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Wait, you can get out of paying taxes for things such as this just by being a Republican? Sweet!
Good point. Please list all long-term exhibitors that have signed up for the medical mart over the last three years.
Careful, joe. You're mixing individual income and average income.
Bville teacher average pay is approaching 80k, some teachers making more than 90k. That's individual income.
Avg household income is 92k. That would include a working couple plus any working family members.
So a Bville teacher household income, with both spouses being teachers, could easily approach 200k.
Um, what middle class tax cuts has he given us?
Do you mean the Bush era "tax cuts," (to a good extent already eaten up by AMT, per Fed/Congressional money printing via TARP et al)?
According to my 8th grade civics class, congress gives tax cuts and tax increases, not the president. What is the president's authority to increase or cut taxes?
Oh my gosh, is it the end of the week already? Must be, since the weekly PD nativist rantings are hot off the press.
No real topic to write about this week. Never stopped them before. Let's hurl any topic we can think of against the wall, maybe something will stick. After all, when it comes to beating the catholic church, for the PD, any stick will do.
Yayyy! More money taken from workers by force and given for free to select insider buddies whose enterprises are unsustainable without welfare from us!
Here's an opportunity for the PD.
Before the county scandals exploded into indictments, the PD had the county official's back. Strong ongoing endorsements and support of the machine, the PD only joined the pile-on once it saw which way the wind was blowing.
Here's an opportunity to get ahead of the game. Redemption opportunities don't come along often. Look into this agency. Why does it suddenly need soaring new 'fees' (read: taxes) to do what has already been its job for a hundred years? What of all the rumors of cronyism?
And after this is exhausted, what exactly is the purpose of the port authority anyway?
Hey, Doug? I'm responding to the article. Not to you.
But since you piped in: It's immaterial. Why would you knowingly expose out-of-control toddlers to the potential for a known danger, and then try to justify the result because cyclists did not meet the Doug speed limit? That's just irresponsible, lad.
Your strung-out chain of uncontrolled toddlers doesn't make you deserving of more slack. If their uncontrollability makes them a danger to themselves or to others, the responsible decision seems to be to walk with them elsewhere. Say on a single track, the bridal path, a grassy meadow, along the stream.
What is the job of these nuns? What order do they belong to? Do the faithful's weekly donations go to their paychecks and their gas bill? Does Catholic charities contribute to their room and board? Because if donations are unknowingly going to fund a boondoggle political activity such as this, we have given too much money that could be better served elsewhere.
How is that a different tune? Great teachers should be rewarded. And sub-par teachers should be reprimanded or replaced. Unfortunately, the union lets neither of that happened, and instead encourages mediocrity where excellence is not rewarded.
Brecksville average salary is near $90,000, for 8 or 9 months of work. Teachers are retiring in their 50s with juicy pensions. Taxpayers must work 12 months, and don't even know what a pension is (hint: it's sure not social security).
The community can no longer afford to sustain this. All the whining and hand-wringing in the world won't help if the ATM is empty.
Let them strike. There are lots of out of work teachers out there, as well as fresh graduates who would die for a chance. Are there any teachers in Brecksville under age 30?
It was a great run while it lasted. But change and fiscal responsibility is now inevitable.
These laws have been in effect for some time. The anti-gun lobby predicted blood in the streets as a result. Yet crime is down.
Instead of a strident tirade, shrilly repeating itself in every paragraph, the editorial really needs to calmly and manfully address the fact that its anti-gun lobby was wrong before, why it was wrong, and why we should believe it now.
anything negative, that is.
Yes, boys and girls, it's Saturday. You know what that means! Time for the PD to publish another anti-Catholic screed!
Yes, this one is pretty wishy-washy as these things go, and smacks of a little desperation to publish something, anything, negative. But the editorial content doesn't matter, just the intent, and therefore it's a guarantee to get published.
But hey. It's accepted there is never anything published about Judaism, Islam, Hinduism. But when it comes to beating the Catholic Church, for the Plain Dealer any stick will do.
Should have been done 25 years ago. The passivity of the Vatican only helped foster the sense of privilege. Now they are understandably outraged at the audacity of the Catholic Church to actually expect these nuns to be Catholic.
They're free to start their own church, of course, if they don't want to listen to their bosses. Sort of like, we want to do what we do, we have to do what the corporation expects us to do. If not, we get fired.
This is not a slam to the majority of sisters who live lives of dedication, devotion, fidelity.
Oh yes, wholesalers love to "stockpile." They love to invest dollars in unproductive inventory that is increasingly sitting around. Not enough customers of this 'stockpile' leads to dollars being sunk into quite possibly depreciating inventory that has no return, affecting the bottom line.
If, as this article asserts, this is a sign of 'recovery,' then why don't wholesalers just borrow even more money so that they can 'stockpile' every possible SKU?
Ben, you forgot:
Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air (TARP, Quantitative Easing) and loans it to the Gov which in turn gives it for free to the banks. Meantime, we and our descendants have to pay back that loan and pay interest out of that loan. Meantime, all that extra created money results in price inflation, driving up the price of all necessities- gasoline, utilities, food...
When idiots at banks make stupid loans, instead of allowing them to suffer losses, taxpayers just get to give them free money!! When banks were doing good, taxpayers got nothing!!
1) How does the media report this story? Is the president now the master dictator of the country, ruling by fiat? Or does Congress still determine taxes? This is a serious question.
2) How does the media report this story? Are a veteran firefighter with ot married to a veteran public school teacher rich? The media adoration choir apparently considers them so, since their family income meets the unexplained definition metric. This is a serious question.
(TWA into American, not UNited!)
Frequent flyer elite on one airline or another for every one of well over twenty years.
There have been many mergers- TWA into United; Northwest into Delta. None took as long to actually happen as this Continental-United thing. And none debuted with such miserable results.
The airlines have been fighting each other over the last several years to see who can get away with the most terrible customer service at the highest cost and highest fees. I can't think this mess with United is due simply to terrible mismanagement by the C-Team. I think they saw an opportunity to continue with their trend of reducing service and making the experience bad.
They hate their customers, and it shows.
I can't think of many (any?) industries that thrive on such terrible customer service as do the airlines.


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Alicia Keys
Jennifer Hudson & Alicia Keys Deliver Powerful Super Bowl Performances
Originally posted 02/03/2013 06:45PM
And Super Bowl XLVII begins. Minutes before kickoff, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys took to the field to deliver powerful performances of their own.
Accompanied by a children's chorus from Sandy Hook elementary school, Hudson sang "America the Beautiful." Then, Keys belted out her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" while playing piano.
5 Things You Missed: Alicia Keys's Revealing Fashion Decision, Beyoncé's Game Face & What's On Kate Middleton's Shopping List
Originally posted 01/27/2013 08:00PM
Leading up to Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards, there was plenty of prize-worthy action on the streets of Hollywood (and beyond!) this weekend.
And the winner for best post-controversy comeback is ...
Here's what you missed:
5. Alicia & Swizz Beatz: (Cut)out and About in France This girl is indeed on fire: Alicia Keys heated up the NRJ Music Awards red carpet in an ab-solutely gorgeous cutout gown. Her accessory of choice: husband (and arm candy) Swizz Beatz, who joined her in Cannes, France.
(Hit the red carpet)
Barack Obama & Family Party at Star-Studded Post Inauguration Bash
Originally posted 01/22/2013 07:50PM
President Barack Obama celebrated his second inauguration Monday night with a private party following his very public day.
The Obama family – including wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha – headed to the White House later on in the evening for a black tie affair, which included celebrities and political stars, as well as a late night buffet of desserts.
The Obamas were surrounded by 300 family and friends, including Bill Clinton (without his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), John Kerry and Colin Powell. Lucky celebs who landed an invite were Swizz Beatz and wife Alicia Keys – who shared her inauguration photos with PEOPLE – Usher, John Legend and fiancée Chrissy Teigen, Jennifer Hudson, Katy Perry and John Mayer (who were "quite cute," says a source), Kelly Clarkson and her fiancé Brandon Blackstock, Eva Longoria, Kerry Washington and country star Brad Paisley.
Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Katy Perry & More Set for Kids' Inaugural Concert
Originally posted 01/11/2013 10:30AM
Talk about a lot of talent in one place!
The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Friday that Usher, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley and Katy Perry will be performing for the Kids' Inaugural and official inaugural balls in Washington, D.C., to celebrate President Barack Obama's being sworn in for a second term.
The kids' concert (Jan. 19) continues a tradition started by First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, four years ago during the President's first inaugural celebration.
Paul McCartney Goes Grunge & 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief's Top Five Moments
Originally posted 12/13/2012 11:00AM
Let's hear it for New York!
On Wednesday night, some of music's biggest stars came together for the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden.
The concert – which included performances from Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys, Kanye West and more – raised money to benefit those affected by the superstorm in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Alicia Keys: Motherhood Has Made Me a Better Person
Originally posted 12/13/2012 09:35AM
It's made the musician "made me more open, more connected to myself, more happy, and more creative"
Alicia Keys (Almost) Gets Auctioned Off in N.Y.C.
Originally posted 12/07/2012 06:35PM
Alicia Keys was definitely on fire Thursday night.
The Grammy-winning singer hosted, performed – and was nearly auctioned off – at the Black Ball "REDUX," an annual event for her organization Keep A Child Alive, which assists those affected by AIDS in Africa, held at New York's legendary Apollo Theatre. The event, which was rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy, honored Oprah Winfrey for her work in Africa and India and raised $2.9 million.
Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen to Headline 12-12-12 Sandy Relief Concert
Originally posted 12/07/2012 02:20PM
A benefit concert to help the victims of Superstorm Sandy will showcase both hometown talent, such as Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen, and stars from abroad, including Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton.
The event – 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief – will be held at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and will benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund, which offers assistance to those in the tri-state area who have been impacted by Sandy, the devastating storm of historic proportions that has left thousands homeless and caused millions of dollars worth of damages.
The event is set for broadcast Dec. 12 and will be live-streamed right here on PEOPLE.com as well as at 121212concert.org.
Other artists set to perform include: Dave Grohl, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin, Eddie Vedder, Roger Waters, Kanye West, The Who and more.
Alicia Keys Sings for Sandy Victims
Originally posted 11/28/2012 09:00AM
With her Girl on Fire album officially out, Alicia Keys took a break from her busy promotional schedule to honor superstorm Sandy first responders and volunteers in New York City on Tuesday.
The singer took to the iHeartRadio stage in lower Manhattan, singing several songs from her new album for the small group. Keys's son, 2-year-old Egypt, joined mom on stage for a bit, too, sitting comfortably in her arms as she belted her new tunes.
"Thank you again to all of the amazing first responders who continue to help with hurricane #Sandy," Keys wrote on Instagram after her show. "It was such a special night to perform for you all at the @iHeartRadio Theater!" – Melody Chiu
Alicia Keys 'Definitely' Having 'At Least' One More Child
Originally posted 11/20/2012 02:45PM
When Alicia Keys gave birth to son Egypt two years ago everything changed.
"To have this type of love in my life at this time in my life, it means so much. Perspectives change, priorities change," she tells Lara Logan on CBS' Person to Person, airing Friday, Nov. 23 (10:00 p.m. ET).
But motherhood has been a welcomed change for Keys, 31, who tied the knot with rapper-producer Swizz Beatz, 34, in July 2010.
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text: Publications Search Results Users may wish to consult What's Included in the Bibliography. Results 1 - 1 Results per page: 25 50 100 Sort by: Pub Date (newest) Title Recent Additions Author Clear All Pub. Year Citation 2010 Bowman, Stephen M., Aitken, Mary E., Sharp, Gregory B. Disparities in injury death location for people with epilepsy/seizures. Epilepsy and Behavior. 17, (3), 369-372. Full Text Options: DOI Worldcat Google Scholar Export Options: RIS EndNote XML [1]


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Enter a photo or video of your dog on a Kuranda Bed in your home and Win a Luxury Fleece Pad, then win 5 beds for your Shelter or Rescue!
Kuranda Beds will be donated in your name! These 4 contestants will then be competing to have 5 beds sent to their favorite shelter.
Click here to read the rules.
Want to enter your dog in an upcoming competition?
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Happy Aussie
Trapper on his Kuranda Dog Bed with his embroidered slip cover. Trapper is loving life!
If I win, 5 beds will be donated to Friends for Life - Houston.
682 votes so far.
Sit A Spell
Two brothers, Ranger and Graham happy after being rescued and before being adopted.
If I win, 5 beds will be donated to Scott County Humane Society,Virginia.
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Henry and Leia, happy and comfortable on their Kuranda Dog Beds.
If I win, 5 beds will be donated to Brother Wolf, Asheville NC.
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Regal Relaxation
Drake manning his station on his Kuranda Dog Bed watching over his flock.
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So that the voting remains fair to all, we will ask you to login or create an account to vote.
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July 2015
Kallie the Dobie Being a natural guard dog, Kallie the Doberman was always on high alert in the yard chasing birds and squirrels away and barking at neighbors' voices...until she got a Kuranda and started chilling out and relaxing!
June 2015
Tankerbell Loves Kuranda! Tankerbell is an 8 year old Saint Bernard who loves her Kuranda bed. Whether she is ready to take a nap or ease the pressure on her joints her Kuranda bed is her favorite thing in the house.
May 2015
Ummmm Bella...wrong way Bella is a Cane Corso pronounced("KAH-neh COR-soh") an ancient Italian Molosser. She is hoping to get votes for ECGGR to give to fosters whose dogs are undergoing heartworm treatment and seniors with arthritis. HELP US! VOTE!
April 2015
Howard the bulldog Howard's favorite pastime between walks on the treadmill is snoring away on his kuranda bed in front of a warm fire..seeing as its often -30 celcius here in Canada, we think this means he is one very smart dog!
March 2015
Porch time for Angus Augus is a happy camper on his Kuranda...and we're happy campers because this is a bed that he can't eat! Seriously, this is perfect bedding for large breed dogs.
February 2015
Teddy Teddy was adopted from Cuba Mo Animal Shelter and proof that shelter dogs are the best. He has been a great little brother to his aging yellow lab mix sister and a joy to our family. Teddy is a great addition in our lives.
January 2015
Pebbles As soon as I flipped her new Kuranda bed right side up, Pebbles couldn't wait to get on and make herself comfortable.
December 2014
Prince Prince is a prince of a guy. He's usually moving so getting this pic was quite the catch.
November 2014
Kuchi resting in style Patches is our foster dog we are fostering for a soldier currently deployed in Afghanistan and The Puppy Rescue Mission. We got her mid May and she will be with us until early fall. Patches mom rescued her in Afghanistan.
October 2014
Murphy loves his bed Murphy loves his Kuranda bed. Great for the giant breeds as it's not to high and evenly distributes their weight. Not to mention - it's puppy proof!


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NAMI Aiken Mission Statement
NAMI Aiken is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all whose lives are affected by mental illness. Education and support is given to both friends and families in Aiken.
A non-profit 501(c)3, grassroots, self-help and advocacy organization of consumers, families and friends of persons with serious mental illness. A service and action oriented organization that began meeting in Aiken in the late 1980s.
We have our Monthly Education Meetings the 4th Thursday of each Month at Aiken First Baptist Church (Downtown) in the Parlor Room at 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM.


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Our 4th of July tradition around here is a backyard barbecue with tons of watermelon and messy popsicles, accompanied by a firework display hosted by dad in the backyard. One of his favorite highlights of the year....kids too.
We top our evening off with smores around our firepit and talking about our favorite highlights and fireworks of the day, and hoping that the day would not have to end.
What do you have planned for the 4th of July this year?
PS- to make my stars and stripe pillow before the holiday, click here


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|Artist: Nas
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CONDITION: Brand New
IN STOCK: Usually Ships in 1 to 2 business days
Seller Information
Learn more about Greatest Hits(Explicit Version):
Format: CD
Manufacturer: Cbs/epic/wtg Records
Sku: 205866554
Release Date: 11/6/2007
See more in Rap / Hip-Hop
Song Listing
Disc 1
Song Title
1. Surviving the Times ~ Nas
2. Less Than an Hour (Theme from Rush Hour 3) ~ Nas
3. It Ain't Hard To Tell ~ Nas
4. Life's a Bitch ~ Nas
5. N.Y. State Of Mind ~ Nas
6. One Love ~ Nas
7. If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) ~ Nas
8. Street Dreams - (Remix, remix) ~ Nas
9. Hate Me Now ~ Nas
10. One Mic ~ Nas
11. Got Ur Self a... ~ Nas
12. Made You Look ~ Nas
13. I Can ~ Nas
14. Bridging the Gap ~ Nas
Album Notes and Credits
Notes & Personnel Info
|Personnel: AZ (vocals); Olu Dara (guitar, harmonica, trumpet); Salaam Remi (guitar, bass guitar, drums); Salaam "The Chameleon" Rami (guitar, drums); Delight 2000 Watts Music (keyboards); Chanelle Gstettenbauer (background vocals); Angela Hunte (vocals, background vocals); Lauryn Hill (vocals); Vincent Henry (guitar, strings, harmonica, baritone saxophone); Mercedes Abal (flute); Kathryn Bostic (background vocals).
|Additional personnel: Puff Daddy, Cee Lo Green.
|Audio Mixers: Diego Garrido; Stevo; Kevin Crouse; Richard Travali; Eddie Sancho ; Salaam "The Chameleon" Rami; Tone.
|Audio Remixer: R. Kelly.
|Recording information: Battery Studios, New York, NY; Chung King Studios, New York, NY; D&D Recording, New York, NY; D.A.R.P. Studios, Atlanta, GA; Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY; Hit Factory Studios, New York, NY; Right Track Recording, New York, NY; sony Music Studios; Studio Atlantis, Los Angeles, CA; TransContinental Studios, Orlando, FL; Unique Studios; WEstlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
|Photographers: Daniel Moss; Jonathan Mannion; Danny Clinch.
|Arrangers: George R. "Golden Fingers" Pearson; Mike "The Razor" Brinkley.
|Nasir Jones has gone from Nasty Nas to Nas to Escobar and back from his watershed debut ILLMATIC through to the polemic that is 2006's HIP-HOP IS DEAD. GREATEST HITS surveys Nas's hottest album tracks during this journey. Two previously unheard tracks (the autobiographical "Surviving the Times," which describes the young MC's struggle to enter the rap game, and "Less Than an Hour," the theme from RUSH HOUR 3 featuring Cee-Lo) kick the collection off. Overall, GREATEST HITS is an evenhanded blend that brings some of Nas's most successful tracks together with his strongest lyrical performances. AZ, R. Kelly, Lauryn Hill, Puff Daddy, and Q-Tip are featured.
