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Below is the poem entitled SNOW JOKE which was written by poet
Willis. Please feel free to comment on this poem. However, please remember, PoetrySoup is a place of encouragement and growth.
Read Poems by
William Willis
NOTE-Right now Scotland is suffering it's worsed winter since 1963.The severe
weather has put the whole country at a stand-still.....
Polar bears in kilts, it's now minus fifteen.
Ice cube cars and wellies and our frozen windscreens.
Roads are all at grid-lock,schools are closed across the land.
Whole communities shovelling snow, all working hand in hand.
Where are our gritters and our snow-plough's, is oor salt in short supply?
All my poor winter pansies, bet your boots there going to die.
My snowman's got the flu, my sledge has two buckled blades.
And now i've slipped a disc out and i've broken three good spades.
People wearing earmuffs, snoods and scarves, no skin to bare.
But i am in a Glasgow Betting Shop, not in Moscow's Red Square.
My wee car's like a bobsleigh as it trundles through the snow.
My toes are cold, my bum is numb and my cheeks they are aglow.
River Clyde has all iced over, cancelled trains and frozen locks.
Leggings, gloves and thermal undies, woolly hats and soggy socks.
All my gutters have collapsed and caved in, my snowman's head.
And the birds, they are all starving, better throw them out some bread.
Penguins play the bagpipes, carol singers join in too.
Susan Boyle sings White Christmas in the icy morning dew.
Scotland.... Shivering to a stand-still, this winter really is a corker.
Stuff this vicious winter weather's am away aff tae Majorca.
A comment has not been posted for this poem. Encourage a poet by being the first to comment.


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Second-chance school in Abbeville County
DUE WEST — Narvin Lichfield is back in the business of treating troubled teens, and he's using an alias to market his latest venture.
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Hudson Valley is known for their strong traditional, vintage, reproduction and contemporary lighting. Offering the same attention to detail that was evident during the early twentieth century, Hudson Valley boasts a range of classic finishes and glass selections that will surely satisfy even the most discriminating customer.
The Everett Wall Sconce No. 471 is available with the following:
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Ratings: Based on 2 reviews, this product is rated 4.5 out of 5.
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Dual 7-mil films for maximum durability and clear resonance.
Remo WeatherKing Clear Emperor Batter Drum Head 10 in.
Item # 442406 | Condition: Info | Customer Ratings: ( 5 Based on 6 reviews)
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*Limitations and exclusions apply. See terms and conditions for program details
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Amazing!As reviewed by Dave on 7/17/2009
Wow! I had no idea that the right drum heads could make such a difference in the sound. I just replace half of the Remo heads that came with my Ludwig kit with these Emperor Clear Batter heads and the difference was amazing. The depth of tone and resonance is incredible. The only problem is I like them so much that I have to replace the rest of my tom heads to match!5 of 5 people found this review helpful.Was this review helpful?Thank You for rating this review!
Good deal for the priceAs reviewed by Jen on 3/10/2008
I used to buy Remo Ambassador heads until I got an Emperor and didn't realize it until I put it on. These are awesome, resonant heads. I have a coated one on the top of my toms and a clear one on the bottom and I'm never going to buy a different head. You get a punchy, low tone which is perfect for rock or if you tune a little sharp, you get a sound perfect for jazz and pop. I'd buy this head over Ambassador.10 of 12 people found this review helpful.Was this review helpful?Thank You for rating this review!
Best resonant head to buyAs reviewed by Desmond on 3/26/2009
This is the best resonant head on market from remo. I love its variety of tone as well. Also the most durable. You'll get the bang for your buck with this head.0 of 5 people found this review helpful.Was this review helpful?Thank You for rating this review!
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For your convenience, our online inventory has been expanded to include items in our retail locations. Some items may be fulfilled from Guitar Center retail stores*. Items will be inspected to ensure the store has the product you want, in the condition you expect. If not, a store manager will contact you by phone or email within one hour.
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Use the tools below to refine your search by only displaying reviews with a certain number of star ratings or to only show reviews from a certain time period. Eg click on '1 star' to just display the reviews we have which received a 1 star rating click or 'Within the last month' to display just reviews posted over the last month.
Written on: 17/07/2008
Sean Corker was my first good guitar teacher. I'd already been playing for 5 years or so when I had him. Up till then I was pretty much self taught. He got me on the road with the electric (I'd been on acoustic till that point) so I found this really useful, as it made me much more familiar with blues scales etc and improvising solos. I'd recommend him if you want to get your playing up to the next level… Read Full Review
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Calendar of Events
Calendar of Events
Calendar of Events
Tuesday, February 06, 2001
6:00 p.m.
Moffett Training and Conference Center (Building 3),
Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, CA, USA
REGISTRATIONRegistration is now closed.
Call (650) 810-1898 for information.
2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 epic film about space exploration and the evolution of intelligence, was the most carefully researched and scientifically precise feature film ever made. Now, in its namesake year, we can compare the film's computer science \visions\ with current technological fact -- in particular those related to its central character, the HAL 9000 computer, which could speak, reason, see, play chess, plan and express emotions.
In some domains reality has surpassed the vision in the film: computer chess, computer hardware, and graphics. In numerous others, reality has fallen far short: computer speech, language, vision, lip-reading, planning, and common sense. The film missed some trends entirely: the film showed no laptops or PDAs and HAL as large as a school bus but in reality computers instead got small. As such, the film provides a remarkable perspective on the sweep of developments in the modern era of computer technology.
This non-technical talk is profusely illustrated with clips from 2001 and current research and sheds new light on key moments of the film. You will never see the film the same way again.
The Computer History Museum offers a variety of membership levels. To find out more, please visit our individual membership or call 650-810-2722.


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Patriot League Champions Ink 26 Commitments
Lafayette signs 14 on offense, 11 on defense and one special teamer
Has yet to decide on a major.
AT PEN ARGYL: Named Express-Times All-Area First Team in 2013 when he also garnered All-Colonial League Second-Team honors at linebacker and punter...helped lead his team to a district playoff appearance, making 70 tackles while rushing for 765 yards and 11 TDs...in 2012, secured All-Colonial League Second-Team honors, Express-Times All-Area Third Team and All-State Third Team, helping guide his team to an 11-3 record, a district championship and a state quarterfinal berth...rushed for 877 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2012...his teams were 40-10 from 2010-13, including a 2011 run when Pen Argyl went 13-1, won a district championship, a Colonial League title and broke into the state quarterfinals...Honor Roll student and 2013 Lehigh valley National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete nominee.
Personal: Son of Michael and Jody DePaolo...has older sisters, Elizabeth and Katie, and a younger brother, Joe...born 2/8/96.
Lafayette Athletics, as a partner in the mission of the College, provides an incredibly effective learning experience for student-athletes through competitive NCAA Division I athletics. Lafayette sponsors 23 varsity sports with more than 600 student-athletes.Mission Statement | Leopard Tradition | Staff Directory | Feedback
The Lafayette Sports Network (LSN) handles all multimedia elements and advertising sales for athletics at Lafayette College. LSN is the Patriot League leader in delivering high-quality programming worldwide via television, radio, streaming video and satellite.Advertising and Sponsorships | Digital Media | LSN TV


text: Hi I submittet my site twice, one time last year and one time earlyer this year. Sry that I can`t give the dates. But I`m pretty sure I submittet it to the Kids and Teens: Games: Online section. My Website is (URL deleted) and got online games for kids that is releated to dress up games, paperdolls etc. Since it's not listed yet can I assume that it's been rejected for multiple submissions?


