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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C.
Signature Theatre's Urinetown Makes Its Mark at 2006 Helen Hayes Awards
Also see Susan's review of The Gigli Concert
Signature Theatre's production of Urinetown received an unprecedented eight Helen Hayes Awards at the 22nd annual award ceremony, April 17 at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. The awards honor the best in Washington theater. The previous record number of awards for a single production, six, was held by two productions at Washington's Studio Theatre: Indian Ink in 1999 and Bessie's Blues in 1995.
Urinetown was honored as Outstanding Resident Musical; Outstanding Director-Resident Musical, Joe Calarco; Outstanding Choreography, Karma Camp; Outstanding Musical Direction, Jay Crowder; Outstanding Supporting Actor-Resident Musical, Stephen F. Schmidt as Officer Lockstock; Outstanding Supporting Actress-Resident Musical, Jenna Sokolowski as Little Sally; Outstanding Lead Actor-Resident Musical, Will Gartshore as Bobby Strong, tied with Michael McElroy, who won as Jim in Big River at Ford's Theatre; and Outstanding Lead Actress-Resident Musical, Erin Driscoll as Hope Cladwell, tied with Meg Gillentine as Lola in Arena Stage's production of Damn Yankees.
The Clean House at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Take Me Out at The Studio Theatre tied for Outstanding Resident Play. Franca Barchiesi of The Clean House received the Outstanding Supporting Actress-Resident Play award, and Rick Foucheux, as financial planner Mason Marzac in Take Me Out, tied with Patrick Page as Iago in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Othello as Outstanding Lead Actor-Resident Play.
The only other productions to receive more than one award were Lady Windermere's Fan at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which recognized Simon Higlett for outstanding set design and Robert Perdziola for outstanding costume design, and I Am My Own Wife at The National Theatre, which received the Outstanding Non-Resident Production honor and Outstanding Lead Actor-Non-Resident Production for Jefferson Mays. Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of The Tempest won the outstanding lighting design award for Charlie Morrison.
Starving, a play by S.M. Shepard-Massat that had its premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, received the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical.
In addition to Take Me Out, Studio Theatre also received awards for Joy Zinoman as Outstanding Director-Resident Play for A Number, and Eunice Wong as Outstanding Lead Actress-Resident Play for the Secondstage production of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow.
Receiving single awards were columbinus at Round House Theatre, honored for Martin Desjardins' sound design; Bruce R. Nelson as Outstanding Supporting Actor-Resident Play for The Violet Hour at Rep Stage in Columbia, Md.; and Stephanie J. Block, Outstanding Lead Actress-Non-Resident Production for Wicked at the Kennedy Center.
The KPMG Award for distinguished service to the Washington theater community went to American Airlines, and longtime theater supporter and philanthropist Arlene Kogod received the Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community. The Helen Hayes Tribute, sponsored by Gilbert and Jaylee Mead, went to costume designer Jane Greenwood and scenic designer Ming Cho Lee, who admitted that he has worked more in Washington than in New York.
Brad Oscar, a Washington area native and a Helen Hayes nominee as Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees, served as master of ceremonies.
More information about the Helen Hayes Awards can be found at www.helenhayes.org.
Helen Hayes Awards Nominees and Winners (winners are in bold)
Outstanding Sound Design, Resident Production
Outstanding Costume Design, Resident Production
Outstanding Lighting Design, Resident Production
Outstanding Set Design, Resident Production
Outstanding Choreography, Resident Play or Musical
Outstanding Musical Direction, Resident Play or Musical
Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Musical
Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Musical
Outstanding Lead Actor, Resident Musical
Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Musical
Outstanding Director, Resident Musical
Outstanding Resident Musical
The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical
Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Play
Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play
Outstanding Lead Actor, Resident Play
Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play
Outstanding Director, Resident Play
Outstanding Resident Play
Outstanding Lead Actor, Non-Resident Production
Outstanding Lead Actress, Non-Resident Production
Outstanding Non-Resident Production


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A slowing global economy and the effects of a stronger dollar couldn't keep four of InvestorPlace's most Dependable Dividend Stocks down in the second quarter, as 3M (NYSE:MMM), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL), Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) and McGraw-Hill (NYSE:MHP) all managed to meet or beat Wall Street estimates.
It was a tough three months, to be sure, with revenue gains hard to come by, as weaker demand from overseas and currency exchange tamped down revenue. But shares in all four companies rose smartly Thursday, helped by the solid bottom-line results and positive earnings outlooks.
That's good news for income investors. Not only do all these names have long histories of rising payouts, but now they're getting some solid share-price appreciation, too.
3M, the Dow component best known to consumers for Scotch Tape and Post-it notes, said second-quarter earnings rose only fractionally to $1.17 billion, or $1.66 per share, but that still exceeded analysts' average estimates by a penny.
Sales slipped almost 2% to $7.53 billion, hurt in part by converting weaker euros into stronger dollars. Additionally, a slump in 3M's consumer electronics division, which makes things like films for flat-panel TVs, offset better results in industrial products and medical supplies.
But most important, 3M maintained its full-year outlook for earnings of $6.35 to $6.50 a share.
The stock rallied nearly 4% after the opening bell, outpacing the Dow's own impressive gains, and yet still offered a dividend yield of 2.6%. (Yields and prices move in opposite directions.)
Not to be outdone, shares in Colgate-Palmolive rose sharply Thursday after the maker of toothpaste and dish soap said price hikes and cost cuts allowed earnings to match Street forecasts.
Like 3M, the stronger dollar and weaker demand hurt revenue, but Colgate navigated the challenges well enough. Net income rose less than 1% to $627 million. On an adjusted basis, earnings of $1.33 a share matched Street estimates.
Revenue, though depressed by global weakness, still grew almost 2% to $4.27 billion, coming in ahead of analysts' outlook.
Meanwhile, all-important gross margin expanded to 57.7% from 57.4%. That might not sound like much, but it comes to 300 basis points, which essentially is a bonanza — and of particular importance to any company trying to manage in a world where costs for everything from oil to packaging to energy are rising.
Best of all, even after leaping Thursday, Colgate's stock still offered a dividend yield of 2.35%.

subset: commoncrawl


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7th Digital Marketing for Medical Devices
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Over the past seven years, the Digital Marketing for Medical Devices has built a stellar reputation as a must-attend event for device marketers representing companies of all sizes.
Event Aug 01 - Aug 03, 2017
3rd International Conference on Influenza and Zoonotic Diseases
Birmingham, UK
Influenza 2017 will lay a platform for making a good network with prominent Directors, Researchers, Associate Professors, and Scholars ..........
Event Aug 21 - Aug 22, 2017
IPF Summit
Boston, MA, USA
The inaugural Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Summit is the only event to focus solely on IPF.
Event Aug 21 - Aug 23, 2017
LATEST EVENTS Search Events
10th Asia-Pacific Pharma Congress
Melbourne, Australia
Event Jul 24 - Jul 26, 2017
Asia Pharma 2017 is a perfect platform for scientists, decision-makers and students to come together, compare findings, and discuss the science of the future.READ MORE
8th Asian Biosimilars Congress
Beijing, China
Event Aug 10 - Aug 12, 2017
The main theme of the conference is "Biosimilars-Uncovering An Innovation In Motion" which covers a wide range of critically important sessions.READ MORE
Annual Biotechnology Congress
Toronto, Canada
Event Aug 17 - Aug 18, 2017
We cordially invite all participants who are interested in sharing their knowledge and research in the arena of Biotechnology and its applications with the theme "New Trends and Advances in Biotechnology of the modern era."READ MORE
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San Francisco, CA, USA
Event Aug 23 - Aug 24, 2017
The theme of the conference of Biobanking is based on "New Scientifical Innovations in Development of Tissue science and Biobanking Technologies"READ MORE
Immuno-Oncology Summit
Boston, MA, USA
Event Aug 28 - Sep 01, 2017
Topics include immunotherapy discovery, development, biomarkers, and translational oncology as well as emerging topic areas such as cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, and advances in synthetic biology techniques.READ MORE
1st Molecules Medicinal Chemistry Symposium
Barcelona, Spain
Event Sep 08 - Sep 08, 2017
The Symposium is organized by MDPI, the publisher of the open-access journal Molecules.READ MORE
EMBO | EMBL Symposium: The Non-Coding Genome
Heidelberg, Germany
Event Sep 13 - Sep 16, 2017
This symposium will explore the diverse, dynamic and multifaceted roles of RNA across a spectrum of cellular processes.READ MORE
Urinomics 2017
Lisbon, Portugal
Event Sep 18 - Sep 21, 2017
On behalf of the organizing committee we are hereby informing you that we are preparing one of the major events of 2017 in Europe related to Urinomics and Nephromics.READ MORE
4th American Neuroscience & Neuro-Immune Congress
Dallas, Texas
Event Sep 18 - Sep 19, 2017
The Changing Face of Neuroimmunology: Integrating New and Old therapeutics approaches on Neurological disorders including Brain & CNS Cancer
- NeuroImmune congress 2017
MASS Medical Affairs Strategic Summit
San Diego, CA, USA
Event Sep 25 - Sep 27, 2017
Manage Medical Affairs, Communication, Information and Research Collaborations to Increase Strategic Positioning in the Marketplace


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Loughton has been revealed to be the most edited Wikipedia page in the Houses of Parliament.
All the page edits attributed to the Houses of Parliament's IP addresses since 2003 were collated by the national Guardian, and surprisingly the Essex town came out on top.
The top 20 edited pages were released today and Loughton came top with 75 revisions.
The Wikipedia page of the Epping Forest town has a particularly large wealth of information for its size and a Westminster-based expert seems to be behind it.
Other notable pages in the list include dictator Saddam Hussain with 24 revisions and Gloucestershire town Stroud with 64 revisions.


