text:
I heard my niece, Stephanie, calling out for me from the bathroom of my mother's house. She is 15, and it is her first visit to the Philippines…
Stephanie found the journey to the Philippines unbelievably long. For her, it began in the U.S. state of Virginia — then to California, to first attend the wedding of my younger sister.
Several days after the wedding, we are headed from San Francisco, California to Manila — the largest city in the Philippines.
After a long layover in Manila, we take another hour-long, plane ride to the island of Cebu, then head to the pier for a 2 hour "Supercat" ride — a catamaran style ferryboat service that shuttles people from one island to the next. At the pier, we are picked up and all load into a van headed for my mother's home.
But it is another 45 minute drive from the pier to our mother's home…and by this time, we had been traveling for 24 hours. While in the van, a travel weary Stephanie asked…"so what is next after the van ride?"
I told her that after we arrive, we would have to ride atop a water buffalo (a "kalabao" or carabao) with our luggage, and head up to the mountains. "The van cannot travel on those unstable roads" I tell her.
She shakes her head in disbelief…"A water bufallo???". I smile at her and tell her I am just joking…the van is the last leg of the trip, and soon, we would finally be at my mother's home.
The following day, she wakes up and wants to take a shower. It is hot, humid, and she is looking forward to a shower, especially after the long journey. She is calling me from the bathroom because she has turned the water faucet handles and no water is coming out.
I knock on the bathroom door and ask her what she needs."Is there a trick to the faucets?" she asked. She opens the door, and I explain to her that there is no water pressure in the morning…and most likely, there will be no water available until the evening. "How am I suppose to take a shower, then…and why is there a big garbage can size container of water in the shower?"
I tell her…"well Steph, that container of water is your shower".
I point to the "tabo" floating on top of the big container of water in front of her, and pick it up. "You see this thing Steph, it is called a tabo. You dip it in the water, then pour the water over your head and body to rinse. Then you soap up, shampoo, then do the same with a final rinse".
I tell her it's a "tropical shower", and add…"or…you can wait until this evening to take a shower, when the water pressure is back up". Her jaw drops…then she responds "Really?" I answer back "Yes, Steph…really."
I giggle as I close the bathroom door and imagine the culture shock she must be experiencing. Having grown up in the Philippines, and accustomed to preparing for water being unavailable from the tap, I find the situation amusing. And then I think, well, all in all, it is good for her because there is so much we take for granted living in the United States.
While living in the province ("prubinsya" or away from the city) when my sisters and I were young, we experienced having to "fetch" water away from home. A few times when the water wells dried up, we had to walk up the road to a natural spring site to get fresh water.
To this day, we all remember fondly our time in the province and once in a while still utter…"okay…mag-igib na tayo nang tubig" — translated to "let us go and fetch some water now". Then we laugh about it, because of how absurd it sounds, with all 3 of us now living in the states.
Can you imagine having to "fetch" water? Picture our little tribe of kids walking on the gravel roadside with our balde (buckets), and metal containers, headed to the natural spring source. We fill our containers and carefully walk back — trying not to spill what we fetched.
I remember our older sister scolding us every few steps because of the water spilling out from our heavy containers. She tells the group to be careful because we would all have to come back AGAIN if we keep letting water spill out.
We do our best, but I'm pretty sure we lost half of the water by the time we got back to our Nanay Lucing and Tatay Kerpo's place (our Aunt and Uncle's house).
This post in support of Unless…Earth-Friendly Friday Challenge for World Water Day – Water is a precious resource; let us count the ways.
Although my take for this challenge is a little humorous, I do hope the post will make us appreciate how we take water for granted here in the U.S. There are still many places around the world where clean water is hard to find — or does not even come out of a faucet.
Please check out these photos from the International Business Times for World Water Day (found via JustAnotherNatureEnthusiast.org) and you will think twice about ever wasting water again.
Water is everything to all of us on this planet.
Without water, we cease to exist. It's as simple as that…
This post is also dedicated to my niece, Stephanie, who celebrated her birthday this week. Happy Birthday, Stephanie! We are still trying to convince her to come and visit the Philippines again…
My mother had a water tower installed several years after Stephanie's visit. It is filled up every night, so that throughout the day, there is water available for cooking, washing dishes, gardening, washing clothes, or even….for taking showers.
Ready to visit again, Stephanie?


text:
Product Description
Silk Sari Magic Wrap Skirts
This Lot of 50 Pieces Silk Sari Wrap Skirts will cost: $ 275.
|** Worldwide Free Shipping**
|Buy A great looking Medium silk wraps skirts from India.These perfect statement-making funky style comfortable women's outfit available in varied colors and styles to buy in the wholesale lot.These marvelous looking multicolored Silk Wrap Skirts can be worn on any occasion, beach party and festival. These attires that give you perfect and gorgeous look are available in 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 pieces Lots.
** Every Lot will contain Wrap Skirts of different colors and designs than shown in the above image.If you have any query, Feel free to contact us, we will feel pleased to answer all of your queries.**

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Blues make lineup adjustments for Senatorsby Sean Farrell
OTTAWA -- St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is going to wait as long as he can before deciding whether forwards Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Sobotka will play against the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
"They're both banged up, like a lot of guys on our team," Hitchcock said after neither St. Louis forward took part in the team's morning skate at Canadian Tire Centre.
Schwartz and Sobotka played Saturday in the Blues' 4-3 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets that began their two-game road trip.
"We went the other way against Columbus and neither guy was effective in the tail end of the game," Hitchcock said. "It's not starting the game, it's finishing the game. And for us, if we feel like we want them to finish the game, then we're going to have to give them as much rest as we can so that they're ready to go, so we opted not to skate them [Monday]."
Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester were split during the game against the Blue Jackets, resulting in new defensive pairings.
"Quite frankly we weren't playing very good," Hitchcock said. "We weren't playing very good defensively and we needed to make some adjustments."
Associate coach Brad Shaw put Pietrangelo with Barret Jackman and Bouwmeester with Roman Polak.
"We've got to get more continuity and better play back there," Hitchcock said. "Our transition game from our exits was too inconsistent. That's the first game in a long time where we've given the puck away, turned it over and created odd-man scoring chances-against because of it. Once we settled down and started to play the right way on our exits we started to get better, and I thought changing the pairs up gave them a different focus and we'll probably continue down that path [Monday]."
Kevin Shattenkirk will be paired with Carlo Colaiacovo, who draws into the lineup while Ian Cole will sit.
Hitchcock was direct in explaining his decision to dress Colaiacovo instead of Cole: "Better puck movement, better transition, less big errors."
Ottawa defenseman Jared Cowen returns after serving a two-game suspension for his hit to the head of the Buffalo Sabres' Zemgus Girgensons on Tuesday, but Marc Methot will miss his third game in a row.
Methot practiced with his teammates Monday, but Senators coach Paul MacLean prefers to be cautious after the 6-foot-3, 230-pound defenseman missed the past two games with an illness.
"He lost a ton of weight being sick twice and we want to make sure that he's ready to go," MacLean said.
Rookie defenseman Cody Ceci will make his third straight start.
Here are projected lineups for the Blues and Senators:
Alexander Steen - David Backes - T.J. Oshie
Brenden Morrow - Derek Roy - Chris Stewart
Magnus Paajarvi - Patrik Berglund - Vladimir Tarasenko
Chris Porter - Maxim Lapierre - Adam Cracknell
Barret Jackman - Alex Pietrangelo
Carlo Colaiacovo - Kevin Shattenkirk
Scratched: Ian Cole, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Sobotka
Injured: Jordan Leopold (hand), Ryan Reaves (hand)
Clarke MacArthur - Jason Spezza - Erik Condra
Cory Conacher - Kyle Turris - Bobby Ryan
Milan Michalek - Zack Smith - Mika Zibanejad
Colin Greening - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Chris Neil
Scratched: Marc Methot, Eric Gryba, Matt Kassian


text:
Monterey Grill voted "Best Caterer" in the 2017 Daytona Reader's Choice awards!
If you are looking to cater your next meeting, office lunch, or private party, you've come to the right place. For groups from 8 to 100 or more, we have delicious choices for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We offer pick up and delivery options. Click on the menus below to explore our crowd-pleasing catering options.
Hi, I'm Virgil, General Manager of Monterey Grill. I'd be happy to help you put together a catering plan for your event.
Winner of 12 reader awards including Best All Around, Best Creative Chef, Best Menu Selection, Best Service, & Best Burger.


text:
Last night I was having dinner with a friend and we were reflecting on our past year. She mentioned that she wasn't really in the holiday mood and was pretty much looking forward to 2012 being over. She told me that she started off last year dating a new guy, moving into a new apartment and excited about her job. But she is ending the year not dating anyone, frustrated at her noisy neighbors and overworked and underpaid at her job. When you look at your life in such a way as that I guess she had a point.
Which led me to think about my past year…(if this were a sitcom I would insert some music and make the screen fuzzy to insinuate time travel)….
At this time last year I was starting a new job that WAY underpaid me (but it was a job so I took it!), living with my son at my parents' house, driving a car that didn't belong to me (thanks Mom and Dad!) and probably not dating anyone (Ok, sorry about not know this last fact, but I truly don't remember my relationship status, which leads me to believe no one of value was in my life at the time).
So here I am in a job that pays well (thank you holiday bonus!), driving a new car I pay for, living in a house I rent and still not dating anyone of mention… If you compare apples to apples, or oranges to oranges, or whatever the heck you want to compare my past year was pretty good!
But I digress… while discussing our success and/or failure of 2012 my friend and I came up with as Oprah would say an "AHA! Moment." Basically I think you can determine your attitude about yourself and your past year if you measure it against a goal. Last year about this time my only goals were to pay my bills and not fight with my mom over turning lights on and off in the house – she is a consistent "Turn the lights off" person and I tend to be a "leave a light on for someone" person. As you may imagine our lighting philosophies tended to lead to some royal battles. So I started this year with reasonably attainable goals. Once I started accomplishing these little goals I was able to really start enjoying my year; new job! New friends! New travels! New dates! A few bad dates! (Ok, they get explanation points too because, let's be real, my dating life is HILARIOUS at times) and on and on my list went with new things.I decided last night that my goal in life (at this moment) is to be a good mom. Really, simply, that is it. I have a job that allows me to put my Little Man first. I have friends who know my son is my priority and I only will date people who understand that as well. Sure, my long term goals will be to retire wealthy, buy a beach house and travel to Europe. Of course my professional goals are to get promoted, be recognized as a leader and contribute to our society. However, for 2013 my one simple goal is to be a good mom and I am happy to say that I am 100% committed to the task.
As for my friend? I am not yet sure what her 2013 goals are but I may suggest finding a new place to live as her neighbors really are noisy!