Producer: Rashad Smith; Nas; D. Moet; Q-Tip; DJ Premier; Chris Webber; L.E.S.; Chucky Thompson; Salaam "The Chameleon" Rami; Large Professor; Tone; Pretty Boy; Megahertz Music Group; Rashad Smith; Nas; D. Moet; Salaam Remi; Q-Tip; DJ Premier; Chris Webber; L.E.S.;
Engineer: Jason Vogel; Kevin Crouse; Stan Wallace; Graham Marsh; Eddie Sancho; Steve Souder; Jaye Wynn; Rob Marks; Ben Kane; Diego Garrido; Michael Sroka; Jason Vogel; Anton "Sample This" Pushansky; Paul Gregory; Stevo; Salaam Remi; Kevin Crouse; T. Latham; Pablo A
Artist Overview
With charged poetic lyrics spit in an almost impossibly smooth flow, Nas turned the rap world on its ear in 1994 when the Queens MC unleashed the instantly immortal ILLMATIC. The immaculate record contained few frills, no skits, no celebrity cameos, just the rapper's deceptively complex rhymes, words that lounged in the listener's psyche for days after, layered over beats by some of the best producers of the day. While the following years would find Nas hard-pressed to live up to his supernova debut, he quietly released solid records. In 2001, his spirit revived by a beef with Jay-Z (they would reunite on stage years later), he released the acerbic STILLMATIC, which was followed by a string of critically praised records, but no shortage of controversy.
Artist Influences
Big Daddy Kane | Boogie Down Productions | EPMD | Eric B. & Rakim | Erick Sermon | Gang Starr | Intelligent Hoodlum | Kool G Rap | LL Cool J | Main Source | Marley Marl | Public Enemy | Rakim | The D.O.C.
Big Daddy Kane | Boogie Down Productions | EPMD | Eric B. & Rakim | Erick Sermon | Gang Starr | Intelligent Hoodlum | Kool G Rap | LL Cool J | Main Source | Marley Marl | Public Enemy | Rakim | The D.O.C.
Artist Contemporaries
AZ | Big Punisher | Black Moon | Canibus | Capone-N-Noreaga | Cappadonna | Cormega | Devin the Dude | Fat Joe | Ghostface Killah | GZA (Rap) | Jay-Z | Jeru the Damaja | Kanye West | Lupe Fiasco | Mobb Deep | Mos Def | Noreaga | PRhyme | Prodigy (Mobb Deep) | Raekwon | Redman | The Notorious B.I.G. | The Throne | Your Old Droog
AZ | Big Punisher | Black Moon | Canibus | Capone-N-Noreaga | Cappadonna | Cormega | Devin the Dude | Fat Joe | Ghostface Killah | GZA (Rap) | Jay-Z | Jeru the Damaja | Kanye West | Lupe Fiasco | Mobb Deep | Mos Def | Noreaga | PRhyme | Prodigy (Mobb Deep) | Raekwon | Redman | The Notorious B.I.G. | The Throne | Your Old Droog
Artist Followers
Big Punisher | Brother Ali | Eminem | Eve | Foxy Brown (Rap) | Game | Guilty Simpson | J. Cole (Rap) | Ja Rule | Lupe Fiasco | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | Mos Def | N.O.R.E. | Pharoahe Monch | Roc Marciano | The LOX
Big Punisher | Brother Ali | Eminem | Eve | Foxy Brown (Rap) | Game | Guilty Simpson | J. Cole (Rap) | Ja Rule | Lupe Fiasco | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | Mos Def | N.O.R.E. | Pharoahe Monch | Roc Marciano | The LOX
Compilation Appearances
Associated Artists and Works
|Green Lantern
|J. Period
|Khalifa, Wiz
|Marley, Damian
|Distant Relatives [PA] [Digipak] ~ Marley, Damian
|Nas & Ill Will Records Presents: QB Finest [PA] ~ Various Artists
Technical Info
|Release Date : 11/06/2007
|Original Release Date : 2007
|Catalog ID : 709550
|Label : Columbia (USA)
|Number of Discs : 1
|Studio/Live : Studio
|Mono/Stereo : Stereo
|SPAR Code : n/a
View all buying options for Greatest Hits(Explicit Version)
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If we shipped and sold your item, then you can return those items to us within forty five (45) days of the ship date. This policy does not apply if a different return policy is stated on the item's listing information.
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Ailing boxer Thapa gets financial aid
Former international boxer and coach Kishor Kumar Thapa, who has been suffering from paralysis, received financial support from the Nepal Boxing Organization on Tuesday. Thapa received Rs 50,000 from the organization while the National Sports Council chipped in with Rs 16,858. The Makwanpur Boxing Organization also donated Rs 5000 to the ailing boxer. All the donations were presented to Ashika Thapa, daughter of Kishor Thapa, in a ceremony. Thapa is in need of surgery as quickly as possible given the fact that his kidneys are at a risk of failing. The boxer's left side is fully paralyzed due to a brain hemorrhage.
Posted on: 2013-01-17 09:05


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Belle Epoque
Made in Portugal, this linen and cotton duvet set is elegantly accented with a soft and feminine floral print. Please note, twin set includes one sham.


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text:
The Place Where the Black Stars Hang: Part 23
By LowDesert
Chapter 23: Reunion and Revelation
A solitary horsewoman rode through the high dry grasses of the steppe. A scarlet cloak was wrapped around her body, concealing her unique red-and-dark blue corselet and the golden lasso on her hip. The sunlight flashed off her tiara, making her easy to detect from far away, but as far as Diana could see, she was the only person for miles around.
That was exactly how she wanted it. It had been a long time since she'd gone on a solo journey on horseback, and in Man's World she'd hardly had the time for it anyway. However, she realized how much she missed it – it was truly said by the ancients that an Amazon was born to the saddle. As she sat astride her horse Grey Eyes, Diana breathed in deeply of the good air of Themyscira. Although she sometimes missed her London apartment, her favorite heavy-metal nightclubs, the shops, and her friends, she knew that this magical island would always be her true home.
Diana took another deep breath, this time imagining the fresh air passing into her womb and imbuing her unborn child with the same love of Themyscira as she had. The day was so beautiful and pleasant, it was easy to think that no danger could arise here, but Diana was well-aware that perils existed even on Paradise Island, whether in the form of rabid harpies or other wild animals, and so her hand drifted down to the xiphos secured on her thigh band. But these were mundane threats; it was some other unknown, unnamed fear which made Diana confused and uneasy, even as she relaxed on her horse.
It was that same discomfiture that had compelled Diana to leave the Palace and head north to the lands of the Getai. She'd left a note for Selene – courtesy demanded that at least – only stating that she wanted to be alone to meditate for awhile. She knew that the shrewd warrior would guess where she had gone. Hopefully, Selene would delay telling her mother until she was well away!
Diana's free hand moved away from her sword to rest on the swell of her belly; she grinned broadly, her jitteriness dissipating as she thought of how happy Clark would be when he saw her. She imagined his reaction at their reunion, and she shivered in anticipation. Her husband was right – she should never have agreed to this separation. Now, she would make it up to him. She told herself that it was only his absence that caused her disquiet – surely it would be gone by the time she arrived north.
Then her mother's face, angry and displeased, swam before her but Diana irritably pushed it away. What could Hippolyta do about it? She was not a child anymore. She would just have to accept it.
Something cried high above her and Diana looked up. It was an eagle, its magnificent large wings spread wide to catch the wind. It was flying towards the north. This was a good omen!
"Yaahhhh!" Diana shouted, and spurred Grey Eyes into a gallop, and they rode off across the steppe, following the eagle.
Clark Kent stood up to his knees in muddy, brackish water at the edge of a swampy bog roughly half a mile from Dierdre's school. His hands were on his hips, and he looked deep in thought. He was considering draining the bog, with the eventual goal of reclaiming the land to make it suitable for growing crops. However, thanks to Jonathan Kent he knew that although he could change the course of mighty rivers, he shouldn't damage fragile ecosystems in the process. He had done that once as a kid, with a small stream near the farm, and his dad had made him put it back the way it was! He'd learned alot from Pa, not least of which was to have patience and not act impulsively.
Actually, the idea had been Dierdre's. She'd been complaining the other day (as usual) about the hassle of sending him into the nearest village for supplies. It was one of the tasks she'd assigned him, claiming she had "gout" and couldn't get around easily (although she seemed mobile enough follow him around whenever she needed find him to berate for some crime or another). He'd come to especially dislike that particular job since the fierce northern Amazons tended to either verbally abuse him or totally ignore his carefully worded and polite requests for foodstuffs.
"What else can we do, ye big oaf?" Dierdre had said when he'd complained. "We don't have any place to grow our own food, and like as not I'm too weak with the gout to be pulling a plow anyhows, an' I'm too busy with the bairns, and makin' sure ye're not up to mischief, and if ye can't do anything about my sisters, then put up with it!"
So much for that. But all that had changed after that wild Assembly he'd been "invited" to. Boudicaa was true to her word. The next morning she'd given Clark gifts: a handsome cloak of soft wolf's fur and a bag full of sweet buns for the children in Dierdre's school. She'd even given him his own horse, a gentle gelding who didn't try to nip him, unlike Diana's mare.
"And be sure to give this to Dierdre," Boudicaa gave him a box which contained a scroll and some intricately worked broaches. "It's just a little note thanking her for allowing your attendance at the Assembly, and stating that you are welcome anywhere in our lands," She winked at Clark. "She'll get the message."
Clark had thanked the Getai chieftain and rode off, trying not to laugh at the hungover Getai who watched him leave, glumly. It had been even harder to not look smug when he gave the scroll to a dumbfounded Dierdre. However, the little girls were genuinely happy to see him back, especially since he had a sackful of treats. As Boudicaa had intended, Dierdre relaxed in her behavior towards him, although she still put on a gruff act in front of the children. As for the girls, they'd been too shy or scared to speak to him initially but gradually they spoke to him more and more, and now they could without having to worry about Dierdre's switch on their backsides. The stout woman even relented enough to let him sit in on some of her classes, inviting him to talk about Man's World. Clark had been inspired by their positive curiosity, although Dierdre still grimly warned her pupils that as a man Kal was obviously biased towards Man's World. He could see that at least some of them really believed he was not some ogre out of a fairy story.