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CHRIS McCann's Premier League dream ended at the Reebok Stadium three years ago, and the midfielder hopes for a happier outcome tomorrow after admitting he does not want to spend the rest of his career outside of the top flight.
Burnley travel to Bolton in a Lancashire derby with McCann returning to the ground where a comeback from a knee injury went horribly wrong, leaving him on the sidelines for 15 months and bringing a premature halt to the only top flight campaign of his career so far.
The 25-year-old has since returned to be a regular in the Clarets line-up, helping the club to seventh in the Championship table ahead of tomorrow's game.
But he still remembers all too well that night in January 2010.
All the focus was on Owen Coyle's first game against Burnley, just weeks after the manager had controversially made the switch from Turf Moor.
Bolton won the game 1-0 thanks to a Lee Chung-Yong goal but for McCann the memory was limping off after only 13 minutes, and theproblems that followed. McCann had just come back from a four-month injury absence and had played just one match – an FA Cup defeat at Reading – prior to the Bolton game.
"That was a difficult night for me," he recalled of his only previous appearance at the Reebok Stadium.
"I'd come back and it was the first night I'd got a start (in the league), but I didn't last very long.
"I think I just came down awkwardly. I never had surgery on it but it was just one of those things, I went up and fell awkwardly and the rest is history. I was out for the rest of the season.
"Hopefully, touch wood, nothing like that happens again, and I can go there and have a positive game this time.
"But I think that just makes me want to achieve more as a person in my career, something like that just spurs you on a little bit more.
"The last time I played there was in the Premier League and that's where I aspire to be.
"I don't want to be playing in the Championship for the rest of my career."
The Clarets currently sit four points behind Middlesbrough, the occupants of the final play-off place, and McCann believes promotion is more than possible this season.
Although Coyle's departure from Bolton has now taken some of the spice out of tomorrow's game, the Irishman still appreciates how important victory in a derby could be.
Burnley are unbeaten in Lancashire derby games this season, having beaten Coyle's Bolton on the opening day of the season and then defeated Blackpool before drawing with fiercest rivals Blackburn Rovers.
Sean Dyche's side are also expected to be cheered on by 3,500 travelling fans tomorrow.
"Bolton is a big game," McCann said. "It's stepping stone to getting into the play-offs at the end of the season hopefully and getting back into the Premier League.
"That's very realistic if you look at where we are in the league. We've played everybody once now, we know there's nothing to be fearful of. It's another of these big derbies.
"The fans build the rivalry up, if Owen Coyle hadn't gone there it probably wouldn't have been as big a rivalry.
"But it's still a Lancashire derby, there's a lot at stake and I think we're unbeaten in derbies this season so we want to keep it that way.
"You saw with the Blackburn game how ecstatic people were in the stadium when we scored and in these games there's that little bit more pride and passion for us to go out there and win, especially for the fans to give them something to smile about."
Tyrone Mears did not feature in Bolton's last game but fellow Clarets old boy Chris Eagles is likely to start.
"I still keep in touch and I've seen Chris a couple of times since he's left," McCann said of facing his former team-mate.
"We'll be aware of the danger he poses and I'm sure we'll have him well documented on Friday in training.
"But we're not just going to concentrate on him, they're a good side."
Michael Duff is a major doubt for the Clarets tomorrow with a calf problem, while Ben Mee is not yet ready to return after two months out with a knee injury.
"Duffo is unlikely," said Dyche, who helped Chesterfield to a memorable FA Cup win at Bolton in 1997 – when current Wanderers striker Kevin Davies scored a hat-trick for the Spireites.
"We think it's a bit of a calf strain, it's settling down well but we think it's unlikely he will play, we've just got to wait until we can have a closer look.
"Ben maybe back in training next week but because of the time he's had out he will need the minimum of training and a reserve game, so he's obviously still another few weeks away."


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Thursday, January 15, 2009
A color challenge
And my quickie thank you card:
Actually, I got the colors of cardstock out and kinda stared at it for a bit, NOT liking it at all, lol! But then this card has kinda grew on me, and I'm liking it after getting it all together. The 'thank you' charms I got at Michael's on clearance for like 2 bucks too. I think they were meant to put on bracelets, but I'll get a couple more words out of them and for 2 bucks, thats ok, lol.
Ok, thats it for tonight! Hope everyone is having a good week and TGIF tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by! Ya'll come back now ya here? haha! Been wanting to say that for the longest, lol.
Card Details
Stamps: SU! Big Flowers
Papers: SU! cardstock (colors listed above)
Accessories: oval punch, circle punch, scallop edge punch, cb embossing folder swiss dots, ribbon, pop dots, tombow metal glue, silver rhinestones, scor-pal, embossing powder and heat gun, flower brads from SU!
25 comments:
- Tracey said...
This is gorgeous Cat!!
- January 15, 2009 at 7:25 PM
- sari hänninen said...
i just love it
- January 15, 2009 at 8:01 PM
- Jenn D said...
This is so sweet. I'm a total sucker for 3D butterflies.
- January 15, 2009 at 8:09 PM
- SmilynStef said...
What a cute idea with the charms.
- January 15, 2009 at 9:05 PM
- The Larsen's said...
love.it. every bit!
- January 15, 2009 at 10:58 PM
- mudmaven said...
This is a wonderful card Cat! So soft and yet totally vibrant! You're an inspiration as always! ~chris
- January 15, 2009 at 11:27 PM
- Tina said...
Adorable, love the Scrabble like letters!
- January 15, 2009 at 11:41 PM
- Laurie in MN said...
I love your card. I also like the color combination. You used all the colors really well, far better than I could.
- January 16, 2009 at 1:51 AM
- Ange Kelly said...
Wow! Fabulous card
- January 16, 2009 at 2:24 AM
- Jodene said...
You have done a beautiful job with this weeks colour challenge, I love your card!
- January 16, 2009 at 3:41 AM
- Theresa said...
Love this, Cat! The charmed sentiment is just too cool! Happy Friday to you!
- January 16, 2009 at 7:28 AM
- Gabby said...
This is so adorable! I love the details with the silver rhinestones and the unique use of the letter beads. Very creative! (I got to your link from the Kwerner blog.)
- January 16, 2009 at 9:53 AM
- Becky said...
Cat, this is beautiful!
- January 16, 2009 at 10:11 AM
- Butternut Sage Designs said...
this is definitely a Kristina pick! ~Donna
- January 16, 2009 at 10:23 AM
- Bianca from Germany said...
BEAUTIFUL!!! A pick for Kristina!
- January 16, 2009 at 12:17 PM
- Savitri said...
Super super cute! This is just gorgeous work!
- January 16, 2009 at 12:35 PM
- Tiya-B said...
What a beautiful card, wow, the silver beads are a wonderful touch.
- January 16, 2009 at 1:31 PM
- Liz said...
Love the way you used the charms on the ribbon for the sentiment! Beautiful!
- January 16, 2009 at 2:01 PM
- Sankari W. said...
WOW! I absolutely love this card - The layers the colors the texutres the layout - your card is such delicious eye candy!!! Beautiful!!!
- January 16, 2009 at 7:36 PM
- Annapurna said...
Love the colors and all the different things you put on it. I will definitely have to CASE this one some day.
Those letter charms are so different and make it even better than just stamping a sentiment.
Sorry I haven't been around too much lately. Hope you and yours are doing well!
- January 17, 2009 at 10:03 AM
- Rose Curtis said...
I love this card... the silver dots really make it pop!
- January 18, 2009 at 8:21 AM
- Donya said...
What a cute card, love the colors! Thanks for stopping by my blog, good luck with the drawing!
- January 18, 2009 at 9:26 AM
- Shirley said...
Very very elegant, Cat!!! I love everything you did, from the BG to the beautiful medallion, butterflies, and that wonderful 'thenk you'.
- January 18, 2009 at 3:33 PM
- Lee (LuvLee on SCS) said...
Wow Cat!!!! I totally would never have braved that color combo!!!! LOL And the charm letters are just so fun!!
- January 19, 2009 at 2:43 AM
- Donna said...
what a fun card! I love it when you can take a product meant for something else & use it on your cards! great job
- January 22, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Blog Archive
- ► 2016 (22)
- ► 2015 (21)
- ► 2014 (29)
- ► 2013 (50)
- ► 2012 (76)
- ► 2011 (107)
- ► 2010 (90)
- Just to let everyone know...
- Ghirardelli® Box
- A color and a sketch challenge!
- How Tweet!
- Happy Birthday to me! LOL!
- LOVE these colors!
- 2 CAS cards...I think..
- A color challenge
- Unity Challenge Wednesday! #19!
- Whew! Got it done!
- Well this card didnt work out!
- Unity Addicts at it again!
- I fear glitter...
- One of my favorite stamp Illustrators...
- ▼ January (14)


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The Rum River Theatre production of "Treasure Island" kicked off its season last weekend with its first performance. The play will be shown again this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and again June 29, 30 and July 1 at the outdoor theater at 15153 110th Ave., Milaca.
Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Bring a lawn chair and be washed ashore in this fun and exciting outdoor performance.


