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British Broadcasting CorporationHome
Wednesday 24 Sep 2014
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A few weeks ago I had a chance to visit the studios where one of the BBC's most successful and popular soap operas is made. It's not Eastenders. It's not The Archers. Yet, despite being set thousands of miles from Loxley or the Queen Vic, despite the fact that the actors speak in two languages neither of which I understand, it's unmistakably a BBC programme.
It's called New Home, New Life. It's made by the BBC World Service Trust in both Dari and Pashto and for the past 16 years it's been broadcast every week by the BBC Afghan Service.
New Home, New Life tells the story of life in a cluster of villages in rural Afghanistan. Some of the story-lines – especially the agricultural ones – really could have been transposed from Ambridge. Others not.
One of the characters, for instance, lost his leg in a mine accident. The drama of how Jandad and his family raised the money for an artificial limb and then how he retrained as a tailor kept our listeners gripped for months.
HIV and AIDs prevention, children's health, the highly controversial topic of dowries, why should you vote and how do you do it – these are some of underlying educational themes and messages New Home, New Life has been able to deliver.
The skill of the writers and producers is to encapsulate these messages in a vivid and unmissable drama, which is why New Home, New Life reaches two-thirds of all radio listeners in Afghanistan every month.
And it's become part of Afghan national life. The characters are so well-known that real public figures sometimes compare each other to them.
When the Taliban controlled the country, they allowed New Home, New Life to continue – though a group of them did turn up at the studios in Kabul, demanding to see what was going on.
When it was explained to them that the BBC's commitment to impartiality meant that we'd really prefer it if they didn't barge in, their faces fell. "Every week you let in cows, goats, chickens – we've heard them – so why not us?" This, I think, is the first recorded encounter between the Taliban and a BBC effects disc.
New Home, New Life and its many off-shoots – a second radio drama series, books, magazines, pamphlets – employ well over a hundred people, almost all of them Afghan.
But the programme and the rabbit-warren of studios and offices which I was lucky enough to visit last month are only one important part of what the BBC does in Afghanistan and one part of our global mission.
There are many other programmes of music and culture for the Afghan service.
There's the work of BBC Monitoring, which has helped academics here at Chatham House make sense of the world for over 70 years.
And of course – centrally in Afghanistan just as it is central in the UK and in every other country where the BBC operates – there is news. News for Afghans. News for the wider region, for instance through the BBC's Urdu and Persian services, including our new Persian TV service. And news for Britain and the world.
Our operations in Afghanistan are a good example of what the BBC actually does on the ground all over the world – and also of the values and principles which the BBC at its best aims to bring to all its international operations.
Every BBC person I met in Afghanistan knows exactly what the BBC, and in particular BBC journalism, stands for: accuracy, impartiality, independence, seriousness.
They uphold those values day in, day out, covering one of the world's most difficult and dangerous stories.
But, beyond consistent values, there are other things that mark out the BBC's approach.
We're in it for the long term. We've been in Afghanistan for decades and intend to be there for decades to come – whether Western forces are still present or not.
We believe in enabling correspondents to build up their knowledge and expertise and contacts in a country by living there for years if possible – if not, then by repeated deployments.
As a result, John Simpson, Lyse Doucet, who was last night named as news journalist of the year at the radio Sony Awards, Ian Pannell, David Loyn and many other Western BBC correspondents, have become what would have once been called 'old Afghan hands'.
But even more important has been our practice over many years of recruiting outstanding Afghan journalistic and programme-making talent.
Long before ISAF or even the Russians began to ponder how to 'Afghanize' security and defence in the country, the BBC was building up an outstanding cadre of Afghans to report their country to itself and to the world.
Now I could have told a very similar story about Pakistan, or Somalia, or Kenya and much of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, or about Russia or China or many other countries around the world.
The result of this combination of our founding values, our dedicated people, our determination to rely not just on British journalists but on indigenous reporters and producers – is that the BBC continues to enjoy a level of trust from audiences across the world which is unique among international news-providers.
But a sceptic could listen to all this and perhaps be forgiven for saying: has the world changed, does the world no longer require a BBC that broadcasts internationally?
Britain no longer has an empire. The Berlin Wall fell years ago. Perhaps more importantly, there has been an explosion in the provision both of international news – CNN and Al-Jazeera stand out, but there are many others – and in indigenous media, across nearly all of the developing as well as the developed world.
The means of media production in the digital age, whether of an FM radio station for a Nairobi slum or of a piece of citizen-journalism for YouTube, are widely available even in many relatively poor societies.
Surely, perhaps with the exception of a handful of failed or near-failed states – countries like Somalia where the BBC Somali service remains really the only source of available news – the need for a BBC World Service or for any form of global mission for the BBC has gone?
And that brings me to the central point I want to make tonight – which is that, not just despite but in many ways because of the way the world has changed, the BBC's international mission is as vital as it's ever been.
First, if I could spare Francis Fukuyama's blushes, because history did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Repression of free speech, suppression and sometimes the persecution of local and international journalism has not disappeared.
Far from it – if anything, it is on the rise, and not just in failed or marginal states but in many advanced societies.
The jamming and blocking of BBC Services. The harrassment of BBC journalists and local staff working for BBC bureaux. These are facts of life in 2010 in some of the most influential and sophisticated societies in the world. In some countries there has been a significant deterioration in recent years.
Secondly because of what has happened to international newsgathering.
You might have imagined that the arrival of digital would lead to a golden age in the provision of, and access to, high quality journalism as the barriers to entry and national boundaries fell away.
In fact, the impact of the new technologies has been to undermine many traditional print and broadcast commercial business models around the world and the effect has been a drastic cutting back on investment in international journalism.
Once, for instance, the US networks encircled the globe with their newsgathering operations. I ran the BBC's news operations in Beijing during much of the Tiananmen Square crisis – and when the American networks arrived, it was like watching a series of carrier groups sailing into harbour.
Today it's a different story. When Benazir Bhutto was assassinated a few years ago in Islamabad, the US networks reported the story from Baghdad, because that was the closest place in which they had a correspondent.
"There's much less call for international news," one network executive told me shortly afterwards: "Apart from anything else, our audiences find it rather dispiriting."
In a world where in-depth international reporting is increasingly restricted to a handful of agencies and to news providers who are directly under the influence of sovereign governments and who have no tradition of editorial independence, the BBC's journalism, its objectivity and impartiality, our ability to put people onto the ground and keep them there over years, is more, not less, important than it used to be.
The third and final reason is a positive one. Around the world, we believe people want access to the cool-headed, fair-minded spirit of Britain – and the BBC – at their best.
In the United States, not a country with any lack of choice when it comes to news or indeed anything else, the BBC is more salient today than it's ever been. Audiences for our radio news, extensively rebroadcast on National Public Radio, have gone up 20% in the past year.
But it's also because of TV news, and of course our website which is at the centre of the second revolution we've seen in our global mission.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the BBC News application was one of a handful of news apps selected by Steve Jobs and Apple to support the launch of the iPad or that it continues to be one of the most popular applications in the iTunes Store.
But although there is value in the fact that so many American opinion-formers make the BBC part of their news diet, given the plethora of alternatives and the freedom of the press there, the United States is a less critical territory for the BBC's international mission than other regions: the Islamic world, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, for instance.
What do audiences in those parts of the world make of the BBC's current international offering? To help answer that question, we recently commissioned the consultants Human Capital to research attitudes to the BBC and other international news services in four countries: Kenya, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey.
As always, there are some interesting and important lessons for the BBC to learn from the survey. Some of the respondents, for instance, complain that our delivery of the news is sometimes too formal for their tastes and that it can lack the energy of some of our rivals. But overall the strength of support for the BBC is very striking.
When asked how much they would miss the BBC, CNN International, Voice of America and Al-Jazeera, in all four countries respondents said they would miss the BBC most. Egyptian respondents, for example, said they would miss the BBC much more than Al-Jazeera.
Just as interesting, I think, was the way in which the respondents thought the BBC affected their view of the UK as a whole.
They were shown a list of different British organisations and initiatives and asked whether they made them think more or less positively about the country: the British Armed Forces, the British Council, the UK Government, UK Government foreign aid, and so on, and the BBC.
So, for example, across all four countries, 43% of respondents thought that UK Government foreign aid made them think more positively about the UK, while 12% thought it made them think less positively.
No fewer than 80% of people asked said that the BBC made them think more positively about the UK, by the far the highest of all the British institutions mentioned.
The respondents were asked how important it was for the UK to continue to provide international news services to the world. 43% of respondents in Turkey thought it was either essential or very important. In Pakistan, 88%. In Egypt, 92%. In Kenya, 94%. In fact, in Egypt and Kenya Human Capital couldn't find anyone among this group who thought it was either 'not particularly important' or 'not important at all.'
Crucially, when we asked these audiences in Kenya, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey, all of whom have access to extensive local and international media, whether the BBC was any less relevant today than it used to be, only 6% of them agreed with the statement.
Quality and relevance are goals which the BBC has always strived for in its international services – though the story began with a very different, and much smaller broadcaster transmitting radio programmes to a very different world.
The BBC World Service grew out of the Empire Service, which was launched before the Second World War to broadcast to all the pink parts of the globe.
Many of the countries where the World Service is particularly strong today – in East and West Africa, for instance, or South Asia – have links to the BBC which go back to these days. But with the war, the BBC's mission abroad expanded.
Next month President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is visiting Broadcasting House to commemorate General Charles de Gaulle's historic broadcast to France in June 1940. In this broadcast, he urged the men and women of France to rally to the Resistance cause. Seventy years on, this broadcast is still indelibly marked in French memory.
In French, German, Polish and in many other European languages as well as in English, the BBC's external services provided objective and credible news, information, debate from the 1940s to the beginning of the 1990s, first to occupied Europe and then, in the Cold War, to countries behind the Iron Curtain – and to other countries under repressive regimes around the world.
For decades, these services were a lifeline, a beacon of truth and reason, for millions of people. Taken together, they represent one of the most notable, perhaps the most glorious even, chapters in the history of the whole BBC, one that will never be forgotten.
And yet, today the BBC reaches more people with its news – some 240 million people outside the UK each week – than it ever did in the Cold War or before. And in many ways, perhaps against expectation, its influence has not diminished, but increased.
In 2010, the BBC's international operations consist of radio, TV and online news and information from the BBC World Service in 32 languages; our global English TV news channel BBC World News; bbc.com, the international version of our website; and the TV channels and other services provided by our commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.
In much of the developing world, radio remains a critical way of reaching audiences, though increasingly that means FM and FM-rebroadcast via local partners rather than traditional World Service short-wave.
But we live in a moment of global media history where radio on its own is not enough to serve audiences even in many developing countries. Indeed the accelerating decline of short-wave listening and the limitations and commercial, technical and regulatory problems associated with FM mean that, were the BBC to have relied solely on radio to bring its news to the world, it would have lost rather than built its audience.
That is why in 1992 we launched our global television news channel. It was also why a few years ago, in consultation and with the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, we took the difficult, but in my view correct decision to close many of our Central and Eastern European radio services so that Grant-in-Aid funding could instead be directed at two new TV services, the first in Arabic, the second in Persian.
Take our Czech service. It had played a critical, sometimes heroic role in providing dependable news to the Czech public in the communist years. By the early years of this decade, however, there was a lively and diverse press and broadcasting sector in the Czech Republic and the need for a BBC Service – no matter how good – had receded.
By contrast, the hunger for impartial, uncensored news in Iran was, if anything, growing. Within weeks of the BBC Persian TV service launching, its value was demonstrated during the 2009 Iranian elections and their bloody aftermath.
It is not that BBC Persian TV was on the side of the demonstrators – like every other BBC service, it aims for strict impartiality and, indeed, during the demonstrations tried to make sure that the voice of the authorities was properly represented on the air – but this very even-handedness was itself exactly what many Iranians had found lacking in their existing television choices, both on the state TV services and on other Persian-language international services.
Today we estimate that the BBC Persian TV service has 3.2 million viewers each week inside Iran, and millions more beyond. A report from the Iranian broadcasting regulator noted its impartiality and went on to argue that this very impartiality and believability was the very reason why it was so dangerous.
In the Arab world, where news is rarely impartial, the BBC's Arabic news is consumed by over 22 million people each week.
Let me finish with a few words about how this international mission is paid for and the challenges it faces.
First, it is right I believe that in the case of every genre, every programme or service beyond news, the model should remain as now a commercial one.
BBC Worldwide has a duty to maintain the quality and standards that British and global audiences expect from the BBC, to enhance and never damage the BBC's brand and good name, but its international operations should always aim to generate an appropriate return to the British licence-payer who has invested in the programming in the first place.
And it does – in 2009/10, for instance, it will have delivered profits of around £140 million pounds, a significant support for the BBC's UK licence-fee funded services.
The BBC World Service Trust, which commissions New Home, New Life must remain, again as now, a charity – attached to the BBC, but reliant entirely on donors for the work it does around the world.
That leaves news. For the BBC, wherever possible – not just, of course, in the UK, but around the world – we prefer to offer our news in a non-commercial context, so that there is no danger of even a perception of commercial interest or bias.
Since before the war, the UK Government has made a Grant-in-Aid to the World Service to enable it to broadcast on radio in English and in other languages across the globe.
When in the early 1990s, the BBC came to believe that an international English language TV service was essential if it was to fulfill its mission, the then Government took the quite understandable view that there was a limit to what the Grant-in-Aid could be expected to pay for and that, if the BBC wanted to proceed with such a service, it would have to find a commercial model to fund it.
And that is what we did. It has meant that we have been unable to invest as much in the service as we would have wished. But the commercial path has given us a service which is a market-leader in many parts of the world and is the single most widely used of all the BBC's services.
Again more recently we took the decision – controversial at the time – that the only way of giving the BBC's international website the investment it needed to make it relevant and valuable to global audiences was to open up a commercial revenue stream from advertising.
As you've heard, we've been flexible about the mix of services we offer abroad, shutting some and opening others as the strategic and media maps of the world have changed. We've also tried to be flexible in finding ways of self-funding some parts of our global mission.
But we are under no illusions about the limits of how far a commercial approach can go. Independent and impartial Arabic and Persian TV services would not be possible without public funding.
Radio services to front line and strategically critical states like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia would not be possible without public funding.
The English language radio World Service in all its richness and glory would not be possible without public funding.
There is – self-evidently – a market failure in much of the news that the world needs. It is this failure that the Grant-in-Aid seeks to address and as I have argued tonight, it is just as important in 2010 as it was during the Second World War and Cold War eras.
The BBC's motto is 'Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation' – the idea being that access to news, information and debate about different countries and cultures can ultimately help foster mutual understanding and tolerance.
The motto and the services which flowed from it belong to a very different period in world history, but it would be a brave person who claimed that those aspirations are any less necessary today than they were then. They still form part of the bedrock of the BBC. And they still inform our decisions every day, whether in the safety and security of London or Washington or in the cities and lonely places of Afghanistan.
Thank you.
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson's speech to Chatham House on Tuesday 11 May 2010: Nation Speaking Peace Unto Nation – The BBC's Global Mission.
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Protect your land
One of the most important ways that TPE fulfills its mission is by working with landowners to protect their land in perpetuity. There are many ways this can be accomplished. TPE may purchase the land or accept a donation of land. Another means of protection is to establish a conservation easement. This establishes use restrictions to maintain the conservation values of the land, which are attached to the title, while the landowner still owns the property. There are also ways to set these options through estate planning such as designating TPE in your will or trust, or setting up a life estate which gifts your property while you still use it for the remainder of your lifetime.
The best way to get started is to contact Chris Kirkpatrick, TPE Executive Director at 608-638-1873 or email. We can discuss what your interests are, and begin to find the best way to help you conserve your property in the best way for both you, your family, and the land.