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Release: 11/14/2013
Albuquerque, N.M. --- Five players from the New Mexico women's soccer team were honored with selection to the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District Team for District VII. Brooke Ellison, Liz Nare and Brianna Webster were all named to the First Team, while Cassie Ulrich and Dylann O'Connor were named to the Second Team.
The five players honored were the most by any one school in Division I this season. Also, Brianna Webster's 4.05 grade point average was the highest among any of the honorees, regardless of whether they were in Division I, II, III or NAIA. Cassie Ulrich's grade point average was the second-highest.
For the program, the five marks the most Academic All-District honorees in school history, and Ellison, Nare and Webster will advance to the national ballot for Academic All-America honors. Nare is now a two-time First Teamers, while Ellison and Webster were both on the Second Team last season.
Over the last three years, the program has had 10 players honored in District VII (five this year, four last year and one in 2011). The team is comprised of the top players combining academics and athletics excellence from Division I schools in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.
That Nare, Ellison and Webster made the squad is fitting, as all three played club soccer together in California and all three came to New Mexico together. Nare and Ellison were also high school teammates. This past season, Webster played every single minute, one of only three field players in the Mountain West to do so, while Nare tied the UNM career record for games player and games started, and set the record for career minutes played. Ellison this season moved into the top 10 on all three of those lists.
O'Connor and Ulrich are both sophomores. O'Connor was tied for the team lead in scoring with 11 points, while Ulrich recorded nine shutouts and a 0.85 goals against average. O'Connor, along with Nare and Webster, were named Second Team All-Mountain West.


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Quick Links
Shop All Jewelry
NL11379 In Stock
Name necklaces are fast becoming one of the most popular fashion statements. Our Elegant Script Silver Name Necklace is a great piece that follows this fantastic trend! This sterling silver custom nameplate necklace typically measures 1.5 inches wide by 1 inch tall, but can vary depending on the name you choose. The Elegant Script Sterling Silver Name Necklace weighs 3.2 grams and comes with a silver rolo chain in your choice of 16 or 18 inches. This script name necklace will look great with simple sterling silver earrings or a fun silver bangle bracelet. If you want to look like a celebrity, this is the perfect item for you! The Elegant Script Silver Name Necklace is custom-made to order and take 3 - 5 days to ship.
• Sterling Silver Name Pendant
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You may return or exchange your jewelry within 60 days of purchase if you are not satisfied with it. The jewelry must be returned in its original condition for a refund or exchange. Engraved, personalized, photo, monogram, name and initial, chocolate and clearance items are not returnable or exchangeable.


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Other Services
Imaging & Diagnostic Services
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Your Visit
Services & Specialties
To search Houston doctors, please select a specialty & submit your Zip Code below.
To schedule an appointment online, select provider type, service and submit your ZIP code below.
Pulmonologists and other specialized physicians affiliated with Memorial Hermann treat a wide range of lung diseases, including:
Screenings available at Memorial Hermann for lung disease include:
At Memorial Hermann, a comprehensive range of treatments for lung disease is available to help manage or cure pulmonary ailments.


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Exeter Wedding venue
Telephone: 01392 272709
Email: email@example.com
Address: Bystock Terrace, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4HY. Directions
Exeter wedding packages from £750
Congratulations on your forthcoming wedding!
The Queens Court have helped hundreds of couples plan and prepare for their special day, and are able to do as much or as little as you like; including having the civil ceremony held in the Hotel itself.
For every wedding couple who select a wedding package, The Queens Court provides a wedding planner to make sure that you can relax in the run-up and get the most out of your special day. For full prices, please visit our wedding packages web page, or download our brochure here.
Our Exeter wedding venue
The Queens Court Hotel is an elegant Georgian Townhouse Hotel set in a secluded leafy square. Situated in the heart of Exeter within walking distance from both main line train stations, we offer the perfect central Exeter wedding location away from the noise of the city.
The hotel can be used in a variety of ways for your wedding, from just the civil ceremony through to hiring the entire hotel, with a fully licensed private bar and dancefloor. We will work with you and to make sure you get exactly what you need to make your perfect day come true.
The whole hotel is available for wedding hire; Alternatively, the hotel offers the following wedding venues:
The Wedding Terrace Room
This is a delightful room with French doors opening onto a pretty patio.
For Civil Ceremonies, our wedding terrace seats 25 guests, and the 2 registrars.
For receptions, the wedding terrace can seat up to 16 diners for a smaller, intimate gathering.
The Olive Tree Restaurant Wedding Venue
The stylish Olive Tree Restaurant is beautifully decorated in Venetian style with terrace doors that open onto the summer terrace. There is also has an adjoining lounge and bar area that can be used for welcoming drinks prior to either your Civil Ceremony or your reception.
For Civil ceremonies, the restaurant can seat 40 guests and the 2 registrars.
For receptions, the restaurant can accommodate 20 diners for your wedding breakfast.
The Redvers Wedding Suite
The Redvers Suite is a large private function room, that can seat 60 guests. The function room flows onto a private, fully licenced bar and dancefloor, accessible through it's own entrance from the road. The room is soundproofed so that you can enjoy your music up to midnight knowing that if any of your guests have gone to bed early, they won't be disturbed!
The Redvers Suite is also fully air-conditioned and has a separate cloakroom.
Wedding accommodation
For all our wedding packages, we provide a complimentary bedroom for the bride and groom on the wedding night and a special rate for the wedding guests who wish to stay. Please see the wedding packages or contact us for our accommodation rates.
Wedding breakfasts
Our Chefs are on hand to create a beautiful Wedding Breakfast from a wide range dishes. We pride ourselves on locally-sourced Devon produce for all our dishes, which we lovingly prepare with care and attention to detail.
We have various packages that you can choose from, available on our wedding packages page. Alternatively if you have something particular in mind, please let us know and we will do our best to cater to your needs – after all, this is your big day!
Wedding buffets
We also offer hot and cold buffet options for an evening function. Please see our wedding packages page for more details. Also, please ask your wedding planner who will be able to help you understand how much you need, or tailor the buffet to your particular budget.
Wedding drinks
We can provide either sparkling wine or champagne for your guests; plus we have a fine selection of red and white wines for your guests to enjoy throughout the meal.
Wedding party extras
Having catered and created hundreds of weddings, we now have an extensive list of local suppliers that we can recommend for you to add on any other requests that you have. Anything from florists, balloon suppliers, bands or DJs. We have even had can-can dancers before, so please don't be shy about asking us for anything!
We are also available for you to take a tour of the Hotel and discuss your special day with no obligations. Please contact us by telephone 01392 272709, or email firstname.lastname@example.com, to arrange a mutually convenient time.
If you have any other questions about what we can do for you at your wedding, please do not hesitate to contact us and ask. We want your wedding day to go the way you want it, and our team will work with you to make sure you can enjoy a care-free day.