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Transmission fluid and filter change
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Location: Panhandle of Florida
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,848
Mein Auto: 335 vert/14JGC/ 17Outback
View My Garage
Changed my lady friends X3 transfer case which by the way is WAY more important to change periodically than the transmission and also the transmission fluid and filter.
Transfer case had 63K and I wish I had done it at 50K but oh well. It was very black and holds only 0.6L of BMW fluid. Easy to change. Drained and dropped the pan, cleaned the magnets and replaced the filter and reinstalled, pumped ESSO Lt 71411 which is the same thing as Lifeguard5 spec'ed for this transmission. I believe around 5L. Transmission warm to temp added another 3/4L. Job done.
Only issue is using a inch pound torque wrench since the values are so low. By the way the Lifeguard5 I drained out was Coke colored and smelled bad however Esso smells bad anyway so I didn't think it was actually shot. I will do this in another 30-40K miles and for sure 30K miles for the transfer case since it is where all the power is sent from the engine and just too important and contains such a small amount of fluid to not change it often.
I didn't have guts enough to stray away from the OEM like using Redline or other fluids...
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i am a single mom mu stomach sags when i sleep on my side its annoying. Even the mirrors in my house are from my neck up because i cant stand seeing my stomach... i dont regret having my kids i love them, but i have the aftermath
Can I Afford a Tummy Tuck on a Fixed Income?
Doctor Answers 14
Learn more: https://harmonycosmetic.com/cosmetic-procedures/surgery/tummy-tuck/
Learn more: https://www.myplasticsurgeon.ca/cosmetic-procedures/surgery/abdominoplasty/
Financing Tummy Tuck Surgery
In our practice, we use Care Credit as well as other companies; they have been used by our patients with no problems. They do have different rates so please make sure you get all of the information you need prior to signing up with any financing company.
Generally speaking, it is always in patients' best interests to achieve a certain degree of financial stability prior to undergoing elective surgery of any type. Patients should also keep in mind that additional surgery may be necessary in the short or long term, following the primary procedure that is being performed; this additional surgery may be associated out-of-pocket expenses. Again, best to achieve a physical, emotional, psychosocial, and financial "stable state" prior to considering elective plastic surgery. Best wish
Learn more: http://www.poustiplasticsurgery.com/la-jolla-cosmetic-surgeon.htm
You might also like...
Can I Afford a Tummy Tuck?
All of these factors influence the cost. In Mexico it is probably different but for reference, in Orange County, California the estimated range is $7000- $15,000 depending on the variables above.
Learn more: http://www.pacificcenterplasticsurgery.com/body-procedures-newport-beach/tummy-tuck/
Costs for Tummy Tuck on Fixed Income
To ensure that you are receiving quality work with personalized care at the most cost effective prices, consult with board certified plastic surgeons that own their own nationally accredited facilities. The quality must be maintained at the highest level to maintain accreditation. The surgeons also have incentive to hire and train quality staff (to ensure that surgery is efficient and enjoyable), to ensure comfortable and private facilities (to encourage referral), and to eliminate waste (to ensure that these facilities can compete effectively).
Learn more: http://www.drkrisreddy.com/west_palm_beach_tummy_tuck.html
Tummy Tuck on Fixed Income
Another factor that should be considered is if liposuction is performed as well. If yes, this may be more or integrated into the price.
Learn more: https://plus.google.com/+Edelsteincosmetic
Tummy tuck on fixed income.
Children are great, but they can certainly change a woman's body. There are financing options for cosmetic surgery. Ask the office manager in the plastic surgeon's office and they should be able to guide you. Another option is to have surgery at a cosmetic clinic run by the residents, (and overseen by faculty), at a teaching hospital.
Learn more: http://www.jjrothmd.com/procedures/tummy-tuck-abdominoplasty
Costs of a Tummy Tuck on a Fixed Income-Possible?
There are a number of options for you to consider before proceeding with an abdominoplasty-tummy tuck when you are living a a fixed income. Most importantly, you do not want to place you or your family in a state of dire financial stress so you have to be very honest with what you realistically can afford. Once you have determined what you can afford, then you should contact a number of board certified plastic surgeons in your region to determine if the total costs of the procedure(s) you are seeking will fit within this budget. Many plastic surgeon do offer financing options and their staff can help you determine if these are something you may want to consider. Lastly, a number of medical schools with plastic surgery training programs do have clinics where the plastic surgery residents who are training to become fully accredited plastic surgeons perform cosmetic procedures at a reduced cost. These procedures are supervised by a plastic surgeon who is a faculty member but the actual surgery will be performed by the resident and/or fellow.
I hope this helps you on how to approach your area of concern. I wish you good luck.
Tummy tuck on a fixed income
Only you can know what you can afford for surgery. We offer financing and accept all major credit cards. The financing companies have become much more stringent after the financial crisis of 2008. However, if you have a steady job and a good credit rating, they will entertain your application.
Low cost tummy tuck
Occasionally tummy tucks are available at a lowered cost if performed in the context of a teaching institution under the supervision of professors. You may want to discuss this with any local university programs.Alternatively, there are loan and financing options.
Learn more: http://www.bodysculptor.com/body-surgery-chicago/tummy-tuck/
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.


