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Emaline's Home Medical Equipment, LLC
Contact Us
You can contact Emaline's by phone, fax, or e-mail! Our office hours are: 9AM-5PM Monday through Friday. In case of emergency, someone is always on call-24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Tazewell office:
From the junction of Hwy 25E, and Hwy 33 South turn on to 25E South.
Continue Straight for 5 miles and we are on the left.
Phone: (423) 626-3315
Toll Free: (888) 645-9437
Fax: (423) 626-0515
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Middlesboro office:
Turn right onto 19th street from Cumberland Ave, Turn left onto North 19th, our office is on the left beside Jeff's Pharmacy.
Phone: (606) 896- 8003
Fax: (606) 896-8004
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Ravi Katragadda reports in Medium:
There are 80 million Prime customers in the US. The numbers are growing. Prime customers are extremely valuable to Amazon because they spend twice as much as non-prime members. The true value of Alexa lies in the omnipresence and user friendliness it brings to a customer's household.Data suggests that users with Alexa increased their spending on Amazon by 10%. Imagine a membership club of 50% households in the US, EU and India making most of their purchases on Amazon. This is the scale of opportunity Alexa brings to Amazon.
The little Echo Dot sitting calmly next to my bed never ceases to surprise the futurist in me. I use it for mundane daily tasks like setting alarms and not so mundane tasks like ten minute meditations and listening to the sounds of a babbling brook while easing in to a deep sleep. Its a very interesting product and I wanted to dig deeper and analyze its strategic value to Amazon and explore how transformative it could be to our daily lives. In this essay I hope to present my analysis with some facts, assumptions and hypotheses.To understand why Alexa is such a big deal its important for us to dive deep in to Amazon's core revenue drivers and its overall business model.Amazon has two types of customers: Prime and non-Prime customers. Estimates suggest that there are around 80 million Prime customers in the US and the numbers are growing at a healthy pace. Prime customers are extremely valuable to Amazon because they spend twice as much as non-prime members which means Amazon is constantly trying to convert non-primers to prime. An average prime customer is likely to spend $63,000 on on Amazon over his/her lifetime (See fig.2 and 3). Now imagine 50% of US households signing up for Prime and making all of their purchases on Amazon, the numbers would be truly staggering.A Prime customer's average spending is nearly twice the spending of a non-prime member.Considering how game changing Prime is, its only obvious for other retailers like Walmart or Target to come after them with their own competitive offerings. Walmart acquiring Jet.com and Targets rush to online retailing are all a part of this competitive response but they could barely make a dent in Prime's expansion. It is incredibly tough for an incumbent player to compete with a transformative player like Amazon because it does things very differently compared to what the traditional retail industry is used to. In their own words —Customer Obsession: Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.Amazon's success in the retail market becomes very clear when it is viewed through the lens of Red ocean vs Blue ocean strategies. Amazon from day one was in the pursuit of creating efficiencies to drive down the costs for the end customer, while in parallel, creating a differentiated customer experience. It's not very tough for a giant like Walmart to replicate an online shopping store, however it became incredibly tough for Walmart to copy Prime's two day shipping because it just didn't make sense to revamp its successful business model. Walmart operated on a model where the customers came to the goods whereas Amazon flipped the model on its head by delivering the goods to the customers. If you were Walmart or Target's CEO, would you do a sudden 180 degree shift in your business model to compete with Amazon or would you continue to bank on your core strengths like value pricing and network of stores? If you pick the former, would your share holders punish you for the rise in costs they see as unnecessary?By making the customers their prime focus Amazon was able to deliver on two key factors: value and convenienceApart from offering very competitive prices online, Amazon quickly created a good mix of differentiating products and services like video, music, cloud drive, etc for the Prime users to sign up for. On the other hand, Amazon relentlessly worked on cutting the delivery times and started offering same day delivery in large cities which made it very convenient for the Prime users. This created a powerful differentiated value offering that no other retailer was able to compete with, thereby widening Amazon's moat. Over the years, this resulted in a very differentiated, robust ecosystem that no other retailer was able to copy (see fig 5C). Alexa and Echo — the most recent products in Amazon's ecosystem are its next big step towards differentiation and business model innovation.This resulted in a very differentiated, robust ecosystem that no other retailer was able to copy.One of the biggest advantages traditional brick and mortar stores have over Amazon is the presence of sales people who can help you make your purchase. Alexa bridges this gap by being a dedicated shopping assistant available to you at all times. This is yet another 180 degree flip for the retail industry which is traditionally used to customers coming to them for information about their purchases.Alexa can be used on any compatible device: phones, tablets, computers, standalone devices, you name it! It can easily become the single channel for all purchases in a household. This removes most of the friction in the process of making an online purchase by eliminating the need for a screen from the customer's workflow. Making an online purchase is now as easy as screaming 'Alexa buy me some tide..' while chopping vegetables in your kitchen. Think of all those items you forgot to buy because you are not good at keeping lists or maybe you just forgot, all that is lost revenue for Amazon. It won't be the case anymore because users can now talk to Alexa and it directly adds it to your cart for you. The more purchases users make successfully the more Amazon's revenues go up ( see B3 in fig 1). Preliminary data suggests that users with Alexa have increased their spending by 10% (see fig 6b).The true value of Alexa lies in the omnipresence and user friendliness it brings to a customer's household.Data suggests that users with Alexa have increased their spending on amazon.com by 10%.From a strategic standpoint, Alexa is a perfect Horizon 3 product for Amazon. It defends the current core — Amazon Prime like we discussed above. It's almost impossible for other competitors like Walmart or Target to copy Alexa because it means they will have to make very substantial advancements in Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). It can also be deployed as a critical differentiator while competing with current market leaders in other large economies; the best example being Flipkart in India.Alexa also opens up various horizon 2 businesses via its hardware avatars like Echo and Echo dot. In addition, there are numerous possibilities to use Alexa in the fields like healthcare and enterprise— which were previously impregnable to Amazon, and this is just the beginning.The greatest potential for Alexa lies in Amazon's decision to open up Alexa API to third party services and devices. As I mentioned in my previous article Alexa, Siri and the ecosystems of the future there 5M echos in the market with 6000+ Alexa skills and Amazon was able to break the dreaded ecosystem paradox — users won't use your products till there are good apps and developers won't build apps if there is no user base.Amazon was able to create enough value for the users to start using the device while simultaneously getting the developers excited about building skills for Alexa.This is an achievement of the magnitude of the iOS app store. As a result we are now seeing the ecosystem D in the figure 7 below — Prime users surrounded by a mix of Amazon devices and services, Alexa the blue layer is beginning to wrap around this ecosystem.There is also an exciting hardware and devices component to this. By opening up Alexa API to other device makers who build furniture, appliances, smart homes, self driving cars, etc., Amazon has already begun planting the seeds for a thousand flower IoT bloom. Imagine a membership club of atleast 50% households in the US, EU and India making most of their purchases on Amazon. This is the scale of opportunity and transformation Alexa brings to the Amazon ecosystem the future. The revenues Amazon can make from partnering and selling such devices would be staggering; bear in mind that smart home appliances and devices would have been a big revenue stream for Best buy, Ikea, Home Depot, etc in the alternate future.In the not so distant future, Alexa may emerge to be the default aggregator for a wide variety of IoT devices and services in a lot of households. To complement Amazon's core business model it would likely be cheap and widely available a la android. Owning this powerful touch point in customers lives will give Amazon huge competitive advantages like we have never seen before.Viewed from Ben Thompson's Aggregation theory lens, there is a high risk of of OS and Device layers becoming irrelevant since most of users life would be centered around the AI layer, especially as AI advances further. It would also be very fascinating to see how competition around this ecosystem would shape up in the long term. To limit this essay I will have conclude it with some open questions that intrigue me:
- How would other retailers respond to this threat? What about the other two giant ecosystems — Android and iOS?
- Will retailers like Walmart, Target and Flipkart align themselves with Android to gain access to the AI touch point in users' lives? Will that make them more irrelevant or less relevant to a user?
- What would Apple's response be — considering there is a significant overlap between iOS users and Amazon Prime users? Are Siri and Homepod the right answer to Alexa?
- How would other dominant players in China like WeChat and Alibaba respond to this?
- What would be the role of government in making sure these ecosystems are fair and non-monopolistic? More customer data means better AI and personalization but it also means privacy issues and monopolistic advantages.

subset: commoncrawl


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Design 21 Announces Winner for FSC Campaign
Online "social design network" Design 21 has announced the winners of their latest competition, "Wood, Paper, Checkmark": a consumer action & education campaign for the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC-US) wood, in collaboration with the FSC and the Nature Conservancy. Faced with the facts of increasing deforestation, participants were asked to create an image that would be used for online and print ads and a clever URL that would be used in the future campaign.
After reviewing 127 original entries from 34 countries, the judges chose their $5,000 winner (picture above) as well as their top picks, after the fold:Winner: Damian O'Hara & Christophe Roger
Campaign: "FSC Campaign" (pictured above)
Country: France
Proposed URL: www.buygoodwood.org
According to the judges, "We selected this campaign for its direct simplicity, warm and humorous tone, and how it allows FSC to reference such large topics as climate change, indigenous people's rights and wildlife protection." Adding, "This is a very smart and clever campaign with a clean, understated design that we believe will be very appealing to the 'conservation-engaged' audience that will be the target."
Other top picks by judges:
Campaign: "Know Forestry"
Author: 1187 Creative (Zak Ouart, Ben Ouart, Steven Darby, Russ Gruber, Lindsey Cox)
Country: United States
Proposed URL: www.KnowForestry.com
Campaign: "Protect the Earth: Approved Campaign"
Author: Carlos Pion
Country: United States
Proposed URL: www.protectheforest.com
Campaign: "The Eco-Shopping Campaign"
Author: Isabel Sanchez
Country: United States
Proposed URL: www.ecoshopping.org
More information the Wood, Paper, Checkmark competition, images of all submitted entries and honourable mentions can be found here.
About Design 21
Founded by Felissimo and UNESCO to inspire and promote design for the greater good, DESIGN 21 has already held several creative competitions to date, ranging from protecting linguistic diversity, to environmental and poverty awareness campaigns. Design 21 functions as an "online community that brings together socially conscious designers, non-profits, individuals and organizations." Currently, the network includes over 18,000 members from more than 170 countries and over 320 organizations from the non-profit, corporate, education and government sectors and membership is free.
Design 21 via press release
More on Design 21
Languages Matter! UNESCO Design Competition To Promote Linguistic Diversity
Heated Issue: A Global Warming Design Competition


