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Sunday, 17 February 2013 06:43 PM EST
The statement by Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee followed calls by Netanyahu at a Cabinet meeting to dim a growing media spotlight on the affair he saw as at risk of jeopardizing national security.
The case kept under wraps for two years then publicized by Australian television last Tuesday involves a 34-year-old immigrant, Ben Zygier, said to be a Mossad operative held on suspicion of security offenses, who died of what has been labeled an apparent suicide behind bars.
In a terse communique, the legislative panel's subcommittee on intelligence said it has "decided to conduct an intensive examination of all aspects of the incident involving the prisoner found dead in his [prison] cell in December 2010."
While unlikely to have any immediate political consequences the investigation may lead to a wider inquiry with potentially broader repercussions.
Netanyahu's government has restricted reporting in Israel on the case — now overshadowing his victory in a national election held last month — using court gag orders, military censorship, and direct requests to news editors.
Such steps have done little to douse demands for the authorities to come clean about the circumstances of Zygier's imprisonment and how he was able to kill himself in a highly-supervised isolation cell.
Without citing the case specifically, Netanyahu said on Sunday he "absolutely trusts" Israel's security services and what he described as the independent legal monitoring system under which they operated.
"We are an exemplary democracy," Netanyahu said in remarks aired by Israeli broadcasters.
"But we are also more threatened, more challenged, and therefore we have to ensure the proper operation of our security branches," Netanyahu also said.
"Therefore I ask over everyone: Let the security services continue working quietly so that we can continue to live in safety and tranquility in the State of Israel."
The few Israeli officials who have spoken of Zygier's case have not denied that he was linked to Mossad, which in early 2010 was accused by Dubai of using Australian passport-holders to assassinate a Palestinian arms procurer in the Gulf emirate.
Media reports have speculated that Israel suspected the Melbourne-born Jew of betraying or threatening to divulge Mossad missions, perhaps to Australia's security services, as they probed passport fraud.
Civil liberties groups and some Israeli lawmakers have demanded to know whether Zygier's rights were violated by his months of incarceration under alias.
In an apparent reversal from previous statements, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Thursday his ministry had known about Zygier's jailing as early as February 2010. On Wednesday he said Australian diplomats in Israel only found out about the detention after his death in custody later that year.
Avigdor Feldman, an Israeli lawyer with whom Zygier consulted in Ayalon prison, said last week that that meeting was arranged by a "Mossad liaison" and that his client had denied "grave charges" for which he awaited trial.
Feldman also said that Zygier's family, which has declined all comment on the affair, knew about his detention. The incarceration was approved by several Israeli courts.
Two senior cabinet members, Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon, told Israeli media on Saturday the case was rare but lawful.
"There are extreme situations...to do with our security and even the need to preserve human life, when we need to take an extreme step such as this," Yaalon told Channel Two television.
Meridor said that publishing the prisoner's identity would have risked "serious harm to security." He did not elaborate.
Tzachi Hanegbi, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's conservative Likud party said he had never been informed of Zygier's arrest as chairman of the parliamentary defense panel at the time.
"This requires explanation," Hanegbi said. "Usually, every significant subject, whether it is impressive achievements or embarrassing failures, is laid out before the subcommittee."
Former Mossad director Danny Yatom told Reuters the agency was under no legal obligation to brief oversight lawmakers in such circumstances.
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by Steven Doyle
Last night the Dosa food truck made its debut at the Sprouts on Henderson. I tried the Paper Masala that was filled with potato, and it was the best thing I put in my mouth in a very long time. The very large portioned crepe is crispy and wafer thin, much thinner than the other dosas found on the menu.
The plate comes with a cup of dal soup, or sambar, and also two chutneys. One of the chutneys is a bit spicy, the other is cooler with a hint of coconut. This dosa and its sides are 100% vegan and 100% tasty.
You will have another chance to sample this new truck Saturday from 11am to 7pm in Deep Ellum. The Toys for Tots Food Truck Rally will be steeped with the latest trucks. Admission is free, but they are asking you bring along a toy, you know, for a tot.
The secret Deep Ellum location for this toy drive is at the corner of Elm and Gaston. As for me I am going to dive back into another dosa.

subset: commoncrawl


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I like to think
I am like a pendulum;
I am wont to seesaw
A very high opinion
Of myself
And a critically flawed
Yet unlike the pendulum
This wont is an artist's science –
Abstract rhythm
Immeasurable rhyme
It ebbs and flows
Like a musician's score,
Its intensity oft rendering
Thinking a chore,
And in this state my Subconscious
Still battles with indecision;
A furious yet subliminal exercise
Both, a virtue and a vice
That's crept up in my sinews
Contracting, expanding,
In sweet delirium
(Quite unlike alcohol)
And Apparently,
This makes it good for the soul,
Chicken soup!
Drinking in incredible stories –
An oblivious escape
A deliberate distraction
A tragic twist
An inspiring action –
Each oscillation thusly stokes
The storyteller's
And, don't we have them all?
Stories to tell
Stories to live
Even as we're grasping
At the straws
We push through
And pull rabbits
Out of our ordinary tales –
Veritable magicians we are
With bewilderingly bewitching brains
That delude themselves
To swing
Self love
And loathing
– Akanksha Gupta


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This past weekend, the video up top made the Twitter-rounds. It's of a failed quicktime event from 2007's Spiderman 3, and it is hilarious.
The Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: May 2023 Edition
Watching it over and over, while laughing, got me thinking: There are so many terrible quicktime events in gaming, it'd be fun to put together a huge list of them. And while you may think that bitching about quicktime events is so 2008, well… I've got some upcoming fall games that would like a word.
So, have at it: What's your favorite terrible quicktime event?


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Hello and a very Happy Friday to you all. I thought I might switch things up a little bit this Friday and give you two different looks from the same outfit. Isn't it amazing the power accessories have? With just a few swaps you can make your outfit go seamlessly from daytime casual to elegant evening.
Look 1. Day time casual. I wore precisely this outfit to have a lunch date with a dear friend, and afterwards I did a little walking around and even a little shopping. This outfit is everything I like for a chill day out: Stylish but not terribly overdressed (at least by my standards), and it's completely functional, the large purse means I can carry all of the junk I think I need 😉 and the sneakers mean I wont complain about every step I take the way I do in most heels.
Blouse: Vintage. Alternative at Forever 21
Belt: Vintage. Alternative at Pinup Girl Clothing
Bag: Vintage. Alternative at H&M
Skirt: Cotton On
Shoes: H&M
Look 2. Pinup inspired glamour. Now admittedly after my day out I got " all dolled up" for this alternative look but didn't actually go anywhere haha. I do think this outfit would work beautifully for a fancier night out though, don't you?
Hair Flower: From my beautiful friend Amy who happens to sell these babies on her Etsy site
Blouse: Vintage. Alternative at Forever 21
Bag: Vintage. Alternative at DSW
Skirt: Cotton On
Belt: Vintage. Alternative at Pinup Girl Clothing
Heels: DSW these are not quite the exact shoe I'm wearing but they're pretty close.
So there you have it, two very different looks from one outfit. I hope you enjoyed this post and be sure to let me know if you would like to see more outfit transitions. I do have one in the works after this post. But if you guys like em enough I might just make a series out of it. Have a great weekend!


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Albert Paley is an American jewelry designer and sculptor whose work defies strict categorization as either art or craft, instead embracing the finer aspects of both disciplines.
Paley was born in Philadelphia in 1944 to lower middle class parents. Despite showing a natural inclination towards the arts, Paley held misgivings about pursuing a career as an artist. He believed the only way to earn a steady income in the arts was to find work in advertising—a proposition he found distasteful.
It was Paley's girlfriend, a student at the Tyler School of Art, who convinced him otherwise. A single Saturday spent touring the campus and Paley was sold; he enrolled at the Tyler School of Arts with hardly enough money for a single semester's tuition. Paley began taking classes in jewelry making and sculpture during his sophomore year and soon found himself enthralled with both crafts. Paley graduated from the Tyler School of Arts in 1969 with a Master in Fine Arts.
Paley began his professional career as a jeweler creating works of wearable art that merged the sinuous and organic lines of European Art Nouveau with the visual weight of metalwork. Later in 1969, Paley accepted a position teaching goldsmithing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, but continued to pursue his sculptural aspirations on the side. In 1972, Paley was commissioned to produce the Portal Gates at the Smithsonian Institute's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1973, and installed in 1976, the monumental steel, bronze and copper doors earned Paley national recognition as a metalsmith of truly unique vision.
Albert Paley's sculptures don't simply occupy space; they command it. Paley possesses a rare ability to transform iron from a lifeless and unyielding metal into a moving, almost liquid, element. Despite the seemingly spontaneous and organic nature of his work, Paley is a consummate draftsman, envisioning the majority of his creations on paper before stepping to the forge.
Crossing the boundaries between art and craft, Paley has established himself as one of the greatest metal artists in the country. Throughout his career, he has completed several important private and public site-specific commissions including the Clay Center Sculpture at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in West Virginia and the Animals Always installation at the St. Louis Zoo. Further, his works have been widely published and can be found in multiple major museum collections around the world.
Auction Results Albert Paley


