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Seven-foot, 27-piece puzzle combines the alphabet with people, animals and objects to help promote letter recognition. Extra-large pieces are easy for small hands to handle. Games/Manipulatives Type: Puzzle; Age Recommendation: Ages 3 and Up.
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Recently Watched
Most Popular Review
wouldn't have given any star if not for JGS and IU... the story is very disappointing. it lacks any sense at all. sad, I didn't enjoy it. I just hope JGS and IU will choose dramas with better storyline next time.
I like how this drama unfolds after every episode. The emotions are real and the story itself is well written. there is chemistry between the prime minister and da jung and their acting is believable. I just hope it will carry through the last episode. It's usually the ending that kills a good Kdrama.
Love it! A breath of fresh air from typical Korean dramas.

subset: commoncrawl


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Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven". And all the white evangelicals and 49% percent of the Catholics voted for the rich man. Never mind that the rich man built his fortune by wiping entire American towns off the map by shipping their jobs to dormitory factories in China. His fans didn't care. All they could think about was abortion and homosexuality, and nothing else was important to them.
I am the Rainbow Sage. I tried in past elections to reach them with facts and figures, logic and reason. It didn't work. So this time I went for the soul, the conscience, the piece of God that resides within us all. That didn't work either.
I wrote a sermon printed here on Sept. 29. It was a powerful piece that was buried between two hateful letters. It took two weeks to write, received suggestions from two others, and underwent 7 revisions. Every word was measured, not one was wasted. It was titled: the truth will only set you free when you quit denying it.
It deeply disturbed one reader. In his rebuttal letter he admits that he thought it was prudent to get "wired" on 3 cups of coffee before calling me at 8:45 on a Saturday morning. His call was intrusive, insulting, disrespectful and antagonistic. He did not call to discuss the merits or deficiencies of my work. Instead he suggested I "ruminate" on another poorly written column.
I immediately told him this. I am the only American patriot in this state to record in an off election year a presentation by the U.S. Auditor General on our nations fiscal condition. I told him that made me a one in ten million kind of guy, and that I was not the kind of man he should mess with.
What I didn't tell him was that I was appalled by the first $6.4 trillion of national debt piled up by Republicans by 1993. I didn't tell him that when I projected the debt would reach $11 Trillion by 2008 I ran a campaign for Congress speaking to thousands in sixteen counties about this serious threat to our national security.
He plodded on, asking probing questions about abortion and homosexuality. My sermon mentioned neither. I excused myself from the call.
Then in his rebuttal letter he dared to publicly print his reaction to our private conversation in a "tell on me" moment. So I tell him here and now. Nobody speaks for me on these pages but me. What I believe in is none of your business. I am not a public official. You publically assailed my character, questioned my credibility, and impugned my integrity. Can you spell libel?
You write a lot about the sin of lying. You should have ruminated on my sermon. Its point was that the worst kind of lies people tell are the ones they tell themselves. It's called denial. It is not a sin against fellow man, but a sin against God itself. It negates the conscience and chases away the soul leaving a void that fills with devilish ignorance and deeds.
Your rebuttal was filled with ignorance regarding the national debt. I'll explain it one last time. The Cheney-Bush nightmare left us with $10.6 trillion of debt. But that didn't include $800 billion of TARP money inherited by Obama. It didn't include the cost of two wars he didn't wage. And here's the kicker.
Debt is financed. It bears interest that compounds daily. One day's interest on $12 trillion is more money than you'll ever make in ten lifetimes. In all, Republicans are directly responsible for causing $14.4 trillion of debt. And they are not the party of "Country First."
Jeffrey Woollard


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Issue 42 | Dec 2012
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The End
When I started Marketing Reflections in Jul 2009, the world was different. In those days, I was helping advisors get more business. I thought that ongoing, visible generosity was key (and still do). I was already blogging, tweeting and using LinkedIn to show how.
I still couldn't reach all of my audience. Financial institutions didn't understand social media. They often blocked access to sites and feeds.