text:
My Duo
- Jason Yarde
- saxophone
- Andrew McCormack
- piano
Yarde started his playing career on alto and soprano with the Jazz Warriors at 16, going on to MD this landmark orchestra and becoming one of its principle writers. He has also performed in a wide variety of bands including work with McToy Tyner, Hermeto Pascoal, Sam Rivers, Hugh Masekela and his own bands include multi award-winning J-life and Acoutastic Bombastic. This prolific composer, arranger, musical director and producer joins forces with award-winning pianist Andrew McCormack in 'My Duo'.
McCormack has worked and performed with many great artists including Quincy Jones, Manu Katchè, Till Broner, David Arnold, Eric Alexander and Courtney Pine. A great reputation as a collaborator has seen McCormack consistently in a number of long standing groups such Denys Baptiste and Jean Toussaint Quartets and as a pivotal member of the Kyle Eastwood Band which has toured extensively worldwide for the last five years. Eastwood's 2011 release, Songs from the Chateau, which reached number two in the U.S radio play jazz charts, saw McCormack heavily involved in the writing and performing of the material. To hear Andrew play may evoke the finesse of Keith Jarrett, the soloistic traits of Kenny Kirkland, and the motivic approach of EST. However, his take on piano jazz remains uniquely personal and fresh.
Part of Out to Lunch 2012.
Part of Out to Lunch 2012
'The partnership between Yarde and McCormack is so unmistakably fuelled by the reflexive spirit of jazz as to impart a conversational glow to the whole enterprise… It's a wonderful jazz conversation.'
— The Guardian
- Concert Duration:
- approx. 2 hours, with half hour interval for lunch


text:
alec vanderboom
When unhappy, it is all I can think of doing. When anxious, it literally saves me. When excited, I anticipate using it to conceive, chisel, and free the thought. This is writing: my life so far, and by now all I am fit --I hope and trust--to do.
Though I did want to be a veterinarian for quite some time. And before that, a princess.
I am opposed to the notion of writing as therapy, although it has performed that function for me. No, I employ a flesh-and-blood therapist to do the kind of work that only a therapist can do, to listen to the tears, and at times provoke them. It's the way the structure of the mind works, and even if you would like it to be true that you can "do it alone," that won't do anything to alter an immutable fact. You can't. Just like wishing the apple would float up instead of fall. Gravity is a law; so is the need for outside corrective to the damaged psyche. And I'd love to meet the person who doesn't have one of those. In order to get off the damnable gerbil wheel of repetition most of us get stuck on, we need someone else to stick a pencil through the bars of the cage. We might go flying and land with a bruising thud, but at least we're off. Not getting right back on again is the real trick.
There is a great bonus, too. Psychotherapy is one of the most enthralling intellectual pursuits there is. It encompasses virtually every strain of thought we have yet come up with: philosophy, biology, the mysteries of art, the literature of narrative, metaphor, and fable. And puzzle: It's as if, at the first meeting, the world as you knew it was broken up and dumped on the table before you as a 1,000-piece picture for you to reassemble. And so nothing will ever again look the same. The front page of the newspaper, even, reveals itself to enumerate the same patterns of behavior you yourself are beginning to realize are the result of a buried motivator that propels you every waking moment, and every dreaming one, too. I imagine this little thing as looking something like a mine. A hard metal sphere with a few wires sticking out. At once improbably innocent and radiating malevolence. And look, on the side--something stenciled, though fading. The owners, perhaps? The ones who hid this under a light layer of soil, waiting for a slight disturbance? Yes, now I can read it: "Mom and Dad."
Learning about how this was set in place--or at least it was for me; let me speak only for myself, since I write in the self-serving egotistic form that is called "slow blogging"--was like a repeat of the most exciting classes I took in college. And there were many; they hopped me up as if delivering speed directly to a vein. I'd want to collar strangers in the quad and shake them till they saw stars--exactly what I was seeing when I read Hawthorne and Melville, Heidegger and (now I cringe) Derrida. The world was shaking under my feet, re-forming itself.
Not that it's entirely pleasant, though. Sometimes it feels like being slapped upside the head by someone much bigger than you. And sometimes it feels as though you're back on that gerbil wheel, only now you're in the chair revisiting, again and again, the same shit you thought you had identified and thus washed away sixteen years ago. Not. It just keeps coming back, in ever new inventive disguise. But your kind, wise, compassionate shrink says it must be repeated. As many times as it takes for you to get sick of it, or to finally see it. The first three hundred times were just warm-up, apparently.
I thought of this again as I was reading (quaintly, on the printed page, that which is about to be phased out completely, which makes such people as writers very, um, nervous) The New Yorker. I can't remember what it was exactly, but it made me reach for a pen and one of those flighty scraps of paper on which I write all these disparate notes and then tear my hair out over when, three years later, I'm trying to corral them in their thousands and make some sense out of them so I can start writing a book. Whatever it was, it struck me as a long argument predicated on something fictive. A false originating motive, which then makes the conclusion false too--like the notion of a whole-cloth substance called "evil," or the dominance myth of dog behavior (on which Cesar Millan has made his empire, but which is woefully faulty and functionally ends up as actually near to evil for the dogs on whom it's perpetrated; hmmmm). Something someone wished to believe (as to why, I must refer you back to psychotherapy) but wasn't in fact true. So the elaborate argument was a house built on a foundation of whipped cream.
This then dovetailed with my beginning to read, finally, when I should have done this two years ago before life threw its spanner into my works, B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Oh, how I wished he hadn't titled it that. Because what he says about what motivates human behavior, in just the first couple of pages, is so patently true that one can easily believe all of human life would be vastly, immediately improved if we could just make this "paradigm shift" from wishful thinking. The worldview would change, just as it does on that first day of psychotherapy. And it can never go back, which is a good thing: let us evolve, in our thinking, just as we have done in our bodies.
Writing is like therapy, even though it is not therapy, because writing feels good even while it pains one deeply. I actually feel itchy, short of breath, uneasy, needing suddenly to do the dishes or the laundry, or go take a walk mid-sentence. I'm dying to get away from it, even as I'm dying to get the next sentence down, see if it is one of those sentences that takes off like a kite with you at the end of the string pulling back with all your strength. That's what feels good: the appearance on the page of a line or two you didn't know you had in you. A thought that actually sounds smart, when you were feeling dumb. A rhythm that comes out like the percussion line of a driving dance song.
This is what feels good about writing, and why I keep doing it, why I've let myself go unfit for any other employment. So now I am undiversified as General Motors. With the same financial outlook.
To further clarify, I am, I just decided, an "ostensible writer." That is, I never write about what it is that I am ostensibly writing about (yeah, baby: check these blog posts! a whole new genre!). There are always other things that fit themselves in sideways, or insert themselves underneath the thin film of the surface. --This is the way I think, too; I wander through the woods looking at whatever, or I see my dog holding up her hurting paw from the snow (is she asking me for help, and if so, what does this say about her ability to intend, or posit results?), and a dozen new spokes are suddenly radiating out from the center of the thought. Jeez, it's a miracle I end up finishing anything I start writing, come to think of it. Or maybe I'm just ostensibly a writer.
This does tend to lead to a problem, though I experience it as a richness. "Prolix" was a word I first encountered on the top of one of my grad-school papers, meant to be a slap of a rebuke. It certainly is that. But it means that I will always be able to sit on top of a mountain of words, and that, at least, is a form of luxurious soft cushion. From it I see even more.


text:
- Home
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Tomb Raider Movie
- The Tomb Raider Suite
- Tomb Raider: Live In Concert
- Tomb Raider Comics
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration
- Lara Croft Novel
- Lara Croft Comics
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Lara Croft GO
- Lara Croft: Relic Run
- Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
- Tomb Raider Novel
- Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
- Tomb Raider 2013
- Lara Croft: Reflections
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Limited Edition Tomb Raider Kick Energy Drinks!
This is so awesome! Just like the good old Lucozade days! Kick Energy has partnered with Tomb Raider and has introduced these limited edition cans leading up to the launch of the game. There are two sizes available, 250ml and 500ml. You can win some great prizes as well! Head on over to the Kick Energy website and enter the contest to receive two exclusive tracks from the Tomb Raider soundtrack! Kick Energy is available from Walmart in the US and Asda, McColls, Martins, RS McColls, & Rhythm & Booze in the UK. I tried to find these in one of my local Walmarts yesterday, but no luck yet. Keep an eye out!
Source: Official Tomb Raider Blog


