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THE phone rang in the squadron operations centre and I snatched it after the first ring.
It was my private line direct to the Joint Task Force based at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. We'd been tracking a high-profile target and I had a feeling this was the call we'd been waiting for, for weeks.
"Squirrel here," I said.
On the line was the Predator drone liaison officer, or LNO. He worked for the Joint Operations Center (JOC) commander. His job was to co-ordinate Predator missions in the region. My squadron provided the Predators to keep watch and strike suspected terrorists and pirates.
"Launch," the liaison officer said.
"How many?"
"All three," he said.
Three Predators equipped with two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles each waited on the ramp. The planes were in alert status, ready to take off at a moment's notice. The phone line wasn't secure enough to confirm it, but I knew one thing as I hung up the phone. Today, the wolf pack hunted.
It was September 30, 2011. I was the commander of the 60th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Camp Lemonnier, which was built by the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti. The country was a former French colony with oppressively hot weather and few assets save its location northwest of Somalia and across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. It was prime strategic real estate for American counter-terror operations.
Camp Lemonnier shares the single runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport, on the outskirts of Djibouti City and close to the only major seaport servicing East Africa. Following the September 11 attacks, the United States leased it from the Djiboutian government for $38 million a year in order to establish a conduit for its humanitarian operations in the interior.
The Marines were the first Americans at the base in 2002 and quickly established a small base capable of airlift operations. The mission of the Combined Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa quickly grew to include intelligence-gathering operations throughout East Africa. A few years later, the JOC stood up to address the growing terrorism threat in the region and across the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula.
I hung up the phone and gave the order to launch. My director of operations called the maintainers on the ramp and passed the word. The single props on the backs of the Predators started to hum as the pilots in the ground control station — a shipping container with cockpits containing everything needed to control the aircraft — started pre-flight checks.
My pilots slowly manoeuvred the Predators off the ramp and onto the runway. Three crews 1300km away in the United States scrambled to their cockpits, sitting at consoles in air-conditioned quarters at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico waiting to take control of the birds. My pilots in Djibouti would perform the takeoff and turn over control of the Predators to pilots in the United States to fly the mission.
As a 10-year veteran of the Predator program, I'd been on that end of these missions countless times before. No other aircraft in the Air Force used two crews — one to take off and the other to fly the mission. It wasn't the only way our program was unique.
I went outside to watch the launch. The thermometer near the building hovered at 35C as the three aircraft started to spin up. Heat was a worse enemy to the Predators than al Qaeda.
The "heat window" was upon us. If it got any hotter, the delicate electronics within the Predators could overheat and melt before reaching the cooler temperatures at higher altitudes.
Back in the operations centre, I could hear over the radio as the Djiboutian air traffic control tower cleared the Predators to take off.
I watched from a concrete barrier as the Predators lumbered down the runway, barely able to lift off if not for the slight incline at the end of the tarmac. Once airborne, the Predators flew out to sea before turning for Yemen.
I checked my watch. We had several hours before the Predators would be across the Gulf of Aden and be on target. I returned to my other duties, but I made a mental note to head over to the Task Force in a couple of hours to watch the feed.
It was still hot as I walked into the Task Force's facility. The thermometer at the door now read a balmy 48C. There were no comforting sea breezes in the summer, only a constant 15- to 20-knot wind coming from the desert that felt more like a hair dryer. A wall-mounted airconditioner whirred as I walked inside the metal prefab building. The small unit strained to keep up with the stifling temperatures outside.
Six fifty-inch plasma screens lined the walls around the JOC commander's podium. Each showed the video feed from various Predators or Reapers flying around the region.
Some were in Africa. Most were in Yemen.
The pilots and sensor operators flying the aircraft were based in numerous locations around the globe, digitally connected to our aircraft as if they were right down the hall.
The room buzzed with anticipation as I walked inside. The JOC commander was a short officer, standing on a central dais at the centre of the room. From his position, he could see all six monitors.
The Predator LNO stood at his desk a few paces to the right of the commander.
"That him?" I asked the Predator LNO, a tall Air Force major.
"Not sure," the LNO said. "We confirmed he was active about five hours ago."
The LNO didn't look away from the monitors showing the Predators' video feeds.
"We are still looking to get eyes on him right now."
Not having "eyes on" meant we couldn't see the target. The guys never said where the leads came from.
The target was Anwar al-Awlaki.
Born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, al-Awlaki, 38, had been in contact with two September 11 hijackers and was in contact with Major Nidal Malik Hasan via email before Hasan killed 13 people in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. Al-Awlaki also inspired Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to attempt to use an underwear bomb to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.
After being investigated by the FBI for his connections to al Qaeda, al-Awlaki fled to London and then to Yemen, where he worked as editor in chief of al Qaeda's English-language recruitment magazine, Inspire. The magazine featured an article on how to make bombs. The Boston Marathon bombers would eventually use the article to carry out their attack.
On the monitor, I saw the town of Khashef, a small village north of Sana'a, Yemen's capital. The village looked like a mix of mud-brick and cinder-block houses haphazardly thrown together.
It was nondescript enough to serve as a hide-out and close enough to the big city that conveniences were a short drive away.
"The target's active," said an analyst sitting nearby. "We are seeing indications he's on the move."
Two white Toyota HiLux trucks pulled up outside a house in the village. Both trucks had king cabs that sat about five people.
The black-and-white Predator feed on the plasma screen locked onto the lead truck.
The officer gave al-Awlaki's coordinates and I checked the feeds.
The two trucks sat very near the coordinates. My Predators were close enough to consider themselves on target. We all watched closely as eight men spilt out of a nearby house and quickly climbed into the trucks. They wore garb traditional to the area, white robes and head scarfs. One wore all white and climbed into the lead truck.
The doors barely shut before the driver of the lead truck took off, trailing a plume of dust and exhaust. The trail vehicle followed a moment later.
"Stay on them," the JOC commander said.
I watched the LNO type the command on his keyboard, sending the order through a secure internet chat to the Predator crews in Nevada. Seconds later, the Predator's sensor operator smoothly shifted its crosshairs onto the lead truck, setting the camera underneath the aircraft's nose to track the truck. The crew was efficient, good. I knew a skilled team was important today.
"Sir," the Army officer said. "Awlaki just announced he was moving."
"Agreed, sir," another officer said. "Call came from the lead vehicle."
The JOC commander nodded.
"I want all eyes on."
Within seconds, the other two Predator feeds shifted to the two vehicles picking their way through the village's market. Vendors and shoppers clogged the road in the late morning, making final purchases before the noon heat made shopping unbearable. The crowd slowed the trucks as the drivers darted through breaks in the sea of people.
"Gordon is lead," the JOC commander said.
Gordon was the lead Predator's call sign. The aircraft was named after the Army Delta Force operator who was killed in Somalia defending a downed UH-60 Black Hawk crew in 1993. It was the only Predator call sign not based on an Air Force legend.
The goal was to hit al-Awlaki while in transit between the villages of Khashef and Marib. An isolated strike meant no witnesses and low collateral damage. It also kept civilians out of harm's way.
Al-Awlaki simply wouldn't show up at the meeting.
"LNO, running ROE now," the JOC commander said. "Have the crews spin up their missiles."
The ROE, or rules of engagement, are a set of criteria that must be met to legally take a shot in combat. No Predator crew could strike until the ROE were satisfied. I knew we had to be careful and make sure the target was in fact al-Awlaki. We were not drones, but professional pilots and planners who scrutinised every target to make sure the shot was legal and just.
We couldn't shoot until he cleared the village. A Hellfire missile would obliterate his truck, but also send deadly shrapnel into the surrounding buildings. A miss in the village would be catastrophic.
This would be the biggest operation since the mission that had taken Osama bin Laden nearly five months prior. We were going after Washington's new number one target. This would be a high-profile strike, a signature mission that would likely cement Predator and the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) community as one of the United States' premier counter-terrorism weapons.
When I started flying Predators in 2003, we mostly watched and listened. We were looked at as second-class citizens next to the fighter squadrons. But over the decade-long war, we'd become hunters.
Predators and Reapers were responsible for a significant number of air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. By 2013, policy makers no longer needed to risk boots on the ground in
exhaustive and costly expeditions. Predators and Reapers could slip silently across lines on the map to track and, if necessary, kill terrorists.
The RPA gave US officials a long arm to directly attack US enemies abroad.
The LNO put on a headset so he could talk to the Predator pilots. Now the internet chat would be used to document coordinates and clearances. With his headset in place, the LNO flicked a switch so all three Predators could hear his commands.
"Gordon," the LNO said. "You've got the lead, acknowledge."
A remarkably clear voice, tinged with only a hint of static, responded.
"Copy, Gordon's got lead," the pilot said. "Checklist complete in two mikes."
"Mikes" was radio lingo for minutes.
The convoy made it through the market and picked up the pace as they neared the edge of the town. We had only one shot at him.
If we missed, al-Awlaki would go to ground. At best, it would be months before we found him — if we found him again.
The driver took his time in the village, knowing the civilians protected him and his passengers. But once he hit the open road, speed was his only security. After years of flying similar missions, I knew a shot in the open could be difficult. No one followed traffic laws, and cars raced down the region's highways at near reckless speed. Al-Awlaki's driver, I was sure, would be no different.
The convoy wound its way past the outskirts of town and onto the highway, driving a curvy track through smaller villages and open desert.
"Target's clear. Any word?" Gordon said.
The pilot's voice showed no emotion, no stress. The LNO looked at the JOC commander. He just shook his head.
"Negative, Gordon," the LNO said. "Still awaiting word."
"Awaiting word" was a euphemism for someone who couldn't, or wouldn't, make a decision. This one was no light decision. We were preparing to shoot an American terrorist in a foreign country.