A newsletter looked like the solution.
Email gets through corporate scrutiny. If not, readers can use personal email addresses. Also, you can add subscribers with their permission but without their action. In contrast, blog readers and Twitter followers must opt in on their own.
The Process
Creating this newsletter takes 2-3 hours a month. That's not a huge commitment but time is time. It's much easier to post updates elsewhere. For instance, LinkedIn now includes photos automatically. Plus, you can comment and share.
With a newsletter, you're stuck with administrative details like changing subscriber email addresses. Time also goes into reviewing what's getting read and responding to readers. The hours add up.
The Shift
When I left the corporate world 36 months ago, this newsletter switched to a hobby. The issues continued but served no business purpose. I haven't been actively seeking new subscribers because my focus shifted from marketing to promoting insurance literacy.
I created this newsletter's template on my own. As you can see, I'm not a designer. The look needs refreshing. Rather than make changes, I've decided to stop Marketing Reflections.
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Each article you saw here was available on Twitter (@mActuary, @riscario, @trustandyou) or my blogs ([*marketingactuary.com Marketing Actuary], Riscario Insider). Feel free to subscribe. If your access is blocked at work, you can check from home or your personal mobile device.
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"I received my mounted print in the mail, very well packaged I might say! Loved everything about this item, would have given all 5 stars however I thought the hanging situation on the reverse side could have been better, other than that would totally recommend this item."
"I ordered the photo on canvas as a holiday gift for my husband. He was the one who took the photo of our infant son. My husband was very pleased. The photo hangs in our living room and we are getting many complements from family and friends."


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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Two local men are accused of robbing a man who was trying to trade his iPhone 5 over Craigslist and Facebook.
They arranged to meet late Thursday afternoon at Updike and Moore streets, in the Elmwood neighborhood, but the meeting turned out to be a setup, according to police.
The man brought his iPhone 5 and $460 to trade for a new iPhone 5s, but the men who rolled up in a Toyota Avalon had a different plan. One pulled a knife and stole the iPhone 5 and $60, according to a police report.
Detectives soon tracked down the suspects -- Hakkeem Saygbe, 19, of Milk Street, who was out on bail on a felony assault charge from September, and Yovaniell Sostre, 18, of Burnside St.
Both were arraigned Friday at District Court on charges of first-degree robbery and conspiracy. They were ordered held without bail.
Location, ST | website.com


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The Press Newspaper
The Press Newspaper
Oregon is about to begin Phase 3 of the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project to reduce infiltration and inflow (I&I) of storm water into the sanitary sewers.
Phase 3, which will be mostly funded by a low interest loan from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF), consists of lining sanitary sewers to eliminate sewer overflows. The city applied for the loan in April.
Oregon council in June approved a $1.9 million contract with Performance Pipeline, of Ottawa, Illinois, for Phase 3. The bid was much lower than the city's $3 million cost estimate for the project.
Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Projects Phases 1 and 2 have already been completed. Phase 3 includes the rehabilitation of mainline and lateral sanitary sewers in the Euclid Park, Old Eastmoreland, and Valley Park areas and the lining of 56 manholes.
T-Town Action Week comes to East Toledo on August 3-8, and residents are focusing on an area One Voice for East Toledo leaders say is afflicted by prostitution and known drug houses.
The City of Toledo and One Voice are recruiting volunteers to join their "anti-blight movement," which means cleaning up the area between Starr to Navarre and Oak to White, focusing on East Broadway over to Main to Oak.
Jodi Gross, East Toledo Family Center community builder and One Voice leader, says the area that faces the most challenges sits along East Broadway between Nevada and Starr.
"That's been on our radar for a long time," Gross said, adding that the clean-up has been expanded to meet those challenges.
"The biggest thing is just showing the community that we need to take back our neighborhoods. Even though we are pounding the pavement to try and get this taken care of, we need everybody to do it, especially in that particular area," Gross continued.
A site on Oregon and Wales roads in Northwood will become the central campus of Buckeye CableSystem and Telesystem, it was announced last week.