text:
When I don't invest in a company it's because (a) I didn't like the company, (b) I didn't know enough about the company's business to actually add any value, or (c) I didn't like the terms of the deal. But I recently said no to a company where I liked all three of those things. What I didn't like was the lead investor.
Because of the way this company's process unfolded, they ended up with a wealthy financier as the lead investor. And even when a professional venture investor later offered to lead, they decided to stick with the original lead. I think this is a big mistake for both the company and the investor.
Throughout my startup-related career I have repeatedly run into very successful hedge-fund operators, investment bankers, real estate magnates and big company executives who wanted to invest in startups. I think supporting startups is an excellent use of money and I have always encouraged them... to follow experienced venture investors in deals. None of them have ever taken my advice*. They all thought that since they were so good at doing the exceedingly complicated deals they had made their mark with, doing a simple startup financing would be a snap.
Finance is a set of disciplines separated by a common language. What is complicated in your public market/LBO/distressed debt/M&A deal is not what is complicated in a startup deal (and vice-versa, I should think.) Just because you can navigate a DCF, a shareholders' agreement, and Delaware law doesn't mean you can do successful venture capital deals.
For several years an acquaintance who was one of the top people at one of the most successful private equity shops in... I don't know... the world, ever** would call me up about some startup or other he planned to back. He's sharp and invariably had very good reasons for backing the company. But these conversations always made me uneasy. He didn't know what competitors were doing or planning (or even who the competitors were, other than what the entrepreneur told him), he didn't know what valuations were and why, he had zero idea what customers wanted, and the terms he asked for were far more onerous than standard venture capital terms.
This last one is what bothered me the most, even though onerous terms may seem as if they are in the investor's favor***. The problem is that he had dictated these onerous terms because he intended to use them. And it wasn't even the terms themselves that bothered me, it was the attitude that ownership is a zero-sum game, that the pre-investment negotiating tension between investor and entrepreneur continued unabated after the investment. This dynamic should be very different in a startup than in, say, a LBO. In much non-startup finance, for instance, missing your annual plan means a renegotiation of control and ownership. In a startup a plan is just that, a plan. Things never go according to plan, and good entrepreneurs anticipate that and adjust. Your investors need to know this. And more than know it, be comfortable with it****. When investors and company executives start to fight, value is destroyed. Someone who sets up and expects this dynamic even before making the investment is poison.
Smart people who know nothing about the startup world besides what they've read in the Wall Street Journal should not be your lead investor or a control person on your board of directors: there's an excellent chance that they will not only not help your company but will actually harm it.
So who should lead your deal? Founders of venture backed startups know both startups and venture capital; they are great. People who have lead deals for many years and seen the cycle from startup to exit a few times are ideal, of course. People who have learned the trade by following professional VCs in many deals and being very involved from startup to exit can fit the bill. And, finally, non-venture backed entrepreneurs can be valuable, so long as their journey wasn't too easy: having empathy for the founder when things don't go according to plan is critical in remaining constructive.
Now I've been all of the first three at some point or another (and vicissitudes, I've had a few) so you could accuse me of self-promotion here. But the beautiful thing about being me is that I'm not a professional venture investor right now, so I have no particular reason to be self-serving; I invest because I want to see a particular startup succeed, not because anyone pays me to do it. So here's my advice: if you have no other choice, take the money; but if you have a choice between non-venture investor money and venture money, take the latter.
* There is obviously a selection bias here. If they were willing to take this advice, they probably would not have ended up talking to me in the first place.
** My not knowing the pecking order of PE shops or hedge funds is kind of part of the point. Your typical PE guy probably has no idea of the differences between, say, RRE and Venrock. And knowing these things is pretty important when you go to do your next round.
*** I don't believe this, but that's another post.
**** This isn't license to go missing your plan. If you miss your plan, you need to know why and what you're going to do about it. That's a big part of the point of a plan, after all.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Don't let the dumb money lead
When I don't invest in a company it's because (a) I didn't like the company, (b) I didn't know enough about the company's business to actually add any value, or (c) I didn't like the terms of the deal. But I recently said no to a company where I liked all three of those things. What I didn't like was the lead investor.
Posted by Jerry Neumann at 3:45 PM 4 comments
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The bubble this time
What is a bubble anyway? A positive feedback loop where the governor is on a time-delay. It's not necessarily a money thing. It's just that financial bubbles are easy to spot because price is easy to measure and a graph of the exponential positive feedback followed by the screeching halt (and ensuing positive feedback on the decline) of the governor kicking in is easy to read.
But I don't think we're in a financial bubble. Some prices seem pretty high, but nothing like the willing-suspension-of-disbelief levels I saw in 1999. The positive feedback loop is in the innovation industry.
Let me say, first, that I'm in favor of innovation. I believe long-run economic growth per capita is driven by innovation. I've dedicated my last fifteen years to trying to create or nurture innovative ideas, I'm part of this bubble.
But innovation is pretty constant. Look at this graph of US GDP per capita.
If the primary determinant of the slope is the level of innovation, then the level of innovation is remarkably constant over the time period shown*. This means that while those of us in the innovation industry are doing our jobs, grinding it out year after year, there's not much innovation in the innovation department. Also, it means that all the things we do to cheerlead innovation don't really have much of an effect. Innovation is a system we don't fully understand, one where we do not know how to change the level of output.
But over the past six months I have been inundated with talk of innovation. Incubators, summer programs, new venture funds, university initiatives, think-tank initiatives, government initiatives, innovation consultancies, etc. etc. The level of innovation stays the same, but the industry built around it is growing exponentially. As it will continue to, until reality kicks in; a classic bubble.
Again, don't get me wrong. I support this. In fact, despite the carnage that bubbles cause, I don't believe they're all bad. Here's a quote I've used before:
"Reckless, booming anarchy," in short, produced fundamental progress. It was not a stable system, racked as it was by bank failures and collapsed business ventures, outrageous speculation and defaulted loans. Yet it was also energetic and inventive, creating permanent economic growth that endured after the froth was blown away... Those who gambled on the future rise of the public lands in the West... were madmen only in the short-run business sense--only in thinking that future prospects could be realized all at once by means of an infinitely expansible credit system--and not in their basic sense of direction.This is Greider describing the 1830's. Bubbles are the reckless booming anarchy that create permanent economic growth once the froth blows away. And, especially if you're an entrepreneur, more people trying to fund you, more people trying to give you below-market rent, more people trying to introduce you to more other people, more talented engineers willing to forgo big-company salaries for the chance to build something meaningful, it's all good.
But here's my worry. I've been investing in NYC tech startups for 15 years now. That means I've lived through 2002-2003 and 2007-2008. Those were hard times, times when a lot of people decided that starting tech companies was a bad idea, when people who had been gung-ho up and disappeared. Most of the people who started companies in the late 1990s stopped trying to start companies after the bubble burst: having learned a hard lesson, they decided not to put that valuable learning to use. The same positive feedback that creates exponential growth creates exponential decline.
I can't complain. My big breaks have come by being steadfast when others were fleeing. If I hadn't persisted in 2003, I wouldn't have the wherewithal to make investments today. In late 2007 and early 2008, I got the chance to invest in some amazing companies--even though I had no track record as an angel--because so few others were willing to write checks. But I'm just a born contrarian**. My worry is that when things smooth out, when people calm down a bit, this new build-up in the innovation industry suddenly disappears, leaving a whole new generation of entrepreneurs high and dry and with a distaste for the rhetoric of the venture capitalists and others who encouraged them to take a risk and do something meaningful.
There's no known way to recognize or gradually deflate a bubble. But this bubble, like all bubbles, is just froth around the constant innovation that occurs, bubble or not. It's possible to focus on the reality of the underlying innovation and not on the froth. Some VCs--USV, First Round Capital, Chris Dixon/Founder's Collective, Roger Ehrenberg/IA Ventures were the ones I ran into--continued investing in 2007-2008, when things looked grim. HackNY was running hackathons and NYC Seed was trying to support the NYC tech startup culture when others were backing away. There are many others who continued to build the ecosystem here then, and that gives me reason to believe they will continue to build it when the carpetbaggers have left.
I'm not saying that entrepreneurs should think about these things when raising money or that engineers should when looking for a job. But those of us who have the breathing room to make choices now, and who care about building a NYC tech ecosystem for the long run, should try to support the entities and people we think will be here whether it's rain or shine.
[Edit: I want to make sure this is clear: I'm not saying we should support people who were here, I'm saying we should support people who will be here. Having been here when it was hard is just a good indicator that they will be here when it's hard again, as it inevitably will be.]
* For a longer run look at economic growth, which I think supports this thesis by showing that the level of innovation does change occasionally, read A Farewell to Alms.
** A loved one tells me that I am not a contrarian, I am just contrary.
Posted by Jerry Neumann at 6:24 PM 5 comments
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Getting Gold When Buying Iron
"The theory of Induction is the despair of philosophy--and yet all our activities are based upon it."
-- Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World
Jonah Lehrer writes, in the New Yorker,
[A]ll sorts of well-established, multiply confirmed findings have started to look increasingly uncertain. It's as if our facts were losing their truth: claims that have been enshrined in textbooks are suddenly unprovable. This phenomenon doesn't yet have an official name, but it's occurring across a wide range of fields, from psychology to ecology. In the field of medicine, the phenomenon seems extremely widespread, affecting not only antipsychotics but also therapies ranging from cardiac stents to Vitamin E and antidepressants: Davis has a forthcoming analysis demonstrating that the efficacy of antidepressants has gone down as much as threefold in recent decades.
For many scientists, the effect is especially troubling because of what it exposes about the scientific process. If replication is what separates the rigor of science from the squishiness of pseudoscience, where do we put all these rigorously validated findings that can no longer be proved? Which results should we believe?The answers Lehrer finds for this phenomenon range from regression to the mean to publication bias. But he shies away from asking the obvious question that rears its ugly head: what rational basis do we have to expect the scientific method to work at all? Have we have been bred to believe the universe owes us something that we have no logical reason to believe?
Let's step back. Science has two main stages: discovery and justification. Scientists come up with hypotheses and then they test them. The former is a creative act, something that defies description. The latter is what we think of as the scientific method: the gathering of empirical data to test hypotheses.
In most cases all of the data can not be collected, only a sample. Einstein postulated as part of his theory of relativity that gravity would bend light rays. The empirical observation during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 that light rays were indeed bent by gravity is seen as powerful evidence that his theory is correct. But not all light rays have been observed, only a few. Making a few observations and then generalizing these few measurements to cover all the measurements that have not been made is called induction. Induction is the centerpiece of scientific reasoning. If the sun rose yesterday, and the day before and the day before that and it also rose today, we have good reason to think it will rise tomorrow. Induction.
But do we really have good reason? On what grounds should we believe that induction is a valid way to reason? Why should we believe that just because something keeps happening, it will continue to happen? Why should we believe that just because some light rays are bent by gravity, all light rays are bent by gravity?
The answer is, obviously, we should believe this because it works. This is what has always happened. Every time we have correctly used induction in the past, it has led to valid conclusions.
But wait, do you see the problem? We have just proved induction by... using induction. There is, in fact, no other way we know of to support it.
The conclusion of a formally valid argument is contained in its premisses; that to deny the conclusion while accepting the premisses would be self-contradictory; that a formal deduction does not increase our knowledge, but only brings out clearly what we already know in another form; and that we are bound to accept its validity on pain of being inconsistent with ourselves. The logical relation which justifies the inference is that the sense or import of the conclusion is contained in that of the premisses.
But in the case of an inductive argument this does not happen in the least; it is impossible to represent it as resembling a deductive argument and merely weaker in degree; it is absurd to say that the sense of the conclusion is partially contained in that of the premisses. We could accept the premisses and utterly reject the conclusion without any sort of inconsistency or contradiction.This echoes an earlier argument by David Hume, in his Treatise on Human Nature (I.III.VI)*:
[T]here can be no demonstrative arguments to prove, that those instances of which we have had no experience resemble those of which we have had experience. We can at least conceive a change in the course of nature; which sufficiently proves that such a change is not absolutely impossible. To form a clear idea of any thing is an undeniable argument for its possibility, and is alone a refutation of any pretended demonstration against it.Hume says there can be no proof using induction. And, if you think about it, there can't even always be belief: probabilistic reasoning, though it seems to support some limited subset of inductions, is not always--or even usually--good enough. Of the total population of light rays, what would the sample size need to be to give you statistical comfort in the theory of relativity?
Hume goes further. His rejection of induction as rationally supported is just the inevitable fallout from his rejection of causation altogether (I.III.XIV):
I am sensible that of all the paradoxes which I have had or shall hereafter have occasion to advance in the course of this treatise, the present one is the most violent... any two objects or actions, however related, can never give us any idea of power or of a connexion betwixt them: that this idea arises from the repetition of their union: that the repetition neither discovers nor causes any thing in the objects, but has an influence only on the mind by that customary transition it produces...A cause and an effect are two things that we associate simply because the two events always seem to happen together; but there is no way we can discover a connection between the two that guarantees this "causation" to continue.
Our belief in induction and causation come from our belief in the uniformity of nature. If two events always happen together, or if an event happens the same way over and over, then we believe there must be some unchanging underlying mechanism. If this light ray does this, then that one does too. If the earth is turning, it will keep turning. Why wouldn't it? Why would anything have changed?
Well, on the contrary, why would it keep turning? Why would anything stay the same? The actual unanswerability of these very simple questions makes our entire quest for knowledge seem very fragile.
But in the end Hume was a skeptic who realized that skepticism was not a realistic option, nor a productive one. Even if the idea of causation itself is suspect--and thus induction--their use goes constructively on. The scientific method, statistics, these things seem to work. People who deny induction get hit by cars, their children catch diseases other peoples' children have been vaccinated for. We have been formed by evolution to believe in induction: babies do not reason about cause and effect, they simply recognize it. We have been bred to believe that the universe is uniform and unchanging.
Back to Lehrer's problem. The subtitle of his article is "Is there something wrong with the scientific method?" He may just as well have asked "Is there something wrong with reality?" Induction is central to all of our thinking; we do not have any alternative way to reason. Ramsey again:
We are all convinced by inductive arguments, and our conviction is reasonable because the world is so constituted that inductive arguments lead on the whole to true opinions. We are not, therefore, able to help trusting induction, nor if we could help it do we see any reason why we should, because we believe it to be a reliable process. It is true that if any one has not the habit of induction, we cannot prove to him that he is wrong; but there is nothing peculiar in that. If a man doubts his memory or his perception we cannot prove to him that they are trustworthy; to ask for such a thing to be proved is to cry for the moon, and the same is true of induction. It is one of the ultimate sources of knowledge just as memory is: no one regards it as a scandal to philosophy that there is no proof that the world did not begin two minutes ago and that all our memories are not illusory.Just as with Gödel's incompleteness, or the stack of turtles holding up the universe, we continue ignoring the logical problem of relying on the things they show are inconsistent. We relegate to the back of our minds the question of why the heck anything seems to work at all. Because how would we exist in a world where that concern was everpresent?
We all agree that a man who did not make inductions would be unreasonable: the question is only what this means. In my view it does not mean that the man would in any way sin against formal logic or formal probability; but that he had not got a very useful habit, without which he would be very much worse off, in the sense of being much less likely to have true opinions.
This is a kind of pragmatism: we judge mental habits by whether they work, i.e. whether the opinions they lead to are for the most part true, or more often true than those which alternative habits would lead to.
The philosopher Nāgārjuna said something that Hume would have understood:
Not from itself, not from another, not from both, not without cause,This, in the inimitable method of Indian philosophers, is not meant negatively, it is meant as an aid to understanding the ineffable. The Roman Skeptic Sextus Empiricus came to the same conclusion, even if it does not seem that way. He said that without any way to be sure in our knowledge, we need to suspend judgement over the truth or falsity of our beliefs and simply exist in the present evidence of our senses. He thought the only truly rational way to live was to rely simply on what is, not on what we think will be.
Never in any way is there any existing thing that has arisen.
I've always been the kind of person who wants to know. After learning how to program, I needed to know how the compiler worked, then the operating system. Then I needed to know how the microprocessor worked, then integrated circuits, then the logic gate, then the transistor. How transistors were made, then where silicon comes from. It is hard for me to accept, in trying to understand, that there may be levels below which I can't pass.
In Hui-k'ai's Gateless Gate, Wumen (Mumon) tells this story:
The temple flag was flapping in the wind. Two monks argued: one said the flag was moving, the other said the wind was moving. They argued, but could not agree. The Sixth Patriarch said "It is not the wind that moves, it is not the flag that moves, it is your mind that moves."Mumon retorts "It is not the wind that moves, it is not the flag that moves, it is not the mind that moves." For him. For me, it is the mind that moves. Perhaps this is the easier problem to solve.
* I had to take out most of the freakin commas from Hume, they were very distracting.
Posted by Jerry Neumann at 1:29 AM 0 comments
Labels: Musing