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Despite the best efforts of mama deer and her two Bambis, our garden is going strong after four separate attacks.
Awww, so cute — until they decimate your plants and leave their turd raisins everywhere!
They found the one hole in the 15-foot hedges in the back, and feasted on our apple trees, lilacs, hydrangeas, tender gladiolus, petunias, sunflowers, clematis, alstroemeria and sweet peas. Most upsetting, they mowed down all my peas, new beans, and lettuce, stepping right into the raised beds and destroying seed beds I had just planted. They nibbled at the potatoes and the tomatoes too. Aargh!
Some semi-permanent deer fencing across the corner where she got in, as well as around my raised beds, and things are starting to recover. We also decided to use our back deck as planting space since we always choose to sit out in the garden. Now I can plant even more!
As long as she can't climb stairs… 🤔
Anyway, here are some pictures of my healing place/our paradise in July 2019.
Dahlias – stunning and deer-resistant!
My favourite shady place to read and write. Or just be.
Monster marigolds that I planted from seed are taking over!
The corner where they got in, and the final frontier for the garden – until we get rid of the trampoline. Protected by Tiki. 😏
I really love this time in the garden when most of the major tasks are done for the moment and we can just water, maintain and enjoy. We plan to plant more dahlias, especially out front because the deer leave them alone, and they're gorgeous. They lined our driveway when we lived in New Zealand, which is where we both fell in love with them.
Any other suggestions for deer-resistant, drought-tolerant perennials? Our front garden is so blah comparatively, and north-facing so not as much fun. Any recommendations very much appreciated.
Happy August!
❤ Amanda


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The Department of Justice and the US Patent and Trademark Office sent a policy statement [PDF] today, suggesting that the International Trade Commission or ITC back away from enforcing "exclusion orders," which can kick a product off the US market in cases involving standards-based patents.
It's an important issue which just came up last week when the Federal Trade Commission closed its 19-month investigation of Google over antitrust issues. A variety of corporate patent battles have been moved to the ITC recently, including some of the biggest struggles over smartphones.
In closing that investigation, the FTC said that Google shouldn't ask for exclusion orders or injunctions on its standards-based patents.
That sentiment is now being echoed by the DOJ and US Patent Office—for the most part. There are some pretty big exceptions, such as situations where a potential licensee refuses to take a license on a "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" or FRAND basis.
Unsurprisingly, one company that was critical of the FTC ending its investigation of Google without charges was Microsoft. Today, Microsoft praised the DOJ/PTO statement as a tougher rule than the one that the FTC endorsed and suggested that the FTC should re-think its position on patents, which (at least according to Microsoft's reading) would allow for more exceptions.
Yesterday, Microsoft also filed papers asking a judge to insist that Google withdraw two of the three patents that Motorola has used against it in an ITC case, because they are based on standards-essential patents. Despite the fact that FTC chief Jon Leibowitz said Google has to shut down its ITC cases, Microsoft noted that the company hasn't yet done so—even as deadlines are looming.
Update: Late today Google filed papers indicating it has withdrawn its standards-based patent claims.
In an e-mailed statement, Microsoft Deputy GC David Howard said, "We're pleased Google has finally withdrawn these claims for exclusion orders against Microsoft, and hope that it will now withdraw similar claims pending in other jurisdictions as required by the FTC Consent Order."


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The SEC and Department of Homeland Security are saying we need a web backup plan in the event the H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic forces people to stay in their homes to use computers even more than usual for work or play.
Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth….Private Internet providers might need government authorization to block popular websites, it said, or to reduce residential transmission speeds to make way for commerce. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2620750120091026?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
Are politician looking craft new ways to get more control on the last free media frontier we have? We believe it is essential that the Internet remain unrestricted with an open platform. 365 days a year, 24/7. President Obama on the other hand has not been quiet about pushing for Internet legislation.
The government wants to make sure everyone has access to the Internet and have set aside $7.2 billion in stimulus dollars for construction.http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Net-Neutrality-enforcement-may-reach-into-your-computer Again with the stimulus dollars. Private investment and the private sector is what has spurned it's growth. As we have been witness to banks and car companies who accept bailout funds, they also accept government control and regulations.
Last week the FCC begin consideration of the rules that would protect and promote open broadband pipes to the Internet. Over the next several months, an official rule making proceeding will take place, along with public workshops and technical advisory discussions, allowing everyone to provide feedback before the Commission adopts a final set of rules. The proposed rules can be found here as a pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A1.pdf We found it interesting that on p. 97 the document quotes Thomas Jefferson, "The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam showed in a joint blog post that stakeholders can work together with mutual respect to find common ground, even as we acknowledge and defend important policy differences. http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/10/finding-common-ground-on-open-internet.html
One significant issue, is that the government apparently uses the same Internet protocols and the same operating systems as the private sector, making cyber security a universal problem as opposed to a governmental problem. Hackers may find a greater payload in targeting critical infrastructure such as power grids, financial or communication networks or air traffic control systems than in attacking the CIA or the Pentagon. An attack by an adversary nation, much less a cyber extortionist or terrorist, is not so far-fetched. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-zirin14-2009oct14,0,603775.story
The federally funded Next Generation Internet (NGI) project (http://www.ngi.gov/) exists parallel to and complementary with Internet2, http://www.internet2.edu/ We have trouble believing that America's nuclear weapons arsenal operate on the standard net. Internet2 is not available to the general public, even though our taxpayer dollars support it. More about that here https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/internet-censorship-shocking-treatment-of-taxpayer/ The speed of information-sharing network on Internet2 is now 100 Gbit!
Thomas has the draft of the Rockefeller Cybersecurity Act S 773 here, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.773. It gives the president powers to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any "critical" information network "in the interest of national security." More of our previous thoughts here https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/obama-internet-controcybersecurity/
The proposed rules claim that Cisco's built Internet routers have over 28.1 million lines of code- does anyone realistically foresee the government being able to regulated something so large? Are attacks of the Swine Flu more common than cyber security breaches? We we do know that the nation has done a pretty miserable job coordinating it's response to past emergencies as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, the financial bailouts, and now the H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic. If big brother takes over the Internet, the last bastion of freedom of speech in what is left of our democracy, could be gone.
photo props to Bikes Over Baghdad http://bkachinsky.transworld.net/,
Open wide, say ahhh and check out these posts on the A/H1N1 Swine Flu from Ahrcanum, where the conspiracy spreads as fast as the virus itself. https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/swine-flu-report/
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A traditional Portuguese meal to remember…
From the rocky edge of Sítio, 300 meters above the endless, crescent-shaped sandy sea-front of the fishing village of Nazare, 120 kilometres from lively Lisbon, I held my breath at the scene. Scalloped waves curled against silky aquamarine waters and a riot of rust-roofed white houses pushed along a snaking Calcada promenade. An ordinary home in an extraordinary setting right here. Now that's a life to aspire for!
Minutes later, we were down there with our guide, Sonia, weaving through narrow one-way streets, while I tried to disentangle my over-imaginative brain from a futile, albeit engaging web of mental pictures. She had no idea that I was predicting the floor plans of the cramped, but cute, whitewashed houses with blue and yellow borders, while she located a parking spot. As we headed to a small restaurant for an authentic meal experience, I was completely clueless that in addition to my appetite, my curiosity was about to be satiated too!
Down one of stone-paved lanes that offered a distant, but enticing peek of the seafront, Sonia led us to Rosa do Ventos. A cobalt blue awning and a removable porch with a couple of tables were the only two features distinguishing the tiny restaurant from the row of neighbouring houses. I felt my eyebrows rise a micro-millimeter and my lips curve with undisguised delight. Layout, layout! Oh, and food.
Inside the small space (originally a living room, maybe), lay 5-6 small tables dressed with pink-and-white checkered tablecloths. Modest crockery and cutlery were placed upside down. Protection from flies? Fishing nets hung casually from the ceiling. On the walls, several ropes were knotted in different nautical styles. Black & white framed photographs of village and fishing scenes, and a family in traditional Portuguese costumes, added a touch of vintage character. Definitely ancestral, no flea market finds here. Blue and white tiles decorated the bottom half of the walls and a faded sky-blue fan added to the seaside effect. We settled down onto the simple blue-painted wooden benches and gazed around. Rustic and adorable!
It was just us…apart from a Japanese couple engaged in animated conversation with their guide. When the restaurant owner (we assumed) emerged from behind the open kitchen counter and Sonia hugged him with a warmth for an old friend, we knew this was a regular stopover for all her tour clients. She introduced us to him, recommended the fish soup and rushed off for a quick errand. Fish soup…hmmm. Or go with our gut feeling and order grilled fish instead? Gut feel, then.
Raimundo brought us three varieties of raw fish to choose from and we picked the sole. Relishing the fresh bread slices dipped in flavoursome olive oil, we talked about the pretty villages we had seen along Portugal's countryside all the way from Lisbon. But we weren't alone for long. With the fish on the grill, he was back soon and the chit-chat began. We asked him about the proud portrayals of his family legacy on the walls (even his own childhood picture was up there). He flash-backed unabashed and we shadowed him down memory lane.
In 10-15 minutes, the fish arrived on a steel plate, with raw juliennes of onions, sliced cucumber, chunks of tomatoes, shredded carrot and beetroot on a bed of lettuce and wedges of boiled potato with skin. Eyeballs locked hypnotically, as Raimundo expertly cleaned the fish, sliced off the head and tail, removed the bones and served neat portions onto our plates. The crunch of the crisp meat was sheer music and the fresh aroma was pure fragrance. Instinct boldly spelt it out…this would be a meal to remember. Instinct never lies. One bite and we were floored…it was divinely, crisply cooked to perfection! Two heads nodded enthusiastic in sync…and he smiled in glee. Great quality fish, lots of rock salt and grilling, he revealed. "And love", we added. The simplest recipes are the best. We couldn't agree more. Who needs Michelin stars, when you can savour this?
Raimundo continued to season the meal with tales about Nazare's famous winter waves. For evidence and effect, he replayed a video of the 100 feet tsunami-like wave surfing record. We listened intently as he opened his heart to us…his love affair with the sea, his passion for fishing in winters, his spiritual connect with Nazare and his lifelong commitment to his food business. We smiled in amusement at his innocent imitation of stressed-out Lisbon visitors from the 'big village'. And we knew then, that this little corner of the world was his entire life, and he craved nothing else, not even an expansion of his precious family business. Raimundo was living his dream and he was content. We were taking back unforgettable memories of an afternoon spent with a friendly, simple, unaffected family man, who had served us one of the best meals of our lives!
For dessert, we strolled the generous beachfront, watched laundry dangle from windows, counted colors of houses, took sneak pictures of local women selling chestnuts and wondered how many of their generations had lived here. Were they wearing seven skirts too? (Read my post on the seven skirts tradition of Portugal here.) No hustle-bustle of a touristy beach retreat, just the languorous calm of incessant waves, the gentle warmth of the coastal sun and the infectious pace of people-watching. Raimundo was right. Stay long enough and you'll never want to leave!
Pin this post for later!!