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- 23
- people in the U.S. have this name View Dennis Velasco on Whitepages
Meaning & Origins
Vernacular English form, based on French Denis, of the Greek name Dionysios, Late Latin Dionisius, which was borne by several early Christian saints, including St Denis, a 3rd-century evangelist who converted the Gauls and became a patron saint of Paris. It was on his account that the name was popular in France and was adopted by the Normans. In classical times, the name was an adjective denoting a devotee of the god Dionysos, a relatively late introduction to the classical pantheon; his orgiastic cult seems to have originated in Persia or elsewhere in Asia.
|79th in the U.S.
Spanish: 1. from the personal name Velasco, Belasco, formed with Basque bel- 'raven' + the diminutive suffix -sco. 2. in some cases possibly a habitational name from any of various places in Logroño, Soria, and Seville provinces named Velasco.
|1,565th in the U.S.
Nicknames & variations
Dennise, Dennys, Dennice, Denise, Dennisse, Dennes, Dennisha, Dennies, Dennese, Dennisa
Velasquez, Velazquez, Vela, Velarde, Velazco, Velardi, Velaquez, Velardo, Valade, Velasques


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Art, Music & Theatre Main Menu
Michael Fahey student saxophone recital
fahey student recital
Student Music Recital
Event: Michael Fahey, saxophone
Date & Time: February 17, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.
Saxophonist Michael Fahey performs in recital as part of his music degree curriculum. Program includes music by Curtis Lundy, Pierre Max Dubois, and Alfred Desenclos.
Free admission, no tickets needed for this event.
Call 344.2801 from noon to 3 p.m., weekdays, for information.


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Economics and The Time Value of Money - Shifts Vs. Movement and Elasticity
Shifts vs. Movement
- Movements in supply - Movements along the supply curve occur when the price of the good changes and the quantity supplied changes.
- Movements in demand - Movements along the demand curve ...
- Shift in supply - Occurs when a good's quantity supplied changes even though the price remains the same.
- A shift in the supply curve implies the original supply relationship has changed, meaning that the quantity supplied is affected by a factor other than price.
- For instance, a shift in the supply curve for corn may occur as a result of drought.
- Shift in demand - Occurs when the demand for a good changes even though the price remains unchanged. A shift in the demand curve signals that the original demand relationship has changed and the quantity demanded is affected by a factor other than price. For instance, a shortage of corn as a result of drought may trigger an increase in demand for other vegetables as consumers seek substitutes.
The degree to which a demand or supply curve reacts to a change in price is the curve's elasticity.
- Elasticity varies among products, as some products are more essential to consumers than others.
- Products that are necessities are less sensitive to price changes because consumers will continue to buy them despite price increases.
- A good or service that is considered less of a necessity is more elastic, as a price change leads to sharp changes in the quantity demanded or supplied.
Elasticity = % change in quantity / % change in price
An elasticity greater than or equal to one (1) is considered to be elastic. An elasticity of less than one (1) is considered inelastic.
- Factors affecting demand elasticity
- The availability of substitutes
- The amount of income available to spend on the good - Demand will be sensitive to a change in price if there is no change in income.
- Time - Over a short period of time, a price change may not affect demand, but a price change that stays in effect over a long period may have a great impact on demand.


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Register now for free, or sign in with any of these services:
It is unfortunate that a coach has to resort to blaming the officials when his team gets beaten by a "smaller" or "inferior" opponent. Perhaps he should have had them better prepared, or maybe gotten a lead so that it did not come down to one questionable call. Throughout games there are calls that go both ways that are borderline, so for him to go on a tangent and blame the officials for his team losing this game is ridiculous. Maybe he should start the blame game by pointing the finger at himself. Although I am sure it is tough to swallow when a team from the "mighty" Big East loses to a lowly D-2 team from the GNAC!


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Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz
Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia in May 2000. She has been with the Central Bank since 1985, in a career spanning several senior positions in the Bank in the areas of monetary and financial policies and reserve management. During the height of the Asian financial crisis, Dr. Zeti was appointed as Acting Governor on 1 September 1998, and led the Central Bank team to successfully implement the selective exchange controls to restore stability and promote economic recovery in Malaysia.
Prior to her career in the Bank, Dr. Zeti served in the South-East Asian Research and Training Centre (SEACEN) from 1979 – 1984, conducting research in the area of financial policies and reform in the South-East Asian region. She has written extensively in the areas of monetary and financial economics, capital flows, macroeconomic management, financial reform and restructuring. She received her B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Malaya and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2008, Dr. Zeti was selected as one of the members of a special task force at the United Nations to examine reforms of the global market system. In 2009, Global Finance magazine named her as one of the world's best central bank chief. In 2013, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz has again been accorded "Grade A" among the heads of central banks for the 10th time by the Global Finance magazine.
Dr. Rozali Bin Mohamed
Dr. Rozali bin Mohamed is a Non-Executive Independent Chairman of the Board of JCY International Bhd. He is Chairman of the International Governing Council and Pro-Rector of the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance.
His present directorships include: Mabohai Resort Sdn Bhd and International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance. His past directorships include: Commerce Asset-Holdings Berhad (now known as CIMB Group Holdings Berhad), Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad (now known as CIMB Investment Bank Berhad), CIMB Berhad Bumiputra Commerce Bank Berhad (now known as CIMB Bank Berhad) and PT Bank Niaga Tbk.
Tan Sri Dato' Megat Zaharuddin
Tan Sri Dato' Megat Zaharuddin was appointed as a Director and Chairman of Maybank on 1 October 2009.
He built an outstanding career in the oil and gas industry for 31 years with the Royal Dutch Shell Group of Companies and was the Regional Business Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Shell Exploration and Production B.V. prior to his retirement in early 2004. He was also the Chairman of Maxis Communications Berhad from 2004 to 2007, Etiqa Insurance & Takaful from 2006 until 2009, Malaysian Rubber Board from 2009 to 2010, Director of Capital Market Development Fund from 2004 to 2010 and Director of Woodside Petroleum Ltd, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, from 2007 to 2011.
His current directorships in companies within the Maybank Group include being Chairman of Maybank Investment Bank Berhad and President Commissioner of PT Bank International Indonesia Tbk.
Tan Sri Dato' Megat Zaharuddin is a nominee of Permodalan Nasional Berhad, a major shareholder of Maybank.
Jean Pierre Sabourin
Jean Pierre Sabourin has unparalleled expertise in all aspects of deposit insurance and his assistance has been widely sought by other countries on establishing and improving their deposit insurance systems.
Among his many achievements, he chaired the Financial Stability Forum's international study and working groups on deposit insurance and the first ever APEC Policy Dialogue on Deposit Insurance. He was employed by Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) from 1976, and held various positions within CDIC before becoming its President and CEO in 1990, until his retirement in 2005. In August 2005, he was appointed by the Malaysian Government as the first ever Chief Executive Officer of PIDM. Under his leadership, PIDM is focused on being recognised as a best practice financial consumer protection organisation.
He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto.


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Excel LED Lighting provides energy efficient lighting solutions for businesses, schools, hospitals, and homes across the country. As one of the only nation-wide suppliers of both Cree and Beta LED products, Excel LED is sure to have the lowest prices on the highest quality products.
Shown above is the before & after of an installation of a sample parking garage fixture. On the right, a 47 watt sample LED fixture replaced the 205 watt High Pressure Sodium fixture seen on the left. Illuminance readings jumped from an average of 5-7 foot candles to an average of 7-9 foot candles after the installation. Shadowing and hotspots were eliminated creating a smooth, even distribution of light across the test area.