subset: commoncrawl


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Have you been through a stressful period lately and you feel like you need a vacation? Well, instead of wasting time thinking about which the most suitable destination is, you should try going to Italy. But not any place in Italy, but Napoli.
Napoli is one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the entire world and also the third-largest municipality from this country. Also, those who have visited it lately say that it is a lively place, highly recommended for those who feel a little bit depressed. But, before starting to pack your thinks for going to Napoli, there are some things that you have to bear in mind.
Travel to Italy by plane. It is now only the fastest option, but also the most comfortable one. Not to mention that there are many low cost airline companies that can offer you promotions. If you regularly check the prices, you can get some discounts that will help you save some extra money for your holiday. But, in case you wonder how you will be able to travel from the airport to your hotel, you should look for a Napoli Fiumicino bus. What is this bus more precisely? It is a 5 start vehicle which can offer you a lot of advantages.
Do not forget your camera. Due to the fact that there are many places that you can visit in Napoli, you may want to take photos and then show them to your friends or relatives. Napoli has also one of the greatest urban centers. What is more, this Italian city also comes with a very interesting history, due to the fact that it was a Greek colony first. If you want to know more about this subject, you should visit the local museums.
On the other hand, despite deciding which the most interesting places that you should visit are, there is another important aspect: finding the perfect accommodation. In case you travel by your own, you can check into a hostel. It can also be regarded as a way of socializing with other travelers. But if you go visiting Napoli with your family, you should look for a hotel.
There are many benefits of travelling by a 5 star bus, but here are the most important of them:
More Places to Visit


text: This subject came up in another thread and because there is a lot of misinformation, I decided to post the following link... http://www.fws.gov/permits/ This is a form to apply for a permit to kill migratory birds if they are causing loss of personal property (livestock, poultry). Some common misconceptions: 1. It is illegal to kill hawks and owls. If you have a permit it is legal. 2. It is illegal to harass birds of prey. It is not illegal and ou must show that you have tried to harass birds before a permit would be issued. 3. You will go to jail and receive a $10,000 fine if you kill a hawk or owl. It is actually a Class B Misdeamenor and fines can be a small as $50 with no jail time.