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On the 12th of May 2019, I ran the Diacore Half Marathon, my fourth and FASTEST. Nine weeks prior, I had run the Gabs Half Marathon and I was disappointed with my performance. I was so convinced that I would achieve the 2:35 time I had set for myself but when I started struggling around 15/16km I never found the energy or mindset to lift me and it was a bitter battle to the end. On the one hand, I was proud of myself for earning my 3rd Half medal but I was also confused. How could I have trained so hard and not improved much. I remember writing on the blog, "Friends, there is a lot more work to do." In the days that followed, I spoke to my friend Johannes who emphasised the importance of speedwork and said he had an 8-week training plan that I should try out. After moping for a few more days, I started training for Diacore.
These are Some of My Highlights
The City is Alive: In the early hours of the morning, Gaborone was abuzz with excitement. My cousin Ndiye had travelled from out of town for the race and was staying with us. We all got up early, picked up my dad who was doing the 10km race, and got to the parking lot in Molapo Crossing around 05h40. As usual, there were so many cars and people milling about. No where near the numbers you find at Soweto, but definitely a huge crowd by our standards. So many people we knew were running and on the way from the parking lot we met our friends Malcolm and Tshepi and then found Zurika, Johannes, Eunice, Oarabile, Polelo and Fuzzy closer to the start line. At my last Diacore (which was my first Half), I remember feeling relieved that the day had finally arrived. This time I felt a lot more excitement and confidence. When I saw Johannes, I told him I would be very surprised if I didn't PB and even promised him a couple of beers if I did!
A Comfortable First Half: When the gun sounded, it was a slow jog out of the hotel grounds. With Tapiwa not there, I had planned to run solo but within the first km or so I realised that Fuzzy was next to me. She was doing her first Half and I had no clue what her pace was but after 3km we were still together. Although we didn't chat much, it was comforting to have someone beside me who had a similar pace. My splits (min/km) for the first 5km were 07:10/ 07:10/ 07:13/ 06:56/ 06:43, much faster than last year's Diacore. I was very comfortable and felt in control of my race. Around 4km, Fuzzy asked about the route and I told her I would just give her step by step instructions as giving the whole route would sound overwhelming! So as we turned off the Old Lobatse Road I said, "Next stop, UB Circle". She laughed and said, "You say that like it's just down the road!" On this stretch we found ourselves with the 2:15 Striders Bus. I knew there was no way I would keep up, but it was good to have them in my sight. One guy tried to get us to hop on the bus, and I told him "Go ahead. I'll keep an eye on you!" My splits for the next 5 km were 06:46/ 06:51/ 07:05/ 07:00/ 07:08. At 10km, I took my first gel. As we approached the UB Circle, I told Fuzzy "See! We are here! Next stop Main Mall!" and then we parted ways.
Pushing Hard in the Second Half: There was a bigger distance between me and the Striders Bus at this point but I wasn't perturbed and continued to focus on running my race. And so far my race felt really good. I passed the Civic Centre and then the President's Hotel and when I turned right at the top of the Main Mall, I knew I would soon face my biggest test – my 15/16 km enemy in the CBD. I powered my way up the Bull and Bush incline and my splits for 11 – 15 km were solid: 07:15/ 07:10/ 07:08/ 06:58/ 06:56. As I entered the CBD, I channeled more positive energy by reminding myself how strong I was feeling and I thought back to how great my last training run had been in the CBD. I kept pace with someone wearing a t-shirt that read "German Tank" for a while and at the 17km point I took my second and final gel and overtook the tank. As I made my way out of the CBD and onto the main road, I knew a 2:35 time was in hand so long as I maintained my pace and spirit. Another km down the line, I realised that maybe it was time to think of a 2:30 time. My splits for 16 – 19 km were: 07:08/ 07:16/ 07:17/ 07:12. I couldn't do the maths, but I knew this was going to be a huge PB. I just needed to step it up even more.
The Final Push: And step it up, I did! I powered home in 06:42/ 06:39. As I made my way through the Hotel Gate and towards the gantry, I was forced to duck around the 10km runners. I approached the Finish Line and saw my dad and cousin on the sidelines who had both done the 10km race, and I just kept pushing! I then saw Ditiro, Zurika and Elisa.
No dancing theatrics like last year, just pure focus. And then I was through! I stopped my watch and there it was 2:28:42. Sub 2:30 when all I was going for was 2:35. As I went to get my medal, I spotted Polelo and her family and all I remember shouting was "Sub 2:30!" A 09:46 min PB!
Emerging Victorious: What an incredible day for all of us. Zurika and Elisa ran a brilliant Half together; Ditiro surpassed his expectations as he was running injured; Ndiye did her first Diacore in a fantastic time; and my dad had an awesome time too, proudly taking down many youngsters! Another friend Sonja did her first Half and I'm so proud of her. I didn't see Malcolm and Tshepi at the end, but they also had great races. I spotted Fuzzy who gave me a huge hug and thanked me for running with her for the first half of the race. I felt really proud. But I think having her with me for 10km also helped keep me focused before I set off on my own.
- Thank you to Johannes for sending me the 8-week plan! Given the size of the PB, I actually owe him a crate of beers! What really made the difference was the weekly speed sessions, 400m intervals, that increased in number week after week. I had not done this when training for the Gabs Half and I now realise just how important speedwork is.
- I was so consistent this training cycle and consistency really cannot be underestimated.
- My fuelling on the race was perfect. I got a lot of advice before this race and I remember Renee from Run, Laugh, Eat Pie specifically saying I may be fuelling too late on the run. So this time I fuelled earlier, at the 10km and then 17km point and it worked perfectly.
- I also made sure my last long run was in the CBD area where I had struggled last year. I told Ditiro when I set off for that long run that I was going to #runmyenemy! Somehow this worked! Of course, I ran it on fresh legs but somehow doing this section as a training run helped to make it less intimidating when I finally got there on race day.
- My final point is how important it is to not be defeated by disappointment. I was really down after the Gabs Half but instead of staying down, I came back fighting. Allow yourself to mope for a few days, and then look back and see what you learned, and what you can do to improve. Let disappointment drive you to victory.
I am joining the lovely and inspirational Kooky Runner and Zenaida who are hosting the "Tuesday Topics" link-up. Hop on over to their blogs and others, and be inspired!


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art prints, cherry blossoms, cherry tree, fine art prints, love, loving, loving people, mosaic, mosaic art, mosaic painting, mosaic tree, tree, tree art
There is a loving moment in art when the creation is complete. The artist falls in love with the new work, but loses favor as newer pieces are finished. But if you are willing to look back, you can be enchanted once again….
"The Loving Tree"
Acrylic on Canvas
Sharon Cummings


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3931 Aero Dr
Atlanta, GA, 30336, United States
Atlanta, GA, 30336, United States
Duncan Aviation is the largest, family-owned maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in the world providing complete acquisition sales and support services for business aircraft. We provide premier aircraft services delivered on time for a wide variety of business aircraft at our facilities across the United States. Owned and operated by the Duncan family since our founding in 1956, Duncan Aviation is well-known and respected by manufacturers and service providers around the world for our quality of service, our work ethic and our expertise.