The local Getai had also changed their attitudes; they'd stopped riding out to goad Clark into a fight, but instead, whenever he rode into the village for supplies now, the Amazons wolf-whistled and called out lewd remarks, some so bad they would've made Hal Jordan blush. Now he could really sympathize with his female colleagues at the Daily Planet! So he was still confronted with the same problem.
Anyway, it would still be better if the school could become self-sufficient. This land was so fertile, it seemed a waste not to utilize it to feed people. Clark indulged briefly in another daydream of building his own farm and raising his own crops, and the dream of living peacefully here with his family, Diana and their children, away from violence and fighting…
"What are you thinking about, Kal?"
Clark turned around, seeing one of Dierdre's pupils behind him. The six-year-old's name was Kori, she was the girl who'd poked him with her stick his first morning here. Before, she would run and hide whenever he'd come into sight; now, she was full of questions for him.
"I'm thinking how I can turn this bog into farmland," Clark replied.
"So you and your sisters can grow your own food."
"I thought you made all our food?"
Clark grinned. "No, I just delivered it in the wagon! See, this way you don't need to have somebody bring your food to you. You can just reach out and get it for yourself, right from the ground."
Kori stood awkwardly behind him, digging her bare toes into the ground; she was really quite shy. Clark had learned that her mother had died very young…but who could her father have been, he wondered?
"What will happen to Juba?"
Clark's eyebrows lifted. "Who's Juba?
"He lives here with his friends. See?" Kori pointed near his right foot. "There he is now. Kal, could he live on the farm with you?"
He followed her finger, and saw a little frog sitting at the edge of the water. It jumped in and swam off, no doubt going to tell all his little frog friends that Superman was about to demolish their home.
Clark sighed. Maybe this was going to take much more planning.
"Of course he can. You'd better get back before Dierdre knows you're gone, Kori. Or we'll both be in trouble!"
"Okay, Kal!"
The little girl ran quickly back to the house, as swift as a deer. He marveled that the Amazon children were so resilient, but of course this wasn't Metropolis, or Gotham City for that matter.
Clark turned to follow her back, but then he paused, and half-turned, looking behind him. He heard something approaching, it sounded like the thrumming of horse's hooves, still miles away. Was it one of those crazy Getai looking for him? If so he'd better hurry back quickly before she got within sight…
Then Clark heard something else altogether, and his expression changed completely.
Diana had entered the land of the Getai unchallenged, but she kept a watchful eye out for her Northern sisters, who were prone to rush out and attack anyone not of their tribe (and later claim they were just having a 'bit of fun'). She wasn't in the mood for scrapping; she'd been riding all day and was, to her surprise, a little fatigued from the unaccustomed riding, not to mention hungry. She actually had only a faint idea of where Dierdre's farm was located but hoped she would find it by nightfall.
Grey Eyes suddenly stopped, snorting, and Diana was immediately alert.
"What is it, girl?" She whispered. Her eyes scanned the woods around her. It was not beyond possibility there could be a pack of Themysciran wolves about; they avoided human villages, but were free to roam the forests for their prey, and she was in their territory.
A sound came from somewhere to her right and Diana turned towards it, her hand automatically reaching for her sword, but then Grey Eyes whinnied and reared up on her hind legs. She grabbed at the reins, cursing as she felt herself slipping, but before she could fall she felt arms around hers and she was pulled off and away.
A second later she was floating above Grey Eyes, held tightly from behind, and a man's bristly beard was scraping her cheek.
"Now that men have been allowed on the island, can a woman no longer travel in Themyscira without being accosted by some rough bandit?" Diana growled indignantly.
"I'm Hippolyta's worst nightmare," Clark hissed into her ear. "I've captured her royal daughter, and now I shall take her back to my lair to do with as I please!"
"You dare to manhandle a pregnant woman? Truly, you nothing but some low beast!"
That was it, Clark couldn't keep from laughing, and Diana joined him. She turned around in his arms, and embraced him tightly, her lips pressing onto his. For a minute they hovered together in the air, their arms entwined, kissing deeply. Finally, slowly they descended down to the ground.
"How I've missed you, Diana," Clark said throatily, still surprised at seeing her here. He looked down at his wife's belly and just as she expected, the look on his face was full of emotion, which swelled her heart. "Oh…it's incredible.." He looked at her again and his happiness seemed to practically radiate from him. "I can hear the heartbeat!"
"That must be how you found us," Diana still clutched him, not wanting to let him go yet. "How I have missed you! Every moment without you has been torment!"
Yes, I bet, alone with your mother! Clark thought, but he didn't say it out loud. "For me too!"
Finally Diana loosened her grip on him. To her relief, he seemed fine, even though he was dressed like in semi-Getai fashion, in a sleeveless woolen vest and long striped trousers.
"Ugh, you look like a…a hippy at the Glastonbury Festival!" She eyed him. "Have the Getai been bothering you?"
Clark didn't dare tell her what they'd tried to do with him at the Assembly. "Oh, no not at all," he replied. "I got to meet Boudicaa and everything's fine, she's made sure Dierdre treats me okay. You have to come see the school…it's not far."
You are still a bad liar, Kent, Diana thought, and knowing her northern sisters she guessed the truth but it didn't matter now. She was with her mate and that was what she cared about.
"What about you, are you all right?" Clark suddenly looked worried. "Why did you come out here? Has something happened?"
"No, it was…I just had to see you. The baby is fine. I just missed you."
"Did you have a fight with Hippolyta?"
Diana shook her head. "No, I didn't. I just wanted to be with you is all. One of my 'urges' I guess."
Clark guessed correctly that Hippolyta didn't know she was gone, but he also didn't care right at this moment. He was feeling another type of 'urge' begin to overwhelm him. It had been three months, after all!
He pulled the Amazon Princess back to him forcefully, pressing his body against hers, staring down at her with such a lustful look than she positively quivered in his grip.
"I want you right now," Clark's voice came out a deep growl. "Right here."
"Not here," Diana said hurriedly, although she really wanted nothing more than what Clark was suggesting. "There are wolves here. Let's ride back to your place."
"Let's use the express lane then," Clark felt he couldn't wait for the horseback ride. He promptly set Diana back on her horse, then scooted underneath Grey Eyes and picked her up. "I'm sure she won't mind!"
Diana laughed. "Clark, you're not supposed to fly!"
"Would you prefer to delay our renuion then?"
Diana didn't.
Next morning
Diana woke up before Clark, just before the dawn. She stretched luxuriously, and turned so that she was facing her husband. She opened his eyes, saw him still asleep, with just the hint of a satiated smile on his lips.
They were both in Dierdre's restored barn, snuggled together. Clark had constructed for himself a small loft above the hay and the animal stalls, and managed to furnish it comfortably yet simply with a pallet and a few blankets.
For the moment she lay still, her head resting on his broad shoulder, her fingertips lightly stroking the hairs on his chest, feeling it rise and fall with his steady breath. She looked at his profile in the faint light. She thought he was so impossibly beautiful – yes, that was the right word – he could be an Olympian God. No, he was better than those jealous, bickering Gods, because more so than his handsome looks, Diana knew his true beauty lay in his character, his passion for truth and justice, his morality, and compassion for others and his love for her and his friends.
If only my sisters could see you as I do! Diana thought wistfully. They would accept you without fear.
Her mind drifted back to their first encounter, the battle with Darkseid, then their subsequent adventures together, their friendship, their first kiss, their first tentative dates together. She remembered their first intimacy, in his apartment in Metropolis. They had come back from a wonderful night out: first a dinner at a restaurant both of them liked, then dancing at a trendy club, and then back to his place. It had all been spontaneous and unplanned. Soon, before either of them realized what they were really doing, they were in each other's arms, undressing the other, eagerly caressing the other as if they could not get enough of one another. She remembered Clark's strong hands over her body. They had ended up in his bedroom, and before she knew it he was lying on top of her, in the position the Amazons described as shameful submission, and she felt his lips on her breasts, the heated intense look on his face; she'd felt his manhood, incredibly hard and thick, pressing against her belly…
For a moment – a seconds' breath – Diana's ingrained tradition nearly overwhelmed her. Here were all the fears of the Amazon race, the teachings of the Iron Rite, that taught this was the moment of supreme danger. It was in this moment when a man would reveal his true and awful nature – he had her at her mercy, now he would show her violence if she resisted him. He would force her beneath his strong body and ravage her, not caring if he caused her pain or even killed her in order to slake his lust. In that split-second, a mindless panic almost overcame her and if she had had her sword with her…
But Clark must have sensed her momentary hesitation, and fear. He'd stopped pressing down on her, despite his evident desire, and neither rushed her nor compelled her to do anything horrible. As he pulled off of her, shakily mumbling some apology or other, she saw in his eyes all the times he'd been afraid to be intimate with a woman, for fear he would hurt them or that they'd reject him. She'd hushed him and drew him back down to her, no longer fearful…and then there was no problem after that; even the initial pain of first taking him into her was soon forgotten in the whirlwind of passion that enveloped them, and for hours that night they'd enjoyed each other, savoring their first lovemaking together.
It was then, Diana realized, that she knew for a fact that the ancient teachings were wrong. Men were not always evil. Men could be loving, and intimate without resorting to violence. It was Steve Trevor who had shown her that men and women could be friends (and for that she would always remember him fondly), but it had been Clark who'd shown her true love.