text:
Status: Closed
Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Wells Fargo is a provider of banking, mortgage, investing, credit card, insurance, and consumer and commercial financial services.BANKSCONSULTATIONSLOAN BROKER
Be the first NOLA.com user to add photos or videos of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
MF09001700HLoans & Mortgages
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage can be found at Line Ave 8835. The following is offered: Real Estate Financing. The entry is present with us since Sep 8, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Shreveport there are 45 other Real Estate Financing. An overview can be found here.


text:
Supplement collagen
I introduce supplement collagen. It becomes one of the protein with the collagen. Not to mention a human being, it is the protein which it is included a lot in in the body of other animals. The collagen plays a role as the joint of the cell. It is included in skin and muscle, the internal organs, a bone, joint, eyes, hair. A one-third of the human internal protein is comprised of collagen. It is necessary for the human body by all means. Whenever (the teens) repeats most in particular, age in one's youth, the collagen decreases steadily. When human internal collagen is short, various symptoms come out. It is a trouble of skin such as the slack of the wrinkle mainly. The bone of the body declines and has symptoms such as a pain or the transformation of the joint. I do metabolism lively, and it is important not to let collagen be short. In addition, it is important to a body that I choose the good supplement collagen. Supplement collagen has various kinds and an appropriate price. In the first place on earth what are the raw materials of the collagen? There are two kinds of materials of the supplement collagen. As for it, a fish is the supplement collagen of the main material and animal supplement collagen. As for the supplement collagen, most are included in the skin of fish and the skin of animal. It is included a lot in the scale of the fish in particular, but the scale of the fish enters the pricewise cheap class because it is originally in the part doing a disposal facility. O.K. then, what kind of characteristic one is animalism about collagen of the main material? At first the collagen of the animal main material is hard to be broken down too much in a process of the digestion and is known because absorption factor in the body is not good too much. The main material extracts collagen from the skin of animals such as a chicken and a pig, the cow. The cow was not used in a BSE disturbance very much. A pigskin is used most with the animal collagen supplement for cost. Then, a fish and fishery products are the collagen supplements of the main material, but there is difference in a cultured fish and the natural fish between a master. Besides, a price is considerably different whether you use the skin of fish whether you use the part of the scale. Because raw materials are cheap as for the collagen using the scale, the price of supplement collagen becomes relatively low. However, I melt with hydrochloric acid and process it and will extract collagen because the collagen which I made cannot readily extract collagen from a scale by the normal processing method. Because it is bad for the health, the too low-priced collagen should turn off the hydrochloric acid.