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Trashing Wall Street
To a visitor from, say, Mars, it might come as a surprise to learn that the 1980's—a decade of stable prices, unprecedentedly low unemployment, and the longest sustained economic expansion in history—were also one of the lowest, greediest, most venal periods in modern American economic history, comparable with the dark era of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. Yet these are precisely the terms in which the decade is regularly described on the editorial pages of our major newspapers and by the keepers of our conventional wisdom.
The villains of the age just past include the Reagan administration, with its oft-noted fiscal recklessness, and the wizards and cabalists of junk bonds who are accused of having leveraged and pillaged our economy into calamitous hypertrophy. The wickedness is said to be most dramatically encapsulated in one vast, dimly understood misdeed, the savings-and-loan debacle, whose final cost—$300 billion? $500 billion?—is still unknown, but which is far and away the worst financial scandal in U.S. history. Thus, when Michael Milken, the king of junk debt, pleaded guilty this spring to six counts of conspiracy and mail fraud and faced a fine of $600 million and a jail term of up to twenty-eight years, the immediate reaction in many "enlightened" quarters was that he had not been punished nearly enough.
Then, of course, there was Ivan Boesky, the arbitrageur whose trade-up plea bargain ($100-million fine, three-year jail term) was the supposed key to bringing down Milken. There was Dennis Levine, an inside trader whose apprehension and plea-bargaining led to Boesky. There was Milken's former firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, a once-puny junk-bond/investment-banking company that had stood Wall Street and corporate America on their ear, only to plead guilty to six counts of misdoing and pay $650 million in fines before going belly-up last February.
The charges against Milken, 98 in all, were brought forward under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a jurisprudential weapon originally concocted by Congress in order to attack the Mafia. It was Rudolph Giuliani, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and in 1989 a failed candidate for New York City's mayoralty, who turned RICO into a bludgeon against the investment community. The Act gives to the state the power to confiscate the assets of alleged wrongdoers before their guilt is proven. The single-mindedness, not to say ruthlessness, with which Giuliani exploited this power—as part of the plea bargain with Drexel Burnham, for example, his team demanded that Milken be summarily fired and deprived of his earnings for the year even though he had not yet been found guilty of anything—should form a subject of case-law study for years to come.
The peculiar fact is that the most serious charges against Milken—for insider-trading and racketeering—were dropped in the plea bargain. Therefore, although we know what, under extreme pressure, he pleaded guilty to, we do not necessarily know what he was really guilty of. In economic terms, however, we do know what he did. And that was to identify, encourage, organize, and ultimately orchestrate an enormous new market for corporate debt, a market that is now in a state of collapse.
In 1970, when Milken joined Drexel Burnham at a salary of $25,000 a year, a junk bond was a downgraded security—a promissory note deemed unworthy of its promise. It was hence officially untouchable in the closed circle of underwriters, traders, and institutional investors who have traditionally provided liquidity (otherwise known as cash and credit) to corporate America and to whom only the highest-rated securities have been considered investment grade. Milken's famed discovery, as a student at the Wharton School of Business, was that the actual risk of default on a non-investment-grade security was considerably less than the assigned risk (as reflected in the high interest rate that the junk bond issuer had to pay). Junk bonds were, in other words, a good deal—if anyone would buy them.
Milken spent the early 70's promoting his notion, and in the process created a populist rationale for his business: supply-side debt. Those who bought junk bonds would be opening up new sources of income—and growth—for companies that had been excluded from the Wall Street debtors' club. From the beginning, in other words, there were socioeconomic implications to Milken's crusade: it was aimed at bringing outsiders in. By no coincidence, Drexel Burnham was at the time one of the less distinguished outsiders in the Wall Street investment-house crowd.
Gradually Milken's idea caught on—the more so as inflation rates soared and investors had to cast further afield for attractive rates of return. Then came Ronald Reagan, the 80's, and, even before that, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's use of tight credit to crush inflation, an action which had the incidental effect of depressing stock prices and thereby creating a climate conducive to corporate merger and takeover.
Enter also the U.S. Congress. The Volcker-mandated rise in interest rates, which threw the U.S. into recession in 1980 and 1981, was particularly calamitous for the savings-and-loan industry (S & L's), the most inefficient, undercapitalized sector of the American financial system—and also the part closest to the voting public. Dowdy institutions that had lent out funds for thirty-year terms at 4 to 8 percent annually suddenly found themselves looking for replacement funds at double the previous cost.
According to most cold-eyed economists, who thought the S & L's were in need of a shakeout, the fact that many institutions now faced bankruptcy was no bad thing. But the economists did not reckon on the political clout of an industry whose principal product was money. Amid a Reagan-approved deregulation of the financial industry, Congress freed up the desperate S & L's to invest for the first time in high-risk enterprises, including junk. Congress also approved a doubling of the federal deposit insurance (FDIC) guarantee, from $50,000 to $100,000, ostensibly to protect small investors but by the same token to lure more money back to the S & L's.
In effect, then, Congress doubled the subsidy for mistakes, bad judgment, and dishonest intent by S & L operators, and doubled the incentive for junk-bond dealers to peddle more and more exotic forms of high-risk paper in a market that had little choice but to demand it. Shysters, high-flyers, and pyramid-scheme artists flocked to the kill—though it must be noted again that most of the S & L operators who helped to fuel the junk-bond market of the 80's were players in an overprotected industry kept alive by a special-interest-conscious Congress.
In every rising cycle of prosperity and expansion, what works is what goes. Or, as the painter Edgar Degas, born to a banking family, once remarked, "Some forms of success are indistinguishable from panic." Michael Milken and Drexel were not the first to issue so-called junk bonds—Lehman Brothers, soon to be Shearson Lehman, could claim that honor—but once Milken's application of the idea caught on, everyone wanted to jump in. Drexel's and Milken's problems ultimately stemmed from the fact that they tried, with notable success, to control the market.
Especially the takeover market. Drexel and Milken pioneered in the use of junk bonds in leveraged buyouts (LBO's). In this maneuver, managers, in partnership with investment bankers, bought up the stock of the companies they worked for, thereby assuming hefty chunks of debt; pruned these companies into more profitable shape; then eventually took their shares back to the stock market for big profits. Initially, LBO's were friendly, relatively specialized deals, honed in particular by a small firm named Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. What changed all that was the easily accessible pool of money from the rapidly widening junk-bond market. Funds were almost instantly available to do anything, including to outbid reluctant managers for control of their companies. The fees generated for deal-makers and investment bankers by such activity expanded tremendously, as did the potential conflict of interest for these same deal-makers and investment bankers. Once again, the government played a facilitating hand: under IRS rules, the interest on junk bonds used in takeover deals was considered a cost of business, and was tax-deductible.
In 1986, 3,973 takeovers, mergers, and corporate buyouts took place in America. They "cost" $236 billion, mostly in the form of debt. At that level of activity, all the traditional corporate citadels of America could—and did—feel besieged. And there was really no one else to focus on but Milken, whose control of the junk market was truly masterful, on a level, perhaps, with the control exercised by the great trust-builders of the late 19th century. Outside of rarefied financial circles, however, very few people have ever understood what goes on in securities markets anyway. They seem specialized, complex, and breathtakingly arcane, and at the same time stupid, brawling, and vulgar. The kind of money sloshing around in those markets—and the percentages that could cling to even relatively minor hands—created its own kind of hypnosis, not to mention envy. The forces that actually made the markets work were largely invisible (as Adam Smith might have observed), and rational only in their apparent irrationality. What could be seen was the stuff of journalism and innuendo.
Unfortunately, the visible is almost all one gets in most of the popular books that have poured out, junk-bond fashion, following the scandals of the last eighteen months. Readers can gain a great deal of vicarious enjoyment, for instance, though not much enlightenment, from Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.1 This is a detailed and intriguing recapitulation of the 1988 hostile takeover of RJR Nabisco by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts—which, by its size, has become a metaphoric representation of all 80's real and imagined greed and folly.