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Welcome to Leg 6! Last time, on Norway I'm Eating Rakfisk for Breakfast!, seven teams raced from Africa to Norway. Matt climbed and loved it, and Team Fun jumped for a fast forward. Apparently Ashton was irritating, or at least that's what we're led to believe, and Liz and Michael had a total meltdown over how holding a map does not determine where north is. At any rate, they finished last on the first nonelimination leg and were handed their next clue and told to keep racing! (Toyouke: "Oh yeah, "Still Racing".") Who will be eliminated. . . next? (click for more)
Arrival at the pit stop last episode:
1st – Tara and Joey, Team Old Folks, #TeamMomAndDad
2nd – Matt and Redmond, Team Athletic Men. #TheBoys
3rd – Becca and Floyd, Team Nerdgasm, #TeamFun
4th – Vanck and Ashton, Team Beauty and the Geek, #TeamVanckAndAshton
5th – London and Logan, Team Vapid Models, #TeamLoLo
6th – Brooke and Scott, Team Will and Grace, #TeamBrookeandScott
7th – Liz and Michael, Team Backwoods Hipster, #TeamLizandMike
Mount Aksla, Ålesund, Norway
Tara/Joey (1st)
Clue: Fly to Milan, Italy! You may purchase your tickets on the Travelocity App using the provided smartphone. Then head to the train station to travel to Oslo and then catch your flight to Milan. Once there, find the Piazza Fontana to get your next clue. CAUTION: Double U-Turn Ahead!
(Toyouke: "Shut up, Travelocity. This isn't any better than the stupid gnome.")
Matt/Redmond (2nd)
Becca/Floyd (3rd)
Vanck/Ashton (4th)
London/Logan (5th)
Brooke/Scott (6th) – who are done being at the back of the pack. So they are going to target Vanck and Ashton. (Toyouke: "Why are Ashton and Vanck the easiest targets? They're useless. I really am not sure what she did to everyone. Right? I don't remember her pissing off anyone but Matt and Raymond.")
Liz/Michael (7th) – who are still fighting. (Toyouke: "This argument is so obnoxious and it's been like 60 seconds.")
Teams book their flights via Travelocity and then make their way to Åndalsnes Train Station in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Matt/Redmond
3- Becca/Floyd
4- London/Logan
5- Brooke/Scott
6- Liz/Michael
7- Ashton/Vanck
Teams make it to Gardermoen Oslo Airport and make their flight to Milan. They arrive at Malpensa Airport in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- London/Logan
3- Brooke/Scott
4- Vanck/Ashton
5- Liz/Michael
6- Matt/Redmond
7- Becca/Floyd
Teams now take taxis to Piazza Fontana and arrive in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Liz/Michael
3- Vanck/Ashton
4- Becca/Floyd
5- Matt/Redmond
6- Brooke/Scott
7- London/Logan
Once they arrive, teams get the fifth roadblock clue.
Who's hungry for their next clue?
In this roadblock, one team member must ride on the Tram Ristorante ATMosfera, a dining car that tours downtown Milan. While roadblockers dine, they search outside for three words marked with race flags: Cernobbio, Concordia and Lago. If they correctly recite the words to the conductor, they receive their next clue. If not, they must ride the tram again.
The following teammates take the Roadblock:
1- Tara – who makes the first tram with. . .
2- Michael
3- Vanck – who is on the second tram with . . .
4- Floyd – and. . .
5- Redmond – and . . .
6- Scott – but none of the boys manage to find all three words on the first go, so they must ride again.
7- Logan - arrives last, but each tram can only carry four teams at a time, so he is on the third tram alone, and then has an option for the first word and picks the wrong one. So he must ride again as well.
After much tram riding and Italian food eating, teams complete the Roadblock in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Liz/Michael
3- Vanck/Ashton
4- Becca/Floyd
5- Brooke/Scott
6- Matt/Redmond
7- London/Logan
Teams are now instructed to proceed to the Cernobbio Ferry Terminal on the edge of Lago Como and travel on the Concordia Ferry to Varenna overnight. Teams arrive at the Ferry Terminal in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Liz/Michael
3- Becca/Floyd
4- Matt/Redmond
5- Vanck/Ashton
6- Brooke/Scott
7- London/Logan
When teams arrive, they pull departure times for their disembarkation in Varenna. The teams pull the following departure times:
7:00 AM Tara/Joey
7:05 AM Liz/Michael
7:10 AM Becca/Floyd
7:15 AM Matt/Redmond
7:20 AM Vanck/Ashton
7:25 AM Brooke/Scott
7:30 AM London/Logan
Teams board the vessel, which is stocked with food and beverage for the overnight voyage on Lake Como. Teams arrive in Varenna the next morning and get their clues in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Liz/Michael
3- Becca/Floyd
4- Matt/Redmond
5- Vanck/Ashton – who then proceed to get lost.
6- Brooke/Scott
7- London/Logan
Teams are now instructed to travel to the Greenway dei Patriarchi to find their next clue.
When they arrive, teams find the U-Turn. (Toyouke: "Shouldn't the U-Turn STILL be AFTER the Detour? And why is the U-Turn sign buried in the bushes? Why don't you use the stupid touch screen thing you spent so much money on? Why.")
This is a Double U-Turn. Teams may choose to U-turn any team they wish (well, the team has to be behind them), but they may only use the U-Turn once during the race. If a team is U-turned, they must go back to the Detour choices and complete the Detour that they did not complete. This U-Turn is doubled, meaning two teams may U-Turn two other teams. Phil, during his explanation, does not say how many U-Turns there will be on this race. This U-Turn is also blind, so the U-Turned Team will not know who U-Turned them.
1- Tara/Joey have used their U-Turn and cannot U-Turn - (Toyouke: "But act like they are keeping the peace by not U-Turning anyone")
2- Liz/Michael choose to U-Turn Vanck/Ashton
3- Becca/Floyd choose to U-Turn Liz/Michael – which is wasted, as Liz and Michael have already passed the U-Turn. (Toyouke: "I seriously do not understand how they are so terrible they warrant wasting your U-Turn. I mean I don't particularly like them but Brooke is far more annoying and the boys are far more of a threat.")
4- Matt/Redmond cannot U-Turn
5- Brooke/Scott cannot U-Turn – but are shocked that they aren't U-turned. (Toyouke: "See? Brooke thought they'd be U-Turned.")
6- London/Logan cannot U-Turn
7- Vanck/Ashton are U-Turned, have used their U-Turn and cannot U-Turn
So Vanck and Ashton have been U-Turned and now must complete both Detour options. (Toyouke: "ALSO that is the dumbass part of the U-Turn being before any Detour options. If it's after, then when you U-Turn people ahead of you, they're already gone. Liz and Michael have been U-Turned and found out BEFORE completing any Detour options, meaning they are still there where they could do both.")
Teams now access the nearby clue box in the following order:
1- Tara/Joey
2- Liz/Michael
3- Becca/Floyd
4- Matt/Redmond
5- Brooke/Scott
6- London/Logan
7- Vanck/Ashton
And we get the Detour Clue.
Make a Mold OR Grab A Hold
*Make a Mold: Teams make their way to Castello di Vezio in nearby Perledo and create a ghost sculpture out of chicken wire, fabric and plaster of Paris. Once the model is dry, the artist approves it and teams get their next clue.
*Grab a Hold: Teams take a water taxi to Menaggio and find L'Angolo Benedetto Castelli. Once there, one team member does a ninety foot rock climb to get their next clue.
1- Becca/Floyd choose Grab a Hold – and Becca, being a rock climber, climbs.
2- Tara/Joey choose Make a Mold - and Tara is Joey's model.
3- Matt/Redmond choose Grab a Hold – and Matt climbs like a beast again.
4- Liz/Michael choose Grab a Hold – and Liz climbs for the team.
5- Brooke/Scott choose Grab a Hold – and Brooke climbs while screaming the entire way.
6- Vanck/Ashton choose Grab a Hold – and Ashton does the climb. But per the U-Turn, the team then travels back to Make a Mold, where Vanck models for Ashton.
7- London/Logan choose Make a Mold – and Logan models for London, the artist.
Much climbing and ghost making ensues. So, teams complete the detour in the following order:
1- Matt/Redmond
2- Becca/Floyd
3- Tara/Joey
4- Liz/Michael
5- Brooke/Scott
6- London/Logan
7- Vanck/Ashton
Teams find now that they must travel by water taxi to Tremezzo and find Teresio Olivelli Park, the PIT STOP of the sixth leg of this racearoundtheworld. The last team to arrive MAY be eliminated!
1- Becca/Floyd – who win a trip for two from Travelocity to Ushuaia, Argentina.
2- Matt/Redmond
3- Tara/Joey
4- Liz/Michael
5- Brooke/Scott
6- London/Logan
7- Vanck/Ashton
And Vanck and Ashton are eliminated. Well, at least things will be less awkward with them gone. (Toyouke: "You know, now that I think about it, this leg was designed to screw teams that were U-Turned. You had artificial bunching, with only a five minute difference between successive teams, and a U-Turn that was within walking distance from where they left.")
1st – Becca/Floyd
2nd – Matt/Redmond
3rd – Tara/Joey
4th – Liz/Michael
5th – Brooke/Scott
6th – London/Logan
Next week: We're off to Venice! There's much singing and sneakiness. Until next time!