text:
Looking for fun ways to celebrate Mother's Day with your family this year? Give Mom a well-deserved break and escape to Bucks County. Celebrate mom with tea, brunch, shopping and more! Look at this list of events around Bucks County for Mom to enjoy
May 12, 2018
May 12, 2018
Event Location: Crossing Vineyards and Winery
Address: 1853 Wrightstown Road, Washington Crossing, PA 18977
Phone: (215) 493-6500
Admission: $55 per person, tax and gratuity not included.
From: 12:00 PM to 2:00 AM
What better way to say "thank you" than with a garden party luncheon. Enter our Garden Room through a rose-adorned arbor and be greeted with a welcome flute of sparkling wine. Then enjoy a plentiful spread of gourmet sandwiches & fresh salads, gourmet cheeses & fruit, and pastries, along with an open wine bar. As an added bonus, have a free portrait taken with your favorite Mom. She'll feel like the queen she is!
May 12, 2018
Event Location: Raymond Farm Center for Living Arts and Design
Address: 6370 Pidcock Creek Road, New Hope, PA 18938
Phone: (215) 862-2691
Admission: $100
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Go spend a serene Saturday afternoon at the Raymond farmhouse for a special lecture and workshop on the art of ikebana, led by ikebana Master Junko Miura, this workshop will include an introduction to the history of ikebana - the art of Japanese flower arranging and a demonstration of basic cutting and arrangement techniques focusing on Moribana style. Participants will then work to create their own arrangements - a perfect gift for Mom!
All essential materials including a vase, pinfrog, and clippers, will be loaned to participants for the duration of the workshop. Participants who would like to bring home their arrangements will have the opportunity to purchase the vase and pinfrog for an additional $50 at the end of the workshop. Flowers are included and may be taken home.
MAY 13, 2018 (Mother's Day)
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Logan Inn
Address: 10 West Ferry St, New Hope, PA 18938
Phone: (215) 862-2300
Admission: Brunch $35, Dinner $60
11:00 AM to 8:30 PM
Mother's Day Brunch or Donner at Logan Inn
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Radisson Hotel Philadelphia Northeast
Address: 2400 Old Lincoln Hwy, Trevose, PA 19053
Phone: (215) 638-8300
Admission: $36.99++ for adults, $18++ for kids 4-12 years old; under 4 years old are complimentary
10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Treat Mom to a Mother's Day brunch at the Radisson Philadelphia Northeast. Menu to include a carving station, made to order omelet and benedict station, hot buffet, seafood display and more.
May 13, 2018
Event Location: The Bucks Pub
Address: 2600 York Rd, Jamison, PA 18929
Phone: (215) 353-0350
Admission: Adults $28.95, Kids 12 & Under $11.95, Under 3 FREE
Seating is available 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Celebrate your Mom this Mother's Day with a special Brunch at The Bucks Club. Full Menu is available on The Bucks Club's website. Call for Reservations.
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Sheraton Bucks County Hotel
Address: 400 Oxford Valley Rd, Langhorne, PA 19047
Phone: (215) 269-3408
Admission: Adults $34++, Seniors $29++, Children ages 4-10 years $15++, under 4 are free
11:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Celebrate Mother's Day with us! Join us for brunch. Reservations are available from 11 am - 3 pm. Enjoy a wonderful array of breakfast and lunch items, including a seafood station, omelet and waffle station, carving station and decadent dessert station.
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Washington House Hotel & Restaurant
Address: 136 N Main St, Sellersville, PA 18960
Phone: (215) 257-3000
10:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Treat mom to a special brunch including a complimentary glass of champagne. A la carte menu will not be available. Reservations can be made online or over the phone.
May 13, 2018
Event Location: El Barrio Cantina & Tequila Bar
Address: 1470 Buck Road, Southampton, PA 18966
Phone: (267) 685-0725
Admission: Free to Attend
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
MOTHER'S DAY Sunday May 13! Featuring an ALL YOU CAN EAT Mexi-American Brunch and Free Margarita or Mimosa for MOM!
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Sand Castle Winery
Address: 755 River Rd, Erwinna, PA 18920
Phone: (610) 294-8303
Admission: $49.95, Children (6 -12) $24.95
From: 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM
Ticket includes brunch buffet, glass of wine, and souvenir glass. Specialty cocktails, beers available for purchase
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Sister Cities Food & Shop Tours
Address: 50 S Main Street, Lambertville, PA 08530
Phone: (908) 268-1720
Admission: Adults $60
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Treat mom to a unique Mother's Day experience as we make our way through the towns of New Hope and Lambertville all while taking in the delicious food and beautiful scenery. You will have the opportunity to stop with mom at 5 different locations where we will shop, taste and truly get to experience these two river towns.
May 13, 2018
Event Location: Washington House Hotel & Restaurant
Address: 136 N Main St, Sellersville, PA 18960
Phone: (215) 257-3000
4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Delight mom to a night out and a delicious dinner with a special a la carte menu. All moms will receive a complimentary rose. Reservations can be made online or over the phone.
May 15, 2018
Event Location: Hops/Scotch
Address: 22 South Main Street, Doylestown, PA 18901
Phone: (215) 296-6433
Admission: $45
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Learn to craft cocktails with fresh squeezed juices, hand crafted syrups, & exotic bitters. Ticket includes: Welcome cocktail, hors d'oeuvres, one and half hour lesson with an award-winning bartender, liquors, fresh juices, syrups, and cocktails. This session will be covering Vodka with Effen and will be used in some summery vodka cocktails to help celebrate yo momma! Enjoy the night with a talk, a tasting, and a demonstration. You will not only learn to make the drinks the proper way but will be putting the knowledge you learn to the test in a contest at the end. Best couple's cocktail awards free entry to the next cocktail workshop. Can't wait to see you all there, Cheers!
*Info courtesy of www.visitbuckscounty.com


text:
These ears are perfect for any goul or guy. The ears are made of a soft black fabric with a holographic spider web design. Choose your own style of bow and if you would like a spider pin or not. If you choose a spider, please leave your color choice in the notes during checkout.
Bow color can be changed upon request just choose "custom bow" and leave your request in the notes during checkout
LED lights are optional
These items are made to order. Please allow 1-2 weeks before shipment.
Need it faster? just add our Rush Order listing to your cart and leave the date you need it by in the notes during checkout.
Rush Order link: https://nevergrowupshop.com/products/rush-my-order
if you would like to customize this item please leave a note when you check out.


text:
There aren't many occasions in a journalist's life when they'll feel the need to ask an A-list actor to comment on reports that they're a vampire. But Nicolas Cage is not your average actor. From starring in blockbusters such as Con Air and winning an Oscar for playing an alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas, Cage has recently morphed into a B-movie hero and attracted so-bizarre-they-could-be-true rumours. How many of these tales are actually real? Before ShortList can get to the truth, there's his new film to discuss…
Superhero films are hardly thin on the ground. What does Ghost Rider bring to this crowded market?
You're right to say it's a crowded market — every other movie is about a comic-book character and you need to provide an alternative. Ghost Rider does that. There's no other superhero like Ghost Rider. He's the only one I know of that was inspired by Goethe, by which I mean he sold his soul to the devil in a 1,000-year contract.
That's interesting, as most people would see it as a fun, popcorn film…
It definitely embraces pop culture and pop art. And, if you want to eat popcorn, there's that too. He was interesting to me from being a small child, because I couldn't get my head around how someone that looked so scary and was using the forces of evil could also be good. He's interested in philosophical questions. That's what makes him so different.
Even when he's urinating fire?
Not since Vampire's Kiss have I done something that outrageous in a movie. But when you see it in context, I'm trying to make the son of the devil laugh. And what better way is there to make the son of the devil laugh than to pee fire?
Fair enough. So, as a method actor, how do you prepare for playing Ghost Rider?
I knew that I had to form a reality where I could believe in this character — so it was honest and I didn't feel ridiculous. There's a theory that all actors, whether they know it or not, have emanated from medicine men and shamans, who would go into these altered states of consciousness and recover visions. They were probably psychotic, but they were respected, so I tried that. I'd sew bits of Egyptian artefacts into my costume that were thousands of years old. I'd paint my face with white and black skull make-up and put in black contact lenses so there wouldn't be any eyeballs. I looked like Afro-Caribbean voodoo icon Baron Samedi, who was the spirit at the gateway of death. I was trying to stimulate my imagination into believing I was really this character. Then, when I walked on set I saw the fear in people's eyes and that was like oxygen to the fire. It made me feel stronger as the Ghost Rider.
How do you deal with the baffled reactions when you go from working with Werner Herzog on Bad Lieutenant to doing something like this?
The people, by and large, have been with me. The critics are another matter. Someone once said to me that "critics are like eunuchs at an orgy" [laughs]. There's a school of thought that suggests that if you p*ss the critics off, you're doing something right. I try to follow my instincts. I have dreams about where film acting can go. I believe it's no different than painting — if you want to get abstract, then you can.
Such as the Adam West-style voice in Kick-Ass?
[The character's] insane. I'm not insane, he's insane. He's a 48-year-old man who goes out dressed like Batman. The character is nuts enough to go into his little room and study Adam West's voice. That's what I was trying to say.
Do you think people believe these crazy performances are actually you?
Probably. I've had my moments, but nothing I can't explain. Or, at least, nothing a few schnapps can't explain [laughs]. If you look at films like World Trade Center, there are performances that are subtle and quiet. I don't always have to be abstract.
Did you really eat cockroaches for 1988's Vampire's Kiss?
Yes. It was horrible. I was young, trying to do something shocking so people would notice me. It was inspired by Ozzy Osbourne. The director and I were having what you call a "row" in England, so he had me do it twice. Never again.
There are a number of bizarre rumours about you — like the one that you're actually a vampire, based on a photograph [picture 2] taken in the 1870s…
Yeah, I saw that. How can I be diplomatic about this? That looks like a slowed-down version of me [laughs].
Were you insulted?
No, not at all. Anything that keeps the mystery alive. I will say that, although there have been rumours that I'm a vampire, I don't drink blood and I do have a reflection. Sadly.
Where do they come from?
I think it's because I keep myself to myself. Because I'm not on drugs with a ton of strippers, they have to find other things to say about me.
So you didn't buy a two-headed snake?
Actually, there's possibly truth in that one.
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance is at cinemas nationwide from 17 February
Image: Allstar


text:
The Language Hub provides top quality Italian language classes and professional Translating and Interpreting services for private clients and companies at really competitive prices!
We welcome learners of all age groups - children, young adults and adults - and of all levels - beginners, intermediate and advanced.
We offer courses and private tuition in Italian, French , Spanish and Portuguese in Manly, Northern Beaches and all Sydney suburbs.


