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My Circle In Square blanket is doing her VOILA entrance. Making this blanket was pure pleasure and I took my time to enjoy the crochet journey. Watching it grow slowly and allowing my mind to sleep on edging ideas for quite a while before the right one came to me. This crochet project made a pretty good dent into my stash of acrylic, wool and mixed fiber yarn stash., which is a good thing as I need to use up what I have on hand before going out to buy even more yarn...
Inspired by Swedish rag rugs I carefully picked out a light and airy color theme, just like the Swedish Scrappy Happy V-stitch Blanket, based on pastels with a lot of white all joined together with a duck egg blue. Picking colors is not always easy, but if you have a source to pick from - a picture, flower, fabric print - it makes the process a bit easier. If you want to, I can put together a post with examples of the colors used in this project from the Special DK, Stylecraft's colour chart. I know many of you use Special DK and might already have some left overs in your stash to start a project like this. Would that be of interest?
The block design is based on three rows of mixed colors surrounded by a last row of white, and then using duck egg blue to join my squares. I finished the blanket with a wide border made up from granny clusters, double crochet stitches and a Bird Foot edging. I will share a tutorial for the border and edging within the next couple of days.
When I started this project and saw this blanket belonging to the summer house in Sweden when it was finished. It is quite heavy but I'll try my best to squeeze it into my suitcase when we fly there in July. I think it will do just PERFECT in my newly decorated living room at the cottage. It is already one of the kids favorite, and I had to do some Crochet Emergency Repair quite recently. Some of the squares centers had broken open, but now it is safe and sound again.
Down below you can find all the facts about the make of this blanket, but please let me know if there is anything more you would like to know and I'll try to answer as good as I can. Enjoy!
Squares measures 4.25" x 4.25" / 11cm x 11cm
Border measures 4.5" x 4.5" / 11.5cm x 11.5cm
Blanket measures a total of 45"x 57" / 115cm x 145cm
Approx. 1200g
This is difficult to say exact but approx. (from the top of my head...) 3540 meters / 3870 yards in total. The duck egg border approx. 250g or 740 meters/809 yards. White yarn approx. 200g or 590 meters/645 yards, and the rest is a mix of colors used.
4 mm
Scraps of DK weight wool, acrylic and mixed synthetics - no cotton.
Merino 120 from Lang, duck egg blue.
Based on a thought of a light and fresh feel I chose to use mainly light pastels, frame every circle with a row of white and add just a few darker colors to add some depth. Read more about The typical My Rose Valley colour palette here.
A variety of shades of White - Cream - Nude - Beige - Nougat - Brown - Pink - Fuchsia - Pink -
Purple - Blue - Turquoise - Mint - Teal - Duck egg - Green - Olive - Pistachio - Yellow - Mustard and an accountable number of different shades of each and every one mentioned. Read more about The typical My Rose Valley colour palette here.
Crochet block: I used a classic Sunburst Granny Square pattern and made some modifications to it. Here is a good Sunburst Granny Square Tutorial for guidance and pictures. Row 1 to 3 was made according to pattern, in row 4 I only used treble stitches (UK) in white.
Joining: I joined all my squares in row 5 with duck egg blue using the Join-As-You-Go technique.
Border: Bird Foot Edging, full tutorial here.
I made a total of 108 squares.
In Spring I Choose Light
A Little Crochet Helper
Crocheting Circles
Scrappy Happy 80
Choosing Joining Color
Long Time No Seen
A Mini Break For me
Giving Birth To A Crochet Blanket


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Actor Robin Williams Dies at 63
Comedian and Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams was found dead in his Northern California home on Monday, local authorities said. He is remembered for his zany comic persona as well as more subtle dramatic performances. Photo: AP
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... he ... all money losing TV star in Academy Award winning actor Robin Williams has died at age sixty three ... initial police report indicated that Williams died an apparent suicide on Monday ... Williams was born in Chicago and raised in Michigan ... he made a name for himself as a standup comedian but he got his big break in the late seventies as the manic million more ... on the ABC sitcom more community ... which relied heavily on its Imperva seasonal style ... keeping ahead ... I ... cleaning industry ... so come on the back seat the more than three decades the film was ... included on the ... internet ... some of his best ... the world according to Gartner ... Obama called ... him good morning Vietnam ... six hundred but CEOs and far oh my God it's girlies which earned him a Golden Globe for sport real real-life Review DJ Adrian krone or ... as Mrs Delphi or he won the hearts of cross dressing father trying to spend time with his kids ... he famously boys The brutally frenetic Jeannie and Disney's Aladdin ... on them day ... and leader won an Academy Award for his role is a tough Boston therapist in the nineteen ninety eight film ... good will hunting ... it's very simple question and you can give me a straight answer ... if you don't know ... see above ...

subset: commoncrawl


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Duluth, GA - Saigon Café
T he Saigon Restaurant Group is Atlanta's premier restaurant group of South East Asian cuisine. Our business is founded on a simple idea: offer each customer the best possible experience in service, quality, value and selection. We offer exceptional, award winning Thai cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Malaysian cuisine, & Vietnamese cuisine for a truly unique and memorable dining experience.
- Award winning cuisine.
- Premium fresh ingredients .
- Authentic mouth-watering dishes
- Friendly & Memorable dining service.
Our Beautiful Restaurant
Duluth, GA
- 3675 Satellite Blvd
Duluth GA 30096
Hours of operation:
Mon – Sun:
10am to 12am
Prepared Fresh Just for You
Tastebuds Love US
My family and I ate at your Woodstock location for the first time today. We had driven by a million times and never stopped. Now I am so upset that we hadn't! Dinner was delicious, and all of our children loved it! (Mind you, a 3 year old and 9 month old) the baby was trying to steal mom and dads food. Thank you for a successful, kid friendly night. =-)
After a really long day it was so nice to relax and have a great meal, where you always know the service is impeccable. The Tom Yum soup is my favorite and I tried the Mongolian Beef last night. Holy mackerel. The best ever.
My neighbor and I go to the Buford location almost every Friday to eat Pho. We come in. The servers and managers recognize us. The only thing we say is, "Same Thing!". We sit down….a few minutes later, the bowl of Pho is right in front of me. I don't get this kind of service anywhere! These folks are AWESOME !!
Hands down my favorite Atlanta restaurant. Started going to the Duluth location by my job when I was pregnant 9 years ago and started going to the location near Emory with my family when they opened. Love it!!!
The very best Vietnamese food in Atlanta !
Predictably great and never disappointing.
On this trip I had the Mongolian Chicken with steamed rice. The service is always quick and the food is even better. One of my favorite places.
I eat here for lunch often. My favorite is the Pho Ga – chicken. The wait staff is very attentive and the ambiance is clean and comfortable.
Great place for Vietnamese. Great decor, quick service, and some delicious pho! We went in a large group and we all got the pho tai. It came out promptly and was very tasty. The addition of some sriracha just put it over the top. The price was reasonable too, especially for the size of the bowl.
Okay, it's a box restaurant, but for Pho in a fix and in Decatur – it's a great place to go. Some of the servers are more friendly than others, but your food is fast and fresh. I'm no connoisseur of Vietnamese or Thai, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I like it! It's a casual environment and I see a diverse mix of Asian folks in there, so my guess is they are doing something right!
First of all, Saigon Cafe is the reason I first fell in love with bubble tea back when I was a teen. Consistently delicious and chewy, although now I prefer Snow Mountain's bubble tea (and it's closer to me). However, I wouldn't order bubble teas in their last hour.. the tapioca balls lose their chewiness. Their phos are also great. Anyway, between the Emory Saigon and the one in Gwinnett, this one is better because they also serve Thai cuisine. They have this eggplant dish that is Off The Chain. I used to work in Gwinnett and it really drove me insane that the Saigon there didn't carry that eggplant dish. Anyway, I rarely go towards Emory.. I just go whenever my tenants need me, so it's always a treat to eat there when I can.
Day in day out they consistently do a great job and have for years…. Love this place! Better springrolls than the place on Buford highway.