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Dr. J. Sebag, MD, FACS, FRCOphth, FARVO
As a vitreo-retina specialist, I perform surgery and treat patients only with Vitreo-retinal diseases. At VMR Insitute (VMR stands for Vitreous Macula Retina) we regularly treat patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), diabetic retinopathy, vitreous floaters, macular holes, macular pucker and retinal vascular occlusions.
Vitreo-retina specialists, like myself, are not only board certified ophthalmologists, but have also completed two additional years of fellowship training to allow us to specialize in the vitreous, macula and retina.
My goal in founding the VMR Institute was to bring the latest diagnostic therapeutic technologies to the local community in a private setting. I am very proud of the fact that with the help of our outstanding staff, VMR has become a leading center of excellence for pioneering diagnostics and therapy of diseases of the vitreous, macular and retina.
As pioneers, we offer diagnostic testing and treatments not offered by others. As a center of excellence we have taught countless medical students and research fellows who have pursued their own leadership roles in our profession.
VMR Institute has become a referral center where many other eye doctors compliment us by allowing us to care for their patients who have retinal problems.
Socially, I love boating, golf, travel, and my wife. She most enjoys ballroom dancing which we used to do together. Now she competes at Pro-Am events in the area, which I always try to attend since I love watching her dance.
J. Sebag, M.D.
Retina Specialist
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Download Dr. Sebag's CV
More About Dr. Sebag
Specialty: Laser Therapy, Injections & Surgery of Vitreous – Macula – Retina
Degrees: MD
Fellowships: American College of Surgeons (FACS), Royal College of Ophthalmologists,
UK (FRCOphth), Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO)
College: Columbia College, New York
Medical School: College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University
Internship: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA, Los Angeles
Ophthalmology Residency: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
Vitreo-Retinal Fellowship: Harvard Medical School, Boston Mass.
Board Certification: American Board of Ophthalmology
Special Expertise: World's leading authority on Vitreous
Current Academic Appointments
2003 – Present Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology,
Los Angeles, California
Awards and Honors
2010 – 2014 Los Angeles Magazine
"Southern California Super Doctors as Chosen by His Peers"
2010 Fellow, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO Silver Award)
2008 Career Award for Humanitarian Services to the Indigent and Uninsured, LHA, O.C.
2006 Humanitarian of the Year Award, Latino Health Access, Orange County, California
2004 Honorary Member, Fondazione G. B. Bietti per lo Studio e la Ricerca in Oftalmologia
2002 Honor Award, Vitreous Society
2000 National Registry of Who's Who, Life Member (#86360)
1998 Humanitarian of the Year Award, Latino Health Access, Orange County, California
1994 Honor Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology
1986 The Treacher Collins Prize, Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom
1985 Knapp Fellowship, Heed Ophthalmic Foundation
1984 Frank B. Walsh, M.D. Award, World Meeting of Neuro-Ophthalmology, Belgium
1984 Lauréat de la Société Française d'Ophtalmologie- 1er Prix Biophysic Medical
1984 The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Fellowship
1983 The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award
1982 Harvard Medical School – Bicentennial Prize Essay Contest
1979 Edith & Denton McKane Award for Outstanding Research in Ophthalmology,
College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University
1979 Titus Munson Coan Prize For Excellence In Research,
College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University
1979 Doctor Alfred P. Steiner Research Award, Columbia University
1978 1st Prize, National Competition on Preventive Medicine, American Health Foundation
1977 AMA-ERF AMSA Award for Meritorious Research,
American Federation of Clinical Research (AFCR) Annual Meeting, Carmel, CA
1973 Thord-Gray Fellowship, American-Scandinavian Foundation
Invited Lectures
2013 Plenary Lecture, Joint meeting of Japanese Retina and Vitreous Society (52nd meeting) and
Asia-Pacific Vitreo-Retinal Society (8th meeting), Nagoya, Japan
2013 Symposium Organizer, European Society of Ophthalmology, Copenhagen
2013 Invited Speaker, ARVO Mini-symposium, Seattle
2013 Invited Lecturer, 9th Annual Meeting, Swiss Vitreo-Retinal Group, Zurich
2013 Invited Speaker, Sarasota Vitreo-Retinal Update Course
2012 Invited Speaker, University of Amsterdam
2012 Invited Speaker, EURETINA course on Vitreous, Milano
2011 Invited Speaker, Retina Society Symposium on Retinal Vein Occlusions.
Combined Meeting of the European Society of Ophthalmology and the
American Academy of Ophthalmology, Geneva
2011 Course Director, Therapy of Vitreo-Maculopathies –
Surgery & Pharmacologic Vitreolysis, Combined Meeting of the European
Society of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Geneva
2011 Symposium Chair & Speaker, Combined Meeting of the
European Society of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Geneva
2011 Invited Speaker, Vitreous Symposium, EURETINA, London, England
2011 Guest Speaker, Macula de Paris, France
2010 Visiting Professor, Nagoya University, Japan
2010 Guest Speaker, Sydney Eye Hospital, University of Sydney, Australia
2010 Guest Speaker, Macula de Paris, France
2009 Symposium Chair & Guest Speaker, 4th International Conference on
Vitreo-Retinal Diseases, Vienna
2009 Symposium Chair & Speaker, European Society of Ophthalmology, Amsterdam
2009 LuEsther Mertz Retinal Research Lecture, Macula Foundation,
Manhattan Eye, Ear, & Throat Hospital and New York University, New York, N.Y.
2008 Guest Lecturer, Festschrift honoring Professor Peter Kroll,
Phillips University of Marburg, Germany
2007 Guest Lecturer, Retinal Physician Symposium, Sanibel, Florida
2007 Guest Lecturer, Centennial Symposium, Fondazione Bietti, Rome
2006 Guest Speaker, Symposium on Emerging Treatments in Vitreo-Retinal Surgery,
World Ophthalmology Congress, Sao Paolo, Brasil
2005 Guest Speaker, AAO Retina Subspecialty Day Meeting, Chicago
2005 Guest Lecturer, University of Wisconsin, July 2005
2005 Guest Lecturer, Juntendo University, Urayasu, Japan
2004 Guest Lecturer, Italian Retina Society, Rome, Italy, November 2004
2004 Guest Speaker, European Vitreo-Retinal Society, Istanbul, Turkey, September 2004
2004 Guest Lecturer, Festschrift honoring Professor Fritz Koerner, University of Bern,
Switzerland, February 2004
2003 Visiting Professor, University of Bologna, Italy
2003 Rapport de la Société Française d'Ophtalmologie, Paris, France
2002 International Conference on Vitreo-Retinal Diseases, Vienna, Austria
2001 Cambridge Ophthalmological Symposium, Cambridge, England
2001 Springer Lecturer, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
2001 Plenary Lecture, International Laser Physics Society, Moscow, Russia
2001 Visiting Professor, Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
2000 Guest Lecturer, Great Western Council of Optometry, Portland Oregon
2000 Visiting Professor, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, P.R.C.
2000 Invited Speaker, International Forum on Diabetic Retinopathy, Naples, Italy
2000 Guest Panelist, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Boston, Mass
2000 Inaugural Iain Begg Lecturer, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
1998 Visiting Professor, New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, New York, N.Y.
1997 Guest Lecturer, Japanese Retina and Vitreous Society, Asahikawa, Japan
1994 La Société d'Ophtalmologie Parisienne, Annual Meeting, Paris, France
1992 Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, England
1992 Special Lecturer, Swiss Ophthalmological Society Meeting, Basel,
1986 Cambridge Ophthalmological Symposium, Cambridge, England
Personal Activities
Dr. Sebag enjoys European travel, as he has lived in Stockholm, Sweden (1973-75) and Paris, France (1983-84). As a result, he is fluent in Swedish and French.
Dr. Sebag's favorite hobbies include traveling, boating, and golfing.