text:
REV GTS mod 230W (without elements)
Supreme luxury, HD screen and beautiful ergonomic design, the REV GTS is the Grand Tourer of the REV range. The phenomenal menu system gives you options galore for full control and the screen even features multi-colour option detail to create match your Vaping lifestyle.
Size: 94x55x32 (mm)
Battery cells: 2x 18650 (ei sisaldu komplektis)
Wattage: 5W – 230W
Mode: Power / Temp.(Ni200, SS, Ti) / TCR (M1 – M6) / BYPASS / Preheat
Voltage range: 0V - 8,5V
Resistance range: 0,08Ω – 3Ω


text:
METRO's Got the Bases Covered for Astros Fans
Style Magazine Newswire | 4/2/2018, 9:13 a.m.
METRO is ready to welcome a sea of orange and blue as Houston Astros fans head downtown for the World Series champs' home opener on Monday, April 2. One of the most economical and hassle-free trips to Minute Maid Park is on METRO. Several local bus routes and rail stops are just a short walk from the ball park. Riding METRO means fans can avoid the frustration of traffic congestion and hunting for parking spaces.
METRORail was a popular choice for Astros fans during the 2017 World Series run and a record setting number of fans used METRO to reach the World Series Parade last November.
Regular fare costs $1.25 and children 5 and under ride for free. Planning your trip to watch the World Series champs is as simple as visiting ridemetro.org or downloading the RideMETRO app and the Q Mobile Ticketing app to pay with your smart phone.


text:
Before I continue this blog, let me just call out the elephant in the room. A few weeks ago I started this new blog, at first because I knew I was going to write about IHOPKC, and I needed a neutral forum in which to do so. Search engines do not index my blog. That simply means it does not show up in a Google search result, but it is still public. That keeps away the spam from places that just use key words. That's why I was rather stunned by the thousands of people who read the IHOP blog—and still are, it seems. To be sure, there is a reality to reaching the world with a click of a button. Nations I didn't know existed saw that blog—and it was all from organic sharing, not search engines. And that's the elephant in the room because now I am returning to writing about my regular old spiritual life, but I don't want to pretend that blog wasn't in the middle of it. So let me throw out a few comments to end that chapter:
I didn't write the IHOPKC blog to start a blog about it, nor did I write it to debate. I settled that debate in my heart before I wrote it. I did not approve any comments that rehashed the debate or argued, not because I am afraid of those views but because those views are indexed by search engines, and my blog isn't intended to debate or create a forum for such things. If you want other opinions, they are plentiful and Google will lead you to them. My blog is not the place for debate–those debates, in my belief, do not glorify Jesus, and that is my heart with what I write and do. I have taken two years to hash it out in my heart, and the last nine months coming to terms with what I believe and feel. I said everything I need to say. I wanted to say that because I want you to understand why those comments do not appear. I almost approved them simply because I am not afraid of them, but I ultimately decided against it since they were a rehashing of what is out there already, and they are not fruitful for anyone.
While I am at it, I want to say a few other things. I have received many comments, some private, as well as emails and messages, thanking me for helping others articulate what they felt. Many people were (are) hurting deeply from the accusations and, sometimes, what they see as betrayal. It's been touching to me to read these heartfelt comments. I am grateful for how the Lord has used this.
A couple other thoughts: I have discovered that when people really want to know something, they will read as many words as it takes. Due to the unique nature of my involvement with IHOPKC, and my need to contextualize situations, as well as make it accessible to those unfamiliar with the ministry, those who reviewed the blog for copy editing suggested I not cut anything because as those unfamiliar with the intricacies, they needed it to understand. I specifically asked them what I could cut and keep the meaning. This may be an SMS culture that lives to tweet and text, but when it matters, people will read. This encourages me, and I hope we will do it for all the things that matter—most of them matter a lot more than this: the Bible, news stories that may affect our lives, even long emails from people we love who need to share their heart. Reading isn't dead. That blog was one of the longest pieces of work I've written, but it's also the most read. I'm surprised, but pleasantly so. I shared it exactly once on my Facebook, and on my Twitter (where that page is private and only reached 45 people at the time). The rest was organic sharing from people who cared to know.
Finally, since I am making a comment on this, I want to make something clear in case I hurt you. In the rough couple years I had, I sent my FB through some metamorphoses. Without detailing what occurred, I felt like I needed to remove everyone from FB who 1) I didn't actually know, and 2) that I had not had any interaction with in a year or so. This happened in two phases. I found out through publishing this blog that I hurt some feelings that way. For that I apologize. I was coping with my own issues and they were deeply painful at the time. I had been burned through "behind the scenes" Facebook talk and no longer felt safe with random strangers on my Facebook. A year later, the things I wrote about RAD and the close friends that didn't comment or respond exacerbated this to my over-magnifying heart. Now I would not take that personally, but at the time I was just in a hard place and figured they didn't "want" that part of me—and I figured that because so many had said as much to me directly. Many people have re-friended me, and I accepted gladly. If you happen to see this and were hurt, please forgive me. This was a lot more to deal with my own pain than any comment against you. I sincerely apologize.
I wasn't going to comment anymore at all on the blog because I wanted it to be a one-and-done, a saying of my peace. I don't want to use it to gain some readership or ministry platform. This is not an IHOPKC blog. I have no ministry, and I am not looking for one; if God leads me to ministry again, my guess is it won't be one focused on blogging about another ministry! I am loosely considering opening the blog to search engines, since apparently it's helping people to read, but apart from that, the purpose of it all along was to details what I know firsthand and to offer another take on the situation which has been maligned by sensationalism and misinformation.
I hold no grudges. I am not angry. I love the ministry, and my friends who remain there. I feel deeply for those who were in the real cult that came to IHOPKC and continue to suffer. And I continue to pray for their healing. I do not deny their pain or victimization in the slightest. I just think that many used that to make IHOPKC something it was not. And as my email and responses have indicated, that was hurting many innocent people.
I encourage you, again, to not make a blanket judgment, especially if you know nothing firsthand, and to remain listening until the other side of the story is revealed. Sometimes there is more to perceived "silence" than you know. You're going to have to take my word on that one (or not, but I do mean it with concrete reasons, not speculation). And above all, I encourage you to pray. Clearly there is much pain from what has happened. That's legitimate. People need to experience the love of Jesus—especially those victimized by the cult happenings—and everyone in pain needs healing. We would do well to pray every time we heard anything related to it, no matter which side we are on. Virtually everyone on both sides claims to love Jesus and be a Christian. Our duty, then, is to be a light to other Christians and to the world.
Now, with all that said, I am going to resume blogging about my spiritual journey, insights, etc. I am afraid some you may be bored if you followed my blog, but you are welcome to read! I just want to talk about Jesus and what He is doing in my life, and so my awesome April 4 blog is coming later. I just felt odd not discussing the elephant before I segued into my personal stories and insights again.
Thank you for reading; thank you for your personal comments to me; I tried to honor all the requests on my blog that asked me to not post the comment publicly; I don't believe I missed any. Of all the comments I received, only three were negative. I'm sure there is a lot I didn't hear, but the weight of that showed me the need for people to hear another side too–and it showed me the pain in many who have been silently grieved by the bad comments that have been the focus. I believe there will be more revelations of good, of fruit, of commitment to Jesus. Don't throw anything aside yet.
"Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. -Psalm 27:14 (NASB)