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Genentech's Kadcyla Helped People With Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Live Longer Without Thei
Genentech's Kadcyla Helped People With Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Live Longer Without Their Disease Worsening in New Phase III Study
Phase III TH3RESA study results will be presented today at the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam
Kadcyla nearly doubled the time that people lived without their disease worsening compared with treatment of physician's choice
Kadcyla is the first antibody-drug conjugate to result from Roche and Genentech's 30 years of HER2 pathway research
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), today announced that Kadcyla® (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) significantly extended the time people with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer (metastatic and unresectable locally advanced/recurrent) lived without their disease worsening (progression-free survival [PFS], a co-primary endpoint) compared to people who received a treatment of their physician's choice in an open-label Phase III study called TH3RESA. The data showed the risk of disease worsening or death was reduced by 47 percent for people who received Kadcyla (HR=0.528, p<0.0001). Data for overall survival, the other co-primary endpoint, are not yet mature. No new safety signals were observed with Kadcyla.
The study enrolled people with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer who had progressed despite prior treatment with at least two HER2-targeted medicines. It randomized people to receive either treatment with Kadcyla or a treatment of their physician's choice. Eighty percent of people treated with physician's choice received a regimen containing Herceptin® (trastuzumab).
"The TH3RESA study is the second large Phase III study in which Kadcyla has improved the amount of time patients with an advanced form of HER2-positive breast cancer lived without their tumor growing," said Hal Barron, M.D., chief medical officer and head, Global Product Development. "We are pleased that the data from multiple clinical trials reinforces Kadcyla's benefit for people with this aggressive disease."
The late-breaking TH3RESA data will be presented tomorrow at the European Cancer Congress (ECC), by Dr. Hans Wildiers, University Hospital Leuven, Gasthuisberg, Belgium (Abstract #LBA15, Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 1:03 p.m. CEST). The data are also part of the official press program.
In February 2013, Kadcyla was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who have received prior treatment with Herceptin and a taxane chemotherapy. Kadcyla recently received a positive opinion from the European Union's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) as a single agent for the treatment of adult patients with HER2-positive, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who previously received Herceptin and a taxane, separately or in combination. A European Commission decision on EU marketing approval is expected by the end of the year.
About the TH3RESA Study
TH3RESA is a Phase III, randomized, open-label study comparing Kadcyla to the physician's choice of treatment in approximately 600 people with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer (metastatic or locally recurrent unresectable) who have received at least two prior treatments including Herceptin, lapatinib and a taxane. The co-primary endpoints are investigator-assessed PFS and OS. The secondary endpoints include objective response rate and safety profile.
Treatment of Physician's Choice
Options included chemotherapy and Herceptin (68.5%), single agent chemotherapy (16.8%), lapatinib and Herceptin (10.3%), chemotherapy and lapatinib (2.7%), hormonal therapy and Herceptin (1.6%)
Median PFS
2.9 month difference
6.2 months median PFS
3.3 months median PFS
Overall Survival (OS)
The OS endpoint has not yet been reached
Median OS not yet reached
14.9 months median OS
Objective Response Rate (ORR)
22.7% difference
Safety profile:
Rate of Grade 3 or higher AEs
Most common Grade 3 or higher AEs (occurring in more than 2% of patients)
Decrease in platelets (4.7%), low red blood cell count (2.7%), decrease in a certain type of white blood cell (2.5%), increased levels of enzymes released by the liver and other organs (2.2%), fatigue (2.0%) and difficulty breathing (2.0%)
Decrease in a certain type of white blood cell (15.8%), diarrhea (4.3%), fever associated with decrease in a certain type of white blood cell (3.8%), abdominal pain (2.7%), low red blood cell count (2.7%), low white blood cell count (2.7%), increased levels of enzymes released by the liver and other organs (2.2%), fatigue (2.2%), physical weakness (2.2%), skin infection (2.2%) and blood clot in the lung
Table summarizing PFS results from Kadcyla arm and Herceptin-based regimens from the treatment of physician's choice arm
Subset of patients receiving Herceptin as part of the treatment of physician's choice (80.4%)
Median PFS
3.0 month difference
6.2 months median PFS
3.2 months median PFS
About Kadcyla
Kadcyla is an ADC being studied in HER2-positive cancers. It is the first ADC to result from Genentech's 30 years of HER2 pathway research and the third medicine Genentech has developed for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. Genentech licenses technology for Kadcyla under an agreement with ImmunoGen, Inc.
Kadcyla Indication Statement
Kadcyla® (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) is approved for the treatment of people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) who have received prior treatment with Herceptin® (trastuzumab) and a taxane chemotherapy. People should either:
Have already been treated for their metastatic cancer, or
Have had their early stage cancer come back during or within six months after they completed a course of treatment following surgery.
Important Safety Information
Kadcyla is not the same medicine as trastuzumab (Herceptin).
There are possible serious side effects of Kadcyla. Patients must contact their doctor right away if they experience any of these symptoms. The patient's doctor may do tests before starting Kadcyla and before each dose to monitor for these side effects. Kadcyla treatment may be stopped or the dose may be lowered if the patient experiences any of these side effects. Patients must contact their doctor right away if they experience any of these symptoms.
Liver Problems
Kadcyla may cause severe liver problems that can be life-threatening. Symptoms of liver problems may include vomiting, eating disorder (anorexia), nausea, stomach pain, yellowing of the skin (jaundice), dark urine or itching.
Heart Problems
Kadcyla may cause heart problems, including those without symptoms (such as reduced heart function) and those with symptoms (such as congestive heart failure). Symptoms may include swelling of the ankles or legs, shortness of breath, cough, rapid weight gain of greater than five pounds in less than 24 hours, dizziness or loss of consciousness, or irregular heartbeat.
Receiving Kadcyla during pregnancy can result in the death of an unborn baby and birth defects. Birth control should be used while patients receive Kadcyla and for six months after their last dose of Kadcyla.
If patients are exposed to Kadcyla during pregnancy, they must contact their healthcare provider right away; they are also encouraged to enroll in the MotHER Pregnancy Registry by contacting (800) 690-6720.
If patients are mothers who are breastfeeding, they should talk with their doctor about either stopping breastfeeding or stopping Kadcyla.
Additional Possible Serious Side Effects of Kadcyla
Lung Problems
Kadcyla may cause lung problems, including inflammation of the lung tissue, which can be life-threatening. Signs of lung problems may include trouble breathing, cough, tiredness and fluid in the lungs.
Infusion-Related Reactions
Symptoms of an infusion-related reaction may include one or more of the following: the skin getting hot or red (flushing), chills, fever, trouble breathing, low blood pressure, wheezing, tightening of the muscles in the chest around the airways or a fast heartbeat. The patient's doctor will monitor the patient for infusion-related reactions.
Low Platelet Count
Low platelet count may happen during treatment with Kadcyla. Platelets are cells in the blood that help the blood clot.
Nerve Damage
Symptoms may include numbness and tingling, burning or sharp pain, sensitivity to touch, lack of coordination, or muscle weakness or loss of muscle function.
Skin Reactions Around the Infusion Site
Kadcyla may leak from the vein or needle and cause reactions such as redness, tenderness, skin irritation, or pain or swelling at the infusion site. If this happens, it is more likely to happen within 24 hours of the infusion.
HER2 Testing and Kadcyla
Patients must have a HER2 test to determine if their cancer is HER2-positive before taking Kadcyla, as benefit has only been shown in patients whose tumors are HER2-positive.
Most Common Side Effects of Kadcyla
The most common side effects seen in people taking Kadcyla were:
Pain that affects the bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons
Low platelet count
Liver problems
Report side effects to the FDA at (800) FDA-1088 or http://www.fda.gov/medwatch. Patients and caregivers may also report side effects to Genentech at (888) 835-2555.
For full Prescribing Information and Boxed WARNINGS on Kadcyla, please visithttp://www.kadcyla.com.
About Herceptin
Herceptin is a medicine designed to specifically block the HER2 protein on the surface of cells that overexpress the HER2 protein. Based on preclinical studies, this biologic antibody is believed to work by attaching to HER2 receptors to stop signals that make the tumor cells grow and divide, and also by signaling the body's immune system to destroy the cells.
Adjuvant Breast Cancer:
Herceptin is approved for the treatment of early stage breast cancer that is HER2-positive and has spread into the lymph nodes, or is HER2-positive and has not spread into the lymph nodes. If it has not spread into the lymph nodes, the cancer needs to be estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor (ER/PR)-negative or have one high risk feature.* Herceptin can be used in several different ways:
As part of a treatment course including the chemotherapy drugs doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and either paclitaxel or docetaxel. This treatment course is known as "AC→TH."
With the chemotherapy drugs docetaxel and carboplatin. This treatment course is known as "TCH."
Alone after treatment with multiple other therapies, including an anthracycline-based therapy (a type of chemotherapy).
*High risk is defined as ER/PR-positive with one of the following features: tumor size greater than 2 cm, age less than 35 years, or tumor Grade 2 or 3.
Metastatic Breast Cancer:
Herceptin has two approved uses in MBC:
Herceptin in combination with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel is approved for the first-line treatment of HER2-positive MBC.
Herceptin alone is approved for the treatment of HER2-positive MBC in patients who have received one or more chemotherapy courses for metastatic disease.
Important Safety Information
Herceptin treatment can result in heart problems, including those without symptoms (such as reduced heart function) and those with symptoms (such as congestive heart failure). One patient died in an adjuvant (early stage) breast cancer trial from significantly weakened heart muscle. The risk and seriousness of these heart problems were highest in patients who received both Herceptin and a certain type of chemotherapy (anthracycline).
Before taking the first dose of Herceptin and during treatment, a patient's doctor should check to see if there are any health conditions that may increase the patient's chance of having serious heart problems. This includes a review of the patient's health history and tests to see how well the heart muscle is working. These tests may include an echocardiogram or a multigated acquisition (MUGA) scan. Some early stage breast cancer patients may also need to have a test done after they have finished taking Herceptin to see how well their heart muscle is working.
Some patients have had serious infusion reactions and lung problems; fatal infusion reactions have been reported. These reactions usually occur during or within 24 hours of receiving Herceptin.
The patient's doctor may need to completely stop Herceptin treatment if the patient hasasevere allergic reaction, swelling, lung problems, inflammation of the lung or severe shortness of breath.
Herceptin can cause harm to the fetus (unborn baby), and in some cases, death to the fetus, when taken by a pregnant woman. Women who could become pregnant need to use effective birth control methods during Herceptin treatment and for at least six months after treatment with Herceptin. Nursing mothers treated with Herceptin should discontinue nursing or discontinue Herceptin.
Worsening of low white blood cell counts associated with chemotherapy has also occurred.
Patients must have a HER2 test to determine if their breast cancer is HER2-positive before using Herceptin, as benefit has only been shown in patients who are HER2-positive.
The most common side effects associated with Herceptin in patients with breast cancer are fever, nausea, vomiting, infusion reactions, diarrhea, infections, increased cough, headache, feeling tired, shortness of breath, rash, low white and red blood cells, and muscle pain.
Because everyone is different, it is not possible to predict what side effects any one patient will have. Patients with questions or concerns about side effects should talk to their doctor.
Report side effects to the FDA at (800) FDA-1088 or http://www.fda.gov/medwatch. Patients may also report side effects to Genentech at (888) 835-2555.
Patients should read the Herceptin Full Prescribing Information including Boxed WARNINGS, athttp://www.herceptin.com.
About Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 235,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 40,000 will die from the disease in 2013. In HER2-positive breast cancer, increased quantities of the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2) are present on the surface of the tumor cells. This is known as "HER2 positivity" and affects approximately 25 percent of people with breast cancer. HER2-positive cancer is a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer.
About Genentech
Founded more than 35 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. The company, a member of the Roche Group, has headquarters in South San Francisco, California. For additional information about the company, please visit http://www.gene.com.
Susan Willson, 650-467-6800
Sonali Padhi, 650-467-0842
Thomas Kudsk Larsen, 650-467-2016
Karl Mahler, 011 41 61 687 8503
KEYWORDS: United States Europe North America Netherlands California Switzerland
The article Genentech's Kadcyla Helped People With Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Live Longer Without Their Disease Worsening in New Phase III Study originally appeared on Fool.com.
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Saturday, 29 March 2014 06:33 AM EDT
LONDON — Gay couples in Britain waited decades for the right to get married. When the opportunity came, it took just a few minutes to make history.
Londoners Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway were among the first to tie the knot when Britain's new marriage law came into effect Saturday.
The two men married in front of about 100 guests at their local town hall in the London borough of Camden — one of several locales holding late-night ceremonies to mark the occasion. By 10 minutes past midnight they were married, with a kiss and a registrar's declaration: "You are now husband and husband."
It's a sign of a profound shift in attitudes in a country that little more than a decade ago had a law on the books banning the "promotion" of homosexuality.
"Some people say, 'You gays are trying to redefine marriage,' but the definition of marriage has already changed," said Treadway, a 20-year-old student originally from Los Angeles. "Now it's between two people who love each other."
Most Britons agree. Polls show about two-thirds of people in the country back gay unions, and support is highest among the young. Britain has seen none of the large street protests against gay marriage that have taken place in France.
Same-sex marriage has been welcomed with enthusiasm by Britain's Conservative-led government. Rainbow flags went up over two government buildings Friday in what Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called "a small symbol to celebrate a massive achievement."
Treadway and Adl-Tabatabai, a 32-year-old TV producer from London, were married by the mayor of Camden, Jonathan Simpson, who declared the occasion "a huge step forward in civil rights for our country and also a big acknowledgment that love conquers all." They emerged to loud applause and the strains of "I Got You, Babe" by Sonny and Cher.
"It's amazing and surreal," Adl-Tabatabai said. "It did feel like a historic moment. When the mayor was saying those things, it really hit me."
It would have been unthinkable in the 1980s, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government passed a law banning schools and local authorities from "promoting" homosexuality or depicting it as "a pretended family relationship."
That law wasn't repealed until 2003. Yet when Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in July, it was by a wide margin and with the backing of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.
There was some heated rhetoric — mostly from traditionalists in Parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords — but ordinary Britons overwhelmingly supported gay marriage.
"What has amazed me is how much of Britain, how quickly, has moved toward backing us on this," columnist and former Conservative lawmaker Matthew Parris told Sky News on Friday.
Some cite the transitional step of civil partnership, a compromise introduced in 2005 that gave gay couples the same legal protections and rights as heterosexual married partners — but not the label of marriage.
Adl-Tabatabai said civil partnerships had helped some people overcome their opposition to gay relationships.
"Their preconceptions of gay people and what their lifestyles are like are kind of changing," he said. "They're like, 'OK, I hate to say it, but maybe you're like us.'"
The government also defused some opposition by exempting religious groups from conducting same-sex weddings unless they choose to opt in. Quakers and Liberal Judaism are among the few who have done so. The Church of England, the country's biggest faith, remains divided on the issue and does not conduct same-sex weddings.
Britain is the 15th country to legalize same-sex marriage, which is also legal in several U.S. states. But the march of gay rights is not universal — several countries, including Uganda and Russia, have recently introduced anti-gay laws.
In Britain, some argue that true equality won't have been reached until a gay couple can be married by a priest in Westminster Abbey, as Prince William and Kate Middleton were in 2011. Some gay-rights activists think embracing marriage is caving in to a heterosexist world order.
Still, Saturday feels momentous to couples including Laura Smith and Sarah Nutley, marrying at London's elegant Mayfair Library in a service that includes Britney Spears lyrics — Nutley is a fan — and quotes from "The Rocky Horror Show," which Smith loves.
"We're quite a traditional couple in a lot of senses, so we always wanted to get married," said Smith, a 25-year-old office manager from Boise, Idaho who moved to London six years ago. She met her 30-year-old British partner at work — "She thought I was an obnoxious American and I thought she was a bit standoffish."
They recently celebrated their fifth anniversary, but were never tempted to have a civil partnership.
"As much as civil partnership does give the couple the same benefits as marriage . . . it's not the same," said Smith.
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When the subject for the 64th Edition of Carnival of Genealogy was announced, I wondered what I could submit. Somewhere in my files and books are many pictures of winter activities and snow – with some included below. Since I've lived in Texas for the better part of (almost) 30 years, I haven't seen as much snow as I did when I grew up in southwestern Ohio. So when we have snow in north Texas, it makes news – big news!
Local stations interrupt most of the morning and daily television programs to report on the weather – with the same scene of people sliding on ice on the highways and the same scene (over and over!) of people sliding on bridges. I often wonder – how many times can you report the same story every ten minutes. Nothing has changed!
Not only do schools shut down when the roads have a hint of ice, but businesses, churches, and government offices. People rush the grocery as if they will be holed up for weeks (maybe a couple days!). And unless you live way out in the country, there's usually a 7-11 within a block or two.
We never know how to dress in the winter time. Case in point – the picture at left was taken on New Year's Day 2005! My daughter was wearing shorts because the temperature was in the 70s!
This picture was taken on February 2, 2007. At least the snow was "pretty" instead of just wet and yucky! Unfortunately, this was one of those days when it was non-stop news reports.
The following pictures were taken in the 60s in Ohio. This is the front of the house I grew up in and ice coated trees. Usually, from January – March this was the norm! Winter time and cold weather normally meant heavy winter coats, mittens or gloves, a hat and a scarf. Until I was in 6th grade, girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school so in winter time, I wore winter "leggings" in order to keep my legs warm. I also had heavy snow boots that went on over my shoes. In 2nd grade, I had a pair of red knee high boots. These were "fashion" boots – not snow boots yet I somehow convinced myself that I didn't need snowboots over these. The cold seeped in and so did the wet!
Children in my neighborhood never seemed to mind the cold weather. We were outside all of the time building snowmen, snow forts, making snow angels, and throwing snowballs at one another. A neighbor of mine used to go to his grandmother's house nearby that had a really nice hill on the property. We'd have 4-5 kids on a big sled and ride down that hill – only to have to carry the sled back up to do it again! When I was about 7, my parents got me a snow disk. We didn't have any "hills" in our yard except for the pool embankment into the yard. Even so, I spent a good number of hours just riding that thing down three feet of "hill".
In January 1978 a Blizzard hit the midwest. I woke up one morning not too long after we'd just started back to classes after the Christmas break and realized that I'd overslept! Mom told me there were no classes and no one was driving anywhere. I looked outside and all I saw was a wall of white. We were out of school for almost a week due to the blizzard. Since we had used more than our allotment of snow days, school didn't end until June 20 something that year! Then the school board decided we should start in August instead of the normal "after Labor Day" – putting our summer vacation less than we'd ever had before. That is one thing I don't miss about the midwest – all the snow!
So in honor of the (lack of) real winter weather here in North Texas, I took several of my February 2007 Texas snow pictures and created a digital scrapbook page.
(Digital page and elements designed by Wendy Littrell. Original slides or digital images in possession of Wendy Littrell (Address for private use).