The symbolic presence here is that of Ross Johnson, an amiable, golf-loving Canadian marketing man who ascended to the top of the merged and remerged food-and-tobacco giant, then committed corporate seppuku when he tried to organize an LBO of the company. Johnson's real forte, as the authors show, was corporate politics, and he was especially good at narcotizing his boards of directors with goodies dipped from the company's bounteous cash flow. Johnson's personal perks have become justly famous: the professional golf buddies paid as consultants, the immense corporate air fleet and houses alongside Florida golf courses. Altogether, this is a story that goes far toward proving a charge made frequently by one of the most successful corporate raiders, Carl Icahn: modern American corporations are inefficient, run indulgently in favor of incumbent management, and immune to shareholder pressure.
Burrough and Helyar present the battle for control of RJR as a contest between a blundering Peter Cohen, Johnson's main investment banker (and, until his recent resignation, president of Shearson Lehman), and a tougher, smarter Henry Kravis, whose desire to win eventually caused him to toss in a bid that the cruel marketplace was by then signaling as too high. Cohen eventually paid for his hubris with his job. As for Kravis, some of his elaborate securities packages are now showing severe signs of strain.
At bottom, however, Barbarians is a variation on standard, behind—the-scenes political reporting, colored as much by the selective revelations of sources as by the reporters' own judgments. In the end, the authors settle for the idea that the battle for control of the company was an illustration of nothing more than human folly and vanity. RJR Nabisco, they say, "became a vast prism through which scores of Wall Streeters beheld their reflected glories." Well, maybe, but so what?
In True Greed, Hope Lampert2 provides an even more prosaic view of this allegedly revelatory takeover battle. Her jargon is numbing—"Shearson had proposed a three-year reset on the preferred PIK, and Stern was not keen to adopt Rinaldi's one-year"—and her conclusion, a perfectly safe one, is that the future of the LBO does not look good.
RJR is blessedly absent from Circus of Ambition,3 but so is almost everything else. Its author, John Taylor, has attempted to sew together a number of ideas for magazine articles linking the Reverend Jerry Falwell; a twenty-seven-yearold stock-market hustler named Charlie Atkins; a rude, ambitious, and apparently untalented artist; and a variety of other ambiguous characters into a paradigm of the age. Although the book's prose has bizarre amusement value ("The grasping materialism of the Gilded Age, which began after the Civil War and replaced the Jeffersonian political idealism that marked the first seventy years of the nation's history, dominated the country from 1865 to 1929—a little more than half a century"), the only point, insofar as one can be discerned at all, is that the economic history of the United States consists of periods of grasping manipulation, jiggery-pokery, and selfishness interspersed with depressions and rare, golden moments when a certain redistribution of income takes place. Whatever capitalism, industry, technology, or finance may be, Taylor does not want to know it.
Michael Lewis, on the other hand, cheerfully admits in Liar's Poker4 that, as a fledgling bond trader at Salomon Brothers, he knew nothing about what he was doing. Nor, as a participant in the "Animal House" culture at Wall Street's preeminent bond-trading firm, did he need to; the aim of bond traders at Salomon's, he reveals, was to fleece unwary customers, make millions, and become what was known in-house as Big Swinging Dicks. The aim of every other trader elsewhere, presumably, was to do the same back.
Lewis's more serious point in an often hilarious book is that the sheer volume of money running through the financial markets in the 80's brought a distortion of judgment that led his firm to overextend itself, so that by the end of the decade it was left wallowing like the rest of Wall Street. Refreshingly, however, Lewis does not believe that the sometimes destructive dynamics of capitalism must be explained in terms of a dark driving force (such as "greed") peculiar to the Age of Reagan; rather, those dynamics are inherent in the system itself, and account for its stupendous creativity as well as its excesses.
Hints of demonic or conspiratorial economic forces have, of course, been a fixture since the modern capitalist age began. One particularly ugly aspect of that persistent view surfaced last year in connection with the observable fact that Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and many of the other alleged financial malefactors of the 80's were Jewish.
The issue is openly joined in the novel Hanover Place by Michael Thomas,5 a former merchant banker and now a columnist for the weekly New York Observer. The book, a ponderous historical saga, traces the rise and decline of a Wall Street investment firm known as Warrington & Co., a Wasp bastion that eventually falls into the hands of upstart and shady Jewish financiers.
In a review of Hanover Place in the New York Times Book Review, Judith Martin (better known as Miss Manners) charged Thomas with suggesting that anti-Semitism was the fault of Jews themselves. The incident in the novel to which Miss Martin pointed concerns a group of raiders, led by a Jew, who are warned by a prominent European Jewish banker to cease and desist from their activities lest they provoke anti-Semitism. His plea is ignored, and the worst happens.
From his weekly platform in the Observer, an indignant Michael Thomas denied Miss Martin's allegation: ". . . just as you must have hydrogen combined with oxygen to make water, to watch the vile flame of anti-Semitism spring into being, you must have enviable Jewish success and enviable Jewish identity to combine with non-Jewish discontent, frustration, anger, resentment, insecurity—there are a hundred strains of malignancy to choose from."
An equivocal statement, to say the least. But as for the "hundred strains of malignancy," Hanover Place certainly puts a lot of them on display: the novel unquestionably contains some of the most sustained expressions of anti-Semitic sentiment to appear in a long time. Nearly all of those expressions are, it is true, placed in the mouths of bad, weak, depraved, or deprived individuals. And in careful contradistinction to them stand the novel's chief protagonists, Fletcher and Lyda Warrington. Thus, we are told, Lyda "despised anti-Semitism, at least she despised it institutionally, which was the only form in which she'd experienced it"; a Warrington partner is pushed out of the firm because of his rabidly anti-Semitic views; and an attempt to block the progress of the firm's brilliant Jewish analyst, Morris Miles, is solidly rebuffed.
But all this, in a novel that moves from 1924 to the present, is prelude. For by the 1970's the son of the faithful Morris is scheming to take over the firm, and eventually succeeds. One of his backers launders drug money. The brains of the new firm belong to a genius named Arthur Lubloff, the aforementioned proponent of hostile takeovers who creates "a complex interleaved structure of debt-creation and interaction that only he understood, and to which he was universally regarded as indispensable." Soon after his death in a plane crash, world financial markets crash, LBO-related bankruptcies occur, the dollar collapses, and anti-Semitic outrages spread across the country.
What, then, is the meaning of this leaden cautionary tale? It is that proper bounds must be observed. Thomas, an old-style American Tory, believes in a world that is a profoundly ordered place, with the Wasp naturally, and unspokenly, at its center. Though his protagonists reject anti-Semitism "institutionally," that is to say as a doctrine, they also reject anyone who tries to push into their clubs or to break the Wall Street code as they know it. The crime committed by the "bad" Jews in Thomas's novel is the failure to understand, and appreciate, their proper place. Thomas has repudiated the idea that this amounts to anti-Semitism; perhaps he is right. Perhaps it is, instead, a highly idealized expression of apartheid.
So where does all this introspection leave the 80's, the decade of unsurpassed "greed" and "folly"? The evidence, sometimes inadvertent, of each of these books is that they were an exceptionally exciting and creative, as well as venal, time on Wall Street, and also that they were a time when the laws of oversupply (of credit) and demand were not suspended. What is largely missing is a consciousness of the relationship between boom and bust in capitalist economics—perhaps because Reaganomics sheltered us all from such knowledge for so long. For the rest, these books largely ignore, misapprehend, or downplay the absolutely crucial role played by a liberal Congress in first propping up, then double-crossing, the thrift industry, and accelerating the worst tendencies of the age. And most of them miss entirely the accumulation of talent and energy in the traders and raiders whose activities they more or less piously deplore.
There have always been those who have condemned the workings of capitalism as a kind of fraud. And many are those who are proud to be offended by the Age of Reagan. These books still leave room for an intelligent effort to understand the two phenomena, especially in conjunction.
1 Harper & Row, 528 pp., $22.95.
2 NAL Books, 259 pp., $18.95.
3 Warner Books, 240 pp., $12.95.
4 Norton, 249 pp., $12.95.
5 Warner Books, 479 pp., $19.95.