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DanielADeYoung necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 98 diseños de 31 diseñadores freelance.
See Description
LOGO DESIGN Notes:
This site will be a B2B ecommerce site that will drop ship shoes for shoe retailers and resellers.
Only 5 Guidelines Otherwise "think outside tof the box"
1. We want a Professional look that MUST have a WHITE BACKGROUND.
2. We are looking for a symbolic type logo (see example URL below)
3. The FIRST focus of the logo is SHOES.
4. The SECOND focus of the logo is DROP SHIP (see example below).
5. Also it should be more horizontal vs. vertical (wide vs. tall)
We are not locked into any particular colors yet, but as we see color schemes we like this may change, so check feedback and project details frequently as they may change as we go.
Drop Ship example (this is NOT a requirement, only a suggestion) maybe the "P" in the word "Drop" could be "an arrow pointing down" symbolizing "drop"
I hope this clear so no one waste their efforts.
My personal favorite example of a symbolic logo is this company http://www.grasshoppermower.com/
GENERAL Notes:
There WILL be a winner even if we do not use the winners design.
You will NEED to CHECK BACK frequently as we will give ALL entries feedback!
This feedback should be absorbed by EVERYONE so you do not duplicate efforts that we do not like.
Feedback may come from two sources and should be taken accordingly.
Feedback from the client (What they like or dislike in general terms of your design)
Feedback from me personally (I have a expert understanding of how to use the development tools, and this will be high level critique… more like creative director if you worked for an agency)
In past contest the winners has also gotten additional work on a "as needed basis" on those particular projects, so for the winner this could lead to additional work (no promises!)
Once again ALL work will get feedback, and I check back multiple times a day.
Good Luck To All!
Daniel DeYoung
NEW NOTE (Added 061608): We will need the final design winner to submit work in a vector based format.
- See Description
- See Description
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text: « Return to Search Pre-op Steroids to Prevent Nausea Do Not Significantly Increase Post-Op Bleeding in Tonsillectomy, JAMA Study Shows September 25, 2012 Contact: Mary Leach, 617-573-4170 Boston (Sept. 25, 2012) — Tonsillectomy is exceedingly common, with a reported increase in tonsillectomy rates in children younger than 15 years from 287,000 to 530,000 per year over the past decade. Although safe, adenotonsillectomy can result in significant complications, such as aspiration and bleeding. Complications are infrequent, but because tonsillectomy is so common, the absolute number of children experiencing tonsillectomy complications is formidable. Corticosteroids are often given to children undergoing tonsillectomy to reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting; however, previous research has suggested that corticosteroids may increase the risk of hemorrhage during and after surgery. Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia, and colleagues set out to determine the effect of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, on bleeding. They found that administration of the dexamethasone to children during a tonsillectomy was not associated with excessive, serious bleeding events following surgery compared to patients who received placebo. Their findings are reported in the September 26 issue of JAMA. A recent randomized trial studying the dose response of perioperative dexamethasone to postoperative nausea and vomiting [PONV] in children undergoing tonsillectomy was prematurely terminated due to an increased risk of postoperative hemorrhage. The outcomes of the trial suggested that a single dose of intraoperative dexamethasone significantly increased post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage events. In light of these findings, there is a need to reassess the safety profile for dexamethasone when used during tonsillectomy," the authors write. "This was a troubling study as it ran counter to our own American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery guidelines recommending steroids after tonsillectomy to reduce nausea and vomiting, as well as against the Cochrane Group data suggestions," said Senior Author Christopher Hartnick, M.D., director of Mass. Eye and Ear's Pediatric Airway/Swallowing/Voice Center and Harvard Medical School Professor, Otology and Laryngology, "It went against the experience of a majority of practitioners who have routinely used steroids for years without finding an elevated bleeding rate. But the only way of testing this was through a randomized trial." Dr. Hartnick, along with Thomas Q. Gallagher, M.C., U.S.N., of the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va., and colleagues performed a clinical trial (NTC01415583) to examine bleeding events in children associated with dexamethasone use during tonsillectomy. The multicenter, randomized trial included 314 children ages 3 to 18 years undergoing tonsillectomy without a history of bleeding disorder or recent corticosteroid medication use. The study was conducted between July 2010 and December 2011 with 14-day follow-up. The researchers tested the hypothesis that dexamethasone would not result in 5 percent more bleeding events than placebo using a noninferiority (outcome not worse than treatment compared to) statistical design. Patients received a single perioperative dose of dexamethasone or an equivalent volume of saline. The primary outcome measured was rate and severity of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage in the 14-day postoperative period using a bleeding severity scale (level I, self-reported or parent-reported postoperative bleeding; level II, required inpatient admission for postoperative bleeding; or level III, required reoperation to control postoperative bleeding). One hundred fifty-seven children (median [midpoint] age, 6 years) were randomized into each study group, with 17 patients (10.8 percent) in the dexamethasone group and 13 patients (8.2 percent) in the placebo group reporting bleeding events. The overall rate of bleeding events for all levels was 30 out of 314 (9.6 percent). The researchers found that in an intention-to-treat analysis, the rates of level I bleeding were 7.0 percent (n = 11) in the dexamethasone group and 4.5 percent (n = 7) in the placebo group; rates of level II bleeding were 1.9 percent (n = 3) and 3.2 percent (n = 5), respectively; and rates of level III bleeding were 1.9 percent (n = 3) and 0.6 percent (n = 1), respectively. "The dexamethasone treatment failed to show noninferiority for the level I bleeding, but did demonstrate that the bleeding rate with dexamethasone is not more than 5 percent greater than that with placebo (noninferiority) for both level II and III bleeding events. The data was stratified for primary vs. secondary bleeding events and a decrease in level II and level III bleeding events in both groups was noted," the authors write. "In conclusion, in this prospective, randomized study of 314 children undergoing tonsillectomy, perioperative dexamethasone administration was not associated with more level II or III bleeding events than placebo as shown by noninferiority. Increased subjective (level 1) bleeding events caused by dexamethasone could not be excluded because the noninferiority threshold of 5 percent was crossed," the authors write. About Massachusetts Eye and Ear Mass. Eye and Ear clinicians and scientists are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck. After uniting with Schepens Eye Research Institute in 2011, Mass. Eye and Ear in Boston became the world's largest vision and hearing research center, offering hope and healing to patients everywhere through discovery and innovation. Mass. Eye and Ear is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and trains future medical leaders in ophthalmology and otolaryngology, through residency as well as clinical and research fellowships. Internationally acclaimed since its founding in 1824, Mass. Eye and Ear employs full-time, board-certified physicians who offer high-quality and affordable specialty care that ranges from the routine to the very complex. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals Survey" has consistently ranked the Mass. Eye and Ear Departments of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology as top five in the nation. Note: Certain portions of this release courtesy of JAMA Network Media Relations.


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- Publish date:
- Updated on
- Year
- 1847
Rescuers reach Donner Party
The first rescuers from Sutter's Fort reach the surviving remnants of the Donner emigrant party at their snowbound camp in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The events leading up to the Donner party tragedy began the summer before, when 89 emigrants from Springfield, Illinois, set out overland for California. Initially all went well, and they arrived on schedule at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, in early August. There the emigrants made the mistake of deciding to leave the usual route in favor of a supposed shortcut recently blazed by the California promoter Lansford Hastings. The so-called Hastings Cutoff proved to be anything but a shortcut, and the Donner party lost valuable time and supplies on the trip. When the emigrants finally began the difficult final push over the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains, it was early October and uncomfortably late in the season to be attempting a high mountain passage.
The Donner party almost made it. On October 28, they camped near a high mountain lake (later named Donner Lake) with plans to begin the final push over the pass the next day. Unfortunately, an early winter storm arrived in the mountains. By morning, a thick mantle of snow covered the ground and the pass was blocked. The Donner party was trapped.
The panicked emigrants constructed makeshift tents out of the canvas from their wagons, hoping a thaw might still save them. Warmer weather never came, and by mid-December their food supplies were running low. All agreed that if they did not send for help the entire party would starve to death. Fifteen of the strongest emigrants set out west for Sutter's Fort on December 16. Three weeks later, having endured violent storms and been reduced to cannibalism to stay alive, seven survivors reached an Indian village, where news of the disaster was quickly dispatched to Sutter's Fort near San Francisco.
On January 31, seven rescuers left Sutter's Fort. When they arrived at Donner Lake 20 days later, the men saw nothing but tall white drifts of snow and ice. The men yelled out a hello, and a woman's head appeared above the snow. "Are you men from California or are you from heaven?" she asked. As the other survivors emerged from their snow-covered shelters, one writer recorded that, "It was if the rescuers' hallo had been Gabriel's horn raising the dead from their graves. Their flesh was wasted from their bodies. They wept and laughed hysterically."
After feeding the starving emigrants as much as they safely could, the rescuers began their evacuation. Other rescue parties arrived soon after to help. The trials of the Donner Party, however, were far from over. As the rescue parties struggled to lead the survivors back to Sutter's Fort, they too began to succumb to the harsh winter conditions. Many among the main body of pioneers were also forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive. The last survivors would not reach safety until late April. Of the 89 emigrants who had departed Fort Bridger the year before, only 45 survived to reach their destination in sunny California.


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June's Manchester WordPress User Group, run by WordPress co-founder Mike Little, takes place at MadLab (http://madlab.org.uk) on Wednesday, June 20th from 7pm to 9pm.
The Agenda includes:
- WordPress News
- A talk or presentation (TBD)
- Questions & Answers
- Troubleshooting session
- A Chance to show off your WordPress site
If you have other suggestions for items to go on the agenda, please comment here or on the mailing list.
Anyone with any experience of WordPress is welcome, whether you've heard about it and want to know more, you're an experienced WordPress user or developer, or anything in between; you are welcome to our meetings.
MWUG is run by Mike Little (http://zed1.com), co-founder of WordPress with Matt Mullenweg (http://ma.tt/about), so come along to discover how WordPress can benefit you or your organisation, and get specific advice on any WordPress questions you have.
Subscribe to our Mailing list (http://groups.google.com/group/manchester-wordpress-user-group), check out our website (https://mwug.uk), follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/mwug), join us on Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Manchester-Wordpress-User-Group-3125011), like our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/manchester.wordpress.user.group or join our MeetUp group http://www.meetup.com/ManchesterWordPressUserGroup.
See you at MWUG!
Short link: http://z1.tl/10v