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Truly, I am so excited to share this with you.
When I came across this, the possibilities (my favourite word) flooded my imagination.
Take a look and see for yourself. I SO want one of these!!
The bed pulls out to sleep two and there's even a shower and toilet!
How about you? Want one? What did you think? Could you see yourself living in one of these?


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Here's another maternity top for you and it's perfect for Summer. I used Burda 7104. This maternity pattern is for tanks with four different design variations and a pull-on knit skirt. I made view D which has drawstrings to ruche up the sides.
This was very easy to sew. It took me less than 2 hours at the machine. The only change I made was to use seam binding to finish the armholes. I sewed the size the pattern recommended based off of my pre-maternity measurements.
I'm very happy with this top. It was easy to make and is fun to wear!
For those of you who are actually looking into making maternity clothes for yourself or others, I will make a short disclosure on two patterns that did not work for me. I rarely write posts on wadders because what's the fun in reading about them? But it can be helpful to read about other people's struggles to avoid them yourself. I had purchased the Maternity Survival Pack from Megan Nielsen which included the Rie Dress & Top pattern. I loved the design lines of this pattern. It's basically just a pull over top or dress with some upper bust gathering. I made mine into a sleeveless tank version. I made the largest size possible because I have found that Megan's patterns seem to run a little small on me. Unfortunately this pattern just didn't work for me. Despite going up a size, the bust area was far too tight on me- and I'm not particularly well endowed in that area! I could slip the top on but it pulled and tugged across the bust in a very unflattering way. So just double check the pattern against your measurements if you decide to make this one. Also, I purchased a Favorite Things pattern called Summer Time. This looked super cute on the pattern envelope and it states it can accommodate the maternity bump. There was plenty of room for the bump. My version just didn't come out looking quite as cute as the one on the envelope. I made the sleeveless one. The top has some bias seams so perhaps mine were stretched and distorted. It came out very long in the length and droopy in the neckline and armholes.