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This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.
Liverpool could follow up their shock move for Southampton's 32-year-old forward Rickie Lambert by signing 34-year-old former Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita from Valencia.
Reports in Spain suggest that Liverpool are preparing to pounce after talks over a contract extension with Los Che stalled.
Liverpool were keen on signing Keita in January but the player rejected a move over concerns about a lack of playing time.
However, after the Reds qualified for the Champions League next season, Brendan Rodgers will look to rotate his squad and is in a better position to offer regular playing time to a larger number of players.
Keita is thought to prefer to remain at Valencia, with his current six-month deal coming to an end.
But the Spanish side's financial difficulties mean they are not in a position to compete with the type of wages Liverpool are willing to put on the table.
And that could tempt Keita to ditch Spain for a final hurrah in the Premier League.
Source: Daily Express
This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.
Tagged: Seydou Keita
Submit your views in the box below. Alternatively, you can debate these issues with fellow fans on our Message Boards or blog about them on The Kop
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06.08.2014, 07:31
06.08.2014 07:41
Prague - The planned Czech civil service law may unbalance the gravity centre of power again, Petr Pesek writes in daily Lidove noviny (LN) today.
Premiér Bohuslav Sobotka (na snímku) navrhl 7. července na setkání s filmovými producenty v Karlových Varech navázat příjmy Státního fondu kinematografie (SFK) na výběr některé daně, aby fond získal pravidelný roční příjem. ČTK Němeček Pavel
He recalls that the controversial legislation has stirred up squabbles in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, that is now debating it.
Maybe especially the opposition deputies have started to fear that if they return to power, there will not be much of it left after the law takes effect, Pesek adds, hinting at the bill´s provisions introducing state secretaries appointed for seven years who would select some deputy ministers, as well as the Civil Service General Directorate whose head would have immense power.
However, the Monday meeting between PM Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) and the actual opposition head, TOP 09 first deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek, to deal with the civil service bill indicated some changes that might be advantageous for both sides, Pesek says.
He adds that Kalousek can show his constructive face instead of permanent attacks on the government, which suits him before the autumn local and Senate elections, and Sobotka may gain support outside the government in case of his coalition´s disunity.
Last but not least, the civil service bill alone raises doubts, Pesek indicates.
"Do we really want to have another, almost autonomous power centre in the civil service, apart from the two houses of parliament, the sometimes too active Constitutional Court and a more self-confident president thanks to the direct election?" Pesek asks.
The professional career of Czech women now resembles driving on a motorway that is under reconstruction and the Czech state should help remove obstacles preventing its "fluency," Jana Bendova writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) today.
She recalls that there are 40 percent more unemployed women than men in the Czech Republic, which is a record in the EU, while the share of unemployed mothers of small kids is the lowest in the Union. In addition, Czech women over 50 have problems to find jobs.
In short - at the beginning a woman is too young and above all with small children to look after and at the end of her career she is too old and not flexible, Bendova says.
If the state "untied this Gordian knot," it would help itself as well as women, she notes.
The smarter employers already know that exactly women-mothers are perfectly fit for their working life. They can organise work for themselves and the others and they do not care for their own success only, Bendova concludes.
The Czech central bank (CNB) is preparing for a crisis that officially does not exist, Julie Hrstkova writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) today.
She comments on the fact that after the Finance Ministry, the CNB, too, has decided to form a special expert team of "watchdogs."
The formation or strengthening of a certain "bank police" means actually the preparation for another crisis in the financial sector, a crisis that has officially not existed for long and that no one will admit in the future either, Hrstkova points out.
However, this crisis still requires a few dozens of additional experts to be on the safe side, Hrstkova concludes.
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I think that the question I get asked the most about shoes is this…."what do I wear with jeans?" When I have kindly shook (shook sounds weird but is grammatically correct, I checked!) my head at your 10 year old white Adidas and 'tsked" at the black, beat up, square heeled loafers you've been wearing to work, what's left? Right? Or, if you tell me comfort is all you care about. What ever will you do???
There are choices, many choices. You just have to take a bit of time and a bit of money and replace those suckers! When you are wearing a wonderful pair of pants and beautiful sweater you want the look to flow, not come to a halt at a frumpy pair of shoes. And, although comfort can be a teeny tiny bit overrated, you don't have to give it up. I have many choices to show you. Most are flat to mid heel. All are suitable for a bootcut jean or a trouser jean. So, here we go…..
Sperry's with a rubber traction sole, driving moc/ballerina slipper in one, animal print….'nough said. These would also be so great with a straight leg or skinny.
These sporty ones wouldn't work with a trouser jean but would be oh so cute with other cuts. Love 'em.
Can wear socks with these! Do a warm thick wooly one or maybe a cute argyle.
If you know Dansko's, you might already be a fan. These are not for trouser jeans either but can be really cute with the other styles. With or without socks. I've seen them really cute with rolled up straight leg jeans (without socks if rolled or showing your ankle) and a long sleeve tee. And do a fun color like these if possible instead of black. Ask any nurse….they know them well for, wait for it….. COMFORT!
Obviously, a cute little metallic flat….goes with every single jean you could own.
Regular driving moc…uber comfortable. I have some in a denimy blue and love them. They look best with straight and skinny.
Hushpuppies has upped their game! Traditionally a fairly comfort brand shoe. These are very uptownish I think. Really stylish!
And for those that insist on a heavy, sporty style and believe (wrongly) that they are all that can be comfortable, here you go…..
These will just really work with straight and bootleg cuts. And wear a sport or wooly/cottony type sock, not a tube or patterned trouser sock!….I know, I'm so particular.
And last but not least, living in Music City you can't talk about comfortable footwear with jeans without talking about cowboy boots. Every girl needs a pair. These are fairly classic with a touch of embellishment. Wear with straight, flared, or a bootleg jean, or maybe, tuck your skinny jeans in them. Make sure you have a blousey, bit longer top though.
Obviously the few examples I've shown here are just the tip of the iceberg. Like I said before, it may take some time and effort and a some dollars but there are choices. These are all from Zappos.com and Zappos has a lenient and easy return policy. Also, Marmi in Green Hills Mall has a reputation carrying hard to find sizes and having comfort styles. And brands like Clarks, Aerosoles, Cole Hann, Naturalizer, Josef Seibel, Sofft and others will more styles.
So, what do you think? Have I given you enough incentive to stop wearing your black, cruddy loafers? I hope so. There are ways to be stylish and comfortable with jeans. Let me know if I can help you in any way! Thanks for reading….


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Definitions for a.a.a.l
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word a.a.a.l
We couldn't find a direct definition for the term a.a.a.l.
Maybe you were looking for one of these terms?
a. o. c, a. testudineus, a. very large scale, a. w. g, a.a., a.a.a.l., a.a.a.s., a.a.p.s.s., a.a.u., a.a.u.p.


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Archive Only - Fresh content at http://www.cntraveler.com
1060 Travel Guide
Snapshot / Brussels Hotels / Hotel Loyalty / Hotel Brainwaves / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Hey Hotels, This Is How You Lock In Repeat Guests Nicely
Now this is how you encourage repeat visitors.
When we checked into the Vintage Hotel in Brussels a few weeks ago, we found this confection on the bed. Two Jules Destrooper waffle cookies – yes please! And this "keep calm and let's make a deal" card which, when you turned it over, offered 10% off future stays.
Now, of course, 10% isn't much, not for a hotel where rooms hover around the €100 mark. It's not the kind of deal to see you hopping on the next Eurostar. But that's not the point – the point is that it makes you think they value your patronage, and that's the kind of thing that makes you want to book again.
Glamping / Boutique Hotels / Brussels Hotels / Belgium Hotels / Design Hotels / Europe Hotels / → All Tags
Brussels' Vintage Hotel Wants You To "Glamp" In Their Front Yard
When we think of Brussels, we think about the European Union, beer and chocolate. Never had we thought of the city, although scenic and somewhat quirky with its love of surrealism, as the headquarters of cool. And then in 2009 along came the 29-room Vintage Hotel (a former home for the elderly), that's in a great location close to swish shopping street, Avenue Louise. Suddenly the "it" factor went way up.
Now, in 2012, the hotel's added a symbol of pure 1950s Americana: a refurbed vintage 1958 Airstream trailer that has all of the mod-cons one expects.Yes, Brussels has discovered "glamping" !
We got a peek at this eccentric hotel and the Airstream Room (known as "Hazel") parked in the hotel's courtyard. Hazel is outfitted with a double bed, shower and WC, a separate seating area, WiFi, a flat-screen TV and air conditioning. (BTW, it's the only room at the hotel that's air conditioned.)
Art Hotels / Belgium Hotels / Brussels Hotels / Boutique Hotels / → All Tags
Brussels' Pantone Hotel is Like a Little Embassy for Colors
Oh manwe haven't checked in on Brussels' new Pantone Hotel in almost a full year, but it looks like the New York Times is even slower, since the colorful hotel only just hit their radar.
The Times' T Magazine takes a deeper look inside the hotel, including its beanbag-outfitted roofdeck, mod lounge and appropriately vibrant breakfast buffet. There's not a review, per se, but they do state something we absolutely agree with, and that's the fact that Brussels suffers from a lack of cool hotels like this. The Pantone is filling a need there, and its rooms from $137 including free WiFi are hopefully a hit.
Design Hotels / Fashion Hotels / Pantone Hotels / Brussels Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
We're Dye-ing Over The Pantone Hotel in Brussels
Fast Company reported yesterday on a very new type of designer hotel--The Pantone Hotel in Brussels. Yes, Pantone as in the company that created a precise-color matching system by which all designers of anything live and dye by.
The company, while extremely well-known in its industry, is looking to reach out to real consumers. Hence, The Pantone Hotel.
Designed by Belgian interior designer Michel Penneman and Belgian architect Olivier Hannaert, each of the hotel's 59 rooms, which range from $84 to $184 a night, is inspired by different Pantone color palettes. On-site Pantone Color consultants are apparently available for "color consultations and educational seminars on color psychology and trends."
But what we love, absolutely love, is that guests can choose their room at check-in based on their MOOD. It's like a Mood Ring Hotel!
Hotel Bathrooms / Brussels Hotels / Belgium Hotels / → All Tags
The Bathroom Mirror at the NH Hotel Brussels Boosts Our Self-Esteem
Mirror, mirror, on the wall--or at least hanging in the bathroom in the NH Brussels hotel. Apparently we're not the fairest of them all, but this mirror still has a friendly message for us:
I see a lot of faces and I have never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
The nice part is that guest reviews make the NH Brussels sound like one of the best hotels in town, so we probably would be smiling at this mirror. And more so now that we've discovered a stay at this place won't break the bank, with rooms starting at €64.50 (a strangely not-rounded price but that's what the hotel's own website promises; it's less than $85).
If the mirrors are so complimentary about our beautiful smiling faces, then we're just wondering what the staff will have to say about our great dress sense and gorgeous luggage, too. And who said Belgium was only good for the chocolate?
[Photo: kattebelletje]
WTF Hotel News / Brussels Hotels / Hotel Crime / Hotel News / Hotel Sex / → All Tags
Seventeen Women Freed from 'Slavery' at Conrad Brussels
Holy crap. Dozens of police raided the Conrad Hotel Brussels (which has been called the "most exclusive" hotel in the city) and freed 17 people who were being held as slaves by a royal family living in the hotel.
The Telegraph had the scoop:
The operation was triggered by the apparent escape of a maid who was among 20 servants working for the widow of a senior royal figure from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters who have rented the entire fourth floor of the hotel for the last year.
The servants, dubbed "slaves" in the Belgian media, allegedly had to be at the service of the Arab royals 24 hours a day and had their passport taken away on arrival in Belgium. The women were reportedly not allowed to leave the hotel and their monthly salaries were as low as Ł80 a month.
Insane, right? The investigation is still going on, and no charges have been brought against the royal family yet.


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Why Choose Silver Star?
As an independent company, we are not restricted by franchise rules. This allows us to be more flexible and responsive to your unique needs as we create a personalized plan of care for you or your loved one.
Our highly-skilled Certified Home Health Aides & Companion Care Aides are fully bonded, licensed & insured, and undergo continual education provided by Silver Star through various outlets and professionals.
As a member of The Senior's Choice, the nation's largest network of independent private duty companies, Silver Star has access to home care education, knowledge and experience from around the U.S., and even the globe. The information gained through this network of exemplary professionals assists us in constantly expanding and improving our home care offerings.
We are dedicated to providing affordable care without sacrificing quality of care.
Some of Our Services
Silver Star Senior Care offers a wide range of in-home care services including:
- Caring Companionship
- Meal Planning and Preparation
- Incidental Transportation
- Shopping and Running Errands
- Light Housekeeping
- Medication Reminders
- Monitoring for Safety
- Assistance with Bathing & Grooming
- Assistance with Bill Paying
- Information and Referral Services
- Other Non-Medical Services, as needed


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Who are we?
The New Zealand Sports Industry Association Inc was formed in March 1987 by merging the NZ Sports Dealers Federation and the NZ Sports Goods Industries Association into one organisation. This body was called the NZ Sports Goods Association which held its first AGM in June 1987. Pat Williams, John Vaughan & Co Ltd., was elected President and Jack Carter was appointed Executive Director. In March 1997 the association changed its name to the NZ Sports Industry Association Inc to reflect the changing type of membership.
As from the 1st April 2007 the NZ Sports Industry Association became a specialty trade group within the NZ Retailers Association Inc. The New Zealand Sports Industry Association is a trade membership association made up of suppliers and retailers formed in 1987 to help strengthen and integrate the activities of members involved in the sports industry.
- Promote the sale of sporting, leisure and recreational equipment and services to the consumer through the member chain of supply
- Encourage New Zealanders to take a more active part in sport and recreation
- Educate and assist our members to operate effective, profitable and successful businesses
- Influence Government and other legislative bodies on issues in the best interests of the industry
- Develop and maintain benefits and services for all sectors of our membership
- Maintain an organisation structure that addresses the expectations and the needs of industry
How can I join?
To enquire about an NZSIA membership, please email or phone:
Email: email@example.com
Phone: (09) 845 3563


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Welcome to our Website
We are open Monday - Saturday from 10:00 - 6:00, Closed Sunday.
We're here to help you find the best of everything for your furry family. If you're tired of running around from store to store trying to find that special something for your dog or cat, come see us - we'll probably have exactly what you've been looking for!
We have the largest selection of clothing for dogs, from simple dog
t-shirts to extravagant formal dresses, dog costumes, dog coats and sweaters, in sizes that will fit everything from teacup Chihuahuas to Great Danes! We carry dog clothes by Doggie Design, Monkey Daze, Zack & Zoey, Casual Canine and the Eastside Collection, and such designer labels as Christian Audigier, Ed Hardy and Oscar Newman among others. Our dog and cat collars range from the plain to the elegant, with jeweled dog and cat collars and custom leather creations among our special offerings. Our custom made soft leather no-pull dog harnesses are guaranteed to work and come in 15 gorgeous colors.
We always have Spurs Jerseys for dogs on hand, and can order any professional or college team jerseys for you. We can even have them personalized with your pup's name!
All of our dog and cat food and treats are 100% natural, made of human-grade ingredients. Merrick 5-Star and Merrick Before Grain dog and cat foods are made in Texas, and rate among the best natural dog and cat foods on the market. Our Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw line for dogs and cats is certified organic and is manufactured in a USDA inspected facility in California which also produces human food. We carry the Natura Innova and Evo dog and cat products, which are also made in California under some of the strictest manufacturing standards in the industry.
Don't forget to visit our gourmet bakery where we have healthy bakery treats for your favorite pooch. We have large and small dog birthday cakes and dog birthday pies, too, to go with our birthday dresses, shirts and toys.
Our toys include selections from Planet Dog, Zanies, Grrigles and others, and we're especially proud to be one of the first pet boutiques in the nation to carry the Nina Ottosson line of interactive puzzles for your dog or cat.
We have bedding for all sizes and types, for both dogs & and cats. Working with vendors such as Animals Matter, Le Pet Petite and Decadent Digs, we strive to bring you the ultimate bedding products for your pets. For the burrowing pets, come see our selection of burrow beds and Snuggie burrow blankets. Many of our dog and cat beds can be special ordered in the color and style you desire. We also have colorful dog crates in bright colors with matching bedding and crate covers!
We have dog and cat carriers, including airline carriers, in all sizes and all price ranges. top of the line grooming products from Pet Silk and Happy Tails Spa, and many gifts for the dog or cat lover in your life.
Please bring your pup or kitty with you when you shop with us - we love meeting new friends!


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Reviews skills such as working with databases, using forms, storing persistent data, and creating dynamic charts.
Teaches advanced aspects of using ActionScript 2.0 to build applications.
Joey Lott teaches the essential skills and reveals the insider information needed to begin developing Flash applications.
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For over 30 years, Croissants de France & le Bistro, offer a mix of French food with a Caribbean touch, typical to Key West cuisine. Enjoy fresh baked pastries, the scent of baking croissants or cakes and the delicious signature coffee at the bakery front porch while watching people come and go on Duval Street. Seat in the lush garden at our French restaurant, feel the tranquil ambiance for breakfast or lunch and try our famous eggs Benedict or French toast.
For your birthday or celebration order our cakes and unique wedding canes baked in French tradition and quality with incredible flavors such as Frasier, chocolate Grand Marnier or Key lime.


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On News 88.9 KNPR
On Classical 89.7
1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89146
Main Number: 1-702-258-9895
Toll Free: 1-888-258-9895
an member station
French Food
Americans have always had a love-hate relationship with French food. As far back as Thomas Jefferson's time, there has been a general prejudice against French cooking, stemming from its aristocratic nature and unfortunate association with snobbery. In the early days of our history, politicians from Jefferson to George Washington and John Adams were decried by Patrick Henry (of "Give me liberty or give me death" fame), for preferring the fancified cuisine of Marie Antoinette to the native-and probably tasteless victuals –of which the common folk were so proud. This gastronomic no-nothingism survives today as public figures are careful to manifest public disdain for fancy food and wine, lest they be thought of as elitist. And Americans, especially that silent and badly fed majority, are ever vigilant to avoid what they think of as the ostentations ways of fine dining.
Even as far back as the eighteen-thirties, a la carte dining was considered undemocratic by the hoi polloi, who preferred huge amounts of various foods placed before them by the hotels and restaurants of the day. A French lecturer, Leon Blouet commenting on American eating habits in eighteen-eighty seven wrote that in the average hotel restaurant: "…there are rarely fewer that fifty different dishes on the menu at dinner time…and every day you see people order three and four times as much of this food as they could eat under any circumstance, sending the bulk away spoiled and uneaten. Lest you think this dilettante to be dismissible, remember that even James Fennimore Cooper, one of our own, once called American the grossest feeders of any civilized nation who consistently elevate quantity over quality.
This popular insistence on the forcible impression of plenty survives today in the form of the wasteful and waist-expanding buffets of which our town is so proud. Who knew there was such historical precedent for so much bad taste?? Gussied-up meals served in separate courses may not be Amurrrican in some circles, but I like to think of the ghosts of Washington and Jefferson frowning at all of those lining up at the trough.
This is John Curtas.
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Jayden Ellis is a regular punk at the local laundromat. Every time he comes into do his laundry he demands the use of his favorite dryer. He notices his favorite dryer already in use and tosses the wet load of clothes onto the counter. Everyone notices what Jayden has done and won't stand for it. After Jayden gets pissed, the guys decide it's time to take this rude punk down. Jayden tries to fight back but he's held down as his clothes are torn from his body before his head is shoved into the dryer that started all the trouble. The guys turn on the dryer and take turns fucking his hole as he screams for help. He's not going anywhere though, Jayden's made to crawl around the laundromat servicing every cock as he goes. The guys put on some dirty underwear and make the boy sniff every crotch before having Jayden shove his tongue in each of their holes. After servicing everyone's hole, Jayden is made to crawl inside one of the washers to suck cock. The crowd finishes him off with loads of
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