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The London Times reports that the U.K. is "hitting back" over Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors and marines:
Britain moved to ratchet up the pressure on Iran today over what Tony Blair called its "illegal" seizure of 15 Royal Navy personnel in the Gulf last Friday, freezing all ties with Tehran until the crisis is resolved and the group released.
After five days of discreet but fruitless diplomacy, the offensive began with a press conference at the MoD at which Vice-Admiral Charles Style published satellite coordinates proving that seven Royal Marines and eight sailors were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were "ambushed".
"Freezing all ties" means that Britain has stopped talking to Iran about anything other than the hostage situation. Call me cynical, but I doubt whether that greatly "ratchets up the pressure" on the mullahs. It's nice, too, that British authorities can prove that their vessel was really in Iraqi waters when it was seized, but it seems clear that the Iranians knew that all along, so I don't think the proof will impress them much. Note that Iran initially released coordinates where the encounter allegedly took place, but it turned out that the place was in Iraqi waters. So the Iranians just released a new set of coordinates that moved the location two miles to the north. I don't think that what we have here is a legitimate geographic misunderstanding.
This graphic, released by the British government, conveys a good sense of the relevant geography; click to enlarge:
As more facts come out, some will no doubt question whether the British reaction to the kidnapping-in-progress was too weak. Yesterday, Tony Blair said that he agreed with the sailors' decision to surrender rather than put up a fight, since "severe loss of life" would otherwise have resulted. At that moment, the British boat was badly outgunned. Of course, the boat was dispatched by HMS Cornwall, which was nearby. Here is how the Times describes that ship's role:
Mr Blair added by the time the crew of HMS Cornwall realised that the 15 had been detained and a Lynx helicopter dispatched to find them, they were already in Iranian waters – making intervention that much more dangerous.
One wonders whether pursuing the Iranian boats into Iranian waters might have brought about a speedier end to the crisis.
One more thing: these uniformed British servicemen (and woman), unlike captured terrorists, are entitled to be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, which Iran has signed. Pretty much every aspect of their treatment has violated the Convention: a video showing them in captivity has been filmed and played on television, they have been "interrogated," in Iran's own description, and are now being held incommunicado in an undisclosed location. Has anyone noticed any outcry from the "world community" about this? Does the Geneva Convention apply to anyone other than the U.S.?
Finally, Sam Ryskind puts the current crisis in the context of Iran's other provocations; click to enlarge:
CORRECTION: Mark Steyn, stranded at O'Hare Airport, wrote to point out that "the HMS Cornwall" is wrong. Good point; I've made the correction.
To comment on this post, go here.


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Chapter 4101:3-12 Piping and Storage Systems
[Comment: When a reference is made within this rule to a federal statutory provision, an industry consensus standard, or any other technical publication, the specific date and title of the publication as well as the name and address of the promulgating agency are listed in rule 4101:3-15-01 of the Administrative Code. The application of the referenced standards shall be limited and as prescribed in section 102.5 of rule 4101:1-1-01 of the Administrative Code.]
1201.1 Scope. The provisions of this chapter and Chapter 53 of the fire code shall govern the design and installation of piping and storage systems for nonflammable medical gas systems and medical oxygen systems. All maintenance and operations of such systems shall be in accordance with Chapter 34 of the building code and the applicable chapters of the fire code.
1202.1 Nonflammable medical gases. Nonflammable medical gas systems, inhalation anesthetic systems and vacuum piping systems shall be designed and installed in accordance with NFPA 99.
1. This section shall not apply to portable systems or cylinder storage.
2. Deleted.
1202.2 Enforcement. Plan review and inspection of nonflammable medical gas and vacuum systems shall be performed by one of the following:
1.A building department certified to enforce medical gas systems and having in its employ or under contract a certified medical gas inspector; or
2. A local health district requesting enforcement responsibility and having in its employ or under contract a certified medical gas inspector; or
3. If a certified department does not hold the certification to enforce medical gas piping system requirements and a local health district does not request enforcement authority, then the enforcement shall be done by the division of industrial compliance in the department of commerce.
1203.1 Design and installation. Deleted.
Replaces: 4101:3-12-01
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates: 11/01/2022
Promulgated Under: 119.03
Statutory Authority: 3781.10(A), 4104.43(A)(2)
Rule Amplifies: 3781.10 , 3781.11, 3791.04
Prior Effective Dates: 1/1/02, 1/1/04, 3/1/05, 7/1/07, 11/1/11
Rescinded eff 7-1-07
Rescinded eff 7-1-07
Rescinded eff 3-1-05
Rescinded eff 7-1-07
Rescinded eff 3-1-05


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The biggest act scheduled to perform this week at the annual South by Southwest music festival is also one of the biggest acts in the world.
On March 13, Lady Gaga will take to the outdoor stage behind Stubb's for a concert sponsored by Doritos, which is temporarily renaming the barbecue joint #BoldStage (after its line of flavored tortilla chips) and requiring would-be showgoers to complete one of several so-called bold missions to get inside.
Yet Lady Gaga won't be the only A-list artist — nor Doritos the only blue-chip brand — at SXSW, set to run March 11 through March 16 in Austin, Texas.


text:
|Genealogy forums
|The genealogy message boards are for sharing useful family history info with other users. You can search for a particular name or subject, or simply browse through the message boards below. Once you find an appropriate message board, visit it and click 'Post new topic' to post a new message, or reply to any of the messages on it.


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Tim McGraw Says His Daughters Have the Best Role Model in Faith Hill
While some teenagers look to Olympic athletes or pop stars as their role models, Tim McGraw's three daughters Grace, Maggie, and Audrey have a real life role model in their own home: their mom, superstar Faith Hill.
"I think the best thing, or the greatest thing my girls have going for them, is having their mother as a role model," McGraw says sweetly (quote via Big Machine Label Group).
Though, the 46-year-old songstress isn't necessarily the best role model because of her fame -- instead, her husband lauds her everyday example as being an excellent one for their daughters.
"I think that all they have to do is watch her and be exposed to how she lives her life and the way she treats people and the way she takes care of her family," says the 'Highway Don't Care' hitmaker. "I think they're learning the best lesson they can learn just having her as someone to look up to and someone to learn from."
McGraw and Hill are raising daughters that they view as very well-adjusted, and the songstress is proud of the fact that she can demonstrate to their kids " ... what it means to be a woman who is smart and in charge of your business."
Although McGraw points to his wife as a prime role model for their daughters, he's pretty inspirational, as well. With a brand new single 'Lookin' for That Girl' and a new album in the works, he's the epitome of a dedicated worker. Coupled with his wife's Southern grace and charm, the McGraw-Hill girls have not one, but two great role models in their home!


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Projecting warming's impact on Bay Area
It's now indisputable that the Earth is warming, at least for anyone who still takes thermometers at their word.
Average global temperatures have ticked up by about 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1880, and two-thirds of that increase has taken place since 1975, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nine of the 10 warmest years in that time period have occurred since the year 2000.
To be sure, the planet has experienced cooling and warming periods in the past. But the steep temperature rise in the late 20th century blew past the highs of the last 1,000 years, the period for which there are reliable data.
And more warming is on the way. A variety of studies have concluded that current rates of fossil fuel emissions could push global temperatures up by as much as 6 degrees Celsius by 2100. To put that in context: A 2007 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that an increase of just 3.5 degrees would drive into extinction 40 to 70 percent of the species for which the impact of global warming has been studied.
There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that fossil fuels are primarily to blame for the warming in recent decades. Nearly 98 percent of climate scientists actively publishing agree with that conclusion, according to a 2010 study by researchers at Stanford.
That study also found that the few researchers still unconvinced of what's known as anthropogenic climate change published far less on average in peer-reviewed climate literature, the accepted mark of scientific expertise and prominence.
Wildfires and floods
The consequences of a warming world are already making themselves known.
It's difficult to link any single season or weather event to climate change, but 2012 was a veritable case study in the patterns scientists have long warned could become the new normal. By midsummer, U.S. temperatures broke more than 40,000 daily heat records, and 2012 was almost certainly the warmest year on record. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will report official December temperatures later this week.)
The resulting drought affected 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land, and the hot, dry conditions set the stage for one of the worst wildfire seasons in recent memory across the West.
In October, Superstorm Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, devastated the Eastern Seaboard, killing more than 100, knocking out power for millions and exacting an economic toll of more than $60 billion.
Munich Re, a global reinsurance company, released a study that same month underscoring a sharp increase in "weather-related loss events" over the past three decades. Nowhere was that more true than in the United States, where costly catastrophes like thunderstorms, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts and floods have nearly quintupled during that time.
Terra incognita
Without drastic changes to fossil fuel emissions, the impacts of global warming will land on the Bay Area with a brute force that pays no regard to our relatively liberal politics, farsighted state climate regulations or fondness for hybrid vehicles.
By 2050, rising sea levels could put land around the bay equivalent in area to six San Franciscos at risk of serious flooding, including the region's airports, a stretch of Silicon Valley high-tech campuses and the homes of more than 100,000 residents, according to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Sea levels could surge nearly 6 feet by 2100, putting more than $60 billion in shoreline development in jeopardy.
The rising tides will also magnify the region's existing vulnerabilities to tsunamis and earthquakes, researchers say.
As California's temperatures climb, the Sierra snowpack that stores about a third of the state's water will dwindle. The increasing heat could also undermine the fog that feeds coastal ecosystems, including Northern California's treasured redwoods.
Land with the unique terroir necessary for the region's renowned grapes will shrink, devastating the wine and tourism sectors alike. Wild plant and animal species will migrate up hillsides and into different bodies of water, altering sensitive ecologies in complicated and unpredictable ways.
"It's terra incognita," said Jane Long, a former associate director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a visiting scientist at UC Berkeley. "We don't know where we're going, but we know we're heading toward something that could be very, very dangerous."
James Temple is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Speaker to focus on women as healers in 'Wild Onion Nurse' talk
Speaker to focus on women as healers in 'Wild Onion Nurse' talk
"Wild Onion Nurse: Women as Healers in Traditional and Contemporary Societies," a presentation, will be held noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 19, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on the University Park campus of Penn State. The presentation, which is sponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge and the University Libraries, is free and open to the public, and can also be viewed online.
Speaker Judy Schaefer, a registered nurse and poet, will read from her 2010 Radcliffe publication, "Wild Onion Nurse," highlighting a journey that follows the tradition of women as healers; sometimes ancient and sometimes contemporary, while reflecting upon the "indigenous self." In a description of her talk, Schaefer notes, "In the most recent past, the image of the professional nurse was starched and crystal white. Traditionally, the nursing student was taught to be a 'catalyst' and to bring about clinical change without experiencing self-change. 'Do not get overly close to your patient on a personal basis,' as is commonly said. But this logically and intuitively turns out to be false on both sides; the nurse and the patient are both changed in the clinical process. The connection is soft and yet strong, like a spider's web brought forth from the earth. To move from the traditional perspective is complex. We've had more experience than we consciously know. Human beings are ancient. We've been connected to the earth for a long time."
Schaefer, who is a member of The Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine, finds that poetry provides a way to produce art and to observe beyond the patient. She will read nine of her poems that demonstrate connection to the earth, to the indigenous-self and to each other in the healing process. Her hope is that these poems will demonstrate another way of knowing about pain and suffering, which are not the same. She continues, "We can have pain and 'feel better.' We can move on. We can continue to help each other as we grow within ourselves." Judy argues that as we approach and discover our indigenous-self, we ourselves find healing.
"Wild Onion Nurse" is Schaefer's most recent book. She edited the first biographical and autobiographical work of English speaking nurse-poets, "The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-Poets" and co-edited, with Cortney Davis, the first international anthology of creative writing by nurses, "Between the Heartbeats." Schaefer has been published in journals such as "Academic Medicine," "The American Journal of Nursing" and "The Lancet" and is poetry co-editor for "Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine." She can be reached at email@example.com.
The presentation is part of an ongoing series highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge. For more information on ICIK, including links to past presentations on the speaker series.
For questions about the physical access provided, contact Helen Sheehy 814-863-1347 or email@example.com in advance of your participation.