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J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc. developed from its origins as a private equity investment firm, through a secondary stage as an investment partnership, to today's diversified manufacturing corporation. In each instance, the management and administrative team from the predecessor evolved into the new entity and the holdings of the prior firm became the core of the subsequent one.
The original predecessor of J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc. was formed in New York City in 1983. KD/P Equities was a partnership between Kellner, DiLeo & Co. (the KD), a highly respected merger arbitrage firm, and John B. Poindexter (the P). Mr. Poindexter at the time had most recently been a General Partner at Smith Barney Venture Corp., a subsidiary of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., today Salomon Smith Barney.
The objective of KD/P Equities was to assemble a portfolio of manufacturing concerns with excellent growth prospects and profit characteristics. Kellner, DiLeo & Co. desired to expand its trading and financial base, through a separate affiliate, into a group of ownership interests that offered good capital gains prospects. They chose to partner with Mr. Poindexter in order to capitalize on his experience at Smith, Barney, Harris Upham & Co., Salomon Brothers, and other investment firms.
KD/P Equities was a very successful venture that acquired, among other companies, All Steel, Inc., Carolina Steel Corporation, and a group of four companies that were merged with Carolina Steel. All Steel manufactured a full line of office furniture and accessories and Carolina Steel and its affiliates produced and distributed a variety of steel industrial and building products. Altogether, the revenues of the acquired companies approached $500 million. They were competently operated by KD/P Equities and each provided highly rewarding capital gains for the partnership.
The investment strategy of the KD/P team, however, began to evolve from that of acquiring companies by means of ingenious financial structuring, implementing operational enhancements, and reselling businesses for capital gains. The new objective that was adopted in the mid-1980s emphasized buying companies to hold and operate for the long term. Along with this shift in strategy, a new partnership, J.B. Poindexter & Co., LP, was formed by KD/P's management team in 1985. The staff of the new organization was the same as that of the previous firm. The new partnership also retained most of the management responsibility for the companies purchased by KD/P Equities until they were sold. The capital gains realized by KD/P Equities provided the equity base for the new partnership.
J.B. Poindexter & Co., LP made a number of acquisitions, including Morgan Corporation, EFP Corporation, Leer, Inc., The Lowy Group, Traxxon, Inc., Magnetic Instruments Corporation, and others, almost all of which were operated very successfully. Morgan produces truck bodies, EFP is a fabricator of expandable foam plastic products, Leer (now a part of Truck Accessories Group) assembles and distributes pickup truck accessories, the Lowy Group manufactures and distributes flooring products, Traxxon was a distributor of flat rolled steel products, and Magnetic Instruments (now MIC Group) is a high precision machining concern. Aggregate revenues of the new acquisitions, again, were in the $500 million range.
The partners of J.B. Poindexter & Co., LP began to take a more active role with the management teams of its affiliates as the company's perspective shifted from being an investor to being an owner/manager. They learned the importance of leaving the subsidiaries' incumbent managements in place and working with them to improve corporate strategy, financial performance, budgeting, and capital expenditure discipline.
Additionally, J.B. Poindexter & Co., LP began to provide a wider range of corporate services to support the operating managements of its subsidiaries. For example, the firm developed the ability to generate external funding beyond the initial acquisition financing, and it established internal audit, risk management, information technology, and human resources capabilities, together with a more formalized approach to acquisition analysis.
As the orientation of the company continued to shift from seeking intermediate-term capital gains to long-term ownership and management, the decision was made to relocate the partnership headquarters from New York City to Houston. The transfer was accomplished in stages between 1987 and 1990 as the firm ceased to be an investment partnership and became an operating entity.
In 1994, the partnership decided to generate more capital for operations and acquisitions by issuing $100 million of senior notes through Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Inc. Consequently, the company was converted from a partnership to a corporation, J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc., and John Poindexter became the sole shareholder.
The new corporation continued its active acquisition program both before and after the sale of the senior notes. During this period it acquired 20th Century Fiberglass, Inc., GemTop Manufacturing, Inc., and the companies comprising Raider Industries, all of which are manufacturers of pickup truck accessories. Additional purchases included Midwest Truck Accessories, Inc., a distributor of aftermarket truck accessories, KWS Manufacturing Company, Inc., a manufacturer of bulk material handling systems and conveyors, Universal Brixius, Inc., a contract manufacturer, and Beltrami Door, a fabricator of vehicular doors. The revenues of the new acquisitions, together with others not described here, approximated $200 million. Aside from the acquisitions, J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc. undertook a large-scale expansion of Leer, Inc.'s retail and wholesale distribution system for pickup truck accessories.
The corporation developed new and effective internal communications practices, including standardized reporting, quarterly joint management meetings with all subsidiaries, and formal budgeting and capital appropriations procedures. A corporate level senior executive, for example, now supports the subsidiaries in their continual improvement of manufacturing processes, operating efficiencies, and the quality of their final products. Nonetheless, the goal of the corporate headquarters remains to coordinate, support, and provide financing for the operations of its subsidiaries rather than to manage them.
Between 1995 and 1998, the new corporation faced a period of serious internal trial in one of its three divisions. As part of a strategy of corporate expansion that emphasized internal growth, the Truck Accessories Group, including the Leer division, had grown to comprise four manufacturing companies and a sizeable group of retail stores and wholesale distribution centers. Management undertook a costly and complicated reorganization of the $200 million division so as to focus it more properly on its separate retail and wholesale markets and to upgrade its manufacturing and marketing capabilities. While the concept of the reorganization was sound, its execution was not, with the result that some of the components of the Truck Accessories Group ceased to operate profitably. Consequently, the division and the company suffered financially between 1995 and 1998. Nearly all of management's attention in those years was devoted to correcting the Truck Accessories Group's shortcomings rather than building value in the other more profitable divisions.
In the years since 1999, financial performance has improved throughout all subsidiaries. The company enjoys positive cash flows and maintains an excellent working capital profile. Additionally, corporate management has been able to focus upon filling out several of the subsidiary management teams and the parent staff by recruiting first class operating and administrative executives.
Today, J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc. is a diversified manufacturing company with 4,500 team members in over 35 facilities from Oregon to Florida and Saskatchewan to Mexico. The majority of the business is in the transportation related manufacturing sector, with many of our businesses leaders in their markets with longstanding branded product offerings. Annual revenue is in excess of $1.25 billion dollars and J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc.'s medium term goal is to expand to three billion dollars in profitable, growth oriented revenues.
© 2016 J.B. Poindexter & Co., Inc.
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In the past long-term care insurance has been purchased primarily by middle and upper-middle class people. The wealthy tend to 'self-fund' their long-term care needs with extra assets which would otherwise be included in their estates. But now, with long-term care costs rising dramatically and over 40% of Americans 65 and older needing some sort of long term care, better planning is needed to protect assets.* If we give further consideration to increasing life-spans and the diminishing effect the recession has had on many households in the $2-5M net worth range, it may make sense for more wealthy individuals to start purchasing long-term care insurance as both a hedge against these risks and a protective measure for future giving ability.
As a refresher, long-term care insurance helps elderly individuals who are unable to perform certain daily activities pay for professional assistance if and when needed. This could be nursing care, an assisted living facility, or home care. The average cost of home care in New York is at an all-time high right now of $398 per day (Genworth Financial: 2008 Cost of Care Survey). Even this figure represents an average and not the very best accommodations which can reach as high as $500/day. Wealthy individuals tend to want the best home care and/or the best assisted living facilities which can easily surpass $100,000/year.
Even with a brief, 3-year stay in a nursing facility, high net-worth individuals may be looking at a $300,000 expenditure. Even if this is tolerable, the real cost of long-term care is not the actual cost, but the opportunity cost. In order to pay out of pocket, individuals will have to hold on to assets in their accounts. These assets, which would have been used to pay for long-term care insurance years earlier, are now stuck in the individual's estate, which are subject to the estate tax. As the years go on, it is increasingly difficult for an individual to transfer assets out of their estate. With an estate tax of up to 55%, it may be beneficial to pay the insurance premiums and transfer the extra money out of your estate at an earlier date.
Fortunately for consumers, long-term care providers have been innovating on products and there are now more and less costly ways of purchasing long-term care insurance. Many policies now have an option to return a portion of the premium if not used. Depending on how much you're willing to pay for the insurance now, the return of the premium option ranges from just a small portion, to the entire premium.
If you have questions about your need for long-term care insurance, feel free to contact me or your own financial advisor.
Russell Bailyn
Wealth Manager
Premier Financial Advisors, Inc
14 E 60th Street, #402
New York, NY 10022
*U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Special thanks to Brian Schuman for his contributions on this article
Securities and certain investment advisory services offered through: First Allied Securities, Inc., a registered Broker/Dealer. Member: FINRA/SIPC. Premier Financial Advisors, Inc. is a Registered Investment Advisor. First Allied Securities & Premier Financial Advisors are not affiliated entities.


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If you are interested in getting an EIN, you will be glad to know that it is very simple. First, however, it is important that you know exactly what a Federal Employer Identification Number is. An EIN is a number that is assigned to a business by the federal government for taxation purposes. It is basically the equivalent of a Tax Payer Identification Number for businesses. Everyone in the US has a Taxpayer Identification Number, or TIN. For Most people, their TIN is their social security number. It may be helpful for you to think of an EIN as a social security number for a business.
Apply for an EIN by Mail
You can apply for an EIN through the mail. Applying for an EIN through the mail generally takes about four weeks. To do this, you must mail the SS-4 form to the Internal Revenue Service. In order to obtain an SS-4 form, you can contact the Internal Revenue Service by mail.
Apply for an EIN by Fax
You can also apply for an EIN by faxing the SS-4 form to the IRS. Send the fax to the Internal Revenue Service via this fax number: (859) 669-5760. If you choose to process your SS-4 by fax, the process will take approximately four business days, assuming nothing is wrong with your application. Once again, you can find a pdf of the SS-4 form at this website:
Apply for an EIN Through a Toll-Free Telephone Service
You can very conveniently apply for your EIN through a toll-free telephone service. Call (800) 829-4933 anytime, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. (EST). An assessor will interview you, based off of questions on the SS-4, and record your answers. By using this method, you should be able to have your EIN by the end of the phone call.
Apply for an EIN Online
The IRS is now offering an EIN application that is completely online. This application is the quickest and easiest way to get your EIN, as well as the way the IRS currently recommends. To do this, you will simply need to fill out an online, interview-style application. You will not need to fill out an SS-4 if you use this method.
Applying for Multiple EINs
If you are an individual looking to apply for multiple EINs, you should be aware that the most EINs any one individual can apply for during any given day is five. If you need to apply for more than five EINs, you will need to apply for them over a course of several days. This is because of the high demand that EIN services have to deal with on a consistent basis.


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We had a day-tour in Tagaytay last Nov 19 to celebrate Gani's birthday and also, our first year in San Juan. Lola slept over in the house the night before to join us on this weekend getaway.
First stop was at Picnic Grove. We didn't bring sweaters and it was quite cold the first time we went out of the car. Feels like Baguio to me but after several minutes of walking around the area, it started getting warmer so we're better off without sweaters.
|family with Lola
For lunch, we tried Josephine's buffet. They offered mostly Filipino dishes and grilled food. Reese was not in the mood to eat anything so she ended up eating halo-halo with sago as the only solid ingredient. That was definitely not filling, so we made her ate spaghetti in Jollibee at Paseo Center. Yeah, we took the time to visit the said outlet mall. I've read from a blog that Paseo Center offers good deals, but I got disappointed since I was expecting the good buys to be like what I used to have from outlet malls in US (Albertville) & HK (City Gate). As for Gani, he found something he likes and bought 2 nice shirts for his birthday present. J
For pasalubong, we went to Rowena's. I got pastillas de leche this time but was not satisfied with it. My mom and I were kidding, it's just Carnation milk! Other items we bought for loved ones were chocolate oatmeal, kasuy (this one is good!), pastillas de kasuy and lengua. None of us was eager to eat buko pie that time so we skipped that yummy treat.
On our way going back home, we passed by Nuvali. Reese enjoyed feeding the vast number of Japanese kois. She thought that the fish pellets were chocolate but good thing she didn't try eating it and just throw it out in feed the wide opened-mouth of hungry/greedy fish!
|at Nuvali
Fun day with the family, and best of all, mom was there to enjoy with us and Reese. :-)
Now, back to work. :p


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The remnants of Hurricane Isaac are working their way north, leaving behind flooding and significant damage along the Gulf Coast.
Week of Compassion, in partnership with its ecumenical and denominational partners, is currently working to assess the best ways we can respond. As the waters recede, we will have a better sense of how we will be able to do so.
Our partners in ministry in the Great River Region are keeping in touch with congregations in affected areas, helping us to gather the most up-to-date information we can. We have been in touch with First Christian Church, Slidell, LA, as that community has received significant media coverage; thus far, no reports of loss or damage are emerging from the congregation itself. Nonetheless, there will be needs in the wider community of Slidell. Through our longstanding partnerships, we will be able to contribute when that time comes.
Likewise, our partners at Church World Service are collecting information, assessing damage and capacities for responding, and will provide direction for an ecumenical response early next week. Early reports indicate property damage in Mississippi and Louisiana, and some in Florida. Congregations are invited to help provide clean-up kits and to reach out through Week of Compassion's Disaster Response Fund.
Through this, we give thanks for your generosity, care, and the concern you have expressed for those affected by Isaac. Above all, we give thanks to the God who calms the storms that wreak havoc, brings light to the darkness, and calls us to bring comfort amidst chaos.
A Pastoral Note from the Republic of Congo:
Nous suivons avec angoisse et peine à travers les médias,les désastres causés par le cyclonne Isaac. Nous sommes avec vous en prière. J'ai démandé à tous nos P.S P. de faire des chaines de prière pour le peuple americaine en général et en particulier aux victimes du cyclones. Que Jésus Christ nous vienne en aide.
We have followed the news with sadness and grief of the disaster caused by Hurricane Issac. We are with you in prayer. I have asked all our regional ministers to start a prayer chain for the American people in general and in particular for the victims of the hurricane/tropical storm. May Jesus Christ be our help.
Rev. Georges Ngoka
President and Legal Representative
Church of Disciples of Christ
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo


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Tehran 50 celebrates the foundation of the Tehran Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) fifty years ago. The department commenced its work in 1961 and has been connected, as an external branch, to the DAI's Eurasian Department since 1996.
Iran's history has always fascinated scholars and inspired travellers to explore the country. Places such as Persepolis held the promise of unlocking the secrets of a past that was also of historical importance for Europeans. The exhibition starts of by taking the visitor back to a time when excavations were not commonplace. Conducting archaeological research in a country that did not conduct any itself was exciting from a professional level but also presented those involved with human challenges. Ernst Herzfeld's research in Persepolis is a good case in point.
Tehran 50 tells of the history of archaeology in Iran from two perspectives. The Second World War and its consequences set the formation of a department back by several decades. In 1961 offices were set up in the country however and the organization could lend its full professional support to the digs already underway at Takht-e Soleyman. The department's exploration of Persian history ranges from prehistory up to the Qajar dynasty. Apart from the 'view from the outside looking in' Tehran 50 also presents a look from within the country itself: the view of the Iranians observing Germans at work in their country. Relevant sources of information on this angle come in the form of archive material held at the institute itself, contemporary press reports and film footage. Ultimately, Tehran 50 also serves as a window to the future - a future that holds numerous possibilities to step up active cooperation between researchers from various nations.
10178 Berlin
U-Bahn U6 (Friedrichstraße)
S-Bahn S1, S2, S25, S26 (Friedrichstraße); S3, S5, S7, S9 (Hackescher Markt)
Tram M1, 12 (Am Kupfergraben); M4, M5, M6 (Hackescher Markt)
Bus TXL (Staatsoper); 100, 200 (Lustgarten); 147 (Friedrichstraße)
Low-carbon public transport connections
Local traffic
Long distance
Sun 10:00 - 18:00
Mon 10:00 - 18:00
Tue 10:00 - 18:00
Wed 10:00 - 18:00
Thu 10:00 - 20:00
Fri 10:00 - 18:00
Sat 10:00 - 18:00
Opening times on public holidays Plan your visit
During the current stage of renovations, the hall containing the Pergamon Altar is due to remain closed to the public until 2023. The north wing and the gallery of Hellenistic art are also affected by the closure. The South Wing of the Pergamonmuseum, featuring the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Museum of Islamic Art, remains unaffected and is open to the public during this time.
At the moment the finds from Uruk and Habuba Kabira as well as the rooms with babylonian and ancient iranian monuments are not accessible to the public.
Please note that the elevator is out of order until further notice and that due to construction and the high volume of visitors, longer waiting times may be experienced.
Last admission and ticket sales 30 minutes before closing time.
Pergamon Museum
12,00 EUR Concessions 6,00
Buy ticket
Museum Island all exhibitions
18,00 EUR Concessions 9,00
Buy ticket
Museum Pass Berlin 3 days for permanent exhibitions
29,00 EUR Concessions 14,50
Buy ticket
Annual ticket Classic
temporary exhibitions not included
50,00 EUR Concessions 25,00
Annual ticket Classic Plus
all exhibitions
100,00 EUR Concessions 50,00
Annual membership Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
from just 25,00 EUR
Weitere Informationen


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If your not-for-profit organization is looking to reach a wider audience through the use of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Google's Ad Grants program is an ideal solution. However, if you're busy running your organization, you may not have time to set up, test, and optimize your PPC ads. You may not have time for Google Grants management, either.
WebFX, a leading PPC agency, offers nonprofit PPC management services at an affordable cost for businesses utilizing the Google Ad Grants program. Refer to our pricing chart below to learn more about how we can help you set up, monitor, and maintain your PPC ads so you can keep your focus on doing what you do best—running your business—while your organization reaches the most people online as possible.
Keep reading to learn how we can help, and give us a call at 888-601-5359.
|Monthly Google Ad Grants management (Up to $10k a month)
|Initial campaign development & strategy
|Advanced keyword research and selection
|Industry analysis
|Ad campaign copywriting
|Ad copy performance testing
|Ongoing keyword development and tweaking
|Dynamic keyword insertion into ads
|Google analytics integration & goal tracking
|200+ SMEs behind campaign driving results
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Please note: Due to limitations set by Google, WebFX cannot make any guarantees for the exact amount of monthly PPC spend within your Ad Grants account. Your account manager will provide their best estimate as to what level of monthly ad spend is possible after an initial analysis of your account.
The Google Ad Grants program provides eligible nonprofit organizations with up to $10,000 each month (or $329 per day) in free PPC advertising through its AdWords program. These PPC ads are intended to attract more visitors and donors to the nonprofit's website. It's important to note that while Google Grants PPC operates similarly to regular ad programs, it is made specifically to help nonprofits extend their reach.
Ads created through the Ad Grants program show at the top and sides of search results on Google. Only nonprofit organizations are eligible for Ad Grants, and there are some restrictions on eligibility, which you'll learn about below.
Organizations interested in applying for Google Ad Grants must be an eligible charity or not-for-profit organization. They must meet the following requirements:
These are fairly simple requirements for Google Grants PPC. However, there are a few exclusions to the rules above—for example, philanthropic educational programs (like church-sponsored preschool or early learning programs) are permitted. The best way to determine whether or not your organization is eligible for Ad Grants is to read the eligibility information on Google's website.
If your organization does not meet these criteria, but you are still interested in starting an affordable PPC campaign to attract new donors or leads, you might want to check out our PPC campaign management pricing instead.
Google recently announced a few changes and updates to its Ad Grants terms and conditions, which will be effective as of January 1st, 2018.
One of the updates states that single-word keywords are no longer permitted, with the exception of branded words, recognized medical conditions, and words such as donate, donation, and charities. You cannot use keywords including names of places, historical people and events, or keywords with a Quality Score of two or less.
All accounts must maintain a 5% click-through rate. If the account doesn't meet this requirement for two straight months, it will be cancelled. However, Google stated that holders are able to request to be reinstated once keywords are adjusted and the account is in compliance.
Another update lifts the $2 bid cap that currently exists when using Maximize conversions bidding.
The last part of Google's announcement focused on requirements that all accounts must meet, including:
We know these updates may sound overwhelming and even confusing. You can contact one of our experts online or call 888-601-5359 to learn more about the updates and what your nonprofit should do to remain in compliance.
Bill Craig WebFX President
Our PPC management for nonprofit businesses almost exactly mirrors our PPC management for traditional businesses. The biggest difference is that your daily and monthly spend will be limited by Google. (If you would like to supplement your $329 per day and $10,000 per month allowances with your own budget, Google does allow you to do this.)
All of WebFX's PPC management plans include a dedicated Internet marketing expert who will be responsible for monitoring, adjusting, and reporting on your PPC advertising. This account representative will be available to answer questions about the performance of your ads, and will continuously review and adjust your targeted keywords to ensure that your not-for-profit organization is reaching the widest audience possible online.
In addition to a dedicated Internet marketer, your Ad Grants plan will also come with monthly reporting and analysis that allows you to see just how many clicks and conversions your ads drove. This knowledge will allow you to make smarter decisions about the words and phrases to target, and how to better spend your monthly advertising budget.
Additional options, like campaign management for global nonprofit organizations that would like to launch international PPC, or the setup of conversion analysis for your PPC ads, can be done on our aggressive and market leader management plans. These plans are quoted based on a monthly percentage of your PPC spend as opposed to a set amount.
With Google Ad Grants, you can promote your nonprofit's programs and events on the most popular search engine in the world. And a Google Grant is essentially free advertising.
One of the main benefits of PPC advertising is that results are instantaneous. If you're trying to quickly drive traffic to your nonprofit website, PPC advertising is a great option. In fact, if you're approved for a Google Grant, you can begin sending qualified traffic to your website as soon as your ads go live.
PPC advertising also allows you to test a variety of keywords and advertisements to determine what attracts the most traffic to your website. Then, you can incorporate those insights into your website copy and marketing materials to better resonate with your target audience.
By sharing your message with people who are likely to engage with your mission, your nonprofit can achieve greater visibility, more donations, and more volunteers.
Google Ad Grants allow you to put Google to work for you, and to grow your nonprofit organization through the use of free PPC advertising. With help from WebFX, you can improve your website's visibility and attract new donors while you remain focused on doing what you do best: running your business.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you setup, monitor, maintain, and improve your Google Ad Grants account. We look forward to hearing from you!
Find out how WebFX can create an effective Internet marketing strategy for your website. Call 888-601-5359 or contact us online today for a free evaluation.


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Alcatel OT-S319 'heap and nicely designed'
Those looking for a cheap handset on a budget could recycle used mobilephones to fund the purchase of the Alcatel OT-S319.
According to Trusted Reviews' Sandra Vogel, the device is available at under £15 on Pay As You Go (PAYG) from the Carphone Warehouse and despite it's low price tag is a "nicely designed" model.
She explains that although it is easy to criticise such a device for all the things it does not feature, the only real thing she can highlight is the lack of Bluetooth connectivity.
However, when it comes to value for money the OT-S319 provides a number pad that is "fairly well made", buttons that are "large and well formed" – and a calendar Ms Vogel describes as "reasonable".
"It would function well for anyone who just wants a mobile for calls and texts and is happy with PAYG," she concludes.
The Alcatel OT-S319 is available in black, pink and red.
Let Mazuma Mobile turn your old mobile into cash http://www.mazumamobile.com/


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Print Edition - 2016-07-29 | News
Unesco committee gives Nepal a year to restore Valley's world heritage sites ANUP OJHA
-, Kathmandu
Jul 29, 2016-
The earthquake-damaged world heritage sites in Kathmandu Valley are at risk of being put on the Unesco List of World Heritage in Danger if they are not renovated within a year.
The 40th session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee that concluded in Istanbul on July 20 gave Nepal government one more year to restore the damaged heritage sites at the request of Nepali delegation, led by Prem Kumar Rai, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
Bhesh Narayan Dahal, the director general of Department of Archaeology (DoA), who was part of the delegation, said the committee had proposed putting
our heritage sites on the danger list, citing delay in renovation.
"We were able to secure a year extension for which the support of 18 representative countries was instrumental," Dahal said.
Lebanon, Poland and Portugal were the countries to oppose the extension
With only a year in hand, the DoA has decided to expedite the restoration works of the world heritage sites that were heavily damaged by the Gorkha Earthquake of April 2015 and its strong aftershocks.
Dahal said the DoA has already mobilised 106 technicians for restoration works.
A total of 753 temples and monuments inside the heritage sites were damaged by the quake. Out of the seven Unesco World Heritage Sites in Kathmandu Valley, Swayambhunath Stupa, Changu Narayan Temple, Basantapur Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square and Bhaktapur Durbar Square have suffered considerable damage with many structures reduced to rubble. In comparison, two other heritage sites - Boudhanath Stupa and Pashupatinath Temple - are largely intact.
"We have already initiated the process to restore 48 of the damaged structures," Dahal said.
A Unesco team is expected to visit Nepal at the end of this year to monitor and observe the restoration works of the world heritage sites.
"We have a lot to achieve by then," said Dahal.
He added that the entire project could take up to three years.
The DoA has requested the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Rs 2 billion for the restoration and renovation of the Unesco World Heritage Sites.
Restoration of the quake-hit world heritage sites could not take place in time due to the delay in the formation of the NRA.
Published: 29-07-2016 12:54
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With excitement at fever pitch over the announcement that The Rolling Stones will finally be headlining Glastonbury, we take a look back at some iconic photos of the band at their biggest shows over the years: from their legendary free concert in Hyde Park after the death of Brian Jones to their more recent globe-straddling, money-printing mega-tours. One question remains: just where does Mick Jagger get his energy from?
A big hand for Mick Jagger during the Stones' Licks World Tour at the Olympic Stadium in Munich on June 6, 2003. Photo: PA
Jagger treads the boards in orange. Photo: PA
The Stones played Rockford Illinois' Metro Centre after receiving a petition of 32,000 names from local fans. Photo: PA
Jagger reaches out to the audience during a free five-hour concert in front of nearly 250,000 fans in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969. Photo: PA
The Stones will have to do without their normally mammoth stage-set at Worthy Farm. Photo: PA
Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards weave guitars at Taylor Field in Regina, Canada in October 2006. Photo: PA
Mick Jagger demonstrates the inspiration for the Stones lips logo at the San Siro stadium in Milan in 2006. Photo: PA
Keith Richards lays down some licks at Helsinki Stadium. Photo: PA
Mick makes sure we get the point. Photo: PA
A huge Rolling Stones gig is sadly cut short by the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers having to come back on to finish Super Bowl XL. Photo: PA


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Perspective changes with time and experience. My first time in India, I was twenty years old- a second year college student on the pre-med track—visiting Calcutta, working in the hospice that Mother Teresa started, volunteering at orphanages, learning about Hinduism and world religions-- all in hopes of expanding my world views and learning to care for the underserved. It is that international experience that affirmed my decision to enter into medicine and shaped my desire to care for those in need as a physician. Fast forward 8 years later—I am now a second year family medicine resident in India's dense metropolitan capital city, Delhi, for a medical elective learning about public health, obstetrics, and internal medicine.
The difference I note in myself is more surprising than uncomfortable, because when I was twenty, I had quite the romanticized view of India, and travel in general, even after I returned to the United States. Witnessing that kind of poverty first-hand was quite formative and left me with a sense of responsibility to the international community. Now as a practicing resident-physician, I feel my perspective has matured -as I see the same needs and struggles more clearly here in the U.S. While my attachment to the international community remains strong, it is compassion towards humanity that allows me to return back to my work gladly, knowing I have a responsibility to care for my patients here at home as well as abroad.
Regardless of country or culture, we as a society and as a medical community face the same task and challenge: to care for the marginalized, high-risk populations, amid socio-economic injustices and imbalances, pathologic diseases, cultural paradigms, and so forth. India's challenge of providing the highest quality care by western standards, arises in the setting of being a newly independent country, with longstanding culture and traditional ways of living, impacted by a dense population with limited resources and infrastructure.
It led me to reflect on barriers to health-care. Perhaps the most obvious barrier for me in providing care in India was understanding language and cultural contexts. I spent a week sitting in with an obstetrician, Dr. Sharma at Aakash hospital, picking-up medical terminology for outpatient obstetrics. As for health-care-access and screening for women in India, much of the barriers lie within cultural paradigms. From what I observed, the family unit in India is very strong; most women are accompanied by a husband and father-in-law, or some male authoritative figure who makes many of the medical decisions. Childbearing is highly encouraged and expected, but to be pregnant out of wed-lock is not socially acceptable. So much so, that most if not all unwed mothers will have abortions (or so I was told). Additionally, sexually-transmitted infections though common, are not openly spoken about or screened for due to social stigma. Though admittedly, this reflection may be an oversimplification of the complex topic of women's health and rights based on one snapshot in time. Despite the cultural challenges in mind, there are many physicians there who are working towards overcoming these barriers to women's health by increasing public education on reproductive health and improving health-care access.
I spent the following week afterwards in Chandigarh, north of Delhi, with public health workers and physicians who are actively working towards decreasing neonatal mortality by encouraging institutionalized hospital births over traditional home births. In fact, the Indian government incentivizes births by paying families a lump sum to deliver in the hospital, making the financial barrier easier to overcome. That being said, patients still have cultural reasons for delivering at home even if distance and financial hurdles are negated.
The public health workers in Chandigarh also focused on providing counseling and STD testing to female sex-workers. The sex-working industry, though illegal and stigmatized, is still very present in India. I entered the homes of women in the slums who were involved in sex-work and had a Q&A time to understand the barriers to health-care. All of those we spoke to entered sex-work for financial reasons: some had husbands who were deceased, and those husbands who were alive struggled to make ends meet financially and suffered from alcoholism. Many of these women were also victims of domestic violence. An average sexual encounter costs Rs 300-Rs1000 an act (that's about $5-$15). And while not an easy lifestyle, the money was easy to make in comparison to working for longer hours for the same pay. Faced with the reality that the sex-work industry is difficult to leave due to financial constraints, the public health program focused their efforts on making the industry as safe as possible by providing health education, medications, free condoms, STD testing, and other medical resources. Overall they have been very successful at their interventions, and all the women we spoke to endorse using protection for intercourse consistently (a significant feat for a culture that is discrete about even the purchase of condoms!).
My final week I worked in internal medicine at Apollo hospital. The barrier of limited resources for those in poverty, evidenced by poor water sanitation and the slums, extended even into the hospitals. How precious a commodity a unit of packed-red blood cells is! In Delhi, the blood supply is limited and the patient receiving blood must find someone from his family or friends to donate the same amount he received in return. Organ donation is hampered in part by religious and cultural views on the sacredness of the body. Physicians I worked with are currently working at the grass-roots level to raise awareness and debunk myths of organ donation.
I came away from my time in India grateful for the experience and humbled again at the ample resources available to those in the United States. These barriers to medical care in India impress upon me the importance of patient education incumbent upon the physician in order to improve health-care outcomes. Of course, in order to enact societal change, it is paramount to maintain respect for any culture you work in and cultivate an understanding of societal and systemic barriers.
Going forward, I remain eager to continue medical work abroad, now with a stronger social construct that will aid in caring for people within my own country and around the world. It is with this I conclude my reflections, until my next international elective….
Thank you the faculty and staff at VCMC, FMed, CFHI and to all who supported this endeavor!


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HIV's high level of genetic diversity, the large difference in nucleotide sequence from strain to strain of the virus, presents a particular challenge to the HIV vaccine field. Even if a vaccine existed that perfectly protects against infection from one HIV strain, there are no guarantees it would also protect against other strains. Further complicating matters, the virus can mutate incredibly quickly within its human host, so "escape mutations" that allow a given strain to evade the immune system's grasp are common.
To understand which of the many genetic variations in HIV are important and are likely to affect vaccine efficacy, researchers need sophisticated computational tools to compare and contrast multiple different viral sequences. Dr. Paul Edlefsen, new assistant member in VIDD, is creating tools to aid in this comparison, called multiple sequence alignment.
"For highly evolving viruses, the immune system might be great at protecting against what you told it to protect against with the original vaccine, but the virus will just adapt away from that," Edlefsen said. "Ultimately understanding how the virus adapts could help us come up with strategies to develop a vaccine that would thwart that escape."
One possible way that comparing HIV sequences could help in vaccine design is by identifying which regions are conserved among multiple strains of HIV, meaning those regions are too important to change drastically. A vaccine constructed against those important regions might be harder for HIV to escape by mutating. "Although this sounds easy, it's really not," Edlefsen said.
Sequence alignment is an important tool to many fields of biology, not just HIV research, but it's not always a straightforward procedure. Especially among related sequences with high levels of variation, such as in HIV, it can be difficult to see which regions of one sequence are equivalent to those in another. Understanding how these sequences evolved from a common ancestor can go a long way in helping this alignment, Edlefsen said. But in many cases researchers don't know which nucleotides existed in the evolutionary ancestor and which regions mutated more recently. So most sequence alignment tools just take their best guess.
"It's a chicken and egg problem," Edlefsen said, because evolutionary trees are used to construct alignments, and those alignments are then used in turn to make judgments about the different sequences' evolution.
During his doctoral research at Harvard University, Edlefsen approached this problem looking not at HIV sequences, but at transposons, self-replicating pieces of DNA scattered throughout the genome that are thought to be ancestral remnants of old viruses. Like HIV, transposon sequences are highly variable, and picking out a transposon from background DNA sequences can be tricky. To better identify new transposons, Edlefsen adapted a standard statistical tool, called profile hidden Markov models, to create several different sequence alignments instead of just one. His computational approach then looks at that distribution of alignments and creates a distribution of evolutionary relationships between the sequences for each possible alignment.
Eventually, Edlefsen hopes to design tools that will simultaneously create distributions of both sequence alignments and evolutionary relationships, so that the alignments don't have to depend on faulty assumptions of ancestry and evolution. He then plans to apply his approaches to HIV sequences. Currently, Edlefsen is collaborating with VIDD member Dr. Peter Gilbert on ongoing "sieve analysis" of HIV vaccine trials. The researchers compare the HIV strains of placebo and vaccine recipients that became infected during the trial, to see whether the tested vaccine influenced the types of HIV strains that were able to infect. In this way, the scientists can learn whether even those candidate vaccines that did not reduce overall rates of HIV infection had some influence on the virus, and can use that information to inform better design of future vaccines.
In the future, Edlefsen hopes to use these computational approaches to study how HIV evolves within a single human host to continually evade the immune system, using sequence alignments of either viral or human sequences to better understand both how the virus adapts and the differences in different people's immune systems, information that would also help inform vaccine design. "I'm hopeful that the specific kinds of genomic research that I've been doing will be helpful here," Edlefsen said.


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WA – East Perth River Walk
Location: Claisebrook Cove Swan River, Brown Street (end of street), East Perth, Western Australia
Grade: Hard
Time: Approx 1.5 hours
Distance: 6km
Facilities: Playground, Cafe, Parking
Take a pram walk along the beautiful Swan River where early in the morning watch for rowers on the river and dolphins playing. This walk is a loop.
Highlights on the walk without having to cross over a single road or go off the path-
* The river
* The golf course
* Casino
* Perth city views
* Heirisson Island
* Gloucester Park
At the end of the walk, kids can play on the playground, look for fish off the jetty or you can have a coffee at one of the many cafes or wander around the boutique shops.
Pram walk contributed by: Nadine


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Metamorphoses Book 11: The Death of Orpheus
While Orpheus had been singing his songs to the forest and its inhabitants, a group of Maenads, Bacchus' followers, found him and attacked. They ripped him to shreds, and his head and lyre (guitar) floated down river to the island of Lesbos, which later became known for its poetry. Bacchus turned the frenzied women into trees for their sins against Orpheus. Once his spirit went to the Underworld, he joined Eurydice.
Bacchus left the region and journeyed to Lydia to see old friends. He met up with his usual group, but Silenus, his old guardian, was missing. The old man had gotten lost, and ended up at Midas' court. Midas brought him back to Lydia.