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Mark Twain, American Nihilist
by Gwydion M. Williams
A 'humour' was originally an emotion, not necessarily anything funny. Many comic writers use comedy to express bitterness at a world they don't approve of but don't have any coherent ideas for changing. Mark Twain is maybe the best example.
His own life was almost a joke. He was born in Missouri, the state whose emergence as a slave-owning society in 1820 alarmed the North, which had been assuming that slavery was an old evil that would gradually fade. The objection was as much as anything racists: the West was assumed to be 'white man's territory' and blacks were not wanted on any basis, free or slave. But Missouri remained mixed in its outlook. When the Confederacy was established, pro-slavery and anti-slavery elements within Missouri engaging in their own miniature civil war. It was settled by Federal forces moving in to secure the strategic state, a vital link to the West and a starting-point for the conquest of the whole length of the Mississippi.
Twain himself fought briefly on the Confederate side and then went West, avoiding the rest of the fighting. He joined his brother, who was working for the governor of what was then the Nevada Territory, putting him implicitly on the Northern side. He later wrote this up in a comic essay called The Private History of a Campaign That Failed. [A] His most improbable claim – that he just missed encountering Ulysses S. Grant when the man was a little-known Union colonel – does seem to be true.
I've read the famous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and wasn't impressed. Huckleberry Finn is a pretty worthless character and he isn't going anywhere. I was more interested in a lesser work, Pudd'nhead Wilson. Though it is intentionally comic, it is also about the actual society of Missouri, not drifters on the fringes of it. I see Twain as using humour to slip round moral questions he didn't want to handle directly. He definitely shows nostalgia for the older South, the product of the Missouri Compromise. He is a little uneasy about slavery but does not reject it. White supremacy is taken for granted. And it's recognised that raising slaves and selling them to the cotton-growing states is an essential part of the economy.
In 1974 there was a book published called Time On The Cross that questioned a lot of existing beliefs about US slavery. It includes a chapter called The Myth of Slave-Breeding, rejecting the idea that the older slave states and border slave states made a lot of money selling slaves to regions where agricultural production was more profitable. The authors do not mention Mark Twain or Pudd'nhead Wilson, but it's absurd to think they had never read the book that's the probable source of the well-known phrase 'sold down the river'. Twain gives a clear description of a process of selling surplus slaves from a border state to the Deep South. 'down the river' if you were in Missouri. Maybe not many slave-owners intentionally ran a business breedingg slaves for sale, but they all knew that slaves were assets that could be sold at need. Also that the price could go up or down, which was probably as much a concern as local house-prices are to modern house-owners.
Time On The Cross is on stronger ground when it argues that slavery was not fading and might have continued indefinitely. Slave-owners were also keen to expand and demanded that Kansas be established as a new slave state west of Missouri: that was their price for electing northern Presidents within the Democrat Party. A deal was made that should have delivered them Kansas, but it was also left to 'popular sovereignty', let the people decide. This in practice meant competitive settlement and then a small civil war in that state which the anti-slavery forces won. The failure to deliver Kansas as fresh land for slave agriculture offended the South, it helped split the Democrats between Northern and Southern factions. So Lincoln in 1860 was able to win for the newly established Republican Party.
Lincoln was elected on a promise to limit slavery. He said many times that he had no right to abolish it in states that were part of the Union. He accepted that existing states had clear rights to run a lot of their own affairs within the limits of a Constitution where slavery had been accepted. He could however keep slavery out of the Territories, new lands still ruled directly by the Federal Government. But he was up against the operation of market forces – the slave population was expanding fast, so a 'glut' of slaves was very possible. Purchases from Border States for the Deep South kept up the price. It also gave slave-owners in milder slave-states a powerful means of coercion, as Twain also neatly describes in Pudd'nhead Wilson. Being sold and 'sold down the river' were two very different things.
There was also a widespread belief in the Deep South that their society was unstable and had to keep expanding to new lands or else lose control of its slaves. Whether this idea was right or wrong was never tested. It was a factor in politics because it was believed and could not easily be disproved.
That was the background to secession. It wasn't particularly about 'States Rights', which Lincoln anyway had no opportunity to touch before secession started. The USA at that time let several months pass after the election with the old President still in power and the President-Elect unable to do anything in his own right. That was the period in which the Deep South seceeded and then formed its own unified political system.
The Confederate Constitution is not hugely different from the Constitution of 1787. [C] The biggest difference is substituting a single seven-year Presidential term for the existing four-year terms. No President before Franklin Roosevelt served more than two terms, but this was customary rather than statutory before Roosevelt, and only made obligatory after his death. The Confederate Constitution was drawn up by experienced politicians and they did fix that weakness, but nothing much else. They did have a cause preventing public works on a national as distinct from state-by-state basis. But overall they were not significantly less federal, their own words confirm that negros and slave-ownership was the main issue. They affirmed slavery as an entrenched institution, but also prohibited the importation of slaves from outside of the states of the new Confederacy.[D] At the time this constitution was drawn up, only the Deep South had seceded, and it was far from certain that other slave states would join them, in particular Virginia. The Confederate Constitution was probably designed with them in mind, and to that degree it worked. States like Virginia and Missouri could be assured that they would not be undercut by a resumption of the slave trade from Africa, which had been seriously proposed in freedom-loving Texas. In the rather unlikely event of a Confederacy limited to the Deep South staying separate and surviving, slave states outside of this new Confederacy would no longer have had a profitable market for their slaves, there would have been a glut and all slave-owners outside of the new Confederacy would have seen their audited wealth diminish.
That was grim reality that led to the Civil War. That's the man's background, the matter he always avoided. Instead he ranged over many other topics. In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [B] he tries – rather ignorantly – to make sense of an unfamiliar society.
I'd seen one of the film versions, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, released in 1949 with Bing Crosby as the Yankee hero. There, the whole story was rather mild and comic, I had no reason to think that the book was much different. But it's actually much darker and more violent, and shows a deep resentment of the notion of a feudal ruling class, whites superior to other whites in a way that was only allowed over blacks in the USA. Of course if you could really go back in time and also managed to master the language, the knights would probably have been the least alien in their thinking. One should not project back the situation as it existed in the 19th century, when the gentry and aristocracy went downhill as it lost its social function. Earlier in the 18th century the British aristocracy and gentry had been 'something new under the sun', a very radical ruling class, pretty much unique. Marx says this somewhere, I'll have to deal with this in another article because it needs to be understood to make sense of the history of the last few centuries.
Twain knew very little of the real history. In as far as Arthur was real, he was probably a Romano-British war leader trying to turn back the invading Angles and Saxons, ancestors of the English. The various English kingdoms became Christian and were then unified by Alfred the Great: at that time Arthur was a hero just to the Welsh and Bretons. The Norman conquerors of England found his legend useful, but then somehow he became an English hero, an absurd reversal and one that Twain isn't aware of. He does however have a lot to say about aristocrats and Roman Catholics, common targets of hate for the USA's 'WASP' majority.
"I had no pedigree, no inherited title; so in the king's and nobles' eyes I was mere dirt; the people regarded me with wonder and awe, but there was no reverence mixed with it; through the force of inherited ideas they were not able to conceive of anything being entitled to that except pedigree and lordship. There you see the hand of that awful power, the Roman Catholic Church. In two or three little centuries it had converted a nation of men to a nation of worms. Before the day of the Church's supremacy in the world, men were men, and held their heads up, and had a man's pride and spirit and independence; and what of greatness and position a person got, he got mainly by achievement, not by birth. But then the Church came to the front, with an axe to grind; and she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat–or a nation; she invented 'divine right of kings,' and propped it all around, brick by brick, with the Beatitudes –wrenching them from their good purpose to make them fortify an evil one; she preached (to the commoner) humility, obedience to superiors, the beauty of self-sacrifice; she preached (to the commoner) meekness under insult; preached (still to the commoner, always to the commoner) patience, meanness of spirit, non-resistance under oppression; and she introduced heritable ranks and aristocracies, and taught all the Christian populations of the earth to bow down to them and worship them."
That's ludicrously inaccurate. Both Celtic and Germanic societies were highly aristocratic and both had quasi-sacred kings. The Latin-Christian church adapted to what existed, but it also sometimes defended the poor. Very importantly, it maintained a tradition of elections for bishops, abbots and abbesses right up until the Reformation. Elections were abolished during the Counter-Reformation, when what we think of as Roman Catholicism was crafted out of older Latin-Christian traditions. Only then did it become a definite supporter of monarchies, especially after the French Revolution.
Twain, interestingly, comes across as a lukewarm supporter of the French Revolution, including its most violent aspects. His hero, after correcting an injustice, comments:
"It was a curious situation; yet it is not on that account that I have made room for it here, but on account of a thing which seemed to me still more curious. To wit, that this dreadful matter brought from these downtrodden people no outburst of rage against these oppressors. They had been heritors and subjects of cruelty and outrage so long that nothing could have startled them but a kindness. Yes, here was a curious revelation, indeed, of the depth to which this people had been sunk in slavery. Their entire being was reduced to a monotonous dead level of patience, resignation, dumb uncomplaining acceptance of whatever might befall them in this life. Their very imagination was dead. When you can say that of a man, he has struck bottom, I reckon; there is no lower deep for him.
"I rather wished I had gone some other road. This was not the sort of experience for a statesman to encounter who was planning out a peaceful revolution in his mind. For it could not help bringing up the unget-aroundable fact that, all gentle cant and philosophizing to the contrary notwithstanding, no people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must begin in blood, whatever may answer afterward. If history teaches anything, it teaches that. What this folk needed, then, was a Reign of Terror and a guillotine, and I was the wrong man for them."
Twain's character does however become effective ruler, shunting aside the king, who becomes a figurehead. He takes no formal title but is glad to be hailed as 'The Boss'. It then all falls apart when the king dies: he tries to impose a republic but fails. The tale ends with the 'hero' organising a ghastly mechanised slaughter of the knights, after which the tale breaks down into incoherence. Twain had no answers and at one level he knew it.
Another remarkably dark comedy by Twain is The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut. In this, a man is confronted by his own conscience, which turns out to be a malicious prankster without any belief in the principles it holds him to. He manages to destroy it and then becomes what we'd now call a 'serial killer', murdering anyone who annoys him, however casually.
Just a joke? I think not. Maybe Twain would never have actually killed anyone, but he helped create the mental atmosphere in which killing can become casual. And he has a bad case of a very common Anglo assumption: greed is the prime reality, other feelings are impositions.
Twain also takes the standard approach of clever people in the USA: be dishonest in an effort to evade the unwanted demands of Christianity in its North American Protestant form. This creed claims to be derived directly from the Bible, but this was visibly not so to an inquiring mind. (Jesus in the Gospels says a lot in favour of drinking alcohol. Protestant Christianity applies Jewish rules for the Sabbath to the pagan 'Day of the Unconquered Sun': Orthodox Jews continue to correctly apply these rules to Saturday, and also count Saturday as beginning on what the rest of us view as Friday evening.)
Some people in the USA have taken on the Protestant version of Christianity and also the Catholic version: many more have evaded the matter. Twain was an evader, in part because the creed he'd been raised in still had a strong grip on his mind, though no longer as a religion that anyone could enjoy or take comfort from.
The bleakness of his vision comes out most clearly in an unfinished work called The Mysterious Stranger. It is nominally set in Austria in 1590, though in most respects it is based on the USA as Twain would have known it. The 'Mysterious Stranger' is called Satan, a good angel who's a nephew of the evil Satan, or that's his story. It's a half-humorous story, but a lot happens that is not really funny. The tidied-up version published after Twain's death uses what seems to be his intended ending, which is as follows:
"'Strange, indeed, that you should not have suspected that your universe and its contents were only dreams, visions, fiction! Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane–like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short…
"'You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks–in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier." [E]
This is actually a very old idea, the world as just a dream – based on what? I prefer to believe in a material world that exists regardless of us, and which can be surprising in a way that dreams never are. Dreams are fashioned out of things we already know, though usually mixed to incoherence. The real world can teach you much more, if you'll have the patience and modesty to learn from it. But Twain goes to the opposite extreme in this final unfinished novel, which is not however that much out of tune with his other writing:
"'It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream–a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought–a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!'
"He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized, that all he had said was true." [F]
And that's the surprising core-vision the most native and original of all US writers, the man who gets closest to the heart of the nation's identity. The heart is hollow.
[A] You can read it at [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Private_History_of_a_Campaign_That_Failed]
[B] Connecticut Yankee can be downloaded from Project Guttenberg, [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/86]
[C] You can find a detailed comparison at [http://www.filibustercartoons.com/CSA.htm]
[D] The relevant clauses are:
"Article I, Sec. 9. (I) The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same…
"(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed…
"ARTICLE IV, Sec. 3. (I) Other States may be admitted into this Confederacy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate…
"(3) The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States." [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp]
[E] The full text of Carnival of Crime is at [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/the-facts-concerning-the-recent-carnival-of-crime-in-connecticut/6240/]
[F] The full text of The Mysterious Stranger is at [http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/authors/Twain/Mysterious-Stranger.htm]