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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (
The decline of biodiversity is one of the major current global issues. Still, there is a widespread lack of information about the spatial distribution of individual species and biodiversity as a whole. Remote sensing techniques are increasingly used for biodiversity monitoring and especially the combination of LiDAR and hyperspectral data is expected to deliver valuable information. In this study spatial patterns of vascular plant community composition and
Biodiversity describes the genetic and functional variability within and between all taxonomic ranks of life as well as within and between their organizational aggregates, such as communities or ecosystems. Biodiversity is a key element in the provision of ecosystem services influencing ecosystem functioning and stability [
One reason for the uncertainty in biodiversity estimates is the inherent difficulty in measuring and monitoring biodiversity. Nevertheless, in order to slow down negative biodiversity trends, knowledge about the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of biodiversity on scales relevant to the conservation decision makers is needed. Indeed the CBD calls upon each party to monitor "through sampling and other techniques, the components of biological diversity [. . . ] paying particular attention to those requiring urgent conservation measures" and further to "identify processes and categories of activities which have or are likely to have significant adverse impacts on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and monitor their effects" [
Conservation planning is usually made on landscape to regional scales [
According to Turner
In Europe, forest biodiversity is one of the major conservation targets and at the same time provides one of the major challenges for the establishment of conservation strategies at regional scales. This is because most of Europe's typical natural land-cover would be forests, although much has been lost or converted due to human activities [
Promising candidates for biodiversity mapping are hyperspectral and LiDAR remote sensing [
It is commonly expected that very high spatial resolution optical imagery (hyperspatial) is needed for remote sensing based biodiversity assessments [
The key open question is whether canopy species composition can be a surrogate for sub-canopy communities. Assuming that communities are entities across forest strata, hyperspectral remote sensing can then be expected to allow modelling complete and sub-canopy forest communities by assessing only a fraction thereof,
On the other hand, active systems like RaDAR and LiDAR directly provide information on the sub-canopy layers of forests by penetrating canopies and preserving the position of reflecting objects. The structural information provided has been shown to be highly valuable for biodiversity modelling encompassing vegetation density distribution in different forest strata, which is an essential variable describing vegetation itself [
It is expected that hyperspectral and LiDAR data will complement each other and result in improved modelling capabilities once combined [
These hyperspectral and LiDAR approaches have to be seen in context of upcoming space-borne sensors. While studies relying on airborne remote sensing are often limited in their spatial extent, civil hyperspectral space-borne sensors are about to become increasingly available, e.g., EnMap [
The purpose of this study is to investigate which information on vascular plant diversity can be derived from remotely sensed data. In particular, the capabilities of hyperspectral and LiDAR predictors are analysed for different vegetation strata in complex forest ecosystems. The following two hypothesis were tested. First, plant species richness and communities of different forest layers can be modelled relying only on remote sensing data. The combination of LiDAR and hyperspectral predictors is expected to improve the predictive power of the models because they reflect complementary information. Furthermore, we hypothesised that LiDAR performs better than hyperspectral data in modelling sub-canopy patterns. We expected this because the former provides direct information on the vegetation while the latter can do so only via proxy relationships of canopy composition and biophysical state to sub-canopy communities and environmental condition. Second, we expected that reducing the dimensionality of the learning problem prior to modelling the biodiversity metrics would improve model predictions. We used up to 135 predictors, many of which are noise variables. Therefore, we expected an increase in model performance when only relevant predictors are used as input variables.
The study area is situated in the Bavarian Forest national park in Germany at the border to the Šumava national park of the Czech Republic (
Temporally and spatially distributed monitoring of biodiversity patterns at landscape scales is especially important in the Bavarian Forest national park because of its highly dynamic environment created by the European spruce bark beetle
Two scenes of hyperspectral imagery were acquired in August 2009 by the airborne HyMap™ sensor [
The two scenes were spaced about 10 km apart. Both the northern and the southern scene were approximately 4 km wide and 8 km long. This corresponds to a covered area of 3,116 ha for the northern and 2,713 ha for the southern scene. Flight altitude was approximately 4,000 m a.s.l. resulting in a spatial resolution of 7 m. Because of a non-ideal flight time (10 AM), significant shadows in both scenes and clearly visible bidirectional reflectance effects (BRDF) in the northern scene (flight heading ≈ 96°) could not be prevented. Cloud cover was 0% in both cases.
Geometric, radiometric and atmospheric preprocessing of the HyMap data was conducted by the DLR. Orthorectification and atmospheric correction was carried out using ATCOR4 [
In order to reduce the high redundancy in the hyperspectral imagery, the data were subjected to a minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation [
Airborne, full-waveform LiDAR data were acquired in May 2007 after leaf flush using a Riegl LMS-Q560 scanner [
The waveform echoes were decomposed into discrete returns by fitting Gaussian functions as described in Reitberger
Based on these 3D point-clouds, ten structural indices were calculated. A canopy model of a spatial resolution of 0.25 m was derived, from which mean canopy height (HMEAN), standard deviation of canopy height (HSTD), maximal canopy height (HMAX) were calculated for 7 m raster cells. For the same raster we calculated penetration ratios, a measure of vegetation density, for multiple forest strata as the number of returns below the lower layer boundary divided by those below the upper layer boundary. Layer ranges reflected ecologically meaningful heights of herb layer (PR0-1.5, 0–1.5 m), shrub layer (PR1.5-5, 1.5–5 m) and tree layer. The latter was further split up into two categories (5 to 12 and 12 to 50 m), mainly dividing between young and old trees. Furthermore, overall penetration ratios over all layers were calculated (PR0-50, PR2-50, 0–50 m and 2–50 m respectively). Finally, the height of median return energy (HOME) was calculated based on the initial waveforms as described in Drake
A vegetation survey was carried out in July and August 2006 as part of the BIOKLIM project [
Because of large-scale bark beetle outbreaks, several of the plots have lost their canopy cover completely from the date of their recording in 2006 up to the date of the HyMap overflight in 2009. Thirty-two plots which have been subject to bark beetle infestations were excluded from any further analysis, based upon visual change detection using aerial CIR photography from 2006 and 2009, leaving a total of 148 plots. Since not all layers were present in all plots, this corresponded to 147;92;129 plots in HL, SL and TL respectively.
Vascular plant
For all plots, the corresponding values of the MNF transformed HyMap data and the LiDAR indices were extracted using an 18 m buffer around the plot centre. All pixels falling into the buffer were aggregated by their mean. The buffer size of 18 m was decided upon based on the plot size of radius 8 m and a typical GPS error of the true plot location of 10 m, owing to poor signal transmission in dense forests.
After the extraction of the predictor values, the LiDAR predictors were combined with the MNF transformed HyMap predictors. Three final sets of predictors were used for all further analyses: LiDAR (LiD, 10 variables), MNF components (MNF, 125 variables), LiDAR and MNF components (MNF+LiD, 135 variables).
A multitude of algorithms has been used in the literature for remote sensing based biodiversity modelling, such as support vector machines [
Model building was embedded in a 10-fold cross-validation scheme. In order to ensure similar distributional properties in each fold, they were assembled by means of random sampling stratified on response variable quartiles. This follows the advice from Kohavi [
First, all predictor variables were used to fit random forest models. Bootstrapping was conducted with replacement. The number of predictors tried on each split,
Finally, the selected random forest was used to predict the partition of data left out by the cross-validation scheme. The predictions were then aggregated over all folds and the cross-validated prediction accuracy for regression was quantified by
As an expansion of this approach, a feature selection based on all predictors was carried out using the Boruta algorithm [
After model evaluation, the final ten random forest models were used in prediction mode based on an input raster covering the overlapping area of MNF and LiD. The ten prediction rasters were then averaged to a single final prediction. Additionally, the standard deviation
All statistical analysis was carried out using R v2.14 [
The vegetation composition of the sampled plots was characterized by a few frequent and many rare species. The most frequent tree species occurring in more than 30% of all plots were
Overall species richness ranged from 1 to 43 species per plot with twelve species on average. About 75% of the plots hosted no more than 15 species. Overall species richness was dominated by the herb layer, which featured the same distributional moments. Shrub layer and tree layer hosted only two species on average, namely
Values of the Shannon index were highly correlated to species richness (
NMDS ordination onto two dimensions resulted in stress values per layer of 0.18, 0.21, 0.08 and 0.09 for ALL, HL, SL and TL. The scores of the first NMDS axis were weakly correlated to species richness and Shannon index (
There were strong correlations between some of the LiDAR variables up to a degree of |
Optimization of
The predictors selected by the Boruta algorithm were mostly stable. Multiple runs on the same dataset typically resulted in about 81% consistently
From the LiD predictor set, most of the ten variables were selected as important in all cases for the layers ALL and HL across all response variables. For SL and TL not all LiD predictors were selected. Most of the selected MNF predictor variables were found within the first 35 MNF components. However, there were always some higher order MNF components which were chosen in most if not all ten cross-validation groups. There was high stability in modelling with the predictor composite MNF+LiD, in which mostly the same predictor variables as in the respective single sets were selected (see Figures S6–S8 in supplementary materials for detailed band selection histograms).
Both the calculations with and without feature selection yielded very similar model performance (
In most cases, the OOB estimates matched the cross-validated estimates closely, with the notable exception that in all cases involving MNF predictors there was a clear mismatch between
Species richness could be modelled with moderate success (
Modelling abundance based
Scores of the first NMDS axis were modelled with high accuracy for ALL and HL by any of the predictor sets (
Finally, the scores on the second NMDS axis were modelled with moderate success (
The spatial predictions of the models with highest cross-validated performance are shown in
Overall species richness (supplementary materials, Figure S11) was generally predicted to be in the range of 5 to 20 species. The models typically overestimated
Predictions of overall
With this study we aimed to estimate the added value of combining hyperspectral and LiDAR remote sensing data for modelling vascular plant diversity patterns in complex forest ecosystems. We expected that, since both systems provide distinct information, they would complement each other, leading to an improved set of model predictors. However, we found that the added value of hyperspectral plus LiDAR data was small. While both systems achieved fair cross-validated accuracies in modelling vascular plant species richness and performed well in modelling aspects of overall, herb layer and tree layer communities, combining them did not result in improved models. This is unexpected, since the limited correlation between LiD and MNF variables suggested that each one contains distinct information (
Overall, LiDAR based models performed best with respect to all vegetation layers. Hyperspectral data only provided valuable information on species richness within the tree layer. This result was expected since the trees shape most of the spectral reflectance recorded by HyMap. Therefore, we conclude that the tree layer composition does not provide sufficient proxy information on the underlying strata concerning
Model results for the abundance-based Shannon index were poor in most cases, except for the shrub layer. This is in contrast to Oldeland
Community composition based on NMDS ordination scores was modelled with great success, especially for overall and herb layer composition using either LiD or MNF predictor sets, whereas tree layer community composition was predicted better using MNF predictors and best by MNF+LiD. In the case of ALL and HL, the first NMDS axis mainly reflected species turnover along a canopy openness gradient, spanned by shadow-adapted, forest-dwelling species to light-demanding, non-forest species. This explains the exceptionally good models, as canopy density is a fundamental quantity measured by LiDAR [
Models predicting the second NMDS axis did not reach the performance of NMDS1 models. Nevertheless, ALL, HL and TL, unlike SL, still achieved moderate performance. This can be attributed to the second ordination axis explaining less variability of the vegetation composition in general and additionally because it reflected species richness, which in itself could be modelled with only moderate success. This is in contrast to results from non-forest ecosystems. Schmidtlein
The stagnation or even decrease in performance of several MNF+LiD models as compared to LiD alone could be due to the lower probability of LiD predictors to contribute to each tree and hence a methodological limitation. At maximum, 125 MNF variables were used together with 10 LiD variables, out of which only
No studies have been published comparing LiDAR and hyperspectral data for modelling of plant species richness or communities. However, several studies have tested both for species classification. The results of this study regarding the added value of hyperspectral plus LiDAR data differ from those published in literature, where mostly improvements in classification accuracy are reported. Dalponte
It is a challenge of increasing importance to correlate biodiversity on the ground with remote sensing data. As a matter of fact, the detection of plant species
Testing our second hypothesis, we examined whether the high dimensionality of the input predictor sets had a negative impact on model quality. Our results clearly show that using only a reduced set of relevant predictors did not substantially benefit the predictive performance of the random forest models in most cases. This confirms claims of random forests being able to deal with large amounts of non-informative predictors, rendering any attempts for preceding feature selection unnecessary [
There was substantial collinearity between the LiDAR predictors, which is a serious issue in statistical modelling. Random forests have been shown to be sensitive to collinearity among predictors concerning variable importance measures [
At a methodological level, this study calls for caution in relying only on OOB estimates for assessing prediction performance. The OOB accuracy estimates overlap very well with those obtained in ten-fold cross-validation unless feature selection is conducted in the presence of many noise variables. The increased difference between
So far, although we did not model species directly, species richness and communities were modelled by a direct approach
The sometimes limited predictive performance of the models might have been caused in part by the high variability in land cover types, which ranged from closed canopy forests to early-successional open areas resulting from bark beetle infestations and wind-throw. One does expect that decision tree based methods are flexible enough to deal with such difficulties. Nevertheless it remains to be tested whether, for example, a stratification of the response variable based on openness or "optical accessibility" can improve the models.
In order to model biodiversity, we broke down the problem to modelling indices and ordination scores separately for each axes. This discontinuous statistical analysis is one major limitation of the approach taken in this study, since the step of information condensation is accompanied by a loss of valuable ecological information such as taxonomic identity or multidimensional position in ordination space. We believe that further steps towards truly multivariate learning techniques are highly promising. A candidate method for direct prediction of communities, without the step of ordination or index calculation, might be for example multivariate random forests [
This study has analysed the potential of LiDAR (LiD) and hyperspectral (MNF) remote sensing for modelling vascular plant diversity patterns in complex forest ecosystems. Both are promising techniques for regional scale biodiversity modelling, but the information gain of their combination should be thoroughly evaluated. Overall, the added value of hyperspectral plus LiDAR data was found to be small, with a maximal improvement in cross-validated
For modelling overall species richness, LiDAR predictors were the best choice (
Despite the importance for European conservation strategies, modelling sub-canopy biodiversity patterns of temperate forests from remote sensing information has been rarely attempted so far and remains challenging. Our study aimed to exploit direct measurements of vegetation cover and indirect relationships between canopy reflectance and sub-canopy characteristics using machine learning algorithms and a rigorous cross-validation scheme. This approach is very promising, but ecological knowledge needs to be integrated further into remote sensing approaches. In particular, future research should focus on an integrated statistical analysis, which directly relates species or community information to remote sensing data, without the stepping stone of biodiversity indices or ordination scores.
Parts of this analysis was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the funding programme "Open Access Publishing" by the University of Bayreuth. We thank Timothy Thrippleton for helpful comments on graphical display and proofreading. Moreover we are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions how to improve the analysis.
Bavarian Forest national park with bounding boxes of the two hyperspectral scenes. N: northern scene, S: southern scene. Underlying digital elevation model from SRTM3 v2.1 [
Processing framework. Predictor variables were derived from LiDAR (LiD) and hyperspectral (MNF) data. Biodiversity indicators (
Bi-plot of site and species scores in NMDS space for herb (HL), shrub (SL), tree layer (TL) and their total (ALL). Species acronyms consist of the first three letters of genus and species respectively (see supplementary materials, Table S1 for decoding). Only species occurring in more than 20% of the plots are shown. Colour mapping depicts species richness.
Model assessment of ten-fold cross-validation of random forests with and without feature selection and with
Predicted species richness of the shrub layer (SL) for the LiDAR (LiD) and hyperspectral (MNF) predictor sets and their combination (MNF+LiD). Upper panel: averaged predictions of ten cross-validation models and plot information used to train and evaluate the random forests. Background: color-infrared composite of the HyMap data. Lower panel: standard deviation of the predictions of the ten cross-validation models. Bar charts show the residuals between predicted and observed estimates in cross-validation. Positive residuals are due to an overestimation by the model and
Spatial prediction of position on the first NMDS axis of all vegetation layers combined (ALL) for the LiDAR (LiD) and hyperspectral (MNF) predictor sets and their combination (MNF+LiD). Upper panel: averaged predictions of ten cross-validation models and plot information used to train and evaluate the random forests. Background: color-infrared composite of the HyMap data. Lower panel: standard deviation of the predictions of the ten cross-validation models. Bar charts show the residuals between predicted and observed estimates in cross-validation. Positive residuals are due to an overestimation by the model and
Spatial prediction of position on the first NMDS axis of the herb layer (HL) for the LiDAR (LiD) and hyperspectral (MNF) predictor sets and their combination (MNF+LiD). Upper panel: averaged predictions of ten cross-validation models and plot information used to train and evaluate the random forests. Background: color-infrared composite of the HyMap data. Lower panel: standard deviation of the predictions of the ten cross-validation models. Bar charts show the residuals between predicted and observed estimates in cross-validation. Positive residuals are due to an overestimation by the model and