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Macklemore + Ryan Lewis Perform 'Thrift Shop' at 2013 Billboard Music Awards [Video]
Following a glowing introduction by Hayden Panettiere, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took the stage at the Wynn Las Vegas to perform their hit song 'Thrift Shop' at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards tonight (May 19).
Their live performance found Macklemore bouncing all over the stage showcasing his signature abundance of energy, while the crowd sang along to the radio-friendly version of the tune. If you'd like to catch more lively performances of 'Thrift Shop,' be sure to check out their appearances on 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Ellen,' as well as the SXSW iHeart Radio Showcase back in March.
In other exciting news, the dynamic duo recently made the cover of Billboard when their second single, 'Can't Hold Us' landed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a second consecutive week.


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MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents in March will be asked to tax themselves an extra $72,000 annually — a penny on the tax rate — for the next five years in order to help finance a new economic development director's (EDD) position designed to bring new, good paying jobs to town.
ADDISON COUNTY — To the 150 animals squeezed into a space meant for 60 at the Addison County Humane Society, Wyatt Vincent is the cat's meow.
For more than a month, the Vergennes resident has busied his paws building massive hay-bale animals around Addison County to raise awareness for the humane society's "Homeward Bound Campaign."
MIDDLEBURY — Porter Medical Center (PMC) will close its popular and innovative palliative care medical practice at the end of this month, citing the recent resignation of one of the two physicians in the practice and an inability to put together a new business model to continue the service with a smaller workforce.
ADDISON COUNTY — According to 2010 U.S. Census data, Addison County's population grew by just 2.3 percent in the past decade, from 35,974 to 36,821.
But within that overall modest trend, there were surprising numbers. Leicester and Monkton boasted the biggest percentage growth and Middlebury had the largest number of new residents. This while Goshen, Hancock, Starksboro and Vergennes all posted noteworthy declines in population.
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MIDDLEBURY — When the official panel discussion on food and sustainable agriculture wrapped up on Oct. 14 at Middlebury College, the talking in the room was still in full swing.
BRISTOL — After two months of heated public debate and careful consideration, the Bristol Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) has voted 7-0 in favor of issuing the Bristol Works business campus "a comprehensive conditional use permit" for the 5.5-acre space previously occupied by cosmetics manufacturer Autumn Harp.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents have been able to count on certain fall rituals throughout the years. Those have included apple picking, raking leaves, stacking wood and an annual fund-raiser for Mary Hogan Elementary School student activities.
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WEYBRIDGE — At the legislative breakfast at the Congregational Church of Weybridge on April 13, lawmakers and citizens in attendance discussed energy topics facing Vermont, including the usefulness of a carbon tax and the spread of solar arrays.
The notion of a carbon tax to discourage the use of fossil fuels and create more capital for individuals, businesses and the state to invest in renewable energy. The Legislature has been discussing some carbon tax bills, but they have not been gaining much traction at the Statehouse.
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BRISTOL — The House Education Committee is drafting a new bill that would eliminate the state's more than 60 supervisory unions and replace them with larger school districts that advocates believe could do a better job sharing resources while carrying fewer employees.
BRIDPORT — Members of Addison County's agricultural community are concerned about how they could be affected by the state's latest push to clean up Lake Champlain.
Gov. Peter Shumlin in his January inaugural address cited cleanup of the lake as one of his top priorities for the 2015-2016 biennium. He noted that farmers must play a key role in that effort, through water quality initiatives that are in part designed to reduce manure runoff into Lake Champlain. Manure is a leading source of phosphorous pollution in the lake.
MIDDLEBURY — There was continued controversy at Monday's Legislative Breakfast surrounding Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposed surcharge on break-open tickets. The 10-percent surcharge on the $1 tickets — sold by many local nonprofits to raise money for charitable causes — is designed to raise what Shumlin projects as $6 million for weatherizing Vermont homes.
Shumlin has stated that the surcharge would apply to the producers of the tickets and not on the proceeds raised from the nonprofit agencies who sell them, such as local American Legion posts.
ADDISON COUNTY — The sponsors of the annual Legislative Breakfast series have announced two changes to this year's schedule of weekly gatherings of Addison County lawmakers and residents.
The Feb. 11 breakfast scheduled for 7 a.m. in Bristol at the American Legion has been changed to a noon luncheon that will feature an appearance by Gov. Peter Shumlin. Also, the previously announced March 11 Governor's Luncheon scheduled for the Bridport Grange Hall has been changed to a 7 a.m. breakfast to be held at the Whiting Town Hall.
ADDISON COUNTY — Bridport Grange No. 303 and the Addison County Farm Bureau this week confirmed a 2013 legislative breakfast series that will debut on Monday, Feb. 4, and include a March 11 session with Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The legislative breakfast series has enjoyed a long tradition in Addison County, offering residents a weekly opportunity to personally meet and talk with their state representatives and senators on legislation being debated in Montpelier. As has been the custom, the breakfasts will rotate between various public venues throughout the county.
BRIDPORT — Monday's season-opening legislative breakfast in Bridport offered a preview of two emotional debates on personal freedom that could play out on a grander scale this spring in the Statehouse.
At issue: Should families be given broader rights to have their children opt-out of vaccines designed to protect them from deadly diseases, and should terminally ill people be allowed to opt-in to a proposal that would allow them to take their own lives under medical supervision.
WEYBRIDGE — Local lawmakers on Monday cited the so-called "provider tax" as a prime reason the state should scrap the current health care system and adopt a single-payer plan.
The House recently passed an increase in the provider tax that is assessed to hospitals, home health care agencies and other providers. It has now been extended to third-party health insurance claims.
MIDDLEBURY — Gov. Peter Shumlin on Monday praised lawmakers for supporting a 2011 legislative agenda he predicted will lift the state to economy to heights unseen since the tech boom of the 1990s.
"I am really proud of the work that the Legislature has done," Shumlin said at the weekly Legislative Breakfast held at the Middlebury American Legion. "We are united in what the challenge has been."
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Middle linebacker Rolando McClain hasn't been ruled out of Sunday's game in Miami, but he can expect a serious conversation about his legal problems with head coach Hue Jackson.
"Here's the bottom line. There's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things, and obviously there was something done wrong,'' Jackson said following practice Friday. "So we'll go and deal with that accordingly from there.''
Jackson said McClain was not at the team facility but expected a face-to-face meeting in several hours. The Raiders boarded a charter for Miami following practice.
McClain was arrested and charged with third degree assault, reckless endangerment, meancing and discharging a firearm within city limits Wednesday in his hometown of Decatur, Ala., where he was attending the funeral of his grandfather.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL will follow the legal process before making any determination on discipline for McClain.
"It will be reviewed under the league's personal conduct policy we do not have an estimated timetable,'' Aiello said in an e-mail Friday. "It is a legal matter and we will follow developments.''
Decatur defense attorney Billy C. Burney told the Associated Press McClain did not fire a gun and gave the following statement: "Mr. McClain asserts his innocence. We are confident Mr. McClain will be cleared of all charges.''
Jackson said he was not inclined to wait for either the NFL or the legal process before determining what was best for the Raiders.
"(I) have now gotten more information and can make a very informed decision on what I think is best for our team and I'll do that in the next day or so,'' Jackson said. "Obviously, there's a situation that happened and I've had an opportunity to digest it all. The important thing is we focus on this game.
"I have 52 other players that are doing things the right way and doing things as I see they should be doing it and we're getting ready to play a game. I will deal with Rolando when that time comes.''
McClain was officially ruled as "questionable.'' If McClain doesn't play, Darryl Blackstock is next on the depth chart and would get playing time but defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan said there are other options in terms of aligments and packages if McClain doesn't play.
Jackson said he is confident McClain's issues will not be a distraction, and Raiders players echoed that sentiment.
"You can't be affected by that,'' quarterback Carson Palmer said. "You need to have your thoughts and prayers with he and his family at a tough time, but this team is 100 percent focused on the Miami Dolphins right now.''
Said Raiders safety Tyvon Branch:
"We've got one game at the end of the week and that's our focus for the week,'' Branch said. "Whatever happens during that week, we have to channel that stuff out and take care of business on Sundays.''
Although the accuser was not named by police, he was identified and quoted by the television station WAFF and the Decatur Daily news as Rishard Tapscott, 23.
McClain and Jerradius Willingham, who was charged with assault and released on a $500 bond, were high school basketball teammates Tapscott at Decatur High School.
In an interview with WAFF, Tapscott explained his side of the story.
"I went over there, it was basically like an ambush, like they set me up to fight, because as soon as I got there they all went outside and I was sitting in the house,'' Tapscott said. "That's when they came back in the house and they were like, `You're going to have to fight, come back out and fight.' I was like, `I ain't fighting. I ain't coming outside,' and that's when he came back in the house and assaulted me.''
According to the police statement, Willingham initially fought with Tapscott, who then crawled to his car. It was at that point McClain allegedly put a gun to his head, with Tapscott begging for him not to shoot.
(Tapscott was referred to as the victim in the report, not by name).
It was then that McClain allegedly put a gun to his head, then pulled away and fired.
Jackson said he was disappointed McClain put himself in a bad situation.
"We're not going to let one thing bring down what we're accomplishing, by no stretch of the imagination,'' Jackson said. "Am I disappointed? Yes, just like anything. You get disappointed in your kids. All these guys are like my sons. And when they make mistakes, there's consequences and things you have to deal with.''


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Friday, May 13, 2011
The End of the World: Next Week?
image from kingdomexclusion.com/
Some people invoke the ancient Mayans to contend that the world's expiration date is quickly approaching, but there are other arguments afoot these days about just how imminent such an end might be. You may have seen the billboards for one of them: Family Radio's declaration that Judgment Day is "guaranteed" to begin (and quite conspicuously) on May 21st, 2011.
I have been completely fascinated by this proclamation ever since I first heard Harold Camping's matter-of-fact declaration earlier this year (while surfing the FM dial on a drive up to NYC). Camping is a long-time Christian radio broadcaster who has been a mainstay at Family Radio since the early 1960s. Shuffling through broadcast options in my Saturn, I knew Camping's voice as soon as I heard it, mostly because I grew up on it. Extended family members always seemed to have his program on in their homes, so much so that it served as part of the soundtrack to my childhood (explaining, I'm sure, many of my subsequent scholarly interests).
Hearing Camping's distinctive voice earlier this year (some 20 years or so after the last time) made me immediately nostalgic. And then I heard his claim, which wasn't being argued back in the 1980s and 90s (as far as I can remember), about the earth being slated for destruction next week, and that was it. I was riveted, spending the next hour listening to his contentious debates with listeners about the veracity of that spectacular prediction.
Camping claims the Bible provides "absolute proof" that the Rapture will take place a week from this Saturday, and that God will then destroy the entire planet (and even the universe) on October 21st, five months later. This is God's plan for the end of the world, Camping argues, and it is a function of our planet's "wickedness." Even still, his theological position is quite clear about our agency in the matter. God chose the elect (in a predestinationist sense) at the beginning of time, about 200 million people in all, and his choices are a function of his own opaque will, not any of our actions, good ones or bad.
Camping is considered something of a heretic in certain Christian circles (for allegedly claiming that the Holy Spirit has no connection to most institutionalized Christian churches/denominations today). And he supposedly set a previous date for the Lord's return, which was slated for 1994.
Family Radio is a religious radio network that spans over 100 markets in the United States, so I'm sure that hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of people have gotten a whiff of Camping's new date.
I should also say that I am particularly primed for such premilleniallist talk. I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist, which emerged out of the Millerite movement's inaccurate 19th century prediction of God's return. They picked a date and organized their entire lives around preparing for it.
I'm currently working on a book about a group of African-Americans who made similar predictions in the late 20th century, a group that has built a vibrant transnational community on top of those earlier pronouncements. So you can see why I am particularly drawn to such contemporary contentions.
I recently relayed Camping's claim to a friend of mine, someone who isn't a practicing Christian and doesn't have much patience for predictions about the future based on interpretations of religious texts. Even still, he laughed, shook his head, and added, "but given how crazy things have been lately [by which, I think, he meant the chain-reaction of uprisings in the Middle East, the Tsunami in Japan (and its nuclear aftermath), and the global financial crisis, amongst other things], I'll probably wake up on May 22nd with a slight sigh of relief."
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text: #AdhooraBandhan Episode 24 | Har Pal Geo Ifrah, protagonist of the story Atiya has a self- effacing, benevolent and a polite demeanor. At an age of eighteen, when girls fanaticize about their marriage, she worries about her shelter. Daughter rose by a single mother, is being forced to marry her cousin. The girl barely escapes the situation and reaches to the land of stepfamily; where she is humiliated, kidnapped, kicked out of the house followed by several troublesome incidences which make her stuck in a vicious cycle. Despite having a mother who leaves Ifrah high and dry due to her own reasons, the protagonist hopes for a figure to play the role of a bulwark and protect her against all odds. Written by: Huma Hina Nafees Directed by: Shah Hussain Produced by: Babar Javed Cast: Nouman Masood,Farah Shah,Suhail Sameer,Madhia Rizvi,Erum Akhter,Faria Sheikh,Naeem Tahir,Furqan Qureshi,Rashid Farooqi,Farah Nadeem,Uzair Abbasi,Yasir Ali,Zain Khan,Omer,Ramsha Khan,Sabah,Rashda Tabbasum,Nadeem Tahir,Hafsa Butt. #harpalgeo #GEO


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Also, just a few days ago was our dog Stevie Wonder's adoptaversary too! We have had her for 8 years. We have 3 dogs now, but Stevie was our first dog that we got together - and for that reason she has a special place in our hearts. Honestly, we didn't realize this until it was far too late, but she really would have preferred to be an only dog.
Stevie is really a little weirdo. She's very sweet and loving with us, but also quite protective. When I do yoga out in my yoga studio, she sleeps on the door mat outside the studio door to make sure I am safe. She loves attention, but the second you stop doting on her, she goes off into self-appointed exile. Her favorite spot for the last couple of years has been in the corner behind the sofa. It's crazy!
Her hobbies include: growling at other dogs, rushing in when we are snuggling Snoopy or Dottie to steal our attention all for herself, lying in the woodchips in the backyard contemplating life, licking the floor (???), and going for walks. Going to the woods is her favorite thing of all. At home she often seems very world-weary and contemplative, but once we get to the woods she puffs up and comes alive!! It is really beautiful.
Also, this year, Stevie learned to play fetch! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks??? She loves squeaky toys, and somehow - after years of disinterest - Mr. VE&T managed to teach her fetch. Now she just loves playing fetch in the back yard, and she really has quite a sweet love affair with her little red ball.


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Sioux Falls Home Sustains Fire Damage
SIOUX FALLS - On April 25, 2013, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded to 4703 West Thad Place for a structure fire.
First-arriving units found smoke and flames coming from a trailer home. Crews forced entry into the home and found a fire in the kitchen area. There was a small amount of fire on the exterior of the home. The fire was under control in approximately five minutes. The home sustained moderate fire and smoke damage.
No residents were at home at the time of the fire. There were no civilian injuries. One firefighter sustained a minor injury.
Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded with two support vehicles, six fire trucks and twenty six firefighters. The home did not have a residential sprinkler system. The cause of the fire is under investigation.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
The Grand Island of Commerce is putting on the second annual Light Up the Boulevard Electric Light Parade and Festival on Nov. 23, from 5 to 9 p.m.
The evening's activities will include Grand Island's first-ever Rudolph Run, Electric Light Parade, the lighting of the official town tree, visits with Santa (sponsored by Kelly's Country Store) music and carolers, craft stations, and vendor booths.
Francine McMahon, of McMahon's Family Restaurant and director of the chamber, founded the event last year and wants to make this year's edition bigger and better. Local businesses have an opportunity to sponsor or be a part of the event.


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Lauren Collins explores the psychology of France and money through the bizarre case of Gérard Depardieu, who left the patrie to become a citizen of Putin's Russia for tax reasons. Excerpt:
[Depardieu's] cri de coeur wasn't really meant to be read; it was meant to be heard. It was an oration, appealing to ethos ("I was born in 1948, I began working at fourteen as a printer, a warehouse worker, and then as a dramatic artist"); logos ("I have paid a hundred and forty-five million euros in taxes over forty-five years"); and pathos ("No one who has left France has been injured as I have"). It was a eulogy for himself, a departed citizen. The Académie Française, keeper of the mother tongue, defines minable [a word Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault used to describe Depardieu the tax exile — RD]as connoting "an appearance that betrays poverty." Ayrault had committed a one-word larceny: he had called a rich man poor.
The first anyone heard of the seventy-five-per-cent "supertax" was in February of last year, when Hollande, then the Socialist candidate for President, declared in a television interview that France's cats were getting too fat. Hollande was in the midst of a tight race against the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement, who, even by many of those who appreciated his pro-business policies, was seen as a vulgarian. Moreover, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the Left Front—a resurgent coalition of Communists, Trotskyists, Socialists, students, and environmentalists—was running high in the polls, siphoning off the hard-left vote with promises to ban profitable companies from firing workers and to seize incomes that exceeded three hundred thousand euros. A former teacher, who called himself "the sound and the fury," Mélenchon presented a radical alternative to the Anglo-Saxon capitalism that, he argued, had crippled France's economy and corroded its culture. "If Europe is a volcano, then France is the revolutionary crater!" he thundered at rallies. (One of them, held at the Bastille, drew a hundred thousand people.) His campaign posters read, "Make Banks Pay, Not the People," rendering Hollande's "Change Is Now" the model of ideological impotence.
"My enemy is the world of finance," Hollande had proclaimed earlier in the campaign, but his mention of the supertax caught his advisers off guard. "You're questioning me about a proposal I haven't heard of," Jérôme Cahuzac, who became Hollande's Budget Minister, admitted to a reporter. If the tax, which represented a seventy-per-cent increase for France's richest citizens, was surprising to Hollande's advisers, it was tantalizing to the French public, sixty per cent of which approves of a supertax. Along with other changes to the tax code—higher levies on capital gains, higher rates for the upper middle class—the supertax drew on the republican ideal of taxation as an institution that would foster social cohesion. Americans insist that the poor do better; the French insist that the rich do worse.
What a great line: "Americans insist that the poor do better; the French insist that the rich do worse." I've heard versions of that from young, entrepreneurial-minded French friends of mine who either have left, or want to leave. In one case I'm thinking of, my friend wasn't a tax exile. He had nothing when he left France; what he wanted was the chance to make something — not only money, but to start his own company and test his own creativity. He moved to America and did just that. I remember well his telling me not long after he moved here that it wasn't just the regulation he was escaping, but the mentality of his own people, who saw any attempt to do things better as an assault on the collective by someone who thought he was better than everybody else.
More from Collins's article:
Lefebvre characterized the supertax as a "cynical" bit of demagoguery that would suck away the country's dynamism. "The situation is very grave," he said. "It's not like 1981, when many French decided to go abroad after the election of Mitterrand. Now it's not only the rich people who will go—it's the people who want to be rich. François Hollande is drinking the blood of France."
Melodramatically stated, but I hear the same things from creative, business-oriented Frenchmen I know. Read the Collins article for her conversation with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the far-left Chavista loony who actually polled nearly 12 percent in last year's presidential election.


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3 models grace Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover
LOS ANGELES — Sports Illustrated is marking the 50th anniversary of its swimsuit issue with three models on the cover.
Chrissy Teigen, Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge strike a playful pose in the picture topping the magazine's annual swimsuit edition.
The image was to be unveiled Thursday on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" The issue hits newsstands and digital formats next week. Get more on the sexy cover at SI's Swim Daily.
Aldridge said in an interview Thursday she was "in shock" over her selection.
"It's the most incredible honor to be a Sports Illustrated cover model," she said.
Especially since it's the 28-year-old Victoria's Secret model's first time in the magazine.
Even though Teigen has appeared in the swimsuit issue five times before, she never expected to land on the cover.
"It's the ultimate surprise, and it's the best feeling in the world right now," said the 28-year-old, who recently married musician John Legend.
The last time multiple models appeared on the cover of the magazine's swimsuit issue was in 2006.
So what made the trio's photo stand out? Teigen said she thinks it's because they instantly bonded as buddies and got along swimmingly during the shoot, in the Cook Islands, off the coast of New Zealand.
"The smiles that you're seeing are genuine," she said. "We had a good time, and it shows in the picture."
The models said the most exciting thing about their Sports Illustrated cover status is what it might mean for their futures.
"Getting to be on the cover, we're all going to be household names," Aldridge said. "It's incredible what it does for your career and where it can take you."
Teigen joked that she doesn't know what else to do now and feels as though she should retire.
"Nothing is going to compare to this," she said. "This is pretty epic."


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Long Time Public Servant Alice Kundert Died Monday June 10
Alice Kundert, grand lady of South Dakota politics, died Monday at the age of 92.
Kundert served South Dakota for years starting as a teacher in a country school, before becoming an administrator in the Campbell County School System. She was elected to the town board, and later the school board. She also served as Campbell County's clerk of courts and registrar of deeds.
The people of South Dakota elected Kundert to be state auditor, where she served from 1969 to 1979. In 1979, she was elected to be the secretary of state a position she held until 1987.
Kundert tried to become South Dakota's first female governor in 1986, but failed in her bid.
Her next public service was in the legislature as a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 to 1994.
Kundert was born and raised in rural Campbell County, graduated from Java High School, and attended Northern State University, back when it was called Northern Normal School.
Kundert was good for politics. She didn't care if you were a Republican or Democrat. Everybody received her respect.
Her greatest legacy is the positive influence and the role model she provided the thousands of young people she spoke with at schools, on campuses, and at boys and girls state conventions during her wonderful and well lived life.
Governor Daugaard ordered the flag at the state capitol be flown at half-staff on Thursday, the day of Kundert's funeral. The service is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Mound City Community Center.


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Happy Valentine's Day
14 Feb
There I was, sitting in my team meeting, talking about layoffs we may have to make… when in walked four men in white tuxedos. It's Valentine's Day, I work with a group of women– we all knew it was a V-Day surprise. The question was, "for who?" "We're looking for Music," one of them said, handing me a vase with red roses in it and a bag of swag before blowing into a pitch pipe and leading his compatriots in a song. Yes, my friends, Mike surprised me this Valentine's Day with a barbershop quartet singing telegram!
You could have knocked me over with a feather. Who does that?!? It was so sweet, but also so hilarious. I laughed and cried, as did the other four women in the room. The first song was a blur– I have no idea what they sang. The second one was "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," which has been stuck in my head all day. They serenaded me and my colleagues and then were off to their next stop.
It takes a special man to arrange something like that, and I feel very lucky to have Mike as my Valentine. Things aren't always smooth, but I never doubt I married a kind, talented man who is a great father and who loves me very much. Happy Valentine's Day to him, and to you!


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Looking back, I realize that my childhood school lunches were a sad affair- not only because my brown bag lunches usually consisted of a flattened sandwich that was a little more than lukewarm come lunchtime, but also because these home packed lunches were horrible for the environment. Between the individually wrapped fruit roll ups, the disposable brown bag and the one use sandwich baggie my lunches were essentially a giant middle finger to Mother Nature. It wasn't intentional or malicious, but still if I had access to a time machine I may go back and inform my parents of the advantages of living an eco-friendly lifestyle–just after I travel back in time stop good ol' Abe Lincoln from being assassinated and right before I go forward in time to steal next week's winning lottery numbers…space time continuum be damned!
In 2010 parents are not able to hide behind an ignorance of the negative effects a wasteful lifestyle has on the environment, we all are aware of global warming, even those naïve enough to not believe in it. Now that I have sufficiently guilted you, I can offer some very simple steps that you busy parents can take to ensure that your child's lunch is delicious to both their and Mother's Natures sensitive palates.
1.) Black List Your Brown Paper Bag:
Brown paper lunch bags not only allow your child's Sammie to get flattened under the weight of errant text books by lunch time, but they also are terrible for the environment. As with most items, something that is single use is not eco-friendly. Switching to a reusable bag or lunch box is your eco-friendly alternative. There are plenty of adorable options out there that will keep your child's beautifully constructed sandwich in tact while keeping those brown bags out of garbage cans and land fills.
If you are feeling extra ambitious, you can even make your own reusable sandwich wrap, perhaps a fun project that you are your offspring can tackle together!
2.) Go Organic, Vegan or Vegetarian:
Regardless of your stance on eco-friendly lunches –hopefully since you are reading it your stance is, "Yay! I love feeding my kid in the most ecological way possible!"– you definitely want to feed your child food that is not only nutritious but delicious as well. The good news is that being an eco-friendly lunch packer does not mean you have to sacrifice taste.
Whenever possible, purchase organic and local ingredients. The closer the food is made to your home, the lower its carbon footprint! Even if you are a carnivore through and through, you may want to switch it up every so often by serving your child a vegan or vegetarian lunch! Meat comes with a huge carbon foot print- we are talking Big Foot proportions- between the fuel it takes to grow the grain to feed farm animals and the amount of methane cows releases into the atmosphere via their gas, skipping on the meat and dairy will make your packed lunch an eco-friendly power house!
Your kids will not be missing out on flavor, there are many awesome vegan recipes online including delicious ones that can be found right here on the Autonomie Project Blog, such as this one for homemade fruit leather, a recipe that does not call for three layers of wasteful packaging.
3.) Just Say "No" To Juice Boxes:
We can all agree, while adorable in their pint-sized stature, juice boxes make for a ton of excess packaging. From the individually plastic wrapped straws to the box that houses a dozen smaller boxes, these wasteful extras put a strain on the environment.
By purchasing a thermos, your child can still indulge in all the delicious juice needed to quench their lunch time thirst. By purchasing a larger bottle, or making your own juice and filling this reusable thermos you cut down on oodles of waste.
4.) Strut Out The Reusable Cutlery:
Sometimes what's easiest- in this case tossing in a disposable fork or spoon in your child's lunch- is not the right thing to do. Purchase reusable cutlery that will fit into your child's adorable reusable lunch box. Notice a theme here? Good, you get a gold star! Reusable goods are the corner-stone to green lunch!
5.) Refuse To Purchase Individual Servings:
When faced with purchasing the already separated into individual serving sized snack and the larger, bulkier, not ready to grab and toss into your child's lunch box snack you should always aim for the latter.
When purchasing snackables for your beloved little scholars, always seek out the path with the least amount of packaging. Fruit is delectable to taste buds and often comes wrapped in its own natural casing…bananas, I am looking at you pal, way to be a handy-dandy snack! Even when indulging your offspring with the occasional store-bought cookie, purchase the larger package and allot the appropriate serving in one of your child's reusable lunch accessories!
If these five steps are a little too verbose, here is a cheat sheet to packing an eco-friendly school lunch: avoid excessive packaging, reuse whatever materials you can and be aware of where your ingredients come from. Got it? Good, there will be a pop quiz at a later date and time…and no, I can not tell you when, that is the point of the "pop" in the pop quiz.
Packing a school lunch with a mind for the environment takes minimal effort and shows that you not only care about your child's present but also their future.
-Meghan Hurley


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Working the election
Dennis and I were poll workers in the November 4, 2008, election. He was the Democrat judge and I was the Republican judge. (Yes, we really are registered that way.)
We arrived at the polling place at 5:15 a.m., the appointed time, and found the other poll workers already setting up the signs. Dennis and I hurried to set up the voting machines. We have a good system -- I read the directions and he does the setting up. It went smoothly, and we were ready about 15 minutes ahead of time.
E-Scan system, the voters moved through at a steady pace. Each voter received a paper ballot and went to one of five privacy booths to mark it. Then the voter brought the completed ballot to the E-Scan machine to electronically record his/her vote. Many expressed appreciation for the quick and easy voting procedure.
Just one complaint
We had only one disgruntled voter. He arrived at the polls mid-morning, feeling cranky and hoping for a problem. He let us all know that he'd been listening to news reports about malfunctioning machines. We assured him that we had a very good and totally up-to-date system, but he was clearly dubious.
After he marked his ballot, he fed it into the eScan and read the message: "Your vote has been recorded. Thank you for voting!" Then he told us that was not satisfactory. He wanted the machine to also display a summary of what it had read from his paper ballot -- that is, to tell him who or what he had chosen on the ballot. (Can you imagine the bottleneck this could potentially create?!)
We told him that it was the voter's responsibility to ensure that the ballot was correctly marked before feeding it into the machine, but we would write his suggestion on the Sheriff's Report. (And we did.)
Our oldest voter was 101. He voted by the eScan with assistance from his son. We had quite a few voters who were in their 80s and 90s. They had all voted by eScan during the spring primaries, and they had no problem at all with it in this election.
Our son Isaac voted for the first time, and we, as election judges, helped him cast his ballot. That was a moment of pride and joy for us. I think he will be an informed citizen and a faithful voter. He is interested in history and current events.
By our unofficial estimate, based on the number of ballots used and the number of registered voters in the book, over 2/3 of the registered voters in our precinct came to the polls. It's possible that some also voted by absentee ballot. We didn't have any statistics for that.
Long Day
The polls closed at 6 p.m. Dennis and I closed down and locked up the machines, following the instructions step by step. Three tapes were printed from each machine, and all of the election workers signed each tape. One tape from each machine was hung on the door and the other tapes were for the county clerk's office.
As election judges, Dennis and I had the responsibility of carrying the briefcase with our election materials and results to the county clerk's office. We got there ahead of the rush and didn't have to wait in line at all. The girls went through the bag quickly and checked to see that nothing was missing. I am always relieved when we successfully complete that checkup!
It was about 7:30 p.m. when we got home. We attended two classes before the election and worked about 14 hours on election day. In this county for this election, workers will be paid $150 each for working. Judges who drove the results to the courthouse will also receive a small milage payment. At our house, these payments will go to Isaac's college fund.
eScan Success
In my opinion, the eScan performed flawlessly at our precinct. I like the E-Scan system because the paper ballot, marked with ink, is retained when the ballot is scanned. A numbered stub from each ballot is also collected separately. The number of ballots, ballot-stubs, unused ballots, and signatures in the voter roster all must agree, so it seems to me that the system would be hard to cheat.
If there was a question about the results, the ballots could be scanned again. No "hanging chads" will create uncertainty or confusion. In fact, if there is any problem with the ballot (such as too many votes or no votes at all or stray marks on the ballot, it's immediately apparent. The machine rejects the ballot, and the voter can correct the problem on the spot.
Christian County also provides an eSlate machine for voters with disabilities. It has a dial that the voter turns to select names on a lighted screen. Than a button is pushed to cast the ballot. It is more confusing to use and it does not provide a paper record of the votes cast, so we encouraged all our able-bodied voters to use the eScan instead.
I was quite surprised to read on the Hoptown Hall that someone was unhappy with the eScan's system of paper ballots. The voter seemed to feel it was a step backwards rather than an advance. I suspect that he was disappointed that it was so easy to vote.
About 75% of our voters chose the John McCain/Sarah Palin team in the presidential race. In combined results for the entire county, the election was a little closer, but McCain still won: 13,669 to 8880. McCain carried the entire state, and in fact, Kentucky was the first state announced for McCain in the election results.
On the national level, voters in our county preferred Mitch McConnell (Rep.) for U.S. senator over Bruce Lunsford (Dem.) and Ed Whitfield (Rep.) for U.S. representative over Heather Ryan (Dem.) The electorate in other western Kentucky counties agreed, and both of these men are being sent back to Washington.
In state races, we returned Myron Dossett (Rep.) to Frankfurt as a state representative and Joey Pendleton (Dem.) as a state senator. Both of these men were incumbents.
For more results in Christian, Todd, and Trigg counties, see the Kentucky New Era's election page


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Section 1 - Topical Topics
Polaris Leadership Academy
Call: (416) 254-4167
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
"The enthusiasm and confidence I gained through the principles, concepts, and philosophies within the Polaris Program have been felt not only by myself and my direct reports, but through out our entire organization."
- Alex MacKinnon, MacKinnon Transport
"I gained clarity and understanding of my particular challenges... to take a strategic approach... and achieve positive outcomes. I learned to work from my strengths... your style and manner of facilitation helped me to arrive at the answers I needed. You helped me envsion new heights and opportunities. You gave me a fabulous gift, empowerment - my heartfelt thanks!"- Bardhonia Harding, BCG Logistics Group
"I have realized that the most useful tool that I have gained from Polaris is not about changing or improving at all – it is about identifying and building on strengths within myself. This has naturally progressed to seeking the strengths in others as well and has already provided great and wonderful changes in my life!"
- Penny McDonald, ECL
"I really appreciated and value the extensive range of
resources, be it coaching, websites, books, etc. I have now
set up a one-year mini program with my own staff and am providing them
the opportunity to learn how to develop themselves."
"The senior management team at Mackinnon Transport has enjoyed the vast benefits of Polaris by Alex's recent successful completion of the program. It has enhanced his business professionalism while elevating his daily contribution to the team.
I'm confident that future participation in the Polaris Program by our other team members will continue to enhance both their personal career growth as well as benefit our joint company-wide efforts to remain a leader in our own industry - Led by the Best; Expecting only the Best."- Evan MacKinnon, CEO, MacKinnon Transport
"The Polaris program has made it possible for me to investigate and
challenge new ways of leading. It has enabled me to implement the skills
reviewed in our sessions as well as providing necessary direction and
support when challenges occur. It has made me a better leader and mentor
to my company and my team."
- Darryl Johnson, Network Cable Service
"To represent Polaris as a series of tools or techniques that one uses occasionally when convenient is a gross understatement of the program.
The most valuable aspect of the program to me was, and continues to be, a heightened awareness of self and the interactions with colleagues and business associates.
The ability to maximize those relationships to bring out the best in myself and others, both personally and professionally, was a totally unexpected outcome of the program and probably the most valuable professional training I have undertaken. The benefits of the program span all levels of employees and business sectors by maximizing existing relationships and creating new ones through too often routine and undervalued interactions."
-April Meyer, Algonquin Power
"The Polaris Program has helped me to look at life as a whole, not as individual roles and responsibilities.
The toolkit I have developed has, and will continue to be, of use in business and personal life. Each workout has provided insight, strategies and methods that I regularly use to make a positive impact on those around me.
I would highly recommend this program for anyone interested in developing as a manager, leader and person."
- Geoff Topping, MacKinnon Transport
- Tiffany daSilva, Moxi Media


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What are you doing July 2 through 6?
We're having a Beginning Sewing Camp at the Levy County Agricultural Center in Bronson. It starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. except on Fridays when it ends at noon. Lunch and Snacks are provided. You must have been 8 years old by Sept. 1, 2011. There is a limit of six spots.
We will sew a pair of shorts with an elastic waistline. Then we will decorate a T-shirt to match so that you will have a great outfit for the rest of the summer. In the afternoons, we will take a break and do some crafts, painting and quilting at the Levy County Quilt Museum and baking. A fashion show will be held on Friday morning for family and friends.
Cost is $25 plus your fabric and sewing tools. Please call Mrs. Muriel or Ms. Lacy at 352-486-5131 for more information or check out our website firstname.lastname@example.com for more details and information.
Levy County Commission screened volunteers are needed and appreciated for this sewing camp as well as other sewing camps.
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text:
ANPT 6-Step Ring Gage 3/8-18
WESTport provides a complete range of Aeronautical National Form Taper Pipe Thread Ring Gages per SAE AS71051. ANPT thread ring gages are intended for use on pipe, plugs, fittings, and similar devices in aeronautical components and equipment requiring a sealed thread joint and where straight threads and gaskets or O-rings are inadequate.
Other standards referenced are MIL-G-10944 - Gages, Dimensional Control and AND10052 - Bosses - Standard Dimensions for External Pipe Thread.
Inspection gages shall not be used when worn beyond the basic dimensions by more than a ½ turn or pitch. In the case of external threads, the fitting or pipe is within extreme limits when the end of the fitting or pipe is within one turn either way of the small end of the ring gage.
If requirements exists for external or internal threads to be chamfered or countersunk in excess of the dimensions in table 1 of the standard, then the thread size should be determined by using as the reference point, the end of the chamfer or bottom of the countersink (first thread scratch ) instead of from the end of the pipe or fitting.
WESTport Gage Corporation provides a Certificate of Accuracy, traceable to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), free of charge with every gage.


text: i have been having problems keeping a static ip on verizons router. when i first install fresh ubuntu 12.10 and ispconfig3 and set a static ip everything works as it should. as time goes by the router changes from my hostname to just my ip. i cant port forward to my ip. any suggestions?