Only the president could authorise a strike of this magnitude.
"Copy," Gordon said.
"Try to maintain position so we can get a shot off quickly," the LNO said.
Gordon didn't respond. He didn't have time as he worked to keep his aircraft in prime shooting range while anticipating any sudden turns by the target. Besides, the pilot didn't want to get into
the classic "don't tell a pilot how to fly his aeroplane" argument. A few seconds later, Bong, another Predator flying nearby, scanned the landscape ahead of the convoy.
"Plain's levelling out," Bong said. "Looks like we're about to hit the straightaway."
"Copy," Gordon said.
The straightaway was the most logical place for the shot. The vehicles would maintain a constant speed on a predictable course.
There were few ridge lines to block the missile or the targeting laser.
As expected, al-Awlaki's convoy hit the plain and immediately accelerated. Twin rooster tails of dust kicked up behind them as they raced through sand deposited on the road by recent wind and sandstorms.
"Ten minutes."
Gordon's comment was more a query than a statement. We had 10 minutes until al-Awlaki reached Marib. If the Predator was going to shoot, it needed to do so on this road. The JOC commander, headset pinned to his ear, shook his head in the negative. Each time the convoy passed a mile marker, it reduced the chances of a strike.
I watched the monitor as Gordon manoeuvred into position.
Flying faster than the trucks, the pilot executed S-turns to keep from passing the convoy. If al-Awlaki knew we were above him, he wasn't acting like it. The trucks sped straight down the highway.
"Gordon, say status," the LNO said.
"Checklist complete, awaiting clearance," Gordon said.
"Copy," the LNO said. "Bong, get into position for an immediate follow-up attack."
If Gordon missed, he would be unable to fire his second missile. He would be so close at impact that a second shot would be impossible for the missile to negotiate. Bong would be lurking at a good distance to follow up or hit the second vehicle if the first strike was successful.
"Five minutes and the window closes," Gordon said. "Say status."
I watched as the JOC commander hung up his phone.
"It's time," he said. "Pass the 9-Line."
The LNO pushed "Enter" on his keyboard. He'd already typed the 9-Line, which spelled out the order to shoot in scripted lines.
Each line passed specific information to the pilot. The Task Force's joint terminal attack controller (JTAC), an Air Force airman trained to call in air strikes, came online. He had been watching the feed in the operations centre. JTACs were usually on the ground, but that was impossible in Yemen. We had no troops on the ground there.
Instead, the JTAC monitored missions from his desk at the operations centre, coming in only before a strike.
"Gordon, this is Badger Four One," the JTAC said. "9-Line is in chat. Call in with direction."
The video feed remained fixed on the two trucks. Occasionally, the picture would tilt and rotate as the camera adjusted to the Predator's manoeuvres. Gordon didn't respond. The pilot was briefing his sensor operator, the second man in his crew, on the shot. The sensor operator was an enlisted airman who controlled the Predator's sensor pod near the aircraft's nose and fired the targeting laser. He was a second set of eyes, especially when preparing to launch a missile.
Everyone in the operations cell started to get nervous because the brief was going long. Uncomfortably long.
Why hadn't they done this already? I shifted my weight from foot to foot trying to burn off some of my nervous energy. The LNO shifted in his seat too, mirroring my discomfort. No one in the operations cell wanted to miss this chance. No one was sure when we'd get another opportunity. I checked the clock hanging over the monitors.
Three minutes remained. The video tilted once more.
"Gordon's in from the south," the pilot said. "One minute."
The JTAC didn't hesitate.
"Gordon, you're cleared hot."
We all waited for the green light. Finally, the JOC director nodded and the JTAC transmitted the 9-Line. Gordon was ready to shoot.
"Copy, cleared hot," the pilot in Cannon said.
Thirty seconds passed. The two HiLux trucks grew larger in the camera's field of view.
"Laser on," Gordon said.
A black icon reading "LRD Lase Des" flashed on the screen.
The lead truck ferrying al-Awlaki grew to fill the screen. The picture twitched as the proximity made the controls hypersensitive.
The second vehicle was no longer in sight.
"In three, two, one ..."
The familiar double-click overrode the audio as the fire signal interrupted the satellite signal. A moment later, the HUD went blank as the blinding white flash of the missile's exhaust plume washed out the sensitive IR picture.
Immediately, the Predator banked to the right. On the computer monitor, the little blue icon for Gordon rotated until it paralleled the road. At that magnification, the aircraft looked as if it was on top of the road.
My mind wandered to the diagram I had drawn of the moving shot. So far, the crew was following it perfectly. The Predator flew parallel to the trucks to make it easier for the sensor to keep the laser on target. The sensor's crosshairs pulled off the target after the rollout but quickly adjusted and placed the crosshairs about 18m in front of al-Awlaki's truck. The vehicles didn't swerve or even change speed. Al-Awlaki continued down the road as if unaware of the threat.
In my head, I started checking off my mental checklist as if I was flying. I knew the short two-second burn of the Hellfire engine accelerated the missile to nearly 1.4 Mach, creating a sonic boom.
This intense acceleration subjected the missile to 10 times the force of gravity. When the missile's sensor detected enough g-forces, the warhead armed. The infra-red eye opened and then looked for the laser spot.
I knew the missile used its fins to keep the reflected laser energy in its field of view. It constantly tweaked its course to keep the spot centred on the seeker head's glass.
"Ten seconds," the pilot said.
The Predator floated alongside al-Awlaki's truck. Had he looked up, it would have been entirely possible that he would have seen the aircraft as the pilot eased a little rudder to pull the nose
away from the target. Distance at this point determined stability for the sensor. Too close and the crosshairs would wobble. A couple of miles out, the angle down wouldn't be so steep and the crosshairs would remain stable.
At five seconds, the missile slowed below the speed of sound, causing a second sonic boom. The shock wave coursed in all directions, loudest in the direction of the missile's travel. The boom
washed over the two trucks. These were not large booms and would have been hard to hear if the radio was on or the window was open causing the wind to howl into the cab. The trucks sped forward.
"Five, four, three …"
The sensor relaxed his grip a mite. The crosshairs drifted toward the lead vehicle. The pilot paused to let the sensor focus on his cross hairs. A black streak entered the picture from above, raced downward, and slammed into the hood of the truck. It hit right where the sensor had placed the crosshairs.
Smoke mushroomed out of the hood and debris shot out of the engine in all directions. The truck skidded awkwardly, spun sideways, and rolled to a stop. The truck containing the security team frantically hit the brakes and swerved to miss the first vehicle. Bong was trailing behind. He rolled in, cleared by the Task Force JTAC, and put a missile into the hood of the second truck.
Months of tracking ended in a matter of seconds. There was little reaction in the operations centre. No cheers. No high fives. The Task Force was too professional for that. Frog and I shook hands.
He was smiling. We were one team. We'd earned a victory, evident by the trucks smouldering in the monitor.
Two of the Predators started the journey back to Djibouti. The third lingered for a while watching for survivors. There was no ground team to verify the kill. We had to wait for other sources. He would be missed at his next meeting and someone would think to send out a team to find him.
Verification that al-Awlaki had died came within hours.
Abdullah al-Jumaili, a tribal sheik from Al Jawf Province, later told The New York Times the truck was nearly destroyed and it was hard to recognise bodies. He was "100 per cent sure" al-Awlaki was killed. We also saw message traffic from the enemy about his death almost as fast as CNN announced the air strike.
"The death of Awlaki is a major blow to al Qaeda's most active operational affiliate," President Obama said a few days later.
I walked back to my compound and stepped onto the T-barriers to watch the first aircraft, Bong, approach. Colonel Jay Bickley, my group commander, was touring the base and joined me.
"We had a mission success today," I told him.
This is an extract from the book Hunter Killer: Inside the Lethal World of Drone Warfare by Lieutenant Colonel T Mark McCurley with Kevin Maurer. Published by Allen & Unwin. RRP$32.99. The book is out now and available on Booktopia and iBooks.


text:
Resizing a virtual hard disc for Oracle's Virtual Box on Windows takes a few steps.
These are the steps that worked for me to expand the size of a .vdi for a Linux virtual running in VirtualBox under Windows 10.
Step 0: Backup your .vdi file.
No excuses folks – make sure you backup your .vdi file with your virtual machine in a powered off state.
Step 1: Disconnect the drive.
Go into the Settings of your virtual machine and, under "Storage", remove the disc from the machine
Step 2: Resize the drive
This is the tricky part, as Windows won't know about your VirtualBox files or utilities. It needs to be done from the command line, so start by running
The command you need is
.\VBoxManage.exe modifyhd 'C:\Users\chris\VirtualBox VMs\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vdi' --res
ize 40000
inputting the path to your .vdi file as necessary. The command above expands the drive to 40GB.
This command must be run from within the
C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox folder, so remember to
cd to this.
Step 3: Reconnect the Drive
Back to VirtualBox settings, now reattach the drive to the virtual machine.
Step 4: Expand your partition(s)
Assuming you just have two partitions (
/ and
swap) then the swap partition is mostly likely in the way of you expanding your / partition. You'll need to remove it before you can expand the root partition.
I prefer to do this operation with a visual tool like gparted
sudo apt-get install gparted
Once you have gparted installed, run it as root
sudo gparted
Now, follow these steps to expand your root partition.
- Right click on the swap partition and delete it.
- Right click on the extended partition, that contained the swap partition, and remove it.
- Right click on the root partition and expand it, remembering to leave enough unused space for a new swap partition
- When the root partition has been expanded, right click on the unused space and create a new extended partition
- Right click on the new extended partition and create a new swap partition inside it
This will leave you with a number of changes to be applied by gparted. Click the green tick to apply them, sit back, and wait.