text:
Why regulation — on yogurt and more — is blocking Greece's recovery
The news that Greek-style yogurt maker Chobani is looking to sell a minority stake that would value the company at around $2.5 billion should in theory be a big boost for Greece's beleaguered dairy industry.
But instead, the main beneficiary will be Chobani's Turkish founder, who operates the company in upstate New York, and who has proved to be innovative in a way that Greek dairy farmers are not. In fact, they are so stuck in their traditional ways that it's actually illegal in Greece to call low-fat yogurt "yogurt." Any variant that contains additives of any sort must be labeled "dessert of yogurt," which is akin to waving a warning flag at consumers.
That sort of rigid regulation is the norm in Greece, and not just in agriculture. Examples abound. There's a rule dating back to the 1970s that prohibits producers of apple vinegar from packaging it in anything other than one liter bottles. Another set of regulations, this time from the 1980s, outlaws bulk sales of mayonnaise and the import of some types of cloves. Supermarkets are prohibited from selling aspirin. Fresh milk is required by law to have a shelf life of just five days. As for olive oil, one of the staples of the Mediterranean diet and an important source of revenue for the Greek economy, producers are strictly forbidden from blending it with vegetable oil for domestic consumption. The rationale: olive oil is at the core of the Greek diet, and the health of the population is at stake.
These rules are among the hundreds of restrictive business practices in Greece that a team from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development identified last year, as part of an 11-month investigation commissioned by the Greek government. In its report the OECD made 329 recommendations for rules that should be changed to open up competition and give a much-needed boost to the economy.
Quantifying the cost of these restrictions is a difficult task, but in 66 cases, the international experts did figure out a way to do so. Eliminating them would lead to a positive effect on the Greek economy of 5.2 billion euros, or just over $7 billion, they calculated. While that may not seem like a huge sum, in today's Greece, every penny counts. Kostis Hatzidakis, the Greek minister for Development and Competitiveness, is promising action "very soon" to retire some of the most intrusive rules that he says are holding back his nation's competitiveness.
That is easier said than done, and not just in Greece. In many European nations, a similar patchwork of rules limit competition, protect existing monopolies or otherwise restrict businesses for sometimes archaic reasons. In France, for example, there's currently a battle raging between retailers wanting to open on Sundays and labor unions who have successfully filed court actions to stop them.
John Van Reenan, director of the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, says this sort of overregulation holds back innovation and economic growth and explains, in part, the gap in material wealth between Europe and the United States. "It's a very big issue," he says. "It takes a lot longer for European business to grow and achieve scale."
Certainly, there's evidence that attacking producer monopolies and eradicating archaic restrictions can boost economic growth. Australia began doing so in 1995, with the creation of an independent "Productivity Commission." The commission has calculated that over its first 10 years, the changes put in place — especially in key infrastructure sectors such as electricity, urban transport and communications — increased Australia's gross domestic product by about 2.5 percent.
Even by European standards, Greece stands out as having especially tangled regulation and glaring inefficiencies. For example, as a result of the rule that gives pharmacies a complete monopoly on sales of all over the counter drugs, including dietary supplements, there are three times the number of pharmacies per inhabitant in Greece than in the EU on average, the OECD found.
But changing that state of affairs is controversial. Many argue that tradition is more than just a question of economics, but a way of life. Minister Hatzidakis is facing pushback for his reform plans from several cabinet colleagues — and intense pressure from industry lobbies. On March 10, the Panhellenic Pharmacists' Union began a two-day strike to protest the plan to allow supermarkets to sell aspirin and some other drugs, holding up placards in central Athens reading "health is a human right." Among their arguments: consumers may unwittingly overdose if drugs become easier to purchase.
Some of the biggest fuss has been prompted by the recommendation to allow producers to blend olive oil with vegetable oil. These blends are currently exported, but are not allowed to be sold in Greece itself — even though Spanish and Italian blended oils are on sale there. During a debate on the issue in parliament, one MP, Fevronia Patrianakou, termed the proposal "a cause for war."
Another highly controversial recommendation is to end the statutory 5-day maximum shelf life for fresh milk — a rule that the OECD says actually means some far-flung Greek islands never get any. In other EU countries, shelf life is usually set by producers themselves, based on hygiene norms. So far, Greek dairy producers are lobbying against the change, with support from the Agriculture Ministry.
The pushback isn't surprising. "The usual argument by insiders is that the world will fall apart if anything changes," says Prof. Van Reenan of the LSE. "But that's a smokescreen for protecting oligopolies."
Ultimately, the Greek producers may be the main beneficiaries, even if it means they have to change. Clinging to old ways of doing things and keeping out competition can be lucrative, but it's a crimp on innovation.
Just ask Chobani's multimillionaire founder.
PHOTOS: Paraskevas Christoforakis, 35, stands by his shop inside the medieval castle of Monemvasia May 29, 2012. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
A worker puts sun-dried tomatoes in glass jars at the Gaea food company in the central Greek town of Agrinio, some 280 km (174 miles) southwest of Athens February 28, 2012. REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Here are some comments from a Greek-American Nutritionist and Journalist, currently living in Athens. First I would like to clarify that there is in fact no law that does not allow low-fat yogurt, to be called yogurt. Low fat yogurt in Greece is called plain yogurt. The law states that any additives such as gelatin, sugar, sweeteners, fillers, starch not to be called yogurt. This is actually of benefit to the consumer as opposed to the US where many yogurts are hardly yogurt anymore with all the additives.
Secondly, the blended olive oil proposal, was a generic proposal which is not supported by any concrete numbers, nor does it take into account the relationship of Greeks and olive oil, but also the reputation of Greek olive oil. You see Spain and Italy already have established identities for their olive oil brands. Greece has not, and allowing this blending would in essence ruin any reputation that Greek olive oil has established thus far. Will these new blends be cheaper? There is no evidence that they will be. Will new blended oils even be marketed as healthier or innovative? Probably. We have seen how these oils are promoted in other countries particularly in the US and UK. And really, why would a country that produces high quality olive oil, taint their product by adding various questionable vegetable oils? Greece needs to maintain the integrity of its olive oil.
Finally, I agree that many regulations are outdated and should change, but these regulations have to do with internal (in Greece) production, so this has really nothing to do with Chobani's success compared to Fage's. We are talking about 2 companies with production plants in the U.S.
I won't judje your initiative with a suspicious mind
I agree with that wrong practices led to wrong and unfair laws
To tell the truth then: Bad Initiative-Corrupted Politicians-Unfair Laws BUT,
It's rather naive not say dangerous to put in the same box all these different products and services without make a research of the native ethics. I can't see the point of "fresh" sign on food or milk or anything if it was prepared 15 days before, because it isn't. Using he "reducing costs" anvil we turn green to yellow and then to black. Then we use the media (like yours) to fanfare the "wrong" practice which it is wrong but for different reasons.
Instead research a little about Milk "cartel" in Greece and milk prices. Prices won't fall if we change the "SIGN" , but if we change the sign "meaning" we can reduce the quality drop bits of the price and everybody is happy. Now regarding yogurt, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Beef-and-Ir ish-Stout-Stew/Detail.aspx?evt19=1 the link provide the recipe for what it says Beaf Irish Stout, if I add Apples inside or Chicken, instead of Beaf this isn't the recipe.You can run Windows on Mac it's not prohibited but it's not sold Dual Boot and it's isn't Mac anymore.
Some far island doesn't get any, because Greek "Shiplords" with the blessing of the state, made the transportation fees DEVASTATING. Not a word for this Cartel too…And finaly , medicines.If you ask Doctors and patients around Greece, most of the times they will say generics -genosima in Greek-isn't bad or it's the same, but there is data about some that is dangerous and in the best case they don't do what they should. Why that happened after the Greek Crisis , I dare ask, or shall I say EU crisis. Research is the 1st part of true story, not doing it in all aspect with sources and proof is usually the opposite.
Sorry for my rusty English.
I am not an expert on any of these fields, but if you taste bad olive oil on your salad , eat a bad replica yogurt you will not get ill… but if you do, sent me an email and I will dispatch some of our finest generic drugs, I am sure you will skip it and not for the oligopolies.Thanks for the time and space.
So in essence: it is fine to do so if its Cognac, Roquefort, Parmesan Reggiano, but, for Greek yogurt (where "Greek" denotes the goat type, the process etc.) and the protection of that product line-as they are unique-is just, say, unacceptable? Just not long ago, Canada (of all places on earth!!!) almost banned Greece from using the name FETA for the Greek invented, produced, traditional cheese. Of course, not that they where first, the Danish almost succeeded doing that years ago. I wonder what purpose does this article serve, as Reuters, should be clearly informed of the surrounding lit before publishing an article.
interesting piece, but marred, as previous commentator noted, by error about lowfat yogurt. I am in Athens and just had some delicious Total 2% made in Greece yogurt.
Best yogurt maker in Turkey. Yogurt Recipe http://www.pasta-arifi.com


text:
Wake / Plan / Slay 'Marble' Mug
This sturdy white, glossy ceramic mug is an essential to your cupboard. This brawny version of ceramic mugs shows it's true colors with quality assurance to withstand heat in the microwave and put it through the dishwasher as many times as you like, the quality will not be altered.
• Ceramic
• Dishwasher safe
• Microwave safe
• White, glossy
** Shirts, Tote bags, Mugs, and iPhone cases are all printed on demand by a third party and are shipped separately. Please purchase separate from stickers to avoid any errors. Thank you **


text:
A Welcome Message From Our Team
Here at Miracle-Ear, we're proud to help people reach their full hearing potential every day. It's our goal to make the process as easy and enjoyable as possible. We hope you will allow us to help you hear better days!Get In Touch
Our Location
2050 South Broadway
Get Directions
Ste F
Santa Maria, CA 93454
Our Office
Specializes In
- Hearing Loss
- Hearing Aids
- Custom Fit
- Tinnitus
- Aftercare
How Can We Help?
Ready to experience Miracle-Ear hearing aids for yourself?
Call 805-900-0540 to schedule your first appointment.
We'll work together to find the best solution for you.
Miracle-Ear Hearing Aids in Santa Maria, CA
Miracle-Ear® is simply the best for hearing aids in Santa Maria, CA. We have been in business for over 70 years and are regarded as America's most recognized brand of hearing aids. By selling state-of-the-art hearing aids and providing outstanding customer care, we've become the most trusted name in the industry.
Our Digital Hearing Aids
Our hearing aids use advanced digital technology to process sounds at extremely fast speeds. We provide hearing aids that are discreet in appearance and custom-fitted to the user via advanced programming. The days of uncomfortable and obvious hearing aids are gone.
We're especially proud of our new GENIUS™ Technology. It has advanced features that can help you focus and zoom in on the conversations you want to hear. If you're someone who loves to swim or surf, then consider our Aquavĺ® hearing aid. It's waterproof as well as shockproof.
Hearing Loss and Ongoing Care
A free hearing test* at any one of our over 1300 locations is the best way to determine if you have hearing loss. Some people think that nothing can be done about hearing loss, but that's not true. Nine out of ten people with hearing loss are able to improve their hearing through a hearing aid, and there's no better place to purchase one than at Miracle-Ear.
When you buy a hearing aid with us, we'll become your lifetime partner in its care. You'll get free checkups at any of our locations. A typical checkup includes:
- The installation of fresh batteries
- A thorough test of all components
- A check for proper fitting
- Adjustments when needed
The Miracle-Ear Experience in Santa Maria, CA
Stop by our hearing aid center in Santa Maria to discover and experience the Miracle-Ear advantage. Our center proudly provides the Mirage hearing aid. This hearing aid is entirely invisible. We also provide hearing aid accessories, including the combination battery charger and dehumidifier. Call us today to talk to a hearing care specialist about these or any other products we carry.
Tell us about your experience with this store.Write Your Review
Our Offers
Our Customer Stories
Learn why so many people trust Miracle-Ear to help them hear their best day.
Mary's Story
" My joy has returned. Life is good ... "
Read Mary's Story
Roy's Story
" I wanted to be able to hear her say 'I do.' ... "
Read Roy's Story
Amber's Story
" He said 'Okay, we have a solution for that.' He was very reassuring... "
Read Amber's Story