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Marmian Grimes
The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host a free public lecture, "European Witch Hunts," Wednesday, April 2, at 5:30 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium. Parking on campus is free after 5 p.m.
Professor of German Josef Glowa will give the presentation, which is part of the weekly research showcase hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity.
For more information, call 907-450-8772, or visit www.uaf.edu/ursa/.
ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/ursa/


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WCRO and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law January Term Exchange ProgramIn January 2005, the War Crimes Research Office (WCRO) launched the University of Ottawa January Term Exchange Program in collaboration with the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Each year one University of Ottawa law student is selected to spend the university's January academic term in Washington, D.C., gaining practical experience in international criminal law by conducting, under WCRO supervision, intensive research and writing on legal research projects for WCRO client institutions.
Students selected for the January Term Exchange Program will have an opportunity not only to learn about international criminal and humanitarian law and how international criminal courts and tribunals operate, but also to use their skills in a practical and meaningful way. In turn, students will contribute to the WCRO's efforts to promote the effective operation of the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and other international tribunals by helping them build a sound jurisprudential basis.
Alison Mitchell, the first student to participate in this program, remarked that her experience working with the WCRO was "a fantastic opportunity to develop the skill of researching international criminal law issues. It was also a terrific way for me to apply my existing knowledge of international humanitarian law in a practical way."
Interested students should have a background and demonstrated interest in international law, particularly international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law.
Past Exchange Program Participants:
- 2010 - Juliette Yip
- 2009 - Patricia Kheirallah
- 2008 - Natalie Senst
- 2007 - Mary Mitsios
- 2006 - Mélanie Masse
- 2005 - Alison Mitchell


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by Carol Krucoff
One woman started walking laps around the soccer field instead of sitting during her child's practice. One man stopped driving to restaurants for lunch and started walking to lunch instead.
These were some of the small changes that added up to major health benefits for participants in Project Active, a two-year study conducted at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. Researchers randomly assigned 235 sedentary men and women into two groups: a lifestyle group that learned behavioral skills to help them gradually fit more physical activity into their daily routines, and a structured group that used a fitness center to do traditional forms of vigorous exercise such as aerobics, swimming, stair climbing and walking.
The results suggest that lifestyle activity is as effective as a structured exercise program in improving health.
For example, both groups decreased body fat by "about one clothing size. . .2.4 percent for the lifestyle group and 1.9 percent for the structured group," notes the study's lead author, exercise psychologist Andrea Dunn.
"This is good news for people whose barriers to exercise may include lack of time, lack of access to facilities or dislike of vigorous exercise," says Dunn. "Many people think exercise is an 'either-or' phenomenon, where you either go to the gym and work out for 30 minutes or you do nothing. This study helps demonstrate that every step you take counts."
Many people don't realize how little physical activity they actually get and how important it is for them to use every opportunity they have to be active.
In fact, researchers estimate that adults burn an estimated 800 fewer calories (about the equivalent of four glazed donuts) per day than did previous generations, largely because technology has engineered physical activity out of our lives.
For example, one 49-year-old aerospace engineer was able to drop 10 pounds and lower his cholesterol from 210 to 195 simply by taking a few extra steps at the office whenever he needed to use the restroom or get a bite to eat


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In a much lamented kingdom of imagination and remorse, motherhood stands naked and unabashedly unashamed. What a beautiful girl, the goddess of motherhood has birthed! That's what I thought when I first beheld you. When I first saw you, my daughter, I thought you must be an incarnation of a rabbi; you had such a host of beautifully woven curls that fell down either side of your robust cheeks. I have to admit I was rather surprised you were a girl.Before your birth, I had recurring dreams of … [Read more...]
Motherhood – a lyrical poem
What We Mothers Must Do
It is time that we mothers stop moaning about how badly the big, bad men are treating us and our earth and start saying "No!" to ourselves and others. We are the ones who are being handed the fruits of war in greater and greater proportions. Just as a cat will lay a dead bird at the feet of the pet's parent, our men are trained, from birth, to bring us spoils of war as acts of worship of our womanhood.It is time that we stop preening ourselves while other women suffer at our hands. Our greed … [Read more...]
Poem from an empty nest
A redwood tree shades the slender daughter shooting up from her side: an apt metaphor, I think, or at least one that calms my heart. In a few weeks, my youngest child will leave home for college. I both hate and welcome this change. Every few days, a sudden nostalgia pulls at me when I am least prepared. The faint tunes of a familiar merry-go-round make my eyes tear up. My throat tightens when I pass the pumpkin patch lot, now empty.The playground nearby is newly remodeled, but I still hear the t … [Read more...]
Mom muddling through motherhood
Wisdom came to me, late in life. Motherhood did not. I gave birth to my oldest child, a daughter, at age 18. Sixteen months later, I had my son, at age 20. I was clueless. Having had a mother who birthed me when she was just 17 and my father only 15, my role models for appropriate parenting skills were greatly lacking. I'm not faulting my mother, knowing that she did the best she could. I was damned angry at her for not doing well enough the whole time I was growing up and well into my 4th … [Read more...]
Yes, Daughter! Yes!
I am not a mother, yet from the beginning of my life I have mothered. I am a hen without chicks, but instead puppies, kittens, ducklings, cubs, and bunnies fall in line after me. When I was little, I nurtured stuffed dogs and walruses. When I was a teenager, I came up with crafts and games for my young babysitting charges. When I was a young woman, I helped pay my way through seminary by taking care of a professor's children. As a chaplain, I have guided, nurtured, and loved so many young women w … [Read more...]
Conscious and Sacred Motherhood
Motherhood is one of the most sacred and beautiful mysteries of the universe, un-matched in its deep-seated power and enigma... The unprecedented way that a women engages when she enters motherhood, exists on a level that she could never have known occurred within her, until it comes upon her... To become a mother is certainly a right of passage, that organically and divinely activates a woman in such Beautiful ways...Her motherhood shapes her in ways that nothing else in the world can.. … [Read more...]
Mother, please come, I need your help.
It's the first class of my Spring Sacred Ritual session. Ladies of varying ages, enter the room. Hesitant, and curious. A few appear unsure, as if they are in the wrong place, one or two are down right impatient to get started, and a couple are silent and thoughtful as they take in the sights and sounds.The beginning of every session fills me with awe, wonder and expectation. Awe and wonder because they have come, expectation because of all that I will receive within the sacred confines of c … [Read more...]
Motherhood: the earthly experience of Divine Oneness
Though I am in my sixties now and well past menopause, I still dream from time to time that I am nursing a baby. These dream babies, however, are able to talk -- and so we converse. I awake with strange, inexplicable feelings of connection. When a child grows in the womb and is then born into the world, the process of individuation begins -- the separation of the One into the separate soul, traveling through one particular lifetime.As mothers, we are blessed with the earthly experience of … [Read more...]
Mothering: the cycle of love and mistakes
In therapy, in my late thirties, my therapist commented that it was a wonder that I had such a positive outlook on life having, as she said, "raised myself." Oh, I had a mother, alright; I was her first born. She went on to have ten more… and to become a world famous physician. We all pretty much raised ourselves.But here's the thing, somehow, her amazing optimism penetrated every one of us and so, despite incest, sexual abuse, one fatal illness that wasn't, and all the other challenges that … [Read more...]
Invitation to blog: mothers, mothering and Mother Earth
It is May, and mothers are on our minds. Mothering is something that most of us do, whether we have given birth or not. Sometimes it is towards children, animals, or plants, at other times it is directed at the men in our lives, or towards ourselves. Some of us might even feel as if we carry the entire world under our care. Mothering is also a cycle: all mothers have mothers, who had mothers too...Mothering - giving and receiving - is tricky business. Yes it's beautiful, but it's also … [Read more...]


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Regular price
This substantial dining table from our MIXT collection is crafted with a sealed black concrete top and a trestle style base made from solid acacia wood in a light espresso finish. A bold and distinctive piece.
Manufactured by Sunpan. Sunpan is a global company that specializes in the design and manufacturing of transitional and contemporary furnishings. We take pride in our designs which reflect international trends in fashion and interior design. Sunpan products are available through better retailers and designer showrooms all over the world. Our ultimate goal is to bring you the best in design, quality and value. We thank you for your support.


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Bath and West Books is based in private premises on the outskirts of the beautiful heritage city of Bath, Somerset. We have been buying and selling antiquarian and second hand books since 2003. We buy and sell books on a wide variety of subjects but specialise in Literature, History, the Arts, Travel and Topography, Bath and the West Country, Children's and Illustrated Books, Literary Sets and the Folio Society. Please visit www.bathandwestbooks.co.uk for further information. You can also follow us on Twitter.com/BathWestBooks.
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Orders are sent out within 2 business days and are always securely and professionally packaged and fully insured. Default postage costs are based on orders weighing up to 2.2 lbs, or 1 kg (book + packaging materials). If your book order is heavy and/or oversized, we may contact you to let you know an additional postage charge is necessary. We will never take payment until extra costs have been agreed by you.
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US stocks were little changed on Friday morning as investors were hesitant to make big bets ahead of a statement by President Obama on the progress of budget talks in Washington that have recently driven volatility in financial markets.
US President Barack Obama, visiting a factory in Pennsylvania, will press his case on raising taxes on the wealthy to narrow the deficit. He is expected to make a statement around midday that is likely to impact markets.
"There is always hope in those situations that he (Obama) is going to announce some type of positive development," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York. "We see how violently the market swings on positive and negative announcements."
Trading has been choppy as investors react to mixed statements from policymakers in Washington about discussions on averting the "fiscal cliff," spending cuts and tax hikes that will come into effect in the new year and could cause a recession, according to worst-case predictions.
Corporations continued to anticipate a harsher tax regime next year. Whole Foods Market was the latest to announce a special cash dividend of $US2.00 per share to skirt higher dividend tax rates in 2013. The stock was up 0.6 per cent at $US93.60.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 5.63 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 13,027.45. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.58 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 1415.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.43 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 3008.59.
The S&P 500 was on track to end the month 0.3 per cent higher, after declining nearly 2 per cent in October. The index has recovered 4.5 per cent since shedding 8 per cent following the US presidential election earlier in November.
"The correction from the S&P 500's September peak has allowed overbought momentum and optimistic sentiment conditions to recede, and we believe the index is closer to an intermediate-term buy signal than a sell signal," said Ari Wald, analyst at PrinceRidge Group.
Yum Brands shares slumped 9.4 per cent to $US67.42. The company said late Thursday it expects fourth-quarter sales at established restaurants to drop in China, where a cooling economy is making it difficult to exceed the 21-per cent gain it enjoyed there a year earlier.
After a close relationship for several years, Facebook and Zynga revised terms of a partnership agreement between the companies. Under the new pact, Zynga will have limited ability to promote its site on Facebook.
Zynga shares dropped 5.3 per cent to $US2.48. Facebook shares were down 1.2 per cent at $US26.99.
The markets' reaction to data on Friday was muted.
A report showed business activity in the US Midwest expanded for the first time since August, buoyed by an improvement in the labour market.
Separately, data showed US consumer spending fell in October for the first time in five months as income growth stalled, suggesting slower economic growth in the fourth quarter.
Apple's latest iPhone has received final clearance from Chinese regulators, paving the way for a December debut in a highly competitive market where the lack of a new model had severely eroded its share of product sales. Shares of Apple were down 0.7 per cent at $US585.29.
Verisign Inc said the US Department of Commerce had approved its agreement with ICANN to run the .com internet registry, but the company wouldn't be able to raise prices as before. The stock dropped 14.1 per cent to $US33.80 in late morning trading.


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Rádio 14 de Julho
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Open Season (1974)
Plot Summary
Three Vietnam vets have become so conditioned to violence that they have developed psychotic tendencies. They kidnap people, brutalize them, then turn them loose and hunt them like animals. However the father of one of their earlier victims is plotting a vicious revenge against them.- Written by Jonathon Dabell <J.D.@pixie.ntu.ac.uk>
Three young men take a young woman and a middleaged man to an isolated cabin, where they are terrorized in different ways.- Written by Mattias Thuresson <email@example.com>
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Lady O'Reilly's staying filly Voleuse De Coeurs trounced a field of accomplished runners in the GAIN Irish St. Leger (Ire-I) Sept. 15 at the Curragh.
The 4-year-old by Darley sire Teofilo provided trainer Dermot Weld a seventh win in the Irish classic as she led a procession across the finish line in a comfortable six-length win over 7-2 favorite Ahzeemah. Saddler's Rock finished a head back in third. Well-traveled Red Cadeaux took fourth in the closing stages.
Royal Diamond, winner of last year's edition of the Irish St. Leger, attempted to make all the running after the opening furlong but was overtaken three-eighths out and finished fifth.
Voleuse De Coeurs relaxed in sixth under Chris Hayes midway through the 1 3/4-mile race and seized command a quarter mile out before she was geared down nearing the finish line to win at 9-1 odds.
The winner, who entered off a close runner-up finish to Royal Diamond in the GAIN Irish St. Leger Trial Ballycullen Stakes (Ire-II) Aug. 24, was timed in 3:08 on turf rated as good. She posted her first group win and fifth overall from seven lifetime starts. She won the Vintage Crop Stakes in May at Navan and posted a 10-length romp in the 2012 Cesarewitch Handicap at the Irish St. Leger distance at the Curragh.
"She did it very easily and she definitely likes the Curragh and this time of year," Lady O'Reilly said. "I think she can rest on her laurels now and maybe go to stud."
Weld, however, has other ideas about the filly's future.
"She's a smart filly and a model of consistency," he said after the race. "She ran a cracking trial behind Royal Diamond and I knew she would improve for that.
"She's a joy to train and is very straightforward. I've been very fortunate to win Legers with Vinnie Roe (2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004) and Vintage Crop (1993 and 1994). She's a high-class mare and I will try and encourage Lady O'Reilly to keep her in training as I think she will be a high-class Cup mare at five."
Bred by Irish National Stud, Voleuse De Coueurs is out of the Grand Lodge mare Vadorga. Second dam Vadsa Honor is a half sister to multiple French group I winner Vahorimix.
Voleuse De Coueurs is the second classic winner this season for Teofilo, joining Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (Ire-I) winner Trading Leather.
Weld bought Voleuse De Coueurs for $40,413 at the 2010 Goffs Orby yearling sale on behalf of Lady O'Reilly's Skymarc Farm.


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Seeking a challenging Summer 2013 Internship as a software engineer.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, May 2014(expected)
M.S. in Computer Science, current GPA 4.0
Northeastern University, Shenyang, China June 2012
B.S. in Computer Science, GPA: 89/100
Operatingt Systems:
Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows
C/C++, Java, Python(Django), Javascript, Java Servlets, HTML, CSS, XML
MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server
Unity3D, Eclipse, Tomcat/Apache Web Servers, Visual Studio 6.0, Photoshop
Tab Soccer(team lead, Fall 2012)
Achieved an interesting networked 2‐player Ipad game with Unity3D and JavaScript. The gameplay of which is considered extremely interesting by game industry people and other players.
Toy Car Wars(key member, Fall 2012)
Developed a multiplayer game with fun game element by combining toy cars with regular life stuff such as umbrella, fork, spring and hand‐wash. This game is rated by the instructor as weird and amazing.
HJB Forum(June 2012)
Realized a simple Django and Bootstrap powered forum which supports: 1. Registration; 2. Password retrieve; 3. Paging; 4. Authorization management; 6. Reflesh‐less reply, modification and deletion.
Intern @ Institute of Computer Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences(Sep 2011 - May 2012)
Implemented a server side Flash Crowd detection and packet admission control system, which protected the server from overloading and important session's integrity when Flash Crowd happens.
Accomplished a packet capturing, parsing, filtering and forwarding system by applying Libpcap and Libnet.
Proposed a data structure which guarantees thread safety as well as performance by avoiding thread locks.
RA @ Chaos Fractal Research Lab, NEU(Fall 2010)
Assisted in the research on more effective chaos encryption algorithm.
Expanded image pixels to 8‐bit, transformed 2D data into 3D and applied a novel bit level 3D Cat map encryption algorithm which introduces a significant diffusion effect during permutation phase.
Analysis of Algorithms
Network Game
Advanced Mobile Game
Operatingt Systems
Web Technologies
Database Systems
Meritorious Prize, International Mathematic Modeling Contest, Spring 2011
National Scholarship, China (2 times)
First Prize Scholarship, Northeastern University(6 times)
Volunteer in The 11th Liaoning Games, China, Summer 2010
Member of Debate Team, Northeastern University, China(2009-2010)
Thesis for MCM 2011
Certificate for MCM 2011
Paper for chaotic encryption research
Certificate for Google Scholarship


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businesses Archives
BMO Harris Bank boosts credit to AZ business owners
BMO Harris Bank is making an additional $2 billion in credit available to businesses in Arizona over the next three years. "We're here to help, making more of our balance sheet available to businesses to support growth opportunities and help create new jobs,' said Tim Bruckner, Arizona Commercial Banking Manager, BMO Harris Bank. "We have… Read More →
CenturyLink launches gigabit service for Phoenix businesses
CenturyLink, Inc. today announced the availability, as of August 18, of symmetrical fiber-based Internet and data connection speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) for a significant percentage of Metro Phoenix businesses as part of a fiber network infrastructure expansion announced today in 16 cities. "CenturyLink continues to make significant upgrades in Metro… Read More →
First Fidelity offers tips to prepare for fire, drought season
As the fire and drought season in Arizona continues, the risk for businesses and the importance to be prepared is higher than ever. Recent research shows that small businesses are particularly vulnerable with only 38 percent having an emergency or disaster preparedness plan, 84 percent don't have natural disaster insurance and 71 percent don't have… Read More →
Steptoe hosts Construction Industry Tax Seminar
Contractors, developers, construction managers, and homebuilders are invited to attend Steptoe & Johnson's 10th Annual Construction Industry Tax Seminar co-sponsored by the AzBusiness Magazine. Steptoe's tax lawyers will bring participants an annual update on the latest developments in Arizona's sales and property taxation. The seminar will take place September 27, 2013 and the Arizona Biltmore… Read More →
Top 3 Tips for Running a Successful Local PPC Campaign
Most businesses understand and embrace the value of building their organic search rankings on Google, but the value of pay-per-click or PPC advertising is often misunderstood and underestimated. While high organic search rankings are a great way to drive traffic and increase exposure for any business, there are only 10-16 spots available on the first… Read More →
Steptoe hosts Construction Industry Tax Seminar
Contractors, developers, construction managers, and homebuilders are invited to attend Steptoe & Johnson's 10th Annual Construction Industry Tax Seminar co-sponsored by the AzBusiness Magazine. Steptoe's tax lawyers will bring participants an annual update on the latest developments in Arizona's sales and property taxation. The seminar will take place June 13, 2013 and the Arizona Biltmore… Read More →
Cox Business unveils faster Internet speeds
Cox Business announced that 150Mbps/20Mbps download/upload speeds are available for small- and medium-sized businesses requiring a super-fast connection to the Internet to serve their customers. In Arizona, this level of connectivity is only available from Cox Business. "Our business clients want faster, secure Internet access that improves office efficiency and reduces administrative costs. We're providing… Read More →
Arizona Chamber Foundation issues Medicaid reports
The issue of Medicaid expansion continues to loom large in state policymaking circles, and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry's research arm, the Arizona Chamber Foundation, has produced new reports on this important topic. The Foundation recently released a new Policy Brief titled The Business Case for AHCCCS Expansion. The brief outlines the impact… Read More →
University of Phoenix honored for support of women, minorities
University of Phoenix has been recognized by the Arizona Million Dollar Circle of Excellence for its exceptional efforts to support Arizona minority-owned and woman-owned suppliers. The University has been inducted as an inaugural member of the Arizona Million Dollar Circle of Excellence by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (AZHCC). "As an Arizona-based business, we… Read More →
Glendale CVB Rising in the West
Game on! Cities like Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear, Surprise, and the other 14 cities that make up the West Valley are capitalizing on the rapid expansion of tourism and hospitality amenities — particularly spring training baseball facilities and other sports-related events — to grab a bigger share of the $18 billion that Arizona's 37 million annual… Read More →
Prosperity Project educates businesses about election issues
Last week I talked about jobs – the issue everyone should be talking about, but isn't. Jobs and the economy are the number one issues for voters this election season. The majority of voters want to enter the voting booth armed with facts about the candidates on their ballot. They want to know how these… Read More →
Top 10 mistakes businesses make when using social media
When a business leader calls for the creation of a Facebook page and a witty Twitter handle, he often believes the social media strategy is in place and he returns to his "core" duties. The problem with this is that for any business in 2012 and beyond, social media needs to be considered a core… Read More →


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Getting the richest contract ever awarded an NFL player wasn't Joe Flacco's goal. He swears he was always more interested in respect.
As he addressed the media in jeans and a zip-up sweater, it wasn't hard to believe him.
"It was never about earning the money and all that. It was about earning the respect," the Baltimore Ravens quarterback said Monday at a press conference after signing his $120.6-million deal (with $52 million guaranteed). "Definitely about earning that respect and feeling that respect around here. The fact that we got it done and that they made me [the highest-paid player] definitely makes me feel good about how we played and how they feel about me."
Flacco learned about his big new deal during a family pizza night at his uncle's house and said he has no big plans for the money."Just gonna look at it, I guess," Flacco said.
Flacco rolled the dice on his own talent last summer, opting to break off talks on a new contract. His stock soared when the Ravens won the Super Bowl and Flacco was the MVP. And now?
"I'm not going to do anything crazy," Flacco, whose wife is expecting their second child, said. "All the celebration I can take is going out and enjoying a nice little time with the people that are close to me and looking at each other saying, 'Man, can you believe where we are?'"
Follow @CindyBoren on Twitter and on Facebook.


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NT1030 steel tile roof roll forming machine, steel tile forming mchine, Glazed tile forming machine, glazed tile roll forming machine, tile forming machine.
Main Parameter
(1) Material to be rolled: Q235, Colorbond Steel, coil
(2) Thickness of the material: 0.4-0.8mm
(3) Coil width max: 1000mm/1200mm
(4) Inner diameter of the coil: 520mm, subject to buyer's requirement
(5) Outer diameter of the coil: ≦1800mm
(6) Decoiler: 5000kg, manual expansion
(7) Roll stands: 13
(8) Main structure: wall style entire steel structure
(9) Driving system: chain transmission
(10) Main power: 5.5KW
(11) Main reducer: cycloid pin
(12) Cutting: Hydraulic cutting
(13) Power of hydraulic station: 3KW
(14) Material of blade: Cr12, heat treated HRC58-62
(15) Measure: encoder
(16) Controller: PLC, Transducer,
(17) Forming speed: 2-4m/min (with punch)
(18) Weight: abt.10MT
(19) Dimension (L*W*H) Main Machine: 7.0m*1.65m*1.4m
4. Process and Features
Decoiler — Guiding —Roll Forming — Encoder —Hydraulic Punching —Hydraulic Cutter — run out table
1. This M/C adopts inner-expansion manual decoiler. The diameter can be adjusted through the adjusting bolt according to the coil's inner diameter. The operation is quite easy. The decoiling speed is to the main machine's forming speed.
2. The main frame is structured by welding entire T shape steel. The side stands are welded on the frame, and to clear the stress by vibration in order to maintain the rigidity and stability of the machine.
3. The forming rollers are made of GCr15 bearing steel through a series of heat treatment such as forging, distressing anneal, high frequency hardening(the degreed is 8-10mm), backfiring, phosphorization etc. The surface of the rollers can reach the rigidity of HRC58-62. All the forming rollers are process on CNC lathe, by which the accuracy can be granted.
4. The main shaft is made of 40Cr advanced alloy steel after a series of heat treatment such as high frequency hardening, quenching and tempering etc and processed on lathe, burnishing the surface, wire cutting the channel to make it high accuracy and large capacity.
5. Punching or power press is adopted to form the steps of the tile. The press is controlled on the PLC. The pitch is adjustable by PLC.
6. Cut to length is the last process of this machine line. It cuts accurately to any length you set on the PLC. The cutter consists of Hydraulic diver, profiled blade and cutter frame. The blade is made from Cr12 cold punching steel after strict process. It adopts 45 degree staggering cutting. This costs no waste and can hold the cutting profile a good shape. And this cutting is of high accuracy.
7. The machine adopts Panasonic industrial PLC, touch screen, Panasonic VF series Transducer and Omron encoder. The entire electric components are of good stability and long life.
Steel Tile Roofing roll forming machine with Chrome Bolt stand, CE Approval Images


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Georgian Lamb and Vegetable Stew
Darra Goldstein discovered this spicy, herb-packed stew when she was in the Republic of Georgia. The herbs are practically a vegetable here, so more is better, but keep the amounts of cilantro and basil roughly equal.
Slideshow: More Amazing Lamb Recipes
- Servings: 4
- 2 to 4 cups coarsely chopped cilantro
- 2 to 4 cups coarsely chopped basil
- 5 garlic cloves, smahed
- 1 jalapeño, stemmed and seeded (optional)
- 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 4 small onions, each peeled and cut lengthwise into 8 wedges
- 1 small eggplant, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 pound Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 pound tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped, or one 28-ounce can plum tomatoes, chopped, with their liquid
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup water
How to make this recipe
Preheat the oven to 300°. In a food processor, combine the cilantro, basil, garlic and jalapeño and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped.
In a medium bowl, toss the lamb with half of the herb mixture, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a generous pinch of pepper. In another bowl, combine the onions, egg-plant, potatoes and tomatoes with the remaining herb mixture, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a generous pinch of pepper.
Pour the oil into a 4-quart enameled cast-iron casserole. Layer half of the herbed lamb in the casserole, season lightly with salt and pepper and cover the lamb with half of the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and repeat with the remaining lamb and vegetables, lightly seasoning each layer. Add the water, cover tightly and bake in the oven for about 4 hours, or until the meat and vegetables are very tender.
Suggested Pairing
The savory, spicy richness of this lamb dish signals not just a red, but a hearty one to match the intensity of the stew. Think Rhône red from France, such as the Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Les Meysonniers or the Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage.


text: Los Carpinteros is an art collective founded in 1991 in Havana, Cuba. They create small and large scale installations that reflect perversions of common, everyday objects. These objects are bent, twisted, de- and re-formed, creating abstract work with recontextualized boundaries. The artists deconstruct these simple forms in order to complicate our experience of them. Stable forms become chaotic, erratic, and fragmented through Los Carpinteros' manipulation of them, ultimately representing a subversion of structure that transcends the domestic or personal.


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It looks as if the "Keyport," which was shown as a concept a few months ago, will actually be making it into limited production. Your likelihood of getting one seems slim, though: you'll need to have already been on the "I'm interested" list; the process for getting your keys cut involves sending six copies to the company; the whole thing cost $300. Maybe you could just drill a hole through your keys and pin them all together instead? Or what if someone made a small, metal ring...?
KEYPORT PRODUCTION [Notcot.com]


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Get Good Hair
Get good hair days everyday, try these tips to help you enjoy hair with more volume, luster, and shine.
Have Good Hair Days - Characteristics of Great-Looking Hair
Despite the changeable trends that make one color or one type of cut the popular favorite of the day, great-looking hair has always come in an endless variety of shades, styles, and textures.
Sadly enough, the two characteristics to get good hair that women seem to obsess over the most—are namely, color and curl—are also among the hardest to alter because they are inherited traits.
Our own view is that you should see what magic you can work with your hair's natural color and texture to get good hair before you resort to processes such as dyeing, waving, or straightening.
All of these may contain harsh chemical treatments that not only undermine hair health but also require constant upkeep (if you do it yourself) or expense (if your hairdresser or stylist does it for you).
We will have more to say on the subject of chemical treatments later, but for now, let's examine the characteristics to get good hair that can be improved through intelligent yet routine care.
By our count, there are four such characteristics: volume, lustre, length, and softness. Get these out, and you'll be well on your way to get good hair and enjoy a succession of good hair days.
1. Get Good Hair With Volume
The impression of hair volume—or fullness—is created by the thickness, not the total number, of individual hair strands you possess.
The way this works in practice seems to defy common sense: Those of us with fewer hairs typically tend to enjoy a fuller look because the individual strands are thicker; and those of us with more hairs often have to cope with a sparser look because the individual strands are thinner.
So in this particular case, you could accurately say that "less is more," at least in terms of how full your hair appears.
Since we possess all the hair follicles we will ever own at birth, the only way to achieve a fuller look is to plump up individual strands artificially so that they appear thicker than they really are.
And though the diameter of a hair shaft cannot be permanently enlarged, certain hair care products do cause it to swell temporarily.
These include protein-rich shampoos, protein-rich conditioners, volumizers, and hair dyes, all of which not only bind chemically to the exterior of the shaft and thus fatten it.
They also saturate the shaft internally for a short-term plumping effect.
Because body-building hair care products are generally effective at enhancing fullness, it's tempting to race straight to the drugstore to pick up something that you hope will "pump up the volume."
A quick cure is always so appealing!
However, a trade-off is involved: What you gain in fullness by using these products can often be more than offset by what you lose in terms of lustre, length, and softness, as we'll see momentarily.
Here's why: Even the healthiest head of hair is composed of non-living material, and so lacks the recuperative powers of the skin, which receives a constant flow of nutrients, water, and oxygen by way of the blood stream.
Your hair, then, is extraordinarily sensitive to—and easily damaged by—the chemicals that come in contact with it. As a result, you'll want to exercise both caution and moderation in choosing the number and types of products you use on a regular basis.
2. Get Good Hair With Lustre
Lustre, or shine, describes the glossy, vibrant appearance of healthy, undamaged hair.
The key word in the previous sentence is "undamaged."
In healthy hair, the cuticle covering that protects the cortex presents a smooth, even surface of interlocking, transparent cells.
Such a surface is ideal for reflecting light, and thus produces the attractive "lustre" or "radiance" that shampoo and conditioner manufacturers would like you to believe occurs solely from using their products.
Natural oils on the hair shaft also promote lustre by filling in minuscule cracks, chips, and other irregularities on the surface of the cuticle.
The cells of stressed or damaged hair shafts, on the other hand, form a jagged, uneven surface.
This type of surface tends to swallow up light rather than reflect it, resulting in hair that lacks lustre and thus appears dull and lifeless.
The built-up residue from sprays, setting lotions, mousses, gels, dyes, and other hair-care products can also diminish shine by attracting tiny flecks of dust, dirt, grit, and grime, which attach themselves to the cuticle and thereby exaggerate existing surface irregularities.
While conditioners, low pH shampoos, and pH-balanced shampoos can all help to restore your hair's lustre by filling in the cracks and crevices of damaged hair shafts, it's important to note that the improvement is temporary and strictly cosmetic.
Here again, keep in mind that hair does not function like live tissue. Once a shaft has become damaged, it's damaged for keeps—or at least until it has been shed and replaced by a plump, healthy new hair from the same follicle.
Get Good Hair
Updated February 22, 2012


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Politics Weekly podcast: Government defeated over EU budget
David Cameron suffered the most significant defeat of his premiership this week when his government lost a Commons vote on the EU budget. Eurosceptic Conservatives joined the Labour party to vote for a cut in the European Union's budget, leaving the prime minister in an bind over future negotiations.
Also this week: A major report from the Commission on Living Standards revealed that by 2020, the typical family on low incomes will be worse off than in 2008 if current trends continue. As wages remain stagnant and living costs rise, the majority of households are being squeezed.
Joining Tom Clark in the studio this week: the Guardian's Martin Kettle, Gavin Kelly, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation and Heather Stewart, the Observer's economics editor.
We also hear from the Guardian's Ewen Macaskill in Washington who believes that Barack Obama's strong handling of the natural disaster on the eastern seaboard will stand him in good stead for next week's election.
Leave your thoughts below.


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Responding to repeated requests for a parish columbarium, Dominican Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, has announced that 320 niches for cremated remains will be installed in the Friars Chapel behind the church's main altar.
It will be the only Catholic church in San Francisco to have a columbarium. In the 1930s, the city mandated the closure and removal of all cemeteries within its borders except for three historical sites. Four Episcopal churches and the Neptune Society now have columbaria, but Catholics must travel outside the city to bury their loved ones.
The niches at St. Dominic's will be reserved for registered parishioners and their families and will cost from $4,200 to $15,200, depending on their location. The parish also plans to include a low-cost community niche for those who cannot afford an individual niche. The columbarium will be financially self-sustaining and will not require any special fundraising among the parish's 3,200 registered parishioners.
According to a recent article in Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan weekly newspaper, the proposed columbarium has received the approval of San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, who said the Dominicans' ownership of the parish property and the parish's careful planning for the columbarium influenced his decision,
California has the highest number of cremations in the country. In 2009, 46 percent of Californians chose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America. Monica Williams, director of cemeteries for the archdiocese, told Catholic San Francisco that about 30 percent of those interred in recent years in the archdiocesan Holy Cross Cemetery were cremated.
But, she added, many more Catholics' cremated remains are kept on a shelf at home, divided between relatives or scattered, most likely because Catholics don't know that canon law requires that such remains be buried or entombed in a Catholic cemetery.
Many Catholics also remain confused about the church's longstanding ban on cremation because it was seen as defying the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. The ban was lifted in 1963. Prior to that time, cremation of deceased Catholics was only allowed in extraordinary circumstances such as a plague.
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The János Bolyai Mathematical Society and the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics are establishing a new Emléktábla Workshop Series. The aim of the workshop is to gather young mathematicians to work on problems posed by experienced senior researchers. The topic of the first workshop is extremal combinatorics; more precisely hypergraphs and set systems (colorings, Ramsey-type problems, extremal set system problems, etc.).
On the first
day the senior
participants give one lecture each presenting an area with many open
problems that we will solve during the rest of the week. Every other
day we will split up to smaller groups according to which problem we
want to work on. At the end of the day each group gives an informal
presentation about the long standing conjectures solved that day.
Schedule of Day I
9:44 Welcome
9:45 - 10:30 Gyula O.H. Katona
10:45 - 11:30 Gabor Simonyi
11:45 - 12:30 Andras Gyarfas
Lunch Break
14:00 - 14:45 Zsolt Tuza
15:00 - 15:45 Zoltan Furedi
The first day of lectures will be held at the Rényi Institute in Budapest. Later that afternoon we travel to Gyöngyöstarján. The rest of the workshop will be held at Mátra Oázis Kkt Oktatási Központ in Gyöngyöstarján.
To get to Renyi Institute follow the instructions of its webpage.
Accommodation (3 nights) and food will be approximately 10000 ft/day=40 euros/day. Depending on funding there may be some financial support available. We also strongly encourage self-funding.
Due to the limited capacity of the guesthouse in Gyöngyöstarján we cannot accept applications any more.
Füredi, UIUC/Rényi Institute,
András Gyárfás, Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Gyula O. H. Katona, Rényi Institute,
Gábor Simonyi, BUTE/Rényi Institute,
Zsolt Tuza, University of Pannónia/Computer and Automation Research Institute.
János Barát,
University of Pannónia
Fabricio Benevides, University of Memphis
Neal Bushaw, University of Memphis
Ameerah Chowdhury, University of California San Diego
Péter Csikvári, Eötvös University
Péter Csorba, Rényi Institute
Radoslav Fulek, EPFL
Dániel Gerbner, Rényi Institute
Zoltán Gyenes, Eötvös University
Tamás Hubai, Eötvös University
Ida Kantor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Balázs Keszegh, EPFL/Rényi Institute
Younjin Kim, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Lindsay Merchant, North Dakota State University
Zoltán Nagy, Eötvös University
Cory Palmer, Rényi Institute
Dömötör Pálvölgyi, EPFL/Eötvös University
Balázs Patkós, Rényi Institute
Diana Piguet, University of Warwick
Michal Przykucki, Cambridge University
Ago-Erik Riet, University of Memphis
Thomas Rothvoss, EPFL
Tamás Terpai, Rényi Institute
Mykhaylo Tyomkyn, Cambridge University
Máté Vizer, Central European University
Dominik Vu, University of Memphis
Russ Woodroofe, Washington University
Dömötör Pálvölgyi (dom
at cs dot elte dot hu)
Balázs Patkós (patkos at renyi dot hu).