She would have been happy even if Clark decided he wanted to break up and see other women, but it soon became evident he was as smitten with her as she with him, and not long after that night they'd decided on the handfasting. For Amazons, to commit oneself to a lover required no special ceremony – one swore devotion to a partner and that was that. Clark had said that Kryptonians bonded too, but that it was based mostly on genetic and professional suitability, although fondness for one's partner played a little part in it. So they'd created their own vows, based on both their cultures, and their own ceremony, on a island in the Peloponnese. It was just the two of them, on a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, him in his cleaned and polished suit and her with a white cloak over her corselet, her hands painted with henna for the occasion. Soon after, they'd gone to the Watchtower and announced the news to the other League members, who actually weren't all that surprised that the two of them had made it "official." That had been the easy part. Even then, Diana knew that she would have to reveal this to her mother and her sisters, who would take it with a lot less enthusiasm.
Diana felt sometimes that her love for Clark would burst her heart, it was almost like a physical pain. On the heels of that, an uninvited memory entered her mind. The dream of the other night, the one in which she had seen Clark, dead or dying.
The thought of losing Clark would be too terrible to bear; although as members of the Justice League they knew they would always face that possibility, but here, now, suddenly along with the passion came a unexpected fear that nearly took her breath away. All of a sudden, she felt such a premonition of horror and death, not for her, but for her husband. It came like a chill wind from nowhere, so powerful that she almost moaned aloud.
Gaia! Diana thought, shocked. From what pit of Tartarus did that come from?
She must have clutched at his chest in her distress, because then Clark stirred. His eyelids fluttered, and he opened them. His sleepy eyes fell on her and he smiled. Seeing his smile, like the sun's rays, Diana's fears soon evaporated, and she rolled closer against him.
"Mmm," Clark murmured in his deep voice. "Best wakeup I've had in months!"
"Me too!" She relished the feel of his arms coming up around her. If only they could stay like this forever!
"Sometimes in here I feel like I'm back in Smallville," Clark said thoughtfully. "Remember, when we used to sleep in the barn?"
"Mmmm," Diana pressed her lips against his warm skin. "I think that is how we made the baby in the first place!"
Suddenly a loud thud hit the wall of the barn, startling Diana. Clark quickly glanced at the far wall, and groaned aloud. Before Diana could ask what was wrong, someone hailed him from outside.
"Oi, man!" A voice speaking in rough Northern Amazon dialect came through the wooden walls. "Are ye awake yet?"
"Care fer some company?" A second voice called out. "We can keep ye warm better than yer cows!"
"Unless ye prefer them to us!" Loud giggly laughter then came.
"What is that?" Already Diana's voice sounded truculent, which Clark recognized as a Bad Sign.
"It's nobody, it's only these two Getai sisters, they come every week and…"
"Sisters?" Diana said in a low malevolent tone. Clark recognized this as also her usual prelude to violence. He hurriedly sat up and pulled on his trousers. "It's nothing," he said quickly. "I stay in here when they turn up. They just yell and throw things, but they go away when they see I don't react, they must just be bored in their village…"
"Oi!" The first voice shouted again. "Don't ye want a cuddle? C'mon, man! It is not good to keep it all bottled up inside ye!"
"And the Princess is a long way off!" More raucous laughter. "Sure, you have enough to spread around!"
"That's it!"
Before Clark could say anything there was a thunderous boom and then there was a roughly Diana-shaped hole in the side of the barn. He sighed. More work to repair the barn, and more lumber to be acquired. However, the look on the faces of the Getai sisters as Diana charged out at them: priceless. He heard the laughter of the Getai quickly turn into yelps of pain as Diana sent them packing, with a warning not to show up again. Quickly, he finished dressing, and ran his fingers threw his hair.
Diana came back into the barn, looking rather satisfied.
"They won't bother you again," she announced. "I've seen to that."
"I'm sure you have," Clark floated down to the ground. "But what about Dierdre?"
"Oh, yes, Dierdre," Diana smiled. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see her Princess!"
The Getai schoolteacher was already planning the day's lessons when she caught a glimpse of Kal in the corner of her eye. The sun was already above the horizon and he was just now up! That man thought he was quite something fancy, ever since his audience with Boudicaa! Somehow she had got to put him back in his place!
As soon as he came within range she lit into him.
"So because ye have Boudicca's blessing ye think ye can sleep in late in in the mornings, do ye? Well let me tell ye-"
Clark relished yet another priceless look on the woman's face as she saw the Princess walking just behind him. He beamed – this was going to be a good day!
"My-my Lady!" Dierdre recovered from her shock and stood up hurriedly, brushing off the front of her tartan muumuu. She bowed, as gracefully as her bulk permitted. "Ye're most welcome here at my humble school. Please…let me present to ye me pupils."
With much shouting, Dierdre immediately rounded up the kids, all nine girls goggling at Princess Diana, the first time they had set eyes on her.
"Halkyone, Kori, stand up straight! Don't dilly-dally…Iocasta, take your finger out of your nose, you silly girl! Now, all together, welcome our Princess properly."
"Welcome, Princess Diana," all the girls said and bowed, following Dierdre's lead. "May the Goddess bless you and yours."
"Blessings to you," Diana said graciously. "I am so glad to see all of you."
Dierdre approached the Princess, nervously wringing her hands, still clearly flustered, darting uneasy glances towards Clark.
"What brings you here, m'lady?" Dierdre asked nervously, although she thought she knew why.
"Oh, just…passing through," Diana glanced quickly at Clark. She hadn't quite planned on exactly what to say. "It's been a long time since I've been to the North to see my Getai sisters."
"You are most welcome here," Dierdre said. "Your presence honors us. Please, stay and eat with us."
"Thank you," Diana replied, trying not to look at Clark, lest she crack up. "We shall join you for breakfast."
"Er, whatever m'lady wishes, both of ye're more than welcome to come in and share our table."
"But Dierdre," Iocasta said. "You said that Kal's not allowed to have our…"
"Hush, silly girl! Go inside and get washed, all of you, and set the table for our guest…guests."
Dierdre nervously herded her charges inside while Clark and Diana looked at each other and grinned.
"This is definitely a welcome change!" Clark remarked.
"I am thinking this isn't your usual treatment," Diana said dryly. "Well, you are right. Change is going to happen, starting now!
Breakfast that day was one of the best in Clark's recent memory. The children, watched over by a nervous Dierdre, were full of excitement at seeing a real, live Princess, and bombarded her with questions about life in the Palace and Mans World. Afterwards, the Getai matron had them lined up again and perform songs and dancing for Diana, while Clark watched with pleasure.
"We have one more thing to show you Princess," one of the oldest girls, Alexa, said. She handed her a a papyrus scroll. On the top read,
The Themyscira Times.
All the News Fit to Print (and Then Some)
Weather Today is Hot. Like Yesterday.
Halkyone scored top marks again in class.
It is rumored Iocasta will be promoted to chief singer in our choir.
Persephone was sent to her room for talking back to teacher.
Village News: Our Getai Sisters will invite us to their Fall Festival. Same as Last Year.
News from the Capital: Kal reports that Themyscira's Sewers are new and improved, from old and lousy before he came to our island.
Weather Forecast Tomorrow: Hot
Diana laughed delightedly. "This is wonderful!" She looked at Clark. "Was this your idea?"
Clark smiled. "Really, it was Alexa's. She asked what I did for a job – my real job – so I showed her."
"Wow," Diana said. "Our island's first newspaper!"
Dierdre shook her head in weak protest and grumbled beneath her breath. "Spreading sedition and impudence!" She looked at Diana. "Forgive me m'lady, but it is time for th' bairns' classes…"
"Yes, we won't detain you any longer," She looked at Clark. "I will…inspect the lands, with Kal's help."
A few of the girls giggled at the look on Diana's face. Dierdre glared at them.
"Hurry and get your styluses and papyri!"
Diana turned to Clark. "Shall we go riding together, Kal?"
"Sure thing! I'll go get Grey Eyes ready…if she'll behave!"
After Clark had gone, Dierdre approached Diana nervously once more.
"I trust m'lady is pleased?"
Diana nodded. "Yes, I am. You've done wonderfully with the children. I am happy to see Kal is doing well here."
"Ah, yes…I am glad to find favor in your eyes," Dierdre replied but this was formula. She abandoned it.
"Is everything else… well, m'lady?" The Getai woman could hardly keep her eyes from the Princess' noticeable baby bump. She'd heard the stories but to see it with her own eyes! However would she explain it to the bairns?
"Quite well, thank you," Diana looked at the woman sharply, and Dierdre immediately lowered her eyes.
"Th' man…Kal, I mean, he…about th' Amazon children…"
Dierdre clearly dared not ask it aloud, but the question was implicit in her words.
"He does not know," Diana replied in a low voice. "Has he asked?"
"No. Not me, m'lady, anyways, " Dierdre began wringing her hands again, apparently her usual response to stress. "If…if he should ask…?"
Diana was silent a long moment. She recalled her conversation with Clark months ago, after their argument. He'd asked about the male children of the Amazons then.
Diana, why aren't there any boys here? Surely, the Amazons don't all have girl children?
Clark had been insistent, true to his journalist nature.
We have mostly girls. The few boys that are born…you should not ask about them, Clark.
Why not? What do you do to them?
They don't…survive. Call it whatever you want. I know it happens in Man's World, to girls…
That isn't right, there or here!
I'm not saying it is! But that is how it is here.
So what about our child? What if you have a boy? Our boy?
How can you think I would let that happen to our child! It it is a boy, he won't be raised on Themyscira obviously! We'll take him back to Metropolis, anywhere you want…
Diana was reluctant to say anything more, and Clark finally let it drop, although he saw that he was far from satisfied with her half-answers. She only hoped that they would be gone before he learned the truth…
"Tell him…" Diana paused, then began again. "Tell him…whatever you wish."
"I…I understand m'lady."
Diana nodded to the flustered schoolteacher and walked away to join Kal. Dierdre watched her leave, feeling pity for the young Princess, and, she realized with some surprise, for the big oaf himself.
Clark and Diana spent the rest of the day riding in the valley. Together they visited the Getai villages, and Clark saw that Diana was congratulated by her sisters, who looked at her admiringly for her relationship to Clark. More bawdy jokes were made, which this time Diana shared in. Clark still blushed. They didn't return to Dierdre's holding until late afternoon.
"When are you going back to the Capital?" Clark asked, after putting Grey Eyes in her stall and tossing in some hay and water.
Diana shook her head. "I've decided I'm not going back."
Clark looked at her in surprise. "What?"
"Hippolyta rules just fine without me, she always has. Philippus manages the training program for the visitors – she can handle Lois fine on her own. There's nothing for me to do. I will stay here with you."
"But you can hardly live in a barn..!"
"The barn is just as comfortable as the Palace," Diana insisted. "I don't need any frills. I can give birth there if I have to. This way, you'd be certain to be there with me." Actually I would prefer it, to be away and out of the Palace.
"If Dierdre has any objections, I'm sure I can help her get over them."
Clark remembered what Boudicaa had asked of him. He made a decision.
"I want you to do me a big favor Diana," Clark took a deep breath.
"What is that?"
"Return to the Palace."
Clark drove in the last nail in the wooden board with his hand. There, the hole in the barn was now fixed, good as new, or almost. He looked over his shoulder and saw Diana, seated with her back to him at the edge of the far side of the hill, watching the setting sun go down in a beautiful ball of orange.
He sighed. She hadn't taken his suggestion very well. Or maybe the mood-swings hadn't entirely gone away. Either way, Diana had shouted at him, he replied, she shouted some more, and then gone off to sulk, alone. Clark really hoped he was doing the right thing by suggesting she go back. But Rao knew, Hippolyta was probably having the mother of all fits by now. If Diana stayed here, that would damage their relationship even more, perhaps for good.
He walked up the hill and sat next to Diana, not speaking. He noted that she was determined not to look at him. He contented himself with watching the sunset with her.
After several long minutes it was Diana who finally broke the silence. "I don't want to leave you again," she said simply. "I want to say here with you."
"I know," Clark replied quietly . "But you know this would only drive more of a rift between you and your mother, and it's big enough already."
"Why do you care so much about her feelings?" Diana suddenly blurted. A petulant tone had crept into her voice which she hated but she couldn't help it. "She has treated you with nothing but contempt!"
"She's your mother."
"I know that! And at this moment, I don't particularly care to see her."
"You don't mean that, Diana."
"Clark, I know what I am talking about!"
"Do you, Diana?" Clark returned his gaze to the sun. "You know, I would give almost anything to see Martha Kent again, even for just five minutes. I wished I could have met Lara Lor-Van just once. You still have a mother who's alive."
"Clark, my mother-"
"I know she hates me. She would even if I had nothing to do with you. Maybe there's nothing I can do to change that. But I don't want to be the reason you estrange yourself from her. I know you want to be with me, but surely, we've only got a few more months to go."
Oh you foolish man, Diana thought. That's not the only reason why I want to stay here. I want to stay to make sure you come to no harm, so you can see your child before…in case something happens…
He thought that Diana was on the verge of protesting again, but instead she only said,
"For you Clark, I'll do as you ask."
Clark swallowed. "Thank you, Diana."
She turned to him, grasping her hands. She placed them on her body, not on her belly.
"We still have tonight," she husked. "Let us make its memory sustain us for the next few months, at least."
The morning arrived, much quicker than either of them wanted. After Grey Eyes was saddled, Clark and Diana stood together, facing each other. Parting a second time was just as hard, and she bit her lip to keep the tears back. Clark sensed her mood. He placed both of his hands on her, this time on her belly, looking down with intense concentration. She knew what he was doing, but his expression was unreadable. Finally he looked up.
"Do you want to know?" Clark whispered.
Diana shook her head. "Let it be a surprise."
Clark leaned in and kissed her; she returned it, once again feeling that chill wind of disquiet, and it took all of her will to force it back into the darkness.
"Be safe, Diana," Clark whispered against her lips. "Time will go by quick, you'll see."
Diana forced a smile on her face. "Of course it will."
Diana leapt on the back of her horse. Before she could leave, Clark grasped her hand. Diana looked down.
"Thank you for coming to see me," Clark said. "It made me happy."
"And me, also. Do not be late for me, husband."
Without another word she rode off, not looking back.
Clark watched her until she was far off and out of sight. He turned around but instead of walking back to the barn, he began walking into the valley. At first he took regular human strides, but then they became longer, and longer, until he was practically bounding over the earth each step the length of a football field. He spread his arms and threw back his head and shouted out gloriously, not caring who heard. At this moment he cared for nothing else but what he had just glimpsed in Diana's belly.
A son!
He had been able to see it clearly. Diana was carrying a boy, his son! It was no guesswork, it was a fact – he was no longer the last son of Krypton. The House of El, and all of Krypton, would continue to live on in his child, his and Diana's. He was no longer alone in the universe, the last of his race.
No longer the last.
In his joy, all his still-unanswered questions were forgotten. But in due time, they would be brought back home…and then, he would come to regret his decision to return Diana to the Capital.


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Current federal school turnaround policy has not achieved the desired results – more emphasis is needed on investment in teaching and learning, supports to struggling schools, community engagement, and broader assessments.
Excerpts reprinted with permission from Trujillo, T. & Renée, M. (2012). Democratic School Turnarounds: Pursuing Equity and Learning from Evidence. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center.
The report Democratic School Turnarounds considers the democratic tensions inherent in the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) policy's market-based school reforms and critiques the research base that many of these reforms are based on. It concludes with a set of recommendations that re-center the purposes of public education for low-income students, students of color, and local communities and that are intended to guide federal, state, and local policymakers toward more equitable, democratic turnaround processes. Each recommendation stems from the provisional lessons that are emerging from current SIG-inspired turnarounds, from research on earlier efforts to improve school and district effectiveness, and from pockets of promising community-based practices that are developing at local and national levels.
In this article, we present a selection of key points from the report, along with the complete recommendations. For the complete literature review and analysis, please see the full report.
The School Improvement Grant program was established in 2002 as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act to provide financial support for the development and implementation of NCLB's corrective actions, but was not funded until 2007 (GAO 2011). In 2009, the SIG program was transformed in size and scope by the passage of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The SIG budget increased from $125 million in 2007 to $3.5 billion in the 2010-2011 school year.
After this one-time ARRA infusion of funding, the SIG program was funded at $546 million for the 2011-2012 school year and $535 million for the 2012-2013 school year (USDOE 2011). The administration's explanation for reinventing the SIG program was that dramatically turning around schools requires financial investment alongside significant structural changes.
Currently, each SIG school can receive up to $2 million per year for three years. For impoverished schools already struggling to meet students' needs during local and state fiscal crises, the amount of money is significant.
However, under the SIG program grant recipients revert to their original funding levels after the three-year federal commitment expires. In this way, the one-time spending increase does not fundamentally alter basic federal spending structures – structures whose inequitable, inadequate distribution across lines of poverty and race have been well documented (Oakes 2002). Along with the infusion of money came a mandate to prioritize the bottom five percent of each state's schools and to adopt one of four prescriptive federal models of school improvement (USDOE 2009).
Unlike the testing and accountability policies that came before, the 2009 reinvention of the SIG program includes more funding for implementation. Nevertheless, the SIG policy remains grounded squarely in market-based ideas. It assumes that strong external threats motivate teachers and principals to improve, that standardized test scores are reliable measures of student performance, that meaningful, sustainable changes can be spurred by competition, and that outcome-oriented accountability reforms can effectively interrupt historical patterns of low performance (Trujillo 2012).
While the present-day concept of school turnaround rose to prominence seemingly overnight with the rollout of the SIG program, the roots of these dramatic reforms run deep in the literature on educational effectiveness and improvement.
Issues in Methodologies
School and district effectiveness studies of the late 1970s and 1980s did much to focus the attention of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners on the aspects of schools and districts that might be strengthened to improve the performance of children of color and children from low-income families. However, critics pointed to several methodological and conceptual limitations of these studies (Rutter 1983; Good & Brophy 1986; Creemers 1991; Scheerens 1992; Teddlie & Stringfield 1993; Sammons 1999; Bowers 2010).1 The methodologies of both the school and district research traditions relied on small, skewed samples, usually based on unusually high student test scores.2 The studies were also often conducted on samples of convenience or samples based on anecdotal reports rather than on systematically selected cases. This selection process meant that the results of the studies did not represent the range of experiences across the nation's schools. Likewise, much of this research was based on short-term, snapshot evidence, not on data collected over the entire length of the reform. Such designs incorrectly assumed that the test score gains would be sustained (Bowers 2010). Further, while later studies expanded the sources of data used to explain effectiveness (Teddlie & Reynolds 2000), the bulk of this research drew conclusions about the factors that influenced student performance based largely on self-reports from administrators or small, unrepresentative samples of teacher interviews (Teddlie & Stringfield 1993; Trujillo, forthcoming). This severely limited how much the lessons from these studies could be applied to schools or districts with different characteristics. The limited data sources also led researchers to produce somewhat fragmented, incomplete interpretations of the classroom, school, and community dynamics that shaped – and were shaped by – the reforms.
Over-Reliance on Standardized Test Scores
Conceptually, one of the most frequent critiques of these studies was that they relied on a single measure of effectiveness – standardized test scores. While relying on standardized test scores was methodologically problematic because it falsely assumed that the assessments were valid and reliable, doing so as the sole measure of effectiveness also led to narrow conceptions of student success and the purposes of education – ignoring the social, civic, and broader academic aspects of schooling. This narrow, test-based definition of effectiveness is characteristic of market- based arguments that assume that education's primary functions are economic. From this viewpoint, test scores are often employed as the only indicator that schools are preparing students for competition in the workplace (Rose 1995; Ball 1998). This perspective contrasts with arguments that focus on the democratic purposes of schooling, which frame schools as vehicles for fostering the values and skills necessary for collective, democratic participation and civic engagement (Orr & Rogers 2011). Student scores on standardized tests are far too narrow to be the sole indicators of school success in the democratic model of schooling.
The Impact of Socio-political Contexts
Finally, these research traditions were critiqued for their inadequate treatment of the socio-political and normative contexts of schooling (Welner 2001; Oakes & Lipton 2003; Thrupp & Willmott 2003; Oakes & Rogers 2006). The studies discounted the inherently political nature of schools, as seen in issues of who has access to power and resources, who can make decisions, and how resources are allocated. They also overlooked the ways in which norms and beliefs about what quality schooling looks like, and to whom it should be directed, shaped educators' and communities' support or rejection of certain reforms. Instead, studies of effectiveness were limited to questions about curriculum, time on task, monitoring, and the like – the technical dimensions of schooling. As a result, the research overestimated the relationship between schools' technical changes and student learning. It also discounted the ideological opposition certain school reforms may provoke, the influence of resources like funding and stable staffing, and the vulnerability of even those schools deemed "effective" to the structural effects of poverty and racism (Coleman 1966).
Results : Limited Impact and Sustainability
a sizeable body of rigorous, systematic research on early reconstitution reforms shows that firing and replacing school staffs has usually failed to achieve the intended effects.In the educational literature, a sizeable body of rigorous, systematic research on early reconstitution reforms shows that firing and replacing school staffs has usually failed to achieve the intended effects. One meta-analysis showed that reconstituted schools in San Francisco continued to show up on lists of low-performing schools (Mathis 2009). In Chicago, longitudinal research on reconstitution revealed that staff replacements were no higher in quality than their predecessors and that teacher morale deteriorated under these reforms (Hess 2003). And a comprehensive, long-term study in Maryland demonstrated that reconstitution inadvertently reduced the social stability and climate of schools and was not associated with either organizational improvements or heightened student performance (Malen et al. 2002).
Also implicit in the claims about the efficacy of reconstitution is the assumption that the benefits accrued from replacing the bulk of a school's staff will outweigh the unintended consequences. Yet, retrospective analyses of such dramatic interventions have concluded that the resulting logistical challenges, political fallout, and loss of organizational culture make such interventions prohibitive (Mathis 2009; Dowdall 2011). Finding enough qualified personnel to refill vacant slots in reconstituted or turnaround schools has proven difficult. In some cities, for example, districts found themselves swapping principals from one SIG-funded school to another. In Louisville, more than 40 percent of the teachers hired to work in turnaround schools were completely new to teaching.3 Another study showed how hiring difficulties forced many reconstituted schools to begin the school year with high numbers of substitutes (CEP 2008).
Like many district-specific studies of effectiveness, turnaround studies advocate for schools to focus on the technical dimensions of reform that are presumed to yield quick boosts in test scores: curriculum alignment, test preparation, and a sharp focus on test-based student achievement goals. But the presumed boost from such reforms is only weakly supported by rigorous, long-term empirical research (Trujillo, forthcoming). These recommendations echo those of the earlier school and district effectiveness studies almost word for word. One possible exception to these patterns might be found in the current IES Turning Around Low-Performing Schools studies, whose preliminary results suggest these conventional technical strategies are most helpful when implemented in conjunction with multiple interventions, including strategic teacher recruitment and intensive professional development (Sparks 2012). Nevertheless, the overall similarity across the literature raises questions about the degree to which the knowledge base on turnarounds has evolved conceptually and theoretically in the years since those studies were conducted.
Our review of the research on turnarounds revealed that authors continue to focus primarily on the within-school factors that may shape the potential of schools to turn around test performance, in place of research that situates schools within their broader socio-political and normative contexts.4 By concentrating primarily on technical issues around hiring and firing, curricular changes, and the like, this emerging field seems to be developing along the same lines as the previous generations of school and district effectiveness research. It also appears to be perpetuating the same narrowly framed debates about public education that consider changes inside of schools in isolation from schools' broader institutional conditions – federal and state funding arrangements, etc.
One minor exception to this pattern of de-contextualization can be seen in the literature's treatment of community engagement with the reforms. Most analyses advise leaders to solicit community input. Yet they recommend doing so in order to generate support for the turnaround. Most analysts are silent on the potential broader purposes of community engagement (Johnson et al. 2011).5 This literature generally fails to recommend soliciting input into the specifics of the turnaround process, facilitating more democratic decision making in public schools, or advancing notions of the public good. The result, as in the school and district effectiveness literature, is a set of proposals that discount the powerful influence of social, political, and other contexts in shaping school reforms.6
We outline six recommendations that are intended to guide federal, state, and local policymakers toward more equitable, democratic turnaround processes. Each recommendation stems from the provisional lessons that are emerging from current SIG-inspired turnarounds, from research on earlier efforts to improve school and district effectiveness, and from pockets of promising community- based practices that are developing at local and national levels.
Recommendation 1. Increase current federal and state spending for public education, particularly as it is allocated for turnaround-style reforms.
- Increase and equitably distribute federal and state education funding based on districts' and schools' demonstrated needs (based on poverty levels, communities' economic and racial isolation, etc.).
- Maintain these spending arrangements in order to ensure that basic levels of financial capacity exist across all schools and districts. Federal accountability outcomes, regardless of local capacity.
Recommendation 2. Focus school turnaround policies on improving the quality of teaching and learning rather than on technical-structural changes.
- Outline a set of options for schools and districts focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning through efforts to systematically recruit and retain qualified teachers in turnaround schools, which historically tend to be difficult to staff.
- Provide guidelines for ongoing, cumulative professional development that deepens teachers' knowledge of pedagogy and of the community in which their schools are embedded.
- Grant schools and districts greater autonomy to determine the details of each school's turnaround plans. Provisions such as these would give schools and districts the authority to implement intense, dramatic improvements without undercutting the democratic nature of their efforts.
Recommendation 3. Engage a broad cross-section of schools' communities – teachers, students, parents, and community organizations – in planning and implementing turnaround strategies that are tailored to each school and district context.
- Require school and district leaders to solicit and incorporate teachers' professional expertise as well as parent, student, and community input into decisions.
- Specify the required timelines, financial and non-financial resources, and accountability structures for meaningful community engagement.
- Offer school, district, and state leaders training on authentic community engagement and models of best engagement practices at the federal, state, and district levels.
- At the school level, develop a representative oversight body that can solicit teachers' professional judgments and the community's ideas, concerns, and shared values and vision about what they want their schools to look like.
- Use parent surveys and hold multiple, accessible meetings (i.e., meetings held at times and locations that parents can attend and that provide free childcare and simultaneous translations) for community input.
- At the district level, establish a SIG advisory committee for stakeholders from multiple school sites to share experience and wisdom on school turnaround.
Recommendation 4. Surround struggling schools with comprehensive, wrap-around supports that stabilize schools and communities.
- Help struggling schools and districts sort through the SIG guidance by identifying existing community resources that can be integrated into the improvement process. For instance, provide specific examples of community-based organizations that can partner with districts and schools to provide non-academic supports related to health, nutrition, and other social services.
Recommendation 5. Incorporate multiple indicators of effectiveness – apart from test scores – that reflect the multiple purposes of schools.
- Develop indicators of schools' progress in setting and working toward other academic, social, and democratic goals for their students.
- Measure students' preparation for long-term academic success by tracking access to highly credentialed teachers and college-preparatory and/ or advanced courses. Track English Learner re-classification, graduation and college-enrollment rates. Disaggregate these indicators by race, family income, and language status, as well as by students' access to highly credentialed, experienced teachers.
- Measure schools' development of students' social skills and awareness by assessing students' work in groupbased learning tasks, problem-based projects, and curricula that relate directly to students' communities. Track suspension and expulsion rates. Disaggregate these indicators by race, family income, and language status, and access to highly credentialed, experienced teachers.
- Measure schools' democratic effectiveness by tracking the degree to which schools engage members of the public in school governance and improvement planning. Also examine whether schools make transparent certain information and decisions about schools' budget, resources, and programs.
- Track these indicators longitudinally to assess whether outcomes and conditions for particular groups of students and schools are improving over time.
- Commission a diverse panel, composed of educational experts and practitioners from SIG sites, to select and define these broader indicators.
- Support SIG schools to track their progress toward non-test-based goals in order to bring energy and resources to bear on those student and community outcomes that are not easily monitored through standardized tests but that nonetheless represent meaningful goals for public education and equity-oriented reform.
Incorporating these other conceptualizations of effectiveness is another means by which the federal policy can promote more democratic norms and processes in turnaround schools, in place of narrowly market-oriented ones.
Recommendation 6. Support ongoing, systematic research, evaluation, and dissemination examining all aspects of turnaround processes in schools and districts.
- Solicit and fund research and evaluations that incorporate multiple points of view – teachers, students, and parents – to better understand what schools gained and where they experienced challenges when attempting to turn themselves around.
- Complement these more complete perspectives with information from classroom observations that reveals how these reforms are associated with different forms of instructional quality – beyond those reflected in standardized test scores.
- Support long-term research that illuminates the evolution of school and district turnarounds, including the rich historical and social legacies that aid successful turnarounds or thwart them, and that considers how such patterns unfold at the state, district, school, and community levels.
- Disseminate research and evaluation findings in formats useful to those leading turnaround efforts (e.g. accessible reports, guides, case studies, webinars, clearinghouses, and presentations).
1 For critical challenges to the "pedagogy of poverty" that arose from this tradition, see Haberman (1991) and Kohn (2011).
2 The school effectiveness studies eventually incorporated more rigorous designs, but did not do so initially. See Klitgaard & Hall (1974); Brookover (1979); and Teddlie & Stringfield (1993).
3 A summary of personnel challenges experienced by SIG schools.
Available online
4 For examples of literature that frames school change in terms of these broader school contexts, see Berliner 2009 and Hirsch 2007.
5 For a critique of this report's treatment of community engagement, see Mathis (2012).
6 For more on community engagement to support school reform, see Sara McAlister's and Richard Gray's articles in this issue of VUE.


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Hyundai Santa Fe Highlander R-SeriesLong-Term Update
Four months and 10,000km into our extended trial of the diesel-powered 4WD Santa Fe, the big Hyundai has done a commendable job of handling everything we've thrown at it so far -- family holidays, long-distance hauling, weekend offroad escapes...While it's proven a popular choice for a range of transportation requirements amongst the motoring.com.au editorial crew, we felt there was at least one more area it had to prove itself before being tagged with all-rounder status the calibre of Aussie cricket's Shane Watson.With more and more people purchasing boats and caravans and touring in their own backyard, it's reasonable to assume that a fair number of the 4442 Santa Fe SUVs sold in Australia last year will be called into duty as tow vehicles.
On paper, the Santa Fe is around middle of the road when it comes to towing capabilities, with a maximum towing capacity of 750kg (unbraked) and 2000kg (braked) and towball downweight of 150kg. Compared to its main (diesel 4WD) rivals, that's better than Holden Captiva 7 (1700kg braked), on a par with its twin-under-the-skin Kia Sorento (2000kg braked) but lagging behind the Ford Territory oiler (2700kg with heavy duty tow pack).
For our tow test, we hooked up a Supreme Getaway caravan weighing just over 1500kg (unladen). But before we did that, to comply with towing regulations, we got a mobile RV electronics technician to visit the motoring.com.au garage and fit an electric brake controller to the Santa Fe. Installation took about two hours and cost $490 all up, adding to the optional tow bar kit already fitted by Hyundai.
With caravan in tow the Santa Fe had little problem getting up to speed on the freeway, and cruised effortlessly at up to 100km/h on the flat. It proved a stable, stress-free tow tug and at times I had to check the mirrors to remind myself I was towing a caravan. Hitting a long, steady incline the vehicle maintained cruising speed without having to change gears, thanks to the abundance of low-down torque from the 145kW/436Nm 2.2-litre, four-cylinder turbodiesel engine.It was only when trying to maintain speed up steeper hills -- or accelerate on the flat -- that the smooth six-speed auto would drop down a cog while keeping revs within the peak torque band of 1800-2500rpm. But even under these heavier throttle situations it never laboured or over-revved, while remaining reasonably quiet and refined throughout.
While we've no doubt it could have handled a few more kilos, the Santa Fe felt comfortably within its limits with this amount of weight behind, also keeping in mind the combined bulk of the rig was around 3500kg.
There was little evidence of fore-aft pitching, and the noticeable sag from the Hyundai's rear suspension wouldn't have been helped by the caravan's ball weight exceeding the Hyundai's 150kg limit. Fitting an aftermarket weight distribution hitch would help level it out.Not surprisingly, fuel consumption almost doubled when towing, from around 7.0L/100km on the freeway on the way to the caravan dealer in Melbourne's west, to 13.0L/100km on a similar, mostly flat section of highway with caravan in tow. Given the extra strain on the engine though, it was not unreasonable. As mentioned in an earlier report, we also experienced some excessive front wheelspin, when re-entering a main road from standstill on loose gravel. It's something you need to adjust your driving accordingly, or alternatively ensure the four-wheel drive system is locked for improved traction when travelling off the bitumen.
Also worth mentioning was the ease in backing the tow vehicle up to the caravan's hitch, with the use of the reversing camera which has a screen located in the rear view mirror. Following a quick visual check outside the vehicle to determine the screen's parameters, it was a simple, one-person job to perfectly align tow ball and hitch for an easy, safe hook-up.
Hyundai Santa Fe Long-Term Test:- Introduction- Update #1- Update #2Hyundai Santa Fe Comparison Test:- Comparison
See more pics of the Santa Fe High Country drive at motoring.com.au
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Shell timeouts
From Brandonhutchinson.com
To terminate sessions after a period of inactivity, use the following shell variables:
TMOUT If set to a value greater than zero, the value is interpreted as the number of seconds to wait for input after issuing the primary prompt. Bash terminates after waiting for that number of seconds if input does not arrive.
- set autlogout=seconds
Bourne shell
- The Bourne shell has no TMOUT variable nor equivalent [1].


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The choices made today affect the health and happiness of tomorrow. Holistic Horizons is the nutrition, herb, and mind-body expert dedicated to helping you achieve your wellness goals.
The choices made today affect the health and happiness of tomorrow. Holistic Horizons is the nutrition, herb, and mind-body expert dedicated to helping you achieve your wellness goals.
Bio-Individual Detoxification
We live in a toxic world! More than 2,400,000,000 pounds of chemical emissions are pumped into the air on a daily bases. Toxins enter the body through the lungs, skin and mouth and are hidden in our everyday foods and drinks.
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The Empowered Herbalist
Many of us endure common ailments that have us reaching for over-the-counter painkillers. This frequent use, even at small doses can lead to bigger problems such as stomach bleeding or liver inflammation. Fortunately there are many natural remedies without the risky side-effects.
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In Home Pantry Revolution
Advertisements and marketing scams make it difficult to find the truth in determining what we should eat. Isn't it time to learn how to plan meals that everyone in your family will enjoy and benefit from nutritionally?
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Call 831-818-6660 to start your natural health revolution!
Schedule your appointment today and discover independent wellness! Holistic Horizons is proud to provide in home services and health food store tours for clients throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey County. Call 831-818-6660 to start your natural health revolution.
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Naturopathic Path
It's rare for anyone to get to work toward their natural health goals with a committed trained professional. No one diet, lifestyle, herb or exercise program works for everyone, so I will work with you to find the correct modalities that best support your constitution and well-being.
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Righteous Body Care Investigation
The Righteous Body Care Investigation takes the guess work out, so you can make conscious decisions about what you use on your body. Unraveling the mystery of your commonly used products and finding easy, natural solutions involves three steps in our Investigation.
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Personal Health Food Store Tour
The Personal Health Food Store Tour is a very affordable and educational way to get the expert advice of a holistic health practitioner, master herbalist and nutritional consultant. This useful and hands on approach to nutritional education allows you to see food through the eyes of a nutritional expert.
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text: Dominic Woodson no longer plans to attend Baylor in the fall, according to multiple reports. Woodson was rated as the No. 80 recruit in the country, and the No. 9 center in the Class of 2013, by Rivals. But with Isaiah Austin and Cory Jefferson both opting to return to school, and with Rico Gathers still on the roster, Woodson is no longer a good fit for the Bears.


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New York
Dim Sum Recommendations in Flushing
Thinking of having dim sum in Flushing this weekend. I know there are lots of places, but any recommendations on which ones are good? Thanks a lot.
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LEXINGTON, Ky. - Cal State Northridge middle blocker Casey Hinger followed up being named to the All-Big West first team last week by being named to the 2012 AVCA All-West Region Team on Tuesday.
Hinger becomes the first Matador to earn AVCA All-West Region honors since Jen Ryan in 2004. The two-time first team All-Big West middle led the conference in blocking this season and was one of nine Big West players who earned All-West Region accolades.
"I'm so appreciative to be recognized when I'm constantly surrounded by so many great players," said Hinger. "The coaches have taught me me so much these last two years, I honestly cannot thank them enough for just giving me this opportunity."
Hinger, a sophomore from Fullerton, Calif., helped propel the Matadors to a 21-10 season, the first 20-win season for a Cal State Northridge team since 1996. She finished the season ranked third on the team with 277 kills (2.52 kps) and was the teams' leading blocker averaging 1.34 blocks per set.
Her season totals of 14 solo stuffs and 133 assisted blocks rank among the best in a single season in Cal State Northridge history. With 133 block assists, Hinger ranks third in the Matadors' rally scoring era (2001-present) and sixth all-time for a single season. In two seasons, she now has 23 block solos and 241 block assists in her Matador career.
"I want to be the best I can be for our team because they deserve it," added Hinger. "We worked so hard this year and we know it's going to take a lot more to get first place next year. CSUN volleyball is only going up from here."
1992 - Nancy Nicholls (All-West Region Second Team)
1994 - Missy Clements (All-West Region Second Team)
2003 - Jennifer Fopma (All-West Region First Team)
2004 - Jen Ryan (All-West Region First Team)
2012 - Casey Hinger (All-West Region First Team)