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Gentlemen, mark your calendars for this special event:
Menswear designer Joseph Abboud will showcase his new line, Black Brown 1826, at the Belk/Riverchase Galleria next Thursday. The contemporary menswear line is sold exclusively at Belk and Lord & Taylor stores. The event (okay, it's a party!), which begins at 6 PM, will feature fabulous prizes, music, craft beer tasting from Olde Mecklenburg Brewery and even complimentary cigars for the first 50 guests. Guests will have a chance to win a $500 Black/Brown 826 wardrobe and a weekend trip to Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Ross Bridge! Appetizers and wine will be on deck via the B&A Warehouse.
Guys, if you're stuck in a style rut (I mean, how many times can one wear khaki pants and a blue shirt? Come on.) then you need to be at Belk next Thursday from 6 PM to 9 PM. Black Brown 1826 is advertised as "clothing and sportswear designed for the way real men really live," and includes a range of options for the well-dressed gent: suits, dress
shirts, outerwear, shoes and accessories, as well as more business casual-type offerings and even golf polos. It's not so edgy that you'll feel like you're wearing Gordon Gartrell, but the line certainly has pieces that will freshen your spring and summer wardrobe.


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They've chalked up years of successful film and TV credits, and now Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are adding 'restaurateurs' to their resume.
The Hollywood Reporter says the married pair are the latest investors — partnering with singer Chrissie Hynde and producer Steve Bing — in a new vegan eatery set to open in California's San Fernando Valley.
Vegan chef Tal Ronnen — who catered the couple's vegan wedding in 2008 — will design the menu for the Ventura Boulevard restaurant.
Veganism — practiced by those who do not eat any animal or dairy products — has long been a pet cause of DeGeneres, who launched a vegan blog, "Going Vegan With Ellen," this year as part of her daily talk show.
In an interview with Katie Couric, animal lover DeGeneres, 53, reveals why she adopted the lifestyle in 2008.
"I forced myself to watch a documentary called Earthlings that's inside footage of factory farms and dairy farms," the talk show host and comic told Couric. "You see that and go 'I can't participate in that. I can't be a part of something that is suffering.' Fifty billion animals a year are killed and I think we all fool ourselves that it's a quick death, and it's a very disturbing reality."
Since revamping her diet, DeGeneres has seen immeasurable long-term effects.
"I do it because I love animals and saw the reality and couldn't ignore it anymore. I'm healthier for it, I'm happier for it," she told Couric. "I believe in positive thinking and I can't imagine that if you're putting something in your body that's filled with fear or anxiety or pain, that isn't going to be inside of you. I used to be a more anxious person and sad, and I think not putting that stuff in my body [has helped]."
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Jonathots Daily Blog
I am, of course, talking about those individuals born between 1946 and 1960, who broke the sound barrier by exploding like an atomic bomb, witnessing the end of segregation and the voting in of the first Catholic President.
They left a footprint on history. Maybe better phrased, they stomped their boots into our consciousness. Even though many people criticize the destination of this generation, it is difficult to challenge the authenticity of their origin. Now their ages range from fifty-three to sixty-seven–just beyond being parents, and still a little young to be the grandparents of adolescents.
Many of them have left the church and politics and are looking for other distractions to fulfill the aching memories of their youthful escapades.
But we need these graying boomers to come back to the church, the political arena, the social maneuvering and the emerging etiquette of our country–to bring the passion of the 1960s into our present age.
There are three things that baby boomers believed which have vanished from our present social climate, leaving us overly concerned about our personal needs and too short-sighted in our world vision. These are the three things the graying boomers, which I call groomers, should reinstate in their children and their budding grandchildren:
1. To question is to care.
I know my parents were annoyed because I would not "leave well enough alone," as they phrased it, always challenging the ideas around me. Why was I able to do so? Because I was not alone in doing it. I wasn't a renegade–I was in the flow of a generation which believed that many things were questionable, so therefore, go ahead and do it–question.
2. We can change the world.
Call it idealism or dub it presumption–but the baby boomers, for a season, believed they could affect the temperature of our country and clear out the dark clouds. There was no sitting or "waiting on the world to change."
3. We're all brothers and sisters.
The music, the movies, the books and the romance of the time were riddled with the notion of brotherhood and a greater understanding that "it was so groovy, now, that people are finally gettin' together."
This trio of ideas is in the genetic makeup of the baby boomers, although it seems to have been lost through years of cynical half-hearted participation. It is ironic that a generation which criticized possessions ended up selling out to them.
But there's still that seed.
Nowadays someone who questions is viewed as being "a troublemaker."
We need the groomers to come along and teach the younger folks that it's all right to peer into the soul of our society and demand better angels.
Likewise, nobody in our age believes we can change the world. So what's the purpose of personal improvement if your voice is going to be drowned out by the din of repetition?
Groomers need to remind the younger ones of protest, creativity and the power of cooperation. And instead of shrinking our love down to our personal families, it would not hurt for the groomers to remind the world once again that we are the family of man.
Our generation needs to be groomed by those who remember when music was not just downloaded, but taken into the heart.
We could begin this in the church, since we have so many gray-hairs there already. We might as well put 'em to work.
Who knows? It might make them feel young again.
Who knows? They could be the spark of a new revolution.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
Please contact Jonathan's agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about personal appearances or scheduling an event


text: One week ago, I realised two things. One. My bedroom is the quietest place ever created. My pillow screams at me. That kind of quiet. Too quiet to sleep. That kind of quiet. Tough life, I know. Seriously though. Come sleep in my bed. The quietness is deafening. Tough life. Moving on. Secondly. I've slipped. Fallen. Into a routine. Step by step. Particularly mornings. Wake up. Get out of bed. Right side. Literally. Walk around my bed. Over to my laptop. Turn it on. Open the blinds. Open the window. Fix my bed. Pick up my laptop. Go to the bathroom. Surf. Hotmail. BBC Football. Gmail. Blog. Facebook. Twitter. Kitchen. Bowl. Porridge. Microwave. Drink some water. Drink some more. Ding. Porridge. Coffee. Chug. Water. Brush my teeth. Clothes on. And away I go. Continue Reading »


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Horseshoe-heavy, he hurls his decrees low and high:
In the groin, in the forehead, the eyebrow, the eye.
Executions are what he likes best.
Broad is the highlander's chest.
by Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам (Osip Emilyevich Mandelshtam. His surname is commonly latinised as Mandelstam)
(Autumn, 1933)
translated by Alexandra Berlina
Interesting additon: In the Autumn of 1933 Mandelstam composed an epigram about Stalin, which he performed at seven small gatherings in Moscow, which ends with the above lines. Mandelstam was arrested six months later but instead of being executed (by being shot) he was exiled to the Northern Urals. Why was this considering 'executions' are what [Stalin] loves best'? A cruel irony or possibly that this relative leniency was due to Stalin taking a personal interest in Mandelstam's case and being concerned about his own place in Russian literary history? After Mandelstam's attempted suicide the usual sentence was commuted to one of being banished from the largest cities in Russia. Mandelstam and his wife, Nadezhda, settled in Voronezh where he went on to write the three Voronezh Notebooks. In May 1938 he was arrested again and sentenced to five years in the Gulag. He died in a transit camp near Vladivostok on 27 December 1938.


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The ugly truth is that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is with discipline. You must use more calories than you intake in your diet. Here are some ideals that will help you.
1. Challenge Your Friends
One of the best ways to be accountable to yourself is to share your goal with others. Start a weight loss challenge with a group of friends. Set goals together, have weekly weigh ins, and share tips and recipes. Create a facebook group and goad each other into meeting at the gym for workouts. A member of our group negotiated us a special deal at the gym – no startup cost, no contract, free childcare – because we were all signing up and they would never have had our business if we each had to pay $200 to walk in the door. Set goals and chip in for a small prize. We are rewarding the loser of the most percentage lost with a $20 gift card. We are also charging a dollar at each weigh in to members who gain any weight from the previous week.
2. Use an App
There are terrific apps for smartphones to help you log the food you consume, and calories you burn. You can link your food diary with your friends so they can see the food and exercise you log. The best way to be accountable is to have to enter everything you put in your mouth. I actually find that I can resist temptation a little easier because I know that my friends are keeping an eye on me. The apps are so smart you can scan the barcode of foods you purchase to make it easier to enter them. They have a huge database of foods, and you can add your own recipes. One of the greatest things about using an app is being able to plan. You can enter things you want to eat ahead of time and see if it adds up or sends you over your limit. If your grandmother puts a big plate of fresh brownies in front of you, you can whip out the phone, enter the treat and then decide if it is worth it. Maybe Gran's brownies are so good you will eat one and then head back to the gym to burn it off!
3. Drink Water – But not With Meals
Replace most of your drinks with water. Your body is thirsty and canned sodas do nothing to quench that thirst. Log your water consumption in the fitness app too that way you will be reminded to drink enough. Remember that about half the time you think you are hungry and head for the fridge you are reacting to thirst. Have a glass of water with a slice of lime or cucumber and take a few minutes to enjoy it. You will slowly train yourself to reach for the water instead of the peanut butter and a spoon! Just remember not to drink while eating. A big glass of water with meals may seem like a great idea to fill you up and keep you from over eating, but it will also dilute your digestive enzymes and acids making it more difficult for your body to process the food. You will end up bloated and uncomfortable.
Related articles
- 8 Easiest Ways To Lose Weight (weightlossdietforum.com)
- People burn fat, lose weight quickly (williamodonohuephd.COM)


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My Chemical Romance breaks up after decade-plus
NEW YORK – The chemistry is over: rock outfit My Chemical Romance has disbanded.
The New Jersey-based band announced Saturday that "it has come time for it to end." The foursome thanked fans in a statement and said the experience was "a true blessing."
My Chemical Romance's sound is a mix of alternative, punk rock and pop. Band members released their debut album in 2002 but really made a splash on the music scene in 2004 with the platinum-selling "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge." It featured the top-40 hit "Helena."
They followed that with another platinum effort in 2006, "The Black Parade," earning their first top-10 pop hit with the song "Welcome to the Black Parade."
The group said they've "shared the stage with people we admire, people we look up to, and best of all, our friends."
Group members included vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way and guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero. Their last album was 2010's "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys."


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Tag Archives: Mourvèdre grapes
2016 Vindictive collaboration by Sans Liege Wines and The Bruery
2016 Vindictive collaboration by Sans Liege Wines and The Bruery is a 14.9% ABV Black Tuesday (Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels) with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes aged in New American Oak Puncheons
If some of the best wines are blends of several grape varieties, imagine what could be achieved when applied to beer. This Black Tuesday varietal is a blended and fermented with must from 75% destemmed and 25% whole cluster Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes from Sans Liege. After nearly a year in oak, this release vanquishes the boundaries between wine and beer.
Released to Hoarders and Reserve society as a single bottle, this version of their Wineification/Mardi Rouge, in the Bruery's attempt to wineify beer, is the latest in the series. After trying Wineification I, II and III, this was essentially IV. However, it looks like they amped up their wine game by using different species of grapes and instead of French Oak Barrels they are using New American Oak Puncheons. This is definitely going to be something else I am sure. The previous iteration have tought me that it is possible to blend and create a wine/beer hybrid and based on what I had heard about this one it looks like they might have actually successfully made it. Heck, even their mini commercial for it shows all the other beers praise this one as the new god among beers. Let us see if the hype is real and see just how much closer they truly are to the wine beer hybrid. Cheers!
Vindictive Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIyIR324QNM
Rich oak, Dark fruit figs, raisins, plums, prunes, currants, blackberries, dark cherries, raspberries, wine grapes, Concorde grapes, white grapes, port wine, chocolate, vanilla, sangria, green apples, stone fruit apricots, dulce de leche caramel hints, brown sugar and fruit cake.
Very rich oak, wine grapes, red grapes, Concorde grapes, peppercorns, flowers, hibiscus, dark fruit figs, raisins, plums, prunes, currants, blackberries, dark cherries, raspberries, strawberries, port wine, red wine, sangria, bourbon, vanilla, rocky road ice cream, dark chocolate, chocolate mousse, mocha, Kahlua Coffee Liqueur, bourbon, dulce de leche caramel, Chambord Raspberry, white grapes, sauvignon blanc, stone fruit peach, green apples, gamey meat notes, blood hints, hazelnut nectar, pecan pie, sweetened condensed milk, flan, piloncillo sugar cone, brown sugar, fruit cake, graham crackers, bananas, cherry cola, almonds, rye bread and leathery notes.
Finishing super dry, rich oak for days, dark fruit, gamey meat hints, stone fruit and fruit cake. No alcohol in the taste despite the ABV. Dark Crimson and Deep Blood Red clear body under certain lighting. Smooth, rich, creamy and velvety mouthfeel along with a sipping drinkability.
The only reason this beer is not a bucket lister but is still up there with the best ones like Black Tuesday, Winefication I,II and III, White Chocolate, Chocolate Rain and the other Melangè brews and days of the week series is because it is still exceptionally supreme. The gripe is mainly that it really is super super dry. The other Winefications were not as dry and the flavors linger. I also totally understand that in order to finally meld the borders between beer and wine (which this achieves it phenomenally) is that you have to make a beverage that pleases both sides. This is the key! Now I understand why people love their wine and can differentiate themselves from beer drinking. I appreciate the love there is for wine because there are many I love especially meads and heavy ciders. For me though, super dry is something I am not used to. I can actually start to appreciate why sommeliers and wine connoisseurs have the jobs they do. Its hard to review wine the drier it becomes. Granted I can still review this one well, but with lots of dryness involved to not be able to discern flavors as fast as you can with beer, it truly is a challenge. That's why I highly recommend this one to beer and wine lovers alike. This one is even more unique than the one's in the past. It kicks ass!
Anime Corner:
Ryuko Matoi from Kill La Kill makes a return once again to pair with many of the different aspects of the beer. This time, in the fourth installment, I am using her third and most powerful form, the Golden Hair/Super Saiyan-esque Senketsu Kisaragi form just like I did with Wineification III. While the alcohol is lower, the brew is definitely hit the marks on wine. Ryuko is one of my favorite characters in Anime right next to my other top 3 (Kos-mos, Yoruichi and Temari). The reason I did not use her second "Junketsu" form was due to the fact that I never got around to putting the beer to the site, although I did have Winefication II at the Bruery's Black Tuesday party. Like the original installment of Winefication, the colors pair perfect with Ryuko's hair, the background, her eyes and her outfit as well. If this was a candidate for Mardi Rouge (Red Tuesday) then even more the reason to use her for this pairing. This time around, I found an awesome picture of Ryuko with a cloak. A cloak to represent the extra oak and grapes to get the beer to that wine level even more. The complexity of the flavors showcases her unpredictable characteristics. She always has a plan up her sleeve. She is deadly and sexy which best describes how smooth the beer goes down. The beer is dark but it is a blood red dark as you get closer to finishing the glass. Her suit Senketsu (Fresh Blood) describes this as she needs to let senketsu take some of her blood in order to unleash a higher power. Perfect for that red wine aspect and the color as I mentioned earlier. Heck, even the gamey meat like flavor is proof of blood in this beer. Ryuko is strong and tough minded, but she does have her sweet,warm hearted and loving side which she shows to the people she cares about. The sweet chocolate and berries is what best places this category. Her Kisaragi form is what is new from Wineification III and being that it is her ultimate form, there was no doubt why I wouldn't use that form once again here. Take it easy with her though, you won't find one like her again, maybe. Especially since people only got 1 bottle. Either way, it will be a very memorable experience.