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One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
Definition of Brugmansia in US English:
1A genus of the family Solanaceae comprising perennial shrubs and trees native to South America but widely cultivated elsewhere for their pendulous trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of white, yellow, orange, or red; (also brugmansia) a plant of this genus (also called angel's trumpet).
2A genus of the family Rafflesiaceae (now called Rhizanthes) comprising stemless, leafless, single-flowered parasitic plants closely related to the plants of the genus Rafflesia but parasitic on different species of lianas of the genus Tetrastigma. Now historical and rare.
Early 19th century; earliest use found in John Loudon (1783–1843), landscape gardener and horticultural writer. From scientific Latin Brugmansia, genus name from the name of Sebald Justinus Brugmans, Dutch botanist + scientific Latin -ia.
In this article we explore how to impress employers with a spot-on CV.


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June 12, 2018 -- The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) said it has increased its MRI Access Fund to help its members pay for MRI studies.
The fund currently assists MSAA members who have no medical insurance or cannot afford their insurance costs for cranial and c-spine MRI scans. With a new expansion of the program, qualified individuals can now receive two MRI scans per MRI Access Fund application, or they can receive reimbursement support for previous MRI scans, the MSAA said.
The reimbursement option requires applicants to apply to the fund, provide required documentation, and meet program eligibility requirements. All exams must be required by a physician to help determine a diagnosis of MS or to evaluate the current progression of MS disease, according to the association.
There are no funding caps on reimbursement amounts, and payments are made directly to the billing facility upon approval, the MSAA said.


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Tooth Fairy
ISO: 400, Shutter speed: 1/1250, Aperture: f/4,
Camera: Canon EOS 20D, Flash: None, Cropping: 2:1,
Lens: Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, Focal length: 100mm,
Captured: 30th June 2007, 1:43pm,
I went to the Pride festival with Jide on Saturday.
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First, me and the other September Brazen authors are having a friendly competition to see who will be crowned Mr. September (pick Trick, pick Trick! IT EVEN RHYMES *ahem*). There are a ton of prizes, from Halloween prize baskets and Visa gift cards, to Victoria Secret gifts and prizes from Down Undah! Check out the details here.
Then I'm doing another giveaway at my Facebook page. If you "like" my author page here (either in the past, or within the next week) you'll be entered to win a $25 Amazon or BN gift card and a Halloween Prize pack!
Here's a little about the book!
Grace Love is lousy with men. She can spot a match for someone else a mile away, and her balls-on instincts are why her matchmaking business is thriving, but finding her own Prince Charming? The only guy who makes her sixth sense tingle is her playboy best friend, Trick, and no way is she risking their friendship, no matter how hot she knows the sex will be.
SWAT officer Trick Matthews is a patient guy, but Grace's inability to see what's right in front of her is grinding on his last nerve. Yeah, he blew his shot at breaking out of the friend zone when he tamped down the urge to lick her from head to toe the day they met, but he's got a plan that'll change her mind. Incognito at Salem's hottest Halloween party, he'll show her exactly how good they could be…and that he's the man for her.


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Access and Inclusion Index
Download a transcript of the Access and Inclusion Index video (Accessible Word).
The Access and Inclusion Index gives organisations insights into their strengths and maturity on their journey to be accessible and inclusive to people with disability. The easy-to-use, whole of organisation tool, provides a roadmap for year on year progress.
The Index supports businesses to assess their performance against 10 key areas:
- Commitment
- Premises
- Workplace Adjustments
- Communication and Marketing
- Products and Services
- Information Communication Technology (ICT)
- Recruitment and Selection
- Career Development,
- Suppliers and Partners
- Innovation
How it works
Access and Inclusion Index quick self-assessment
Available to all organisations at no cost, answer 10 questions to get a snapshot of your current performance against key access and inclusion criteria. It also provides valuable information on how to progress.
Access and Inclusion Index comprehensive self-assessment
Included in AND membership. You can comprehensively self-assess your organisation's maturity on the journey towards disability confidence, get a score out of 100 and share with your colleagues across the organisation to develop your plan for progress.
Access and Inclusion Index AND evaluation and benchmark report
AND will review your comprehensive self-assessment and provide a summary or comprehensive report. (Comprehensive reports recommended for first time participants). The evaluation and benchmark report will tell you how your organisation is performing relative to others and help you to direct your effort to maximise your impact.
Find out more
From Confusion to Clarity and Confidence - celebrating the results of the 2017-18 Index
Access and Inclusion Index website
Access and Inclusion flyer, (PDF 270KB)
2017-18 case studies
Realising Inclusion through adjustments at DHS
2016-17 case studies
Innovation leads to accessible foods
Australian Tax Office innovates through workplace adjustments


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|Manila Philippines Temple
In my case, I had already gone there sometime in 1975 when I underwent a two-training at the Central Bank of the Philippines in the Savings and Loans Department of the said agency and I was temporarily residing at the residential house of the owner of the bank where I am about to work with. I had no idea that the present Temple would be built in that area.
I remember I had to take three rides in going to the Central Bank. While in the case of my family in going to the Temple, they had to take two rides from Baclaran to St. Corinthians Gardens (White Plains Avenue now).
I could imagine the difficulty which my family had to undergo by traveling 20.7 km, passing along the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). Since transportation was almost full of passenger it is already seven or eight in the morning, So they'd to wake up as early as four in the morning and prepared themselves to get a few-passenger bus. They'd to sacrifice for there's no transportation service given to us.
|My wife and Me at the Temple
After my wife and I received our personal endowment and were sealed for time and eternity in an ordinance conducted by a priesthood in authority inside the Temple, my children's sealing to us as a family followed.
This is the blessing that we considered from our Heavenly Father that we could live forever as a family for time and eternity too after all the things we sacrificed like our time, efforts, money to serve the Lord and to magnify and strengthen His kingdom here on earth.
This Temple ordinance is too difficult to comprehend to perform if you're not worthy members of the Church. A worthy member has to pass an interview in order to have a temple recommend which would be approved by his Bishop and finally be approved too by his Stake President.
Now we have another Temple in Cebu. We don't need to go to Manila Temple anymore to do some temple ordinances like baptism for the dead by proxy.
|Baclaran, Pasay to Quezon City (route) to Temple
35 Years of Membership
I took the series of lessons successfully on the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel like faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and committed myself to abide with the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ from the standard book of the Church like The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Holy Bible, and passed the baptism interview by an Elder who is assigned as Zone Leader.
It was a Filipino full time missionary, Elder Tolentino who baptized on April 20, 1980 and in June of the same year my wife was also baptized. After I received my Melchizedek Priesthood, I was able to baptize my own children when they reached their age of 8 years, the age of accountability,
It is our testimony then that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. As a family, we are happy indeed that we belong to this Church for we know that family is forever. If you want to know more about our Church, you may visit our Church nearest to your place.


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Product Description
Introducing the super-wide interchangeable Fisheye lens for the Lomography Diana+ cameras!
- Its enormous field of view takes in half of the world around you and compacts it into a tight, circular, 180-degree image.
- Each fisheye image shows massive depth of field, so your subject and background will be nice and crispy clear
- Includes Fisheye Viewfinder and plastic mount to preview your shots.
- Compatible with all Lomography Diana+ and Diana F+ cameras
The Diana F+ 20mm Fisheye Lens used on 35mm SLR cameras has the effect of a 38mm Wide Angle Lens. On an APS-C sensor it´s equivalent to a 60mm lens.