The company will move over 500 employees from Toledo to a 150,000-square-foot facility that is currently being used by Taylor, Nelson and Sofres (TNS), formerly NFO, at 2700 Oregon Road. Buckeye CableSystem recently bought the building, said Northwood City Administrator Bob Anderson. According to the Wood County Auditor's website, the building was purchased June 26 for $6.25 million.
TNS, a market research company, employs 137 people. The city, which has a 1.5 percent income tax rate, collects about $125,000 annually in revenue from the company's payroll. The city will help TNS find another location, said Anderson.
"I would love to keep them in the city," said Anderson.
As memberships at the Genoa quarry continue to drop, village officials wonder if it and an adjacent park area are succumbing to a change in lifestyle for families and children.
Two years ago quarry memberships reached 120 but dropped last year to 61. This year, only 41 memberships have been purchased.
"It's been trending down," Mayor Mark Williams said. "I'm told back in the 1950s the village sold more than 300 passes in a season. But few people had pools."
However, at a time when health advisories for beaches along Lake Erie are not uncommon and stories of algal blooms in the lake dominate the headlines, the mayor and Mike Thomas, the parks director, are puzzled why the quarry, with its beach area, two diving boards, four rafts and a tube slide, doesn't draw larger crowds.
It's out with the old and in with the new at Genoa's main park.
Genoa officials razed the old bath house at Veterans Park and months later are putting the finishing touches on a new building at the same site.
But even as the height of summer season fun explodes across the park centered on the quarry, the building won't be ready for park staff and patron use this season.
"We've got the approval from the county building inspection," Village Administrator Kevin Gladden. "Now we need to get in there and do some electrical work."
Summer Olympics
Are you watching the Summer Olympics in Rio?
No, I couldn't care less (7 Votes)
Yes, go U.S.A.! (16 Votes)
Olympics...are they on? (6 Votes)
184911709 [{"id":"135","title":"No, I couldn't care less","votes":"7","pct":24.14,"type":"x","order":"1","resources":[]},{"id":"136","title":"Yes, go U.S.A.!","votes":"16","pct":55.17,"type":"x","order":"2","resources":[]},{"id":"137","title":"Olympics...are they on?","votes":"6","pct":20.69,"type":"x","order":"3","resources":[]}] ["#194e84","#3b6b9c","#1f242a","#37414a","#60bb22","#f2babb"] sbar 160 160 /component/communitypolls/vote/53-summer-olympics No answer selected. Please try again. Thank you for your vote. Answers Votes


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The Learning Journey
Step Ups! Puzzle Bundle
- Color:
- multi
Qty: 1
- 1
- 2
Description: Step Ups! 4-In-A-Box puzzles are great "starter" puzzles and will help little hands develop their fine motor skills. Step Ups! Puzzle sets contain four puzzles depicting fun characters that your young ones will easily recognize. The puzzles progress from 2 pieces to 4 pieces to 6 pieces to 8 pieces, giving your child the opportunity to grow with the set as they grow and develop. The 8 piece puzzle brings the characters from the other three puzzles together in one animated scene with lots to discuss and talk about. Step Ups! are a great way to help your toddler begin building their tactile and problem solving skills.
- Step Ups! 4-In-A-Box ABC
- Step Ups! 4-In-A-Box 123
- Step Ups! 4-In-A-Box Colors
- Helps develop child's fine motor skills
- Each puzzle measures approximately 13½" x 9"
- For ages 2 years and up
Material: Cardboard
Brand: The Learning Journey
Origin: Imported


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Product Description
Your radio station has so many kinds of music to play: hip hop, jazz, rock and more!
Pick the bands your station should play, and use requests to affect the band's position on the hit parade. Will your skillful play predict the next Megastar to bring fame and profit to your station?
Product Information
Friedemann Friese
Mayfair Games, Amigo
Year: 2006
Players: 2 - 5
Time: 45 minutes
Ages: 10 and up
Weight: 190 grams
Language Requirements: This is an international edition or domestic edition of an imported item.
- 91 cards
- rules
Product Reviews
Average Rating: 2.8 in 2 reviews
I never know what to expect from a Friedemann Friese game, as they often have strange themes, but he usually makes a very interesting game with unique mechanics. Megastar (Mayfair Games, 2006 - Friedemann Friese) is one of his newest card games; and while the theme actually makes perfect sense (players are attempting to play the best songs on their radio stations), the game mechanics are familiar, yet still unique. Players are attempting to influence the popularity of songs, while attempting to have the most songs of that type on their station.
I enjoyed the card game quite a bit, even though some players I tried it out with just didn't quite "get it" until the game was over. It's simple enough on the onset, and players have to make choices on which cards to keep, and which to use - making those cards more valuable. You can watch the songs go up and down in popularity over the course of the game, and I found this to be an enjoyable game - one that takes about thirty minutes and has a lot more "meat" than initially might appear. You initially might think that you have no control over the game, but that's merely a clever disguise, as the players who soundly beat you will attest.
Seven cards are placed in a vertical line on the table - each representing a different band or musical artist, differentiated by color and picture. This is the "hit parade", and the highest card is the number one song at this point in time. Eighty-four band cards are shuffled (twelve for each band), and eleven of them are laid face up on the right of the hit parade, in the "requests". These cards are organized together in groups by artist, then each player is dealt five cards from the deck. Players choose one card and place it face-down in front of them, and the player with the largest CD collection takes the first turn, with play proceeding clockwise around the table. Depending on the number of players, not all the bands may be used, and a certain number of cards are removed from the deck.
On a player's turn, they first reveal the face down card in front of them, placing it to the left ("music market") of the hit parade. The player then draws any card of their choice from the music market, adding it to their hand, as well as the top card from the draw deck. They then choose one card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. Play then passes to the next player.
Whenever a band has three requests, or all cards from the music market are drawn, a "countdown" is triggered. Starting with the number one band, each band moves up the hit parade one space for each card in the "requests" area. This means that the top card doesn't actually move upwards, but will most likely move down. The cards in the request area are then moved to the music market, and play continues. The game continues until the last card is drawn from the deck, at which point all players play their final face down card for a final possible 'countdown".
At this point, all players total their scores by revealing the sixteen cards in their hand (thirteen in a five player game). For each band card that matches the current band in the # 1 position, a player scores five points, four points for the band in # 2, three points for the band in # 3, two points for the band in # 4, and one point for the band in # 5. All other bands are worthless! The player with the most points is the winner!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: The card game comes in a small box with a lid (which pops off occasionally), and a picture of a deranged teen playing an air guitar. That artwork is typical of that shown on the band cards, although each one is a stereotype of a popular (or once popular) artist. The cards themselves are of good quality - the hit parade cards showing a CD cover of the band, and the band cards showing the same picture and color, as well as a symbol to help keep them separate.
2.) Rules: The rules are on two sides of a long sheet of paper that folds up easily in the box. They are printed vertically, for some reason - it's actually a bit annoying - but have color illustrations and examples. The game itself is very simple, but people have a hard time figuring out which card to throw down, and several new players play randomly for a while, because they have a hard time figuring out what bands are going to do well.
3.) Control and Strategy: At first, I wondered myself if the game suffered from a lack of control, as it seems that the hit parade moves around a bit randomly. But really, players have a good deal of knowledge about what is going to happen. Every time there is a countdown, the # 1 song is going to go down - it's fairly inevitable. And players can play three cards on the song that they want to go up - but at the same time, risking the fact that they'll have no cards for that song at the end of the game. In my first game, I worked with all my effort to get one artist to the top of the list, and almost succeeded (they were # 2). I then realized that I simply didn't have any cards left in my hand for that artist! As I played them, and countdowns occurred, other players picked them up into their hands, and I was left with nothing to show from it. The "recycling" method of cards is really a nifty mechanic, as any cards used to move a band are then available for other players; but if they are ignored, they can be grabbed by the player themselves.
4.) Time and Players: With three players, the most control is available in the game, since your turn comes up so quickly; but I found the game enjoyable even with five. Classified as a "filler", I will agree somewhat; as the game certainly looks and feels like one, taking only a little over half an hour. But I really think that it's deeper than first appearances.
5.) Fun Factor: To increase a band, you must play cards from your hand; but to have points for that band, you must have its cards in your hand. This is the dilemma that keeps the game interesting and fun; and I also enjoyed watching the hit parade shuffle around, as a result of the cards I and my fellow players placed down. Once you realize that you DO control the outcome of Megastar, the fun factor increases tremendously.
Megastar is a unique card game that forces players to make tough decisions, with an eye out on the end of the game. Players have a direct say in how the parade cards move up and down and can exercise a decent amount of control over the outcome of the game. There is some luck in the draw, but it's mostly mitigated by players drawing cards from the music market, and watching how other players play their cards. If you're looking for a unique and meaty card game, Megastar is one that may surprise you!
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
Design by: Friedemann Friese
Published by: Amigo & Mayfair Games
3 – 5 Players, 30 – 45 minutes
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser
Each Spiel in Essen, hundreds of folks eagerly descend upon Freidemann Friese's 2F booth to see his latest creation. Herr Friese has quite the reputation of developing creative designs, often with somewhat loony themes. He has shown with Funkenschlag that he is more than capable of developing a deep strategy game, but most of his games are on the lighter side. Lately, his creations are reaching an even wider audience, as many larger gaming companies are beginning to release his designs.
I somehow managed to overlook one of his latest creations at last year's Spiel. Megastar was released by Amigo and Mayfair Games. Even though I did play most of the Amigo releases, this one escaped my attention until recently.
Borrowing heavily from the theme and mechanisms of Schrille Stille, Megastar places players in the role of radio director of a local radio station. Players attempt to maneuver bands on the radio's "play list", attempting to balance the requests of listeners and the parent company. The objective is to position your preferred bands at the top of the play list at game's end.
Seven cards depicting musical acts are placed in a row known as the "hit parade". Each card is a different color, and the remaining cards each match one of the bands. A handful of cards are removed from the game, and a further eleven are placed to the right of the hit parade in an area called the "music market". Finally, each player is dealt five cards, and places one of them face-down onto the table. The musical tussling begins.
Each player's turn is usually extremely quick, and can almost be performed mindlessly. Players place the card that is face-down before them to the left of the hit parade row into an area known as the "requests" area. Like cards are grouped together. The player then draws one card from the music market and one card from the deck into his hand. He concludes his turn by placing one card face-down onto the table, which will be the card they play into the request section on their next turn.
Once one band accumulates three cards in the "requests" section, a countdown is held. Beginning at the band that currently resides at the top of the chart, each band is moved up a number of spaces equal to the number of matching cards in the request area. So, if the pink band is currently rests in the fourth position on the hit parade and has two matching cards in the request area, it will move up two slots to the second position. This makes it a bit easier for bands at the bottom of the list to move-up, and makes it more perilous for the top band as there is no way to go but down. Once this countdown procedure is competed, all cards in the request area are moved to the music market, and the game continues.
The game concludes when the deck is depleted. All face-down cards in front of the players are placed in the requests area, and one final countdown is conducted. At this point, each player reveals the cards they have in their hands and calculates their value, which is dependent upon the final position of the matching band in the hit parade. Points earned range from a high of five for the band at the top of the chart, to a low of 1 point for the band in the fifth position. Bands in the sixth and seventh positions yield zero points. The player with the most points rises to the position of producer and wins the game.
As mentioned, the game seems to borrow the theme and mechanisms of Schrille Stille. Bands climb and fall on the chart based on the number of "votes" they receive. The objective and end-game scoring, however, is also lifted from another game – Reiner Knizia's Honey Bears. Players must play certain cards to move bands up the chart, but score points based on conserving those same cards. So, there is a balancing act that must be performed, playing some of the cards to increase the positioning of preferred bands, but also conserving some of those cards for end-game points.
Sadly, the borrowed mechanisms seem to work much better in their parent games. Here, they seem lost in a game that offers very little control. So much is ultimately determined by the final two countdowns, that everything preceding it seems almost pointless. The strategy is obvious: collect cards from a few bands, and try to manipulate those to the top of the chart. There doesn't appear to be any other options. That one strategy, however, is largely beyond one's control.
Each turn is virtually the same as the last. A player's turn takes only a few seconds, and begins to feel extremely repetitive. Each game I've played I felt I was performing the tasks in a robotic fashion, without much thought or care. Interestingly, I finished either first or second in all of those games, and didn't feel I did anything special to deserve those lofty positions.
Megastar may fit just fine within a group that enjoys playing games such as Phase 10 or UNO. It is light, quick, and doesn't require much, if any thought. For folks looking for games with a little more thought, strategy and control, I'd recommend changing the dial.


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"The white civilized man (is) the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth."
- Herman Melville, 1840s)
In 1841, Melville sailed aboard the Acushnet, a whaling vessel, on a three year trip to the South Seas. By July of 1842, Melville and a shipmate, Toby Greene, jumped ship revolting against the tyrannical powers that brutalized the crew by oppressing these men of many races. Having witnessed American warships firing their guns at naked islanders in the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Hawaii and watched "rapacious hordes of enlightened individuals" seizing the "depopulated land" from the natives, reducing them to starving "interlopers" in their own country, he realized that the superior white Christian civilization epitomized absolute savagery and that cannibals treated others with more humanity than these self-identified enlightened men. That understanding of the civilized white man struck me with its absoluteness, its certainty, its expressive force the moment I opened my file of little four year old Kaukab Al Dayah, whose tender face rests on top of the rubble of her home, an unsuspecting victim of white Zionist brutality that delivered her family a missile as a Christmas gift just over a year ago. (See Salaman, "The true Jew is the European Ashkenazi … of whitish appearance," in Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People). (To see the picture of Kaukab Al Dayah, google her name. Two sites have photos: Getty Images and Laweranceofcyberia).
She, too, like the islanders in the South Seas 157 years ago, is a resident of a "depopulated land," or perhaps is an "interloper" that failed to flea when the merciful enlightened hordes shot their warning shots announcing the white man's civilized gesture to those about to be crushed, if they hoped to survive. How considerate. How truly enlightened. How like now in Gaza just a year ago, when Israel, our westernized culture in the Mid-East, the friendly democratic state of Europeanized enlightenment, attempted to crush the defenseless Gazans caught on their own island surrounded by the savage might of this most civilized state. How unfortunate since the intended target was the school next door; an unexplainable mistake since only precision missiles are used, $300,000 dollar weapons to ensure accuracy. "After all we are civilized; we don't permit such pictures to be made public. That's brutal, pornographic; at least blur the face as we do lest our people be shocked, or dismayed that the enemy seems so small, so sweet, so silent, so dead."
Known and very popular cialis coupon which gives all the chance to receive a discount for a preparation which has to be available and exactly cialis coupons has been found in the distant room of this big house about which wood-grouses in the houses tell.
What horror strikes the soul to see that face encased in death, the weight of that shroud pressing around her tiny body, the cement wall rising beside her like the vault's side that receives the coffin, but there is no coffin. This is unnatural death. This is civilized death, the death of the innocent whose life was yet to be lived, whose eyes, shut now, will see no more the rising sun, whose hair, all matted now, will never flow in the warmth of the breeze, whose voice, silenced now, will never sing again. This is now the cold body of an unknown girl, unknown to the pilot of the F-16 that fired the missile, indeed, unconsidered by him lost as he is in his indifference to those he cannot see or hear or touch. How like Kaukab perhaps is that pilot's daughter. Was he happy, perhaps, upon his return home after his days work to lift his daughter's face to his lips before sitting down to dinner?
But he need not worry after all, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira has already absolved him of any guilt with the recent publication of his book, The King's Torah, a best seller in Israel, but un-reviewed in America, not by the enlightened New York Times or the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times. The good Rabbi writes "even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation" (Haaretz 12/15/09). Many other Rabbis joined with Shapira in his call to kill Gentiles while absolving the soldier or citizen of Israel from guilt before the crime is committed. During Israel's Gaza New Year celebration last year, euphemistically dubbed Cast Lead, Rabbi Mordechai Elyahu, one of the leading Rabbis in Israel, "urged the army not to refrain from killing enemy children in order to save lives of Israel's soldiers" (EU Times, 11/11/09). After all, Christian morals are not binding on Jews. Certainly the civilized world can understand these perspectives since the ultra-orthodox Rabbis have only exonerated God's chosen from the guilt that attends Gentiles should they be so rash as to kill a Jew. Funny how we condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization and justify the carnage that took the life of little Kaukab Al Dayah. No doubt the F-16 pilot feared for his life if he did not destroy her before she got old enough to commit some yet to be determined evil against the IDF forces.
I think as I look upon this young girl's face of the mother who bore her, cherished her, dreamed for her; I think about her father who never thought that his daughter would find her grave in the ruins of her room as she slept; I think about her sisters and brothers who played with her just the evening before never imagining that her life would end in such suffering and pain; I think of her as a reflection of all who died in this wasted war that accomplished nothing but horrific pain for the Palestinian and provided only a junky's moment of ecstasy for Olmert, Barak, and Livni, as they sunk needles into their arms, feeling nothing but self-gratification, a sickness of the mind and spirit, a high that knows nothing of others, nothing of love or gratitude or peace, the ecstasy of nirvana that unites all in the human embrace.
As the year ends that opened with Israel's invasion of a people locked behind walls with no place to go, an invasion by the world's fourth largest military according to Israeli estimates, an invasion against a people that have no military, an invasion of a small speck of land that is home to 1.5 million people, an invasion that capped two years of siege by this same military that destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza, preventing food and medicine and oil and gas and water from entering Gaza, an invasion that was as merciless as that of any ferocious animal killing its prey, but here the prey is not one but 1400 with upwards of 5000 wounded and maimed, an invasion that can only mark the perpetrators as ruthless killers without compassion or conscience, a robotic mass that has lost all sense of humane sensitivity, a people that should be and must be isolated from the law abiding nations of the world.
Perhaps, if there is a God of mercy, He has left this image as a token of His love for those who died in this carnage, and a token of His compassion for those who inflicted it that they might learn. It is after all a mirror that both must look into, a symbolic image of life and death. For the Palestinian, it mirrors what life should be for little Kaukab and all children: the joy that should have been; the love showered upon her, lost forever; the home filled with laughter and hope and dreams and warmth and security, blasted now; the neighbors and friends and family, tightly knit in love and kinship, shattered now as this home is shattered. An image of what must be, for friend and foe alike, if this life of hope has meaning and promise.
For the Israeli, it mirrors what this state has become and what the future of the Jews might be under the pathological sickness imposed on them by the Zionists. What minister of God could conceive the slaughter of children and justify it unless he was mired in myth as recorded in Biblical lore. There we read of the Scourge inflicted by G-d on the first born of all who lived in Egypt on behalf of the Jews. There we read of Herod's slaughter of the innocents that first Christmas lest his throne be threatened by the Christ child. Why do such tales exist? They exist to give license to those who would inflict their will on those they fear; they are stories of minds distorted by self-indulgence, arrogance and pride; they impose what they will to ensure their power not through rational deliberation but through deceit, coercion and fear.
That child mirrors for the Zionist the perceived enemy next door grown into adulthood, the fear of what might be; the twisted steel bars rising from the rubble reflect the prison built around those who have been excluded from privilege; the crushed cement strewn on the ground beneath the grey walls reminds the Israeli of the Wall of Fear they have built around the Palestinians, a fear resident deep in the psyche of the Zionist, as all embracing as the rubble that encases little Al Dayah, a fear that those different from them might walk their streets and shop in their stores reminding them that the world is full of people to fear, people that must be controlled and isolated; and in that image they see themselves, the consequence of the corrosive acid that is destroying their faith that once stood for compassion and love seen in the sorrowful face of this innocent girl, the realization that they have destroyed their neighbors, those closest in blood and place to their lives, and in the reaction from people around the world to this unwarranted slaughter, they understand they have built their own ghetto wall around an enclave that exudes violence, vengeance, retaliation, and death to those who do not capitulate to their wants; they have in fact created what their fear predicted, a complete isolation from the civilized world.
What more can be said? Melville saw the cannibals as more civilized than the white Christians that ripped apart the indigenous people of the islands, denying that they had rights, and with impunity destroyed their cultures. It's not only the Christians now, the evangelical end timer Christians; it's the white Ashkenazi of Europe that act now with impunity, the enlightened offspring of the Eurocentric mind that believes in their own superiority fostered by their own myths, supported by the Congress of the United States, as they ravage the defenseless people of Palestine.
Let us all ask of the Child of Bethlehem that He offer this world once again the Beatitudes:
For little Kaukab, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
For her parents, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God;
For the perpetrators of this havoc, Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
William A. Cook is a Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His books include Psalms for the 21st Century, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, and The Chronicles of Nefaria, a novella. He serves as a senior editor at the Palestine Chronicle and MWC News, and writes for Dissident Voice, Countercurrents, Pacific free Press and Atlantic Free Press among others. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. www.drwilliamacook.com.
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text:
CADIZ, Ky. (AP) - A western Kentucky man drowned after falling from a fishing pier into Lake Barkley near Cadiz over the weekend.
Trigg County Coroner John R. Vinson III told The Paducah Sun that 63-year-old Everett Pennington of Cadiz was pulled from the lake Saturday evening. Vinson classified the death as an accidental drowning.
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Gary Clark says emergency workers requested help shortly after 9 p.m. CDT Saturday about a mile north of the U.S. 68/Ky. 80 bridge at Canton.
Investigators determined that Pennington drove his golf cart to the community dock to fish. After about two hours, Pennington's wife went to look for her husband.
Pennington's wife and a neighbor eventually spotted the body floating between the dock and bank.


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Gold sluicing—a gold mining technique that's been around since about the sixteenth century—can greatly increase the amount of gravel a panner can work.
The sluice principle is simple yet effective: Rushing water carries gold-bearing material through a trough and over a series of riffles. These obstructions cause a vortex in the water flow, which allows heavier matter to settle to the bottom of the box while lighter material is washed away.
You can construct or buy sluices of varying degrees of complexity, but the small, old-fashioned variety made of wood or metal—which lies in the stream and uses the natural flow of water—is quite effective and can be built or purchased for less than $30. A wooden sluice, however, usually weighs at least 30 pounds when dry (and, of course, a lot more once it's waterlogged!). So, if you plan to prospect in remote areas, it's s advisable to build with 1/8" aluminum sheet or buy a special unit made for backpacking. (Ready-made pack-in sluices, priced from $19.95 to $34.95, can be ordered from Keene Engineering)
Ether way, there're several features one of these helpful devices should have if it's to achieve maximum efficiency and give minimum difficulty. The sluices riffles, for instance, should be constructed so their tops lean in the direction of the water's flow to create the necessary vortex. And the little "obstacles" should be removable to allow for easy extraction of the trapped materials ... which will—you hope—contain gold.
You should also place a layer of out-door carpet under the riffles to aid in the entrapment of fine particles of "dust." This rug can be removed every few days and washed by hand in a clean tub of water to dislodge golden flakes.
Once you've found "color" with your gold pan, set up your sluice so that there's approximately one inch of tilt per foot of length. (Too great an incline will only cause the water to gush out the low end and carry everything with it, including any particles of gold.) Dump the promising gravel into the upper end and allow the water to separate the heavy material. Then just remove the larger rocks and watch nature do your work for you!
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