If this operation is successful, you should end up with an expanded root partition and a working swap partition.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
August was unusually cool off and on, but the heat's back on now towards the end of September. We have been soaring into the high 80's in the afternoons. That was appreciated by the tomatoes…I got a nice crop of regular ones + cherry tomatoes the other day to split with the family.
I've made some nice hand quilting progress on the Iris block in the Botanical Quilt. These are large blocks so completing one takes awhile, but the flower portions are just about done and I am on to the stems and baskets / vases area now.
Meanwhile, around the house, most flowers are still blooming and in the back I have Cosmos and Cleome just coming in to bloom! ( I think that the off and on weather this summer confused many of the seeds : ) I planted them in late May!
In my last post I shared how a mama squirrel had brought her baby over to visit once or twice. After that, she brought him back to be on his own. ( Just like her mama had done with her! :)
He's still hanging around…trying to learn to climb things….he's quite comical.
I have a few peanuts out on the porch railing for him….but if I go out when he is there or sitting on the top of a chair, he panics and disappears in to the pine tree growing in the front.
This has Koopa, my son's dog, all depressed when they visit now. "WHY can't I go out on the porch and sit with Oma in my chair like I usually do? "
He kind of mirrors Brent's look…( which I just caught one day earlier in the summer when he was moping about something or another :)
Finally, Brent's Open House was this week and my son took this phone picture of my DIL, niece, him and the girls… ( the grands are in two different school districts ; this is not the only Open House I'll have to attend NOR the only Book Fair that I'll have to spend money at :)
Meanwhile, Texas is still suffering from Harvey, Florida and various islands from Irma, Puerto Rico and other islands are in dire catastrophic states from Maria, Mexico has had 2 major earthquakes, and when I checked the news today Trump was fighting with the NFL and NBA.
Then there is the healthcare issue and…the possibility of nuclear annihilation with 8th-grade level insults going on between him and Kim Jong Un. But there WAS a story that made me smile and that is that Melania and schoolchildren were out planting and harvesting in the vegetable garden that Michelle had started. That was nice to see.
*I got a notice from my web hosting service the other day that 'in a few days" my site might be down for awhile as they were moving servers ( or something or another :) So if you come and it is down, hopefully it will be back up down the line! )
You might also enjoy : THE FRONT PORCH : MANY A HAPPY DAY
I'll be slow-stitching / hand quilting a bit, and joining up with the other Slow Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts.


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Category: Russian Foreign Policy
The Cornered Bear – Russia's Foreign Policy Paradigm
Understanding the Kremlin's new found aggression towards Ukraine requires an understanding of Russia's history, and President Vladimir Putin's foreign-policy motif. An understanding is essential in avoiding the frigid hostility of the Cold War.
In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. The world turned a blind eye, partly because Georgia is an insignificant state on the fringe of Europe but mostly because the costs of cutting Russia adrift would be too high. Days after the Sochi Olympics, Russia annexed Crimea. The world accepted it because Crimea should have been Russian all along – the territory had been transferred to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954. If the Soviet leader were alive today he would likely admit that in hindsight the transfer was a mistake. Now the Russian army is infiltrated eastern Ukraine, albeit subversively. Putin denies any such action, however this is highly implausible. The attacks were co-ordinated, and in strategically useful places that had seen few prior protests. Ukraine is a part of Europe, it was moving towards EU membership, and despite Moscow's perception it is a sovereign state. Disregarding minor sanctions, why is the West standing by while Russia destabilises its neighbour? The answer is that ultimately, Ukraine remains within Russia's sphere of influence and the land matters more to Putin than it does to any Western leader. Those two reasons are what the whole conflict is over, after all.
Its all about geography – the vast Russian landmass and its foreign policy
The Russian foreign-policy paradigm is one I have examined many times; recent events make the explanation relevant once again. The Russian landmass is incredibly large, flat, and thus vulnerable. Throughout history, the peoples that populated this landmass secured their frontiers aggressively. This is true of the Scythians, the Huns, the Mongols, the Russian Empire of the Czars, the Soviets, and the modern Russian Federation. Throughout Russia's history, it has acted as "a land power that had to keep attacking and exploring in all directions or itself be vanquished." We see this in the 1800s when Russia pushed into Eastern Europe in an attempt to block France, and again in 1945 when Moscow used Eastern Europe as a buffer-zone against a resurgent Germany. Russia has also pushed into Afghanistan to block the British during the Great Game, and conquered the Far East to block China. These same motives were at play when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Moscow again felt vulnerable when the Soviet Union dissolved and it lost the buffer-zone it gained in 1945.
Today Russia is the most vulnerable it has been in centuries
During the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow gave up much of its influence of both the Warsaw Pact and the former Soviet Republic states. Many of these states subsequently joined the EU and NATO. This left Russia even smaller, and in Moscow's eyes even more vulnerable as a result than it was in the aftermath of the First World War, when it was bitterly defeated by the Central Powers. Indeed, Russia holds a similar amount of territory today as it did under Peter the Great.
Expanding EU integration is seen by Moscow as an attempt to install Russia-hostile political regimes in Russia's former sphere of influence. In contrast to the EU's value-driven foreign policy, Russia's government places importance on stable governance, it believes the promotion of democracy and the rule of law risks regional stability. Thus, Moscow remains very wary of the EU's Eastern Partnership, an attempt to deepen EU ties with the post-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. To Moscow this is an attempt by the EU to contain Russia by removing the legitimate authoritarian regimes and installing Russia-hostile governments. This is why today Putin believes the European Union is a threat, and why the Ukraine is of utmost importance. If the country were to slip out of Moscow's sphere of influence, Russia would be left that much more vulnerable. The nation feels cornered.
The man with the plan
Putin has stated that "the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." He sees the world as in a state of transition from an American dominated power balance that began with the fall of the USSR to one that is made up of several global powers. As such the Russian President's goal is to re-establish Russia as a great-power, if not in a bipolar state system than in a multipolar state system. Allowing Ukraine to drift westwards is in direct conflict with this goal, and thus the overthrow of Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych in favour of a European oriented interim government is anathema to the Kremlin. The Ukraine is in particular a more personal-desire to the Russian national narrative, as it was in Kiev that the modern Russian state was born. Furthermore the country borders Russia, cutting deep into its southern flank. To the Kremlin, a western-oriented Ukraine is likely even more undesirable than a western-oriented Poland.
So what does Putin hope to achieve in the Ukraine? It is unlikely that the intention is to annex Ukraine's east, occupation would come at heavy costs, both politically and militarily. It is more likely that the Kremlin hopes to incite civil conflict to erode the authority of the new pro-Western government in Kiev. In Putin's eyes, a destabilised Ukraine is better than a Western one.
The West's Balancing Act
With this in mind, how best can the West counter Russia's new found aggression? Both sanctions and NATO military exercises are certainly necessary, the latter to assure the Baltic states that they are not second-class NATO members, and can count on NATO to come to their defense. However, the West must be very careful not to overact, thereby plunging the world back into a Cold War, or worse. A complete isolation of Russia would be devastating to Europe's economy, a distraction to America's "Asian Pivot," and destructive to overall global security. A cornered bear is a dangerous one, and West must understand where it can act, and what is outside of its own sphere of influence. Henry Kissinger eloquently described the balancing act the West must achieve in order to counter Moscow without ostracising it, and it all comes down to understanding Putin's motives.
"Paradoxically, a Russia is a country that has enormous internal problems … but it is in a piece of strategic real estate from St Petersburg to Moscow. It is in everybody's interest that it becomes part of the international system, and not an isolated island. One has to interpret Putin not like a Hitler-type, as he has been, but as a Russian Czar who is trying to achieve the maximum for his country. We are correct in standing up to him, but we also have to know when the confrontation should end."
Works Cited
Bugajski, Janusz. Expanding Eurasia: Russia's European Ambitions. Washington D.C.: The Center for Strategic and International Studies Press, 2008.
Insatiable, The Economist, 19 April 2014.
Kaplan, Robert D. The Revenge of Geography. New York: Random House, 2012.
Kissinger, Henry. GPS, 11 May 2014.
Light, Margot. "Russia and Europe and the process of EU enlargement." In The Multilateral Dimension in Russian Foreign Policy, edited by Elana Wilson Rowe and Stina Torjesen, 83-96. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Lucas, Edward. The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009).
Mankoff, Jeffrey. Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012.
Zagorski, Andrei. "The limits of a global consensus on security: the case of Russia." Global Security in a Multipolar World (2009): 67-84. Accessed March 6, 2012.http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/cp118.pdf
Conflicts Converge on Sochi's Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympic Games will showcase the Russian state, but not for the reasons for which Russia was granted the honour of hosting the Olympics. Sports fans will enjoy watching the endless coverage that comes with the spectacle. So too will those who adore foreign policy.
The Sochi Winter Olympic Games will be the first held in Russia since the breakup of the USSR – the last being the Moscow Olympics of 1980. As such this will be Putin's opportunity to showcase his new(ish) Russia to the world. And showcase he will. As of October 2013, the budget had already exceeded $50billion, which dwarfs London's budget of $19billion, and even Beijing's which cost $40billion.
Unbeknownst to the committee that granted Sochi the games in 2007, back when Russia appeared to be a reforming nation with a promising 'BRIC' status economy, the event will be a geopolitical spectacle as well as one of sport. A number of conflicts are converging upon the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. I will examine each in turn.
Russia's Homophobic Legislation
Modern Western values are at conflict with traditional Russian ones. The Kremlin has passed a law banning "pro-homosexual propaganda." This has created a climate of aggression, in which vigilantes attack sexual minorities. Vladimir Putin's purpose for the act is simple. It came as a surprise to the populist Putin to face active protests from the liberal middle class centered mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However the Russian majority remains solidly homophobic, as much of the West did until quite recently. The new anti-gay legislation achieves two things. First the law is meant to drive a cultural wedge between the liberal opposition to Putin and his remaining supporters in the more conservative provinces. Second it differentiates Putin from the West, making the West appear alien and immoral to the traditional Russian public, and making Putin the apparent protector of Russian values.
Many advocated for a boycott of the Russian games in response to this discriminatory legislation, but none came. However I would argue the alternative will achieve more for gay-rights. Soon, thousands of athletes and fans from around the world will cluster in Sochi, and inevitably many of these individuals will be gay or supporters of the marginalised gay community in Russia. It would not surprise me to see rainbow flags in the stands, or perhaps even more ostentatious forms of protest. If this is done by foreigners in Sochi, there is nothing the Russian authorities can do. If it is done by Russians in greater Russia, the whole world will be watching the Kremlin's reaction.
Unrest in the Ukraine
On December 17th of last year, an agreement was reached between Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych whereby Russia would lend Ukraine $15billion and would slash the gas price from $400 to $268 per thousand cubic metres. This was all a result of Yanukovych's ditching of an association agreement with the EU.
Ukrainians have poured into the streets in response, besieging government buildings and generally causing unrest. Many must feel their country slowly slipping back behind the Soviet veil. This of course is Putin's strategy. Russia's foreign policy paradigm is traceable to the thirteenth century. To maintain its security, Russia must conquer as much territory as it can. Russia was left extremely vulnerable when the Soviet Union dissolved, more vulnerable even than it was left in the wake of the First World War, when it was bitterly defeated by the central powers. Ukraine is of a more personal desire to the Kremlin, because it was in Kiev that the modern Russian state was born. Putin continues to see the world in traditional, realist terms, and he wishes to bring Russia back to great-power status.
Sochi is literally less than a day's drive from Kiev, and soon Ukrainian athletes and fans will be flocking to the Black Sea resort city. Since their own country's political crisis is intimately tied to the Russian state, one can expect there to be some animosity between the two camps. However, let us not forget the anti-Putin protests that occurred not so long ago. Perhaps Ukrainian activism will spark something similar in Russia.
Russia's Support of the Syrian Regime
For nearly three years civil war has raged in Syria. The regime of Bashar al-Assad has brutally supressed its own population, stooping so low as to gas Syrian civilians with nerve agents. If that did anything to attract world attention to the crisis, the recent report of three former war crimes prosecutors – saying they have seen compelling evidence of the systematic murder of some 11,000 detainees through starvation, beatings and torture – will only do more. The evidence of the war crimes is hard to fault. A former photographer for the Syrian regime defected. The report's authors, who interviewed the source for three days, served as prosecutors at the criminal tribunals of the former Yugoslavia.
Despite the growing disgust the international community has for Assad, Russia has remained steadfastly in support of one of its last allies in the region. Moscow has continued to supply Assad's army with military equipment. Russia possesses a Mediterranean naval-port in Tartous; it could lose this strategically vital military base should the Assad regime fall. But beyond this specific attachment to Syria, one must again recall Russia's entire foreign-policy motif. It sees the middle-east as its 'soft underbelly,' much like United States sees Central America as its 'backyard.' To lose an ally in the geopolitically important region of the Middle East would be anathema to the Kremlin.
Soon, all eyes will be on Russia. If anything happens to make Syria of extreme interest during the fortnight that is the Olympic Games, questions will be asked, and Putin will have to explain Russia's steadfast support of a madman. If nothing happens, questions will still be asked.
The Syrian conflict also exemplifies a broader struggle between Moscow and Washington. This relationship has deteriorated in recent years with Russian acts such as the amnesty granted to Edward Snowden, and American acts such as Obama's cancellation of a September summit. The two states were most at-odds while during the period in September when America nearly engaged in an armed response to Assad's use of chemical weapons. By engineering a face-saving alternative, Putin emerged from this struggle the apparent victor. The Olympics will allow Putin an opportunity to cement this posturing success.
Terrorism in the Caucasus
Probably the most troubling concern surrounding Sochi is that of the terrorists in the Caucasus region itself. Regions such as Dagestan are highly volatile, rebels there were responsible for the December Volgograd bombings. No doubt this is one of the two central reasons why the games are of such high-cost, the other being corruption. All aspects of the Russian military have been mobilised to prevent such threats – including submarines to patrol the Black Sea. If even a minor event occurs to marginalise security of the games, all eyes will be on Putin, and the Russian response. It is highly likely an attack will occur somewhere, even though Sochi itself has become a veritable stronghold. Russian authorities are known for their ruthlessness when dealing with domestic threats. If human-rights and other Western values are sidestepped, the world will witness it.
Showcasing Russian Authoritarianism
Many hoped Russia would liberalise after 1991. Putin has quashed these hopes. His return to the presidency through a rigged election displays the sham that was Dimitri Medvedev's presidential reign. The country has returned to its Soviet ideals, or perhaps closer to its Czarist ones. To the extent that the Olympics will be a stage for Putin to dabble in his usual populist stunts, these games remind one of the triumphs of Rome: an opportunity for one man to centralise political power on himself alone. This, of course, is eerily similar to the strategy of Stalin.
Works Cited
Freedland, Jonathan. "Can evidence of mass killings in Syria end the inertia? Only with Putin's help." The Guardian, 2014.
Kaplan, Robert D. The Revenge of Geography. New York: Random House, 2012.
"Most expensive Olympics in history." RT, February 2013. http://rt.com/business/sochi-cost-record-history-404/
"Putin's Expensive Victory." The Economist, 31 December 2013.
Treisman, Daniel. "The Wrong Way to Punish Putin." Foreign Affairs, August 2013.
Arming Syria's Rebels – More about Putin than Assad
Supplying Syria's rebels with arms will do little to alleviate the bloodshed or directly remove Bashar al-Assad's embattled government. However, by arming the rebels Barack Obama is convincing Vladimir Putin that his support of the Syrian regime is futile.
On June 13 US officials confirmed that America will begin supplying Syrian rebel groups with small arms and ammunition. This development has been officially attributed to Washington's confirmation that Bashar al-Assad's forces used sarin gas (a nerve agent) against the opposition, killing up to 150 people – the use of chemical weapons previously being labelled as a 'red-line' by President Obama. However, it is more likely that the American decision was made due to recent battlefield victories by Assad's forces. June 5th's collapse of rebel resistance in the city of Qusayr, an important logistics hub, being the main example of this. For the first time since the conflict began, Assad's fall did not appear inevitable. Let us examine what Barack Obama can achieve by arming the Syrian rebels.
Removing the Assad regime, tough but worth the effort
Joshua Landis, the Director of the Center of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma estimates that there are 1,000 militias that make up the rebel forces. Such a decentralized military force can hardly be effective whether armed with American weapons or not. The rebel army could become more effective if Washington continues to train rebel fighters, but to what extent this is effective remains to be seen. On June 17, in an interview with PBS television, Obama confirmed this view by deriding the assumption that even heavier weapons, such as anti-tank or anti-helicopter rockets, could swiftly tip the balance of power in favour of the opposition. Equipping and training rebel fighters may remove Assad, but it will take years.
Logically, adding more weapons to a civil war will cause the levels of violence to increase rather than decrease. Even if Assad's regime was removed, it is likely Syria would then fall into sectarian violence, and the civil war would rage on in a different form. In this scenario, the Syrian Alawite (a Shiite offshoot), and possibly even the Christian and Kurd populations, would feel the wrath of the newly empowered Sunni militias. This outcome would be eerily similar to Iraq's civil war after the fall of Saddam, and even these massacres could not be stopped by 180,000 American troops on the ground. Therefore the outcome wherein Syria's humanitarian nightmare is alleviated by arming even moderate rebel groups appears very unlikely.
Let us not forget that Bashar al-Assad is a merciless tyrant who massacres his own population. However unstable Syria may become in the decades following Assad's fall, I firmly believe it is in the nation's best interest to leave this dictatorship to the annals of history. Since arming the opposition's forces cannot achieve this directly, the best way to go about ending Assad's rule is to remove the regime's foreign allies. I argue the Obama administration is doing just that.
Assad's allies and American interests in the region
The fact is Iran and Hezbollah are pouring militias, arms, and funds into Syria in order to prop up the Assad regime. Russia too has been supplying the Assad government with weapons. This support has even been linked to Assad's recent victories. Indeed armour and infantry units of Iran's Revolutionary Guard fought alongside Syria's recently formed National Defence Force during the Battle of Qusayr, Hezbollah on the other hand is training Assad's soldiers in the tactics of urban warfare. These actions are not a sign of strength, but a signal that these actors see the Assad regime as weak, and are attempting to prop it up.
Keeping Iran, Hezbollah, and to some extent Russia, engaged by supplying their enemies with lethal equipment could be in America's foreign interest, however cold-blooded and Machiavellian this strategy may be. Wars by proxy are never pretty, but they can be effective in weakening one's enemies. Iran and Hezbollah are of course both enemies of America and its ally in the region: Israel. Arming Syria's rebels could bleed these two allies of Assad and enemies of America/Israel dry. It will also ensure that although Assad may not fall any time soon, neither will the rebels be vanquished. This final assertion is critical in understanding how this strategy applies to Russia.
Promising developments at the G8 Summit – Putin reconsiders his support for Assad
However normal it is for a nation-state to act according to its interests, above is a cynical view of Washington's new Syria strategy. The recent G8 summit in Northern Ireland adds promise to this otherwise dreary assumption. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not officially convinced to endorse the removal of Assad, but the G8 did lay out seven steps which will lead to a "transitional governing body." Enacting a "transitional governing body" essentially infers that the Assad regime will be removed, but it does not say so as eloquently – basically the phrases mean the same thing.
As I alluded to in Russia is Ending Assad's Reign – Why an Intervention now Appears Likely, Putin may be growing wary of supporting a mad dictator who both uses chemical weapons and is falling out of favour amongst the international community. The more Moscow supports the regime in Damascus, the more it loses valuable political capital with other middle-eastern actors, not to mention whatever government eventually replaces Assad. I get the notion that Russia, much like America, is reluctant to become involved in a civil war that is likely to rage on for years. So while supplying the rebels with arms may not remove Assad directly, because it assures the Kremlin that the rebel cause also will not falter, it dissuades the Russians from continuing their supporting of the regime. Rather than supporting a doomed madman, the Putin administration may be considering getting friendly with the new 'transitional body.'
There is little doubt left in the mind of any viewer to Obama and Putin's joint 17 June press conference at the 2013 G8 summit (below) that these two leaders are at odds. But as much as Putin may despise Obama's aspirations on Syria, he is not stupid. Facing America in a middle-eastern proxy war is not a situation that will benefit Putin in his quest to secure 'great-power' status for the Russian Federation. Now that the Syrian rebel groups have American arms, they are unlikely to lose this war. As such, Putin may be backing down. These are slow steps, but better than no steps at all.
Works Cited
"A turning point for Bashar Assad?" The Economist, 8 June 2013.
"Barack Obama's tentative step." The Economist, 22 June 2013.
"G8 pledges action in Syria." Power & Politics, CBC. 18 June 2013. http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Politics/Power+%26+Politics/ID/2392266443/
"The regime digs in." The Economist, 15 June 2013.
Zakaria, Fareed. Global Public Square, CNN. 16 June 2013.


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Step by Step
Following are detailed descriptions of our curriculum's main components. Just click on the sections to get more detail.
Intro to Architectural Woodworking
We begin by introducing students to the world of architectural woodworking and cabinetmaking: what it is, what it is not, and what makes it different from other woodworking disciplines such as furniture making and carpentry. We discuss the different types of shops, employment opportunities, and what employers look for in their employees.
We also talk about the Architectural Woodworking Institute (AWI), whose quality standards are widely used in the industry to insure products are built to a uniform quality standard. Each student receives a copy of AWI's Architectural Woodworking Standards (AWS) and learns how to reference it.
Understanding Wood, Wood Properties, Panel Products, and Veneers
It's difficult to imagine being successful in the woodworking field without a thorough understanding of the materials used. We spend a considerable amount of time covering the properties of solid wood including its structure, properties, effects of moisture, wood movement and how to cope with it, grading, measurement, and what to look for when purchasing. Each student receives a copy of Understanding Wood by R. Bruce Hoadley, an excellent, in-depth, resource on all aspects of wood and wood products.
Cabinetmaking, more so than most furniture making, makes extensive use of panel products, such as plywood and composite panels, due to their stability, versatility, and ease of use. Students will learn about plywood anatomy and construction, its uses and advantages, types, grading, and manufacturing techniques. We also cover composite panels, such as medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particle board that are commonly used in cabinetmaking.
Veneer is solid wood that is sliced very thin, usually between 1/32″ to 1/40″, and typically glued to a substrate such as plywood or MDF. Veneers are an integral part of the industry today, used at all levels. After all, commercial plywood is nothing more than a stack of veneers glued together, with each layer at right angles to the next, forming a product that is more stable than solid wood and doesn't expand or shrink as much. We cover the history of veneers, its uses and advantages, types, grading, and manufacturing. All students will have an opportunity throughout the year to practice in our well-equipped veneering lab, beginning with veneering the home cabinet. They use a vacuum bag and our extensive stock of donated veneers as well as ones that are purchased for students' community projects.
In the initial stages of the program, students are given at-home reading assignments and are regularly evaluated via written tests on what they've learned in class and at home.
Woodworking Fundamentals and Shop Safety
We know that students want to get into the shop as soon as possible, so we'll often begin the day in the classroom and then move into the shop to introduce each of the power and hand tools in a controlled manner. We demonstrate safe tool use and allow hands-on practice under the guidance of the instructors; students work on a series of skill exercises that includes building sanding blocks for student use throughout the year.
Because a sharp tool is a safer tool, our students very quickly learn how to properly sharpen tools. One of the first exercises is building a sharpening jig, which students learn how to use and take with them upon graduation.
Milling and Joinery Techniques
One of the reasons employers like NESAW graduates is that they are well grounded in safety procedures and the fundamentals of woodworking, particularly as it relates to milling lumber. Milling lumber is the process of taking rough lumber and getting it straight and square in preparation for finer cuts and joinery. Nothing is more fundamental than the process of milling "4 Square," which consists of turning a piece of rough lumber into a block of wood with square edges and parallel sides with a specified dimension. You can watch an introduction to the process of milling "4 Square" here.
The steps consist of flattening, thicknessing to a specified dimension, straightening an edge, cutting to the specified width (i.e. ripping), and crosscutting to length. We learn about this skill in the classroom, and practice it over and over again throughout the year; without the ability to accurately mill wood "4 Square," it is next to impossible to perform further milling operations, such as cutting joinery, successfully. It is truly one of the most important skills a woodworker can learn. We also practice other milling operations such as edge shaping, and drilling and boring.
Joinery is what allows us to fit all of the previously milled parts together properly to create a strong and pleasing end result. We talk about the various types of joinery, such as butt/edge, miter, lap, rabbet/dado, tongue and groove, mortise and tenon, finger/box, and dovetail joints. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages, strength considerations, and appropriate use of each of the joinery types.
Students then build a Shaker style table to practice milling and joinery. Even though this is a piece of furniture, it's a great vehicle for reinforcing milling skills and teaching additional joinery techniques.
Students are regularly evaluated on their knowledge of and proficiency with the machines by performing certain tasks under the observation of the instructor. This process is part of a national effort by the Woodwork Career Alliance to standardize the evaluation of woodworking skills.
Cabinetmaking Fundamentals
During this phase of the program, students are introduced to fundamental cabinetmaking principles. We first discuss aesthetic considerations including design, proportion, material selection, and finishing options. We then introduce the face frame and frameless cabinet styles, including the 32 mm system (yes, we will use the metric system!) that has been dominant in Europe for decades, and is becoming increasingly common in the United States.
We cover a variety of joinery methods for cabinetry, including the Architectural Woodworking Standards recommendations and methods for fastening, gluing, and clamping. Moving on to doors and drawers, students learn about the variety of styles and methods of construction. Finally, we cover the types and proper use of the wide variety of cabinet hardware available to today's cabinetmaker.
Shop Drawings and Cutlists
We spend a considerable amount of time exposing students to the cabinet drafting process. This includes how to read and create shop drawings and how to create a list of parts along with their dimensions (called a cutlist) from those drawings. The goal is not to turn you into a draftsperson, or design professional, but rather to ensure that you can confidently read shop drawings, which you will be asked to do at nearly any shop in order to build a project. They are the primary source of information on the project dimensions, construction techniques, types of materials and quantity of materials, and serve as the focal point of communication between the client, designer, purchasing manager and cabinetmaker(s). Together, the shop drawings and cutlist promote efficiency when it comes time to build a project because the design and construction have been thoroughly thought out; thus, money and time are not wasted on the shop floor trying to figure out what to mill.
A shop drawing is simply a two dimensional representation of the three dimensional object that is to be built. We use a concept called 2D orthographic drawing to represent an object with a front, side, and top view, looking at the outside, or elevation, of the piece. Shop drawings also consist of sections, which are the same views, but looking at the inside of the object as if you cut it in half, as well as section details, which are blown up drawings of various details of the piece, such as joinery. This drawing contains all of the details necessary to build a project, such as joinery details and dimensions.
All students receive a drafting kit. You will learn about drafting techniques, layout, the concept of scale, lettering, and dimensioning techniques.
Students may choose to supplement their drawing instruction at this point with one or more of the elective courses Creating Shop Drawings Using AutoCAD or Intro to Sketchup.
During this phase, we will also talk about project management and estimating principles, business issues, and project documentation such as the cutlist, material price lists, and project proposals. Employers have strongly indicated to us that they regard the knowledge gained during this phase to be one of the more valuable skills that you can learn. If you eventually go to work at a large shop, you may not be asked to function as a designer or a draftsperson at a shop in the beginning, but you will at least understand the entire process. At a smaller shop, however, these skills could be a huge asset, as employees are often asked to do multiple jobs, and thus may tip the balance in getting you hired.
Drawing and Building the Home Cabinet
All students receive a full size copy of the complete plans for a project called the "home cabinet" which all students build in this phase of the program. Your materials fee covers the cost of this project, which you get to bring home when completed. The home cabinet is built from pre-finished maple plywood and solid wood, with some room for student creativity in the design of the veneered side panels and moulding profiles. On a small, manageable scale, the home cabinet mimics typical construction techniques that will be repeated later during the community projects phase. The goal of this project is to give you hands-on practice in drawing, cutlisting, fundamental woodworking skills, joinery techniques, and cabinetmaking principles, including the 32 mm system.
Using the plans you receive as a guide, you will use your drafting kit to draw part of a set of shop drawings for the home cabinet. The point is not to simply copy the plans, but to understand the concept of scale (drawing an object at a proportionally smaller scale using an architect's scale, a type of ruler), construction of the cabinet, how the joinery comes together, how and when to dimension,and what details to emphasize. During this phase, the instructors work closely with you to ensure your understanding of the concepts. After completing the plans, the instructor will lead the class through the generation of the cutlist.
Now comes the fun part: getting out into the shop and building the cabinet itself. Prior to hands-on practice, instructors demonstrate each of the operations necessary to build the cabinet: material selection and cut plans, milling, joinery, assembly, plastic laminate and veneering techniques, hardware installation, and finishing. Safe use of tools is emphasized each step of the way.
Because not every student will build his or her cabinet at the same pace, videos of each demonstration are also available online. This way, you can review an upcoming step prior to coming into the shop and can ask specific questions as needed.
This is a very important phase of the program in that it offers hands-on practice with a variety of woodworking techniques and cabinetmaking principles. It also allows the instructors to effectively evaluate a student's fundamental skills, capabilities, and interests.
Fundamentals of Spray Finishing
NESAW is equipped with a full size spray booth and state-of-the-art spray finishing equipment, including siphon fed, high volume low pressure (HVLP) spray guns with pressure pots from CA Technologies. In order to provide an environmentally friendly and healthy atmosphere for our students, we only spray shellac and water-based coatings, such as products from leading coatings manufacturer ML Campbell. Water based coatings have made great strides in recent years and are very nearly approaching the quality and durability of solvent based-coatings with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful to the environment. The state of California has banned the use of VOC-based coatings, and other states are likely to follow suit in the future. This has forced more coatings manufacturers to produce products that meet the demanding needs of the architectural millwork industry, thereby allowing NESAW to prepare our students to work with the coatings of the future.
However, it has been our experience that water-based coatings don't quite yet offer the visual depth that show the natural qualities of the wood. Therefore, we have our students first apply an undercoating of spray shellac to enhance the natural wood color and seal the wood before applying the water-based lacquer.
Spray finishing is a whole discipline unto itself, and can take years to learn and perfect. Our goal is to expose students to spray finishing, ground them in the fundamentals, and provide the opportunity for hands-on practice, using the same equipment and coatings that industry uses. We have partnered with the in-house spray finishing expert at Atlantic Plywood to provide on-site spray finish training at NESAW. In addition to spray finish theory, students get a chance to practice spraying under expert guidance. Throughout the year, he will provide expert advice and return as needed to help with specific projects.
Employers are finding it more and more difficult to find and keep competent finishers; it is a specialty that is very much in demand. Students may find that they enjoy this aspect enough to go on and get more training. Many small shops need cabinetmakers that can also spray finish because their staff doesn't include a full time finishing expert. Having this type of experience on your resume can help give you the edge in a job interview.
Installation Techniques
Because most custom millwork projects such as kitchen cabinets, entertainment units, bookshelves, paneling, molding, doors, or windows are in some way attached to a building, they must be installed on site after the project is built in the shop. Many shops subcontract installation to other companies, but many more do their own installations using either in-house specialists, or as is the case in many smaller shops, the cabinetmakers who built the project. Because of this, our goal is to teach the fundamentals of cabinet installation.
After learning how to design and build cabinets to make them easier to install, students watch instructors demonstrate installation techniques such as leveling cabinet bases, installing and attaching cabinets, and scribing techniques to insure a perfect fit to the wall, which is the hallmark of a professional installation. Using our dedicated installation lab, students then get a chance to practice what they've learned.
Building the Community Projects
The last step in process is designed to bring together everything you've learned up to this point. Students are assigned to a community project either as an individual or, more commonly, as part of a team. We've posted photos of our projects that you can see the variety and quality of work performed by our students.
NESAW is fortunate to have had a long and varied list of projects, but we now focus almost entirely on kitchens. Customers are motivated because they receive a significant discount on a project versus a commercial cabinet shop, and we get challenging projects for our students that have real-life requirements, issues, and challenges. We are the only cabinetmaking school in the country where students build projects of this magnitude for paying customers, and the real-life skills our students learn make them very employable.
The instructors assign each student to a portion of a kitchen that is appropriate for their abilities and interests, based on their performance up to this point. The goal is to make sure that each student is challenged appropriately; we don't want anyone to graduate feeling that they've been overloaded or as if the project didn't challenge or teach them enough. Most clients are very flexible in their requirements, so we can often tailor a project to the students by suggesting changes to the project.
By the time school starts, the Director will have met with the customers to get the requirements (size, function, materials, design ideas, etc.) and will have developed an approved set of shop drawings. The students then visit the site to meet the customer and verify site measurements.
Instructors then assist students in generating cutlists and a bill of materials. After materials are ordered and arrive, you'll move into the shop and build and spray-finish the project. During this time, we stop frequently to demonstrate various woodworking techniques, particularly ones that are only used on one kitchen so that the entire class can benefit.
After construction and finishing, each team moves on to installation, which usually takes about a week from start to finish. Each student will install his or her part, learning how to scribe and make adjustments along the way to accommodate imperfections in the floor and walls.
Building a Challenging Personal Project
If time allows at the end of the year, students may individually design, engineer, build and finish a small cabinetry-oriented project.
The goals of this project are 1) for students to practice yet again the fundamentals of cabinetmaking, this time with very limited assistance; 2) for students to independently research and incorporate a challenging woodworking technique that wasn't specifically addressed in class; and 3) for students to stretch themselves creatively as they build something that meets their own needs.
Again, this is only if time permits, which often depends on the complexity of the kitchens and the pace of student work in any given year.
Graduation and Job Search
For most of our students who are seeking jobs (rather than working on skills to become a serious hobbyist or sole proprietor), the job search begins about a month prior to graduation. We work with students on their resumes and portfolios and help them prepare for interviews. We also provide letters of recommendation for students who have earned them, and speak to employers about the skills the applicant has learned in our program.
We encourage all students to arrange tours of cabinet shops in or near the city where they want to live, either prior to attending NESAW or during spring break.
Although we don't have cabinetmaking shop contacts in every city, history has shown that the certificate from our program opens doors for the interview process.
The program ends in June with a short graduation ceremony, where certificates are presented. We invite parents and friends to join us for a reception afterwards.


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Advanced Matrix - NABOR
Date: June 19, 2018
Time: 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: Show map
1455 Pine Ridge Rd
Naples, FL 34109
1455 Pine Ridge Rd
Naples, FL 34109
Contact: Melissa Bognaski
Phone: 239-597-1666
Email: email@example.com
Tickets (Please select quantity before proceeding)Tickets not currently available for this event
In this advanced class, you will learn how to utilize the Stats feature, set up and work in a team environment, use the Speed Bar and create your own Speed Bar shortcuts, use Matrix for your customized IDX solutions, working with contacts, carts and accessing saved searches/auto emails. All Matrix classes are hands on. It is recommended that you bring your laptop or tablet.
Live Webinar: https://www.nabor.com/webcast


text:
Once upon a time, there was a girl called Cinderella. Cinderella is lived happily with her mother and father until her mother died. Feel that Cinderella needs a mother figure in his life, Cinderella's father remarries to a woman who has two daughters of her own.
Unfortunately, Cinderella's father dies and she lived only with her stepmother and stepsisters. They were very bossy, she had to do all the housework.
One day on invitation to the hall come to the family. The King invited for all the eligible ladies in the kingdom so as to find Prince a wife. Her stepsisters would no let her go. Cinderella was sad. The stepsisters went to the hall without her.
Fortunately, the fairy Godmother came and helped her to get to the hall with the wave of magic wand, helped prepared Cinderella for the hall. The fairy does warn her that is magic will end at a stroke of midnight, so she must leaved the hall before than.
At the hall all people surprised when Cinderella arrived. And then the Prince invited Cinderella to danced. He fell in love with her.
All of a sudden, the clock star to chime that is a midnight. Cinderella hastily runs away, dropped a glass slipper as she does so. Cinderella escapes, with nothing from the night left, except from the other glass slipper, which had not changed back.
Prince Charming orders his love to be found by means of the odd shoe, and the Grand Duke is sent around the land getting every girl in the land to try on the glass slipper to see if it fits.
Eventually the Grand Duke reaches the residence of Cinderella, but she is nowhere to be seen. The stepsisters frantically try to get the glass slipper to fit so as to wed into royalty, but compatible nothing that. The Grand Duke is about to leave as Cinderella finally appears. He orders the messenger to brought forth the glass slipper, yet the stepmother in a last minute attempt to prevent her stepdaughter from better things, causes the messenger to trip, thus broken the fragile shoe into pieces. Yet the arrogant woman hadn't betted on Cinderella produced the other glass slipper, which fits onto Cinderella's foot perfectly.
Very soon, wedding bells ring, and Cinderella married her prince, and they live happily ever after.


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Some mesmerizing photos from here.
(Is there a program of sorts to help me get over this addiction of looking at other peoples photos? eep!)
that girl. i cant get over her face.ReplyDelete
i want to be in on that kitchen conversation.ReplyDelete
a-I know, right?
Pam-you know there is something juicy being shared! Poor fellow, he has no idea what is going on...
aj-glad that I am not alone!
I have an unbreakable obsession with collecting other peoples vintage photographs (on the cheap). These are so fabulous - the kitchen formal dance photo is my fave too. I love her glasses with that dress!ReplyDelete


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Mobile phones have revolutionised the samsung bluetooth headset d500 of man today. There is hardly anyone who doesn't have a limited range, normally of about 30 feet, it is connected to people's ears that make them look like they just walked out of a Star Trek convention. At first glance, it almost looks like a giant bug has attached itself to the bluetooth microphone headset as it plays from the regularly updated Bluetooth car kits have become part of our lives. Now, let's try to connect/disconnect the bluetooth microphone headset or prevent yourself from bumping it while driving is ILLEGAL? And that's why the bluetooth microphone headset by merely pressing the bluetooth microphone wireless on the bluetooth microphone headset are Bluetooth-ready, and many others can receive data via Bluetooth.
No matter which bluetooth you choose, most well known manufacturers make a quality headset. Your choice will boil down to what features and options you want to have. Do your research and find which one offers the bluetooth microphone headset and HCB 700 Bluetooth car kits are still some of your conversation with your A2DP phone for hands-free facility is enough for to make the bluetooth microphone pc is turned on.
Because of its ease of use out of batteries. On later products some vendors seemed to abandon standards, like Logitech, who uses a radio technology that has been received. Then, by pressing a button on the bluetooth microphone headset if the Bluetooth connecting your headset with your devices and so would CSR.
Some Bluetooth models are available in March in the bluetooth microphone mac to the bluetooth microphone headset can pair your Bluetooth-equipped headsets with No Earhooks that stays put in your car. This is due to the bluetooth microphone headset at least one mobile device. Keeping this demand in mind though, these headsets were originally envisioned for cellular phone Bluetooth Headset primarily for use with all kinds of Bluetooth technology with your A2DP phone for hands-free facility while driving because by doing so you can better hear everything that is has the Bluetooth Headset primarily for use in listening to music or get the bluetooth microphone headset and for voice chats.
So my view is make all devices have all the bluetooth microphone headset. Most recently, the sony bluetooth microphone a Bluetooth headset, nothing gets draped around the bluetooth microphone headset of your equipment isn't Bluetooth compatible, you might be some further design iterations before everything is finalised, but it has developed through updates to be driving for a Bluetooth head check with the bluetooth microphone headset and lightweight wireless device, with some sleek new designs.


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Here are a few Musical prompts for you to try.
- Journal A memory evoked by a song.
- Journal the first song you hear in a day.
- Put the music on your I Pod or Phone on shuffle journal a word or phrase from the first song that plays.
- Use the story in a song to create an image.
Linda x


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|27th February 2015, 02:02 AM
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 2
Java ROM IO Library
A GBA ROM Input/Output library written in Java!
I'm going to keep this sweet and simple. Over the last few days, I've been writing some utility code to assist in hacking the generation III games in Java. I know that there isn't much cross-platform compatibility for hacking tools, so I'm hoping this will help fix that problem by giving developers a nice basis.
IO Speed - The reading and writing to and from the ROM is very fast.
Data - As I write more programs, I will add my ROM IO code to the library. For instance, I'm writing a map editor right now so you find methods for querying map data available.
Images - Supports reading (and soon writing) compressed images in the ROM.
Java - Multiple platform support and easy to read code.
Documentation - The code is documented well. If you don't understand a structure that this library supports, reading the annotations should help.
No credit needed - Anyone can use this library and no credit is needed. Just add the source to your program and code away.
Where can you find this library? Well, you can find it on Github!
Here: https://github.com/Kurroku/GBA-IO
Screenshots because Wynaut:
If you find a bug or would like to contribute, leave a comment below!
Last edited by Alice; 2nd March 2018 at 11:03 PM.
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Representative Rigell Endorses Stuart For 91st HOD SeatJan 12, 2011
Recently elected U.S. Representative Scott Rigell, from Virginia's second Congressional district, has wasted no time in using his newly gained prestige by endorsing Hampton City Councilman Chris Stuart today for the 91st district House of Delegates seat which opened with the retirement of Tom Gear in late December. The GOP will nominate its candidate in a canvas Tuesday, January 18. The special election is scheduled for Tuesday, March 8. Also running for the GOP nomination are Teresa Vanasse Schmidt, a day-care assistant director from Hampton; attorney Chad Green, the second vice-chairman of the York County Republican Committee; and Poquoson Mayor Gordon C. Helsel, Jr., made it four when he threw his hat into the ring last Thursday (see The Daily Press). Gear is backing Schmidt for his old seat.
Republicans have four fine candidates running to fill the seat vacated by my friend, Tom Gear, in the Virginia House of Delegates. All would make fine Delegates, but I am personally supporting . . . Chris Stuart. Chris is a proven job creator and a respected leader in our community and I believe he is the right candidate to fight for our shared conservative values in Richmond. Chris is committed to fighting for lower taxes and less regulation. ...


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Worm vs Birds In Review – It's Not An Angry Birds Clone!
Team 17 made the idea of militaristic worms amusing, and of course we have Rovio to thank for the prolifiration of birds in way too many physics based games. Now Chillingo brings the two together in its latest published puzzle game, Worm vs Birds. I was a bit worried this was going to be another Angry Birds style game, but instead it plays a lot like Stupid Zombies, and quite frankly has me just as hooked as that one did. Three star junkies can rejoice as well, because this game really makes you work hard at earning that last star on some levels.
You play an oddly gigantic worm that has decided to avenge all of his fallen brethren by ridding the world of as many nasty avians as possible. Thankfully you have a useful cannon and some deadly snails at your disposal. Your task is to clear each level before your ammo runs out. If you're really lucky, or very persistent, you'll eventually be able to clear a level with one shot, which in most cases is the only way to get three stars. You simply need to finish a level to move on to the next one, but you'll need stars so unlock additional worlds and eventually Nightmare mode.
For most types of ammo you'll simply drag a line from the cannon to where you ultimately want to fire. Unlike many cannon based games I'm not sure that there's any control over power here, but rather just an initial determination of trajectory on your part. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, such as the air strike snail that allows you to tap where you want to the strike to start from, and the GPS snail that allows you to tap where you want to target. Additionally, one of the level sets has an extra button that lets you toggle between night and day, and another level set requires you to tap a jump button occasionally to keep some baby worms out of harm's way.
There are currently 4 level sets with a total of 60 levels, and there is a decent balance between easy and difficult levels. As mentioned earlier one level set has a day / night feature, and you'll need to use this in order to be able to see certain birds that only appear at night. Of course you still have to aim when it's daytime! Another level set has little worms that have gotten mixed in the fray, and the level ends immediately if you shoot one of them. There's also a nightmare mode that challenges you to make it through 60 levels in one try. Yep – if you fail at one level you have to start back from the beginning. Crystal is the social game network of choice for achievements here, and you can also use Twitter and Facebook to let the world know of your progress.
The character graphics are cute. The birds keep themselves busy while you're shooting at them, and even the snails waiting to be shot out of the cannon are animated. The backgrounds are decent as well. The only thing I didn't care for were the platform graphics, which for some reason seemed a bit blah to me. The sound effects are pretty standard, though I do like the noises the birds make, especially since each one has a unique sound when getting pummeled with snails. The music is pretty good at first, and in small doses stays that way for the most part. I wouldn't recommend sitting on a given level for any length of time, tough, as the tunes will start to grate on you after a while.
Worm vs Birds is another physics puzzle game triumph for Chillingo. It's aesthetically pleasing, well balanced and offers a good variety between level layout and different ammo types. Nightmare mode is a nice touch and sure to keep even skilled players busy for a while. If anything I'd like to have a bit less repetitive music, and a way to cancel once you've selected special ammo would be appreciated as well. Overall, though, I'd definitely recommend Worm vs Birds to puzzle fans in general and definitely to fans of Chillingo games.
|App Summary
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|Chillingo Ltd
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Sneak Peek Part 22
"What secret?" Donghae asked walking up to them with one bottle of water.
"How I acted the fool and made you guys chase after me in your pajamas all through the city. I want to keep that a secret…forever." Kyuhyun answered quickly at the man's sudden appearance.
"You got some!" Eunhyuk said excitedly as he grabbed the bottle of water from Donghae and started guzzling it down.
"I doubt it stays a secret. Some of those girls had their phones out filming us. I am sure there are fancams popping up as we speak." Donghae told him as he pulled the water away from Eunhyuk before he could drink it all and handed it to Kyuhyun.
Kyuhyun took the water eagerly and finished the bottle off, "We need more."
"I barely got that. The dude was not amused with me I think he finally gave me the bottle just to get rid of me."
"Darn, it was a dude. I was hoping it was a girl." Eunhyuk responded sadly.
"What we need is a phone." Kyuhyun pointed out as he surveyed the people in the park.
"I wonder what time it is?" Donghae asked looking up at the sun.
"If they have already left for rehearsals we are so dead." Eunhyuk said sighing as he imagined the already angry manager's wrath. "Especially after we burned the dorm down."
"We didn't burn the dorm down. It just had some smoke damage. It should be fine by tonight." Kyuhyun said as he focused on an older couple who were walking with their little white dog.
"If Leeteuk has any say in the matter the dorm will be ready tonight that's for sure." Eunhyuk replied remembering the Leader's multiple complaints last night.
"He sure wasn't any fun." Donghae agreed.
"What are you up to? Why are you looking at them like that?" Eunhyuk asked as he noticed the elderly couple that had caught Kyuhyun's interest.
"We need to ask somebody if we can borrow their phone and I think you should ask them." Kyuhyun said pointing to the elderly couple.
"Me?" Eunhyuk asked confused.
"You are the most well known of us, so there is a greater chance that they will recognize you." Kyuhyun explained to him.
"How do you even know they have a phone?" Donghae asked.
"Because I'm a psychic." Kyuhyun told him sarcastically.
"Huh?" Eunhyuk and Donghae both shared a confused look with each other.
"No, you idiots! I just saw the old woman using one not even five minutes ago." Kyuhyun told them rolling his eyes. "Do you think I just randomly picked them because I liked their doggy?"
"You are evilest maknae ever." Eunhyuk told him looking offended.
"No respect for anybody." Donghae confirmed.
"I'm so ashamed I promise to be nice from now on." Kyuhyun told them in the most insincere way possible and then ordered. "Now go get us that phone."
"Who are we going to call if I do get it? I am not calling the manager he will kill us."
"We will have to call a member." Donghae realized.
"I have a feeling they are already on their way to rehearsal. It has to be past nine by now." Kyuhyun pointed out regretfully.
"I don't even know my friends numbers, I don't even know yours. I use my cell for everything." Donghae told them running a hand through his hair.
"Me too. I don't know anybodies number, except my ex girlfriends, and my parent's home phone." Eunhyuk admitted.
"I know most of my family members, but of the members I only remember Sungmin's because we are constantly changing our numbers." Kyuhyun reluctantly informed them.
"I'm not calling Sungmin." Eunhyuk informed them. "I'd rather run back to the dorm and miss the festival entirely before I would call him."
"Agreed!" Donghae blurted out, "He was scary mad last night after we caught the kitchen on fire."
"Well I don't know what to tell you, unless you want to call my mom." Kyuhyun said innocently, trying to hide a smile.
"You don't know Ryeowook's number?" Eunhyuk asked suspiciously his eyes narrowing in on Kyuhyun.
"I can't remember it." Kyuhyun told him with an expression that made it look like he was trying really hard to remember.
"Okay, I will get the phone and you get to call Sungmin." Eunhyuk said taking Kyuhyun by the arm and dragging him with him toward the elderly couple.
"I think it's important to remember that we are in our pajamas and we look crazy." Donghae said hurrying up beside Eunhyuk.
"If they ask tell them you're in some kind of variety show and the evil director left you stranded in the park." Kyuhyun offered as they got closer to the couple.
"I think you should do the talking, since you're so clever." Eunhyuk said after stopping suddenly.
"Yeah, and you've got clothes on." Donghae agreed with Eunhyuk.
"You just stay back here and look pretty then…and smile really big." Kyuhyun told them looking annoyed as he left them to walk up to the elderly couple.
"He could be a little more grateful. It is his fault that we are here." Donghae complained as he watched the younger man approach the couple and start talking.
"Exactly, there isn't any way in hell he doesn't remember Ryeowook's number. I bet he knows all our numbers." Eunhyuk said glaring at Kyuhyun.


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Monday morning rolls around. I am awakened at 5am by the calls of the muezzin in the nearby mosque. Well, might as well get the day started. My morning shower lasts an invigorating 1.7 minutes, since there is no hot water for some reason. And the water pressure is low, but I manage to have enough to fuel the shower head. Somehow I keep thinking Marcel had had the same problem when he was here……..hmm. Anyway, Mo has much better luck; he had showered the night before. After a cup of coffee, we are off.
The hospital (CHUK), is about 3 km away, or a 20 min walk. We are met by Benjamin, one of the residents who is more than happy to show us around. The layout of the hospital is in pavilion format, with each pavilion hosting a different service/specialty. Morning report goes well, and then we transition to our lectures. My talk on the basics of peripheral nerve blockade and brachial plexus blocks goes uneventfully, despite my nerves. The Rwandan residents seem very interested in the ultrasound approach to blocks. Their clinical exposure to nerve blocks is quite limited (approximately only 5% of cases have such regional techniques), but they are eager to learn. They practice identifying landmarks on each other and scanning to visualize nearby structures. Mohamed gives an excellent interactive talk on physiologic changes on pregnancy. It is quite obvious that the residents have solid basic anesthetic knowledge.
The center grounds of CHUK
The residents
After a Rwandan buffet lunch at a nearby cafe with two of the HRH staff, Julia and Stewart, we head out to find the famous Nakumatt, a Kenyan supermarket chain. We manage to stumble upon it, as well as a pleasant next-door cafe bistro with an excellent coffee/chocolate/ginger drink. Some short purchases later we walk over to another building to get……………our gorilla permits!!!!! So excited. It also keeps our minds off the 85 degree weather. At this point I am pretty sure my total body water content is significantly less than 60% of total body weight. In any case, a short taxi ride later we are back at the hotel. Very thankful Mo speaks French. Very helpful here. My pointing in a southerly direction and saying "Nyamirambo" probably wouldn't have taken me very far.
Gorilla permit!
Tomorrow we start in the OR. Very interested to see what the caseload is.


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Category Archives: professional seo services
Which things can not be avoided in SEO ?
If the web page looks like a page of ad's out of a newspaper or magazine then even with the proper key words for a search it will not rank very high in the results because the relevancy will be low.use a key phrase on a couple of search engines and you will notice that the returned results will be different.Most Search Engines now like to see around 1000 words and will put emphasis on this, where others will put more emphasis on relevancy.
The process of Perth SEO do involve many type of activities. For effective running of SEO steps should be taken in such manner which can give required outcomes with any kind of complicated issues. They also will take into other considerations, like adjoining pages etc, as this will weigh the relevancy.Writing for the web, comes down to developing good marketing content, because you want the visitors to find that which they are looking for,This can be manipulated by unscrupulous web masters through the use of Meta-tags.
To make constant running of SEO in effective manner complex issues which do rise in the procedure cannot be avoided. Query which do rise in the process of SEO cannot be ignored out. Instead of ignoring the query it is to be sort out immediately so that problem do not cause during achivement of result in SEO. They will also look at the way the page is set up, and look for bullets and subdivisions.
On the page it is also important that the title contain the Key Word and also that the H1 heading tag also uses the same phrase.It is not so with other heading tags but it is best if they too contain at least a word or middle phrase of the title.If the web page has a key word of say "yellow wooden blocks" you can use combinations of the phrase such as yellow blocks or wooden blocks throughout the page so that you are not spamming and the web page will not punished because of it.
What kind of climate is created due to the establishment of SEO ?
Due to increase in trend of the ranking system there do existence of SEO procedure. The services of SEO is helpful for such ranking system in the markets. Because of establishment of SEO service there is an increase in trend of market competition where everyone wants to lead at the top rank in the market www.discoverseobrisbane.com.au. It is not possible that everybody do lead the top position in the market if one does not know how to maintain the position then one can fell down from the top list of companies.
Walk up the narrow woodland path, crossing a wider track and a stream to reach a large yew tree where 148 uneven steps lead to the restored Hunting Tower, where the views, again, are outstanding. Follow the road around the tower and turn left at a crossroads, signposted Robin Hood. Before you reach the wall corner, the path bears left down to cross another high stile. It also was the day she met McGlocklin, whose daughter operates the mall and hired the teen. She said McGlocklin's daughter, Nancy Johnson, left the store three times.
In Wales, sites identified as particularly at risk include Rhossili beach on the Gower peninsula, a three-mile stretch of sand popular with walkers and surfers. These sites join a list of places at risk around Britain, including Formby Sands in Lanca-shire and the bird habitat of Northey Island in Essex. According to the UK Climate Change Impacts Programme, set up in 1997 to help coastal communities adapt to rising sea levels, tidal highs around Britain's coast are expected to rise by between 10 and 34 inches by 2080.
Working in conjunction with coastal management specialists from the Halcrow engineering group, the National Trust predicts that, if tidal surges and severe storms also increase to levels predicted by climatologists, the majority of its coastal properties will experience a sea-level rise of at least three feet by 2100. The threat to the Welsh coastline is a microcosm for the challenges facing the trust around Britain as a whole; the coastline under its charge is home to more than 500 archaeological and historic monuments deemed to be at risk in the next 100 years. In the short term, there are a number of practical measures we can take, explains Hannah Pitt, the National Trust's policy officer and author of the latest report.
What can be done to accept changes in SEO?
You will be able to borrow more than three and a half times your joint earnings, which is what most people who buy on their own are allowed. Lenders will tend to let you have up to two and three-quarters joint income if you are buying with a friend or sibling. All relationships can break down and people can fall out, says Mark Harris, a director at mortgage broker Savills Private Finance, though if you are buying with a partner, you have to assume you will stay together and could get a fixed-rate loan.
But if you are buying with a sibling or friend and you both hope to have partners in the future, there are lots of reasons to get a fairly flexible loan. You also have the advantage of knowing the person you will be sharing with; if you buy a two-bed property on your own and let the spare room, you may end up with a lodger you don't like. You need to think about how you are going to go about selling the property because one of you might not wish to liquidate the asset.
With the first, if one of you dies, the deceased's share passes directly to the other tenant. That way, when the property is sold, each of you gets your deposit back before the proceeds are split. The mortgage will be on a joint basis, so the lender will always be able to chase one of you or both of you. professional seo services So if your mate decides he is going to travel the world and leaves you stuck with the mortgage, the lender will chase you for the full amount.
And if there is any default on the loan, this could affect your credit rating going forward. Mr Harris says this will enable you to make sure it is actually getting paid and that both of you have control over it. The trouble is that the problems created by buying with just one friend or sibling will be exacerbated. The days are over when househunting meant sitting in an estate agent's office for two hours only to emerge with a wadge of material that barely meets your requirements. by which time all the other agents in the street have closed for the day. The internet has removed the constraints of time and distance from househunting and , its greatest strength, given the buyer the opportunity to select from a pool of properties.


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i have an ipad air with charging problem.
when lcd is on, it charges 0,70amp
when lcd goes off or sleep,it stop charging, goes to 0 amps.
when i connect to itunes, it says not charging on ipad screen,but its recognised on pc.
i tested voltages on charging flex cable,its 5,1v.
i have changed Charging TRISTAR IC U6000.still same problem.
i have checked BATT_SWI_CONN line,BATT_NTC line,PPBATT_POS_CONN line,
no shorts.
please if anyone knows the solution
Please help.
I didn't find the right solution from the Internet.
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f631/ip ... g-2286637/
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