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A study released Monday finds that California, once the ultimate destination of millions of Americans dreaming of a better life, has been losing millions of its citizens to other states over the past 20 years.
The report, by the Manhattan Institute, found that California's net outflow of population has topped 3.4 million over the past two decades.
And those people have taken billions of dollars in taxable income with them, only exacerbating California's chronic budget woes.
California's overall population does continue to grow, but only because of immigration from foreign countries and a relatively high birthrate.
The states seeing the biggest inflows from California are clustered in the South and Southwest and tend to have lower taxes, and more business friendly regulations, according to the report. They are:
1. Texas
2. Nevada
3. Arizona
4. Oregon
5. Washington
6. Colorado
7. Idaho
8. Utah
9. Georgia
10. South Carolina
-Tom Bemis


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Another vice
November 11, 2006
Full stop
August 3, 2006
(A.P.C. f/w 2007 collection)
The full A.P.C. fall collection has dropped online today. Peppered with a couple sweet prints, it's a bit more austere than usual, but that's alright with me. It's little shirtdresses like these and the ubiquitous coquettish basics that make me go crazy.
Jewelry aquatic
July 30, 2006
(the divine Heremiti ring by Moea at AlohaRag)
What better inspiration than nature, and more specifically the ocean? Hawaiian jewelry designer Jennifer Binney of Moea makes beautiful jewelry with oceanic influences, very simple and poetic, naturally.
I have been admiring this ring from afar for over a year, but haven't purchased it for a reservation about buying jewelry for oneself (I've put it in the shopping cart, unloaded and loaded a couple times…) For some reason, a hundred dollar barrier comes up when buying jewelry for myself, as if anything more extravagant would be construed as a sign of vanity or flagrant consumption.
Other things, I don't fret over, but the significance of jewelry for some reason strikes me as a sacred purchase, only to be exercised on special occasions: an engagement, a birthday, a reward for reaching a big milestone, etc. I feel as though I could only possibly enjoy and deserve this gorgeous piece if I were to really work for it -though I have a couple big goals in mind that, should I achieve, perhaps then I would be so deserving.
Friendly fashion
July 26, 2006
I saw a petite, heavily pregnant young woman walking around the neighborhood in this dress. The drape of the dress was amazing and she, bra-less, wearing white canvas slip-ons and sporting heavy bangs, was just the picture of beauty. Though it was a hot and humid day, she looked amazing.
That's the thing with Filippa K (no doubt compounded by the fact that this girl was wearing it well), whether it be the dead of winter or the height of summer, her stuff always looks fresh.
A longtime devotee of the line, I appreciate Filippa for the following reasons:
- The clothes fit well and flatter, use quality fabrics, and have a long life (the trousers are nice and masculine, and she makes a mean winter coat);
- The prints are unique. Case in point: I spotted a shirt with a beautiful peacock print in Copenhagen in the fall of 2002, stalked it for a season, didn't buy and always regretted. The print haunted me until finally one day last winter the shirt crossed my path again (eBay) and now lovingly hangs in my closet. Needless to say, the print was a memorable one;
- Having signed up to receive their catalogue in 2002, I without fail continue to receive them the beginning of every fall and spring -something small that speaks of the brand's consistency and reliability.
I've actively had to seek out Filippa wares upon returning from Europe as the line isn't widely available in North America – but with Want Agency heading up distribution here, that is slowly changing. With little advertising and press, the brand has been growing into a mini-empire; and with an underlying philosophy of simplicity and longevity in the clothes, it should continue to flourish. This is friendly fashion.
PS: All of Oak's stock is 50% off, but damn…the super cute and functional tres bag is sold out!
Three for one
July 19, 2006
(Acne Jeans hep raw)
Barneys Coop is having a huge sale on select women's and men's Acne styles, but sizes are quite limited. $59-$89 for some Acne, anyone? They really go a bum good. (If you don't try before you buy, these jeans run quite small so consider ordering 1-2 sizes up).
Read JC Report's interview with the North American brand manager here – she even explains why they cost what they do – ie. the tailoring, made in Italy. Their cuts have always been superior; they look great on guys and girls, and the rear pockets are large and very flattering. For girls, the "Hep" and "Hex" are the classic standards, but I am quite taken with their "Hug" style – though the carrot silhouette probably fits a very particular bodytype (tall and slim) best.
Though Acne denim has garnered a great deal of attention in recent years, their entire collection of men's and women's clothing, and expanding footwear and accessories collections also mirror all their jeans are – well cut, well made, both classic and unusual.
Aloharag Canada Day 50% off sale
July 1, 2006
For a limited time, these Pierre Hardy wedges (and all the spring/summer clothing) will be $407.50 (50% off) at Aloharag.com. Love their bi-annual big sales.
Summer sale Steven Alan
June 30, 2006
(Jacqueline Schnabel Genaro flat 30% off)
Steven Alan's summer sale is on now girls (and boys). Cute stuff to be had for all. Free shipping on $100+ orders.


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See on Scoop.it – The Information Specialist's Scoop
"Priscilla Shontz and Richard Murray, the editors of LISCareer, a rich collection of articles written by practicing librarians on a variety of career development topics, are the authors of a new book entitled What Do Employers Want? A Guide for Library Science Students. Shontz and Murray cover topics such as Practical Experience, Professional Identity and How Employers Hire, basing their advice on interviews with people who hire librarians. The book moves beyond job search insights, outlining career development strategies for students and new graduates in a manner that is both funny and frank. I am pleased to be able to offer you an excerpt from chapter one: "What Do Employers Want?"
See on hiringlibrarians.com


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Up-and-coming pop star Conor Maynard talks to Metro about his debut album Contrast, getting marriage proposals on Twitter and those never-ending
Justin Bieber comparisons.
What can people expect from the album?
The name, Contrast, explains it – it's got a mature urban sound to it. It's a contrast to what's out there. It's got big everything, from dance songs to slow, stripped-back ballads.
How did it all start for you?
I was singing one day at school to my mates and this girl walked past and went crazy. She was like: 'Oh my God, you can sing!' It was a mad moment, so I started recording covers and putting them on YouTube. At first I did songs that weren't current, then I did a cover of Usher's OMG, which had just come out the same week, and it got 100,000 views. Then I did Ne-Yo's Beautiful Monster and that got a million views. He saw it and his manager called me. I asked if he had any proof of who he was and ended up talking to Ne-Yo on Skype at 1.30am in my pyjamas. Then I met with labels and signed to EMI.
When did it go from being a hobby to something you thought you could do as a career?
The moment that girl said I could sing. The next day she told people to ask me to sing. People telling me I could really sing urged me to do it more. I first started recording at home for YouTube with two SingStar microphones taped together, using my bedpost as a microphone stand. I taught myself different recording techniques from there.
Were you star-struck working with Ne-Yo and Pharrell Williams?
I learnt quickly not to look too excited. I didn't want them to think I was some mad fan wanting to touch their faces. I was good at keeping level-headed. It was crazy meeting them after growing up listening to them. I waited until after they left the room before I broke into tears. I kept it together.
Are you the British Justin Bieber?
No. I want people to listen to the music and reach their own opinions. I read a review recently that said: 'This doesn't sound like Justin Bieber,' and I was like: 'I tried to tell you.' We're both young and both came from YouTube, so there are similarities, but the music's different. If people aren't a fan of Justin Bieber, they might think they wouldn't want to listen to my album. It's a more mature, urban thing, so I think people will like it.
What was the first record you bought?
What I Go To School For by Busted. At the end of primary school I was into Good Charlotte and Green Day. As I got into my teens, I was more into r'n'b and now I'm into rap.
Have you got any musical hates?
I can see they're celebrity personalities but I don't really see Jedward as recording artists. I'm not sold in terms of their music.
What careers were you contemplating other than pop stardom?
I look at my friends going to university and I think it would have been fun to do that but they're looking back at me, saying they want to do what I'm doing. My plan was to finish college then have a gap year to try and do something with my music but it all happened early. Maybe I'd have studied geography at uni. I quite liked it at school.
What's the most extreme thing a fan's done to meet you?
I was in Liverpool on a radio tour. It was pretty mad and they said I couldn't meet the fans afterwards because it would create too much of a stir. They were waiting by my car in the car park, chased it to the hotel and waited out there all night until I left in the morning. They just wanted a picture. That was pretty insane, to wait all that time for a picture. I get marriage proposals on Twitter every day. It's amazing that way.
Are you big with the mums?
I was walking down the road the other day and a car full of women drove past with the windows down. One of them went: 'Is that Conor Maynard?' and another went: 'He's so yummy.' I pretended I didn't hear it and kept on walking. It's all fun. There's always something special about cougars. I'm happy being single for now.
Have you ever had a supernatural experience?
I'd just moved into my new place and came back to find some of my things had been moved. I thought there might have been someone in my house. It was a bit strange. Then, one day, I walked into my room and there was a cat sitting there. I then realised it had been coming in through the cat flap the previous owner had put in. So my stuff hadn't been moved around by a ghost, it was being done by a cat.
What are your career ambitions?
The Grammys would be insane. Being British, one goal is to perform at The Brits or, one day, even receive an award. I just want as many people as possible to listen to my music and enjoy what I'm doing.
Contrast is out now.


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The Comp
The NT Model Solar Vehicle Challenge gives students an exciting introduction to designing and building a vehicle powered only by the sun. On the way they will learn about science and engineering, as well as developing workshop and teamwork skills. The winners of the Solar Car category are eligible to compete in Australian International Model Solar Vehicle Challenge. (we fund raise to assist with cost of travel to the Nationals)More Info
Next Competition
There are no upcoming events


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The leading
Attorney2Attorney Discussion
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The hotel is located 14.5 km from The Museum of Science and Industry and 3 km from The Buckingham Fountain. Facilities and services include reception open 24 hrs, a restaurant - bar, a lounge bar, wireless internet (extra charge), elevator, fitness center, several meeting rooms, business center 24 hrs, room service 24 hrs and parking (extra charge).The rooms feature TV, telephone, air conditioning, safety box, writing desk and a mini bar.Double room with option to be used by 3/4persons (if booked). All of them sharing existing bedding, 2 pers 1 double bed, 3 pers or more 2 separate beds.Address: 333 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60610, United States of America.
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In his critique of the standard interpretation of the interwar gold standard, Richard Timberlake claims that "the Fed and other central banks' deliberate management of the gold-exchange standard prevented monetary adjustment in the period 1929-33 from resembling the pattern of equilibrium of the classical gold standard (2007, 326)." He goes on to equate a "true" gold standard with the classical gold standard. In similar fashion, Milton Friedman argues that the gold-exchange standard was a "pseudo gold standard" because France and the United States engaged in sterilized gold inflows (1961). Though they were avoided, the same policies were possible under the classical gold standard, making the distinction dubious. The difference between the classical gold standard and the interwar gold standard was a difference in degree, not kind.
The gold standard grew continually more cumbersome after it was officially adopted during the 1870s. That gold, and gold alone, was employed under all legal tender regimes in the West altered the standard's operation. If a major central bank changed its gold reserve ratio or interest rate, this would certainly impact the price of gold elsewhere. This was true during the classical standard just as it was during the interwar gold standard. Before World War I, this was obscured by informal coordination of central bank policies, led by the Bank of England. As phrased by Barry Eichengreen, "when the Bank of England raised her rate, the Bank of France and the Reichsbank were quick to follow (1989, 13)." The stability offered by such an arrangement masked its underlying weakness.
When national governments suspended the gold standard, both in law and in practice, and England gave up her leadership, the managed gold standard lost its coordinating mechanism. The problem was augmented by another feature of the gold standard: the tendency toward centralization of gold reserves in the previous half century. In 1914, most of the world's monetary gold was stored at a small number of central banks. By 1922, "the world market in gold was practically coterminous with the monetary demand of one great country" as nearly half of the world's monetary gold resided at the Federal Reserve (Hawtrey 1947, 97). Consolidation made prices even more sensitive to changes in the demand and supply of gold. When coordination of independent central banks from the Bank of England ceased, the price of gold became unhinged, swinging wildly between 1914 and 1920 and again between 1929 and 1932.
This problem was inherent in the system. It was not a defect of the gold standard per se. It was a defect of management under a system of fixed exchange rates where deflation must almost inevitably follow an unbacked expansion of the money stock by the central bank. Under a system of floating exchange rates, on the other hand, the economy probably would have adjusted to a higher price level and "the subsequent collapse would almost surely not have occurred (Friedman 1961, 68)." Of course this also could have been avoided by a return to the gold standard at adjusted parities, but such an option was politically unpalatable.[1] In light of political constraints, the economic instability associated with the latter decades of the gold standard was not a glitch, but rather the logical end of a monometallic legal tender regime.
[1] "The implications drawn by Cassel from this situation were that countries should not go back to prewar parities, or if the objective was price stability, to the prewar system at all. A much talked of advantage of the prewar system was its 'high degree of stability', and which 'we should now endeavor to restore'. Adopting mispriced currencies and squabbling over inadequate gold reserves were not the ways to do it. He was ignored by policymakers and rejected by most economists." (Mazumder and Wood, 2013, 162)


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I love the super chic makeover the backpack got when it came back into style, but I admittedly haven't owned one since it came from Jansport and was covered in keychains.
I love the super chic makeover the backpack got when it came back into style, but I admittedly haven't owned one since it came from Jansport and was covered in keychains.
Nothing says "I've got my s*** together" more than personalized stationery.
I've featured many sustainable clothing brands on Green with Style, but any mention of jewelry makers has been purposefully omitted for one simple reason: I couldn't find any that I liked!
Visions of smoothie bowls and yoga retreats are conjured when I see the term "bamboo" listed as the fabric content on an item of clothing, but what exactly makes it good for the environment?
You don't necessarily need to shop from self-proclaimed "sustainable" brands in order to be a conscious consumer.
If you want skin so good that you don't need the pretty filter, keep reading.
A budget-friendly fashion hack I learned while working retail in college is timing your purchases to coincide with sales.
Since switching to a sustainable lifestyle, I pay close to attention to style trends that I can buy secondhand, can wear both to the office and out on weekends, and are basic enough to stand the test of time – and the long blazer checks all three boxes.
There's no better way to spend a summer day than relishing a good book and picnic beachside (IMHO), but environmental responsibility is key for ensuring that future generations may enjoy the same pleasures.
Denim is an integral part of my wardrobe, and while I adore the distressed, broken-in feel of vintage or secondhand jeans, some occasions call for a more polished pair.
Kasha Cabato is an ecofashionista and clean beauty enthusiast that believes anyone can achieve a greener lifestyle through smart shopping decisions and thoughtful habits - and they don't need to sacrifice style to do so. Learn More.
Slow fashion (noun) : a term which describes clothing which lasts a long time and is often made from locally-sourced or fair-trade material


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A new vision rising from the ashes
Monday September 14 2009
IT IS 4.30PM AND I AM SITTING in unusually slow traffic — even by Nairobi standards — when the Securex alert on my mobile phone beeps. "Riots. Avoid Globe roundabout, Kirinyaga Rd etc etc…police engaged in running battles with mechanics," reads the message.
There was nothing surprising about the message. For weeks this had been a headline story in the Kenyan media, complete with pictures of billowing smoke over that part of the city, policemen in full anti-riot gear charging at an "innocent" public and gridlocked traffic as people rushed to get out of harm's way.
That, it seemed was the new state of the nation. The violence could have been caused by something different, but it still fit headlines ran in 2008 — "Kenya is Burning – its Leaders are fiddling" and of course the "Save Our Beloved Country" that were splashed across all the Kenyan papers.
So here we were in 2009, and how much has really changed? The looting, burning and killing has stopped. But the fiddling — in all its connotations largely remains the order of the day. How much real improvement is there in the daily lives of Kenyans?
What was ironic however was that, the "fighting" at the Globe roundabout was going to delay me for Revisioning Kenya, an event showcasing all that is progressive in the country.
The line-up of speakers was impressive — a tech whiz kid, a Mathare slum schoolteacher, a Zambian climate change specialist, Linus Gitahi — chief executive of the Nation Media Group— Kamau Gachigi, chair of the University of Nairobi Science Park, and peacemaker Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat.
Their brief was to speak on things about Kenya that are, or can be made to work, in only eight minutes.
Conceived by a coterie of writers last year in response to frustration that so many Kenyans felt about the lack of political will to focus on things that were of interest to majority of the citizenry, the forum recognises that Kenya is a nation of entrepreneurs and go-getters, who are forced, by the nature of circumstance and the circumspect quality of leadership to find their own solutions to their many problems.
So, while the politicians haggled over power-sharing and vehicle allowances in 2008, ordinary people focused on water collection, raising school fees or the more esoteric but essential expansion of business ideas. When leaders later mumbled about denial of certain perks that they thought were due to them, and addressed fuel and maize shortages, Kenyans were still obliged to find ways to put food (preferably fit for consumption!) on their tables.
Revisioning Kenya celebrates, shares and networks ideas and seeks to tap into Kenyanness in a solution-focused way.
I arrived late at the venue, barely a kilometre away from the running battles at Globe roundabout. So do a number of the speakers and audience — all caught in the ensuing traffic snarl-up like me.
As the auditorium fills up, activist poet Jacob Oketch leans over to the organiser and whispers "Hey! People are paying to attend this forum, normally we never go to these 'discussion things' unless they are free." Not perhaps the most encouraging comment from one of the speakers of the night, although it was quite telling that a good number of people were interested enough to pay to attend.
Revisioning Kenya kicked off with a short film by award-winning filmmaker Judy Kibinge – a kind of simple guide to Kenya's direction since independence and a summary of how we got to a place of where post-election violence became part of the national lexicon.
Archive footage mixed with interviews mixed with searing images of the brutality of Kenyans turning on each other last year. The woman in the seat next to me has her hands to her mouth and can barely watch. "Can Kenya rise from the ashes?" asked Kibinge.
Apparently yes, according to Revisioning Kenya, and the next two hours are a showcase of ideas on how it can, how it does and how it will rise again.
LECTURER DR KAMAU GACHIgi kicks off the talks with a complex discussion of the connection between technology and the human spirit.
He is followed by a talk on education by the young dynamic Fred Okidi from Mathare Youth Talent Organisation, a "goodwill" teacher who works in a small classroom made of ironsheet, with three blackboards, hosting three simultaneous classes and a lot of noise.
Together with a group of other youths, they kept their area of Mathare slum free of violence.
"Not one house was burnt in our section during the post-election violence," he said to much applause, adding that "If you lose your phone now in our area of Mathare and someone finds it, you will get it back." Stirring stuff, practical and real. Although I am not too sure I would want to put his testimony to test.
Dr Musonda Mumba — a Zambian water and climate change specialist — took to the stage with a series of headlines such as "Nairobi taps dry, despite rains," and other depressing headlines, before highlighting the perils of black carbon – also known as charcoal burning, which is responsible for 18 per cent of the carbon emissions in this part of the world.
"What about cows exhaling from the wrong end?" asked someone in the audience. "Is that as bad?"
"Do you mean farting?" Dr Mumba asks. "Yes," answers the man. There ensued an intense international debate about the effects of the meat producing industry on the climate.
Linus Gitahi began by expounding on the nature of Kenyanness and lack of it. "How can we talk about having a Kenyan meal when we mean going to eat at the Norfolk?" he asked, before launching into the importance of common national bonds created by food and dress.
"You can always tell a Nigerian at a business function by the way they proucly wear the agbada, their traditional garb. At such functions, I am the one that could be from anywhere in Africa. It is this sort of thing that makes Kenyans only a loose coalition of tribes. We haven't worked on our national identity."
Point taken. But he breaks it down even further. "By day, I am the chief executive of Nation Media Group, but on the other hand, since I am supposed to follow the long tradition of taking what I earn back to my rural home — I am, in fact, only a glorified villager. The patron of the local cattle dip.
Nothing wrong with that, but how can we change anything if we just follow these norms?" he asked?
So Mr Gitahi figured that if you go 350km away from your rural home — wherever you may be in Kenya — you will end up in a place inhabited by another ethnic group (or the sea if you take a wrong turn!).
He chose to go west, and 350km from Tetu took him to Ugenya where he begged the administration of a local secondary school to make him patron. He is now helping them raise funds for a dining hall. Currently the students take their meals under a tree.
"I found that people in villages in that area have never even shaken the hand of a Kikuyu," he said "but they still have strong prejudices about us. "I realised that tribalism, which is cooked in the cities, is brought back and sold to the villagers by our leaders."
HE IS SURE THAT TRIBALism can be eradicated if enough people took the risk to support something outside their home areas. "If others follow — say a Luo comes to a village in Tetu and does the same, we can begin to change mindsets. For all of us, if we want to bring about change — we can simply go 350k away from our homes and serve whichever community we find there."
The second session of the discussions was more factual.
Did you know that ushahidi.com, a Kenyan Internet crowd-sourcing site set up to collect data on the post-election violence was contracted not only to monitor this year's Indian elections, but also to collect data on swine flu cases?" asked tech researcher Jessica Colaco.
"A Kenya-born, Kenyan-created, Kenyan-run technology in full international use," she said. Judging by the applause at her statement, everyone was impressed and was proud of the achievement. In fact, judging by the applause that evening of the positive things said, it seemed that the audience was hungry for success stories, stories of hope, of possibility, nuggets that can be taken away and tried at home.
And yet even with all the preparation and presentation by a number of speakers, it was the spontaneous contribution from the audience that crowned the evening.
A young journalism student, Ahmed Kassim Abdi, a "periphery Somali" from Wajir as civil society would describe him, had the dubious pleasure of creating the first moment of pin-drop silence for the entire forum.
When the question and answer session began, Abdi calmly got the attention of moderator Irungu Houghton, walked to the edge of the stage shyly, and awkwardly shuffled papers.
"I have something prepared," he announced. "Only one minute to say it," warned Houghton.
"I hear voices in my head," Abdi began.
"It's like a multiple personality disorder…where there is nothing but confusion; mixed sounds…all these many, many, many different voices..."
There was total silence, the audience squirmed, as Houghton tried to figure out the least disruptive way to get Abdi away from the microphone.
"Mixed up voices….." he continued,
"All confused. In my head……"
"Just like those of our Grand Coalition, who's muddled noise has become a sickness, whose voices disturbs the nation's heart."
With these words the audience erupted into cheers, which continued throughout the young man's performance.
I'm a pastoralist, not a terrorist," he continued.
"Optimist, never pessimist
Creative and innovative, camel and cows my provision,
I'm now in a disorganised house like the tower of Babel, multiple personality, another sad story
I hear desperate multiple voices, I know not why
Abdi! Kenya is burning
Abdi! Nakumatt is burning
Abdi! extra judicial killings
Abdi! I'm starving
I slept, still multiple voices insist!
Abdi! again!"
It is this perfect expression of confusion that captured the hearts, that reached out to everyone in the audience. And this is really what Revisioning Kenya is about — connection — and then the creation of hope through honest open engagement.
And comments were thrown around freely after Abdi's recital. "Too many people treat the truth like a leper, we stigmatise and carefully avoid most practioners of it," said someone.
And yet when the truth is spoken, the impact is deep, as demonstrated by one of Kenya's few regular practioners of the art. "I have to apologise on behalf of my generation," said Ambassador Kiplagat as summed up the evening in a sombre mood.
"We have poisoned your minds. We have to face and take responsibility for what we have done," he said.
Now when was the last time you heard a Kenyan leader say that?
As the evening came to an end, the atmosphere in the auditorium was light, reflective and positive. Even as our leaders fiddle, it is clear there are many people out there who are not prepared to let Kenya burn.


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Monday, September 8, 2008
Short bangs and an itchy tag
Well she worked on it alright. With a pair of scissors. I happened to have my camera right beside me in the kitchen when she came out with such a sad face to show me what she had done. She was devastated!
She had been trying to grow her hair out "long like a princess". We had been growing her bangs out for months. I was so proud of her brother Simeon who picked her right up and comforted her, telling her she still looked beautiful.
But even dressed up like a princess, she didn't think so.......
So off to the haircut place we went. And look who went along for moral support.
And here she is, with bangs, with two of her cousins, Christi and Heather. (By the way, she is wearing her dress inside out on purpose. Her tag was itchy. I'd say that was a pretty clever solution to the problem.)
And while I'm blogging about Hope, I'll add one more story. We were driving back home from Pa-paw's funeral yesterday, and we pulled over to look for John's cell phone. We could hear it buzzing somewhere under the piles of blankets and pillows but couldn't find it. So we pulled over to the side of the road and had all the kids get out of their seatbelts looking under seats for it. Just then we noticed a police car behind us and an officer approaching the vehicle. For a second we worried maybe we were inadvertently speeding or maybe our tags were expired. But no, he was just making sure everything was alright. So as he said good-bye, Hope yelled out the window, "Good-bye Mr. Potato Head!!!"
10 comments:
She still looks cute to me; bangs or no bangs.
- September 8, 2008 at 7:52 AM
- Jester 5 said...
Oh, you know my husband will love that last comment! :)
- September 8, 2008 at 9:20 AM
- jennifer... said...
Charissa, there are tears in my eyes with an uncontrolable laughs right now! Mr. Potato Head!! I cant' even hardly type!
- September 8, 2008 at 10:44 AM
- Jester 5 said...
Okay, my husband came home and the first thing I did was read Hope's comment.
He laughed. He said he's been called a lot of things, but never Mr. Potato Head!!!
- September 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM
- Mary Beth said...
My question is which seat John's cell phone in and who found it?
- September 8, 2008 at 5:40 PM
- Cammie Heflin said...
You tell hope that she is gorgeous just like her sisters and mommy!
- September 8, 2008 at 6:12 PM
- Michelle said...
Hope, you look like a pretty princess with your beautiful bangs! Charissa, glad everyone is home safe and sound.
- September 8, 2008 at 6:41 PM
- The Gross Family said...
Same here with the tears and then laughing. So cute. I love children! They are so amazing!
- September 8, 2008 at 8:15 PM
- June Berger said...
Can I even imagine where Mr. Potato Head came from?? She's too cute, with and without bangs and an inside out dress!
- September 8, 2008 at 9:33 PM
- WheresMyAngels said...
I'm laughins so hard at that last comment. I'm so glad I was going thru post I had missed. Now that is something Cheyenne would of done when she was little with both the hair cutting and the name calling. Cheyenne cut her hair off TWICE a week before dance recital pictures! Yes two different times, right before the pictures!
- September 13, 2008 at 10:52 AM