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The Nephew
I didn't really expect this project of mine to take this much effort. My brain cells are hard-wired into thinking in code. Why, I even wondered why my bro wouldn't execute the leaveBrothersFoodAlone() function. Perhaps he's buggy.
The glow of my screen shines on my face, in a room with only a lonely light. I tapped away, trying to fix bugs and implementing the required features, until I heard scratching on the door.
Hm, we don't have a puppy here. Nor do we have a cat. In fact, I thought I was alone at home.
*scratch, scratch*
Voice: immlegoo ....
It was only natural that the hairs on my back would rise when hearing this eerie demonic incantation. I wasn't exactly scared though. Of course I wasn't scared.
Ok, perhaps a little scared. No no, not scared. The word would be... startled. Yes.
Voice: YAAAAMGAAAAHAGA
Ok, I'm scared.
The door handle jiggles slowly. I wondered if I should arm myself with this Turkish delight, or perhaps a pizza slice. I abandoned the thought as my eyes met with my favorite weapon of all time:
The pillow.
If it's anything I've learned from Mafia movies, the pillow is quite the deadly-
*dull thud*
Baby voice: .. unn ..un .. wwuhhhuhuh
A primal instinct rose, the instinct of an uncle nursing a baby when the frikkin dad is nowhere to be seen. I opened the door, and sure enough, my baby nephew apparently fell flat on his diapers.
Me: Well great, thanks for making me look silly, mighty ghost of the frikkin house. Where's your maid anyway?
He stood up silenty, his height no higher than my knee. He went through my legs and headed straight for my glowing keyboard.
Nephew: mmbbe .. bu bub .. imblthh ..
Me: Yeah, no. If you don't want me going all Kung Fu Panda on you, you'd best leave that PC alone.
I pulled him back and sat on the chair. Seeing a pillow in my hand, I gently threw it at him. It bonked his head and fell to the side.
Nephew: eheheeehe
Me: Ah, like father, like son....
Nephew: mmmbz?
Me: ....you're both weirdos.
I got back to my work, trying to catch my train of thought. Yes, this event-based coding actually sucks sometimes to be honest. I have to frikkin write-
*guitar strum*
I have to-
*louder strum*
Me: Hey Alfredo, mind turning the flamenco down?
Nephew: geehe..
As if to spite me, he pulled my guitar strings so far back that I almost heard a cry from strain.
Me: Ok that's it! No guitar for you!
I picked up the damn thing (the guitar) and put it at the top of my cupboard.
Me: There. Now what other form of entertainment can you find in my room?
He stood silently, looking at me and smiling. I should pinch him for being so cute. I suppressed the need, however, and went back to my chair. He followed me.
Nephew: mmma
Me: What?
Nephew: mmmaa
Me: I don't follow.
He got closer and wanted to climb up into my lap
Nephew: mmmmma
Me: frikkin-
He looked at me, and I saw the saddest set of eyes I have ever seen. It's as if he was saying "my life depends on doing this. I must get on your lap and play or we will all be doomed. I'm only doing this to save you, even if it means at the cost of my own life. I'm begging you. Please."
I sniffled, blew my nose and hugged him for his noble sacrifice. I picked him up and put him on my lap, facing my keyboard and screen.
*bang bang bang*
Nephew: heeehehehehehee!!!!!!
Me: Ok let me open up notepad at least and you can type whatever you want
*bang bang!*
Me: Would you hang on for just a minute! Look you're adding to my code. Even if your code makes more sense than mine.
I quickly opened up notepad and maximized the screen. He can bang to his heart's content.
What's this? His tiny hand is moving for the mouse!
*click click!*
Me: Who the hell taught you that! You make a geek proud! Oh my .. oh no I'm not gonna cry..
*click click close 8 gig download*
Me: Ok now I'm gonna cry.
*bang bang click click create shortcut for Internet Explorer*
Me: Ok buster, you crossed a line now! Off! Go!
I picked him up and put him on the floor again. The blue glow of the "Power" button seemed to entice him.
Me: No nononono! Oh ... oh man whew, Vista just cancelled the shutdown. At least I can save my files!
The computer screen blinked. My eyes blinked. I put my hands on my head, despair mounting each passing moment as I remember what I didn't save.
Nephew: aammueugguh! heehee
I wondered if I should squish this little squirt. I looked his way, and he was still pushing the reset button.
*push push*
Maid: Is he having fun with you?
Me: Huh? Where were you?
Maid: He wanted to come into your room.
Nephew: daaada.
He came and raised his hand, waiting for me to shake it. I shook his tiny little hand and saluted the execution of his terrorist plans in record time.
Me: You can get him now.
She comes and picks him up.
Maid: Say bye bye to uncle!
Nephew: bubyyee..
He waved his hand at me, blew me a kiss, and left the room.
I blew a kiss back as he left the room. I sat there once more, watching a rebooting computer in front of me. Losing hours of work because of a little terror...
Crazy as it may be, I really couldn't help but smile :)
twerp.. I'll get him when he's older.


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The GoPro wrist housing is an excellent accessory for the GoPro users, which are not a quite fan of mounting their action camera on their head (by helmet) or on the chest. Instead, you might think about new perspective and mount your GoPro on your wrist or forearm with this gadget.
The GoPro camera is awesome and can create staggering video footage from any extreme sport and hobby, but if you want to be kind of unique out there, you can shoot from different point of view – from your wrist, not the head or the chest, which provide kind of shaky footage by the way, which can cause motion sickness to the viewers.
Most of the GoPro users don't even know that the wrist housing exists, but after stumbling upon it they have it for an alternate solution for recording, without any need to wear helmet or chest mounts.
Something that is worth mentioning is one little con, that happened to me and I believe to other users of the wrist housing. When I wore the accessory for the first time, I had a problem spending too much time searching where is the separation of the Velcro. It turned out that the connection point is hidden by the rubber retention ring, which role is to hold the cam in place.
Unfortunately, the GoPro wrist housing doesn't have an instruction for use, and I mean nothing – not even a simple picture that can help you figure out how to put in on. But the support on the GoPro site can help you if you have any problems or questions, or even their YouTube channel.
It might take you a few minutes to figure out how to mount the camera on the wrist housing as well, but after some practice, you will get used to. The latch of the housing holds the camera good and tight, so you will be sure it is mounted securely.
When wearing the accessory for the first time you might think it is very bulky and weigh too much, but after some time you won't have these problems. You will see how easy it is to rotate the GoPro camera when it is mounted on your wrist to see the screen and then to shoot again.
From time to time you might feel the wrist housing coming loose, this is because of the Velcro strap and you will have initially to tighten it, but this won't happen often. This is quality accessory which can help you do what you like the most – recording good videos.
Overall, the wrist housing is a good alternative to the other GoPro housing gadgets, which can be mounted on the head or the chest. Some of the best applications for this accessory are for water sports, but think about getting it even if you do something else.
[easyazon_link identifier="B00CTGGARU" locale="US" tag="goprorevs-20″]Click here to see the price of the GoPro Wrist Housing (GoPro Official Mount) on Amazon[/easyazon_link]


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Ever since the announcement of PS4 Pro, Microsoft has been taking jabs at its creator Sony. PS4 Pro lacks in terms of specs and features compared to Project Scorpio. For the first time in history Microsoft is in such a position which is surely exciting for the company.
Also See: So Why PS4 Pro Lacks a 4K Blu Ray Drive? Sony Explains
However, being behind in terms of specs does not mean PS4 Pro will be a road kill for Microsoft. Sony has priced it exceptionally well and it is a very enticing option for an average user looking for a 4K experience. According to industry analyst Michael Pachter, Microsoft's Project Scorpio will face some difficulties due to PS4 Pro's $399 price.
I think that the $399 price point is a pretty big move by Sony, particularly with a launch this fall. It's hard to justify buying a $299 Xbox One S when you get twice the HDD and future proof for 4K by buying the PS4 Pro.
I really think this puts Microsoft in a hole with Scorpio, as they will arrive a year late, and will have to charge competitively even to remain in the picture. Ideally, Microsoft can launch Scorpio for $299, but I don't expect that to happen. If PS4 Pro is $349 by next holiday, Microsoft is really in a tough spot.
Interesting comments from Patcher and you have to agree that $399 is a very enticing price point even though PS4 Pro isn't native 4K. The console will release on November 10 and it not only outputs 4K, it can run games better at 1080p as well.
An interesting statement came from Andrew House recently as he placed PS4 Pro as a PC competitor. House stated that their goal is to stop people from moving to PC mid-generation for a better visual experience.
Do you think PS4 price puts Microsoft in any sort of difficulty?


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|Article number:
|Ships from manufacturer
|Delivery time:
|Normal delivery time is 2-7 business days, subject to availability.
The new 1066DL is based on the classic 1066, which features the same mic-line pre-amplification stage as the 1073, but features different frequency selections in its EQ for a whole new sonic palette. The available frequencies on the 1066 are especially well suited to guitar applications because of its unique midrange.
The 1066D is completely hand-wired using Carnhill (St. Ives) transformers and has the same mic-line pre-amp as the 1073, with the exception that the 1066D adds a few different frequencies to your pallet.
This unit is popular among guitarists for having a unique mid-range. The original 1066 only had a 10k shelving but this unit offers additional frequencies: 10k Hz,12k Hz,16k Hz, 20k Hz and 24k Hz.


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Cat's Paw Hits Winning Numbers In Lottery
A cat in China has won $446 for his owner after he accidentally pawed the lottery machine and bought five tickets.
The cat's owner, a lottery outlet owner, said his black and white cat jumped onto the keyboard of a working lottery machine and started to walk on the keys.
As the cat was prancing on the machine, the machine recorded the random numbers being pressed by the cat. And when the cat stepped on the confirm button, five lottery tickets came out with the cat's lucky numbers.
When the lottery results were revealed later that night, all five tickets were winners. One won second prize and the other four won fifth prize.
The cat's owner, who adopted him two months ago, said he never expected that any of the random tickets his cat made would ever win.
To congratulate his cat on his lucky winnings, he posted the second prize lottery ticket in his store with two Chinese characters on it — Mao Xuan, meaning the cat chose it.
Source: Shanghai Daily


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'Machete Kills' and 'Captain Phillips' Movie Review From Willie Waffle [AUDIO]
Willie Waffle, our movie review expert takes a look at "Machete Kills", starring Danny Trejo, and "Captain Phillips" starring Tom Hanks. Both are hitting the theatres this weekend.
How did each movie rate on his Waffle scale? Take a listen below!


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In the weekend we picked up some kids from the home and went for a long drive. To be honest we were going to go for a tramp but I forgot where the track started so we ended up going somewhere else. We went to Ashley Gorge, had a short walk and a picknick. It was good to go out as there is not much entertainment in Christchurch. Everything is closed, the central city, the forest, the cinema's everything. In two weeks time we are taking our teens to Hanmer Springs. They are in need of some relaxation as well.
but learned quickly and the stones bounced of the surface lots of times.


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Nicholas Woodeson On … Revisiting Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is set in 1912, which is, not coincidently, the year that the Titanic went down. The family that's portrayed is of a class that is really what the British Empire was all about, and they live in a fictional town called Brumley, which is a mix of Bradford and Bingley. The head of the family is a hugely successful northern businessman.
The play is set on the day when the daughter of the family is celebrating her engagement to the young heir of a rival business in the area. Suddenly there's a ring at the door and an Inspector arrives, asking them about the suicide of a young girl who died from drinking disinfectant. It turns out that this young girl worked in the father's factory and gradually, as the Inspector questions them about the girl, their lives start to unravel.
Stephen Daldry sets the play in two different time zones. The character of the Inspector is dressed in a Demob suit from the Second World War, so he turns up in a different period to when the play is set. There are two time periods at work - 1912 and 1944 - and they both speak to each other. The Inspector's outfit suggests he is somebody who has suffered the consequences of that monumental period in European history.
I remember going to see a production of Inspector Calls when I was still in drama school. I found it stupefyingly tedious since it was done like an Agatha Christie. But Stephen (Daldry) does it the way the author intended, much more conceptual, and true to the spirit of the play's original production in Moscow. I suppose there are always people who will absolutely hate it, because it's not naturalistic; but it's realistic, which is the important thing.
I first played Inspector Goole on Broadway 15 years ago. Returning to it now, I'm amazed how some things have changed and some things haven't. There are certain issues that I remember not quite solving the first time, which are now quite easily solved. It was actually quite a tough gig back then because I took the role over without many rehearsals. That's how it works on Broadway - you get a few days with the stage manager and then you get on stage. It was a very challenging production to do that with, because it's lit in a very uncompromising way, and the floor stage is quite an obstacle course. It was a tough nut to crack.
In reviving it, we all worked very hard to ensure that the arteries of the production have not hardened, that it's fresh and the actors remember to stay in the present. It's vital it remains current, even if technically it's exactly the same production as we did the first time round. After all, good drama is like good music; if you go to hear Beethoven's Ninth, you'll hear Beethoven's Ninth. What's interesting and what matters is that it's being played now.
Inspector Calls continues at the Novello Theatre until 14 November 2009.


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This is what happens when I try to take a "selfie"And then we were off to SeaWorld San Antonio! We are so lucky to have a niece and her husband both working there, so we got quite a treat today.
First we went to Discovery Point. Here there be dolphins!
Yea!Then we went to see the sharks (of course...KT's favorite thing.)
Can you see the diver in there? There were actually two of them.Then we headed over to the Sea Lion show and met up with Adrienne. After the show, she had set up a special treat for the girls -- we got to go back stage and meet one of the sea lions up close and personal. His name was Moose.
KT got to feed Moose some fish!Next up, a few of the rides in the Sesame Street Play Area. I had to go with the girls since John gets sick on these types of rides. Lucky me...
On the Big Bird ride!We then walked over to the Sea Star Theater to meet up with some very cute animals that are in the Pets Ahoy show. Our niece works in this venue, so we got to meet some of the players, too. So nice!
The de-scented skunk is named Huckleberry. He was so sweet.
Here's one of the parrots -- he made quite the noise when Joss petted him!
One of the actors is an orange housecat! Most of the animals are shelter rescues
which made it all that much more special.
We had pizza and frozen lemonade for lunch, then went back to the Pet's Ahoy Show to see the entire show - very cute! There were rats, cats, dogs of all sizes and shapes, skunks and a few pigs! KT found it all so funny!
Adrienne is in the middle there working on the sound boards!
Then we decided to ride a few more rides before heading home. We didn't get to see everything - there's so much more there, but we had a very tired two year old who needed to rest.
Joss got a stuffed Shamu, and of course KT got a great white shark!


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I have a question pertaining the monsters movement.
when a hero attacks a monster with a ranged attack, ( lets say an orc marauder) but does not kill it, it says in the rules that the player to the right of the attacking player gets to choose if them onster moves or not , as the monster cannot reach the hero with the ranged attack.
Now i interpretit the rule as that the monster either moves towards the hero attacking him or dfoes not move.
But the people i play with say that they player can choose to have the attacked monster to move away from the attacking player.
I really would love to hear if this is so , as to me that move makes no sense.


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Dr. Jerrel Emery, M.D., has a long history in San Diego's East County. After growing up in La Mesa, Dr. Emery lived a short time in San Bernardino while attending Loma Linda University Medical School. After earning his degree, he completed an internship and a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Texas. Education and training completed, Dr. Emery returned to California to join the Grossmont OBGYN Medical Group, where he remained for several years.
In the last five years, Dr. Emery has transitioned into the area of aesthetic medicine. He served as the Medical Director for 10 California locations for American Laser Skincare, overseeing patient care and personally treating patients with injectables like Botox and dermal fillers. In 2015, he ventured out on his own and opened the first location for Dr. J's Elegant Reflections Medspa in La Mesa, Ca. In April, he partnered with Kim Hagen, R.N., to co-own Cloud 9 Medi Spa in Redlands, Ca.
Licensed Aesthetician
Dr. Jerrel Emery, M.D., and Kim Hagen co-own Cloud 9 Medi Spa. Kim is an R.N. with many years of experience. Kim received her Associate's Degree in Nursing from San Bernardino Valley College in 1998, and received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from University of Phoenix in 2001. Kim received her Aesthetician License from the California State Board of Barbering & Cosmetology in 2004. She also received her Certificate in Permanent Makeup in 2004.
Kim has been trained in Advanced Botox & Dermal filler techniques since 2004 and continues to expand her knowledge through attending workshops to stay abreast in current trends in the Aesthetic Arena.She has a background of over 12 years working as a medical/surgical nurse at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. During this time, she became highly skilled in giving injections and working in a wound care environment. This gave her a deep knowledge of the properties of skin and it's healing potential.
Combining her artistic side with her passion for skin care, Kim has become one of the busiest, most sought-after medical aestheticians in Southern California. She has participated in multiple advanced training sessions and seminars to further her skill as an injector and be on the cutting edge of all of the newest techniques and equipment available.
Office Manager
John Draper is the Business Manager at Cloud 9 Medi Spa. After graduating High School in Nashua, New Hampshire, he attended University of New Hampshire as a Biology major. After a couple of semesters John decided that he was going to change his major to business management, and moved to California. He attended Cal State San Bernardino before embarking on multiple successful businesses and partnerships. John has been with Cloud 9 Medi Spa since its inception.


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The Sounds of Silence
Mar 1, 2013
Jenny Reid, president of SASA (Security Association of South Africa) said that the organisation would love to work more closely with government. "This is especially relevant with regard to the industry provident fund and compliance of security companies. However, we do realise that PSIRA (Private Security Regulatory Authority), as a representative of government, does not have sufficient resources to visit all non-compliant companies. This is where a collaborative effort would work, by pooling our resources and delegating tasks."
Adding insult to injury, according to Reid, is the fact that government utilises the services of non-compliant private security companies. "It is easy to understand the frustration of companies that play by the rule book. Obviously, in many cases your compliant companies charge more than the non-compliant ones as they are generally investing substantial portions of their profits in training and compliance issues. Government needs to support those companies who go the extra mile to remain compliant."
Reid pointed out that non-compliance is in fact grounds for companies to be held criminally liable. "An education process, spearheaded by government and industry is necessary and I believe that a bargaining council would be the solution to opening the doors for effective communication to take place."
Read the full article here….
contact us on firstname.lastname@example.com for more information or come and visit us.


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Janney's goal was to replace an Excel-based expense and invoice process with an automated, intuitive, paperless workflow process that included builtin compliance and approval routing rules. It also wanted a solution that was easy for employees to use on the road or in the office.
Why Automate
Janney had a lengthy, manually-driven process in place for employees to complete an expense report for approval and reimbursement. After an employee manually completed an Excel spread sheet with line item expenses, it got routed for approval to one or more people. The approval routing process was to drop the paper spread sheet on the approver's desk, and the final step was to send the approved expense report via inter-office mail to the accounts payable headquarters in Philadelphia. Accounts payable was responsible for auditing the reports for accuracy, duplicate entries, compliance, approvals and GL/cost center allocations. It was only after accounts payable received the reports that they could be tracked.
The invoice workflow was just as manual and time-consuming. Invoices were mailed directly to headquarters, or sent to one of the 108 satellite branch managers. The invoices were manually approved and sent to accounts payable via inter-office mail for processing, usually without a GL/cost center. Processing included scanning and entry into the Microsoft Dynamics financial system. Many times accounts payable needed to send the invoice to another department for approval, and the invoices weren't tracked in the process. There was no transparency as to what was 'out for approval,' making month-end quite challenging.
During the due diligence process, we looked at Chrome River and Concur. Concur didn't meet our scope of requirements and was too expensive. Concur also didn't have an invoice module at the time.
About Janney
At Janney, our mission is to be the highest standard of success in financial relationships.
Through our wealth management approach, we focus on the delivery of strategic financial plans that utilize a variety of financial products and services best suited to help individual investors and families meet their financial goals. Janney is equally committed to providing our corporate, municipal and institutional clients objective advice for the successful execution of their unique business plans.
Janney serves clients through a network of professionals in branch offices located along the East Coast. We are an independently operated subsidiary of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, and we are members of the New York Stock Exchange, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.
Implementation to go-live
Janney had a very aggressive timeline for implementing both EXPENSE and INVOICE. The firm's top priority was to customize EXPENSE to make it intuitive and easy to use by customizing buttons, creating default matter/project allocations for expenses, and adding compliance and approval routing rules. Chrome River's project team was extremely helpful during this customization process. Janney's implementation team had weekly meetings with Chrome River's project team and was notified of every update and change that was made. The process was very transparent.
After the implementation phase, INVOICE was rolled out first. The accounts payable team was trained on how to create invoices and use the INVOICE solution. Managers and members of the accounts payable team who were designated as 'approvers' were trained on how to approve/return invoices via email (on a computer, tablet or mobile phone) or by logging into INVOICE. Everything they needed to know was include in a three-page training document that included screen captures.
After INVOICE went live, the expense management software was rolled out to two pilot groups - the IT department and the finance department. EXPENSE was then rolled out to corporate services and legal groups. Once the implementation team was satisfied with testing, they began training the branches. The training was accomplished through webinars that were instructed by the AP Manager and Director of Finance. It included a document outlining the entire expense process, including screen captures. Additional instructional videos were also created to cover the main functionality of EXPENSE.
All instructional/training materials were added to the Welcome page on the Chrome River dashboard for easy access by all employees.
- Abandon Excel spread sheets
- Eliminate manual entry into Microsoft Dynamics
- Eliminate manual auditing
- Implement a paperless/centralized workflow solutions for expenses and invoices
- Enforce compliance to company policies
- Automate/speed up approval rating
- Provide transparency throughout the entire workflow process
- Reimburse the employees faster
- Intuitive, easy to use solution
Spread sheets to cloud-based technology
The transition from spread sheets to a fully automated cloud-based solution addressed the issues that Janney wanted to resolve. With a paperless and centralized accounts payable process, everything is sent directly to a centralized email that all accounts payable staff can access. Expense reports and invoices can be tracked throughout the workflow process providing more transparency for the employees and accounts payable.
With automated compliance and approval routing workflow through the business rules engine, out of compliance expenses are flagged and the others continue through the approval routing process without holding up the entire expense report. Enforcing compliance up front makes the auditing process much quicker and simpler. Expense reports are processed much faster and team members are reimbursed more quickly – making happier employees.
Before automated workflow, weeks would go by before an invoice was approved and forwarded to accounts payable for payment. With Chrome River's invoice management software, invoices are automatically forwarded to the business owner much quicker and tracking is available throughout the entire workflow process.
Life after go-live
Once Janney was up and running company-wide on both EXPENSE and INVOICE, the transition from the project team to the support team was smooth. The team finds the helpdesk to be extremely knowledgeable and quick to respond to cases.
Since going live on Chrome River EXPENSE and INVOICE, we have been able to streamline our workflow processes with an automated paperless solution that benefits the finance organization and our business partners. I would highly recommend Chrome River to any organization looking to fully automate its current expense and invoice processes.
Clear Benefits
Automating expense and invoice workflow through Chrome River provided many benefits.
- Affordable monthly subscription
- Flexible configuration of the software to meet the firm's needs
- Built-in rules to enforce compliance to company policies
- Built-in rules for easy and quick approval routing
- Transparency into expenses and invoices from submission through payment
- Paperless/centralized accounts payable
- Extremely knowledgeable support team


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Makerhood has a wonderful new partner – a local printing and design company Essential Local, founded by Richard Chumbley to serve small businesses in South London. It operates a co-operative system of freelancers to provide printing, web and graphic design services. We started working with Essential Local to print Makerhood flyers three years ago. We found a great service quality and competitive prices, along with quick turnaround and great customer service. So we asked Richard to partner with us, and he was delighted to accept. Brilliant!
Makers' Club members will get a 10% discount off the already very competitive prices that Essential Local offers for its printing, design and advertising services.
Makers' Club works with other local businesses providing discounts and benefits to makers, from picture framing to packaging to car sharing to art supplies. Membership is open to makers who live or work in Brixton, Herne Hill, Stockwell and Clapham, and will soon extend to makers anywhere in Lambeth.
If you're a maker in Lambeth and not yet a Makers' Club member, come to one of our introductory meetings in October.


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It's no wonder I've been so tired. As I sat waiting for my Open University exam it struck me I've actually been studying for the last 14 months without a break. As I'd dropped out of a module two Christmases ago I needed to make up the points to complete the degree by 2017 and allow me to keep the transitional fees. So I have had to do 3 courses and due to start dates there has been overlap rather than doing one after the other. In that time I have suffered two deaths, changed jobs, applied for a promotion(still ongoing), had a new bathroom and supported my son through his own dissertation and first ever photography exhibition. And that's just the things I can remember.
But the biggest thing to take away from the last year and a bit is that I survived. I made it though and am waiting for the next one to start in October. When I dropped out of my module 18 months ago I was worried I'd never complete my degree, that I wouldn't be able to cope with the stress and that the pressure would set my depression off again. It was too hard, I wasn't clever enough. So many excuses and negative points went through my head. So I went back to basics, literally for the OU and enrolled on one of their beginning courses. I enjoyed that so much I applied for the next two to get me back on track. At certain parts when I had 2 essays due within 2 weeks some of the negativity crept back in. There has been tears and even the odd tantrum but I got through it. I'm now officially half way through with three more years to go.
But I don't believe I've done this all by myself. When the stress creeps in you find out who is there for you. My family have helped and I have the most fantastic friends. I have the support network I wished I'd had many years ago.
So the remaining years of my degree should be fun. I have (hopefully) 2 years of creative writing and one studying Children's Literature. But I know I can do it now and am looking forward to whatever the future brings.


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How/Why I got involved
My EMS Life
My Fire Life
Family/Friends Photos
Family Photos2
Police Poems
Ems Poems
Fire Poems
These Men & Women answer calls such as, "A cat stuck in a tree", "Drunk Driver weaving all over the road", "Shots fired 10th & Main Sts." and so forth. Their Lives are on the line each & everyday to "Serve & Protect Us", The residents of "Any Town" USA.
A Police Officer is called everything from "Officer" to "A Pig" and alot of times much worse. They most of the time do not get the respect they deserve. The next time you are driving down a local street and see an Officer, Wave to him or her. They do not bite. Let them know they are doing a great job, smile at them. The Men & Women of your local police dept are human just as much as you.
Thank you.
Lightner FF/EMT.


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Donna Laing is a quiltmaker who is passionate about her craft. She enjoys both traditional and contemporary quilting, and has an abiding interest in antique quilts.
She has been quilting for over 40 years, and has made hundreds of quilts. She is the owner of North Star Quality Quilting, a professional longarm quilting service operated from her home in Bucks County.
Her quilting for Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy has appeared in their books and also in QUILT LIFE and QUILT magazines. Some of her personal quilts have been purchased by dealers and by private collectors. Her work, "Reconstruction" was awarded first prize in a national quilt competition sponsored by P&B Textiles and Quilter's Newsletter magazine. This quilt was exhibited at the Allentown Art Museum.
Several other quilts that Donna has quilted have received awards. Liza Lucy's Cartwheel quilt received Roberta Horton's teacher ribbon at the 2009 PA Quilt Extravaganza. Fran Vanderveer's quilt ribboned at the Northeast Quilts Unlimited Show in Old Forge NY in 2010. At the 2007 Keystone Quilters Show, the NQA-certified judge awarded three ribbons to quilts that Donna quilted. Sandy Stiegler's whimsical "Where's the Beef" bed quilt won the Best in Show for Machine Quilting rosette and also a second place red ribbon. Helen Marie Marshall's handsome "Ezekiel's Wheel" bed quilt took the white third place ribbon at the same show.
Donna is a member of both the Newtown Quilters Guild and the NorthEast Pennsylvania Longarm Guild. She is also active in the online quilting community. She designs quilt patterns and and shares many of her designs with her cyber-sisters by leading online sew-ins. Donna teaches quiltmaking and other needle arts in private classes and workshops. She loves sharing her passion for quilts and for quilting with her clients, her students and her friends.
Donna continues to take quilting classes for pleasure and for professional development. She received certificates for continuing education in machine quilting from the Machine Quilters' Expo and has attended Quilt Odyssey each year for the last 12 years.
She volunteers with Project Linus, a national organization that provides seriously ill and traumatized children with quilts handmade with love. For four years, Donna was the coordinator for the Philadelphia chapter. She leads a drive each year to provide quilts for 100 grieving children at Camp Erin, a camp funded by the Moyer Foundation. The 100 campers who will attend Camp Erin each spring will need quilts, so Donna is always busy rallying her quilting friends! She enjoys making and delivering quilts to the children.