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Following the launch of the original iPad, hardware manufacturers threw together budget Android tablets and thrust them on an unsuspecting world. By and large such devices were dogs - buggy stretched-up smartphones with inappropriate software and poor build quality.
The recent wave of high-quality Android tablets such as the Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has changed this perception, and for the first time since the iPad launched Apple is seeing its market share squeezed by tablets running Google software.
But the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble Nook HD are loss-leader devices, sold at a price below the cost of production in order to encourage their users to purchase apps and media. Samsung's Galaxy tablets are popular, but expensive. The GoClever Tab R974 fits into neither camp, being inexpensive without the backing of a large media conglomorate.
Here we review the GoClever Tab R974 constantly keeping in mind that it is a budget device and acknowledging the fact that unlike the Amazon and Barnes & Noble products mentioned above, it is a full Google Android tablet, offering open access to the Google Play store.
GoClever Tab R974: build
First impressions of the GoClever Tab R974 are good. Second impressions, not so much.
Mainly plastic in construction, the rear of the GoClever has a faux metallic silver finish that gives a fleeting impression of quality. It's by no means a thin device - certainly not when compared to the current generation of iPads, but the edges taper of nicely so that it feels thinner than it is.
The bezel around the screen isn't huge, but it is bigger than that of premium tablets. The biggest issues with the GoClever's build, however, are the amount of flex and give in its plastic sides, and the loose plastic construction of the volume switch and on/off button. We also noticed small marks being formed in the black plastic front piece. It just doesn't feel like a high-end product (and at this price, it isn't). It also doesn't give off confidence about its long-term durability.
The GoClever Tab R974 measures 243x189x12mm, and weighs 660g. Compare that with the second-generation Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which is only 9.7mm thick and weighs just 587g and you'll notice the difference on both scores. The iPad 4, however, weighs almost the same at 652g. It is much thinner at 9.4mm, however. You get great connectivity options with the GoClever R974, including micro USB, mini HDMI out and a Micro SD slot.
The latter lets you boost the 16GB onboard storage with a further 32GB. There are front- and back-facing 2Mp cameras, the front-facing device being a CMOS snapper. Both capture video, making this a useful Skyping device. We can't imagine another scenario where such cameras would prove useful.
There's a single 1W speaker on the back of the device. We're pretty certain that if you use the GoCLever Tab R974 to watch movies or listen to music, you'll do so via headphones plugged in to the 3.5mm jack. You'll probably want to. The speaker is exactly as good as you'd expect from a single 1W speaker, and its position around the back exactly where your hand naturally rests makes it a less than ideal audio output.
GoClever Tab R974: display
The GoClever boasts a 9.7 inch, TFT capacitative touchscreen LCD. Its 1024x768 resolution makes it far from the crispest screen we've seen, but in the world of Retina displays that's hardly surprising, and there's nothing wrong with the GoClever Tab R974's display. Indeed, as a touchscreen it works well. It has 5 touchpoint control, and we found it zippy and responsive. Viewing photos and videos is actually pretty good too, and the viewing angles are decent. The display is often where budget tablet makers cut corners, but the GoClever Tab R974's screen is far from the worst we've seen.
GoClever Tab R974: hardware
The GoClever Tab R974's specs are actually pretty impressive, at this price. The CPU is a RockChip RK3066 dual-core Coretex A9 chip running at 1.6GHz, and it's backed up with a healthy 1GB of DDR3 memory. As we mentioned there is 16GB of storage built in, in this case MLC NAND Flash storage. There's 802.11n wireless, those two 2Mp cameras, an accelerometer and a 6800mAh 3.7V lithium-polymer battery.
GoClever Tab R974: performance
Those specs add up to decent performance. Subjectively the GoClever Tab R974 feels like a responsive and snappy device. This is born out by our performance benchmarks. In our GeekBench 2 test, the GoClever came out with an average score of 1178 points. This compares reasonably well with the Nexus 7, which scored 1452 points, although the fourth-generation iPad is a million miles ahead with an average score of 1769.
Interestingly, however, the third-generation iPad achieves scores only in the region of 750 points. In terms of pure processing power, therefore, the GoClever Tab R974 is in good company.
In terms of browser speed the GoClever Tab R974 did well in the SunSpider test. The results are given in terms of time, so a lower score here is best. The GoClever Tab R974 managed a decent score of 1267ms, faster than the Nexus 7 which completed the test in 1452ms. The new iPad is again the winner here, with a super quick completion time of 854ms.
So the GoClever's performance is decent, but we can't be sure about HD video and gaming.
We tried to run our usual Egypt HD gaming test, but couldn't get the Tab R974 to play ball. Similarly, we haven't yet tested the battery life of the GoClever Tab. We'll update this review when we have done so.
GoClever Tab R974: software
The GoClever Tab R974 runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. This is no longer the very latest Android OS, but it's as near as dammit. Jelly Bean is the point at which Android stopped being a geek's platform and became suitable for normal consumers. It is slick to look at and snappy to use, intuitive and comfortable. Importantly, unlike the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble HD, the GoClever offers full access to the Google Play store.
If an app has been written for an Android tablet, the GoClever will be able to install it. And the Google Play store now offers access to much more in the way of Movies, Books and Music than it ever did before. Although the home and lock screens of our GoClever Tab R974 were set to GoClever logos (why?) we couldn't see that the manufacturer had made any further adjustments to the OS. That's a good thing!
GoClever Tab R974: the bottom line
In most cases in this world you get what you pay for. That is certainly true of tablets. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble Nook HD are cheap because they lock you in to buying media from their manufacturers. All other premium quality tablets from the likes of Apple, Samsung and Microsoft force you to pay out a premium purchase price. The exception to this is the Nexus 7, where the bill is foot by Google in order to drive sales of apps and media via Google's own Play store.
The Nexus 7 is superior to the GoClever Tab R974 in almost every way - it is better built, from better components. But the GoClever keeps up in terms of performance, matches the Nexus 7 for software and storage, and has a bigger screen. It also has those two 2Mp cameras. Should multiple, low-resoltion cameras or - more likely - a larger screen mean more to you than build quality and design, the GoClever is a decent, budget buy. Just don't expect an iPad at half the price.
One of the better bargain basement tablets we've seen, the GoClever Tab R974 suffers from some of the usual faults of low-cost tablets: poor screen resolution and poor build quality. But it has a great feature set and decent performance. If £200 is your limit and you want a 10-inch tablet - this is a good buy.


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"Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is."
Rating: 4/5.
Summary: Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.
Review: Ah, Paper Towns, how do I describe thee?
It was a long wait for this novel and even with my hopes high for this novel and expectations even higher I still managed to love this novel. Though, I found that I enjoyed Looking for Alaska more, Paper Towns still has heaps to offer.
I expected nothing but brilliance from John Green and I got what I wanted from this novel, sometimes as I read this novel I was astounded by how deep and wonderful the characters were. I loved what this book had to say about our perceptions of people, our imaginations and how they make us judge or assume what people are like.
The characters were amazing, Q was sweet, sometimes he irritated me, but throughout the novel I learnt to live with it. Radar well, everything about him made me laugh, Ben was probably my favourite character, he was hilarious and there was something about him that I loved. Margo though, she was an amazing character that I to an extent admired, she made me laugh and made me all teary and sad, she was delightfully complex.
John does an amazing job of writing for and about teenagers, I loved how the characters were angst ridden and I found them easy to relate to.
"Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters."
This novel was hilarious all the way through, it had me laughing constantly.
The mystery was interesting, the clues I found hard to piece together and even though Margo was gone for the majority of the novel, I felt like the clues allowed me to get to know her. Even though the majority of the time I got to know her through Q's undying obsession that at points through the novel irked me, something about the way he went about looking for Margo at times annoyed me, but only for short bursts in time, then I was wrapped up in the awesomeness of the novel again.
Nerdfighters will adore all the talk of awesome in this novel, I sure did.
The ending, my oh my, does it have me wondering. It was shocking, and I must admit that I had a bit of a jaw dropping moment, I would not have picked what happened and the reactions and well, everything. I thought that the ending was great, I liked how ideal it was and then how it left you wanting to know more and more about the characters and what they actually did after you left them.
"The town was paper, but the memories were not."
This wonderful novel gets four out of five from me, it was amazing and I had a lot of fun reading it. I would recommend it to anyone who reads YA because it's a great book and I would also recommend John's other books (though I have only read Looking for Alaska) because he is an author that you do not want to miss out on.