text:
I can hardly believe that my last post of 2015 was in July. Yikes. I'm sure a lot of you thought I'd given up on blogging. I don't think I have. I still want to review books, and I want to post discussion posts. At times I wonder how relevant I am to the book blogging community. I don't take stunning Instagrams or make flawlessly edited YouTube videos, and I'm not constantly churning out clever features with stunning graphics that I designed myself. But I enjoy reviewing and talking about books with you guys, and I'm lucky enough to still enjoy reviewing and talking about books at work, too. I don't talk a lot about my personal life, and when I sat down to write this post, I set out to explain what happened in the last third of the year to make me disappear. At this point, though, I think it makes sense to just talk about what I did in 2015.
I remember feeling like January went on forever, which is weird because looking back at my Instagram, there were fun moments to it! Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner came to D.C. and I met them. My best friend, her mom, and I also went to New York City for MLK weekend. Our adventures included visiting an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, seeing Matilda on broadway (my dream), and going to the Death Becomes Her exhibit on Victorian mourning attire at the Met. I also took a few hours to meet up with Estelle and Ksenia and visit Books of Wonder, where I finally bought a copy of Open Road Summer.
February was not my favorite month. It started off with me having a great program for the kids at the library, and turned into a pipe bursting at my branch, which meant that I had to work at other branches in the system while the issue was fixed. I started reviewing for School Library Journal during that time, which was exciting! I review picture books, middle grade, and young adult for them. February was also the month I dove back into the world of online dating. On March 11th, a Wednesday, I went on a date with this guy named Seth. We wound up going on a second date that Friday and realizing, yeah, we wanted to be in a relationship with each other.
Right before I met Seth I went to NoVa Teen Book Festival for the first time where I attended lots of
May brought about a lovely road trip to Ohio with three good friends for our college reunion. I went to Kenyon and absolutely adored it, and it was so nice to be back for a few days and see everyone again. The other big news of the month was that after about five and a half years, my brother and his now fiancée finally got engaged!
June brought Emery Lord, Trish Doller, A.C. Gaughen, and Tiffany Schmidt coming to D.C. on tour. I also attended my friend Kaitlyn and Aaron's wedding. I finished June and started July in Maine, where I vacationed with my family in Acadia National park. My mom is from Maine and I always wanted to go to Acadia, so it was great to finally live that dream. I definitely recommend it if you can ever go. Shortly after returning from Maine, I got to see Taylor Swift in concert! I'd always wanted to see Taylor in concert but had never had the chance to go before, so I was thrilled to go, and it was an amazing show. Seth and I also went to Vermont for a weekend because both of his sisters were around, and we spent a relaxing weekend seeing a few sights, visiting Bridgeside Books, which his sister owns, and eating delicious food.
Otherwise, the rest of July and August included a baseball game and a visit from my dad. Seth and I had started talking about seriously looking for an apartment together in the fall, but had been browsing a bit earlier for fun and because D.C. rent is crazy high. One day in August we looked at an apartment that not only looked gorgeous, but was smack dab in between our two workplaces. We were the first people to see it and were quickly approved.
I feel like I spent all of September either packing or working. My books wound up taking over fifty boxes, and I just own a lot of stuff. I feel like I kept throwing stuff away and still having heaps I needed to pack. We moved at the very beginning of October—a four day weekend involving movers, a trip to Ikea, and lots of furniture assembly. We felt very fortunate that our cat made herself comfortable in the new place right away. In fact, it feels like I spent a lot of October unpacking, but later that month we also went to a Renaisssance Faire and two of my friends came into town. We also had a pretty cool Halloween adventure. Earlier in the month I'd also gone to see Libba Bray, Daniel Skovron, and D.J. Older at Politics and Prose, an event so crowded I didn't take pictures. I also enjoyed setting up an amazing home library, if I say so myself.
In November, we had a housewarming. Leigh Bardugo came to town. I went to an event with Becky Albertali and I.W. Gregorio. We cooked and ate a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner came back into town in December. Seth and I had been talkingThe past few days of 2015 found us getting ready to spend a quiet New Year's Eve together.
I hadn't realized what a busy year 2015 was until I sat down to type it out. Maybe in 2016 I'll get better at balancing a fitness regime, work, and a social life. Maybe not. We'll see where blogging takes me in the coming year.


text:
Freak of the Week is a frequent Thursday blog feature right here at www.crispina.com where I conduct a virtual interview with a friend or acquaintance.
1. Who are you? What do you do? What is your line of work? Tell your readers a little about you, and your history. Please clearly state your name, business name, address, telephone, email, website and business hours of operation so they can be included in the blog post.
I am Bernard Greenwald, a painter. I live @ 24 Fisk Street Red Hook N.Y. 845 453 6580
How do you know Crispina?
I met Crispina through my wife, Elena, who loves to make things with recycled fabrics as Crispina does.
I make paintings based on the landscape in the Hudson Valley. My primary concern is color and how it expresses light passing through where we live and travel. The paintings depict rural and urban environs, and roads and cars since it is from a moving vehicle a contemporary person usually absorbs the landscape.
I draw on large plywood panels on site, usually propped on the roof of my parked car, freely interpreting what I see into an image most conducive to the use of color . The color, often applied as flat areas of acrylic paint, is added later in my studio. It usually takes 4 or 5 days to complete a painting.
2. What is your current passion?
Lately I have been painting the Meade Orchard, which is a few miles North of our home. I park along Route 9G and as cars and trucks speed past, across the road an Edenic scene lies before me. I see fences, sheep, crops laid out in rows, varieties of fruit trees, the horizon, clouds and a glimpse of the Catskills. If I am standing too close, the farm dog creeps up to investigate me.
3. Who/What has been most influential in your current work?
I have been making paintings for many years so there have been a lot of influences. They include the teachings of Josef Albers; also Matisse, Picasso and the Cubists, George Inness, Persian miniature painting, Giotto, Titian, Tintoretto, newspaper cartoons, other teachers in the history of art too numerous to mention. Jazz music with its culture of free improvisation also has influenced my work.
4. What keeps you on the path you have chosen?
5. Where do you find your inspiration/motivation?
Art comes from art. Its taken me so long to arrive and my current level of fluency, I want to get down as much as possible in the time available to me.
6. Aside from working, how do you spend your time?
I go to the gym and also practice the cornet. We have a Klezmer group which meets every Monday night. I shop for food. I read 3 newspapers every day.
7. What is one of your most transforming memories?
Loss of my father as a young kid and the appearance of my own sons and daughter in my life.
8. Do you have a prized possession? What is it?
I play a silver, key of "C" Buescher cornet with a gold washed bell, probably around a hundred years old. I wish I knew who played it before me.
9. Tell about a magical moment that comes to mind when you look back on your life experience.
When I was in art school in Philadelphia, I passed a junk store on Walnut Street. In the window, in a frame with cracked glass, was an etching I recognized as a Rembrandt, his wife Saskia as the "Great Jewish Bride". I bought it for $18.00, about half my weekly budget then, and took it to the print curator at the Art Museum who authenticated it. Years later, as a worker in the Yale Art Gallery, I got help washing and reframing it. Its a treasure of mine which I see every day.
10. If you were able to prepare a meal for anyone – dead or alive, who would it be?
There are so many starving people in the world today. I wish I could feed them.
I had a nice chat the other day with a woman I did not know on the next exercycle at the gym. I could see she was studying a musical score so I asked her about it. She was preparing to sing, in Russian, in the chorus of an opera. We compared the musician's life to a painter's life.
11. What is your favorite color? Why?
In my world, one color simply does not exist on its own....it only becomes real in the presence of other color.
12. What is your favorite travel destination?
I love the short step across the threshold of my studio. I love to see what happened overnight when no one was there.
13. What is a goal or focus for your next 12 months?
I am going to have my second knee replacement surgery in September. When I recover, I will frolic like a young goat, and make more paintings.
14. Tell about how you imagine the world might look in 10 years.
I'm not sure I wish I knew.
15. How are seen in your community? What is your role?
I am the curmudgeon with the colorful splashes of paint on his clothes and arms.
Bernard is showing at BINGO! for the month of August. BINGO!, is a professional gallery space featuring work that muzzies the boundaries of art and craft, housed in the former Bingo Hall on the lower level of our church. New shows are hung the first of every month with openings coinciding with Pittsfield's First Fridays Artswalk when light refreshments are served and live music is performed. Open hours are Wednesdays and Fridays 10-4pm or by appointment. (email email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com to set up an appointment).
Funky Klezmer music will be performed at Bernard's show opening, on August 2 by Bernard, his wife Elena, and a couple friends beginning at 6:30. Come, appreciate, look and listen!


text:
New Prints At BlueFlip Art
BlueFlip Art is pumping out new art prints again. This week they dropped two new limited edition prints by Texas artist Jason Limon. Each of these have editions of 50, and are priced at $40 each. Additionally, they dropped some new open edition prints, which can be viewed here. Visit BlueFlipArt.com.


text:
Silver Lake— Hummingbirds usually build their nests in hard-to-find places. But about two weeks ago Sandy Driscoll of Silver Lake noticed that a hummingbird had built a tiny nest — made from cobwebs, paint chips and other scavenged materials — in plain sight on the hanging plant hooks in her back patio. Soon after, Sandy began taking photos as the hummingbird began taking care of two baby birds sheltered in the nest eight feet above the ground.
Sandy shared some photos and a description of her nesting neighbors:
"Ikept close watch and soon I spotted a Mama Hummer sitting on the nest. She would come and go, but mostly just sit there, keeping her eggs warm. Several days later, taking advantage of a few minutes when she was gone, I climbed on a tall ladder and was able to take a photo of the two tiny eggs.
A week later, I got a lucky glimpse of her feeding the newborns. They are barely visible – just a tiny bunch of feathers and beaks. My always-full Hummingbird feeder hangs just 10 feet away, so I'm doing my part to keep her supplied with nutrition. Apparently, Hummingbirds take great care to build their nests in hidden places. I am so fortunate to be able to witness all of this! I'm being very careful to give her privacy now, hoping the babies will grow and leave the nest in 3-4 weeks."
Sandy said she found detailed information about attracting hummingbirds at this site and baby hummingbirds here.
- Got a story, tip, question or photo to share? Submit it here
The Eastsider's Daily email digest includes all new content published on The Eastsider during the last 24 hours. Expect the digest to land in your in email in box around 7 p.m. It's free to sign up!
Once you submit your information, please check your email box to confirm your subscription.


text: dbrandow Posted August 28, 2012 Not being far removed from being a beginner myself, I would reemphasize that you need to plan your work while waiting for your piece to reheat, know exactly what you are going to do before you take it out of the fire. And another subtle one, you are going to see a lot of phenomenal pieces from some very talented blacksmiths - treat these as inspiration, something to aspire to, don't despair of ever being able to equal them. Finally, blacksmithing should be fun; if it isn't, you're doing it wrong. :P Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites