having a minimum 5mph per year average wind speed at SW1 will produce 1.500 kWh annually which is half of an average small household consumption in UK.
The 12 degree leaning angle is calculated so the structure being seen while strolling below, raising from 18m above, accents the perspective view of the Beacon by interlocking Olympic rings when looking from the river side walk. It is our intention to honor the 2012 Olympics as a new London landmark – an Olympic Beacon acting as a marker on the South Bank.
The entire concept is based on geodetic type of construction commonly used for the aircraft industry. The principle is to have local rigidity and distribute the stress across the entire structure. It is build up from a number of duralumin alloy extrusions forming a large lattice work giving tremendous strength while being very light. This type of construction is the most efficient structure in terms of material weight and uses only one fifth of the materials normally used in conventional architecture – it is macro comprehensive and micro incisive.
Whole structure is braced by a system of three pylons and a cradle of supporting cables in compression as well as in tension to sustain stress from lateral winds and the balance of the tilt. Under each pylon hydraulic jacks will constantly indues the tension. By having almost no visible means of support, dramatically leaning over the edge of the roof in appearance will definitely disobey gravity.
Diamond and 5 segments of the Beacon are prefabricated independently and can be lifted by crane with all fittings and appliances installed, ready to be assembled on top of the roof.
By reintroducing the vertical feature on the South Bank it is our reminiscence of British architectural and engineering heritage of 1951 Festival of Britain and The Skylon in particular.
Project Team: Maciej Wierzbinski Wojciech Dziubek


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Dr. Juan R.I.
Secondary and Community College
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New ACMCU Video Posted
ACMCU Event video posted!
"Vogue Shares Young Muslim Women's Voices": Fashion-forwa
A compilation of resources on Malcolm X (Malik El-Shabazz
The Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh
July 11-July 24, 2018 in Jerusalem and the West Bank
Muslims in the Global:Past and Present
Dar al Islam is hosting its 27th annual summer Teachers'
Nazareth College, Hickey Center for interfaith Studies an
The Muslim 500 has become the world's premiere source for
In 2019, Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, runs from May 5
Secondary Level
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Important Questions and Answers about the Syrian Refugee
Help Questions and Answers about Ramadan created by Dr.
A former MA student at the University of Arizona School o
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A body of resources for Interfaith Leaders, Community Edu
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Visiting Fellowships 2020–2021
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Few in Europe realize today how much they owe to Muslim S
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Illustrated By: Simon Rickerty
Hugo is a hippo who has a bird named Bella. Or is that Bella is a bird who has a hippo named Hugo? Any way they are excited to be going to the Fairytale Fancy Dress Party. The problems start when Bella decides she doesn't want to go as the pea while Hugo goes as the Princess. Will they be able to find costumes they are both happy with, or will they end up not going at all?
The text in this picture book is basic and the story is entertaining. The illustrations are a lot of fun. A cute and silly book about friendship and compromise, a lovely little lesson should you choose to talk about it.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 12 April 2012
Format: Paperback 32 pages
Categories: Animals, Humour
Purchase: here or use Booktopia logo on side of page


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What a difference a little update makes. Users of Apple's iPhone models 3G and earlier got a rude awakening at work this past week: Their phones no longer work with their office's email systems.
It seems the culprit is the latest software update, 3.1, which—to make it simple—has forced Apple to now admit that it never really was compatible with Microsoft Exchange's encryption protocols. Before, it simply acted like it was compatible, without ever doing the processor-intensive number-crunching to actually encrypt the Exchange data that it downloaded, as it promised it was doing. The iPhone worked with Exchange, that much is true. But it did so by pretending to do something it couldn't. Or now won't.
The rather sudden and irreversible changes to the way people use their iPhones makes Apple look like a typical bad Californian passive-aggressive boyfriend.
So now, millions of business users who finally switched from the BlackBerry or whatever other PDA they happened to be using—the ones who wanted to look as cool as all those iPhone people who didn't work for Fortune 500 companies or big institutions and complained to their IT departments to make iPhones compatible with their companies' networks—are back at square one. They have to go back to a less hip phone, or go back to the Apple Store for the latest and greatest iPhone, the 3GS, which really truly does have the encryption required for enterprise use. (That, or IT departments have to turn off their Exchange systems' requirement for encryption-enabled devices, rendering their data more vulnerable.)
What's more, the 3.1 upgrade finally kills the iPhone's ability to be tethered to computers and used as a modem. While AT&T has always forbidden such use for fear of the burden on its network, a workaround was always a simple Google search away. But those paying full price for the phone, as well as European users, were always free to pick the carrier of their choice and then tether the phone completely legally—sometimes for an additional fee to their carrier. Now, presumably in an effort to prevent users from exploiting the workaround and getting modem service from AT&T, Apple has blocked tethering completely for everyone.
Apple is, no doubt, preparing a statement as I write this—something explaining that their phones really did work with Exchange all along. It's just that these new ones work with Exchange even better. And that their phones never really were supposed to be tethered, so this update doesn't cripple any documented capability. And, to their credit, Apple's update is at the very least fessing up to reality.
But for those who were hoping that Apple might be finally graduating from consumer products to genuine business capabilities, these latest switcheroos are sure to feel like a betrayal. Yes, their IT departments should have done more research into how the phones worked before approving them as Exchange capable. Or perhaps Microsoft should have risked the bad publicity and more rigorously researched the iPhone's compatibility with Exchange before issuing signed certificates to Apple for their phones. And anyone buying a phone to use an undocumented feature like tethering should understand they're in for some obstacles down the road.
Still, the rather sudden and, I might add, irreversible changes to the way people use their iPhones makes Apple look even more "like a typical bad Californian passive-aggressive boyfriend," in the words of one developer friend of mine. "They talk nice to get you in the sack, but then do all sorts of abusive stuff once they have you." Once you have upgraded your phone to 3.1, there is no going back. It's like one of those STD's that keeps on giving. Downgrading to 3.01 doesn't restore tethering capability or Exchange.
Like a lecherous boyfriend, Apple gives a wink and a nod to users, acting as if the company is on their side against Exchange or AT&T, but then shows its true colors once we're in bed with them.
The irony is that Apple is, for once, trying to play by the rules. The corporate rules, that is. Their Microsoft Exchange hack was not responsible networking, and led less-competent IT managers to sacrifice the security of their systems. Likewise, it's Apple's effort to make good on its promises to AT&T that has led it to cripple its phone's tethering capability, protecting one corporate alliance over all of its other consumers.
Update 3.1 may be remembered as the moment Apple chose sides. The company thinks it's ready for the big time, and hopes these moves will demonstrate its willingness to move like a player capable of delivering enterprise-scale solutions and hacker-proof protection for its corporate partners. In doing so, however, Apple may succeed in alienating its core consumers, and tarnishing its brand as the "people's" technology.
In fact, all these shenanigans are actually starting to make people wonder about what Microsoft, the apparent underdog, is working on. The new Zune may not be an iPod killer, but it does offer a clean interface, great industrial design, HD radio, and a subscription model for music, making it significantly less expensive for big users. And Microsoft's new OS, Windows 7, may finally be a worthy successor to XP, eliminating the clutter of Vista and letting users get to what they want to use without the fuss. All this, while remaining compatible with their IT departments' demands for scalability and custom implementations. It may prove easier for a company that knows enterprise software to provide consumers with what they want, than for a consumer company to meet the demands of enterprise users.
Or maybe Apple's users will rise to the brand's new mandate, stop thinking so "different," and just use the stuff the company makes for them as they're supposed to.
Douglas Rushkoff, a professor of media studies at The New School University and producer and correspondent for the PBS Frontline Digital Nation project, is the author of numerous books, including Cyberia, ScreenAgers, Media Virus , and, most recently, Life Inc., released this month by Random House.


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Breaking Through With Glass Hammer Racing
As a parent, there are moments you will remember forever in your child's life. For me it was at our first Nashville Predators game. My son, Eric, turned to me and said, "I want to learn how to play hockey." At that moment, I had no idea where that would take the next 4 years of my life. Countless lessons, early mornings, late nights, and depleted college funds later—a hockey player was born. And I learned that my son, if he found the one thing that he loved more than anything, he would work his butt off to become a success. I know without a doubt that he has that drive within him. It is a very rewarding knowledge, it means you did something right and all of that time and money was worth it.
I had the pleasure of seeing this in action in Indianapolis this past weekend at Glass Hammer Racing. If you are not familiar with Glass Hammer Racing, it is an organization that encourages the interest and participation of young women in motorsports. GHR evolved from the experience of one man, Greg Gaich – an amateur racer himself. One day in May 2010, he had an epiphany at Putnam Park; a racetrack in Greencastle, Indiana. He finally conquered a particularly tricky part of the track. The feeling for him was incredible. As a driver, it gave him confidence and a feeling like no other. As a father, he wondered if he could pass along that feeling on to his daughters. He searched high and low throughout the Indianapolis area and could find no place where they could get instruction and get that great first experience in a kart. A tweet from Shannon McIntosh, began the kernel of an ides that this experience could be possible. Within a month, Glass Hammer Racing was born.
Greg's daughters, Cokie and Emma, were a bit apprehensive at first, but they soon got the hang of it on their first experience with Dad and Shannon Mac instructing all the way. I think there was a bit of competitive driving there, but who can resist putting the pedal to the metal in a controlled karting venue. Fast forward to the present, and just last month, Emma and Cokie were signed to drive JHM Bire karts for the 2013 season. I'd say the girls found their need for speed and then some.
And now to my time spent with Glass Hammer Racing on Sunday. I entered the venue not knowing what to expect. The closest I had been to a kart was some kids wreaking havoc on the neighborhood at 7:30 am (sorry about that dog bite). Helmets on, the girls were just about to hit the track. I entered the track area, and was immediately hit by the gas fumes—you get used to it after a while. I tried taking several photos, but those karts were going way too fast for my camera. I have plenty of shots where there is a blank track where a kart used to be. But I wanted to talk to the moms (and the dads).
I was introduced to 2 of the moms, Nikkia and Trish, parents to Makala Marks and Miranda Gallagher ("The Chicken"), respectively. I asked the question, what was the moment when your daughter(s) realized that they wanted to race? Miranda's moment was at a fair in Franklin, Indiana–she smelled the gasoline fumes, rubber burning and the rumble of the engines and turned to her dad and said, "I gotta to do that" and her team, Rocket Chicken, was born. At 8, Makala "Mak" wanted to race dirt bikes but her parents thought it would be better to start on something with 4 wheels so they took her to Whiteland Raceway to try out racing Go Karts. She was able to get into a kart for a practice run, and she was hooked.
I asked the unaskable question—how much does all this cost and like most parents whose children play expensive sports—"You don't wanna know." I can relate, I saw my son's college fund go up in smoke the first time he hit the ice. Sure there are the basic fees, equipment, and the like, but add in travel and unplanned expenses, and it can run around $10,000, Since karting is a family sport, if you are lucky, you get hand me downs. A boy's badly washed race suit, that turned pink—I'll take that. The most important piece of equipment—the helmet. The drivers are not strapped in the karts, they are designed to fly out of them if a roll occurs, you want their head protected, no matter what the cost. The suits are designed to protect against skidding across the track should they get thrown from their kart. You pretty much want every inch of their body covered. I think the funniest (maybe girliest story) I heard from Trish, when Miranda had an accident and the emergency crew was about to cut her gloves off, she said "Do you KNOW how hard it is to find PINK leather?" With most sports, sponsorship is important, but they also work around the track doing paid jobs to help offset the cost.
I then watched Pippa Mann and Jessica Bean in action. They were true role models as they shared their knowledge with the class. Defending lines, racing lines, how to enter the apex without losing speed and being able to pass. Pay attention. Hold your line. A lot to know, learn, and remember. What are we teaching—future engineers? Well as a matter if fact—yes. Glass Hammer Racing's true mission, besides having fun and learning to safely drive, is to promote motorsports careers for girls. Fortunately there are many positions that can be filled by women in motorsports. Public Relations, engineering, training, racing, and broadcasting are just a few.
The main thing I left this experience with is–they are a family. They celebrate each other's successes and victories. They share their knowledge. They have short memories for wrongs done on the track. Sometimes the boys don't share that short memory. So if you ever get the opportunity to see a Glass Hammer Racer in action, just know that beneath that young woman's helmet lie nerves of steel and a true love of racing.
13 Responses to "Breaking Through With Glass Hammer Racing"
Great post Susan thank you and hope that you and George have a great Christmas….
Thanks for the nice write-up. It was a pleasure to meet you and George on Sunday. I'm glad you had a good time. If your readers want to find out more about GHR, they can head to our website:
Links to Facebook and Twitter are on there, too.
Thanks for posting this Susan. I had never heard of Glass Hammer before (since I'm not on Twitter). This sounds like a wonderful way to get young women interested in all areas of racing, whether it be driving, engineering, marketing, etc. Thank goodness there are drivers like Shannon Mac, Jessica Bean and Pippa Mann willing to give their time and energy to this group.
It's programs like these that give me some hope for the future of open-wheel racing. IndyCar needs more Pippa's and fewer Danica's.
I am not out to change your mind about Danica or minimize Pippa's excellent work. I will simply say that at many tracks I have observed Danica giving lots of attention to young girl fans. Not surprising since she got her start at a kart track here in southern Wisconsin.
Not sure you'll see Danica giving up a weekend morning in the off-season to work with young girls one on one. Stopping and chatting with young girls at a track for 30 seconds on race weekend when cameras are rolling is different than giving large blocks of time to a grass roots effort and getting no publicity for it.
I'll vouch for the large blocks of time. Pippa and Jessica were there from about 8:45 on a very cold, wet & gloomy Sunday morning; staying until close to noon. They were heavily involved in teaching classes as well as on-track coaching. They were both running around like crazy. As for the publicity – Pippa didn't invite us to promote Pippa. She is utilizing her well-known name as an Indianapolis 500 driver to promote the mission of the Glass Hammer Racing Experience.
Pippa, Jessica, Shannon Mac and any other professional drivers involved are very unselfish in the time, effort and passion they put into this. All they want out of it is to see this program grow. – GP
This is an excellent story Susan and besides being well written is one that I think important enough to revisit sometime in the future. Now, let's put a suite on you and George and let me take the two of you on!!! 😉
Actually, Cokie and Emma are driving Birel karts for the Jim Howe Motorsports (JHM) team out of Columbus, IN. Nice story!
Thanks for clarifying that, am a total newbie to this sport and should have recognized you as the team.
Did not know about this group at all. Nice job.
These last two posts have been very interesting and enjoyable. You and George certainly made good use of your time in Indiana.
I've done many sports, but racing is by far the best. There are not many girl racers out there, so when I heard about Glass Hammer I was all up for it. Glass Hammer is a great group of fun people. Making new friends, and having a blast. LADIES , We need more of you in the sport !


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Caroline Baum of Bloomberg has an excellent column explaining why soak-the-rich taxes don't work. Simply stated, wealthy people are not like you and me. They have tremendous control over the timing, composition, and level of their income. When the rich are hit with higher tax rates, they adjust their behavior and protect themselves by reducing the amount of taxable income they earn and/or report to the IRS. That usually causes collateral damage for the economy, but the class-warfare crowd is either oblivious or uncaring about real-world effects.
Why, after all this time and an extensive body of data, are we still questioning whether reductions in marginal and capital- gains tax rates increase economic activity enough to generate more revenue for the federal government? "Because they don't like the answer," Laffer says of the doubters. "It's not tax cuts that pay for themselves. Tax cuts on the poor cost you lots of money. Tax cuts on the rich pay for themselves. Rich people can afford lawyers, accountants, and can defer income." …The rich have the luxury to respond to incentives, to opt for more work and less leisure when the return on work is greater. They are motivated to take risks, maybe start a business, invent something, and get even richer while giving others the opportunity, through hiring, to do the same. The opposite is true for low-income workers. When the government raises taxes, someone struggling to put food on the table for his family may have to go out and get a second job to maintain his level of take-home pay. For this socio-economic group, higher taxes translate to more work. To ignore evidence that the rich behave differently is silly. The government can't get more blood from a stone, yet it keeps trying. Instead of demagoguing tax cuts for the rich, Democrats should try embracing them for a change. …Academics are busy churning out articles claiming tax cuts for the rich deliver less bang for the buck because the rich save more of the money than the poor. That's true. It also misses the point. The goal isn't spending, or distributing other people's money to create "aggregate demand." That's a wealth transfer, not a net stimulus. (Fiscal policy gets its punch from monetary policy, from the increase in the money supply to pay for the spending.) The goal should be to incentivize individuals to work hard, save and invest in the future. It's about growing the pie. Sound familiar? We're right back to square one. I, for one, would like to see the debate shift from class warfare over tax rates and targeted tax relief to tax reform. Either scrap the tax code and introduce a simple flat tax with no deductions, or scrap the IRS and move to a consumption tax. If you want to get money out of politics, there's only one way to do it. Take the tax code out of Congress's hands.
Baum's column touches on most of the key issues, but she doesn't address the political economy of class-warfare taxation. In this video on soak-the-rich tax policy, I provide five reasons why high tax rates are misguided – including the oft-overlooked point that politicians impose punitive taxes on the rich as a prelude to hitting the rest of us with higher taxes.


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Last night I was at the Poetry Café in Covent Garden for the launch of two new collections from Seren Books. Lynne Hjelmgaard was reading from A Second Whisper and Mary J. Oliver was launching her debut collection, Jim Neat: the Case of a Young Man Down on His Luck. Oliver's book is a curious, thought-provoking mix of family research and prose/poetic fictions. But I've known Hjelmgaard for a few years now as a workshop colleague and as a friend of Dannie Abse and I wanted to gather some thoughts here on her new poems.
In her playfully titled poem, 'Ode to a Danish Lamp', Lynne Hjelmgaard constructs a paean to a piece of electrical equipment which ends rhetorically, "Why do you move me so?" Some clues to the answer are scattered through the poem; they lie in comparisons. The lamp is an example of "Nordic metallic cool", beside which the speaker – "a mere human" – feels humbled. She and the rest of the room, we are told, arrange themselves about the lamp which hence serves as a focal point and even a source of "answers". It's as if the lamp is wired up to a clearer, less divided, perhaps purer world:
[. . . ] the charged interior, a territory,
where no country nationality race
or religion has any significance.
In contrast, the human figure is more embedded in a world of time, place and quotidian specificity while the lamp emerges with its "fine, oh so thin aluminium rim" as a denizen of a less troubled realm. The speaker is moved because excluded from such a realm and the majority of the poems in A Second Whisper focus precisely on our more compromised, familiar world, particularly the 'merely human' experiences of time, memory and loss.
Without being a particularly philosophical poet, Hjelmgaard writes as someone who is an "expert at loss". Another less typical poem describes – in great detail – Brooklyn Bridge and the area around it (the poet was born in New York City). She remembers sailing out under the bridge:
Manhattan is a chain with many links,
some are broken, lost and never repair,
but others can be retrieved even at a distance.
For what can shine so brightly at sea
but a city, once loved, left behind?
Hjelmgaard's focus on links lost or remembered is probably hard-wired into her constitution (these thematic roots usually are) but it has also been provoked by biographical influences. Her 2011 book, The Ring (Shearsman Books) was dedicated to the memory of her Danish husband, Stig – who died in 2006 – and followed an American woman's travels around Europe, mourning and negotiating that loss. Dannie Abse, among others, praised those poems: "Widowhood allows them to acquire a poignant universality". Five years later, A Boat Called 'Annalise' (Seren Books), was full of more poems of remembrance, evoking the sea journey the newly married couple made out of New York to Europe, via the Caribbean.
There are further poems written to and about her husband in this new book. In 'As We Silently Agree', the husband appears to the widow, "in some kind of afterlife", and is seen busying with a boat's anchor chain, searching the ship's log and weather charts. This is perhaps a dream poem:
Our fingers clasp in recognition
as we silently agree:
what does it matter now
if you don't keep the course?
And 'Scorpion Hill' may be another example of dreamwork, the wife this time revisiting a once-shared house in the Caribbean. Its final image is of many moths clustering round "a single light bulb / left on during the night". These are fine poems of time and sustaining memory – that bulb still burning – in which the past and those lost within it are shown to revisit the survivor.
Hjelmgaard's treatment of this traditional theme is neither religious nor consolatory in any facile way. The pain of great loss is heartfelt and yet she manages to persuade the reader – it's less intellectual than that, maybe she draws her readers in to the actual experience – that what lies in the past still retains is power to evoke pleasure and even that the future's gifts are to be welcomed, even anticipated. In 'To a Chestnut Tree', addressing the tree in its autumnal state, the narrator is sure, "There will always be another one. / And another. // Loss can be moved through like a room". What a magnificent line that last one is. There is a wisdom in it, however modestly it may be presented.
Time takes – but time also provides. Another poem of trees has a fir leaning eventually into a "beloved palm" – though it may take a century or two of slow growth. A lonely tamarisk on a cliff top also has the capacity to "wait until it can drink / from the bay eighty feet below". Hjelmgaard finds her themes in the smallest incidents. Unpacking a suitcase after a journey, she finds she has brought two extra items home with her. One is a fossil of a snail which seems to represent a determined persistence through time (60 million years perhaps, in this case). The other – a flighty stowaway – is a spider which she finds "already busy / making yourself at home". The spider evokes an improvisatory optimism, an adaptability, even an adventurousness, which I see as some of the most distinctive elements in the themes of Hjelmgaard's work.
It's these qualities to which Gillian Clarke is responding in her comment on A Second Whisper, where she finds in the book "the story of a special late love after bereavement". In recent years, the British poet who has written most powerfully and movingly about bereavement and the encroachment of the past into the present is Dannie Abse. This is from his poem 'The Presence' about the loss of his wife, Joan:
It's when I'm most myself, most alone
with all the clamour of my senses dumb,
then, in the confusion of Time's deletion
by Eternity, I welcome you and you return
improbably close, though of course you cannot come.
The opening 14 poems of A Second Whisper explore the loving relationship that sprung up between Hjelmgaard and Dannie Abse after the deaths of Stig and Joan. Her opening prose piece takes us directly into everyday details. The two bereaved poets meet: "And for a time it was the four of us. Though one day, without ceremony, we noted their absence". Thus set free, the ones still living proceed, though along no clear path, "wherever poetry and Eros chose to take [them]"
Even at their first meeting – on a train journey back from the Torbay Poetry Festival – the presence and absence of time was notable. Minutes were not to be wasted in the presence of the older poet, says the younger narrator. But mysteriously – this is in late October – the waitress at the station café is seen taking away the clock to change the hour. A photograph of the two poets at a reading shows the younger woman "less sure of herself", while Abse is more comfortable with the attention. But at 85 years old, Abse begins appearing in these poems as more and more in decline. "Aged and dying you grew more tender", as 'A Second Whisper' puts it. In this poem – as in several others – Hjelmgaard is visiting Abse at home.
I knew just how to open your front door quietly.
Its lock a whisper, a second whisper to shut.
This image – absolutely precise in its remembrance, yet also powerfully suggestive – is like the earlier line about walking through loss as through a room. The first whisper has a respectfulness, concerned with quietude, with the sensitivity of the artist, the closeness of death. The second whisper is full of ambivalence: protective perhaps from the noisy, nosey world, wanting to secure the intimacy, wanting to defend the loved one from the inevitable, yet a foreshadowing of that very inevitability.
'A Thief Is in the House' has death portrayed as an invader, breathing heavily, thumping up the stairs to the dying figure whose "eyes [are] prepared // for nothingness". But these poems are not overwhelmed by grief. As if taking a leaf out of Abse's own poems of mourning and remembrance, Hjelmgaard's predominant tone is one of recall and revisiting – even of re-visitation. Walking alone on Hampstead Heath, she hears the lost lover chanting a Lorca poem; because one day they sheltered under an awning on Golders Green Road, every time it rains now, "the rain /stops everything / to think of you". And in an exquisite lyric, 'Speak to me Again at Dusk', Hjelmgaard yearns to resume her conversations with the dead poet, yet her tone – which might have been one of pleading and despair – in fact retains a clear appreciation of the lasting value of what has been and a pleasured openness to the present (hear those noisy roosters in a moment!). Such deep-grained attitudes seem to have been a mutual common ground between these two writers and perhaps was one of the constitutive elements in their late-flowering love:
These lines among many lines
are words just for you
and the roosters that speak them
just before dawn.


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Speaking of Halloween costumes, Greta got to test drive her Queen Elsa costume over the weekend at the Friends of the Burbank Library's very cool Princess Book Party. Held at the Burbank Library's central branch on Glenoaks, the event featured Princess trivia, bingo, crafts, cookies, gift bags and even a visit from everyone's favorite Disney Princess/Queen du jour, Queen Elsa from Frozen! Hooray!
As you can see, Greta had an awesome time. And despite the fact that there are already piles of library books scattered all over her bedroom, we came home with another big old batch of new ones as well. Now if I could just remember when they're all due back at the library, all would be right with the world. Either way, enjoy the pics!


text:
Published May 1, 2016 at Montereyherald.com/lifestyle (Click HERE to play the Interactive version)
1. "People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure."
A. Russell Baker
B. Stephen Hawking
C. George Custer
2. "Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity."
A. Ron Howard
B. Calvin Coolidge
C. George Bernard Shaw
3. "Parents used to have children in order to assist on the farm or ranch; today they have them for tech support."
A. Confucius
B. Arlen Grossman
C. Paul Ryan
4. "What is hell?/ Hell is oneself,/ Hell is alone, the other figures in it/ Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from/ And nothing to escape to. One is always alone."
A. Julie Andrews
B. T. S. Eliot
C. Will Rogers
5. "Heeeere's Johnny!"
A. Ed McMahon
B. Jack Nicholson
C. John F. Kennedy
6. "Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them."
A. Henry Aaron
B. Henry Kissinger
C. Henry David Thoreau
7. "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them."
A. Carly Fiorina
B. William Shakespeare
C. Barry Manilow
8. "You cannot be serious!"
A. Rudyard Kipling
B. Pope Francis
C. John McEnroe
9. "The issue isn't just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages."
A. Jim Hightower
B. Harriet Tubman
C. Robert Frost
10. "Most persons have died before they expire, — died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already deserted mansion."
A. Tom Selleck
B. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
C. Johann Sebastian Bach
Answers: 1-A, 2-C , 3-B , 4-B , 5-A and/or B , 6-C , 7-B , 8-C , 9-A , 10-B
Scoring: 10–QQQQ = Quote-Master
(number correct) 8-9–QQQ = Scholar
6-7–QQ = Literate
4-5–Q = Semi-Literate
0-3–No Q = Quote-Dunce
"We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide."
–Ramsay MacDonald, 1866-1937, was Britain's first Labour Party Prime Minister.


text:
- 7 Disney Princesses My Daughter Wishes Existed | cecilyk on babble (Feb 21, 2014): "Like so many 7-year-old girls, my daughter is utterly obsessed with Disney Princesses. […] But because I'm a feminist, I annoy my daughter by having long discussions with her about the way Disney portrays women and how she feels about it. […] she also longs for a princess that is more, well, like her. So we sat down together, and she gave me a list of what she would love to see in a Disney Princess. Take note, Disney!"
- What I learned while editing Wikipedia | Noopur Raval on opensource.com (Jan 27, 2014): "My work with the Wikimedia Foundation and editing Wikipedia has helped me take a hard look at myself as a woman of colour from India in technology. […] The question I ask myself now everyday is whether merely enabling access through infrastructure and providing free platforms like Wikipedia can help us resolve uneven digital geographies created in the process."
- Software Engineering Made a Woman Outta Me | Jennifer Gilbert on Medium (Feb 18, 2014): "When I decided to learn to code, I knew I was entering a male-dominated field. But I considered that challenge far less worrisome than, say, taming the black magic of recursion. […] And yet, the day I became a software engineer, I became a woman. It was a lonely moment. My dad wasn't even there to awkwardly hug me before yelling for my mother and excusing himself to Any Room But This One. […] The biggest tomboy alive can suddenly feel like Programmer Barbie if her surrounding context is male enough."
- debian women – MiniDebConf Barcelona 2014 | DebConf (2014): "On the 15th and 16th of March, Barcelona will host a Mini DebConf with both talks and social events, to which everyone in Debian is invited but the speakers in the talks are all people who identify themselves as female. We consider this important to: Encourage women who haven't yet given their first DebConf talk; Provide role models for women who are interested in contributing; Debunk the myth that there are not enough women who can give talks in DebConf. The idea behind the conference is not to talk about women in free software, or women in debian, but rather to make discussion about Debian subjects more inclusive for women. […] We are still raising funds to cover the costs of running the conference and to offer travel sponsorship to people who cannot pay for it. Please, consider donating any amount you can, everything helps!"
- Rubrics Like the Bechdel Test are a Start, Not an End | s.e. smith (Feb 14, 2014):
"The obvious question you have to ask after applying it is 'why did it pass (or fail)'? You can point to specific scenes, or lack thereof, that helped a film or other piece of media meet the standard, and you can note shortcomings of the Bechdel test; for example, if a piece of media is a solo performance by a woman, it's going to fail, but does that mean it's necessarily sexist? If a movie passed, does that mean it's not sexist? Two women talking to each other about something other than a man in a piece of media don't necessarily mean that it doesn't contain sexist stereotypes or other problems."
- Apparently, these guys don't want women to write science fiction | Aja Romano on The Daily Dot (Feb 15, 2014): "A conversation on a science-fiction forum this week revealed a section of the community that's teeming with indignation about recent attempts to make the genre more progressive. […] But these days, the sci-fi community is an increasingly large, public place. And with the advent of instant communication across the Internet, more voices are coming to the table and speaking out"
We link to a variety of sources, some of which are personal blogs. If you visit other sites linked herein, we ask that you respect the commenting policy and individual culture of those sites.
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Thanks to everyone who suggested links.


text:
I am about to start using a new web application called BookYap. Put simply, BookYap is an application that recommends books based on criteria you enter. There are over 650 000 books in its database, so chances are it will find a book for you.
You can search for a book by using keywords or the filters it has available (based on personality types). By becoming a registered user, the application learns more and more about you and your reading habits, improving the recommendations it makes for you.
Books appear with thumbnails of their covers and book ratings. A brief description appears by hovering over the thumbnail. You are able to interact with the application and associated community by sharing books you have read and your reviews of them. There is connectivity with both Facebook and Twitter also.
You are also able to add books to a reading wishlist if you like. Books can be purchased from Amazon when you choose a book to read.
Visit BookYap at:


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Making its debut this weekend on Showtime was last year's "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.
"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" tells the story of two people involved in trying to introduce salmon to the Yemen River, at the behest of a wealthy Sheikh in the region. McGregor plays a an expert who initially decries the effort as unfeasible, but who slowly comes around to the possibility. He and Blunt have to work through the difficulties of both the project and their romantic lives.
It's a lightweight little movie that won't ask much of you over its runtime, but its optimism, combined with the charm of the leads, make it an enjoyable watch.


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Kevin Hart was named Entertainer of the Year while "12 Years a Slave" racked up another four awards including for motion picture at the NAACP Image Awards, which were held Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Hart said he was a "real mama's boy" and dedicated his prize to his mother, who recently passed away.
Helmer Steve McQueen and writer John Ridley won kudos for "12 Years" during a non-televised portion of the show Friday, while supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o said she was honored to win for a film "that has inspired discourse long overdue."
Forest Whitaker and David Oyelowo were honored for their roles in "Lee Daniels' The Butler" and Angela Bassett won the lead actress prize for "Black Nativity." Whitaker was also honored with the NAACP Chairman's Award. "I'm one of those with a funny accent and an African name," Oyelowo referencing emcee Anthony Anderson's earlier jokes about Brit actors with their accents and African names in his speech who cross the Pond to grab roles in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Whitaker quoted a song from Nat King Cole, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved."
On the television side, Hart and his BET show "Real Husbands of Hollywood" were honored for comedy, while Kerry Washington, Joe Morton and ABC's "Scandal" picked up three awards for drama. Since showrunner Shonda Rhimes was unable to attend, Washington accepted the "Scandal" award. In her own acceptance speech, Washington said, "The historic nature of this role is due not to lack of talent, but lack of opportunity."
The NAACP Image Awards were broadcast live on TV One and hosted by Anthony Anderson. Academy prexy Cheryl Boone Isaacs and DGA prexy Paris Barclay were inducted into the Image Awards Hall of Fame. Both are the first African-American presidents of their respective organizations. Barclay referenced his upbringing saying, "I'm the first in a long line of factory workers."
Boone Isaacs said the Acad invited more women and minority this year than it ever has. "We still have a lot of work to do. I look forward to it," she said to applause.
Oprah Winfrey led a tribute to Nelson Mandela and Stevie Wonder performed.
Winfrey gave a moving speech about meeting Mandela and wondering what she would say to him. "Why don't you listen," was the advice she was given. "What can I take to Nelson Mandela, I can't take a candle," she added. "So I built a school in his name."
After the two-hour ceremony guests filed next door to the ice-skating rink for the afterparty.
The 45th Image Awards winners are:
Entertainer of the Year
Kevin Hart
Motion Picture
"12 Years a Slave"
Actor in a Motion Picture
Forest Whitaker – "Lee Daniels' The Butler"
Actress in a Motion Picture
Angela Bassett – "Black Nativity"
Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
David Oyelowo – "Lee Daniels' The Butler"
Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Lupita Nyong'o – "12 Years a Slave"
Actress in a Drama Series
Kerry Washington – "Scandal" (ABC)
Drama Series
"Scandal" (ABC)
Comedy Series
"Real Husbands of Hollywood" (BET)
Talk Series
"Steve Harvey" (Syndicated)
Non-televised Categories
Motion Picture Categories
Independent Motion Picture
"Fruitvale Station" (The Weinstein Co./Forest Whitaker's Significant Productions, OG Project)
International Motion Picture
"War Witch" (Item 7)
Documentary Categories
Outstanding Documentary – (Theatrical)
"Free Angela and All Political Prisoners" (Codeblack Films/Lionsgate)
Documentary – (Television)
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic (Showtime)
Writing Categories
Writing in a Comedy Series
Vincent Brown – "A.N.T. Farm" – InfluANTces (Disney Channel)
Writing in a Dramatic Series
Janine Sherman Barrois – "Criminal Minds" – Strange Fruit (CBS)
Writing in a Motion Picture – (Theatrical or Television)
John Ridley – "12 Years a Slave" (River Road/Plan B/New Regency/Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Directing Categories
Directing in a Comedy Series
Millicent Shelton – "The Hustle" – Rule 4080 (Fuse)
Directing in a Dramatic Series
Regina King – "SouthLand" – Off Duty (TNT)
Directing in a Motion Picture – (Theatrical or Television)
Steve McQueen – "12 Years a Slave"
Actor in a Comedy Series
Kevin Hart – "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (BET)
Actress in a Comedy Series
Wendy Raquel Robinson – "The Game" (BET)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Morris Chestnut – "Nurse Jackie" (Showtime)
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Brandy Norwood – "The Game" (BET)
Actor in a Drama Series
LL Cool J – "NCIS: Los Angeles" (CBS)
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Joe Morton – "Scandal" (ABC)
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Taraji P. Henson – "Person of Interest" (CBS)
Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
"Being Mary Jane" (BET)
Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
Idris Elba – "Luther" (BBC America)
Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
Gabrielle Union – "Being Mary Jane" (BET)
Actor in a Daytime Drama Series
Kristoff St. John – "The Young and the Restless" (CBS)
Actress in a Daytime Drama Series
Tatyana Ali – "The Young and the Restless" (CBS)
News/Information (Series or Special)
"The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." (PBS)
Reality Series
"Iyanla: Fix My Life" (OWN)
Variety Series or Special
"Black Girls Rock!" (BET)
Outstanding Children's Program
"Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts MasterClass" (HBO)
Outstanding Performance by a Youth in a Youth/Children's Program (Series or Special)
China Anne McClain – "A.N.T. Farm" (Disney Channel)
Recording Categories
New Artist
K. Michelle (Atlantic Records)
Male Artist
John Legend (Columbia Records)
Female Artist
Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
Duo, Group or Collaboration
"Blurred Lines" – Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell (Star Trak/Interscope)
Jazz Album
"The Songs of Stevie Wonder" – SFJAZZ Collective (SFJAZZ Records)
Gospel Album (Traditional or Contemporary)
"Best Days Deluxe Edition" – Tamela Mann (Tillymann Music)
World Music Album
"Natalie Cole en Español" – Natalie Cole (Verve Records)
Music Video
"Q.U.E.E.N." – Janelle Monáe feat. Erykah Badu (Bad Boy / Atlantic)
"All of Me" – John Legend (Columbia Records)
"Love, Charlie" – Charlie Wilson (RCA Records)
Literature Categories
Literary Work – Fiction
"Anybody's Daughter" – Pamela Samuels Young (Goldman House Publishing)
Literary Work – Non-Fiction
"Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery" – Deborah Willis, Barbara Krauthemer (Temple University Press)
Literary Work – Debut Author
"Nine Years Under" – Sheri Booker (Gotham Books)
Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography
"The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" – Jeanne Theoharis (Beacon Press)
Literary Work – Instructional
"The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life" – Robin Quivers (Avery)
Literary Work – Poetry
"Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers" – Frank X Walker (University of Georgia Press)
Literary Work – Children
"Nelson Mandela" – Kadir Nelson (Harper Collins Children's Books/Katherin Tegen Books)
Literary Work – Youth/Teens
"Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America's First Black Paratroopers" – Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick Press)


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You've read the book, enjoyed the graphic novel and loved the movie. But can you really call yourself a true Coraline fan without going to see the musical... especially considering the 56-year-old child star?
We've told you about the musical before, but with the show's opening just over a week away, Variety talked to those involved about what audiences can expect from the show. For his part, Coraline creator Neil Gaiman is happy with the musical:
There were people who grumbled about how faithful or otherwise the film was... Now, I can point to the stage play and say, this is completely faithful to the book. On the other hand, you have to come to terms with a world in which Coraline is played by a 50-year-old lady.
That "50-year-old lady" is actually 56-year-old Jayne Houdyshell, who plays the nine-year-old eponymous star of the story beside David Greenspan, who adapted Gaiman's novel for the stage as well as starring as Coraline's Other Mother. Director Leigh Silverman isn't worried about the age difference in casting:
It's not that she's parodying a child, but that in a way she's not playing it as a child. She's just sort of playing a character who happens to be 9.
The unexpected casting, of course, is just the norm for a show dominated by pianos of different size, shapes and even purposes. Composer Stephin Merritt explains the show's use of "prepared piano":
Prepared piano was done by John Cage in the '40s and '50s... It consists of putting erasers and screws and playing cards in between the strings of the piano, and it converts the piano into an 88-key percussion orchestra. No two notes sound alike.
Currently in previews, Coraline officially opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York on June 1st.
'Coraline' musical comes to life [Variety]


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Cole: Birds 'inches away from being great'
HARRISBURG -- It sure seemed like an inordinate number of Giants fans were filing past today, as Eagles defensive end Trent Cole signed T-shirts for charity and promoted his hunting enterprises in the Lancaster Archery booth at the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show, the largest such event in North America.
Considering their team had won the Super Bowl less than 48 hours earlier, and the NFC East rival Eagles didn't make the playoffs, the blue-clad New York followers weren't too obnoxious. Then again, they were addressing a 270-pound, two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher separated from them only by a folding table, not some dumpy fellow fan in midnight green.
"They didn't stop. They finished strong, and that's what it's all about," Cole said, when asked his thoughts on the Giants winning Super Bowl XLVII. "We finished strong as well, but it didn't work out (to make the playoffs)."
Cole acknowledged he was pulling for the Patriots on Sunday, that a New England victory wouldn't have stung quite as much as seeing the Lombardi Trophy go to a team from the division, a team the Eagles beat at MetLife Stadium back on Nov. 21, six days before the Birds were crushed at the Linc by the Pats.
"We had a bad year. We just couldn't pull it off at the last minute," Cole said. "We were right there, inches away from being great, being a dominant team. I think some teams are going to be worried about playing us" in 2012.
Cole, an Eagle since 2005, said he is glad to see Eagles coach Andy Reid back for a 14th season, glad to see defensive coordinator Juan Castillo get a second chance, glad defensive line coach Jim Washburn and the "Wide 9" didn't get swept away in a tidal wave of disappointment over missing the playoffs.
"I think it's a great choice," he said, when asked about Castillo. "Numbers don't lie, and we put up some great numbers.
"If you can feed into (Washburn's) teachings, you'll do well. You've got to believe in what he teaches. Come off hard, fast. When you come off your stance, be an eruption."
Almost as many people filing past the booth wanted to discuss hunting as were interested in football. Cole, who grew up as a hunter in rural Xenia, Ohio, has a TV show available on DIRECTV, in which, he says, "ordinary, everyday working people" go hunting, mostly for whitetail deer. He is selling DVDs at the show, but also is selling for charity autographed T-shirts emblazoned with his "Blitz TV" logo, at $10 a pop. Cole is at the booth through tomorrow afternoon.
Hunting, Cole said, is "a calm place where all the BS stops."
He said he pursues all types of hunting but prefers bowhunting because it's more challenging than pulling the trigger of a gun.
"You've got an intricate machine in your hand, with a lot of bells and whistles," he said. "When that moment of truth comes and that game comes up on you, everything's got to be right. You've got to really focus. ... It's just like football, it's all repetition."


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Whether you're on holiday for adventure or to relax, the Caribbean has something to offer everyone.
Classic sports such as Diving and Snorkeling are firm favourites amongst tourists, but the Caribbean has so much more to offer than that. But what, and where? We've put together a list of unusual sports to do in the Caribbean – so get ready for the adrenaline rush!
Generally a sport associated with places like Australia and Hawaii, the Caribbean is actually one of the best places in the world to go surfing. The glittering Caribbean ocean provides some of the best breaks, with professional surfers visiting every year to catch some killer waves. If you're a well-seasoned surfer then you'll be able to jump right in and enjoy the warm Caribbean Sea, but for those of you less experienced there are Surf Camps which offer beginner lessons.
Creative Commons/photo by:Cisc1970
If diving underwater is too tame for you, try diving out of a plane instead! Not for the fainthearted, Skydiving in the Caribbean is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you think the landscape is stunning on land, wait until you see it from 30,000 feet. There are plenty of dropzones in the Caribbean, such as the one in Antigua, which offer a highly professional and organised service. Don't worry if you've never skydived before, you'll be doing a tandem jump (meaning you'll be attached to an experienced Skydiver!).
With so much delicious food to eat in the Caribbean, you'll need a way to burn off all those extra calories! And what better way to do that than by hiking through the lush Caribbean landscapes? Whilst this sport is best enjoyed by those who have a high fitness level, there are some beautiful treks to be enjoyed all over the Caribbean. Dominica has recently opened the Waitukubuli Nationl Trail, which journeys deep through the rainforest, making for an unforgettable and brilliant experience.
Creative Commons/photo by:ScubaBear68
Journey to Jamaica and feed your need for speed on a zip line! Those of you who are adrenaline junkies will love zipping through the tropical forests, experiencing the island's beauty in a completely novel and unique way. The Canopy Tour in Jamaica will see your soaring 45 feet above the ground, whilst you're overlooked by professional and certified guides. You will also be able to journey across one of the 9 traverses there, and embark upon one of the nature walks.
Submarine Tour
Want to explore the Caribbean's underwater paradise without getting wet? Then hop aboard a submarine and submerge yourself in the exotic ocean. In Aruba, you will be able to book a 45 minute long submarine tour, which is ideal for those of you who don't swim and families too. Specially designed for sightseeing, you will be able to observe the various colourful fish and coral, and even spy a sunken wreck or two!
To experience the great variety of sports the Caribbean has to offer visit Blue Waters Caribbean Hotel.


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Hi listeners,
There are a lot of really weird stories in the news at the moment – cannibals, dismembered bodies, Octomom doing a porno – but fortunately this week, AMT218 is a largely horror-free zone:
Today we talk of:
marriage licences
the Pitcher and Piano
expensive clothes
actors' motivation
Fifty Shades of Grey vs. The White Hotel vs. Wuthering Heights
Mario vs. Lazarus
moist Jo Whiley
Tinky Winky, live in Luxembourg
outlet stores
death by giant snail
Plus: Olly doesn't want to get married in Vegas; Helen doesn't want to have to watch embarrassing bodies on Embarrassing Bodies; but Martin the Sound Man DOES want you to enter his science songwriting competition, so click here to find out how to enter before you dash off to your zither-room to compose.
This week's Bit of Crap on the App (available for iDevices or Android) involves Claudia from Melbourne asking whether you can text the police rather than calling them. With all the cuts to public services, unfortunately the police have had to lay off their full-time team of interpreters waiting to figure out what you mean by HLP pls sum1 tryn2 mrdr me non-LOL srsly >:-O
If you still have proper command over vowels, send us a QUESTION for next week: deliver emails to email@example.com and/or leave voicemails on the Question Line (dial 0208 123 5877 or Skype answermethis).
Also, if you're especially interested in what goes on around here, you can hear us being interviewed on the latest episode of Podcast Squared. We hope that the demystification of our Process doesn't spoil AMT for you. If not, we'll see you back here next Thursday.
Helen & Olly


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Please share my articles with your family, friends and other fans in all Y&R Pages, Groups and sites!
Raise awareness to get our favourite actors Michael Muhney, Billy Miller and Michelle Stafford back on Y&R. Thank you.
Get me on the Talk on CBS!
I am not sure how I am able to start a petition to get me on The Talk on CBS to represent the fans and represent our Love for Michael Muhney,Billy Miller and Michelle Stafford. Its so important to me and you my fellow fans are important to me and your feelings, emotions and what you think are so important to me. I want to do this for all of us and I want to do this to get justice.


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The Wedding Cake Table, Day 2
I know what they say about Scandinavian winters driving people to madness, but southern Norway in summer is quite possibly one of the most heavenly things you might ever hope to experience. Sparkling blue fjords reach like willowy fingers through the landscape, lush forested hills roll gently down to greet them at rocky outcrops and golden beaches, crystal blue skies glow warmly into the night, and on the cool breeze floats the scent of hundreds of thousands of flowers blooming furiously as they attempt to make up for lost time. And all this is not lost on Norway's inhabitants, who basically spend the summer outdoors fishing, cycling, slow-baking themselves to various shades of deep golden brown, and of course celebrating every last thing that can be found to celebrate – preferably with copious amounts of food and even more copious amounts of drink.
Naturally summer is also the perfect time to get married in Norway, which explains why I had a good excuse to spend the better part of last week there. Guro and Nash were two of the first friends I made when I moved to Edinburgh, when we all lived together in University accommodation and cooked together and ingested frightening amounts of chocolate as an antidote to the miserable Scottish weather. I had been looking forward to their wedding for months, and when Guro called me up a few weeks before the wedding and asked if I might be interested in helping out with the food, I naturally fell over myself with joy. The wedding reception was going to take place in the garden of her parents' house, and they were planning to serve a mixed Norwegian-Lebanese buffet (to honor the couple's respective home countries) which would be mostly catered by a local restaurant. "But we were wondering if you would mind making something as well" she inquired. Was she kidding? "Of course, anything!" I hastily responded, starting to sift through my mental lists of canapés, dips and party snacks. "Oh I'm so glad! Would you make your chocolate cheesecake?"
Of course I was happy to make my chocolate cheesecake, as I knew the cake had sentimental value for all of us. Back when we lived together I made this cake on such a regular basis that some people in the building knew me only by its reputation. I stopped making it when I moved out of the residence hall because I realized that not having an eager group of mouths around to help me finish it was far, far too dangerous, considering how wickedly good it is. Yet although I agreed without hesitation, her request that I make a cake, even if it was this one, left me slightly confused. I knew already that they had ordered a traditional wedding cake, and as far as I was aware, wedding etiquette dictated that no one should even dream of making a cake that might steal some of the limelight away from the wedding cake. Especially not a rich cheesecake, which, heaven forbid, might fill people up before they even have a chance to sample the wedding cake. But I figured the cake had probably been requested for sentimentality's sake, and chances were it wouldn't even find its way onto the wedding buffet table.
What I was soon to learn is that Norwegians come from a very different school of wedding cake philosophy. Apparently, while every wedding has the 'traditional' wedding cake, no one in Norway would dream of providing only that to their cake-hungry guests. In fact, I gathered that the abundance of wedding cake offerings has some kind of direct correlation with perceptions of the host's generosity and wealth, and even at a modest wedding the hosts will strive to have as many cakes on the table as possible. And it soon became clear that I was not the only one making a supplemental cake. Guro's mother, father and sister were all making cakes. In fact, they were all making TWO cakes. In addition, friends and relatives had been commissioned to bake cakes which would be dropped off the morning before the wedding. "We ask them to bring one but sometimes they bring two, just to be generous," Guro's sister informed me. "And besides the wedding cake and the homemade cakes don't forget the Kransekake, which is traditional at any Norwegian celebration. We've ordered a 24-ring version." I was feeling weak at the knees. A quick count told us that there would be minimum of sixteen cakes for approximately 45 invited guests, or around one-third of a cake per person. And this would all come after a buffet dinner. "Oh, and the caterer's menu includes dessert, which is a chocolate cake with blueberry sorbet." This was madness.
But what delicious madness it was. After a beautiful ceremony in the church, and a long and leisurely buffet served under the airy marquee in the garden, and after the chocolate cake with sorbet and tearful speeches and lots of wine, just shy of midnight the cake table was laid. It was stunning. The wedding cake, three tiers high, contained marzipan-covered sponge cake filled with strawberries and cream, and had been decorated with tiny blue borage flowers from the garden. The Kransekake, ordered from the same bakery, was a towering pyramid of thin brown rings of baked almond paste, deliciously soft and chewy on the inside and crusty on the outside, all decorated with white icing and tiny Norwegian flags. Guro's mother had made two Norwegian cakes: a Mandelkake, a flourless almond cake with yellow buttercream frosting, and a Firkløverkake, which had layers of chocolate cake, whipped cream, hazelnuts and melted hazelnut-praline milk chocolate. Guro's father made two versions of his famous Bløtkake, which consisted of light-as-air sponge filled with fresh strawberries and peaches and more fluffy cream. Guro's sister made her favorite recipes for carrot cake and lemon cheesecake. Apart from that there were brownies, more cream cakes, mousse cakes, cakes I couldn't identify, and of course my very own chocolate cheesecake. It was a veritable cake orgy, and I ate until I could barely stand upright.
However, in spite of our valiant efforts to eat the table clean that evening there was barely a dent made in the sugary bounty. The next night brought a second effort as guests were invited back to help finish the leftovers, but still far too much cake remained. Looking sadly at the table I asked Guro's sister what would happen to the leftovers after we'd all gone home. She shrugged casually. "I suppose we'll have to throw some of it away." It broke my heart to think of all these painstakingly-made creations ending up in the trash, and so later that night in the grips of my own madness (for I couldn't have eaten another bite of cake if someone had held a gun to my head), I snuck back out to the marquee and uncovered the remains of my cheesecake. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one was witnessing my gluttony I wrapped and stowed a mushy piece into my bag for the flight home the next day. After all, I rationalized, I surely needed a souvenir of this wonderful if slightly crazy tradition to take home with me, now didn't I?
Amazing Chocolate Cheesecake
Amazing Chocolate Cheesecake
Serves: 12 easily
Source: This is one of the few 'old family recipes' I possess. Actually, I seem to recall that it's an adaptati
on of a cheesecake in The Vegetarian Epicure (by Anna Thomas) which my mother wrangled from an old cheesecake-conoisseur colleague of hers. At any rate, it's been around as long as I can remember and is one of those rare recipes that I have never felt the slightest need to tinker with.
For metric conversions, please see my links on the glossary page.
1 1/2 c. fine graham cracker or digestive biscuit crumbs
1/4 c. melted butter, or as needed
1/2 t. cinnamon
3 T. brown sugar
pinch salt
1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
8 oz fine bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons liqueur of choice (I used Bailey's this time; Cointreau, Amaretto, Frangelico etc. are also fabulous) – optional
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons liqueur (same as above)
Crust: Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Work the ingredients together with a fork until they are well blended. Press evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan and press it flat.
Cheesecake: Beat the cream cheese with an electric beater or food processor until it is fluffy, then gradually beat in the 2 c. sugar and the eggs. Continue beating until perfectly smooth. Melt the chocolate with the cream in a small saucepan over low heat (or the microwave), then beat into the cheese along with 1 c. sour cream. Add the liqueur and vanilla, and beat a few minutes more. Pour the cheese mixture into the springform and bake for about 1 hour, or until the center is slightly puffed (it will seem very jiggly, but it shouldn't seem liquid). Cool completely in the pan for several hours (this is important to get the right texture), then refrigerate until completely cold (at least six hours – overnight is best). Carefully run a knife between the crust and the pan to loosen and remove the springform. With a long bread knife trim the top and sides so they are smooth and uniform (these trimmings are the cook's sneak-preview!).
Topping: Beat together the sour cream and sugar. Add the liqueur and carefully pour over the top of the cheesecake, so it completely covers the top. Let it spill over the edge in a few places to create a decorative effect*. Chill 90 minutes before serving. Just before serving, sift some dutch cocoa over the top and decorate with fresh flowers.
*Alternatively, you can place the springform back around the cake before pouring on the topping (so it all stays on top) and put it back in a preheated 375F/190C oven for 10 minutes. This creates a firmer top layer.


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Tame Inflation Report Gives Federal Reserve Reason To Stay Easy
The news that consumer prices rose a relatively modest 0.3 percent in March from February supports "the view the U.S. Federal Reserve has room to provide more support for the economy if needed," Reuters concludes. It adds that:
"The U.S. Federal Reserve has said it will probably hold interest rates super low until at least late 2014 to help the economy, which is limping back from the 2007-2009 recession. The central bank is charged with keeping inflation low while promoting full employment. The next policy meeting is scheduled for April 24-25.
"Amid recent signs of weakness in the labor market, investors are betting the Fed could unleash further monetary stimulus to boost growth, although comments by Fed officials this week suggested the central bank is on hold as it waits to see whether the recovery gains traction."
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices were up 2.7 percent in the 12 months ended March 31.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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As it hits Day 4 of the Olympics, most of the talk has been surrounding the USA swim and gymnastics teams, and whether or not they are competing at the level that many people want them to.
But let us focus on athletes who have not gotten as much attention–mainly the USA Women's Basketball team and, for us here at the DCJCC, one of the players, Sue Bird.
Sue Bird, who currently plays for the WNBA team Seattle Storm, holds a dual citizenship to both the USA and Israel. The USA Women's national team has so far cruised in their first two games of the preliminary rounds.
Not only do we have Sue Bird to root for, but in the Women's Gymnastics team final, we have yet another athlete to cheer for: Aly Raisman, who is competing for Olympic gold tonight and in the next few days for the All-Around Gold medal in gymnastics. In this year and years past, many Jewish athletes have medaled in the Olympic games.
Join us here at the DCJCC as we start our very own fitness challenge next week–we'll walk, bike, run and swim the length of England to meet our athletes at the games.
Filed under: Israel, Sport and Fitness, Wellness | Tagged: Alexandra Raisman, Aly Raisman, fitness challenge, Jewish Athletes, Jewish olympians, Olympics, Sue Bird, Team USA, Women's Basketball, Women's Gymnastics | 1 Comment »


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Sep 7, 2012
East European fashion labels aim for the world stage
Sep 7, 2012
BUDAPEST/WARSAW (Reuters) - The winding flower embroidery of the Matyo folk is a living traditional art form in the tiny Hungarian village of Tard, where Rozi Vaczi spent time as a child.
When Vaczi had a T-shirt decorated with the embroidery two years ago for her boyfriend Ervin Nagy, a well-known Hungarian actor, it sparked intense interest in her company, Matyo Design. Urban hipsters now readily fork out $45 for a Matyo T-shirt.
After opening a showroom in Budapest earlier this year, Vaczi now hopes to build a fashion design business on the ruins of Hungary's communist-era textile factories.
"We'd like to create a company that sells internationally," said Vaczi, earning a global "place in fashion design" in a first for a Hungarian firm.
Around emerging Europe, where garment assembly for Western brands has been a thriving business for years, there is a new confidence that local designs also have a chance on the world stage.
With wages still low compared to other regions, including Asia where costs have ballooned, retailers are moving business back to eastern Europe, meaning a big influx of orders and a new investment in infrastructure, fashion company executives said.
Local manufacturers are also helped by the potential for expansion in domestic markets such as Poland and Russia which, though huge, are a lot less saturated than in the West.
"I think that clothing companies from (central Europe) have big growth potential," said Kamil Szlaga, a retail analyst at KBC Securities in Warsaw. "The region still has room to catch up with western Europe... Surely, Russia is their key target."
Polish fashion companies like LPP LPPP.WA, the creator of the brand Reserved, have grown rapidly and in some markets even taken on giants like Spain's Inditex (ITX.MC), the world's top fashion retailer and parent of Zara.
"In Russia, Inditex has more shops but we're following them quite well," LPP Deputy Chief Executive Dariusz Pachla told Reuters. The company has opened 100 shops there so far "and we plan to open a lot more".
LPP nearly doubled its annual profit in 2011, recording a net income of 269 million zlotys ($80.75 million). Like many others in the region, the company has focused its efforts on eastern Europe, mainly Russia.
"The East has been our target for years," Pachla said. "Russia is developing very quickly."
Joanna Przetakiewicz, a Polish designer and protégé of fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld, plans to open outlets for her La Mania line in Russia, China and Japan after the prestigious UK department store Harrods began selling the label in July.
Harrods' head of womens wear Helen David told Reuters La Mania was one of many interesting new labels to come out of eastern Europe lately.
"Eastern European designers are creating increasingly considered and innovative designs," David said. "The region is a wonderful new hotbed of emerging fashion talent and we are thrilled to have La Mania in store as a representation of this."
Przetakiewicz, who also has plans to launch La Mania at the Milan department store Excelsior, said western buyers have become more welcoming to emerging European designers.
"I must say that an overall climate, not only in the fashion industry, is changing positively," she told Reuters. "Poles are becoming more recognisable and popular, particularly in the UK."
The positive trend can be seen not just at the consumer end, but also when it comes to raising funds.
The designs of Hungarian Szandra Sandor, who splashes folk art-inspired patterns on finely cut clothes under the label Nanushka, have been featured in international fashion magazines and sold widely in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Sales, 80 percent of which go overseas, grew quickly to reach about $500,000 in 2011.
But when the orders came too quickly to fill, Nanushka was compelled to seek partners. Despite a general reluctance to finance fashion companies by banks squeezed by the financial crisis, venture capital group PortfoLion stepped in.
Bolstered by PortfoLion's one million euros ($1.26 million) investment, plus a one million euro loan, Nanushka now aims for annual sales of about $5-7 million within five years.
"Every family business gets to this special point, where it's grow or die," Sandor told Reuters in her newly refurbished downtown shop in Budapest's glitzy Fashion Street.
PortfoLion said Nanushka's attraction was its global focus.
"We only invest in companies which are already capable to expand in foreign markets," PortfoLion chief Peter Oszko, a former finance minister, told Reuters. "Nanushka ... only needed capital to take advantage of their opportunities."
Rebekah Schindler, Nanushka's U.S. agent at Showroom Seven in New York, said the capital injection was essential to conquering the U.S. market, especially large department stores where the ability to produce in quantity and be flexible are a must.
"It (Nanushka) has been around for a few years but it always hit a glass ceiling as far as sales go," she said. "I think that this angel investment can really contribute to it growing exponentially in the next year."
As designers like Nanushka expand from cottage businesses to larger-scale operations, they need reliable production facilities and better infrastructure, which is where the return of the bigger international fashion houses come in.
As a growing number of these companies bring production closer to their markets from traditional assembly areas such as China, where costs have risen, and North Africa, which has been hit by turmoil in recent years, the eastern fringes of Europe are looking more and more attractive with their relatively low wages and stability.
"Now we see European companies returning to Europe," said Daniel Csereklyei, who runs a garment assembly operation in Hungary called Kezmu, employing 5,000 people. "We have worked for high-end brands who have stayed nearer, but now second-tier labels return too, creating even more demand."
He said orders are pouring in from big fashion houses, including familiar luxury names, but asked that the labels not be identified to protect client confidentiality.
Building on the ramped-up production capability, Csereklyei has also ventured into the creative side of the business, teaming up with designer Kati Zoob to roll out a new brand called Attitude.
Attitude is geared toward the well-heeled, older customer, said Zoob, 54, in her store in a Budapest shopping centre. But unlike her younger competitors, she does not plan to expand into foreign markets immediately.
"You don't have to be world famous right away," she said.
($1 = 0.7939 euros)
($1 = 226.9870 Hungarian forints)
($1 = 3.3315 Polish zlotys)
(Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


text:
NEW Dale model # RH25G750H, 75 Ohm 25 Watt 3%, Metal Heat Sink Wire Wound Power Resistor.
This Resistor is New Old Stock (N.O.S.) from a bulk case with no retail packaging. This resistor shows surface scratches from being stored in a bulk container.
- Rated Value: 75 Ohm @ 25 Watts 3% Tolerance
- Resistor Type: Heat Sink Type, Metal Power Resistor with a Wire Wound Resistive Element
- Temperature Coefficient: 20 PPM
- Dielectric Strength: 1,000 VRMS
- Insulation Resistance: not < 1,000 Meg Ohms
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